Akbar and Alexander #108

Clarification about what I said:

If you think globally, you will act differently than if you are solely concerned with your own local affairs

Akbar and Alexander #107
I feel Indians failed to defend India against invaders because Indians never had (and still do not have) a global perspective.

It is no suprise that the greatest Indian kings were Ashoka (who spread Buddhism all over the world) and Akbar (who, as is well known, had philosophers from all over the world in his kingdom).

A contemporary analogue are Infosys, Wipro, Tata, and other companies who consider the world to be their playground.

Europe was also divided into many small kingdoms. But Europeans were able to unite and repel the Muslims who invaded Europe precisely because they had a global perspective.

Today, does India have a global vision to offer the world? Are we propagating democracy? Whatever global impact India has is due to private entities (companies as above, Bollywood...). But Government of India does not have a global perspective nor does it offer a global vision of democracy and relative communal harmony.

Huntington\'s Clash of Civilizations Thesis Some more on the clash of civilizations:
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Ann Jones on the Nightmare of Afghan Women http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=163092

Last year in Herat, as I was walking with an Afghan colleague to a meeting on women`s rights, I spotted an ice cream vendor in the hot, dusty street. I rushed ahead and returned with two cones of lemony ice. I held one out to my friend. ``Forgive me,`` she said. ``I can`t.`` She was wearing a burqa.

It was a stupid mistake. I`d been in Afghanistan a long time, in the company every day of women encased from head to toe in pleated polyester body bags. Occasionally I put one on myself, just to get the feel of being stifled in the sweaty sack, blind behind the mesh eye mask. I`d watched women trip on their burqas and fall. I`d watched women collide with cars they couldn`t see. I knew a woman badly burned when her burqa caught fire. I knew another who suffered a near-fatal skull fracture when her burqa snagged in a taxi door and slammed her to the pavement as the vehicle sped away. But I`d never before noted this fact: it is not possible for a woman wearing a burqa to eat an ice cream cone.
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It`s true that after the fall of the Taliban lots of women in the capital went back to work in schools, hospitals, and government ministries, while others found better paying jobs with international humanitarian agencies. In 2005, thanks to a quota system imposed by the international community, women took 27% of the seats in the lower house of the new parliament, a greater percentage than women enjoy in most Western legislatures, including our own. Yet these hopeful developments are misleading.

The fact is that the ``liberation`` of Afghan women is mostly theoretical. The Afghan Constitution adopted in 2004 declares that ``The Citizens of Afghanistan -- whether man or woman -- have equal Rights and Duties before the Law.`` But what law? The judicial system -- ultra-conservative, inadequate, incompetent, and notoriously corrupt -- usually bases decisions on idiosyncratic interpretations of Islamic Sharia, tribal customary codes, or simple bribery. And legal ``scholars`` instruct women that having ``equal Rights and Duties`` is not the same as being equal to men.
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Afghan women of the Kabul elite haven`t yet caught up to where they were thirty-five years ago. But once again ultra-conservatives are up in arms. This time it`s the Taliban, back in force throughout the southern half of the country. Among their tactics: blowing up or burning schools (150 in 2005, 198 in 2006) and murdering teachers, especially women who teach girls. UNICEF estimates that in four southern provinces more than half the schools -- 380 out of 748 -- no longer provide any education at all. Last September the Taliban shot down the middle-aged woman who headed the provincial office for women`s affairs in Kandahar. A few brave colleagues went back to the office in body armor, knowing it would not save them. Now, in the southern provinces -- more than half the country -- women and girls stay home.

Huntington\'s Clash of Civilizations Thesis #116 by zeemax on February 3, 2007 11:55pm PT
Now, everyone`s sucking up to China! Everyone quotes references of China! Haha.

- When people got sick and tired of centuries of imperial domination and usurping of their resources under kings and feudals, one man rose against it. Now, everyone sucks up to China!

- He ordered students to burn down schools and colleges, and enroll in the Red Guards instead which they did. Now, everyone sucks up to China!
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Actually, people are ``sucking up to China`` because of Deng Xiao Ping, not Mao Tse Tung. When I was in China, I asked people what they thought of Mao, and the answer was always something on the lines of ``he was a great leader, but since he was a peasant, he had no idea of economics``. Most Chinese consider the things you have listed eccentricities of Mao in his last years. People credit Mao with overthrow of feudalism, but credit Deng (and his pragmatic economic policies) with having made China into a superpower.

Huntington\'s Clash of Civilizations Thesis A delightful snippet from Outlook, which throws an unexpected light upon the clash of civilizations here in the subcontinent.

