Who were the Kushans ?

The issue not driven firmly enough in our early history books was that the subcontinent has been a pot boiler for a smorgasbord of ethnic cultural and linguistically diverse people that have added to the gene pool of humanity living there - and in our veins we have the collective mix of all that blood.

The Kushans - and its most famous representative - Kanishka, has remained, at least to me through the school years - an enigma. The headless statue is the best image I remember - a poor way to remember a person, though the frock coat and tight pajama like pants with long boots are etched in memory. Other images include a beard and a cap of some kind.

But, apart from being from the central Asian steppe stock, he was likely more mongolian in feature than caucasoid, and in a way more of a Tibetan Chinese than a north Indian, did not properly register. I do not remember ever having any conversation in school or elsewhere about the circumstance that brought the Kushans to northwest of India, who they were, what they looked like, what language they spoke, and what made them tick. In fact, I have a hard time naming any Kushan king other than Kanishka. And that is sad.

 

It was much later, out of curiosity, that I learned that the central asian tribes and nomads were themselves jostling against one another, and an attack by one of the Chinese tribes, or perhaps the Tibetans, pushed another tribe off their nomadic range, essentially pushing them towards Gandhara, and Northwest frontier regions, in todays Pakistan. These folks had a sort of Chinese name - I think Qui-Shan .. Which became Kushan for the Indian subcontinent. There is another name for them in Chinese - Guishang. Anyhow, they were described in Chinese history as a group of Indo-Europeans that had entered China and lived on its western periphery. This group was later pushed out by another group of Indo-Europeans.

So, the newly arrived Guishang people in North-west India broke in 5 subgroups. And one of these groups subjugated the other brethren clans and sort of established a hierarchy with themselves at the top, and established a proto-empire, eventually expanding it enough to cover a reasonably big stretch of real estate, including parts of central asia, a few chinese (Tibetan) provinces, as well as Afghanistan, todays Pakistan and northern Indian stretches covering areas near then Sarnath and todays Varanasi. One of their capitals were Purushpur, which is todays Peshawar, and the other was Mathura. There is a dispute on exact dates, but generally it is believed that Kanishka, the greatest of the Kushans, ascended throne around the year AD 115 or so.

It would have been nice to have these issues come back to popular discussions time to time, or subject of further creative expressions, such as the dance drama and plays etc, or discussed in Podcasts and elsewhere.

The Gandhara region at the core of the Kushan empire was home to a multiethnic society tolerant of religious differences. Desirable for its strategic location, with direct access to the overland silk routes and links to the ports on the Arabian Sea, Gandhara had suffered many conquests and had been ruled by the Mauryans, Alexander the Great (327/26–325/24 B.C.), his Indo-Greek successors (third–second centuries B.C.), and a combination of Scythians and Parthians (second–first centuries B.C.). The melding of peoples produced an eclectic culture, vividly expressed in the visual arts produced during the Kushan period. Themes derived from Greek and Roman mythologies were common initially, while later, Buddhist imagery dominated: some of the first representations of the Buddha in human form date to the Kushan era, as do the earliest depictions of bodhisattvas.

Unfortunately, we did not learn enough about our history in school or college and our knowledge of our own past is sketchy at best. Kanishka remained a headless entity for me, a disembodied character that could have looked either like a Bengali babu, or an marauding devil, like a Rakshash. Was he short, or tall, was he Mongoloid in features or perhaps Caucasoid, more like an Afghan than a Tibetan ? How was life those days in Purushpura, or Mathura, in AD 100 ? What language did folks speak there ? What kind of a script was commonly used? Brahmi ? Was that the script common for all of them ? Does the coinage for Kanishka and other Mushans use Brahmi as the script, or Greek, or some other script and some other language ? There are obviously people who know about that, but it did not come down to school kids and ordinary folks like ourselves.

Is there someone we can talk to, and engage with, to popularize these topics about our past ? Better late than never !

