The Godless Gospel

Title: The Godless Gospel – Was Jesus a Great Moral Teacher?
Author: Julian Baggini
Publisher: Granta Publications, 2020 (First)
ISBN: 9781781786695
Pages: 291

The four gospels in the New Testament are the corner stones of Christianity. As per Christian belief, the godhead consists of the trinity of the Father, the Son that is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Gospels are sacred because they record the life and actions of Jesus. As the modern age dawned, rationalism grew and many Christians lost faith in Jesus as the Son of God. At the same time, they accepted him as a great moral teacher whose teachings forever light mankind’s path to virtue and grace. So it has become opportune to examine Gospel truths in light of the secularist ethic and also to test whether Christ’s teachings retain their relevance to a society not used to worship God much often. Few believe in biblical accounts of miracles, but many do believe in moral values of Christ’s teachings such as loving the neighbour and forgiveness. Faith in Christ may be declining, but belief in the moral teachings of Jesus is as strong as ever. Even some non-Christians think society needs the morality preached by Jesus which is the glue that holds society together. Julian Baggini is a British philosopher, journalist and author of over twenty books about philosophy written for a general audience. The author claims to be a convinced but not dogmatic atheist.

Baggini’s task includes the stripping off of all supernatural elements such as miracles, healings and fulfillment of prophecies. The last is especially noteworthy as it divests Jesus’ teachings of all old baggage of Jewish lore and anchors them on true relevance to a world community. Essential reconciliation of many other elements is accommodated. Kingdom of Heaven is retained as the concept of an ideal society. The kingdom is also interpreted as located in the mind’s domain that will in turn guide the people to be good to each other. Jesus himself claimed that the kingdom he preached was ‘not of this world’. The author finds relevance for this concept even if its supernatural overtones are altogether removed. Baggini has prepared a 22,000-word gospel that distills Jesus’ ethical teachings and is reproduced in full as Part 2 of the book, complete with verse numbering.

The rise of modernity was synchronized with the advent of the ‘self’ in matters of social importance. The individual rose to prominence whereas he was just a cog in the wheel before. The concept of ‘self’ became widespread after Descartes who identified the self with a private, conscious essence. Till then, people had thought of themselves primarily as beings who exist only in relation to others, not as self-contained, atomized units. The seed for this individualism was sown in Jesus’ teachings. His emphasis of self-cultivation as seen in the story of the sisters Martha and Mary contains one of the roots of individualism that gradually took over the west. Judaism was centred on the group, the chosen people. Rules and rituals were part of the fabric that held society together. Jesus focused less on the relationship between God and His people and more on that between God and each individual.

This book never really addresses the issue of whether man needs divinely-ordained rules for staying clear of temptation and evil. The author once remarks that truly good people are not restricted by rules and injunctions when they want to do good. They do not need precepts to stop them murdering, thieving or lying. They don’t do such things simply because they have strong moral characters and do what is right almost automatically. This comment was in the context of religious people often ignoring their faith’s strict commands before doing good. Morality is related to the social inhibitions existing in a society at one time. Marrying one’s own sister was the custom in ancient Egypt and their gods and religion supported the practice. Even in Christianity, marriage was not especially valued in the times of Jesus or early church. It was not until thirteenth century that the Catholic Church made marriage a sacrament and even then it did not enforce strict observance of it. Baggini finds Jesus’ strict teachings on adultery and its dismissal of the importance of the family strange. He treats family bonds as distractions from the nobler goal of making ourselves pure.

Some finer aspects of Jesus’ teachings are examined in detail in the book. At the same time, true to his claim of being a non-dogmatc atheist, Baggini concedes space to religion as an essential constituent of the motive force that drives individuals to follow good moral values. The religious interpretation of Jesus’ teaching of forgiveness offers us a sense of completeness, of ultimate resolution and salvation. No secular ethic can promise this, and we are left instead with the imperfect, the incomplete and the ultimately unresolved (p.119). This argument will be vehemently opposed by atheists and agnostics and it seems that Baggini has no inkling of their common arguments on this point. Why then he claims to be an atheist? Leaving the question at that, the author’s assessment of Jesus’ stern judgement on groups of people such as heathen, scribes, Pharisees and tax collectors may appear to be on target. However, the harsh note is only as groups and he is lenient as usual in the case of individuals. Jesus’ ideology was also apolitical with emphasis on bottom-up social reform rather than top-down political change. This helped him stay clear of the Roman overlords who ruled over Palestine. When the indictment to crucify finally came from Pilate, it was for violating the religious sentiments of the Jewish people rather than on any supposed affront to Roman authority. He shunned wealth and asked for the individuals to transform into good mortals.

Throughout the text, one question continues to rise up in readers’ minds – what is the author’s conclusion on the relevance of Jesus in today’s society after we strip him of supernatural powers and divine authority? The author is supposed to have dedicated an entire chapter to address this issue but he does nothing of the sort. Even his judgement is given in passing that only careful readers can appreciate what he says. Baggini concludes that even when shorn of his divine status, Jesus is still a bona fide moral teacher. He does not ask us to accept his teaching on the basis of mere authority and wants us to think for ourselves by requiring us to work out the meaning of his parables. There is some lack of clarity here, since the author claims in another part of the book that Jesus had made his ideas ambiguous by using parables. He explained its real meaning and significance only to his disciples during rest time or travel.

