Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman behind the Making of On War.

Kannu
I've told you many times that one of the key things a good leader knows about are logistics. And of course strategy. Both are refined to a giant extent in the war studies arena. And my Phd at the department of war studies at King's college helped me tremendously. The book by Clausewitz, On War, is a seminal book on this subject. In a few years, do try to read it son. It would be useful for you to learn from the master of war on how to wage war, the strategy and logistics. Amazing book. 
And then this book review talks about a different aspect, his wife. As you read the review, you can see how she manages to work with him, set fire to his ideas, encourage and challenge him, kick him when required, cuddle him when needed. 
You don't have to have a wife like that although if you are lucky, you will get somebody like that, somebody who is ferociously intelligent, somebody who is challenging you, kicks you when you need it, cuddles you when you need it. You know the tests to know if you've found her? Does she challenge you? Does she make you think? Does she make you laugh? And have you cried in her arms? It could be your wife, your sister, your mother, your girlfriend, your friend, doesn't matter and can be a combination even but be on the lookout for girls like that. They are rarer than gold. Of course you have to do the same thing to her. Challenge her. Encourage her. Make her feel like a queen. Make her laugh. Cuddle and kiss her. If you can do that, brilliant. You have a problem son, you are very intelligent and you are also sensitive and emotional. And ambitious.  Rare combination. You need a rare girl to be with you.  
If that meshes, great. I'm sure you will find her. Keep on the lookout son. 
But I'm so proud of you. I see you heading off to work. Working so hard. Asking questions. Very impressed son. 
Love you
Baba


H-Net Reviews
https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=45568
(via Instapaper)

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Vanya Eftimova Bellinger. Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman behind the Making of On War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 312 pp. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-022543-8.
Reviewed by Jill S. Russell (King's College London)
Published on H-War (March, 2016)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey

On Marie
Opening new vistas to military and strategic history's most famous man, in The Woman behind the Making of On War, Vanya Eftimova Bellinger uses Marie von Clausewitz's letters and her marital relationship to demonstrate Marie's material role in Carl von Clausewitz's thinking and writing of his foundational work in strategy. As a biography based around the writings of the subject, Bellinger's work compares favorably to Clair Tomalin's Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self (2002), as the latter imbued the story of the man with substance by way of his own words. In this book, the narrative sustains Bellinger's essential argument of Marie's critical place in this most famous piece of writing on strategy specifically. Along the way, deeper points regarding military and historical scholarship, strategy, and polities emerge. Although many will make On War the focus of this biography, that work of strategy figures only as the denouement of the Clausewitzes' lives. Given the biography's importance on two important levels, this review will address Marie's story both on its own written terms and in its comment on and place within military history as well as the practice and scholarship on strategy that have been built on it.
Consider first the text itself. Without intending to minimize it, the aim of this work is simple: to judge the influence of the "mundane" on a historic volume. In this case, for a woman like Marie, who commanded the respect of generals, the mundane became transformative, as her biography in total demonstrates her clear place in On War. And it is such attention to the quotidian that both I and Earl Wavell appreciate as a focus of study. Who was Marie? Bellinger sums her up as "a restless spirit and a politically active woman who often challenged societal conventions, spoke her mind, and lived an industrious life often independent of her husband's," even as she was until very recently still thought of as nothing particularly more than his wife (p. 5). The rich narrative that Bellinger crafts from the new correspondence and other contemporary sources sustains this characterization and our recognition of her achievements.

Book review the Ananga Ranga of Kalyan Malla and the symposium of Plato

Quite an extraordinary book. Translated in 1873 by that indophile Richard Burton, it gives a fascinating insight into how the 15th/16th century Hindu viewed marriage and physical love. What makes this book even more fascinating is that it's conjoined with the symposium of Plato. I've never read the latter although I have read the Ananga Ranga many moons back.

The symposium of Plato is a record of an evening in Athens where Socrates and a group of friends, after dinner are lying about on the couches and each is expected to speak about love. And you get the most amazing and exquisite declarations of love. Ranging from the love of God to love of woman to love of a man. Fascinating.

And then Ananga Ranga. It's a book for men. And I love it's lists. Lists of how you should use nails on a woman. Lists of where you can't make love. Lists of how to stroke hair. Lists of how vaginas are. Lists of how skin is. Lists of spells. Lists of potions. Lists of penises. Lists of personality types. Lists of lists. It goes on and on.

Before you think that this is a licentious charter it isn't. It's meant for a man who wants to be with one woman but allows him to know of techniques and knowledge which can ensure the man has 32 women in one. So if you want to be a good lover, definitely read it. And for heavens sake, don't try out any of the potions. They will kill you.

The notes by Richard Burton are fascinating as well. Gives an indication of what people in the 1890's used to think of India. It's a bit shocking to read now but yes.

Fascinating book.

Book review. Ibn Khaldun Muqaddimah

I can't believe I haven't read this book before. And that too so late in my life. Reading this was quite interesting. It's a book written by a very opinionated Islamic scholar in 1400ad. This is few centuries after Islam was born and had two of the empires born and died already. It had expanded to close to its maximum. But before the ottomans expanded much more and a bit more before the Mughals would expand in South Asia and South east Asia will fall under the sway.
What I read was an abridged one volume version of a three volume translation of the original. So much water has flowed under the bridge and all these translations and abridgements have obviously caused much loss of clarity.
But that said it's an amazing book. You can see how he influenced people like Toynbee and Huntingdon and Carr and Robert Kennedy who were the stalwarts in the 20th century history and trying to draw broad sweeps in history.
IK doesn't talk about history as a dry enumeration of facts. Or a sequential series of dates and events like say a Thucydides or Herotodus.
Hey writes about themes. Like how dynasties rise and fall. Or about natural resources. Or economies. Or sciences. He is a great believer in cycles. That things happen in cycles. Things start in the desert like with the Arabs and bedu. And then they capture urban lands. And third generation becomes sedentary and too wide and big to control. And fourth generation is decay.
He is a believer. Don't make the mistake of thinking he's a dispassionate secular reporter. Nope. He believes in Allah Quran and Mohammad. But he's very clear headed and tells off crap like alchemy or magic. Or the shia. Or older historians.
It's not something you'll want to read if you wanted to read about the history of the Abbasids or the Spanish moorish kingdoms . More recent books will give a better picture. But you want to read this just because you want to read Josephus or Thucydides or Herodotus. How history developed. And you will be amazed at the sheer audacity intelligence and passion of this man. His thinking is missing even now. What an amazing man. Read up his biography as well.

Book Review: The Panama Hat Trail

In my experience, travel books have a built in advantage, the reader is already pre-disposed towards the destination so even crap books get a bit of a bye. But even adjusting for that factor and the fact that I am an idiot, sometimes a book comes along which is a sheer pleasure to read.

this book by Tom Miller, first published in 1986, takes you through a journey behind the Panama Hat which is made in Ecuador. He has a fascinating way of describing the country, the Indians, the regular moans about coffee, the issues with the traffic and bus travel, he describes the hat, Gosh, he describes the hat process. The man ends up in the depths of the forest to pluck the particular straw and then moves through entire supply chain from those depths of the forest down the history, geography, religion, culture, anthropology, economics of Ecuador to the showrooms in New York where these Panama Hats, now revalued hugely from the original price of literally cents to the farmers of the straw to the hundreds of dollars that a purchaser of a Montecristo Fini hat will pay. Some of these straw hats are so finely woven that they can hold water.

Amazing book. I learnt so much about the country. Like India, it also lost huge swathes of territory and does stupid nationalistic things like map controls (you cant show the land that Ecuador lost in the war with Peru). And I now have to go check out the bookstores in Quito, found out there are two there which stock English language books besides the usual fiction pap. And the man has a sense of deprecating humour which is lovely and refreshing. Loved it.

And it doesn't talk about Galapagos at all. So as a very respected member of the travel book species, it comes very highly recommended. One of the best books that I have read. So much that I recommended it to my son, whose response was a gratifying “ummm, ok”

Book review Kurt Vonnegut Galapagos

I have to admit that this was one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's like it's written by a madman whose just slightly off phase to the rest of the world. It's about, God know what, set in 1984, about turtles, Galapagos, genetic faults, rockets, ghosts, a ship, riots and wars, humankind who evolve into furry creatures.

the man wrote this book in the backdrop of a severe currency and financial crisis on one hand, and the emerging AIDS epidemic on the other hand. Between these two events, humankind collapses…curious, we just had a severe financial crisis and dodged the EBOLA crisis, weird, eh?

