Evening star., 1959-12-07
INDIA


thought hopefully that India
would be able to cope with it.
Today Mr.. Nehru admits he
is banking heavily on the great
powers to curb the expansion
iSt tendencies of his unruly
northern neighbor.
Thinks Peace Is Key Aim
One of the most obvious rea-
sons for holding to his former
policy of non-alignment with
East or West now is the
hope that Russia's Premier
Khrushchev will call on his
Chinese friends to turn of the
heat. Mr.. KhruShchev's re-
marks during his recent visit
to Peiping about the inad-
visibility Of military methods
and the fact that the Russian
press so far has played the
Indian border story surprising
ly straight nourishes the hope
Of timely rescue here.
Mr.. Nehru himself on sew
eral occasions has gone out of
his way to make the point: 81
do not think there is any coun-
try which is more anxious for
peace than the Soviet Union
But I doubt If there is any
country in the world less for
peace than China today"
There are some. of course, who
look on Mr.. Nehru's distinction
between the mature" and
revolutionary" phases of COM
muniSm as crowning example
of soft-headed wishful thinking
on his part.
Since all theories are still
permissible, it can be argued
just as well that border Incl
dents are part Of a carefully
co-ordinated deal between Rus
sia and China. Conceivably a
kind of carrot-and-stick poll
icy by the Communist Allies
could pay the richest dividends
in the long run especially if
India could be frightened into
diverting a hefty part of its
limited development capital
for defense.
Sees Development Essential
Indeed this thought seems
to have occurred to Mr.. Nehru
himself. Despite the presence
of Chinese forces well within
Indian territory and certain
amount of tough talk about the
possible consequences, his main
effort has been to calm down
volatile Indian passions.
His reaction has been to in
sist loudly that the new threat
makes his program for eco
nomic development more es-
sential than ever. And since
Mr.. Nehru has no wish-or per-
haps, IN fact, not much hope
of effective outside help, his
faith in the great powers to
restrain China is all that is
left to him.
Whatever happens, Mr.. Neh-
ru will never forget nor quickly
forgive the Chinese leaders.
Since the series of border
clashes, his leadership and his
policies have been under con-
slant and bitter attack from
his political opponents. He has
been particularly criticized for
deliberately concealing for
more than a year the fact of
Chinese penetration while he
dickered in growing despera-
ton with Premier Chou.
Popularity Increasing
All observers here agree that
he has sustained these attacks
well. If anything, the crisis has
increased his enormous popu-
larity throughout India.
Even Mr.. Nehru, however
can neither ignore nor entirely
control public opinion. He has
already been pushed by this
opinion a good deal further
than he would have liked to
go in defying the Chinese.
Another incident in which In
dian policemen or soldiers were
killed might leave him no alter
native except retaliation.
Under such circumstances, it
would be a great mistake for
the Chinese or anyone else to
think of the Indians as passive
people. Pressures could be set
up beyond the power of any
Indian government to control
And a chain reaction of vio-
lence could be touched off with
lInDrpdictahle c0nSenupncns