July 8th, 2012
A new exhibition sketches Genghis Khan in a new, non-Eurocentric light — that of an efficient leader. Perhaps the virtues of uncertainty, as illustrated in the Rig Veda, are to be cherished.
A reader has commented that the idea of abolishing visas for Pakistanis is impractical and fraught with danger as jehadis of all kinds will enter India in the guise of being Pakistani citizens. This is a real problem and needs to be dealt with.
Perhaps a ‘permit’ specifying the maximum period of stay (90 days?) would help identify entrants and enable Indian security forces to keep a watchful eye on such entrants.
The current situation is impossible and increasingly costly to boot. Alternatives have to be thought of and tried. Some method of establishing trust is essential as ‘security’ is under threat only when there is lack or absence of trust. It is encouraging to note that world history is escaping from the dreary desert sands of dead habit in the form of narrow nationalist jingoism and its corollary, racial prejudice.
Alexander III of Macedon is described as the great emperor in Eurocentric histories. In contrast, Chengeiyz or Genghis Khan and Timur are called the scourges of god. This distortion is being rectified, as seen in an exhibition on the Life, Times and Contribution of Genghis Khan. The idea that distinguished Khan from his predecessors was to unite the warring Mongol tribes into one force, which then became formidable enough to transform the Mongols into a world force. The elevation of a warrior to the upper ranks was based on merit and not on birth. This innovation released great energies in the Mongol tribes and they helped him form an empire four times that of Alexander of Macedon and twice that of the Roman Empire at its zenith. During his death, the empire had to be split into four to satisfy the ambitions of all his sons. Unfortunately, they continued to fight for supremacy and this led to the decline and ultimate dissolution of the Mongol Empire.
The idea that distinguished Genghis Khan from his predecessors was to unite the warring Mongol tribes into one force, which then became formidable enough to transform them into a world force.
Meanwhile his grandson, Kublai Khan had become the emperor of China and established his dynasty there. Marco Polo visited the emperor and stayed in his court for many years where he bought Italian cuisine in the form of noodles and pastas; and some great ideas of Oriental culture was conveyed to Europe as well.
Perhaps humanity is moving towards a world history devoid of the distortions caused by jingoistic nationalism. India at its best has made no claims to enjoying the monopoly of truth. Even its myth of Creation in the Rig Veda crosses the artificial borders and lines of control.
As the translation of Rig Veda by Ralph T.H. Griffith (1896), at sacred-texts.com, says:
HYMN CXXIX. Creation.
1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? And what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
2. Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day’s and night’s divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
3. Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
4. Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart’s thought discovered the existent’s kinship in the non-existent.
5. Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder.
6. Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? The Gods are later than this world’s production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
7. He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
Readers should note that unlike other myths of creation, the Rig Veda version is far from definite. This uncertainty distinguishes Indian thought from the rest. The replacement of this questioning by certainty as defined by the RSS and BJP is an aberration. It is hoped that this aberration will pass soon and Indians be able to delight in their uncertainty.