04-25-2007, 09:41 PM
Two book reviews from Pioneer, 24 April, 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Clearing haze over Valley
The book enumerates several incidents that will help analyse political developments in Jammu & Kashmir, says Sanjoy Bagchi
<b>Jammu & Kashmir 1949-64: Select Correspondence Between Jawaharlal Nehru And Karan Singh, Jawaid Alam(ed), Penguin Viking, Rs 595</b>
Karan Singh has made a significant contribution to contemporary history by publishing his personal archive of letters exchanged with Jawaharlal Nehru shortly after the accession of Jammu & Kashmir to the Indian Union. It is a unique decision in the Indian context because no other politician of the post-Independence era has dared to reveal his correspondence during his lifetime.
Personal correspondence between political heads was not unknown to Indian administration. During the colonial days the Secretary of State for India in London was always in regular contact with the Viceroy. The India Office Library in London has a record of letters exchanged between the two. Being personal communications, their authors could be frank and candid, sharing their views without restraint, avoiding the opacity of 'officialese'.
Karan Singh's correspondence with Nehru began when he became the Regent of Jammu & Kashmir in 1949 and continued until the latter's death in 1964. It deals with the period's major events - political changes, international developments relating to Jammu & Kashmir, domestic situation, impressions of travels abroad, etc.
When he became the Regent, Karan Singh was only 18. Yet, having gone through a traumatic time, he was called upon to serve Sheikh Abdullah. <b>But, later, he was exiled from the State with his privy purse reduced on specious grounds. Such treatment had not been meted out to any other prince on his accession, not even to Hyderabad's Nizam who had engaged in armed conflict with India.</b> But there is no trace of bitterness or rancour, not even suppressed resentment in his letters.
Karan Singh showed exceptional maturity, unusual balance and exemplary loyalty at that early age - qualities that would distinguish his future career as a politician, Minister and diplomat.
<b>In order to severe the dynastic link, Abdullah had insisted on Karan Singh's election as Sadr-i-Riyasat under a new Constitution that was yet to adopted. While recognising the absurdity of the move, Nehru was not inclined to upset his crony's applecart. He merely advised Singh to get on the cart even though it was placed before the horse.</b>
There was another instance of the national flag that revealed the attitude of the ruling clique. <b>Karan Singh had repeatedly insisted on flying the national flag on Government buildings, but Abdullah persistently ignored it.</b> Nehru again turned a blind eye to it. Abdullah's incarceration for treason resolved the issue.
<b>It was Karan Singh who had reported to Nehru in 1959 about the kidnapping of an Indian patrol inside Indian border by the Chinese Army which had built roads, check-posts and other fortifications on our land. He believed that it was more than 'cartographical aggression' and required adequate measures to prevent China from consolidating its position within India. He had warned that the opening of the Chinese Embassy in Nepal and stepping up their economic aid to it would undermine Indian position there.</b> Nehru's response to these developments remains unknown.
Karan Singh had extensively toured Jammu and Ladakh regions of the State. His detailed reports reveal his incisive observations and astute perceptions of the local problems. <b>Ladakh was uneasy with the current arrangement that did not provide adequate popular representation in the State Assembly. Apparently it did not have faith in the State Government and wanted an administrator from the Centre.</b>
<b>Similarly Jammu felt frustrated at the neglect of the local Government to its needs and resentment was building up. Sheikh Abdullah was obviously catering only to his support base in the Valley to the detriment of the outlying regions.</b>
Karan Singh's travels in the Soviet Union reveal the warm response he had evoked by his pleasant personality, innate charm and sympathetic understanding. In Nepal too, he had frank talks with the King and his Prime Minister. The latter unreservedly shared his impressions of China that he had recently visited.
<b>By nature Karan Singh is eminently suited for diplomatic assignments where he could clinically analyse the developments, particularly in the context of India's geopolitical interests.</b> It was a pity that he became Ambassador rather late in life and that too for a short period.
