Letter
written by Nehru to Children of India on December 3, 1949.
Dear
Children,
I like
being with children and talking to them and, even more, playing with them. For
the moment I forget that I am terribly old and it is very long ago since I was
a child. But when I sit down to write, I cannot forget my age and the distance
that separates you from me. Old people have a habit of delivering sermons and
good advice to the young.
I remember that I disliked this very much long
ago when I was a boy. So I suppose you do not like it very much either.
Grown-ups also have a habit of appearing to be very wise, even though very few
of them possess much wisdom. I have not yet quite made up my mind whether I am
wise or not. Sometimes listening to others I feel that I must be wise and
brilliant and important. Then, looking at myself, I begin to doubt this. In any
event, people who are wise do not talk about their wisdom and do not behave as
if they were very superior persons...
What then
shall I write about? If you were with me, I would love to talk to you about
this beautiful world of ours, about flowers, trees, birds, animals, stars,
mountains, glaciers and all the other beautiful things that surround us in the
world. We have all this beauty all around us and yet we, who are grown-ups,
often forget about it and lose ourselves in our arguments or in our quarrels.
We sit in our offices and imagine that we are doing very important work.
I hope you
will be more sensible and open your eyes and ears to this beauty and life that
surrounds you. Can you recognise the flowers by their names and the birds by
their singing? How easy it is to make friends with them and with everything in
nature, if you go to them affectionately and with friendship. You must have
read many fairy tales and stories of long ago. But the world itself is the
greatest fairy tale and story of adventure that was ever written. Only we must
have eyes to see and ears to hear and a mind that opens out to the life and
beauty of the world.
Grown-ups
have a strange way of putting themselves in compartments and groups. They build
barriers... of religion, caste, colour, party, nation, province, language,
customs and of rich and poor. Thus they live in prisons of their own making.
Fortunately, children do not know much about these barriers, which separate.
They play and work with each other and it is only when they grow up that they
begin to learn about these barriers from their elders. I hope you will take a
long time in growing up...
Some months
ago, the children of Japan wrote to me and asked me to send them an elephant. I
sent them a beautiful elephant on behalf of the children of India... This noble
animal became a symbol of India to them and a link between them and the
children of India. I was very happy that this gift of ours gave so much joy to
so many children of Japan, and made them think of our country... remember that
everywhere there are children like you going to school and work and play, and
sometimes quarrelling but always making friends again. You can read about these
countries in your books, and when you grow up many of you will visit them. Go
there as friends and you will find friends to greet you.
You know we had a very great man amongst us.
He was called Mahatma Gandhi. But we used to call him affectionately Bapuji. He
was wise, but he did not show off his wisdom. He was simple and childlike in
many ways and he loved children... he taught us to face the world cheerfully
and with laughter.
Our country
is a very big country and there is a great deal to be done by all of us. If
each one of us does his or her little bit, then all this mounts up and the
country prospers and goes ahead fast.
I have
tried to talk to you in this letter as if you were sitting near me, and I have
written more than I intended.
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