The Vice President, Hon'ble Venkaiah Naidu in Pondicherry University

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books


The Vice President of India, Hon ble Shri Venkaiah Naidu who is also the Chancellor of Pondicherry University visited the University and it was a memorable occasion. The Vice President has earned a place in Indian public life which is unique. With his vast erudition and scintillating wit he kept the audience consisting of the Faculty and Students of the University spell bound for nearly an hour. An excellent orator with a penchant for alliterative expressions the Vice President drove home the message of hard work, honesty and dedicated service to the Motherland with passion as the mantra for success in life. His own life from Nellore exemplifies the path of democracy. It shows that India, in spite of its inherent weakness for dynastic fascism provides the space for grass root politicians like Shri Venkaiah Naidu to reach the second highest constitutional position in India. Humorously the Vice President stated that apart from hard work the factor that helped was his commitment to a single party.

Add captionShri Venkaiah Naidu in the Executive Council Hall

Before the programme began, the Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Gurmeet Singh made a presentation the the Vice President who is also the Chancellor of the University about the progress made by the University. The brief but well prepared presentation highlighted all the important aspects of the University and it is hope that the University will be recognized as an Institution of Eminence. 

The Vice President addressed a packed JN Auditorium which was crammed with students. What was so striking about this eminent personality is his utter simplicity. He made everyone feel at home and he addressed the students in a manner which pleasant and admirable. He urged the students to work had and stressed the demographic dividend due to the fact that more the 50% of the population of India is less than 35 years of age. This young population has opportunities provided it had the skills. He drew attention to the various schemes of the BPJ Government which emphasizes Skill Development and he also mentioned the flagship initiative of Start Up India, Stand Up India. Shri Venkaiah Naidu stressed the importance of education in the Mother tongue.

The University which was the venue of the meeting with Hon ble Vice President of India Shri Venkaiah Naidu worked with clockwork precision. The arrangement were all made in a meticulous manner. The Vice President who has a good sense of humor was reminded  that July 1st was his birthday and he said that he had forgotten about it until the Prime Minister's tweet wishing him went viral. The horrible issue of "rapes and violence against women" was referred to by the Vice President and he drew pointed attention to the Nirbhaya Tragedy. He said that such crimes not only bring a bad name to India and is against the very ethos of Indian culture but was also against the tradition of India which always respected women; Durga for Defence, Lakshmi for finance and Saraswathi for education.

I was deeply impressed with the Vice President. He carried himself with poise and elan. There is a distinct radiance about him which attests to the fact that he lives the ideals that he stands for and advocates.

The Scrapping of the University Grants Commission: A Welcome Move

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books


The NDA Government at the Center has taken a major decision: the scrapping of the University Grants" Commission. For over 60 years this large unwieldy body was running the Higher Education scene in India and the chaos in Indian  Universities is largely the consequence of the UGC pursing policies that ultimately proved self defeating. Set in 1956, the UGC was mandated to act as a funding agency for Indian Universities.Its original purpose was to ensure that Universities  received funds as per their allocated budget. At the time the UGC was established there were less than 50 Universities in India and the task of fund distribution was relatively simple. A fixed sum of money was apportioned to Universities and College and the bulk of the spending was on the six Central Universities which came directly under the Central Government. When Professor Nurul Hassan the Communist turned Congressman became the Minister for Education, the UGC began to acquire a stranglehold over the University and Higher Education Institutions all over India. By the simple expedient of tying financial assistance to policy initiative, the UGC became over the decades the sole arbiter of Indian education. It conducted the National Eligibility Test (NET), it granted Major and MInor Research Projects, it prescribed the Curriculum to Indian Universities in the form of its Model Curriculum, it set personnel policies for those employed in Universities and Colleges by prescribing norms and criteria for promotion. It was the UGC which came up with the horrendous system of API on the basis of the recommendation of the S P Tyagarajan Committee. In the name of encouraging Reseach, the UGC decided to introduce the Academic Performance Indicators (API) which in turn was pegged tom promotions. Teachers were made to perform like circus animals in order to acquire the required score. In the process, teaching suffered and research which was done was, at best of indifferent quality.

The proliferation of the ON line Journals which were on the approved list of the UGC spawned an industry of predatory journals and thanks to the wrong policies of the UGC India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of predatory journals in the world.

All this will change under the new legislation which separates the role of funding and finance from that of the regulator. The new body which will be formed will look after the regulatory aspects of Higher Education and funding will be directly monitored by the MHRD. This will make the policy implementation simpler and there will be less scope for corruption. One of the lesser known aspects of Indian higher education is that it is one of the most corrupt in the world. Major Reseach Projects submitted for projects that run into crores are little more than recycled M Phil and Ph D theses. Same project is resubmitted several times and funding is generated. O f course, now the Turn-it In anti plagiarism test is being encouraged.

The UGC was averse to the participation of foreign universities in the higher education market. This will also change. Another important change is the growing importance that is being given to NIRF ranking. The NIRF ranking is now essential for funding and NAAC accreditation. These changes have improved the quality of Indian education. Though we have long ways to go.

Targeted Killings: Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assasinations
Ronen Bergman
New York: Random House 2018

Israel was born of a horrendous historical and political reality that of the Holocaust in which around 7 million Jews were killed in gas chambers spread across Germany and Eastern Europe. This singular event has cast a long, and some might even say a deadly shadow, on Israel as a Sate and Society. The words "Never Again" emblaozoned on the Holocaust Memorial in Tel Aviv is more than a mere rhetorical declaration of intent: it is also a guide to the very conduct of State Policy. The Holocaust was both a moral and political disaster: Moral because it marked an end to the very notion of a civilized human existence and the world woke up to the horror of Extermination and Genocide as state policies and a Political disater because all the Allied Powers, though aware of the infernal extermination camps took no effort either to liberate the imprisoned people or to create awareness among the population through propaganda about the horrors of genocide. Only the Soviet Union made the Liberation of the Jews a WarAim and succeeded.

The book under review must be read against the backdrop of what we have stated above. The decades immediately following World War I and the Balfour Declaration witnessed the migration of Jews from Europe to Palestine. The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire created the conditions for the rise of Israel and the Arabs who faught for the Allies soon found that their utility as an ally lay in the huge deposits of petroleum found in Arabia. The Allies were now very keen on keeping the Arab sates within their orbit of influence as the major source of Oil lay in Arabia. Under these circumstances Israel could neither depend on its"natural" allies the Western Powers nor was it powerful enough to ward off the ever spiraling danger to its very existence. The Arabs were dispalced from their lands as the Jews migrated to Israel and the fellow Arab nations instead of helping the Arabs resettle in Arab lands promptly  stuck the fleeing Arabs in specially created camps and thereby created the Palestenian problem. There was no Palestineian problem before the Arabs attacked Israel in 1948 and instead of crushing the nascent state of Israel in the cradle as they hoped only succeeded in strengthening the verve and resolve of Israel.

