Should Colonizers & Oppressors Pay reparations for Slavery ? Yes. They should.

Responding to an NYT report on whether former colonial powers should pay reparations for slavery?

For all that modern jargon in Human rights and insistence of European Powers to follow them, it will be a surprise for someone to hear it for the first time that it is none other than Europeans who invented “Slavery” and oppressed almost more than half of the planet.One thing is for sure. Being a former brutal oppressor and colonizer does not mean they have no right to talk about Human rights or some higher ideals.

But European powers in a way are indeed polluters of humanity and must be obliged to pay reparations. To borrow a principle which is relied on environmental suits mostly in India ie., “Polluter Pays Principle” and use it in this context as an analogy or as a metaphor might help. This principle more or less says he who pollutes and/or has a direct role in perpetuating pollution should pay for it. In that sense former colonial powers are liable to pay the compensation. It is no doubt that people in African and Caribbean countries are the most oppressed who could never fully recover from the atrocities committed by the European countries. China & US, they asserted themselves since beginning, who were the only two former colonized countries/regions went on to become major economies in the world, thanks to their resolve, but not everybody is that fortunate.

Arguments like whether we can bring in people in to courts who were actually oppressed does not stand, their legal heirs and next generation must be compensated. And the reaction of Lauterpacht Center forInternational Law is understandable.Reparations such as these will definitely put Jihadist apologists in a spot, because oppression by the Christian world was always shown as a justification for the atrocities they have committed and still committing.

Richard Dawkins some time ago in his twitter conversation said that yes, Christians have committed innumerable atrocities by killing & maiming millions but they have moved on and realized their mistakes.

The spiritual giant of India Sri Aurobindo too supported Colonial powers especially British because in his opinion though British is a colonizer and oppressor it also propagated many good ideals like democracy and freedom etc., hence he supported the colonial powers in their war effort against axis powers, who then called colonial powers as advanced and progressive forces.

So in that context when juxtaposed with axis powers, the colonial powers were considered either angels or lesser evils. You cannot imagine a world after World War II with axis powers winning it; civilizations must have been made to endure highest forms of slavery.

An extract from Volume 36  of Aurobindo's writings “Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest” Pages – 459 & 467 could help us understand the argument.

It is hardly possible that after the war the old order of things can survive unchanged; if that happened, there would again be a repetition of unrest, chaos, economic disorder and armed strife till the necessary change is made. The reason is that the life of mankind has become in fact a large though loosely complex unit and a world-order recognizing this fact is inevitable. It is ceasing to be possible for national egoisms to entrench themselves in their isolated independence and be sufficient for themselves, for all are now dependent on the whole. The professed separate self-sufficiency of Germany ended in a push for life-room which threatens all other peoples; nations which tried to isolate themselves in a self-regarding neutrality have paid the penalty of their blindness and the others who still maintain that attitude are likely sooner or later to share the same fate; either they must become the slaves or subservient vassals of three or four greater Powers, or a world-order must be found in which all can be safe in their freedom and yet united for the common good. It will be well for India, if in spite of the absorption of her pressing need, she recognizes that national egoism is no longer sufficient. She must claim freedom and equality for herself in whatever new order is to come or any post-war arrangement, but recognize also that the international idea and its realization are something that is becoming equally insistent, necessary and inevitable. If the totalitarian Powers win, there will indeed be a new world-order,—it may be in the end, a unification; but it will be a new order of naked brute Force, repression and exploitation, and for the people of Asia and Africa a subjection worse than anything they had experienced before. This has been recognized even by the Arabs who were fighting England in Palestine before the war; they have turned to her side. Not only Europe, Asia and Africa, but distant America with all her power and resources is no longer safe, and she has shown that she knows it; she has felt the peril and is arming herself in haste to meet it. In the other contingency, there will be not only the necessity for a freer new order, but every possibility of its formation; for the idea is growing; it is already recognized as an actual program by advanced progressive forces in England and elsewhere.

We should remember that conquest and rule over subject peoples were not regarded as wrong either in ancient or mediaeval or quite recent times, but as something great and glorious; men did not see any special wickedness in conquerors or conquering nations. Just government of subject peoples was envisaged but nothing more—exploitation was not excluded. The modern ideas on the subject, the right of all to liberty, both individuals and nations, the immorality of conquest and empire, or such compromises as the British idea of training subject races for democratic freedom, are new values, an evolutionary movement; this is a new Dharma which has only begun slowly and initially to influence practice,—an infant Dharma which would have been throttled for good if Hitler succeeded in his “Avataric” mission and established his new “religion” over all the earth. Subject nations naturally accept the new Dharma and severely criticize the old imperialisms; it is to be hoped that they will practice what they now preach when they themselves become strong and rich and powerful. But the best will be if a new world-order evolves, even if at first stumblingly or incompletely, which will make the old things impossible—a difficult task, but not absolutely impossible.

