The Importance of the Rukhsana Affair

October 6th, 2009

The episode in which Rukhsana Kauser attacked a Kashmiri terrorist with an axe and then his own gun throws light on some aspects of our ancient civilization. When terrorists barged into her family home, Miss Kauser grabbed an axe and beat the terrorist commander into stupefecation with it, and then fired at him with his own gun. Miss Kauser’s bravery is indeed remarkable and flows from five thousand year old traditions in the region of the Himalayas and Pir Panjal.

The cult of Parasurama has always existed all over India. Although it was the Vaazhappazhaa kingdom which followed this most closely; using the Parasurama Sutra as a manual for governance and military strategy; ancient Kashmiris too were ardent devotees of Parasurama. This can be seen in the legend of Parasurama slaughtering the Kshatriya kings and capturing the land, which he then turns over to the sage Kashyap. Kashyap is believed to have drained the lake at the north of this land to create Kashmir, which derives its name from Kashyap-meru. This early example of geological engineering may be a mythological reference to the ancient science of desha-khanda-vastu, which was practiced by the kingdom of Vaazhappazhaa. This suggests that the historical Parasurama may have invented the science. (I have elaborated on desha-khanda-vastu in my monograph on Sethusamudram).

The influence of Parasurama is quite widespread. As the Vedic civilisation spread and influenced the Mesopotamian and Semitic civilisations; so too did the carrying of axes. The Assyrians used axes for close range combat; while the legend of Parasurama survives in a distorted form in the Bible as well, in the verse 2 Kings 6:1-7. Traveling further north, the cult of Parasurama influenced the Goth and Viking battle-axes.

However, it is the history of the Parasurama cult in Kashmir, closer to its origins, which concerns us now. Like Parasurama, the Kashmiris too adopted axes as weapons; however these were largely ceremonial or ornamental as they preferred siege warfare and rarely resorted to close combat. Accounts of Alexander’s Indian invasion mention that the chieftains would carry decorated axes at negotiations; further confirmed by travelers to the Indo-Bactrian and Seleucid empires. Later on, Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to India who passed through the valley also disapprovingly mentioned that the inhabitants had abandoned the Path of the Buddha, and wielded axes and swords. This is again brought up by Al-Beruni and other travelers to India in the heyday of the Caliphate.

More interesting then the mere presence of axes is the composition of the Kashmiri army. It is an unknown fact that for long the Kashmiri regiments contained both male and female warriors. We at the Mehta Vedic Sciences Project have over the past few years compiled a number of historical sources that have hitherto escaped the attention – perhaps intentionally – of the international Greco-capitalist study of Indian history. Relevant here is the Kitab-e-Rachawari; an compilation of travelers’ tales by an Armeno-Persian named Hormuzd which predates Al-Biruni’s Tarikh al-Hind by almost a century. Hormuzd cites numerous anecdotes by Uzbeg warriors centred around the female warriors of the valley. There are also claims that the Kalash tribe, supposedly the descendants of Alexander’s army, practice female conscription. Hormuzd suggests that this practice is an ancient one and that female warriors have been a tradition of the north-west frontier and the Kashmir valley since the classical age.

The Kitab-e-Rachawari contains the following passage: “And then we came upon a company of Hindi maidens, and verily, they attacked us with great ferocity. We lost seven of our company to the spears and axes of these beautiful maidens.”

Subsequently, a Venetian trader on the overland spice route to the Malabar coast is quoted as saying “We passed through a valley that was rich in fruit, and with sweet streams flowing through it. And this valley was guarded by light eyed women of the North, who escorted travelers from fort to fort, and wore dresses of finest wool, and carried axes decorated with beads and jewels.”

But even before the Islamic contact into the Kashmir valley there are references to the female axe-wielding army of Kashmir. Samudracharya’s Himadeshardhakathakakah, a 6th century play written for the court of the minor Gupta monarch Shukragupta, mentions the female warriors of Kashmir with the line “himalayena saha streeyodhaaha, khatvangineeh sena param jayantini“, or, “he who travels with the support of the axe wielding army of female warriors of the Himalayas is always victorious”.

In fact, I would now like to draw attention to the unheralded work of my former colleague and mentor, Dr. Varely Smirzkoff, who conducted archaeological digs throughout the USSR when it was still extant and an atmosphere of academic freedom and scientific inquiry flourished. In a region spreading from Belorussia to Uzbekistan, Dr. Smirzkoff discovered grave sites dating back to the proto-Vedic era in which both male and female bodies had been buried with weapons placed next to them. Significantly, the weapons included axes in a number of cases. Dr. Smirzkoff believed that this represented an early manifestation of the cult of Parasurama, who was likely a historical figure and not only a godly being of myth.

From Dr. Smirzkoff’s research it is clear that the Vedic civilisation had expanded both eastwards into the Ganges valley and northwards into Russia. Moreover, both the cult of Parasurama and women warriors have very old origins. Regrettably, Dr. Smrizkoff’s research was sidelined after his imprisonment in Siberia; and as a result the Greco-capitalist worldview has gone unchallenged in the past fifty years.

Alexander’s army was unwilling to admit to the fact that the army of Porus which forced them to retreat contained female warriors; and therefore spread the myth that the Amazon tribe was in Asia Minor rather than in Kashmir. For more on the Greco-capitalist tendency to deny female empowerment, I recommend reading the works of my lovely and talented wife, Dr. (Mrs.) Valentina Dimitrieva Pandey. As a result of this rewriting of history by Greco-capitalism, the knowledge of the axe-wielding lady warriors of Kashmir has hitherto remained unknown outside the valley itself.

In conclusion, Rukhsana Kauser’s courageous act is a continuation of a millenia-long Kashmiri tradition of axe fighting and belligerent women. It is to be hoped that more women in the valley follow her example and restore this tradition.

(The writer is Hon. Director, Smirzkoff Centre for Historical Speculation in Pune, India and Director, Mehta-Vedic Sciences Project in London. He lives with his wife Valentina Dimitrieva Pandey, and twenty two children in suburban St.Petersberg. He can be contacted at acharya.somuchidononanda@pandey.ru)

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The Classical History of Bengali Emigration

February 16th, 2009

A while ago my daughter Neha Natalya’s lovely young friend Aishwarya forwarded this interesting news story in the Telegraph:

Where have all the Bengali beauties gone? Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Boston have picked them all.

Oh, when will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

We won’t. We learn only about brain drain. Know that the best and brightest have left our shores to make their lives elsewhere. But we learn not about the beauty drain — and are probably not even aware.

Well, except for the sworn birdwatcher. Heterosexual, urban, educated, bourgeois, male. Or, the species that, too, like the bird is a threatened category. Why? Because he’s also the guy who’s left.

One such has just hit town. Sambaran Mitra, a mariner in his early thirties, considers himself a veteran birdwatcher.

On a night out in Park Street, he exclaims: “Where are the babes gone?” If you can’t find them in Park Street, you can’t find them anywhere.

While the author of the article has correctly pointed out the sudden nature of the disappearance of beautiful Bengali ladies, she is incorrect in her supposition that this is a new phenomenon. The disappearance of Bengali women to parts abroad has occured throughout history and has been well documented in Classical as well as Medieval times. I do not wish to sound as if I am directly contradicting Ms. Banerjee, or if I am denying the validity of her research. However, as a man dedicated to learning, I wish to present the scientific facts related to this. It is only the humble effort of a scholar to clear the air and ensure that this article does not lead to hysteria.

