From Orlando to Dallas and Back: Race, Religion and Violence in America Today

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

Anyone reading the Newspaper today will come to the conclusion that an apocalyptic race war is unfolding in USA. Of course, this is an exaggeration. However, the events at they are unfolding before our eyes thanks largely to cell phone footage and  all day TV coverage is bringing home, as never before, the fact that the election of Barack Hussein Obama has made the situation far far worse for the African American (I do not like the term black). And Obama standing on the steps of Air Force one at Warsaw Airport, made things worse with a grin that cynically conveyed to the world that he has successfully created a chasm in American society that will last generations. White America could seriously consider itself cleansed of the original sin of Atlantic Slavery by electing an African American as President. The fact is that on both the shooting at Orlando and at Dallas, the President felt that the issue was Gun Control and tried to score political points at the expense of Mr Donald Trump. That has now horribly backfired.

The shootings at Saint Paul, Minnesota and Falcon Heights are eerily similar. Anton Sterling was shown struggling with a white Police Officer who pulled out a gun from his right and shot the man thrice. In the case of Philando Castile the live video streaming of his encounter with the police officer who shot the young man was both graphic and disturbing. In Orlando, a Moslem immigrant from Afghanistan shot 49 people in a Night Club and the motive as determined by the AFT and the FBI is domestic radicalization. Mr Miach Xavier Johnson who is allegedly the sniper who killed 5 police officer in Dallas was a decorated veteran of the US Army and had served in Afghanistan. One conclusion is obvious: America's senseless  wars both in Iraq and Afghanistan  are  now causing hurt in USA, just as I predicted in a blog I wrote on the Iraq engagement way back in 2005.

Gun Control is a dog whistle for Liberal posturing and does not address the real issues at all. The fact is that African Americans males are incarcerated at a rate hugely disproportionate to their population should be a cause of concern to liberal American scholars whose edgy conscience is hyper active when it comes to India and its myriad social and political issues should reflect and introspect on what is taking place in their own backyard. Kancha Illiah and his breed of pro white Social Scientists even advocated an American model of social engagement for the so called Dalit problems in India. Fortunately this did not happen and India is working out its own solutions. The African American male is seen as a "criminal" and the whites are on the defensive from the world go. The accent, the dress, the social habits and attitudes are all anathema to the dominant whites and the Latino population is imbibing the dominant attitudes. Given the racial democracy that exists in USA, the Democratic Party has perfected the art of crafting a salad bowl of racial and ethnic interest which invariably tip the scales in its favor. Mr Trump has condemned the violence his statement in measured and civil tone addresses the issue in a more honest manner.

The Police Force across USA behaves like an army of occupation and its training is akin to the Military. The tactics used are all military tactics and are actually unsuited for democratic policing. There has been an utter failure on the part of the Department of Justice to prosecute even a single police officer for the use of deadly force and this failure undermines the confidence in the Police. And in Dallas the Police even used an IED to kill the sniper and this itself shows how deep rooted militarization of the police force has become.

USA must retrain its police to act with restraint and behave in a responsible democratic manner. Policing a citizenry is far different from policing a hostile, enemy territory. It will be interesting to compare figures of the use of deadly force by the police during the two decades prior to the Iraq War and the years after. It is my contention that the Police has become too militarized in its training and that has to change and its weaponry needs to be drawn down.

CASTE< VIOLENCE AND SUBALTERN IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY TAMIL NADU; A SICK SOCIETY REINTERPRETTED

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

On June 24th 2016, a young, educated girl hailing from a middle class brahmin family was brutally murdered in front of a large crowd on the platform of Nughambakkam Railway station. Shockingly not a single one of the onlookers stirred to help her even as a young man took out a billhook (aruval) from the back back that he was carrying and struck three times at her face neck and upper part of her body. The brutality of the crime was in fact a rerun of a typical ISIS operation:brutal, cruel, quick and in full public display. While the killing of Nirbhaya in December 2012 was an event that brought together a large proportion of civil  society and political parties to bring about change in the legal system, this barbaric attack was largely ignored. Does the fact that the victim of this brutal crime happens to be a brahmin girl  and the accused a dalit have anything to do with the cynical indifference with which this crime has been viewed. I have always said that the position of the brahmins in Tamil society today happens to be akin to that of the Jews in Germany during the Nazi era.

The Dravidian Movement, especially the anti brahmin Self Respect Movement made brahmin bashing, brahmin percecution, brhamin marginalization and exclusion an inherent part of South Indian public life. Like the Jews in Germany, brahmins were excluded from university positions and public office and like the victim of this monstrous attack, they had to take up employment in the soft ware industry or immigrate to USA in order to escape the vicious and untrammeled assaults on person and dignity. The public media both the Press and the Electronic media is conditioned to highlight dalit atrocities and ignore similar attacks on brahmins. Indeed, the condition of both the dalits and brahmins are more or less identical in post colonial Tamil Nadu ad scholars like the late M S S Pandian and others have sought to give legitimacy to upper caste domination by invoking the discredited theories of Cauldwell and others.

The attacker, Thiru P Ramkumar is a resident of Ambedkar Nagear in Meenakshipuram near Tirunelveli in the deep South. He had apparently been stalking the victim since May 2016 and the Tamil movies generally portray stalking as an innocent trivial assertion of male interest. The gross infringement of the rights of the girl/woman is not taken into consideration and the Police generally ignore complaints of such behaviour. Since the attacker happens to be a dalit, public discourse has suddenly gone silent and it is likely that in the days and months the crime will get politicized in the manner in which the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. And dalit poltical parties like the CVK and the PT and also sections of the dravidian parties will also start a chorus in favor of the killer. Who can forget the fact that the killer of the Madurai corporator,a dalit woman was pardoned by Karunanidhi when he was in power. Crime in Tamil Nadu walks hand in hand with political parties.

The world has to awaken to the plight of the barhmins in Tamil Nadu,. Their human rights anre being violated on a daily basis and while attacks on dalits are highlighted by the Media, politcal correctness prevents it from highlighting crimes against brahm,ins.