Identity and compromise

“The Beauty of Compromise” by Ramachandra Guha (February) is an eye-opening article for those rebels who are currently looking for safe landing with dignity. Guha freshens the tragedy that has befallen Southasia over the past several decades. He pays important attention to the motive of Jayaprakash Narayan (one of Nepal’s true friends), as well as his real effort to resolve the Kashmir and Nagaland issues. If his middle path or ‘compromise with flexibility’ approach had been implemented, Kashmir and Nagaland today would likely be places to be proud of. Guha is right when he says there’s nothing wrong with compromise for the betterment of a cause for which one has been fighting. Both Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson Mandela well understood this.

On the flip side, the lack of flexibility regarding the Narmada River and the Sardar Sarovar dam will beget similar fates. Likewise, after the leadership of Prabhakaran and T Muivah, the fate of the LTTE and the NSCN now hold no certain future. I agree that the issues raised by these two rebel groups should be resolved through compromise, without hurting the sentiments of these two charismatic leaders. To prove his logic, Guha mentions the example of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) supremo Prachanda’s decisive step to walk the red carpet of democracy, a decision that is quite convincing. Of course, it was difficult for the Maoists to discard a movement that had claimed 13,000 lives, but it was more than necessary to save the country from becoming an all- out battlefield.

People will always be emotionally guided by identity crises. The LTTE and Naga movements are fine examples of this. Unfortunately, compromise works less in situations of significant emotional attachment. In the Nepali Tarai, issues can likewise be judged by this yardstick, and ultimately the moral of Guha’s essay could be a great help to resolve the ongoing crisis in Nepal’s southern plains. I wonder if there will be any taker in the Kathmandu government.

Uday Adhikary
By e-mail

The doubting Marxist

There are several things in Ramachandra Guha’s article that I disagree with. Sometimes it is quite refreshing to talk to people who are conservative, who come right out and say that they are in the right wing – at least they know where they stand. On the other hand, the worst thing is to act like a conservative but believe that you are a radical. Of course, it is very difficult to be a Marxist in today’s world, but it is even more difficult to argue that capitalism is successful, and will never be superseded.

Without taking a dialectical, materialist approach, how can anyone understand what is going on in the world? Marxism is extremely useful as a method of learning; answers to the ever-present question What is to be done? will just keep on evolving. But if someone is really a Marxist, they have to use dialectical materialism to keep trying to figure out what to do, how to act, how to understand oneself and one’s society. They will have to continuously question and doubt their actions, and be open to change. But this is not the same as compromising, or being moderate, or thinking that we should do things to keep things the way they are. In the Nepal situation, I certainly don’t see the Maoists as having failed or sold out. Won’t things get better without the king around? Won’t a better form of government ultimately be put in place? Hasn’t Marxism played a role in making some positive changes?

Karen Haydock
Chandigarh

Treasures abound!

I got really excited a few days back to stumble across the treasure trove of two decades of back issues on the Himal Southasian website. Although I will need to re-subscribe, now it looks like I can catch up on some of the issues that I missed! This is a stimulating alternative to the mainstream media’s take on what’s going on in the Subcontinent. Unlike many ‘South Asian’ media, Himal is actually trying to give regular and even-handed coverage to the countries of the region – particularly including those countries whose names do no start with ‘I’ and end with ‘A’. Thanks for the wide range of issues, and the always-welcome dollop of tiersmondisme (Third World-ism).

Svend White
By e-mail

True knitwear colours

The piece by S Gautham on Tirupur (February) is well-timed for two important reasons. First, there was recently a distressing report in one of India’s leading business dailies that actually eulogised the so-called sumangali system. It is good to note that Gautham has shown the issue in its true colour. Of course, there is another side to this system as well –that it acts as a cushion to people in abject poverty. The second reason for the timeliness of this piece is the issue of private public partnerships (PPPs), which seems to have captured the imagination of the powers-that-be. Tirupur is an example of how PPPs can be absolutely oblivious of the ultimate impact on local conditions.

G Narasimha Raghavan
Coimbatore

Commonalities advice

While going through your archives, I recently came across an essay written by Yoginder Sikand, called “The Hindu devotees of Imam Hussain: A case of cross-veneration” (May 2002). The piece sheds some important and interesting light on some of the commonalities between Southasia’s religions. At the same time, however, much was left out of this vast topic. To better understand this issue, allow me to suggest that interested readers take a look at Muhammad in the Vedas and the Puranas, written in Hindi by Ved Prakash Upaddhayaya, that was recently translated into Bengali. This important work should now be able to widely appreciated across the Subcontinent.

Javed S Ahmad
By e-mail