“The others achieved IQ scores of 130-145, which puts them in the category of ‘very gifted’ children. The average score in Mensa India’s IQ test is between 85 and 115. Interestingly, all of these children are sons and daughters of labourers, rickshaw pullers, security guards, street vendors, etc.”
“In the past couple of months, Mensa India, Delhi, administered its internationally recognized IQ test to over 4,000 underprivileged children in Delhi and NCR as part of a unique project aimed at identifying and mentoring poor children with high IQ. Of the 102 extremely bright children it selected, over a dozen, including Amisha, achieved an IQ score of 145-plus, which puts her in the genius category.”
12/4000 is .3%
102/4000 is about top 2.5%
Basically at 2 SDs above the mean ir works out the average is a 100. 3SD extrapolation brings it up more, if it’s a perfectly normal distribution
Let’s take the prior case, and say average is 100. So children of largely lower strata people average an IQ of 100 in malnourished India. Truly incredible but not consistent with prior data, though this seems to be the most recent.
Truly incredible but not consistent with prior data
What exactly is the prior data? I don’t trust the Richard Lynn stuff. I also think the “national IQ” numbers you see bandied about on the web (like 82 for India) are bogus and unscientific. (Many of the IQs are estimated by averaging the IQs of neighboring countries in the absence of other data.)
The results of the PISA tests they did about a decade ago also should not be taken as reflecting the aptitude of children but rather the competence of their educational institutions. I don’t know if things have improved under Modi’s watch but government schools generally were abysmal in India, with absentee teachers and non-existent facilities.
True. I have seen many estimates of Indian IQ in the high 90s. There was one study of UK Indian average of 97. Interesting to see 100+. Even better it is low strata people. The outcomes are what they are. But this one is nice because it also is in line with an egalitarian world view and challenges assertions about Indian intellectual potential, especially among lower caste people. To me, that is a good thing.
is intelligence inherited from father or mother?. if it is from mother, then great intelligence of vyasa, vidura etc needs to be questioned, as they were endowed with intelligence from their fathers.
There is nothing published but sounds like it from the way Mensa is testing. They are straight up going into government schools and mass testing, from the looks of this documentary on it. Start it around 2:00
Have they done similar surveys in other countries? If so what were the results in other countries?
phyecho1
2 years ago
A reason why we need to bring IQ tests into country, identify kids at a early age. we need excuses to find a way to give many kids opportunity. ofcourse iq does not guarantee success. But thats ok, we have to try to give many kids opportunities.
I really don’t care either ways. The only country India can meaningfully use in these sort of things is Afghanistan.
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This invasion will make invasion of Taiwan so much more difficult.
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Wars now (and in the future) result in so few casualties that the Chinese way of not giving a fuck about the world might actually work. India is already good at this nonsense so not really a lesson for us.
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Mental space: I like how Modi is chilling out and doing his job without giving a fuck about Ukraine. Today he asked for more private medical schools to be set up. Hopefully will try to bring down the massive bribes required to do so. Medical education is a low hanging fruit. Saw how bad ‘nursing homes’ type places are first hand last year.
Poorly trained (primary) doctor >>> fake doctor
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UAE might swallow Socotra. Abstained today for no good reason.
Mental space is important, too much goes on in the world but too much remains to be done in India. In this regard, I like how Indian ministers are professional and do their jobs without wasting time on international affairs.
‘I like how Indian ministers are professional and do their jobs without wasting time ‘
If anything i feel both Indian babus and ministers are the biggest time waster in the whole wide world. Indian ministers throughput is the lowest in the world.
Obviously they waste time. But don’t you thin think that no one really cared when Afghanistan went under or Yemen or Ukraine. No matter who does what India’s political commentary remains focused on China and Pakistan.
I remember the days of ‘Jaarge Buss haay-haay!’ , grandstanding in UN like voting for Palestine, opposing nuclear deal, that type thing is on the decline. It could be largely because the left is out of power.
Are they? If baseline assumption was that Putin was going to shock and awe and flatten Kyiv, then this looks weak. But reality seems to be that Russia wants to minimize collateral damage so the next regime can govern. This is considerably tougher, I’d imagine
Mitchell Porter
2 years ago
Just noticed that recent post “Much Ado about Eileen Gu” by “Raj Dharbanga” disappeared.
The chimerica nexus seems to be coming out on top with this whole Ukraine episode. Expect G2 world. Serious strategic headwinds for India. Only reprieve is that pakis snatched defeat from jaws of victory. Just imagine the scenario if they were a little more tactful in AFG. Pak will still be used as a spear head to keep India inline or Balkanize it if needed.
Ummon
2 years ago
Ukrainian soldiers are now preventing Indian students from crossing the border into Poland, as retaliation for India’s abstention in the UN security council vote. If I were in charge, I’d offer to join the Russian effort with airstrikes against Ukraine as retaliation. But India is run by far more pacifist leadership than me.
I see perhaps US expected russia to do this and planned and prepared ukraine in laying a trap in frustrating russia. The more russia is frustrated, the more unhinged putin can become, unless he can hammer out a peacedeal and quit. which would be good for all. I dont know but perhaps russians dont intend to be ruthless?, but the more they are frustrated, the longer they dont get a deal,The worse things can get. Given the negative cost russia is most certainly going to suffer from this, they need some kind of a win for sure. some facesaving measure. In times such as this, face saving mechanisms are very very important. Russia is desperate for somekind of a win out of all this.
