Jawaharlal Nehru A Birthday Letter

  A Biirthday Letter

                                                Central Prison, Naini

                                            October 26, 1930

My dear indira,

On your birth day you have been in the habit of receiving presents and good wishes Good wishes you Will still have in full measure, but what pressent can i send you from naini prison? My presents cannot be very material or solid. They can be of the mind and spirit. things that even the high walls of prison cannot stop 

you Know sweetheart, how i dislike sermonising and doling out what is right and what is not right, what should be done and what should not be done, is not by giving a sermon, but by talking and discussing, and out of discusson sometimes a little bit of truth come out. i have liked my talks with you and we have discssed many things, but the world is wide and beyond our world lie other wonderful and musterious worlds. none of us need ever be bored or imagine that we have learned everything worth learning and become very wise

but what am i to do then? A letter can hardly take the place of a talk; at best it is a one -sided affair. imagine that i have made a suggerstion to you for you to think  over, as if we really were having a talk.

in history we read of great periods in the life of nations, of great men and women. Do you remember how fascinated you werewhen you first read the story of joan of Arc, and how your ambiiton was to be something like her? Ordinay men and Women are not usuallyheroic. They think of their birad and butter, of their children, of their household worries and the like. but a time comes when a whole peple become interested in a great cause. Then history helps even  simple, ordinary men and women to become herors. Great leaders have something in them which inspires a whole people and makes them do great deeds. in india a great leader, full of love for all who suffer and eager to help them, has inspired our people to great actions and noble sacrifice. He has helped to make the starving, the poor and theoppressed free and happy.

bapuji is in prinson ,but the magic of his message has stolen the hearts of india's millions. mean and women ,and even littile children, come out of their littile shells and become india's soldiers of freedom. in india today we are making history ,and you and i are fortunate to see this happening before our eyes and to take some part ourselves in this great drama.

if we are to be india's sholdiers, we have to respact india's honour, and that honour is a sacred trust it is no easy matter to decide what is right and what is not .one little test i shall ask you to apply whenever you are in doubte .never to anything in secred or anything that you would wish to hide for the desire to hide anything mean that you are afride, and fire is a bad thing and unworthy of you be brave, and all rest follows.

you know that in our great freedom movemend, unter bapujis leadership, there is on room for secrecy  or hiding. we have noting to hide. we are not afraid of what we Do or what we say.we work in the sun and in the light. even so  in our private lives let us make friends with the sun and work in the light and do nothing secretly and if you do so , my dear , you will grow up a child of light unafraid and serene and unruffled, whatever may happen.

i have written a very long letter to you.and yet their is so much i would like tell you.how can a letter contain it? good bye ,letter 

one ,and may you grow up into a brave soldier in india's service.

with all my love and good wishes 

                                                 your loving father,

                                          jawaharlal Nehru