``What`s the rudest thing you can say to a Pakistani writer? Suketu Mehta won this quiz hands down in a heated exchange with Pakistani author Feryal Ali Gauhar on the sidelines of the Jaipur litfest. Already feeling slighted by the caste hierarchy at the litfest, Suketu didn`t help matters when he callously described her (Feryal`s) mother-tongue as Hindi instead of Urdu. Now, now, even for two authors who write in English, blurring the line between Urdu and Hindi is clearly asking for big trouble. And Feryal did unleash the furies, going by reports trickling in from the bystanders of this unseemly row.``

What Ails the BPO Industry in Pakistan? http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Coca-colonialism_and_Tata-colonialism/articleshow/msid-1559088,curpg-2.cms
Coca-colonialism and Tata-colonialism by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar

Millions of Indians cheered when Tata Steel won the auction for Corus, and became the world`s fifth bigge-st steel producer... With this acquisition, Tata Steel is now the 268th biggest company in the world, ranking just below Coca Cola. The Tata group as a whole is much bigger than Coke. ..Ranbaxy and Cipla have entered the race to acquire Merck`s generic drug business in Europe, and are building war chests of $5 billion or more. Reliance will be bidding for the plastics division of General Electric, which is up for sale.

No longer are Indian companies bidding for just small or medium foreign companies. They are bidding for global giants. This has been made possible by the willingness of global financiers to loan money to Indian minnows to take over global whales

India is by no means number one among developing countries in global takeovers. China is far ahead. Its electronics company TCL acquired the TV business of France`s Thomson. China`s computer company, Lenovo, acquired the PC business of IBM. However, Indian groups like Tata are catching up.

Leftists may still see that as a new way for IBM to colonise the world, through domination of IT services. But listen to the latest news. IBM sees its future survival as dependent on Indian expertise. Its Indian employees have skyrocketed in number from 4,000 in the early 2000s to 53,000 today.

A document circulated by IBM to its Indian employees projects a workforce of hold your breath 120,000 in India by 2008. IBM is becoming Indian rather than American in terms of employment.
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Many other US companies are following the IBM route. Accenture, one of the biggest consulting and IT service providers in the world, has just announced that it will increase Indian staff from 27,000 to 35,000. This will make India its biggest employment hub, overtaking its US hub with 30,000 employees.
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Several MNCs are opening R&D centres in India. The biggest of these is GE`s Jack Welch Centre in Bangalore. Will its discoveries be Indian or American R&D?

What Ails the BPO Industry in Pakistan? DEVELOPMENT-INDIA:
IT Hub Can Handle Gigabytes, Not Dog Bites
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To cast a balanced view on this article:

One of the consequences of the rapid growth of Bangalore has been the growth of meat shops in areas that had traditionally been vegetarian. Many of these shops do not dispose of waste properly, leading to breeding of stray dogs.

Additionally, due to protests by animal rights activities, killing of vicious stray dogs had been stopped. Instead stray dogs were captured, sterilized and released.

I am sure that a solution will be found soon.
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=38339

``We are doing the best we can to contain the dog menace. During the last two weeks, we have rounded up about 3000 dogs of which 750 were put to sleep, deputy director of animal husbandry, BCC, Prakash Reddy, said....According to the founder president of SDFB (Stray Dog Free Bangalore), Dr C.V. Subramaniam mass elimination of stray dogs is the only answer, ...We have to follow the example of Philippines and Singapore and go for mass elimination of strays, he said...However, BCC officials maintain that eliminating street dogs is easier said than done.
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We have to follow the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Animals Birth Control rules which prohibit killing of captured dogs unless these animals are certified sick or ferocious by veterinarians. In fact, dogs that are not sick have to be let back to the same area from where they had been picked up after they have been sterilised, Reddy explained.

Reclaiming the Middle Ground #31 by Tehsinabbasi
I need to know that God is happy with me in my ordinary life, of work and play, fulfilling obligations and juggling everything as best as I can.
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Reminds me of a story I heard as a child:

The story involves Narada (the celestial or divine musician) and Vishnu (one of the Supreme Trinity of Hinduism).

Once upon a time, Narada was complaining to Vishnu ``How come you love those humans more than you love me? Those humans spend all their time eating and sleeping and working, while I spend all my time in prayer to You and singing religious songs about You!``

Vishnu smiled and said ``Narada, I will explain it to you. But first, here is an oil lamp. I want you to carry it around the world. Make sure the lamp does not go out.``

So Narada picked up the lamp and began to walk. As he walked, suddenly a high wind came from nowhere and it took all of Narada`s efforts to make sure the lamp didn`t go out. Finally, after a long time, the wind still blowing, he finished walking around the world and came back to where Vishnu was.

