The Irish Rebel from the Heart of Darkness and Nehru

Joseph Conrad did not plead clemency when the British government sentenced Roger Casement to be executed. Fervent supporter though Conrad was of his adopted nationality, this decision could not have been straightforward. For while  “Into the heart of darkness” is perhaps the best known novel revealing the madness of King Leopold’s functionaries in the Congo territory, it was Casement’s report that provided the factual core to the unrestrained barbarism that was being practiced in the heart of the Congo. In 1903, as the British Consul in Boma, Casement had been commissioned to investigate the atrocities in the Congo Free State. He delivered a detailed eyewitness report called the Casement Report which finally led to the reorganization of the Free Congo State – Leopald’s fiefdom into the parliament governed Belgian Congo. Casement’s execution though happened as he sought freedom for his own nation – the Irish Cause.

Much like Tilak’s “Swaraj is our birthright” speech, he said in 1916 as he was on trial on charges of wartime treason, “Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth; a thing no more doled out to us or withheld from us by another people than the right to life itself – than the right to feel the sun or smell the flowers, or to love our kind….”. As Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost mentions, Casement’s views on liberty were not just limited to his own people but applied to all peoples.

Nehru, for one, was inspired enough to write of his speech in these terms, “It seemed to point out exactly how a subject nation should feel”. But perhaps Nehru drew more than this notion of self rule from this Irish rebel. After all, Nehru’s foreign policy actions included the stitching together of newly independent states into the Non-aligned Movement, a movement that has been strongly democratic in character. His efforts to guide these nations are further chronicled in the African National Congress website here.