Pakistan: Should it celebrate?

Now that the much-awaited elections of Pakistan finally took place and now that the results have clearly positioned ‘democratic’ parties to take power sidelining the much-hated military dictator, Pakistan and its people are in a jubilant mood. ‘Yes, we are once again victorious!’ they celebrate.

But should Pakistan celebrate? Is this change permanent or ephemeral? Will the old habits die so easily?

Pakistan was victorious many a times before in its history. Pakistan, very much like India, is bereft of grand achievements. While Indian media continues to artificially construct achievements for us here, Pakistan’s polity also creates its own achievements that are quite flimsy, which usually shatter within a short period of time at the first whiff of wind called reality.

When the first dictator Ayub Khan came into power in 1958, Pakistanis were victorious too. Pakistanis celebrated it as a victory against unstable democracy that preceded it. And when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came to absolute power through democracy and started to indulge in some of the most undemocratic ways, Pakistan was victorious once again. It was revenge against the inept military that allowed the humiliating defeat of Pakistan against India (1971) and led to breakup of the country. Pakistan celebrated when Bhutto became an elected dictator.

Later on, when Bhutto was hanged, Pakistan was victorious once again, because General Zia-ul-Haq from the Army had negated the wrongs of the past coming from an elected leader. When Zia-Ul-Haq died in a plane crash after a spell of long Islamic autocratic rule, Pakistan was once again victorious because now they got rid of a wily dictator. When Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto came onto power, Pakistan was victorious once again partly because they were a continuation of experiments with democracy.

But when General Musharraf deposed Nawaz Sharif to install his military regime, Pakistan was victorious once again, because Musharraf’s regime kicked out extremely corrupt democratic leaders, Benazir and Nawaz on charges of blatant corruption.

A good friend of mine, from Pakistan, celebrated when Musharraf came into power. When I asked why Pakistan is welcoming a military ruler, he explained that democratic rulers were really corrupt, and hence they needed a ‘benevolent dictator’ to clean up Pakistan’s system. And he believed Musharraf was the man for the job.

Pakistan has a bad track record of celebrating its victories before the results actually come out.

Another friend of mine, a Pakistani, who was in his teens during 1971 war with India, described his own story of how Pakistanis celebrated their victories. Before the start of this war, owner of a café in a Pakistani city put the total number of Pakistani and Indian planes on a black board, and after each day’s battles he would subtract the number of planes shot down by each side, as reported in their media. Within few days, it was clear that Pakistan was winning every day. India was losing its planes in huge numbers. One day, the total number of planes shot down clearly put India’s numbers in negative, but the war in the air was going on. It was absurd. Something was grossly wrong with those reports. He just erased the whole board that day.

Pakistan was winning all the battles on each day of the war, except the last day, when they lost the whole war in a grand letdown. What followed next was sheer humiliation. They lost East Pakistan, and did not gain an inch in Kashmir. 90,000 of its soldiers were now POW.

Time and again, Pakistanis were left disillusioned. They always celebrated their supposed victories too soon and too early.

Let’s come back to the present

Benazir Bhutto, supposedly one of the leaders of ‘democratic’ parties, has appointed herself the head of her party for a lifetime. When she was killed, a will came out in which she appointed her husband as the leader of the party. Why isn’t anyone finding this funny?

How can a democratic party be a family heritage? How can one appoint oneself its leader for a lifetime? How can she bequeath the power to someone in a will as if it’s her property?

Asif Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, et al, have now come together to defeat and sideline the evil dictator Musharraf. So, in an effort to combat the greater evil in Musharraf, they are ready to ignore the petty differences between them. That’s fine! But then they go overboard. They have dropped all corruption charges against Zardari. Now, is that democracy?

Populist democracy and Constitutional democracy

Many people in Indian sub-continent think elections alone constitute a democracy. They fail to realize that even dictators conducted elections.

They do not realize that elections alone DO NOT have the power to condone genocides, crimes against humanity, murders, corruption cases, plunders, etc.

Indian sub-continent has a funny way of exonerating its criminals. As a criminal, all you have to do is stand for elections. If you get elected, you are automatically pardoned of all crimes. People will say, ‘Look! So many million people cannot be wrong. Accept the results of democracy!’

Nobody stops to bother and ask, do elections alone make a democracy? Is legal recourse subservient to electoral process? Don’t we need a constitution, a legal system, election commission, and other institutions that make it a constitutional democracy?

The reason why Pakistanis keep getting disillusioned is because their fundamentals are wrong. They believe in miracles, quick fixes, and short cuts. They have never spent time to institutionalize democracy.

Indian Feet and National Flag

Sacred Flag

For a long time Indians did NOT have access to their own national flag. There were so many DON’Ts that people didn’t feel free to even wave their own flag. Even after Jindal’s efforts, the flag still remains a sacred symbol. Looking at the number of ‘Insult to National Honor’ cases these days, I feel it’s better to lock it up in some museum and restrict it to hoisting on government buildings. Anything you do can be considered sacrilegious.

Sania Mirza and Indian Flag

Sania Mirza, India’s celebrated tennis player was accused of insulting the national flag, when in a recent photograph she was seen putting her feet up in the background with India’s National Flag in the foreground. It has become common these days to accuse every celebrity of insulting national symbols making the whole charade ridiculous.

First, we don’t even know if those feet were close or far away from that flag. Because it is quite probable that the photographer thought it was a nice shot and hence framed them in the same picture, though apart.

Second, many cultures and societies in the world would not consider propping one’s feet up next to their flag to be an insult. Indians are one of the rarest breeds who have funny notions on how to use their feet. They think that touching someone with feet, showing your feet to someone, or even waving them around is a gross insult.

My books and my feet

I love my books. I am an ardent reader. I read everyday and I buy lots of books. And I hold onto them as if it’s my treasure. I take good care of them. You will see my books in their original condition even after many years though they may have been read many times. I love them and respect them for what they are – source for information and entertainment.

At the same time, I move them around with my feet. If there is a book on the bed, I move it with my feet, nonchalantly, without feeling remorse or guilt.

However, it does not go very well with people around me. They always tell me that I am disrespecting my books. And I get this remark even from people who never read books. Their reading stopped when they graduated from college long ago. Yet, they make it a point to instruct me not to touch books with my feet.

It’s not that they care for the books or what is written in them. They never bother to know its contents or value the contents. Yet, they feel they can tell me what I can or cannot do with them. And my peeve is – ‘who are they to tell me how I should be taking care of my books?’

Books are sacred

For most Indians, books are sacred. What it means is these books will be prayed to, honored and put on the same pedestal where their gods stand. For many, books are incarnate of Goddess Saraswati. Some people believe this so strongly that it also means they are NOT going to question what is written in those books. They learn by rote the contents, to memorize them, to spew forth in one continuous incantation, verbatim. [You can also see why they remain idiots even after reading their books.]

Feet are impure

And also, for most Indians, feet are impure. If you touch something with your feet, you defile that thing. Many Indian habits come out of this belief. Touching one’s feet is showing your obeisance. To throw oneself at the others feet is to convey your subordination and sometimes extreme respect for the other. Many Indians get offended when you touch them with your feet or show your feet to them.

Many in India will do some weird action if they happen to accidentally touch you with their feet. They blurt out a sorry or use their hands to show a sign of praying to ask for forgiveness. I grew up in India, but I found this ritual rather amusing since I was a young boy. Unlike most others, I don’t feel guilty, ashamed, apologetic or embarrassed when I touch my near or dear things with my feet.

I like to use my feet

I find that using my feet gives me more than two limbs to move things around. I am completely comfortable using my feet for various purposes.

Many people find that objectionable, and some of them give me some silly ‘scientific’ explanations- that feet are unclean since you go around in the world, full of shit, waddling through the pile, with your feet. Hence, the impurity!

My feet are usually clean. I never go out of home without wearing shoes even when I go on a short errand. Many a times, I feel that my feet are cleaner than my hands. So, my response was, 'well, since I keep my feet clean, can I touch my books with my feet?' Even after this explanation these people would object to it. They cite more reasons why it should not be done- like, what kind of example I would set; like, certain things should always be sacred no matter what etc. No matter how you explain, the end result is – one should not touch books with feet. It’s a blind belief at the end of the day.

Feet are discussed in mythology too!

According to some Indian mythology, Brahmins came from head of Brahma, Kshatriyas from his torso, Vaishyas from thighs, Shudras from his feet, and untouchables from the soil below the feet. Even in this characterization it was clear why Shudras and Dalits were considered inferior- they have something to do with the feet!

Head is OK, hands are OK, torso is OK, even the penis is prayed to. The breasts of a goddess are prayed to. No mention of assholes, so I don’t know its status. But the feet are NOT OK. They are impure, disgusting, and filthy.

Therefore, Sania propping her feet next to Indian flag is akin to putting impure things next to a sacred thing. Therefore, it’s an insult. No arguments!

Pilgrimage subsidies

AP Government headed by a Christian Chief Minister and a Christian Governor thought it was an act of good faith when it announced a package to sponsor Christians to visit their Holy Land in Israel.

