NEHRU’S speeches on KASHMIR

PLEDGE TO KASHMIR

(A statement from New Delhi, January 15, 1948.)

From, Independence and After, A collection of the more important speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru from September 1946 to May 1949. The Publications Division, August, 1949

(India very generously agreed to allocate Rs. 75 crores to Pakistan out of the cash balances to help the latter to make a start. It was felt that the ArbitraI Tribunal should not have allocated so big an amount to Pakistan, and it was hoped that this generosity on the part of the Indian Union would have reciprocal response. The Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Patel, made it clear that this financial deal was linked with the overall settlement of all outstanding issues. But in the meantime, in Kashmir Pakistan waged virtually an undeclared war against India; and lest the Rs. 55 crores (Rs. 20 crores having already been paid out of the 75 crores ) should be spent against India in Kashmir, it was withheld pending the settlement of the Kashmir issue. It became another cause of bitterness between India and Pakistan. When Mahatmaji began his fast an January 13 and appealed to the nation to remove ill-will, prejudice, and passion which poisoned the relations between India and Pakistan, the Government of India decided to pay the amount due, namely, Rs. 55 crores to Pakistan immediately as a gesture of goodwill to that State and as their contribution “to the non-violent and noble effort made by Gandhiji.” On January 18, Mahatma Gandhi terminated his fast in response to the pledge given by the citizens of Delhi through the peace committees that they would banish communalism from their hearts and from the country.)

The Government’s decision in regard to the payment of the cash balances to Pakistan has been taken after the most careful thought and after consultation with Gandhiji. I should like to make it clear that this does not mean any change in our unanimous view about the strength and validity of the Government’s position as set out in various statements made by distinguished colleagues of mine. Nor do we accept the facts or arguments advanced in the latest statement of the Finance Minister of Pakistan.

We have come to this decision in the hope that this generous gesture, in accord with India’s high ideals and Gandhiji’s noble standards, will convince the world of our earnest desire for peace and goodwill. We earnestly trust also that this will go a long way towards producing a situation which will induce Gandhiji to break his fast. That fast, of course, had nothing to do with this particular matter, and we have thought of it because of our desire to help in every way in easing the present tension.

Six months ago we witnessed a miracle in Calcutta where ill-will changed overnight into goodwill, through the alchemy of a similar fast. The alchemist who worked this change was described by our Governor-General as the one-man boundary force which succeeded when the boundary force of 50,000 men in West Punjab did not succeed in keeping the peace. This unarmed knight of non-violence is functioning again. May the same alchemy work again in India and elsewhere! We have sought to remove one major cause of dispute an argument between India and Pakistan and we hope that other problems will also be resolved. But let it be remembered that the people of Kashmir are suffering from a brutal and unprovoked invasion, and we have pledged ourselves to help them to gain their freedom. To that pledge we shall hold and we shall do our utmost to redeem it. We seek their freedom not for any gain to us, but to prevent the ravishing of a fair country and a peaceful people.

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