ROTH PREPARES THE FIRST SANSKRIT GRAMMAR

Eurocentrism Is a Fad

According to folklore, Kalidasa, though handsome, was a complete dunce. When some wise men saw him sitting on the wrong end of the branch of a tree while trying to see it off, they conspired that he was the perfect match to teach the haughty princess Vidyottama a lesson. She took great pride in her intellect and vowed she would only marry someone who could defeat her in Shastrartha (scholastic debate). 

King Vikramaditya statue at Ujjain

Kalidasa was presented as a learned man who had undertaken a maun vrata (vow of silence) and would communicate only using sign language. During their exchange, the princess showed him one finger (to mean shakti is one). He thought she meant to poke his eye out, so he showed her two fingers to indicate he would poke both her eyes out. The wise men interpreted his response to mean shakti is the reflection of duality. Vidyottama then showed him her outstretched palm, to indicate the world is made of five elements. He thought she was going to slap him, and responded by showing his fist. She accepted it as a response that the five elements constitute the whole body.

The two were married, but soon after, the princess realized the truth and threw him out. Distraught, he came to the temple of Kali in Ujjain and offered to cut off his infernal tongue as a sacrifice. The goddess was appeased and granted him profound wisdom, and he took on the name Kalidasa (servant of Kali). When he returned home, Vidyottama asked in chaste Sanskrit, “Asti kashchit vaag-vishesha” (Do you have anything special to say?). In response, Kalidasa is said to have used her words to write three poems of exceptional literary beauty. He began his epic poem Kumarasambhavam with the words “asti-uttarasyaam dishi”. The lyrical poem Meghdootam began with“kashchit-kaantaa” and “vaag arthaaviva” were the opening words of Raghuvamsam.

More than twenty centuries later, the epic poet of Germany, Goethe was fascinated by Kalidasa. While Sanskrit and the Indian civilization conquered Europe culturally, two venomous ideologies made their destructive facade visible- Eurocentrism and Marxism. The religious colonizing zeal of Europe hasn't disappeared forever.

On 3 June 2022, In an interactive session at a conference in the Slovakian capital Bratislava, Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar said: "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that its problems are the world’s problems but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems."

The strong comments by Jaishankar came amid persistent efforts by the European countries to convince India to take a tough position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the argument that New Delhi may face a similar challenge from China in the future.

“In terms of the connection you are making, we have a difficult relationship with China and we are perfectly capable of managing it. If I get global understanding and support, obviously it is of help to me,” Jaishankar said.

“But this idea that I do a transaction – I come in one conflict because it will help me in conflict two. That’s not how the world works. A lot of our problems in China have nothing to do with Ukraine and have nothing to do with Russia. They are predated,” he said.

Jaishankar was asked why he thinks anyone will help New Delhi in case of a problem with China after it did not help others for Ukraine.

“Somewhere Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems. That if it is you, it’s yours, if it is me it is ours. I see reflections of that,” he said.

“There is a linkage today which is being made. A linkage between China and India and what’s happening in Ukraine. China and India happened way before anything happened in Ukraine. The Chinese do not need a precedent somewhere else on how to engage us or not engage us or be difficult with us or not be difficult with us,” he said.

Jaishankar said Europe was also silent on many developments in Asia.

“If I were to take Europe collectively which has been singularly silent on many things which were happening, for example in Asia, you could ask why would anybody in Asia trust Europe on anything at all,” he said.

It was a bold attack on Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism has been defined as an attitude, conceptual apparatus, or set of empirical beliefs that frame Europe as the primary engine and architect of world history, the bearer of universal values and reason, and the pinnacle and therefore model of progress and development. (1)

In Eurocentric narratives, the superiority of Europe is evident in its economic and political systems and the quality of life enjoyed by its societies. But for Indians, Eurocentrism is more than banal ethnocentric prejudice, as it is intimately tied to and constituted in the violence and asymmetry of colonial and imperial encounters. Eurocentrism is what makes this diabolism not only possible but also acceptable or justifiable.

Significant critiques of Eurocentrism emerged in the context of post-World War II shifts in geopolitical power, including anticolonial and anti-imperial movements. Even so, institutional practices that privilege Eurocentric epistemologies continue to haunt the third world in disturbing ways. Thus, India is reinventing itself, realizing the heinous designs Europe had unleashed on India. At the same time, there were several Indologists in Europe, who had realized that India is the cradle of civilization.

Max Muller and Ralph Griffith translated the Vedas. Monier Williams wrote Hinduism and its Sources. Maurice Bloomfield prepared the monumental Vedic Dictionary, A Vedic Concordance. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the poem, Brahma. German scholars translated the Upanishads. The great German poet Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866) wrote a six-volume monumental maha kavya, Brahma Jnanam. (Die Weisheit des Brahmanen, The Wisdom of the Brahmins). Rückert, who had been an expert on Arabic and Persian, also made a name for himself with the translation of the "Mahabharata" legends.

Goethe was fascinated by Kalidasa's Abhijñānaśākuntalam.

The German poet, philosopher and Indologist, Friedrich Von Schlegel (1772-1829), published an epoch-making book in 1808, On the Language and Wisdom of India. (Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier). In the book, he argued that people originating from India were the founders of the first European civilizations. He pointed out, “India is superior in everything — intellectually, religiously, even Greek heritage seems pale in comparison.” In 1818 he became the first professor of Indology at Bonn University.

German philosopher and literary critic Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) remarked: “‘Mankind’s origins can be traced to India where the human mind got the first shapes of wisdom and virtue.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), the great German philosopher was amazed by the wisdom of the Vedas and reflected: “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and as elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my death. They are the product of the highest wisdom. Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world.”

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), German Romantic poet, essayist and journalist, said: “The Portuguese, Dutch and the English have been for a long time, year after year, shipping home the treasures of India in their big vessels. We Germans have all along been left to watch it. Germany would do likewise but hers would be treasures of spiritual knowledge.”

August Wilhelm Schlegel, professor of Sanskrit in Continental Europe produced a Latin translation of the Bhagavad Gita in 1823. It was the first Sanskrit book printed in Europe. This was the first of a self-financed, self-published series known as ‘The Indian Library’, which also included translations of the Ramayana and the Hitopadesha.

Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835), a Prussian philosopher and diplomat, on reading the Bhagavad Gita, said, “I read the poem for the first time today. I felt a sense of overwhelming gratitude to God for having let me be acquainted with this work. It must be the most sublime thing to be found in the world.”

German Indologist and Philosopher Paul Jakob Deussen (1845-1919) was strongly influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer. He was a friend of Friedrich Nietzsche and Swami Vivekananda, and even gave himself a Sanskrit name, Deva-Sena, as a mark of his admiration for Hinduism.

Werner Heisenberg (1901- 1976), Nobel Prize winner and co-founder of quantum physics, found revelations in Indian philosophy, and once articulated that “after the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of quantum physics that had seemed crazy suddenly made much more sense”.

