AURANGZEB

The Life and Legacy of India’s Most Controversial King

By

AUDREY TRUSCHKE

 

Historians have the strangest ways of finding truth, especially of historical figures, more specially about ‘controversial figures’.  This book is about  Muslim emperor, who has been pilloried  in full measure in one country (India, a majority of whom are Hindu) and celebrated by large sections in another country (Pakistan, wholly Muslim). From the historian’s point of view, the reader himself is thrown into either of these two  camps or into the camp of the historian himself.

In his introductory chapter, Audrey Truschke sets out his aim and rationale for writing the book as follows, ”Of course, no one would contend that Aurangzeb was without faults. It is not difficult to identify specific actions taken by Aurangzeb that fail to meet modern democratic, egalitarian, and human rights standards.. Aurangzeb’s contemporaries included such kings as Charles II of England, Louis XIV of France, and the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman II. No one asserts that these historical figures were “good rulers” under present-day norms und because it makes little sense to assess the past by contemporary criteria. The aim of historical study is something else entirely. Historians seek to comprehend people on their own terms, as products of particular times and places, and explain their actions and impacts. We need not absolve our subjects of study of guilt, and we certainly do not need to like them. But we strive to hold back judgment long enough so that the myth of Aurangzeb can fade into the background and allow room for a more nuanced and compelling story to be told.”

 

How does the author live up to his stated aim and how he portrays the protagonist is another story.  Aurangzeb has been exposed to Persian translations of Sanskrit texts, such as the Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. These translations were sponsored by Aurangzeb’s great-grandfather, Akbar, and we know that Akbar recommended the Mahabharata to one of his sons as helpful for a princely education. Aurangzeb also spoke fluent Hindi from childhood and came from the fourth generation of the Mughal family to do so. Aurangzeb was versed in literary registers of Hindi, likely as part of his formal training, and there are even original compositions in Braj Bhasha, a literary register of pre modern Hindi, attributed to him. Mughal princely curriculum also involved practical instruction in swords, daggers, muskets, military strategy, and administrative skills.  Despite such rich education and legacy of knowing Hindu traditions, Aurangzeb surprisingly did not seem to have imbibed any of these traditions and the beliefs of Hindus.

The upbringing of the two sons of Shah Jahan, Dara Shukoh and Aurangzeb brings out their different leanings in stark contrast. A few years after Shah Jahan ascended the throne, he sent Aurangzeb, then only sixteen years old, away from court to help run the empire. For twenty-two long years, between 1635 and 1657, Aurangzeb shuttled across the reaches of the Mughal kingdom, fighting wars in Balkh, Bundelkhand, and Qandahar and administering Gujarat, Multan, and the Deccan.

Dara Shukoh leisured at  court. Shah Jahan’s eldest son was known for his philosophical interests and passed his days in erudite conversations with Hindu and Muslim ascetics. On paper Dara was always ahead of Aurangzeb. The elder brother held the higher rank in the Mughal mansab system, which encompassed all state officers, and he was widely understood as Shah Jahan’s choice to ascend the throne. But Dara lacked real-world experience beyond the rigidly controlled of the central court, which would prove a fatal liability. Popular memory of Dara Shukoh often extols him as the big “What If” of Indian history. What if “liberal” Dara had become the sixth Mughal king instead of “zealous” Aurangzeb? Would history have turned out differently? Some, , have even asked: Could King Dara have preemptively averted India’s brutal partition in 1947? Misplaced nostalgia aside, the reality is that Dara Shukoh was ill-prepared to either win or rule the Mughal kingdom. In the inevitable showdown between the four brothers for the crown of Hindustan, Dara’s favor with an ailing king could not counter Aurangzeb’s alliances, tactical skills, and the political acumen he had gained during his decades of traversing the Mughal Empire.

Aurangzeb Seized the World

Ya takht ya tabut (Either the throne or the grave) —A mantra of Mughal kingship

The rivalry between the four brothers to ascend the throne of Mughal Kingdom has been described extensively by the author.  As described earlier, Dara Shukoh was not suited to ascend the crown of Hindustan whereas, Aurangzeb with his experience of the kingdom over a period of twenty years by his frequent wandering, innate gathering of worldly wisdom and inborn deceitfulness was far superior to his brothers.  He showed his decisiveness in the battle against Dara, who was indecisive and ran from the battle to protect his life leaving behind his soldiers to themselves.

After the war, Aurangzeb did not show any mercy on the defeated brothers, Either killing  (Dara and Murad) or sending one to exile (Shuja to Persia, where he died).  While Aurangzeb’s murderous actions no doubt strike modern readers as harsh, his brothers would not have acted any differently. Manucci captured this dynamic when he reported that, on the day of his death, Dara Shukoh was asked by Aurangzeb what he would do if their roles were reversed. Seeing the writing on the wall, Dara sneered that he would have Aurangzeb’s body quartered and displayed on Delhi’s four main gates. While he shared his brother’s visceral hatred, Aurangzeb exercised restraint by comparison. Aurangzeb ordered Dara Shukoh’s corpse buried at Humayun’s tomb in Delhi.

Aurangzeb’s approach to religion was hardly puritanical. On the contrary, he consulted with prominent Hindu religious figures throughout his life, as had earlier Mughal kings. For example, in the 1680s Aurangzeb conducted a religious discussion with the Bairagi Hindu Shiv Mangaldas Maharaj and showered the saint with gifts. The king had strong links with Islamic Sufi communities, another time-honored Mughal tradition, as evidenced by his burial at a Chishti shrine in Maharashtra. An image of Aurangzeb depicts his visit, along with two of his sons, to the shrine of Muinuddin Chishti (d. 1236) in Ajmer, Rajasthan, probably around 1680 (fig. 5). Aurangzeb’s interpretation of Islam also included many talismanic aspects. For instance, he once wrote out prayers and had them sewn to banners and standards that were carried into battle against enemies of the state.

