Nehru's Faith

Author(s): Sunil Khilnani

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Nov. 30 - Dec. 6, 2002, Vol. 37, No. 48 (Nov. 30 -
Dec. 6, 2002), pp. 4793-4799
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

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 Special articles

Nehru's Faith
When religion is being held up as a unique source of faith, we need to remind ourselves that
there are other firm foundations upon which we can build moral and ethical projects, in both
private and public life. If secularism, as we have recently been told, has multiple meanings, so
too does faith. In our own recent history, there is perhaps no better practical instance of the
effort to find a non-religious bedrock for morality than that of Nehru himself.
Today, as we survey the shattered nationalisms of the Balkans, as we feel collapsing about us
the ruins of Arab nationalism, as we see the precipice on which nations like Indonesia
balance, it is more important than ever to see the force of what Nehru understood. It is
exactly religion's persistence, its fulsome presence as we stumble into the new century that, far
from undermining or disproving the force of Nehru's views on the subject, exactly underline
their relevance and resonance for us today. On this particular point, he just was right.

SUNIL KHILNANI

remind ourselves that there are other firm for one's commitments and moral beliefs.
foundations upon which we can build moral This, I shall suggest, captures the meaning
'" R eligion", Nehru wrote to Gandhi and ethical projects, in both private and of Nehru's faith: reason, and the processes
in 1933, "is not familiar ground public life. If secularism, as we have of reasoning, are the greatest resources we
.. ^L. for me, and as I have grown older, recently been told, has multiple meanings, have through which to create and sustain
I have definitely drifted away from it. I so too does faith. In our own recentour moral imagination. I would like to
have something else in its place, some- history, there is perhaps no better practical
suggest further that Nehru's overriding
thing older than just intellect and reason, instance of the effort to find a non-religious
importance for us at this point in our great
which gives me strength and hope. Apart bedrock for morality than that of Nehru democratic experiment rests not in his
from this indefinable and indefinite urge, himself. obvious historical significance in India's
which may have just a tinge of religion in Unusually for a politician, Nehru national
was a story; rather, it lies in his intel-
it and yet is wholly different from it, I have man of deeply held moral convictions: he and political understanding, in his
lectual
grown entirely to rely on the workings of believed in the moral life as sustaining struggles, not always successful, to try to
base public life on a reasoned morality.
the mind. Perhaps they are weak supports not just private life, but also as necessary
It has of late become fashionable to
to rely upon, but, search as I will", "I can for the living of any kind of political life.
see no better ones".I What I would like Yet he never placed his faith in religion. attack reason. In many intellectual circles,
to do this evening is to ask what gave Famously, he wrote in his Autobiography reason is portrayed as an ill-effect of the
Nehru - a man whose political career of how what he called "organised religion" Enlightenment, a banner marking the
spanned a long history of expectation, filled him "with horror...almost always it
imperium of western theories and assump-
achievement and disappointment, and took seemed to stand for a blind belief and tions, an imperium oblivious to cultural
differences and diversities. The rise of
in the highest and lowest points of India's reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition
20th century history - 'strength and hope' ? and exploitation" (p 374). If he was critical
postmodernism and the expanding claims
What were the 'workings of the mind' of organised religion, he did on the other of contemporary religion are by no means
upon which he grew to rely, on which he hand have empathy for the ethical and directly connected; but they are also not
rested his faith? entirely unlinked. At a time when our
spiritual dimensions of religion. As Nehru
By speaking of Nehru's faith, my inten- wrote while in Ahmadnagar jail, "Some universities are being encouraged to pro-
tions are not purely historical' I wish to kind of ethical approach to life has a strong
duce postgraduates with degrees in astro-
recover faith's primary meaning: trust or appeal for me" (Discovery of India, p 12), logy, it may seem misplaced to offer a
confidence, unshakeable belief or convic- and that ethical approach, and its sources, defence of reason. The political landscape
tion - meanings that do not necessarily he discovered in the disciplined exercise today seems to have become the territory
imply a religious sense. It is crucial to do of his mind. Reason was not merely an of the non-rational: populated by new
this, at a moment when our ideas of faith instrument by which to accomplish goals:
claims to selfhood - couched in terms of
are in danger of becoming unnecessarily through reasoning, moral ends and goals religion, nation, tribe, culture - all ready
to use violence to assert their desires.
restricted. When religion is being held up were themselves determined, and by rea-
Reason seems somehow disarmed.
as a unique source of faith, we need to soning for oneself one took responsibility

