| They
are symbolical of the unity of the world and brother hood of men. We never thought that a
request to our Foreign Diplomats would perturb you so much. Some months back, the External
Affairs Ministry was apprised by Jam Saheb of the letter he sent out. Replies were also
sent by him to the E. A. Ministry. Newspapers, for the last some weeks, have been
referring to these arrivals. Whenever a foreign representative has found it difficult or
unwise to send things, he has said so. Mr. Panikkar evidently made some complaints to you;
he also wrote to Jam Saheb that he would send some of these things; perhaps, if he had
only written a personal letter to Jam Saheb confessing his inability, nobody would have
pressed him to do anything. "We are having a
Sanskrit Conference there. I had discussions about it with foreign scholars last year.
Though in my view, visit of persons interested in the cultural heritage of India from all
part of the world would be of great international value to India, out of deference to your
wishes, I did not invite foreign scholars, some of whom, I am sure would have come. You
wrote to me that you had no objection to my inviting the foreigners, but in view o
this Panikkar affair, I did not want to annoy you further by asking whether I should with
hold invitations from our Foreign Diplomats. |
