This time out I’m departing from my usual discourse about US politics to describe what I experienced during my three-week trip to India in October. Since my visit, India has hit the world’s headlines due to the violent actions of a group of pseudo-religious Islamic terrorists in the city of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) which resulted in the deaths of 171 innocent men, women and children.
This time out I’m departing from my usual discourse about US politics to describe what I experienced during my three-week trip to India in October. Since my visit, India has hit the world’s headlines due to the violent actions of a group of pseudo-religious Islamic terrorists in the city of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) which resulted in the deaths of 171 innocent men, women and children.
But as shocked as I was, I can only imagine how shocked the peace loving people of India were by these bloody attacks. India, after all, is the home and birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, a pioneer of totally non-violent civil disobedience as a means of political protest and resistance to tyranny. I suspect Gandhi must have been turning over in his grave at the sound of the terrorists’ grenades and gunshots.
There are many people in this world who, like Gandhi, believe there is never a justification for the use of violence under any circumstances, and I have nothing but admiration for them and their ideals. My own personal position is that there are absolutely no justifications for ever using violence against another human being unless it is in defence of one’s own life or the lives of others.
While religious or ethnic minorities in many parts of the world very often have legitimate grievances about how they are treated, there are absolutely no religious grounds for their use of violence to address those grievances. These terrorists and their religious leaders are simply murderers using their religion to put a cloak of legitimacy around their decidedly unholy intentions.
But on to more positive things. I have had the privilege of travelling to many different countries around the world during the course of my life, but nowhere that I’ve ever been quite compares with India. The famous American author Mark Twain visited India in the 19th century and described it as “the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition.”
I quote him here because, quite frankly, as a 21st century American visitor I had great difficulty trying to come up with words that would adequately describe my impressions about this extraordinary country.
But it isn’t just Americans who are mesmerised by India. The Nobel Prize-winning French novelist Romain Rolland once wrote: “If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.”
And while China is also a nation with its own rich history and a unique place among the world’s greatest civilisations, the former Chinese ambassador to the United States, Hu Shih, acknowledged India’s special place in China’s story by noting that “India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”
The colours, the sights, the sounds, the smells and the tastes of India constantly assaulted my senses throughout the course of my stay, leaving me breathless and exhausted by the time I left to return home to Ireland. But now that I have had the benefit of several weeks to recover and put my thoughts in order, I can finally share with you that my overall impression of India is that it’s a country with an amazing history, possessing both incredible potential and equally daunting challenges.
The people of India represent a very diverse mix of ethnic and religious backgrounds, all of whom are aware and proud of India’s rich heritage – even though the people of India do not actually share a common language.
Shortly after arriving in New Delhi I became friends with Arrun, a PhD student from Chennai in southern India. Arrun is engaged to Shani, another Indian PhD student who is from Punjab, a region that borders Pakistan in north-western India. Talk about two people from totally different backgrounds and cultures! Arrun is a meat-eating Christian while Shani is a vegetarian Hindu, and neither one can understand the other’s native language. But what these two wonderful people do share in common is English as their second language, as well as a deep love and affection for each other and India.
Next time I will continue with this discussion of my trip to this amazing country.
Charles Laffiteau is a lifelong US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is currently pursuing a PhD research programme in Environmental Studies at Dublin City University
