Having read through the letter (FORUM dated 31st December, 1950) from Mrs. Hilda Wierum Boulter, New York City, written more in sorrow than in anger, one cannot help sympathizing with her views. It is true that the articles quoted by her and many more appearing in FORUM; do try to paint America alone as the aggressor and the new imperialist ignoring at the same time the slow, silent and steady advance of the Red imperialism under the cloak of liberation of countries from British and American imperialism. I hold no brief for Russia or communism but to us, people of the East, imperialism under whatever the name is a thing that we detest most and against which we have been fighting for so many decades now. So our attitude is the same towards Russia, Britain or America. Whereas America does things openly and blunders, Russia plots her strategy secretly and carries out the plans cleverly with propaganda and easy promises, thus making any chance of criticism out of question. While America welcomes criticism and does not penalize anybody for that, Russia does not let anybody criticize her or her actions. Thus the latter is clearly in an advantageous position.

Next Mrs.Boulter complains that we are a lot misinformed about America today and her history. While we are prepared to admit our mistake, if at all it is a mistake, let me ask a pertinent question. Is the American Press in general and the widely read TIME magazine in particular, honest its reportage about India? The news coverage in TIME Magazine never gives a correct view of things and misleads the public. At times we are pained to read accounts from here, reported in a way calculated to make an erroneous impression on the minds of readers and thus cause harm rather than sympathy.

We plead for a clearer and impartial account of what is happening in this country so that people outside may know what our problems are and how best our Governments are tackling those problems. Here, people like Mrs.Boulter, who have visited this country and had chances to see things on the spot, could help build a true understanding and friendship between the peoples of India and America.

Permit me to express my surprise at the criticism leveled against my article on FORUM’S Anti American Policy by reader Gohain in your issue of February, 25th 1951.

The article is intriguing and clearly based on wrong assumptions. Mr.Gohain’s statement in the second para of the said article (that the rejoinder should have come from the people of the country which has acknowledged Mao etc.) is quite irrelevant as I have made no reference to the effect that Mao’s China is not a fact and should not be treated as such. Reader Gohain further accuses me of having looked down on our eastern neighbour. This also is based on a wrong assumption. Nowhere in my article have I cast a slur on our great eastern neighbour for whom I have only, as many of my countrymen have, great admiration at the way she is trying to put into practice what she has preached all along. What I had repeatedly pointed out was that both America and Soviet Russia stand accused in the dock. And to accuse one and leave out another is a great betrayal of facts and truth.

Who would dispute the fact that Russia did help materially the communist forces in China during the civil war and again the North Koreans in the Korean War? If your reader wants us to believe that America is the only aggressor because she happened to assist South Koreans to preserve their democratic institutions, then I am afraid many in this country would not support him.

Without entering into the pros and cons of the controversy let us, as people of a country striving to see peace established on this earth look at things dispassionately and support nations who work with a genuine desire for peace be it Soviet Russia or United States of America. We are not judges of their actions but we can exert pressure to see that peace and prosperity reign in the world. In this task our duty is to strengthen the hands of our Prime Minister Nehru, the foremost crusader for peace in recent times.

Mr.S.N.Sabharwal from distant Australia is, I am glad, more informed about our country than most of us here in India. As such, he must know what is good and what is not for us living in this country. He was able to dismiss the claims of the two premier parties in the country to rule us in just a few words to make way for the champion of peace and harbinger of prosperity, the never failing Communists who will be ushering in the Utopia of everybody’s dreams in less than four years as compared with the record of our present rulers. (See FORUM dated 2.9.1951).

Mr.Sabharwal has been over zealous in establishing that the Congress has betrayed the masses ‘by becoming the mouthpiece of local and international Capitalists’ and the Socialists are no good either for they only ‘strive to obtain certain benefits for the workers within the frame work of the existing iniquitous system’ and hence the people have to turn only to the Communists who are sure to deliver the goods. The line of argument is strange and doesn’t make sense. In his eagerness your reader has jumbled over facts and hastily predicted the eventual collapse if the Communists do not step in and take the responsibility.

The above is a school of thought typical of those who believe in quick returns and quicker results and if things do not turn out as they expect they feel disappointed and assume a fatalistic outlook. They are the victims of illusions.

Now Mr.Sabharwal to show his desire that India should go the communist way has raised a few questions. It passes one’s comprehension how your reader could possibly think of cutting away from the democratic world and aligning with the communist world. What motivated your reader to advance such opinions? His line of argument is something like this. Capitalists (and only they mind you) all over the world, your reader supposes, hold sacred to their hearts the theme that people should be kept suppressed so that they may not become a menace to their interests. As if, the capitalists are the rulers and the common people are the ruled in the democratic world. And again the people are suppressed in the capitalistic countries in the name of Red baiting. According to your reader’s implication people in the communist world are free from suppression and enjoy all the privileges of freedom far better than their counter parts in the non-communist world. Their only aim in life is to rebuild their shattered economies. Your reader conveniently forgets the hard facts.

In America people live and lead a prosperous life and they have full freedom of speech and expression. Any person, not excluding a foreigner can air his or her views derogatory or appreciative. There is no bar even to a foreigner enjoying the hospitality of that country to say what he thinks good or bad. The recent case of Shri Bharathan Kumarappa from our own country is an instance in point. But do you think such a situation exists in the communist world? Even their own countrymen would not speak let alone criticize, in bad terms, their Government. Except what we get in the bookstalls as official literature straight from the publicity department of Kremlin what other source of information you have to know about Russia and her people? If there is no suppression of views or if there is complete freedom of thought in Soviet Russia, why should there be a curtaining of what happens in the communist world?

It must be with the background of these facts that one should attempt to put a case for closer alliance with this or that country. We do not hate Communists as such nor should we hate our western friends. We want peaceful co-existence.

Let us not be unfriendly to anybody. We are in the camp of justice and peace. Let us act towards that end.