In the Name of the People

R Narayanan K

Description

K.R. Narayanan s life graph reflects in many ways the fruition of the promise of equality of status and opportunity that the Constitution guaranteed every citizen; from humble beginnings in a remote village to a distinguished career as an academician, diplomat, politician and, finally, India s first Dalit President, Narayanan embodied modern India s indomitable spirit. As President, as diplomat and as a citizen of India, Narayanan believed strongly in the ideas and principles that the nation was built upon nationalism, democracy, economic progress, religious tolerance and social justice and these found memorable expression in his speeches and writings over the years. In the Name of the People brings together Narayanan s most important writings spanning five decades, from his first published article in 1954 to the Republic Day speech of 2000. In these pieces, he covers a diverse range of topics, from Indo US ties and India China relations to human development, Islam in India and women in politics; from the benefits of the parliamentary system and the need to build democracy from the grassroots to the role of education and technology in development and the importance of a sustainable environment. Also included are personalized accounts of Ambedkar, Gandhi and Nehru, and a good representation of Narayanan s key presidential speeches. Informed, perceptive and well-argued, the pieces in In the Name of the People constitute one of our greatest statesmen s reflections on independent India, and are especially striking in their continued relevance to the life of the nation.

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 17 octobre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184755244
• Langue: English

Extrait

K.R. NARAYANAN
In the Name of the People
Reflections on Democracy, Freedom and Development
Contents
Publisher s Note
Foreword
INDIA AND THE WORLD
Asia:An Indian Perspective
Towards an Equilibrium in Asia
India and the Chinese Bomb
India, China and Their Joint Struggles
One Family, Whose Family?
Indo-US Ties: An Adventure in Understanding
India and the US: Democracy and Economic Development
East Wind, West Wind
Foreign Policy: Emerging Perspectives
International Cooperation
Politics in a Changing World
The United Nations and Diplomacy
The UN in Today s World
THE STATE OF THE NATION
The Strength and Weakness within Us
The Roots of Violence
Our Contradictoriness
Multilingual India
Islam in India
Secularism in a Religious Society
Kerala s Resurgence
The Effects of Deprivation on Learning
The Role of the University in Society
Democracy at the Roots
Turning the Searchlight Within
NATIONALISM, DEMOCRACY, GOVERNMENT
Freedom in Modern Society
Our Democratic Heritage
Nationalism and Democracy
The British Contribution to Indian Democracy
Nehru: A Wonderful Human Being
Nehru s Approach to Social Change
Remembering Ambedkar
The Relevance of Gandhi
Women in Politics
The Civil Service As I See It
Recharging Our Parliamentary System
The Dividends of Democracy
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Science and Technology in the Modern World
Science and Technology for Development
On the Health of Medicine
Rural Development
Low-cost Housing: Alternate Building Materials
Prospecting: Ocean Studies
Harnessing the Himalayas
The Greening of Development: Problems and Prospects
Copyright Page
Publisher s Note
The pieces included in this book span forty-seven years, from an early article published in the Economic & Political Weekly in 1954 ( Freedom in Modern Society ) to the presidential speech to the nation on the eve of Republic Day, 2000 ( Turning the Searchlight Within ). Also included are two articles, The British Contribution to Indian Democracy and The Greening of Development: Problems and Prospects , which are previously unpublished. The data and information contained in the speeches and articles have not been updated, since they were written in a specific context. The date of each piece has been mentioned in a footnote.
The selection for the pieces this book contains were made by Shri K.R. Narayanan in 2001, while he was still at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The title was also chosen by him. The publishers are grateful for the assistance and cooperation extended by Shri K.R. Narayanan s heirs Chitra Narayanan and Amrita Narayanan towards the publication of the book, and would also like to thank Uma Iyengar for her help in going over the manuscript.
Foreword
The old Indian story about three blind men describing-very dissimilarly-what they respectively thought an elephant looked like applies well to K.R. Narayanan.
He can be seen in many different ways-all of them accurate. Narayanan was an outstanding scholar and intellectual, and in university circles, his academic excellence can indeed be the first description that would spring to mind. I met him first at the Delhi University campus, and many times afterwards in one campus or another (he also served, later on, as the Vice Chancellor of the newly emerging Jawaharlal Nehru University). I have always been impressed by Narayanan s immense knowledge and scholarship as well as by his sharp and reasoned analyses.
But this was only one of Narayanan s many identities. Narayanan worked as a journalist for the Hindu before going to the London School of Economics as a student, but also after he came back from there. His commentaries were politically informed and often challenging. Later he would go into politics, and serve as a visionary statesman who was repeatedly elected to the Indian Parliament (the Lok Sabha) in 1984, in 1989 and in 1991, and who gave many well-remembered speeches. He also guided Indian public policies as a senior cabinet minister, in charge, at different times, of planning, of external affairs, and of science and technology.
