The God Who Failed: An Assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru's Leadership

by Madhav Godbole

Speaking of the secretaries of departments and magistrates, Nehru had written in the Discovery of India: ‘They speak from a noble and unattainable height, secure not only in the conviction that what they say and do is right, but that it will have to be accepted as right whatever lesser mortals may imagine, for theirs is the power and glory.’ (Kashyap 1990; p.79) Nehru had written in his autobiography: ‘The spirit of authoritarianism is the ally of imperialism and it cannot co-exist with freedom. It will either succeed in crushing freedom or, will be swept itself. Only with one type of state it is likely to fit in and that is the Fascist type. Therefore, it seems quite essential that ICS and similar services must disappear completely as such before we can start real work on a new order.’ (Kashyap 1990; p.79) At the Meerut session of the Indian National Congress in 1946, Nehru lamented that ‘the civil services were fossilised in their mental outlook. They were wedded to bygone [era] and obsolete methods and refused to move with the times.’