Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech in the U.S. House of Representatives and the
Senate
I HAVE come to this
country to learn something of your great achievements. I have come also to
convey the greetings of my people and in the hope that my visit may help
to create a greater understanding between our respective peoples and those
strong and sometimes invisible links, stronger even than physical links,
that bind countries together. The President referred the day before
yesterday, in language of significance, to my visit as a voyage of
discovery of America. The United States of America is not an unknown
country even in far‑off India and many of us have grown up in
admiration of the ideals and objectives which have made this country
great. Yet, though we may know the history and something of the culture of
our respective countries, what is required is a true understanding and
appreciation of each other even where we differ. Out of that understanding
grows fruitful co-operation in the pursuit of common ideals. What
the world today lacks most is, perhaps, understanding and appreciation of
one another among nations and people. I have come here, therefore, on a
voyage of discovery of the mind and heart of America and to place before
you our own mind and heart. Thus, we may promote that understanding and
co-operation which, I feel sure, both our countries earnestly
desire. Already I have received a welcome here, the generous warmth of
which has created a deep impression on my mind and, indeed, somewhat
overwhelmed me.
During the last two
days that I have been in Washington, I have paid visits to the memorials
of the great builders of this nation. I have done so not for the sake of
mere formality but because they have long been enshrined in my heart and
their example has inspired me as it has inspired innumerable countrymen of
mine. These memorials are the real temples to which each generation must
pay tribute and, in doing so, must catch something of the fire that burned
in the hearts of those who were the torchbearers of freedom, not only for
this country but for the world; for those who arc truly great have a
message that cannot be confined within a particular country but is for all
the world.
In India there came a
man in our own generation who inspired us to great endeavour, ever
reminding us that thought and action should never be divorced from moral
principle, that the true path of man is the path of truth and peace. Under
his guidance, we laboured for the freedom of our country, with ill-will to
none and achieved that freedom. We called him reverently and
affectionately the Father of our Nation. Yet he was too great for
the circumscribed borders of any one country and the message he gave may
well help us in considering the wider problems of the world.
The United States of
America has struggled to freedom and unparalleled prosperity during the
past century and a half and today it is a great and powerful nation. It
has an amazing record of growth in material well-being and
scientific and technological advance. It could not have accomplished this
unless America had been anchored in the great principles laid down in the
early days of her history, for material progress cannot go far or last
long unless it has its foundations in moral principles and high ideals.
Those principles and
ideals are enshrined in your Declaration of Independence, which lays down
as a self-evident truth that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It may interest you to
know that, in drafting the Constitution of the Republic of India, we have
been greatly influenced by your own Constitution. The preamble of our
Constitution states:
We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into
a Sovereign Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens:
Justice,
social, economic and political;
Liberty
of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
Equality
of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all Fraternity
assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation;
In our Constituent Assembly do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves
this Constitution.
You
will recognize in these words that I have quoted an echo of the great
voices of the founders of your Republic. You will see that though India
may speak to you in a voice that you may not immediately recognize or that
may perhaps appear somewhat alien to you, yet that voice somewhat strongly
resembles what you have often heard before.
Yet,
it is true that India's voice is somewhat different; it is not the voice
of the old world of Europe but of the older world of Asia. It is the voice
of an ancient civilization, distinctive, vital, which, at the same time,
has renewed itself and learned much from you and the other countries of
the West. It is, therefore, both old and new. It has its roots deep in the
past but it also has the dynamic urge of today.
But however the
voices of India and the United States may appear to differ, there is much
in common between them. Like
you, we have achieved our freedom through a revolution, though our
methods were different from yours. Like
you we shall be a republic based on the federal principle, which is an
outstanding contribution of the founders of this great Republic. In a vast
country like India, as in this great Republic of the United States, it
becomes necessary to have a delicate balance between central control and
State autonomy. We have
placed in the forefront of our Constitution those fundamental human rights
to which all men who love liberty, equality and progress aspire-the
freedom of the individual, the equality of men and the rule of law. We
enter, therefore, the community of free nations with the roots of
democracy deeply embedded in our institutions as well as in the thoughts
of our people.