So I'm going to go to Galapagos in a few months and this book was recommended. Well I'm not sure it helped me understand Ecuador or Galapagos at all. Nice collection of quotes though.

Would i recommend this book? Not sure. It'll make your hair hurt. Seriously weird book. Maddening. My first experience with Vonnegut’s work…am I too old to appreciate fiction like this?

Book Review: the story of sushi

so whilst I was pottering around a bookstore in Singapore, I noticed this book and snaffled it. Its called as the Story of Sushi written by Trevor Corson. It is one of the most extraordinary foodie books I have ever read. Its a non-fiction book so I can give away the plot. Its about Sushi :).

it follows a group of trainee Sushi Chefs who are getting trained on a sushi course in a Japanese restaurant in USA. Very personalised and I loved it. Week by week, the author takes us through how the trainees learn how to do Sushi. In each chapter, he delves into the history of sushi, the history of each of the fish, the anatomy – bio chemistry – bio engineering of all the fish. How to prepare them, how different chefs did sushi, how to make nigiri and and and.

Seriously recommended for anybody who likes sushi, buy this. If you like making sushi, then I am not sure how much this will be of use. I like making sushi for the kids and I love cooking as well, but the level at which these chefs operate, the knowledge you need, the practise you need to have, is at a level that I can never achieve. Will require just way too much investment in time, energy and money that I can devote. So all I can do is to try to do some basics. I will never be able to get the quality of tuna, salmon, etc. etc. that you require. I might be able to make the rice rectangles (right now, they end up looking like demented torpedoes).

the author talks about rice, the religion of sushi – the idea that every grain of rice has a deity inside, it talks about how to carve radishes and cucumbers. How the sushi chef is more a counsellor than a chef. How to order sushi at a restaurant. How and when to use chop sticks. Where is the fatty portion on a tuna. How to distinguish between fast twitch and slow twitch muscle in a fish and how they taste. He talks about unami, the 5th sense.

Seriously, I loved this book. Anybody, as i mentioned, anybody who likes sushi, should have a copy of this book. And you can also use this book, but forget being a sushi master…that’s at a level where gods roam, not for mortals like me.

oh! he also talks about knives and the discipline to keep your cooking station clean. How to avoid waste. sighs, this is a real foodie book, comes highly recommended.

End of the day

1. Dont dip your rice into the soy sauce

2. dont use chopsticks to eat sushi, use fingers

3. dont put wasabi in the soy sauce

4. the pickled ginger is meant as a mouth cleanser between courses

Book review The Spanish Armada

I have to admit kids that I didn't know the details of this episode. Of course I knew the basics, Philip of Spain wanted to attack England and Elizabeth with Drake managed to fight him off. Big seminal moment in British history. Take that, you poxy papists.
But managed to go deeper this time on this book. It's a bit of an old book so I'm sure there will be more recent research based books which provide more information via library and newly discovered archives and books. But this 55 year old book was good enough to talk to me about the leaders. The ships. The cannons and culverins. The food and water - or rather the lack of it. On both sides.
Two lessons I took away. First is that I'm still very convinced that logistics are the crucial part of any strategy. England at times had only 1 day worth of food and water in their ships. They were fighting while hungry. They couldn't fight many times because they didn't have any ammunition. Round shot and powder was terribly in short supply.
Second, it's about luck. And luck comes to the brave and people who jump at more opportunities than the next one.
Curiously the actual number of ships destroyed in actual battle were minuscule. Most ships were lost to the storms and when they had accidents while getting lost. Huge number of sailors died due to disease and sickness rather than battle. Hardly any damage was actually done to the ships.
It's curious. One of the greatest triumphs of England and the reason for that was luck and that the Spaniards were badly led. Truly history is written by the victors.
Love
Baba

 

book review Indian Styles: Taschen

its a little book, has about 191 odd pages and contains photographs of Indian landscapes, houses,interiors and  details. the author and photographer has wandered around Kashmir, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Mumbai, Goa and has taken some photographs along these themes. a significant number of photos are from the palaces and also some of the noteworthy rich people in Delhi and Mumbai.

its ok, some photographs made me stop and see them a few times, here are some of them but if you really wanted to check out Indian photographs, you can do better than this one I am afraid.

View Full Album

Book review Socrates in an Indian village

This is a bit of an old book. Dating back to 1928. Written by F C Brayne, MC, ICS. He was the deputy commissioner of Gurgaon district in Punjab. It has a foreword by Lord Irwin who was the then Viceroy and Governor General of India.

It's a collection of so called verbatim transcripts of what the author (who calls himself as Socrates - an old man whose very blunt in pointing out problems and issues) has in terms of conversations with villagers in Gurgaon district in the post World War 1 era.

By about the middle of the book, it becomes repetitive. But each conversation goes something like this. Socrates leads the villagers through a series of questions and leads them to understand that they have to stop shitting everywhere. They have to build toilets. They have to have better irrigation. Use better seeds. Use farm finance. Form cooperatives. Educate women. Educate girls. Have better health. Live in clean houses and surroundings. Wash often. Stop stupid spending on jewellery and weddings.

He frequently refers to old retired ex-servicemen who were part of the British army during world war 1 and saw action and life in Europe and Mesopotamia and other places. And why they lose all that discipline and cleanliness when they get home while they're wearing their ribbons and medals. Peacocks on dung heaps.

This is why I get thoroughly pissed with people who claim greatness in Indian history with mathematics and science and and and. All this whilst the current prime minister has to launch a frikking national campaign to clean India and construct and use toilets? This is why people look at such boasts of ancient knowledge sitting on top of dirty, unsanitary places as peacocks sitting on top of dung heaps.

This was written by a Britisher in 1928. And we Indians haven't yet learnt to keep things clean. And do basic hygiene factors. Or educate women. Or have toilets.

Here's a sample chapter from here. Full text available here.

Read. If you're a true Indian patriot, you will weep and resolve to do something. If you are a peacock on a dung heap, you will ignore this or get angry at me or this Britisher.

A HOLY WAR 

SOCRATES went to the chaupal, as usual, and found it full of 
ex-officers and ex-soldiers, all smartly got up with uniform and 
medals, and looking very proud and gay. 

SOCRATES : Good morning, gentlemen, how smart you all are 
to-day. Do you know what you remind me of most ? 

EX-OFFICERS : What, Socrates ? 

SOCRATES : Peacocks sitting on a muck heap. 

EX-OFFICERS: You are pretty rude this morning, Socrates; 
why are you pleased to make such an insulting comparison, old 
man? 

SOCRATES : Well, you are beautifully dressed and covered with 
medals, but your village is filthy. 

EX-OFFICERS: That is unfortunately true, but anyway you 
will admit that even your own comparison shows that what you 
describe is natural. 

SOCRATES : Oh, is it ? Did the peacocks make the muck heap ? 

EX-OFFICERS: No. 

SOCRATES : And aren't you all responsible for the dirty state 
of your village ? 

EX-OFFICERS : We suppose we are, to some extent. 

SOCRATES : Anyway,' what is happening is it a wedding or a 
garden party, or what ? 

SUBEDAR-MAJOR : x Hardly a garden party here, Socrates! 
We don't keep gardens in villages. 

SOCRATES : Then where do your wives take their little babies 
for air and exercise in the afternoon ? 

SUBEDAR-MAJOR : Nowhere, of course. What an idea ! 

SOCRATES : But surely a Subedar-Major's wife is as smart and 
dean and enlightened as a Subedar-Major ? Surely she doesn't 
live in darkness and squalor, the same as the rest of the village ? 

SUBEDAR-MAJOR : She lives in just the same way as all the 
rest of the village women. 

1 The senior Indian commissioned officer of an infantry battalion. 



46 Socrates in an Indian Village 

SOCRATES : Then all the training and uplift of army life was 
wasted on you, Subedar-Major Sahib, if you are content to drop 
back into the old ways, shed your enlightenment with your 
uniform, and forget all you ever learnt ? 

SUBBDAR-MAJOR : What would you have us do, Socrates? 
You've always got some strange new fashions for us. 

SOCRATES : Why, I should expect you ex-officers to bring 
back with you a little light and culture into the villages, to make 
your houses models of comfort and hygiene, and make gardens for 
your wives and children to enjoy. 