I still consider this as advantage russia. Given their army and capabilities as better overall. But I doubt whether they have clear goals on what to achieve and wonder whether their soldiers are prepared to being ruthless.
But I now see this as russia committed itself to this completely. It is always better to find a face saver for all sides. Also, I find ukraine really dumb for accepting these risks.
Roy
2 years ago
Asia, say no to Nato – The Straits Times
Dear Friends,
Many Western minds believe that Western societies are inherently peaceful while East Asian societies (including China) are more belligerent. There’s some realistic basis for this assumption: prospects of war between any two Western societies are practically zero. They are not practically zero between East Asian societies.
Yet curiously, despite this pacifist streak, it’s shocking that just in the past 20 years, Western powers have dropped 326,000 bombs in the greater Middle East/North Africa region. This total amounts to an average of 46 bombs dropped per day over the past 20 years. By contrast, the total number of bombs dropped in inter-state conflicts in East Asia in the past 20 years is: ZERO!
This huge disparity calls for some serious investigation. The East Asian societies may have worked out a pragmatic peace-preserving culture. If so, this culture should not be disrupted. This is why I decided to publish the attached piece in the Straits Times with a simple message to my fellow Asians: say no to NATO.
It reflects a key point I also make in “Has the West Lost it?”: the West should just stop dropping bombs!
With warm regards,
Kishore Mahbubani
The Pacific has no need of the destructive militaristic culture of the Atlantic alliance https://mahbubani.net/asia-say-no-to-nato-the-straits-times/
Prats
2 years ago
It’s pretty interesting to see the amount of propaganda on social media these days.
I think that if India is ever going to get into war, we’re pretty much screwed. Indian cretinism makes us uniquely susceptible to psyops.
Can very well imagine China being painted as the egalitarian good guy whose interests Nazi Brahminical India was unfairly impinging on. This will be cheered on by desi diaspora.
The enemies are radical islam and communism. That is what being “less Hindu” is all about. Those are the real ideologies that are messing things up. It isn’t the “lack of Hinduism” per say.
The people of Ukraine have inspired all of us with their courage and determination. One country that has not forcefully condemned the Russian war of aggression or offered aid to Ukraine is India
I urge all of the Indians who read this blog to urge their politicians to side with peace and freedom. Condemn Russian aggression and send aid to Ukraine.
The sentiment over here about the conflict is quite pro-Russia. The only folks really advocating for Ukraine are Netflix-watching, Guardian-reading sorts. A small demographic. People have reached the conclusion that the way we’ve seen global opinion rallying to oppose Putin, can easily be directed here one day. Furthermore, there is a sense that Ukraine is cynically/tragically being used by the US/UK to advance its containment strategy. Don’t expect any of this to change. Indian social media is already circulating videos of Ukrainian border guards roughing up Indian female students as well as point by point reminders of every time Ukraine was part of coercive diplomacy initiatives by the west.
Extreme punitive sanctions on Russia like ejecting them from SWIFT is only going to hasten the demise of the western led global financial system, and in the long term, this is only a good thing for everyone outside the west.
The more i read on SWIFT , the more i feel its actually a punitive action which Russia/China fear.
And perhaps not easily substitutable, or else China would have copied it, or Russia would have isolated its economy from it. So i wouldn’t go far as to predict ‘ the demise of the western led global financial system,’
Ugra
2 years ago
SWIFT – many of its layers/components were built by desis, PIOs and NRIs over the past 2 decades. It is also being maintained by a vast Indian army of engineers.
Unlike what many plebs think, including on BP, SWIFT is not analogous to a electric circuit where things can be switched off at will.
Only the automatic transfers have been blocked for Russia and its intermediaries. Manual transfers with hop steps are possible and doable, almost impossible to block out.
This is what the West is afraid of – the ability of India to do the jugaad on SWIFT for Russians. Deep waters …..
The long term military outcome is gamed into Indian decisions. Ukraine will return to the Asian fold.
Though it does boost my self ego, not everything in the world is related to ‘This is what the West is afraid of – the ability of India to do the jugaad’
@Ugra bhai
India Motor-Sich/Antonov/Zorya-Mashproekt ko kyu nai khareeda tha? Bolte hain SCE-200 RD-810 pe based hai, jab itna ho gaya tha toh why not jet engines? Abhi woh do Russian frigate, jo atke hain bina engine, ka kya hoga?
Ukraine regime will be a puppet. Not much will change. In fact, India will be among the few countries that will pay hard currency or an exchange mechanism for Ukrainian products once the new regime is in place.
Why though ? If it’s a puppet regime, and considering we have the least critical of Russia ( even less than China ) , we might just get better Ukrainian deals thru Putin sahab.
They don’t want Indian-ness to lose its positive woke valence. Think about the consequences if a little asterisk showed up next to their identification as POCs 😜. One fairly certain thing is that they barely give a thought otherwise about the civil liberties of Udupi district’s Muslim community
Brown
2 years ago
what happens if putin follows hitler. pull the nuclear trigger on U S and shoot him self. will west bomb russia?
phyecho1
2 years ago
It is time India brings a law that criminalizes those who deny the medieval Islamic bigotry towards Hindus/Sikhs in this country. The anti defense that masquerades as secularism shields islamists . Enough of audrey trushkes and their colonized helpers. One does not argue with such bigots, one brings them to justice and corrects such discourse. Govt should do this or PIL should be filed on this.
