Bullet and Ballot

    While the world seems to be grappled in the news of terrorist acts from Australia to Pakistan to France –well not to exclude India, for it has always been an ‘integral’ part! , couple of events in the past one month certainly deserve mention – and applause. I am talking about the elections in Jammu & Kashmir, and Sri Lanka. While they are seemingly unrelated outwardly, they communicate a message together, if you look closely.  The dissimilarities being –one is a state under the Indian Federation (well, it is!!!) and other is a sovereign nation. So otherwise, there could have been no comparison, but for the overwhelming similarities. For one, both have been affected by one of the most violent conflicts in the world. Both have significant minority population, the origin of conflicts in both the places is the failure of ballot and lastly, both are of significant geo-strategic importance to India.
    Let’s look at each of them.
    Jammu & Kashmir recorded one of the highest voter turnout in its history (and I am sure it must be in the top 10 of all the states in India) for the assembly polls. It was almost twice the numbers in last elections.  In fact, J&K polling percentage is significantly higher than Maharashtra, the most ‘advanced’ state in the country!  The reasons are varied. Some voted for development, some for Modi. Some to bring the ‘Hindu’ BJP in power, while some to keep the same ‘Hindu’ BJP out of power! Irrespective of the reasons, it is significant that the people of a state that was marred in conflicts and violence have chosen the path of ‘ballot’ to convey their message.  The Hurriyat or other separatist groups, though opposing the election process outwardly, encouraged people to vote in numbers, just to keep the BJP out of power! Well unknowingly (or out of compulsion of the Modi juggernaut) they have accepted the validity of the electoral process in J&K! There is no going back on that, for sure! Incidentally it was the failure of the same ‘ballot’ that led to the bullet culture in J&K, apart from the instrumental role played by Pakistan. The results have been even more interesting. The BJP which wanted to form a government on its own, cannot do so without the support of one of the regional parties. PDP possibly can. But is toothless without the central ‘cooperation’, which obviously will depend on BJP’s inclusion in the government. Irrespective of ‘how’ the government is formed, there are 2 takeaways. One, the minority (Kashmiri Pundits here) have spoken – and spoken in a manner that not only has made their representation in the government necessary, but forced the valley to accept the validity of the electoral process! Second – Pakistan has been left with a role of a mere ‘observer’ in this process! Irrespective of the ‘government’ that is formed, the voices of the majority and the minority are heard and define the way they are governed. Conclusively, for its own reasons, Ballot has won over bullets.
    Sri Lankan elections are a little different. It was the first election after the fall of LTTE and the end to the violent conflict. Summarily speaking, the power has transferred from one party to another, both ‘pro Sinhalese’. But the statistics show that the Tamil votes have been a significant game changer. So the ethnic minority that has been at loggerheads with the government has facilitated a political change. The new government and all subsequent ones will have to take the ‘minority’ factor into consideration going forward. Incidentally it was the LTTE call for boycott that enabled Rajapaksa to win by slender margin in the last elections. How this positively affects the Tamil population, remains to be seen. But a change has been affected for sure, again underlining the importance of ballot over bullet. And of course, the elements that supported bullet, have been left to the fringe as mere ‘observers’.
    Not to mention, India is ‘positively’ affected by both the developments. While J&K was an Indian territory that was being troubled by pro-Pakistan elements, Sri Lanka holds geo-strategic importance. Peace and stability at both the places is of pivotal importance to India. The outcome in Kashmir can help contain the ‘Pakistani’ influence in the state ,while that in Sri Lanka can help us limit the Chinese ( and to an extent Pakistani) involvement. But irrespective of these, the most important outcome is the realization by the populace that they can positively affect change without the need of ‘bullets’.
    This is a message to all those involved in violent conflicts around the world- the separatists in Kashmir, Palestinians, the Jihadist, and ISIS, IRS, Maoists in India and others across the globe. Ballots can make a difference-sooner or later. The question is – Do you really want the change.