But It was the British, who formally created the subject of Indology at the end of the 18th Century when the English scientist William Jones (1746-1794) founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Kolkata in 1784. But before that, there was a market for Sanskrit, albeit a small one.

The real beginnings of Sanskrit studies did not really kick off in Germany until the beginning of the 19th century – making Germany the first European country after the British to introduce the subject at universities, where scholars devoted themselves to translating antique religious texts and poetry.

Some of Germany's first Sanskrit scholars were famous personalities, like Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835). Humboldt corresponded with the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, with whom he discussed the Bhagavad Gita.

Some works by German philosophers and poets such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche also mention Sanskrit works and are thus proof of the attraction Sanskrit had in Europe.

Academic pursuits of the Germans were focused on the Indian traditional knowledge systems: Metaphysics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Ayurveda, Theosophy, Literature, and Folk traditions. German scholars and missionaries promoted the Indian language with translations and transliterations. The role of the Basel mission in promoting Indian languages like Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil, was tremendous.

The contribution of German missionaries to the study of Indian languages, customs, cultural identities and religious practices was part of a European agenda and unsurpassed in the thorough methodology and meticulous documentation. Even though the inadvertent religious bias was always present in their scholastic background, the academic identity they created for Indian languages was highly pedagogic. The German writers had no colonial interest in exploring classical Indian Sanskrit, and their interest in Indian classical literature was purely academic, though it was not the case with missionaries.

The Jesuit agenda

The very first Jesuit mission with the aim of Christianizing India started with the arrival of Francis Xavier (1506–52) in 1542. The Portuguese were the patrons of the Jesuit missions and they called their historiographies on India Estado da Índia. As a new religious order specifically available for overseas missions by a special vow to the pope, the Jesuits were aware of the need to produce and show the results of their engagement and to publish them, as the use of the printing press was gaining ground, for their European sponsors and benefactors.

The absence of literature on Indian civilization in European languages stimulated the production of historiography. These histories were meant to be read widely to edify European audiences and entice new recruits and provide the template for missionary action. They were both apologetic and factual, since each detail, whether about missionary successes, obstacles, or martyrdoms, was seen as a step forward to the ultimate triumph. This teleological colouring of the historiographical account was also closely interwoven with Catholic providentialism.

The earliest publications of missionary letters from India, such as the famous Copie d’une lettre missive envoyée des Indes (Paris, 1545) by Francis Xavier, can be taken as the first Jesuit historiographical effort at printing primary sources. (2)
Letters by the missionaries in India, working exclusively under the Portuguese Padroado (the royal patronage of the missions), appeared in print in the sixteenth century, often simultaneously in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, and Latin. What the Portuguese publications called simply Cartas (Letters), written mostly in Portuguese by the Jesuit missionaries with first-hand knowledge, were renamed histories when translated. The New Historical Reports (Nova relatio historica or Newe Historische Relation) or New Indian Relations (Indische Newe Relation) signal a transitional genre between letters (a witness report) and history. The printing press was therefore accelerating the process of making recent present events into fixed past, controlled by the Jesuit imprimatur. (3)

An unpublished history by a missionary in India is História do Malavar (History of Malabar) by Diogo Gonçalves (d.1640). The manuscript that Joseph Wicki dated to around 1615 is not simply a history of the Society of Jesus but a combination of geography and an ethnography of Kerala. (4) It seems to have been written for the Portuguese colonial administration in order to provide strategic advice for a possible conquest of or at least an attack on one of the rich temples. It was also directed at the Jesuit missionaries, offering them information and instructions on how to respond to Indian idolatry and customs.

Jesuit Indian early modern historiography reached its apogee in Daniello Bartoli’s (1608–85) multivolume oeuvre on the History of the Society of Jesus, published in Rome in Italian and Latin between 1650 and 1673 and republished many times over in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His Asian history, separate from those of Japan and China, included Xavier’s life and travel all the way to the mission at the Mughal court by Rodolfo Acquaviva (1550–83) and his martyrdom in Salcette in 1583. The Jesuits in France were bracing for a fight against articulate enemies at home, some of whom came straight from the Jesuit colleges and who were eventually associated with the Enlightenment. (5)

To win over the French literary public, the missionaries in India produced erudite and descriptive texts and letters in which distant peoples and their histories were variously portrayed as congealed in ancient (European) times or as people who “forgot” (or were tricked into forgetting) their own "Christian origins". Jesuit speculations about connections between Brahmins and Jews and many other conjectures were incorporated into some of the most important Enlightenment projects such as Bernard and Picard’s, Cérémonies et coutumes. (6)

As the opposition to the Society of Jesus grew, everything the Jesuits wrote from the missions was used against them in Protestant historiography. From the early years of the eighteenth century, a rival Christian mission in India, that of the German Pietists from Halle in Tranquebar (Tharangambadi in Mayiladuthurai district of Tamil Nadu), a Danish enclave on the Coromandel Coast, started producing their own missionary historiography. Their letters and reports were published from 1708 onwards as Hallesche Berichte and some of them were translated into English and published in Propagation of the Gospel in the East that started appearing in 1709 by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge and in various other histories. (7)

The acerbic tongue among the Protestant historians of the early eighteenth century was formerly been Catholic, Mathurin Veyssière de la Croze (1661–1739). He wrote Histoire du christianisme des Indes, a history in which Jesuits, Portuguese and French, figure very prominently side by side with other Portuguese ecclesiastical actors. Croze established a very long history of Christianity in India, preserved by the St. Thomas Christians in Kerala, while he portrayed the Jesuits and the Portuguese as those who came to pervert and corrupt the pristine message and this ancient community that had originally resembled a Protestant sect.

Only Jesuit authors wrote about their own history, although in the seventeenth century, some Jesuits extended their contributions to other literary, scholarly, and historiographical projects. As Jesuit and European interest in other people’s pasts grew, although diachrony was often collapsed into ethnography, the Society of Jesus itself became increasingly subject to negative criticism. The apogee of negative assessments occurred in the years leading to and after the suppression of the order. The Jesuit historiography of the Indian Jesuit missions resumed after the restoration of the Society of Jesus and the first missionaries, who all came from France, first to Bengal (1834) and then to Tamil Nadu (1837), and who had to deal with the changed political situation in India, in France, and within the Catholic Church.

However, Jesuits’ obsessive control of their own history was compromised by other historical actors in India in the eighteenth century, in particular by information-hungry British administrators-cum-orientalists. The life of the Jesuit Costanzo Giuseppe Beschi (1680–1747) had been written in Tamil before being translated into English and published in 1840. The British were not interested as much in Beschi’s life as in his work since he was recognized by the budding British orientalists as having been an extraordinary Tamil scholar, grammarian, and poet.

The Jesuit missionary to South India, Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656) claimed that he was a Brahmin, with an agenda to convert the brahmins. He came to Cochin and went to Madurai where he behaved like a Brahmin. He wore a white dothi, sandals and a three-stringed thread across his chest. He didn't call the thread poonool, but he said it represented the holy trinity. He encouraged shaving the head and the crest of hair on the head, kudummai.

