Fault in our genes

Every time I pass by the multiple metro construction sites in Bangalore – I ask myself in genuine contemplation, why are we like this? By ‘we’ I mean all Indians – why are we the way we are? Slow, sloppy, lethargic, disorganized – that’s not a loaded description or the one filled with prejudice or typecast. I will refresh your memory and try to paint a picture for you – remember ‘Mahamana Express’, the brand new train which was supposed to herald the fast and clean trains in India? If not, just google it and see for yourself the pathetic state at which it was left after being in operation for just a few days of time. As some people pointed out in frustration (the feeling which I share) – we Indians don’t deserve good things. We don’t know how to keep the good things we have. As I write these lines, I read a new report where Indians screw the cruise experience for all in Australia. Also, we are one of the worst behaved tourists in the world.

When we try to contrast this behavior with say the Japanese (perhaps the highest benchmark in the world), the observation is very sad. When I was growing up as a kid and also as an adult, I always looked down on the people who have migrated to other nations – permanently or for a long time. Now with the passage of time, I have come to realize there’s nothing wrong with what they have done. They can get better deals, leverage their talent better elsewhere than in India. Not in their lifetime, nor for several more generations are we able to match the living standards of Western Europe or for that matter North America. Maybe that of course, I concur not all are perfect anywhere. But your talent is valued more, you are valued more outside than inside India. Those mavericks who have taken up a fight against the system – to correct it and improve it – are also up against slumbering and compliant masses who are so accustomed to the life here, who don’t aspire for the betterment.

I understand – contrasting India with Western Europe maybe is too much. But let’s consider what now called ‘Asian Tigers’ – countries like Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, etc. They were nothing some 6-7 decades ago. But if you look at them now, they have the same coveted living standards of the west. Their relatively small size is the excuse we give for ourselves – but when we think of China, that argument falls flat. There are so many countries that could inspire us. But we refuse to be inspired.

There are two extreme views on the same subject – one that says that India had a glorious past once and the other which says we are good-for-nothing people and whatever we have/are bequeathed to us by our conquerors. I think we need to tread a middle path where – we may have been great at some point in time. But we have lost track or whatever that was a long time ago and a large portion of the population is deracinated – indeed there is hope, intent, effort but the sheer scale of people we are – the efforts seem lackadaisical.

Yes, India doesn’t represent and has largely moved away from the imagery of Slumdog Millionaire – the typical ‘cow, caste, curry’ as Rajiv Malhotra calls it. Yet, a lot to be done and a lot to be desired. But we have progressed, but not enough. If not for Indians, if anyone else were there in their place there could easily have been a revolution in India – we are too docile to think and act in those lines; politicians and other ringleaders should be thanking their stars for that. We definitely lacked inspired leadership – but inspired leader comes from an inspired populace. I've talked about the same in one of my earlier posts.

I understand we have too many problems, more problems than any other country could fathom – population, diversity, innumerable opinions, fatalistic attitude, lack of ownership, leadership…I can go on – but if we really had an inspired people, each one of these could be addressed. But alas, we don’t have it.

Book Review – Indian trilogy of V.S. Naipaul

To understand the Indian trilogy that V.S Naipaul wrote, we need to first understand some background of the author. This may not be true for all the novels or travelogues but it certainly is true for this particular one. His ancestors travelled from India to Trinidad for good – Some three generations ago. This makes him ethnically an Indian but disconnected geographically but somewhat connected through the vestiges of culture and customs that went into Trinidad along with this forbearers. But he is interested in India – not because he loves it or anything of that sort –but he wants to understand his ancestral land from which his grandfather and others migrated centuries ago. This quest of wanting to know led him to travel to India and he stayed in India for years and this trilogy is the fruit of the quest.

