Asia's missiles strike at the
heart By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Even as India and Pakistan
press ahead with confidence-building measures
contributing to a new bonhomie between them, they
seem loathe to abandon old habits. Pakistan naming
its first cruise missile Babar could signal that
one and a half years into the peace process,
Islamabad's hostility-driven, missile-naming
tradition remains largely unchanged. But there is
a change in the mindset, albeit marginal, that
many might be missing.
On August 11,
Pakistan test-fired its first cruise missile. The
missile, which has a range of 310 miles and is
capable of carrying nuclear and conventional
warheads, was tested barely two days after India
and Pakistan formalized an agreement on notifying
each other in advance about missile tests. The
failure to notify
Delhi did annoy some in
India. But in testing Babar, Pakistan was not
violating the text of the agreement as the missile
tested is not a ballistic one and does not fall
under the scope of the agreement. Meanwhile,
the cruise missile's name has ruffled some
feathers in India. It was named after Babar, a
Muslim king from Central Asia who centuries ago
invaded India and founded the Moghul dynasty.
While Babar is looked upon with regard by most
Indians as the founder of the Moghul dynasty
rather than as an invader, the naming of the
missile after Babar has not gone down well with
some who still see it as part of a Pakistani
convention of naming missiles after Muslim
invaders of India. Ghauri, Ghaznavi and Abdali are
some of other names Pakistan has given its
missiles. The names are of Muslim kings who
invaded India between the 11th and 18th century.
In 1988, when India test-fired its
surface-to-air missile, Prithvi, Pakistan
responded by not only testing a missile the
following year but also by naming it Ghauri. In
that case, Pakistan named its missile after
misunderstanding the Indian missile-naming
tradition. Pakistan believed Prithvi was named
after Prithvi Raj Chauhan, a 12th century Hindu
ruler in northern India. Consequently, it chose
the name Ghauri for its response. Mohammed Ghauri
was an Afghan warlord who in the 12th century
invaded India and waged two wars against Prithvi
Raj Chauhan. Mohammed Ghauri was defeated in the
first battle but returned to inflict a crushing
defeat on Prithvi Raj the following year.
But that is not how the name Prithvi was
derived. Prithvi means earth, and the Indian
convention is to name missiles after the elements.
It was this logic that prompted India to name its
subsequent missiles Agni (fire) and Akash (sky).
Many Indians might have dismissed
Pakistan's naming of the first missile it
test-fired as Ghauri as the result of that
misunderstanding had Islamabad stopped with
Ghauri. It did not. Subsequent Pakistani missiles
have carried the names of Muslim invaders,
particularly notorious for looting Hindu temples.
The Ghaznavi missiles are named after
Mahmud Ghaznavi (971-1030), an Afghan warlord who
is described in history books as a destroyer of
Hindu temples. Mahmud Ghaznavi directed his
attacks on the temple towns of Thanesar, Mathura,
Kannauj and Somnath, and stripped these temples of
their wealth, then destroyed them. The Abdali
missiles are named after Ahmed Shah Abdali
(1724-1773), an Afghan king whose invasion of
India is particularly notorious for its month-long
pillage of Delhi.
Names of missiles have
the capacity to generate passionate debate in the
sub-continent that is almost as heated as that
over the missile capabilities. Most Pakistanis
continue to believe that Indian missile names "are
inspired by Hindu history". Some admit that
Pakistan misinterpreted the naming of the Prithvi
missile but the general perception is that the
Indian missile names are linked to history.
Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based
academic, told Asia Times Online that "the names
of some Indian missiles – Agni and Prithvi for
instance - appear to have cultural and historical
reference points". A student from Karachi told
this correspondent that "the names of Indian
missiles are offensive to the subcontinent's
Muslims."
"The Prithvi missile was named
after a Hindu king, Agni refers to the God of
Fire, not fire the element, and the Trishul
missile has been named after the trishul [trident]
wielded by the Hindu God Siva," he said.
Indians dismiss these allegations as
unfounded. It is true that fire and earth are
worshipped by Hindus and nature worship is an
important aspect of Hinduism. "But the naming of
missiles after the elements does not have
religious underpinnings, neither does it evoke
hostile imagery nor is it offensive to Muslim
sensibilities," insisted a retired Indian Defense
Ministry official.
