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As part of its Asia Project to revive the old cultural roots and
intellectual linkages, India International Centre, New Delhi,
held five seminars focussing on the social, religious, cultural,
political, economic and historical relations subsisting between
India and the regions of Asia: South Asia, Southeast Asia,
Central Asia, East Asia and West Asia. The book under review
relates to the most recent seminar on the theme "India and
West Asia, history, culture and society" held on March 1
and 2, 2002. Thirty participants from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Sudan took part in the deliberations.
Professor Gulshan Dietl of Jawaharlal Nehru University was the
coordinator. She has summed up the proceedings of the seminar in
the last chapter of the book. N.N. Vohra, who has held high
administrative positions in the Government of India and now is
the Director, India International Centre, a perceptive
commentator on the contemporary history, has edited the book.
The book opens
with a message from H.R.H. Prince EL Hassan bin Talal (the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), who was instrumental in the
setting up of a ‘Parliament of Culture’ in Istanbul, which
he considered necessary as a forum for international dialogue at
a cultural level. According to him, the institution would
promote the cause of non-violence and the preservation of human
dignity. In his scholarly introduction, Dr Karan Singh sets the
pace of the seminar. He suggests that the revival of cultural
relations provides the potential means for strengthening
political and economic bonds between India and West Asia.
In his article
"India and the Arab World, Retrospect and Prospects,"
Faisal Odeh Al-Rfou’h, gives a synoptic review of the
political and cultural relations between Inai and the Arabs
since the 7th century AD. He is appreciative of the role of
Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru for supporting the Arabs on the
question of Palestine.
In his
recapitulation of the Indo-Arab relations in his "Personal
Reflections" Rafiq Zakaria shows how Nehru by forging
strong diplomatic and political ties with the Arab world,
particularly with Nesser, had won the confidence of the Arabs,
which his short-sighted successors lost due to their narrow
interests and other priorities.
Based on original
source-materials and written with judicious restraint, Abdul Ali
in his article "Sanskrit’s Legacy to the Arab
intellectual Heritage" argues that the Arabs, being
open-minded had benefited from the Indian contributions in
astronomy, mathematics and medicine, of which they had made the
maximum use. Abdul Ali focuses on some hitherto unknown Arab
texts that throw light on the life of the Indian people. He also
singles out some examples to emphasise the cordiality of
relationship between India and Arab rulers. In his "Conceptualising
India-West Asia Relations," A.K. Ramakrishna strikes a
different note by providing a broad approach to the
understanding and linkages between India and West Asia with
different and changing world systems. He rejects the Post-modern
Orientalist interpretation, and instead examines the writings of
some of the Western writers on West Asia to support his own
conclusions. He recommends the necessity of evolving economic
and trade linkages "that compel the capitalist world not
only to shift geographically but also to promote alternative
centres of production and trade."
In his "Yemen
and India" Saleh Ali Basurrah, Rector of Aden University,
traces the relationship between the two countries during the
past four centuries and identifies the specific events that
determined the association. The crucial factor for shaping the
political and economic destiny of Yemen was the British
occupation of Aden in 1830 by a combined British and Indian
force. The British control of Aden was closely tied to the
British Administration of Bombay. Consequently, a number of
Gujarati business establishments sprang up in Yemen.
It is not possible
to comment on all articles in the volume, but Mortofa El Abadi’s
study on India and the Mediterranean is important. It is based
on the analysis of the ancient archaeological findings and texts
and so is Himanshu Prabha Roy’s relating to maritime contacts
in the western Indian Ocean. In "Cultural Implications of
Trades between South Asia, the Gulf, and Mesopotamia in the
Bronze Age," Shereen Ratnagar emphasises the commonality of
culture due to maritime trade, and raises some social and
economic issues that need further research.
Challenging the
notion of Hindutva, Neera Chandok in "Exploring Composite
Culture" pleads that the Indian cultural categories nursed
and sustained during the Indian national movement "may need
to be reinforced by liberal democratic justice to all." She
pins her hopes on the notions of composite culture, secularism
and democracy, the "three Gods of the newly independent
centres of the third world."
Dr Chandoke
further maintains that after the Partition of India, even
Jinnah, having resiled from his earlier position, turned into a
convinced secular-minded statesman. In this connection she
refers to Jinnah’s speech delivered on August 11 to the
Pakistan Constituent Assembly. As this speech is quoted ad
infinitum to establish Jinnah as secular-minded, it is
necessary to comment on it. It is important to remember the
context in which Jinnah delivered the speech. When Jinnah
delivered his speech Muslim lives in India were being threatened
by the Hindu communalists. The Hindu capitalists of Sindh were
also fleeing to India, whom Jinnah was anxious to retain as he
felt that their exit would adversely affect Pakistan’s
economy. A proposal was put up to Jinnah for the constitution of
the governing body of Habib Bank in Karachi and two Hindu names
were suggested to him for their inclusion, but Jinnah would not
have them. Jinnah remained absolutely inflexible in his
antipathy towards the Hindus. Hence I regard his speech as a
sheer political statement designed to mellow the Indian
bitterness with a view to saving Muslim lives in India, and
making the Muslim migration to Pakistan easier.
What comes out
clearly in the volume is that India and the countries of West
Asia had much social, cultural and political interaction with
each other but the common experience of political subjugation
under foreign powers proved decisive and meaningful. This book
ably edited and elegantly produced provides a solid base for a
more comprehensive research, and makes constructive pointers for
mutual trust and understanding between India and the countries
of West Asia.
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THE
title of the book is wide enough to include anything between the
stars and earth. The word ‘culture’ in the title is one of the
most complicated terms susceptible to various interpretations. I
think that this is due to historical developments. Now the term ‘culture’
has come to be used for distinct intellectual disciplines and in
several systems of thought. Culture took on the meaning of
cultivation and a process. Raymond Williams described it as a
"tending of natural growth and cultivating it." The
meaning was extended to a process of human development. Bacon called
it "the culture and manure of minds," and Hobbes "a
culture of their minds." Culture has also been used in the
sense of ‘material’, as distinct from ‘spiritual notions’.