An area of Darkness 

The first among the three installments is a deeply depressing account of the author’s first encounter with India where he faces a sense of estrangement – culturally and otherwise. This is quite normal for any westerner who visits India for the first time even today, not to mention how it would have been in the 60s where things were even worse. They will experience a cultural shock, a kind of estrangement which most people cannot handle. India is much beyond that, India is much deeper than that. He concurs in the very introduction that India was never his country and never will be. But he can’t stop caring for it for whatever reason. There is an element of concern, in his observation and analysis.

He describes the squalor, poverty, corruption among other things that the country is mired in an objective way. As mentioned before, this is a depressing account. In the sense, India looks like a static and decayed society (true in a sense, whatever may be the reason) in Naipaul’s portrayal which is beyond any kind of redemption. If anyone doesn’t understand the intent of the author, it’s easy to lump this work among the others which deliberately show India in a bad light. But that’s not the case here.

India: A Wounded Civilization

This is written around the time of emergency, 1975. By his own admission, this is the shortest book he has ever wrote – 161 pages. Here he explores the country which was invaded multiple times and the lasting impact the invaders had and continue to have in the land, the average Indian psyche, the attitude with which Indians face any problem. 

He brings in many contemporary authors and their works to make his case, although he doesn’t take them at their face value, he uses them to penetrate into the Indian mind. Some of the contemporary writers, especially like that of R.K. Narayan have a very good insight into the Indian way of life and have depicted it so very well in their novels. The observation that impressed me was – how some Hindus interpret the philosophy of Karma in a fatalistic sense and use it as a way to escape from performing any action or taking any responsibility. Forget solving the problem, many times they don’t even acknowledge there is one. In comparison, this work is not as pessimistic as the previous one.

India: A Million Mutinies Now

The last in the Indian trilogy is also the longest one (of over 600 pages) and written in the year 1990. He visits the places he had visited 2 decades ago and meets the people he had met then. He sees the changes the country is subjected to in these two decades. He traverses across the country – from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu, meeting all kinds of people – the Naxals, the Dravidianists, the Dalits, the Brahmins, the Shias, the feminists etc. and tries to understand the nation through their own personal experiences, struggles – the result is a riveting story which slowly reveals the nation with its admixture of immense complexities and possibilities.

The past narratives meet the present challenges and dilemmas and how some of them correlate to the progress of India as a nation. Although there is negativity around, there is also a glimmer of hope in this book much unlike the previous works.

Conclusion

Let’s face it – India is an immensely complex country to understand – even for Indians, not to talk about an average Occidental. Naipaul is uniquely placed in this task. He is a Westerner for all practical purposes with long detached cultural root in this ancient land. Naipaul has tried to do this daunting task with his travels across the country, perspicacious observations, numerable interviews and he is successful in building a new narrative from the facts, stories and observations arising out of these. 

There is unabashed precision in his observation but there is also empathy and concern for the people and for the country. Naipaul is recognized in the world as one of the best writers of travelogues and novelists of our times. Reading this work will make you realize why it is so. 

Book Review - Himalayan Blunder

Authored by Brigadier John Dalvi, Himalayan Blunder is an important book in understanding the Indian humiliation in Sino-Indian war of 1962 – the men who were responsible for it, the deeply flawed policies, and the back ground environment in which the possibility of war was slowly brewing. It’s a curtain raiser to the Sino-Indian war; it’s the angry truth about India’s most crushing military disaster – as proclaimed rightly in the cover page. 

To put it in simple terms, the defeat of India in the hands of Chinese was the outcome of deeply flawed national policy; a policy that was guided from none other than ‘pandit’ Nehru. That’s the genesis from where all other problem emanates. It’s a refusal to acknowledge that there is a crises and that’s needed to be responded to instead indulging in Ostrich-like behavior.

Annexation of Tibet and aftermath –

Any nation which has concerns for its national security cannot remain a mute spectator to the events in its neighboring country. That’s what India chose to do when China annexed Tibet in 1950. Tibet was like a buffer zone for India against its enemies, vital to its strategic defense. India was always considered secure in the North because of the mighty Himalayas which was considered impregnable. But this impregnability was greatly compromised with the annexation of Tibet. Sardar Patel wrote a prophetic letter to Nehru about the Chinese problem in 1950, just one month before his death. Brig. Dalvi says that letter deserves a place in any analysis of Sino-Indian war.

