Boshi Sen, the Link between Pandit Nehru and Swami Vivekananda

It is not just in the King’s diaries, history also lies embedded in the lives of ordinary men and women who serve the King. For example, a few pages devoted to Swami Vivekananda in Discovery of India, hardly reveals much about Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s connection to Swami and his mentors.[1] Swami Vivekananda and Jawaharlal’s father, Motilal Nehru were Freemasons,[2] even this fact is inadequate to understand Swami’s influence on Nehru. 

However, Swami direct impact on Nehru’s life comes out more clearly after a thorough reading of - Grish N Mehra (2007), Nearer Heaven than Earth: The Life and Times of Boshi Sen and Gertrude Emerson Sen - and Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana (1990), Tantine, the Life of Josephine MacLeod: a friend of Swami Vivekananda.

The two biographies take us through the life of a little known Indian agricultural scientist Boshi Sen and his American wife Gertrude Emerson and their transnational links. Much like the Swami Vivekananda, Boshi’s magnetic personality drew people from politics and high society towards him. The major difference between the two was that their common mentors in the West projected Swami as a leader and Boshi as a loyal worker.

Boshi and Gertrude were ‘among Nehru's many nonofficial friends.’ The Sens saw Nehru ‘with steady affection, clearly, with a sort of unclouded and imperturbable loyalty.’[3] (Sheean. 1960: 254)

For Pandit Nehru, Boshi was more than a friend and a philosopher. Once in the beginning of January 1952, Nehru’s sister, Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, worried about her workaholic brother’s health, wrote to Boshi: 

‘Mathai (MO) and I put our heads together and thought if we could persuade you to come here for few days - ostensibly on important work of your own and give Bhai a massage while you are here, it would do wonders for him…you would really be doing India a great service.’ [4] (Mehra. 2007: 387)

Boshi’s proximity to Nehru can be gauged from his access to independent India’s nuclear thought and the contentious Indo-China border. In 1955, Boshi, a plant physiologist, was selected as one of the two Indian scientists to attend the course opened to foreigners in the peaceful use of atomic energy held at National Atomic Establishment, Oak Ridge, Tennessee USA. 

In November 1956, Boshi and Gertrude were invited by the ministry of external affairs (then headed by Pandit Nehru) to visit NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh) to study the plants in the region. A part of the Sens journey to NEFA was done in a special place in which Indira Gandhi was traveling to Assam for Congress Party work. Boshi was awarded Padma Bhusan by the government of India in 1957. 

Sens’ first met Nehru in 1934, at Calcutta. The relationship began with Boshi Sen’s wife Gertrude Emerson interviewing Nehru for her American magazine, Asia. Later, Nehru’s letters to Indira and also his articles were published in Asia till 1942. In 1934, when Nehru was imprisoned at Almora, Boshi and Gertrude used to visit him regularly in jail. The privileged jail visits, in non-visiting hours, were facilitated by the acting civil surgeon who used to take them along during his routine rounds to examine the prison inmates. Incidentally, in mid-1945, it was at Almora that Nehru served his last prison sentence. Immediately on his release, Nehru was at Sens Kundan House residence for hot lunch (Sheean. 1960: 254).

Swami Vivekananda and Boshi Sen 

Nehru was not the only one to benefit from Boshi’s devotion. Rabindranath Tagore, JC Bose, and many from Anglo- American royalty too had the opportunity to be massaged by Boshi. 

Boshi Sen, the pupil of a famous scientist, Sir JC Bose was also a close associate of the Ramakrishna Order. Boshi had a lot in common with Swami Vivekananda. Swami was a spiritualist with scientific temper; Boshi was a scientist with spiritual sensibilities. Both were patronized by American millionaires and their ladies. The three Anglo-American ladies - Josephine MacLeod, Margaret Elizabeth Noble (Sister Nivedita), and Christine Greenstidel - extremely close to Swami Vivekananda were also intimately connected to Boshi’s life.

In 1909, when Boshi was a student at Calcutta University, Sister Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble) - Vivekanand’s Irish English disciple - entrusted Boshi to look after his ill and infirm guru Swami Sadananda of Belur Math. Boshi and his younger brother along with Swami Sadananda moved into 8 Bosepara Lane, Calcutta that was hired at a monthly rent of Rs 20. This house was later bought by Boshi for Rs. 8000 gifted to him by his American friends. 

