A Nation in making: Nehru’s vision for free India

Neha Munshi, M.A Student, Department of History University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C, Canada A Nation in making: Nehru’s vision for free India Politics and elections were day-to-day affairs when we grew excited over trumpery matters. But if we were going to build the house of India’s future, strong and secure and beautiful, we would have to dig deep for the foundations-1 Jawaharlal Nehru Introduction Jawaharlal Nehru (1889– 1964), India’s first prime minister (1947-1964) fought (with many others) a tireless battle for the independence of India from the British imperialists. Nehru was born in an affluent family with political connections and educated in Harrow and Cambridge in England where he studied Natural Sciences and Law. His father Motilal Nehru was involved with the establishment of India’s first political party, the Indian National Congress (founded in 1885). Nehru’s political career started in 1916 after his return from England (returned 1912) when he joined Annie Beasant’s Home Rule League and met Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi for the first time. Like many others who were fighting for India’s freedom, Nehru was jailed numerous times by the British for his political actions. During one such instances, when Nehru (see Figures 1 -4) was imprisoned in Ahmadnagar Fort prison2 in 1942, he wrote his illuminating Discovery of India during the five-month period from April to September 1944. By June 1945, when Nehru was released, he had spent 1,041 days in imprisonment and was interned for a total of nine times.3 1 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India, (Calcutta: Signet Press, 1947), p.38. Nehru was imprisoned from August 9, 1942 - March 28, 1945, at Ahmadnagar Fort Prison then transferred to Almora where he was released on June 15, 1945. 3 Nehru, The Discovery, 481. 2 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria This paper aims to bring some of Nehru’s aims and vision for a free India and elucidates on Nehru’s understanding of India’s past based on his writings in his Discovery of India. The paper also aims to connect Nehru’s vison with the current state of India with its erosion of secularism. The Traditions of India As a face of their nations, political leaders are often praised, criticized, analyzed, measured and maligned for their doings and wrong doings. Nehru is no exception. However, there is a recent backlash against Nehruvian ideas and philosophy in India which aims to criticize Nehru’s secularist ideals against the current Bhartiya Janata Party (the BJP) government’s Hindutva ideology.4 Therefore, it becomes imperative to examine what Nehru thought of religion and how he envisioned a nation where class, religion and caste identities are perpetually entwined. Nehru was educated abroad, and it seems to taint his image as a foreigner in his own country. Attempting to understand the history, philosophies and culture of the vast Indian sub-continent with all its diversity, paradoxes and contradictions is an immense challenge. It was not just intellectual curiosity or ideal curiosity that propelled Nehru to understand the deeper foundations of India. It was his profound motivation and his vision of free India evident from his writings where Nehru states that: The future that took shape in my mind was one of intimate co-operation, politically, economically, culturally between India and the other countries of the world. But before the future came, there was the present, and behind the present lay the long and tangled past, out of which the present had grown. So to the past I looked for understanding.5 4 The ideology is based on V.D. Savarakar’s Hindutva: Who is Hindu? where in Savarkar’s view, as Hinduism originated from India, the Hindus are “the sons of the soil” where as the other religions such as Islam and Christianity (coming from outside and known for their conversions) are not Indian and therefore, should adhere to symbols of Hindu identity (See Christophe Jaffrelot, “India’s Democracy at 70: Toward a Hindu State”, Journal of Democracy 27, no. 3 (2017) : 52. 5 Nehru, The Discovery, 30. Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Nehru understood that he was eager to provide India a modern outlook, yet he could not do so until he had understood the essence which gave it vitality and endurance where it “could not have continued a cultured existence for thousands of years”6 without this vitality. Hence Nehru unfolds the picture of India’s past through its contacts with the Persians, Chinese, Greeks, Arabs, the Central Asians and the people of the Mediterranean. He further elaborates on his readings through insights he gained by the writings of various travelers such as Chinese Buddhist scholar Xuanzang7 and Iranian scholar Al-Biruni.8 He connects the myths and legends to the vast geography of the sub-continent including its great rivers and the mountains. He admires the ancient monuments, the great empires which had come and gone, the legacy of the emperor Ashoka with his emphasis on the Buddhist dharma of non-violence and the magnificent empire of Akbar where his intellectual curiosities had no bound. He muses on India’s cultural legacy in Southeast Asia through Southeast Asia’s great monuments of Borobudur and Angkor. He reads the ancient literature of India and is impressed by the “clarity of the language and the richness of the mind that lay behind it.”9 He understood that behind this past understanding of India’s history and its interactions with many cultures, India was not a static or unchanging entity and yet its tradition and culture while enduring many influences had always remanifested itself. It is this understanding of the past that gave Nehru a new perspective: It was however the British imperialism which had been successful in stripping India of its spirit and hence Nehru says: “The 6 Nehru, The Discovery, 31. Chinese traveler who travelled to India for 16 years between 627-645 CE in search of Buddhist sutras. 8 Al-Biruni was an Iranian scholar who traveled to India in 1017 CE and wrote Tarikh al-Hind or the History of India. 9 Nehru, The Discovery, 31. 7 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria hundred and eighty years of British rule in India were just one of the unhappy interludes in her long story; she would find herself again.”10 Figure 1: Jawaharlal Nehru as a young child with his father Motilal Nehru and mother Swarup Rani Nehru, 1890s. Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia. 10 Nehru, The Discovery, 32. Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Figure 2: Jawaharlal Nehru in England with his father Motilal Nehru, mother Swarup Rani Nehru and his sisters Krishna and Vijaya Lakshmi. Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia. Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Figure 3: Nehru’s room at Ahmadnagar Fort Prison from where he wrote his Discovery of India. Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia. Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Figure 4: Gandhi and Nehru at drafting of Quit India Resolution in Bombay in 1942. Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia. Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Nehru also realized that India lagged behind the technology which Europe was so equipped with and which had allowed Europe through its military strength to dominate the East. Despite his desire to uplift India through the technological means, Nehru remained concerned with building the inner strength of his people where he communicates that “But at no time did we forget that our main purpose was to raise the whole level of the Indian people, psychologically and spiritually and also of course, politically and economically.11 Hence, Nehru’s vision of India is strengthened by this understanding of India’s rich and diverse past, under the background of the alien authority of British imperialism, the fascism which had set in Europe and the outbreak of the second world war. There was also a worldwide movement for the quest for freedom from colonial powers and the successful emergence of nation states of Canada and the United States lay as an example of nations established on a firm vision of freedom and equality. Nehru’ vision of India, as he elaborates when he endeavors to explain what is Bharat Mata (Mother India) was the millions of people who inhabited its lands and were spread out all over the country. From 1936 onwards, Nehru travelled extensively in India and was very aware of the nationwide poverty and misery especially of the rural areas and the ravages and the destruction caused by the famines. Religion, Identity and Caste Nehru would stand at odds with the present-day Hindu nationalists who think that India is Hindu. According to Yogendra K. Malik et. al, for Hindu nationalists, the term “Hindu” has a geocultural not religious connotation.12 Hindu nationalists therefore equate Hindu with India and the 11 Nehru, The Discovery, 36. Yogendra K. Malik, Charles H. Kennedy, Robert C. Oberst, Ashok Kapur, Mahendra Lawoti and Syedur Rahman. “Political Culture & Heritage.” In Government and Politics in South Asia (Boulder: Westview Press, 2009), 37. 