The Grand Indian Marriages

Marriage in India is not practically a marriage, its a filtration process, a process which is in every religion and no one, I mean no one, whether love marriage or arrange marriage, is immune from it. The point is this, that marriage in India is not a personal concept at all, its a social concept.

"Look her, she got married at 23 itself !! Such a happy Lady.... Don't you think that you should too??"
"Look at him, he got married at 27 itself, just after he finished 1 year after an MBA. Don't you think you should too??"
"I am about to die, let you keep my last wish alive. I want to see my granddaughter/grandson married. I want to hold my Grand-Grandchild in my arms".... So lovely,, isn't it??

From the above para, as you can see, these are religion-less comments, in other words, universal and eternal..... 4 years of age gap is welcome since ideal age is 23 and 27. So nice... Dear Reader, you must understand that these standard ages had some social amendments. In earlier days it used to be 16 and 21, 5 years to 4 years.

Now we should look upon the filtration process. When it comes to water purification, generally there are three different methods : RO filters, Aqua-guard and Simple Candle Filters. One day, few men and women of some Indian society, combined them all in a step by step sequence. The RESULT : They got MILK from WATER !!! Waaaaaaawwwwww....

They used their head now, knocked it and knocked it many times. Then they came up with this idea : If water can produce milk then what men and women will produce if they are also subjected to similar process. One of them argued that they will produce Super Childs, his argument was a welcome. But then one intellectual argued : " Since water which is considered at par with milk, has produced actually milk, therefore, the men and women will actually produce GODS since Children are incarnation of Gods (if we subject them through this process)." Everybody was like : "Hmmmmm"

And hence began the quest of this process. What should be the process? The priests from every section like Hindu, Muslim, Christians, Sikhs etc. were appointed, Religious books were "bought" (and I think they must have been read too) and ideal and suitable places were identified. And the results were as follows :

Religion Filters (the numbers 1,2,3 etc. represents the sequence of filters to be used)

Christians : 1.Vatican Sect/ Orthodox Sect 3. Tribal/Non-Tribal
2. Roman Catholic/ Protestants

Muslims : 1. Muslim 3. Pathans/Qureshi etc.
2. Shia/Sunni

**Hindus thought that they are oldest, so they need a better filter, hence they came with six filters :
Hindus : 1. Hindu 2. Caste 3. Subcaste 4. Gotra 5. Kul-Devta (neglected nowadays) 6. Kundli (this is an adjustable filter)

Hmmmmmmmmmm............. Similar is the case of other religions, you can add in the comments. Well, in the end, I must admit, it was a significant achievement by our ancestors and marked a clear cut chapter in our Indian Heritage and Culture. We must carry onto these traditions and make sure that the Holy Soul of our ancestors are happy and enjoying their eternity......

Europe and Its Refugee Crisis

In this age of frequent Civil Wars, perhaps what world  had never witnessed so far, Europe is reaping its own harvest. Europe with the aid of its God Father (America) tried not only to revolutionise and change the discourse of Arab Nations by imposing Democracy but also it did not turn away from using violence through its creation called NATO. Europe thought that it will end what it use to call "crisis", the dictatorial crisis by a single blow, by promoting violence and using proxy groups for weakening the corresponding government. The Arab Spring got a humongous public support, many of the dictators gave up like that of Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt but the Syrian Government did not. Instead Syrian Government bombed the protesters and created a vacuum, a vacuum of trust among its own people. This vacuum created enough opportunities for radical groups to grow up. They got their support from few people who were among those hurt by the violent measures taken by the government to curb the so called Arab Spring. Among these groups who were dreaming of their reign, there was one group which was promising people of an Islamic State, a unified Islamic State which would be ruled by a Caliphate just like the olden days, those olden days in which Islam ruled, conquered, built mosques, eliminated everything and anything which was detached from Allah....

Many people misled by this notion, supported every bit of IS views. But who knew that IS was not Islam. It was Wahhabism, an extreme Sunni sect which wanted Sunni Islam built on the concept of Wahhabism and Deobandi. Wahhabism does not respect even the Sufi sect, they believe in either the submission or cutting-off any demonstrator who does not accept their choice. Later on IS started persecuting all of them who denied its Wahhabi stand and the Sunni notion. Different local groups such as the Kurdish groups, who were once declared terrorists working against state, suddenly gained support not only from the people but from government too. But it was already too late as America had delayed the calculations a lot. Six months after IS had started holding strong grounds, US President Barack Obama admitted that they had heavily under-estimated IS. IS now controls more than 50% of the Syrian territory and almost 500,000 people have lost their lives to this Civil War.

