A suitable metaphor

A suitable metaphor

What is a suitable metaphor for our life and times in India today? Was it encapsulated in the picaresque 1993 novel Suitable Boy by author and poet Vikram Seth?

The book chronicled the emerging new nation of the 1950’s busy abolishing the Zamindari system, working on women’s emancipation etc. in the backdrop of an idealistic, if ineffectual, Socialist India that only succeeded in increasing poverty even as the population exploded.

Or is it the shifting of gears in big-time geopolitics in the South Asian theatre and the Indian Ocean region as well?

America has sold war planes to Taiwan and entertained the Dalai Lama. It is not very happy about the growing Chinese involvement in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Baluchistan, Gilgit and POK, and China’s evident policy of pushing India around in Arunachal Pradesh and other places.

It is uncomfortable with China’s nuclear submarine programme and the launch of its aircraft carrier with more being built. It is cross about its nuclear proliferation using North Korea and Pakistan as proxies. And then there is the relentless infrastructure upgrading and talk of a new Silk Route, alongside of the revival of the old Stillwell Road one. And also its muted belligerence in the South China Sea and China’s laying claim to its oil, gas and other resources, the needling of Japan, etc etc.

With regard to Pakistan, China’s side-kick desperate to dominate Afghan politics and power play, President Obama recently said: “We’re not going to feel comfortable with a long term strategic relationship if we don’t think that they’re mindful of our interests as well.”

There is an evident shift in stance both from the frequency and the more than usually candid nature of the statements from not only the President, but also Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (wild animals being reared in the Pakistani backyards), outgoing Joint Chief of Staff Mike Mullen (ISI supports the Haqqani network), and Vice President Joe Biden (unreliable ally), Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (retaliation)...

And this new exasperation with Pakistan, frank criticism of its ways, threats of discontinuing the massive military and non-military aid, is being publicised worldwide by a global media, slowly but surely hardening its own stance.

It seems clear from all this that America is getting ready to do something more effective than finger-wagging, and has moved on to strategising about exactly how to restore the balance of power in its own favour. The scurrying around of Pakistan’s military top brass also echoes this perception.

But the back story is indeed long and fascinating. Probably much too much of both for proper analysis in this short piece. Still, it all began with America’s historic and infamous tilt towards Pakistan in the Nixon-Kissinger years, aided and abetted by its concurrent overtures to open up to China.   The rise of China into the world’s fastest growing economy is a direct consequence of that tilt, and so is its growing posturing and militancy.

Pakistan, in the interim, has gone through its “good terrorists” era under President Zia Ul Haq helping America free Afghanistan from the Soviets, alongside comprehensive Islamisation of the Pakistani polity domestically. Then came the corruption and loot of the Benazir Bhutto years, followed by the artful dodging of commando President Musharraf.

The killing of Osama Bin Laden at Abbotabad recently however has torn the veil right off the mutual denial and deception.

 And now it is time for another tilt away from the toxicity of the situation.  Don’t be too surprised if we wake up one morning soon to a frontal American attack within Pakistani territory launched from the Arabian Gulf and Afghanistan. This could take place, starting with a crippling of Pakistan’s nuclear assets, as soon as the Americans work out their quid pro quos with China.  

 India will, of course, benefit from the change, and began to do so under former President George W Bush. But, is our defining metaphor then some kind of big brother largesse or happy coincidence of geopolitics?

Or does the question resonate better with revered journalist Mr. Sunanda Datta-Ray’s recent article that invokes Kipling’s 1901 India novel Kim; saying much of the description in it still strikes a “contemporary chord”. Mr. Datta-Ray also quotes Paul Scott, the author of the Raj Quartet, set in the 1940’s, just as India was making its transition towards independence.  

A character in the novel Division of the Spoils, Sargeant Guy Perron, an upper-middle class gentleman who prefers to be a non-commissioned officer, says, “I have never been in a country where the sense of the present is so strong.” Point taken, but I dare say we may not be particularly respectful of our hoary history, but it is still embedded in our DNA.

Perhaps a more apt metaphor is the new film by Mr. Tigmanshu Dhulia, who has adapted the themes of Guru Dutt’s baroque Zamindari tale Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam into a stylish if somewhat sly Sahib Bibi aur Gangster, with no apologies to the iconic period piece based on Bimal Mitra’s novel.

Dhulia interprets, but it is not a retelling at all. It is more of a comment on what we have to do to get ahead, or even just by, in a resurgent, if somewhat morally decayed contemporary India. So the metaphor is not just about peeling paint and backless cholis that provoke hot, if inappropriate, sex. It is also about the notion that one may not always get what one wants, but with a little effort, it is possible to get what one needs - to paraphrase a very catchy Rolling Stones number.

 If contemporary India is a wheeler-dealer haven then, does it mean it is time to give the straight-up and honest a hasty mass burial in a shallow grave?

No, but you might get run over by wheeler-dealer traffic going down both sides of the road. Which may amount to the same thing if you have the temerity of wanting to cross the road.

Casting aside the cloak of metaphor, one has to be struck by the sheer death of incompetence though. It is no good being a bad crook today. Ditto goes for a neer-do-well do-gooder. This is the era of delivering the goods for a price.

You would be spiritually bankrupt if you didn’t want to move on. But the fact is Indians are in a hurry to catch up with, and perhaps surpass, the developed world. We no longer consider such ambition a pipe dream. And that means we are not only focussed on the future but innately aware of our glory days of the past.

(1,099 words)

7^th October 2011

Gautam Mukherjee


Published as Leader Edit on the Edit Page of The Pioneer as "In search of a metaphor" on 19th October 2011. Also published simultaneously online at www.dailypioneer and in the facsimilie   edition ePaper.