From India to Palestine: Essays in Solidarity

by Githa Hariharan (Editor)

In 1948, Israel was created on Palestinian land. Palestinians lost their homes and villages: huge numbers were expelled: they became refugees elsewhere or in their own land. In 1967, the West Bank and Gaza were also occupied by Israel. For more than five decades now, Palestinians have suffered the violent and unjust realities of occupation.

Not only does India have strong historical ties with the Arab world; but also the Indian freedom movement saw the struggle of the Palestinians for a homeland as a genuine struggle against colonialism. Both Gandhi and Nehru expressed this in no uncertain terms; so, later, did the non-aligned movement. Indian policy towards Palestine shifted radically in the 1990s. Israel has now become a major supplier of arms to India: it is also part of the complicated shift in India's relationship with America, and India's emerging vision of itself in the world.

Fourteen new essays on India and Palestine-Israel by writers, scholars and activists.

210 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Hariharan was born in Coimbatore and grew up in Bombay and Manila. She obtained a BA (in English) from Bombay University and a MA (in Communications) from Fairfield University (U.S.A.).

Hariharan first worked in the Public Broadcasting System in New York and then with a publishing firm as an editor in India. She currently works as a freelance editor.

In her personal life, she, along with her husband, won the right to have the children named after her (instead of carrying the father's name); in this famous case argued by Indira Jaising, the Supreme Court agreed that the mother was also a "natural guardian" of the child.Template:AIR 1999, 2. SCC 228

Reviews

[Pavan Dharanipragada]

Palestine is The struggle of our lifetimes. The response to their call for solidarity is what defines the legitimacy of the anti-colonial values on which our nation is founded. But of course, we all know those values don't hold anymore; we define ourselves more and more as an ethnic nationalist democracy, with no irony, just as Israel does.

The situation has materially never been worse for Palestine than now. But at the same time, the future holds more possibilities now than it ever did. The essayists in this book have foreseen this, but from here, at this point of time, 8 years after this book was published, things hold more hope. There's a sitting Palestinian-American representative in the US congress, who is not afraid to face the US Zionists, and there's a Jewish US presidential candidate who condemns Israel for its crimes against humanity.

That's not to take away from how far India has fallen in its pro-Palestine posturing, which doesn't even formally exist anymore. Mossad agents come to India, train the Indian army on how to effectively suppress Kashmiri people's day-to-day resistance, and their claim to expertise on this matter is their effective occupation of West Bank and Gaza.

But these paradigms are less stable than they look right now. They will fall. They must. They are inherently moronic.

[Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hariharan has done a marvellous job collecting an exciting book of essays here that shed light in the changing nature of India's relationship with Palestinian people and the state of Israel. The historical and political analysis is quite enlightening and the personal narratives are also compelling. Perhaps most importantly the book reminds readers of India's historical firm standing against imperialism and suggests the way forward is boycott, divestment, and sanctions.

[Shraddha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps more suited for the time it was published in a decade ago -- however, found it sorely lacking in a deep grounding in forces and realities within India, or building a vision of a true solidarity that could emerge from or went beyond what could be gleaned from cursory glances, like shared colonial histories (and presents), .. considering that the length of supposed postcolonial period for India almost exactly overlaps that of the settler-colonial expansion in Palestine, I had hoped to read and understand the parallel trajectories more, beyond tales of visits to Palestine or Jerusalem, or mentions of Gandhi's letter more times than it seems to have had political or strategic or even moral weight in the subsequent national consciousness in India or even its own political image and leanings.

I'd recommend it but also am left wanting for so much more, given the ancient sense of (post)colonial erosion and theft felt in those within//from India whose heart bleeds for Palestine as if our own kin but whose lived realities as indians//in India have been detached from the Palestinian cause at best, but more complicit and nefarious in their subjugation than any of us either realize or wish to acknowledge.

Benefit of hindsight for me at this point in the world but given that these essays were written by academics/activists in these spaces -- I would've expected a more staunchly antizionist lens, more rooted in the rising oppressions within india in Kashmir, the genocide in Gujarat, northeast, beyond, again, superficial connections or just mentioning in passing. Also some reflections on partition, how Palestine figures in lives and political consciousness within the neighbouring sisterlands, also connections to freedom struggles in india and if or how it still lives in pockets of the nation .. i was far less interested in takes by non-Palestinians on their vision of their liberation struggles and futures and whilst i understand the impulse, it felt unnecessary especially without more careful elaboration and exposition of the various movements and thoughts within Palestine on Palestinian liberation.

All in all -- I'm perhaps wanting another book, a denser book, but mostly a more considered book that doesn't flatten the india story merely as a postcolonial coz we're hardly even that, and the longer arcs of realities of hindutva and occupation of 🍁 that preceded the "freedom" timelines.

[Rohan · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the very best and insightful books I have read. excellent essays grounded in realities in palestine. very important exposition of india's relationship to Israel that predates the Azad Essa hindutv-zionism while not deriding it. 100% recommend to every single person