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Threats to secular polity
The battle has to be fought all over again
by Kuldip Nayar
PARTITION of the Indian subcontinent is 66 years old. On August 14, 1947, the states of India and Pakistan came into being in the wake of division. Even today they have not settled down as neighbours, much less as friends. Borders are bristling with troops and clashes are inevitable. A few days ago, five men from the Indian army were killed. The Pakistan army may not be directly involved. But it helps the jihadis and even the Taliban in their plan to destablise India. It looks the Pakistan army is not interested in conciliation between Islamabad and New Delhi. One incident or the other always takes place before the talks between the countries begin.What surprises me is that no front-rank politician, historian or any other person of eminence has given me a cogent reason, much less a convincing one, to explain why the two communities, Hindus and Muslims, separated after having lived together for more than a thousand years. The radicals may claim that they maintained peace because they were the rulers. Yet the fact is that Hindus and Muslims had developed a composite culture which recognised the mingling of two civilizations and which had overcome the pulls of polarisation. Social contacts were regular and festivals of the two communities were celebrated jointly. Still it did not take the articulators of religious identity to tear the fabric apart from the thirties. Was pluralism only a cover to hide differences? And in reality, the two communities had never occupied the common ground and had remained distant from each other? Had this been the case, why the exchange of population was ruled out when the separation was contemplated? Even Muslims on their own did not raise any objection that those left behind in India would number more than the ones in the Muslim homeland, Pakistan. Hindus left Pakistan and Muslims from Punjab and a few other cities in the north. It was a forced eviction. The shadowy demand for vivisection was in the background for a long time. But it never swept Muslims off their feet until the thirties when the idea of a two-nation theory was propounded. The Muslim League in which Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah infused life won hands down. While in the 1937 elections, the League won 57 out of the 248 Muslim seats in 11 provinces. A decade later in 1946, it won all over India: 116 seats out of 119 in Bengal, 43 out of 50 in Bihar, 54 out of 61 in UP, 34 out of 34 in Sind and so on. The League failed to get a majority only in the mountainous North West Frontier Province where the Congress Party (Red Shirts) won. It is useless to debate the birth of Pakistan, which is getting more and more radical and Talibanised. But there are liberal Hindu and Muslim leaders in the two countries and other parts of the world to question the people of the two communities parting company after having shared a common way of living and following the same tradition for centuries. A top Congress leader, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, warned that the Muslims in UP, Bihar and Madras would “awake and discover overnight that they have become aliens and foreigners. Backward industrially, educationally and economically, they will be left to the mercies of what would then become an unadulterated Hindu Raj.” Jawaharlal Nehru said that the splitting up of India did not solve the problem of "two nation" for there were Hindus and Muslims all over the place. Humayun Kabir, Azad's private secretary, told me that Azad thought the Congress leader (Nehru was then 58 years old and Sardar Patel 72) accepted partition because they had grown too tired; too old to continue the agitation against the British and wanted to devote the rest of their lives to build an India of their dreams. The Muslim community dubbed Azad a “Hindus' show boy.” It was an avalanche of migration. Humanity was on the move on both sides. None expected it, none wanted it but none could help it. The two countries blamed each other as they tried to grapple with this and other chaotic problems of partition after the first few heady days. The refugees carried with them to the country they went not only bitterness and vengeful thoughts but also stories of atrocities in the villages where they had lived peacefully with other communities for centuries. If partition was on the basis of religion, these instances only furrowed it deep. I personally felt the privations of partition only when I crossed the border penniless. I was not alone. This happened to most Hindus and Muslims who were confident of returning to their own homes once things settled down. But it did not happen that way. How come that the same people from UP and Bihar, a bastion of the Muslim League, looked with disdain the ideology of secularism till the formation of Pakistan? Today, they swear by secularism. How do they justify the two contrary stands before their children or grandchildren? Secularism is the anti-thesis of separation. If it is not the conviction of the community, it is for it to introspect. Many Hindus are becoming prey to the same anti-national approach. I thought that the religious phobia was over after the British left and Pakistan was constituted. But I did not reckon with the separatists working within the Hindu community. The BJP is the Muslim League of pre-partition days. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has become the biggest exponent of Hindutva. The religious approach divided the subcontinent. The same thesis, articulated by the BJP, is destroying national unity. Imagine Modi, who blessed the killing of Muslims as the Gujarat Chief Minister, becoming India's Prime Minister! It means the battle for a secular polity has to be fought all over again. There is no alternative to it because the aggressiveness of the majority can turn into fascism. People thinking in terms of democracy and pluralism cannot sit idle at this
juncture.
