The Man & His Legacy

THE Preamble of our Constitution constantly reminds us that We, the people of India, gave unto ourselves a beautiful ecumenical Constitution, and ushered in a sort of a social revolution, a national renaissance.

- Tanvir Aeijaz

Breaking out of the shackles of colonialism and becoming a free and independent nation, we resolved, solemnly, to make India a ‘Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic’, and to secure to all its citizens Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’.

With the idea of India, we embarked on a new Indian nation-state, marking a civilisational shift into a modern space, inheriting the rights to elect and get elected, to design the institutional architecture of governance, and to capacitate ourselves to aspire. Jawaharlal Nehru, in one of the Constituent Assembly debates, said: “The first task of this Assembly is to free India through a new Constitution, to feed the starving people, and to clothe the naked masses, and to give every Indian the fullest opportunity to develop himself according to his capacity”.

And, Nehru’s famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech—“Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially”—constantly reminds us about the solemn pledge that we made in the Preamble.

Nehruvian Ideology

In August 1947, Nehru, 58, took over the reins of governance and headed the government for 17 years. His beginning was inauspicious because the Indian subcontinent did not hold together. The Partition, with a section of Muslims founding a new state of Pakistan, led to a massive migration and unprecedented large-scale massacres and killings of Hindus and Muslims on both sides. Millions, between 15 and 20, died, and many, who were not involved in the Partition struggle, paid for it with their lives. Nehru took up the task of settling millions of refugees in India with utmost priority.