Fresh Air, one of the best talk shows on Public Radio had an interview with a British Diplomat Rory Stewart. At the  age of 30 he was appointed as the a provincial governor of some 850,000 people in Maysān in Iraq. Before this he had served as a British Infantry officer and had walked from Turkey to Bangladesh in 2002 through post-Taliban Afghanistan. He has written two books, The Places in Between based on his walk and The Prince of the Marshes based on his experience in Iraq.

According to him, the current problems are not due to bad planning as there was no way all this could have been anticipated. Even with all the planning, Iraq would have been a mess since it is difficult to govern a place if people do not want you there. The lesson he learned was that you have to think a lot before invading a place. He still sees a bright future for Iraq, if the westerners stop micro managing.

He had an anecdote about his time in Iraq. The province of Dhī Qār was under Italian control and had more peace  than the other provinces. Though not for the best of reasons, the Italians never left their bases and did almost nothing. The Italians did not confront the armed militia or influence the political process. Due to this, the local politicians were forced to find their own compromises resulting in stability. The idea is that the compromises reached between Iraqis among themselves is better than the ones enforced by the external forces.

A very interesting person and an excellent interview.

How could a small state, Athens, with no great military might in the 6th century BCE transform itself into a powerful nation which could defeat even the mighty Persian empire? How could Athens, which was not as powerful as Argos, Corinthia or Sparta, survive and hold out invasions? Why did democracy first set its roots here?

The PBS Documentary, The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization starts with the history of Athens beginning with the rule of Peisistratos (607 – 528 BCE) under whom this small town prospered. While great civilizations like Egypt and Persia prospered around rivers, Athens was a mountainous region. Peisistratos encouraged farming and provided loans and soon Athens was exporting the hot commodity of the times – olive oil to nations around the Mediterranian to Egypt, Persia, and Phoenicia. The booming trade made Athens wealthy and prosperous.

After the death of Peisistratos, his son Hippias took over. He ruled fairly initially, but after his brother’s death, he turned to be a tyrant. Self-Preservation was his only motive and since his only threat was from aristocrats, he turned against them. The aristocrats under the leadership of a nobleman called Cleisthenes captured Hippias and banished him from Athens in 510 BCE. As Cleisthenes became famous, he faced a rebellion under Isagoras. Isagoras with the help of  Spartans, the enemies of Athens,  assumed power and banished Cleisthenes.

The people of Athens then took destiny into their own hands. Isagoras and his partners locked themselves in the Acropolis, but they were forced to surrender  and he was forced into exile in 508 BCE. Cleisthenes was recalled from exile and asked to form a Government. He came up with the idea of people, both rich and poor, discussing the issues facing them and casting votes to make a decision. This was quite revolutionary at that time. On issues like raising of taxes, building of roads and going to war, votes were cast, with a white stone for yes and a black one for no and the seeds of democracy were sown.
Continue reading “Review: The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization (Documentary)” →

The Last Cato : A Novel by Matilde Asensi , Rayo (April 4, 2006), 464 pages

Like the beginning of The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and The Secret Supper, this religious mystery also starts with a death. This time the dead person is an Ethiopian who was implicated in a serious crime against the Catholic Church. When this person’s body was discovered, it had seven Greek characters distributed on the body. There was a large chrismon , the first two Greek letters of Christ’s name XP, chi and rho on his body and next to the body there was a silver ornate box containing some strange pieces of wood.

Puzzled, the Vatican requests the services of Dr. Ottavia Salina, a nun and paleographer working in the archives, a captain of the Pope’s Swiss Guard, Kaspar Glauser-Roïst, and an Egyptian archaeologist, Farag Boswell to investigate the death. The Pope too was highly interested in this investigation since the wooden pieces were not ordinary pieces, but pieces from the original cross on which Christ died.

According to history, Saint Helen (248 – 329 CE) went looking for the Holy Sepulchre (burial chamber) and discovered the True Cross of Christ in 326 CE during a trip to Jerusalem. Two hundred years before this, Emperor Adriano had built a temple dedicated to Venus over the location, which was demolished by Helen. During the excavation, they found the original cross and over centuries fragments of it were distributed all over the world. Now in the past twenty four hours, pieces of this Ligna Crucis had disappeared from various churches around the world and the assignment given to Dr. Salina, Captain Glauser-Roïst and Professor Boswell was to find who was behind  this.

The symbols on the dead man’s body lead them to The Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai, which has the most valuable ancient codices in the world, second to Vatican. The location of the monastery is  considered to be the place where Yaweh in the form of the burning bush gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. From a document which they stole from the monastery they find that a secret brotherhood called  Staurofilakes was formed in 341 CE to guard the Cross and the leader of the group was called Cato.

Decoding the codices they also learn that over the years the Staurofilakes had set initiation tests for anyone wishing to join them. The tests were to be conducted in seven cities, Rome, Ravenna, Jerusalem, Athens, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. The only problem was that they needed to find the details of the tests and they find it in hidden in Dante’s Divine Comedy and thankfully, not in any of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings.

