(Kumar Ketkar is a senior journalist, political commentator, globe trotter and author. He has covered all Indian elections since 1971 and significant international events. He is a frequent participant on TV debates.)Indians have always had a kind of romantic fascination with Japan. Exactly 60 years ago, when legendary actor Raj Kapoor walked awkwardly, imitating Charles Chaplin's nervous footsteps in the famous film
Shree 420, the memorable musical score
Mera Joota Hai Japani placed the country of the Rising Sun in the imagination of Indians.
Actually, Japan at the time was not an economic and industrial powerhouse. Just a decade before the film was produced, Japan had surrendered to the Allies after the horrific atomic bombs which wiped out the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That was the first ( and hopefully the last ) use of the atomic weapons. Most Japanese people regarded America as the villain, a sort of evil force. Yet, the US was to become, in less than a decade, Japan's closest ally.
At home, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was a towering personality, a visionary and a leading advocate of global peace. Nehru was deeply moved by the horrors of the bomb and had tremendous admiration for the people of Japan who were truly rising Phoenix-like from nuclear ashes. The Hindi film industry's biggest names - from Raj Kapoor to Dilip Kumar and from V Shantaram to Mehboob - were inspired by Nehru's idealism of global peace, friendship and prosperity. Japan's tenacity and grit as reflected in its magnificent effort to overcome its post-war devastation had impressed Panditji, notwithstanding his strong opposition to the erstwhile imperialist country. For Indian people, Japan had emerged as an icon.
Mera Joota Hai Japani reflected that widespread sentiment. Japan continued to fascinate Bollywood and particularly the emerging Indian middle class. Films like
Sayonara and
Love in Tokyo became popular because of that growing fascination. But Japan never became a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) destination - the Japanese immigration policy was not as open as that of America; educated Indian middle classes preferred the easier and cozier English-speaking ambiance of England, America, Canada or Australia. Learning Japanese required special effort, which the intellectually and linguistically lazy Indian middle class did not want to do. So Japan remained an iconic Asian country but with a vast cultural difference. The same is true about China. Despite the popular
Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai slogan and campaign, hardly any Indian thought of learning Chinese or going to China. As a result, the two emerging Asian giants were so close and yet so far for most Indians.
A large number of Indians are still suspicious of China even as they are dazzled by its fantastic economic, trade and industrial achievements. Indians are not hostile to Japan the way they are to China. Japan does not share a border with India and hence there is no fear of a cross-border conflict. Despite China's stunning economic progress, it is still regarded as a competitor though all experts agree that Indian cannot match it. Japan is neither a competitor nor a threat. Most Indians don't know of Japan's wartime crimes nor of their aggressive designs in Asia in the last century.
Today, what impresses most Indians is Japanese technology and their disciplinarian industrial culture. The
Sangh Parivar is enamoured of Japan and Germany for their military-industrial ethos. No wonder Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan was hailed as historic.
Modi's visit to Japan at once raised apprehensions in China. With friendship treaties and techno-economic agreements, is Japan trying to change the balance of power in Asia? Will America, Japan and India try collectively to undermine China's march? Within just two months of the BRICS summit, is China being cold-shouldered? Will India have to live with China's hostility and Japan's hegemony orchestrated by America?
These questions will continue to haunt India as they are part of a new Asian Drama which is being enacted on the global stage today.
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