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 In the face of this, we need to find ways materially powerful forms, as scientific "the workings of the mind" as he had put
to reassert a faith in reason. This will mean reason (the project of trying to bend theit - reasoning through the gloom, could
first and necessarily having to see reason natural world to human purposes), or not as be given up: the true failure of faith,
in a more complex light, not as a smiling the real moral collapse, would be to give
social reason (the project of trying to use
rationalism or belief in human perfectibi- human institutions - above all, the stateup one's faith in reason.
lity. "Perfection", Nehru wrote, "is beyond - to remake society), reason was a tool forIf it is unusual to considerpolitical leaders
us for it means the end, and we are always altering the natural and human worlds, for from this point of view, it is perhaps because
journeying, trying to approach something we have become too accustomed to think-
better or ill. Yet this tactical aspect did not
that is ever receding. And in each one of exhaust the resources of reason. Reason
ing of them simply as professionals pur-
us are many different human beings with could be used to sustain raw power, Nehru
suing a career - their declared ideology or
their inconsistencies and contradictions, saw, but it could also be used as a way beliefs may be of interest, but their moral
each pulling in a different direction" of creating an ethics, sustaining a moral
character rarely intrigues us. We have come
(Discovery of India, p 496). It is precisely imagination. He saw too that reason was to assume that a politician is effective to
because of this - our human contrariness not a western import - there was a long the extent that he or she is single-minded
- that we need a capacity like reason toand refined Indian history of reasoned in the pursuit of power, that he should be
help find a way out of the dark, bothargument, about ethical life and action. adept at criticising others, never himself.
individually and collectively. A faith in The act of reasoning about history and But anyone who chooses the political life
reason comes not from a sense of the experience was a way of discovering moralhas a moral and intellectual responsibility
simplicity of the human mind andtruths: its to be self-critical, to examine coldly their
through such testing and question-
motivating passions, but from a regarding, own commitments and choices. That
forpersonal identity was shaped, and moral
its mysteries. commitments were discovered. To put it
morality might have a place in the political
Nehru's own understanding of reason differently, moral commitments and life be- is perhaps an unhinged thought today,
was complex and subtle: more so than is had to be argued for, they had towhen
liefs be politics has become a profession
recognised either by his advocates or by up to the harsh light of history rather
held and than a vocation. Yet in the absence
his critics; and it was forged in circum- experience. They could not be taken for of such a perspective, Nehru's career makes
stances that resonate with our own: in little sense: what makes him interesting as
granted, accepted simply because laid down
times when reason seemed in retreat, in notreligious edicts or texts, or sanctioned
a politician, what sets him apart, is his
at the helm - in the 1930s and 1940s, as by traditions. It was precisely because constant probing of how to combine the
fascism was ravaging Europe and religious morality was accessible to reason that moral
it life with the political life. He was
chauvinism was splintering India. Self- was possible to bring others over to one'sa deeply considered person: by some way
proclaimed Nehruvians, who have triedbeliefs to - by hearing and acknowledging the most complex whole-cloth politician
subsume his thinking under such phrases opposing views, and by offering one's that India has ever had.
as 'the scientific temper', and equally thoseinterlocutors reasons to believe, by con- If Nehru was unusual as a politician in
who criticise Nehru, for what they have vincing them. the depth of his moral commitments, it is
called his 'rational monism', both miss Nehru lived through, with varying dis- necessary also to see how he was entirely
what is truly distinctive about Nehru's tance, some of the darkest periods ordinary,
of in ways that Gandhi for instance
thinking. Nehru's faith in reason did not 20th century history, perhaps of human was not. Gandhi was unique: he developed
lead him to an easy belief that history was history: the first and second world wars, extraordinary qualities of character, inten-
on the side of reason: he was without the the Holocaust, the Atom bomb, the Par- sities of self-denial that seem almost freak-
rationalist's faith that reason's historical tition of India. For someone as sensitive ish. Nehru was not like that: he was, in
triumph was guaranteed. He saw it, as we an important sense, like any one of us -
as he was to history and the historical past,
ought to, as a fragile intellectual project;this inevitably shadowed his sense of what teeming with human appetites, often be-
and in relation to a life, it represented thewas prospectively humanly possible. wildered by life's choices, self-doubting,
attempt to hold within a mind the range Tagore and Gandhi both in later life ended indecisive, short-tempered, needy, some-
of considerations on how to live. times downcast. Unlike Gandhi, he set
with pessimistic and fatalistic views about
himself no superhuman moral feats. But
the human future. Tagore, in his late essay,
In recent years, figures like Gandhi, Patel,
Bose, and Tagore all have benefited from 'The Crisis in Civilisation', gave elegantlike Gandhi, he possessed a remarkable
more nuanced interpretations of their life vent to his pessimism, while Gandhi's steadfastness of faith: his own faith. Nehru
and work. Nehru, on the other hand, has fatalism was visible in his growing dis- tried to use, to the utmost, that capacity
been treated to simplifications that border all of us have: the capacity to reason.
tance, in the last years of his life, from the
political sphere and his withdrawal to a
on caricature - passed off as a mouthpiece
for a one-dimensional view of science, and
realm of private moral experimentation, in II
of a vacuous universalism. This actually
order to test and strengthen his faith in god.
says more about our own times, our hopesNehru's destiny was quite other: he wasFrom the late 19th century onwards, all
hurled into the ruckus of politics. Put Indian
and fears, than it does about the period and in thinkers and political figures faced
man it claims to illuminate: almost as if command of a state, he had to act - during a fundamental problem. How to discover
it is a way of helping us deal with our and after Partition - in circumstances where
or devise some coherent, shared norms -
disappointments and frustrations over whatviolence and hatred had burst known values and commitments - that could
our country might be. bounds, and reason fled the scene. Whatconnect Indians together under modern
Nehru certainly recognised the instru-
kept him going was a conviction that conditions,
even that could define a public sphere
mental power of reason. In its two most for Indians?
in the darkest times, intellectual inquiry -