Legacy

    One of my forefathers nine generations ago was a great holy man. Well this is not a belief but documented fact by conventional standards. I do believe it, sans the ‘miracles’ that he did! Seems he mesmerized even the Islamic rulers of the region in his times. I am certainly proud of the lineage, to the extent I believe is true and not the exaggeration as is usually associated with great men and saints. But the question really is – What does it mean for me?  I am a product of the positive and/or negative influences on the subsequent generations which were either the result of the society/times they lived in or their own creation. Most importantly, I am result of my own karma! So really speaking, apart from being ‘proud’ of the lineage, I have no right to derive any further benefits from a great lineage.  I can probably tread a path to propagate the ‘teachings’ of my forefather. But again that would be my karma. Essentially there is nothing that I should morally proclaim as my ‘greatness’ based on my forefather’s achievements. If at all, it belonged certainly to him, his parents probably, his family and the society at large, in those times which enabled him to be what he was.
    I am overwhelmed by the ‘new’ discoveries that we have come to realize since past few years and prominently since past few weeks. Seems ‘our’ (and we will deal with ‘our’ later) forefathers had invented and discovered everything from the most advanced weapons, nuclear technologies, aircraft, surgical procedures and advanced medical practices, economics, interplanetary motions and what not !. You speak of it and seems, you supposedly have got the answer in the ancient history of Bharat! The references given in most of the cases are ancient documents written in Sanskrit, the original versions of which most of us are not privy to read or incapable of doing so.  So the source of all the information for common man (who is not illiterate but ‘ill’ literate) really is the statements given by some ‘scholars’ or the posts in social media. Given the ‘credibility’ of both, a layman like me would certainly have questions. Is all that true? If yes, why is all the information lost? Is it something that can stand the test of today’s times? And most importantly, what does it mean for me today? Interestingly the outcome of this discussion is not a function of any one of the questions, but a sum average of all of them combined.
    Let’s start with the first one. Is it true? Well it certainly has not been proved false! But does that mean everything is true? Going by the hypothesis that humans were like, what they are today (well not everyone was god!)  , would somebody have written about the ‘fascinating’ things unless they existed? Or had a reason to imagine so?  Unless it’s a recent interpretation that intends to map modern inventions/discoveries to co-related mention of events in ancient history (some prefer to call it mythology…either ways). But even if you assume that to be mythology, the authors were indeed real figures. So either they had fertile brains which could imagine of things thousands of years before time or those things existed. However, assuming, or knowing that there have been some specific mention about events/ machines the question is – Do I believe that it all existed to be true based on what is mentioned?  Also –And this is more interesting, if couple of claims are indeed proven to be true, does it mean that all of them are?   Hard to tell.  The other obvious question would be where is the information lost? We hear that it was lost during the ‘foreign rule’ for almost thousand years. But then India has a fairly documented history of around 1000-1500 years before that. Don’t see mention of many of these things then. Was the information encoded and hidden? What may have been the objective? We need to find this Holy Grail to conclusively say anything further.
    The other question is more relevant. What does it mean to the present and future generations? For one, if true, it certainly gives you the sense of pride in being Indian/Hindu (whichever way you look at it). But what beyond that? Does it, in current state materially help change the direction of our scientific journey?  Probably not, since that would have been already taken care of, by now. The obvious answer is the ‘softer ‘aspect of this information which is of more value to the creators of this information. Few objectives that I can think of are
    1.    Help branding of ‘Bharat’ internationally. This is less likely in absence of concrete proof since there     are/would be similar claims by different cultures and civilizations worldwide which have to go through the scrutiny     of the scientific community. Besides, by the same analogy that we reject western claims, why would we expect them     to accept ours in absence of a documentary proof and chain of evidence which is their method of evaluation?
    2.    Internal Branding – This certainly seems to be the case. Already, Indians (and by that I mean resident,     NRI, PIO etc. etc.) are exuberant with the idea. As I said, it always feels great to cherish the accomplishment of one’s forefathers.
    3.    Promoting the idea to future generations- That seems to be the next step.
    4.    The ultimate goal being the socio-political leverage arising out of the mass hysteria.
   