The book presents before us an atheist author with reverence to Jesus and his ideals. In this aspect, his style is the polar opposite to other well-known atheist critics such as Christopher Hitchens. Don’t read this book if what you expect is something in the Hitchens – Dawkins style. On the other hand, it is a crowning example of the respectful and intelligent dialogue possible across the atheist-believer divide, if only people have the right attitude. Baggini roots his arguments not on Christian concepts alone, but goes after relevant references in other belief systems such as Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism and also with references to the Bhagavad Gita.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

The Great Partition

Title: The Great Partition – The Making of India and Pakistan
Author: Yasmin Khan
Publisher: Penguin, 2017 (First published 2007)
ISBN: 9780143420675
Pages: 251

The partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947 was the single most violent incident in the country’s history. Bloodshed is nothing new to India. Rivers of blood flowed in the incessant foreign raids during the 1000 years of Muslim hegemony and 200 years of British rule. But this was something different. Partition was reluctantly accepted by Indian politicians because of the widespread atmosphere of communal violence as a means to bring in much-needed peace. It was ironic that this necessary evil turned out to be an incarnation of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Nearly two million people were killed and about ten million migrated during this violent episode as the newly formed administrations of both countries were unprepared for a calamity of this sort. There have been numerous accounts of the Partition and many have been reviewed here earlier. Yasmin Khan is a British historian of Pakistani origin and is an associate professor of history at Kellogg College, Oxford. This book is her attempt to evaluate a catastrophe that originated from religious bigotry using the jargon of modern nation-making.

Muslims who constituted a minority in undivided India had in fact ruled the landmass for a millennium since the invasion of Mohammed bin Qasim in 712 CE. There have been numerous Hindu principalities in this period, but all were subservient in one way or the other to the sultan in Delhi or to his provincial governors. The Muslim – as a political community, not as individuals – lost power when the British usurped Mughal rule. Gradual constitutional provisions introduced by them caused the Muslims to envisage a new scenario. When it became certain that the British would one day leave India, it was sure that the Hindus would step into the shoes of the British in a probable democracy due to their numerical superiority. It is curious that even though the Hindus were divided into many castes and classes and were of different political persuasions, the Muslim mind saw them as a single entity threatening their existence. As per the religious laws of Islam, Muslims are not permitted to live under a regime which does not accept the primacy of sharia law (dar al-harb). Consequently, a demand was put forward that the Muslims constitute a separate nation and need an exclusive geographical territory separate from India. Hiding this plain truth, Yasmin Khan provides a post-factual justification for the theocratic state of Pakistan that was formed. She in fact puts blame on the Bengali bhadralok (elite) as the people who wanted partition as a solution to protect their business (p.74). This is nothing but dark humour as the Bengali Hindus were driven to call for partition due to general violence in all parts of Bengal and ethnic cleansing of Hindus in east Bengal which eventually became Pakistan. She brazenly declares that Partition is a loud reminder of the dangers of colonial intervention, imperial hubris, and the reactions of extreme nationalism. By transcribing the modern concepts of self-determination and nation state into a theological entity, the author knowingly or unknowingly becomes an apologist for Islamic fundamentalism. Partition acknowledged the right to self-determination of a large group of Muslims who had expressed their strong desire to extricate themselves from the Congress control. In the post-independent period, she euphemizes Pakistan’s support of terrorism as ‘backing of violent atrocities’ (p.209), carefully avoiding the word ‘terrorism’.

Khan portrays the ineptness of the administration to handle a crisis of this magnitude. Partition took place in a society only partially emerging from long years of war. 2.5 million Indian soldiers served in World War II of which 24,000 were killed and 64,000 wounded. This was the largest volunteer army in history. There were also issues connected to demobilization. The need to transfer large chunks of populations was not recognized even late into the sequence of events. Even after the June 3 declaration of the actual date of independence, Lord Mountbatten thought of only feeble mechanisms to reassure, protect or secure the position of minority communities in border districts.

The book expounds the role of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in shaping up the idea of Pakistan and providing the intellectual leadership in steering the concept clear of all obstacles. This is a topic leftist Indian historians regularly sweep under the carpet, away from the public eye. AMU stood as the bulwark in building up the Muslim League. The institution was founded by Syed Ahmed Khan as a place to blend Islamic instruction with the demands of the western world and to impart all manners and educational benefits that an English public school could offer to well-heeled Muslims. Support for League and Pakistan had been a long-standing feature of the university described as the ‘arsenal of Pakistan’. Aligarh University students were at the cutting edge of pro-Pakistan thinking and they retrospectively claimed the credit for founding the state. When leaders such as Jinnah and Liaquat Ali visited the place, they were given rapturous receptions. League leaders were carried aloft the shoulders of students who set crackers on the railway lines to welcome them (p.41). A student union leader was claiming publicly to have killed Hindus with his own bare hands (p.42).

The weak administration’s role in encouraging ethnic cleansing in Punjab is narrated in detail. British troops were steadily withdrawn and sent back home. They were replaced by the limited and under-manned Punjab Boundary Force trying to protect a petrified, well-armed population. Nehru wanted the foreign soldiers to go immediately as their presence was resented as a symbol of occupation. This viewpoint neatly overlapped with the interests of the British establishment which was eager to bring its war-weary and homesick soldiers back. Native troops not only evaded their duty to protect minorities but in some cases actually took part in the violent offensive. Pakistani troops being transported to their new places of posting in Pakistan fired at civilians from the carriage windows of their passing trains at Ambala, killing or wounding sixty innocent passersby. Country-made mortars were mounted on strategic rooftops in Punjabi villages to repulse invaders. In Hasilpur of Bahawalpur state, a group of Pathans shot down 350 people by rifle fire while the soldiers remained neutral (p.129). The miscreants often consisted of well-prepared, trained, uniformed and efficient body of former soldiers and policemen. Gangs armed with machine guns in jeeps were able to inflict far more harm in one or two hours than villagers using clubs and pitchforks, were less alarmed by military patrols and could cover large distances. In addition, the two new governments had to solve the refugee crisis alone, with the international community barely involved. The Red Cross had actually closed its delegation in India six months before Partition. Europe turned inward as it attempted to heal its war wounds and its own refugee problem. The UNHCR was founded only in 1950. Both the governments set up full-fledged ministries to deal exclusively with refugees. Special taxes were imposed to finance the rehabilitation operations.

