Govind Ballabh Pant ji was clearly a man of many great qualities and public service to the nation. However, he was very traditional in his views of women.
Source: The Scope of Happiness, autobiography of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
...........The first day all went well and at dusk we reached the village where we were to spend the night. The villagers, always hospitable, insisted on supplementing the evening meal we had brought with us. Later, when it was time to retire, I found that the little village schoolhouse had been swept and cleaned and all our bedding rolls laid out side by side. For some reason I had expected a place of my own to sleep in. Seeing consternation on my face, which I could not hide, one of my colleagues explained gently that this was how it was going to be throughout the campaign, but I must not mind, they would all take care of me.
.......Ranjit and I had agreed that we should phone each other whenever possible and give news of how our respective campaigns were progressing. I phoned the second evening. “Everything is going very well,” I told him. “Last night there was no separate place for me so I slept with the boys.” A roar of laughter met my statement and Ranjit replied, “Good for you!” I heard him repeat this to Bhai, more laughter, and then some talk I could not quite hear. What had happened was that Pantji* was dining at Anand Bhawan and what I had said was passed on to him. Unfortunately for me, Pantji had every quality imaginable except a sense of humor. He was stunned and horrified! It took the entire evening for my husband, with Bhai supporting him, to explain that this was a joke. It was meant to be funny. We were a mad family and said strange things to each other, but our morals were above reproach! For some hours my fate hung in the balance while Pantji wondered sorrowfully whether his love for and trust in me had been misplaced!
..... A notice was sent from the secretariat asking the Ministers to choose their houses, and a list of houses was attached. I decided 1 would go after work to look at them, but at lunchtime Pantji sent for me and said he wanted me to stay with him. “It will be more proper,” he told me. “You can live as you please without interference from me or my family.” I was surprised and tried to explain to him that, as a Minister of the Government, I was a responsible person and must live on my own. Besides, during the session of the Legislature Ranjit would be in Lucknow, and during their holidays my children would be with me. I wanted to make a home for them. After much discussion I had to agree, most reluctantly, to stay with Pantji for a month. Pantji was the kindest person imaginable. He was, in every sense of the word, my “political guru,” but in certain matters we were worlds apart.
..... My evening calls to Ranjit in Allahabad gave him much cause for amusement, but when I begged him to ask Pantji that he permit me to have a house of my own, he flatly refused to do so. “You must do your own dirty work from now on—it’s part of the game,” was his comment. The month seemed very long, but one day I was able to get a house. This was really the best of the ministerial houses but none of the other Ministers had wanted it. It was on the banks of the Goomti River, with a lovely well-cared-for garden, and was situated in a park, part of which was a zoo. I soon became accustomed to waking up when (he lions roared and it seemed as if my bed was being shaken.
I had hoped that moving into my own house would make life easy and that I would be able to do as I pleased, but this was not the case. In spite of his heavy duties Pantji kept a vigilant eye on my style of living. Every evening when he left his office, and it was always late, he would drop in to see me even though we might have met in the office during the day. He nearly always found a group of friends, often men, and much talk and laughter. This he did not like, and one day I was summoned to his office and asked who the “men” were who visited me and whether Ranjit knew theml I explained that Lucknow was the center of the Kashmiri community. The men who came to the house were people I 'had grown up with, and some were related to me. There was absolutely no problem between Ranjit and myself. I ended by assuring him on my word of honor that I would never do anything to betray his trust in me or to degrade the name of Indian women. This last, of course, was important, since our views on women differed.
Instead of melting his heart my words had hardly any effect on him. "Well,” he said grudgingly, “we shall see, but you are too good looking to be living alone.” To my response that I was nearly thirtyeight years old he merely replied, “I do not think I shall be happy about letting you live alone even when you are sixty-eight!” Pantji lived to be very proud of me and paid me what, to him, was the highest tribute— that I had upheld the name of Hindu womanhood!
Source: The Scope of Happiness, autobiography of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
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