Come Kissinger: My Name vietnam, Your Name Vietnam
Stock market investors on Thursday recouped all their losses incurred since October 17
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
US treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson will kick off the Bengal parade by landing in Calcutta on Sunday to talk business with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.As the American counterpart of India’s finance minister, Paulson will be the highest-ranking serving US government official to visit Calcutta in recent memory. Team Paulson will include ambassador David Mulford and Time Warner chairman and CEO Dick Parsons.
In Paulson’s footsteps will follow another — and better-known — Henry.
Henry Kissinger, the erstwhile US secretary of state communists loved to hate during the Vietnam war era and later grew to admire privately for his role in ushering China into the international mainstream, is scheduled to be in Calcutta in the first week of November as part of a separate delegation.The schedule of Kissinger, who will be accompanied by former US ambassador Frank Wisner, has yet to be finalised.However, “the team led by Kissinger will hold an interactive session with our members on November 3”, said Sunil Mishra, the regional director of CII, eastern region. The former US secretary of state now heads Kissinger Associates Inc, which assists clients in identifying strategic partners as well as investment opportunities and advises them on government relations throughout the world.
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, said last night at the Faculty Club that he would have struggled to recommend the use of nuclear weapons against the Soviets, even when all other military options were exhausted.
Former national leaders expressed concern regarding a nuclear threat and discussed the ways to stop the spread of such weapons at a two-day Hoover Institution conference. From left to right: George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, Bill Perry, Max Kampelman and Sidney Drell.
William Perry, former Secretary of Defense, remembers being woken up at 3 a.m. in 1978 by a general who reported that radar showed 200 Soviet missiles headed toward the American mainland. He wanted to know how to respond.
A bipartisan group of six elder statesmen, including three former cabinet secretaries who helped lead America through the depths of Cold War nightmares, said Wednesday that the United States must take concrete steps to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The men are on campus this week to try to come up with a concrete action plan. The dinner, which about 300 top University leaders and donors were invited to attend, was part of a closed-door, two-day Hoover Institution conference.
“We are not doing this as an abstract statement of desirable objectives,” Kissinger said. “We’re willing to contribute to a list of specific steps.”
Perry said American and Soviet forces must take their nuclear weapons off hair-trigger, launch-on-warning alert. Sam Nunn, the former chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee and director of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, said the U.S. should work with Russia to develop a missile defense system that can to respond to emerging nuclear threats.
“We’re about to deploy a system that is not yet mature for a threat that has not yet materialized,” Nunn said. “For God’s sake, let’s realize we’re out of the Cold War. We do not intend to attack the Russians, and they do not intend to attack us. So let’s work together.”
Unlike the Disarmament movement of the 1980s, led by activists who had never been in the National Security Situation Room, the men on the panel at the Faculty Club — like Kissinger and George Shultz — were iconic household names at the center stage of global politics in their time.
The high-level meetings coincide with the 21st anniversary of the summit in Reykjavik, Iceland between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
Henry Kissinger warns: "If either America's Arab or Israeli friends are asked to take on more than they are able to withstand, there's the risk of another, even larger blow-up" ("Bold script, weak actors," Views, Oct. 24). I suggest that the concessions Israel is being asked to make are too bold and will leave Israel too weak.
Kissinger's own experience in Sinai with the Egypt-Israel peace agreement is an example. Currently, Egypt is facilitating deliveries of weapons into the Gaza Strip. Very few, if any, of the smuggling tunnels have been shut down. True, Egypt is not engaged in a major war with Israel. But this isn't peace.
India must continue with its economic reform agenda or risk losing credibility it has acquired in the world over the years, a top US administration official has said. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who will lead a high-level delegation to India, also said that Washington was ready to partner New Delhi to push reforms forward.
"The United States will continue as a partner with India in its economic transformation... We will kick-off another session to help advance the Indian government's economic reform agenda when I am in New Delhi next week," he said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations here. Paulson noted as in any other democratic set-up, India also faced political challenges and the US was aware of it.
"The government is to be applauded for what it has already accomplished, and encouraged to move forward... If India slows its pace now, it risks losing the ground it has worked so hard to gain he observed," he added.
Talking about his upcoming visit, the official said besides reforms, Mumbai's development into an International Financial Centre (IFC) is an important element of that agenda.