It is my good fortune to work with Dr. Debabroto Sircar at the Mehta Vedic Sciences Project. Dr. Sircar has devoted his life to the study of the history of Vanga-desh, and has comprehensively documented the historical incidences when it has faced an exodus of beautiful women. Dr. Sircar has been kind enough to share his research with me, and allowed me to present it to a larger audience. I hope it is found useful.

Vangadeshaprajaasya Pragamyatan

The first mention of emigration from Bengal occurs in the Shilabuddhi Sutra. This ancient treatise dating to the Mauryan Empire was originally passed down orally in the Samastha Brahmin community of Orissa, and was subsequently transcribed in the early 8th century CE on palm-script leaf. This transcription was lost in the following centuries and did not resurface until 1884, when noted Indologist Wilhelm Haunsmann discovered a copy in Varanasi. Haunsmann translated the manuscript and this provides us with our first glimpse into the Vangadeshika emigrations.

In the Shilabuddhi Sutra, the section on the responsibilities of an ideal householder tangentially refer to the migrations in the following shloka: ‘yatha yatha vangadeshaprajaasya pragamyatan, tatha tatha markaandeyakasya amritahalan‘. In a commentary on this verse, the Samastha scholar Snehananda Bhatttacharya explains that the vangadeshprajaasya pragamyatan refers to a 23-yearly cycle in which the land of Vanga faces waves of emigration and immigration. The cycle begins with the exit of rajlakshmi, continues with the exit of rajvivek and rajbuddhi, and ends with the migration of first the male citizens (vangadeshaks) and then the female ones (vangadeshikas). The cycle then turns back on itself and the rajlakshmi, rajvivek and rajbuddhi, and finally the deshaks and deshikas return. The 23 year period of emigration and immigration suggest that the movement was driven by sunspot activity, with two complete solar cycles driving one complete wave of exile and return. From this it is clear that the knowledge of sunspots and solar flares was well known in Vedic times.

The next reference we find to the vangadeshprajaasya pragamyatan appears in the eleventh century Ayoghana-lavanaka-shaastra, the treatise on statecraft that is the equal of Kautilya’s Arthashastra but not as well known. In this compendium of strategies for the kings of Vanga-desh, the rishi Mrkshu explains that the cycle is beneficial, as the exile of the deshaks and deshikas itself drives the return of the rajlakshmi. The Ayoghana-lavanaka-shaastra was adopted enthusiastically not only by the rulers of Vanga-desh, but also by the ancient kingdom of Vaazhappazhaa. In combination with the ancient science of desha-khanda-vaastu, the rulers of Vaazhappazhaa were able to usher in unprecedented political stability and prosperity for their people. It is unfortunate that the ayoghana-lavanaka-shaastra has been neglected for so long by the contemporary rulers of India.

Mrkshu comments on the pragamyatan in a number of chapters, with references such as ‘lakshmina saha rajasya shobha naasti, sheelina saha rajasya shobha naasti, surbhina saha rajasya shobha naasti, sheelsurbhisarvavangasundarikahitina sahaiva asti asti asti‘, or, the welfare of the beautiful, talented and virtuous Vangikaa woman surpasses the ruler’s other preoccupations such as revenue, peace, and law and order. Mrkshu insists that the welfare of the Vangikaa is best achieved when she is encouraged to emigrate, and that the welfare of the state itself is driven through this. This is alluded to in the beautiful epigram ‘Vangadeshe na chalati na chalati, na karati cha‘.

Unfortunately after the Ayogana Lavanaka Shastra, few references to the 23 year cycle of migration can be found in historical sources for many centuries. The Fa Xi Er Li Zhe, a Chinese transalation of a seafaring manual for the traders plying between the Kalinga and Srivijaya, makes tantalising references to the trade goods, and states that ordinary passengers including musicians and dancers would pay for the seaborne  voyage from Vanga to Chozhanadu. The Maanagara Kaathal, a late Chola account of life in the capital city, makes mention of a courtesan and actress named Kamalini from the Vanga desh who used to perform with a court jester named Kamalahasavarman in dramatic enactments of the epic poem Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu. A commentary on the Parshurama-sutra written approximately seventy years, or three migration-cycles, after the Maanagara Kaathal, also makes mention of the Vaazhappazhaan  king Jonu who offered an alliance to the kings of the Vanga desh and married the Vangikaa princess Vipashika.

Alas, other than these tangential evidences and references of migration, the period from 1250 to 1750 does not have any further historical proof. The matter is not addressed directly again until the late eighteenth century, where we find the matter taken up in the correspondence between a Munshi named Ranjanpriyo Das and the East India Company. Munshi Das writes to his superiors, explaining that poor indigo production in plantations is due to a shortage of labourers that hits its peak every 23 years, and that this matter was alluded to in the Persian treatise, the Firmaan-e-Abd-ur-Razaq. He states that the treatise assures that first the labourer, and then the Hasina will eventually return to the Bangla Desh, a confirmation of the Shilabuddhi Sutra.

Despite our best efforts, Dr. Sircar and me have not been able to locate any copies of the Firmaan-e-Abd-ur-Razaq. It appears that the Greco-capitalist instincts of the British colonisers led them to ignore the wisdom that was included in the traditional sources and this important knowledge was lost forever until we at the Smirzkoff Centre were able to restore it to the importance it deserved, thanks to the care for scientific research expressed by the Soviet administration. It is our earnest hope that our rediscovery of the ancient cycle of migration will dispel the fears and anxieties harboured by Ms. Banerjee, and indeed by her readers.

(The writer is Hon. Director, Smirzkoff Centre for Historical Speculation in Pune, India and Director, Mehta-Vedic Sciences Project in London. He lives with his wife Valentina Dimitrieva Pandey, and twenty two children in suburban St.Petersberg. He can be contacted at acharya.somuchidononanda@pandey.ru)

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The Strategic Umbrella Unfurled

November 18th, 2008

The recent conclusion of the diplomacy surrounding the Indo-US nuclear treaty ends months of speculation on the implications for India’s overall relationship with the United States. While deep thinkers have expressed concern that the nuclear deal will empower rogue governments, others have pointed out that the nuclear deal represents a vote of confidence in India’s intention to handle nuclear material responsibly. However, neither of these viewpoints incorporated a semiotic analysis of nuclear deterrence or strategic diplomacy, which has diminished their usefulness for decision making. The semiotics of nuclear weapons, nuclear power, and South Asian geopolitics are intimately connected, and it would be unwise to understand these without first analysing the symbolic foundations that bind them all. In this piece, I will explore these symbolic foundations, which will hopefully add to the understanding and dispel confusion.

The cultural artefact which ties together the concerns at the heart of this argument is the umbrella, which has recently retaken its rightful place in popular culture with the popularity of Rihanna’s Umbrella. This makes my task of making the semiotic connections explicit easier.