4794 Economic and Political Weekly November 30, 2002

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 This wider and deeper theme of our of specific contexts in which one had prac- If we treat these thinkers as remarkable
intellectual and political history has too tically to act. merely within the context of Indian his-
often been subsumed within the story of No doubt Tagore, Gandhi and Nehrutory, we do them and ourselves an injus-
nationalism - as the search for what could represent a broad and diverse set of
tice. Their arguments, both in their content
unite Indians in terms of a common iden- positions, and they frequently disagreed.
and in the way they conducted them, address
tity. Yet, as the question to which nation-But together, they are the most notable more general problems - not least, the
alism was a response has receded, as we examples in our history of the effort toproblem of how to construe the relation
are faced with the fundamental and routine invent a modem ethics for Indians and between political power and the presence
questions of political life lived anywhere India. Their intellectual energies in partof multiple faiths. We tend to assume that
and at any time- how can we create and drew upon and were directed towards universalist
a claims and ideas are a feature
sustain a moral public life? - we need tocommon predicament, a commonly felt set only of western theories. In fact the vari-
recover this other history, to reconstruct of challenges: how, in what form, can ous,
a differing universalisms of the 20th
its shape. moral and integrated life be lived undercentury generated by the Indian tradition
What we find in Tagore, in Gandhi, in modem conditions, where political power of public reason are arguably better tuned
Nehru, (as well as in many others: I have is concentrated in the state, but where to today's disjointed world: they are more
chosen to focus on these three because sensitive to the claims of diversity in the
beliefs are multiple and diverse across the
they lend themselves most clearly to the society? What was the relationship construction of a moral public life.
argument I wish to make), in their self- between morality and personal identity?
criticisms as well as in their critical debates
How could public norms of morality be III
with one another, is a search for a modem agreed upon? Where, to what sources
should one turn in order to devise moral
morality. They sought principles and prac- I have so far assumed commonalities
tices through which Indians could engage
forms of public action? What could ensurebetween Tagore, Gandhi and Nehru, in
that the institutions of modem politics -order to locate them in a single tradition
in the public political life to which they
the state - would pursue moral ends byof what one might call public reason. I
were now, through the presence of a state,
necessarily condemned and committed. moral means? It is the driving presence want now to suggest some of the ways in
Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru: each representsof
anthis quest in their thinking whichwhich they disagreed with one another,
important moment in the making of a
marks out all three as more than merelyand so to bring out what was distinctive
nationalist thinkers: as men who tried to
tradition of public reason - the creation about Nehru's faith.
of an intellectual space which allowed find the basis for a universalist morality What sets Tagore and Gandhi apart from
and politics.
morals and ethics, and the political choices other Indians who wished to root public
these entailed, to be debated, revised, All three saw the extent to which politics morals in religion was their recognition
decided upon. At its best moments, was thegoing to become increasingly impor- that no religion taken in its traditional
arguments and ideas generated quite tant ex- in India: how it was becoming the sense could serve as the basis of a universal
ceeded the bounds of nationalism or na- dominant medium of public life. And all faith or morality. So, Gandhi's own intel-
tionalist thought: by which I mean thatthree, even as they intervened and acted lectual itinerary involved a strenuous
their intellectual ambitions were much in the realm of politics, dreaded the pros- dismantling and reassembly of religious
greater than those who think merelypect in that the expansion of politics would traditions: the result was a profoundly
terms of a narrow Indian nationalism or corrupt public life by reducing it to the unconventional ethical sense, one that
cynical
identity, however defined. They asked large pursuit of material gains - with cannot be understood in terms of the
questions, and demanded ambitious an-disastrous consequences. All three think- grammar of traditional forms of Hinduism.
swers. When thinking about moral ques-ers understood that in a world where re- By opening himself to Islam, Christianity,
tions, they did not ask 'What should an ligion was declining (as in the west) or (as and the folk traditions of Hindu devotion,
Indian do?' or: 'What should a Hindu or in India) where religious faith existed in he created his own moral vocabulary,
a Muslim do?'. Rather, they asked: what multiple forms, where no one particular profoundly respectful of existing religious
should a moral being do, what wasreligion it or belief system could claim faiths even as it moved beyond these.
right for any human with moral capaci- universal allegiance, no shared morality Tagore, in creating what he called his
could be assumed present. In the absence "poet's religion", one that was "neither
ties to do? Yet, alongside this universalist
impulse, they were also compelled to keepof a generalised and common religious that of an orthodox man of piety not that
a vivid sense of the contextual and faith - either because such faith had de- of a theologian", looked outside and
conjunctural constraints they andclined,
theiror because it existed in plural forms
beyond religious traditions to forge his
compatriots faced: the presence of- areligion
co- in its traditional sense could not
spiritual faith - which he described as "the
claim a universal status, and moral beliefs
lonial state, as also the grip of tradition, Religion of Man": a humanist faith in the
both limited the room for action. But were
it did
relativised. This was fertile territorycapacities of man, and a belief in the
for conflicts. New, shared moral vocabu-
not limit the pursuit of more capacious transcendent powers of art and aesthetics.
laries and commitments had to be invented: Where Tagore and Gandhi clashed was
perspectives. Interestingly, and unusually
if one looks at contemporary political
and this could only be done through public,in their differing valuations of the role and
and ethical thinking (which tends to debate - through procedures that
reasoned force of reason, a difference brought out
divide between the supremely abstract andidentify areas of shared, overlappingclearly in their exchange over the Bihar
could
moral commitments (to, for example, earthquake of 1934. TagorethoughtGandhi
the minutely particular), their thinking
characteristically struggled to combine
equality of treatment) and which could profoundly mistaken in his readiness to
universalist ambitions with a vivid sense extend these. explain to his countrymen that the earth-

