Summary:
Steve Bannon, Executive Chairman of Breitbart News was an early supporter of Donald Trump in 2016 US Presidential Election. He has consistently maintained (even before he became Campaign Manager of Donald Trump's 2016 US Presidential Campaign) that the migration from Middle East and African countries into Europe in late 2015 was a scenario foretold in Camp of the Saints novel. It was also purported to be one of the reasons the new Trump administration rolled out the travel ban from Muslim majority countries right after taking oath. Given that context, I figured it would be good for me to read the book. I almost never read novels but this sounded like an appropriate exception to the rule. To me, it belongs in the same category like Ayn Rand's novels - scarily simplistic ideas with well defined good and bad characters. The bad writing does not seem to reduce the ardor of influential people who latch onto these types of novels (US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in case of Ayn Rand novels, Steve Bannon and Marine Le Pen in case of this novel). It took a long time to get through the starkly racist and incredibly turgid prose (Not sure if the original French version was easier to read). It was much more difficult to get through than the John Galt speech in Atlas Shrugged. It is only about 100 pages long but reading repeated descriptions of dark skinned Indians in derogatory terms over that length is tough sledding.
The novel is about dark skinned Indian migrants scheming to take advantage of the humanitarian tendencies of wealthy whites (across the World) and using rickety ships to crash into Europe at the French border. After they land, dark skinned people living in other wealthy countries (US for instance) also take over areas previously inhabited only by whites. The author is very concerned about massive population of dark skinned people in Asia and Africa swamping the numerically inferior whites, whether in Paris or New York and portrays how the good and decent people of (white) Western world and their heritage are betrayed by the bleeding hearts of elites in those countries. He paints the governments in Western world, Catholic Church, Media and UN as enablers who, by acts of omission and commission, let the dark skinned horde invade the shores of Europe. The resistance to this invasion comes from a small crew who have decided to fight and resist the destruction of France when everyone else has been either killed or co-opted.
Analysis:
When Donald Trump ran for President of US in 2016 Elections, people in India looked at Trump in horror. The uniformity of that reaction was broken by support from Hindu nationalists who took Trump's hatred towards Muslims and his authoritarian tendencies as signs of kinship between them. On a personal level, I know of Indians who support Trump because, according to them, he hates Muslims. Steve Bannon is known to be taken with the idea that places like Silicon Valley with its higher than average South Asian CEO's are not what he envisions of American society. It is to be expected that Make America Great Again (Steve Bannon and Donald Trump) would be on the same wavelength as Akhand Bharat fellow travelers as both of them are wedded to restoring their respective countries to a glorious past that never was.
The story starts with dark skinned Indians getting turned away at Belgian consulate (not before the Belgian Consul spews some racist invective and gets killed by the mob) in Calcutta for asylum and commandeering 60 year old postal ships left over from British time for their long voyage to the shores of France (observers in the novel christen it Last Chance Armada). They are supported by priests from the Catholic Church and directed by an atheist white guy named Ballan. The migrant crowd is led by a giant Indian with no name, who in the author's words is 'Untouchable pariah, this dealer in droppings, dung roller by trade, molder of manure briquettes, turd eater in time of famine'. They pile onto 100 ships with names like India Star, Calcutta Star (just so everyone knew the origins of these migrants) and set sail for France. Before he is killed, the Belgian Consul informs his government that they can expect this armada in France. As it starts to sail through Bay of Bengal, Australia firmly shuts its doors just in case the migrants have any ideas of diverting their ships there (and earns bouquets from the author for holding onto to the purity of their white identity). French government puts its coastal departments on high alert. At the same time, Chinese migrants gather on the borders with erstwhile Soviet Union (when it was still an unbroken desirable destination and China was a desolate land pockmarked with the remains of Cultural Revolution).The French President feels hemmed in by his advisers and media (represented by a journalist of North African origin) in proceeding aggressively against the flotilla of migrant ships. Even though he has support for his aggressive measures from some pockets of the media, his ministry is populated by graduates of France's elite institutions who seem intent on opening up France's borders in the name of universal brotherhood. As the ships sails towards France, the press revels in the sensationalism of hungry hordes making a run for freedom and dutifully sends back pictures of daily life of the mob aboard the armada. Even the weather cooperates to let the armada pass. As it shows no signs of stopping, UN steps in to form a commission to ensure its safe passage in the seas. Since this takes place in the 70's, there is fulsome praise for South African apartheid government as it warns the armada not to drop anchor near its coast. The reaction from other governments is predictably harsh on the South African government so it restocks the provisions for the armada. Not to be outdone, the Catholic Church, Evangelical community and Red Cross send in planes full of provisions. As it becomes clear that the armada is serious about landing in France, elites who had supported its passage start deserting their stations in the interests of self preservation. In the interests of Universal Brotherhood of Man, workers and soldiers decide to welcome the invading horde. The Pope, who is Brazilian, asks fellow Christians to open their hearts to the migrants as well. Once the migrants land on the shores of France, they overrun most of France in short order. Resistance comes in the form of a Professor of French Literature Calgues, an editor and publisher Jules Machefer, an Indo Frenchman from Pondicherry Hamadura, an Army Colonel Dragases, a Greek Captain Notaras and Undersecretary of State Jean Perret who lead a group of twenty soldiers in defense. With France under their control, the migrant horde proceeds to invade other European countries.
