Sexuality in Politics

Author(s): G. P. D.
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 31 (Aug. 4-10, 2007), p. 3192
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4419860
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I Of life, letters and politics

Sexuality in Politics
conversation. But there it was. It was a
futile search for a reply that the inter-
viewer could not have heard in the first
instance. And what was this extended

Radicals used to argue that there is politics even in sexuality. In conversation expected to yield apart from
some market and publicity for the book?
our postmodern times, the self-styled opinion-makers seem to think
It is not as though there was no politics
that there is sexuality even in politics. in that interview. There surely was. It was
suggested and Pamela seemed to agree
GPD wild speculation that does not matter in that the viceroy (also the governor gen-
the least to the world. eral) Mountbatten used the close personal
olitics in India was never as much relationship between Nehru and Edwina to
In our land it is not quite limited to news
a game for the media as it seemsor interviews. Rajmohan Gandhi, the persuade India's first prime minister to take
to be today. In the bastionsgrandson
of of the Mahatma wrote a verysome political decisions. As an example of
democracy in the west it has been soreadable
for (shall we also say definitive?) such persuasion the reference was made
biography of his grandfather. The mediato Nehru's decision to refer Kashmir to
quite a while. A part of this game relates
dif- up a story of a mysterious lady inthe United Nations. This decision was
to sexual behaviour of politicians of picked
the Mahatma's life. That entire episode inmade under the Mountbattens' influence.
ferent hues and colours. The western media
seem to be insatiably interested in it.the
It book
is is neither conclusive nor central All that made for good gossip, but was
either affairs or liaisons of one kind or the
to the argument in any sense. Why it should out of place and had no known basis in facts.
have made it to the pages of the book is For one thing this decision was perfectly
other. This was one of the reasons, a major
if not the main reason, why the French incomprehensible. When the summary in keeping with Nehru's temperament and
socialist aspirant to the presidency inaccounts
the of the book played up that epi- world view. There might have been a discus-
recent elections there evoked such an sode, the author was forced to explain or sion. But clearly Nehru's world view must
interest. The media seemed more inter- explain away the woman in Gandhiji's life. have made any persuasion redundant. In fact
ested in the sexual rather than socialist This was followed by a book that sought some people argue, far more convincingly
to study the Gandhian "Brahmacharya". than Pamela Mountbatten or her interviewer,
politics of the comely lady. We use the
thoroughly unnecessary epithet of The term is normally translated as celi- that there were major differences between
bacy. This volume was more forthcoming Sardar Patel and Nehru on the question of
"comely" advisedly, because there were
in its subtitle that talked about 'Women
indeed unending references to the elegant taking Kashmir to the UN. It is less than fair
Madame Segolene Royal and how she to Nehru or to the then Congress leadership
in Gandhiji's Life'. Again the book is quite
readable but one forever wonders about
looked and her deportment. The press never to suggest that the British governor gen-
seemed to tire of the stories of details of eral could and did persuade Nehru suc-
the title of the book that reads more like the
cessfully to make a decision that has been
her personal life and her marital status ortitle of an article in a Sunday supplement.
the lack of it. Alfred Hitchcock once coined But there you are. The Indian elite seems
so central to India's foreign policy. In a
a term for Grace Kelly, sexual elegance. to have suddenly acquired adulthood. word, this is a failure to appreciate the full
If she represented that for the show busi- As if these books were not enough,implications of India's anti-colonial struggle.
ness, Madame Royal represented that for Edwina Mountbatten's daughter, Pamela,Of course we live in post-revolutionary
French politics or it seemed. has now come out with an autobiography. times when it is quite fashionable to look
Ever since we have registered the growth We have not read the book. But we heard at revolutions with a degree of disdain.
rate of whatever dimension (please add a long interview with the author on oneBut one would have thought that for our
the necessary figure, we cannot because of the TV channels. The thrust again was elite at least, the nationalist and bour-
we always confuse the growth rate of on establishing the nature of Edwina's geoise revolutions might not be worthy of
industrial production and that of the peas- relationship with Nehru. Was it platonicdismissal. But obviously that is so. Other-
ant suicides) we as people seem to beor was it sexual? That was the question. Thewise gossip would not have been raised to
catching up with western mores. And one author went on asserting that it was no more a level of serious speculation and the fact
of them is the postmodern condition in than platonic. The commentatordid not givethat Nehru had gifted his photograph signed
which sexuality has become the central up. One wondered if he really believed"Mamu" (maternal uncle) to Pamela been
issue. Strangely, both the proponents and that he would orcould hear what he wanted of such importance. This is political analy-
detractors of western modernity have made to, only if he persisted long enough. sis for you in these SMS sending times!
that their prime concern. The fundamen- It was not Nehru alone. There is appar- There was a time when the radicals
talists create the moral armies. The play- ently a picture in the book that shows argued that there is politics even in sexu-
boys of the western journalistic world and Gandhi with his hand on Pamela's shoul- ality. In our postmodern times, the self-
their happy-go-lucky imitators in our third der. Gandhi walked with the support of styled opinion-makers seem to think that
world, on the other hand, excel in theirtwo women. That is more than a well there is sexuality even in politics. [t
undefinable accents in talking matters that known fact. One would never have thought
Email: gpdesh@vsnl.com
really cannot yield anything more than that it could be a subject of rather extended

3192 Economic and Political Weekly August 4. 2007

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