Censorship will give them validation. It will make them heroes in the eyes of the Global Left, do you want that?
“one brings them to justice and corrects such discourse”
The best way to deal with it is by ignoring them, the Wokes/Marxists are demographically irrelevant and should be treated as such.
@enigma
//Censorship will give them validation. It will make them heroes in the eyes of the Global Left, do you want that?//
Validation comes from people of India. It would be no different than holocaust denial. Also allow freedom of speech and remove blasphemy laws.
//
“one brings them to justice and corrects such discourse”
The best way to deal with it is by ignoring them, the Wokes/Marxists are demographically irrelevant and should be treated as such.//
This has proven to be the wrong strategy, we have lost many smart minds, many coopted, and resistence to even simple reforms has been activated. At every turn, doing the most common sense things is stalled. We are poor precisely because this ideology wasted away 7 decades of generations of brains and even now, people look to “academia” rather than empirical evidence as a way forward. The real costs to India lagging behind for 70 yrs following moronic economic, political policies has hurt us enough already. And these attacks will only keep increasing/ this attempt to coopt and stall India’s rise will only increase. This is a short window they have. as has been said by many before on the net, India even with 3% growth over 50 yrs will be over 13 trillion $ economy. in another 70 yrs, India will become a superpower. This is guaranteed. 100% , provided climate change does not hurt us badly. What is not guaranteed is the demographic majority of the country and their values. One can bring a judicial review of education and see whether it is fair or not. The fact is that bjp seeks its own electoral success above everything in this country. muslim baiting is very important for bjp electorally. Keeping Hindus insecure and timid is very important for them. They dont intend to fix the issues of insecurity, they only aim to funnel this into votes. This is a quasi fascist view of politics. It seeks to stir the pot only to win elections and never to fix any issue. One could easily have dealt with all these issues, if that really was the intention. It seems bjp seeks to thrive off these tensions. Not good for society as a whole. generations of smart people will be lost to bullshit culture wars, who can instead be productive, for their own good and good of society.
The primary evidence for me as to why intervention is necessary now is to look back the previous 70 yrs of loss Intellectually, economically that we lost to false ideas. Had we fixed our ideas first, we might very well have been a developed super power by now. we need to plug the hole that has been sinking us. People dont seem to understand what is happening. This is the age of subversion/ cooption of elites and wokes from previous disadvantaged communities with the explicit purpose to expand the american financial empire. Wars are unaffordable in today’s world. Hence subversion, cooption is very attractive
The whole culture for past 40 yrs has bowed down to wokes. So, data is against you.
The Ukraine conflict shows up the “mimic – men” of India, the liberals. Consider a few talking points our compradors spout.
1. Politics and sports should be kept separate. Not a single squeak about how sporting events are being politicized heavily right now.
2. People must not be affected by inter-state disputes. Again no reservations about what’s going now. Apple pay and Google pay blocked – thousands of commuters stranded in Moscow.
In every aspect, VS Naipaul long foresaw the mental and intellectual bankruptcy of the westernised Indian elite. Absolutely visionary from 50 years ago.
The sentiment over here about the conflict is quite pro-Russia.
Looks pretty balanced.
Most are in the neutral camp.
And even among the “pro-Russia” people, most are anti-west than pro-Russia.
RW has also sarcastically mocked the left for not supporting Russia, given how they praise Mughal invasions.
Some clown brought out some “Ukraine went against India XYZ times in the past” and it’s doing the round on social media, but even then the overall opinion seems to be neutral.
Eastern Europe is getting a lot of shit for all the racism, but doesn’t seem to have made a major dent.
Marco
2 years ago
A theory about the political structure of the IVC:
Jatis are powerful, organic units of social organization. Jatis may pre-date the IVC. So what if Jatis were an alternative to states in the IVC? Instead of political power being distributed according to geography, what if it was distributed according to jati? What if each jati was a sovereign entity, responsible for ruling and policing its own members, and maintaining relations with other jatis?
As jatis are specialized towards a particular profession, they are by necessity reliant upon each other – preventing warfare between jatis in a given locale. But because there is more affinity within jati cross-country than there is between jatis in a given locale, inter-city warfare is also unlikely. Each jati is able to maintain control over itself, but will not tolerate subjugation by another – therefore, cities do not have and cannot tolerate kings.
This would explain most of the odd features of the IVC, no? Why wouldn’t the most unique feature of later Indian civilization explain the uniqueness of the first Indian civilization? The transition from jati-archy (gentocracy? jatiraj?) to non-political jati and geographical states in the Aryan period isn’t hard to explain. Conventional states are hard to get rid of once you have them. Resource scarcity and/or Aryan invaders brought zero-sum warfare of conquest and subjugation to the subcontinent, and from that point on negotiated peace between sovereign jatis was no longer a competitive form of social organization.
I am myself taken in by that line of thinking for a plethora of reasons.
But only some ancient DNA would be able to shed some light on it – if indeed there was substructure in IVC pops which persisted the integration phase
Sumit
2 years ago
wired has another piece on caste in silicon valley
Its alright. The attack on Hindu-dom will push the middle-of-the-road US hindu to pick a side. It will also mark the heretics and the less-Hindu. Once that process is complete, we would be better placed for this fight.
principia
2 years ago
This war has only one real winner: China. The Yuan will strengthen in importance as Russia’s euro and dollar assets get frozen. Russia’s dependence on Beijing will deepen and China can expect cheap and preferential terms on their fossil fuel imports.
