Which was worse: The Raj or Jack the Ripper?

Dinner at The Rambaugh Palace

Once again today we attended a wide variety of panels. The weekends are incredibly crowded, if there was an emergency hundreds would be trampled to death I am sure. You read about stampedes of people, when you are here you can really understand why they can happen. There is lots of security, metal detectors, police, etc. But it all seems to me like a bit of a show. None the less, we have learned how to navigate the venue very successfully. We always were able to obtain seats.

The first session I attended was entitled “Napoleon the Great” from the book with the same provocative name. The author, a Brit, is definitely a revisionist historian when it comes to Napoleon. No one in England would ever call him “The Great”. In a nutshell as he tells the story, although ultimately defeated and sent off to exile, much of what Napoleon created across Europe survives. He took the best parts of the French revolution and institutionalized them while ending the bad parts (like chopping off heads). For the most part European monarchies kept declaring war on France, which Napolean would win and then impose enlightenment on the new captured areas. He also sent back lots of art creating the Louvre in Paris. He used the term “Enlightenment on Horseback” to describe this process. The invasions of Poland and Russia were glaring deviations from this process. He promoted his family into major positions and they were mostly very incompetent. He had many lovers after he and Josephine were no more. He lived lavishly with 34 palaces and increasingly elaborate clothing. I love the excuse the author gives: After the Horrors of the terror, the rich were dead, and as a result the artisans had no one to sell their luxury goods to.  To support these artisans, Napoleon decided to buy their goods  them all for himself. I am sure I won’t read the book but the lecture was fun.

Napoleon The Great - Andrew Roberts

The next session was a rousing one. It was entitled “Remembering the Raj”. This is a continuation in a way of the previous session we attended about the East India Company. It focused more on the myths about the Raj. The bottom line – The British were in India to make money; they didn’t particularly care how many Indians died or suffered. India before the Raj was a very prosperous country with approximately 39% of the world’s GDP. When the British left, they had basically destroyed the country reducing it to misery. The two authors persuasively make the case that the British Government used the East India Company as a handy excuse to explain away the excesses of the Raj, while reaping the rewards. They believe that Great Britain basically brought nothing good to India, while sucking out its wealth. It is a very compelling argument. We have always wondered why the Indian elite so often try to emulate the Brits in speech and actions, after all that they suffered. Clearly the worm has turned and the myth that the Raj helped civilize India has been destroyed. The truth lies probably somewhere in-between, but the suffering visited upon India by the British Raj is uncountable.

An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India – Shashi Tharoor

The next session, we attended on a whim and it was a hoot. It was about solving the mystery of who was Jack the Ripper, the infamous killer in London’s East End in the 1880’s. The hideous crimes were never solved. The book"s author, Bruce Robinson, purports to have solved the mystery. In fact, he says it never was a mystery, but rather it was a giant cover-up. The London police always knew who the killer was. The problem was the elite of London and the killer were all Free-Masons, and they covered up the crime. I have no idea if this is the solution to the case or just a wild romp. I do know the lecture was fabulous. The author is an actor, director, historian as well as a very wild and crazy man. The interlocutor, A.N. Wilson, the author of the book Victoria, is an expert on Victorian London. He is the essence of a droll, erudite, priggish writer. He was like a counterpoint to Bruce Robinson. It was like a comedy routine. The audience was in stitches as they discussed these grisly murders. I haven’t gone into the methodology that Robinson used to solve the murders and reveal the murder 120 years after the fact, but it is all there. Read the reviews of the book and decide for yourself if this is fact or fiction.

They All Loved Jack - Bruce Robinson

Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London in 2006. He was murdered by the successor to the KGB with deadly Plutonium poured added to his tea. He was an ex-KGB officer who was at the time living in London and working with MI6 – British Intelligence. The lethal dose of Plutonium should have killed him almost immediately, but it didn’t. He was in incredible physical shape and lingered on in an excruciating death for several weeks. During that time, he solved his own murder. It was a KGB hit direct most certainly at the behest of Vladimir Putin. The book is not only about the life and murder of Alexander Litvinenko but also an expose of Russia under Putin. It is basically a criminal enterprise that knows no limits. We have just experienced their interference in our elections, the ultimate goal is the re-establishment of Russia as a major player in all the world's hot spots. Russia is unique in its ruthlessness and willingness to do whatever it takes. The author who works for The Guardian newspaper is convinced they will be able to document direct links between the Russian Government and the Trump Campaign, leading to his impeachment. I hope he is right! None the less it is a frightening real life and death spy story. I have read many espionage fictional books. This true story is most frightening of all.

A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West – Luke Harding

The Jaipur Literary Festival had a special event for delegates tonight. First a cocktail party (always a plus with me), then a private panel discussion. The main take away for me, was from the retired Republican Ambassador to India from the United States. He was a very strong never-Trumper. He expressed the opinion that Trump was legitimately elected and we must endure him for the next 4 years then we have the chance to throw him out. I don’t agree. I believe he is so extreme and his cabinet is so right wing that we should do all we can to resist him for his entire term.