The Nobel Laureate, Richard Feynman, once remarked that Alfred Nobel had done “two bad things” in his life ~ he had invented dynamite and the Nobel Prize. It seems he had read between the lines of how politics often plays a role in defining and the awarding of international prizes. Admittedly, ever since 1901, the year of its institution, the much-coveted Nobel award had been mired in politics, prejudice and erroneous selections. We have instances of a number of great personalities who missed the Nobel in their respective fields ~ Leo Tolstoy in literature, Lise Meitner and Meghnad Saha in the sciences, Mahatma Gandhi as an apostle of peace.

As for Gandhi, the French scholar, Romain Rolland, regarded him as the greatest Indian after Buddha and the greatest human being after Christ. And yet the Father of the Nation was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to humanity and world peace. Gandhi’s name was raised in 1924, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and 1948 for the award. It is learnt that Geir Lundestad, permanent secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, once admitted, “Our record is far from perfect and not giving Mahatma Gandhi the Nobel Prize was the biggest omission.” Gandhi was first nominated for the award in 1937 by a member of the Norwegian Parliament who is said to have observed that Gandhi’s philosophy of absolute peace and non -violence, has permeated India’s “poor and tortured masses”.

The Nobel Committee dismissed the nomination on the ground that his political actions were tactical, his calculations cunning. The renowned missionary, C F Andrews and the Nobel Laureate Romain Rolland had also supported the recommendation. Even a posthumous award was proposed by the Norwegian jurist, Frede Castberg, but the Nobel Committee was faced with an impediment, specifically the issue of finding an appropriate successor to receive the prize money. Thus the most deserving person in the world was denied the greatest honour. However, the Nobel Prize has, on a number of occasions, courted controversy.

When Henry Kissinger received the award, it was greeted with the caustic remark that “the Nobel Peace Prize died in 1973”. The Nobel Prize in literature, which has already excluded the likes of Leo Tolstoy, DH Lawrence, James Joyce, Borges and Kundera has also been controversial. Why can’t the Nobel Committee recognize the right people at the right time, even if it means having to court controversy? The Statesman editorial, “The Pseudo- Nobel” (18 October 2007) also made a critical comment on the awarding of the Economics Nobel that year.

Although the Nobel Prize 2005 for literature went to the much-deserved Harold Pinter, the fact remains that the prize does not reach the right person at the right time. In fact, Pinter deserved it much earlier . In turbulent times, his virulent attack on First World diplomacy, the overtly political overtones in his plays and his portrayal of how the institution often overrides the individual were regarded as too controversial. Turkey’s leading novelist, Orhan Pamuk, who had wonderfully examined how contemporaneity decisively impinges upon today’s fiction, was a strong contender for the Nobel in 2005.

More importantly, he was a prominent spokesman for championing the freedom of expression. In 1965, the Nobel Prize for Physics went to Shin’ichiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard Feynman for their contribution to quantum electrodynamics. The fourth equally important person of the team was left out for unknown reasons. Similarly, the 2017 Nobel in Medicine for the discovery of the circadian clock was awarded to Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young, but at the cost of an actively involved group of many other scientists. Uneasiness prevailed when certain choices were not received warmly in literary circles. When the Mexican literatteur Carlos Fuentes and Italian novelist Umberto Eco were still alive, the prize was being considered for the writers who were rather less known outside their countries.

Both passed away without getting the prize. The 2011 Nobel Prize in literature went to the Swedish poet, Tomas Transtromer, when renowned Polish writers such as Tadeusz Roewicz and Adam Zagajewski were alive. It strained credulity of literary circles when in 2016 the Nobel Prize in literature was given to Bob Dylan who himself did not show any enthusiasm about receiving it. In 1962, the American author John Steinbeck was selected for the award in literature in spite of the fact that the British novelist, Lawrence Durrell, was the favourite for that year. In 1963, the English poet WH Auden and Chilean poet Pablo Neruda were overlooked by the Nobel Committee and the literature award went in favour of Greek poet Giorgos Seferis. Later, in 1971, Neruda received it, but for Auden,it remained elusive.

The Nobel Committee in 1965,could not be unanimous in its decision and came up with three pairs of writers, but the then chairman did not agree to the suggestion and finally Mikhail Sholokhov was the winner. The credentials of the duo, Agnon and Sachs, who were awarded the literature prize in 1966 were often questioned as they were favoured against the candidatures of Graham Greene and Samuel Beckett. India has the distinction of making it six times in various fields. Apart from Rabindranath Tagore, CV Raman, S Chandrashekhar, Mother Teresa , Amartya Sen and Avijit Vinayak Banerjee, the names of Hargovind Khurana and VS Naipaul were also associated with our country.

However the strong candidature of Father Marian working for leprosy patients in Odisha could not finally make the news some time ago. It’s a pretty long time since Rabindranath got the Nobel Prize for literature., it’s time we ponder over the possibility of Indians on the cards to achieve the distinction. It is difficult to say as to what should be the extent of greatness required to deserve the Nobel award. We can recall that in Time Magazine, Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul reminisced on R K Narayan’s glory with his concluding remarks: “Narayan, with his glories and limitation, is the Gandhi of modern Indian literature.” It is imperative for the Nobel Committee to recognize the right person at the right time.

(The writer is former Associate Professor, Department of English, Gurudas College, Kolkata. He is presently associated with Rabindra Bharati University)