I am not even sure if most Christians of India consider Israel their holy land. But I guess the Indian politicians want to create one for Christians since Muslims have one in Mecca.

So, the Christians and Muslims of India get to go visit their Holy Land in some foreign countries through subsidies. Why is that so important for the government of India?

Is visiting Holy Land a luxury, privilege or a basic necessity?

Hey, my religion says that my holy land is on the Moon. Can the Indian government sponsor my trip to Moon?

Vedic Science Vs Modern Science II

[This follows the first part - Vedic Science Vs Modern Science I.]

Debunking one such Vedic Science

Here’s one such document on the web. It’s called “Modern Science and Vedic Science: An Introduction” by Kenneth Chandler, from Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa, USA.

Most of these attempts are aimed at mimicking scientific documents by using similar style but making no sense. Instead of making it simple and easy to understand, these impostors try to make their arguments complicated and complex so that the reader is lost somewhere in between, to resign himself to accept what the author says. Just because someone uses mathematical equations, it doesn’t make it mathematics. Logic, deduction, rational explanation, and other tools of mathematics are also quite necessary. All these tools are completely ABSENT from this attempt. I have taken some quotes from this Vedic Science.

#1 …and which can be explored not only through objective science but through a new technology of consciousness developed by Maharishi.

There is no such a thing called “technology of consciousness”. Technology and consciousness are two completely different fields with almost no overlap. Using such sentences, the author is trying to make you believe that somehow there is technology involved when there is none.

#2 Many thousands of years ago, the seers of the Himalayas discovered, through exploration of the silent levels of awareness, a unified field where all the laws of nature are found together in a state of wholeness.

There is a state of awareness, but there is no such thing called ‘silent level’ of awareness. Notice the heavy jargon. By using such jargon again and again they like to confuse the reader into believing that it is some serious topic.

#3 This unity of nature was directly experienced to be a self-referral state of consciousness which is unbounded, all-pervading, unchanging, and the self-sufficient source of all existing things.

This is what these pseudo-science people do. They like to invent new words, sentences and terminology. What is ‘self-referral state of consciousness’? Its all hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo packaged in nice words.

More such hocus pocus terminology is given below (4A-4I), you can skip them if you want to:

#4A They experienced and gave expression to the self-interacting dynamics through which this unified field sequentially gives rise to the diversity of all laws of nature. That experience is expressed in the ancient Vedic literature.

#4B The technology for gaining access to the unified field is called the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field, and the science based on this experience, which links modern science and Vedic Science in a single unified body of knowledge, is called the Science of Creative Intelligence.

#4D They perceived the fine fabric of activity, as Maharishi explains it, through which this unity of pure consciousness, in the process of knowing itself, gives rise sequentially to the diversity of natural law and ultimately to the whole of nature.

#4E The ancient Vedic literature, as Maharishi interprets it, expresses in the sequence of its flow and the structure of its organization, the sequence of the unfoldment of the diversity of all laws of nature out of the unified field of natural law.

#4G Gaining intimate familiarity with the silence of pure consciousness, Maharishi holds, one gains the ability to experience within that silence an eternal "fabric" or "blueprint" of all laws of nature that govern the universe, existing at the unmanifest basis of all existence.

# 4I One of Maharishi's most important contributions to Vedic scholarship has been his discovery of the Apaurusheya Bhashya , the "uncreated commentary" of the Rig Veda , which brings to light the dynamics by which the Veda emerges sequentially from the self-interacting dynamics of consciousness.

In all the above statements, there is a heavy dose of newly constructed jargon, which tends to make people believe that it is indeed something serious, such as science itself. Pseudo-sciences like to pass on themselves as science by using sophisticated terminology. Just by emulating scientific documents and its usage terminology, a pseudo-science cannot become science. However, this tactic seems to go on well with some ‘educated’ folks! Notice how the author keeps repeating the same terms, like, sequential, self-interacting, dynamics, unmanifest, unfoldment, silence, etc? By repeating such terms hundred times, they wish to pass their hocus pocus as truth. Can anyone tell me what ‘unmanifest’ and ‘unfoldment’ means?

#5 The knowledge of this ancient science that Maharishi has brought to light is known as Maharishi's Vedic Science.

Didn’t Vedic science reveal all truths already? If so, how can Mr. Maharishi take credit for it?

#6 Maharishi's Vedic Science is to be understood, first of all, as a reliable method of gaining knowledge, as a science in the most complete sense of the term.

First, you don’t even prove it is science. Second, you ask for faith in this system. Isn’t this how religions are dictated? “First, you believe, then, we reveal the truth?”

#8 Maharishi's work in founding Vedic Science is very much steeped in that ancient tradition, but his work is also very much imbued with the spirit of modern science and shares its commitment to direct experience and empirical testing as the foundation and criteria of all knowledge. For this reason, and other reasons to be considered below, it is also appropriately called a science.

So, we have come to conclusion that it is indeed science, through sheer leap of faith. No scientific argument is provided in the above deduction, but somehow we have arrived at the conclusion that this Maharishi’s work is in fact a science.

#9 This experience was not, Maharishi asserts, on the level of thinking, or theoretical conjecture, or imagination, but on the level of direct experience, which is more vivid, distinct, clear, and orderly than sensory experience„perhaps much in the same way that Newton or Einstein, when they discovered the laws of universal gravitation or special relativity, enjoyed a vivid experience of sudden understanding or a kind of direct "insight" into these laws.

This is where it becomes sheer nonsense. First he says that this method is based on gaining knowledge through “exploration of consciousness”, which we have no clue what it means. Next, he says that this experience is not theoretical or based in imagination, but is direct experience, more orderly, distinct and clear than the sensory experience. I don’t know what more direct experience than a sensory experience is.

Then he goes onto say it is very much similar to what Newton or Einstein went through. ‘Hmm... really?’ The only common element between this hocus-pocus and science is imagination- one is seeped in fantasy while the other is in understanding the universe as perceived by direct senses. While Einstein and Newton may have applied their minds to conjecture and imagination, they actually went back to their notebooks and blackboard to actually prove their conjectures through rigor, which had direct bearing on the observed universe! Their theories were verified hundreds of times and have proven to be standing true to the observed universe.

#11 All knowledge of the Veda is contained implicitly even in the first syllable "Ak" of the Rig Veda , and each subsequent expression of knowledge elaborates the meaning inherent in that packet of knowledge through an expanded commentary.

Hmm... What does this mean really- knowledge is contained implicitly? Is knowledge implicit? Can it be contained in one syllable? What is packet of knowledge? Is there a limit to utter depravity in using sophisticated language? The gobbledygook continues:

#14 Modern experimental science and Maharishi's Medic Science could now be seen as two diverse yet mutually complementary approaches to knowing the same underlying reality - one through the empirical method, the other through the exploration of the least excited state of consciousness.

This is how Vedas dismiss empiricism as an artificial construct of the West. All they need to send rockets into space is ‘excited state of consciousness’!

#15 The unity of nature is not a mere hypothetical unity, nor a unity of intellectual understanding or interpretation. It is a unity of direct experience that has been described in almost every tradition and every historical epoch.

#17 This global influence of coherence generated through the group practice of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field has been called the "Maharishi Effect."

And all the references to this technology are made to their own works, which nobody knows other than Maharishi and his sycophants.

Well, you get the point. The whole text is the repetition of the same thing. Using the same previously-undefined words, terminology and new constructs, they keep on harping on achieving one goal: How Vedas reveal the answers concluded from Modern Science and how spirituality and some kind of deep meditation will give you the same answers as Modern Science.

There is no merit to such attempts. Such attempts are pastimes of charlatans, scam artists, and pretenders. There is no science in such attempts. There is a strong and urgent need to discredit such attempts and show them what they are- a sham and a deception. Instead of investing in learning science, inculcating rational outlook and thought, conducting research and experimentation, developing credible and verifiable theories, we are taking a step backward by encouraging such lazy and escapist attempts.

What is worrying is that many academicians, technologists, and elite of India are embracing such attempts. Such supporters are creeping into the bastions of intelligentsia and academia, holding key positions to be an influence on what our kids and future generations will learn.

Related Topics: Vedas and Science, Decline of Science in India II, Astrology Vs Science I, Pseudo-science: Vaastu Shastra, Science and Mythology: Ram Sethu, ABC of Ram Sethu,Rejection of Rationality I: Indian Hindus and the New Age

Vedic Science Vs Modern Science I

Vedic Science??

Is Vedic Science really science in disguise? Is it some kind of archeological find of something very sophisticated and highly advanced science and technology? Did our ancestors have all answers to our questions? Did we have access to nuclear technology, did they understand atomic physics, and could they cure any disease? Did they fly planes?

Many Indians are enamored with their ancient history. It gives them a hope and confidence which they lack in the modern world. Trying to find some glimmer of achievement, they go back into distant past and find solace in unraveling the mysterious conundrums and cryptic statements from ancient texts. Some so-called scholars, who seem to have monopoly on interpretation of these documents, invest great deal of time and energy to ‘prove’ to us that indeed our ancestors had all the answers – that their science was more advanced than the modern-day Quantum Physics.

