ABSTRACT
Jawaharlal Nehru had an enduring fascination with paradoxes. So it is fitting that the Mahatma Gandhi – whom Nehru once described as an ‘extraordinary paradox’ – would ground Nehru’s anti-colonialism in the apparent paradox of internationalist nationalism. Nehru’s political thought, however, has seldom been subjected to the penetrating and nuanced analysis that his mentor’s writings have received (exceptions include Smith 1958; Chatterjee 1986; Lal 1990; Komf 1991; Seth 1992; Pantham 1998; Brown 200; Khilnani 2004; Majeed 2007). At first glance this seems inexplicable. Nehru wrote prolifically, was one of the most prominent of anti-colonial leaders, and as India’s first prime minister and foreign minister he became a venerated world leader who played a key role in the United Nations (UN), conceived the notion of non-alignment, helped establish the Non-aligned Movement, and was among the first to propose the major nonproliferation regimes in existence today. Since his death in 1964, however, Nehru has often been reduced to caricature and has come under sustained attack from various quarters in the country he led, including from the Marxist, Hindu nationalist, Gandhian and neo-liberal perspectives.2
