Ram Mandir Fact Sheet
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For further consultation and media requests, please contact [email protected] To read the ICfS briefing pack on Ram Mandir, please click here.
Ram Mandir Fact Sheet Read More »
If post-terror history has anything to teach us, it’s that Israel is set to see a sharp economic downturn. With over 300,000 reservists being drafted for military duty, Israel’s skilled workforce has been squeezed by 15%. India has remained a steadfast ally to Israel and proves that counter-terrorism can be coupled with economic growth. If post-terror history has anything to teach us, it is that Israel is set to see a sharp economic downturn. A downturn driven by investor nerves, a hiatus in tourism, the high costs of war and a slowdown in trade. To navigate this crisis, Israel must adopt a comprehensive approach, leveraging allies, practicing diplomacy, and prioritising a humanitarian stance while maintaining an iron fist against terror. Israel would do well to learn from India and lean on her at this critical juncture. Researcher in Diasphoric Communities at The ICfS, Nitish Rai Parwani, provides comment to CAPX addressing the economic downturn Israel is facing as a result of terror, and how to move forward. To read the full article, click here.
India, Israel and the economic consequences of terror Read More »
Modi’s leadership has brought the once-distant nations closer than ever It is a time when we look to our state leaders for a strong response, one that rejects moral equivalences and stands firmly with Israel and for those in Palestine who stand against terror. Amid this bleak landscape, India has emerged as a steadfast ally to the Jewish state: Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that “We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour”. Head of our UK-India Desk, Charlotte Littlewood provides comment to The Article addressing the 324% rise in Antisemitism in the UK, how we got here and how we can move forward. To read the full article, click here.
India is a natural ally for Israel Read More »
Milton Freedman once wrote “the political system is not inclined to bring about policies that would reduce the scope of government. Politicians win elections by promising benefits, not by imposing burdens.” What Freedman was suggesting was a simple truth, namely that the democratic tendency is always for the state to keep growing by venturing into ever expanding domains where it previously had no business. State power, and responsibility, creeps through promises and manifestos that politicians produce to woo the voters into areas that once were the strict domain of the individual, or family, or civic organisation. Take education, or the fire service, or for that matter the police, these were all in the private domain, before politicians, rightly by any account, decided to take them into the public realm as it was perceived to be a universal public good. “Politicians”, said James Buchanan, “like everyone else, respond to incentives. When they can get away with overspending, overpromising, and overcommitting, they will.” His words echo true today more than ever. Prime ministers of every colour and philosophical inclination from Blair to Brown, even Cameron to Johnson, and now Sunak have all expanded the remit of the state. Each has spent and borrowed continuously increasing the overall debt of the country. Ten percent of all the tax collected by the exchequer will be spent on servicing the UK national debt.[1] In most developed economies the numbers tell the same story, because politicians have worked out that so long as every country proportionately continues to overspend and over commit, the markets will be hoodwinked into a false sense of reality, at least in the short term, exactly what politicians prefer to think about — the short term. Ultimately, however, reality catches up in the form of inflation. Inflation, if not tackled quickly, has the power to bring down nations and even empires. History is a graveyard full of such nations and empires that ruled for centuries only to be brought to its knees by inflation caused by reckless fiscal management. Most developed economies today suffer from higher inflation, rising national debts, cuts in public spending, and burgeoning population of elderly citizens. Many in the West have lost confidence in the system, having spent the last two decades without a real wage rise, while the cost of living has spiralled. Only very recently have we seen any real rise in wages, and that too mostly from the private sector. This has quite rightly left many working-class, and younger voters disenchanted and out of love with open markets. Open markets have worked tremendously well to an extent, but not for everyone. Many people feel left behind. Citizens throughout the developed West are asking if we have run out of steam? Are we in need of a new economic model? At the heart of this disenchantment is China. China brought to the world stage State Capitalism at a scale never seen before. Central to the idea is that protectionism is the way to cope with the buffeting of open markets. China’s extraordinary success convinced unions in the West that they had a lot to lose from the free movement of goods across borders. Then came Covid-19, which informed western policy makers that supply chains were fragile and needed near-shoring or onshoring again. China’s state capitalism, with its disregard for international law, human rights, and rule-based trading system, was seized on in developed countries as