Used to be that might was determined by the size of your muscles and how many men you could command to do your bidding. Time was when you had to club someone over the head to get them to submit to you. Things have changed and with it has changed what determines might. The world has changed with each revolution. The agricultural revolution privileged foresight over just plain sight. The industrial revolution gave power to those who had knowledge of science and technology over those that didn’t. The post-industrial information age has once again redefined the rules.
We are now in an age where knowledge is paramount. What you know determines who you are and how successful you will be in the world. What matters now is not the control of muscles but rather the control of minds. Knowledge is our greatest weapon and information is the tool for crafting that weapon. Want to influence minds? Make use of the information out there to make people see the world as it actually is and not as advertised for the convenience of those in power.
Previously the government controlled the flow of information. That control has almost entirely vanished and with it the power of governments to control minds has eroded. The fact that the control is over is not fully appreciated. We need to first of all understand that with the loss of government control over the flow of information, we are at the threshold of getting our independence.
Our weapon is knowledge. Our challenge is to wield our weapon with ruthless efficiency. We have to bring out into the open all that the government has hidden from public view.
Those in power are people who have committed humongous crimes against India and Indians. Indians need to know that and understand that their greatest enemy has been — and still is — the bunch that has controlled India since 1947. India’s potential and promise has been systematically destroyed by a ruthless bunch of self-serving power hungry myopic imbeciles. The government control of the channels of information has presented a totally whitewashed, sanitized and fictional portrait of these imbeciles. The control of the education system, the control of radio and TV, the control of research institutions — all have been to one end only: brainwash the people into believing the totally false.
But all things must pass. With the loss of control over the flow of information, the apparatus that has been so successful up till now in concealing the truth is finally on its last legs. That machine is broken and with it has broken the power of the government to manipulate the masses into submission.
I want to know what were the blunders each of the major leaders committed. But first, how do I know that blunders were committed at all? I look around and see India for the disaster it really is. No amount of glossy advertising of how India Inc is a superpower can conceal the rot. India’s borders are not intact. Military blunders must have been committed. It’s education system is a crying shame. Someone is responsible for this disaster; someone who had dictated what the education system is to be. I want to know who that someone was.
India is categorized as a Third World country. It did not have to be so. Indians are not systematically stupider than any other group. India is adequately gifted with natural resources. India has not suffered any large scale natural disaster lasting decades and which destroyed its infrastructure. There is no reason for the absolutely miserable state that India is in today. Except for the policies that were adopted by some people. Bad economic policies must have been advocated and adopted by someone in power and that must be the reason for India’s economy being near the bottom of the economic pyramid.
No natural factor can be held responsible for India’s sorry state. What India is today has to be explained by man-made factors.
India is a country where around 800 million people — larger than the US and Western Europe combined — live lives of absolute destitution. Over half of India’s children below the age of five are malnourished. Their chances of ever attaining their full physical and mental potential is dead. This is India and someone must have enforced economic policies that has reduced India to be a desperately poor country.
I want to know who were the people responsible for this disaster. I want to know their names. I want to know the names of people who have committed crimes against Indians that are so immense that an almost impossible-to-believe number of Indians have lived lives of utter deprivation and died prematurely of preventable sickness. I want to know how many children die every day. Is it 10,000 children or is it only 5,000 that die of water borne diseases in India daily?
I want to know who I should hold responsible and when I do learn, I want every Indian to know who were the people that brought this nation to ruin. I want to then ruin those people by revealing to the world how horrible their crimes are. When I know their names, I am going to put up their statues in every city. I want people to come to those statues and spit on them. I want people to spit every time one of those names is mentioned. I want them to say “ach poo!” every time (just like the followers of one particular monotheistic faith say a certain phrase when they mention the name of the founder of that religion.)
Time’s up. Time’s up for those who charted India’s descent into hell. Now it is time for me to drag those unmentionables to hell.
I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 
I wonder what triggered this, but never mind. Couple days ago I also faced an emotional moment. I was in my car at a red light during the morning rush hour. There’s this guy in his big SUV ahead of me. He was smoking so his window was down. A female beggar, dirty disheveled hair, dirty baby in arms, passed me by: she realized she didn’t have much luck with me because my window was up. She then stopped at the SUV’s driver-side window. The guy passed her an orange. The baby grabbed it with both little hands, and then broke into a broad grin, rubbing head against mother’s in utter glee. You’ve to see it to realize why it was such a troubling sight. Weak-minded people could break down and weep.