SUBEDAR-MAJOR : That sounds attractive, Socrates, and we 
have the means, but we seem unable to combine and no one will 
take the lead. 

SOCRATES : The old story, I fear. We can always combine 
for evil, and there are always leaders to come forward to lead us 
to mischief, but we can never combine for good, and no leaders 
will ever come forward to set an example in good things. 

SUBEDAR-MAJOR : That is so, Socrates, and always has been. 

SOCRATES : Then we must try and alter it. Let's make a 
start by starting a sort of ex-officers' club in our village, put 
together a little money, and make a small garden for the women 
and children to sit in ; and let us find out and practise all the 
various ways there are of improving village life. We are not 
poor, and many of the new things will bring in money 
too, such as good seed, iron ploughs, Persian wheels, and so on. 
The other things that reduce dirt and disease will cost nothing, and, 
by saving the time now wasted in bed with fever, we may save 
money too. Anyway, let's have a try. 

SUBEDAR-MAJOR : Very well, Socrates ; we will make a start 
and see if we cannot lead the village in peace as we led our braves 
in war. 

and this is why I spit on these people who go about proclaiming the glories of ancient civilisation while being stupid to their women. 

HONOUR YOUR WOMEN 

SOCRATES came into the chaupal 1 in a very cheerful mood, 
chuckling to himself, and the village elders were so surprised to 
see him in such an unusual vein that they hardly knew how to 
address him. 

VILLAGERS : Good morning, Socrates, What has happened, 
old worthy ? Have you found a clean village or a child without 
dirt and ornaments, or an educated village woman, or what ? 

SOCRATES : No, brothers, far from it ; I have got into awful 
trouble' this morning (and he chuckled again). 

VILLAGERS : Do let us share y - ar mirth, old man. We suffer 
from your wrath so often, it is but fair wr should share your very 
occasional laughter. 

SOCRATES : Very well (laughing out loud). I will tell you all 
about it, but promise you won't be angry when you hear. 

VILLAGERS : No, Socrates ; we will not spoil your pleasure by 
getting angry, whatever you may say this time. 

SOCRATES : Well, it was like this : I met a political gentle- 
man and we fell to discussing things, and all went well till he 
said, with rising indignation and repeated expressions of wrath 
and bitterness, that ' our India, with its ancient civilization and 
culture, is not respected as she should be in the world.' I 
foolishly burst out laughing, and this made memberji 2 still more 
angry, and he turned on me and abused me too, as well as the rest 
of the world. 

1 Sorry/ I said, * memberji, but I can't help laughing at such 
an astounding statement/ 

'Why? 'he said. ,, 

1 Why, how can you expect the rest of the world to respect 
you when you don't respect yourselves ? ' and I laughed again. 
' Oh, you refer to the untouchables/ he said with sarcasm ; * that's 
an old story and not half as important as you make out' * No, 

1 Common meeting place in village. 

2 Mi, 1 used alone or as an enclitic, signifying respect. 



34 Socrates in an Indian Village 

I don't refer to the untouchables/ I said, 'though they are 
bad enough and quite sufficient to make us all hang our heads 
in shame/ ' Then what do you refer to ? ' he said. ' Well/ I said, 
4 half the population is female, isn't it ? ' ' Yes/ he said, ' of course 
it is/ ' And all the men are born of women ? ' ' Yes/ he said, 
' why ask such foolish questions ? ' ' Well, then/ I said, ' until you 
treat women with respect, and while you pay more respect to 
cattle than to women, how can you be said to be respecting your- 
selves, and how can you expect other people to respect you ? ' 
Memberji got so angry and abusive then, and started talking 
so loudly about ancient civilizations and so on, that I hurried 
away. 

' We don't find it as easy to laugh as you seem to, Socrates/ 
said a young villager rather stiffly. ' Perhaps you'll explain a 
bit more ? ' 

So*-* \ then, if a man kills a cow there will be a riot ? 

very likely. 

.^an treats his wife so badly that she commits 
*# or runs away, will there be a riot ? 

. ^LAGERS : Certainly not ; we shall sympathize with him 
and attend his wedding when he gets another wife. 

SOCRATES : When your cow is going to calve whom do you 
call? 

VILLAGERS : A sensible zamindar, of course. 

SOCRATES : When your wife is going to have a baby whom 
do you send for ? 

VILLAGERS : The sweeper's wife, or the Chumar's. 

SOCRATES: The lowest and dirtiest class of woman in the 
village? 

Vv ^AGERS : Yes, that is so. 

* : - * "" And you reserve the darkest room and the 
/ent ? 

with all your boast of purdah and so on, you 
make no ^ Agements for women and compel them to suffer 

agonies of discon^rt waiting for night to come, so that they may 
prowl about outside the village, or else seek with shame some 
hiding place by day. They are liable to be disturbed both by day 
and by night, and have to shiA about like frightened dogs. 



ffonour Your Women 35 

VILLAGERS : That is correct, Socrates. You have discovered 
and shown up a very bad custom of ours. 

SOCRATES : And that is why a bastard is called a ' get gatwar 
kabacha?' 1 

VILLAGERS : That is probably so. 

SOCRATES : And you make no attempt to bring up the girls 
properly or educate them ? 

VILLAGERS : Hardly any. 

SOCRATES: When a girl is born you sympathize with the 
father ? 

VILLAGERS: Yes. 

SOCRATES : In fact, the girls have such a hard life in their 
infancy and childhood that more girls die than boys, though the 
doctors all say that girls are easier to keep alive than boys. 

VILLAGERS : Yes, I am afraid we do neglect our girls. 

SOCRATES : And you marry them in childhood, before they 
know anything about housekeeping, or domestic science, or how 
to bring up children or look after their husbands, and you force 
them to bear children while they should be still at school and 
developing their minds and bodies by learning and by playing. 

VILLAGERS : All this is true, Socrates, of many of us, and some 
of it is true of all of us. 

SOCRATES : And many of you lock your women up all their 
lives ? 

VILLAGERS : Yes, some of us observe purdah. 

SOCRATES : And many who do not observe purdah lock up 
their womenfolk as soon as they get a little money or a little 
education ? 

VILLAGERS : Yes, that is the custom, too. * 

SOCRATES: And the women do all the drudgery as well as 
bringing up the children, and the men sit by and smoke ? 

VILLAGERS : Yes, that is largely true, too. 

SOCRATES : And if your wife only bears you daughters you 
blame her and are unkind to her, and finally replace her by another 
woman ? 

VILLAGERS : That is often true, too. 

SOCRATES : And it is the women who have to nurse the sick 

1 A child of the farmyard. 



36 Socrates in an Indian Village 

and ailing children and see them die, all because of the filth and 
squalor you live in and the ignorance of the women as to how to 
bring up children and how to avoid simple diseases like smallpox, 
etc.? 

VILLAGERS : Yes, Socrates, we plead guilty. 

SOCRATES : And if you roused yourselves and improved your 
conditions of life, half the disease would disappear ? 

VILLAGERS : Yes, we believe it would. 

SOCRATES : And if you educated your girls, and did not marry 
them till they were educated and fully grown up, they would 
know how to bring up children and would avoid all the usual 
ailments that kill your children, and would be saved all the 
sorrow and trouble of tending sick children and seeing them die 
one after the other. 

VILLAGERS : Your charges are only too true, old man. 

SOCRATES : Would a woman who knew the value of vaccina- 
tion hide her baby when the vaccinator came ? 

VILLAGERS : Never ; the mother loves her baby far more than 
the father, and would never allow it to have smallpox if she 
really understood the value of vaccination. 

SOCRATES : Then when I said you do not respect your women 
and you reverence them less than you do your cattle, I am not 
far from the truth ? 

VILLAGERS : We fear you are absolutely true, Socrates. 

SOCRATES : And mark my words, O zamindars. As soon as 
you treat your women as the equals of men, honour and reverence 
them, bring them up properly and regard them as the equal part- 
ners of your homes and hearths, and not as God-given drudges to 
be knocked about, bullied and treated as slaves, so soon will you 
have bright, healthy homes, and so soon will you receive the respect 
of the whole world. 

Book Review: Sexual Life in Ottoman Society

An interesting book. Looks like it's translated from the Turkish but not that well. Has some thematic chapters arranged loosely around sultans, the structure of the harem,prostitution, slavery, homosexual behaviour, affairs of the heart, sexual humour and sexual poetry.