Even though I originally read the novel because it received coverage during the 2016 US Presidential Election, I have come to understand the context of the view espoused by the novel. Some of it is grounded in the population scare whipped up by Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb (which was published in 1968). The nostalgia for good old times of French (and European) Imperialism when objective truth was a white affair overwhelms this novel as well. When this novel was written, racism was more pervasive than religious fanaticism. As a result, Muslims get a pass throughout the book and sometimes even get approving nods from the author for their support for dictators. Respect is high for Whites followed by Arabs, East Asians, Africans, African Americans, Chinese and bringing up the rear, Hindus. Paul Ehrlich wrote the Population Bomb after taking a walk in New Delhi during summer and observing the mass of Indian people going about their daily lives around him. When this novel was published, it would have fit right in with the overpopulation scare propagated by Paul Ehrlich and fervently believed across the Western World (and as Mara Hvistendahl's book showed, in some Asian countries as well).
Other Books of Interest:
Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men - Mara Hvistendahl
Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population - Matthew Connelly
Steve Bannon, Executive Chairman of Breitbart News was an early supporter of Donald Trump in 2016 US Presidential Election. He has consistently maintained (even before he became Campaign Manager of Donald Trump's 2016 US Presidential Campaign) that the migration from Middle East and African countries into Europe in late 2015 was a scenario foretold in Camp of the Saints novel. It was also purported to be one of the reasons the new Trump administration rolled out the travel ban from Muslim majority countries right after taking oath. Given that context, I figured it would be good for me to read the book. I almost never read novels but this sounded like an appropriate exception to the rule. To me, it belongs in the same category like Ayn Rand's novels - scarily simplistic ideas with well defined good and bad characters. The bad writing does not seem to reduce the ardor of influential people who latch onto these types of novels (US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in case of Ayn Rand novels, Steve Bannon and Marine Le Pen in case of this novel). It took a long time to get through the starkly racist and incredibly turgid prose (Not sure if the original French version was easier to read). It was much more difficult to get through than the John Galt speech in Atlas Shrugged. It is only about 100 pages long but reading repeated descriptions of dark skinned Indians in derogatory terms over that length is tough sledding.
The novel is about dark skinned Indian migrants scheming to take advantage of the humanitarian tendencies of wealthy whites (across the World) and using rickety ships to crash into Europe at the French border. After they land, dark skinned people living in other wealthy countries (US for instance) also take over areas previously inhabited only by whites. The author is very concerned about massive population of dark skinned people in Asia and Africa swamping the numerically inferior whites, whether in Paris or New York and portrays how the good and decent people of (white) Western world and their heritage are betrayed by the bleeding hearts of elites in those countries. He paints the governments in Western world, Catholic Church, Media and UN as enablers who, by acts of omission and commission, let the dark skinned horde invade the shores of Europe. The resistance to this invasion comes from a small crew who have decided to fight and resist the destruction of France when everyone else has been either killed or co-opted.
