HVK Archives: Nani Palkhivala's statement on United Front
Nani Palkhivala's statement on United Front - Statesman
Nani A Palkhivala
()
May 30th 1996
Title : A state without a nation? - Letters to the Editor
Author : Nani A Palkhivala
Publication : Statesman
Date : 30th May, 1996
SIR, - The paramount need of India is to preserve the unity and
integrity of the country. But it is doubtful whether this mosaic
of humanity will survive unfractured for any length of time. The
very attempt to form a government under the United Front may
entail the disunity of India.
Indian culture, after reaching "the summit of human thought" in
the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, has survived for 5,000 years.
But before 1858 India was never a united political entity. In
that year the accident of British rule welded us into one
country, one nation; and when Independence came, we had been
in
unified nationality for aliriost a century under one Head of
State. The integration of our various communities and castes is
indispensable to our unity.
The nagging question which will not go away is - is India a
collection of communities or is it a nation? In other words, is
India a state without a nation? Unfortunately, the most
pronounced trait of the Indian politician is to put himself
first, his own party second, and his country figures nowhere in
his calculations.
Human memory is proverbially short and most people have already
forgotten the recent incidents in Pakistan and Bangladesh where
the armed forces had to intervene to preserve civil
administration.
General Krishna Rao, the former Chairman af the Chiefs of Staff,
and the present Governor of jammu & Kashmir, published a book
entitled "Prepare or Perish" in 1991. There he quotes the lines
of Rudyard Kipling which" I hope, will always remain engraved on
the mind of every Indian.
Nations have passed away and left no traces,/And History gives
the naked cause of it,/One single, simple reason in all
cases,/They fell because their peoples were not fit.
Yours,
etc., NANI A. PALKHIVALA
Mumbai, May 30.
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