Interesting item about Tessy Thomas, “project director, mission” of the Agni-V missile. The symbolism is definitely good for India: A woman, not from an IIT or an overseas university,  a Keralite Christian? And the relative simplicity of Indian middle class households  is always striking to a Pakistani (AQ Khan’s kitchen does NOT look like this). But I wonder what “project director (mission)” means? I assume details of DRDO organizational structure are classified, but given the jingoistic excitement now gripping India, there must be more details out there. Anyone care to enlighten us?

Apparently 200 Pakistani trained suicide squads to strike Kabul. Rahmatullah Nabil, the chief of Afghan intelligence linked the increase in attacks to seasonal vacation in Pakistani madrassas (Islamic schools) among others. Guess that answers that what Madrassah kids get up to in spring break. Anyway in the comments section someone had suggested the below:

1. US takes full control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

2. Divide the country into 4 countries- Punjab, Balochistan, Sindhu Desh, NWFP.

4. Administer the Punjab territory for 5 yrs by putting education and ecomony in track.

5. All regions will bloom with the sweet smell of the land of the pure-the land of Indus.

Obviously its impractical and unworkable nevertheless I thought I would share. If any country has the distinct “honour” of administering the land of the pure; it would have to be India. But then again why on earth would India take on the additional burden of geographic expansion particularly when its federating states are keen on subdividing into smaller entities i.e Telagana & Andhra Pradesh.

An advantage of liberal democracies is its frankly a hassle to keep or acquire unwanted territory. England, especially London, wouldn’t miss Scotland all that much if it did decide to secede. Personally I agree with the Tory party that if Britain should be preserved it must be because of patriotism and not from pragmatism, which the Labour party weakly puts forward (Britain should stay together for the sake of the economy). At any rate back to Pakistan; its a mess and Omar probably has all the right solutions; dilute TNT to child’s play literally, move on from destructive pseudo-conflict in the highlands of Zomia and move on from the destructive geopolitical strategy of trying to play off all the “Great Powers” (India, China & US) against one another, which usually ends up one way or the other disrupting the life of the Pakistani body politic to an even greater extent than it does now.

Recently the New York Times had an article, For Asian-American Couples, a Tie That Binds. I didn’t mind the piece myself, but it deals in lots of stereotypes of white people. For example: ““I didn’t like that he thought that was weird,” she said. “That’s my role in the family. As I grew older, I realized a white guy was much less likely to understand that.”” It’s entirely possible that a white is less likely to understand, but imagine if a white woman said this by way of explaining why she generally dated white men; in short, colored men had some hang-ups.

Contrast this celebration of homogamy with what’s going on on The Bachelor. This series pairs white people with white people. It’s 1950 again! Though to be fair some Eurasian and Latino women have achieved some prominence. From what I recall the furthest a black woman made it occurred during the first season.

The Bachelor is implicit. But white preference for their own kind is reviled, including by those who exhibit the same exact preferences! Conversely, minorities who express similar racialized opinions are lauded.

via my father’s facebook feed.

My friend is visiting the Motherland and here is a picture taken below. I’m speaking on Friday on a panel on “Iran: America’s next War” and the picture below is a good question why it’s likely to be yes.

downtown Tehran; not something you would see in Islamabad (I hope)

My own perspective as a libertarian and an Iranian (my Iranian friends have begun to scold me that I overly identify with my South Asian Pakistani heritage as opposed to my Middle Eastern Iranian one) is that the US is consumed by increasing the scope of its national interest and Eisenhower’s warning on the military-industrial complex seems to be coming true. At the same time the West and its allies remain the only real beacon of liberty and prosperity in a pretty dismal world.

Despite the Arab Spring; Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East and the continued unjustified opprobrium towards it (mirroring Pakistan’s enmity towards democratic India) mars the single most pressing issue in the Ummah; the best killers of Muslims happen to be Muslims themselves. Some of the examples, which come to mind Syria, Sudan in Darfur, Saddam’s Iraq, Iran-Iraq war which cost a million lives, Pakistan in Bangladesh; the new Green Line in Beirut is no longer Christian-Muslim but the airport road, which straddles the Shi’ite & Sunni areas.

