Nehru-Man of Tomorrow?
Walsh, Richard J.
Nehru—Man of Tomorrow? Homage to a Great Democrat on His 55th Birthday November 14th By Richard J. Walsh MORE often than before, nowadays, one hoars Americans speaking of the future of Nehru....
...In this there is much force...
...An appreciation ef Nehrs is presented here by Richsrd J. Walsh, the editor «»¦ ¦«<« ems iwc imr,,rm* t i ne anicie sue appears is Votee of Imfie, s publication of the American Committee for Indian Freedom...
...I cannot be of it...
...Gandhi and Jinnah have talked and failed to agree...
...It should be clear now that one of the urgent world duties will be to provide a secure and comfortable living for the people of England, who have lost so very much in their magnificent, fight agsinst Hitler, and seem doomed to lose still more', if not soon then a little later, by the liquidation of the Empire...
...No man in the vast resentful continent of Asis is so spt to be both able and ready to give Britain a fair deal as is Nehru...
...But they do show their solicitude for American opinion by the size and skill of their own propaganda services here The Hi»du*ta» Time§ recently celled attention to what the American press has politely overlooked, "the continuous stream of so-called distinguished journalists, politicians, business men and service men" and hundreds of other agents who "move up and down the States" supporting the efforts of Viscount Halifax, Sir Frederick Puckle and other officials...
...There seems to be an instinctive sort of general guess that hs may be let out in thia time of criais...
...The man of Europe is not yet in a mood to turn hia good ear toward the man of Asia...
...At Bretton Woods the Indians spoke up about their money matters, but were hushed by the Americans as well as the British, in no international meeting thus far has there been any evidence that our people know that the Chinese are more than one-fifth of the world and the Indians almost another fifth, and Asia altogether one-half...
...And doubtless the famous British sense of fair play will assert itself in good time...
...0ne World On November 14th, Jswsharlal Nehru, sitting in jail, will celebrate hia 55th birthday...
...It is reasonable that another Indian leader should come to the United States to discuss that failure and suggest the next step toward that independence which the British government so ardently wishes to give to India...
...But we plume ourselves too much if we think that Nehru's best job would be talking to us...
...He ia the synthesis of Fast and West...
...Last time they let him out just four days before Japan struck at Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong...
...In India the contrast is best sees betweee Gandhi and Nehrs...
...aad sometimes I sse the ghosts ef thess dead yesterdays rise sp, bringing poignant memories, snd whispering to me: "Wss H worth while...
...I would sad sever to improve in many ways on what I'had previously done, but my major decisions in psblic sff*lrs wesM remain untouched...
...He kss long sdvocsted a world federation, and if that should not come soon, "a federation with our neighbors—Chins, Burma, Ceylon...
...It is that of key man, if not presiding genius, in the conference for framing the new world order...
...I often quote something that Dr...
...This is in spite of the fact that he haa been in Jail for more than two yeara and that nothing ia heard from him except on strictly personal and family matters...
...American admirers of Nehru have in mind three ways in which he could be used...
...At the end of his autobiography he said, "I have loved muck that was England, and I should have liked to keep the silken bonds of the spirit between India and England...
...What if he cornea out broken in health or spirits...
...Lonis Fiacker, wke spent a week witk Gandhi, tells ss tkst Gandki hardly looks at the headlines in the newapapere and never listens to the radio...
...Nehru himself wrote rather sadly in his autobiography, "I have become a queer mixture of the Fast and the West, out of plsce everywhere, at home nowhere...
...He wss eieited a beat the war in Spain, he was the Ifst to condemn whst wss done at Munich, he was in Ckhsa eenferrisg with Chiang Kat-akek wken the wsr broke out...
...If that should be, then we must set another black mark against the record of the Tories who never knew or did not rsre what was for the good of their own people...
...He is wrong in his regret, if it is that...
...On a previous occasion, he wrote a book which waa pnbliahed as G'fimsses »' World «../.»» Nehru has been tke political leader of the India freedom movement while Gandhi haa been the spiritual heed...
...He appears to listen to the man of America, though it is a question whether his mind is on the ideas or on the continental power behind them— ami it is also a question whether the ideas voiced are actually American or an overseas echo of European thunder...
...Lin Yutang...
...1 HE years I hsve apent in prises...
...What if he is kept in for another year or two...
...Or aa an Indian historian has said...
...Nehru's voice may in good time be heard in Chungking and Bangkok, in Teheran and Katavia, in Cairo and in Moscow—but not likely in London or Washington...
