President of Patriots Forum, D.C. Nath was superannuated in January, 1995, as the Special Director, Intelligence Bureau, D.C. Nath (IPS-1960) was associated with the International Institute of Security and Safety Management (IISSM), headquartered in New Delhi, for over 14 years, first as the Executive President & CEO and then as the President & Director General, between February, 1997 and March, 2011. The author of a highly acclaimed book, Intelligence Imperatives for India, Mr. Nath earned high plaudits from all around for two of his very significant presentations on: “Revisiting the Future of India” (2005, London) and “Lessons from India for the War On Terrorism” (2007, USA). He is the only one in the field, combining the experiences of a police officer with specialization in intelligence and strategic analysis and an industrial security expert par excellence. More Bio on D. C. Nath…
OPINION>>>>
November 3, 2016
Dear Friends,
JAI Hind!
Subject: How Much Did We Know About The Silk Road?
We have been hearing about the Silk Road off and on. A recent write -up, titled, “Silk Road: A Journey Of Ideas And Identities” appeared in the Supplementary to the Pioneer of October 9, 2016, written by Ananya Borgaohain.
Before we go the contents of this interesting piece, let us share with you that we had the privilege of hearing about the Silk Road from the scholar- administrator, Prof. Nurul Hassan, when he was the Governor in West Bengal, in the 1980’s. One morning, he explained to me the importance of the Silk Road from the point of view of commerce. I gulped the information.
‘May be if I would have stayed with him longer, he would have unfolded more, much of which is in the write-up, under reference.
The editorial comments on this are revealing to us. “This route was not only a medium of commerce for merchant but also a channel for the merger of religious traditions and cultural norms. From Sufism to exchange of ideas, an Asian history and identity could be defined through the Silk Road”.
In a way, this sums up everything. The author elaborates, “The Sufi sil Sila that came to India through the Silk Road is still very active”. The Silk Road connected Turkey, Central and South Asia, China, Persia and Mongolia. Several of these kingdoms merged to this exchange of trade, ideas and culture. In the language of Rabindranath Thakur, this was, “Sak, Hundal, Pathan, Mughal ek dehe holo lin(merged)”. ‘Hope you agree.
While on one hand, the Silk Road helped spread culture and trade between India and China, Islam also benefited from the Silk Road in spreading their religion and merchandies to Mrocco and Saudi Arabia. “This led to, as Ananya beautifully puts it, “in the fusion Indo-Persian culture”. The Persian culture, as had written in our recent mail on the Mughal regime, had brought a good number of artisans to India.
The author very humbly concludes, “Hopefully, the young generation will follow these pursuits with a more scholarly passion”. We wish her hopes are fulfilled.
Well, Friends, have you now realised how little we knew about the Silk Road apart from its utility in being a trade route? We have nothing more to add except thanking the Editor of the Pioneer and Anany Borgahain (ananypioneer@gmail.com.
Vandemataram,
Your sevak,
D.C. Nath
(President, Patriots’ Forum)
(Former Spl. Director, IB)
Copy for information to:
· The Minister for External Affairs,
(Sushama Swaraj)
· Foreign Secretary,
(Shri Subrahmanyam Jaishankar)
· Cabinet Secretary
(Shri Pradeep Kumar Sinha)
· The Prime Minister’s Office
(Shri P.K. Mishra)
· The Prime Minister’s Office II
· The Defence Minister
(Shri Manohar Parrikar)
· Defence Secretary
(Shri G. Mohan Kumar)
· The Minister for HRD Ministry
(Shri Prakash Javadekar)
· The Secretary for HRD Ministry
(Dr. Subash Chandra Khuntia)
· The Union Home Minister,
(Shri Rajnath Singh)
· The Union Home Secretary
(Shri Rajiv Mehrishi)
Vandemataram,
Yours sincerely,
D.C. Nath
(President, Patriots’ Forum)
(Former Spl. Director, IB)
Source: Patriots Forum