Assessing Nehru in 1951: Early warning of a disaster in the making

An extraordinarily revealing essay on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru appeared in Time magazine way back in 1951:  Pandit’s Mind

Reading it will help Indians, Hindus in particular, to obtain a glimpse of the real man lurking behind the heroic and larger-than-life image that is promoted by the Congress-engineered, state-mandated education curriculum. This Nehru rarely comes through in an India that  has been flooded by hero-worshiping propaganda over six decades of nearly uninterrupted Congress rule.

The most striking aspect about Nehru was his thoroughly westernized mental makeup. One of the first few paragraphs sports the following declaration:

Western policymakers have hoped that Nehru—a man with known Western sympathies—is the Asian statesman who could lead a non-Communist Asia into the Western camp.

Still further into the article we find an elaboration of these western sympathies:

Like millions of Indians who follow in his train, Nehru is a paradox. He is not a typical Indian: he is a Westernized Oriental. Beatrice and Sidney Webb, the godparents of Fabian Socialism, are in a truer sense his creators than Vishnu and Siva.

An Agnostic. In religion, Nehru is a typical Western agnostic. In politics, he is a Western liberal with Socialist leanings. The mind of Jawaharlal Nehru (born 1889) came into consciousness during a quiet period of Indian history. The great Mutiny of 1857 was only a rankling memory, and the Indian National Congress, which was to become the first instrument of liberation, was a polite assemblage in morning coats. It was Western influence that made Nehru a nationalist. Garibaldi was his hero long before Gandhi was. Nehru’s family were wealthy and progressive aristocrats; religion, to the men of his house, was “a woman’s affair.” [This was in marked contrast to the overwhelming majority of Indian nationalists who needed no western influence to feel a natural affinity and love for their Motherland. Sri Aurobindo, who started dreaming about and planning the liberatation of his motherland from the British at a very young age,  Bankim Chandra who penned the stirring Vande Mataram poem or Lokmanya Tilak, these are some of  first of such ethnic, natively-inspired (Hindu) nationalists who come to mind.]

Paradoxically, it was a Westerner who first brought Nehru to Hinduism: his Irish tutor was a Theosophist, and such an influence that at the age of 13 Nehru was inducted into the Theosophical Society by Mrs. Annie Besant* in person.

Nehru’s attitude toward religion has not basically changed. In later years he would say (like any Westerner who admires the Bible “as literature”) that he did not understand or feel drawn to the Bhagavad Gita, but “liked to read the verses.”

He went to Harrow and Cambridge, where he acquired the old school tie and what he himself called the “vague humanism” of the day. Nietzsche was “all the rage,” as were the prefaces of Bernard Shaw and the sexual case histories of Krafft-Ebing. It was an age which considered religion at best a polite convention and at worst, the opium of the masses. Like his fellow liberals, Nehru believed that science would solve all human problems.

In fact, the description that best fits Nehru’s mental makeup is that of a Leftist who saw Hinduism as the primary reactionary force standing in the way of his vision of a modernized and secularized India. The ruling Leftist ideology that continues to dominate India is a product of the Nehruvian mindset and its distorted view of Hinduism as a backward and superstitious religion, rather than the sophisticated and advanced Gnostic civilization that it actually was before the Islamic invasion and conquest of India. In this regard we see that the most remarkable piece of foresight displayed by the author of the article is the following statement:

Like millions of Indians who follow in his train, Nehru is a paradox. He is not a typical Indian: he is Westernized Oriental

And in truth, many decades following his 15 year rule over India millions of Indians have indeed followed “in his train” to become westernized orientals themselves, or brown apes of the west, to put it less kindly. While it was true in the past that Nehru was not your typical Indian, over these decades most educated Hindus have been brought up in an environment created by Nehru and his followers, one designed to replicate the Nehruvian mindset in each one of them. The Nehru-inspired Westernized Leftist establishment, via its virtual monopoly in the fields of education, media and politics in India (even the BJP is nothing but a left-oriented party today which pays lip service to Hindu interests and causes), continues the work of dominating and recreating Hindus in the image of its champion and ideal . The Hindus of India, though nominally independent, are still laboring under the yoke of the de-Hinduizing Nehruvian dispensation. It is the age of the “progressive” (read “alienated” or “nominal”) Nehruvian Hindu minority dominating over their own “traditional” (read, “genuine” or “practicing”) Hindu majority in India.

