Name - Prateel Singh

Course - Social and Political in Contemporary India

Professor-S.Ravindran

Prompt -Has your received understanding of Nation and Nationalism changed or altered after
reading Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and Iqbal?

The terms Nation and Nationalism at its first glance seem to be uncomplicated, but it
carries vast definitions and interpretations. For the normal population, Nation means a
community of people with some common aspects like language, history, culture, beliefs
and they live in a particular territory demarcated by borders. Also have some common
features like a flag, anthem, currency, and leaders (to govern). Whereas Nationalism for
them is an ideology that means being patriotic and promoting the nation's interest over
self.
A lot of scholars have interpreted and defined these terms in various ways as per their
theory and outlook towards the Nation and Nationalism.
Benedict Anderson, known for his work on Nation and Nationalism in his book Imagined
Communities define Nation as

“an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and
sovereign… It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never
know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds
of each lives the image of their communion.”1

Anderson tries to convince that nation is a community imagined by the people who
recognise themselves as part of that group. He reminds that Nations are conceptualised
before they are formed. Once the process of formation begins, and the
conceptualisation is realised the inevitable process of nationalism begins. Andreson
also adds that languages play an important role in national identity and nationalism
1 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. 1983.
throughout his book by giving an example of Belgium. The rise of the Flemish nationalist
movement and its political success showed how marginalising Flemish speakers in
Belgium gave rise to nationalism.
Throughout the history of Indian Independence and its division number of scholars
defined Nation and Nationalism as per their view and understandings. Every concept is
distinct from others and creates a different perspective. Scholars like Mahatma Gandhi,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Ali Jinnah wrote about these
concepts in various pieces of their writing explaining their outlook on it. These writings
altogether construct wider and different perspectives about Nation and Nationalism.

Gandhi was not a studious scholar like Dr Ambedkar, Justice Ranade or Tilak so his
concept of nationalism is not written as full-length writing but it appears in parts and
pieces throughout several works of literature authored by him or in his speeches and
articles. Gandhi, in his seminal work, Hind Swaraj (1909) reflects his idea of
nationalism. The title of his book Hind Swaraj not only speak about ‘Swaraj’ or self-rule
but also ‘Hind’ or Nation. at the very beginning of his writing, Gandhi criticises to all
those people who think India before British rule was not a nation. He says that such
people think Britishers united the scattered provinces and bought it all together as a
nation. These people also consider those modern technologies such as machines,
railways telegraph were important for the development of India as a Nation. Thus, his
book Hind Swaraj gives a systematic critique of the assumptions of people. He tries to
prove the assumption false and conveys how India was a nation before the British.

As per Gandhi for any country to be labelled as a nation must have the cooperating
capacity or say people should accommodate each other and have a sense of
community despite conflicting interests. Gandhi here seems to anticipate the idea of
Benedict Anderson’s theory of ‘imagined community’ - imagined as both inherently
sovereign and limited2.
According to Gandhi Indian civilization displayed incredible accommodating capacity as

2 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London:
Verso, 1983).
civilisation. Indians had a great absorbing capacity of a foreign religion, culture,
tradition, and language. Gandhi in his writings-used word ‘Praja’ instead of ‘Rashtra’
because Praja means people’s community whereas Rashtra signifies some kind of
power.

“I can never subscribe to the statement that all Englishmen are bad. Many Englishmen
desire Home Rule for India. That the English people are selfish than others in true, but
that did not prove that every Englishmen was bad.”

3
Gandhi, by stating this to his readers, asks to draw a line between enemy and friend
and says not to assume it easily that all Englishmen are enemies. Here he also brings
Indian National Congress into the light and convinces the reader how Congress is laying
the foundation of Nationalism and his views on Congress leaders like Hume and
Wedderburn. According to him, the Indian National Congress was the leading
organisation that was mobilizing people together from all parts of the country and a
spreading sense of nationalism.

In one of the writings about Nationalism Gandhi says.

“Just as the cult of patriotism teaches us today that the individual has to die for the
family, the family has to die for the village, the village for the district, the district for the
province, and the province for the country, even so a country has to be free in order that
it may die, if necessary, for the benefit of the world. My love, therefore, of nationalism or
my idea of nationalism is that my country may become free, that if need be the whole of
the country may die, so that the human race may live. There is no room for race hatred
there. Let that be our nationalism.”4

Here Gandhi conveys that for higher ideas and noble aims like freedom or serving
nation the smaller objective needs to be sacrificed. He says for every strong cause the

3 Gandhi, . Hind Swaraj: Or, Indian Home Rule. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Pub. House,
1989.
4 M. H. Desai, Gandhiji in Indian Villages (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1927), p. 170
smaller entities need to be sacrificed. On the other side, this appears to be a typical
Gandhian quote. It contains a lot of strong ideas but with a bit of strange reasoning.
When Gandhi says ‘ my idea of nationalism is that my country may become free, that if
need be the whole of the country may die, so that the human race may live’. Now how
pragmatic it is, that for the survival of the human race annihilation of a country is
necessary.

