Jawaharlal Nehru

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Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru’s Nationalism and his role in the Freedom Movement are closely interrelated, since it was the nature of Nehru’s Nationalist ideas that dictated his course of action in the freedom movement of India. Nehru’s Nationalism: Nehru’s nationalism was not one of mindless jingoism. He was able to reach a common ground between an erudite internationalism and a very keen understanding of the Indian condition. Nehru’s nationalism was marked by a fiery pride in the heritage of the country. But he was willing to temper this pride with his readings and his rationalist views that he received from his Western education in the West.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s role in the freedom movement of India has probably not received as much historical attention as it deserves. That is, of course no surprise, as Jawaharlal Nehru’s astounding success as a statesman who ushered in a new era of international relations through the formation of the NAM, and his stature as the first prime minister of independent India often adumbrate his position as a significant figure in the freedom movement of India. With his charm, highly impressive educational background, and selfless service to the nation, Nehru presented the face of a new and active India to thousands of Indians who looked up to him as a role model and a guide.

Early Years of Nehru in the Freedom Movement of India:

Jawaharlal Nehru was born into politics. His father Motilal Nehru was a veteran Congressman and committed to the cause of India’s freedom for a very long time. Nehru spent much of his educational years in England studying first at Harrow and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. However, the freedom of India was always on his mind. It was therefore no surprise that after his return from the British shores in 1912, the job of a lawyer was the last of Nehru’s priorities. As a student he already felt himself closely attached to the cause India’s freedom, and had his sympathies with the Extremist leaders of Congress. After his return, he involved himself directly into the political scenario of the country.

However, Nehru was still comparatively without a firm direction in these early years, not sure which path was the right path that would lead towards India’s freedom. His father’s moderate ideologies and elitist way of life disturbed him, as he thought him, like many other Congressmen of his generation, to be much dissociated from the ground realities of the land and the lives of the common people of India. He also realized that the direct application of Socialist measures would not suit India’s socio-economic profile. It was at that time that he found a direction in the mode of civil resistance as preached by Gandhi. Gandhi’s success in Champaran and Ahmedabad renewed and established his belief in Satyagraha. He was not slow to adopt the cultural aspects of Satyagraha as well. He read the Indian scriptures of India, and dressed in home-spun clothes becoming a staunch Gandhian in all senses. Motilal and his entire family adopted the Gandhian way of life. Nehru traveled across India, and was warmly received by the masses. This filled him with a renewed sense of self-confidence. It was time he decided to whole-heartedly commit himself to the cause of Indian freedom.

Jawaharlal Nehru and the Non-Cooperation Movement:

The first big involvement of Jawaharlal Nehru came at the onset of the noncooperation movement in 1920. Nehru joined in whole-heartedly in this Satyagraha based movement that stormed India. Nehru was arrested on charges of anti governmental activities and was released a few months later. In the rift formed within the Congress following the sudden closure of the non-cooperation movement after the Chauri Chaura incident, Nehru remained loyal to Gandhi’s camp and denied to join the Swaraj Party formed by Motilal Nehru and CR Das. After his release, Nehru’s fame as a dynamic Congress leader was well-established. He soon became the President of the Allahabad Congress Committee in 1923. However, towards the end of the decade, Nehru grew increasingly impatient with the pacifist nature of the senior Congressman. Along with Subhas Chandra Bose, Nehru was intent on complete freedom and believed in giving an ultimatum to the British Government to grant India dominion status. The senior leaders were bent on a slower and more patient approach. The Calcutta Congress of 1928 brought the rift into the open. Jawaharlal openly decried the Nehru Commission framed by Motilal Nehru, and it needed the intervention of Mahatma Gandhi to persuade Nehru to abandon his fiery stance of more direct action.

Nehru and the Civil Disobedience Movement:

The Lahore Congress of 1929 was monumental in the political career of Nehru as well as the history of India’s freedom struggle. Nehru was elected the president of Congress for the first time at a young age of forty. He used the platform of the Lahore conference to declare the goal of complete freedom or Purna Swaraj. The Civil Disobedience movement was formally launched after the Lahore Congress, and Nehru whole heartedly plunged himself in the non-violent protests and picketing that took the nation by storm. Nehru was arrested again in 1930, beginning the second and the longest phase of his prison stays. On his release, he formed the Socialist party within the Congress and insisted on more stern and immediate measures to realize the goal of India’s freedom.

Nehru and the last days of Indian Freedom Struggle:

The Government of India Act of 1935 called for nation-wide elections. Nehru campaigned vigorously for Congress, although he himself did not contest directly in the elections. With Gandhi concentrating on the spiritual development of his followers and gradually dissociating himself from direct political action, the stature of Nehru within the Congress ranks was now more than ever. He became the Congress President in the consecutive years of 1936 and 1937.By 1938, the rift in Congress was clear. With Bose and Gandhi forming the two feuding camps, Nehru was once more faced with a political dilemma. However, he decided to side with Gandhi and his methods. Bose resigned as the Congress president, and Nehru’s status in the Congress reached a height previously unattained. This year started a new phase in Nehru’s career, especially after his denial to come to a compromise with the Muslim League.

With the clouds of World War II looming large in the horizon, Nehru’s skill in international relations would be tested once more. Nehru did not support Bose’s policy of siding with the Axis forces, and intended to extend support to the Allies. In the mean time, the Second Round Table conference failed and Gandhi launched the Quit India movement in 1942. Nehru was arrested and was released only in 1945. By the time the World War II was over and the new Labor Government of Britain seemed willing to grant India it’s long deserved freedom. However, the British Government wanted to adopt a policy of waiting and watching the result of the general elections of 1945.

Nehru was once again at the center of activities. He was arrested. His refusal to comply with Jinnah’s claims made partition inevitable, as Jinnah called for direct action. Although his fight for Indian freedom stood on the verge of success, Nehru knew his work was far from over. He had to build a new India and had to guide the nascent economy towards success.

Nehru and Socialism

  • It is well known that Nehru was vehemently opposed to doctrinaire Socialism, but for almost half a century he was trying to formulate a set of mutually consistent principles and ideas, which, if adopted as a whole, would ensure a socialist reconstruction of society through the democratic process, rather than insurrectionary violence or a cataclysm, and without democracy being undermined in the process of achieving the goal.
  • To him the question of method was more important than anything else.
  • When some people lost their patience with Nehru’s reference to the ‘pragmatic approach’, they hardly appreciated his anxiety to take account of the compulsions in the objective situation in India, which make radical economic transformation impossible for various reasons, including the lag in social transformation.
  • Any general attack on the problem of poverty, any movement in the direction of an egalitarian society, any basic change in the socio-economic institutions concerning the masses of the population, requires the agency and support of a political organisation like the Indian National Congress, which is India in microcosm with its divergent pulls of ideas and interests.
  • Any one who thinks of Nehru in the context of Socialism would do well to study how he tried to influence this peculiar political organisation in favour of broad and simple ‘socialistic’ principles which have become accepted principles of democracy in capitalist countries with free enterprise economies.
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