The King’s Gambit: Chapter 5 (The Diplomat)

an afterthought: there lies a bigger irony in the fact that ``India Gate`` was built by a foreign ruler. to honor Indians who fought a war for foreigners and gave up their lives in foreign lands. The soldiers of the Indian Army who died belonged to regiments of both India and Pakistan ie Rajput, Punjab, Baluch etc. They fought and died in France and Mesopotamia. It had nothing to do with Indians.

Another thing that is a little bit irritating to me being a Delhitie, where the hell are these guys staying in Delhi? Are they staying in a hotel? There is no place these guys could be staying at where they approach South Block after passing through Red Fort etc which are all in the Walled city ie Old Delhi. They would either stay in Hotels incognito, or at the Army Battle Honors Mess close to the Diplomatic enclave where the IA usually puts up foreign guests. Just something to consider...

an afterthought: there lies a bigger irony in the fact that ``India Gate`` was built by a foreign ruler. to honor Indians who fought a war for foreigners and gave up their lives in foreign lands. The soldiers of the Indian Army who died belonged to regiments of both India and Pakistan ie Rajput, Punjab, Baluch etc. They fought and died in France and Mesopotamia. It had nothing to do with Indians.

Another thing that is a little bit irritating to me being a Delhitie, where the hell are these guys staying in Delhi? Are they staying in a hotel? There is no place these guys could be staying at where they approach South Block after passing through Red Fort etc which are all in the Walled city ie Old Delhi. They would either stay in Hotels incognito, or at the Army Battle Honors Mess close to the Diplomatic enclave where the IA usually puts up foreign guests. Just something to consider...

Rafique,
1. you very quickly modified your statement from
``India`s most important nationalistic spot, the Lahore Gate, ``
to
``Is the Red Fort an Indian nationalistic spot?....... Nehru declared India`s independence from there, and the Prime Minister raises the Indian flag from here on independence day........ Doesn`t that make it a national spot?....... ``

There is a difference between ``most important`` and ``a``. There are many nationalistic spots in India, Red Fort is one among many, and Lahori Gate is not counted anywhere among them. your reviewers were wrong in this regard.
2. Had you been Indian? Yes my analysis would have been different. I would have concluded that you have not attended your school from first till 10th grade (atleast history lessons), that you have never been outside your home, and have never seen Delhi. I would have concluded you to be one of the dumbest writer.
3. Your ignorance of India absolves you from being called dumb. But you can certainly be called naive. It would be much easier, if you give that standard disclaimer ``.. all places, characters and ... bear no resemblance to ...`` and forget talking about research part.

Regards

Dear Rafique

``I would like to ask you one question...... From your names, would I be correct in assuming that all three gentelmen are are from India?....... If you are, could I ask you whether your analysis would have been different had I been an Indian writing exactly the same lines?..... If it would have been different, then maybe you are being overly patriotic``

I am from India and I can assure you that my reaction would have been the same even if an Indian had written the lines in question. Actually Marxist and Communist press in India spews out even more objectionable and subjective opinions, and worse still in the name of history unlike you who doesn`t claim any historicity. So let me tell you that I have actually followed all your chapters up till now and I found your story quite interesting save a few objectionable statements. But then I consider it your prerogative to say or include what you want in your story. I just wrote what I felt was not a proper representation of India with some (incorrect)comments on the Indian history or Nehru being the ``Hindu ruler`` unfair to the Indian political system (democracy).

Now something about the story. You rightly say that a novel is not the narration of facts. Infact it is the subjectivity that provides a personal touch and makes a story interesting. With that in mind you have done a pretty good job till now. Your story seems to have a very long incubation stage where you set the background for the main action or the central theme. I am yet to see a dominant character in your story and IMO, you are attempting to develop too many characters. Just a suggestion :- how about developing a few imp characters before the main action followed by the development of dominant protaganists as the story progresses through the action stage. I am curious about how you would create a situation for the interaction of these varied characters, which should be interesting.

Regards

AlphaNull, Friend, Pankaj.....; You have made some vaild points, and some, in my opinion, which seem invalid. Some answers to the points you have made:

1. I will leave it upto the, ``charlatans`` who are reviewing these chapters to disclose their names, if they want...... Some of them visit this site, now and then. The primary qualification I looked for was that they would not worry about my nationality nor their own......

