धरमपाल - Dharampal - Indian Philosopher

So What Does Indian National Security Advisor Have to do with Harley Davidson MotorCycles ?

2011-02-04T19:06:00.002+05:30

So What Does Indian National Security Advisor Have to do with Harley
Davidson MotorCycles ?

The Indian Prime Minister has been praised by Indian security
strategists as ... "the most liberal economist you can think of".
So now it seems India is embarking on a grand plan for building
highway infrastructure to accommodate American Harley Davidson
motorbicycles.
Wikileaks cables show us that the most hilarious conversations about
our Prime Minister seem to be happening under the haze of so many
disconnected topics.
It really would be hilarious, if only it were not so petty, that the
Indian Prime Minister should be lobbied, via the Indian National
Security Advisor, for the import into India, of Harley Davidson
motorcycles by top American diplomats.
Still more symptomatic is that the Indian Prime Minister is applauded
not for being a safe guardian of Indian trade interests or of Indian
agriculturists but for being someone who would be inclined to favour
the American lobbyists with reduced duties on oil guzzling monster
mobikes.
Incredible India and Incredible Indian politicians.
Nagarjuna

http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/06/08NEWDELHI1489.html
http://twitter.com/wikileaks

Viewing cable 08NEWDELHI1489, NARAYANAN URGES BETTER BILATERAL
UNDERSTANDING ON
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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08NEWDELHI1489 2008-06-02 10:10 2011-02-01 21:09 CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy New Delhi

VZCZCXRO8644
OO RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHNE #1489/01 1541054
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 021054Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1973
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUCNNSG/NUCLEAR SUPPLIERS GROUP COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1485
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 6470

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 001489

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2018
TAGS: PREL PARM TSPL PTER KNNP ETTC ENRG TRGY IN
IR, PK
SUBJECT: NARAYANAN URGES BETTER BILATERAL UNDERSTANDING ON
TERRORISM TO SENATORS FEINGOLD AND CASEY Classified By: Ambassador
David Mulford for Reasons 1.4 (B and D)

1.(C) Summary: National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan told Senators
Russ Feingold and Bob Casey May 30 that the U.S.-India relationship
amounts to much more than just trade links and defense deals, but
rather benefits from a mutual empathy. Asked about terrorism,
Narayanan related that training camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border have attracted more "white faces." He also noted jihadi groups
have attempted to acquire fissile material and have the technical
competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty
bomb. Narayanan lamented that national intelligence agencies lack a
common understanding at a time when an incident such as the 2006
blasts in Mumbai involved planning and fundraising in up to 11
different countries. Regarding the May 13 blasts in Jaipur, Narayanan
divulged that India has narrowed the suspects to the Harkat-ul-Jihad
Islami (HUJI). On Iran, Narayanan asserted that India also wanted to
prevent a nuclear weapons program, but he criticized the use of
sanctions as ineffective, given the "unique" Shi'ite ability to absorb
punishment. Narayanan relayed the government's intention to maintain a
dialogue and normalize relations with Pakistan, as shown by the effort
to play down the increase in cross-border infiltration in recent
weeks. End Summary.

Motorcycles for Mangos - - -

2.(C) Senator Russ Feingold began the May 30 meeting with Senator Bob
Casey and National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan by urging a
reduction in tariffs on Harley Davidson motorcycles. Narayanan
responded that the Prime Minister is "the most liberal economist you
can think of," and he promised to pass the message to him and other
relevant officials.

U.S. and India Have Natural Empathy - - -

3.(C) Narayanan remarked that neither Senators Feingold and Casey have
traveled to India before, and he urged them to see more of the country
than Delhi. He described the U.S.-India relationship as much more than
trade links and defense deals, but enjoying a special "empathy" that
has increased as nearly every middle-class family has a relative in
the U.S. These ties will create a lasting relationship that, Narayanan
maintained, will not change.

The Role of NSA - - -

4.(C) Senator Feingold asked about the role of the National Security
Advisor and how Narayanan can pursue national security goals given the
decentralized nature of India's political system. Narayanan replied
that the government had revived the position of National Security
Advisor (NSA) in 1998 after a brief stint in 1990. The NSA, who
presides over the National Security Council, derives authority from
his association with the Prime Minister, a position that historically
has held great influence thanks to the legacy established by
Jawarharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Narayanan explained. "In a sense,
I live in the shadow of the Prime Minister," he stated, which allows
him to cut across party loyalties and appeal to diverse interests.

Terrorism Challenge Requires Better Cooperation - - -

5.(C) Senator Feingold inquired about major security threats in the
region, and particularly Narayanan's thoughts on the May 13 Jaipur
blasts and Kashmir. Narayanan observed that the U.S. no longer ignores
terrorist attacks that occur in India because it has adopted a more
"cooperative angle" to face this common threat. He related that Indian
intelligence has detected various targets, including southern and
northeast Europe, Somalia and the Middle East, but not the U.S. Non-
state actors will intensify their asymmetric warfare, he predicted,
and pointed to the increase in "white recruits" detected by Indian
intelligence in terrorist training camps along the Pakistan-
Afghanistan borders. Those recruits will not be used against India or
Asian nations, he NEW DELHI 00001489 002 OF 003 pointed out, adding
that he has warned his counterparts of the development. He also
related that India has found a "manifest attempt to get fissile
material," though terrorist groups have not yet acquired any. However,
he warned, they have "enough physics to fabricate a crude bomb beyond
a dirty bomb."

6.(C) Narayanan perceived the lack of "adequate understanding" among
intelligence agencies as the greatest weakness in the war on terror.
"We keep our cards close to our chest, but it is extremely counter-
productive," he lamented, recognizing that the fault is "equally
shared." He cited the 2006 Mumbai blasts, which involved up to 11
countries, and at least seven distinct places where planning occurred.
He noted that he made the pitch during his visit to Washington for
greater information sharing, even of bits and pieces. "What might not
make sense to you might make sense to me," he pressed. He indicated
that he would raise intelligence sharing during the visit of the
upcoming visit of the Director of National Intelligence. He also
observed that jihadis no longer come from just the poorer segment of
the Muslim population, but rather from the upper crust of a community
that feels threatened in face of Muslim integration in India.

HUJI To Blame For Jaipur - - -

7.(C) Narayanan pinned the blame for the May 13 Jaipur explosions on
the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI), a Bangladeshi offshoot of the
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), noting that HUJI also masterminded the August
2007 blasts in Hyderabad, which employed similar triggers, packaging
and devices as the Jaipur blasts. He noted that the Indian government
had focused on threats to Maharashtra and Gujarat, but had no
indication that Jaipur would be a target. No Nuclear Weapons, Nor
Sanctions, For Iran - - -

8.(C) Senator Casey expressed concern about the uranium enrichment
program in Iran and asked about India's policy on Iran's nuclear
program. Narayanan pointed out that India and Iran have enjoyed
civilizational links, India contains the second-largest Shi'ite
population in the world, and any event in Iran could impact India
because of their close geographic proximity. However, Narayanan
maintained, the Indian government has "bitten the bullet" and held the
view that Iran should abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
(NPT), an unpopular position in India. During Iranian President
Ahmadinejad's recent visit to Delhi, the Prime Minister told him to
that India expects Iran to behave responsibly, Narayanan related.
However, Narayanan saw the U.S. and India diverging on the issue of
sanctions. He explained that the Shia clergy are more "sophisticated
and erudite" than their Sunni counterparts. At the same time, he
added, the Shia have a tremendous capacity to absorb punishment. "Self-
flagellation comes to them naturally," Narayanan commented. The
imposition of sanctions punishes ordinary people, who then turn their
anger outward, he said. Narayanan contended that encouraging Iran to
join the mainstream would produce more results. "We are cautious about
adhering to a broad attack on Iran, but we do not favor nuclear
weapons in Iran," Narayanan clarified.

India To Play Down Recent Infiltration from Pakistan - - -

9.(C) Senator Casey recounted his recent visit to Pakistan, where he
heard several promises about cracking down on border crossings. Should
the U.S. put stock in these pledges, he asked Narayanan. Narayanan
noted that under President Musharraf from 2004 to 2006, the Composite
Dialogue moved forward and infiltration dropped. The political crisis
in Pakistan in 2007 stalled progress, he noted. He said that he was
"hopeful" the new leadership would continue to see dialogue as useful,
and not just as "something that Musharraf did." The recent Foreign
Minister meetings in Islamabad helped ensure that the new government
would sustain the Composite Dialogue, Narayanan recounted. However, he
regretted that infiltration and incidents have spiked recently. He
related that the Indian government has played NEW DELHI 00001489 003
OF 003 them down and not lodged a formal protest, deciding instead to
treat them as a "temporary aberration." He remembered that hostility
between India and Pakistan had dropped to such an extent that Pakistan
had at one time withdrawn some of its military from the India-Pakistan
border in order to focus on the threats along the border with
Afghanistan, but those forces have since returned to the Indian
border.

Peace Deals With Terrorists - - -

10.(C) Asked by Senator Casey how India felt about the pacts signed
between the Pakistani Army and tribal groups, Narayanan replied that
the Indian government does not consider them conducive to peace.
Instead, he stated, "they are out-sourcing terror." He acknowledged
that the U.S. understands this stance, but the British seem to think
that the peace deals are a good move. Instead, Narayanan cautioned,
the deals will allow the tribal groups to re-energize by withdrawing
the pressure under which they might have relented. Pakistan needs its
army to hem those groups in, he stressed. Narayanan also advised the
U.S. to fight the war on the ground and avoid an air war, which he
doubted would work against tribal groups. Senator Feingold said that
he shared Narayanan's concerns about the peace agreements.

11.(C) Senator Feingold related that, during his May 28 visit to
Islamabad, Pakistanis refrained from using harsh words to describe
India. Warmer relations would be a new development for most Americans,
Senator Feingold noted. Narayanan recognized that the importance of
building a secure and stable Afghanistan has exposed the U.S. to
concerns that India has held for many years. This was an important
shift in the U.S., Narayanan asserted.

Comment: Pakistan Relations Remain Positive - - -

12.(C) A week after External Affairs Minister Mukherjee visited
Islamabad, the Indian government appears reassured by the new
Pakistani leadership's stated desire to sustain the dialogue that
Musharraf had maintained. Narayanan's description of the effort to
downplay the growth in incursions clearly aims to give the new
leadership in Islamabad breathing room. However, if India experiences
another attack on the scale of Jaipur or several more weeks of
heightened violence and infiltration activity on the border, the
pressure will mount on India to show its displeasure in public.

13.(SBU) This cable was cleared by Codel Feingold.
MULFORD

An Identity for Identity Starved Indians - Inside Nandan Nilekani's Sleeve

2009-07-06T18:12:00.001+05:30

Dear All,
It seems Nandan Nilekani and Kapil Sibal are emerging as the Mascots for a new Congress government and a new Congress party which is youth friendly.
While this maybe a temporary phase or cooling off period while Shri Rahul Gandhi devotes himself to learning about the heart rending woes of rural India's Kalawati, there is no doubt that the Congress government is on the cusp of a major realignment with the country, egged on by corporate India and global forces.
Nandan Nilekani has expressed himself and pronounced his vision of the so called Unique Identity Project. What does this unique identity project mean in a non English speaking idiom, lets say, how does The Unique Identity Project of ManMohan Singh and Nandan Nilekani, who was elevated to the rank of Cabinet Minister and blessed with the 120 crore signing off largesse by our Dear Pranab Babu, translate itself into Tamil, into Oriya, into Punjabi, into Gujarati, into Kannada, into Hindi ?
Will the Grand Vision of Nandan Nilekani about foisting a unique identity on each and every India reverberate only in English, amongst soft spoken outsourcing brat pack of Chennai, Gurgaon and Bangalooru ?
Come join us for a LokVidya discussion. - Let us test the patriotism of the Grand Vision of Nandan Nilekani in the villages of rural India rather than in the electricity gulping Air conditioned corridors of Bangalooru, Gurgaon or Special Economic Zones that ASSOCHAM and FICCI wants tax lollipops for.
LokVidya Bahas on Nandan Nilekani, Identity Project and Identity of Bharat.
Attached is the brief paper in which the visionary Nandan Nilekani spells out his GRAND VISION for finding a technology fix for the Identity Starved Indian - as Marie Antoinette of France would say - Let them eat cakes.
While it is no secret that Indian IT sector is in dire straits due to global recession and emerging protectionism, it seems the Indian IT sector is looking to spread its wings and have a new look at the domestic Indian services markets.
So what are the preconditions for this ?
It would be premature of us to see this merely as an issue of the Indian IT sector. It surely has deeper implications than just some corporate interests muscle flexing with the Indian government for an economic agenda of their choice.
Come, let us explore these radical politics questions at a LokVidya Bahas which seeks to look at the knowledge question from the standpoint of Bharat.
Regards,
Nagarjuna

Today Indians can have a multitude of numbers with which to identify ourselves, depending on when and where we interact with the State. When we get a passport we get a passport ID, a ration card gets us another number, when we pay taxes we need a Permanent Account Number (PAN), when we register our vote we get a voter ID card, and on to bar code infinitum. “Our databases are in these disconnected silos,” Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami says. This makes zeroing in on a definite identity for each citizen particularly difficult, since each government department works on a different turf and with different groups of people. The lack of a unique number has given space to plenty of phantoms in voter lists and in Below Poverty Line (BPL) schemes and in holding bank accounts with multiple PANs. One academic tells me, “The number of BPL ration cards circulating in Karnataka is more than the state’s entire population, let alone the number of BPL families.”

