INDIA: INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS
Back from a 3 week vacation. If you surmise from the title that my conclusions regarding India - and its future - are highly negative, you are right.
Before I went , I never imagined I would come back half so disparaging.
There are four facts - of which I was previously unaware - that strongly influenced my conclusions:
(1) The existence of many levels for each of the Hindu varnas (castes). For instance, there are more than 50 levels in the Brahman and 41 in the “warrior” caste. High Brahmans never marry middle Brahmans, let alone low Brahmans, or - HEAVEN FORBID - someone from another caste.
(2) The overwhelming prevalence of “arranged” weddings in the middle and upper classes of India. Until I gave it some thought, I almost was convinced that this arguably a good thing; and it can be if you looked only at the individual couple. Individual men and women might occasionally ignore these castes and levels; but parents, never. The result is a vast web of familial connections that cause India to be in the “top ten”of the world’s most corrupt countries. (Acknowledged by her previous Prime Minister)
(3) The 1974 massacre of thousands of Sikhs in Delphi and other parts of India performed while the police and the Army smilingly looked on. This mob massacre - which was indiscriminate of age or sex - was led by Hindu priests and followed Indira Gandhi’s assassination by two Sikh guards. Not one person was ever prosecuted.
(4) The March 2002 mob massacre of thousands of Muslims in Mahatma Gandhi’s birth state of Gujarat performed while the police and Army smilingly looked on. Again, the Hindu mobs who armed themselves with kerosene to rape and torch every Muslim home or person they could find, was led by saffron robed priests. 100,000 Muslims were left homeless. A N.Y Times reporter quoted the Gujarat parliament representative as saying “without self-consciousness” that the Muslims of his city were “people who do little work except to steal.” The Prime Minister of India said: “The subsequent developments were no doubt condemnable (the massacre) ..but…Wherever Muslims live, they don’t like to live in co-existence with others…and instead of propagating their ideas in a peaceful manner, they want to spread their faith by resort to terror and threats. The world has become alert to this danger.“ It should come as no surprise that that not one person was ever prosecuted for these atrocities to Muslims.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH OF INDIAN HISTORY
The Portuguese first came to India in 1498 in search of silks and spices. The “Moghuls“ ( descendants of Genghis Khan in Afghanistan who had converted to Islam) controlled a civilization that was far more sophisticated than anything then existing in Europe. In fact, Europe in the next 150 years produced nothing that the Indians were willing to take in trade, except silver and gold. In these first years, the only advantage the Europeans had were superior gunboats because of mounted cannons. For inland trade they were dependent on the good graces of the natives. For instance, in 1633 the English chief trader at that time was not too proud to kiss the proffered bare toe of the Moghul governor prior to presenting a trade petition!
By 1737 however, dynastic struggles, court incompetence, over-taxation and wars with Persia and Afghanistan had left the Moghul emperor, although still titular ruler of all India, only a shadow of his former power. Literally hundreds of local rulers and Moghul officials were independent in all but name.
It was in this atmosphere of infighting and fragmentation that characterized 18th century India that the Europeans began their “game” of divide and conquer, ruling through native puppets.(“Nawabs” corrupted to “nabobs”by the English) The French began the game in 1746 when a tiny force of Frenchmen and native sepoys, using cannons and disciplined European methods of warfare, defeated - much to their own surprise - a much larger force of Moghul cavalry. Except for the happenstance that a European peace treaty in 1749 restored Madras to the English, the French probably would have ruled India.
But it was not to be. Technically, the British were in India under the guise of employees of the British East India Company, but it was only a guise; in fact, they were robber barons of the most ruthless and predatory sort. In only about 16 years, a relative handful (never more than a couple thousand) Englishmen under Robert Clive gained effective control of India by playing rulers and ethnic groups, one against the other. So greedy were these Englishmen for personal wealth that when they initially gained control of the Taj Mahal, they put it up for auction for the haul- away value of the marble!
The “Great Mutiny” of 1857 was a direct result of British arrogance and hubris. Learning from this, the British thereafter scrupulously observed the treaties and limited autonomy of local Indian aristocracy, such that these rajputs and maharajas became the most loyal bulwark of continued British rule. When India became independent on August 14, 1947, there were more than 600 of these locally ruled jurisdictions.
THE GOOD ABOUT INDIA
Before I go on to the bad I should list some of the good:
(1) India contains the full range of human intelligence and genius; just as much proportionally as any other nation. You see this not just with the educated elite, but with the average poor farmer or hawker man-on-the-street.
(2) The children, more so than any country I’ve ever visited, are demonstrably friendly, smiling, waving to us (even on our buses) and loving to do “high fives”. The children were the most enjoyable aspect of my trip.
(3) Indian food is excellent throughout the country. It never got “old” for me.
(4) India now produces more than enough food to feed its very large population. Until 1974, this was not the case: using a socialist model of regulation and price controls it had continually been at, or on the verge of, famine. Since that time, they have not only lifted all price controls, but eliminated income taxes on most farm income. The result is dramatic: many small tractors and fields that look efficient and not so very, very different from those in the west. (The downside to this prosperity in the farm sector is that it has resulted in a population explosion on the farm and more than 50% of these rural children are not in school.)
