The Succession of Jawaharlal Nehru

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century. So tall was his national and international stature that the European and American media, in the early 1960s, began speculating who would succeed him after his death. There were many who opined that post-Nehru India would create a vaccum which no leader would be able to fill, and the country might face chaos and anarchy. Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Govind Vallabh Pant and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai had all died: there was no one near, much less equal, to his popularity in the north. Rajagopalachari, who had left the Congress, was too old with little acceptability. Jayaprakash Narayan had taken political sanyas and joined Vinoba Bhave’s Sarvodaya movement.