Europe : Double Trouble

Europe is losing money very fast. PIIGS have already gone bankrupt and they are withdrawing themselves from pumping money in any situation which does not mean business to it. And at this situation the refugees who number in millions, have arrived at its door seeking asylum, its right to live and avoid the conflict of which they are nothing more than just a victim. The refugees are finding it very hard to live with dignity that they even did not bother the lobbying by UK in 2014 to get away with Mare Nostrum. Mare Nostrum was a mission focused over saving refugees from drowning but UK wanted them to drown so that they should not take that journey. But the situation back at home were so dangerous for these refugees that they multiplied their attempts and risked their lives for reaching Europe which has a lesser stringent laws for Refugees and respects Human Rights more than any continent does, may be not by spirit but at-least by rules. Refugees were also encouraged by European public who welcomed them everywhere which is not only "Being Human" but also slapping its own government.

The mass killings, severe conflict, armed race, proxy wars and many other factors which led to mass exodus of the Syrians is such that One-Third of the Syrians are refugee in their own state and and another 4 million have fled their country. Most of them are educated, employable, in new age group which are perhaps the demand of the European State. But Europe is going bankrupt, it is not ready for this much of rehabilitation. A few countries such as Hungary has said that it won't accept any "Muslim" population despite this fact that even if Europe takes the entire population, the percentage of Muslim population with respect to total population residing in Europe will increase by hardly 1% and still it will be less than 5% of the total population. This same sick attitude of Europe has led to participation of around 4000 European Muslims out of nearly 35000 in IS. The isolation of its own people just because they belonged to some religion, gave a push to recruitment drive of these extreme religious outfits, and now Europe is repeating the same. 

Trouble or Opportunity

As mentioned earlier, the European population is an aging population. Europe needs educated youths. Also the vague argument over Muslim population does not stand any chance as the refugees once given an asylum, try very fast to engage within the country, open their own business as is evident in case of Syrian refugees who belong mostly to at-least an average family. They afforded $1000 per head to cross Europe. So if given chance, then they will contribute to Economy and perhaps return very soon of what is being invested on them right now. We have defaulters who have cheated for years, can't we give these refugees a chance to show them what is an observed fact. Also, since a war torn refugee is himself/herself a sufferer, so it is observed that most of the refugees try to live a very peaceful life in their new place. During this, they compromise a lot with their interest so that they do not disturb the natives and limit their own chance of a good life. More than that, these refugees had not created IS but it was created by the political and strategic vacuum which was created by US and its European Allies (who are refusing to accept them). Till now, despite this huge crisis, its the first option of US and its Allies is that the Syrian Government should step down first and then they will co-operate with the office of Syria over the issue of IS. Such a trash.....

Though Assad (Syrian Monarch) could not be given a clean chit but he is trying to make sure that IS is put on the back-foot despite this fact that his neighbours, like Saudi Arabia, are keen on destablising the Syrian Governmnt as its a Shia Government (and Saudi's are Sunni and so is IS). Saudi and its neighbouring countries such as Oman, UAE have accepted zero refugees (shamelessly) but Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt are taking care of 95% of the refugees. Europe should try to utilise these refugees on humanitarian ground as it needs them more than they do. Europe will starve for people if it does not accept youths at faster rate. This unfortunate moment has given them such opportunity, they should utilise it. Europe should stop singing the vague "Muslim" song and should understand that refugees tend to commit less crime than the natives as they have arrived in Europe not to loot but to find better opportunity. IS is not refugees' creation but of Europe itself !! 

Politicians of Today, Politicians of Yesterday !!

