Vote Congress - Get back to Socialist Dystopia of the 70s

Talk to anyone who grew up in the 70s. Chances are more that they talk about the dismal economic conditions they were living in than they talk about the affluent or at least middle class lifestyle. That was the condition in which most of the Indians languished till the economic reforms gave them some kind of respite and hope.

Agreed, India of the 70s was just over two decades since was free from the colonial clutches. But many countries which were erstwhile colonial colonies, once got freedom in the 40s and 50s were marching ahead in the economic growth while majority of the Indians were paralyzed by penury. If you go to the main causes of it, it’s not hard to find the reason – the flirtation with socialism to usher in the dreams of a utopia.

I had said in one of my earlier posts – most of the problems that are plaguing the contemporary India can be traced back to congress. In the same way, many of the mindless economic policies that caused unnecessary delay of economic progress of India can be traced back to one man – Jawaharlal Nehru and of course, his progenies.

Those were the times when the world was swayed by the spells of socialism. Nehru, who was a Fabian socialist was immensely influenced by the success of the then USSR, wanted to replicate the same in India. So, all these centralized planning, the five-year plan, control of the state on key industries are the results of the socialist principles. But, thank heavens he did not choose the way of Lenin, Stalin or Mao.

If you by any chance remember studying the kind of economy India is, you might remember studying it as a mixed economy – that is the one which has both the traits of socialism and capitalism. But before the reforms of the 90s, India can be rightly called as a quasi-socialist economy. There is a well known joke in the Former Eastern Bloc – Capitalism makes social mistakes, socialism makes capital mistakes.

The legacy of Nehru continued unabated – first through his daughter and then through the dynasty. In my assessment of the man I can ascribe naiveté for him but not malignancy. The same can’t be said about his daughter Indira. She was dictatorial, having little respect for the democratic principles. For these kinds of leaders naturally socialism becomes dearest. So, during her reign, socialistic policies went unchecked. To understand how diabolical the policies were of the Indira’s rule, just sample this –  India’s personal income tax had eleven tax brackets with highest marginal income tax rate of 97.5 per cent! Now, with that level of taxation, who would want to be an entrepreneur? It was just discouraging for anyone who wanted to be an entrepreneur.

That’s just the repetition of the same old story of Robin Hood we knew about: Rob from the rich and give it to the poor. But usually the latter never happened. No country can ever be in the path of progress without entrepreneurial spirit. But with the existing principles, the spirit of entrepreneurship was nipped in the bud.

Now cut to present day, current UPA government – we hear the same sloganeering, the same social engineering, the same high decibel projects (NREGA, and other such loathsome likes) – in short, all vestiges of the bygone dark socialistic era. They have brought down India from a level in which it was hailed as the next economic power to a crippling economy where food inflation runs close to 13%.

It was a rude shocker for the BJP and NDA when the Congress and its allies got the mandate to form the government in 2004. It was too much to give it a second chance in 2009. It continued doing what it did in the first term – to bring India down by several notches. Now we stand at the doorstep of a much needed change. If we make a mistake of re-electing the UPA again, the mistake would be too costly to correct. So, the mistake would be at our own peril and might create the socialist dystopia yet again. 

Book Review - Falling Over Backwards

Gujjars’ protest in Rajasthan to reclassify them as a scheduled tribe from other backward class turns violent ; Mayawati demands reservations for Dalits in private sector ; The newly formed government promises increase in reservation for backward castes – I am sure you would have read/heard these kinds of news. Did you ever wonder as to how did we land in such a soup? Why many castes have fought and tried to project themselves as backwards? What is the root cause of this phenomenon called reservation? This essay of Arun Shourie – “Falling over backwards” attempts to study the phenomenon in detail.

The theme of the book is centered on caste-based reservations – what the constitution actually says about it, the purpose of reserving jobs based on castes, how political class has turned reservation into an ax to grind, the judiciary’s part in it, the effect it has on the effective functioning on the administration and so on.

The book starts with the letter of Jawaharlal Nehru to the chief ministers in 1950 in which he warned about the dangers the caste-based reservations would loom the public at large. He was quoted saying – “This way lies not only folly, but disaster”. But as the history of independent India has shown, the warning went unheeded.

Some primary areas the essay focuses on:

• Constitutional provisions : What the constitution actually says about caste-based reservations, what is made out of them
• Social structure and dynamics of castes in India – past and present
• From reservation for jobs, to the admissions in colleges to promotions – how all rules are thrown to the air, how warnings against it went unheeded, all in the name of “Social Justice”
• The controversial system used for promotion – the roster system – how it works, the effects it has with many real life examples.
• The opportunism of the political class, the activism of some “progressive” judges – the collective effect it has on the efficiency of the machinery of administration

The original intention of reservation and the time period of it have long been forgotten and it’s used for making hay for the politicians. There is perhaps no single politician worth his salt who hasn’t made use of reservation to his or his party’s ultimate ends. That which should have really empowered people has come to favor only a selected few and has been descended as a weapon in the armor of political class. The trend of increasing the percentage of reservations does what many judges had warned about – reverse discrimination. Reservation - which was supposed to create an equal society, which was supposed to abolish the caste differences, has only perpetuated the very ills that it was fighting against. But all the ills of reservations are passed off in the name of "social justice".

