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dated July 8, 1956: Nehru deprecates cold war

Addressing a crowded press conference in London on July 6, at the end of the Commonwealth talks, Mr. Nehru explained India's policy of non-alignment and said the time had come to abandon the cold war approach. It was generally recognised, he said, that in this nuclear age a major war was out of the question. It followed that we must cease to encourage the cold war, for a cold war was only a threat or possible prelude to a major war. "The cold war approach has no particular meaning if you rule out a hot war approach." In discussing the policy of non-alignment, Mr. Nehru said its critics seemed to proceed on the assumption that the world was divided into two categories, good and bad, and that every individual or State must be one or the other. This was not a happy approach at all. Variety was the outstanding feature of the world, variety of people and of opinions, and it was totally undemocratic to imagine that everybody must agree with you. For his part, he would not venture to call anyone immoral, even if the person concerned was totally opposed to India's policy. "I am a pagan and rejoice in being a pagan. Paganism's chief virtue is tolerance. To that extent it is a very democratic outlook."

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