Monday, February 18, 2019
Getting India’s history right
It is time to stop raising generations on a diet of victimhood
T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a great read but is it a credible record of the Arab uprising against the Ottomans? The Arab historian Aziz al-Azmeh was scathing in his denunciation of Lawrence, holding that his was a work of fiction. But that is not the way many others recalled it over the years.
Except for those nursing an acute sense of victimhood, Shashi Tharoor’s engaging polemic, An Era of Darkness, is not a serious, objective work of historical scholarship. While the British rule of India had its rotten side, it had a redeeming one as well. As Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh had the courage to acknowledge this in his widely publicised July 2005 speech at Oxford University — all without one whit downplaying the harmful aspects of British rule. That is a balanced perspective.
The best of our historians tie themselves in knots toeing a nationalistic line, however unintentional that might be. A widely acclaimed book, India’s Struggle for Independence, by Bipan Chandra and some of India’s best regarded historians, is a case in point. Partition is seen as the outcome of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s intransigence and the Congress’s inability to carry the subcontinent’s Muslims along. The latter point is Bipan Chandra’s view too. But any historian claiming to be objective would also have highlighted Abul Kalam Azad’s objection to Partition on the grounds that it would reduce, intentionally perhaps, the Muslims from a politically powerful quarter of the population to a less significant and vulnerable minority in free India. Developments since then have proved him right.
The mass killings and forced migration of millions caused by Partition was entirely foreseeable, especially in the light of the extreme violence that accompanied Jinnah’s ‘Direct Action Day,’ a year before. Then why couldn’t independence have been delayed to ensure a less cataclysmic separation? This is rarely discussed anywhere, and never in our schools, where most Indians have their last brush with history, reinforcing life-long prejudices.
It is time we stopped raising generations on a diet of victimhood while at the same time hoping to make peace with those of our neighbours we feel most threatened by. With the evidence now available, we should accept that, far from being victims, we share historical responsibility for our difficult relations with Pakistan and our border dispute with China. As the largest country in the subcontinent, and its principal economic driver, India has a great stake in getting its history right, for lasting peace to follow.
In his perceptive essay, ‘The Decline of Historical Thinking’ in a recent issue of the New Yorker, Eric Alterman observed, “A nation whose citizens have no knowledge of history is asking to be led by quacks, charlatans and jingos.” How true of today’s India!
The writer has taught public policy and contemporary history at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
Source: The Hindu, 12/02/2019
Like humans, animals too have a right to migrate
A tiger was sighted in Gujarat earlier this week after 27 years. Its surprise appearance has raised a few questions.
Twenty seven years after a tiger was last sighted in the Dang district of Gujarat, a big cat (5-7 years old) was spotted in the state’s Mahisagar district on February 12. With this sighting, Gujarat now has the unique distinction of being home to both Asiatic Lions as well as a Bengal Tiger, which is listed as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List since 2008.
The surprise appearance of a tiger has raised a few questions: First, where has this tiger come from? Second, can it coexist with lions? And third, what happens if they come face to face? “We can only speculate what is likely to happen… We know that lions are stronger in a group against an adversary while the tiger is a solitary animal. Between both cats, the tiger is definitely stronger,” Mumbai-based lion researcher, Meena Venkataraman, told Down To Earth. On the first question, Times of India reported that after seeing the photos of the big cat’s stripes, forest officials of the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh have claimed that the tiger is from their zone.
If this claim is correct, then the tiger must have trekked almost 300 km of densely populated areas to reach Gujarat. It must have, forest officials claim, survived on livestock and wild animals. In that case, this tiger has been extremely lucky to avoid any conflict with humans during its long journey. But not all big cats are so lucky; and, therefore, measures must be taken to ensure that animals that move from one area to another get secure and safe passage.
This means that animal corridors and buffer zones are maintained across the country, and that infrastructure development around forest areas such as roads, railways and canals take into account that animals, too, have a right to move from one part to another, and that such structures must not impede their movement.
One of the recommendations of the ministry of environment and forests on guidelines for roads in protected areas says, “Wherever possible, natural animal crossings existing across roads should be retained or encouraged. For instance, overlapping tree canopy in closed canopy evergreen/semi evergreen forests is an essential attribute for the movement of arboreal species. Passage to water holes and daily movements of animals must also be safeguarded”. Where natural passes are not possible, it adds, there should be well designed tunnels, culverts, and pipes for a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic species.