At its heart, the umbrella is a metaphor for projecting power, or influence. The shade provided by an umbrella represents the protection offered by a strong central state to outlying regions or states from rogue elements, barbarians, or adversarial cultures. It is no coincidence that the threat to defend an ally with weapons of mass destruction is called bringing it under the nuclear umbrella, or that conglomerates transfer internal capital from one company to another under an umbrella strategy. We will now examine the umbrella’s semiotic significance in history, so that we may better understand the implications on nuclear strategy.

The Classical Umbrella

Using the umbrella as a metaphor for protection or strategic control originated in India1. The chakravartins of ancient and medieval India did not attempt direct conquest of the known world as Alexander did, but instead sought to bring it under their umbrella – by taking military, diplomatic, or cultural action to ensure that surrounding states would defer to their own geostrategy. Mahapadma Nanda, the adventurer who seized the throne of Magadha in the chaos following the demise of Ajatashatru, was the first Indian monarch to proclaim himself a one-umbrella sovereign. Mahapadma Nanda accomplished his vision for national greatness by slaughtering the corrupt nobles2 who were conducting palace intrigues. This allowed him to direct the energies of the North Indian kingdoms and republics to repelling the Greek and Bactrian invaders. Mahapadma Nanda’s umbrella of strategic vision allowed the states of the Gangetic plain to raise a combined army of two hundred thousand infantry, twenty thousand cavalry, and five thousand war elephants.

It was Mahapadma Nanda’s umbrella of miltary defence and reformed governance which allowed the university at Taxila to flourish without fear of attack from the Persians or the Greeks, and which allowed Kautilya to prepare his magnum opus and enable Chandragupta Maurya to create a unified Indian empire. The Mauryan, and then the Gupta dynasty, created their own umbrella of foreign policy, trade and a standing army which prevented further attacks from the west, and ensured submission and tribute from the kingdoms of the East.

The Medieval Umbrella

Tragically, the Dark and Middle ages were marked by the umbrella being eclipsed as a semiotic metaphor for alliance building and strategic control. The Dark ages were dominated by non-state actors, such as the Huns, the Vikings, the Transoxanian raiders, and the Teutonic knights. The dark ages and medieval era represented a stopper on the concept of national greatness, as small states got caught up in interminable conflict with each other and with non state actors. While there were occasional flashes of umbrella states and leaders re-emerging, such as Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire, none of these were able to sustain greatness or impose their strategic vision across a significant span of territory. Naturally, there was little or no umbrella-related research or umbrella-related culture in this time period.

The one state which was able to maintain the policy of the umbrella of protection and influence in the Middle Ages was the Chozha Empire under Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola. The Chozha emperors were acclaimed as chakravartins, whose white umbrella offered shade and protection to the three worlds. While this is  hyperbole, it cannot be denied that the umbrella of Chozha influence extended throughout the Indian ocean, to Srivijaya, Kamboj, Chavakam, and the Arab trade routes. It is also no surprise that the Saivite Chozhas naturally took to an umbrella-centric foreign policy. The umbrella is simultaneously a phallic symbol (when furled) and a yonic symbol (when unfurled). The parallel to the ardhanaareshwaravataram of Siva is clear3.

Four hundred years later, a similar thalassocratic empire was created by the Hansa, but they failed to leverage their umbrella of standardised legal practices and trade terms into an overarching state. Overall, the medieval era was a hiatus in the long and glorious history of the umbrella.

The Post-Renaissance Umbrella

The European Renaissance was also a renaissance for the umbrella – in its metaphorical as well as actual forms. Leonardo da Vinci, in his sketchbooks, developed new designs for parasols that foreshadowed the modern spoked umbrella. Meanwhile, Macchiavelli independently discovered the principles of an umbrella state first enunciated by Kautilya. The Peace of Westphalia4 and the end of the Crusades also laid the ground for the modern nation state, which would eventually evolve into an umbrella-based colonial empire.

Closer to the birthplace of the concept of the umbrella state, Shivaji united the Marathas, and created a confederacy which exerted control over the entire Deccan plateau, including major trade routes where the Marathas did not directly control territory. This absolute control allowed Shivaji to declare himself Chhatrapati, or wielder of the defensive umbrella. In an interesting parallel to the first ekchhatra chakravartin, Shivaji too was a shudra who rose to the monarchy, and who was declared a kshatriya by Gaga Bhatt, the disciple of my eminent ancestor, Acharya Sri Bhadrakumarasambhav Pandey.

However, the umbrella in popular culture truly flowered in Edwardian England, a reflection of British empire building and the projection of power through a standardised legal system, a dreadnought-based navy, and a formidable network of telegraph cables, merchant navy ships, and canals. The importance of the umbrella is clearly delineated in Wodehouse’s biographies of RE Psmith, among other important works of the period. The symbol of peace and protection found its greatest expression in the Cold War, though, as the umbrella became nuclear, and covered entire continents. The Cold War and Nehru’s flirtation with the Soviet Empire were reflected in Shri 420, where Raj Kapoor romances Nargis under an umbrella while wearing a Russian red hat. Ten years later, Britain acknowledged the American nuclear umbrella that protected Western Europe with Mary Poppins, a musical film about a nanny who floats down from heaven using a magic umbrella, and ushers in peace and prosperity. However, Mary Poppins was the last acknowledgment of umbrellas in popular culture, for many years, suggesting the waning symbolical importance of umbrellas as a new breed of non-state power centres such as Palestinian militants, Western European communist terrorists, and Colombian drug cartels appeared. At this point, however, I am unable to test the direction of causality. What is certain is that the umbrella faded out of popular culture, not to be seen again until 2007, when Rihanna released her extremely successful song by the same name.

The Umbrella in the Present Day

It is no surprise that the return of the umbrella to popular culture came in 2007, or that its return was such an astounding success. Rihanna’s Umbrella broke the record for iTunes downloads on debut, and narrowly missed being the best-selling single of 2007. This coincided with the deliberations over the Indo-US nuclear deal, as well as attempts by India, Australia, the United States, and Japan to create a new security umbrella over the Indian ocean. With the return of foreign policy centred around the projection of power and national greatness, it was inevitable that umbrellas would return to popular culture as well. The lyrics of Umbrella clearly point to the geostrategic implications of the nuclear deal and its ability to contain China’s growing influence over Asia – ‘Said I’ll always be a friend – took an oath I’ma stick it out till the end‘is a pointer to the formalisation of the treaty; while ‘These fancy things, will never come in between – You’re part of my entity, here for Infinity‘is a pointer to the nuclear deal being only one aspect of a deepening and permanent strategic partnership. The chorus – ‘You can stand under my umbrella – ella – ella – ella – ay – ay – ay‘ denotes the security that the strategic partnership will bring to the Indian Ocean from the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca.

As an aside, the interactions of the physical umbrella, the umbrella as popular culture symbol, and the umbrella as diplomatic policy in the current age are intriguing. The designers of the latest in umbrella technology are to be found in New York and London (examples may be found here, here, here, here, and here), the global financial centres and home to the creative class; the factories which produce umbrellas cheaply and in bulk are in East Asia; and the artist who has brought the umbrella back into popular culture is from Barbados. Semiotically, this depicts the upheaval in geopolitics – the creative vision for security umbrellas will be provided by the First World, the active execution will be performed by the tigers around the Indian Ocean, and the generation of popular support will fall to the previously marginalised nations which will benefit disproportionately from peace dividends.