2. All novels are written within a, ``spectrum of subjectivity.`` .....That is what makes them interesting..... As long as there can be a Yes or No argument on a point, it is fair game..... Novels are not science books, which have to be a Yes from every possible direction.

3. A lover of IBM could make a good point that reorganizing IBM is a much tougher job than reorganizing the Indian military...... An overly patriotic American could argue that the US military is much larger than the Indian military, since the correct criteria for measuring military strength are budgets and not the number of soldiers...... I made the opposite argument in this Chapter....... Am I correct?...... Subjectively Yes and subjectively No.

3. Is the Red Fort an Indian nationalistic spot?....... Nehru declared India`s independence from there, and the Prime Minister raises the Indian flag from here on independence day........ Doesn`t that make it a national spot?....... This would make it the equivalent of Pakistan`s Minar-e-Pakistan, which is considered a national monument....... Are these the most nationalistic spots?...... Subjectively Yes and subjectively No.

3. Is Nehru the first Hindu ruler of India in 800 years?...... Technically, since there was no united country called India before 1947, he is the first....... Were there Hindu rulers of portions of India before? Yes....... Did any one group rule all of what is India right now for 800 years? No...... Even the British gave semi-independent rules to princes and nawabs. And they didn`t rule over Sikh areas till late........ But we still say they were the rulers of India for plus/minus 200 years....... Similarly, we say the Mughals were the rulers of India, even though they didn`t control all of India...... Usually, the most powerful group, or the group with the greatest land under control is refered to as ruler, even if they did not control all the land....... Whom would you say was the most powerful ruler of the land now called India, before the British? I would say, it was the Mughals. ........Will everyone agree. No. But many will.

4. Many Pakistanis consider all Muslim rulers of India to be one of their own, and their founding fathers....... It can be seen on Pakistani television shows, articles, books........ This is not due to a heridatory connection...... They feel that had the Muslim rulers not come into India, there would be no Muslims there..... If there were no Muslims, there would be no Pakistan........ One can provide some legitimate facts to disagree with that, but that doesn`t change the fact that many Pakistanis do think that way.

If you want me to give you the links and references from where all this information was quoted, I can provide them to you.......I do not know enough about India to have come up with it on my own........In return, I would like to request that you read all of this with an open unpatriotic mind, otherwise you will not be able to enjoy it........ The coming chapters contain a great deal more criticism of Pakistan, India, Israel, USA, Saudi Arabia......... It is not for the faint-hearted and the overly-patriotic..........

I would like to ask you one question...... From your names, would I be correct in assuming that all three gentelmen are are from India?....... If you are, could I ask you whether your analysis would have been different had I been an Indian writing exactly the same lines?..... If it would have been different, then maybe you are being overly patriotic...... If not, then you are providing a legitimate critique.

Apologies for the lenghty reply. I hope it addressed your complains satisfactorily........

AlphaNull, Friend, Pankaj.....; You have made some vaild points, and some, in my opinion, which seem invalid. Some answers to the points you have made:

1. I will leave it upto the, ``charlatans`` who are reviewing these chapters to disclose their names, if they want...... Some of them visit this site, now and then. The primary qualification I looked for was that they would not worry about my nationality nor their own......

2. All novels are written within a, ``spectrum of subjectivity.`` .....That is what makes them interesting..... As long as there can be a Yes or No argument on a point, it is fair game..... Novels are not science books, which have to be a Yes from every possible direction.

3. A lover of IBM could make a good point that reorganizing IBM is a much tougher job than reorganizing the Indian military...... An overly patriotic American could argue that the US military is much larger than the Indian military, since the correct criteria for measuring military strength are budgets and not the number of soldiers...... I made the opposite argument in this Chapter....... Am I correct?...... Subjectively Yes and subjectively No.

3. Is the Red Fort an Indian nationalistic spot?....... Nehru declared India`s independence from there, and the Prime Minister raises the Indian flag from here on independence day........ Doesn`t that make it a national spot?....... This would make it the equivalent of Pakistan`s Minar-e-Pakistan, which is considered a national monument....... Are these the most nationalistic spots?...... Subjectively Yes and subjectively No.