Today the Congress party, under the leadership of the Christianized Gandhi family (the mater familia of the Gandhi and the Congress family is a Roman Catholic as per her wikipedia profile and her daughter is married to a Christian), has taken this process a step further by removing all the safeguards or obstacles that stand in the way of the Evangelical onslaught on Hinduism (http://in.christiantoday.com/articles/anti-conversion-laws-to-be-repealed-by-new-govt/4082.htm). The cynical calculation at work here is that the Christian vote-bank is the only one that the Congress can today count on to bring itself to power, while all other vote-banks can either be turned away or fragmented by competing parties. In a sense Sonia Gandhi, like Constantine who became the first Christian Roman emperor, seeks to destroy India and its cultural ethos just so that her dynasty can remain in power perpetually. But while Constantine was a true Roman, Sonia Gandhi is not even an Indian or a Hindu. So even if the former might have had some doubts about his new-found religious zeal, the latter most likely has none.

Another point that is evident from the article is that even in 1951, hardheaded Americans, who have since the very beginning based their foreign policy on pragmatism and national interest, could see that Nehru had a very poor grasp, if any, on the power-dynamics of world politics. It would have been somewhat amusing to imagine the Pandit scurrying about supporting China’s aggressive actions in Tibet and Korea, as well as canvassing for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council for that empire-in-making, were it not for the grim reality of the present day, when India finds itself once again at the mercy of the dragon, with the empire threatening another war and continued dismemberment of the nation (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124578881101543463.html).

And yet, even after Communist China revealed to Nehru its true imperialist face by invading India in 1962, till the very end, he considered Hindu nationalists as the greatest threat to India. From the link http://globalshake.org/hindus-talibans/

…an encounter Nehru had in 1963 with young and senior foreign ministry officers. His foreign secretary Y.D. Gundevia reminded Nehru that the communists had won power in Kerala in 1957 and asked: ‘But what happens to the services if the communists are elected to power, tomorrow, at the Centre, here in New Delhi?’

Gundevia records: ‘He pondered over my long drawn out question and then said, looking across the room, ‘Communists, communists, communists, why are all of you so obsessed with communists and communism? What is it that communists can do that we cannot do and have not done for the country? Why do you imagine the communists will ever be voted into power at the Centre?’ There was a long pause after this and then he said, spelling it out slowly and very deliberately, ‘The danger to India, mark you, is not communism, it is Hindu right-wing communalism.’

Among nations past and present none has perhaps been so unfortunate as India, no people more unlucky than the Hindus, because at the most critical juncture in their history, just when it seemed that the heavy and long-suffered yoke of foreign oppression was about to be lifted in 1947, their destiny fell into the clutches of an alienated Hindu who strained his every nerve to confer every possible advantage on their greatest enemies, and at the same time exerted all his power to bludgeon into meek submission those Hindu nationalists who worshiped the nation as their Mother. It is a testament to the sheer blindness and naivete of the people of this nation, Hindus in particular, that they should not only have continued to honor this man as their uncrowned king for the rest of his life, despite all his catastrophic blunders, but that they also continue even today, after more than half a century has passed, to entrust their freedom and their existence into the hands of uncompromisingly hostile and nakedly power-hungry members of the dynasty that has been established in his name.

Were the British then right after all in their insistence that Indians are not in a position to govern themselves and that a nation incapable of self-government deserves to remain a slave to external powers? There is no shortage of candidate imperialisms that are even now working overtime to validate this claim. Islamic Jihadism, Christian Evangelism, Sinic Imperialism, are all three of them increasing their strength and their activities in India. Time will soon reveal whether Nehru’s legacy fulfills itself in a completely de-Hinduized and dead India.

