Archive
Shallow Tanks
More State
Shri Acorn suggests more role for the State – and its enforcement mechanisms! When queried, no reply at all.
It has become a mental habit in India to criticize politicians, even when they are right. The concerned MP is right – and our Pragati प्रगति man is all wrong. He is going the विगति way.
Are these the kind of Think Tanks that we are getting? They seem to be more of Tinker Tanks.
Useless laws
The Section 498A which deals with dowry-related crimes, has now completely lost credibility – with false complainant to victim ratio of nearly 1:20. Possibly the best ‘example’ of post-colonial legal thinking in India is the Section 498. A retributive, revengeful law (patterned on Western legal models) is now undermining the very structure of Indian society – marriage. Section 498 has has taken away marriages from the social domain into the legal sphere.
Laws that harass
Instead of poor women, that it was supposed to help, Section 498A has been used by well-to-do women vindictively, due to marital estrangements. From being contributory, accommodating, religious and life long, Indian marriage system is becoming extractive, adversarial, contractual, legal and short term.
Men are evil
A ‘progressive’ and ‘free’ India has decided that men are evil – especially husbands. It has enacted discriminatory laws, which lay the burden of proof on husbands and their families, including women, on the basis of a wife’s complaint. Considering the disproportionate amount of NGO activism on this law, it raises questions about the motives and funding of these NGOs. In case you have not already guessed, the biggest source of funding for these NGOs is the West.
Some more gems
By the way, Shri Acorn does not reply to trolls. On Twitter, critics and disagreement is trolling.
Related articles
- Sexual Equations in Bharattantra (2ndlook.wordpress.com)
- Confused Pragmatic (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- Democracy – How Think tanks shape policy making (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- Missionaries of ‘Progress’ (quicktake.wordpress.com)
WWII Propaganda: 70 years later

At least this Nazi was correct about Churchill. The caption: “I am the friend of all the small countries!” Winston Churchill removes his mask. A standard Nazi propaganda argument was that England used smaller nations, tossing them aside when they were no longer useful. Source and courtesy : bytwerk.com). Click for larger image.
Trade wars are, perhaps, the most serious threats to the global economic order. Because of that, they are also the least likely. So, while the current rumblings in Beijing and Washington may lead to increased frictions, even economically ignorant politicians will not do anything drastic.
Both Germany and Japan tried in the 1930s to limit unemployment and political vulnerability by maximising domestic production and restricting imports. But, since World War II, economic activity has increasingly crossed political borders. (via Mutually assured destruction).
Is this plain ignorance?
Given that Reuters is a British news agency, the propaganda motive can never be discounted. The author forgets that Germany, home of the automobile (inventors of petrol and diesel engines, and the motor car itself), Italy and Japan were significantly industrialized countries before WWII. These countries were shut out of colonial markets with high tariff barriers by Britain and France.
In India
Even after crippling tariffs, industry from Germany, Italy and Japan was able to stand up to British and French products. For instance during the Great Depression, the British Raj imposed a towering 75% duty on Japanese mill cloth to India – which was becoming highly popular. In turn the Japanese stopped buying cotton from India. British mills made a killing by then buying Indian cotton at throwaway prices.
What of the Lees-Mody Pact?
While the Churchill Norman extraction of gold continued to bleed the Indian peasant, such trade barriers further damaged the Indian economy. Edward Hadas surely knows this.
Why this propaganda – 70 years after the start of WWII?
Related articles
- The Atlantic’s WWII Photo Series (paul.kedrosky.com)
- Starving India to India Starring (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
- Faction Fueds of Desert Bloc – Should India Get Involved? (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
- How Did Adolf Hitler Utilize Propaganda as a Tool to Further His Means, and What Different Factors Allowed It to be So Widely Effective? (socyberty.com)
- Who was worse Hitler or Churchill (wiki.answers.com)
Missionaries of ‘Progress’
No comment
Parag Tope, a regular reader and critic, of 2ndlook, starts writing in Quicktakes.