All we remember about Kanishka from our childhood studies is the frock coat that appeared specific of the person. Later, Kanishka represented the downed passenger aircraft of Air India that was brought down by terrorism in the 1980s.

A nation without history

As a kid, I was not fond of history. But then, if I think back at the text of the history books those days, it was perhaps to be expected. The history books were boring, and basically comprised of dates when rulers ascended the throne, won or lost wars, or kicked the bucket. Life apparently did not have mentionable events those days, except for rulers coming and going.

But, it should not have been like that. Life was most certainly not drab, without dynamism and air brushed in a uniform shade of gray.

And today, while I read history of items that take my fancy, I realize how little there is to read, about the history of India, of Bengal, and of our past, in language and format that makes it interesting not only to learn, but to debate and discuss.

Take the life and times of Kalidasa, one of the greatest literary genius of the Sanskrit era. What was it like to live in those times, both in cities and serve the king’s court, or to live in the forest and collect honey ? How did the economy work ? What were the social movements shaping up? Was the divide between the Hindu and Muslims already deep ? Was there even a recognizable divide ?

Or, let us say the events leading to the discovery of Harappa and Mahenjodaro by Rakhaldas Bannerjee. Who was the monk that lead Bannerjee in 1922 to the site. Why did he (the monk) suspect that it was a Budhhist Stupa. What else did Rakhaladas Bannerjee discover ? How did the discovery of Mohenjodaro play out in the next few years with the traditional understanding of Indian history ?

Or, how about the arrival of the French at the Bay of Bengal. There are references in records of frenchmen (ref : Three Frenchmen in Bengal/ The Commercial Ruin of the French Settlements in 1757). According to records kept by these gentlemen, the French established a presence, a French version of the East India Company, separate from the Dutch and the English versions, in the 1660s, and Emperor Aurangzeb ceded, or handed over, the territory around todays Chandannagar, near the river Hoogly, to France as early as 1688. I wonder why the indian part of the deed and the deal is not a subject well known in Bengal and why this is not a topic of discussion that I can see on the paper or see on the TV, even on a history channel. What prompted Aurangzeb to hand over Candannagar to France ? How did he dare do that without the knowledge or involvement of anybody living in or around the place ? What did Aurangzeb get in return ?

I wish questions like these are debated, discussed and analyzed, so we can have as much grasp on our own history, where we came from and how. It might help us get a better grip on our own past, and perhaps help us conceptualize the future. Any case, it is information that appears relevant enough to have merited national attention at some level.

I find it easier to dig history of other nations, but not of our own. Why not ?

History of Hinduism

Take the way Hinduism evolved and sprouted a multiplicity of Gods. That wasn’t how it started. The evolution of the faith based practices themselves have historical links, and discussing these would help place the so called faith or religion in its proper perspective. Look at it this way - Hindu is not even a word coined by folks practicing the so called religion. Its a name given by Persians and most likely was related to a river, which is no more in India, rather than any religion. Look at it another way - there are folks vegetarian, because they claim they are Hindu. Then there are folks that eat meat, because they claim they are Hindu. There are a huge number of folks that do not eat beef, because they are Hindu. There are also folks that do eat beef, because they claim they are Hindu. There were old sages in mythology, that readily ate everything, including horses and beef, and they were the pioneers that created Hinduism as we know it today.

So …. The evolution of religious practices, and how much of these practices have anything to do with religion per se, and how much local custom of the time and place that is made to appear as if it is linked to religion - are subjects that should have been part of history and part of a social discourse and study.

CPM nama

CPM Nama
Things always change.
Confucius might not have been the first to notice that everything does change, eventually. However, he is recognized for his famous quote to that effect. That logic applies to a whole range of man made and even natural events and situations on the planet. Yet, our own inherent intellectual inertia that allows such changes, when they do come, to catch us unprepared - again and again. So, take Mamata against the communists, or Obama regarding the killing of Bin Laden, or Globalization against sustainability, science of evolution and the faith explanation of creationism, or the newly blooming, or fizzling out, Arab spring. Take anything - and the basics will be similar - old knowledge and formulae will prove insufficient to explain, let alone solve, future issues. Nothing remains the same. And yet, man assumes that things do indeed remain the same, and thus, finds himself perpetually out of step with reality, forever surprised by events.