Shin Bet and MOSSAD were two very powerful organizations that emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust. The early recruits into these highly specialised Intelligence Units came from familes that had lost family members in the Holocaust. A high sense of motivation and skill were needed to join these units. Right from the very beginning Israel had made it a state policy to "Identify, Isolate and Eliminate" enemies of the State. Arab states like Egypt were keen to employ German scientists to help launch the Rocket programme. Of course, Israel would have none of that and the Germans were forced to withdraw. Intimidation through letter bombs and targeted assasinations have both been deployed by Israel security agencies against those working against Israel or have shed Jewish or Israeli blood. Thus all those who took part in the infamous 1972 Massacre of Israeli atheletes at Munich, Germany, were hunted down and the last one killed just 5 years back.

It must be noted that the special operations are carried out only on the written directives of the Prime Minister. The CIA has rouge elements, guns on hire, who operate outside the limits of the law. The Israeli agencies have shown restraint and there have been situations when assasinations have been called off due to the presence of civilians in the area. There are some who say that targeted killing is illegal. To them, I say that  the Law and Constitution acts as restrins only when people accept the limits set ny the Law of the Land and the Constitution. If we have terrorists who are not bound to the law and do not respect the Constitution and indeed, boast of overthrowing it, the State is well within iy=ts rights to seek challenge and destroy such elements.

Thias is a very interesting book and must be read by all those interested in Isreal, Secret Espionage Agencies and are looking for ways to destroy terrorism. Israel has shown that its policy is effective.

Rahul Gandhi and the Politics of Hate and Sarcasm

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

One of the major drawbacks of dynastic politics is that individuals born to political and social privilege start believing in their entitlement to high office. In a Democratic polity, dynastic succession runs contrary to the very idea of an inclusive society as high office is often reserved for those born within a close circle. In the case of the Congress Party, the choice of succession is restricted to the members of the Nehru Gandhi family and the entire Party is reduced to being a mere props to the chosen Crown Prince. Rahul Gandhi who has succeeded his Italian born mother, Sonia, to the President of the Congress Party is making an utter fool of himself by his thoughtless patronizing and at time downright insulting public utterances.

Rahul Gandhi,s public display of ignorance and naivety is reflected in his remark that he has a machine capable of making potatoes into Gold. He is known to have spoken of the escape velocity of Jupiter and he even said quite seriously that his family was responsible for the Freedom of India. His thoughtless and arrogant remarks about the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (the RSS) has got him into trouble with the courts and a case of criminal defamation is currently under way. Similarly, thanks to the efforts of Dr Subramaniam Swamy, Rahul and Sonia are both facing criminal prosecution for cheating in the National Herald Case. In each of the cases mentioned above, Rahul got into trouble due to his lack of understanding and his inability to discern the damage his public statements will cause. More recently he declared that he is fit to be the Prime Minister of India even though his Party has only 44 seats in Parliament.

The remerks made by Rahul in Mubai after paying a visit to the ailing former Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee was both crass and immature. Rahul Gandhi, against the advice of the Medical team looking after Ataji at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, gatecrashed into the room of Atalji and later bragged about being the first to visit Atalji and then went on to pointedly say that the present Prime Minister had not gone to the Hospital thus showing lack of respect. Nothing could be further from the truth. None of the senior leaders went to the Hospital as the great Atalji was critical and nobody in his right mind disturbs a critically ill individual and then milks that for political gain. The entire country condemned the crass and senseless remarks of Rahul, the Clown Prince of Indian politics as he is derisively  called. There are also rumours swirling that he was caught in New York Airport with drugs and cash ans it was Atal Behari Vajpayee as Prime Minister who got the immature Rahul Gandhi out of trouble. Be that as it may, Rahul showed his lack of intellect and character by making that crass remark.

Will Rahul Gandhi emerge as a serious contender for political office. It is too early to say. However,Indian electorate is rather short sighted and is capable of being swayed by identity considerations.

Roy Moxham's Great Hedge of India: A Review and a reflection on Historical Method

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Marc Bloch the great French historian published a book that is unfortunately not widely known: French Rural History. In that book he argued that it is possible to look at the cadastral surveys produced during the era of the French Revolution in order to reconstruct the rural history of France. For eaxample why did Brittany and parts of France have an Open Field system and eclosed fields in other parts. Using the documents of a later age to reconstruct the social and economic landscape of an earlier epoch, the regressive method, has become a powerful tool of research. In the Graet Hedge of India, Roy Moxham does something similar. He has used the maps of the first half of the nineteenth century to trace the remanants of the Permit Line or the Custom Line thta separated the territories of the East India Company from those of the so called dependent states that had been brought under the overall suzerainty of the Company.
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The Great Hedge of India

A map showing the Custom Line

 The defeat  of the Maharatas in 1818 for all practical purposes left the East Indiat India Companyin a dominant position politically and militarily. From this singular historical fact stemmed a huge atrocity that even the genius, the political genius of Mohandas Gandhi barely grasped: the creation of a salt monopoly that was hugely profitable to the East India Company, but a terrible calamity visited upon the people of India. Maxham, unlike Indian historians, who write modern history with their eyes firmly fixed on the crumbs falling from the polical banquet, is unburdened by any expectation, except the thrill of historical discovery and analysis. From a stray, almost an aside in the Rambles and Recollections of Col. Sleeman, he stumbled upon the refence to the Custom Line or Parmat Lian as the "natives" termed it. Seeking to see if traces of this Custom Line still survived he sets off on a rather uninspiring journey across the badlands of Northern India: Chambal, Jhansi, Etawah, Erich. He even approached the Remote Sensing Agency of India for satellite imagery of the areas he is interested in but the price quoted, US $ 16,000 is way beyond his reach and so he perseveres on until he finally sees for himself a stretch of the anceint hedge near Jhansi.

Roy Moxham is extremely affectionate toward India and in a slightly partonizing tone even wrote his Theft of India as a reposte to the apologists of the Raj of whom we find an ever increasing number, especially after the disease of Postt Colonial Theory hit the Indian academia. He argues that the purpose of the Custom Line was to prevent the smuggling of salt from the Princely territories into the Company possessions. By a historical accident, the major salt producing areas of India, Bengal and Madras fell into the hands of the Company very early and these were the major salt producing territiries of India. Salt was extensively and freely traded all across the land until the East India Company established the Salt Monopoly and created an elaborate officiadom to control the manufacture and exort of salt. In order to prevent the Salt from British territoris from leaving without the collection of a steep tariff, the Custom Line was first established near Allahabad and Benares and soo stretched nealrly 1280 miles up to the North West Frontier Province. The Custom Line was a huge hedge with thory briar trees and thick shrub 20 feet high and 15 feet broad. In 1878 the Custom Line was abandoned after fiece criticism in the House of Commons.

I found the book interesting and will certainly reccomend it to those interested in historical sleuthing.

Killing Fields of Kerala: The lynching of Madhu

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Add captiMadhu at the hands of his captors

Look at the expression on the man's face: a vacant look of terror. A few seconds after this picture was taken the man died and his only crime was that he was a tribal in a state ruled by the Communist Party of India, the Marxist faction. Madhu was a tribal youth from Attydapy, a palce made famous by the struggle of Janu whose fast highlighted the plight of tribals in Kerala. Since the CPM faction has come to power, killings have become an endemic party of Kerala politics. The CPM has been involved in systematically terrorising its opponents in Kannur and Malappuram districts.Estimates vary. However nearly 40 BJP and RSS workers have been hacked to death since the Marxist faction came to power.

