November 3, 1948: Jawaharlal Nehru, India, address to the United Nations:
“It is a simple fact which I think we have to remember, because unless you have the full picture of the world before you, you will not even understand the problem, and if you isolate any single problem in the world from the rest, you do not understand the problem. Today I do venture to submit that Asia counts in world affairs. Tomorrow it will count much more than today. Asia till recently was largely a prey to imperial domination and colonialism: and it is an astonishing thing that any country should still remain unfree; and it is an astonishing thing that any country should still venture to hold and to set forth this doctrine of colonialism whether it is under direct rule or whether it is indirectly maintained in some form or other. After all that has happened, there is going to be no mere objection to that, but active objection, an active struggle against any and every form of colonialism in any part of the world. That is the first thing to remember.” [Emphasis mine.]
1955, Bandung Conference, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru: “Europe has got into the habit of thinking, also other great countries in America — whatever their political persuasions may be — that their quarrels are the world’s quarrels and therefore the world must submit to them this way or that way. Well, I do not quite follow that reasoning.”
