Chapter-IV

Writing Differences: J. B. Kripalani

and Sucheta Kripalani

Jiwantram Bhagwandas Kripalani (1888-1982), popularly called Acharya

Kripa1ani, was a professor at Banaras Hindu University. However he left the

university in 1920 to join the Non-cooperation Movement. He served as Principal of

Gujarat Vidyapeeth until 1927 and was thus called Acharya Kripalani. He was the

General Secretary of Congress from 1934 to 1945. Kripalani was arrested in 1942 for

his part in Quit India Movement and released in 1945. The following year he was

elected President of the Indian National Congress. He finished his autobiography My

Times: An Autobiography (1982) two months before his death. He began writi.ng it

when he was past eighty-four and worked on it off and on for nearly ten years. The

autobiography runs into 946 pages excluding the two Appendices, the Afterword and

the Index. Sucheta, his wife, was among the people who helped Kripalani in the

preparation of the book. She died before it was published. Kripalani devotes the dozen

pages of the Appendix- II exclusively to her.

Sucheta Kripalani was an Indian freedom fighter and the first woman to be

elected Chief Minister of a state in India. She was one of the few women who were

elected to the Constituent Assembly and authored the Indian Constitution. She

married Acharya Kripalani in 1936. Khushwant Singh persuaded Sucheta to write her

memoirs for the Illustrated Weekly of India. This is how she began to work on her

autobiography. Sucheta: An Unfinished Autobiography ( 1978), published by the

Navjivan Publishing House in 1978, is a volume of 250 pages without the index.

However, the first sixty pages comprise the actual text of Sucheta's "unfinished

autobiography." The rest of the text is a collection of her speeches, talks, articles, and

letters along with a record of her political activities and obituary messages on her

death by different contributors.

The pattern of this chapter is the same as the earlier chapter. The writing

differences in male/female autobiography are highlighted through the eight subtitles:

association, dissociation; personal, public; self-conscious, self-confident and

fragmented, structured. The first of the pairs again stand for male traits while the latter

for the female.

Association

Unlike her husband, Sucheta seeks individuation in association with others in

An Unfinished Autobiography. Like Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Sucheta associates with

parents, friends, fellow workers, Acharya Kripalani and even with the refugees who

came from Pakistan to India after the partition of the country. For Sucheta

individuation lies in association while for Acharya Kripalani it lies in dissociation.

As a child, Sucheta associates with her mother, father and sister. She

elaborately discusses her childhood. Her childhood days were happy and carefree. Her

father, Surendra Nath Mazumdar, came from an old Brahmo family. They were a

large family of nine brothers and sisters. Sucheta admits that while her father was

indulgent to his children, her mother was strict. The mother was herself very hard

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working and she made the children also work. This description of her childhood gives

us an impression of a very strong emotional bonding among the family and of how

Sucheta seeks individuation through association with her family:

In the evenings, mother gathered her children round her for a hymn

and a short prayer, suited for the children. In this we followed the true

Brahmo tradition. I am sorry that by the time we reached college,

somehow or the other, the evening prayer had been discontinued.

Mother was a good singer with a rich, melodious voice. In the

evenings, when my parents had no outside engagements, we would all

sing together, mother playing the organ. Even when still in my teens, I

would take mother's place when she was not there. I was fond of music

and singing. My youngest sister had the sweetest voice in the family.

She went to Santiniketan to get trained in music. (Kripalani, Sucheta:

5)

Sucheta also associates with her elder sister Sulekha. Sulekha was only a year

and a half older to her and was a bright student in her class. Sucheta acknowledges

that her sister tried to give her whatever protection she could. She further states that

they were close friends, however, that did not stop them from having occasional bouts

of fight. Both the sisters appeared for their matriculation examination in the same

year. They were both very fond of books. Sucheta relates an embarrassing incident

regarding the visit of the Prince of Wales to Delhi after the Jallianwalabag massacre.

The girls from their school were taken to stand near the Kudsia Garden to honour the

Prince of Wales. She and her sister were outraged at the idea of going out to honour

him but could not pick up sufficient courage to refuse to do so:

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In our three years' stay in Queen Mary's, an incident occurred of

which I was ashamed for a long time. Towards the end of 1920, the

Prince of Wales was visiting Delhi. The girls from our school were

taken to stand near the Kudsia Garden on the Alipur Road in his

honour. Since the Jallianwalabagh massacre, my family had become

extra-patriotic, though father did not give up his service. We took a

good deal of interest in the political movement. Sulekha and myself

were, therefore, outraged at the idea of going out to honour the Prince

of Wales but we did'not pick up sufficient courage to refuse to do so.

After reaching the garden, in the confusion we two made ourselves

scarce and sat behind a bush till the whole thing was over and then

joined the girls to walk back to the school. But this did not absolve our

conscience of a feeling of shame. We both felt very small because of

our own cowardice. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 7)

Sulekha, however, died of rheumatic fever and heart trouble at a very young

age. This was the first death in the family and they all deeply grieved her death.

Sucheta associates herself also with her teachers like Ms. Jarwood, Ms. Fenn,

and Mrs. Roy. Ms. Jarwood gave her a sound education, an awareness of the society

and the country, and her duties towards them. These teachers inculcated in her a

strong sense of social responsibility. Sucheta acknowledges her sense of gratitude

towards Mrs. Roy:

Mrs. Roy was a friend of the family and she offered to teach me. Till

then I had been considered as dull and slow-witted. But this lady seems

to have found in me an intelligent but a shy and timid child. She

praised and encouraged me. I soon came to like my studies and worked

hard at them. Then onwards, I steadily improved. After a few months,

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when I was sent to a boarding school in Allahabad, I was counted

among the top students of the class. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 6)

In a sharp contrast to Acharya Kripalani who constantly dissociates himself

from the others, including his spouse, Sucheta acknowledges the development of self

through 3;n intense association with others. She associates with Kripalani. She

appreciates the sharp intellect and rich scholarship of her husband. Kripalani advised

Sucheta not to degrade herself in whatever work she undertook, including politics.

