born."'"

2

Prime Minister Sastroamidjojo said: "If we are able to express our desire and determination for peace in unmistakable terms, if our labours will have some salutary influence on the way of thinking of mankind, then this conference will have fulfilled its historical task." Mr. Nehru in his speech in the House of the People on 31st March, 1955, said: "This conference (Asian-African) has historic importance. It is unique. No such thing has happened before, and the fact that representatives of 1400 million people will be there is a matter of utmost significance...... The conference is not opposed to anyone to Europe or America. It is merely a coming together of Asian and African countries who aim at two things-peace and opportunity to progress." And again in another statement at the conference a statement which receive the loudest applause-Mr. Nehru said that the message of the conference was "No dictation there is going to be in the future: no 'yes-men' in Asia, I hope, or in Africa. Any man of sober sense after going through the purpose, spirit and message of the Bandung conference could read nothing wrong or perverted in it.

3

The achievements of the Bandung conference are to be judged along these lines. Two aims of the conference stand out prominently(1) To be better acquainted with one another's point of view and (2) to secure a kind of Afro-Asian unity and co-operation on problems affecting their common interests. The conference surely succeeded in fulfilling the first aim, viz., the opportunity to understand and appreciate each other. There was the meeting of minds: there was the free exchange of ideas: there was agreement on the means and methods of economic and cultural co-operation.

But could the conference achieve something like solid Afro-Asian unity and continuous co-operation among them? The answer here must be a cautious one. It has been seen that in the committee meetings of the conference there was cold war creating cleavage and disunity. Ultimately compromises had to be reached specially in two cases. The first was in connection with the resolution on Probles of Dependent Peoples, where the conference ultimately agreed "in declaring that colonialism in all its manifestations is an evil which should speedily be brought to an end." A similar compromise was reached on the resolution on world peace. Mr. Nehru denounced the "collective self defence" clause in Mr. Mahammed Ali's (Pakistan) resolution as merely "a cover of words to make military pacts

1

acceptable" and declared that it was "an intolerable humiliation for an Afro-Asian country to degrade itself as a camp-follower of one or the other side." NATO, he said, was in fact "one of the most powerful protectors of colonialism" and was showing "gross impertinence" in supporting Portugal over the question of Goa. Ultimately the Conference agreed on the basis of a compromise and approved collective defence arrangements in conformity with the U. N. charter, provided such arrangements did not serve the particular interests of any of the Big Powers and were not used as a means of pressure on other countries. Inspite of these cleavages it must be noted that on many world problems there has, since the Bandung Conference, been the emergence of an AsianAfrican approach. But this is not based on any concept of solid, absolute and rigid unity. Even after Bandung on many world issues there was the lack of a unified Afro-Asian stand. Yet it cannot be gainsaid that the Bandung Conference did create a feeling of Afro-Asian solidarity among the members without inspiring the creation of any Bloc or the evolution of a common foreign policy. The unity was rather reflected in a certain spirit of self respect which would prevent them from bowing to any foreign patron.

2

But the greatest achievement of the Bandung Conference is to be seen in its effect on reducing tension and in its impact on international relations. Bandung helped a lot in the relaxation of tension in the Far East. After Bandung there were talks of "peaceful unification of Korea" and "of negotiations for eliminating tension in the Taiwan area," Chou en. L'ai declared in the Conference that small nations had nothing to fear from China: be even invited the delegates of Thailand and the Philippines to come to China and to see if there was any war scheme or preparation against them. And this process of relaxation of tension continued and was even accelerated. And And so great was the impact of the Conference on world politics that the term "Bandung spirit" was used on many occasions to designate the changed atmosphere. Any State doing anything wrong towards the neighbour in the area or using force in any form is often declared guilty of killing the Bandung spirit.

This Bandung spirit survived and acted as a source of inspiration for some conferences which have been held thereafter. There

1

Archives, 1955-56, p. 14182.

2 Mr. Nehru made a statement in the Lok Sabha on 30. 4. 55 about the Bandung Conference which ended on 24. 4- 55-Many interesting points and details are there-See Asian Recorder, 1955, pp. 198-199.

were in 1958 two Conferences at Accra, and one Conference at Cairo. They were not exactly the same as Bandung meeting; yet the Bandung spirit had been there behind acting as a propelling force.

