been more inclined to a certain authoritarianism – not institutionally,
but due to his personal abilities and reputation. He had, however, held
his peace: a democrat did not name an heir. Since Nehru’s illness, from
about January 22, 1964, Gulzarilal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri and
T.T. Krishnamachari had been dividing responsibility for his duties, with
Kamaraj just behind and a shadowy ‘caucus’ slightly further behind.
Shastri as Minister without Portfolio and acting as assistant to the prime
minister was, however, considered – popularly as well as in the party –
to be Nehru’s designated successor. But Nanda was acting prime minister
after Nehru’s death pending the appointment of a new prime minister
by the Party – this was unconstitutional, according to some. In the days
after Nehru’s death, Morarji Desai made a determined bid for power.
Contemporary observers believed that had he not been ‘Kamarajed’
so recently and had he still been in the Cabinet holding the Finance
portfolio, he would have won. (He had his chance eventually – after Indira
Gandhi’s ‘Emergency’ from 1975 to 1977, he came to power at the head
of the Janata (People’s) coalition, which however did not last long.)
Within less than two years, however, the prime minister’s office
had seen a succession and a succession’s succession. In 1964, Nehru’s
daughter, Indira Gandhi, told K.D. Malaviya, one of Nehru’s close allies
on the left of the Congress, that she was not a candidate for the prime
ministership. Malaviya had felt that as a man on the left he should ask
her – because she was the best chance for ‘socialism’ (this was, in time,
to appear particularly ironic). Lal Bahadur Shastri was elected successor,
largely due to the Kamaraj Plan and to Kamaraj’s continued prestige.
Shastri himself, after a tenure that saw a major food crisis, a second war
with Pakistan and a sometimes violent anti-Hindi movement in South
India, died less than two years later, on January 11, 1966, the day after
signing a Soviet-brokered peace with Pakistan. This time Indira Gandhi
took the job; she had been Shastri’s Information and Broadcasting
Minister, having been elected to Parliament for the first time in a by-
election in 1964. Could this be considered dynastic rule? Perhaps; there is
no indication that she was a reluctant entrant – and in her swift elevation
there was an element of the instrumental use of the Nehru name (in later
elections it was found that her name combined the uses of both the icons
of Indian nationalism – Gandhi and Nehru; not everyone knew she was
Nehru’s daughter and unrelated to the Mahatma). A now-struggling
Congress party could use the Nehruvian mystique to maintain its258 CONCLUSION: DEATH, SUCCESSION, LEGACY