Jawaharlal Nehru: The Architect of Modern India| Important Points |

Share it

Table of Contents

Jawaharlal Nehru: The Architect of Modern India

Independence came at a humongous cost, British colonialism trampled India, and partition had left its social fiber battered with communal-religious fissures and caste-gender discrimination. The economic gloom and doom was upon us — India did not have enough food to feed her citizens.

It was Jawaharlal Nehru who set out to realize the dream of a strong and resurgent India. He steered the nation to the path of recovery and modernization. Nehru had neither the resources or the experience to administer the country. Yet, it was with his patriotism, dedication and commitment that he translated the values of the Congress into the Constitution of India.

It was Nehru who proposed the idea of fundamental rights and socio-economic equality irrespective of caste, creed, religion and gender. He invariably advocated the abolition of untouchability, rights against exploitation, religious tolerance and secularism. He championed the idea of freedom of expression, the right to form associations, and was of the firm belief that statehood would ensure social and economic justice for labour and peasantry and give voting rights to all adult citizens. These propositions phrased by Jawaharlal Nehru made him the darling of India.

Despite criticism from contrasting political hues and some schools of thought, Nehru’s contributions continue to echo unwaveringly even today.

The decisions that nicknamed him an architect of modern India:

Establishing institutions of excellence

It was Nehru who provided the scientific base for India’s space supremacy and engineering excellence. With the establishment of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and universities, it was Nehru who put India on the path of development. Also, the foundation of the dual tack nuclear programme helped India achieve its nuclear enabled status. He also potentially set the pitch for industries, factories and the manufacturing sector paving the way for a journey of sovereign India.

Beginning of the Five-Year Plan

With his vision and deep understanding of the pulse of the nation, Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the idea of a Five-Year Plan for effective and balanced utilisation of resources, something that India continues to benefit from. The First Five-Year Plan was introduced in 1951 when India, in the backdrop of the Partition, was faced with the influx of refugees, severe food shortage and sky-rocketing inflation. The FYP put the spotlight on agriculture, irrigation and development of the primary sector. The target GDP growth of the First Five-Year Plan was 2.1%, but the country recorded a growth of 3.6% that year under the stewardship of Nehru.

Institutionalising India’s democratic foundation

He drafted and moved in the Constituent Assembly a resolution that set out its objectives, which included the declaration of India as an independent republic in which all power was derived from the people. Everyone was to be guaranteed “social, economic and political justice, equality of status and opportunity, and freedom of thought, religion and association.” There were to be safeguards for minorities, backward and tribal areas. All of this was not a given.

It was Nehru under whose regime the Election Commission of India, an autonomous constitutional body responsible for administering election processes in the country, was set up in accordance with the Constitution on January 25, 1950. The Election Commission of India conducted its first general election for the Lok Sabha which began in October 1951 and ended on till February 1952.

The 1937 provincial elections were limited by property ownership and had given the vote to only about 30 million Indians. There were, by contrast, 173 million eligible voters in the 1951 elections in independent India. Historian Ramachandra Guha writes in Patriots and Partisans that “Nehru was without question the chief architect of our democracy. It was he, more than any other nationalist, who promoted universal franchise and the multi-party system.”

Shaping foreign policy

Jawaharlal Nehru made indefatigable efforts to shape India’s foreign policy. As Prime Minister, Nehru held additional charge of the Ministry of External Affairs until his death. When India became independent, the world was recuperating from the calamitous World War II. It was a big challenge for Nehru to stitch relations with other countries amicably in the face of the changing power of balance in the United Nations.

Under Jawaharlal Nehru’s guidance, India became the first country to adopt the Policy of Non-Alignment. The Asians Relations Conference was organised in Delhi in 1947, where India’s foreign policy was proclaimed. As many as 29 countries attended the conference which strengthened the solidarity of all Asian countries. India still benefits from the Nehruvian foreign policy. It is the country’s robust foreign policy that allows India to keep balance in maintaining foreign relations.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s Panchsheel Agreement also served as the foundation for India-China relations. The Panchsheel Agreement was signed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Premier Zhou Enlai and adopted in

December 11 1957. The essence of Panchsheel: To put the emphasis on peaceful co-existence and cooperation for mutual benefit.