She humbly admits that Kripalani had an indelible influence upon her:

1 was keen to start political work. I used to feel small before the

veteran jail-goers, as I had not graduated through jail life. Kripalani

was not too keen for me to enter politics. He wanted me to do any

work of my choice, not necessarily politics. Early in our life his advice

to me was that in whatever I did I should not degrade myself. In Hindi,

he said, "Apna daman saf Rakhna." I have remembered it over all these

years. He was not only my husband but also my political guide. Living

close to him, I imbibed, often unconsciously, his way of thinking, of

assessing situations, and even of public speaking. In the course of

years, I have developed my own style of speaking, writing, and

functioning, but his early influence has left an indelible impression on

me. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 24)

Among early women autobiographers looking upon the father/ husband as on

almighty God, Guru or mentor is very common. Maharani Sunity Devi of Cooch

Behar, Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, Maharani Vijayaraje Scindia ofGwalior- all

these royal women share this trait. So do other autobiographers like Lak.shmibai Tilak

who ca11s her autobiography I Follow After and thus gives out the relationship right in

the title; or Ramabai Ranade whose autobiography turns into an excellent document

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on man's contribution of empowennent of Indian woman through education. The

book gives a vivid description of Justice Ranade's highly focused attempt to empower

his young, illiterate bride Ramabai through literacy. The girl-bride's education begins

on the first night of their wedding while this unusual happening is being spied over by

eleven old widows of the family. A white teacher is employed to teach Ramabai

English. The classes are conducted outside the house and the bride is compelled to

take cold water bath fetching water from the well in the compound in Justice

Ranade's absence. The young bride suffers all this as she is scared of her husband and

looks upon him as a mentor; finally, attaining excellent command over English and

public speaking. She joins public activities, meets Ramabai Saraswati despite severe

opposition from the old women of the family- all this because her idealist, Gandhian

husband wants her to do this. Ramabai's success story closes with husband's death!

The same with Vijayaraje Scindia and Gayatri Devi who look upon their husbands as

their lords with whose deaths their lives lose meaning! While the fact is that all these

women achieve greater success after their husbands' passing away. The most

memorable and amusing example of this generation woman's reverence and

dedication to Pati/ Pita can be traced in Shudha Mazumdar's autobiography A Pattern

of Life ( 1977) wherein she is taught a mantra by her traditional mother to appease

Gods before doing anything that was not pennitted for girls in Hinduism at the

father's insistence. If the father wanted his girl to eat meat, which according to the

traditional Hindu belief was not to be done by a girl, the mother advised the child

Shudha not to displease the father by refusing the meat she could just recite a 'mantra'

in Sanskrit which meant "father is God, father is heaven, he is the almighty/ by

pleasing father one pleases gods and heaven." The girl Shudha learnt her mother's

traditional wisdom well and used the 'mantra' all her life to venture every single

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adventure not pennitted to woman by the patriarchy by replacing 'pita' by 'pati' after

her marriage.

Such instances of male supremacy as discussed in above paragraphs can be

interpreted as the by-products of the 'feminine' culture of these women in

Showalterian tenns. Showalter, the known gynocentric critic of the contemporary

academia defines three distinct phases ofwomen's development, namely 'feminine',

'feminist', and 'female' (1981 ). The feminine phase in her tenninology is a phase in

which woman accepts all the patriarchal values and imitates them in order to be

accepted. This is imitative, muted phase of the marginals' growth in the post-colonial

theory.

Sucheta further associates herself with Mahatma Gandhi and with women's

organizations in India and abroad. She points out that Indian women were more

fortunate than their counterparts in the West as they did not have to go through a bitter

struggle to secure their political rights. The Brahmo Samaj (in Bengal) and the Arya

Samaj (in Punjab) contributed greatly to the emancipation of women in India. Sunity

Devi who was the daughter of the Brahmo leader Keshab Chandra Sen, and Kamla

Devi Chattopadyay also discuss in their autobiographies at length how the Brahmo

Samaj and the Arya Samaj empowered Indian women. Mahatma Gandhi was a

staunch supporter of women's rights. In 1917 a deputation of women met Mr. Edwin

Montagu, the then Secretary of State for India, with a demand that women should be

allowed the same opportunities for representation in public life as men. By 1929,

women in India secured the right to vote in the pre-partition India. Sucheta also

explains that women in India demanded equality with men but not favour:

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Thus, a little thirty years after the first agitation for suffrage, women in

India secured equality of rights, an equality which women in the West

took a much longer time to secure. Throughout this movement for

emancipation, responsible women's organisations and women leaders

never tried to secure for themselves any special rights as distinguished

from, or opposed to, those of men. A distinctive feature of their

movement was emphasis on equality. They wanted freedom of

opportunity to work and asked for fair field and no favour. (Kripalani,

Sucheta: 183)

In An Unfinished Autobiography, Sucheta thus, seeks individuation through an

intense association with others. She associates with parents, friends, fellow workers,

and even with the refugees who came from Pakistan to India after the partition of the

subcontinent.

Dissociation

Kripalani's My Times: An Autobiography reiterates the male tradition of

autobiographical writing in the author's constant dissociation of himself from the

others. He considers himself a self-sustained entity and at the centre of the living

space. This dissociation is evident from his school days and college years. J. B.

Kripalani dissociates from his family and community:

After passing my M.A. examination, there was the question of my

future. I could not possibly remain in Sind. Given my radical political

views, I found it difficult to adapt myself to my community and family.

The difficulty was soon resolved. H. L. Chablani had applied for a

professor's post in the Greer Bhumihar Brahman College at

Muzatfarpur. Given his qualifications he was immediately appointed

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professor of economics. Soon after taking it up, he wrote to me that

there was a vacancy in his college in the history department, and that if

I applied for it, I might get it. (Kripalani, J. B: 35)

Kripalani was the first political worker to come in contact with the Mahatma

after the latter's return from South Africa (Introduction). Gandhi exercised a great

influence on the masses as well as the stalwarts of the Congress organization. In

political and personal matters, people sought his guidance. Kripalani, however,

dissociates himself from the Mahatma and states clearly that he never consulted

Gandhi on personal matters. In the years, preceding the independence of India from

the British rule, Gandhi was like an uncrowned king. His ideas and wishes were

respected almost unquestionably. People, great or small, emulated his behaviour in

public and private life - from the wearing of 'khaddar' to the observing of

purificatory fasts. Kripalani disassociates himself from the Mahatma as regards to the

observation of fasts in order to reform people or to improve the affairs of the nation.

He decided not to undertake fasts on medical grounds:

Those days I suffered from piles, the fast aggravating the condition.

After that experience, I decided never to undertake a fast for any cause

except between meals or when food was denied to me! I have always

felt that fasting for the sins of others or, to reform them, or to improve

the affairs of the nation should be better left to the Mahatma. Ordinary

mortals discharging the duties of citizens need not indulge in this

virtue! (Kripalani, J. B: 112)

In My Times: An Autobiography, Kripalani gives numerous instances of his

disagreement with Mahatma Gandhi and other eminent political leaders like

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Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Sardar Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose,

etc. He candidly notes:

It is true that I had political differences with Subhas, but I also had

such differences with Jawaharlal. None of this, however, interfered

with the functioning of the AICC office. After all, neither the president

nor the general secretary could function independently, in all important

matters having to give effect to the resolutions passed at the annual

session of the Congress and the various meetings of the AICC and the

Working Committee. There was therefore little scope for conflict.

