2ndlook

India Lowers Guard


Huntington's book gave pseudo-intellectual justification started the Western campaign of Islamic demonization. (Image source - http://www.bayesianinvestor.com/books; artist attribution not available at image source)

Huntington

Mercenary logic

Samuel P . Huntington’s 1993 book, Clash of Civilizations, has a historical ring to it – a hint of something grand. An influential book, it ostensibly examined ‘conflicts between Western and non-Western cultures’ – and brought the phrase, Clash of Civilizations into limelight.

In the post-Soviet World, the book marked the launch of a new Western campaign – Islamic demonization. This book, released some four years after Rushdie-fatwa, provided pseudo-intellectual justification for West’s anti-Islamic campaign.

The America+NATO sponsored ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaign in Bosnia was underway, since 1992. Saturation media coverage of Monica Lewinsky and cigars effectively drowned President Clinton’s role in the initiation of the anti-Islamic campaign – and the news coming out of the Balkans. Deliberate diversionary tactics?

With one of the largest Islamic populations in the world, India’s co-option into this persecution was essential for this campaign to succeed.  India’s co-option was planned in significant detail – and successfully executed. 9/11 (September 11, 2001) was still 8 years in the future. The verbal trickery behind Huntington’s Clash of civilizations ‘package-deal’ has been swallowed whole – without challenge or de-construction in India.

This post will cover some Trojan moves that smuggled destructive concepts that Huntington  made respectable, into the mainstream.

Koenraad Elst1990

A ‘orientalist’ writer from Belgium, Koenraad Elst, waded into India. His books on Hinduism, Aryan culture, Islamic history in India were avidly lapped up by a section which was eager for Western approval. Elst’s blatant anti-Islamic agenda warmed the cockles of many hearts.

LK Advani released Elst’s book in India. BJP’s proximity has given Elst’s ideas high visibility which imbalances the discussion.

Elst busied himself in attacking the decrepit and contrived colonial-era Aryan Invasion Theory, and its ‘modernized’ variant, the Aryan Migration Theory (AIT /AMT). These attacks by Elst endeared him to India’s right-wing.

With less fanfare and noise, the same Elst has been propping up a newer and more obnoxious Dravidian Invasion Theory.

1991

Rajiv Gandhi had come back from Sriperumbudur in a coffin. The common Indian had given up on Punjab. The 1984 anti Sikh riots only strengthened the negative outlook. Assam problem seemed beyond resolution. Kashmir was simmering. The Indian electorate had given a fractured mandate. A hung Parliament. Corruption was endemic and every politician was an Untouchable – nobody or anything could touch them. It seemed there were no laws.

Indian economy was going downhill – and nothing seemed to get the economy out of the “Hindu rate of growth”. India was on the verge of a debt default. Indian debt was downgraded by Western rating agencies.

The Asian Tigers had done wonders – under US tutelage. China was furiously reforming – and succeeding at it. USSR 2 years ago had decided to retreat from Afghanistan. India’s faithful ally, Russia was breaking up. Many across the world shook their head and could be heard saying, “I knew … I told you … It had to happen …”

All bets on India were off.

Larry Pressler with AB Vajpayee (Image source and courtesy - larrypressler.com.).

Larry Pressler with AB Vajpayee (Image source and courtesy - larrypressler.com.).

1992

In this siege mentality, one fine day, a US Senator, Larry Pressler, announced at a press conference in New Delhi, that India was encircled by an Islamic coalition of 9 countries. The proxy war against India by Pakistan was at its height. This ‘Islamic Crescent’ (as Larry Pressler called it) first stunned India – and then stampeded its foreign policy.

Larry Pressler was seen as a friend of India – by Indians. He got some well-paying corporate board room positions – and he has kept in the back ground after that. But his press conference still rings. And Pressler’s proximity to Indian liberal establishment (which is close to both the BJP and the Congress), flanks India’s movement towards Western paranoia from the opposite direction. (Strangely, Google search, Yahoo search, Indiatimes search, websites of newspapers like The Hindu, cannot find any newspaper coverage for that press conference.)Western

Soon thereafter, India upgraded its relationship with Israel, (practically) abandoned the Palestinians (not to ignore West Asia’s own desire to cosy with the West) – and started getting closer to the US. The Vajpayee Government (with a historic tendency) continued with this rush to embrace the US.

There is too much tradition and culture for India to go down the demonization path, but recent developments do call for consciousness on this account. Is India falling prey to Western case-building and logic for Islamic demonization?LaRouche's Triple Curve

India’s Record – And the Reversal

India and its Government was in the vanguard of opposition to Apartheid, neo-colonialism, (especially in the Middle East). However, in the last 15 years, under the garb of ‘geo-strategic interests /initiatives /imperatives’, changed ‘super power equations,’ ‘uni-polar world,’ India is losing its moral initiative – and equally importantly its long term interests. It is getting sucked into uni-directional relationships – which are going down.

