11-18-2006, 09:30 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>He looked at India with foreign eyes </b>
Pioneer.com
BB Kumar | Editor, Dialogue
<b>It is Nehru who was responsible for the continuance of the colonial mindset in post-colonial India</b>
Jawaharlal Nehru served the nation longer than his mentor, Mahatma Gandhi. Nehru was imprisoned nine times between 1921 and 1945, serving a total of nine years in jail. Later, he had the opportunity to serve the nation as Prime Minister for 17 years.
There is no doubt that Nehru was the architect of modern India. But his failures are equally glaring. The roots of many of our problems are linked to Nehruvian policies.
Nehru wanted India to remain a democracy wedded to secular ideals. He tirelessly worked for the preservation of the country as a centre of flourishing democracy and planned welfare state. He aimed at achieving a socialistic pattern through the democratic process of discussion and cooperation - not Marxist way of coercion.
Nehru appointed the Planning Commission in March 1950 and remained its chairman as long as he lived. On April 1, 1951, the first Five Year Plan was initiated. This was supposed to help the nation move faster on the path of economic development. Tragically, it only slowed down with time.
Nehru took several other positive steps. <b>There is a provision in the Constitution for the eradication of untouchability. The Untouchability Act of 1955 provided for penalty for the violation of these provisions. Polygamy among Hindus was prohibited and widows were given the right of inheritance in 1956</b>.
Nehru, being the first Prime Minister of India, had to face many challenges. About nine million Hindu refugees migrated from East and West Pakistan and more than four million Muslims left for Pakistan in the aftermath of Partition. The refugees had to be rehabilitated. The merger of some 550 princely states was another task that was ably handled by the Government, courtesy Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Deputy Prime Minster in Nehru's Cabinet.
However, it was Nehru who complicated the issue of Jammu & Kashmir, which still remains a big problem for the nation. The State is still partly occupied by Pakistan, thanks to Nehru's faith in the United Nations instead of his Army. The country paid dearly for this and the Kashmir issue became a pawn in Cold War politics.
<b>Nehru tried to pacify secessionist elements in the Valley by giving Jammu & Kashmir a special status though Article 370 of the Constitution. This appeasement, however, failed to bring separatist Kashmiris into the mainstream. Instead, it created divisions in the country, as special status to the only Muslim-majority State signals partial acceptance of the two-nation theory.</b>
<b>Similarly, Nehru's treatment of Nagas left a lot to be desired. By providing special treatment to them, Nehru sent a wrong signal that violence and social distancing pays. This provoked others to follow the Naga example. And the entire North-East got gradually destabilised. Nagaland was kept in the ambit of Ministry of External Affairs by Nehru to facilitate its supervision by him.</b>
India under Nehru followed the non-alignment policy. He was criticised for the way this policy was implemented with dual standards. He denounced the Anglo-French Suez War in 1956, but rebuked the USSR only mildly for its brutality in crushing the Hungarian revolution.
Nehru failed to achieve peaceful co-existence with China in spite of his out-of-the-way attempts of reconciliation with that country. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The Chinese incursions into Indian territories started soon after the signing of the Sino-Indian treaty on Tibet in April 1954; Nehru did not reveal this fact to the nation. </span>Naturally, he was panned by the whole country for the 1962 Chinese aggression, and the lack of support from his non-aligned friends left him heart-broken.
Nehru's ideals were highly moulded by his British-style upbringing and education. He was highly influenced by his trips to Europe in 1926 and 1938, and his sojourn in the Soviet Union. His economic and political thinking was highly influenced by the Socialist theories of the British Labour Party, Soviet Communism and Western colonialism.
A unique case of arrested economic and political thinking, Nehru remained unchanged forever as we find him in his autobiography published 34 years before his death. <b>He was the architect of the licence-permit raj in India, causing immense suffering to Indian entrepreneurship</b>. In 1929, delivering his presidential address to the Congress,<b> Nehru declared: "I must frankly confess that I am a socialist and a republican and am no believer in kings and princes, or in the order which produces the modern kings of industry, who have greater power over the lives and fortunes of men than even kings of old, and whose methods are as predatory as those of the old feudal aristocracy."</b>
Nehru saw India through European eyes and could hardly discern the real cause of poverty, illiteracy and suffering of the Indian masses. In a way, it is Nehru who was responsible for the continuance of the colonial mindset in post-colonial India.
Nehru could hardly visualise the malevolence of British imperialism in its totality. He could hardly foresee the emergence of democratically elected feudal lords and princes of India.
