ABSTRACT
Jawaharlal Nehru, the most outstanding leader of independent India and its prime minister for the first seventeen years of its existence, tried to achieve the latter end by fostering a national identity based on the ideals of secularism and democracy. He aimed to do so by reshaping and strengthening the institutions inherited from an 'illegitimate' foreign power and making them truly secular and democratic. Nehru, faced with the massive refugee problem and food shortages, had to deal with both the Communist Party of India (CPI), and militant religion-based parties such as Akali party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Mahasabha. Even as the new government began its state-building and nation-building endeavors, it had to face several unforeseen problems created by partition that called for prompt attention. The Constitution, by ensuring the universality of laws that transcend both the citizens and the government, by discarding the British-imposed communal electorates and by introducing universal suffrage, confirms the secularity of the union.