India’s ministries and departments are also quite isolated, with separate fund flows and intricate, over-hyphenated authority levels. As a result, these systems require paperwork-choked processes each time citizens approach the state. A common technology and process platform for government schemes and departments — especially now that they have such large budgets — would be a huge improvement in coordinating information between departments, and getting rid of redundancy and triplicate forms. Identity systems linked up with an IT-enabled process that interlinks our various departments would, besides making citizen information and identity more verifiable, make the relationship between the State and the citizen infinitely less traumatising. Such a ‘national grid’ would require, as a first and critical step, a unique and universal ID for each citizen. Creating a national register of citizens, assigning them a unique ID and linking them across a set of national databases, like the PAN and passport, can have far-reaching effects in delivering public services better and targeting services more accurately. Unique identification for each citizen also ensures a basic right — the right to ‘an acknowledged existence’ in the country, without which much of a nation’s poor can be nameless and ignored, and governments can draw a veil over large-scale poverty and destitution.

The use of IT and the rise of such unique number systems are closely correlated. In the United States, for instance, the Social Security Administration (SSA) was the first federal bureaucracy to require the use of computers because of the overwhelming complexity of processing the social security numbers and data of its 200 million-plus citizens. The bureaucracy was a massive complex of wall-to-wall file cabinets managed by hundreds of clerks. It was the early IBM 705 computer that helped transform and streamline it. This mainframe approach quickly spread to European bureaucracies in the 60s and the 70s. The transparency and flexibility of such computerisation also enabled other reforms — such as laws that introduced individual citizen accounts for benefits and welfare payouts, a step which both opposition parties and citizens in Europe and the US would have been deeply suspicious of under the earlier, less transparent and bureaucracy-run system. In China as well, IT has helped the government transform its social security systems from a local network to a national, increasingly interlinked process.

In India, the government has made some attempts towards such a single citizen ID number.... A stop-gap arrangement that the government has put in place requires the PAN as ‘the sole identification number’ during bank transactions. But of course, with just 60 million people with a PAN, this does not come close to a broad-based citizen ID....

Too often though, we see issuing smart cards as the main challenge of implementing such a system. But building these intelligent little stripes is the easy part. It is in making the back-end infrastructure secure and scalable, providing a single record-keeper for the whole country and integrating the agents who issue these numbers that gets tough. To do this, we need a sustained and multi-pronged effort that cuts across governments as well as companies. For example, issuing this number to each citizen, say, during a census would be extremely onerous, as it is a painful task prone to errors as census officials spend long days walking through neighbourhoods and knocking on doors. It would be a lot more effective to issue these numbers when citizens come to the government.

This would mean issuing citizen IDs when individuals come to a public office for an identification document — a passport, birth certificate, caste certificate, driver’s licence — when they come to collect a benefit such as a BPL card or when they have to make a financial transaction, such as pay taxes, open a bank account or buy into a mutual fund. The government can also easily recruit private companies such as telecommunication and financial services firms to become intermediary issuers to their large numbers of customers.

Each of these paths to identifying the citizen and bringing him into the database would cover different pools of people. The PAN covers all tax payers, voter IDs all registered citizens over 18, birth certificates all newborns and BPL cards the poor. Using the databases to issue IDs to different groups of people means that the initiative would ramp up to near-universal, accurate levels very quickly. And if necessary, such efforts can be complemented with a census. A national smart ID done at this level could, I think, be transformational. Acknowledging the existence of every single citizen, for instance, automatically compels the State to improve the quality of services, and immediately gives the citizen better access....

A key piece of infrastructure that must sit on top of an interconnected grid is the electronic flow of funds. This will require that each uniquely identified citizen or organisation has a financial account into which money can be transferred from the State. This could be an account in a bank, a post office or with a self-help group. And within this system, the ID smart card can function as a mobile, non-transferable electronic passbook.

My guess is that the impact on inclusive growth and India’s savings rate from implementing this would be massive, considering that an estimated 80 per cent of Indians today do not have a bank account, and therefore lie outside any sort of banking system besides, perhaps, the one represented by the exploitative moneylender and his steel box of cash. “The weakest aspect of India’s economic reach is in financial access,” Dr C. Rangarajan agrees, “and its impact on inclusive growth has been severe.” For instance, people need savings to invest in education, spend on health care, or to feel secure enough to move to a city, leaving their home and land to take up jobs in a place where they have no real assets.

Linking smart cards to such accounts can open up the banking system to hundreds of millions more people. It also introduces the possibility of offering direct services, from pension and benefit payments to trading accounts to an unprecedented number of people.
This is an edited extract from Nandan Nilekani’s Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century (Penguin India).

Of Villains and Hypocrites - When Art Collectors Become Unfashionable in Land of Innovation

2008-10-07T15:58:00.003+05:30

Dear All,
I am sure many must have seen the live testimony of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Chief Executive Richard Fuld.
To me it was a fascinating case of Hollywood style politics being played out by respected Congressmen, to give the world an aura of transparency, fairness and generosity of spirit that is supposed to have been one of the founding principles of the White settlers who bought over cheap land from Native Americans in the past few centuries and built up America as a model of tolerance and freedom for the world to adulate and squirm in its own filth, prejudice and intolerance.

Thomas Freidman, author of " Hot, Flat and Crowded "of immigrant forefathers from Russia / Eastern Europe, is a man who jokingly talks of an America with high walls but a very large door and now promotes the necessity of high oil and energy prices for America to return to its founding principles of land of innovation and freedom for all, regardless of colour, creed or background.

------
MarketWatch - http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fuld-blames-lehmans-fall-lack/story.aspx?guid={A94914F8-4190-45B8-A850-2C41067F859B}&dist=msr_19
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Facing skeptical and angry members of Congress, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Richard Fuld blamed the bankruptcy of his firm on a "lack of confidence" Monday, saying in testimony he and other executives did everything they could to protect the investment bank before it imploded in September.
"Ultimately what happened to Lehman Brothers was caused by a lack of confidence," Fuld said. "This was not a lack of confidence in just Lehman Brothers, but part of what has been called a storm of fear enveloping the entire investment-banking field and our financial institutions generally," Fuld said in testimony at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Read Fuld's testimony.
But lawmakers lashed out at Fuld even before he took his seat at the witness table, with one even asking how the executive could sleep at night.
"Mr. Fuld takes no responsibility for the collapse of Lehman," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the panel's chairman, before Fuld began his testimony. Waxman also said that Fuld will come out of the bankruptcy remaining wealthy while the economy is threatened.
"Mr. Fuld will do fine," Waxman added. "But taxpayers are left with a $700 billion bill to rescue Wall Street and an economy in crisis," referring to the $700 billion rescue plan for the financial markets signed into law Friday.
Waxman also said experts believe that Lehman's (LEHMQ fall triggered the credit crisis and made the rescue plan necessary.
Lehman filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. The committee is planning five hearings about the financial meltdown.
Testifying before the panel, Fuld said: "I take full responsibility for the decisions that I made and for the actions that I took."
'I wonder how [Fuld] sleeps at night.'
— Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
In his testimony, Fuld remarked that he believed the company was "well protected to withstand even the most difficult markets."
But he also said that the government could have taken steps to help the troubled bank. An earlier decision by the Federal Reserve to allow banks to pledge collateral to the central bank "would have been extraordinarily helpful to Lehman Brothers," he commented.
Similarly, help from the Fed for a merger between Lehman and another bank could have stemmed more problems in the market, according to Fuld.
Moreover, he said, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve closely observed the company's business in 2008. "They were privy to everything as it was happening," he asserted. "Quarter to quarter, month to month, regulators saw how we reduced our commercial real-estate holdings, how we increased our liquidity pool, how we decreased leverage and strengthened our capital levels."
But House lawmakers -- all of whom are up for re-election next month -- went on the attack against the embattled executive.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said he's asking for a special counsel to investigate the fall of Lehman, and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said members of his church were asking on Sunday why Fuld and other executives were paid so much money.
"I wonder how [Fuld] sleeps at night," Cummings added.
Lehman's board was asked to approve $20 million in special payments to three departing executives just four days before the company filed for bankruptcy, according to Waxman.
Fuld said the company's executives did all they could to prop up the bank but couldn't manage to save it. "In the end, despite all our efforts, we were overwhelmed, others were overwhelmed and still other institutions would have been overwhelmed had the government not stepped in to rescue them."
Meanwhile, House Republican Leader John Boehner said the hearings amount to little more than "political theater" as long as they don't probe the roles of Fannie Mae (FNM in the credit crisis.
"Chairman Waxman has flatly refused numerous requests by Republicans to hold even a single hearing on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's role in the financial crisis that is having an impact on families, seniors, small businesses and every single taxpayer in America," Boehner said in a statement.

----
There were also pointed questions put to Mr Fuld whether he felt he was double crossed by the Treasury Secretary H Paulson, and given to put faith in some wrong planted leads and insider information. To this Mr Fuld replied that he sincerely wished this were not the case.

The Guardian has reported on this Congressional hearing under oath, and - for public consumption, inept Congressman, vacuously kept reminding Mr Fuld , no doubt for public consumption, that he was under oath - - Nagarjuna
----
Guardian has reported : http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/06/creditcrunch.lehmanbrothers
It was a showdown to cherish for critics of Wall Street's culture of enrichment. The grim-faced boss of the bankrupt bank Lehman Brothers was left squirming with discomfort today as a veteran Democrat roasted him over his multi-million dollar pay.

With the startled look of a man unaccustomed to sharp examination, Lehman's chief executive, Richard Fuld, clashed bluntly with the chairman of the House oversight committee, Henry Waxman, on Capitol Hill.

Called upon to explain why Lehman collapsed last month, Fuld began with a note of humility, saying he felt "horrible" over the demise of the 158-year-old institution. "I want to be very clear," said Fuld. "I take full responsibility for the decisions I made and for the actions I took."

In a brief speech that was heard in silence, Fuld told lawmakers that if he could turn back the clock, he would do many things differently. As soon as he finished speaking, sparks began to fly. The chairman of the committee held up a chart suggesting that Fuld's personal remuneration totalled $480m over eight years – including payouts of $91m in 2001 and $89m in 2005.

"Your company is now bankrupt and out country is in a state of crisis," said Waxman, a liberal lawmaker from California. "You get to keep $480m. I have a very basic question – is that fair?" After a long pause, Fuld demurred, saying the figure was exaggerated: "The majority of my compensation, sir, came in stock. The vast majority of the stock I got I still owned at the point of our [bankruptcy] filing."

Waxman cut him off, saying that even if the figure was slightly lower, it was "unimaginable" to much of the public. "Is that fair, for a CEO of a company that's now bankrupt, to make that kind of money? It's just unimaginable to so many people." Waxman asked. "I would say to you the $500m number is not accurate," said Fuld. "I'd say to you, although it's still a large number, for the years you're talking about here, my cash compensation was close to $60m, which you've indicated here, and I took out closer to $250m [in shares]."