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quake was a 'divine chastisement' for could in the absence of moral direction later when he was prime minister, he
persisting with the sin of untouchability. undermine themselves. expressed both a fear of the temptations
Taking clear sides in the age-old debate The inquisitive reach of science couldof power, and a revulsion towards the
about theodicy, Tagore wrote: 'we can not be restrained, but it did have other realmechanics of politics. This was not merely
never imagine any civilised order of men limits. Science had "no knowledge ofhigh-minded posing: it stemmed from a
making indiscriminate examples of casual ultimate purposes and not even an under-deep moral anxiety about politics as a
victims, including children and members standing of the immediate purpose, forcareer. Nehru understood that political
of the untouchable community, in order to science had told us nothing about the success, whether personal, of a movement
impress others dwelling at a safe distance purpose of life...There is no visible limitor party, or of a state, could be corrupting.
who possibly deserve severer condemna- to the advance of science, if it is given theNehru had written, in The Discovery of
tion'.2 As Tagore saw it, Gandhi's view chance to advance. Yet it may be that theIndia, that "Today in the world of econo-
sanctioned a kind of terrorism on the part scientific method of observation is notmics and politics there is a search for
of the divine order, of religion. When it always applicable to all the varieties power
of and yet when power is attained
came to explaining the natural world, human experience and cannot cross the much else of value has gone...power has
Tagore was firm that reason and uncharted oceans that surround us...for its limitations, and force recoils on itself'
science had priority. In this particular there appears to be a definite stopping
(p 495). For a politician, success lay in the
respect, Tagore certainly gave greater place beyond which reason, as the mind ability not merely to capture power, but
scope to reason than Gandhi did - though is at present constituted, cannot go" to know how to use it for moral ends.
Gandhi himself could also subject tradi- (Discovery of India, p 452). He also saw
Otherwise, political success yielded moral
failure.
tion and reason to the sharpest scrutinythat science, if "uncommitted and isolated
and criticism. from moral discipline and ethical consider-
This shared regard for reason placed ations, will lead to the concentration of V
Tagore closer to Nehru than to Gandhi. power and the terrible instruments of
Nehru, writing from Ahmednagar Jail to destruction which it has made, in the handsPerceiving the limits of reason did not
Krishna Kripalani shortly after Tagore's of evil and selfish men, seeking the domi- lead Nehru to abandon it. On the contrary,
death, observed that 'no two persons couldnation of others - and thus to the destruc- it drove him towards an expanded view of
probably differ so much as Gandhi and tion of its own great achievements" reason, towards using it to open up moral
Tagore!', even though both had drawn (ibid: 16). problems. He did this through the steady
'inspiration from the same wells of wis- A life devoted to political reason, to the 'workings of the mind' and of the pen -
dom and thought and culture'. There is nopursuit and fulfilment of political ambi- through practice.
doubt that in terms of personal ties andtion, also stood in danger of subverting Often in his personal life, Nehru needed
intimacy, Nehru was far closer to Gandhi itself, of becoming corrupted. In an essay something like faith or certitude to sustain
than to Tagore: for Nehru, Gandhi was -he published under the pseudonym him: anyone who has spent close to 10
even more than a father figure - something 'Chanakya' in the Modern Review in 1937, years of his life in prison would need some
like a surrogate mother. Intellectually 'The Rashtrapathi', Nehru tried to uncover such mental and psychological fortitude.
though, the proximities were reversed: some of these moral dangers by subjecting In the mid-1930s, while in jail in Dehra
'Spiritually I was, I suppose, far nearer to his own political ambitions to a critique. Dun and Almora, he was hit by bouts of
Gurudev', Nehru wrote on hearing newsThere were, of course, immediate tactical depression. His wife, herself isolated and
of Tagore's death, 'I loved his love of life, and self-serving reasons that help to ex- ill, increasingly found faith in religion; his
and all things beautiful; with him, I wasplain why he wrote and published this daughter was away in school; his mother
a Pagan'.3 essay in this way; yet it remains a rare piece was bedridden with a stroke; and he was
But Tagore had a sharp sense of the of reflexive self-criticism by a practising without his father, in the past his bulwark
limits of science and scientific inquiry.politician. Chanakya wrote of Nehru's in troubled times. He was angered by
The fact that science dealt in statistics and ability to win the support of crowds, his Gandhi's methods - of fasting and the
numbers, that its logic was probabilistic, political adeptness, and then declared: "he suspension of Civil Disobedience - and
meant that the domain of moral questions has all the makings of a dictator in him bitterly critical of the Congress leadership.
escaped it: moral questions required - vast popularity, a strong will directed to His sense of isolation and helplessness
certainty, not probabilistic answers. For a well-defined purpose, energy, pride, seemed total: in his diary, he wrote: "I
Nehru, on the other hand, the moral life organisational capacity, ability, hardness, grow lonelier than ever. The home that
was a pursuit, which had to allow testing and with all his love of the crowd, an father had built up so lovingly is going to
and revision, through the exercise of intolerance of others and a certain con- pieces.. .I am losing most footholds I had".5
reason. tempt for the weak and inefficient. His Again, during his second long period in
over-mastering desire to get things done,jail, in Ahmadnagar Fort during the early
IV to sweep away what he dislikes and build and mid- 1940s, he grew dark. As the bombs
anew, will hardly brook for long the slow fell in Europe, the freedom struggle and
Nehru sensed the many-sidedness of civil disobedience seemed to have run
processes of democracy... is it not possible
reason, saw how it encompassed diverse that Jawaharlal might fancy himself asinto a the sands, and his own family life
aspects of human life, but throughout his Caesar?".4 seemed to unravel, his sense of frustration
life he drew out and worried its limits. The Nehru recognised in himself his will to was palpable: "in the mind where there
instrumentalities of reason, as expressed power, his skills in wielding instrumental,was once certainty, doubt creeps in"
by science or by politics and social action, political reason. In this, as on occasions (Discovery of India, p 7). Yet, even during

