| Published on 03-10-2006 In General |
| Viewed 952 times |
| Food for Thought – for Bestselling Authors |
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Written by
T. S. V. Hari |
The issue of Sri Lankan Tamils has acquired the necessary notoriety in India and to some extent abroad especially after the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. But, by and large, the world's public - regardless of their race – the issue is unknown. People abroad – especially those in Western Europe, UK, USA and Canada show a blank look when someone raises the issue.
The same is applicable to the problems facing India – militancy in the North East (e.g. Nagas, Mizos,) and the Kashmiri Islamic fundamentalists being exported into our lands.
I have myself encountered this many times – in Western Europe and UK – despite the fact that there are many from the Sub-Continent living there as citizens – with a distinct difference from the common milieu. During party conversations with the majority of the people there, there are clucks of sympathy and then it is gone, without making an impression.
On the other hand, in spite of the fact that the problem of Northern Ireland (Irish Republican Army, Sinn Fein et al) is known throughout the free world through the matter is too small and too regional to have this kind of attention?
Yet the Irish issue has all that and much more.
The reason for this isn't too difficult to fathom. A number of established writers in UK and the US have referred to the Irish issue in a muted, albeit glowing terms.
One of the writers who romanticised the Irish question is Jack Higgins. He began it all several decades ago – with a World War II classic – "The Eagle Has Landed." Very recently, he wrote a sequel to that book – "The Eagle Has Flown." In fact always, the main characters in Higgins's novels are of Northern Ireland origin. Other writers like Jeffrey Archer, Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum and James Hadley Chase had injected a few mentions of the problem in their bestselling novels.
These mentions are the crème de la crème variety. There are dozens of authors who refer to the Irish question in not only English, but also in French, German, Spanish and so on. In fact, the Spanish ETA guerrillas are lesser known than the Irish, in their own country.
Why am I comparing the Irish and Sub-Continent questions?
They have a great similarity. The very name United Kingdom suggests that there are several nationalities living the miniscule British Archipelago (Irish, Scottish, Welsh, to name the major three) and all of them. The Welsh aren't as aggressive as the Scots and the Irish even in mundane matters like owning a football or cricket team.
One part of Ireland (the south) is a Republic. It is the northern part which had taken to violence (long before Islamic fundamentalists placed bombs in London, the job was being done by the Irish) – a situation very similar to that of Sri Lanka – since the LTTE is doing the same thing to Colombo.
Throughout the period of the Cold War the Irish question had a lot of takers because the Soviet Union supplied small arms and ammunition to Northern Ireland.
Sri Lanka had a similar situation – especially when Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had armed the Tamil Eelam groups – including the LTTE.
Now drug smugglers and other anti-social elements are funnelling arms and ammunition into the North East and North West besides Northern Sri Lanka.
To come back to the issue of absence of world bestsellers touching upon the Sub-Continental problems (I am talking of fiction and not otherwise), the various issues, despite being more urgent and having more aspects to it than the Roman Catholic – Protestant struggle between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain – has virtually zero international following.
So what should the both the Indian establishment and for good measure, the terrorist groups do?
Writing a fictional account glorifying the Tamil or the Kashmiri struggle will not do, because they will not last even a day on the bookshelves in the advanced countries – the Governments of India and Sri Lanka will see to that.
In almost all the books of Jack Higgins – the climaxes are all aimed at the victory of the Allied forces (during the cold war) and in recent times, outlasting Islamic fundamentalist forces. When books are written with our issues taking centre stage, naturally, the good guys (read India and Sri Lankan Governments) should end up winning.
No review can do justice to the style of the prose expounded by Higgins, Forsyth, Archer and others. Like the common people in the West do, our public should read them. And if possible, some of us should explain the aspects of the Sub-Continental issues including, the vexed Kashmir question, to highly paid fiction writers.
Already, a number of fiction and non-fiction writers have found fault with the nexus between Islamic fundamentalism, crime and terrorism in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Sri Lanka and the Middle East at a very small scale. Therefore, the idea in itself is saleable.
We should take this opportunity to publicise problems that concern us and also create an atmosphere to expose the terrorism of all the groups including those created by the Naxalites, the LTTE, and the double dealing methods in the volatile North East.
No doubt, it will only be a small victory, but a significant one because international attention will help us in a big way in countering the threats to the integrity and sovereignty of India. |
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