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MIDDLE |
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Long live the King!
by H. Kishie Singh
Many
years ago I got a call from a friend who was absolutely euphoric and ecstatic. He had received a call from a car dealer: “Come and take the delivery of your Ambassador!” He was happier than when he became the father of a baby boy and why not? He waited nine months for the boy, but five years for the Ambassador! He wanted me to accompany him to take delivery of the Ambassador. It was a dirty little office. Two beige-coloured Ambassadors stood outside, dirty and mud-spattered. No hub caps, no wipers, no chrome strips, one head light was cracked. It looked as if they had been recovered from a scrap yard. I lived in Canada in those days and new cars were delivered in a sparkling condition in swanky show rooms — like they are today in our cities. As the paper work was progressing at a snail’s pace, I asked to see the car. “See”, said the babu, “Car standing there!” “I would like to inspect the car”, I said. “What for?” said Babu. “Both cars same same! Take!” “I want to look inside, under the bonnet, check it out!” “Hokay”, said Babu grudgingly “I call mechanic”. The mechanic came. He blended in with the surroundings. A turbanless Sardarji, in an oil-stained kurta-pajama. He kept scratching his beard with his oil-plastered hands. “Sasrikal!” he said. “What do you want to see?” “The car my friend is getting!” “Hokey! But who will drive the car?” “How does that make a difference?” I asked slightly perplexed. “Much difference!” he said. “This car gear box makes noise. Driver drives, Sahib sits back. Chup-chaap! This car makes noise at the back seat, so good for Sahib to drive. Front seat chup-chaap!” This was the only option the Ambassador offered. The mechanic opened the boot. The hub caps, wipers, chrome strips and other knick-knacks were lying there. “You can fit these”. He tapped the fuel tank. “Empty! Buy petrol". The interior was spartan. The steering wheel came up at a strange angle, not where it should be for the driver's comfort. Next we opened the bonnet. Dirty, oil spattered, no radiator cap. “It must be in the boot!” he said. Gingerly I pulled out the dip stick. It showed empty! “It coming from Calcutta. Tel kha gayi (it consumed the oil). Top up when you buy petrol”. That was my introduction to the indestructible, undefeatable and loveable Land Crawler called the Ambassador. In the half century of its production it has carried millions of people millions of kilometres over the worst roads in the world. Now it has been rated as the world’s best taxi! It beat the London Black Cab, New York Checkers and whatever else the world has. The award was by the BBC's Top Gear programme conducted by Jeremy Clarkson of “Trotts” fame. Last time Jeremy was in India driving around in a Jaguar he had a chemical toilet fitted in the boot, because he said, in India he would get the "Trotts!" If you believe Jeremy, you'll believe anything! Sadly, there is no award for the Clown Prince of Auto Journalists. Jeremy would have won it hands
down!
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OPED
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India and the Age of Acceleration
We live in a world which is changing at an increasingly rapid pace. One may call our era the Age of Acceleration, an age where the only constant seems to be the certainty of even more change.
Shyam Saran
Laptops have become part of the modern society. Many of us have lived through an era where there was no television, let alone computers, mobile phones or the internet. And yet today, we cannot conceive of a modern economy in which cyber space is not an indispensable and pervasive reality. Photo: Thinkstock |
What
explains this constant flux that now rules our lives? It is mainly the acceleration we witness in technological advancement. The computing power of a micro-chip in our mobile phones is equivalent to several acres of main–frame computers that would have been required a generation ago. The volume of data and the speed with which it can move across vast spaces is difficult to comprehend. And yet, scientists tell us, we are still far from reaching the limits of this technology. There are other domains where potentially disruptive technologies are in the making. These include nano-technology, advanced materials, bio-sciences and artificial intelligence. These developments are pushing the frontiers of knowledge into largely uncharted territory. We do not know how they will interact with social, political and psychological systems that change only slowly. Human beings are seduced by novelty, but they are reassured by familiarity. Technological change has altered our global landscape. The recent global financial and economic crisis was, in a real sense, caused by the mismatch between the scale of technological change and the adaptability of institutions of both domestic and global governance. What is worth noting is that recovery can never be a return to the pre-crisis terrain. And yet that is what we seem to be seeking. Unless we find new instruments of governance, we are doomed to suffer similar crises in the future, perhaps even worse than the last. An altered landscape, which is still in the throes of further change, is no longer amenable to being managed by the tools that were fashioned to deal with an altogether different environment. Yet our predisposition to familiarity and precedent makes us reluctant to down these tools and look for new ones. The emerging landscape Let me point to some of the characteristics of the emerging landscape. It is, in my view, dominated by three critical domains, a terrestrial domain that is increasingly defined by the maritime space, an extra-terrestrial domain which is space-related and lastly, extending both along the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, cyber space. As a globalized economy has become more entrenched, as the interconnectedness and integration of economies across the world continues apace, the maritime sphere becomes a critical factor, impacting directly on the overall security of nations. Ocean-going trade now constitutes well over 90% of total trade. The dependence on maritime trade is even more compelling, if we consider the movement of energy resources, particularly oil, and other strategic commodities such as iron ore, coal and, more recently, rare earths. Resource security is now integrally linked to maritime security. The maritime domain The maritime domain is also in flux. The melting of Arctic ice due to global warming, for example, is opening up new and much shorter sea routes between Europe and Asia, reducing shipping distance by over 40%. From just over 4 cargo vessels in 2010, the number using the North-East passage along the Russian Arctic coast reached over 200 last summer. New ports and infrastructure are planned along the Russian and Norwegian Arctic coasts. If the current trends continue, it is estimated that over 25% of world shipping may be traversing this route, instead of traditional passage through the Suez Canal by 2030.The Arctic may also hold over 40% of the world’s known energy and