Interrupting again, Waxman listed Fuld's collection of property – including a $14m ocean-front villa in Florida and a home in the exclusive ski resort of Sun Valley, Idaho. "You and your wife have an art collection filled with million dollar paintings," said Waxman. "Your former president, Joe Gregory used to travel to work in a helicopter."
The pugnacious Waxman warmed to his theme: "You made all this money taking risks with other peoples' money."

Refusing to give ground, Fuld said his pay had been set by an independent compensation committee which spent "a tremendous amount of time" making sure executives' interests were aligned with those of shareholders.

"When the company did well, we did well," said Fuld. "When the company did not do well, we didn't do well." Waxman disagreed: "Mr Fuld, there seems to be a breakdown, because you did very well when the company was doing well and you did well when the company was not doing well. And now your shareholders who owned your company have nothing. They've been wiped out."

Fuld's evidence on Capitol Hill was his first public appearance since Lehman failed, sparking a chain of events that have sent shockwaves through the global financial system and has prompted the US government to begin a $700bn bail-out of the banking industry.

A lifelong Lehman employee who joined the firm as an intern in 1966, Fuld has been blamed for the debacle by many of the bank's 28,000 staff – including those in London who have accused senior management of filleting Lehman's British operation of money in the bank's final days.

Deadpan and emotionless, Fuld repeatedly frustrated congressmen by answering questions with lengthy, technical financial explanations. Frustrated by his demeanour, a Republican congressman, John Mica, tried humour. "If you haven't discovered your role, you're the villain today," said Mica. "You've got to act like a villain."

Fuld stared back wordlessly, without a shadow of a smile. Towards the end of his two hours of evidence, Fuld told Congress that until the final hours of the bank, he believed a takeover by Barclays would save Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy. In the event, Barclays waited until after Lehman had collapsed before buying the remnants of its US operations.

"Not that anyone on this committee cares about this but I wake up every single night wondering 'what could I have done differently?'" Fuld said. "In certain conversations, what should I have said? What could I have done? I have searched myself every single night." Raising his voice, Fuld continued: "This is a pain that will stay with me for the rest of my life."
===

It is amazing that while paid lobbying is perfectly LEGAL in Washington policy making, naked attempts were made to black wash a man as a VILLAIN - a man who was paying salaries to 28,000 of the smartest individuals in the financial world, a man who evolved a highly successful part salary, part bonuses and part stock options compensations system to ensure alignment of employee interests with those of shareholders in the most sophisticated of American financial institutions and was the epitome of a sophisticated art collector in a land where the rights of the wealthy are protected and kept above the rights of the masses -
One Congressman pointed out the amounts of money paid by Lehman Brothers to influence financial regulators and law makers in Capitol Hill, and if Lehman Brothers was actually manipulated and sabotaged from the very top echelons of the US financial / regulatory watchdogs.
But all this was glossed over in the ridiculous circus of arbitrary transparency that US of A tried to put before the world at large.
Now the nationalized banks are here to stay, greed and profit making is suddenly a dirty word, and attempts are being made to redefine globalization and capitalism for the world in a manner more palatable to American voters and Sovereign Funds from Gulf countries, Japan and Emerging Economies.
Long Live America.
How America has turned 180 degrees is clear before all, when one cuts out the postures, and posture making, and histrionics of American politicans and academics.
Regards,
Nagarjuna

21st Century American Foreign Policy, Indian Defense Purchases and the Export of Conflicts to Asia

2008-10-05T12:42:00.004+05:30

21st Century - Indian Defense Purchases and American Foreign Policy Agenda of Exporting Conflicts to Asia ---
Dear Eddie and All,
Sorry to butt in, but before Mandeep has a go, my two cents for what they are worth in a 700 Billion dollars bailout / rescue package.
I am sure it is time for the kids who study America and Western industrialization story as the basis of colonialism and imperialism, to grow up and stop campaigning for falsehoods, as American foreign policy is fine tuned to 21st century. Exporting external and internal conflicts to Asia will be part and parcel of this fine tuning maybe even in the garb of improving Indian internal security and the technologies required for it.
Indian military strategists need to study the global presumptions and compulsions of neocon American foreign, diplomatic and military policy, before they look at regional conflicts and ambitions.
Not having studied 20th century globalization in sufficient detail, Indian policy analysts will now have their plates full trying to pull up their socks wrapping their heads around 21st century Post Globalization !!!
Dharampal is the only Indian historian to have studied Western concepts of globalization in sufficient detail in my opinion.
In my opinion, in the 21st century, US of A as a nation and an empire will only be able to survive by supplying arms and military hardware to unsuspecting countries and their army of bureaucrats and commission agents, right from dissatisfied serving defense officers to ex Navy admirals.
US of A, in a world where the dollar will cease to be the reserve currency of the world and when for One Dollar you might only get One Rupee, and for One Pound you will get only Two Rupees - will absolutely need to find new regions for exporting conflict away from the American island to Asian and African countries. In my opinion this is the need of the hour for American foreign policy and defense strategicians.
What better than to pit India against Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, apart of course from India;s own Muslims who feel marginalized, to serve the long term interests of US of A as a business entity that survives on muscular imperialism.

The current dispensation in India of Pranab Mukherjee and ManMohan Singh has seriously tinkered with and destroyed time tested non alignment principles of Nehruvean foreign policy.

The lame duck US Secretary of State, an ex academician who will soon be returning to a lucrative academic contract, as a representative of lame duck President in WHite House, struggling to find global markets and push up his image in the eyes of the common American, is desperately seeking new markets for global hardware and obsolete nuclear technology.
I find it amazing that when President Bush had last visited India, he had insisted on addressing the architects of post Bofors India from the ramparts of Lal Kila - or Red Fort despite security misgivings of Indian government.
This is symbolic of US foreign policy desire to intervene in South Asian regional insecurity and be the policeman that guarantees regional security in unchartered waters.
Ms Rice is in India and CNN reports on her visit and agenda as the arms exports led American economy and foreign policy rapidly loses steam domestically.
Regards,
Nagarjuna
-----
CNN Report - NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday that a deal lifting a ban on nuclear trade with India would be signed shortly.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says nuclear deal will improve relationship with India.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says nuclear deal will improve relationship with India.

"The president will sign the agreement very soon," she said. The signing had earlier been postponed because of administrative matters.

"Let me be clear, the 123 agreement is done, it's just a matter of signing that agreement," Rice said, referring to the name of the deal, which removes a ban on U.S. nuclear trade with India.

At a luncheon, External Affairs Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee praised Rice and U.S. President Bush for their efforts.

"When I look to the future, I am confident that our relations will continue to improve," he said.

Hours earlier, en route to India, Rice told reporters that work remained to be done. "It's got to be worked out at the last minute, because there are so many administrative issues that we have to deal with," she said. "The important thing about this trip is to talk about the next steps in the U.S.-India relationship, not the last step.
Don't Miss

* Rice hails approval of India nuclear deal
* U.S. to sell $6.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan

"What the civil nuclear deal does is that it removes for India a barrier to full integration on a whole range of technologies," Rice said. "But more importantly, I think it is symbolic of a relationship with India that's now at a very, very different level. And at that different level, one would expect that economic relations, defense relations, a whole range of relationships, including business relationships, will flourish."

The Senate voted 86-13 Wednesday to overturn the 34-year-old ban on nuclear trade with India. The House of Representatives passed the bill without debate last Saturday.

Rice has called the deal "a historic agreement," saying it puts the United States and India on "a firm footing."

It means American businesses can sell nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India. In turn, India will allow international inspections of its civilian -- but not military -- nuclear power plants. It also promised not to resume testing of nuclear weapons.

The United States banned nuclear trade with India after the country exploded a nuclear device in 1974 and refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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Critics contend that it would hurt international efforts to keep nuclear weapons from spreading.

Rice is to travel from India to Kazakhstan.
------

Hi Mandeep,
I tried to access the Bharat Rakshak site you suggested but failed. I suspect it may be a restricted site.

Anyway, I'd like to ask you a question or two, not so much about military history but about India's on-going military build-up.. I think you will be well placed to answer.
I have raised this matter on certain Indian blogs but they just get annoyed and won't give a straight answer.

As I see it, India has not won a single war with an equal enemy like China.
When China invaded in 1962, Nehru was caught by surprise. And no wonder - India's army was no match for the Chinese which had seen combat agaisnt the Americans in the Korean conflict (1950-53). According to India Times (Feb07): "Premier Zhou Enlai said: "we sent three open telegrams to Jawaharlal Nehru asking him to make a public reply, but he refused. He was so discourteous; he wouldn't even do us the courtesy of replying, so we had no choice but to drive him out." The Chinese had no difficulty entering Indian territory, crossing upto 200 miles at one time. They then withdrew of their own accord. (Do you agree with this version of events?)

In the early 70s, India dismembered East Pakistan with ease (there was litle resistance) and created Bangladesh. The outcomes of 3 wars with Pakistan were apparently indecisive. When the Indians tried peace keeping in Sri Lanka in the late 90s, they suffered heavy losses and decided to return. (Is this correct?)
Doesn't all this speak poorly of the Indian military? So to return to my question:

Why does India keep wasting billions buying hardware from the US, Britain, France, Russia and Israel? They have been the world's top aggressors and trouble makers for a long time. So who is India's enemy? India can hardly win against China, so is the build-up to deter little Pakistan (with a quarter the area and one-sixth the population?)
Or do you think India will end up as a junior partner on call to serve US global interests against 'terrorists' , whenever required?

I would appreciate your views on this matter.

Eddie

------------ --------- --------- -----
Mandeep wrote:
Thanks Karam for that great introduction which rather flatters me !
Eddie, I welcome your interest in Indian military history. Count on me for any help you might need. I'm one of the two Editors on www.indianmilitaryh istory.org the site of the Centre for Indian Military History. You will find it useful particularly if you have any questions which we'll answer with alacrity.

Wikipedia has some great articles though I'd treat some of the information with caution since the site consists of inputs from individuals who are free to post whatever they like.

I'd recommend that you try Bharat Rakshak http://bharat-rakshak.com Very informative. You'll find me there too !

Warm Regards to everyone and thanks for welcoming me !

Mandeep Bajwa

Pray, What might be some Post Globalization Predictions of an Iranian Jew ?

2008-10-01T10:56:00.003+05:30

Dear All,
Pray, What might be some Post Globalization Predictions of an Iranian Jew ?
Taking some lessons from the global financial crisis - Time to get down from Air Force One
The Jewish people as a global phenomenon at the very heart of the rise of Zionism and the post Second World War economic and financial system as well as what we have come to know as the post Perestroika unipolar world order dominated by the United States would be very well known to all serious students of cultural history with a keen insight into the the role played by diaspora in shaping world orders.
The Diaspora in nation states of the previous 20 th century, especially the Jews who emigrated from the old Europe to countries like Israel and United States of America are I think a very fit topic for the study into the issue of the convergence of cultural, economic and political identities - the Jews are quintessentially, along with Islam and Christianity, playing out the historical roles assigned to them in their cultural traditions, just below the temporary veneer of twentieth century modernity and the dominance of the Western World over large parts of the non Western world.
I was intrigued to find that the ageing professional champion of ideological economic globalization and the central role of USA in imperialism and world affairs, (a person who worked his way as a quintessential hardworking Oxbridge educated Sikh / silent World Bank economist and bureaucrat, ( but was launched into a political vacuum created by the non acceptance of the Congress party desire for an Italian woman as Indian Prime Minister ), and well known for his domestic reticence and his policy of taking the Nehruvian ideals of non alignment into their deathbed ) - in mediating the affairs of world post 9/11 recently on his tour of USA and Europe - one board his swashy personal aeroplane Air India One, chose to clearly spoke out to the prickly issues of the role of emerging economies in the resolution of the global financial meltdown.
He of course said that the emerging economies cannot be immune from the problems that have catclysmically and shockingly emerged onto the radar of Western political and economic order in the last one month, past the so called regulatory framework, that is not fit for purpose in a laissez faire 21st century global capitalism - the financial earthquake going by the euphemism of " Credit and Liquidity Crunch in Money Markets ".
He said this while he quietly signed an agreement with France on Civil Nuclear cooperation to build more modern nuclear plants than the USA - the mecca of science and technology - is capable of providing to the world and negotiated some cosmetic social security arrangements for short term economic migrants to France from the Indian professional heartland. France incidentally and Monsieur Sarkozy in particular have often been speaking of the need to expand the G-8 group of countries, beyond its imperialistic old Europe and Bretton Woods lineage, to include India as a (responsible economy on the world stage )

In a recent edition of HardTalk on BBC by Stephen Sackur, the issue of the Dollar as the reserve currency for the world and the USA as the underpinner of the world security order, and the instigator of Middle East Asian conflicts came up for discussion.
Why should the whole world ( the Chinese, the Russians, the Japanese and the oil rich Saudis ) spend its cash on propping up the Dollar and what the dollar represents to the World as we know it ?
Economic historians of course know the centrality of Bretton Woods to the whole issue of the Dollar being effectively made the reserve currency of the world as opposed to the more old fashioned precious metal of Gold.
As long as the Dollar remains the effective reserve currency of the world, and as long as the Arab sheikhs keep the cheap oil flowing into guzzling American cars, America can keep up the pretense of being the security guarantor to the world. Effectively the whole world keeps the American Empire afloat, underwriting the trillions od dollars of American global debt, providing Americans with the trust to keep the world moving on its axis.
But this can continue only till the time, lame duck presidents like George Bush and and Neo Conservative twentieth century hawks like Cheney do not run out of their ability to do slightly more than whitewash White House in Washington and Capitol, a bit like Tom Sawyer whitewashing wooden fences for his Uncle to get some pocket money and the intellectual elite of the world keeps flocking to converge onto the American educational campuses.

