Nehru on villages

Aparna Krishnan

October 31, 2014 ·

Which world was Nehru living in ?

Nehru says, "A village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward environment. Narrow-minded people are much more likely to be untruthful and violent.... ". With visions and visionaries like this, villages have been relegated to the poverty striken state that they are in today.

- Paalaguttaalle (Dalitwada)

Gandhi - Nehru letters.

Gandhi to Nehru, 5 October 1945. “....I am convinced that if India is to attain true freedom and through India the world also, then sooner or later the fact must be recognized that people will have to live in villages, not in towns, in huts, not in palaces. Crores of people will never be able to live at peace with each other in towns and palaces. They will then have no resources but to resort to both violence and untruth. I hold that without truth and non-violence there can be nothing but destruction for humanity. We can realize truth and non-violence only in the simplicity of village life and this simplicity can best be found in the Charkha and all that Charkha connotes.

I must not fear if the world today is going the wrong way. It may be that India too will go that way and like the proverbial moth burn itself eventually in the flame round which it dances more and more furiously. But it is my bounden duty up to my last breath to try to protect India and through India the entire world from such a doom. The essence of what I have said is that man should rest content with what are his real needs and become self-sufficient. If he does not have this control he cannot save himself. After all the world is made up of individuals just as it is the drops that constitute the ocean....

While I admire modern science, I find that it is the old looked at in the true light of modern science which should be reclothed and refashioned aright. You must not imagine that I am envisaging our village life as it is today. The village of my dreams is still in my mind. After all every man lives in the world of his dreams. My ideal village will contain intelligent human beings. They will not live in dirt and darkness as animals. Men and women will be free and able to hold their own against any one in the world. There will be neither plague, nor cholera nor small pox; no one will be idle, no one will wallow in luxury. Everyone will have to contribute his quota of manual labour. I do not want to draw a large scale picture in details. It is possible to envisage railways, post and telegraph offices, etc. For me it is material to obtain the real article and the rest will fit into the picture afterwards. If I let go the real thing, all else goes....

Nehru’s Reply, 9 October 1945: “.... Briefly put, my view is that the question before us is not one of truth versus untruth or non-violence versus violence. One assumes as one must that true cooperation and peaceful methods must be aimed at and a society which encourages these must be our objective. The whole question is how to achieve this society and what its content should be. I do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and non-violence. A village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward environment. Narrow-minded people are much more likely to be untruthful and violent.... Again it seems to me inevitable that modern means of

transport as well as many other modern developments must continue and be developed. There is no way out of it except to have them. If that is so inevitable a measure of heavy industry exists. How far will that fit in with a purely village society?..."

Rahul Banerjee not nehru alone but most people in congress were against gandhi's model.

Aparna Krishnan yes. and now we are where we are. villages destituted. and malls glittering.

Rahul Banerjee Nehru was incidental as were gandhi and patel. the congress which they ostensibly led was funded by the indian moneyed and landed classes and it is they that called the shots and continue to do so. this is true of all so called democracies. that is why ethical, sustainable and equitable policies and programmes mostly remain on paper and crooks of all hues prosper!!

Anantha Sayanan how sad..what a view..what sort of person we got to rule..and compare Nehrus views to that of the great J C Kumarappa! and how sad we got this nehru foisted on us..thats a grouse i have on gandhi and that will stay..

Aparna Krishnan Yes Anantha Sayanan, i wonder why Gandhi left these people to lead the country as his heirs. Maybe he should have clung to power and 'not retired', sinking some principles ! But maybe as Rahul Banerjee says above, there was never a real choice. Nehru's disdainful and sweeping dismissal of the Hind Swaraj further in the same letter is shocking in its arrogance. Will type that in.

Rahul Banerjee nehru was a guy who used to burn the candle at both ends - socialist and capitalist with the sole aim of cornering power!!

November 1, 2014 at 6:03am · Edited · Like