INDIA: The Shade of the Big Banyan

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Astride shaggy ponies, a file of 24 Indian border police moved carefully along a mountain valley high in the Himalayas. Late in the afternoon, at a spot 45 miles from the Tibetan frontier, one of the policemen pointed out several wood and dirt bunkers built into the hillside 500 ft. above them. Suddenly, the thin, cold mountain air crackled with the discharge of rifles, hand grenades and 2-in. mortars. Scrambling from their rearing ponies, the Indians unslung their .303 rifles and returned the fire. But they were hopelessly trapped: the barren terrain lacked trees or boulders to give them cover, and they were being raked by crossfire. Only five Indians escaped. Nine were killed and ten wounded by the Red Chinese troops who had staged the ambush.

This murderous skirmish last October in the windswept wastes of Ladakh province may have done more than anything else to bring Asia to what Jawaharlal Nehru calls "one of those peak events in history when a plunge has to be taken in some direction." The gunfire in Ladakh echoed through India. Instead of shouts of "Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai!" (India and China are brothers). New Delhi's streets resounded with the clamor, "Give us arms! We will go to Ladakh!" The Red Chinese embassy was stoned, the All-India Students' Congress called for a "Throw Back the Aggressors Day," and India's Defense Minister made a radio appeal for volunteers for the Territorial Army. Even the normally pro-Communist weekly Blitz headlined: GIVE THE CHINESE A BLOODY NOSE.

India felt both angry and alone. The ruthlessness of Red China's behavior made a wreckage of some cherished convictions. There was no longer confidence that 1) Asian solidarity, created at the Bandung Conference, would outlaw the use of force, 2) Indian neutrality and nonalignment with "military blocs" would gradually lead the Communist and non-Communist worlds to mutual understanding, 3) the repeated pledges of "peaceful coexistence" by Peking meant that Red China was worthy of joining the U.N. The national disillusionment was so great that even Prime Minister Nehru took off his rose-colored glasses, looked hard at his giant neighbor to the north, and told the Indian Parliament: "I doubt if there is any country in the world that cares less for peace than China today."

Threatened by a war it was not prepared for, India this week looked forward eagerly to the arrival of touring President Dwight Eisenhower. Indians appreciated the fact that of the eleven countries Ike is visiting, he will spend more time in India—four days—than in any of the others.