A European traveler a few decades later opined that Aurangzeb’s “rigorous abstinence,” including from alcohol, was the king’s penance for his earlier sins against his father. Whether this precise connection is accurate, being branded an illegitimate Muslim monarch likely prompted Aurangzeb to become more devout. Many of his more obvious pious pursuits, such as memorizing and copying the Quran, began in earnest after his ascension. Here, Aurangzeb’s religiosity did not shape state policy so much as his kingly experiences inspired changes in his religious life.

Over the course of his reign numerous other clashes arose between Islamic religious ideals and Mughal state interests. Aurangzeb privileged the latter almost invariably. For instance, during the assault on Bijapur in 1686, a delegation of Bijapuri theologians pleaded with Aurangzeb to end the siege on the grounds that warring against fellow Muslims was unjust. Aurangzeb remained unmoved and persisted with his brutal tactics until Bijapur fell. The emperor then ordered some Bijapuri palace wall paintings wiped out, perhaps as a limp attempt to reassert the theological righteousness of the Mughal state by adhering to the hardline view that images are idolatrous.

The  author immediately makes an Uturn and arrives at an opposite conclusion when he says, “When he thought it served imperial interests, Aurangzeb even compromised Islamic principles he had earlier endorsed.”  It seems Aurangzeb was no better than modern day Indian politicians who throw all convictions and principles to the winds to achieve their narrow aims and what is surprising is that authors like Audrey Truschke have got time to gloss over many crimes committed by the ruler when they ruled over millions to come forward with justifications four hundred years later.

Mughal rulers in general allowed their subjects great leeway—shockingly so compared to the draconian measures instituted by many European sovereigns of the era—to follow their own religious ideas and inclinations. Nonetheless, state interests constrained religious freedom in Mughal India, and Aurangzeb did not hesitate to strike hard against religious institutions and leaders that he deemed seditious or immoral. But absent such concerns, Aurangzeb’s vision of himself as an evenhanded ruler of all Indians prompted him to extend state security to temples. It is the absence of a firm ground to either stand by his religious belief or on imperial interest that makes Aurangzeb comparable to modern day Indian politicians.

The idea that religious institutions could be subject to politically motivated destructions makes many modern people see red, but premodern Indians did not draw such a firm line between religion and politics. On the contrary, temples were widely understood—by both Hindus and Muslims—as linked with political action. The Sanskrit Brihatsamhita, written perhaps in the sixth century, warns, “If a Shiva linga, image, or temple breaks apart, moves, sweats, cries, speaks, or otherwise acts with no apparent cause, this warns of the destruction of the king and his territory.” Acting on this premise that religious images held political power, Hindu kings targeted one another’s temples beginning in the seventh century, regularly  looting and defiling images of Durga, Ganesha, Vishnu, and so forth. They also periodically destroyed each other’s temples. Some Hindu kings even commissioned Sanskrit poetry to celebrate and memorialize such actions. Indo-Muslim rulers, such as Aurangzeb, followed suit in considering Hindu temples legitimate targets of punitive state action.  This is hardly a justification for vandalizing or destroying temples and killing Hindu priests, which had definitely psychologically wounded the Hindus and earned Aurangzeb the names of “Killer of Hindus.”

Jat uprisings in the region in 1669 and 1670 dealt the Mughals heavy casualties. In subsequent years Aurangzeb ordered temples demolished in Jodhpur, Khandela, and elsewhere for similar reasons. Mosques were erected on the former of both the Vishvanatha and Keshava Deva Temples, although they were built under different circumstances. The Gyanvapi Masjid still stands today in Benares with part of the ruined temple’s wall incorporated into the building. This reuse may have been a religiously clothed statement about the dire consequences of opposing Mughal authority.

Muslim writers commonly fell back on jihad or some other religious-based concept in their narrations of temple destructions. This Islamic proclivity was perhaps rooted in the idea that government interests do not justify harming religious institutions under Islamic law, whereas such acts were arguably permissible for spreading Islam. This logic was culturally appropriate, but it is not historically persuasive for explainining temple demolitions in Aurangzeb’s India.

 

It offers little insight to condemn Aurangzeb according to modern standards concerning state violence, individual liberties, and tolerance. Even though the predecessor Mughal emperors were no lesser oppressors – often taking recourse to either Islamic precepts or Muhal traditions or Regal compulsions – Aurangzeb distinguished himself by his complete absence of precepts bordering on these qualities of tolerance of other religious beliefs, oppression of people of native religion (Hindu, Jain and Sikh).

 

21 Lessons for the 21^st Century

By

Juval Noah Harrari

 

Juval Noah Harrari, celebrated author of Homo Sapiens:  A Brief History of Humankind has produced in the third book a sequel to that volume which is as momentous as the earlier one.  This volume focuses on the shape of future that awaits us in the near future.  He forecasts such a future primarily dwells on changes which would occur on various fronts such as Liberty, Equality, Community, Religion, Terrorism, War, Secularism, Justice and Education. 

The changes which Harrari explains are in the nature of axioms and not opinions and, therefore, hardly commented or criticized. We could only reproduce what has been stated by him under the headings listed.

Disillusionment:  “When it comes to free trade and international cooperation, Xi Jinping looks like Obama’s real successor. Having put Marxism-Leninism on the back burner, China seems rather happy with the liberal international order.”

