Rumi Nations

I realized with a start that this week is the birthday of my favorite character from the pages of history. When I flip through the pages of history and of course I am no professional historian, I find that I have more regard and affection for Jawaharlal Nehru than anyone else. Of course, there is Mahatma Gandhi. And there are others belonging to India and to other nations whose achievements I find awe inspiring or admirable or creditable or inspirational. Internationally, there were men like Washington to Jefferson to Lincoln – three of the great presidents of the United States. There was Napoleon and there was Lenin. And Mao. The 20th century was a period that provided enough scope for megalomaniac men of varied hues to chase their dreams. So, recent history is replete with larger than life characters – some who achieved an astonishing amount of infamy such as Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini to others who have left their mark on human history which is essentially positive: ...

No well-known person or personality would perhaps say what I’m going to say here. It’s merely stating the obvious to say that the world of Kabir Bedi does not exemplify the life of the average Indian. I am all for live-in relationships. Some talked about ‘blowing the brains off’ of the perpetrators. It’s worrying to see such over-the-top reactions. Is it too much to expect that people react calmly and in a measured way? What gave the incident prominence was clearly the fact that it was caught on video. We do not have video footage of those incidents of rape in moving cars and elsewhere. Imagine what the reaction would be if there was. Much killing of various sorts happened in Punjab in the 1980s and in Kashmir in the 1990s. But none of that was captured on video. Unmarked graves and skeletons are all that still give mute testimony to some of the chilling reality of Kashmir. The lack of video footage from inside the death chambers of Auschwitz and elsewhere do not...

Article first published as  A Match that Merits a Different Language  on Technorati. Cricket is a rather obscure game that’s favored mostly by countries that were once part of the British Empire. It’s quite easy in fact to list out ALL the nations of the world where cricket is played with some seriousness: England, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies, South Africa. That list tells you everything. Cricket is played in England and a couple of other nations where the English migrated to. And it’s played in the Indian subcontinent. For some odd reasons that are clearly beyond my ability to understand, cricket has become a national passion in India. And India has a great historical rivalry with Pakistan. India and Pakistan have gone to war thrice and wars being messy affairs, the countries are trying hard to avoid another battle. Cricket therefore offers the opportunity to wage a war by proxy. The World Cup of cricket is ...

The story of Jawaharlal Nehru's relations with Edwina Mountbatten continues to be an issue in contemporary India. This is of course reflective of how primitive a society India is. People tend to be morons when it comes to issues of sex or anything that even seems to suggest any "physical relations." I think this is because most people lead very unfillfiled lives sexually and they are envious of those who get such "opportunites" in life. I wish Indians would grow up. It would be so childish to pass judgment on Nehru on the basis of whatever relations he might or might not have had with Edwina and Padmaja Naidu and anyone else for that matter. One has to look at the broad sweep of his life and the vastness of his influences on the course of modern India and find fault, if any, with the policy decisions that he took. People tend to blame Nehru for the partition of India and that's of course a fair debate to have. People blame Nehru for the festering Kashmir iss...

Today, the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani was hijacked for some time by Naxalites ... One more incident showing the growing threat posed by the movement. One wonders how much of the movement is idealistic, what portion is self-serving, how much pure terrorism, what portion is out of coercion, etc. I think the same combination is at work also in other places as well: be it Kashmir, or Taliban infested Afghanistan, and the many trouble spots in Africa. It would seem therefore that it won't do much good to look at any of these problems as a one-dimensional law and order issue and try to crush them using crushing military strength. Recently, I read that the Government of India was considering banning pre-paid mobile services in Kashmir as that was being misused by the terrorists ... imagine, the Govt. does not mind alienating 38 lakh innocent civilians to inconvenience a few thousand outlaws!

President Obama is pondering what to do about Afghanistan. General McChrystal has asked for 40,000 more troops in addition to the existing 65,000 already on the ground. The American military planners are trying to implement a policy of trying to win the hearts and minds of the local people and marginalize the Taliban. Many others have tried to conquer the rugged terrain that is Afghanistan and failed. America's recent 'success' in Iraq has given it hope that it can adopt a similar policy in Afghanistan. But it's sobering to realize that Afghanistan is almost 50% larger than Iraq with almost as many people. The people of Afghanistan are fare more poor and less educated that the people of Iraq. The population of Afghanistan consists of numerous tribes. American forces in Vietnam totalled more than 5,00,000 at their peak but failed in their mission as they failed to win over the local population. Hopefully, whatever America tries in Afghanistan will take into account all t...