Daniélou: On Nehru’s Anglicized Thinking

Mountbatten, Nehru, and Edwina

In his book Histoire de l’Inde (A Brief History of India), Alain Daniélou notes that Jawaharlal Nehru had little knowledge of the traditions and history of Hinduism; his thinking was thoroughly anglicized; his mind was filled with romantic notions of fabian socialism which he had picked up from British intellectuals and leftist activists. On page 349 of his book, Daniélou writes: 

“Nehru was the perfect replica of a certain type of Englishman. He often used the expression 'continental people', with an amused and sarcastic manner, to designate French or Italians. He despised non-anglicized Indians and had a very superficial and partial knowledge of India. His ideal was the romantic socialism of 19th century Britain. But this type of socialism was totally unfit to India, where there was no class struggle and where the conditions were totally different from 19th century Europe.” 

Daniélou points out that in India, “socialism was devoid of meaning,” because this country did not have a history of class struggle, and the social conditions here were vastly different from that in Europe. The imposition of Nehruvian socialism, which was essentially British Fabian socialism, ensured India’s political and economic backwardness. On page 348, Daniélou reflects on Nehru’s failure, after India's independence, to reform the British colonial laws and institutions to make them compatible with India’s Hindu culture:

"The Hindus who had mostly supported the Congress in its fight for independence, had thought that the modernist ideology of an Anglo- Saxon inspiration of its leaders was only a political weapon destined to justify independence in the eyes of Westerners. They thought that once independence was acquired, the Congress would revise its policies and would re-establish proper respect towards Sanskrit culture, Hindu religious and social institutions, which form the basis of Indian civilization. But nothing doing, the minority formed by the Congress leaders was too anglicized, to reconsider the value of what they had learnt. Few things changed in Indian administration, only the color of the skin of the new rulers, who were most of the time lower ranks officials of the old regime.” 

The promotion of socialist (communist) and Islamic values, at the cost of Hindu interests, was the dominant feature of the secular and socialist system that Nehru imposed on India. During his rule, Hindu-bashing became a popular pastime for India’s powerful politicians and intellectuals.