Coinciding with President Bush’s visit to India, Fareed Zakaria has authored a well-researched and, at first, a balanced article “India Rising” on Newsweek. However, Mr. Zakaria’s US-centric-prejudice fails to hide behind the objective-view façade built cleverly throughout the article. It props up squarely into view in the concluding two paragraphs of his write-up when he abruptly places the entire responsibility for a successful US-India partnership — on India! His conclusion reflects the awkward big-brother attitude that many Indians have confronted time and again: “You are doing well now. You weren’t so well-off earlier, but you have improved considerably. You are expected to do exceedingly well in future. Therefore you should feel honored that I let you be publicly acknowledged as a close friend. Further, you should unquestionably accept all my terms of friendship!”
What else is meant when he says:
…the real stumbling block to a deep Indo-U.S. relationship will come not from Washington but New Delhi. While Singh and some others at the top of the Indian government see the world clearly, and see the immense opportunities it opens up for India, many others are blinded by their prejudices. For many Indian elites, it has been comfortable and comforting to look at the world from the prism of a poor, Third World country, whose foreign policy was neutral, detached (and, one might add, unsuccessful). They understand how to operate in that world, whom to bargain with, whom to beg from and whom to be belligerent with. But a world in which India is a great power, in which it moves confidently across the global stage, and in which it is a friend and partner of the most powerful country in history—that is an altogether new and unsettling proposition. “Why is the United States being nice to us?” several such doubters have asked me repeatedly. Even now, in 2003, they were searching for the hidden hand. China’s Mandarin class has been able to rethink its country’s new role as a world power with skill and effectiveness. So far, India’s Brahmins have not shown themselves the equals of their neighbor.
The danger for India is that this moment might not last forever. The world turns and India will have its ups and downs. But today it is India’s moment. It can grasp it and forge a new path for itself. Along that road lies a genuine and deep relationship between the planet’s largest democracy and its wealthiest democracy.
India-US Business ties and the Terror Threat
For starters, India’s economic and intellectual capital growth is constantly threatened by terrorists trained (across its borders) by a well-known, often-hugged US ally — Pakistan. I shake my head in disbelief when I hear sentiments such as those stated above.
Mr. Zakaria is dead-accurate when he calls India “prickly and proud” in his write-up. The fact is that for decades before the tragedy of September 11, India has borne the brunt of terrorism. And a country that has actively supported the “cause” of terrorists in India – financially, materially or morally continues to be a close-ally of the US administration. What if the Indian PM, Manmohan Singh, asked “You are with us or you are with the terrorists that attack India”?
A common Indian’s experiences of US administration’s policies
I grew up in the grim 1980s. During my teenage, every morning would come with shocking news-reports of terrorists shooting down innocent people in Punjab. Several terrorist groups that operated in Punjab had hideouts or training camps or capital raising infrastructure in Pakistan.
I am a Kashmiri. (But before that, I am a proud Indian and an equally proud world-citizen.) I have personally witnessed the dark despair and extreme shock of my helpless relatives, their helpless friends, and thousands of their helpless relatives who had to flee their homes and overnight become refugees in their own country – due to Pakistan abetted terrorism.
A few nights before a terrorist shot dead an Indian academician on the IISc campus in Bangalore; I had driven my visiting relatives past the serene campus of the well-respected institution. At that moment, I was welling with pride reflecting on how Information Technology and Science had put India squarely on the world leadership map. That pride in my tech-management career’s small contribution to my country was hurt when terrorists supported by Pakistan (a close US ally in the “war over terror”!) sprayed bullets on Indian scientists and academicians. How shocking is the evident relationship between a US-administration ally and terrorism in India? How easily can a man-on-streets in India overlook this fact? Is that part of a prickly relationship the responsibility of India?
As you can see I am neither an “Indian Elite” nor one of “India’s Brahmin’s” who wonder why the US administration appears to be overly nice to India. Stephen Covey says What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say, I guess that wise statement explains much of the distrust.
Mr. Zakaria, the India-US relationship equation is not as simplistic as you have tried to express in your conclusion. It is true, that the American spirit of innovation, excellence, and entrepreneurship is deeply respected in India. It is also true, that most Indians would love to see stronger US-India ties on every front from business to research, culture to national security. But the responsibility for deeper ties rests equally on both countries, perhaps much more on the US administration.
What I hope will eventually change the approach of the US administration, towards India’s security concerns, is the sustained pressure of several influential American Businesses that have found in India a new home for immense growth and intellectual power.