As for Taiwan, the lesson seems to be that you need overwhelming force in the first 48 hours if you’re going to invade and not try to avoid civilian casualties like Russia did during the first 3-4 days.
But I still think an invasion of Taiwan is unlikely in the coming years. The smart policy for China would be to continue building national strength and then just do an outright blockade where they’d force the island into submission. No military intervention could be possible after China’s navy + ballistic missiles are so numerous that it would be suicide. Would the US risk nuclear war over the island? No.
The risk for China is sanctions. That is the heavy price that Russia will now play. China is a lot stronger than Russia but isn’t strong enough to shrug them off completely. Xi is not a gambler like Putin, so any real movement towards forced re-unification will not happen in the foreseeable future.
As for India, this crisis has shown the merits of the much-derided “non-alignment policy” that so many pro-Western shills have castigated. It was a wise policy for India that served it for decades and it continues to be the right response now.
You are mindlessly regurgitating whatever propaganda your Eurozone media houses are feeding you.
Would have greatly helped if you posted any stats. Guess that would be too much reading for you.
Iran, which faces almost the same set of sanctions since 2015 has grown at an average annualized rate of 1.5% over the last 5 years. Even during the Corona years.
Coming to Russia –
1. Oil and gas exporter
2. Top trading partner is China
3. Almost every African and Asian country will bust sanctions.
4. Holds the Security Council permanent vote. No UN approvals for sanctions.
Europeans have bottled up impotent rage when they want to tackle the Bear. I can understand your loss of composure.
Russia produces approximately 12% of the world’s oil.
Iran is already sanctioned and it produces barely 4%.
A 2% shortfall produces a 20USD hike per barrel. If Russian oil vanishes from the market, we are looking at 200 USD/bbl. This is why Biden opened the American oil strategic reserves yesterday.
In a scenario with competing constraints, the one with the lowest impact will disappear first. Between SWIFT and Oil, the latter has the highest impact. The world will find a way to trade oil without SWIFT but not the other way around.
For starters, you could start reading some commodity news apart from tabloids.
phyecho1
2 years ago
There is too much culture wars, its terrible in terms of distractions. It would be good if people formed a Hindu scholars society and take funds directly that we can contribute to once every month. And they help create scholarship. Clearly, bjp has no value for such things. It should be led by people, maybe, BP can be a place for the word to spread as many here have an issue of Hindu inability to respond meaningfully. It would be good to outsource many of our objections without duplications and wasting of resources twice over and wasting time to bs culture wars for everyone. Let some fight and let others support instead.
principia
2 years ago
303 seats with a Rayta regime:
CAA passed after many protests: Amit Shah proudly said recently that they’ve not implemented CAA till now even after 3 years.
Farm Laws: Taken back after unable to take action on Terrorists who blocked highways for over a year.
NRC & UCC: BJP proudly said they’ve no plans to bring NRC or UCC.
CENSUS 2020: Other countries have already completed their census of 2020. India still hasn’t started and don’t know if it will even happen even after 2+ years.
UCC is lowest hanging fruit and biggest failure. Even leftist clowns on /Rindia are ok with it on a whole. I have no idea what is stalling it. Farm laws was a disaster. That fight was just kicked down the road another couple of decades. The rentier class extortionists won that round with the help of a lot of foreign support.
I doubt UCC will be ever be implemented. The next BJP term in 2024 will most probably throw lesser numbers for BJP, so thankfully no UCC.
Farm laws was a disaster because (just like CAA) u want to help ‘people’ who do not to help themselves , and u think that u are somehow the well-wisher of all man-kind. Again, thankfully it was defeated. Now no one in their right mind will ever touch ‘agriculture reforms’ in next 50 years. And just like China, farmers will move from agriculture to other industries through their own violation, rather than being sanctimonious about it.
Brown
2 years ago
does coke studio bangla give a false picture of bangladesh as a place where hindus and muslims are ok with each other in the cultural space? or is it just a metropolitan fringe and the masses are separated?
It seems the relative peace in India on religious front was largely due to poverty, once poverty ends, religious ideology takes over. Islamist organisations shall grow at expense of “secular ones” and get limited power/ influence in society
The more pfi and its associated political fronts grow, the more we are in for serious trouble. Money allows for radicalisation to grow for it allows luxury to pursue ideology.
Halal Haleem Owaisi. Once again, radical leftism and radical islam are the biggest threats to Indian future peace and prosperity. They must be adequately addressed.
For background context, Ukraine is approx. 1.5 times bigger than Iraq and having much more challenging terrain for armored columns (rivers, mountains, frost).
Russians have adopted a “polygon̈” approach tactically – smaller areas are controlled first in disparate areas of the map, which then “grow” to link up with adjacent polygons providing unrestricted access or corridors.
Strategically they are going in for the “capturing the capital” – once the capital falls, the rest of the population gives up. This has been a standard feature of many campaigns historically – Nader Shah into Delhi, for example.
To note, this is just the 8th day since the start of the campaign. For comparison, the US took almost 25 days to march into Baghdad since the start.
Most of the Anglophone media and also European (like in the Netherlands) are propagating some harebrained view that Putin is unstable and impulsive. The military plan looks anything but kneejerk. Perhaps this was planned for many years, maybe since the Euromaidan protests in 2013.
