Changers

Meet the Intellectual Founder of Brazil’s Far Right An interview with Olavo de Carvalho. There seem to be similar figures in India starting with ‘Veer ‘ Savarkar.

Ramachandra Guha on bilingualism in India

One of the best articles in my opinion of the current problems in India is one by Mukul Kesavan called ‘An evil hour’, posted earlier. Trying to find more about him, I saw this article by Ramachandra Guha from 2010. It starts with Mukul Kesavan but is about bilingualism in India. Things have changed a bit since then with some states turning to English education. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BILINGUAL INTELLECTUAL 

An opinion piece on Hindutva

A Hindu critique of Hinditva “Yet, a careful look at India’s culture and society would indicate that religion is all-pervasive: it can be seen in beliefs, rituals as well as in the dangerous stereotypes we nurture about others. Hence, the mere act of debunking religion will not help.”

Two popular US ambassadors to India,

John Kenneth Galbraith reviews a book of Chester Bowles Promises to keep . Chester Bowles book Promises to keep : My earns in public life 1941-1969

An encouraging post on Facebook

Saw this on Facebook from a young man in India. Reminded me of my younger days. I did not have a job but a huge dowry offer because the girl was tall.
“5:00 PM: If you are not interested in this project you can leave! (Boss)

5:03 PM: Hands out resignation. 🙂🙂🙂

I have come this far, on basis of my skill. I never got in to comfort zone. And most importantly money never mattered to me as long as I am learning something new.

I would be happy making 10000Rs a month provided I will have the opportunity to learn something new on regular basis.

Now I am getting paid some 3,00,000 inr a month and I had to sacrifice something I love, my Passion. So I said to myself well screw it I am out of here.

An Impulsive decision

So now after coming home, while celebrating my bravery with a Pizza. I realised what I have done is totally right! Quitting a well paying Job, going back to make peanuts might sound like a bad idea. But money isn’t everything. Money is just something I need to survive I calculated everything and came up with 60,000 inr a month If I have to move back.

But at this very moment I am the happiest person in this world, Its like shawshank Redemption. Getting out of prison through a tunnel full of shit and tunnelling through shit is absolutely worth It.”

Don’t be a Sucker

The full video https://youtu.be/sAu41SpYtl4
An article on the video incorporating some later research:
This 1943 anti-Nazi film keeps going viral. It may be less effective than it seems.

Distrust of elites

i have been accused of this. It seems to becoming common in large parts of the world. Elites seem to have benefited from globalisation and in spite of sprouting eqality and fraternity, they seem to look after their own interests. An article Mukul Kesavan on the ongoing citizenship controversy in India An evil hour mentions some of it: “...the problem with liberals is that they expected abstract ideas to win political victories whereas the truth was that in real life “[d]emocratic struggles for high principles do not happen in a vacuum.” The only way that liberals can prevail against the BJP’s clear-headed majoritarianism is if their “... principles [were] married to lived realities and actual group anxieties.””
Another piece How liberalism became ‘the god that failed’ in eastern Europe by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes from their book The light that failed.

Three mafias

Meaning and Mayhem from NYReview of books.”’Ndrangheta rites also invoke ancient nature-related symbols, such as the moon and stars, as well as national heroes, such as patriots or generals who helped Italy achieve independence and whom the members consider their precursors: “In the name of Garibaldi, Mazzini, and La Marmora, with words of humility I create the Holy Society.” The ’Ndrangheta has appropriated religious rituals, mythological symbols, patriots, and even saints, much as it has taken possession of certain words, completely changing their meaning—honor, family, mamma—and in so doing has created around itself an aura of mystery and wonder that makes it attractive in the eyes of new initiates, especially the youngest. Symbols and codes serve to create a sense of belonging and to hand down an identity so powerful that its members are even willing to die for ”

Selling Keynesianism

Selling Keynesianism Very readable but it may be ignoring the limits of growth.

On the Brahmin left

The ‘Brahmin left’ vs the ‘Merchant right’: A comment on Thomas Piketty’s new book Seems to make sense. We have seen the shift to aBJP in India and the left occupying plum jobs in India and abroad and preaching rebellion in India.

