Our Debt To Jawaharlal Nehru

Celebrating Nehru’s contribution to India’s progress is the best reply to his detractors in and out of power

- Sumit Chakravartty

 

Shortly after the death of our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in New Delhi on 27 May 1964, the renowned Bertrand Russell wrote an article bearing the same caption as the present piece. therein he had presciently noted: “Illiteracy and poverty, disease and ignorance, a great subcontinent to govern, severe differences between Muslim and Hindu, many score languages and varied cultures reflecting a tendency towards a breaking up of the union — all of these serious political facts could have induced him to say that they were too difficult to permit the rule of democracy with its instability.

“Had Nehru made this decision, it is doubtful that the rule of law or of representative institutions would have any chance among the emergent nations. had this decision been made, the varied and rich Indian culture would be subjected to uniform control in the name of security and political unity…

“I do not think that the ease with which he might have taken more tempting paths is understood. I do not believe his greatness is fully appreciated, but I have every confidence that if mankind is allowed to survive — he will be recognised in a manner adequate to his stature.”