Arun Shourie does a neat job in – accumulating the facts (a laborious one, which involves thousands of court cases and judgments), analyzing them (which involves separating facts from fiction, puncturing the non-factual claims of the pro-reservationists with data and undeniable proofs), proposing a way out from all. Shourie is known for his meticulous research and rigorous analysis. This essay bears testimony to the fact.

No matter if one is for reservation or against reservation, this book is a compulsory study for all who are interested in knowing the caste-based reservations in India. But let me warn you – the book is huge, can get repetitive at times because of the underlying subject. It establishes that the grave traps are usually laid in the premises of lofty ideas. Most importantly, it gives a clarion call to the ills of reservations with facts hitting you in the face and proposes a way out.

You deserve what you get, you get what you deserve - that's Democracy

The west has given the world many ideologies – Capitalism, socialism, liberalism, fascism to name a few. Some of them proved to be malevolent for mankind but a few proved otherwise. The most profound idea that it ever gave was the idea of democracy - the idea that people could rule themselves through an elected representative. The fact that the democracy originated more than 2500 years ago, just indicates the level of sophistication the Greek thought and civilization had achieved. This is not to say democracy is the best level of governance, it is in fact not. But nevertheless, it is arguably the best form of governance among all available, conceivable options.

 

Cutting through all the lengthy explanations, what is the core of democracy? Abraham Lincoln simplified it for us “It’s a form of government – by the people, for the people and of the people”. To simplify further, it’s apt to say that it empowers people. In other forms of government, power rests with a very few people or a clique but in democracy it’s with everyone. Now, we know with power comes responsibility. We’ll come to that part a bit later. 

 

Now consider the situation in India. There is hardly anyone who doesn’t complaint about the politicians of India. Begin a political discussion anywhere; all you get to hear is unending lamenting on the contemporary political scenario and the mess the politicians have made out of India, which was once a great land. Some go to an extent of calling it a kakistocracy. But, is it really so? Let us see. I am not going to quote Cleisthenes or Karl Popper or someone of that sort to make a point. But instead, watch this video. 

 

 

This is the video from one of the world’s greatest stand-up comedians of all time: George Carlin. Now, if you did not watch the video, let me give you the transcript:

Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.  

Just substitute ‘India’ in the place of ‘America’, it perfectly fits in. I’ll add a few more adjectives to what Carlin has said: If you have docile, passive, corrupt, insensitive population all you get is exactly similar kind of politicians. So, I find it unfair to blame only politicians for all the mess that India is. People share equal blame, if not more.

 

The primary problem seems that the idea of democracy hasn’t seeped completely into the minds of the people and there were no momentous efforts from the concerned leadership after getting freedom. So, many people are still the same old feudalistic mindset and democracy has become a make-believe idea. Democracy won’t work like that. It works only through people’s active, responsible participation which severely lacks in India. Coming to responsibility, as I mentioned early with power comes responsibility. If there are inept leaders, perhaps the responsibility is not handled properly by the populace.

 

If you have corrupt, inept leaders, perhaps the large chunk of population comprises that kind of people. To give an analogy: all these politicians are like samples taken from the large data pool of entire population. They do represent the population at large. In democracy, we get what we deserve. Nothing is undeserved. So, all the politicians you loathe, hold them in contempt are perhaps deserved after all.

Chit of a girl and Peter's Principle

Howard was doing great as a manager of a team of young professionals. Looking at his performance, the management decided to promote him to the post of VP. Initially things looked great. After a while, things started crumbling down. He could not function as per the expectations of the higher management; he could not handle the responsibilities. In short, he was incompetent for the new position. The phenomenon which describes this is called as peter’s principle. This is usually paraphrased as "Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence". This was formulated in the book “The peter principle” authored by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull.

We have our own version of Howard, don’t we? Watch CNN-IBN every night from Monday to Thursday at 22:00. There comes the feminine version of Howard called Sagarika Ghose. The program is titled “Face the nation” after popular American news program by the same name (The name can be shortened as FTN, you can substitute the F with your favorite F-word. The program qualifies for that, I assure you.)

This lady Sagarika was happy with writing on semi-porn stuffs and advocating, urging men that it's their duty to provide orgasms to their women. But alas she came to serious journalism, just like our Howard got promoted as the VP. Journalism once had high standards and required thorough subject knowledge, analyzing skills. If you ever doubted whether the standards have fallen, you just have to look at the purported journos like Sagarika, all your doubts will be removed at once. It becomes amply clear that the standard that journos used to have, has taken a severe beating. It just takes some stammering in English and some amount of glamor to be called a journo these days.

