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The Possible Caesar. An article in an Indian magazine, the Modern Review, written in 1936, described Nehru in this fashion: "Men like Jawaharlal, with all their capacity for great and good work, are unsafe in a democracy. He calls himself a democrat and a socialist, and no doubt he does so in all earnestness, but every psychologist knows that the mind is ultimately slave to the heart . . . Jawahar has all the makings of a dictator in him—vast popularity, a strong will, ability, hardness, an intolerance for others and a certain contempt for the weak and inefficient... Is it not possible that Jawahar might fancy himself as a Caesar?"
Years later the anonymous author of this trenchant judgment announced his identity. It was Nehru himself. Today Nehru is very close to being Caesar. Critics complain that his Cabinet consists not of ministers but of courtiers like the mercurial former U.N. delegate Krishna Menon, who is almost as unpopular in India as in the U.S. They charge, too, that Nehru's personal interference in every detail of government has sapped the initiative of his subordinates and prevented the emergence of potential national leaders.
When he becomes bored or frustrated by domestic affairs, Nehru frequently flees to the greener fields of foreign policy, where the unpleasant consequences of irresponsibility are generally slower to appear. As Nehru himself sees it, India's foreign policy is based on two rational and respectable principles: self-interest and hatred of colonialism (which in Indian terms means domination of colored people by white people; subjugation of whites by other whites is irrelevant). To outsiders, however, Indian policy seems to be heavily influenced by a number of purely emotional considerations personal to Nehru.
Indian policy toward Russia is affected to an incalculable degree by the fact that, like many another old Fabian Socialist, Nehru has never been quite able to get over the exultation he felt in 1917 when the Russian Revolution opened up a "Socialist" era in history. To an equally incalculable degree, India's policy toward the U.S. is affected by Nehru's upper-class Edwardian English contempt for the U.S. as a nation of "vulgar" people who talk about money. To a highly measurable degree, India's behavior toward any power is affected by the extent to which that power feeds Nehru's vanity by seeking his advice on Asian affairs. The British, Russians and Chinese do, and Nehru forgives them even when he disapproves of their actions. The U.S. does not, and Nehru is openly elated by each U.S. discomfiture in Asia.