(Kripalani, J. B: 328)

Kripalani was a Congress volunteer and did whatever was required of him in

that capacity. He willingly suffered the hardships that his work entailed upon him.

Gandhi was a mass leader. Huge crowds came pay their respects to him wherever he

went. Shouts and suffocation caused by crowds irritated Kripalani. At one railway

station, when the train stopped, a crowd of young men boarded the small

compartment to greet the Mahatma. Kripalani was a part of the entourage. When he

could tolerate it no more, Kripalani said in disgust "Damn the Mahatama" in a voice

loud enough that Kasturba overheard. The incident runs as under:

At one large railway station, as soon as the train steamed in, a crowd of

young men boarded our small, already crowded compartment, causing

suffocation. As ifthis were not enough, the young men began shouting,

'Mahatma Gandhi ki jai' and 'lnquilab zindabad' at the top of their

voices. This irritated me so much that in disgust I said, 'Damn the

Mahatma', enraging them so much that they began showering abuses

on me. I suffered this with all the patience at my command, but

unfortunately Kasturba had overheard my remark. She protested and

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said, 'Professor, you are damning Bapu.' I said, 'Not Bapu, but the

Mahatma.' Not understanding the distinction, she shook her head in

displeasure and remarked, 'You should not do so, Professor.' I was

'Professor' to Gandhiji and to all the ashramites. (Kripalani, J. B: 184)

We further note that Kripalani's My Times: An Autobiography is dominated by

an egocentric 'I'. He consciously dissociates himself from the others and presents

himself as the centre of happenings. He knows that the significant role played by him

in the Indian Freedom struggle would interest and benefit the readers:

My life story largely consists of the history of the Congress and of the

independence movement. Thus, this is no mere autobiography but a

record of momentous events. In the course of the narrative I shall have

to describe what I observed and not what I did. I shall dwell upon the

events and important personalities of the time and, as I have said, not

particularly on me or the part I played. The presentation is bound to be

coloured by my personality, may be even by my likes and dislikes. No

account of a period of stress and strain can escape this. All that I can

promise is that I shall try to be as objective as it is possible for a person

who was not merely a witness but a participant in the most fascinating

and exciting drama of our times- India's freedom struggle. (Kripalani,

J. B: xviii)

After independence, Kripalani dissociates himself even from Indian National

Congress and resigned from the party in 1951. He wanted the organizational wing and

the legislature wing of the Congress Party to be clearly defined so that the government

did not become autocratic. When he saw this was not happening he resigned from the

presidentship of the party. Kripalani's My Times: An Autobiography, thus attests the

male tradition of autobiography writing that the process of individuation for males is

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to dissociate from others and that his autobiography is dominated by a well defined 'I'

which is always at the centre.

Personal

As a researcher, to attain objectivity one must record facts objectively- this is

the prime requirement of research methodology and hence two exceptional

autobiographies by women must be mentioned here. These are Shoilabala Das' A

Look Before and After ( 1956) and Kamla Devi Chattopadhyay's Inner Recesses Outer

Spaces ( 1986). Both of these women who were politically active and made their mark

in their field of work write in men's fashion. Their autobiographies ignore the

personal in favour of the public and thus tend to belong to the male tradition of

autobiography-writing. On the other hand, in spite of her very successful political

career Sucheta focuses on personal affairs in An Unfinished Autobiography. Like

Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Sucheta frequently refers to her public life but the emphasis is

on the personal aspects of her life. We are provided with details regarding her father's

career, sister's illness and death, family friends, contact with Kripalani, and

experiences in jail, etc. She treats even monumental events like Jalianwallabagh

massacre and partition in personal light. Sucheta recollects:

I must go back a few years to recount how strong nationalistic

sentiments penetrated our home. I have some recollections of the

agitation in the house over the Jallianwalabagh and the subsequent

incidents in the Punjab. A little earlier, father had been posted at

Saharanpur. Many of our friends and relatives, who were in the Punjab

at that time, came away and stayed with us till things quietened down.

A wave of indignation and wrath swept our house, when they

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recounted to us their harrowing experiences. I was about ten years old.

I could understand enough to feel great anger against the British. We

vented our anger on some of the Anglo-Indian children we played

with, calling them all kinds of names. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 7-8)

In the first chapter of her autobiography Such eta provides us with information

about her family background and heritage. Hers was a large family of nine brothers

and sisters. Though· she fully supports the policy of family planning, she admits that a

large family is the best place to bring up a child. This is because in a large family, she

believes, no one is spoilt with excessive attention and one learns to share what he gets

with others. Sucheta describes her parents as under:

Father was indulgent to his children, jolly, witty and ready to share in

our fun, when he was not too busy. Mother was strict; scolding and

occasional slaps came from her. But she ran our home well and

efficiently. Herself hard working, she made us take our share in

household work. Father and mother started their day with prayers in

the small puja room we invariably had in our house. (Kripalani,

Sucheta: 5)

Sucheta then discusses the first death in the family and the sad blow caused to

her parents by it. Sucheta and her elder sister Sulekha studied together at Simla.

Sulekha caught a chill a few months before the exam. She developed a serious illness

and heart trouble and had to hospitalize for months. She died in the midst ofSucheta's

intermediate examination. The death of the first child deeply grieved the parents.

From then on, Sucheta says, her father's health began to break down. He consequently

got very ill. He also passed away after a severe haemorrhage. This was the most

depressing period for the family. They had to change their entire mode of living:

105

We curtailed all possible expenses except on education. Mother

struggled valiantly to see that our health and education did not suffer.

We were greatly helped by three good friends, my cousin Jotin who

lived in New Delhi, Mr. Mukherjee, a businessman and a close friend

of my father, and Dr. Basu, a class friend of my father, who lived

nearby, and who acted more or less as our guardian. Since our

childhood we had called these two gentlemen 'uncle'. They played the

role of unreal uncles to us in our distress. Our relatives were slightly

intimidated by the idea of getting involved with us. They knew we

were a big family and father had not left us too well provided. Mother

in any case was too proud to ask any one fir help, and we, her children,

were also determined to make good on our own. (Kripalani, Sucheta:

13-14)

Besides this, Sucheta also gives us a personal account of her teachers like

Mrs. Roy, Ms. Fenn and Ms. Jarwood and the crucial role they played in her

development. She also gives a brief account of the old cook who was like a member

ofthe family.

