On April 14, 1954, in a letter to chief ministers, India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru warned of US hegemony in many parts of the world, especially in the context of West Asia. Nehru flagged the belief of the US that “all out force and threats” would “succeed without precipitating a large scale war” and described it as “a big and dangerous gamble”. He then presciently said that such an approach adopted by America would affect the entire world, particularly Asia, and went on to add with emphasis, “Asia has been and will continue to be the scene of hydrogen bomb experiments and of war in which Asians are made to fight Asians.”“It may be that,” he wrote with dread, “it will be Asians again who will have the unfortunate privilege of experiencing the effects of atomic bombing.”Nehru’s warning on Asians facing nuclear bombsThose 1954 articulations of Nehru are playing out 72 years later in April 2026 in the wake of the massive worldwide energy and economic crisis of gigantic proportions arising out of brutal and illegal attack of US and Israel on Iran. Initially the US in collaboration with Israel, employed, in the words of Nehru, “all out force and threats” against Iran by deploying US aircraft carriers and other deadly weapons which eventually unleashed a full scale war, forcing Iran to close strait of Hormuz through which 20% of oil and gas are shipped out to rest of the world for meeting the goal of energy and economic security of the large parts of the world.The brutal war imposed on Iran has embroiled the whole world in multiple crises and, in the words of Nehru, Asia got affected in the worst possible way. Nehru’s painful apprehensions that “…it will be Asians again who will have the unfortunate privilege of experiencing the effects of atomic bombing” are getting sadly reflected in the dreadful warnings issued in several quarters that nuclear weapons might be used against Iran which is showing incredible resilience in adopting asymmetrical war strategy and causing huge damage to USA in spite of the heavy pounding it has received by the US and Israeli bombings.Such warnings concerning Israel using nuclear weapons are gaining traction after Iranian missiles successfully hit the two southern Israeli towns close to a nuclear facility located at Dimona following Israel’s attack on a uranium processing facility at Natanz in Iran.In an article, “Why the world should worry about Israel’s nuclear doctrine” authored by Ahmed Nazar and published in Al Jazeera on March 22, 2026 it was observed , The threshold the Israeli authorities have set for the use of a nuclear weapon is dangerously low.” It ominously indicates the potentiality of horrifying prospects of atomic holocaust coming true specifically in the context of the strategies of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Nettanyahu to obliterate Israel and Trump’s declaration in his address to the nation that his administration would hit hard Iran, to take it back to stone age.So, Nehru’s mournful articulation that Asians would be yet again victims of atomic bombing needs to be underlined so that concerted efforts are made to obviate such a fearsome possibility in the twenty first century, eighty years after US dropped atom bombs on Japan.Nehru’s fears on revival of Monroe doctrineIt is indeed worth flagging that Nehru in the aforementioned letter to chief ministers while writing that America definitely assumed itself a role for itself as an unchallenged world leader, wrote that the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, prescribing that American continents were not open for colonisation of European powers, was being invoked by US for the entire world.It is extraordinary that Nehru’s fears about US’s attempts to dominate the world by recalling the archaic 19th century Monroe Doctrine have been proven true in the context of US President Donald Trump describing the operation to depose Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026 and bring him to America after arresting him as part of a revival of the Monroe Doctrine. “And the Monroe Doctrine,” Trump asserted, “ is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the ‘Donroe Doctrine.”Nehru on colonialismNehru, in the above letter, referred to attempts of the US to recognise the French colonial government in Vietnam on the ground that it was lawful and sarcastically wrote, “Therefore, colonialism has to be protected because it is lawful and recognized.”“This reminds one of the Holy Alliance in 19th Century Europe which was meant to protect all the old kings and feudal regimes. All this is done in the name of assuring peace, security and freedom,” he sadly remarked.Now US Secretary of State is justifying colonialism and colonial era – a time when western nations ruthlessly ruled most countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and exploited their resources – and pins blame on anti-colonial struggles for putting an end to colonialism. So, in the context of the US President reviving Monroe Doctrine and calling it “Donroe Doctrine” and Rubio expressing his nostalgia for colonialism, Nehru’s 1954 warnings are assuming greater relevance for defending India’s sovereignty and independent foreign policy when the Modi regime is on the side of Trump and Israel.S N Sahu served as officer on special duty to President of India K R Narayanan.