Thus Sudan Splits, What's Next for the Aspiring Rest?

                                                                                                 Tanmoy Sharma

First  published in  Kafila.org   on  February 3,  2011.

 

To add to the tumultuous political dynamics of Africa, the world is most likely to see a new country adorning its map by the middle of this year with the two-way split of the continent’s largest country, Sudan.  For Africa, which has again hit the international headlines for fresh troubles in Ivory Coast, Tunisia and most recently in Egypt, civil wars based on identity and protests against despotic governments are nothing new. However the larger question that has kept many wondering is whether the world is going to see a new era of a large-scale statebirth with the formation of South Sudan, a process that almost stopped barring the examples of Kosovo two years back or East Timor  ten years back. As millions of jubilant south Sudanese in the city of Juba, went to vote in a long awaited independence referendum in the second week of January to see their war torn region emerge as a new nation, it will be important to revisit the troubling status quo of other regions of the world demanding secession.

Although there is a slight anxiety of the African leaders over the formation of the new state, the world as a whole has hugely welcomed the move. Specially, many in the western press have opined that secession is the only way forward for the South as the ‘long marriage between Sudan’s Arab-and-Muslim north and its black, animist and Christian south’ has always been unhappy and disastrous with the constant conflict fuelled by ethnicity and oil. During the course of the 50 year long brutal conflict, around 2 million southerners have died in their struggle for freedom. Africa’s longest civil war till date, this north-south conflict had gained momentum  when the military ruler General Nimeiry  in 1983  suddenly imposed strict Sharia laws for the  nation with the intention of transforming Sudan into a completely Muslim Arab state which sent a wrong message to  the  already autonomous Christian South.  Late John Garang, the first secessionist national leader from the South took side of the Western powerhouse after the collapse of the socialist block. His former deputy, Salva Kiir is going to be the President of the new nation of South Sudan. With the surrendering support  of the Sudanese President Omar Hasan al Bashir ,The United States has certainly taken a tricky advantage of the situation by being a key architect of this internationally sanctioned referendum (promised in 2005) to  hack apart the Arab-Muslim world.  However to maintain stability, the USA  must have a balanced policy as China too will finally start cultivating good relations with the South as it has a huge stake in the oil sector.  Even leaving aside the diplomatic equations, the sentiments and aspirations of all the South Sudanese make the idea of a new nation look perfectly alright.

However on the other hand, the all-time stand of the African Union (A.U.)  against the divide of countries on the basis of ethnicity and religion fearing probable violence and new civil wars opens up the flipside of this international debate. Apart from the unresolved issues of border demarcation, the burden of debt on the shoulders of the South, sharing of oil revenues, poor infrastructure of the South and the dispute over the oil producing province of Abyei, there are other dangers as well, smelled by the AU. It is everyone’s common knowledge that experiments of secession, especially in the case of the mineral rich Katanga from Congo  or that of “Biafra” from Nigeria   had miserably failed in the past but led to the loss of more than a million lives. Again, there is a possibility of a serious conflict over the issue of oil export through the North as the South will be a totally landlocked country with no coastal lines. Prevalent ethnic   tensions between different groups within and along the boundary of South may also raise violent attempts of secession.

Whatever the apprehensions may be, what is more important now  to see is what impact this Independence of South Sudan will have in the other  quasi states and sovereignty aspiring regions of the world where frustration and agony have reached an all time peak. The precedent set by this exercise of self determination culminating in sovereignty, may pacify the process leading to an independent Palestine sometime very soon as the Palestinian leaders  are pushing for their national sovereignty within the 1967 borders of the country. History may soon witness a fully sovereign Kurdistan nation state carved out from a fractured Iraq. Given the way things are happening in the new millennium, the international relations experts are even not ruling out the possibility of an independent South Ossetia or a Somaliland or a Darfur. The story of Kosovo and South Sudan, as opined by many, will no doubt encourage the Indian separatists as well.  This will surely raise some serious questions on the ignorant attitude of the Indian state towards a similar referendum proposal for Kashmir  by the United Nations Security Council in 1948. The Indian government will also need to look into the “Nagalim” question more seriously in order to keep up its image with fast changing international diplomacy.

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, when things in the modern world are resembling more with the tumultuous political dynamics of the medieval era, the voice for partition and self determination of every second group is getting louder and stronger. It is the job of diplomacy to decide which voices are legitimate and which are not as emotions often lead to a catastrophe. At the same time, all sovereignty demands can also not be ruled out as oppressive governments in many parts of the world have made life hell for the masses. However one thing is certain, without democratic mass support neither violence nor sanction can bring full freedom. Equally, there can be no real peace if a state arrogantly and brutally sticks to its claim over a region, whose people never want to be a part of that state. If South Sudan’s model succeeds tomorrow without any outbreak of violence,  a few more nations coming out of full mass support  and freed from repressive regimes, doesn’t seem like a bad idea for a better and peaceful new world!

Science, Religion and Einstein

                                                                               by Tanmoy Sharma

First Published in The Assam Tribune (Editorial Page)  on April 18, 2009

“Oh time, in my next life don’t make me a scientist. Had I known of the release of atom power, I should have become a watchmaker.”

Having heard of the mass devastation caused by the USA through nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is how he expressed his agony with tearful eyes. He is Albert Einstein, whom many like to term as ‘the greatest representative of human civilization.’