4796 Economic and Political Weekly November 30, 2002

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these periods of personal and psychic crisis, lived in constant contact with violence and Such self-critical awareness often
he did not turn to the certitudes of religion the instruments of violence: "Violence is characterised Nehru's struggles to
to sustain his belief or faith - and it was the very life blood of the modern state determine moral commitments. On the
at every step a hard-won refusal. Instead,and social system...Governments arevexed question of how to handle one's
he found refuge in writing: the mannered notoriously based on violence", includingopponents, he and Gandhi exchanged
self-analysis of the Autobiography in thethe more covert, subtle of violence of "false thoughts in the early 1930s, when Gandhi's
mid-1930s, or in his major work of thepropaganda, indirect and direct through activism against untouchability'was win-
1940s, The Discovery of India. education, Press, etc, religious and other
ning him enemies - especially among the
When Nehru found himself intellectu- forms of fear, economic destitution and orthodox Sanatanists, who launched an
ally stranded, doubting or confused, his starvation" (Autobiography, p 541). "Nei-abusive campaign against Gandhi. Nehru,
response was to articulate his confusions ther the growth of reason nor of the re- writing from prison in 1933, noted how
and through this to arrive at clarity: for ligious outlook or morality", Nehru wrote,weak was the capacity of one's opponents
long, this took the form of writing - letters, in a passage which bore the influence of to tolerate differences of opinion; interest-
manuscripts, diaries; in later years, pressed the German American theologian, Reinholdingly though, he also recognised some-
for time, he turned to speechifying, and to Niebuhr, "have checked in any way this thing of this brittleness in himself. "Under
his fortnightly letters to chief ministers. tendency to violence" (ibid: 542). great strain all tolerance disappears, and
The prolixity of a Nehru or of a Gandhi Did it make sense, then, in opposing their a [the Sanatanists'] intolerance at
has a particular meaning: one senses a state - or in thinking about how one might present is a sign of the great strain you are
constant effort to explain and reason out use the powers of a state should they fall putting on them", he wrote to Gandhi, "It
views. Nehru's writings and speeches (of into one's hands - to abjure violence simplyis all very well for the likes of Sapru and
which we have another volume published as a tenet of faith? Nehru was here wres- me...to talk pompously and in a superior
this evening) are the trace of his efforts tling with the problem of how to wieldway of our tolerance in matters of religion
to reason - with himself and with others, power in a moral way (a problem he re-when neither of us has any religion worth
in private and in public. It is hardly a mained sensitive to throughout his life:talking about; ...But touch either of us on
coincidence that each of these figures who many years later, when asked by Andresome particular subject and you will find
helped define the tradition of public reason Malraux what was the greatest challengethe raw side and there will be little of
in twentieth century India, Tagore, Gandhi he faced, Nehru famously replied, 'to build tolerance then. Who is more intolerant
and Nehru, were all great letter writers: a just society by just means'; he could than you are in certain matters? The fact
engaging their correspondents in dialogue equally and perhaps more accurately have is real tolerance hardly exists; what goes