In addition, Narayanan was an outstandingly successful foreign servant, looking after India s relations with key countries in the world. He served in New Delhi, guiding India s external affairs from the home base, but also when he served for India in Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Australia, Britain and Turkey, going on to make major contributions to India s foreign policy as Ambassadors to the United States and China. India s approach to the world was strongly influenced by Narayanan s insightful analysis.
If all this, while very impressive, should appear to be relatively slight in comparison with the fact that Narayanan was also the President of India (no less), that could be an understandable assessment. And yet Narayanan himself would have attached importance not only to the extraordinary recognition that he received in being elected to head the entire country, but also to the professional work to which he was committed throughout his life. In addition to the various positions of responsibility he held in his pre-presidential life-from the academia to government service-Narayanan was staunchly engaged in pursuing and enhancing public reasoning, making big contributions in clarifying the demands of democracy, freedom and development. Narayanan s writings on the reach of Nehru s vision, on India s relations with America, on India s commitment to non-alignment, on our complex relations with China, and on a hundred other subjects, have illuminated our understanding of what he calls India and the world .
Narayanan never made much of the fact that he came from an exceptionally disadvantaged background. It is not only that his family was Dalit (formerly known as untouchable ), but also that it was economically very poor. As a child, he had to walk a great distance each day to go to school, and had none of the facilities and support that help the development of the talents of an overwhelmingly large part of the Indian intelligentsia. While pursuing higher education, when Narayanan was recognized as a top student at Travancore University (and later at the London School of Economics), he was joining the Indian elite, but his understanding of the world would never ignore the perspectives of the poor and the disadvantaged, which he knew so well.
It is difficult to think of another human being who has achieved so much in so many different fields as Narayanan did, despite the hardship through which he had to emerge. Since I was privileged to know Narayanan over many decades, I am able to add that our astonishment cannot but be further enhanced by our appreciation of his natural modesty and friendliness, despite his extraordinary accomplishments. There have been very few people like this marvellous human being.
This Volume
The wonderful collection of essays by Narayanan that this book presents gives us a good view of the power of Narayanan s ideas and analyses. The first set of essays here, in the section called India and the World , investigates the country from many different perspectives, taking note particularly of different global views. Those outward-oriented examinations are supplemented in the second part ( The State of the Nation ) of this magnificent collection of articles by Narayanan s firm and humane scrutiny of the contemporary conditions of the Indian nation, with its achievements as well as its serious problems-inequality, violence, religious conflicts, political contradictions, and the persistent difficulties of educational inadequacy at different levels.
In the third section ( Nationalism, Democracy, Government ), we get a number of far-reaching essays on the origin and challenges of democratic governance in India. The range of topics covered vary from enlightening commentaries on Nehru s ambitious vision for India to the disparities from which the underdogs of the society still suffer. There is, among other major contributions, an in-depth analysis of women in politics , which discusses the gaps that need to be filled and the injustices that have to be removed, through a well-reflected and determined agenda for change. In another powerfully evocative and highly stimulating essay, we get Narayanan s recollection of the ideas of B.R. Ambedkar, the great leader who influenced the making of the Indian Constitution but who could not get what he wanted for adequate justice for the underdogs in general, and for Dalits in particular. Ambedkar too had come, like Narayanan, from a Dalit background, and the essay on Ambedkar in this book has particular relevance for that reason as well.
In a wide-ranging final section, Narayanan talks about Science, Technology and the Environment . He was deeply interested in the role of modern technology and science for India-and indeed for the world-and his analyses here draw on his long experience in investigating these issues. He brings into his analysis the important role of science in enhancing health and medical care, which are still so badly neglected in India. Narayanan ends by examining the increasingly serious problem of the need for paying more attention to the environment, without weakening India s commitment to overcome poverty and underdevelopment.
India: Narayanan s Assessment
I do not want to stand between Narayanan s wide-ranging essays and the reader, but I cannot resist the temptation to point to a few of the observations of this exceptionally powerful and enlightening thinker.
As Narayanan s time as President of the country came to an end in 2002, India was experiencing huge internal conflicts between two visions of India: one of a secular country that stood above religious differences altogether and another of an India that was basically a Hindu civilization, with challenges coming from outside, including Islam, which are to be dealt with, in one way or another, within that e