Nanabhoy Ardeshir Palkhivala, jurist-orator extraordinaire, would have stepped into the centenarian orbit this year. Naniji’s idea of India is a very rare blend of national identity and global connectivity as reflected in two of his many must-read books—We, The People and We, The Nation. The polymathic DNA of Naniji made him a multi-dimensional public intellectual who believed that the Indian spirit of the evolutionary idea of the country is rooted in its civilisational past manoeuvring the throes of globalisation.
Social India, he realised, was a mosaic of kaleidoscopic diversity, much like the later analogy of the multi-coloured marbles employed by the Supreme Court in the T M A Pai Foundation judgment (2002). He was conscious of its potential for both collective growth and conflict. Anchored on the fundamental unity of this nation, he believed that the vision for Modern India had emerged in the country’s struggle for freedom. He placed faith in the resilience and inner strength of Indians, and never once plunged into obdurate pessimism. His Social India was a web of philosophical truths, created by cultural unity and national renewal through social reform. His commitment was to awaken the Indian consciousness, which had slipped into the slumber of obsolescence and meaningless prejudices.
Quoting Justice Holmes that “most men judge things dramatically and not quantitatively”, Naniji, on the Economics of India, delivered epoch-making and demystifying Budget speeches every year in a manner of importance equal, if not more, to that of the finance minister’s speech in Parliament. His speeches were studded with financial brilliance, anecdotal vignettes and brutal honesty unparalleled till date. His blistering critique of the ‘licence permit quota raj’ and its regulatory super ordination over entrepreneurial innovation tore open the weakest fault lines of an ideology that had far outlived itself.
His encyclopaedic knowledge of taxation made him a conscience counsel for the tax man and the taxed man! His mordant wit and devastating sarcasm contributed to his satirical surgical strikes on what he termed the annual ritual of Budgets. He was never suspicious of globalisation and its capitalistic tendencies and intellectually guided the nation into thinking about the humanistic face of capitalism. He famously thundered: “Growth counts, but development matters!” This and his other famous line, “To tax and to please is not given to men, but to tax and be fair is”, have now become proverbial for anyone to understand the India of the 1960s-80s. Just when the Budget ritual truly became in his words “politically clever and economically unsound”, the chosen and golden silence of Naniji filled the lawns of the Cricket Club that saw a miniscule handful grow to a multiplying manifold.
Constitutional India, born from the ethos of the Indian Constitution that he lived through, was the soul inside him. He believed that the Constitution was a product of its times and a living document, containing a prescription for national leadership. Imbued with the spirit of the Constitution, he fought for its embodied ideals in several landmark cases before the Supreme Court and various High Courts. Independence of the judiciary was his credo and any action that threatened public faith in the courts was exposed by him in his oratorical diatribes delivered across various platforms, inspiring the constitutional faith of the people. Often quoting the lines of Prof. Sachchidananda Sinha at the opening of the Constituent Assembly debates, he believed that when Dharma died in the hearts of men, no law, no Constitution can save it. His unflinching criticism of the Emergency and its excesses, executive manipulation and legislative stoicism, proved that Nani Palkhivala was a statesman in lawyer’s robes. The Kesavananda Bharati case victory was Naniji’s gift to the common man, providing the much-needed protective shield to the Indian Constitution’s basic structure.
Spiritual India was his own explication of his inner being that respected all faiths. He believed that India was an Empire of the Spirit and its glory was seen through its acceptance of various ideas with a sense of openness and acculturation. His collection of speeches, published as ‘Essential Unity of All Religions and India’s Priceless Heritage’, unveiled his cultural genius and philosophical outlook laced with examples from modern science. His muse on record was the nationalist sage Aurobindo, whose writings flamed Nani with characteristic eloquence and clarity. His undoubted and non-submissive faith was organic to his beliefs and contained a logical thread of meaning. Never trusting axiomatic sentiments or blind dogmas, his spirituality was born of reason and experience.
A man of inestimable intellectual prowess and nationalist courage, he perfected the rare art of silent philanthropy. While his charities are widely known, he never wished to publicise them and lived in happy anonymity. Scrupulously charitable, his empathy for causes and involvement with them was legendary. His humility was natural and his social instinct was never pretentious. His cynicism was always hopeful and his acerbic criticism was never personality motivated. He was surely the sweetest crystal of sugar in the milk of Indian public life.
Naniji studied law as he didn’t get a job as a lecturer in English. This irreplaceable loss to English literature was, is and will always be an irreplaceable gain to the true idea of India, that is Bharat. Donning the various hats of a jurist, diplomat, corporate leader, scholar and orator, Naniji distinguished every branch of Indian life and thought. Economist Naniji will remain the best finance minister India never had. Statesman-nationalist Naniji will remain Bharat’s Ratna, not yet conferred.
S Vaidhyasubramaniam
Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University
Email: vaidhya@sastra.edu
Amrith Bhargav
Advocate, Madras High Court
Email: amrith.samudragupta.bhargav@gmail.com