Exploring India's cultural heritage

CHENNAI, November 28, 2011
Special Correspondent
The Hindu

A Tamil Brahmi letter dated to 2nd century CE excavated from Phu Khao Thong in Thailand, Mahabaratha scenes in Angkor Vat in Cambodia, a bilingual inscription at Kandahar and the many forms of Lord Ganesha in South East Asia, all provide evidence of India's cultural influence in Asia.

The book, ‘From Kanchi to Cambodia – Greater India revisited', is an attempt to explore how the 2,000-year-old traditions and culture of India amalgamated in the cultures of many countries in Asia, says T.K.V. Rajan, an archaeologist and its author.

Unearthed lingam to link Vellore with Cambodia? [-Cambodia ruled by Tamil kings of South India???]

25 May 2010
V Narayana Murthi
Express Buzz - Tamilnadu (India)

VELLORE: The six-foot Shiva Lingam (minus the base), which was for the first time unearthed in the Palar riverbed near Pallikonda on May 18, has raised an interesting debate on the age of this beautiful stone carving that has been lodged at the Government Museum here.

The green Lingam is carved out of a single piece of stone that symbolizes the union of the three divinities of the Hindu trinity, Brahma (represented by the cubic base), Vishnu (by the octagonal section) and Shiva (the top portion). While the museum officials estimate the age of this lingam to be around four hundred years, linking the artefact to the Vijayanagar Naikkar period, whose rulers had built the famous Vellore fort, the possibility of its existence in the much earlier Pallava or Chola period is gaining grounds.

S Asokan, a businessman from Ambur, who had recently visited Cambodia, had brought back with him a model of a Shiva lingam, which in fact resembles the one that was found in the Palar bed. Quoting a book by Emma C Bunker and Douglas Latchford titled ‘Adoration and Glory-The golden age of Khmer Art’, he said that the design of the lingams found in the temples of Cambodia and in the museums in that country were dated to belong to the 10th and 11th centuries during the Angkor Vat period.

According to historians, Cambodia, earlier known as Kampuchea is a culturally rich country, which was in fact ruled by the Tamil kings of South India then. The influence of art and culture on Cambodia was, however, most vigorous and prolific during the rule of the Pallavas (third to ninth centuries) and Cholas (ninth to 13th centuries) in South India. Given the fact that temples with Chola and Pallava architecture are in existence in many places, more particularly in Kalathur near Wallajah in Vellore district, the unearthed Lingam could very well be a piece of work dating back to the Pallavas or the Cholas. Going by this logic alone, the Pallikonda piece must be at least 1,200 years old, as the region had once been held sway by the Pallavas! Of course, this is mere conjecture unless ascertained by the experts in the Archeological department.

Mr. Geetesh Sharma get your history straight: There was no Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City 2,000 years ago!

South Indians were the ancient money bags in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh city (IANS Books)

05-Mar-2010
Source: Madhusree Chatterjee

New Delhi, March 5 (IANS) Vietnam - the bloody stage for a 30-year-war with France and then the US - was once home to a bustling Hindu settlement devoted to Shiva and Vishnu. Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, was the business hub of the South Indian Chettiyar community that set up money-lending businesses.

'The relation between India and Ho Chi Minh city dates back to more than two centuries when the Chettiyars, the trading community from south India, first came to the city to establish their money lending business.

'Subsequently, when they flourished, they entered the retail trade and formed a place for themselves in local society. They were followed by several other trading communities and religious groups from India,' writes veteran journalist, scholar and social activist Geetesh Sharma in his new book, 'Traces of Indian Culture in Vietnam'.

Ties between India and Vietnam date back to more than 2,000 years when Hindu traders from the Bhagalpur region established the ancient Champa kingdom in central Vietnam, Sharma says.

The book, published by Banyan Tree Books Pvt Ltd, the English publishing wing of Rajkamal Publications, was released by ICCR president Karan Singh in the capital Wednesday.

The 77-year-old Kolkata-based writer, who has visited Vietnam 13 times, had been researching the historical ties between the two nations since 1982.

'Vietnam - once a household name in Kolkata made popular by Communist slogans such as 'tomar naam, amar naam, Vietnam' (your name, my name is Vietnam) - captured my imagination in the 1970s when I attended demonstrations against the Vietnam war in the city. I realised that Vietnam shared a lot with India - and Bengal,' the writer told IANS.

