The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations present The Pacific Story. In the midst of the fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and its peoples, whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story comes to you tonight from Hollywood and Philadelphia as another public service with drama of the past and present and commentary by Richard J. Walsh, editor of Asia and the America's Magazine and authority on the Pacific and the Far East. Nehru of India, the new man of the new world. We believe this war is a mighty revolution which will only succeed on the basis of freedom of all peoples. Without India's freedom now, it will fail. This is a reason why India's freedom becomes an urgent and immediate necessity and cannot be postponed. This was the last free utterance of Jawaharlal Nehru. He wrote it for a Chinese newspaper man in Bombay on August 8, 1942. He was speaking for the more than 800 million people of China and India, nearly one third of the world's population, the next day. workshop and is a Yes, they're marching Nehru off. This is the nine-time Nehru has been taken to jail. Only twice has he been out of jail for more than a year at a time. What are they doing there? They're taking the records, the documents of the Congress Party. Stop that pushing. Get back there. They're taking Nehru. They're taking Nehru. Hold him. Hold him. Nehru, the guy. Hold him. Hey, Nehru. Hey, Nehru. They took 200 of us that day in August 1942. We have been in jail ever since. I sit watching Jawaharlal Nehru. Pandit Nehru, all India calls him. Pandit. Great scholar. But he is more than that. He is a great human soul. I watch him as he sits silently spinning. I watch him as he reads. I listen to his wisdom. Peace is indivisible, and so is freedom. There can be no enduring equilibrium unless freedom spans the world. India's problem is part of the world's problem, and neither can be considered fully or understood apart from the other. As I watch Nehru sitting here quietly in jail, I think of the sacrifices he has made for his people. Of the many times he has been arrested, he came from an illustrious family of Brahmins. Motilal Nehru, his father, had a great influence on him. His father was a lawyer, a great one, and an aristocrat. In 1905, Motilal took Jawaharlal to England to be educated. In 1905, he placed him in Harrow. And when Jawaharlal finished his work there, he went to Cambridge. Have you heard, Jawaharlal? Open revolt has broken out in Bengal. I was afraid it would come. They have hanged some of the young leaders and put many others in prison. Lord Curzon's policy could only lead to this. I have been following it in the Indian papers I get from home. Lord Curzon says that Bengal should be partitioned for administration purposes. That is not the reason. What is the reason, Jawaharlal? He wants to partition Bengal to weaken it, because it is so advanced politically. Yes, that is why the people have risen against him. If he persists, he will have a real rebellion to put down, and that will mean... Nehru waited for the papers from home with tenseness. In one of these papers, he found an article written by his father, Motilal. The article was so moderate in tone that it annoyed Jawaharlal. He sat down and wrote to his father at once. And when Motilal read the letter... Why, the impudence, the impertinence! My own son writing me that my views must be highly pleasing to the British government. Why, why, I have a good notion to bring him home to England at once. My views highly pleasing to the British government. The impertinence! But Motilal did not bring Nehru back. Jawaharlal stayed in Britain until 1912. Seven years he had been gone. And when he returned in 1912 with a law degree and many new ideas, he said... I'm afraid as I landed at Bombay, I was a bit of a prig and with little to commend me. Nehru saw things in India with clearer eyes. Tilak, the great leader before Gandhi, and Annie Besant, the dynamic Irish woman, started the Home Rule League to get home rule for India. And Nehru threw himself into the movement with all his soul. He listened to Sarojini Nadu, our great poetess, and was fired with the spirit of nationalism. In him now was a growing desire to take an aggressive part in public work. He carried on his law practice with less and less enthusiasm. The World War came. India gave her blood and substance to the Allies. Sikhs and Gurkhas and Muslims fought in the trenches. And during the war in 1916, for Santapanchami, the day that marks the coming of spring in India, in 1916 Nehru married frail delicate little Kamala. Kamala dedicated her life to India as Jawaharlal did. When the war was over, new forces had been set free in India. England encouraged the farm hands to leave the land and go into war industries. Now we cannot blame them for joining trade unions and asking for better wages and better conditions. Indians will no longer be subservient to the British. I served with them in the trenches, and they are no better than we are. Britain pledged during the war that India would get a new status. When are we going to get it? We can look to the Russians. The Russians won victory in their revolution. We waited for more self-government. Instead, suppressive laws were passed by the government. They tried to smother the growing spirit of rebellion. Then India found a leader, Gandhi. Gandhi was ill, but from his sick bed, he started the Satigraha Sabha, the Truth Force Association. All who joined the Satigraha Sabha pledged themselves to