POLICIES & PRINCIPLES: Not Nonviolence But a Sword

India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru does not mind Communists in China or maybe even in Indo-China. But Communists just across the northeast frontier in Nepal—never! Last week Nehru’s Foreign Ministry proclaimed, no doubt for the ears of any Chinese Reds who might be infiltrating through Tibet to Nepal: “A threat to Nepal is a threat to India herself.”

While New Delhi spoke, Nepal’s Prime Minister Maharaja Mohun Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, 64, a devout feudalist,*was journeying from the little Himalayan kingdom (6,000,000 pop.; 54,000 sq. mi.) to republican India. It took him 15 days by foot, horseback and palanquin over windswept ranges to reach an Indian railhead. A special train bore him on to New Delhi, where Nehru waited. In black cap and brown leather churidar, Rana stepped down onto a red carpet. He put his right foot first, to insure an auspicious beginning and end for his visit. Nehru welcomed him with the traditional Indian gesture of clasped hands. Twenty-one guns boomed a salute.

A week-long round of mutual expressions of good will followed the pageantry of welcome. The betrothal of Rana’s granddaughter to a Kashmiri prince was announced. Before going home, the guest of honor will receive a diamond-studded sword from India’s Defense Minister Sardar Baldev Singh—an earnest of more up-to-date military aid to come.

-Nepal’s Prime Ministers are born to their rank, and succession passes from brother to brother and brother to nephew.