India: General Survey Unit for World Civilization Course Curriculum Project

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AUTHOR Brinton, Victoria TITLE India: General Survey Unit for World Civilization Course Curriculum Project. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars Abroad, 1997 (India). SPONS AGENCY United States Educational Foundation in India. PUB DATE 1997-00-00 NOTE 86p.; For other curriculum project reports by 1997 seminar participants, see SO 029 067-086. Some material may not photocopy well. Slides not available from EDRS. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Asian Studies; Cultural Awareness; *Culture; Ethnic Groups; Foreign Countries; High Schools; *Indians; Instructional Materials; *Religion Studies; Social Studies; *World History IDENTIFIERS *India

ABSTRACT This unit is intended to provide high school students with a general knowledge of the history and culture of India. Lessons include: (1) "Early India"; (2) "Indian Civilization 1500 BC 500 AD: Hinduism"; (3) "Buddhism"; (4) "Indian Empires"; (5) "Indian Empires, Continued"; (6) "Imperialism"; and (7),"Independence and Modern India." Suggestions for students projects are included. Slides, lectures, and discussions are used extensively in the unit. (EH)

**************************************.****************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** India: General Survey Unit for World Civilization Course Curriculum Project. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminars Abroad, 1997 (India)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS CENTER (ERIC) BEEN GRANTED BY This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to by improve reproduction quality. Rosalie Gendimenico, Points of view or opinions stated in this TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES document do not necessarily represent INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Victoria Brinton official OERI position or policy.

Curriculum Projects Developed by 1997 Seminar Participants

Submitted to Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), USDE

by United States Educational Foundation in India

2 RE CEll,VIED

2 4 OCT1997

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CuificuOunnProject General Survey Unit for WorOd Civiiization Course

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VictoriaBrinton

3 India GeneralHistoricalSurvey Course WorldCivilizations

GeneralObjective: To provide high school students with a general knowledge of the history and culture of India,

Text: Any survey course text will work.It is recommended that if the text scatters the history of India throughout the text, that all the pertinent chapters be grouped together for one unit on India Past to Present.

Lesson One: Early India Objective: Students will learn of the earliest recorded civilization in the Indian Sub-Continent

Vocabulary Words: monsoon Harappan civilization

Map Assignment:Label the following:

Himalayas Indus River Hindu Kush Ganges River Deccan Plateau Brahmaputra River Vendhya Hills Harappa Ghats (Western and Eastern) Mohenjo-Daro

Lesson: Needed materials:blank map, overhead of map, slides of Harappan ruins, seals, toys, jewelry

Slide Lecture/Discussion Discuss the Harappan /Mohenjo-Daro culture showing slides of various artifacts.

Discussion questions: What was unique about these cities? What can we learn about them from the artifacts they have left behind? What might have happened to the cities?

Fill in the map Lesson Two Indian Civilization 1500 BC-500 AD: Hinduism Objective: (1) to explain the impact of the Aryan conquerors on India; (2) to attain a basic familiarity with Hinduism

Vocabulary Aryans Varnasi Jati rajah Kshatriyas dharma Sanskrit Vaisyas Mahabharata Epics Sudras Bhagavad Gita Vedas Pariahs Ramayana Karma Ahimsa Upanishads moksha

Lesson: Needed materials: slides or pictures of Indian people, cattle, Hindu gods, temples, people at religious practices,overhead of Aryan social structure( See Supplement comment #1)

Slide Lecture/Discussion: Who were the Aryans? How did they live? How did they govern? Why were cattle so important?other animals?This respect lead to what? Compare the life of men to women in the early culture. What are the Vedas and why are they so important to historians? Diagram the Varna social system.Identify the name and function of each class.Why were each of the classes important to society? Give an example of dharma. What is the central theme of Mahabharata ? What is the central theme of Ramayana ? What is Karma? ahimsa? What is the foundation on Hinduism? How are all the above concepts part of Hinduism? Compare Moksha with Western religions concepts of an afterlife. Hinduism

{hin'-doo-ism}

Hinduism, one of the great religions of the world, is the major religion of India, where nearly 85 percent of the population is classified as Hindu. Hinduism has developed over about 4,000 years and has no single founder or creed; rather, it consists of a vast variety of beliefs and practices. Organization is minimal and hierarchy nonexistent. In its diversity, Hinduism hardly fits most Western definitions of religion; rather, it suggests commitment to or respect for an ideal way of life, known as DHARMA.

BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

Caste System

The ideal way of life is sometimes referred to in classical sources and by Hindus as the "duties of one's class and station" (varnasramadharma). The term "class" (yarns) is one of the words connoting the CASTE system peculiar to India. The ancient texts suggest four great classes, or castes: the BRAHMINS, or priests; the Ksatriyas, or warriors and rulers; the Vaisyas, or merchants and farmers; and the Sudras, or peasants and laborers. A fifth class, Panchamas, or UNTOUCHABLES, includes those whose occupations require them to handle unclean objects.It is speculated that the Untouchables were originally assigned such lowly tasks because of their non-Aryan origins. This classification system hardly does justice to the modern complexity of the caste system, however. The classical works on dharma specify distinct duties for different classes, in keeping with the distinct roles each is expected to play in the ideal society.

Stages of Life

The classical works also outline four ideal stages (asrama), or stations of life, each with its own duties. The first of these is studentship (brahmacarya), from initiation at 5 to 8 years of age until marriage; the second, householdership (grihasthya), when one marries, raises a family, and takes part in society; the third, forest dwelling (vanaprasthya), after one's children have grown; and the fourth, renunciation (samnyasa), when one gives up attachment to all worldly things and seeks spiritual liberation. Besides the duties that are derived from an individual's class and station, general duties (sanatanadharma) are also incumbent on all moral beings. These include honesty, courage, service, faith, self-control, purity, and nonviolence.

These ideal classes and stations encompass males only. The position of women in Hinduism has always been ambiguous; they are, on the one hand, venerated as a symbol of the divine, on the other, treated as inferior beings. Women were traditionally expected to serve their husbands and to have no independent interests. Recent movements within Hinduism, however, such as the BRAHMO SAMAJ, have succeeded in altering this situation.

Aims of Life

Dharma is only one of the four aims of life (purusartha) distinguished within Hinduism. It is thought of as superior to two otherskama, or enjoyment of desires, and artha, or material prosperity. These three constitute the aims of those in the world (pravritli). The fourth aim is liberation (moksa), the aim of those who renounce the world (nivritti), and this is classically viewed as the supreme end of man.

Karma and Rebirth

A widespread feature of classical Hinduism is the belief in TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS, or samsara, the passage of a soul from body to body as determined by the force of one's actions, or KARMA. Thestrict karma theory specifies that one's type of birth, length of life, and kinds of experiences are determined by one's previous acts. This is modified in popular understanding, but it probably has remained a strong influence on most Hindus throughout history. Liberation is release from this cycle of rebirth.It is typically to be achieved by working out those karmic residues which have already begun to mature, as well as by following certain practices to ensure that no further residues are produced to cause future rebirths. The practices by which one can achieve this are frequently termed YOGA, and the theory of liberation is the core of Indian philosophy.

PHILOSOPHY

Hinduism is usually said to include six philosophical systems. The systems called Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, and Yoga emphasize yogic practices coupled with an understanding of basic principles of metaphysics and epistemology. Nyaya, in addition, includes an analysis of logic. The systems called Mimamsa identify the performance of ritualthe Vedic sacrifice, or actor-, performed in that spirit as the means to liberation. The many VEDANTA systems, taking their inspiration from the UPANISHADS, tend to emphasize understanding of the relationship between the self (Atman) and ultimate reality (Brahman) as the critical aspect of any path to liberation. Philosophies associated with sectarian movements, such as the BHAKTI cults, frequently localized in a linguistic or cultural area within the subcontinent, emphasize the path of theistic devotion.

HINDU DEITIES

The two great theistic movements within Hinduism are Vaishnavism, the cult of VISHNU, and Shaivism, the cult of SHIVA. Hindu belief, however, usually holds that the universe is populated by a multitude of gods. These gods share to some extent the features of the Godhead but are seen as behaving much as humans do and as being related to each other as humans are. This view is similar to that of the ancient Greeks. For example, the supreme gods BRAHMA, Vishnu, and Shiva and some of the other gods are often viewed as activated through their relationships with female deities. These female consorts to the deities are called SHAKTI. Other well-known gods are said to be relatives of a supreme god, such as GANESHA, the elephant-headed god, a son of Shiva and Parvati. KAU, or Durga, the consort of Shiva, is worshiped widely throughout India in the autumn. Hanuman, the monkey-faced god, is depicted in many shrines, and along with LAKSHMI, Vishnu's wife, is among the most important deities associated with Vaishnavism. The sets of gods recognized by different sects are by no means mutually exclusive, however.

FORMS OF WORSHIP

Hindu worship takes many forms. One of the least frequent is the congregational form so familiar in the West. Vedic sacrifices were conducted in any open place properly consecrated. Typical Hindu daily worship (puja) includes a stop at several shrines, a visit to a temple, and home worship. A Hindu may be devoted to several gods: the image of one god, frequently a family deity, is commonly installed in a small shrine in the home; a second god, worshiped at a nearby temple, may be the divinity to which the person's caste is committed; and still another may be the god to whom the individual makes obeisance as his GURU (teacher) or his guru's tutor. Because everything is sacred in a Hindu's eyes, almost anything may be considered worthy of devotion; rivers, cowpens, and the retreats of holy men are among the holy places frequented by the devout.

Home Worship

Home worship typically involves purification of the area through fire, water, and the drawing of symbolic diagrams. Depending on one's class and station, the frequency with which a Hindu is expected to perform the rites, and the role performed in them, will differ. The rites involve offering food, flowers, or incense to the deity, together with appropriate recitations of sacred words or texts. An especially important ritual is known as sraddha, in which Hindu males symbolically support their father, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers in other worlds by offering water and balls of rice; this ritual dates from Vedic times. The worshiper requires the services of a priest on this occasion, as for other life-cycle ceremonies such as birth, initiation, marriage, and death.

Temple Worship

The priests also carry out temple worship, although the devotee may participate in the reading of certain hymns or prayers and may give flowers or money to the god directly. The image of a god is believed to be the god, and the cycle of worship in a temple centers on the daily life of the god, involving preparation of the god for worshipwaking him up with bells, purifying him with incense, bathing him, dressing him, and feeding him. The worshiper comes to the temple to view (darshana) the god and to receive the food (prasada) that the god has touched. As in the cycle of an ordinary person, special days occur in the cycle of the god of the temple, and on these days special ceremonies are held. These are frequently the times of festivals and may involve elaborate ceremonies: pilgrimages of vast numbers of devotees, processions bearing the god's image throughout the city or countryside, and special music, plays, and dances for the occasion.

Sacred Cities and Festivals

The seven sacred cities of Hinduism are the following: VARANASI (Benares), Hardwar, Ayodhya, Dwarka, Mathura, Kanchipuram (Conjeeveram), and Ujjain. Other important pilgrimage spots include Madura', Gaya, Prayaga (ALLAHABAD), Tirupati, and Puri. Each of these places has one or more temples where annual festivals are celebrated that attract large numbers of pilgrims.

Certain festival days are celebrated throughout Ind.3 on a day fixed according to the Hindu lunisolar calendar. Prominent among these is Dipavali, the "Festival of Lights," occurring in October and November, at which lamps are placed around the house to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. Ho li, a spring festival in February or March, is a day of riotous funmaking; this frequently involves temporary suspension of caste and social distinctions, and practical jokes are the order of the day. In the fall (September and October) a ten-day period is set aside to honor the Mother Goddess, culminating in Dashara, the tenth day, a day of processions and celebrations. This festival is extremely important in Bengal, where it is known as Durga Puja.

HISTORY AND LITERATURE

Scholars sometimes distinguish Vedism, the religion of ancient India based on the VEDAS, from Hinduism, although it is difficult to pinpoint a time that demarcates them. The Vedas were hymns of the ARYANS, who invaded in the 2d millennium BC.

Vedism stressed hope for a future existence in heaven and lacked the concepts of karma and rebirth; Hinduism characteristically includes karma and rebirth, and the greatest hope is for eventual release from their sway.53

The Vedic deities were somewhat different from those which dominate in Hinduism, although scholars have traced the origins of Vishnu and Shiva back to Vedic counterparts. Later Vedism is sometimes called Brahmanism because of the authority accorded the Brahmins, or priests, who performed the ritual Vedic sacrifice. However, the challenge of non-Vedic religions, noably ouuurliSM anu -0-tiNISM, led to the replacement of the rigid Brahmanical rules by more relaxed and varied forms of worship.

Although the Vedas continue to be spoken of as the final authority in Hinduism, other texts of equal importance exist. Thus, a literature was developed for each of the four aims of life: various Dharmasastras, such as the CODE OF MANU, which detail the duties of class and station; Kamasbistras, such as the Kamasutras of Vatsyayana, handbooks of pleasure, erotic and otherwise; the Arthasastra, attributed to Kautilya (fl. 300 BC), which, like Machiavelli's The Prince, offers advice to a ruler as to how to keep the throne; and the philosophical literature of the various systems, which deals with liberation and how to achieve it.

In addition, certain collections of tales came to be widely known in popular life, especially the two great epics, the MAHABARATA and the RAMAYANA. The Mahabharata tells of five princes who were cheated out of their kingdom and who, after a period of banishment in the forest, returned to fight a victorious and righteous war to regain it. An especially beloved portion of this epic is the section called the BHAGAVAD GITA, in which Arjuna, one of the brothers, is counseled by his charioteer KRISHNA, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Ramayana tells the story of the ideal Hindu man, Rama, whose wife Sita is abducted by a demon, and of Rama's journey to Sri Lanka to recapture her. Both epics are filled with didactic tales, edifying poems, and fables.It is probably through their constant retelling in the village that Hinduism is most efficiently disseminated from generation to generation. Another source of Hindu lore is the Puranas, collections of legends and myths.

The period from roughly 500 BC to AD 1000 is sometimes spoken of as that of classical Hinduism. It was during this period that the major literature was composed, the great philosophical systems developed, and the basic Vaishnava and Shaiva sects organized. After 1000, beginning in south India somewhat earlier, a spirit of devotional fervor coupled with social reform swept through India, and the period from that time until near the present is known as the bhakti period. During this time the forms of religious worship changed and diversified further. Singing of devotional songs and poems in the vernacular rather than in Sanskrit, the language in which practically all classical Hindu literature was written, is one example. Direct approach to the god was emphasized, and the mediating role of the priest somewhat curtailed. Love, a sentiment common to all but particularly to the most ordinary villager, is now celebrated as the way to the highest end; some bhakti philosophies hold that liberation is not the supreme goal and that loving service to God is a higher one.

Recent developments in Hinduism are indicative of a movement away from certain aspects of classical practice, such as SUTTEE, a widow's suicide at her husband's funeral; caste distinctions; and even karma and rebirth.

Karl H. Potter

Basham, A.L., The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism, ed. by K.G. Zysk (1989); Chennakesavan, Sarasvati, A Critical Study of Hinduism (1980); Hopkins, Thomas J., The Hindu Religion Tradition (1971); Kinsley, David, Hinduism (1982); Klostermaier, Klaus K., A Survey of Hinduism (1988); Lannoy, Richard, The Speaking Tree (1974); O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger, Dreams, Illusions and Other Realities (1984); O'Malley, L. S. S., Popular Hiduism (1935; repr. 1986); Sen, Kshiti Mohan, Hinduism (1961); Thomas, P., Hindu Religion, Customs and Manners, 6th ed., (1981); Zaehner, R. C., Hinduism (1962).

See also: ASIA, HiSTORY OF; INDIA, HISTORY OF; INDIAN LITERATURE. Lesson Three Buddhism Objective: A basic knowledge of Buddhism

Vocabulary Siddharta Gautama Four Noble Truths nirvana Eight fold Path stupas

Lesson: Needed materials: slides (pictures) of Buddha, cave paintings, temples, overhead of Four Noble Truths, and Eight fold Path, map of the spread of Buddhism

Slide Lecture/ Discussion

Who was Siddharta? List the Four Noble Truths List the steps of the Eight fold Path How are these concepts similar to Hinduism?different? Why didn't Buddhism flourish in India? Where did Buddhism spread to? What are the two branches of Buddhism? How are they different?

10 Lesson Four Indian Empires Objective:Identify the important rulers of the Mauryan and Gupta empires and their contributions to Indian civilization.

Vocabulary Alexander the Great Magadha Mauryan Empire Chandragupta Asoha Rock Edicts Gupta Empire (Golden Age)

Lesson: Needed materials:Paper and markers for class to make a time line and pictures from magazines (or duplicated pictures from magazines on India (i.e. National Geographic or from various texts)or students may draw the illustrations themselves

Group Project (or Individual if preferred) Students will make a time lineof Mauryan and Gupta Empires that will show the following: dates, rulers (dynasties) empires, and importantcultural contributions; time line will include an illustration for each cultural contribution

When finished students will compare and contrast the Mauryan and Gupta Empire. They should note the role of religion, women, politics, the arts and science.

IL 1 Lesson Five Indian Empires Continue. Objective: To understand the impact of the Moguls on Indian society and religion.

Vocabulary Mongol (Mogul) Tamerlane Babur Shah Jahan Sikhism Akbar Divine Faith

Lesson: Needed materials: student time lines (they will add to them), slides of Islamic buildings (tombs and mosques), Taj Mahal, Aramco World magazine July/Aug. 1997; "City of the Sultan"

Group Project/ Slide Lecture Continue time line with dates, significant rulers, and important cultural achievements of Moguls Discussion questions How did the Mongol invaders treat the Hindus? How did Akbar treat the Hindus? What are some of the differences between Hindus and Moslems? What cultural impact did the Moslems bring to India? What lasting effect did Islam have with its relationship to the Hindus? Who were the Sikhs? What was their role and impact in India? Lesson Six Imperialism Objective:To understand the European rationale for Imperialism and the impact it had on India

Vocabulary imperialism East India Company Indian National Congress Muslim League

Map Assignment Show the area under British rule in 1805 1856 1886 Show the Princely states

Lesson Needed Materials: Map

Lecture/Discussion List three factors for 19th century European imperialism. When and why did Great Britain come to India? What was the purpose of the British East India Company? What were the causes and outcome of the Sepoy Rebellion? Compare and contrast the way the British East India Company ruled India with that of the British government.

13 Lesson Seven Independence and Modern India Objective: To be familiar with (1) the reasons for independence and (2) the men who were responsible for leading India's independence movement and (3) what were and are the challenges facing India

Vocabulary Amritsar Massacre Ghandi pacifist civil disobedience Jawaharla Nehru All Jinnah nonaligned

Lesson Needed Materials:map, see Supplemental Comment #2, Newsweek Magazine International ed. Aug. 4, 1997, domestic ed. Aug. 4, 1997

Lecture/Discussion What was India's position during World War I? What was a major problem concerning Indian independence? (religion) Why didn't the British want an independent India? What affect did the Amristsar Massacre have in Indian nationalism? Summarize the early life of Ghandi. What was the effect of the Salt March? Why was India divided into two countries, India and Pakistan, in August of 1947? Inspite of being split into two countries of differing religions why did the violence continue? How did the violence finally end? Describe Nehru's policy of non-alignment. Describe Nehru's domestic reforms. How did these reforms conflict with traditional Hinduism? What was Nehru's economic plan for India? List some of Indira Ghandi's achievements / failures What are some of the problems India faces in the twenty-first century?

14 Supplemental Comments:

(1)If time and resources allow, student could read any or all or parts of the following:Mahabharata. Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Upanishads, or Siddharta. These works could be analyzed and discussed as to the relevance of Indian cultural history.

(2)If time allows it would be beneficial to show the video version of the movie Ghandi. If in-class time is not available, possibly schedule as after school enrichment or extra-credit.

(3) The made for TV movie on Mother Theresa might also be shown.

STUDENT PROJECTS

1.Do daily homework assignment. Read the text and do assigned worksheets so that one is prepared for the daily discussion.

2.Read an article on India's challenges today. Summarize the material in the article in a two- three page paper.(Several possible articles are included in this presentation.Students are also encouraged to find their own articles.If they do, they are required to submit a copy of the article with their summary so that a file may be established of good articles.)

Do One of the following: a. View the movie Ghandi. Write a two-three page paper evaluating the historical accuracy. b.Do a project on India; following the guidelines outlined below.

1.Much of World History is the History of Religion. In a mini-research paper do the following: Define religion Analyze an event in Indian History where religion played a major part.Include the basic principals of the religion(s) involved and why they caused the problem From today's point of view, analyze why this should/not happen? Could the conflict still happen today? Be sure to include a Bibliography with your report 2.The Most Admired Person in Indian History In a mini-research paper do the following: Pick a person from the history of India Analyze why this person was admired using various qualities that were admirable about this person at that time Is this person still admired today? Why/why not. Be sure to include a Bibliography with your report.

3.The Arts in Indian History Art is a reflection of the society that produces it.The arts include painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dancing, drama and literature. In a mini-paper do the following: Pick an area of art with some specific examples Describe the work and explain why the work was created and why it is considered important what can we today learn from the study of this art form? Be sure to include a Bibliography with your report A South Asia

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IT COPY MAMAIILE 38 WORLD HISTORY ENRICHMENT SERIES MAP ACTIVITIES MAP ASSIGNMENT

ON THE MAP BELOW, SHOW THE EXTENT OF BUDDHISM AND HINDUISM IN 1200 A.D. AND THE ROUTES OVER WHICH OODDHISM SPREAD.

1. Write the following place names on the map after you have located them there: Afghanistan, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Tibet, China, India, Burma, Indo- China, Thailand, Cambodia, Ceylon, Malaya, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java.

2. Locate the point on the map labeled "Origin of Buddhism." From this point, draw arrows showing the spread of Buddhism.

3. Draw horizontal lines in the map to indicate the extent of Hinduism, vertical lines to show the extent of Buddhism, and cross-hatching for mixed areas of Buddhism and Hinduism.

ORIGIN OF BUDDHISM 500's B.C.

.1"Pa=.6.-BEST"-^ COPY AVAILABLE 113 -".....". that period, it appeared to him as The Paradox of India a liberating phase in which he seemed to have found a sure way Eminent Physicist Dr. V.G. Bhide, former Vice-Chancellor of theto unlimited progress and pros- University of Pune, delivered the Convocation Address at the firstperity. In this phase man dreamt of the conquest of Nature. In his convocation of the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological Uni-enthusiasm to conquer Nature, he versity, Lonere, Dist. Raigad (Maharashtra). He said, "There haveirreversibly depleted energy and been tremendous developments in our country in various spheresraw material resources, produc- such as agriculture, education, science, industry, commerce, trans-ing in its wake unaffordable pol- portation, health care, communication, etc. ... There is still a sub-lution and unpardonable ecologi- stantial fraction of our people below the poverty line. This is thecal degradation, threatening not paradox of India. The paradox is particularly paradoxical be-only his very existence but also cause while we have succeeded, while we know how toachievethe existence of all life on this success, while we know how to create and produce wealth, weplanet. cannot extend it to cover all the people in the country. Our society therefore remains fractured and divided in terms of material ben- During the last decade or so, there has emerged a second or efits." Excerpts rather a third industrial revolution which is far more extensive Rapid advancement in sci-tion from politiCal domination toand pervasive than the first.It ence and technology, more thantechnological domination andmanifested through automation, anything else, has been responsi-economic exploitation, man'scomputerization, information ble for reshaping the world ar vo,-7 011tionshin with Nature ap-revolution etc, as also 1::rcu; in initiating an epochal phase inpears to be undergoing a pro-growing realization that man human history. With the disman-found change. Man stepped onmust learn to coexist with Nature. tling of the Soviet Union, the col-this planet a million or more yearsNow there is general awareness lapse of the Berlin wall and theago. For most part of this time, hefor preserving environment, re- cessation of the cold war, armslived as a part of Nature findingducing ecological degradation race has given place to technolog-his food on plains and shelter inand for developing environmen- ical olympiad, political and mili-hollow trees and caves. His exist-tally benign technologies. tary domination has yieldedence was precarious and fluctuat- place to economic dominationed, like those of animals, with the It is equally important to re- and technological imperialism. Inseasons. He was totally parasiticalize that simultaneous with these the emerging world scenario, theon Nature. revolutionary changes, science it- competitive advantage of a nation self is undergoing in relation to will be determined increasingly About 10,000 years beforeits nature and structure and par- by scientific capabilities and tech-Christ, a profound change tookticularly in its relation with technological prowess rather than byplace in the social and materialnology equally profound chang- military might. The nature andexistence of man. This happenedes. Scientific research and techno- structure of the new world eco-through invention of agriculturelogical developments are becom- nomic order will be increasinglyand in practising agriculture,ing ever so costly and interdisci- influenced by what happens atman was imitating Nature toplinary and interinstitutional; the market place which In turngrow plants and shrubs which heOver the last hundred years or so, will be solely governed by tech-thought were useful for food orscience has been growing expo- nological considerations. In thisfor medicine. About 200 yearsnentially with a doubling period emerging scenario, intellectualago, with the emergence of sci-of 10-12 years. Similarly from its property will have primacy andence, man's relationship with Na-medicinal role in technology, a ' intellectual property rights willture underwent another profoundhundred years back, it has as- be highly valued, zealouslychange. With the understandingsumed a dominating role in shap- guarded and fiercely exploited. Aof the external world, man learnting technology with the result new international patent regimeto manipulate Nature. 18th andtechnology is becoming more and is at our door-step. the 19th Centuries have been themore science based. This linkage formative centuries of industrialbetween science and technology Simultaneous with the transi-civilization. For one who lived inwill become all pervasive and

14 UNIVERSITY NEWS, 35(25), JUNE 23, 1997

JEST COPY AVM LE more intimate in years to come. Itversity for a limited period butand to show to the world how eco- is obvious that to remain at thethe situation calls for continuingnomic development and prosper- cutting edge of technology, it willeducation throughout one's ac-ity can be consistent with human be necessary to remain at the fron-tive life, so as to keep abreast withdignity and concern for Nature. tiers of science. expanding knowledge, information and skill base. It is high time India has had a flourishing It is equally necessary to un- tradition in Science in the ancient derstand the difference betweenthat technological institutions in the country establish facilities forand medieval periods. In mathe- science and technology. Science is matics, the names of Bhaskara, an endless quest to understandcontinuing education. Aryabhatta, Varahmihira and Nature, whereas technology is the Another implication of thisothers are familiar. In medicine, application of this understandingexponential growth in knowledgeCharaka and Sushruta are well to achieve societal objectives.connected with science and tech-known. The major developments Thus science is ennobling where-nology is the continual shrinkageranging from the concept of zero, as technology is enabling, sciencein the time lag between a majortables of mathematical functions is free and public whereas tech-discovery and its industrial ex-to the more visible observatories nology is private, local and has aploitation for economic growth. Itbuilt in later era bear testimony to price tag; science is elevating andis not uncommon .to find theseour scientific capabilities in as- noble but, in contrast, technologydays major scientific discoveriestronomy. Iron and steel have been is a double edged weapon andrevolutionizing related industri-known and made in India since needs to be exploited judiciously.al fields within a couple of years.antiquity. The use of metals in And this requires sense of values,We in India should therefore rec-building construction, for making concern for life and for Nature.ognize that sustainable develop-canons and for making and coat- Consequently, technological edu-ment will not be possible by onlying household utensils were some cation and development as inborrowing technology but byof the early developments. The your university, must necessarilybuilding a strong science baseiron pillar standing at the out- be associated with a strong com-which will continually feed tech-skirts of Delhi which has with- ponent of social and moral educa-nological innovations, fuelling in-stood the test of time without tion. dustrial and economic growth.blemish or rust is a standing testi- Exponential growth in theInstitutionally, it has become in-mony of our accomplishment in knowledge connected with sci-creasingly necessary and impor-metallurgy. ence and technology has verytant to forge strong interaction between universities, national During the first thousand many implications, one of them, years of the Christian era, there of course, is the continual declinelaboratories and industries with each one feeding the other two. were many ups and downs in in the time of obsolescence. The India, many conflicts with invad- time of obsolescence which was We are living during this mo-ing armies and internal troubles, 70 years at the time of Faradymentous phase of human historyyet it was a golden period, a pe- has presently shrunk to about 4-5where present is not just an auto-riod of vigorous national life, bub- years. Every fourth or fifth year,matic and normal extension of thebling over with energy and one has to face a new generationpast but is aexciting launchingspreading out in all directions. of technology. The obsolescencepad for a great future. Indeed be-Culture developed into a rich is not only in terms of technologycause of remarkable develop-civilization flowering out in phi- and its products and processesments in communication, trans-losophy, literature, drama, art, but is also in relation to the knowl-portation, the world has shrunkscience, mathematics, etc. India's edge base which leads to innova-both in time and space to the sizeeconomy expanded, the Indian tions in technology. Indeed, a sit-of a global village, intimately in-horizon widened and several uation is fast approaching whereteracting with itself. There is thuscountries came under its influ- a graduate will become obsoles-a compelling demand for globali-ence. The great universities flour- cent the day he takes his degreezation in almost every field of hu-ished, of these, Nalanda, the most and a research paper will becomeman endeavour. It is in this high-famous, was respected for its out of date, the day it is published.ly interacting, highly complexscholarship and attracted stud- These changes imply that, unlikeand highly competitive worldents for their studies from several in the past, it is not sufficient tothat India will have to steer itscountries including China, Japan, have good education in the uni-course to recapture its past gloryKorea, Mongulia, Bokhara etc.

