Nationalism and the slogan of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” are being misused to construct a “militant” idea of India that excludes millions of its citizens, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.

Speaking at the launch of Who is Bharat Mata? — a compilation of a selection of writings by and on Jawaharlal Nehru — Singh said: “It is a book of particular relevance at a time when nationalism and the slogan of Bharat Mata Ki Jai are being misused to construct a militant and purely emotional idea of India that excludes millions of residents and citizens.”

Singh quoted Nehru as once asking, “Who is this Bharat Mata, whose victory you wish?”, and then explaining that “the mountains and rivers, forests and fields are of course dear to everyone” but what counted ultimately “is the people of India…”.

Addressing a public gathering in 1936, the freedom fighter who would go on to become India’s first Prime Minister had said: “Bharat Mata, Mother India, is essentially these millions of people, and victory to her is victory to these people.”

Nehru’s legacy continues to be of immense significance, Singh said, “perhaps more today than at any other time in our history”.

If India is recognised in the comity of nations as a vibrant democracy and if it is considered as one of the important world powers, it was the first Prime Minister who should be recognised as its main architect, he added.

Nehru had led this country in its volatile and formative days when it adopted a democratic way of life, accommodating divergent social and political views, Singh said.

“The purpose of this book is to show to the entire world and more particularly to India, how Pandit Nehru and his idea of India, built on Gandhian principles, harmonising the past and the present free from communal discords, is the only way to promote the inevitable plurality of our country,” Singh said.

On Saturday the Kannada translation of the book, by Purushottam Agrawal and Radha Krishna, was launched. The English version had come out earlier.

An understanding of Nehru’s political and intellectual journey is a pre-condition for India’s survival as a democratic polity as a humane, compassionate society, Singh said.