According to Captain Glauser-Roïst, Dante was a member of Fidei d’Amore, a secret society interested in the spiritual renewal of Christianity. He also knew the Staurofilakes and belonged to the order, but he later betrayed them by revealing their secrets in The Divine Comedy, like how Mozart revealed the Mason’s initiation rituals in The Magic Flute.  Armed with this knowledge, the three of them set off to take the tests for which they have to find the location of the test, details of the test and how to get over it all by reading The Divine Comedy.

These tests turn out to be brutal, physically intensive and mentally challenging and the seven tests occupy the major portion of the book. For one of the tests in Constantinople, they visit The Mosque of the Conquerer, spot the chrismon in the drain of the water fountain, turn on all the fountains and drop down a tunnel into a pool deep below. They spot Emperor Constantine’s tomb there and while walking through the tunnels are swept by gales of wind, generated by something. They almost lose their way, and face death, but thanks to a line in Divine Comedy, they find the right path and move to the next test, till they find if the Staurofilakes exist and if they are behind the murder of the Ethiopian and the stealing of the cross.

Unlike The Da Vinci Code, this book does not have a cliff hanger at the end of every third page. It moves a bit slower, but not so slow as to bore you. The story told in the first person by Dr. Salina, takes time to establish the personality of each of the characters, mainly the Professor and the Captain. We get to know a great deal about her, her family and her faith.  While the mysteries are being solved, the secret codes in Divine Comedy are broken and ancient cities around the world are visited, personal transformations too happen. The nun falls for the Professor and is caught between the faith and love and has to decide. Similarly, the Captain who starts out as a serious task master undergoes a major transformation at the end, which was pleasant. In usual page turners, you barely get to know the characters, but this book is quite different.

Even though the build up was great and the travel and history very informative, the ending was a bit of a let down for me. Normally in such thrillers you expect a Hollywood like climax where the villain is holding everyone hostage and one man has to save the world. The ending of this book is quite the opposite. Even though the book starts with a death, that person is just discarded after a few pages and the story moves completely into the puzzles in Divine Comedy.

The Divine Comedy is analyzed in great depth and each Canto is memorized by the characters before the start of each test. If you are not interested in poetry like me, then you will find those sections tedious to read. Still the author has made sure that only the relevant lines are quoted and not the entire book. This book which was originally written in Spanish, was published much before the more popular The Da Vinci Code and is worth a read.

The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra, Atria (March 21, 2006), 336 pages

The novel starts with the death of Beatrice d’Este, the wife of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan during childbirth. Three days before this event, a man calling himself the Soothsayer had sent a letter to Rome predicting this. The year is 1497  and and Leonardo da Vinci has been commissioned by the Ludovico Sforza, to paint The Last Supper in the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The Soothsayer’s weekly letters also suggest that there is a hidden message in the painting and it should be stopped.

Agostino Leyre, a father in the Secretariat of Keys of the Papal States, a secret congregation,  is sent to Milan to investigate the matter. The father was chosen since he was an expert in codes and had analyzed previous messages of the Soothsayer. His only clue in finding the Soothsayer is a riddle in one of the letters. The Father chooses to stay in Santa Maria delle Grazie and starts working on the puzzle with the help of Father Alessandro, the convent’s librarian.

While there are some initial attempts at solving the puzzle, it is pushed to the background as the Father learns more about various heretic in Milan and what they want to accomplish. About sixty years back, during the time of Pope Eugene VI, the Patriarch of Florence and held a council which could have succeeded in altering the course of Christendom. The Patriarch, Cosimo de’ Medici had purchased the books of Aristotle and Plato and learned about the immortality of the soul and how heavenly bodies were responsible for everything. This knowledge was not palatable to the Church and hence the current Duke of Milan wanted to hide this information publicly using art,  with the help of Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci, the major character in this book appears in every other chapter, dressed in white, looking like a giant, setting puzzles for the monks to solve while working with his disciples on bigger secrets in the convent. The community of monks in the convent know that Leonardo is working on concealing a mystery in The Last Supper, but they are unable to find out the sepcifics. Leonardo already had a reputation for painting things not found in the Gospels and monks faithful to the Pope were always trying to find some clue to hold against him. There had been accusations that he found inspiration from Apocalipsis Nova, a book written by his friend, Amadeo of Portugal, in which it is suggested that the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist were the true protagonists of the New Testament, and not Christ.
Continue reading “Book Review: The Secret Supper” →

In his book, Shivaji : Hindu King in Islamic India, James W. Laine presented a non-flattering view of Shivaji.

Shivaji remains a “mountain rat”, a guerrilla of the hills and a narrow-minded fanatic Hindu rebel who, animated by vaulting ambitions and animus, had indulged recklessly in plunder for the gratification of his vanity.[An image that might be disturbing]

This book sparked so much controversy that the publisher withdrew the book from the Indian market. Historian Shrikant Bahulkar, who was thanked by Laine had his face blackened by Shiv Sena folks. Then a group called Sambhaji Brigade attacked Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
When it comes to controversial books, banning and burning are two activities we do with enthusiasam. Soon after the Satanic Verses was published, India was one of the first countries to ban the book. Similarly exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen’s book Lajja was banned by the West Bengal Govt.
The new controversy is not over a book, but on a movie based on a controversial book – Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Several Catholic groups in India have threatened to shutdown cinema halls showing the movie and All-India Sunni Jamiyat-ul-Ulema has come out in support of the protestors.

