Nehru: A Foreigner Who Visited Keio University

2016/03/03

On the afternoon of October 7, 1957 (Showa 32), the hill of Mita was enveloped in an unusual excitement. The plaza in front of the Old Library was filled to capacity with Keio students. They numbered approximately 6,000. It was literally a crowd so dense that one could not move. When that figure appeared on the balcony of the second floor of the library, a storm of cheering and applause broke out.

There stood Jawaharlal Nehru, the leader of Asia and Prime Minister of India. Standing 178 centimeters tall and dressed in black attire, he wore a white, cylindrical hat with a flat top known as a Nehru hat. Just before this speech, Nehru had been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Keio University at the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall).

As Prime Minister Nehru stood before the microphone, the enthusiastic crowd suddenly fell silent. "President, respected professors, young men and women students," Prime Minister Nehru began, and the audience hung on his every word. Although Prime Minister Nehru's speech was short—only about ten minutes—his voice alone echoed across the hill of Mita. Prime Minister Nehru spoke to the Keio students.

You are the Japan of tomorrow, and among you are those who will carry on your shoulders the great responsibility for this country and the world. ("Address by Indian Prime Minister Nehru—Youth is the Japan of Tomorrow," Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press) No. 574, December 1957)

Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889, into a wealthy Brahmin family in Allahabad, northern British India. His father, Motilal Nehru, was a lawyer and a member of the Indian National Congress, known as a patriot of the independence movement. Despite his youth, the Boer struggle against the British in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) and Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) were events that made the young Nehru dream strongly of Indian independence.

After moving to England in 1905, Nehru studied natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1910. He then studied law at the Inns of Court School of Law and qualified as a barrister in 1912. Returning to India that year, Nehru threw himself into the movement of the National Congress, just as his father had.

Nehru's nationalist movement can be described as his activities within the National Congress. In particular, his collaboration with Mahatma Gandhi, who returned to India in 1915, was a major achievement in charting the path to Indian independence. In the 1920s, he developed Satyagraha (non-violent civil disobedience), and after declaring "Purna Swaraj" (complete self-rule) at the Lahore session of the National Congress in December 1929, the nationalist movement of the early 1930s became the period of the so-called Second Non-Cooperation Movement. During this time, Nehru was imprisoned several times for leading radical movements. From the late 1930s onward, Nehru served as President of the National Congress and envisioned the path to India's independence while assessing the situation in a war-torn Europe.

When India achieved independence from Britain in 1947, Nehru became the first Prime Minister and concurrently served as Minister of External Affairs. From this point, he embarked on the construction of the nation of India. Politically, he experienced the bitter event of the partition and independence of Pakistan. Domestically, he introduced a democratic political system, and since then, India has become the world's largest democracy. By ensuring that the National Congress held a majority in parliament, he established a dominant-party system. Furthermore, from 1951, he launched economic development policies through Five-Year Plans. This was an import-substitution industrialization policy in which the public sector managed key industries and protected domestic industries.

Nehru's diplomacy was one of non-alignment and neutrality. In 1954, he established the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. The following year, at the Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, Nehru stood alongside Zhou Enlai, President Sukarno of Indonesia, and President Nasser of Egypt to advocate anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism, successfully adopting the Ten Principles of Peace. It was a moment that demonstrated to the world the stance of emerging Asian and African nations seeking a third way under the Cold War. It was a new diplomatic stance that involved contributing to the realization of world peace while prioritizing national interests.

Nehru solidified the political and economic foundations of India as an emerging nation. With these achievements in domestic and foreign policy, Nehru set foot on Japanese soil as a state guest in October 1957.

Prime Minister Nehru arrived in Japan on October 4, 1957, and stayed until the 13th of the same month. Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi had visited India in May of that year, and the visit was realized after Prime Minister Nehru expressed his intention to visit Japan at that time. During his stay in Japan, Nehru met with Japanese dignitaries such as Prime Minister Kishi and Aiichiro Fujiyama, and visited various parts of Japan including Hiroshima, Nara, and Kyoto. At the meetings, views were exchanged on international issues such as disarmament and the prohibition of nuclear testing, and the need to promote trade and economic cooperation between Japan and India was discussed. A joint communique was issued on October 13 ("Diplomatic Records Q&A: Postwar Showa Period").