For the moment, however, the Gujarat forest department has its work cut out. It needs to keep a strict vigil on the movement of the tiger and also sensitise the local population about the tiger’s movements and the need to protect it.
The Truth is Beyond
The great Zen master Ma-tzu — when he was an aspiring disciple — would meditate intensely for unusually long hours everyday. Observing this, one day, his master Huai-jang enquired of him, “What is the purpose of your meditation?” Ma-tzu replied, “I am practicing this to become an enlightened being, a Buddha.” Huai-jang grabbed a brick and started rubbing it with a rock. Curious, Ma-tzu asked his master, “Why are you grinding on that brick ?” “Not grinding,” the master replied, “but polishing it into a mirror.” “How can you make a mirror by polishing a brick?” Ma-tzu asked, stunned. “How can you become a Buddha by practicing meditation?” snapped Huaijang. Ma-tzu understood what his master said. The Zen story illustrates that techniques and methods are useless in the spiritual domain. They may promote health and well being of the seeker but they cannot bestow God realisation on him. Pranayama may be beneficial for the lungs but what is doubtful is its ability to plunge the seeker into the realm of Truth. Since no method, no technique can help us realise God, the only way is the living true spiritual master. The true master bestows on the seeker directly, the knowledge of God. The great saint Kabir says, Guru and God both appear to me. To whom should I prostrate? I bow before the Guru who introduced me to the God. This is the core philosophy of Sant Nirankari Mission, which firmly proposes that knowing God — the eternal, omnipresent and formless — is possible by anyone who approaches the True master.
Source: Economic Times, 18/02/2019
People are happiest at 16 and 70, finds study
Well-Being Levels — Which Include Happiness, Life Satisfaction, Self-Worth, Lack Of Anxiety— Fall Between 20s And 50s
While one could be happy at any age, it peaks first at age 16, according to a new study by a UK-based think tank. Don’t worry if 16 is a distant memory, though, as our well-being reaches a high point again later in life — at 70. The Resolution Foundation analysed seven years of wellbeing surveys run by the Office for National Statistics since 2011. Respondents of a variety of ages rated their life satisfaction, self-worth, happiness and anxiety levels on a scale from one to 10. In a Ushaped curve, it showed that being in one’s 50s is the pits, while the ages of 16 and 70 are the twin peaks of happiness. According to the report, what contributes to happiness at 70 is, predictably, good fortune to have health, a degree, a job, a partner and to own your home. “The report finds that well-being levels — which include happiness, life satisfaction, self-worth and lack of anxiety — generally fall between someone’s mid-20s and early 50s, and then start rising again until people reach their 70s. On the basis of age alone, the key to happiness is to be 16 or 70,” the think tank notes. It calls on policy-makers who want to boost well-being to dig deeper into what drives those improvements. A secure job, a home of your own, and more money, particularly for low-income households, are all key drivers of higher well-being, and should therefore be prioritised. “Well-being matters to all of us, and yet we’ve only recently started to collect serious data on how happy people are with their lives. This important data shows that there is more to life than a country’s GDP, but that the employment and
income trends that lie behind our economy can make a big difference to our well-being too,” said George Bangham, research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation. “It is encouraging that a growing number of policymakers are interested in boosting well-being. But their focus on the new objective should complement, rather than replace, priorities such as income redistribution, better jobs and secure housing. The evidence suggests that these core economic policies are effective ways to raise well-being,” he said. The report, ‘Happy Now?’, finds that the most important determinants of well-being are having good health, a job and a partner, but that levels of well-being also vary significantly depending on someone’s age, income level, housing tenure, and neighbourhood. The report notes too that permanent contracts and control of working hours are also associated with higher well-being, suggesting that quantity and quality matter when it comes to work. The think-tank concludes that the importance of stronger income growth, higher employment, better jobs and increasing home ownership in boosting well-being reinforce the need for policy-makers to focus on these issues
Source: Times of India, 18/02/2019
Friday, February 15, 2019
Studies In History
Table of Contents
First Published December 16, 2018; pp. 1–19
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First Published December 6, 2018; pp. 20–36
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Articles
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 37–58
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First Published December 14, 2018; pp. 59–87
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 88–118
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Book Reviews
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 119–122
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 123–128
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 128–131
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 132–135
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 135–138
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 138–141
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First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 141–143
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| First Published February 1, 2019; pp. 143–146 |
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