Book Review: Early Indians

Early Indians
  -- Tony Joseph

I am always interested in knowing "How are we here?", rather than "Why are we here?". As today's science can't answer the second question, I am not even interested in reading stuff that tries hard to explain it. Early Indians falls in the category of books that help in answering the first question - How did we get here, where did we come from? 

The attempt to explain The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From takes help from largely three different scientific disciplines - Archeology, Genetics, and Linguistics, which in turn use various other disciplines to analyse data and draw some conclusions. Archeological excavations expose various artefacts that include human and animal skeletons, tools used by them, and sometimes whole cities.  Carbon dating of these artefacts gives an idea about their age.  Genetics helps in understanding the lineage of various populations. Y-chromosome and mtDNA play major role in discovering lineages. Y-chromosome(passed by father and only father) helps in finding paternal lineage, while mtDNA(passed by mother and only mother) helps with maternal lineage. Using these two, connections can be established, practically among entire world population. Linguistics helps with missing part of the puzzle - various languages and connections among them. 

The author takes help from these three disciplines, and explains the population history of current India. He highlights four important phases in Indian history. The first humans, that arrived around 70,000 years ago from Africa. They can be called the First Migrants in India (Onge of Andaman Islands may be the direct descendants of these first Indians). It took another 60,000 years for them to start farming. Around the same time, farming started in a few other places in the world, with Zagros (today's Iran) being a prominent one. Second prominent migration into India is of Agriculturalists from Zagros, who together with the first migrants became the First Farmers. This is around 9000 BCE. 

It took another 7000 years(~2000 BCE) for this farming population to create the great Harappan Civilisation (Indus Valley Civilisation) - the third phase, which is in today's Pakistan, the most advanced civilisation of its time, contemporary to another advanced civilisation in Mesopotamia. Though the script used by Harappans is not deciphered yet, based on the analysis of derivatives of their language, historians call it Proto-Dravidian, an ancestor of Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam - spoken by around 20% of Indians today). Harappan civilisation went extinct in a few hundred years. Some of them moved south in India, mixed with the first Indians to give rise to ASI - Ancient South Indians. Around the same time(~ 1000 BCE), another event happened - probably the most controversial (due to today's politics in India), The Last Migration into India - by The Aryans, the Steppe Pastoralists from Eurasia. Aryans mixed with Harappans to give rise to ANI - Ancient North Indians. That's the last mix of genome. Today's Indian population can clearly be identified as successors of ANI & ASI.

Vedic civilisation is created after the last migration, which is post-Harappan. A few prominent things that are part of Vedic culture (Rigveda, the first veda to start with) - like Horse and elaborate sacrificial rituals are conspicuous by their absence in Harappan Civilisation. A few rivers that are discussed in Rigveda (like river Sarasvati) also gave some pointers to ascertain the time of its composition. Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages (Spoken by around 70% of Indians today) are also born after the last migration or along with it. Around the same time Steppe Pastoralists moved west as well. That also explains the spread of Indo-European languages. 

Though Greeks, Huns, Parsis, Arabs, Mughals, Dutch, Portuguese, French and finally British entered India, post Aryans, the genome mix didn't happen. There is also a brief discussion in the book about the potential origin of caste system, that probably kept endogamy going.

Though it sounds like an over simplification of 70,000 years of history, it definitely gives a good perspective, and a death blow to narrow-minded and prejudiced views, that large part of today's India is suffering from. I never understood the point of Identity, and the pride around it. The insight, that one can get from this kind of books, would only make one more averse to concepts like Identity. And, it's for better!

And, one line takeaway would be - We are all migrants here! :-) 

Khardung La Challenge - An Ultra-Marathon at the top of the World

The journey started, a few months back. Training for Comrades Marathon - 2016 gave me an addictive taste of a few months of focus. Since then, I have been trying to do an Ultra-Marathon a year. Ladakh Marathon, a challenging Marathon at 3500 meters (11500 ft), though not an Ultra, stood out in my radar. But, KPJ suggested to try Khardung La Challenge, a 72 KM run that goes from 4000 to 5370 meters (17600 ft), which is organised along with Ladakh Marathon. It's one of the world's Highest Ultra-Marathons. He had done its 2018 edition. After contemplating for a couple of weeks, I signed up.