2

The Accra Conference on the initiative of Dr. Nkrumah of Ghana was convened and met from April 15 to April 22, 1958. It was a Conference of "independent" African States, and the first of its kind. The participating countries were Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Liberia, Morocco, the Sudan, Tunisia and the UAR. It will be seen that of these eight States, all except Tunisia and Morocco were at Bandung. The UAR was then not born: but its component parts, Egypt, Syria and Yemen were participants at Bandung. The state of Ghana was at Bandung under the name Gold Coast. But Tunisia and Morocco were not included as Bandung members as they were not independent-for Bandung Conference under the Bogor Communique of December 29, 1954, was to be a Conference of "all States in Asia and Africa which have independent Governments.” But at Bandung the Conference in its resolutiou on the "Problems of Dependent Peoples' recognized in a part the "rights of the people of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia to self-determination and independence. It may be argued in such a context that perhaps the Bandung Resolutions hastened the independence ef Morocco and Tunisia. The Accra Conference discussed issues and points reminding one of the Bandung details. In fact Dr. Nkrumah commended "to the Accra Conference the five Pancha-shila principles enunciated at Bandung." And what is vitally significant in this context is that in the joint declaration adopted by the Accra Conference, the opening paragraph says-"we, African states assembled in Accra proclaim and solemnly affirm over unswerving loyalty to the U.N. charter, the universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Declaration of the Afro-Arian Conference held at Bandung." The Bandung Principles then enunciate some very fundamental and universal norms which earn spontaneous loyalty from the States assembled at Accra. And they place the Bandung Declaration in the same category as the U.N. charter and the Declaration of Human Rights, thus attaching to the former the same dignity and value as that possessed by the latter. That means no mean achievement of Bandung.

1 Archives, 1958, p. 16226, for details.

3

2 Section D. paragraph 2, of the Bandung Communique. Thereafter Morocco and Tunisia became independent and were admitted to the United Nations on December 18,

1956.

3 Archives, 1958, p. 16226.

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The other points in the Accra Declaration are more or less in

the Bandung vein. There were many resolutions on political, economic and cultural cooperation calling on the colonial powers to set definite dates for granting independence to their African colonies, denouncing all forms of racial discrimination, urging the African nations to observe April 15 (Accra Conference day) as the "African Freedom Day," recognizing the right of the Algerian peoples to independence, condemning the use of armed force in the French Cameroons etc. On one point, however, we see a difference between Bandung and Accra. Regarding Palestine at Accra there was a resolution calling for a "just solution" of the problem. Unlike the Bandung resolution on the same subject, it contained no declaration of support for "the rights of the Arab people of Palestine," nor did it specify that the solution would be based on the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 and the repatriation of the Arab refugees. The New York Times commented in this connection that three of the States taking part in the Accra Conference, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Liberia-had recognized Israel, and particularly close relations existed between Israel and Ghana. This, I believe, is not a departure from Bandung principles, but perhaps a perhaps a necessary modification of Bandung in the light of the defacto situation that Israel had come to stay and there should be an honourable and just settlement of the issue.

In quick succession another conference met at Accra' from December 8 to 13, 1958. It was the "all African People's conference” of 200 representatives of 50 African political parties, trade unions, student movements etc. A total of about 25 African states, colonies and other countries were represented. It was a conference confined to unofficial bodies (unlike the conference of states in April) but the governing parties of all independent African countries were represented except South Africa and Sudan. Hence though unofficial this fact lends a very important significance to this conference as well. The purpose of the conference was stated to be-"to formulate concrete plans and to work out the Gandhian tactics and strategy of the African non-violent revolution". The conference had on the agenda plans for the regrouping of independent African states on the basis of (1) adjustment of existing artificial froniers : (2) amalgamation or federation of territories on a regional basis: and (3) the progressive federation or confederation of geographical,

1 Archives, 1959, p. 16612 for details.

regional state groupings into an ultimate "Pan African Commonwealth of free, independent united states of Africa." Dr. Nkrumah opened this conference. In his speech he laid emphasis on the present tasks of the African countries which were (1) the attainment of freedom and independence (2) the consolidation of that freedom: (3) the creation of unity and community among the free African states: and (4) the economic and social reconstruction of Africa. In a passage which aroused much controversy, he warned the conference that "colonialism and imperialism may yet come to us in a different guise, not necessarily from Europe" adding that "we must alert ourselves to be able to recognise this when it rears its head, and prepare ourselves to fight against it." This passage has been variously interpreted as referring to communism, to Egypt, and to the United States of America. Several resolutions of a political nature were passed. A permanent secretariat at Accra was set up to coordinate the political activities of the anti-colonial forces throughout Africa. We can read herein a renewed emphasis on the Bandung ban on "Colonialism in all its manifestations" and an attempt at a rediscovery of the voice, spirit and self respect of Africa.

1

There was again a conference at Cairo-known as Afro Asian Economic Conference from 9 December, 1958 to 12 December, 1958. Forty countries of the region including India and Nepal met at the chambers of commerce level. The purpose was to work out schemes of economic solidarity and cooperation." At this conference there was a reference to Bandung by the Indonesian delegation. While objecting to the inclusion of the Soviet Union as a full member of the conference the leader of Indonesian delegation pointed out that "only Afro-Asian Countries included in the Bandung Confernce and those Afro-Asian Countries which achieved independence since then should be included as full members of the Conference." Union, according to him, was not within the Afro-Asian geographical entity conceived at Bandung. But the conference being an economic conference, these political points were not pressed very far. Yet it shows that the Bandung spirit lives on and plays some role in giving inspiration to such conferences, intended principally for solidarity, cooperation, strength and self reliance in the interest of peace and progress.

The Soviet

That all these conferences-Bandung, Accra and Cairo-were linked up with one common ideal can easily be seen. At the second