12 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria political territorial concept of the nation state without the element of Hindu cultural context is not acceptable to them. Therefore, in the Hindu nationalists worldview, a single homogenous identity is imagined for the whole country while rejecting the idea of India as a multicultural state and also rejecting the pluralistic traditions of Hinduism. Within this context, Hindu nationalists also do not believe in minority rights. In Nehru’s writings, Nehru does not attempt to define Hinduism as he aptly describes the multiple traditions which encompasses Hinduism and therefore render it a fluidity. He recognizes that Hinduism’s spirit lies in the quest for truth and the philosophy of “live and let-live.”13 Therefore, he finds it undesirable to use ‘Hindu’ or ‘Hinduism’ to define Indian culture even with the distant past although he recognizes that certain aspects of the thought which had emerged from the traditions of Hinduism were the dominant expression of the culture. Nehru understood that the continual incursions of foreign elements into the Indian sub-continent which had posed a challenge also developed into a ‘new synthesis and process of absorption.’14 Nehru recognized that out of the interaction of various philosophies was an Indian way of life where a particular person regardless of his faith would adapt to.15 Nehru was not interested in accepting any religious authority or accepting the authority of any holy books or accepting any human beings such as the Buddha or the Christ as divine beings. He seeked hope from such human beings and their thought which he called ‘the growth of the mind and spirit of man’16 and yet they were human beings who could see the deeper truth of life and not ‘incarnations or mouthpieces of a divinity.’17 13 Nehru, The Discovery, 52. Nehru, The Discovery, 53. 15 For detailed writings on Hinduism, see Nehru, The Discovery, 51-89. 16 Nehru, The Discovery, 55. 17 Nehru, The Discovery, 54. 14 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Nehru was a big critique of the caste system recognizing that Indian caste system grew out of Aryan supremacy where society was ordered into professions. Nehru understood that the caste structure remained fluid during the Buddha’s time and even a few centuries earlier and remained as such for at least 1,500 years after that. This is evident with the centuries of overseas interactions and trade after the time of the Buddha and incoming of foreigners who were absorbed into the caste fold. The conquerors or the people who were able to assume power were often accepted into Kshatriya caste (the warrior caste) where the priests would be able to create an appropriate genealogy linking the ruler to Aryan heroes. 18 Nehru recognized that the founders of Buddhism and Jainism, the Buddha and the Mahavira respectively did much to break up the caste system and Gandhi had been very vocal about it. However, he speculated whether the conditions of modern life will give away this “hoary and tenacious relic of the past times.’19 Nehru also recognized that the Aryan ordering of caste system was based on color, and he was equally critical of the ‘racial exclusiveness’ of Europe.20 Nehru and his view of India’s Past Eminent writer V.S Naipaul had once noted: ‘Indians are proud of their ancient, surviving civilization. They are, in fact, its victims.’ Nehru who was much appreciative of India’s past with all its glories and achievements, its philosophies, its arts and culture and the vibrancy of its people to continually absorb diverse ideas and influences and create something anew would have agreed with Naipaul. In his writings, Nehru is much concerned about this break from the past, not the break from the ancient wisdom of India but from the ‘dust and the dirt of the ages’21 the 18 Nehru, The Discovery, 61. Nehru, The Discovery, 91. 20 Nehru, The Discovery, 91. 21 Nehru, The Discovery, 431. 19 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria dust which had put India in the ‘rigid frames’22 and ‘stunted her growth.’23 He reminds us that the traditions of the past which may have done much good for those times cease to have significance in our present day. According to Nehru, truth itself had to be discovered and any dogmatic ideology and prescribed mode of thinking would hinder in that discovery. A dead thought induced by ceremony or ritual is of no use. A living philosophy (continual quest for truth) must answer the problems of today.24 Neither religion nor the philosophical mode of thought based on logic and reason could therefore address the day-to-day problems of life. Science came to rescue with its open approach to discovery of life and what all lay beyond it. However, Nehru who much prefers the scientific probe and discovery reminds us of the limitations and dangers of science. Science can never make us feel the warmth, the sensitivity and the beauty of life and it treads on a dangerous path with its capability to destroy a whole civilization. As Nehru says: It is the scientific approach, the adventurous and yet critical temper of science, the search for truth and new knowledge, the refusal to accept anything without testing and trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the face of new evidence, the reliance on observed fact and not preconceived theory, the hard discipline of the mind – all this is necessary, not merely for the application of science but for life itself and the solution of its many problems.25 Therefore, Nehru envisions a middle way where scientific approach and temper should be a way of life and part of human thinking and a way of connecting with other human beings. Hence, Nehru was interested in this creative harmony of life, in understanding the wisdom of the past but also understanding the futility of the religious dogma and traditions, in understanding the relevance and the great significance of science but also being aware of its dangers and wanting a moderate approach with human actions. Yet, the spirit of persistent discovery is very evident in his writings 22 Nehru, The Discovery, 431. Nehru, The Discovery, 431. 24 Nehru, The Discovery, 14. 25 Nehru, The Discovery, 433. 23 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria when he says: Life still offers not only the loveliness of the world but also the exciting adventure of fresh and never-ceasing discoveries, of new panoramas opening out and new ways of living, adding to its fullness and ever making it richer and complete.26 Epilogue: India, Nehru and Hindu Nationalism Our State is not a communal state, but a democratic state in which every citizen has equal rights. The Government is determined to protect these rights27 – Jawaharlal Nehru We must have it clearly in our minds and in the mind of the country that the alliance of religion and politics in the shape of communalism28 is a most dangerous alliance, and it yields the most abnormal kind of illegitimate brood – Jawaharlal Nehru29 The above were Nehru’s words in his speech after India’s independence and after India had witnessed massive riots in the areas of Punjab and Bengal (where Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims had co-existed peacefully) due to the partition of the country between the two nations, India and Pakistan. Both sides witnessed violence and the violence resulted in millions of refugees on both sides. Earlier, I have discussed that Nehru was a great admirer of India’s past and its ancient heritage. However, he was not a staunch believer in organized religion and cautioned about the danger of dogmatic ideology which crushes the spirit of a man and thwarts the progress of the mind. Nehru was aware of the dangers of communalism as evident by the partition of India. He was also aware of Hindu communalism and his fears were proven true when Nathuram Godse, a man associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS) assassinated Gandhi in 1948. 1n 26 Nehru, The Discovery, 435. Jawaharlal Nehru, Independence and After: A Collection of Speeches, (New York: John Day Company, 1950), 45. 28 Christophe Jaffrelot notes that: “Although the word “communalism” has largely disappeared from India’s modern political lexicon, during the Nehru years, it was widely used to designate ideological forces that sought to divide the Indian nation along religious lines. See The Fate of Secularism in India, accessed, Dec 22, 2021 online at: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/04/04/fate-of-secularism-in-india-pub-78689 29 Nehru, Independence and After, 47. 27 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria 1952, at Gandhi’s birthday, Nehru had said, “The moment a nation shackles its mind, whether in the name of religion or whatever it may be, narrow-mindedness grows and the nation stops growing. If any person raises his hand to strike down another on the ground of religion, I shall fight him till the last breath of my life, both at the head of the Government and from outside."30 It appears that Nehru and others who supported the secularist ideals have been reinterpreted by Hindutva elements as a people who were against religion. This hardly makes sense because people in India have a freedom to practice and propagate religion as they wish. The Constitution of India has enshrined these rights. Further, India’s secularism has never stripped religion from public space. I have also pointed out that Nehru’s views were at huge odds against the Hindutva ideology. The current Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi (see Figure 5) dons Hindu garb and supports the Hindutva ideology while undermining not only the pluralistic traditions of Hinduism but also neglecting and being wholly unappreciative towards India’s multicultural legacy which has existed for thousands of years. 