Twenty Years Before Independence, Nehru Identified Present Threats to National Security

Former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon while delivering a keynote address in Delhi’s India International Centre on Wednesday at the launch of National Security Challenges, edited by N.N. Vohra, made the vital point that the weakening of the internal security of India would have huge implications for national security, which is understood not just from the perspectives of physical or military security but also from the perspectives of multiple factors which include the economic security of people, human rights and climate justice.

He should have said very unequivocally that the processes of majoritarianism and polarisation triggered by the ruling regime of India with the aggressive employment of Hindu-Muslim binaries, amid calls for genocide and the comprehensive social and economic boycott of Muslims by several Hindutva leaders, pose a grave threat to internal security.

In the recent past, a BJP spokesperson said something offensive about Prophet Muhammad and there were sharp reactions against India from the Gulf countries, where even Indian products were boycotted. Even the issue of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s reckless retaliatory response – killing civilians in Gaza – triggered a venomous vilification campaign against Muslims in India. Such incidents pose a huge challenge to internal security, which in turn would adversely affect national security. Menon broadly flagged the point that the weakening of internal security would weaken national security. Of course, we know that conscious attempts are being made by the powers that be to deepen communal division and caste discriminations.

It is in this context instructive to recall the illuminating article ‘A Foreign Policy for India’, written by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1927, when he attended the League against Imperialism’s conference in Brussels. While acknowledging that some might consider it foolish to think of a foreign policy for India when British rule was continuing, he examined three problems while reflecting very presciently on how our country would forge relations with neighbours and the wider world. Presciently, he stated that the Hindu-Muslim question, the Brahmin-Non-Brahmin issue and our economic structure would enable us to conjure up a foreign policy for India.

It is instructive to note that in 1927, he wrote that forces of reaction not only shaped the policies of the British regime vis-a-vis the Indian people but also affected Europe and the US. Very prophetic words for the 21st century, which is witnessing an upsurge of right wing parties representing reactionary tendencies, which drive divisive policies domestically. In the article, Nehru wrote about how India, known for religious tolerance, got caught up in the whirlpool of religious division, and he urged examination to see if those divisions were determined by economic factors or rivalry based on competing religiosity and superstitions.

He also asked if a narrow outlook, religiosity and bigotry would be dealt with by cautiously compromising with rival superstitions and bigotry, or by making a frontal attack on it. Nehru was suggesting that we should take head on the forces representing and perpetuating polarisation, which, he thought, would compromise national security. What Nehru wrote in 1927 resonates in the India of 2023, when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said there is a need to ideologically fight the RSS and BJP to defeat communal forces and neutralise the toxic bigotry rooted in majoritarianism.

It is instructive that Nehru also wrote about capitalism while reflecting on India’s foreign policy. He asked if a capitalist structure should be retained, or some kind of socialist pattern would inform India’s future constitutional scheme. Those ideas of Nehru assume greater significance now when concerns are being raised about crony capitalism, which is pumping vast amounts of money into India from questionable sources, which pose a serious threat to internal security by exacerbating economic inequalities in our country. The Opposition is raising the issue of Adani’s funds being allegedly channelled through offshore companies, recalling Nehru’s need to examine if a capitalist economy was endangering national security.

It is in this historical context that Shivshankar Menon’s analysis of linkages between internal security and national security should be seen. The challenges India’s national security faces are so severe that we all need to forcefully and openly speak about the dangers posed by majoritarianism and crony capitalism.

S.N. Sahu served as a officer on Special duty to president of India KR Narayanan.

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