After Guru and Sister Nivedita's death in 1911, Boshi Sen’s friend Christine Greenstidel moved into his house. Christine was another American disciple of Vivekananda, who ran a school in Calcutta for Indian girls and young widows together with sister Nivedita. Christine had first heard Swami Vivekananda in 1894 at Detroit. She had later accompanied the Swami to Thousand Island Park in New York State. 

The most crucial link in the chain was Josephine MacLeod, fondly called ‘Yum’ by her friends. In the mid-1890s, Josephine Macleod had organized, funded, and accompanied Swami Vivekanand’s trips across the globe and also within India. She belonged to the “elite cultured circles” of London, Paris, and New York. 

Josephine and her sister Betty had lost their parents when they were in their teens.[5] The two sisters first smelt big money in 1876, when Betty married Willam Sturges of a Chicago, a rich man twice her age. William died in 1893 and Betty got engaged to Frank Leggett. Frank was another big business magnate whose reach and range-extended into most parts of the transatlantic world. In 1895, Swami Vivekananda along with Josephine MacLeod attended Betty and Frank’s marriage in Paris. 

Frank Leggett was the owner of ‘Ridgely Manor’, an opulent mansion where Swami Vivekananda was hosted thrice during his visits abroad. For Josephine MacLeod Vivekananda was “new Buddha”, and a “spiritual aristocrat”, she ensured that her sister’s family always remained involved in funding Swami and the Ramakrishna mission and order. 

In November 1900, Josephine Macleod and Swami Vivekananda went to Egypt. The touring party also included Jules Bois (an occult philosopher, and author of the book, The Next world and Unknown Forces), Pere Hyacinthe (a former monk of a strict Roman Catholic order who at the age of 40 gave up his wows to marry an American woman - and was therefore called Monsieur Loyson) and Madame Calve (rags to riches story). The trip was organized and facilitated by Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim machine gun and the business partner of Rothschild (Prabuddhaprana.1990: 104). Since the trip had all the celebrity elements and ingredients, it was well-publicized too. 

On 11 November 1900, the Paris correspondent of The New York World wrote a full-page story: “Trip of the Century”. 

‘In the center of the page was a drawing of the beautiful Clave, mounted on a haughty, ornamentally bedecked camel led across the desert by a Bedouin, with pyramids and sphinx of Egypt in the background. On the same page, in the lower-left corner was a photograph of Vivekananda in a decorated frame. The caption read “Strangest of pilgrimages - Calve’s flight for health to Mystic East.’ (Prabuddhaprana.1990: 105) 

Boshi Sen used to call Josephine, Tantine (aunty). Tantine was relevant to the younger generation because she continued to be the main link between the Ramakrishna order and their sponsors in America and elsewhere in Europe. It was on Tantine’s and Sister Nivedita’s recommendation that Professor JC Bose had employed Boshi as a research assistant in his institute.

Boshi in America

After working for twelve years, Boshi Sen got a break. In 1923, Glen Overton and his wife Marguerite poached him from JC Bose’s lab and took him to America, where he was promised first-class facilities to study at the universities. On reaching the USA, Glen Overton discovered that his entire business of manufacturing dairy machinery had floundered and he was in a tight financial state to support Boshi’s stay. This situation led Boshi to seek Patrick Geddes’s assistance. 

Patrick Geddes, the famous sociologist, and urban planner was a close friend and mentor of Sister Nivedita. He had also taught at Bombay University from 1919 to 1924. However, he is more famous for designing the master plan for Tel Aviv city in 1925. Geddes died in 1932, but his plan was adopted to form the core of Israeli city.

Patrick sent Boshi to Leonard Elmhirst with a recommendation that read, “This is to introduce Boshi Sen, a live wire.”

Leonard Elmhirst, a graduate of Cornell University had joined as secretary to Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1921. He traveled with Tagore, to USA Europe, China, and Argentina. 

Elmhirst was the second husband of Dorothy Whitney Straight. Dorothy was the daughter of the multi-millionaire William C. Whitney, and was related by family marriage to the Vanderbilts”.[6]

The Whitneys’ were one of the richest American families that had stakes in Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust in the early 1900s. Dorothy was the mother of Michael Straight of the Cambridge Spy Ring fame. Dorothy Straight was the owner of Asia magazine and boss of Boshi Sen’s American wife Gertrude Emerson. 

Elmhirst gave Boshi a lump sum of Rs. 25000 to set up a science and agriculture project at Surur under the aegis of Tagore’s Shantinekatn University. In addition, Boshi was also given a monthly salary of Rs. 1000. Boshi was keener on starting his own laboratory. He convinced Elmhirst to let him use the money for is an independent project. 