Western Adventurism – The Imperative

Without slavery, the West does not enjoy the manpower edge that it had till 1900. The loss of colonies from 1900-1950 has taken away the resource base and captive markets for Western dominance.

Now with the collapse of Bretton Woods, the opacity in financial systems is diminished. The welfare state has put a significant burden on an aging Western population.

With fading prowess on one side, and a resurgent Asia on the other, the US and EU are now at the cross roads. Is the West prepared to quietly fade away in the sunset?

Unlikely.

US Defence BudgetIndian Perceptions – Preparedness and Paranoia

Will this loss of power encourage some adventurism by the West? Are the various ‘co-operation’ agreements a sign of India becoming a client state of the West – again? What is the threat magnitude of this ‘cowboy imperative’? Does India need to prepare itself against a misadventure of the ‘desert bloc’?

While the activities of these Western ‘friends’, sensitised India to the Islamic ‘threat’, it more importantly, has lowered the Indian guard against the resurgent Western encirclement.

American forces are based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Diego Garcia – and of course Iraq. The wolf pack behaviour of pursuit of quarry does not allow co-operation between packs – but within the pack itself. So, while the Islamic crescent perception has some validity, the threat of The Star and The Cross is equal, if not greater.

Sometimes, ‘friends’ are more dangerous than a recognised opposition.

Moral Stature

Equally, India should not acquire the practices or memberships that have made recent history bloody and exploitative. While many civilisations have stumbled (Greeks, Romans, Egypt) and fallen by the wayside, India’s many comebacks, have been based on never losing moral stature – and it is late in the day to start down that path.

Concerns! Questions?

West Outsources It Wars To India

Is the ‘Islamic demonisation’ an attempt by the ‘wolf pack’ to separate a member of the herd and then go for the kill – like Iraq.

Is India getting co-opted in this ‘wolf pack hunt’?

What Followed

PS – A few days after this post I found his cartoon (linked on the right), which is possibly truer than one would have imagined.

And then this book review by Vivek Chibber – an assistant professor of sociology at New York University. In this article, he reviews a book by a neo-CON, Niall Ferguson (yes, yet another one). The drift of this book is that America should declare itself as an empire – and go about ruling countries just the way Britain did – is what Ferguson has written in Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire by Niall Ferguson.

But the best of all this was the post by Gurcharan Das, an ex-MNC CEO, who started writing in various newspapers. His latest post in The Times Of India, plumbs the depth of misdirected warmth towards Western democracies. He writes,

thanks to the treaty, which paved the way for closer ties with the Western democracies. The West stood by India during its times of trouble and eventually India went on to balance power in Asia and the world”.

Gurcharan Das’ gullibility on matters of international relations is worth a bucketful of tears. Why would any country (let us keep Western powers aside for a minute) support India (or any other country) – except if it in their self interest? After 300 years of pillage, loot, murder, genocide, slavery are Western nations going to suddenly change become God Samaritans, Mr.Das?

Your naivete makes me squirm.
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13 Responses

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  1. […] Theory is now has no legs to stand on. Bowing before the inevitable, Western historians, posing as ‘friends’ of India, have sneaked in something equally obnoxious. It is The Dravidian Invasion Theory. We have a new situation now.The ‘deal’ seems to […]

  2. Dr. Jessie Mercay said, on April 7, 2009 at 3:14 pm

    I understand the old western “need” to say that India of herself had no culture. – that it was brought in by Europeans or Mid-easterners. As we know, it was because Europeans wanted to take over and dominate India for its many riches from textiles to gems. The rest of the world would only accept western colonialism if it were under the guise to “civilize” India.

    But, this is the 21st century. Allegedly there is no more colonialism and India is “free.” (well except for the outsourcing which gave thousands of Indian citizens a false sense of financial security – that is a sort of colonialism and slavery – I mean why pay an American $10 per hour when you can pay an Indian 50 cents per hour?). So, with the old reasons to say that India has no culture of her own out of the way, why are people still pushing the Dravidian Invasion and some still pushing the Aryian Invasion. I don’t understand the purpose. The evidence for a highly developed India that is purely Indian is overwhelming. Why is it necessary to believe the contrary? What can the west hope to gain?

    Do white skinned people have some deep psychological sense of inferiority (after all we are a minority)? If someone has an answer to why the west keeps trying to promote the idea of savage India please enlighten me. Sometimes I get the feeling that there is an agenda running somewhere in the world that non of us are aware of.

    • Incognito said, on December 7, 2009 at 5:53 am

      “…… there is an agenda running somewhere in the world that non of us are aware of.

