War

Market for Mangoes and More The Indian mango has been an unexpected casualty of the US war on Iraq. The conflict has left mango exports to the Gulf region stranded in transit, dealing a blow to exporters as west Asian countries, mainly Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, account for 70-80 per cent of India

The only way to put a definitive end to the war is to force a withdrawal of the coalition forces. The UN now has a chance to redeem itself as an institution standing for a just and democratic global order. A new super power has emerged - world public opinion - and for the first time has challenged US domination over the UN. The anti-war movement needs a two-pronged campaign: to call for a UN General Assembly session to order a withdrawal of US-UK troops from Iraq, and to put an end to US dollar hegemony.

Those who forget history are often condemned to repeat it. The history of the origins of the first world war, which need never have been fought, is worth recalling as the spectre of an unintended, unsought war between two nuclear powers over Kashmir makes its appearance on the horizon.

It seems likely now that the Henderson Brooks Report on the debacle in the border war with China, completed in 1963, will never be released. Furthermore, even if one day a stable, confident and relaxed government in New Delhi should, miraculously, appear and decide to publish it, the text would be largely incomprehensible, the context, well known to the authors and therefore not spelled out, being now forgotten. The report would need an introduction and gloss - a first draft of which this essay attempts to provide, drawing upon the author's research in India in the 1960s and material published later.