A Rainbow in the Night

Title: A Rainbow in the Night

Author: Dominique Lapierre

Publisher: Full Circle, 2010 (First)

ISBN: 9788176212014

Pages: 288

There was a time when I chanced upon the Indian passport of one of my uncles lying on the table. I was a student then and I opened the little black book with curiosity. There was an epistle from the President of India appealing to persons anywhere in the world to extend wholehearted help and cooperation to my uncle whose photo was pasted on the facing side. On the next page however, a curiosity awaited me. A seal in indelible blue ink proclaimed that the passport is valid for travel to any country except the Republic of South Africa. I was intrigued. Why a country is singled out like this? What would happen if my uncle happens to land at the border post of South Africa while on his journey and which is to be traversed to reach his designation? Then began my enquiry on why this country on the southern tip of Africa is discriminated against by the international community. I heard the term ‘apartheid’ for the first time. Dominique Lapierre, who needs no introduction, has told the story of how South Africa was born and the inhuman racial segregation made deep scars on its social life. South Africa’s history in invariably linked to that of Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of the country, but had to spend 27 years of his life in a white prison. In an inimitable style Lapierre begins his story in 1652 when a group of Dutchmen landed at the Cape of Good Hope with an assignment from the Dutch East India Company – to plant lettuce and other vegetables in the Cape and to sell it to sailors who rounded it on their journey to India and the Spice Islands in an effort to rid them of the curse of scurvy, the disease caused by deficiency of fruits on a sailor’s diet. The book ends with Mandela assuming power after its first multi-racial elections. The book is a page turner like the author’s all the other titles.

Part One of the book covers the period of three centuries between the Dutch men Jan Van Riebeeck setting foot on the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 and the ascendancy of the National Party to power in 1948. The whites were few in number as compared to blacks who were the original inhabitants of the country but divided into prominent tribes like the Zulu, Xhoa, and Khoikhoi. The Dutch men were adherents of Calvinism and had escaped from their motherland to evade Catholic persecution. They established the Dutch Reformed Church in their new piece of land. Deeply religious and regular church goers, the Boers, as they were called, were diehard racists who believed in the supremacy of the white race over all others. Taking theological justification for the practice of slavery from the Bible, the Boers strictly separated the races with the blacks and the coloured people treated as sub-humans. Much to the chagrin of them, the British landed in the country in 1795 to outsmart the post-revolutionary French forces. Then started a century long game of hide and seek between the old and new settlers. The Boers called themselves Afrikaners and heroically established rich provinces like Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The land was rich in coal, diamond and gold – a deadly combination. The British slowly annexed territories that were developed by Afrikaners. The frequent migrations generated a spirit of fellowship. A new language, Afrikaans was developed and jealously guarded as the medium of cultural identity of the original settlers. The Boer war (1899-1902) saw much bloodshed, but the British wiped off Boer resistance and assumed overloadship for the whole of South Africa. The Whites then organized political movements that drew inspiration from Hitler’s Germany. Finally they won power in 1948 by a narrow margin. Only 20% of the country’s inhabitants were whites, the only people who could vote. The National Party won a little over half of these white votes. Thus, with a vote share of slightly above 10%, the party changed the laws and constitution by making South Africa subscribe to apartheid. A similar electoral outcome was that of the Soviet Union, where the communist’s vote share was less than 20% but could hijack the country to a miserable destiny till they were kicked out in the 1990s.

Lapierre explains the period between the promulgation of apartheid in 1948 to the beginning of 1980s when chinks were observed in the regime’s armor in the next two parts. African National Congress (ANC) and its leader Nelson Mandela parted ways with peaceful protest and slowly degenerated into violent ways. This immensely helped the authoritarian govt which had the southern hemisphere’s most efficient police force at its disposal. Mandela and his associates were taken into custody at Rivonia for their alleged plot against the government. In a bout of good luck, they were not sent to gallows, but were awarded imprisonment for life in 1964. Mandela spent the next 27 years of his life in the maximum security prison at Robben Island off the Cape of Good Hope in a somewhat similar predicament as the protagonist in the classic fiction, “Count of Monte Cristo”. Meanwhile South Africa’s dignity and prestige had been lost in international fora. The state had become a pariah, with many countries severing diplomatic problems with it. Its business reeled under crippling sanctions and boycotts. The Afrikaner movement relented little by little until it was no longer possible to keep Mandela in prison. He was released in 1991. But the leader’s release from prison also saw the parting of ways with his wife Winnie after she was accused of murder and infidelity.

