Observing History

Vinaas Kaale Vipareeta Buddhi: Bal Thackeray has pushed himself and Shivsena downward by commenting on Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin's recent comment that “Mumbai belongs to India. I am a Maharashtrian and proud to be a Maharashtrian, but I am also an Indian,” It is necessary for heroes like Sachin to take a stand openly on grave issues like this as an Indian. It is not any celebrity tantrum but comes from the mouth of two stalwarts of Marathi manoos.The Sena supremo signed off with 'a friendly advice, in your own interest' to keep off politics, I hope our people will now keep Bal Thackery on the brinks of politics. All Indians are welcome to visit, live, stay and become Mumbaikars, but big question remains, how long it take for the city to own you?

In Brief about History: Once that was future, now is the past. I like it because, it makes me humble and give feeling my littleness and mortality. History is my favourite subject in reading for pass time from childhood. I read 10th history book at the tender age of 8 just for fun. Primarily, history is like story book interlinked with each other. Great, good and evil all are intermingled with each other with a huge background canvas. I am now trying to read history more as an inquiry of the past. History unlike maths offer personalized conclusion to the same events, that is indeed the beauty of it.

I have now come to half baked conclusion that history is full of wars, genocide and often power games. Migrants (even refugee) are the worst affected in first phase of war but most prosperous after war times. They impact the tradition, trade and even politics in a strong way. History is always written by the conquering forces. Oppressed has more sense of justice than oppressor, hence history should be studied always from the victim point of view to stand on the neutral point of view. History is like flowing in the waves of time. It gives you insight that it is better to die as unknown than to be lived by vanity driven ego. Someday, I hope to learn in the field of anthropology evolution and big bang. For me, they are more historical archives than human history. I read few days ago, a though provoking quote : The world began without the human race and will certainly end without it.—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955

Warning from the Past: On 25 November 1949, Dr Ambedkar made speech in constituent Assembly of India. He speak out three warnings for the future [Source]:

1- The first concerned the place of popular protest in a democracy.

"It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and Satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us."

2- The second warning concerned the unthinking submission to charismatic authority. He quoted John Stuart Mill who cautioned citizens not 'to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or to trust him with power which enable him to subvert their institutions. There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the country. But there are limits to gratefulness. '

"This caution is far more necessary in the case of India than in the case of any other country. For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship."

3- Ambedkar's final warning was to urge Indians 'not to be content with mere political democracy and make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. Indian Society is full of inequalities and hierarchy.

"On the social plane, India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril."

Language and Caste

Words are often served both as a sign of resentment and as an expression of pain. There is huge power in the words to heal or injure anyone. Suddenly, I introspect about Hindi vocab used mostly in northern Indian cities. I observed lately that words like 'chamaar', 'bhangi' and sometimes 'baniya' are used by higher caste Hindus to degenerate others in the sarcastic way. This usage of insulting vocab and idioms is high in the previous generation who had lived their childhood in the villages. But, it is embraced by youths of our generation in the daily usage unconsciously. I hope that this usage of caste based remarks will be extinct once notified to the concerned persons. Our changing language can easily reflect attitude towards equality and showcase ours hypocrisy.

Most of the high caste feel utmost pride in their caste. You can find several communities heading 'Proud to be .....' on orkut or facebook. Whole Hindu caste system is based on the inequality which divides people in four major varnas. It is in paradox of equality, fraternity and liberty. I don't believe that either caste system will be washed out in coming 50 years or social system based on the caste will cease to exist. The road ahead requires much introspection...

Recently, Gulzar was targeted on the usage of world 'teli ka tel' in song of the movie Kaminey and Priyedarshan had to remove Barber from the title of Billu Barber. Now, each caste based community is outraged by any reference to the downtrodden past. Shyam Benegal pointed out this phenomenon very poignantly:

In the process of dismantling caste equations, some of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Dalit communities give themselves identities that no longer associate them with their traditional professions. The new identity requires a reworking of community histories and mythology. Any reference to the old identity can only seem offensive. As part of the mainstream, they are likely to lose their special identity.

It is largely for this reason that it becomes important for them to adopt dominant forms of expression so that others may hear or understand their points of view. Even more important for them is to establish their view as the last word. Any expression that they perceive as an attack on their identity is responded to with considerable vehemence.

Deconstruction of myths does not equate destruction, but rather the rethinking and rearranging of the symbolic meaning of history. Instead of judging, we should try to understand, and to this end history can be of use. Times are changing and it is time write new history..

Education in India is primarily looked for providing jobs like any other place. Still, there is no one seriously debating about social practices and caste based discrimination. We have to make a strong statement about human shortcomings and societal hypocrisy, by portraying people with realism and shunning sentimentality. Such a shift in thinking will take time to have an impact on our youths. All men are not created equal. It is the duty of each of us to make them so. For reading about Dalit issues, Degrees without Freedom: The Impact of Formal Education on Dalit Young Men in North India

Unoriginal Vichaar

When I read the stories of Deep joshi, Venkat Krishnan, Sandeep Pandey & Kiran bedi, it helped me realise that these were ordinary guys who fell in love with something, worked hard at it and came through excellently. I hope that someday I will do something on my own merit, and earn the right to meet them. Till then, learning is the way to go.

Death of Nationalism: CPM is known to have extreme intolerance to any struggle that is not led by them. They will label those struggles as foreign funded or a Maoist uprising, how much public support behind the struggle becomes irrelevant to them. Congress is the mother of all regional parties in nepotism. There are only kripa-patras (sychophants) and chamchas (yes-men) left in the so-called socialist and regional outfit. 'Elections are fought to win and not to lose' , a nepotism supporter proclaim. 'But what of socialism? The lumpen brigade of socialist parties cannot be trusted to usher in socialism. Patriotism is the love to your country, not the refuge of scoundrels like BJP. Nationalism will have fulfilled itself and lost it militancy and would no longer find these things incompatible with self-preservation and the integrability of its outlook. Its the era of transcendentalism by eliminating boundaries of region, religion, color and caste. I dream that a new spirit of oneness will take hold of India.

Message: While awaiting for joining at CSC, Abhishek Arora sent me a sms one day. And It is the best SMS ever received by me---
Hum kuch iss tarah dosti nibhaenge, naukari na mili to bilkul nahi ghabrayenge
dono stationpar chai ki dukan lageynge, tum chai banana, hum chai chai chillayenge.

Mail: This one is from my mailbox (sender name kept secret) about youth icon Sania Mirza (no disrespect, but she is too hot)---
Kashti toofan se nikal sakti hai, Taqdeer kisi bhi waqt bhi badal sakti hai,
Hausla rakh, channel na badal, Sania Mirza kisi bhi waqt jhuk sakti hai...... 


Weblinks:

1- Blogs cannot change India: Atanu Dey

2- Interview of Lord Meghnad Desai

3- Capitalism and Humans Nature

4-Why Operation Green Hunt will fail ?

Today's fortune: To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. Otherwise, Those who forget history are condemned to relive it.