Day: October 24, 2018

oh do keep quiet you overprivileged Pars..

Personally I disagree with the SC decision on Saribmala Court.

https://twitter.com/Neelnabh/status/1054919876668743680

I hadn’t heard of Justice Nariman, the only famous lawyer I knew about in India is the Sindhi chap of whom Vidhi is particularly proud of.

At any rate I googled him a bit further and immediately stumbled on this drivel:

https://www.news18.com/news/india/even-my-religion-has-been-hinduised-says-justice-rohinton-f-nariman-1846315.html

I’m sufficiently woke enough to spot humble bragging and the below is as good an example of it as one can find:

“There is no caste in the mother country of my religion. But here, we have it. It doesn’t matter there, where you are born, but here you have to take birth in a priestly family to become a priest. I couldn’t have become a priest, if I was not born in a priestly family,” Justice Rohinton Nariman said.

A quick google search of Caste in Sassania yielded this:

The estates. The Avestan concept of four estates (see i, above) persisted in Sasanian times under the designations āsrōnīh, the estate of the priests (āsrōns); artēštārīh, the estate of the warriors (artēštār); wāstaryōšīh, the estate of the husbandmen (wāstaryōš); and hutuxšīh, the estate of the artisans (hutuxš, lit. “who strives well”;Dēnkard, ed. Madan, II, p. 595; ed. Dresden, p. 360; tr. Molé, chap. 1.22, pp. 6-7). Ohrmazd is said to have personally taught the theory and practice of the four estates to Zarathustra (ed. Madan, II, p. 599, cf. p. 623; ed. Dresden, p. 357, cf. p. 337; tr. Molé, chap. 1.41 pp. 12-13, cf. 3.48 pp. 38-39). 
Sounds suspiciously like Caste to me! It seems he’s using Pars privilege (which is Parsi in the Hindu community and Shi’ite Persian in the Muslims community) to pontificate and exploit the host society.

The Axis of Autocrats. China & Saudi; Pakistan’s evergreen friends

The recent news that Imran Khan has been able to prise 6bn USD in aid from a distressed Saudi Arabia reflects many things:

(1.) the Axis is going to be Saudi-Pak-China with Pakistan emerging as a sort of lynchpin. As with any Great Power in decline the US is going to try and throw its weight around.

(2.) while Trump is an astonishingly effective orator; his latest tweet on the bombing scare scandal at once rouses his base and inflames his enemies, it’s hard to see how he can effectively project American influence.

(3.) 9-11 is probably the most successful attack on the US not because of the actual attack but because of the botched response. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have delegitimised American foreign policy (to some extent) and also show the American reluctance to project troops abroad.

(4.) How does all of this relate to modern South Asia? Well the US-Pakistan relationship simply isn’t what it once was since the US doesn’t have as much use for Pakistan. As a power in general retreat from Asia, the US conceivably has much more in common (and points of vexation especially in relation to H1B1) with India than Pakistan.

(5.) Saudi Arabia and China are counter-cultural power; one espouses hereditary monarchy and the other communism with Confucian characteristics. Like Pakistan they are fundamentally “out of sorts” with the modern world and the ongoing cult (?) of liberal democracies.

(6.) This “Axis of Autocracy” may individually have competing interests (Saudi will ALWAYS maintain a strong relationship with the US, the China has some interest in Iran) but Pakistan binds them as the weakest member (sort of the Italy in the WW2 Axis).

(7.) Pakistan is the most likely stumble from crisis to crisis and especially in the latest “begging bowl incident” Imran was spurned away from both Saudi & China to go to the IMF. Khashoggi’s murder was serendipitous for Pakistan (are we sure it’s not an ISI false flag) as an isolated and under attack Saudi had to immediately shore up its alliance.

(8.) with the renewed impetus from a successful negotiation Imran can now play his hand against the Chinese. Though Pakistan’s foreign policy agenda is destructive (more Habsburg than Prussia); survival can focus the mind.

(9.) The only real way this Axis would be shattered if the “people” rose up and all three nations seem to have inoculated their citizens from the Western winds of liberal democracy. In some ways the Sabrimala Temple incident shows that Modern India is more an enemy of traditional Hinduism than anyone else.

Is Tulu Nad a good idea?

Quiet days on BP as I don’t find much to be riled up about (and even when I do I delete the interesting posts shortly thereafter).

I follow a few members of the Hindu Right on Twitter and their constant mixture of modern alarmism + historical greatness is mildly amusing. One would imagine Hinduism is going extinct any day now judging from their tweets.

I was reading up on Tulu Nad and it seems it would centre on Mangalore. In general I prefer territorial organisation but it seems that Tulu Nad has as much validity as Telegana if not more.

I see an analogous situation to the Britain or France and their relationship to their sub-national identities. In general as a good libertarian I distrust centralised states but I don’t know enough about India’s domestic politics to comment.

However in a way much as the US senate disproportionately favours rural whites in the same manner more states will benefit the “Hindu-Brahmin” character of India.

Brown Pundits