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Pioneer.com
BB Kumar | Editor, Dialogue
<b>It is Nehru who was responsible for the continuance of the colonial mindset in post-colonial India</b>
Jawaharlal Nehru served the nation longer than his mentor, Mahatma Gandhi. Nehru was imprisoned nine times between 1921 and 1945, serving a total of nine years in jail. Later, he had the opportunity to serve the nation as Prime Minister for 17 years.
There is no doubt that Nehru was the architect of modern India. But his failures are equally glaring. The roots of many of our problems are linked to Nehruvian policies.
Nehru wanted India to remain a democracy wedded to secular ideals. He tirelessly worked for the preservation of the country as a centre of flourishing democracy and planned welfare state. He aimed at achieving a socialistic pattern through the democratic process of discussion and cooperation - not Marxist way of coercion.
Nehru appointed the Planning Commission in March 1950 and remained its chairman as long as he lived. On April 1, 1951, the first Five Year Plan was initiated. This was supposed to help the nation move faster on the path of economic development. Tragically, it only slowed down with time.
Nehru took several other positive steps. <b>There is a provision in the Constitution for the eradication of untouchability. The Untouchability Act of 1955 provided for penalty for the violation of these provisions. Polygamy among Hindus was prohibited and widows were given the right of inheritance in 1956</b>.
Nehru, being the first Prime Minister of India, had to face many challenges. About nine million Hindu refugees migrated from East and West Pakistan and more than four million Muslims left for Pakistan in the aftermath of Partition. The refugees had to be rehabilitated. The merger of some 550 princely states was another task that was ably handled by the Government, courtesy Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Deputy Prime Minster in Nehru's Cabinet.
However, it was Nehru who complicated the issue of Jammu & Kashmir, which still remains a big problem for the nation. The State is still partly occupied by Pakistan, thanks to Nehru's faith in the United Nations instead of his Army. The country paid dearly for this and the Kashmir issue became a pawn in Cold War politics.
<b>Nehru tried to pacify secessionist elements in the Valley by giving Jammu & Kashmir a special status though Article 370 of the Constitution. This appeasement, however, failed to bring separatist Kashmiris into the mainstream. Instead, it created divisions in the country, as special status to the only Muslim-majority State signals partial acceptance of the two-nation theory.</b>
<b>Similarly, Nehru's treatment of Nagas left a lot to be desired. By providing special treatment to them, Nehru sent a wrong signal that violence and social distancing pays. This provoked others to follow the Naga example. And the entire North-East got gradually destabilised. Nagaland was kept in the ambit of Ministry of External Affairs by Nehru to facilitate its supervision by him.</b>
India under Nehru followed the non-alignment policy. He was criticised for the way this policy was implemented with dual standards. He denounced the Anglo-French Suez War in 1956, but rebuked the USSR only mildly for its brutality in crushing the Hungarian revolution.
Nehru failed to achieve peaceful co-existence with China in spite of his out-of-the-way attempts of reconciliation with that country. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The Chinese incursions into Indian territories started soon after the signing of the Sino-Indian treaty on Tibet in April 1954; Nehru did not reveal this fact to the nation. </span>Naturally, he was panned by the whole country for the 1962 Chinese aggression, and the lack of support from his non-aligned friends left him heart-broken.
Nehru's ideals were highly moulded by his British-style upbringing and education. He was highly influenced by his trips to Europe in 1926 and 1938, and his sojourn in the Soviet Union. His economic and political thinking was highly influenced by the Socialist theories of the British Labour Party, Soviet Communism and Western colonialism.
A unique case of arrested economic and political thinking, Nehru remained unchanged forever as we find him in his autobiography published 34 years before his death. <b>He was the architect of the licence-permit raj in India, causing immense suffering to Indian entrepreneurship</b>. In 1929, delivering his presidential address to the Congress,<b> Nehru declared: "I must frankly confess that I am a socialist and a republican and am no believer in kings and princes, or in the order which produces the modern kings of industry, who have greater power over the lives and fortunes of men than even kings of old, and whose methods are as predatory as those of the old feudal aristocracy."</b>
Nehru saw India through European eyes and could hardly discern the real cause of poverty, illiteracy and suffering of the Indian masses. In a way, it is Nehru who was responsible for the continuance of the colonial mindset in post-colonial India.
Nehru could hardly visualise the malevolence of British imperialism in its totality. He could hardly foresee the emergence of democratically elected feudal lords and princes of India.
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