Nehru’s idea of India

Nehru's Idea of India

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the tallest leaders of  the freedom struggle, having spent a decade in jails in British India.  When he was elected the President of the Indian National Congress in 1929, Mahatma Gandhi said:“In bravery, he is not to be surpassed. Who can excel him in the love of country? He is pure as a crystal, he is truthful beyond suspicion. He is a knight sans peur, sans reproche – the nation is safe in his hands.” His classical works:  An autobiography, Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India, have moulded a whole generation of Indians and inspired people across the world. The Discovery is a treatise on Indian history and civilization.  Together, these books give us insight into his vision and ideals-his passionate commitment to democracy and social justice, his intense aversion to authoritarianism and fundamentalism, and his exuberant celebration of India’s pluralistic culture.   Gandhi named him his political heir in 1941.

The Objective Resolution  that he moved in the Constituent Assembly on December 13,1946 became  part of the Preamble to the Indian  Constitution,  which secures to all citizens, Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship and  Equality of status and of opportunity.  Nehru built India into a secular liberal constitutional democracy, based on the universal adult franchise and the rule of law, guaranteeing the fundamental rights to all Indians.  He made India the largest democracy, with all its people, including the poor, illiterate and weaker sections, choosing their own governments. 

His secular India checkmated the rise of majoritarian communalism, which he considered more dangerous as it could easily pass of as Indian nationalism.  He built democratic institutions,preserving the independence of the four pillar of democracy- the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Fourth Estate. 

Nehru’s India had exercised moral authority in the community of nations, defusing international crises. His independent policy of non-alignment during the height of cold war  in the post World War II period had enhanced India’s stature and secured her a leadership role in world affairs, unmatched with her economic and military power. 

As the first Prime Minister of India, Nehru wrote about 400 letters  to the Chief Ministers, one every fortnight. These letters “From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers 1947-1963” provide  lessons in statesmanship and nation-building, cataloguing India’s journey in those formative years after the independence.

Nehru, as the Prime Minister, had made a difference to India and the world. But for Nehru, "India would have gone the way in which many other newly liberated countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America went.”  Bertrand Russell and Arnold Toynbee believed the credit for existence of some pockets of democracy in Afro-Asian countries goes to Nehru’s India. As Adlai Stevenson had said “Nehru’s influence extended far beyond the borders of his own country.  He was a leader of Asia and of all the new developing nations. And in other parts of the world as well, his name had come to be synonymous with the spiritual goals and worthy hopes of mankind. He was one of God’s great creations in our time.” 

It is important to preserve the democratic institutions that Nehru had  painstakingly built  and protect the idea of India- all inclusive and  tolerant country where every citizen will live with freedom and dignity.