His first post
ICA and Paul Polak…
met someone here in san fran who wanted me to come to an ICA meeting which hosted Prashant Bhushan on saturday…
…looks like ICA and some precursors to ICA (including guys like Polak) have been the NGOs/liberal missionaries who want to bring “progress” to India…
…when Ramdev announced his bharat swabhman movement last year – hazare and his “backers” joined in… they made important proclamations on nov 4, 2010… as soon as ram dev announced his june date for ramlila in jab/feb 2011, hazare moved out and announced his own fast in april…
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- Behind Anna Hazare … (quicktake.wordpress.com)
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- Hazare opposes Ramdev’s idea of armed wing (hindu.com)
- Mood upbeat at venue of Hazare’s fast (thehindu.com)
- Missionaries of ‘Progress’ (quicktake.wordpress.com)
Oil was not well in Hyderabad
Growing up in Hyderabad
A burkha (hijab) in Hyderabad (earlier capital of the Nizam State; India’s largest non-British city; with 40% Muslim population) was a rare sight till the early 70’s. From mid-70s, burkha (hijab) usage started gathering steam. Used to modern Western discourse based on Islamic demonization, it may appear far-fetched, but the Hyderabadi Muslim of 1960’s was more ‘modern’ and ‘liberal’ than today’s ‘Hindu’ – a development with many nuances and qualifications.
If one dusts a few Urdu periodicals from more than a century ago, several episodes of women’s rights movement can be found having roots right here in Hyderabad.
A debate on women’s liberation was raging in Hyderabad in the 1880s, reveals noted scholar on Islamic affairs Anwar Moazzam. The first Urdu journal on women, ‘Mu‘allimi-Niswan,’ published from Hyderabad, had initiated a heated discussion on the subject which was followed by an agitation on the issues of pardah (veil) and rights for Muslim women. There were several voices raised against the practise of pardah. The other magazines that carried forward the debate in the early decades of the 20th century were ‘Tahzib-i-Niswan’ and ‘Ismat.’
“But no systematic study has been taken up on this subject due to lack of access to the periodical data. There are several other insights available in this source (Urdu periodicals) in the Indian cultural tradition,” he remarked.
Moazzam, former head of the department of Islamic Studies at Osmania University, said that while he was working on the preparation of catalogues on Urdu books he found that journals in Urdu have never been researched for political, social and cultural issues.
Giving background of the Urdu Documentation Centre (UDC) project, he said it began in 2002 with sponsorship from a consortium of US universities led by the University of Chicago under the leadership of its bibliographer James Nye. The cataloguing work was taken up first at the Sundaryya Vignana Kendram and then at the State Central (Asafia) Library. (Women’s lib was hot topic in city in 1880s).
Oil wealth
After the 1973 Oil Embargo, the oil riches, the glitzy infrastructure boom of the Middle East, had a profound effect in Indian Muslims. The new found power by the Islamic Middle East made the Indian Muslim proud about his religious identity.
For the general Indian, the Middle East was the answer to the slow Indian economy. In an economy of shortages, an over-valued Indian currency, the Dubai allure was irresistible. It was the passport to wealth and abundance.
It took another 10-15 years for Indians to discover the underbelly of Dubai. To an average Indian, the prospect of slow career growth in Dubai, limited growth opportunities, the discrimination between the Western expatriates and Indians (and others) had a telling – and chilling effect. The Indian-Muslim, expecting a warm welcome in sandy climes, found a sneer instead.
Low RPM engine
As the Indian economy slowly started revving up in the 1980′s – starting with consumer electronics and auto-sector de-licensing, Indians found a new modus vivendi with Dubai and himself. The nineties saw this trend only become more pronounced. The Arab ‘sheikh’ marrying poor girls from Hyderabad peaked during this period.
In the last 10 years, as Saudi debt ballooned, Dubai’s problems also became apparent. Just as it was apparent, and Quicktake pointed nearly 3 years ago, that wheels are coming off Dubai. Most oil producing countries, are now living at the edge.
Kaal-chakra
The Indian Muslim in the meantime, has also come a full circle.
The colonial-era myth of ‘Muslims were the erstwhile rulers of India’, has weakened. The few ideological acolytes of Jinnah in India, have wilted in the face of a imploding Pakistan. To this combination, add an anti-Islamic West and declining Middle East. This has forced Deoband to admit that
for Muslims, there is no better country than India, no country in which Muslims are doing as well as they are doing in India. Our complaints, our objections, our problems exist, and we will continue to fight our fight for justice, but in other countries the situation is much worse.
For most Indian Muslims, the Middle East sheen, by this time, has worn off. Increasing incomes in India and stagnant incomes in the Middle East- and the circle is complete.
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- Hindu Muslim Bhai-Bhai – End of an Era (quicktake.wordpress.com)
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Brahmi Script Used in Puducherry before 5th century BC
Is this possible
While Aryan invaders, (makes no difference if blonde, white skinned with blue eyes or any other color) were conquering India, massacring the males, raping the women and taking children as slaves, Indian rishis in forests, learnt Sanskrit.
And Brahmi, Prakrit, Kharoshthi scripts from these invaders – wrote the complete grammar, memorized it entirely, found ways and means to transmit it from generation to generation, orally – in a matter of 300-500 years.
