Roots of Conflict in South Asia

Pakistan

India

Nepal Bhutan

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Hindu Kush Mountains

Really…

THIS is the road Less Traveled…

The Khyber Pass…

1526: The Battle of

PanipatBabur, a Turko-Persian king from Central Asia, invaded India from his base in Kabul.

On the 5th attempt, Babur defeated the Lodi Sultan with only 12,000 men against an army of 100,000 men and 100 elephants! Babur had 20 firearms and that made all the difference!

He established the Mughal Dynasty which lasted over 300 years…

His life story is recorded in the famous BABURNAMA.

Babur

Babur claimed descent from the Mongols…particularly, Ghengis Khan, the Great Mongol Ruler

The Mughals (Islamic Dynasty)

16th c.- 19th c.

Akbar and his Hindu wife Jodbhai … in their youth and in the autumn of life…

“Din I Ilahi”

Fatepur Sikri … HOME SWEET HOME

And when you have so many wives, how do you keep them from fighting? Give them each a house of their own…

Shah Jahan and his lovely wife Mumtaz…

A Tomb fit for a ‘tired’ Queen…

The Taj Mahal

Most people in South Asia not Muslim when the Mughals invaded. There were a few thousand Muslims along the coastal areas, mainly, since 800’s and Christians, Buddhists, but most (90%) were practioners of Hinduism…

What is HINDUISM?Many religions under one Umbrella!

• Hinduism differs from Christianity and other Western religions in that it does not have a single founder, a specific theological system, a single system of morality, or a central religious organization.

• Hinduism consists of thousands of different religious groups that have evolved in India since 1500 BCE.

Tolerance• Religions which recognize the existence of

multiple deities have traditionally been among the world's most religiously tolerant.

• Hinduism remains arguably one of the most tolerant of such religions. Hindus recognize the fact that the means or ways to salvation are many.

The Trimurti (the primary trinity)BRAHMA

Shiva

Vishnu

Nataraja – Shiva’s Cosmic Dance

Shakti… the feminine Divine Power

Devi Ma

Laxmi

Saraswati

Durga Kali

Vishnu:One god, many incarnations… or AVATARS

Brahmin priests perform pooja…

Other Castes:

Kshatriya (warriors and kings)

Vaisya (artisans and merchants)

Sudras (farmers)

then the out-castes…

The Untouchables

Mughals ruled as minority…and as such, they tended to

• Be tolerant• Promote Peace• Insure economic prosperity• Respect Hindu customs (non-interference)• Integrate Hindus into administration• Fund Hindu temples and priests

*Military expansion constant, but NOT a “jihad”*Most Muslim rulers were not “Islamists” – in other words, didn’t want a MUSLIM state.

Colonial India

British East India Company • Joint Stock Company • Private merchants given charter by Queen Elizabeth• Founded in 1600

• 218 subscribers to the new enterprise raised £68,373 – a massive amount at a time when a skilled carpenter was earning about 7 pence a day. The Company was granted a monopoly on all English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope.

• www.bl.uk/.../tpimages/exhibitionfigs1.jpg

The trading company had its own troops… to protect its commercial interests…

Battle of Plassey, 1757(beginning of British Rule in India)

British and French rivals fight war for colonial control in India and the Americas during 1700’s.

British General Robert Clive overthrows local Indian ruler in Bengal and puts puppet on the throne… Brits get land and taxation rights!

The Company begins to acquire more political power and port cities, annexcing princely states, battling local armies and passing laws to change Indian society, religion and traditions. Many of these legal ‘reforms’ focused on women and helped the Brits justify their colonial conquest.

Central Asia

The Great Game:The 19th century rivalry

Great Britain vs. Russia

Race to get more Central Asian territory, raw materials, markets and ports for Empire…

Victorian Ideals…

• <>

                                         <>

The British recruit local Indian troops to help them in the colonial project – expanding their territorial control, collecting taxes, extracting raw materials and building-up markets where they could sell their manufactured goods from Britain.

Indian Troops in Brit. Army = SEPOYS

Sepoy Mutiny, 1857

1858 Queen Victoria makes proclamation to the people and princes of India…

The East India Company is removed and India falls under CROWN RULE.

Promises to respect Indian religion and customs…

Colonial India

Indian Nationalism

1885 – Indian National Congress

*The loyal opposition*Elite, western educated Brits, Muslims, Hindus*Requesting greater representation in provincial

legislature*Seeking more authority in federal government

By end of WWI, Congress emphasizing SWADESHI… (self reliance)

Non-Cooperation = Civil Disobedience

• Satyagraha or SOUL FORCE• Parents remove children from govt. schools• People withheld taxes• Boycott on British goods• General workers strikes (hartal)• Quit Govt. jobs• Disobey unjust laws and willingly accept ARREST.

MORAL VICTORY … HUMILIATE THE BRITISH

Rejection of Western values…

By the end of WWII, Congress calls for SWARAJ or self-rule

COMMUNALISMSeeing one’s religious identity as the root of one’s

political identity, superiority, and power…

• HINDU vs. Muslim politics• Result of imperial “divide-n-rule” politics • Leads to violent acts and “othering”• Used by politicians today to evoke both FEAR AND HATRED in South

Asia.

Jinnah,

Muslim League,

founded in 1906

Nehru and Gandhi, Congress Party

The Partition of India, 1947

Independence from Britain

The Horror of India being divided in TWO…

• The Muslim League calls for PAKISTAN = “Islam is in Danger!”

• Gandhi refuses the idea of separate electorates for Muslims, or reserved seats… calls for secular INDIA.

In 1947, the border between India and its new neighbour Pakistan became a river of blood, as the exodus erupted into rioting. These pictures are by Margaret Bourke-White from Khushwant Singh's book Train to Pakistan, Roli Books.

Over 10 million people were uprooted from their homeland and travelled on foot, bullock carts and trains …

promised new home.

An aged and abandoned Muslim couple and their grand children sitting by the the roadside on this arduous journey. "The old man is dying of exhaustion.

The caravan has gone on," wrote Bourke-White.

The massive exchange of population that took place in the summer of

1947 was unprecedented. It left behind a trail of death and destruction.

In a couple of months in the summer of 1947, over one million people were slaughtered on both sides in the religious rioting. Here, bodies of the victims of rioting are picked up from a city street.

“The street was short and narrow. Lying like the garbage across the street and in its open gutters were bodies of the dead," writes Bourke-White's biographer Vicki Goldberg of this scene.

With the tragic legacy of an uncertain future, a young refugee sits on the walls of Purana Qila, transformed into a vast refugee camp in Delhi.

Men, women and children who died in the rioting were cremated on a mass scale. Villagers even used oil and kerosene when wood was scarce.

India in 1947 was divided into states based largely on language groupings…

And 500+ princely states were incorporated into the nation-state by mid-1950’s…

But there was a crisis over KASHMIR

Kashmir was a princely state that wished to remain independent…

Hindu prince, Muslim majority population

1948 WAR over region… 3 more wars to follow over this area.

Kashmir

Nuclear Conflict• India tested first nuclear bomb 1974• Pakistan tested first nuclear bomb 1998

The most volatile place in the world…• Since the 1980’s over 50,000-100,000 people have

died in the Kashmir conflict. 300,000 Kashmiris have fled their homes.

• Today, it is estimated that India has nearly 400,000 troops stationed in Kashmir. 80,000 are standing on the LoC (Line of Control)

• Pakistan has fewer troops, about 40,000 on the LoC.

• In 2001-2002, both countries mobilized nearly one million troops to the border in a stand-off.

Finding Friends for the War on Terror?India and Pakistan in the Nuclear Game…