| The
Nehru order, however, did not rest on the secular pillar alone. It
would have collapsed long ago if it had. The Nehru structure has
stood mainly on three pillars in conceptual terms - socialism,
secularism and non- alignment - and these concepts have been
interlinked. Nehru's was an integrated worldview. As such, it is
only logical that if one of them becomes dysfunctional,the others
must get into trouble. In my opinion, they have.
Socialism was clearly central to
Nehru's worldview. For, it shaped his views on nationalism,
democracy, secularism and non-alignment as well. Nehru, it may be
recalled, was the first Congress leader to define nationalism in
terms of anti-imperialism and link anti-imperialism to the Soviet
leadership's effort to fight capitalism both at home and abroad. No
significant non-Maexizt Congress leader bought this proposition when
Nehru began to propound it in the twenties because they were opposed
to socialism at home. But they could not produce an alternative
definition of nationalism for the simple reason that they could not
explicitly link it with the country's cultural past for fear of
offending the Muslims. So, finally, Nehru's formulations prevailed.
The triumph became complete when he came to dominate both the ruling
party (after Sardar Patel's death in 1950) and the government and
gave an anti-Western tilt to the country's foreign policy in the
name of non-alignment.
|