Can we get real
These Indians used all these foreign languages to compose more texts in these foreign languages (Sanskrit, Brahmi, Prakrit, Kharoshthi) than the rest of the ancient world, combined, could in their own languages. More than Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, Chinese – all of them put together.
And then erase the collective memory of the world about these compositions and texts. How else can we account for Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, Japanese monks travelling to India – to search for knowledge and wisdom.
This is false.
Recently
New results from the analysis of paddy grains found in the Porunthal graveyard archaeological site prove that writing systems in India were in existence in the 5th Century BC, predating the arrival of Asoka, according to history professor at the Pondicherry University and director of the excavation project at Porunthal K. Rajan.
Rice paddy samples that were contained in an engraved pot found inside one of the graves were found to be from 450 BC when analysed using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) by the Beta Analytic Lab, USA, he said, addressing a private gathering organised by the Manarkeni journal.
Earlier, paddy sample from another grave was dated at 490 BC, but many scholars were unwilling to accept evidence obtained from only one sample. The analysis of the second sample proved that Tamil-Brahmi writing existed in the 5th century BC and was not invented in the 3rd century BC as was previously believed by scholars, he said. This was also the first time anyone had discovered Tamil-Brahmi script along with rice in any archaeological site. Scholars were still debating on the exact letters that were written and its meaning, he said.
Another significant discovery from the gravesite is that the paddy samples obtained in the graves in Porunthal were cultivated paddy of the Orissa Satvaika variety. The team also found a pot with around 2 kilos of rice paddy, which had been sealed in airtight containers. These graves also contained a large number of beads, which were predominantly glass. The pottery in the grave was also engraved with Tamil-Brahmi script, he said. In two of the graves, the team found over 11,000 beads, which were made from glass or paste. The beads were originally made in the Vidarbha region, indicating a trade relationship between the two regions. (via The Hindu : States / Tamil Nadu : Porunthal excavations prove existence of Indian scripts in 5th century BC: expert).
Changing history
Sometime back researchers in Australia traced the origin of the common rat, Rattus rattus to India. How it spread from India to the world – over a period of 20,000 years. And the spread was not a natural dispersion. It was human-aided dispersion.
Another interesting discovery was the silk in Mohenjodaro-Harappa complex. The earliest sample of silk. DNA tests showed that this was not Chinese silk – but Indian silk.
This Puducherry find proves glass industry in India in 500 BC – one of the oldest in the world. How did this rice seed sample cross from Orissa to Tamil Nadu? Or was it vice versa.
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Occupy Wall Street! Another spontaneous protest?
Activists scuffled with police in London and decried the wealthy in Hong Kong on Saturday as an unprecedented outcry against corporate greed and government cutbacks spread worldwide.
Inspired by America’s “Occupy Wall Street” and Spain’s “Indignants”, people took to the streets in a rolling action targeting 951 cities in 82 countries from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Americas.
It was the biggest show of power yet by a movement born on May 15 when a rally in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square sparked a protest that spread internationally.
Anger over unemployment and opposition to the financial elite hung over the protests, which coincided with a Paris meeting of G20 financial powers pre-occupied by the eurozone debt crisis. (via Occupy Wall St protests find echo around the world – Hindustan Times).
Cairo, New Delhi, New York …
A few days ago, we had revelations that Anna’s ‘spontaneous’ movement had elements of choreography by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Why would people in Hong Kong be bothered by an American Protest? Were London protests really spontaneous?
Spreading doubts
Till it was limited to Wall Street, one was willing to believe that this was a protest movement.
When it ‘spread’ across the US, doubts also spread.
Now that it has spread across the world, there is no doubt in my mind. This is choreographed.
Soon, we will see, the Anna movement without RSS?
What then, Anna?
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Debt Crisis in The Third World
The Debt Crisis: An Overview
Modern day international usury is, of course, much more complex than the more primitive relation we have just presented. Total Third World debt amounts to USD2 trillion; annual payments is about USD 200million. The system of debts has evolved into a key aspect of the capitalist economy; a weapon for consolidating the domination of the people’s of the Third World. In many ways, the debt today is a weapon more potent than others devised by colonialism and neo-colonialism.
It is institutionalized to a very high degree, is regulated by a massive bureaucracy of the multilateral finance institutions; and backed up by the military might of the mightiest nations on earth. Worse the burden of paying debts is passed on to society in general as a routinary process. (via South South Summit 1999 Document: The Development and Historical Context of the Debt Crisis).
Pareto’s Economics
The previous post examined the debt situation of the West.
