Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few are to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention, so said Francis Bacon. Putting the book ‘Nehru’s India’ by Professor Aditya Mukherjee in any of the above categories is difficult. The book is more like a pamphlet bereft of any seriousness as it does not make any in-depth study about Jawahar Lal Nehru. It can also be called an adulatory hagiography because the author fails to make a critique of Pandit Nehru.
The foreword of the book has been written by a known distortionist of history, Irfan Habib. By reading the book anybody will conclude that the writer is a diabolical Modi hater, therefore, everything looks yellow to a person with a jaundiced eye. The writer fails to see or deliberately ignore the fact that the country has made tremendous progress in the last more than ten years of Narendra Modi’s rule.
There is no doubt that the medieval history written under the supervision of Jawahar Lal Nehru and the Congress rule was skewed. It gave much importance to the Mughal rulers, although they were cruel, brutal, unscientific, and backward-looking. They (the Mughals) spent the country's resources not for the benefit or welfare of the masses but for their pleasure and suppression of the people.
In the pre-independence days, Nehru and his bandwagon did not make any effort to awaken the Muslim masses. Still, they subjected the Hindus by attacking them in the name of majority communalism ignoring the fact that it was minority communalism that was responsible for the vivisection of the country. Muslims, on the other hand, were in thrall of Jinnah, who led to the partition of India. If the properties and population had been transferred at the time of the partition, the country would have made formidable progress in all fields. Surprisingly, the left-leaning thinkers and politicians who kept themselves aloof during the freedom struggle, became the supporters of Nehru and Gandhi, not because they loved them or were inspired by them but because of their hatred towards Hindus. The writer has quoted rabid anti-India journals like ‘The Economist’ to prove that India has been lagging behind many unknown countries as far as economic progress is concerned but the fact is that these have been fake narratives.
India has been a living example of a robust democracy, and it is not because of the idea of Nehru but it has been innate and inherent in India’s culture. During Nehru’s time, the press was overawed and almost servile, but now the vested interests are preparing their agenda and narratives to criticise the Modi government which can subserve their cause. The writer has given credit to Jawahar Lal Nehru for setting up some industrial organizations and educational institutions. Still, if we compare it to the last ten years of Modi, we can safely say that the country has made giant strides in almost all fields. The biggest achievement has been the construction of toilets for every household and a roof over the heads of all families even those living in the remote corner of the country.
The book is very shallow on every parameter. It is based on fake data and dubious newspaper reports by an author who has made an all-out effort to denigrate the Modi government by using Jawahar Lal Nehru.
