India International

Abstract

As momentous as were the unfolding events in the United Nations, they were matched by drama half a world away. For India was decolonizing at precisely the same moment. It was a first in the modern, non-Western world, and heralded a new dawn for many. As the San Francisco Conference highlighted, what happened to India was of concern to peoples all over the globe, particularly people of color and those who remained under colonial control, for they saw it as a harbinger of their own fate. Nehru, more than anyone, was keenly aware of these sentiments, of the great hope that a newly independent India represented, and this redoubled his commitment to global solidarity, to linking what was happening in India with a larger Afro-Asian cause, and to building a more peaceful world for all. For him, India was a template for what could be possible in the new, post-war world. It was a massive, heterogeneous, polyglot of a place, the planet in miniature. If he wanted to realize his dream of semi-sovereign states federated in a global parliament built on human rights, then India had to lead the way.