Jawaharlal Nehru: A Study in Ideology and Social Change

The present study sets out to delineate the idea-system of Jawaharlal Nehru as it evolved and took shape through the decades and exercised a shaping influence on the course of the social and economic changes in India after Independence as well as in the sphere of International Relations. In so doing, it tries to layout broad content of his thought not so much in the pure descriptive-conceptual terminology of political philosophy but as in the measured responses to the specific configuration of material circumstances, political forces and cross-currents of opinions within which they were born. Because of the westernised stamp of his personality, his empirical method of reasoning and his highly pronounced faith in science and technology, it has often been glossed over that Nehru was a keen student of Indian History and he held a specific and carefully considered interpretation of Indian History which formed an inseparable part of his vision of future India in all its dimensions. The first chapter brings out the hitherto neglected area of Nehru’s interpretations of Indian History. The next chapter discusses the role Nehru played in the National movement for India’s independence. The third chapter analyzes the economic philosophy of Nehru and the role it played in a new era of planned economic development in India. The next chapter describes the deep imprint of Nehru’s thoughts and policies on certain select areas and problems of Indian social life. the last chapter examines the role of Nehru as the sole architect of India’s International outlook and foreign policy right since the pre-independence days until the time of his death. All these aspects taken together constitute the gestalt of Nehru’s ideology. In describing Nehru’s Central Idea-system the views and comments of other scholars have also been assimilated and analysed.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad Dubey (b. 1950) obtained the M.A. (Sociology) and Ph.D. degrees from the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. For over seven years he taught in the Department of Sociology, BHU as part time lecturer.