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dated June 2, 1956: Foreign aid: PM's caution

Inaugurating the annual general meeting of the Swadeshi League in Bombay on May 31, Prime Minister Nehru called for a "creative resurgence" among the people so that the nation could march towards progress with a spirit of self-help and self-reliance. He said that a nation which lacked in creativeness fell a prey to outside domination. "Often we talk about receiving foreign aid. It is all right if we get aid without any strings attached to it. The slightest string attached to aid means restriction of our freedom and it will make us weak. That will certainly ruin us and we do not want any such aid." If there was a spirit of creativeness, the nation would not want any foreign aid. "We can do everything for ourselves by ourselves." Mr. Nehru said he would not like to mention names, but many countries were to-day heading towards a fall, because they were too much dependent on foreign aid. At least in one country, he added, a lot of foreign aid had been received. Still that country had been going down and had become weaker, politically and economically, than ever before. The people had been depending too much on outside aid and, consequently, losing their own initiative. "Dependence on foreign aid is a disease in every underdeveloped country. But let us concentrate on eradicating this disease by depending on ourselves and building through our own initiative and creative energy. If we look to foreign aid for our development, then nothing can help us rise as a nation."

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