India and Israel Against Islamic Terror

319
Central Asia, the Balkans and the Subcontinent juxtaposed

Muslims against the local populations to be conquered and

converted. The doctrine of Koran is based on the assumption

that there are two worlds - Dar-ul-lslam, which belongs to the

believers and Dar-ul-Harb, which belongs to the non-believers

or the Kafirs. It is the duty of the faithful to expand the

boundaries of Dar-ul-lslam to absorb Dar-ul-harb within its

confines by all means including violence. This is the fundamental

basis of conflict between Islamic and other civilizations.
/V The third potent factor is the ”indigestibHity”’ of Muslims in

any other society. This process work both ways i.e. Muslim

minority against any non-Muslim society turns aggressive to

maintain its identity, while the Muslim majority tends to eliminate,

suppress or convert any minority in their midst. The latest example

was a decree by the Taliban government of Afghanistan that all

Hindus and Sikhs in that country must wear yellow clothes and

put yellow signs on their houses. Who says that we have not left

befiTncT the era of anti-Semitism in Europe and the days of the

ghetto when the jews were forced to wear a distinctive badge of

dishonour. The consequence of this ’indigestibility’ is that

Orthodox Christians, western Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and

Confucians find it easier to adapt to each other than to Islam.

Coming to the other three subaltern causes, the first one is a

historical feeling of subjection and oppression of Muslim societies

by the Western colonial powers in the nineteenth and twentieth

centuries. Akbar Ahmed, a Muslim writer, feels that the West

looks upon the Muslims as ”Red Indians, depressed groups,

shorn of dignity, trapped on reservations converted from their

ancestral lands”.
A persuasive factor, which can explain both intra and extra

Islamic conflicts is the result of the absence of one or more core

states in Islam. The Muslims feel that there is a lack of such a

central coordinating force, conspiratorial in nature, directed

against the West. This may not be true. Islam is a source of

instability because there is no dominant centre and so many

states aspiring to become leaders of Islam. Countries such as

Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and possibly Indonesia have
320 INDIA AND ISRAEL r CHAPTER 19 CIVILIZATIONAL FAULT LINES 321
t-HAPTFB in ^
PTER19
can
once
been competing for this position. Thus, there is no central author’t

in Islam, which can deal with conflicts within and outside Musi’

groupings.
Lastly, the population explosion in Muslim societies and the

presence of a large number of unemployed males between the

age of fifteen and thirty is a major source of instability and

violence within and outside Islam. This single factor alone can

explain the Muslim violence in 1980s and 1990s.
As a final footnote on the above, it could be submitted that

Prof. Huntington’s analysis is an empirical one. Einstein once

remarked that ”no theory should contradict empirical facts.”

That is all very well as far as deductive logic goes. But if one

postulates through valid reason and an inductive process of

logic, the following assumptions and conclusions are inescapable.
The simple and earthy teachings of the Prophet based on a

profound thought of divinity and human virtues, through a

process of cultural arthritis, have resulted in their fossilization

into a rigid time warp. The stranglehold of the clergy over the

believers, championing to be the sole interpreters of the teachings

of the Prophet, left little room for debate or a move towards

modernization of these thoughts through a rational development.

Even the understanding of Islam through Hadis has often been

flawed by a subjective approach and vested interest of the selfappointed

mullahs and the Ummah, who laid the law for the

mass of the unquestioning faithful.
This insistence on uniformity, rigidity of procedure and cruelty

of its expansion by violent means, its intolerance of dissent, lack

of rationalism and stifling free thought provided the seeds of

inherent instability, schism and the ultimate burn- out. Thus the

only three civilizations that will defy time and hostile surroundings

will be Hinduism, Judaism and Confucianism. They shall write

the next script of history and decide the fault lines of civilizations.