mineral resources, which the melting of ice is making accessible. The economic profile of the Arctic littoral countries, in particular, the US, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark, would increase and so will their strategic importance. Whether this will retard or even reverse the current ongoing shift in the centre of gravity of global power to the Asia and Pacific region, remains to be seen, but cannot be ruled out. The critical role of the maritime domain also implies that countries which can deploy significant maritime capabilities and which can project power over vast ocean spaces, will be the more influential nations of the future, not those who continue to allocate resources to large and increasingly less effective land forces and weaponry. The domain of space Let me now turn to the domain of space. Much of the world’s communication systems, its information and media infrastructure, navigation and surveillance systems and resource survey platforms are based in space. The number of operational satellites orbiting in space has grown from just a handful 50 years ago to about 5,000 now. These space-based assets are indispensable to modern economies, but they are also vulnerable. This was brought home to the world by China’s unannounced ASAT test in 2007. The space domain is now completely woven into the fabric of our lives on earth, though few of us fully comprehend this reality. In the none too distant future, space travel may become as ubiquitous as air travel today. The colonization of other planets, the exploitation of rich and rare minerals that lie buried in their soil and their use as remote platforms for future explorations of outer space, are no longer in the realm of fantasy. It stands to reason that countries that have mastery in space sciences and ambitions programmes for future growth, will be significant players in any future world order. Let me now turn to cyber space, which is a complex hybrid of both terrestrial as well as extra-terrestrial domains. It is terrestrial in the sense that it is dependent upon a vast and dense network of fibre-optic cables that gird our planet, embedded both in land as well as under sea. It is extra-territorial because it is also connected to all the space-based systems referred to earlier. The virtual reality which cyber space creates and maintains, depends upon both land (including maritime) based and space based platforms which are interconnected and enmeshed in a complex and continually expanding system. Again, it is difficult to comprehend how much our day-to-day living and functioning currently is dependent upon this interconnected cyber space. And yet it is only a little over 50 years since the satellite age was born and only 30 years since personal computers and portable phones came into existence. The worldwide internet which created a global cyber-space is only a little over a generation old. Many of us have lived through an era where there were no televisions, let alone computers, mobile phones or the internet. And yet today, we cannot conceive of a modern economy and a modern society in which cyber space is not an indispensable and pervasive reality. This also implies that countries with advanced cyber-capabilities will possess a most powerful instrument both for economic advancement and enhancing national security. It is a resource which is unique because it is not material or tangible. It is nevertheless a virtual network that no nation or society can opt out of and survive as a viable entity. Interconnectedness is no longer a choice. It is a fundamental condition of modern living and interconnectedness is most visibly manifest in cyber space. India, an influential actor So where does India belong in this transformed landscape? India is, and will remain, an influential actor in the emerging global order, precisely because it has demonstrated capabilities in all the three critical domains I referred to. It is already a maritime power with a strong regional though as yet modest global reach. These capabilities are expanding, though not as significantly as a long-term strategy would dictate. It is one of the handful of space powers and, despite frugal resources, it has developed sophisticated capabilities which are comparable to the best in the world. And lastly, in cyber-space, India has a well-established and internationally acknowledged capability which marks it out as one of the handful of countries that can deploy both defensive and offensive capabilities. It is precisely these capabilities which provide India with the opportunity to lead the world into creating global governance structures that are based, not on the competitive principle, but on an understanding that only collaborative responses will be able to deal with the inter-linked challenges posed by these emerging domains. India has a stake in the norms and standards which such global regimes will eventually adopt. But, since India is, and will remain, a key player in each of these domains, the world, too, has a stake in India being a part and parcel of these regimes. India’s absence from these regimes will make them ineffective. This is a powerful leverage in our hands but we will need a careful well thought-out long-term strategy to use it to be able to shape the emerging global order. I recognize that the current state of our country does not match the potential that our capabilities in the three critical domains provide us with. Nor is it certain that we will continue to develop these capabilities as technologies advance to ever higher realms. I do believe, however, that it is more likely that India will advance, though perhaps in fits and starts, because it is a plural, diverse and extraordinarily interactive society. The mobile, the internet and other social media, are enabling Indians to converse and interact with one another and with citizens across borders, on a scale that is unprecedented. The innate creativity and innovative spirit of India’s peoples is being unleashed on an unprecedented scale. Harnessing this extraordinary energy will require leadership which understands the altered landscape in which we live and leads in putting in place institutions and processes that are appropriate to this changing landscape. We have an advantage in that we are not already locked into a pattern of energy and resource intensive economic development model which characterises China and much of the world today. This is a model which belongs to the past. The future will be built upon its deconstruction. India has an opportunity to fashion a model of development which draws upon its democratic impulses & its store of capabilities in the new domains, and helps shape a global order that promotes collaborative responses to cross-cutting issues, rather than the competitive outcomes that belong to a world that no longer exists. In becoming the thought leader in this respect, India will find its own place in the world, its own destiny. Excerpted from the Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture which former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran delivered in Delhi on August 11, 2013
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