India’s greatest weakness is her own self-doubt

China has begun to repeatedly intrude into Indian territory, not just in one but two separate states. The predatory Chinese empire is using these incursions to reassert its claims on both Arunachal Pradesh and parts of Sikkim. Whatever may be the nefarious designs of the Empire next door, the most disheartening thing about the whole episode is the muted and weak-kneed response from the Indian government which has chosen to adopt a suicidal “no-confrontation-at-any-cost” policy of appeasement and submissiveness towards China.

Observing this behavior I, like many others with me, question “What is it that determines our behavior vis-a-vis China?” Is it a confident assessment of our strength or is it a (mis)perception of ourselves as a weak or at least a much weaker nation than our mighty adversary?

There is no doubt that we Indians are going through a crisis of confidence, behind which lies a far more serious identity crisis. It will not go away anytime soon but does show some signs of abating eventually. Still, ultimately perception (faith) is reality to people and dictates their behavior, which is true even in case of our interactions with China.

Today India’s self-perception is that of a weak state, despite the fact that that is not the ground reality. This inferiority complex is the natural outcome of a colonialist ideology (Hinduphobic secularism) that dominates our intelligentsia, our media as well as our education system, one that is aimed solely at creating self-alienation or even self-loathing among Indians so that their brains can become open and malleable receptacles for any other ideology or culture that seeks to colonize it. It is nearly impossible for any single educated Indian to escape the clutches of its all-pervasive tentacles. Those that are not completely under it’s influence are at least touched by it to some extent.

Unfortunately a full cultural and civilizational liberation did not follow upon the physical independence achieved in 1947. We continue to remain a nation enthralled by external colonial ideologies and civilizations that seek to perpetuate their hegemony over the Indian subcontinent and turn India into an extension and appendage. The necessary first step to this goal is the eradication of the already existing native Hindu civilization. This civilizational holocaust is not such a rare and remote possibility as some would like to believe. Most of India’s sister-civilizations, those that were her contemporaries during ancient times, have all either been wiped out or distorted beyond recognition. Perhaps the most glaring example would be that of the high Greek civilization, which Christianity steamrolled at the very beginning of its homogenizing march through Europe. Another would be that of the Egyptian civilization which, although Hellenized by Graeco-Roman conquests, still survived largely intact until it was set upon by Christianity and then finished off for good by Islam. Even the wonderful and fecund Chinese civilization has to a great degree been hollowed out by a self-destructive Maoism and now continues to suffer at the hands of a soulless capitalism.

Unlike these other ancient civilization India has survived with her ethos and her spirit largely intact though hidden. However, the eyes of her own children have been colored over by others so as to make them look upon her with disgust and revulsion. Although her immortal and ineffable wisdom is secure, it remains hidden from the sight of her citizens, who have become the ignorant wards of her enemies and opponents. We Indians, thus, start out at a disadvantage when it comes to self-confidence and healthy self-respect, to compensate for which we are constantly seeking certificates of approval from the West. Anything that has a western “chaap” (brand) is great and we seek this same stamp on our own undeserving brown skin all the time. The pathology is manifest in all aspects of life from the things we buy, the music we hear, the movies we make, the clothes we wear, the education we get… all the way to ideological commitments, with Sri Adam Smith now replacing Sri Karl Marx as our gora prophet who will lead us to earthly paradise. In the case of China, not only has the capitalist West given it it’s seal of approval but, led by its forest of growth-starved corporations, also seems to have fallen head-over-heels in love with it. This unseemly and maudlin, wide-eyed, open-mouthed fascination with the over-hyped Chinese growth phenomenon only exacerbates our deep-seated inferiority complex.

It may be that this is just a phase that we have to go through and not the pattern of behavior we are doomed to perpetuate indefinitely. That is my hope at least. But while this mental/cultural alienation (de-nativization) and colonization continues apace it effectively saps our confidence and kills the very will to stand up and resist any external power that seeks to impose itself on us, including China. Basically we have no faith in ourselves and that is why we behave like losers (and end up losing). As the Gita says, “Yo yat shraddha sa eva saha”, behavior is nothing except for the expression of one’s faith. As a result of it’s colonization India has begun to act like what the Gita terms a ‘Sanshaya-atma’, a soul of doubt, a soul that is hesitating, faithless and irresolute. This doubt shackles it, prevents it from moving forward boldly and consigns it to an existence of misery and ignominy.

