Source: DNA India, Author: R Jagannathan
Link: http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_nehru-and-other-myths_1334486
Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, got it both right and wrong on Jawaharlal Nehru because he forgot a basic piece of wisdom: you don’t fight foundational myths.
Myth-busting is for scholars, authors and retired politicians, whose ranks Tharoor may soon be forced to join given his controversial twittermania. It’s not for active politicians who want to leave their mark on history.
His remarks on Nehru —- to the effect that he followed a wishy-washy foreign policy driven by Gandhian morality — are a case in point. If you are a Congressman, you have to believe in the Nehru myth.
The Nehru myth states, inter alia, that modern India was entirely hiscreation (only slightly true), that he was entirely secular and democratic (not always), that the Nehru family is the only one that has the whole of India’s interests at heart (absolutely untrue), that non-alignment was a wonderful thing, and so on.
If you are part of a dynastic party, you cannot survive bychallenging the Nehru myth. If you do, you challenge the very basis forits existence.
No Nehru myth, no dynasty. This is why theCongress cannot put any leader — Sardar Patel, Ambedkar, Jinnah,Rajagopalachari or Rajendra Prasad — on the same pedestal as Nehrudespite the fact that they all contributed much to the making of India.
Besides, Nehru himself was no perennial success icon. Hisforeign policy blunders culminated in the humiliation of 1962. Hiseconomic policies were equally flawed, as Nehru believed in the Sovietmodel with minor roles for the private sector.
His daughterinitially compounded his economic follies, but after the 1980s shestarted changing course. It took a bankruptcy in 1991 to finallyabandon Nehruvian socialism.
The reason why Nehru made colossalblunders was simple: he was vain and hence sycophants could take himfor a ride. This is why he persisted with VK Krishna Menon long afterevents proved him to be a liability; Chinese leader Zhou Enlai pulledwool over his eyes by pretending to be a novice in internationalaffairs.
Nehru held forth about his views on the worldbelieving Zhou to be a genuine admirer when the latter was actuallyplaying to his ego and neutralising him on Tibet.
In course oftime, the Nehru myth has been extended to the whole family, from IndiraGandhi to Rajiv to Sonia and now Rahul and Priyanka.
Thus,Indira is the social messiah (bank nationalisation, garibi hatao),Rajiv Gandhi is the moderniser and reformer (though Narasimha Raoactually did more in reality), and Rahul the new youth icon andemancipator. You question these myths at your own peril. Tharoor got arap on the knuckles only for this.
Without myths there would beno institutions, for myths are the glue that holds disparate elementstogether. Whether it is a religion or a corporation, myths areessential and beyond reality.
Management writers Jim Collinsand Jerry Porras (Built to Last) discovered that successful companiesthat have survived for over 100 years tended to have cult-like culturesthat you could not question. People who questioned the corporate myths(“we are a people-oriented organisation”) were ejected fast. You can’tbe in Wal-Mart and not participate in the company’s theme song. Youcan’t be in HP without kowtowing to the HP Way.
In Pakistan, theyhave a Jinnah myth — he was never a pious Muslim, but given his role inthe creation of the state, you can’t mention it. In India, Jinnah hasbeen demonised (often for good reason), but a rational reassessment isnot possible either by the Congress (which believes in the Nehru myth)or the BJP (which has to follow the RSS, which believes in AkhandBharat, where Jinnah has been given the villain’s role).
Itdoesn’t matter that Partition has actually created a huge Hindumajority India, of the kind that the RSS could not have dreamed of in aunited India. But myths do not need to have a rational basis.
It’sthe same with the major organised religions. You can’t be a Christianwithout believing in virgin birth and resurrection, never mind thatthese myths are far removed from the message of Jesus Christ andinvented much later.
You can’t be Muslim without believing thatbefore the prophet arrived it was all jahiliya — the age of ignorance —even though common sense tells us humanity always had its dark andbright spots in all ages. Hindus have too many myths to count, but thepoint is that a thought gets institutionalised only with the help ofmyths.
Myths work best when you pay lip service to them, butdon’t get hemmed in. If Tharoor wants to change Nehruvian ideas, thebest way is to lionise Nehruism and then dump his ideas in practice.This is what we have done with Gandhi. So why not Nehru?