So here is where an Iranian Jew comes in and begins to predict the demise of US of A as one of the shortest empires in the history of the human civilization.

Professor Nouriel Roubini is a quintessential Diasporean and his specialization happens to be Macro Economics, in a post globalization era in which nobody takes the dire pronouncements of President Bush of Washington any more seriously than the peace talk of the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.

Prof Nouriel Roubini is now clearly talking of the demise of the American Empire - the uni polar post Bretton Woods and Russian perestroika of Gorbachev of the 20 th century. It is high time Indian brat pack economists like Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chidambaram begin to take note and reading up more on the history of Iranian Jews.
In Electrical Engineering and in Financial Markets there is a concept like Signal and Noise. The issence of intellectualism lies in separating and muffling the noise from the signal.
Warm Regards,
Nagarjuna

*****
More on Prof Roubini on Wikipedia -

Nouriel Roubini (born on March 29, 1958 in Istanbul, Turkey[1]) is a professor of economics at New York University. He is also the chairman of RGE Monitor, an economic and financial analysis firm.
Contents

* 1 Early life and education
* 2 Career
* 3 Writings
* 4 Research
* 5 Current appointments
* 6 External links
* 7 References

Early life and education

The New York Times describes Roubini's early life as follows: "He was born in Istanbul, the child of Iranian Jews, and his family moved to Tehran when he was two, then to Tel Aviv and finally to Italy, where he grew up and attended college. He moved to the United States to pursue his doctorate in international economics at Harvard."[2] Roubini resided in Italy from 1962-1983, and is currently a U.S. citizen[1]. He speaks English, Italian, Hebrew, and Persian.[1]

Roubini spent one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before receiving his B.A. summa cum laude in Economics from the Bocconi University (Milan, Italy) in 1982. He received his Ph.D. in international economics from Harvard University in 1988. According to his advisor, Jeffrey Sachs, he was unusual in his talent with both mathematics and intuitive understanding of economic institutions.[2]

Career

He served in various roles at the Treasury Department, including Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs and Director of the Office of Policy Development and Review (July 1999 - June 2000). Previously, he was a Senior Economist for International Affairs on the Staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisors (July 1998 - July 1999).

Currently, Professor Roubini is a Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. He has also held teaching positions at Yale University, but failed to get tenure.

Roubini is known for his predictions of financial crisis, notably at the IMF in 2006, where he was received skeptically, with one commentator noting his lack of mathematical models. As of 2008 many of his predictions have come to fruition. Formerly an obscure academic, he has received invitations to speak before influential organizations such as United States Congress and the Council on Foreign Relations. As of August 2008, he remains pessimistic on the future of the US economy.[2] He has said that "we have a subprime financial system, not a subprime mortgage market".[2] He does not believe that the United States is entering the next Great Depression, but has said that he believes it will be worst recession since then.[2] He has clarified that his pessimism is focused on the short-run rather than the medium or long-run.[3]

In the 1990s, Roubini studied the collapse of emerging economies. Consistent with the unusual talent noted by Sachs, he used an intuitive, historical approach backed up by an understanding of theoretical models to analyze these countries and came to the conclusion that a common denominator across examples was the large [current account] deficits financed by loans from abroad. Roubini theorized that the United States might be the next to suffer, and in 2004 began writing about a possible/future collapse.[2]

Writings

Professor Roubini is the author of several books, including: Bailouts or Bail-ins? Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Economies, Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy, and International Financial Crises and the New International Financial Architecture.

Research

Professor Roubini's research interests include:

* international macroeconomics and international finance;
* macroeconomics and fiscal policy;
* political economy;
* growth theory;
* European monetary issues.

Current appointments

* Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research
* Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, UK
* Member, Bretton Woods Committee
* Member, Council on Foreign Relations Roundtable on the International Economy
* Member, Academic Advisory Committee, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund

External links

* Professor Roubini's NYU Stern Homepage
* Roubini Global Economics (RGE) Monitor
* New York Magazine article
* Professor Roubini's syndicated series, "Finance in the 21st Century", with Project Syndicate
* Talking to Nouriel Roubini
* Dr. Doom - Profile - Nouriel Roubini - Predicting Crisis in the United States Economy

References

1. http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~nroubini/referen.htm
2. Mihm, Steven. (2008). Dr. Doom. New York Times.
3. Roubini, Nouriel. (2008). New York Times Article on Nouriel Roubini as “Dr. Doom”. RGE Monitor.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouriel_Roubini"
Categories: 1958 births | Living people | People from Istanbul | Persian Jews | Israeli Jews | Turkish Jews | Italian Jews | Jewish American writers | Turkish Americans | Italian-Americans | Iranian Americans | Israeli-Americans | Israelis of Iranian descent | Alumni of Bocconi University | Harvard University alumni | Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni | Iranian economists | American economics writers | International finance economists | Macroeconomists | New York University faculty | Yale University faculty | United States Department of the Treasury | United States Council of Economic Advisors | Clinton Administration personnel

US India Nuclear Deal and Political Lame Ducks

2008-09-13T19:13:00.003+05:30

US India Nuclear Deal and Political Lame Ducks :
Dear All,
In my opinion, this certainly does not suggest a "lack of intellectual sophistication" as speculated by you.
The public reticence of the Indian PM all along has been very calculated.
And all along he has known clearly what he is doing.
If it were just so much, teams of British parliamentarians, Indian diaspora and Oxbridge graduates could have been airlifted to India on One Year lucrative academic contracts to offer crash sources in intellectual sophistication to Indian establishment.
It suggests merely the issue of the tail wagging the dog.
In the name of ill spelt out energy needs of India by the Oxbridge educated and World bank economists - it spells a predominance of economistic logic over basic political questions which still struggle to find elucidation in India.
ManMohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia are representative of Bretton Woods economists who have sought to smother legitimate political consensus.
Indeed the very logic of Nehruvian non alignment on a global stage has been disturbed due to a handful of economists turned politicians gaining ascendancy.
Mr Pranab Mukherjee's claims that India has not budged in its basic foreign policy objectives is very difficult to defend - indeed even he is now known for the hollow slogan of "bijli for aam aadmi " and "India's passport to nuclear trade", an industry purportedly of 100 billion dollars in the coming years.
The BJP led NDA, the other main opposition coalition is treading the same economic centralization doctrine and path though they claim that they still believe in the primary logic of the statement - "US is our natural ally ".
Whether the internal logic of the American military establishment and foreign policy will ever allow a stable and peaceful Middle Eastern and South Eastern Asia is an issue that BJP economic doctrinaires have not bothered to consider.

For this class of Indian elite, electoral success does not matter - they need control over the economic agenda - and for this they are CONTENT to LOSE political power in the states and regions of India, but SOMEHOW manage to RETAIN power at the centre in New Delhi in a curious mix of heavy handed American federal structure and British parliamentary democracy.
This central leverage is required by economists turned politicians to push through the economic agenda of rapid economic centralization in India without social equity.
It is also in this context that I judge the political immaturity of Prakash Karat and SitaRam Yechury in exiting the UPA coalition as against the political wisdom of Surjit Singh and Jyoti Basu, as regards the need for central leverage and fringe politics of the Left.
The US leaning Indian media almost forced out Prakash Karat from the UPA coalition in a well laid out trap.
In the present term, economic and intellectual reticence - as exemplified by the economists turned politicians at the helm in New Delhi - is the passport to economic heavy handedness and the preponderance of the economic elite over the political elite.

Regards,
Nagarjuna
-------------------------------
Indo-US nuclear deal

More embarrassing revelations have emerged.
The poor Indian PM, Manmohan Singh, has apparently failed to have grasped the fundamental provisions. Following the recent 26 pages of explanations provided by the Bush admin to the US Congress, Dr Brahma Chellaney (professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi) clarifies.

· The US has given no binding fuel-supply assurance to India. The Indian PM told the Lok Sabha on August 13, 2007 that 'detailed fuel supply assurances by the US for the uninterrupted operation of our nuclear reactors are reflected in full' in the 123 Agreement’. But the Bush administration has denied this. Its letter to the House Committee states that the US will render help only in situations where 'disruptions in supply to India... result through no fault of its own,' such as a trade war or market disruptions. 'The fuel supply assurances are not, however, meant to insulate India against the consequences of a nuclear explosive test or a violation of non-proliferation commitments, ' the letter said. The letter also reveals that the US has given no legally binding fuel-supply assurance of any kind.

· No US consent to India's stockpiling of lifetime fuel reserves for safeguarded power reactors. The prime minister had told the Lok Sabha on August 13, 2007 that, 'This Agreement envisages, in consonance with the Separation Plan, US support for an Indian effort to develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply for the lifetime of India's reactors.' But the Bush administration' s letter to the House Committee makes clear that India will not be allowed to build such stocks as to undercut US leverage to re-impose sanctions.

· US civil nuclear cooperation is explicitly conditioned to India not testing ever again. The PM told the Lok Sabha as recently as July 22, 2008 that, 'I confirm that there is nothing in these agreements which prevents us from further nuclear tests if warranted by our national security concerns. All that we are committed to is a voluntary moratorium on further testing.'

Last year, he had told Parliament that, 'There is nothing in the Agreement that would tie the hands of a future Government or legally constrain its options to protect India's security and defence needs.' The Bush administration, however, has told the House Committee that India has been left in no doubt that all cooperation will cease immediately if New Delhi conducted a test.

· The US has retained the right to suspend or terminate supplies at its own discretion. The Bush administration letter plainly contradicts the prime minister's assertion in Parliament on August 13, 2007 that, 'An elaborate multi-layered consultation process has been included with regard to any future events that may be cited as a reason by either Party to seek cessation of cooperation or termination of the (123) Agreement.' The letter states that the US right to suspend all supplies forthwith is unfettered.

· The letter makes clear that the 123 Agreement has granted India no right to take corrective measures in case of any fuel-supply disruption. Rather, India's obligations are legally irrevocable. It further indicates there is no link between perpetual safeguards and perpetual fuel supply. Contrast this with what the prime minister claimed in Parliament on August 13, 2007 : 'India's right to take "corrective measures" will be maintained even after the termination of the Agreement.' Or the prime minister's repeated assurances to Parliament since March 2006 that India 's acceptance of perpetual international inspections will be tied to perpetual fuel supply.

· The Bush administration' s letter states that the 123 Agreement fully conforms to the Hyde Act provisions. In a press release recently, the Prime Minister's Office made the following claim on July 2, 2008 : 'the 123 Agreement clearly overrides the Hyde Act and this position would be clear to anyone who goes through the provisions.'

