Amitav Ghosh,a man of versatile genius, ranks with Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan. His fame rests in his sharp and penetrating sensitivity in depicting the human travelogue at microcosmic as well as epic scale. Amitav Ghosh's training as an anthropologist has been an important formative factor in his books. Travelling comes naturally to him. As such much of what he has written is travel based but this small book ‘Countdown’(1999) is a pure travelogue by Amitav Ghosh.
The present paper is an attempt at exploring the Pokhran Psyche from the point of view of South Asia’s nuclear summer. 'Countdown', a travelogue by Amitav Ghosh, deals with a panorama of things – the author's visit to Pokharan, Pakistan and Siachen; his conversation with many
…show more content…
Nuclear bombs were status-enhancing: India could finally become a "global player". It was, as Ghosh writes, "a primal scream for self-assertion".Equally chilling is the difference in how the two countries perceive their nouveau nuclear status. While nuclear-bombs appear to be "harmless icons of empowerment" for many Indian experts, their Pakistani counterparts fear a nuclear conflagration.
Ghosh is not playing polemicist: while his instincts have him on the side of the anti-nuclear, he starts out with an open mind. The novelist was in New York when the tests were carried out. The finger-wagging against India by countries already comfortable under their nuclear umbrellas made him "put my own beliefs on nuclear matters aside" and see for himself the "arguments" of both countries. Ghosh begins, astutely enough, at the Pokhran site itself. There is a gripping tale by the villagers of the 1998 nuclear tests - and a horrifying account of the long-term consequences of the 1974 blasts, which caused cancers, rashes and natal deformities.
His work Countdown (1999) is a short piece of non-fiction, which questions the wisdom of politicians in following nuclear programmes in the subcontinent. He warns of the dangerous consequences of pursuing pro-nuclear
…show more content…
It is indeed terrifying to imagine the destruction that such an explosion will cause in densely populated cities like Mumbai, Karachi, Delhi and Lahore. Ghosh also meets liberal activists in Pakistan like Asma Jahangir. She also feels that the two countries are engaged in an unnecessary and imaginary race. She rightly feels that the policies of the two countries are irrational and adhoc. There is lots of false propaganda. She almost sounds desperate in her hope, “I think once you break the barriers of disinformation, people's own instincts are what we have to depend on. I feel hopeful." (P.81) For Ghosh, as for any thinking Indian, India-Pakistan relations have always been intriguing. He wanted to have a first-hand experience of the people's expression.Countdown is a deeply psychologically revealing analysis of the attitudes that lead to extreme animosity, abhorrence and suspicion between these two neighboring
After the first Hydrogen bomb was tested on November 1st 1952, many nations desired its power and a worldwide arms race for hydrogen bombs began. “August 12 [, 1953]: First test of Soviet thermonuclear device (Andrei Sakharov 's "Layer Cake") takes place.”(9). The USSR is the first to follow in the footsteps of the United States, since it was during the cold war, the USSR was basically forced to build and test a hydrogen bomb to prove their power and technological advancements. For the USSR, building this bomb had many prospects that made it very desirable, one was an increase in nationalism, and a showcase to the world of their power; possibly a fear tactic for easier imperialism, secondly: this gave them an economic boost as well as a boost to production: workers would take pride in what they did and therefore were more motivated to work hard. “NEW DELHI, May 17 [, 1998]— In a disclosure with potential to accelerate further a nuclear arms race with Pakistan, Indian scientists confirmed today that the largest of the five underground nuclear tests they conducted last week involved a hydrogen bomb”(10) India too followed in the arms race, their test came later yet “The news conference in New Delhi turned into another occasion for Indians to demonstrate soaring pride over the nuclear tests. The scientists were applauded by Indian reporters, asked for their autographs and generally treated much
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986. Steeves, Lynne; Moreno-Riano, Gerson. Points of View: Nuclear Proliferation, 2009. Aliprandini, Michael; Goodwin, Chuck.
The main parties who is associated with the debate are governments, experts, and the country people. These people have given out their opinions regarding the effects of nuclear ene...
The development and usage of the first atomic bombs has caused a change in military, political, and public functionality of the world today. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki revolutionized warfare by killing large masses of civilian population with a single strike. The bombs’ effects from the blast, extreme heat, and radiation left an estimated 140,000 people dead. The bombs created a temporary resolution that lead to another conflict. The Cold War was a political standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States that again created a new worldwide nuclear threat. The destructive potential of nuclear weapons had created a global sweep of fear as to what might happen if these terrible forces where unleashed again. The technology involved in building the first atomic bombs has grown into the creation of nuclear weapons that are potentially 40 times more powerful than the original bombs used. However, a military change in strategy has came to promote nuclear disarmament and prevent the usage of nuclear weapons. The technology of building the atomic bomb has spurred some useful innovations that can be applied through the use of nuclear power. The fear of a potential nuclear attack had been heightened by the media and its release of movies impacting on public opinion and fear of nuclear devastation. The lives lost after the detonation of the atomic bombs have become warning signs that changed global thinking and caused preventative actions.
