The Truth of Nations

"We are global citizens, members of the same race being torn apart by the theory of nations, bifurcated and fragmented into societies on the basis of this so called nationalism. Can we not let go of borders, of the hatred that our governments make us feel towards other geographies! Can we not rise and proclaim that the vicissitudes of jingoism have taken us far, but no more!" As I went through these lines, a strong sense of moral epiphany grasped its clutches around my mind. The understanding of sharing an evolution with seven billion people can have that effect on the minds of the uninitiated. Why do we need borders? The planet does not exhibit any lines drawn across its face and chest. Is it necessary then to draw and divide ? Can we not live together as a species rather than living as nations? In the times that we face, it seems like a Utopian idea too far from reality. A country in itself seems like a Machiavellian machination cooked up to satisfy the ambivalence of human thoughts. Or, is it ?

As it happens, the question has a very dynamic answer. Let us see if you can decide for yourself. I shall tell you a story; one that you would have listened to a thousand times. It is a story of a half-naked man who led a nation to independence through tools of non-violence. He never hit anyone, never cussed and yet history's largest empire had to bend to his will. These acts and philosophies led to the birth of two new nations(erstwhile). For the sake of further discussion, let us not become debating nuts and go as far as to discuss other factors that led to the events of 1947. Not that you have a choice other than bending to the flow of this discussion. 

Our story begins in the early 17th century. The date is 29th November, 1612 and the place is Suvali. This small coastal town along the edges of modern day Gujarat, India, is about to experience one of the most significant battles of history. Four East India Company galleons are to take on four Portuguese galleons accompanied by twenty-six barks. The East India Company, very much a trading corporation at this point in time is about to defeat the Portuguese and claim Suvali as a trading center. Once the battle is won, they will be asked by emperor James the sixth to embark upon a diplomatic mission to Agra which at this point in time is being ruled by a connoisseur of art and culture, emperor Nur-ud-Din Mohammad Salim, also known as Jehangir. Despite of being an art man, the emperor has a fierce reputation of warfare since a very early age. He has helped his father defeat the armies of Bijapur and Golconda as a young man, while he was still crown prince of the vast Mughal empire. The emperor demands and obtains absolute control and loyalty of his largely Hindu subjects owing to his lineage (his mother being a Rajput princess) and his policies of religious inclusion which he inherits from his father. The company knows that in order to make this diplomatic mission a success, they would need to woo Jehangir. They simply cannot fail as the British at this point in time are on war-footing with other European powers. The French have never been amicable, the Dutch have just signed a treaty of oceanic division where neither party is allowed to venture into each other's territories (as a result Dutch Indies has been created which would later be known as Indonesia), the Bavarian of Prussia (early Germans) couldn't care less and the Spanish are way too busy exploring the seas and routes to the new world. By defeating the Portuguese, they have an unprecedented opportunity to claim the riches of Calcutta, a port town which contributes to more than 30% of world GDP at this point in time. And all of this can be achieved by wooing in one man, emperor Jehangir.

Suvali was easy and so was Jehangir but not as much as the company would have imagined. The Mughal allows the company to establish factories and outposts in Suvali but no further. This is done in exchange for reasonably high taxes and the permission to engage in talks with other princely states of the subcontinent. Also, the company promises Jehangir something he loves more than warfare - refined European products. Thus begins history's first take-over of a geography by a company. Imagine a part of the world being governed and run by Google, Facebook, Tesla etc. Difficult, isn't it ? Anyway, years pass by and slowly but steadily, the company manages to establish a firm stand in Gujarat and as it is with investors today, profits attract more money and money attracts power, no matter how localized. Forty years since the meeting with Nur-ud-Din, the company manages to establish a post further south of the subcontinent by entering into profit sharing modules with the Vijaynagar empire. These factories flourish and the locals become restive for more. Some even go to the extent of venerating these people with white skin. Profits rise and the myth of the white comapany reaches as far as Kabul. The story, however, takes a very interesting turn. By the end of the 17th century, the power of Mughals is being threatened by the advent of Marthas in the South West and the Sikhs in the North West. The island of Bombay has fallen to the hands of the British as a dowry from the Portuguese (marriage of Catherine Braganza to Charles II) and was leased by the company in 1668. Nur-ud-din's grandson, Muhi-ud-din Mohammed, also known as Aurangzeb has held these power hungry Hindus and Sikhs at bay but as his age declines, a sense of chaos creeps up in the Mughal empire. After his death in 1707, the empire built from blood by Babur and enforced in stone by Jalal-ud-din Mohammed (Akbar), shatters like a mirror thrown from the top of a ten-storey building. The company knows its time to finally grasp Calcutta is near but it won't be as easy. A wounded lion is a lion still and the Mughals still control the diwani of Calcutta and are still one of the richest (if not the most) dynasties in the world. The East India Company waits for the right moment and as luck has it, nearly forty years from Aurangzeb's death, they get their moment of triumph. A Persian (Iranian) king by the name of Nadir Shah forces his way through the passes of Hindukush and rampages the fields of Lahore and Sindh thereby commanding the unanimous surrender of the Mughals, who at the time consider themselves absolute rulers of Hindustan. Not only does he prove to be an absolute military genius but an opportune plunderer. He takes away the entire wealth of the Mughals after the surrender of Muhammad Shah who is, apparently, more interested in bacchanal activities than in ruling. The peacock throne, the Koh-i-noor to name a few. And while all this is happening, the company watches, without any interference whatsoever. So do the Marathas and the Sikhs. No one dares to stand up to the hegemony of this Persian iconoclast who has no interest in ruling the subcontinent. The Mughals now reduced to a veneer of their former self suddenly find that they are poorer than their vassal states, especially, Bengal, the fiscal capital of their empire. The diwan of Bengal declares himself to be a Nawab and this provides the company with an opportunity they had been waiting for since 1612. More than a hundred years of biding their time has brought them on the crossroads of history in ways ever unimaginable. 