Since the global financial system is a Western captive, humungous debts are arranged, serviced, cancelled, written-off, repaid – without significant discomfort. Gross debt of the West is US$ 100 trillion (State; Corporate and Household); while the States of West are debtor to the extent of US$ 30 trillion; which is nearly 40% of global GDP.
Finally, the debt problem will be managed. Many ways to skin a cat.
But …
US$2 trillion debt that is owed by the developing world will be used to extract maximum benefit – at lowest prices. Raw materials will be bought at below-low prices. Imports will be priced at exorbitantly.
The answer is …
Two-fold. At an individual level, invest and stay invested in gold. At a national level, the developing world must create a multilateral framework for a third currency.
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- German foreign minister hits out at US over debt crisis (telegraph.co.uk)
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- The U.S. Debt Limit (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- Germany: Banks to take bigger losses on Greek debt (sfgate.com)
- We need a global army of tax collectors (theglobeandmail.com)
- Central Banks Selling Most U.S. Bonds Since 2007 No Rally Killer (businessweek.com)
- West – Developed & Deep in Debt (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- An Imperfect Union: Europe’s debt crisis (cbsnews.com)
- IMF funds drive caught in global power shift (firstpost.com)
- Is the European debt crisis still a threat to U.S. stocks? (usatoday.com)
The U.S. Debt Limit
The Senate has signed off. The president’s borrowing power has been floated up to $10 trillion, which beats the AmEx black card. The president’s limit when he came into office in 2001 was $6 trillion. So it’s been hiked an average of $500 billion per year during his eight years of office.
Five Countries with the Highest External Debt, 2006
1. United States $10.0 trillion
2. United Kingdom, $8.3 trillion
3. Germany, $3.9 trillion
4. France, $3.5 trillion
5. Italy, $2.0 trillion
Source: CIA, The World Factbook, as of 9/20/07.Five Countries with the Highest Current Account Deficits, 2006
1. United States, -$862.3 billion
2. Spain, -$98.6 billion
3. United Kingdom, -$57.7 billion
4. Australia, -$41.6 billion
5. France, -$38.0 billion
Source: CIA, The World Factbook, as of 9/20/07.(via John Tepper Marlin: The U.S. 10-Trillion-Dollar Debt Limit).
Latest count
Now, an update on this status.
US Government debt has crossed US$14 trillion. That is equal to US GDP. It means that the US govt. alone owes as much money as what the entire USA earns each year (GDP). Corporate debt (150% of GDP) and individual household debt (150% of GDP) is on top of this. Since, finally household pay of all the debts, the US citizen is about 400% of income in debt.
Britain is about 500% in debt. The difference between exports and imports is current account deficit. All these countries are also running a huge current deficit.
What to do
In the medium term, control over oil may give the West the means to sustain the life-style that makes them ‘world-leaders’. No wonder the West is willing to kill millions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. But all this killing is also an expensive affair. This killing of millions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya is costing US$ trillions.
After that …
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- Total US Debt Update: $14.86 Trillion; $162 Billion Increase In Three Days; 98.9% Debt/GDP (zerohedge.com)
- Quote du Jour: U.S. private debt decline in perspective (investmentpostcards.com)
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American Journalist Cleared of Libel Against Indian PM

George Bush (satire - http://goo.gl/cpPBK ) had promised that Morarjee Desai would be on Mount Rushmore.
In his 1983 book, ”The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House,” Mr. Hersh wrote that Mr. Desai, India’s Prime Minister from 1977 to 1979, received $20,000 a year from the C.I.A. during the Johnson and Nixon administrations in exchange for information on Indian foreign policy and domestic politics. Mr. Hersh based his claim on information supplied by six confidential sources. (via U.S. Journalist Cleared of Libel Charge by Indian – New York Times).
CIA ‘bought’ Indian politicians
For years together, Morarji Desai was charged with being in CIA pay – even before Seymour Hersh’s book. Indian newspapers, Parliament, everyone discussed this. Seymour Hersh, an American investigator claimed that Morarjee Desai was in CIA pay.
When Seymour Hersh ‘revealed’ this in his book, Morarji Desai sued – filed a case in US courts and subsequently died. Henry Kissinger, appearing at Morarji Desai’s request, made a bald defence of Morarjee Desai.
But, importantly, why would the US recruit Morarji Desai – and then leak that information? This information could not have become public knowledge without information leak by the US.
Chains of Gold
Morarji was a threat to the US-administered global financial system, based on Bretton Woods Agreement.
The promise of the Bretton Woods system was stability. The dollar would be backed by gold. Under Bretton Woods system, anyone could (except Indians and Americans) buy an ounce of gold from the USA for US$35 – managed by the the London Pool system. USA promised the world that they will redeem the US dollar for gold – at a rate of US$35. Only US had enough gold to make that promise. More than 20,000 tons.