'The first lot of people who migrated to Vietnam during the first and fourth century AD were temple artisans and traders from Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. Hindu culture is still alive in Vietnam. Several communities of ethnic Cham people in the country speak a tongue that is a phonetic blend of Devanagari and Sanskrit. I also came upon a local theatre troupe which performs a version of Ramayana,' Sharma said.

The Vietnamese adaptation of Ramayana, 'Ms Sita', is woven around the lives of local prince Po Liem [KI-Media Note: Not Po Liem but Preah Ream!] , a local version of king Rama and his wife Sita.

'The king dies and the crown is passed on to the king's ex-wife's son. Liem and Sita are forced to live in the forest. Demon Riep (Ravana) falls under the spell of Sita's enchanting beauty and forces her to become his wife. Po Liem rescues Sita with the help of General Hanuman,' Sharma said, narrating the story.

But the Vietnamese Ramayana ends with a twist in the tale. Sita refuses to return to the palace with Rama and pledges that she would see him only in death. 'She enters the imperial palace to die in Po Liem's arms'.

Sharma has toured 17 ancient Hindu sites across Vietnam.

'Vietnam has at least 200 Hindu temples. Mysol, a Unesco World Heritage Site, alone had 40 temples before the Vietnam war; but bombings reduced their number to 20. The remaining temples have been restored,' he said.

Sharma also quotes new research to prove that Hindus had settled down along the banks of the Mekong river in southern Vietnam.

'It is an incontrovertible fact that by the time of the establishment of the Hindu Champa kingdom in central Vietnam, a large number of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and traders had settled down in southern parts of Vietnam.

'The Hindu caste hierarchy in Vietnam was free of Shudras. Recent excavations in a large area of the Mekong delta have unearthed relics of Hindu gods and goddesses - mostly Shivalingas and yonis,' he said.

Sharma said the Fu Nan dynasty, the ruling dynasty in the Mekong delta, was established by a Brahmin named Kaundinya from India.

'According to a Chinese version, Kaundinya, who came to Vietnam from India via Cambodia, married a local princess Nagi and founded the dynasty. Shiva commanded supreme obeisance among the Hindus followed by Vishnu and the Buddha. Subsequently, the Buddha replaced Shiva,' Sharma said.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)

Cultural ties between India and Cambodia

Sunday, December 02, 2007
Dr Sarharuddin Ahmed
The Assam Tribune (India)

Dr R Das Gupta while making a serious and systematic study of the sculptures of Mediaeval Assam remarked, “The Ahom temple reliefs are framed in rectangular panels with foiled arches for the top. The arches multiply when the number of figures is more two.... The human figures have the feet in said view, the body in front view and the faces usually in profile. Sometimes front faces are large, a local ethnic characteristic feature as we also see in the Khmer reliefs from Angkor in Cambodia. Such similarity raises the question of some real artistic connection between the stone carver’s technique and ideals for figures between Assam and Angkorian Cambodia. But history is silent about any such connections” (The Journal of the Assam Research Society, Vol. xxvii, 1983). Dr. Das Gupta made his observations about 25 years ago. Sunanda K Dattta-Ray, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of South Indian Studies, Singapore who has visited Assam very recently as a State Guest stressed on the old connection between India and Kambujadesa - ancient Cambodia in his article “India’s Look East Policy should include a revival of cultural ties” (The Telegraph, 20.10.07). While making some observations on the cultural ties between India and Cambodia, Datta-Ray concludes, “The past that lives on, sublimely perhaps, deserves to be nurtured, not in India alone but throughout Southeast Asia with museums, language instruction, research centers and educational tours and exchanges. An Association of Southeast Asian Nations project perhaps financed by the Asian Development Bank, to trace, establish and strengthen cultural links between the Asean and Asean’s most important dialogue partner”.

Indeed, both the aforesaid observations deserve rapt attention for lightening the cultural ties between India and Southeast Asia more specifically Cambodia. It is gathered from the inscriptions of Kambujadesa or ancient Cambodia that many places and many of the useful public institutions bore Sanskrit names. There were many towns, such as Tamrapura, Adhyapura, Dhruvapura, Jyesthapura, Vikramapura, Bhavapura, Insanapura etc. Public institutions carried Sanskrit names like- Viprasala (learned Assembly), Sarasvati (Public School), Pustaka Asrama (Library), Satra (Guest House), Arogyasala (Hospital) and Vahnigriha (a temple where the sacrificial fire is regularly maintained). Further, the kings, queens, nobles and priests etc. had Sanskrit names. Even the female servants had the name of Sanskrit origin, e.g. Devadasi.

