November 1997

                 India and Pakistan celebrated their 50 years of independence. The obvious question is what do they have to show for it? Most people would differ on their evaluation depending on their vantage point. The Westerner may be appalled at the chaos, continuing political turmoil, corruption, rising crime and pollution. The Asian may cite the case of slow evolution of the democratic process with expected chaos from recently liberated economies. I find myself somewhere in between as may be expected. However hard I tried, I continued to find myself struggling to cope with the enormous change in both countries over the last 5 years. The most disturbing was the failure of the Indian subcontinent to learn from the mistakes of the West. Most of my time was spent in trying to understand the reasons of this apparent inability to avert a tragedy that is sure to befall them. It sound like the makings of a Shakespearean tragedy in which it is apparent to everyone that the protagonist will surely find disaster but little can be done to prevent that from happening. I would like your views on this and other issues I hope to bring into focus. Let me elaborate:

                                     The early history of the subcontinent is now subject to debate whether the earlier civilization of Harappa and Mohenjadaro (currently in Pakistan and dangerous to visit) dating back to 2000 BCE were run over and pushed to south India by invading by Aryans from Iran. Hindu civilization owes its origins to this period somewhere between 1500 BCE to 700 ACE. Hinduism began as most religions worshipping the nature gods and gradually evolving the concept of the Infinite, all pervasive, undefinable concept of God. This was to evolve into the concept I am He (God). This is the seminal idea of Hinduism that probably came into existence around 700 ACE. This rich philosophical tradition influenced the evolution of Islamic theology of Sufism and later found its way into philosophy of Schopenhauer. The first large Indian empire is attributed to Ashok, the Great around 400 BCE.  Ashok converted to Buddhism after seeing the carnage of war in which 100,000 were killed with in a few days. Buddhism(500 BCE) was a reform movement in Hinduism to overthrow the hegemony of Brahmins and free individuals to have a direct contact with God. There are a couple of books insisting that Jesus visited India in the unaccounted for years and translated Buddhist ideas into his message. Alexander came to India around 300 BCE and the Greeks carried the knowledge of Mathematics and Astronomy back to Greece. There was a brief period of Hindu Golden age under Chandragupta Maurya and then the subcontinent divided into numerous kingdoms. There were numerous invasions by Mongol hordes to India over the next several centuries. Islam came in 800 ACE to Sindh(Pakistan). There was a short period of the Slave dynasty(every King was a former slave) and then the invasion by a Mongol, Babur(1200 ACE) to begin the Moghul dynasty that lasted till 1707. The third king in this dynasty was Akbar the Great, an emperor of note for a just rule which was tolerant of Hinduism although the official religion was Islam. This dynasty gave India most of its well known Architectural landmarks including Taj Mahal (1640) and Red Fort. Moghuls brought Persian artisans with their rich cultural tradition and left their imprint on arts which is known as Indian today. The golden age of India was during this period between 15th and 17th century. European explorers came looking for this India beginning with Vasco de Gamma(Portuguese). British then arrived as East India Company(1650) and gradually took over most of the subcontinent by 1850. India came under British monarchy after the revolutionary war of 1857. The British rule lasted till 1947. Congress party is formed by a British Hume and later becomes the Indian Revolutionary party. The British educated Indian Barristers (Gandhi, Jinnah and Nehru) lead the independence movement. Jinnah,(from the state of Gujarat) the founder of Pakistan was a passionate advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity till 1916 and was mentored by Hindu Congress leader Gokhale and Dadabhai Naoroji. Gandhi(from Gujarat) became the leader of Congress in 1921 and led the Non-violent movement. Jinnah became disaffected at his displacement and went to London to practice Privy Council law. He returned later to lead Muslim League for separation of India and Pakistan along religious lines. It appears at this point that the independence of India owed more to the Violence resulting from the non-violent movement and the revolt in Indian Navy following the trial of Indian National Army members (Indian soldiers captured by Japanese defected to form an independent army). The partition of India in 1947 resulted in mass murder by both Hindus and Muslims and ensuing enmity that has resulted in 3 wars (1948,1964,1971).
               India became a republic in 1950 modeled after British, Australian and American constitutions. India was stable politically till 1970’s with a Socialist Congress party in power for most of this period. Pakistan, an Islamic republic, meanwhile lost its founder Jinnah in 1948 and went through a succession of dictatorships and eventually to an unstable democracy in 1980’s. Political instability and economic liberation became the byword in both countries in early 1990’s. Both countries have gone through a succession of coalition governments over the last 5 years.

