Book Review [129] : Kashmir - The unwritten history

Every civilization has a love that warms its heart, for India it is Kashmir. There are large number of books available on Kashmir crisis and i have had read many - The Meadow, War and Diplomacy in Kashmir (1947-48) etc. 'Kashmir : The unwritten history' by Christopher Snedden claims that his history of Kashmir is the unwritten history. This book implicates India and erstwhile Maharaja of Kashmir Hari Singh for falsely accusing the Pakhtuns for invading Kashmir and ignoring the uprising of Poonchi Muslims against the 'repressive' regime of Maharaja. 

This book blames highly polarized communal environment in Jammu province, in the midst of bloody partition of India, for the Kashmir crisis. The author accuses Maharaja of Kashmir for carrying out or passively supporting the massacre of Muslims in eastern part of Jammu province but he does not give any evidence for this alleged massacre. According to him and his political sources more than 200,000 Muslims were killed in eastern part of Jammu. He also accepts that non-Muslims were also killed in western part of Jammu in equal numbers - in region around Poonch, Mirpur etc, and there are more than solid proofs about this massacre. Hindu and Sikh Men were killed and their women were taken as booties and sold in the market for few hundred rupees. The best proof lies in the current demographic profile of these regions. Eastern Jammu and the PoK have absolutely negligible non-Muslims while western Jammu (or the Jammu Province) of India has more than 25% Muslims.
The author gives in details the demographic profile of Jammu province as per the 1941 census. Muslims in Jammu (that included Poonch, Mirpur etc) were about 61% and were about 77% of the total population of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu was the largest province in terms of population in 1941. The alleged 'repressive' regime of Maharaja as well as the pro Pakistan sentiments were the main reasons behind the uprising of Poonchi Muslims against the Maharaja regime. This uprising began in Sept 1947 and it declared the formation of Azad Kashmir government on 24th Oct 1947. The Pakhtun raiders started their invasion of Kashmir on 22nd Oct and by 26th Oct Kashmir was in precarious situation. The state forces were poorly equipped and thinly stretched to defend Kashmir and were fighting a losing battle. In the end Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession on 26th October and Indian forces started their movement on 27th Oct and this checked the progress of the raiders. Had India not gone to United Nations our forces would have certainly liberated the entire PoK. The author accuses India for unfairly accusing the raiders and ignoring totally the uprising led by the natives of Kashmir.
After this the book talks in detail about the politics of Azad Kashmir and its government. Till 1970 it did not have even proto autonomy, the 1970 Act gave this region a kind of legislative assembly and a President. Despite of all the political experiments this region never experienced the kind of democracy its Indian counter part experiences.
This book is full of repetitions and redundancies and Author has failed to do justice with the topic. Its a good read only for Pakistani propagandists and their supporters in India. For an Indian this book should be used as an important tool in the arsenal to counter any Pakistan propaganda.
Recommended (6/10)

Book Review [128] : Dictator

There are two civil wars that have deeply influenced human history - The Mahabharata War and the Roman Civil War (49 - 31 BC ) and perhaps i have not read more books on any subject other than Mahabharat and Rome. The 'Julius Caesar' play by William Shakespeare was my first exposure to the history and characters of ancient Rome and from this play there has been no turning back. 'Dictator' is last book on this subject and it is the concluding part of the Cicero Trilogy written by Robert Harris. When i first read 'Julius Caesar' i became vaguely sympathetic towards Caesar while Cassius remained a man 'with lean and hungry face' and Brutus an innocent man caught in the

murky politics of Rome. Mark Antony and Octavian are truly the heroes of the play. Then i read 'Ancient Rome' and i started admiring the cause of Republicans and assassins - Marcus Brutus, Cassius and senators like Cato and Cicero. 'Rubicon' is a serious work on Roman Civil war. This book has truly made me a hard core Republican and an eternal fan of Marcus Cato and Marcus Brutus. 
'Dictator' is based on the last phase of the life of illustrious Roman senator and great Orator Marcus Cicero; based on the writings of his one time slave 'Tiro' who survived the war. It was Cicero who tried to save the remnants of Republic from the tyranny of Mark Antony and over ambitious Octavian Caesar. He tried to save the Republic by exploiting subtle art of 'Balance of Power' but was outsmarted by Octavian and eventually murdered by the bounty hunters of the triumvirate - Lepidus, Mark Antony and Octavian. 
Its a serious work of semi-fiction and it unravels in great details the reasons of the break out of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the Roman Republic led by Gaius Pompey, Marcus Cato and others. After the defeat of Pompey in the battle of Pharsalus (48 BC), Marcus Cato continued fighting for the Republic and only after his suicide after losing the last battle for the Republic in Tunisia in 46 BC, Julius Caesar became the defacto ruler of Rome. Cicero gave the ultimate tribute to Cato by writing his eulogy in glowing terms against the furious opposition of Julius Caesar. 
In the end the Roman Republic got destroyed by the killings of the senators and sympathizers of the Republic by the bounty hunters of Lepidus, Octavian and Mark Antony and Rome became an Empire under an Emperor.  
'Brief is the life given to us by nature; but the memory of a life nobly sacrificed is everlasting' -- Marcus Cicero (106 - 43 BC). 
Highly recommended (8/10) 

Book Review [127] : The Difficulty Of Being Good

What is here is found else where.
What is not here is nowhere. (Mahabharat I.56.34-35)

No story has inspired more souls than Mahabharat, no story has solved more dilemmas than Mahabharat and no story has more enriched the culture of mankind than Mahabharat. I am a big fan of Mahabharat and have heard almost every incident of Mahabharat innumerable times but it has never bored me. It is eternal and quintessential fresh. 