    We have to tread very carefully on these matters. While a sense of elated national/religious pride may help us to some extent in terms generating positivity, it definitely will not solve our long term problems. Kids are the most vulnerable. I still remember being proud in my school days, knowing the fact that Aryabhata invented zero. I still am. However, the experience of realizing what you studied earlier to be untrue (or not an established and acceptable fact- I am being technically correct here!) is a difficult one. I have been there, when quite a few of my school concepts where changed later on. I am sure many of us have been there too. In the process of undoing Macaulayism, we need to be careful that we are not replacing it with an indigenous version! Because the impact would be equally bad in either case.
    So what you may ask? Should we just disregard all the historic /mythological information as junk? Certainly not.  That information is certainly invaluable from historic and scientific perspective.  We should certainly not be disregarding it because it’s not proven. There have to be efforts made in the right direction to unearth more facts. However, claiming these as facts should be avoided unless they go through the right tests of reasoning and science.  And there is no harm in telling kids that XYZ is mentioned in our ancient scriptures and we are still ascertaining the facts. So yes, bringing forth ‘facts’ about the past which are hitherto not known- yes we need to do that. But glorifying the past based on untenable information- to be avoided.
    Lastly, do we need all these things to be ‘more’ proud of? Speaking for me, I am proud of being a Bharatiya/ Indian/Hindu irrespective of these steroids. One doesn’t love his or her parents any more based on their achievements! Throughout human history, there have been multiple cultures that have reached the zenith of glory at different times. We are one of them. And they have achieved the glory based on their hard work and perseverance.  We have no claim on what is rightfully theirs. Neither do we need their crutches to build a strong and glorious India. We can!

    A nation that forgets its past doesn’t have a future. Well, a nation that distorts its past is called Pakistan.

Jai Hind

The Religious Game

    They say, the best way to play a spinner is on the front foot. Right where the ball pitches. That ways you take away the unpredictability of the turn. Although that sounds defensive, it is in fact a proven technique of positively playing spin ballers. A good batsmen has the necessary range of shots to play back foot. But the first line of offence is the front foot.
    This is not about Cricket or Dhoni btw. Neither is it about PK. Because irrespective of whether you consider PK ‘anti-hindu’ and call for ban or bark about freedom of expression , ones who wanted to watch it have already watched it and the producers and promoters sitting on pile of cash while countless columnists and bloggers come out with reasons every day essentially to promote their thought process using ‘PK’ as a tool. Funny, isn’t it? Everything can be presented the way you want it! And everything seems correct! That is EXACTLY the essence of this write up.  Multiple thought processes that are equally convincing and can stand up to scrutiny of debates. I don’t need to switch the context while replying to a point in the debate. Neither am I required to suppress thoughts in order to win. Wait- am I talking about ‘Sanatan Dharma’ here? That’s exactly what it is!
    There has been too much noise about the aggressive posture of some hindutva organizations vis-à-vis conversions (or re-conversations or ‘ghar wapasi’ – you name it), secularism, freedom of expression etc. in the past few weeks. For one, just because there is a BJP government at the center doesn’t mean that these organizations have to ‘slow down’. They will go about doing business same way evangelists go about doing their’s or how Islam is propagated. Just because they get a level playing field is no reason to cry foul about ‘saffronization’. Get the statistics on conversions and you will know what I mean. Btw my personal view here is, every religion has the ‘equal’ right to propagate within the realms of law. Just because Hindus are majority, doesn’t mean they lose the right!
    My concern is on the way Hinduism is propagated, which I essentially believe is a ‘defensive’ technique. Have you wondered how the ‘Sanatan Dharma’ (wont tie it to a religion, since there are many with similar thought process and some differences) persisted all these centuries? We talk about 800 years of Islamic rule followed by almost one hundred and fifty years of colonialization and still Hinduism ( encompasses all the non-Abrahamic religions for brevity ) was and remains as the pre-dominant religion of this country. It was certainly not ‘because’ of the rulers, but in-spite of them! Indeed, there were conversions during this phase .But most were for reasons other than spiritual-either lure or force. Hinduism had and has enough to offer in order to satisfy and expand the spiritual and social needs of humans. And the fundamental reason for this is, Hinduism was never tied to a singular set of thoughts or deeds that needed to be carried forward through centuries just because it was mentioned ‘somewhere’. You can see instances of this everywhere throughout the country. We are talking of a number of  religions, thousands of sects and even more methods of salvation that have evolved over centuries of existence, all encompassed under the big banyan tree. What more – Every time the society was stuck in orthodoxy and dogmas, a new set of ideas emerged and carried the ‘dharma’ forward. So we have the Vedas, Upanishads, Mahavir, Buddha, Sankaracharya, Dnaneshwar -and the whole warkari sect, Vivekananda, Ramanuja and thousands others who have carried the torch forward, often deviating from the established norms and charting a new course. It is this fluidity that best defines the Dharma and not some set of conceived principles or practices. And it is this encompassing nature that will help expand Hinduism.
    What we see today is a process of ‘defining’ Hindutva. Limiting it, constraining it. Trying to establish its ‘supremacy’ by concocted historical facts. Emulating the techniques of other religions and in the process losing the very essence of it. Effectively we are playing ‘backfoot’ here and not to our strengths. With the current process, we might improve on the ‘numbers’ for short term, but loose in long term.  If we want to propagate, tell the world WHY this dharma survived all the onslaughts and still stands tall. How it has the inherent ability to reinvent. Why countries or cultures that were subsequently converted to other religions still bear strong links to their ‘hindu’ (or Buddhist or Jain) past. Have wide debates where religion is measured on logic. Help change the aspects that have lost essence over period of time instead of insisting on them just because somebody 500 years ago followed them. Don’t try to contain the river for the fear of it merging into a lake. For, in the process you are turning the river into a ‘lake’. Instead, break the barriers of lakes and help them merge onto the river! In short, evolve and expand. Most importantly, focus on propagation of ideas instead of the ‘people’ or ‘religion’ who originated it. After all, that is what defines the dharma – Isnt it?
    I know a counter view which explains about the radical propagation of Christianity in tribal areas supposedly using foreign funds and ‘unethical’ ways.  And that the numbers will change the demography of the country. I have always held the view that this is wrong. Not because they are converting to Christianity, but because they do not understand religion in a conventional sense. In fact their view of dharma (which is a way of life for them and not religion) is much broader than the rest of the ‘Hindus’ and most certainly than other religions! It is like converting a 3 yr old kid. No wonder the kid would be attracted to whoever gives him chocolates or love without realizing that you are separating him from his parents. So go out, give them the love and keep them what they are and not convert them into ‘Hindus’ or Christians.
So, let’s go and aggressively propagate our Dharma. On the front foot though, not waiting for the ball to turn :) . Because, once it does, you are playing to the baller’s game- not your’s.