India and Pakistan Today

                           The fall of Soviet Union led to dramatic changes in the region. India could no longer rely on the Soviet support and Pakistan lost its American support. The only choice for both was to liberalize their economies and increase political freedom. The result has been a head long dash to consumerism with little regard to its disruptive impact. The rapid growth has far outstripped resources as everyone seems to be in a mad dash to acquire material goods with the promise of “Nirvana.” The dormant energies have been unleashed with a fury that is destroying environment, causing choking pollution, gridlocked traffic, massive corruption and rampant crime. The political parties of every color know that they can not roll back economic liberalization but the sure way to power is to inflame sectarian politics as the ruthless struggle ensues between the have’s and have-not’s. So much for “creative destruction” by capitalism.
The culture has gone through a change since no one has time. The culture that survived on luxury of time suddenly has none. They have yet to see the disruptive impact of that valuable commodity. The society is consuming all of its renewable resources with a ferocious appetite. Enough to make an environmentalist out of me!
                                  You say, what is the positive side? There is new music- fusion of Indian classical and western instruments has led to creation of music forms that one day are likely to sweep the world. Check out a band called “Colonials.” Indian TV has been revolutionized with excellent quality and reasonable content. It is being beamed across Southeast Asia with an Indian MTV host. Computers are everywhere and so is counterfeit software. There are 1 million software engineers in India. Is India’s future music, films, TV and software? Press in India and Pakistan has been ruthlessly exposing scandals. Judiciary at the Supreme Court level remains the only other safeguard of democracy.

                               I stayed close to home and traveled little in India. Indians are quite optimistic even grandiose(we have a large internal market) stating that they can not suffer the fate of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. They believe they can sustain the Hindu growth rate of 6%. The basic industry is in recession and the currency has lost 20% against the Dollar.

                                      An interesting episode was Queen Elizabeth’s visit to India. There were numerous missteps by her protocol. She failed to accept holy sweets at a shrine and failed to get up to receive a replica of the shrine. Then Prince Philip had the temerity to dispute the number of unarmed peaceful gathering of Indian civilians(400) shot by a British General in 1919 on the word of the General’s son. These missteps led to Queen getting poor press coverage and snubbed to the point of having her last speech canceled. The British offer to mediate between India and Pakistan was rejected as being outmoded colonial intervention and British Foreign secretary was advised to apply those diplomatic skills in Northern Ireland. Indians have certainly come of age!

                                                        Pakistan

 is a country of VIP’s. If you have the connections, life could not be better. The economy seems to be bordering on economic disaster with a tide over emergency loan of 800 million dollar from World Bank. The currency has lost 30% value. The political chaos remains since the Prime Minister was recently held in contempt by the Supreme Court and there is a threat to impeach the President. 

However, none of this deters the Pakistani’s from exercising the civility and very generous hospitality to foreigners. And there is the beautifully planned city of Islamabad with little pollution and my next must trip to “the land where one feels close to God - Kashmir.”
                                        Now back to the question, I asked earlier. Will India and Pakistan along with other emerging countries merely drown in their own waste products unable to harness the forces of free market and speech? or Is this just a phase in creative destruction of capitalism? Is it necessary for the developing countries to make the mistakes of the West by over emphasis on individuality(car, consumer goods) at the expense of society ? Should the developing countries or can the developing countries bypass the evolution of a western democracy? Is crime the new Growth industry? Is Singapore a model for developing nations? Will China fare better and become the next Superpower?

                                  I will attempt to answer these and other questions with your help over the next few months. I am thinking of developing a website that can serve as the site for exchange of ideas between different cultures and people. For example, the Dutch seem to handle the social problems with greater rationality than Americans(no poverty, little crime), while Americans handle economics with more rationality than Europeans(high unemployment, want to work a 35 hour week and retire at age 50 on same pay!), Eastern cultures have little individual alienation, Greeks and Turks have more in common with each other and still fight!

We may not change the world overnight but every little bit helps. I would like all of you to contribute ideas, comments and suggestions in developing this Internet site.