Jawaharlal Nehru contributed to the establishment of a secular Parliamentary democracy in India and was one of the founders of the international Non-Aligned Movement. Nehru is noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. But Nehru policy of pacifism and appeasement with respect to China also came unraveled when border disputes led to the Sino-Indian war in 1962 which india lost badly. This aggression by china was a betrayal of trust for Nehru and he could never recovered from the emotional shock of it.
Jawaharlal Nehru was a peace loving person and a poet by heart and a passionate advocate of education for India's children and youth. Jawaharlal Nehru was a also prolific writer in English and wrote a number of books, such as The Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, and his autobiography, Toward Freedom. By Far, He is one of the most loved and respected prime minister of india.
Jawaharlal Nehru with Mahatma Gandhi
Selected Quotes of Jawaharlal Nehru are:
- Great causes and little men go ill together.
- Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.
- We must constantly remind ourselves that whatever our religion
or creed, we are all one people.
- The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.
- Most of us seldom take the trouble to think. It is a troublesome
and fatiguing process and often leads to uncomfortable conclusions.
But crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this
advantage, that they force us to think.
- Of the many hard lessons that I had learned, the hardest and the
most painful now faced me: that it is not possible in any vital
matter to rely on anyone. One must journey through life alone; to
rely on others is to invite heartbreak.
- We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and
adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if
only we seek them with our eyes open.
- Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. It is
never a narrowing of the mind or a restriction of the human spirit
or the country's spirit.
- A great disaster is a symbol to us to remember all the big
things of life and forget the small things of which we have thought
too much. In his ( Mahatma Gandhi) death he has reminded us of
the big things of life, the living truth, and if we remember that,
then it will be well with India.
- You don't change the course of history by turning the faces of
portraits to the wall.
- Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.
So we are forced to accept democracy. It has good points and also
bad. But merely saying that democracy will solve all problems is
utterly wrong. Problems are solved by intelligence and hard work.
- It is easy to criticize and blame others, and the temptation is
almost irresistible to find some excuse for the failure of one's
plans.
- History is almost always written by the victors and conquerors
and gives their view. Or, at any rate, the victors' version is given
prominence and holds the field.
- They fought because they were paid for it; they were not
interested very much in the conquest of Greece. The Athenians on the
other hand, fought for their freedom. They preferred to die rather
than lose their freedom, and those who are prepared to die for any
cause are seldom defeated.
- To be in good moral condition requires at least as much training
as to be in good physical condition.
- The world of today has achieved much, but for all its declared
love for humanity, it has based itself far more on hatred and
violence than on the virtues that make one human. War is the
negation of truth and humanity. War may be unavoidable sometimes,
but its progeny are terrible to contemplate. Not mere killing, for
man must die, but the deliberate and persistent propagation of
hatred and falsehood, which gradually become the normal habits of
the people. It is dangerous and harmful to be guided in our life's
course by hatreds and aversions, for they are wasteful of energy and
limit and twist the mind and prevent it from perceiving truth.
- Because we have sought to cover up past evil, though it still
persists, we have been powerless to check the new evil of today.
Evil unchecked grows, Evil tolerated poisons the whole system. And because we have tolerated our past and present evils, international affairs are poisoned and law and justice have disappeared from them.
- Where freedom is menaced or justice threatened or where
aggression takes place, we cannot be and shall not be neutral.
- Peace is not only an absolute necessity for us in India in order
to progress and develop but also of paramount importance to the
world. How can that peace be preserved? Not by surrendering to
aggression, not by compromising with evil or injustice but also not
by the talking and preparing for war! Aggression has to be met, for
it endangers peace. At the same time, the lesson of the past two
wars has to be remembered and it seems to me astonishing that, in
spite of that lesson, we go the same way. The very processes of
marshaling the world into two hostile camps precipitates the
conflict that it had sought to avoid. It produces a sense of
terrible fear and that fear darkens men's minds and leads them to
wrong courses. There is perhaps nothing so bad and so dangerous in
life as fear. As a great President of the United States said, there
is nothing really to fear except fear itself.
