It was a gathering of those who loved speaking in English -
and those who loved listening to good English speeches. It
was styled as a `Convention Against Nuclear Weapons'. Such
meetings are usually ignored by the media - but this one was
not.
The stated target of the speakers, many of whom were known
or disguised Marxists, were atomic bombs and missiles. But
the real target turned out to be India. It was not all atom
bombs that were lambasted; it was singularly the Indian bomb
- as if only the Indian bomb could kill, and others' bombs
were mere toys.
There was not a word from the intellectuals about the
thousands of bombs stock-piled and missile mounted in China,
Russia, USA, UK and France. Some of the intellectuals who
condemned the Phokaran blasts are leaders and members of the
CPI(M). They could not have been unaware of how the
Communist Party in India rejoiced the first time China
tested its bomb, calling it an `anti-imperialist bomb' - and
rejoiced every time China tested it.
How is it that, to an Indian mind, the Chinese bomb is a
noble venture, and the Indian one an evil enterprise ?
None of the intellectuals spoke a word about a ruthless
regime that mercilessly mowed down its own people by using
tanks being our neighbour with its missile-mounted atomic
devices pointed at India. This does not mean that China is
India's enemy. In fact, neither USA or Russia, France or
UK, has any known or declared enemy. And yet they have
missile-mounted bombs. In geo-political terms, only equals
can be friends. Equality is not a requisite of enmity, but
friendship. If there has to be a balanced relationship
between India and China, India has to be equal China in
every respect. But to the left intellectuals the real
danger to peace in South Asia is India under Vajpayee !
One of the speakers was a novelist who has won the Bookers
Award by which she became popular. She read out a statement
that if protesting against nuclear bomb was anti-national,
she would secede and declare herself as a "mobile republic"
and "a citizen of the earth". We have heard of many mobile
things including mobile phones in recent times. To this
list, now a mobile republic has been added.
The popular novelist said that with the Indian bomb her
"World has died" forcing her "to mourn". But her
declaration had to wait for the Indian test. Her World
which survived the US, Russian, French, English and Chinese
atom bombs, suddenly died only when India tested its bombs.
On World citizenship this novelist is not the first Indian
to speak. A Tamil Savant declared, centuries before the
English novelist, `Yadum Oore, Yavarum Kelir' (all places
are mine, all people my cousin).
But these declarations have meaning only in India. If the
Tamil Savant were to travel to USA today, he would need an
Indian passport and a US visa, despite his conviction about
a borderless World.
The English novelist's position would be no better. Simply,
on her declaration that she is a citizen of earth, the
Americans will not allow her to enter America, nor even the
Chinese and Pakistanis who must have been very pleased with
the kind of things she said about the Indian nuke test.
Even if she seceded from India, she would need the Indian
passport.
Another speaker was an ex-Indian Navy Chief - Admiral
Ramdas. He virtually self-deprecated himself for having
served for 30 years in the Indian Navy which, he charged,
had "brain washed" him. He equated the Atom bomb in the
hands of the BJP government as garland in the hands of a
monkey. Even Pakistani spokesmen use more elegant language
against India. If the Indian bomb were a garland in the
hands of a monkey, what about the Chinese bomb in the hands
of Jiang and Pakistani Bomb in the hands of Sheriff? A
beautiful garland in the hands of a beautiful bridegroom ?
or a rudrakshamala in the hands of a saint ?
The video clippings from this meeting would be sufficient
for Pakistani and Chinese probaganda against India - in
Washington and London, Bonn and Paris, to pressure India by
sanctions and other means. All that the anti-Indian lobbies
have to say is: "See how a former Navy Chief is viewing the
Indian Bomb in Vajpayee's hands." The declaration of the
English novelist will be portrayed as the indictment of
India by the enlightened in India.
The intellectuals who spoke at the meeting could not have
been unaware of these consequences. And yet why did they
speak in such language ? The answer is in the kind of
intellectual mix that India has produced after the influence
of greatmen like Aurobindo, Gandhi and Tilak waned in Indian
public discourse. This mix has resulted in two generations
of self-deprecating Indian minds who are recognised and
labelled as intellectuals of India, in and out of India.
These intellectuals either hate the Indian past, or they
need western endorsement to apologetically own parts of it.
Today's Indian intellectual mix is an amalgam of Macaulay
and Marx. Macaulay was keen on producing Indians who were
Indians only in colour, but Englishmen - that is unIndian -
in tastes, opinions, and morals. And he succeeded to a very
large extent, surprisingly, after India attained freedom.
And Marx wanted a class consciousness which is uprooted from
all traditional national and civilisational moorings. No
nation's identity, no culture's distinctness and no
civilisation's virtue could be accommodated in the Marxian
world-view. For, Marxism, like other semitic ideas, is a
self-contained and exhaustive human code. Elsewhere Marxism
broke up by loyalties to nationalism. But in India by and
large Marxism has kept subordinated Indian nationalism.
How did the Macaulayan mindset and Marxian thinking coalesce
in India ? The common point is the undeclared dislike of
the traditions and religions of India and its heritage - in
fact, anything Indian.
But, never mind. These intellectuals have always been way
behind the national mind, and could never lead it. That was
why the Indian intellectuals never agreed with Mahatma
Gandhi when he launched the Non-cooperation movement,
ridiculed him when he went on the Dandi march and opposed
him when he insisted on the Quit India move - and understood
him and the nation long after the events.
The same thing is getting repeated today. What they have
failed to realise is that there is a perceptible desire in
the Indian mind to emerge as a global power - and no more
remain the satellite of any power or block. Not just
Dollars, bombs too are needed to make one a World power.
And power is need to ensure peace for us and for the World.
The `intellectuals' miss this under current in India.
The best course is to allow these `intellectuals' persist
like this - the more they do - the faster they will lose
relevance. Their thoughts and speeches are like the newly
invented American seed that destroys itself after their
first use.