People argue that there has been a steep decline in the dignity of politics by the politicians and they are on completely different sides as compared to their predecessors who represented India during and just after the Indian Independence. In my view, its a bogus argument. Demoralisation or declination of an institution or a discipline does not occur overnight. In my view, the decline of the dignity of politicians, if not the politics, had been a major contention of doubt by "Pitahmas" of politics of every generation. Be it the representatives of Socialist party of 1922 in the ministries of later period or the Congress Party after the Government of India Act 1935, every time there was a sign of reluctance shown by the senior members in participation of elections and ministries crafted by the Britishers because they knew well that most of the humans, including those who are sage, often submits his/her principles to the virtue of "power". And unfortunately, it came out to be true. One of the prime reasons for the Congress to withdraw from the ministries was the increasing level of corruption among its ruling members. After the independence, in 1948 itself there was Jeep Scandal Case which was termed as the first major scandal case in independent India's history. Also, during the making of Constitution, people involved in the different Constitution making committees showed their genius character which they had imbibed, but the members who had been participating in the debate some times exposed their conservative views when it came to issues like National Language or the marriage at will or religious laws particularly the Sharia Laws. The members who had been making noise regarding the Sharia Laws were the previous members of Muslim League. In my view, the present so called "secular" leaders and the communal ones are no way less than any Muslim League members as they are ready to put wedges between the social fabric so that it could continue to strengthen their political base. 

Is there any Difference?

The history is repeating itself because the causes are the same and their is no change, perhaps, in the quality of factors which lead to this. Not to speak of the uneducated or illiterate people, even the educated class continues to behave as if they hold a fake certificate. The entire idea of democracy could be successful only if the people respect the meaning of individual's behavourial quality and not of individual's dynastic quality. Still today this practice prevails in the so called "Institutes of National Importance" like the NITs, IITs etc. where regionalism or the party representation has a lot to do with the college politics. And today with the availability of Social Media platforms, any leader escapes the media questions and answers those on his/her own terms by a tweet or a post. The only difference which makes the behaviour of politicians today and yesterday different is their approach towards media. The "Pitahmas"  used to be media friendly but the politicians today brand any media agency as an agent of the opposite party. In my opinion this is the only difference. The aggression among the politicians have become rampant and they don't want anybody to differ from their opinion. If anybody does, then he is a Pakistani, or an agent, or a Hindu terrorist. 

This aggression is because of two things : 

first, they are finding it very difficult to adjust with the changing generation; too much of media presence which even takes a dig when they play hide and seek while watching porn in the respective assemblies; presence of women in the nation and in every field which is shaking their feet and taking off their grounds. Such is the danger that they even make sexist remarks out of frustration in order to demean its importance. Second is the changing equation of the people itself. In the paragraph above, I have written about the bigot nature of people who till now used to vote on the basis of origin of the corresponding leader, but what could be witnessed now, and which is a good sign, that even in the state election of Bihar, "relative development" is going to be an issue and from a caste based politics it might change to party based politics. which though may not be good but certainly can be branded as an improvement in the present circumstances. Previously when Nitish Kumar's party came, it came on the agenda of development only. That election was a departure of Biharis from caste based politics. But the darker side is this that RJD loosed election not because of this departure but the critical role played by Ram Vilash Pasvan in wooing the Muslim votes away from him. Lalu had his share still less the Muslim votes. In other words that election may not be a complete departure but it was indeed a beginning and it won. 

Conclusion

People are still wandering and they will continue to wander and this wandering will strengthen the politicians to further deteriorate the standard of politics, one example is the recent stalemate of the Parliament which is not only stalling processes but in my terms, its about taking the country on back foot. The onus is on the people to distinguish between what they had contended for and what do they achieved as a result. The movement does not need a leader but individual leader who can guide themselves and not copy any one else.

   

Why Indian version of Secularism is the Best

The very basic definition of secularism is very simple to understand (though even more tough to implement in one's own life),i.e., unbiased orientation to any religion or some consider that secularism means any doctrine that rejects religion or religious considerations. But as we all know, legal processes have their own version in every aspect. There are two versions of secularism considered widely, one is the Indian Secularism and the other is Western Secularism. As per Indian Secularism, the state can interfere in religious sanctions, rules or anything else which it considers uncomfortable with respect to rights conferred on its citizens or residents by it which have evolved out of hundreds of debates, years of struggle for equal right towards its freedom from a foreign government or its peaceful era during a Mughal Empire which turned disastrous during Aurangzeb. Whereas the Western Secularism does not interfere with the definition of secularism at all. It has imbibed it as a principle definition, its definition strictly means that state has nothing to do with religious considerations.

The point is this that the two definitions are good on their own where Indian secularism, with respect to state, is not a hundred percent definition but the definition of Western Secularism could be said to be hundred percent in its character. But the point is this that India and West have one thing in common, they adhere to the Human Rights (HR) and HR should not be violated on any grounds. Now the point is this, that as per HR, Indian Parliament and Courts can direct anyone to put its religious sanction on back foot and must follow the state's decision  whereas with regard to West it becomes difficult. Due to this sometimes Western nations find it very difficult to accommodate its people from other nations to adjust in its environment whereas in India, its very clear, messing with state on the name of religion is not good for health though political sector may show sympathy (often).