The asramas were the centres of culture and learning. The gurus taught their pupils in the asramas in the traditional Indian manner. Reference to fourteen sciences (four Vedas – Rig, Yaur, Sama and Atharva; Six Vedangas namely – Siksa, Kalpa, Nirukta, Vyakarana, Chanda and Yotisa; Dharma-Sastra and Puranas; and finally two Indian law books - Manusmrti and Yagyavalka Smrti) is severally found in the ancient Cambodian inscriptions (RC Majumdar’s Inscriptions of Kambuja, Pre Rup Stele Inscriptions of Rajendravarman, verse 135). Moreover, in the inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, references are made to Indian epic characters with the same degree of reverence or contempt. This leads us to conjecture that the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were highly practised by the learned circle of ancient Cambodia. Apart from the two epics, there are also references to Panini, Vatsyayana, Visalaksa, Pravarasena, Mayura, Gunadhya and Susruta together with their work are mentioned. In may be presumed that the scholars had the intimate knowledge of the works of Kalidasa.

The most important point to be noted here is that the inscriptions are written in beautiful Kavya-style. The composers of the Prasasties exhibited a thorough acquaintance with the most developed rules and conventions of Sanskrit rhetoric and prosody.

It is not only the external form of India’s traditional life that was prevalent in ancient Cambodia, but even the very view of life has been shaped by the Indian ideas of ethics and morality. In the concluding part of the royal charters, sometimes it is found that imprecatory verses are usually quoted in order to show the merits and good results derived from honouring the grant and that hell and suffering coming out of violating the same. These verses are usually the sayings of a sage or sages or quoted from the Dharmasastras.

In the present context, the formation of the word ‘Kambuja’ is taken to be noteworthy. In many of the classical Sanskrit works the word Kamboja (not Kambuja) is referred to. Panini in his Astadhyayi mentions the word Kamboja (IV, I.175). When the word occurs in Panini, it is obvious that it should occur also in the Mahabhasya of Patanjali. While throwing light on the peculiarity of the dialect of the people of Kamboja, Yaska refers to this word (Nirukta, II.2.). It appears that the Kambojas were originally a foreign tribe as is known from the Manusmrti where their association is found with the Sakas and the Yavanas who are traditionally believed to be originally Ksatriya but gradually degraded to the ranks of sudras (Manu.X.44). In determining the geographical boundary of the Kingdom of Raghu and also for showing his military prowess, Kalidasa mentions the word Kamboja (Raghu.iv.69). In the Mahabharata, the very peculiar characteristics of the horses of Kamboja are recorded. It is stated that when the horses of Kamboja ran, their tails and ears and eyes remained motionless (Dronaparva, ch.36. Verse.36). Moreover, this epic, in describing the different rivers, countries and Janapadas of ancient India places Kamboja in the north (Bhismaparva ch.9., verse 65).

Primarily, on the basis of the references found in the classical Sanskrit works, it is concluded that there was celebrated country called Kamboja in the Northwestern part of India. DC Sircar presumes that the name Kambuja (ancient name of Cambodia) is coined on the model of the name of the Kamboja people in North-western India (Indian Epigraphy, p.203). It is already shown that many public institutions of ancient Cambodia had the names of Indian origin. Another instance from the inscriptions of Assam is referred to here. In the Guvakuchi Copper Plate grant of Indrapala (verse 20), occurs the name of a place called Savathi which appears to be a prakritised form of Sravasti. Savathi should have been a locality around modern Rangiya junction of NF Railway some 30 km north of Guwahati. It is conjectured that this Savathi might have been modeled on Sravasti of North Kosala like Ayuthia (from Ayodhya) and also river Mekong (from Ma Ganga) of Kambuja. Hence, it is reasonable to conjecture that Kambuja which is situated to the north-eastern part of India is coined on the model of Kamboja of North-Western India. Because of philological reasons, there is scope to believe that the name Kambuja is just a corrupt form of Kamboja where the vowel O is changed to U.

At the beginning, R Das Gupta is quoted to show the resemblances of architectural designs and sculptures of Assam and Cambodia. The affinities not only confined to art and architecture, but cover the contemporary epigraphical literature also.