The book includes narratives of two prominent whites who defied apartheid to practice what they deemed right in their hearts. Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant. This illustrates the state of advance South Africa’s medical system had reached in spite of racial segregation. Helen Libermann was a speech therapist who transformed herself into a social worker with the mission to emancipate black neighborhoods from the chronic problems like illiteracy, health, hygiene and empowerment of women. These are noble examples of white people rising above the level of intolerance and hatred towards the Blacks, Coloured and Indians. Lapierre presents these cases in a bid to balance the story to its proper point. Otherwise the readers would have reached the outrageous conclusion that all whites in South Africa were united in their brutal suppression of the natives, who are the original inhabitants of the country. But this detour takes some interest out of the main narrative.

One of the many interesting finds is the credibility of the claim put forward by Afrikaners on the country of South Africa. The Boers made the country as it stands today by the sheer dint of their hard work. Even though corrupted with religious ideas that pampered them as God’s chosen people, a lot of blood was spilt by the whites as well in erecting the foundation of a modern state. They made a paradise of the semi arid wilderness. Having accumulated the combined effort of ten generations on the land, and seeing it all go to others is a miserable experience. But the draconian laws they put in place that effectually treated blacks like animals prevent humanists from extending sympathy to the Afrikaners. Another point to note is the failure of ANC to develop peaceful methods of protest, which they learned from the work of Mahatma Gandhi in the country during early in his career. They very soon lost confidence in those practices and turned violent.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

      

A History of Rome

Title: A History of Rome

Author: Marcel Le Glay, Jean-Louis Voisin & Yann Le Bohec

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, 2002 (First published 1991)

ISBN: 9780631218593

Pages: 563

History is the topic on which the most number of books are reviwed in this blog. So, it is embarrassing for me to admit that I am yet to read a complete history of the Roman Empire from start (!) to finish (?). Familiarisation with the world’s oldest superpower has been in bits and pieces from the descriptions in other books which deal with only a part of the story. One of my pet projects to review the entire ubabridged version of Toynbee’s ‘A Study of History’ is nearing completion and the next logical step is to try Gibbon’s ‘History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, considered by scholars to be the best historical work in the English language. A primer is hence absolutely necessary on Roman history and that’s the relevance of this volume. This book is aimed more on students rather than casual or serious readers and is said to be the best single-volume history of Rome. All three authors were eminent professors of history at the prominent universities in France.

The first part of the volume describes the story of the Roman state from its origins to the establishment of a continent-spanning Empire. The transition to the Empire was from a republic but not in the modern sense. The post-revolutionary emergence of democracy in the western world brought with it new political structures. Fundamentals of the modern republic are obviously borrowed from the ancient institution, but the difference is also profound. In history, only the voice of the well-to-do was heard in the decision making body. The poor, artisans, women, slaves and inhabitants of annexed territories didn’t possess any role to play in the functioning of the republic. Rome was administered first by kings and then changed over to the oligarchic control by patricians, which lasted for nearly four centuries. Voice of the people, as it was often called, didn’t translate to enlightenment in foreign policy and matters of military conflicts. Carthage paid dearly for the capriciousness and avarice of Roman senators, who were captivated by the riches of Carthage in the Third Punic war. The Republican regime destroyed Carthage, destroyed its magnificence, sold its people to slavery and took effective measures to ensure the city would never rise up again to become a challenge to Rome. This is a clear illustration of the fact that political enlightenment is a product of the age and not related to the development of an institution that looks like modern, at least in paper. The first Triumvirate comprising Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus set in motion a chain of events that undermined the republic and which were brought to completion by the Second triumvirate, consisting of Octavian, Lepidus and Mark Antony. When Octavian defeated Mark Antony at the battle of Actium in 31 BCE, the republic vanished from the face of Earth.

Rome as we know, it is said to have ended in 410 CE, with the Goths sacking the city which was ripe for any adventurous barbarian with sufficient means to try his luck on the capital city, already weakened and disintegrated from within due to schism in the political and cultural fields. The birth of Constantinople as a rival to the eternal city marked a shift in the centre of gravity to the east. Paganism’s eventual decline is noteworthy in this era. Christianity suffered much in the form of persecutions in the early period, but the vitality of a new religion carried them forward, drawing sustenance from the blood of martyrs, and not yielding an inch in theology and ecclesiastical practices. We also see that the curious spectacle of the roles of the persecutor and the persecuted interchange between paganism and Christianity. After Constantine accepted Christianity and the later Christian Emperors made practice of paganism illegal, Christians pounced on their pagan rivals with as little compassion and tolerance they had received from them, when the pagans were on the ascendant. Constantine’s intellectual backwardness is brightly illustrated by the remark that ‘he was a man with a narrow forehead, but a powerful jaw’!

Being a text book for students, this is to be treated only as a starting point on the initiation of serious reading on a particular theme of Roman history. The authors have included a number of personalities and events to ensure comprehensiveness, rather than stopping to explain them in detail. The book includes a good many monochrome images of Roman ruins and art which provide much interest. A chronological table, a comprehensive glossary and a commendable index adds value to the text. It provides a fine list of Roman and Greek writers and suggests an impressive list of books for further reading. Originality is clearly lacking in the ideas expressed in the volume, but that is hardly something one would look for in a book, meant as a text book for students. Illustrative maps of the various periods in Roman history are much worthy of adding to one’s own collection.