Almost everything must have been choreographed and gamed into state calculations. States don’t go to war without calculations of fallout. Sanctions and diplomatic maneouvering are all inside the matrix, not outside.
The West’s weaponisation of everything (football, Apple Pay, SWIFT, Vodka) is so silly that it will be marked down as the most visible sign of effete powers in later years.
China has been preparing for such an eventuality for many years now – building their own internet, payment systems, reserve currencies – for exactly such a scenario.
The end of European Socialism/Welfarism/Environtalism may be beginning. Only peace is conducive to such surplus redistribution. Wartime states cannot afford to spend their surplus on welfare. The Nordic model will begin to fray.
Leon Trotsky captured it succinctly, “You may not be interested in War, but War is interested in You”.
Ugra –
“China has been preparing for such an eventuality for many years now – building their own internet, payment systems, reserve currencies – for exactly such a scenario”
That’s interesting. But I think the biggest benefit to having their own internet, something Russia will now be forced into though Putin will probably be glad for it, is the possibility of having their own memetic space – their own corner of the internet free of cultural infestation from the Anglo-Euro world. There is a lot of good that will be missed since this is now the world’s default culture but they also get to avoid it’s attendant rubbish such as wokeism from creating divisions within their cultures.
Is closing of ranks of the Western world behind Ukraine proof that white people asabiyya still exists? Or is it something else?
If we get invaded by China, would any of these countries even sanction China, let alone threaten WW3 over it?
Personally, I support the Ukrainians and think Russia is clearly the guilty party, but the volcanic anger at Russia and Russians is the true black swan in my view. I sort of expected the invasion to happen but not this kind of reaction.
S Qureishi
2 years ago
Slavs were considered subhumans by the AngloSaxons, but now that blue eyed blonde haired people are going extinct fast, they are accepted as White. So there is a racial element to it for sure, but I doubt they will risk war for Slavic nations. Infact I very much doubt that NATO will come to Poland’s aid if they believe they will risk getting nuked over it , article 5 be damned.
Also, Indians are at the bottom of the list for most white westerners racially speaking. Whites hate China as a country, but they heavily dislike Indians as a race – like blacks. In a conflict with China, India will be alone. And this is why I personally think India’s policy to bat for the West against China is a foolish policy. It’s justified as ”China is expansionist”, while completely ignoring Western expansionism, not just militarily but also culturally.
On the racism part you play down Chinese racism against Indians. Its on par with white racism or more than that. And vice-versa. Its just that there has been less interaction and therefore less chance for racism b/w Indian and Chinese.
Indian doesn’t bat for the west. Given a chance, any other country would have become a full fledged ally of the west (like Pakistan) already, considering the amount of goodies/good relations exist in b/w America and India. But here we still are debating.
India knows it cant take China alone, and had Chinese allowed India its own sphere of influence (S-Asia) , India would have not given any damn about Taiwan etc. On the US front , however imperfect India is, its the only option on the ground who can stand the Chinese. Hence the alliance.
The Chinese are also racist against anyone but their own. Racism is common human theme, but at least with China you will not get lectures on how to run your country or organize your society. With the West, they like preaching their religion. That religion went from Christianity to Democracy and all its goodies.
I also think that there is a bigger threat of cultural invasion than military invasion. The Chinese culture is still quite alien to South Asia due to lack of any meaningful contact for centuries and China’s cultural development in isolation. They are not exporting it either, and any relationship with China will be strictly trade or military, as it should be. Despite Pakistan governments full tilt towards China, there is complete lack of any Chinese cultural export on the ground. You don’t get the same deal with the US or Europe, where they feel like they will want to interfere.
You say as if the west imposed its values on Pakistan and somehow Pakistan suffered. Even though Pakistanis have portrayed this picture, its not really true. US worked with whatever administration Pakistan threw at them, including dictators (some would argue they worked better) . Pakistan fought no wars which they had no interest in (Korea, Vietnam) , even when they were bonafide ally of US under various treaties and duty bound to fight. And fought wars which they had interest in (Kashmir, Afghanistan) using US’s military equipment. So on both front , democracy and resources, Pakistan did whatever it wanted. If your concern is few meaningless lectures which nobody really adheres to (pretty sure Pakistan never did) , then have to grow a thicker skin.
On the other cultural aspect, Western culture permeated through India, even when it was an ally of Soviets. So contrary to US/West exporting their culture, its just the strength of their culture, that even their enemies mimic them.
US and West in general, likes working with Pakistani dictatorships and the military because of historical inertia. The Pakistani military, (like the Indian military) was formed by the British, and since it has an oversized role in the country, they will do the West’s bidding as long as the West gives them the toys to play with. However on the other hand, the West will use the same excuses about democracy and human rights to put sanctions or use that as a leverage to further their own geopolitical interests. The relationship has no meaningful impact on the common person on the street and has failed to improve their lives which is why most commoners in Pakistan are anti-west.
China on the other hand had been a Pakistani ally since the early days, does not flip flop, puts no sanctions, does not meddle in internal politics or fund dictatorships, and does not use economic or military trade as leverage. They also don’t export their culture and are not interested in creating a sinophile upper class in Pakistan that is subservient to them.
The only risk with China is that they wanted to export their excess productive capacity in the form of CPEC (and OBOR in general), and Pakistan could still be on the hook to pay them back if the said investments do not provide adequate return. If you didn’t trust China, you would say this is a ploy for resource extraction. But look at it this way: the west has used this tool for decades, just they sold weapons and jets (depreciating assets) instead of roads, rail and power plants (could be hit or miss).
