Hon sir,
Magnanimity means forgiveness or being generous towards a rival or enemy. Please dont confuse it with charity. Therefore you would never be magnanimous towards a beggar but only towards your enenemy or a sibling who has hurt you badly. This is also part of strategic vision as mentioned by Hon Addux. It has to be onesided else it would be 'quid pro quo' that is a favour in return of a favour.
You can be generous to a rival or enemy when you know that the enemy recognises that you are being magnanimous. You are stressing on the point that the higher rival has to be such and such but implicitly you are assuming that the lesser enemy will not take advantage of the magnanimity and try to bite back again.
During the 1971 war for bangladesh independence, did we gain even one inch of real estate? Did we gain any rupee? We had to spend billions for the war and for the refugees. We had approximately 4000 soldiers dead. Did we take any inch of land from the area of bangladesh which we had conquered? No. Was this not magnanimity of the highest order where we sent our soldiers for someone else? But in return what do we get? The vile and hatred from people like Akanda and Munshi. Looking back I just get a feeling we should let these people *** and force the refugees arriving, back into BD and let them face the music from the PA.
After WW2 US gave very generous aid to Germany and Japan. Now US firms are investing heavily in Vietnam. France and Germany were bitter enemies for centuries. Now you can cross over from one country to another without even stopping at a check post.
Yet you gloss over the things which they did. They forced Japan to have a pacifist constitution with complete security under US nuclear umbrella. Without this thing, I can bet that not a single dollar would have gone. France and West Germany were made part of NATO, sir, then they were given dollars. US gave money to west germany not to east germany,
When did france and Germany become friends? When they had the scourge of USSR on them which had half of germany with them. When half of the country is already lost, what is the point in bickering over 1% of lands. Also both france and germany were completely destroyed by WW2. Both of them did not have any energy to fight more. Wait for more 20 years, the EU is already showing signs of weakness. I am not sure about their friendship for future, unless something profound and scary threat to both of them happens.
Indian pysche is still its colonial past, some parties such BJP even want to take revenge of what Baber did half a millenia ago!! If India wants to realize its dream of a World Power; she has to be magnanimous to her smaller neighbours. Else India would only be perceived as a bully. It is not being equal, it is about being "more equal" among equals.
Do you see this talk about being magnanimous and other crap from US? Did they look after Pakistan in 90s when it had no use to US. Again see, the talk about "more equal" or anything like that. If you are "more equal", you are more than him, what the heck is "more equal". This "more equals" are useful for philosophies, not for real life and politik.
Nevertheless, no nation invests heavily in other countries and gives generous aid without some strategic or tactical advantage. US is a super power why??. Only a telephone call made Pakistan do her bidding. This also helps the aid giving country as well. When you give aid or invest in other countries; it opens the doors for marketing your goods in that country, thereby helping your workers thru job creation. Even virtual grants such as PL-480 are in fact a sudsidy to US industry as ony US produced goods will be given. Once a country accepts such a aid, it automatically implies hegemony. Why do you think Mush took action against Lal Mashid ??. Because Chinese President called Mush and asked him to provide better protection of Chinese citizens.
In the telephone call, what did they say? They said "bloody idiot, if you dont agree to us, you will be bombed back to stone age". Only under the threat did Pakistan agree. Actually this suits it, might is right- f*ck all magnanimity.
Power only means imposing your will on others and best battles or those that are won without firing a single shot.
Nice quote, it is without firing a single shot, not without giving a single threat.
Your post reflects current Indian thinking. You have to get out this mindset.
India will never become a World Power until such time that it shows one sided generosity. I repeat that I wouldnot want India to be generous as I wouldnt want Pakistan to be indirectly looking up to India. But that is another matter.
The young generation of India has come to this thinking only because we are tired of our one-sided magnanimity, which took us no where. We have here, on this forum, people talking about bangladesh and pakistan joining against India. Pakistan is a different case. After all we have done to Bangladesh, is it too much to expect from them, just plain goodwill? Nothing more. We could have got all the territory from them in 1971, we dont want it even now. When we give our hands of friend ship to china in 1956 and allowed them to occupy tibet(when we had a treaty to protect tibet), we got 1962. We were the leaders initially of the NAM movement, did it take us anywhere? The moment we were defeated in 1962, all our NAM respect went into the air. When we give lahore bus, the return is kargil. We go into srilanka, which was not our battle in anyway and have more than 1000 killed and what did we get in return? When this is the case, how long do you think this 1-sided MAGNANIMITY to continue. We went and returned Maldives completely back to the government without even staying there for 1 day required. How much more magnanimity can one show to our smaller neighbours? We never ask for bases there. we dont have security agreements with any of them(except bhutan). Yet!! Yet!!
The young generation simply thought this yet is enough.