My musing and other: An Article by Kanti Bajpai on Soft Fascism.

My musing and other: An Article by Kanti Bajpai on Soft Fascism.: Today’s (29th March 2014) Times of India carries an important article by Mr. Kanti Bajpai on Soft Fascism. The article captured my attenti...

An Article by Kanti Bajpai on Soft Fascism.

Today’s (29th March 2014) Times of India carries an important article by Mr. Kanti Bajpai on Soft Fascism. The article captured my attention because Mr. Bajpai had virtually taken the words out of my mouth. I remember having a discussion with my cousin Mr. Ramdas Menon from US. During the conversation I put forward the same arguments and also cited the example from the world history. I concluded my argument quoting the maxim that “if we fail to learn from history it will go on repeating itself”  The only solace that I can find in this otherwise bleak scenario is that our great country is characteristically diverse in nature.

 But now after reading Mr. Bajpai’s article I am not sure any more that even this unique quality of our beloved country will with stand the slow poisoning that may seep-in at a slower pace through “soft Fascism”. I am sure that people carrying such opinion like me and Mr. Bajpai will be categorize as Alarmists and our voice is definitely going to be a cry in the wilderness

The article of Mr. Bajpai is quoted verbatim below for those who might have missed it. Before I conclude let me quote the famous lines of  Rev. Martin Niemoller (1937).

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

The general elections are barely a week away and voters must consider how they will vote and with what consequences. The frontrunner in the campaign is BJP, led by Narendra Modi. With its allies, the party may well have enough support for a majority government. What does the rise of Modi represent, and if he becomes prime minister what kind of India will we get? 

There is every danger that a Modi-led India will be an India marked by soft fascism. At its core, fascism stands for state authoritarianism, intimidation by conservative-minded extra-legal groups, national chauvinism, submission of individuals and groups to a larger-than-life leader, and a Darwinian view of social life (the strong must prevail). A society living under soft fascism is simply a society marked by less extreme levels of authoritarianism, intimidation, chauvinism, submission and social Darwinism. 

India, at least in the first instance, will feature soft rather than hard fascism because it is big, diverse, and argumentative, and the administrative arm of the government remains weak. Those who want a harder fascism will not be able to exert their will immediately over the length and breadth of the country. But to the extent that the various state governments feature soft fascism as well (many do) and to the extent that the Modi-led elements of BJP prevail in the states, a harder fascism may not be far away. 

What accounts for the rise of soft fascism? The short answer is: Modi-ology, the preferences of the market (big and small business), middle class disaffection and media. 

Modi-ology is the view that only Modi can "save" India, that Modi is the only decisive, effective, clean, visionary and astute leader in the country, and that he has a record in Gujarat which "proves" he can "deliver". In Modi-ology, Modi has delivered human development, economic growth, social stability and good governance, unmatched anywhere else in the land. Many Indians who do not particularly like Modi, BJP or soft fascism increasingly think that Modi is the saviour. It is another thing that virtually every claim of Modi-ology is open to argument and rebuttal. 

The second force in the rise of soft fascism is the market — big and small business, especially corporate India. Fascism everywhere depends on the coffers and cooperation of big business. It is no different in India. The uncritical cheerleading of Modi by big business is tactical and rather shameful but is an existential reality. Small businesses are pro-BJP anyway, so it is no surprise that they are backing him. Big and small business are fed up with costly social programmes, ramshackle infrastructure, suffocating regulatory structures (including environmental ones) and interminable procedures; and they think Modi is the medicine for all these ills. 

Behind the rise of Modi-ology is also disaffection of the middle classes. They are disaffected because they are pinned between the upper classes and the lower classes and for 10 years they were ignored by Congress. The upper classes have done well in a globalising India. The lower classes have either given up on the possibility of doing well or have had some help from various UPA programmes (NREGA etc.). The middle classes therefore hate Congress as well as corruption and the chaos of urban and semi-urban India, and they seek redemption in Modi. 

Big business and middle classes are helping line up media behind soft fascism. Media is influenced by big business, which funds it through its advertising, and by the middle classes, who work in it. Today, both stand behind Modi and together they have helped rally millions of Indians behind Modi-ology. It is another matter that media may well come to regret its role. Those who were in the media when BJP was last in power seem to have forgotten that this is a party that is not particularly interested in, or indulgent of, journalistic independence. 

