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| The Hindu Phenomenon |
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THE NEHRUVIAN FRAMEWORK |
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| Typically,
Nehru skirts inconvenient issues. He does not tell us why the
Christian-Muslim encounter did not lead to a synthesis despite the
common Semitic origins of the two faiths, or how Hindus and Muslims
could move towards one if both were truly closed systems, or why
Hindus shrank into their shell before the onslaught of Islam since
they had not faced a hostile civilization earlier. He also uses the
wrong concept of tolerance in relation to Hindus and Hinduism in
place of the proper one, which is comprehensive or
all-embracing' or total. Hindus were amazingly tolerant
because their dharma (worldview) provided for every possible
expression of the human spirit and indeed they so remained in spite
of their decline for centuries for the same reason.
We can, however, let all that pass.
The statement is notable for us, on the one hand, for his admission
that the Hindu-Muslimconflict had not been resolved when the British
arrived on the sense to produce new complications, and, on the
order, for its diagnosis of the cause of the Hindu decline and the
cure. Nehru, as is well Known, generally avoided the first and was
preoccupied with the second problem. The same, incidentally, was
true of the Mahatma, with the difference that while he saw a
resolution of the problem in social reform, with heavy emphasis on
removal of untouchability, Nehru regarded the development of science
and technology through the mediation of a strong state and contact
with the West, which for him included the Soviet Union, as the key
to India's future.
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| About The Nehruvian Framework |
