C’est la vie! I have been all over the place — literally. Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad. Hence the more than usual neglect of this blog. For now, here’s a quiz: Who asked his father permission to transfer to Oxford because “Cambridge is becoming too full of Indians”? Clearly shows a huge contempt for Indians. Easy answer but please don’t peek below the fold before answering.
Winston Churchill.
Oh sorry, not him.
“There being no vacancies at Eton, in 1905 he (Motilal Nehru) packed 15-year-old Jawaharlal off to Harrow, determined that the boy grow up a proper English gentleman. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams; and years later, at Cambridge, Jawaharlal wrote his father asking permission to transfer to Oxford: ‘Cambridge is becoming too full of Indians.'”
[Source: Koenraad Elst writing about Nehru as a student in England.]
Life is a Random Draw 
Winston Churchill : Hehehehe
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Well his governess was an Englishwoman and his important tutor a Muslim. That explains his screwed up understanding of India. His Discovery of India is a superficial book on India.
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@larissa
I have replied to your surprise over Rajiv Gandhi’s comment that He was not a Hindu in the last post, which was on Sonia Gandhi. Kindly read that.
Atanu, sorry for interruption. Please allow this remark.
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Might interest you:
http://books.google.com/books?id=qv_-zBvd11EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ruminations+of+a+gadfly&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Chapter 35, Page 177: “Nehru: The hero that was”
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“I have replied to your surprise over Rajiv Gandhi’s comment that He was not a Hindu in the last post, which was on Sonia Gandhi. Kindly read that.
Atanu, sorry for interruption. Please allow this remark.”
My confusion was because outwardly the family tries to appear as if they follow one of the native faiths. They do not have Christian weddings or Zoroastrian weddings.
So it is very confusing for discerning people to figure what these people really are…I don’t belive I am the only one that is confused regarding these people’s real religious loyalties…
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@Oldtimer
that was an interesting chapter! Well it is known that Nehru was at heart not as liberal and it was all posing for the national scene and at heart remained very much a casteist. There is nothing wrong with that if this is what you really believe (provided you don’t harm others with your beliefs) but do not make secular postures outwardly and be honest with yourself–I think discerning people can see through the sham and is what really upsets them about Nehru i.e. the posturing…It is intersting how Nehru’s posture is assumed as real on the national scene–whereas people like Savarkar who was a genuine reformer and not casteist in any way is considered a fanatic due to the misrepresentation by Congress! Incredible!
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Wasn’t Nehru was referring to the discriminatory treatment against Indians joining Cambridge? Here’s the full quote: “My chief reason for wishing to go to Oxford is not any ardent desire on my part to get an Oxford degree. Cambridge is becoming too full of Indians, in spite of the fact that the position of Indians is becoming more and more impossible every year. Oxford is still supposed to be a better place in that respect. Besides I really feel so tired of Cambridge. If no decent college at Oxford will take me, I fall back on Cambridge. I shall have no difficulty about that. All I have to do is to go up there next term.”
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He might have been referring to the discriminatory treatment against Indians? (Pointed out by Utkarshraj Atmaram)
Here is the full quote:
My chief reason for wishing to go to Oxford is not any ardent desire on my part to get an Oxford degree. Cambridge is becoming too full of Indians, in spite of the fact that the position of Indians is becoming more and more impossible … See moreevery year. Oxford is still supposed to be a better place in that respect. Besides I really feel so tired of Cambridge. If no decent college at Oxford will take me, I fall back on Cambridge. I shall have no difficulty about that. All I have to do is to go up there next term.
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My chief reason for wishing to go to Oxford is not any ardent desire on my part to get an Oxford degree. Cambridge is becoming too full of Indians, in spite of the fact that the position of Indians is becoming more and more impossible every year. Oxford is still supposed to be a better place in that respect. Besides I really feel so tired of Cambridge. If no decent college at Oxford will take me, I fall back on Cambridge. I shall have no difficulty about that. All I have to do is to go up there next term.
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It could be the discrimination against Indians as Nehru was not popular while he was in college. It is always to read the full papargraph which was not provided unfortunately. But I still think his conception of India was naive and his Discovery of India shows lack of depth.
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Regardless of why he had to go to Oxford, the dismal results of his naive world view for the nation speak for themselves– I think he was more interested in presenting an “image” as liberal and progressive for himself in front of other world leaders than in the ground realities of India. Strikes me as a dandy–and it was not what India needed at the critical moment. It is a shame that he and Gandhi sidelined the more “manlier” leaders who would have been able to put national interests first…and India got stuck with Nehru’s effeminate outlook when it had a chance to make a correct start with leaders who could set a precedence for correct discipline, order and leadeship in governance,…the dismal results of the last sixty years is ample proof enough that India headed the wrong way unfortunately. And the damage persists till this day…
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Dr. Elst is among very few people who made one wise observation after another. His book “Decolonizing Hindu Mind” is such a classic work.
