International Relations in the Age of Empire

India: an Empire in Denial

Maoist fighters training in Chattisgarh state in central India in 2006

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"..What we�re witnessing is the most successful secessionist struggle ever waged in independent India � the secession of the middle and upper classes from the rest of the country. It�s a vertical secession, not a lateral one. They�re fighting for the right to merge with the world�s elite somewhere up there in the stratosphere... to equate a resistance movement fighting against enormous injustice with the government which enforces that injustice is absurd. The government has slammed the door in the face of every attempt at non-violent resistance. When people take to arms, there is going to be all kinds of violence � revolutionary, lumpen and outright criminal. The government is responsible for the monstrous situations it creates...There is a civil war in Chhattisgarh sponsored, created by the Chhattisgarh government, which is publicly pursing the Bush doctrine: if you�re not with us, you are with the terrorists. The lynchpin of this war, apart from the formal security forces, is the Salva Judum � a government-backed militia of ordinary people forced to become spos (special police officers). The Indian State has tried this in Kashmir, in Manipur, in Nagaland. Tens of thousands have been killed - thousands tortured, thousands have disappeared. Any banana republic would be proud of this record. Now the government wants to import these failed strategies into the heartland... I have no doubt that the Maoists can be agents of terror and coercion too. I have no doubt they have committed unspeakable atrocities. I have no doubt they cannot lay claim to undisputed support from local people � but who can? Still, no guerrilla army can survive without local support. That�s a logistical impossibility. And the support for Maoists is growing, not diminishing. That says something. People have no choice but to align themselves on the side of whoever they think is less worse.does this mean that people whose dignity is being assaulted should give up the fight because they can�t find saints to lead them into battle?. " 'It�s outright war and both sides are choosing their weapons'- Arundhati Roy March 2007
 

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"... Endless platitudes abound about  (Indian) 'national unity' and the catholicity and durability of 'Indian culture'... (but) our national identity has not been forged through a definitive articulation of a national-popular collective will as has been claimed... It seems urgent, then, that we pose certain crucial and important questions about ourselves: How are we a 'nation'? What are the historical and cultural markers of our 'nation-hood'? Is our national identity the product of a `national popular will'?... The Indian state is of course determined to prevent these questions from being asked. In this context it seems logical that we ask: What is the 'Indian' nation we seek to preserve? These questions were posed with great alacrity and boldness by the ideologues of the Dravidian movement in Tamilnadu (among others) during the early decades of this century..."  Interrogating 'India' - a Dravidian  Viewpoint - V.Geetha and S.V.Rajadurai "
 

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"As children, we read in the Hitopodesa that at night birds from all directions would gather on a shimul tree on the banks of the Godavari. Why? To cackle for a while and then go off to sleep. Cackle in this context means to discuss the politics of the birdworld. We, too, in this dark, night time of India's history go to the Congress meet to cackle for three or four days and then snore. We can cackle together because, thanks to the education conferred by the British, we all have the same dialect. I am not saying that this dialect is all that our lips utter or our minds. All I want to suggest is that behind the Congress patriotism, there is only one kind of mind and that mind is bred on English text books. We all have that kind of mind, but under it is the mind which is individual for all nations and different from nation to nation. And our civilisation will emerge from the depth of that mind."

...It is not a bad thing to try and weld many into one but to jumble them all up is dangerous, because the only way we can do that is by force. If you say that this does not apply to India, the reply is that if self determination is not suited to us, then it is not suited at all to Europe. No people in Europe are as different, one from another, as our people. There is not that much difference between England and Holland as there is between Madras and Bengal. Even France and Germany are not that far apart." For Province, Read Nation - Pramatha Chauduri, 1920

 

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"...The break up of India, if it comes will not come from the efforts of tamilnation.org. It will come despite our efforts. It will come from a failure of political leaders in India to openly recognise that India is today a multi national empire - and to recognise the enduring wisdom of the words of Pramatha Chaudhuri...

"...It is not a bad thing to try and weld many into one but to jumble them all up is dangerous, because the only way we can do that is by force. If you say that this does not apply to India, the reply is that if self determination is not suited to us, then it is not suited at all to Europe. No people in Europe are as different, one from another, as our people. There is not that much difference between England and Holland as there is between Madras and Bengal. Even France and Germany are not that far apart."

Those concerned to secure the unity of India will need  to adopt a more 'principle centred' approach towards struggles for self determination in the Indian region.. ." Tamil Nation & the Unity of India - Nadesan Satyendra 2001
 

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The infrastructural net that increasingly links China to India, Russia and the Central Asian countries as a bridge for cooperation and a source of frictions: existing and planned pipelines, location of main oil fields, main and secondary ports, existing �sea highways� and plans to bypass the Malacca straits bottleneck, distribution of US military bases in the Indian Ocean region.

An outline of the new containment strategy America is setting up to curb Beijing�s geopolitical expansion: allied countries �housing US bases� America can rely on; hostile ones to be checked; ambivalent or neutral states to be aware of. Most importantly, strategic countries that aren�t part of the US strategy yet, and on which Washington�s efforts face an active Chinese led counteroffensive.