INDIA: Call Us Mister

There had been no such excitement since Independence Day in 1947, no such pomp since George V, King and Emperor, summoned the princes of India to pay him homage at a royal durbar in 1911. An army of cosmeticians did over New Delhi. Whitewash and fresh paint suddenly beautified the twelve miles from the airport into the city. Unsightly shacks were torn down, red gravel was spread like rouge over rough paths and disheveled roads, and a multitude of women of low caste swept every inch of the main highway with hand brooms. If the visitors would only visit enough of the city, went a popular quip, New Delhi might quickly lose all its slums.

Red Soviet flags flew everywhere. Street names with an “imperial” flavor were changed, such as Queensway, which became Road of the People. Forty thousand schoolchildren rehearsed for days their roles as spontaneous greeters. Free special trains from the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh poured peasants in to swell the city crowd; other thousands arrived by foot, by bullock cart or by camel.

A season’s harvest of roses, marigolds and other flowers were gathered for the occasion, moving Prime Minister Nehru to warn: “I have myself been repeatedly hurt a bit by the throwing of flowers. I should therefore particularly request that no flowers, garlands or bouquets be thrown at our guests.” The guests-to-be themselves also issued an advance request -they wanted to be addressed as “plain Mister,” would be “satisfied with common dishes,” and wanted to be treated exactly equal.

Smiles & Salutes. Perhaps one million Indians were massed at the airport or lined the twelve-mile route when a twinengined Soviet transport, escorted by eight Indian jets, arrived in Delhi. Out stepped Nikolai Bulganin and waggled a light straw hat. Behind him came Nikita Khrushchev and waggled a light straw hat. A wave of onlookers broke over steel barricades and had to be beaten back by police swinging steel-tipped staves. Garlands formed nooses about the necks of the visitors, and an aimless cheer resolved itself into an intelligible chant, “Nehru! Bulganin! Khrushchev!” The celebrities chatted. Nehru had heard that Bulganin wears a bulletproof vest in public appearances. “I do not,” said Bulganin. “Feel me.” Nehru good-naturedly poked an inquiring finger at the Russian’s chest. Then Bulganin turned to the crowd and raised his hands high in a happy prizefighter’s salute.

Nehru bawled into a microphone in Hindi, “Shut up!” and the crowd obeyed. Said the Premier of Russia: “Long live friendship!” Said the Prime Minister of India: “We are getting to know each other.” Then guests and host piled into a green 1938 Cadillac convertible, once the possession of a maharaja, and rode past the festive, sweets-sucking multitude.

Gesture to Gandhi. The Indian leader, a tough if not ruthless foe of Communists within his own country, spared no effort to make international Communism’s top dogs feel welcome and among friends. He arranged for them 18 days of sightseeing, state banquets, formal receptions, folk festivals.

By now professionals at the rumpled, old-shoe geniality routine, Mister Bulganin and Mister Khrushchev, preceded always by the heavy-footed scuffle of scores of security guards, waved their hats to thousands, dispensed autographs to clusters of children, gaped with tourist-like awe at sights and monuments. At one point, when a crowd sprinkled rose petals on Khrushchev’s bald pate, Bu1ganin happily brushed them off with his wide-brimmed straw. Visiting an ancient observatory, Khrushchev asked for his horoscope, but was told it would take weeks of reading the stars to prepare. With a huge floral wreath, the two went to India’s most important memorial, Raj Ghat, where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. Removing their shoes, they stood at the spot for a silent moment (long enough to reflect, if they remembered at all, that the latest edition of the Big Soviet Encyclopedia calls the saint of India a reactionary who “pretended in a demagogic way” to lead the Indian independence movement).

Crowning a Winner. Later that day, a mass of 200.000 Indians squatted on the ground while Nehru and his Russian guests appeared on a rostrum built in the shape of a white pagoda. To great cheers the Russians raised Nehru’s arm in the manner of a referee crowning a winner. A choir of schoolchildren sang Indians and Russians Are Brothers, written especially for the occasion. From the balcony, Nikolai Bulganin praised the “five principles of coexistence” agreed upon by Nehru and Red China’s Chou Enlai. “We are allies in a great struggle for peace throughout the world,” he told the huge crowd. “We are prepared to share with you our experiences in constructing industrial enterprises and utilizing atomic energy.”

It was Pandit Nehru’s pleasure to reply. Under Gandhi, he had remarked at Moscow, India had followed another path than the Bolshevik one, but “we were influenced by the example of Lenin.” He was plainly moved also by the example of Lenin’s mid-century successors. “Russia and India are coming together,” he said. “The great mountain barrier our guests flew over yesterday in a few hours has ceased to be a wall separating us.”

On the very day Misters Bulganin and Khrushchev got this glowing reception, a message from Nehru arrived in Washington. It was Nehru’s response to a message &f congratulations President Eisenhower had sent him on his 66th birthday, extolling India’s “most successful experiment in democracy.” In reply. Nehru thanked the President as “a great leader of a great nation, who has labored for peace and good will amongst nations and peoples.” Nehru also seized one public occasion to tell Bulganin and Khrushchev that “We are in no camp and no military alliance.” Such statements demonstrated that India’s leader still considered him self to be the leader of a potentially great power exerting its force neutrally between the Communist and Western power blocs.

But these professions hardly matched the ardent public welcome Nehru bestowed on Khrushchev and Bulganin -a performance which, if it did nothing else, could only serve to lend respectability to Russia’s leaders in the eyes of India’s millions.