"We understand that Indian officials are concerned that greater capital flows associated with a financial center could add to inflationary pressures, destabilize the domestic financial sector or add to exchange rate volatility. For the most part, India is on the right path to reduce these risks," he said.
India has allowed greater flexibility in exchange rate in recent months, and the rupee appreciation has helped to reduce inflationary pressures, he noted.
Bengal is finally catching the eye of the A-list of America, but not because of Prakash Karat’s nuclear explosions.Paulson, leading a high-level business delegation, is scheduled to meet Bhattacharjee around Sunday noon. Paulson and the members of his delegation, some of whom will reach by private planes, will spend a busy day in the city. The treasury secretary is scheduled to visit a village to study rural credit instruments and micro finance.
After Calcutta, Paulson will got to Mumbai and Delhi to take part in the US-India CEO Forum and the Fortune Global Forum. He will also meet finance minister P. Chidambaram, RBI governor Y.V. Reddy and Sebi chairman M. Damodaran.
“He will meet the chief minister… But there is no fixed agenda on the cards. Lets see how it goes,” chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb said.
Whichever way it goes, the touchdown itself will be a departure because Calcutta had hardly figured on the radar of power tourists who usually stick to the beaten tracks of Hyderabad and Bangalore.
The chief minister’s investor-friendly image must have helped. Ronen Sen, the Indian ambassador to the US, is also believed to have played an important role in getting Calcutta included on Paulson’s itinerary.
The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce – a forum for corporations doing business in India and the US – will organise a meeting of Paulson’s delegation with a select group of industry representatives in Calcutta.
“We are seeing an unprecedented rise in interest in Bengal from our members in the US,” said S.K. Jain, the regional president of the industry association.
“The interest is not just in eastern India.… There is a specific focus on Bengal and it is a welcome trend,” said Harsh Jha, the president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
Stock market investors on Thursday recouped all their losses incurred since October 17, when the bourses went into a tailspin on the P-Notes issue, even as the benchmark Sensex is yet to fully recover from the plunge. The investors wealth, measured in terms of total market capitalisation of all the listed companies, today rose to a new peak of Rs 58,89,943 crore, nearly Rs 18,500 crore higher than its previous peak of Rs 58,71,432 crore.The previous record was struck on October 16, after which the market went into a sharp plunge and eroded over Rs four trillion from the investors' kitty in just three days. The Sensex lost close to 1,500 points during that period. In Thursday's trading, the index rose 258 points to close at 18,770.89, after scaling an intra-day high of 18,900.10. The index is still 427.77 points away from its all-time high of 19,198.66 struck during the day's trade on October 18. Total investor wealth had dropped to Rs 54,65,000 crore at the end of trade on October 19, third day after the market regulator SEBI proposed measures to curb capital flow through offshore derivative instruments such as participatory notes. Incidentally, today after the market close, SEBI announced that the new rules would be effective from Friday.
Stock market is likely to continue its upsurge on Friday after regulator SEBI cleared the confusion over participatory notes and reasserted its stance on easing front-door FII investments, analysts said.
The announcement made by SEBI Chairman M Damodaran that new rules on Offshore Derivatives Instruments such as PNs have come into effect in-line with the proposals made last week has put to rest all the confusion over the whole issue and normalcy is set to return to the bourses, a broker said.
Besides, Damodaran's statement that FIIs would be given a permanent registration now onward rather than the earlier practice of renewing it every three years would also boost the sentiments of foreign investors, marketmen said.
Other than the PN issue, volatility in the past few days was also being stoked by the approaching settlement of current month's derivative contracts and the settlement getting over today also bodes well for an orderly market, they added.
Of the total loss of over Rs 4,06,000 crore (about 102 billion dollars) during the three days, the 30 biggest blue- chip companies, belonging to the Sensex, suffered losses of nearly half the amount of Rs 1,96,800 crore.
Among the firms listed on the Sensex, 22 added to their market value on Thursday, while eight suffered losses. Across the market, over 58 per cent gained and about 40 per cent lost.
Major gainers included HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, L&T, Reliance Petroleum and RIL. Total 80 stocks hit their record highs and just one dipped to a record low on the BSE.
The benchmark Sensex closed with a gain of 258 point on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday on brisk buying by funds in heavy-weight stocks from metal, bank and capital good segments.