Nobili

Nobili was an Italian Jesuit who believed local customs are not contrary to Christianity. Born in Tuscany, he came to Goa in 1605. After a short stay in Cochin, he reached Madurai in November. Claiming Brahmin parentage, he approached Brahmins. From a teacher, Shivadharma, he learned Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu. He applied Tamil equivalents to specific Christian terms: Kovil for Church, Arul/prasadam for Grace, Guru for the priest, Vedam for Bible and poosai for mass. Fellow Jesuit and the Arch Bishop of Goa, Cristovao de Sa e Lisboa didn't like his methods and there was a huge controversy. Pope Gregory XV stepped in and settled it-dothi, sandals and the thread got the nod of approval. Nobili died in Mylapore. Though his mission was not a success, he was later acclaimed by Max Muller, as the "first European Sanskrit scholar, a man who could quote from Manu, from the Puranas, and even from the works such as the Apastamba-sutras, which are known even at present to only a few Sanskrit scholars." There is no basis for Muller's assertion, though. It is claimed that he wrote many Sanskrit books, which perished in a fire that burned down his little hermitage when the soldiers came to seize him in 1640. He was imprisoned for two years.

Based on Nobili's Apology (1615), Dr W Caland asserts that Nobili knew the "Sanskrit in Grantha, not in Devanagari characters." (8)

Roth Writes a Sanskrit Grammar book

The first German scholar of Sanskrit was the Jesuit missionary Heinrich Roth (1620-1668). He became fluent during his stay in India. Roth became the first to write a grammar on the language, which, according to history, was never published, as Roth never managed to find the time to oversee the printing process.

Roth won a name in the west as the author of the first Sanskrit Grammar ever written in a European language. He is also known to have done preparatory work for a Sanskrit-Latin Dictionary based upon Veni Datta's Pancha Tattva Prakasa (CE 1664) and to have drawn up a preliminary system of reproducing Hindi words in Roma characters.

He was born in Germany, but died in Agra in India; also known as Henricus Rodius or Henrique Roa, (9) he was a missionary. Having been born in Dillingen and raised in Augsburg, where his father Konrad Roth (died 1637) worked as a lawyer for the Prince-Bishopric, from 1635 to 1639. His mother Maria Susanna was a homemaker.

Roth studied Rhetoric and Humanities at the University of Dillingen and Philosophy at the Jesuit college in Innsbruck. In 1639, he became a Jesuit in Landsberg, and from 1641 to 1645 taught at the grammar schools of Munich, and Ingolstadt, where he served as a master in the lower grades. After that, he returned to Dillingen to start theological studies, which he completed in Ingolstadt in 1649. The same year, he was ordained priest in Eichstätt, in minor orders by the Suffragan Bishop of Freising, Johann Fiernhamer in 1642 and in holy orders by the Prince Bishop of Eichstatt, Marquard II Schenk von Castell, in 1649.

On behalf of Francesco Piccolomini, in 1649 Roth was assigned to the so-called Ethiopian mission to India. (10) Travelling by the land route via Smyrna (1650) and Isfahan, he arrived in Goa by 1652. He worked first on the Island of Salsette off Goa, where from time to time he acted as a Portuguese interpreter. He was then sent to an embassy by one of the native princes, and via Uttarakhand finally reached the Mughal Empire and its residence in Agra in 1654. Acting as rector of the Jesuit residence in Agra since 1659, he was involved in the persecution under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb.

Next to learning Persian, Kannada and Hindi, Roth at Agra for several years also acquired a profound knowledge of classical Sanskrit grammar and literature from local pandits. The French explorer and philosopher Francois Bernier, who got acquainted with Roth in these years, got to appreciate him as one versed in expert knowledge of the culture and philosophy of religions in India. (11)

In 1662, joined by fellow Jesuit Johann Grueber, who was on his way back from China, Roth revisited Europe by the land route via Kabul and arrived in Rome in February 1664. Athanasius Kircher, in his monumental work China Illustrata, published their itinerary, Roth’s description of the Sanskrit alphabet, and some short excerpts of Roth’s other works. (12) Travelling north to Germany, Roth held some public lectures in Neuburg on the history and culture of the Mughal Empire, excerpts of which subsequently appeared in print. (13) In Vienna, Roth succeeded in gaining financial support from emperor Leopold I to have his Sanskrit grammar – the first such work ever compiled by a European, which Roth had completed in Agra by 1660 (14) – appear in print, but the project was stopped by the Jesuit Superior General Giovanni Paolo Oliva.

Ordered by Oliva to set up a Jesuit mission in Nepal, Roth travelled back via Constantinople and Surat, (15) returning to Agra by 1666, where he died in 1668 before he could embark on the Nepalese mission. His gravesite is still visible at the Padri Santos chapel in Lashkarpur, a suburb of Agra.

Heinrich Roth's Sanskrit grammar, which he had completed by 1660 in the Latin language under the title Grammatica Linguae Sanscretanae Brachmanum Indiae Orientalis (the manuscript of which is preserved today at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome) and that was augmented by preliminary studies for a complete Sanskrit-Latin dictionary, made him a pioneering scholar in modern Sanskrit studies in Europe. Further works include studies on Hindi and Devanagari alphabets, on Vedanta and on Vishnu. Also, a total of 35 letters, written by Roth from India and during his travel back to Europe, survive at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels.

                                        Gadhkalika Mandir where Kalidasa received the blessings of Kali

Apart from Roth, several other European scholars contributed to the symbiosis. They include,

Edward Roemer (1805- 1866): was a student of philosophy who learnt Sanskrit and entered the services of East India Company and came to Calcutta in 1839. By 1842 he became the librarian of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and secretary of the linguistic Department of Bengal in 1847. He became the editor of Bibliotheca Indica, a publication of the Asiatic society. He published Ten Upanishads by 1853 with original transliterations.

Hermann Brockhaus (1806 - 1877): His father had a printing house in Leipzig. He studied oriental languages and took interest in Indian mathematics. He translated the Katha Sarit Sagara into German. It was published in 1839 in Leipzig and Paris. He wanted to know the technical details of mechanically printing Sanskrit in Leipzig.

Being from a family with a publishing and printing background, he was interested in printing Sanskrit books. In 1841 he wrote a treatise on how to print Sanskrit works with Latin alphabet letters.

He studied Oriental languages at the Universities of Leipzig, Göttingen and Bonn where he was a student of August Wilhelm von Schlegel, the founder of German Indology. Afterwards, he spent several years in France and England. In 1839 he was appointed associate professor of oriental languages at the University of Jena, teaching Sanskrit and Hebrew beginning in the summer term of 1840. In 1841 Brockhaus followed an appointment to Leipzig, where in 1848 he was appointed a full professor of ancient Indian language at the university.

Herman Grassman (1809- 1877): A linguist who laid a firm foundation for Rig Vedic studies. He brought out the first German translation of the Rig Veda and the Dictionary of the Vedic Language with 2000 pages. After becoming a member of the American Orientalist Society, he became further involved in deep studies of Indian classical Literature.

