The empire on which the sun never sets

The history of last century was all European domination till the “Second World War”, with all the show stealing done by “The Great English Empire”. Then came Uncle Sam and changed the rule of the game which they are still playing on their own terms as “East India Company” use to do in their time.

I was going through a course offering of Liberal Arts Program Webpage at Texas A&M University at Qatar and the course outline is pretty interesting with English, History and Political Sciences to support the engineering programs. This is what is offered in history and political sciences subjects:

HISTORY
HIST 105. History of the United States. (3-0). Credit 3. I, II, S
Colonial heritage; revolution; adoption of constitution; growth of nationalism and sectionalism; civil war and reconstruction

HIST 106. History of the United States. (3-0). Credit 3. I, II, S
Since reconstruction; new social and industrial problems; rise of progressivism; U.S. emergence as world power; World War I; reaction and New Deal; World War II; contemporary America.

HIST 301. Blacks in the United States after 1877. (3-0). Credit 3. I, II, S
Blacks in the United States from the end of reconstruction to the present; the ideologies of black leaders, disfranchisement, lynching and the quest for equality in the 1950s and 1960s.

POLITICAL SCIENCES
POLS 206. American National Government. (3-0). Credit 3. I, II, S
Survey of American national government, politics, and constitutional development

POLS 207. State and Local Government. (3-0). Credit 3. I, II, S
Survey of state and local government and politics with special reference to the constitution and politics of Texas

POLS 324. Politics of Global Inequality
This course is an “Examination of the causes and consequences of economic inequality between rich and poor states; evaluation of competing explanations for poverty of less-developed countries; development strategies employed by poor states; and structure of global economic relations”.

POLS 331. Introduction to World Politics
Offered to meet the social science requirements: Courses in Comparative Politics or International Relations are offered at the Qatar Campus to meet the University Core Curriculum in both Social Science and international and cultural diversity

Qatar was a British protectorate from 1916 to 1971 and with new found oil wealth in the gulf region they have turned their inclination towards far west, their American friends. If one has travelled to United States and comes to these oil rich emirates they can feel at home with somehow similar basic infrastructure, driving side, traffic rules, sports facilities, etc. May be this is the reason why an American university based in Qatar is teaching American history and politics rather than local history and politics, as most of their history and politics was dominated by British. It doesn’t surprise me a lot as each and every country of South Asia and Middle East is under great influence of western cultural domination.

Similar, is the case with India, up till now we read British history, adopted their schooling system, still part of the “Common Wealth” (British abused Indian national resources and discriminated with the natives for two hundred years and Common Wealth is still part of their bloody domination. If one has doubts then go to UK and see the discrimination Asian people have to go through in their daily life.), we prefer to speak in English rather than our native languages, our movies are in Hindi but the poster is in English, we got freedom from their physical presence but it’s very hard to get freedom from their ghosts. British made Mughals a villain and themselves as mere force who came and liberated Indians from these Muslim bandits. Mughals united India; they brought peace to this vast country by integrating all the religions and cultures of this land. No doubt there were many odds in them as well, but it cannot be compared to what British did to this great country. They sold our country, parted our lands, degraded us and made us one of the most backward, poor, deprived nation when they left us. Thanks God that India got some great leaders who looked beyond their religion and culture, who had a vision to make India a Super Power.

We can see similar impressions of the British Raj in most of the independent South Asian and Arab countries. People should understand that the physical presence of English Empire might have vanished but the sun still never sets in the remains of its empire. Now, its time for another blood thirsty empire to correct its history before it goes too wrong.

Someone truly said: “The sun never set on the British Empire because the sun sets in the West and the British Empire was in the East.”

Sources:

The Sun Never Set on the British Empire, “Dominion over palm and pine”. – Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D

Liberal Arts Program Webpage at Texas A&M University at Qatar

Wikipedia:

The Empire on which the sun never sets

British Empire

The East India Company

Protectorate

The United States of America

State of Qatar

Emirate

The Commonwealth of Nations

History repeats itself……

Around 40% to 50% of Indian Population comes under “depressed class”, “deprived community” or Other Backward Class (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST). Vishwanath Pratap Singh, the 8^th Prime Minister of the Republic of India implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Commission which suggested that a fixed quota of all jobs in the public sector be reserved for members of the historically disadvantaged so-called Other BackwardClasses. This decision led to widespread protests among the youth in urban areas in North India. This was way back in 1990, couple of years after Babri Masjid was demolished by 150,000 activists, comprising of various organizations, during a planned ceremony on December 6, 1992 despite a commitment to the Indian Supreme Court that the mosque would not be harmed. This incident was followed by riots all over India and Bombay Bomb Blasts in which several thousands innocents lost their life. Communal riots were not new to India, it used to happen in Mughal and British era too, but blasts were something new at that time.