The most interesting, however, is the account she gives of her marriage with

Kripalani. It is interesting to note that instead of describing himself Kripalani quotes

lengthily from Sucheta to supplement his brief description of how he came to marry

her in his autobiography. Sucheta, on the other hand gives an intimate description of

their relationship; how she came to like him and how she eventually married him

amidst opposition from both the families. Gandhiji was also opposed to their

marriage. He thought family responsibilities would divert Kripalani's attention from

national work and said, "If you marry him, you will break my right arm". Sucheta's

quick reply to this was that why did he not think that, instead of one national worker,

he would gain two. He was so adamant that at one point she agreed to give up the idea

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of marrying Kripalani. Not content with this, Gandhiji insisted her to marry some one

else. Sucheta, however, rejected this idea and told him that what he was proposing

was wrong, unjust and immoral. She notes:

At this time, I turned on him and told him that what he was proposing

was wrong; it would be unjust and immoral to do so. He had no reply

to that. That ended our discussions. Jamnalalji's sympathy was with us;

he did some canvassing with Gandhiji irYour favour. Sometime in early

1936, Gandhiji sent for me and told me that he had no objection to our

marriage, but he would not be able to give us his blessings. He could

only pray for us. We were satisfied with his prayer. In April 1936, we

got married according to Brahmo rites in Benares. (Kripalani, Sucheta:

22)

A parallel interesting incident from Vijayalakshmi's autobiography may be

cited here. After Vijayalakshmi's marriage to Ranjit Pandit they approached Gandhiji

for blessings. Gandhij i, instead of wishing them a happy conjugal life, discussed with

the newly married couple the principle of celibacy and asked them to take an oath of

celibacy. Ranjit Pandit, the bridegroom, was shy to argue with Bapu but

Vijayalakshmi who was nick-named as "Tempest" by her father at the time of her

birth mustered courage to tell the old man that his proposal was absurd.

Another amusing incident related to Kripalani that is missing in his own

autobiography is as follows. Gandhi sent Kripalani on a fact-finding mission to

Noakhali which had seen some of the worst communal riots in the year before

independence. Sucheta accompanied him there. It was not possible to reach the riot

affected areas without the assistance of the British administration and the provincial

government who tried to prevent them from visiting Noakhal i. After travelling by

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plane, jeep, boat, and on foot they reached a place nearest to the riot-stricken area. It

was then that Kripalani fell into a shallow canal from a bamboo bridge:

Walking there, Kripalani fell off the narrow bamboo bridge called

'Shanko' and got wet in the shallow canal water. His dhoti and kurta

were too wet and heavy for him to walk. So, he completed the journey

wearing his chadar as a lungi and his waist-coat in place of the kurta!

This gave us some chance for hilarity in the midst of this grim

Odyssey. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 45)

Though projecting a 'feminine' 'muted self both Sucheta and Vijayalakshmi

display rare confidence and capacity to articulate exactly what they feel in presence of

a stalwart like Gandhiji. The focus, however, in Sucheta Kripalani's An Unfinished

Autobiography is on the personal rather than the political aspects of life. Like the

other female autobiographers Sucheta defies the established male notion of the

content of autobiography. Sucheta provides us with minute personal details like

Vijayalakshmi's arrangement of small reception for them and Jawaharlal's mother

Swaroop Rani's giving her a beautiful sari as a wedding gift. Such details are

altogether missing in Kripalani's autobiography.

Public

In My Times: An Autobiography, Kripalani focuses more his political career

and the crucial role he played in India's freedom struggle, than on the personal,

domestic affairs. My Times: An Autobiography, Kripalani claims, is not merely an

autobiography but a record of the momentous events leading to India's independence.

He clearly states that in his autobiography he has devoted more space to India's

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struggle for independence than to himself. Due to his political preoccupations,

Kripalani had little time or inclination to focus on personal matters - a fact that

becomes applicable to almost all the male autobiographers. One can find some

interesting exception to this in autobiographies by Nobel laureates like Russell, Wole

Soyinka, and Neruda who create a rare balance between the personal and public in

their life-writing. Kripalani writes:

If my account in any detail varies from that of others, who have written

or may hereafter write about our times, the reader is free to accept

whichever appears to him to be objective. I shall only try to record

what 1 consider to be true as an actor and as a spectator. As I shall

have, during the course of my narrative, to talk of and even criticize

persons in high public esteem, all that I can assure is that I suffer from

no personal prejudice against them. Rather, I consider them all to be

great men and great patriots, men such as Rajendra Babu, Sardar Patel,

Maulana Saheb, and Jawaharlal. (Kripalani, J. B: xviii-xix)

Kripalani was an active participant in the movement for India's independence.

He was associated with the major events and the important personalities of the time.

As he claims, his autobiography devotes more space to the independence struggle

than to himself. He diminishes "I" as much as possible to concentrate more on the

political affairs. Kripalani believes his reminiscences will have a historical value:

My friends feel that my knowledge of important events and

personalities who played the chief role in our national struggle would

be intimate and revealing. My reminiscences will thus have some

historical value. l have, therefore, in what l have written here devoted

more space to our independence struggle than to myself. Hence I have

called this book My Times. There is as little of the "I" in it as it is

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necessary. This, in an egotistic age like ours, should be considered not

as a drawback of the book but as its merit. (Kripalani, J. B: xviii)

In Introduction to My Times: An Autobiography, Kripalani repeatedly

reiterates his active involvement in India's struggle for independence. The line of

demarcation between the personal and the political is blurring. His story is a record of

. the momentous eve_nts in the history of India's independence movement. Kripalani

promises the readers of My Times: An Autobiography objectivity in the narration of

the exciting drama of India's freedom struggle in which he happened to be an active

participant.

Due to his political preoccupations, Kripalani admits that he had no time for

personal affairs. He remained a bachelor for long. He met Sucheta Mazumdar when

she approached him in relation to some relief work in Bihar. They met several times

in the course ofthe relief work and decided to get married. Kripalani was already fifty

at the time. He had no house or income of his own. It is very interesting to note that

Kripalani describes the praiseworthy personal qualities ofSucheta and considers these

qualities important because they would prevent Sucheta from being an unnecessary

burden on him and allows her to work shoulder to shoulder with him in the political

activities:

Sucheta was then a Professor at Banaras Hindu University, and I was

then often invited by the students of the university to lecture there on

various aspects of the national movement. During these visits, Sucheta

and I had many occasions to meet, and our friendship grew. I found

her, apart from her intellectual qualities, intensely patriotic. She would

have resigned her post and joined the national movement if, after the

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premature death of her father, she was not needed to support her

family. She was competent, hard-working, methodical, and

resourceful, widely read, and had a keen sense of humour. As for

myself, I was at the time a man without a home, without any income of

my own. In Sarojini's words, I was a 'beloved vagabond', and I think it

was the vagabond in me that attracted Sucheta, but I was certain that

she would not be a burden on me and that we could work together for

the national cause. (Kripalani, J. B: 272)

The family members of both Kripalani and Sucheta were opposed to their

marriage. Even Gandhi did not want Kripalani to marry because, he argued, the

family responsibilities might divert their attention from the national movement.