It's got copious amounts of illustrations, paintings and drawings by local and international artists and painters.

The author has obviously relied on primary research for her(?) book but the translation is poorly done. The boom jumps around very badly and therefore the editing is also done very badly.

For those who are of an academic bent, will find some of the references useful. For those who are expecting a detailed exposition, will be left wanting as there is very little contextual information given.

A particularly fascinating insight on the sexual descriptions of various nationalities of both sexes by Enderunlu Fazil Bey  in his book Hubanname is particular amusing and interesting. Here’s what he says about British Roses (the men).

“They are the silent but very much desired beauties who confuse your mind. They live on a quiet island. These guys who are beardless by birth are of medium height, and are as white as the whitest lily on a stream. Most of these fishlike men are sailors and they have a good sexual apparatus; nevertheless, I can not say that they give much satisfaction.

he was gay, so he didn't know much about women, but that didn't stop him from opining on the various nationalities.

“Eastern Indians: Their face, eyes, and skin are dark. They look like framed pictures on a wall. You wouldn't feel like having sex with them because they are frigid”

Jews: All of them sleep with us. Jewish women and homosexual boys are abundant. The women have plain faces with a dull skin which is as tasteless as snow.

British Women: When their lips move, you hear the nightingale. They are good natured and have lovely faces. They are very keen on finery and they wear sumptuous clothes

 

Still looking at the mildly Islamist trajectory that Turkey is taking, it's a bit of a surprise to see publications like this coming out in this decade.

Mishraism gets a slam

My ferociously erudite and diabolically brilliant friend, Salil Tripathi knocks the socks off a rather strange whiney article on India and China’s progress written by that strange character, Pankaj Mishra. I have to admit, I have yet to understand why he is rated that well, I mean, d’oh. Anyway, Salil writes back to the Mishra article. I quote this:

To put Indian growth in perspective: when it grew at 7.5% last year, India's income rose by an amount higher than the total income of Portugal ($194 billion), Norway ($183 billion), or Denmark ($178 billion) that year. It was the equivalent of adding a rich country's economy to a very poor one. More important, India has reduced the number of people living in abject poverty, even though its population has increased significantly. Once again, facts: In 1991, 36% of India's 846 million people, or a little over 304 million people, lived on less than one dollar a day, the measure economists at the World Bank use to define absolute poverty. That number - of 304 million people - represented possibly the highest-ever agglomeration of poor people in the world in one country at any time. Ten years later, the proportion of India's poorest dropped to 26% - a decline not only of 10 percentage points, but also in absolute terms. By 2006, India's population had risen to 1.02 billion people. If the proportion of poor is still at 26%, it means 267 million people now lived in absolute poverty. What it also means is that even though India added 156 million more people to its population during that decade - a figure combining the total populations of Britain, France and Spain put together - during that period, the number of poor people in India actually fell by 37 million, or the size of Poland. Had the poverty level remained the same, there would have been 361 million poor in India. Instead, the Indian economy had lifted 94 million people out of absolute poverty during that period - that's 12 million more people than the entire population of Germany, the most populous state in the European Union. Such growth would simply have not happened if India had not put in place macroeconomic changes in 1991.

People who moan about inequality need to understand that there is no crime or problem in people being rich. its when the poor remain or are kept poor is where the problem starts. Here are some of my responses about inequality here, here.

Then Mishra responds to Salil’s note here. Now besides the economic fallacies he exhibited in his first post, he now adds historical incoherence to his post, which Salil takes apart in the rejoinder to the rejoinder here. If nothing else, Mishraji, try to simplify your language. See these 2 statements:

1. Old assumptions of moral and civilizational superiority shape the neo-liberal view of Chinese and Indian history, in which the Indians and Chinese appear as deluded socialists and famine-struck peasants, who could only have been saved by western-style neo-liberalism.

2. I can only mention one here: the challenge of postcolonial reconstruction in countries devastated by war and colonialism, in a harsh geopolitical situation which forced ruling classes everywhere to choose sides in the cold war

Say what?

bah!, and seems like Mishraji gets slammed in other areas as well. Here’s another book review kerfuffle that he got involved in and the book’s author poked him

Imperium - the story of Cicero the Republican

One of the areas which I am intermittently checking is ancient roman history. After bumbling around via Gibbons (perhaps the finest example of English writing any time...), Caesar (too many links to report), Augustus, it is now the turn of Cicero when I just finished the book called as Imperium. A fascinating story of perhaps the greatest orator in human history. The book itself looks at a relatively short slice of his life, from the time of the beginning of his legal career to the time he is just becoming consul. And this was written from the perspective of his slave, Tiro (apparently the father of stenography).

This book created what I would call as the human face of his speeches. I have read his speeches and his books, but they do not really give me the sense of touching the man. Very very few speeches do that, give you an indication of the grandeur of the man the timelessness of the message (the four score and... speech by Lincoln, Tryst with Destiny... by Nehru, We shall fight on the beaches...., Blood, toil, tears and sweat..... and this was their finest hour....by Churchill are unique exceptions, here's another list of good speeches). Not surprising, you need to be personally connected with the event and the then political, social, economic and international environment for the speech to speak to you. For example, I would not appreciate any speeches made by the Soviet or Muslim or Arab leaders as I would not fit into that world view.

But once you read about their lives, even though its fictional, these speeches come to life as you get some context, even though the story is fictional. The Cicerian speeches are masterpieces, I particularly liked the Catiline Orations. And you can understand why after reading the book. The man came out from the provinces, not a true Roman. And he got to the top because Rome was a republic, rather than the dictatorship or the empire it turned into.

And perhaps it was that was the reason that he became the enemy of such a host of luminaries ranging from Mark Antony and Julius Caesar. Father of the Republic, was one of the honorific's he was given but that's after the end of the book. The book talked about him being a politician and how he had to make some debatable decisions, like his support for Pompey.

But some insights were brilliant, at least to me. I recognised that in me as well. He wanted something he can believe in and then his speech came across as truly believable and faithful. Its so true, he would spend time on trying to find that one fulcrum on which he can tip his speech. Same with me, if I do not believe in the lecture topic, or the speech subject, my speech / lecture dribbles, literally dribbles. But the other thing is also true, he prepared like a madman. Staying awake at night, working like an idiot, preparation, preparation, preparation, all those helped in making him the great orator he was.

And he was flexible, if something would not work, he would switch dramatically. And that's something that is extremely difficult. Once you have a good established way of speaking and preparation, it is horribly difficult to switch. And for him to switch at something huge such as a criminal case was just amazing and courageous.

The book suffers from some bits that I would have liked to see much more, why not take it to the end of his life? the fun time started after he became a consul. And the language is a bit dry and unemotional. After all, the book has been written by a slave and where are the huge emotions? (Where's the old Taita language?) Bit of a bland re-telling of the story. And the topping and tailing could have been better, it got introduced very abruptly and ended very much so as well.

But hey, got the book as part of a 20 book for £1 sale at Oxfam, not bad, eh? So would say its 5/10.

Technorati Tags: Italy,History,Book Reviews

A critique of Edward Said's Orientalism

Edward Said personifies the quote, "an author retains the singular honour of being a crashing bore long after he is dead". That book of his made my hair hurt, incomprehensible and intractable to say the least. But in certain circles, it is considered next to the Bible and Quran...

Here are couple of reviews of the book

Technorati Tags: Palestine,Middle East,Bibliophilia,Book Reviews

THE SUICIDE OF REASON Radical Islam’s Threat to the Enlightenment.

Now right after I had posted an article on how a Great Muslim Mughal Emperor had synthesized a new religion, this new book review comes forth. The lady reviewer AYAAN HIRSI ALI is very controversial and I have referred to her and her background tangentially before. Still, the book goes into my to be read pile and will report back later.

Mind you, given the sheer illiteracy of most of the west and its intelligentsia to the Indian and Sufi brands of Islam, the huge gaping holes are obvious. Also ignored are the work of the Muslim reformers, but all that has to wait.

 

 

THE SUICIDE OF REASON

Radical Islam’s Threat to the Enlightenment.

By Lee Harris.

290 pp. Basic Books. $26.