The book’s historicity is undermined by referring to Jesus as a historical character. Without second thoughts on the foundation on reality of the extraordinary claim they are about to make, the book states that “Near the end of Tiberius reign, a man named Jesus died on the cross in Jerusalem. The prefect of the province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, whose existence is attested by an inscription, very probably submitted a report on the matter to the Emperor, but it appears that no echo of this local news item reached wider circles in Rome” (p.232). Here, the authors rely on the existence of a local governor to weave a story to conform to their religious beliefs. Pilate, who was real for sure, is said to have ‘very probably’ submitted a report to his capital city! But it didn’t cause any echo there. Why? If the Bible is to be believed, Jesus died on the cross, but was resurrected on the third day. This incident has such a terrific news value as to rivet the attention of the Emperor and the entire state. On the contrary we don’t even have evidence of such a report. See the heap of unanswerable questions generated by linking a religious belief which has no evidence on reality to a historical character! This moral debauchery on the part of a historian is unpardonable. The book’s authenticity falls by a notch due to this unfortunate episode.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Immolating Women

Title: Immolating Women

Author: Jorg Fisch

Publisher: Permanent Black, 2006 (First published 1998)

ISBN: 9788178241746

Pages: 610

It was a fine morning in September 1987, while India was stably under the rule of a young and dynamic prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, who had immense charm and real world pragmatism at least during the initial stages. Many of the antediluvian measures in socialist planning were removed and the country was placed on the track to modernity. So it came as a rude shock to many to read the story as it broke, of a young widow from Deorala, Rajastan who had burnt on the funeral pyre of her young husband, purportedly observing the custom of Sati, which most Indians had learnt only in history books and had thought extinguished a long way back. Sati again became an issue of contention and national debate. The government was quick to bring in legislation that offered harsh punishment to the perpetrators and participants. But even with all this, nobody is quite sure whether the mindset that worked in the background to send young widows already much stricken with grief to a pyre raging with fire, had changed. Indicators still suggest that there are some hardliners in the country who take pride in ‘Sati’ committed earlier and want to cherish them. Jorg Fisch analyses the idea of following into death in general and also Sati in particular. The author is a Professor of modern history at the University of Zürich. His research and teaching includes non-European history (South and Southeast Asia, South Africa, Latin America and European 20^th century history (the world wars). His research focus is on the history of international law and international relations.

Fisch undertakes a comprehensive survey of the recorded instances of the following into death among civilizations scattered across the globe and brings out results from all continents. The research that has gone into sifting and cataloguing of relevant information compiled by scholars is a gigantic effort that must be appreciated. We read about all kinds of executions under the broad category of following into death. Attendants were often buried along with the accompanied, and in some cases, they were burnt along or after a lapse of time since the funeral of the accompanied. The victims were mercifully drugged in some cases, or they would be killed first by the living servants of the master. In quite a few cases the death was slow and painful, as in the case of partial burning like that of the Talkotin tribe in North America. Strangling prior to interment was the usual practice in the islands of Oceania. Contrary to popular belief, not only women, but men were also forced to accompany their spouses on their death, as in the case of Natchez tribe in America. In Japan, the institutional form of accompanying one’s master in death was practiced even in the beginning of the last century, when General Nogi Maresuke committed Junshi (ritual suicide) when the Meiji Emperor died in 1912. Even up to the middle ages, the custom was in practice in Europe as exemplified by the Christburg Treaty of 1249, when the Prussians agreed to stop the custom of interring horses, humans, weapons, clothes and other precious objects. Everywhere, the custom prevailed among the followers of primitive religions. With the advent of Islam and Christianity, the evil practice came to a stop. In those cases where it continued thereafter, the final chapter came when those regions came under colonial administration. The books extensive first part conveys the idea that the ritual existed worldwide at one time in man’s climb from the dark pit of prehistory.