I had 4 months to train, a good enough time, given where I was. As usual, I opened a spreadsheet and filled all the weekends for the next 4 months, with runs to be done. Also threw a few events (Half-Marathons and Marathons) here and there. I shared the plan in my running group, for committing it and to get feedback. KK suggested a couple of changes. I gladly accepted. As one of my ex-bosses says, I am good at coming up with a schedule, and executing it with surgical precision. That's not too much of an exaggeration! :-) It was not a completely smooth ride, though!

The weekend long runs build endurance. But, without the support of Strengthening & Conditioning, it's impossible to sustain long runs, for months and years. That's where NAMMAxFIT gym helped me. I made it a point to show up at gym at 6:30 am, 3-4 days a week, for an hour of trainer-led, intense Cross-Fit session. While building strength, it also made me go through a couple of injuries. A knot in the left outer calf, and a pull in groin (left adductor). Neither of them effected my runs. They only restricted certain movements in gym. So, I just continued, while nursing them. Thanks to my trainers, I always had an alternative workout to do, if the scheduled one effects the areas of injury. Besides this, my regular deep tissue massage sessions at Shrunga Therapy (by Guru) immensely helped. They made sure that all the tightness in muscles is released, and am always ready for the next run or Cross-Fit session. With this, I was ready and injury-free by the big day.

Evening with Local Kids

Event organizers advised us to arrive in Leh 2 weeks before the event, and visit high altitude areas to get acclimatized to low Oxygen. This is one area, where I should have done better planning. With a bit of over-confidence, I reached Leh, just 5 days before the run. I was expecting a couple of friends from Bengaluru to ship their Bullets to Chandigarh, and ride from there to Leh and beyond. My plan was to join them for rides through high altitude areas, for 3 days. They did ride to Leh. But, a bit late. So, I couldn't join them. I rented an Avenger in Leh and rode it for a couple of days to near by, not so high-altitude, areas. I also did a couple of short runs - 6 KM and 10 KM, in those 5 days in Leh. That added some confidence by the big day.

Khardung is a hamlet on a plateau with some 100 houses, which is around 72 KM from Leh, on the other side of Khardung La. Run starts from there at 3 am and ends at 5 pm in Leh, via Khardung La. We were transported the day before the run to Khardung, and were given accommodation in the homes of villagers. On the way, we got a chance to stop at Khardung La, one of the highest passes and highest motor-able roads in the world at 5370 meters, for a few minutes. I could feel the difference in air in just a few minutes. While doing some heavy breathing, I grabbed a mandatory hot maggi from a small outlet at the top. I didn't pay much attention to the thin air, and the challenge it's going to throw, when we cross it, the following day. At the village, a get-together and entertainment had been arranged for runners. Local people performed folk dance. Local kids stole the show, with their pink cheeks and high energy. After the get-together, doctors did a quick check-up of runners to ensure that their Oxygen saturation and BP are good enough for the run. I recorded 90% Oxygen saturation. That seems to be a Go.

Exotic Toilet

After a good buffet dinner, early in the evening, we dispersed to our rooms. I had 3 more room-mates. Local guide showed us the room & toilet. The toilet was quite intimidating. It's a small room with a 4 feet high door on a raised platform. There was a hole on the floor, of around 1 square feet size. In one corner of the room, there was a heap of soil and a shovel. That's it. No light, no water. We are supposed to shoot into the hole and use shovel to throw some soil on the stuff shot. He also showed us a can of water, 100 meters away from the house, in case we need. We looked at each other and moved to our room. We were asked to get up at 1 am, and be there at breakfast by 2 am. We hardly had 4 hours to sleep. I managed to sleep for around 3 hours. I successfully used the exotic toilet at 1 am, wearing a head-light.

We lined up at 3 am, after a light breakfast. 142  runners showed up, out of 170 registrations. Temperature was around 3°C. From Khardung to Khardung La, it's a steady climb with a moderate inclination. The run has 4 cut-off points at 32 KM, 46 KM, 58 KM and 72 KM. The first and crucial cut-off is at Khardung La/32 KM/8 hours. Though 8 hours sounds like a pretty comfortable time for 32 KM, quick altitude gain, close to Khardung La, killed my average pace. I, along with Utsav - my room-mate in Khardung, started my usual Run/Walk at a leisurely pace. We held the course at a consistent pace, till North Pullu, 18 KM from the start. Utsav moved ahead at North Pullu, while I was struggling to tie my shoe laces. I removed my shoes to wear a compression pants given by a fellow runner, as I started the run in shorts, despite 3 °C. I struggled to tie them back, as my hands/fingers were almost frozen. After that brief struggle, I tagged along a couple of other runners from there. One of them had run this before. He advised me to take it very easy for the next 14 KM, even if I felt that I could do better, due to low Oxygen. We walked from there all the way up to the top. AMS - Mountain Sickness kicked in for me, around 5 KM before Khardung La. I felt dizzy and took around 15 to 20 minutes each to cover those 5 KM, and reached the top in 6 hour 50 minutes. That's still a comfortable time, given the 8 hour cut-off.

