What India Risks When it Forgets What Nehru Had to Say on West Asia and War

The views of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on West Asia and some of his remarkably prescient observations resonate intensely today, as a tentative cease-fire follows Iran’s confrontation with brutal Israeli aggression and the lethal United States airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump.

In a letter to chief ministers dated February 20, 1948, Nehru wrote with foresight that frequent wars in West Asia were a distinct possibility. He pointed to the partitioning of what was legitimately Palestinian territory to establish Israel and the appropriation of the region’s oil resources by Western powers. He also predicted that, in response to these developments, the United States would support Pakistan, which was viewed by American authorities as a key part of West Asia.

Nehru while noting with anguish that great powers were showing active partisanship, wrote, “The Americans who voted for the partition of Palestine and thereby alienated the sympathies of the Arabs seem anxious to win back Arab support which is essential for them in view of the oil situation, and the possibility of war in the Middle East”. 

“They are, therefore,” he stated, “openly, and with very little finesse, supporting Pakistan.”

A theatre of war

A little more than a month later, on March 17, 1948, Nehru in another letter to chief ministers observed that the Palestine problem grew more insoluble. He wrote, “The Middle East is supposed to be a possible theatre of war in the future and hence a great deal of manoeuvring for position is going on there”.

Just a few days before US bombers dropped bunker buster bombs on Iran’s nuclear sites, US president Trump was maneuvering for position by hosting a lunch for Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in the White House. It was an unprecedented event.

Nehru on the US search for minerals

Nehru in 1954 had outlined the US’s desperate quest for  minerals, particularly uranium, and revealed in his letter to chief ministers on March 15, 1954, that the USA was showing keen interest in Kashmir to, among other reasons, get access to its strategic mineral resources. 

“An important element in American policy,” Nehru remarked, “appears to be to control the sources of mineral wealth in various parts of the world”. 

“The US is rich in its mineral resources, but it is exhausting them rather fast. Hence its desire to control other sources, more especially those which have what are called strategic minerals,” he explained. 

Nehru also referred to the visit of a military mission of the US to Pakistan in 1954 and wrote, “There will no doubt be surveys of mineral resources, particularly of uranium and other strategic minerals.”

Those utterances Nehru made in the early 1950s assume greater significance in  the backdrop of Trump's deals  with several countries  including Ukraine and Pakistan concerning strategic minerals. It was reported in The Economic Times on June 23 that Pakistan offered  critical mineral assets in Balochistan to the US during the Munir–Trump meet in White House.

India’s Independent Policy

In a letter to chief ministers on March 15, 1954 he wrote, “For us to accept this American policy or fall in line with Pakistan and accept American military aid  would be to write off our freedom and indeed to write off Asian freedom”. 

“It so happens that India is practically the only country which has shown some independence and self-respect in this matter,” he proceeded to assert with conviction. 

“For India to surrender,” he remarked, “would be not only an Asian but a world tragedy.”

“Of course, we have no intention of doing so and the country has clearly indicated what it thinks about this matter,” he also said.

When the country was neither militarily nor economically strong enough, Nehru made it unequivocally clear that India would not surrender to US diktats. Under his leadership, India followed an independent foreign policy rooted in non-alignment which  heightened our stature at the global level. Nehru in his letters to chief ministers on October 16, 1959, referred to the rousing reception he got during his visit to Iran and  explained  that  people of that country showed respect for India for its bold stand on foreign policy issues.

Modi’s compromised foreign policy

Today, the Modi government appears to have surrendered to American policy. It abstained from a United Nations vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and refrained from condemning US and Israeli attacks on Iran. When Sonia Gandhi criticised the Modi administration for sacrificing values by remaining silent on Iran and Gaza, she echoed Nehru’s warnings. “It is still not too late for India’s voice to be heard,” she wrote.

War destroys

In a letter dated July 26, 1958, Nehru wrote to chief ministers, “The countries that are really on trial are not so much the countries of that region, but the United States and the United Kingdom.” While acknowledging their immense power, he added, “It is clear now that one cannot win a people by armed might; one cannot even win oil in this way. All one can do is to destroy through war.”

On April 14, 1954, commenting on US policy toward West Asia and Pakistan, Nehru stated, “Probably the United States believes that this policy of all-out force and threats will succeed without precipitating a large-scale war.”

Nehru’s warning

“In any event,”he cautioned, “it is a big and dangerous gamble”. 

He then outlined a scary picture and wrote, “This affects the entire world but, more particularly, Asia. Asia has been and will continue to be the scene of hydrogen bomb experiments and of war in which Asians are made to fight Asians. It may be that it will be Asians again who will have the unfortunate privilege of experiencing the effects of atomic bombing.”

Internal cohesion

In several letters to chief ministers, Nehru wrote that beyond military strength or economic might, it was the internal cohesion of India’s diverse people, the secular character of the state, love for Urdu, and a way of life rooted in unity that would safeguard freedom and an independent foreign policy.

The Modi regime, by weakening social cohesion and undermining India’s secular fabric through Hindutva politics, would do well to recall Nehru’s legacy – and course correct before it is too late.

S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.

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