PHILLIPS Talbot is almost a legendary figure in Indo-American relations. In 1938, the New York based Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA) awarded the then 23-year of youngster a fellowship to undertake almost an unbelievable task: To visit South Asia, then struggling against the British, and learn about the intricacies of life in India. This was at a time when India hardly mattered to the United States and the vicious writing of Katherine Mayo?which Gandhi had described as a gutter inspector'sreport?summed up the average American'sknowledge about that, to them a far-away land. At the time when he won the Fellowship he had just graduated in political science and journalism and had joined the Chicago Daily News as a local reporter. He aspired to be a foreign correspondent but was considered too young for the job. Happily, Walter S. Rogers, the ICWA'sDirector, felt that Talbot was bright enough to go to South Asia and report on the ?dynamics of contemporary India? for the information of the Institute. Talbot first went to London to take a year'sacademic programme offered to Indian Civil service probationers at the School of Oriental Studies there. Half the probationers then were Britishers. After his probation was over, Talbot landed in India towards the end to 1939. The second world war by then had just begun. Talbot has not much to say about it. For a young American to stay at the Aligarh Muslim University for five months, to visit Tagores Shantiniketan, spend a month in an Arya Samaj ashram in Lahore, visit towns large and small, talk to people from all walks of life from University professors, journalists to ordinary people and politicians and observe India at close quarters was for him quite an experience. He had no axe to grind, nor any ambition to publish a book. This was at a time when John Gunther, Louis Fischer and Vincent Shean were making their mark. He met Indian leaders. In 1941 he was at Gandhiji'sSevagram ashram; the Mahatma struck him as ?the most efficient worker in India?.
Earlier in 1939, he had met Jawaharlal Nehru at a peasants? conference in UP and considered him as a man who ?smiles easily?betraying a rich cultural background?. He met Vallabhbhai Patel whom he described in one of his letters back home as ?one of the closest disciples of Gandhi (and) as befits a strong man he talks little but when he talks he speaks quietly and to the point?. He met Jinnah and in another of his letters to the Institute, he wrote: ?No man in Indian public life today uses such intemperate language in publishing references for other leaders. Few men could be less compromising?. After two years in India (prior to Partition) he was sent to Manila to volunteer for US naval duty; but shortly thereafter he was back in India again. In 1946, he rejoined the Chicago Daily News, by now as a veteran foreign correspondent worthy of being sent back to India where he covered the negotiations that ended British rule. (Incidentally, the title of the book is slightly misleading in the sense that Talbot does not deal in any adequate manner about the Partition and what he saw in consequence). With all his experiences it was inevitable that in 1961 the Kennedy Administration appointed him as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. He returned to private life in 1969 to become President of the Asian Society. It is against this background that one must evaluate his letters to the ICWA which show a remarkable understanding of the Indian ethos. His letters to the ICWA do not pretend to be academic in presentation. They are letters one writes to a dear one describing one'sexperiences in a foreign country, friendly in style and understanding in content, remarkable for that period in time. One notices no bias of any kind, but, on the other hand, a great desire to learn.
Of Nehru he writes: ?He is a thorough-going socialist though he unhesitatingly follows Gandhi in some most unsocialistic channels?. He tries to understand the Muslim mind in Aligarh and comes to the conclusion that the (Muslim) League fears the Hindus are proceeding to take revenge for the thousand years they have been a subject people under Musalmans and British?. He was totally opposed to Partition. As he put it ?my own reaction is that Partition is a backward step (and) the objections of the Mussalmans against Congress ministries seems to be based on real cases of communalism?. (This he writes in August 1940). After the Ramgarh Congress he wrote in March 1940: ?Why are they (ordinary villagers) willing to stand for many hours in the blazing sun for a glimpse of their Mahatmaji or Nehruji?? The censors deleted what he thought was the answer! Of C.Rajagopalachari he writes that not only foreigners but even North Indians stumble over his name, but ?his mind is like acid that eats away alloy from pure metal?. To read Talbot is a joy because he seems to understand India so well and his no bias whatsoever. He examines the life style and economic conditions of the middle and lower middle classes and expresses his shock, has apt?and accurate?comments to make of the British in India and though he attended the Quite India Congress session in August 1942 there is no mention of what he felt in any letter. Any letter friendly to Indian aspirations would have been torn by British censors anyway. He visited Bombay'scotton mills and tenements of works and writes about what he saw in graphic detail. But at no point do we see a single derogatory remark about India and Indians.
On the other hand he is full of praise for instance of students undertaking teaching classes in slums and notes sadly in a letter dated August 1, 1941 that ?on many sides in India today, one hears that Gandhi is through, finished, that his era has passed and the world has gone beyond him.? Very prescient judgment indeed. His wife, Mildred, who was with him in 1947 writes in a letter about Independence Day: ?The raising of that first (Indian)flag was the single most thrilling experience of the entire celebration. The memory of the feelings that surged up within us as we watched their (Indians?) excitement and awe still brings tears to my eyes?. One wouldn'tthink that this is an American writing. Both husband and wife evoke memories of other days long gone with singular felicity. But there is one intriguing question that Talbot asks towards the end, as many of us have asked, which is ?how Gandhiji, were he alive now, would perceive the condition of his nation?. But he provides his own answer, saying: ?Yet, in seeing a country advanced in so many ways from the India of 1947, he would certainly take pride in its accomplishments?. Thank you, Phillips. Of Pakistan he can only say that it is ?a picture of frustration, uncertainty, grave distress, hope and embittered determination?. And no truer words have been said of our neighbour.
(Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., B1/I, 1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110 044.)
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