INTRODUCTION

In both his personal and political life, Nehru stands diametrically opposed to Gandhi, stridently Western in his demeanour, outlook and politics. While independence for Gandhi meant the historical opportunity to move out of the forcible imposition of Western modernity on India, for Nehru modernity was a universally desirable condition which was impeded due to British colonial rule. India's nationalist leaders had diverse and often contending ideas of India as a political community, but Nehru's vision of society dominated years after independence – a nationalist leader and the first prime minister of independent India – who, as Sunil Khilnani remarks, was ostensibly the most anglicised of them all. As is well known, in terms of their vision of Indian society in its relation to modernity, Nehru and Gandhi stood on opposite ends. Unlike Gandhi, Nehru, an unapologetic modernist, did not seek to reform pre-modern social formations to changing conditions of modernity. Instead, Nehru's idea of India was based on a belief in modernity as progress which required overcoming pre-modern social formations, not reconfiguring it. If Gandhi desired his ideal of the nation realised in India's village life, Nehru's vision of modern India lay in industrialisation. And yet Gandhi and Nehru shared an intimate and intriguing political relationship, with the latter being Gandhi's protégéand political successor. As the leader of the Indian National Congress (hereafter, the Congress) and the new nation-state, Nehru's modern and secular vision directly influenced independent India's polity and society for seventeen years, initially heading the interim legislature (1947–1952) and thereafter winning three successive general elections (1952, 1957 and 1961).