We have achieved
political freedom but our revolution is not yet complete and is still in
progress, for political freedom without the assurance of the right to live
and to pursue happiness, which economic progress alone can bring, can
never satisfy a people. Therefore, our immediate task is to raise the
living standards of our people, to remove all that comes in the way of the
economic growth of the nation. We have tackled the major problem of India,
as it is today the major problem of Asia, the agrarian problem. Much that
was feudal in our system of land tenure is being changed so that the
fruits of cultivation should go to the tiller of the soil and that he may
be secure in the possession of the land he cultivates. In a country of
which agriculture is still the principal industry, this reform is
essential not only for the well-being and contentment of the
individual but also for the stability of society. One of the main causes
of social instability in many parts of the world, more especially in Asia,
is agrarian discontent due to the continuance of systems of land tenure
which are completely out of place in the modem world. Another-and
one which is also true of the greater part of Asia and Africa-is the
low standard of living of the masses.
India is industrially
more developed than many less fortunate countries and is reckoned as the
seventh or eighth among the world's industrial nations. But this
arithmetical distinction cannot conceal the poverty of the great majority
of our people. To remove this poverty by greater production, more
equitable distribution, better education and better health, is the
paramount need and the most pressing task before us and we are determined
to accomplish this task. We realize that self-help is the first
condition of success for a nation, no less than for an individual. We are
conscious that ours must be the primary effort and we shall seek succour
from none to escape from any part of our own responsibility. But though
our economic potential is great, its conversion into finished wealth will
need much mechanical and technological aid. We shall, therefore, gladly
welcome such aid and co-operation on terms that are of mutual
benefit. We believe that this may well help in the solution of the larger
problems that confront the world. But we do not seek any material
advantage in exchange for any part of our hard-won freedom.
The objectives of our
foreign policy are the preservation of world peace and enlargement of
human freedom. Two tragic wars have demonstrated the futility of warfare.
Victory without the will to peace achieves no lasting result and victor
and vanquished alike suffer from deep and grievous wounds and a common
fear of the future. May I venture to say that this is not an incorrect
description of the world of today? It is not flattering either to man's
reason or to our common humanity. Must this unhappy state persist and the
power of science and wealth continue to be harnessed to the service of
destruction? Every nation, great or small, has to answer this question and
the greater a nation, the greater is its responsibility to find and to
work for the right answer.
India may be new to world
politics and
her military strength insignificant in comparison with that of the
giants of our epoch. But India is old in thought and experience and has
travelled through trackless centuries in the adventure of life. Throughout
her long history she has stood for peace and every prayer that an Indian
raises, ends with an invocation to peace. It was out of this ancient and
yet young India that Mahatma Gandhi arose and he taught us a technique of
action that was peaceful; yet it was effective and yielded results that
led us not only to freedom but to friendship with those with whom we were,
till yesterday, in conflict. How far can that principle be applied to
wider spheres of action? I do not know, for circumstances differ and the
means to prevent evil have to be shaped and set to the nature of the evil.
Yet I have no doubt that the basic approach which lay behind that
technique of action was the right approach in human affairs and the only
approach that ultimately solves a problem satisfactorily. We have to
achieve freedom and to defend it. We have to meet aggression and to resist
it and the force employed must be adequate to the purpose. But even when
preparing to resist aggression, the ultimate objective, the objective of
peace and reconciliation, must never be lost sight of and heart and mind
must be attuned to this supreme aim and not swayed or clouded by hatred or
fear.
This is the basis and
the goal of our foreign policy. We are neither blind to reality nor do we
propose to acquiesce in any challenge to man's freedom from whatever
quarter it may come. Where freedom is menaced or justice threatened or
where aggression takes place, we cannot be and shall not be neutral. What
we plead for and endeavour to practice in our own imperfect way is a
binding faith in peace and an unfailing endeavour of thought and action to
ensure it. The great democracy of the United States of America will, I
feel sure, understand and appreciate our approach to life's problems
because it could not have any other aim or a different ideal. Friendship
and co-operation between our two countries are, therefore, natural. I
stand here to offer both in the pursuit of justice, liberty and peace.
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