“Whenever they become impatient or bored by the talk of artificial intelligence, Big Data algorithms or bioengineering, I just mention one magic word to snap them back to attention: Jobs.  The technological revolution will soon push billions of humans out of job market and create a massive new useless class, leading to social and political upheavals that no  existing ideology knows how to handle.”

Work:            “The better we understand the biochemical mechanisms that underpin human emotions, desires and choices, the better computers can become in analyzing human behavior, predicting human decisions and replacing human drivers, bankers and lawyers.”

“….. Vaunted human intuition is in reality ‘pattern recognitioon’.  Good drivers,  bankers and lawyers don’t have magical intuitions about traffic, investment and negotiation- rather by recognizing recurring patterns, they spot and try to avoid, careless pedestrians, inept borrowers and dishonest crooks.”

“Yet if art is defined by human emotions, what might happen once external algorithms are able to understand and manipulate human emotions better than Shakespeare, Frida Kahlo or Beyance.”

“The algorithm in charge of your sound system will immediately discern your inner emotion turnoil and based on what it knows about you personally and human psychology in general it will play songs tailred to resonate  with your gloom and echo with your distress.”

“Job market in 2050 will be characterized by Human-AI cooperation rather than competition.  After IBM’s chess program Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997, humans did not stop playing chess.  Rather, thanks to AI trainers human chess masters became better than ever, and at least for a while, human-AI teams known as ‘centaurs’ outperformed both humans and computers in chess.”

Liberty:  “In personal matters, liberalism encourages people to listen to themselves, be true to themselves and follow their hearts – as long as they do not infringe on the liberties of others.”

“ Democracy assumes that human feelings reflect a mysterious and profound ‘free will’ and this ‘free will’ is the ultimate source of authority  and that while some people are most intelligent than others, all humans are equally free.”

Artificial Intelligence and natural stupidity :  “AI revolves around the magical moment when a computer or a robot gains consciousness.”

“AI will have to analyse human feelings accurately in order to treat human illnesses, identify human terrorists, recommend human mates and navigate street full of human pedestrians.”

“We have hired docile cows that produce enormous amounts of milk, but are otherwise far inferior to their wild ancestors.  They are less agile, less curious and less resourceful.”

“For without a social safety net and a modicum of economic equality, liberty is meaningless.”

Equality: “Property is a prerequisite for long-term inequality.”

“The true business of data giants is not to sell advertisements at all.  Rather by capturing our attention they manager to accumulate immense amounts data about us, which is worth more than any advertisement revenue.  We aren’t their customers - we are their products.”

 

Truth, Love and a Little Malice - an Autobiography

Kushwant Singh            

 

Kushwant Singh has lived a life on various fronts, as a Lawyer, in Indian mission (though not as a diplomat), a Journalist, a Historian and a columnist.  The autobiography details his tale on these roles, including above all a generous amount of gossip on the lives of both men and women.

The most interesting among the stories is his life lived in the village of birth, Hidali, now in Pakistan.  Singh says that Hindus and Muslims lived an uneasy but peaceful relationship.  Close interaction between them and their families was confined to marriages and death.  Muslims split into various clans – Wadhals, Mastials, Awans, Janjus, Moons and Tiwanas.  Frequently, there was litigation and murders.  His tale of how children in the village defecated in the open and cleaned their bottoms has the hallmarks of rural smartness!

The School and adolescence life spent in Delhi reveals how much the geography of Delhi has changed since then, about Daryaganj, Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid and how certain things have not changed at all, most notably, Physical Education Teachers, Superintendents, admission in colleges on the recommendations of influential people.

His walkathons from Shimla down the mall road to Markonda and Masthobra (72 miles away) and Solan (25 miles distant) leaves us perplexed at the physical strength we have lost over the years and the physical geography the country has fritted away.  K.S. tells the funny story when he was appearing in a case (in Lahore) against conversion of a Sikh lady from Sikhism to Islam and her marriage to the Muslim boy.  The lawyer appearing on the side of maulvi, who had presided over the Nikhanama (marriage deed) presented a packet before Court and requested the Falshaw to open it for himself and see its contents. The Falshaw opened the packet gingerly and his face was reddened as if he has received an electric shock.  “What is it?”  he  demanded to know.  The lawyer informed the Falshaw, “This your honor is the lady’s pubic hair.  She shaved it on the day she married my client and presented it to him.  Sikhs, as your honor may know, never cut their hair.”  “Take it away and throw it in the garbage can.” roared the Falshaw.

The narration of the time spent by Kushwant at the newly established Indian High Commission at London under the stewardship of Krishna Menon is both jocular and lively.  Prime Minister Nehru was coming to London to attend the Commonwealth Prime Minister’s Conference.  The Indian High Commission decided to bring out a weekly tabloid, India News, to mark the occasion.  Kushwant Singh was ordered to select the layout and provide the news.  The first page of the tabloid was to be devoted entirely to the P.M’s visit.  The banner headline read, “Pandit Nehru in London.”  When the proof came for correction, it read, “Bandit Nehru in London.”  When the manager of the press was questioned, he informed that they have never heard the word Pandit and thought it was probably a mistake on the part of the High Commission! Kushwant also reveals the highhandedness of Krishna Menon on many occasions and his deeply suspicious nature during the time he spent there.

The chapter titled, “With Gandhis and the Anands” is pure and unadulterated gossip.  This is clearly on display when there was disturbance in the Gandhi family following the death of Sanjay Gandhi and the urge on the part of Menaka to enter politics on her own.

All in all, the autobiography is jolly and unadulterated Kushwant Singh with gossip in abundance.  In the prologue, he quotes the Urdu poet’s couplet,

I told no one the story of my life

It was something I had to spend;

I spent it.

