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Page 285 Another test, Pandit Nehru said, was whether in the 285, of was to-day; it helped in the promotion of peace and the
of war. No Government dare allow its country to be unprepared for contingencies. We have to prepare ourselves, unfortunately," he added, "unless we are brave enough to follow completely the policy that the Mahatma laid down. But it is not so much a question of my being brave or your being brave but of the country being brave enough to follow and understand that policy. I do not think we have been brought up to that level of understanding and behaviour and, indeed, we talk about that great level when in the last year and a half we have seen the lowest depths of behaviour in this country. So let us not take his name in vain in this connection. Nevertheless, I think that in a sense India is partly suited to contribute to peace because, in spite of our being rather feeble and rather unworthy followers of Gandhiji, we have imbibed to some slight extent what he told us.
ઃઃ
: :
"I do submit that what we have done in no way, negatively speaking, injures us or can injure us. Positively, we have achieved politically what we wanted and we are likely to have more opportunities of progress in this way than otherwise we would have had in the next few years, and, finally, in the world context, it is something that encourages and helps peace to some extent."
Fight against Evil
Pandit Nehru pointed out that the London decision in no way bound this or any other country. It was open to the present House or the next Parliament at any time to break the link if it chose not that he wanted that link to be broken, but he was merely pointing out that the future had not been bound down in the slightest degree.
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Some members of the House and some outside the House had opposed his motion, he said. They have been totally unable to come out of that cage of the past in which all of us had lived, even though the door was open for them mentally to come out. Some of our friends have been good enough to quote from my speeches delivered fifteen or twenty years ago. If they attached so much value to my speeches, they might have listened to my present speeches a little more carefully. (Laughter.) The world has changed. Evil still remains evil and good is good. Imperialism is an evil thing and wherever it remains it has to be rooted out. Colonialism is an evil thing and wherever it remains it has to be rooted out. Racialism is an evil and has to be fought. All that is true.
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If you talk about British imperialism and the rest to-day, I do not say that you are 100 per cent. wrong because there is a bit of it left, but fundamentally you are wrong, because there is no capacity for imperialism, even if the will was there. It simply cannot be done. The French are acting imperialistically in parts of Asia. They may, but the fact remains that their capacity for doing it is over. They may carry on for a year or two. The Dutch may do it elsewhere, but if you look at it in the historical way, all these things are hangovers of something given up. Essentially, that particular aspect cannot be done because they have no strength behind them to do. It may last even a few years and, therefore, we have to combat it and to be vigilant, but let us not think as if Europe or England were the same as it were fifteen or thirty years ago. It is not. Nor are we. We have to look at these problems in a big way. If we are a big nation in size, that will not bring bigness to us unless we are big in mind and heart and understanding and action also.
"You can take if from me that you may perhaps gain a little here and there with your bargainers and hagglers of the market place, but if you act in a big way the response to you is very big from the world. Good always draws good from others and a big action which shows generosity of spirit brings generosity from the other side.
I, therefore, commend this resolution to the House and hope that it will not only approve it but accept it as a harbinger of good relations, of our acting in a generous way towards other countries and towards the world and thus strengthening ourselves and strengthening the cause of peace.' (Loud and prolonged cheers.)