As far as I remember, the first ever article I read of SG was on caste system and how Purusha Sukta supports it. If you’ve taken trouble of reading that article, you’d arrive at this -What is SG’s problem? - Caste system. What’s her solution? Re-write Purusha Sukta. Splendid, isn't it!?. By the by, who is her authority? - Some Dalit writers in general, Kancha Iliah in particular. This is the man who harbors visceral hatred all that is Hindu and is a racist par excellence. This is the man who is frequently invited as an ‘expert’ on Hinduism on her show. Inviting Kancha Iliah to speak about Hinduism as an authority is akin to inviting Hitler to talk about Judaism (In terms of intense hatred they harbor – If you have followed the man, his activities and his writings, I think you would concur with me). Coming to the article – The article is so vacuous, has logical and factual holes so huge that you can drive your car through it. So, the less said about the article, the better it is.

This is the story of just one of her articles that I happen to distinctly remember. She has many such articles and shows in her repertoire that would insult your intelligence and militate against facts and reasoning. This is what made Ram Jethmalani to call her a chit of a girl. The drubbing she got from Jethmalani is an epic and should be a warning for other journos who are ignorant of the facts at hand and thrive on sensationalism. The blunders, willful deceptions and inane utterances of her and her ilk are chronicled and well lampooned in this site (or you can follow her on twitter for your daily dose of comic relief).

SG has passed through the aforementioned stage of Peter’s principle. She has risen to the level of incompetence for a long time now. In any decently run news channels, she would have been sacked long back for her stupid utterances and blunders. But the irony is that she is the deputy editor of a ‘reputed’ channel where her hubby is the editor. Media which is supposed to be one of the watch-dogs of democracy has fallen victim to a thing which severely compromises the principles of democracy – nepotism. The irony just died a million times over.

 

About time we paid heed to the warning of Peter Hammond

Random browsing has sometimes yielded me some wonderful information. Sometimes in fact, I’ve hit the goldmine. In one of those random browsing sessions I came across this man and his book in which he's made a few very interesting and accurate phenomenon resulting from the growth of Islam in any country. In fact in one of my earlier posts, I had mentioned about the propositions he had made.

As we witnessed fresh Islamic violence in many parts of India (again!) last year, I wondered whether the same propositions could be applied to individual states. Interestingly the results matched the proposition. Though it can't be taken as an axiomatic truth, it's very close to it.

So, what happened last year? Last July there were series of riots between the Bodos (large ethnic tribe of Assam) and Muslims in Assam, Azad-Maidan riots in Mumbai (the motive was nothing to do any issues related to India) and tens of riots in Uttar Pradesh, a state ruled by ultra-secular party called Samajwadi Party.

If you followed the usual ‘secular’ media, chances are less you knew the details of them. The UP story was almost blacked out by the entire spectrum of mainstream media. The secular lambs in media choke while reporting anything where the ‘secular’ parties are involved and people from the ‘religion of peace’ are the perpetrators. If not for the social media, we would never have known many crimes and even riots that mainstream media faithfully routinely blacks out.

Mea Culpa! I missed out another ‘secular’ state. Didn’t I? No, I have missed two in fact. We’ll come to the other one a little later. Let me talk about the first one: West Bengal. This February, West Bengal (24 Paraganas) saw a slew of anti-Hindu violence for avenging the alleged murder of an imam of the local mosque. Many were injured, many houses were destroyed. As with all other riots, media turned blind eye on this incident too.

What do these states have in common? – An overwhelming majority of Muslim population. Take a look at these figures:

UP – 17.1%
Kerala – 24.7%
WB – 25.2%
Assam – 30.93%
J & K – 67%

Note:

1) These figures are from 2001 census.

2) Given the immense growth and fertility rate among the Muslims all across the world, there should be considerable increase in these figures as well. Our government was so pusillanimous that it couldn’t disclose the breakdown based on religion in the 2011 census.

3) The figure that is given for J & K is of entire state of J & K. If you consider the Muslim population of only Kashmir valley, it’s more than 98% and it’s close to being a Dar al-Islam.

Alright! Now the obvious question - Can one infer such a thing i.e correlation between communal violence, Jihadi terrorism with the increase of Muslim population by some isolated incidents of violence? May be not! But there is no denying the fact that whenever the Muslim population increases beyond a point i.e. when they become the majority, the rights of the then minority will be in jeopardy.(Also, anti-national activities will rise. Same could be said about Christian-dominated regions like Nagaland or Mizoram but it has many other factors to consider, has a different context and is beyond the scope of this post)

To cut the long story start: Infiltration of Bangladeshis has been a big problem from many decades. It has affected both the states of West Bengal and Assam. Although well-known, the secular parties outrightly denied at worst or tried to play it down at best because the illegal immigrants for them don’t appear as national threats but as potential votes. That’s the level our ‘secular’ politicians have plumbed. This is the primary reason for the Muslim-Bodo clashes that happened last year. That’s the short story of two states. Now coming to the other two states: Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. Current political scenario in both the states is completely dominated by Muslims or those whose hearts selectively bleed only for Muslims. Their hearts bleed to an extent where they get ready to jettison terrorism cases against Muslim youths, who according to them are 'mistaken' as terrorists; to an extent they give hero’s welcome to a convicted terrorist like Madani. All in all, there is a huge competition to prove who is more secular in the lot. This kind of political climate provides a fertile ground for the anti-national activities. As recent intelligence has proved, these have become safe havens and breeding ground for Jihadi forces.

