It will remain for a long time one of the much debated issues in Indian Administration: whether Jawaharlal Nehru did the right thing in 1947 in opting (deliberately or otherwise) for a policy of ‘gradualism’ rather than making a clean break with the past. Even as he spoke movingly of the ‘Tryst with Destiny’ on the midnight of August 15th, his instruments of power and influence remained the same—the Civil Services and the Army—as the legacies from a previous administration. Even the Constitution of India, while drawing inspiration from the British and American models, relied for its operative clauses largely on the much-maligned Government of India Act, 1935,which the Congress Party had so contemptuously spurned during the Freedom Struggle. This is the problem that is studied and analysed by Tummala in this well-written and interesting book. In the words of the author himself:
Incrementalim vs Ideology: The Dilemma of Developing Nations
Ram K. Vepa
THE AMBIQUITY OF IDEOLOGY AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM by Krishna Kumar Tummala Allied Publishers, New Delhi, 1980, 367 pp., 50.00
Jan-Feb 1980, volume 4, No 1-2