He also quotes Benjamin Franklin, who wrote

If you would not be forgotten

As soon as you are dead and rotten

Either write  things worth reading

Or do things worth writing.

Either one can dismiss the autobiography as the story of the way Kushwant had spent his life or about things worth reading.

 

 

My Name is Rajnikanth

By

Gayathri Sreekanth

 

This book has been penned by an ardent Rajnikanth fan, in fact by a  blind, Rajni-worshipping devotee enchanted by his filmi swashbuckling style  in the Reel world to be true of the Real world as well.  Rajnikanth, with his trade mark Rajni-Style tantrums has introduced a new dynamic into the Tamil film world and, therefore, a phenomenon no doubt;  but to consider him a Godly avataar who could do no wrong and a protector of the weak - most of the times  in his films - is a feature that has been hosted upon many other matinee idols of Tamil film industry, most notably on M.G. Ramachandran, who launched a successful political career based on his film life.

The rags to riches story of Shivaji Rao started in Bangalore in a economically-lower class, religious family under the protective embrace of Satyanarayana (Rajni’s elder brother). The first job he got was as a traffic constable.  There he displayed the “Rajni-Style” movements of his hands and body which came in handy in his film career.  This goes out to prove the fact that whatever a person possesses naturally helps him as he goes along in his life.

His life took a sudden turn for the better when decided to join an acting school at Madras.  His knowledge of Tamil was minimal for he knew only his mother tongue, Kannada.  Rajni stayed at a crowded  mess  and pursued his acting school-training. He was noticed by the noted by Mr. K. Balachander, the Tamil film director who also suggested the name Rajnikanth and introduced him in films.  The rest, they say, is history.

The book delves into his religious belief, philanthropy and upholding causes dear to him.  One notable failure of his life is his lack of success in politics, unlike his many predecessors in Tamil film industry, who swung on their  film careers and rode to success in politics.   Even though he tried it twice, once coming close to success and the second time shelving the attempt owing to ill-health, his failure to succeed in politics would remain a black mark.

Rajnikant succeeded immensely owing to natural in-born talent of stylistics and the permissive culture of film hero worship which pervaded Tamil culture.

 

 

Blaming the Victims

Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question

Edited by EDWARD W. SAID and CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

                                                                                                       

The horrific massacre (most of the world say, Genocide) of Palestinians by Israel in  what is  called the “Gaza war” following the killing of 1200 Israelis by the Hamas militants on 7 October, 2023,  has once again focused attention of the world to the continued occupation of Palestinian land and oppression of Palestinians by Israel.   Despite appeals from nations and leaders across the world, Israel has refused to heed these appeals and continues its macabre assaults on Palestine.  The world wonders what the aim of Israel  is in continuing the war, which has widened now to an invasion of Lebanon with a stated aim of vanquishing the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which an influential presence (it is a political party and had been a part of its government in that country in the past) in that country.

This book traces the support base of Israel for its narrative, through scholars and British and American governmental backing.  Firstly, it considers the arguments of Joan Peters's From Time Immemorial which  documents  the increase in Arab population as owing to massive illegal Arab immigration into thie Jewish-settled areas of Palestine during the British mandate years (1920-48). Her thesis is that a significant portion of 700,000 Arabs residing in the part of Palestine that became Israel in 1949 had only recently settled there, and that they had immigrated to Palestine because of the economic opportunities generated by Zionist settlement. The author of this essay says that such an increase is due improved sanitary conditions and hygiene.  By the figures quoted by Joan herself, the increase of Arab population was a naturally demographic  and cannot be by a proportion of 1  (Jew) to 1000 (Arabs) when the Jewish immigration was taking pace.

The book also debunks the claim of Zionists about disproportionate Arab immigration by quoting statistics.   For example, the Jewish population in 1931 was 174,606 against a total of 1,033,314; in 1936, Jewish numbers had had gone up to 384,078 and the total to 1,366,692; in 1946 there were 608,225 Jews in a total of 1,913,1 12. 4 In all these statistics, 'natives' were easily distinguishable from the arriving colonists. But who were these natives? Most of them were Sunni Muslims, although  a minority among them were Christians, Druze, and Shi'ite Muslims. All of them spoke Arabic and considered themselves Arabs. Approximately 65 per cent of the Palestinian Arabs were agriculturalists, living in some five hundred villages where grains as well as fruits and vegetables were grown. The principal Palestinian cities - Nablus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Acre, Jaffa, Jericho, Ramlah, Hebron, and Haifa - were built in the main by Palestinian Arabs who continued to live in them, even after the expanding Zionist colonies encroached upon them. Also in existence by that time were: a respectable Palestinian intellectual and professional class, the beginnings of modern industry, and a highly developed national consciousness. Modern Palestinian social, economic and cultural life was organized around the same issues of independence and anti-colonialism prevalent in the region, but the Palestinians had to contend with the legacy of Ottoman rule, then the Zionist colonization, then British mandatory authority (after World War I) - more or less all together. Almost without exception, Arab Palestinians felt themselves to be part of the great Arab awakening stirring since the last years of the nineteenth century, and it is this feeling that gave encouragement and coherence to an otherwise disruptive modern history. Palestinian writers and intellectuals such as Muhammad Izzat Darwazeh, Khalil Sakakini, Khalil Baydas, and Najib Nassar; political organizations such as the Futtuwa and Najjada, the Arab Higher Committees; and the League of National Liberation (which argued that the Palestinian question could only be solved by Arabs and Jews together) all these formed great national blocs among the population, directed the energies of the 'non-Jewish' Palestinian community, and created a Palestinian identity opposed equally to British rule and to Jewish colonization; an identity strengthened by a sense of belonging to a distinct national group with a language (the Palestinian Arab dialect) a a specific communal sense (threatened particularly by Zionism) of its own.

