http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/11/19/swapan-dasgupta-on-nehru/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:23:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/11/19/swapan-dasgupta-on-nehru/comment-page-1/#comment-310091 Neeraj Tue, 19 May 2009 05:12:29 +0000 http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/11/19/swapan-dasgupta-on-nehru/#comment-310091 well that day will come when people will realize there mistake in keeping the dynastic rule of the Nehru's and Gandhis and will smash all their statues etc. as was the case with Lenin in the erstwhile USSR well that day will come when people will realize there mistake in keeping the dynastic rule of the Nehru’s and Gandhis and will smash all their statues etc. as was the case with Lenin in the erstwhile USSR

]]> http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/11/19/swapan-dasgupta-on-nehru/comment-page-1/#comment-276151 Amit Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:25:49 +0000 http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/11/19/swapan-dasgupta-on-nehru/#comment-276151 An enlightening article indeed. But hasnt it been always the case that we Indians have looked for secondary greatness. The general belief probably goes like ' if we cant be great, atleast we have amongst us a few, who are'. We try to hide our shortcomings and take refuge in the greatness of all kinds of personalities. The natural upshot is unwarranted hero-worship, ascribing certain traits and behaviors to the hero which he never displayed. But there are always certain agents who are responsible for such rooting of an idea or opinion in the popular imagination. In our case, it has been the Indian education system. It is a known fact that Indian educationists have always tried to paint a rosy picture of Indian political leaders and national movements. Moreover, they have almost completely excluded post independence history from the school curricula. Hence it is hardly surprising that the people who have undergone formal education in our country, indoctrinated by the people in power and hardly having any resources at their disposal to verify the claims of the educationists, tend to hold a favorable opinion of the leaders, sometimes bordering on hero worship. I think both the factors, our inherent trait of seeking greatness in others and the historical dogma handed down to us by the State have both contributed to such lionization of "Chacha" Nehru, rather than a critical analysis of his work and policies. The 'real' Nehru will only surface if, at all, mindsets in India change in a big way. Also the education system needs a big overhaul, with more number of history scholars being assigned the task of writing history textbooks for our children, and less number of Government sycophants and propagandists who are least bothered about presenting hard facts about history, in fact sometimes distorting them to a large extent as has been the case here, to promote the leader and his policies. An enlightening article indeed. But hasnt it been always the case that we Indians have looked for secondary greatness. The general belief probably goes like ‘ if we cant be great, atleast we have amongst us a few, who are’. We try to hide our shortcomings and take refuge in the greatness of all kinds of personalities. The natural upshot is unwarranted hero-worship, ascribing certain traits and behaviors to the hero which he never displayed. But there are always certain agents who are responsible for such rooting of an idea or opinion in the popular imagination. In our case, it has been the Indian education system. It is a known fact that Indian educationists have always tried to paint a rosy picture of Indian political leaders and national movements. Moreover, they have almost completely excluded post independence history from the school curricula. Hence it is hardly surprising that the people who have undergone formal education in our country, indoctrinated by the people in power and hardly having any resources at their disposal to verify the claims of the educationists, tend to hold a favorable opinion of the leaders, sometimes bordering on hero worship. I think both the factors, our inherent trait of seeking greatness in others and the historical dogma handed down to us by the State have both contributed to such lionization of “Chacha” Nehru, rather than a critical analysis of his work and policies. The ‘real’ Nehru will only surface if, at all, mindsets in India change in a big way. Also the education system needs a big overhaul, with more number of history scholars being assigned the task of writing history textbooks for our children, and less number of Government sycophants and propagandists who are least bothered about presenting hard facts about history, in fact sometimes distorting them to a large extent as has been the case here, to promote the leader and his policies.

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