Hands-On Judaism

One of my best Friday night Shabbat meals ever was in Thane, India about 5 years ago. After prayers at the local synagogue, I was kindly invited to dinner and had the unrivalled opportunity to learn more about the small Indian Jewish community.

Even better, I had the chance to eat delicious curried goat! When I asked where they had gotten Kosher goat meat, I was told by my host that he had shechted (ritually slaughtered) it himself earlier in the day.

Now that is what I call hands-on Judaism!

Here is a nice recent article on the Indian Jewish Community in the United States.

Here is an article Indian theater production of Fiddler on the Roof in Hindi!

Islamo-Fascism in the Time of Nazis

Considering the current controversy and debate over the term "Islamo-Fascism", it is interesting to read that such an association was noted over 60 years ago - at a time when Fascism was still a political force in Europe. As Jawarhalal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, noted in his semi-autobiographical history of India, The Discovery of India (1946), written during his internment at Ahmednagar Fort prison camp from 1942 to 1945:

"I had made a close study of Nazi methods of propaganda since Hitler's rise to power, and I was astonished to find something very similar taking place in India. A year later, in 1938, when Czechoslovakia had to face the Sudetenland crisis, the Nazi methods employed there were studied and referred to with approval by Muslim League spokesmen. A comparison was drawn between the position of Sudetenland Germans and Indian Muslims. Violence and incitements in speeches and in some newspapers become marked. A Congress Muslim was stabbed, and there was no condemnation of this from any Muslim League leader; in fact it was condoned. Other exhibitions of violence frequently took place.

I was terribly depressed by these developments and by the general lowering of the standards of public life. Violence, vulgarity, and irresponsibility were on the increase, and it appeared that they were approved of by responsible leaders of the Muslim League. I wrote them and begged them to check this tendency, but with no success." (pp. 310-1)

"There was a regular rampage on the part of members or sympathisers of the Muslim League to make Muslim masses believe that something terrible was happening and that the Congress was to blame. What that terrible thing was nobody seemed to know. But surely there must be something behind all this shouting and cursing, if not here, then elsewhere. During by-elections the cry raised was, "Islam in danger," and voters were asked to take their oaths on the holy book to vote for the Muslim League candidate."

All this had an undoubted effect on the Muslim masses. ..." (P. 311)

Unlike Nehru, most of us do not have first-hand knowledge of Fascism with which to compare political Islam. Even if we did, modern-day political correctness works to prevent us from making this link.

Whither India?

In the article "What Role for Emerging India as a U.S. ally?", Anand Giridharadas explores Indian-US relations in light of the upcoming air show in Bangalore and the US attempt to sell its military hardware. The article offers three basic models:

A question hovers over the United States' blooming friendship with India:
How good a friend will India be should it emerge as a great power?

Will it be a Britain — a loyal ally, a partner against terrorism, a fellow evangelist for free markets and democracy? Or will it be France — sharing Washington's bedrock values but ever willing to pursue its own interests at the expense of American ones?

Or will it be China — a competitive threat to the U.S. economy, using its influence to thwart American diplomatic pressure on nations like Sudan and Iran?

While I don't think that these are the only possibilities, I would vote for Number 2 - the French model. Unlike the French, this approach is not out of a desire to relive past glories or some notion of moral certitude and superiority, but rather from basic geo-political and strategic concerns regarding China and a nuclear-armed Pakistan. In fact, I believe that the United States is trying its best to prop up India as a counterweight to China as part of the US rediscovery of Central Asia and in linght of 9/11 attacks.

During the Cold War, India led the group of "non-aligned nations" but was quite close to Russia due to Nehru's love-affair with Fabian socialism and a fear that the US had replaced Great Britain as the World's leading hegemon. However, because of India's unique and isolating geography - it is surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Himalayas, impassable jungles and desserts - it was relatively isolated and was of limited geo-strategic value. Thanks to the reasons noted above, as well as the rise of non-state actors and the diminishing importance of Geography, this has sparked a renewed interest on the part of Washington.

According to the article, the US administration is looking closely at arms sales to see if this signals a change in the Indian approach to the United States. Yet, after 50 years of relying on Russian arms, I am not sure that so much should be read into these decisions. Russian MiG factories dot the Indian landscape and generations of Russian engineers have worked on building weapon's systems in India. It is not so easy to just end a relationship of that depth and strength. Putin's presence on the dais with Prime Minister Singh on Republic Day is a clear testament to that fact.

I suspect that the Indian government will find a formula that will serve it's interests by being as ambiguous as possible. When asked last year to choose between Boeing (US-based) and Airbus (EU-Consortium) for airplanes to replace the government's aging fleet, in the the end BOTH were chosen. Boeing was chosen for Air India (international carrier) and Airbus was chosen for India Air (internal carrier). The fact that this was not presented as an option prior to the government decision certainly did not surprise anyone.

Frankly, if the US is looking for indicators to gauge future relations, I would recommend that they keep an eye on the arc of Maoist activity that stretches from Nepal south through Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. This arc represents the false hopes, broken promises and unfulfilled dreams of "India Shining". This partially explains why India does not feel that it has the luxury to denounce Sudan over Darfur. Yet, if these tensions are not properly addressed by the Indian government, parts of the country could quite possibly descend into civil war and chaos. If the United States is looking for signs, it may pay off to have one eye in the sky, but it would be foolish if it did not keep the other eye firmly trained on the Forest Belt.