Iran has to understand that much as its fuelled on the myths & memories (which are usually the same thing; I can barely remember my own recent past without obfuscating key details) of the Persian Empire it can’t go around challenging the powers that be. It is no David to America’s Goliath rather it is more a case of nasty gnat to a (gentle) giant. I find the British Muslim community, or rather its young lefty leadership, work themselves up over Islamophobia rather than take effective measures on how to integrate in society. Rather than fighting with Israel and the Jews; Iran and the Muslims should be taking lessons from them.

• Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined. Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
• Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
• Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin – 109 per 10,000 people — as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

“Moreover, materially as well (as spiritually), the Israelites will all gather in the Holy Land. This is irrefutable prophecy, for the ignominy which Israel has suffered for wellnigh twenty-five hundred years will now be changed into eternal glory, and in the eyes of all, the Jewish people will become glorified to such an extent as to draw the jealousy of its enemies and the envy of its friends.” Abdu’l-Bahá

I was rifling through this amazing blog that the NY Times now do (along with India Ink h/t Amardeep) on Borders and Cartography. Zomia seems at a glance to be Turan-Tibet-Tai (rather Laos) highlands. Its fascinating to think that we associate Burma with a military junta while their (linguistically) close relatives the Tibetans are genteel & oppressed (no mention is made of their theocratic/military past). Looking at this map, which seems to have been the engine of so much conquest of their southern & populous neighbours reminds me of Ibn Khaldun’s (Father of Sociology) theory of how civilisation softens conquerors.

Alsatia’s descent into obscurity is perhaps typical for areas outside of traditional power structures. They are eventually overrun by central authority, absorbed into the body politic and airbrushed out of history. But while such territories have largely disappeared, over the last decade a new, enormous Alsatia, of sorts, has been identified: Zomia, the highland areas of Southeast Asia that are outside traditional state control.

First identified in 2002 by the Dutch historian Willem van Schendel[5], Zomia originally included Tibet and other southwestern parts of China, northern and northeastern parts of India, most of Nepal and Myanmar, all of Bhutan and Laos, and bits of Thailand and Bangladesh. By proposing Zomia, Mr. Van Schendel highlighted a transnational area that is marginal to all the states that nominally control it. Few things unite it, except its diversity — religious, ethnic, cultural, linguistic — born of Zomia’s geographical character, dominated by the inaccessible Himalayan highlands and Tibetan plateau. Zomia is a sanctuary, a refuge for isolated, unassimilated communities. Continue reading →

Ali Raza reviews a new book about partition violence that seems  to be worth a look.

btw, tangentially related question:  will the ISI’s far-sighted decision to de-enemize the Sikh community eventually include a possible return of some Sikhs to West Punjab? Or are there limits to forgive, forget and strategize?

As some of you may know, there has been a systematic effort in the ISI-webring to shift to blaming Hindus (and particularly upper-caste Hindus) for all crimes. Sikhs are no longer mentioned as evil foes at all. In fact, they are our long lost brothers, manipulated by Hindu Banias into doing their dirty work in East Punjab and so on. Interestingly, upper caste Hindus  ”forced us to ask for partition”…a terrible choice that was unfortunately forced upon us, but remember, it was also a glorious result we worked towards for 1000 years,  an essential step in the future glory of the Ummah, but a glorious wonderful outcome we would gladly have foregone if only Nehru had accepted the cabinet mission plan, so dont blame us for it… and so on.

But while this Sikh-strategy is focused on the possible disruption of the Indian state, the fact that so many Sikhs have roots and religious shrines in West Punjab means that there is the potential of this moving further than Rupeenews might wish. So, hive-mind, what do you think? Sikhs buying property in Nankana sahib and setting up a hostel is one thing, Sikhs starting to buy property in Faisalabad (aka Lyallpur) may be another. Can that happen? Before you rush to answer, do think of how much bonhomie now exists between individual West Punjab politicians and Sikh politicians in East Punjab. And how much trade and travel money is likely to become involved in this business.

