Analyse Jawaharlal Nehru's concept of Socialism with special reference to Equality.
Answers
Answer:
Collin’s Dictionary defines socialism as “a political ideology which aims for societies in which poverty is eliminated, market forces are not the sole means of the distribution of economic wealth and where the human ideals of cooperation and altruistic behaviour develop”. Nehru also believed in the socialism and he named the ‘socialist society’ as ‘good society’. He believed in the elimination of poverty and development as a socialist believed in these. His role in constituent assembly and his role as Prime Minister of India show that he believed in socialism. But Nehru’s approach towards socialism is slightly deferred from the other socialist. And his approach was based on the practical aspect of socialism, rather than theoretical. This is the reason that his idea of socialism can be considered as one of the variants of socialism and this is called as Nehru’s Idea of Socialism. He was the first who introduced his understanding of socialism in the policies of the independent India. But there are other areas where his policies are against the theories socialism. To understand his contribution to Indian Socialism, it is necessary to analyse his background, contribution in Constituent Assembly and in Government.
Explanation:
The relevance of Jawaharlal Nehru remains undiminished today. In fact, his ideas and approach to political, economic and social issues are more relevant now than even in his life-time.
It is necessary to state this basic truth and assess the continuing validity and vitality of his approach, because some who unabashedly use his name seek to project him as a pragmatist rather than as the firmly committed socialist that he was.
It is the fashion these days to say that socialism is a vague term, that it is a slogan, that there is no precise definition of what it means. This is essentially the argument of the believers in the status quo, of those who are afraid of radical change that will either hurt their own interests or destroy their pet theories.
It is no doubt true the despite his massive personal popularity and the power at his disposal in the government and in the party, Jawaharlal Nehru could not put into practice many of the ideas he spelt out regarding the radical changes, social and economic, that our society required. But this must be seen in the background of the dilemma he faced as an honest politician committed to socialism on the one hand and to democracy on the other. Rightly, he saw no contradiction between the two, for, who can deny that true democracy is the only viable basis for genuine socialism and that without advance towards the goal of socialism democracy will be bereft of meaning?
Nehru would not discard the democratic processes or bypass the democratic institutions in order to put his ideas into pratice. In our context, with a long history of feudalism, caste hierarchy, religious divergence, multiplicity of languages and customs, in fact of stratification of society in a variety of ways, it has not been easy to correlate tradition and change, to work out a viable compromise between the best of cherished values and the urgency of eliminating social and economic inequalities. Jawaharlal Nehru realised that revolution in our situation had to be by consent and could not be by imposition. He admired the Soviet achievements and accepted the ultimate ideals of Marxism, but he did not make a secret of his reservations about applying the same methods in the case of our country.