Though no remarkable achievement has come from these studies into our ancient books we continue to attribute undue credit to them. No breathtaking scientific theory or a simple contraption that actually works has come out of those studies. Yet, we continue to be enamored of our ancient texts, touting them as alternate science. What is sad is that there is a big school of thought in India, harbored by our intellectuals, scientists and physicists, that continues to cripple our scientific temperament, leading to celebration of blind belief, superstition and irrationality.

One may ask, why so much obsession with these ancient texts? What purpose does it serve?

It actually serves two purposes.

One, it gives most Indians a reason to feel proud of themselves. If West could arrive at the same conclusions using the path of modern science through Age of Enlightenment, toiling in labs and conducting elaborate research, our ancestors have in fact discovered all of them, thousands of years ago, only by meditation under banyan trees and by experiencing it through deep consciousness. This allows Indians to say to the West- “Look we were always ahead of you. And we don’t need your empiricism, rigor, and scientific methods to arrive at the same conclusions. We have our own methods. Our practice of looking at the world spiritually is as relevant as yours, which is based in lowly materialism.”

Second, it gives some Indians a taste of ‘pure Indian’ achievement, in which there is no participation or involvement of Muslims, Christians, and other invading people. It gives them a taste of what they were originally- great and supreme beings that had answers to all the problems of the world before they got corrupted by alien forces. They relish in ‘pure Indian’ discoveries and inventions that preceded all advances made in the West. Now, they can find reasons for Akhand Bharat and Hindutva, and give legitimacy to Aryan supremacy.

Finding more than what Vedas says

Many of these new age Indians are fascinated with their ancient achievements. They try to find meanings and achievements in those places where there are none. If there are no achievements, they want to create them. Trying to read into poems, calling bears and wolves and bosons and fermions, these studies make a mockery of our intelligence. Instead of spending time in developing modern science by spending time in research, they want to sip chai and equate the modern sciences with the poetry of our ancient folks.

I discredit most of these attempts, this fascination with ancient texts, deciphering them, creating new terminologies and concepts to explain them, making fantastic and completely ridiculous analogies to prove them as alternate science. I like Vedas, for what they are- for the mythology with a dose of philosophy. There are many mythological documentaries in each civilization. Mythology and even philosophy of olden days should be read as such.

If one were to analyze “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien few thousands years from now, this future man may conclude that we actually had Middle Earth, elves, dwarfs, etc, and that we could conjure up the dead and use them as armies, and that some of us were immortal, etc. Such books should be read as mythology or as fiction. Trying to solve the hidden puzzles to come up with theories that indeed we had middle earth would be foolish. That’s exactly what we are doing each time we utter the word ‘Vedic Sciences’.

Vedas are Vedic. Let them be. They are ancient. There is nothing scientific about them. However, we see many trends in modern India which suggest the contrary. There is an attempt to glorify these ancient texts as alternate science. I could go on and take many examples. Instead, I thought I will concentrate on one such attempt and see what merit it carries. [To be continued.]

Related Topics: Vedas and Science, Decline of Science in India II, Astrology Vs Science I, Pseudo-science: Vaastu Shastra, Science and Mythology: Ram Sethu, ABC of Ram Sethu,
Rejection of Rationality I: Indian Hindus and the New Age

Germans teach their kids history

According to this news item:

German students are getting a colourful insight into the darkest chapter in 20th century history, in the form of a graphic novel on the Holocaust.

A far cry from your average history textbook, Die Suche (The Search), uses bold graphics to chronicle the fictional story of Esther, a woman who unearths the truth about her Jewish family which was deported to Auschwitz.

This is what I mean when I say we don’t teach our kids history. We don’t tell our kids what happened in this country – that for thousands of years, certain majority of population was confined to poverty, misery and wretchedness just because they were born into a certain caste. We never own up this thousand-year-long discrimination and persecution that happened in this country.

We don’t discuss the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 where certain people were targeted and butchered because they belonged to an identity. We don’t discuss Partition or its gory details. People come up with various reasons why more than half a million people Indians got killed during Partition – they blame the British, or our leaders, and in some warped logic, Gandhi. Nobody blames the actual reason- the hatred that each of us sow on a daily basis to reap such catastrophes.

Recently, I met a young man who hates Gandhi. When asked why he hates Gandhi, he said, Gandhi divided the country. ‘Gandhi divided this country?’ I asked myself. No person who knows a little bit of history can come to that conclusion. That’s the state of our history – filled with too many myths and misinterpretations.

This news item adds:

“There is definitely a huge knowledge gap among teenagers. Most know about the Third Reich but there are lots of myths, prejudices and misunderstandings.”

We don’t seem to realize the importance of teaching our kids history which details some ignominious pasts. We are not mature enough, even as adults, to handle some of the controversial pasts of our ancestors. We don’t know how to deal with the topics such as caste-based-discrimination in our classrooms discussion. For that matter, we are not even mature to handle sex-education in our classrooms.

This news item concludes:

In Germany, which this week sees the 75th anniversary of Hitler becoming chancellor, many fear that young people are disinterested in or misinformed about this important chapter of history.

Related Posts: To Better India II: Primary Education, Reservations IX: I apologize

Guide to E=mc^2 Blog II

This follows the Part I. Here’s a guide to this blog in chronological order.

Reservations XIV: Corporate responsibility- mandatory?

I do not see any voluntary action on part of Indian industry. I don’t see a single action from them that suggest they are going to embrace this voluntarily. Indian industry is not even ready to disclose their numbers- on how many backward communities are on their payroll, how many women, how many Muslims, Christians, etc.

Islam vs. Rest of the World IV: Steps to Embrace

Conceding to these demands, which also happen to be the demands of terrorists outfits like Al Qaida, is not tantamount to conceding to the coercion tactics of terrorists. Just because Noam Chomsky asks for statehood to Palestine and Osama Bin Laden also asks for the same does not equate these two individuals.

End of Rickshaws in Kolkata: Should we miss them?

Antara Das seems doesn’t seem to think it is inhuman. She goes nostalgic about it… She thinks ‘sturdy’ men run these rickshaws. This is how Indians rationalize all inhuman acts in India. Soon, another author will write the glory days of cleaners of night soil. She will miss those days when those lower caste kids would plunge themselves into sanitary tubes to clean the mess.

Are Indians creative and original?

…while we are ready to accept a new idea only if it has already been proven to work and is firmly established in some western nation, we never allow any revolutionary idea from our own people… we do not take risks, we sanctify everything, and we say ‘chalta hain’ to everything.

Decline of Science in India I

Science is on the decline in India. There are not many scientists in the making. It is not pursued as a career. It is not pursued by the government and its agencies. It is not pursued by the multinationals and private companies of India.

Decline of Science in India II

By shunning the pursuit of science, we are curbing the free thought, creativity, and the ability to question and reason. By treating our ancient texts as alternate science, we are bringing in sanctity, orthodoxy, to justify ignominious rituals and practices of this country.

Indians and plastics

We have been given the fruits of modern science and technology without having to go through the pains of attaining it. It was first imposed on us, then we just inherited it, and now we borrow it. Technology is not a solace or answer to all our problems. It has its own byproducts which could be distasteful. It all depends on how we use it.

Astrology Vs Science I

The reason why many think it [Astrology] is science is because it deals with stars, constellations, mathematical calculations which are the tools or ingredients of the prevailing sciences… Using goat’s entrails to predict whether it would rain does not make it biology or meteorology. Stopping oneself from entering the street because the cat has crossed your path does not make it zoology.

Sexual Practices in Nature

Understanding nature helps in understanding humans. It helps us in realizing that this nature has all kinds of sexual practices and that our notion of normal sex is just one of many other possible ‘normal’ practices.

Pseudo-science: Vaastu Shastra

The educated people do not like to be seen as gullible people- they never want to admit to themselves or to others that they are gullible. Instead, they like to be seen as those who ‘question’, then ‘verify’, and only then ‘accept’, just like in real science. Such educated people, while growing up, study science as if it is a complicated subject, never actually question what is taught, but accept it as another dogmatic notion.

Peevish Indians

So, please don’t tell us anything negative about us… We get really pissed off when someone does that. We will call you a traitor, an enemy, a fool, and abuse you, and threaten you to shut up. If need be, we will come to your home, raid your works, burn up your paintings, shut down the theatres, and run around the streets with a sense of accomplishment. Yes, we are peevish, and we are proud of it. After all, we are Indians!

PSLV launch: why we need more such symbols

In addition to the real benefits these rocket launches provide, they give us these symbols- of hope, of achievement, and of success. We all need those symbols. If the nation can generate that hope, desire and ambition in its youth, the price we pay for these launches is worth it!

Astrology Vs Science II: Linda Goodman debunked

Is she telling me that I am supposed to correlate myself with a sign that is laid out on the stars and constellations which some primitive man out of boredom called it a ‘balance’ in the night sky? Actually, there is no limit to the number of constellations. There is no reason why it can’t be 1024 constellations instead of just 12.

