Read the passage below and answer the following questions.
On August 15, 1947, India was granted independence from British colonial dominance. This was an event of international significance. From this day onwards, the Indian Union assumed a role in world politics that was appropriate enough to modify the thinking of nations. Concepts like non-alignment, tolerance, non-violence and peaceful co-existence were introduced by India into the international vocabulary.
‘‘Our dreams concern India”, said the first Prime Minister of the country, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, on the eve of achieving freedom, “but they also concern the whole world, for the world has become one”.
Mahatma Gandhi chose Nehru to become the first PM of independent India. With his vision of unity of the nation, he became the architect of modern India. It was to be a federal state based on secularism – the commitment to an Indian identity, which was above all races, castes, and religions. It was a vision of extraordinary dimensions.
Both Nehru as well as his daughter and successor, Smt Indira Gandhi, were well aware that only a firm anchorage in the Indian identity could unite the nation and enable it to make an impact on the world. In these days of mutual interdependence, the western powers and America cannot afford to ignore what is happening in this region. It is possible that the fate of the Asian democracies would one day be decided on the banks of the Ganges. If India fails to remain a democracy, this would trigger the fall of the whole of South and South-cast Asia. That is why the Indian Prime Minister has to play a role that goes well beyond duties related to internal affairs only. It is of international political significance.