The root of the present day Arab-Israel conflict could be traced to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which espoused the twin Zionist objectives of building up Jewish presence while undermining Arab presence in Palestine.  In one brief paragraph it spoke of a commitment to establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine and made the Arabs who constituted more than ninety per cent of the population at the time inconsequential by calling them the 'non-Jewish communities'. This doctrinal annihilation of the Palestinian people was reinforced by a system of colonial government that belittled the Palestinian people demographically, economically, and culturally, in effect making them aliens in their own homeland. The Mandate for Palestine (1922-48) required the mandatory power not only to facilitate Jewish immigration and the transfer of land, but also to place 'the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home'. Article 4 of the Mandate authorized a Jewish Agency to the share in the administration of the country. The translation of these provisions into policies during the nearly thirty years of British Mandate over Palestine brought about the tragic and unique mutation that eventually turned Palestine into Israel. Demographically, Jewish immigration, imposed without the consent and against the explicit opposition of the indigenous community by a foreign colonial power, increased the ratio of alien settlers from one in ten in 1918 to one in two in 1947. The proportion of native population rapidly diminished from an overwhelming majority to a much smaller and continually dwindling one. In 1948, the Zionists took advantage of the outbreak of war and completed the process, thus achieving their long-standing aim of creating a Jewish majority in the country. Arab Palestine became Jewish Israel as a consequence of a 'demographic purge' of a kind unique in modern history. By the end of the following year (1949), only 130,000 Palestinian Arabs remained in the territory controlled by Israel within the 'Armistice Lines'; some 780,000 had become displaced persons either in residual parts of Palestine where they joined their compatriots, orin the immediately adjacent host countries of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. As Palestine was subjected to this process of demographic transformation, it suffered under a cognate economic mutation. The transfer of land to Zionist settlers was always (and still is) a major objective of the Zionist movement. This was necessary not only to accommodate the massive immigration of Jewish settlers but also to ensure the destruction of the economic foundations of a predominant agrarian Arab society. The Zionist policy of land acquisition was transforming Palestinian society into a community of landless peasants. The deterioration of the quality of life available to the Palestinian Arabs as a direct consequence of Zionist colonization was documented and reported as early as 1930 by the British government to Palestine.

In the Essay, “Middle East Terrorism and the American Ideological System”  Noam Chomsky shows the deep-rooted ideological and diplomatic support that America extends to Israel in its onslaught of both Palestine and neighboring middle eastern countries. Chomsky also points out the hypocrisy involved in calling attacks of militants in Palestine/Lebanon resulting in death of 10-15 Israelis/Americans as “acts of terrorism while turning a blind eye to acts by American supports right wing groups in Latin America where 100s of Nicaraguan and other government officials are killed. 

Unless America rethinks its unabashed support for Israel with military and diplomatic support, the expanding sphere of Israel’s war in the Middle East would continue to expand resulting in death and destruction.

 

A S I A N J U G G E R N A U T -- The Rise China, India and Japan

By

Brahma Chellaney

 

Twentieth Century has seen the emergence of Asia as a behemoth, notably China, India and Japan as economic power houses  chartering a new course of world history, economics and politics.  At the same time, they also face entrenched territorial and maritime disputes, sharpening competition over scarce resources, improved military capabilities, increasingly fervent nationalism and the spread of religious extremism.

Challeney says that there are many books on China-India and China-Japan relationships. But Asian Juggernaut is the first wide-ranging study that examines Asia in totality, employing the broader framework to focus on the critical China-India--Japan strategic triangle. In that sense, the author says the book is a pioneering study, dissecting Asia’s major challenges.   

Japan and China remain the world’s largest creditor nations, with the latter having amassed $2.2 trillion by 2009 in the world’s biggest holding of foreign-exchange reserves. Asia is on the right track, with its high GDP growth rates and it is  expected to remain the main engine driving global economic growth in the foreseeable future.

Much as Asia is on the higher growth trajectory, the U.S as the sole economic and military superpower, and its interests centre in maintaining a stable balance’ in ‘the East Asian littoral’, given the likelihood that ‘a military competitor with a formidable base, will emerge in the region’, say China. Washington would not want Japan or India to kowtow to a China seeking to supplant the United States as the leading force in Asia. America would want to hold China on its tender hooks by a combination of powers ranged against that country. This is the rationale behind the formation of the Quad alliance, though it is yet to take a military dimension.

In the economic sphere, though both India and China have attained massive progress, in the author’s view, India’s progress is much more stable because of its open society and functioning democracy whereas, China’s is faster but prone to mishaps as evidenced by a large number of violent protests by workers and its overwhelming reliance on export led growth. India’s economic growth is hampered by its mammoth red-tape hidden, non-functional bureaucracy and it’s  suspicion of capitalist oriented growth.

With economic growth and prosperity, longevity of population in both Japan and China have increased affecting economic output along with health care costs.  India on the other hand retains demographic advantage with a younger age population and, therefore, the possibility of greater economic output.  China with its focused approach towards both economic and strategic and military targets has achieved goals.

 

India is mired in corruption-ridden bureaucracy, its hangover of ‘socialistic pattern of society’  and poor educational background of its citizens. Chinese Communist Party periodically dismisses hundreds corrupt officials from both party and office without questions being raised from any quarters.

