The Propaganda Battle in India and Burma

Abstract

Critically significant in any understanding of the responses of Southern Asia to external propagandas, to politi cal pressures, is the fact of the newly won independence (since World War II) of most of the nations of this area. Western governments and Western peoples have not as yet given either the nationalist struggles or the independence of the area suffi cient weight in their deliberations and, perhaps even more, in their fundamental attitudes about the area. India and Burma will always be found, both at home and abroad, ranged against the theory and practice of imperialism. They are both engaged in major efforts to upgrade their economies through large-scale economic development programs for which they have been will ing to accept aid "without strings" from any quarter. India and Burma have set themselves a great task, but one which can lead to victory over the many problems they face, if we in the United States and in the West would make a supreme effort to understand these countries within their own frame of reference and supply them, "without strings," with the needed goods and services. Then it could be predicted that India and Burma and, in like fashion, the other nations of Southern Asia, would strongly undergird and defend that arc of free Asia from the Pamirs to the Pacific-newly come on independence and freedom.