Several authors have published books on radical Islam’s threat to the West since that shocking morning in September six years ago. With “The Suicide of Reason,” Lee Harris joins their ranks. But he distinguishes himself by going further than most of his counterparts: he considers the very worst possibility — the destruction of the West by radical Islam. There is a sense of urgency in his writing, a desire to shake awake the leaders of the West, to confront them with their failure to understand that they are engaged in a war with an adversary who fights by the law of the jungle.

Harris, the author of “Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History,” devotes most of his book to identifying and distinguishing between two kinds of fanaticism. The first is Islamic fanaticism, a formidable enemy in the struggle for cultural survival. In Harris’s view, this fanaticism has acted as a “defense mechanism,” shielding Islam from the pressures of the changing world around it and allowing it to expand into territories and cultures where it had previously been unknown.

With few exceptions, Harris sees Islamic expansion as permanent. Although this point is arguable, he bravely attempts to make the case that the entry of Islam into another culture produces changes on every level, from political to personal: “Wherever Islam has spread, there has occurred a total and revolutionary transformation in the culture of those conquered or converted.”

In describing the imperialist nature of Islam, Harris suggests that it is distinct from the Roman, British and French empires. He views Islamic imperialism as a single-minded expansion of the religion itself; the empire that it envisions is governed by Allah. In this sense, the idea of jihad is less about the inner struggle for peace and justice and more about a grand mission of conversion. It should be said, however, that Harris’s argument is incomplete, since he does not address the spread of Christianity in the Roman, British and French empires.

The expansion of Islam is perhaps more potent than the expansion of the Christian empires (including Rome after Constantine) because the concept of separating the sacred from the profane has never been acceptable in Islam the way it has been in Christianity. The Romans, the British and the French went about annexing large parts of the world more for earthly or material gain than for spiritual dominance. Under these empires, the clergy was allowed to propagate its faith as long as it did not jeopardize imperial interests.

Harris goes on to argue that the Muslim world, since it is governed by the law of the jungle, makes group survival paramount. This explains in part the willingness of Muslims to become martyrs for the larger community, the umma — uniting peoples separated by geographical boundaries, with different cultures, heritages and languages. According to Harris, this sense of solidarity is sustainable only with the weapon of fanaticism, which obligates each member of the umma to convert infidels and to threaten those who attempt to leave with death. That is, the aim of Muslim culture, so different from that of the West, is both to preserve and to convert, and this is what enables it to spread across the globe.

The second fanaticism that Harris identifies is one he views as infecting Western societies; he calls it a “fanaticism of reason.” Reason, he says, contains within itself a potential fatality because it blinds Western leaders to the true nature of Islamic-influenced cultures. Westerners see these cultures merely as different versions of the world they know, with dominant values similar to those espoused in their own culture. But this, Harris argues, is a fatal mistake. It implies that the West fails to appreciate both its history and the true nature of its opposition.

Nor, he points out, is the failure linked to a particular political outlook. Liberals and conservatives alike share this misperception. Noam Chomsky and Paul Wolfowitz agreed, Harris writes, “that you couldn’t really blame the terrorists, since they were merely the victims of an evil system — for Chomsky, American imperialism, for Wolfowitz, the corrupt and despotic regimes of the Middle East.” That is to say, while left and right may disagree on the causes and the remedies, they both overlook the fanaticism inherent in Islam itself. Driven by their blind faith in reason, they interpret the problem in a way that is familiar to them, in order to find a solution that fits within their doctrine of reason. The same is true for such prominent intellectuals as Samuel Huntington and Francis Fukuyama.

Harris does not regard Islamic fanaticism as a deviancy or a madness that affects a few Muslims and terrifies many. Instead he argues that fanaticism is the basic principle in Islam. “The Muslims are, from an early age, indoctrinated into a shaming code that demands a fanatical rejection of anything that threatens to subvert the supremacy of Islam,” he writes. During the years that this shaming code is instilled into children, the collective is emphasized above the individual and his freedoms. A good Muslim must forsake all: his property, family, children, even life for the sake of Islam. Boys in particular are taught to be dominating and merciless, which has the effect of creating a society of holy warriors.

By contrast, the West has cultivated an ethos of individualism, reason and tolerance, and an elaborate system in which every actor, from the individual to the nation-state, seeks to resolve conflict through words. The entire system is built on the idea of self-interest. This ethos rejects fanaticism. The alpha male is pacified and groomed to study hard, find a good job and plan prudently for retirement: “While we in America are drugging our alpha boys with Ritalin,” Harris writes, “the Muslims are doing everything in their power to encourage their alpha boys to be tough, aggressive and ruthless.”

The West has variously tried to convert, to assimilate and to seduce Muslims into modernity, but, Harris says, none of these approaches have succeeded. Meanwhile, our worship of reason is making us easy prey for a ruthless, unscrupulous and extremely aggressive predator and may be contributing to a slow cultural “suicide.”

Harris’s book is so engaging that it is difficult to put down, and its haunting assessments make it difficult for a reader to sleep at night. He deserves praise for raising serious questions. But his arguments are not entirely sound.

I disagree, for instance, that the way to rescue Western civilization from a path of suicide is to challenge its tradition of reason. Indeed, for all his understanding of the rise of fanaticism in general and its Islamic manifestation in particular, Harris’s use of the term “reason” is faulty.

Enlightenment thinkers, preoccupied with both individual freedom and secular and limited government, argued that human reason is fallible. They understood that reason is more than just rational thought; it is also a process of trial and error, the ability to learn from past mistakes. The Enlightenment cannot be fully appreciated without a strong awareness of just how frail human reason is. That is why concepts like doubt and reflection are central to any form of decision-making based on reason.

Harris is pessimistic in a way that the Enlightenment thinkers were not. He takes a Darwinian view of the struggle between clashing cultures, criticizing the West for an ethos of selfishness, and he follows Hegel in asserting that where the interest of the individual collides with that of the state, it is the state that should prevail. This is why he attributes such strength to Islamic fanaticism. The collectivity of the umma elevates the communal interest above that of the individual believer. Each Muslim is a slave, first of God, then of the caliphate. Although Harris does not condone this extreme subversion of the self, still a note of admiration seems to creep into his descriptions of Islam’s fierce solidarity, its adherence to tradition and the willingness of individual Muslims to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the greater good.

In addition, Harris extols American exceptionalism together with Hegel as if there were no contradiction between the two. But what makes America unique, especially in contrast to Europe, is its resistance to the philosophy of Hegel with its concept of a unifying world spirit. It is the individual that matters most in the United States. And more generally, it is individuals who make cultures and who break them. Social and cultural evolution has always relied on individuals — to reform, persuade, cajole or force. Culture is formed by the collective agreement of individuals. At the same time, it is crucial that we not fall into the trap of assuming that the survival tactics of individuals living in tribal societies — like lying, hypocrisy, secrecy, violence, intimidation, and so forth — are in the interest of the modern individual or his culture.

I was not born in the West. I was raised with the code of Islam, and from birth I was indoctrinated into a tribal mind-set. Yet I have changed, I have adopted the values of the Enlightenment, and as a result I have to live with the rejection of my native clan as well as the Islamic tribe. Why have I done so? Because in a tribal society, life is cruel and terrible. And I am not alone. Muslims have been migrating to the West in droves for decades now. They are in search of a better life. Yet their tribal and cultural constraints have traveled with them. And the multiculturalism and moral relativism that reign in the West have accommodated this.

Harris is correct, I believe, that many Western leaders are terribly confused about the Islamic world. They are woefully uninformed and often unwilling to confront the tribal nature of Islam. The problem, however, is not too much reason but too little. Harris also fails to address the enemies of reason within the West: religion and the Romantic movement. It is out of rejection of religion that the Enlightenment emerged; Romanticism was a revolt against reason.

Both the Romantic movement and organized religion have contributed a great deal to the arts and to the spirituality of the Western mind, but they share a hostility to modernity. Moral and cultural relativism (and their popular manifestation, multiculturalism) are the hallmarks of the Romantics. To argue that reason is the mother of the current mess the West is in is to miss the major impact this movement has had, first in the West and perhaps even more profoundly outside the West, particularly in Muslim lands.

Thus, it is not reason that accommodates and encourages the persistent segregation and tribalism of immigrant Muslim populations in the West. It is Romanticism. Multiculturalism and moral relativism promote an idealization of tribal life and have shown themselves to be impervious to empirical criticism. My reasons for reproaching today’s Western leaders are different from Harris’s. I see them squandering a great and vital opportunity to compete with the agents of radical Islam for the minds of Muslims, especially those within their borders. But to do so, they must allow reason to prevail over sentiment.