India as welfare state

Jawaharlal Nehru strongly advocated a welfare state— a blend between a capitalist and socialist system of governance. Nehru had travelled across the world and closely observed the working of various forms of governments that were in existence during that time. He witnessed the exploitation by capitalists during the time when colonialism was at its peak. Having meticulously gone through the pros and cons of the capitalist and communist systems of governance, Nehru came up with the idea of a ‘welfare state’ that India followed. A welfare state ideally provides basic economic security for its citizens by protecting them from market risks associated with unemployment, sickness and other risks connected with old age.

Mistakes and Failures of Jawaharlal Nehru

Of course, Nehru had many failures. He completely misread China’s intentions and didn’t expect Mao to launch an offensive in 1962. Worse, he allowed his assumption to affect India’s defence preparedness. He held on to his friend Krishna Menon as defence minister way longer than he should have.

The forward policy, and India’s strategic and defense policies of the previous decade more generally, were responsible for India’s defeat and its consequences. The fundamental error that led to this was Nehru’s grand strategy, his understanding of the relationship between diplomacy and force. He was convinced that there would be no war because any India-China war would become a world war. The logic of this belief is still unclear, and it of course proved to be grossly mistaken, but this belief that there would be no war allowed Nehru to push a military strategy that was unsound and led to disaster for India.

By signing the Panchsheel agreement we justified to China that Tibet is an area of China, not an independent nation. The signing of this agreement even makes no contribution to good relations between India and China. Had it been not signed China would be struggling for Tibet. Then there will be fewer chances of border controversy between India and China.

The most infamous decision of Nehru ever. There is absolutely no explanation for the horrendous mistake Nehru made by refusing it and instead offering it to China! The US offered it to India in 1950, and Nehru replied, “ Not at the Cost of China”. The US & USSR again made the same offer in 1955. Nehru rejected the offer and insisted Priority be given to China! Good old China whom Nehru tried so hard to be friends with, attacked India in 1962.

Nehru refused Nepal Prime Minister Matrika Prasad Koirala’s offer to merge with India and instead signed a Treaty of Peace & Friendship (1950).

US President Kennedy offered to help India detonate a nuclear device BEFORE the 1962 China war, but Nehru refused!! Had Nehru accepted, India would have been the first Asian country to go nuclear (ahead of China). India need not have to make desperate efforts to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) now. China would have never dared to invade an inch of Indian territory & the 1962 war against China could have completely been avoided.

Nehru had a totally impractical approach to integrating Kashmir with the rest of India. He didn’t allow Sardar Patel to deal with the Kashmir issue. Patel was quite successful in integrating other troubled regions such as Hyderabad Nizam’s province with India.

The Journey of Jawaharlal Nehru

Birth and family:

Jawaharlal Nehru was born in Allabahad on November 14, 1889. He was born into a family of Kashmiri Pandits, who had migrated to Delhi early in the 18^th century.
His father was Motilal Nehru, a renowned lawyer, and leader of the Indian independence movement. His mother was Swarup Rani Thussu who was also part of a well-known Kashmiri Pandit family.
Jawaharlal Nehru has two sisters and a brother. His sister Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly. His youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer and authored several books on her brother.

Education:

Jawaharlal Nehru was educated at home by a series of English governesses and tutors until the age of 16.
In 1905 he went to Harrow, a leading English school, where he stayed for two years.
He then attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he spent three years earning an honours degree in natural science. On leaving Cambridge he qualified as a barrister after two years at the Inner Temple, London.

The political journey of Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru returned to India in 1912 and plunged straight into politics. Here, he was inevitably drawn into the struggle for independence. He enrolled as an advocate of the Allahabad High court, but he had very little interest in the profession, unlike his father who was a successful barrister.

1912: Nehru attended the Bankipore Congress session as a delegate.

1916: Jawaharlal Nehru met Gandhi Ji for the first time in the Lucknow session of Congress. He is said to have been inspired by the senior. Nehru also got married to Kamala Kaul in 1916 and had a daughter Indira Priyadarshini in 1917.

1919: Nehru became the secretary of the Home rule league, Allahabad.

1920: He organized the first Kisan March in the Pratapgarh District of Uttar Pradesh. He was twice imprisoned in connection with the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920-22.

1922: Gandhiji called back the Non-Cooperation movement in 1922 due to the Chauri chaura incident. This caused a rift in Congress and leaders like Motilal Nehru and CR Das formed the Swaraj Party, while Jawaharlal Nehru remained loyal to Gandhiji’s decision.

1923: Jawaharlal Nehru became the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee in September 1923.