The 30-share index, Sensex, which commenced the day with a loss of 50 points, rebounded to close higher by 257.98 points at 18,770.89, after touching the day's high of 18,900.10 points.
In a similar fashion, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index, Nifty, surged by 72.80 points at 5,568.95. It touched the day's high of 5605.95 and a low of 5469.30 points.
Major support came in from the metal sector index which shot up by 651.58 points at 16,424.52 followed by the banking index which was up 258.44 points at 9924.11. Capital goods index also rose by 201.81 points at 17,314.13.
Stock market watchdog SEBI on Thursday cleared a proposal to set up a separate exchange for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enable them to access risk capital.
"The Board has cleared the proposal for a separate exchange for SMEs," SEBI Chairman M Damodaran told reporters here.
There were proposals from the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and some other entities to set up platforms for SMEs. The Board will select one of the entities and SEBI would monitor their performance for two years. If the entity performed well, then having a multiplicity of such platforms could be looked into, he said.
Giving details about other Board decisions, Damodaran said stock exchanges will be mandated to constitute a Board committee to focus on surveillance. This committee would be chaired by a non-executive, independent member, he said, adding that the intention was to make markets a safer place for investors.
On the corporate bond market, Damodaran said, "we believe the system is on course for healthy development of the corporate bond market".
High economic growth in India and resultant inflow of funds into the country are putting pressure on rupee, besides posing a risk of increase in inflation, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said.
"Strong economic performance in the framework of an open economy has thrown up its own challenges. We face the challenge of abundant international capital flows and their impact on the domestic economy, particularly on prices and the exchange rate," Chidambaram said at Norwegian School of Management on wednesday.
The economy grew at 9.4 per cent during the last fiscal and 9.3 per cent in the first quarter this year, encouraging foreign funds to infuse over Rs 12,500 crores in the stock markets in the year so far. The rupee has appreciated by over 12 per cent against the dollar since January.
Inflation had crossed six per cent level during the year, but was ruling at its 5-year low of 3.07 per cent for the week ended October 6. Risks remain to potential inflation, according to the RBI.
Delivering the speech titled 'Road travelled and the way forward,' Chidambaram said that on the demand side, higher growth in foreign reserves -- which were estimated at over 239 billion dollars at the end of last month -- and robust credit growth have exerted pressure on prices.
"From time to time, we are faced with a mismatch between supply and demand in the case of primary commodities, including food articles," Chidambaram said.
The central bank has played its part in containing demand side pressure on prices and the government, on its part, has responded to such developments by moving further on the path of economic openness by increasing access to the external markets.
Communists in India
The Communist Party of India was founded in the 1920s to create an alternative mass movement to the existing Congress anti-imperialist movement. The communist movement grew out of economic causes and was rooted against the propertied classes whether British or Indian. As far as communist parties world-wide were concerned the Communist Party of India, the CPI, was too conservative and ineffective. Due to its rather passive manner, in 1964 the CPI split, thereby forming a second faction known as the CPI(M)-the Communist Party of India (Marxists).
Communists are committed to only their ideologies and have no hesitation in harming the nation if it is required to impose their views. The history of the Communist Movement in India is replete with instances of this very fact. In 1939 the Communists deserted Subhas Chandra Bose's Left Consolidation Committee and later, after he formed the Indian National Army, called him a "Quisling". In 1942 when Gandhiji called upon the British to Quit India, the Communists betrayed the Congress and the country. Between 1942 and 1944, the CPI also betrayed several Congress underground workers to the police for which it was liberally paid by the British Government.
But the most shocking example of all came in 1962, when China attacked India. The Indian followers of Mao within the CPI called India the aggressor !! The CPI(M) shamelessly and traitorously criticized its own country. Mao Zedong was raised to sainthood in Calcutta. Mao has been practically disowned in his own country but not by the CPI (M). It was the CPI, under S A Dange that supported the insufferable Emergency in 1975. Throughout its turbulent history the Communist Party has been anti-national and when it has not been pro-Soviet Union it has been pro-Communist China but never pro-India.
This being the track record of the Indian communists, one was not really surprised at their reaction to the country's nuclear blasts. With the Chinese Communist Party roaring its protests against India going nuclear, it was quite natural for the Indian communists to react in similar fashion. Had it not been for the fear of losing votes in the elections, they would have taken a harder line.
