History is replete with miracles, but for my purposes I am choosing just four.
First there is the miracle of the Vietnamese will to independence. For eons China, its huge neighbour, eyed it as the colony it most wanted to devour. For more than two thousand years, intermittently it invaded Vietnam but the Vietnamese did not turn over and surrender. They ran into the hills and launched guerilla offensives, bleeding the Chinese out by a thousand cuts, and driving them back.
When China was undergoing its century of humiliation, France came into Vietnam fill the space vacated by China. The Vietnamese went back to the hills. Before they could drive out the French, WW2 began, and the Japanese supplanted the French. For the Vietnamese only the enemy had changed. So they just kept fighting. After Japan surrendered the French reasserted their colonial rule and the Vietnamese took up from where they had left off before the Japanese had come in. They began fighting the French all over again, defeating them decisively in 1954.
This created space for the U.S to try their hand in subduing Vietnam. And the Vietnamese defeated them in 1975, when at 7.53 a.m. on 30 Apr 1975 the last U.S helicopter flew out from the roof of the U.S embassy in Saigon.
And then in early 1975, the Chinese, in one last go at Vietnam, invaded it, but were driven back once more!
A counterpoise to the Vietnamese miracle, is the miracle of the sub-continent. This is a huge well populated country which has been regularly invaded for more than two thousand years, but has not beaten back a single invader. During each invasion, it was betrayed by a traitor from within.
Indeed, the only times when invaders were defeated and driven back was the period between Sultan Balban to Alauddin Khilji who beat back every invasion by the Chagatai Mongols.
The Indians are now busy polishing up their history by rewriting it. The Pakistanis did this decades earlier by beginning their own history with the invasion of Mohammad bin Qasim! It was with the advent of the British that the fortunes of Indian Arms began to see a decisive change, and another miracle began to unfold.
Two small battles should serve as markers to exemplify the spirit of the new Indian Army. The first of these was fought in 1818 when Peshwa Baji Rao ll was on his way to attack the British garrison at Pune with an army of 28000. On being informed that a British contingent of 800 [of the Ist Bombay Native Infantry] was marching to reinforce the garrison at Pune, he detached a force of 2000 to intercept and destroy this British force. On 1st Jan 1818 the battle of Bhima Koregaon ensued in which the British force more than held its own, and gained time for other forces sent to the relief of Pune.
The British celebrated this as victory and raised to it a victory pillar, where an annual victory celebration has taken place till recently. Quite apart from any other significance of this engagement, there is one which lies in the “caste” structures of the two forces. The Peshwas were high class Brahmins, while the troops of the Bombay unit which beat them back were primarily the Mahars–one of the tribes of “untouchables” in India.
Because the annual celebration of this battle turned into a commemoration of victory of untouchable arms over Brahmins, these celebrations have recently been discontinued. But it is a testament to British leadership that they moulded a force from untouchables, to defeat the best that the native chivalry could pitch against them!
The next battle worth recalling is that of the Saragarhi Post, probably the greatest last stand in history, when 19 Sikh soldiers of the 36th Sikh Regiment under command of Havildar Ishar Singh, held off thousands of Afridi and Orakzai tribesmen. This engagement was fought on 12 Sep 1897. When it ended, all the 19 Sikh defenders lay dead, killing or wounding 450 of the assailants in the process. All 19 were posthumously awarded the Order of Merit, the highest gallantry award of the day.
It was such battles which moulded the Indian army which fought in both the world wars and gave a very good account of itself.
The virtual founder of this army and the British empire in India was Robert Clive who spent his last years trying to justify his huge wealth to the British parliament. Clive did not hide this wealth and flaunted it. He merely declared that this was “baksheesh” from the Indian “nabobs” which was a tradition in India. But his government and the parliament insisted that no matter what name he called it by, this was no better than bribes he had accepted. Clive was driven to commit suicide in disgrace.
The hounding of Clive and his suicide laid down the moral compass for the British by which they navigated governance, and most especially the leadership of the army. Leading from the front and personal integrity were their watchwords.
How narrowly they defined integrity is best told by a story of Gen Tottenham, who was GOC 7 Div either side of the Partition. It is related that once he invited all his staff to dinner. This was followed by a similar invitation from his GSO-1, and then by a major on his staff. So far so good. But a couple of months down the line the enthusiastic major sent out a second invitation, and was hauled up by the GOC who told him that he was of a mind to put him on adverse report for living beyond his means. Upon this the major rattled out a list of his agricultural properties in order to prove that such was not the case. Hearing this the General growled and informed him that in that case he would put him on adverse report for inciting the envy of his peers!
How does one account for the miracle of the moral slide of the army from Gen Tottenham’s day, to the day when our last army chief retired with properties worth Rs 12 billion–and these are suspected to be just a small percentage of the Big Steal which is yet to be exposed?
And this moral slide has infected every institution and society as a whole. Indeed, across the border the fall has been similar though the rate of decline has been slower.
At a time therefore, when we are talking in terms of the need for reforms, the central question remains, whether it is lack of reforms which has broken our institutions, or does the reason lie in our crumbling moral infrastructure?
The need for reforms assumes that our requirements have outgrown the constraints of the systems which have lost their dynamism to deal with these needs, and have become static, deficient, or entirely redundant.
But the truth is that they have NOT become static. Had they become static their functional effectivity would have REMAINED at the level of 1947.
But that is NOT the case. This functional effectivity has NOT remained at the level of 1947. It has NOSE-DIVED.
And this functional effectivity has nose-dived NOT because the systems had become redundant, but because of our basic UNWILLINGNESS to be bound by any set of rules, laws, or regulations; or at the very least, the skirting of and short-circuiting the rules and laws.
Our basic problem lies in lack of integrity. No reform can mend this. If it could, we should begin with a reform which will keep the hands of our politicians, bureaucrats, fat cat businessmen, judges, and generals, out of our national treasury.
And if we can devise a “reform” to keep these hands in check, this will become the greatest miracle of history.
Our propensity to take what is not ours i.e theft, is where the central problem lies. From here it radiates and infects all parts of society and every institution. The urge to steal is so powerful that every law standing in its way is made non-functional by non-implimentation, because all those who are to implement it, are in cahoots with each other to make it ineffective.
If any reforms are contemplated without giving due weightage to this failing which is intrinsic to us, such reforms will be destined to fail.
The fault lies not in our laws but in our DNA.