It has been a time-tested strategy of Islamists to drive a wedge between the untouchables and other castes in Hinduism. The former was subject to great oppression in the past and a number of them are obviously irate over this sad fact. Islamist and leftist historians never waste an opportunity to remind them of the atrocities perpetrated against their ancestors and thereby try to preclude any chance of rapprochement and reconciliation. Yasmin Khan also follows the same line. She even classifies newspapers as ‘upper caste’ (p.76). The author also claims that ‘untouchables as a separate community were left for themselves in Punjab’ and argues that they chose Pakistan to escape upper caste domination. But in fact, in the case of a few who chose likewise, there was no change in the situation and Muslims dominated them even more. This subhuman treatment is evidenced by the reverse migration of J N Mandal. He was an untouchable and the chairman of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. Soon afterwards, he was promoted ‘to a coveted ministerial position’ (p.155), but within three years he resigned and fled back to India resenting the inhuman treatment meted out to his fellow members in Pakistan. The author also notes the clever reevaluation of the Muslims in north India in terms of ‘economic and personal safety and security’, while all of them were League and Pakistan supporters before. The two-nation theory was thus conveniently hidden for the time being for survival.

What we see in this book is a grim equalizing under the guise of modern political concepts of self-determination and nation-making on behalf of a Pakistani author of the ideologies in the making of secular India and Islamic Pakistan. Misleading assertions are galore in the text, like the claim that ‘forced conversions from one faith to the other occurred’ (p.6) as if both communities indulged in this heinous custom. Forced conversions did take place to only one religion in India of 1947 and that was to Islam. The narrative is in a detached mode, without adopting any leader’s personal perspective like Jinnah or Liaquat Ali Khan. Extensive references to fictional works are seen such as Bhishma Sawhney’s Tamas or Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan and also Intizar Husain’s semi-autobiographical novel Sunlight on a Broken Column.

 

The book is recommended.

 

Rating: 2 Star

Why I Killed the Mahatma

Title: Why I Killed the Mahatma – Uncovering Godse’s Defence
Author: Koenraad Elst
Publisher: Rupa Publications, 2018 (First)
ISBN: 9788129149978
Pages: 251

India's independence from British rule in 1947 was hard won, but was marked with heavy bloodshed in the partitioned provinces. Though Partition was accepted and approved by Indian leaders as a necessary evil, they were perplexed by the rivers of blood that flowed across its eastern and western borders. The atmosphere was highly charged that forced political leaders little leeway other than toeing the official line in their dealings with the other nation. Gandhi, rightly or wrongly, stuck to his principle of truth and demanded that it be extended to the sphere of international negotiations. This led India to compromise on its earlier stand of declining to pay Pakistan's allotted share of foreign exchange reserves as Pakistan had invaded Kashmir in the meanwhile. Such acts drove ultranationalists into a mortal hostility to Gandhi. On Jan 30, 1948, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the editor of a Pune-based Marathi daily, assassinated him by firing his gun at close range. He was immediately apprehended and sentenced to death after trial. Godse chose not to plea for clemency and commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment. A lengthy justification was given by him to the court as part of the proceedings. India under Nehru always chose to keep Godse’s testimony hidden by banning its publication. With the passage of time, the regime’s ardour weakened and many reproductions started appearing in the public domain. This book is a very good work that examines his defence in court and clearly explains the rationale behind India’s most notorious political assassination. Koenraad Elst is a Dutch author who has a strong affinity to Indian culture and society. A few observers even accuse him of having links with rightist movements in the country.

The first part of the book analyses the superficial changes that took root in India at the behest of western-minded elite that closely associated themselves with India’s first Prime Minister, Nehru. The government-sponsored scholars refused to analyse the political rationale behind Gandhi’s murder. This lent unsustainable credence to the idea that his assassin was motivated by religious fanaticism and little else besides. On the other hand, the author finds Godse to be a secular nationalist opposed to religious obscurantism and caste privileges existing in Hindu society. The book includes an introduction by Gautam Sen that lacerates the false pretensions of the ‘liberal’ intelligentsia that drew its strength and sustenance from government funds. The post-independent Indian historical writing is dominated by a monolithic political project of progressivism that eventually lost sight of verifiable basic truths. Dominated by leftists, this genre soon descended into crass, self-serving political activism and censored dissenting views that challenged their institutional privileges and intellectual exclusivity. They successfully imputed mythical status to an alleged threat of Hindu extremism and its complicity in assassinating Gandhi.

Elst lists out the accusations made against Gandhi in some detail and reconciles Godse’s past with the credibility of his allegations. In the early stages of his career in social work, Godse was attracted by Gandhian ideals. Soon he got disillusioned with Gandhian double standards on the face of Muslim extremism. He pandered to their most outrageous demands without a whimper of protest while chastising the Hindus for even the slightest infraction. Godse then took a leadership role in the initiatives to cure Hindu society of casteism and untouchability by organizing inter-caste meals and other symbolic offences to the untouchability taboo. The proximate cause for the murder was the foreign exchange issue. Pakistan demanded Rs. 550 million as its rightful share after Partition. Nehru declined to disburse this amount as Pakistani soldiers were stationed inside Kashmir at that time in their failed bid to wrest the province from India. Gandhi put pressure on the government to pay this amount, even threatening it with a fast unto death. Nehru relented and paid the money which Pakistan used to procure more arms to fight the Indian army in Kashmir. This was the first time in history that a country deliberately financed its battlefield opponent!

