"I have some knowledge of the way the Nazi movement developed in Germany. It attracted by its superficial trappings and strict discipline considerable numbers of lower middle class young men and women who are normally not too intelligent
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and for whom life appeared to offer little to attract them. And so they drifted towards the Nazi party because its policy and programme, such as they were, were simple, negative and did not require an active effort of the mind.
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The Nazi party brought Germany to ruin and I have little doubt that if these increase in India, they would do enormous injury to India. No doubt India would survive. But she would be grievously wounded and would take a long time to recover."___Jawaharlal Nehru.
" Sir, may I associate with what you have said? It is customary in this House to pay some tribute to the eminent departed, to say some words of praise and condolence.
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I am not quite sure in my own mind if it is exactly fitting for me or for any others of this House to say much on this occasion for I have a sense of utter shame both as an individual and as head of the government of India that
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we should have failed to protect the greatest treasure we possessed. It is our failure in the past many months, to give protection to many an innocent man, woman and child.
The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the Father of the Nation, is no more.
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Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will never see him again as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not to me only, but to millions and millions in this country.
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And it is a little difficult to soften the blow by any other advice that I or anyone else can give you.
The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light.
" Communalism is neither good religion nor good politics. Communalism has caused damage to the country in the past.
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Therefore, we must understand that all those who live in this country, irrespective of their religion and the province to which they belong,
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have eq ual rights and that suppression of any one of them by the others, by law or by tradition, is wrong because it harms the nation and weakens it. So the basic policies we may formulate , is the unity of the country, regional and religious unity."~Jawaharlal Nehru
" When I talk about an independent foreign policy for India, other people talk about the neutral attitude of India. I object to the word "neutral" . We are not neutral.
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We have positive ideas . When we talk of an independent foreign policy for India, some countries criticize it and do not understand it. They ask " what is this"? Yet, in the final analysis, what does an independent policy for India mean?
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It means refusal to be pushed about by others this way or that way. It means deciding what you want to do yourself.
"Communal organisations are the clearest example of extreme narrowness of outlook, strutting about in the guise of nationalism. In the name of unity, they separate and destroy. In social terms they represent the reaction of the worst type.
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We may condemn these communal organisations, but there are many others who are not free from this narrow influence.
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Oddly enough, the very largeness of India, which is a word in itself , tends to make the people living in it complacent, rather ignorant of the rest of the world, and narrow minded. We have to contend against these forces."~Jawaharlal Nehru.
"...I see also something that pains me greatly. I see poverty. I see little children, the lovely and beautiful children of India, without food, sometimes without clothing, without proper shelter, education and health care,
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and I feel very angry if even one single child of India should suffer so. Every child of India has a right to demand that the necessities of life should be given to it, that a full opportunity of growing up properly must be provided for.
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Looking at this picture, I grow impatient and a little angry at myself and others, that we progress so slowly. Why can we not tackle these problems of poverty and unemployment more speedily?