On 4 July 1924 Boshi setup his research facilities and named it Vivekananda Laboratory. Soon he got donations from unexpected quarters that included, Glen Overton, Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, Josephine Macleod, and from Earl of Sandwich, even the Royal Society in England gave him a grant of 70 pounds. In 1926, Vivekananda Laboratory was shifted to Almora from Calcutta.

These high society connections with the world’s richest families opened new vistas for Boshi. It is in these circles that he met his American wife, Gertrude Emerson, and was plunged into the “world of Protocol and formality.” 

Josephine Macleod, the lady monitoring the entire Ramakrishna Order in India and abroad since Swami Vivekanand’s days, introduced Boshi Sen to George Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich and ALbertta Sturges (Josephine MacLeod’s niece). The Earl of Sandwich organized a special dinner for Boshi Sen in his palace; it is here that Boshi got an opportunity to chaperon the wife of the owner of London’s Selfridges store to dinner. 

‘India First’

In 1932, Boshi Sen was 45 years old when he got married to 42-year-old, Gertrude Emerson at the American consulate in Calcutta. Gertrude Emerson was the author of “Voiceless India” for which the foreword was written, Pearl S Buck. 

Nobel laureate, Pearl S Buck was directly connected to India affairs through her husband, Richard Walsh, head of the India League in America. Louis Fischer and Dorothy Norman were part of the same group that enjoyed the blessing of Henry Luce (the owner of Time and Fortune magazine) through the direct involvement of his wife in campaigning for an end to British rule in India. Incidentally, it is this group of people who helped Vijya Lakshmi Pandit’s daughter, Nayantara Sahgal to secure the Mayling Sung Scholarship to study at Wellesley in 1942. 

Gertrude and Boshi Sens connections to India League is also established by the fact in the mid 1940s when the Sens were little hard-pressed for money, it was Watumull foundation that had come to their rescue. Watumull Foundation was an adjunct of the Indian National Congress Association of America, California, whose apparent objective was to mobilize Indians on the West Coast, much in the same way as the Indian League of America had done on the East Coast. The two organizations were closely associated. Boshi Sen also received the Watumull Award in 1962. 

Boshi died in 1970. His wife Gertrude Emerson continued with social and political work. The pre and post-emergency chaos in India made her float “India First Society” to infuse a sense of sanity and hope in India. She launched a “non-political, non-communal, and non-aligned and non-governmental organization. In August 1980, the pioneer unit of “India First Society” came up at Almora. According to Gertrude:

India first does not mean India ahead of any other country. It means that we in India should put the interest, integrity, and unity of the country above every other objective. (Prabuddhaprana.1990: 669)

Incidentally, the echoes of “India First” are once again reverberating in India. However, it is not from Congress but BJP's Narendra Modi who has made “India First” as his election mantra. It was first enunciated by Modi while speaking at a video conference of the Indian-American community organized by the Overseas Friends of BJP. 

[1] Nehru, Jawaharlal. 1946. Discovery of India, Oxford Press, New York. 335-339 

[2]see the official website of the Grand Lodge of the AF & AM of India http://www.masonindia.org/WellKnownFreeMasons.htm (accessed on 10 October, 2013)

[3] Sheean, Vincent. 1960. Nehru: The Years of Power, Random House , New York 

[4] Mehra, N. Grish. 2007. Nearer Heaven than Earth: The Life and Times of Boshi Sen and Gertrude Emerson Sen, Rupa & Co. New Delhi 

[5] Prabuddhaprana, Pravrajika. 1990. Tantine, the Life of Josephine MacLeod: friend of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Sarada Math, Dakshineshwar, Calcutta

[6] The Story of the Founders, http://www.dartington.org/about-the-trust/the-story-of-the-founders (accessed on 23, September 2013) 

MATHAI, A MOLE IN NEHRU"S OFFICE

Courtesy: National Archives of India

The fresh archival evidence presented in this article reveals that MO Mathai was the product of the Anglo-American intelligence bonhomie in the early 1940s. Mathai, affectionately known as “Mac”, was one of the most intriguing and influential figure in post independence India. He was Prime Minister Nehru’s Special Assistant from 1946 to 1959. He enjoyed privileged access to Nehru’s household and his office. Managing secretarial work of the leading figure of a newly independent nation was a demanding job. Mathai volunteered for the task because in his own words “he was prepared to live dangerously”.[1] (Mathai 1978: 1)

The period from September 1942 to the end-1945 is apparently the silent phase in Indian history. After the brief outburst of “Quit India” and the arrest of Congress leadership in the first half of 1942, India’s independence story goes into hibernation. It reactivates only with the outbreak of Royal Indian Naval (RIN) Mutiny in February 1946. 

