In active politics, it is unusual to look too far ahead. Even the best of statesmen cannot escape the demands of the immediate present. But the problem facing man being grave, and touching the question of his very survival, there should be fullest thinking and heart-searching. Causes, particularly deeper ones, that make for war and tension should be discussed and efforts made for their elimination.
According to current political thinking in the various chancelleries of the world, the question of peace and war revolves round certain unsolved problems, a lack of agreement on certain ratios of disarmament, particular points of tensions like Indo-China, Korea, Formosa, reunification of Germany and lately Austria. Negotiate some working arrangement on these questions, and peace shall be ours.
This is an inadequate approach based on a shallow understanding. It is dealing with symptoms, not with causes. Important though the above issues are, and though their solution may provide immediate relief, yet they do not touch the fundamentals of the situation.
Twofold Nature of Communism
The real cause of present-day tension and war is Communism. The threat arises from the two-fold nature of Communism. First, Communism presents a lower truth, the truth of the brute in man. It denies God, denies the higher and deeper dynamism in man, denies his more psychic qualities like compassion; charity, dispassion, truth, non-violence. On the contrary, it extols human passions, hatred, violence.
Secondly, Communism is totalitarian. Therefore, even the lower truth it organises on a monolithic principle. The principle of self-restraint was already missing-as that comes from a higher view of man. Institutional checks and balances are also lacking. The combined result of these two forces is that Communism has become a monster, and Moscow has become a center of tyranny and aggression. It keeps its people in isolation and bondage, and the rest of the people nervous and apprehensive. Imposing an iron grip on its own subjects, and a revolt-proof imperialism on the neighbouring countries, it is planning subversion, civil war, strikes and sabotage in other countries. This is the real cause of the present-day tension.
So that the hardened minds and conscience of the Communist rulers may soften; so that man made Iron Curtain may be lifted and God's children delivered from isolation and enabled to meet in a family reunion; so that aggressive preparations of an indoctrinated and irresponsible group may be opposed from within, the free play of ideas, the right of free speech and free organisation should be introduced in the Communist countries. In the cobwebs of darkness and secrecy which breed plots and scheming, irresponsibility and fear, the sunshine of open discussion and free association should be introduced. That is the true way of peace.
Peace in the world depends on freedom in Russia—that is the pivotal truth. For peace in the world, introduce freedom in Russia—that should be our demand.
Conditions of Peace
The following are the conditions of peace and their fulfilment should be demanded at the official level as well as from popular platform:
(1) The right of free speech and free association in Soviet Russia;
(2) The lifting up of the Iron Curtain; freedom of movement, free contact and free flow of ideas;
(3) The restoration of freedom to Russian-held countries;
(4) The disbanding of the Cominform, not sub rosa but in effect;
(5) A progressive delegation of national sovereignty to the UNO and the creation of a world police force. Another aspect of the same is the creation of All-World Organisations with supra-national authority for dealing with specific purposes; and
(6) A program for economic aid to countries with backward economies.
Of the above points, the first is the most important. Unless the principle of opposition is introduced in Communist-held countries, causes of war will not cease. If this condition is fulfilled, the rest will take care of themselves. On the other hand, if this is neglected, other conditions will not avail.
We in India should be able to appreciate this point. Britain had its normal supply of self-interest, normal capacity for cruelty and repression and the will to rule. Yet at no stage could it impose a foolproof system of Fascism. Because of incipient democracy, Indians could organise an opposition which in due course developed into a mighty revolution. This embryonic democracy in India was made possible by democracy in Britain. Rulers in India were afraid of the people of Britain. Because things could be talked in England, protests made, the "tyrannical" in Britain—which is lodged in every heart—was held in leash and could never assume a dimension which, as in Soviet Russia& liquidated whole classes; exiled them wholesale to distant and dreary lands; instituted mutual spying even amongst close friends. British democracy, in saving India from this catastrophe, also saved England from moral degradation. Freedom is doubly blessed. It blesses those who win it and those who give it. The world needs democracy in Russia for itself, for the Russian people and for the Russian rulers.
Internal Regimentation Real Prop of Iron Curtain
Similarly, the internal democratization of Soviet Russia is far more important than the lifting of the Iron Curtain. For clarifying this point let us assume that democracy were introduced in Russia without scrapping the Iron Curtain. Under the new dispensation, human nature being what it is, people inside Russia would voice the same sentiments and ideals as the people outside the Iron Curtain. Being free, they would talk and write what they felt and thought. And thus we should know all we cared to know about the country and its people through its free press, radios and books, even though personal contact with the country Were discouraged.
On the other hand, freer tourist contact with out internal democracy will not help very much. When fear, distrust, spying are universal, people are afraid of expressing their thoughts to each other, let alone of, expressing them to outsiders. What the tourists will meet, as they do now, will be a face with but one expression, one emotion, one mood, one posture that fits in with the latest party line, a collective, chinkless wall-front, a chorus of party-approved slogans and sentiments. All of them will either smile or frown according to party decision. Thus we shall know nothing and shall be able to influence less. Incidentally this is the true nature of the Iron Curtain, It does not consist in the physical barbed wires actually drawn around the country, or in regimented and controlled contact with the rest of the world, but in the curtain of distrust, suspicion and fear drawn between any two citizens of the country, in the controlled thought and expression inside the country. The Iron Curtain outside is maintained, nourished, and even caused by the Iron Curtain inside. Snap the Iron Curtain inside and the Iron Curtain outside will break to pieces automatically,
So the free world should demand freedom for the Russian people. It should do this without heat or hatred, but with firmness and clarity of mind. There is no bellicosity in this demand—it is the foundation of peace. It is not a political demand; it is a deep human obligation which has its bearing on the question of man's survival in body and spirit. Such a condition, if fulfilled, will not only save the world from a physical catastrophe, but it will save the Soviet leaders from moral corruption. What could be more disastrous for a man than slow and silent, but sure and growing, psychological self-brutalisation?
If we face the challenge of war and Communism, both flowing from each other, with calm, firmness, strength, discrimination, and resourcefulness, we shall come out of the ordeal better and purer. God has a way of making evil toe instrument of the good. Who could believe that any good could come out of the hydrogen bomb? Yet it is already making wars obsolete, so much so that a doctrine as committed to the inevitability of war as Communism is giving way under this new deterrence. What pacifist preachings and sentiments of mankind could not achieve in centuries, the hydrogen bomb may achieve in a decade.
In the same way, the challenge of Communism may evoke in free nations a new appreciation of the need to defend their liberties of mind and soul. And thus out of the threat of war and Communism may emerge a world where knowledge is free and men's heads are held high, and where nations unite in new bonds of friendship and understanding