Soft fascism rises, establishes itself and consolidates its hold through the structures and systems of democracy. Even as we celebrate our elections and openness, we should be worried about right-wing opportunism and political exasperation leading to political suicide.

Kanti Bajpai in TOI dated 29th March 2014

When will we listen?

Madhav Gadgil

Madhav Gadgil obviously is a sad man today. All those politicians ruling this country as well as in the opposition are ganging up to rubbish a comprehensive report painstakingly prepared by this man. Before doing so I wonder how many of them had really gone through the report and realize the importance of its implementation.

When the report was first submitted they found to their horror, how much attrition it may cause to their vote-bank if it is implemented.  Hence they immediately employed another man with Rocket Science back ground to make a new study on environment (sic) and provide suitable suggestions- and when I say ‘suggestion’ it is only a euphemism for the word ‘water-down ‘-on the existing report. He promptly did so; even identifying and naming hydro-electric projects as environment friendly and clean energy sources! Though the report was diluted to a very great extend; the political masters are still apprehensive of their real bread and butter namely the Vote-Bank being affected and are wondering how much more water can be added to the already diluted report.

This exercise of continuous dilution of a report to suit their political ends reminds me of a story of a sailor who went about to make a sailors cap from a precious little piece of cloth he got as a gift from his mother. First he approached a tailor for this purpose. The tailor took measurements and agreed to make a cap though he felt the size of the cloth was a bit less than required. The sailor felt that he should have a second opinion on this and approached another tailor with the same demand.

 This tailor offered him to make two caps with the same cloth instead of one.  This surprised the sailor. He thought that he should look out for more options and get someone who can make maximum number of caps out of the same cloth. Finally he found a tailor who promised to create four caps. Happily he placed the order with this tailor and when he got the caps prepared he found to his dismay that the caps were so small in size and is more suitable to be used as finger caps.

Ptolemy was a revered scientist of the middle ages. His postulate of the earth as the centre of the whole universe and all the stars and other heavenly bodies circling around it was the accepted idea then. It also suited the Church. When Copernicus, Galileo and their ilk came in the wake of Renaissance period with evidence to the contrary, every one opposed it tooth and nail. These Scholars even faced threats to their lives for propagating theories which were considered to be heretic.

Same kind of situation seems to be prevalent in the case of human development. Basically, as in the Ptolemy/Copernicus case there are two schools. One is economy and business centered development and the other ecology and nature centered. While the first ones declared aim is to have development at any cost the second group feels that a sustainable economy can only survive in a sustainable environment and all development should be nature-centric to be sustainable. 

  

The vested interests of the ‘economy’ group are very obvious. Short term and immediate gains are their objectives. Instead of educating the common man with the repercussion that the future generation would be facing due to the present generation’s greedy pursuits; they are projecting the immediate inconveniences as mammoth and life threatening. They even are able to woo the humble farmers and the common man by raising the boggy of loss of cultivable land and compulsorily confining to organic farming. Their stakes are quite high and they will go to any extend to protect their concerns.

Today those who bat for a nature-centric approach are in the minority and their task of fighting these vested interests are very great.  The time is ticking away. By the time wisdom dawn on those who matters; will it not be too late?

Our free will and its compatibility

When I wrote an article about ‘Moral dilemma’* in my blog last year my friend Rajagopalan had come up with some fresh  ideas and arguments . It prompted me to write a sequel to the original article (again see in my blog)* Now this one is my third posting on the related subject, again using ideas for inputs from Mr. Rajagopalan.

Writings by David Bain a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Glasgow also have great influence in the following blog.

So now let us interact.

At present I am sitting in front of my computer keying this article; I can see my computer in front of me; and while reading this article on your computer screen you are also doing the same thing; seeing the computer. Now let me ask you; what makes you believe that you are doing that?

‘What a simplistic question’; you may retort. Let me hasten to add that I mean no offence.

 Okay you believe in your senses. But the question is; don’t you know that these senses do mislead many a time?

When you immerse a straight stick in water; half submerged it looks bent. We have seen drawings of ‘Pen-rose stairs’ perpetually and eternally climbing but always taking you to the same spot where you have started.

