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This is a fluff piece on a man who was a pox on India's political development in its nascent years. Nehru in addition to being a dynast who doled out plum posti

This is a fluff piece on a man who was a pox on India's political development in its nascent years. Nehru in addition to being a dynast who doled out plum postings to his family and friends, Nehru was illiberal beyond belief [2]. He gave his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit, the posting as India's Ambassador to the UN, when she had no diplomatic experience or formal education. Wikipedia's list of banned books shows that Nehru and his daughter, Indira, were the most prolific banners of books. Nehru's reign saw over 14 books banned or roughly 1 every year. [1] Since his daughters murder in 1984, by Sikh extremists, whose movement she had originally funded to topple rivals, the pace of banning has notably slowed down. Only 5 books were banned since 1984, 3 for critiquing Islam (including the Satanic Verses) and one for a critiquing some Hindu saints and one by Seymour Hersh, a known political conspiracy theorist. Amazingly, no books have been banned since 2014, the year Narendra Modi took power. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_in_India [2] https://www.firstpost.com/india/nehru-was-liberal-no-doubt-b https://www.firstpost.com/india/nehru-was-liberal-no-doubt-b...

newyankee 4y ago
Vijaylaxmi Pandit was the same person who took ahead Nehru's ideas of Hindi - Chini bhai bhai (Indians and Chinese are brothers) when China never reciprocated and instead backstabbed India. Some of Nehru's notable achievements: 1. Not moving fast enough on Kashmir issue after instrument of accession signed by Maharaj Harisingh. If not for Sardar Patel, there would have been multiple festering issues with other areas as well. 2. Creating a political legacy of family and cronies only. 3. Setting up of a license permit raj which held back Indian economic development for decades.
- hunter-2 4y ago
  Wish we scrutinized our living leaders as much as we scrutinize those long dead and gone
- haltingproblem 4y ago
  The Chinese backstabbing story seems more farfetched the more I dig into it. A lot of it might just have been Nehru's misreading from his self-indentified perch as an "elder statesman" and "bhai bhai" thing was a delusion manufactured in his head. In his defense, it seems that other PMs like Modi don't seem immune to a special feeling towards the Chinese. Both Doklam and the recent skirmishes at Pagong lake have proved that in Modi's case. Condescension was also a specialty of Nehru given his upbringing and that might have played a role. Nehru condescended to those he did not considered polished enough - be they Indian or Chinese. In Gentlemen Spymaster, RN Kao's quotes an interesting incident which lends credence to this: "‘This was my first presence at an international meet and I was impressed with the solemnity of the occasion and the gravity which seemed to hang in the air. At that time, China had not widely been accepted as a respectable member of the international comity of nations, and as we (India) were one of the few countries that had established diplomatic relations with China, Prime Minister Nehru had taken upon himself the responsibility of introducing Zhou Enlai on the world scene. Or, at least, so he thought. In later years, I learned that Zhou Enlai had mentioned to some reporter that he had not met anyone as arrogant as Jawaharlal Nehru and in support of his statement, he had said that it was incredibly presumptuous on the part of the Prime Minister of India to have introduced the Prime Minister of China on the world scene. Well, whatever Zhou’s ego might have been, the fact of the matter is Nehru did help China to gain recognition in the international field. In fact, in that process, we (India) earned a lot of odium,’ Kao observed."

newyankee 4y ago

Vijaylaxmi Pandit was the same person who took ahead Nehru's ideas of Hindi - Chini bhai bhai (Indians and Chinese are brothers) when China never reciprocated and instead backstabbed India. Some of Nehru's notable achievements: 1. Not moving fast enough on Kashmir issue after instrument of accession signed by Maharaj Harisingh. If not for Sardar Patel, there would have been multiple festering issues with other areas as well. 2. Creating a political legacy of family and cronies only. 3. Setting up of a license permit raj which held back Indian economic development for decades.

hunter-2 4y ago
Wish we scrutinized our living leaders as much as we scrutinize those long dead and gone
haltingproblem 4y ago
The Chinese backstabbing story seems more farfetched the more I dig into it. A lot of it might just have been Nehru's misreading from his self-indentified perch as an "elder statesman" and "bhai bhai" thing was a delusion manufactured in his head. In his defense, it seems that other PMs like Modi don't seem immune to a special feeling towards the Chinese. Both Doklam and the recent skirmishes at Pagong lake have proved that in Modi's case. Condescension was also a specialty of Nehru given his upbringing and that might have played a role. Nehru condescended to those he did not considered polished enough - be they Indian or Chinese. In Gentlemen Spymaster, RN Kao's quotes an interesting incident which lends credence to this: "‘This was my first presence at an international meet and I was impressed with the solemnity of the occasion and the gravity which seemed to hang in the air. At that time, China had not widely been accepted as a respectable member of the international comity of nations, and as we (India) were one of the few countries that had established diplomatic relations with China, Prime Minister Nehru had taken upon himself the responsibility of introducing Zhou Enlai on the world scene. Or, at least, so he thought. In later years, I learned that Zhou Enlai had mentioned to some reporter that he had not met anyone as arrogant as Jawaharlal Nehru and in support of his statement, he had said that it was incredibly presumptuous on the part of the Prime Minister of India to have introduced the Prime Minister of China on the world scene. Well, whatever Zhou’s ego might have been, the fact of the matter is Nehru did help China to gain recognition in the international field. In fact, in that process, we (India) earned a lot of odium,’ Kao observed."