Guru: Why I didn’t like the movie!

I didn’t like the movie for the message it conveys- Do whatever it takes to succeed, even if it is the corrupt or illegal means. The message is dangerous and it epitomizes the attitudes of the new generation of India- inimical to itself.

Indian Actors

To be an actor in India, you should either be related to someone who is already in acting business or a politician, or be a beauty queen… It looks like Arts is completely hereditary or is related to being a beauty queen. Are we dynastic in nature?

One ‘Area of Improvement’ for India

When one clean his own shit, he will feel responsible for his own shit. He will not blame others when things go bad. To be able to clean shit, he will own up responsibility, he will join politics to clean it up; he will join industry to clean it up. He won’t say- ‘I won’t join politics because it is dirty’. Instead, he will say, ‘it is my shit, I will clean it’.

Why do we drive with high-beam on?

What is it about us that don’t allow us to practice something that makes sense right away? Is government involved here? Is the system wrong here? Are the politicians corrupt here? Is it caste-politics or communalism here? What is it in play here?

Why I am happy that India lost

Losing the only sport on which the entire nation is over-obsessed is not good for the morale of its youth. Except cricket, there’s no other game and no other sport to rely on. Add to that, the Indian cricket team has this amazing proclivity to disappoint most of the times. The supposed heroes fail to perform almost consistently whenever India is in dire need of heroism.

Are Humans vegetarians or meat-eaters?

…to say humans are ‘originally 100% vegetarian’ is patently wrong, because there is no valid case to suggest this. Also, to say humans are completely meat eaters is also wrong, because there is no strong case for this either. Most studies suggest we are omnivorous. We tend to eat what is available.

Narayana Murthy and National Anthem

If you understand the culture that is imbibed in most software-services business in India, you will realize that there is this amazing habit of bending over backwards to accommodate the customers (who happen to be foreign companies). The respect for customers is somehow mixed with respect for foreigners and soon one doesn't know why we are being obsequious to these foreign companies- is it because they are the customers or is it because they are foreigners?

Women in India

The woman is discriminated against, harassed, insulted, berated, and discouraged, by both men and women. By singly focusing on one enemy, that is the man, we are defining the problem statement wrongly. It is not ‘man vs. woman’, it is rather ‘society vs. woman’ and the society consists of both men and women.

Back to ‘Land of Idiots’

This attitude- to fight the battle tooth and nail but to lose the war- is seen in almost every sphere of Indian life. Either it is construction of our new house, or a new road, or a new product, we try to make gains in the near term and lose out on the long term.

Why bash up Hinduism?

Sanctity has reigned for far too long. The attitude of 'Don't criticize, don't question, don't ask, don't insult, don't denigrate' has reigned for far too long. Hinduism has remained on the sacred pedestal for thousands of years and it needs to be brought down from that position to be questioned with reason and rationale.

The Beauty of Hinduism - If there is any

The beauty that I see in Hinduism is not found in the holy books, scriptures, or its mythology. It is not found in Vedic Sciences or Vedic Mathematics, its purported achievements of having built nuclear bombs or an airplane. I do not see beauty in its purported complexity of stanzas, slokas, hierarchies of castes, and detailed description of rituals such as ablution… I think it is found in its simplicity and diversity.

Trying to find beauty in India

That shard of courtesy which they donned in a foreign nation is now completely absent… They brazenly lunge their bodies and luggage into others without apologizing. The lady on the plane speaks over the intercom- ‘Welcome to India! Hope you have a great stay’ and I prefer to read it as ‘Welcome to Land of Idiots! Ugliness starts right here’.

President Drama in India

The worst punishment you can give to a very dynamic and effective individual in India is to make him/her a President. Once he or she becomes a President all action stops… He becomes a rubber stamp, a ‘face’, a mannequin in a window of a big shop. He smiles, shakes hands and throws some clichés in speeches.

Sethusamudram Project

Archeology in the post-colonial world has become more of a propaganda machine than real science. The post-colonial world, waking up after missing the Scientific and Industrial Revolution, has started to posit their own versions of science and technology. It gives them a satisfaction to know that their ancestors were really great- greater than these western scientists who came later in time… These reports and articles are ego-boosters to aggrandize our non-existing achievements, and nothing more!

Bad Parenting- Insensitivity and Indecency

The more I think about it the more I believe that the state of India – and all its ills are due to one single reason- bad parenting. It’s not the population; it’s not the economy; it’s not poverty and its not bad politicians either. I think it is everything to do with bad parenting.

Reservation XV: OBC Issue

To most detractors of reservations, OBC issue is one of those flaws. By making you concede that this system of reservations-based-on-caste is not perfect when it comes to OBC issue, they want to cast a doubt on the entire reservations issue. The detractors of reservations-based-on-caste love the OBC issue the way the creationists love the supposed gaps in the fossil records of humans. This gap alone seems to make a case for creationism in spite of all the evidences which suggest otherwise.

Of Child Doctors and Child CEOs

Many Indian parents nowadays try to see accomplishments and their successes through their kid’s performance and achievements. These parents having reached midlife see a plateau in their career. They now compare their kids with others and feel proud only through the achievements made by their kids.

Atheists - Video
Bad Parenting: Creating Terrorists I

This religious teaching of Islam first starts with complete abandonment of logic and reason. It’s like teaching a kid that Santa Claus visits every home on Christmas night to give presents. How a single person can go to so many homes on a single night traveling on a sled is not something that a kid doubts. Even if he doubts, a reason that Santa is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present would clear up all those doubts.

Spirituality in Hinduism: Video
Shashi Tharoor on MF Husain
Indians and much-sought after achievements

…was a classic case of how India looks at itself – 'We don’t need your Western education, your Modern Sciences, we have our own Heritage, our own Vedas, our own homegrown alternatives which can bring about miracles, much bigger and surprising than those of yours'.

Supreme Court: Wrong precedents

Such precedents, ‘capital punishment to satisfy national conscience’ and ‘conviction based on oral testimony of the victim without any forensic evidence’, cast a doom for judicial system in this country.

India bans ads

Indian audience is really quite immature, and so are the movie makers, the ad makers, and of course the journalists. The list also includes the government leaders, the teachers, the professors and businessmen. Immaturity is no excuse for deepening the ills of our society.

Wrong Heroes

Yes, India desperately needs heroes. Our propped up heroes have failed us consistently. They have gone onto disappoint us all the time. Gandhi, Nehru, et al, of independence time is long gone. We have even punched holes into their personalities to make them more of villains than heroes. So what are we left with? Wrong heroes!

Reservations XVI: Why elite lower castes do not support

This is not very different from elite Blacks in US who do not wish to be seen as ‘those who got help’ from affirmative action. Once you have made it, you don’t want to extend any help to others of your kind with a pure selfish interest – 'not to be seen as incompetent by your peers'. Any such support to such affirmative policies is seen as ‘lack of competence’ by others.

India Curbs Freedom of Expression I

There is always a downside to freedom of expression. It comes with the ability to handle criticism, insults, and ridicules with maturity. It comes with an ability to allow individual creativity, even if it means we all disagree to the products of that creativity. It comes with an ability to allow one to berate, vent their anger, speak against the pillars of authority - government, religion, justice department, state, institutions, etc.

India Curbs Freedom of Expression II

All zealots are alike. All fanatics are alike. All sympathizers of such fanaticism are alike. All those Hindus who denounce M F Husain’s paintings and those who justify his persecution are no different than all those Muslims who attack and denounce Taslima Nasrin and her works.

Reservations XVII: Bad Jokes

I am not sure why people keep floating such stories. They are not even amusing to start with. It actually shows their true nature which is quite disturbing.

Madrasa education is inimical to Indian Muslims

Many low-income-group Muslims in India continue to send their kids to madrasas for education. These madrasas concentrate on religious schooling and are usually associated to a nearby mosque. The teachers are maulvis or mullahs or other religious scholars adept in Koran and its interpretations.

Though some Islamic purists forbid all kinds of interpretations and translations of the original texts, it is a common feature of Islam to use an authorized agent of religion to interpret the holy book and its contents to masses. Most Muslims parents in India, including the well-off families send their kids for religious teachings. While the well-off families send the kids to a mainstream school for regular education, the low-income-group Muslims depend only on madrasas for all education.

Madrasas have a long history. I would not go into that in this topic. What my concern is the kind of education they impart to the young Indian Muslims.

Most of the madrasa education is primarily based on Koran, the holy book of Islam. Many adherents and supporters of madrasa education contest that this book alone is source for all knowledge and wisdom that a person needs to make a good living. To say that a book written more than thousands years ago has all the knowledge necessary for all times is a far-fetched proposition. To assume that this book alone will impart the kid with all kinds of skills and reasoning abilities, communications skills and personal development needed to survive and excel in this world is outlandish.

Most of these teachers of madrasas are not well educated and some of them have vested interests. They get full attention from highly impressionable kids who are ready to lap up anything they tell them. Added with religious teaching that forbids any inquiry, these institutions become highly suitable for indoctrination of any ideology as teachers see fit.

