Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Why does Scotland want to break away from the UK? Or is it Britain? I am always confused by those terms, but you know what I am asking. Tim Marshall’s The Power of Geography gives a lot of background relevant to that question.   For centuries, England (the southern half of that island) understood that they were open to invasion from all sides – Roman, Viking, and Norman invasions had proven that. Given England’s size and thus its population, the invaders would always have larger armies. As if this wasn’t bad enough, it would be disastrous if an enemy force allied with Scotland – the enemy would be at the gates. Worse, England would have to fight a two-front war: on sea and on land.   Inevitably then, England felt it had to control the entire island. The Scots, on the other hand, had no interest in being subsumed into a unified island where the English would dominate.   An uneasy and intermittently violated peace existed between the two. Until other things h...

Years back, I wrote a blog titled “United States of India” about how, despite the creation of new states and even the odd demand for outright secession, we should be proud in the single entity called India: “Each state in India is comparable to a country in Europe! Not just in size. Each state has a different language, culture, and cuisine! And yet we are one nation...however much some states may dislike others. America is an entity of fairly homogenous states. Yeah, yeah, the Yankees will say that the Bible belt states differ from New York and California. But c’mon, they still eat the same food, talk the same language, and celebrate the same festivals. India's states are hugely heterogeneous . No other country in the world is a unity of such heterogeneous entities. We should take pride in what we've achieved in terms of unity.” And as the just concluded Scotland referendum showed, the demands for secession are there even in the West. Quebec, the French speaking part,...