and debate. Perhaps it was one of Nehru's said, 'to run a just state by just means').under the name of tolerance is indiffer-
tragedies that, with the death of Tagore and Could what was moral at the individual ence. What we do not value we make a
then Gandhi, he was bereft of great inter- level become a principle of political and virtue of tolerating in others." I cite this
locutors, of intellectuals ,who could really social action? Could it dictate the nature
as an example of Nehru's reflexivity, his
challenge his core beliefs. of collective action? Nehru examined willingness to probe the bases of his moral
values, and to admit where the ground
Gandhi's commitment to this by playing
VI might
him off against Neibuhr, who thought not. be shaky.
Nehru seemed to incline towards Neibuhr'Moral
s principles had to emerge from and
To reason about one's moral beliefs is position - that a gap existed between connect to the world as it is. Moral rea-
a more strenuous, troubling process than soning was also practical reasoning: not
individual morality and collective moral-
merely to use reason as a means to achieve ity, so that one could not extrapolate the discovery of abstract principles, but
from
particular ends. This sense of effort re- the one to the other - only to come continuous
down self-conscious reflection on
quired by choosing ones moral principles more on the side of Gandhi: 'But the means
experience and history. "The necessities of
is often visible in Nehru. Take for instancecannot be ignored for, quite apart fromtoday",
the Nehru wrote, "will force us to
Gandhi's commitment to non-violence: moral side, they have a practical side.
formulate a new morality in accordance
Bad and immoral means often defeat the
could this be a supreme principle? Writing with them. If we are to find a way out of
in jail, entrapped by the violence embod-end in view or raise tremendous new this crisis of the spirit and realise what are
ied in the modern state ('In prison one the true spiritual values today, we shall
problems. And, after all, it is the means
comes to realise more than anywhere else that a person adopts and not the ends that
have to face the issues frankly and boldly
the basic nature of the state: it is the force,
he declares that enables us to judge him
and not take refuge under the dogmas of
the compulsion, the violence of the gov- truly...Ends and means are indeedany so religion" (Autobiography, p 550). Put
erning group'), Nehru subjected Gandhi's abstractly, Nehru's life, understood as an
intimately connected that they can hardly
principle to scrutiny.6 Those not fortunate be separated' (p 549). Even when it came
intellectual project, is an attempt to bring
to have Gandhi's faith, Nehru confessed, together, and to reconcile, the claims of
to a principle so fundamental to Gandhi's
are "troubled by a host of doubts ... [which instrumental reason with those of moral
morality as that of non-violence, Nehru
relate to ]...the mind's desire for some felt it necessary to reason through reason.
the
consistent philosophy of action which is argument: he refused to accept Gandhi's
In the realm of policy and political ac
both moral from the individual viewpoint principle of non-violence simply as a
there are examples too of how Nehru c
and is at the same time socially effective" dogmatic principle or matter of religious
to deliberate and reason through an
(Autobiography, p 538). Could the prin- ment before adopting a course of a
faith; he insisted on subjecting it to close
ciple of non-violence make sense in poli- intellectual scrutiny, testing it against
- and at times this involved going en
tics? After all, the life of the politician is examples. against his own instincts. Perhaps the

