LONDON,
OCTOBER 19: ‘‘There is a strong sense of national
spirit in India. We are left with no small flags in the
country. So this is a good thing to happen to our country,
though the price has been high.’’
The year was 1962. And it was Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru, speaking to a young Indian reporter from Kenya.
The history talking.com, an online oral history of
the South Asian diasporas, run by a non-profit-making
organisation has come across a rare interview of India’s
first PM, given to a Kenyan journalist of Indian origin during
the Chinese war of 1962.
Four decades later, at his house in Hayes, a small town on
the western outskirts of London, Chaman Lal Chaman still
remembers how it happened as he dusts off the tapes of the
conversation. The India-China war was on and there was hardly
any news about it in east Africa where thousands of NRIs
lived. ‘‘Within 24 hours, I was put on a BOAC flight from
Nairobi to New Delhi,’’ Chaman, who later became director
of Asian broadcasts in the Voice of Kenya, remembers.
Chaman started reporting about the national mood. After
collecting soundbytes he would rush to the AIR studios and
would record his report. These reports were then put on a
flight to Nairobi. Chaman sent a request to interview the PM,
knowing well it was virtually impossible. But he got a call
from the PMO. The next morning Chaman arrived at Nehru’s
residence, Teen Murti House. ‘‘I had heard a lot about his
radiance but he looked old and tired.’’
Chaman’s interview is a remarkably transparent testament
of Nehru’s frustration and sadness. But he never skipped a
chance to inspire his people. ‘‘First of all, I will
advise people to throw out this fear from their hearts. They
have to be ready for every situation. If you are afraid, your
strength declines,’’ he told Chaman. Nehru acknowledged
that China was a powerful country (zabardast mulk).
‘‘We don’t want to fight or defeat China, we want to
keep every part of India in our possession, what ever time it
takes,’’ he said.
But the feeling of betrayal of a country which he believed
was a friend was rippling in Nehru’s voice. When Chaman
asked him to throw light on the future of the Panchsheel,
Nehru sounded slightly irritated: ‘‘Throwing light is now
difficult, as the Chinese have spread darkness all over. (He
laughs faintly and rather nervously). How can I throw
light on Panchsheel? (He sounds irritated) By this war
they have totally acted against the spirit of Panchsheel... If
the Chinese don’t want to follow Panchsheel, it’s
finished.’’
After a week in New Delhi, when Chaman landed in Nairobi,
he was driven straight to the City Hall. ‘‘I was given a
hero’s welcome. I told the waiting crowds that India needed
resources to fight this war. There was an instant rush.”