During Prime Minister Nehru's stay in Japan, two events occurred that were unusual for a state guest. One was an anecdote regarding an Indian elephant at the Ueno Zoo. In 1949, in response to a request from elementary school students in Tokyo, Prime Minister Nehru had gifted an Indian elephant to the Ueno Zoo. Furthermore, the elephant was named "Indira" after his daughter. Clearing his busy schedule, Prime Minister Nehru met Indira for the first time on October 8. The other was the guard of honor performed by the Special Guard of Honor within the Ground Self-Defense Force. The first guard of honor was performed for Prime Minister Nehru.

Nehru was a writer as well as a political activist. There are as many as 14 of his works translated into Japanese, spanning from the war years to the postwar period. Among them, the one that most clearly expresses his worldview is "Glimpses of World History (8 volumes)" (Misuzu Shobo, new edition published in 2002).

This book was written between November 1930 and August 1933, during the periods when Nehru was periodically imprisoned for his political activities during the British colonial era. It is a collection of letters addressed to his only daughter, Indira, who was in her early teens at the time.

In the letter "A New Year's Gift" (New Year's Day, 1931) included in the first volume, "The Birth and Ups and Downs of Civilization," Nehru's perception of history is brilliantly condensed.

I think it is a very dull thing to see boys and girls often studying the history of only one country, and doing so by memorizing a few dates and a few events by heart. Since history is a single, coherent whole, if you do not know what happened elsewhere, you will not be able to understand the history of any country. I hope that you will not study history in a narrow way, confined to one or two countries, but will study the whole world. Always keep in mind that there are not as great differences between various peoples as we imagine (p. 21).

Contained here is the argument that studying history means understanding the footsteps of the world rather than the history of a single nation, and keeping an eye on global trends. However, Nehru tells Indira that simply studying history is not enough.

It is a pleasure to read history. But what is even more fascinating and interesting is to participate in the making of history. And as you know, history is being made right now in our country (p. 19).

This is the essence of the historical view of Nehru, who was a fighter for independence. He was truly a subject who created history. Inheriting the will of Prime Minister Nehru, who fell ill in 1964 with his goals half-achieved, his daughter Indira Gandhi became the 5th Prime Minister (1966–77) and 8th Prime Minister (1980–84), and his grandson Rajiv Gandhi became the 9th Prime Minister (1984–89). The family that devoted itself to the development of India is called the "Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty."

Prime Minister Nehru's public speaking had the power to move people. In fact, more than 30 years after the speech, the Keio students who had gathered on the hill of Mita at that time were bearing responsibility for the future of Japan.

One was Ryutaro Hashimoto. Hashimoto served as Prime Minister for two and a half years starting in 1996. Amidst the unstable political and economic situation in Japan following the collapse of the 1955 System, Hashimoto boldly steered the administration. At the time of that speech, Hashimoto was a student in the Faculty of Law, Department of Political Science, and a member of the Athletic Association Kendo Club. In February 2000, invited to India as a Senior Diplomatic Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hashimoto recalled being moved by Prime Minister Nehru's speech, which was visionary in its appeal for harmony between nationalism and global humanism ("Lessons of the 20th Century and Visions for the 21st Century").

The other was Saburo Matsumoto. At the time, Matsumoto was a first-year student in the Doctoral Programs, aspiring to study Asian international relations under Professor Shudo Hanai of the Faculty of Law. Prime Minister Nehru's speech defined Matsumoto's life as a researcher. Until then, he had been studying international relations in the Middle East and Arab world, but this speech triggered his immersion into the study of India's neighborhood diplomacy, which later developed into Southeast Asian studies. Matsumoto became a faculty member of the Keio Faculty of Law in 1962, served as Vice-President during the tenure of President Tadao Ishikawa, and served as the 6th President of the National Defense Academy from 1993 to 2000. Matsumoto was entrusted with preparing Japan's national defense after the Cold War.

I have succeeded Matsumoto and am in charge of Southeast Asian studies at the Faculty of Law. I heard about the scene of Prime Minister Nehru's speech many times from the late Professor Matsumoto. Prime Minister Nehru's speech strongly impressed upon us the arrival of the era of Asia.

Sixty years have passed since then, and Asia is leading the world. At the same time, it is certain that the 21st century is an uncertain era. How many young people who "participate in the making of history" will graduate from among the Keio students living in this era?