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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 12. 1964.

Coexistence

Coexistence

Overriding all other objects of Indian policy is that of peaceful coexistence. Nehru was not interested in war except in very limited circumstances, for peace served his interests best. India was, and is dependent on foreign investment for economic development. Aside from international lending agencies, this foreign investment comes from the USA. Russia, and Britain—the three countries most likely to be involved in any world war. War would cut off completely this flow of capital, and India's great leap forward would limp painfully to a halt. Nehru's chief aim therefore was to preserve world peace.

Perhaps the clearest statement of Nehru's creed of peace is contained in the preamble to the Sino-lndian Agreement on Tibetan trade, 1954, in which he and Chou En-Lai put forward the Panch Shila, or five principles for the promotion of international peace. They are:
(1)Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
(2)Non-aggression.
(3)Non-interference in one another's internal affairs.
(4)Equality and mutual advantage.
(5)Peaceful coexistence and economic co-operation.

While one cannot answer for Mr. Chou's motives, these principles were an undoubted assertion of Nehru's faith in fundamental human goodness—faith which lay at the very heart of all his actions, at home or abroad.

It was Nehru's aim to encourage other nations to subscribe to these principles, thus widening the area of peace and lessening the chances of international conflict. Several Asian countries have in fact done so among them Laos. The Panch Shila are a logical continuation of Gandhi's independence-winning technique of satyagraha or nonviolent non-co-operation, which in its turn was a natural outgrowth of the innately peaceful philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism.