The Key to U. S.-Indian Amity
BHARGAVA, G. S.
Support of India's efforts to safeguard her national interests is the only basis for a firm friendship THE KEY TO U.S.-INDIAN AMITY By G. S. Bhargava New Delhi PRIME MINISTER Jawaharlal Nehru's...
...But this would involve a shift in U.S...
...Propaganda was launched extolling the Prime Minister's anti-imperialist and anti-colonial past, present and future...
...On the other hand...
...policy...
...Pro-American opinion here feels that an opportunity now exists for striking a deal with Nehru...
...Ambassador in New Delhi, seemed to belong to this group...
...Russia, the aggressor in Hungary, is not an ally of India—even if the latter is less neutral to Moscow and Peking than to Washington and London...
...He specifically wanted me to point up the great respect everyone in India had for President Eisenhower, notwithstanding the almost unanimous disapproval here of Dulles's policies...
...There is a section of opinion, in fact, which feels that the situation can best be capitalized on by a return to the policies of former U.S...
...This was the result of Secretary of State Dulles's decision to issue a joint communique with Portuguese Foreign Minister Cunha describing Portugal's Indian enclave of Goa as a province of Portugal...
...Finally, no one who has been following developments in Pakistan during the past five years can look with confidence to that country to resist a Communist onslaught if it ever comes...
...Then, it was hoped, India would come to share American skepticism about Communist good faith...
...But November 6 shattered all of New Delhi's illusions and, to that extent, has resulted in a more realistic Indian policy toward the United States...
...Win , then, is the 1 .S...
...book which discussed Mohammedanism...
...New Delhi's firm handling of the situation enabled Pakistan to pose as the champion of Indian Moslems...
...In addition, international developments have also changed India's outlook...
...With particular reference to Bandung, Menon praised the way Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins had acquitted himself there in contrast to the role played by Senator Adam Clayton Powell, who had flown to Bandung in an Administration plane...
...public that India's criticism of Washington's policies, even if sharp at times, did not stem from any basic ill will toward or distrust of the American people...
...Americans who appreciate the subversive threat of Communism can understand how Pakistan, with its present policies, is a similar problem for India...
...arming Pakistan...
...It could, for example, lead to the completely erroneous belief that just as the vindication of U.S...
...Where an Indian-American divergence of opinion developed on vital matters, there was an attempt to follow a difficult middle road...
...And while he probably was baffled...
...No lasting friendship is possible so long as Pakistan continues to receive arms from America...
...Nehru was not displeased with the turn of events...
...So, while New Delhi was convinced that its stand was correct and looked for a shift in American policy, Washington returned the compliment and expected India to fall in line...
...India, on the other hand, allowed herself to be identified as an apologist for Russia in Hungary...
...During the ten months prior to the U.S...
...Washington policy-makers now lune an excellent opportunity to correct this mistake...
...Support of India's efforts to safeguard her national interests is the only basis for a firm friendship THE KEY TO U.S.-INDIAN AMITY By G. S. Bhargava New Delhi PRIME MINISTER Jawaharlal Nehru's recent visit to the United States marked the beginning of a new phase in Indian-American relations...
...This was a double-edged sword: If the agitation was not put down, it could have led to retaliation against the Moslem minority and to serious economic and other repercussions...
...Nevertheless, even the most sanguine could not have known that the dawn was so close...
...Britain and France, which participated in the Mideast aggression, are America's allies in the cold war and will be its allies in any military showdown with the Communist world...
...How did this come about just one year after the Dulles incident...
...To some degree, of course, India has shifted its position with the realization that Dulles isn't going anywhere, but nothing has yet led to a corresponding shift on the American side...
...Understandably, no one felt disposed to seek the favor of those who were supposedly on the decline...
...It must be recognized, however, that this one-sided change, which now promises greater U.S.-Indian understanding, is fraught with danger...
...Consequently, it seems obvious that if the superficial cordiality which once dominated New Delhi-Washington relations were revived it would again vanish at the first clash of vital policy differences...
...military aid to Pakistan has only served to strengthen the bellicose forces in that country, which do not let a day pass without announcing a new plan for a jihad against India...
...It would not be wise, however, to push this point too far...
...this theory: The U.S...
...From here, it seems that this can lie accomplished most effectively bv supporting India's attempts to safeguard and further her national interests...
...In this same period, American opinion, while visibly unhappy about India's faith in Russian and Red Chinese professions of peace, was looking to the day when they would be exposed...
...Then, they felt, Dulles and his one-track mind would be replaced by a trusted friend of India like Chester Bowles...
