Comments on: Strangers in the Night

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:15:34 +0000

PS– An error in Comment #9: the chap’s name is Manish TIWARI (Manish Jha is a filmmaker).

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:13:46 +0000

PS– it is manifestly clear that the establishment seems to have learned little since the days of Robert “ancient-ethnic-hatreds-in-the-Balkans” Kaplan. The problem for the once-colonized in this context is that (s)he needs to walk a tightrope: on the one hand, the need to assert that the place in question has a history; on the other hand, the need to “rescue” that history from a pre-determined fate as a kind of anthropology. Your recounting of some of the relevant events here bears this out — I remember getting into a bunch of post-9/11 discussions with people wanting to know “what the Quran says”, as to why what happened in 750 AD was more relevant than what happened in, say, 1953.

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:07:57 +0000

One of your best pieces. Truly searing.

On Mumbai: let us also not forget the colonized language of the media (“colonized” here in the sense of being a simulacrum of the “real”, namely “the West”): only against such a backdrop can we understand Indian media references to “India’s 9/11″ (i.e. the Mumbai attacks), or “Kashmir’s Obama” (i.e. Omar Abdullah), or even Gujarat’s Obama (that was, to be fair, not the media but a bunch of prominent industrialists; Congress spokesperson Manish Jha did well to cite the glowing testimonials of German industrialists in 1933 and after.) Meaning, it seems, can only be conferred with reference to an event that has taken place “over there,” where real history happens.

By: aamir

aamir — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:31:49 +0000

Rory Stewart was in a state of total denial when he wrote that book. He simply refused to see any good. He was blind folded by some kind of stuborn idialism. He painted a very dark picture of modern day afghanistan without taking into consideration factors like war,famine,hunger and illeteracy.

By: Count Floyd

Count Floyd — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:51:13 +0000

Thanks for this insightful post. I would like to suggest one minor point:

“Senator Kerry spoke about his trip to South Asia, in the immediate aftermath of Mumbai attacks.

We do not live there. We don’t live in the community, in a hamlet, in a small town, pocket, whatever you want to call it. And so we’re not there often at night. They are. And the night often rules with the insurgencies.

…

The reference to hamlets and pockets. Insurgency – the lexical contribution of the Iraq War which continues to hold sway.”

I don’t know your age, you may be too young to make the lexical connection those of us 45 or over will make to the words hamlet and insurgency. Keeping in mind Kerry’s background and life history, I suggest the model there is not Iraq but Vietnam, where the centerpiece of the US “counterinsurgency” strategy was the “strategic hamlet” program.

In the US, the Vietnam War still rages.

By: sav

sav — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:43:28 +0000

I always learn so much here! This blog is like a public service :P

By: Bangash Khan

Bangash Khan — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:48:47 +0000

NYC linked with Mumbai ??! Who told you that? Maybe in Indian minds that would be so but certainly not outside of India. The Mumbai attacks will be completely forgotten a few months from now.

Regarding the military of Pakistan, well it is a functioning institution that does what it says. Can’t say the same about “people of Pakistan”.

By: Asif

Asif — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:14:16 +0000

‘The Pakistanis are also attuned to the silences. They note that in the teleology of modern terror – NYC, Madrid, London, and now Mumbai – there is no mention of Lahore and Islamabad.’

Love this blog and this point. But I think before we attempt to get on the bandwagon of this teleology of modern terror, Pakistanis (the elite) should also note the existence of their own “other” – the poor and the islamists (both the militant and non-militant variety).

By: SC

SC — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:15:58 +0000

Sepoy,
This, “Yet, while NYC and Mumbai are forever linked, the victims of Islamabad and Lahore find themselves on the other side of history,” is an excellent point. I am sorry I missed the event.

I am not sure if you mean the same thing here, but I was astounded by the exceptionalism of Mumbai which was created in the narratives after the event, rather than making links and connections with most especially the Marriott incident. Of course everyone wants to link Mumbai to NYC and telling that story has its own horrendous implications. What is really needed is the connecting of states, the way you have done here. We could also of course connect this to Sri Lanka and Assam where “insurgency” and extra-national repression of insurgency has been the norm for some time. Indeed we could move well beyond “South Asia” and find that the militarization of non-state actors is truly the norm, and if you trace the money-trail, “we” have only ourselves to look at. I did watch those hearings for Clinton’s nomination and I was dumbfounded by the Alexander reference.

thanks for posting this.

By: Zak

Zak — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:38:16 +0000

This is really excellent. I, too, was struck by Kerry’s mention of Bell; I haven’t read Wallach’s book, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it doesn’t offer a particularly scathing critique of early-20th-century British imperial policy in the Middle East or enumerate the myriad differences between 1910s Arabia (!) and 21st-century Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Presumably one of “Kipling’s memorable poems about Afghanistan” Kerry is recalling is “The Ballad of East and West”…

By: Jonathan Dresner

Jonathan Dresner — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:15:15 +0000

Have you sent a copy of this to your congressional offices? You should, seriously.