India under Nehru was delusional about the imminent Chinese threat. It continued to make believe that China was a good friend of India and there can never be any was with China even though there might be minor differences. Instead of assessing the problems in strategic and military viewpoint, India decided to rest on hope – for which it had to pay dearly in 1962.

Lack of direction, lack of leadership

As mentioned earlier, India never acknowledged the imminent threat China posed let alone develop a strategic response to it. When this is the case, we can’t expect any serious preparation in the military ranks and files. Every decision was taken on an ad-hoc basis; there was no serious long term strategic plan whatsoever. Even though many military officers could see the cardinal disregard for the military principle they were unable to do so owing to political pressures.

But on the other side, China was thoroughly prepared for any kinds of escalations – in terms of manpower, transport, food supply etc. When the Chinese were feverishly preparing for a possible invasion and combat, India was dilly-dallying and hoping that nothing would happen. It was only when the Chinese moved into the Indian Territory and occupied a portion of Ladakh, India was alerted. Then, the military reactions begin – which was actually done to pacify agitated public opinion, nothing more. India was giving bombastic statements externally, but internally hoping everything would end peacefully. This kind of dual aims or confused aims never give any proper directions to the war.

With lack of preparedness in all fronts, lacking any cohesive national policy, lacking political leadership, having to confront a mighty enemy, Indian army – which was once hailed as one of the best in the world was humiliated at the hands of Chinese in October 1962 and had to concede thousands of square miles which is not recovered till date. This was no fault of the army which actually fought in the toughest of the terrains and with the mightiest of the enemies and with bare minimum resources. Many (including the author) were taken as Prisoners of War.

Brig. Dalvi lists all the guilty men who were responsible for this debacle. It all starts from Nehru, defense minister Menon, the ministry of defense et al. When the confrontation happened, the two important people of the country – the PM, and the defense ministers were not in the country tells tales how serious these men were about the happenings in the country. Instead, Nehru was concerned about the world problems and assumed the leadership position in NAM and neglected the domestic and defense issues. After the death of Sardar Patel, Nehru and his policies were virtually unchallenged and uncontested. This proved to be detrimental.

The war of 1962 was a rude awakening for India. It was a call to formulate a realistic foreign policy. Brig. Dalvi sums it up as “1962 was a national failure of which every Indian is guilty. It was a failure in higher direction of war, a failure of the opposition, a failure of the general staff (myself included): it was a failure of responsible public opinion and the press. For the government of India, it was a Himalayan Blunder at all levels”

Troy! And the train of thoughts that unfolded

A few days back I watched the movie Troy in its director’s cut version. To narrate the story shortly-it’s a story of war between the Trojans and Greeks for the queen of Spartans (Helen) who is abducted by the Trojans. I really loved the visual spectacle that the makers were able to create. Though it was criticized by many for its flaws like historical inaccuracies, poor acting by a few etc. it is one of the magnum opus projects post-2000. As a hard-case movie buff, I was discussing this with my cousin, yet another movie buff! 

Having seen many historical movies in Hollywood, I wondered why they didn’t make any significant movies about India despite the fact that India is the only continuous, oldest civilization on the earth which is replete with colorful history. Even if one were to discount the mythological stories of India still there was an ample scope of making great historical movies out of India. When you have a history of more than 5000 years, there ought to be many great historical characters, instances. For this my cousin nonchalantly replied that westerners or the people of the so-called 'first world' don’t want to see India as a land of heroes or in anyway positive (yes there are a few earnest movies like City of Joy but the numbers are very few).

There was truth in his statement. The first world still wants to see India as a land of snake-charmers and soothsayers. To satisfy their appetite for India’s portrayal as chaotic and effete nation, Hollywood churns out movie like Slumdog Millionaire which is so poor that no true Indian can like the unfaithful depiction of India. The makers have done a loathsome job of rag-pickers who have picked all the negatives possible: Drug mafia, human trafficking, prostitution, communal hatred and what not. An art-deprived movie which plays to the gallery by the over-usage of clichés, stereotypes wins Academy award for the best movie category!