To argue, as Harris seems to do, that children born and bred in superstitious cultures that value fanaticism and create phalanxes of alpha males are doomed — and will doom others — to an existence governed by the law of the jungle is to ignore the lessons of the West’s own past. There have been periods when the West was less than noble, when it engaged in crusades, inquisitions, witch-burnings and genocides. Many of the Westerners who were born into the law of the jungle, with its alpha males and submissive females, have since become acquainted with the culture of reason and have adopted it. They are even — and this should surely relieve Harris of some of his pessimism — willing to die for it, perhaps with the same fanaticism as the jihadists willing to die for their tribe. In short, while this conflict is undeniably a deadly struggle between cultures, it is individuals who will determine the outcome.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, is the author of “Infidel.”

Technorati Tags: Islam,Reform,Book Review

Christian Missionaries and the British Empire!- A Book Review

Many people have this rather fond idea (hope?) that the British Empire was a benign secular liberal democratic force. I have referred to the fact that the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was partly due to Christian Evangelism as proven by much recent scholarship but many, quite learned people, have simply refused to listen to this. But then again, when it comes to religion, even learned people's brains seems to dribble away.

Here's a review of a recent book on this topic (and it has gone into my amazon wish list!:)):

Read and ponder about how the links of religion and state still exist.

Andrew Porter. _Religion versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries
and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914_. Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 2004. xviii + 373 pp. Maps, index. $74.95 (cloth), ISBN
978-0-7190-2822-9; $31.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-7190-2823-6.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Roger B. Beck, Department of History, Eastern Illinois University

God and Caesar

It seems so simple. As Jesus said in the Gospels, "Render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"
(Luke 20:25). But for the Christian missionaries who went forth to
spread the gospel in "heathen lands," Caesar was always nearby, and it
was not always clear who was due what.

In _Religion versus Empire_, Andrew Porter is concerned with this
question from the outset: "The subject of this book is at once the
entanglement of British missions with Britain's empire and the extent of
their separate development" (p. 1). Porter provides a vivid illustration
of this tight intertwining of empire and mission in an example from
South Africa. As the first four London Missionary Society missionaries
were leaving for Cape Town, they found themselves without a ship and
having to ask for imperial assistance. They eventually sailed on the
convict transport, _Hillsborough_, bound for Botany Bay, arriving at the
Cape in March 1799. Porter reflects that their dependence on this free
passage represents in a stark but simple way "the impossibility for
missionaries of escaping the embrace of government, whatever illusions
they might entertain as to the likelihood or desirability of
independence." They had the "expectation that they could take advantage
of a government offer or facilities (however apparently 'providential')
without risk of compromise or obligation," and Porter observes that such
naïve notions proved to be "perennially recurring features of
missionary thinking and much traveled pathways to 'political'
involvement with government" (p. 76).

Porter also seeks to perform a much needed amalgamation of three
"relatively distinct and enormous literatures, the first on Britain's
imperial history, another on Britain's domestic religious and
ecclesiastical past and that concerned with the local histories of
distinct regions or colonial societies around the globe." These three
literatures have evolved quite distinctly and yet the study of
"Christian missionary expansion, whether as agents of British expansion
overseas, as expressions of popular and provincial British religious
commitment or as a critical influence in shaping local politics and
identities," has the potential to both broaden our knowledge of each
area, and also erect bridges between and among all three (p. 7).

This tour-de-force by the Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King's
College, London, is the most definitive account to date of British
imperial expansion working, and not working, hand-in-hand with the
creation and expansion of international British missionary networks.
These networks are the central focus of Porter's narrative, a narrative
that reaches back into the eighteenth century and forward into the
twentieth, to present a complete picture of this imperial dance.

Porter begins with a broad overview of missionary practices and
precedents from 1701 to 1789. The majority of recent British missionary
scholarship focuses on the period after the publication of William
Carey's famous essay, _An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to
use means for the Conversion of the Heathens_, in 1792, and his
departure on mission to India in 1793. Carey's essay marked the
beginning of the modern Protestant missionary activity; that is,
missions primarily to Africa, India, and Asia, particularly China.
Porter returns us to an earlier period to review British missionary
activity among the Indians and Africans in the American colonies to
demonstrate that "by the time Carey set sail, developments in Britain's
Atlantic and Caribbean colonies had long and amply illustrated the chief
missionary problems and possibilities which were constantly to recur and
shape the connections of missions and empire" (p. 16).

Porter's second chapter looks at the reorganization of missionary
enterprise from 1790 to 1812, a period when British interests begin to
expand around the globe and a re-evaluation was made of how to interact
with the native peoples they met and what responsibilities they had
toward them. For many Christians, but not all, it was clear that
Christianity had to be carried to these foreign lands, and it is during
this period that many of the great missionary societies were formed:
Carey's Baptist Missionary Society (1792); the London Missionary Society
(1795); the Edinburgh (Scottish) and Glasgow Missionary Society (1796);
and the forerunner of the Church Missionary Society (1799). In this
period, the links between imperial expansion and missionary expansion
were quite tenuous. Both groups were feeling their way literally through
new territory. Porter's observes that "in this period it is difficult
not to be struck by the comparatively insignificant place occupied by
empire in the minds of many evangelicals. To a degree that at times
could leave onlookers quite bemused and evangelicals themselves open to
ridicule, their thinking was dominated by the concept of an
all-embracing, superintending Providence" (pp. 58-59). The youthful
exuberance and sense of enthusiasm in spreading the Gospel is evident in
all the missionary literature of the time. There are very few doubts
about the rightness of the mission, and little thought given to empire,
unless it be the Kingdom of God.

In chapter 3, Porter reviews the development of the initial terms of
engagement between British mission and empire from 1800-30. By the
beginning of the 1800s missionaries were discussing the question of
whether to "follow the flag" or to strike out on their own. "Colonialism
was by no means necessarily conductive to missionary activity" (p. 64),
but these newly formed organizations, under funded, understaffed and
with very limited knowledge of the world, frequently had little choice
but to follow the flag. Hopping a transport ship, as the South African
example above illustrates, was often the only option available. "There
was to be no escape for the missions," Porter notes, "from encounter and
engagement with, even dependence on, governments, whether imperial or
colonial. At first, however, neither side sensed where events were
leading and neither state nor mission societies wanted dealings with
each other" (p. 65).

In chapter 4, Porter connects the three fields of historical
study--imperial, British domestic, and overseas local--with missionary
activity from 1800 to 1835. One example he cites is that of Dr. John
Philip and his battle with both the local British imperial officials at
the Cape and the local white settlers over black labor and black rights.
In this instance, Philip appealed back to Britain, where the
increasingly powerful London Missionary Society and the Clapham Sect
could influence domestic opinion and support Philip's pleas to
Parliament. Most of the missionary societies gained strength and
membership during this period and this growth related to the "continuing
debate about the meaning of 'civilization' and especially the
possibility of civilizing, or improving the conditions of, non-European
peoples" (p. 92). The debate soon encompassed the "three
C's"--Christianity, civilization, and commerce--and the questions as to
which of the three "either could, or should, be introduced first, in
what forms and with what degree of overlap" (p. 93).

By 1850, there were in place global networks of British Protestant
mission activity. In chapter 5, Porter describes how these networks
developed between 1814 and 1850, "fostered by the active pursuit of
common goals and the intermarriage of members of missionary families"
(p. 117). These global networks were part of a general expansion and, as
Porter calls it, a "new wave" of missionary activity that occurred in
the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. This "new wave" was due, as Porter shows in
chapter 6, to the fact that the missionary societies "were riding high
on the back of the humanitarian tide" during that period (p. 137). By
mid-century, however, the enthusiasm and excitement of the earlier days
were waning as it became more and more evident that the primary goal of
bringing indigenous individuals to Christ was not succeeding as rapidly
as planned or expected. In chapter 7, Porter discusses how the search
for converts and success or failure "always reflected local social and
political conditions" (p. 164). And even in those places where
conversion had been somewhat successful, little consideration had been
given to the configuration of the indigenous churches, the future roles
of the converts in those churches, or indeed, the future of the missions
themselves.