Theodor Benfrey (1809-1881): He studied Panchatanthra, the Indian book of fables. It was released in 1859 and became very popular. Motifs and ideas taken from these Indian legends and fables were incorporated into several German and European folk stories.

Benfey was born into a Jewish family in the small town of Nörten, near the city of Göttingen. At the age of 16, Benfey began his studies at the University of Göttingen, where he studied Greek and Latin languages. Benfey started his teaching career that year in the city of Frankfurt, where he worked and lived for two years. He then took up a position in Heidelberg, where he remained for two years as well. These were to be the last paid teaching position that Benfey would have for nearly 14 years. In 1834, he returned to take up a position at his alma mater, the University of Göttingen.

During his first few years lecturing at the University of Gottingen, he had also begun work on a lexicon of Greek roots. It was actually by chance that Benfey was first introduced to Sanskrit: There was a wager made that Benfey could not teach himself Sanskrit in time to review a new translation of a Sanskrit book, a mere four weeks. But Benfey did teach himself the language and was able to review the Latin-Sanskrit edition of the Markandeya Purana for an academic journal. This feat of learning is made all the more impressive by the fact that the only books on Sanskrit available at the time were H. H. Wilson's Sanskrit-English Dictionary, and Monier Monier-Williams's Sanskrit grammar, neither of which were particularly helpful, as they only superficially covered Vedic Sanskrit. The much-deserved promotion to a paid, entry-level "assistant professor" did not come until 1848, and only when Benfey and his family had converted from Judaism to Christian Protestantism.

From this time Benfey's attention was principally given to Sanskrit. In 1848 he became an assistant professor, and published his edition of the Samaveda; in 1852–1854 his Handbuch der Sanskritsprache ("Manual of Sanskrit"), comprising a grammar and chrestomathy; in 1858 his Practical Sanskrit Grammar, afterwards translated into English; and in 1859 his edition of the Panchatantra. At length, in 1862, the growing appreciation of foreign scholars shamed it into making him a full professor, and in 1866 Benfey published the laborious work by which he is on the whole best known, his great Sanskrit-English Dictionary.

Hermann Otto (1815 -1904): German linguist. He brought out the Dictionary of the Sanskrit Language.

Theodor Aufrecht (1821- 1907): He was known for his great compilation of all Sanskrit manuscripts published by 1902. (16) He was the first Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh and subsequently spent two decades as a Professor of Indology at the University of Bonn. Aufrecht was born in Leschnitz, Prussian Silesia, into a Jewish family; he later adopted Christianity. He was educated at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, graduating in 1847, in which year he also published a treatise on Sanskrit accent (De Accentu Sancritico, Bonn, 1847), originally his dissertation.

In 1852 he moved to Oxford to assist Max Muller in preparation of his edition of Rig Veda with Sāyaṇa's commentary. He studied at the Bodleian Library and prepared a catalogue of its collection of Sanskrit manuscripts. From 1862 until 1875, he was a professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he occupied the newly established chair of Sanskrit and comparative philology. In 1875, Aufrecht was appointed to the chair of Indology at the University of Bonn and remained in that post until 1889. Between 1891 and 1903, he published a three-volume alphabetical catalogue of all Sanskrit manuscript collections known at the time, in a work titled, Catalogus Catalogorum. This was the first such attempt to catalogue all Indian manuscripts, built on Aufrecht's previous catalogues of Sanskrit manuscripts of libraries of Trinity College, Cambridge (1869), Florence (1892), Leipzig (1901), and München (1909).

George Buhler (1837-1898): He is known for the translation of Manusmriti, published in 1886. Born in Hanover, he studied at Gottingen and received a doctorate in eastern languages, in 1856. That same year he went to Paris to study Sanskrit manuscripts, and from 1859 onwards to London, where he remained until October 1862. This time was used mainly for the study of the Vedic manuscripts at the India Office and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

He was a nominated professor of oriental languages at Elphinstone College, Mumbai, and became an education inspector of Gujarat and Sanskrit manuscripts at Bombay presidency. He spent his free time deciphering the edicts of Asoka. He wrote books on Jainism in 1887 which were published in Vienna. (17) He was interested in learning Brahmi script. He published the oldest Prakrit books in Germany. His most significant work was on the origin of the Kharoshthi script. Another publication was Digest on Hindu Laws, which contained several types of law citations. His monumental work of translations of the Apasthambha Dharma Sutra appeared in the Sacred Books of the East compiled by Max muller.

In 1880 he returned to Europe and taught as a professor of Indian philology and archaeology at the University of Vienna, where he worked until the end of his life. On 8 April 1898 Bühler drowned in Lake Constance, under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Contemporary accounts mostly attributed it to an accident, but it has been speculated that it was a suicide motivated by Bühler's connections to a scandal involving his former student Alois Anton Führer. (18)

In Germany, a Sanskrit chair was established in 1816 as Franz Bopp propounded the theory of common ancestry for Sanskrit, Greek and Latin languages. This theory led to the evolution of common Philology theory.


____________________


1. J. Sundberg, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009
2. For the full list of these early letters see John Correia-Afonso, Jesuit Letters and Indian History: A Study of the Nature and Development of the Jesuit Letters from India (1542–1773) and Their Value for Indian Historiography (Bombay: Indian Historical Research Institute, St. Xavier’s College, 1955)
3. Donald F. Lach and Edwin J. Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III: A Century of Advance (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 1986–93
4. Diogo Gonçalves, História do Malavar, ed. Joseph Wicki (Münster: Aschenforffshe Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1955. Quoted in The Jesuit Historiography of the Jesuit Missions in India by Ines G. Županov, https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/jesuit-historiography-online/the-historiography-of-the-jesuit-missions-in-india-15001800-COM_192579
5. Sylvia Murr, L’Inde philosophique entre Bossuet et Voltaire: L’indologie du père Coeurdoux, vol. 2 (Paris: EFEO, 1987), quoted in G Supanov's article.
6. Amsterdam: J.F. Bernard, 1723–37, quoted in Supanov
7. Propagation of the Gospel in the East: Being an Account of the Success of Two Danish Missionaries, Lately Sent to the East-Indies for the Conversion of the Heathens in Malabar (London: J. Downing, 1709)
8. Acta Orientalia,3 (1926) pp.38-51

9.Vogel, Clause, Heinrich Roth, NDB 22, 2005, p. 106.

10.Instructio A.R.P. Generalis Francisci Piccolomini pro P(atre) Henrico R(oth) Ingolstadio ad missionem Aethiopicam profecturo (1639); cf. Anton Huonder, Deutsche Jesuitenmissionare des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Freiburg, 1899, pp. 213 sq. (German)

11. Bernier mentions Roth several times in his Voyage dans les États du Grand Mogol, Paris, 1671 (cf. the English translation in Travels in Hindustan, new ed., Calcutta, 1904, pp. 109.)