Symbols

Meaning and mayhem from NYReview of books on Mafia organisations.”The ’Ndrangheta has appropriated religious rituals, mythological symbols, patriots, and even saints, much as it has taken possession of certain words, completely changing their meaning—honor, family, mamma—and in so doing has created around itself an aura of mystery and wonder that makes it attractive in the eyes of new initiates, especially the youngest. Symbols and codes serve to create a sense of belonging and to hand down an identity so powerful that its members are even willing to die for the organization.”

Shailendra

A recent article Shailendra — the Leftist poet and Dalit genius whose lyrics define beauty of simplicity despite what the article says, it was known that he was a Dalit. “Babu Jagjivan Ram, on his birthday, on August 30, 1966, said he was the most popular ‘Harijan’ poet of India after Sant Ravi Das.” From https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/entertainment/shailendra-poet-of-the-masses-not-given-his-due-in-hindi-literature

Another quote from Bronkhorst book on Brahmins

“Brahmins, in their self-understanding, owed their special status to the fact that they knew and preserved the Veda, which includes numerous mantras that are supposed to be effective if correctly pronounced in the right circumstances. Their particular concern with the correct pronunciation of those mantras is responsible for their interest in phonetics, and for the composition of treatises dealing with this topic, either in general or focused on specific Vedic texts. The effectiveness of those mantras, furthermore, showed that these mantras, and the language of these mantras, had a close affinity with reality. Sanskrit and reality were, in their opinion, closely connected, and this is a theme that comes up again and again in Brahmanical thought.
This fundamental conviction found expression in a single encompassing vision, in which both the Sanskrit language and the Veda had their place. In this vision, Sanskrit was eternal, i.e., without beginning in time; other lan- guages were at best corruptions of the only language that really existed, viz. Sanskrit. The Veda, too, was without beginning in time, and therefore without author. It needed no author, because the Veda was the pure expression of the Sanskrit language.Studying Sanskrit and studying the Veda were therefore two sides of the same coin. This issue will be taken up in the present section.” 
And more from Bronkhorst “An innovation introduced by the new Brahmanism is the belief that the Sanskrit language—i.e., its words and sounds—are eternal, and therefore without beginning and end. Patañjali the grammarian did so, but he was not the first. Already Kātyāyana held that belief, as is clear from vārttikas such as P. 1.1.56 vt. 12: anupapannaṃ sthānyādeśatvaṃ nityatvāt. There is, on the other hand, no indication that Pāṇini had accepted it. Nor had Yāska, who uses the word nitya a few times in his Nirukta, but never in the sense ‘eternal’.216 Assuming, for simplicity’s sake, that all Brahmins adopted this new conviction of the eternality of words more or less simultaneously, and considering that Yāska is almost certainly more recent than Pāṇini,this would have happened at some time between Yāska and Kātyāyana.”

From Anis Kidwai to Johannes Bronkhorst

The quote earlier from Kidwai and a comment on Facebook led me to the book  How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas by Johannes Bronkhorst
Here are some preliminary comments from the book, as sort of unintended consequences of introspection.  “As a matter of fact, much if not most of Brahmanical literature from this period [Alexander to Guptas] is directed at Brahmins and deals with exclusively Brahmanical concerns. It appears, indeed, that Brahmins of that time made major efforts to create a separate identity for themselves, an identity they could maintain in circumstances where they could not count on a tradition of respect....These ideas about society can be looked upon as natural extensions of the ideas Brahmins had developed about themselves: Brahmanical standards of purity became applicable in society at large; Brahmanical ritual practices came to accompany the lives of many non-Brahmins; Brahmanical ideas of the Brahmins’ posi- tion in society were extended so as to provide a template for society at large; Brahmanical claims to royal protection turned into manuals of statecraft; etc.
...Brahmanism, then, should be thought of as a homogeneous vision of Brahmins and their position in the world, and primarily the result of the self- centered preoccupation of Brahmins during a difficult period in which their traditional position in the world was under threat. This self-centered preoccu- pation became the basis of features that in due time transformed an important part of the world. But those successful features cannot be understood without an understanding of the self-centered preoccupation from which they arose. This means that Brahmanism has to be looked upon as a whole that cannot be grasped by cherrypicking and excluding aspects of our choosing.”
In my reading, I am also keeping in mind Emmanuel Todd’s work on family systems and The Language of the Gods in the World of Men Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India by Sheldon Pollock