...Ironical as it may seem, this puts India in the same position that Israel occupies when Egypt and Syria receive huge Russian arms supplies...
...estrangement...
...For without giving up hope of tiding over the crisis of the moment, he devoted his energies to establishing a long-term community of outlook between the two countries...
...Praise from the West usually carried the stigma of anti-Communism, but kudos from Moscow and Peking bore the stamp of progress...
...This consisted of praising Nehru personally, highlighting his domestic anti-Communist policies, and explaining his foreign-policy nets as calculated moves to keep the Communists at bay...
...it was an instance of his regarding the Western nations on any given occasion as more culpable than Russia...
...It was, as India's foremost Socialist, Jaya-prakash Narayan, put it, an example of the double standard of judgment that has undermined India's prestige...
...Some time ago, for example, without considering what might happen to the millions of Moslems in India, Pakistan whipped up agitation there against a U.S...
...Thus, while discussing the Bandung Conference with me some time ago, Menon advised me to stress to the U.S...
...The Chinese incursion into Burma, the Sino-Nepalese entente— violating the spirit of the Sino-Indian treaty, which implied recognition of Nepal as an Indian sphere of influence in return for the surrender of Tibet—and the Russian intervention in Hungary have made New Delhi wary of Communism...
...If he allows scores of unarmed students to be shot dead in the streets of Ahmedabad and then justifies this by a comparison with Poznan, he is not serving the cause of democracy or freedom but is merely putting himself in a position where he cannot wholeheartedly condemn Russian atrocities in Hungary...
...A larger arsenal failed to keep Chiang Kai-shek in power in China...
...In these circumstances, it is fortunate that Nehru's visit did not come off as scheduled last June...
...For while it is true that Chinese expansion southward cannot be ruled out, Pakistan looms as the greatest and most immediate threat to India...
...Only last winter, while Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin and Communist party chief Nikita S. Khrushchev were enjoying a triumphal tour of this country, Indian-American friendship reached an all-time low...
...This is not suggesting that its views on international Communism are identical with those of Washington, but there has been a definite departure from the policy of being less neutral to China and Russia than to the United States...
...Nehru could now call himself a socialist without having the Communists sneer at him...
...Was it the result of basic foreign-policy changes in India and the United States...
...As Senator John Sherman Cooper has noted, it highlights the possibility of "greater mutual understanding" between the two countries...
...The answers to these questions involve numerous complex factors...
...Even the Communists in India were ordered to acclaim him as the leader of progressive mankind and halt their opposition to him on both domestic and foreign policies...
...stood squarely against Britain and France although this involved the risk of weakening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...
...No one can argue against recognizing Nehru's pre-eminent position in India, but that is no reason for lauding all his actions...
...election, therefore, Indian leaders nurtured the illusion that, from their point of view, there would be a change for the better in Washington...
...A brief look at the respective positions of these two countries, and their reaction to recent, events, points up the fallacy of...
...To begin with, people on the policy-making level in Delhi, especially V. K. Krishna Menon, were banking heavily on a Democratic victory in last November's Presidential election...
...Since the Prime Minister is extremely sensitive to criticism and flattery, it is argued, he will be willing to correct the recent pro-Soviet orientation of his foreign policy and even make it look pro-American— provided his critics overlook India's negative vote on the five-power UN resolution condemning Russia's action in Hungary...
...He is, after all, the leader of India's ruling Congress party, which shared the Kuomintang's love for power at all costs...
...Unfortunately, the Communists were able to move in on such occasions and provide Nehru with a revolutionary halo...
...This was not merely a case of Nehru's bracketing the Anglo-French and Russian actions...
...If India can own up to her error* of judgment and make tile necessary adjustments, the United States can do the same...
...Indeed, the latter influences the formulation of foreign policy in this country as much as idealism, if not more...
...policies (in Hungary and Nepal) has led to modification of India's policy toward Communism, experience will ultimately force India to endorse in toto American hostility to all things Red...
...Yet, in the Mideast crisis the U.S...
...is dedicated to the containment of Communism within its present political boundaries...
...This, in fact, is the reason for the recent Indian-U.S...
...This, of course, was more than the West could offer...
...Clearly, a less compromising and more realistic approach is needed if Washington is to gain New Delhi's firm friendship...
...India heads the so-called uncommitted nations...
...Optimists, however, pointed to the fact that it is always darkest before dawn, and Cooper himself, then U.S...
...Ambassador Chester Bowles...
Vol. 40 • January 1957 • No. 3