Indian’s current response to Chinese incursions is a manifestation of this same soul-killing self-doubt. Our China policy is an unmistakable symptom of this deep-seated malaise. Take for example this recent pronouncement by our Defence Minister A.K.Antony in response to Chinese moves: “To a maximum extent, we will try to avoid confrontation“. This is not an expression of great prudence, but a betrayal of our own faithlessness. By doing so Antony has sent an unmistakable signal to the Dragon that India is not giving itself any alternative when it comes to dealing with adventurism and violations of its territorial integrity. Going to the max in order to avoid confrontation just invites China to find out what this max really is. One wonders what is going through these peoples’ brains? That if they play nice and coy the neighborhood bully will be pleased and beat a retreat? The exact opposite is going to happen. In fact, at the time of writing this China has once again intruded into Indian territory in Sikkim.

It is a basic truism of negotiation that when one side is continuously aggressive and the other side is constantly accommodating the latter will end up losing its shirt. In most situations one party short-changes itself because it perceives itself as less powerful when it has not done due diligence to find out the true extent of its own power. This perception of weakness is its real weakness. The worst thing the compromisers can do is to openly admit their debilitating self-perception and confess that they have no alternative but to negotiate on the other party’s terms. This will naturally lead the other party to drive an even harder bargain. This open admission of owns own faithlessness is precisely what our representatives are doing in this situation. In fact you can draw an exact parallel here with the approach towards Indian Islamists as well, who are always demanding concessions and we are constantly conceding them. They demand, we concede. Why? Not because we are masterfully executing some overarching grand strategy but simply because we are scared, because we have a perception of our own weakness and no realistic understanding of our strengths.

I don’t for a moment believe that pitiful Pranab (India’s Foreign Minister) or affable Antony or any of the rest of neutered Congress sycophants have the nation’s best interests at heart. If they did then they would have no problem drawing a clear line in the sand. At the very least they should put forward a forceful exposition of the Indian stand and it’s objections to Chinese incursions. Argument is not the same as quarrel which, in turn, need not necessarily lead to conflict. But here they are doing the exact opposite by rubbing out each successive line that the Dragon crosses thus giving China ever more room to capture territory (value) from us. What they are telling China, in effect, is that anything goes. Keep pushing and we will keep relenting.

From the point of view of strategic negotiation the only way to optimize one’s outcome in the face of an aggressive and adversarial negotiator is to adopt the same strategy oneself or walk away from the negotiating table. Why not just take up the case of Tibet? That’s easy enough. In fact this is a golden opportunity to erase A.B. Vajpayee’s mistake. If China brings up Sikkim, we’ll bring up Tibet. The Chinese stand to lose a lot more than us by playing this game and there is no doubt in my mind that the dragon would have blinked first. This is all the more true given their obsessive focus on the 2008 Olympics. India can single-handedly jeopardize their plans here and bring their cherished dream crashing to the ground. Once the Olympics are over and done with India loses even this greatest of all bargaining chips that has fallen into its lap.

However, our gentlemen diplomats can only ineffectually whimper their soft little denials and rebuff the lustful advances of our potential ravisher with effeminate refusals to talk! Anyway what can one expect from a government that has stood by while Tibet has been continuously raped for the past few decades right next to us in plain sight. Compared to that poor nation we are only being eve-teased by China. An occasional sharp pinch here and there is no problem for us honorable folk. Perhaps it’s a fitting analogy for China which, while it continues to pin down a helpless Tibet, glowers balefully at Bharat Mata with the implied threat to keep quiet or join the imperial harem as its slave.

Truth be told India is NOT negotiating with China. India’s “representatives” are actually being brow-beaten by a bunch of imperialist thugs across the border hungry for territory and high on power. That is why they can “corner” Indians on Sikkim even when our brave foreign minster declares it as something non-negotiable before the start of negotiations. I can just imagine Pranab-babu getting all hot and sweaty under the collar, trying to smile and cajole the other side into talking about something else while the Chinese raise pointed questions and make aggressive demands on India to chop off its finger (in Sikkim).