Another quote from ‘In Freedom’s Shade’ by Anis Kidwai

“Chaudhary Ridaulvi gloated: ‘It’s all there in an article I wrote—the brahmin has always been dominant in India. Buddhism prospered but Brahminism ensured its ultimate obliteration. Islam shone only briefly, soon losing its identity to be coloured in the same hues as Brahminism. Christianity too bowed before Brahminism in the shape of the Theosophical Society, which acknowledges brahmin supremacy. Brahminism is hegemonic by nature. However much Gandhi may struggle, and all of you rant and rave, India will never be free of the Brahminical order.’”
A book with a similar theme https://www.amazon.com/How-Brahmins-Won-Alexander-Handbook/dp/9004315195 byJohannes Bronkhorst

Conservatism and Boris Johnson

“I wonder whether Boris Johnson and his squalid associates are Conservatives at all. The Conservativism I understand is about public duty, generosity, the instinct to conserve what is good in our society; the importance of the rule of law and of institutions; suspicion of leaps in the dark. I am thinking of the Conservatism of Burke, Lord Salisbury, Oakeshott.“ from Boris Johnson wants to destroy the Britain I love. I cannot vote Conservative by Peter Osborne.

Centre to state funding in India

The general scheme is described here How do states get revenue from centre? But often there are arguments about unfair allotments. Even when the money is delivered, there seem to be delays in the distribution and sometimes the money is blocked: Andhra Pradesh Funds Blocked Over Not Filing Necessary Paperwork: Report “Non-submission of UCs could be mainly because of two reasons. Either the central funds were not fully utilised in time or used for other purposes. Given the severe financial crunch faced by the state, 'adjustment' of funds is not uncommon," a senior official in the finance department said.
The above mentioned adjustment seems to be that the state diverted these funds to one location (during Naidu’s time on the advice of his son Lokesh) from which they release in manner that they consider appropriate. The current state government has not changed the procedure yet. This means that the recipients have to go through two bureaucratic agencies with delays and possible bribes at both places. With the change of government at the state level, the centre seems to be releasing more funds https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/with-jagan-at-helm-centre-extends-over-rs-4-000-crore-to-andhra-pradesh/story-gt0rRG60LNxDyknR9ZAkXJ.html
From a case that I followed, a women’s welfare Organization has not received funds for two and half years. Funds were blocked in April this year since they were not spent in time. By the time they were released, Lokesh came up with the above scheme and now they have to be released again from a central bureaucracy in the state. And the funds may be frozen again if they are not spent by next March. Meanwhile the Organization borrows at the rate of 2-3 percent for month.
Why do the welfare organisations still do such work? My guess is that some of them do out of genuine concern for others. Some skimp on expenses and try to make profits.

Arjun Appadurai on current India

A Syndrome of Aspirational Hatred Is Pervading India

Anis Kidwai from partition days

is translated. I just acquired a copy. An excerpt here Did Sardar Patel order the eviction of Muslims from Delhi villages? it seems that he did. A quote:
“Kidwai, along with two activists, visited ziledar Trikha Ram who said he had no animus against Jaitpur’s Muslims as they belonged to his caste and gotra (clan). Kidwai records Ram telling her: “When the government announced that no Muslim was to live in India, we told our Muslim brothers, ‘Now that it has been decided that only Hindus can live in India, why don’t you all become Hindus, so we don’t lose each other.’” Unwilling to convert, Jaitpur’s Muslims trooped out to Humayun’s Tomb after being given a teary farewell on the village outskirts.

When told the government had not made any announcement that India was for Hindus alone, Ram said he was willing to get them back. However, Ehsan turned down the offer. Kidwai notes, “Whether deriving from mistaken beliefs or a lack of trust or the possibility of a forced conversion, he (Ehsan) refused to return.””

Habib’s presidential address at Indian historical congress 1947

The present and the past, our approach to history recalled recently by Ramachandra Guha History against sectarianism

Dalit women

The Spectre Haunting Hindutva: An Assertive Dalit Woman

Schools and children

BIOLOGYEDUCATION Mismatch Between Our Biologically Evolved Educative Instincts and Culturally Evolved Schools

Not all mosquitoes are bad

The secret world of mosquitoes reveals their larger role in our environment

“Mosquitoes have many functions in the ecosystem that are overlooked. Indiscriminate mass elimination of mosquitoes would impact everything from pollination to biomass transfer to food webs.