The Maoist guerrilla groups continue to fight for Maoist revolution in India, despite China's withdrawal of overt support. Maoists in India also are known as Naxalites, after the remote northern district of Naxalbari near Nepal where a Chinese-led communist insurrection took place in the mid-1960s. These groups have adopted the tactics of Mao's "people's war", a strategy of "the encirclement of the cities from the countryside". This initial stage theoretically leads to socialist revolution and eventually the formation of a communist state. Extremist organisations in Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Bihar, Maharashtra and even Orissa have for long killed people after branding them as "class enemy." Of late, such violence has been rising in some areas. In Bihar the Maoist Coordination Committee is notorious for its macabre killings.
The main problem for the communist movement was that no one encouraged the joining of the peasant castes, the landowners, and the middle class proletariat into one large revolutionary group. No real national spirit existed amongst them. The main concern of the communist movement was of a socio-economic nature for each individual group of people - not for the good of the working man in general. Many supporters of the movement knew nothing about Marx and Engels; they were simply using the communist movement to show their economic frustration. This failure to unite and create a new national identity is what led to the failure of the communist movement.
Communist Conspiracy of Distorting History
A pernicious hidden agenda has been in operation in treatment of the entire gamut of Indian history. A select group of leftists came to control academic institutions of national importance and invented a course of Indian history of their choice. The one perverse objective of this group of intellectuals in authority was to destroy Indian institutions and whatever was sacred to multitudes of Indians. To them, books and textbooks on Indian history which repeatedly degraded Indian culture, heritage and values were perfectly acceptable. To them the Aryan invasion theory was the lifeline which connected them to their masters in the West. This subservience provided them lecture tours, fellowships and presence in international conferences. To them India had nothing worthwhile to boast except the unsocial practices perpetuated by the caste system and sati and the exploitation of the majority of the population by the Brahmins. The history which presented that India was modernised by the British and by the earlier invaders, was the only worthwhile history. They ridiculed Indian samskaras, spirituality, the culture of tolerance and acceptance and the unique balance in Indian society. Briefly put, leftist historiography has systematically worked for the dissolution of the Hindu community and the dislodgement of Hinduism from its pivotal position in the land of its origin.
The Marxists, in the true tradition of Macaulay, wanted to create a generation totally delinked from its past. They made concerted efforts to de-link India from its ancient ethos and make the national identity culturally and spiritually neutral. They knew that the most successful approach to demoralise a nation would be to demoralise the young generation. That could bring about a red revolution. It was considered vital to destroy all edifices of which India could be proud of. The best strategy would be to make them ashamed of their past. The end result has been to disarm and emasculate Hindus and thwart their just aspirations.
25 October 2007 @ 11:43 am
Today we had an in-class simulation of a racist society, but the kids weren't privy at first. The blonde students were pampered with cushy seats, juice-boxes, blankets, and candy while the others were forced to sit in their desks to watch the movie clips from "Gandhi". While watching the clips and comparing Gandhi's situation in South Africa to the one in the classroom, students became aware of the absurdity of racism and saw one way to confront it. Gandhi's method of non-violent resistance was emphasized.
For the last 15 minutes of class, students began work on skits that present non-violent solutions to problems in 1-3 minutes. The groups will perform tomorrow and be graded on group participation and effort, the presentation of non-violent solutions, and whether it is engaging, creative, and/or funny. Homework is preparing for the skit.
24 October 2007 @ 11:01 am
Today we eased back from the crazy fun game yesterday and spent time examining a document from 1871. The document was written by an Indian to the British government, listing all of the benefits and detriments of British Rule in India. The students listed four advantages and disadvantages of British rule for the Indians and decided which outweighed the other. We ended with a short debate about the subject. I was impressed with some students' effort with the challenging document which contained some tough words and concepts. Oh, and we also discussed the similarities of parenting to colonialism, so if some of the students decide to rebel against your rule...I'm sorry. There was no HW.
23 October 2007 @ 11:43 am
We played a lively game called "The Colonialism Game" today which required a massive overhaul of our desk setup. The game plays much like the board game "Risk", but with kids and desks instead of armies and countries. Countries attacked and defended all day, with some countries even taking over half the "world" by the end of the period. We will use this game to discuss the British Empire and its colony, British India. There is a worksheet for homework which discusses the game.
http://bickfordclass.livejournal.com/
What a century. Colonialism, war, independence, dictatorships, democracy - Asia has experienced them all.