If this rampant minoritysm morphing as secularism goes unchallenged and if the same political climate continues where every issue of national importance is reduced to mindless debate of secularism vs communalism, if hindus continue to be in deep slumber then, consider a strong foundation is being laid towards making India an Islamic Republic.

Book Review - The End of Faith

Introduction:

End of faith is a book by Sam Harris. Going by the title, I had assumed it to be a treatise on atheism like- say- The God Delusion of Richard Dawkins. But to my surprise it didn’t turn out to be one. But instead it was a work which diagnosed the phenomenon called faith (or belief) and its various manifestations from various dimensions and its impact on the world. Having proficiency in neurology and allied sciences, Sam Harris does a good job in it.

Synopsis:

First of all, the concept of belief is examined with all its psychological clutches that hold us.

“A BELIEF is a lever that, once pulled, moves almost everything else in a person's life. Are you a scientist? A liberal? A racist? These are merely species of belief in action. Your beliefs define your vision of the world; they dictate your behavior; they determine your emotional responses to other human beings.”

Then the focus shifts from belief to the next obvious territory: the territory of religion. Sam Harris warns about the religious bigotry and its effects.

“It seems that if our species ever eradicates itself through war, it will not be because it was written in the stars but because it was written in our books”

The primary focus is on the Abrahamic religions which have a common root: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three have many similarities and all have exclusive truth claims. Sam Harris goes to the roots of ‘holy’ scriptures of these religions and examines them. He rebukes the truth monopolies the religions claim to have.

“The idea that any one of our religions represents the infallible word of the One True God requires an encyclopedic ignorance of history, mythology, and art even to be entertained—as the beliefs, rituals, and iconography of each of our religions attests to centuries of cross- pollination among them.”

While examining these original texts (Old Testament, New Testament, Koran, Sunnah etc), he shows how they are inherently intolerant and inspires violence against the non-believers. The episodes of medieval Christianity: the never ending witch-hunts, inquisition, burning heretics at the stake make for a nauseating reading and makes one wonder how much blood have spilled for the sake of belief.

Then his gaze turns towards east. He observes, in the east, non-sectarian spiritual traditions have developed which never developed in the west in a full scale and ponders on the reason. In his own words: 

“If there is an equally arresting image that accounts for why nondualistic, empirical mysticism seems to have arisen only in Asia, I have yet to find it. But I suspect that the culprit has been the Christian, Jewish,and Muslim emphasis on faith itself. Faith is rather like a rhinoceros, in fact: it won't do much in the way of real work for you, and yet at close quarters it will make spectacular claims upon your attention.”

He then dwells on the issue of conscious mind, the functioning and the intricacies and all the exhortations of western philosophers like Descartes, Pascal, and Sartre et al. Then he makes an arresting conclusion:

“ Nevertheless, when the great philosopher mystics of the East are weighed against the patriarchs of the Western philosophical and theological traditions, the difference is unmistakable: Buddha, Shankara, Padmasambhava, Nagarjuna, Longchenpa, and countless others down to the present have no equivalents in the West. In spiritual terms, we appear to have been standing on the shoulders of dwarfs.”

Then the focus is shifted to Buddhism and the long tradition of Buddhists to focus on the mind and its functioning. He posits Buddhism in the high pedestal among religions which is rational and most of the claims can be empirically verified. He mocks the difference in understanding of the universe and its functioning between Eastern and western tradition thus:

“It is no exaggeration to say that meetings between the Dalai Lama and Christian ecclesiastics to mutually honor their religious traditions are like meetings between physicists from Cambridge and the Bushmen of the Kalahari to mutually honor their respective understandings of the physical universe.”

He makes a very important distinction which most miss: The difference between mysticism and religious tradition. To paraphrase him –

“MYSTICISM is a rational enterprise. Religion is not. The mystic has recognized something about the nature of consciousness prior to thought, and this recognition is susceptible to rational discussion .The mystic has reasons for what he believes, and these reasons are empirical. The roiling mystery of the world can be analyzed with concepts (this is science), or it can be experienced free of concepts (this is mysticism). Religion is nothing more than bad concepts held in place of good ones for all time. It is the denial—at once full of hope and full of fear—of the vastitude of human ignorance.”  