There are about 3,500 mosquito species, many of which want nothing to do with biting humans or any other animal. Even in species that bite, it is only the females that do so and just to develop their eggs.“

Mobility in America

The Typical American Lives Only 18 Miles From Mom

One of the greatest goals

https://youtu.be/o8wGN5uDaVg I used watch his games on TV during 1968-69. Genius.
Compare the more recent greats https://youtu.be/TmcezBlz2KM

Mother tongue

As a child, Lily Iervasi remembers her grandmother speaking Motu, one of more than 800 distinct indigenous languages that make up Papua New Guinea’s rich linguistic tapestry (possibly a promotional article from ANU) “Lily’s grandmother hailed from Hanuabada, a small town outside Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. She met Lily’s white Australian grandfather there post-WW2, and they married, eventually returning to Australia to raise their family. They agreed that their children would only speak English; assimilation was the cultural fashion at the time, Lily says. “They wanted their children to fit in.”

Her grandmother learned to assimilate too. A quick learner, she picked up English from her children and wide social network.

A few years ago, she was diagnosed with dementia. As the end neared, she started losing her adopted language. English words and phrases slipped through the cracks of memory. Eventually, all she was left with was her original tongue, Motu.”

Mukul Kesvan writes about his father’s death (posted before)in Do anglophones paddle in the shallows? “But the middle-of-the-night question—what language do you scream in when you’re tumbled from your bed at 2am by an earthquake—remains. In the last week of my father’s life, his mind abandoned his hospital bed present, and ranged back to his childhood. He called to his mother, who had died when he was a boy, and spoke to his grandfather, who had raised him. For all the languages he had learnt over a very long life, and despite his own acknowledgment of the primacy of English, he died in Tamil.”

Rapes in different contexts

Hawke urged daughter to keep rape allegations secret: report

Father Killed In Jail & Aunt Dead In Mishap, Is Unnao Rape Victim Paying Price For Accusing BJP MLA?

Problems with growth

Forget 'developing' poor countries, it's time to 'de-develop' rich countries 

Fascinating discussion on Brexit and other things

https://youtu.be/xdtssXITXuE

Removing paan stains

Mumbai Girls’ Brilliant Way to Remove Paan Stains Could Save Railways Crores Every Year

Speaking to The Better India, Nishtha said, “For the competition, we had genetically modified a microorganism, bacteria to be precise so that it produces specific enzymes which could degrade or remove the pan stains. But as the release of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in the environment is not safe and has various government regulations and keeping in mind the suggestions given from industries we decided to move it to an ‘enzyme based application system’ which will remove these stains in an effective way.”

One Brexit fear

One of Brits' Biggest Brexit Fears Is That They'll Have to—Oof—Eat American Food I would go further. Keynes in 1933 Via Gautam Menon. As Keynes said in 1933:
“Ideas, knowledge, science, hospitality, travel – these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible, and, above all, let finance be primarily national.
For these strong reasons, therefore, I am inclined to the belief that a greater measure of national self-sufficiency and economic isolation among countries may tend to serve the cause of peace, rather than otherwise." I would go further and go for local self sufficiency even with in countries as much as possible. That may one way to counteract the tyranny of the state including one’s own.

From the review of a book on pandemics

How pandemics shape social evolution “As Snowden discusses, by restricting the land available to people of colour, apartheid accelerated the growth of a migrant labour system that divided black families. It also encouraged new forms of social and sexual behaviour. Both developments, in turn, hastened the spread of AIDS once it arrived. Young men growing up away from their families, for instance, often developed standards of masculinity that promoted sexual conquest and violence; South Africa now has one of the highest rates of rape in the world (K. Naidoo S. Afr. Med. J. 103, 210–211; 2013). ” This seems to have parallels in some Indian sexual violence cases.

On violence against women

Some links via Pramathanath Sastry.
Are men more violent than women?
Socialization Isn’t Responsible for Greater Male Violence
Some links about societies where women have more say:
International Women's Day: What are matriarchies, and where are they now?
What does a society run by women look like?
These links were found in the discussions about the rape, murder and burning of Priyanka Reddy near Hyderabad. Depressingly similar to Nirbhaya case.