3. Is Nehru the first Hindu ruler of India in 800 years?...... Technically, since there was no united country called India before 1947, he is the first....... Were there Hindu rulers of portions of India before? Yes....... Did any one group rule all of what is India right now for 800 years? No...... Even the British gave semi-independent rules to princes and nawabs. And they didn`t rule over Sikh areas till late........ But we still say they were the rulers of India for plus/minus 200 years....... Similarly, we say the Mughals were the rulers of India, even though they didn`t control all of India...... Usually, the most powerful group, or the group with the greatest land under control is refered to as ruler, even if they did not control all the land....... Whom would you say was the most powerful ruler of the land now called India, before the British? I would say, it was the Mughals. ........Will everyone agree. No. But many will.

4. Many Pakistanis consider all Muslim rulers of India to be one of their own, and their founding fathers....... It can be seen on Pakistani television shows, articles, books........ This is not due to a heridatory connection...... They feel that had the Muslim rulers not come into India, there would be no Muslims there..... If there were no Muslims, there would be no Pakistan........ One can provide some legitimate facts to disagree with that, but that doesn`t change the fact that many Pakistanis do think that way.

If you want me to give you the links and references from where all this information was quoted, I can provide them to you.......I do not know enough about India to have come up with it on my own........In return, I would like to request that you read all of this with an open unpatriotic mind, otherwise you will not be able to enjoy it........ The coming chapters contain a great deal more criticism of Pakistan, India, Israel, USA, Saudi Arabia......... It is not for the faint-hearted and the overly-patriotic..........

I would like to ask you one question...... From your names, would I be correct in assuming that all three gentelmen are are from India?....... If you are, could I ask you whether your analysis would have been different had I been an Indian writing exactly the same lines?..... If it would have been different, then maybe you are being overly patriotic...... If not, then you are providing a legitimate critique.

Apologies for the lenghty reply. I hope it addressed your complains satisfactorily........

Rafique #7,
I will agree with Pankaj and AlephNull,
you are are using names of real counteries and also claim to have done research. If this is based on reasearch than counter facts must be entertained.

Most of us in India would consider Shahjahan and Jahangir as our own and indicating then as ````property`` of some other nation does indicate a bias.

And like other interactors, Lahori Gate being most nationalistic spot would be a surprise for a Delhite like me. I would have thought of perhaps Jaliana Wala Bagh or India Gate and people from other cities would have perhaps have other symbols. I would wonder if 90 percent of people even know of Lahori, Turkman, Ajmeri and numbers of other gates of old Delhi.

Otherwise this series just looks like just an extrapolation of Fieldmarshal`s monologues on Pak airforce.

Dear Rafique

``One must read a novel with an open mind, not a patriotic one......Otherwise you will not enjoy it, and you will ruin the enjoyment of others also.......Many of us, especially me, are ignoramuses about our own countries......All the text presented here is researched in detail from books, Indian websites and so on``

Kindly Sir, would you please reveal the names of the charltans who reviewed the ``researched`` material of this chapter. It is not about the novel but about the unbased propaganda presented as ``fact`` in this novel. You obvously have the ``poetic license``, but please dont claim that ``research`` was done before writing it. I can not imagine that any person with a modicum of knowledge about Indian history can approve the following comments-

1. ``. It was on the ramparts of the Lahore Gate, in mid-August 1947, that India`s first Hindu ruler in eight hundred years, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru uttered the now famous words,``

The esteemed author is probably unaware that India had independent Hindu rulers in every age. The muslim rule of India began after 1192 AD and at best continued till 1750. In eighteenth century Marathas were the major power. Between thirteenth century and sixteenth century before the arrival of Mughals, the Turko-Afghan Sultanate comprised of merely UP, Bihar and Delhi alongwith some portions of Central India and tempoarily Bengal. The South during this period was ruled by Hindu kings, Cholas at first followed by Vijaynagar Empire. Muslim Sultanate could never subdue the indomotable Rajputs who remained independent during this entire period barring occasional reverses. The parts of Southern India were free from Muslim rule even during Mughals. After the death of Aurangjeb, Marathas were the dominant power and later British. Now kindly try subtracting 1750 from 1192 and tell me if the answer was 800.


2. ``It lay in the fact that India`s most important nationalistic spot, the Lahore Gate,``

This, certainly Sir, is news to me :-)


3. ``Pakistanis considered Jehangir and Shah Jehan one of their own and amongst the founding great-grandfathers of their nation. ``

Really! Any evidence that modern day Pakistanis are in any way related to Jehangir and Shah Jahan. I thought their ancestors lived in India. Kindly do some research into the origins of modern day Pakistanis and what they were in the past.


