Bad Policies

Nehru’s Government was criticised for making series of bad policies, But many of his policies were far ahead of his time and in fact have had positive ramifications. Some of which are mentioned below. Equality for all, India did not have a history of equality. The Hindu rulers had followed a caste system, The Mughals showed preference for Muslims and the Brits showed preference to Caucasians. When India got freedom everyone was equal before the law, irrespective of religion, caste or creed something that had never been codified by the Law before. This might seem so obvious today in a modern sense, but In the 1950s the world was very different. In the United States a person of the coloured races could get arrested for sitting in a section reserved for whites. In other  British colonies like South Africa Apartheid existed or in Australia’s White only policies were prevalent. In countries like Belgium zoos had people from Africa were locked up and displayed as exhibits. Human Zoo exhibit at Brussels Belgium 1958 (Reference). The last of the closed in 1960s. One can almost say the world changed taking India as example. Martin Luther led protests to appeal against the Jim Crow Laws by peaceful protests inspired by Indian Independence movement. Issue like Belgian colonisation in Africa and Apartheid in South Africa were issues raised by Nehru in the United Nations. States Reorganisation Act,1956. Has been considered a Genius move by Nehru which is unrecognised by many. Most people like to believe India received in 1947 as a whole from Britain. But truth be told Britain granted freedom to India and over 500 princely states. Which some willingly and some by force joined India. The divide and rule intention of the British were the various states would continue squabble with each other and Britain could still have a sphere of influence over India. In fact most countries that were priorly European colonies spent many years after independence in series of internal conflicts. Example The United States fought a crippling American Civil war, The middle east conflicts have roots in boundaries drawn by the European countries, The various conflicts in Africa, etc. To deal with this the Indian Government smartly redrew state lines to make sure false identities created by the British were erased. Example Andhra State was merged with recently Invaded Hyderabad state to form Andhra Pradesh. Travancore state and Kingdom of Cochin was merged to produce Kerala. Kashmir was merged with Jammu,etc. This has led to a few problems like states of Kashmir and Punjab still had secessionist movements. Also The many of the states again asked for individual statehood. Example Telangana asked for a separate state which was granted to them in 2014 (If it weren't for the state reorganisation they probably would have asked for independence as they were before 1950). But overall of all former colonies of European Powers India has had the most peaceful transition into Independence. Overall Nehru’s policies were positive for  for India but his Economic Policies have often been criticized and only after the  the Liberalization in 1991 has India seen drastic economic growth.