As stated earlier, I would like to repeat that I am not any good in international affairs, foreign policy and diplomacy etc nor am I or my country perfect but I want to write about a topic that is very sensitive. I am not writing this article after any research. This article contains my views about what I have been reading/watching in media regarding religious fundamentalism, terrorism and the war on it.

I have been closely following the U.S. war on terrorism and how it has remained an under achiever till now. I try to think very neutrally about the war but I still see this Christianity versus Islam concept in it.

After reading some excerpts from world history I learnt that this is not new. Confrontation of Christianity and Islam had plunged the Europe into a dark age. Crusades have been the bloodiest of battles ever fought for religion and lasted across centuries.

Then after many centuries, there was the abolition of Caliphate of Islam (in turkey after WW1) by the Allied forces. This had also led to a popular uprising in India in the form of Khilafat Movement (started by the brothers Shaukat Ali and Mohammed Ali, this movement marks an era of unprecedented cooperation between Muslims and Hindus in India)

Then there was the partition of India in which the same Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims massacred each other to pieces and raped each other to shame. Millions died in the name of religion.

Then we had the “USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan episode” which saw U.S. side with the Mujaheddin and forced Russia to turn back. I have learnt, that after this war U.S. should have gone back home as well but I guess they didn’t. The Muslim world (or Arabs) understood that on the pretext of helping them fight USSR, the American have gained a back door entry/solution to what the Russian as well as the Americans wanted:

A military presence in the Gulf Region

Irked by this, the soldiers who fought the Red Army used what U.S. has taught them, against the teacher: planning and executing highly sophisticated and coordinated strikes with reconnaissance and surveillance.

And today I stand here a couple of years into the war observing a series of events i.e. cartoons by a Danish artist that shook the world, statements by pope, Bush expecting a religious revolution in America and strong/retaliatory Muslim reactions to each of these event. Alright that’s my piece of mind regarding what I have been observing/reading. Now here is what I would suggest (again based on what I am reading/watching):

America and Allies

1. Pull out of Iraq and Middle East

2. Go home and strengthen your economy. The world cannot afford to have you guys fall apart.

3. Revamp your education. Do not depend completely on immigrants for your supply of engineers and let the wheel of innovation continue turning smoothly. You have been driving it well and you need to continue with the same or better still, enhanced vigor.

4. Set and example for the world. Switch to green and renewable sources of energy. You will automatically stab terrorism in the heart if you do this. (based on Thomas Friedman’s column in NY times)

Arab world

1. Kings must give way to the people and establish republican democracies.

2. Oil has been a boon for you and it has raised your standards of living overnight but it has also been a bane. Know why?

- With the incredible revenue surpluses coming from oil sales, your kings banned taxation. This made life too easy for you and you stopped working hard. Issues that follow are particularly important for you:

Why did you have to call Americans to extinguish oil well fires during the Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf war?
Why didn’t you have the technology?
Why are you dependent on others?
Why is the number of technological innovations and patent filings from Arab world abysmally low?
Where are the likes of Algebar-Wal-Mukabalai (father of Algerba)?

3. Build more engineering colleges and schools and encourage your children to learn more. You must have your own supply of engineers, scientists, doctors, techies etc

4. Promote you women and never discourage them. Now don’t misunderstand this. I am only asking you to reduce male domination and eliminate atrocities against women. Get them to study engineering/medicine and encourage entrepreneurship amongst them. Women can be really smart if you let them be.

5. Stop mixing religion with studies (does not mean stop religious studies). Keep religious studies different from school studies. Don’t mix them up and confuse your child.

6. Preach toleration (for those who don’t) and preach what you are.

That’s my piece of mind on whatever is happening around us.

ISBN: 0553296981

I had finished reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a young girl a few days ago. This book is the most popular war documentary of the Second World War and perhaps of all times. It was published in 1947 and since then it has been translated into more than thirty languages and adapted for theatre film and television. In her introduction to the diary’s first American edition, Eleanor Roosevelt described it as “one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read”. The Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg had said: “one voice speaks for six million, the voice not of a sage or a poet but of an ordinary little girl”.

About the author

This book is the diary of a girl by name Anne Frank who lived in Amsterdam during the Second World War. She, her family and her brethren were the victims of the draconian and ghastly policies adopted by the Nazi government (Third Reich) of Germany.

The book contains good details about Anne Frank’s early years. As per the information given, Anne Frank had learnt using short-hand and even developed secret codes of her own at the age of fourteen. I still cannot do that. Another aspect that struck me, was that Anne was very widely read and spent most of her time during their 25 months of stay in the secret Annexe (their secret hiding place) reading and learning. The variety of subjects which she had covered was broad and incredible.

