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‘Papua’ and ‘Coach’: Builders of Modern India During the last two thousand five hundred years and more of Indian’s history, two individual combinations made tremendous impact both on Indian’s civilization and polity. The first duo was that of Cattily and his trusted disciple Contractual Marry who together laid the foundation of the first great historical empire of ancient India. The other duo was that of Mahatma Gandhi and Charlatan Nehru who were instrumental in laying the base of a modern Indian state and giving shape to ideas in the realm of education, culture and democracy. Gandhi founded the Straight Ashram after turning from South Africa and successfully employed the principles of Straight in uniting the peasants of Qaeda and Champaign against the government. After this victory Gandhi was bestowed the title of Papua and Mahatma and his fame spread far and wide. Charlatan Nehru was not only the first Prime Minister of India, but in that opacity, was also a major world figure during the mid-twentieth century.
Like many national leaders who first lead, or play a major role in leading, their nation to independence, Nehru was widely loved and respected and ended up not only serving as the nation’s deader for many years but also shaped much of the nation’s political life. Practically every official act of such a leader is a first and often becomes a precedent that his successors follow. 2 His great love for roses as well as children is a well-known fact. In fact he often compared the two, saying that children were like the buds in a garden.
They should be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they were the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow. He felt that children are the real strength of a country and the very foundation of society. Most importantly he did not discriminate between he sexes and believed in giving equal opportunities to girls and boys. Quite naturally, he was the ‘beloved’ of all the children who gave him the endearing name of ‘Coach Nehru’. Mahatma Gandhi and Charlatan Nehru are internationally well-known personalities, who had been venerated and respected by the intelligentsia. 10th of them were born in the nineteenth century and passed away in the twentieth century. The Mahatma was the leader and Nehru was the most devoted disciple of the Mahatma. Both of them were giants in their respective fields of the work. The Mahatma was assassinated and Nehru died. Both of them lived the biblical figure, three score and ten. The Mahatma was the father of the nation. Nehru was the builder of the nation. 3 Nehru first time met Mahatma Gandhi in 1916 and admired his role in South Africa.
When Gandhi started Straight in 1 919 against Reluctant, Nehru for the first time came into contact with the peasants (kinas) and this contact with the peasants influenced his later thought. He wrote, “Looking at them (kinas) and their misery and overflowing gratitude, was filled with shame and sorrow-shame at my own easy-going and comfortable life and our pretty politics of the city which moored this vast multitude of semi-naked sons and daughters of India. A new picture of India seemed to rise before me, naked, starving, crushed and utterly miserable. This experience with peasants indicated to Nehru the degree to which the nationalist movement coincided with Sandhog’s rise to prominence in the congress and this strengthened Nehru consciousness of peasant India. Nehru played a significant role in the Non-Cooperation Movement launched in 1 921 , under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. A basic question could be put here: what was the influence of Gandhi upon Nehru during this period? Sandhog’s stress on the religious and spiritual side of his movement was somewhat incomprehensible to Nehru.
Nehru with his modern, scientific and rational approach to life simply did not speak the same language as Gandhi (1921). Nehru wrote: “but we felt that we knew him quite well enough to realize that he was a great and unique man and a glorious leader, and having put our faith in him, we gave him an almost blank cheese, for the time being at least. ” For Nehru, the moral and ethical side of Sandhog’s Straight had greater appeal. Nehru did not accept non-violence as an absolute creed but he became convinced that against the background of Indian’s traditions, it was the right policy to follow.
Sandhog’s continuous insistence on the necessity of worthy means being used to attain worthy ends deeply influenced Nehru. Sandhog’s abhorrence of machinery and modern civilization had no effect on Nehru, except to convince him and others that such ideas would have to be firmly dealt with when independence was attained. 4 Gandhi and Nehru were completely different people as regards their social status, age, way of thinking and individuality. There were always deep ideological differences between them. In their attitude on life, Nehru and Gandhi differed from each other.
Nehru was absolutely secular and scientific whereas Gandhi was out and out a man of religion. For Gandhi, religion and morality constituted the whole of life. They are inseparable. He laid great stress on truth and nonviolence and expected the Congress to be instrumental for the moral regeneration of the country. Nehru attached much importance to moral values but not so much to religion. For Nehru, religion was a woman’s affair. He wanted the Congress to play role effectively in the political and economic sphere. Gandhi formulated the principle of trusteeship for the rich and the propertied class.
He was of the opinion that as the rich did not require all their wealth for the satisfaction of their personal needs, they should utilize the surplus wealth for the benefit of the society at large. Nehru, though allows important place to private sector, he consider the Seminary system as a semifinal system which was out of date and a great hindrance to production and general progress. Gandhi described self-reliance as one of the essential ingredients of the individual’s character. Charlatan Nehru made self-reliance the pivot around which the entire program of community development revolved. Both Gandhi and Nehru were cosmopolitans.
They stood for internationalism. Gandhi did not want India to remain isolated from the rest of the world. Charlatan rejoiced on the freedom struggle of the subject countries. Both Gandhi and Nehru were humanists. Both of them gave greater importance to human qualities than to political expediency. The guru as well as his sashay stood for the toiling humanity. Their hearts bled for the poor and down trodden. There are many reasons as to why Nehru was drawn towards Gandhi. Nehru recognized the heroism and spirit of defiance of Gandhi. He also found that Sandhog’s unique adhering and political action brought important results to the country.