The Nehruvian Era: Part 1
The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru mesmerized the world with his most famous speech Tryst with Destiny on the eve of India’s independence. His speech showed us his ideas for the nation. We learnt how he wished to see India, and every single word of his justified why it was very important to fight to foreign enemy. His words guided us that power and freedom comes with a lot of responsibility, and one should not take it for granted. Another aspect of this freedom was the partition of British India into India and Pakistan.
India and Pakistan were born out of India’s Independence Act 1947, under Governor General Lord Mountbatten. These two newly born independent countries had leaders which were very similar in terms of personality. Both leaders Nehru and Jinnah, were lawyers, both carried a great scientific temperament. Jinnah left congress for his own personal preference of becoming the Prime Minister, and also safeguarding the interests of Muslims. But sadly, he would not lead his country as he wanted to as he passed away due to Tuberculosis and Pakistan ended up with the wrong hands. But Nehru did not let India pass into the wrong hands. These were some people who were raising voices, as the ideals of the constitution were not matching up with the Manusmriti. But this idea was not acceptable to many because taking Manusmriti as the law of the land as it would not give Dalits the rights they were fighting for and would also make the Brahmins create their monopoly at well-reputed jobs.
The fight which Nehru was fighting was not easy, but still he was able to manage these leaders to understand the importance of a socialist democratic state, rather than a theocratic state. But in 2014 when Narendra Modi’s party came into power they worked towards undoing it. BJP has its roots in the Hindu Mahasabha, Ram Rajya Parishad. As soon as they came into power, they implemented GST, Demonetization, Lateral Entry, along with that the federal powers of the state were reduced, and also the independence of the Election Commission was reduced. All these things worked towards breaking the whole institution.
On 15th August 2024, in his 11th I-Day speech the Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned two words : Secular Civil Code and its twin Communal Civil Code. In reality the Prime Minister was talking about the Uniform Civil Code. This was BJP’s long due promise under its Sanantani agenda and to please austere Hindus. The whole idea behind this speech is to create such a space in the society where the Muslim population resides with fear in its mind, so that it will become easier for BJP to take steps such as Teen Talaq and revocation of the Article 370. A very similar act has been done to the states as well by the application of the GST law, and taking away their federal powers. Narendra Modi and BJP never fails to take a dig at Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R. Ambedkar and also at the Constitution, but this time they forgot this Secular Civil Code, which they seem to be the inventor of, has its roots in the Hindu Code Bill from the 1950s. All these hard-boiled Hindus were against the Hindu Code Bill, as it was firmly rejected by Shayam Prasad Mukherjee in the Parliament. He also claimed that this Bill will be the distribution of the Hindu Society and this was the incident which led to the birth of the Jan Sangh. Under the Hindu Code Bill, 1947, if a man passes away without any will, his property will be of his wife and children. This Bill also prohibited a man to marry more than once, and women were given the right to divorce. Such Bills show us how concerned Ambedkar was for women, as women were not represented properly in Indian society. This bill was a form of revolution even back then. This legislation encountered significant opposition, and RSS flooded the streets with demonstrations and protests against it.
In 1950 the Congress government tried to introduce the Abolition of Zamindari Act. This was a very important step which needed to be taken as previously dalits, tribals were treated as cattle on agricultural fields. They did not have lands of their own and this step by the congress helped in bringing land rights to all the sections of the society, equally. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar abolished Zamindari System in 1949 itself. This was the first step towards giving ownership rights to the people of India.
Next Hindu Marriage Act 1954 was introduced, which aimed towards reducing the cruelty of husbands towards their wives, and this act put such cruelty as a punishable offense. HMA 1955 was a success of congress, and it helped in fighting patriarchy in a big way. This act also allowed Hindus of today to marry people of their own choice and the Special Marriage Act provided the legal framework for the same. The Hindu Succession Act1956, guaranteed property to women after her husband’s demise. In the same year, Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act was introduced. It helped people in adopting kids and a clear procedure was laid down as well. With this it also defined maintenance of widows, old parents as well. Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, – to stop dowry from society. But still it seems like a failure because of society. Under article 45, free education till the age of 14. From 1950-1960 the numbers of children enrolled in schools increased rapidly.
All these were a great step towards social development of the society. But today terms like Communal Civil Code and Secular Civil Code, seems absurd because BJP is not realizing that all this was previously done by Nehru. With its Secular Civil Code, the BJP government is trying to bring back the old order. They think that this code will affect the Muslim community but in reality, various Hindu communities across the country will not accept it. There’s a phrase that goes, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to destroy it” and only time will tell the future of Uniform Civil Code.