He nails the coffin called faith thus :

“Faith is simply the license they give themselves to keep believing when reasons fail When rational inquiry supports the creed it is championed; when it poses a threat, it is derided; sometimes in the same sentence. Faith is the mortar that fills the cracks in the evidence and the gaps in the logic, and thus it is faith that keeps the whole terrible edifice of religious certainty still looming dangerously over our world.”

Conclusion:

This is one of the few books written in the spirit of free enquiry. Usually the books which take critical position on religion take the side of atheism, and eventually end up advocating it. But this book is an exception. While looking the faith, religion and the dangers which loom from it, it also looks at the possibility of expansion of human consciousness through non-sectarian spiritual traditions and methods. It’s a strong, scholarly work rooted in reason, science and rationality.

My being pro-BJP is incidental ; whereas my being anti-Congress is permanent

If there was one impending doom that could be called as the greatest to befall on Independent India, that could be called as ‘congress’. That was one baggage we could have done without. Instead of disbanding it for good as per the aspirations of the Mahatma, it was left to stay. The lust for power knows neither principles nor ethics. It triumphs everything else.

But, why such animosity against such a ‘great’ national party which did so many ‘sacrifices’ for the nation you may ask. Well, the issue under discussion merits at least the scope of a full book. The ills inflicted on the nation, the aspirations of the people cut short, the number of hopes betrayed, and it will be too long to even mention all the sins committed by congress.

The best test would be to list all the problems distressing the Indian populace and the problems plaguing all the political parties across the nation. I can take a bet that a phenomenal number of them can be traced back to congress, its ideology (does it have one?) and its misrule. From falling over backwards for minorities to dynastic politics to dividing on communal and caste lines – everything – has its roots in the congress party.

To start with, when Congress got the mandate to rule the country after independence they inherited a great number of traits from the erstwhile rulers, the British. They continued to despise the people and their aspirations, they continued to see how they can hold onto the seat willy-nilly, and the worst them of all: they continued to Divide and rule. In fact, congress has mastered this strategy of dividing the country into smaller and smaller pieces in the name of language, religion, castes and whatnot!

If the country is divided into umpteen number of pieces, if one faction is at war with the other, if regionalism has triumphed over nationalism (and a large number of people have sympathies for regionalism than nationalism) think that there is a grand wicked hand of congress at work. In fact, congress not only represents a party but it stands for a culture – a culture that now has been imbibed by many other small parties. It’s a culture of settling scores of political rivals, corruption of gargantuan magnitude, legacy of betrayal, sycophancy (most important), keeping the people in perpetual poverty and ignorance, needless reverence of one particular family (dynastic politics, in other words), rendering of constitutional institutions into the state of powerlessness, killing free speech – in short, killing democracy inch by inch.

Although the hegemony of congress over the nation has dented over a period of time, it takes some more time for its abject decimation. India and congress are like two mutually exclusive events – For India to progress, congress has to go with all of its manifestations or should congress stay, India can never be on the path of progress – that’s a given. To be more straightforward, I consider congress to be akin with a cancerous tumor which has to be removed should the person needs to survive. Here, the person is India.

On the contrast, with all its problems and squabbles - BJP in the national level -- is something you can still entrust your hopes on. Although the original ideology of placing nation above the party and self has definitely deteriorated over time, it has still not died completely. Still, there are leaders who can selflessly dedicate themselves for the task of nation building. Besides, should I have to choose other party than the BJP or the congress there is not a single party which can throw a real challenge to congress other than the BJP at a pan-Indian level. So, it’s also the deprivation of choices that makes me vote for the BJP. With its many obvious flaws, if you consider BJP to be evil, it is much lesser evil compared to congress and all of its manifestations – any day! That’s why, my being pro-BJP is just incidental but my being anti-Congress is something permanent.

The Land Jihad

I assume you all have heard of the term ‘love jihad’. If you haven’t, just googling it will throw out thousands of results. It is a phenomenon that is rampant in several areas of coastal regions of Karnataka and also in many parts of Kerala. When I heard it for the first time, I thought it was some kind of a crackpot conspiracy theory but later instances proved otherwise. But did you know there is something called as ‘land jihad’?

Let me first interpret the word ‘jihad’ in the present context. Jihad in simple terms means a religious warfare for the cause of Islam. Though the means remain violent most of the times, a few times it can be non-violent also. This land jihad falls into the latter category. But the cause or the end remains intact: The cause of religion.

Land as an investment avenue

There are many investment avenues that can be used to leverage your capital amount of investment. The basic lessons of investment say that over a long duration of investment horizon only two investment avenues are profitable more than any other types of investment: The first one is investment in stock market and the other one is investment on land. Both these investments, in a way are an investment on the economy of the nation. So, especially when the economy is booming, the stated investments can give you very high dividends. As India is a booming economy, the importance of investment in these two avenues can’t be stated more. Here, the focus is on land so let me stick to it.

Land Jihad by ‘Religion of peace’ – With Kerala as an example

Islamists make no bones about their intention to make this nation Islamic. The way things are shaping up in the nation and the kind of support they are getting from all the quarters both openly and covertly, perhaps they will eventually be successful. Among many ways of capturing the nation, ownership of the land is one of the main ways. Just remind yourself how the church captured and controlled the African continent by owning most of the land.

