Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Public figures who were big in Indian consciousness 50 years ago

Totally irrelevant today

Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)
Acharya Vinoba Bhave
Ram Manohar Lohia

Who else?

To a greater or lesser extent, all these figures epitomized "Nativist" / "rooted" socialism

That type is irrelevant in our times

Yes, Modi is for welfare state, but not really a socialist. So we can't place him in that category

Another big leader from that age who is kind of irrelevant today -

Indira Gandhi

who was perceived as this "secular, but tough nationalist"

Again a type that is not so relevant in current Indian polity

Deen Dayal Upadhyay is another name that comes to mind

The intellectual godfather of the Jana-Sangh

His brand of "rooted" / "indigenous" socialism + anti-Kendrikaran rhetoric has no takers

The most relevant figures from Indian political history in my view -

Jawaharlal Nehru

Veer Savakar

They still resonate. They still animate discussions in drawing rooms.

A clarification on Indira -

I think her influence is still huge but not in terms of policy or ideology

I'd say her influence is more "functional" / "methodological"

Her working style is what so many strongmen in India still emulate

But ideologically, her combo of -

"tough state + institutionalized rabid secularism + aggressive nationalization"

is not espoused by anyone today

On why I think Nehru and Savarkar are most relevant -

Savarkar introduced the idea of the "other" in a v explicit way (though the idea precedes him)

Nehru's politics was all about opposing the idea of the "other"

Most political conversations in India center around this

Post-script -

I didn't mention Rajaji and Morarji

Because their brand of Burkean conservatism was not all that popular in their own times. Let alone today

Patel : Again didn't mention, as he was more a doer than a thinker. As an intellectual influence he was always marginal