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/98/0612/cs2.html
1890s
1892 The Katipunan, a secret pro-independence organization, is founded by Philippine revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio.
1893-1907 In a series of treaties, Siam hands over all its territories east of the Mekong River to France.
1894-95 The Sino-Japanese War. Japan's victory results in the acquisition of Taiwan.
1896 Start of the Philippine Revolution. The execution of nationalist leader José Rizal gives further impetus to the rebellion.
1898 The New Territories to the north of Hong Kong are leased to Britain for 99 years.
1898 Philippine leaders sign the Proclamation of Independence, June 12. The Philippine Republic is inaugurated in January 1899.
1900s
1900 China's anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion is put down by Western troops.
1904-5 The Russo-Japanese War. Japan's victory marks its rise as a major world power.
1905 Korea becomes a Japanese protectorate.
1909 Siam's Malay vassal states - Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Trengganu - are ceded to the British.
1910s
1910 Japan formally annexes Korea.
1912 Pu Yi, China's last emperor, abdicates.
1913 Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, above, receives the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1919 Korea's March 1 Movement calls for independence but is crushed by the Japanese.
1919 British troops fire on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwallah Bagh in Amritsar. The atrocity galvanizes India's independence movement.
1919 Amid much intellectual and social ferment, Chinese students launch the May 4 Movement to protest against the unfair terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
1920s
1924 The Mongolian People's Republic is officially proclaimed.
1926 Vietnam's Cao Dai religious sect (church, below right), an eclectic amalgamation of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Catholicism, is founded.
1930s
1930 Mahatma Gandhi leads the Salt March to protest against the British authorities' tax on salt.
1931 Japan occupies Manchuria and establishes the puppet state of Manchukuo.
1932 A bloodless coup results in the abolition of absolute monarchy in Siam.
1937 Japan invades China after skirmishes flare along the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing.
1939 Siam is renamed Thailand.
1940s
1940-45 Much of Southeast Asia falls to Japanese troops, including Hong Kong (1941), Malaya, Indonesia and Singapore (1942).
1941 Vietnam's left-leaning pro-independence group, the Viet Minh, is founded.
1942 The Quit India movement calls on Britain to leave and begins a campaign of violence (e.g., blowing up bridges, burning buildings).
1945 The U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan's subsequent surrender marks the end of World War II.
1945 Korea is liberated from Japanese colonial rule, Aug. 15. The country is divided into two to facilitate the surrender of Japanese soldiers.
1945 Indonesian nationalist leaders Sukarno and Hatta proclaim Independence, Aug. 17. The Dutch initially try to hang on to their colonial possession but finally leave Indonesia in 1949.
1945 Vietnamese emperor Bao Dai abdicates. Revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declares Independence in Hanoi, Sept. 2.
1946 The Philippines gains Independence from the U.S., July 4.
1947 The partition of India into separate Hindu and Muslim states is announced in June. Pakistan becomes Independent on Aug. 14, followed by India the next day.
1947 Burmese nationalist leader Aung San is assassinated by political rivals.
1948 Burma is declared Independent, Jan. 4.
1948 Mahatma Gandhi is shot dead by a Hindu extremist, Jan. 30.
1948 Ceylon gains Independence from Britain, Feb. 4.
1948 The Federation of Malaya comes into being. A communist insurgency leads to a 12-year state of emergency.
1948 The U.S.-backed Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) are officially established.
1949 China's civil war ends in the Communists' victory. The Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek flee to Taiwan to form a rival government.
1950s
1950-53 The Korean War. The conflict devastates the peninsula and ends in a stalemate.
1952 America's post-war occupation of Japan comes to an end.
1953 Cambodia and Laos gain Independence from France.
1954 French forces are defeated by the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, signifying the end of France's involvement in Vietnam.
1955 The Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) is proclaimed an independent nation with U.S. support.
1957 Malaya is formally declared Independent, Aug. 31.
1959 In Tibet, an uprising against Chinese rule is suppressed; the Dalai Lama flees to India.
1960s
1962 Gen. Ne Win seizes power in Burma and institutes a xenophobic brand of socialism.
1963 Malaya joins with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore to form the Federation of Malaysia. Indonesia seeks to break the union through its belligerent konfrontasi policy.
