Abhinandan Granth (English Article)

In assessing Asia the West must recognise that the vast majority of Asian intellectuals and leaders are not anti-capitalist and anti-Communist, much like the men and women in the Soviet satellite countries behind the iron curtain who rebel against the tyranny of the Kremlin. Neither poli­tically, economically nor socially do the satellite countries want the clock put back by exchanging one master for another. Their attitude is curiously similar to that of Asian countries, for like them they feel that their underdeveloped and un­balanced economies can be best expanded and enlarged by a form of socialist, planning, while individual freedom can again be most effectively preserved in the form of democratic socialism. Like many Asian countries they also incline to a policy of non-alignment. They want to be left in peace and to live in peace with everyone.

Here is in Asia the task of the West, if the world is to be made safe for democracy, is to help the people to help themselves; for just as Asia's hungry masses can only achieve better living standards through their own efforts aided technically and economically by the West, so also the captive peoples behind the iron curtain know that freedom must be won primarily from within. As in Asia also, the vacuum created by the with­drawal of an over-riding power in Eastern Europe can only be filled effectively not by another power stepping in but by the peoples of these regions organising themselves.