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India took a long time to recover from the blow to its self-respect, and perhaps it was only the victory over Pakistan in the Bangladesh war, in which China and USA were also supporting Pakistan, that restored the sense of self-worth. Nehru never really recovered from the blow, and his death in May 1964 was most likely hastened by it. Worse, at the pinnacle of his outstanding career, he had to face attacks from political opponents who would never have dared otherwise. He was forced to sacrifice Krishna Menon, his long-time associate and then defence minister. The policy of non-alignment, which he had nurtured with such care, seemed unlikely to be able to withstand the body blow delivered by a friend. The irony was that it was derailed by a socialist country and not by a capitalist power. The Third Plan was badly affected and resources had to be diverted for defence. The Congress lost three parliamentary by-elections in a row and Nehru faced in August 1963 the first no-confidence motion of his life. India’s relations with other countries were powerfully affected by the Chinese attack, as the ‘China factor’ loomed large in foreign policy. The US and the UK had responded positively with help in the crisis, so they could not be shrugged off once it receded. True to form, however, with Pakistani prompting, they tried their best to use India's weakness to get her to surrender on Kashmir, hinting broadly at a quid pro quo by way of military aid, but Nehru managed somehow to withstand the pressure. Nor were these countries willing to really underwrite massive aid in return for abandoning non-alignment. The figures mentioned were in the range of $60-120 million, hardly princely sums! However, there was considerable increase in US influence, especially on military affairs. US intelligence agencies even planted a nuclear-powered device in the Himalayas to monitor Chinese military activities. Nehru, and pushed ahead with military agreements with the Soviets, who actually turned out to be far more willing to give India what she needed in the long-term than the US. Pakistan sidled up to China, and thinking India was truly weakened launched the 1965 war. |
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