Napoleon

Title: Napoleon

Author: Alan Forrest

Publisher: Quercus, 2012 (First published 2011)

ISBN: 9781780872506

Pages: 403

Every ruler covets power with glory, but very few go on to achieve it. The priorities of the ruler and the ruled are not in resonance in the normal course, which leads to resentment on the part of the populace towards extraction of taxes and tribute and exasperation on the king’s side at the stubbornness of the people to acquiesce in to his plans of aggrandizement. In the course of centuries, some rulers would be able to place their hands on the right nerves to excite and amass subjects under his standard and such leaders of men enter the national myth. Napoleon Bonaparte was one such emperor who shepherded the French armies to his battle tunes across the length and breadth of Europe for nearly two decades. He directed the French spirit to flow into the channels he had cut across established political traditions, eroding them in the long term. This book is an excellent biography of the French emperor from his birth to the internment of his ashes in Paris. Alan Forrest is Professor of Modern History and Director of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York. He works on modern French history, especially the period of the French revolution and empire, and on the history of modern warfare.

A man with vaulting ambitions of his own must necessarily be a bit opportunistic. Nothing illuminates this better than Napoleon’s career. The author identifies this trait from very early on. The emperor was born in Corsica, an island off the French mainland in the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian Genoese ruled the island for a long time, but power was usurped by Corsican insurgents. Just a year before Napoleon was born France invaded and annexed it, forcing the Corsican rebels to go into exile. An underground resistance movement was afoot. A patriot would be expected to join the rebels, but Napoleon wisely opted to enroll in a French military school and join the artillery. Forrest neatly narrates the starting point of the future hero’s career by ditching his native island. On the other hand, his decision was good for himself and Corsica in the long run. Had he been part of the island’s army, the utmost he could have hoped for was the deliverance from captivity and be its ruler, out of sight and mind of the other European powers. As events turned out in the end, by sticking on to France and becoming a part of its destiny, Bonaparte’s star shone with meridian splendour for another three decades more.

Political upheavals hardly interrupt the lives and careers of the common masses. But collateral advantages can be reaped by a good number of them when revolutions take place around them. The book clearly summarizes the full scale debt of Napoleon for his rise to the French Revolution (1789); to its ideals of liberty and equality and the meritocracy that lay at its roots and the huge institutional changes it had wrought. The dyke of privileges and inheritances erected by the Old Regime to help the aristocracy were rudely torn down and a sea of ambitious commoners came rushing in. The nobility had had its monopoly repealed in the officer corps of the army and the royal administration. Revolution brought down barriers on the career path of Napoleon.

Forrest gives only a cursory glance of Napoleon’s early military adventures in Italy and Egypt, both of which couldn’t be termed as victories, even though the future emperor used all tricks and strategies in his arsenal to influence public opinion in his favour. We see the first stirrings of a media-savvy administrator in Napoleon’s dispatches from Egypt and Italy. The author includes a hearty description of the French legions’ maneuvers in the desert country, where the soldiers were accompanied by a sizeable contingent of archeologists, historians and scientists. The world owes these savants a great deal for unearthing the Rosetta stone, which handed down the key to deciphering hieroglyphs engraved on the tombs and other ancient remains like vases and boxes. France’s persistent weakness was its navy, when compared to the formidable British naval forces. Overseas ventures of Napoleon came to naught, as Haiti declared independence and inflicted a crushing defeat on the French navy sent to liberate the island.

The author has succinctly catalogued the ever so slight movements made by Napoleon to assume the royal mantle on his shoulders. The French Revolution’s lasting characteristic was its horrible and bloody extinction of the monarchy of the Bourbons. Napoleon wanted to reinstate monarchy by crowning himself as the emperor and enforce hereditary continuity to the throne. The clever measures followed are interesting to read. The crown lay at the end of numerous incremental steps, each of which provided space and time for the elite and public to get accustomed to it. Each step generated unease for the republicans, but they had to go along with the system which ended in Napoleon becoming the hereditary emperor of France.

