It is said
in Allahabad that two great leaders of the city
have divided between themselves the total inheritance
of a great personality, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya.
If Rajarshri Tandon inherited Malaviya’s
heart, his brain and eloquence went exclusively
to Pandit Ballabh Pant, a diplomat, a stubborn
statesman, a giant parliamentarian, and a towering
personality.
Born in Almora on 10 September 1887 in the family
of the Pants, who originally belonged to Maharashtra
and had migrated to the Kumaon regions of U. P.
under the patronage of the then rulers in the
10th century, Govind Ballabh Pant had all the
traditions of a high caste Brahmin family, serving
the Government in the Garhwal district. His father,
Pandit Manorath Pant, was leading an average middle-class
life. The boy showed brilliance from the beginning.
He passed the Middle School and Matriculation
examinations from the Samay College, Almora.
He obtained a scholarship and joined the Muir
College, Allahabad, for graduation, with Mathematics,
English and Politics as his subjects. But suddenly,
as he listened to a speech by Gokhale in 1907,
he was fired with a nationalist inspiration
and decided not to be a slave of the Government.
He chose to study Law. Two years later, he was
at the top of the first batch of Law graduates
from Allahabad, securing the Lumsden gold medal.
At this juncture he was influenced by Malaviya
who, to quote Pant, was “one of the greatest
men ever born and at whose feet I received my
first lesson in public life.” Thus a moderate,
quiet and simple soul was brought into active
politics. The writings of Bankim Chandra, Digby,
Dadabhai Naoroji, Ramesh Chandra Datta, Ranade,
Henry George, Spencer, Mill, Dickens, Thackeray,
Scott, Voltaire, Wendell Wilkie and a host of
other thinkers helped fanning the patriotic
fire in him.
Although he belonged to an orthodox and tradition-bound
family, he held progressive views on social
reforms. He believed that by the uplift of the
suppressed classes and backward tribes and by
bringing them to the general level of the ore
than paying back a part of the debt it owed
to them. For him it was intolerable that old
prejudices outmoded concepts, obsolete notions
and petty vanity should be allowed to deprive
the people of their rightful dues. He believed
in complete freedom of religion and hated those
who fostered prejudice and passion in the name
of religion with the result that often dust
and smoke enveloped reason and light.
He was all in favour of Western education adapted
to the national needs, and in keeping with the
environment. As a nationalist, he believed in
India’s unity. He always felt that political
issues were to be settled between India and
Great Britain, and any reference to communal
difference or other difficulties was irrelevant.
He always held that the unity of India, despite
the diversity, was a living, throbbing reality
and that caste, communal or religious barriers
should not be allowed to imperil that unity.
His active political life started from the year
1912 when he first entered the U.P. Legislative
Council where he showed his historic talents,
first in the opposition and then on the treasury
benches for more than thirty-five years, or
rather till death as a member of the Central
Cabinet in 1961.
For three decades or more his role in the Indian
National Congress was very significant. Be it
Pattabhi’s ‘History of the Indian
National Congress’, Nehru;’s Autobiography’
or ‘Glimpses’, Mahatma’s writings
or any other account of the national movement,
Govind Vallabh Pant is invariably mentioned
as a key figure.
In the Nationalist Movement Govind Ballabh Pant
soon became one of the top-ranking all-India
leaders in the Congress. He was the leader of
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the U.
P. Congress for many decades and served as the
Chief Minister of the biggest State in India for
the longest term. During the first few years of
his legal practice at Kashipur, he served as a
member of the Minicipal Board. In November 1918
he was one of the prominent Congress leaders of
U.P. who gave evidence before the Franchise Committee,
with Lord Southborough as Chairman, and vigorously
pleaded the case of the Kumaon region which was
treated as a backward tract and was consequently
being excluded from the operations of the Montagu-Chelmsford
Reforms.
He succeeded in getting the Kumaon region removed
from the schedule of backward areas. During the
visit of the Simon Commission to Luchnow, Govind
Ballabh Pant, along with Jawaharlal Nehru led
the demonstration against it and was the victim
of a permanent physical injury on his body. He
was an active participant in both the Non-Cooperation
Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement.
After the 1937election, he was elected uncontested
as the leader of the Congress Party in U. P.
and became the first Chief Minister in U.P.
under the Government of India Act, 1935. As
Chief Minister he showed great administrative
ability and introduced many urgently needed
reforms in the State. He endeared himself not
only to the people in general, but also to the
Governor and the officials who appreciated his
character and method of work.
In 1939 when India was dragged into the Second
World War without her consent, the Congress
called upon all the Congress Ministers in the
Provinces to resign. Govind Ballabh Pant also
resigned at this time and later participated
in the individual Satyagraha Movement launched
by Mahatma Gandhi. The main resolution at the
Allahabad Session of the All-India Congress
Committee on non-violent Non-Cooperation proposed
by Gandhiji was moved by Govind Ballabh Pant
and seconded by Dr. Rajendra Prasad. As a staunch
nationalist, Govind Ballabh Pant had its normal
quota of prison life.
After the end of the Second World War, when
elections were held to the Provisional legislatures,
Govind Ballabh Pant was again chosen as leader
of the Party in U.P. and again became the Chief
Minister of the State. He was not, however,
left in the State Government for long. Following
the untimely death of Sardar Vallbhabhai Patel,
Govind Ballabh Pant was taken into the Central
Cabinet and given the very important portfolio
of Home Affairs. In spite of his age and ill-health,
he proved himself equal to the occasion and
died in harness on 7 March 1961, at the age
of seventy-four.
After he had gained great reputation as a lawyer
in the first few years of his legal practice
at Kashipore, Govind Ballabh Pant, along with
Pandit Badri Durr Pande, started a weekly paper,
the Shakti, for studying the special problems
of the Kumaon region. Through this paper he
carried on an intensive campaign for the abolition
of the Kuli Begar (forced and free labour).
He brought on him the wrath of the bureaucrats
but he was undaunted and his campaign achieved
success.
Govind Ballabh Pant was an effective public
orator and could sway his audience by his impressive
diction and force of argument. For many decades
he was not only the head of the U. P. Congress
but was also a member of the A. I.C.C. and of
the Working Committee. In Congress politics
in the thirties he stood very close to Mahatma
Gandhi and supported Ganhiji when differences
arose between Gnadhiji and the Left-Wing group
led by Subhas Chandra Bose. Govind Vallabh Pant,
Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
were the staunchest opponents to Subhas Chandra
Bose in 1938-39. Like Sardar Patel he was also
a man of action and firm determination.
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