Now look at the following illustrations. Don’t you agree that those redlines look different in length (on is shorter than the other) though by exact measurement it can be seen that they are of the same length

This Muller-Lyer illusion shows how much we can believe in our senses.  Look at a Barometer and it can predict the possibility of a rain in the immediate future though you are inclined to confirm it by actually going out and checking it. But in all cases you cannot do the same. You cannot get out of the experience and conduct a reality check to confirm that what you experience is right. Coming back to our earlier assumption that a computer does exist in front of you cannot be independently verified.

There is a very well known example frequently quoted and which was originally used by Shankara - the snake and rope illusion. A rope taken to be a snake is a delusion which was cleared when more light was provided.

In our case the existence of the computer can be reasonably confirmed because someone else watching at the same direction or the pet dog looking and seeing the picture flicking across the screen do see something. We can assume the reliability of sensual evidence because there is uniformity to a great extent.

Now let us come to the choice we make for our actions. Do you think that you have really decided to read this article of your own or you were just following something which was originally decided much before you have even thought of reading it?

All of us have heard about the big bang theory and the creation of this universe. Let us imagine that Raju had existed immediately after this bang. Let us also assume that he had unlimited intelligence and memory, and knew all the scientific laws governing the universe and all the properties of every particle that then existed.

Thus equipped, billions of years ago, he could have worked out that, eventually, planet Earth would come to exist, that you would too, and that right now you would be reading this article.

You are now reading this article and no one deny the fact that you chose to read it but at the same time there were causes for your choices (in your brain for example certain events). For those events also had causes in-turn and as a chain going back to the first bang.

In other words your reading of this article was predictable for Raju even much before your existence and you as such could have done nothing about it.

Now of course Raju did not exist and hence he did not predict that you will be existing now.  But the point is that had he been there -with all the faculties mentioned-; he could have.  In other words everything is destined to the last alphabet and you and I just enacting the roles stipulated.  

You may argue that according to modern Physics, there exists a kind of fundamental randomness in this universe and this will upset the scheme of Raju’s predictions.

But does this give you solace?  I doubt, for in this world in the lives of ordinary people when someone does something unpredictably we question it and raise doubts whether he or she had acted freely and responsibly. In other words the so called free will looks incompatible with randomness and casual determination taking us back to our initial argument that no one does anything freely and responsibly.

Now let us take the following stanzas from Bhagavad Gita. 

‘yad ahamkaaram aas’ritya   Na yotsya iti manyase

Mithyai’sa vyavasayas te   Prakrits twam niyoksyat’

(Gita 18-59)

‘If indulging in self-conceit, you think and resolve “I will not fight”, vain is this resolve of yours. Your nature will compel you (to fight)’  Gita 18-59)

“mayai’ vai’ te nihatah purvam eva

Nimittamatram bhava savyasachin”

(Gita 11-33)

‘By me alone have these (opponents lined up in front) been killed already. O Savyasachin (Arjuna) you be merely an instrument’.

Isn’t it the same argument we were struggling to put forward, explained vividly in this great Book.

So we can now say with confidence that immediately after the “Big Bang” when the “Srishti Kalpa” began, Brahman (Raju?) existed. There was no time Brahman (Raju) did not exist.  In fact the worlds existed in him.

Once again taking up our hypothesis about Raju whom we now can call the Brahman “possessed unlimited intelligence and memory, knew all scientific laws that governs this universe and all the properties of the particles that existed  and all these laws and principles were his and all those particles existed and existing are his creations. Existence of any free will is impossibility”.

Here I quote a famous French Mathematician  Pierre Simon Laplace, who said:

 “ An intellect which at a given instant knew all the forces acting in nature, and the position of  all things of which the world consists-supposing the said intellect were vast enough to subject these data to analysis- would embrace in the same formula the motions of the greatest bodies in the universe and those of the slightest atoms; nothing would be uncertain for it, and the future, like the past, would be present to its eyes”  

“prakritim yanti bhutani, nigraha kim karishyati”

“Actions flow inevitably of the working of the Prakriti, No restrains what so ever hence can avail”

None of us ever do anything in our free will and responsibly. Only the very vein and ignorant does think that he is the doer.

Let us now conclude. I am sure that many of you will not agree fully with the above line of presentation. Some may totally disagree and rubbish it and you have all the rights to do so. My only request is; when you reject any conclusion kindly find the true reason for doing so. Kindly diagnose where tha argument has gone wrong.