However, it seems that Gandhi's fear was misplaced, at least in Kripalani's case. It is

strange, however, that instead of describing hims~lf Kripalani quotes lengthily from

Sucheta to supplement his brief description of how he came to marry her runs as

under:

Here, I will leave it to her to describe how we ultimately decided to

marry and the impediments in the way, as she recorded the events in a

series of articles she wrote for The Illustrated Weekly of India ...

(Kripalani, J. B: 272)

Writing of the history of India during the struggle for independence is not

possible without reference to Gandhi and the Congress. Kripalani mentions in several

places in My Times: An Autobiography that the story of his life is a record of the

momentous events leading to India's independence. He reproduces long passages

from articles or speeches or letters from various personages or bodies to support his

arguments or to give an idea of the current political atmosphere. He quotes liberally

Ill

from Gandhi's writings to explain the position of the Congress in the freedom

struggle against the imperial government. Kripalani feels that he need not offer

apologies to his readers for doing so:

I need not apologize to the readers for giving long passages from

Gandhiji's writings. They clearly bring into focus the position of the

Congress organization in the freedom struggle and also its position

vis- a-vis the foreign imperial government. By the 1935 refonns, as

they were called, the British government had not given up even an iota

of its absolute power and authority. (Kripalani, J. B: 319)

My Times -An Autobiography, thus, attests the restrictive male view that a

good autobiography not only focuses on its author but also reveals his connectedness

to the rest of society; it is representative of his times and a mirror to his era. It gives

an interesting account of national and international events and the contemporary

personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Babu

and so on. The volume, like the volumes of other male autobiographers under scrutiny

in this thesis, records almost every important political event during the freedom

struggle of India. They all have ample space and time for public/ political happenings

and how these events contributed to Indian independence. However, they are trying to

dash off half-hearted lives when it comes to their personal life. Many things on the

personal front are left unsaid. Kripalani has written full chapters on the Gandhi

Ashram, Purna Swaraj, Partition, Khadi Board, Tibet-China, the Czech Crisis, etc, but

not a single chapter is devoted to Sucheta or to their marital life!

112

Self-Conscious

The self-image projected by Sucheta in An Unfinished Autobiography is that

of self-consciousness unlike that of confidence by J. B. Kripalani in My Times: An

Autobiography. Like other female autobiographers she is conscious of her limitations

as a woman in the male dominated society. She admits in her autobiography that she

was a very dull student at school. Moreover, her education was hindered because she

had to change schools so often due to her father's frequent transfers. She was

conscious that she lacked in liveliness and felt painfully inferior to her two sisters in

appearance and intelligence. Sucheta avoided meeting her mother's friends on

account of her extreme shyness:

Our education was very chequered. Due to father's frequent transfers, I

must have changed a dozen schools by the time I matriculated. To start

with, I was a very dull student. My elder sister Sulekha, very fair in

complexion, vivacious and restless, was an attractive child. The sister

next to me, Himani, was a very lovely child with a mass of curly hair,

sparkling intelligent eyes, and full of mischief. In between these two

extroverts, I was dark, dull and agonisingly shy. Mother's friends used

to say, ""You talk of three daughters; but where is the second

daughter? We never see her. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 5)

Sucheta is conscious of her role as a woman in the patriarchal society and even

more patriarchal set up of the political structure in India. She narrates how she gave

up her desire to study medicine and said good bye to a medical career in fulfillment of

her father's wishes. A woman doctor in the Lady Hardinge Medical College had an

unpleasant experience. Sucheta 's father himself was a doctor. Like Maggie Tulliver's

113

father in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, Sucheta's father too decided that it was

not good for his daughter to pursue a medical career. Thus, Sucheta's gender

prevented her from going into the profession she desired for herself:

I had always planned to study medicine. Unfortunately, some time

earlier, a woman doctor on the staff of the Lady Hardinge Medical

College had an unpleasant experience. Father, therefore, ruled out a

medical career for me. He never interfered with us, but we had such

high regard for him that we did not like to do anything against his

wishes. So I said good bye to my medical career. (Kripalani, Sucheta:

9)

Sheila Rowbotham notes In Women's Consciousness Men's World ( 1978), a

woman cannot experience herself as an entirely unique entity because she is always

aware of how she is defined as a woman. Sucheta and her sister Himani got admitted

in St. Stephen's College, Delhi. There were very few girls in the college. Sucheta was

very conscious of being surrounded by male teachers and boy students and even asked

for exemption on the plea of preoccupation at home due to father's illness:

My first days in St. Stephen's were a little bewildering. I had been

taught earlier by English women and never by men. For three or four

days I could not follow the lectures by my Indian teachers as their

pronunciation and intonation sounded strange to me. But I soon got

over the difficulty. My second worry was how to keep up my end

against the boys. The boys naturally watched the only girl in the class

very critically. There was also a certain amount of sniggering and loud

remarks about me. All this made me very nervous. Before our first

house examinations were to he held, I went to Dr. Spears and asked for

exemption on the plea of preoccupation at home due to father's illness.

He sympathized with me but insisted that I appear in as many papers as

114

I could. In the papers I took, except for one, I stood first. I heaved a

sigh of relief. I had no longer to bother about the sniggerings of the

boys. My reputation in St. Stephen's was established. (Kripalani,

Sucheta: 13)

Sucheta reveals her lack of confidence in the narration of her anxious wait for

the result of M. A. examination. She had an interesting experience on the day my

result was to be announced. She was very disturbed because of her father's death and

could not pay enough attention to her studies when she was appearing for the exam.