First, the language of the epigraphs of the early period of Assam History is Sanskrit. The language of the records of Kambuja or ancient Cambodia is mostly correct Sanskrit, irregularities and mistakes which are few, being probably due to the scribes or engravers rather than the composers.

Secondly, the inscriptions of the Mediaeval Assam (Ahom period) are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in local Tai language. Similarly, the composers of the inscriptions of Kambuja use the local Khmer language in addition to Sanskrit.

Thirdly, some of the literary texts of the copper plates of early Assam are quite long. Dubi Copper Plates of Bhaskaravarman cover altogether 76 verses. A large number of the inscriptions of Kambuja contain 50 stanzas or more, while some contain more than hundred stanzas.

Fourthly, in the inscriptions of Assam, Saka era is commonly used. This practice is noticed in the inscriptions of Cambodia also.

Fifthly, in the copper plate inscriptions of early Assam, the text of the literary portion sometimes is repeated fully in another inscription. This feature is noticed in the inscriptions of Kambuja also.

Sixthly, in the inscriptions of early Assam, the kings are described to have descended from the mythical ancestor, viz., Naraka, the son of Lord Vishnu and Bhumi (i.e., earth). The family is hence called Bhauma-Naraka family. In Kambuja inscriptions also the kings are said to have descended from the mythical couple Kambu Svayambhuva and Mera.

Lastly, the composers of the Assam inscriptions were pessimists in worldly pleasures. They consider the world to be hollow and the life of the human being is as fickle as a drop of water. The authors of the Cambodian inscriptions were also pessimists in nature.

The writer is the Director-in-Charge of the Directorate of Museums, Assam.

Burma Regime Change - The Geopolitical Stakes of the Saffron Revolution

Politics / Asian Economies
Oct 15, 2007
By: F. William Engdahl
The Market Oracle (UK)

There are facts and then there are facts. Take the case of the recent mass protests in Burma or Myanmar depending on which name you prefer to call the former British colony. First it's a fact which few will argue that the present military dictatorship of the reclusive General Than Shwe is right up there when it comes to world-class tyrannies. It's also a fact that Burma enjoys one of the world's lowest general living standards. Partly as a result of the ill-conceived 100% to 500% price hikes in gasoline and other fuels in August, inflation, the nominal trigger for the mass protests led by Saffron-robed Buddhist monks, is unofficially estimated to have risen by 35%. Ironically the demand to establish “market” energy prices came from the IMF and World Bank.

The UN estimates the population of some 50 million inhabitants spends up to 70% of their monthly income on food alone. The recent fuel price hike makes matters unbearable for tens of millions.

Myanmar is also deeply involved in the world narcotics trade, ranking only behind Hamid Karzai's Afghanistan as a source for heroin. As well, it is said to be Southeast Asia 's largest producer of methamphetamines.

This is all understandable powder to unleash a social explosion of protest against the regime.

It is also a fact that the Myanmar military junta is on the Hit List of Condi Rice and the Bush Administration for its repressive ways. Has the Bush leopard suddenly changed his spots? Or is there a more opaque agenda behind Washington 's calls to impose severe economic and political sanctions on the regime? Here some not-so-publicized facts help.

Behind the recent CNN news pictures of streams of saffron-robed Buddhist Monks marching in the streets of the former capital city Rangoon (Yangon) in Myanmar—the US government still prefers to call it by the British colonial name, Burma—calling for more democracy, is a battle of major geopolitical consequence.

The major actors

The tragedy of Burma, whose land area is about the size of George W. Bush's Texas, is that its population is being used as a human stage prop in a drama which has been scripted in Washington by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the George Soros Open Society Institute, Freedom House and Gene Sharp's Albert Einstein Institution, a US intelligence asset used to spark “non-violent” regime change around the world on behalf of the US strategic agenda.

Burma's “Saffron Revolution,” like the Ukraine “Orange Revolution” or the Georgia “Rose Revolution” and the various Color Revolutions instigated in recent years against strategic states surrounding Russia, is a well-orchestrated exercise in Washington-run regime change, down to the details of “hit-and-run” protests with “swarming” mobs of Buddhists in saffron, internet blogs, mobile SMS links between protest groups, well-organized protest cells which disperse and reform. CNN made the blunder during a September broadcast of mentioning the active presence of the NED behind the protests in Myanmar .