1964 Tokyo hosts Asia's first Olympics.
1964 China detonates its first atomic bomb.
1965 Singapore leaves the Malaysian federation and becomes an independent state, Aug. 9.
1965 Suharto grabs power in Indonesia following an abortive coup, allegedly hatched by Communists. The nation descends into anarchy as mobs massacre suspected leftists.
1967 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded in Bangkok.
1970s
1971 Backed by India, East Pakistan secedes to become Bangladesh. The subsequent Third Indo-Pakistan War results in India's victory.
1972 Ceylon is renamed Sri Lanka.
1975 The Khmer Rouge capture Phnom Penh and embark on a genocidal social experiment to create an agrarian utopia.
1975 Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese. Vietnam is unified under the Communists.
1975 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's independence hero and first president, is assassinated by army officers.
1975 The communist Pathet Lao come to power in Laos. The Lao People's Democratic Republic is officially established.
1976 Chinese leader Mao Zedong dies and the radical Gang of Four falls from grace. Deng Xiaoping is eventually rehabilitated and sets China on the road to free-market reform.
1979 The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
1980s
1980 Pro-democracy demonstrations escalate into violence in Kwangju, South Korea, culminating in a brutal crackdown.
1983 Philippine opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino is murdered in Manila.
1984 Indian government troops storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is subsequently assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.
1984 Beijing and London sign the Joint Declaration, under which Hong Kong is to be returned to China in 1997.
1986 "People Power" in the Philippines topples the Marcos regime and restores democracy.
1986 Vietnam launches its landmark doi moi (renovation) economic-reform program.
1987 Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang lifts martial law after 38 years.
1987 Military rule ends in South Korea after nationwide demonstrations force strongman Chun Doo Hwan to hold presidential elections.
1988 Pakistan's military dictator Zia ul-Haq is killed in an air crash. Elections follow.
1988 The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) takes charge in Burma. The name of the country is changed to the Union of Myanmar in 1989.
1989 Beijing's Tiananmen Square becomes the venue for large-scale student demonstrations, symbolized by the Goddess of Democracy, below. Troops crush the movement, June 4.
1989 After a decade of battling mujahideen rebels, the Soviet Union completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1990s
1990 In the face of widespread demonstrations, Mongolia's communist rulers abandon their monopoly on power and hold elections.
1990 In Nepal, massive pro-democracy rallies lead to the lifting of the ban on political parties.
1990 National elections in Myanmar are won by oppositionist Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, but SLORC refuses to honor the results. Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
1990 Nationwide protests and general strikes in Bangladesh force military strongman Hussain Muhammad Ershad to step down.
1992 A bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Bangkok results in the ousting of unelected prime minister Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon.
1996 Lee Teng-hui becomes Taiwan's first directly elected president.
1997 British colonial rule ends in Hong Kong, which becomes a Special Administrative Region of China.
1999 Macau is scheduled to return to China.
In India, the story goes, people led by Mahatma Gandhi built up a massive nonviolent movement over decades and engaged in protest, noncooperation, economic boycotts, hunger strikes, and other acts of disobedience that made British imperialism unworkable. The movement suffered massacres and responded with a couple of riots, but on the whole, the movement was nonviolent and eventually won independence, providing an undeniable hallmark of pacifist victory.
India's resistance to British colonialism included enough militancy that the Gandhian method should be viewed most accurately as one of several competing forms of popular resistance. Pacifists white out those other forms of resistance, ignoring important militant leaders such as Chandrasekhar Azad, who fought in armed struggle against the British colonizers, and revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh, who won mass support for bombings and assassinations as part of a struggle to accomplish the 'overthrow of both foreign and Indian capitalism.' The pacifist history of India's struggle cannot make any sense of the fact that Subhas Chandra Bose, the militant candidate, was twice elected president of the Indian National Congress, in 1938 and 1939.
Ultimately, the liberation movement in India failed. The British were not forced out. Under pressure from a diverse resistance, they chose to hand power over to the parts of the resistance they felt would best uphold their interests, shifting from direct colonial rule to neocolonial rule. What kind of victory allows the losing side to dictate the time and manner of the victors' ascendancy? The British continued to fan the flames of religious and ethnic separatism so that India would be divided against itself, prevented from gaining peace and prosperity, and d