Some people are worried about growing lack of popularity of India's first Prime Minister - Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. They fail to realize that 'Nehru' is not just a surname or a name of a dead person. It is a brand; it is a notion; it is a sentiment; and it is a legacy. Just like people who would love to soak in it, there would be people who would love to loath it. We have to come to terms with this phenomenon. Your position on Nehru may be in intellectual one; but the moment 'Nehru' word is read by readers, it 'triggers' a host of chain reactions in them. Thereafter, they can't objectively discuss the subject, because the brand becomes the subject in itself.
As a personal figure, for someone, Nehru may be pioneer of modern India. For a juvenile, he may be a good uncle who wears costly white suits. For a netizen, he may be root cause of lots of our burden. For someone else he may just be a chapter from the history book. All may look at his different aspects. It is futile to force everyone look at him through one's own glasses.
Nehru became a matter of discussion because of recent decision by a museum to include in it artifacts about other Prime Ministers as well. The whole controversy was unnecessary. You can read here:
Museum director Shakti Sinha told The Indian Express: “I would humbly like to say that the objections are a little misplaced. Even in the present set-up, less than 2% of the books, documents and other items in our repository are about Nehru. When we expand the repository to include other PMs, we will be adding to Nehru as well in the process. Nowhere are we obliterating Nehru, we will make it Nehru-plus.”
Is there something wrong in it? I don't think so.
Some people are lost in their love for Nehru because of his book "The Discovery of India". I would advise such people to also look at others who 'discovered' India as well and in different tastes than Nehru did. E.g. what about Ravindranath Tagore and his literature? Premchand and his literature? Vivekananda? Devdutt Pattanaik. Arun Shourie. Gulzar. RK Laxman. It should not always be only about Nehru.
- Rahul
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