About the violence itself, it may always be hidden under the surface of many or even all human societies, but there are ways to encourage it and ways to keep it in check….encouraging division and hatred over c0-existence was a very bad choice (at least in my opinion…of course, we know that there are other opinions).

But is it possible to go even further? today the Sikhs, tomorrow the Hindus? we may yet have buyers’ remorse to the point of forgiving even the Hindus (before you wonder what they are being forgiven for, remember, they caused everything. Including the last part where we all went wild. Whatever we did was just retaliation…or atleast that’s the story)? Yes? no? what do you think (Will the Hindus forgive us? Will the Sikhs? Internet Hindus probably wont, the Sikhs, maybe they have already done so? Anyway, comments welcome from that end too).

I dont want to give the impression that everyone in India or even in Pakistan thinks about partition all the time. Obviously, most people dont think of it at all. But at least in Pakistan, the mythology of partition is still considered a crucial part of the foundation on which Pakistan stands. Insulting questions to Indian cricketers and even Shabana Azmi’s failure to find an apartment in Juhu or whatever are all good and well, but they are thin gruel on which to build our great country. Islam and Partition (in whatever order) are still thought to be the closest we have to a real foundation. So ordinary Pakistanis may not obsess about it like I do, but the deep state is still very invested in it…and a lot of what has gone on with terrorism and the nurturing of Hafiz Saeed types is explained by this obsession.

Just to be clear, I dont believe that partition and Islam are somehow critical to Pakistan’s possible survival…I mean, I dont believe it in either sense. I dont think they are much of a foundation AND I dont think we need them..in fact we need to use them less and less..maybe only in 2nd grade or so….. Too much and we wont make it to 75… But how much is too much? and how to keep them at just the right temperature?

It would have been easier not to start.

I have been reading, with some level of indigestion, the Wall Street Journal’s India Realtime blog coverage of the malnutrition trend in  India (concentrating on Jharkand, Madya Pradesh and Bihar)–which does deserve it’s own post–but to summarize the authors cite local corruption and state-level disinterest in the role that malnutrition plays in mortality and morbidity at all age levels and the fact that only unstinting news coverage of the problem guarantees even a temporary focus in bureaucratic energy on those many unfortunates who ‘due to a clerical error’ were refused subsidized food.  I then read, in BoingBoing, of an Indian professional skeptic, along the lines of a James Randi, who was called in to investigate and expose the ‘weeping’ cross in the Our Lady of Velankanni church.  The phenomenon was one of chance and not malign intention but the end result was the same–a draw to religious pilgrims and cause to visit the church–with all the pecuniary benefits associated with such traffic.  Unlike in the case of the 32% of Indian men and 34% of Indian women that are estimated to have a BMI of less than 18.4, the line of demarcation for malnutrition, the local government sprang into action and bravely charged Sanal Edamaruku with blasphemy.

Continue reading →

Very biased reporting by the Hindustan Times focussing on cricketer Irfan Pathan’s reaction rather than the original (and insulting) question. The overlooked strains of creeping fascism (when the minority is picked on for their “overreaction”) seems to be building up to the point where we could potentially see Prime Minister Modi.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. File Photo: Rohit Jain Paras

Irfan Pathan’s Delhi visit on Wednesday turned out to be an unpleasant affair as it was marred by religious questions from a stranger at a press conference in South Delhi. The Delhi Daredevils cricketer, who was here to walk the ramp at a fashion event, ended up livid when he was asked, ‘Why are there so many Muslims in cricket?’

While Pathan, 27, maintained his cool in public at the time, he later fumed and ranted about the unidentified stranger’s insensitive behaviour, and even refused to walk the ramp till an explanation from the organisers came his way. “What the heck?  Who was that guy?  It is not done,” he was heard shouting and cussing after the press meet.

Later, of course, he seemed to have been calmed by the organisers and received an explanation as he got on the stage to charm fans and spectators even as it drizzled.

The article is from “An Island’s Other Fear” and this sad video dominated my thoughts during dinner.