24. Jawaharlal Nehru : What He Symbolised
TODAY, WE ARE meeting to commemorate a great man. Greatness is not an abstract concept. In most cases, one can define it quite categorically, in terms of a number of identifiable attributes, vision, idealism, intellect, imagination, generosity and compassion. Panditji was a man of several dimensions. Many amongst us, who were his followers in the struggle for freedom were more acquainted with that aspect of his personality which concerned statecraft; we came to know directly Nehru, the great political leader and statesman. But that revealed only a part of his being. Other facets of his personality were equally striking. He was an idealist, a historian and a scientist, an administrator and the friend of children, a free thinker and a socialist. It is the thrill of discovering the immense diversities of this great man that kept us enthralled. The nobility was his, the pride was — and is — ours, the pride of knowing the man, the pride of having the fortune of belonging to the generation which was inspired and led by Nehru.
In his restless endeavours toward building the nation in the post-independence phase, the multiple facets of his personality used to shine in splendour. He was a socialist, a radical economic planner; and his radicalism had its roots in both intellectual conviction and a deep sensitivity of mind. But he was no ordinary partisan. Socialist beliefs notwithstanding, his predilection for independence of thought and mode of action, he could not and would not forsake. It was the growing encroachment on the free expression of ideas in the so-called free world in the immediate post-war period which aroused his passion and shaped his views on how India should face the world. There was a certain closing of windows following the war; the shutters came down, mutual suspicion multiplied, impatience supplanted all urge for understanding other people's point of view. This was a most unfortunate development which in its train led to a large number of sad and tragic events. Even today, we are more or less recovering from the consequences of some of these events. The raising of barriers — artificial, crude barriers, often reinforced by irrational prejudices — repulsed Nehru. His own personal philosophy — which largely shaped our foreign policy — emerged as an attempt to raise the banner of protest against the growing manifestation of pride and prejudice in international relations. The fear of one's neighbour, the fear of being exposed to other ideas, the fear of unfettered communications represented the very negation of liberal political and economic thought. What worried Panditji was a particular type of fetishism — in the name of maintaining the sanctity of cultural as well as political freedom, the closing of one's mind to developments taking place elsewhere in the world. Those who were supposed to believe in free political institutions became the leading exponents of witch-hunt; those who swore by laissez faire in economics became the most vociferous in demanding the severance of economic relations with countries having a different economic and political base.