      A disease of mind caused by narrow self-identification, that results in unbridled self-aggrandizing drive by the afflicted person/group. Anti-dote- brahma jnana . Prescription, in sruti and purana

      http://estheppan.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/ramayana-in-the-mind/

      • Dr. Jessie Mercay said, on November 3, 2010 at 5:03 pm

        I agree, this is the answer to world salvation:
        This great Purusha (Brahmam), brilliant as the sun, who
        is beyond all darkness, I know him in my
        heart. Who knows the Purusha thus,
        attains immortality in this very birth.
        I know of no other way to salvation.
        Purusha Sukta (Rig Veda)

  3. Incognito said, on December 7, 2009 at 10:08 am

    >>>“A ‘orientalist’ writer from Belgium, Koenraad Elst, waded into India ( India is a water body into which ‘orientalist’ writers wade into ) . His books …. were avidly lapped up by a section which was eager for Western approval ( not because there was any substance in them books) . Elst’s blatant anti-Islamic agenda warmed the cockles of many hearts ( if any cockles are warm after reading Elst, those belong to anti-islamists) . BJP’s proximity has given Elst’s ideas high visibility which imbalances the discussion.”

    Which discussion ?
    After this diatribe of a paragraph, there is no mention of Elst and no further discussion of his crimes in the rest of the post.
    As for mainstream media, Elst is never discussed there.
    So which discussion is imbalanced ?
    Unless this diatribe is the ‘discussion’, which, if so, is definitely ‘imbalanced’, but, not by BJP’s proximity or Elst’s ideas, as alleged here, instead, by the lack of supporting reaons for the aspersions the author casts on Elst and his ‘anti-islamist’ readers.

    Maybe a second look is in order, on this.

    dhanyavaad

  4. sunny said, on November 12, 2010 at 4:46 pm

    I found your your blog while reading an article on Gold reserves on rediff.com. Its very interesting but for Elst’s analysis. I think you have missed the mark big time. Islamic terror is real and so is Western one. One is visible and the other hidden away. By trying to downplay islamic threat to India you are tarnishing an otherwise excellent writing.

  5. saurav said, on January 23, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    I have never seen a more brilliant analysis of post soviet breakdown Foriegn politics wrt India than here……..thank you for this brilliant write up.

  6. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Hindu IDF, St. PT Barnum. St. PT Barnum said: How India and Indians were stampeded into the Islamic demonization campaign of the West: http://is.gd/as0Fql […]

  7. chidananda mohapatra said, on May 27, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    like Christianity,communism,western imperialism/colonialism(with its propaganda machineries), and western slave trade, Islam is a criminal ideology.it is the repository of all demonic or rakshasis qualities.There is no need to demonise Islam as it is demonic from the very outset.it has been a socialist hypocrisy to blame Christianity and western imperialism for all the evils while ignoring Islam’s role in inventing and spreading them.

    • Dr. Jessie Mercay said, on May 27, 2011 at 8:06 pm

      While I would like to demonize all of Islam because I don’t agree with its tenants, and I have deep feelings about radical Islam’s demonization of anyone who is not Islamic, I cannot carte blanc demonize it. It is the people who are fanatics who are the demons not the religion. There are millions of people who follow Islam who are moderate in their beliefs and who are against the radicals. Please let us be clear that what we dislike is radical islam. To do otherwise is to deny a large body of people their right to believe they way they want. I think Radical Islam imposes its will on the rest of the world. Imposing ones will on others is demonic. I dislike radical Christianity, radical Hinduism, radical anything that thinks that others will go to hell if they don’t follow such radical beliefs.

      • Dr. O. P. Sudrania said, on September 2, 2012 at 6:17 pm

        Jessie,

        Nice to see you here. While considering “radical” thing, we should not lose sight of “cause and effect” theorem. It will be a story like “egg or hen first” but radical Islam ab initio has caused many dangerous precedents that are difficult to imagine. If someone retaliates in self defence and then being branded as radical by its OPs could be an endless rant. “One rotten fish in the pond spoils the whole” must be a wise dictum to remember. Last but not least, arguments must lead to some genuine conclusions, not endless debates. Who gives a right to your hostile neighbour to knock your door at midnight, except his stupor of frenzy in hubris? India is still drowned in Kipling’s Whiteman’s Burden (I do not mean it individually) but prompted by his own sense of misplaced superiority. I know your deep studies in India, which are way away from Koenraad Elst’s self indulgence incessantly criticising Hindus and calling mean adjectives endlessly has converted him another radical pseudo sympathiser of Hindus. He is an intellectual gone awry. Instead of criticising, I would love him to engage in some selfless service to the “dalits” whom he so dearly loves and equally sympathise. It should not have hidden motives of soul harvesting. I am also intrigued that he seems to have no source for his living, as I can percieve. What then lures him to continue these incessant critiques?

  8. admin said, on June 1, 2011 at 6:48 pm


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