In fact the US State Department admits to supporting the activities of the NED in Myanmar . The NED is a US Government-funded “private” entity whose activities are designed to support US foreign policy objectives, doing today what the CIA did during the Cold War. As well the NED funds Soros' Open Society Institute in fostering regime change in Myanmar . In an October 30 2003 Press Release the State Department admitted, “The United States also supports organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute and Internews, working inside and outside the region on a broad range of democracy promotion activities.” It all sounds very self-effacing and noble of the State Department. Is it though?

In reality the US State Department has recruited and trained key opposition leaders from numerous anti-government organizations. It has poured the relatively huge sum (for Myanmar) of more than $2.5 million annually into NED activities in promoting regime change in Myanmar since at least 2003. The US regime change, its Saffron Revolution, is being largely run according to informed reports, out of the US Consulate General in bordering Chaing Mai , Thailand . There activists are recruited and trained, in some cases directly in the USA , before being sent back to organize inside Myanmar . The USA 's NED admits to funding key opposition media including the New Era Journal , Irrawaddy and the Democratic Voice of Burma radio.

The concert-master of the tactics of Saffron monk-led non-violence regime change is Gene Sharp, founder of the deceptively-named Albert Einstein Institution in Cambridge Massachusetts , a group funded by an arm of the NED to foster US-friendly regime change in key spots around the world. Sharp's institute has been active in Burma since 1989, just after the regime massacred some 3000 protestors to silence the opposition. CIA special operative and former US Military Attache in Rangoon, Col. Robert Helvey, an expert in clandestine operations, introduced Sharp to Burma in 1989 to train the opposition there in non-violent strategy. Interestingly, Sharp was also in China two weeks before the dramatic events at Tiananmen Square .

Why Myanmar now?

A relevant question is why the US Government has such a keen interest in fostering regime change in Myanmar at this juncture. We can dismiss rather quickly the idea that it has genuine concern for democracy, justice, human rights for the oppressed population there. Iraq and Afghanistan are sufficient testimony to the fact Washington 's paean to Democacy is propaganda cover for another agenda.

The question is what would lead to such engagement in such a remote place as Myanmar?

Geopolitical control seems to be the answer. Control ultimately of the strategic sea lanes from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea . The coastline of Myanmar provides naval access in the proximity of one of the world's most strategic water passages, the Strait of Malacca , the narrow ship passage between Malaysia and Indonesia .

The Pentagon has been trying to militarize the region since September 11, 2001 on the argument of defending against possible terrorist attack. The US has managed to gain an airbase on Banda Aceh, the Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base, on the northernmost tip of Indonesia. The governments of the region, including Myanmar , however, have adamantly refused US efforts to militarize the region. A glance at a map will confirm the strategic importance of Myanmar .

The Strait of Malacca , linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans , is the shortest sea route between the Persian Gulf and China . It is the key chokepoint in Asia . More than 80% of all China 's oil imports are shipped by tankers passing the Malacca Strait . The narrowest point is the Phillips Channel in the Singapore Strait, only 1.5 miles wide at its narrowest. Daily more than 12 million barrels in oil supertankers pass through this narrow passage, most en route to the world's fastest-growing energy market, China or to Japan.

If the strait were closed, nearly half of the world's tanker fleet would be required to sail further. Closure would immediately raise freight rates worldwide. More than 50,000 vessels per year transit the Strait of Malacca . The region from Maynmar to Banda Aceh in Indonesia is fast becoming one of the world's most strategic chokepoints. Who controls those waters controls China 's energy supplies.

That strategic importance of Myanmar has not been lost on Beijing .

Since it became clear to China that the US was hell-bent on a unilateral militarization of the Middle East oil fields in 2003, Beijing has stepped up its engagement in Myanmar . Chinese energy and military security, not human rights concerns drive their policy.

In recent years Beijing has poured billions of dollars in military assistance into Myanmar , including fighter, ground-attack and transport aircraft; tanks and armored personnel carriers; naval vessels and surface-to-air missiles. China has built up Myanmar railroads and roads and won permission to station its troops in Myanmar . China , according to Indian defense sources, has also built a large electronic surveillance facility on Myanmar 's Coco Islands and is building naval bases for access to the Indian Ocean .

In fact Myanmar is an integral part of what China terms its “string of pearls,” its strategic design of establishing military bases in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia in order to counter US control over the Strait of Malacca chokepoint. There is also energy on and offshore of Myanmar, and lots of it.

