November 12, 2010

Mr. President:  Much is being written about the extravagance of your trip … and
the lack of success — $5.8 billion in arms sales but little else and little to give
India except a promise (more like a post-dated check) to support its bid for a
permanent Security Council seat; no trade agreement in Seoul or support for our
efforts in the Chinese Yuan revaluation.

They pointed out that the Fed is splurging with dollars.  As it continues to push
with an ever more flaccid rope, the economy is crying out for a demand pull.  It
needs investment, our infrastructure is crumbling; seems a perfect match and a
trillion there could work wonders for the economy and our competitiveness.  
Imagine, for example, the Eastern Corridor linked with 350 mph trains — similar to
Japan's recently announced plans for a new maglev line — that would convert the
region into one giant accessible job base with soaring commercial potential.

Let me return to India for a moment.  Humayun's tomb that you mentioned in your
speech to Parliament, the Delhi Red Fort, the Taj Mahal in Agra – a tomb to Shah
Jahan and his beloved wife.  All those monuments were built by the Mughals,
who were Muslim.  In 1947, the British apportioned Pakistan to India's Muslims.  
So there you have it, the monuments remain in India, the descendents of the
builders in Pakistan.  Humayun's grandson (Shah Jahan's father) has a tomb
outside Lahore, should you chance to visit Pakistan.  A final historical note:  Shah
Jahan also had a Parsi (Zoroastrian) wife.  Their son Dara Shikoh was a major
contender for the throne.  One can only speculate on the nature of India had he
been successful — perhaps a few more different monuments.

The Taj Mahal hotel in Bombay, where you stayed — apparently renting the whole
place — was built by the Parsi Tata family as a response to the British colonial
habit of segregating the best hotels.  That it was their focus is testimony to the
historical ignorance of the attackers so enraged by the atrocities in Kashmir.  
Arundhati Roy, the Booker Prize winning novelist and activist for the oppressed
in all parts of India, has been accused of sedition and threatened by Hindutva
gangs as she continues to fight for the rights of Kashmiris as well as peasant
farmers in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, etc.  Fully twenty out of twenty-eight
provinces are suffering an insurgency of some sort as poor farmers try to fight
off land grabs by powerful industrial interests.  Roy has called India a "used-up
democracy" for its failure to respond to the needs of its most deprived citizens —
a majority.  As for Pakistan, it hardly made it to first base in this ballgame.  A Nobel
Peace Laureate, one would have imagined, would have spent his time trying for
confidence-building measures aimed at peace between these two poverty
stricken (though nuclear armed) rivals, rather than arming them both.

Arshad M. Khan is a retired Professor.  An occasional contributor to Common Dreams, Dissident Voice, ZNet, etc., he can be reached through ofthisandthat.org

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