UNIVERSITY NEWS, 35(25), JUNE 23, 1997 15 20 1947 to the present sure the promises wemade to ourgre 30 years in However, because of invasion level of 62 years. Inthe industrial from outside, intercedequarrels,people". sector, our countryhas made gi- neglect of science andsnapping We are presently inthe 50thant strides andtoday Indian in- of the tradition oforiginality,year of ourindependence anddustry is highlydiversified and freshness of concepts, andadven-will be celebratingthe golden ju-possessesconsiderable techno- ture of ideas, thegolden age camebilee. During these 50 years,welogical strengths. the close of the mil- valley, to a decline at have crossed many a The other side of the storyis, lennium. There was no greatfig-scaled many mountains,over- however, depressing.Nearly.50% ure in philosophyafter Shankara,come manychallenges, weath- still illiterate. achievingof our population is no literateurafter Bhavabhuti, noered many a storm, 300,000 villages mathematician after Bhaskara. but at the end ofThere are still many successes without drinkingwater. Al- We thus see that bythe turn of theit, we are far fromredeeming our sufficient in drying up and for any-though we are self century, India was pledge. It is not difficult people cannot loosing her creativegenius and that we have yetfood, many of our one to conclude afford wheat or rice ormore than vitality. Jawaharlal Nehruin Dis-a lot ofwork to accomplishin day. There is still a "this (decay) keeping inone meal a covery of India says, shaping our society, substantial fraction of ourpeople was the inevitableresult of theview the needs of modern ageand below the povertyline. growing rigidity andthe exclu-at the same timeretaining the glo- siveness of the Indiansocial struc-rious traditions of thepast. Not- This is the paradoxof India. ture as representedchiefly by thewithstanding the richback-The paradox isparticularly para- caste system". There arerepeat-ground of our cultureand tradi-doxical because while wehave edly periods of decayand disrup-tion, which very kwnations insucceeded, while weknow how tion in the life of everyciviliza-the world can boastof, our visionto achieve success,while we tion and there havebeen such pe-of building a modernprosperousknow how to createand produce riods in Indian history,but whatnation with socialharmony andwealth, we cannotextend it to is unique to Indiais that at itsequitable distributionof wealth,cover all thepeople in the coun- core, Indiaremained dynamicwithout forsaking our ancientcul-try. Our societytherefore remains over the centuries.India survivedtural traditionsremains stillfractured and dividedin terms of such periods of darknessand re-unrealised. The challengesofmaterial benefits. In thelanguage juvenated herself afresh some-building our nation arestill stu-of physics, oursociety seems to times retiring into hershell for apendous. have been split into twobands; an with comprising of a while and emerging again haveitinerant band in This is not to say that we population fresh vigour. Surprisingly, since indepen-small fraction of our India this quiescent periodlastednot achieved much and interact- dence. There have beentremen-enjoying affluence for several hundred years. coun-ing with peoplein other countries dous developments in our bound band com- such as ag-and a valence or oftry in various spheres fraction of peo- The signs of resurgence science, in-prising of a larger India appeared whenMahatmariculture, education, bare necessities dustry, commerce, transporta-ple struggling for Gandhi galvanised thisnation of life; the two beingseparated by goal namelytion, health care,communication, all and set for itself one through greena largeforbidden gap. Almost freedom. There was apowerfuletc. For example life arise out revolution, we becameself suffi-the ills in our social call for nationhood, apowerful of poverty. It isbecause we are cient in food. Outfood produc- call to unite to reachthe goal and poor, peopleincreasingly tend to of freedom. He be-tion increased from50 million into caste see the dawn 190 millionorganize themselves of thetons in 1947 to over because we are poor, lieved that if all the energy the secondgroups. It is Indian people is releasedagain,tons last year. We are people prey on the povertyof the largest producer of milk,fruit and we willrediscover our place in In theweak. It is because we arepoor, the world. This aspiration was re-vegetables in the world. exploited, mil- field of education,literacy ratemillions remain flected in JawaharlalNehru's dur-lions of workersremain bonded. speech on the midnightof 14thincreased from 16% to 53% the poverty that ing the last 50 years.Likewise,We must abolish August 1947. Panditjicalled it a this country hasbeen suffering said "thebecause of improvedfacilities for 'tryst with destiny' and life ex-from for the lastfew thousand redeemhealth care, the average debil- time has come for us to from a mea-yearsabject, humiliating, substantially if not in full mea-pectancy increased

UNIVERSITY NEWS,35(25), JUNE 23, 1997 16 human resource. So far, we have itating poverty, the kind of pover-unless integration of our educa- million chil-tional system, and of industrialbeen constrained because of ty which drives two availability of capital and our in- dren to beg on the streets, the kindresearch and technology with thos- of the rest of the world be-ability to optimally use technolo- of poverty which forces people to Al- rummage dust-bins for food. comes a part of this grandplan. Ifgy and our human resource. this is accomplished with speedthough all efforts need to be made It is essential that every hu-and determination then alone weto attract foreign capital, itis nec- man endeavour in this countrycan see India emerging asulti-essary and far moreadvanta- whether it is scientific, technolog-mate destination for foreigncapi-geous to capitalize ontechnology ical, industrial, agricultural, etc,tal, for specialized learning, forand our talented human resource, must be directed towards genera-major research and developmentand rich biodiversity. Globali- tion of wealth. In much the sameeffort so that we change our im-zation of our Science andTech- way, all policies of the Govern-age from that ofperennial tech-nology education, researchand ment, industrial undertakings,nology seekers to technology pro-development should therefore be research establishments, univer-viders. To my mind, India's enor-on the top of ouragenda. sities should be such as to be con-mous potential in these areashas ducive to creation of wealth. In Trends towards globalization not yet been tapped. This tremen-of Science and Technology educa- terms of policies and our function-dous potential arises due to In- ing we will have to move from tion, Research and Developments dia's impressive scientific andare visible even now in manyde- restrictive regime to liberalisedtechnological infrastructure and creative regime. Until recently, an veloped countries. This includes its undisputed intellectual re-taking over R and D intensive cor- industrial undertaking wassource base. penalised for producing more porations and establishing R and than the licensed capacity. I re- Thanks to the foresight andD centres abroa'4 Tapar se have member, not until long ago, whilevision of Panditji, India todaydeveloped a new concept caned scien-Techno Globalism which is inter- submitting collaborative researchpossesses one of the finest tific and technological infrastruc-preted as strong interaction be- proposal, one had to give an as- and of surance that the proposedcollab-ture in the world. With 200 tween internationalization odd universities, chain of nation-technology and globalization of oration was purely an intellectual globali- pursuit and that no intellectualal laboratories under CSIR, DAE,economy. In the USA, property of any consequence wasISRO, ICAR etc, a number of sci-zation of R and D and technology 1500 pri-is reflected in the much faster rise likely to arise from it. ence agencies, nearly vate and public research institu-in R and D spending abroad by This paradigm of restrictivetions etc, India is in an enviableUS companies than their domes- economy changed somewhatinposition as regard to science andtic funding. The European Com- 1991 when initiatives were takentechnological education, scientif-mission Eureka project seeks to to globalize our economy, to for-ic and technological research andmobilize the scientific and tech- mulate new industrial policy anddevelopment. Today, India pos-nological skills of European coun- to shape appropriate fiscal poli-sesses second largestscientifictries. There is increasing visible cies. New initiatives in globalis-manpower in the world nextonlytrend towards networking and ing economy should not be takento the t of the United States. Thisiscollaborative arrangements be- to merely mean opening ourour most preciousnational re-tween educational and Rand D doors wide open for mobile for-source. All this can giveIndia ainstitutions in various countries. marvellous launching pad on eign investment, and technology Globalization of R and D and to come in without letorwhich it can set up a really ambi- tious plan for growth. I believe, inglobal competition of skills are hinderance but should be seen as intimately related to globali- an expression of ourresolve tothe factors giving competitive advantage to India, our strength inzation of business and industry. liarticipate in world trade in The strength of high technology goods and services and technolo-scientific and technological training and education, research andindustry depends not on the ca- gy commensurate with our popu- pability to make and market a lation, material and human re-development strengths and highly qualified manpower are easilyproduct but is determined by the source and our potential.May I underlying technical skills. As the humbly submit that integration ofright on top of the list. In modern world, generation ofwealth re-product life cycle diminishes, the Indian economy with the global skill life cycle has to become long- economy cannot ever be completequires capital, technology and

17 UNIVERSITY NEWS, 35(25), JUNE 23,1997 er, and related skills, stronger. Intive advantage in terms of intel-fication. Indian R and D institu- such a situation, products becomelectual resource base, most im-tions can put in, as their equity, transients whereas competencepressive S and T infrastructuretheir intellectual capital, in joint a ad skills have to be all embrac-and one of the largest educationalcommercial ventures, in the form ing and permanent. There willsystems in the world. This advan-of research ideas, concepts, spe- therefore be increasing pressuretage is further strengthened andcialized skills, innovative tech- on high technology industries tomade more alluring because ofniques etc. Many contract and col- concern themselves to considerour salary structure in which welaborative research programmes what kinds of skills, capabilitiespay to a qualified scientist and involve exchange of technical per- and technologies should be ac-engineer nearly two orders ofsonnel between R and D partners quired rather than to concernmagnitude lesser than what hiswhich can be an invaluable help themselves with what kind ofcounterpart with similar abilitiesin augmenting the technical skills products to make and market. Inis paid in advanced countries. Inand knowledge base of Indian short, intellectual property willsuch a scenario, advanced coun-partners. More importantly, these increasingly become a high valuetries will find it very lucrative tocontacts would expose the Indian marketable commodity. In fact, ittake advantage of highly quali-researchers to the ways in which was so even earlier but hithertofied S and T manpower, strongR and D interfaces with produc- advanced countries were in theand diverse S and T infrastruc-tion or to the conversion of know market of international brains try-ture at low cost in India. In thishow into commercial exploitation ing to attract talented qualifiedcontext, India has potential of be-of the know how, which is at scientists and engineers to theircoming a home for all the re-present a grey area as far as Indi- land creating brain drain prob-search, all the laboratories, andan R and D system is concerned. lem in developing cow. ' -fl C T infrastructure situation is changing fast in suchwhich the world needs. Indeed, There is a delicate relation- a way that R and D facilities, tech-we see the signs of movement inship between R and D collabora- nology generating centres, wher-this direction. Many leading com-tion and technology acquisition. ever they exist in the world willpanies are moving their R and DTechnology buyers from India are be taken advantage of throughcentres to India. Swedish phar-being increasingly looked upon as collaborative or networking ar-maceutical company ASTRA haspotential competitors with the re- rangements. The major drivingalready set up a biotechnologysult technology acquisition is be- force for this trend is the ever es-R' and D centre in Bangalore. Gi-coming more and more difficult. calating cost of quality education,ant Unilever, General ElectricHowever, R and D alliances with of research and development andTexas Instruments, Poloroid Cor-firms abroad might open an ave- the shrinking resources. Indus-poration and several others havenue for technology acquisition as tries in developed countries havedeclared their intention to startwell. I envisage hat through such realised by now that they cannotR and D centres in India, Lackstrategic alliances, we can trans- afford establishing in house vari-Welch, the Chief Executive ofform research into business, ous facilities needed for educa-General Electric said, "India is aknowledge into capital. Such alli- tion and training, research anddeveloping country. But it is a de-ances will not only enable us to development. Secondly, estab-veloped country as regards its su-capitalise on our intellectual lishing R and D centres abroadperb scientific infrastructure. It isproperty but also help in updat- help them for market penetrationfor this reason that we wish toing our knowledge and skill base, in those countries. A new conceptshift a part of GE's developmentgenerate employment amongst of international division of labourefforts to India". This trend hasthe educated, reverse brain drain, is being propagated. The worldjust set in and is bound to pick uphelp in acquisition of technology now recognises that no countryin the coming decade. and above all help in globali- can be totally self sufficient, no Indian R and D laboratorieszation of our education, technolo- nation can be producer of allcan provide through such colla-gy and economy. The advantages goods and services. Each countryborative programmes (1) know-are tremendous and we must cash wants to take advantage of wherehow transfer, (2) custom synthe-on them and through this process it exists in terms of, comparablesis, (3) consultancy, (4) contractlaunch India into a position of competitive advantage. research and development, andpremier technology generating India has enormous competi-(5) specialized testing and certi-nation.

18 UNIVERSITY NEWS, 35(23), JUNE 23, 1997 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 23 m21110....

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r r..,444,11. a hit ,..5...t IA 1 '44'. ,4141. La kza, ,Ii.1 , ....t#14griz....;,...,,..y. ad : 3,, 4. op. .0)'Oa :: , e,,,..::::1 _.._ ,.....-..* ..,.; ., -,. ;,, 'OAP -....lilt elis 10. 'A 10!...2,, way* we iv all. 443 t,,,,,,..,4.*- 7 I:7- `.''' Fa -.: ,.. , ? a O.. -.: ..4. le lb014 melt zakriton.the:the RoadiAhead.T. 0 AP ....?41! .ti'`'::, °;'Ar--: ,-f. 74: w w .. . 1-71,a ) -, 41 , ...... t . ,.,. an orris on... .,... :*.' emoristo .r'tht'4 ''4, 4 a *, 0 " - -..:-.. ' . 4140 r 0 .".4 liot11,.--. .,_. % ..3 ,-.:1 *4- le Itia ...11-. ': .._-_ ,,; A _ ..,.III di a -- I .4141,10 SING THAT WORD tifestation of V havea birthday oes not. India did of come to li e'' from the vasty deep. at midnighton Aug. 15.1947. It had. as PanditNehru said in hisfamous speech that day;;. already lived through.. .1 40;': "ti-ackless,ceii turies-filisch grandeur ofsuccess and failures. Britain. leaving India50 yearsago, did not by its departuregive life tosome- thin,:inewSuch powerwas not within its gift. Britaincame to India. and then it '.3c ft. Plentyothers had done that.Alexan- der theGreat crossed the Indusin 326 B.C.. and fora long time befiwe his visit. Europeans and thosewho lived in India had humped intoeach other. How else could the languageof this magazineand that ofa Hindi newspaper both bepart of the Indo-Europeanfamily? Yet to imply thatthe Rajwas a mere, 0 blip in India'shistory. and its endingno more than a waY stationon Indias grand road. tent., only partof the story. Some thing. surely. happenedat midnight. A great people founda voice: European colonialisMhetfanz- its marci-X oblivion. 4wthestruggieliiIiitli n- Looking both ways: Takiikiiiate of businiNs in friintofb Ala- .haulm Gandhi mutatirtNiii%Delh.

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Ast Brave New World:Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addresses the crowd at the opening ofa drug and dye factory in 1952

ckpendence, led by the saintly figure of MahatmaGandhi, those who had been shackled founda template for their own construction of liberty. Not just in the colonizedworld, either; the public figure who most approximatedGandhian principles was a great American, Martin Luther King Jr.

THE 50 YEARS SINCE INDEPENDENCE HAVEHAD their disappointments. There have been periods when India has seemed strangely out oftune with the times around it. With a brief exceptionin the i970s, it remained a vibrant democracy when many other former coloniesincluding Pakistan, which found its own freedom at thatsame midnightdid not. Under Nehru's leadership, India was decidedly"neutral" at a time when all the world was meant to be dividedinto two camps. Gandhian nonviolence ceased to be the chosen method of righting wrongs; from Palestine to SouthAfrica. guns and Corning bombs took its place. When the rest of the worldeven t hose countries that had once been Marxistdecided thatfrPe-inar- e therest ket economic systemswere axiomatically sensible, India clic, not, continuing to wed itself to controls, planning and redtape. .world India was the exception. But exceptionalism didnot build pros- does not perity, and since prosperous nations standa better chance of happiness than poor ones, when India stoodapart, it stunted aWthatilt*Will the life chances of its people. ever bequite like Those days are over. The India thatnow sets out into the sunlight is changing fast. It is becomingmore like the rest of the world anywhere else) (which does not mean that it willever be quite like anywhere else). Its vibrant diaspora,a gift without price to other nations, brims with creativity and ingenuity Indians know better thanany others how far there is to go until, as Nehru hoped, "poverty and ignorance and diseaseand inequality of opportunity" are ended. Andsince 1: id ia existed long before 1947, birthday greetings from afarmay not be appropriate. But out- siders, surely,are allowed to wish India luck. We doso. 14 NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4, 1997 ------

EWS \V 1- N f.; 15

ome

Th "-!.. INTO THE DEPTHS OF BIHAR, CREST state, along the dirt paths that connect its stagnant pools of humanity, past government signs touting chimerical programs of health and education, into the hopeless heart of a subcontinent where the squalid villages might remind you of sub-Saharan Africaexcept that the poorest Africans fare better than the destitute of Bihar. Eventually you will stumble onto the village of Kali- pahari, blessed with electricity thanks to a nearby hydroelectric dam. Hereou will see, in practically every hovel, the incongruous: a televisionset,pulling downmultinationals everywhere. More impor- American soap operas and Scotch whiskytant, they are forging a national identity for ads broadcast from Hong Kong. This is themodern times. India, at last, has begun to Indian dream at ground level. As the visionsee itself as another Asian nation dedicated of "Baywatch" filters through Bihar, soto the accumulation of wealth and prosperi- even the poorest of the poor finally begin toty. In the next century, that vision will hold rise from the 1epths of rotted isolation. infinitely more power than the old asceti- And so does poor, oid India. For 50 yearscism. "Perhaps our industrialization is not the national identity has depended on isola-complete," says Srini Rajam, head of the tion from the country's per- Texas Instruments branch ceived enemiesfrom plot-As India in booming Bangalore, "but ting neocolonialists in the steps we can leapfrog into the In- West, from greedy multina- off on the road formation Age." tional companies, even from h and India has always had those intrepid Indians whoto wealt pride. Now it has ambition. resented the official creed ofprosperity, it is In the early years of inde- self-sufficiency.Butnow forginga new pendence Pandit Nehru's satellite TV has come to Bi- governmentrejoiced in har, and so has Coke; health identityfor standing apart, the epitome and education will one day of the "nonaligned" nation. follow. The leaders in Newmoderntimes. As a conglomeration of peo- Delhi have a new nationalBY STEVEN ples with seven major reli- idealrapid growthand at STRASSER AND gions and 18 official lan- leastinspiritthey have guages, India made its own thrown open the doors toSUDIP MAZUMDAR rules a democracy ina

r r 30 No big bang: Students 5tudviagon the veranda of a rur,ii t earnf ;:re and the high -tech industrialcenter of Bangalore continent ruled by despots. a plannedecon- nourished. and tho e who reach school age complished by tinkering. What theygot in- omy whose bureaucratic str-.warcis were sat- sncount on an ivr.ey.: of only .1.5 years of isfied to creep along at stead was nothing short ofa revolution. led a I percent "II in- ,-titica..ionif they bays. it they are by Prime Minister P. V. NarasimhaRao and du rate of gross wh.-n the New Pc unr tur., they :each adulthood. half his finance minister. Manmohan Singh. Ina Delhi elite snnarelv ackn.,wledued thatit: ,ire still illiterate. Think of it. India is trying hubris had put 'two-year rush of reform, Rao and Singh dis- nation the .tdolin,-:ni :,'..t.....:'.;try onto the1 monnation super- the global economywhile Indiagre t n- mantled much of the bureaucracy's "license .tearlv',tit.,million adults raj" of red tape. then went on to simplify val China was getting rich didreal re- tax- yno cannk-,i -ead road signs. es. reduce the scope of the state sector forms begin. Six Years into f>ntlias opening to the world. the economy is hl' (which provided everything frompower to :wady -3 Fa.-1 1. F-N motor scooters). liberalize foreign invest- percent a year --a rate that by the 1---- year '2020 twill tigers of Fast ment and cut tariffs. From earliest days. transtOrin into the .\1- '.worlds fourth largest says .Singh. "our goal has been to show he the Limed States and tip,,a ,world that India can compete withany -There,- a L. ,-xport-led .)fpolitical cacophony.. ,:ountry in Southeast Asia in our hospitality the Rim to investment and our spirit of enterprise.- P C hid a m ba ra . n. scr. etitinciet- -cinotines L't.' yanked far below In- In the present mood of self-tlagellation. two coalition governments in the last11 dia and its'.:ot:thAsian neighbors now months. -but we are on course India's policvmakers point out that the (mow ti.,er capita incomes 27 times greater. Imst politically difficult reforms are yet to There is no lilt in hisoptimism. The most according to the Human Development visitor to urban t....hinawhich is come. They include cutting food and fertil- CI:ntre. an Islamabad think tank that stud- izer subsidies. churning along ata growth rate of 55 per for c.ample. and ending ies r..tonal economic trends. The bluntre- tent a year) can almost l:.:r the hum of en- state monopolies on everything from insur- ality of this failure is now driving India'sre- ance to basic phone service. The true test of terprise in a nation that is fairly burstingto forms. and most people agreeon what must India's entry to the world will come when build a better life The 1-,-:;-!:-.ners ofIndia. he done From me Marxistsrunning Cal- New Delhi keeps its promise to cut import by contrast. tend to bow under theweight cutta to theI lir,du nationalists running tariffs to East Asian levels: India's of their nation's great povertyand ofthe average umbai Bombay th? bywords of th,new tariff has dropped steadily to :30 percent t.tilur of tvery government tor years to India arc foreign investment. exports and hut Malaysia. Singapore and other rapidly :;ring relief to the desolatemasses In the 'most hallowed of all: growth. developingEastAsian nation of Mahatma Gandhi. 52percent of countrieshave This has been so from he start vowed to cut their average tariff to 5 per- the people still liveon than turnarcwaiti. in :(01..t- the ..,,..e-ninnt hor- daY.,:t.ordic,,, to V;orl.:: cent by the year 2000. Still. the point is not 4,1Y ..116.at..md ;is for- ,ne third of the '.'.an ti most how many refon, are left undonebut resorve, riwind:,t1 to billion. inter- rather how clearly the reforms accom- poor people live in India. Nearly o thirds i-tr.anded:Leal and plished so far begin i to reshape India. Indian childrenyounger than.ire !nal- rt'f rv!rc- ha v,,Iteen The new consensus begins with what is 18