12. Athanasius Kircher: China monumentis qua sacris qua profanis nec non variis naturae et artis spectaculis aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata. Amsterdam 1667; pp. 91 sqq. (Iter ex Agra Mogorum in Europam ex relatione PP. Joh(anni) Gruberi et H(enrici) Roth) and pp. 156-162 (Itinerarium St. Thomae Apost. ex Judaea in Indiam and Dogmata varia fabulossissima Brachmanorum); cf. also Max Müller, Lectures on the Science of Language, London, 1866, p. 277.

13. Relatio rerum notabilium Regni Mogor in Asia, Straubing, 1665, and Aschaffenburg, 1668 (which contains the first information concerning Kabul to reach Europe)

14. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian Mission History 1956-1998, Leiden/Boston/Köln, 2000, pp. 75-104 (partly German).

15. Claus Vogel, An old letter from Surat written by German Jesuit Heinrich Roth. In: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 58, 1987, pp. 609-619.

16. Heather Jane Sharkey - Cultural Conversions: Unexpected Consequences of Christian Missionary in Middle East Africa & South Asia, 2013. 

17. Missionary Pedagogy and Christianization of the Heathens: The Educational Institutions Introduced by the Basel Mission in Mangalore. German Contributions to the Study of Indian regional languages and Sanskrit official website 2014.

18. Charles Allen (2010), The Buddha and Dr Führer: An Archaeological Scandal, Penguin Books India, pp. 173–176

Other references:

1. Hosten, Jesuit Missionaries in Northern India, 1580-1803 (Calcutta, 1906), p 30

2. Balfour, Encyclopedia of India (London, 1885)

3. Ravi N C, Linking Languages Through Missions: The German Scholarship Towards Indian Pedagogy, International Journal of Academic Research, vol 2, issue 2 (5), April -June 2015

4. German Contributions to the Study of Indian regional languages and Sanskrit official website 2014.

5. Arnulf Camps, The Sanskrit Grammar and Manuscripts of Father Heinrich Roth S. J. (1620–1668). Introduction. The History of his Sanskrit Manuscripts. in Arnulf Camps- Studies in Asian mission history, 1956-1998, Leiden/Boston/Koln, 2000

6. Missionary pedagogy and Christianization of the heathens: The educational institutions introduced by the Basel Mission in Mangalore, Indian Economic & Social History Review December 2008 45: 509-551.

© Ramachandran 

SCO FOR INDIA, CHINA AND THE WORLD

The global order has to be more reasonable

As the leaders of China, Russia, and India, with the new member Iran, huddled together at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit at Samarkand in Uzbekistan, the West waited on pins and needles to gauge and interpret the outcome.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi were among the leaders of the 15 countries at the summit.

Both Xi’s and Modi’s presence were closely watched for the possibility of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. The last time Xi and Modi were face-to-face and in-person and had a bilateral meeting was in November 2019, during the BRICS summit in Brazil. Both met in an informal summit at Mahabalipuram, India, in October 2019, the second one after they met at Wuhan, in April 2018.

The SCO summits in the last two years were held in a virtual format due to COVID-19. This was the first in-person summit after June 2019 when the SCO summit was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Last year, the summit was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in a hybrid format.

Modi with Putin and Xi

This was Xi’s first official trip to a foreign nation since COVID-19. Xi’s last official trip to a foreign country was to Myanmar in January 2020. His last trip outside of mainland China was on June 30, 2022, to Hong Kong to mark the 25th anniversary of the city’s return to the motherland in 1997.

Xi’s trip to Samarkand underlined China’s strategic ties with Central Asian states at a time when relations with many Western nations have come under strain due to China’s neutral position on the Ukrainian issue.

Xi and Putin met on the sidelines of the summit, for the first time since the Ukraine crisis. Xi said China and Russia should expand pragmatic cooperation, while Putin thanked the Chinese leader for his “balanced” stance on Ukraine. Putin expressed Russia's support for the one-China principle, and denounced US provocations in the Taiwan Straits and its attempts to create a "unipolar world."

Samarkand summit saw agreements on connectivity and high-efficiency transport corridors and a roadmap for local currency settlement among member states. It deliberated on the geopolitical situation arising from Ukraine. Besides, the situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime was on the table as well since many SCO member countries are neighbours of Afghanistan.

After the signing of the Samarkand declaration, the heads of the SCO countries declared the inadmissibility of interference in the affairs of states under the pretext of countering terrorism. The SCO countries supported the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the continuation of nuclear disarmament.

The Samarkand declaration also termed unilateral use of economic sanctions, except those imposed by the UN Security Council, is incompatible with international law principles. The SCO countries emphasized the importance of the soonest inclusive reform of WTO with an emphasis on adaptation to current economic realities.

The declaration advocated a “commitment to peaceful settlement of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation.”

Uzbekistan and China signed agreements worth a total of US$15 billion in trade, investment and financial and technical cooperation. China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan also signed a trilateral MOU regarding cooperation on a railway connecting the three countries, while a trial run of the multimodal road-rail link from China to Afghanistan is also being planned.

To further promote the rich cultural and historical heritage of the people and the tourism potential of SCO member states, it was decided to declare Varanasi, Modi's constituency, as the SCO Tourism and Cultural Capital for 2022-2023, the Samarkand declaration said.

The Mission of SCO

Founded in Shanghai in June 2001, the Beijing-headquartered SCO is a nine-member economic and security bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan and now Iran. It has three Observer States interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia) and nine Dialogue Partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt).

It is a unique plurilateral grouping that holds two summits a year, one at the Heads of State and the other at the Heads of Government level. It is seen by the West as an eastern counterbalance to NATO. The presence of India and China, the world’s most populous countries, makes SCO the organization with the largest population coverage. The SCO accounts for about one-third of the world’s land and exports trillions of dollars annually.

The SCO, which grew from the “Shanghai Five” pact of the mid-1990s, is governed by consensus. It also functions more as a venue for discussion and engagement where high-level dignitaries from across the region can gather to confer, rather than an alliance like the EU, whose members have a common currency, or NATO. Since its inception, the SCO has mainly focused on regional security issues, and its fight is against regional terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism. The SCO’s priorities also include regional development.

The Dushanbe Declaration on the 20th anniversary of the founding of the SCO last year expressed support for Afghanistan as an independent, neutral, united, democratic and peaceful state, free of terrorism, war and drugs. It is critical to have an inclusive government in Afghanistan, with representatives from all ethnic, religious and political groups of Afghan society.

Summit

The declaration also condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Member States reaffirmed the need to step up joint efforts to prevent terrorism and its financing, including by implementing existing global standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and by suppressing the spread of terrorist, separatist and extremist ideologies that feed it.

The declaration emphasized the importance of sharing experiences on the design and implementation of national development strategies, digital economy plans and the adoption of innovative technologies. It stressed the need to increase mutually beneficial cooperation in the energy sector, including the wide use of renewable and alternative energy sources.

The Entry of Iran

The SCO Samarkand Summit also assumed significance as Iran, for the first time, attended as a full member. The decision to admit Iran was made at last year’s Dushanbe Summit and Belarus has submitted its membership application. This was the first expansion of the SCO after India and Pakistan were admitted to the grouping in 2017.