At 3 AM

As I was fighting AMS, I only spent a couple of minutes at Khardung La, though there was a support station with hot soup, sandwiches etc., From the top, it's 42 KM down-hill. With around 7 hours in hand and barely used legs, it's totally doable. But, AMS stayed on, though I was moving to lower and lower altitude. The descent towards Leh was more gradual than ascent. That's not good for AMS. It was a very interesting and also scary state. I could listen to my own thoughts, as if someone was talking me. When someone say something from the right-side of me, I hear it from the left-side, after a few minutes. Every few minutes, I get a feeling that I was about to faint. That sums up my AMS experience. I continued with it for around 7 hours. There were army ambulances and doctors stationed at a few places. If I inform them, they may ask me to sniff some Oxygen from a cylinder , and I would be disqualified from the race. I didn't consider that option. Instead, I shook my head hard, every time I felt dizzy and continued. That helped. I also figured out that, I could sustain short bursts of speed run, but not long and slow run. I just followed that for another 15 to 20 KM. I met Utsav again at 58 KM, with 14 KM to go. He was also a bit down with AMS and knee pain. It's his first Ultra and he had only done 2 Marathons before. I assured him that this was my 100th event, and I was not going to give up and no question of DNF. Told him to just follow me, and I would take him to the finish, with 30 minutes buffer. We continued short bursts of running followed by walk, for another 7-8 KM. At 7 KM to go, we both figured out that we may faint at any moment, if we continue even short bursts. I grabbed a lot of salt at a support station and gulped it with a glass of water. That brought back my senses. We decided to walk the last 7, as we had a lot of buffer time. With that, we finished at 13:36,  24 minutes before the 14 hour cut-off.

120 runners (out of 142) finished before the 14 hour cut-off. My rider friends were waiting at the finish line, with a bottle of coconut water. I gave them an ETA between 12 hour 30 minutes and 13 hours. Thanks to AMS, I added an hour to that. They were overjoyed to see me finish! AMS effect vanished, the moment I entered Leh. I didn't even eat/drink anything other than that bottle of coconut water, for the next 3 hours. Friday seems to be a dry-day in Leh (Not just a NO alcohol day. It's a NO Non-Veg day, as well). So, we had to celebrate with some Veg Pizzas, heavily loaded with cheese.

The event, training, mountains and AMS experience will stay fresh in my mind for sometime. The big learning from the event is, "Don't underestimate the altitude". My quick recovery tells that my training had been good. If I do this event again, the only thing that I would change is, acclimatization.

Elevation Map

A Tale of Two Books - Mahabharata & Fascism

The Difficulty of Being Good - by Gurucharan Das
Fascism: A Warning - by Madeline Albright

The first one, The Difficulty of Being Good - by Gurucharan Das, is about teachings related to duty and morality from a Sanskrit epic, Mahabharata, that's largely fiction (unless the reader belongs to the school of thought that considers Harry Potter as real, because Potter traveled by Hogwarts Express from London and London is real). The second one, Fascism: A Warning - by Madeline Albright, is about lessons that one can learn from Fascists that ruled several countries in the last few centuries. Though the two books seem to be totally unrelated, I found a striking connection between them, right from the way they were recommended to me.

As both the books have some key takeaways, and in turn are Educational, a bit of caution:

"Education is not memorising that Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Education is understanding how millions of ordinary Germans were convinced that it was required" - Anonymous 

Gurucharan Das, a former CEO of Procter & Gamble India, picks Mahabharata in it's original form in Sanskrit, and spends a significant amount of time reading and discussing it in his study-group. He presents his own interpretation of different characters, their idiosyncrasies, moral dilemmas, their rationale behind their controversial actions, using various events in the story, with a common thread being, how to resolve our dilemmas about what's right and what's wrong.

