Garibaldi and Nehru

Exactly a century ago, Pandit Nehru first walked into this elite public school that takes its name from its location, leaving two years later for Cambridge with the rudiments of an English gentleman's education and a head full of radical ideas that would bring the British Raj to its knees. For, in an accident of history, Harrow unwittingly presented tomorrow's freedom fighter with the ultimate reading list.

As a prize for excellence, the school fatefully selected for the 18-year-old Nehru the first volume of G M Trevelyan's historical trilogy on Giuseppe Garibaldi. It was to be a turning point in Nehru's life. The soldier played a central role in the 19th-century unification of Italy and the rise of Italian nationalism. Garibaldi's example prepared Nehru for the struggle he would have to wage with powerful words and persuasive ideas before the Empire would crumble. Later, Nehru was to record the impact that long-ago school prize had on him. Transfixed by Garibaldi's struggle, Nehru bought two further volumes on the gallant soldier and admitted it inspired in his young breast "visions of similar deeds in India...of a gallant fight for freedom, and in my mind, India and Italy got strangely mixed together."

On Monday, Harrow celebrated its ham-handedness in making that historically fateful gift to one of its greatest sons. Marking the centenary of Nehru's entry into the school with a respectful ceremony redolent of history, Harrow's headmaster Barnaby Lenon declared "Nehru was a role model for Harrovians." Indian High Commissioner Kamalesh Sharma added: "In some way, by presenting the book on Garibaldi, Harrow contributed to the strengthening of the desire for freedom for India that Nehru would later win." RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL [Wednesday, November 16, 2005, THE TIMES OF INDIA]