30 Ramachandra Guha, Recalling Jawaharlal Nehru’s Campaign in 1951-52, Hindustan Times, May 18, 2019. Accessed online on Dec 22, 2021, at: https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/recalling-jawaharlalnehru-s-campaign-in-1951-52/story-YVTlmMas7zCxOfzyvEAdlI.html Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Figure 5: Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is repeatedly seen visiting Hindu temples while wearing Hindu holy man’s garb. His BJP party is allied with the staunchest supporters of the Hindutva ideology which includes the RSS and its allied organizations. Photo Courtesy: Web Photo. In terms of explaining how India is becoming a majoritarian state rather than a multicultural one, Jaffrelot mentions that: This is because political entrepreneurs who promote ethnoreligious identities—especially Hindu nationalist ideologues—have created much confusion around the notion of secularism, claiming that its proponents have endeavored to make the state hostile or indifferent to religion. That was certainly not the intention of the architects of modern India, whose enemy was not religion, but communalism.31 It would be important to note that despite what Nehru had wished for a free India, the Congress party had tempered with the religious sentiments for its vote banks even tolerating abject 31 Jaffrelot, The Fate, accessed, Dec 22, 2021, online at: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/04/04/fate-of-secularism-in-india-pub-78689 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria violence and murderous attitude of Hindu militants32 hence creating a disillusionment towards secularism and opening a room for Hindu nationalists to propagate their views. With the current trend towards a majoritarian Hindu polity, it is not clear which direction the Congress party would take. Recently, the dynastic heirs of the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have been spotted visiting temples and the party members have been parading their Brahmin background. Needless to say that India’s state of secularism is a far cry from Nehru’s vision. Currently, Hindu mobs act as cultural vigilantes, and mob lynchers kill Muslims accused of killing cows (cows being sacred to Hindus). Anti-conversion laws have been tightened in many states and there is general outcry against advertisements which show any kind of Hindu-Muslim unity such as interfaith marriages. Government’s recent Citizenship Act has done worse where it claims to confer citizenship status to refugees from the South Asian regions of all faiths except Islam. What is more deplorable is that people like Yogi Adityanath who run a militant Hindu organization also serve as Chief Ministers in the BJP government. The cultural vigilantes are supported by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is one of the main organizations of the Hindutva movement and supports many sub-organizations including the BJP and Bajrang Dal. As Jaffrelot mentions, these vigilantes such as Gau Raksha Dal (Cow Protection Organizations) which have sprung up since 2014 have become very powerful and resort to complete violence in terms of attacking minorities who are involved in sale and slaughter of cows or eating beef. Many controversies have sprung up in India due to Hindutva ideology 32 For a detailed discussion on how Congress party pandered for its vote banks to the crudest Hindu militant action in Maharashtra, see Dalrymple’s article, Dalrymple, William. “India: The War Over History. The New York Review of Books, April 7, 2005. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/apr/07/india-the-war-over-history/. For a detailed discussion on how secularism had eroded in India consult: Christophe Jaffrelot, The Fate of Secularism, available online at: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/04/04/fate-of-secularism-in-india-pub-78689 Neha Munshi – University of Victoria where even history is being compromised. As Hindutva ideology considers Hindus as the sons of soils and considers minorities who practice other faiths such as Islam and Christianity as foreigners, a huge attempt to disprove history is being made by Hindutva elements. India has been settled by many migrants in its pre-history and history. The Central Asian migrants who migrated through Iran around 2000 BCE and brought their culture to the Indian sub-continent by mingling with the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization and a variety of indigenous aboriginal tribes created religio-cultural traditions of Hinduism. However, the Hindutva elements want to insist that no such migrations occurred in India so that they can continue to frame Muslims and Christians as foreigners and hence not worthy of an equal status with Hindus. There is no space provided in the Hindutva history for complexity, multiplicity, intercommunity exchanges, connections and royal conflicts. Nehru who had a great understanding of India’s past admired India’s vast and syncretic traditions. In countries world over, the governments are trying to deal with multi-cultural