This at least gives us permission to put every thing in the correct perspective.  There may be surprises still existing. One thing is certain; even when our common sense is remaining in tact; our understanding is widended.

Finally let me quote Eliot;

  “........the end of exploring,

Will be to arrive where we started,

And know the place for the first time.”

And see what the Zen master Daito told his disciple Emperor Godaigo.

We were parted many thousands of kalpas ago, yet we have not been separated even for a moment. We are facing each other all day long, yet we have never met”

 *also see

http://ypmusing.blogspot.in/2012/02/moral-dilemma.html

http://ypmusing.blogspot.in/2012/03/moral-dilemma-more-thoughts.html

Kaumudi’s Sacrifice

It was on 13^th January 1934. Gandhiji was on a visit to Badakara. He was addressing a gathering there. Immediately after his address he requested the crowd to make contributions to the cause they were fighting for. Kaumudi, a 16 year old girl slowly and hesitantly walked towards the dais. She removed a bangle from her hand and placed it before Gandhiji and requested for his autograph. 

While he was obliging her with his signature she offered him her second bangle as well. To this Gandhiji suggested “you don’t need to do this; just give me one bangle and I shall give you my autograph”  Kaumudi responded to this by removing and offering her gold chain also. Seeing her determination Gandhiji asked the girl whether she has the permission to do so from her parents and elders. Silence was her response.

Subsequently Kaumudi offered her ear-rings. Gandhiji reminded her that she should not be making any new ornaments in replacement to those she had donated.  Kaumudi promised that she will be not be wearing any sort of ornaments in her life anymore and also will never pester her parents for that. Handing over her the autograph Gandhiji commented “The sacrifice you are making is very much superior than the ornaments that you have discarded now”. 

Post Script. 

I saw this story in today’s Mathrubhumi daily. I call this sacrifice a mammoth one; much much greater than a million dollar contribution. If you understand the psychology of a normal Indian rustic girl of sixteen and her equation with ornaments you will appreciate it. I do understand it and the story moistened my eyes.

We are celebrating the birth Day of that great man today.  I am dedicating this blog to the memory of that unknown girl from Badakara. Kindly try to tell your children about Kaumudi and her sacrifice. I strongly feel that the present generation should know it.   

Hen-Pecked

There are two kinds of husbands in this world, it is said; "One those who are hen-pecked and the other those who pretend that they are not".  Even after undergoing about thirty nine eventful years of matrimonial bliss I am still not sure about that truism.

Someone advised me when I was about to take the plunge.

Son, he said,

 Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right and the other is the husband.

On the hindsight I can say that to a great extend he may be right. It depends on what you want. Take my advice; play safe.

They always say that don’t marry the person you want to live with, marry the one you cannot live without. Or in other words marry someone who loves you and not the other way round. But this aphorism also comes with a caveat and that is; whatever you do, you'll still regret it later.

 Such fatalism is inbuilt in all such advises.

Recently I came across a funny story. It goes as follows.

A funeral procession was on and a lone man with his dog was following the coffin.  Behind him after a gap there was a long queue of men in an orderly fashion following them.

The man with the dog had lost his wife and it was her coffin he was following.

A passer-by went up to the man to offer his condolences.

He politely asked, “What happened; how did she die?”

 “The dog bit her”; he replied stoically. 

 “Oh I am terribly sorry”, the passerby responded

 “And err... by the way can I loan your dog?” he asked hesitantly.

The husband looked up and said pointing the people following them

“Join the queue”

When cracked in a stag party (no one who desire peace at home will dare to crack this at a regular party) it was highly appreciated. A majority could empathize with the grieving husband and those hapless ones who formed the queue behind him because someone told me the following tale to substantiate mine.

 Narrated in first person it is as follows.  

"When our lawn mower broke down and wouldn't run, my wife kept on suggesting that I should get it fixed...But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first;  the shed, the car, making beer etc, always something more important to me.

 Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.

When I arrived home one day, I found her seated among the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.

I watched silently for a moment and then went inside and came out again and handed her a toothbrush.

I said, 'When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.'

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp".

Poor chap, my sympathies. But then he asked for it.

