On this day 55 years ago, India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru died of a heart attack. He had spoken to an American journalist on a range of issues a few weeks earlier. This is what he said about Pakistan.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I happen to be popular in Pakistan.
00:03Four people, four parties, and a girl, a kid.
00:06My mother came from Pakistan.
00:08Her relationship with my son-in-law is very long.
00:11I tend to go into Pakistan many times.
00:15In Pakistan, you should just have a normal declaration of love and marriage.
00:20I don't know, I suppose, I think that over there, you see,
00:23having a normal declaration means freezing the situation as it is.
00:27We have done that, but nothing else shows me.
00:30We go on discussing it.
00:32We have not solved it by war.
00:34Is there any problem?
00:36We go on discussing any problem we may have.
00:39We have come to decisions about it.
00:42In other words, how can you simply put together the new election?
00:45It's what one can think.
00:47Earlier, when they did, they were the majority.
00:50Well, then, what is Pakistan now?
00:52One can think of it all the way together.
00:54I think of the Muslims coming together.
00:57They are trying to diminish, I can't think of all these people.
01:00They do not have objections to partition.
01:02Partition is an extraordinary thing.
01:05It separates the families.
01:08Now, there are plenty of people in India.
01:12All their relatives are on the other side, and vice versa.
01:16We have ambassadors, foreign ambassadors.
01:19Muslims are their ambassadors abroad.
01:21Their brothers are ambassadors of Pakistan.
01:24They are only two.
01:26You see the flags.
01:27Some generals here.
01:28Their brothers are cousins on the other side.
01:30It is a religious concept.
01:33We want a new thing.
01:36The Hindus were not.
01:38They are not.
01:39They are consolidating.
01:41Peace.
01:44They didn't care very much.
01:45They are a party, aren't they?
01:48All the Muslims were keen on consolidating and getting converts.
01:57In fact, one of the many Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus.
02:05The only hand that came from outside.
02:08In Pakistan, we have to defence and to co-operate as independent countries.
02:15Because remember that throughout history, the area that is Pakistan, much of it, was not a separate country.
02:25South India was.
02:26But now in Pakistan, geographically, historically, linguistically, in the same language as we have here,
02:35culturally, there are so many common things.
02:39And it is just foolish, this tension to continue between the two of us.
02:47I think it is bound to go down.
02:49Because in any way, from the people's point of view, there is not too much tension.
02:55There are people who are there.
02:56There are some who are there.
02:57There are some who are there.
02:58They talk about all the things.
03:00And over there, it is more a political thing at the top.
03:08For more UN videos visit www.un.org