Economic and Political Weekly November 30, 2002 4797

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well known and instructive case concerns more democratic, as the political processin particular, to his insight tkat the distinc-
the demand, from the early 1950s, forbecomes more inclusive, India's demo- tive configuration of power and belief
linguistic states and for the reorganisationcratic institutions and the state needs or faith which all large scale political
of the internal units of the union. To remindmust become more faith-based. Now, there
entities in India had adopted was one where
political power kept a distance from the
you, although in earlier days a supporterare two fundamental political lessons that
beliefs of society, and interfered only
of the idea of linguistic states, after Par-can be gleaned from the historical expe-
minimally.
tition Nehru feared that any redrawing ofrience of Europe. First, there is something
India's internal boundaries along such linesdisastrous in all attempts to define the
would further endanger the country' s unity.character of the state in terms of the claims VIII
He asserted as much in the early sessionsof religious faith: to endow the state with
of the Constituent Assembly. But, over aa religious identity. Second, the citizen- Nehru was a politician without religious
faith, but in possession of the deepest
period of several years, in the face ofbody cannot ever safely give up its powers
protests (often violent) as well as argu-to a small number of political agents for
moral sense. He tried to develop a morality
ments, he came to revise his views on more than short periods of time: politicalwithout the fall-back of religion, and
the matter. Nehru often has been criticised power must be made accountable through
while having to act under the compulsions
for being dilatory and evasive on thisthe institutions of democracy. The rela- of wielding power. It was his moral
subject; in fact, by temporising and bytionship between these two lessons - the faith, at least as much as his ideological
refusing to give in immediately to impas-lesson of democracy and the lesson of the
commitments, which sustained his political
sioned popular demands, by allowingnon-religious state - is today in the throes action.
positions to be stated and gradually re-of a particularly difficult torsion all overThe Indian political scene is today
vised, he enabled a more satisfactory the world. dominated by a paradox. We observe plenty
solution to emerge - one that actually Nehru was one of the few Indian intel- of politicians who profess to have reli-
strengthened the union and that has en- lectuals who, through his study of the gious faith; yet we find it difficult to get
dured remarkably well. European historical experience, saw the any sense of moral depth to their charac-
vital importance of these two lessons: that ters, any sense of moral struggle or self-
VII democracy is the only acceptable standard questioning over their actions, policies
of political legitimacy for the modem state; or choices. They seem to view politics
Unlike Tagore or Gandhi, Nehru found and that if this is linked to religious faith, and the capture of state power as ends in
himself in command of a state, the most the consequences will be catastrophic. Most themselves: their's is a purely instru-
powerful structured concentration of importantly, he was also one of the rare mentalist understanding both of reason
moder instrumental reason that exists. Indian intellectuals who had studied not and of faith.
The choices and responsibilities that came only European but also Indian history: andThis hollowing out of the moral content
with wielding such power brought with was able to relate his reading of European of faith is symptomatic of a deeper and
them for Nehru a certain quality of nem- history to his own reasoned under- startling development in the domains of
esis, as Arnold Toynbee once pointed out. standing of the pattern of Indian historyfaith
- and religion. Philosophers and intel-
"It is more blessed", Toynbee wrote, "to
be imprisoned for the sake of one's ideals
than to imprison other people, incongru-
ously, in the name of the same ideals. Call for Paper
Nehru lived to have both experiences". It
was the painful sense of the potential
Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) invites papers for
arbitrariness of power, and of the need to
justify its uses, that urged Nehru towards
a conference on: "Citizenship and Governance: The Issues of Identities,
a reasoned public morality. Inclusion and Voice"to be held during 12-14 February 2003, at New Delhi.
Others might have turned to religion to
Sub-themes of the conference are:
find sources for such a morality. Nehru did
not. This too stemmed from his under-
1. Institutional interface and participation of the marginalized
standing of the character of the modern
2. Gender and leadership in institutions of local governance
state, when it had to operate in a society
3. Making industry accountable: Citizen participation in industrial
with diverse and deeply held beliefs.
Alongside his understanding of the sweep
development
of history was also his own personal 4. Reforming the institutions of governance
experience, his all-too-intimate acquain- 5. Citizen action to influence public policy
tance with the workings of the state: the 6. Dalit leadership in institutions of local governance
prisoner's experience of the irrationality
and arbitrariness of political power. He The last date for submission of abstract is 20th December 2002 and. the
knew fully the power of the ruler because 'last date for registration for the conference is 15th January 2003. More
he had felt it so severely as one who was details about the conference are available on our website www.pria.org.
ruled.
Details can also be obtained by sending email at: csd@pria.org.
One argument, abroad in various forms
today, asserts that as India becomes