a justification for state intervention. Politicians laboured over the fragility of international supply chains, echoed by unions and the anti-globalisation lobby all culminating in building what some have called a ‘cathedral of fear’. That fear had to be addressed by more government, more intervention, more protectionism, and with ever more government comes ever more spending. We have begun to adopt, at our own peril, a Chinese inspired State Capitalism. State intervention and closing of open markets is dangerous on several grounds. Open markets during downturns, if left alone, clear out poor businesses, those that are inefficient, or simply unable to modernise as per customer demands. This pain spurs innovation and new businesses are formed, and the economy is revitalised, creating new wealth and prosperity. None of which requires the government. We need only allow market forces to do their job. State protectionism reduces, or even protects us from this necessary pain. Governments to tackle inflation need to spend less, a lot less, and increase taxes to burn access liquidity in the market. The Conservative Party, under Sunak, has gone against its own ideological position of lowering taxes and has raised taxes to the highest level in modern British history as a percentage of GDP. Starmer, to his credit has indicated that he will maintain the Conservative status quo and keep Britain on a strict fiscal diet to bring down inflation. These are tough asks in a democracy. What Britain needs is less government, not more. State intervention is often too slow, cumbersome, and incapable of meeting the demands of a modern globalised economy. The AI and energy transitions required are simply too fast paced and complex for government to plan. Ideas need to be tested and left to die, or rise, by markets, not government committees giving out subsides. Excessive regulation will inhibit innovation and, by raising costs, make change slower and ultimately more painful without clearing out all the deadwood in the economy. The problem is that politicians love spending other people’s money, and as government budgets get ever bigger, special interests will have a feeding frenzy and a growing influence. The way forward: 7-points to keep in mind The way forward is to simply have the courage to do what we know to be right. We know the way; our leaders just need to have the courage to walk it. First, allow markets to do what they do best — meet consumer demand in the most efficient manner. In almost every sector government need not be active, and simply enable free market economics to take shape. Where supply outstrips demand,
Why we shouldn’t forget what made us rich. Read More »
At the Bank of England Museum Britannia is described as a symbol of British strength. She is the personification of Britain that dates to the Roman era, typically shown with a trident, a shield and a warrior’s helmet. Today we mostly recognise her on our bank notes and coins. She is calm, poised and commanding. She was not always so. Britannia throughout the ages has been personified to represent the deepest aspirations, what we want to envisage ourselves to be as Britons. Roman emperors like Antoninus Pius (AD 138 -161) depicted her as a fierce warrior perched on a wall safeguarding the furthest limits of the Roman empire. In the 1750s she became the proud freer of slaves, in portraits where she sits next to a tamed lion, as black slaves kneel before her in gratitude. In the 1800s she was depicted negotiating with what was British India over who would pay for the Afghanistan war. Skip a few centuries and we see portrayals of a post Brexit Britannia — aged, destitute, and looking for some ‘spare trade’. Jörg Schindler, a journalist for Germany’s premier newspaper Spiegel, wrote extensively on what he saw, namely ‘The UK faces a steep climb out of a deep hole’. He essentially sculpted a narrative that still somewhat haunts us today that of a ‘broken Britain’. A Britain divided by class, north and south, ethnicities and along religious lines. British democracy was once lauded as a stable institution where the world’s money was safe, and stability prized. The last four years have seen that image badly tarnished.intent. In the light of Schindler’s remarks, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was probably what the nation required: stability. He has certainly done that. Sunak is not flamboyant, nor is he particularly smooth or charming like Blair, but to his credit he is brave, although seen as indecisive at times. He was brave to raise taxes and cut or limit public spending to get inflation under control. He was brave in scrapping HS2. Yet, he is likely to face a massive defeat at the next general elections in 2024. On the red corner, Starmer is desperately trying to emulate ‘steady’ and ‘safe’ and has done a remarkable job of disciplining and sculpting the Labour leadership taking them away from the loons on the far left and soft Islamists in Labour heartlands. The next election seems to be sizing up as a fight between ‘who will manage the economy better’ and ‘who will make us all feel safe again’. We want, as do all electorates, smaller taxes and better public services, and every politician hoodwinks us during election time to do exactly that. This time feels no different. While yet, there is something markedly different. The role of Prime minister in our country has become more presidential (since Blair), and power is more concentrated at №10 than ever before. We are a people that are increasingly voting for the best leader — whoever is seen to come out on top in the gladiatorial televised open mic verbal fisty-cuffs. The problem with this current trajectory is that it attracts narcissists says Dr Brian Klaas at the UCL School of European Languages Culture and Society. Narcissists crave power for powers sake, and they are often quick to abandon the moral ground to get ahead. Note how Johnson swung to appease his crackpot right-wingers while the entire Labour Party elected a man stuck in the 1980s and swung to the far left. Douglas Adams once wrote of a planet on which humans are ruled by lizard overlords. There’s a paradox: the planet is a democracy; the humans hate and outnumber the lizards and yet the lizards always get elected. It turns out the humans vote for the lizards for a simple reason: “If they didn’t … the wrong lizard might get in.” Sunak is not a lizard, indeed he may not even be a narcissist, after all he took the poisoned chalice of leadership of the Conservative Party when he knew it was spiralling into chaos. It would have been far better for him to step back, watch his party implode and then step in when it was safe to do so, and reframe himself as the prodigal son and saviour! His principled approach maybe his undoing. The people don’t seem to want a manager — that’s what the markets and our institutions want. The cynic in me thinks the people want a rainmaker! But maybe, if I was to take a more optimistic view, the people aspire for Britannia to reappear, one fit for the 21st century. Britannia represents a form of nationalism, but not all nationalism is dirty. What we need may not be the political nationalism of the Empire, where we subjugated, and colonised those that were different, or seen to be inferior; but rather a softer cultural nationalism that helps as a binding agent to build a sense of ‘commons’ amongst all our diversity. To quote Professor John Hutchinson, the political philosopher from the London School Economics (LSE), ‘cultural nationalism acts as a force for moral innovation, emerging at times of crisis, to form movements that offer new maps of identity based on historical myths, that in turn may inspire programmes of socio-political regeneration.’ Maybe our democracy needs a renewal. If Hutchinson is correct, then maybe we need a sprinkling of cultural nationalism. Unless we, as a people, know what we stand for, we will always be in danger of being seduced by talented narcissists who seek the mandate to rule over us, and take us somewhere we have no desire to go. We need to hold our leaders to higher values, which clearly charts what we stand for, and where we want to be taken. A leader that will inspire what it means to be British — steady, fair, disciplined, aspirational coupled with hardworking, influential, and strong. This new Britannia is no longer the commander of the seas, and a subjugator of foes, but rather a deity that
What of the dream that was Britannia? Read More »
Those of us who want to see a free Palestine, eventually controlling its own borders, are left distraught by the antisemitism ripping through our British cities. The potential to irrevocably damage support for a two-state solution for Palestine is there. Meanwhile, Hamas’s genocidal attack on 7 October has destroyed whatever claim to be a “resistance movement” it might previously have had. Our own Charlotte Littlewood at the UK-India desk writes for the Article on understanding Hamas and why these groups cannot be part of any solution for the middle-east. For the full article, click here To read the full article, click here.
Hamas: righteous resistance or genocidal terrorists? Read More »
“Footage of the pro-Palestine protests indicates that these protests are not just for Palestine but are acting as spaces within which forms of Islamist fascism breathe” Head of our UK-India Desk, Charlotte Littlewood provides comment to The Article addressing the 324% rise in Antisemitism in the UK, how we got here and how we can move forward. To read the full article, click here.
Appeasing Hamas: why we need muscular liberalism Read More »
Rishi Sunak stated at the G20 in India that he was committed to tackling Khalistani extremism. It would be wise for Sunak to work with the Indian diplomatic services at this sensitive time to ensure their safety and their confidence that the Government will deliver on this promise. Sunak faces a delicate balancing act, needing to stand against any potential encroachment on Canadian sovereignty by India, while also addressing the UK’s own recent questions regarding the harbouring of Khalistani extremists. For the sake of Sikhs and Hindus in the UK, for peace and security in India, and for the strength of the India-UK relationship, Sunak must step up and turn Trudeau’s diplomatic blunders into the catalyst for the end of Khalistanism in the West. Canada has a problem. The UK has the same problem. This is a diaspora problem, and Rishi Sunak has an opportunity to take appropriate action. To read the full article by our Head of UK-India Relations, click here.
Trudeau, India and Sikh separatism Read More »
What prompts the negative sentiment towards India across British society, spanning from parliamentarians to media outlets? Could this perhaps be attributed to a lingering colonial legacy, an inability to view India as a partner rather than a former subject? In this opinion piece, written by ICfS Head of UK-India relation, Charlotte Littlewood, she discussed Britain’s need to engage meaningfully across government and state apparatus with India. To read the full article, click here.
