The patriarch in the Nehru family in India, Pandit Motilal Nehru, and the patriarch in the Kennedy family in the US Mr Joseph P Kennedy had similar conviction that power could be achieved through wealth. Motilal Nehru had thought about the technique earlier and created a power base for himself by adopting the British style in a land of poverty. He groomed his son to be comfortable under the canopy of the Empire. The senior Nehru knew that considerable advantage could be gained by supporting the British rule.
Mahatma Gandhi's arrival in India and his conviction gained traction among the Nehrus and they converted their views to be in power under the new set up. Jawaharlal Nehru was English-educated and was writing well. He had the right age and temperament. Mahatma Gandhi accepted him as a complement and graduated him as his heir-apparent. Jawaharlal Nehru took the honor of being nominated as the first Prime Minister of free India. After Mahatma Gandhi's assassination the next year, Jawaharlal Nehru ruled India unchallenged until he passed away in 1964.
Jawaharlal Nehru's views on the country was different than what Mahatma Gandhi had. The former had western views and was fascinated by the technological progress in the west. He tried to industrialize India arbitrarily without paying attention to the needs of the people, their education and health care. Farmers left farms and worked in the factories Everybody migrated to the cities, slums developed around the cities. Power was centralized. Bureaucracy led to corruption at every level. Middle men benefited. They helped maintain a corrupt political process.
The new Prime Minister had lost his wife and took his daughter Indira as an escort. In the process, he groomed his daughter to succeed him. She behaved authoritarian and was assassinated by her own guards. Her son Rajiv who had no interest in politics was asked to take over as a part of the dynastic rule. Rajiv was incompetent and he got assassinated. After Rajiv, the economic model had to be reformulated and the Indian economy was decentralized. The dynastic rule continued with Rajiv's wife Sonia calling the shots until the old Congress party was soundly defeated in the elections of 2014. The dynasties die. Power corrupts people. The entire South Asia is reeling through such processes after being destroyed by the foreign rulers.
Jawaharlal Nehru wrote well and spoke his heart. During his detention in British jails in the1930's he compiled a short cultural history of India. Entitled "Discovery of India", it is a good piece of literature and but is not scholarly by any means. Many in new India create a slogan that India had an "excellent past" without researching what the "excellence" was. Language, grammar, music, dance, algebra, astronomy, philosophy and the art of thinking were invented in India. Nobody has taken time to look for the records. Records are hard to find in tropical climates. In colonial times, the British engineered to write India's history to fit their administration. Many still copy those. Jawaharlal Nehru did fall into this trap possibly in ignorance.
The Government of India under Indira Gandhi's administration rule had taken steps to procure land in Mumbai to create a memorial for Jawaharlal Nehru. The Center had created an exhibition based on Jawahalal's book. I have interest in India's cultural history. I wished to learn from the work to help in our efforts of creating a India Discovery Center for the youth and children in Boston. Avenues for cultural education for children are cloaked in religion which is unfortunate. Culture is human existence and human conduct on the earth. The culture is built on well cultivated customs and not on beliefs.
The Center had a good photographic exhibition of the India's freedom struggle based on the life events of Jawaharlal Nehru. Then there was the exhibition with paraphrases from his 1936 book. In the US, they make Presidential libraries which act as time capsules for the era of the person's life. In India there is no other competing narrative or exhibition. Lots of school children were visiting the exhibits because of the school vacation. The assumed history material written in 1936 is not relevant in 2015 with new discoveries in archaeology, anthropology and in social sciences. The principal contention in Indian history is to discover who the Indians were anthropologically and how did they succeed in building the most advanced culture in the world. The only way the British could make themselves relevant was to claim that they were helping India to enter the "new" age from the "old" social customs. While arbitrary customs had developed as a way of survival against centuries of oppression, the basis of the society and conduct was analyzed deeply and is respected universally. The question comes how did the wisdom originate in India or if it was imported. Jawaharlal Nehru through his assumptions took the latter view, which was convenient, but erroneous. Under the influence of the then Soviet Union, there was further attempt to break the fabric of the Indian society. Jawaharlal Nehru lacked the vision that Mahatma Gandhi had. Each country's culture is different. One makes development when all people prosper. It is a difficult task, but we must tell the young children that the country's past scholarship is waiting to be discovered. India is larger than a photograph. The wrapped up vanity betrays India's tradition. I felt annoyed with the organizers and felt that I must talk to the Administration to help edit many exhibits to make them relevant at the current time. India is not a narration, it is an exploration. Every part of the country retains thousands of years art and workmanship. It is a living Museum. It itself is an exhibit to the world. We need not whitewash it, we need encourage youngsters to research, think and expand on human knowledge. Indian knew that human expression is not human language. We do not know how they knew. Human freedom is an expression! It is unshackled and limitless. It is an Indian discovery! Jitendra walks with the support of a cane and does get tired with the stress on his bones. After a couple of hours of walking we thought to quit. It was lunch time.
