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Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was
essentially a humanist. What is the meaning and
significance of the expression humanist? It
signifies a person who talks of human beings, his
difficulties, problems, worries and anxieties above
all the trappings of society and civilization. When
he thinks of the masses, he does not think of an
amorphous whole, but of the individuals that
constitute the whole. Nehru was a democrat not for
any ideological reasons but because democracy
essentially gives to the individual his self-respect
and a realisation of his value as a separate
personality and makes him feel that he is equal with
the highest in the land. He was also a rationalist,
because he realized that men rely on the
supernatural to solve their problems when these
should be solved by their own effort and free will.
And finally Nehru believed in the human spirit as
being capable of transcending all obstacles that
stand in the way of man’s supremacy over his
environment, the materialism and the sense of
inevitability that makes him become a conformist to
the powerful forces that dominate the world.
Fresh from Cambridge where Nehru had seen the might
of the British Empire and realised that London was
the hub of the universe and having tasted the luxury
and refinement and intellectual fervour of a famous
university, he came face to face in his own country
with the crushing poverty and fatalistic resignation
of his own people.
Nehru really discovered India, at least India of the
peasants, who always remained in his thought, in the
summer of 1920 when he visited the country side of
Partapgarh district and first met the kisans. There
is a movingly evocative note in his description of
that first encounter in his Autobiography: “Looking
at them and their misery and overflowing gratitude,
I was filled with shame and sorrow, shame at my own
easy-going and comfortable life and our petty
politics of the city which ignored this vast
multitude of semi-naked sons and daughters of India,
sorrow at the degradation and overwhelming poverty
in India. A new picture of India seemed to rise
before me, naked, starving, crushed and utterly
miserable. And their faith in us, casual visitors
from the distant city, embarrassed me and filled me
with a new responsibility that frightened me”.
When India became free Nehru initiated several
measures to improve the lot of Indian farmers. The
Zamindari System was abolished and land reforms were
effected. For all round development of the country
economic planning was started in 1951 and Community
Development Programmes in 1952.
Nehru looked at religion as a rationalist. In his
article “Religion, Philosophy and Science” Nehru
says “Religion, though it has undoubtedly brought
comfort to innumerable human beings and stabilized
society by its values, has checked the tendency to
change and progress inherent in human society”.
As a democrat Nehru was mainly instrumental in
introducing adult-suffrage and thereby creating the
largest electorate in the world. He was always
receptive to the opposition and imparted dignity and
prestige to Parliament. He had full faith in the
independent judiciary. He realized that as a
humanist he had to respect the rule of law which is
the basis of every civilized society and which gives
to the individual citizen the sense of security and
pride resulting from equality before the law and the
equal application of law to the highest as well as
the lowest. Nehru was champion of freedom of the
press. He firmly believed that free press is sine
qua non of the democratic set-up of the country.
Nehru as a humanist, believed that there was no
dispute which could not be solved at a conference
table. He realized the misery and untold sufferings
which war brings in its trail.
As a nationalist – Nehru saw India as a whole and
its people, with all their differences as sharing a
common heritage and tradition inherited down the
centuries.
Nehru will live in history not only as a great Prime
Minister, as a great fighter for the cause of
freedom and human dignity but also as a man who
never wielded power, as the humanist in him always
prevailed.
*Freelance Writer
Disclaimer : The views expressed by the author in
this feature are entirely his own and do not
necessarily reflect the views of PIB
RTS/VN
SS-129/SF/129/13.11.2009
**Freelance Writer
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