India and China face major environmental problems too in terms of air pollution, contamination of water, waste mismanagement, and the destruction of forests, mangroves and other natural habitats. in order of their vulnerability to violent conflict and societal dysfunction on the basis of 12 specific social, economic, political and military indicators. Similarly, the author informs us that refugee flows, rising demographic pressures, factionalized elites, legacy of vengeance-seeking group grievance’, deteriorating public services, existence of a security apparatus that operates as a state within a state.

In terms of military modernization, China remains at the top with preparation and production of new weapons and system in all the three wings of its force.  Japan with its pacifist constitution is constrained in this respect.  India with its pretensions of becoming a superpower remains the world’s greatest importer of military hardware, even after years of attempts of import substitution, though recent initiatives such as ‘make in India’ has made some headway.

Even with increased prosperity, asian countries face varied problems such as fervent nationalism, environmental degradation and resort to asymmetric warfare to settle territorial disputes that it needs either emergence of an Asian monolith or an asian balance of forces to settle them.

 

How INDIA Sees the world

By

Shyam Saran

 

Shyam Saran opens his memoir cum foreign policy thesis, though he denies otherwise, the depiction of India in Hindu cosmology as a southern petal of the four-petalled lotus that floats on the surface of the cosmic ocean.  The petal is broad  as it emerges from the central axis of the blossom, and narrow towards the tip, tracing in its sacred form the physical shape of the sub-continent.  Mr. Saran says it is the geography that influences its foreign policy behavior.  In fact, as another foreign policy expert described the shape of India as an inverted cone in which receives all people, religions and cultures at the top and distill them and deposit within its body-politic and geographic space.  So, in a way it is the geography of India which defines both  its internal composition and external behavior.

 

Rightly, Mr. Shyam Saran says that India has had a sophisticated tradition of statecraft and diplomatic practice and one of consistance theme is the practice of strategic autonomy. The practice of deciding all matters and siding with those whto would be beneficial India.  Though such a practice may not have crystallized in the past, strategic autonomy has been the running theme over the past and most certainly post independence through the policy of non-alignment.

 

The book is divided into four parts, namely, Traditions and History, Neighbours, Wider World and consideration of Climate Change and Mitigation efforts of India in preventing adverse effects.

 

Kautilya’s and age old concepts of leadership, military power and pursuit of power and peace are worthy of note, but such pursuit and practice have not been a consistent theme over many kingdoms and  rulers througout the centuries unlike in China where ambiguity in speech by statesmen and deception in behavior have remained a consistent behavior throughout the centuries.

 

The author calls the relationship of India with its immediate neighbors in South Asia as “challenge of proximity” as India’s giant political and military size  perplexes is smaller neighbors.  The most challenging is India’s relationship with Pakistan which has always been troublesome right from the beginning after partition.  There has been bilateral talks for improving cooperation when relationship was cordial and sudden stoppage of talks when relationship bwcomes bitter.  Since the 90s the dispute over Kashmir has taken centre stage with Pakistan resorting to asymmetric ware fare (cross border terrorism) to drive home its claim to the territory.  The author summarizes the relationship as consisting of talking and withdrawing based on the climate between the two countries, but concludes that a lot more can be achieved by continuing with talks rather than disrupting it.

Indo-Chinese relationship is a power centered one with china, having already reached a higher plian, looks down on India as a lesser power and not deserving a place among the great powers of the world.  Mr. Saran advocates stronger relationship with democratic countries such as the USA, Japan, Australia and countries of western Europe to balance and counter power dissimilarities between India and China.

 

Finally, the author contends that the Indo-US nuclear deal, in which the he played a considerable part, is aimed at enhancing energy security of India without endangering its ‘strategic autonomy’, but there are many knowledgeable nuclear experts who have asserted that India has played into the hands of US and jeopardized its nuclear option without enhancing nuclear power generation.

 

How China Sees India and the World

By

Shyam Saran

 

The emergence of China as a politico, economic and military super power has been one of the greatest events of the last 30 years, specially at the speed at which it has taken place.  It has become the second pole if not the principal opponent of the United States in world affairs.  This book by Shyam ASaran, the former foreign secretary and one of the experts on China throws light on how that country sees the India and the world around it

China sees itself as ‘Tianxia’ (All Under Heaven) as the Centre of the World, the centre around which all other counties transfixed and to which others pay obeisance. On the contrary they see India as ‘slave nation’ because of its occupation by foreign  and alien powers and, therefore, not to be copied. These opposing and contrasting view points are to govern the relationship of these two countries till today.  Similarly, Tibet and Uigher have been colonized by China and have been under its rule and, therefore, do not deserve any independent existence whereas, China itself has been under the rule of non-Han (specially Mongol), as the author points out).

The very first contact between the two countries came with the spread of Buddhism into China during 2^nd century BC. Buddhism and the monks of the religion were severely criticized as an alien religion.  Despite the opposition, a number of  pilgrims travelled to India to learn and collect Buddhist texts in Nalenda and Taxila, the most famous of them being Xuan Zang and Fa Xien.  Beyond these pilgrims, there was no other contact between the two civilizations.

These contacts through pilgrims and scholars resulted in the spread and  sincization of Buddhism which was a Hinrayana form of the religion. From China, Buddhism spread to Japan with its own variation (Zen) forming a cultural sphere including countries like Vietnam and the entire south east asia.

The author deals with the question of Chinise-tibean relationship in its historical context and throws up evidence to prove that Tibet had remained an independent and extensive kingdom of its own for a long period of time before it was occupied by China in 1950. 