Soon, the USA was bleeding gold.
The Indian Factor
In the 1960s, most of the world was buying gold at an artificially low price of US$35. If Indians joined the gold-buying spree, the dollar would have collapsed decades ago. The success of Bretton Woods-I depended on blockading Indians from buying gold – which was effectively done by Morarji Desai. World’s largest buyers of gold, Indian buying would have emptied US Treasury in a few years.
Without Indian ‘help’ within 20 years, the Bretton Woods promise was broken. Redemptions of dollar for gold to individuals was stopped in 1968 (March15th). The Bretton Woods system worked for 20 years because Indians were not allowed to buy gold.
Hand In Glove
India’s finance minster during that crucial period, Morarji Desai, (on CIA payroll during Lyndon Johnson’s Presidency 1963-1968), presented a record 10 budgets, between February 1958, up to 1967. His adamant attitude on gold cost the government popularity and electoral losses – and the Indian economy and Indians much more. His break with Indira Gandhi began when the Finance portfolio was taken away from him.
True or untrue Hersh’s claim maybe, but Morarji Desai’s ban on gold imports allowed the sham of Bretton Woods to continue for 20 years. Was it a co-incidence that many of the RBI functionaries later got (and even now) plum postings at LSE (IG Patel) and BN Aadarkar (IMF)?
More was to follow …
Nixon Chop
On August 15th, 1971, the world got the Nixon Chop – where even Governments could not redeem dollar holdings. The dollar was put on float. In little time, dollar value depreciated from US$35 per ounce of gold to US$800 in 1980.
Over the next 20 years, through various clandestine methods (check out the Edmond Safra and the Yamashita stories links), gold prices were managed and brought down from US$800 (1980) to US$225 per ounce – but still 80% reduction in value of dollar value. Foreign reserves of poor countries got eroded. It was a gigantic fraud on the world – especially the poor, developing countries.
This was also done as a part of economic war against the Soviet Union – which was bankrupted due to low-gold prices during the 1990-2000 period.
Indians Not Allowed
From practically, 1939, (the start of WW2) gold imports into India were controlled or banned. This British legacy was continued by Indian Government and RBI. Many Gold control laws were enacted which stopped all legal gold imports into India.
With this, gold imports went underground.
Gold (illegal) imports (called smuggling) gave rise to biggest criminals that India has seen. Karim Lala, Haji Mastan, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Yusuf Patel, Tiger Memmon, Chota Rajan, and of course, Dawood Ibrahim – a biological son of a police constable Sheikh Ibrahim Kaskar, was spawned by Morarjee Desai’s laws.
These laws corrupted four generations of Indians Government and politicians. It made gold in India very expensive – and the Indian buyer remained in poverty longer.
Flip side
Since the amount was so small, just US$20,000, it may well be that Morarji was never bought. But by spreading this rumour, the US kept Morarji on leash. Important, considering the US stakes involved.
And Morarji Desai was a obstinate and recalcitrant man.
Related articles
- Starving India to India Starring (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
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Dhume Baba Advises India
Dhume-Baba’s piercing gaze
After 60 years of its existence, Israel still depends on US aid and US veto. And still at war in the Middle East. Some nation to be allied with, eh, Dhume Baba!
India on the other hand, has become a part of G20 nation, has hesitantly and in small amounts, started giving aid to nations like Afghanistan, some countries in Africa and in Asia, too. It is the 4th largest economy in the world – and is tied to no one’s apron strings. Fighting no one’s dirty wars.
Nearly.
After all this song-and-dance, Dhume points out something that 2ndlook covered 4 years ago. Why most Israeli youth wing their way to India?
Trust
Is there any one in the world who trusts Israel?
Not Europe. Asia – no one quite. Africa – does not care much for Israel. India is a different story. After 40 years of refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), in mutual interest, decided to make an exception for India – and waive all their conditionalities for India.
Reputation
What is Israel’s reputation?
A nation that has used every dirty trick in the book – and many tricks that are not in the book, to evict the rightful Palestinian landowners, and settle Jews instead. Israel has tried on ‘best-efforts-basis’ to execute a slow-genocide program of the Palestinians – something that the Jews have themselves suffered.
After 3000 years, the Jewish social model has ensured, that they border on extinction. With 0.25% of world population, i.e. less than 1.5 crore Jews left, in a world of more than 600 crore people, they have made enemies of their neighbours around their country.
Is extinction the Jewish future?
India on the other hand adds 25 million every few months. What can India gain from Israel – except moral opprobrium?
And Dhume-Baba’s blessings, I presume.
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