This book provides an incisive view into the irrational theory of Gandhi’s nonviolence. Godse also cites this as political justification for his crime. Justice does not figure in Gandhi’s calculus of nonviolence. People should innocently die by way of moral gesture, rather than inflict a just punishment on the aggressor. He advised the refugees who flew for their lives from Pakistan to go back and face their assailants with open arms. If the miscreants wanted to kill them, Gandhi asked to offer their neck to the sword without resistance! Courage is required even for such a thing as suicide. At the same time, Gandhi chose to ignore his advice when the time came for him to follow it. Gandhi always declared that the country would be partitioned only over his dead body. But when the partition plan was put through, he decided not to embark on any fast unto death against the Muslim League since he very well knew that death surely awaited at the end of the fast. Gandhi’s ideas always contained a misplaced kind of personal asceticism eclipsing any socially responsible concern for public justice. Gandhian nonviolence was at best only a technique of applying moral pressure by a weaker party on the stronger, but Gandhi turned it into an article of masochistic surrender to aggression. The applicability of this doctrine was pathetically limited as evidenced by its incapacity to influence the partition crisis.

Irrespective of the political viewpoint, there is near unanimous consensus among observers that Gandhi encouraged Muslim separatism and never took a line opposing them in public. Elst gives a long discussion on this aspect. In India, the Muslim leadership had a historic memory of empire and felt entitled to its restoration after the British left. The only dispute within the Muslim elite was whether they should aim for a gradual re-conquest of the whole of India or to settle for a partition and be secure in the control of a large part of the country. The Muslim League wanted immediate separation while the conservative ulema believed in eventual takeover of the entire country on a future date and remained in the Congress as ‘nationalist Muslims’! Gandhi supported the fanatic Khilafat movement, but suddenly withdrew citing violence at Chauri Chaura. The withdrawal was received as betrayal and led to the biggest wave of communal violence since the establishment of British paramountcy. Khilafat sought to reestablish the fallen Turkish sultan as the leader of all Muslims in the world and as such, was intrinsically anti-nationalist, which united Indian Muslims with their counterparts in other nations against all infidels. Even after the debacle, Gandhi refused to do any serious introspection about its intellectual failure and simply continued peddling cheap observations about Islam as the religion of brotherhood. In this process, he built up medieval obscurantists like Ali Brothers and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who later became the nation’s education minister in Nehru’s cabinet. The most shocking incident is Gandhi’s support for inviting Amir Amanulla of Afghanistan to invade India to relieve Muslims of infidel rule. When the Amir showed his reluctance, Maulana Azad convinced the Muslims to migrate to Afghanistan and flee India which had turned into a dar ul-harb (abode of enmity). Thousands heeded his call, sold everything and migrated. But they found the Afghan society hostile and inhospitable, so they returned back to India under great hardship.

The author makes a careful study of the aftermath of Gandhi assassination and its impact on the fortunes of the Hindutva forces. Even at a distance of several decades, people invoking Gandhi’s name still evade the hard questions raised by Godse in his courtroom speech. However, Elst concludes that the killing was a strategic mistake. Godse hurt his own movement far more than any enemy forces ever did. Just before his death Gandhi was a discarded leader, a proven failure hated by many millions of Hindus. The Hindu movement was riding a wave of popular support after Congress had failed in its electoral promises of 1945. Overnight, the tide completely turned against the Hindutva forces and Gandhi was resurrected as a saint and martyr whose failures were strictly a taboo as a topic of discussion. Whatever be the merit of his actions, the concluding paragraph in Godse’s speech exhibit his fervent hope that his actions would be recognized by the nation in the end. He says, “My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof on some day in future” (p.133).

A notable feature of this book is that no holy cow of post-independent India escapes its severe criticism. For Elst, Gandhi is just a political leader as any other. It leaves no stone unturned in nailing Nehruvian secularism for superficiality, flimsiness and conceit. He remarks that the superficiality of thought in Nehruvian secularism is compensated for by thoroughness in dishonesty (p.26). Godse’s comments in his testimony are also critically evaluated and inconsistencies pointed out. By making the speech public in his own way, Elst contributes to the citizens’ right to freedom of speech and expression, as the publication of the speech is still banned in India. The book is pleasantly readable and provides a much-needed alternative perspective of the tumultuous events unleashed by Partition.

 

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Take Me Home

Title: Take Me Home – The Inspiring Stories of 20 Entrepreneurs from Small-town India with Big-time Dreams
Author: Rashmi Bansal
Publisher: Westland, 2014 (First)
ISBN: 9789383260805
Pages: 356

India lives in its numerous villages rather than a few cities. This statement has assumed the dimensions of an adage even though the ratio of village dwellers are rapidly falling as time goes by. Urbanisation has changed the social topography of India’s heartland with numerous small towns now scattered across the country. Usually the big cities are associated with entrepreneurship, industry and credit networks that sustain business. But talent knows no bounds and hardworking innovators thrive in the hinterland as well without any exposure to the outside world. This causes no hurdles in their growth path, but a true appreciation that comes from the knowledge of how they did it helps foster the spirit of entrepreneurship in the land. This book gives the stories of twenty persons across India’s small towns who hit big in business. The list includes only one woman – Dilafroze Qazi of Kashmir – who is into the private sector technical education. The book’s title is inspired from John Denver’s immortal song, ‘Country roads, take me home’ which is amply suited to the rustic focus of the narrative. Rashmi Bansal is a non-fiction writer and herself an entrepreneur who has authored many books on entrepreneurship.

Bansal’s effort tries to mark a distinct phase of India’s growth when the wealth is created not only in the metropolitan cities, but has percolated down to nearby towns and villages. The new India consists of prosperous inhabitants of small towns and countryside. They overpowered the big metros in terms of sheer numbers, thereby becoming the customers every marketer wants to reach. With so much potential available locally, it’s no wonder that a small revolution occurred in the small towns. A new breed of entrepreneurs has emerged who are changing old equations and assumptions. The metros are characterized by people who are always busy and rushing from one place to another in a hurry. But in the countryside, time is what people have for each other, not something you chase.