The letters describe numerous incidents that would be of great help in analysing the political developments in Jammu & Kashmir by future historians. <b>The appendix contains the letters of Maharaja Hari Singh to the top Indian leadership of the time, which have never been published before. Dealing with the accession to India and its aftermath, the book is of immense historical interest. The only other authentic account of those tumultuous days is in the book, Story of the Integration of the Indian States, by VP Menon.</b>
-- The reviewer, a former IAS officer, is a Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tragic partitions
Amrit Kapur
<b>The Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts, Smita T Jassal & E Ben-Ari, Sage Publications, Rs 480</b>
The book, based on the proceedings of the Conference on Memory and the Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts at the historical setting of Halle in July 2005, provides a fascinating dimension to our understanding of divided societies. <b>Regions selected for the study are India-Pakistan, East-West Germany, Israel-Palestine and North-South Korea. These regions, in particular, saw worst of human tragedies in the name of partition.</b>
<b>The book vividly explores the implications of partition motif for resolving contemporary conflicts.</b> It also analyses post-partition transition of societies. The backdrop, of course, is the division of India and Pakistan.
The conflict resolution based on communal pattern in India under the British rule had traumatic outcome. Partition as motif for conflict resolution has never been a workable solution, but will hover in the continuum of cause and effect.
<b>The book is a conversation across cultures on the issue of partition and its far-reaching sociological implications for communal patterns, generational dynamics and individual lives. </b>The authors have based their work on the partition of India under the colonial rule, creation of the Berlin Wall leading to splitting of Germany into two, division of Koreas along 36 parallel and the never-ending Israel-Palestine intransigence with focus on socio-economic and political implications.
The book explains how societies that have experienced the trauma of partition are integrated and how they deploy their understanding of the past to reconstruct their present and future. It inquires into ways in which local communities as well as wider national entities use their knowledge of the past. <b>At the same time, the writers have succeeded in highlighting how such separations were of significance not only in the strict political sense but also in the formation of long-term processes of politico-cultural identity, memory and inspiration.</b>
<b>The book serves two purposes: </b>First, development of comparative perspective, thus refuting the uniqueness of the subcontinent's experience and, second, an exploration of how partition influences social processes.
This book is a must read for the policy-makers as well as intellectuals, if not for lay readers who may find it a bit too pedantic to comprehend in totality. It also serves as a useful document on divided societies and their sense of rootlessness.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Clearing haze over Valley
The book enumerates several incidents that will help analyse political developments in Jammu & Kashmir, says Sanjoy Bagchi
<b>Jammu & Kashmir 1949-64: Select Correspondence Between Jawaharlal Nehru And Karan Singh, Jawaid Alam(ed), Penguin Viking, Rs 595</b>
Karan Singh has made a significant contribution to contemporary history by publishing his personal archive of letters exchanged with Jawaharlal Nehru shortly after the accession of Jammu & Kashmir to the Indian Union. It is a unique decision in the Indian context because no other politician of the post-Independence era has dared to reveal his correspondence during his lifetime.
Personal correspondence between political heads was not unknown to Indian administration. During the colonial days the Secretary of State for India in London was always in regular contact with the Viceroy. The India Office Library in London has a record of letters exchanged between the two. Being personal communications, their authors could be frank and candid, sharing their views without restraint, avoiding the opacity of 'officialese'.
Karan Singh's correspondence with Nehru began when he became the Regent of Jammu & Kashmir in 1949 and continued until the latter's death in 1964. It deals with the period's major events - political changes, international developments relating to Jammu & Kashmir, domestic situation, impressions of travels abroad, etc.
When he became the Regent, Karan Singh was only 18. Yet, having gone through a traumatic time, he was called upon to serve Sheikh Abdullah. <b>But, later, he was exiled from the State with his privy purse reduced on specious grounds. Such treatment had not been meted out to any other prince on his accession, not even to Hyderabad's Nizam who had engaged in armed conflict with India.</b> But there is no trace of bitterness or rancour, not even suppressed resentment in his letters.
Karan Singh showed exceptional maturity, unusual balance and exemplary loyalty at that early age - qualities that would distinguish his future career as a politician, Minister and diplomat.