· The letter assures Congress that the 'US government will not assist India in the design, construction or operation of sensitive nuclear technologies. ' That rules out not only the transfer of civil reprocessing and enrichment equipment or technologies to India even under safeguards, but also casts a shadow over the US granting India operational consent to reprocess spent fuel with indigenous technology. Under the 123 Agreement, India has agreed to forego reprocessing until it has, in the indeterminate future, won a separate, congressionally vetted agreement.
On one issue, the 123 Agreement had held out hope for India in the future by stating in its Article 5(2) that, 'Sensitive nuclear technology, heavy water production technology, sensitive nuclear facilities, heavy water production facilities and major critical components of such facilities may be transferred under this Agreement pursuant to an amendment to this Agreement.' But the Bush administration' s letter to Congress states that the US government had no plan to seek to amend the deal to allow any sensitive transfers.

Contrast this with what the prime minister said in Parliament on August 17, 2006 -- that ‘India wanted the removal of restrictions on all aspects of cooperation and technology transfers pertaining to civil nuclear energy, ranging from nuclear fuel, nuclear reactors, to reprocessing spent fuel. We will not agree to any dilution that would prevent us from securing the benefits of full civil nuclear cooperation as amplified above.'

Going by the above, poor India seems to have been roundly hoodwinked by the US lawyers. Does it suggest a lack of intellectual sophistication?
The nuclear deal might well prove to be India’s nemesis.

Eddie

Want American citizenship ? Fight American coalition Wars

2008-03-25T13:17:00.000+05:30

Who are the people dying for the adventurous wars fought by old American men on Foreign Soils - while safely growing old, sittiing in Washington. Do they send their own children for dying for American glory, american brass trinkets, medals, and America's Fear and Awe Strategy ? The truth is far more sordid as the Cheneys and Bush's and the old white gentlemen fighting and scheming for American wars and defence sales equipments across the globe - would rather not tell us.
The Wars of White Old Men of Washington : from AP
A young, ambitious immigrant from Guatemala who dreamed of becoming an architect. A Nigerian medic. A soldier from China who boasted he would one day become an American general. An Indian native whose headstone displays the first Khanda, emblem of the Sikh faith, to appear in Arlington National Cemetery.
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These were among more than 100 foreign-born members of the U.S. military who earned American citizenship by dying in Iraq.

Jose Gutierrez was one of the first to fall, killed by friendly fire in the dust of Umm Qasr in the opening hours of the invasion.

In death, the young Marine was showered with honors his family could only have dreamed of in life. His sister was flown in from Guatemala for his memorial service, where a Roman Catholic cardinal presided and top military officials saluted his flag-draped coffin.

And yet, his foster mother agonized as she accompanied his body back for burial in Guatemala City: Why did Jose have to die for America in order to truly belong?

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who oversaw Gutierrez's service, put it differently.

"There is something terribly wrong with our immigration policies if it takes death on the battlefield in order to earn citizenship," Mahony wrote to President Bush in April 2003. He urged the president to grant immediate citizenship to all immigrants who sign up for military service in wartime.

"They should not have to wait until they are brought home in a casket," Mahony said.

But as the war continues, more and more immigrants are becoming citizens in death — and more and more families are grappling with deeply conflicting feelings about exactly what the honor means.

Gutierrez's citizenship certificate — dated to his death on March 21, 2003, — was presented during a memorial service in Lomita, Calif., to Nora Mosquera, who took in the orphaned teen after he had trekked through Central America, hopping freight trains through Mexico before illegally sneaking into the U.S.

"On the one hand I felt that citizenship was too late for him," Mosquera said. "But I also felt grateful and very proud of him. I knew it would open doors for us as a family."

"What use is a piece of paper?" cried Fredelinda Pena after another emotional naturalization ceremony, this one in New York City where her brother's framed citizenship certificate was handed to his distraught mother. Next to her, the infant daughter he had never met dozed in his fiancee's arms.

Cpl. Juan Alcantara, 22, a native of the Dominican Republic, was killed Aug. 6, 2007, by an explosive in Baqouba. He was buried by a cardinal and eulogized by a congressman but to his sister, those tributes seemed as hollow as citizenship.

"He can't take the oath from a coffin," she sobbed.

There are tens of thousands of foreign-born members in the U.S. armed forces. Many have been naturalized, but more than 20,000 are not U.S. citizens.

"Green card soldiers," they are often called, and early in the war, Bush signed an executive order making them eligible to apply for citizenship as soon as they enlist. Previously, legal residents in the military had to wait three years.

Since Bush's order, nearly 37,000 soldiers have been naturalized. And 109 who lost their lives have been granted posthumous citizenship.

They are buried with purple hearts and other decorations, and their names are engraved on tombstones in Arlington as well as in Mexico and India and Guatemala.

Among them:

• Marine Cpl. Armando Ariel Gonzalez, 25, who fled Cuba on a raft with his father and brother in 1995 and dreamed of becoming an American firefighter. He was crushed by a refueling tank in southern Iraq on April 14, 2003.

• Army Spc. Justin Onwordi, a 28-year-old Nigerian medic whose heart seemed as big as his smiling 6-foot-4 frame and who left behind a wife and baby boy. He died when his vehicle was blown up in Baghdad on Aug. 2, 2004.

• Army Pfc. Ming Sun, 20, of China who loved the U.S. military so much he planned to make a career out of it, boasting that he would rise to the rank of general. He was killed in a firefight in Ramadi on Jan. 9, 2007.

• Army Spc. Uday Singh, 21, of India, killed when his patrol was attacked in Habbaniyah on Dec. 1, 2003. Singh was the first Sikh to die in battle as a U.S. soldier, and it is his headstone at Arlington that displays the Khanda.

• Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick O'Day from Scotland, buried in the California rain as bagpipes played and his 19-year-old pregnant wife told mourners how honored her 20-year-old husband had felt to fight for the country he loved.

"He left us in the most honorable way a man could," Shauna O'Day said at the March 2003 Santa Rosa service. "I'm proud to say my husband is a Marine. I'm proud to say my husband fought for our country. I'm proud to say he is a hero, my hero."

Not all surviving family members feel so sure. Some parents blame themselves for bringing their child to the U.S. in the first place. Others face confusion and resentment when they try to bury their child back home.

At Lance Cpl. Juan Lopez's July 4, 2004, funeral in the central Mexican town of San Luis de la Paz, Mexican soldiers demanded that the U.S. Marine honor guard surrender their arms, even though the rifles were ceremonial. Earlier, the Mexican Defense Department had denied the Marines' request to conduct the traditional 21-gun salute, saying foreign troops were not permitted to bear arms on Mexican soil.

And so mourners, many deeply opposed to the war, witnessed an extraordinary 45-minute standoff that disrupted the funeral even as Lopez's weeping widow was handed his posthumous citizenship by a U.S. embassy official.

The same swirl of conflicting emotions and messages often overshadows the military funerals of posthumous citizens in the U.S.

Smuggled across the Mexican border in his mother's arms when he was 2 months old, Jose Garibay was just 21 when he died in Nasiriyah. The Costa Mesa police department made him an honorary police officer, something he had hoped one day to become. America made him a citizen.

But his mother, Simona Garibay, couldn't conceal her bewilderment and pain. It seemed, she said in interviews after the funeral, that more value was being placed on her son's death than on his life.

Immigrant advocates have similar mixed feelings about military service. Non-citizens cannot become officers or serve in high-security jobs, they note, and yet the benefits of citizenship are regularly pitched by recruiters, and some recruitment programs specifically target colleges and high schools with predominantly Latino students.

"Immigrants are lured into service and then used as political pawns or cannon fodder," said Dan Kesselbrenner, executive director of the National Immigration Project, a program of the National Lawyers Guild. "It is sad thing to see people so desperate to get status in this country that they are prepared to die for it."

Others question whether non-citizens should even be permitted to serve. Mark Krikorian of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, argues that defending America should be the job of Americans, not non-citizens whose loyalty might be suspect. In granting special benefits, including fast-track citizenship, Krikorian says, there is a danger that soldiering will eventually become yet another job that Americans won't do.

And yet, immigrants have always fought — and died — in America's wars.

During the Cvil War, the Union army recruited Irish and German immigrants off the boat. Alfred Rascon, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, received the Medal of Honor for acts of bravery during the Vietnam war. In the 1990s, Gen. John Shalikashvili, born in Poland after his family fled the occupied Republic of Georgia, became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

After the Iraq invasion, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico fielded hundreds of requests from Mexicans offering to fight in exchange for citizenship. They mistakenly believed that Bush's order also applied to nonresidents.

The right to become an American is not automatic for those who die in combat. Families must formally apply for citizenship within two years of the soldier's death, and not all choose to do so.

"He's Italian, better to leave it like that," Saveria Romeo says of her 23-year-old son, Army Staff Sgt. Vincenzo Romeo, who was born in Calabria, died in Iraq and is buried in New Jersey. A miniature Italian flag marks his grave, next to an American one.

"What good would it do?" she says. "It won't bring back my son."

But it would allow her to apply for citizenship for herself, a benefit only recently offered to surviving parents and spouses. Until 2003 posthumous citizenship was granted only through an act of Congress and was purely symbolic. There were no benefits for next of kin.

Romeo says she has no desire to apply. She says she couldn't bear to benefit in any way from her son's death. And besides, she feels Italian, not American.

Fernando Suarez del Solar just feels angry — angry at what he considers the futility of a war that claimed his only son, angry at the military recruiters he says courted young Jesus relentlessly even when the family still lived in Tijuana.

His son was just 13, Suarez del Solar said, when he was first dazzled by Marine recruiters in a California mall. For the next two years Jesus begged the family to emigrate and eventually they did, settling in Escondido, Calif., where the teen signed up for the Marines before he left high school.

Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez Del Solar was 20 when he was killed by a bomb in the first week of the war. He left behind a wife and baby and parents so bitter about his death that they eventually divorced.

Today, his 52-year-old father has become an outspoken peace activist who travels the country organizing anti-war marches, giving speeches and working with counter-recruitment groups to dissuade young Latinos from joining the U.S. military.

"There is nothing in my life now but saving these young people," he says. "It is just something I feel have to do."

But first he had to journey to Iraq. He had to see for himself the dusty stretch of wasteland where his son became an American. In tears, he planted a small wooden cross. And he prayed for his son — and for all the other immigrants who became citizens in death.

हमारी अग्यानता की जड़ें गहरी व मज़बूत हैं ?

2008-01-30T18:53:00.000+05:30

- अगर हमारी अग्यानता की जड़ें गहरी व मज़बूत हैं ? -
- तो क्या आगे का पथ सरल व आसान हो सकता है ?
- शुरुआत कहाँ से की जाय ?

