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Book Review
West Asian fault lines
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Essays on the geopolitical imperatives and societal impulses that induced conflicts in West Asia
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Chinmaya R. Gharekhan
TRAVELLING THROUGH CONFLICT — Essays on the Politics of West Asia: Hamid Ansari; Pearson-Longman, 482 FIE, Patparganj, Delhi-110092. Rs. 695.
West Asia suffers, in the words of Hamid Ansari, from “the curse of centrality.” The geopolitical importance of the region was recognised over 100 years ago by an American Admiral advising the British Navy on how it should organise itself if it wished to retain its mastery over the seas. Admiral Mahan called the region “Middle East”, a name which the peoples of the region have adopted and continue to use, even though it has colonial connotation and is geographically inaccurate. The region acquired strategic centrality with the large-scale commercial exploitation of Iranian oil in 1908 and when the British Navy decided to change from coal-burning to oil-burning warships during the First World War. Ever since, West Asia’s stability has become dependent on the policies and actions of extra-regional powers.
Key to stability
Israel’s birth in May 1948 nearly coincided with the onset of the Cold War; it was, therefore, inevitable that West Asia should have become an important battlefield during the Cold War era. No one would question Ansari’s thesis that the key to stability in the region lies in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The author is quite clear as to where the responsibility for the continuing stalemate lies. One of the chapters “Palestine – Room for Diplomacy?” contains a lucid and comprehensive narrative of the efforts to solve the conflict through diplomatic means. Texts of some of the most relevant documents have also been thoughtfully provided in the appendices.
The various flashpoints — Israel-Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq — have become interlinked in recent years as never before, and the common factor in all of them is Iran. Unless intensive efforts are launched soon to revive the defunct peace process in a meaningful way, the region would be in for a long, hot summer with serious consequences for peace and stability going beyond the region.
Islam and democracy
Two chapters on security in the Persian Gulf and two chapters on the quagmire in Iraq are extremely valuable and have serious and well-researched brief histories of the tension-ridden conflicts in the broad region of Persian Gulf. There is also a useful chapter on reforms in Saudi Arabia.
For this reviewer, the most fascinating section of the book is Part I on the broad theme of Islam and Muslims. Quoting extensively from the writings of scholars, Ansari comes to an unambiguous conclusion that there is no basic contradiction between Islam and the democratic principle. He brings out the common fallacy to treat Muslim and Arab as synonymous terms and the erroneous conclusions that follow from the fallacy. Eighty-five per cent of the Muslims of the world are non-Arabs and over 70 per cent of Muslims live in Asian states. A wider geographical paradigm particularly in Asia brings out at least some cases of successes and partial successes of democratic governments. Nonetheless, Ansari readily admits that impediments remain on the pace and limits of democratisation in Islamic countries. He argues with a lot of conviction that civil society must play an increasingly more active role to bring about political reforms and introduction of international norms on basic individual human rights which have been summed up in the Alexandria Statement on Arab Reform Issues of March 2004.
Dealing with “militant Islam” (Chapter III), the author is of the view that the failure of the Arab states to deliver internally and to perform externally propelled the people away from Arab nationalism and towards fundamentalism. While the intellectual framework for the rise of militancy was provided by Hasan Al Banna and Qutb, it was the Arab defeat in the 1967 war which led the people, especially the youth, into the direction of militancy. The militants have drawn their inspiration from “allegorical” verses from the Koran as opposed to “basic” or “fundamental” verses. This is a major cause for misunderstanding in Islamic religious matters. The author believes that the growing awareness of the benefits of secularism, particularly among Muslims living in non-Muslim majority societies, should assist the development of civil society norms in Muslim majority societies. In the final analysis, says the author, “questions arising out of Islam’s encounter with modernity would need to be answered by the Muslims themselves.” However, the author’s view that Islamic militancy has received a major setback in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 events is somewhat questionable. This could be due to the fact that the article seems to have been written before the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq in 2003.
Ansari writes with a great deal of sensitivity about Indian Muslims in a brief chapter which is a reproduction of his review of Dr. Rafiq Zakaria’s book, Indian Muslims: Where Have They Gone Wrong. Ansari’s deep pride in India and his strong sense of nationalism come through loud and clear in this essay. Firmly refuting those who might consider minorities as a “bothersome nuisance”, he declares that modern India in fact regards minorities as “additional dimensions of a rich and diverse entity.” For Indian Muslims, the three problems in order of priority are: physical security, employment, and education. All three, he argues, are within the ambit of affirmative action, within the framework developed in the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA Government.
Secular outlook
At the same time, Ansari does not shy away from referring to the myopia of a large segment of the Muslim community about other problems demanding urgent attention such as education of girls, social reform and development of a genuinely secular outlook. This reviewer fully agrees with the author that the vision of India, as perceived by the founding fathers, will not be fully realised until minorities — Muslims, Christians and others — are effectively enabled and empowered to make their full contribution to the development and strengthening of our multicultural and multi-religious nation.
The publishers have done a good job, but a couple of errors need to be pointed out. “Nakba”, for the Palestinians, refers to the birth of Israel, and not to the defeat in the 1967 war (page 337). And the map, reproduced on page 428, is not the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan for Palestine, but the map depicting the actual situation on the ground following the 1967 War.
Travelling Through Conflict is an erudite, well-researched and referenced volume. Serious students of West Asia’s intractable issues will find in it enough material to satisfy their immediate curiosity as well as to whet their appetite for more extended research.
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