Western cultural propaganda will permeate everywhere people speak or understand English. This is their tool, and they use it well and India being one of the largest English speaking countries will adopt Western culture, not because its strong but because the elite in India (and to an extent Pakistan) has set English as the gold standard.
Language is a part of it but I think modern mainland Chinese culture just lacks the appeal of western culture.
Based on my experiences in Taiwan, mainland Chinese mainland culture is simply not held in high esteem despite them being fully Mandarin speaking and having access to all of mainland China media.
Even pro-China people harken back to historical culture, “blood is stronger than water” type arguments, and / or economics rather than current culture or government as it is viewed as uncouth.
Japanese on the other hand are resented for colonial rule but people hold their culture in high regard. Same with the West.
Meanwhile Taiwanese pop culture (music for eg.) is disproportionately popular in mainland China.
I think possibly authoritarian places just suck at cultural output. Or possibly it has to do with economics and mainland China is still too poor. I am not sure.
@sumit
If i had to guess, its about wealth. Mainland hasn’t been rich for long enough to have an attractive culture. I doubt there’s anything inherently repelling about chinese civilization per se. The rise of Kpop is a good example, in that South Korean is the only notable non-european country of significant size to become developed and wealthy since ww2. Like clockwork, the world loves their culture. No one in the US knew what Dubai even was until the late 90s at best, and now ppl drop the name like its Miami. Singapore gets crazy rich asians.
“ Pakistan is Civilisational State. Have a history of over 9000 years from Mehrgarh 7000 BC, Rehman Dheri 4000 BC, Harappa 3300 BC, Mohenjo Daro 2500 BC, more than 50,000 rock carvings and 5000 ancient inscriptions in Gilgit Baltistan. 14 Aug 1947 was rebirth of the same nation.“
“XYZ group is not a monolith. These sub groups are different and have their own unique identities.”
argument is really easy to make from intuitive perspective. Few things are identical or nearly such in this world. So it’s quite easy to keep dividing things for political gain. Regardless, people will invent mythologies to justify perceived differences no matter what. And it’s pretty darn easy to do
If this doesn’t workout, they can do a semi LARP as “we wuz Chechens” and harp on steppe connection. The Arab and Turkish one is more loose. But at least a Caucaus one can perhaps be kind of grounded in a little bit of reality?
I notice in diaspora that Khabib is a huge hero to Pak kids. It makes sense. He comes from a hyper conservative background and took on a loud mouthed White guy who used religiously insensitive remarks to promote a fight.
principia
2 years ago
Is closing of ranks of the Western world behind Ukraine proof that white people asabiyya still exists? Or is it something else?
Russia being the bad guy #1 has a lot of sway in this situation. Since Russia is the enemy , there are extreme incentives to ratchet up support to the maximum level.
Is there a racial element? Hard to say. I remember there being a lot of pro-refugee mania in 2015 before things cooled down. Back then it was mostly Syrians and other brown moslems.
Whites are probably the least ethnocentric people on the planet. But there is no need for whites to be ethnocentric because despite overheated “white genocide” rhetoric from their far-right, the vast majority of whites lead very good lives compared to most non-whites on this planet. And even immigrants have to bend the knee and adjust to their language, norms, culture etc.
This is often especially painful for 2nd gen immigrants who don’t quite feel like they are accepted but whose “ancestral identity” is often quite weak.
So long as this benign situation continues – and I don’t see why it wouldn’t – then I don’t expect any uptick in white ethnocentrism.
Russia being the bad guy #1 has a lot of sway in this situation. Since Russia is the enemy , there are extreme incentives to ratchet up support to the maximum level.
Yeah, this is true. I have been wondering for several years about the aversion bordering on hatred for Russia for several years in the US now (not sure if that was true of other Western countries). The bogus theory that Russia was responsible for Trump become President aside, I think it’s a case of feeling jilted. The American elite especially (and probably other Western elites too) felt after the end of the Cold War that Russians, being visibly European, would gradually become a “normal European country” with a “normal European elite”. In other words, have a capitalistic elite that talks the same way and has the same values as the Anglo-American elite does, albeit in a different tongue. When the Russians retrenched to authoritarian nationalism and cultural conservatism (to some extent), I think that produced a blowback.
The EU for its part I believe thinks of itself as the country club of the world, and countries on its periphery are closer to getting a membership card than those far away. So yeah, it probably isn’t about race any more but a sort of global class system we are witnessing in action here.
phyecho1
2 years ago
India needs 30 yrs of 6% growth with demography being 70+% Hindu, north India, All of India less susceptible to evangelists. This should be the mission, anti islam culture wars is BS. Get their votes, one needs to value own autonomy above everything else. First win the game, make some peace deal with them, bury the hatchet. The world is about to get crazy, most Important thing for India is to avoid stagnation economically, technologically and avoid subversion.
Muslim inertia will hurt them in about 80-150 yrs. Let them get what comes to them. Our action and vulnerability is now. We need to plug holes now and develop as quickly as possible.
If it comes to sanctions, India should vote against russia if it has to. One has to develop first above all things, economy/ tech now come from west. especially on ai/chips issues. for next 30 yrs atleast, we should be with west. bridge all faultlines with muslims. Priority should be growth/ deny demographic success to missionaries/ deny liberals success in culture. Our fate will be decided in 30=50 yrs , now.