This clear perception, in case of India, drives the third generation to normally a no confusion state but in case of West, it often goes out of order. This has resulted into participation by the third generation into terrorist organistaion such as IS etc. from the Western countries but from India, despite having larger share of population, there is very little participation.

**The Third Generation means the second successor of a migrant. So suppose a person moves to another country then his grandson/grand daughter belongs to third generation

Part of the problem also lies with the western society which generally does not digest easily any new comer and instead of considering her/him part of the family, considers her/him as a "resource sharer". One of the reason which may sound valid to those who are exposed to such situation is this that the westerners are finding it very difficult to cope up to the competition which they have never witnessed. And the version of their definition further reinforces that conclusion as they discriminate people on the basis of culture they pursue, and since state can absolutely not interfere with that culture (which is good but turns out to be bad), they brand those other people as "migrants". This results in this that despite living in the corresponding countries for may be more than half a century, these migrants though may not be officially a migrant any more, but psychologically they remain so. European countries are very different from USA, in my opinion the Europeans are still very conservative and orthodox kind of people. Even USA did not see such a huge participation in terrorist related organisation like ISIS by its citizen as the Europeans did. Things in America turned out bad only after the 9/11 attack.

Conclusion

Leave aside the communal organisations like RSS or All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen or Indian Christian Front, the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court of India could be regarded the best on their platforms as compared to any other in the world. We allow people not only to upkeep their religion (unlike French Court which does allow Christian nuns to wear veils but does not allow Muslim women to wear Burqa ) provided it does not violate any basic feature of our Constitution but we also do not allow any body to say anything derogatory against any religion like "Charlie Hebdo" in the name sake of so called "Freedom Of Speech". 

Thanks UPA for your 10 years.....

Jacques Yves once said, " The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its nets of wonder forever." Let me put a different perspective of it," The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its nets forever." The difference between these two lines is just the sentiment, the former is positive and the later could serve the purpose of both, negative and positive. A wise person will say, it will be often negative. Prabhakaran Paleri, the former Director General of Coast Guards said, one who masters the ocean, masters everything. He also suggests different methods of safeguarding its sea. The best he suggests is the inclusion of neighbours or friendly neighbours. It does not matter how strong one is, and how weak its neighbour are, but a friendly term between neighbours should be utmost priority and it should always be preferred to a very strong but very distant relative. Mutual relationship becomes too much wider when this relationship involves two regions or two countries. The greatest of the greatest empires like Mughal Empire, Mauryan Empire etc. had been built by getting into establishing marital relationship with the un-tamable neighbour, who despite were weak but strategically too important too fight with. Their cooperation was desired rather than a hardly 1-2 months of fight. The ruler who understood this, became "The Great".

The UPA Saga

Unfortunately, the above events were not in the analysis of the UPA 1 or 2. The leadership had the time to visit US 8 times in 10 years but not once to visit "small" neighbours particularly those who were at the sea. Every time some pre-occupation, economical or political, stopped them doing so. They remained looking at sea, thinking and staring at it. Even those which had been visited earlier remained neglected due to the pre-occupation. Name the countries and we find only denials in terms of our commitments towards them :
Nepal was not visited once; Bangladesh remained at backfoot (he visited it only once); No Sri Lanka; poor handling of sensitivity in Maldives; Afghan President moves closer to those who were never on Afghani agenda and our country did nothing; Myanmar set ups it camps on our soil; What to say about Thailand, Vietnam etc. Of all the countries which Mr. Manmohan Singh visited, most of the time he visited to attend some summit, its hard to say that he had any specific bilateral agenda on his mind when dealing with these countries.
To add to our misery, China was working very craftily and hawkishly, while we were busy in persuading the West which was declining; we utterly neglected Asia which was rising. And what did we do with our pro-West policy is that we witnessed the lowest ebb ever with America in the end because of a lady who was not so decent (the Khobragode incident). After all this preferential treatment, an ebb!!! So, in other words, we did hardly anything with regard to foreign policy. The worst was this, that in all this we also loosed to some extent the Russians who found us too close with the West and with the rising China, Russians started looking at them. We failed to secure our seas while we were getting roped in by "String of Pearls". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_of_Pearls_(Indian_Ocean))

