experience of Partition, was determined to insulate this ambitious experiment in democracy from the various fragmenting and disintegrative impulses that might be at work beneath the surface. Creating an affiliation-free public culture that would only be ‘Indian’ in essence, was seen as key to the effort of strengthening India’s fledgling democracy. The genius of the new nation state was meant to reflect in its gigantic democratic experiment, in which every citizen was empowered by his or her vote to fashion the destiny of Independent India. An emotional Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, speaking in the Constitution Hall of Parliament on 13 December 1946, summed up the collective mood when he asserted: ‘We have met here today because of the strength of the people behind us and we shall go as far as the people—not of any party or group but the people as a whole—shall wish us to go.’ Hinting strongly that the project to build a 176/77
state founded on civic and secular parameters would not be allowed to be derailed, Nehru said pointedly: ‘It is at the same time manifest that when a great nation starts to advance, no party or group can stop it.’ As a citizen and as a journalist, I have been proud of India’s singular achievement as a democracy; it has made a great effort over the decades to fulfil various aspects of the social contract signed with the Indian people on 15 August 1947. The success story of India as a rising economic power, a democracy with an enviable track record of coexistence and integration and, above all, a nation that has a heart and hears its disadvantaged and its deprived, could never have come about without the fundamental values that have stood us in good stead— pluralism, secularism and regional autonomy. Secular and civic nationalism has powered India’s journey these last several decades. As the bitter historical experiences of many other failed societies have
The Book of Aleph