Glowing tributes are paid by the author to catalog the victories of Napoleon in battle until he reached the zenith of glory in 1807. Unfortunately for the emperor, he didn’t have the supreme gift of the knowledge of when to stop. His armistices and peace treaties were just devices to gain time for preparation for the next assault. While technically at peace, he continued to form stratagems to take on Britain and Russia, his remaining rivals in Europe. He planned a commercial blockade of Britain, to bring to the knees its commercial empire which thrived on trade with the continent. This idea miserably failed as traders resorted to smuggling, while the brazen act stoking retaliation from the British Navy which ruled the seas. The emperor’s rash and opportunistic decision making, coupled with incessant warfare stretched the resources of the empire. It is estimated that a total of four million men were killed on all sides in the Napoleonic wars in Europe. This was too much for the smallest continent in the world. Military alliances against Napoleon became grander and more numerous. France inadvertently played into the hands of its enemies in the disastrous expedition to Moscow, to teach the tsar a lesson in submission. Napoleon’s army was decimated in the Russian winter, and the emperor abdicated and relegated to a small Mediterranean island named Elba. He made a swift return to emperorship at the head of an army of only 650 men, which waxed thick as it neared Paris. However, the allies were determined and defeated him in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and transported him for life to St. Helena, a small island in the South Atlantic. Reduced to virtual confinement he breathed his last, six years later, at the age of 52.

Napoleon cast a great burden on the people he ruled, both in terms of money and manpower. People resented his rule, especially after the reverses in wars became regular and ignominious. Forrest explains why – even in spite of all the adverse feelings – the emperor remained the favourite of the public. He brought in reforms in education, church and justice, which were long overdue in view of the Enlightenment. Birth was not a constraint on one’s ambition – in both ways, as talented aristocrats reentered service. Professionalism and good judgment were the key attributes for administrative appointment. He implemented a civil code which became the hallmark of French rule. Wherever the French went, the Code followed.

The last days of the emperor is touchingly narrated in the book, as also the flourishing of his myth in France and Europe after his death. Judging from history, Napoleon may be termed the last transnational hero produced by France. There is a school of thought among historians that Napoleon was slowly poisoned in St. Helena. This had its origins when scientists detected traces of arsenic in his hair kept as souvenir by his attendants during the last days. Forrest discounts this hypothesis with the argument that the level of arsenic in his hair may have accumulated by other natural means and presents stomach cancer as a plausible reason for his comparatively early death. However, the refutation is not very convincing as it is not accompanied by substantive proof. The book is written in an elegant and absorbing style. We can only see the barest glances of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Readers who have no knowledge of this before might find it difficult to follow the argument. Forrest is not at all keen in mentioning dates of events – even Waterloo is undated. The narration is totally centred on the person of Napoleon. History of France finds mention only when it is absolutely essential to elaborate some aspect of Napoleon’s decisions or career. The book is made more interesting with a good number of pictures. A large collection of detailed notes is included as well as a good index.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Visa Wives

Title: Visa Wives – Emigration Experiences of Indian Women in the U.S.

Author: Radhika M B

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9788184007862

Pages: 332

The USA is a dream destination for the upwardly mobile middle-class in India. The explosive growth of the IT industry in the 1990s had paved the way for many tens of thousands of people to live their dream. Most of the workers who emigrated to the U.S. were men, but their wives soon followed them. It all began in 1886, when Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi, India’s first woman physician, graduated from Pennsylvania. America in those times didn’t exactly welcome them with open arms. When only the fourth Indian woman in history had arrived in 1910, local newspapers screamed out with leaders like ‘Hindu women: Next swarm to California’. However, things have changed much for the better, offering a good package to Indians and other foreigners to study or work there, and eventually to naturalize as full citizens. This book is all about the experiences of Indian women who had emigrated to the U.S., and written by Radhika M B, who is a seasoned journalist who has worked with Tehelka, New Indian Express and the Deccan Chronicle. She is the consulting editor for the Thumb Print e-magazine and is currently settled in the U.S.