It’s a common knowledge that Muslims like to be amongst themselves. That’s the reasons you find ‘Muslim ghettos’ even in some of the well-developed countries of Europe. I’m not trying to implicate anything wrong per se. But given the ‘Muslim only’ mindset, it is difficult to deal with them in many cases. For instance, it is almost impossible to find a house to buy in a completely Muslim-dominated area if you are a non-Muslim. This is just a small example of demographic seize. [The media especially the loathsome likes of NDTV, The Hindu et al. wants us to believe exactly the opposite where Muslims are portrayed as helpless victims]But contrary to this, the Hindu land-owners by and large sell off their lands to a good price without thinking any of the other larger consequences. The ghettoization is a dangerous trend, very well captured in this well-researched article.

Kerala, former ‘God’s own country’: It is no longer cool to refer Kerala as god’s own country anymore. God disowned that state long back if ever he owned it in the first place. It is heading up steadily to become another Kashmir. Defense analysts say the kinds of events that Kerala is witnessing now is strikingly similar to the events that Kashmir witnessed a few years before things went out of control. Let me add some factual spice to it: Muslim fundamentalists have declared to make Kerala an Islamic state in a few decades. The avowed promise was really serious that the chief minister of Kerala had to concur they actually vowed so. This small article actually outlines briefly how land Jihad is taking shape in Kerala.   

As the above article briefly explains, Muslims in many dealings are willing to pay price which is higher than market value. Unsuspecting Hindus by the lure of higher price just sell off their lands for a higher price. As with many cases, Hindus are caught off guard here. There is nothing objectionable-legally-as everything is done in accordance with laws. This trend of land Jihad started in the Muslim-dominated district of Malappuram then it did spread to other cities like Kasargod. One of my friends who happens to be a resident of Kasargod gave me first-hand account of all these. In his own words – “Kerala is turning out to be a hotbed of Islamic Fundamentalism. A powerful land mafia is behind all to usurp the lands from Hindus with intimidation & terror so as to create a strong Muslim land bank. Unemployed Muslim youth are reared with cash, motor bikes, mobile phones to foment tension in Hindu pockets thereby create panic to sell off their lands. Gulf money + Forged money is deployed for the purpose. Being a part of the central cabinet & a partner in the state ruling front, they have the necessary protection from all quarters. To top it all, the Hindus are divided into umpteen numbers of parties”.

This is just a glimpse of what RoP guys have done in recent years in one particular state. Let's look at the RoL (Religion of Love) guys now. They are far better networked, far wealthier than any cult group you can think of.

Land Jihad by ‘Religion of Love’

Let me ask you a question to start with. Who is the largest landowner of India? Any guesses? I think this is fairly simple. Yes, the Government of India (GoI). But let me ask you a tough one. Who is the second largest landowner of India? You perhaps don’t know because it’s a tough guess. Indian Church is the second largest landowner of India. Surprised? May be you are.

Globally, the church is third largest landowner 

Christians constitute about 3% of Indian population (according to 2001 census) and the church is the largest non-government landowner in India. Talk about disproportionate asset allocation! While at present the Christian population could be anywhere between 5-6% of the total population, it is still a case of disproportion. (Although some evangelical websites like this places the percentage to as high as preposterous 25%! )

But what’s wrong in owning any amount of real estate in legal terms you may ask. Fair question! If it were to be all legal, then the question would have been only about the moral and strategic choices and implications. But the case is not so. How did the church acquire so much land in the first place? It is through the land grants since the days of the British. It’s like an inheritance of the colonial period. But the sad part is that even after the independence, there was never an effort to legitimately redistribute this.

This article could be a primer for the issue under discussion. One more disturbing fact about this issue is that it is not discussed as it should have been. You can see a very few intellectuals like Rajiv Malhotra raising this topic often and we can never expect our mainstream media to discuss these issues which have far reaching consequences. This is because most of the Indian media is controlled from outside India, mostly by church and also because the excessive fetish and allegiance it has towards the twisted idea of secularism.

The church’s nefarious designs for India to make it a Christian nation can be seldom disputed. Why should we fear the church’s hegemony on land ownership? Anyone posing such naïve questions should care to study the kind of divisive role the church played in the continent of Africa. Why go even there? Just watch our own back yards of some the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Tripura, etc. You can better understand the church and its design. It always wants to create state within the state. The kind of role it has played in the North East India is an unshakeable testimony to the fact.

Last Tidbit : If the issue is not debated with all seriousness it demands, if the trend is left unchecked, I think we will be laying a strong foundation towards making India a Chrislamic  Republic and that can be unarguably the greatest disaster to befall on us.

The farce called inter-religious dialogue

The wise men of this land said "Religion is an inward step". Well, they were right indeed. Religion was treated same way in this land, not as an object which was to be flaunted outside with all unnecessary pomp. But not all the cultures were as catholic as India's in their outlook towards life.

