The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c12.s7.2

c12.s7.2

Pandit Nehrus family tradition, political training and social intercourse⁸² made him (what was jocularly called) the greatest nationalist Muslim of India. It is said that he even felt small because of his Hindu lineage. He himself stated that by education he was an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim; he happened to be a Hindu only by the accident of birth. He mistook Indian nationalism as Hindu communalism, and this confusion has come to the Indian National Congress Party as an inheritance. For example in a public meeting in August 1947, he declared that As long as I am at the helm of affairs India will not become a Hindu state. If they do not subscribe to my views and are not prepared to cooperate with me, I shall have no way except to resign from the Prime Ministership Almost the same views were expressed in his letter to Dr. Kailash Nath Katju on 17 November, 1953. He wrote: What real Hinduism is may be a matter for each individual to decide, in practice the individual is certainly intolerant and is more narrow-minded than almost any person in any other country The Muslim outlook may be, I think, often worse, but it does not make very much difference to the future of India.⁸³ This assessment has proved to be incorrect.