The lasting value system of Hinduism and Judaism has much in

common. That is the theme of modern thinkers on the longevity

of these civilizations. Confucianism too shall endure not merely

on the merits of its antiquity, soundness of thought and depth
Of its culture but also due to its military might that pervades

China. Israel and India have a sounder and more lasting edifice

of thought, a basic pre-requisite of their endurance. Down the

course of history an increase in their economic and military

might will give rise to a potent mix of thought and might that will

be irresistible and difficult to counter. That shall be the shape of

the coming millennia.
The life-blood of any civilization is a common sharing of

value systems, it’s ancient heritage and pride in the past.

Civilizational contours overarch narrow political divides drawn

by conquering nations afterwards and during enforced treaties

to suit their political interest. These being merely state boundaries,

artificially delineated against ethnic, rational and cultural

continuities and civilizational inspirations, create so-called nations

that are surreal and brittle. The erstwhile Republics of Soviet

Union or the states created in the Middle East after the First

World War under the Sykes Picot agreement, dividing the

landmass under British and French areas of influence are some

recent examples.
Israel, the home to the Judaic civilization, is the arrowhead

of the western civilizational phalanx pointing at the heart of

Islamic Middle East. The U.S. and Russia can co-exist, but America

centric west is incompatible with the Confucian- Islamic axis.

Thus, west needs India to play a key role in containing the

Chinese hegemonistic impulse assisted by Islamic fundamentalism

as articulated by Gaddafi. Thus the civilizational factor reinforced

by considerations of balance of power induce India and Israel

to form a natural alliance to act as a non-Islamic outpost. They

need to be actively assisted by America centric west. India and

lsrael_need America as much as America needs them both.
While America is threatened only indirectly by a hostile

Islam, Israel is threatened directly and lives from day to day,

fighting for its survival against a hostile Islamic terrorism. There

are regular clashes between Israel and Palestine provoked mainly

by the latter. But Israel is no walk-over. For every act of violence

by the Palestinians there is a swift and strong retribution from

Israel. The very low population of Israel makes it imperative that
322 INDIA AMD ISRAEL
CHAPTER 19
no Jewish life is lost without a heavy price. How different is the

case in India where human lives have no premium and we

continue suffering casualties without initiating offensive or proactive

war measures against cross-border terrorism sponsored by

Pakistan. Extension after extension of ceasefire would undoubtedly

lead to a total demoralization of Indian troops fighting desperately

to contain and eliminate militancy in the troubled state of Jammu

& Kashmir. India’s threshold of patience is unlimited.
Coming back to Islamic Middle East, the U.S. has no choice

but to reinforce India and Israel to contain the Confucian- Islamic

heartland on its periphery. The enormous nuclear and military

might of this power block can lead to a Muslim revival, and

jingoism, which will translate itself into International Islamic

terrorism. This has to be contained and defeated. Gun-Zionism

of the Jews was the answer to centuries of humiliation, indignities

and oppressions. And now in their new state, this forms the

core of Israeli identity and value system, without prejudice to

their spiritual and moral impulses. India should do the same

instead of continuing in its excessive tolerance of injustice and

violence. All the four Vedas, eighteen Puranas and two hundred

fifty Upanishads, all Samhitas and Stnrities that form the bedrock

of the Hindu culture do not teach weakness as a virtue. Lord

Krishna said in Gita that to submit to injustice is worse than

perpetrating it. Even Lord Ram, when the cussed Varun, the god

of seas, refused to give a pathway to his army to enter into

Lanka, had this to say:
”Vinaya na manat jaladhi Jad, Gave Teen Din Beet,

Bole Ram sakop tab Bhay Bin Hot na Preet.”
(After three days of futile prayer to the adamant Lord of the

seas, Ram angrily spoke thus” There is no love without fear.”)
India should now strive to convince its enemies not through

pusillanimity but by a show of its muscle power that violence

against it will be a high cost game. Those who are gratuitous

enough to counsel restraint must remember that force is the

only language understood by those who refuse to see reason or

heed repeated warnings. The lion gives but one final roar before

it leaps to kill.
CHAPTER 19 CIVILIZATIONS. FAULT LINES 323
The United States of America props up Pakistan, a failed

state and an exporter of terrorism to India, as its frontline state,

in its war against terrorism. In the process it has no compunction

in roughriding Indian feelings and interests and treading heavily

on India’s feet. But this short-term policy may prove counterproductive

and detrimental to its long term interests in regard to

the clash of civilizations. India and Israel can and will never fight

America and its way of life. The same is not true of Pakistan.

