Dawn (Pakistan) 23 June 2003

India Gate and the road to Iraq By Jawed Naqvi

Hindu revivalists described the Babri Masjid as a symbol of slavery foisted by the Mughals. That was one of the reasons they cited for its demolition. That is how its rubble became a symbol of their so-called national awakening, a phrase used by Prime Minister Vajpayee, no less. Similarly, many people see the Taj Mahal not as a symbol of love as commonly perceived but as a monument to slave labour, not too different in this respect from the great Pyramids of Egypt.

The popular Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianavi used his poetic licence to scoff at the Taj Mahal, which he likened to a wayward ruler’s method of belittling the poor man’s less ornate gesture to his ladylove. Sahir, in a beautifully argued poem, even urged his beloved never to meet him in the precincts of the fabled monument. Going by these arguments Delhi’s India Gate, as no other monument in British India, should attract our patriotic bulldozers. It is after all the ultimate symbol of our slavery, even if Mrs Indira Gandhi had sought to convert it into a symbol of valour, a monument to the fallen soldiers after the 1971 war.

India Gate is a majestic structure, 42 metres high, set at the end of today’s Rajpath, perhaps the most beautiful area of New Delhi, with plush green lawns in the backdrop. This is where the Republic Day military parade is held annually on January 26. It is a popular picnic spot in winter and equally popular as a relaxation area during summer evenings.

Designed and built by Edward Lutyens, it was originally called the All India War Memorial in memory of the 90,000 Indian soldiers who died in the campaigns of World War I, the north west frontier operations of the period, including the 1919 Afghan fiasco. On the walls of the structure are inscribed the names of all the Indian soldiers in the British army who perished. An eternal flame, called Amar Jawan Jyoti, that runs on gas was lit in 1971 to honour the more recent memories of the Bangladesh campaign. During the night, it is intensely floodlit and the fountains nearby are lit up with coloured lights. Close by is the canopy which once became controversial and under whose red sandstone roof was the marble statue of King George V which has been shifted from there. The canopy was also designed and built by Lutyens.

King George’s statue was removed by someone in authority decades ago because it reminded them of our colonial past. Now if one were an Indian of a nationalist zealot hue, one should be saying demolish the whole wretched structure, for the entire monument after all celebrates the hapless veritable slaves who fought someone else’s war. Fortunately, there are no takers for such a rush of silly patriotism. And yet we Indians are a maudlin lot when it comes to our faith in the nation, sovereignty, patriotism, etc. We also suffer from selective amnesia in defining the contours of our national fervour.

Would it be an act of patriotism or betrayal of national interests to send troops to Iraq? Foreign Minister Yahswant Sinha says the best national interest would govern a decision. The opposition is suspicious, fearing that the government has already taken a decision to send troops under American pressure. Even that ultimate repository of nationalism, the rightwing Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, which initially stoutly opposed Indian troops for Iraq, has published arguments in its latest news journal about the likely benefits of such a move. The Congress as usual sits on the fence, leaving poor Mani Shankar Aiyer to publicly oppose the dispatch of troops, but only in his personal capacity and not as a Congressman.

Indian troops or Pakistani troops, they would not be going to Iraq with flowers. They would be carrying their killing machines with them. And once you are involved in a war zone, be it on a peacekeeping mission or as a quaintly described stabilizing force, there is no guarantee that things will not go wrong, for the Iraqis and for the foreign soldiers. As indeed did happen in the Black September episode in Jordan in 1970 when Pakistan’s Zia ul Haq got his troops involved in a bloodbath of Palestinians. One India Gate is enough of a bad memory from colonial days for both India and Pakistan. It is prudent to avoid the prospect of another one looming nigh.

Dawn (Pakistan) 23 June 2003