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Oldtimer:
Precisely. It breaks my heart every bloody time. Little children neglected by a society that is so desperately poor that it cannot afford even the basics needed for a decent existence. And that too in this day and age — hundred years after humanity knows how to do things. What went wrong? The leadership. Time to expose these assholes.
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Well put.
My thoughts – The issue is accountability. It is conspicuously absent from all branches of government. Accountability has to be laid down by rule and statute. Something like
“If there is a pot hole on SV Road between Goregaon and Jogeshwari, it shall be the responsibility of the Assistant Engineer etc”
Second, there should be hard punishment for dereliction of duty. This is simply not there, or not severe enough. Let’s say a plant operator in a cement factory forgets to turn off a critical valve and ruins an entire batch of cement. What happens to him? Right. He loses his job and his career. But a school teacher who remains absent from a government school for years, ruining an entire batch of young minds gets …what?
But the problem is that the accountability regime can be ushered in only by the guys who will be adversely affected by it. This like asking Tiger Woods to practice celibacy. Not going to happen without coercion.
A revolution of thought is our only hope. Perhaps the changing knowledge chains and information channels will trigger that.
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Atanu,
I (like countless others) can relate to the passion in the above post.
But, where do we start?
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Its always the system, not the people. When we talk of a country..then some cultural memes and conditioning comes into play. Nothing can be fixed in a day..year or a decade. Things are not as bad as in 1997.
Suffering of masses is due to their(my) Karma. We all should do what we can do maximum possible to execute what each of thinks is our dharma sincerely. Rest we should leave it to Divine Machinizations 🙂
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Have you guys observed recent headlines in the news about anti-India jihadis having a “conference” in PoK?
Nothing to say more….explains it all…
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Good,
Anger is good, directed Anger is better, it yields results.
Speaking, Writing is all being done.
Doing is the problem.
I voted last year, RTI Filing takes it’s own sweet time……
What next?
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>>The baby grabbed it with both little hands, and then broke into a broad grin, rubbing head against mother’s in utter glee
Touching OT !
Where do you see that child 15-20 years from now ?
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I couldn’t help but comment on this blog today. As usual you make good point. Time to do something. The idea about statues and spitting makes me think that when the names are exposed, there should be a mechanism and a very low level basic way (the statue idea is brilliant anyway), that every Indian, 100 crore would know and understand who were the people that brought this nation to ruin and continue to do so. Options :
-publications, newspapers or printed brochures on each person who is exposed, in every language (is it legal to do so anyway?)
-atleast one national TV channel should be honest and inform the nation about the truth on those individuals
-I guess religion is powerful mechanism in India. Those exposed should be brought to everyone’s knowdledge thru the religious channels (temples, etc.)
I know you would do your best thru your blog, unfortunately that will not be even 0.1% of Indians.
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Sorry, wrong thread. But must watch:
http://www.wildersontrial.com/
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You’re asking what it is that is holding us back.
I think that in your answer to that question, you are making the mistake that actually holds us back. You are blaming the government for everything.
Actually, it’s not the mistakes of a few that held us back. It is the collective mistakes of everyone, the tendency to blame everything on the government, and hoping that the government will get better.
I don’t think that’s how things will go down. Everyone needs to do their part. Sure, if the government is doing something wrong, blame it. But did everyone else do the right things for progress? Or did they just lie about waiting for the government to solve all the problems? I think it’s the latter problem.
It never was about how bright/smart Indians are. The thing we lack is a soft skill: the willingness to take things into our own hands and make big changes happen. Citizens have to self-organize into groups that are doing useful things on an everyday basis, but this is what doesn’t happen.
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I blame Nehru and Indira Gandhi. They are the enablers of countless politicos who usurped power in the name of the “social good” and utterly corrupted all branches of the state.
Poor education is an essential for maintaining the political status quo.
Poor infrastructure is essential for maintianing the power of babus/politicians to grant favours to industries.
Poverty is essential for making usre the bar is always set low come election time.
So there.
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Blame blame and blame. We will not move a bit by blaming. Can we?
A new system will come and lead the world to a better tomorrow. That system will evolve from knowledge. Knowledge to “live better”. Knowledge that will shatter the colonial parliament. Will establish new parliament based on knowledgeable constitutation. Where each word will be based on facts, chosen by its own people. Not just because it exsists in someone else’s constitution. People will be knowledgable for every aspect of life. They will not just live and die. But each will live, to make life meaningful.
I hope for that day atleast in my grandson’s lifetime 😦
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