 The Popular Front of India, a radical Muslim outfit has been give a free run and it is suspected that the Marxists have outsourced the elimination of their opponents to the PFI and even mainstream Indian politicians like Hamid Ansari, the former Vice President of India, patronise this outfit. Since prosecution is in the hands of the State Government, there is little fear that there will be justice. And since RSS and BJP cadre are being systematically targeted, it is possible for the Marxists to maintain deniability and claim that it is the usual Hindu/Muslim problem. However, the failure of the state to act and apprehend the criminals is sufficient proof that the CPM organization supports these extra judicial killings.

The rapid strides taken by the BJP is shoring up its support base is causing alarm bells to ring. The BJP even won a seat in the last Assembly election. There is a caste dimension to the violence as well. The backbone of the marxist faction which is entrenched in power is the Ezhava community, a backward caste that is now powerful. The Tiya, are contesting the hegemony of the Ezhavas and they have rallied around  the RSS and the BJP. The Muslims who form a sizable part of the electorate are feeling the heat of the changed political dimension and are resorting to unabashed violence. In fact the majority of the men involved in the lynching of poor tribal, Madu, are muslims. And there is apprehension that the state willgo soft on them for political reasons.

The lynching of Madhu, a poor starving tribal who stole 200 Rs worth of rice exposes the hypocrisy of the Indian mainstream media. The Liberals went ballistic over the killing of Gauri Lankesh and one or two from their fraternity. It now appears that all the killings were in the nature of private revenge and had nothing to do with the Central Government though there were loud protests over the killing of Kalburgi, Dhabolkar and Lankesh all of which took place in Congress ruled states. Now this crime committed by Muslims in a Communists ruled State is proving to be a real dilema. The liberals are brought up to believe that crime with a gree tinge is best swept under the carpet and this has happened.

ELECTION ATLAS OF INDIA: A REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Election Atlas of India
Datanet India Publication

Election Atlas of India

India, by common consent, the world'sDemocracy has been condusting perodic Elections from 1952 and the General Elections of 2014 was momentous in that for the first time in 30 years a single National party emerged with a clear majority, albeit a majority of just 10 seats. Elections in India are extrmely complexin terms social, political and legal issues and can be a logistical nightmare in some instances. The use of the Electronic Voting Machine has revolutionized India elections and India can proudly claim that it conducts the fairest and the freest elections in the world. There are serious doubts over the democratic credentials of USA especially when it comes to voting rights for non white citizens. I do not think there is a comprehensive Atlas for US elections and the Book under review is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Election Studies. The organization of Big Data mined form a host of Election Commission Reports and the like is a huge challenge and the Editors have done a great job assembing the complex data in tabular form with accompanying maps.

An iteresting feaure of the Atlas is the use of GIS for generating maps of Indian parliamentary elections.I am sure that political parties like the BJP will find a wealth of information in this Atlas and if integrated with the Census Data and the National Sample Survey data, a political party can generate both the socia-economic profile of the Constitueny as well as its electoral history. Basic political data like total number of electorate and its division, the number of candidates in the constituency, the votes polled, the margin of vicctory, the number of polling station are all visually represnted in the Atlas. Interestingly, the distibution of political parties that came second in each parliamentary constituency across 16 General Elections is also given.Statistically significant data such as the margin of victory as conforming to or deviating from the national median is also given. Section II, entitled Election Timeline and General Info gives us a clear picture of certain sighnificant aspects of each parliamentary poll: the constituencies with the highest and the lowest turnout, the victory margin, the pecentage of votes that resulted in victory etc.

This book is a fantastic excersise in Big Data Anaysis and presnetation. I wish politics departments of Indian Universites teach their students how to use this wealth of information in their anaysis. One fact that emerges clearly, contrary to popular perception is that the BJP out performs all other National political parties in temrs of winning SC reserved seats and ST reserved seats.

Vairamuthu and his Tasteless Rehetoric against Andal: Dravidian Party Ideologues insult Sri Vaishnava Religion

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books


http://creative.sulekha.com/vairamuthu-and-the-tastelss-rhetoric-of-the-dravidian-party-ideologues_633926_blog

Vairamuthu is said to be a "poet" and anyone familiar with the kind of poetry he pens will be aware that he is a past master in suggestive alliterations by which vulgarity masquerades as innocent observation. The more vulgar the better. His value in the wholesale market of politcs increases. In places like Singapore Vairamuthu's poetic excesses are banned. And now his latest outburst agasinst Andal of Srivilliputtur.

The fact is the the Dravidian movement and its ideologues have always had an ambivalent relationship with Sri Vaishana stream of Tamil philosophy. Indeed, the addiction ot the Classical Age notions pertaining to Tamil antiquity may also stem from the fact that the Pure Tamil Movement represented by the likes of Sundara Pillai and Purnalingam were either ignorart of the Vaishnava literature or were committed to Siva Siddantha that the Manipravala of Sri Vaishnavism was anathema to them. Either way, Siva Siddhanta excluded Vaishana literature and Philosophy from being considered as the part and parcel of the inclusive Tamil religious tradition. The Bahkti corpus includes several great pieces composed by Antal. In Nachiyar Tirumoli, Andal writes:

Dark clouds ready for the season of rain,

chant the name of the Lord of Venkatam, who is valliant in battle

Tell him, like the lovely leaves that fall in the season of rains.

I waste away through the long endless years

waiting for the day when He finally sends word.

This blending of Bhakti with the passion of the akam genre of poetry is the unique trait of both Andal and Karaikkal Ammaiyar. And Bhakti is not the erotic fantasy that the darkended dravidian mind makes it out to be. And calling Andal a "devadasi" is not just insulting a vibrant strand 0f Sri Vaishnava thought but a supreme act of ignorance and I am not surprised. 

Dravidian ideologues have consistently insulted Vaishana Religion and indeed the very marker of identity of the Sri Vaishnava, the tiru nammam, is often presented as a symbol of chicanery and fraud. It is time to condemn such intolerance and punish those who have the termity to insult the divine. Vairamuthu has done precicely that: he has insulted Vaishanva tradition deliberately and in a provocative manner and he must be punished. Will the fellow dare to speak of Jesus or Mohammad in this manner.

The perils of Identity Politics: The Koregoan Riots and the rewriting of History

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

The Koregoan Memorial

The tall Pillar illustrated above is an unlikely candidate for heroic adulation. However, the riots that have broken out in Maharashtra, in Koregoan in particular, have everything to do about the identiy marinated History that passes off as Historiography in post colonial India. It comes as no surprise to me that JNU is at the forefront of the recasting of the memories associated with the Koregoam Memorial. January 1, 2018 marked the 200 year of the defeat of the Peshwa at the hands of the East India Company and one can expect that the defaet of an Indian ruler will be seen as a tragic act in the long drama of India's decline into servitude. Not so. The defeat of the Maharattas is celebrated by those who make the annual visit to this Memorial which commenmorates the victory of the East India Company over the Mahratta Forces. Like the debate over the statues of dead Confederate soldiers in the American South, the Koregoan Memorial has been appropriated to serve a counter narrative. The contestation of memory engendered by Identity Politics is wholly inappropriate and makes a supreme mockery of the craft of writing History and Memoria.

