History

KEY POINTS

·        Nehru had a vision of India as a modern, secular state that would be inclusive and liberal.

·        When advised to outlaw communal parties as they flouted the spirit of the Constitution, he declared that communalism had to be defeated politically, not by the use of legal instruments.

·        He was so strident in attacking Hindu communalism meanwhile, soft-peddling on Muslim communalism.

·        He justified it by his thought that majority communalism was far more dangerous since it could easily pass off as Indian nationalism.

·        Nehru laid the foundations of a dual-track nuclear programme without which India would never have achieved nuclear capable status.

·        His economic policies of investing in heavy industries and protecting the nascent manufacturing sector saved India from becoming a mere cash crop economy dependent on the vagaries of the global market for its economic survival.

·        It was he who established the robust tradition of civilian supremacy over the military that prevented India from becoming another junta-ruled Third World autocracy.

·        Unlike Gandhi who believed in the idea of an India constituted of autonomous village communities with all the caste and economic inequities they harboured, Nehru was committed to the establishment of a strong Indian state where the concept of equal rights of citizens would override all societal divisions.

·        India gained independence at a very difficult juncture in international politics. Global alliance groups were all the rage.

·        Nehru’s response was to advocate a policy of non-alignment to maintain India’s strategic autonomy in the face of pressure, especially from the U.S., to choose sides.

·        It helped insulate the country from the worst effects of superpower rivalry.

·        Unlike Pakistan’s subservient relationship with the U.S., non-alignment set the stage for a fruitful arms supply relationship with the Soviet Union without compromising India’s strategic goals.