“The others achieved IQ scores of 130-145, which puts them in the category of ‘very gifted’ children. The average score in Mensa India’s IQ test is between 85 and 115. Interestingly, all of these children are sons and daughters of labourers, rickshaw pullers, security guards, street vendors, etc.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/mensa-india-aptitude-test-reveals-bright-minds-amid-poverty/story-de9CjsfFPqBk1iAUfji4GM_amp.html
“In the past couple of months, Mensa India, Delhi, administered its internationally recognized IQ test to over 4,000 underprivileged children in Delhi and NCR as part of a unique project aimed at identifying and mentoring poor children with high IQ. Of the 102 extremely bright children it selected, over a dozen, including Amisha, achieved an IQ score of 145-plus, which puts her in the genius category.”
12/4000 is .3%
102/4000 is about top 2.5%
Basically at 2 SDs above the mean ir works out the average is a 100. 3SD extrapolation brings it up more, if it’s a perfectly normal distribution
Let’s take the prior case, and say average is 100. So children of largely lower strata people average an IQ of 100 in malnourished India. Truly incredible but not consistent with prior data, though this seems to be the most recent.
Truly incredible but not consistent with prior data
What exactly is the prior data? I don’t trust the Richard Lynn stuff. I also think the “national IQ” numbers you see bandied about on the web (like 82 for India) are bogus and unscientific. (Many of the IQs are estimated by averaging the IQs of neighboring countries in the absence of other data.)
The results of the PISA tests they did about a decade ago also should not be taken as reflecting the aptitude of children but rather the competence of their educational institutions. I don’t know if things have improved under Modi’s watch but government schools generally were abysmal in India, with absentee teachers and non-existent facilities.
True. I have seen many estimates of Indian IQ in the high 90s. There was one study of UK Indian average of 97. Interesting to see 100+. Even better it is low strata people. The outcomes are what they are. But this one is nice because it also is in line with an egalitarian world view and challenges assertions about Indian intellectual potential, especially among lower caste people. To me, that is a good thing.
is intelligence inherited from father or mother?. if it is from mother, then great intelligence of vyasa, vidura etc needs to be questioned, as they were endowed with intelligence from their fathers.
Were the 4,000+ children randomly sampled?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss3bE7bjgXo
There is nothing published but sounds like it from the way Mensa is testing. They are straight up going into government schools and mass testing, from the looks of this documentary on it. Start it around 2:00
Have they done similar surveys in other countries? If so what were the results in other countries?
A reason why we need to bring IQ tests into country, identify kids at a early age. we need excuses to find a way to give many kids opportunity. ofcourse iq does not guarantee success. But thats ok, we have to try to give many kids opportunities.
Who’s the lady?
Ukrainians are doing better than expected.
After all they are Russians by a different name.
It is the origin of the OG martial race Steppe 😉
They are also the original Russians as well.
Don’t trust Western fake news media.
I really don’t care either ways. The only country India can meaningfully use in these sort of things is Afghanistan.
###
This invasion will make invasion of Taiwan so much more difficult.
###
Wars now (and in the future) result in so few casualties that the Chinese way of not giving a fuck about the world might actually work. India is already good at this nonsense so not really a lesson for us.
###
Mental space: I like how Modi is chilling out and doing his job without giving a fuck about Ukraine. Today he asked for more private medical schools to be set up. Hopefully will try to bring down the massive bribes required to do so. Medical education is a low hanging fruit. Saw how bad ‘nursing homes’ type places are first hand last year.
Poorly trained (primary) doctor >>> fake doctor
###
UAE might swallow Socotra. Abstained today for no good reason.
https://twitter.com/JulieSax/status/1497345498507788292
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Mental space is important, too much goes on in the world but too much remains to be done in India. In this regard, I like how Indian ministers are professional and do their jobs without wasting time on international affairs.
‘I like how Indian ministers are professional and do their jobs without wasting time ‘
If anything i feel both Indian babus and ministers are the biggest time waster in the whole wide world. Indian ministers throughput is the lowest in the world.
Obviously they waste time. But don’t you thin think that no one really cared when Afghanistan went under or Yemen or Ukraine. No matter who does what India’s political commentary remains focused on China and Pakistan.
I remember the days of ‘Jaarge Buss haay-haay!’ , grandstanding in UN like voting for Palestine, opposing nuclear deal, that type thing is on the decline. It could be largely because the left is out of power.
well u a e flipped back yesterday and voted with u s a. is china behind the abstained african and bangladeshi votes in u n g a?
Are they? If baseline assumption was that Putin was going to shock and awe and flatten Kyiv, then this looks weak. But reality seems to be that Russia wants to minimize collateral damage so the next regime can govern. This is considerably tougher, I’d imagine
Just noticed that recent post “Much Ado about Eileen Gu” by “Raj Dharbanga” disappeared.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaSpeaks/comments/t1py7j/ukrainian_ambassador_at_unsc_to_india_it_is/
All is fair in love and war
The chimerica nexus seems to be coming out on top with this whole Ukraine episode. Expect G2 world. Serious strategic headwinds for India. Only reprieve is that pakis snatched defeat from jaws of victory. Just imagine the scenario if they were a little more tactful in AFG. Pak will still be used as a spear head to keep India inline or Balkanize it if needed.