Our "Iron Fist Policy", which was supposed to be a counter of the Chinese string, was pushed even to further backfoot when Iran detained our oil ship.Though its true that many social initiatives like Adhar Card etc. were taken by the government but the fact of the matter is that Central Govt. is not all about distributing rations, states can handle that if directed properly, the very purpose of making a country strong from "National Security" point of view lies solely with the Central Govt. Since we badly loosed our Sea during that period, I have not an inch of doubt while saying this that we failed in it. The complaints registered by our neighbours could not be neglected and their closening ties with China cannot be declared as selfish. If we cannot ensure them that we do stand with them, how the hell they will not start removing their dependencies from us. Every countries foreign policy enshrines only one aspect : Its security with respect to its economy and defence (in particular). Every time we cannot get away through by sending the notes of "Panchsheel". If we have to achieve something then we have to transform our dialogues into action. Those actions include making our relationship with the neighbours strong in terms of both aspects. When they will see us wandering and submitting to the powers they do not want to do so, how would they submit our confidence on us??

Doing Agriculture......

Just think about a farmer who has got a lot of potatoes in his yard in one season and in the next season he struggles hard to get even half of them due to any one of the calamity out of so many he fears off. A farmer's yard is exactly like Indian Stock Market, its less dependent on itself but more on anything which is external (like the FII's in exchange market). He has small landholding, less irrigation facility, less than 1% of storage facility, less markets and more hoarderswith jaundiced eyes who are one of his peers, reluctant authority, delays and a whole lot of lacunae in delivery of subsidies, leakages in social packages running at around 40-50% (its not leakage but perhaps drainage), high inflation in retail sector, ever increasing fees of private facilities and a gradual decline of public facilities and blah.....blah.....blah......
Thanks
So many problems and so many proposed solutions; government is aware of problems and that's why it comes up with schemes such as insurance of crops, increasing MSPs, and numerous other facilities, even many times relieving them of debt. But all this seems not to be working as it should have been. Many of the farmers have become bonded labours and to add to their apathy, as per 2011 census, urban population has added more number of people than rural population, which means mass migration!! Last year government got almost more than Rs 50,000 crore of product rotten due to lack of storage facility. The farmers were helpless because they often don't afford to produce crop in their yard, how could they afford to protect them!!! Protecting them is much heavier and taxing then producing them. Their small landholdings multiply their vulnerability as more than 87% of farmers have less than 47% of landholdings!! How can they afford a go-down which require a huge investment and also when they don't have that much to store about. Also when the literacy is less, shifting the mode of agriculture becomes quite difficult for the concerned party as they will trust less any new method.

Where to hit the Nail 

Its a question which even a farmer who sows the land, has no idea about. Where the basic problem lies, whether it is small landholding, or lack of technology, or poor allotment of government aid or something else. One thing is sure that there is no such problem which could be treated as a Magna Carta. Inaccuracies during more than 60 years of post-independence have left this sector in a complete mess. The blunder was committed by Nehru (though he was a visionary leader) and planning commission when it was decided to make a drastic shift in the 5 year plans. First Five year Plan focused on agriculture and was based on Harrod-Domar Model. It was a successful plan as per the planning commission itself. But the Second Five Year Plan gave priority to industry like public sector and perhaps, directly and indirectly discouraged agriculture. This plan was termed as moderately successful by the planning commission itself. We woke up to the demands of agriculture when our days in international market and politics turned very bad. The then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri did a lot to what should have been done 8-9 years ago.

Anyways, there is nothing one can get from mongering over past, but definitely we can learn from it. What we can learn from past is what many of us still neglect. After independence, India was suffering and had depleted foreign reserves and very less food to offer to its residents, it was importing heavily from developed countries such as USA. But, wait, What!!! USA; its a industrialised country, how come that we being an agrarian nation whose more than 80% of population being involved in agricultural activity at that time, was importing from a country which was industrialised?? If anybody asks me, I think its where we have to hit the nail. Any country which can't feed its people can't pace up with the global world. If it dreams of industrialisation at the coat of agriculture, then it has to witness what France witnessed in 1790s.... The French Revolution. India, hopefully knew this and that's why it focused on agriculture heavily after 1964-65. In just 5-10 years it became self-sufficient even though its industries continued to suffer despite adequate funding. 