Apart from the reason stated before, the other strong reason appears to be the proximity and proclivity that Hollywood has towards the Greek and Roman history. It is true both geographically and culturally. The European philosophy for instance is greatly influenced by the Greek philosophy. So, there is a cultural proximity and that doesn’t exist with India. For the west, India is still the ‘other’. To borrow a phrase from Samuel Huntington, each has been the other’s other.

Samuel Huntington in his landmark book “The clash of civilizations” explains two terms: hard power and soft power. “Hard power is the power to command resting on economic and military strength, and soft power is the ability of a state to get other countries to want what it wants through the appeal of its culture and ideology.” Soft power is power only when it rests on a foundation of hard power.

India as a country never lacked soft power. But soft power becomes a farce when it’s not supported by the hard power. India had both hard power and soft power before the advent of the British (it was the richest country in the world before 16th century). If Roman and Greek empires are remembered even to this day the reason is that the soft power comfortably rested with the foundation of hard power of military might. If the U.S is seen as the world leader today, it is because of its economic and military prowess. As India doesn’t lack soft power, in order to command respect of the west and the rest, India should work on hard power even harder.

India’s success is special, incomparable..

Among many factors said about India, a few remains undisputed. A few striking features are its diversity and uniqueness. More than one billion population with such a kind of smooth flow (yes, it is!despite some glitches of course) is unparalleled in the world. With the level of diversity, no country would ever have existed or would exist. Author Gregory Roberts says through one of his characters in his novel Shantaram “India is about six times the size of France. But it has almost twenty times the population. Twenty times! Believe me, if there were a billion Frenchmen living in such a crowded space, there would be rivers of blood. Rivers of blood! And, as everyone knows, we French are the most civilized people in Europe. Indeed, in the whole world” There is something which ties all Indians together despite its unending differences and diversities.

Among civilizations, India is the oldest (undisputedly over 5000 years old) civilization of the world. There have been many great civilizations in the past but all have vanished with time. Indian civilization is the only living civilization among them. There should be something immense and profound in it if it has stood the test of time and innumerable onslaughts & invasions.

There can be no doubt that India is a complex nation. No wonder it is called a sub-continent. Two striking diversities are its religion and language. All the major religions of the world have their presence in India. Four of the world’s great religions were born in India. India always has sheltered the persecuted ones (the Zoroastrians, the Tibetans). Besides the religions, there are innumerable cults, sub-cults each practicing their own practices and interpretation of religion.

Among languages, no country in the world houses as many languages as India does. There are easily over hundred languages in India (if dialects are included the number easily surpasses one thousand). In food habits, clothing there exist a radical diversity among many parts of the country. Many say for every hundred kilometer that one travels in India, the food habits, the language significantly change.

As India has a multi-party system, there are innumerable political parties. All the parties profess their own ideologies. There is no single ideology in the country: there are parties which are left-leaning, right-leaning, language based, religion based (of course the main ideologies of all the parties are money and power, all others are secondary details!).

India of course is tormented by vast arrays of problems. Some problems like rampant corruption, red-tapism can be detrimental for economic growth of any country. Despite the host of problems, India’s economic progress has been impressive over the years. Many economists could not come to terms with it and have comfortably labeled India as ‘Magic Economy’!

A country which is not diverse, which has one common language and many other commonalities, it is easy for them to march in the direction of progress than a country which is as diverse as India. It’s like the wheels of a vehicle: if there are ten wheels and all are oriented towards a single direction it is easy to reach the destination than the situation where all the wheals are disoriented. In India, the later situation prevails. Among many other reasons, the main reason for ascendance of Soviet Union was its people’s devotion to a single ideology. It ascended to greater heights and reminded sole challenger to the U.S for a long time. (Of course the direction where people are oriented is also of immense importance. Even in Iran, the population is uniform, but to no use.)