This great physicist, born in 1879 had an inquisitive mind since his childhood. Always being brought to book by the teachers for his never ending questions, Albert had a tough time in his childhood. Jacob, his uncle was his best teacher who inspired him to play the ‘games’ of physics and mathematics all his life.

Albert belonged to the Jewish community by birth. Being a Jew, child Albert could well see the picture of hatred and discrimination prevailing among people in the name of religion. This childhood experience had a great impact in his life.

After graduating in physics in 1901, Einstein started his career as a technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. During his stay at this office he quietly started a research in theoretical physics in his spare time. Thus working secretly, Einstein finally published five papers in the famous Swiss joumal Annalender Physik in 1905. Three of them turned to be the turning point in the history of physics. The first paper was on ‘Brownian Motion’ exhibited by gaseous and liquid molecules. The second was on ‘Photoelectric Effect’ for which he was conferred the most prestigious Nobel prize in 1921. Through this effect Einstein established that all the electromagnetic radiation consist of tiny bundles of energy called ‘quanta’ or ‘photons’.

The third and the much talked about paper was on the ‘Special Theory of Relativity’. This theory in fact had shaken the base of Newtonian mechanics and established Einstein as the new emperor of modern physics. The very thought of special relativity popped up in Einstein’s mind at the tender age of sixteen. The curious mind questioned, “If one rides on a beam of light in that speed, will the beam seem to be at rest ?’ This was the beginning of the special theory of relativity due to which ten years later mankind had the famous equation of matter-energy equivalence, E= MC2. In simple words, he postulated that matter and energy are two separate forms of the same entity and are inter convertible.

Einstein was not only an epoch-making physicist, but also a great thinker and philosopher. He presented a serious and objective analysis on the evolutionary changes that had occured to mankind in its cognizance and thinking with the elevation of civilization. With the advancement of science, many a time there had been a conflict between the new scientific findings and the prevalent religious beliefs. For instance, we can point to the humiliation faced by Darwin and Galileo from the religious bigots. Einstein put forward a transparent opinion on such conflicts between science and religion. He bravely said “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind.”

According to Einstein, in a scientist’s view, religious feeling is an ecstatic amazement at the harmony of natural laws. The symmetrical natural laws have revealed an intelligence of such superiority that all human intellectual achievements have become insignificant. This feeling is the guiding principle for the scientist in his life and work. Einstein believed that science is nothing but a continuous endeavour to bring together all the perceptible phenomena of the universe into an easy and complete form. He was of the view that a person who has liberated himself from all the selfish desires is the one who is consoled by the great religious feeling. He is able to connect himself to the thoughts, feelings and desires that are above the self interest.

Einstein reckoned that the religious feeling had originated as a consequence of various emotional feelings. He classified religion into three stages– religion of fear, moral religion and cosmic religious feeling. Religious feeling took birth in the primitive human society as a result of fear and apprehension. The cause of this fear was– hunger, wild animals, diseases and death. To get rid of such fear, human fantasy led to the creation of Gods in man’s own image. Considering them to be his fate, man started praying these human shaped Gods.

The second stage of religion is the moral stage. With the progress of civilization, the human desires for love, guidance and support had given birth to the social or moral conception of God. In Einstein’s own words– ‘this is the God of Providence.’ This spiritual wisdom protects man from trouble. He is rewarded or punished; the moral God preserves the soul after death. This God has the genuine love for every living creature, every human being. Man worships this God for comfort in sorrow and unsatisfied longing. At this present phase of human race, all religions are basically moral religions.

Religion of fear and moral religion– ‘the anthropomorphic character of the conception of God’ is prevalent in both of these. But Einstein found both of these to be a prejudice, of which we should always be alert. If we are captivated in the fear of punishment or in the hope of reward, the race will take a snail’s pace!

Einstein termed the third religion at the cosmic religious feeling. In this religion, one neither speaks of the physical existence of God nor of any hard and fast theory. Any one, inclined to this religion, “looks upon individual existence as a sort of prison and wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole.” Einstein, a follower of this belief said that the inclination of all great moral teachers of humanity in all ages was towards the cosmic religious feeling. In this religion the very concept of a human God is utterly irrelevant so is any religious bigotry. For him, the most important duty of art and science is to awake this feeling and keep it alive. Anyone who is convinced about the ‘universal operation of the law of causation’ can never for a moment think of a physical God, capable of rewarding or punishing. He wrote, “I maintain that cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest incitement to scientific research.” Only the cosmic religious feeling gives man the energy and inspiration to stick to his goal after repeated failures. Einstein opined that in this materialistic age of ours, the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.

Einstein was an ocean of humanity. Not only that, be it science, philosophy, sociology or politics– he has enriched every sphere of the society with his fundamental thinking. This genius, ever-eager for global peace, significantly kept two portraits in his study, one of Mahatma Gandhi and the other of Socrates. He said, “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward... the world needs permanent, peace and lasting good will.”

At dawn on 18 April, 1955, a wireless message had spread all over the world– “Einstein is no more. The sun of the century has finally set.” Really, Albert Einstein was the sun of the twentieth century, by whose splendour, the human race will always be illuminated.
(Published on the occasion of Einstein’s 54th death anniversary)