Jawahar Lal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the Nagarjuna- sagar dam in October 1959, a construction worker went upto him and told him in Telugu; “here you have lighted a lamp.” That simple statement with profound meaning moved the architect of modern India. Soon after that he had in one of his letters to the Chief Ministers asked: “Do we, in the course of our lives, light lamps or do we snuff out the lamps or candles that exist?” During his lifetime Nehru had lit innumerable lamps and torches to drive out darkness from this nation and in many ways from he world too. He felt that removal of darkness from one place was as important as removing it from all places. He saw a close relationship between the two and combined the nationalistic approach with an international philosophy and strove relentlessly to inject and augment harmony between the two. In the post-world war international scene, Nehru stood out as the only statesman and philosopher who evolved national policies with a global orientation and without ignoring international obligations. He deliberately married the two to ensure that each never negated the other. In fact, he believed that unless national policies were formulated in tune with international conditions there could not be a viable and durable progress.

 

  
To achieve harmony, Nehru was not reluctant to make a sacrifice or two here and there as a measure ofIndia’s contribution to promote its one world philosophy. He saw no dichotomy between the national policies and international obligations and he was the first Prime Minister in the world to believe so and the first leader of the developing world to insist on this. It was with this conviction that peace and progress could not be insulated against erosion and attacks in a world of turmoil and tension that he volunteered to play the role of a peacemaker in the Gaza, Korea and Vietnam. The role India had played in these areas of confIict and in the Congo was more in harmony with its convictions than with its economic con-ditions. And the respect India commanded was immense because it honestly tried to implement its belief that turmoil at one place was always a threat to peace at other places. That peace was indivisible and that no nation, howsoever powerful it might be, could not fully insulate its prosperity and peace was the principle that brought together many a world leader under the influence of Nehru.