I recently picked up at a book sale a copy of "The Miscellany," edited by P. Lal, and published in Calcutta. Issue #51 (June 1972), was one of three devoted to the then recently-deceased, at age 41, David McCutchion. An Englishman, David McCutchion was a lover of India, but not of the william-dalrympish sort, that is the kind who loves the luxe of the Moghul court and its love intrigues. Nor was he the kind of Englishman (also william-dalrympish) of the walking-across-half-a-continent-when-young sort, making use of local color of the human interest kind, often grizzled or wizened or wizenedly grizzled picturesque Muslims, to do the work for him. (These are downmarket Byrons and Newbys, not to mention the now-unfashionable, because bookish, traveller Gide in "Le Retour du Tchad.")
Rather, McCutchion was a true scholar, an Indophile who studied brick temples in Bengal, and Indian writing. He was a friend of Satyajit Ray and all sorts of interesting people in Calcutta who never get the attention in the West that all those anti-Western islamisant arundhati-roys manage to get.
I read through “The Miscellany” #51 -- and discovered a tribute from the Sanskrit (and Buddhism) scholar Richard Gombrich (son of E. H.). He opened his essay, titled “His Work Is Unrepeatable,” with this:
“The recent death of Mr. David McCutchion in Calcutta at the age of 41 is a catastrophe for oriental studies.” Gombrich describes McCutchion as a scholar who “devoted all his time, his money, and his exceptional energy and enthusiasm, to the study of arts and monuments which are fast disappearing. He tramped all over Bengal, both West and East, taking notes and photographs; his knowledge of the countryside was famous. A self-taught photographer, he spared no pains to take the perfect shot; and he leaves well over ten thousand colour slides and as many black and white photographs of high professional quality…..His greatest specialties were Bengali temple architecture and terra-cotta sculpture, the latter a lost skill of whose monuments little is known to the wider world; he also studied and collected Bengali scroll paintings. He explored many other parts of India too, and recorded even Gupta temples previously unknown.”
And a little more, taken from a website:
“David McCutchion (1930-1972), English-born scholar, Indophile and early critic of Raja Rao, was an authentic pioneer: in his short lifetime...made a major contribution to the study of Bengali temples...one of the first scholars to write on the now much commented subject of Indian Writing in English....Born in Coventry, David attended that city's King Henry VIII Grammar School. He made it to Cambridge University the hard way, on intellectual merit alone. He read Modern Languages (French and German) at Jesus College. After graduating in 1953, he taught English for two years in southern France. He went to India in 1957. He worked there first as an English teacher...and later, as Professor and then Reader in Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Calcutta.... David's ground-breaking study of Bengali brick temples, The Temples of Bankura District, was published by Writers Workshop in 1972.”
David McCutchion lived through the war made by West Pakistan (now Pakistan) on East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1970-71. This was a war in which Muslim fanatics in East Pakistan, locally called razakars, joined forces with the raping and murdering army of West Pakistan. They accepted the argument that what was good for Pakistan -- that is, staying one country -- was necessarily good for Islam, and what was good for Islam was all that mattered.
Here is how, in a letter from England to a friend, McCuthion described the behavior of Pakistan:
“…We are raising funds [for those in what was then East Pakistan being murdered by the army of West Pakistan and its local, fervently Muslim East Pakistani collaborators], and hope to see the Minister of Overseas Development. What do I think of it all? Appalling…Pakistan shou’d never have existed -- it has cost more lives than the whole of the British Empire in 200 years. What should I think of a culture that burns down the British Council library in Lahore because an English publisher printed a picture of Mahomet? Fanaticism plus Machiavellianism plus brutality equals Islamic Pakistan.”
One More Time:
"What do I think of it all? Appalling...Pakistan shou'd never have existed -- it has cost more lives than the whole of the British Empire in 200 years. What should I think of a culture that burns down the British Council library in Lahore because an English publisher printed a picture of Mahomet? Fanaticism plus Machiavellianism plus brutality equals Islamic Pakistan."
Print out that last bit, and put it on your refrigerator, under the title: Pakistan.
Thanks Robert or whoever for bringing this out . There are many similar things which are hidden and they need to be brought out to understand things and current times better. Lot of things are at stake , the very survival of humanity . These jihadists and all those behind them are all either very dangerous or Stupid ( thats the least one can say ). They ( the 'M' word ) are a danger to not only US and West but to entire world. India has expereinced their games for many centuries and still it continues. The hope lies in US and West !!
Thanks Robert or whoever for bringing this out . There are many similar things which are hidden and they need to be brought out to understand things and current times better. Lot of things are at stake , the very survival of humanity . These jihadists and all those behind them are all either very dangerous or Stupid ( thats the least one can say ). They ( the 'M' word ) are a danger to not only US and West but to entire world. India has expereinced their games for many centuries and still it continues. The hope lies in US and West !!