31 BEST COPY AVAILABLE . disappearing _it the top. The central plan- ',the witch doctor died of tuberculosis optic communications has, in India.got- ning apparatus built by Nehru, based on a years ago), much as their parents did. "I live ten no farther than the drawing boards. powerful bureaucracy. nationalized indus-.like this," says village elder UpanKisku. Even sc :he government's decision tries and as little commerce with the out- "and my children will a!so live like to let in this." foreign sate:lite television has ledto an ex- side world as possible, has now been dis- But for the first time in history,economicplosion of more than 20 million cable-TV credited. That in itself does nothing for the owth i.nd the si read of communications connections within thelast two Years. dregs of Indian society: as many as 200 mil are working a revolution amongmany millions more of India's That's backbone enough to allow foreignin- lion "cretinized, subhuman. abysmally un- poor. The govern- fluences not least of all marketing and ad- derdeveloped people." as author Prandment's program of teaming withforeign vertisingto reach deep into the Indian in- Bidwai puts it, remain as hopeless as ever. investors to stl ng out copper wire for tele-terior for the first time. A few kilometers north of the wired villagephones is proceeding in fits andstarts: even of l'alipahari, for example. people in the Even the growth encouraged by thecur- in New Delhi, the wait for anew phone can rent market opening far short of double tribal settlement of Devnagra scratch out still stretch to three years. Anythingmore their existence in barren soil without elec- digitshas fanned consumer demands in ambitiouslike Chin: 's projectto link all India as never before. It's easy to monitor tricity. sanitation. passable roads or health of its major cities with a backbone of fiber- the spread of cell phones and Westerncars 12=1:33:232022SEZIREREM, project that the number of Out of the Dark Ages wireless subscribers will grow steadily. Says Metcalfe: "Cellular is a good way to get With the help of foreign investors, Indiais finally people phone service quickly, especially in developing na- beginning to modernize its antiquatedphone network tions where the land -line sys- NDIA HAS 950 MILLION people but only 12 million phone linesone of 1the lowest phone-density ratios in the world. "Getting a phone is like hitting a jack- pot," says Samir Singh, a telecom consultant in New Delhi. More than 2 million people are waiting for the Depart- ment of Telecommunications, the longtime state monopoly, to give them a connection. It's often easier to place a call to New York than to reach someone in a nearby neighborhood. Customer service is ap- , palling: subscribers must sometimes pay bribes to get vtil'':141094P7: their phone fixed. Despite the horror stories, the situation has started to improve. The government A $60 billion telecommunications plan: now realizes that economic Installing a satellite dish in Bangalore growth needs first-rate com- which could come from pri- structure." private investors munications. Three years ago vate firms. tern is poor and not readily enjoy a live-year tax exemp- available." New Delhi launched an ambi- At first, foreign investors tious modernization program, tion. "We're bullish on India," Despite the progress, most were leery. The telecom re- says Jeremy Metcalfe, the Indians are still tethered to partially deregulating and pri- form policies were hazy and vatizing the telecommunica- CEO of Millicom Internation- an antiquated network and arbitrarily enforced. In addi- al Cellular, a Luxembourg- tions sector. Private in- indifferent bureaucracy. Rishi tion, corruption was (and re- based firm that owns minority Kappal knows that too well. vestors. including foreigners, mains) a major problem. To are now building local net- stakes in two fast-growing The New Delhi general-store allay these fears, the govern- cellular operators one in works. Satellite uplink facili- ment created the Telecom owner is lucky: he has a New Delhi and the other in home phone. But it hasn't ties will soon be offered to Regulatory Authority of In- private firms. and there is Madras. "There is a lot of worked for six months. The a diaan independent body pent-up demand." Bharti En- rush to place communications charged with protecting Department of Telecommuni- con- terprises, an Indian phone cations has not responded to satellites over the vastcoun- sumer interests and resolving try. Modernizing the phone company, is the majority own- Kappal's complaintsbut it commercial disputes. Because er of both operators. (Foreign- network will cost an estimat- does keep sending him bills. telecommunications has been ers are allowed a maximum ed S60 billion two thirds of designated a "priority infra- RICHARD EFINSBIACER JR. and 49 percent stake.) Analysts SLDIP MAZUMDAR

NEWSWEEK A I.:GUST 4.1997 19

32 aconsumer awakening in the tryside where 74 vast coun- still live is percent of all Indians a more significantstory. The ironic side of a minimalistlifestyle in a rural backwater is thatthe people living spend relatively there can more of their incomeon .15 conveniencesa bicycle. for example. rather than a new roof. And people do havemore to spend: incomes for have been going agricultural workers up by more than 8percent a yearfaster than thenational growthrate. India's manufacturers yond the cities. have noticed. Far be- "suppliers arenow chasing consumers," says S. L.Rao, an economist who specializes in consumer trends."not the otherway around. as before."

'S, MERCEDES-BENZIS NOW making cars forIndian cities, but marketers alsoare paving attention to the boomingde- mand for bicyclesand scooters in the countryside. turer of 81.20 bottles A manufac- of shampoo formid- dle-class Indiansfound a huge for two-cent new market packets of the brandin poor areas. The race ison to produce cheap vision sets and tele- appliances. Oneentrepre- neur found a wayto convert a device making lassi (a fir dairy drink)into cheap washing machines.The first developer good 850 refrigerator, of a suggests Rao, would now find a hugenew market in rural India India's rural a awakening is farmore tlian marketingopportunity. products make Agricultural up nearly 20 percentof the country's exports, andtheir importance increasing. That makes is the .likes ofnce farmers (vk, hn exported5 million tons last year) and fruitand vegetable (whose exports growers are increasing by 20per- cent annually)some of India's nents of foreign trade. main propo- have long put Indian scientists considerable effortsinto improving the country'scash crops of wheat. Now they nce and are also findingways to improve the yield of milletand other cheap-

A PassageFrom the 1906 Muslims In the last 240 Past establish the A British duke anda years, India has completedan epic journey from empire to British Muslim League staffer go hunting colony to the world'slargest democracy. to defend their in- ans more politicalpower defeats French and terests against the Mogul forces Hindu majority 1940 The MuslimLeague demands thata separate 1858 Aftera century of growing influence on the Subconti- 1920 Mahatma Muslim country, Pak- nent, the British Gandhi istan. be carved govern- out of India ment takes direct control takes over of India the Indian 1942 The National Con- Congress party The Brits battlefor India 1885 The IndianNation- gress and presses for passes a resolution 1757 TheBritish East India al Congress is formedand 'nonviolent disobedience' calling on the Company gains control presses, with increasing British to leave of Bengal stridency, for a 1935 The Britishgov- after Lt. Col.Robert Clive greater In- dian, voice ingovernment ernment approves acon- Gandhi: Early days stitution that gives Indi- 20 crusader

: :+., ttH"I'. ,t. - ral tt t.: .\Ri'iUVE P""1"; rt)TOAtit;111,111....Clira."CE. STAB

6EST COPY AVAILABLE 33 er grains mat make up the staple diet of many poor people.

THIS IS HAPPENING BECAUSE India's poor people are beginning tofindtheirpolitical voice. India's democracy has always been hobbled by the primitive state of its grass- roots politics. Too many local leaders bubbled up to national power on their ability to buy votes and deliver favorsand subsequently used their national platforms mainly to enrich themselves. As long as India's system amounted to a kinder, gentler Stal- inism, there was very little chance for any of this to change. But in recent years the rural awakening that has accompanied economic reforms has also awakened local politics as never before. The result has been chaos and confusion in New Delhi, where national leaders have xi had to make do with shaky coalition governments. But in the states and cities, ener- getic new leaders have emerged who are forming policies much closerliterallyto the needs of their constituents. After 50 years of rigid "Victorian" politics, says political scientist Ashis , ,;, . ... ,.. ing back to the Mogul tradition of a loose federation of states." There is still plenty of politics as usual. In basket cases like Bihar, political parties divided on caste lines still reach power only to siphon off vast sums of money meant for the development of agriculture and industry. Federal investigators have charged Laloo Yadav, who last week resigned as chief minister of the state, with abetting a multimillion-dollar scam in which politicians and bureaucrats diverted money meant for buying fodder. But these days zealous prosecutors are only one of an in- competent state government's worries. The Tata Group, which built India's first steel

Living without:A shantytown with no plumbing beside a Mumbai water main

India party name In- ducing nuclear Bhopal baby 1947 weapons' gains independ- dira Gandhi In- dia's first woman which had ence one day af- 1984Indira prime minister ruled for all ter Pakistan is Gandhi is assas- but four 1971India as- created; Pandit Pakistani POWs sinated by a years since Nehru becomes sists East Paki- Sikh bodyguard. India's independence, is defeated prime minister stan in winning a war against A Union Carbide gas leak in in general elections West Pakistan. East Pakistan Bhopal kills 2,000. 1947-49India 1997Inder Kumar Gujral of and Pakistan fight over Kashmir becomes 1991Rajiv Gandhi, Indira's Bangladesh. the center-left United Front 1948Gandhi, on his way to an successor, is coalition be- evening prayer meeting, is shot 1974India ex- assassinated comes India's to death by a Hindu extremist plodes its first 1994India's fourth prime nuclear device in 1965India and Pakistan fight a rupee is made minister in an underground fully convertible one year second war over Kashmir test, but declares 1966In a compromise, the left it has 'no inten- 1996The Con- Mourning at Ra- and right wings of the Congress The lady P.M. tion of progress Party, jiv's cremation

NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997 21

34 ... % plant in Bihar. recently chose neighboringjor technology center and Orissa for an expansion.Orissa gave cheap its second con-portant. The homegrown firms and those tender, Pune, has linkeditself as a sister city land, promised uninterruptedelectricity allied with all the bignames from IBM to and agreed to San Josein the real SiliconValley. develop a port for Tata Intel have exuberantly cut through redtape, State competition for the spoilsof reform and protectionism, thriving inan open tr. ar- is now common. Tamil ANGALORE'S Do%.EN-Y17.AR- ket in which the government has Nadu attracteda oki cut intl. irt Ford Motor Co. plant by information industry tariffs on software from :300 waiving state sales stands as the glittering percent to zero taxes and offering land ata concessionary tiara ofand on hardware from 200to 20 percent. price. Uttar Pradesh the new India. Thatmight The major players won the competition . are confident and com- for an electronics seem like an exaggeratedway bative. "If we can't compete with interna- project set up by the Kore- to describe a collection of an giant Daewoo. Andhra Pradeshhas set en- tional brands in ourown country, we can't up a high-tech center to terptises in a polluted city witherratic elec- attract information triciN supplies: the industry hope to ever compete in othercountries." companies that in the lastdecade had made serves a na-says Dewang Mehta, head of the National tionalmarketof1.8million Bangalore. in Karr ataka,into India's "Sili- installed Association of Software and Service Corn- personal computersabouta third of the con Valley." Maharashtra has joinedthat panies, a trade group. battle. Its capital. Mumbai. number in New York City.But what the is already a ma- info-tech companies stand for Though Bangalore Inc. isno Microsoft. is vitally im- Indian computer engineers havewon a An UncertainRoadto Global Though India has a flourishing Power software industry andmay become the world's fourth capital still lags behind its technical largest'economy by 2020, thecountry's human potential. A look at India'seconomy, its people and its military strength: ECONOMY DEMOGRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY Supporting Human Capital India Inuit alleviate the poverty and isolation of half its populationin order to compete with its fast-growingAsian neighbors.

CHINA MALAYSIA U.S 2,500 4.027 22,788 Literacy 52.1% 78.0 78.0 97.9 Infant mortality"" 71.1 39.6 24.0 8.3 Percent below international 52.5 29.4 poverty line 5.6 n.a. A multitextured economy People per TV 47 5.2 9.7 Catching Up to China 1.2 Surfing the wave of the future People per telephone 112 A 7 percent economic-growthrate 62 7.9 1.7 People per physician From Software to Hard Cash may put India on the same path as 2.211 647 2,412 391 the Asian tigers. India's software exports have When the Two Shall Meet ... soared, making it a leadingcenter 175`1, India's population is likely to surpa's China's after 2035. Thetwo coun, for information technology 12 tries will continue to house aboutone third of the world's population. $1,000 China 1.500 9 China 800 India's software export, 6 600 fiscal year

.3 India in millions 1.000 400 U.S 0 GDP growth rate Population. 200 -3 in millions 1989 90 9192 93 94 95 96 500 9192 93 94 95 96 98i The people: Tightly squeezed The Investment Boom 1990 00 10 20 30 Not Just to the United States Foreign direct investment in India THE MILITARY increased more than tenfold be- More than half of India's software tween 1990 and 1995. An Uneasy Border exports go to the U.S.. but trade with Europe is growing rapidly. 82.000 India and China are armed withnuclear weapons. Border skirmishes could escalate into real war. Here's how they stack up militarily: SOFTWARE EXPORT DESTINATIONS Foreign direct PERSONNEL INDIA CHINA 1.500 Australia, Rest of world 6% investment Army (in thousands) 980 2,200 New Zealand 3% inflows, Air force 110 470 1.000 in millions of Navy Japan3°\/0.\, U.S. dollars 55 265

MILITARY HARDWARE INDIA CHINA < West Asia 4% tfatalt°' 500 Tanks 3,5008,000+ Southeast Combat aircraft 7784.970 Asia 6% MUMidi' Warships 26 54 Anna Kuchment 1984-39'90 91 92 93 94 95+ Subs 19 k ,% 63 13:{1111 Mustached military might with Kendra Johnson 22 INIE ,ASSCONI. 115i. UNCT.t9 NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997

r35 ____ --- --_ - niche running the back-office operations ct. Most of the action. however. Will remain Corp. "As our mind-set changes. Indian major Western banks and airlines and asin India's domestic market. Foreign in- companies'will learn to make foreign part- economical writers of custom software. At vestors from carmakers to cereal sellers nerships and compete." the Infotech Group of Wipro Ltd.. one ofwill come mainly to reach the country's ex- Indian mind-set is without question the most aggressive Indian players, teamspanding consumer class. not primarily tochanging in revolutionary ways. Not so work on troubleshrpting and maintenance sc.,.d export platforms. As India stream- long ago. the nation of 950 million people. tasks for such partners .is Cisco Systems. lines its professi..mal bureaucracy and un- growing by 18 million a year, worried Tandem and NCRby remote control, af- clogs its independent courts, multination-mainly about feeding itself. But in today's ter their American partner;; have c.16.sc.ials might end up feeling more comfortablenewly competitive India, bureaucrats and for the night. Though the geeks of Banga- in New D.-lhi and Mumbai than in the regu- industrialists ponder the advantages of lore are wary of competition from Ireland latory wilas of Beijing and Shanghai. "Wea 13w-cost labor pool thatis growing and other English-speaking, low-cost sup- are getting over this old, postcolonial fear younger while the work force of the devel- pliers, they project Weir service exports to that foreign investc..s are all bad guys who oped world isaging. Perhaps India's more than double to S2.5 billion by theare coming Liver here to eat us -p," saysgreatest strength of the 21st century will year 2000 and to continue to grow by at Deepak Satwalekar. managing director of lie in its ability to employ hundreds of mil- least 50 percent a year. Mumbai's Housing Development Financelions of people in labor-intensive indus-

er or when the Chinese will assert their claim." Turbans, Spit and Polish Indian saber rattlers demand upgrades of weapons. India's armed forces are disciplined and have stayed This year there has been a fierce campaign by some out of politics. But their weapons could be better. commentators to complete development and test- jACH JAN. 26 RE- 145 fire nuclear warheads public Dayan 11 on India's medium- enormous parade range missiles (India Fmakes its way dow, had a success.`.:: nu- New Delhi's Rajpath, the clear test in 1974). grand ceremonial road that That makes profes- runs from the grand enclave sionals uneasy. "We of official buildings designed don't want an expen- by Edwin Lutyens to the In- sive arms race," says dia Gate. Pride of place is re- Lt. Gen. Satish Nam- served for the Indian armed biar, director of the forces. Prithvi and Agni mis- United Services Insti- siles are hauled along; fighter tute of India. "We jets roar overhead. With pen- shouldn't try to match nants and banners flying, in China, and we can't af- turbans of brilliant regimen- ford to, anyway." tal colors, in tanks, on feet, Sensible sentiments. camels and elephants (which in times of peace such dip their trunks to the presi- Pride of place:Medium-range missiles on parade in New Delhi as India has enjoyed dential viewing stand), regi- for 26 years. But Bei- ments of Rajputs. Gurkhas, Maj. Gen. J.F.R. Jacob. who northeast, ethnic groups like jing is rich enough to make. Marathas, Dogras, Punjabis planned the Indian offen- the Bodos in Assam and Na- or buy, top-of-the-line equip- and Sikhs display India's mil- sive in East Pakistan. was a gas in Nagaland are fighting ment. India's own weapons itary power. Jew, while Lt. Gen. Jagjit for independence or autono- production depends on ineffi- Indians have reason to be Singh Aurora, who led the m-. And then there is China, cient state monopolies, which proud of their armed forces. ground troops into battle, still occupying 45,000 square have produced lemons like They have triumphed in three was a Sikh. kilometers of Indian territory the Arjun battle tank, first wars against. Pakistan. And in India's armed forces may seized in the border war of commissioned in 1972. Last a part of the world where be well trained and disci- 1962. Air Commodore Jasjit year Jane's Armour and Ar- military coups have been plined. but they face serious Singh, director of Delhi's In- tillery said that "sources indi- common, the Indian Army challenges. The army, with stitute for Defence Studies cated the vehicle still failed to has never tried to meddle in almost 1 million men, is the and Analyses, keeps a map he meet the requirements of the politics. Moreover, the mili- second largest in the world. bought in Beijing pinned on Indian Army in the key areas tary has embraced all races But it is stretched. Its tense his wall. He points out the of reliability, availability, and classes. In the 1971 cam- border with Pakistan, the old Chinese version of the border maintainability and durabili- paign against Pakistan, the enemy, is guarded by heavy between the two countries. ty." In a real shooting war, majority of troops, naturally. armored divisions. Maintain- "That's about 94,000 square elephant corps, turbans, pro- were Hindu. But the army ing sc.curity in troubled Kash- kilometers of Indian territory fessional discipline and spit chief of staff, Gen. Sam mir takes relatively lightly they're claiming." says Singh. and polish get you only so far. Manekshaw, was a Parsee: armed troops. In the far "I sometimes wonder wheth- TONY CLIFTON

NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997 23

JEST COPY AVAILABLE 36 _ ins cvalum

tries ranging from food processing to tex-democracy that must tiles. "Just think of theeco omic output always tendto its own first, the nation will will life changein the most desolate we can generate from thispopulation never produce a Deng- region: when our Xiaoping to dictate its of Bihar? At theabsolute end of the per capita income of 8330 dou- strategy from on high. the village of line, in bles early in the The new Indian Ovnarno Devnagra, a foreigndonor next century,"says sure of its direction butwill muddle along. cently gave 87,000 re- Mukesh Ambani. vice chairman never for a new well, thekind of Mum-obsessed always with strategy, of gesture that bai's Reliance Industries."That will clear- the myriad demands short-circuits India'sineffi- ly boost us into from within. "Wewill take ciencies (to putit politely) rather range of becoming aneco- one sector at adating reform. than vali- nomic superpower." time, show it worksand build confidence," Nonetheless,once fresh wa- says Manmohan Singh. ter comes to the Somehow, the mantle of "There can beno village, it will be lesshard "superpower" big-bang theory of to imagine a school, does not quite fit the personalityof a huge. growth." a clinic, even a road An outsidercan gaugr India's and along thatroad, a thin poor country that will continueto regard it- progressnecting the darkest copper wire con- self, culturally and politically, by measuring themarket's success corner of India to as the world's ing resources at shift- riches of the world. 'the great exception. Nor will to the government'sneediest India likely be-constituents something come a classic Asian tiger. Asa vibrant thecentralized With RON Mc:mienu in Alumbai. bureaucracy TONY never could accomplish.How CLIFTONin New Delhi and JOSHUA KWANin Hong Kong

The bOys fromRangoon to Reading NewCultural lisped Shakespeare'ssonnets. Raj Today Australian director Baz India's writers Luh.nnann credits and artistsare global superstars. Hindi films May thesun never set as an inspiration for hispsy- on the IndianEmpire. chedelic movie versionof H:: BRITISH IMPERI- "Romeo and Juliet."The Lon- don production al age may beover, company but a new Raj hasbe- Working Title Filmshas .Z gun: the Indiancul- signed Indian directorShekhar Kapur to direct tural empire. Duringthe 19th a feature on century, factories in Manches- that quintessentialBritish insti- tution: Queen Elizabeth ter spun raw Indiancotton in- I. This to cloth, then shippedit back spring, Hindi-languagesingles to be sold in Indian bazaars from Asian artistsBally Sagoo and Trickbaby Today, Indianwriters spin crept up the masterpieces from Britain's U.K pop charts. "Instead of apologizing for great export the Englishlan- not being guageand sell them white, there'san inherent to the pride in being West. Vikram Seth's"A Suit- an Indian able Boy" saidto be the now," says filmmakerDeepa Mehta. "For longest English-languagenov- years we wanted el of the centurybrought to emulate the Brits, butthat's him a Si million died down." advance from The Indian cultural his Indian, British,and Amer- empire ican publishers. TheSi mil- stretches beyond England. lion ArundhatiRoy received "The God of SmallThings," which has had 22 for "The God ofSmall Things" editions Arts viceroy: Salman worldwide in the four is thought to be thelargest ad- Rushdie set thenew era's tone months vance awarded a first-time since its publication,has been novelist. ence. Rushdie had the moxie translated into Catalanand to talk back to colonizersin highly visible. Literarytypes in These writersaren't just London and New York Estonian. Movie starAm- a rich and magnificentvoice. sport-, bitabh Bachchan hasa hard- rich. They're respected.Seth's ed buttons in solidarityread- blend of domestic "Rushdie's was the firstgen- core fan base in Egypt. drama and eration of Indian ing I AM SALMANRUSHDIE. He historical detail has writers to was simultaneously More to the point, Indian led West- use English as an Indian lan- every- culture reigns ern critics to compare himto where and nowherethe supreme in In- guage, confidently andun- dia itself. In Kerala, Jane Austen andLeo Tolstoy. quintessential migrant. What books in In Roy's sensual ashamedly," says the Indian Malayalam outsell English- intensity and critic Sudeep Sen. better literary figureheadfor a hopscotch story line, country with adiaspora language books 10to one. they've Part of Rushdie's esti- Hollywood moguls found traces ofFaulkner, cosmo- mated at 20 million? may have politanism stems not fromhis firm grip on film Joyce and thepatron sheik of The world's culturalmap audiences postimperial literature, writing, but his life. After"The has been redrawn in the rest of theworld, but Satanic Verses", many times Salman Rushdie. was published since 1835, when Britain's Indians, with the world's When Rushdie in 1989, Iran's Ayatollah largest film industry,opt for published Ruhollah Khomeini Lord Macaulay sneeredthat "a "Midnight's Children" declared single shelf of European. Bollywood's wet-sari-andin 1981, Rushdie an apostate who books a certain strain of de- [is] worth the whole song offerings over American Indian lit- served death. Thereafter, literature erature gained its of India and Arabia." imports. Rule on, India. independ- Rushdie was in hiding, In but Macaulay's century, school- CARLA POWERwith SUDIP MAZUMDAR 24

NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4, 1997 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 37 THE PAST IS THE EASY PART. SCHOOLCHILDREN CAN RATTLE OFF THE NAMES OF THOSE who redrew the maps and led the marches. Their parents know all the patriotic tunes. Their grandparents can recount the thrill of listening to the midnight speechesor witness- ing the terror of partition. But who will make history in the new India? Who will become its legends? Portraits of some of the people who will shape the country in the next century. BY SUDIP MAZUMDAR, VIBHUTI PATEL AND CARL A. POWER

ating, Roy fell into acting in and, later, writing films. Her scripts brougLit her a tiny cult r,41,4 4 following for her fresh depic- tion of bourgeois Indian bohemians. Writing "The God of Small Things" was an intensely personal process. Proceeding without a plan, she told nobody, not even her film-director husband, what she was writing. What began as a private pastime has now become a publicand controversial phenomenon. Last month a Kerala lawyer, Sabu Thomas, charged her with obscenitS, because a scene in the novel por- trays a sexual encounter between a Christian woman and a Hindu Untouchable. The lunatic fringe is looking better and better.

BOARD CHAIRMAN A literary sensation:Arundhati Roy, author of a novel about love, death, caste and families When Vishwanathan Anand was growing up in Madras, NO SMALL THING ern Indian state of Kerala in time novelist who says she's other kids teased him because It all started, says writer 1969. In the months since its spent life "on what we used to he preferred chess to cricket. Arundhati Roy, with a single spring publication, "The God call the lunatic fringe." At 16, Nobody makes fun of him now. image: a sky blue Plymouth. of Small Things" has become a Roy was thrown out of her Ke- At 28, he's a chess champion sun striking its tailfins, stuck at literary sensation. Critics have rala home by her mother. She and earns more in prize money a crossroads as Marxist declared Roy a major talent, made her way to Delhi, where annually than any other sports- demonstrators swirl around it. and readers have agreed: the she lived briefly in one of the man in India. In fact, the public From this small thing grew a book's been No. 1 on best-seller r;ty's slums, enrolled in archi- loves him even when he strange and beautiful one: a lists in Norway, Australia, tecture school and supported doesn't win. In 1995 he was novel about love, death, caste Britain and India. herself through stints as an ar- voted India's sportsperson of and families, set in the south- Fairly heady stuff for a first- chitect's assistant. After gradu- the year, despite having just

NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4, 1997 25 38 HEIRESS APPARENT Charles's Highgrove estate. For Priyanka Gan- But that doesn't impress these dhi. politics is in the two young musicians. "What blood. The great matters to us is not the prestige granddaughter of or the reviews but that our Jawaharlal Nehru, playing moves our parents and granddaughter of makes them happy," says Indira and daughter Amaan. Spice Girls, are you of Rajiv, the 26-year- listening? olr' is already being tapped as the heir to ON THE P.M. SHORT-LIST her family's power- N. Chandrababu Naidu, chief ful political dynasty. minister of the populous south- She has the touch: in ern state of Andhra Pradesh, is the days after her fa- not your typical Indian politi- ther's murder, Pri- cian. The inexhaustible Naidu yanka was the most relishes his daily fight against visible Gandhi fami- bloated bureaucracy. ly member. More re- Then there's his constant cently she's helped companion: a laptop computer. her Italian-born With a few keystrokes, the 47- A cartoonist in prose:Shashi Tharoor deftly spoofs his fellow U.N. diplomats mother tend to par- year -old college dropout can liamentary duties in tell how much water state lost the world chess-champion- pancy about U.N. diplomats he the family constituency in Uttar reservoirs hold and exactly ship to Garry Kasparov, respr. .c for his "Ttw, Pradesh. A pvchology graduate which electric transformers Since the age of 20, Anand's nas the clout to mare married to a jewelry exporter. need repair. been among the world's 10 best difference." Priyanka has not yet said that Naidu has become a key fig- players, and many consider Tharoor returns to India in she will go into the Gandhi fami- ure in national politics. When him among the top three. The his books. "The Great Indian ly business. But many in the India's 13-party ruling coalition champion demurs: "In a sense, Novel," published in 1989, won Congress party partners bickered there is no such thing as a No. the Commonwealth Writers whose fortunes _last April over the 2. Even the No. 1 slot is uncer- Prize. A burlesque version of In- have long been tied selection of a new tain." Maybe, but it's clear that dia's recent political history, it to her family's prime minister, Anand has a shot at it. And includes thinly veiled portraits hope she will. Naidu tipped the Kasparov, take note his of Gandhis both Mohandas They're convinced scales toward I. K. record shows that his match and Indira. Salman Rushdie's that the party's flag- Gujral though play always improves the masterpiece, "Midnight's Chil- ging popularity can not before declin- second time around. dren," makes an appearance be revived only by ing the top post someone with himself. Still, DIPLO-NOVELIST charisma and the many believe he In his book "The Great Indian Gandhi name. will be prime min- Novel," Shashi Tharoor de- Priyanka has both. ister one day, after scribes "Indian officials at the he finishes the job U.N., with quick, subtle minds ROCKERS... NOT in Andhra and mellifluous tongues." It's a Amaan All and Pradesh. prose cartoon, made all the Ayaan All Bangash more sly by the fact that Tha- are not your typi- Players:Bangashes CYBERGUIDE roor is a U.N. diplomat.as well cal teenage musi- If you want to get as a novelist. The tall, witty 41- cians. For one thing, they prac- technical about it, AsTER, the year -old has worked at the tice five hours a day. For software invented by T. V. Ra- United Nations since he was 22, another, they play the sarod, a man, a computer scientist at when he received his Ph.D. stringed classical instrument Adobe Systems in California, from the Fletcher School of &-orlinortheni India. They stands for "Audio System for Law and Diplomacy at Tufts learned how to play it from Technical Readings." But in University. As special assistant Charisma:Priyanka Gandhi their father, who learned it truth, Ramanwho is blind to the under-secretary-general from his father, who learned it really named it after his in New York, he led the team as "Midnight's Parents." Tha- from his father, and so on, back beloved seeing-eye Labrador. responsible for peacekeeping roor has written more sober seven generations. Indeed, The software uses a series of operations in the former Yugo- tomes on Indian politics. includ- Amaan, 20, and Ayaan, 17, are audio cues to allow the listener slavia. In January he was ap- ing the ji;st-published "India: the youngest members of In- to process electronic informa- pointed executive assistant to Froth Midnight to the Millenni- dia's oldest sarod-playing fami- tion, surf the Web and send U.N. Secretary-General Kofi um." When his two sons are ly. Arid they're good. Perform- e-mail. "Just as you boot your Annan. "To work for him is like grown, he hopes to retire to his ing together, solo or with the PC and get a visual desktop, I working for an Indian yogi," native Kerala fo write full time. family, they have already get an audio desktop," he says. Raised in Pune, Raman lost observes Tharoor. "He has a . "India matters a great deal to recorded CDs and played, strong, still center and reacts me," he says. "I'd like to matter among other places, at the little sight he had by the time with great wisdom." Any flip- to India." Carnegie Hall and Prince he was in high school. He didn't

26 39 NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997 he says "In your own environment, you're involvedit is not just making a living His involvement is literally saving Lives Patients col,,e from all over India, as well as from the far reaches of South- east Asia, for Trehan's relatively inexpensive treatment Those who can't pay are not required to To keep his staff on top of the latest developments, Trehan has arranged an exchange program with NYU He also offers screening and edu-

A cational programs in remote villages In fact, the Centre has been so well received that Tre- han and his backers now plan to open six more facilities throughout the country Any- The movie star:At 27, Tabu has become a versatile actress and the leading lady of her generation thing to help get Indians' heart disease under control. let that hold him back: he gradu- of her generation, playing of Calcutta to sign him. His big ated from the prestigious Indi- village women and singing break came in 1993, when, sent MR. TV an Institute of Technology, bombshells with equal ease. in as a reserve in place of the In the lobby of the Plus Channel Mumbai, and went on to Cor- So much for the failed-starlet regular stri!,er, he scored the building is a huge portrait with a nell tin:versity in New York. story hike. ;^.me's i -inning goal. Now 21, slogan: TY- m A AA" '^ A Av He initially concentrated on ro- the versatile striker is the first TOMORROW. That would be botics, toying with the idea of FOOTBALL HERO footballer to com- Amit Khanna, the building a seeing-eye robot, but It's a Cinderella story set in the mand a fee of 46-year-old TV pro- dropped the project after he got world of Indian football. S50,000 per sea- ducer-director-

ASTER. "There is a lot of subtle Baichung Bhutia grew up in a. sonmore than writer-lyricist- communication between man remote village in the north Indi- double what most showman. When he and animal,' he says. And when an state of Sikkim. Each day he players make. Last launched Plus Chan- subtlety isn't called for, there's trudged miles over hilly tracks June he snagged the nel more than a always ASTER. to play soccer at his school in sports world's ver- decade ago, Khanna Gangtok, the state capital. He sion of the glass slip- had a vision of TV A STAR IS BORN dropped out of school six years per: Reebok signed programming that For a while, it appeared that ago, but a pro who discovered him for an undis- went far beyond the Tabu was fated to be a failed him at a training camp organ- closed sum to play in boring fare served starlet. Her first Bollywood ized by the State Bank of India their shoes. Vision:Khanna up on the govern- feature, "Prem" ("Love"), was persuaded the East Bengal Club ment's network. To held up for six years because MENDING HEARTS end-run the state's broadcast- producers ran out of funds. With an estimated 2.5 million ing monopoly, he began produc- Once released, it bombed. cases diagnosed each year, In- ing programs of business news, During that time she made oth- dia has the world's highest inci- sports and gossip from the ener movies, but a clause in her dence of heart disease. But tertainment world and selling "Prem" contract kept them thanks to surgeon Naresh Tre- them on videotape. In 1991, from being released. Fanzines han, relief is on the way. After when Indian television was delighted in reporting how building a successful career in deregulated, Khanna stayed a Tabu's overly protective sister, America at the New York Uni- producer, rather than fight for a a retired actress named Farha, versity Medical Center, Tre- piece of the overcrowded scared off movie producers by han, 50, moved back home nine satellite-channel market. The speaking on Tabu's behalf. years ago and opened India's result: programs made in Khan- Tabu. in turn, developed a first heart institute. Funded by na's studios appear on all of In- reputation as a publicity-shy a group of New Delhi industri- dia's major channels. Khanna is wallflower. But in 1994 her vi- alists, the Escorts Heart Insti- nobody's snob: he produces vacious performance in "Vijay- tute and Research Centre is a cleavage-and-treacle soap path" ("The Path of Victory") state-of-the-art facility where operas as well as highbrow made her a star. The year after, Trehan has already performed dramas. And that, it seems, is "Maachis" ("Matchbox")in 12,500 open-heart surgeries. what tomorrow is all about. which she played the plain. He has no regrets about leaving emotionally reserved fiancée of behind his lucrative U.S. prac- GROOVE MERCHANT a Punjabi terrorist proved tice. "The gratification that As a Delhi-born teenager in her versatility as an actress. comes from helping Indian pa- Birmingham, England, Bally Now 27, she s the leading lady Cinderella story:Bhutia tients is much higher for me," Sagoo hated bhangra, the musi-

NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997 27 40 ...cal blend of Indian folk and funk that dery andweav- BalaSaraswati, his parerits-1:_s- .ing. His talent and hiS mother. des Hautes tened to. He lies in remaking Lakshmi.BUt the self- Etudes enSciences Sociales in Paris. would shut the traditional cos- possessed 16-year-oldseems He's ticked up to the challenge: off the oldguard by uuor to his bed- tumes intosome- last week challenging he made his the long-cherishednotion of roomhe called it thing trendy, American debut to official secularism. "Currywood Stu- even sexy: a sari . warm reviews at thepresti- "To be a de- gious Jacob's fender of officialIndian secu- dios"to mix wrapped only Pillow dance larism means R&B and soul festival inMassachusetts. that one hasto be around the lc-er At 6 feet 1, a part of a sort tapes. Now 32, the torso, for Ani is exuberant, of mishmashof striking and Stalinism, Indira deejay-producer- instance. graceful. Like his Gandhicamp mother, hecomes to dance follower, a diffusecategory composer has Bal neVer as a which is everything musician: he Sings other than learned to love trained as a de- and plays Hindu," he told bhangra the flute. Lakshmi, the magazine by rein- signer. But grow- a classically Outlook in 1996. venting it. On his ing up in Kash- trained singerwho now teach-. Most recently, es dance, says of in "The Career albumshis mir, he says, "I her son: "He and Legend of Pricey:Bal and models feels it; he has Vasco da Gama," eighth, "Rising was madly in an intuitiveun- he's stripped From the Fast," derstanding of away the myths builtaround was released love with dance." Four the 16th-century last yearhe clothes. I lookedat them the Portuguese mixes tablas with way other young explorer, traditionally sax and blendsa hip-hop beat men look at cars." At 16, he viewed as the first with classicalIndian vocals. was cutting his Euro- own Nehru jackets and pean imperialist inIndia. His sound travels:his music is flipping a club mainstay through Vogue Legend has castda Gama among Asians magazine. Soon as a sort of cross from New York after. he joined between to Mumbai. his brother's Christ and Alexander "Asian people love garment business and the Western line of men's created a Great; Subrahmanyam sounds," says traditional design- Sagoo. "They. chronicles his bad love hip-hop,soul and house er wear, reviving thingslike temper. turbans. After several "The Indianhistory est 1,-- music. And whenthey hear it success- with an Eastern ful s 1,:shinent is line.u w L.14- touch, theygo ne moved even more crazy." on to women's cial institutionsand an wear. Now most official line of his c:ientsare wealthy on Indian his- , tory," he says "I haven't STYLEMEISTER younger women andnonresi- dent Indians who played the game." Rnhit Bal resemblesneither an can afford his Indian nora fashion designer. prices, whichrun as high as He has light brown $15,000 per outfit. MEDIA MOGUL hair, gray- Too much for When Shobhana blue eyes and you? At the otherend of the In- Bhartia a first-class hon- dian fashion started takingan interest ors degree in history.But cloth- market, youcan in the family-owned ing is his passion, still find local news- and he has tailors who'll paper, the Hindustan turned it intoa lucrative profes- custom-makea suit for 810. sion. Blending Times, many of hercol- history, fantasy ON HIS FEET leagues thought she and folklore, Bal,36, has created was a line of dazzling, Aniruddha Knight simply a richhousewife wearable has tough with too little clothing that is footsteps to followin Working 16-hourdays: to do. "Peo- uniquely Indian. literal- Bhartia ple thought I He favors natural ly. He is the10th generation was coming fabrics, as in years ago Lakshmi to the office just well as traditional a gifted line of classicalbharat and Ani's to pass motifs and American father, time," she recalls."But I went techniques of dyeing, natyam dancers thatincludes Doug Knight, embroi- his grandmother, moved from through the grindof learning the legendary America to Ma- the basics. dras, ix partso Ani could be- Soon I was being taken seriously." 1 come "culturally fluent." 1 Now Very seriously they are back indeed. A decade ;--1 Americaagain later, the 40- so Ani can take music year -old Bhartia (whohad an lessons arranged marriage from his great -uncleVishwa at at 18) is a Wesleyan University. media baroness.She isexecu- They're tive director of the keeping it all in thefamily. Hindustan Times, the capital'slargest- BAD-BOY ACADEMIC circulation Englishdaily, and runs both a television Economic historianSanjay compa- Subralunanyam has ny, Home TV, andIndia's acquired a largest news reputation asan enfant terrible agency, Press of Indian Trust of India. Amother of two academia. He'scer- and a member tainly got the enfantpart down: of the prominent at 36the age when Birla family,Bhartia isa hands- many on mogul, working Ph.D. candidatesare still 16-hour proofreading their days to shapethe lifestyle and theseshe'shealth sections written and edited12 books, of thepaper. A taught on three current goal: to launchnew edi- continents and tions of the Hindustan landed the job ofdirector of times in studies at the other cities. Bigcountry, but prestigious Ecole she's up to it.

NEWSWEEK AUGUST4, 1997 3EST COPY AVAILABLE r 41 Wthutoy

CASUAL VISITOR Ato Pakistan would hardly guess it's the country's golden jubilee. I:: cheerlesscapital, Islamabad, with less than a month to go before the Aug. 14 anniversary, the only visible re- minder of the date was the big "50" emblazoned on the noses of the national airiiPe's planes. The local papers barely mention the occasion; their front pages are too jammed with news of rising sectarian bloodshed and street crime. People haven't forgotten the A veteran 'Oe country's birth- correspondent day. But they have in the region neither the money nor the mood for a visits another big celebration. nation that's There won't even be a grand military hitting the parade onAug. half-century 14 a remarkable omission in a mark country with such Pakistan a tradition of uni- formed pomp. In- BYTONYCLIFTON stead a procession of young Pakista- nis will troop to the Karachi tomb of the na- 4ft. -61 tion's venerated founder, Mohammed Ali .14 Jinnah, who died only a year after independ- 7 ence. Most other Pakistanis will mark the day with one fervent prayer: that the next 50 years may be less bloody, oppressive and miserable than the last 50. I wish them luck.I have covered this

A painful birth:Muslims taking refuge from Hindu rioters near New Delhi, 1947

42 _..00111111

A devastatingrecord of fratricide: Ahalf-million peoplemay have died in complex andcontrary place the ruinous 1971. In those since early- 1971 warbetween West years I have Mohammad Zia and EastPakistan bravemen and met dozensof ul-Haq. Ziaseized the worst women who stood from Bhutto,jailed him and powerter" and "Muslim sort of abuse againstto death for in 1979put him water." "A ment and the from thegovern= murder and start a race riot Muslim could military. I have other crimes., merely by any prejudice never noticed du water touching theHin- against meas a foreigner pitcher,"says Mushahid as a non-Muslim, or HE INCESSANT 45, Pakistan'sdirector of Hussain, and I havemade only one VIOLENCE Is anniversary activi- good friendswho remain many aspect of the ties. "Muslimslived under decades or close after tragedy. nationalismBritish double colonial- more: two Pakistan hasnever colonialism and I have also had anelected nialism." Gen. Hindu colo- witnessedsome of Pakistan's government Khalid Mahrnud worst outbursts that survivedlong enough chief ofPakistan's Arif, deputy of bloodshed voted out of to be now retired, army in the1980s and Anyone who and cruelty.has spent office. The was 17 when the is sure to spends muchtime in Pakistan half its life country tioned and Raj wasparti- come into close ships. Soldiers under military his familyfled from and suffering. contact with death outnumber dictator- Batala, in the the city of I covered More than half doctors 9to 1. Indian Punjab. war in which the fratricidal1971 the population dren and "With my chil- East Pakistan Baluchistan s illiterate. (In grandchildrenaroundme, I thank pendentnation of became theinde- province only2 p.2rcent of almighty Allahfor the possibly a Bangladeshat a cost ofwomen can readand write.) theyears ago," he freedomwe got 50 half-million nomic growth Per capitaeco- declares. "I'm West Pakistani people killedby the is approximately class citizen not a second- army and millions Treasury is zero. The in myown country." driven fromtheir homes of others worse off than Other thanthat, few into refugee roughly $30billion to brokeitowesreason for celebrating.Pakistanissee much near Calcutta.Six years camps domestic creditors istan during later Iwas in Pak- another $30billion abroad. andPakistan hasn't "I'm ashamedthat the mass shameless that Graft isso been governed pressive regime upriSing againstthe re- Transparency General Arif so well," of Zulfikar theGerman-based International, confesses. Myfriend Najam of mymost vivid All Bhutto.One monitoring Sethi, 50,crusading editor memories is the named Pakistan group, hasday Times, of Lahore's police bulletas it hit and killed thud ofa as one of the five describes his Fri- a boy standing rupt countriesin the world. most cor-grim." "The own mood as "just next to me ata demonstration All the goodnews is that der a blazing in Lahore.Un- same, I have form of elective we have a sun in Siridh in Pakistan never heardanyone democracy, andI can write watcheda group of province in 1981,I say his country about it," hesays. "We have Bhutto stayed apart of India. should haveand we're good people, they limpedto their hangedsupporters as The older not ruled by have madesure to tell their people ter that, it's all the military.And af- Instead offlowers they leader's tomb. bad news." stiff with brought their grandchildrenabout the children anda respected Rizwan Ahmed, their own shirts,tion of life pain and humilia- biographer of been flogged blood. Theirbacks had as a Muslimin the independence Jinnah.says the raw by the Hindu British predominantly leader wouldbe sorely dis- dictatorship ofGen. colony. Railway appointed tosee how badly 30 drinking-water pitchers stations hadfailed to live the countryhas labeled "Hinduwa- up to his vision. doubt," theauthor "There isno says. "What Mr.Jinnah NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4.1997 r43 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

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wanted is to be found nol;er,... in der Zia's new laws, Evervone agrees that Pakistan would a blind woman com- their blood." he said. "They have plained to police thatshe had been forgotten surely be a better place if Jinnah hadn't died gang- the lessons of Islam." Yet that appealto jus- raped. She said sh-recognized her attackers so soon.His first priority was self-respect tice and equality seems to have stayedfo, from their voices.-o the case went to trial. for all human beingsMuslims, Hindus, In court she gotten. The exploitation goes onas blatant- was asked to pointout the men everyone," says Rizwan. 62, who met Jinnahwho had raped her. ly as ever. She said she couldn't Jinnahalso a half-century ago and still recalls his pierc- because shewas blind. The preachedtherightsof ing gaze. "You had to look down," says the bi- case was dis-women. "No nation can rise to the height of missed. Thewoman was charged with adul- ographer. You felt that powerful rays were tery, convicted and flogged glory unless yourwomen are side by side being directed at you." Even after becoming for her "crime." with you," he said. Yetwomen are certainly the first leader of i..-lependent Pakistan, Jin- not side by side with men today.Mostly BHUTI U'SDAUGHTER. nah set an example of meticulous honesty by BE- they stay at home, out of sight.Probably insisting on paving for his own note paper nazir served twiceas prime only about 15 percent of Pakistani minister without women and ink. Next door in India. the charismatic ever makingare truly literatemeaning they a move to scrap those laws. can read a Jawaharlal Nehru was able to guide hisown book or write a letter. Asma Jahangir,45, a land until his death in 1964. Nehru left be- Before coming topower shecivil-rights lawyer in Lahore, inspired the Pakistani says the lack hind a strong, secular democracy withan people of education isn't merelya result of poverty. to rise up against the abusesof military army that has never tried to grab power. Had "I see rich landlords and powerfulfeudal rule. In office she didpractically nothing to Jinnah lived long enough, he might wellhave chieftains whose daughtersare totally illit- improve the country, whethereconomical- accomplished at least as much forPakistan. ly, politically erate," she says. "Their fathers don'twant That didn't happen. "After or socially. Her worst misfor- Mr. Jinnah's tune is that she is now far them to be taught." death, adventurists took more closely The lazy and the malicious over and broughtidentifiedwith may blame Is- our country to virtual ruin, politically corruptionthanwithlam for Pakistan's troubles. and courage. Her husband, Asif Zardari, It's not true. economically," recalls the has Bangladesh is a Muslimcountry. and its leader's former secretary women are taking a major Sharifuddin Pirzada, 74. role in building a vibrant Before Pakistan '-ached its 25th birthday, the coun- ftileconomy.Malaysia try dissolved intocivil and Indonesia are like- war. When Pakistan held wise predominantly Mus- its first general election in lim, and they're two of 1970, a West Pakistani feu- Asia'smost dynamic dal landlord, Zulfilcar All economies. Unlike Pak- Bhutto, hoped to become istan(and' Bangladesh), prime minister. His ambi- the latter two havenever tion was thwarted by an had a woman leaderbut EastPakistaninamed they do have an abun- Sheik Mujibur Rahman. dance of well-educated Rather than accept his women working outside loss, Bhutto colluded with their homes. No onesees the army to launcha mur- much chance that Pakistan derous crackdown. "Are- will follow their example al genocide took place," any time soon. There's no recalls my friend Moudud politicaladvantage in Ahmed,aCambridge- challenging the rural reac- educated lawyer who tionaries who havecon- worked with Mujib.i he trolled the countryside for army killed Bengalis, centuriesor in bucking thinking theywere inferi-: jge:1 theTaliban-stylefire- or,disobedient,uncul- Sorry sister: Asprime minister, Bhutto did little brands who are increas- turedanduneducated. to raise women's status ingly visible everywhere They killed their fellow Muslims. They been accused of helping his else in Pakistan. raped Muslimwomen. And Bhutto watched friends to loot And yet in manyways it's just as hard to it all begin from Pakistan's public institutionson a scale un- his hotel suite The nextrivaled almost anywhere else accept the thought that Pakistan couldcon- day he flew backto Karachi and announced, in the world. tinue along its presentcourse. The epic cor- 'Allah has Pakistani analysts have estimatedthe co- saved Pakistan'." Thecarnageterie's total haul at several billion ruption, the political instability, theeco- ended only afterIndia's army intervened dollars. nomic stagnation, the violenceall and made possible Zardari has vehemently denied those the creation ofan inde- any wrong-problems are interdependent, andtogether pendent Bangladesh. doingincluding any role in themurder of . they are a blight on Pakistan's soul,a shack- 'The loss only his brother-in-law, MurtazaBhutto, who le on its dreams and for power. sharpened Bhutto's hunger was shot dead last year. a curse on its children. He devastated hiscountry fur-. No one can predict the country's future.Too ther by abruptly You can find booklets of Jinnah'ssayings embarking ona massivefor sale in shops all many conflicting forces are pushing the program of nationalization. over Pakistan. You'recountry in too many contradictory direc- was supplanted Eventually he not so likely to find his thoughts by General Zia, put into tions. The biggest certainty is that unless pushed the who practice. Fifty years ago, the country even deeper or example. Jin-people of Pakistancan somehow recapture darkness, into thenah warned factoryowners and feudal especially by repealingwomen's Jinnah's idealistic spirit, 2047 will beanoth- rights. Inone famous landlords to stop abusing thepoor "The er year of gloom. case that was tried un- exploitation of the masses has gone into With 11 ski FAZALQURESHI in Karachi ACC.I.:ST 4. 1997 31 44 SPECIAL RE' eewe' FIFTY YEARS AGO, AT MIDNIGHTON AUG. 15, 1947, INDIA gained its independence from the BritishEmpire, and one of history's most romantic linkswas broken. For more than three centuries Britons hadbeen living and work- , ing in Indiafor a century they had ruled nearlyall of it. Islanders on the other side of the world had come to think of Indiaas part of their own national identity,a permanent presence in the public consciousness, at once exotic and familiar.Innumerable British families, of all social rank, hadsent their representatives to India, as soldiers, as business people, as admin-was generally thought to be a providential istrators, as ne'er-do-well youngersonsbestowal of civilized valuesupon a back- or as pious missionaries. So distant andward and doubtless grateful conglomera- so different, India was embed, ...,u ,.eryche knew that there the British psyche: itwas not only thewere highly educated Indians, immensely Jewel in the Imperial Crown, as a favor-rich Indians, Indian gentlementoo; but in ite Victorianism had it, itwas the regi-general Indians were benighted heathens mental group on the parlor wall, theand unfortunates, Hindus, Muslimsand Benares brass tray in Aunt Ethers sittingsuch, and it was a sort of natural justicethat room, the frontiereampaign medal in itsBritons should go out and rule them. glass-fronted case,the row of black And when the British thought ofIndia, wooden elephants marchingacross athey were thinking of the whole imperial thousand suburban mantelpieces. enterprise. For many people the empire So the break in the linkwas more thanwas India. The white settlement colonies simply politics. It was likea had always bored the people family parting, andeven In India, the of the Motherland. The fig- now the poignancy is not ure of the bwana sweating it quite gone. Fifty years on,an British foand out in Africa, Sanders of the ectoplasmic kind of bondtheir grandest River or Jock of the Bush- still connects those offshore veld, paled beside the image Europeans with the multi-opponents and of the. Bengal Lancer, tur- tudes of the Indian subconti- their be st baned and jackbooted, nent itself long ago split, amor.4 his ferociously de- with bloodshed and recrimi-friends. Fifty voted sepoys. The imperial When the sun never set:Elephants and lance nation, into the three states pride of the British revolved of India, Pakistan and Ban-years on,the around the possession of In-and frequently proving formidablysuc- gladesh. Several Europeanspell of the Raj dia: when they greeted the countries have had their cessful entrepreneurs, helped to confirm is unbroken. King-Emperor George VI, their doubts. overseas empires, and Brit- they were greeting him as ain is not alone in maintain- BY JAN MORRIS Now the British presence in India King of England and Em-turned out to have been a more equivocal ing particular associations peror of India, with the twoexperience after allnot quite how Grand- formersubject-nationsFranco-British sovereignties that really counted. phone Africa, for instance, Still looksto dad used to describe it when hecame By the1960s attitudes had greatlyhome with his battalion after a couple of France for cultural inspiration, economicchanged. Progressive socialismwas the support and quite often military interven- years in the cantonments. There was a new prevailing ideology; imperialismwas gen- enthrallment to dramas which showed tion, while Spaniards often regard theerally linked with class;now the con- whole of Latin Americaas their sphere of Britons being very unpleasant in India, as ventional wisdomwas that empire waswell as awfully noble. Old India hands influence still. Only the British, however,thoroughly badall bullying, all exploita- seem to be linked with a lost possession by were often outraged; a younger generation tion. Younger educated Britons beganto began to see the British Empire, which had a kind of mystical osmosis. question their imperial heritage, and the When .1 was a child only intellectuals reached its tremendous apogee in India, as sudden appearance of countless Indians a stain on the national record. thought the British dominion of India hadand Pakistanis on the streets of Britain, anything wicked to it. On the Embarrassment now colored the British contrary, it swiftly taking over the localgrocery stores,attitude, and, as so often happens, it was 32 NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997 45 411111111112111111111WERIBM11111111111111111111 masked in comedy. The figure of the Ah- grandparents boringly told them, and have literary successes of the 1960s and 1970s glo-Indian sahib. I., his topee and his Sam never experienced the old frisson of see ngwas Paul Scott's "Raj Quartet." a work Browne. accepting a sundowner from his the map of the world sploshed allover % ,th faithful bearer or sitting in justice upon about Anglo-India at the time of inde--.,1- re- the imperia' red: India is justanother for-ence which was later to be turned into a calcitrant tribesmen on the Himalayas. eign country, a great place for adventurous was once a proud icon of imperial respon- wildly popular television series, "The Jew- holidays, and in the public mindyour ar-el in the Crown." sibilities. Now he became a figure of fun. chetypal native of the Subcontinent His mustache grew bushier, his topee is the Whenever those old images of the Raj kindly lady in the sari sellingyou onions at are revived, and the India of the British ridiculouslylarge, he pompously bran-the corner shop, or possibly the brown- dished a fly whisk and he talked in Empire lives again in books or on television an ac- skinned yob making a nuisance of himselfscreens, audiences of millions still eagerly lap it all up. This is especially true this year, because 1997 is the Retro- Year of Empire. One hundred years ago the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was famously celebrated as the grand apogee of the imperial idea. Fifty years ago India broke the link. And on July 1, 1997, the last great outpost of them all, the spectacular island-colony of Hong Kong, revert- ed to the rule of communist China. So just at the moment the idea of empire is alive in British minds. A Museum of Empire is coming into being at Bristol. "The Jewel in the Crown" is being shown again. Talk shows. newspaper" coin', ',undies of all kinds are reassessing the mean- ing of the imperial enterprise, and as Hong Kong returns to the unpre- dictable grasp of Beijing, even the most dogmatic of the progressives are beginning to wonder if there was not some good to the British Empire after all. But still more powerful, I think, is that old latent spell of the Anglo- Indian connection. They may not always know whyit may be no more than an inherited instinct but still British people feel a slight tug of the heart when the idea of India comes into their lives. Theirs was not always a happy relationship with In- dia, but it was full of mutual fascination, and ennobled by generosity. In . king and emperor, at Edward VII's 1902 durbar in Delhi India the British found the grandest of their opponents, in Mahatma Gan- cent so posh as to be almost unintelligible. dhi, and some of the best of their in the amusement parlor. There is plenty of friends: in India they not only made many Was this really the glamorous empire ethnic prejudice in Britain, and much of it is builder who had so captivated the fortunes but did many good things, too, and nation a,directed at the Indians, the Pakistanis andproved that imperialism could be a grand generation or two before? The real thing the Bangladeshis. force for virtue as well as for evil. had died bynow; the last colonel of the And yet... Few British families still have Mahratta Rifles had Besides, I suspect that in their bones, gone to his grave in Indian connections, but the old fascination rather than in their minds, many Britons Cheltenham or Kensington. The fewhisto- has been stoked down the years byan al- rians who still championed the still pine for the exotic splendors of that lost merits ofmost incessant flow of public allusions dominion in the East, the gold and the glitter empire attracted small audiences andskep- in novels, in plays, in films, in television tical reviews. Even Rudyard of it, the great trains of empire steaming Kipling, the series. Britain's long adventure in India across the dusty plains, the morning gallop poet laureate of Anglo-India and the Brit- makes for wonderfully evocative art. Fora ish Empire, went disastrously and the evening gin and tonic, the curries, out of fash- time it seemed that the derring-do of the the comradeship and the glory of command. ion. By the 1970s thevery word "empire" North-West Frontier might provide a kind had become disreputable. When the drizzle falls in Leatherheador of homegrown substitute for the American Wolverhampton, still the bugles sometimes And vet... Today the majority of Britons West, and ever since E. M. Forster's "Pas- sound, far away in the folk memory... were born after 1947. Men andwomen insage to India" the love-hate .relationship their late 50s remembernothing of the Brit- between the imperialists and their subjects ish Empire except what MORRIS is the author of a history of the their parents andhas enthralled British artists. One of the British Empire. N EWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997 33 4C n san SilentRage FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T LIVE THROUGH IT, THEMOST STRIKING THING is the sense of precision.-A line drawn ABOUT INDEPENDENCE on a map, as neat. asa surgeon's incision, makes two countries fromone subcontinent. A clock strikes is over. History, however, midnight, anda 200-year-old empire is never precise.Independencewas less an event than and the years leadingup to it, was less a collective an era. Partition, memory than a series of personalrecollections. A sampling of reminiscencesfrom those whowere there. DURCA BHABHI In the years leading up to 1947, A child at Bhabhi, now 90 and living in teered for the Indian Armyat Chaziabad near Delhi, be- 17, and in August 1947was the longed to Naujawan Bharat "acting," "temporary" brigade Sabha, or the Young India major of Peshawar Frontier Council. After Bhagat Singh, Brigade Groupfour infantry the council's founder,was battalions and one tank battal- hanged by the British in 1931, ion. Peshawar, at the time,was Bhabhi and two comrades a tiny microcosm. of India a plotted revcne. town of some 200,000 people There was a British officerin including a sizable ethnic mi- Bombaywhose name I can't nority of Hindus and Sikhs, liv- remember anymorewhowas ing cheek by jowl alongside the notorious for his cruelty to In- Muslim majority. Three weeks dians. It was awarm Wednes- after partition, wave afterwave day morning, and thecar carry- of armed Pathans swept into ing the British officeron his Peshawar from the neighboring daily route to his officeap- tribal areas, systematically proached a roundabout in massacring Hindus and Sikhs south Bombay. Therewere and looting their homes. From some policemen with him in Sept. 7 to 17, in Peshawar City, the car. We were waitingunder some 800 bodies were recov- the porch of a building.As the ered a day. car neared I raised my re- This happened because volver which was hiddenun- Mountbatten, the viceroy, ig- der my sariand fireda few nored the increasingly desper- shots. Later I heard thatwe ate warning signals sent to him

had killed a policeman instead 1 , and partitioned India before of the officer. Therewas a mas- the reorganization of the Indi- sive search for us. To evadear- an and Pakistani armies had rest I went to Varanasi, Luck- been completed. Within the now, Allahabad and finally ruling British Indian establish- Delhi, staying everywhere with of a fugitive. During that period ment, there was a highly influ- acquaintances of my comrades. I started a school for girls. That ential body of senior officials I kept contact withmy com- gave me a totally new identity. In every place I was givena rades, visiting them in prison whose sympathies wereun- new name and new identity. In abashedly pro-Pakistan. and carrying theirmessages EDWARD BEHR some places I was a sister, in out. The British couldn't catch By Aug. 15, there were few others I was sister-in-law. For Later a distinguished journalist me, because there was no pho- troops left in Peshawar. A new- nearly three years I lived and filmmaker, Behr served in a life tograph to identifyme. Finally ly formed Punjab battalion of the Indian. Army. Muslims from former Indian 34 NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4. 1997 47 r

hore. Gujral's brothr I nder is prime minister of India. to Aug. 15.1947. lives in n-men- ory because no other date is as

-1 nightmarish. Weeks before. I had gone to a refugee camp in Lahore. The inner city had been burning for months, but the killings and lootings had not spread to my.neighborhood. Then. the whole town was engulfed. Thousands s poured into the camp by the hour: vet. despite the increasing tales of horror and brutali- ties brought by each new wave. few of us believed that the up- rooting from our homes would be final. We hoped and expect- II ed the "Boundary Commis- sion" to award Lahore to India. Overnight, on Aug. 13, posters appeared on every wall, plead- `The political stage at that time was full of ing, DO NOT BURN. THIS IS NOW characters custom-made for the cartoonist':Laxman PAKISTAN'S PROPERTY. On the morning of Ail- 11. Pakistan Armv units. posted to the town dance.-, Ra!?-MI in love !vi" in early September. and trau- of Economics and Philoso- becaj , y. +e xere and married a Muslim architect phy at Hansard University, and a shocked to our foundations. matized by what they had wit- in the United States before sail- nessed on their way by train to the Master-Elect of Trinity Col- Rejected by the land of our ing back to India with hima lege. Cambridge. Peshawar (Sikhs butchering birth that had now fallen under year oefore independence. In 1947, I was a high-school Muslims), had scarcely settled I was 16, newly married and a hostile regime, we could not into their new barracks before student in Shantiniketan. On see what lay ahead for us on the pregnant when my husband, the eve of independence, they went on a rampage them- we other side, where we were des- Habib, and I landed in Boml glued ourselves to the radio to selves. They opened fire on a tined to spend our lives if we bar We arrived just as the hear Nehru's famous "tryst survived the holocaust. I will neighboring Sikh unit still Hindu-Muslim riots broke out with destiny" awaiting repatriation to India. in Calcutta, where Habib's never forget my speech at midnight. introverted. God- This left only a handful of family lived. We werevery "The task ahead," troops, almost all of them worried because there fearing father was no he told us, included who had just re- Pathans, to try and save Pe- communication by phone or "the ending of signed from the shawar's Hindu and Sikh mi- telegram, so we decided to go poverty and igno- nority from the marauding, straight to Calcutta. But no- Constituent As- rance and disease sembly of Undi- murdering tribesmen swarm- body was going there. The train and inequality of vided India and ing into town. Many, to their was empty. Our arrival in Cal- opportunity." The who was asked to credit, did try and stop the vio- cutta was very dreary. When memory of the lence. Othersincluding the evacuate Hindus we got out of the horse-drawn 1943 famine was to Indiasitting Peshawar police lo,,,ced the carriage that took us to Park still very fresh in other way. I was compelledto . huddled, with his Circus, the Muslim area where Bengal. We had all eyes shut. I won- open fire on tribesmen caught Habib's family home was, we butchering Hindu seen famine. Even `NightMarish':Gujral dered then, to nurses in the were greeted by tears instead though we had not courtyard of Peshawar's Mili- whom, in his of the traditional welcome fora suffered ourselves, we'd seen tary Hospital. T6 my knowl- silent rage, he was addressing new bride. There were no gro- people dying all around us. We his prayers. edge. none of the tribesmen ceries in the house. It was a were ever brought were very excited about inde- to justice, though, great disappoint- pendence and argued for hours R. K. LAXMAN ment to me be- as a personal favor afterwards whether things Cartoonist Laxman is perhaps to me. Peshawar's cause my Hindu . would really change and how India's most popular political chief of police. father, living in this would be achieved. commentator. the U.S., had told Democracy has been a major I was greatly excited by inde- tearing tOr my life. me that there was kept them in jail success and famines have been pendence and the promise of until the Novem- no Hindu-Muslim eliminated. But illiteracy in In- secular democracy. I was 18. ber day I left for problemthat it dia is overwhelming, and social had just graduated and come to England -and was all British inequality has been a great Bombay and The, Times of In- demobilizmion. propaganda. handicap for the country and dia, where I have been for the t!-,e economy. past 50 years. Ever since I was INDRANI RAHMAN AMARTYA SEN 3, I wanted to become a car- ti: /nitwit classical Sen is the Lamont SATISH GUJRAL 'Dreary':Rahman toonist, and I've been doing po- University Profes- A Hindu architect born in La- litical cartoons since I was 11. I %% b h 4:IST 4. 1997 4,3 35 live by politicsand the political poet. atheist and stage at that timewas full of member of the Progressive Writers characters custom-madefor the Group in Mumbai.Azmiwent under- years There wm, cartoonist: Gandhi withhis so much opti- large ears, puckish ground during theQuit India toothless movement, and mismIndia was smile, bald headand hisvery was jailed after independence for socialist andsect, 1, original sartorialchoi,e: and Participating lar But nowNA,e Nehru, handsome in political strikes. and tail.con- feel betrayed The fident and ready for People were dancingon the the "tryst promises made at with destiny." streets that day. Iwas dancing independence with my friends andcomrades. I was a communist have not been KRISHNA REDDY living ina kept Still, I A printmaker and commune then and I'mstill a sculptor wouldn't exchange who worked withHenn Moore card-carrying communist.My and Mario Marini, comrades and Iwere all that period for Reddy has anything lied in New York Nehruites therewas a left- since 1976. wing branch inthe I had been RAVI SHANKAR very ac- Congress. We Now 77, Shankar tivein satyagraha were all so very is [the nonviolence happy to be free a classical musi- at cian, who taught movement} as a last.I was born in the sitar to Beatle college kid in the ghulam Hindustan south. On Inde- ("slave India"), George Harrison I and recorded with pendence Day, I have lived inazad was 22, and a stu- Yehudi Menulun Hindustan ("free I was m Bombay. dent in the art India") and I hope and I wish we'd school at Shanti- to die in social- had TV then We niketan, the uni- ist India. Nehru was his could have versity founded by hero:Shankar the poet Ra- watched inde- Communis ZARINA HASHMI t: Azmi A scuiptor Qrhemes to de-troyit; people bindranath and monies nye, as we seared that "mobs"were com- now see Tagore. We celebratedat dawn Muslim feminist, Mars. But we listened Hashmi married ing. Many cameto hide in our to the ra- by singingTagore's poems an Indian dio at midnight diplomat and lives house and in themosque. We and heard Pan- about independence.That in New York. could see neighboring dit Nehru's famous night, the Santhals I was 10 and living villages speech. [local trib- in Aligarh, on fire. Our euphoria Panditji was our superhero. als] came and where my father over in- I celebrated with was proctor of had just composedthe music for us. We danced together, the university.We were dependence combinedwith a San- very fear that Muslims the ballet basedon his book thal style, hand excited whenwe first got word may not be in hand. safe. Then, in the "The Discovery ofIndia," and about independence.But we beginning of all our leaders were also very scared, 1948, very shortly including Gand- KAIFI AZMI because after inde- hiji himself Aligarh was pendence, things came to see it. There A revolutionarysecular Urdu a Muslim enclave, settled down, and there and 1948 to1958 (when I left were 50,000 people in thepan- were rumors about dalthat night and Nehru India) were themost beautiful said of the ballet, "It'sbetter thanmy book!" I had joinedthe Indian National Theatreunder the Congress, and composednew music for Iqbal'Ssong,"Saare jahaan se achchhaa,hindostaan hamaaraa""OurIndia is bet: ter than the wholeworld" which was tobecome the most popular song, secondonly to the national anthem.

NAUSHAD ALI A Bollywood musicdirector, Naushad composedpopular music for hitsongs for decades. Much bloodwas spilt for our independence. Thecommunal riots killedmore people than an all-out war mighthave. We paid a heavyprice and won only physicalindependence. Today weare still enslaved because we ape the West.Our `Today weare still enslaved great artists, our wonderful because we apethe West': In- Bollywoodmusic director Naushad dian culture isnow gone. Is this 36 Ali i.what we fought for?

NEWSWEEK AUGUST 4, 1997 - r4. Ins in re- nd tfr- From the 01tothe .1- ird Fifty years after independence, socialism and secularism are in retreat. Some of the I changes in India are overdue, others worrisome. All are unstoppable. BY FAREED ZAKAMA in- -he IT IS SURELY ONE OF THE GREAT SPEECHES OF THE of India employed 247,000 people to produce 6 million tons of steel cencuiy,India's Gettysburg Address. Jawaharlal )ai. while South Korea's privately owned Pohan Steel paid 10.000 peo- znd Nehru's stirring announcement of Indian indepen- ple to make 14 million tons. But things have changed. The free-mar- )ng dence was, like Abraham Lincoln's speech, a conse- ket reforms of 1991 have unleashed a market revolution. India's pri- cration of both victory and tragedy (about as many died in India's vate sector is growing by leaps and bounds. The quality and quantity bloody partition as did in the Civil War), and, like Lincoln's, it of goods available to consumers and businesses have shot up. For- gave voice to a new nation. Nehru saw Aug. 15, 1947, as a water- eign investment is moving in slowly but steadily. Whether or not shed, marking the end of two centuries of European dominion and India grows fast enough to become another "Asian tiger" (about the rebirth of an ancient civiliza- 7 percent a year is the magic num- tion: "A moment comes, which ber),capitalism is already remaking comes but rarely in history, when India's economy and, perhaps more we step out from the old to the new, important, its society. when an age ends and when the The effects are striking. Visit a soul of a nation, long suppressed, city or town in India and everybody finds utterance." is on the make. People who once On reading these words now, sought government jobs, with secu- however, one is struck by how much rity and low salaries, now look for better they apply to India "Lila komusalleee business opi. rtur, chises than they did 50 years ago. During and financing. A society that has, the past decade, India has been re- for thousands of years, honored the discovering herself, casting off a status of the state, of princes and of mantle designed abroad for one caste now exalts the market. more distinctly. homespun. As the It is no coincidence that just as the nation moves into the 21st century it socialist basis of India's nationalism will in all likelihood be less socialist, is being challenged, so is its secular- less secular, less centralized and ism. The two are part of the same old less Anglicized than it has been order. The years since 1992 have since independence. seen the rise of a powerful Hindu ; It is often remarked that Nehru nationalist party, the destruction of [.. was the last Englishman to rule In- mosques and religious riots. Per- dia. He was indeed a product of haps most important, it has become England's great institutionsHar- acceptable to articulate a Hindu fun- row, Cambridge, the London bar damentalism. unthinkable 25 years but Nehru spent many more years ago. The danger of religious conflict in His Majesty's prisons than in his haunted India's founding genera- schools. He was, above all, an Indi- tion. (Mahatma Gandhi was assassi- an nationalist. But his conception nated by a Hindu fanatic who felt of nationalism was entirely Euro- betrayed by Gandhi's "appease- pean. a product of Enlightenment ment" of the Muslims.)Indira ideas about self-determination, lib- Gandhi amended the preamble to eralism and rationalism in politics. the Indian Constitution to add the He and his generation of "freedom word "secular" to its description ofI... fighters" created a new India that the state. That ideal seems far away was secular, democratic and re- Fast food:Delivering a breakfast tray in style in 1986 today. Outside of a highly cosmo- publican, with a strong, centralized politan, urban elite, the younger state that defined the nation and directed, in a socialist fashion, its generation of Hindus and Muslims seem less committed to integra- economic development. It was a model an English Labour Party tion than their parents. leader could have created. The old order has yielded; it cannot be rebuilt. But how India In the past 10 years the founding conception of Indian national- casts off its old garb will determine its future. It needs a new eco- ismembodied by the Congress partyhas been steadily erodednomics, but also the old tolerance. Perhaps it will achieve both. In by what V. S. Naipaul has called "a million little mutinies": Hindu"India: From Midnight to the Millennium," Shashi Tharoor recalls pride, lower-caste empowerment, a rising bourgeoisie, regionalthat Nehru described India as "an ancient palimpsest on which layer assertiveness. Perhaps the most powerful of these forces are upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no capitalism and religionan unlikely combination. succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been For 40 years India's mixed economywas famously inefficient. written previously." Building a modern country upon an ancient )ne of the saddest of many sad statistics: in 1986 the Steel Authority that is India's challenge for the 21st century.

.2.WSWEEK AUGUST 4.1997 37

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It is the world's largest democracy and an emerging economicsuperpower, yet Americans care little about it. As India celebrates its golden anniversary,

can't the United State 7 fir -I F.ornething to love? BY TONY CLIFTON .

T THE STROKE OF THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, WHEN "a menace and a boor." To Washington, neutrality meant keep- the world sleeps, India will awake to life and free- ing quiet; India instead formulated its own moral stands. For dom," Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru told an America, a country that feels a need to cloak foreign policy in ecstatic nation on Aug. 15,1947. "We end today a moral righteousness, that may have been the ultimate 'affront. period of ill fortune and India discovers herself Geopolitics, including the touchy issue of nuclear prolifera- gain." Weeks from the 50th anniversary of its in- tion, shredded what good will remained after the early years. dependence, India finally has defined itself; the world's largest The nadir was 1971, when President Richard Nixon "tilted" to- democracy will become one of its economicsuperpowers early ward India's archrival, Pakistan, seekingan opening toward next century. Yet Americans, who ponder their relationship Paldstan's ally, China. Still, Washington often helped India with China and Russia, remain apathetic to the nearly 1 billion openly by donating food, covertly by building the campaign people who populate India. Whocan name the nation's prime chests of such favored politicians as Indira Gandhi. The payoff minister? Mention India, and Mother Teresa ismore likely to was small. "They're not grateful enough," said a U.S. ambas- come to mind, not its booming software business. It's a curious sador late one night in a flash of candor. The hostility was mutu- relationship. The two countries should be natural friends al. S. K. Singh, once India's top diplomat, called his U.S.coun- both former British colonies, firm allies duringtwo world wars. terparts "absolutely ruthless in pursuing their self-interest." India's burdens may still be heavy it is hometo more than a Nixon was the last U.S. president to officially visit New Delhi. third of the world's poorbut Nehru's heirs have kept thecore Now the cold war is over, and India again has rediscovered promise: India remains a democracy. That accomplishment itselfas a champion of market capitalism. And hostility, alone should have won Washington's admiration, ifnot love. though deeply rooted in the two countries' bureaucracies,may But since 1947 the vi,-?v., from Washington has ranged fromout- be eroding. Since India reformed its investment laws in 1991, right hostility to indiArence. Andamong Indian bureaucrats U.S. companies have poured in up to a billion dollars a year. and intellectuals, suspicion that Washingtonis maneuvering Indians now can watch MTV and "The Bold and the Beautiful." against New Delhi has hardened into reflex. How could that They eat Big Macs (made from lamb) and Kentucky Fried be, if the countries really stand for what theyclaim? Chicken, and buy their kids Reeboks and Nikes. Upper-class The forces of history at midcentury dashedany hope of a love Indians who used to school their children in Englandnow look affair. Nehru toiled to founda socialist utopia just as the start of to American universities. More of them than ever are visiting the cold war had Washingtondividing the world into friends the United Statesand 355,000 immigrated between 1985 and and enemies. India willfully defiedcategorization. In the name 1995. There now are a million Indian-Americans, and they've of neutrality, Nehru declined America'sinvitations begun to assert themselves politically, as befits one to help build a regional bulwark against Sovietex- of the country's most affluent immigrant groups. pansion. a position John Foster Dulles As a new nation, India once called insisted on doing Indians are learning the game. And two thin- "immoral and shortsighted." Nehrusent the bril- things its way:The skinned democracies may yet realize that their liantly acerbic V. K. Krishna Menonto the U.N.; af- Maharajah ofBaria's shared values far outweigh their differences. ter one meeting, President Eisenhower called him wedding in 1948 With Tom NI ASLAND in Neu. York

/iENRI : 1:R131l1.)S.N MIACNUM AUGUST 4.1997 NEWSWEEK 41 51 .ANEWTIGER India usedto pride itselfon poverty-stricken self- a new national idealrapid growthand, sufficiency. Now at least in spirit, they have thrownopen the it seeks growth,exports and doors to multinationals everywhere.More foreign investment,and the important, they are forginga national iden- economy is booming. tity more suited to modern times.India, at BY STEVENSTRASSERAND SUDIP MAZUMDAR last, has begun tosee itself as another Asian nation dedicated to the accumulationof wealth and the spread ofprosperity. In thy: TRAVEL INTO THE DEPTHSOF can soap operas and Scotch whisky next century that vision will holdinfinite Bihar,India's poorest state, adsmore power than the old asceticism. from Hong Kong. This is the Indiandream "Pet-- .along the dirt paths thatcon- haps our industrialization isnot complete," at ground level. As the vision of"Bay- nect its stagnant pools of hu-watch" filters through Bihar, says Srini Rajam, head of the TexasInstru- so even the ments branch in booming Bangalore, manity. past government signs, poorest of the poor finally beginto rise "but touting chimerical health and from the depths of rotted isolation. we can leapfrog into the InformationAge." education programs,into the hopeless heart India has always had pride.Now it has of a subcontinent where And so does poor old India.For 50 years ambition. In the early the squalid villages the national identity has depended years of independ- might remindyou of sub-Saharan Africa on isola- ence, Jawaharlal Nehru's tion from perceived enemiesfromplot- government re- except that the poorest Africansfare better joiced in standing apart, theepitome of the than the destitute of ting neocolonialists in theWest, from Bihar. Eventuallyyougreedy multinational companies, "nonaligned" nation. Asa conglomeration will stumble onto thevillage of Kalipahari, even from of peoples withseven major religions and blessed with electricity those intrepid Indians whoresisted the of- thanks to a nearbyficial creed of self-sufficiency. 18 official languages, India madeits own hydroelectric darn. Here But now rules: a democracy you will see, insatellite TV has come to Bihar, on a continent ruled by practically every hovel,an incongruous and Coca-despots, a plannedeconomy whose bureau- sight: a television Cola,' too. Health and educationwill one set, pulling down Ameri-day follow. The leaders in New cratic s:nvards were satisfiedto creep Delhi have along at a 3 or 4percent "Hindu rate of 42 NEWSVEEKAUGUST 4. 1997 a 4.

growth." Only when the New Delhi elite Nearly two thirds of Indian squarely acknowledged thatits hubris had Bombay (they call it Mumbai), children younger than Sare Pride: put the nation on the sidelines ofthe global Nehru and Ma- the bywords of thenew India economywhile India's malnourished. and those who hatma Gandhi (left) great rival China reach school age can are growth, foreign invest- was getting richdid real reforms count on preached self-reliance begin. an average of only :3.5 years of ment and, most hallowed of Now. six years into Incl. in the early days all, exports. 's opening to the education if they are boys. 1.5 world. theeconomy is growing by nearly The strategy.formedin 7 percent a if they are girls. By( time Ambition: A modern year, a rate that by 2020 will they reach adulthood, half 1991 by the then prime minis- transform its are Indian uses a cellular ter P. V. Narasimha Rao and economy into the world's still illiterate. Think ofit: In- fourth largest(after China. the United phone before a Gandhi his finance minister, Manmo- dia is trying to accelerateonto mural in New Delhi States and Japan). "Thereis a lot of politi- han Singh, was ruthlesslysim- cal cacophony." the Information Superhigh- says Finance Minister P. way with nearly 300 million adults ple: to dismantle the stifling Chidambararn. who has who . bureaucracy that once ruled India served under two cannot read road signs. as intru- coalitiongovernmentsinthe sively as Moscow's planners last 14 Comparisons between India and the once ran the months. "Butwe are on course." eco- Soviet Union. Rao and Singhcut much of nomic tigers of East Asiaare equally dismal. There is no lilt to hisoptimism. A visitor the bureaucracy's "licenseraj" of red tape, Pacific Rim economies thatonce ranked far to urban China (whichis churning along at then went on to simplifytaxes, reduce the below India and its SouthAsian neighbors a growth rate of 9.5 percenta year) can al- scope of the state sector (which provided most hear the hum of enterprise now enjoy per capita incomes 27times everything from power in a nation greater. according to the Human Develop- to motor scooters), that is fairly burstingto build a better life. liberalize foreign investment andcut tar- ment Centre, a Pakistani think tankthat The reformers of India.by contrast. tendto iffs. From the earliest days,says Singh. bow under the weight of studies regional economic trends.The blunt "our goal has been to show the world that their nation's great reality of India's failures is poverty. Even now. 52 now driving its India can compete with percent of their peo- reforms. and most Indians ar.. country in ple still live agree on what Southeast Asia in our hospitality on incomes of less than SIa must be clone. From the Marxists to invest- day, according running ment and our spirit of enterprise." to World Bank figures. Calcutta to the Hindu nationals running India's culture has also beena force for ,1-:,NIA LEFT 04 N'm : AccesT 4,1997 sewswEEK 43 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 53 *1,

alone has helped to sp mand among low-incomi c sinners to unprecedented 1p els. A manufacturer of $1:20 bottles of shampoo for middle- class Indians found a huge new market for two-cent packets of the brand in poor areas. The race is on to produce cheap television sets and appliances. One entrepreneur found a way to convert devices for making - t lassi (a yogurt drink) into cheap washing machines. And the . first developer of a good $50 refrigerator, suggests economist S. L Rao, would now find a huge new market in rural India. Moreimportant, India's poor are beginning to find their The three R's:Students in political voice. Indian democ- Mumbai's Dharavi district, racy has always been hobbled Asia's worst slum (above) by the primitive state of its grass-roots politics. Too many The Raj:In the heyday of local leaders bubbled up to na- British rule, the Prince of tional power on their ability to Wales (center) kills a tiger buy votes and deliver favors and subsequently used their reaching out to the world. The msiroy film industry turns out both enrich themselves. But the rur- masterpieces and tawdryB al awakening that came with movies in astonishing profu- reform also has revived state sion. Using the imported Eng- and local politics. State compe- lishlanguage intheir own tition for the spoils of reform is

uniqueway,novelistslike now common. Tamil Nadu at- ; Arundhati Roy, 37, a former ac- tracted a Ford plant by waim- tress and screenwriter, have ing state sales taxes and offer- become international best selling land at a concessionary ers. The literary tradition has deep roots; among many millions of India's other poor. price. Uttar Pradesh won the battle to lure Hindu poet and philosopher Rabindranath New Delhi's program of teaming with for- an electronics project set up by the Korean Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literatureeign investors to string out copper wire forgiant Daewoo. as long ago as 1913. telephones is proceeding in fits and starts. The soern city of Bangalore, India's Neither culture nor industry has doneEven in the capital. the wait for a new Silicon Vaffey, stands as the glittering tiara anything yet for the dregs of Indian society, phone can still stretch to three years. None- of the new India. Indians themselves own the 200 million or so people at the very bot- theless, the government's decision to let inonly 1.8 million installed personal comput- tom of the ladder. But for the first time in foreign satellite television has led to an ex- ersabout a third the number in New York history, economic growth and the spread ofplosion of more than 20 million cable-TVCity. But what the info-tech companies communications are working a revolutionconnections within the last two years. That stand for is vitally important.

1906Muslims A British duke and a Colonialismon theMa-ell establish the Mus- staffer go hunting India wasn't content to remain a colony; the seeds of its independ- lim League to de- . ence were sown less than 30 years after the British took over. fend their interests 1940The Muslim League against the Hindu demands that a separate feats French and Mogul forces majority Muslim country, Pakistan, be carved out of India 1858After a century of growing 1920 Mahatma influence on the Subconti- Gandhi takes 1942The Con- nent, the British govern- over the Con- gress party passes the 'Quit ment takes direct control gress and India' resolution, of India presses for 'nonviolent disobedience' calling on the Brits The Brits battle for India 1835The Indian Nation- to leave the coun- al Congress is formed and A 1935The British gov- try; Gandhi is 1757 imprisoned The British East India. pushes, with increasing ernment approves a con- c, Company gains control of Bengal stridency, for a greater In stitution that gives Indi- after Lt. Col. Robert Clive de- dian Voice in government Early days ans more political power Gandhi

71.P. Ill.P.EIt: CA NEW RETTM,,,N .:!. 11 1.1.1, 0, his _ ANN BEST COPY AVAILABLE

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The homegrown firms and those alliedwith all the big names, from IBMto Intel, have exuberantly cut through red tape andpro- tectionism, welcoming competition while becoming successful softwareexporters themselves. "If we can't compete within- ternational brands in ourown country, we can't hope to ever compete in othercountries," says software-industry spokesman Dewang M ehta. Hindu can be no big-bang theory of growth." "^"sc Nebel Pri:e winner An outsider can gauge India's As India streamlines its bureaucracy andRabindranath Tagore (left) in 1905 progress . unclogs its courts, New Delhi and Mumbai by measuring the market'ssuccess at shift- may become more attractive to multina- ing resources to the government's neediest Best-selling fiction:Arundhati Roy, constituentssomething the centralized tional corporations than the regulatory author of 'The God of Small Things' wilds of Beijing and Shanghai. IfIndia can bureaucracy never could accomplish.How will life change in the mobilize its hundreds of millions ofyoung, poor country that will continue to regard most desolate regions cheap workers at a time when thework of Bihar? At the absolute end of theline, in itself,culturally and politically,as the the village of Devnagra, force of the developed worldis aging, a world's great exception. Nor will India a foreign donor re- boom of Chinese magnitude mightnot be cently gave $7,000 fora new well, the kind likely become a classic Asian tiger.As aof gesture that short-circuits out of the question. "Just think of theeco- India's ineffi- vibrant democracy thatmust always tend. ciencies (to put it politely) rather than vali- nomic output we can generate from thisto its own first, the nation will population when never pro-dating reform. Nonetheless,once fresh our per capita income ofduce a Deng Xiaoping to dictate itsstrat- $330 doubles early in the next century," water comes to the village, it will be less egy from on high. The new Indian dynamohard to imaginea school, a clinic, even a says Mukesh Ambani, vice chairman ofwill muddle along,sure of its direction Mumbai's Reliance Industries. "Thatwill roadand along that road,a thin copper but never of its strategy, obsessedalwayswire connecting the darkest clearly boost us intorange of becoming an with the myriad demands from within. corner of economic superpower." "We India to the riches of the world. will take one sector ata time, show that it Somehow the mantle of"superpower"works and build confidence,"says Man- WithRON MOREAUin Mumbai. does not quite fit the personality ofa huge,mohan Singh. "There TONY CLIFTONin New Delhi and ink JOSHUA KANin Hong Kong AMA"Ir#'1PA. airt-szmitacteessrammew The Fall of theUnion Jack 1984 Indi- ra Gandhi is After a turbulent beginning,India has transformed itself froma British colony into the world's assassinated largest democracy. by a Sikh. A Union Car- 1947 India gains to death by a Hindu extremist Pakistani POWs bide gas leakBhopalvictims independence one 1966 In a compromise, the left a war against West Pakistan. in Bhopal kills 2.000 people. day after Pakistan and right wings of is created; Nehru East Pakistan becomes 1991 Rajiv Gandhi. Indira'sson the Congress par- Bangladesh. and successor, is assassinated becomes prime ty name Indira minister Gandhi India's 1974 Inctia ex- 1996 The Con- 1947-49 IndiaNehru first woman plodes its first gress party, In- and Pakistan fight prime minister nuclear device dia's longtime over Kashmir on the China border underground, ruling party, is 1971 India as- 1948 Gandhi, but denies it has defeated on his way to an sists East Paki- plans to build Mourning at evening prayer meeting, is shot stan in winning Indira Gandhi nuclear weapons Rajiv's cremation 46 NEWSWEEK AUGUST4 199 7 BEST COPY LEFT TO RIGHT. TOP: VII OALBIIM 1111,,rs }011T117.0.,,." From the Oldto the New Fifty years after independence, India is redefining itself. Some changesare overdue, others worrisome. Allare unstoppable. BY FAREED ZAKARIA

IT IS SURELY ONE OF dia employed 247,000 people to produce the great speeches of the 6 million tons of steel while South Ki..- century,India'sGet- rea's privately owned Pohan Steel paid tysburg Address. Jawa- 10,000 people to make 14 million ton... harlal Nehru's. stirring But things have changed. The liberaliz,- announcement of Indian tion and free-market reforms of1991 ha' -2 independence was, like Abraham Lin- unleashed a market revolution. India's speech, a consecration of both private sector is growing by leaps as 4 .-ictory and tragedy (about as many died bounds. The quality and quantity 'uf in India's bloody partition as did in the goods available to consumers and busi- Civil War), and, like Lincoln's, it gave nesses have shot up. Foreign investment voice to a new nation. Nehru saw Aug. 15, is moving in slowly but steadily. Whether 1947, as a watershed, marking the end of or not India grows fast enough to becou,e two centuries of European dominion and another "Asian tiger" (about 7 percent a the rebirth of an ancient civilization: "A year is the magic number), capitalism :s moment comes, which comes but rarely already remaking India's economy and, in history, when we step out from the -1d perhaps more impor_nt, it, . We new, when an age ends and when The effects are striking. Visit a city or the soul of a nation, long suppressed, town in India and everybody is on ti e finds utterance." make. People who once sought govern- On reading these words now, howev- ment jobs, with security and low sala- er, one is struck by how much better they ries, now look for business opportuni- apply to India today than they did 50 ties, franchises and financing. A society years ago. During the past decade, India that has, for thousands of years, honored has been rediscovering herself, casting the status of the state, of princes and of off a mantle designed abroad for One caste now exalts the market. more distinctly homespun. As the nation It is no coincidence that just as the so- moves into the 21st century it will in all cialist basis of India's nationalism is be- likelilifo.1 he less socialist, less secular, ing challenged, so is its secularism. The less ctn and less Anglicized than two are part of the same old order. The it ha'. bt,C1 I since independence. years since 1992 have seen the rise of a It is often remarked that Nehru was powerful Hindu nationalist party, the de- the last Englishman to rule India. He struction of mosques and religious riots. was indeed a product of England's great Perhaps most important, it has become institutions Harrow, Cambridge, the acceptable to articulate a Hindu funda- London bar but Nehru spentmany mentalism unthinkable 25 years ago. The more years in His Majesty's prisons than danger of religious cbnflict haunted In- in his schools. He was, above all,an In- dia's founding generation. (Mahatma dian nationalist. BM hisconception of Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalism was entirely European,a Capitalism has put the nation back on track fanatic who felt betrayed by Gandhi's product of Enlight;pment ideas aboutPassing a breakfast tray along a train "appeasement" of the Muslims.) Indira self-determination. liberalism andra- Gandhi amended the preamble to the In- tionalism in pOlitics. He and hisgeneration of "freedom fighters" dian Constitution to add the word "secular" to its description of the created a new India thatwas secular, democratic and republican, state. That ideal seems far away today. Outside of a highly cosmopol- with a strong. centralized state that defined the nation and directed, itan, urban elite, the younger generation of Hindus and Muslims in a socialist fashion, its economic development.It was a model anseem less committed to integration than their parents. English Labour Party leader couldhave created. The old order has yielded; it cannot be rebuilt. But how India In the past 10 years the foundingconception of Indian nationalism casts off its old garb will determine its future. It needs a new eco- embodied by the Congressparty has been steadily erodednomics, but also the old tolerance. Perhaps it will achieve both. In by what V. S..Naipaul has called "amillion little mutinies": Hindu pride, lower -caste empowerment, "India: From Midnight to the Millennium," Shashi Tharoor recalls a rising bourgeoisie, regionalthat Nehru described India as "an ancient palimpsest on which lay- assertiveness: Perhaps the most powerfulof these forces areer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no capitalism and religion an unlikely combination. succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been For 40 years India's !nixedeconomy was famously inefficient. One of the saddest of many sad statistics: in written previously." Building a modern country upon an ancient 1986 the Steel Authority of In.- civilization: that is India's challenge for the 21st century.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE.- 56 AUGUST 4, 1997 NEWSWEEK47 The Legacy of Gandhi and The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

Pro f .N.Radhakrishnan

It is widely accepted now that thecore of the legacy Gandhi left for humanity, is that he taughtus that truth is greaterthan allworldly possessions, and that slavery violence,injustice and disparities are inconsistent with truth. What Gandhi left is not a set of theoretical formulations,on the contrary, a carefully evolved vision of an organically sound and mutually supportive and respecting independent world order. The six decades of Gandhi's public life in three continents spearheading various movements fora new social and political milieu where allmen and women will be treated as brothers and sisters demonstrated with convincing sincerity arevolutionary zeal for change -change with consent- hitherto unexperimented in national or international politics. Tolerance, consent, reconciliation and a profound faith in the unity of all sentient? and nonsentient? beings have beenthecoreofthe Gandhian visionof aworld where harmony amongthe various segments of God's creation would nurture the essentialgoodness in each one both the_ visible and invisible threads unitingthe entire humanity into a single entity. Does this sound Utopian? Yes,quite alarge number ofpeople still believe thatthe new social order Gandhi envisioned is too ideal and an unattainable utopia only fit enough foracademic andsemantic interpretations.

The world of tomorrow and the challlenges facing humanity callfor a reappraisal of not only what Gandhi offers but all similar and other ideologies. The fast emerging socio-political and scientificscenario has dismantledalmost at one strokeall humanity hitherto believed invincible. Nothing is sacrosant. The geo-political compulsions and the mad frenzy of both developed and developing nations to appropriate for themselves all what they can lay hands on reminds us of the haste and anxiety seen among the nocturnal thieves to plunder

.BESTCOPYAVAILABLE completely and decamp with the bootybeforeanyone wakes up in the 1,ouse. It appears that colonial instinct also a kind of guides modernman in all his tendencies. Only the label changes, thebottle and the decoction continueto be thesame, it appears. What is the relevance of Gandhi inthis all- pervading materialistic,agnostic and culture? It is consumeristic precisely these three tendencies Gandhi fought in all his life. It is a fact of historythat repudiation of one philosophy at a given time does notmean the death or irrelevance it. The men and of women who movedthe worldwere mostly either crucified,burnt alive,or were administered hemlock,sentenced to deathor were branded heretic,or excommunicated.Still independent and inquiry pursuit of truth and to express against themselves injustice were continued in probably with added all ages, vigour. The irreversiblefact of history, again,is that the listof such 'rebels' steadily grew despiteall attempts to ward perceived threat. off *HP.

It appears thatthe four challenges of the

twenty-first century will be :

Taming the monster ofviolence and keepingit within limits.

ii) ensuring equitable distributionof wealth and natural resources; alsoto cry a halt to the exploitation and insensitivity shown in preserving balance in nature.

iii) Increasing reliance of rulersand politicians on religious fundamentalist elements and forces to capturepower and sustain themselves in power by exploiting religious sentimennts, and

iv) decline of moral, spiritual and ethical considerations.

Of all these the most disturbing is the alarming mannerinwhich violenceis spreading spreading like a cancer. The biggest challengeto the next denturywill.be"howto tame this monster. Besides eating into the vitalsof all what humanity hasbeen able to :achieve, it threatens tohold humanity to ransom'and is in thedriver's seat. The chilling factor in this sordid and. 'frightening scenario is the speed withwhich violence hassent shock waves everywhere. Violence is no longerthe

58 luxury of the industrialisedor developed nations or those kept under long years of colonial rulebut it is everywhere. Letuslook at whatthe National Centre of Education Statistics of the departmentof Education in Washington DC pointed out at a news conference:

* 100,000 children take a gun to schoolevery day (Children's Defence Fund says as many as 135,000)

* 160,000 will miss school because of fear of injury 320,000 per month 160,000 per day

* 2,000 young people attacked before every hour ina working day. 282,000 per month 14,100 per day

* 900 teachers threatened and nearly 40 attackedper hour. °^' each month 8,250 threatened per day 5, 200 physically attacked each month 260 per day 37 per hour

* Every 36 minutes a child killed or injured by a firearm- over 14,000 per year

* 11986 1990 250 hostage incidents using guns- in 35 states.

And it appears that at one go humanity has been seized by those who believe that economic growth istherealindex ofboth developmentand real power. Whilethe powerof money was never underestimated anywhere, never before in human history everything is being measured in terms ofper capita income or GNP or the relativepruchasing power or such other material considerations. This preoccupation on the part ofthe twentieth century man has created a situation where family ties, inter-personal, cultural, ethical, even religious and social aspects have been relegated to the background is really sending shock waves all around. No bodyseems to be worried about the terrific mannerin which all aspects that sustain humanity andregulategrowth and other issues receive no attention from those who control our lives. This has become a universal phenomenon and no societyor countrycan feel that the situation is different with them. Allwhat we hear is the talk about

3 r". 59 sharingof wealth,arms reductinn and nuclear non proliferation by those nations who produce all lethal weapons that could wipe out humanity several times in the event of a war and advocating acceptance of NPT which several countries like India genuninely feel discriminatory in its present form. The warning and spirited campaigns undertaken by the environmentalists to stop many of the harmful steps by the managers of our destiny receive only scanty attention and unfortunatelythese warnings by and large, remain cries in the wilderness.

The relevance of Gandhi or for thatmatter anybody else has to be examined against these emerging trends. The galloping horses of humanity which are at the moment being goaded and whipped to run as fast as theycould in order towin the coveted places of material achievements have to be reigned in by the collective assertion by an awakened humanity which has a right to exist. But then,this will be possible only if we are prepared to ponder over the immense damage being caused to theedifice of humanity. It is not even slow poisoning. It is almostlike 'suddendeath', to borrow an expression from football.

Another frighteningaspect is the sad fact that man in no where is in the reckoning now. He has been pitiably reduced tothe status of a consumer and he is first and last consumer now. His purchasing power is all that matters. Similarly the purchasing power of a nation is all what the other nation now cares for. The talk in the world capitals are all centred on which are the biggest markets in the world and our newspapers devote more than a bulk of their space for market trends and stock markets, bullion rates while a bulk of the remaining space in the news papers deal with violence of various forms, political gossips, coupattempts, privatelife of celebrities and such other hotitems which would ensure a steady interest amongthe readers. The readers, caught in the web of a violent culture are force-fed by the sweetmeat provided by an enticing consumeristic culture are also satisfied by the 'kick'they get by reading these items. Why should they waste theirtime on news andfeatures about culture, art or development ? This attitude, unfortunately. seems to be gaining ground.

Gandhi warned humanity of this dangerous situation as early as 1909 when he pointed outin the seminal work ' Hind Swaraj' that unprincipled growth will land humanity on the brink of disaster.

4 60 Even his own close disciples raised their eye brows of disagreement when he said this. The that we are to fight is within us and we are ignorant of it, thatisthe basic problem.Motif such as give and take, live and let live,love and to be loved have become cliches in the new dictionary compiled by the champions of unlimited growth. This can be possible only if weadopt c holistic vision of life and ensure equality andjustice which presupposes the simple truth that each individual is unique and we should respect his individuality and let him maintain his uniqueness and what applies to an individual should apply to a nation or at a global level.

Gandhi furtherwarned against a series of social and political turmoils, ecological devastation and other human misery that might arise unless modern civilisation takes care of nature and man tries to live in harmony with nature and tries to reduce his wants. Unlimited consumeristic tendencies and callous indifference to values will not helphumanity to progress towards peace, he warned. -atrad of all forms, exploitation in whicever manner it exists are negation of humanity's basic right to exist. The Gandhian legacy of simple living in conformity with the basic rythm oflife typifiesthe age-old wisdom of humanity. Gandhi tries toconvince humanity that wars never solved any problem. On the contrary reconciliation should help humanity sort out the various problems. Thus in Gandhi, as has been pointed out by many thinkers in different parts ofthe world,we havea world leader who dreamt of a warless world and promoter of a social order where exploitation and injustice will not become the dominant tendencies.

Two of the important factors that brought Gandhi closer to the millions are the genuine inspiration he was able to offer and generation of a feeling among the masses that he was motivated only by the spirit of service any not by any personal or ulterior desires. His South African experiments won him respectsfrom eventhose who opposed him and those who never met him or knew him. Tolstoy comments that what Gandhi was doing in South Africa wasthe mostimportantthing in the world at thattime were a case in point. Gandhi demonstrated that the life ofa leader should also be open,capable enough to influence the masses so that they will also emulate the leader unreservedly. Gandhi did both these with remarkable success, which

5 in turn resulted in millions following him like charmed moths. The two settlements thatGandhi started in South Africa, the Phoenix Ashram settlement andthe Tolstoy Farm bear eloquent testimony to the leadership qualities and the visionary nature of Gandhi which in turn generated great understanding,sympathy and enthusiasm among- almost all dumb Indians and others in South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century. His life, both as an initiator of new experiments and as a private individual and lawyer of great promise, were all open. He was against anybody possessing anything more than what the other person had. The members of the settlement ate in the commonkitchen, they worked in the farm together, their children attended the general school and nobody entertained or desired to accumulate or acquire anything of his own. Not that Gandhi did not have problems in this. It was difficult for him to convince even his own wife and Gandhi was harsh when he detected that his wife had a few things ofher own. Gandhi's children were disappointed and even they nourished an ambition of attending better schools and pursuing their higher education outside South Africa. Gandhi resisted all these attempts and insisted on his children attending the same schoolwhere the children of other members of the settlement were studying.He kept account of every pie that was spent. He stopped even charging for his own services as a lawyer. All this, not only endeared him tohis followers but inspired them also to follow him as far as possible. This naturally resulted in a kind of joy and willing participation in a cause he was espousing.

Back in India, the first major movement Gandhi launched was in a place called Champaran, near Bodh Gaya, a placeassociatedwithShakyamuni Buddha. Gandhi'svisit to this sleepyvillagewhere he launched his first satyagraha movement also witnessed joyful participation of the people in large numbers. He proved that people will respond to any genuinecall for action providedthey are convinced that the issues identified are their own and one who leads the movement should be an object of love, respect and dedication andin Gandhi his followers found these qualities in abundance.

The Ahmedabad Mill strike, the Salt Satyagraha. the Non-Cooperation Movement- all witnessed large number of people jumping into massive Civil Disobedience Movement sacrificing their wealth and comfortand courting sufferings, injuries and sacrifice.

6 82 The songs sung by those whoparticipated in this heroic struggle extolled virtues of unprecedented magnitude. Nothing would deter these people from marching forward. Jails werefilled with satyagrahis and schools andfactories were also converted into temporary jails andhaving found no room toaccommodate thesurgingand ever growing number of those whowere defying the orders ofthe Government. There were instances ofprisoners being sent out ofthe main land tothe Andaman Islands. That was the spirit of thoseheroic days. Facing bullets and even death didnot matter. It was the conviction,andthat too, unmistakable and a grim determination to march forward likeinspired souls to achieve their goal that characterisedtheir mood and by no means could it be saidimpulsive. In this heroic struggle, the centralfigures who not only inspired all those who participated,as also those who proved to be the sheetanchor of the resurging fighting for self discovery and articulation of their suppressed voice, were Gandhi and those inspired by Gandhi. This remarkable achievementwas possible because Gandhi convicingly demonstrated through his simple life that hisidentification with the masses was complete.

Gandhi was not a philosopher in the conventional sense of the term. His views, mostly based on his profound understandingof human nature and the insightshe developed from the numerous experiments he conducted with scientificprecision have been found to be not a philosopher's articulations but the records of theexperience of a visionary who was searching forways and means to lesson tension and promote harmony in the various spheres of human endeavour. The breath taking development of the second half of the present century provedthat Gandhi wascorrectas Martin Luther King (Jr) said,'If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought and acted, inspired by the vision of a humanity evolving towards a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk'.

By equate Gandhi with any saintor philosopher who couched transcendental truth and spoke in riddles offering a plethora of aphorisms,we will be missing the essential Gandhi. Hewas a revolutionary in the sense that he aimed at changing certain social andpoliticalstructuresbut the means he adopted were not the usual violent methods associated with revolutions. He offereda package of

7 EN COPY MAMALE 6 3 alternatives to humanity. His insistence of nonviolence to violence, persuasion and reconciliation toendnostilities, trusteeship to end economic injustice, improvementof thelot of the depressed sections by abolishingfactorsthat perpetrate social iniquities, ending man's tyranny on nature by respecting nature as the protector of human race,limiting one's wants, developing equal respect for all religions offered humanity the blue- printfor a holistic vision. Gandhi convincingly demonstrated through his ashram experiments the use of alternative source of energy, appropriate technology etc.In short,an ardent practitioner of truth that he was,Gandhi showed to.humanity that there are workable alternatives which will be creative and sustainable. The only thing in is that wehave to mustercourage toaccept it, for it demands selfandcollective discipline ofvarious kinds. Itis not the gratuitous and condescending offer ofa bit of whatever we are willing to part with that is required, but a willing and spontaneous readiness co snaie with the less privileged fellowmen and women what one has in excess and to work for happily ushering a new order. The Gandhian humanism was not restrictive but transcendental. To describe it as revivalist reflects the closed minds of those who try to put all creative and revolutionary ideas and efforts in straight jackets. It is said in certain quarters that Gandhi was successful only to a limited extentthattoohis impact is feltonly in certaincultural context. Thereisnodenying of the fact that Gandhi was deep-roted in his cultural and religious traditions. The phenomenal success Gandhi registered in the far- away SouthAfrica fighting for humanrightsand civilliberties in the firsttwo decades of this century and later the adoption of the Gandhian techniques,if not fully, by Nelson Mandela and the subsequent revelations made by the former South African President Mr.De Klerk that he was also influenced by Gandhi in adopting the path of reconciliation andforgiveness certainly show that Gandhi had not spent twentyoneyears in South Africa in vain. In the American continent Martin Luther King's heroic fight for civil libertiesonthe Gandhian lines and his own admission that it was from Gandhi that he learnt his operational tactics also is not an isolated instance of the relevance of the Gandhian tactics,The mannerin which the Greens, particularly in GerM,Any, adopted Gandhian techniques

8 64 to arouse human consciousness and how they operationalised their strategy and the bold assertions made by Petra Kelly aboutthe way they were influenced by Gandhi also indicate thatitis not the cultural traditions of a country or continent that would make the efficacyofcertain philosphy or attitude viable, but it is the willingness and readiness of people toreact and respond thatmatters. Onecan give quite a few instances from almost all parts of theworld to show how in different measures the Gandhianvision and approach is found to bean effective weapon in the hands of freedom fighters and socialreformers. Gandhi at no stage claimed thathe was trying to teach anything new. Infact he himself said more thanonce thathewasnot involved in anysuch mission. Truth and nonviolence, he said,are as old as the hills and he was only trying to appreciate and understand the marvel andmajesty of both. He said in this connection "We have to make truth nonviolence, not matters for mere individual practice, but for practice bygroups and communities and nations. That at any rate is my dream.I shall live and die in trying to realize it.My faith helps me to discover new truths every day. Ahimsa is the attribute to the soul,therefore life practised by everybody in all affairs of life".

There is a surprising similarity between UNESCO's statement in its preamble that sincewars begin in the minds of men,it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must beconstructed and Mahatma Gandhi'sassertion that theworldeither progresses with nonviolence or perishes with violence. Mahatma Gandhi'sheroic work in South Africa for full 21 years andover 30 years of work in India have givento humanity a blue print of strategies for a peacefultransition of humanity where respect for all forms of life, humandignity, self-respect and tolerance would characterise humanity's progress. The year 1994 bore witness to the efficacy of Gandhi's strategies and philosphyas could be seenfrom the manner in which thefight Gandhi began a 100 years ago in South Africai.e.in 1903 bearing fruits when the blacks and thewhites in South Africa were able to work outa satisfactory solution to peaceful transfer of power which resulted in the holding of elections and Dr.Mandela taking over the reigns ofpower.

9 65 Gandhi's contribution to the political awakening and freedom movement in differentparts of the world and adoption of nonviolent strategies whichhelp both theopposing groupsrespect each other's sentiments and accommodating the viewsof others has much in common with UNESCO's decisionto propagate the message of tolerance for human survival. Asia and the African continent particularly have seen peaceful transition ofpower and social change, thanks to Mahatma Gandhi's initiative whichincluded different methods. One important thing that keeps apart Gandhi's teachings and strategies is the utmost importance Gandhi attached to pure means to attain lasting ends. Gandhi's attempts to make politics value basedwere part of a new world vision. He emphasised that politics bereft of spiritual and ethical considerations will not sustain humanity.

10 66 Published BimonthlyVol. 48, No. 4

July /August 1997

2 DOS PASSOS IN THE DESERT By Robert W. Lebling, One of this century's great American novelists traveled three times to the Middle East, and crossed the Syrian desert from Baghdad to Damascus in a camel caravan, He found peace there, "all the wrinkles planed out of my mind by the great cold purple flint flatiron of the desert," and much to admire in the life of his 'Agail hosts and traveling companions.

12 SPIN DOCTOR 12 By Penny Parsekian Too short for basketball, too light for football and too nervous for baseball, young Larry Sayegh took up the fad from the Philippines, the yo-yo. It still serves the nine-time world champion well.

14 CITY OF THE SULTAN By Caroline Stone Ahmad Shah, the first independent sultan of Gujarat, built Ahmadabad as his capital more than 500 years ago. His successors were builders too. So were their wives, and so, even, were some of their retainers. And the Mughal viceroys who succeeded Ahmad's line built just as busily. The result of their labors was a city some compared with London, one rich with caravanseiais, gates, gardens, water systems and, above all, beautiful mosques.

24 HOTELS WITH A HISTORY By Arthur Clark Comfort, calm and character distinguish a handful of famous hotels around the Middle East. Statesmen, stars and spies stayed there onceand stay there stillas well as ordinary travelers with a liking for the rich patina of the past.

34 SEEING DEEPER: REAPPRECIATING MINIATURES By Lee Lawrence 34 Illustrated manuscripts from the Islamic world are getting another look from some scholars: Still appreciated for the beauty and craftsmanship of their miniatures, they are also being examined in excruciating detail for the information they can, yield about the people, places and times that produced them, and for new understanding of their own "post-production lives "

40 DIVING IN THE DESERT By Eric Bjurstrom Under 30 meters of water and 300 meters of rock, in total darkness, agitation or even panicwould be understandable. It could also kill you. Careful planning, thoughtful caution and a lively sense of the risks you are taking are essential if you're going to go cavediving deep below central Arabia's desert

48 EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

COVER, OPPOSITE, Saudi Aramco, the oil com- PUBLISHER EDITOR SEND SUBSCRIPTION To American novelist John The carving of its sandstone pany born as a bold intenia- Aramco Services Company Robert Arndt REQUESTS AND CHANGES OF ADDRESS TO, Dos Passos, materialism and planes still crisp, Ahnuulabad's tional enterprise more than 9009 West Loop South hypocrisy were the great Sidi Sayyid mosque is a tran- half a century ago, distributes Houston, Texas 77096. LISA ASSISTANT EDITOR Aramco World, Box 469008 faults of his own society, quil island in a noisy city. Aramco World to increase Dick Doughty Escondido, California and honesty, freedom and Photograph: David H. Wells. PRESIDENT 92046-9008 cross-cultural understanding. DESIGN AND self-reliance the great virtues The magazine's goal is to Mustafa A. Jalati PRODUCTION of desert life. Men he joined BACK COVER: broaden knowledge of the cul- DIRECTOR Herring Design All articles in Aramco 41brif, a camel caravan to cross the Layered ts,inlaid ture of the Arab and Muslim PUBLIC AFFAIRS except those from copyrighted Syrian desert in 1921, Dos mirrors and a potted palm worlds and the history, geog- Shafirf W. Kombarp PRINTED IN THE USA sources, may be:reprinted Passos found his traveling contributed to the comfort of raphy and economy of Saiidi Wetmore & Company without further permission companions "the finest peo- Istanbul's Pera Palace Hotel. Arabia. Aramco World is dis- ADDRESS EDITORIAL provided Aramco %brit, is PRINTED ON ple I had ever met," and the tributed without charge, upon CORRESPONDENCE TO: credited. On application to RECYCLEDRP RE M desert itself he found harsh, INSIDE BACK COVER, request, to a limited number The Editor. Amine,' World the editor. permission ..v cleansing, invigorating A diver strides down the of interested readers. Post Office Box 210:.; ISSN also be given to reprint and inspiring. Portrait by steep throat of Dahl Hit. I louston, Texas 77232-2106 IN4-1891 illustrations to which Arena, .Norman MacDonald. Photograph: Erik Bjurstriim. LISA Weld has retained rights.

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AHMADABADS ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

WRITTEN :'By.CAROLINE 'STONE PHQTOGRAP.FIED By DAVID H.WELLS )4:- r

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Capital of Gujarat from about g he Ahmadabad they were admiring The earliest surviving mosque in Ahmad- 1411 until 1970, Ahmadabad was a relatively new city then, abad seems to have been built in 1414 by was built on the Sabarmati founded and named only two cen- Ahmad Shah himself, for his private use. The River. For some 350 years, turies earlier by Ahmad Shah 1, sultan of outside is very plain andperhaps not sur- craftsmen commissioned by Gujarat. His city displaced the town called prisinglyvery Turkish-looking, reminiscent members of the rulers' court Ashaval that had long stood on the banks of wrought beauty from the soft of the Seljuk mosques of central Anatolia. It is local honey-colored sand- the Sabar-nati River where Ahmadabad now almost a copy of the mosaue at Cambay that stone. Below: Tin Darwaza, stands. Ashaval was a prosperous and lively was dedicated in 1325one of the oldest in best-known of the city's origi- town, well known for its textiles, when it came India. The inner columns are heavy and splen- nal 14 gates. Opposite: Wed- under the rule of the Muslim sultan of Delhi didly carved in a very Indian style, though ding-cake layers corbel up the in 1298and Ahmadabad remains famous for entirely lacking in figurative elements. minaret of the 16th-century textile crafts in its own right today. It is probably true that Ahmad Shah mosque of Shah Alam Row. Even at the end of the 13th century, Islam began construction of Alunadabad's congre- Previous spread: Sunlight was not new in Gujarat. Traders had crossed gational mosque, the Jami Masjid, at about filters through a stone screen the Arabian Sea for centuries, landing at Diu, the same time, for although it was not com- carved with a "tree of life" Surat, Cambay"The Arabian Gates"and pleted until 1424, it must have taken a num- design, illuminating the settling in small communities all over the area, ber of years to build. It is among the loveliest prayer hall of the Sidi Sayyid mosque; an arch beckons onto often earning their livings as merchants and mosques in the entire subcontinent, and for a a causeway and an island in skilled craftsmen. There had also been waves couple of centuries was also the largest, the Kankariya, a 15th-century of invaders, mostly of Turkic Central-Asian although it was subsequently surpassed by artificial reservoir; and a origin. But it was not until Ahmad Shah's Lahore and, more recently, by Bhopal and minaret rises at the Rani accession in 1411 as the first independent sul- Islamabad. (See Aramco World, January/Feb- Rupavati mosque, built by the tan of Gujarat that the region acquired a capi- ruary 1992.) Today, the Jami Masjid is nc consort of one of the sultans. tal of a strongly Muslim character. longer in its original form: Its famous "shaking minarets" were toppled by the great earthquake of 1819, which damaged sc many of Gujarat's monuments, and were never, replaced. A drawing by a British army captain done 10 years before that disaster shows them very well: solid, as one might expect from examining the bases surviving on either side of the main portal, but witl- something almost pagoda-like about the top Like many of the city's mosques, the Jam: Masjid is a particularly beautiful golden col- or; presumably the vast slabs of sandstone were brought into the city by caravans of ox- carts, just as they are today. The Jami Masjid was part of a whole plar for the center of Ahmadabad- The Hindi Bhadrakali Temple gave way to the Bad: Qil'a, the Castle of the Full Moon, the citade that housed the royal palaces. In front stooc BEST COPY AVAILABLE 16ARAMCO WORLD

.14 Wi

garden, an ablution tank and hertomb; all perfectly harmonious. Also dating from the early 16thcentury is the Bai Harir complex, again builtby one of the ladies of Mahmud Shah'scourtsorr. say by the official nurse of his children. The complex consists of a small,eye-pleasing mosque, the tomb of Dada Harir. Once again the tops of its minarets have beenlost in an earthquake. It is adorned withattractive cal- ligraphy and is also one of the finestbaolis, or step-wells, in all of Gujarat. (SeeAramco 4' World, September/October 1993.)Originally, the whole mosque would havestood surrounded by a garden, but that hasnow van- ished. The complex was dedicated,according to an inscription, in 1500 and,as is the case with most of the carving in Ahmadabad,the At the Shah-ka Hariza, or stonework is as crisp and the detailas sharp Kings' Tombs, above, a lavish as if it had been carved yesterday. variety of differing motifs Although the dynasty foundednewer appear in the segments of cities in other places, generation aftergenera- a stone ph, or screen A tion continued to embellish Ahmadabad.The similar generosity of pattern last great complex appears at the Rani-ka of buildings is the Hariza, or Queens' Tombs Shah Alam Roza, Below Tradition associates the Kankariya reservoir and begun in the 1530's. its central island with the It remains one of the honeymoon of Mughal most popular mosques emperor Nur al-Din Plump in Ahmadabad, always and his wife Nur Jahan thronged with visitors, some Tiday its 1600-meter pi, int,- whom still stay in the guest tc,- walkway, zoo and pknic 1"%r ich is of slightly laier date. The grounds make it one of mosque itself is large and handsome, but Ahmadabad's most popular more like those of Delhi than Gujarat. Under perks Opposite The crup the courtyard, there is a great vaultedreser- commingling of arabesque voir that supplies the ablution tank. There and vegetal motifs at Ram are also a number of tombs, in particular that Rupavati mosque mark the zenith of Ahmadabad's of the early-16th-century ruler Shah Alam, pre-Mughal architecture standing to the south of themosque. One of the most charming of all the

jt mosques is that of Sidi Sayyid. Although at 44 first glance it appears to be little ,f` more than a traffic island with a used-clothes market along -4": tpr 5 the back, this mosque has preserved its ablution tank and garden as well as the atmos- phere of tranquillity so remarkable in the mosques of this extraordinarily busy and noisy city. Sidi Sayyid was a descendant of 1 one of Ahmad Shah's habashi, or Abyssinian, retainers, who became very powerful. The mosque has great arched windows all around, filled with the most delicate stone tracery. Some is purely geometric, but looking into the prayer chamber from outside, what strikes the attention most, glowing in the darkness, are the splendid, soaring "trees of life." The arrival of Vasco da Gama at Calicut in 1498 began a century of decline for Ahmad

20 ARAMCO WORLD . -- --r ---t, vat,a as a the jams Masjidand his mother, Bibiji, also parade ground. This, has vanishedtoday, taken over by the busy small built one, much prettier and lighterin streets of the design, on the outskirts of thetown. Manek Chowk, one of themain market It was during Qutb al-Din's brief areas, but its triple-arched entrance, seven- the Tin year reitn that the great Kankariya reservoir Darawasa, still stands, the finest cf Ahmad- was excavatedyet another example of the abad's surviving gates. There were original- Muslim rulers'awareness of the importance ly 14 of them. The Islamicrulers of Gujarat of good water supplies. Kankariya, seem to have been especially active roughly in spon- 1600 meters (One mile) around,is an irregu- soring hydraulic projects, andthere is arche- lar shape with 34 sides. It has ological evidence that stone steps underneath the that lead down to the water, andthe sluices Maidan-i Shah ran a complicatedsystem of pipes intended to supply the are elegantly carved. Although it :ended pri- royal enclave marily as a reservoir, the placewas so agree- and the mosques withpure water, and per- able that it has generally haps also for use in been used as a case of siege. pleasure garden as well. When itwas com- mandeered as a camping .ground underthe Mughals, it is said that the localsresented Completed in 1423, Ahmad being deprived of the amenity andpeti- Shah's Jami Masjid, opposite, tioned for its return. It is not certain ifthe lit- was part of his founding plan tle island in the reservoir, withits pavilion for the city. The mosque's reached by a causeway,was actually built by famous twin "shaking the Mughal emperor Nural-Din Jahangir, minarets" were toppled by but tradition associates it withhim and his an earthquake in 1819, leav- beloved wife, Nur lahan, and it islocally ing only their elaborate bases flanking the mosque's main claimed that they spent part of theirhoney- moon there. Today, Kankariya is still much portal. Detail of the base of appreciated by the Ahmadabadis, one minaret appears above. who go Left: columns creat,. rhythm there to walk, picnic, enjoy thebreeze and visit the zooan addition of in the ornamentation of the Two other buildings begun which the Rani Rupavati mosque. at the same Mughals would surely have approved. Below: "A learned man with time are Ahmad Shah'sown tomb and the The queens of Ahmad Shah's Rani-ka Hazira, or Tombs of the dynasty a valuable library," reads the Queens. The were also not slow to endow their city with sign at the entrance of the former is next to the JamiMasjid and is fine buildings. Two of the loveliest mosque built by Sidi Sayyid interesting because of its plan, and most which was to peaceful mosques in Ahmadabadare those in 1572. Now surrounded become typical of GujaratiMuslim struc- of Rani Rupavati and of. Rani by a swirl of traffic, the tures: a cloister built around Sabrai, Mah- a domed central mud Shah's senior wife. Bothare small mosque's original ablution chamber, from which it isseparated by elab- mosques with fine carving. Rani Sabrai's, tank and garden have been orately carvedscreens. preserved, along with the which is raised above street level,also has a In the Rani-ka Hazira,on the other hand, delicate window tracery. the tombs are in theopen air, allegedly in conformity with the wishesof Ahmad Shah's queen. The enclosure stands highabove the surrounding streets andonce again the gal- it leries are screened bybeautifully wrought stone jalis, reminiscent of thewooden mashra- biyyahs of the Middle East.The tombs themselves are exquisitely carved,and covered, 7 most appropriately, by brilliantlycolored pieces of the brocade for whichthe city was famous and which lent itmuch of its prosperity. On top of thegraves are scattered fresh flowers, renewed dailyby the old lady who cares for the buildingand by the market ;women from the shops all around. Ahmad Shah's descendantsall shared his for architecture. Hisson, Qutb al-Din ..,,,hmad Shah, builta handsome mosque with lovely basesto the minaretsthe pin-

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AVAILABLE 44. BEST COPY r 7n -;,S4, ecrinto their own hands much of the Indian Ocean commerce that had passed through Gujarat, and commercial and military conflict fractured the unity of the sultanate. Toward the end of the 16th century, the Mughal emperor Akbar was called in, and at the death of the last Gujarati sultan in 1593, Gujarat became part of the Mughal empire.

With the new rulers camenew J.."F. ideas, including new concepts in architecture. Mosques were built in 2 the Mughal manner,as were palaces and pleasure buildings. The future Shah Jahan began his architectural career here, while viceroy of Gujarat, by buildinga palace and laying outa garden much admired by Western travelers, the Shahi Bagh, which still survives ina "Here there were at leastone thousand reduced form. There, it is said, his In the 1530's, the last sultans young shops, and in all of thesewere traders, arti- of Ahmad Shah's line began wife, Mumtaz Mahal, bore the first of her 10 sans, craftsmen, government servants and construction of the mosque, children. The last of them caused her death, military peopk, both Hindu and Muslim, guest house, ... c'y ...... thus leading Shah Jahan to his greatest archi- until quarrels and mismanagementruined reservoir of Shah Alm Row, tectural achievement, the Taj Mahal. them. The present author has observedthese above. The sultanate fell to Another Mughal viceroy of Gujarat,Azam quarters in flourishing condition, and stately the Mughal Empire in 1593, Khan, was known not for hisromanticism buildings in them, but now theyare in ruins; a century after Portuguese but for his industryhis nicknamewas "The perhaps they will soon be forgotten, traders, seizing the advantage save for of the new-found route White Ant." He spent hisyears in Ahmad- a few mosques and gates." abad, from 1636 to 1642, around Cape Horn, took over building and Fortunately, this gloomy predictionwas improving the city. He builta caravanserai much of the trade upon which not fulfilled. In 1817 the British .seizedthe Ahmadabad's economy had next to the citadel as wellas a handsome city. They restored prosperity by market, or qaysariyyah. The guarantee- depended. Below: Detail of caravanserai, an ing law and order and reducingtaxes to the the Tin Darwaza city gate. attractive building stronglysuggestive of a levels that had prevailed under Mughal Opposite: The step-well of Mughal palace, originally had rule. a water wheel The skilled population, the merchantsand Dada Harir Way, a donation in the courtyard that drewwater from an the bankers returned. Once of the noblewoman in underground cistern, as well again Ahmad- as ornamental abad became one of the liveliestplaces in charge of Mahmud Shah's cisterns and a fountain. Many of children, is part of the larger its beauties Indiaand the first to industrialize.Archi- were destroyed when the British turned Bai Harir complex. it tecture continued to be patronized andnow, into a jail, but it is still possibleto appreciate across the Sabarmati River, Le Corbusier's how attractive it must havebeen. Probably Villa Shodan can be compared Azam Khan would not have been with the displeased works of the nameless architects ofAhmad by its present use as the publicrecords office, Shah and his descendants. with rows of scribes and officialletter writers sitting on the raised platformsoutside. In 1757 the Hindu Marathaconfederacy took the city. They raised thebasic tax from Historian and writer Caroline Stone the 2.5 percent zakat (religioustax) that Mus- lives in Seville where she teaches lims had paid and the fivepercent jiziyah for the University of Wisconsin. Her (personal tax) that non-Muslimshad paid to latest book is Mantones de Manila 25 percent foreveryone. Within a decade, (Manila Shawls). Ahmadabad becamea ghost town. The city that had survived flood,earthquake, famine and invasion was finally abandonedand left Free-lance photographer Oavid H. to ruin. Quoting anothersource, the author Wells works with the Matrixagency of the Mir'at-i Ahtnadi,one of the main chron- in New York. He is teaching photo- icles of Ahmadabad, writes: journalism this fall at Syracuse University's London center.

JULY/AUGUST 19?7 23 ASHMIR

By SURINDER SINGH OBER01

PHOTOS by AMIN WAR

Having covered the iiiisine in my native Kashmir for eignt years, I sometimes cannot believe I have had the good luck S to remain alive. Two years ago, a \- stray bullet ricocheted through my I office. Another time while I was cov- t ering a student demonstration,I stepped out of my car just as a bullet shattered the rear window. More recently, I was kidnapped. Last July I was one of 19 journalists traveling in a chartered bus to a press conference in southern Kash-V

Once a Shangri-La, Kashmir is now a battlefield.

mir. At Anantnag, about 45 miles south of the Kashmiri capital of Srin- agar, we were stopped by a dozen Kashmiri youths armed with AK-47s. They ordered the bus driver to follow them, and at gunpoint we were guid- ed to a private home. Once inside, we realized we were guests of the Jammu and Kashmir Ikhwan ("Brotherhood"), a counterinsurgent group funded by Indian security. Our captors complained that the local presswho they said was sym-

Surinder Singh Oberoi, who reports from Kashmir for Agence France Presse, was a.recent Bulletin fellow.

24 The 'Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistc: separatists' cause Our captors ordered my grouptoplains, pathetic to the leave the house; they said their quar- With the advent of the tourist had ignored their ordersto stop pub- trade. the region only gained in popu- all coveragerel was with the local media,and we lishing. They told us that knew that they did not want torisklarity. Lavish brochures described of the insurgency must stop. international condemnation byharm-breathtaking scenery and centuries- Six local newsmen weremoved' to old shrines. As recently as 1989, more and threat-ing journalists with abeyond7Kash- another part of the house refused. Wethan half a million Indian and foreign ened with execution. Therest of us,mir audience. But we would go nowhere unless thelocal vacationers traveled to Kashmir to all members of thenational and inter- drift carefree on houseboats, or to ski, together. newsmen were also freed. national press, remained dur-hike, or fish the trout streams. Guides Our captors were soconfident that Only after 10 horrifying hours, escorted visitors to famous land- be met thating which time we wererepeatedly their demands would prodded with the barrels of automat-marks, including the Mogul gardens they allowed me to usethe telephone of Nishat Bagh, the Mattan temples, in the local pressic rifles, did pressure fromjournalists' to tell my colleagues NewHari Parbath castle, and Pahalgam, kidnapped. organizations and orders from that we had been Delhi persuade the Indian armytothe hiker's mecca. I called as many people asI could, Writer Marie D'Souza compared come to our aid. including newsmen acrossKashmir the region to a diamond whose glitter in Srinagar. When Indian troopssurrounded and government officials threatenedand sparkle attracts adventurers, I told the director ofinformation forthe building, our captors scoundrels, fortune-seekers, and ro- to open fire if the troopstook any ac- Kashmir that he was personally re- mantics. But Kashmir has also been a tion. But once the militantsrealized sponsible for our safety, as govern- crossroads for invaders: Afghan, Sikh, holdingthey were outnumbered, they gave ment-backed militants were there no gun battle,and Dogra rulers have all left their us hostage. up. Not only was no one wasarrested. Our captorsimprint. gleefully departed, unlicensed weap- Kashmir is prized for more than just its natural beauty. Wet!,;ed ons in nano. China, and Our kidnapping was unusual notbe-tween Pakistan, India, happenedgovern-Afghanistan, "greater Kashmir" (in- cause of what cluding both the Indian stateof ment-supportedmilitantsseizing members of the press and thenwalk-Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan- ing away unmolestedbutonly be-controlled Azad Kashmir) sits square- involved. ly in the middle of a web ofdisputed cause so many captives were the The truth is, kidnappings havebecomeborders. The Kashmir valley is commonplace in the Indian stateofpassageway throughthe Himalayas Muslimto the entire subcontinent.From Jammu and Kashmir since and rebels began their most recent cam- Kashmir flow the Indus, Chenab, Pakistan paign against Indian rule in 1989.OverJhelum rivers, upon which Kashmirisdepends for water. As India's north- the years, at least 20,000 stateof have perished by official count,andernmostterritory.the tor-Jammu and Kashmir provides avalu- citizens continue to be abducted, regional tured, and killed by rebels, theIndian able window on the other military, and a network of govern-powers. includingChina, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the nearbyformer ment-backed counterinsurgents. Soviet republic of Tajikistan. Paradise found Kashmir was once a tourists' para-A Kashmir primer centuriesThe "Kashmir problem" datesback to dise. It has been known for India and as the greenestand most temperate1947 and the partition of be- Pakistan. Maharaja Hari Singh,the spot in the Himalayasbeautiful delayed yond imagination. Deep blue lakes re- hereditary ruler of Kashmir, to flect soaring, snow-capped moun- for several months a decision as andwhich nation Kashmir wouldjoin, tains. Lush forests of fir, pine, for spruce line the banksof rivers born inhoping to achieve independence Kashmir his principality. Singh, aHindu ruling the high peaks. In past days, population, finally was the summerrefuge of the British a majority-Muslim agreed to Indian dominion onOctober raj as well as wealthy Indians escap- Indian mili- ing the blistering heat of thesouthern27, 1947, partly to gain tary assistance against anIslamic re- volt. Muslim Kashmirishave always challenged the Instrumentof Acces- Anti-India protesters are set upon by sion; India regards it asfinal. police as they try to march tothe U.N. India and Pak- observers' offices in Srinagar. In the past 50 years,

March/April 1997 25

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t"; ' tr,r; ;- ; : istan have foughtthree warstwo Ada over control ofKashmir. The- issue has been on the UnitedNations dock- et as long or longerthan any other a U.N.military observer's office has monitored activities at the "lineof control," the cease-fire line separat- ing the Indian state ofJammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir, since the endof the first Indian-Pakistani warin 1947. The cease-fire, which gave 65percent of Kashmir to India, was tobe temporary. A plebiscite wassupposed to follow, allowing the Kashmiris tode- cide their future. To date, therehas been no plebiscite. Kashmiris today still want self-de- terminationwhich includes the opportunity not only to choosebetween India and Pakistan, but to optfor independence, which neither of Kash- Gani Lone, arrested at an anti -election, rally. mir's dueling masters finds accept- Former Education Minister Abdul able. Pakistan favors a solu'-',1nthat implements a 1948 U.N. resolution giving Kashmiris the right tochoose between the two countries.India oi fag prefers the "Simla agreement,"signed A woo aMESS in 1971 by Prime MinistersIndira Gandhi and Zulfikar AliBhutto, which calls for India and Pakistan to resolve the issue bilaterally.

Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists Hopes for a unilateral decisionby India to organize a plebiscitehave always been wishfulthinking. India is not about to allow thisstrategic northern outpost to simplywalk away. The Indian governmentalso has an interest in the state's non- Muslim population, who are farfrom idea of militants. willing to fall in line behind the 1992: Journalists protest orders notto report statements by Islamic Islamic unity. There are marked ethnic andreli- highlands enced by a Sufi saint, ShahHamdan. gious differences among the three re- mir" and of the surrounding is here, More conversions fromHindu to gionsLadakh, Jammu, and Kash-is predominantly Muslim. It influence of with a population of 4.5 million, aswell Islam occurred under the mirthat make up the Indian state. another outside ruler, ShahMir of divide, as in Doda, whereviolence poisons Ladakh, across the Himalayan Swat, an area in westernPakistan. is sometimes called "LittleTibet." Iteveryday life. In this mountainous still found part of the state, Muslimmilitants Hindu influences are is sparsely populated and 70 percent among the Muslimsof Kashmir. Buddhists. hide in well-camouflaged caves.The of its 200,000 residents are warfare; Kashmiris sing and chantKoranic To the southeast, in Jammu, the ma-terrain is ideal for guerrilla similar to Hindu effective patrol is impossible. verses in a manner jority of the 3.5 million residents are practices. The Sufiinfluenceis Hindu, and most of the regionis The population of Kashmir was Hindu. But in strong, too, and manyorganizations peaceful.However, inJammu's once overwhelmingly want to the fourteenth century,Kashmiris fighting for Kashmir self-rule mountainous Doda district, the popu- maintain a separate Muslimidentity Mus- converted to Islam under theinflu- lation is evenly divided between Shah, a ruler under the name of"Kashmiriyat." ence of King Ranchan usually lims and Hindus. influ- First-timevisitors are The population in the "Vale ofKash- from Western Tibet who was

26 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 80 struck by the appearance of Kash-were armed by Pakistan and later The Indian military deployedfive miris themselves.Fair skin andjoined by Afghan war veterans. divisionsat least 250,000men, in- prominent noses suggest a Semitic The uprising began in July 1989,cluding 1,500 companies of paramili- origin, but there is no actual evidence when bombs exploded at three sitestary and state police, who engaged in for that, only speculationone theoryin Srinagar. Sporadic fighting brokecounterinsurgency. being that Kashmiris are descendedout in the months that followed, but it On the other side of the line ofcon- from one of the lost tribes of Israel.was not until December that the re-trol, Pakistan deployed an equal num- Kashmiri is also the only language ofvolt heated up. In December, theber of army divisions. Heavy artillery India that, like the languages of Irandaughter of the Indian Home Minis-pieces on both sides of the border and Afghanistan, belongs to the Dard-ter, a Kashmiri, was kidnapped bywere wheeled into place. ic group of central Asian languages. separatists in Srinagar. In exchange Border skirmishes became com- for her safe return, five hard-coremonnearly 2,000 exchanges of fire The rise of pro-independencemilitantsweretook place in 1995. At the Siachin freed from Indian jails. Anti-govern-glacier, where the temperature re- the "mujahadeen" ment and anti-India rallies broke outmains below freezing. all year, a While India and Pakistan wrangledall over Kashmir, celebrating victory.pitched battle, the continuing occupa- over who, finally, would control theThe ranks of the Islamic militantstion by the two armies, and supply region, many Kashmiris grew tired ofswelled. drops by helicopter have despoiled living in political limbo. Over the Withinweeks,combatrippedthe once-pristine environment. years, calls for a plebiscite were punc- across the Vale. In a region that had Efforts to re -start Indian-Pakistani tuatedbyshort-liveduprisingspreviously known little armed vio-negotiations have failed, and both against Indian rule. lence, the new Afghan-Pakistan con-countries have planted thousands of By the 1980s, the Indian nationalnectionpouredinguns,rocketland mines at border crossings. As a government's interference in local elections had pushed a large portion of the state's Muslim population to the breaking point. In 1982, Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference was elected chief minister following the death of his father, Sheikh Abdul- lah, who had been the state's first elected leader. In 1984, Farooq Abdullah was de- posed by his brother-in-law, Ghulam Mohammed Shah, who had gained the backing of New Delhi. Before the next election in 1987, the national government decided to re-install Fa- rooq Abdullah, and Shah was dumped as the candidate of the National Con- ference. The move continued a long- running policy of political destabiliza- tion that has prevented any Kashmiri leader from building a strongpower A common sight: Kashmiri civilian killed in the crossfire. base, and which has kept potential chief ministers beholden to Newlaunchers, and grenades. Kashmiriresult, hundreds of civilians living in Delhi. boysidentifying themselves as "mu-border villages have died or been Abdullah was elected to anotherjahadeen" and armed with automaticcrippled. Both armies have taken term in polling that most Kashmirisrifleslaunched ajihad(holy war)over border villages; villagers are believe was rigged. After the elec- for control of the only Muslim-major- used as unpaid laborers by the troops tions, several leaders of the Muslimity state in India. The gun culture hadof both countries; and civilian entry to United Front, which was formed tocome to Kashmir. the villages is by identity card or spe- oppose theNational Conference, New Delhi reacted by appointing acial permission only. were jailed for three to four monthshard-line governor to put down the In the first year of the uprising, for accusing the authorities of voterevolt. Protesting the move as too ex-property was destroyed, schools and fraud. Upon their release, many fledtreme, Chief Minister Abdullah re-bridges turned to rubble, and killing to Azad Kashmir in Pakistan, wheresigned, and the federal governmentbecame the commerce of everyday theyformedorganizationsfromassumed direct control. Many of thelife throughout Kashmir. The streets whichtheguerrillaforcesfirstleaders of the National Conferenceand neighborhoods of Kashmir are sprang, and where many groupsquit the party, largely to take them-battlegrounds upon which the rebel- maintain headquarters today. Theseselves off hit lists compiled by sepa-lion plays out. political rivals of India's ruling partyratist guerrillas. The tourists' paradise has new

March/April 1997 27 r 81 foes than other militants. miri militants occupied the famous landmarkswith names like "mar- marble Hazratbal ("Home of the tyrs' graveyard" or "site of a major Many Indians believe that if Pak- and Prophet") Shrine in Srinagar. be- massacre." Strects and neighbor-istan mild stop the flow of arms money, the separatistmovement lievedto house a strand of the hoods now hear the names of those Prophet Mohammed's beard. The mil- killed fighting Indian troops. Luxury would (lie out in days. Guerrilla leaders admit privatelythat they rely on itants even threatened to blow up the hotels have been turned intohar- building, and the local population took to the streets, demanding that securi- has new landmarks ty troops. who had ringed the shrine, The tourists' paradise be withdrawn. More than 50 demon- with names like "martyrs'graveyard" strators were killed by the paramili- tary Border Security Forceswhen or "siteof a major massacre." they tried to march on the shrine in a show of support for the militants. The financial aid and arms from Pakistan,siege lasted a month, after which the racks; gun-toting Indian soldiersin militants surrendered; they were bunkersbut they deny that the movement battle gear man sandbagged soon released by localpolice. at nearly all major roadintersections would fail without Pakistani support. "Our boys are dying for thebetter Another siege 'occurred in 1995, and important installations; mostof when militants and their followers oc- thatfuture of Kashmir, and we are not the government-owned eateries cupied the shrine in Chrar-Sharief. countryside havethat fool who will dance toothers' once dotted the with Indian troops cordoned off the town. been torched. tunes. We are holding the gun The once-flourishing tourist trade is in shambles. The conflict is notlim- ited to armed combatants, and recent incidents have specifically targeted the few vacationers who have come to Kashmir. Last summer, six Indian .0" tourists were killed at Lake Dal, allegedly by Muslim militants. In a case .,..10-11gle that drew international attention, six Western hikers were kidnapped by the insurgent group Al Faran in the first week of July 1995. One of the captives, an American, escaped; another, a Norwegian, was beheaded by his captors in August 1995. The remaining four are presumed dead.

Internationalizing the conflict The Indian government alleges that Pakistan, with calls for Islamic unity, is recruiting Muslim mercenaries; Pakistan has denied the charge, say- ing that other Muslims feel it is their homes in Chrar-Sharief. moral duty to help Kashmiri Muslims. Two women sit amid the ashes of their Already, hundreds of foreign merce- and on May 7, in the midstof gun bat- naries have joined the Kashmiri full consciousness and will continue goal oftles, fire broke out. Beforeit could be cause. Exact numbers areimpossible to fight till we achieve our freedom," Majid Jehangir, divisionalcontained. 700 structures were gut- to come by, but at least 200foreign ted and the seventeenth-century fighters have already been killed incommander of the insurgent group Hizbul Mujahadeen, told me in a re- carved-wood shrine wasdestroyed_ assorted gun battles, and at least 60 including cent interview. Yet all of the militants, foreigners are in Indian jails. The ma- number of foreign mercenaries. es- jority are from Afghanistan and Pak- Kashmir's Muslim militants have Kash- caped. In all. 30 people werekilled istan, but there are scattered fighterstried to "internationalize" the kidnappings, some by bullets, someby fire. from Sudan, Libya. Chechnya. Iran, mir issue; in addition to again they have relied on sieges atKash- Then in March 1996, militants and other Islamic countries. took control of the HazratbalShrine. Indian army officers say that the mir's most revered and famousholy and This time, a gun battletook place in Afghanis, who are veterans of guer-shrines to generate attention killed. But sympathy for their cause. which a police officer was rilla warfare and carry more arms as they had done inthe first occupa- and ammunition, are more formidable In October 1994, two dozen Kash-

.28 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 82 Lion of Hazratbal, the militantsnego- tiated a surrender to be followed by a quick release. They were allowed to exit the shrine still in possession of Three big ifs their weapons and assemble at their headquarters in a nearby building. Hanging over the prospects for a peaceful solution in Kashmirare a se- It was commonly believed that the ries of "ifs." If India were willing to negotiate with the separatists,if group had recently worked out a deal Muslim militants would accept something less than complete indepen- with New Delhi, and that they had dence, and if Pakistan would stop funding the insurgents,peace would switched sides and were fighting be possible. I believe these conditions could be met, if onlyone of the against the independence movement. parties would make the first move. But during the siege, authorities A vital step would be for the three partiesIndia, Pakistan, and began to worry that the group was Kashmirto freeze the issue of Kashmiri autonomy for fiveyears, sim- going to change sides again and sup- ilar to the cooling-off period agreed to by Russia and Chechnya. An import Pakistan. Two days after their mediate cease-fire could be observed by all forces operating in Kash- surrender, 30 militants were rounded mir, and the line of control could be demilitarized. Once the situationat up and executed. In their official the border quieted, the line could be opened so that Kashmiris could statement to the press, the police said cross between the Indian state and the Pakistani province without fear that the militants "were killed in an of ambush or harassment. India has a precedent for this kind of demili- exchange of fire when they again tarization: A long-running territorial dispute with China over a portion tried to take control of the shrine." of eastern Jammu and Kashmir was defused by a similar strategy. But off the record, one senior police Muslim militants and the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) official said of those who were killed: would need to become actively involved in the political process. The "They doublecrossed (us] and so Ow-, unified political front would have to have concrete positions anda deserved it." clearly defined role inside Jammu and Kashmir. Asking for self-determination is a vague request; the political parties would have to clarify their demands and prove that they could mobilize mass support with- Cats and mice out resorting to violence. Human rights organizations have During the cooling-off period, India and the APHC could enter into highlighted incidents in which troops negotiations aimed at creating stable conditions in which economic de- have wantonly killed militants or velopment, education, business, and tourism could proceed and blood- their sympathizers. In fact, Amnesty shed could end. A five-year timetable would allow the two parties to International has stated that "torture slowly build trust between them, and alleviate any pressure to devise by security forces is a daily routine an immediate solution. and so brutal that hundreds have died At the same time, talks could take place between India and Pakistan as a result." Amnesty warns that "the about the fate of Kashmir. Clearly, no permanent solution could be entire civilian population is at risk. reached without including Pakistan, as both countries are knee-deep in Torture includes beatings and electric the Kashmir problem. Once India and Pakistan begin to meet, they shocks, hanging people upside down could ask for participation by the genuine representativesMuslim, for many hours, crushing their legs Hindu, and Buddhistof the troubled state. It is at this point that ex- with heavy rollers, and burning parts panded autonomy for Indian-administered Kashmir (with India main- of their bodies." taining control of defense, currency, and telecommunications) could be Last spring, attorney and human discussed and elections, overseen by international monitors, could be rights activist Jalil Andrabi was planned. taken from his car, allegedly by a Three caveats: First, fundamentalist influenceswhether Hindutava counterinsurgent group with ties to or Islamic fundamentalismmust be jointly discouraged from clouding Indian security troops. His body was negotiations on Kashmir's future. Second, the task should not be left found floating in the Jhelum River only to politicians, but should draw upon a cross section of Kashmiris, two weeks later. including academics and businesspeople. Also last year, the police reported Finally, all parties must realize that human rights abuses lie at the that a most-wanted militant, Hilal root of much of the resentment that has fueled the conflict. No just and Beg, and his brother-in-law, Naim lasting settlement can be achieved unless the abuses are ended and Khan, were killed in an "encounter" those responsible brought to justice. with security troops on the outskirts India and Pakistan must begin this process on their own; the United of Srinagar. But Beg's wife said that States is monitoring the Kashmir situation but is not interested in in- security troops had actually arrested terfering. Past visits by American officials have raised the hopes of the two while they were at home the Kashmiris who expect wonders from Americans, but most Americans previous evening. Family members are not concerned about Kashmir. Officially, Washington doesn't want say that tales of encounters are fabri- to take sides; unofficially the United States is trying to apply pressure cations used to conceal the fact that on India and Pakistan to start negotiations. militants have been tortured and S. S. 0. killed in cold blood. 82 MarchApril 1997 29 were in the early days. The govern- One common way of rounding upimportant government posts, were suspected "sympathizers". is a dan-killed by militants in separate inci-ment in New Delhi takes this as a sign of normalcy, but it is not. gerous game of "cat andmouse." Thedents. After their deaths, the remaining Kashmiri Pandits fled. Most have Despite the violence across Kash- "cats," as they are known in local jar- mir, the state is experiencing a pecu- gon, are informerscapturedmili-resettled in various areas of India. As a relatively eduCated group,liar economic boom. There are no tants whom theIndiansecurity shortagesall the department stores troops use against their former com-most Pandits have been able to adjust to life in otherIndian states, althoughare full of goods. You will find no rades in arms. The mice are any Kashmiris who are homeless or dying Kashmiris suspected of taking part intheir cultural identity diminishes with every passing year. One Kash-of hunger. the insurgency. The explanation is that a great deal I have been forced to play this , .V0.4 of money is being pumped into the game on three occasions.A "crack- Kashmir valley. Pakistan supplies down" or cordon-and-search opera- 0 money to the 30-odd militantand po- tion starts before sunrise. A neigh- SAY.. litical organizations. Meanwhile, India borhood is sealed off and the resi- supportsahalf-dozenmilitant- dents awakened by the sound of a turned-renegade groups to counter loudspeaker: "This neighborhood is the insurgents:And some 250,000 sol- under a cordon-and-search operation. diers are permanent tourists who buy All adult males must come out of nearly 'everything locally. By giving their houses and assemble in the business to locals, the security troops square." Sleepy-eyed, hurriedly look- make useful contacts and have more ing for my slippers and in my night- sources of information. clothes,I join the ever-increasing All the money that is coming in is queue of men being herded nearthe used directly or . _ burned-down cinema. My press card Kashmiris. Before the uprising, a is of no help. merchant who wanted to operate in a - The assembled crowd grows silent. busy commercial center like Lal- I see people reciting verses from the chowk ("Red Square") in Srinagar Holy Koran as the fear that they may had to pay a premium of S30,000 for be arrested increases. Those who the right to open a shop. Now that have been assembled are made to pa- Wreathed in flowers, Abdullah celebrates figure is close to $60,000. In a battle- rade one by one past a half-dozen ve- election victory. ravaged state, one would expect rates hicles with tinted glass windows, be- to come down. But that is not the hind which sit shadowy militants-miri Hindu scholar told me, "The turned-informers making identifica-Kashmiri. Pandits have lost nothing case. tions. On one occasion, three teen-except their homes; we have been People no longer pay their electrici- able to protect our education and in-ty or water bills. By order of the mili- agers were arrested in front of me tants, they no longer pay taxes, ei- and taken to an unknown destination.telligentsia. The Kashmiri Muslims The neighborhood is sealed byon the other hand have losttheir edu-ther. The entire Kashmiri economy cation, their intelligentsia, and theirnow depends on the presenceof sol- heavily armed Indian soldiers wear- diers, insurgents, and counterinsur- ing flak jackets who search house-to-leadersby the gun." house for weapons and hidden mili- gents to support the people. Farming, construction,andeducationthe tants. These crackdowns, in which building blocks of everyday life nearly every Kashmiri male betweenAnd yet, Srinagar booms No one can fully fathom the trauma have all been disrupted. Thousands of the ages of 15 and 35 has been parad- Kashmiris risk growing up with no ed at least once in front of the dread-to the 8 million Kashmiris, living for ed cats, have on occasion turned intoyears now with gunfightsbetweenskills other than fighting. gun battles. At least four to six cor-warring militant groups or between don-and-search operations take placeinsurgentsandcounterinsurgent forces an everyday occurrence. A"Sham" elections every day. Almost a decade after 'the last elec- While government troops and theirnew generation is being brought up agents have been cited in the majori-in the shadow of the gun, deprived oftions in Kashmir, the Indian govern- ty of the atrocities committed ina normal social life, and oftenof edu-ment held much-publicized elections cation. More than 1,000 school build- in September 1996. Designed to bring Kashmir, the Muslim insurgents are valley, the elec- also guilty of attacks against non-mil-ings have been set ablaze; all thepeace to the turbulent tions created only more confusion and itary targets. sports 'stadiums are closed. The Hindu Panditsa self-de- Strangely, however, people havemore killings. Theelections became become acclimated to living undersomething of a farce in which, by ma- scribed high-caste group to which In- nipulation, the Indian government dianPrimeMinisterJawaharlalsiege. Searches, torture, and harass- Nehru belongedwere an early tar-ment are routine. The people havewas once more able toimpose its cho- seemingly grown numb, and so there sen government.While claiming it get of the insurgents. In 1990, a dozen democratic process. members of the sect, all of whom heldare fewer complaints now thantherewas restoring the

30 TheBulletin of the Atomic Scientists 84 India rejected all requests of foreign more than three dozen election-relat-timatuni g.,.ing the militants 30 days observers to monitor the elections. ed deathsclose relatives of candi-to surrender. New Delhi hopes that the newad-dates, supporters of candidates, or The chief minister has become a ministration will be able to bringagents working for.candidatesweremagnet for assassination attempts. peace, but since the installation of thereported in the weeks immediatelyThere have been three separate inci- state government and its chief minis- before and after the election. dents since the election. In the first, a ter, Farooq Abdullah, Kashmiri Hin- With the eibctions over, govern-bomb was triggered before he arrived at a public rally, killing five people. In December, Abdullah was en route to a ceremony at the grave of There are fewer complaints than his father when another blast created in the early days. New Delhi takes this a panic in the waiting crowd. Then in January, while Abdullah was on a pil- as a sign of normalcy, but it is not. grimage to Mecca, a massive explo- sion outside of his home killed four and injured a dozen others. Occurring dus have been selling their propertiesment buildings are once again tar-in one of the most heavily fortified in Kashmir. Abdullah is the samegets. The guerrillas regard the forma-neighborhoods in Srinagar, the blast man whose earlier term as chief min-tion of the new government as yet an-sent a signal that no place in Kashmir ister ended abruptly in 1990, when heother challenge, and they have vowedwas beyond the insurgents' reach. resigned under pressure from theto intensify their attacks on security Local police are now more likely central government following the out-installations. than ever to be targets. They are break of the Muslim uprising. His re- In late October, two drivers weresandwiched between waning militant turn to power was supposed to 'Pro-killed and several cars damaged in agroups and the new administration, vide more moderate Kashmiris with acar bomb attach on the main gate ofwhich wants to energize them to take political alternative to violence, butthefive-storylegislativehostel,action against the militants. But the so far Abdullah has not been able towhere many members of the state as-rebels, by killing local cops. are send- reduce the level of security troops. Insembly live. In spite of a three-tiering a warning not to cooperate. fact, he recently asked for more. security system, militants had man- Local police are caught in a deadly Those fighting for Kashmiri inde-aged to sneak in and install the de-bind. Many are assumed by govern- pendence called the elections a sham.vice. The bombing occurred onlyment officerswho come from other The All-Party Hurriyat Conferencehours after Abdullah delivered an ul-parts of Indiato be sympathetic to (APHC), an association of 30 pro-independence and pro-Pakistan parties, boycotted the elections to protest the lack of international oversight of the polling, and the absence of a referen- dum on self-determination. The group launched an anti-election campaign in Amitarlayai.1 which they urged Kashmiris to stay IL away from the polls. As a result of these efforts, the leaders of the APHC were jailed in the weeks leading up to the elections. In sympathy, a general strike was observed on voting days, which idled the valley. Anyone who stood for office was declared a traitor by the mujahadeen, who passed death sen- tences on the candidates "according to Islamic law." Both the guerrillas and the counterinsurgents made veiled threats of violence against anyone who voted, or did not vote, respectively. In spite of stepped-up security arrangements, the Muslim militants attacked several polling places. And in the border town of Kargil, Indian troops were forced to relocate polling .. stationsbecauseofcontinuous The game of cat and mouse: In a cordon-and-search operation, men are paraded before shelling by Pakistani forces. In all, informants who sit in military vehicles, their identities concealed behind tinted glass.

March/April 1997 31 able to put an end to the uprisingin partition of the region in 1947, Pak- the separatists' cause.If the police istan has sought to annex Kashmir as they open the troubled state. At the same time, pursue the insurgents, its northernmost state. themselves up to attack bytheirmilitant Muslims have yet to score the kind of major victory that would The continuation of a low-level neighbors. If they are lackadaisicalin proxy war guarantees to both Pak- their efforts, they risk beingopenly force the Indian government to with- draw fromor negotiate the future istan and India that the question of branded a "sympathizer" bysecurity Kashmiri independence will be kept know thatofKashmir. troops. Either way, they on the back burner.Pakistan's contin- they are not only exposingthem- And what would that future be? Polls show that more than half of all ued support of Muslim insurgents selves to danger, they are jeopardiz- creates an ongoing thorn in the side ing the safety of their families aswell. Kashmiri Muslims would prefer to live in an independent stateratherof India, while potentially swaying Despite the continuance of vio- Kashmiris to the possibility of some- callsthan place themselves under Pak- lence, the Indian government day joining Pakistan. the recent elections a "victory ofthe istani rule. Yet in Hindu-dominated Jammu and in Buddhist-dominated For India, relenting on the question ballot over the bullet." But the elec- of Kashmiri independence wouldin- tions have done nothing to solvethe Ladakh, the rebel movement is nearly invisible. The inhabitants ofthese vite dissent from other Indian states Kashmir problem. The assembly who are watching developments in members have no contact with the lo- areas want to continueto live under val- Kashmir. There is already unrest in cals, and they have done nothing to Indian rule. Only in the Kashmir ley and parts of the Doda districtin the northeast states and in Punjab; provide jobs or peace for Kashmir. ofIndia would not dare to stir up more With no plan for addressing the realJammu, where about 65 percent it the total population lives, does unrest trouble in these regions, and hence needs of the people of Kashmir, the will always try to linger on theKash- continue. new government willprobably fail mir issue on one pretext or another. even sooner than the onebefore it. Certainly the question of Kashmiri independence weighs heavily on Pak- And so the two regional powers con- istan. It would be naïve to thinkthattinue to send guns to the stki-lovely factional Pakistan would supply weapons and Vale of Kashmir, where Roadblocks to a solution of a money to create a new,independentstrife has made the development For all of its effortsfromballot- unified Kashmiri voice seem more stuffing to games of cat-and-mouse state on its northernbordereven if the and more difficult. the Indian government has been un-it were a Muslim nation. Since

family members. Mourning the loss of her husband, a woman isrestrained from rending her face by

32 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 86 So b 04 7 0 6, 8'

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