Revisiting Nehru:Politics of Non-Alignment and Secularism

This paper evaluates the art and craft of policy-making. The main focus of paper is, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian Prime Minister of Independent India. Nehru, who led the India for seventeen years from 1947-1964, was also leader of the Indian National Congress party. Nehru also emerged as successor to Gandhi and attained a larger than life stature in Indian politics. The impact he had, has been long-lasting and far reaching. His admirers and critics alike, attribute the resilience of India‟s democracy to his stewardship during the crucial decades after independence. Moreover, the first decade after independence was very crucial as the India got divided into two states on religious lines. This period was also important and vital phase in modern Indian history from colony to post-colonial state with important implications for the long-run consolidation of India‟s modern democratic institutions. Nehru is the „pivotal actor‟ given the power he gradually accumulated and thus his preferences, world view and „vision‟ need to be explored in depth and detail. The core objective of the paper therefore is to turn attention towards Nehru, the political actor, to identify the challenges that he faced and the impact he had on the policies that were formulated and implemented under his leadership. In the backdrop of this, the present paper studies, two important policy choices by Jawaharlal Nehru, the secular state and a non-aligned foreign policy.