disobey the new laws, but not to be violent and to be truthful in all things. Nehru heard of the movement. Here is lasted the method of action which is straight and open. I shall join the Satigraha Sabha immediately. You cannot join this movement, Jawaharlal. This is the way out of the tangle of affairs, Father. You, my only son, sleeping on the floor of a jail because of defiance of law? Others have done it. It is preposterous. No, Jawaharlal, you cannot. There was high tension between Nehru and his father. Night after night, Jawaharlal wandered about alone, thinking. Jawaharlal actually tried sleeping on the floor to find out what it was like. He was sure this would be Jawaharlal's lot. Nehru talked with Gandhi, and Gandhi advised him not to upset his father. And it was at this time, you remember, that Gandhi proclaimed an All India Day of Hothals. Business all over India came to a standstill today as Gandhi called it a hothal, a cessation of work by Indians throughout the entire country. Two Indian leaders were arrested in Amritsar. Police fired on an unarmed mob that marched to plead for the release of the two Indian leaders who were arrested in Amritsar, India. When several Indians fell dead, the infuriated mob looted English stores and killed five or six persons in retaliation. Hundreds of Indian men, women, and children in a peaceful protest meeting in Amritsar were mowed down by the fire of General Dyer. General Dyer had issued a warning that the meeting would be unlawful. But the warning reached only a small number. Since this being a religious festival day, thousands of Indians poured in from out of town. Nehru sat in the inquiry into the events of these dark days. Hundreds of weary peasants marched to Nehru's city, Allahabad, to beg him to come to their villages to see their plight, so that they might plead for them. He went and spoke words of encouragement to them. That was the turning point in Nehru's life. Looking at them and their misery and overflowing gratitude, I was filled with shame and sorrow. Shame at my own easygoing and comfortable life, and our petty politics of the city, which ignore this vast multitude of semi-naked sons and daughters of India, and sorrow at the degradation and overwhelming poverty of India. A new picture of India seemed to rise before me, naked, starving, crushed and utterly miserable. And their faith in us, casual visitors from the distant city, embarrassed me and filled me with a new responsibility that frightened me. The Prince of Wales Now, in 1921, Nehru's sympathies were with Gandhi. In 1921, the Prince of Wales came to India. We regarded his visit with suspicion. They are sending the Prince of Wales here with the hope that his personality will counteract Gandhi. And they say that there are no political motives. Then why are they sending him at this time? They believe we cannot see the purpose behind the visit. We will boycott the Prince wherever he appears. Yes, we will boycott every function. Yes, boycott him. We formed the Congress Volunteers to boycott the Prince of Wales. And when the government declared the volunteers illegal, Nehru's father took up the challenge and Jawaharlal followed. They were both arrested and jailed. So, Father, we are in prison together. You should not be here, Jawaharlal. Under the law, you have committed no offense. No law could protect us, Father. You know, I feel a certain honor in being here. And a freedom within these walls that I have never known outside them. Do you have anything else you want washed? I can wash my own clothes, Jawaharlal. No, no, no. This is my morning chore. You go on with your reading. We are very fortunate to have newspapers. Yes. We have this weaving shed for a barrack. And when we are weary of washing and talking and reading, we can spin. What is this? More prisoners coming in. It gives me a feeling of strength, Jawaharlal, to realize how many of us are in this great struggle. The jails can never hold all of us. This was Jawaharlal's first time in jail. After three months, it was discovered that he was guilty of no offense under the law. So he was released. But now he had had time to reflect. Now he was spurred on to greater things. He gave up his law practice and gave himself completely to India. His star was rising, but ahead were troubled days. Did you hear about Nehru? He's back in Lucknow District Jail. And he only got out of that same jail six weeks ago. Nehru is in jail again. He has been out nine months this time. Now he's in Naba Jail. Nehru was brutally beaten by foot and mounted police in the demonstrations against the visitors of the Simon Commission. They hammered him so badly with their keys and batons that he almost lost consciousness. He did not resist, for he knew that to do so would result in the shooting down of large numbers of Indians. Wonderful! Jawaharlal Nehru has been elected president of the Indian National Congress at Lahore. All India is rejoicing! Nehru was just 40 when he was elected president of the Indian National Congress. Riding a white horse, he was taken through the historic city of Lahore. What a great honor for your son, Motilal! And what a great responsibility! I am overjoyed that my son has been elected president of the Indian National Congress. What a great responsibility! I am overjoyed that my son should occupy the same place a year after me. Look at the multitude showing their affection on him. Our movement is now entering a more serious and earnest phase than ever before. There could be no better one than Jawaharlal to head