Editing Jawaharlal Nehru (section)

== Religious and personal beliefs ==
{{republicanism sidebar}}Described as a [[Hindu]] [[agnostic]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography, Volume 3; Volumes 1956–1964 |last=Sarvepalii|first=Gopal|page=17|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|quote=Nehru was still an agnostic, but a Hindu agnostic.|author-link=Sarvepalli Gopal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/may/28/death-of-nehru-archive-1964|title = The death of Nehru: From the archive, 28 May 1964|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 28 May 2013|access-date = 22 August 2021|archive-date = 11 August 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140811000812/http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/may/28/death-of-nehru-archive-1964|url-status = live}}</ref> and styling himself as a "[[scientific humanist]]",<ref>{{cite web|work=[[Times of India]]|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nehrus-Scientific-Humanism/articleshow/8590304.cms|title=Nehru's Scientific Humanism|last=Vohra|first=Ashok|date=27 May 2011|access-date=18 August 2017|archive-date=26 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826131046/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nehrus-Scientific-Humanism/articleshow/8590304.cms|url-status=live}}</ref> Nehru thought that religious taboos were preventing India from moving forward and adapting to modern conditions: "No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress, and unhappily our country and people have become extraordinarily dogmatic and little-minded."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ypZ-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PP103|title=Jawaharlal Nehru;a Biography Volume 1 1889–1947|author=[[Sarvepalli Gopal]]|date=2015|isbn=978-1-4735-2187-2|publisher=[[Random House]]}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.|sign=|source=''[[An Autobiography (Nehru)|Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru]]'' (1936); pp. 240–241.<ref>{{Cite book |url={{Google books|abcfAAAAIAAJ|page=PA1|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India: A Study of Controversy, Conflict, and Communal Movements in Northern India 1923–1928 |last=Thursby |first=Gene R. |date=1975 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-04380-0 |pages=1}}</ref>}}

As a humanist, Nehru considered that his afterlife was not in some mystical heaven or reincarnation but in the practical achievements of a life lived fully with and for his fellow human beings: "...Nor am I greatly interested in life after death. I find the problems of this life sufficiently absorbing to fill my mind," he wrote.<ref name="Gandhi-1991" /> In his Last Will and Testament, he wrote: "I wish to declare with all earnestness that I do not want any religious ceremonies performed for me after my death. I do not believe in such ceremonies, and to submit to them, even as a matter of form, would be hypocrisy and an attempt to delude ourselves and others."<ref name="Gandhi-1991" />

In his autobiography, he analysed Abrahamic and Indian religions<ref>{{Cite book |title=Secularism and Hindutva, a Discursive Study |last=A.A. Parvathy |year=1994 |page=42|publisher=Codewood Process & Printing}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Babri Masjid: a tale untold |last=Mohammad Jamil Akhtar |page=359|publisher=Genuine Publications}}</ref> and their impact on India. He wanted to model India as a [[secular country]]; his [[secularist]] policies remain a subject of debate mainly by the  [[Hindutva]] proponents.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Communal Threat to Secular Democracy |last=Ram Puniyani |year=1999 |page=113|publisher=Kalpaz Publications}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Jawaharlal Nehru, a Biography |last=Sankar Ghose |year=1993 |page=210|publisher=Alied Publishers}}</ref>