P.N. Haksar: Tribute to an Honourable Man
The passing of P.N. Haksar largely went unnoticed in Bangladesh. The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Bangladesh demonstrated a sense of history in recognising his contribution to the emergence of Bangladesh but to the general public of Bangladesh his name did not ignite any spark of remembrance. I cannot say whether his passing attracted more attention in India where he remained a figure of considerable stature in certain circles. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh's history, Haksar remains an unrecognised hero of our liberation struggle since very few people know of the catalytic role he played in influencing the policy of India in that critical phase of our emergence as an independent nation.
P.N. Haksar was the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India in 1971. On the 1st of April 1971, Haksar made his historic tryst with the destiny of Bangladesh when he was singled out to become the first high ranking official in the government of India (GOI) to be briefed by a person coming out from Bangladesh on the background and immediate circumstances surrounding the commencement of the war of liberation. This inside exposure to the background and horrors of the night of 25/26 March 1971 and the circumstances which drove Bangladesh towards the path of a liberation struggle, had a defining impact on Haksar. Whilst great nations do not make major political decisions on the basis of personal feelings and tend to be governed by reasons of state I have little doubt that Haksar's own commitment to the liberation of Bangladesh originated from his moral outrage at the denial of democratic rights leading to the genocide inflicted on the people of Bangladesh by the Pakistan army. His sense of outrage was however compounded by his political sagacity in being the first person in a position of influence, within the Government of India, to recognise that the political leadership and people of Bangladesh were totally committed to the setting up of an independent nation state.
This commitment within the GOI to the idea of an independent Bangladesh did not evolve overnight and took some time to mature. This process within the GOI was substantively guided by Haksar and influenced by his early commitment to Bangladesh's independence as well as his understanding of history. Since, in 1971, Haksar stood at the right hand of Indira Gandhi, his political and moral influence within the GOI in 1971 was quite enormous. It was Haksar's hand which steered a steady course for the GOI and his advocacy which contained resistance from within the Indian bureaucratic and military establishment over the extent to which India should commit itself to the cause of Bangladesh's independence.
Commitment to support the cause of Bangladesh may not have been enough. Much depended on how the GOI handled its relations with the government of Bangladesh. Haksar, in particular, emphasized within the inner councils of the GOI, the importance of dealing with Bangladesh and its elected government as political equals speaking for a sovereign state and not as clients dependent on the patronage of a powerful neighbour. It was Haksar who played a crucial role in ensuring that in the immediate aftermath of liberation, Bangladesh was not overrun by Indian bureaucrats who believed we needed guidance to govern ourselves or by Indian carpet-baggers anxious to fill the entrepreneurial vacuum created by the departure of the Pakistanis. It was Haksar who constantly reminded his leader of the sensitivities of a proud people who had shed blood for their independence.
During 1971 and in the years after that when he remained as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Bangladeshis accepted him as a genuine friend. Whenever particular aspects of Indo-Bangladesh turned problematic the Bangladeshis could always turn to Haksar. He could be relied upon to inject his strong feelings for Bangladesh and his breadth of vision in dealing with a people whose cause he had embraced as his own, in finding solutions which would not put Bangladesh at a disadvantage.
This very unique position which Haksar had established in his dealing with Bangladesh along with his genuine commitment to the cause of Bangladesh persuaded Mrs. Gandhi to use Haksar as her personal conduit to Bangabandhu during the years after liberation. Haksar and Bangabandhu developed a relationship of mutual confidence which was vital to guiding interstate relations at that time. This was particularly evident in the negotiations at Simla between India and Pakistan where Bangladesh, though absent physically, played the role of the ghost at the dining table. It was again left to Haksar, through his consultations with Bangabandhu, to ensure that Bangladesh's interests were not compromised at Simla at the expense of Indo-Pakistan realpolitik.
In the days that Haksar was Principal Secretary to Indira Gandhi, this was really the highwater mark of her long tenure as Prime Minister of India. It was during this phase that Mrs. Gandhi gave the impression to the world that she was providing a new direction to Indian policy and fresh, creative minds were being inducted into the government to breathe fresh air into the policymaking process. For purposes of guiding India's external relations D.P. Dhar was brought in from his post as India's Ambassador to Moscow to chair the policy planning cell in the Prime Minister's Secretariat and remained the principal liaison person with the government of Bangladesh during the second-half of the liberation war. Economists of diverse political persuasions such as P.N. Dhar, Ashok Mitra, Manmohan Singh, Sukhamoy Chakravarty, Bagicha Minhas, Arjun Sengupta, were brought into the government. Whilst Haksar had his own strongly felt political views he wanted to encourage creative thinkers around the government and to expose its policymakers to new ideas.
Haksar commanded the intellectual stature to deal with these diverse and often contentious intellects brought into the government. But then again Haksar was also a match for Henry Kissinger who was given little scope, as Nixon's National Security Advisor, to patronise his counterpart from India in the way that he was inclined to do in his dealings with other Third World countries.