Madrasa education is based in rote learning. It expects the kids to believe some fantastic stories about mystical beings and miracles performed long ago in some distant lands. Its expects the kids not to experiment with this learning, write it in their own version, or express it in any other way other than what is prescribed thousand years ago.

Madrasa education is based in curbing intellectual curiosity. It asks for students to believe all kinds of supernatural things and blind beliefs and pushes them to accept rules and definitions without asking questions. Any questioning of authenticity or veracity of the holy text is forbidden. Even if questions are asked, the answers are given to snub any further enquiry – saying ‘God said so, hence it is true’.

Madrasa education can make people zealots and fanatics. Any organized religious teaching involves creating strong followers and adherents. Such teachings can be easily extended to create zealots and fanatics as next step. Islamic religious teaching asks for allegiance to a single god and single faith. And madrasas add many other allegiances to different vested groups. Indoctrination is a part of this education that brainwashes kids depriving them all intellectual curiosity, making them robotic machines who can be asked to perform certain duties without asking too many questions (not very different from indoctrination of soldiers by an army).

Madrasa education is not scientific and it is retrograde. There is no inquiry. There is no empiricism. The laws or rules are not questioned. This education lack rational thinking. All debate and discussion is confined within borders of set rules. Many instructions are retrograde, and are not in tune with modern values. They do not welcome the role of modern institutions to debate social issues.

Madrasa education is based in inculcating intolerance. It is not embracing or inclusive. Instead it feeds on dividing the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’ based on religion alone. And the way they differentiate ‘us’ and ‘them’ is not healthy either. It describes ‘them’ in pejorative terms and imparts ‘us’ with a duty to bring ‘them’ into Islam’s fold using certain coercive methods.

What to do?

Currently, the madrasas are outside the purview of state education departments. The curriculum is not monitored or guided by these departments. Therefore, many privileges and incentives, which the government provides to regular schools to ensure kids enrolment, are not extended to madrasas. Madrasa education turns out to be less interesting and quite ineffectual. Indian government and Muslim religious groups have betrayed a big chunk of Indian population by neglecting the education of these low-income group Muslims. Their policies have ensured these groups live in ignorance and poverty forever.

While we continue to address some of the real and genuine problems and issues that Islam faces worldwide as a religion, we should do our best to bring Indian Muslims into the mainstream, impart them with right education and skill sets, so that they can avail the jobs and opportunities this country has opened up.

One of the ways to bring the Indian Muslims into the mainstream is by giving them the same education that other kids get. Religious teachings can be personal but it cannot be a substitute for mainstream education. The mainstream education will involve teaching different languages, Social Studies, Sciences and Mathematics in a proper school.

All Indians are entitled to a good education in a proper school. Denying that education to the young Muslim kids is a crime. If politicians, parents or religious zealots obstruct such means and methods to bring these kids into mainstream education, denying them their basic right, they should be prosecuted.

Related Posts: To Better India II: Primary Education, Hindi is a North Indian Language, English will emancipate the downtrodden in India, Why this pretense?

Why this pretense?

[This is in continuation of the previous topic English will emancipate the downtrodden in India,]

During my brief stint at an Indian software services company, one clear thinking business grad asked a simple question. ‘Why do we keep going to IITs every year to recruit? When we know that most of them want a very high salary which we do not provide, when we know that most of them do not turn up on joining day even after receiving offer letters, and when we know that most of them leave within the first year even if they do join?’

It was a very simple question, but based in ground reality.

All the senior folks who were getting ready for the yearly ritual of visiting various IIT campuses for recruitment suddenly got confused and started blabbering away- giving reasons like why our company has a brand name, why we take pride in premier institutes and excellence, and blah blah. Basically they were talking bullshit.

By asking that simple question this young man just called the whole charade a pretense. He opened our eyes to see the emperor naked.

We were kidding ourselves into thinking that IITians would join us and add value to the company when ground realities suggested that none of them stick beyond the first year and it was a waste of time and money to send huge delegations of senior management to these institutes every year for recruitment. We were putting our money in the wrong place chasing an elusive goal.

In the previous topic, English will emancipate the downtrodden in India, a lady wanted to rebut my argument and gave an example of her kid who goes to a Spanish school living in Mexico City.

I think hers is a VERY BAD EXAMPLE. Let me explain.

Since I have never been to Mexico, I cannot comment about that country. But I am familiar with few European nations where they promote their own language (instead of English). I am familiar with education system in France and Germany. So, let me take example of France.

In France, a kid goes to school to learn his subjects in French, and then goes to college and studies it in French- Sciences, Engineering and Economics are all in French. The professors teach in French and the text books are in French. The articles in major journals are in French or translated into French. If he wants to get information from Internet, it is in French. He can go onto do his PhD in Metallurgy in French. When he goes for a job interview, most probably, he will be interviewed in French. If he joins the government, the business is conducted in French, the circulars, memos and letters are in French. [Many of them study English but as another language].

In India, a kid in Telangana goes to a school for twelve years to learn his subjects in Telugu. But then he goes to a college- to study Engineering, Medicine, Physics or Economics in English. The text books are in English. The professors teach in English. The journals are in English. If the information is to be taken from Internet, it is in English. The PhD thesis is written in English. If he goes for a job interview, most probably, the interview will be in English. If he joins the government, the letters, memos and circulars are in English.

So who are we bullshitting here? When we know that the game is eventually played in English, why are we kidding ourselves here? Why can’t we call it what it is – a pretense. Why are we pretending? And to impress who?

When all our future is going to be in English, why can’t we just get started in English? Why should the downtrodden that have no choice but attend government schools be taught in regional languages, while all the well-off who have a choice send their kids to English-medium private schools?

The downtrodden in India already have so many handicaps to deal with, why force another handicap?

Related Topics: English will emancipate the downtrodden in India.

English will emancipate the downtrodden in India

In an earlier article, I emphasized on why Primary Education is the number one priority for India. My regular visits to the interior lands of India has confirmed by belief that English, as the medium of instruction in schools, is the only savior of the downtrodden- rural, economically backward and lower castes of India.

English should be taught to all children of India. In addition, English should be the medium of instructions in all government schools. Currently, most state run schools use the regional language as the medium of instruction. The kids coming out of such schools have limited access to opportunity. Their job opportunities are confined to certain government positions and other local jobs, and they are disadvantaged even in those. They cannot easily make it to an IIM, ISB or Infosys, because of their ‘communication skills’.

What about learning our regional languages?

It’s very easy to manage education of one’s regional language. I studied in an English-medium school with Telugu as the first language. We learnt three languages – Telugu, Hindi, and English, while the medium of instruction for Social Studies, Sciences, and Mathematics was in English.

Telugu was always the toughest, being the first language (I guess) and the fact that it is inherently a more complicated language, than say, English. I can pick up a Telugu newspaper and read it, and I can even write in Telugu. Ten years of education is good enough to feel proud of one’s mother tongue. There is no need to prove that we can write our Ph.D. thesis in Metallurgy in our regional language.

We have not evolved our regional languages to talk the language of science and technology, thanks to our laziness, to our own pride which relegated these languages to poetry, fiction and for discussing social and political aspects, and to our stubbornness to retain the sanctity of the old language while refusing to reform it to suit the modern needs. Most importantly, science, technology and modern (constitutional democratic) institutions did not originate in our lands, and hence our languages have never adapted to deal with them.

Instead of fighting a losing battle to adapt these regional languages to study and address the modern issues, such as globalization, technology, science, universal values, etc, it’s high time we realize that our regional languages are not equipped to handle such issues. Topics such as sciences, mathematics, technology, globalization and new research will be handled well by English. That is the only way to bring the backward people of India into the mainstream. No other palliative will ameliorate their backwardness unless this issue is addressed head on.

English will emancipate our downtrodden

The new and emerging opportunities in India, guided by modern corporations, global giants, and big banks, are biased towards English. The kids from rural India who study in the medium of a regional language tend to get disadvantaged when competing against urban kids. They have to work much harder to prove themselves worthy compared to a kid educated in English-medium school of urban India.

The biggest problem of India is lack of awareness and the lack of medium and tools to bring that awareness to the masses. What I found when talking to youth from backward regions is the immense gap in awareness. Lack of awareness – a prolonged one which spans your lifetime – can be a quite a big handicap, which cannot be crossed or bridged with two years of scholarship, four years of free education, and a free trip to a city.

The Internet which has opened up information to billions in the world has NOT been effective in doing the same to rural India, because the Internet’s content is primarily English. While efforts should be made to create content in regional languages, this movement alone cannot be relied upon to bring the backward people of India out of their miseries. We just cannot wait for the regional content to trickle down to them, which may take many years. Instead we should put our money to bring the masses closer to the content and that can be done through English as medium of instruction.

New opportunities only for English-speaking Indians

Many new jobs and many new opportunities are again limited to those who communicate well in English. Many rural Indians are not even aware of the possibilities that are out there and many feel they are not even competent to avail those opportunities because of lack of exposure, innate fear, diffidence and inferiority that comes out of lack of communications skills in English.

