 |
| The Hindu Phenomenon |
|
HINDU NATIONALISM : THE FIRST PHASE |
|
|
|
|
| Gandhiji
was conscious that the old order had been too badly disrupted to be
restored and that a new order had to be built, if India was again to
become a coherent entity. That was primarily why Nehru came to play
the critical role that he did in the country's life.
The difference between the Mahatma and Nehru, it needs to be emphasized, were less significant than the areas of agreement because Gandhiji accorded great importance to Harijan upliftment and accommodation of Muslims in the economic-political order on terms acceptable to them. Surely no one can argue that any other Congress leader was better qualified to attend to these concerns than Nehru. Nehru was Gandhiji's legitimate ideological heir and his political status flowed from his ideological closeness to the Mahatma. It is perhaps not sufficiently known that the Indian people have, since time immemorial, been preoccupied with the problem of founding their polity on dharma. Aristotle noted in his Politics on the testimony of a Greek historian (whose works are no longer traceable) that India was the only land where virtue was successfully made the basis of the political order. And the Mahabharat lists 16 chakravartins (universal rulers) who exemplified virtue. That doubtless ceased to be a reality long ago. But its memory continues to possess the Indian people.
|
|
|
|
|