The much talked about “century of humiliation” from 1839 to the founding of the republic in 1948 is dealt with in some detail.  While dealing with the conquest and occupation of China by the western powers, the author makes a passing reference to opium wars of the 19^th century and the role played by India and Indian soldiers in the production of opium and defeat of china then.  Indian soldiers fought on the side of Britishers in the defeat of the chinese.  The role played by India and the Indian soldiers in the opium trade and war must have played a part  in the antipathy exhibited by China towards India subsequently.

China’s gigantic growth  during the last 40 years is primarily due to  merit based employment of its young in the workforce and continuous and sustained economic reforms.  As pointed out, China had a system of meritorious, exam-based civil service selected irrespective of social status whereas in India  the criteria for employment was based on wealth, caste and social status.  The reasons for different levels of economic development of these two countries rest there.

 

INDIA AND ASIAN GEOPOLITICS

By

Shivshankar Menon

Geopolitics is the capacity and ability of States to exercise power, influence and culture over other states, both in the vicinity and beyond the geographical borders.  The Cholas, Pandyas and Pallavas exercised power and influence over countries in south east asia by entering into commercial and cultural relationship as well as indulging in power politics in those countries.

The British played power politics by interfering in Afghanistan and trying to construct it as a buffer zone between India and Russia.  Independent India’s role in playing a geopolitical role was hampered by the legacy of freedom movement which strictly forbade any attempt to interfere in the affairs of other countries.  India desired growth and development of all countries with each helping each other in unison.

Room for playing such geopolitics in post Independent India has been curtailed by values bestowed by independence movement (non-violence for example) and policies of Jawaharlal Nehru such as non-alignment and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Emergence of China  as a major power in Asia, with its occupation of Tibet which resulted in creating a geographical border between the two countries for the first time in history and the position of an aggressive Pakistan virtually from Day One after partition of the sub-continent compelled India to play a geo political role by establishing power relationship with big powers and regional players.

Pakistan’s behavior such entering into military pacts such as CENTO and SEATO of the western powers made India’s position very awkward, but the country still avoided entering any power blocks.  On the other hand India’s prestige as a peace broker enabled it to play constructive role in conflict resolutions, such as Korean, China-Taiwanese and Vietnamese disputes. 

India started playing a strategic role only after the emergence of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister of the country.  Unlike her father, Indira Gandhi was a ‘Realist’ as far as international relations are concerned.  She quickly realized the geopolitical situation in which India is situated vis-à-vis America, China and Pakistan on the one side and Russia and India on the other and entered into a strategic relationship with Russia.  This has helped India in the war with Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh.

Mr. Shivshankar Menon deals exhaustively with matters involving how internal affairs of other countries impinge on India’s strategic situation, such as Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia and the Sri Lankan civil war.

The 1990s were eventful with economic liberalization taking off in India, break-up of the Soviet Union and countries in Eastern Europe and massacre of student protesters at Tiananmen Square in China.  Despite these gigantic events, India’s relationship with Russia, China and nfAmerica has only improved.

What is the geo political position in which India is situated in the early decades of the new millennium? Menon advocates continued multi-lateral  relationship viz. improved economic relationship with America and China and continued military hardware tie up with Russia.  He also advocates continued pursuit of look East policy towards south east asia but an improved and purposeful relationship with India’s immediate neighboring countries of South Asia.

 

THE AYATULLAH BEGS TO DIFFER

The Paradox of Modern Iran

By Hooman Majd

The book is in the nature of a travelogue by an Iranian born American during his visit to Iran in 2006-2007 with frequent recalling of personalities of earlier periods to stress a particular point of view.  The author emphasizes the following throughout the book:-

 

Ø  Iran is not just a country of Shias but also consists of Sunni Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Bhias and also ethnic minorities such as Arabs, Turks, Kurds and others. The live their normal lives in peace like in many other countries;

 

Ø   The author quotes Rafsanjani, the former Iranian President, who had once said, “If you want to understand Iranians, become a Shia first.”;

 

Ø  Shias have a troubled  history enduring enormous sacrifices. Two of their heroes Ali (Son in law of the Prophet) and Hussein (in the battle of Karbala) have been stabbed in their backs by the rivals.  Their treacherous defeats in the battle field have been memorialized by the Shias and this memory has endured over centuries  giving raise to the sense of tauf (pride) and sacrifice.

 

Ø  It is this sense of pride and honor which persists in their defiance of world opinion against Iran completing the full nuclear cycle;

 

Ø  Besides tauf (pride), another characteristic exhibited by Iranians  is ta’arouf which means hospitality and elaborate etiquette, but is also about gaining advantage politically, socially or economically.  What others gain advantage by way of a certain measure of brashness and ruthlessness, Iranians do so with a good dose of ta’arouf.  This chacteristic of ta’arouf is indulged when confronting a guest face to face and not to be exihibited anymously;

 

Ø   The sense of tauf and sacrifice was exhibited in large measure in the Iran-Iraq war or Gulf war, when boys hardly of 14-15 years of age (in the Bais Regiment) with ammunition belt strapped to their waists collided against Iraqi tanks and exploded with plastic keys tied to their necks symbolizing their opening gates of jannat (heaven);

 

Ø  Like many other countries, Iranians too have exhibited a liking for modern western life style such as loud music, fast automobile, mobile phones and consequent vices like corruption, consumptive pattern of living and even prostitution.  The author illustrates his experience of drug consumption in the holy town of Qom.

 

The author does not somehow explain the repeated killing of both rightists and leftists by the Iranian regime and suppression of basic rights of its citizens to express their displeasure against the government and suppression of free speech.  Even wearing a different kind of dress, particularly by women, is repulsed.  Explaining the behavior of the regime as a residue of the age Persian character of tauf (pride) does not jell with modern political states.