INDIAN DEMOGRAPHICS: SOON TO BE THE MOST POPULOUS NATION
It is not a question of whether; it is only a question of when. With a present day population of 1.1 to 1.2 billion, India will overtake China within several decades.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/3575994.stm)
While some progressive areas such as Bungalore (IT outsourcing) are accepting the concept of the 2 child family, 73% of Indians live in rural villages. (http://www.indiansaga.info/others/index4.html)
In India as a whole, only about 50% of the children between 6 and 13 are in school at any one time.(http://www.indianchild.com/demography_of_india.htm)
India’s net population is growing at about 2.1% per year. The “Total Fertility Rate” is an astoundingly high 3.1% (childbirths per 1000 women each year.) (http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html)
An astounding 35%+ of India’s total population today is age 15 years or under. By itself, this guarantees that India will be the most populous when this uneducated bulge reaches childbearing years.
Approximately 80% of Indians are Hindu. 11% approximately are Muslim or around 150 million. Christians and Buddhists each represent about 1%. 2- 3% are Sikhs who are Hindus, essentially, but who eject the caste system. Then there are the 70 million or so “tribals.”
There are 18 recognized languages, but more than 1000 dialects. 40% speak Hindu which is the official state language. All of the Hindu holy texts, however, are in Sanskrit, which is a “dead” language like latin; thus priests who study the language are necessary to interpret the religion for the populace.
There are 28 states in India, most based around a language or an ethnic group. Thus, Tamil and Bengali are languages spoken in 2 of the more populous states. Bengali has a Nobel prize winner in literature.
MAHATMA GANDHI: “INDIA: LEAVE HER TO ANARCHY”
Gandhi was born of the Brahman caste in the state of Gujarat (just to the south of Kashmir.) He was educated in England where he became a barrister. A Muslim firm in Gujarat hired Gandhi and later sent him to South Africa where he became famous.
Two quotes from Gandhi struck me as noteworthy:
(1) He said that the caste system, especially as it relates to the “untouchables”, was a “blight” on Hinduism.
(2) In 1947, he said that the English “should just get out of India.” A reporter asked Gandhi who the English should turn over responsibility to. Gandhi responded: “Leave India to God. If that is too much, then leave her to anarchy.”
Gandhi was assassinated in 1952 by a “Hindu-first” intellectual who, along with many, considered him an old man who had outlived his usefulness; who was too protective of Muslims and not sufficiently Hindu. Today, school textbooks neglect to mention this fact.
INDIA: THE BAD
(1) OLYMPIC MEDALS: NO PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
India won just 2 Olympic medals in 2004, including a silver in “shotgun” by an Indian Army colonel who now has a stamp dedicated to him. This total is less medals than Slovenia, Lithuania, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iceland! It is same number received as Botswana, Cyprus, and the Faroe Islands! The City of Hong Kong alone had 25 medals including 10 gold. Why is this significant?
It is significant because the Olympics give out medals to reward men and women for just about every human endeavor from badminton to beach volleyball; from table tennis, kayaking, and trampoline to rhythmic dance.
Having just come back from India, I believe the lack of medals is symptomatic of a society that is fundamentally sick, and certainly one that does not encourage the pursuit of excellence in anything!
(2) INDIAN STREETS ARE VERY, VERY DIRTY AND UNCLEAN
I have been in some very poor countries, including rural areas of China, Tibet, and South America. Nothing compares with the filth you almost uniformly find on the streets of urban India. Even next to the biggest and newest public buildings and monuments. I did not see 5 feet of unbroken, level public sidewalk in the whole of India. On or just back of every sidewalk are the homeless families, often without even the rudiments of shelter. In the evenings, the smoke from the cooking fires almost chokes and blinds you.
It is a mystery to me why there is such a total lack of any anti-littering ethos. Indians routinely throw their litter and garbage into the streets and gutters while at the same time rigorously practicing morning rituals of cleaning their own bodies.
Even with their holy city of Varanassi on the Ganges River where they come to bath and be cremated, you see sacks of garbage in profusion along the riverbed.
It is not this way in Bali - which is also Hindu. There, the cities compare more than favorably with the Muslim cities of Indonesia proper. Why Hindu Bali should differ from Hindu India is baffling to me.
Of course, it does not help that they allow cows to walk freely on the streets of even the biggest cities, not only interrupting traffic but contributing not insignificantly to the filth.
(3) THE POVERTY
You come to India expecting to see poverty. What I did not expect was the way this poverty was forcibly impressed on us every time we stepped out of our hotels or buses: the 5 year old children and the 15 year old mothers with babies on breast making “hungry” gestures with fingers towards their mouths. Also the hawkers with their postcards and souvenirs: so belligerent and pleading and unrelenting all at the same time. Over time, this constant barrage severely depresses the spirit.