44 years before this incident, another great tragedy occurred when the champion of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi, was shot three times at close range with a Beretta semi-automatic pistol, he died on the spot at the age of 78. Next year he had plans to travel to Pakistan which was divided from India a year ago at the time of Independence from British Empire. Pakistan’s founder Mohd. Ali Jinnah walked away with his piece of cake creating a whole new chapter of variance in the Indian Sub-Continent. In undivided India, Muslim strength laid about 100 million. Partition split up the Muslim people, confining them to the three isolated regions. After Partition, Muslims numbered 25 million in Western Pakistan (Pakistan), 35 million to 40 million in India, and the rest in Eastern Pakistan (Bangladesh). A single undivided community has been broken into three fragments, each faced with its own problems. Aftermaths of partition are well known; more than 10 million people were displaced in this pre-independence dispute between Indian National Congress and Muslim League or in a larger term the Hindu-Muslim conflict.

The conflict can be traced back to more than 1000 years ago when 17-year-old Arab chieftain named Muhammad bin Qasim in his third expedition defeated Raja Dahir, the last Hindu ruler of Sindh and parts of Punjab in modern day Pakistan. The conquest of Sindh and Punjab began the Islamic era in South Asia and today Muslim population is more in this region in comparison to Arab states. This was the part of Muslim conquests (632–732) also referred to as the Islamic conquests, Jihad, or Arab conquests, began after the death of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power well beyond the Arabian Peninsula in the form of a vast Muslim Empire with an area of influence that stretched from northwest India, across central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. This was followed by Crusades and hundreds of years of rivalry between Muslims, Jews and Christians, which continues till date.

The modern era saw the rise of three powerful Muslim empires: the Ottoman Empire of the Middle East and Europe, the Safavid Empire of Persia and Central Asia, and the Mughal Empire of India; along with their contest and fall to the rise of the colonial powers of Europe. The Mughal Empire declined in 1707 after the death of Aurangzeb and was officially abolished by the British after the First war of Indian Independence in 1857. The Safavid Empire ended with the death of its last ruler Ismail III in 1760. The last surviving Muslim empire, the Ottoman Empire, collapsed in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I. On March 3, 1924, the institution of the Caliphate was constitutionally abolished by the then Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as part of his reforms.

The fate of Muslim domination of more than 1000 years was somehow similar to the Roman Empire at the time of rise of the Church. Like Greek Empire, established by Alexander the Great, vanished in 300 years, which was conquered by him in just 13 years. Akin to British Empire, at its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. At the peak of its power, it was often said that “the sun never sets on the British Empire” because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories.

If we want to fight for what went wrong in history then there will be no end to the conflict. We have to remember it was a ‘Jungle Law’ at that time, who uses to win, wrote the history. Now, we are living in a much free and civilized world. We cannot afford to get accustomed to historical errors; we have to learn lessons from previous mistakes.

In Lebanon, a Christian Orthodox goes to a doctor of his own cast, a Sunni Muslim searches for a lawyer from his community, a Shia Muslim votes for a candidate of his sect. Women in Saudi Arabia cannot participate in sports activities, drive car and go for shopping alone. Before, entering in Iran every woman has to wear a head scarf. Israel forgets Holocaust when they massacre Palestinians, Taliban is showing its cruelty on Muslims and other minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Russians slaughtered Chechens, China is tormenting Tibetans and considers Nobel Prize winner Dalai Lama a national threat. In Zimbabwe, Black majority is hostile towards their white countrymen, Western Nations are banning the use of veil by Muslim women and turban for Sikhs, America and Britain are making stringent laws as they don’t want any more immigrants, Indian Students are facing racial problems in Australia.

Why an American or a British citizen gets a Visa on arrival in Middle East and other nationalities have to apply for a visa? Why only Asians are frisked at European and American Airports? Why a Muslim boy cannot keep beard and a Muslim girl cannot wear a veil in school? How long we’ll follow the policy of discrimination against weaker section of the society?