Mutual respect and understanding needed in UK-India relations Read More »
It has the highest mountain range in the world to its north — the Himalayas; to its west, the Thar desert, one of the hottest places on Earth, which occupies almost five percent of the landmass. Thick jungles and dense rainforest to its east covering almost twenty-one percent of its landmass and a seven-thousand kilometre long coastal line; with one-thousand plus inhabited islands within its waters. Not forgetting its billion and a half population, of which only thirty-five percent are squeezed into some of the world’s largest and most polluted cities. A point worth punctuating is that this ginormous population is one of the youngest in the world. This is India. Nestled amongst such massive numbers is a rich biodiversity which in some significant way still thrives. Seven percent of the world’s plants and fauna; and ten percent of the world’s species, with some of the rarest mammals on Earth only to be found here. Wetlands of Kerela, India Sprawling megacity: Mumbai India is both rich and poor. Some of her people are leading globally in science and tech, whilst others are illiterate. She is superbly well governed in parts, and crippled by corruption. She has one the most diverse societies on Earth living peacefully together over centuries, and yet today she is mired with ethnic and religious tensions of every kind. Her people are incredibly progressive and forward looking, while also wedged by out-dated customs of caste, tribe, and clan. She is one of the safest places on Earth, and yet, it can be unsafe for women to travel in some of its urban centres. Majority of her people are worshippers of nature and deeply connected to the land, while being one of the most polluted places on Earth. India has the world’s oldest unbroken civilisation, and it’s a young nation-state, still finding its feet when it comes to democracy. India — for every statistic, there is a counter statistic. For every generalisation, there is a counter one. India is VUCA with the biggest capital letters you can apply; it is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex (beyond imagination) and Ambiguous. In the United Kingdom, and I would argue in the West more generally, we struggle to make sense of India. India is in her ascent, no mistaking that. But that terminology will no longer do. India is comparable in so many ways to the West, and in some sense even surpasses us, yet we cannot be sure where she will plateau, if at all. Through what lens can we gaze at her to appreciate her richness, diversity, layered and complicated history, religious tapestry, and her aspirations and fears? We need a new framework to think about India. In short, India is too big to fail. India is too significant to be ignored. She is too present in our lives to think her challenges do not really affect us. A billion and half human beings, with one of the world’s most biodiverse landscape means that we cannot remain uninterested, disengaged, passive and neutral. We must engage equipped with a new lens: a new understanding coupled with a new intent. India needs us, as much as we need her. For India to reach the dizzying economic and political heights some people are forecasting, she will need the West, especially in the face of an ever autocratic, aggressive, and insecure CCP (Chinese Communist Party). India will need the West to buy her goods, use her services, invest in her start-ups, exchange technology, share intelligence, cooperate against international criminals, and rogue actors, protect and enforce international law, and to co-build a new international order. But, above all else, India will need the West, and vice versa, in building a Sustainable World — a truly circular economy, where technology enhances human flourishing, and consumption points towards the higher pleasures of humankind. Only when a country has sufficient capital base (and India is largely capital starved) and political stability can equality and liberty truly take root. I would argue that the West harbours the most tolerant and free democracies in the world, with a sizeable capital base to match, and from this India can take. At present, India has a dark cloud over her. There appears to be a rise in ethnic and religious conflict caused by a ethno-centric nationalist government at the helm led by its charismatic and enigmatic Prime minister Narendra Modi. Modi is portrayed as a Hindu zealot by many quarters in the West. Often these characterisations need contextualisation before critique. There is plenty of the latter and very little of the former. This is a problem because it only pushes India away from us, and leaves her diaspora alienated and insecure. Only when we really understand India, can we begin to challenge and be heard. Somewhat utopian? Sure. But we would be fools if we thought we had a choice in the matter. For the world to remain prosperous, we will, and we must, build a far stronger alliance with India in every sphere. An alliance that is built on three maxims: Maximise mutual benefit for all. Minimise harm and externalities for all. Act from a place of deep and time-tested trust. The third point is a tough ask, and one if taken on will take a decade or more to get right. To start with, we first need to understand. India is one country, one nation, but one that exists across several centuries. There is a twenty-first century India, where around two-hundred million Indians live. This is the India that aspires to go to the moon, and complete Mission Mars; aspires to innovate, digitise, and be a world leader in transformative healthcare. This is an India that understands the world and wants to be a progressive force in the world. It is truly liberal, democratic, and cultured. Their children travel around the world and are the highest achievers at every level. The worlds cadre of CEOs is also from this group who are all equipped with PhDs and MBAs from some