Indians who are educated in English are more aware of opportunities than those who are educated in regional languages. Most school going kids in the interior regions of Telangana do not even know that there are provisions called ‘reservations’. Some of them have never heard of an entrance test called EAMCET which is the gateway to the engineering and medical schools of the region.

Loans, pensions, schemes, etc, are all available to those who are aware about it. Most government schemes do not ever reach the rural India because these people are not even aware that such schemes exist.

Hypocrite activists

The insistence on creating more schools based on the regional language as medium is another case of misplaced priorities ridden with hypocrisies. The politicians, the social activists, and ardent regionalists and nationalists, who fight for the regional language as medium of instruction, invariably send their kids to English medium kids. Almost every Kannada leader who keeps fighting for Kannada schools sends his/her kids to an English Medium schools, and sometimes to international schools in other countries.

Conclusion

While India continues to improve standard of living of its people, one of the quickest way to jumpstart the whole social movement is to use English as the medium of instruction. And all those who oppose such a move should send their kids to a school with regional language as medium of instruction to do their part.

Related Posts: Hindi is a North Indian Language, To Better India II: Primary Education.

Hindi is a North Indian Language

[These are some sketchy thoughts on this topic]

India has many languages. Hindi is a North Indian language. While Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam are South Indian languages.

There is no such a thing called National Language or Rashtr Basha.

Hindi is by far the most spoken language in India. Around 40% of Indians speak Hindi. But it is in no way the language that binds India. Most of the Hindi speakers are in North India. South India has its own languages, and Hindi does not feature as a prominent one.

While many South Indians (except hardliner Tamilians) learn and study Hindi, almost no North Indian learns any of the South Indian languages.

Role of Sanskrit

Contrary to most school text book versions, Sanskrit is NOT mother of all languages in India. South Indian (or Dravidian) languages are not derived from Sanskrit. However, there is a heavy influence of Sanskrit on many of the languages in India, including Dravidian languages.

During the course of history, there have been many attempts at Sanskritization of Indian languages along the length and breadth of the country (and beyond – up to Indonesia). Sanskritization and Brahmanical Hinduism (with casteism at its core) went hand in hand thus making inroads into all corners of this subcontinent. Brahmanical Hinduism descended upon on every kingdom and region to spread its tentacles, uprooting and extirpating Buddhism where it proliferated, and converting local deities and gods to bring them into the Brahmanical Hindu pantheon, using evolving mythology, hierarchical caste system and sanskritization as tools to spread its religion.

Even though kings and learned scholars of South India embraced Brahmanical Hinduism and allowed sankritization of regional languages, the local flavor remained the lingo of the masses, still owing its origins in Dravidian languages. In all South Indian regions, we have a colloquial version which still remains heavily Dravidian, while the literary version is heavily sanskritized.

This effect of sanksritization is seen differently in different Dravidian languages. You will see that the present-day literary Telugu (not the colloquial one) is one of the most heavily sanskritized languages in India. On the other hand, Tamil had gone on an accelerated path to remove all traces of sanskritization in the early 20^th century as a part of their exercise to throw down Brahmanical Hinduism to replace it with local version (colloquial) of Hinduism. That resulted in a language that has no allegiance to Sanskrit. That also meant overthrowing of Brahmin supremacy, rejecting its caste system, challenging Sanskrit as mother of all languages in India, and defying gods suggested by Brahmanical Hinduism.

Tamilians to the rescue

With their obstinate opposition to imposition of Hindi as National Language, Tamilians rescued most of South Indians from a potential North Indian domination over South India. If Hindi was made the National Language, the Tamil scholars, who were adept in English but not in Hindi, felt they would lose out heavily in all kinds of jobs and opportunities the new country would open up.

While other South Indians did not have the same clout over Indian Administrative Services and other bureaucratic jobs, Tamils were ruling the roost. They had featured in constituent assembly and cabinet meetings to influence the thinking of the Indian Government, and they fought tooth-and-nail to oppose all moves by North Indians to impose Hindi as the national language. It was a hard won battle. And thanks to this bitter opposition, the roots of which lie in a selfish attempt to safeguard their interests, we have English as the official language for all states, making Hindi one of the many Indian languages, not a special one.

As a long term advantage, we can thank Tamils for how India took on the Information Technology Revolution and brought itself global acclaim. It allowed India to join the mainstream economies, bring employment to its people, and most important of all, emancipate its downtrodden.

Related Topics: India: North and South Debate, Excessive Nationalism and Blurring of Local Identities, India’s Greatness

Biggest Threat to India

What do I think is the biggest threat we face as a nation?

According to me, it’s not Naxalism (as our Prime Minister wants us to believe), its not Kashmir militancy, its not external aggression from Pakistan or China, its not regional militancy in North East, and it’s not immigration from Bangladesh. The biggest threat is not rural-urban divide, the growing gap between the rich and poor, the exploitation of environment, or the rising population.

The biggest threat to India is its religions.

As we progress, and as we bring more people out of poverty into the mainstream, as education trickles down to the masses, as access to opportunity gets to everyone, and as we become better off as nations most of these issues will fade away. If we make some quick and bold decisions, which may sound unpopular in the near term, but have better prospects in the long run, most militant issue within borders will become insignificant.

On the other hand, Religion is on the rise with increase in education and upward mobility of the masses. Belief in superstition, blind belief and irrationality is getting institutionalized with increase in prosperity and with better access to opportunity.

Like a moth, religion is eating away into the very fabric of this nation making it hollow from inside. It is infecting this country like cancer crumbling all its institutions one by one. In the name of ‘hurt sentiments’, which takes on sacred ground when it comes to religion, we are slowly rolling back all our freedoms. We are giving away our freedoms to the state and goons. Religion is taking the main stage by inundating the instrument of state, making a backdoor entry by playing on sentiments of common people. We are rapidly losing our hard earned universal values making way for an intolerant and radical society.

Growing intolerance and suppression of freedoms

In our zeal to curb the voices that we don’t like, thus enjoying momentary pleasures, we are forsaking our enshrined rights in the long run. To reap benefits now in the near term, we are giving away our freedoms for the future. And nobody is realizing that. Here are some excerpts from contemporary India.

Taslima row

First, Taslima was obstructed from giving audience in Hyderabad by some protestors who ransacked her proceedings. These goons were actually supported by the Muslim parties seated in power. Next, a grand showdown happened in Kolkata, where Muslim protestors took to street to burn up everything in sight to show their disapproval. And the puny government, not knowing what they were doing, just succumbed and asked her to leave the city. Later, one of the central ministers gave her permission to stay in the country as long as she promised not to incite the Indian Muslims. For that, he asked her to apologize to the community whose ‘sentiments were hurt’ with folded hands, as if that atonement was a necessary and sufficient condition to stay in this country, being apologetic at all times.

This minister cited a deplorable precedent, shamelessly, not knowing that he was in fact stultifying every tenet of our constitution, where India imposed ban on Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. This country joined the rank of most retrograde nations by being the first country in the world to ban Satanic Verses, even before Ayatollah of Iran decreed a fatwa against the author. Instead of admitting how foolish we were, this minister says, ‘‘we did not allow Salman Rushdie's book when it caused a flutter and raised controversy. She will not be an exception.”

And imagine to what extent we can stoop low. When a foreign nation wanted to honor Taslima, our shameless government intervened to stop them, all in a vain attempt to ‘pacify’ Indian Muslim zealots.

What is funny about Taslima’s episode is the brazen hypocrisy of Hindu zealots. While they want to ransack, torment and terrorize a painter for depicting Hindus goddesses in nude, they went overboard in their enthusiasm to invite and give homage to Taslima for ‘offending’ Muslims.

Sania Mania

The Muslim population in India along with all other sex-starved youth of India is obsessed with Sania Mirza. Whatever she does somehow brings wrath of peevish Indians, and mostly from radical Muslims of India, who seem to have a say in almost everything this woman does. She is everything the radical Muslims don’t want her to be. She was first berated for wearing short dresses on the court. Then she was chastised when she posed for an ad before a Mosque. Didn’t she know that women are not allowed inside the Mosque? The fact that she did NOT enter the mosque but posed outside the gates did not satisfy the mullahs and Muslim political parties who went onto protest against her. She had to apologize profusely to escape the wrath of ‘hurt sentiments’.

Then came an episode where she kept her legs up, and for some weird reason, a flag was transported from another universe and appeared right before her legs. So, once again, our peevish Indians filed a case against her for dishonoring our national flag. So, this time around it is not just radical Muslims. It is patriotic goons too who are baiting her.

Sania, who is just 21 years old, could not take this pressure anymore and has recently decided to stay away from playing in this country. Wow! Look how jubilant our religious forces are now!

Sexy Shriya

While Indian public lap up the sexy dances on the screen, in all vulgarity, they somehow do not extend the same benevolence when it comes to seeing their stars in public. A public litigation was filed against Shriya for dressing up obscenely. Shriya had to apologize to pacify the ‘hurt sentiments’ and for defiling the Great Indian Culture. Mallika Sherawat had to face the same music in another episode.

