Nehru’s IndiaPart IILecture 5

Prof Prerna Singh

The Constituent Assembly of India

Nehru’s India Structure of the Indian State: Federalism Establishment of Democracy Routinization of Democracy Foreign Affairs

Assessing Nehru Nehru’s Legacy

Administrative divisions in British India

Languages of India

Link between Language & Nationalism… German Romanticism of the Late 18th-Early 19th Centuries

Johann Gottfried Herder

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

“Has a nationality anything dearer than the speech of its fathers? … A nation without its own language ‘is an absurdity, a contradiction in terms” ”

Language is the “spiritual exhalation” of the nation

“Its language is its spirit and its spirit is its language”

“Men are formed by language far more than language is formed by men”

Language 83%

Religious12%

Race6%

"Ethnonationalist" Groups in the Minorities at Risk

(MAR) Project

Agitation for Linguistic States in India 1950s-

Potti Sriramulu: Fast unto death for the creation of Andhra Pradesh

Administrative divisions prior to 1956

Agitation for Linguistic States in India 1950s-

Potti Sriramulu

States Reorganization Commission

States Reorganization Commission

The States Reorganisation Commission held its first meeting on February 12, 1954.

States Reorganization Commission

The States Reorganisation Commission held its first meeting on February 12, 1954.

1954-55: • visited 104 towns and cities

• interviewed more than 9000 people • received over 150,000 written submissions

States Reorganization Commission

The States Reorganisation Commission held its first meeting on February 12, 1954.

Linguistic Reorganization of Indian States

“Rules” for States Reorganization:

No secessionist demand would be entertained.

No automatic granting of statehood on the basis of language – there needed to exist substantial popular demand.

Only demands for linguistic states. No other ethnic basis. Specially not religion.

How States Strengthen… through pressure, persuasion and at

times, coercion

through concessions Concession from position of power Concession from position of vulnerability

Establishment of Democracy

Election Commission of India

176 million Indians;

85% cannot read or write;

Spread over 1 million square miles

Elections in 12 months!!

Voter Registration

Educating the Public

Design of Party Symbols, Ballot papers, Ballot Boxes for a mostly illiterate population

India circa 1950:Tasks before a New Democracy

Election Symbols: India

India circa 1950:Tasks before a New Democracy

Voter Registration

Educating the Public

Design of Party Symbols, Ballot papers, Ballot Boxes for a mostly illiterate population

Polling Booths Polling Officers

Security

Voter Fraud Election Commissioners

Afghanistan, Iraq, circa 2010:Tasks before a New Democracy

Voter Registration

Educating the Public

Design of Party Symbols, Ballot papers, Ballot Boxes for a mostly illiterate population

Polling Booths Polling Officers

Security

Voter Fraud Election Commissioners

Election Symbols: India

Election Symbols: Afghanistan, 2009

Routinization of Democracy Founding elections worked Extent of Official Commitment Extent of Popular Commitment Turnout

Nehru with Jackie Kennedy Nehru with Eisenhower

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs Nehru retained Foreign Affairs portfolio Making India’s presence felt in the world Independent Foreign Policy

Non-Aligned Movement

Nehru with Tito and Nasser at Non-Aligned Movement Meeting, 1955

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs Nehru retained Foreign Affairs portfolio Making India’s presence felt in the world Independent Foreign Policy

Non-Aligned Movement Asian Resurgence

Foreign Affairs Nehru retained Foreign Affairs portfolio Making India’s presence felt in the world Independent Foreign Policy

Non-Aligned Movement Asian Resurgence

Support people’s struggle across the world “People of Africa deserve our special

consideration for probably no other people in the world have suffered so much and have been exploited so much”.

Foreign Affairs Nehru retained Foreign Affairs portfolio Making India’s presence felt in the world Independent Foreign Policy

Non-Aligned Movement Asian Resurgence

Support people’s struggle across the world “People of Africa deserve our special consideration

for probably no other people in the world have suffered so much and have been exploited so much”.

Tibet

Assessing Nehru Nehru as Architect of Modern India State-led Economic Development

Focus on Industry, Science & Technology Neglect of Agriculture Focus on Higher Education Neglect of Primary Education

Neglect of Social Development

India’s prominence in Global Politics Greatest Failure: Defeat in Sino-Indian War Domestic Implications: Guns over Butter

Nehru’s Legacy Established State at Core of Indian

Society Accommodated ethnic diversity and

demands but crucially, without sacrificing a centralized national state.

Molded key institutions – legislative, executive, judiciary.

Establishment and Routinization of Democracy

Nehru’s Legacy

Great leader…But… too great?

Nehru vs. Gandhi

Nehru with daughter, Indira Gandhi and grandson, Rajiv Gandhi

Nehru as human