The de-hyphenation of India-Pakistan

India without hubris ... ?

I don’t agree with this Af-Pak solution at all because we are being bracketed with Afghanistan. Afghanistan hardly has any governance, it is out of control. And also, there is extremism within India among the Muslim youth and it is developing linkages with others — the Kashmir issue too. Therefore, if we want to finally deal with terrorism and extremism and solve it in its short-term and long-term perspective, we have to look at events in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. I am totally against this Af-Pak strategy. (via ‘Kashmir solution can reduce extremism in Pak society’).

Pleasures of growing up

A few decades earlier, India-Pakistan sporting encounters were most awaited by sports enthusiasts. India-Pakistan cricket now comes lower down – and the position has been taken up India-Australia cricket series. Now Pakistan is asking David Morgan, from the ICC to ‘intervene’ and“to convince the BCCI to play a series in England” against Pakistan.

In the 60s-80s, Indian business publications, Indian bureaucracy indexed themselves with Pakistan. Sensex, the Indian stock index was then compared with the Karachi index. But the comparison is now with global markets and the US.

The Indian growth story © Copyright 2008 Angel Boligan - All Rights Reserved.

Then and now

The Indian economy is now compared with the Chinese economy, ASEAN, EU and the US economies. The Indian film industry, compares itself with Hollywood – unfortunately, in terms of becoming a Hollywood clone. India must now work to jettison some colonial detritus, its diplomacy must get over its Pakistan Fixation – and manage the Chinese relationship.

There are two aspects of this ‘development that has not fully dawned on Indians, which needs greater introspection in India. One is the ‘Western clone’ status – which, for instance, is what some ‘leading lights’ of the Indian film industry want to be. The second is danger of becoming an ‘arrivista‘ – the danger of hubris.

Hard landing for Pakistan

Obviously, this growing up is something that has dawned on Pakistan – as a ‘hard imprint’ rather than a ‘soft copy’. Fancying themselves as an equal till a few decades ago, Pakistan had to endure a hard landing.

And this hard landing is Musharraf’s real problem – as this interview reveals.

Global warming’s got me thinking …

Carbon credits ... anyone!

a call has been given by Al Gore that there should be an immediate moratorium on coal fired power plants. Look at how this will impact India. More than half of the 8,00,000 mega watts of power India plans to produce by 2030 are to come from coal fired plants. Simply because India has abundant coal resources.

What most western analysts don’t realise is nearly 600 million Indians do not have regular and formal access to any source of electricity. If comparison is to be drawn, it is a bit like the entire US population and half of the European Union going without any electricity.

Can you estimate the enormity of this problem? This is what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told George Bush at the G-8 summit in Japan last year when America tried to force India to commit carbon emission cuts. India merely said it will keep its per capita emmissions at below the world average. (via Carbon emmisions and Democracy!:Wisdom by Hindsight:MK Venu’s blog-The Times Of India).

How oil is sapping the world

What if

The entire global warming debate is just a facade to keep up demand for oil from India and China. The opposition to coal fired power plants is to stop India and China from reducing the growth in oil consumption.

After all practically all of British GDP today is declining North Sea oil and British Petroleum. Apart from Chinese money, the other source of liquidity which keeps the US afloat is petro dollars.And the US future is so closely linked to Arctic oil.

If India and China were to reduce their reliance on oil, leading to a price collapse, the biggest losers will be the Anglo Saxon bloc.

Makes one think!

QED –

On 19th December, 2009, after the Copenhagen meet, alternet.org reported Bill McKibben of 350.org, saying how US President Barack Obama has

formed a league of super-polluters, and would-be super-polluters. China, the U.S., and India don’t want anyone controlling their use of coal in any meaningful way.

voiced his disapproval. Writing for Grist

Vatican uses short codes to blame Hinduism for Hitler’s Holocaust

The Vatican forgets these halcyon days?

the Vatican’s 1998 apology, “We Remember.” That long-awaited document expressed regret at Christian mistreatment of Jews over the centuries but pinned the fault on some of the church’s sinful “members” while holding blameless “the church as such.”

The Vatican’s champions say it had no choice: “the church as such” is ecclesiastical shorthand for the church as bride of Christ, which partakes of divinity and must thus be without blemish. “We Remember” further contended that the Holocaust was the product not of Christianity but of a “neo-pagan” regime that had renounced the faith, but Carroll portrays Hitler as the heir to such church-sanctioned haters as St. John Chrysostom and Torquemada. (via The Church as Sinner – TIME).