it. Hail Nehru! Hail Nehru! Hail Nehru! That same year, the Indian National Congress under Nehru proclaimed complete independence as its ultimate goal. January 26, 1930 was fixed as Independence Day. And throughout the land, on this day in 1930, vast solemn throngs gathered to take the pledge. We believe that it is the alien of the right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and to have necessities of life so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives the people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. We believe therefore that India must sever British connections and attain poorness or age or complete independence. We hold it a crime against man and God to submit any longer to a rule which has caused this disaster to our country. I remember Jawaharlal in those stirring days. Less than four months after the Indian Declaration of Independence, he was jailed again under the SALT Act. Then he was out only eight days and he was arrested and put in jail again. Two months later, his beloved Kamala was jailed too. She went to jail singing. I am happy beyond measure and proud to follow in the footsteps of my husband. And now sorrow came. Nehru's father, Motilal, died. Jawaharlal was released, but soon he was jailed again. He was in jail when Kamala fell ill in 1934. He was allowed 11 days to visit her. We have been married 18 years, Kamala. What happiness we've had. Our life together is just beginning. Jawaharlal, you are so brave. Then the police came and took him back to jail. Kamala grew worse and Jawaharlal was brought back to her. She lay there wistfully, struggling feebly with her illness. Bend down here, Jawaharlal. My Kamala. What is this about you giving assurance to the government? Assurance? They told you they would release you to attend me if you would give assurance that you would keep away from politics. How did you know, Kamala? Do not give it, Jawaharlal. Go back to jail. He went back to jail and at last in September 1935 he was released. He went straight to her at Badenweiler, Germany. He took her to Lausanne. All India waited anxiously. Is there any word of Kamala? This morning they said her condition was improving. Good. What happiness that Jawaharlal and Kamala are at last together again. Well, here. Here is a new bulletin being put up. What does it say? Kamala's condition is critical. My heart goes out to them in this hour. Here is another dispatch. Kamala is dead. Oh, God. Jawaharlal came back to his India. He came back to pick up the struggle. His name had now gone far beyond India. From 1936 he carried on a fiery campaign against the Federal Constitution. He toured India. He talked to great crowds day after day. Sometimes he talked five and six times a day, many times standing unsheltered in the blazing Indian sun. His interest went beyond India. He watched the revolt in Spain. This revolt may develop into a European conflict. Yes, it may even develop into a world conflict. He watched the attack of Japan upon China. While the powerful nations of the earth dilly-dallied, Nehru spoke out against Japan. What happens in China will affect us all. China and India will have a powerful effect on the shape of things to come. This is not only so because of the vast numbers of human beings that live in India and China, between 800 and 900 millions, not only because of their rich and tremendous past heritage, but because of their enormous resources and potential political and economic strength. The Indian National Congress declared a boycott against Japanese goods. Nehru assailed the ruthlessness and the inhumanity of the Japanese. The outbreak of the war in Europe reverberated throughout India. In the Indian Congress, we discussed the great crisis. If the war is to defend the status quo, the colonies, imperialist possessions, vested interests and privileges, then we Indians want nothing to do with it. Right! But if the issue is a world based on democracy, then I say India should throw her weight on the side of democracy. Yes, but we should ask the British government to declare its war aims in regard to democracy and imperialism, and how these aims will apply to India. Yes, yes, yes. But the government refused to define its war aims. Nehru fought on, and in the Great Bombay demonstration of August 1942, he was arrested again. Now, for months, I have watched him here in imprisonment. Sometimes he reads, sometimes he spins. And when he talks, we all listen. Attempts will be made by the British government to come to terms with Indian nationalism. But these will fail unless they recognize there is no halfway house to Indian freedom. If we are to have international cooperation, as we must, it must be on a world scale. India cannot, under any circumstances, consent to stay within the British Empire. India must be a free and independent nation. Music In the mind of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, a new vision of world order is taking form. In his imprisonment, Nehru works for the freedom of India, but in a larger sense, he has dedicated his life to the new world that lies ahead. To tell the underlying meaning of the struggle of Jawaharlal Nehru, NBC presents Richard J. Walsh, editor of Asia and the Americas Magazine, publisher of Nehru's autobiography, Toward Freedom, and personal friend of Nehru. The next voice you will hear will be that of Mr. Walsh. We take you now to Philadelphia. I am proud to be called a friend of Nehru, although I have met him only through the many letters we have written to one another and