The defeat of the Mahrattas in 1818 sealed the fate of India as the Nizam of Hyderabad had already joined hands with the Engliah and was brought into the frame work of the Subsidiary Alliance. The Mahratta Confederacy held out but it was weakened by the internal quarrels of the Sardars. The Scindias were the first to join hands with the East India Company and the Gaikwads and the Holkars followed suit. The Peshwa was left without a fighting force and there was hardly any revenue at his disposal. But he happened to be a Chitpavan Brahmin and therefore the defeat of the Peshwa become a victory against "oppressive caste system". The counter narrative that transforms the Peshwa into a symbol of caste oppression and therefore the defeat of the maharttas at the hands of the East India Company becomes a potent symbol of caste liberation. The Independent MLA from Gujarat, Jijnesh Melwani has endored precicely this counter narrative.

The reason for celebartion of Peshwa's defeat is not hard to find. 900 "Mhar" soldiers led by Col. Staunton defeated an army of nearly 20,000 Mahratta troops. The English Parliament was estatic and in the Parlimantary debates of 1818 the battle figured almost as prominently as the one that ended Napoleon's rule in Waterloo in 1815. The Koregoan Memorial was commissioned by the East India Company in the bright afteglow of victory. The participation of "mahar" soldiers in the Battle and the fact that it ended Mahratta Rule made the Koregoab Memorial a potent symbol of Identity Politics. Dr B R Ambedkar visited the Memorail on January 1, 1927 and declared,"We are here to remember that our Mahar forefathers faught bravely and brought down unjust Peshwa rule". It matters little that Peshwa rule by this time had becoem hollow and most of the Mharatta Confederacy was ruled by Maharatta Sardars who were either of Dhangar origin like the Holkars or belonged to lesser castes which are today listed as Scheduled Castes, the Shides, the Gaikwads, the Bonseles etc. I am bringing this point up only to underscore the point that power in the late Mahratta Empire had slipped from the hands of the Peshwas and was firmly in the hands of the Sardars and yet the Chitpavan Brahmins become a convenient whipping boy. This misue of History as a hand maiden of Identity Politics is what makes contemporary post colonial historiography both bad and dangerous.

What is the evidence for concluding that 900 mahars were responsible for the defeat of the Peshwa/Mahtratta Army. The Memorial erected by the East India Company gives us the names of the soldiers who perished in the battle and some of the names end in "nac" and it is therefore concluded that they belonged to an SC caste. Even in the case of the Madras Army the bulk of the recruits came from the so called "paraiah" caste.

The civil conflict that is raging in Mahrashtra is a direct outcome of the Identy Politics grounded in false History as I have shown.

Legacies of British Slave-ownership: A Review

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Legacies of British Slave-ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain
Cahtherine Hall, Nicholas Draper, Keith McClelland, Katie Domington and Rachel Lang
London: Cambridge University Press 2016

In 2007, on the occasion of the bi-centineal celebration of the Abolition of the  Slave Trade, or at least the Atlantic Ocean segment of the "nefarious trade" England experience on orgy of triumphalism: chest thumping about its great moral decision and a vindication of Christian commitment to Human Dignity. I agree that MPs like William Wilberforce and the great Edmund Burke did display a deep revulsion toward Slavery and the Edinburgh Review was one of the few journals that worked public sentiment against the Slave Trade. It is important to remember this today as Scotland prepares to bolt from the Union of 1707 and Britain will shrink to the boundries of its Roman past.
The book under review is a prosopographical study of slave ownership in Great Britain in the year 1834 when Slavery was officially abolished in the British territories. Ironically the Abolition of Slavery Act passed by the House of Commons in 1833 was the first legal recognition that slavery, as a form of servitude, existed in British territories. 

Legacies of British Slave Ownership

The abolition of Slavery neccesitated the creation of a Commission to pay compensation to the Slave Owners who stood to gain an enormous sum of 20 Million pounds as compensation for around 28,000 slaves who were freed at least on paper. An Apprenticeship Agreement meant that many had to continue on the estates of their masters for another 6 years. And that too did not mean the end of servitude. William Gladstone's family owned nearly 3000 slaves in British Gyanna and Abolition meant economic disaster to John Gladstone. Fortunately for him, India by that time was sufficiently tamed to supply Indentured Servants to work on the very same plantations which had freed its slaves. Hugh Tinker has rightly called Indenture a "New Kind of Slavery".This book is based on the Records of the Slave Compensation Commission and cover the estates in St Kitts, St Vincent, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Surinname and a few other places. The transfer of 20 million pounds from the public exchequer to private hands marks an important ship in the social or rather class structure of modern Britain. One can even argue that the social foundation of modern Britain lies in this singular historical event.

The Oxford Dictionary of Nation Biography, the gold standard of British aristocracy and its social legitimacy does not quite reflect the extent to which the ruling political class of England, both of the Victorian Era and of the post World War II Era derived its economic strength from the slave compensation monies. West Indian Merchant Houses, Insurance Companies, Shipping Companies, Trading Houses, Banking Houses were all implicated in this Great Game of slave compensation and the 20 million pounds would be worth nearly 2 billion pounds into todays exchange rate.

The document on the left is a page from the Slave Compensation Commission Records preserved at Kew Archives. From the study of the record of nearly 30,000 compensation paid out the authors estimate that more than 75% of the beneficiaries were from England with Scotland accounting for around 18 to 19% and Ireland a mere 4%. The figures are illustrative of the fact that the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of Britain into Asia, particularly India and other regions was symptomatic of a social order that was changing with the infusion of Capital. Eric Williams did not use these records but his insight into the development of English capitalism as a direct consequence of Slavery seems to be borne out. More interestingly, women figure quite prominently as slave owners who claimed compensation. This was because of the financial insitutions morgating their estates along with slaves and the mortgagee inheriting the property. 

The Life and Times of Dr Subramanian Swamy: Some Glimpses

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Evolving with Subramanian Swamy: A Roller Coaster Ride
By Roxna Swamy
New Delhi 2017.                               

Writing the biography of a major political personality is beeset with challenges. And when a spouse pens the biography, it is likely to be dismissed as laudatory, biased and uncritical. Fortunately the biography of Dr Subramanian Swamy by his wife of over 40 years, the noted lawyer Roxna Swamy is not a wide eyed adulatory account of a major political personality of contemporary India. Of course, she is not overly critical of him but Subramanian Swamy emerges from the pages of the book under review as a determined, courageous, unforgiving and at times vengeful man. At the same time, the tenacity with which Dr Swamy has pursued the powerful and the corrupt is ably documented in the book. If India did not have a Subramanian Swamy, I have no hesitation is saying that the goonds politicians would be running the country with impunity, Single handedly he took on the might of the Indian state has has brought to the bar of justice Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Kanimozhi, Raja and scores of other corrupt political figures. It requires immense moral courage to do this and Dr Swamy has demonstrated that.