This marks the first time Iran has become a full member of a major regional bloc since its 1979 revolution. Iran’s bid to become a full member of SCO was approved after almost 15 years. The country had been an “observer member” since 2005. Full membership means linking Iran to the economic infrastructures of Asia and its vast resources.

Iran is eyeing political and economic gains, especially with China, with which it signed a 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement in March 2021, and Russia, with which Iran is looking to expand a pre-existing cooperation agreement. Iran could gain significant access to the Central Asian region, which can be regarded as a market for exports of Iranian goods.

U.S. sanctions could prove to be roadblocks on the way to achieving those potentials should they persist, but will not halt Iran’s economic progress. Iran and world powers have conducted six rounds of talks in Vienna to restore the country’s 2015 nuclear deal, which, if successful, would see U.S. sanctions lifted.

Iran’s previous bids for SCO membership were blocked because it was under United Nations sanctions, and some members, including Tajikistan, were against it due to Tehran’s perceived support for the Islamic Movement of Tajikistan.

Article in China-India Dialogue

But at the Dushanbe Summit last year, Iran also signed eight agreements with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon. The two set a target of US$500 million for annual bilateral trade. During a speech at Dushanbe, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi denounced “unilateralism” by the U.S. and called for a concerted effort to fight sanctions.

SCO members are reluctant to entangle themselves in Iran’s rivalries and at Dushanbe, they also admitted Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt as “dialogue partners” in a balancing act.

The volume of trade with the national currencies of Iran, Russia and China has been modest even as they have discussed de-dollarization for decades, and efforts are on to launch an alternative financial messaging service to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) global financial network.

This round of expansion shows SCO’s rising international influence and the principles of the SCO charter are widely accepted. The SCO expansion is not akin to that of NATO, which is being expanded in the shadows of the Ukrainian crisis. The expansion of NATO is different as the SCO is a cooperative organization based on non-alignment and not targeting a third party, while NATO is based on a Cold War mindset.

The SCO believes one should not build its security at the expense of other countries while NATO is creating new enemies to sustain its existence. The SCO members are contemplating how to adapt to the profound changes in the global milieu, to make the global order more reasonable.

The process of Belarus's accession to the SCO has been made at Samarkand Summit. It has had a dialogue partner status since 2010 and an observer status since 2015. The new decision does not mean an automatic change in the status of the country. According to the provision on SCO accession of 11 June 2010, an applying country should join around 40 international treaties and make respective changes in the national legislation. It took around two years for India and Pakistan to carry out these procedures.

Negotiations will be held on granting UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Maldives and Myanmar the status of dialogue partners.

SCO for India and China

As a prelude to the Samarkand Summit, the disengagement between India and China in the Gogra-Hot Springs region opened a window of opportunity for the two sides to engage at the highest level.

India assumed the rotational presidency of the SCO at the end of the Samarkand Summit. Delhi will hold the presidency of the grouping for a year until September 2023. So, next year, India will host the SCO summit.

Modi, speaking at the Samarkand summit said he wants to transform India into a manufacturing hub. He pointed out that there are more than 70,000 start-ups and over 100 unicorns in India, and that the country is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

The SCO’s significance for India mainly lies in economics and geopolitics with the Eurasian states. It is a potential platform to advance India’s Central Asia policy. The SCO member states are India’s extended neighbourhood where India has both economic and security interests.

The SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group to stabilize Afghanistan provides India with a vital counter to some other groupings it is a part of. The SCO provides the only multilateral platform for India to deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Leaders at Samarkand

Acknowledging the strategic importance of the region and SCO, Modi has articulated the foundational dimension of Eurasia as being “secure.” India needs to improve connectivity with Central Asia through the Chabahar port in Southeastern Iran and it wishes to utilize the Ashgabat Agreement for a stronger presence in Eurasia along with a focus on the International North-South Corridor (INSTC).

The Ashgabat Agreement is a multimodal transport agreement between the governments of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Oman for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating the transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. The agreement came into force in April 2016. Ashgabat in Turkmenistan is the depository state for the agreement.

The SCO has also been involved in building the Vladivostok-Chennai sea route. This sea route covers approximately 5,600 nautical miles or about 10,300 km. A large container ship travelling at the average cruising speed of 20-25 knots, or 37-46 km/hour, should be able to cover the distance in 10-12 days. India is building nuclear power plants with Russia’s collaboration in Kudankulam on the sea coast in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. The opening of a sea route is likely to help in the project.

India also wishes to use SCO’s goal of promoting economic cooperation, trade, energy, and regional connectivity to improve relations with Pakistan and persuade it to unblock India’s access to Eurasia.

The increasing terrorist activities in the region make it imperative for SCO countries to develop a cooperative and sustainable security framework and make the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure more effective.

A major thorn in India’s engagement with Eurasia remains the denial of direct land connectivity to Afghanistan and beyond by Pakistan. The lack of connectivity has dampened the development of energy ties between the hydrocarbon-rich region and India.

But China is clearly in the strongest position. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have signed on to its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and those like Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are dependent on Chinese investments. China accounts for 45.3 per cent of Kyrgyzstan's external debt, and China has built a military base there recently. It is to be owned by Tajikistan’s Rapid Reaction Group (Special Forces) with the US$10 million costs financed by China. It will be located in the eastern Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous province near the Pamir mountains. Chinese troops will not be stationed there.  

Loans from China account for 16 -17 per cent of the GDP of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

And Kazakhstan, which borders China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, traditionally leaned towards Russia – in January it called on Moscow for assistance to quell mass protests – it is also interested in China and its “deep pockets.” Its support, as a Muslim country, is important for China.

On 25 January 2022,  Xi Jinping hosted the five leaders of Central Asia to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Central Asian countries. In this Summit, China announced to increase in the trade target between China and the region to USD 70 billion by 2030. A provision of USD 500 million was made to assist Central Asian countries over the next three years in their implementation of “socially significant” projects.  The Central Asian region is rich in natural resources: gas in Turkmenistan; oil, gas and uranium in Kazakhstan; uranium and gas in Uzbekistan; hydropower in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

On its part, keeping its independent diplomacy, India had stayed away from the trade pillar of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) meeting in Los Angeles on September 8-9. India’s Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal cited concerns over possible discrimination against developing economies. India was the only one of the 14 IPEF countries, which include Southeast Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan, not to join the declaration on trade. It means New Delhi will not be cheated by Washington easily.

Hence, SCO, like BRICS, is a vehicle for India and China to co-exist peacefully for the current era to be viewed as the Asian century. Towards that goal, the Samarkand Summit is a new milestone.