In chapter 8, Porter focuses on the development of the "faith" missions
in the second half of the nineteenth century as one response to the
decline in support and enthusiasm felt at mid-century. These evolved
from a desire to return to a simpler approach to mission work, and
reforms included the replacement of the term "missionary society" with
"mission," the dismantlement of the societies' home organizations, and a
straightforward approach to fundraising that took in donations and sent
them directly out into the field. Theologically there was a shift as
well. Missionary societies in the first half of the century generally
held a post-millennial ideal that expected missionary activity to aid in
the ushering in of Christ's Second Coming, and was rooted in the
Enlightenment ideas of progress. This post-millennial ideal was replaced
in some quarters in the second half of the century by a pre-millennial
ideal that viewed the world more pessimistically and expected "Christ's
imminent return to judgment, _after_ which the millennium would dawn.
For the missionary the pre-millennialist imperative was to push ahead
with evangelism on the widest possible front before the Second Coming
occurred" (p. 194). A common characteristic of these faith missions was
"a determination to operate in isolated and unfamiliar territory, as far
as possible beyond any European influence or colonial rule and at a
distance from other missionary bodies" (p. 224). China, the interior of
Africa, and the Muslim world all became prime targets of faith mission
activity. Thus while it has been the fashion for historians to perceive
closer links between the missionary effort and imperialism in the second
half of the nineteenth century, Porter shows that "many missions devised
wholly different plans for recovery and advance" (p. 224).

Despite the wide appeal of the faith missions, from 1860 to 1895 "for
most evangelicals ... the future lay not in wholesale rejection of the
recent past and the mounting of new kinds of mission but in the revival
and adaptation of existing and more familiar traditions" (p. 225). In
chapter 9, Porter describes the strategies and activities of the two
wings of evangelical Anglicanism represented by the Universities'
Mission to Central Africa and the Church Missionary Society. Chapter 10
is a wide-ranging discussion of missionary activity during the high age
of imperialism that demonstrates how little British imperial motives in
this period corresponded with the theory and practice of mission. As the
century drew to a close then, "an important part of the missionary
movement's attempts to sustain its appeal and generate renewed support
thus involved its re-appropriation of the secular humanitarian goals so
significant to its progress in the first half of the nineteenth century"
(p. 315).

These secular humanitarian goals, Porter argues in chapter 11, gave rise
to a significant degree of "anti-imperialism" among Protestant missions
in the two decades before the Great War. Missionaries held to a
continued belief in the fundamental unity of humanity. This belief put
them at odds with the racist and Social Darwinian theorizing evolving as
the imperialist scramble reached its zenith. In his final chapter,
Porter reflects on the broad conclusions that might be drawn from his
study, and what directions future research might take. In the end, and
as the reference to giving unto Caesar at the beginning of this review
suggests, "missionaries might not advocate empire, but were often
associated with institutions or beliefs identified by local peoples with
imperialism" (p. 316). But, as Porter demonstrates in this sweeping
analysis of the connections and disjunctions between religion and
empire, "although missions could not avoid empire, they were determined
to put it in its place" (p. 330).



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution - Book Review

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-German@h-net.msu.edu (October 2007)

Richard S. Levy, ed. _Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of
Prejudice and Persecution_. 2 volumes. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO,
2005. xxiv + xxvii + 828 pp. Illustrations, table of contents, list
of contributors and entries, index. $185.00 (cloth), ISBN 1-85109-439-3.

Reviewed for H-German by Michael C. Wallo, Department of Foreign
Languages and Literatures, Central Michigan University

The Beginning of Research on Antisemitism

Recent memory is filled with episodes of antisemitism such as Mel
Gibson's drunken invective or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's harangues of
Holocaust denial. These outbursts make Richard Levy's _Antisemitism:
A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution_ even more
indispensable as a counter against such antisemitic attacks. Its avowed
mission is to educate readers to the "destructive nature of antisemitism
and the injury it can still do to the human community" (p. xxxiii), and to
accomplish this aim, Levy attempts to offer and succeeds in giving "the
educated reader the most accurate, thorough, and up-to-date information
on antisemitism in an unbiased manner" (p. xxix). His encyclopedia
demonstrates substantial breadth of information and the considerable
progress of research into the discrimination of Jews until this point in
time.
Yet, at the same time, this work illustrates the vast study yet to be done
on antisemitism around the globe.

Levy has gathered a contingent of international, well-versed scholars who
have contributed to the compendium. The work has an overwhelmingly
western perspective and deals to a large degree with antisemitism in
those nations. Other cultures are not completely disregarded: authors
examine nations, individuals, and incidents from the Middle East, North
Africa, South America, and even Japan, but these entries are limited in
number. On the other hand, articles whose topics derive from some part
of a German-speaking culture make up approximately 40 percent of the
entries while articles associated with the United States are the next
highest percentile, consisting of around 9 percent of the total. For those
of us in German Studies, the number of entries devoted to German-speaking
cultures makes the encyclopedia particularly attractive. Many of these
entries examine nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century antisemites or
groups such as Heinrich Class (p. 130), Adolf Stöcker (pp. 684-685),
and the Pan-German League (pp. 528-529); others inform about National
Socialists and Holocaust-related incidents. These topics certainly deserve
scrutiny in an encyclopedia on antisemitism; however, the lack of entries
pertaining to other nations and their relationships with Jews strongly
indicates that research remains to be done on exposing the discrimination
against Jews within other cultures.

An examination of the types of entries shows that the largest number
are biographical, such as those on Erasmus (pp. 210-211), Henry Ford
(pp. 233-236), and Theodor Fontane (pp. 232-233), and that historical
incidents like the Jewish census in the German army in 1916
(pp. 371-372) and the Waldheim Affair (pp. 752-753) are the second
most frequent type of article. Other categories of entries include
concepts, groups, works, documents, and countries associated with
antisemitism. One should also mention that the contributors' articles
go beyond mere perpetrators of antisemitism, so that defenses of
Jews such as Mark Twain's 1898 essay "Concerning the Jews," which
rejected contemporary antisemites' wild conspiracy theories on Jews, or
Christian Wilhelm von Dohm's late-eighteenth-century treatise, "Über die
bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden," which pleaded for Jewish
emancipation, are also broached in the two volumes as responses to
antisemitism and as part of "the history of anti-Semitism" (p. xxix).
However, in an encyclopedia on antisemitism, these positive stories
are unfortunately few.

Of all the entries, those on the "Judensau," "masculinity," and "Thomas
Mann" are particularly striking. The _Judensau_ is not only shocking for
its disgusting depiction of Jews feeding on the teats of a pig, sucking on
the pigs' tail, and licking its posterior, but
also for its open representations
in German cathedrals and on the Sachsenhauer Bridge in Frankfurt am
Main (p. 388). The stereotype of the effeminate Jewish male derives from
such absurd claims as the feminine speech patterns of Yiddish,
emasculation through circumcision, and ritual murder accusations in
which the male Jew tries to stem his menstruation with the blood of a
newborn (pp. 447-448). While the overwhelming majority of scholars
would not associate Thomas Mann with antisemitism, recent research
has begun to call into question this assertion. As the article's author
demonstrates, his diary contains some dreadful statements and his
novella _Walsungenblut_ (1906) revolves around Jewish twins who view
Wagner's _Die Walküre_ (1870) and emulate the incestuous acts of
Wagner's characters to become, like them, more German. The most
disturbing part of the novella is Mann's depiction of the young man's joy
at having cheated his sister's Gentile fiancée of his "sexual prerogative"
(p. 444).

As the Mann entry demonstrates and as Levy notes, the designation of
antisemites and antisemitic acts can be complicated based upon the
lack of firm definition of the word "antisemitism" (p. xxxi). That said, one
entry is out of place in the encyclopedia and a few others could have been
included. The "Gottfried Benn" article is undeserving of inclusion in the
work, considering that Benn made no antisemitic statements and was
the friend of many Jews (pp. 65-66). His injudicious membership in the
National Socialist Party for a short time was certainly not based on
antisemitism. On the other hand, articles on Ethiopian Jews, Israel's
history as a nation suffering from antisemitism, gender-specific
discrimination against Jewish women, and one of the foremost antisemitic
publishing houses in pre-World War II Germany, J. F. Lehmanns Verlag,
would have been excellent additions to the volumes.

