political scene, Nehru seemed to provide stability and reason; with
him they could do business. Logically enough, sections of the British
left – H.N. Brailsford, Harold Laski, Fenner Brockway; the Fabians, the
Independent Labour Party – backed Nehru, who seemed clearly to be
a political and ideological ally. In 1936, Brailsford wrote to Nehru, ‘India
has great need of you – especially, personally, of you. For I think I know,
more or less, the other possible leaders. No one has your courage, your
mental power, and above all, your vision of a humane, classless society. Try
to draw strength from the belief that history has named you to lead.’^1
Nehru was of additional importance because, despite having some left-
wing views, he was not a communist. And long might that remain so:
Fenner Brockway, in 1938, warned Nehru against ‘the clear intrigue
which is going on to capture you for the Communist Party’, and hoped
that such a situation would not arise.^2 Stafford Cripps and Nehru were to
become personal friends; already in the 1930s, it was with Jawaharlal
Nehru that the Labour Party began to discuss Indo-British trade and
commercial relations in a future independent India. But further to the
right of British politics, Nehru was also widely regarded as leader-in-
waiting. The argument was that if indeed Britain had to reckon with
an independent India, future British interests could best be negotiated
with Nehru: a Harrow and Cambridge man, perhaps hostile to British
imperialism, but not to Britons per se.
A good deal of the British preoccupation with Nehru can perhaps
be explained by his already important status within the Congress. But
by selecting Nehru from among other potential candidates, British
politicians also strengthened Nehru within the Congress. The fact,
moreover, that large sections of the British left were willing to endorse
him added to the tendency of the Congress left to work with and through
him, both for practical reasons and in accordance with principles of inter-
nationalism. Domestic and overseas support thus interacted to reinforce
Nehru’s claims to leadership in India.THE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP UNDER COLONIAL
RULE
What, then, of popular support? It is not intended here to suggest that
mass support was a totally insignificant factor in Nehru’s rise to promi-
nence in the Congress. Indeed, one of the reasons Nehru was accepted by4 INTRODUCTION