Book: HOSTILE HOMELANDS: THE NEW ALLIANCE BETWEEN INDIA AND ISRAEL
Author: Azad Essa
Published by: Context
Price: Rs 599
From being the first among the non-Arab nations to recognise Palestine, India is today Israel’s closest partner outside the Western bloc. It abstains from most anti-Israel resolutions, raising questions whether such a position comes at the cost of Palestinians. This book by the South African journalist, Azad Essa, gives a different perspective on the evolution of the bilateral ties between the two nations over the last seven decades.
Through his lucid narrative, Essa attempts to draw a parallel between the situation in the Indian subcontinent and that prevailing between Israel-Palestine to show how it influenced India’s thinking on West Asia. He argues that India’s earlier reluctance “to embrace Israel meant validating the two-nation theory as well as Pakistan”. Essa also points out that despite Jawaharlal Nehru’s strong opposition to Zionism, many prominent Indian leaders wanted Zionists to come and teach the kibbutz way of life to the Indian nationalist movement. India’s ties with Israel began when Israel supplied its arms during conflicts India faced from 1962 onwards, but it was during Rajiv Gandhi’s prime ministership that India abstained from the crucial Arab resolution at the United Nations General Assembly in 1985 that called for throwing Israel out of the international body. Essa says that the meeting between Shimon Peres and Rajiv Gandhi on the sidelines of the UNGA was “a bellwether of the multitude of changes to come”, be it in India’s economy, its foreign policy, or in its approach to its Hindu majority.
He draws a parallel between the Kashmir issue and the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation: “Kashmiris have long identified with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.” A large number of Indians also supported Palestine despite India’s close ties with Israel.
Essa claims that since their first meeting in 2014, Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi see in each other “[a] single-minded determination to build states with single culture, single race and a single nation”, hinting at the affinity between Hindutva and Zionism.
The author’s eagerness to put India in an Israeli mould, however, makes him gloss over the grey areas as well as India’s diversity. He also ignores the checks and balances within India’s political structure that emerged stronger from every challenge it faced. Moreover, unlike Israel, India is not an occupier of anybody else’s land. To equate the two not only misses the regional security environment and the challenges India faces but also the complexities of Indian society.
Despite his research, Essa’s account remains biased and often deliberately controversial. But the book must still be read for its different perspective on a crucial issue.