He points out that not
all Pakistani missiles are named after invaders.
"Names like Hatf [Prophet Mohammed's sword, which
according to legend never missed its target] might
be drawn from Islam, but these are not offensive
to Indian or Hindu sensibilities," he said.
A look at Indian and Pakistani blogs on
the subject would indicate how closely the names
of missiles are watched, the sharp emotions they
evoke and the extent to which the issues
surrounding the names are dissected. Several
Indian bloggers point out that the Muslim rulers
after whom Pakistan named its missiles were
Afghans, who before plundering territory lying in
what is today India, ransacked towns in present
day Pakistan.
One blogger points out: "The
funny thing is Babar [after whom the missile
test-fired in August is named] fought against
Ibrahim Lodhi, a Muslim king. So Babar must have
killed a good number of Muslims in his conquest.
Same with Nadir Shah, Ghaznavi and Ghauri [who]
must have raped a large number of women in the
border areas of India, which is presently
Pakistan."
So what drives the
missile-naming tradition? Ammara Durrani,
assistant editor at the Pakistani English daily
The News, told Asia Times Online that Pakistan's
naming of its missiles "after traditional Muslim
war heroes" and the Indian government's naming of
its missiles "in no less historically militant
terms" are not surprising. "Both establishments
know that thanks to the largely antagonistic and
falsified accounts of history taught to their mass
populations, these names would have more resonance
and mass appeal for their respective populations
in hating the enemy and glorifying the arms for
their annihilation. For the vested interests of
the two establishments, what better way to
perpetuate the India-Pakistan conflict than to
induce in it symbolism - through historical
references such as the missile names - of the
centuries' old Hindu-Muslim and invader-vanquished
hostile frames of thought?" she asked.
The
BBC's Islamabad correspondent Zafar Abbas points
out, "Pakistan has never given any specific reason
for naming these missiles after such historical
figures. But the symbolism is a clear reflection
of the official mindset in the country. It shows
that for Islamabad, the present conflict with
India is a continuation of the battles of the past
between people described in Pakistani history
books as just Muslim invaders and several of
India's cruel Hindu emperors."
For both
the Indian and Pakistani governments the missile
program is as much about enhancing military
capabilities vis-a-vis the other as it is about
sending signals to their own domestic audiences.
India's former chief of army staff General V P
Malik wrote that the display of models of the
latest missiles is an important part of the
military parades "to convey and often exaggerate
technological and military capabilities".
A successful missile test is projected to
domestic audiences as a major national technical
breakthrough and acquisition of an important
capability, as a significant achievement of the
government. Models of ballistic missiles were
erected and displayed in several Pakistani cities,
reminders of the Pakistan government's macho
military image and of its "fitting response" to
India's nuclear-missile program.
To some
Indians the names given to recent Pakistani
missiles holds out some hope. True, the Babar
missile is named after yet another Muslim invader,
but he figures in the sub-continent's imagination
more as a king who invaded and stayed to found a
glorious empire rather than as a plunderer. Noted
Indian security analyst and author of the
forthcoming book Minimum Deterrence and India's
Nuclear Security , Rajesh Basrur, points out
that Babar defeated another Muslim king to found
the Moghul dynasty in India. "So maybe [the naming
tradition] is just down to power and success now,"
he said.
An attempt to create distance
from medieval, hostile, negative imagery in naming
missiles is more evident in the case of the
Shaheen missile. Durrani argues that "the name
Shaheen [eagle in Urdu] could be an attempt by the
Pakistani government to introduce a modern
language of symbolism, one that falls less on
martial references of medieval times, and derives
more universal appeal from concepts of
enlightenment and progressiveness, as envisaged by
[Pakistan's national poet] Mohammed Iqbal
[respected in India as well], who urged Muslims of
the sub-continent to 'fly like an eagle' in its
quest for progress and unity. This move could be
an attempt by the Pakistani government to make a
slight departure from its traditional approach, to
portray its modern image in tune with post-Cold
War political ethos."
Sudha
Ramachandran is an independent
journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
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