RECALCITRANCE: A novel on the events of 1857

I couldn’t have asked for more apt hour to write about “Recalcitrance” when there is already one going across India. “Oppressed” and “meek” rising from their dreamless slumber. This recalcitrance is not restricted to only one country but is fast disseminating to the whole world.  Spare me as I am not going to talk about the current revolt anymore. Instead, I will concentrate on the one that happened 154 years ago.

“Recalcitrance: A novel on the events of 1857” written by Mr. Anurag Kumar of Lucknow is a significant composition which bring to our sight how the revolution would have been among the masses, the commoners. It will be better if I first say something about the background in which the novel is setup. The novel specifically deals with a city called Lucknow, located in India. India was in the midst of First War of Independence, 1857. The struggle which initially started with the mutiny of soldiers refusing to bite cartridges, spread to the masses like a wild fire. Everyone was devoted to stop the Britishers from defiling their religion and culture. Lucknow played an extremely crucial role in this war. I think this much background is enough to enjoy the novel, revealing more will do injustice to the writer. The novel contains a lot of characters representing different sections and religions of the society who were united by the common cause. Some of them are saints and intellectuals who contribute with their sermons and wisdom, others by the rebellious spirit of youthfulness and remaining play the part with actions driven by their conscience. Thus we see a wonderful representation of all the factions of the society. Recalcitrance’s content is spread across thirty-two chapters with a glossary at the end to assist the usage of Hindi words in the novel.

Residency before siege

Although it was difficult to find a central character but “Chote Bhaiya” gets mentioned most of the time. I lead to this conclusion because he is the only one whose family, love and friends are described in a comprehensive way. The novel has its basis in the siege of Residency and the relief attempts by the Britishers. Along with the historical part we also get an insight of the lives of commoners, their sacrifices and their vacillations. The love life of Chote Bhaiya gives zest to the one who reads. One is also fascinated by the character of Farheen. Some other important characters are Tek Chand, Karim Kahn and Narenderlal. For more I recommend you read the novel.

Another thing which is not so important but I liked it for some reason, maybe because we were slave for nearly 200 years, is the usage of British version of English. Leaving a few instances you will find most of the words following British standards. I was tired of American words used in every article or other compositions and found it quite refreshing.

Although I want to talk more about the novel but that would reveal more than required. Recalcitrance is an extremely effective novel bringing out to the light the significance of Lucknow city in the revolt about which very few are aware of. Even the natives don’t know it. So if you have a taste for history and simultaneously want to enjoy a novel I recommend you read it.

Residency now...in Lucknow

In the end I would to thanks Mr. Anurag Kumar, who go by the username”@anuragkumarlko” on Twitter  and which is the only way I know  him, for providing the soft copy of the novel to me. Enjoy the “Recalcitrance” because that’s where the future and present lies.   

Futility of War

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."This assertion by Voltaire summarizes an essential trait of war. The trait is "kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets".

You can look for a war or more precisely identify a war by this quality. That is, in a war, it is definite that there is a massacre and that to justified to the society by some potent means. Now to prove it to you I will not involve in circumlocution of words, rather I will spill out facts and leave it to you to make further judgements.

Let us look at the casualties in the World War I. There were 16.5 million reported deaths.21 million were wounded. Out of the total deaths, 9.7 million were military deaths and 6.8 million were civilians. The Entento powers (Allied forces) had 5.7 million deaths. On the other hand Central Powers (Axis) had 4 million death counts. We can conclude, regardless of the result both sides suffered heavy losses. We got what we were looking for. The first one being "killing in large numbers" and the other "to the sound of trumpets". That is "a massacre" and justification to that massacre. If it was not justified, World War II would not have happened.

Moving on to World War II the total civilian death count was between 40 to 52 million. A significant part of it is attributed to famines and war related diseases. Military deaths ranged between 22 to 25 million. USSR alone had 26.6 million deaths.80 % of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War II. Jews holocaust deaths ranged between 4.8 million to 5.8 million. What can be safely concluded from the above facts is that those who suffered most included ordinary people, who were neither a part nor would have desired to be a part of the war.

The wrath of war didn’t spare the innocent. Neither did it distinguish the culprit. One would say, like a typical American, that World War II was a "good war" since it aimed at ending the atrocities under Third Reich. But to confront them I would like to put forward some more facts and these facts themselves speak about the atrocities of the Allies. It is not possible to bring out every single incidence in such a small briefing. Civilian air raid deaths that happened in Germany were around 5,43000 much higher than that in Britain, which were 60,400. Between 1939 and 1945 Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs which averaged out to be 27,700 tons of bombs a month. Apart from the destruction caused by arsenals, a war is generally characterized by rapes, looting and destruction of enemy properties.

Late in the World War II, Yugoslavia's communist partisans complained about rapes and looting committed by the Soviet Army while traversing their country. Milovan Djilas later recalled Joseph Stalin's response,

"Does Djilas, who is himself a writer, not know what human suffering and the human heart are? Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?" The total resources wasted in the World War II could have provided for every single need on the planet. Since September 2001 terrorism has killed 4300 civilians whereas the war on terror has killed more than 2 million civilians. Each year U.S. spends more on war and destruction than the entire planet spends on health care .Even the remotest of reason could not be found to justify these wars.

                                                                                                Modern wars have been bloodier than their medieval counterparts because weapon’s technology had made it too sophisticated to be controllable by Homo sapiens. Although the wars in medieval and earlier times were definitely heinous, modern wars are more destructive due to the nexus between corporations and the poles involved in a war. Big corporations disguise the brutality of their deeds in the name of professionalism. I would like to put before you the rearmament drive by Hitler which has the backing of many well to do American firms. Ford's German branch plant has posted heavy losses in early 1930's, however, with the help of Hitler's rearmament drive, the Ford-Werke's annual profits rose spectacularly from 63,000 Reichmarks in 1935 to 1,287,800 Reichmarks in 1939. When Americans landed in Normandy in 1944 and captured their first German trucks, they discovered that these vehicles were powered by engines produced by American firms such as Ford and General Motors. Many firms who were struggling with the Great Depression were made to boom by the Hitler's rearmament program. While the workers in the factories were reduced to a little more than serfs, corporations and war materials were booming with new energy. Futility of the defaced word "Professionalism " is justified by a statement by the Chairman of General Motors in 1939.On the eve of war, Alfred P. Sloan, defended doing business under Third Reich on the pretext of profit. German subsidiary of IBM, Dehomag , provided the Nazis with punched-card readers.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     In nutshell, there are numerous instances where the war, bootless and illogical, is supplemented by equally futile and illogical business.

                                        Now after citing facts, let us have a look at how a war is waged and its outcome. A general question would be how come so many, at the same time, can feel in favour of a war. It is possible to fool a few, undoubtedly, but how learned scholars, big politicians, billions of ordinary people can feel in the same way. The answer to this is simple. It is the government which controls the major sources of communication. So for those who feel ignorance is bliss, I must say the number is sufficiently high, do not hesitate to believe what their government has already prepared for them in the name of patriotism. Remember when I quoted Voltaire-"to the sound of trumpets"-“the sound of trumpets” is nothing but the dissemination of a feeling of false patriotism. Those who fall prey to patriotism and nationalism include both ordinary citizens and soldiers.

                   Outcome of war is always annihilation, annihilation of the purpose for which it is fought, annihilation of thing which was supposed to be untouched by the war. Usually, the later is more common. You can see all this in the wars of 20^th century and 21^st century. The cause, for which war was supposed to be fought, deserted itself from those who were fighting it. What remained was the madness and desire to kill, to destroy, devour. A war can only sow a seed for another war because “like gives birth to like”.