A slew of books are coming out to mark the sixtieth anniversary of our independence, and the New York Times has reviewed one of them: Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire by Alex von Tunzelmann.
Von Tunzelmann quotes the preposterously named Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax as writing to Earl Bountbatten, the great grandson of Queen Victoria and the last viceroy of India:
“Muslim & Hindu in India, like Jews & Arab in Palestine, will continue to quarrel until one of the contending parties invites the Russians to come in & help them. After that, the date of World War No. 3 is anybody’s guess. … Every good wish to you in your difficult task.”
Read the New York Times review here: Indian Summer
Ignoring of course the very obvious, but cleverly concealed fact that Hindus and Muslims, like Jews and Arabs, co-existed more or less peacefully for about six hundred years before the British came.
But let’s stop blaming the British now. Everything since then has been strictly our own doing. From the folly of Kashmir to Godhra… there’s no use in blaming the British for being too weak and indecisive in the face of terror and fundamentalism…
Alok,
I disagree with you. Your contention seems to favor the sight of Hindus bending over backwards to appease the minority community. Sorry dude what you chose to offer on the ‘bend over street’ is your own affair. Leave the rest of the real ‘Hindus’ to handle the fallout. Thanks.
Kashmir was not a folly–unless you are factoring in Nehru’s perfidy. Godhra was a natural consequence of Majority backlash against ‘perceived’ Minority highhandedness!
The fundamental problem is the financing the terrorist outfits by radical arab states and wealthy muslims. Once the oil wealth runs out which is very likely, muslims will be too busy with the struggle for survival and the terrorism is likely to taper out.
mallapottel – ‘once the oil wealth runs out’? You mean when oil runs out?
Thats an interesting thought. Taking it further, how will India cope with the struggle for survival once oil runs out – and no one comes up with alternatives for petroleum and its byproducts (after all besides fuels, there are byproducts including plastic – the keyboard we are typing on, tar, asphalt, wax, acid etc.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum I remember reading some scenarios in a Michael Moore book on the effect of oil running out – and it wasn’t pleasant – and this was from an US point of view, taking into consideration the considerable resources and reserves they have.
Another question – wont it be a struggle for survival when the population in our country goes higher and we haven’t been able to manage our water resources? http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/home/wsmap.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5269296.stm Already during the bad rain years we see the conflicts between states…
The financing of radicals and other enemies will continue – we need to counter it and find the solution ourselves. By building strong social, economic and cultural structures around the concept of India as a nation. Which is already happening (see where India is now as compared to 50 years ago).
The admiral’s patronizing tone sound amusing now. People of his ilk made sure (and continue to make sure) that enough fuel was (is) added to the fire so that the ‘quarrel’ continues between various peoples of Asia.
Why does churumuri publish some nonsense reviewed in the NYT?
These kinds of books by a third party (neither hindu or a muslim in India) will not be true reflection of the state of affairs. Its easy for a foreigner to visit India live here for a very short term to just write a book and read some history books and compare with another country. We Indians ourselves are afraid to comeout with what actual is happening here. We fear of communal riots or public threats to life if we come out with a book that truly reflects the thoughts. Mostly we will write powerful thoughts anonymously.