The concept of power

Generally, whenever we talk about power, we think in term of physical and military power. However, there are many shades of power which have different sources in its making. History leads us to understand not only the phenomenon of power but also its dynamic. When the Turks and the Mughals arrived in India they were nothing but armed bands which defeated their opponents and occupied the conquered land. Both the Turks and the Mughals acquired political power as a result of using the resources of the land situated between Ganges and Yamuna rivers. Land revenue was the basic source of their power which led them to lay down the foundations of an empire.
The Mughal rule became more powerful and stronger as it occupied more land and increased its income from the revenue. It declined when its rule was challenged by its provincial princes. It lost land and its income. Finally, the Mughal emperors ended up as paupers. When political power was disintegrated, the gap was filled by the English who usurped the same resources and inherited the power in India to become its rulers.
In the 17th century, Spain emerged as a great imperial power in Europe. The sources of its power were silver and gold from the mines of its South American colonies. Spain invested this money to expand its power in Europe. It was the time when it sent the most powerful armada to conquer England. It declined as it wastefully used these resources in wars. When these sources dried up, Spain was reduced to a weaker nation.
England did not have enough land revenue to make it a great power. Therefore, it relied on foreign trade and commerce and the plundering of silver and golden loaded ships of Spain coming from South America to Europe. It was not a permanent source to make it a powerful nation. It derived its power in the 18th century as a result of the Industrial Revolution which inaugurated the era of colonialism and transformed it into a world power.
Scientific and technological inventions beamed new sources of power. This created a conflict among European nations for political hegemony in the world. There was race among these powers to make advancement in science and technology. Their universities became centre for research and invention. Academic institutions and societies were set up to encourage research. Research journals published contributions of scholars. Industries flourished on the basis of new research. Factories started to produce goods on large scale for the world markets. It was the rise of European imperialism.
Today, knowledge has become the base for power. Those nations who are producing knowledge are becoming powerful. The United States is the example of this phenomenon. Its universities and research institutes are producing knowledge which distinguishes it from other nations.
However, problem of power is that is blinds those who hold it. Those nations, who are conscious of their power, become arrogant and look down to those who are weak. Thus, power leads to ambition to subordinate the other nations, humiliate and insult them and exploit their resources. Powerful nations start to believe that they are civilised, democratic and protector of human rights. They justify their wars, massacre and pillage of the countries of the weak. History is full of such events. In the ancient Greek, the Athenians attacked the small island Milos and asked its government to submit. The argument of the Athenian generals was that as they were powerful and Milos was weak, it had to surrender. On its refusal, the island was occupied and whole male population was killed and women and children were sold as slaves.
That is the price which the weak pays to the powerful.
European colonialism was based on the concept of ‘survival of the fittest’ which interpreted that powerful had a right to crush, subdue and eliminate weaker nations because it was the law of nature.
Kutilya in Arthashastra and Machiavelli in Prince by liberating power from morality turned it into a tool to oppress and exploit the weaker nations. Throughout history, power shifts from one nation to another. There was a time when the Romans ruled over vast empire by killing and enslaving vanquished nations and usurping their natural resources. The Arabs were the next who conquered their neighboring countries. They were replaced by the Ottomans, the Safavids and the Mughals. All imperial powers in the end declined as a result of resistance.
A new phenomenon of power emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries. That was the power of ideology which inspired nations to fight against imperial power and change the political map of the world. Nationalism and socialism were the two important ideologies which caused changes in the present century.
Recently, we have witnessed “people’s power” which brought changes in the Eastern Europe. The Arab world is experiencing it too nowadays. Though the state power is trying to subdue people’s power, but it seems to have failed. Unarmed people have such a power that the state fails to crush it. This is the power that could change the world and liberate common people from oppression and tyranny.

The writer is one of the pioneers of alternate history in the country.