For persons of my generation, who came of age during the Emergency, Dr Subramanian Swamy will ever remain a Hero. The book gives us details of how he escaped from India during the Emergency and his dramatic reapearance in Parliament disguised as a sardar is legendary. The petty minded Indiara Gandhi and her Congress party expelled Swamy from the Rajya Sabha on patently fraudelent grounds, but Dr Subramanian Swamy reentered the Lok Sabha from the Bombay North East Constituency, the largest Lok Sabha Constituency in India. He had been promised the New Delhi seat, but the machinations of Atal Behari Vajpayee seems to have put paid to the hope of getting that seat. Vajpayee himself contested that seat and I was his booth agent in 1977 in the R K Puram polling booth.  Roxna seems to suggest that Vajpayee was bent on subverting the political carreer of Dr Swamy and ensured his exclusion from the Janata Party Ministry which was formed, The other pet peeve was Rama Krishna Hegde who tried to marginalize Swamy but the great Machiavelian that Swamy is, made Hegde eat crow by getting him to resign following the telephone tapping scandal.

Dr Subramanian Swamy is a towering figure in Indian politics and owes his palce entirely to the splendid intellect that he commands. Indian politics has seen two great intellectuals, Dr Ambedkar and Dr Swamy and both possess a doctorate from US Universities. Dr Swamy was educated at Harvard University from where he received his Ph D under the guidance of Simon Kuznetz. In his political life, Dr Swamy has been faithful to two very important principles: he is a beleiver in Capitalism as an economic system that promises equality and prosperity and he has always advocated a good diplomatic ties with Israel. In the pursuit of these goals he has not sververed during his long years in public life. Dr Swamy has utter contempt for the Nehruvian brand of state socialism which promoted corruption, inequality and mediocrity.

James Joll once wrote a book, Intellectuals in Politics. In India, Dr Swamy is the closest we have ever had of a politician who is highly educated, a power house of ideas, dedicated to the principle of a free society and above all a dogged and determined crusader against the endemic corruption. He is a broad minded individual as his personal life demonstrates his open mindedness.

I enjoyed reading this book.

Frozen Frames by D Vasudeva Rao: Memory and Fulfillment

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Frozen Frames: A Life of  Fulfillment
D Vasudeva Rao
Chennai: 2017

An interesting read

The author of the book, Frozen Frames: A Life in Fulfillemt, has chosen an apt title. Reflecting on his life, Janus like, two generation before him and forward to two generations after him, Vasudeva Rao has charted his professional journey from a professional Chartered Accountant to a highly challenging and rewarding career in the world of corporate institutions, global competition and one that saw the transition of India form a protected licence and quota raj to the fast changing reality of a global India. The fact that an individual's life is caught in the cusp of  major historical and systemic forces over which he/she has little control and the choices that constitute the frozen frames of memory is the stuff of autobiography and the author has traversed this territory with ease and great aplomb.


On page 18 the author sets out the ethnic and linguistic identity of his family in terms of three terms: Marathi, Deshastha and Madhva. A linguistic, regional and a sectarian (Vaishnava Dwaita) describe the matrix within which the life can be structured and situated. Reading Vasudeva Rao's book makes one wonder how the vast tectonic social transformations in South India, the anti brahmin Movement, the triumph of the Justice Party and its later day incarnation, the DMK led to this small community which numbered around 15,000 in the Census of 1911,lose its elan and today is in the danger of losing its identity as it struggles to keep afloat against the rising tide of political, linguistic and ethnic oppression. He is a Marathi speaker and a descendent of Gyano Pant who migrated into South India when the Maratha Empire was at its height. Deshasta, meaning from the Desh as a contrast to Konkanastha, from the coast was a geographical term referring to the plains south of the Ghats and stretching into Bijapur. Madhva, a sectarian affiliation, underscores the importance the Udipi Mutts have had in shaping the collective identity of this small but vibrant community marooned on the shoals of time. The author pays equal attention to all the three aspects of his individual and social history. As the Maratha empire expanded and as there was need to collect revenue from a fragmented and dispersed land holdings from which the Confederacy drew its fiscal resources, Deshesta revenue managers were appointed in different parts of the empire. Modi remained the language of revenue records until 1834 when it was supplanted by the vernacular.

Vasudeva Rao sketches the social horizon of his own family by an extended foray into kinship, both affinal and agnatic. Family ties played an important role in providing security and opportunity. The Marathi Deshastha who settled in Madras, now Chennai, soon adopted the regal functions of patronage of culture and music and in neighbourhoods like Mylapore, Tyagaraja Nagar and Besant Nagar set up Sabhas for musical performances and theatre groups. The Raj was not the least interested in the fragments of South Indian culture that still lingered and Institutions like Music Academy set up by Shri T V Subba Rao and Vani Mahal played a seminal role in the preservation of culture and identity. The author has rightly drawn our attention to these landmark institutions.

The author has leld several senior positions in the Corporate sector and he has given rich and illuminating details of his life, achievements and personal philosophy. Like the Jews the Deshestas are modernizing while simultaneously retaining their religious rituals and performative texts. I enjoyed reading this book and is a rare document of social history as well.

Politics over Death in India: Anita and Gauri Lankesh victims of politics

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books
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Tamil Nadu is going through it's periodic bout of politically instigated crisis like the Jallikattu Agitation soon after the killing of Jayalalithaa. Anita's death is a tragedy and the mercilessly heartless Tamil politicians are cooking their rice on the funeral pyre of this girl.

The fact is that Tamil politicians find her more useful dead than alive and so her death must be investigated. We know how people whose death is convenient for the DMK like DGP Durai and Bashs of Emerald Enterprises were found dead. More recently the guards at Jayalalithaa,,:s house were killed; one by alleged robbers at the Konsdu estate and the other on a road accident near Salem. I suspect the involvement of politicians in her death and are now milking the tragedy. None of these thugs ever bothered to protest when do dalit girls were forced to commit suicide due to their inability to pay the fees on a non descript college in Villupuram. So the fact is that politicians involved in running self financing medical colleges are threatened by NEET and hence this Agitation. Anita seems to have been a bright student who secure 1186  marks in her Board Examination. However she was able to get only 86 marks in the All India entrance examination for admission to Medical School. She approached the Supreme Court as a petitioner against NEET on the plea that it discriminated against those who studies in the State Board Scheme and favored the CBSE students. The Supreme Court of India did not find merit in this argument at all and made NEET the sole basis for admission to the MBBS course. It is also binding on Minority Institutions.

There is a thriving racket in Medical Education in India and Tamil Nadu is one state in which politicians are financing their elections through "capitation fees" extorted from students. A seat in a Medical College sells for nearly a crore and only the rich and the corrupt can afford to send their wards to medical schools. The NEET was an attempt to bring about accountability and transparency in the system and this process adversely affected the fortunes of the very politicians who were involved in running the Medical Colleges. A cabal of medical educators and their political supporters started a movement against NEET and like the earlier Jallikkattu Agitation soo went out of hand. Students who did not protest when 6 dalit girls committed suicide when the College extorted money in the form of special feels to the tunme of a few thousand rupees started agitating for the abolition of NEET. The hold of the predatory Tamil politicians on the minds of the stdents is rather disturbing. Fortunately the Supreme Court has directed the state govertnments to take firm steps to control the unseely protests.

