Did you say Sedition?
Barbar Indians’ latest post carries an interesting observation
The first involves the following statement by Narendra Modi:
“I want to tell the government in Delhi, lets sign a year-long pact, you don’t take any money from us and don’t give us any aid. And then we will show the Centre how we run the state. You all tell me, am I not right,” he was quoted as saying.” [link]
It is not known if these were the exact words uttered by Modi, but calling these statements seditious is quite ambitious. As a matter of fact, Congress bigwigs have not made any public statements, leaving the hatchet job to foot soldiers like Manish Tewari.
One of the problems with a perverted public discourse is that words are thrown around with no fore or afterthought. So it is with sedition. Jyoti Basu had famously thundered in his heydays that West Bengal under him would secede from India if the BJP ever came to power. The last time I checked, the then-secular government at the Centre took no action against Basu.
Dissecting Contextual Morality: Part 2
I had concluded the previous post with a note on AKR’s understanding of Hindu ethics and traditional expositions on Dharma. He notes that
Each addition is really a subtraction from any universal law. There is not much left of an absolute or common (sadharana) dharma which the texts speak of, if at all, as a last and not as a first resort. They seem to say, if you fit no contexts or conditions, which is unlikely, fall back on the universal.
This is completely the opposite interpretation of what the primary sources say about the subject.
Dissecting Contextual Morality : Part 1
Preface
In an interesting article on Narendra Modi, TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan (link courtesy Nitin) concludes that contextual morality is the one magic explanation for all ills that have plagued India for more than 100 years. He says
…Narendra Modi is our own creation, of liberals, conservatives, fascists, communists and every other man jack of us. He is not the problem, we all are.
By this token, we can source every problem to our collective selves and call–like TCA–for introspection. However, he derives this conclusion from what he calls the Ramanujam Test derived from A.K. Ramanujam’s paper entitled Is there an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal Essay. (Ed: I have a personal copy of this essay. Since it’s not in the public domain, I cannot make it available.)
Ramanujam put forth a simple proposition. He said that unlike the West, which functions on the basis of moral absolutes, Indians function on the basis of contextual morality.
Thus, most often, for the majority of Indians, an action is right or wrong depending on the context in which that action is situated. So in some contexts it is perfectly all right even to kill your brother. Even the Gita tells you so.
He applies this test to hundred-plus years of Indian history (starting roughly at the end of the 19th Century) and finds that all major events during this period pass this test.
In about two or three installments, I endeavour to show how contextual morality as elucidated by Ramanujam is itself flawed.
Will this be Banned in India?
The Indian Express reports
A play inspired by a short story written in the 1960s, which prophesised the rise of religious extremists and bombing of mosques in Pakistan, was staged before packed audiences in the federal capital.
When Dhanak, the short story by noted Urdu writer Ghulam Abbas, was read out to a select audience in Lahore four decades ago, it had caused a furore with rightwing writers and critics enraged at the portrayal of religious zealous in it.
They believed the story was exaggerated and distorted and ruled that ‘no Muslim can ever conceive of killing religious leaders or bombing mosques’.
Following the reading, Abbas had to be escorted out of the hall for his own safety and the story was never included in any of his collections.
With the story becoming so believable in the present day Pakistan, Hotel Mohenjodaro, the play by leading theatre group Ajoka, was sadly not shocking.
The prophetic writing couldn’t have been closer to the ‘ugly reality’ of present day Pakistan, said its creators.
The play has become a huge hit in the Land of the Pure, religious zealots notwithstanding. Assuming it will be staged in India, what is the wager that it will be banned?
In the Name of the Aam Aadmi
Or how the Congress Party Screwed the Aam Aadmi
Cut to 2004 when an euphoric Congress party declared its victory over the dark forces of communalism, rich-centric politics and related evils. It declaimed that its Aam Aadmi slogan had done in the India Shining slogan etcetera. Cut to present.
Consider the state of India’s economy, which the UPA had inherited.
Check the growth of subsidies.
Check loan waivers.
Check prices of essential commodities.
Check inflation.
Check aam aadmi.
Enough said.
Related Reading: Economic Terrorism and Energy Security | Inflation: Revised | The UPA Government’s gas bomb
Pragati: June 2008
The June 2008 issue of Pragati is out. Download your copy now.
This issue carries a modified version of my article on the perils of lending intellectual defense to terrorism.
For the original article, see below.
The Colonial Economist
This disgusting tripe cannot be called a "book review." It stops short at making an open personal attack on L.K. Advani. Now that I’ve already wasted two sentences, I leave you with something beyond contempt. Read the last line, especially.
In 2005 Mr Advani and his family were invited on a tour of Pakistan, ending in Karachi, the city of Mr Advani’s birth, which he was forced to flee after British India’s bloody division, and which he loves more than any other. Deeply moved by an experience that included ample Pakistani hospitality, Mr Advani made some surprisingly generous remarks about Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah—whom hardline Hindus especially hate.
In the furore that followed, he was forced to quit as the BJP’s leader. Mr Advani describes this as “the most agonising moment in my political life”. But what explains his kind words about Jinnah? One possibility, this book suggests, is a refugee’s longing for home.
The Economist has lost none of its colonial brilliance.
Demand for Backwardness
Let me make this a little dramatic.
Historically, the Gurjaras were one of the most prominent dynasties (yes, I hate the word “tribe” or “clan” because it reminds me of all the obnoxious colonial connotations that accompany it) that sacrificed thousands of warriors to ward off Islamic invasions. That is also because Rajasthan was one state that sustained some of the most devastating attacks. We can trace the antecedents of an entire state–Gujarat to this dynasty. This crude paraphrase of Milton, “from what height to what fall” only describes the dismal abyss this once-glorious dynasty is forcing to foster upon itself.
I am talking about the today’s Gujjars.
CNN-IBN’s Script Gone Wrong
Barbar Indians has a blow-by-blow roundup of CNN-IBN’s fascinating coverage of the Karnataka elections. One of the links led me to watch what he terms as an “instructive” video.
The chief actors include a very worried Sagarika Ghose, Ramachandra Guha, Gauri Lankesh and Chandan Mitra (surprise!). I agree with Barbar Indian’s take on the whole farce interview so I’ll add some random bits.
What Does this Mean?
The BJP’s election victory is expectedly the hot subject of discussion on the streets, restaurants, darshinis, paan shops, and bus stops of Bangalore. Yesterday, I was an uninvited party to one such discussion. A BJP worker was extolling his stellar campaigning work. In the middle of explaining how the leader of his constituency made money, he said, “given the kind of promises they have made, if my leader does at least 40% of ‘development works’ this time, we’ll more than double the victory margin in the next election.”
Discuss.