Contemporary Indian history is repeating the patterns of medieval European history. The Holy Roman Empire which was all of Europe of the 14th and 15h centuries disintegrated into powerful states of the Western Europe we know today. These states were often at war with each other and twice these wars involved the entire world in this century. But having been through this process today all these nations have again come together in the European Economic Community.
There are lessons of great importance in European history for India in its impending demise. The long and bitter struggles can be easily avoided as the Indian nations have neither lands to conquer nor too many resources to divide.
The myth of the secular socialist republic stood exposed almost at India’s very inception when the Sikhs were denied a state in a subtle attempt at amalgamating them in the amorphous Hindu society. Even today there are Hindu scholars who write long-winded articles in the Hindu press just to say that Sikhs are part of Hindu society. They often quote exactly those points in their arguments which are primary principles of Sikhism to prove their fallacy. For instance the caste system. Guru Nanak who revealed the Sikh faith described the Hindu caste system as the greatest social evil.
The Indian government has taken great pains to harass and hound Christian missionaries out of the country even though these people have done great social work in the slums created by government indifference and neglect. These missionaries run the best schools in the country where ironically all the politicians flock to have their children admitted. Secular socialism as practiced in India has proved such a disaster in forty short years that the previous government promised to ensure 27 per cent job reservations for 85 per cent of the people who are backward and underprivileged. It is still the main plank of the Janata Dal. The intelligent thing to do for the Brahman leadership would be to let go with grace that which is not theirs That way they will not only save face but possibly avoid centuries of bitter conflict.
The example of Pakistan is before us. Pakistan could have grown economically into a powerful modern nation. India’s rivalry and threat made that nation spend all its resources on defending itself from an unpredictable neighbor. India too has had to pay dearly in this altogether unnecessary arms race. The nuclear arms race is ending in the western world but it is only beginning in India and elsewhere in the third world.
India spent time and money interfering in the affairs of all its neighbors while its own people were simmering with discontent. Its neocolonial ambitions were fulfilled when it annexed the kingdom of Sikkim even as the Nepalese of Indian Darjeeling a mere score miles from Sikkim began demanding independence. The story of Indian intervention in Lanka is another black chapter of brahminical intrigue treachery and
The point we are trying to make is that India’s problems are only just beginning. As awareness grows even the Hindu nations will one by one raise the banner of revolt. This discontent surfaced in Orissa recently. Orissa is the poorest state in India. It should be the richest with all its mineral wealth.
The only choice before Delhi’s to boldly face reality and let all the nations go as friends and possibly even partners. If not it will have to contend with bitter civil wars for a long time to come to arrive at the same conclusion but then it will not have too many friends left.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 24, 1991
