New Delhi, July 26: Indira Gandhi was a Bengali at heart. That’s what her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi feels.
Sonia, who was in Dhaka yesterday to receive the Bangladesh Freedom Honour the neighbour conferred on her late mother-in-law for her contribution to the 1971 liberation war, said Indira's stay in Santiniketan helped shape her personality.
“If I may say so, Santiniketan made her something of a Bengali at heart, a lover of the Bengali language, of good conversation, of the creativity, colour and liveliness of Bengal’s composite culture,” the Congress chief said.
According to Sonia, the former Prime Minister’s courage and sensitivity also came from her stay in Bengal in the formative days of her life. “Courage and sensitivity do not always go hand in hand, yet Indira Gandhi embodied them both…. Much of this came from her time in Santiniketan, where her soul blossomed. Sitting at the feet of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, she imbibed something of his worldview, the mingling of eastern and western values," she said.
"Indira was sensitive to the plight of the poor and the imperative of combating poverty; sensitive to nature, to the environment, to wildlife; sensitive to the arts, to music, to dance, to literature, and to the quest for new knowledge; sensitive to enriching the human spirit beyond material goods and avarice; sensitive to nurturing wholeness in the human person."
Many Bengalis are wont to identify with these qualities.
"The emergence of Bangladesh, therefore," Sonia told an audience that included Bangladesh's President, Prime Minister and other top dignitaries, "meant something much deeper to her (Indira) than its geographical implications. She saw in it a renewal of the spirit of the Bengal she knew and loved. She would have rejoiced that you have kept that flame alive."
Sonia was so emotional on this trip that she told her aides back home that "it was a very moving function". Yesterday, at the President House in Dhaka, she said "there are times in our lives when we wish that someone whom we have lost could come back to life to share a precious moment. This is one such moment. If Indira Gandhi would have been with us now, I know she would have been overwhelmed by the honour you have bestowed on her."
The Freedom Honour is Bangladesh's highest state award.
As soon as she reached Delhi, the Congress president sent the award to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust. Sonia wants the award, two gold plaques encased in a wooden frame and a citation, to be displayed in the museum’s exhibition area.
The Indira Gandhi Memorial, at 1 Safdarjung Road, still draws the maximum number of visitors every day, more than even the Nehru or Gandhi memorials.
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