Book Review: Rakesh Batabyal’s ‘Idea of Order’: A Groundbreaking Study on Central and Eastern Europe (1989-2022)

Rakesh Batabyal’s Idea of Order: Perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe (1989-2022) is a path-breaking book. Despite the close contacts between India and countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and the considerable number of international studies and European studies programmes in Indian universities, no academic book has been written by an Indian about this part of the world.

Friends and students of Batabyal in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi know that his initiation into this intellectually and culturally invigorating world began by reading the historian Keith Hitchins on Romania (to whom the book is dedicated) and grew with his visits to the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Janpath, Delhi, especially the regular screenings of films by Zoltán Fábri, Károly Makk, Ferenc Kósa, and István Szabó.

Idea of Order engages with the intellectual ideas accompanying the changes in Central and Eastern Europe in the last 35 years. While the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania are the countries discussed in the book, Batabyal also met many scholars who live and work in Vienna such as Philip Ther and Kristóf Nyíri.

Idea of Order discusses the major frames of historical analyses to understand the geographical space of Central and Eastern Europe, where successive regimes saw the state or the market as the centre of the political, social and cultural order. This geographical area was earlier called the Second World, in order to separate it from the Third World, which comprised Asia and Africa. Batabyal’s interpretation of the 1989 revolutions reminded this reader of a period in the 1970s when the Third World claimed, or demanded, a different place in the economic order. The Central and East European countries similarly came to exercise their awareness of injustices in the past, and their exploitation and claimed a new place in the European Order.

Also Read | Grandchildren of the Holocaust

Batabyal explains how these countries, which were linked politically and legally to the Soviet Union, in economic terms to the Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) and in military terms to the Warsaw Pact of countries, made adjustments to the legal, administrative, political, national, economic and religious framework of the European Union after 1989. Joining the European Union was a long-drawn-out process and the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania had to apply and gradually become members of European organizations and NATO to be successful.

Batabyal considers the fact that these countries brought back the achievements of European modernity in their constitutional and legal frameworks, individual rights, and liberty as the most important element of change. Political, legal, and religious rights were established, and were reflected in the introduction of the multi-party system, in the establishment of a judiciary whose work was less opaque and in the introduction of religious rights (encouraging major religions to practice and permitting minority religions to come out of suppression). This was the first step.

Economic and financial liberalisation followed, and the state withdrew its intervention in banking operations. This had to be done because these countries were unable to repay their debts taken for upgrading technology and importing goods in the 1980s.  

Neoliberal ideas were embraced by various countries of Central and East Europe to a different extent. Batabyal refers to the transformation as one of the worst phases in the history in many of these countries during the “shock therapy” when people lost their life savings and jobs.  

Idea of Order discusses the major frames of historical analyses to understand the geographical space of Central and Eastern Europe, where successive regimes saw the state or the market as the centre of the political, social and cultural order.
| Photo Credit:
By Special Arrangement

The book also engages with research and development, education and health. These were the areas where pre-1989 governments had invested, but the new governments did not. The falling standards caused much disappointment and led to an inevitable brain drain, a process which still continues. Batabyal points out that unemployment and lack of investment in health and education are the two areas that provoked the criticism of the government on the left and right.

Nation State and Nationalisms

Batabyal points out three main crises that strengthened national territorial boundaries. First was the 2008 financial crisis, a very strong factor for strengthening the nationalist parties all over the region. The increasingly unpopular Ferenc Gyurcsány government in Hungary introduced a strict economic package before the 2008 crisis. Hungarians took debt in foreign currency and could not pay back the increased interest rates. In 2011, the Viktor Orbán government arranged for loans to be paid back in Hungarian currency, and this move strengthened him and his party, FIDESZ-Hungarian Civic Alliance further. The Polish and Czech economies were more resilient.

Second, Batabyal justifies the 1999 entry of theCzech Republic, Hungary, and Poland into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) with their insecurity in the context of Russia. However, coinciding with their entry, NATO carried out aerial bombing in Yugoslavia using the military facilities of the new NATO member countries. These countries claim that the historical memories of Tsarist Russia, of the Katyn events, the suppression of the Solidarity movement and the suppression of the Prague Spring explain their entry to NATO. The occupation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the invasion in Ukraine reinforced the confrontation between Russia and the NATO members of Central and Eastern Europe.  

Also Read | Alexander Csoma de Koros: A Hungarian’s search for his people’s roots

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic had tragic consequences in all the countries in the region and fortified their national borders.

Transformation in the domain of law of the nation state was one of the most critical areas. Batabyal points out that Hungary is the only country that broadened the definition of a Hungarian nation beyond the territory of Hungary. Prime Minister József Antall declared in 1990 that ”in spirit, he was the Prime Minister of fifteen million Magyars” expressing the special bond to Hungarian minorities in the neighbouring countries in Slovakia, Transylvania (Romania), Voivodina (Serbia), Slovenia, and Austria and additionally in Western Europe and the other continents. In 2010 when the Fidesz–Hungarian Civic Alliance came to power the issue of Hungarians abroad was brought in in legal terms and 2011 ethnic Hungarians living in the neighbouring countries Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Slovenia were granted Hungarian citizenship. They can legally enter Hungary, study and work there.

While there have been travelogues about Hungary by Indians such as Hirendranath Mukerjee’s Hungary past and present, Satyavrat Shastri’s Hangari Kitni Dur, Kitni paas (Hungary, how far, how near) or Asghar Wajahat’s book Swaarg me paanch din (Five days in Heaven), Batabyal’s book is unique in India. This is a fascinating, original new work that is built on Batabyal’s fieldwork in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, as well as research papers and personal interviews. Batabyal also has deep insights into the cinema and literature of this region, and one hopes that he will write a book based on his insights and interpretations in the near future. I am sure it will prove to be as interesting as Idea of Order. 

Margit Koves teaches Hungarian language and literature at Delhi University.