Anne’s biographer Melissa Miller said that she wrote “in a precise, confident, economical style stunning in its honesty”. Her writing is largely a study of characters, and she examines every person in her circle with a shrewd, uncompromising eye. She is occasionally cruel and often biased, particularly in her depictions of Fritz Pfeffer and of her own mother, and Miller explains that she channeled the “normal mood swings of adolescence” into her writing. Her examination of herself and her surroundings is sustained over a lengthy period of time in an introspective, analytical and highly self critical manner, and in moments of frustration she relates the battle being fought within herself between the “good Anne” she wants to be, and the “bad Anne” she believes herself to be.

The Diary

The first entry in the diary is dated 14th June, 1942 i.e. when Anne was 14 years old and the last entry is dated 1st August, 1944. Anne Frank had started using this diary just a few months before they moved into their secret hiding place to escape the Gestapo (German Police) who had called Anne’s sister Margot for deportation to one of their concentration camps.

As this diary covers the life of a common girl, it has some thing of interest for every one. The initial entries reflect the good mood of the writer and slowly (as they move into and stay in their secret hiding place) it gets serious. This does not mean that when Anne started writing this Diary all was well for Jews. Nazis were all over Holland and discrimination was in full swing. Jews were asked to wear yellow star badges when in public and Jewish children could only attend Jewish schools.

The Secret Annexe was a contingency plan devised by Anne’s father Otto Frank (the only surviving member of the family (died in 1980)) and some of his co-workers at their office, to escape arrests by the Gestapo. Along with the Franks, there was another family. The Van Daans (3) and one Mr. Albert Dussel (Otto Frank’s acquaintance and a dentist by profession, who joined in later) also took shelter in the Secret Annexe.

Anne’s diary contains a vivid description of the hiding place, the daily schedule of the people living in there and her own musings. The diary shows the straining relationships between Anne and her parents (particularly her mother) as well as between the other members living there. Readers must understand that Anne or other members of the Annexe could not come out in open, even to breathe fresh air. They lived in a constant fear of being discovered and deported to concentration camps. In addition, they faced limited rations, food supply shortages, sanitation problems and severe emotional challenges which most of us might (and should) never experience in our lives.

Towards the middle of the diary, Anne Frank falls in love with Peter (only son of the Van Daans) and both of them share a sweet and secret intimacy which she covers in good detail in her diary. This episode in her life, gives her respite and the feeling of being loved (which she missed from her family). There are certain entries where Anne expresses guilt and seems confused/ contradictory with reference to her relationship with her parents. Towards the end of the Diary Anne starts writing more about the politics and the Allied invasion of Nazi captured regions. With the invasion and news of progress coming in at regular intervals, the Annexers were sure that the Nazi rule would soon end and they would once again be free. The diary ends with the last entry on August 1, 1944.

On 3rd August, 1944, a Dutch informer thrashed their hopes and Gestapo penetrated into their secret hiding place, arresting all of them along with their helpers. After the arrest, grim fate awaited the Annexers and other Jews of the region. The Annexers were among the last lot of the Jews to be sent from Holland to the concentration camps. According to the available information, Anne’s mother died in a concentration camp, followed by her sister Margot and then Anne herself. Similarly, other annexers also died except for Otto Frank who survived and was liberated by the Russian army.

When I started reading the book, I knew that Anne Frank was a victim of Nazi oppression, with no specific feelings about it. But after I completed the book I felt sad and out-of-place as though a close relative or friend of mine had suffered. This is a powerful book and people of any age group can relate to it very easily. Also, readers should remember that Anne Frank was just one among millions who were butchered for nothing and take home, the lessons learnt regarding the horrors of war.

Just yesterday I was watching this serial “Prithvi Raj Chauhan” on TV. In the programme, Prithvi raj (a young student) enters the forbidden portion of his teacher’s library and picks up a book on “shabd-bheydi band kala” (i.e. voice-piercing arrow craft). The moment he read out the name of the book, I experienced goose-flesh and a storm of previously learnt facts, lessons from history and a few portions of the old TV serial “Discovery of India” (based on Nehru’s works) flashed in front of my eyes. It appears, that one word “shabd-bheydi band kala” triggered a sudden complex thought process in my brain where, in an instant (say blink of an eye) I connected a number of things that I had learnt at different places and at different points in time in my life. Here’s what I connected:

1. “shabd-bheydi band kala”, the very word reminded me of the story of Ekalavya. We all know that Ekalavya used to practice archery in front of a clay idol of Dhronacharya as Dhrona did not admit the guy into his academy. It is said that once when Ekalavya was practicing archery deep inside the forest he heard a dog (from far away) barking loudly and coming towards him. This was disturbing Ekalavya and he shot seven to eight arrows in the direction of the dog (which was very far away on the basis of where the sound was coming from. His arrows pierced the inside of the dog’s upper mouth. It was like when the dog had it mouth open (in the process of barking) the arrows hit the inside of his upper mouth such that he could not close his mouth and hence could not bark. This was an incredible show of archery by any standards even till date. It was a show of the “shabd-bheydi band kala” or the voice piercing arrow craft. That dog belonged to Dhrona and when Dhrona saw the dog with those arrows in its mouth, he realized that Eklavaya was a serious threat to Arjun’s number one position in the world. Rest is what we all know!

2. In Ramayana, once when King Dhashrata went out in the jungle for hunting, he could not find any game and went deep into the forest searching for one. Deep in the forest, he spotted a deer, but lost sight of it again. Desperate to get the game, he followed the deer very carefully. He set himself at a point and waited for the deer to emerge from the bushes. After waiting for a while, he ran out of patience and then suddenly he heard some noise from behind the bushes. He immediately shot an arrow in the direction of that sound expecting it to be a deer. But to his horror he realized that it was a boy. This boy was Shravan Kumar (whose examples of obedience are given till date) and knowing of his death his parents had cursed Dhashrata that his sons will not be present at the time when he will need them the most. The arrow that killed Shravan Kumar was again a “shabd-bheydi band” or voice-piercing arrow.

3. In History and even from the TV programme “Discovery of India” (which used to come on DD long before cable TV hit the scene), I have studied that Prithvi Raj Chauhan had lost a battle to the invading army of Mahumad Ghori. Ghori had imprisoned Prithvi Raj and insulted him every possible manner. And he had also blinded Prithvi Raj by piercing his eyes with red hot iron rod. He is also supposed to have ravaged many innocent women and children. This had angered Prithvi Raj but he was helpless as he was himself a prisoner to the invader.

Prithvi Raj’s former courtier Chand Bardai, who was later to compose the Prithviraj Raso, a ballad-biography of Prithvi Raj, came to Ghori to be near Prithvi Raj in his misery. Chand Bardai came in disguise and secured himself a place in Mahmud’s court by purveying his skills as a composer of poems. On the one hand, he earned Mahmud’s regard; on the other, he took every opportunity to meet with Prithvi Raj and urge him to avenge Ghori’s betrayal and daily insults.

The two got an opportunity when Ghori announced an archery competition. Chand Bardai told Ghori that Prithviraj was so skilled an archer, that he could take aim based only on sound, and did not even need to look at his target. Ghori disdained to believe this; the courtiers guffawed and taunted Chand Bardai, asking how a blind man could possibly shoot arrows. In the spirit of their usual barbaric mockery, they brought the blind and hapless Prithvi Raj out to the field. Pressing a bow and arrows into his hand, they taunted him to take aim. Chand Bardai told Ghori that this taunting would avail nothing, for Prithvi Raj would never do as some sundry courtiers bade him do. He said that Prithvi Raj, as an anointed king, would not accept orders from anyone other than another king. His ego thus massaged, and in the spirit of the occasion, Mahmud Ghori agreed to personally give Prithvi Raj the order to shoot.

Thus, Chand Bardai provided Prithvi Raj with an aural indication of where Ghori was seated. He gave Prithvi Raj one further indication of the same, by composing a couplet on the spot and reciting the same in Prithvi Raj’s hearing. The couplet, composed in a language understood only by Prithvi Raj went thus:

“Char bans, chaubis gaj, angul ashta praman,
Ete pai hai Sultan, (Taa Upar hai Sultan),
ab mat chuko hey Chauhan.”
(Ten measures ahead of you and twenty four feet away, is seated the Sultan. Do not miss him now, Chauhan).

Ghori then ordered Prithvi Raj to shoot. Prithvi Raj turned in the direction from where he heard Ghori speak, and, taking aim based only on the voice and on Chand Bardai’s couplet, he sent an arrow racing to Ghori’s throat. Ghori was thus struck dead by Prithvi Raj. Naturally, after this deed, Prithvi Raj was killed by Mahmud’s courtiers. (portions of the text are from wikipedia)

“shabd-bheydi band kala” was the common link between two epics that form a part of mythology and an instance from India’s medieval history which is a fact. “shabd-bheydi band kala” is probably a small part of what the ancients knew about the craft of war and the art of living. Today we remember nothing of what they knew though we say we live in the age of information. Our traditional education and knowledge have been forgotten and we have submitted to the western style of education which I think might cover just a fraction of what the ancients knew.