“If the government doesn’t do anything, we will try our own ways of stopping the film from being shown,” said Syed Noori, president of Mumbai-based Raza Academy, a Muslim cultural organization that often organizes protests on issues concerning Islam. “We are prepared for violent protests in India if needed.”
Several Indian Christian groups have said they would protest against the film, with one little known Catholic organization even calling on Christians to begin a fast until death.
Last week, small groups of protesters marched in Mumbai and burned a copy of the book. [“Da Vinci” unites Indian Muslims and Christians]

I wonder if Amartya Sen still believes in the Argumentative Indian?

Related Links: Shame on the Catholic Church in India , Banning Da Vinci?, More Catholic Than The Pope, Fragments

Sandeep on the New York Times article about Deepa Mehta’s Water.

THIS is the problem with coconuts–to borrow Richard Crasta’s delightful term for pseudo-westernized Indians like Mehta–who stoop to any antics to impress the White skin by painting their own culture black. Add to this a dash of their message of social reform and liberation and you have a hideous caricature that defies description. On the contrary, this actually aptly describes the likes of Deepa Mehta. Deepa Mehta is no social reformer or maker of meaningful cinema but a crass opportunist who is out to earn fast money by misrepresenting a culture she is ashamed to belong to. Unable to counter genuine criticism by people like Gurumurthy, she takes refuge in pompous statements [Hindu-Baiting New York Times]

Recently there was an interview on KQED with Amartya Sen on his new book Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. In the book Sen makes the argument that we tend to compartmentalize people with singular identities like American, or Iraqi or Muslim whereas a person could have multiple identities. “The same person can be, without any contradiction, an American citizen, of Caribbean origin, with African ancestry, a Christian, a liberal, a woman, a vegetarian, a long-distance runner, a historian, a schoolteacher, a novelist, a feminist, a heterosexual, a believer in gay and lesbian rights, a theater lover, an environmental activist, a tennis fan, a jazz musician,” etc.
He says that during communal riots, people focus on the single identity of opponents and hence are willing to murder strangers. For example, if you look at the the incident in Marad, Kerala or Kashmir, people were murdered because they were Hindus.
Not many people have taken kindly to this argument. For his argument Sen has tried to present a compassionate view of Islam which has not gone well with public. In an effort to present tolerance of Islam he wrote about Akbar and the example of Muslim rule in Cordoba and the Iberian Peninsula. He has even twisted one story to suit his purposes, the one about Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who according to Sen found refuge in a tolerant Arab world. Not so true says Fouad Ajami, writing in the Washington Post.

Here, for Sen’s benefit, is a passage from Maimonides’ seminal “Epistle to Yemen”: “Our hearts are weakened, our minds are confused, and our strength wanes because of the dire misfortunes that have come upon us in the form of religious persecution in the two ends of the world, the East and the West.” Maimonides’ geography was Islamic: The East in the “Epistle” was Yemen, then a battleground between Sunni and Shiite Islam, a place where Jews were being subjected to forced conversions to Islam; the Western lands were the burning grounds of Andalusia. The Almohads’ pitiless warriors were in every way the Taliban of their age, the ancestors of today’s religious radicals in the world of Islam. They put to the sword the fabled world of Andalusian tolerance, and young Maimonides witnessed the shattering collapse of that culture. [Free to be you and me in Amartya Sen’s world]

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan cites Sen’s background

To understand Mr. Sen’s desire to get away from religion-based political taxonomy, one must be aware of where, as they say, he is coming from. The Nobel laureate–who has taken to describing himself as a “feminist economist”–is a full-fledged member of the Indian “progressive” left. If there is one concern that drives this group, that animates its politics like no other, it is the perfectly well-meaning desire to safeguard India’s Muslim minority from the excesses of the country’s Hindu right. This desire has led to such contortions as the left’s defense of a separate personal law for India’s Muslims (which leaves Muslim women at the mercy of inequitable rules on divorce and inheritance) merely because the Hindu right campaigns for a uniform civil code for all Indian citizens, irrespective of religion.

See Also: What Argumentative Indian?, Nobel Prize-Winning Marxist puts Foot in Mouth

What makes Indians laugh? According to Albert Brooks, it is the other guy. In an interview on Fresh Air, he talks about how he traveled to India and got a crew of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs to film – Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. The Hindus would tell him Sikh jokes and Sikhs would tell Muslim jokes.
He then talks about his experience in filming in India, where he had to get permission from various authorities in at various levels to film. Then there was no crowd control and once he had to pay a bunch of Indian Army reservists to hold people back so that they would look into the lens. Indians love Americans which was like a surprise for him. He reasons it out by saying that all Indian anger is perpetually directed at the British and so Americans are considered friends.
The only question I have is, if he was looking for comedy in the Muslim world, why did he go to India?
Listen to the interview here.