 |
| The Hindu Phenomenon |
|
THE NEHRUVIAN FRAMEWORK |
|
|
|
|
| Thus,
it is possible to think of Hindu self-affirmation and self-renewal
as a process to which Gandhiji and Nehru contributed considerably
and to conclude that L.K.Advani, with his quite but confident
assertion of the primacy of Hindus and Hinduism in India, fits in
this unfolding progression. Advani too can ask Muslims the same
questions Nehru posed at Aligarh in 1948.
The fact that the Nehru order was under strain since the Chinese attack in 1962 and in visible decline in recent years is seldom recalled in the public discourse on the Ramjanambhoomi issue. But that only shows how lopsided the discourses is. The Chinese attack knocked down two myths: one, that communist states do not commit aggression which is supposed to be the peculiarity of imperialism, and two, that the policy of peaceful co-existence could help avoid the need for military preparedness. If it were not for the bitter dispute between the Soviet Union and China, which obliged Moscow to befriend New Delhi, it would have put paid to the policy of non-alignment as such. That, however, only postponed the demise. It materialized in 1989, when the Soviet Union itself disintegrated.
|
|
|
|
|