Agriculture is like women in the society; no society can grow if its women are in miserable condition no matter what-so-ever money it posses. Public spending has always a huge outcome, every one rupee invested in agriculture has an outcome of additional one rupee as an investment by private farmer which is what money circulation is all about, and this all comes at a cost of very less NPAs (Non Performing Assets; a term from which banks are marred today). The point here is this that we should not demonise one for the other. We need both,i.e., agriculture and manufacturing, but one should not come at the cost of other. To explain the point further let us go back once more to the Five Year Plans : The contribution of central government in the plan outlay dropped from Rs 63 per hectare during Fifth Five Year Plan to Rs 18 per hectare in the Seventh Five Year Plan,i.e., in just 17 years the share dropped exponentially. The 1 rupee investment in public sector capital formation helps to improve GDP by Rs 6. An expansion of net sown area by 1 hectare increases the farm output by Rs 25000. A 1% addition to trade in favour of agriculture leads to increase in farm output by Rs 120 crore. In addition the economic security to the uncountable mass would be another additional achievement.

Unless and until India becomes atleast the second most producing country, as per my view, we cannot expect the apathy to get over. The mass migration to mega-cities is adding to accommodation problems, law and order problems, mass scale of corruption, fraudulent activities by the agents and insecurity among the local residents as they see their security dwindle. On this whole name the murky political games are played and everybody blames every other body. Some ask for introduction of visas for the "immigrants" and some go and beat the already heavily debted body who with a penny a day, tries to keep the faith of his family alive.

Technological aspects are the other one to take care of. They are very important though the first challenge they face is that of small landholdings. Still we have many methods which can be run on small landholdings such as the combined irrigation by drip irrigation method. This method could be easily applied to all the lands put together and the water could be circulated from already stored water of previous years. So a combination of rain harvesting and drip irrigation can do a lot and help a lot the farmers to adopt and be self-dependent. Methods like these which focus not on productivity but on efficient use can help the farmers to a great deal. The technological institutions and research centres meant for this activity can help to a great deal.

Engaging Youths

One other method which can help phenomenally is the involvement of youth. The youths in India today unlike of earlier days, are very much attached to virtual world. They need some reality to be shown. While holding a smartphone in their hand and blaming all the bureaucrats and politician for the problems in their country, they all hail a life full of fantasies. Many of them try to Amercanise themselves though they miserably fail in that. Americans are way ahead than Indians, unfortynately, in patriotism(according to forbes rankingof patriotism). What they do not recognise is that Americanisation also lies in the community work which is compulsory for many of the Americans either in college or in schools. These youths are very talented but very lazy. Once pushed into the work then they can create miracles. These youths could be utilised in making farmers aware of the latest technologies, reading and choosing to their local needs, reading signal and interpret them correctly when they get something from that of satellites, educating farmers children for free, organising debates and involving women through micro agriculture and many more. All this could be done through making it as a part of academics during year-breaks and semester breaks which run for around 3-4 months in a year. 

This all will make them more responsible, less market driven and more interest driven, it will provide them variety of platform like to work with banks, NGOs, government authorities, etc. This all will definitely pay in the long run.

Conclusion

Agriculture is a basic necessity of the society, compromising with that is like compromising with one's basic necessity. The apathy needs to be addressed. For this, additional schemes are not needed, perhaps expansion of the schemes are required so that we can get what we lack. This should not come with compromising the manufacturing or the other sector but there should be proper proportional distribution. The "Make in India" should bother about inclusion of agricultural industries and investment too. For it will also give better return and more inclusive growth.

The Incoming Indian Civil War.....

In Macbeth (written by Shakespeare), the Three Witches exclaim that ,"Fair is foul and Foul is fair" !!

It means, What is Fair today is Foul tomorrow. This entire blog, in other words, is derived from this line. The Europe and Russia of today are a result of very painful yesterday. The French Revolution, the English Civil War, and perhaps the most painful war of Germany which wiped out One-Third of the population had exactly the same consequences. The Feudal system of Europe which was considered as "Fair" before the revolution(s) was thrown away and considered "Foul" just after the revolution(s). Perhaps the Arab Spring was less painful as compared to that churn. I am not justifying the massive bloodshed in Europe but the purpose. The purpose was to get away with the Feudal World and establish a world which imbibed equality for all. A country should not identify its citizen as rich and poor but as its citizen. The point is this, that if one has to move from one system to the other completely different system than one has to "dismantle" the present system because its of no use and perhaps it would "eat up" the resources and "consume" the future.