The astronomical cost of healthcare and education in the U.S. is a recurring theme in the book. The extravagant figures mentioned in it are bloodcurdling even when expressed in rupees and more so when they are denominated in dollars. The cultural chasm that divides the two countries yawns wide in the attitude of doctors as well.  When an Indian suffers from a terminal illness in his home country, chances are that he may not be informed of the disease that ails him. In an effort to save the person from trauma, doctors in India usually disclose the nature of the problem and prognosis only to very few closest relatives of the patient. This can work effectively only if everyone has a reasonable hope to be cared for by the family. The collective spirit shines through families in India. Everybody belongs to the family they were born into, with the privileges and duties that come bundled with it. American medical practitioners share confidential information about a person’s health with that person alone. The individuality of the patient is greatly respected there, as in every aspect of American civil society. Both systems have its advantages and shortcomings. The book remarks that American doctors are rather blunt in disclosing the characteristics of the problem one faces, rather than hiding it in sugar-coated responses we usually elicit in India. USA is a place where you can’t venture outside without a solid medical insurance cover to back you up in the case of an emergency.

Another notable feature of American life that Indians tend to misuse – regrettably – is the option to return a purchased product claiming it to be unsatisfactory and demanding refund. Radhika puts in a note of caution to the newcomers not to abuse the system as it may create an impression on the natives that these new immigrants don’t honour the customs of their adopted country. And, can you imagine such a system working in India? The avarice of Indians when the prospect of getting something for free, is legendary. People are reluctant to form a queue to buy or avail something, and if at all they stand in line, you have to be on the constant lookout for someone trying to jump the line. What must be the reason for such selfish, antisocial urges inside each one of us Indians? One rationale I can think of is poverty in our genes. The Indian society was weaned away from perennial penury for hardly two generations. This is not by forgetting the plight of millions, who still languish in poverty. But, the majority has moved away from hunger for only two generations. Fathers of most my generation might have known it in their childhood and most of us must have come very close to knowing it. You can hardly expect the highest civic ethics from people like these. Their children grow by the examples set by their own parents in disorderly behaviour and courtesy to others. If the relative prosperity we see in the country continues to flourish for two more generations, there is a high chance that we Indians would also learn to keep good manners in public.

The number of issues covered in the book is really amazing. The author conveys every detail of obtaining a visa, even to the extent of how to write the name taking into account the different naming conventions followed in India. Handy tips on how to perform in the visa interview, what to expect in transcontinental flights and transit airports, and what to expect at the immigration counter of a U.S. city. This is only a prelude to how to lead life in the new country, right down to shopping for groceries, finding an apartment, medical aid, and prospects for higher education and – let’s not miss it in a feminist book – domestic violence and harassment from in-laws. Most of the women who accompany their working husbands having H1B visas opt for the H4 visa, which does not permit its holder to work in the U.S. This creates problems for the women. Most of them might be having a good education and might even have been leading successful professional careers back home right till marriage. But in America, they are jobless and forced to be a dependant wife, which is ascribed to be a major source of trouble between the couple. The dependant loneliness is said to be ‘eating into her confidence’.

The book is easy to read and a page-turner. Considering the whole gamut of issues covered in it, the volume may be thought of as an essential handbook to all those women who have recently started living in America or plan to be there in a short while. The author has treated each topic with sensibility and a sense of proportion, but her handling of the behavioural concerns related to in-laws and their preoccupation with dowry seems to be a bit far-fetched and included just to please those who want to see such matters raised in a book on the social mores of India, since they are habituated to find such topics frequently mentioned in that context.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Am I a Jew?

Title: Am I a Jew? – My Journey Among the Believers and Pretenders, the Lapsed and the Lost, in Search of Faith (Not Necessarily My Own), My Roots and who Knows, even Myself

Author: Theodore Ross

Publisher: Plume, 2013 (First published 2012)

ISBN: 9780142180396

Pages: 275

The world has some preconceived notions about Jews in general. They are thought to be smart, hardworking and rich. With the rising level of anti-Semitism in one’s own mind, other attributes like ‘wickedly clever’ and ‘cheating’ also tumble out of the closet. Jews are themselves conscious of the stereotypes in which they are represented. This creates pressure on them, forcing some to escape notice by resorting temporarily to embrace Christianity and affecting Christian names and practices. Theodore Ross and his mother were Jewish, but she enrolled him in a Christian denomination at age 9 as a precaution during his years of high school education. When he grew up, the author wanted to know about the social persuasions that forced the Jews to act like someone else. This book is a compendium of the author’s thought and travel with this aim in mind. He is the articles editor of Men’s Journal. His journalism and essays have appeared in major newspapers and he lives in New York.