Analysis:
When Donald Trump ran for President of US in 2016 Elections, people in India looked at Trump in horror. The uniformity of that reaction was broken by support from Hindu nationalists who took Trump's hatred towards Muslims and his authoritarian tendencies as signs of kinship between them. On a personal level, I know of Indians who support Trump because, according to them, he hates Muslims. Steve Bannon is known to be taken with the idea that places like Silicon Valley with its higher than average South Asian CEO's are not what he envisions of American society. It is to be expected that Make America Great Again (Steve Bannon and Donald Trump) would be on the same wavelength as Akhand Bharat fellow travelers as both of them are wedded to restoring their respective countries to a glorious past that never was.
The story starts with dark skinned Indians getting turned away at Belgian consulate (not before the Belgian Consul spews some racist invective and gets killed by the mob) in Calcutta for asylum and commandeering 60 year old postal ships left over from British time for their long voyage to the shores of France (observers in the novel christen it Last Chance Armada). They are supported by priests from the Catholic Church and directed by an atheist white guy named Ballan. The migrant crowd is led by a giant Indian with no name, who in the author's words is 'Untouchable pariah, this dealer in droppings, dung roller by trade, molder of manure briquettes, turd eater in time of famine'. They pile onto 100 ships with names like India Star, Calcutta Star (just so everyone knew the origins of these migrants) and set sail for France. Before he is killed, the Belgian Consul informs his government that they can expect this armada in France. As it starts to sail through Bay of Bengal, Australia firmly shuts its doors just in case the migrants have any ideas of diverting their ships there (and earns bouquets from the author for holding onto to the purity of their white identity). French government puts its coastal departments on high alert. At the same time, Chinese migrants gather on the borders with erstwhile Soviet Union (when it was still an unbroken desirable destination and China was a desolate land pockmarked with the remains of Cultural Revolution).The French President feels hemmed in by his advisers and media (represented by a journalist of North African origin) in proceeding aggressively against the flotilla of migrant ships. Even though he has support for his aggressive measures from some pockets of the media, his ministry is populated by graduates of France's elite institutions who seem intent on opening up France's borders in the name of universal brotherhood. As the ships sails towards France, the press revels in the sensationalism of hungry hordes making a run for freedom and dutifully sends back pictures of daily life of the mob aboard the armada. Even the weather cooperates to let the armada pass. As it shows no signs of stopping, UN steps in to form a commission to ensure its safe passage in the seas. Since this takes place in the 70's, there is fulsome praise for South African apartheid government as it warns the armada not to drop anchor near its coast. The reaction from other governments is predictably harsh on the South African government so it restocks the provisions for the armada. Not to be outdone, the Catholic Church, Evangelical community and Red Cross send in planes full of provisions. As it becomes clear that the armada is serious about landing in France, elites who had supported its passage start deserting their stations in the interests of self preservation. In the interests of Universal Brotherhood of Man, workers and soldiers decide to welcome the invading horde. The Pope, who is Brazilian, asks fellow Christians to open their hearts to the migrants as well. Once the migrants land on the shores of France, they overrun most of France in short order. Resistance comes in the form of a Professor of French Literature Calgues, an editor and publisher Jules Machefer, an Indo Frenchman from Pondicherry Hamadura, an Army Colonel Dragases, a Greek Captain Notaras and Undersecretary of State Jean Perret who lead a group of twenty soldiers in defense. With France under their control, the migrant horde proceeds to invade other European countries.
Even though I originally read the novel because it received coverage during the 2016 US Presidential Election, I have come to understand the context of the view espoused by the novel. Some of it is grounded in the population scare whipped up by Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb (which was published in 1968). The nostalgia for good old times of French (and European) Imperialism when objective truth was a white affair overwhelms this novel as well. When this novel was written, racism was more pervasive than religious fanaticism. As a result, Muslims get a pass throughout the book and sometimes even get approving nods from the author for their support for dictators. Respect is high for Whites followed by Arabs, East Asians, Africans, African Americans, Chinese and bringing up the rear, Hindus. Paul Ehrlich wrote the Population Bomb after taking a walk in New Delhi during summer and observing the mass of Indian people going about their daily lives around him. When this novel was published, it would have fit right in with the overpopulation scare propagated by Paul Ehrlich and fervently believed across the Western World (and as Mara Hvistendahl's book showed, in some Asian countries as well).
Other Books of Interest:
Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men - Mara Hvistendahl
Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population - Matthew Connelly
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