Mainstream WeeklyAccording to the Rashtra Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) the number one enemy is Jawaharlal Nehru, as said by K R Malkani in a letter to the Editor in Times of India. After Modi came to power, he started campaigning against Hehru and his ideas on a regular basis. For eleven years, this campaign has been going on. In New York election politics, Nehru has been quoted, which has brought back Nehru and his ideas to sharp focus in Indian politics. Nehru, as an intellectual giant, cannot be evaluated by these pigmies belonging to Hindutva politics.
Reading and doing research on history was the love for Nehru. He has written on world history to Indian history. His well-written work is Discovery of India which begins with our ancient India when the Aryans came down to the Indo Gangetic belt with their cows and got settled. Many rulers have come to India and got integrated into its soil and worked for the development of India. The best example is the Mughuls who ruled India and never appropriated wealth from here and fled away like the Britishers. British turned into an imperialist force, and Gandhi in his first book Hind Swaraj, brought out the integration of many castes and communities to fight the British, and this continued by Nehru. All these top leaders of India went to jail and lived in jail without any compromise, unlike Savarkar. His love for mass movement against the British was expressed in his Autobiography. All these are historical writings that created monumental works for reading and enjoying history by young minds.
Zohran Mamdani quoted Jawaharlal Nehru in his inaugural address as Mayor in New York, which brought out Nehru as a thinker and a politician into sharp focus. In today’s India, the neo-fascist forces have pushed Nehru to the margins. Modi very often abused Nehru as a thinker. In his first ten years, he tried to undo what Nehru had done by turning things upside down. Most of the public sector industries got sold to Gujaratis, and small players belonging to the RSS have acquired a lot of wealth from the Public sector. Modi is standing naked today as he stands for big business and the RSS, and he has no moral strength to face the ghost of Nehru today. In American politics, people have taken an interest in Nehru as a socialist, and he opposed the fascism of the Italian type. Today in Indian politics, Modi is seen as the other end of what Nehru stood for, an ethical and moral social order where wealth will be produced and distributed among people. Modi is standing opposite to these values.
Nehru’s commitment to secularism was complete. His ideas on separating religion and state were complete. He was very much active in confronting the communal forces. He would get into the meeting of communalists and, with his high moral and intellectual authority, intervene in the meeting and stop the rioting crowd. Furthermore, he took a decision on the women’s rights be it for Hindus or others. The Hindu Marriage Act tried to defend the rights of women in relation to property and marriage, and divorce. He went for the Civil Marriage Act under which girls and boys can marry despite belonging to different faiths.
When fascist forces were at their height and Nehru got an invitation to have a stoppage over in Rome to meet Mussolini, but he refused to do so. Nehru’s democratic consciousness is so deep that he stood with the suffering people of India under the leadership of Gandhi. Both Nehru and Gandhi preferred to stay in jail rather than compromise with British imperialism or fascist forces in Europe. Mamdani looks like anti fascist leader and a giver of hope to counter Trump’s authoritarianism in America
Nehru’s democratic socialism is the most critical point in the present-day thinking, as economic inequality between the top ten per cent and the lower seventy per cent is real and it has widened. Ten per cent of the rich control seventy per cent of resources, whereas seventy per cent of people control only thirty per cent of resources. Here, Nehru spoke of democratic socialism, where the rich had to pay for the poor and their health and education, which are critical today. Nehru built the best educational and scientific public institutions for the common people and who can engage in research work and produce knowledge for social change of our country.
After Mamdani’s arrival on the global scene, specifically in America, one looks for our Mamdani. We looked for a leader with imagination and bravery we found one in Odisha. We found that this discussion is going on in Wire, where they located a young researcher and energetic leader from a common background is Umar Khalid. He is progressive, and Marxist rationality is going to dominate the thinking of the young for the coming years.
Mamdani, a socialist, got elected Mayor of New York and challenged Trump and Modi for his role in the massacre in Gujarat of 2002, cited in the Odiya channel, for his mother Mira Nair’s link with Odisha, which is a good point of reference. But we should be proud of Sophia Firdous, a young MLA from Congress who wants to build libraries and a college in Cuttack. The RSS could not tolerate her leadership and created riots in Cuttack, which had never happened before. We need to stand with her.
Mamdani’s victory in New York revives the language of democracy. What is not the language of democracy: Hindus vs Muslims is not the language of democracy, or Modi uses slanders against Muslims, which is not accepted by any civilised human being. The language of democracy comes up with the violation of human rights by fascist forces, and someone is in jail under the UAPA, which violates the basic human right to life. Right to life under Article 21 says that the right to education and health, and the right to employment all the language of democracy. The right to choose one’s partner is the language of democracy, but love jihad is not the language of democracy.
This language is not used in North India. When Yogi went to Bihar spoke against Muslims. Modi went to Sita Mandir, speaking against the opposition leaders. Neither Modi nor Yogi speaks the language of democracy. They speak the language of a bulldozer, which is against the rule of law. Can we reinvent the language of democracy?
Mamadani brings back the issue of democracy and respect for knowledge and learning; all good and finer things in the life world have to be respected. He is able to confront Trump in a civilised way. There are many Muslim politicians in India belonging to left and liberal parties are speak the same language. It is a very hopeful sign of Indian democracy that there may be many Mamdanis in the making.
(Author: Prof Radhakanta Barik is a former faculty member of the Indian Institute of Public Administration)