She was sure that she would fail and shed tears for hours before she got to know that

she had bagged a gold medal for topping the list:

I had an interesting experience on the day my result was to be

announced. I was waiting for information from Asha Sen, the daughter

of the university registrar. She was my old classmate from Queen

Mary's school and had appeared for M. A. in English that year. She

was expecting her result the same day. I had asked her to find out mine

also and let me know. I waited the whole day, but no message came

from her. By the evening I was quite sure that I had failed. I sat in my

room shedding tears. Himani, my sister, then went to the nearby house

of a Professor in the hope of getting some news. There she learnt that

not only had I passed but topped the list of the candidates in the

History group. I was happy and relieved at not having to do the

examination again. This also brought me a gold medal. (Kripalani,

Sucheta: 14)

Sucheta considered Kripalani not only as her husband but also her political

guide. She imbibed his way of thinking and speaking. She sincerely followed his

advice in taking major decisions in life. Though over the years Sucheta developed her

115

own style of thinking, writing, speaking, and functioning, Kripalani had made a deep

iqiluence on her personality.

Kripalani was not too keen for me to enter politics. He wanted me to

do any work of my choice, not necessarily politics. Early in our life,

his advice to me was that in whatever I did I should not degrade

myself. In Hindi, he said, "Apna Daman saf Rakhna." I have

remembered it over all these years. He was not only my husband but

also my political guide. Living close to him, I imbibed, often

unconsciously, his way of thinking, of assessing situations, and even of

public speaking. In the course of years, I have developed my own style

of speaking, writing and functioning, but his early influence has left an

indelible impression on me. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 24)

Sucheta confides in her readers that she, as a woman, did not have confidence

in her own ability. She acknowledges Gandhi's contribution in the emancipation of

Indian women from her socio-cultural bondage. Gandhi's method was to make

women realize their potential by exposing them to unusual challenges. Women always

found a place of equal responsibility and importance with men in the various

constructive programmes launched by Gandhi. Sucheta confesses:

I, a woman, did not have confidence in our own ability but he knew us

better. Throughout his life he sent women out to face all kinds of

challenges. He sent Khurshed Behn Naoroji, an aristocrat to her

fingertips, highly Westernized sensitive and sophisticated to go and

work amongst the Pathan followers of Abdul Ghaffar Khan. In that

strange atmosphere of hard and harsh life, Khurshed Behn succeeded

superbly and became favourite sister of the Pathans. He was like a

good teacher who knew that the student can only learn when his latent

ability and initiative are drawn out to face to face a challenge.

116

A few days before his death while talking to some of us in Delhi he

said that he would like to see a Harijan woman as the first President of

India. "I shall dance with joy when I see her in this high place." He

wanted to see the lowest of the land occupying the highest position.

That was the dream that he dreamt. That was the trust and confidence

that he placed in women. (Kripalani, Sucheta: 1 05-6)

Thus, we note that in a sharp contrast to Acharya Kripalani, the self-image

projected by Sucheta in An Unfinished Autobiography is of self-consciousness. In

spite of her successful political career, we feel that there is always a consciousness

that she has to perform the role assigned to her as a woman in a male dominated

society. Like other female autobiographers she is conscious of her limitations as a

woman in the patriarchal society.

Self-Confident

In My Times: An Autobiography, Kripalani projects a very confident self-

image. He knows that his reminiscences will have a historical value as he was closely

associated with the freedom movement. Like Jawaharlal Nehru, Kripalani also

provides us very little information about his childhood and deals mainly with adult

crisis. In his voluminous autobiography of946 pages, Kripalani devotes not more than

ten pages to the discussion of his childhood. He gives a very brief account of his

childhood and quickly switches over to adult life during which he played a crucial

role in the Indian freedom movement. This is in accordance with Estelle Jelinek's

observation that men in order to idealize their lives and to make it seem heroic often

desist from revealing their childhood crises and are more likely to relate crises in

117

adulthood, usually turning points in their professional career. Thus, projecting the

image of self-confidence and determination, Kripalani follows the tradition of male

autobiography writing.

Kripalani elaborately discusses the Indian freedom struggle and the important

role that he played in it. He proudly notes that he was the first political worker to ..

come in contact with the Mahatma after his return from South Africa in 1915. He

participated in the first ever Satyagraha against the British in India. Later Kripalani

held important positions in the Congress and steered the organization through difficult

circumstances. Kripalani repeatedly uses the first person singular 'I'. His self-

confidence is reflected in every sentence in the brief passage quoted below from My

Times: An Autobiography:

I was the first political worker who came in contact with Gandhiji as

soon as he returned from South Africa, early in 1915. I was also

associated with him in the first Satyagraha movement launched in

Champaran (Bihar), against the rapacity and tyranny of the white

Indigo planters. I was the General Secretary of the Congress for the

twelve critical and anxious final years of our freedom struggle. I was

the President of the Congress in the year India attained her

independence. (Kripalani, J. B: xvii, xviii)

Men tend to idealize and often depict their lives as heroic. The productivity of

men toward embellishing their autobiography results in the projection of a self-image

of confidence, no matter what difficulties they have encountered. Kripalani claims

very confidently his life story largely consists of the history of the Congress and of

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the independence movement. Thus, this is no mere autobiography but a record of

momentous events. T. N. Chaturvedi notes:

The life of Jiwantram Bhagwandas Kripalani - Congressman,

Gandhian, socialist, parliamentarian, and writer - spanned almost a

century. As a young man he saw the rise of Mahatma Gandhi to centre

stage in Indian politics; and in old age, the fall of the Janta Party

Government from power. A social and political activist for some

seventy years, at no point did he ever compromise his views or

principles to suit those who were in power, or to curry favour with

them. If ever there was a person for whom the saying "to thine own

self be true" was written, it was Kripalani. (Kripalani, J. B: vii)

Kripalani respected and almost adored Gandhi for his role in the Indian

freedom struggle. Gandhi had become a kind of role model for the freedom ftghters.

In political and personal matters, people sought his guidance. Whether they

understood Gandhi or not, people tried to copy his mode of living. Kripalani,

however, followed Gandhi only so far as it was necessary for him to do so in the

struggle for India's independence. He lived his life his own way and never consulted

Gandhi on personal matters. He did not believe in observing fasts to reform people or

to improve the affairs of the nation. He rarely attended Gandhi's prayer meetings. He

asserts that he has always lived his own life and has never sought to "mechanically

copy Gandhiji's mode of living". He proudly claims that he did not stick to the

Gandhian concept of simplicity in expanding khadi work:

In expanding khadi work I am afraid we did not stick to the Gandhian

concept of simplicity, seeking to produce as fine khadi as we could.

We also sought to make it attractive, and to this end experimented

119

extensively. We learnt that there was block printing industry at

Farrukhabad (U.P.) and placed printing orders there. In course oftime,

the most elaborate and complicated printing was done in the ashram

and some of our saree border designs were copied even by the mills.

