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The Idea of State in Nehru

Author Affiliations

  • 1Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

Int. Res. J. Social Sci., Volume 6, Issue (8), Pages 33-39, August,14 (2017)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to depict how the political writings of Nehru, primarily The Discovery of India and Autobiography, contained a plethora of derivative as well as indigenous characteristics and ideologies that resulted in the culmination of the concept of state in India, during the pre-independence era. The Nehruvian strategy comprised of attempts to pose challenges to the internal discrepancies in India pertaining to the British rule as well as to the external or international disturbances of global politics and juxtaposed this with the progressive phenomenon in the West, that he deemed plausible for borrowing and applying to the Indian context, thus, subsequently laying down the framework for the conceptualization of an Indian state. This paper is hence, segregated into three sections:- The first deals with the misuse of power by the colonizers to construct a flawed idea of the state in India and Nehru’s attempt to identify them and pose adequate challenges; the second deals with the Nehruvian ideologies and fundamental principles which were a result of the influences from the West and which assist him in conceptualizing the Indian state; lastly, the third section deals with the plethora of characteristics in Nehru’s prospective vision of the state, that assist in the establishment of a strong case for an idea of state in the forthcoming post-colonial era.

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