- Friends and Comrades, the light has gone out of our lives and
there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how
to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu (Mahatama Gandhi) as we called
him, the Father of the Nation, is no more.
- Whether we believe in God or not, it is impossible not to
believe in something, whether we call it a creative life-giving
force, or vital energy inherent in matter which gives it its
capacity for self-movement and change and growth, or by some other
name, something that is as real, though elusive, as life is real
when contrasted with death.
- One begins to appreciate the value of the little things of life
in
prison. One's belongings are so few, and they cannot easily be added to or replaced; one clings to them and gathers up odd bits of things which. In the world outside, would go to the wastepaper basket. The property sense does not leave one even when there is nothing worth while to own and keep.
- Only a prisoner who has been confined for long behind high walk
can appreciate the extraordinary psychological value of these outside walks and open views.
- For over a year after that I lived in that (prison) cell
surrounded by these wasps and hornets; they never attacked me, and
we respected each other.
- Different countries have adopted different animals as symbols of
their ambition or character the eagle of the United States of
America and of Germany, the lion and bulldog of England, the
fighting cock of France, the bear of old Russia. How far do these
patron animals mold national character? Most of them are aggressive,
fighting animals, beasts of prey. The people who grow up with these
examples before them appear to mold themselves consciously after
them, strike up aggressive attitudes, roar, and prey on others. The
Hindu is mild and nonviolent, for his patron animal is the cow.
- Divide and rule has always been the way of empires, and the
measure of their success in this policy has been also the measure of
their superiority over those whom they thus exploit.
- It has always seemed to me a much more magnificent and
impressive thing that a human being should rise to great heights,
mentally and spiritually, and should then seek to raise others up,
rather than that he should be the mouthpiece of a divine or superior
power. Some of the founders of religions were astonishing
individuals, but all their glory vanishes in my eyes when I cease to
think of them as human beings. What impresses me and gives me hope
is the growth of the mind and spirit of man, and not his being used
as an agent to convey a message.
- A country under foreign domination seeks escape from the present
in dreams of a vanished age, and finds consolation in visions of
past greatness. That is a foolish and dangerous pas-time in which
many of us indulge. An equally questionable practice for us in India
is to imagine that we are still spiritually great though we have
come down in the world in other respects. Spiritual or any other
greatness cannot be founded on lack of freedom and opportunity, or
on starvation and misery. Many western writers have encouraged the
notion that Indians are other-worldly. I suppose the poor and
unfortunate in every
country become to some extent other-worldly, unless they become revolutionaries, for this world is evidently not meant for them. So also subject peoples.
- I have no doubt at all that among the causes of India's decay in
recent centuries, purdah, or the seclusion of women, holds an
important place. I am even more convinced that the complete ending
of this barbarous custom is essential before India can have a
progressive social life. That it injures women is obvious enough,
but the injury to man, to the growing child who has to spend much of
its time among women in purdah, and to social life generally is
equally great. Fortunately this evil practice is fast disappearing
among the Hindus, more slowly among the Moslems.
- There was poverty and the innumerable progeny of poverty
everywhere, and the mark of this beast was on every forehead. Life
had been crushed and distorted and made into a thing of evil, and
many vices had flowed from this distortion and
continuous lack and ever-present insecurity. All this was not pleasant to see; yet that was the basic reality in India. There was far too much of the spirit of resignation and acceptance of things as they were. But there was also a mellowness and a gentleness, the cultural heritage of thousands of years, which no amount of misfortune had been able to rub off.
- Personally I dislike the praise of poverty and suffering. I do not think they are at all desirable, and they ought to be abolished. Nor do I appreciate the ascetic life as a social ideal, though it may suit individuals. I understand and appreciate simplicity, equality, self-control; but not the mortification of the flesh. Just as an athlete requires to train his body, I believe that the mind and habits have also to be trained and brought under control. It would be absurd to expect that a person who is given to too much self-indulgence can endure much suffering or show unusual self-control or behave like a hero when the crisis comes. To be in good moral condition requires at least as much training as to be in good physical condition. But that certainly does not mean asceticism or self-mortification.
No comments:
Post a Comment