states while multi-cultural, multi-religious and multilingual population has been part of India’ centuries old tradition. However, it is the ethno-religious majoritarian view which wants to crush this unique heritage of India. Throughout the anti-colonial movement, V.D Savarkar, the mastermind of the Hindutva movement had made Muslim a common enemy and according to him until the Muslims could be tackled, India and the Empire faced a common crisis.33 Due to this, the RSS never joined anticolonial movements. It is ironic that the Indian government’s Indian Council for Historic Research (ICHR) had created a poster to celebrate seventy-five years of India’s independence 33 Tanika Sarkar, “How the Sangh Parivar Writes and Teaches History,” in The Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India, edited by Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen, and Christophe Jaffrelot, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 159. Neha Munshi – University of Victoria which included a variety of freedom fighters including V.D Savarkar but not Nehru. After much criticism, the official of the council had said that more posters are forthcoming, and the outcry is for no reason. 34 To conclude, I quote below from the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, when he went to inaugurate the construction of the temple for Lord Rama at Ayodhya. Ayodhya is a site of a former mosque and has had much controversy concerning whether a temple had existed before on the site (prior to the mosque being present). The issue had led to loss of many lives in 1992 and the Gujarat pogrom of Muslims in 2002 is also related to the issue. While visiting the site in August of 2020 Modi said: Ram Mandir will become the modern symbol of our traditions. It’ll become a symbol of our devotion, our national sentiment. This temple will also symbolise the power of collective resolution of crores of people. It will keep inspiring the future generations Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ayodhya 35 As implied in the above quote, a temple is to become a modern symbol of Indian tradition in a multi-cultural and multi-religious state. Nehru would have been simply ashamed. 34 ‘Unnecessary’: ICHR on Controversy Around Omission of Nehru’s Image, The Quint, 30 Aug, 2021, accessed online on Dec 22, 2021 at https://www.thequint.com/news/india/unnecessary-ichr-official-says-other-posters-willhave-nehrus-image 35 Ram is everywhere, Ram belongs to all says PM Modi in Ayodhya, NewsRoom Post, Aug 5, 2020, accessed online on Dec 22, 2021 at https://newsroompost.com/india/ram-is-everywhere-ram-belongs-to-all-says-pm-modi-inayodhya-10-points/536101.html Neha Munshi – University of Victoria Bibliography Dalrymple, William. “India: The War Over History. The New York Review of Books, April 7, 2005. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/apr/07/india-the-war-over-history/. Guha, Ramachandra. Recalling Jawaharlal Nehru’s Campaign in 1951-52. Hindustan Times, May 18, 2019. Accessed online on Dec 22, 2021 at: https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/recallingjawaharlal-nehru-s-campaign-in-1951-52/story-YVTlmMas7zCxOfzyvEAdlI.html Jaffrelot, Christophe “India’s Democracy at 70: Toward a Hindu State”, Journal of Democracy 27, no. 3 (2017): 52-63. Jaffrelot, Christophe “The Fate of Secularism in India,” In The BJP in Power: Indian Democracy and Religious Nationalism, edited by Milan Vaishnav, Washington, D.C: Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, March 2019, accessed online, Dec 22, 2021 at: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/04/04/fate-of-secularism-in-india-pub-78689 Malik, Yogendra K., Charles H. Kennedy, Robert C. Oberst, Ashok Kapur, Mahendra Lawoti and Syedur Rahman, Government and Politics in South Asia , Boulder: Westview Press, 2009. Nehru Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India, Calcutta: Signet Press, 1947. Nehru, Jawaharlal. Independence and After: A Collection of Speeches, New York: John Day Company, 1950. Ram is everywhere, Ram belongs to all says PM Modi in Ayodhya, NewsRoom Post, Aug 5, 2020, accessed online on Dec 22, 2021 at https://newsroompost.com/india/ram-is-everywhere-rambelongs-to-all-says-pm-modi-in-ayodhya-10-points/536101.html Sarkar, Tanika. “How the Sangh Parivar Writes and Teaches History.” In The Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India, edited by Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen, and Christophe Jaffrelot, 151-176. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019 ‘Unnecessary’: ICHR on Controversy Around Omission of Nehru’s Image, The Quint, 30 Aug, 2021, accessed online on Dec 22, 2021 at https://www.thequint.com/news/india/unnecessary-ichrofficial-says-other-posters-will-have-nehrus-image Neha Munshi – University of Victoria