The nuclear deal and joint naval exercises have been accompanied by one of the most popular depictions of umbrellas ever. As strategic relationships realign across the world, and more nations assume responsibility for projecting their military and diplomatic power to calm conflict zones, put rogue states and actors in their place, and develop strategies and conventions for facing global challenges such as climate change and the implementation of the MDGs; we shall undoubtedly see the re-emergence of umbrellas in music, film, and popular literature.

1: The umbrella as symbol of सहस्रार (the sahasrara chakra) in Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine, while interesting, has no immediate bearing on a discussion of modern day geopolitics.
2: Mahapadma Nanda’s vendetta against the nobles finds parallels in Parshurama’s slaughter of kshatriyas. For further reading on this subject, I recommend my father Dr. Acharya Somuchidononanda Pandey’s papers on the practice of the Parshurama cult in Vaazhapazha.
3: Naturally, the umbrella is therefore also a symbol for the struggle for transgender rights. However, a discussion of this issue is out of place in this particular article. If readers wish to study the synergies between Saivism, transgender rights, and foreign policy further, they may consult works by Dr. Tara Tatiana Pandey, and Sri Sri 22 Yevgeniy Yajmaan Pandey.
4: As I have discussed in my doctoral thesis, the Treaty of Westphalia led to the stable interaction of popular culture and politics not only for umbrellas, but for a variety of other symbols.

The author is a post-doctoral fellow of Semiotics in Popular Culture and Politics at the Università degli Studi di Parma and is also a visting consultant at the International Foundation for the Promotion of National Greatness. He can be contacted at boris.bhartriraj@pandey.ru.

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President-Elect Obama’s Challenge

November 9th, 2008

The Times of India reports that American President-elect Obama has in his current staff a person with Gujrati and VHP links.

Gujarati expat Sonal Shah (40), an eminent economist who heads Googles philanthropic arm and has now been appointed an advisory board member by US President-elect Barack Obama to assist his team in smooth transition of power, comes from a family rooted in Sangh Parivar in Gujarat. 

Her father Ramesh Shah, who hails from Gabat village in Sabarkantha, has been associated with Vishwa Hindu Parishad for the last 30 years. The family is now settled in Houston, Texas, where Shah founded the Gujarati Samaj.

It is eminently obvious that this insidious appointment is proof enough of the entirely corrupt nature of American politics. A fact that cannot be denied. It is now only natural that Narendra Modi’s influence will go on to infiltrate the White House.

But Barack Obama, who promises change, might have some recourse after all. Noted Feminist scholar and biologist Dr. Alexandra Bremer wrote in the early 1980s of how associated guilt is inherited and therefore should be consciously cleansed in order to compensate for the evils of our history. In Dr Bremer’s thesis, no woman could be a True Feminist because they all had men as their fathers, and therefore were bound to be tainted by this patriarchy.

Crucially, Bremer goes on to point that the only way to atone for this inherent pollution is to make conscious efforts to eradicate the vestiges of the old. She referred to this process as synthesistic revolution. It involved a total denial and rejection of the paternal genetic inheritances. This was often acheived by simple acts such as defacing the father-image in the family album, or in certain required extreme circumstances, patricide.

In the Randall Zakuroff chair, we are of the opinion that Bremer’s theory offers solutions beyond the field of gender studies. Obama’s rhetoric has been promising, but his very first actions have been disappointing. So what America now needs is not another pseudo-Socialist New Deal, but genuine Great Leap Forward. A conscious eradication of all the strands of White-Greceo-Capitalist-Patriarchy from the United States. What Roosevelt learnt and imperfectly imitated from what was the failure that was Soviet Russia, Obama must replicate, but with intelligence, the history of what is today the success that is Communist China.

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The Ancient History of Test Cricket

November 7th, 2008

It appears to be cricket season with India performing quite well against Australia. At this juncture, it would be befitting if one were to go back to scholarly history to understand the truly ancient roots of this great sport.

Some time ago Nitin Pai alerted us by email to a report in the Times of India.

Terian notes that in the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy, translated into Armenian in the 6th century from a much older lost Syriac original, a passage tells of Jesus playing what may well be the precursor of cricket, with a club and ball. 

Terian, who discovered the manuscript more than a decade ago at the Saint James Armenian Monastery in the Old City of Jerusalem, says he has now identified the same passage in a couple of other manuscripts of the same gospel of which some 40 copies exist in various archival collections in Europe and the Middle East, including the oldest copy now in Yerevan, the capital of the Armenian Republic. 

I too have come across many scholarly works mentioning some form of ’Cricket’ being played in the middle-east as early as the 5th Century BCE. One notable treatise being that by Dr Yippi Schlein of Vanderbater University. Since its publication in early 1997 I have met Dr Schlein twice and have had the good fortune to discuss this with him.

Dr Schlein mentions a quaint Bar Mitzvah ritual where the young boy is given a thin flexible reed and made to stand in front of three stone pillars. 5 other boys are each given 6 rocks to hurl at the pillars. The task for the Bar is to defend the 3 stone pillars with the reed. This ritual is supposed to teach the young man that it is well neigh impossible to do so unless one were to physically stand in the way of the pillars, which would entail being stoned. This may well have evolved into the Haj ritual of stoning the devil, and the Biblical parable where Jesus shames those trying to stone the prostitute.

According to Dr Schlein, this practice died out by the later Roman times itself. Since he mentioned this to me way back in the year 2000 at the ACISTI conference in Tehran, I have not been able to spend too much time researching this, but have been able to collect some data which I have still not completely collated.

Of significance is one particularly remarkable piece of Archaeological evidence. This is yet to be fully studied and I have been in close contact with Dr Ahmed Kayyuosti of Kandahar who is working on a full-fledged paper which is to be published soon. As recently as the year 2006, Afghan Archaeologists digging near Bamiyan found a Greek/Armenian Ashokan inscription which also mentions this ’sport’. The Hebrew name for it was T’ost Kirzah, in Sanskrit it was called Thesta Krishkatam (Tettha Kriccum in Pali).

But instead of the reed, and the three pillars, there is a mention of young buddhist monks-in-training running continuously for five days between two sets of wooden spikes separated by a distance of 44 angas. The object of this ritual was to run as few times as possible between the two spikes until an elderly monk made a sign of a huge square on the ground (the Thalavischa Ripla Yantra), and everyone stopped and looked up at the hills overlooking the monastery. If a particular star (most probably the red giant 15Y Theta Pleiades) was visible over the ridge, then the young trainee was to stop and return to the Vihara, otherwise, he should continue running. The ‘game’ was supposed to teach the boys about the ways to escape rebirth (one of the spikes represented birth and the other, death). There is an anecdotal mention of a monk named Rahula from the Dakshina Desha who is reputed to have ’attained nirvana’ within 5 ‘life cycles’ every time he ran.

It appears that with the advent of later mystic Buddhist branches such as Tibetan and Theravada Buddhism, Thetta Kriccum was significantly shortened from the original 5 days to half a day or so. There also seems to have been an ideological shift. While ancient Buddhism seemed to allow for ‘no-result’ in a game, the later forms enforced a result in the game where there was utmost pressure on the Buddhist monks to either attain Nirvana or renounce the faith. Like all manmade artefacts, this sport too seems to have had its life-cycle complete when it is disappeared from popularity and was later revived in England in the form of Test Cricket.