-------
१ - किसके लिए ? -
२ - मसीहा या पथ ? -
३ - लक्षण क्या अौर कैसे ? -
४ - आधुनिक, सरल व साधनों के अनुरूप ? -
५ - ग्यान की कमी, साधनों की कमी, या विश्वास की कमी ? -

Social Production of Hierarchy

2008-01-16T22:39:00.000+05:30

Dear All,
I find this post very interesting because it critiques the question "what is the agenda of edu-factory".
Hierarchies have always been an integral part of non Western societies but the Western world in the last 400 years has had very specific agendas in categorizing non Western societies, for political and business purposes.
This extends to non Western education, non Western values, non Western cultural mores, non Western elites and non Western society at large.
Western universities, education models and education institutions of the Oxbridge variety have played along with that agenda and portrayed themselves as physical / virtual sites and locations for a "disinterested search for knowledge and rational critique", riding on the back of what are self defined as "Western cultural values" of freedom, discussion, open debate, sound models of higher education, vis a vis, non Western hierarchies in knowledge and education.
Globalization is now seeing the business models of many such educational institutions clutching for ways and means to retain their global influence. So often, the Western educational fringe raises the questions of corporatism, wage rates, exclusion etc.
This whole model of discussing cleavages in education is suspect, because it presumes the continued domination of Western cultural values and educational institutions.
I sometimes feel, 400 years of domination over the world is enough, is it not. Let others also talk.
So when one raises the issue in terms that Xiang Biao has raised, it immediately strikes some forgotten chords in people like me - brown from the outside, white from the inside.
Xiang Bao - "Institutionalized education in most part of the human society seems intrinsically hierarchical"
That it need not be so, is a purely Western idea of the last 400 years.
So I feel it would be good to see the numbers of people who have traditionally been in higher education in previous times and the numbers who are now seeking entry into so called "democratic / liberal institutes of Westernized higher education".
-- However, we should not deny that educational hierarchy is also widely recognized, respected and sometimes even celebrated by the larger society. --
As Xiang Bao goes on to discuss the numbers entering education in Asia, maybe we need some comparative analysis with the numbers in Europe and America and how these scale up in comparison with overall population. He has suggested the numbers from Far East.
I would be very interested in similar data regarding other Asian countries.
But somehow the colonial agendas would never make this a fashionable topic for study, and Indian TV shows are well known for advertising one or two scholarships to Oxbridge.
Imagine, Indian media gets British professors to conduct third rate quiz shows and millions of students go through rounds and rounds of elimination to emerge as victors.
What for ? For a one or two seats in Oxbridge !! From a pool of millions of aspirants.
Needless to say, among the millions other who are left out, a few thousands force their skeptical middle class parents to shelve out money and foreign currency for "paid education and degrees", convincing their sceptical parents that after their education they will be given residence / work permits in EU and America and will not be thrown back to native countries.
So, the competition for marketing and corporate funds for attracting this few thousands of Chinese and Indian students becomes an industry by itself.
Native students in Western countries, who see themselves as disinterested pristine academics, feel, suddenly shortchanged by the struggle for Chinese and Indian students, by the managers and corporate staff, marketeers and racketeers, of Western universities, which they think are "their own" by definition and by birth.
Regards,
Nagarjuna
------------------

The social production of hierarchy, and what we can do about it : Notes from Asia

Here is Xiang Biao scheduled contribution.

The social production of hierarchy, and what we can do about
it: Notes from Asia

XIANG Biao

Institutionalized education in most part of the human society seems intrinsically hierarchical. One is supposed to progress from a “lower” level of learning to the “higher”; “average” kids study in mediocre schools, and the “outstanding” go to top colleges; and finally, “degree” is by definition hierarchical. Recent discussions on higher education have focused on the
governmentalization /corporatization (roughly meaning tightened administrative management in order to make university managerially accountable) and the marketization of universities. This essay explores the logic of hierarchy making in a larger, societal context. It is beyond dispute
that established institutions have deeply vested interest in maintaining exclusive and hierarchical systems, and it is also true that hierarchy, particularly in the form of the
ranking tally, is imposed top down by the establishment.
However, we should not deny that educational hierarchy is also widely recognized, respected and sometimes even celebrated by the larger society. Nor should we reduce the public acceptance to merely an example of false consciousness. Most people know much better than us (university nerds) how to deal with the world. There are ethnical and moral dimensions to the socially produced
hierarchy. Instead of aiming to eradicate hierarchy altogether (which cannot be a feasible agenda despite the ideological appeal), this post wishes to explore room in the social process of hierarchy making which may enable realistic action agendas.

Precarious Hierarchy and the Ethnics of Hierarchy :

In the modern time in general, higher education become less exclusive, and educational hierarchy become much less absolute. In colonial Asia, for example, formal English education had such a magic power that it directly contributed to the creation of the institution of modern
dowry in India. It is also safe to say that, in Asia at least, higher education become less hierarchical in the so-called neoliberal era. (I use neoliberal era with some reluctance. By this term I am referring to the period starting at the end of 1970s for China, the beginning of
1990s for India, the early 1990s for Japan, and the late 1990s for South Korea).
China launched a new, unprecedented round of university expansion in 1998. The number of newly admitted students jumped from 1.08 million in 1998 to 2.5 million in 2001. By 2007, the planed intake reached 5.67 million!
Similar to Japan and South Korea, entering universities is no longer a crucial life event—it is not difficult to get in, and furthermore getting in does not guarantee good job prospects. Students have more freedom in choosing universities according to location, subject or campus “culture” instead of a single system of hierarchical evaluation.
But hierarchy certainly does not go away. Universities become ever more concerned about hierarchical ranking.
Shanghai Jiaotong University produces one of the best known tallies in the world. This reflects the fact that previously fixed hierarchy is replaced by more dynamic and unstable
differentiation. Hierarchy is in struggle. This also suggests that the process of hierarchy making becomes more public, or social, than before when it was declared by the state or established by tradition.
Underlying the new project of hierarchy making in the higher education is a unmistakable capitalist logic. The higher rank a university secures, the higher tuition fees it
charges. But the opposite is untrue. In general, students cannot enter a high-rank university simply by paying more fees. There is a limit to capitalism.
A curious example is the mushrooming MBA courses in China. On the one hand, no other institutions are more conscious than the MBA programs about hierarchical ranking which directly determine the fees they charge. On the other hand, most of the MBA students, particularly those enrolled in the elite institutes in China, had work experiences and many are self employed, and thus the ranking does not mean much for them in the material sense (say, compared to other students who may need a strong university brand for looking for jobs).
When I asked an entrepreneur (incidentally, a Taiwanese) why he applied for an expensive MBA course in Shanghai, he gave me three reasons: good teachers, the reputation of the course (“it sounds good”), and the opportunity to prove that, after
working for many years, he is still able to pass tough examinations. The Chinese capitalist class in the making need symbolic capital, but they need “solid” symbolic capital, i.e., not cheap parody ready for sale.
The hierarchical ranking of universities undoubtedly facilitates exchange between financial and cultural capital.
But at the very same time as different types of capital are exchangeable, each capital must maintain minimum autonomy. Thus, in order to be acceptable to the general public,
hierarchy must be based on “merit” to some extent.
Universities also have to maintain a balance. For example elite universities in the US charge high fees but also provide generous scholarships. Scholarships attract good students to keep its ranking high which in turn justifies high fees.
In China at least until the very recent time, socially produced hierarchy in higher education has significant moral connotations. For example, lecturers and students from top universities are expected to be more vocal in criticizing the status quo, and the state have to be more careful in
dealing with professors from these institutions. In a largely authoritarian and politically conservative system, this status provide the institutions with special clout to be more independent, critical, daring in thinking alternatives, and sometimes more eccentric in behavior.
People rank the universities high to counteract the state power and private economic interest, no matter how symbolically.

New Battles :

Hierarchy itself may not be a problem. The issue is what kind of hierarchy prevails. Our goals should be, apart from continuing the historical progress of destabilizing and “softening” hierarchy in general, making the hegemonic hierarchy more ethical.
In Asia as well as elsewhere, states have been active in domesticating and incorporating the institutions that are high in hierarchy. The corporate world may have similar desires, although their efforts are less orchestrated and their relations to universities less clear. But, both the
state and the economic establishment need seemingly independent universities for the purpose of legitimation.
(Say, the state occasionally needs some “independent scholars” to back their views, and financial institutes also like donating money to “independent” learning institutes.) The contradictions internal to the project of legitimation provide important space for actions.
Furthermore, the interests of the state and of the capital do not always fit well, and playing one against the other can be another strategy.
I cannot quite imagine autonomous universities in practical sense. As Mao Zedong repeatedly reminded us, intellectuals are a piece of feather who cannot exist without someone else’s skin. We need others for our material survival. But perhaps we can fight for a more “autonomous” evaluation system with strong moral and ethical concerns.
Another important battle field is pre-university education. I am not too worried about the corporatization or privatization of universities as I believe that that will not go too far. Even state bureaucrats and diehard capitalists would frown upon universities that have no
intellectual or ideological teeth at all.
What is much more dangerous, for China, is the on-going process of privatization and hierarchization in secondary education.
As it is less easy for money to infiltrate into higher education, well-off families start the race early. Parents spend thousands of US dollars to send children to good primary and high schools and even kindergartens. (In Beijing, top kindergartens literally charge thousands of US
dollars for a seat.)
In Japan, elite private universities such as Keio and Waseda set up their own so-called “escalator” system including kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. Children from wealthy families buy the expensive ticket to enter the escalator on the ground floor,
which take them to the top universities in the future with certain “merits.” Thus social inequality is produced and reproduced without upsetting the “merit”-based hierarchy
of universities. In China, except those who are desperate to consolidate their newly acquired financial assets into firm class status, most people want to escape from the frenzied
competition in which children became the main victims. Thus there is social base for mobilization to fight against this trend. Among other things, top universities may be able to do something, even symbolically, to counteract the education industry.

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Dharampal on British Colonial Agendas

2007-12-28T18:41:00.000+05:30

Dharampal, Gandhian and Historian of Indian Science :

"All histories are elaborate efforts at mythmaking. Therefore, when we submit to histories about us written by others, we submit to their myths about us as well. Mythmaking, like naming, is a token of having power. Submitting to others' myths about us is a sign that we are without power. After the historical work of Dharampal, the scope for mythmaking about the past of Indian society is now considerably reduced.
If we must continue to live by myths, however, it is far better we choose to live by those of our own making rather than by those invented by others for their own purposes, whether English or Japanese. That much at least we owe ourselves as an independent society and nation." - Claude Alvares
Dharampal Ji's unmaking of the English-generated history of Indian society has in fact created a serious enough gap today in the discipline. The legitimacy of English or colonial dominated perceptions and biases about Indian society has been grievously undermined, but the academic tradition has been unable to take up the challenge of generating an organized indigenous view to take its place. The materials for a far more authentic history of science and technology in India are indeed now available as a result of his pioneering work, but the competent scholar who can handle it all in one neat canvas has yet to arrive. One recent new work that should be mentioned in this connection is Helaine Selin's Encyclopaedia of Non-Western Science, Technology and Medicine (Kluwer, Holland), which indeed takes note of Dharampal's findings. Till such time as the challenge is taken up, however, we will continue to replicate, uncritically, in the minds of generation after generation, the British or European sponsored view of Indian society and its institutions. How can any society survive, let alone create, on the basis of its borrowed images?
According to Dharampal, the British purpose in India, perhaps after long deliberation during the 17th century was never to attempt on any scale the settlement of the people of Britain or Europe in India. It was felt that in most regions of India, because of its climate, temperature range, gifted, industrious and dense population, the settling of the people of Europe would serve little purpose.
Therefore the purpose was defined as bringing to Britain and Europe, surplus products of the varied industry of the people of India, and the taxes imposed on this industry. Such a proposal, in fact, was very clearly put forward around 1780 by Prof. Adam Ferguson of Edinburgh. Ferguson was a professor of moral philosophy. (Interestingly. he is also regarded as the founder of British sociology.)
Dharampal found that for long periods in the late 18th and the 19th centuries, the tax on land in many areas exceeded the total agricultural production of very fertile land. This was particularly so in the areas of the Madras Presidency (comprising current Tamilnadu, districts of coastal Andhra. some districts of Karnataka and Malabar). The consequences of the policy were easy to predict: in the Madras Presidency, one third of the most fertile land went out of cultivation between the period 1800-1850. In fact, as early as 1804, the Governor of the Madras Presidency wrote to his masters (the President of the Board of Commissioners) in London : - "We have paid a great deal of attention to the revenue management in this country...the general tenor of my opinion is, that we have rode the country too hard, and the sequence is, that it is in a state of the most lamentable poverty. Great oppression is I fear exercised too generally in the collection of the Revenues."
Of course, Dharampal also found within the same archives, information about the Indian civil resistance in various regions of India in the early stages of British rule, like the one in Varanasi region around 1810-11 and in Canara around 1830 and how they were contained. But such events are not taken note of in the formal record as deliberate policy. Even petitions against grievances, though invited, would not be office recorded, unless, the wording of the petition, conveyed a sense of the petitioner's humility and of his (or her) limitless respect for authority.

