REMEMBERING NEHRU ON HIS BIRTH ANNIVERSARY
ARVIND K.PANDEY
I would like to present views of Nehru on various issues. Though I do not endorse his views on many critical issues, I have no hesitation in acknowledging his as India’s one of the greatest thinkers. More so in an age, where we find leaders not only devoid of intellectual aura but also governed by petty interests .It’s time to heed to his views.
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Here Are His Views :
1. Who lives if India dies? Who dies if India lives?
-Young India ,3 April 1930
2. Our country gave birth to a might soul and he shown like a beacon not only for India but for the whole world.
-Speech ,Allahabad ,12 February 1948
3. Men and women, who have ideals and objectives before them and the urge to achieve them, do not wait for the turn of fortune’s wheel.
4. Though we may be weak and erring mortals, living a brief and uncertain spam of life, yet there is something of the stuff of the immortal Gods in us.
-The Discovery Of India, 1951
5. Freedom is not a mere matter of political decisions or new constitutions, not even a matter of what is more important, that is economic policy .It is of the mind and heart and if the mind narrows itself and is befogged and the heart is full of bitterness
and hatred ,then freedom is absent .
-Message on the First anniversary of Independence, 15 August 1948
6. I marvel at my good fortunes. To serve India in the battle of freedom is honour enough, to serve her under a leader like Mahatma Gandhi is doubly fortunate. But to suffer for the country: what greater good fortune can befall an Indian unless it be death for the cause or the full realization of our glorious dreams.
-Nehru-Selected works, Vol.1, 1974, p.257
7.A human being grows and ought to grow like a flower or a plant .You can water it, you can give it good soil ; you can put it in the fresh air or in the sun .But it has to grow itself ; you cannot make it grow by force.
-Speech, New Delhi, 17 November 1952
8. Those who are truly great have a message that cannot be confined within a particular country but is for all the world.
-Speech in New York, 19 October 1949
9. Whether religion is necessary or not, a certain faith in a worthwhile ideal is essential to give substance to our lives and to hold us together.
-Speech, New Delhi, 22 February 1959
10. There are barriers of religion, of caste, of colour, of party, of nation ,and of rich and poor .Fortunately , the children do not know much about these barriers which separate. They play or work with each other, and it is only when they grow up that they begin to learn about these barriers from their elders.
-Shankar’s Weekly, Children’s Number, December 1949
11. If mutual co-operation and sacrifice for the good of society are the tests of civilization, we me say that White Ant and the Ant are in this respect superior to man.
--Letters to Indira Priyadarshini ,5 January 1931
12. In this age of terror, nations try to protect themselves by exhibiting their strength of muscle, breadth of jaw and stiffness of the upper lip; this exhibition of concentrated power is a reaction to the fear and suspicion within their minds and hearts.
-Letters to Chief Ministers, 24 October ,1960
13. About her there is the elusive quality of legend of long ago; some enchantment seems to have held her mind. She is a myth and an idea, a dream and a vision, and yet very real and present and pervasive. There are terrifying glimpses of dark corridors which seem to lead back to primeval night, but also there is the fullness and warmth of the day about her. Shameful and repellant she is occasionally, perverse and obstinate; sometimes even a little hysteric, this lady with a past. But she very lovable and none of her children can forget her wherever they go or whatever strange fate befalls them. For she is part of them in her greatness as well as her failings , and they are mirrored in those deep eyes of hers that have seen so much life’s passion and joy and folly and looked down into wisdom’s well.
-The Discovery Of India , p.687
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