Ross’ analysis of the American Jews flashes up a picture of increasing prosperity in their professional careers, but increased confusion and doubt on the religious and spiritual planes. Others ascribe Jews with smartness in their endeavours, as seen in the long lists of them leading in all walks of life. The amusing factor to note is that some of them appear to have taken this to heart, thinking themselves superior to their fellows. Their spirit of endurance is fabulous, as seen in an old Jewish joke reproduced in the book which says that “They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat”! This serves to entrench the notion that Judaism is more of a religion of ethnicity and code, rather than faith in god. Ideas of superiority are dangerous and are equal to antisemitism in its reverse context. It prevents the religion from proselytizing which it didn’t do in its entire history. Ashkenazi Jews take pride in their genetic purity. This mental separation shuts off doors of assimilation and inclusion. Ross describes about the full spectrum of religious beliefs in the numerous sects and congregations of Jewish people in America. There are those who follow strict observance of the rules of theological doctrines and adoption of Hebrew as the liturgical language, even though very few of the members understand it. Many Christians in America are in fact crypto-Jews, or at least, descendants of them. When European Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity in the Middle Ages, many secretly maintained their traditions throughout the centuries. The Edict of Grace promulgated during the Inquisition listed a set of practices the crypto-Jews were thought to be practicing, while allowing an option to repent with a minor penance. But contrary to intention, this edict became a manual of Jewish practices that were long forgotten among the converted people, who soon re-adopted them fervently. When they migrated to the U.S., they preserved the peculiar features of their worship at home and evolved into various sects based on their country or city of immigration, like the Skverist Jews who trace their origins to the Ukrainian city of Skvyra.

The book talks about a pronounced difference in the degree of assimilation exhibited by Jewish communities migrated to the U.S. before and after the Second World War. Earlier, they followed the prevailing practice of melting homogeneously to the whole in the great American Melting Pot, letting go of cultural markers like use of Yiddish or Hebrew. But after the war, American society tended to spruce up national unity by way of multicultural diversity. Ross claims that when emptiness of secular life, the insufficiency of materialistic routines and the failure to advance a reason for one’s presence were added to the mindset, the Jews began to display traits of distinctness like increased acceptance of religious symbols like the yarmulke. For the American Jews, faith is rather a culture, a sensibility, a form of humour, an array of tastes, a canon of literature and a philosophy of education, as remarked by the author.

Strange as it may seem, but some denominations of the Jews are sticklers of religious injunctions and archaic rules. Perhaps this steadfastness to religion was the raison d’etre of the continuance of the faith. But it can be amusing to read about some of the observances for Sabbath on Saturdays. Devotees stick to many rules which are incompatible in a modern society. Adherents are proscribed from carrying anything, including keys and one’s own overcoat! Doors remain unlocked for this reason. Any creative activity is shunned as also kindling and extinguishing a fire. The innovative worshipers find ingenious ways to circumvent the restrictions. They won’t use fire in a stove, but an oven can be used. Switching on and off of electrical power is taboo and necessary lighting is kept permanently on, or an electronic timer is used. Tearing of paper is banned, so toilet paper is cut into pieces and stored beforehand. Taboos extend to cleaning, writing, pushing a stroller, carrying a pot, conducting business transactions and spending money. Jewish multi-storey apartments use a clever device to bypass the restriction on electricity to use lifts in the building. The lifts will be pre-programmed to automatically stop at every floor in the building from the beginning of Sabbath with sunset on Friday to its end with sunset on Saturday. The author’s experiences with orthodox practitioners on Sabbath day make interesting reading.