Coming back to India, one of the greatest Emperors, Ashoka the Great (304 BC – 232 BC) converted to Buddhism after the scene of carnage he witnessed in Kalinga war and gave the message of peace and harmony in Central Asia. As a King, he was a pioneer of propagating Ahimsa – the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophy of revering all life and refraining from harm to any living thing. The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha (563 BC to 483 BC) himself a born Hindu Brahmin, questioned caste system and containment of spiritual knowledge to upper caste only. This revolutionary thought took more than 2500 years before equal opportunity was given to all in the form of democracy to Indians.

The country cannot be appreciated only on economic growth; social development is part of the overall development. Indian society is part of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jews, etc. India is a secular democracy with a promise of religious freedom in our constitution and we cannot impose identity of the majority section of the society on others. If we take out veil of a Muslim girl today then tomorrow they will ask for a Sikh’s turban, a Jain’s beliefs, a Nun’s veil, a Parsi’s wish for Tower of Silence, a Hindu’s rituals, a Man’s Moustache, a girl’s Dupatta, a brother’s Rakhi, a worshiper’s faith and an honest man’s honesty. We don’t want India to be like China, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Russia, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Australia, etc. and make anyone deprived of their social and religious rights.

India is a land of peace, harmony, freedom, knowledge and spirituality. Collectively, we have to work together for social development of the deprived classes. Our main enemy is poverty, corruption, terrorism, illiteracy, unemployment, child labour, dowry, etc. We should not forget that still half of our population is below the poverty line.

As they say that History repeats itself. Do we really want History to repeat itself once again?

“Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed.” – Bhagwad Gita

Source:
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple
The Wonder That was India – Volume II by S.A.A. Rizvi

Memorandum submitted by Muslim leaders of India to UN Representative: 14 August 1951
Sachar Committee report
SC/ST Population
Article in Time Magazine – Today’s Nun Has A Veil–And A Blog
The Greek Empire
CIA – The World Fact Book
World Population Estimate

Wikipedia: Reservation in India, Gautama Buddha, Ashoka the Great, British Empire, Muslim conquests, Crusades, Muhammad bin Qasim, Raja Dahir, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Babri Mosque and Tower of Silence.

India celebrates 62 years of freedom

“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!” — Mark Twain.

Heartiest wishes on 62^nd Indian Independence Day to all the citizens of a free nation. Long live independence!

India got its independence at the dawn of 15^th August 1947 from the British Empire and became a republic on 26^th January 1950 by adopting its own constitution.

Yes, the cost of this independence is a lot more, which cannot be estimated in monetary terms. Our independence came after millions were martyred, heritage and culture was wrecked, country was divided and hatred was implanted. Collectively, more than 10 million people crossed the borders, from a newly born Pakistan (including Bangladesh, at that time it was East Pakistan) to India and vice versa. British played their last card of dividing a great nation forever and putting a whole region into a never ending conflict. Their plans were similar to what French did to Lebanon, Russians did to Afghanistan, Japan did to Korea and Spain did to South American nations.

We are still facing problems which I don’t want to discuss today and would like to focus more on the achievement part. Fortunately, our somehow regulated financial system is still trying to save us from the claws of the ongoing economic crisis. We are still expecting a positive growth rate of 6% and aiming towards a revival of 9% growth rate. We are a full fledge nuclear nation and a Super Power in our own right, although we still have a huge chunk of population struggling to earn their daily bread. Oops!

We have right to education act, women’s bill, guaranteed employment scheme, huge infrastructure plans, new airports, we are focused on energy saving, IT is our strength, we are going to host Common Wealth Games next year, IPL was hosted in South Africa this year, Metro is expanding in Gurgaon and Nodia, our children are getting pure milk, we hardly have H1N1, inflation is in control, Sensex is showing a V shaped recovery, we have an Indian Formula 1 team (only drivers are foreigners), our new cricket coach was a great batsman, Sania got engaged, SRK came back from South Africa during IPL to cast his vote, Reality TV is a new trend, Lalu Prasad is quite these days, corruption is a matter of give and take, Abhishek had a hair cut (his ads are doing better than his movies), sting operations are taken seriously and finally we can see some Tata Nanos on road.

Let’s not forget the sacrifice of our freedom fighters and work together towards the growth and prosperity of this great nation.

Jai Hind!

Image: Mahatma Gandhi as ‘Man of the year’ on the covers of Time Magazine.  Year 1931