The genesis of the concept of god

Now, where and when did all this start? When man came to Earth, he saw so much of creation. He couldn't account for all the creation that was lying around. So, he created a hypothesis : Some one "up there" should have done all this. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev jokingly says that gods created by human beings look like bigger human beings. Likewise if buffaloes were to create god, they would create bigger buffaloes. 

Xenophanes, the Greek poet and philosopher said it the best:

Ethiopians imagine their gods as black and snub-nosed; Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired. But if horses or lions had hands, or could draw and fashion works as men do, horses would draw the gods shaped like horses and lions like lions, making the gods resemble themselves.

So, then man is not the image of god but it's just the reverse. In fact, the god and the attributes given to him/her/it tells a lot about the culture which worships him/her/it. It's another story in itself. Let's save it for another day.

Some time ago, I found this statement when i was browsing for something

Religion was born to fill gaps in our understanding of the universe. Anything we could not understand was attributed to a “god”. The criminals soon realized that Priest craft was a profitable business and soon competing religions was born and each was supported by legions of “useful idiots”. What better way to assert dominance that using threats, waging war, stealing in the name of god, committing genocide. Do you understand why we have such a messy world today?

Whoever wrote this has a point. Many religions started as political doctrines which masqueraded in the garb of 'religions'. Many others started as genuine spiritual movements and went into the hands of people who had other ulterior motives and used religion as a plank in their ploy.

Religion and Politics

If there is a genuine spiritual movement, it should and will never give a damn about the head count it has. The head count is important for the forces which want to RULE not to serve. The forces which want to rule, far from being spiritual can only be political. This is how proselytizing starts. Of course these forces invoke the name of god for all atrocious, ugly things that they do.

When competing religions fight for their share of pie around the globe, inevitably there will be conflicts among them. NO deaths are more in number than the deaths that are caused by religion. In any competitive arena, sometimes there is no other option other than to 'tolerate' the other party or to strike a deal of 'compromise'. Competitive religions which have the features of both politics and business can't be an exception to this rule. So, this farce called inter-religious dialogue begins.

If you look at the history of inter-religious dialogue especially in India, it may go as far as the times of Akbar. Much before that, there were many exchanges, debates between different schools of thought but they can't be considered as inter-religious dialogues because there were hardly any religions that India had before the predatory religions invaded India. All that India had was indigenous spiritual traditions which were not as ossified as the current religions which are beyond any change.

The most famous inter-religious dialogue which is known for most of us is the one that happened in 1893 in which Swami Vivekanda took the conference by storm. You know the rest of the story. I need not elaborate it. We can concord, it was fairly successful because India's soft power was exerted very well by Vivekananda. Apart from this one, do we hear about any other conferences? No, we don't. 

The first such conference that i witnessed was the 'dailogue' between Zakir Naik of Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and Sri Sri Ravishankar of Art of Living. It was a travesty right from the beginning. First of all, the 'dialogue' is a part of IRF's project called "Shahada". The arabic word shahada is the declaration of "lā ʾilāha ʾillā l-Lāh, Muḥammadun rasūlu l-Lāh" which means There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Need i say more? When someone is starting with this kind of mindset both in words and in spirit, can there be any possibility of an honest debate? Not possible, not for a minute. This one turned out to be another such farce out of which nothing fruitful emerged.

"All religions are equal"

Boy, oh boy! they said it all the day and never got bored of saying it. Among many empty-talks, this one would take the cake. This thought is not alien to the people who are born in Hindu families. They are taught all religions are same and eventually leads to the same destination, god. Well, the thought which comes out of good-will is practically wrong. Else, how on this earth can one equate an Orthodox Jain and an Orthodox Muslim or for that matter Orthodox Jainism with Orthodox Islam? That's just bull. One of my twitter friends commented the biggest dope ever sold was the thought of all religions are equal one. You know what? The dope was so attractive that many bought it. But a lie can't become truth just by the number people that adhere to it.

I think Aristotle (Some dispute it) said it the best : The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

Book Review - Breaking India

Before starting anything, sample this : 2 authors, 5 years of research, 476 pages of data and analysis, bibliography of 61 pages, references to innumerable websites, books,and articles. Even this doesn't say how serious and important is this work -> Breaking India - Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines. Authored by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan this work talks about various kinds of threats that are systematically unleashed by various coordinated forces on India and its religion. Before reading anything further, go to this official website to know more. 

The map shown is what the authors warn about in the book.

Introduction: 

There are global forces which don't like the idea of integrated India and constantly try to balkanize India so that balkanized India serves to fulfill their ultimate ends. Rajiv Malhotra calls these forces centrifugal forces. There are some interests which want to see India as one united country and these Malhotra calls as centripetal forces. Needless to say, centrifugal force that India is subjected to is far more stronger than the centripetal force which tries to unite India.

