A+| A| A-
Nehru's Legacy
Nehru may not have succeeded in achieving all that he set out to do, but his contributions have been foundational in building India as a secular, democratic republic which would have a socialistic "common sense." Today the Nehruvian ideals and institutions are under threat. A survey of Nehru's life and work argues for the centrality of his contribution to making India the only postcolonial state which experienced democratic development.
This is a revised version of a paper presented at a conference titled “Nehru’s Worldview and His Legacy: Democracy, Inclusion and Empowerment” organised in November 2014 in New Delhi to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Indian nation, or India as we know it today, was “imagined” by the modern national liberation struggle, or the Indian national movement, which emerged in the second half of the 19th century to overthrow British colonial rule. It is this struggle for independence, which created the “Idea of India” (a phrase used by Rabindranath Tagore). Since its formation in 1885 the Indian National Congress took on the leadership of the Indian national movement right up to independence in 1947, bringing under its umbrella various strands of the movement with different political emphasis but all wedded to a common core, which was the Idea of India.
How India was ‘Imagined’
Dear Reader,
Or
To gain instant access to this article (download).
(Readers in India)
(Readers outside India)