Thanks Robert or whoever for bringing this out . There are many similar things which are hidden and they need to be brought out to understand things and current times better. Lot of things are at stake , the very survival of humanity . These jihadists and all those behind them are all either very dangerous or Stupid ( thats the least one can say ). They ( the 'M' word ) are a danger to not only US and West but to entire world. India has expereinced their games for many centuries and still it continues. The hope lies in US and West !!
Aah, Pakistan.
The Smiling Islamic land of Bullets, Bombs, and Flying Body Parts!!
Where kindergartens are opened fire upon by Islamic militants with appalling regularity (like maybe every four minutes?).
A great place NOT to visit! (And you'd never want to live there either!).
Are you aware of the partioning of the colony of India into W. Pakistan and E. Pakistan after it gained independence from Great Britain? Millions died. But, if it had not been done, the modern Pakistan AND India would not be as modern or prosperous. Ask most Pakistanis or Indians.
Where do people get this idea? Is Pakistan really that prosperous, that modern? It's news to me.
Maybe Pakistan should be split up and then it could become even MORE prosperous. You know, that might work. Let the tribal area merge with Afghanistan or become independent.
/sarc off
PMK
Who are you citing?
Hugh-
Just found a useful little volume myself, entitled: "How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History".
The core meaning of the 2nd chapter, on the Crusaders' folly at the "Horns of Hattin" in 1187, (where the panic over the loss of a piece of the "True Cross" to the armies of the Muslims broke the Crusaders' will) is something the once-again-divided-against-itself West should relearn.
Salah ed-Din (Saladin), the Kurdish Muslim "Caliph of Egypt", remained focused and kept his armies united against the infidel Christians.
He knew his goal- to rid the Middle East of heretical believers in Christ- and pursued it ruthlessly
The Crusaders, meanwhile, bickered among themselves, and blindly trusted in their technological and "moral" superiority to win the day over their "inferiors", the Mohammedan unbelievers.
And the Crusaders, in their disunity and hubris, were destroyed.
Islam, at present, is coalescing in its contempt for the kaffir dogs as the West fragments in its unhistorical wishful thinking about "peaceful" and "Abrhamic" Islam.
Our enemy knows what it wants.
What does the West want?
Makes sense, Hugh...
Much the same way of explaining the kook-fringe left that is in "Unholy Alliance" (making reference to the book of the same name) with said islamists.
Their pattern is as follows...
Hedonism breeds narcissism breeds paranoia breeds schizophrenia...only the brownshirts of the politically correct gestapo are just as violent (ironic for those claiming to be "peace" groups) as their islamist allies they collaborate with.
Strange bedfellows, indeed...but history's full of them...
hitler-stalin pact, tripartite pact, lend-lease to USSR, the UAR, robert byrd & keith ellison on the same ticket (LOL)...
...it, like $hlt, happens...and pakistan is only one example of what it will equal.
Infidel Pride,
It was a commenter on Daniel Pipes with whom I had an exchange. He took great umbrage at my daring to question him about something and this was in his reply. Just an ordinary guy. No one special. I just found it remarkable that anyone would think that after the Red Mosque and the tribal areas housing al qaeda and the calls for jihad coming from Pakistan. Where is modernity, except for A.Q. Khan?
But the guy thought he knew how to salvage the Iraq war and this was his proof that what we should have done in the very beginning was let all Iraq's neighbors go in and divide it between themselves - not partitioning, but actually dismembering Iraq.
Hugh: after reading V S Naipaul's observations on the state of moral and political collapse and poverty that Pakistan 'land of the pure' (ha ha) had already reached by the 1970s (things have only gotten worse since), I think McCutchion's deadly line 'fanaticism plus Machiavellianism plus brutality = Islamic Pakistan' was right on the money.
I will add that having examined a couple of factbooks to do with the basic social indicators for, respectively, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, it is possible to observe that Hindu-majority India, despite all its flaws, and even allowing for the disruption and 'dragging down' achieved by its aggressive Muslim minority, is still doing a good deal better than either of its Muslim-majority neighbours.
Despite those neighbours starting off, like India proper, with much the same physical and intellectual infrastructure items inherited from the British raj; and indeed, despite those neighbours having grabbed the 'plums' - the rich, well-watered valley of the Indus River, and the rampantly fertile, abundantly watered Ganges-Brahmaputra conjunction - both Bangladesh and Pakistan today have a lower female life expectancy, lower rate of female literacy (and lower literacy rate, general), and a significantly higher rate of infant mortality, than India proper.