This article was published in China Pictorial: http://china-pictorial.com.cn/scos-growing-influence-in-a-multipolar-world

China-IndiaDialogue: http://chinaindiadialogue.com/scos-growing-influence-in-a-multipolar-world

© Ramachandran 

The G7 Summit and India Buying Oil From Russia

 

The G7 is perplexed and confused by the Ukraine crisis

Scarred by reliance on Russian energy that has hampered several European nations from going all out to punish Russia, the just-concluded G7 summit was also warily looking at its systemic rival, China.  The summit in Germany was dominated by manoeuvers to tighten the noose around Vladimir Putin without leading to disastrous spillovers- a backlash among Western consumers, starvation in a rain grain-starved global South and a breakdown in the global order are imminent unless the West shows wisdom.

The summit devised a $600 billion plan for the developing world, as a counter to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It is called the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) and is a relaunch of an unclear scheme unveiled at last year's G7 meet in Britain. 

The plan calls on G7 leaders to raise the fund over five years to launch infrastructure projects in middle and low-income countries. The U.S. has promised to raise $200bn of the total through grants, federal funds and private investment, while the EU has announced a further 300bn euros.

Unlike BRI, the one proposed by the G7 would provide funding largely from private investors. The G7 fund will focus on climate initiatives, among other projects, including a $2 billion solar farm investment in Angola, $320 million for hospital construction in the Ivory Coast, a vaccine manufacturing facility in Senegal, a 1,609 km submarine telecommunications cable connecting Singapore to France via Egypt and the Horn of Africa, and $40 million to promote regional energy trade in Southeast Asia.

Ban on Russian Gold and Cap on Oil

Ahead of the summit, London announced that the U.K., along with the U.S., Japan and Canada, would ban new imports of Russian gold to tighten the sanctions. The U.K. said that Russian gold exports reached around $15.5 billion in 2021 and that this figure has gone up since sanctions were imposed as a means of getting around them. Russia accounted for about five percent of all gold exports in 2020 and 90 percent of Russia's output went to G7 countries -- mostly to Britain.

The new sanction would have only a limited impact; similar to energy products, Russia could contain the damage by turning to emerging markets.

Twin caps on the price of Russian oil and pipeline gas to slash the Kremlin’s revenues also gathered support at the summit. The gas cap would operate simply by European countries refusing to pay above an as-yet-unspecified fixed price for Russian gas. But the idea of putting a cap on Russian oil would be unfeasible in reality, and these absurd measures reflect the unfathomable dilemma of the West.

Moreover, Germany is queasy about price caps. It fears a bust-up inside the EU over the proposal and that Putin may simply turn off the supplies of gas to Europe. A cut-off now would leave Europe struggling to build up the gas reserves it needs to survive a fraught winter. EU countries have been directed to fill their gas reserves to a minimum of 80% but they are well short of that.

India's Presence

The G7 is an informal forum bringing together the leaders of the world’s leading industrial nations – the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. It was formed in 1975, as the world suffered from the first oil shock and financial crisis. Canada joined in 1976 and Russia in 1998. Following the annexation of Crimea, Russia was suspended in March 2014.

Apart from India, other nations which got invited to the current summit were Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal, and South Africa.

At the summit, referring to the Ukraine war, which has pushed up energy prices across the globe, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “energy access should not be the privilege of only the rich. A poor family also has the same rights on energy. And today, when energy costs are sky-high due to geopolitical tensions, it is more important to remember this.” Obviously, it was a dig at the West, and he was justifying India's decision not to denounce Russia, and to buy discounted oil from Russia.

Modi has frustrated the West, also by imposing a ban on wheat exports. India will continue to buy oil from Russia, possibly with the Chinese Yuan as the reserve currency, in future. India’s top cement maker UltraTech did pay for Russian coal in Yuan, in June, for the first time, in history.

A Weak Summit

The summit was weakened by the fact that only 90 minutes were set aside to discuss food,  climate and health. Discussion of debt or the injection of new Special Drawing Rights funds, two cardinal issues of Africa, were ignored. A weariness exists in Africa about the G7’s failure to deliver on pledges made in G7 communiques. In 2015, G7 leaders pledged “to lift 500 million people in developing countries out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030”. But according to Oxfam, “In 2015, there were 630 million in hunger. As of 2021, this figure is thought to be 950 million.”

None of the visiting leaders was enthusiastic about the Ukraine war. The President of Senegal, Macky Sall, as chair of the Africa Union, has warned that the poorest countries are “caught between the hammer of war and the anvil of sanctions”.

Alberto Angel Fernández, the President of Argentina, the world’s sixth-largest wheat exporter facing 60% inflation, has increased levies on food exports. 

The Fissures Within

Embittered by the food crisis, fissures have developed in the G7 camp. The vexatious parleys on reaching an agreement on safe passage for grain convoys, overseen by Turkey and the U.N., have lasted a month, and some countries are on the brink of penury.

The plan to ban imports of Russian gold trailed by the US and the U.K. does not yet have the full support of the EU.

The G7 fears the BRICS willingness to expand, and hence the G7 is unlikely to create a vacuum for China to fill by boycotting the upcoming November meeting of the G20.

Those who attended the G7 summit and the subsequent 2022 NATO summit in Spain tried to present a gait of bonhomie, though they are facing internal squabbles. Though officials from Germany and Britain were reported to push for temporary waivers on biofuels mandates to mitigate soaring food prices, Germany had to drop the idea during the summit due to resistance from the U. S. and Canada.

There is also a dispute over climate actions. A communique, released in May, said the G7 agreed to achieve "predominantly decarbonized electricity sectors" by 2035. However, the ministers failed to set a date for phasing out coal-powered energy due to objections from the U.S. and Japan. They continue to clash on coal.

The squabbles won't end in Madrid for NATO, as Turkey's concerns have added hindrance to Finland's and Sweden's pursuit of NATO membership.

False Narrative

Showcasing the PGII, the G7 blamed China for pushing the developing countries into a debt trap, through BRI. Hitting back, China has asserted that the days when global decisions were dictated by a "small group" of countries are long gone. 

The Chinese foreign ministry has clarified that calling the BRI a debt trap is a false narrative. According to the World Bank forecast, if all BRI transport infrastructure projects are carried out, by 2030, the BRI will generate $1.6 trillion of revenues for the world each year, or 1.3% of global GDP. Up to 90% of the revenues will go to partner countries. The BRI could contribute to lifting 7.6 million people from extreme poverty and 32 million from moderate poverty from 2015 to 2030. 

The competition between China G7  will enable some developing countries to have more choices. But if the crude U.S. political agenda forces these countries to take sides, they will be in a quandary. Herding all developing countries into a US-led global economic order is a weird illusion.

CARBON-NEUTRAL EFFORTS IN INDIA AND CHINA

Paving the Way to a Carbon-Neutral Future

By Rama Chandran

This article of mine was published in the September-October 2021 issue of the China-India Dialogue.

At the recently concluded COP26 (UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties) summit, India pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, a date two decades beyond the target set by COP26 organizers and the host, the U.K. India also vowed to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45%. India had five climate-related pledges, including meeting 50% of its energy needs by renewable means by 2030.

