In this issue’s cover story “Angels and Demons in Indian Thought” the author discusses the phenomenon of demonization of your enemy which portrays him as unalloyed evil while the protagonist is painted as an angel in self-righteous terms. If it were not the basis of a laughable piece of fi ction with card board characters but concerted propaganda by powerful governments it would not be worth serious comment.
In this issue’s cover story “Angels and Demons in Indian Thought” the author discusses the phenomenon of demonization of your enemy which portrays him as unalloyed evil while the protagonist is painted as an angel in self-righteous terms. If it were not the basis of a laughable piece of fi ction with card board characters but concerted propaganda by powerful governments it would not be worth serious comment.
But increasingly since the cold war days we have seen power confl ict being painted as a great fi ght between pure evil and pure good by both camps. Wars and occupation against smaller countries were painted by the US and NATO as necessary for the defence of democracy, freedom, liberty, “our way of life” against the evil empire of oppressive totalitarianism. On the other hand the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact painted their aggressive adventures as solidarity with an oppressed people, liberation struggles and even socialist internationalism against feudalism, imperialism and tyranny. Indo-China, Korea, Africa, Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Czechoslovakia and other confl icts and wars have been painted as such in the second half of 20th century and in the 21st century’s own “War against Terrorism”.
Leave alone a nation or religious community, can even a person be considered unalloyed good or evil? One has to be extremely one sided and unrealistic to agree to the proposition. However, selective reportage, power of modern media, endorsement by consensus from many intellectuals can disorient any one for a short period of time. But a story is only as credible as its teller. As people see the angels actually acting as demons in their own backyards then they start questioning even their propaganda about the enemy. But why are such vast resources poured into such unsustainable propaganda? It is to create short term numbness in their own populace so that any heinous crime can be committed against the designated enemy — the “evil” — to make immediate gains in geo-political and geo-economic terms, without a murmur of dissent, leave alone mass global condemnation and opposition. The cover story examines briefl y the Indian epics Ramayan and Mahabharat to illustrate how Indian thought has never had a binary good-evil analysis but a nuanced understanding of human nature and its dynamics.
How did the glorious civilisation of Harappa end? Was it an Aryan civilisation? Did Aryans invade and destroy this civilisation? And so many questions have plagued all of us since the Indus-Saraswati civilisation was archeologically excavated in the early 20th century. Many misconceptions and misinformation exists regarding the Harappan civilisation. Dr Dharm Pal Agrawal, a renowned archaeologist and historian, has spent several decades exploring such questions. His article explains the existing knowledge about these questions in a lucid and accessible way. The questions regarding Harappa demanded a thoroughness in treatment and hence we decided to reproduce his article in its entirety at the cost of not including some other articles.
Prakash Rao has reviewed a book on Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali as modernizers while being staunch anti-colonial fi ghters. The British portrayal, echoed by many Indian intellectuals too, has been contrary to this. The anti-colonial fi ghters were portrayed as rogues, pirates, thugs, tyrant feudals, at best brave but fool hardy, whereas the collaborators were painted as modernizers. The underlying assumption equated European colonialism with modernity—another version of the infamous white man’s burden.
We hope you enjoy the issue.