It is quite possible that Marco Polo was the first European to come across the game as a variant could well have been played by the Central-Asian nomadic peoples. How it reached England and became the modern game as we know will be the subject of an entirely new study.

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The cultural subjugation of Bharat by India: A Deconstruction of Savita Bhabhi

October 27th, 2008

On the surface, Savita Bhabhi, billed as India’s first toon porn star does not appear to have much cultural significance beyond the obvious. The attainment of the unattainable is a popular leitmotif in pornographic material. The teacher, the friend’s mother and (as in this case) the elder sister-in-law are frequent objects of adolescent lust and consequently are overrepresented in pornographic literature (I use literature as a catch-all term that includes motion pictures). In cartoon pornography, with the freedom of not having to use actors and greater narrative freedom, this tendency is only exaggerated. This being the case, Savita Bhabhi seems simply like the last in a long line of pretty typical sexual fantasies. The travelling salesman makes it with a lonely housewife. Adolescent boys seduce an attractive older woman. Infidelity takes place right under the cuckolded spouses’ noses. These are very common themes in pornography.

However, with the more recent episodes, it has become clear that there is a deeper cultural subtext to Savita Bhabhi. This starts becoming apparent in Episode 4, where it is revealed that Savita Bhabhi lost her virginity in what is implied to be a rural setting. A careful reader will however have noticed by now that Savita Bhabhi is an urban middle class housewife. She probably speaks fluent English, and is in every way a citizen of India, the land of exploding opportunity rather than the poor, backward, repressed land of Bharat. Savita Bhabhi is obviously someone who has made the transition from Bharat to India, and is secure and confident of her new status.

Over the course of the series, we see her coming into contact with denizens of Bharat. The bra salesman in the first episode is an example. Another is Gopal, the elderly domestic servant and his replacement Manoj. Manoj is in fact the object of her desire in episode 5, who she uses for her gratification despite the obvious power disparity in the relationship. I found this episode the most revealing, as this is where the subjugation motif is most apparent. The sexual act itself starts out as a massage given by the servant boy to his mistress, who makes her dominance known through several small cues, such as an admonition not to get any oil on her sari, or a warning to the servant that he must not let this dalliance divert him from his work. He is the giver, she the receiver. When the roles reverse for a brief period, she reminds him of the nature of their relationship, and makes him service her again. Manoj the servant cannot even commence the act of copulation without her permission, which he must ask multiple times before it is granted.

The subtext reeks of subjugation. The subjugation, no less of Bharat by India. Savita Bhabhi has power over Manoj even though she is the woman and he the man – an inversion of the traditional power structure. This represents the power disparity between Bharat and India being the reverse of what would be predicted simply by the populations, and therefore raw political power (in a representative democratic system) of the two entities. As Savita controls Manoj’s actions, so does India command the multitudes of Bharat. Savita directs the means of Manoj’s gratification; this parallels the dependence for their entertainment by millions of denizens of Bharat on entities controlled by English-speaking Indians. Manoj must seek Savita’s permission before starting on the means of obtaining release, just as Bharatiyas depend for their sustenance on an economic system controlled by Indians. In Manoj’s unfailing use of the honorific ji is addressing Savita, we may infer the use of honorifics and other entitlements by Indians to cement the seeming of their superiority over the lowly Bharatiyas. In a final, poignant moment in the episode, we see the at the conclusion of his labour, the unsated Savita gives Manoj another chore, holding out the promise of another unequal encounter. This clearly represents the eternal nature of the unequal system they enjoy in the minds of the Indians, and their confidence in their continued ascendancy over the Bharatiyas, whom they intend to exploit forever, a sort of Thousand-year-Reich that lasts forever in the mind of the oppressor.

Dr Tara Tatiana Pandey MA (Sophism) Lund University, PhD (Literary Deconstructionism of Popular Culture) St. Thomas-Freiburg Universität is the Alan Sokal Fellow of Egregious Deconstruction at the University of California, Sunnydale. Her book Tijuana Bibles in Modern Theology is now out in paperback. She can be contacted at tara.tatiana@pandey.ru .

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A shared Tamil past for humanity – preview to the ground-breaking paper by Mikhail Murugavel Pandey

October 3rd, 2008

என் இனிய மக்களே!

The better part of 2006 saw me and my lovely research team piecing together a ground breaking puzzle that will, when finally revealed, have far-reaching consequences. I have, with the help of my team and the guidance of my father and mother, finally pierced through the layers of smoke and blatant white lies, cleared the confusion of generations and seen through the evil conspiracies of the white colonialists.

This is a conspiracy that is deep seated in our modern world, a world that has lost its sense of history and its knowledge of and appreciation of tradition and antiquity and one that has been progressively dumbed down with new fangled technology to grasp the meanings and implications of such a conspiracy.

I have been fortunate to meet and wed a woman who has opened my eyes to this global hoodwinking and my soon to be published paper in the journal Nature will, I am sure, shock and stun audiences and I hope finally bring to mainstream attention the work that I have dedicated my life to.

Today, I shall present a brief sketch of the paper I am presenting and some of the conclusive evidence my team (with my supervision and insightful intelligence) have uncovered.

My paper, entitled “Tracing the origin of human civilisation and culture to the Kumari Kandam – A shared Tamil past for humanity” presents the theory, nay, actual and real historical happenings that saw the spread of man from ancient Tamil nation to populate and enrich other continents.

As an example, I present to you the life of Veerasinga Thevar, known to the world today as Vercingetorix the Gaul.

Veerasingam was of the mukkulathor community – a fiercely martial race that had its origins in the late stone age in what is now Madurai district of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Mukkulathor, meaning ‘they of the three clans’ were the ruling class of ancient Pandya, Chola and Chera countries. The three clans, respectively, were the Kallars (raiders), Maravars (warriors) and the Agamudayars (the fort-builders/defenders)

It is well known that the ancient Tamils ruled over a large kingdom that stretched between what is now Atlantic (Akkalaianthakan Samudiram – Ocean of the Conqueror of Akkala) – and Indian Oceans, then a contiguous landmass connected by land bridges.

Is it any surprise then that the Mukkalathor, especially the raiding Kallars (who gave us the name Gauls) and the warring Maravars (who inspired the Greek god of War, Mars) were in power over Celtic England and were the chief adversary of the upstart Romans?

Little is known of Veera Singam’s early life. Like all of the Kallar clan, he learnt to ride a horse and wield an axe. (The ancient marital art of Axe-wielding in Tamil Nadu is well known. I refer to my father Dr. Pandey’s paper on the land of Vaazhapazha and Parasurama cult)

Our first record of him comes from the Celtic tribe of Scotti, in particular from a toddy tapper (akin to the ancient Sanargal of Tamilagam) called Vallakarar.

Vallakarar – anglicised to Walker – writes in his memoirs that a young Gaul had once raided his stable and took possession of a fine horse. Confronting the thief in the market place the next day, Walker finds he has bitten off more than he can chew. For the thief is none but Veera, and a fine strapping young man he is. “Like the horse, so the rider…” says Walker in his native tongue.

