What's In Pandit Nehru's Letters To Edwina Mountbatten?

New Delhi: For the first time, the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML) has officially called for the return of personal letters written by India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to Edwina Mountbatten, Jayaprakash Narayan, Albert Einstein, and others. In 2008, during the UPA government, these letters were allegedly sent to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. While the BJP has claimed that Sonia took possession of 51 cartons of Nehru’s letters, certain party leaders have particularly focused on the letters addressed to Edwina Mountbatten, wife of the last British viceroy to India. 

In a letter dated December 10, PMML member and Ahmedabad-based historian Rizwan Kadri wrote to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, asking him to retrieve the original letters from the party leader and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, or provide photocopies or digitised versions of the same.  For the first time, it has been officially recorded that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had deputed someone to take away Jawaharlal Nehru's papers from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in 2008.

Kadri stated that these letters include Nehru's correspondence with Edwina Mountbatten, Albert Einstein, Jayaprakash Narayan, Padmaja Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali, Babu Jagjivan Ram, and Govind Ballabh Pant. He further mentioned that these letters could be valuable for researchers and scholars and should be made available in the PMML.  

Nehru-Edwina Mountbatten Letters: What We Know

Currently, Nehru's letters to Edwina Mountbatten remain inaccessible. However, members of the Mountbatten family, including Pamela Hicks, Edwina’s daughter, have had access to some of these letters. Pamela discusses this in her book Daughter of Empire: Life as a Mountbatten.

Pamela recalls that her mother and Nehru shared a "profound relationship" that began when Edwina arrived in India in 1947 with her husband, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. According to a PTI report, Pamela writes that reading some of the letters made her feel the deep love and mutual respect Nehru and her mother had for each other. She further mentions that Edwina “found in Panditji the companionship and equality of spirit and intellect that she craved.”

Pamela also emphasized that, despite their closeness, neither Edwina nor Nehru had time for a physical affair. They were frequently surrounded by staff, police, and others, leaving them with little opportunity for private moments.

As Edwina prepared to leave India, she wished to leave an emerald ring for Nehru. Understanding he would likely refuse it, she gave the ring to his daughter, Indira Gandhi.

One of the most intriguing aspects of their relationship is Nehru's farewell speech for Edwina, which Pamela includes in her book. In the speech, Nehru said, “Wherever you have gone, you have brought solace, you have brought hope and encouragement. Is it surprising, therefore, that the people of India should love you and look up to you as one of themselves and should grieve that you are going?”

Why Is The Letter In Centre Of A Storm 80 Years Later?

It all started after Rizwan Kadri -- one of the 29 members of the society tasked with running the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library -- recently wrote to the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, seeking his help in restoring the papers to the museum's custody. The BJP has claimed that Kadri did not receive any reply. 

The BJP asked Sonia Gandhi to return the correspondences of the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru with a host of personalities to the PMML, saying the historical documents belonged to the country and were not anyone's personal property.

Speaking to reporters, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra cited reports of the PMML's deliberations on the issue to note that Nehru's correspondences with Edwina Mountbatten and leaders Jayaprakash Narayan and Jagjivan Ram lay with the erstwhile Nehru Museum and Library Society, which returned them to Sonia Gandhi in 2008.

Patra also raised the issue earlier in the day in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour when Union Culture Minister Gejendra Singh Shekhawat was replying to questions related to his ministry.

Shekhawat noted that Patra's query, a supplementary, was unrelated to the main question raised in the House by BJP member Saumitra Khan. The minister said he has noted down Patra's suggestions and appropriate action can be taken in the matter.

The Nehru Museum was expanded to include memorials to all prime ministers, and the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library were renamed after the BJP came to power at the Centre. Patra told reporters that 51 cartons of Nehru's correspondences were given to Sonia Gandhi after approval of the museum's then-director. Taking a swipe at the Gandhi family, Patra said these were not personal property of anyone or any family but historical documents part of the "treasure" of India. As Nehru was a member of the family, it suffers from a sense of entitlement over his letters, he alleged.