Nehru in London, 1911 (From the Selected Works of Nehru) |
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru leaned towards socialism in hope to solve India’s dire poverty situation. His premiership saw government taking the commanding heights of the the economy through series of five year plans to promote industrialization. This belief towards state ownership, planning, and socialism traced its roots from his years studying in England.
Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, born in November 14, 1889, came from a Kashmiri
Brahmin family. Brahmins were a caste in Hindu society famous for being
professionals. His father Motilal Nehru made a name for himself as a shrewd
lawyer. In the midst of his Brahmin background, Nehru’s upbringing coursed
towards becoming an intellectual. The young Jawaharlal Nehru received western
style education under the supervision of several British tutor growing up more
British than Indian.
Nonetheless,
Indian nationalism laid strong within Jawaharlal Nehru. Though his father raised
his children with western style education, he supported Indian independence.
Even though the young Nehru studied western subjects under foreign tutors, his
father hired for them Indian teachers to teach him the Hindu language and script.
His father also instilled to his children the importance of nationalism and
their future contributions to the country.
Thus,
as a young man sharing his father’s desire for an Indian nation, he curiously
looked for a path what he thought would help India develop. He soon had the
time to seek the answer when he sailed for England in 1905 to pursue his higher
education.
Motilal Nehru |
Only
15, Nehru arrived in England to study in Harrow to further his education. His
stay in England opened his eyes to the fact that the secret to the British
Empire’s success laid in its industries. Months before, he had already
witnessed the success of an Asian country against the western Russian in a war.
Japan’s success in the Russo-Japanese War sparked an interest within Nehru
about the East Asian country. He wondered how an Asian country like Japan
defeated a prominent western country. And so, Nehru read books about Japan’s
history and culture. He especially grew fond of the works of Lafcadio Hearn
(Koizumi Yakumo). He also found that Japan’s rise came also his policy of
industrialization and its famous slogan Fukoku
Kyohei (strong army, strong country). He became further convince of
industrialization’s contribution in creating a great power when he finally saw
with his own eyes India’s colonial master’s industrial might.
Japan's industrialization allowed the East Asian country to develop its military capability and preserve its indepdence |
But
as he saw industrialization as a means to gain power for a country, he also
witnessed the pit falls. The income inequality and abuse of workers exposed
Nehru to the negative side of industrialization. This made him think of ways to
avoid such condition befalling India if it were to industrialize.
He
found a solution in form of socialism. Britain industrialization gave rise to
the socialist movements. Nehru admired in particular the socialist ideals of
the writer and playwright George Bernard Shaw. On October, 1907, Nehru attended
one of Shaw’s lectures titled “Socialism and the University Man.” Shaw
interested Nehru and the young Indian began to read much of his works, learning
about the inequalities in opportunities and in fruits of labor that the workers
suffered from the capitalist. Nehru became so influenced by Shaw that in 1948
he wrote the man a letter, stating:
"…like many of my generation, we have grown up in company with your writings and books. I suppose a part of myself, such as I am today, has been moulded by that reading.”
Shaw
was also once a member of the most prominent socialist group in Britain, the
Fabian Society. Nehru began also to take an interest in the society during his
study for the bar in 1910 at Inner Temple. His fascination of socialism,
capitalism, and industrialization led to his decision to seek courses in
economics, along with his study of law, in the London School of Economics.
Though he never fully took the courses due to difficult circumstances, it
showed the interest of the young Nehru to understand the workings of an
economy.
In
1912, Nehru returned to India. His learnings from his childhood and England
made deep imprint to the future Prime Minister of India. He would continue to
develop his economic ideas until he finally put his thoughts into practice
during his time as Premier of India from 1948 until 1942.
See also:
Bibliography:
Nehru,
Jawaharlal. Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru. New York,
New York: The John Day Company, 1941.
Gopal,
S. (ed.). Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru V. 1. New Delhi, B.R. Publishing
Corporation, 1988.
No comments:
Post a Comment