In My View - Thursday-Wednesday

Grandmothers’ tales

Historically, India sought out civilisational contacts with others for its own enrichment. Indian folklore is replete with accounts of faraway places of ‘milk and honey’ for which its people pine for long. The country’s current interaction with the USA belongs to a similar realm. Last week good news flowed from faraway Washington in a manner it seemed they will not stop. Two of them are of immediate value. The US Senate passed a bill that would create ground for enabling legislation for the Indo-US nuclear deal to see the light of the day. The other was that the visa fees for Indians wishing to visit the USA have been significantly lowered.

Many in this country dream of the day when they would get their entry into the USA and live happily ever after. For them these dreams are usually defined in terms of the material benefits that could accrue to them. Many critics of those who challenge this vision claim that the latter are against “modernism”; and can only relate to a future of India from the reference point of poverty. They say the present Indian society aspires to excel, and it looks at the USA as its psychological benchmark.

Therefore, it appears crucial to understand whether the USA can be considered an undisputed leader of modernity. At this stage, usually the discussion degenerates into a raucous debate about whether technological and scientific achievements can make one such a leader. Though knowing that indeed technological excellence alone cannot drive ‘modernism’ – otherwise industrially revolutionised Britain would not have given birth to such Dickensian portrayal of the dark underbelly of the English society – one can still take the plunge to argue the S & T case.

Beginning at the apex, even a cursory glance at the list of Nobel laureates since the time of the awards inception, one can see that Americans have dominated the list. But importantly this domination has been most in the post-World War II period. And this has been largely driven by the immigrant German scientists who fled Nazi Germany.

Even now, white, Anglo Saxon, Protestants – the quintessential Americans – hardly find a place in the honour roll. Now, one can argue that the USA is a nation of immigrants. If one goes with the melting pot logic, one naturally has to wade into the area of culture and ask: Has the USA produced any influential literary or artistic genre that has created a global impact?

Knowing his limitations in this area, this writer had sought help from a friend – a wholly reconstructed leftist friend, vastly more well read, and one who understands the importance of capital. He was asked a question; give the names of three most important post-War (modern!) American literary figures and artistic persona. After a night’s torture, this friend has produced this list for the first category: Saul Bellow, JD Salinger and Harper Lee. One must add he also predicated his list with the comment that American literature has not been able to emerge from the boundaries of a narrative style. For artists he had names like Andy Warhol, Man Ray and Jackson Pollock.

This writer has sought to recall whether any of these personalities have made waves in the contemporary times they straddled in the same way a Gabriel Garcia Marquez has or an Orhan Pamuk does. The answer unfortunately is in the negative.

In art the situation is even worse. Andy Warhol in many ways had made the toilet seat a strong motif of his art. But can even a contextualised toilet seat compare with the draw of Cubism? On the other hand, this same friend seeks to throw such sentences like the centre for the arts have shifted to New York from Paris, France for the ‘money’ has moved there. One can hardly argue with such logic.

Another measure of ‘modern’ times is the spread of education. For an educated mind is usually a modern mind. Some statistics reveal a picture that contemporary Indians cannot revel in. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the autumn of 2005 – a beginning of an American education year – 72 million children were enrolled in the US school system and merely two million graduated from high school.

Earlier this writer had also asked his friend to name three philosophical ideas that emanated from the USA that shook the world. He could effectively name only one, feminism. The other, post-modernism, is clearly in the disputed territory as substantial body of evidence exists about its European parentage even though its principles of believing the ‘here and now’ is applicable to the notion of believing in the USA as is being currently propagated in this country.

Post-modernism typically is an example of intellectual ferment a civilised society undergoes when it seeks to deal with its contradictions. European left had dreamt up this philosophy essentially after the failure of global communism to deal with the monstrosity of the Soviet Union. The USA can hardly partake in any such delights. But they certainly lay claim to the idea of ‘liberal democracy’ – variants of which they seek to export based on the might of their military power.

Yet, the world had been historically progressing towards such a political goal ever since the Magna Carta was accepted by the British landed aristocracy. Then came the French Revolution with its declarations and finally, the American Bill of Rights. Yet, the Americans allowed the Blacks and women to vote in their elections only at the beginning of the 20th century – more than 150 years after their independence.

But still the Indians love their USA. It is the land of ‘milk and honey’ of their folklores. They wish to dream the American Dream.

Pinaki Bhattacharya is a Special Correspondent with Mathrubhumi (Kerala). He writes on Strategic Security issues. He can be contacted at pinaki63@dataone.in