Category: Random Draws

Thirty-nine years have passed since that day when Indira Gandhi decided that Indians had enough of “democracy” and it was time that she dictated to them. Indians did what they have always been good at: they obeyed. Instead of resisting, they obeyed. Our problem, as Howard Zinn used to say, is not civil disobedience; our problem is civil obedience.

Emergency ended on 23rd March, 1977. Did the people learn much? No. She won a landslide victory and once again became the prime minister in January 1980. She was right: the people did not deserve freedom. The people believed that they were free but in truth it was — and still is — an illusion. Frank Zappa said it best. “The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

Indira Gandhi was an evil person. Indians suffered much because of her and her spawn. However it was well-deserved. It’s all karma, neh?

Note: The source of that Howard Zinn quote is from an opening statement in a 1972 debate at Johns Hopkins. Read the transcript here.

Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. We recognize this for Nazi Germany. We know that the problem there was obedience, that the people obeyed Hitler. People obeyed; that was wrong. They should have challenged, and they should have resisted; . . . Even in Stalin’s Russia we can understand that; people are obedient, all these herdlike people.

I agree. For the record I should state that I agree with Zinn on many, but not all, matters.

Speaking of obedience, do read this post: THE POLITICS OF OBEDIENCE: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude.

And finally, here’s Matt Damon reading excerpts from the transcript of Howard Zinn’s speech:

This screen capture of an India Today tweet is from just six months ago but feels like much longer. Posted here for the record.

The link above leads to “Stick to huffing and puffing: Congress’ Manish Tewari reacts to Huffington Post’s story on Sonia’s wealth”.

Also see, “Sonia Gandhi worth $2 billion, richer than Queen Elizabeth“.

{By the way, if you hold the cursor over the links above for a second, it will show brief quotes from those reports.}

If you had the luck of the Indians
You’d be sorry and wish you were dead.
If you had the luck of the Indians
You’d wish you was English instead!

I have substituted “Indians” for “Irish” in the song “The Luck of the Irish” by John Lennon.

I was born and brought up in India. By most measures, I did get a decent schooling in India. But my education did not expose me to any even remotely accurate version of history. What little “history” was taught was a heap of lies over a handful of selected politically correct sanitized facts about India’s past. The horrors that the Islamic invaders and the European colonial rulers of India committed on Indians were carefully hidden.
Continue reading “If you had the luck of the Indians . . .”

Today is the anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, was a seminal event in the British rule of India. On 13 April 1919, a crowd of non-violent protesters, along with Baishakhi pilgrims, had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh garden in Amritsar, Punjab to protest the arrest of two leaders despite a curfew which had been recently declared. On the orders of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, the army fired on the crowd for ten minutes, directing their bullets largely towards the few open gates through which people were trying to run out. The dead numbered between 370 and 1,000, or possibly more. [Wiki.]

The picture on the left shows the narrow passage to Jallianwala Bagh Garden through which the shooting was conducted. The question is: who killed those hundreds of Indians — men, women and little children — in cold blood at the orders of Gen Dyer? They were Indians. Indians killed Indians mercilessly, in cold blood. They always do. Indians kill Indians and help foreigners rule India. Here’s some evidence that you must read to understand that point.
Continue reading “Who Killed Indians at Jallianwala Bagh?”

The Dalai Lama is a rare celebrity I admire. “10 Questions for the Dalai Lama”:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

And now the traditional “Beware the Ides of March” post — thanks to $0.02 for the reminder:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

The Indian National Congress (INC) is on the way out. An English civil servant, Allan Octavian Hume (1829 – 1912), founded the party in December 1885. As it happens, Hume is also known as “the father of Indian ornithology”. Not just that, he was a theosophist. Go read his brief wiki bio. He was an impressive man. Anyway, now nearly 130 years old, the Congress is in terminal decline. A foreigner — an accomplished Englishman — gave birth to it and another foreigner — an almost uneducated Italian woman — is presiding over it as it takes it final gasps. The Congress’s most celebrated leader is undoubtedly Shri M K Gandhi, aka “Mahatma Gandhi”, a Gujarati; and it is another Gujarati who is instrumental in putting the dying Congress out of its misery. The parentheses that enclose the Congress are ironic. And now for a bit from an IndiaFacts Nov 2013 article by Gautam Sen, below the fold.
Continue reading “The Congress will be History Soon”

The Hindustan Times reports “US may end 9-year boycott of Modi, envoy asks for meeting“.

If Shri Modi’s office does receive a request for a meeting from Nancy Powell, it should respond with, “Ms Powell is welcome to seek an appointment. The request will be appropriately considered and processed through the standard channels in the order received.” I don’t see why Narendrabhai should bother to meet Ms Powell, considering that he has other things on his plate — or more precisely in his chai kettle.

I hope @narendramodi politely refuses to meet the US ambassador. NM's office should say that he's busy having rallies, chai and charcha.

— Atanu Dey (@atanudey) February 11, 2014

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Update — 3 PM Feb 11th: I believe that Modi has agreed to meet Ms Powell.

Every day in every which way, Kejriwal figures out a new drama to be in the media spotlight. It seems to me that he is not acting alone — and by that I don’t mean that he does not have a bunch of very able sidekicks. He certainly has visible support. What concerns me is the invisible support. Are invisible hands guiding him? Here’s what I got in a forwarded email. I cannot vouch for its content. You be the judge. I am just posting it for the record. The original was in Hindi and I asked a friend (Thanks, Amit) to translate it into English.
Continue reading “What’s the connection between Aadhar and the Ford Foundation?”