The victims of European colonization must be satisfied with one thing that at least their former colonizers agree and apologize that their crimes are deplorable. But, the victims of Islamic Imperialism are not that fortunate enough. The way forward should be that either through political or legal means the victims must be compensated that would add more credibility to European’s current status and equating international aids with compensation is completely misleading.

May be it is time to codify in international law that nation states which are economically weak and backward must be allowed to seek compensation from their former oppressors for crimes like slavery and must not be restricted only to slavery. Probably if this case is taken up and it wins in ICJ that would certainly set some kind of precedent which shall withstand assertions like calling the whole exercise as legal fantasy.

India must also explore such options for the atrocities committed by England in TamilNadu, India where native Tamils were migrated to plantations of Srilanka and made to work as slaves, not sure if we can ask the same to the oppressors of Persia.

Responding to Col. PK Gautam's comment

Thanks for responding.

It is agreed that much needs to be done on the secular aspect of education. But all those epics and other religious texts when they were written originally they were not meant to be non-secular. In my opinion this secularism debate came to the fore because of the church-state debacle in Europe and I feel that it has been unduly imposed on earth with out giving due regard to unique conditions of others cultures.

If there is any civilization which is truly secular it is Hindu Civilization, I am sure you would agree. Though we cannot say that it is perfect one but is best of all, which was verily agreed by Swami Vivekananda who argued that barring Vedas the whole body of Hindu scriptures must be re-worked to reflect the current day realities. But you & I know that, the scholar who could do this Himalayan task is yet to be born.

You have talked about alliances which Cholas practiced. But all that grand alliances, strategy and diplomacy has been practiced in its advanced form in Mahabharata long ago.

The begging question is how to handle the grave threat of Militant Islam & Islamists and does our indigenous wisdom help us address this question ? Yes. I agree, for this we have to remain bi-partisan, ideological-neutral and religious neutral. But remaining neutral does not definitely mean being prejudicial to one point of view and this is exactly why we should differ ourselves from our Marxist friends who have different yardsticks for measuring secularism.

Looking forward to read some of your other work too.

Response from Col. PK. Gautam reg. my comment on his Monograph

Response from Col. PK. Gautam with respect to my comment on his monograph

Dear Sathya,

1.  Thank you so much for your kinds words. The project has only begun starting with Kautilya. Many more periods and regions need to be covered. At Note 42  reference has been made.  I paste specially for you the work so far below after paragraph 4 and my signature block.

2.   In my monograph and also in the forthcoming edited book of the two seminars of October 2012 and April 2013 in the policy suggestion it has been stressed that the work is a-religious and a-political..Please see H at p.83.from pages 83 onwards.  Rather in my monograph I have explained the old issue of nationalist and Marxist also (p.74)  and surely we are beyond that now. Please  see pages122 -125 of my monograph.

3.  For the  other South Asian countries I have urged them to own up these traditions(pp. 108-109 including note 259). Also I do not agree with what   A Matto says.  In chapter III  have argued on that issue at pages 50 to 51. This aspect has been covered by me in my   Shruti and Smriti : Some Issues in the Re-emergence of Indian Traditional Knowledge, IDSA Issue Brief, February 12, 2013 at    http://idsa.in/issuebrief/ShrutiandSmriti_PKGautam_120213

4. All religious text has both religious and secular text. Much needs to be  done and  in my forthcoming work I have explained it as : “   Because of absence of teaching secular aspects of religion and not studying all knowledge emanating from religious literature we are missing out on many things of philosophy both at individual level and at the state level.( This type of education  to approaches to study of religions is called “ Phenomenology” . Phenomenological epoche is an approach to the study of religions to become and remain entirely neutral about what is studied. See Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, ‘ Introduction’,  in Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds.), Religion in South Asia: an Introduction, Routledge, 2006, pp.10-11)
You can also write to the editor of JDS  and if they consider it fit may publish it in future

Regards
PKGautam

Reflecting on Col. P K Gautam’s recently written paper in IDSA

Reflecting on Col. P K Gautam’s recently written paper in IDSA on Enduring issues of Statecraft, Military Issues andInternational Relations from Cholas the powerful southern kingdom.

It is a scintillating write up which talks about areas which needs focus to solve some of the serious issues which afflict the present day world. Col. PK Gautam talked about indigenous solutions to global problems.