Slowly, but steadily, the East India Company tightens its grip on the ports of Calcutta but it knows all too well that it is only a matter of time before the Nawab revolts and they have no way to match his military might. After all, they are a corporation less than 2000 strong whereas Bengal is a province much larger than the entire British isles supported by the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal king himself. Again, the Hindu Marathas and Sikhs of Punjab are more than happy to sit this one out as they don't care an ounce about what was going on on the eastern coast. For all intents and purposes, these white people were raising their voice against the Muslims whom they have abhorred for centuries. The company now employs many locals along the coastal towns of India and controls independent Forts in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. However, this isn't enough and they know there are immense profits still to be made. So they take an unprecedented step never before taken in any organization's history. They go to the British crown and convince the British parliament that The French East India Company is trying to take over Fort William in Calcutta. The truth, however, couldn't be further away from this. The French East India Company is a very small French company centered around Chandernagar, Bengal and has good relations with the Nawab. The caveat is that the French East India Company are controlled by the French crown which is in constant tussle with the British crown for colonies and supremacy. All other European powers, by this time, have subsided and developed rather healthy relations with the British crown. France, however, stands resolute in its hostilities. This moment of paranoia gives rise to what is called the famous Battle of Plassey. The British parliament appoints an army man, Major General Robert Clive to oversee affairs at Fort William and an armada of British naval ships sail towards the Indian Ocean. A battle takes place near Palashi (anglicized as Plassey) on the banks of the Hooghly River and the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daula is comprehensively defeated. The French interests are thwarted and Clive captures Siraj-ud-Daula by bribing Mir Jafar, Siraj's commander-in-chief, thereby capturing Calcutta. This is where the company rule begins and thus begins an endless cycle of exploitation, thievery, chicanery and loot. Bengal's opium is bought, virtually free of cost by the company and sold in mainland China for immense profits and these profits are in turn distributed amongst the company's shareholders, many of whom happen to be sitting MPs in the British Parliament. The Battle of Buxar in 1764 proves to be the final nail in the coffin when a revolting Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim joins forces with the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal King Shah Alam to face another British force led by Hector Munro on the bank of the river Ganges in a small rural settlement called Buxar which was Bengal's eastern border with Awadh. Munro decimates the forces of these squabbling Nawabs and Kings and enforces the company rule beyond doubts.

In the years that follow, Bengal enters a state of famine and civil war wherein more than 3 million Bengalis die of hunger. The company rule, however, flourishes. They face uprisings from parts of the subcontinent with the likes of Ranjit Singh fighting for his Sikh empire in and near Lahore, Laxmibai fighting for a small kingdom of Jhansi, the Peshwa fighting for rights in the Maratha heartland and Tipu Sultan fighting for his kingdom in Southern India. None of these so called "freedom fighters" were even close to the idea of a free India. The company subdued all the upheavals with discussions or brute force, if necessary. We know this. What we forget, however, is that the soldiers fighting these wars for the company were all Indians - brown skinned people trained and paid by the company. It boggles the mind to think that a corporation not 2000 strong could rule an area in the excess of 3 million square kilometers without next to no support from their own country located a world away. The Bengal famine is a conclusive proof that it was us who allowed a corporation to rule us for the sake of stability and money and it was us who paid the price. However, the famine forces the crown's hand into matters of state and India (still a fairly new term in usage) is established as a British colony in 1858 with Queen Victoria being crowned the first empress of India, thus ending the company rule. Which brings us to the half-naked man with a stick and spectacle. By the time Gandhi became a force to be reckoned with (which wasn't until the beginning of the 20th century), the idea of a nation had not taken hold. Our early freedom fighters asked for dominion status but complete independence wasn't on the cards till 1921 when it was first proposed as an idea in a Congress meeting. It took more than 300 years for us to develop the notion of India as a sovereign state. Gandhi used this conscience to the fullest when he declared truth and non-violence to be his weapons of war because he knew full well that violence would be useless. The concept of a country, once born was only enforced in the conscience of people and the dividend paid off in 1947. Some may call it the result of World War II. Some may call it the dedication of leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Tilak etc. Some may even call it the efforts of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Azad, Rajguru and the like but I think it was a culmination of all these factors. Above all, it was the idea of a country that took hold in the minds of people from Attock to Cuttack from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Ideologies and philosophies may have given birth to 2 nations but at the base of everything was the idea of the existence of a country.

It is easy to forget what history teaches us and think of the geographical borders an unwanted aberrant, however, a country and its government is people's way of submitting their rights and freedom to an idea which could take decisions for them, enact laws for them and save them from a chaos that their forefathers have witnessed. It is true that we belong to the same race and the ideas of division should not shape our lives but look how far we have come! From states fighting each other to a nation of nearly like-minded people who believe in each other's sovereignty, we have come a long way in a very short span of time. Maybe we will live as a common society of humans as evolution takes its toll but till then, having faith in the idea of a country is our best bet. It's where home is and there is no place like home!