Curse of being a 'Bharathiya Hindu' and Gift of being a 'Indian Muslim'
7/19/2007 3:40:10 AM HARAN.B.R
The terror suspect Haneef, who is cooling his heels in Australian detention center, is a close relative (cousin) of the Ahmed brothers, who were involved in the failed bombing attempts in London & Glasgow. Haneef has stayed with the Ahmed brothers in UK, lent his sim card to one of them before leaving for Australia and had been in touch with them even after coming to Australia. He was alleged to have contacts with them until the day of the failed attempts and it seems he had arranged to fly to India in the last minute. But, he, his family and his supporters claim that he is innocent and the senseless pseudo secular media of our country also toes the same line.
The pseudo-secular media, both print & electronic, has been addressing these terrorists as "Indians" or "Indian Doctors", much to the embarrassment & insult of the Indians belonging to other communities. Whereas in the past, we have seen our media addressing the members of Hindu organizations as "Hindu fundamentalists" or "Hindu fanatics" or "Saffron Brigade", etc. Our country has been an unfortunate victim of Islamic terrorism for ages and our media has never ever used the word "Islamic terrorists", while reporting all those incidents.
Our government, which lost its sleep on the plight of the family of the Jihadis (Ahmed brothers), went out of the way to express its deep concern to the Australian government on the treatment of the terror suspect Haneef, after again seeing the plight of his family, thereby interfering in the affairs of that country. The UPA government also summoned the Australian High Commissioner in India to convey its feelings. The one and only reason for all these things to happen is that, the terror suspects belong to the minority community and voicing for their welfare is deemed as a vote-catching exercise.
But, on the contrary, when the Executive Director of FCI, Mr. P.C.Ram was kidnapped & held hostage by the ULFA for months and ultimately when he got killed in the cross fire between the militants & police force, both the government & the media were unconcerned, indifferent and showed scant regards. Again, when ten people including Mines Manager Kailsh Jha and Security officer Madankumar Bora of CCI were kidnapped by Kabri Longri North Cachar Liberation front (KLNLF) militants and later, when Kailsh Jha died of heart attak in their custody and when Madankumar was killed, the government & media were not much worried! The point to note here is Ram, Kailash Jha & Madankumar were all Hindus and they were "Public Servants" and not "terrorists" or "terror suspects" belonging to minority community. But still, either the government or the media did not show much concern to the sad plight of those public servants' families and no one lost their sleep, but for those families! It seems, being a "Bharathiya Hindu" is a 'curse' and being an "Indian Muslim" is a 'Gift'! Cheers to Minority appeasement and long live our secularism! Vandemataram!
For those interested in the historic non-violent freedom of India, led by Mahatma Gandhi, the carving of muslim Pakistan from a new-born India and the inevitable blood-bath, a recommended read 'Freedom at Midnight' : http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-at-Midnight-Larry-Collins/dp/0006388515
What an Englishman realised 35 years ago, we imbecile Indians still do not realise. To top it, we elect a prime minister who sheds tears at the arrest of a Muslim and not a drop for 200+ Indians who died in the Bombay blast.
Daniel Pearl already knew that pakistan was a gangster state. He was killed because he was investigating the links between the Pakistan govt., high-level organized crime and the Saudi-sponsored business of promoting militant islam. An unholy tritity.
I repeat he was killed, the abduction was just staged as if it was a normal kidnapping for ransom, but the "kidnappers" had no intention of freeing him.
I happen to know Richard Gombrich very well. His recommendation matters enormously to me. He is a man who is personally charming and unpretentious in the extreme, but of astonishing achievement, indubitably the most important Buddhist scholar in the world - he has established the historical date of the Buddha, laid the grounds for a thorough text-historical study of the Buddhist canon, and shed floods of light on the Hindu origins of Buddhism - and a force in Hindu studies as well. He has singlehandedly placed Oxford in the front rank of Asian studies and created a generation of brilliant scholars. He is kindly, unselfish, totally free from any pretence, and a man who really has taken risks for liberty. He took a part in allowing a Russian Buddhologist, Alexander Piatigorsky, to flee the Soviet Union when the Soviet Union was worth fleeing from - even though he utterly disapproved of Piatigorsky's theories and approach. On another occasion, he extricated an unhappy Jewish student from a Balkan country. He is a friend of Aung San Suu Kyi and her late husband Michael Aris. And where Bengal is concerned, he is married to a lady from Calcutta and knows the country well. He has both the moral rank and the knowledge to speak of these things with authority.
All the more reason, then, to look up at JStor, or at Amazon, whatever one can find on Gupta temples and other matters by the late David McCutchion, who died, it is clear, much too young.