through his books. Just ten years ago tonight, I was on a ship crossing the Pacific. One of the persons I was on my way to see was Nehru. Eleven days before I landed at Calcutta, they put him in prison for the seventh time. There had just been a great earthquake in India. Nehru had organized relief, had dug with his own hands at the ruins in which injured people lay for 12 days. And then he went out and made speeches, rebuking the provincial government for neglect of the disaster. Today, there is another great disaster in India, a famine, in which perhaps two million people will have died before the harvest. Epidemics have followed in the wake of starvation, and among those who survive, the undernutrition will have to be dealt with for a year at least. But Nehru cannot do or say anything about it. He is in jail again. The worst of this famine is in the very areas where we are increasing the numbers of American soldiers. This alone, the fact that India is the base for our coming attack on the Japanese, is a strong reason why Americans should not only aid in the relief of the present famine in India, but also should know much more about the people of India and their leaders. But perhaps the best reasons why we should know Nehru well are that he is one of the few really great men of the world today, and that he may have a great part to play in the world of tomorrow, in which our own part will be so great. He is in a remarkable sense a man of the future, the coming world type. In him, the East and the West have indeed met. In him, their cultures are combined. In his autobiography, he wrote rather sadly, I quote, I have become a queer mixture of the East and the West, out of place everywhere, at home nowhere. Perhaps my thoughts and approach to life are more akin to what is called Western and Eastern, but India clings to me as she does to all her children in innumerable ways, end of quotation. I believe that because of this very mixture, Nehru is the example of the coming type of man, of the world citizen. Before we can be safe in our world, we must have hundreds of leaders like him, and perhaps millions of citizens who are like him, mixtures of East and West. I know a few others. By coincidence, I had a letter the other day from an Arab who lives in Palestine, but who had his education entirely in France. He wrote, I am no more completely at ease in the company of Occidentals or Orientals. This Arab regrets his mixture in almost the very words that Nehru used. Well, I think the Arab is wrong, and Nehru is wrong, even though it seems hard for them as individuals, because they are pioneers of world citizenship. I spoke of this to Pearl Buck, who is the typical new world citizen. She said that it had never been a matter of sadness to her, that she had lived her life half among the Chinese and half as an American. We are the fortunate ones, she said. We are at home anywhere and have our place everywhere. In India, the contrast is best seen between Gandhi and Nehru. Gandhi thinks first and always of India. Nehru thinks first of the world and always of India's place in the world. Louis Fisher, who spent a week with Gandhi, tells us that Gandhi hardly looks at the headlines in the newspapers and never listens to the radio. Nehru is excited about everything that goes on in the world. He was excited about the war in Spain. He was among the first to condemn what was done at Munich. He was in China conferring with John Kyshek when the war broke out. One of the little things I do for Nehru is to attend to sending him the American magazines he wants to read while he is in jail. Would you like to know what magazines he asked for? He wanted subscriptions so that he could get every issue of Time, The New Republic, Life, The Nation, The Reader's Digest, Amorasia, Pacific Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and my own magazine, Asia and the Americas. He wants to know what Americans are reading and thinking. I do not doubt that he subscribes to a similar list of British periodicals. He is a man of the world in the best sense, the man of the future. What does he see for that future? First, of course, the complete freedom of India. Next Wednesday, January 26th, is India's Independence Day. It corresponds to our Fourth of July. Fourteen years ago, on January 26th, 1930, vast crowds gathered all over India, as Nehru said peacefully and solemnly without any speeches or exhortations, to take the Pledge of Independence. That pledge has echoes of our own Declaration of Independence. Every year, on January 26th, Indians throughout the world gather to celebrate and repeat that pledge. But Nehru looks beyond the independence of India to the interdependence of the peoples of the world. He stands for a federation of all nations and the closest association of India with her neighbors, especially China. He is today the great Democrat of the world. He believes deeply in the saying of the Chinese that, round the four seas, all men are brothers. Thank you, Richard J. Walsh. You have been listening to The Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations, as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. A reprint of this Pacific Story program is available at the cost of ten cents. Send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. We repeat, a reprint of this Pacific Story program is available at the cost of ten cents. Send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. This program came to you from Philadelphia and Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
