'Gandhi, Ambedkar and the Crossroads at Jantar Mantar'

(From left) Sunil Khilnani, S. Anand, MJ Akbar, Joseph Lelyveld, Aruna Roy &  moderated by Urvashi Butalia. (Audio of this discussion available on side panel of this blog.)

Signboards: Better Angels of These Times...

Emerging Super and Flop Powers ! Through the lenses of authors of Asia...

Whether hard or soft; the notion of superpower has engulfed the imagination of power monger, strategist, scholars around the world for decades. It is especially true after second world war when all European powers were decimated and only two namely U.S.A. and U.S.S.R remained to occupy the space once dominated by Great Britain, Germany and others. The discussion about superpower becomes even more interesting when looked through the lens of Post American World (Fareed Zakaria), The Second World (Parag Khanna), UNESCO Science Report 2011 and many new interesting accounts of the changing paradigms of world.

The great hotbed of war of emerging superpowers and those of established ones is of course South Asia. Afghanistan is too part of larger South Asian family. Who can ignore the elephants in the room namely China, USA, Russia and Japan. When in the 50s theatre of brinkmanship was Korea, in the 60s Vietnam, in the 70s Arab states, in the 80s Afghanistan, in the 90s Caspian sea and independent countries from USSR, post 2000 it is Indian Ocean and post 2010 it is South Asia. Geling Yan from China, Thant Myint-U from Burma, and David Malone from Canada discussed, with Shashi Tharoor, notion of superpower and the great strategic game being played in Asia throughout the Indian ocean, in the plains of Burma, Afghanistan, Nepal and other countries. It is easy to predict it is all about energy resources but how old historical connections can get revived, altered or get destroyed through the dynamics of real polity that is the issue under investigation. How the policies of look east can be brittle, how ripen fruits of war won in the subcontinent can be sour if there is no engagement with the neighbours and how the old rivalries with China can be still major roadblock even in asserting our dream as responsible south Asian power let alone take steps in that direction.

Geling told that how concept of superpower can be self-defeating if the population is not much educated. It is not healthy. Because of people`s urge for male child and because of compelling one child policy, there is huge number of ‘silent/underground girls’ being pumped into urban areas without knowledge of officials who have been appointed to supervise this program. Thus these girls are forced to live in substandard condition. But significant thing about China is, there citizens are travelling across the world. They are bringing new business opportunities and technology back to the country. Especially this is true about ideas of innovation and wealth creation. The outside world has still confused itself by assuming that Chinese are very closed society. On the contrary secular character of Chinese society lies in their intensely cultivated and now deeply rooted in their pragmatic behaviour which thinks about empowering the individuals with opportunities, technologies and comfort levels. Here distinction between people and government must be made. There is no point in flashing up old/clichéd debate about democratic/free India and communist/authoritarian China. Nevertheless perils of secrecy, coercion and dominating the private space by state are sure to show the perils in coming times.

The impact of liberal policies in Burma seems to be attracting backlash from the established dictatorial institutions and leaders there. Indian has been historically neglectful of its neighbours. All the times it has to prepare itself to respond or absorb provocation from western frontier. But in the long term creative engagement with the Chinese government remains the challenge. Despite the fact that trade relations are growing, that is not sign for the long lasting trust and affinity in the possible convergence.

Chinese are heavily investing in the ports, rail-lines and roads through Burma and opening for grand bargain in the Indian Ocean. Let us see, how this story unfolds in coming days. This is especially interesting in the context of Indian government has started making positive gestures towards Burmese Junta Army and Burma has also started signalling U.S.A. for leveraging its strategic position. So, Burma is going to be new flashpoint in the subcontinent. Watch out for it.

Another simmering, burning and rotten flashpoint in the frying pan is Pakistan. Its recent Memogate scandal, tussle between Army and ‘civilian government’, Army`s long shot through Judiciary to dislodge established government, notion of civil society in Pakistan and possibilities of emerging leadership were discussed by Fatima Bhutto and Ayesha Jalal. The details can be found in the recording link of the their interaction moderated by senior journalist Karan Tapar in this blog at right side of this blog. 