It was Mrs. Gandhi's abiding loss that she parted company with Haksar and let him move out of her secretariat to the Planning Commission in the capacity of Deputy Chairman. In those days the head of the Planning Commission was still a position of authority within the GOI but it was believed that once he moved away from the PM's secretariat his influence diminished. However, some knowledgeable Indians have argued that had Haksar remained as Indira Gandhi's principal advisor she could never have moved along the path towards the Emergency she enacted in 1975. As a committed democrat and person who was always willing to speak his mind to Mrs. Gandhi at a time when most people preferred to keep silent it was believed that Haksar would have used all his powers of persuasion to keep her from deviating from the democratic path set for India by her father Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. As it stands, when he saw the Emergency as inevitable he resigned from the Planning Commission and advised Indira Gandhi to desist from this path which earned him her severe displeasure. Never again was Haksar invited to the inner councils of Indira Gandhi after she returned to office or by her son Rajiv Gandhi when he became Prime Minister.
Haksar's withdrawal from the affairs of state in India thus dates from the Emergency in 1975. Within India he remained universally respected by people within the government, political and intellectual community. He was appointed Chairman of India's most prestigious research facility, the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), founded by P.C. Mahalanobis. For over 20 years as Chairman of ISI Haksar invested both distinction and erudition to his task and used it to protect the academic excellence and professional independence of this world famous institution. Haksar was associated with a number of other research institutions and travelled widely, mostly to conferences within India. He also wrote on a variety of subjects and projected wisdom and understanding in whatever he wrote. But above all he enjoyed the freedom to read extensively on history, politics, philosophy and literature.
Those of us who had the privilege of getting to know Haksar from the earliest days of the liberation war were deeply impressed by his ability to view contemporary political developments within a broader historical context. His enormous reading and erudition, sustained by his large and well used private library, made it possible for him to invoke historical precedents for most contemporary events. He had a genuinely creative mind and his observations on events were full of insight. His command over Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit and English poetry was legendary and was used with telling effect in making a point whether in private argument or political negotiations. Rafi Raza and Aziz Ahmed, Bhutto's principal negotiators at Simla were put at a serious disadvantage by Haksar's ability to cite verses from Iqbal and Faiz, Pakistan's two national poets, at crucial moments of the negotiations.
He began losing his eyesight over 10 years ago and at the time of his death was virtually blind. The loss of his wife and life's companion, Urmilla, along with the loss of his sight were the most cruel blows which could be inflicted on any person. His wife, was a true companion and friend throughout his life and he felt her loss very deeply. His daughters Nandita, a human rights activist and Anamika, a theatre director, were devoted to him but they led full lives of their own which quite often left him on his own which did not provide for easy living for a person who was losing his eyesight. For a person whose main source of pleasure was the pursuit of knowledge, to lose his eyesight was almost as cruel as the loss of his life. Close friends would visit him from time to time and read to him but this was hardly a compensation to a person who had read widely and deeply. He, however never complained about this blow and attempted to go on living a normal life, attending conferences and speaking out with his usual authority. He depended much on the friendship and visits of those to whom he felt close and cherished these friendships with extraordinary loyalty which bridged the span of age and cultures. The few Bangladeshis who were privileged to enjoy the warmth of his friendship will treasure this through their lives.
Haksar radiated a sense of civilised values, of decency and integrity, which are almost extinct today. He was a totally non-communal person, free of dogmas, whose vision for India envisioned gestures of statesmanship and generosity to their neighbours. He represented the very best in the secular, liberal tradition of India which is now under siege within the contemporary politics of his country. To be able to inject such values into his public life meant that those who were associated with him were exposed to a higher calling which suggested a better world than the tradition of cynicism, ambition and opportunism which has informed public affairs in most ages but particularly today.
Haksar wrote the first part of his memoirs which really touched on his childhood and early youth. It was a document of unusual sensitivity and restraint written with an elegance of style which elevated it to a work of literature. Fortunately Dr. Kamal Hossain persuaded him to let his memoir be translated into Bangla and have it published in Dhaka for the pleasure of a Bangali speaking audience. He was to come to Dhaka to launch this Bangla edition of his memoirs in March last year but fell ill and could not make the trip. On my various calls on him I never failed to push him to complete his memoirs so that he could provide his own unique insights into the Bangladesh liberation struggle. But a life's memoir by Haksar would have gone beyond our war of liberation and would have been a historical and philosophical treatise of our age. Alas, his memoir never went beyond an unpublished manuscript of his second volume which takes his memoirs upto adulthood.
At the end of his days Haksar had lived a full and honourable life. However, I felt that he left this world with a sense of sadness. The community and the world he left behind appeared far removed from the hopes and dreams which informed the life of P.N.
Haksar. The world is diminished not just by his loss but by its failure to make more use of the qualities and capacities of this exceptional human being.
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