March 20, 2012
Praveen Swami has written an op-ed in today's Hindu newspaper titled 'Afghanistan: the lost cause'. He points out that the growing rhetoric about Afghanistan being 'intrinsically intractably' disposed against modern democratic set up and Western values is nothing but racism. "The idea that liberal democracy is alien to the country, now being used to legitimise early western withdrawal, is racist libel," he writes. If the few nutjobs who fight under the Taliban banner are taken to be representative of the entire Afghan culture, Swami asks if the similar conclusion can be drawn about the USA based on KKK!
I tend to agree with him but I am at a loss when I search for evidence against this propaganda. Praveen Swami's article presents a few scant examples. The tragedy is that historical narrative is almost always hijacked by those who then sit in judgement. For all the criticism of the Westernized point of view of history, anyone who looks for an "Eastern" alternative stares into long, arduous, much needed research. Neither the media, nor the textbooks readily present a contrasting view.
History, as it is made daily, is being presented as a consensus truth by the different media outlets in India. There is hardly a dissenting voice. Investigative journalism seems to have become an undesirable job. Obviously it pays much less than sponsored news. Forget investigative journalism, even logical journalism seems to have become too much to ask for!
In the recent terrorist attack on Israel embassy in Delhi, for all the major national newspapers the version of the police was the truth. There was no attempt whatsoever to even find if there were disagreeing voices. A man who has been a journalist for 25 years has been arrested as a "terrorist". Newspapers didn't accord him the basic courtsey of independent investigation that local newspapers extend to even petty thieves. The version of the state, the version of the powerful, the version of the 1% is the new gospel. Media is their mouthpiece. Naturally, this trend plays out in the international level as well.
Malayalam writer Sethu has been serializing his recent travel diary from Canada in Madhyamam weekly. In the recent edition, he discusses the Komagata Maru incident. In 1914, Gurdit Singh of Singapore organized a "continous journey" of 376 immigrants to Canada on a Japanese ship called Komagata Maru. Canada in an attempt to prevent 'non-white' immigration had come up with a clause called "continuous journey". To qualify as an immigrant to the country, the person should have made a continous journey to Canada without any change of ships enroute. Clearly, this was meant to deter Asian immigration especially the Sikhs while working in favor of those moving from America and Europe.
Gurdit Singh wanted to upset this government plan, so he put together one continuous journey from Singapore. But the ship was stopped half a mile from the coast and new excuses and delayed paperwork was used to prevent the passengers from disembarking. Most of the immigrants were veterans of the British Indian army. The stand off lasted an appalling two months in which the passengers were driven to thirst and starvation. Towards the final days, people were licking the water that had spilled on the ship's floor from the cups of the Japanese crew whose supplies were replenished by the Canandian authorities. Finally, provisions were allowed to the ship after it agreed to sail back. An armed confrontation was averted. But the incident became a black spot in Canadian history that exposed the British empire's claims of justice and fairplay.
The article carried photos of a newspaper front page from those days with the headline that read: "Hindu invaders arriving at the shore". The covert and overt xenophobic rhetoric hasn't changed over the ages. I was an immigrant in Texas for over a decade. Baring couple of stray incidents at the bars, I rarely felt any discrimination. It might have been because I was in a university town, but the prevailing sentiment was one of "xenophilia"! The respect and love with which Texan friends continue to treat me has been humbling. Unfortunately it is not the sane, prudent voice of this majority but the insane, divisive war cries of the minority that get amplified.
Since the time Homo Sapiens walked out of Africa and came to India along the coast, this land has been settled by waves and waves of immigrants. Every single modern Indian has traces of immigrant blood be it central Asian, Persian, Middle Eastern, Mongolian, Chinese, African, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Portuguese, French or British. Each one of us is also the other! The more we forget this, the less the future of our children!
Happy Persian New Year and World Sparrow Day!
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