Full article by Elst : http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3087
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I’m not sure why Larissa has a bee in her bonnet regarding Nehru.Despite the malicious propoganda of the Hindutva brigade(unaware of the irony that Hindu is a term foisted on Bharat by the Persians)Nehru was the reason India has survived the onslaught of the religious fanatics who would tear the country apart and by sticking to his secular and humane instincts created the vision that sustains India today.History is under constant revision by the most strident and seductive voice of the day but Nehru despite his many limitations was and remains an inspiration to those who treasure that vision of India.
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@Sumant
This is quite a typical style of argument. Raise a bogey of religion when you are brought face to face with the truth.
This feeling of guilt associated with raising the voice for the interest of the majority Hindu population was also created by Nehru.
All cultures and nations of the world are proud of their culture, religion, and tradition, etc. Only we Hindus feel ever so guilty in raising the issues of our own interest.
It is time that we feel proud of being Hindus. It is the greatest and oldest tradition of the world. Despite the fact that there is no organized body to watch its interests, e.g., the Vatican for Christianity, and despite the concerted assaults on its existence, which continue to this day, we have survived. That is only because our religion gives that spiritual nourishment which everybody needs.
Now, coming to the Nehruvian legacy – it has given us the following-
1. Divided people,
2. Oppressed majority,
3. Society divided on religious and caste lines,
4. Poverty,
5. Backwardness,
6. Weak nation,
7. Corrupt leaders,
8. Shrinking borders,, and,
10. People like you who are ashamed of their heritage!
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Gyan you forgot the biggest and truest legacy of ‘Cha Cha’.
Giving us a vindictive, non-college-educated, petty-minded dictator of a daughter in Indira, who continued his misguided legacy and elevated her driver and peon to be ministers; who in turn procreated and gave us a criminal, Sanjay, and a non-college-educated, Rajiv, who also ruled the roost;. And who in turn bequeathed to us his non-college-educated Edvige Antonia Albina Maino who appointed a dastard puppet proudly warming the seat for the next bumpkin in the bloodline.
Discovery of India? If only he had discovered family planning.
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I don’t think what Nehru said necessarily shows contempt for Indians. I recently finished my Master’s in the US. And my university was also getting full of Indians. In the US, I was looking forward for not just a good education but also a good interaction with students from various other countries, so that to get more knowledge and views of different cultures/people. But because of so many fellow Indians, I ended up interacting mostly with them (which I was doing anyway back in India for 20 years) than with international students.
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“Nehru was the reason India has survived the onslaught of the religious fanatics who would tear the country apart”
Oho. And just who exactly were these fanatics? The RSS? The VHP? any body else? But these people were opposed to partition, right? So who else? Anybody spell M-U-S-L-I-M L-E-A-G-U-E ? And your hero Nehru was complicit in dividing India in accordance with the wishes of those thugs. And you call him some sort of integrator? Gimme a freakin’ break.
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Out of topic.
But interesting:
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Nehru had lacked any serious vision, he was a megalomaniac as a matter of fact. He gave up UNSC seat in favor of china. He accepted and endorsed artcle 370 which we cannot abrogate even today.The entire Northeast turned into antiIndian christian militia bloc supported by all foreign agencies among which the australian baptist mafia is most prominent.He brought in dynasty culture but never engaged any of real gandhi inclusions in his political equations.Went with Russians and kept away from americans. A loser indeed
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I have been following your posts mainly to discover facts if i missed any related to misgovernance of Congress . Till date i have not been able to find much and the certain thing is your hate towards Nehru family/Congress.
The only thing you are good at is making your hate sounds like real .
It is always easy to criticize past policies and make others believe that things would have been better otherwise.
Mr , please think for country as a visionary not by hating Nehru.
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@praveen
“It is always easy to criticize past policies and make others believe that things would have been better otherwise.”
It is very important for one to own up that their past policies were fucked up. If you do not own up to your mistakes, how will you improve on them? Congress(Nehru and his bloodline) have been screwing the country with their misdirected policies for the past ~60 years and no one till now has asked accountability on their(Nehru and his bloodline) part for the pathetic state this country is in.
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Well Said Anon,
Congress never admitted that what its leaders did was a crime…an unpardonable crime. Not in the long past Europe and America, people did not tolerate such socialist leaders even for 5 or 10 years and then civil unrest and world wars.. the end of which bought unprecedented prosperity, sensible governance, good leaders and ethnically cleansed state. This has happened in every developed country in the not so long past. Unfortunately in India, the same oppressive policies were followed in letter and spirit for 60 years and some flavor of it still exists in the neo-liberal India, so much so that we still continue to name out roads, universities and institutions only after chachhha nehru and his illicit progeny. Nixon rightly called indira a bitch. she had all the arrogance despite the greatest misrule that India has seen. I am desperately awaiting someone like Richard Attenborough make a movie depicting thus and let the morons in India know that nehru and his bloodline guaranteed poverty in india. I have now started admiring jinnah and pakistan more than india. They atleast have balls to blast off india and live by their convictions. we are absolutely spinelesss, dishonest, corrupted people. What is more saddening is people like Kapil Sibal, Manu Singhvi, Chidambaram and that clueless surd Manmohan are epitomes of sycophancy and leave no chance to praise the nehru bloodline and justify every action and decision that doomed India. The only happy lady is sonia who seems to be loving all this.
jai hind
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