So, these factors make India incomparable with any other country because it is too unique. Many yardsticks, parameters which measure certain attributes of India don’t do justice and seldom give complete picture of the nation.

My Books Review: December '11

        Shantaram- Written by Gregory David Roberts, this novel is an account of the author’s life spanning over a decade. Gregory Roberts, an Australian was a heroin addict and to satiate his need for heroin, he indulged in many crimes in Australia and then was sentenced to nineteen years of imprisonment. After serving two years in jail, he along with another escaped form the prison and thus became Australia’s one of the most wanted men. 

His journey after he escaped from jail took him to many countries and continents. Finally he lands in India and India becomes his home for many years. Soon after he enters India, he assumes a fake name (Lindsay a.k.a Linbaba) and identity. He develops a deep friendship with his guide in Bombay, Prabhakar who is not well educated but very lively and honest person. After a few days Prabhakar takes Lin to his native and his parents name Lin as Shantaram (that is where the title of the novel comes from) In the meantime Lin falls in love with an American, Karla. 

After a few months, Lin shifts his location to the slum and begins to stay there. With a preliminary medicine training he had, he serves in the slum as their doctor and rescues many during the break of cholera epidemic. Lin gets accustomed to the way of life of the slum and earns respect and love of the people of the slum. Lin is jailed for an unknown reason (which he later finds out) and is tortured for a few months. The person who gets him out of jail is Khader Khan, a mafia don.

After he gets back from jail he joins the mafia of Khaderbhai and learns many tricks like black money trading, drug trafficking, making of fake passports and begins to earn a decent income form the mafia. The brotherhood of mafia is stronger and he begins to see Khader as a father figure and Khader sees Lin as his own son. The mafia had people from many nations like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt etc.

In the meantime Khader, an Afghanistani decides to fight the soviets who have intruded his country. So, they decide to take part in the war and all including Lin leave for Afghanistan. What happens in the war, how Lin comes to know about the betrayal from his lover and the man he revered, what he does after returning to Bombay forms the later part of the story. 

The way in which the author has expressed himself is simply brilliant. The narration is witty, humorous, poetic at times, philosophical, replete with witty one-liners. Unlike many foreign authors, he is able to see the Indian life without any prejudices. The author has more or less succeeded in capturing the essence of India and Indians. His immense love for India, Bombay in particular is expressed in many ways. The book is huge of over 900 pages but it's worth every page.The sad thing is that this is the only novel he’s written so far. I wish he’d written more.

This provides a brilliant material for a potential Hollywood blockbuster. It has all the qualities of being made into a great movie. Someone should seriously try this. This book is easily one of the best novels I’ve ever read, a recommended read indeed.

My Books Review: June '11

1) My India- The India Eternal: This book is a collection of exhortations by none other than Swami Vivekananda. From the past few days my mind is completely occupied from Vivekananda. That is what Swami Vivekananda's literature does to anyone. So powerful are the words that come from him that if taken with the right spirit, they have the ability to change the very core of the person and put him into action. No wonder he was able to inspire millions of youths for many generations and he continues to inspire even now. 

The book dwells on the glory of our past, the possibility of the future and as Indians our duties, the value of education, problems of women, the way to national integration. Any Indian even with zero patriotism if reads this book, will definitely be not the same as before. Some amount of love for the country, its heritage, its culture, its tradition, the spiritual giants it has produced time and again, would definitely be instilled.

2) Emotional Intelligence: Probably the first book to introduce that there is something called as emotional intelligence to a wide audience. The author of the book is Daniel Goleman. The book talks about the nature of the brain, especially the part that controls emotions, different kinds of emotions, the relevance of emotions to one’s development as an individual and also to socialize and the possible cures for emotional aberrations. The author argues how EQ (emotional quotient) is more important than IQ (Intelligent Quotient). The book is very well written, the use of language is lucid and it is easily one of the best books I've ever read.