4798 Economic and Political Weekly November 30, 2002

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lectuals at the end of the nineteenth cen- religion's persistence, its fulsome pres- short-term horizons, it will inevitably get
tury, surveying the role and future place ence as we stumble into the new century worse, and our own experience offers rich
of religion, tended to assume that religion, that, far from undermining or disproving evidence of this downward propensity of
matters of faith, would increasingly the force of Nehru's views on the subject, modem politics. There is nothing in the
become private matters: religion was be- exactly underline their relevance and reso- professional routines of modem politics
ing driven inward. In fact, quite the op- nance for us today. On this particular point, that is inherently uplifting. Unless our
posite has occurred: religion and faith today he just was right. politicians and our intellectuals push them-
no longer refer to an inner space of con- Each generation inevitably exploits its selves to reflect more self-critically on the
templation and private struggle, but to an claim to condescension towards those who values and goals they claim to uphold, we
outer realm of conflict and commotion. came before them. Indeed, there are manywill be unable to arrest this decline. Our
The interiority of religion - the difficultthings that we can rightly claim to knowsituation is indeed curious: at the very top,
inward interrogation out of which moralsand understand better than earlier genera- India's intellectual elites are world lead-
and ethics emerge - has been all buttions did, and than Nehru may have done.ers, in software, in the natural and human
lost. Religions today merely aspire to But on this particular point, he sawsciences, in literature, in business; yet the
capture the space of public morality, tobetter that our political and intellectualquality of our professional politicians is
define the parameters and content of elites do today. We may disagree with himmarkedly inferior. They are instrumentally
public life. over his economic choices or his conduct good - at winning power; but they are
It is important to see that Nehru's sense of foreign policy; we may not like his stylewithout moral intelligence. Politicians often
of the place of religion, and of the need or aspects of his personality; but we mustplead that they must please and pander to
to keep it separate from the state, was not be able to separate between those elementstheir constituencies: perhaps it is time to
based upon some hopeful prospective of his ideas and understanding that dorecognise that in fact the capacity to rea-
view about secularisation. He did not retain their cognitive validity and force, son, to think intelligently not only about
see secularisation as the ineluctable and those that do not. That is a funda- means but about ends, is more widely and
generously distributed across the Indian
mental intellectual responsibility we all
dynamo of history's movement, resulting
owe
in the elimination'of religion through, forto our past. citizenry than some of our politicians would
example, economic development. Such Ultimately,
a the power and meaning of like to have us believe. And our intellec-
view of religion as an epiphenomenal Nehru's life does not lie in the mere fact tual elites too, and above all, ordinary
product of more fundamental forces as contingent acquisition of political Indian citizens, will need to bring their
of -his
a dependent variable - may to power, have his biographical good fortune; its own capacities to reason, to give and to
some extent captured Nehru's views in importance
the for India and Indians lies in the ask for reasons, more actively into the-
1930s when he was most influenced by
intellectual and political understanding he political fray. What I have wished to do
the ideas of Marxism; but it does not worked out. It was his ability to compre- this evening is no more than.offer a re-
describe his views in the last two decades hend the alien political experience of minder: it need not be the way it now is.
of his life. Europe, to interpret how it was relevant Our history shows how the political life
For anyone of Nehru's historical intel- to India, and to assimilate it into the Indian can be lived, both morally and reasonably,
ligence, once clear lesson of the Partition experience, which bestows upon him a in full faith. Wi
of India was to drive home the ineliminable continuing, indeed surpassing, importance.
force of religion in Indian society; its deep- A figure like Gandhi can stand as a pow- Address for correspondence:
rootedness - something that Nehru erful moral exemplar to us; but his greatest skhilnal @jhu.edu
already had learned at the individual skills were tactical - he offered little with
level through his engagement with which to think about the central problem Notes
Tagore and Gandhi, as well with colleagues which India faces today: how to reconcile
like Maulana Azad and Rajaji. Nehru's the presence of the modem state and the [Text delivered as the 34th Jawaharlal Nehru
Memorial Lecture at Teen Murti House, New
views about religion and the state were forest of belief which India contains.
Delhi, on November 13, 2002.]
not based on a prospective optimism Gandhi's morality was-an embodied one:
aboutthe evanescence of religion, but it was expressed through superhuman feats I Selected WorksofJawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal
rather on a retrospective, historically based of will-power, it required his physicalNehru Memorial Fund, New Delhi, 1973, vol 5,
pessimism about its persistence - and the presence, both to perform the actions, andp 473.
dangers this posed if it should ever be to explicate them through his self-com- 2 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (ed), The Mahatma
and the Poet: Letters and Debates between
linked to that most powerful modem form mentary. With Nehru, it cannot be said of
Gandhi and Tagore, 1915-1941, National Book
of instrumental reason, the state. It was an his life that it was a spectacular moral
insight based on an understanding of performance. But he did leave a legacy of Trust, Delhi, 1997, p 158.
3 Selected Works ofJawaharlal Nehru, Jawaharlal
the historical experiences of both Europe reasoning, and of intellectual and political
Nehru Memorial Fund, New Delhi, 1978, vol 11,
and India. understanding, upon whose recovery de-
pp 688, 689 and 671
Today, as we survey the shattered na- pends the continuing viability of the Indian 4 Selected WorksofJawaharlal Nehru, Jawaharlal
tionalisms of the Balkans, as we feel project. Nehru Memorial Fund, New Delhi, 1976, vol 8,
collapsing about us the ruins of Arab Politics as it has come to be profession- p 522.
nationalism, as we see the precipice on alised in India, as it has come to be pursued 5 Selected Works ofJawaharal Nehru, Jawaharlal
which nations like Indonesia balance, it is for instrumental stakes, has - like any- Nehru Memorial Fund, New Delhi, 1972, vol 6,
more itnportant than ever to see the force where else - an inbuilt degenerative qual- p 310.
of what Nehru understood. It is exactly ity: as it is played out by politicians with 6 ibid, p 487.

Economic and Political Weekly November 30, 2002 4799

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