 

 

 

 

 

Vietnam – An Epic History of a Tragic War

By Max Hastings

Two facts about Vietnam needs our attention; First, the Vietnamese people refused to be cowed down by imperialistic powers, even if it took a thousand years to throw them out of their country. Chinese imperialism in 1426 after nearly 1000 years of submission to Chineae rule; secondly, the French were sent out in 1954 after subjugation from 1889 and lastly their heroic defeat of American occupation and unification of their country in 1975. The bloodiest liberation from American occupation consumed  nearly two to three million of Vietnamese  lives compared to 60000 american lives,which was at the rate of 1 : 200.

This age old and almost hereditary quality engendered in them the chacteristics of sacrifice to throw occupiers from their midst. For example, Ho Chi Minh rejected the former Governor General’s palace as his personal residence in favour of a gardener’s cottage.  Rest of the book is consumed by the machinations of American military to wipe out the guerrilla forces.  Battles at forest hideouts, paddy fields and American military deployment, both equipment and manpower as well as swift movement resulting in disproportionate loss of Vietnamese lives take up a major portions of the rest of the book.  There are repeated references to massive losses on the Vietnamese side with only minimum loss on the American side. 

In the face of defeat, the author indulges in the favorite past time, that is indulging in demeaning the victory of communists.  He says, “At least under Diem and Thieu there was honour among thieves.   But these party people are wolfing down everything in sight.  Was it really such a good idea to throw out the Americans?”  Again the author brings to light the scene the sight of northern cadres and officers, after being subjected to years of rigors of military life, suddenly confronted (in Saigon) with what seemed to be fairy tale riches for the taking.  It was as if the city has been invaded by a swarm of locusts.

How did the Americans view their involvement in Vietnam?  The author concludes, “While some acknowledged the stuggle (?) as a horrible debacle waged by methods that were often counter-productive and sometimes (?) arguably immoral, some others viewed it as merely a failed campaign in a successful world war….(that) had to be fought to preserve the diplomatic and military credibility of the United States.

With such delusional display of their place in the modern world, there cannot be any doubt that Americans would continue to intervene in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries and get their noses bloodied.

 

AMERICAN PROMETHEUS

The Triumph and Tragedy of Oppenheimer

By Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a titan, who stole fire from Olympus to give it to the humankind. The man and the force behind the construction of atomic bomb in America did very much the same. The atom bomb changed the course of military history during and after the Second World War and, therefore, the title is quite appropriate.  We learn that Oppenheimer excelled in School and “received every new idea as perfectly beautiful”.  He read Plato and Homer in Greek and Cicero, Virgil and Horace in Latin.  He was particularly attracted towards T.R. Eliot, whose poems dealt with themes of sadness and loneliness.  The authors tell us that Oppenheimer was permitted to remain a child and allowed to grow out of his immaturity rather than being wrenched abruptly from it.  Because of his inbuilt introvert nature, evidently Oppenheimer had very few friends at School.  His Jewishness further forbade him from fellow students.

Oppenheimer loved Chemistry very deeply.  As he confided to his friend, “Compared to physics, it starts right at the heart of things and very soon you have the connection between what you see and really very sweeping set of ideas which   could exist in physics bur is very much less likely to be accessible”.  But the early years of 20^th Century were great discovery in physics with Niehl Bohr’s description of the hydrogen atom Heisenberg’s formulation of matrix mechanics and Irwin Schroinger’s thery of wave mechanics.  Combined with the wretched political climate of Weimer Germany, his family was driven  to Physics and USA.

It is often stated that Oppenheimer was moved by Bhagwatgita, specially at the sight of mushrooming cloud at the nuclear test blast site. His favourite portion of Gita called “Satakatrayam” which contains the following:

Vanquish enemies at arms….

Gain mastery of the sciences

And varied arts…

You may do all this, but karma’s force

Alone prevents what is not destined

And compels what is to be.

 

But, Oppenheimer was influenced by the Gita which celebrates a life of action and engages with the world.

Midway through the book, Oppenheimer’s flirtation with communism has been exhaustively dealt with.  He was certainly moved by the leaning of communism towards the under-privileged, but his tribulations were owing to deep suspicions of the American ruling establishment with anyone having the slightest leanings towards communism.

The most attractive part of the book is the time spent by Oppenheimer as Director of the “Weapon Laboratory” which would integrate various parts of the far flung sites of the “Manhattan Project”.  He was all by himself with no special dress code wearing ordinary suit with napkin draped over his arms, much like a waiter.

Even before the advent of atomic age, Oppenheimer along with other scientists such as Niels Bohr felt that international control of atomic energy is possible only in an open world based on values of science.  For them, communitarian culture of scientific inquiry  produced progress, rationality and even peace. Knowledge is itself the basis of civilization and any widening of the borders of our knowledge impose an increasing responsibility on individuals and nations through the possibilities it gives for shaping the conditions of human life.

Unfortunately, such exalted thoughts have been thrown to the winds as nations in post WW-II pursued narrow paths aiming national glory resulting in the dangerous situation we are in today.  Oppenheimer was of the opinion that knowledge of atomic weapons should be shared with other powers such as the Soviet Union, Briton, France and China and suggestions should be invited for improvement in international relations.  In fact, Oppenheimer favored only a technical demonstration of the gadget and outlawing atomic weapons at the outset. But the American establishment did not pay any heed to such ideas.

Like Bertrand Russell, Oppenheimer enunciated establishment of a world body which would harness peaceful uses of atomic energy.  Again,  like Russell, he called for partial renunciation of sovereignty by nations so that such a body could be effective.