The incompetent eminences we have appointed to negotiate on our behalf are doing the same thing with China that they are doing with Sonia, playing obedient lap-dogs and servile brown-nosers who want to avoid trouble and maintain the status quo even at the cost of the nation’s sovereignty and dignity. Every time they end up taking the easy way out and adopting the path of least resistance. So I guess we Indians have only ourselves to blame ultimately. It’s not just the nation but the individual units of the nation, its citizens, who are suffering from a weakening self-perception, which brings me back to my original point about the life-sapping colonialism that continues to dominate India. A people unaware of their unique heritage will not care to preserve it against internal or external threats. Life then becomes nothing but a pursuit of one’s own happiness, heedless of anything that might happen to a nation that is not much more than an abstract and ultimately illusory concept. That’s why you hear the constant refrains of “Arrey kya honay wala hai?” It’s because of the “Chalta hai” attitude that we put in power a leadership of the lowest possible pedigree that tries to dominate the desi janta as their Sarkar but at the same time has no qualms when it comes to groveling before videshi bahus and neighborhood bhai-log as if these were their very own mai-baap.

I do, however, see signs of change. The very fact that people are taking the time to think and ponder over these issues is an indication. Young, urban professionals are not just in it for the money. A vast number are also searching for meaning and relevance beyond just the material accouterments of a western-style existence. Many are turning their eyes towards their own civilization in search of something that is more profound than their present profane reality. The change is definitely coming. I only hope that it arrives in full force sooner rather than later. But one thing is certain. We cannot expect this change to come from a set of politicians and parties who are too ingrained in the old ways of thought. It has to come from those fortunate enough to be able to remove the blindfolds of ideological colonization from over their eyes and destroy self-doubt with the sword of self-knowledge (Jnana asina aatmanah chhitvaa sanshayam).

Hidden in Sri Aurobindo’s symbol is the key to understanding His Purpose

The Mother described the meaning behind Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in the following words

“The descending triangle represents Sat-Chit-Ananda.

The ascending triangle represents the aspiring answer from matter under the form of life, light and love.

The junction of both – the central square – is the perfect manifestation having at its centre the Avatar of the Supreme – the lotus.

The water – inside the square – represents the multiplicity, the creation.“

Compare this to the way the Hexagram symbol has been used in India since ancient times

“Within Indic lore, the shape is generally understood to consist of two triangles–one pointed up and the other down–locked in harmonious embrace. The two components are called ‘Om’ and the ‘Hrim’ in Sanskrit, and symbolize man’s position between earth and sky. The downward triangle symbolizes Shakti, the sacred embodiment of femininity, and the upward triangle symbolizes Shiva, or Agni Tattva, representing the focused aspects of masculinity. The mystical union of the two triangles represents Creation, occurring through the divine union of male and female.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagram)

Admittedly this sounds a lot earthier and less exalted than what the Mother says. But what struck me was not so much the significance of the union of the upward and the downward triangles as much as what is supposed to happen as a result of the union: CREATION, even according to Mother.

Geometrically what is it that is created by the union of the two triangles? Not the central square. Strictly speaking it is a hexagon. However the effect of superimposing the square is that it almost becomes like a gate or an opening within the hexagon. More importantly the square has been universally used as a symbol of perfection. This square then, according to the Mother, is the perfect manifestation. And almost as if to make the whole thing as explicit as possible there is the water within the square which symbolizes “the multiplicity, the creation”. We could just as easily substitute the word “Supramental” for “Perfect” and say that it is the Supramental Manifestation. I find it truly incredible that this one symbol represents not just Sri Aurobindo the person, the Avatar of the Supreme – the lotus, but also the Divine Phenomenon that He initiates and leads, the union of spirit and matter opening into the new divine creation, the Supramental Manifestation.

There is also another parallel to the symbolism of the intersecting triangles, which is the union of the Divine and His Shakti, and some of us may have already seen this in the Lingam-Yoni image found in all Shaviate places of worship.

Often those who know Ma Sri Aurobindo ask themselves why a dual avatar when in the past it has always been just one avatar at a time? Sure there are many possible explanations, my favorite one so far being the integral synthesis of east and west. But then there are many other possible syntheses to choose from which could also be considered effective explanations, that of the masculine and the feminine, the spiritual and the occult, yoga and tantra, etc. etc. The list goes on.