Gandhi in his book Hind Swaraj also addressed his views on Extremist and Moderate
and its faction in Indian National Congress. He believed that the moderates are too
polite in demanding their rights, however, this does not imply that Gandhi was
supporting Extremists in any way. Gandhi did not support Extremists because according
to him if swaraj (self-rule) is attained by Extremists then ‘English rule vanish but
Englishness will prevail’5. This would lead us to some violent form of nationalism.
Gandhi being ahimsa (non-violence) supporter would never want this. Also, India being
subjugated by British was suffering extremism from past two centuries. Gandhi later
even says extremists want ‘India like England and when it becomes England It will be
called not Hindustan, but Englistan’ and this was not the swaraj that Gandhi was looking
for. This shows that Gandhi was a critique of the western concept of nationalism.
Gandhi also condemned Italian nationalists like Garibaldi and Cavour for their extremist
ideology of nation-building. He wanted to develop an Indian concept of nationalism, that
is deeply rooted in Indian culture and more accommodative rather than influenced by
the West.

Gandhi also addresses his critique about the elites such as lawyers, doctors and other
professionals in the context of nation and nationalism. He very clearly states with
multiple examples that how these elites work for benefiting themselves rather serving
the Praja (people). Gandhi sees that these elite oppress them, exploits them in the
name of the nation. These elites or professional class like doctors, lawyers, elected
representatives, scientists and administrators all those who proclaim themselves as
torch bearer of nationalism but are aimed towards accumulating personal wealth and
5 Gandhi, . Hind Swaraj: Or, Indian Home Rule. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Pub. House,
1989
working for self progression rather than the nation. Here Gandhi gives his idea of self-
sufficiency and self-sufficiency is the major feature of a nation.

Thus Gandhi created his idea of nation and nationalism different and prevalent from
other notions of the idea. It was an India of his dreams.

Jawaharlal Nehru emerged as one of the prominent leaders throughout the history of
Indian Independence. He shaped India's destiny throughout his career until death.
Being a scholar he studied different political ideologies of the world and shaped his
political thinking as per the most suitable to the nation, during his college days in
England he was attracted towards socialism. His understanding of world history, politics
and knowledge about Indian history helped him to formulate his idea of Nationalism.

Nehru looked into Indian history and India's connection in the past. He found that from
the era of Mohenjo-Daro, India has maintained its trade relations with Greeks, Chinese,
Iranians, Arabs and other such nations. India got influenced and also used to influence
these nations. He mentions “that we might say the first great cultural synthesis and
fusion took place between the incoming Aryans and Dravidians” 6. According to Nehru
these influences from the foreign created a new bloom of culture and ideas which
helped in the welfare of India, but these process of absorption of new culture and
traditions vanquished when British subjugated India.
Nehru accentuates the role of socio-economic factors in his idea of nationalism. He
thinks that British rule in India created landlords and Zamindars which strengthened
feudalism in the nation. Britishers used to interact with zamindars, feudal lord and
communal extremists. According to Nehru, the purpose of Britishers was to create
interest among them whom Britishers can rely on and with the help exploit the nation.
According to Nehru there exist two forces, British imperialism and Indian Nationalism
represented by congress.

6 Nehru, J. L., The Discovery of India, -(OXford, New Delhi : 1985), P• 7 3

Nehru had a broader view of Nationalism. He incorporated internationalism in his view
of Nationalism. He never took Indian Nationalism in a narrow perspective, being a
supporter of socialism he never supported nazism and fascism in spite of knowing they
were against the British because Nehru was a strong critique of authoritarianism and
capitalism. These show how broader was Nehru’s view on Nationalism and it integrated
his support towards socialism, secularism and democracy. After the Second World War,
he found that countries involved in the war became too nationalistic also his views of
socialism went under drastic change. This was because the Soviet Union went through
an internal crisis during this period. Also, he criticised about the role of the Communist
Party of India when it did not join the Quit India Movement. He says In his words, “It has
cut itself off from the springs of national sentiment and speaks in a language which
finds no echo in the hearts of people”. 7
Nehru believed that nationalism is a result of psychological unification. This unification
will come from having pride for the nation, its tradition and culture. He further believes
that Nationalism is a vital force in people's lives and it should continue even after the
freedom from their foreign powers. During a foreign rule, nationalism is merely an anti-
foreign feeling.