Historically, the finest cotton cloth was produced in India. I do not

know whether the story true or not but it is said that one day the

puritanical Mughal emperor Aurangzeb rebuked his daughter for being

indecently dressed, to which she replied that she had draped herself in

seven folds of cloth. It is said that the mummies in ancient Egypt were

wrapped in the finest fabrics imported from India. However, our

experiments to improve khadi were not always appreciated by

orthodox Gandhians. (Kripalani, J. B: I 00)

Another significant instance of Kripalani not adhering to Gandhi's wish is his

marriage with Sucheta Mazumdar. Gandhi was averse to the marriage and even

advised Sucheta that she must marry another person, otherwise Kripalani would

remain unhappy. Gandhi tried to dissuade Sucheta from marrying but did not argue

much with Kripalani on the matter. Gandhi knew that it was difficult to change

Kripalani's mind once he decided on something. Kripalani quotes extensively from

Sucheta's An Unfinished Autobiography:

Gandhiji did not argue with him. He perhaps knew that it was useless

to talk to a hard headed person like Kripalani, once he had made up his

mind. He thought it was best tackle a young woman. Even then there

was delay in our marriage. This was because of Jawaharlal's long

imprisonment. Kripalani and he were close friends then. He could not

think of marriage while his friend was in prison. During this waiting

period oftwo years, Gandhiji called me two or three times to Wardha.

Finally, I bowed to his wishes and agreed to give up the idea.

(Kripalani, 1. B: 273)

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Kripalani was a vigilant and vocal parliamentarian. As early as 1950s, he was

lamenting the corruption that was beginning to affect the body politic. He had strong

political differences with Nehru. Kripalani and Nehru often crossed swords in

Parliament. On one occasion, during the heated debate on the Chinese invasion on

Ladakh, Nehru stated that not a blade of grass grew in the area. Kripalani's pointed

reply to this is quoted in the Introduction by T. N. Chaturvedi, the Honourable

Governor of Karnataka:

We were told the territory was mountainous, where nothing grew, not

even a blade of grass and no people lived. There are places like that in

Rajasthan. I wonder what our government will do if Pakistan occupied

them. If these places in Ladakh are so uninhabitable, why do the

Chinese want them? People here have an idea that these parts of our

territories were occupied to serve as springboards for future action. A

springboard need not have to be green or populated. (Kripalani, J. B:

xiii-iv)

Thus, we note that Kripalani in My Times: An Autobiography projects the self­

image of confidence and determination. He being a male is privileged to pursue the

single goal of a successful career. In line with other male autobiographers he projects

himself at the centre of the living space. This is contrary to the self-image of

consciousness projected by Sucheta in An Unfinished Autobiography.

Fragmented

An Unfinished Autobiography lacks the uniformity and orderliness evident in

My Times: An Autobiography. It is a very simple narrative. The paragraphs are short

121

and each of them is given a heading. It reads almost like a personal conversation with

a friend. The narrative of her life is not chronological and progressive. It is

disconnected and fragmentary; organized into self-sustained units rather than

connecting chapters. She begins her autobiography with a candid speculation:

When I look back over the long years of my life it strikes me as very

full, interesting and on th~ whole very gratifying. I do not seem to have

much to regret about (Kripalani, Sucheta: 3)

Sucheta begins her autobiography with a description of her family background

and heritage. This is followed by her childhood memories and school experiences.

Kripalani gives a very brief account of his childhood and quickly switches over to

adult life during which he played a crucial role in the Indian freedom movement. For

fear of appearing sentimental, men tend to desist from revealing crisis in their

childhood and are more likely to relate adult crises. In a sharp contrast to this, Sucheta

elaborately discusses her childhood memories and crises. She discusses the death of

Sulekha, her sister, and the sad blow caused to her parents by it. Sucheta and her elder

sister Sulekha studied together at Simla. Sulekha caught a chill and had to be

hospitalized for months:

A few months before our examination Sulekha caught a chill, this

developed into her old ailment of rheumatic fever and heart trouble.

For the next four or five months, we were just in and out of the

hospital. Mother, father and myself took turns to nurse her. But all our

care was of no avail. On the 41h of May, while I was in the midst of my

intermediate examination, she passed away. This was the first death in

our family. Our parents grieved deeply the death of their first child.

122

Father's health began to break down from then on. (Kripalani,

Such eta: I 0)

The progression of narrative in male autobiographies is linear with clear

divisions of beginning, middle, and end. In women's autobiography writing, however,

the progression of narrative is spiral in stead of linear. Men are socially conditioned to

pursue the single goal of a successful career. The multidimensionality of women's

socially conditioned roles, however, established a 'pattern of diffusion and diversity

when they write their autobiographies. The narrative is spiral in the sense that in stead

of following chronological order of events of their lives, they tend to narrate the

events in terms of their importance in their lives. This notion is, however, partially

defied in An Unfinished Autobiography. This phenomenon could be accounted for by

the fact that Sucheta was persuaded by Khushwant Singh to write the autobiography

for the Illustrated Weekly of India. The orderliness evident in the autobiography might

be attributed to the fact that it was to be published in instalments.

For Kripalani, his autobiography is a record of historical events in India's

struggle for freedom. Sucheta too participated in the freedom movement and

eventually became the first woman Chief Minister of a state in India. But she does not

think of her autobiography in terms of a historical document. On the contrary, she

interests herself more in creative process of writing than in historical procession of

events. Sucheta discusses the role of the creative writer in society. She distinguishes

between the ideologies and attitudes of the politician and the creative writer. The

politician has social or political commitments which could be selfish or otherwise. On

the other hand, the creative writer should be free from fixed ideologies and

obligations. The creative writers should never be political partisans. Sucheta reiterates

123

that in a perfect State the creative writers should not be troubled with social or

political obligations. She argues that India has not attained that perfect State. In the

given circumstances, the writers must use their creative powers to further the moral,

social, political, and cultural aspirations of their people:

In our present state, I wish most fervently that the creative powers of

our writers and artists may be effectively employed towards the

furthering of the social, moral, political, and cultural objectives that we

have placed before us. I think there is nothing wrong in this wish. At

the same time, I know - and say with all the emphasis at my command

- that this is not a matter of dictation and not even one of planning.