Gauri Lankesh was killed two days back and the comments of the Clown Prince of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram, the former General Secretary of the violent and criminal CPM have started a war of words in the Indian Media. The politicians hoping to gain political mileage started the whisper campaignb that the BJP was behind the murder and BJP was quick in its reponse. The fact is that the family of the slain journalist who was convicted for publ;ishing false and slanderous news, has blamed a Naxalite for the killing. It has become fashionable to blame the RSS for everyting. In the earlier muders of Kalburgi and others the RSS was blamed and in one case it was determined that property dispute lay at the root of the crime. A few days back Pankaj Mishra a Hindi journalist was shot for publishing a story on the corruption of Laloo Prasad Yadava and onver the course of the past two years several jouralists have been killed and there was no outrage. The Media in India seems to be embracing selecctive outrage and that is not a good sigh for democracy.

Gauri Lankesh inherited her paper from her father who started the Magazine as a scandal sheet and made a lot of money by practicing the fine art of blackmail, extortion and mixed it with a social agenda of anti brahmanism, Gauri herself was a late advocate of a separate identity for the Lingayats and this may have created ripples. In any event the BJP and RSS had nothing to do with her death and it is upto the state government to investigate and arrst the culprits.

Narendar Modi's Independence Day Address to the Nation

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On August 15th Narendar Modi addressed the Nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi, a ritual that was begun by Jawarlal Nehru. The speech itself, just over fifty five minutes long, was significant for what it said and more significant for want it left out. Cleverly crafted, the speech hit all the right notes: it addressed the pluralistic ethos of India and also underscored the need to reach out to the people of Kashmir. Na Gali se na Goli se, magar gala lagane se: Not with hars rhetoric or bullets but with love can the problem of Kashmir be solved, This is a throwback to the call for Insaniyat made several years back by Atal Behari Vajpayee,

First; let me state what was left out. There was no word on the Agrarian Crisis that is sweeping the country. Everyday more than a dozen farmers are committing suicide all over the country. Modi chose not to address this vital problem. Job creation has not really been addressed. During the run up to the 2014 General Election, Narendar Modi spoke about jobs and development. In thios Speech, three years after coming to power, he remains silent on this vital question. Jobs have all but disappeared and the jobs that have been created are just low skill, low paying jobs in the service sector. With much fan fare Skill India Digital India was launched and the Make in India programme launched a few years back. Today these initiatives reamin just pious hopes, nothing has changed on the ground. Quite wisely, Narendar Modi when he spoke of making a New India wisely kept these initiative out of his discourse. He knows that the ground reality is much different.

On the issue of demonitization, Modi was on firm ground. There is no doubt that the move has led to a vast increase in the tax base and revenue of the Government. The discovery of 300,000 lakh crores of hidden wealth will go a long way in putting an end the the menance of Balck Money. There is no doubt that demoniotization has been a success and the promise of a cash less digital economy has not been realized.

The Government of India under narendar Modi is neglecting the whole Higher Education Sector. I agree that the previous Governm,ents have destroyed the fabric of Indian higher education. However, the present Government has not taken any concrete steps to improve the quality and content of education. It rankels Indian mind that China has atleat 20 Universities in the world's top Universities and India has none. However, the polcies enunciated so far are not conducive to any great change in this arena. The neglected sector of Higher Education is being killed by begeign neglect.

Modi did not mention the tension at the border. This may be a deliberate decision in order to play down the differences with China.

Twenty Fifth Convocation of Pondicherry University

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This morning Pondicherry University held its 25th Convocation and as usual, it was a grand event. The Lt Governor of Pondicherry and the Chief Minister of the  Union Territory Shri V Narayanaswamy were both present for the occasion. The Vice Chancellor, Professor Anisa Basheer Khan read out the Convocation Report in which the great strides taken by the University were highlighted. Furthermore, the anxious moments of the last few months were momentarily set aside and the dignitaries graced the event with elan. Justice R Mahadevan, High Court of Madras, gave the Convocation Address in
which he stressed the importance of keep an open mind towards learning.

Dr Kiran Bedi had a special message for the teachers and stated very categorically that teachers should be learners first.

   

Dr Kiran Bedi, Lt Governor of Pondicherry at the 25th Convocation

Dr Kiran Bedi distributing the degree certificates.

Big Data Algorithms, Inequality and World History: Two Books, Two Visions

Writing the History of the Global

WEapons of Mass Destruction

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books


The two books reviewed in this blog make interesting reading. the Weapons of Math Destruction by Dr Cathy O'Neil, a Ph D in Mathematics from Harvard University is a spell binding account of the misuse of Statistical Big Data in the world today and the consequent rise in income inequality which in turn widens the gulf between the super rich and those struggling to get along in the world. She points out that the growing trend towards using sophisticated algorithms by corporations such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and the like enable advertisers to target their potential clients with a fair amount of precision. There is a fascinating description of the US Educational Ranking system and the calculated manner in which educational ranking is used to extract Federal Educational Loans on the promise that a College Education will increase the chances of getting a secure well paying job. The author also analyses in great detail the smart, highly educated army of Data Analysts sporting fancy degrees from Ivy League Universities who by letting the Algorithms predict the flow of funds and Capital in the highly volatile realm of high finance contributed to the sub prime crisis that engulfed USA in 2008. Even Barack Obama intervention helped only the big companies escape the consequences of their financial profligacy and his bail out package only shifted the burden onto the shoulders of an already weakening Middle Class. This book is an eye opener and for those who believe that technology is a panacea that is creating a safer and a more democratic world. this is a must read text.

Writing the History of the Global by Maxine Berg is an imaginative look at the cross currents of debate in the field of Global History/World History. The fact that Historiography in the modern sense of the term was the out growth of the advent of the Nation State meant that writing the histories of the Nation State was taken to be the real and vital task of the professional Historian. The Nation State dictated its own narrative and Historians had to find justification for their task within the limits set of the Nation State. The contrived debates in India between the Secularists and their opponents is essentially a debate between the political conceits of the Nation State and the Civilizational Ethos of an Old but Wounded Civilization. The disillusionment with the contrived and false pretensions of the Nationalist view of History and the Leftist paradigms led to the rise of the so called Subaltern School. With its marriage of convenience with the post colonial/linguistic approaches to the past, the subalterns lost all credibility leaving behind a wreckage of unreadable prose. The Global History perspective elaborated in this book is an excellent alternative to the procrustean bed of Nation State Histories. Trade, Conquest, Migration have always linked the world and such trend and developments do not adhere to the limits of the present day Nation State.