India is the world's third-largest carbon emitter, behind China and the U.S. India represents 17% of the world's population and 5 per cent of the carbon emissions. Russia and Japan share the fourth and fifth places respectively. China emits 10.06 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, while the U.S. follows with 5.41, India 2.65, Russia 1.7, and Japan 1.6 MT. Measured per person, however, India's emissions are ranked 140th globally. The U. S. is 14th, and China, 48th.

The landmark Paris accord was signed by nearly 200 countries in 2015 to limit rising global temperatures to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to cap heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But to do so, the world needs to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. This threshold is a crucial global target because so-called tipping points become more likely beyond this level. Tipping points refer to an irreversible change in the climate system, locking further global heating.

As the world confronts a changing climate, it looks for direction at the Asian superpowers, India and China. Their decisions could either doom the efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions or jump-start them.

Daily emissions globally decreased by as much as 17 per cent during the COVID. According to Carbon Brief, India's carbon dioxide emissions fell by 30 per cent in April 2020, compared with the same month in 2019. But India's emissions are set to rise in the years ahead as economic growth propels the energy demand. Emissions in India grew 1.8 per cent in 2019, at a much slower pace than in 2018.

India is the only major country in the world where actions to combat emissions are compatible with limiting global warming to an average of 2 degrees Celsius, according to Climate Action Tracker. Indian officials say they will meet two significant pledges under the Paris agreement on climate change ahead of schedule. India has promised to ensure that 40 per cent of its electricity-generation capacity comes from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. It will also reduce its "emissions intensity" — a ratio of total emissions to gross domestic product — by at least one-third compared with 2005 levels. India has increased its solar-energy capacity more than twelvefold since 2014 and launched initiatives to save electricity. Coal will remain a significant part of India's power sector in the coming decades too.

In 2018, India installed almost as much new solar generating capacity as the U. S. did. India would double its target for installed renewable-energy capacity to 450 gigawatts.

The Chinese plan

Like India, China's aim for net-zero is also well beyond the 2050 target.

China has made two significant pledges under the Paris accord, to reduce its emissions intensity by at least 60 per cent by 2030 and to generate 20 per cent of its power from non-fossil fuels. China has promised to become carbon neutral before 2060 and begin cutting its emissions within the next ten years. During the COP26 summit, the Chinese President said that China would vigorously develop renewable energy and build wind and solar power stations. Ahead of the COP26 conference, China released an ambitious action plan to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030. According to it, the share of non-fossil energy consumption will be about 25 per cent, and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will drop by more than 65 per cent compared to 2005 levels. China's State Council has put forward the main objectives for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) and the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), which includes increasing the share of non-fossil energy consumption, improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The action plan outlines vital tasks, including promoting green and low-carbon transportation, advancing a circular economy and supporting technological innovation. China will develop a unified and standardized carbon emissions statistical accounting system, improve laws, regulations and standards, optimize economic policies, and establish sound market mechanisms. For international cooperation, China will be involved in global climate governance, carry out green cooperation in its economy, trade, technology and finance, and advance the construction of the Belt and Road initiative.

On October 12, while addressing the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Chinese President said that it will implement a "1N" policy framework for carbon peak and carbon neutrality. The country has begun constructing 100-million-kw wind, photovoltaic power projects in desert areas.

How can China reach carbon neutrality before 2060? Planners point out that China must begin to generate most of its electricity from zero-emission sources and then expand the use of this clean power wherever possible, such as switching to electric cars.

By 2030, 40 per cent of vehicles sold in China will be electric. The government has adopted policies to encourage plug-in electric vehicles (EVs). Since buying an EV costs more, in 2009, the government began to provide subsidies for EV purchases. But paying for the contributions became costly, and China's policymakers planned to phase out the donations at the end of 2020 and instead impose a mandate on car manufacturers. The order requires that a certain percentage of all vehicles sold by a manufacturer each year be battery-powered. Every year, manufacturers must earn a stipulated number of points awarded for each EV produced based on a formula that considers range, energy efficiency, and performance.

It will also need technologies to capture CO2 released from burning fossil fuels or biomass and store it underground, known as carbon capture and storage (CCS). China currently has only one large CCS facility. Seven more are being planned.

For China to achieve its target, electricity production would need to more than double, to 15,034 terawatt-hours by 2060. This would be driven by a massive ramp-up of renewable electricity generation over the next 40 years, including a 16-fold increase in solar and a 9-fold increase in wind. Nuclear power would need to increase 6- fold, and hydroelectricity to double to replace coal-fired power generation. Fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas, would still account for 16 per cent of the energy consumed, so they would need to be paired with CCS or offset by new forest growth and technologies that can suck CO2 directly out of the atmosphere.

Tsinghua University's Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development has led a major national project on China's low-carbon future. The work was presented at a meeting attended by environment officials on October 12. Under the plan, emissions would continue to rise, from 9.8 gigatons of CO2 in 2020 to around 10.3 gigatons in 2025. They will then plateau for five to ten years before dropping steeply after 2035 to reach net-zero by 2060. If trends in the cost of renewables technology continue, more than 60 per cent of China's electricity could come from non-fossil fuels by 2030.

The Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in Beijing estimates the emissions to peak in 2022, at around 10 gigatons of CO2, followed by a steep drop to net-zero by 2050. To achieve net-zero, electricity production would double to 14,800 terawatt-hours by 2050. This output would be generated mainly by nuclear power (28%), followed by wind (21%), solar (17%), hydropower (14%) and biomass (8%). Coal and gas would make up 12 per cent of electricity production. This means that China's nuclear capacity — currently 49 gigawatts across some 50 nuclear power plants — would need to increase 5-fold to 554 gigawatts by 2050. This model proposes that some 850 gigawatts of power generated from coal, gas and biofuels could be fitted with technologies that capture and store carbon emissions. 

Coal-fired power accounts for almost 65 per cent of the country's electricity generation, with more than 200 new coal-fired power stations. In making the shift from coal, China needs to consider the economic security of some 3.5 million workers in the coal mining and power industry. The Chinese President has said that the country would phase down coal consumption in its 15th five-year plan, which starts after 2025.

The Somersault by the U.S.

 In 2017, President Trump announced that he was withdrawing the U. S.  from the Paris climate agreement, a move that nullified the country's commitment to cut emissions. But the U.S. is now trying to plunge back into the climate fight. President Biden addressed a virtual climate summit in April 2021, attended by the leaders of three dozen countries. Japan set a goal of reducing emissions by 46 per cent by 2030. South Korea pledged to end public financing for new overseas coal-fired power plants. Among the most substantial pledges was the European Union's 55% reduction, which was codified into law in April 2021. The U.K. boosted its target to 78 per cent by 2035. Russia made a promise to "significantly reduce the net accumulated emissions by 2050."

 The U.S. announced that it would cut its planet-warming emissions by 50 to 52 per cent by 2030. The U.S. carbon goal still falls 5 to 10 percentage points short of what's needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The environmental groups were disappointed that Biden didn't provide a timeline for phasing out the use of fossil fuels. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has acknowledged scepticism from world leaders who questioned whether Biden's promises would endure.

© Ramachandran