All major issues which remain unsolved in the arena of international politics India has solutions. Firstly in the academic domain there is no great interest in researching our glorious past, even if somebody does, it is completely distorted because of researcher’s ideological moorings. For example, we have Romila Thappar who in a way eulogizes all Islamic Invasions and the destruction that ensued in the name of their religion.

Supremacy of Cholas:

Based on my elementary reading on Cholas I can say that, they were like Brits of 16 th and 17 th century, especially with respect to the invincibility of their naval fleet. They ruled throughout the Southeast Asia uninterrupted for nearly 500 years, engaged in trade with southern part of Africa. And the northern Kingdoms did not dare to enter in to their fiefdom. There was more of an internal conflict within the triumvirate of chera, chola and pandyas.

The take away for a budding student especially like me would be firstly not to go for foreign sources and ideas for everything and waste time, but look within. India was an intellectual power house once and we were systematically indoctrinated by a highly organized but a very small group of people called Brits and were forced to agree that everything indigenous was inferior. This feeling remains intact till this date.

Gandhi said if we have to for a moment imagine that the whole written literature of Hinduism is disappeared and only the first phrase of Isho Upanishad remains, all that lost literature can be re-constructed from that one phrase, Amitabh Mattoo described this in one of his op-ed some time ago. Mattoo went on and added that if the whole international literature has disappeared from this world, all can be re-constructed from the epic Mahabharata. That is the power of indigenous wisdom. Mahabharath is the best teacher you can ever have especially if you are a student of International Politics.

Yes. There were myriad independent political entities in the name of kingdoms but people were united with one culture, which we can conveniently call it as Hindu religion. Though few in the current days who were completely indoctrinated with Marxist ideology might have an objection with that “H” word, truth remains unsullied.

We Indians should take the study of history seriously and learn from our past for the sake of addressing our own problems and subsequently to help others too.

Thanks to Shri. Col. P K Gautam.

Act of International Criminal Court to prosecute only Africans is illegitimate.

Reacting to Jurist  report on " Africa leaders should be immune from ICC prosecution: AU "

The bullying of third world countries by international agencies, especially courts is not something new and it is a regular phenomena since the formation of UNO and other institutions which came to existence subsequently. International criminal law might have taken a new turn ever since the Nuremberg trials, but the disgust stems from the maxim - "Selective application of law is no law" . Are we to assume that in this civil world it is only in Africa people commit crimes especially state sponsored ie., the crime where leaders take an active role in engaging in war crimes, crimes against humanity and/or genocide?

Whenever you hear about a case in International Criminal Court (ICC), there is a high degree of probability that the accused will be from third world, mostly from Africa. Mired in poverty, illiteracy and political corruption and at the receiving end of super powers they remain robbed off their wealth. Oppressed by the European colonial powers they continue to remain as a second class civilians and their very state of life is a blot on the legitimacy of civilized world.

The interest and alacrity which colonial powers shown in robbing off the wealth of Africa is not shown when it comes to contributing towards its development. It is a misnomer to claim that whatever little the developed world is doing is due its generosity but in my opinion it is firstly a misplaced argument and secondly it must be seen as if they are giving it back to the rightful owners from whom they have taken forcefully. The rosy picture given by the the departments of international development of developed countries on their contribution towards global development cannot taken at face value.

Yes. There is no doubt that by providing 70% of funding which is required to run ICC, EU uses it to settle political scores and for the purpose of arm twisting in the resource rich Africa. And in this light the threat by African Union to pull out of ICC is highly legitimate and AU must make the regional institutions stronger and establish an ICC like setup exclusive for Africa and try all cases there, probably with an international supervision. And the former colonial powers must not be allowed to use new tools to loot Africa.

If we ever have to try all the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the European Colonial powers, especially by the countries like Portugal, Spain and Britain we may have to establish hundreds of such courts.

Sub-Standard Performance in Chennai Moot competition

I have been attending few moot court competitions off late for a hands-on experience on advocacy and yes, as elders say to hone the lawyerly skills. The first one was in Trichy on last week of last month and the other one in Chennai yesterday. I played the role of researcher in the Tamil moot last month and as a speaker yesterday. The way I fumbled yesterday was unprecedented, it was all about questions on Indian constitution law. I have tried to convince my mind with silly reasons on why I have done pathetically. But my mind knows, that what I was saying to myself was not truth, and I am way below the average.

Yes. All kept saying that participation is more important and this opportunity is to provide an exposure. But I felt humiliated and challenged.

Though I knew it but I am realizing only now that a good command on constitutional law is essential for a law student. My priorities will be re-aligned accordingly.