(The reason for failure of Arab Spring was very simple, it was not people's struggle but it was a vested "Foreign Policy". Had it been a struggle by people of Arab, it would not have faded like that. It certainly had reached a conclusion, peace would have restored. But it didn't, so lets keep that aside because its completely different, I don't see it as a revolution or a "spring" at all )

The Indian Saga

India today is neither Feudal nor Modern Industrial Society like the most of the Western countries are. It is in a transition zone, and any transition zone is always very turbulent and very disturbed. The Middle class of India is divided as Upper and Lower which previously was not. In India, caste system was considered "Fair" up-til decades earlier in the whole nation, but thanks to growing awareness and the "Love-Marriages" (LOL!!) that casteism is being considered as "Foul" in few sectors, very few sectors. Bribes have reduced in government offices but still they are nowhere near the expected reductions. The working hours in the Government offices have increased, the UT of Delhi won the election on issue of corruption only and so did the Nation in recent Lok-Sabha elections, youths are complaining about their rights, the idea of NOTA was established, RTI came along and so many things. All this occurred in a span of hardly 10 years which were in the decoration wing for decades. A churn is quite visible. 

Still the problems are enormous. In large parts of India, even today casteism is widely practiced and appreciated which the educated youths are quite uncomfortable with. Still nearly 45% of the children are malnourished despite the GDP growth each and every year. The reason for this is quite simple, the GDP growth is being minted in few pockets only and its not reaching where it should have been. 20 crore of Indians sleep every night with an empty belly. While all this is going on people in order to claim their Fan-ship comment something bizarre like,"Kutte ki tarah Soyega to Kutte ki tarah hin marega"(One of the Salman Khan Supporter). This statement reminds me of an incident which happened before French Revolution : a child dies while sleeping on the road when a Chariot runs over him. The man sitting in the lavish Chariot throws a golden penny towards the crying mother as a "compensation". Incidents like this are occurring all over the nation, poor are crying for their food and politicians are patting back of one another for giving them "Fundamental Rights". Perhaps there is an immediate need of Second Bill of Rights like what was offered by President Rossevelt to the poor of America. Because he was a noble and knew that America can't afford any revolution by its people because of namby wars of Europe.

The frustration among the poors which resulted in phenomenal election results of the recent years, if not studied properly will definitely result into a violent revolution. Maoism and Naxalism is an example. The Naxalites of Jharkhand raised guns against the government and went for self-rule because nobody came for them. Their homes were uprooted because of the regular military exercises and they were paid a compensation of 50 paise which was amended in 1992 and was raised to....... guess what ??? It was raised to Rs 1.50. Yes you read it correct, One and a half rupees.

Why a Civil War 

The reason why I say a civil war, because till now a very small section was fighting. But through the spread of internet when people have got to know the lives of other countries and the present "online" kind of youths who want everything as quickly as possible, the churn of change has become even more aggressive. If the wishes of youths are not satisfied then they take no time in going against the entire system, be it case of Nirbhaya or the Honour Killing or the quashing of section 66A or 377 or net neutrality or the Khap Panchayats or the change academic systems or AIB roast and so on. There are so many debates which have sparked this nation and they could be easily found on the internet and they are very sensitive like the legalisation of Marijuana, porn websites, legalisation of prostitution and many more. 

Till now everywhere the rape victims were considered as victims, but due to recent incidents when everybody has become aware of his/her rights, even a damn statement by a lawyer whom nobody knew until the unfortunate incident, sparks the nation. People have started shaming the rapists and consoling the "victim", atleast in a few sectors. And all this happened in a matter of 2-3 years, thats it.... Girls are sharing videos of their abusers online while they were abused, this shows how fast this transition was, 2 years earlier they were ashamed of telling their parents and 2 years later they are beating it all over the nation. A video by a woman who recorded her abuser on a plane is a perfect example while she repeatedly calls him a "Budhha". The best is this that people including the celebrities shared that post.

Today if a singer like Honey Singh does a rap in which he exclaims a girl as "inferior" than he is countered with another rap in which he is branded a "buffoon". Who used to do that except the journalists......

