Talks With Nehru: A Discussion Between Jawaharlal Nehru and Norman Cousins

John Day. $2.00

This meaty little book, a transcript of a tape recording of 150 minutes of conversation between the Prime Minister of India and the editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, is continuously intelligent and frequently illuminating. It is a dialogue that, on the whole, is heartening because of its civilized tone, its human decency, and its candor. Candor, one hastens to add, as between two people; the Prime Minister is, after all, a powerfully public figure. For example, he expresses sorrow at the fate of Czechoslovakia but he avoids what appears to he an ineluctable conclusion that Communism will devour democracy the first, chance it gets.

To Mr. Cousins’s intelligent questions on democracy, the role of the state, India, China, the UN, Mr. Nehru replies with a moral seriousness and simplicity that establishes him as unique on all the Capitol Hills of the world. The Prime Minister appears strongest on interrogations concerning democracy and the rights of the individual; weakest on the subject of Stalinist communism, mainly because he fails, or does not wish, to understand the nature of the revolution that has taken place in Russia since 1930. Nevertheless this brief exchange s a strong document. It helps us to understand India’s moral aspirations and political techniques, undeniably a precondition for an alliance with India and, ultimately, with peace.