Nehru's secularism implied harmony of different religious traditions: Palat

Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's secular vision was not irreligious. Rather it drew inspiration from the Hindu scriptures and he deeply admired Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad, viewing them as revolutionaries of their times. He was simply against dogma and priesthood as he was too much of a believer in individual freedom for the human mind to be shackled in the restrictions of organised religion.

These lesser known facets of the country's first premier, known for his firm belief in the ideals of secularism and rational thought, were brought out by renowned historian Prof. Madhavan K Palat as he delivered the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi on Thursday evening.

Speaking on the topic 'The Spiritual in Nehru's Secular Imagination', Palat said Nehru was against all dogma, so much so that if secularism were to become some kind of a dogma, he would reject even that. He remarked that for a man who firmly believed in secular ideals, he did not use the word 'secular' very much.

Describing Nehru's vision of secularism, Palat said it meant putting all religions in one basket, where they would be equal and where the differences would get marginalised. Nehru, he said, believed Mahatma Gandhi followed this strategy, and he was clear that freedom of religion had to be a fundamental right in the country.

“He greatly admired the religious leaders, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad, as revolutionaries of their time. He was profoundly impressed by their personal character, as model human beings, in the spirit of a Dostoevsky preferring Jesus to the truth,” said Palat.

In particular, Nehru was deeply impacted by Buddha's principles, which he found to be akin to Gandhian thought. “He almost made Gandhi into an avatar of Buddha...He believed that in all of India's history, the most glorious were the Buddhist rulers—Ashoka, Kanishka and Harshvardhan,” he said.

Nehru believed that Buddhist values have been absorbed in Hinduism, and this was his answer to the question as to why Buddhism faded from India, Palat said.

He said Nehru saw scientific temper as being spiritual, as a means to go beyond the limits of science. Nehru, said the historian, agreed that science leads us to the truths of the universe, but knew that it could not provide moral guidance to discriminate between right and wrong. He was a romantic critic of reason and science and believed that the creative pursuits of art could tkake one beyond the limits of rational thought.

According to Palat, Nehru, on account of his upbringing in a British schooling system that focused on the Christian ideal of character building, re-imagined Gandhi as an “English school master” who developed character in the Indian people by using his spiritual energy.

Palat has been associated with the project to compile the selected works of Nehru. He has accomplished the editing and publishing of the 100th and final volume of the selected works of Nehru, which was released on the former prime minister's birth anniversary.