Although the past cannot be changed, I think it is our duty to examine it and to interrogate our own role in it. Nehru was the elected leader of a poor and relatively weak country. He had a duty to his electorate to make sure that they could make their voices heard around the globe as effectively as possible. The Commonwealth is a large international forum and I think Nehru would have failed the country if he had not availed of it, no matter what his private views. But the duties and obligations of a politician and a writer are not the same.
Writers represents no one but themselves.
If they are persuaded of the validity of their views then they have an absolute duty to voice them. This is, in the most general sense, the single most important obligation that the world at large asks of the writer. Further, as I've said in my letter, I recognize that the Commonwealth Foundation makes many useful contributions to development work. The truth is that the most of the countries that constitute the Commonwealth are so poor that their populations cannot afford to be too picky about where their aid comes from. This is simply the reality and we would be foolish not to recognize its exigencies.