Deflect ... blame ... cover up ...

Hitler … Aryan .. Pagan …

Some few years ago, the Vatican came out with a much awaited ‘apology’ for its involvement in the Holocaust. Since Hitler, though technically a Catholic, was a staunch believer in his Aryan lineage.

This the Vatican uses as an escape hatch to pin the blame on ‘neo-pagan’ beliefs. Combine Hitler’s Aryan supremacy theory, India as the citadel of ‘pagans’ and non-believers, makes Vatican’s language a short hand for Hinduism and India.

Just how did the Church think, it could palm off Hitler’s genocide onto Hinduism – and India which is the citadel of ‘paganism’. Are they forgetting the Abbott of Citeaux?

Another red-wash

“Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius” (Kill them all, God will know his own) instructed the Abbot of Citeaux to followers at the start of the Albigensian Crusade.

Did the Church look at its own history? The Ustashe killings, the Albigensian Crusades, at the Hussite Wars, at its blood soaked history, at the numerous humans who were burnt at the stake, torn apart – all in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Blame the victims

And after 1500 years, blame pagans for it. Pagans, if the popery forgets, were the victims of the Church’s expansionary zeal – and Hitler’s. Maybe the ghosts of the Native Americans will whisper the truth in Vatican’s ears – who were also annihilated by brave Christian soldiers?

Emulate Gujarat’s agricultural success – The Economic Times

Talk is cheap ... data talks

Gujarat is a drought-prone state, with an irrigation cover of just 36% of gross cropped area. Increased water supply from Sardar Sarovar project, higher investments in check-dams and watersheds (as of June 2007, a total of 2, 97,527 check dams, boribunds and Khet Talavadi (farm ponds) had been constructed by the state in cooperation with NGOs and the private sector), and of course, good rainfall for the past few years has helped propel growth. (via Emulate Gujarat’s agricultural success- Policy-Opinion-The Economic Times).

Indian economic model

There is something interesting in the state of Gujarat. Sometime back there was a status report on finances of all state governments in India. The difference between Gujarat and the Rest of India was stark and telling. Very impressive.

While we have Westernized ‘experts’ saying that Indian agriculture is a dead end - and promoting a line of ‘there is no option apart from mega projects’, we have here in Gujarat the real solution to agriculture and water management. The Gujarat solution, which has been India’s way of managing water. Effectively, at a low cost, under the control of the people who use it and need it. Indian agriculture has a bright future – these ‘experts’ notwithstanding.

Which makes me think.

With Chief Minster’s like Yeddyurappa in the South and Narendra Modi fom the West, what BJP needs is two more Chief Ministers. One for the North and one for the East. To break the logjam at the national level. The last two electoral defeats at the national levels has seen BJP in disarray.

But at the state level it is a different story. More power to such Chief Ministers.

Rise above borders – BS Yeddyurappa

Referring to the protests, Yeddyurappa said: “Let us live together, let us enjoy together. Both Thiruvalluvar and Sarvagna were above caste, creed and religion. We should treat all the visionaries born in any state in the country as assets of our nation. That is true patriotism. Limiting such great personalities to one state or religion and campaigning against such achievers is unbecoming of any citizen of this country.”

“Almost all works of Sarvagna have been now translated and sold in Tamil Nadu,” said Karunanidhi.

Referring to Yeddyurappa’s visit to his house in Chennai when he was ill, Karunanidhi said: “When Yeddyurappa asked if Sarvagna’s statue could be unveiled in Chennai, my reply was – `Ayya, we were ready for it a long time ago.”’

Touching on the sequence of attempts made by Tamilians in Bangalore over the last 18 years to get the statue, Karunanidhi said: “Almost everybody, including the Prime Minister and President, were approached. But, perhaps, it was just waiting for the right time and the right people to take it forward.” (via Rise above borders: CM – Bangalore – City – NEWS – The Times of India).

This possibly was one the biggest acts of statesmanship in India in the last few decades. Here was a festering problem – the Cauvery waters issue. An intra-state problem between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which was being milked for all it was worth by politicians from both states.

Even after two decades, this statue remained under cover due to political gamesmanship. It took a particularly sad lot of politicians to confine Thiruvalluvar to Tamil Nadu for two decades. It took one brave man, Yeddyurappa to make a new beginning.

The Government should something about this!

Less often heard, two common remarks. One, “The Government should do something about this.” Two, “It is not like this in foreign countries.”

   

The poor Indian didn't ask for this ...

