Brajesh Mishra passes away

India's first National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, who died at a private hospital in New Delhi on Friday night, will be cremated on Saturday.

Mishra was a pivotal figure in shaping foreign policy during NDA government and a troubleshooter of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

As the news of his death just a day before his 85th birthday came, there was a buzz in the social online media, with several condolence messages pouring in.

"Brajesh Mishra RIP - a titan amongst Indian diplomats," tweeted Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Syed Akbaruddin.

"He (Mishra) died in a hospital," a government official told a news agency.

A career diplomat, he had served as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as ambassador to Indonesia. He retired as secretary in the External Affairs Ministry.

He had played a key role in India's diplomatic efforts to contain the adverse reaction from developed countries to India's testing of a nuclear device in May, 1998.

Born on September 29, 1928, Mishra's father Dwarka Prasad Mishra, former Congress chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and considered close to Indira Gandhi.

Mishra joined BJP in 1991 only to quit it seven years later to become Vajpayee's powerful principal secretary.

Mishra, as the principal secretary to the prime minister, wielded so much clout that he often almost eclipsed the status of cabinet ministers in Vajpayee government.

He played a key role on several issues relating to domestic and international policies, including forging closer ties with China and bringing thaw in Indo-Pak relations.

He was special representative for talks with China seeking to expedite a resolution of the vexed border problem.

In November 1998, he became the country's first National Security Advisor, a post he had held till May 23, 2004.

From Pokhran-2 to Kashmir and from Vajpayee's historic bus journey to Pakistan to engaging the US in a strategic dialogue, Mishra was a crucial figure in foreign policy and security initiatives.

Mishra was India's Permanent Representative to the UN from June 1979 to April 1981. He continued with the UN on deputation, till June 1987.

After NDA was voted out of power in May 2004, Mishra did not rejoin BJP.

Mishra crafted an important role for himself and was often seen present at all meetings on foreign policy matters held at Vajpayee's residence.

In July 2005, when the Manmohan Singh government first signed the Indo-US nuclear agreement, Mishra was one of the strongest opponents of the deal.

He is understood to have played a role in convincing the BJP to take an anti-nuke deal position but subsequently became a votary of the deal.

Sakal Cartoon

Agni-V launched under NATO pressure: China

Continuing its tirade against the successful launch of Agni-V, Chinese state media accused New Delhi of buckling under NATO pressure to cut down the missile's range from 9000 km to 5000 km.

The state-run Global Times which derided the missile even before it was launched saying

that Chinese nuclear power is "stronger and more reliable and India had no chance" to catch up said on Sunday in yet another scathing write-up that "India has little to celebrate" as China has raced ahead and outclassed India in development.

"The Manmohan Singh government, because of pressure from NATO member countries, has kept a slow pace with their Integrated Guided Missile Programme (IGMP).

"The Agni-V is deemed to be in its final stage, whereas in fact the IGMP ought to have progressed to develop a range of 9,000 km," it said in the write-up posted on its web edition on Sunday night.

Commenting on Sino-India relations, the paper pointed to an international effort to portray India and China as enemies and said the two countries need to make bridges of friendship that would fail such an effort.

"Althought there is an international effort to paint India and China as enemies and to make the two countries go to war with each other, such an effort will fail.

"The Chinese and Indian people share a long history and culture, and what is needed is more discussion between the two about their economics, education, tourism and culture. We must create so many bridges of friendship that the plans of other countries to make China and India into enemies will fail," it said.

The paper said India and China can together make the Asian continent strong but if divided "all of Asia will remain weak".

The paper said the celebrations over the missile "conceal the inadequacies and slow pace" of the programme, and "hide the fact that successive Indian governments have capitulated to pressure from NATO to restrict the range and power of their launch vehicles", it said.

It said India was embarrassingly behind China in its space programme and also faced a huge vulnerability as over 80 per cent of its critical weapons systems are imported from France, the US, Russia and Israel.

"If these countries cut off supplies or ammunition during a conflict, India would be helpless," it said.

The New Cambridge History of India - Vijaynagar by Burton Stein(Rating : **)

From childhood I was quite curious to know more about the history of the Vijayanagara empire. Our high-school text-books on history barely touched upon the rise and the fall of this great empire that ruled over almost all of southern India for about three centuries beginning in the 14th century. We picked up Burton Stein's “The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara” mainly because at about 150 pages it looked like a more manageable read than the other such books. It was also far more recent than the other books and therefore had a much better chance of incorporating the findings from recent research into this aspect of Indian history.

The book turned out to be a serious study of the history of the Vijayanagara empire as well as a commentary on the published literature on this topic. It seems therefore to be better suited for students of history than the general public and it does get dull at times. That does not mean that it does not have fascinating information for the patient lay reader. This is especially true for those in India since the history generally taught to us in our schools is quite lopsided.

The main focus of the author is on the economic, political and social factors affecting the rise and the fall of this empire. Reliable collection of taxes over such a vast and disparate region coupled with the pressure on the treasury by the need to maintain a full-time professional army made for tricky economics. Since this empire was ruled over by three separate dynasties coming into power via means such as usurpation, there is plenty of politics to go over. An empire like this that ruled over a diverse population speaking Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Tulu spread over the entire Indian peninsula meant that local chieftains were both necessary as well as threatening for running the empire. Finally, the empire was constantly threatened by bordering kingdoms. It was therefore quite amazing that the empire survived and thrived for as long as it did. Quite remarkably, the book shows that the very factors that enabled the empire to form and sustain itself ultimately led to its downfall. The book is quite pro-british in nature which tries to emphasise that Indian politics at that time was utter chaos until British came and brought Integrity, Order and Descipline to India.

To fully appreciate the book, you should have some familiarity with the other main dynasties that ruled over parts of southern India like the Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Pandyas. There are extensive bibliographic references in this book for the serious student of history. Having visited Hampi is not a pre-requisite for reading this book, though it definitely helps in appreciating the few plates that are there. There is not much information about the flourishing of art in this empire as is evident from the ruins of Hampi - you will have to look elsewhere if you are interested in that aspect of the empire.

The Vijayanagara rajas ruled a substantial part of the southern peninsula of India for over three hundred years, beginning in the mid-fourteenth century. During this epoch the region was transformed from its medieval past toward a modern colonial future. Concentrating on the later sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history of Vijayanagara, this book details the pattern of rule established in this important and long-lived Hindu kingdom that was followed by other, often smaller kingdoms of peninsular India until the onset of colonialism. Through an analysis of the politics, society, and economy of Vijayanagara, the author addresses the central question of the extent to which Vijayanagara, as a medieval Hindu kingdom, can be viewed as a prototype of the polities and societies confronted by the British in the late eighteenth century. The book thus presents an understanding and appreciation of one of the great medieval kingdoms of India as well as a more general assessment of the nature of the state, society, and culture on the eve of European colonial rule.

Concentrating on the later sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history of Vijayanagara, Burton Stein details the pattern of rule established in this important and long-lived Hindu kingdom, which was followed by other, often smaller, kingdoms of peninsular India until the onset of colonialism. Stein addresses the central question of the extent to which Vijayanagara, as a medieval Hindu kingdom can be viewed.

Burton Stein has contributed to The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara as an author. At the time of his death Burton Stein was Professorial Research Associate in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He had previously held professorships at the universities of Minnesota and Hawaii. His publications included "Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India" (1980) and "Thomas Munro: The Origins of the Colonial State and his Vision of Empire "(1989).

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