<b>In order to severe the dynastic link, Abdullah had insisted on Karan Singh's election as Sadr-i-Riyasat under a new Constitution that was yet to adopted. While recognising the absurdity of the move, Nehru was not inclined to upset his crony's applecart. He merely advised Singh to get on the cart even though it was placed before the horse.</b>
There was another instance of the national flag that revealed the attitude of the ruling clique. <b>Karan Singh had repeatedly insisted on flying the national flag on Government buildings, but Abdullah persistently ignored it.</b> Nehru again turned a blind eye to it. Abdullah's incarceration for treason resolved the issue.
<b>It was Karan Singh who had reported to Nehru in 1959 about the kidnapping of an Indian patrol inside Indian border by the Chinese Army which had built roads, check-posts and other fortifications on our land. He believed that it was more than 'cartographical aggression' and required adequate measures to prevent China from consolidating its position within India. He had warned that the opening of the Chinese Embassy in Nepal and stepping up their economic aid to it would undermine Indian position there.</b> Nehru's response to these developments remains unknown.
Karan Singh had extensively toured Jammu and Ladakh regions of the State. His detailed reports reveal his incisive observations and astute perceptions of the local problems. <b>Ladakh was uneasy with the current arrangement that did not provide adequate popular representation in the State Assembly. Apparently it did not have faith in the State Government and wanted an administrator from the Centre.</b>
<b>Similarly Jammu felt frustrated at the neglect of the local Government to its needs and resentment was building up. Sheikh Abdullah was obviously catering only to his support base in the Valley to the detriment of the outlying regions.</b>
Karan Singh's travels in the Soviet Union reveal the warm response he had evoked by his pleasant personality, innate charm and sympathetic understanding. In Nepal too, he had frank talks with the King and his Prime Minister. The latter unreservedly shared his impressions of China that he had recently visited.
<b>By nature Karan Singh is eminently suited for diplomatic assignments where he could clinically analyse the developments, particularly in the context of India's geopolitical interests.</b> It was a pity that he became Ambassador rather late in life and that too for a short period.
The letters describe numerous incidents that would be of great help in analysing the political developments in Jammu & Kashmir by future historians. <b>The appendix contains the letters of Maharaja Hari Singh to the top Indian leadership of the time, which have never been published before. Dealing with the accession to India and its aftermath, the book is of immense historical interest. The only other authentic account of those tumultuous days is in the book, Story of the Integration of the Indian States, by VP Menon.</b>
-- The reviewer, a former IAS officer, is a Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tragic partitions
Amrit Kapur
<b>The Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts, Smita T Jassal & E Ben-Ari, Sage Publications, Rs 480</b>
The book, based on the proceedings of the Conference on Memory and the Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts at the historical setting of Halle in July 2005, provides a fascinating dimension to our understanding of divided societies. <b>Regions selected for the study are India-Pakistan, East-West Germany, Israel-Palestine and North-South Korea. These regions, in particular, saw worst of human tragedies in the name of partition.</b>
<b>The book vividly explores the implications of partition motif for resolving contemporary conflicts.</b> It also analyses post-partition transition of societies. The backdrop, of course, is the division of India and Pakistan.
The conflict resolution based on communal pattern in India under the British rule had traumatic outcome. Partition as motif for conflict resolution has never been a workable solution, but will hover in the continuum of cause and effect.
<b>The book is a conversation across cultures on the issue of partition and its far-reaching sociological implications for communal patterns, generational dynamics and individual lives. </b>The authors have based their work on the partition of India under the colonial rule, creation of the Berlin Wall leading to splitting of Germany into two, division of Koreas along 36 parallel and the never-ending Israel-Palestine intransigence with focus on socio-economic and political implications.
The book explains how societies that have experienced the trauma of partition are integrated and how they deploy their understanding of the past to reconstruct their present and future. It inquires into ways in which local communities as well as wider national entities use their knowledge of the past. <b>At the same time, the writers have succeeded in highlighting how such separations were of significance not only in the strict political sense but also in the formation of long-term processes of politico-cultural identity, memory and inspiration.</b>
<b>The book serves two purposes: </b>First, development of comparative perspective, thus refuting the uniqueness of the subcontinent's experience and, second, an exploration of how partition influences social processes.
This book is a must read for the policy-makers as well as intellectuals, if not for lay readers who may find it a bit too pedantic to comprehend in totality. It also serves as a useful document on divided societies and their sense of rootlessness.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->