Arise, Asia!
Subtitle: respond to white peril
By: Niraj Kamal.
Edition: Hardcover
Publisher: Wordsmiths
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Delhi
Language: eng
Number of pages: 414
Subjects: East and West.
Work titles: Philosophy
First sentence: "Millenarian change brings about a time warp, and scum from the past resurfaces. As the second millennium rang to a close, every literature began ‘pastizing’ grand theories. We heard of end of history, end of modernity, end of author, end of geography. A bizarre endless end seemed to have engulfed the world of academics.

Francis Fukuyama theorized that totalitarianism was dying, that democracy was the future. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, in contrast, plumped for a surprise return of totalitarianism. Samuel P. Huntington, the expert on ‘political decay’, adduced civilizational ruptures in Asia. A.G. Frank censured this as continuation of Eurocentrism: western alarm bells being sounded against new bogeymen, Islam and China—the yellow peril once again. Benjamin Barber detected a globalizing centripetal ‘McWorld’ tendency counterposed to antagonizing, centrifugal, jihad tendencies.

The orient/occident dyad goes back even to the Greek period. The crusades were, in a way, a reaction to oriental onslaught. Anthropologists encouraged the notion that contemporary backward societies represented human beings arrested at an earlier stage of evolution. To conquer and brutalize the world was an exceptional superiority of the westerner’s civilization.

Racism and pan-Asianism soon collided in world politics, leading to the upheaval of the 1930s. Japan, which had emerged strong, unbalancing the western balance-of-power system, and was expelling ‘hakka’ (white peril) from imperial outposts in Asia, had to be taught a lesson without mercy: atom bombs were used the only time in history against an Asian country.

The western powers also move multiple simulacra, like the state of Israel and apartheid, to keep the awakened orient at bay. Apartheid in Southern Africa imparted the message that the rest of the West was no more racist. The Soviet Union merely became a sub-hegemonic partner of USA and checked the sedimentation of oriental unity by hijacking the ‘East’."
(Jacket)
Description: The contemporary situation in Asia is worsening. Even though, there are no more split Euro-American ideological camp and their simulated struggle, Asia is teaming with anger against the encirclement of whole Asia by NATO military machine. The war is raging between declining Atlantic alliance and amoebic jihadis. One by one, the contagion of instability and politics by terror is encompassing Asian nations. Fanatic monsters gain popular legitimacy by pitting their martyrdom against Anglo-American imperialism and Russian Eurasianism. The need of the hour is an all-Asian policy.

Asia stands at a crossroad. Should it fry in the cauldron of Euro-American civilization or should it tread on Eastern approach to resolve the looming political, economic and ontological challenges? Asian nations were beguiled by the West in accepting the economic and financial architecture designed to perpetuate western hegemony. Asians worked hard, saved more and consumed less. The West frittered away their savings, gobbled Asia's wealth, consumed beyond their means and worked leisurely in merely the economics of sign-sector. Now they stand at Asia's door seeking financial help to bailout the pride of their modal of capitalism. Asia is awash with money earned with sheer dint of hard labour. The West is eyeing to appropriate our accumulated wealth. While carrying begging bowls, they blame Asia for their precarious situation. They view Asians' simple living within their means as a world problem. What if Asia decide to march on the footsteps of Gandhi and Buddha with minimum consumption & self-control over body & mind? Will then the whole edifice of Western hegemony not collapse in a catastrophe ?

Asians have to beware of subtle machinations by the western nations. TheWall Street is bankrupt, the shadow banking system of investment banks have disappeared, the automobile and aviation industries are flailing and the giant banks have been exposed as mere zombies in the western world. Inspite of the succession of collapses, the dollar primacy continues vis-à-vis Asian currencies. What is the fall out? Weaker Asian currencies signify continuance of loose monetary policy of the West & subsequent export of their inflation & bubbles to our sacred land! Asian will keep on extending help to find itself cornered by the clever and bullying ploys weaved by a faltering West. One by one Asian nations will be devoured by financially hungry West. This is a challenge to Asia's imminent rise as propeller of future history.

What has to be done? Asian nations ought to devise a coherent and integral strategy for Asia's survival. The cooperative grids have to be operationalised at multiple levels. An Asian Monetary Fund and an Asian common currency, yanpee(a combination of Chinese yuan, Japanese yen ,Korean won and South Asian rupee) has to be created. To stall recessionary cycle from affecting Asian economy, a Keynesian booster of huge fiscal investment can be launched in the pan-Asian infrastructure sector. Asian nations have more than five trillion dollar of saving available for intra-Asian investment. Trans-Asian Railways and Asian Highway projects has to be revitalized. A low-energy consuming small-machine technology has to be harnessed. Nano-technology, superconductivity, molecular biology should become the priority areas of research. Apart from revolution in new technology , mental blocks and prejudices have to be removed. Buddhism can be an apt vehicle for unifying Asian minds.
We have witnessed in recent years the competitive diplomacy of soft power around Nalanda, Silk Road and the Middle path doctrine. Japan, China, Singapore and India are engaged in a geo-cultural rivalry to outbid each other. Taking a cue from ancient philosophy. a cooperative dialogue can be initiated to revive the legacy of Buddha. Every world-religion originated in Asia. Buddhism flourished all across Asia unlike other world-religions, which transcended either the geographical barriers (Islam, Christianity) or localized within a particular geography (Sikhism, Hinduism). There are inherent complementarities between Buddha's thought and Asian consciousness. Sooner it is harvested, better it will be for the project of Asian integration. The forces of rising cultural nationalism have to be steered towards a pan- Asian predicament. The first prerequisite for such a stupendous task is an Asia doctrine: Asia for Asians. An all- Asian policy has to be declared and adhered to by each Asian nation, however big or small. Let the West vacate Asia. Asia lies asunder. We need Pan-Asianism to create a powerful and united Asia. The beginning has to be made. This book is a mamifesto for Asian unity in the twenty-first century.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Contents: I. The grid: reference points on a map: 1. Pan-Asianism: nostalgia to Utopia. 2. How prophetic is Huntington? 3. What is Asia? II. The quietus: intimations of colonization: 4. Before colonialism. 5. How did the west win temporarily? 6. Racism: origin, growth, and impact on Asian consciousness. III. The spring: till the annexation of Manchuria: 7. Japan. 8. China. 9. India. 10. Rest of Asia. 11. The Islamic world. IV. The chill: the cold war interregnum: 12. After the annexation of Manchuria. 13. From Japan’s defeat to the end of the cold war. 14. Communism and Asianism. 15. Race during the cold war. V. Resurgence: reassertion in the new world order: 16. Race in the new world order. 17. Re-emergence of Asia. 18. Pan-Asianism at the edge of the millennium. VI. Agenda: regaining Asia’s due place: 19. Blueprint for a Caucus without Caucasians. 20. Geostrategy for world domination: Asian perspective. 21. If no Asia, no West. Index