 For I know how much some wives suffer. They even pray to God,

"Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man;

Love to forgive him;   and Patience for his moods;

I do not pray for Strength;

Because Lord, if I do, I'll beat him to death."

As a matter of fact wives are rather an enigma. Look at this incident.
He was attending a party and had one too many and staggered home at the wee hours. As soon as he got in he threw up making a mess of his dress and the floor and the carpet; before finally passing out.
 Next day morning to his astonishment he found himself in his bed neatly tucked in wearing a new pair of pajamas and the whole house tidied up. He went down tentatively to the dining hall.
 No trace of yesterday’s commotion at all. Moreover, waiting for him on the dining table was his favorite breakfast and a nice note from his wife before she left for work.
 He was really surprised for he expected hell after all that he did yesterday
He saw his teenage son in his room and asked him about yesterday as he did not remember anything after he threw-up.
“Oh yesterday you were really a heap of mess dad”. His son explained disgustingly.
“Mom was furious for spoiling her newly polished floor and the new carpet.
It was funny as well, for in your delirium you were pleading mom, ‘oh please don’t I am married ‘while she was trying to remove your trousers”!


You might have spent a lifetime of togetherness; still you need not be wiser.

Little Tribal Girls who made India Proud.

After a long hiatus I am here again  Blogging. This time I am keying this as a very proud Indian. Though I am sharing a mail -a forward I received from a friend of mine- I feel very proud and happy in sharing it with you.This is one of those very proud moments we seldom get.Our media some how find little time for such "trivia"even in their sports section. While handling the avalanche of so-called sensational "Sarita news" and "Shah Rukh hugging Salman" they are very reluctant to spend precious newsprint or prime time for such 'trivial' items. 
Now here is the item . Please read on.

 Some really big sports news

 

  Kusum Kumari (left) and Rinky Kumari (Captain)
How the hell is this not big news to be proud of, how did it go under the radar? Instead of this we have news of Salman n Shah Rukh huggin..grrr
Few days back, as a billion plus India slept, a handful of tribal girls proudly held aloft a trophy they won in their maiden entry in a football tournament in far-flung Spain.

It was the night of July 13. Hundreds of fire crackers lit the skies as the girls screamed Vande Mataram – their battle cry – for being placed third in the Gasteiz Cup, the world’s best testing ground for teenager football in Victoria Gastiez, also popular as Europe’s Green Capital.

They were the same girls who were slapped, kicked and made to sweep floors by arrogant bureaucrats in Jharkhand when the girls asked for birth certificates, a necessity to apply for passports.

But they eventually managed their passports, thanks to a strapping American, Franz Gastler, who pushed the cases of the girls with mandarins of the Ministry of External Affairs in the Indian Capital.

He was a lone ranger in his efforts.

The girls were lovingly titled the Supergoats by the organizers in Spain the moment they saw the girls playing barefoot in practice matches on arrival.
Why?

The girls had limited football gear and could not take the risk of tampering it before the tournament. They were overawed by international teams in the first tournament, the Donosti Cup, but came to their own in the second tournament.

Offering a consolation prize for the third team – winner of a match between losing semi-finalists – was a mere formality for the organizers.

But for the girls, it was a giant leap into global soccer from their impoverished Rukka village near Ranchi, considered one of the world’s epicenters of child marriage and human trafficking.

As soon as the announcement was made for the prize distribution ceremony, the girls rushed into their dressing room and returned, some barefoot, wearing red-bordered white saris, their traditional festive dress. Many had their plastic flowers in their hairs.

And when they huddled together after the mandatory photo session, some wept inconsolably because they had almost given up their hopes to participate in this tournament.

“They were over the moon. It was their night,” said Gastler of the girls, who subsist on less than a dollar a day.

For a country low on soccer, this was - arguably - good news for the mandarins of the game. But no one cared. All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel was not aware of the girls’ superlative achievement, nor was the country’s new sports minister Jitendra Singh.

“We could not sleep that night (July 13),” says Rinky Kumari, 13, captain, Supergoats. Once she bunked her school helped her mother do household chores. Today, thanks to football, everyone knows her name in the village.

She says she remembered the days she was slapped and sweep floors when she went to the Panchayat Office get birth certificates for her passport.

“That is the pain of being a tribal girl in India. I do not remember the slap, I remember the Cup,” says Rinky.

For her, and her teammates, it means a lot.