The Long Life and Lingering Death of the Indian National Congress

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April 10, 2017 | The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 during the British Raj in India, and after independence in 1947, the Congress Party became India’s dominant political party, winning an outright majority on six occasions and leading the dominant coalition four times, thereby ruling the central government for 49 years. There have been seven prime ministers from this center-left, social liberal party.
In the 2014 general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party, a right-wing Hindu nationalist party, won 282 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in as the fifteenth prime minister of India, ending the Congress Party’s long ruling streak.
On April 10, the India Initiative hosted Ramachandra Guha, Indian historian and award-winning author, for a conversation on “The Long Life and Lingering Death of the Indian National Congress.” Ramachandra Guha, once named “Indian democracy’s preeminent chronicler” by Time Magazine, analyzed the long term electoral success of the Congress Party, examined the reasons for its decline, and grappled with questions about India’s political future.

[@abhishekdev258]

Nothing dies in India...look at Mughals still alive because of cuisines and music look at Mauryans alive in India's emblem, look at the Greeks alive because of architecture and sculpture. Look at British alive because of English..Congress too is not going to die it may become some sort of debating club of educated India men and women..

[@simonthomas1878]

Congress and history and its ideology and symbols framed every aspect of India..Gandhi, the flag, national symbols, non-alignment in foreign policy, the mixed economy, notions of nonviolence and moralism, fasting as protest...Congress culture informs all parties including BJP. RSS finally was forced to adopt the Indian flag and play within the playground framed by Congress, after protesting the playground.

[@nagababhushanatr2750]

One party that can provide opposition to bjp is congress and it has revived from it's pathetic defeat in 2014.

[@amulyamishra5745]

Lol

[@amulyamishra5745]

@@nagababhushanatr2750 lol

[@yusuf.k.m]

An interesting theory.

[@avibcci1297]

50:02 well all those institutions carry the same legacy of British Empire. They aren't supposed to serve the people but rather to rule a colony. India should come up with its own system with character of indianess.

[@rahulray9983]

"Elect them and you'll have Rahul Gandhi as PM" I literally laughed for 2 mins....

[@TheManjunathNaidu]

But Rahul is better than this uneducated mo'Fckr modi in all aspects

[@Kannadiga321-r4n]

Now BJP the party of middle class, upper class, poor, tribals is transforming India.

[@jyotishmanmudiar5958]

That last line--- right wing populism vs the constitutional legacies of Nehru and Ambedkar---- is riveting.

[@2sridhark]

Excellent talk. You can see how much research has gone into his work on Gandhiji. Mr Guha may be judged harshly today but his work will be applauded 100 years from today as pathbreaking.

[@pallavsmn41]

Its BJP v. Constitutional legacy of Nehru and Ambedkar. That's the reason why democracy will survive in india.

[@sureshmurty1034]

He is a person who is good in parts. Plus his research is sound. The Congress is almost finished as a party. But India needs a credible opposition. They also need new leaders to revive the Congress party. But where are they??

[@teepee431]

Absolutely first rate analysis of the Indian National Congress and its history. 1885 to the present.

[@ArunGupta-wj1xl]

This man was the Indira & Rajiv Paid Historian who distorted the histry where netaji Subhas Bose had no roll . he is the paid servant of Gandhi family.

[@yogendersharma3481]

Congress must be revived.

[@atul1024]

Yogender Sharma Nope ,Hinduism must be revived

[@WorkWizdom]

They can only revive if Gandhi family is thrown out..

[@rakhimukerji7937]

YOGENDRA SHARMA HOW,? WHAT IS THE COMMON CAUSE?

[@basu.97]

@@atul1024 religion is a mental sickness

[@boomboom9768]

INDIA LOVES MODI . MODI .. ONLY MODII

[@jarp5581]

Yogi Nitin Gadkari also 🔥🔥🔥

[@rakhimukerji7937]

HAVE WE REALLY REACHED THAT LEVEL? WHAT A SHAME!

[@syhuhjk]

@@rakhimukerji7937 u can go to Pakistan

[@bishansinghbohara8682]

People listen to guha because mostly he speaks against india.

[@rakhimukerji7937]

India or govt?

[@whythiskolaveri1684]

this man is bigoted against hindus & their faith, by posting pictures of eating beef just to spite hindus which he would not dare to do to any other community also Gandhi wanted ban on beef and was crusader for cow protection .someone with these credentials shouldn't be talking about Gandhi & Congress. also current congress has nothing to do with per-indepedence congress ,current congress (I) was Indira Gandhi congress and original congress died which had (Cow&Calf symbol !) which Gandhi himself wanted to disable after independence. i came here thinking inspite of all this he had some scholarship sadly this sounds like more hodge-podge commentary that almost any randome twitter user can deliver. sad state of scholarship in India.

[@Kannadiga321-r4n]

Indias support those who have capable not like Dynasty Rahul

[@AB034TX]

"If Gandhi had French as colonizers, he'd have abandoned non violence in a week"🤣🤣🤣

[@boomboom9768]

ALSO IF GREMANY

[@vaibhavgupta20]

1:22:30 is that person Shashi Tharoor? I doubt it.