'The Difficulty of Being Good' is a 'modern' take on Mahabharat's characters by  Gurucharan Das. He raises the very old but very pertinent question that why the Pandavas had to suffer so much atrocities and adversities despite of being good. The eldest Pandava Yudhisthira never did any wrong and always supported and forgave the Kauravas and was even ready to give up his just claim on the throne of Indraprastha for just 5 villages but what price he (and other Pandavas) had to pay for their exemplary goodness. They had to fight a reluctant but bloody war and had to kill their kins and teachers and had to see their kins getting killed in the battlefield. 

Gurucharan Das does not even venture to solve this dilemma, he simply says that one has to be pragmatic like Krishna and should not go to the extremes of Duryodhana (the evil extreme) and Yudhisthira (the virtuous one) as Dharma is too subtle. 

To be frank this book has confused me a lot and i don't understand what message Mr. Das is trying to deliver. In the end he says that Yudhisthira is the real Hero of Mahabharat as he did not lose his goodness in his adversities and in his halcyon days. But he was good only when he stuck to his 'Dharma' and he suffered badly for doing that. He started having good time only when he turned pragmatic or a bit 'opportunist' like when he took part in the plans to neutralize Bheeshma and Dronacharya. 

His dealing of the character of Karna is pretty good and he really brought some fresh insights.

According to me the greatest thing this great epic can teach is that if your aim is just and true that it justifies pragmatic or slightly deviant ways to achieve it. 

Recommended (7/10)

Book Review [126] : The British, the Bandits and the Bordermen

I was not into the biographies of Police Officers and then i found this gem. 'The British, the Bandits and the Bordermen' is a biography of one of the finest police officer produced by this country - Khusro Faramurz Rustamji. He remains till date the only Indian Police Officer to have received the Padma Vibhushan - the second highest civilian award conferred by Indian government. 

Rustamji was born in a well to do Parsee family in 1916. He joined Indian Police at the young age of 23 and by 26 he became the Superintendent of Police. He played a key role in crushing the 1942 Quit India movement in central Provinces though with a moderate use of force. After Independence he played his part in Operation Polo of 1948. He enjoyed great proximity of Nehru when he was his Chief Security Officer (1952-1958). He was appointed the Inspector General of Police of Madhya Pradesh in 1958 when he was just 42 years old. 

When i was a kid i heard lot of legends (most of the times good) of dacoits of Chambal region. People used to and still remember the adventures of dacoits like Man Singh, Lakhan, Roopa etc. Under the leadership of Rustamji almost all the dacoits of Madhya Pradesh were flushed. Rupa was killed in 1959, Lakhan Singh in 1960 and Gabbar Singh in 1959.

He was asked to raise Border Security Force and was appointed its first Director General in 1965. It played a stellar role in Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. For this he was awarded Padma Bhushan. After his retirement he took the case of under trials of Bihar and this led to the famous judicial overreach in the form of Public Interest Litigation (in 1979). The then CJI P. N. Bhagwati ordered the release of about 40,000 under-trials all over India. He was also the member of National Police Commission set up in 1978 though its recommendations are still in cold storage.

He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1991. The great soul departed in 2003. 

India is blessed with so many great communities and Parsees are second to none in the process of nation building. 

Highly Recommended (10/10)

Book Review [125] : One Life Is Not Enough

Kunwar Natwar Singh has had enjoyed very close proximity to the power center of Indian polity for more than 4 decades. He escaped into a political oblivion in 2008 after Volcker report exposing the 'Oil for Food' scam linking his name with scores of others. 'One Life Is Not Enough' was his autobiography, released in the midst of high voltage politics of 2014 and it did achieve a lot of traction. 

Born with a silver spoon, studied in the best of schools, married to a royalty, worked in 'most' prestigious service (IFS) and enjoyed absolute confidence of Prime Ministers like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and leaders like Sonia Gandhi. He did not mince words when he criticize bitterly the Prime Ministers coming from parties other than Congress and other than the Gandhis. He was not a fan of Morarji Desai, Devegowda, PV Narsimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh. Without any respect to the Democratic norms he considers succession of a 'novice' Rajiv Gandhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi as a natural choice and he repeats the same thing after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi though Sonia Gandhi refused to lead Congress after the death of Rajiv. He revolted against the leadership of Prime Ministers PV Rao and created a new Party with other senior leaders. 

With respect to Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh in many ways he corroborates what Sanjay Baru has written in 'The Accidental Prime Minister'. 

He was too close to the Gandhi family and at many a times it appears that he mixed his Foreign service job with his political interests. May be those were different times when India was Congress and Congress was India. 

His political career went into a deep pit when his name came up in Volcker report. He calls it as a conspiracy hatched by some western lobbyist to get rid of him from External Affairs Ministry as he was bit "anti-American' in his ideology. 

This book has many interesting anecdotes and talks in details about the political dynamics of Delhi.

Recommended (7/10)