India Wins Freedom - pg. 77

I may also mention that Jawaharlal has always been more moved by international considerations than most Indians. He has looked at all questions from an international rather than a national point of view. I also shared his concern for the international issues, but to me the question of India's independence was paramount. I preferred the democracies to the fascist powers but I could not forget that, unless the democratic principle was applied to India's case, all professions of democracy sounded hollow and insincere. I also remembered the course of events since the First World War. Britain had then declared that she was fighting German imperialism to protect the rights of the smaller nations. When the United States entered the War, President Wilson formulated his Fourteen Points and pleaded for the self-determination of all nations. Nevertheless the rights of India were not respected. Nor were the Fourteen Points ever applied to India's case. I, therefore, felt that all talk about the democratic camp was meaningless unless India's case was seriously considered. I made all these points in an interview I gave to the News Chronicle about a week later in Calcutta.