A lesson is where there is a learning over a structured period of time; and learning a lesson is to understand something because of an unpleasant experience, where the underlying message to carry home is, “will not do it again”.
The idiomatic phrase commonly used in everyday parlance that “we never learn from history” is indeed a truth, embedded in immemorial history of mankind.
History repeats itself because of the innate and obstinate refusal of mankind to accept that it does. Mankind is condemned to repeat history because it obdurately refuses and fails to remember the past. The study of history is designed to avoid repeating the same mistakes of the past.
A major weakness of recorded history is that, while it chronicles the mistakes made, but it generally fails in providing answers to how and why mistakes were made. The historians who indulge in widespread and wholesale imagination offer with no conviction to the how and why of mistakes; consequently, we end up reading fictionalised history that is divorced by miles from the actual “truth”.
Speaking truth comes only by practice; it is less a matter of will, but certainly, more a matter of habit.
In difficult times even friends become foes; some actively engage against you, while a great majority participates with equal intensity through the medium of ‘silence’. Since they are guiltless, they watch with glee and pleasure the oppression upon the hapless, the weak and the powerless.
Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, was a lonely king; when the “Company” decided to remove and banish him to the far and idle city of Rangoon (now Yangoon), not a single Maharaja, Prince or Ruler of the many states that existed then in the sub- continent and who were surviving due to the handouts of the Mughal dynasty came to his aid (1857 War of Independence).
To the contrary, they were busy currying favours with the officials of ‘The Company’. And, six decades down the road of history, there is the Ottoman Emperor, Mehmud VI, who is forced by the then global powers, ably assisted by turncoats of that geography, to abdicate, and is forcibly exiled to live in the isolated island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.
At the time of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the total area under its control and governance was 2.5 million kilometers, stretching from Anatolia to Vienna in the west and to the Persian Gulf in the east; and to Algeria in the south west, and to south east, as far as Yemen. This vast land was until then beneficiary to the largesse of the Ottoman sultans, but none came forward to help and stop the insidious political intrigue.
The conclusion from the pages of history is that when in distress expect no help from friends and brothers. The Gazans failed to read history adequately before launching the blitzkrieg upon the notorious state of Israel, on 7th October, 2023.
As a student of history, I find Hamas, complicit in the human tragedy of Himalayan proportions, that continues to unfold, even to this day. The Israeli soldiers beat up mercilessly and killed ruthlessly the worshippers, who had gathered for the congregational prayer in celebration of Eid Al Azha.
Was Hamas so naive, not to know and judge, that if they penetrated the perceived invincibility of the borders/armed forces of Israel, it would not evoke a ruthless reaction? Or, did they misjudge the anticipated reaction? Further, did they mistakenly assume that the armed forces of the Ummah would come to assist them?
The case may be, whatever; but the fact is that over 45,000 Palestinians, including men, women, children, infants and the unborn children, have been killed so far. Pregnant women were aimed and shot in their wombs!! That’s humanity’s humaneness the west lectures the world about. Genocide. It is.
The belligerence displayed, and the impunity shown towards the declarations made by the ever and perennially impotent United Nations by Israel should stand out as a good reason to close the shop. The UN has miserably and consistently, since its formation, failed in achieving its objectives — Kashmir, the flash point in the sub- continent, is also a case in point.
The International Court of Justice, that was awakened not by a Muslim country but South Africa, held out condemnation of Israel, in very strong terms with zero effect upon the intoxicated leadership of Israel. No guns have been silenced.
The torture of watching the gruesome footages of Israeli soldiers coming close to a petrified woman whose infant baby was clasped to her bosom, pumping bullets into the infant and the mother, with glee and cheers — yes, the soldiers resembled human beings. But are they?
Hundreds of thousands of children are orphaned, women are widowed and the old and infirm are losing their offspring each single day. The world silently witnesses this genocide. The outpouring of sympathy through protest processions, globally, is now a thing of mockery by the respective governments.
The Ummah, who cries hoarse in exhorting its noble teachings of feeling the pain of fellow Muslims, nay, fellow human being, has remained callously silent. The sufferings of the innocent people of Gaza are being met by celebration across the 55-57 odd Islamic (?) countries — they celebrated Eid festival oblivious to the plight of the brethren in Gaza. It is not just about the sullen silence of the Ummah, it is also as much about the heartless attitude of the human race.
Sending humanitarian aid is insufficient. More has to be done. The onslaught of barbarism must stop. Israel should be contained. Hamas must do some introspection. They must come to realise that self-interest of countries, is more cardinally important than just a cause, however noble, it may be. No help, they received.
Israel bombed the hell out of the poor innocent civilians, all of who may not be part or even sympathisers of Hamas. The world just continues to look on. The truckloads of TV channels are having a field day, reporting human misery and loss of lives. The saga is continuing.
Neville Chamberlain reportedly, prior to World War II, had forewarned about the bully on the continent—Adolf Hitler’s ambitions to conquer and subjugate Europe.
He wasn’t listened to. Adolf quietly started swallowing up the neighbouring states; nobody came to the rescue of Austria, Poland, France, etc.
Encouraged and emboldened by the impotency of the British, he launched upon Britain. And only then did the British realise the demon they were to deal with. Israel is a bully state. If it is not stopped, the map of the Middle East may look very different in the next decade or earlier. Bullies are essentially cowards, and cowards understand only one language—that of threat, intimidation and relentless reaction.
John Ruskin, a Victorian era writer of repute, in his celebrated book “Fors Clavigera” sums up human behaviour beautifully, “The good man, living in mistaken effort, and dying miserably, to the ruin of his country; the bad man, living in triumphant good fortune, and dying peaceably, to the ruin of many countries.”
Further, as if he was witnessing Gaza of now, he expounds, “The essence of all vulgarity lies in the want of sensation. Simple and innocent vulgarity is merely an untrained and undeveloped bluntness of body and mind; but in true inbred vulgarity, there is deathful callousness, which in extremity, becomes capable of every sort of bestial habit and without pity. It is in the blunt hand and the dead heart, in the diseased habit, in the hardened conscience, that men become vulgar; they are forever vulgar, precisely in proportion, as they are incapable of sympathy…”
The events from Gaza are lessons for the weak and vulnerable countries; they must know that they are alone. There are no friends — there is only self-interest. We must keep visiting our own drawing board of capability to hit back for we do live, in dangerous times, and in a hostile neighbourhood. Truth shall prevail over falsehood — but it exacts a very heavy price of sacrifice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
The writer is a senior banker & freelance contributor
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