Permit me a small digression as I go a few centuries back to early Roman times. I assure you this veering off-course is essential to the tale, nay, history I narrate. Many centuries before Veera Singam’s final and eventually unsuccessful stand against Caesar, in what we now know as Rome, a new tribe is born.

Historians today, blindsided by propaganda of vested interests, only talk of Romulus and Remus and their founding of the city. I ask these people, where did Romulus and Remus come from? Who were their parents? What of their ancestry? Or to employ the beautiful expression in my adopted language, “அவன் யாரு, குலம் என்ன? கோத்திரம் என்ன?“

I have answered these questions with sufficient material evidence and beyond doubt in my paper. Briefly, Romulus and Remus are but the last of the telegu speaking nomadic tribes of the Upper Mediterranea.

The language Telegu, a member of the Northern Dravidian language family, had borrowed words from Prakrit and Pali, and after modifying the grantha script suitably began to assert its independence. Such incidences are rather common throughout history and Tamil, the oldest language in the world has had more than its fair share.

Telegu was spoken mainly by nomadic tribes inhabiting Rayalaseema district, led by a chieftain of the name Ramulu Naik. A severe draught forced them north and west, towards the as yet unexplored territories of Madi Terrai (Upper Grounds). Here, Ramulu Naik dies facing a rabid wolf, and here his sons Ramulu Naik II and Rawusu establish a city for their clansmen, adopting the practices they learnt in Tamil heartland.

Proof for this is found in the similarities of stone-age tools found in the Mesolithic strata of both Tibre and Godavari delta, as well as in the similarities of names between Sumerians, Romans and modern Andhraiites. I refer to the well-researched and documented paper by my colleague Samyuktha Kooniah

As you can see, Rome had flourished because it had blindly followed the tested principles and practices of Tamilagam. Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy, the practice of building large temples and public halls were and have always been the domain of Pandya, Chera and Chola kings. This was simply expanded upon by the nomadic Romans.

Yet and knowing fully well this, the Romans dared impose their will on Celtic (Kallu-tukki – stone lifters – an affectionate, and mildly derogative nickname given by the Tamizhargal to the tribes who helped build Hadrian’s Wall) Britain and challenge the Kallar pride.

Veera Singam – the son of his father, the beneficiary of millions of years of evolution and learning, the descendent of the mighty Kallars and a capable general of the Mukkalathor army does not take this slur lightly. A call is sent and every red-blooded Tamilan takes to arms.

Maravars from Kumari Kandam and from Madurai, Vellalars from Kanceepuram and Kumbakkonam prepare for battle. Truth and justice are on their side, as are numbers. The Tamil nation envelops Romapuri on the west and the east.

Tamil pride will prevail.

But, the wily Romans resort to subterfuge. Kishore – Caesar’s names given to him at birth – had years ago fallen in love with and married the Egyptian princess கிளி-பெட்டாச்சி – Cleopatra.

The Egyptians had, due to long-standing trade relations with the Chola provinces, in particular Poompugar and Vaadiyar, had learnt the science of boat-building and were in control of a mighty Navy.

With this to back him and his earlier forays into the Cisalpine provinces of Gallic Europe, Caesar declares war. The Egyptian pirate navy forms a blockhead in the seas. Though small in number compared to the massive fleet of Tamilagam, the Egypitans have observed Spartan and Athenian defence of Thermopylae and Salamis against the Persians.

The Tamil Navy faces the Egyptians at Mearku Nadu (Western Province – modern Morocco) and takes a substantial hit. Meanwhile Caesar’s army thunders into Britain. Veera Singam awaits him on his horse and his Aayirathupadai (Aayirathupadai oor we now call Heathrow).

The Tamil women are as strong and capable as their men and they accompany Veera’s army. In any case, they are assured of victory for it is their Veera – their Thalapathy.

For four days and four nights they battle. Each night, the Romans take more victims than the Kallars. Veera Singam’s military manoeuvres and his genes assure his victory even on the fifth day. But, stocks are running low and there is no news from his homeland. The promised navy and foodgrains are yet to arrive. Veerasingam, with the help of the Agamudayars, raises a fort, and begins to change battle plans.

This is the sign Caesar awaits for hidden deep inside his army are descendents of the Perucali clan. The Perucali are experts are weakening forts by tunnelling under and around walls and they are now set upon the Gaul fort.

His fort destroyed, his supplies blockaded and his men battle-weary, Veera Singam has no option but to surrender. But Tamizhargal cannot step backward till their very last breath and Veera is no exception.

At night he and a band of brothers steal across battle lines and reach enemy camp. Here, true to their calling, they raid the stables, let loose the Roman horses, take possession of their principle weapons.

All to no avail. Caesar who knows of the Kallar tradition sets a trap for Vercingetorix in the armoury. Captured though he may be, the Lion does not lose his pride and spits upon Caesar.

What happens next is something no true Tamilan will narrate, nor hear, without his blood boiling and his nerves tingling. I shall therefore end the history of Vercingetorix with the statement that he attained what all Tamil soldiers dream of – a martyr’s heaven.

My paper “Tracing the origin of human civilisation and culture to the Kumari Kandam – A shared Tamil past for humanity” has more such histories and undisputable evidence that bring to light the conspiracy and charade that humankind has been dumb witness to.

My team and I will field questions about my paper at the World Tamil Conference to be held in Tiruchirapalli the coming year. I look forward to meeting like minded people and my Tamil brethren there.

வணக்கம்!

Mikhail Murugavel Pandey is an assistant Professor of Tamil Epigraphy in the Madurai Kamaraj University from where he acquired his Ph.D in Tamil and a D.Phil in Cultural Anthropology. He is also a trained archaeologist having worked under Dr. Mortimer Wheeler. Born Stanislav Skanda Pandey, he is the 11th offspring and the seventh son of Dr. Acharya Pandey and Dr. Mrs. Valentina Pandey. Holidaying in the French Reunion Islands, he met Muthazhagi, a French-Tamil Creole native and wooed her successfully. She introduced him to the world of Tamil poetry and Bhaarathi, in honour of which Stanislav changed his name to the now famous Mikhail Murugavel. He can be contacted at mikhail.murugavel@pandey.ru

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The Imperial Objectification of the Othered Culture

August 17th, 2008

A Critical Review of Anees Bazmee’s Neo-Colonialist, Greco-Capitalist Text, ‘Singh is Kinng’

I have a great deal of skepticism when it comes to approaching the works produced by present-day Bollywood. The underlying discourse is predominantly Greco-capitalist, anti-feminist, and rooted in the perverse dialectic of right-wing bourgeois hypernationalism. Anees Bamzee’s film Singh is Kinng with its imperial tone and othering of a minority culture does not succeed in breaking past my low expectations.

There is a great deal to criticise in Singh is Kinng. However I shall focus primarily on the Orientalist undercurrent of the text. In his support of the imperialist project, the producer Vipul Shah has created a text that is unrelenting in its placement of the Panjabi culture as being othered, culturally separate, and in contrast to the Gujeonormative themes of ‘financial’ and organised cultures.

The postcolonial scholar Purity Matchaba-Blavatsky identified the Western consciousness of tribalism as being the mechanism through which colonial powers imposed Western modes of thought and identity on occupied powers, thus perpetuating Greco-capitalistic structures of power and control even after ending their occupations of subaltern nations. This Western consciousness has been taken up by the Gujeratis, seen in their puritan adoption of temperance, their anti-female insistence on dhandho, and their remaking of the nationalistic identity by the ’symbolism’ of placing a Gujerati individual on the national currency – with quasi-ontological implications of establishing the Gujerati culture as dominant and in opposition to other minority cultures within India.

