Mumbai Mayhem: ISI Paradox

Russell’s Paradox and the ISI by T. C. A. Srinivasa-Raghavan

Pakistan’s former ISI chief, and now Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, made some loudly belligerent noises on Tuesday. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, immediately responded by saying war was not an option. A few days ago, Fareed Zakaria, the well known columnist and editor of Newsweek, told an interviewer on NDTV “that the Pakistani military can only be reined in by itself. No civilian government in Pakistan has ever had the ability to tell the military in Pakistan to rein in itself.”

Unwittingly, perhaps, Mr Zakaria has pointed to one of the biggest paradoxes (or impossibilities) of formal logic. It was first discovered, if that is the word, by Bertrand Russell sometime in the first decade of the 20th century, perhaps even as early as 1901.

In its simplest form the paradox is this: if the village barber shaves only those villagers who do not shave themselves, who shaves the barber? That is, if a barber shaves only those who don’t shave themselves, he can’t shave himself. So what is he to do if he doesn’t want a beard? Or, consider library catalogues. Should the catalogue of catalogues list itself? A catalogue can’t list itself because, by doing so, it would belong in another catalogue, that is, that of catalogues that do include themselves. So, whatever you do, it can never be a catalogue of catalogues that don’t list themselves.

A problem of logic
There are many such examples but the point, presumably, is clear. If you follow the rule that a set can be a member of itself if, and only if, it is not a member of itself, you get a paradox.

Now, even though this may be a gross over simplification in mathematical terms of what is essentially a problem of logic, apply this to the ISI and you will see the resemblance, though not perhaps a one-to-one mapping. Pakistan’s sovereignty means that no other country can rein in its army, and the ISI’s self-made charter ensures that it will not rein itself in. This is where Russell’s Paradox becomes evident.

If the only reason for the ISI’s existence is to create problems for everyone else in the belief that it serves Pakistan’s national interest, how will it rein itself in? Why would it, for then it would belong to the set that doesn’t want to create problems for the world and that is not logically possible.

Solution of sorts
Mathematicians and logicians struggled for a long time with what is known as Russell’s Paradox. Eventually, they found a solution which is really not a solution, at least not of the paradox: the only way of resolving it was if such a barber did not exist. Or, what was the same thing, if the barber was a woman. Substitute ‘ISI’ for ‘barber’ in the second sentence of the previous paragraph or ‘civilian government’ for ‘woman’ in the last sentence, and you get the answer.

This essentially means that if the categories listed above are to live in peace, the ISI must cease to exist in its present form, or even better, entirely. There is simply no other solution. The US and India have grasped the problem and are asking the ISI to be brought under civilian control. But have they understood that this is not possible without a sex-conversion surgery on the ISI?
Russell’s Paradox and the ISI