Lost virginity

You can lose your virginity before marriage, but you cannot admit it in the public. When Susmita Sen and Khushboo discussed losing virginity before marriage, it hurt our sentiments badly and we had to berate them and draw them to courts to make them apologize. Our sense of morality coming from our religions is now ready to enter our legal system too!

Ransack artists

Whether it is MF Husain who paints Mother India in nude, or a painter in Vadodara who showcases nudity in art, it draws ire from Indian Hindu religious groups who think it is their karma (duty) to defend the izzat (honor) of this country and its culture. Since there felt they were not alive when Muslim hordes descended upon India, or when British gentry taught Indians civilization, they think they should make up for it, by being ultra-conservative and Victorian now.

MF Husain has fled the country and has refused to come back, because the Indian people and the courts are baying for him.

Sacred Sethusamudram

So according to Indian Hindus, humans existed in India 1.75 Million years ago, stultifying every scientific observation known to man. According to these Indian Hindus, Lord Rama, using sophisticated managerial and taming skills recruited thousands of monkeys, while conversing with a bear, to build a giant bridge from India to Sri Lanka around 1.75 Million years ago.

And that belief is good enough to launch country-wide protests, in the process burning down buses and killing few innocent, and filing petitions in the court, and ridiculing every iota of intelligence found in India.

Very soon, they will be fighting for middle earth as proposed by Tolkien in Lord of Rings.

Heretic Da Vinci Code

Indian Christians saw something more in Da Vinci Code movie than the Christians of the West. While most countries in West allowed this movie to be screened, Indian governments, in their eagerness to satisfy its Christian protestors, went ahead to ban this movie from getting screened.

The funny aspect of this story is that Muslims supported their brothers-in-arm Christians in this ban. One blind fellow showing direction to another blind!

Peevish Sikhs

Just because one of their leaders wore certain attire to impersonate a great guru of the past, the present day Sikhs thought it was such a big insult to their great religion that they had to protest, riot on the streets, all in the name of ‘hurt sentiments’.

The biggest threat

The biggest threat to India is its religions. To start with, we made a mess of the definition of Secularism. Instead of sticking to the original definition of ‘no importance to religion’, we conveniently redefined it as ‘equal importance to all religions’, thus making sure we never keep our state separate from religion.

Most government officials unabashedly follow and practice religious rituals in their official work. The elected leaders go and attend religious festivities and organize events commemorating religious idols, all on official business. Organizations like DRDO start of events based on Hindu astrological predictions followed by Hindu religious rituals. Doling out freebies to different religious groups to gain vote banks is now a ritual in Indian Secularism.

According to Pewglobal.org and as described by Meera Nanda, 92% of Indians believe that ‘religion is very important’ to them, making us the second most-religious country in the world. [We came second only to Senegal which polled 97%. Even countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, and other Islamic nations fared better compared to us].

If this is not enough, Indians also believe that belief in God is an indication of personal morality. 66% of Indians think that ‘it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values’. No wonder our legal system is now quoting from religious books instead of legal books.

Religion is opium of mankind said Karl Marx.

Indians are high on their religious standing. They are intoxicated and inebriated on religious fervor. Most Indians believe their culture is the greatest while other cultures are inferior, again basing it heavily on their religion. India’s institutions, so carefully crafted and installed by our founding fathers during the time of Independence, are slowly crumbling away, eroding to the grand sweeps of religious sentiments. India’s sciences is taking a nosedive, thanks to growing blind belief, superstition and irrationality, again relying heavily on religion. Its political scene is heavily imbued with religious colors, which are now taking the seat of the pilot, driving us into the abyss.

India’s religions are the greatest threat to India and Indians. If we go this path, very soon we will be losing all our rights as citizens. We will be judged by our allegiance to a god and jailed for non-belief in god. Religious morality will replace Indian legality. Gods and goddesses will be our institutions. Sati and untouchability will be sanctions of god to get rid our evils. Tsunamis are not natural disasters, but signs of omen sent by god. Covering our women in from head to toe will be preserving our national honor.

India’s religions are chipping away pillars of this nation – its judicial system, its legislature, and it is eating away all our enshrined values.

Related Topics: 'Our sentiments are hurt', 'Our sentiments continue to hurt' II, India Curbs Freedom of Expression I, India Curbs Freedom of Expression II, MF Husain and nude paintings.

What do you do when someone copies your post?

Here’s a link to a post at Sulekha.com.

The contents of this blog are taken from my article ‘Our sentiments are hurt’.

The author suggests that he found this blog somewhere, but does not provide the necessary link to my blog nor cite my blog as a source.

What do you do when someone copies entire contents from your post and publishes at another site without giving due credit to the original author?

I have to admit that he did a better job of putting nice pictures to convey the message. I would have loved if the formatting was done better.

[I have some thoughts on this subject at Kaavya and Plagiarism.]

Guide to E=mc^2 Blog I

Here’s a guide to this blog in chronological order.

Why?

There are so many 'Why's that science cannot answer. And most probably it can never answer them. But a theologian had always answered these even before they were asked. He attributed everything to God.

Rang De Basanti!

I do not have a great opinion on the martyrs who do just one thing in their life- like, kill a president or a leader, following which their contribution stops (because they are dead or convicted). Most of the time they are too young or suddenly get emotional to act in haste.

Gandhi – A Miserable Failure

According to me, Gandhi is a miserable failure. He set out to achieve one of the biggest tasks in the history of mankind and failed miserably…it was the biggest challenge any human has ever undertaken – he actually believed that he could convince people (humans) to live amicably, respecting each other’s differences and tolerating diversity, forever.

IIMs and Salaries

Parents in India are extremely conscious of how their kids perform at school- not qualitatively but mostly in quantitative terms. ‘How many marks did your kid score in Science?’ ‘What is your kid’s rank in class?’ ‘Which prize did your kid win in the painting competition?’ And then they go home to compare this with their own kid.

Alone in Bangalore

Trampling on others to get your things seem to be in fashion – it’s like some distorted version of ‘survival of the fittest’ in place. Bribing to get things done, cutting the line to get ahead, stopping the whole traffic because your wife wanted to buy milk from the kirana store, etc - all seem to be justified in some weird Indian interpretation of ‘survival instincts’ which is considered a value and a great strength.

Medha Patkar and the Dam

Medha Patkar, with all due respects to her will and determination, has directly contributed to poverty, famine, drought and hunger in a population bigger than that of France for the last 20 years with her obstinate obstruction of building Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada River.

Reservations and India Inc.

The objectivism that tests & entrances introduced (is) now pushed to an extreme form to be called as ‘meritocracy’, a convenient word coined especially to defend India’s elite in promoting their own kin.

Telangana - A New State

When one state has two economically and culturally different regions, one being prosperous and the other backward, if corrective measures are not taken to uplift that backward region, there is a great danger that only the prosperous region gets all the attention, funding, new industries, canals, and opportunities, while the people of backward region keep losing out, even in their own region. When such a condition prevails far too long, strong corrective measures are to be taken, and if that does not work, a new state is one of the best solutions.

Bangalore and Corporate Responsibility

No country, no region, no place, can live in peace and sustained economic growth if the divide between have and have-nots keeps increasing (as it is happening in India). There is a need to ensure that our poor and lower classes can benefit from this economic growth, and that may mean we will have to shed some of our fat in the present times so that we don’t live in a hostile environment of the future.

Kaavya and Plagiarism

Actually, ‘plagiarism’ is an alien word to most Indians. They do not seem to be affected by it at all… It anyway happens all the time in Indian mainstream media, entertainment and literary sections. Movies are copied- scene to scene, dialog to dialog, without giving any acknowledgement and the Indian audience laps it up cheeringly without an iota of concern that it was “plagiarized”.

On Arundhati Roy

She believes in borderless nations, dam-less rivers, and nuclear free countries. I like those concepts as well. I like a war-less world, caste-less society, race-less civilizations, malice-less neighbors, selfless taxpayers, and so on. That does not mean, I close my eyes, and start believing that’s how the world is.

A Response: On Arundhati Roy

We seem to equate all those antiquity methods with virtuousness. Going to jail (even for murder), sacrificing (like Sonia did for other ulterior motives), fasting (like Medha Patkar severely affecting millions of others), taking out a yatra (like Advani to promote communalism), are all glorified only because this is exactly what Mahatma Gandhi did long ago. Whatever may be the 'goal' (selfish or selfless) the 'means' they employ seem to have a great impact.

MF Husain and nude paintings

The intolerance has reached gigantic proportions affecting the very fabric of our democracy and the values it promised to uphold…People get offended by almost everything in the name of ‘Indian culture’. While our ancestors enjoyed and practiced Kama Sutra and depicted it in sculptures where gods and goddess perform various sexual positions in abandon and freedom, our generation looks at everything sexual as obscene.