This book tells the story of twenty innovative business-people, but keeps silent on the revolutionary changes that took place in the business atmosphere of India brought about by globalization. However, readers are reminded of the tectonic shifts that occurred in the mindset of society in consequence to it. In a typical example, Virani Brothers in Rajkot, who specialized in making salty chips for snacks, procures the best raw materials and technology from around the globe. They sent their managers to Israel and began cultivating potato varieties like ‘Lady Rosetta’ in Gujarat. Broiler chicken producers now use ERP software for connecting the head office to farms. When a truck is loaded for delivery, its weight can be seen in real time in all the concerned offices. The bureaucratic babus still maintained haughtiness in their deals with the industry as seen in the case of Jyoti CNC machines of Rajkot. They imported a linear motor for its new lathe from Germany which was making a debut in Europe. It had no rotating parts and was held up by the customs officials for three months because it had no ball bearings which every normal motor had and the device did not rotate!

The author makes a prescient assessment of Kerala as ‘the land of coconuts, lagoons, spice villages, rest and rejuvenation and not a place which you would associate with work’ (p.57). This is god's own country from where god's own children go to other countries in search of work. This sorry state of affairs came about due to excessive politicisation of the society and a foolhardy bias to outdated notions of socialism and by corollary, a visceral hatred of private entrepreneurs. It is here that C V Jacob established ‘Synthite’ to export oleoresins extracted from natural spices. He was a civil engineering contractor who happened to find spices in liquid form – as oleoresins – at an expo in Japan in 1970. He transplanted the technology to Kerala where raw materials like cardamom and pepper are freely available. Synthite steadily grew to become the world's largest oleoresin manufacturer.

One important fact this book conveys to aspiring entrepreneurs is the importance of keeping abreast of new developments in the field. This is achievable by attending the trade fairs organized in the country and abroad. Such an early adoption of new technology confers on them a great advantage in the fierce competition of the markets. The industrialists should also think about innovative measures that are helpful in bringing down the cost of production. As an example, Jagjit Singh of Punjab found an ingenious way to maximize the collection of honey. He transported the boxes containing bees to various places depending on the local season for specific crops. These boxes were then rotated through mustard fields in Rajasthan, sunflower farms in Punjab and kikar and acacia flowers in Kashmir.

Of the twenty people mentioned in the book, Dilafroze Qazi is the only woman, but she hails from Kashmir. Being a state firmly controlled by corrupt politicians and Islamic militants in the past, her success deserves an extra load of laurels. The militants virtually ruled the Valley in the 1990s when businesses had had to pay them protection money. When in dire need, they would kidnap people and extort ransom. The police often stood by as mute spectators while militants rampaged on non-complying establishments. Qazi’s specialization was in providing technical education to Kashmiri girls, but the ulema often obstructed the smooth functioning of colleges as the concept of female education ran counter to the tenets of Islamic laws. This book provides a hint of what a prospective employer looks for in the candidates who have applied for a job there. Most pragmatic of them assess 'how capable is he, how sincere is he and how much does he need the job’.

Bansal has made a neat job of her goal, but monotony sets in after a few chapters. All of them are written in the same repeating pattern. Moreover, some of the examples are not worthy to be listed here. There is no uniform formula for business success, but anything can be made rewarding if you persevere enough – that’s the moral this book conveys. The advice of a successful entrepreneur was never to work on verbal assurance but to get it in writing. We know that it is not always practical, but the man made his career on this principle!

The book is divided into three sections: a) people who never left for greener pastures, but their vision and ambition expanded far beyond their native towns b) return of the native, who returned from fine institutions or foreign lands with the dream of making a difference and c) the people who brought in change in the ways of society. This book reproduces snippets of Hindi conversations in the interviews in transliterated form in English characters along with its English meaning in brackets immediately after the Hindi lines. This becomes tedious and quite difficult for people who are not familiar with Hindi. Each chapter contains a section on the protagonist’s advice to young entrepreneurs.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Untold Story of Broadcast during Quit India Movement

Title: Untold Story of Broadcast during Quit India Movement
Editor: Gautam Chatterjee
Publisher: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 2018 (First)
ISBN: 9788123027951
Pages: 164

After decades of struggle on the streets, Congress decided to participate in the limited power sharing agreement in the provinces of British India as envisaged in the Government of India Act, 1935. It obtained a landslide win in the elections and came to power in most of the provinces in 1937. But this was not to last long. When the Second World War broke out two years later, Britain unilaterally pulled India to fight alongside the Allied Powers. The Congress was willing to fight against Hitler and his Axis Powers, but dragging India into war without even consulting its political leaders piqued them which led to Congress resigning from all provincial governments. A general state of non-cooperation against the British was also declared. However, with Germany’s clear advantage in the years 1940-41 and Japan’s unchallenged conquest of the entire East Asia, prompted the Congress to try to oust the British from India using the opportunity. With most of her troops fighting in Africa, Europe and West Asia, Britain was already on its knees here. Gandhi declared the ‘Quit India’ campaign and urged the party workers to ‘Do or Die’. However, contrary to Congress hopes, the government retaliated with ferocious intensity, imprisoning all Congress leaders, right down to the village level. The party organisation became leaderless and the cadres went on a rampage of violence by clashing with the police, uprooting communication poles and cutting lines, sabotaging of rail network and setting fire to government institutions. Since the press went under censorship, there was no way for Congress to establish communication with the masses. At this desperate point, a few clever people in Mumbai installed a low-power radio transmitter and started airing propaganda material. After about three months of tracing the signals, the police zeroed in on the location of the transmitter and arrested the people behind it. This book follows the court verdict convicting the workers and police monitoring reports of the transmission. The book is published by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and the editor is Gautam Chatterjee.