Nehru was a supporter of secularism, in one of his speeches he said: “'in any country
like India, with many faiths and religions no nationalism can be built up except based on
secularity”8. Secularity stood as the founding pillar for India’s Nationalism. Nehru
throughout his freedom movement refers to communalism as a repudiation of
nationalism. He believed that every individual should enjoy his or her freedom of religion
without interfering in others. However, the reality was very different, throughout the
freedom movement of India it faced Hindu-Muslim enmity. Nehru did not like to be
guided by spiritual or religious tones of the freedom movement. According to him,
communal leaders exist to obstruct freedom movement. Nehru throughout his career
was against the narrow concept of nationalism. His thoughts of nationalism were

7 Nehru, J. L., The Discovery of India, -(OXford, New Delhi : 1985), P• 516

8 Nehru, J. L., The Discovery of India, -(OXford, New Delhi : 1985),

composite of the rationale and scientific thinking, according to him there was no scope
for religious fundamentalism.

Partha Chatterjee analysis Nehru’s nationalism as, ‘The Moment of Arrival’.

According to him in Nehru’s Nationalism, the autonomy of the state is a central
organising principle and social justice is an important principle. His argument is social
justice cannot be provided to everyone with the old framework and so the new better
framework needs to be built.
Nehru rejects the antagonism completely between Eastern and Western cultures. "I do
not understand the use of the words Orient and Occident, except in the sense that
Europe and America are highly industrialized and Asia is backward in this respect. This
industrialization is something new in World History”. 9
Partha Chatterjee analyses the difference between the East and the West. In his idea,
there is nothing as important in European civilization which makes it so powerful. There
are one or two points in their history which give them spirit and creativity. Similarly, there
is nothing as such which make Asian civilization static and powerless. It is about the
East and West: West conquered, the East submitted.

Nehru both as politician and intellectual helped to develop an idea of nationalism and
imply it to the best. Nehru tried to analyse the Indian problems in the context of a world
which helped him to develop the idea of Nationalism that was different in much sense
from other scholars.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-i-Azam to millions of Pakistani was a political leader and
a scholar under whose leadership Muslim league reached its pinnacle. Between the
years 1937-1947 was a crucial period of Jinnah’s politics, he raised his voice for
Muslims and propagated his separatist thought throughout the nation. Throughout his
political journey, the change in Jinnah’s political ideology can be seen. From the year
9 Nehru, J. L., The Discovery of India, -(OXford, New Delhi : 1985), P• 142
1906-1920 Jinnah was in Indian National Congress and carried a liberal political belief.
For him, the nation (India) was more important than religion( Muslim). Jinnah once said,
“I am a nationalist first, a nationalist second and a nationalist last”. After the withdraw
from Congress in 1920 Jinnah’s ideology went through a drastic change with time.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a staunch believer of two-nation theory in his late political
career. Jinnah opposed the Nehruvian idea that there are only two forces British
Imperialism and Indian Nationalism by Congress. Jinnah opposed Nehru and said that
“There was another party, the ‘Muslim League’ which alone had the right to represent
the Muslims of India.”10

Jinnah completely believed that the majority of the Hindu community have clearly shown
that Hindustan is for Hindus. The Government of India Act 1935 was an eye-opener act
for Muslims, especially in Muslim minority provinces. Jinnah expresses his views on
Congress by claiming that, the dream of Congress leaders has come true to establish
‘Hindu Raj’. In his Presidential speech of Lahore in 1940, he speaks about the pain that
Muslim has suffered due to Vidhya Mandir Scheme and Congress Rajkot test. Jinnah
after convincing people about these spread an idea of Urdu as our national language.
This aroused a feeling of nationalism in Muslims and filled the spirit of Pakistan among
Muslim masses.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah to a great extent was influenced by Muhammad Iqbal idea of
Nation. Jinnah took a new meaning of Iqbal’s idea. He was convinced that the Muslims
of India could never live with Hindus. According to Jinnah Muslim of India could never
live with Hindus and so there was need of a separate territorial part for Muslims, which
will be known as Pakistan.

In a Presidential address by Muhammad Ali Jinnah to the Muslim League

Lahore, 1940 he addresses that: “We have our experience of the last two and a half

10 Jinnah, Muhammad Ali. “By Muhammad Ali Jinnah to the Muslim League .” 1940, Lahore.
years. We have learnt many lessons. We are now apprehensive and can trust nobody. it
has always been taken for granted mistakenly that the Muslim is a minority. He said
Muslims are a nation by any definition of a nation. Hindu and Muslims belong to two
religion, philosophies, social customs, literature. They neither inter-marry nor interdine
and indeed belong to different civilizations which are based on conflicting ideas and.
Their concepts of life are different. They have different epics, different heroes and
different episodes. Very often the hero of one is the foe of the other and likewise their
victories and defeats, overlap. He also added that to take together state, one as a
numerical majority other as a minority must lead to growing discontent. Muslims are
nation according to any definition of a nation and they must have their homeland, their
territory and their state.”11Muslim population had very positive responses to the Lahore
resolution of 1940 which demanded the separate homeland for the Muslim population of
British India. The demand of separate nation of Pakistan was meant for freedom from
the oppressive Hindus (as per Jinnah) and where the religion can be practised freely as
it would be an Islamic state. Pakistan as a nation was found on an ideological basis first
and then on a territorial grounds.

