India, Pak Would Have United Today, If Nehru Had Not Been Self-Centered: Dalai Lama
India and Pakistan would have been remained united as a nation today, had India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru not been “self-centred”, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Wednesday, adding that while Pandit
Nehru was gifted with experience, mistakes do occur.
Mahatma Gandhi wanted to give the prime ministership to (Mohammad Ali) Jinnah. But Nehru refused. He was self-centred. He said, I wanted to be Prime Minister. India and Pakistan would have been united (had Jinnah been
made Prime Minister at the time). Pandit Nehru is very experienced. But mistakes do happen, the Dalai Lama said in response to a question from a student during an interaction held at the Goa Institute of Managament in North Goa near Panaji.
The Dalai Lama gave the Nehru analogy, in response to a question from a student who sought to know from the Tibetan leader, about how one can be sure-footed about one decisions and how to avoid committing mistakes in life.
The Dalai Lama was a key note speaker on the subject. Today’s Relevance of India Ancient Knowledge organised as part of the celebrations hosted by the Goa Institute of Management, which is completing 25 years of its existence.
Preceding the interaction, the Dalai Lama spoke extensively on India’s ability to merge its rich traditional knowledge with modern facets of education.
India has a culture deeply rooted in tradition and knowledge. The land of ahimsa is a cauldron of traditional knowledge includes the art of meditation, compassion, secularism and more the Dalai Lama said.
While acknowledging that the British sowed the seeds of the modern style of education as we know it today, he remarked that India is probably the only country which can find the right balance between its traditional knowledge and modern education.