Even though the British had cast their finely meshed net far and wide, some Congress leaders managed to evade arrest in August 1942. Ram Manohar Lohia, a prominent socialist leader, funded the clandestine radio in a bid to reach out to the people and carry on the struggle. Every day in the morning and evening, the radio sputtered to life for about an hour’s transmission with the line ‘This is the Congress Radio, somewhere from India, calling on 42.34 meters’. The program started with a patriotic song ‘Hindustan Hamara’ and ended with ‘Vande Mataram’. It ran for two months from 3 Sep 1942 to 12 Nov 1942 when the police raided the premises where the transmitter was located and took into custody both the equipment and operators. It brought news of protests in various parts of the country and spread instructions from the party bosses to continue struggle against the government. The transmitting power was very low at 10W in the beginning, but later enhanced to 100W. As the police was tracing and monitoring the broadcast, the location of the transmitter was being continuously shifted from place to place.

As can be expected, the transmitted content often lacked a coherent structure and a feasible plan on how to move forward. The exhortations were also not practical, such as its call to the city dwellers to leave towns, settle in the countryside and help farmers in the fields. The rural folk should then stop the sale of agricultural produce to starve the cities. This blockade would force the other agents in the economy to collapse as well which would hamper the government’s war effort. It predicted a famine because food grains were channeled out of the country to feed overseas armies. The radio called for a total boycott of the regime by transacting no business with and challenging it such as exhibiting the tri-colour flag at homes, ignoring court summons, not purchasing foreign goods, withdrawing money from government-owned banks and boycotting servants of government.

The radio decried violence in general, but advocated its wholehearted use if it was really needed to tide over the situation. The government replied with a ‘fight the goondas’ campaign. Readers get only a glimpse of the government’s retaliatory measures through passing references in the transmission. The government maintained the pious lie that only a few people demanded freedom and the nation’s 90 million Muslims were against the idea. The radio denied this vehemently and cited the Id greetings broadcast on the radio as symbol of secularism and reconciliation! Huge collective fines were imposed on villages. Hajipur in Bihar was compelled to pay Rs. 19,000 as fine when a year’s entire municipal revenue was only Rs. 10,000. The Congress radio tried to address the molestation of women in police searches of their homes for absconding men. It advised them to prevent any act of rape nonviolently, failing which, the violator should be killed or they themselves should get killed in their fightback.

Sticking to the Congress policy of nonviolence in its actions, the party made boisterous claims on the ‘revolution’ it was pulling through in the country. This revolution was thought to be a peculiar one in which arms were not used and not even necessary. It was not of an aggressive minority, but of the entire people. Damage to public property and communication infrastructure were exclaimed as victory for the revolution. The telephone poles along the Bengal – Nagpur railway line suffered extensive damage in a cyclonic storm. This was hailed as an act of god in support of the revolution. It also threatened the government contractors to stop work because the fall in currency value in the event of foreign aggression or the declaration of free India would financially cripple them.

What we see in the book is the systematic effort of the police to track down the transmitter and punish the perpetrators after a fair trial. The Bombay police prepared transcripts of all broadcasts. Penal sentences of one to five years were slapped on the persons responsible. Vithaldas Madhavji Khakhar, who was the brain and fundraiser of the plot, got five years rigorous imprisonment. While the Congress leaders fought the British and went behind bars, the Muslim League and the Communists colluded with the government. As part of the boycott plan, the Ahmedabad textile mill workers had went on strike. British administrators used the Communists to break the strike by inviting workers to resume work for better remuneration promised by the government. Very few people heeded their call.

The book miserably fails to create a narrative from the data the editor painstakingly collected from the National Archives. The documents are simply reproduced verbatim without any analysis or assessment on the editor’s part. The content is often exaggerated and unconfirmed. The radio reports are mere propaganda material, proving or falsifying nothing. It claimed that 50,000 Indians were killed by the government in just two months after the Quit India campaign started. The text is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors and a quarter of the book is devoted to copy the court’s judgment indicting the accused. Readers are forced to walk through this thick jungle of legalese.

 

The book is not recommended.

 

Rating: 1 Star

Emperors of the Peacock Throne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Emperors of the Peacock Throne – The Saga of the Great Mughals
Author: Abraham Eraly
Publisher: Penguin, 2000 (First published 1997)
ISBN: 9780141001432
Pages: 555

Popular legends and colourful descriptions of contemporary chroniclers of emperors make the Mughals the most glamorous dynasty that ever ruled India. Babur established this dynasty in India by invading from central Asia through Afghanistan. The empire, which was seeded by Babur, reached the zenith of its glory under Akbar but Aurangzeb spread the seeds of its eventual disintegration. This book is the story of the first six emperors from Babur to Aurangzeb who are known as the Great Mughals. This is part of a four-volume study titled ‘India Retold’, covering the history of India from the beginning up to 1858. This volume deals with medieval history spanning the years 1526 and 1707. Abraham Eraly was a professor of history at colleges in Chennai and the US. He also edited a fortnightly current affairs magazine for a few years.

The author tries to find a philosophical reason for another book on Mughals who are well documented in contemporary as well as modern histories. History needs to be re-evaluated in the light of the prevailing consensus of each era. As time goes by, people rework it as all works of history are only interim reports. Herodotus opened his historical treatise with the line ‘this is a publication in order that actions of men may not be effaced by time’ which is equally valid for all re-interpretations. Eraly asserts that the historian is not a moral eunuch. His moral voice gives his work its unique timbre. There are no absolutes in history, but the historian must affirm his views. This makes it mandatory for interpreting history in light of new developments in society. We should not concentrate only on the major events because even though they shape the contours of history, the particulars and trifling incidents breathe life into it. This book faithfully reproduces the methodology outlined in these lines.

