SARVEPALLI RADHAKRISHNAN'S SPEECH AT THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT DINNER, LANCASTER HOUSE, LONDON ON 20TH JUNE, 1963.

Mr. Prime Minister and friends: I am moved by the very generous and warm words which you have just expressed, Mr. Prime Minister, about the relations of our two countries, as grown over the last two hundred years or so, and never were these relations more close and intimate than they happen to be today. We remember the days when over two millions of our troops came to these different parts of the world in the last World War, and we remember with gratitude the single sentence which you uttered in the House of Commons when you heard about our conflict with China - "Britain will do everything to assist India". That one statement gave so much cheer and heart to the people of India when they were in trouble and difficulties. After all, India itself is a multi-religious entity, and it was when you left us and gave us power, a going concern; the result is that today 450 million people spread over the vast continent from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin are bound together under a single administration, with a great deal of political stability as also a sense of belonging to one country. That is in itself an achievement of which not we only, an Army and your system of law, the democratic institutions of independent judiciary - polling booths, elections, etc. Three elections we had, in 1952, 1957 and 1962, and for the 1962 elections we had 220 million people on the rolls and 120 million actually voted and the voting took place smoothly without any disturbance, without any kind of bad blood or bitterness.
And we have sometimes to take harsh steps. This conflict with China put our democratic machinery to the test and it has survived. It has stood the test properly, and we are still working within the framework of democratic institutions. They have taken deep root in the country, and there is no doubt that every attempt to impose any kind of totalitarianism will be resisted by all the people of India. It has entered into our bloodstream, and whenever we are in trouble - including myself as the Chairman of the Upper House - we refer to May's Parliamentary Practice as our guide; and the Constitution itself says when there is nothing specific mentioned here the procedure of the British House of Commons is to be taken as the valid authority.
I am saying that India is a multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-cultural country, bound together in one whole. So is the British Commonwealth. You have different races, different cultures, different religions, spread over continents, and if we are not to overlook the lessons of the past and if in the future we have to resist all these threats, menacing threats of nuclear weapons, etc., this Commonwealth should be a prelude to a world commonwealth, where all the nations can work together as free, co-operating units in the world. In other words, a family of free nations. I say this because I knew that even the so-called Communist systems are moving away from their fixed points of view. I remember a statement made by Mr. Stalin to Mr. Roosevelt's book: "In 30 years' time", Stalin told Rossevelt, "we will move from where we are and you will move from where you are, and we will approximate to each other". That is what Mr. Stalin told Mr. Roosevelt in 1942-43 and they are moving. When Mr. Krushchev said "we have a great deal to learn from capitalists", when he made out that compromise is the essence of Soviet policy: when in spite of all the difficulties in Cuba, Berlin, etc., no outbreak of hostilities has taken place, it shows the instinct for survival is stronger than even love of power. And I have seen several illustrations of the way in which the Soviet people are able to laugh at themselves. I talked with Bertrand Russell this evening and I told him a story which Krushchev gave to a london audience. He said: "I went to a Kolkhoz and asked a student, 'Who wrote Anna Karenina?' The student shivered, didn't know what to say, and then said, 'I did not write it'. He took hold of the teacher and asked him: "What kind of instruction do you give to your pupils?" Three days later, the teacher came forward and said, "He now confesses that he wrote it". I want to tell you that when one can laugh at oneself in that way it shows there is hope and one is aware of the difficulties through which one's system is passing.
I saw also a reported interview between your Foreign Secretary, Lord Home, and Mr. Gromyko, reported in the Sunday Times. The question was asked there again, "We want to know, Mr. Gromyko, whether a noise which comes from your country is diue to your nuclear explosion or Mr. Molotov falling downstairs", and Gromyko's answer was: "Molotov has not any energy left in him, even to fall downstairs". The Radio Yerevan in Soviet Armenia had a quiz hour, and the question was asked, "What is capitalism?" - "Man exploiting man". "what is communism?" - "The opposite of it". Well, I am merely pointing out that the Soviet leaders are prepared to laugh at themselves and have asserted openly that the old theory of the inevitability of conflict between the two systems of capitalism and communism is outdated. It has no meaning, it has no force, it has no significance in this nuclear age, because such a thing will mean the survival of none, and therefore they are also moving, and perhaps what Mr. Stalin told Mr. Roosevelt is not altogether without point. So if once the Indian system of a multi-racial and multi-lingual and multi-religious and multi-cultural country bound together in one whole has given some kind of foretaste of British Commonwealth with its different races, etc., spread over different continents separated by long distances, may it not be our hope, and not merely a futile hope, but a probable hope, that other countries might get into this family of free nations and make the world a safe place for humanity to live in? That is my hope.
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C.S. Chakravarthy
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