Tamil A Biography by David Shulman

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Tamil A Biography

The book under review is an account of the Tamil language situated in its historical and linguistic context. It is one of the unfortunate intellectual legacies of the colonial era that many of the discredited theories pertaining to racial origin, evolution of language, scriptal literacy, religion are all wrapped up in the dense fog of ideology that it is today impossible to deal with some of these issues dispassionately. It takes a peace activist from Israel, the well known Indologist and historian, David Shulman to write about these and other issues with integrity and deep commitment to scholarship.


I have not come across a book that captures the complexity of Tamil literary and political history as eloquently and with scholastic depth as the present book. It is quite obvious that the present breed of Tamil "intellectuals" will rail against the account given by Shulman as he completely destroys the self serving myth, perpetuated over two centuries that Tamil has an origin independent of Sanskrit. Until Cauldwell made "Dravidian" into both a linguistic and racial characteristic, the term Dravida was used in Tamil literary works only as a geographical expression.




The nineteenth century which saw the crystallization of racially charged theories, bequeathed to India a toxic legacy in the form of the Aryan/Dravidian Dichotomy, the Aryan Invasion Myth, the conflict between the oldest Tamil language and the upstart Sanskrit language. All these theories, though discredited have traction due to the purchase of identity politics in India. Hence, it is essential to read Shulman very carefully as he has argued effectively that throughout the medieval period, the Age of the Cholas, Sanskrit enjoyed a privileged status in the royal court and that status was neither resented nor did it lead to the sort of shadow boxing we find in the last century when the "Pure Tamil " movement sought to expurgate Sanskrit from the Tamil language altogether.

David Shulman, unlike Asko Parpola and others is a recognized authority on Sanskrit Language and Literature and knows nearly 24 languages including Telugu, Kanada and a host of European and Asian Languages. His own early foray into Tamil history when he wrote Tamil Temple Myths marked him as one who uses literary texts in new and novel ways. The tallapuramam of medieval Tamil region were studies against the general background of history and iconography in this work which was followed by King and Clown in South Indian Myth and Poetry a path breaking work on the textual construction of South Indian kingship. More recently, Whitney Cox has added to the thin corpus of historical investigation in his Politics, Kingship and Poetry in Medieval South India (Cambridge University Press, 2016). This line of investigation, a new historicist perspective that melds the fluid poetry of medieval Tamil compositions to the firm foundation of historiography.

Tamil A Biography demolishes three fundamental myths of the dominant political ideology prevalent in Tamil Nadu today and pervades the entire gamut of academic studies on early Tamil Language and Literature. As he says, "In modern South India Tamil has become a major criterion for collective identity, often seen now as forged in opposition to Sanskrit and an invasive north Indian culture and ideology". Shulman goes on to show that the Chola royal court was bilingual with Sanskrit enjoying the same status as Tamil and there is no sign of any conflict, real or imagined during the four centuries of Chola rule. The advent of the anti brahmin movent meant that the South Indian brahmins were represented as agents of the alien culture and that was used as a justification for excluding them form public and cultural life altogether. The scholarship of David Shulman goes a long way in correcting the distortions of the past. His discussion of the enduring presence of the Agasthya Myth, a north Indian therefore a putative Aryan as the founder of Tamil Grammar is both convincing and sound.

The date of the so called Cankam literary works and the presence of the enigmatic Kalabrahs are two vexed issues in early Tamil literary history. Following Tieken, Shulman also argues for a late date for the Cankam works, There is little evidence to show that the puram and akam varieties of poems were contemporaneous with the Roman presence in South India and the graffiti marks found on pot shrds from sites like Arikamedu, Porunthal, Kodumanal and other places do not help in tading the Cankam literary works. There seems to be a close association between Bhakti literature and the redacted bardic poetry of early Tamil region. His disdussion of the Sangam tradition based on the Velvikkudi Copper plate Inscription is interesting.

The work under review is a classic and will remain a reliable introduction to Tamil language and literary history.  

Donald Trump Attacks Syria: War on False Pretext

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Donald Trump was elected President on the promise that he would Put America First, Make America Great Again was the rallying cry which unitied a vast swathe of supporters from white factory workers, to Latinos, to marginalized groups in US society. Almost all sections which sdaw their incomes fall their aspiration erode voted for Trump. The white privileged professional groups in the Academia, Media, Financial Institutions and in the Intelligence Organizations were solodly behind Hialry Clinton. Right from the start there was an attempt to delegitimize the election of Trump by suggesting overtly in the beginning and then it became an avalance of allegations that Russia under Putin had hijacked the Elections. Specifically the allegation was that Russia had hacked into the servers of the Democratic Party and acessed emails which embarassed and compromised the candidature of Clinton. The assumption behind the campaign was that had the misdeed of the leadership of the DNC colluding illegally with Hil;ary Clinton not been exposed, Trump would have been defeated. It is shocking that a sizeble section of the US media maintains this self serving  lie.

After his election there was a sustained campaign of weaning away a good number of pledged delegates from the Electoral College and transfer their votes to Clinton. In the final count, it was Hilary delegates who drifted into the Trump camp. Be taht as it may, Trump in his flamboyantly eloquent Inaugural Speech promised a end to the "American Carnage". And in resposne to a white correspondent who asked about the "killer" Putin, Trump honestly replied that "we are not exactly innocent". The honesty and forthrightness that had marked Trump's initial foray into the rarefied realm of diplomacy was met with utter derision by the White Liberal Media. Calls for his impeachment over the so called links with Russia were getting strident. Some like Fareed Zakharia of the CNN were openly sceptical about the stability of the Trump regime and the defeta of the repeal of Obamacare seem to imply the imminent demise of the Trump Presidency. To top it all, the Intelligency community was openly hostile and there was some speculation of the CIA doing a Kennedy on Trump. The President stood up to all these challenges well and earned the respect of all who felt that Trump no longer stood for American exectionalism and leadership over a unipolar world.

The hard earned respect that Trump had earned was dissipated when he ordered his crusie missiles to strike Syria as retaliation for an alledged "gas attack". The US medcia was quick to balme the Assad Government. It must be said that similar allegations were made in 2013 by John Kerry and the UN had certified that Syria did not possess chemical weapons. By making an issue of the chemical weapons and by stating publically that the use of chemical weapons would draw a quick retaliation from the uS, American policy seemed to encourage its loyal rebels to create a pretext for intervention. It is now apparent that the Free Syrian Army is being trained and fiananced by USA and a faction of the Free Syrian Army which is linked to ISIS is known to have stckpiles of chemical weapons. Strangely the US fights ISISI in Rraq and is supporting ISIS in Syria. The contradiction in this policy is clear to the whole world except to the Deep State that runs the US. It is clear that an influential section of the Media and the Intelligence Community is pushing USA in the direction of war.

It must be said to the credit of Donald Trump that he valiantly resisted yeilding to the pressures from the Deep State and now it is clear as daylight that he has bought peace without honour by launching a savage attack just to appear "Presidential".

G Parthasarathy and Kasturirangan at Pondicherry University

Mrs Janaki Srinivasan Lighting the lamp

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books



The School of Social Sciences and International Studies of Pondicherry University invited two remarkable high achievers for talks at the UNiversity. Both of then, Ambassador G Parthasarathy and Professor Kasturi Rangan, former Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization spoke passionately about the areas of their expertise and inspired the University community.