Eraly provides a neat comparison of the two legendary emperors of India – Ashoka and Akbar – even though they are separated in time by eighteen centuries. Ashoka is enveloped in ‘misty, golden glow of myth’ while Akbar lived too close to our own time and chronicled by many people whose accounts we have access to, so that we get to know the person behind the persona. He was a deeply troubled man, unhappy with himself and unsure of the world. Eraly claims that Akbar’s compassion was not of character, which was violent, but of intelligence. Towards the end of his life, he virtually gave up eating meat, saying that ‘it is not right for a man to make his stomach the grave of animals’. We have a clear parallel to Ashoka here. Some of Akbar’s idiosyncrasies are however not repeated. Akbar used Ganga water for drinking and arranged trustworthy persons stationed on the banks of Ganga to send the water in sealed jars wherever he was. While Ashoka promoted Buddhism during his reign, Akbar invented a syncretic religion and invited his courtiers to flock to it. The author states that Din Ilahi was a lost opportunity to India as a pathway to a religiously harmonious future. The new religion opened the potential for India to come out of medievalism into modern age. Discussions of a purely secular nature took place between Akbar and members of the Chosen Forty people who guided Din Ilahi proponents. This was unheard of in India for a long time. Eraly puts the situation in his golden prose: ‘for a brief, shining moment, a new and brilliant star blazed over Fatehpur Sikri. Then the moment passed. And the night closed in again’.

Like the leftist historians, Eraly too tries his best to paper over horrific acts of religious bigotry and spiff up the Mughal emperors by laboriously finding out mitigating factors. While in Gwalior, Babur ordered the destruction of idols in Jain temples as they were portrayed naked. The author redeems Babur by conceding that ‘it was Babur’s aesthetic sensibilities that were offended by the Jain idols, not his religious sentiments’ (p.31). Humayun decapitated some of his men for a minor offence committed when they were in a state of inebriation. Eraly justifies this wanton cruelty as ‘inflicting such savage and arbitrary punishment was a medieval royal privilege, a demonstration of the king’s absolute power’ (p.45). After capturing Chitor, Akbar ordered a general massacre, killing 30,000 people, according to Abul Fazal. This is being condoned as an attempt to ‘show that greater the resistance, greater will be the retaliation and also to strike terror in potential adversaries and cripple their will to fight’. Moreover, ‘there were no random, impulsive persecution of Hindus under Aurangzeb' (p.397) and Aurangzeb’s imposition of jizya was ‘possibly due to revenue considerations’ (p.404). See the author’s sheer reluctance to accept the plain truth that he is speaking about first-rate religious bigots? This is the sad state of affairs in most of Indian historiography.

The book includes neat asides on Sher Shah and Shivaji, who threatened the very foundations of Mughal Empire. Mughal rulers are often excused for their religious fanaticism on account of medieval zeitgeist. But here, the author exhibits a refreshing contrast between Shivaji and Aurangzeb. This book states that Shivaji had high respect for women, whether of his own or of his enemy. Even Mughal chroniclers who habitually damned Shivaji as ‘the hell dog’ praises his fair treatment of captives and subject people. Khafi Khan admits that Shivaji was ‘careful to maintain the honour of women and children of Muslims when they fell into his hands’. Shivaji, no doubt, had intense religious faith and was a proud Hindu, but he respected the devotion of other people to other religions. Even in that harsh age and brutal environment, he exhibited rare probity even in his depredations. Except in a single, exceptional case, did he ravage a Muslim holy place. Whenever a Quran fell into his hands in the course of plunder, he deferentially handed it over to the Muslim officers in his entourage. This reverential treatment of people of other religions was extended even to the Europeans. This discussion clearly shows that invocation of the medieval spirit does not acquit Mughals of the charge of bigotry and intolerance.

The author also examines the impact of Mughal rule on Indian society which does not appear to be as rosy as it is often made out to be. It transformed the lifestyle of the elite throughout India. The rich and powerful aspired to be Mughals. In architecture, cuisine, language, music and dance, the standards of excellence for a long time would be Mughalai. Yet, India did not change in its essence. There was no transmutation of civilization. The Hindu and Muslim worlds did not change under mutual influence. The most unfortunate fact was that the Mughals did not creatively respond to the stimulus of resurgent Europe and there was hardly any vigour in the economy and scant spirit of enterprise among the people. There was no ferment of ideas and Indian practices remained archaic. The apathy to novel ideas was so shocking that they showed little interest even in European military innovations. Mughal rule also debased the character of man. There was near total absence of civic morality and personal integrity. Hypocrisy and sycophancy were the hallmarks of the Indian ruling class. This is in sharp variance with the description of Indian people and aristocracy given by Fa Xien or Hiuen Tsang a millennium before. Over a quarter of the gross national product of the empire was forcibly appropriated by just 655 individuals while the bulk of its 120 million people lived in abject poverty. Eraly concludes that the contrast between legend and reality was grotesque in Mughal India.