...That 1939 editorial, for example, went on to say, "If we must meet a rebel Indian with coercion, will anyone in Europe or America mistake us for the champions of democracy?*' And there liberal English opinion still stands...
...For the mixture, hard though it be for the individual, makes the pioneer of world citizenship...
...He is one of the very few persons who can justly be called "world citizens...
...Americans who agree with this still second the nomination made by The New Stattiman of London, soon after the war began in Europe, that Nehru be made Premier of India "in fact if not in name...
...There is s chance that Nekrs, speaking to millions of the Indian people, might repair the damage dose by the Gandhi-Jinnah deadlock...
...Anup Singh, now editor of The Loire of India, once said—"Nehru is the proof that Fast and West have already met...
...He is tedsy the great democrat of the world...
...He looks fsr beyond the independence of Isdis to the fsferdependence of nil nations...
...He might forge that Indian unity which the British officials wistfully hope for but have sot themselves keen able to effect...
...And there ia the often-quoted remark that Tin India the unexpected always happens but the inevitable never occurs...
...True, British offiriala have not yet conceded that this is any of our business...
...But there is a third and greater role being urged for Nehru...
...If Gandhi is the soul of Indis, Nekrs is her wind and will...
...Nekrs Kates* to Gandhi, and Gandhi listen* only U> God...
...There is no sign yet that Asia will be in on the great derisions...
...Afghanistan, j'eraia...
...The Chinese long knocked on the door of Washington in vain, were "called in for coffee after dinner" at the first Quebec conference, actually got there at Cairo but were told not to niing up certain topics such as Hong Kong, and sat at second table at Dumbarton Oaks for a hurried gulp of left-overs...
...The people listen to Nehrs...
...But perhapa it ia folly to use up time and paper on the slim prospect that Nehru or any other Asian will sit much above the foot of the peace table...
...He should rather say, as I have heard another say who has lived half in Asia and half in the West, "We are the fortunate...
...And again, "I am a stranger and alien in the West...
...How sassy assess I have waUked wax and wan*, and the pageant of the stars »„.,,„, along inexorably and ¦aisstksllyl How many yesterdays of my youth lie buried here...
...Those bonds can only exist in freedom...
...High British officials keep telling us that India has been promised independence and that the date is merely left to the decision of the Indian leaders themselves...
...In him the best of both cultures are fused into the coming world type, the man of the future...
...Gsndhi thinks ifst aad slwsys of India...
...Nekrs tkinka I rat of the world, and always of India's place in the world...
...Indeed, I cos Id net vary them, for they were stronger then myself, and a force beyond my control drovs me to them...
...1*0 help Britain keep its promise of Indian freedom ia probably Nehru'a next task...
...If I were given the efcsnr* to go through my life agaia, with my present knowledge and experience sdded, I would no doubt try to make many changes in my personal life...
...One side is being very fully and ably stated...
...the Cbineae observer, once said...
...The most usual idea is that he should come to the United States and take the stump to explain India's status...
...by airplane, railway, automobile, motor truck, horse carriages of varioua kinds, bullock cart, bicycle, elephant, camel, horse, steamer, paddle-boat, canoe, and on foot...
...All they have to do is agree...
...Indians, asked about this, candidly say, "We shall need him at home immediately and for a long time...
...Nekrs is excited about everything that goes en Is the world...
...So Nehru indeed might come here...
...This may not be as absurd as it sounds...
...They called Ambassador Phillips persona non grata for saying that it is our business...
...His autobiography, Towmri Freedom, is a classic ef English style...
...Perhaps my thoughts and approach to life are more akin to what is called Western than Eastern, but India clings to me, as she does to all her children, in innumerable ways...
...There is ne hesitation about the answer...
...Yet hll thia ia on the riaky assumption that he will get out of jail...
...This is not the first time this great Indian Socialist and fighter for freedom has been in jail...
...Jowohorlol Neftiv...
...We are at homo snywhere, and we have our place anywhere...
...If ho is physically able, he might make another tour of India such as that amax-ing one of 1930 when, he said, "I imagine that I made aome kind of a record in the way of election campaigns...
...In thinking and temperament Nehrs hss been closer to the western spirit end he hss been s citizen of the world...
...Hut in my own country also, sometimes, I have an exile's feeling...
...In the course of about four months I traveled about fifthy thousand miles...
...It ia well to recall that the finest words spoken for India, outside of India, are spoken by Englishmen themselves...
...Sitting alone, wrapped in my thsngkts, how many scales* I have sees g* by, follow mg sack ether into oblivion...
Vol. 27 • November 1944 • No. 46