The dominance of financialism and feudal context is seen first of all in the title. Why is the title Singh is Kinng? Why does Bollywood refuse to celebrate characters who are not privileged members of the monarchy? Why is the reality of the peasantry not being depicted? The celebration of Kings rather than queens is also a celebration of maleness, which as the Dutch-German scholar Nettrich-Kahn has pointed out, is a subjugation of the femaleness. The subtexts that pervade the Indian film industry prevent it from discussing the proletariat, the queer, and the conjugated minorities in meta-realistic terms.

The retranslation of Gujerati ’superiority’ throughout the national cultural discourse has led to a false consciousness in ‘Indian’ minorities such as the Panjabis, the Bengalees, and the Jaats wherein they allow their cultural experience to be shaped through Gujerati portrayals. As the noted authority on Orientalism and sub-altern cultures Rene-Luc Pascal has pointed out, it is impossible for the culturally dominant mode to be anything but aggressive and imperial in its treatment of cultural minorities. The portrayal will be exotified, objectified, anti-diversity, anti-minority, and othering.

This exotification and othering pervades the movie, as we see when the so-called ‘humour’ of the film is derived from setting Panjabi culture as a counterpoint to the Greco-capitalist norms of ‘law’ and ‘civilisation’. This is plain from the main characters being named ‘Happy’ and ‘Lucky’, a clear pointer to the noble-savage essentialism imposed upon minority cultures. By portraying Panjabi characters as criminals when they are in the Western society of Australia, the movie reinforces Gujeonormative prejudices about Panjabi rusticity. The noted film critic Godot Nair has appropriately pointed out the dominance of the Western archetype in non-parallel cinema. In Singh is Kinng the Western archetype is demonstrated by the cornflakes which Ranvir Shorey’s character is seen to be eating. By posing parathas as a counterpoint to cornflakes, Anees Bazmee seeks to deny the agricultural experience of farmers starving in Vidarbha and the catastrophic fall in foodgrain consumption. This further demonstrates the neo-liberal and neo-colonial aspirations of the filmmaker.

The most appalling aspect of the ‘film’ is its refusal to address the issue of the Persian Gulf War in its proper context. The film centres its plot in Egypt, Australia, and Punjab, yet refuses in the most cavalier manner to discuss Australia’s illegitimate and immoral support of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. The issue of Panjabis being forced into the United States Armed Forces to obtain green cards and the attendant themes of person-of-colour immigration and Greco-capitalistic fascism are cast aside without a thought.

The Indo-radical spiritual-charismatic healer Paithyonkaari Amma has said “It does not make it easier, to look into those sad eyes that stare through your window, while you sit in air-conditioned comfort.” For the viewers who sit in air-conditioned multiplexes, it has become easy to participate in the neo-imaging of the Imperial project and impose artificial constructs of ‘understanding’ upon the minority, non-Greco-capitalist aspirations of millions of Panjabis.  Singh is Kinng with its crass support of capitalism, imperialism, monarchy, maleness, and its even crasser rejection of the experience of immigrants, sexual minorities, femaleness, and the oppressed peoples of Iraq and Vidarbha shows itself to be lacking in empathy, sympathy, compassion, and guilt. It is heartless and unjust and must be overthrown immediately!

The writer, Dr. (Mrs.) Valentina Dimitrieva Pandey M.A. (lit.), M. Phil (illit.), Ph. D. (corres.), M.A.S. University, Darjeeling,  is the Randall Zakuroff Chair of Gender Studies at the Departrment of Social Sciences, at the University of St. Petersburg. She can be contacted at valentina.dimitrieva@pandey.ru

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The Great Brahminical Conspiracy – Part 1

July 30th, 2008

The UPA government survived the trust vote, and the farce on display would have put the best script writers to shame. The so-called Left voted along with the so-called Right in a ex-post futile attempt to topple a so-called Centrist government. Everyone was caught up in the drama, with horse-trading allegations, point and counter-points about the nuclear deal, and shifting loyalties. In this whole charade, yet again, glaring pointers to the Great Brahminical Conspiracy were ignored by all and sundry. All? No, not all. Mayawati, in her frustration, unknowingly made a reference to it when she said that the upper caste dominated parties had conspired to keep a Dalit woman from becoming the Prime Minister. Sadly, her remark was dismissed summarily without realizing that it struck at the core of a well-guarded secret. The Great Brahminical Conspiracy has managed to remain the best kept secret in Indian politics for over 80 years now. It is the subject of my doctoral dissertation at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and as a conscientious student of political science, I think it is incumbent upon me to share this secret with everyone else.

So what is the Great Brahminical Conspiracy? Think about it. Almost all the Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, and Presidents of this country have been from the brahmin caste. Is it not suspicious that in a country with a decently functioning democracy the ruling class is almost completely dominated by a community that makes up barely 10 percent of its population? Indeed, the Indian Right has been almost overtly brahminical in their ideology. One of the oft-repeated observations in intellectual circles in India is the fact that the top post of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has exclusively been held by brahmins, in fact almost exclusively Maharashtrian Chitpavan Brahmins.

What escapes attention is the fact that even the leadership of the Indian Left has been a brahminical hegemony. Look at the current Politburo or indeed Politburos over the years, and see if the proportion of brahmins is anywhere close to their proportion in the general population. Of course, this fact is never mentioned because the Left has successfully created the illusion that caste is irrelevant in their sphere of dominance. That caste is a non-issue in West Bengal and Kerala. It is all about class. And in that lies the germ of the driving philosophy of the great brahminical conspiracy. By creating an illusion of the irrelevance of caste, brahmins are free to dominate the Left, without really attracting the same charges of caste-ism as the Right does. H K Surjeet was the exception, but then he was not Hindu. Take him away and then examine the who’s who of the Indian Left and an ominous pattern starts to emerge.

Then there’s the Congress. Everyone talks about how it has been a one-dynasty party. That the Nehru-Gandhis are the royalty of the party, with a birthright to lead it. Fair enough. But is it just a coincidence that the dynasty (which should rightfully be called just the Nehru dynasty, for apart from the sperm donated by Feroze Gandhi, there is nothing non-Nehru about it) is also a brahmin dynasty? In the pre-British days, the only Hindus considered to have a birthright over governance were from the warrior Kshatriya caste (the one glaring exception being of course the Peshwas who, incidentally were from the same sub-caste as the RSS leadership). Now things have changed to such an extent that a brahmin family is considered the royal dynasty of India.

Brahmins thus dominate the leadership of all three major national-level political entities in India, despite the fact that ideologically speaking, they should dominate just one. Is it not peculiar that although Mahatma Gandhi, a member of the trader vaishya caste, almost singularly dominated the landscape of Indian politics through entirely non-violent means, and ushered in principles of equality, every major ideology in Indian politics is now dominated by brahmins? Of course, we have some supposed lower-caste politicians gaining prominence, like Mayawati, Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh. But they always play support roles and never call the shots. This is not just an accident, nor can it be fully explained by the “head start principle” (i.e. brahmins got a head start in education so they dominate all streams of ideology from the right to the left) over 6 decades after independence.