However, it is during the war years, when the top Congress leadership was in jail, that the American forces, media and intelligence agency on Indian soil in a big way. In February 1942, the China-Burma-India Theater headquarters at Chungking was operationalized. In September, the India-China Wing of the Air Traffic Control and a training center was established at Ramgarh for training of Chinese troops by American and British Army in jungle warfare. Simultaneously, at New Delhi, the Headquarters of Services of Supply (SOS) logistical organization of the US army and OSS (Office of Strategic Services), a predecessor of CIA was established.[2] (Aldrich. 1998)

In December 1942 President Franklin G Roosevelt selected Mr. William Phillips to serve near the government of India as “his “personal representative with a rank of Ambassador.”[3] (NAI 50-6/1943) William Phillips saw himself as a harbinger of Indian freedom who was on a mission to find a solution to Indian problem. The ambassador was accompanied by Maj. Richard P. Heppner of the OSS, London.[4] (Clymer 1995: 131)

In 1944, OSS setup its headquarters at ‘32 Ferozshah Road’. Located in the heart of New Delhi at the eastern edge of Lutyen's bungalow zone, the 1.32 acres property had the name plate on its gate that read: 'Dr L. L. Smith, American Dentist'. As OSS, started spreading its tentacles among the Indian military, administrative and political elite, the stress in Anglo-American ties became apparent. The Roosevelt- Churchill friction on India issue went to an extent where the former threatened to “retire to private life”, if the Americans did not deter from interfering in Indian affairs. 

Dentistry was certainly not what the American intelligence was in India for. When the going was good between OSS and their British counterparts, the Americans consulate in Madras gifted an able secretary level officer to the British intelligence in India. This officer’s name was MO Mathai, who later became one of the most intriguing and influential figure during Pandit Nehru’s tenure as prime minister of India. 

Mathai’s American connections are well known. It widely believed that before joining Nehru’s secretariat, Mathai worked for United States Army on Assam-Burma border.[5] However, what is not known is that Mathai was no ordinary soldier in American Red Cross. He had a reasonably good experience of working as a personal assistant both for the top officials in American Consulate as well as to the Bishops in Malabar Church. Besides, from the mid-1942, Mathai was on the British payrolls in India. 

By end 1945, Mathai had got Nehru’s nod to handle his secretariat. His career ended in 1959, when corruption charges forced him to resign his government job. Officially, he was investigated for amassing wealth to the tune of 20 lakhs through a trust formed in his mother’s name. However unofficially, the major charge against him was that he had derived all this wealth by working as a CIA agent. According to S Gopal, “Cabinet Secretary Vishnu Sahay, who investigated the case, was privately convinced that Mathai had compromised just about every file since the days of interim government.”[6] (Akbar 2002: 513) 

Neither any book on Nehru nor Mathai’s two books Reminiscences of the Nehru Age (1978) and My Days with Nehru (1979), reveal much about his career, after graduation from Madras University. Nikhil Chakravartty’s famous 1958 report, The Story of a Gadfly, mentions, “before the last war, he (Mathai) was engaged as a typist by Sri C.P. Mathew” [7 ] (Chakravartty 1959). 

CP Mathew was a member of Lok Sabha from Kotayyam in 1952. He was instrumental in starting the Alwaye Union Christian College. This was the college from where MO Mathai had completed his Bachelor in Arts. According to a testimonial of July 1937, by economics teacher at Union Christian College Alwaye,

Mathai, Clearly understood the lectures on general economics and the interest that he evinced in that subject is, I certainly believe, as genuine as it is intelligent. Really able and perfectly pleasing in manners, he promises to come up. I cordially wish him a prosperous career.(NAI 1(14)- E/1942 : 5)

Both CP Mathew and MO Mathai were Syrian Christians from the erstwhile Travancore State. But did Mathai work for CP Mathew? According to archival documents, Mathai’s first job was as a secretary to Bishop Abraham Mar Thoma of Tiruvalla. He worked with the Church authorities for four years. It is quite possible that during this period Mathai may also have assisted CP Mathew, who was closely associated with the management of the same church. 