[@2sridhark]

No. It is some white person.

[@in_neerajpandey]

Mostly. May as well be JaiRam Ramesh.

[@skkhumukcham9848]

its Modi.

[@abhishekdev258]

Vaibhav Gupta Ofcourse. Who else?

[@MuraliHarthi]

Vaibhav Gupta it’s Ramachandra Guha.

[@alkabaisahu4915]

Rahulgandhi should see this❤😊😂

[@pallavsmn41]

Gandhi was superb at making leaders out of followers.. Gandhi Patel Rajagopalachari Suchitra kriplani.. Rajendra Prasad. But still it was extremely democratic.. many leaders disagreed with him. Next phase.... partition was a great failure of gandhian congress..

[@vsnrajua]

Because you don't know the codition .you can comment in ifs and buts

[@lokhima9]

congress showing slow strangulation death

[@TheContrariann]

40:44 What BJP is doing now was all invented and started by Congress long ago..

[@TheContrariann]

45:27 individual achievements

[@TheContrariann]

Here's the problem with Rahul Gandhi - 55:10

[@TheContrariann]

01:01:55 Inception and Incubation

[@TheContrariann]

Modi is Indira Gandhi on Steroids

[@TheContrariann]

Here's the problem with Rahul Gandhi - 55:10

[@sarvanthulasi8581]

education is different. literacy is different . INDIA IS MATURED DDEMOCRACY . ITS CHOOSE GOVT FOR INDIANS NOT WORLD OR USA MEDIA OR USA VOTERS.

[@krishnaswamisabapathy8249]

In the present world when the whole world is deprived of ethical leaders including India, the real truth behind the distorted history , the Ramachandra Guha 's exposition is a great contribution and valuable service to India .Long live Mr.Ramachandra Guha to continue his great mission.

[@pallavsmn41]

Gandi said... swaraj is like a bed resting on four pillar.. hindu Muslim unity. Abolition of untouchability.. non violence.. women. Gandhian struggle enjoyed more support than swadeshi.. brought women.. dalit. Industrialist and bridged urban rural divide. Gandhi's genius was to emphasize to one language will dominate.... every major linguistic group would be allowed to develop. He ensured that provincial Congress was organized on linguistic lines. He edited indian opinion.. realizing that you need your own voice.. it was published in 4 languages.

[@pallavsmn41]

2nd phase. . Urban males turning anti colonial. Early part of 19th century there was rising militancy in inc. Eg swadeshi.movement. Lal bal pal.... It was still contained by being urban.. Male and upper caste. Gokhle wanted gender and caste reform. Tilak said political reform comes first . Women didn't participate in the movement.but mother india was invoked . Hindu goddesses was invoked. This alienated the Muslim.

[@pallavsmn41]

3rd phase... genuine mass movement and nationwide. Gandian congress. Gandi becomes all india leader in 1919.. 1st all india protest against rowlat act. And wrongs of Punjab. A month after gandi returns.. and gokhle died. Gandhi wants to integrate gokhle and tilak. While he organizes 1st all india campaign.. tilak was away in England. If tilak was in india he would have been the first choice of being all india leader. So gandi takes over the control of Inc. And controls it.

[@pallavsmn41]

No one has a personal memory of sacrifice of congress . Long term anti incumbency.... Growth of indian generation of indias that despises social entitlement and venerates individual achievement. High command culture of Congress. High command chose the CMs. This led to atrophy in state unit. Manifest political incompetent of latest members of family.

[@pallavsmn41]

Ho chi min said we are all followers of Mahatma Gandhi. Congress inspired freedom movement across the world. First phase. Debating class of educated men. Loyal to empire. Wanted more Indians in judiciary and bureaucracy. Class base of Congress was limited. English educated urban men. Ambitions were nit limited but . It was INC afterall. Wanted to unite all class of India united. This inspired African national congress.

[@sumitkumarchakraborty9268]

There are few incidents when more congressmen opposed gandhi's choise/decision but democratic mandate of congressmen were ignored and some time men of gandhi hounded the opposition.i remember once in the late thirties sri arobindo labelled gandhi as facist.so it seems gandhi never allowed any space to real opposition.so seeds of hycomand culture were sown by gandhi himself.

[@pallavsmn41]

Multi party democracy... it could have easily become one party country.. like Ghana.. and other country..

[@sachaadmi6203]

Indian national congress ended with independence. Now it is indira congress Or sonia congress

[@venkataradhakrishna3582]

Guha did good research but forgot about the economic Liberalisation brought by a congress man Narasimha Rao but the mistake of the Congress was that it tried to under play such a great achievement, thus lost its popularity. Secondly congress under Indira Gandhi every allowed strong regional leaders.

[@susaiyahraphael3881]

Congress under Mrs Indira Gandhi never allowed regional satraps to grow

[@smitamohanty144]

Thanks sair for this vedio

[@pallavsmn41]

Legislatively make country more consistent with codified statute.