This brahminical dominance is the result of a well crafted strategy aimed at perpetuating the hegemony of a numerically insignificant community over a country of a billion “others”. When I elaborate on this strategy completely in subsequent parts, some of you might be tempted to dismiss it as a crackpot conspiracy theory. Some might even draw parallels to the idea of Knights Templar/Freemasons secretly ruling the world. But the evidence for the Great Brahminical Conspiracy is overwhelming. And this evidence is archival, historic as well as circumstantial in nature.

Before I conclude this post, let me leave you with some questions. When was the Communist Party of India formed? When was the RSS formed? When was V D Savarkar released from prison by the British? When did Jawaharlal Nehru start gaining prominence in the Congress Party? And finally, when did B R Ambedkar start his movement and gain prominence of threatening and competitive proportions? Remember or look up these dates, and you will be more prepared for my subsequent posts.

Pyotr Periyar Pandey is a PhD Candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. He is working on his dissertation titled “The Great Brahminical Conspiracy: An Investigation into the Antecedents of the Hegemony of a Numerically Insignificant Community over the Polity of the Diverse Indian Nation”. He can be contacted at pyotr.periyar@pandey.ru

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The Raja-mandala Re-centred

July 15th, 2008

In view of the current controversies pertaining to the projection of power (Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), it is necessary to examine this concept closely. The semiotics of international power dynamics are complicated. We are fortunate that the controversy on the projection of power erupted at the same time that a mainstream cultural artefact which adequately metaphoricalises this concept was released into the mainstream.

The cultural artefact is in fact the Hindi movie Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na. While on the surface it appears to be a simple teenage romance, closer examination reveals it to be a profound parable on the nature of power projection. The movie is remarkable in the breadth of geostrategic concepts it examines, and also for the subtlety of its metaphors.

The lead characters in the motion picture are named Jai and Aditi. Jai is a derivation of जय, or victory; and Aditi is the Infinite, or the limitless goddess. The love story of Jai and Aditi therefore represents the fact that there are unlimited paths to victory, or greatness. If however we invert our perspectives and use a classical Marxist reading, it may also represent the fact that comprehensive victory requires the prime mover (कर्ता) to make the most of an unlimited number of challenges and opportunities. Both these interpretations are consistent with a Realist approach to international affairs.

The supporting characters are also a hat-tip to the various paths to establishing national greatness, as they are named Bombs (signifying the importance of military prowess), Jignesh (signifying the necessity for the pursuit of knowledge and R&D), Ravindran (a nod to a robust energy policy), and Shaleen (again, a nod to energy policy).

The semiotic significance of the names is however not as important as of the plotline itself, which explores a startling number of geostrategy and international relations concepts. Most important of these concepts is the raja-mandala (राज मंडल), or strategy for the control of opposing tensions. The Chalukya king Pulakesin II performed the most exemplary execution of this strategy in South Asian history, expanding along the contours of the mandala – first eastwards into Konkan, then northwards into the Gangetic Plain, then east into Kalinga, and finally established dominance over Kanjeevaram and the Pallavas. Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na updates raja-mandala for the twenty-first century, and skillfully compresses the exposition of this complex strategy into a three hour movie (including songs).

When we trace the path of conflict through the motion picture, the expression of the raja-mandala concept becomes clear. We are presented with conflict almost as soon as the movie begins, as the narrators describe how Jai defuses a conflict situation without resorting to violence – a metaphor for how a nation projects power not necessarily through its own military, but also through diplomacy and the threat of military retaliation from allies and international bodies – represented here as parental discipline from a college trustee.

The next conflict depicted in the picture shows Jai exposed to a conflict situation at a disco where two burly cowboys are harassing a lady. Once again, Jai’s approach to this situation is not direct violence, but a subterfuge where he warns the cowboys with a foul disease if they continue on their course of action. This too, represents a projection of power without direct military engagement – except that in this case the lever used is not the stick of retaliatory attacks from allies, but the carrot of resources – soft power, in other words.

Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na also contains warnings against the improper application of force. The scene in which Jai and Savitri face off against Inspector Waghmare at the police station and accomplish nothing except earning Waghmare’s enmity is a scathing indictment of Operation Parakram, which had no beneficial results and terrible costs on morale, personnel, and the exchequer.

The third conflict is Jai’s violent engagement with Sushant, where they come to blows. Here the movie takes an unambiguous stand that violence and military force is a crucial component of the toolkit of power projection, and that the selective and direct application of force is sometimes unavoidable in the pursuit of national interest. It is not pretty – as evinced by the ugly bruises on Jai’s face – but it is necessary.

Prior to the final play of the Raja-Mandala, Jai faces his greatest challenge. Having almost completed the raja-mandala, he now finds himself thrown into jail by Waghmare, and in danger of losing everything. Two vital geostrategic concepts are now brought out. Firstly, his incarceration at the crucial moment demonstrates the dangers of over-extending one’s strategic reach – lessons learnt by Napoleon at Russia and Israel after the Six-Day War. Secondly, the fact that he is released through the intervention of his former adversaries – the urban cowboys – brings out the oft-quoted but poorly understood dictum that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests. Again, another tool is brought out from the power projection toolkit – this time, it is the threat of total annihilation. Twentieth century parallels include South Africa and Libya’s abandonment of their nuclear weapon programs.

Having established complete supremacy over all his adversaries, Jai is now in a position to complete his circuit of the raja-mandala, and expolit the limitless opportunities this opens up, by confessing his love to Aditi. Having successfully projected power, all obstacles now vanish, and he is able to bend the strategic contours of the situation to his own purposes. A transportation strike which leaves others without means of conveyance only means that Jai has an empty road to himself, all the way from Horniman Circle to Sahar Airport; and so can gallop to his destination without facing traffic jams.

In the climactic moments of the movie, Jai completes the raja-mandala by facing an entirely new set of adversaries – airport security. He tackles these by hiding in X-ray machines, jumping over obstacles, and running fast – the parallels to rapid decision making, special military operations, and espionage as tools of foreign policy are obvious, though muted.

Indeed, the four adversaries which Jai encounters on his raja-mandala are themselves parallels for the various rivals a nation state will encounter. The lout at the beginning of the movie who is overcome with the threat of violence from a third party represents rogue states such as Indonesia during the Konfrontasi with Malaysia, resolved through the intercession of Great Britain. The cowboys represent a superpower throwing its weight about, but which can be reined in through skilful negotiations and economic transactions.

Sushant stands for aggressively expansionist states such as Nazi Germany or Spain under the Philip II, where military confrontation is the only possible response. Finally, the rapid action security team at the airport represents the emerging threat of non-state actors – terrorist groups, who can be combated only through special operations, and under a new paradigm.

Although it will require three hours on the part of the viewer, Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na makes the fundamental principles of international relations evident to even the meanest intelligence. Abbas Tyrewala must be commended for creating such a remarkable beginner’s text on foreign policy.

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The author is a post-doctoral fellow of Semiotics in Popular Culture and Politics at the Università degli Studi di Parma and is also a visting consultant at the International Foundation for the Promotion of National Greatness. He can be contacted at boris.bhartriraj@pandey.ru.

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