Where did this come in from

Growing up in various parts of India, one often heard, for every problem, two common remarks. One, “The Government should do something about this.” The second, “It is not like this in foreign countries.”

Whether it was overflowing drain or a pothole on the road. In the last few years, I wondered where this bit of escapist phraseology came in from! Till I saw this news report.

“The government needs to look at this,” Crowden said. “Budgets are being cut. If they don’t do something, it’s going to be a serious public-health risk.” (via Coming to a bin near you: rat pack takes Britain by storm).

And now I know. Looking back, and seeing things now, I can see that things have changed.

The Indian State in retreat

To many, brought up on the Western schools of political understanding, the Indian Voter will vote for cash, sops, caste and allurements. This displays a profound disrespect for the Indian Voter – and greater ignorance.

The Indian State has been gradually and steadily retreating – and the Indian Voter has been at the forefront of this retreat. For all practical purposes health care in India has been privatized over the last 70 years. The vestigial State support for health care can also go, if the State cuts away its exclusive dependence on Western medical systems – and the complete collapse of Indian medical systems. The Western Voter will not let go of the subsidized health care system – while the Indian Voter has been gradually shifting the the private sector.

Similarly, the dependence on subsidized grain has been steadily decreasing. Inflation may give a false impression of increasing food subsidy bills. However, fact is that from about 75% of the population in the 1960-1970 decades, the dependence on subsidized food grains has reduced to 30%-40%.

Similarly, in other sectors too, the reduction of the role of the State is becoming apparent and welcomed – by the Indian Voter. The resistance is from the bureaucracy and the vested interests of Big Business.

Do things change

Over the years, Indians use this phrase less and less. This phrase is now close to becoming either extinct or may even become a parody. It may soon make its way into Indian films as a joke.

The interesting thing is …

The other thing was that the people who could do something, the educated, the elite, the Westernized used this phrase, hankered for this solution more than the poor or the desi and the dehati types. In all my years, I have never heard a desi say that “the Government should do something about this.”

Curious eh!

Coming to the Brits! Till they get up, and stop asking the Government to do something, the decline will not stop!

Related articles

• Adiga’s Vacuum Theorem (quicktake.wordpress.com)
• What’s At the Root of India’s Anticorruption Protests? (time.com)
• India’s Antigraft Movement Isn’t Just about Corruption (time.com)
• Starving India to India Starring (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)

China is now an empire in denial – Gideon Rachman /FT.com / Columnists /

The Soviet Union ultimately fell apart because of pressure from its different nationalities. In 1991, the USSR split up into its constituent republics.

Of course, the parallels are not exact. Ethnic Russians made up just over half the population of the USSR. The Han Chinese are over 92 per cent of the population of China. Yet Tibet and Xinjiang are exceptions. Some 90 per cent of the population of Tibet are still ethnic Tibetans. The Uighurs make up just under half the population of Xinjiang. Neither area is comfortably integrated into the rest of the country – to put it mildly. Last week’s riots in Xinjiang led to the deaths of more than 180 people, the bloodiest known civil disturbance in China since Tiananmen Square in 1989. There were also serious disturbances in Tibet just before last year’s Olympics.

In a country of more than 1.3bn people, the 2.6m in Tibet and the 20m in Xinjiang sound insignificant. But together they account for about a third of China’s land mass – and for a large proportion of its inadequate reserves of oil and gas. Just as the Russians fear Chinese influence over Siberia, so the Chinese fear that Muslim Xinjiang could drift off into Central Asia. (via FT.com / Columnists / Gideon Rachman – China is now an empire in denial).

Cheap thrills

The Western media takes great and vicarious delight in predicting such break ups. It feeds their innate (though false) sense of superiority. With Scotland wanting to breakaway, Belgium on the verge of splitting into two, Czechoslovakia split into two, Europe itself on the brink of reverting to internecine squabbles.

Chopsuey

That said, a break up of China should be no surprise.

Much like USSR’s break-up, the Chinese monolith is more fragile than apparent. Apart from the usual suspects of democracy, economic disparities, social upheavals, etc, there are 3 factors, which most Chinese analysts miss.

One, the Tibetan’s are held together by force – and no one imagines that this holding them together by force, can be in perpetuity. The Muslim provinces of Xinjiang (another one-third of China) is usually ignored. These issues are usually minimized by the current strength with which China holds these provinces together.

But possibly, the biggest issue is the share of revenues of the Chinese central governments.

