Profiting from Conflict — The Monkey and the Cats

This question has bothered me for a long time: Why are there riots and other forms of social unrest in India? Are Indians intrinsically unsocial or is there a structural reason for this? What is it in its political makeup that there is inter-group conflict? I explored that question in a piece I wrote for Niti Central a few days ago. I am posting it here, for the record.
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Sonia Gandhi is the 4th richest politician in the world

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Contributing for a public good

A driver was stuck in a traffic jam on the road near the Parliament building in N Delhi. Nothing was moving. Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down the window and asks, “What’s going on?”

“Terrorists have kidnapped the politicians. They’re asking for a Rs 1,000 crores ransom. Otherwise, they’re going to douse them all in petrol and set them on fire. We’re going from car to car collecting donations . . .”

“How much is everyone giving, on average?” the driver asks. The man replies, “Roughly two liters.”

The Indian Constitution was adopted on Nov 26th, 1949.

The wiki entry says, “The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950, proclaiming India to be a sovereign, democratic republic. It contained the founding principles of the law of the land which would govern India after its independence from British rule. On the day the constitution came into effect, India ceased to be a dominion of the British Crown. The Indian constitution is the world’s longest constitution. At the time of commencement, the constitution had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules. It consists of almost 80,000 words and took 2 years 11 months and 18 days to build.”

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I have tried unsuccessfully to read the constitution. I could not understand it. Over the years I have asked thousands of educated Indians if they have read the Indian constitution and not one has claimed to have read it fully. A few have read parts of it, some only the preamble, and most have no idea what it is about except for that they know that it is the longest constitution in the world.
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Mars Mission Revisited

This is a follow-on piece in response to some of the comments to my piece (read it here) on the Indian Mars probe that India launched a few weeks ago. Here it is, for the record.
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You cannot Parody a Parody

I have never made it is a secret that I find Bollywood unbearable. But I have to confess that I have watched the 1975 blockbuster Sholay a dozen times at least. Why? Because one particular sequence in it cracked me up something wicked. It is a traditional joke — someone ostensibly speaking in favor of a person but actually doing everything possible to undermine that person’s case. As a rhetorical device, it is deliciously persuasive because the humor hammers home the underlying message more effectively than straightforward speech.
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The Indian mission to Mars is a Waste

Countries, as much as individuals, have to allocate limited resources rationally. Even those tasks that have net benefits have to be considered in relation to the net benefits of other tasks that could instead have been done — the simple idea of opportunity costs explored in the previous post, “The Importance of Prioritizing and Sequenceing.” In the following I argue why India’s mission to Mars is a waste of valuable resources.
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The importance of Prioritizing and Sequencing

Our successes and failures are a consequence of the choices we make, individually and collectively. Consistently good choices made over extended periods of time lead to success, barring any unfortunate and unanticipated circumstances. I explored that idea in a recent column at Niti Central. Here it is, for the record.
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Happy Birthday, Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan was born on this day in 1934. Thanks for Cosmos and the many books I loved passionately — The Demon-Haunted World and Pale Blue Dot. Here’s a tribute to you that I like from the ever-entertaining SciShow guy.
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Finally some good news from India

This piece, published on Niti Central, relates to the Congress’s attempt to prevent people from knowing how badly it is faring in the public’s opinion by banning the publication of opinion polls. Here it is.
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