PS Sir, you can write whatever you want since it is your novel. If you feel my comments call for some editing or at least a deeper research, take them in the right spirit else discard them. Wish you good luck with your novel.

...you guys are doing a great job of sustaining interest what with sporadically appearing chapters and loads of technical details...keep it up...

AlphaNull.....6; One must read a novel with an open mind, not a patriotic one......Otherwise you will not enjoy it, and you will ruin the enjoyment of others also.......Many of us, especially me, are ignoramuses about our own countries......All the text presented here is researched in detail from books, Indian websites and so on......It is then sent to individuals in Delhi, London, Islamabad, and San Jose (the co-author of Chapter 1) for review......So far I have been impressed with the knowledge and patriotic neutrality they have shown while providing feedback.....I think I, and all the readers, would like to request the same neutrality from you.......

Chowk Staff: Please feel free to move all the previous chapters from my name to Omer`s name, since they were written by him. I just reviewed and submitted them. Currently, they do not show up under his name.

From the article:

{It was on the ramparts of the Lahore Gate, in mid-August 1947, that India`s first Hindu ruler in eight hundred years, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru uttered the now famous words ...}

{It lay in the fact that India`s most important nationalistic spot, the Lahore Gate, was still named after the most famous city in Pakistan - India`s traditional Muslim enemy to the west. Pakistanis considered Jehangir and Shah Jehan one of their own and amongst the founding great-grandfathers of their nation.}

and from Rafique #5:

{......I thought Nehru was the first Hindu ruler in the past 800 years before independence? - the Mughals started in 1527.....Before them were other dynasties like Lodhis, slaves, and so on....}

The mindset that underlies these remarks is perverse in not one but several ways.

Going by Rafique`s use of `eight hundred years`, Prithvi Raj Chauhan, ruler of Indraprastha, was the `last Hindu ruler of India` before Nehru ... and Bahadur Shah Zafar was the `last Muslim ruler of India.` This is incorrect because (except perhaps in the wistful heartsick imaginations of Mughal scions) India is not synonymous or coterminous with the polity ruled from or containing Delhi, Old or New. The latter territory went through repeated cycles of expansion and contraction over the millenia ... When Bahadur Shah Zafar turned in his papers in 1857, his writ barely extended past the city of Delhi; the Mughals had been reduced to puppets long before. Post 1715, the predominant power in the Indian subcontinent was first the Maratha confederacy and then the British. The latter did not even make Delhi the seat of their power until 1911. That New Delhi is the capital of today`s India is a contingent, not a necessary, fact.

As for Nehru, he was not a ruler in the sense of the monarchs of bygone days, merely the Prime Minister of the elected government of a democratic country. I suppose he was a Hindu by default.

I begin to comprehend though how those who consider `Jehangir and Shah Jehan one of their own and amongst the founding great-grandfathers of their nation` could make the mistakes that Rafique has.

Anyway, I suppose I should be grateful to this work in progress for informing me that ``India`s most important nationalistic spot`` is the Lahore Gate. I`d never heard of it before - I must be a complete ignoramus about my own country!

Once again, my thanks to the Chowk Staff for printing Chapter 5.

rozaiba 1/2...; Good catch....Carl Davis is based on a combination of a few well-known African-American leaders - JC Watts being the second amongst them.....I will leave it to you to guess who is the first...

bharatvaasi 3...; Thanks for the compliment....There will be side swipes against a lot of countries in the next chapters.....Any side swipes at India are unintentional.....The text on India is actually reviewed by a gentlemen in India, before it is sent in to Chowk......I thought Nehru was the first Hindu ruler in the past 800 years before independence? - the Mughals started in 1527.....Before them were other dynasties like Lodhis, slaves, and so on....

Urstruly 4.....; Badshaho, thoda sabar karo......Punjabi is a good lead in, since two out of the next three chapters are based in Punjab, Pakistan.......

The political choices the VP has to make and their likely ramifications are add a lot to this story.

Is Carl Davis Jr. supposed to be based on JC Watts? Watts was of course a QB for the Sooners. And later became a minister i think.

Very good read. The authors have to be commended for this....

With the usual side swipes at India - well what else acn be expected. and yes Nehru was not indias first hindu ruler. He was Indian`s first Prime Minister in the post British era. Atleast get your facts staright.

This was a very goood read.

yaar Rafique Sahib

hun tussi oh sap kad hi lo