Publish and Perish ! Print and be damned !! Write and get washed away in memory !!!

Kabir says, “First god created his light, from it all creatures were born. The whole world emanated from one light. Whom shall we call good, whom bad? Brothers, wander not in delusion: The creator is in created, the created in creator: he/she prevails all over. The clay is the same, but moulded in various forms. The potter has himself fashioned them all. Find not fault with the clay nor with the potter.” Now do not be mistaken that Kabir is appealing us to follow concept of god blindly without questioning its basic principle. Kabir is just expressing the feeling of mutual engagement of devotee, devoted in spiritual sense, and not idolising any personality or natural force. This feeling of participation in Bhakti, love and also in life was one of the central themes in Jaipur Literature Festival 2012.

Shabnam Viramani reciting Kabir at JLF

In an interview published in The Hindu Literary Review of 4 July 2010 Salman Rushdie offers explanation as how his name 'Rusdie' evolved. He said, "I'm not really called “Rushdie”,” my father made up the name because he was an admirer of the philosopher Ibn Rush'd, known to the West as Averroes. He was one of the people who, in the 12th century, tried to fight the literalist interpretation of the Koran, and did so with great brilliance and scholarship, but, as we can now see from the history of the world, lost the battle. He said that if you look at the Judeo-Christian definition of God, it differs from the Muslim definition in one important particular, which is that the Jews and Christians say that man was created by God in his own image. And what that sentence clearly suggests is that there is some relationship between the nature of man and the nature of God — “created in his own image.” Islam says the opposite. Islam says that God has no human qualities. He has divine qualities. And so Ibn Rush'd argued that language also is a human quality, and that therefore it was unreasonable to suggest that God spoke Arabic, because God presumably spoke “God”. And as a result, when the archangel — even if you believe the story literally — appears on the mountain and delivers the message, the Prophet, understanding it in Arabic, is already making an act of interpretation: he's already taking something that arrives in non-linguistic form and understanding it linguistically. He takes something that arrives as a divine message and transforms it into human comprehension. And so it was argued, if the original act of receiving the text is already an act of interpretation, then further interpretation is clearly legitimate. And that was Ibn Rush'd's attempt — probably the most brilliant attempt, in my mind — to destroy literalism from inside the text. It didn't work, unfortunately, but I wouldn't mind having another go."

Faizi, is 16^th century poet born in Agra, went to court of Akbar. He says at one place, “When love crosses bound into intoxication, it begins to tyrannize everyone; Love then becomes truthful tyrannifiication who thinks justice comes only from destroying good.” This love about religion and misleading, obsessive and passionate idea of supernatural and indifferent god has compelled the situations to go in embarrassing way at Jaipur Literature Festival. When political forces contrived with bureaucracy police administration, theocratic clergies and energetic election strategists. 

According to me following were the significant issues discussed there. Dynamics of South Asia (Borders, Violence, Freedom of Speech, Writers in Exile, Writing and Resistance), Emerging writers (Young writers who reached to fame recently by books about success mantras, alliance of competitive life and love, philosophical packaging of the message about the intricacies of life), Science and Spirituality (Has man replaced god, rationality vs faith, has humanity become less violent over the centuries), Journalism (What is happening in Pakistan, its connection with Literature, talking with celebrities, moderating discussion of intellectuals and editors etc), Biographies (interviews of legendary authors, philosophers in Bhakti movement, revealing interviews of senior poets, writers and craftsmen/women of art of storytelling), Drama (its place in contemporary life in relation with cinema, adaptation of script into drama, film and other media), History (again biographies, military history, holy wars, subcontinent`s bloody history of dictatorship, issues of evolution and its contentions), Love (novels, stories, poems, spirituality). 

We will interact about all these issues deliberated there in coming features on this address. Stay tuned. 

-----------------------------------------------------