In 1938, he joined “the United States Foreign Service at the American consulate, Madras as an assistant,” for four years at a stretch. In 1942, when the war was at its peak, Mathai decided to seek a new job.

On 08 April 1942, the 28 year-old confident young man, wrote directly to the Secretary External Affairs Department, Government of India,

Sir, I have the honour to offer my services to my government for Foreign Service under the External Affairs Department. I am prepared to go to any country, the more war-torn the better. However, I should particularly welcome an opportunity of serving in the officers’ grade on the staff of India’s diplomatic representative to the National government of the republic of China. 

Mac’s impressive covering letter was followed by a strong recommendation letter from Bishop House Calcutta, dated 13 April, 1942 that stated:

The enclosed application was forwarded to me by the Rt Rev. Bishop Abraham of the Mar Thoma Church, Malabar with a request that I would forward it with testimonial to you. I am unable to write a testimonial as I am not personally acquainted with the applicant but the Bishop writes that “he is a young man of intelligence and ability” and for the rest the certificate is enclosed (NAI 1(14)- E/42: 3). 

With a recommendation from Foss Westcott, the Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India, directly under his belt, on April 29, 1942, MO Mathai wrote to LAC Fry, Under Secretary in External Affairs Department: 

I crave your indulgence in addressing this letter direct to you. His lordship the Metropolitan of India has informed me that he has forwarded my application dated April 8 1942, to the Secretary, External Affairs Department of the GOI for a post in the Foreign Service under the department.

I should like to add that the American consul has promised me that he would relieve me with his blessing should the government of India offer me a suitable job. He added that he would be delighted to find me in a responsible position in the government of India. I mention this in order that you may consider my application favourably without having any misgivings concerning possible offence to an allied government. If you desire you may refer the matter to the American consul in Madras (NAI 1(14) - E/42: 6) 

Mathai’s persistence paid off. On July 28, 1942, he thanked LAC Fry for giving him a personal interview and for his “kind letter of July 29, 1942, assuring him of a chance in the department” (NAI 1(14) - E/42: 8). 

On 25 August, Mathai informed the external affairs department that he had decided to stay in New Delhi indefinitely. His New Delhi address was: The South Indian Boarding house. Connaught Circus, New Delhi. 

It is not clear what Mathai did in Delhi after joining the British setup in mid-1942? When he shifted to Assam to work as an American soldier is also unknown? However, Mathai’s final departure from Teen Murti Bhavan on 27 January 1959 is vividly described in Reminiscences of the Nehru Age, “At 4.45 PM, Nehru came down to my room and sat down with Boshi Sen… As I was leaving, (for Almora) he embraced me and told Dr Sen, Boshi look after him.”

Mathai’s sudden appearance in Nehru’s life, immediately after his release from prison on 15 June 1945, remains unexplored. Nehru’s first lunch after gaining freedom at Almora was with his best “unofficial friends” Biologist Boshi Sen and his American wife Gertrude Emerson.[8] (Sheean. 1960: 254)

In view of lack of evidence one cannot even guess that the Sens’ may have recommended Mathai to Nehru. However what is certain is that both MO Mathai and Boshi Sen had strong links to American consulates in India.

[1] Mathai, MO. 1978. Reminiscences of the Nehru Age, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1978,p.1
[2] Aldrich, J. Richard. 1998. ‘American intelligence and the British Raj: The OSS, the SSU and India, 1942–1947,’ Intelligence and National Security, 13:1, 132-164
[3] National Archives of India (hereinafter NAI) NAI 50-6/43, External Affairs Department, “Appointment of Mr. William Phillips”, Letter from President Franklin G Roosevelt to Lord Linlithgow on December 3, 1942.
[4] Clymer J. Kenton. 1995. Quest for Freedom: The United States and India's Independence, Columbia University Press
[5] “M.O. Mathai, a Top Official In India During Nehru's Rule”, New York Times, August 31, 1981 http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/31/obituaries/mo-mathai-a-top-official-in-india-during-nehru-s-rule.html
[6] As cited in Akbar, MJ. 2002. Nehru: the Making of India, Roli Books.
[7] Chakravartty, Nikhil. 1959. “The Story of a Gadfly”, Mainstream, Vol. XLVI No. 28, January 3, 1959
[8] Sheean, Vincent. 1960. Nehru: The Years of Power, Random House , New York