[@vsnrajua]

Isi baat per bharat ka partition hua,agar fir Aisa hua tho sab states fir se alag ho sakte hai

[@pradeepgr5080]

Congress independent deland bjp

[@vasudev1448]

Who the fuck is he

[@553vamshi9]

55:07

[@melvinjoseph5809]

super

[@pallavsmn41]

India is United because it has many languages ...

[@avibcci1297]

And a cultural unity

[@pallavsmn41]

Why was the family successful for so long.. Belief that members of gandhi family were genuine all india perspective. They cared for country as a whole. It has sacrificed for so long..a great deal. Policies of congress leaders has captivating influence garibi hatao.. technology...narega.. Appropriated to itself the achievement of whole Congress.s. contribution of hundred of other leaguers were ignored.

[@553vamshi9]

1:22:16 jai ram ramesh

[@nikhilatheist9483]

Only modi not pappu gandhi fake gandhi

[@subtlethingsinlife]

I don't think so ......

[@shivbaba2672]

Guha is a liar he does not want to speak the truth about Gandhi, For Guha, the word kafir is very interesting because Muslims call Hindus kafir, So if Guha hates Hindus then he can please Muslims. Again do you know the communist party in Bengal was like made millions of people jobless and starved god knows how many died? Even today millions from Bengal go to Maharashtra other Pradesh Gujarat Kerala and Tamil Nadu for working mineral jobs for half the wage say 500 rupees when the original wage in Kerala is 1500 rupees. He never talked about the communist party joining china when we had war with china. He never talked about the persecution Namtha energy had to go through to throw out the communist from banal. If you leave the party in Bengal Kerala or Tripura they will kill you. I always say these two have a similar horoscope for terrorism. He is not wrong he is lying I can produce 1000 facts about Gandhi but let me give you one. n our chapter entitled “The Pro-Indo-Aryan, anti-Black M.K. Gandhi and Ghana’s #Gandhi Must Fall Movement”, in the book Rhodes Must Fall (Oxford), we focus on the consistency of Gandhi’s pro-Indo-Aryan and Anti-Afrikan/Anti-Black actions throughout his life in uMzantsi Afrika (South Africa). His subsequent disagreements in India with Babasaheb Ambedkar on the demand for the rights of the Dalits are a continuation of his earlier anti-Black racist life. How the hell can you trust the history written by by left hooligans in India, our students do not get the truth of history they had to study lies that propagate to destroy Hinduism in India > So both parties the communist and congress paid the price now we can rewrite the true history again. Also, remember this guy is just one historian that worked for KGB to destroy Hinduism and inject communism into India gradually through school kids.

[@boomboom9768]

SAME ON YOU .. SAME ON YOU..

[@mohithpm4954]

Its Tharoor..

[@MuraliHarthi]

Mohith PM its Ramachandra Guha.

[@2sridhark]

Mr Guha should speak slowly and clearly. At times he seems to be blabbering.

[@babaib3513]

Blabber is the right word

[@nishithsharma272]

Shut up. He is speaking eloquently.

[@MS-cu2qi]

nice analysis

[@boomboom9768]

SAME ON YOU MR GHUA.. SAME ON YOU..

[@rajdeepchauhan5427]

*shame *Guha

[@abhilashkhajuria]

Guha or Gukha ...i think it should be gukha :)

[@sohinisom6630]

Ramchandra Guha smartly avoids to narrate the Failures of the Congress between 1919 till 1945 under Gandhi..

[@thattis1]

Even Nehru is fearful of doing away with INC that brought freedom as advised by Gandhi. We must have brought a 2 party system.

[@narayanansubramanian6019]

You should have talked about the corruption in congress and especially in the family. If he is unbiased he should have spoken about it. Why he should be worried about the raise of another party in India. He is an out and out congressman in the garb of neutral historian

[@babaib3513]

Have never come across anyone as so completely uninspiring.false and so completely untrue to oneself.this is particularly frightening becoz he is considered a symbol of the lettered class.staggering ly shallow and completely purchase able

[@w3pranab]

What a stooge of Gandhi and Nehru. He forgot Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, elected president of INC and how Netaji slapped Gandhi's egoism, don't learn Indian History from such persons. "Nehru had sacrificed in independence movement" is this a history or comedy?

[@amulyamishra5745]

Well what is "Solitary confinement" ? Do you know the meaning of the term ?

[@2sridhark]

You need to read some books rather than be swayed by right wing rhetoric. Problem is you guys don't read any books. BTW, Mr Guha did mention Bose at 27:51 where he said Bose challenged Gandhi over Presidency in 1930s and defeated Gandhi.

[@babaib3513]

Great expose these pretenders

[@Handle12456]

@@babaib3513 expose wt proper research. But right wingers in India are lazy and learn straight from WhatsApp

[@babaib3513]

@@Handle12456 and left wingers are paid lobbyists.tell me something new original.u r one eg jaded paid fakery purveyors.bye

[@sohinisom6630]

All illogical ideas shared by Ramchandra Guha..on the question of a single Family dominating the party !! Bogus speech !!