As part of the research for the book, Ross had traveled to Israel as well, and presents a demographic question mark on the influx of Jews from Third World countries to it. The Jewish nation extends a larger than life helping hand to immigrants, with support at all levels. Jews in the Western world feel no compulsion, either economic or religious, to emigrate. The religion and its followers are not in peril in any developed country. The economic affluence of Jews is legendary! But Jewish people in Ethiopia, China, Manipur in India and other developing nations find it rewarding to migrate to Israel for economic reasons. This is in spite of the fact that most of them had already converted to Christianity a century ago, as a result of missionary activity. They have no compunction to convert again – this time to their original faith – when a better opportunity presented itself. Israel allows all Jews to make it their homeland and even permits converts back under the scheme Zera Israel, which literally means ‘Law of Returns’. This allows people of various races to inhabit Israel.

The book is not so easy to read as it is intended solely for an American readership with lots of cultural symbols thrown in the narrative without an explanation of what they are. This makes the reading tough for non-U.S. readers. At the end of it all, one wonders at the purpose of the book. We knew from the outset that the author had a very patchy relationship with Judaism, which remains the same in the end. He has introduced many denominations and congregations in American cities and their curious rituals, but there is no moral lesson, so to say, from this book. Ross should have included a glossary of Jewish terms used. We encounter numerous terms like bar mitzvah, but are clueless about what it means! A commendable thing is that it does not demand sympathy from the readers by extolling the martyrdom of millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 2 Star

The Bhutto Murder Trail

Title: The Bhutto Murder Trail – From Waziristan to GHQ

Author: Amir Mir

Publisher: Tranquebar, 2010 (First)

ISBN: 9789380658612

Pages: 280

Benazir Bhutto combined glamour with political acumen and tact when she ruled Pakistan twice as its prime minister. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister and one of the country’s tallest politicians. Pakistan had been under military rule most of the time after independence. Even while democracy was exercising its brief stint, very few elected governments had completed its full term. The military controls all aspects of the administration, and is the largest institution in the country. This book narrates the assassination of Benazir Bhutto at the behest of the military, through a jihadi suicide bomber. It also tells about the devious ways in which independent investigations of the crime were thwarted. Amir Mir is among Pakistan’s foremost investigative journalists whose insightful writings on terrorism, Islamic militant groups and their links with the country’s military and intelligence establishment have drawn widespread attention. He started his career in 1988 and has authored three books on the subject of militant Islam and terrorism.

Pakistan army’s unbridled control on civilian power originated with Zia ul Haq, who came to power in a coup and hanged the prime minister who made him the army chief overlooking the seniority of several others. As fate would have it, his ascension coincided with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This new front in the cold war between the superpowers offered grand opportunities to Pakistan to enrich themselves both physically and militarily. U.S-funded jihadis fought the Soviets with the active support of Pakistan and its intelligence agencies. The jihadis successfully evicted the Russians after a decade of heroic battles. However, this military-militant nexus was to have far-reaching impact on Pakistan, which was slowly transforming into a theocracy. The top rung of the military were themselves ultra-religious with beards and all, and they handled the jihadis fresh from numerous madrassahs in the country for purposes that are hardly over the counter. Mir states that suicide bombers can be ‘rented’ in Pakistan for as little as $1000 apiece! The Pakistani establishment that ruled over the country included the top army brass, top officials of the civil service and the super rich. The common beliefs that unites this bunch are said to be that India must be countered at every turn; that nuclear weapons have endowed Pakistan with security and status; that the fight for Jammu and Kashmir is unfinished business from the time of Partition; that large-scale social reforms such as land redistribution are unacceptable; that the uneducated and illiterate masses deserve only contempt; that vociferous Muslim nationalism is desirable but true Islamism is not; and that Washington is to be despised but fully taken advantage of” (p.208). Very few authors display such a sharp intuition and power of analysis combined in this one statement! The country’s spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has a huge arm manipulating the country’s politics. It openly rigged the elections held in 1990, and brought in right-wing religious parties into power. As the relations between jihadis and Pakistani military soured after 9/11, Pakistan was forced to deal with the genie it had released from the bottle. Jihadis ran amok in the country, killing anybody they wanted – remember the horrific mass murder of students in a Peshawar school in 2014, in which 140 children were gunned down by the Islamists? Unable to stem the tide of the terrorists, the army often entered into treaties whereby they agreed not to attack each other. The book tells of such a treaty between the Pakistan army and Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2005. Such peace treaties with the military emboldened the terrorists and are cited as a direct cause of the growth of terrorist organizations thereafter.