But what if the purpose of the Avatar here is not, as in all past Divine Descents, simply to impart another teaching or to rescue the world and rejuvenate the Eternal Dharma temporarily until the next major crisis hits? What if the purpose here is a new creation analogous to the cosmological notion of a big bang, to conceive and to give birth to a whole new world? Does that not seem to be the one condition where the full manifestation of both the Supreme Divine and His Shakti would be required? Is that not indeed what Ma Sri Aurobindo have repeatedly stressed They were here to do? And somehow that one fundamental Truth gets obscured when people take them for mere Gurus or Spiritual Teachers like so many others, if they even know about them.

This same point is reinforced by noting that when Sri Aurobindo left for Pondicherry in 1910 He intended to return to politics and resume the leadership of the Indian independence movement eventually, when the time was right and He had advanced sufficiently enough in His Sadhana. However, something changed along the way. Let me repeat part of a life-sketch of Sri Aurobindo issued by the Ashram after it was reviewed by Him. It gives the following reason for His staying back indefinitely in Pondicherry:

“Sri Aurobindo had left Bengal with some intention of returning to the political field under more favourable circumstances; but very soon the MAGNITUDE of the spiritual work he had taken up appeared to him and he saw that it would need the exclusive concentration of all his energies. Eventually he cut off connection with politics, refused repeatedly to accept the Presidentship of the National Congress.“

What was the magnitude of this spiritual work that it could even lead Him to refuse the leadership of the independence movement? Surely the whole history of India and the world would have been dramatically different had He chosen to accept. Partition would not have happened and instead of a half-blind nation groping in the dark we would have had a powerful, self-aware and confident India ready to take her rightful place as the spiritual leader and guide of the world. Was this not one of Sri Aurobindo’s dreams even in 1947 and beyond? The true magnitude and scope of His spiritual work must refer to this new creation, the Divine manifestation. It is the only explanation that satisfies in the end. This work was not just the creation of a new Yoga like any other. Continuing from the same life-sketch of Sri Aurobindo:

“Most ways of Yoga are paths to the Beyond leading to the Spirit and, in the end, away from life; Sri Aurobindo’s rises to the Spirit to redescend with its gains bringing the light and power and bliss of the Spirit into life to transform it… It is only by the descent of this supermind that the perfection dreamed of by all that is highest in humanity can come.“

Here again, in another form, we return to the rising and descending movements uniting to manifest the perfect creation, as figured in Sri Aurobindo’s symbol.

The central significance of this idea of the creation of a new world is powerfully brought out in the following words from Mother:

“People sleep, they forget, they take life easy — they forget, forget all the time…. But if we could remember… that we are at an exceptional hour, a unique time, that we have this immense good fortune, this invaluable privilege of being present at the birth of a new world, we could easily get rid of everything that impedes and hinders our progress.

So, the most important thing, it seems, is to remember this fact; even when one doesn’t have the tangible experience, to have the certainty of it and faith in it; to remember always, to recall it constantly, to go to sleep with this idea, to wake up with this perception; to do all that one does with this great truth as the background, as a constant support, this great truth that we are witnessing the birth of a new world. We can participate in it, we can become this new world. And truly, when one has such a marvelous opportunity, one should be ready to give up everything for its sake.“

I will try to remember this great Truth whenever I am able to (which may not be very often), but at the very least every time I look at Sri Aurobindo’s symbol and remember who He and the Mother really are, not just Yogis or Gurus, Saints or Mystics, but the progenitors of a whole new Divine World, here to initiate and give birth to a perfect creation that shall fulfill and justify all the struggle and the suffering of the present imperfect one.

Let me conclude with the following words that the Mother wrote in her dairy, the day following her first meeting with Sri Aurobindo on 29th March 1914:

“It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth. “

Some interesting historical info. on the symbol is provided by Alan Kazlev at his site: http://www.kheper.net/index.htm

The whole life-sketch cited above can be read at http://www.miraura.org/bio/sketch-a.html