The Hindu : A quintessential liberal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 24, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A quintessential liberal

By N. Krishnan

The news of the passing away of Sarvepalli Gopal comes as a shock and fills one with sorrow, for all that it was not unexpected. He was ailing for several years from renal failure and notwithstanding the best medical attention he was getting and the loving care and devoted nursing his wife was bestowing on him at home, his system was wearing down. He had become too frail to write and soon became too listless to read, or want to read. He was already confined to his home and unable to travel and meet his friends. There could be no greater deprivation. As he used to remark with wistful melancholy, ``I have nothing more to do or expect but to wait for the end, which won't come!'' Finally, it has come, and he has been liberated. His spirit is free once again to roam where it pleases, savouring, alas, not this life anymore, but the remains beyond.

Gopal was the quintessential Hindu progressive liberal of 20th Century India. It is comforting to recall that he was an unashamedly self-proclaimed and unfazed practitioner of liberalism and secularism in these times when both concepts are under attack. He was not an activist but an intellectual; a historian and biographer par excellence.

His mind and his emotions were set in the Nehruvian mould. His tireless exploration and publication of Nehru's life and writings was his enduring memorial to him. No mere ivory tower thinker and writer, he was a keen observer of independent non-aligned India in the contemporary world and was, not surprisingly, called into playing a key role as chronicler and analyst with the Ministry of External Affairs. He worked closely with the Establishment, without becoming part of it. He kept his distance and independence of opinion and judgment, although he moved freely and closely with policymakers and performers alike.

There was nothing pseudo about Gopal's beliefs or convictions nor, indeed, anything false about his life. He enjoyed life as it came to him even if he would not qualify as an epicurean. He loved to travel and meet people. He took a very human interest in the persons with whom he came into contact.

He was not only a keen observer of the happenings around him and the dramatis personae involved but loved to comment on them, with a delicate sardonic sense of humour so unique to him.

He enjoyed good company and was himself very entertaining without being malicious. But he was no gossip and made few enemies.

The last time I met him three weeks ago was just after he had had a cataract operation. He was in bed; one eye was closed, the other was open to see me but the usual sparkle was missing, except for an occasional twinkle. We talked as usual about men and matters, foibles and frivolities, all against the backdrop of a country under stress and a society in turmoil.

His agony and anguish is ended but the nation's continues.

(The writer is a former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations.)

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