What are the centrifugal forces that want India to be divided and sub-divided? Though there are innumerable forces, institutions, individuals, all invariably fall into these three category -

1) Islamic radicalism linked with Pakistan
2) Maoists and Marxist radicals supported by China via intermediaries such as Nepal
3) Dravidian and Dalit identity separatism being fostered by the west in the name of human rights.

As the authors say in the introduction, this book focuses on the third issue -
the role of U.S. and European churches, academics, think-tanks, foundations, government and human rights groups in fostering separation of the identities of Dravidian and Dalit communities from the rest of India.

Synopsis:

The range of topics, institutions, individuals that are covered are huge that just for convenience, I have divided the issues raised by this book into these sub-headings (no way it's comprehensive)

1) Creation of identities, faultlines 

India is a diverse nation comprising of various cultures, languages, identities. But despite so many variations, there is something that creates pan-Indian identity. But the centrifugal forces (several churches, NGOs, individuals) are desperately trying to sever this pan-Indian identity and create several limited identities in its place.

2) Creation of race theories, their large implications in forming identities

Race theories were the products of colonial constructs of 18th century and are outdated. Still, to this day they are regurgitated to divide and sub-divide India. The creation of Aryan theory is well known and we know how the British used it to justify their dominion. The church and the colonialists have used Biblical myth of Ham to justify both racism and colonialism.

The authors warn of the outcome of creation and manipulations of race identities (master race, slave race having strong parallels with Aryan and Dravidian race theories) citing the examples of Sri Lanka and Rwanda. These two countries witnessed the worst civil wars of history killing thousands of people. 

3) Dravidian and Dalit faultlines

There are consistent efforts to portray Dravidian identity as an unique identity and different from pan-Indian identity. Same goes with the Dalit identity. Every effort is made to keep them apart from mainstream Hinduism and pan-Indian identity. Once the identities are separated from the pan-Indian identity, it can be used to map it to Christianity. So, many high profile churches are involved in this because it ultimately helps in proselytizing.

4) Dravidian Christianity, digesting Hinduism 

Attempts have been made to portray history of Christianity in India as an ancient one starting from the myth of St.Thomas. Just to give you a glimpse of some crackpot theories, sample these:

1.    India is a Dravidian Christian nation.
2.    Veda Vyasa is a Christian missionary.
3.    Shakti is the holy ghost in the christian trinity.
4.    Famed 6 Darshanas, Purva mimansa et al.have christian origin.
5.    Hinduism and Sanskrit were formed in 2nd century A.D.     

Did you say "Are you freaking kidding me?" but yes,these are the kinds of spurious theories which are passing of as scholarship. Basic contention is this: Anything good in Hinduism should be of Christian origin. First they tell Hinduism and Christianity are similar. Then they say Christianity as the pristine,the only truth and there is no salvation without Christ. All these so-called academic exercises are done only to aid conversion.

5) India and Hindu bashing industry of the west

India and Hindu bashing industry of the west is highly lucrative. There are many institutions which are dedicated to do this job. Of course they do it in the name of 'human rights', 'empowerment', 'protection of minorities' etc. There is a huge nexus of this India-bashing industry which uses every possible incident in India in the international circle to portray India and Hinduism in a bad light. These are high paying roles which promises reputation, money, foreign trips etc.

6) Church interests and U.S. direct involvement  

Church has severe interests in India and for its evangelical plans, it has mapped India to be inside the 10/40 window. India falls under the region where church has planned aggressive evangelism. The other major regions which fall under this region are China, Arab countries where proselytizing is outlawed or heavily restricted. So, India becomes the natural target.

To fulfill the mission of 'reaching out to the unreached masses' which is an euphemism for conversion, the church can go to any extent. For instance the Church and Maoists have come together in North-East India to break away from India.

The right-wing politics and lobbying is very strong in the U.S such that they eventually influence the policies of the U.S which can have many far reaching effects on India.

7)  Pan-Islam, China and the west

These are three civilizations which are working for the world's domination. They fight amongst themselves owing to difference in ideology. But when it comes to India, they all come together because they have a common enemy: India and its culture. All these forces have made India an ideological battleground. Truth be told, they have nothing to lose but everything to gain. The increase of Jihadi network in Kerala, the Naxalism in some states, Maoism in the north-east India and the huge infrastructure and networks these forces have created bear testimony to the fact that they are getting more stronger by the day.  


The Ultimatum :

This book should be studied by all who want to see India as one united country. The book is not trying to churn out some conspiracy theories but instead relies on hard,well-documented facts. So, the importance of the book can't be overstated. This book is important in many levels like: strategic,security, policy making etc.

Once you finish the book, you might get a feeling that India is a piece of meat lying on the ground waiting to be devoured by the vultures flying in the sky. The vultures which represent the centrifugal forces are far more equipped, organized, networked than the centripetal forces. The message and gentle warning that the book gives,if simplified could be:'be vigilant,organize,strategize or perish'