Invincible rising Asian giant of the recent past - Japan - has had an economic stagnation going on for nearly twenty years - a source of national level depression and rising cases of suicides. A whole lot of different phenomena are looming larger in our field of vision, each threatening to dislodge us from our inertial bubble - climate change, population bomb, peak oil, tampering with genetic modifications, global water and food crunch, and so on.

Meanwhile, we focus here on Mamata di, - albeit a tiny part of the every changing scene. We focus on her, because she made history, small as it may seem to someone concerned about melting of the polar ice cap, but big enough for Indian politics and communist watchers of the world. She almost single handedly finished off a 34 year old rein of the communists in West Bengal, the longest running democratically elected communist regime in the world. Thats history. Besides, Bengal is supposed to be where my root leads .. So, events there, historical ones too - deserves a blog from a non-blogger such as myself. I do not write blogs professionally, and do not often care, if my thoughts resonate with the rest or not. I am happy to have my own thoughts, and not particularly worried that most folks are more preoccupied with day to day life and less inclined to ponder issues of vast span. Those that do, usually do so professionally - talking to Larry King or similar. I usually never find myself in agreement with them. But thats a Bengali for you. Besides, we are digressing - the issue is Mamata, or more precisely, what exactly did she defeat in Bengal ?

So how did the CMP fail the state over the decades? Or did they fail?

I remember, just a few years ago - when Budhhadeb Bhattacharya was being hailed as the new poster child of progressive leaders in a rejuvenated business-friendly progressive India. So what went wrong ?

While anti-incumbent fever might account for some, and Nandigram-Singur land-grab issues might account for a lot more - to me, the degradation brought about in the social mentality and attitude, by the communists in general, is going to be far more damaging and long lasting. This is not something the media is focussed on right now. I am not even certain Mamata Bannerjee has contemplated Bengal with that kind of a far sight.

The degradation of Bengal is a long drawn out process - and not quite so easy to pin down. First of all, the ascendance of Bengal itself was odd in a number of ways. First, there was the establishment of European in general and British in particular, trade interests in Bengal. Money was to be made by trading with the British, learning English, and what appeared to be moving with the winds of modernization. But even here, the change was heterogenous. The Hindus took to these movements more than the Muslims. The higher castes benefitted more than the rest. Enormous wealth came into the hands of a handful. But as a long drawn out aftermath - the land also got bifurcated and two Bengals were created. Bengal is still not sure if it is Bengali first, of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Hindu/Muslim first. The confusion has not been cleared even after generations of freedom across international borders. But thats something for another blog.

Meanwhile, what are the kinds of degradation that happened to the land and its people, in West Bengal, during the watch of the Communist Party (Marxist) or CPM in short ?

Degradation of world class institutions is one. Traditional and historically long lived institutions have been eroded, depleted, and even destroyed, during the communist rule, with direct and indirect encouragement from the left think-tank. It is the working of a devilish doctrine that dislikes the people to have any moral or ethical support system outside of the party. People should have nowhere to go to for moral or spiritual or ethical guidance, even in times of stress - except to the party. Karl Marx alone is to provide the solace, the consolation, and the solution - to every problem of the past, present and future. Talk about blind faith. The communists used to make it a habit of ridiculing blind faith in religion, without having the independence of thought to realize they too were chained to the blind faith in Marx. It was neither religion nor marx that was the problem for society. It was the blindness.

IN the process, the communists have actively tried to kill entrepreneurship, independent thinking, and every institution that would have encouraged folks to think for themselves and seek answers outside of the box time to time. Thinking outside the box is important, especially when unexpected changes take place that does not follow the old formula. - institutions such as Universities that encouraged free thinking, and even religious schools such as the Sanskrit toles. Nowhere in India has this tradition been demolished as systematically as in West Bengal. The Islamic madrasas, I am told faired better, since the communists were afraid of stoking muslim anger. Anyhow, anything that was traditional, world class and supported merit rather than affiliation to doctrine, has been killed by the communists, and the process was started in the 1940. Today, Bengal has mostly forgotten what kind of people their ancestors were - thanks to the communists. reversing that, will take some doing. Is Mamata up to it? Is she even aware of these issues ?