But one thing still haunts me and leads me to the conclusion of the Civil War which may not be an armed Civil War spread across nation like it was in case of Europe and Russia, but it could be limited to some areas and perhaps could teach a very brilliant lesson to established Nexus between politicians and others. That one thing is the rising and digitising Poor class. The poors till now are unaware of social theories, they don't know that natural resources are for everybody and if one has a lot of money does not mean that he/she can go on exploiting that to any extent. They do not know that India has adopted a "Socialist" economy in its Preamble and not a "Capitalist" one. Once this goes into their head that a Socialist Economy means their is a ceiling over the amount of resources one can enjoy, they will revolt, definitely they will. A few things are there which can trigger this. In Maharashtra people are denied water but just by the side of it lies a big hotel and group of villas. Leave villas, even the hotel has personal swimming pool in its every damn room. When asked to the poor to comment about that, they said its because they have money, I am just wondering of that day when they will come to know what actually means by a Socialist Society, the Europeans came to know about it and they did it.

A poor living by the side of Ambani's big house thinks that he has it because he maintains a good account, but once he will come to know that he has it because Ambanis did not give it to them, then the result would be unfortunate........ 

Note : For the last paragraph one should read the 1-5 Five year Plans along with Trickle Down Theory as was proposed by the Planning Commission and which is also being advocated by governments of today. If this is missing then the last part may sound confusing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics

The Debate over Charlie Hebdo !!

With the rise of radical forces like ISIS and its deep impact over many of the 3rd Generation youth in Europe (1st Generation being migrated to Europe from countries of West Asia, Pakistan etc.) is a matter of great concern. The main reason being attributed for easy attention of these youths is their "identity crisis". Many of them get allured by these radical forces because of this weakness. Most of them cannot accept this fact that they belong to that nation of which they hold the citizenship as their parents can't "pretend" that well, and more than that they cannot return to the nation from where their 1st Generation migrated.
The impact of "Identity Crisis" is so strong that many of them don't know how to offer alms to their Allah, including those who join organisations such as IS which leaves them isolated from others, even from their parents. This drawback is used by these militant organisations to allure them in order to "guide" them. They brainwash them, promise them as their cicerones, use their isolated life as a vulnerable spot, and provide them for their "purpose", because its a "purpose" for which any human lives.

Role of Western Media
In this abhorrent situation, the role of Western Media becomes critical. They are expected to interosculate the already asphyxiating 3rd generation with the existing culture. But the contrary is happening. They have used their space in criticising both, these militant outfits and the disciple of Prophet Mohammed by using their so called "Freedom of Speech and Expression". What happened to Charlie Hebdo was tragic, disgraceful, shameful, cowardice and unexpected but the way Charlie Hebdo used its space for crticising the practitioner of Muhammad, is also a matter of concern.

The story projects itself back to 2006 when Charlie Hebdo published cartoons under title "Mahomet débordé par les intégristes" ("Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists"). The cartoons were not only provocative but disgraceful too. Even in response, French President Jacques Chirac condemned "overt provocations" which could inflame passions. But they didn't stop it here, they even went on printing nude Prophet asking his follower that whether he likes his a** or not!!! This picture I won't put on the blog but the other I can..... Please have a look at this

This picture says  “Yes to wearing the burqa…in the ass.”

Now, if this is what meant by Freedom of Speech and Expression then perhaps I will be the last one to endorse it!! The U.S. White House stated "a French magazine published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the Prophet Muhammad, and obviously, we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this." However, the newspaper's editor defended publication of the cartoons, saying, "We do caricatures of everyone, and above all every week, and when we do it with the Prophet, it's called provocation." Alas!!! they understood Prophet as there Private Property, compared it with day to day political, socio-economical aspects. Damn it!!

A Need to Re-look

Though the punishment should not be this big and it must be with law and not with any "contractor" of any religion, but in my view there is an urgent need to have a re-look by the Western Media on its strategies. They need to carry their activities assiduously, without cornering anyone. With this attitude they are only helping these militant outfits to find their prey easily. Hate endorses chauvinism, and a devout does not like to agree a single percent contrary to its God. Anyone cannot treat anyone's belief the way he/she beliefs or practices it. Charlie Hebdo may criticise Obama, print his nude cartoons or anyone's else. But when it comes to religion, then it should understand that things are anti-utopian with its generation already suffering from identity crisis. Instead of printing those cartoons, had it focused its attention on this generation and issues being suffered by this category, things might would have been different. They should not expect exoneration when they do this. They should expect crticism though not bullet. And criticism may come in many way. 

But I will never call this a practice of Freedom of Speech and Expression. Instead its a misuse of that.