The Injured toe

    Have you experienced this? - If you have an injured toe, you tend to hurt it again and again! Either it has to do with the fact that you are extra cautious while during the time the toe is injured and inadvertently  tend to hurt it more OR the more logical explanation being, you ‘realize’ ,because it pains when the toe hurts again and again !. There is no statistical evidence that you actually hurt it more during this time.
    I see a striking similarity in the news as reported, particularly in the vicinity of an important event. More so, if it’s an event worth negative publicity. Look at this- I see daily news about 'Ghar Vapasi' programs being organized across the country. One may seem to believe that there is sudden surge in conversion programs by the Hindu organizations. This is likely to create 'panic' amongst some and quite possibly exploited politically. However, I believe this is certainly not the case. The business of conversion (lately ‘to’, but 'from' since centuries) of/by Hindus has been going on seamlessly for quite some time. Just that the Aligarh or Agra incident have given the media and 'concerned' parties enough ammunition.  Another example - I see frequent news of child abuse and criminal acts of sexual nature being reported from Bengaluru. Does that mean that there is sudden rise in child abuse cases and that Bengaluru was a safe place earlier? Probably not. But one event brought the focus on Bengaluru and now we have almost daily report of issues.  Ditto, during the Nirbhaya case. After the unfortunate incident, there was news of a rape in Delhi almost daily. Sometimes multiple in a day.
    It is very easy to blame the administration (in cases like rape) and/or the political parties/media (depending on which side you are). But thinking of it, everybody is right in their own way. Authorities are right in being vigilant for similar cases and acting on them .The media is right in reporting the incident. It’s their job of course and they will want to gain TRP from it. Political parties have right to make noises. It’s their job again! - Apart from many other things.
    However, the event or events are far stretched and distorted versions circulated on social media by vested interests. This apart from the 24X7 dose from news channels and their ‘experts’. The net result of this is creation of mass hysteria leading to anti-incumbency, demonstrations, cynicism, panic and everything else that may not be good for the society and nation. The positive aspect being creation of awareness and (to some extent) efficiency of administration in such cases, at least for some time.  Statistically speaking there is no evidence that the occurrence of ‘said’ event is found to reduce over time due to the excessive reporting or mass hysteria. Reason of course is that all the hysteria is a game of public emotions and numbers and public memory is short. 
    So what? Are we supposed to shut down the TV sets, newspapers and social media and just believe what Doordarshan says? Not really. But apply your own filters.