The communist slogan talks about equality for all, and care for the downtrodden, while keeping the rich from exploiting the poor. They talk about their famous manifesto. But, the communists have failed to address the plight of the adivasi, the aboriginal, and the real marginal people of the state. They have failed to quieten the Gorkha community, who surely agitates because they are not treated as equal. Bengali bhadralok cult is notoriously high nosed about themselves and make a habit of mocking everyone else. The Communists are a particularly

They have not addressed the loss of habitat and livelihood of the forest dwelling backward communities and tribes. They have in fact exploited them even more than the British did, and have instilled a multi caste hierarchy where the bhadralok is considered high up in the social strata and beyond reproach, while the tribal must lie prostate at his feet. In this regard the communists have been the most hypocritical. But thats not all. And to be fair, so have all other major political parties been - hypocritical when it comes to the real poor and low on the social ladder. But the communist failure should be highlighted here, since they always “claim” to be for the downtrodden. To me, they are a humbug and do not believe what they preach, and lack the sight or the vision, to look beyond cheap ideology. They have merely created a useless, lazy, risk averse, mindless, robotic babu culture that cannot see, cannot think, cannot speak except parroting out whatever it has been force fed from childhood.

To make things worse, the so called “intellectual” class had embraced the left doctrine hook line and sinker in the decades following India’s independence. Till date I have not found a good definition of what an intellectual is - but most half educated Bengalis boast themselves of intellectualism. I suppose it means one drinks a lot of tea, smokes a lot of Charminar cigarettes and raises a heck of a lot of storm in a tea cup at places such as coffee house in college square and similar places. Even the extreme form of the lefts, the Naxal, did nothing more than preach blood letting and violence, and a propensity to be mass indoctrinated into a life of hatred.

No end of writers and actors joined this “left is cool” club. USA was touted as the new demon, the Soviets the new saviors, and China became a reason for a split. If there is one thing in common here, it is that they surrendered indigenous and independent thinking, and embraced foreign ideas and ideologies which invariably does not suit India. India is a lot older and culturally deeper than these twentieth century bright ideas touted to be the answer to all maladies of life. And India given a free hand had enough original thinkers, in fact they were overflowing with it at one time, to solve its own problems its own unique way, without needing outside and misfit solutions, thank you. There were enough things to borrow from outside anyway, such as modern science, without taking in the rubbish too, from the left or right, in hues of red or blue. India needed to be green on its own thinking, and there were enough Indians that had the right idea before Jyoti Basu was born. But no, the “intellectuals” had to modernize Bengal by subservience to a bogus and unsustainable doctrine from afar. In this, both the intellectuals of Bengal of the past and the pro-west yuppies of the present are wrong and suffer from a sense of inferiority. A foreign idea, or a lifestyle, must be superior to mine, and hence must be copied, the good as well as the rubbish.

Through incessant strikes and Bandhs, they have at the same time killed off industry on one side, and same time not encouraged any kind of work ethics among the workers, literally separating the inseparable logic that with the right of workers, comes responsibility of working honestly and efficiently. Over generations of often meaningless agitations, they have turned the population away from risk taking and entrepreneurship, and into a mass of job seeking babu class that has forgotten the value of working hard. These useless class imagines that money falls from the sky, and all one needs to do is shout slogans and wave flags. Instead of breathing, thinking, living humans, the communists have tried to transform the society into an army of useless robots that can block roads, shut down factories and shout incessantly in parks, and do nothing else.

By actively infiltrating every educational institution, they have encouraged politicization of education, they have allowed nepotism to flourish and unsavory anti-socials to establish themselves as head honchos in Universities.