(4) THE ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
India still very much has a socialist/mercantilist economy; and it shows. Apart from IT/customer service outsourcing in a few states to take advantage of cheap Indian labor, there is very little foreign investment: some in the consumer goods sector from companies like Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola, and Frito Lay, but nothing at all in the industrial sector. Virtually no foreign imports: the Indians like mercantilists of 200 years ago are trying to rely totally on their own inadequate industrial base: many state companies and 1 or 2 favored Indian conglomerates who do everything: from autos, tractors, cell phones and luxury hotels.
The old Union Carbide plant at Bhopal is now empty, abandoned and unused since the 1984 disaster that killed 2000 - almost certainly the result of employee sabotage from a union-management dispute. The Indian government preferred to sue the company in American courts for $500 million rather than develop its own industrial base.
In 1995 Enron contracted with both the state and federal governments to build a $2.8 billion power plant to generate desperately needed power. (In every city I visited, I experienced short power outages virtually everyday.) The government later reneged on this contract so as to deny Enron the ability to make any profit. Later, taking advantage of Enron’s troubles, it expropriated this plant for pennies on the dollar.
In 1998, in Delhi, a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet was closed when inspectors found 2 flies in the KFC kitchen!
I personally saw a large cement plant in the Rathenbourne area that had been closed for 15 years following a biter industrial strike.
Given the above history, it is unlikely that India will see much, if any, industrial investment from the western world.
(5) THE SIKHS AND “OPERATION BLUESTAR”
In May 1984, Sikh militants, seeking their own state in the Punjab, occupied the most holy site in the Sikh religion, the Golden Temple, and vowed not to leave until their demands were granted. The Indian Army, on Indira Gandhi’s orders, surrounded the temple with tanks and began blasting away. Hundreds were killed. Six months later, two Sikh guards killed Gandhi. Rampaging mobs screaming “blood for blood,” for three straight days and nights, killed every Sikh they could find; thousands died while the police and army did nothing.
A government commission after a 2 ½ year study recommended no criminal action and, according to outside observers, sounded more like a apologia for official inaction than a condemnation of the genocide.
While in India, I asked many educated Indians about this incident. They expressed no concern, claiming that Sikhs were in essence Hindus; further that their fear of Muslims outweighed any resentment they might feel regarding “Bluestar.”
I don’t believe them.
(6) THE MASSACRE OF MUSLIMS IN GUJARAT
In 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed one of the largest mosques in Gujarat. Ever since then, Hindu extremists have agitated to build a Hindu temple on the site of the mosque. In 2002, some 15,000 of these extremists, encouraged by the Prime Minister, among others, converged on Gujarat to start the building of their temple. However, the Indian Supreme Court issued an injunction prohibiting this project and the federal government reluctantly decided to obey. The 15,000 were forced to return to their homes; but on the way, they picked fights with local Muslims who undoubtedly threw some rocks. A fire started in a railway car and 57 Hindu men women and children were killed. That is when Hindu mobs all over Gujarat state went into action raping and killing. At a minimum, more than 1000 Muslims were killed, mostly by immolation in kerosene, and 100,000 driven from their homes. Those few police who attempted to limit the bloodshed were either transferred or punished.. For anyone interested in more details, see: sabrang.com and
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\p31_2004_12_14\D724A52E6167\What happened in Gujarat Dissent Magzine.htm and
news.bbc.co.uk
Incidental to these riots Christian churches were burned and some few Christians and Parsis were killed.
It is noteworthy that the only world leader to speak out against the massacre at Gujarat was Bill Clinton! I, a dogmatic republican, am grateful for that. Other world leaders observed a discrete silence.
The upshot to the riots: the BJP, the party of the Hindu extremists, won re-election in Gujarat state in late 2002 in a landslide.
(7) THE HINDU EXTREMISTS ARE ALREADY THE LARGEST PARTY IN INDIA AND ARE GAINING STRENGTH
While the old Congress Party led a coalition to power in 2004, the largest party by far is the BJP, the Hindu extremists. It is likely that in the near future BJP will by itself have a majority.
In any event, it is clear that Hindu extremism is on the rise. 1996 they proclaimed “Cow protection year” launching a major effort to forcibly close down cattle slaughter houses and butcher shops, usually with the connivance of the local police.
I have relied for much of my history and background on Stanley Wolpert’s “A New History of India” 7th Edition. In it, he reports that in Delhi alone, hundreds of “acidenal deaths” of young Indian brides from burns by “kitchen fires” are reported each year. “ In fact, these dowry deaths are known to be maliciously inflicted murders, often planned or perpetrated by the dissatisfied husband or his parents , who feel they have” been cheated of the prearranged price.
Wolpert reports that some of this extremism is fed by the religious movies out of “Bollywood.”: epic tales of Rama and Sita and the Pandava brothers watched by hundreds of millions of (uneducated) enraptured Indians.
Even while I was in India, there were reports of rapes of nuns in the south of India. It seems that slowly but surely “alien” religions are being driven out of India.
BOTTOM LINE: I see little cause for optimism. At best, India seems destined for a breakup like Yugoslavia. Probably a good thing. |