Jinnah developed a negative frame on united India. From carrying the idea of liberalism
he changed to communalist, lost belief in Hindu-Muslim Unity, he characterized
Congress as Hindu party, its leaders were looking forward to Hindu Raj and their
ideology was of Hindutva. Jinnah like other Muslim scholars was not against the ide of
united India from the beginning of his political career but the Congress leaders and their
policies made him realise that Muslims are not safe in India. So he demanded a
separate nation for Indian Muslims. He put his best efforts to unite the Muslim
community for his idea of a separate new Nation Pakistan.

Muhammad Iqbal was a poet and a philosopher. His idea of nation and nationalism
became widespread and influenced a lot of Muslim scholars and people. He is often

11 Jinnah, Muhammad Ali. “By Muhammad Ali Jinnah to the Muslim League .” 1940, Lahore.
regarded as the spiritual father of Pakistan. Before Iqbal’s visit to Europe, he had a
strong connection towards the Nation and was nationalistic. While being in India his
views on Nationalism was finite and he did not find anything contradicting between
Islam and Nationalism. He also wrote Taran-i-Hind (Song of India) which showed his
romanticism towards the nation India.

Iqbal made a distinction between the terms patriotism and nationalism. He had been the
consistent opponent of idea nationalism since the beginning of the second decade of
the century. The imperialist design of European power which shatter the unanimity of
Islam and its pieces of evidence from First World War, also the dissolution of Ottoman
caliphate caused by the upsurge of Arb nationalism developed a bias against
nationalism for Iqbal.

Iqbal has discussed and explained the words Qaiim, Millat and Ummah as used in the
Quran. Going beyond the actual meaning of Qaum he explains the term as used for a
group of men formed based on colour, creed, language and age of homogenous
community thus it is synonyms to the nation. Millat is a group of human beings of
different origin but carries faith in Abraham. Ummah is the holy Quran, disregarded of
the origin it units people. Iqbal propagated the idea of nationalism and nation parallel to
Islam.

Iqbal has defined the Muslims of India as a Nation. He asks people that there could not
be peace until there is not a recognised nation for Muslims. Iqbal says that Muslims
should be given the same privileges which are given to Hindus. He was elected
president of the Muslim league in 1930 when he delivered his presidential speech at
Allahabad outlining his vision for an independent Muslim-majority province in North-
West India. In this gathering, Iqbal kept his idea and demand of ‘Muslim India within
India’, especially in North-western India because of the vast population living there were
Muslims. Iqbal’s demand was, there should be self-government to govern Muslims.
Here the difference of ideas between Iqbal’s vision of nation and Jinnah’s idea of a
nation can be drawn. Where Iqbal was asking for a nation within India, Jinnah’s demand
was for a separate territorial nation.

Iqbal says :

“India is a continent of human groups belonging to different races, speaking different

languages, and professing different religions [...] Personally, I would like to see the
Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan amalgamated into a
single State. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire,
the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the
final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India.” 12

Iqbal in his Allahabad address ponder over his fear of Islam and thinks that Islam may
have a similar fate as Christianity. He also justifies his idea of Muslim India within India
by saying that: “The principle of European democracy cannot be applied to India without
13
recognizing the fact of communal groups”.

Iqbal’s idea of the nation had a forceful impact over Muslim people. It made a lot of
politicians to think about Muslims not as a minority but as a political entity, whose views,
ideas and rights can not be suppressed. Iqbal was a spiritual father of Pakistan whose
ideas to a great extent influence for the creation of Pakistan but Iqbal never asked for a
different territorial land as separate nation Pakistan.

Throughout the Indian history of independence, we can see various scholars bought
their idea of Nation and Nationalism. Each idea was different and unique in its way.
They justified with enough substance why they support their idea of these terms. Thus,
this paper gives a summary of the idea of Nation and Nationalism of Gandhi, Nehru,
Jinnah and Iqbal. Every scholar gave a wide overview of the simplistic term nation and
nationalism and altered the idea of these terms substantially.
12 “Presedntial Speech by Iqbal.” 1930, Allahabad
13 “Presedntial Speech by Iqbal.” 1930, Allahabad