For, what is of the very essence of the matter here, is freedom. What,

therefore, I wish is just a happy and harmonious conjunction between

our hopes and the writer's powers. It is essential that this conjunction

should take in freedom. Freedom cannot be real and durable unless it is

based on mutual respect. I do not know what the writers on their side

would prescribe as the test of freedom. I can suggest one on the side­

society. A free society will not demand conformity from creative

writers. In its eyes a creative writer will not cease to be an artist simply

because he has gone wrong in his sociology or economics. It seems to

me tha"t every creative worker should feel that he has a stake in the

building up of such a society. (Sucheta: 142)

Thus, we note that the criterion of orderliness and harmonious shaping with

which critical canons characterize autobiography cannot be applied to Sucheta

Kripalani's Autobiography. It cannot be, however, condemned as formless because it

has a curious form of its own which attests to the female tradition of autobiography­

writing. Sucheta, a political leader in her own right and an achiever woman, rose to

become the Chief Minister of an Indian State. However, she writes her autobiography

simply as a woman. The content, form, structure and language of her autobiography

124

remain gender-specific and yet her autobiography is as much an important document

as is her husband's - one recording Indian political life through a personal, a

'feminine' experience while the other a male-authored document which could as well

be looked upon as a documentation ofthe history of India in a particular era.

Structured

J. B. Kripalani worked on My Times: An Autobiography over a period of ten

years. It follows a logical progression - beginning from Kripalani's early life in Sind

(now in Pakistan) in 1880s to post-independence times in India. The autobiography

follows a chronological linear narrative. Order and uniformity underlie it. Like other

male autobiographers, Kripalani focuses on one period of life, one theme, or one

characteristic of personality at a time.

Kripalani begins his autobiography with a description of Sind, the province of

his birth, situated in the North-West corner of India. This is followed by a brief

description of his community and culture. After this, he discusses his family and

childhood. His was a large family of seven brothers and two sisters. He moves on to

discuss his school, college life and then switches over to his adult crisis and political

career. This orderliness and harmony is witnessed in his autobiography because as a

male he is socially conditioned to pursue the single goal of a successful career - as a

political leader. N. Krishnaswamy had been Kripalani's secretary for over three

decades. He notes:

125

If Acharya Kripalani's narration of the significant events in his life

reads more like a history of that era, it is because he was an active

participant in the non-violent struggle for national emancipation

launched under the unique leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

However, as the reader would no doubt have noticed, Kripalaniji

emerges dry-as-dust historian but as a keen observer of an unfolding

drama, an incisive analyst of the different characters and, as an

intelligent interpreter ofthe momentous scenes. (Kripalani, J. B: 965)

As we have noted earlier, Kripalani had been vigilant and vocal in his role as a

parliamentarian. He had a grasp of the current political developments at home and

abroad. The latter part of My Times: An Autobiography is devoted to a wide range of

topics of national and international importance. In this part of the autobiography, he

discusses the topics ranging from the States reorganization, the Kamraj Plan, the

Bhoodan Movement, Foreign Policy, Tibet-China, the Czech Crisis etc. Kripalani

quotes extensively from various sources to support his arguments or to bring his point

home. He justifies quoting long passages from Gandhi:

I need not apologize to the readers for giving long passages from

· Gandhiji's writings. They clearly bring into focus the position of the

Congress organization in the freedom struggle and also its position

vis- a-vis the foreign imperial government. By the 1935 refonns, as

they were called, the British government had not given up even an iota

of its absolute power and authority. (Kripalani, J. B: 3 I 9)

The present study focuses on the writing differences in autobiographies of four

pairs of male and female personalities in Indian politics. All these autobiographers

were contemporaries. Various aspects of the individual autobiographer's personality

I26

are reflected in his or her autobiography. However, it is interesting to note the

observations one autobiographer makes on the others. In My Times: An

Autobiography, Kripalani comments on the difference in the language used by Nehru

and Gandhi whose autobiographies are included in the present study. Nehru's

language, Kripalani says, was influenced by the communist ideologies of Marx and

Russian revolutionaries. Gandhi's language, on the other hand, revealed his moral and

spiritual orientation to politics and life:

There were not only temperamental differences between the two but

also a difference in the language they used. While Gandhiji used terms

and phrases with greater moral and spiritual connotation than political

and economic, the language used by Jawaharlal was 'modem', made

current by Marx and the communist revolutionaries in Russia. This

was the language of the so-calle~ intellectuals of those days and

unfortunately continues to be so today. (Kripalani, J. B: Page 229)

In his tum, Kripalani lacks the intellectual height of Nehru and the moral

depth of Gandhi. His language is not literary and the style is straightforward and

matter-of-fact. He wrote his autobiography in his mid-eighties. Kripalani suffered

hardships and austerities in the freedom movement but fell out with former colleagues

in the decades following independence. In spite of this, he has tried to be as objective

as possible:

All that I can promise is that I shall try to be as objective as it is

possible for a person who was not merely a witness but a participant in

the most fascinating and exciting drama of our times -India's freedom

struggle. If my account in any detail varies from that of others, who

have written or may hereafter write about our times, the reader is free

to accept whichever appears to him to be objective. I shall only try to

127

record what I consider to be true as an actor and as a spectator. As I

shall have, during the course of my narrative, to talk of and even

criticize persons in high public esteem, all that I can assure is that I

suffer from no personal prejudice against them. Rather, I consider them

all to be great men and great patriots, men such as Rajendra Babu,

Sardar Patel, Maulana Saheb, and Jawaharlal. (Kripalani, J. B: xviii)

Kripalani's My Times: An Autobiography, thus, shares unifonnity in form and

content with Jawaharlal Nehru and other male autobiographers. He has taken

meticulous care to provide accurate facts, dates, places, and names because he wanted

to achieve historical objectivity in the story of his life. The development of the

narrative is in consistence with the growth of Kripalani's personality. In My Times:

An Autobiography, we find harmony and orderliness that is often missing in

autobiographies by women.

The above given analysis of Acharya J. B. Kripalani's My Times: An

Autobiography and Sucheta Kripalani's An Unfinished Autobiography enables the

researcher to conclude that the autobiographies by two Indian politicians, who happen

to be husband and wife, uphold that gender influences autobiography-writing. Both

Acharya Kripalani and Sucheta Kripalani participated in the freedom movement under

the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Whereas Kripalani's autobiography focuses on his

crucial role in the independence movement and political developments thereafter,

Sucheta's An Unfinished Autobiography dwells more on personal affairs in the midst

of dramatic historical events leading to India's freedom. This reminds one of Jane

Austen, who in the midst of so many upheavals in the world around, like French

Revolution etc. focused on her domestic narratives like an artist carving a small piece

of ivory with the greatest possible focus and precision. Sucheta's autobiography

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convinces the readers that a female autobiographer's reasons for inscribing her life are

altogether different. She definitely doesn't aim at posterity or public acclaim as does

her husband, perhaps. Both write differently, as their purposes are different.

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