``Here is the lamp,`` he said, proudly, ``And it hasn`t gone out.``

``Very good,`` said Vishnu, ``By the way, when you were walking around the world, how many times did you think of Me?``

``I didn`t think about you at all,`` said Narada, ``It took all my concentration and strength to make sure the lamp didn`t go out.``

``That is why I love humans more,`` said Vishnu, ``You see, their entire life is like a storm. But still they find time to think about Me.``

Pakistan\'s Afghan Policy I have been really surprised by the Pakistan Army`s surrender in Waziristan and NWFP.

Unlike many here, I do not think the US Army very tough - it has virtually no capacity to bear casualities. OTOH, the Indian Army has been taking casualities that would have staggered the US Army. For example, the victory at Kargil was due entirely to the bravery of the Indian soldiers who were killed like flies while retaking Kargil.

I do not think the Indian Army would have surrendered so easily in Waziristan and NWFP.

How come the Pakistan Army could not retain control in Waziristan and NWFP even when they had air support?

Makes one think.

Has Hinduism had the Longest Tradition of Continuous Religion? 330 by sunlight
``Om tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah pracodayat``
``That glorious sun, whose radiance illuminates the universe, may his light illuminate my mind``
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Small mistake in translation, should have been:
``Om tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah pracodayat``
``That glorious sun, whose radiance illuminates the universe, may his light illuminate our minds``

Has Hinduism had the Longest Tradition of Continuous Religion? 322 by ranjit
Is this a joke? 50% of Saudi population i.e. women cant even drive a car. Minorities have no rights. They cannot practice their faith. People from South Asia and Southeast Asia are treated like cattle. Are you saying that they are very happy? Maybe the poll is limited to the Saudi royal family.
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Apparently you did not read the reference I gave you. It is from New Scientist (a very well known and respected scientific magazine). The research was carried out by a professor from the University of Leicester.

FYI - partly because of the influence of the effect of yoga and meditation on people - there is now a large amount of research going on in psychology departments on happiness. This is unlike traditional psychology, which focussed on curing psychological disorders, and so was focussed more on ``unhappiness``.

If you have any evidence or data to support your opinion, I humbly request you to furnish it.

``Om tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah pracodayat``
``That glorious sun, whose radiance illuminates the universe, may his light illuminate my mind``