G Parthasarathy addressing the students of Pondicherry University

G Parthasarathy is a seasoned diplomat and is not given to vacuous niceties that do not address the outstanding issues plaguing the two countries, India and Pakistan. He did not seem particularly concerned that the SAARC unity would be a casualty of the estranged relationship between India and Pakistan. Instead he argued that the BIMSTEC grouping could be used to the advantage of India. On Sri Lanka, the diplomat was forthright. He categorically maintained that Indian fishermen with deep sea fishing nets are entering the territorial waters of Sri Lanka and are depleting the marine resources. His address was printed and distributed to the audience. He is a firm advocate of a rethink on the No First Use Policy of India with regard to nuclear weapons. He seemed to suggest that China has helped Pakistan build Plutonium weapons which can be deployed as tactical battle field weapons. It was really amazing to hear G Parthasarathy, a civil engineer by training speak so authoritatively about Indian foreign and security policies. Unlike academics from Indian Universities who spout half digested inanities marinated in the  jargon of post colonial theories, Parthasarahy presented his arguments in a logical manner.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Anisa Khan with Dr Kasturi Rangan

Professor Kasturi Rangan was another visitor who was invited by the CSA Studies, School of Social Sciences and International Studies Pondicherry University to address the students. He spoke for nearly an hour and the J N Auditorium was packed to capacity. He began by tracing the history of Indian Space Programme from Tumba, the Equatorial Rocket Launching Station when India first began sending rockets to measure the atmosphere. The launch of 104 satellites in a single launch makes India a leader in Space technology. He spelt out the uses of such advanced technology by laying emphasis on the inherent real time data that such technologies transmit to the ground station. In hydrology, remote sensing, terrestrial mapping, resource planning are all areas in which satellites have their utility. I drew attention to the racist cartoon in New YorkTimes which questioned the utility of such technology to poorer societies.

It was a rich experience listening to these great men.

BJP VIctory in Uttar Pradesh: Implications for 2019

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

The BJP sweep in Uttar Pradesh did not come as a surprise to this blogger as he had predicted a tally of 300 seats. In reality, the BJP got well over this number and we have to ask some hard questions which have serious implications for the General Elections of 2019.

THe first question is: Did demonetization play a positive role in galvanizing the poorer sections of society in favour of the BJP. The conventional wisdom emanating from the wooly leftist commentators was that demonetization to prove a disaster and voters would register their protest in the polling booths. This did not happen primarily because the political messaging that accompanied the move was clear: the policy was aimed at unearthing black money and was meant to keep the pledge of rooting out corruption and hoards of hoarded wealth. The Congress and the BSP the most vocal critics of the MOdi initiative have had to bite the dust because they did not understand the baci purpose of the policy and its political implications. Even the small trader and daily wage worker soon adjusted to the new reality of a cashless or less cash economy and there was no major social unrest following the demonetization initiative. At the political level it shifted the focus of politics away from issues of identity to those of class, and employment along with livelihood.

The demonetization policy was effective in breaking the stranglehold of caste and power brokers over the electorate. Even in Muslim majority areas the Party has done extremely well. One obvious and a clear possibility is the Muslim women have voted in favor of the BJP given the stand taken by the party on the contentious triple talaq issue. But this alone does not explain the fact that even in predominantly Muslim areas like Deaband which has nearly 70% Muslim electorate, the bJP quite easily won the seat. Here I postulate a hypothesis that the younger Muslim voters are increasingly getting alienated from the sort of divisive politics that the traditional parties practice in the name of "secularism". Tokenism at best and condescension at worst is the main feature of Indian secularism. Modi's message, Sab Ke Saath, Sab ka Vikas is not a mere statement of intent. It is now emerging as a new contract between State and Civil Society.

In 2019, the BJP will be able to do well. However by that time, the state Government may have been in power for more than 2 years and hence the strong winds of anti incumbency will be felt. I suggest, though the BJP hot heads may disagree, that the present mandate is not for identity based issues like the Ram Mandir and BJP must resist playing identity politics on the issue except play the occasional tune to the die hard mandir addicts. The social coalition consisting of Brahmins, Rajputs, Trading castes and sections of the OBC and non Jatav SCs is a fragile and rather short sighted. It would be best not to put total faith in the sustainability of this coalition and continue to build up support.

An interesting feature in these Elections has been the substantial increase in the vote share of the BJP. Even in Goa where BJP got less seats than the COngress, the Party has more share of the votes polled and the same in Manipur. Uttarakhand and Punjab did not come as a surprise to anyone and I am sure that the BJP was expecting a poor show. Probably the showing of the AAP may have come as a surprise.

All in all, if this trend continues the BJP will cross 305 to 320 seats in the Lok Sabha Elections of 2019.

The Communist Killings in Kerala: Pinarayi Vijayan's Government must be dismissed

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When there were riots in Gujarat, after 59 passengers returning from Varanasi were burnt alive in Godhra, the Media went to town claiming that the then Chief MInister was responsible for the violence that followed. The Hindu, a left leaning newspaper carried reports from the following day onwards about flag marches that had been organized to check the violence and it was pointed out that several people were killed in police firing against rioting mobs. Not satisfied the dynastic fascists and their leftist allies created an international buzz over Narendra Modi and Hussein Obama obliged them by putting the Hon'ble Chief MInister on the list of people who were to be denied US visa. The general opinion that was advocated was that the Chief Minister by failing to bring the riots under control was abetting in the violence that followed. It was forgotten that after the demise of Indira Gandhi, the dynastic fascists went around killing nearly 4,500 Sikhs in the capital city itself and Rajiv Gandhi justified the attacks by saying famously that the ground shakes when a big tree falls.

In Kannur District of Kerala. over the past one year more than 100 Karyakartas of the RSS have been brutally hacked to death and not a single arrest has taken place. It is clear that the State Government under the notorious Pinarayi Vijayan is actively encouraging its essentially tiya social constituency to hunt and kill sympathizers of the BJP or the RSS. The list of potential victims is vetted by the state secretariat and a hit squad organized with the active assistance of the CPM Kannur District Committee. So far more than 100 young men have been killed and there is not a whimper of protest from the so called defenders of freedom and free speech. Their silence is eloquent. They are only saying that the space for political dissent and freedom is to be occupied only by the leftists and no one else. Such one sided and perverse interpretations of freedom is a sure sign of growing intolerance on the part of the left and creeping fascism, which does not brook any kind of dissent. The Prabhat Patnaik's of the world will be quiet when leftist goondas kill political  opponents.

It is now time for the Central Government to intervene. The State Government is using its considerable police force to protect the cadre of the CPM involved in such systematic killings. Rajnath Singh, the Home MInister is as usual quiet. Hoping that the problem will just slip away and he can take his mind on to more weighty issues like crafting a political future for his son and grandson. We have faith in our Prime MInister. We expect him to act.

There is enough evidence on hand to sdemonstrate that the CPM is actively colluding with the CPM criminals involved insuch killing. We expect the Prime MInister tto dismiss the CPM Government and prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan.