Book Review - Ideological under currents in Indo-Israel Relations

Namaste Sharon: Hindutva and Sharonism under US Hegemony, New Delhi, Left Word Books, 2003, Pages: X+111, Price: Rs.75.00

Author :Vijay Prasad

The book written by Vijay Prasad comes at time when India is trying to come out of the vestiges of the post soviet union world order and is in the process of redefining its interests. Prasad tries to explore the ideological moorings of Indo-Israel relations during the reign of the Bhartiya Janata Party led NDA government, in wake of the advent of US unilateralism. According to the author the advent of Hindutva in India, Likud party in Israel and their subsequent attempts for a strategic alliance, marked by the rise of Christian right/Neocons in the US is based on belligerent means and goals of confronting the Muslim populace and provoking their neighbouring states in their respective regions. The basis of this encounter has been denounced on the ground that it would only facilitate the imperial forays of the US in their respective regions, at the cost of undermining the local conflicts, falling into the Huntington trap which seeks to discredit and vilify Islam and Communism. The theme of the book is very innovative as not much literature is available in exploring the strands that reflect the importance of domestic politics and agendas in the formulation of foreign policy.
 

The book is flooded with details about names and events, regimes, organizations, personalities, international events and religious groups, by the author in his attempts to draw the picture of the collaboration between the rightist forces in these countries. It gives a vivid account of the nature of India’s relationship with the Arab world, the power of their energy resources in influencing India’s foreign policy, India straddling between new security concerns and traditional ties which evolved due to the shared values of the freedom struggle. At the same time the author states that the present Indo-Israel interaction is devoid of any objectivity. However the author displays dogmatism, when he refuses to throw light on any other probable factor apart from BJP’s ideological leanings that could have facilitated the recent developments in India’s relations with Israel and the United States. 

The first and second chapter tries to chronicle the stages in which the Indo-Israel relations underwent qualitative changes from a limited engagement which was mainly influenced by the solidarity towards Arab nationalism under the leadership of Nasser. The author very candidly states the factors which determined India’s principled position on the Palestinian and Jewish question, during India’s struggle for independence under the vanguard of the Indian national Congress. Nehruvian idealism envisaged support to the hitherto unrepresented nationalities of the Third world and displayed an avowed solidarity to the cause of Palestine as well as deplored the holocaust. This was followed by pragmatic concerns like dependence on the Arab oil and balancing act in negotiating with the cold war conundrum which deterred any kind of move towards Israel. 

The proponents and earlier writings of Hindutva, which emerged as a political force in the electoral politics of India and also witnessed the coming of right wing BJP to power in 1998, are adequately highlighted in the third and fourth chapters to derive a comparative framework. The common ground on which the enterprise of formation of the nation state operates is the writings of Golwalkar, Savarkar addressing the Jewish question, emulating the ideals of Nazism and Zionism. The author notes that the relations with Israel witnessed a qualitative shift in 1998 thus vindicating what he terms the anti Islam character of Hindutva. He opines that BJP’s sole purpose has been in crafting the security doctrine based on fear and strength (P.27). Such sweeping generalization clearly evades the political pressures from India’s domestic constituency vis a vis Israel. India’s diplomatic imbroglio at the Organisation of Islamic countries on the Kashmir issue or India towing the Moroccan line on the Saharawi independence movement as a trade off on the Kashmir issue, its stand on East Timor and cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan do not find even a passing reference in the dissection of the ‘ideological under currents’ that govern the Indo-Israel relations under the American umbrella. The rise of suicide terrorism in J&K is defined as a result of the BJP regime’s attempts to replicate the harsh counter terrorism measures of the Sharon regime.
 

However there is a genuine call for caution and restraint in negotiating is the rising American hegemony in the comity of states, which has the propensity to inundate the world through its military might and commerce. India’s quest to seek a suitable place under US unilateralism by endorsing Bush doctrine is highly flawed since both India and Israel can’t match the prowess of the US. They would invariably end up as regional satraps/ vassals, catering to the American grandiose plans of spreading its military and economic wings in South Asia and West Asia respectively. These is vindicated by the role of MNCs like Enron and the conditionalties attached to aid which threaten to subvert the existing economic institutions in countries like India. 

The fifth and sixth chapter focus on the contours and seeds of the strategic relationship between India and Israel that had been laid in the 1960’s and 1970’s devoid of any publicity. The relations continue to be one sided in terms of India’s dependence on Israel to replace its vintage soviet weaponry and tap alternate sources of arms supply to deal with embargos in the aftermath of Pokhran tests in 1998. Ties with Israel are also seen as a wishful attempt to retrieve India’s conventional superiority which had been neutralized by Pakistan conducting similar tests in Chagai in 1998. The debate shifts to the interaction between the Indian diaspora and the Jewish groups in the United States, trying to influence the regimes in their respective homelands in forging an alliance in wake of ‘similar threats’, a move influenced by geopolitical rather than cultural values. The author seems to miss a major point with regard to the role of diaspora in trans national religious movement when he uses terms like ‘Yankee Hindutva’, as he seems to look at certain religious movement and groups in isolation while extending benefit of doubt to others. While globalization is blamed for economic and cultural hegemony by the west, issues like Saudi based Wahhabi fundamentalism move against syncretic and secularist Islamic culture across the globe warrants adequate attention.

Overall the book is a welcome intervention and tries to bridge the divide between domestic and international politics. The south Asian region remains Indo -centric in terms of its geographical spread and asymmetrical power structure. Politicization of religion or fundamentalism of any kind is not peculiar to any particular country in the Indian subcontinent. A broad perspective needs to be adopted while exploring the linkages between terrorism, fundamentalism and globalization.

URL:

http://www.ipcs.org/ipcs_books_selreviews.php?recNo=190

Media Bytes and the Caste Dice

The recent debate in the media over the inclusion of caste in census merely exposes the double standards.

Caste a term which evokes heightened anxiety in the social sphere with various sections of the society deliberating and berating its utility in polity and public policy. Recently an icon of the silver screen lamented over the premium caste commands in the Indian society and went to blog that if he is asked about his caste, he would emphatically state Indian for an answer.

While a section of the metro city based progressives and radicals talk about the dangers fraught upon by this move, the political class based on primordial groupings, a byproduct of the social movements in the countryside vehemently assert that caste has always been an innate part of our socio-political discourse. So refusal to address the issue of caste by shying away from the ‘ground reality’ would harm the cause of social justice with the social division and deprivation remaining entrenched.

The decision still remains in animatedly suspense with deep divisions within major political parties. Media finds the issue quite challenging in its manifestation with hordes of politicians, social activists’ and retired bureaucrats biting the media bait. The series of debates in the print and visual media were trying to arrive at a judgment about the prevalence of caste and the need to erase it from the social sphere notwithstanding the fact that caste remains an anchor of solidarity not only in the countryside infested with khaps and infected by honour killings but in urban and metropolitan environs. Caste in other words continues to influence the grammar of social interaction, be it the Indian bureaucracy or in social echelons.

The new media that has brought Facebook and Twitter, gives jitters to the conventional media and questions the state control over communication waves, has transformed and sustained caste based loyalties and solidarities through its digital social networks. The classic vindication of modernity of tradition is the prevalence of online matrimony sites wherein the process of match making is guided by software which takes note of the innumerable socio-cultural variations in terms of language, caste, clan, regions or horoscopes. Hence caste has its own significance in terms of the social behaviour of various groups and can’t be relegated to the background on the modernizer’s plea. As Shiv Vishwanathan very succinctly states that caste is information and it would be foolhardy to suppress that piece of information in a knowledge society.

The larger issue missed by various idealists in the media, is that the information on the status of social groups helps the policy makers to review the performance of various developmental projects designed and implemented by the state. This certainly calls for a sociological understanding of the human society, which would envisage an objective assessment of socio-economic development of the citizen. While caste remains an idiom in the polity, it also has the propensity to negotiate with the polity for seeking social and economic empowerment. After all didn’t the nation witness a change in the profile of political leadership after the advent of the green revolution – it was akin to no votes without political representation of groups in the structure of governance. The census is not an exercise to resurrect the demons of the past but an attempt to know our present for evolving a better future. This certainly highlights the role caste can play in social mobilization, notwithstanding the hullaballoo about the resurrection of caste which ironically has firmly withstood through out the sixty years of our independence.

Of Khap Diktat's and Deobandi Fatwa's – some thoughts

The recent developments in Haryana involving the disturbing rise of Khaps or caste based community networks and their kangaroo courts have been noticed with much anxiety across the social and political spectrum. The main argument which emerged amidst the cacophony was the role of the state and civil society in negotiating and reconciling between the individual rights and group rights.

