The National(ist) and Regional Routes to Nuclear Catastrophe and Annihilation

Written by John, posted by Tracy


As India boasts of its joining the ICBM club, we read of half the world being in range and even the cry of Gandhi reconstituted. See this article...

This is aggressive posturing. A deterrent? Of what? Of doubts about the sustainability of a nationalising narcissism? If certain other countries gloated in such a way, they’d be annihilated by the ‘established’ imperial powers. But India has become a capitalist powerhouse, feeding the West what the West likes best (to rephrase poet John Forbes), and its new means of exploitation and aggression are buzzing at its fingertips.

As one who has spent time in India (or ‘Indias’ – despite the militaristic posturing of the central government, their actions do not represent the many spaces that make up ‘India’) on various occasions, who feels a strong empathy and respect for the many Indian cultures with which he has come into contact, and whose veganism twenty-seven years ago was triggered by a (non-religious) exposure to Jainism, I am appalled at the materialism and militarism that has been identified as ‘progress’. The ‘Brand India’ compliance with aggressive militaristic market capitalism reinforces the bigotries of caste and class, and does not alleviate them. The notion of joining an ‘elite club’ by having the ability to destroy (entirely) a vast distance from launch-site is truly a separation of cause and effect, an ability not to be held accountable for one’s actions. There is no post-colonialism, only co-opted and reinvested colonialisms. At the basis of all such endeavours is genocide. And those in India who have the lust for atomic weapons and ways of delivering them have joined the ranks of those wishing to inflict genociding colonialism. The word ‘deterrent’ is lost in the manufacture, launch, delivery and detonation of these weapons. It’s called ‘mass destruction’, a term we associate with Western propaganda but with a root cause that escapes the semantics, and it is cultural as much as anything else. Face up to it, people of the world. Face up to it, ‘India’. You are better than your military-capitalist State allows.

And once again I reiterate that Australia’s repulsive feeding of nuclear powers (military and non-military – not that there are ever many degrees of separation between these), is as culpable as the users of uranium (and one should note Australia’s own Lucas Heights research reactor here). It’s part of the cycle, and part of the planet’s doom. Nuclear is a one-way journey to catastrophe. The Barnett government in Western Australia has ‘given the green light’ (what an expression!) to uranium mining in that state, and the first mine is not far off starting. This should be resisted in every peaceful way possible. Add to the lead contamination and general destruction of ecologies that have ruined the lives of children and adults in Western Australia (while being sold as their salvation), and we have another nail in our coffin. A very big nail, very hard to pull back out once it is driven in. But never give in, never accept. Refuse!


John Kinsella

New novelist

By Tracy

I've just finished reading Saraswati Park by debut novelist Anjali Joseph (born 1978).

This was a birthday gift, nothing to do with my studies, except of course that it's a novel -- so I read it for pleasure.

It's a quiet novel whose atmosphere certainly drew me in, though I was disappointed that the back-cover blurb tells practically the whole plot (such plot as there is -- this is a mood-driven and character-driven book).

Middle-aged Mohan, a letter-writer, lives in reasonable comfort and calm with his wife Lakshmi in Bombay/Mumbai. They are at that stage where children have left home and an uneasy distance has crept up between husband and wife, though it takes a while for Mohan to realise this.

Their nephew Ashish comes to live with them because though his parents have moved away on account of work, Ashish must repeat his final year of college because of under-attendance.

Ashish has his own emotional (and sexual) life unknown to his uncle and aunt; the novel moves between his story and that of his uncle's marriage and daily life.

The writing is poised and observant, the characters credible -- and for a first novel, it's quite subtle and sophisticated in approach.

If you don't like very slow-paced or middle-class-style fiction, it won't be your thing. Ignore the back cover if you want to make the most of its developments...

The UK's Telegraph listed Anjali Joseph as one of their "20 best novelists under 40", for what that kind of list is worth.