Letter to Mr Minoo Masani

Summary

This short handwritten letter, dated 6 February 1963 and sent from Rajaji’s Madras address at 60 Bazlullah Road, Tyagarayanagar, is a candid political update to his Swatantra Party colleague Minoo Masani. Rajaji opens with anxiety over Jayaprakash Narayan’s public opposition to Rajaji’s own plea for India to give up nonalignment, a rebuke he complains has been ‘splashed over & over in the papers’ — and wonders whether it is the same speech being repeated in different places. He speculates that Jayaprakash has either been mandated to do so by Vinoba Bhave, or has arrived at a new conviction that peace marches sit uneasily with accepting assistance from ‘the hated west.’ Whatever the cause, Rajaji concludes, ‘we are at sixes & sevens.’

The middle of the letter sets out Rajaji’s travel plans for a coming trip to Bombay: he will arrive on the night of the 8th by the Madras–Bombay Viscount, attend Piloo’s meeting on the 10th and Phiroze Shah’s meeting on the 11th, and return by Viscount on the morning of the 12th, staying four nights at Murshid’s house. The itinerary reads as ordinary party-work coordination — the operational scaffolding behind Swatantra’s public activity in early 1963.

The closing paragraph acknowledges Masani’s earlier note about ‘only alternatives to a complete smash up of Bihar’ and takes a wry, comparative view of world affairs. Rajaji observes that India is ‘not worse off than the Western Powers,’ pointing to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France all ‘doing their best to fly at one another,’ while ‘the stadium’ has been occupied by the Communists — a mordant Cold War image of a fractious West that has ceded the arena. He closes ‘God bless you. Affectionately yours, C. Rajagopalachari.‘

Key points

• Handwritten personal letter from C. Rajagopalachari to Minoo Masani, sent from 60 Bazlullah Road, Tyagarayanagar, Madras 17, and stamped received on 6 February 1963.
• Rajaji is disturbed by Jayaprakash Narayan’s public opposition to his own plea that India abandon nonalignment, and questions whether the same speech is simply being republished.
• He speculates that Vinoba Bhave may have prompted Jayaprakash’s stance, or that Jayaprakash has decided peace marches are incompatible with accepting Western aid.
• Rajaji details a Bombay trip: arrival 8 February by Madras–Bombay Viscount, meetings with Piloo on the 10th and Phiroze Shah on the 11th, return on the 12th.
• He acknowledges Masani’s earlier warning about ‘a complete smash up of Bihar.’
• In a wry Cold War metaphor, Rajaji notes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France all quarrelling among themselves while ‘the stadium’ is occupied by the Communists.
• The letter captures the operational tempo of Swatantra Party leaders in early 1963 — coordinating meetings and comparing notes on domestic and foreign-policy setbacks.