When Tragedy Struck Nehru

Bhaskar Parichha

Jawaharlal Nehru’s life was not short of tragedies. Kamala Nehru’s death in 1936 was certainly a personal catastrophe for Nehru. But the greatest tragedy was the Chinese invasion of India a quarter century later. Mao’s Communist China completely betrayed his trust when it invaded India.

For most of his life, Nehru favored one country above all others – China. Way back in 1939, when the Indian National Congress was struggling desperately for India’s independence, the Congress managed to send medical aid to the fighting Chinese Communists. Jawaharlal Nehru received a letter in repulsion and takes this opportunity to thank your great Indian people. Heartiest greetings, Mao Tse-tung. ”Even in the dark days of 1942, Nehru said, “I see the future filled with hopes because China and India are friends and comrades in the great adventure of man.”

Nehru had heartily welcomed the revolution in China. The confiscation of land was likened by him to the abolition of the Zamindari system in India. Of Course, the Communist leaders were inching step by step. There was no taking away of factories or obliteration of capitalism in the initial phase. It came about gradually. But that’s a different story.

From the beginning of 1950, events were moving from bad to worse. Inside Tibet, the Chinese were waving Mao Tse-tung’s little red book, and they were systematically destroying Tibet’s ancient culture. Nehru stood up in Lok Sabha and said, “we have every desire to maintain the friendship between India and China; but,at the same time, we have every sympathy for the people of Tibet and we are greatly distressed at their hapless plight.”

It was a compassionate and courageous statement, no doubt. But, Nehru had to dig the bitter fact that his beloved China was now unpredictable. He was right to a larger extent. Later, the Chinese Army poured over India’s border, high in the Himalayas in a massive array.

The truth is, Nehru was hurt and ‘ominously puzzled’. His decency couldn’t quite comprehend how his beloved China could have perpetrated such an act.Yet, his words were mild: ”The Chinese have acted rather foolishly. It is natural that our enthusiasm for supporting China wanes somewhat; but our general policy towards China remains the same.”

Sardar Patel was one leader who had warned about the danger of imperialist China and the greater danger was that it had turned to communism. But the pity was that the ‘Iron Man’s’ warning was dismissed as one coming from a needless alarmist.

It was good luck that the Chinese stopped their incursion of India once they crossed the mountains. But apprehensions were galore that they would advance further into Indian territory. India had virtually no defense. President Radhakrishnan said afterwards that the government had been ‘credulous and negligent’.

It is common knowledge that at the time of Chinese aggression, the defense portfolio was badly neglected by Krishna Menon, who was in the United States of America when the Chinese troops let loose the war.The Chinese attack was a crushing blow from which Jawaharlal Nehru never really recovered.