Question

Read the speech on Indian Foreign Policy given by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on All India Radio on 7th September 1946 and discuss it in class.

Answer 1

In his All India Radio speech of 7 September 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru outlined the broad direction that independent India should follow in world affairs. He said India should act as an independent nation with its own foreign policy and should not remain a satellite of another country.

The main ideas of the speech were:

1. Independent foreign policy: India should take its own decisions in international affairs.
2. Peace and freedom: India should work for world peace and support freedom everywhere.
3. Avoidance of power blocs: India should stay away, as far as possible, from rival groups of powerful countries. This idea later became important in India’s policy of non-alignment.
4. Opposition to colonialism: India should support the freedom of colonial and dependent countries.
5. Opposition to racial discrimination: Nehru strongly rejected racialism and demanded equal treatment for all peoples.
6. Friendly relations with other nations: India should develop cooperative relations with countries such as the USA, Soviet Union, China and its Asian neighbours.
7. Special importance to Asia: Nehru believed India should develop closer relations with countries of South-East Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and the Arab world.
8. International cooperation: India should work towards a world based on cooperation among free and equal nations. 

Thus, the speech laid down important principles that later shaped Indian foreign policy, especially independence in decision-making, peaceful cooperation, anti-colonialism, racial equality and non-alignment.