past, but this time it did not. During the conflict, the non-aligned
movement did not particularly back India – only Ethiopia and Cyprus
explicitly did so, and the rest reserved judgement. The Soviet Union
again advised negotiations, and on October 24 China renewed its offer
of negotiations without preconditions and of a ceasefire and withdrawal of
troops on both sides. This was rejected by India, but Nehru’s tone was
noticeably gentler than before (he could not rely at this point on effective
Soviet intervention; Russia was busy elsewhere, with the Cuban missile
crisis from October 14).
A nationalist hysteria gripped India, with unparalleled outpourings of
emotion and collective solidarity visible in large numbers of students
volunteering to join the army and fight the invaders. The ultra-nationalist
hysteria now also began to take an explicitly Hindu tone, with various
public speakers and pamphleteers resorting to mythological analogies
of Indian invincibility and strength. Chinese shops and shopowners were
attacked in Delhi and Calcutta. Alongside these were organised and
unorganised attacks on Communist Party of India offices across the
country. The hysteria reached government departments: Indian citizens
of Chinese origin were interned and later expelled to China. This was a
complete destruction of one of Nehru’s central principles – which he had
so successfully maintained by refusing to equate Pakistanis and Muslims,
offering the latter the full protection of Indian citizenship.
It was now that Nehru discovered an unlikely ally: the Communist
Party of India. Themselves placed in an awkward situation, the CPI
backed the Indian ‘response’ to Chinese ‘aggression’ and fell back on a
version of nationalism themselves. Many at the time called for the arrest
of communists and the suppression of the CPI. It was therefore necessary
to support the war, as communists were always vulnerable to the charge
of being anti-national, because internationalist. Among communists,
therefore, there was much talk of the ‘nation’, even the ‘motherland’, and
the need for unity despite political differences. The CPI reiterated its
commitment to non-alignment despite some Congressmen wishing to
abandon it. (Non-CPI members could shout ‘1942’ in the House as a
response.) Before an audience of alleged socialists and progressives, the CPI
also backed Nehru; they listed his achievements and his progressive
credentials – the Panch Sheelin 1954 (which even Nehru was less keen on
being reminded of at this juncture); Bandung 1955; his anti-imperialist
credentials denouncing aggression in Egypt (Suez 1956); his acclamation
HIGH NEHRUVIANISM AND ITS DECLINE, c. 1955–63 247