While what could have been an interesting exercise for various social science thinkers, policy framers and analyst, the cold blooded and dastardly killing of couples has sullied any meaning intellectual skulduggery.

This crisis also witnessed certain sections of the society who strongly feel the need to revisit the existing nomenclature governing Hindu marriage Acts and incorporate the demands of the aggrieved groups in wake of eroding community rights and demands. Madhu Kishwar in her recent article (A Question of Balance, Times of India, 18 May 2010, Page - 18) very rightly questions the outburst and attempts to brush aside demands from social groups to incorporate changes in consonance to their customs and tradition. At the same time this doesn’t mean endorsing killings of any kind orchestrated by Khaps in Haryana, but an application of law that is all encompassing and takes note of prevailing customs and traditions.

Kishwar confronts the present discourse fanned by ‘modernizers’ and ‘progressive groups’ about the inherent contradictions that have percolated from top down in the Indian state and its poor track record in addressing few but grave anomalies in the application of secularism and laws concerning individual rights. The Indian Constitution had envisaged that the state shall impose a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), but the deliberate attempts of earlier regimes not only has ensure continued subjugation of women but has led to evolution of a convoluted form of secularism in a heterogeneous country.

So by this logic women irrespective of their location in the society and primordial identity are subjected to a secondary position due to the endorsement of an oppressive and exploitative patriarchical order. Icons like Shah Bano or Banwari Devi have been very swiftly relegated to the dustbin of history while the ‘activists’ of the ivory tower deeply enmeshed in their upper class prejudices debate about landmark judgments and on attack on pub going by fringe groups. It is understandable that justice for late Priyanka Mattoo or Jessica Lall must be delivered but what is baffling is the utter indifference of these armchair gender rights enthusiasts towards the large scale violence and oppression of women in the countryside. As Kishwar contends that ‘when one community seeks constitutional guidelines to protect what they consider as their personal laws, how can others not be extended the same benefits’?

This may be disturbing and sound repulsive for a section of the society who are part of the new class of the rising global Indians, who have utilized moderns tools and technology and are well integrated into the globalized world order through personal, social and professional links. They would like to believe that such traditional identities and institutions are redundant in an age where people like them chose their partners in a shopping mall, multiplex, universities, work place or surfing through the digital networks.

These developments call for a debate as to who should represent "what" and what norms should be adhered to in dealing with cultural norms in a heterogeneous society. While this is not to deride legitimate grievances of some social groups about the alleged misrepresentations of their faith and values, the Indian state also envisages provision of marriage under the Special Marriage Act exists to legalize marriages of those who wish to not toe their community’s line nor adhere to customary practices. This is a significant feature since there are innumerable couples tying the knot cutting across caste, religion, sects or linguistic affiliations. Moreover custom concerning matrimony varies every hundred miles in India, for example cross cousin marriages in the south would be considered an anathema in the north.

Similar concerns emerged when the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband fatwa regarding women working in the proximity of men without the veil. Earlier similar fatwas were issues on a range of issues like donning the purdah or photo identity cards for voters, based on interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. The standard argument which is extended is that in an age of globalization members of various socio-cultural groups are losing their moorings and hence there is a need to build bridges with those whom they deem as drifters/cultural vagabonds in order to bring them back to their faith.

The conventional justification to such acts are that there is a need for spiritual and religious anchor and such diktats are seen as enlightening the present generation of Muslims. It is needless to state that the role of activists and media are frowned upon on the grounds of their role in alleged biases and alleged support to the Eurocentric discourses on Islam.

In this context kishwar also contends the role of the Indian state and its intervention to force its citizens to discard practices and kinship values simply because they are traditional and rather urges restraint as long as they are not imposed through force, threats or violence.

It may be noted that local politics should not be seen in isolation from national politics and that symbolic mocking at the assertions of nondescript Khap leaders or Fatwas of Maulanas may have become a norm in the television studios. At the same time India's anglicized middle class who usually complain about the politics of assuaging the ‘sensitivities’ of the electorate continue to display an inexplicable silence towards the need to implement the Uniform Civil code. Perhaps this also explains the prevailing ambiguity and anxiety in negotiating with sanskritization, westernization and modernity of tradition.

Hence while every group has the legitimate right for self preservation, they must ensure that they display adequate social tolerance towards its members who want to go the other way and at the exercise moral persuasion and not subject them to violence and social censorship.

Acknowledgment
1 - Image of Khap - IBN
2 - Image of the Deoband Conclave - The Outlook Magazine