End of Panch Shila

The ancient Buddhist principle of Panch Shila has supposedly governed India's relations with Red China since the signing of a 1954 trade pact. Based on the five great moral principles guiding the lives of all Buddhist laity,* Panch Shila was expected to guarantee each country's territorial integrity, nonaggression, noninterference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. But last week events made sharply obvious what had been apparent for a long time: Panch Shila's use as the guiding force in India's China policy is, as the Indian Express put it, "dead as the dodo." Not dead but severely damaged was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's claim to a special neutralist magic in his dealings with Communism.

Hindi Chini, Bye-Bye. The situation erupted over Red China's latest violation of the 2,000-mile-long Sino-Indian frontier. Since the signing of the 1954 pact, the Red Chinese have again and again penetrated Indian territory. Red China does not recognize the 1914 McMahon line, which fixed India's Tibetan border in the North-East Frontier Agency, claims that the actual frontier runs 100 miles south of the present line on the south slope of the Himalayas. Two years ago, Red China occupied 12,000 sq. mi. of Indian territory in Kashmir, has laid claim to an additional 39,000 sq. mi. along India's northern frontier. Recently the Chinese Communists established new border outposts at Nyagzu and Dambuguru in Ladakh province. The newest aggression was too much for Nehru's opposition.

His critics scored Nehru last week for his faith in the slogan Hindi Chini bhai bhai ("Indians and Chinese are brothers"), the talk of ancient cultural ties, and the fact that India and China had not been at war with each other for 1,000 years. But they pointed out that the millennium of peace was also a period during which the two countries had scant contact of any kind, knew nothing of each other, had little in common. By their dogged reliance on Panch Shila in the face of Red China's repeated aggressions, said Socialist Leader Asoka Mehta in Parliament, Nehru and Defense Minister Krishna Menon created a false atmosphere of confidence in the Red Chinese and a "miasma of misunderstanding that is even today hindering us and creating a situation of a patient suffering from shock."

Recalling that Menon had described the latest border violations as a "stab in the back," Mehta demanded: "When did you realize this? Did you realize it only the day before yesterday? If you realized it earlier, why didn't you make it known to the country?" Socialist Acharya Kripalani joined the broadside, charged that India's border forces were under "absolute orders" from Menon not to attempt to stop any Red Chinese border incursions.

Himalayas in the Heart. Answering the attacks, Nehru rambled on, by turns firm and foggy. He blamed himself for misreading Red China's intentions, admitted that he had "trusted--'trusted' is perhaps not the right word--thought that the Chinese would not function as they did later." Rejecting Red China's claim to the southern slope of the Himalayas, Nehru won cheers by declaring: "The Himalayas are not only a part of our territory; they are a part of our hearts and mind."

India, said Nehru, would not be bullied by the Red Chinese. He revealed that in a note from Peking, Red China had issued a veiled threat to India that it might send troops across the frontier. India, said Nehru, would "resist and repel" such measures. "I do not rule out war," he told the Parliament. "We are friendly with every country in the world. But we will fight with China. My desire is to avoid it but not to submit as well. If we have to take such a step, we will take it." But, he added, "I am free to confess to this house that my soul reacts against war anywhere. That is the training I received throughout my life, and I cannot easily get rid of it at the age of 72." In typical phraseology, he added: "We will be able to get this aggression vacated, through pressure and other things, without getting the whole world involved in war."

Colonial Pimple. Nehru's new muscle tone was immediately attacked by Peking as fulfilling the "needs of U.S. imperialism." Calling Nehru a liar, an official editorial charged that Nehru's "anti-Chinese" campaign was "inseparably connected with U.S. 'assistance' to India"--in short, that Nehru was only paying back a debt.

On the defensive on the northern frontier, India was on the offensive against the tiny, 456-year-old Portuguese colony of Goa, 1,300 miles to the southwest. Hopefully trying to scare the Portuguese colonial authorities into going home, Nehru had massed Indian army regulars on the Goa border. "Goa is a constant irritant," said Nehru. "It must come to India." The situation in Goa, he declared, was "intolerable." Actually Goa (1,300 sq. mi.) was only, as Nehru once said, a pimple on the face of India, embarrassing because it was still a colonial territory on the Indian subcontinent. But the pimple had become a boil. "We have always been exceedingly reluctant to solve problems by use of force,'' said Nehru. "But there can be only one solution of the Goa problem. The Portuguese must walk out."

*Not to destroy life, not to take what is not given to one, not to lie, not to take intoxicants, not to be incontinent.

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