Our Perry moment

India should avoid boxing itself into a corner because of Trump's bullying

- T N NINAN

On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay with two steam ships and two sloops with sails. He refused when ordered to move to Nagasaki, the port allowed for foreign ships. Likewise, he would not allow local officials to board his ships, insisting that he had a message from the United States (US) President for the Japanese emperor. Perry's bullying forced Japan to open up on trade, to allow US ships to refuel in Japanese ports, and make other concessions.

More importantly, it made Japan (which had only wooden sailing ships) realize the superiority of Western technology. There was confusion and disagreement over what was to be done. There were people who argued against change, some suggested throwing out all foreigners. Eventually, the forces of change won and more than a decade later, under the new and young emperor Meiji, the country launched on root-and-branch reform of the feudal system, land ownership, the education system, and the military, among other changes. The shogunate gave way to what was to become known as the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1867.

Within a generation, Japan became an industrial power and defeated stronger Chinese forces in battle. A decade after that it defeated imperial Russia. Both those countries were to see their regimes collapse in the wake of the military defeats, while the change that Commodore Perry forced on Japan was to bring it among the front rank of nations. While the parallels should not be overdrawn, there are lessons in this for India as it confronts its own Perry moment of US bullying.

This is not to defend President Donald Trump's actions, which remain indefensible. India is right to decry his imposition of forbidding tariffs as unfair, unjustified, and indeed hypocritical. But our task is not to win the argument, it is to win the economic war. Our weaknesses have been exposed, in as much as we are not able to stand up to Mr Trump as China has done.