Excerpts from one such rejected petition against the tax imposed in Varanasi highlight this : - "...former sooltauns never extended the rights of Government (commonly called malgoozaree) to the habitations of their subjects acquired by them by descent or transfer. It is this account that in selling estates the habitations proprietors are excepted from the sales. Therefore, the operation of this tax infringes upon the rights of the community, which is contrary to the first principles justice..."
"...It is difficult to find means of subsistence and the duties, court fees, transit and town duties which have increased tenfold, afflict and affect everyone rich and poor, and this tax, like salt scattered on a wound, is a cause of pain and depression to everyone, both Hindoo and Musulman: - let it be taken into consideration that as a consequence of these imposts the price of provisions within these ten years increased sixteen fold. In such case how is it possible, for us who have no means of earning a livelihood to subsist ?..."
By their methods of extortion and other similar means, the British were able to smash, Indian rural life and society by about 1820-1830. Around the same period, the extensive Indian manufactures met a similar fate. Because of deliberate British policy, the famed Indian village communities so eloquently described by Thomas Metcalfe around 1830, and by Karl Marx in the 1850s, had mostly ceased to exist.
Similar comments could be made about the narratives on Indian science and technology. Initially they were desired for their contemporary relevance and usefulness to the advancement or correction of their British counterparts. But soon after the British began to rule and control Indian life and society, the continuity of Indian knowledge and practice seemed to them a threat.

Therefore it was something to be put aside so that it crumbled or decayed. Dharampal found that such a programme of 'making extinct' was contrived in practically every sphere of human activity, including the manufactures of cotton textiles, the production of Indian steel, and even the Indian practice of inoculation against small pox as early as A.D. 1800.
A similar fate awaited the extensive network of Indian schools and institutions of higher learning when they began to be surveyed in the 1820s and 1830s. Ironically, it is mainly through the British archival records that one becomes aware of the extensive nature of the education network, as well as its speedy decay in the Madras and Bengal Presidency, and somewhat later in the Presidencies of Bombay and in the Punjab. Of course, the view, which we get from such archival material is splintered and not integrated. But the indicators in themselves are of great value. They also provide us glimpses of pre-British life and of aspects of India's society of which we had lost track from about A.D. 1850 when society was broken up and sup- pressed, and an imposed alien system of education made us ignore and forget the innumerable accomplishments of our people.

Among the world's Hungriest and Poorest - Incredible India

2007-11-21T15:18:00.000+05:30

Dear All,
With respect to "crude statistics", I do tend to take alarmist global indices published by global think tanks on a whole range and variety of global issues, with a "pinch of salt".
The question still remains :
1. How do we respond to such "crude statistics"
2. What do we actually manage to do about these issues with the resources at our disposal.

There is no doubt that a country with 1.2 billion people has its politicial leaders pining and whining for the embrace and pats on the back, of the outgoing White House resident, backed by well funded Washington based policy think tanks, rather than evolving long term food security policies and development paradigms.
In the backdrop of the US Farm Bill 2007, continued and insistent EU and US farm subsidies, the arm twisting of developing economies by the diplomats and negotiators of the same countries and economic blocs, in global trade forums, so called respected think tanks which routinely spew out alarmist statistics have a habit of hijacking agendas for reasons best known to them.
In this, they do seek the support and mental attention of diaspora communities as well as of the Oxbridge / IMF / World Bank / Brussels trained economists who keep kicking the stirrups of Indian economy.
This routinely brings to my mind the statement of Leo Tolstoy - " I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. "
At the same time, serious and more appropriate analysts like Devinder Sharma and P Sainath are continually sidelined and merely tolerated, in the cacaphony raised by these strategic policy think tanks with vested agendas.
Warm Regards,
Nagarjuna

----------------------

The Indian elite keep ranting about the economy's growth rate while the corporate papers (Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express etc) get all excited about the bullish stock market that has crossed the 19,000-point mark.
But what about half the population grinding under poverty and malnutrition?

The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute released its report "The World's Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger" on 6th Nov 07. The Institute devised the global hunger index (GHI) as a measure of poverty & hunger in a country.
This report is the first of its kind to use household survey data to look at those living below the one-dollar-a- day line. The index is designed to capture three dimensions of hunger: lack of economic access to food, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality, which is largely attributable to malnutrition.

1) India ranks way down at 96 among 119 developing countries included in the report. Even Nepal is four notches higher at 92, Pakistan 88, Myanmar 68, Sri Lanka 69, China 47.
In contrast, Mauritius is among the top 20 of least hungry countries.

The report commented "The lack of improvement in India's GHI score between 1997 and 2003 despite continued growth is a cause for concern, since India's GHI still indicates alarming levels of hunger".

Across all developing regions of the world, the poorest households are most often located in remote rural areas with limited access to education, roads, and health services and members of these households often face exclusion due to their ethnicity, gender or disability.
Nagarjuna has interest in Food Policy issues and may like to comment further.

2) While child malnutrition has reduced, a separate study (see www.Indiatogether. org) finds that 1 in 2 Indian rural children under 3 is hungry.
3) And nearly 150,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in the period 1997- 2005, official data show. While farm suicides have occurred in many States, nearly two thirds of these deaths are concentrated in five States where just a third of the country's population lives. (See P Sainath, ZNet www.zmag.org, 12 Nov 07).

Two more recent statistics:
4) INDIA also leads the world in the number of women dying in childbirth - 117,000 in 2005.
This means a maternal mortality ratio of 450 deaths per 100,000 live births. The Pakistan figure is 320, Sri Lanka 58 and China 45 (one tenth of India's) [R Hensman, 19 Nov 07 www.countercurrents .org

5) Times of India, 20 Nov 07 reported that India has the largest number of illiterates in the world.
It ranks 126th out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index (UNDP 2006)

Eddie

Headless Chickens ? And Indian Foreign Policy ?

2007-09-29T20:51:00.000+05:30

Dear All
1. I have not read the texts of Naomi Klein and Milton Friedman being referred to in this group - but I would tend to weigh in on the side of Joe and Peter - by this I mean that, I find Eddie's
characterization of the character of western liberal democracies underpinned by the more general economic and globally expansionist post Marxian philosophy characterized by the "smoke screen antics" of the Chicago school - as being a bit less finely nuanced than I find Eddie's
views in general.

An analysis, or for that matter a criticism, of periods of history and its dominant players - must be nuanced in my opinion - if they are to be useful for coming generations and not just talk that can be disregarded by those who hold power in particular societies at particular epochs in history.

This in my opinion holds true for all ages and is a condition of humanity that we must avoid over simplifying in our quest for easy recourse to criticism and analysis of swathes of human thought and achievements.
Post Marxian Chicago school inspired neo liberalism - the core ideology of western democracies that have collectively ganged up as federations to play the role of global policemen - as the basis of the dominant economic conglomerates of US and EU must also be seen in this light. This is my opinion and I think that this kind of view - allows for more nuances of real politik - to be seen clearly in the light of liberal western democracy as a post Marxian ideology that is packaged into a product fit for export around the world.

2. With regard to the Myanmar crisis, I note the extreme reluctance in supporting an obvious revolution from the bottom - of the same policy architects of Indian foreign policy - who get together in Washington and criticize Indian parliamentarians as a group of headless chickens and yet cry themselves hoarse in saying that India must not let go of the historic opportunity to come out of its nuclear pariah status holding the coat tails of the US president who is himself now on his way out from White House as well as the pages of history.

Indian foreign ministry is supposedly weighing up the strategic losses and gains of supporting an obviously brutal military junta on its extreme eastern borders - the issues of Myanmar's natural gas reserves and Chinese real politik in the Bay of Bengal have been often commented on.

However, I would like to step back a bit and see in the reluctance of Indian democracy that is pallying up with Washington corridors of power - a certain unanimity of interest in supporting military dictatorships in critical parts of the world. Is this not the quintessence of the Chicago school economic doctrines, now emerging as a starkly Indian response to the unrest on its eastern borders ?

It is time we now begin asking ourselves the question, what is it really that now separates New Delhi from Washington ?

Indian Agricultural Collapse Courtesy British Experts

2007-05-12T22:56:00.000+05:30

Indian Agriculture Collapse courtesy British Experts :
Courtesy of HVK Editor -
India - Once Plentiful -
Hinduism Today May 1997 -

Records reveal British schemes diminished crops and dismantled a native system of abundance
Most of us college - educated Indians were taught that inefficient technologies and low productivities pervaded through long ages in practically all parts of India," states Dr. S.K. Bajaj, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a Chennai think tank.
In the 1920s Gandhi's Young India presented some proof of a rich and prosperous pre-British India. Then in the 1960s, the Centre's founder, historian Sri Dharampal, discovered at the Thanjavur Tamil University a set of palmleaf records documenting a British survey of 2,000 villages of Chengalpattu, a large area surrounding present-day Chennai. "
Startling features of Tamil society in the 18th century emerge from these palmleaf accounts," said Bajaj.
"Between 1762 and 1766 there were villages which produced up to 12 tons of paddy a hectare. This level of productivity can be obtained only in the best of the Green Revolution areas of the country, with the most advanced, expensive and often environmentally ruinous technologies. The annual availability of all food averaged five tons per household; the national average in India today is three-quarters ton. Whatever the ways of pre-British Indian society, they were definitely neither ineffective nor inefficient."
Food production is just one aspect of the colonial impact being addressed by the Centre.
The Chengalpattu records are part of Dharampal's research which has uncovered a politically, technologically and economically vibrant Indian society of the 18th century.
"That society was dismantled and atomized by the British, by force," states the Centre's brochure, "and the diverse skills of the Indian people were pushed out of the public sphere and made to rust and decay. For India to become a vibrant and dynamic nation again, we only need to re-awaken the political, economic and technological skills of our people."
The records are especially useful for understanding how Hindu religious institutions were originally supported, and why they declined under Britishrule.
Dharampal believes Indians must rediscover their nation's traditional sense of chitta, mind, and flow of time, kala.
"Since we have lost practically all contact with our tradition, and all comprehension of our chitta and kala, there are no standards and norms on the basis of which to answer questions that arise in ordinary social living.
Ordinary Indians perhaps still retain an innate understanding of right action and right thought, but our elite society, seems to have lost all touch with any stable norms of behavior and thinking. The present attempt at imitating the world and following every passing fad can hardly lead us anywhere. We shall have no options until we evolve a conceptual framework of our own, based on chitta and kala, to discriminate between right and wrong, what is useful for us and what is futile."

The Centre's three main researchers are: M.D. Srinivas, a theoretical physicist teaching at the University of Madras, who specializes in Indian science; T.M. Mukundan, a mechanical engineer specializing in technologies such as water management and iron smelting; and J.K. Bajaj, also a theoretical physicist, now involved in economy, agriculture and energy.

The Chengalpattu data was a Godsend for the Centre, and has allowed them to support many of their central theories about pre-British India. The accounts detail a complete economic, social, administrative and religious picture of the society.
Every temple, pond, garden and grove in a locality is listed, the occupation, family size, home and lot size of 62,500 households meticulously recorded. Crop yields between 1762-66 are tallied.
Per capita production of food in this region (which is of average fertility) was more than five times that achieved on average today.

Bajaj and his associates didn't do all their work in a library. The team set off in person across the Chengalpattu region to verify the picture presented in the leafs. They found most of these villages deserted--perhaps since the beginning of the 19th century--by all who had any resources, education or skills.
Inhabitants had left behind their palatial houses, their temples and groves. Abandoned as well were the eyrs--the irrigation tanks and channels--often cut across by British-built roads which left dry land on one side and stagnant water on the other. Their on-the-ground inspection confirmed many aspects of the inscribed leaves.

Of importance to Hindu history is how the religious institutions were maintained. Lands called manyam were assigned for the support of various functions, including religious activities. Certain percentages of the production from this land were divided among the various public functions, such as administration, army, education and religious institutions.
Small temples received income from nearby villages. Larger ones, such as those of the great center of Kanchipuram, received income from over a thousand villages. The amount dedicated to religion from the manyam lands, according to the leaves, was a substantial four percent of the total produce of the region. It supported temples, academies of learning, dancers and musicians. A portion was also provided for Muslim and Jain institutions. This system resulted in the vast network of temples, most now neglected, seen across South India.

The British government changed this system. In some areas they calculated a percentage figure of total tax revenue going to the institutions and fixed it as a dollar amount, in 1799 dollars. Some institutions still receive this same government allotment--worth next to nothing today. Others became owners of the land from which a share of production once came. This introduced its own set of problems, also still with us today, where temples are unable to collect the rent. The collective result was that the great religious and cultural institutions of the 18th century decayed and lost touch with the community.

The British taxes were so high there was no money left to support the administration or cultural establishments. School teachers, musicians, dancers, keepers of the irrigation works, moved away, or took to farming. By 1871, 80% of the area was engaged in agriculture (up from less than 50% earlier), and many of the services and industrial activities that dominated the Chengalpattu society of the 1770s ceased to exist.

