Smt. Indira Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s illustrious daughter and the charismatic leader of the people of India, was a dedicated crusader for international Peace and Brotherhood. The concept of one world and one people was the abiding principle in all her foreign policy pronouncements. India’s policy under her stewardship was to consolidate friendship where it existed and to build bridges of understanding and interest where there was indifference or even hostility. The endeavour was to enlarge areas of cooperation with other nations through collaboration and friendship rather than by competition and rivalry. Solutions to bilateral problems were sought through discussions, avoiding recourse to armaments. The Simla Pact and other bilateral agreements with our neighbours for regional cooperation and harmony remain shining examples of the urge for peace and understanding that has marked Smt. Gandhi’s policies. Smt. Gandhi believed that the achievements of Peace were more glorious than the laurels of war.
Under her inspiring leadership, India’s voice for sanity and peace in the troubled areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America was heard with respect and India’s advice was sought by anxious nations for lessening international tensions.
Smt. Indira Gandhi spoke for the developing countries and as Chairperson of the Non- Aligned Movement, she tried to ease world conflict and bring warring nations to a common platform for discussion and settlement of mutual problems. Under her leadership, India’s voice for Peace was a voice for survival. She believed that India’s peace was not due to any superior virtue but because peace is indispensable for progress. Ether, the world progresses towards non-violence or rushes to its doom.
In her keynote address at the Session of the 20th Anniversary of the First Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Countries at New Delhi in February 1981, Smt. Gandhi quoted the famous poetess Sarojini Naidu, who said, "True peace is net the peace of negation, not the peace of surrender, not the peace of the coward, not the peace of the dying, not the peace of the dead, but the peace militant, dynamic, creative: the human spirit which exalts."
It was indeed a sombre omen for international polity that a frail woman who steadfastly strove for - world peace should have herself fallen victim to terrorism. The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, always emphasised that wrong means do not lead to right ends.
Our world is getting increasingly turbulent and insecure. International economic relations continue to be characterised by inequality, domination and exploitation. Deployment of force has become a familiar international occurrence. Peace is in peril, even when we know that there can be survival and development only in peace and in an atmosphere of good-will among Nations.
Disarmament, Peace, Independence and Development are closely interrelated. There can be no peace alongside nuclear weapons. The desire for peace is universal, fortunately, even within the countries which themselves produce weapons of unimaginable destruction.
Like righteousness, peace protects us, when Peace needs to be tended and safeguard, we protect it.
Smt. Gandhi believed that, only with coexistence can there be existence. This perhaps was the spirit behind all her endeavours. Blessed indeed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Smt. Gandhi did not just preach Peace, she practised it.
The Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department pays its homage to a World Leader and Statesman, Smt. Indira Gandhi : Crusader for World Peace.
Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India