Everyone knows of India's Jawaharlal Nehru and of Madame Pandit, his handsome sister. Few know, however, of "the other Nehru sister," comely Krishna Nehru Hutheesing, who is 17 years younger than Jawaharlal, seven years younger than Madame Pandit. In the January Ladies' Home Journal, Mrs. Hutheesing has produced a charming portrait of herself and her distinguished family. But she is also clear-eyed about what power has done to her brother.
"I have always adored Jawahar," she writes. But "thirty years of struggle and sacrifice have left their mark. Each year has taken away something of the warmth, gaiety and outgoing charm . . . The brown eyes that were ever ready to sparkle at some witty sally often hold an expression now of hard defiance or weary frustration. His face is that of a tired man who seems to be driven by some internal force which never relents, never lets go. His smile today is the smile of a self-possessed man, a polite Prime Minister, fully aware of his power, defying any criticism . . .
"How un-Indian the greatest Indian leader and first Prime Minister is," reflects his sister, telling of his upbringing amid a wealthy family that sent to England for its clothes (Nehru wore European suits until his micros); of Nehru's longstanding passion for chocolate cake, pies and ice-cream sundaes; and of his continuing preference for English friends (like Lord and Lady Mountbatten). "It was Gandhi who once jokingly said, 'When Jawahar talks in his sleep, he speaks in English.' "
Anonymous Confession. Mrs. Hutheesing quotes revealingly from an article Nehru wrote anonymously about himself in 1937. Disguising himself in the third person. Nehru wrote: "The most effective pose is one in which there seems to be the least of posing, and Jawahar had learned well to act without the paint and powder of an actor . . . What is behind that mask of his? . . . what will to power? . . . He has the power in him to do great good for India or great injury . . . Men like
Jawahar, with all their capacity for great and good work, are unsafe in a democracy.