Anglo-Saxon AttitudesS. Gopal THE EROSION OF A RELATIONSHIP By M. Lipton and J. Firm Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1975, 427, 14.00 VOLUME I NUMBER 3 July - September 1976 With stabbings and race
riots, the relationship between India and Britain is today much in the news. To
most of us, especially those in and across middle age, that relationship is
overlaid with a large number of historical hang-ups, We have known the best and
the worst of this contact; and in l947 and immediately after, we elected to
forget the worst. This can, of course, and has often been much simplified and
overstated. If the leaders of the Congress, despite all their earlier
theorizing and commitments, preferred Dominion Status to immediate severance
of the British link, it was not a result of sentiment but because this seemed
the easiest way of arranging the transit from empire to freedom. Later, if
Nehru opted to find a way of keeping the Indian Republic in the new Commonwealth,
his motivation was not a blend of nostalgia and the overpowering influence of
Mountbatten. India was not charmed into remaining in an association which was
presided over by Britain. Beneath the outer softness of Nehru there was a hard
core of realism and a clear recognition of India’s interests. He kept India in
the Commonwealth because it suited her at the time. The international world of
1947 was a new and a harsh place; Pakistan was ferociously hostile and, assiduously
cultivating her relationship with Britain; and the economic and military muscle
of India was still weak. By one stroke Nehru turned Pakistan’s flank at this
level. But he did not at this time believe that the tour de force of
India's membership of the Commonwealth would last for long. It had its use for
the moment but it would have to be tested by its performance. It was a
functional association that would be judged by its result.
In fact, the Commonwealth that
is primarily in its present phase, built round the relationship between India
and Britain, has lasted. This is one of the surprises of the modern world
system and is basically the achievement of Nehru. By all the norms of
international affairs it should have broken over Suez. Britain's sordid
aggression in Egypt carried with it the violation of every canon of
Commonwealth understanding. Naturally both the action of Britain as well as the
way in which she had led up to it evoked outright condemnation from every
section of Indian opinion. Even a conserva... Table of Contents >> |