The gas fields of Myanmar

Oil and gas have been produced in Myanmar since the British set up the Rangoon Oil Company in 1871, later renamed Burmah Oil Co. The country has produced natural gas since the 1970's, and in the 1990's it granted gas concessions to the foreign companies ElfTotal of France and Premier Oil of the UK in the Gulf of Martaban. Later Texaco and Unocal (now Chevron) won concessions at Yadana and Yetagun as well. Alone Yadana has an estimated gas reserve of more than 5 trillion cubic feet with an expected life of at least 30 years. Yetagun is estimated to have about a third the gas of the Yadana field.

In 2004 a large new gas field, Shwe field, off the coast of Arakan was discovered.

By 2002 both Texaco and Premier Oil withdrew from the Yetagun project following UK government and NGO pressure. Malaysia's Petronas bought Premier's 27% stake. By 2004 Myanmar was exporting Yadana gas via pipeline to Thailand worth annually $1 billion to the Myanmar regime.

In 2005 China, Thailand and South Korea invested in expanding the Myanmar oil and gas sector, with export of gas to Thailand rising 50%. Gas export today is Myanmar's most important source of income. Yadana was developed jointly by ElfTotal, Unocal, PTT-EP of Thailand and Myanmar's state MOGE, operated by the French ElfTotal. Yadana supplies some 20% of Thai natural gas needs.

Today the Yetagun field is operated by Malaysia's Petronas along with MOGE and Japan's Nippon Oil and PTT-EP. The gas is piped onshore where it links to the Yadana pipeline. Gas from the Shwe field is to come online beginning 2009. China and India have been in strong contention over the Shwe gas field reserves.

India loses, China wins

This past summer Myanmar signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PetroChina to supply large volumes of natural gas from reserves of the Shwe gasfield in the Bay of Bengal. The contract runs for 30 years. India was the main loser. Myanmar had earlier given India a major stake in two offshore blocks to develop gas to have been transmitted via pipeline through Bangladesh to India's energy-hungry economy. Political bickering between India and Bangladesh brought the Indian plans to a standstill.

China took advantage of the stalemate. China simply trumped India with an offer to invest billions in building a strategic China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline across Myanmar from Myanmar's deepwater port at Sittwe in the Bay of Bengal to Kunming in China's Yunnan Province, a stretch of more than 2,300 kilometers. China plans an oil refinery in Kumming as well.

What the Myanmar-China pipelines will allow is routing of oil and gas from Africa (Sudan among other sources) and the Middle East (Iran, Saudi Arabia) independent of dependence on the vulnerable chokepoint of the Malacca Strait. Myanmar becomes China's “bridge” linking Bangladesh and countries westward to the China mainland independent of any possible future moves by Washington to control the strait.

India's dangerous alliance shift

It's no wonder that China is taking such precautions. Ever since the Bush Administration decided in 2005 to recruit India to the Pentagon's ‘New Framework for US-India Defense Relations,'India has been pushed into a strategic alliance with Washington in order to counter China in Asia.

In an October 2002 Pentagon report, ‘ The Indo-US Military Relationship ,' the Office of Net Assessments stated the reason for the India-USA defense alliance would be to have a ‘capable partner' who can take on ‘more responsibility for low-end operations' in Asia, provide new training opportunities and ‘ultimately provide basing and access for US power projection.' Washington is also quietly negotiating a base on Indian territory , a severe violation of India 's traditional non-aligned status.

Power projection against whom? China , perhaps?

As well, the Bush Administration has offered India to lift its 30 year nuclear sanctions and to sell advanced US nuclear technology, legitimizing India 's open violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, at the same time Washington accuses Iran of violating same, an exercise in political hypocrisy to say the least.

Notably, just as the Saffron-robed monks of Myanmar took to the streets, the Pentagon opened joint US-Indian joint naval exercises, Malabar 07 , along with armed forces from Australia , Japan and Singapore . The US showed the awesome muscle of its 7 th Fleet, deploying the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Kitty Hawk; guided missile cruisers USS Cowpens and USS Princeton and no less than five guided missile destroyers.

US-backed regime change in Myanmar together with Washington 's growing military power projection via India and other allies in the region is clearly a factor in Beijing 's policy vis-à-vis Myanmar 's present military junta. As is often the case these days, from Darfur to Caracas to Rangoon , the rallying call of Washington for democracy ought to be tasted with at least a grain of good salt.

By F. William Engdahl
www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net