Madeline Albright, Secretary of State of the US in Bill Clinton's administration, writes about various dictators that the world had seen in the past few centuries, the conditions in which they are born and the situations that elevated them to power, their methods to get there, their actions before and after getting there, and their eventual collapse. The main thread of this book is a warning for all of us, about things that give rise to such Fascists, time and again.

The major connection between the two books is, they are about leaders who pursued their grand vision for the world, with a great sense of duty and morality of theirs and their subjects. They also talk about rights and wrongs in black & white. This applies to Bheeshma, Karna, Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Krishna and Duryodhana of Mahabharata and also to Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon, Erdogan, Putin and Trump. However, while the Mahabharata lot gets inspiration from divine virtues like Nishkama Karma - Selfless Action, Raja Dharma - Duty of a Ruler etc., the Real lot often starts with flaring up emotions of masses, citing some injustice done to their country/race/ethnic-group by another, and a promise to avenge it or correct it.

Per me, another major difference between the lots is, the people that look at them, when they themselves face such dilemmas, or when they try to understand actions of the leaders who face such dilemmas today. At least, among the people I interacted with, conservatives tend to look at the former lot and liberals at the latter.

When an aspiring leader tells blatant lies to fool masses, one set of people may refer to Mahabharata and think of great Yudhishthira and his lie about Ashwatthama, to disarm and kill Drona, for the larger good, that is to win the war against vile Duryodhana. Or, they may refer to Krishna's shenanigans in the field of Kurukshetra to bring down Jayadratha, Karna and Duryodhana, to vindicate the objectionable actions of today's leaders. Another set of people may find a similarity between this leader and Fascists like Hitler/Mussolini and get cautious. Which set is right? Probably, only time can tell. But, if history is anything to go by, rather than mythology, answer would be more obvious. Gurucharan Das embraces abstract philosophy and drives people towards the first set, while Madeline Albright talks using concrete data from the recent past, and urges people to join the second set. 

As always, theories get more interesting, when there is a practical application that's verifiable. Here too, the 2 books differ. The mythological one talks about only divine virtues, and the result of actions is also left to divinity and fate. That's as abstract as things can get. Where as, the real one talks about ground reality and consequences in this world itself. Unjust actions of a fascist leader towards a group may sound convincing to another group, considering some historical injustice done to ancestors of the latter group by ancestors of the former. They can draw a parallel between such actions and actions of Krishna, Bhima and Arjuna in Kurukshetra to get rid of their enemies. But, as per Madeline Albright, anything unjust is a recipe for future terrorism. This has happened umpteen number of times in the recent past, and will continue to happen.

(A) The Difficulty of Being Good was recommended to me, when I was sulking a bit, due to the way elections are being fought, of late. (B) Fascism too was recommended for the same reason. That leads to the next question: How different are people who find solace in (A) from people who find solace in (B). Is it same as the difference between pessimists and optimists, or realists and daydreamers, or rational and paranoid!

Book Review: The Verdict - Decoding India's Elections

The Verdict - Decoding India's Elections
-- Prannoy Roy & Dorab R. Sopariwala

The authors are pioneer pollsters in India, who have been in the business of conducting opinion polls for the last few decades. The Verdict is a bunch of theories and inferences that the authors have come up with, by analysing the data that they got from Election Commission of India and various private organisations that conducted opinion/exit polls in India, since Independence. 

They tried to delve into questions like, Is there any pro-incumbency or anti-incumbency in India, in general? Does women's vote matter? Are there any differences between National and State elections in terms of voter's choice? How did opinion/exit polls do in India, so far? Are elections truly representative in India? etc.,

The good thing about the analysis that they presented is, it's data driven. None of their theories are hypotheses. The not-so-good part is, the patterns that they identified significantly changed every 20-25 years, in the last 70 years. So, readers may be able to appreciate the patterns (as numbers strongly support them), but that may not help in forecasting or even understanding the current state, as those patterns are not very long-lived.

Some of the patterns like, a gradual change from pro-incumbency (first 20 years after Independence, being an infant democracy, supported leaders that were part of freedom struggle) to anti-incumbency (impatient electorate that didn't see any significant development) to perform-or-perish (mature electorate that rewards performers) are easy to appreciate, and the progression sounds like it would continue. But, there are others like effect of women voters, difference between urban/rural voters, that sound like just some correlation and may be, some pointers for politicians to work on.