Stokesbury, James. “World War II and the Nuclear Age.” The History Professor. Jan 2012. 7 Feb
“Not again,” an article published by Arundhati Roy in the British newspaper, The Guardian, is a scathing denunciation of the United States and its current expansionism. Though Roy certainly is not representative of Indian public opinion on the United States war on Iraq—or on any subject for that matter—her article does manage to bring up several issues that are of importance to India as a developing country. Through her primary message of denouncing U.S. foreign policy, Roy also addresses two issues that are central to India today: the potential nuclear conflict with
Mastery of the material an author writes about is not merely enough to get one’s point across, yet Butor uses his mastery of how to travel wherever you are in life and, in addition, uses language that presents the picture in such a manner that one does not have to delve deep into the meaning behind the words to retain the full idea portrayed in them. The higher arching purpose to his work, though, turns out to be the overall connection of ties between the book and travel ultimately depends on the book’s “literariness” to determine what journey one might have while reading (83). All in all, the tone of voice and writing style that Butor uses in this piece are second to none in their ability to influence a reader of following his procedure of travel transformation, and a rhetorical analysis essay on his work only reassured the authenticity of the section about how Butor chose to entertain the reader as the main purpose behind his essay. His attitude toward the audience was strong enough to elicit advice that originated straight from the heart, and in doing that, he empowered readers with the ability to look at books and reading differently for the rest of their
From the creation of nuclear weapons at the start of the Cold War to today, the world has experienced struggles fueled by the want of nuclear power. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Iran’s nuclear weapon program are some of the most important conflicts over nuclear weapons. Thanks to the use of nuclear weapons in 1945 to end World War II, the world has come extremely close to a nuclear war, and more countries have began developing nuclear power. Unmistakably, many conflicts since the start of the Cold War have been caused by nuclear weapons, and there are many more to come.
The use of nuclear power in the mid-1980s was not a popular idea on account of all the fears that it had presented. The public seemed to have rejected it because of the fear of radiation. The Chernobyl accident in the Soviet Union in April of 1986 reinforced the fears, and gave them an international dimension (Cohen 1). Nevertheless, the public has to come to terms that one of the major requirements for sustaining human progress is an adequate source of energy. The current largest sources of energy are the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas. Fear of radiation may push nuclear power under the carpet but another fear of the unknown is how costly is this going to be? If we as the public have to overcome the fear of radiation and costly project, we first have to understand the details of nuclear energy. The known is a lot less scary then the unknown. If we could put away all the presumptions we have about this new energy source, then maybe we can understand that this would be a good decision for use in the near future.
Scott D. Sagan, the author of chapter two of “More Will Be Worse”, looks back on the deep political hostilities, numerous crises, and a prolonged arms race in of the cold war, and questions “Why should we expect that the experience of future nuclear powers will be any different?” The author talks about counter arguments among scholars on the subject that the world is better off without nuclear weapons. In this chapter a scholar named Kenneth Waltz argues that “The further spread of nuclear weapons may well be a stabilizing factor in international relations.” He believes that the spread of nuclear weapons will have a positive implications in which the likely-hood of war decreases and deterrent and defensive capabilities increase. Although there
Riot (2001), Shashi Tharoor’s third novel is set in the context of a fictitious riot that has resemblance to the riot that rocked Uttar Pradesh in 1989 as an aftermath of the Babri Masjid- Ram Janmabhoomi controversy. Tharoor unravels the history of communal India from the fictional context of the investigation of the death of a twenty-four year old idealistic American girl, Priscilla Hart, who was slain in India in the riot. From its premises, Tharoor also communicates his ideas “about ownership of history, cultural collision, religious fanaticism and the impossibility of knowing the truth” (
Lawrence Auster wrote an eye-opening blog excerpt titled India and Pakistan: Why the Mass Killing Occurred. The content of this excerpt explore the fundamental issues of identity and religion that led to the violence in 1947. The author makes his point by utilizing current event such as the train massacre in 2002, in which 50 Hindu women and children were burned alive. The blog is for an audience with some prior knowledge on the topic and continues to expand upon that knowledge. The blog is a secondary source because it introduces its own unique ideas regarding the issue and was written after the time of the event. It was very helpful to my research because it simplifies the wordy information often found on scholarly sites and condenses it into something comprehensible and relatable to the reader.
It combines social, cultural, and political history with the hardships and goal of a travel book. With Kim, a young white boy, sahib, at its center and his friend and mentor the Lama, we see the world of India in the nineteenth century as it is ruled by Great Britain. The story unfolds against the backdrop of The Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. It is set after the Second Afghan War which ended in 1881, but before the Third. The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India.
Many of the classical travel narratives of the past are presented with a main character, with the story revolving around their journey and experience in foreign places. Examples of the traditional way of travel writing are classics like Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby, which is about the writers’ journey to Italy and how he met different people, including his wife, throughout the trip (Dalrymple & Theroux, 2011). There are also recent books like Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert which talks about a middle-aged woman’s travel experience as well as her self-discovery during her trip to India. It is a traditional way of travel writing to be a personal narrative and focus on a hero or heroine. In this essay, I will talk about a piece of writing conforming to this idea and another that does not, they are, namely Triumph on Mount Everest by Stacy Allison and Why We Travel by Pico Lyer.
...shown through Lenny’s point of view. Prior the partition, Lahore was a place of tolerance that enjoyed a secular state. Tension before the partition suggested the division of India was imminent, and that this would result in a religious. 1947 is a year marked by human convulsion, as 1 million people are reported dead because of the partition. Moreover, the children of Lahore elucidate the silences Butalia seeks in her novel. The silence of survivors is rooted to the nature of the partition itself; there is no clear distinction as to who were the antagonists. The distinction is ambiguous, the victims were Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims, and moreover these groups were the aggressors, the violent. The minority in this communal violence amongst these groups was the one out-numbered. This epiphany of blame is embarked in silence, and roots from the embodiment of violence.