Has Hinduism had the Longest Tradition of Continuous Religion? #318 by ranjit
I support liberal, strictly secular, democracies with captitalist economy. That works best and has proven itself all over the world to maximize human happiness. In every other system, especially religion based systems, the people are totally miserable.
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Take a look at the ``World Map of Happiness`` which shows that the US and Saudi Arabia are equally happy. http://www.physorg.com/news73321785.html An enlarged map is here http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9642.html

````Further analysis showed that a nation`s level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels (correlation of .62), followed by wealth (.52), and then provision of education (.51). ``

Has Hinduism had the Longest Tradition of Continuous Religion? #313 by ranjit
Given the amount of violence and hatred in the name of religion, I wish all religions would die out and mankind can live in peace without this nuisance.
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Do read a little (recent) history; you will find that atheistic governments (Communist Russia, Communist China, ...) have perpetrated much larger mass murders than any religious government. For example, if you look at the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian communists)
http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvi/12.4.98/news/genocide!.html

``In Cambodia, some scholars estimate that atrocities committed by Pol Pot`s murderous Khmer Rouge regime resulted in the massacre of at least 1.7 million people between 1975 and 1979, annihilating roughly 25 percent of the country`s population.``

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/pol_pot.htm
``He (Pol Pot) began by declaring, ``This is Year Zero,`` and that society was about to be ``purified.`` Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences were to be extinguished in favor of an extreme form of peasant Communism.``
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``At Phnom Penh, two million inhabitants were evacuated on foot into the countryside at gunpoint. As many as 20,000 died along the way.``

``Millions of Cambodians accustomed to city life were now forced into slave labor in Pol Pot`s ``killing fields`` where they soon began dying from overwork, malnutrition and disease, on a diet of one tin of rice (180 grams) per person every two days.``

``Workdays in the fields began around 4 a.m. and lasted until 10 p.m., with only two rest periods allowed during the 18 hour day, all under the armed supervision of young Khmer Rouge soldiers eager to kill anyone for the slightest infraction. ``

``Anyone suspected of disloyalty to Pol Pot, including eventually many Khmer Rouge leaders, was shot or bludgeoned with an ax. ``What is rotten must be removed,`` a Khmer Rouge slogan proclaimed.``

``Up to 20,000 persons were tortured into giving false confessions at Tuol Sleng, a school in Phnom Penh, which had been converted into a jail. Elsewhere, suspects were often shot on the spot before any questioning.``

``Ethnic groups were attacked including the three largest minorities; the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham Muslims, along with twenty other smaller groups. Fifty percent of the estimated 425,000 Chinese living in Cambodia in 1975 perished. Khmer Rouge also forced Muslims to eat pork and shot those who refused.``

Has Hinduism had the Longest Tradition of Continuous Religion? A great article on this topic, that I have quoted before: ``From Manusmriti to Madhusmriti Flagellating a Mythical Enemy`` by Madhu Kishwar
http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/s_es/s_es_kishw_mythical.htm

``I commented in a recent TV interview that Manusmriti (and other shastric texts) have as much or as little authority for Hindus as have Madhusmriti (my writings) - or for that matter the pages of Manushi, for its subscribers.``
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``The Englishmen who came as traders in the 17th century were befuddled at the vast diversity and complexity of Indian society. Having come from a culture where many aspects of family and community affairs came under the jurisdiction of canonical law, they looked for similar sources of authority in India. They assumed, for example, that just as the European marriage laws were based in part on systematic constructions derived from church interpretations of Biblical tenets, so must the personal laws of various Indian communities similarly draw their legitimacy from some priestly interpretations of fundamental religious texts.``
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``the British took no steps to understand local or jati based customary law or the way in which every community ... regulated its own internal affairs ... The power to introduce a new custom, or change existing practices, rested in large part within each community. ... This tradition of self-governance is what accounts for the vast diversity of cultural practices within the subcontinent. For example, some communities observe strict purdah for women, whereas others have inherited matrilineal family structures in which women exercise a great deal of freedom and social clout. Some disapprove of widow remarriage, while others attach no stigma to widowhood and allow women recourse to easy divorce and remarriage.``
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``Neither shastras nor smritis suggest that there exists an immutable, universal moral doctrine. Rather, they emphasise that codes of morality must be specific to time, person, and place, and evolve according to changing requirements. ... Manusmriti itself stresses that the business of the ruler is not to impose laws from above but that,
``a king... must inquire into the law of castes (jati), of districts (Ganapada), of guilds (Shreni), and of families (kula), and settle the peculiar law of each...Thus have the holy sages, ... embraced as the root of all piety good usages long established.`` (Mulla, Principles of Hindu Laws, 15th ed., 1986, p. 23).
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Since different smritikars documented the customs of different communities, there were substantial differences in their approaches, perspectives, and precepts. But characteristically, none of the smritikars deny the authority of other smritikars or attempt to prove that theirs is the supreme, most authoritative version of a code of conduct. They acknowledge that the authority of the king and the law are derived from the people. ... The Smriti of Yajnavalkya, for instance, lists twenty sages as law givers. The Mitakshara explains that the enumeration is only illustrative and Dharmasutras of others are not excluded. Nor is the authority of any shastrakar assigned hierarchical importance.
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Gandhi is one of the few modern social reformers to have understood this principle underlying the shastras. Therefore, he could unhesitatingly declare:
``My belief in the Hindu scriptures does not require me to accept every word and every verse as divinely inspired... I decline to be bound by any interpretation, however learned it may be, if it is repugnant to reason or moral sense.`` (The Collected Work of Mahatma Gandhi, The Publication Division, Government of India, Vol. XXI, p. 246)

A Rant Against Reservations Re: # 108
In the 2005 medical entrance, out of a total of 1,445 seats in 12 medical colleges, 430 seats were available in open competition. As many as 321 BC, 57 MBC and 14 SC students made it in the OC list. Only 38 from `forward` communities qualified.
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If 90% of the seats in open competition are taken by backward communities, then why are reservations needed?

Bollywood and Gender Equality #17 by swarrier
But DDLJ is not a movie that I would use to portray a strong women.
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Sorry I didn`t make myself clear. I didn`t say that DDLJ portrays strong women.

What I said is that Hindi movies protest the patriarchal system by other ways than ``portraying strong women``. In DDLJ, for example, because Simran and her mother submit to the will of Amrish Puri, and Amrish Puri later accepts that he was wrong.

Western ``social reform`` movies typically show a struggle between an dominant party and a struggling party, glorify the violence committed by the struggling party in its own defence and generally end with the violent destruction of one of the parties.

Indian movies typically show the struggling party (temporarily) submitting to the dominant party, which awakens the dominant party`s conscience, which ends with a reconciliation between the dominant and struggling parties.