Eraly’s works are a pleasure to read because of the mastery he employs in the narrative that often touches on the poetic. This book quotes liberally from the works of contemporary historians and chroniclers as to make the readers feel closer to the historical personalities. The book is somewhat big, but not a single page is redundant or dispensable. Reading history is immensely enjoyable when the author too rises to the occasion, which Eraly does amply in this work.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Breath of Gold

Title: Breath of Gold – Hariprasad Chaurasia
Author: Sathya Saran
Publisher: Penguin Random House, 2019 (First)
ISBN: 9780670092512
Pages: 256

 

Hariprasad Chaurasia is a renowned Indian musician specialized in bansuri, the Indian flute. His fame is spread all over the globe that he is often acknowledged as the voice of Indian classical music. Chaurasia found his mettle in the most improbable family background. His mother died when he was only six, and his wrestler father wanted him to get initiated in the wrestling profession. But the artist in the boy always spilled out in unexpected ways. He tried vocal music at first. Though he failed in singing as he had only a limited range, his teacher advised him to find an instrument that made use of his steady breath. His quest ended with the flute. His talent and job in the All India Radio opened gates for him to perform in the orchestra of Hindi film music headquartered at Mumbai. Chaurasia shot to prominence in no time, but shifted to classical music at the peak of his career in the popular music industry. He established boarding house schools for teaching aspiring students and became very busy in imparting knowledge of Indian music overseas and displaying its charm and verve to foreign audiences. This book tells the story of this maestro who continues to invigorate the Indian mind with his enchanting music. Sathya Saran is a popular biographer who is currently the consulting editor at HarperCollins Publishers. She has several books to her credit.

Saran reproduces Chaurasia’s childhood with direct interviews with the maestro. He was always approachable and did not assume pretensions of holier-than-thou attitude very common among classical Indian musicians. The book showcases a musician willing to perform whenever people demanded it. He was not averse to earn money with his art. This is neither strange nor shameful as all musicians of old had been under the liberal financial umbrella extended by aristocratic patrons. Chaurasia found a job in All India Radio (AIR) which ensured self-sufficiency and a secure tenure. With no help forthcoming from his father to promote his tastes, Chaurasia learnt flute unbeknown to his father. He came to know that his son played flute only on the evening prior to his departure for Cuttack where he was posted by AIR. The job was not time-consuming and he could moonlight in the rich cultural landscape of Odisha’s heartland.

Diverting one’s attention outside one’s full-time job would be noticed, even in a nobody-cares institution such as AIR. The bosses noted with dismay the young musician’s parleys outside the scope his position demanded. They transferred him to Mumbai as punishment but which eventually came out as a blessing in disguise. He was quickly introduced to the Bollywood music industry, His first recording was for a song by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar. Though film music was frowned upon by musical puritans in the south of India, it was not unusual for north’s classical musicians to be part of the orchestra playing for film songs. Even well known, much respected singers from venerable gharanas were sometimes persuaded to lend their voice to celluloid. Huge fees were usually involved in such instances. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan once charged Rs. 25,000 for a single song when the going rate was only Rs. 250 to 1000. Chaurasia soon got busy with playing flute and composing music for film songs. He was earning more money than his job gave him, and he was busy with what he loved best – music. Soon he quit the job.

Chaurasia’s conquest of Bollywood music was so fast that he became the staple of recording studios across the country. Saran narrates all this with the lucidity of a movie script where the hero ascends the steps to fame steadily. Almost every song had an interlude by him. Even in films where the flute cannot be included in the music, they found ways to add in a composition in the background score. His cooperative spirit was plainly visible when he teamed up with santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma, a close family friend, to provide combined performances. This became an instant hit and the duo became famous under the sobriquet ‘Shiv-Hari’.

The book coherently narrates the shift in Chaurasia’s career when he decided to change track to classical music at the peak of his fame. He decided to learn from scratch, but finding a master was a serious problem. Who would venture to ‘teach’ a flute maestro whose reputation had spread even across the nation’s frontiers? Chaurasia found such a guru in Annapurna Devi, daughter of Ustad Allauddin Khan and first wife of Pandit Ravi Shankar. After her estrangement with Shankar, she became a recluse and never performed in public again. Moreover, she was a surbahar (bass sitar) player who did not know how to play flute. Against these heavy odds, Chaurasia became a disciple and learnt Hindustani classical music. As in any field, hard work and perseverance would pay handsomely in music too. He spent many years learning and acquired a depth of knowledge which he used to create his own style and musical vocabulary. He learned to speak with the flute and reach out to touch the hearts of his audience. Saran includes some interesting anecdotes of Annapurna Devi’s mercurial temper. She disliked disciples arguing with her and once banged a tanpura on Chaurasia’s head when he disagreed with what she said. His humility and obedience to the guru became known immediately. He picked up the pieces, wrapped them carefully and placed them at her feet with the utmost respect.

Readers note with pleasant appreciation Chaurasia’s willingness to freely associate with western musicians and perform fusion music that combined the good traits from both streams. He staged recitals in many cities of Europe and the US. He opened training academies where foreign students could learn Indian classical music without upsetting their formal studies. If they were still desirous to pursue music study after an introductory spell, they could come to India to learn from the horse’s mouth at the Gurukul institutions in Mumbai or Bhubaneswar. The latter facility was a return gift to Odisha, the state that had set him on his real journey to classical music. Chaurasia always proclaimed that he wanted to raise a generation of musicians.

The book is adorned with a foreword by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and a prelude by Ustad Zakir Hussain who compares him to the eleventh avatar of Vishnu to spread happiness among the listeners. Chaurasia has produced many recitals based on popular themes. This book contains several chapters that are excellent accompaniments to the albums, especially his magnum opus ‘The Call of the Valley’. This implores the readers to search for the music on internet and Saran’s neat description helps them a lot to better appreciate the music that permeates with the beauty and spirit of Kashmir Valley in its every note. The book includes some nice photographs illustrating a few memorable moments of the maestro’s career. The book should have included a glossary for lay readers who are not conversant with the technical terms of Hindustani music. The terms gharana and riyaz immediately come to mind as I had to look them up elsewhere. The composition of the book is primarily based on personal interviews of Chaurasia and his family members. This precludes any chance of serious criticism, but the author has been candid enough to express that Chaurasia has two wives and the family gets on well, contrary to popular perceptions about such a set up!

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star