There was a lot of discussion about methodologies to conduct opinion polls, how diversity and size of India make it difficult to come up with manageable and reliable sample size, compared to other democracies. Despite that, the authors' claim to have a great record in conducting opinion polls.

Another important aspect that's discussed is first-past-the-post system of Indian elections. As per that, a candidate need not get majority of votes (more than 50%). All one needs is, at least one vote higher than the candidate with second highest number of votes. Does it make it sill a representative democracy! Even if keep such larger questions aside, this opens up scope for transient, seed-funded candidates/parties with a clear mandate to divide voters of a particular candidate/party that's currently No-1, to help the candidate/party that's currently No-2. Such things have been tried successfully in the recent past. Pre-poll alliances of parties do just the opposite of that in multi-party democracies, which also have been tried out in the recent past, where No-2 and No-3 join to topple No-1.

The discussion around how vote share gets converted into seats, how religion/caste, region, minorities, distribution/concentration of vote share are working for/against the representative spirit of democracy, is interesting.

It's a quick and interesting read to get an idea about, not just opinion/exit polls, but about all the Parliament and Assembly elections held in Independent India in the last 7 decades.

Book Review: Between The Great Divide

Between The Great Divide - A Journey into Pakistan-Administered Kashmir
-- Anam Zakaria

As the title hints, the book has something to do with Kashmir, the very word that attracts attention of a lot of people in India and Pakistan, and also makes them take some or other side with or without enough rationale. Given the current state of affairs, some of them (irrespective of the side they take) may pounce on the author, just after reading the title itself. For many, there is no Pakistan-Administered Kashmir. It's Azad Kashmir for some, and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir for some. Similarly, there is no Indian-Administered Kashmir for some. It's Jammu and Kashmir state, which is part of India for some, and Indian-Occupied Kashmir for some. To avoid the confusion and controversy, the author, a Pakistani writer, spends the first few pages in clarifying the nomenclature. She would use only 2 names when the narration is by herself - There are 2 parts of Kashmir, Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir, which are on different sides of Line of Control(LoC). Rest of the names like Azad Kashmir, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir will be used only if interviewees use them and will be put in quotes. 

The book presents apolitical perspective and the impact of Kashmir conflict on the lives of Kashmiris. It doesn't support the current view of incumbent governments (and their masters) on either side of LoC, blindly. The author traveled extensively in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir (except areas like Gilgit-Baltistan, which are restricted to even people from Pakistan and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir) and interviewed natives of that area and also people who crossed LoC from Indian-Administered Kashmir and settled on the other side. Some of the people who crossed the border were also active militants, who waged war against India.

The author's interviews bring out several interesting, thought provoking and sad tales of ordinary Kashmiris, whose decades of misery is just a collateral damage for 2 major military powers. Most of them have lived wretched lives themselves, and seen a couple of generations living similar lives. Though it's called a paradise by tourists world over, they have no access to proper education, infrastructure and healthcare. Frequent political changes on either side of LoC effect them directly, sometimes by restricting them to bunkers, often for several months at a stretch, just to keep them safe from shelling.

Pakistan considers that area as Independent Kashmir (Azad Kashmir), with an elected Government. But, it's hardly independent. A governing council from Pakistan oversees and can override anything. They don't even get the right share of their own  resources, like water and electricity produced from dams in that area. Author's interviews with local leaders in power bring out their limitations. Tacit and not-so-tacit support to militants under constant war with India make things worse (This passive and active support dates back to 1947). Civilian areas are not clearly demarcated and often see movement of infiltrators trying to cross LoC and get into Indian side. This leads to shelling from Indian side and lives restricted to bunkers. The natives even threatened once that they would hoist Indian flag, if they see militant movement close to their villages. It apparently worked for sometime.

The picture on the other side is not rosy either. The conflict got a complete religious hue, thanks to the concerted efforts by Pakistan. This made lives of Muslims on the Indian side harder. Some of them believed that the state on the other side is committed to their well-being. The attitude on the Indian side (both by the military and otherwise) only made their belief stronger. This led to a lot of LoC crossings and overcrowded refugee camps on the Pakistan side. With limited resources and lack of commitment from Pakistan, most of the refugee camps turned out to be dreaded ghettos. Initial cooperation and excitement by locals (to save people of their own religion) died down quickly, when their lives are impacted. 