Levy's compendium is user-friendly with alphabetized entries,
recommended further readings for each entry, and "see also"-sections.
Articles range from approximately 400 to 2,000 words; about 120 of the
total 612 entries are nearer the latter length and deal with general
topics such as modern anti-Jewish caricatures (pp. 102-107),
emancipation (pp. 201-204), Roman literature (pp. 612-617), and
Holocaust denial, negationism, and revisionism (pp. 319-322).
Prominent among the quality visuals of the encyclopedia are disturbing
illustrations of the _Judensau_ (p. 388), ritual murders (pp. 603, 606,
656), and Jews being burned in Cologne (p. 461). Some entries that
may be difficult to find on a first attempt--for instance, if a searcher
were looking for an entry on Francisco Franco, he would not look
under "F," but rather under "S" for the entry "Spain under Franco" (pp.
674-675)--are located easily enough in a comprehensive thirty-five-page
general index.

To my knowledge, this work is the first of its kind on this topic and
provides a wealth of information and new and surprising facts that
would benefit any scholar interested in the topic.[1] However, the
compendium is particularly ideal for Jewish Studies scholars
and--because of the entries on Germanic antisemitism--Germanists
and German historians. Although the cost is certainly one of its
shortcomings, individual entries would be useful in applicable
undergraduate courses.

Notes

[1]. Jerome Chanes published _Antisemitism: A Reference Handbook_
(Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004), but its title and genre indicate its
lack of comprehensiveness.


All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

A book review - Longitudes and Attitudes - Thomas Friedman

I started writing columns and essays in 2003 when my friend and editor twisted my ear and threatened grievous bodily harm if I didn’t write something. Despite protestations that I didn’t know the first thing about writing (not that I know any more now!!!) she got me wittering on about it. So off I went to do a bit of research on what makes a good columnist and since then Thomas Friedman has been top of the list for me, yahoo and google alerts.

I was further convinced that he is a good libertarian and centrist when he would change his opinions, he would try to make sense of both sides of the story, he would show passion and he would be independent of the howling mobs on both sides of the story. So I am a big fan of his writing. As it so happens, one of the proudest moments of my writing life was when somebody accused me of being a "Thomas Friedman". The person was meaning it pejoratively and in an accusing manner, but that didn’t matter. So you are warned, I am already biased!

His previous book that I read, The World is Flat, is also something that took the world by storm. It was the FT / Goldman Sachs Business book of the year and really opened many people’s eyes to how globalisation is currently in play. But this book, Longitudes and Attitudes – ISBN: 0141015217), exploring the world before and after September 11 is a different animal totally.

This book is a series of selected columns from 2000 till just after the Iraq Invasion of 2003. It is a very interesting view of how an American got stunned by the 9/11 attack, their “virginity”, “innocence” torn away, saw the world, how they tried to make sense of it. And you could see all the (almost raw) emotions in print, the bewilderment, the anger, the worry, the angst, the pain, the sorrow, the feelings of a father to his daughter and family, his fury at the Jihadi’s, his pity, everything on open display. And you can see the feelings develop and change over the 3-4 years, before and after the 9/11 event.

Take for example the Iraq War. The overwhelming feeling that I get from reading the columns is that he thinks it was morally right to remove Saddam but he was extremely nervous and critical of the Bush Administration’s incompetence in raising the coalition, getting the international support, the absence of planning for the post Saddam era, the feelings of people on the ground in USA, Europe, Arab lands and India. And whether you like or hate this idea, he is a great writer. And read him to understand how opinions are formed.

As an essayist, another very interesting quality that Thomas has, is to manage to fit in simple concepts, give good structured arguments, back it up with history and personal experience and end with a recommendation/suggestion, and mostly all in 800-900 words. And his introductions are brilliant, simply great; they pull you into the column.

The main criticism I would have is that he missed a trick by not taking the letters to the NY Times editor and feedback on his columns into his book. I realise that it would have taken more time to make the book, and would have been tougher, but I think the balance is lost; this is purely Thomas Friedman’s opinion journey over 4-5 years. If he had managed to incorporate the letters and feedback, it would have made for a far richer book.

Still, whether you are an essayist, journalist, interested in politics, whether left or right, green or brown, this is a good book to read. Hey, its perfect as a bathroom book, those bite sized columns are just perfect! J Happy reading.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

A book review - God's Terrorists - Charles Allen

An interesting review of this book by Bhupesh Bhandari of the Business Standard. It has gone into my Amazon wishlist! :) As it so happens, my next essay will be on the 1857 war of independence / Great Mutiny.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Blasts from the past

Bhupesh Bhandari / New Delhi September 06, 2007

Till the Taliban were driven out of Kabul, Afghanistan was recognised as the Islamic world’s most prolific jehad factory, exporting terror to every corner of the globe. It is widely believed that Osama bin Laden is still directing Al Qaeda operatives from his base somewhere in Afghanistan or the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The region has been wild and untamed for centuries. The Pathans and Afghans are at peace only when at war with each other, the old saying goes. Neither the British nor the Soviets could keep them under their control for long. Before them, the Sikhs had extended their rule to Peshawar and beyond. But their rule over the territory, more often than not, was tenuous.

A lesser known fact of history is that the area was a springboard for jehadis right through the 19th century. These men fought the firinghees to make India once again Dar-ul-Islam. There might be no Al Qaeda operative in India right now, but those men all came from India and were led by Indian religious figures. For the British, they were the first crop of Islamic terrorists. They called themselves God’s soldiers. One man’s terrorist even at that time was the other man’s freedom fighter.

Old India hand Charles Allen (his great-grandfather, Charles Allen, started The Pioneer on January 1, 1865) gives a new spin to Islamic terrorism with his latest book, God’s Terrorists. The roots of modern jehad, says he, lie in these men who fought the British forces in the North-West and Afghanistan.

Their leaders, drawn from Patna and Delhi, were followers of the Wahhabi school, which had originated in West Asia in the previous century. The soldiers came from Bengal. All of them were bound together by the cult of militant Islam espoused by Wahhabism.

Elaborate supply chains were set up between Bengal and the Sitana mountains in Afghanistan, where these jehadis found safe sanctuary. Most of the time, they got support from the locals, who still have the tradition of never turning away a guest.

For a long time, the British just had a vague idea about these jehadis. (The Great Game too was just a notion till Rudyard Kipling blew the cover in The Pioneer.) Perhaps the first evidence of militant Wahhabism was in the early 1830s, when Titu Mir organised his co-religionists against the British. Mir had travelled to West Asia and was taken in by Wahhabism. But his struggle was short-lived. He was caught and hanged by the British.

Even during the 1857 sepoy mutiny or what Indian nationalists call the first war of independence, Allen says some British officials were suspicious that it was being fuelled in Patna by a bunch of religious leaders. Accordingly, they were taken into custody. Yet, rivalry amongst officials of the East India Company ensured that these men were set free shortly.

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that these men were at work in Delhi during the 1857 mutiny. It is well known that some religious fanatics had camped in and around Delhi during those days, fighting the British forces. Though most of the participants in the revolt were high-caste Hindus, these men fought alongside them.

The full extent of the operations came to light only after Lord Mayo, the Viceroy, was murdered by a jehadi in 1872. He had promised to crush the Wahhabi movement once and for all and this had drawn the ire of the jehadis. The British might have been able to put a lid on their activities for some time, but the phenomenon raised its head once again 100 years later.

Allen says that the current crop of terrorists has the same DNA as these men. To begin with, they were terrorists and not Indian nationalists. He says these men were not fighting to liberate India. Instead, they were fighting for Islam, to restore it to the glory it had commanded before the British set foot on Indian soil. Their angst was directed against the Christians for defiling their land and interfering in their religious practices. Most important, they all fought like men possessed.

The theological schools which taught Wahhabism at that time became the breeding ground for the Taliban a century later. It is a well-known fact that most madrassas in Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan were offshoots of these schools, most notably the Deoband madrassa close to Delhi. The militant Islam taught by these schools was in full display during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Together with the Al Qaeda, the Taliban became the most dangerous terror force the world has ever known. One was tightly-knit and local, the other loose in organisation but global in its reach.

Packed with impeccable research, Allen’s book gives a good view of the roots of militant Islam in the region. God’s Terrorists compares favourably with his earlier bestsellers like Soldier Sahibs, Duel in the Snows and A Mountain in Tibet.