Secondly, the Chinese Central Government commands less than 25% of the total tax revenues - and the 75% goes to provinces. This, possibly is why the Chinese Government cannot reduce cigarette usage in China. Most expenditures on health, education, pension, unemployment, housing etc. are borne by the local government – and hence there is patchwork of systems which run across China. Most of executions and imprisonments of bureaucrats (including the Mao’s Cultural Revolution) is to demonstrate central authority. The PLA is the only factor that keeps China together. A Chinese Lech Walesa or a Nelson Mandela could unwind China very quickly.

Significantly, and thirdly, the Chinese diaspora and Western MNCs are biggest investors in China – and also the main beneficiaries. This currently keeps resentments of the local Chinese under control – as the neighbour is not getting much richer. But at one stage the domestic Chinese will want to greater say and control over the Chinese economy. He may not be happy with just a well paying job and abundant, low quality goods.

Fences and neighbours

Modern nationalism (of the political variety) is a European construct. National boundaries have historically been ephemeral. The value of national boundaries is the ability to wage war – and disturb the boundaries of other countries.

Good fences create bad neighbours!

Priya Joshi: Culture and Consumption: Fiction, the Reading Public, and the British Novel in Colonial India

The need for Western stamp of approval

Often, the implementation of a new education system leaves those who are colonized with a lack of identity and a limited sense of their past. The indigenous history and customs once practiced and observed slowly slip away. The colonized become hybrids of two vastly different cultural systems. Colonial education creates a blurring that makes it difficult to differentiate between the new, enforced ideas of the colonizers and the formerly accepted native practices.” (Priya Joshi quoted in Contemporary Education By Rao, page 21).

Her theory on the ideological war waged by colonial Britain on India after 1857, ranging from quantitative estimates of book shipments from Britain to India, to library lendings make Priya Joshi’s research compelling.

Her narrative explains the methodology by which national cultures can be subverted, modified and ultimately disfigured. Carrying that logic further, it makes us examine the entire basis of using English in the Indian education system.

Racism in Detective Fiction

From the book "Postcolonial postmortems By Christine Matzke, Susanne Muehleisen page 88

How very true!

Monster fiction for children!

Whatta shot!

Ms.Christine and Susanne, you have hit the nail right in the centre of head! Your aim is truer than you imagine. Though I don’t know if you have hit the nail deep enough – deep into the heart of darkness in the Western heart, which gave rise to these genres of Western ‘literature’.

An Indian columnist laments how Indians lack literary talent and ability!

The Indian churail (or pisach or djinni) faces similar problems as the Scandinavian myling or the Er Gui of China: they don’t translate well outside of their culture.

India may have had local incidents, where an oppressive zamindar may have created a market for horror stories and monsters – but without genocide, slavery and massacres to fall back on, popular imagination simply does not have the fodder to create ghouls and monsters.

And that is reason for Indian churails being rare – not lack of literary ability in Indians.

Where Marx comes alive – Pallavi Aiyar

For greater good of the most many ...

perhaps nothing exemplifies European socialism more than the maze of regulations governing the retail trade in Belgium. It took a panel of five young government officials from the Directorate for Regulation and Organisation of the Market, armed with pages of notes, to explain the main highlights of these to me.

This is what I learnt: In Belgium, shops can only legally go on ‘sale’ twice a year, in January and July. It is only during these periods that shops may sell goods at below cost or ‘extremely reduced’ profit. For six weeks before the sales period, shops may not advertise price reductions.

Although offering discounts (as long as these do not amount to a loss) is legal at other times of the year, for a month before the biannual sales, textiles, shoes and leather products may not be discounted at all. Moreover, the sales are reserved for the ‘seasonal renewal’ of stock, so products deemed non-seasonal may not be included in the sale. Sofas, for example, are considered seasonal but antiques are not.

To implement all of this, two hundred-odd inspectors from the Directorate wander around the country inspecting and many complaints regarding non-compliance are also phoned in.

The rationale behind this mountain of red tape is the protection of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which it is believed would go bankrupt if big retail were to be allowed to dump in an unrestrained manner. (via Pallavi Aiyar: Where Marx comes alive).

Europe has come a full circle!

The State has slowly and surely, completely taken over. The hard-fought liberties, the Magna Cartas, the Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, have been in vain. The people have just stepped up to the dias and handed over all the power back to the State. The much touted Renaissance and Reformation have all come to nought.

For the Rest of the World, what is truly a cause of anxiety is that the East seems to be embracing Western political ideology and constructs with reckless enthusiasm – in their quest for ‘progress’ and ‘modernity’. And the public sector behemoths may yet cause some damage.

Remember the East India Company – a public sector company.