The event brought together opinion leaders in global business, politics, academia, media and the arts from India and internationally.
They considered Nehru’s contribution in policymaking, institutional and scientific infrastructure and international affairs, assessing his impact in his time and his legacy in contemporary India. Dr Karan Singh, Rajya Sabha MP (pictured left, with the Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz), was the Chief Guest and inaugurated the proceedings by delivering the opening plenary.
Speaking to a capacity audience at the India Habitat Centre, Dr Singh described his interactions with Nehru during the latter’s early years as Prime Minister, when the country was still finding its feet after independence.
Commenting on the recent elections in Delhi, Dr Singh expressed his delight that the principles of democracy in India so firmly established by Nehru were alive and well “because they have proven the vibrancy and power of our democracy."
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, spoke of the commitment of the University of Cambridge, which currently has over 300 active research links with India, to working with and within India.
Through six dynamic panel discussions titled “Economy and Development”; “Religion and Democracy”; “Nehru’s Image”; “Writing Nehru”; “Founding and Building India”; and “Internationalism” the symposium explored a variety of areas, in each of which the role of the India of Jawaharlal Nehru’s years remains both foundational and controversial.
Discussions ranged well beyond questions of the domestic state and policies to consider India’s international role over the last 50 years since Nehru’s death.
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Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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