    “Logon ke kahane pe maat jao. Aapne dimage ki batti jalao! “
    In short,Use your discretion.

    Btw, this applies equally to overpublicized ‘achievements’ and flooding of ‘positive news’ as well!


    Jai Hind.

Peace of mind

The Peshawar incident involving the brutal killing of 130 school children has created a wave of strong reactions across the world. In fact it was so agonizing that many even in India, have been psychologically impacted by it. While the incident has been unequivocally condemned by almost everybody –except of course the Taliban and many of its ‘silent’ supporters, there are many who have tried to further their political, religious and ideological views as an addenda to the condemnation messages.  The official reaction of the Indian government deserves applause at this juncture as it was devoid of any political references in spite of the fact that India remains one of the most impacted countries due to terror emanating from Pakistan. 

 There are also those who have given references to past massacres and genocide in Iraq, the implicit question being – Why does this incident deserve ‘more’ condemnation than the ‘others’. The ‘others’ supposedly being more or equally horrific. Well no one knows the answer.  After all, statistically speaking there have been numerous ‘similar’ incidents which could have changed the course of history .But only some of them did. Going by the mass reactions and official statements I honestly wish this could and should be an event that would change the course of history.  Taliban and their brothers, whatever they stand for, have taken the biggest hit in terms of brand value and this should be leveraged to the maximum to exterminate them once and for all.  

 This has also brought many questions to the fore. The foremost of them is – Is or should terror be linked to religion? The political answer is ‘no’. But facts suggest otherwise. While there have been many violent struggles in modern history, fact remains that today terrorism has become synonymous with Islam. In fact history of Islamic expansion and growth has been associated with terror and violence much more than any other religion. There are many who come out with explanation of how the philosophy of Islam doesn’t support violence.  Even if that is theologically correct, the question still remains – Then why is there so much of variance in its interpretation?  After all, mere concepts don’t matter .Their interpretation and application does! So, however nicely one wishes to put it, the moral of the story is, there is something seriously flawed with the religion as it is practiced today or for past few centuries at least.  And it is for the Muslims to fix it. As a consolidated group (which many wish to believe or make others believe they are) Muslims are a majority in the world. So there is no reason, not to be able to fix this, unless there is a lack of willingness to do so.    

Reason number two – Western hegemony and the injustice done to the Muslims. Well you are not the only ones! Hardly any nation/population is unaffected by it, including the western world itself. We have never seen such a violent expression of revolt anywhere else. So again time for introspection. Is it that the interpretation of religion promotes violence more than others? Unless the Islamic world wakes up and fixes the problem, we will see it getting worse day by day. Another thing, for those who dream of an Islamic Caliph and world dominion, even if there is a chance of that happening in the next 10,000 years, it will NEVER NEVER NEVER happen if you continue to use violence as means of propagation.  So forget it!

 Many hope and expect Pakistan to wake up to the dangers of terrorism at least now and stop supporting terror as an instrument of state policy. Well I would say it is a hopeless expectation! Simply because they do not have any other means to further their agenda. Given the fact that the very survival of Pakistan is anti-India, it would need sufficient means to inflict damages on India. Currently there are none except terrorism. So, we might see a lull in terrorist activities, even ‘milder’ versions of terrorist attacks for some time, but it will not go away. Because unlike the Taliban or ISIS , this is not about furthering of an ideology or economics ,but a battle for existence on part of Pakistan !. 

 The other topic doing rounds is around violence. Generally speaking violence doesn’t have or should not have any place in civilized society. However I find it amusing when people try to promote religions which are supposedly ‘nonviolent’, in the guise of Peshawar tragedy. Singling out Islam doesn’t absolve other religions at all.  All religions in various forms have been guilty of wars and violence, though not necessarily on the scale of Islam. All you have to do is go couple of millennia back and/or look around the globe! There is enough evidence of it. So, while it may be an ideological (or interpretative, whatever way you want to look at it) problem in Islam, in general violence is a human problem.  Or is it even beyond that?  Are animals, or rather life in general violent in nature? If it is, why do we expect humans to not be so?  By expecting humans to be different (and even if that is on the basis of ‘intellect’) are we not expecting a deviation in the concept of evolution or the ‘oneness of universe’?  On the contrary, if life is not violent, the question would be, where did we humans get the traits from? Is it ‘intellect’? If so, hasn’t intellect done more harm than good to humans and the world at large? To go even deeper, what constitutes violence?

