Three trajectories in South Asia..

I found this interesting in a study on South Asia : Profound were the differences in the nationalist movement that brought independence to each country upon the withdrawal of the British. There are three trajectories : 1. The non-violent Congress movement built over three quarters of a century on the basis of a strong, nearly subcontinent wide organisation led by Gandhi during the quarter century preceeding independence. 2. The militant Pakistan movement led by Jinnah with the history of a mere decade of organisation. 3. The peaceful granting of Independence to Sri lanka that limited the building of a strong nationalist movement there.

Nepal on the other hand, never experienced direct British rule.

All three countries arrived at Independence with shared commitment to slogans of 'democracy' and 'secularism', although they differed on other fundamentals. The latter included for example, the centrality of the state in development : greatest in India, least in Sri Lanka where the state commitment was not to development in the Indian sense, but rather to social welfare; and Pakistan, lacking any ideology of state development, rather more concerned with building an army capable of confronting India as needed.

In all states in the region, the original commitment to secularism as an ideology has been battered and largely displaced with the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, recognition of Islam as the state religion and the rise of Islamic movements in Pakistan, and budhist demands for official recognition in Sri Lanka, accepted soon after independence.

Nepal, on the other hand, which was an officially Hindu state from 1962 to 2006, has, with the establishment of a secular republic, gone In the other direction.

Acknowldegement : Excerpted from the Routledge Handbook of South Asian Politics.

Commentary on a noble song..

This song was sent over whatsapp :

Hamne Suna tha Ek hai Bharat - DIDI 1959

It’s a noble song that puts most india’s ills to having been under foreign domination. i dont agree though.. this is the misinformation I have heard from elders all my life. I don’t think all the distortions in india can be traced to british rule or muslim rule. Muslim rule lasted over parts of india for 600 years (till the middle of the 18^th century) and company / british rule for 200 years. But caste inequalities are millenia old.

Muslim rule over Spain and Portugal also persisted for over 700 years until the end of the 15^th century – but they have taken their own future in their hands since, have they not ? I think our country suffers as we have made (and continue to) too little effort to include all Indians in our effort to develop. We have continued to encourage income inequality which remains the HIGHEST in the world save the middle east. The top 10 % of the Indian population earned 55 % of the income in 2016. In Europe the share of the top 10 % was 37 %. After world war 2, the Governments in Europe built big welfare states, with generous jobless benefits, child subsidies and income support. Such benefits became the most important instruments for reducing inequality there.

The song also says it will take time for india to develop.. The WW2 ended just 2 years before india got her freedom. Europe suffered far more war, deaths, destruction of cities and countryside alike, and continuing occupation by a foreign power (USSR) of a large part of europe.. yet what have they built and achieved since then, and what have we ?

The achievements of europe are not just material – though ofcourse those are there to see. Germany had killed, ravaged, pillaged, large swathes of Europe. In return she and her allies had suffered extensive destruction. But after the war, Governments worked to encourage emotional healing between countries and communities, as did the Church and NGOs. They succeeded and the result of that was the European Union. In our country though we are following the opposite path – we are increasing divides between religions and communities.