Jawaharlal Nehru seemed an unlikely candidate to lead India towards its vision. Under the cotton Khadi he wore in deference to the dictates of Congress, he remained the quintessential English gentleman. In a land of mysteries, he was a cool rationalist. The mind that had exulted in the discovery of science at Cambridge never ceased to be appalled by his fellow Indians who refused to stir from their homes on days proclaimed inauspicious by their favourite astrologers. He was a publicly declared agnostic in the most intensely spiritual area in the world, and he never ceased to proclaim the horror the word ‘religion’ inspired in him. Nehru despised India’s priests, her sadhus, her chanting monks and pious ‘skerkhs’.

• A. And yet, the India of those sadhus and the superstition-haunted masses had accepted Nehru.
• B. They had only served, he felt, to impede her progress.
• C. The Mahatma had made it clear that it was on his shoulders that he wished his mantle to fall.
• D. Nehru’s heart told him to follow the Mahatma and his heart, he would later admit, had beed right.