1926: Nehru toured Italy, Switzerland, England, Belgium, Germany, and Russia in 1926. He attended the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities in Brussels, Belgium as an official delegate of the Indian National Congress.

1927: He attended the tenth-anniversary celebrations of the October Socialist Revolution in Moscow in 1927.

1928: He was lathi-charged in Lucknow in 1928 while leading a procession against the Simon commission. He also founded the ‘Independence for India League’ along with Subhas Chandra Bose, which advocated complete severance of the British connection with India, and became its General Secretary.

1929: Nehru was elected President of the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress, where complete independence for the country was adopted as the goal. He drafted a resolution, Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy in 1929-31 which had the core aims of the congress and the future of the nation.

1936-38: Nehru travelled to Europe again due to his wife’s illness. But this trip also sparked his interest in socialism and Marxism.

He was elected President of the Lucknow Session in 1936 again. The Congress party decided to contest the provincial elections of 1937 despite disagreement from Nehru and Gandhi Ji.
Nehru wanted to elevate Maulana Azad, who was also socialist, as the voice of Indian Muslims, but Gandhiji’s support of Jinnah and the Muslim league undermined this view of Nehru.

1940: Jinnah and the Muslim League also passed the Pakistan resolution in 1940, demanding a separate Muslim nation called Pakistan.

Linlithgow made the august offer to Nehru offering domino status to India in return for support in world war II. The Indian leaders rejected the offer calling it incomplete and vague.

Nehru was arrested for offering individual Satyagraha to protest against India’s forced participation in the war. He was released along with the other leaders in December 1941.

1942: After the failure of Cripps’ mission, Nehru moved the historic ‘Quit India’ resolution at the All India Congress Committee session in Bombay. On August 8, 1942, he was arrested along with other leaders and taken to Ahmednagar Fort. This was the longest and last of his detentions.

1945: He was released in January, after which he organized legal defence for the officers and men of the Indian National Army (INA) charged with treason.

1946: He was elected President of the Congress for the fourth time on July 6, 1946, and again for three more terms from 1951 to 1954.

1946: The Cabinet Mission was sent to India to propose a plan for the transfer of power. An interim government headed by Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister. The Muslim league joined the government later with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance minister.

On August 15, 1947, India and Pakistan were partitioned as two separate independent countries.

Jawaharlal Nehru: The first Prime Minister of India

Jawaharlal Nehru took office as Prime Minister of independent India on 15^th august and his inaugural address is called ‘Tryst with Destiny’.

1947: Nehru declares that no princely state would exist in independent India and that they need to join the constituent assembly. He made Vallabhbai Patel and V.P Menon in charge of integrating the states, in which they were successful.

1950: The new Constitution of India came into force on 26^th January 1950 making India a sovereign democratic republic.

1952: The first elections under the new constitution of India were held. Congress Party under Nehru’s leadership won the elections and formed the first elected government of the Republic of India.

1952-57: Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the states reorganization commission in 1953 to organize states on a linguistic basis. This commission was headed by Justice Fazal Ali. He advocated democratic socialism and encouraged India’s industrialization by implementing the first five-year plans. He attempted to push the development by undertaking both agrarian reforms and industrialization together.

1958-62: The Congress party won the 1957 and later 1962 elections as well. Nehru served as Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms that are for 17 years.

He annexed Goa into India from the Portuguese occupation in 1961 after years of failed negotiations. He was lauded and criticized for the use of force internally and externally.
Sino-Indian War of 1962.

Death of Jawaharlal Nehru

He died due to a heart attack on 27^th May 1964.

Nehru’s legacy

Jawaharlal Nehru conceptualised a secular, industrial and cosmopolitan nation. He introduced the Five-Year plans. With help from Britain, Germany and the erstwhile USSR, he built several steel plants which laid the foundation for India’s industrial infrastructure. During his prime ministership, Russia, a consortium of US universities and Germany helped set up the Indian Institutes of Technology in Bombay, Kanpur and Madras. Several hundreds of schools, colleges, the Indian Institutes of Management, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, National Museum, Sahitya Akademi, Lalit Kala Akademi and other institutions were also set up.

Jawaharlal Nehru was among the international leaders who pioneered the Non-Aligned Movement giving Third World nations an alternative to taking sides with either the Communist bloc or the United States-led Western alliance. Today, Nehru’s entire life conveys to us the message of hope, democracy and a humane world.

Source: Financial Express,