The value of the Centre's research is obvious: India, and Hinduism with it, flourished in the not-so-distant past--without the Green Revolution or the Industrial Revolution or the Worker's Revolution.
Dharampal, Bajaj and their associates want India to look back at this time, dissect and understand it, and use that indigenous knowledge to reinvigorate the world's largest democracy.

How the Green Revolution failed :
Dr. Ramon De La Peqa of the University of Hawaii is one of the world's foremost experts on rice. He also happens to be a neighbor of the ashram from which Hinduism Today is produced. Asked to comment on the Chengalpattu reports, he said: "Such yields as 12 tons per hectare were definitely possible with the old methods and two crops a year. The best modern US production is eight to nine tons per hectare (one annual crop). The world average is presently three to five tons/hectare. Before the Green Revolution[which introduced new, high-yielding strains] the average was one to one-and-a-half tons/hectare.
The Green Revolution worked in some areas but not in others. The short variety of rice developed for it grew just one meter high. To be productive, it needed fertilizer, and the fields had to be kept weed free. The old varieties were two meters high, not so suspectible to weed competition, resistant to insects and did not need fertilizer. If the new varieties are not managed correctly--with fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides--the harvest is less than with the old methods of minimum input. New is not always better."
Courtesy of HVK Editor
- Jai Maharaj

Google Group - Dharampal

2007-05-12T21:56:00.000+05:30

A new Google group has been created for people interested in the work of Shri Dharampal to discuss and network, and hopefully find new ways of carrying historical and philosophical research forward. All are welcome.
Feel free to ask questions, answer questions and network.
We feel that possibly the best way of remembering Shri Dharampal, is to find new ways of collaborating with a new generation of Indian youth, forming and encouraging responsible and creative networks, that advance the spirit of enquiry and humble teaching that Shri Dharampal Ji personified.

Dharampal - http://groups.google.com/group/dharampal

Ooranis - PreColonial Water Management in South India

2007-05-10T16:24:00.000+05:30

Ramanathapuram District : Ooranis, locally managed water tanks : Colonial decay
Ramanathapuram district is drought prone and water scarcity is the biggest problem here.People migrate after January and return by August when the monsoon sets in. The northeast monsoon (September to November) is expected to bring maximum rain and usually chilli, cotton, onion and paddy are cultivated.
Charcoal is produced in Ramanathapuram and adjacent Tuticorin districts. Agriculture, charcoal production and fishing in the coastal areas are the sources for livelihood of the people. There are some industries in nearby Virudhunagar district where people migrate for work. A good number of workers in hosiery and knitwear units of Tiruppur are from the district. Usually men go out in search of jobs and women, old people and children stay home.

Once upon a time the ooranis and tanks had been maintained by the people through a group of individuals chosen by the villagers and called kudimaramatthu . This practice stopped after the British regime took over. Tanks and ooranis became Government property maintained by the Public Works Department.

With the arrival of bore wells, the concept of conserving water through such water bodies was forgotten. The ground water level plummeted and water turned saline. The Government-sponsored desalination plants in the district are insufficient to meet the demand.
Every village has one to three ooranis for drinking water, domestic water needs and livestock and temple pond.
The main water source is rain, but the district falls in rain shadow belt with scanty rainfall. People could at most store water in ooranis and tanks for three to six months a year. Rest of the time women, girls and men must trek three to five kilometers every day in search of water. This affected their livelihood, health, and the education of girls. There are incidents of conflicts for drinking water among villages.
On the other hand, there are instances of sharing oorani water between villages. If an oorani is built, the water would be shared by about 500 families of three villages. Most of the ooranis are either dilapidated or small.
In some areas, the percolation rate of water is high because the base layer is sandy.

If an oorani is renovated and technically modified, it would quench the people's thirst in three to four villages. Besides it would improve the quality of life. Girls could go to schools; women could finish their household chores faster and help in the fields. The search for water has affected health, education and livelihood. It is common to find men and women in the district spending a whole day in search of water. The family income is Rs.1, 500 to Rs. 2,500 a month and lower during the summer. People have to spend Rs.150 to Rs.250 on water every month.

You can also do it ….To help save the lives of the Life saving Ooranis -
Kind hearted well-wishers -- Can sponsor an Oorani - Dhan Foundation -
Website - http://www.dhan.org/ooranis/districts.php

Trans Atlantic Slavery - African Artist Hazoume

2007-05-08T17:19:00.000+05:30

I recently had the fortune of viewing a free, thought provoking exhibition in British Museum commemorating 200 Years of the Abolition of Trans Atlantic Slavery.
It was a feast for my visual senses, my ears, as well as for my mind, which has often struggled to come to terms with the intellectual legacy of colonialism in India and the question of whether the past and colonial history, have a bearing on the modern Indian consciousness. And the question of whether, if they have a bearing, what could it likely be ?
The exhibition was hosted by The British Museum and was the creation of an artist from Republic of Benin in West Africa - Romuald Hazoume. It was billed as artwork and a meditation on human greed and exploitation, the Atlantic Slave Trade of the past, and the different forms of oppression that continue today.
The exhibition brochure informed me that the 25 March 1807 Act of the British Parliament, banning Atlantic Slave Trade, was in response to the anti slavery campaigning of a British anti slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson. It seems abolition was ultimately achieved by the continual resistance of enslaved people like Toussaint L'Ouverture who led the slave revolution in 1791 in Haiti.
However, it was another over thirty years before slavery itself was abolished through out the British Empire.
The European links with, and interest in Africa over last 500 years - Portuguese, French, British, Dutch, Spanish, Germans, Italians colonists - have had very colourful and intricate ( synergistic and competitive), and the motivations of the slavery banning by British Parliament, were no doubt more than the campaigning of Mr Clarkson and resistance led by Toussaint L'Ouverture and experts have studied some of these motivations.

It was heartening as an Asian writer, to confront the reflections of a contemporary middle aged, African artist - on history, legacy of colonialism, the present day space for discussions on colonialism, the brief discussions of neo liberalism and neo colonialism, in which there might be no need to make the debates amenable to Western ears and sensibilities.
Visual arts offer a wealth of such opportunities, especially in the hands of a multi talented Aftrican artist, working in many mediums and media - like Hazoume.
I look forward to seeing a tradition of Asian and African exchanges on legacy of colonialism established, especially in the visual arts and what is called intermedia, where artists are not constrained by European sensibilities / moderators / gate keepers - and can explore common understandings in more universal settings.
Hazoume's comment echoes with my sensibilities, when I examine the environment of the Liverpool slave ship he has represented with oil cans. He says of his West African people from the Mono River estuary, Grand Popo -
" They didn't know where they were going,
but they knew where they had come from.
Today they still don't know where they are going,
and they have forgotten where they come from."
- We, the big strong Africans, the Yoruba, we caught our brothers from Nigeria, and sold them to the White Man.
Nagarjuna - 06 May 2007

Dharampal on Wikipedia

2007-02-27T23:21:00.000+05:30

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dharampal, is a Gandhian thinker, historian and major philosopher from India. He authored The Beautiful Tree, and Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century, among other seminal works. He was born in January 1922 in a rich Jat family of Kandhla, a small town in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Among the established Indian historians, Dharampal has yet to find his place compared to the sheer significance of his contributions. His books are based painstakingly, and entirely, on colonial British documents of East India Company, and commissioned surveys, conducted in parts of India, before the annexation of India.
His writings are abundantly rich in written references and references, to documents outlining the deliberate colonization agenda of British imperialism. He shows the determination of British civil servants in colonizing India as per set patterns, often referred by Gandhi as "divide and rule" rationale.

Dharampal effectively dispelled colonial myths and facile untruths about Bharat, the deliberate underplaying of civilizational achievements, and at bringing out the real strength, structure and working of the Indian society. His complete works, were published a few years ago by Shri Claude Alvares of Other India Press, Mapusa, Goa, in six volumes.
Another major result of Dharampal's work among contemporary Indian thinkers, is how he was able to establish the intellectual connection, between Gandhi's ideas and his politics of non violence. Today, based on Dharampal's work, Gandhi can be seen as a visionary philosopher, while at the same time, an earthy political man, who understood the compulsions of the British, as well as the strengths of non violence as a strategy, appropriate for mainstream Indian freedom movement.
He passed away on October 24, 2006 at Sevagram (Gandhi’s ashram) near Wardha (Maharashtra).
He is survived by a son and two daughters. His son, David, lives in London and a daughter, Gita, is a professor of history at Heidelberg University of Germany. His wife died in London in 1986.

Shri Dharampal had no formal training in history, but maybe, precisely because of this, he was able to chart a new path in analysis and study of pre colonial Indian history. He effectively dispelled many colonial myths about the state of Indian society pre British, generated by a body of British and British universities trained and influenced Indian historians of recent times.
He took the focus away from Marxian and colonial interpretations of Indian history.

His body of writings, serve now as a seminal and powerful inspiration, for many foundational reinterpretations and interventions, in Indian society, and its rationale, in contemporary Indian thinking.

- External links
Dharampal, the Great Gandhian and Historian of Indian Science
http://www.dharampal.net/ : online repository of the works of Shri. Dharampal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharampal"
Categories: New Imperialism History of Asia British rule in India

Dharampal Net Resources

2007-02-21T18:42:00.000+05:30

Dear Friends and Associates of Shri Dharampal,

Today (19th February) is the date of birth of Shri. Dharampal. Since his demise there have been many discussions on how to take his work forward. We at Samanvaya have done what we know best, put together the material that we have in our collection in the form of a website.

We are happy to announce the new website www.dharampal.net which will be an online repository of Dharampalji's website. Among its features, it contains a downloadable version of some of his publications, a collection of unpublished archival compilations, his note on possible future work based on them, related initiatives, life sketch, etc.
Currently the site is hosted in the Samanvaya website. Some of the features are not currently available or fully ready yet. This we will have ready in very soon.
We have provided a few snippets of the material in the website at the end of this mail. It is our hope that this Endeavour will be found useful by not just his friends, but, also those who want to embark on a journey of a discovery of India anew.

We welcome your comments and participation. We wish to thank many friends of Dharampalji for their voluntary interest and association in this effort, without their guidance this effort would not have been possible.

Warm regards,
Ramasubramanian
Chief, Samanvaya
chief@samanvaya.com
mob : 9444957781
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Dharampal.Net --- Some of the current information include:

Work Ahead :
It may be worth mentioning that, these researches and studies were taken up by Dharampal in his individual capacity, also because he was not considered a scholar or a historian and did not even have a University degree. It may be mentioned that a question about his not having a degree was raised in the Bihar legislature during 1973.

Archival material :
"...The extent to which it has been carried throughout all the irrigated region of the Madras Presidency is truly extraordinary.
An imperfect record of the number of tanks in 14 districts shows them to amount to no less than, 43,000 in repair, and 10,000 out of repair, or 53,000 in all.
It would be a moderate estimate of the length of embankment for each to fix it at half a mile; and the number of masonry works, in sluices of irrigation, waste weirs, & e., would probably be not over-rated at an average of 6.
These data, only assumed to give some definite idea of the extent of the system, would give close upon 30,000 miles of embankments (sufficient " to put a girdle round the globe" not less than 6 feet thick) and 3,00,000 separate masonry works. The whole of this gigantic machinery of irrigation is of purely native origin ..."

India 1947 - 64 : Events and their background - "When I first read President Roosevelt’s advice on India to the British in August 1942 (India: The Transfer of Power, vol 3), I took his statement to imply that the British should "act in such a way that India stays in the western orbit", quite literally.
It was only years later that I understood that Roosevelt was not thinking in terms of his preference for the West or the USSR, but rather that they, he and the British, "should try to think of some arrangement by which India found its place in the European and American, i.e., western orbit, rather than the Asiatic."
Quite naturally, Roosevelt and his friends, could not conceive an India, run according to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.

Relevance of Dharampal :
... His interest in history or his work on the archives has been according to him, only an incidental outcome of his quest for understanding the reasons why the nation was in the state he found it in.
Perhaps that is why he never sought company among ‘historians’ and always seemed to befriend politicians, activists and such kind. His quest for understanding why things were so was obviously attached with the corollary why can’t things change from this situation...