Pakistan is nothing if not fundamentalist Islam. To India this

marriage of convenience between a democracy and a dictatorship

may be an amusing transience and even a short spell of rough

weather. But ultimately America has no choice but to befriend

India, not only for its own long term strategic gains but also as

a civilization that can be trusted to keep their cherished values

alive-values of freedom and human development, spiritualism

and piety.
To a perceptive observer of the current national scene in

India, there is very little to be proud of. Except for the competence

and dedication of our scientists and the strength of our

technological advances in Information Technology, India is

otherwise a somnolent nation. We seem to have forgotten our

proud heritage and sunk into the morass of immorality, betrayal

of the country and all forms of social, political and economic

vices. There seems to be nothing correct going with our nation.

Abysmal poverty and hunger, unemployment, low literacy rate,

poor growth of national wealth, economic stagnation, political

instability, lack of national character, an all-pervasive corruption,

lack of civic sense, abject surrender to criminality and viles of

politicians, stand out as a sore thumb in our body politic. We

have no national leadership worth the name which has the

courage, character, integrity and conviction of its own. Chasing

illusive popularity, they sadly lack a vision of the future India.

The paradigm of our political discourse and conduct and the

state of affairs needs a total overhaul. With our ostrich like vision

we have made no marks on the geodetic panorama of history

in the making. Stumbling from crisis to crisis, events have

overtaken us. We do not make history but are prisoners of
324 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 19
history. A soft state like India, that is Bharat, is an open land to

all hostile forces, terrorists, ISI agents, saboteurs and illegal

immigrants from our Islamic neighbours from east and west.

Any ISI agent or saboteur who comes to blow, blast, destroy

and kill finds easy shelters in the spawning Muslim localities,

which form more than 15 percent of our population, not to talk

of twenty million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. According to

international convention during war, even a proxy war, which is

even worse than an open war, the only punishment for a spy

is death. But in our country every ISI agent caught is placed in

a jail with all possible comforts. Any number of lawyers who can

sell their souls for a petty monetary gain at the cost of their

country fight with alacrity the cases of such criminals. The endemic

delay in the courts prolongs the process and in almost all cases

the culprits go scot-free. We have yet to hear any ISI agent being

executed in our country. In a recent case hardcore militants

were set free in return for Indian hostages. It happened during

the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight 1C 814 in December

1999, and the subsequent drama at Kandhar airport, when our

Hon’ble Foreign Minister carried with him the most dreaded

militants including their leader Azahr Masood in return for Indian

hostages. It was a day of national shame. The release of these

dreaded militants has caused a formidable list of casualties of

the Hindus and others in the troubled valley in Kashmir

amounting to more than three times the number of Indian

hostages released. One wishes that our Hon’ble Foreign Minster

and Defence Minster had remembered how Israel set free its

hostages during the Entebbe operation from a far off location in

Uganda flying by night across continents, taking the hijackers by

surprise and killing them all.
Our leadership has a chronic weakness for squandering away

military gains at the negotiating table; Nehru in 1948 in Kashmir,

Lai Bahadur Shastri in 1965 at Tashkand. Our jawans had shed

their precious blood to win these crucial territories. The prisoners

in Kargil war were allowed to return with honour to their

homeland after inflicting severe casualties on our troops and

sending back mutilated bodies of our five prisoners of war. The
r