With no political solution anywhere in sight, no one seems to have any hope for better days in the near future. 

Though the book doesn't suggest any solutions or advocate any of the prevalent ideologies, it gives a deep insight into Kashmir conflict and ground reality. People living totally different and comfortable lives, thousands of miles away, often express strong and emotional opinions, without being sympathetic to the people (and generations at it) whose lives are immediately effected by the outcome. Hope, the author's wish, to enlighten both Indians and Pakistanis about the lives of ignored stakeholders of the conflict, comes true!

Book Review: An Era of Darkness

An Era of Darkness
  -- Dr. Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor got the idea of this book, when his speech, in a debate at The Oxford Union (whether Britain owes reparations to her former colonies), became a sensation. The speech became so popular that honourable prime minister of India praised the author at Indian Parliament, though he belongs to the opposition party. It even created flutters in political circles that, the then invincible prime minister was sending signals, to lure him to switch his loyalties.

[The debate was, whether Britain needs to return some of its loot to her former colonies, that include India (It's funny that, even the word 'loot' itself entered into Oxford Dictionary from India). Representatives from Britain's former colonies argued that Britain does owe reparations, and some of the representatives from Britain argued against it. Some who were against it, accepted that there was a massive loot. But, they argued, the loot and the favours done by Britain to her colonies can never be quantified. So, reparations are not practical. Shashi Tharoor presented a powerful case for India, and ended his debate with a demand of just a symbolic 1 pound per year to be paid as reparations by Britain to India. Besides, he demanded a formal acceptance of wrongdoings by The Empire, the way Germany does for the Holocaust]

Apologists of The British Empire argue that, it contributed immensely to India in terms of political unification, infrastructure(railways), sowing seeds of democracy, social reforms, building strong army, industrialisation etc., The author tears down each of these claims, with facts and figures from his extensive research, and, of course, his inimitable debating style.

Let's look at political unification. I always had this question in my debates with my Hindu Nationalist, Hindutva Apologist and Chauvinist friends, "what do they mean by India, when they refer to the greatness of ancient India?". I couldn't find any reference to any dynasty/kingdom that ruled all of the current India, before 1947, in the last 3000 years. Emperor Ashoka of Maurya dynasty might have come close to it, some 2500 years back. But, even then, a large part of South India was not part of it (Cholas and Pandyas ruled it till Moghul and British invasion). Marathas ruled a large part of the current India, around 300 years back, just before the British rule. Again, majority of South India was out of it. So, I was of the opinion that, there can't be anything Indian that the whole country can claim, before 1947, in terms of ownership, knowledge, wealth etc., and 1947 Brexit was also the birth of India. But, the discussion about Indian GDP being 25% of the world's GDP, where as Britain's was around 5% or less, in 1700s, and how that attracted various European countries/companies, including East India Company, indicates that, though there was no political unification, there was this idea of India, long before the birth of modern India. That was a kind of eye-opener for me. About the British getting credit for political unification, the discussion on how partition was done, how princely states were given a choice to stay independent, and how a white man, who never visited India before, was given charge of drawing borders of India and Pakistan in 1947, throws right light on the British contribution to India's political unification.

Tall claims of the British about establishing Indian railways, for the sake of India's development, don't hold any water. Indian Railways was largely built for the transport of goods (raw material from India to Britain and products from Britain to Indian markets) and military. Apparently, per KM cost of building rail-road was the highest in India, compared to any other country at that time. This was part of the organised loot, to help the British companies. Passenger transport, that discriminated against the natives, was just an add-on. Author ends it with a simple argument, "a lot of countries built railways, without getting colonised". Period. Contribution of British Raj to industrialisation of India is no more visible than it is in the textiles. Before the entry of East India company, India's textiles were in high demand, world over. Company methodically destroyed the industry and converted India, to a mere supplier of raw material to the British manufacturers. The organised loot goes much beyond import/export from/to Britain. Heavy taxation, import of highly paid (from Indian coffers, of course) bureaucrats from Britain to govern India, handsome pension for the retired British officers, systematic destruction of one of the then best shipping industry etc., tilted the GDP balance the other way in 200 years. By the time the British left India, India' GDP went down from 25% of world GDP to a small single digit.

