The parables of absurdity

AN entire genre of absurdist literature exists, wrapped in poetry and nursery rhymes, which has regaled the world for centuries. Occasionally, the humour and satire they spawn assume the form of an inscrutable poker-faced dilettante relishing a faux involvement in the morose world of politics. Take the Quad foreign ministers under the dilettante’s watch. They plan to meet in Delhi on Tuesday (today) as part of America’s long-expired Obama-era ‘pivot to the east’ policy. The idea was to somehow trap China, preferably in the Strait of Malacca, to impair its stride as an economic power and as an equal challenger to the US. Penny Wong, Toshimitsu Motegi and Marco Rubio are to confabulate in Delhi as guests of Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, ostensibly to keep the Indo-Pacific sea-lanes free. Free from whom? Free from themselves, it turns out.

The inscrutable dilettante would studiously refuse to call out the flawed meet. He might prefer instead to layer the humour with irony. The silent observer is only too aware that Quad discussants have displayed a marked failure individually and collectively to prise open the Strait of Hormuz in all of 86 days so far. Ergo: they have struggled against an unseeded Iran, which has stood up like Horatius to thwart an invader at the bridge.

In this way, Iran snapped shut the vital economic artery to stall Donald Trump’s Exceptionalist-Zionist war. And the Quad, led by the same US, would take on China, a China which is not known to harbour any desire to interdict or be interdicted on any trade route, land, sea or air. A Quad-like situation is likely to have created the kindergarten expression: ‘And the dish ran away with the spoon.’

The irony doesn’t end with Hormuz. Donald Trump had only recently enjoyed the spectacular hospitality of Xi Jinping, an exclusively Chinese fare of lavish opulence masking, under the velvet gloves, a hardball reserved for the most unyielding of rivals. And so, Trump craves China’s help instead as never before in crucial arenas of trade and politics. And Rubio, the leader of the Quad discussants in Delhi, knows only too well how his president has emasculated the American project to contain Beijing. It’s in a way sad for Jaishankar — sad too that he must keep up the appearance of representing a sovereign and upright India. He told Rubio at a press meet that just as it was America’s right to imagine an America-first future, India too followed the policy of India-first. Really? Hard to believe. After being treated as a yo-yo by Trump? It’s for this that India has kept its distance from Iran to the point of being callous about Iran’s searing human tragedies. And it embraces Israel, whose future as an oversold democratic state looks bleak.

Since India cannot respond to China the way it does to South Asian irritants, it answers the description of a short-sighted bully.

Japan in the Quad remains Beijing’s biggest trade partner, with China critically importing more than it sells. Bilateral ties have hit turbulence, but a safe landing is a given. Australia sees China as the largest trading partner, but also fears being singed by the pyromaniac ally in the basement.

The Quad, as they say, is dead in the water, while the pivot to the east is in disarray. Besides, neither America nor Israel proved to be worthy defence partners for anyone, least of all their Gulf clients, given their humiliating battle with a militarily and diplomatically rejuvenated Iran. This is another way of saying it’s perhaps time to see a reset of attitudes and relationships right across the world, and India is no exception. There’s a lot to salvage in the neighbourhood, including its sullied reputation as a democracy. Start with China and Pakistan. I believe that a call by the RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale for India to resume diplomatic ties and people-to-people contacts and to revive trade with Pakistan may be absurd and sensible in equal measure. It’s absurd that the advice has come from an avowedly Muslim-hating and Pakistan-baiting organisation. But since the RSS is taking a stand for peace, being presumably aware of which side the bread is buttered and knowing that its blind pro-Americanism has become an investment of diminishing returns, it goes without saying that it would be brilliant if peace could return to South Asia.

It’s been 10 years since India blocked the Saarc summit that was due to be held in Islamabad in 2016. In these years, anti-India sentiment has grown in the neighbourhood, and it has nothing to do with India being a predominantly Hindu country with Muslim allergens in the vicinity. How would it explain its unpopularity in a resurgent Hindu Nepal and utterly cordial relations with the narrow-minded Muslim rulers in Afghanistan?

Recently, Chinese officials let it be known publicly that they had helped Pakistan in responding robustly to India’s Operation Sindoor. Shouldn’t visa restrictions be applied to China and bilateral relations put in a deep freeze? China, after all, helped Pakistan against India. However, since India cannot respond to China the way it does to South Asian irritants, it answers the description of a short-sighted bully.

Some more proof, if any is needed. “We have received a directive that there cannot be China-bashing,” movie producer Himalay Dassani says, explaining why he shelved his war film on the 2020 Galwan stand-off with China. “If we are not going to get clearance from the defence ministry, there will be no point in telling the story of the Galwan battle as we can’t show the correct angle. If the fight and the reasons behind the clash are non-existent, what is the use of making a movie on it?” The absurdity goes to the other extreme when ham-handed movies with hateful messaging against Pakistan are granted official patronage. Lewis Carroll, the undisputed master of literary nonsense, has a famous absurdist saying in the White Queen’s declaration to Alice: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2026

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