One Life is Not Enough

by K. Natwar Singh

In October 1954, the Prime Minister visited China, and was welcomed in Peking by a million people lined up on both sides of the road as Pandit Nehru and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai drove by in an open car. Pandit Nehru genuinely thought that it was a spontaneous and popular welcome. The fact is that it was organized spontaneity. If the Chinese government had so decided, not a single person would have been on the roads. In later years, when I read the record of the talks, it became clear that there was no real meeting of minds and, most importantly, the border question, too, was not raised. On his return, Pandit Nehru stopped in Calcutta. The first letter he wrote on his China experience was to Edwina Mountbatten, and shared with her the content of his discussions with the Chinese leaders. Strictly speaking, this was against the oath of secrecy he had taken. At the time, of course, no one knew of this letter, and only came to light later when his selected works, edited by S. Gopal, were published.