The British apathy and racism against Indians was evident throughout their rule. Particularly, when they were handling famines during their period, which caused starvation deaths in millions. Though India was self sufficient in terms of its agricultural production, disproportionate exports of food grains to Britain, its other colonies, and African and European conquests, left Indians starving. Instead of working on their management, they lamely quoted Malthusian Theory as escape. Unlike  the other European colonial powers, the British never mingled with Indians. They kept them at arm's length, even in the higher echelons. In their celebrated Indian Civil Service (which Nehru famously ridiculed as neither Indian, nor Civil, nor a Service), though they accepted some Indians, they limited them to a certain rank. Same goes with the judiciary.

In the last 70 years of Independence, India had overcome a large part of inheritance from the British Raj. One monster that still stands tall today, is the outcome of their Divide et Impera - Divide and Rule. The stark difference between Islamic dynasties and the British Raj is the loot. Though there are several muslim conquerors, who attacked India for its wealth, and looted India several times, their dynasties that ruled India severed their ties with their origins, sooner or later. Many married Rajputs and other Indians, and were born (many of them have Indian mothers), brought up and died in India. They built wealth, and kept it in India. Unlike them, the British never treated India on par with Britain. They imported bureaucrats, paid them well with Indian money, who retired with Indian pension in Britain. Despite that, the British managed to create more hatred in India towards their predecessors, than towards themselves. There was a lot of concerted effort behind that. In the large part of freedom struggle, Indians fought together and their religion took a backseat. In the last 30 years before 1947, Divide et Impera was used while enfranchising Indians and to break their unity, successfully. While Nehru was kept in jail for 3 years (close to 1947), Jinnah was given undue importance and free-hand (against the wishes of more popular Muslim leaders from Congress, who were against partition). The result is in front of us to see. Even after 70 years of Independence, a stupid politician can make an inflammatory comment, for/against a religion, to impress a large part of people that belong to one or the other religion.

The author did a great job of presenting hundreds of years of rule by East India Company and the British Raj, with hundreds of references for the interested to deep dive. The best thing about the book is, it's a good read, whether a reader aligns with the author's political affiliations or not. :-) 

Book Review: Homo Deus

Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow
- Yuval Noah Harari

The author concluded his Homo Sapiens (A Brief History of Mankind) with some grand questions like, whether humans have found their path to happiness, after millions of years of evolution, aided by agricultural, cognitive and scientific revolutions that shaped the world for several centuries. He continued his exploration of mankind in his next work - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.

Majority of the world has achieved food security, is equipped to contain/handle disease outbreak, has built political structures to reduce the probability of deaths due to wars. Historically, these 3 - famine, plague and war, had been the major troubling factors. Now, that man has handle over them, what would he go behind?

If we follow the general guiding principles for the kings/leaders, divine revelations ruled the world for some time, followed by several isms like Capitalism, Communism, Liberalism etc., In the times, when divine revelations were considered to be supreme, man and his personal choices were not at the centre. In the recent times, humanism has kept man, an individual, routinely at the centre. There is also an underlying assumption that, this individual has free-will, and is capable of choosing the right things. But, advancements in neurological studies question such assumptions. They also demonstrate that a man is not, after all, an individual. One has multiple selves inside. The experiencing self is often different from the narrating self. And, they can be manipulated through some orchestration.

Scientists also claim that everything that happens in humans is more or less a biochemical /electrical reaction. Though Human Consciousness is still out of reach of science & technology, Human Intelligence is not. Artificial Intelligence is faring better than humans in several fields, sans consciousness. Several techniques and instruments have been invented to manipulate experiencing and narrating selves of humans.

Such advancements open up a lot of new opportunities. Are there ways to use this new found knowledge for the betterment of humanity? If there are ways, how to validate which of them are really for the betterment? When individual is an illusion, who would be at the centre? Some of these technologies may make humans more productive, and some may make them redundant. While pondering about these questions, author introduces the latest ism - Dataism. Dataism uses tons of data and complex algorithms to make decisions, much faster a human, and at times, something that's impossible to a human. Powered by such Information Technology, will Homo Sapiens tune themselves and get more productive - upgrade themselves to Homo Deus, with the aid of Biotechnology? Or, will they lose control to some of their creation? Only time can answer!

There was some interesting news a few months back, that adds credibility to the perspective presented by the author. Facebook engineers brought down their AI experiments, due to some suspicious conversations among bots, in a language that's invented by bots themselves.

Though it's a long 500 page book, author's inimitable style, a great perspective, and loads of  interesting information make it a great read.