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"A number of small states come in the way of planning, economic advance and the rest. Every major scheme affects more than one or two states...and we have to go through strange devices...to function together...," he said. The reverberations of this observation have been constantly felt, now between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery waters, reveals the recently published 31st volume of the 'Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru'.
According to Nehru, at home, the most important problem for India to face and solve, after achievement of political freedom, was the problem of emotional integration which is not a legal or constitutional matter. The volume, released this year on November 13 to commemorate 112th birth anniversary of India's first Prime Minister, speaks of Nehru's love for books and his desire that they be available to all. Emphasising the growth of libraries throughout the country and larger editions of good and cheap books, Nehru desired that there should be 2,50,000 libraries to cover 5,00,000 villages in India.
In Simla, he gave Rs 10,000 to the policemen and others, Rs 8,000 to the police officers, Rs 2,000 to railway attendants, swords and daggers in gold sheaths to Rajendra Prasad and Nehru, diamond necklaces and wrist watches to Rajendra Prasad's wife and Indira Gandhi, and watches to ministers. Nehru insisted that administrative rules dealing with pensions, extension etc need not be observed in exceptional cases and a brilliant Indian engineer, who was helping Corbusier in Chandigarh project, should be retained. The volume gives the details of Russian leader Nikita Khruschev's India visit in 1955 and his meetings with Nehru.
Khrushev said both he and Russian leader Bulganin did not meet any Indian Communist Party leaders visiting Moscow at that they as they both were on leave. The volume carries the detailed note prepared by Nehru as a backgrounder especially for this conversation. The popular response to the Soviet leaders overwhelmed them as well as Nehru who wrote to Edwina Mountbatten: "This is not for Communism which they (Indian people) know little about, but it represents rather a feeling that the underdog in Russia has done well".
However, the reaction of the American and British press, especially in regard to Kashmir and Goa, distressed Nehru. He wrote to Vijayalakshmi Pandit: "If the British public opinion is important, it might be remembered sometimes that there is such a thing as the Indian public opinion too and it is the latter's opinion that counts in India". (Agencies)
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What is happening today between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery waters, Nehru spoke about it decades back.
Linguistic principle was a low priority for Nehru. "If you succeed in creating the so-called linguistic states now, what will happen ten or twenty years hence?"
"Are you going to stop people from moving from one state to another?...(This movement will) change the linguistic composition of the state."
An interesting subject discussed by Nehru in this volume is the acceptance of gifts from visiting foreign dignitaries. The case in question is the Saudi Arabian King who had been "throwing about money in a fantastic way".
During the visit, Khruschev told Nehru that they had no connection with the Indian Communist Party and knew few Communist leaders in India except some who attended the October 1952 Communist Party Congress.
He recalled that his gardeners "quite unexpectedly came up with a garland to welcome them" when Bulganin and Khrushchev first came to his house at Teen
Murti. Nehru refers to Khrushchev's exuberant public performances, almost propagandist in nature.