Lots of questions and even more answers! For now, let’s pray for peace and sanity.

“Sushantir Bhavatu”

   Let there be peace!

Amen.

'Su' Vichar: All is well !

'Su' Vichar: All is well !:     Finally sanity prevailed and the old friends are back together. I would call it more of a marriage than friendship The events in past f...

All is well !

    Finally sanity prevailed and the old friends are back together. I would call it more of a marriage than friendship The events in past few months resemble  those of warring couple and not friends, with bloated egos , calling names ,prolonged negotiations besides the ‘third’ party involvement ! . I wouldn’t want to define who the husband and wife are lest, my otherwise gender neutral friends (at least in theory) will pounce on me! Also, we may not want to go into details of this ‘induced’ sanity since the first question that would be asked is, why not earlier? Even assuming that it was RSS who pushed for it on ideological grounds, the question still would be – why not earlier? Or is it that real politick scores over ideology?
    Anyways it’s good to see the Shiv Sena and BJP together.  The happiest person would be Mr. Devendra Phadnavis . He may at least get to sleep without the fear of getting a phone call in the middle of night, informing that the ‘nonexistent’ outside support has been withdrawn! So hopefully he should look at a longer tenure now. For the people, it means a fair amount of stability. May not translate into ‘acche din’ immediately .That train is yet to start from Delhi. Some say it has started. Either ways, will take time to reach Mumbai! But in the interim, you at least get to enjoy the daily local trains and the metro! , not to mention a less eventful (in the house at least!) winter session.
    So do we have a winner?  No, but we certainly have the losers! For the BJP, the high was getting more seats than what the Shiv Sena was offering. So certainly they scored a point. The low was to realize that they really do not have an alternative, not in the present context at least and having being required to negotiate and agree with the Shiv Sena. For the Sena, it was a series of lows, starting with BJP winning close to majority seats (well you feel bad if you fail in the exams. But you feel like sh*t when you fail and your friend stands first!) But ended up in a high with them getting a significant number of ministerial births-ignoring, the nitty-gritty of the portfolios, they were insisting on. Effectively a zero sum game for both the parties- so far at least! For the people, it is a positive thing since, we are looking at a (relatively) prolonged stability.  I feel the real losers are the diehard fanatics (cyber fanatics- that’s the word) on either side, who went about bashing the other as if there was no tomorrow! So what happened to your thoughts and emotions? Are the fans disillusioned? If so (well, for that you need to stop being a fanatic, momentarily at least) it’s a lesson – politics of convenience plays over everything else!. Bear that in mind!  Others – They will unabashedly go about the business of justifying, how the alliance had to be saved in the name of religion! , conveniently ignoring what was forwarded and publicized by them during the past few months. Carry on guys, that’s all I can say!
    So what does it mean in a long term? Hard to say. BJP has certainly set the cat among the pigeons by attempting to go alone in the state. Besides its attempts in other states to expand the sphere of influence will certainly make the Sena wary.  The BMC elections in 2017 will see the next chapter of this story unfold. So obviously the alliance (not sure if we should call it that) in its new form is nowhere its earlier avatar- will never be. It is an alliance of opportunity and convenience, no matter how much the fanatics proclaim it to be based on ‘ideology’ or friendship!  BJP will try to use the stability to further strengthen the organization, besides providing ‘good governance’ whenever possible! Shiv Sena on its part will look for making the most of its participation in the government, strengthen the organization and wait for the wave to die down to prove a point or two ( if they still feel the need).

    What about Sharad Pawar and co.? Well let’s wait and see what comes out of the magician’s hat!

    As for the common people, I am reminded of the stanza from the song in 3 Idiots
       
           "Murgi ka jaane ande ka kya hoga ,
           Life milegi ya tawe pe fry hoga,
           Koi na jaane apna future kya hoga
           Honth ghuma, seethi baaja Seethi baaja ke bol
           Bhaiya All is well”

Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra and Jai Bhim.