Argumentative Bengali

I have only one problem though – that Amartya Sen is Bengali. In my experience, a Bengali looks at every thing from a ‘Bengali Prism’. To him/her everything gets distorted to give a Bengali twist. They believe that the God is Bengali.

My Stand on Reservations I

The idea of reservations was mooted to rectify the Indian social system which was far more debilitating than the Indian economic system. For centuries, spanning nearly two thousand years, a large section of India was persecuted, discriminated and ostracized by a minority community on the name of caste.

My Stand on Reservations II

When we set out a massive pogrom of depriving a section based on caste for thousands of years, any corrective measure that one can come up has to be based on ‘caste’. It cannot be any other.

Reservations V: Apotheosis of IITs and myth of merit

To them ‘merit’ (read “scores”) is inviolable and is worth fasting for and dying for. That's when another sacred entity called 'merit' joins the pantheon of many Indian sacred symbols. And it is our culture of sanctifying things that is the bane of our civilization.

Reservations VI: Hollow arguments from Anti-Reservation groups

…they keep hopping from one topic to another giving 101 reasons why reservations-based-on-caste should not be implemented and they never admit that discrimination ever happened nor come with a concrete proposal on how this discrimination-based-on-caste that extended for such a long period in India could be addressed.

Reservations VII: Are we dividing our nation along caste lines?

One of the first things a mature civilization can do is admit its mistakes. That never happens in India. No group or body representing forward castes comes out in the open to say- ‘I apologize for what we have done to you in the past’. Instead, what everyone wants to say is- “Look, I am closing my eyes. I don’t see evil anymore. It has just vanished. Now don’t even talk about it because it will bring back the evil”.

Reservations VIII: Are reservations the perfect solution for the problem at hand?

I believe, reservations-based-on-caste is not the perfect solution, but it seems to be best possible option given other alternatives. Some of the alternatives seem to provide good text-book examples or demand more prerequisites but are not the best alternatives in the present scheme of things.

Reservations IX: I apologize

I shall teach my kids to be more tolerant of other kinds of people. I shall teach them to respect the oppressed for the pain they have endured for centuries. I shall teach my kids the evils of discrimination and take them to villages. Hopefully they will grow mature to respect and tolerate special rights given to certain people.

Indian Man vs. Indian State

I tend to take a stand that it is the Indian man who is corrupt, keeps his street unclean, and does not follow the law, and that the Indian System (or the Indian Government) is a mere personification of these ills of this common man. To rectify the system, he has to rectify himself. The change starts with him. It starts with the ‘man in the mirror’.

Temples and Women

I am not sure what is sacred about feminine. A woman and man are two different sexes which mate, reproduce and make babies to continue our species. And while they are not doing this activity, they indulge in other activities too, like inventing, composing music, and creating civilizations. I am not sure if any one of them (man or woman) is sacred (unless of course you bring in the argument that many women and men pray to ‘lingam’, the sexual organ of Lord Shiva, a man).

Vedas and Science

For all practical purposes, Vedas, with its deductions which are mystical, have to considered as good books of aphorisms and truisms and nothing more. Vedas may contain allegorical and fantastic descriptions of supposed flight, atomic theory and other modern concepts, but we do not know whether they are the conclusions after a thorough research or mere hypothesis or just whimsical conundrums.

Pornography! Welcome to India

How long can we hide under the illusion that we are a nation of morals, culture and high values, when everything we do actually shows that we are in fact immoral, barbaric and crass without any sign of rich culture and that we show no accountability, responsibility, and integrity in our daily lives?

I am on my way to Hell!

How can I be proud of my nation which does not know where it should stand on such a crisis? How can I be proud of my nation which holds onto a piece of land by force while the entire population of that land hates our rule and regime? The hottest places in Hell are being reserved for me and my countrymen. I am just getting ready for that!

Kashmir I: Independent Nation

…as Indians we don’t want to coerce and force certain section of people by suppressing their aspirations to live as an independent nation. The concept of a nation is an idea. When a certain majority of people of a region believes in an idea of statehood a nation is formed. It may be forged with a constitution, cemented with a government, protected with an army, and run with legislature, judiciary and executive. But at the heart of this nation are the people, their aspirations and their notions of freedom.

National Readership Study 2006

I subscribed to Times of India because everyone else was doing it. Man! It was such a horrible experience. I was appalled at the level of ribaldry, gossip and trash they were covering. There wasn’t an iota of serious journalism. Every day I would just throw the paper away in frustration.

On singing Vande Mataram

I don’t think I am a patriot in the traditional sense- I don’t support many of my country’s actions - in fact I oppose many of them. I am not a nationalist either- while I am a proud Indian I don’t necessarily believe my country is the greatest. I don’t think I am a fanatic either because I am not ready to die or kill to defend my beliefs. And I am no fool either – because I keep questioning myself a lot.

Kashmir VI: Was accession legal and ethical?

…it is hard to say if a certain decision is ethical or not - unless it is a glaring violation (like genocide committed by Nazis) or an obvious act of good faith (like that of Mother Teresa). Legal actions need not necessarily be ethical. Law is bound to a land and can change with time.

Adolf Hitler and Indians

I believe that there is a great correlation between the groups who admire Adolf Hitler, the groups who hate or think low of Muslims, and those who are against reservations.

Dawn of Indian Hindu fascism

Indian Hindus want Ram Rajya back. What does it mean? Does it mean- let Brahmins control education and the bureaucracy, let Kshatriyas rule and govern, let Vaishyas manage businesses, trade and wealth, let Shudras be kicked out of schools to concentrate on menial work, let Dalits be kicked out of all cities and towns, and let other religions be kicked out of the country (because they didn’t exist during the time of Rama)?

Why Muslims do not sing Vande Mataram?

While Hindus can pray to almost anything- including a rock, animal, natural event, or human, Muslims do not. While Muslims can eat beef, some high caste and chaste Hindus do not. The failure to understand such belief systems and practices will result in false expectations and hence disappointment. It is nothing to do with patriotism.

Adolf Hitler and Indians II

In a democracy, (such) prejudices and hatred cannot be curbed with force. Instead, it is the responsibility of the people itself to learn from history, teach kids of history and install mature institutions to ensure continuity of its people/nation/culture/religion/etc. Onus of learning and accommodating to set a precedent, unfortunately, always resides on the majority.

Islam vs. Rest of the World II

The reasons why some of the Muslims of the present-day are violent are found elsewhere. Looking for answers in the nature of its founder, its religious text and nature of its history is futile and completely useless.

Islam vs. Rest of the World III

I see the fall of Ottoman Empire as the biggest milestone in the history of Muslim World. What we see in the present Muslim World, the conflicts of nations and cultures, has come about following what happened after WWI.

Why do we criticize our nations?

Most of us who criticize our nations are ensconced in democratic and free institutions in which we take pride. The reason why we take pride in our nations is because it allows and accepts that criticism, our voice and expression, however bizarre it may sound… We believe these nations are great because of this very reason- that it allows people to speak their opinion and criticize their nations- each of its actions and symbols.

Kashmir VII: Some questions answered

Freedom! That single word that spawned so many struggles of mankind, including our glorious Independence Movement in which we wanted to define it according to our terms, and yet we are now defining it for others, making it paradoxical.

650,000 Iraqis die in US war on Iraq

Therefore, we have a ‘War on Terror’ waged against Iraq on the pretext that it possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, which were never found; were responsible for 9/11 when none of the hijackers were Iraqi; had links with Al Qaida, which is unproven. For 3,000 killed in 9/11, America kills 650,000 Iraqis waging a war on certain guesses and hunches that turn out to be untrue.

Supreme Court ruling on Afzal case

Do we give death sentence to satisfy the collective conscience of the society? Does the convict get a sentence based on the crime or based on what the collective conscience has felt about it? When did we start using circumstantial evidence, however cumulative it is, to be unerring? And when did we start using ‘no direct evidence’ to award a death sentence, which we agree should be awarded in ‘rarest of the cases’?

Is Homosexuality natural?

To consider homosexuality to be unnatural or abnormal is completely wrong. It’s not an ailment that can be cured; it’s not a disease that can be eradicated. It is not a mental condition that can be corrected through therapy. If that God has created homosexuals in animals, so he did in humans. And if you are an atheist, like me, I don’t think you need to be told anything, you already know it.

Honking in ‘No Honking Zone’

I was wondering- can’t we even follow one single rule in this country? At least those that are so easy and simple to implement?

India: North and South Debate

This brings out the true nature of India. Identities cannot be imposed. We are tolerant and accepting only when it is voluntary. Any idea to bring in harmony, unity and integrity into India by imposing it onto its people turns out to be counterproductive.

Reservations XII: Corporate Responsibility [Reposted]

The industry has ensured it remained mostly Hindu and that too mostly upper caste. While the aim of the reservations has been to increase the presence of backward castes in education and professional environments, Indian industry has somehow escaped that responsibility on the name of ‘being competitive’.

Can and should Caste be abolished?

The way it would become redundant and unimportant is when each caste has access to opportunity equally, where this identity is no longer a dominant force in availing education and employment. That is when caste is just another unimportant identity that can be easily done away with.