Benazir Bhutto had millions of supporters in Pakistan and many thousands of admirers and fans in other countries, including India. She went into exile to escape the victimization of the government out of which she was ousted in an unconstitutional manner. She returned to Pakistan in October 2007 to contest the polls scheduled for January 2008. A humongous crowd gathered en route of the journey from Karachi airport to her home. Assailants took a shot at her life by using a suicide bomber. Though Bhutto was miraculously saved as she was resting inside her armoured vehicle at the precise moment of detonation, 179 people lost their lives in the attack, including her supporters and security guards. Not content with the scant police protection, her party had recruited a corps of volunteers called Jaan Nisarane Benazir (JNB – ‘to protect Benazir’). She accused the government of Pervez Musharraf of masterminding the assassination attempt, but nothing came out of her repeated correspondence with the Establishment. Musharraf donned the double role of the President of the Republic as well as its army chief. Anyone who opposed him found his life extremely difficult to move on. The author himself was not allowed to work for any Pakistani publication from 2006 onwards after he refused to accept the award for Best Investigative Journalist from the hands of the military dictator. Instead, he worked for many foreign journals including Mumbai’s ‘DNA’. None of the culprits of the October assault on Benazir was nabbed. As the country stepped into a feverish pitch as the elections approached, the terrorists struck again, but this time with fatal consequences. On the evening of Dec 27, 2007, Benazir’s vehicle was attacked at Liaqat Bagh in Rawalpindi, with a terrorist first shooting at her from close range and then detonating a suicide vest. The author devotes much space to refute the government’s claim that she was killed when her head banged against the escape hatch of the armoured car through which she was leaning outside and waving to the ecstatic party workers surrounding the vehicle. Mir asserts that she was killed by gunshot wounds. Whatever it may be, the death was surely orchestrated by powerful elements in the Establishment. Astonishingly, no effort was employed to book the guilty. The Establishment was intent on scuttling the probe from the very outset. No autopsy was conducted on the body and the crime scene was immediately washed with powerful water jets by the fire brigade. Both were violations of established police procedure, but nobody took any notice! Even the government headed by her husband that came through the elections wanted to live the status quo rather than trying to ruffle feathers. As the police had no credibility whatsoever, an investigation by a special team from the Scotland Yard and a UN Inquiry Commission was called for, with limited mandate to investigate the murder. As can be expected, the military made it impossible for the investigators to collect evidence from crucial sources. Finally, the reports submitted by them could not pinpoint the architects of the crime. Amir Mir explains the intricacies in some detail.

This book is a reflection on the sorry state of affairs in Pakistan in 2010, when democracy had just returned to it. Far from a failed state, we can only surmise that parts of the state have become dysfunctional. There is still hope for Pakistan, but only if they fall back on reality and shed the sense of victimhood. Benazir’s last political speech is reproduced in the book. Readers will be surprised to learn that she is still referring to the Partition and the wars with India even in 2007! Benazir seems to be trying to exploit the people’s sense of insecurity with bold claims like Pakistan never lost a battle under PPP’s guard. This obsession with its eastern neighbour is an obstacle for easy and friendly relations with the two neighbours. Perhaps, they could take a glimpse on electioneering in India, where Pakistan is mentioned in only one context – terrorism! The author presents many details which should make international statesmen squirm with unease at the thought of a military having nuclear capability hobnobbing with Islamic fundamentalism and accommodates terrorists to fight their proxy wars. The book is easy to read, but lacks a defining overall structure. A good number of photographs are included and a basic index too.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star