I remember my first overseas trip, which was to Belgium. On a weekend trip, a colleague and I took a train ride from Brussels to another nation, and were back by the same evening after three-hour rides that took us past lush meadows. At Luxembourg, we leaned across a parapet to watch chateaus washed in the bright orange of autumnal trees. It was a throwback in time, coupled with an amusing feeling there could be a country as small as this—albeit with sovereign status and special tax laws that enable weekend drivers from Brussels fill up their tanks with cheaper petrol.
The memories of Luxembourg, an area of about 2,600 sq km and a population less than 700,000, came flooding last week as I heard of Westarctica, a ‘micro nation’ in the news after a dubiously enterprising resident of Delhi’s satellite town Ghaziabad was arrested on charges of posing as the envoy of that “country” as a cover for alleged money laundering.
Luxembourg is smaller than India’s National Capital Region but it is properly recognised as a ‘micro state’, unlike Westarctica—which does exist in some way, but as a micro nation. While micro states enjoy international recognition, micro nations are often self-proclaimed territories that few acknowledge.
It takes special imagination to declare a micro nation carved out of Antarctica. But it takes chutzpah to run a fake embassy for one in India. Investigations suggest that Harsh Vardhan Jain, who fashioned himself ‘Baron of Westarctica’, has travelled to 30 countries. He had fake diplomatic passports, diplomatic number plates and seals purported to be from the foreign ministry. Westarctica is ‘owned’ by Travis McHenry and claims about 1.6 million sq km on the coldest continent—about half the size of India!
Statehood is in the news for other reasons, too. France has announced it will recognise Palestine, which is already recognised by as many as 147 of the UN’s 193 member states. Canada, Portugal and Spain have also announced their intent of doing so at September’s UN General Assembly. The UK has said it will do so if Israel fails to improve the man-made famine in Gaza.
A vital requirement for statehood is not area or population, but political blessings of the powerful. The Vatican, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Andorra and San Marino are among Europe’s recognised micro states. Delhi-based industrialist Analjit Singh, following the footsteps of his father Bhai Mohan Singh, who founded Ranbaxy, is the honorary consul general for San Marino, a tiny landlocked enclave in Italy with an area of less than 62 sq km and a population of less than 34,000. It’s embassy in New Delhi is a palatial building at a walking distance from the PM’s residence.
Ghaziabad’s fake diplomat Jain also claimed to be the envoy for the micro nations of Seborga and Ladonia, which exist, in addition to Poulvia, which is purely fictional. Seborga has since issued a statement distancing himself from Jain, which it says had acknowledged him in a symbolic, honorary role in good faith.
The Principality of Seborga, measuring less than 14 sq km and with a population of less than 300, is located in Italy near the French border. Ladonia measures less than 1 sq km and is the result of a court battle between an eccentric artist, Lars Vilks, and the Swedish authorities. Vilks ‘declared independence’ when the latter wanted to remove two of his ‘sculptures’ on the ground that they were, actually, buildings.
It’s not clear what led Jain to create Poulvia. But he dubiously joins the august company of writers who created fictional countries to house their characters. C S Lewis created Narnia and J R R Tolkien the kingdom of Rohan. In my schooldays, I admired Enid Blyton for founding Tauri-Hessia. The Three Investigators series of children’s detective stories created by Robert Arthur Junior featured Varania. Borduria and Syldavia are found only in Tintin books. The editorial stylebook of an international news agency used a fictional country in Europe called Ruritania to illustrate potential situations for journalists.
R K Narayan made his mythical Malgudi such a legend that there is an apocryphal story about how tourists from the West would want to know how they could visit the Indian town. Wessex existed as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom about 1,500 years ago, but was made more famous by Thomas Hardy.
Lee Falk’s creation Mandrake the Magician lives in a home called Xanadu, which is more popular as a dictionary term for an idyllic place based on a description by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his poem, ‘Kubla Khan’. The romantic poet said his work was inspired by an opium-influenced dream that followed his reading a book describing Xanadu, Emperor Kublai Khan’s summer palace.
Micro nations are fascinating enough. But there is nothing to beat fictional imagi-nation crafted in a reverse swing from enchanting dreams.
(Views are personal)
Read all columns by Madhavan Narayanan
Madhavan Narayanan
Reverse Swing
Senior journalist
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