The second part of the book is dedicated to India where widow burning had been sanctified to ethereal heights. The first recorded case of Sati occurs in the description of Diadorus of Sicily regarding a battle at Gabiene in Asia Minor in 316 BCE between Antigonus and Eumenes, who were the generals of Alexander the Great. After the Emperor’s death his successors fought among each other. Eumenes had an Indian contingent among his troops. Ceteus, the commander of the Indian soldiers fell in battle and one of his wives immolated herself on the pyre. This was such a spectacle for the Greeks that they noted it down with astonishment. However this incident runs counter to another argument raised elsewhere in the text. While considering the origins of Sati, Fisch proposes that the custom was not part of the Hindu belief system and that it might have originated in Scythia on the Black Sea coast and carried eastward by Scythians. If such was the case, the wonder caused to the Greeks by Ceteus’s wife’s unusual act is unfounded, as the Greeks were familiar with the ancient customs of the northern coasts of the Black and Caspian Seas or at least the ritual might not have been totally unknown to them. But in India itself, numerical frequency of the savage custom increased in the middle ages, with the crescendo reaching around the beginning of 19^th century when the British established their rule in Bengal. The British at first tolerated the practice, particularly when the act was voluntary without any force or coercion from the family members and spectators, as Sati was invariably practiced as a public ceremony. They didn’t want to incite public wrath while curbing a religious custom. But the barbarity began to sink in them and their hold on power grew stronger over the years. Activism by reformers also helped to turn the tide against the custom. Sati was abolished forever in 1829 in British India, but it prevailed for a few years more in the princely states. When the Sikh king Maharaja Ranjit Singh died in 1839, eleven of his harem inmates immolated themselves.

The book dispels a deep rooted myth in the minds of people, including me. Most of us thought that all the widows in India were being burnt on the pyre of their dead husbands forcibly. This is far from the truth. Only a very few widows - Fisch says one or two widows in a thousand cases -  committed Sati and almost all of them were voluntary. The widow decided to end her life out of sorrow, despair, the urge to acquire lasting honour and also to obtain great merit in the after world. She descended the pyre on her own free will, which is attested by many eye witnesses, including foreigners. Use of force is applied only when the lady changes her mind after the pyre is kindled. A victim was not allowed to escape after the ceremony had begun. There are brutal cases cited where the spectators threw the widow a multiple number of times after she escaped from the raging fire. But the decision was hers alone. Some people argue that the social life of a living widow was worse than death and that might be the reason which forced many to accept immolation. This is also refuted in the book, as there are many cases in which very poor women who had nothing to look forward to, decided to live and well-to-do widows burnt themselves. Notions of honour may drive a person to his or her own death.

Fisch rejects the social work of Raja Rammohan Roy or the enlightenment of William Bentick, the governor general, that put an end to the custom by abolishing it in 1829. Roy’s protests are portrayed to be feeble and limited only to Calcutta and in the upper classes of society. We gather the impression that he was not taken seriously by the British administration. On the other hand, Bentick was vacillating on the measures to be taken against the ritual. He was mortally afraid of provoking unrest among the society which tolerated this savage ritual in the name of religion. So, how did the abolition came into effect? Fisch argues that the unsung heroes are the officials of the East India Company’s civil service who were in charge of the districts. After a brief time of toleration and tacit acceptance, which was the policy of the administration, they could no longer permit innocent women to burn under their noses. They intervened and stopped many voluntary immolations without causing any outrage among the people. This prompted the government to bring forward the legislation to abolish the custom.

The barbarous practice of Sati maligns the honour of Hinduism in general and even questions its status as an enlightened, modern religion. But the curious fact is that this practice is not prescribed in any of its religious texts. In the Vedas, it is mentioned and in Dharma Sutras, it is commented, as the path for a virtuous wife, but nowhere is it enjoined on the devout. A rational conclusion from this evidence is that the authors of these texts found the custom as a fait accompli. During the middle ages, the practice became widespread, with both the upper and lower castes eagerly taking part. Statistics for Bengal just before the ritual was made illegal in 1829 shows that Brahmin women constituted 38% of all deaths, while Shudras and untouchables constitute nearly 50%. Not only In India, widow burning was carried to everywhere Hinduism went. This custom was prevalent in Java where Hinduism flourished, until the 15^th century. When the island came under Muslim rule, the practice was proscribed and the people were converted to Islam. Widow burning continued to exist in Bali till the onset of 20^th century. Bali is prominently Hindu even today. There, the wives entered the funeral pyre and were called Satia, while the concubines were first stabbed to death and then thrown to the flames, and were called Bela. This trans-oceanic carriage of the inhuman ritual is a bloat on Hinduism, which is all the more vitiated by attempts from fanatics to justify the practice, even if one were to occur at present. The only saving grace for the religion is that reform movements that clamored for an end to this custom grew from within its fold, as in the case of Raja Rammohan Roy and his Brahmo Samaj. Efforts to compare Sati with burning of witches and duels in Europe during the Renaissance era may appear to lessen the guilt, though!

The book presents a fine poem by Euripides in the tragedy Supplices in which Capaneus dies, and his wife Euadne resolves to jump down from a rock onto the burning pyre. It runs as follows,

“From this cliff’s brow

For wifehood’s glory

With spurning feet I dart

Down into yon fire’s heart

To meet him, ne’er to part, -

Flames reddening o’er me, -

To nestle to his side,

In Cora’s bowers a bride!

O love, though thou hast died,

I’ll not forsake thee” (p. 36)

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star