Ukrainian soldiers are now preventing Indian students from crossing the border into Poland, as retaliation for India’s abstention in the UN security council vote. If I were in charge, I’d offer to join the Russian effort with airstrikes against Ukraine as retaliation. But India is run by far more pacifist leadership than me.
Are you trolling or are you trolling?
I see perhaps US expected russia to do this and planned and prepared ukraine in laying a trap in frustrating russia. The more russia is frustrated, the more unhinged putin can become, unless he can hammer out a peacedeal and quit. which would be good for all. I dont know but perhaps russians dont intend to be ruthless?, but the more they are frustrated, the longer they dont get a deal,The worse things can get. Given the negative cost russia is most certainly going to suffer from this, they need some kind of a win for sure. some facesaving measure. In times such as this, face saving mechanisms are very very important. Russia is desperate for somekind of a win out of all this.
I still consider this as advantage russia. Given their army and capabilities as better overall. But I doubt whether they have clear goals on what to achieve and wonder whether their soldiers are prepared to being ruthless.
But I now see this as russia committed itself to this completely. It is always better to find a face saver for all sides. Also, I find ukraine really dumb for accepting these risks.
Asia, say no to Nato – The Straits Times
Dear Friends,
Many Western minds believe that Western societies are inherently peaceful while East Asian societies (including China) are more belligerent. There’s some realistic basis for this assumption: prospects of war between any two Western societies are practically zero. They are not practically zero between East Asian societies.
Yet curiously, despite this pacifist streak, it’s shocking that just in the past 20 years, Western powers have dropped 326,000 bombs in the greater Middle East/North Africa region. This total amounts to an average of 46 bombs dropped per day over the past 20 years. By contrast, the total number of bombs dropped in inter-state conflicts in East Asia in the past 20 years is: ZERO!
This huge disparity calls for some serious investigation. The East Asian societies may have worked out a pragmatic peace-preserving culture. If so, this culture should not be disrupted. This is why I decided to publish the attached piece in the Straits Times with a simple message to my fellow Asians: say no to NATO.
It reflects a key point I also make in “Has the West Lost it?”: the West should just stop dropping bombs!
With warm regards,
Kishore Mahbubani
The Pacific has no need of the destructive militaristic culture of the Atlantic alliance
https://mahbubani.net/asia-say-no-to-nato-the-straits-times/
It’s pretty interesting to see the amount of propaganda on social media these days.
I think that if India is ever going to get into war, we’re pretty much screwed. Indian cretinism makes us uniquely susceptible to psyops.
Can very well imagine China being painted as the egalitarian good guy whose interests Nazi Brahminical India was unfairly impinging on. This will be cheered on by desi diaspora.
Why paint only the diaspora as such? I mean in the 62 war, Indians of certain less-Hindu ethnicities, cheered for China over India.
The enemies are radical islam and communism. That is what being “less Hindu” is all about. Those are the real ideologies that are messing things up. It isn’t the “lack of Hinduism” per say.
I don’t judge politic parties. I judge the “people” who vote for these parties.
Source?
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghan-taliban-pakistan-border-clash/31721662.html
Hmm
The people of Ukraine have inspired all of us with their courage and determination. One country that has not forcefully condemned the Russian war of aggression or offered aid to Ukraine is India
I urge all of the Indians who read this blog to urge their politicians to side with peace and freedom. Condemn Russian aggression and send aid to Ukraine.
The sentiment over here about the conflict is quite pro-Russia. The only folks really advocating for Ukraine are Netflix-watching, Guardian-reading sorts. A small demographic. People have reached the conclusion that the way we’ve seen global opinion rallying to oppose Putin, can easily be directed here one day. Furthermore, there is a sense that Ukraine is cynically/tragically being used by the US/UK to advance its containment strategy. Don’t expect any of this to change. Indian social media is already circulating videos of Ukrainian border guards roughing up Indian female students as well as point by point reminders of every time Ukraine was part of coercive diplomacy initiatives by the west.
https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/t2lewr/comment/hyn6qya/7
Lmfao. Even /rindia is getting it
Extreme punitive sanctions on Russia like ejecting them from SWIFT is only going to hasten the demise of the western led global financial system, and in the long term, this is only a good thing for everyone outside the west.
The more i read on SWIFT , the more i feel its actually a punitive action which Russia/China fear.
And perhaps not easily substitutable, or else China would have copied it, or Russia would have isolated its economy from it. So i wouldn’t go far as to predict ‘ the demise of the western led global financial system,’
SWIFT – many of its layers/components were built by desis, PIOs and NRIs over the past 2 decades. It is also being maintained by a vast Indian army of engineers.
Unlike what many plebs think, including on BP, SWIFT is not analogous to a electric circuit where things can be switched off at will.
Only the automatic transfers have been blocked for Russia and its intermediaries. Manual transfers with hop steps are possible and doable, almost impossible to block out.
This is what the West is afraid of – the ability of India to do the jugaad on SWIFT for Russians. Deep waters …..
The long term military outcome is gamed into Indian decisions. Ukraine will return to the Asian fold.
Though it does boost my self ego, not everything in the world is related to ‘This is what the West is afraid of – the ability of India to do the jugaad’
@Ugra bhai
India Motor-Sich/Antonov/Zorya-Mashproekt ko kyu nai khareeda tha? Bolte hain SCE-200 RD-810 pe based hai, jab itna ho gaya tha toh why not jet engines? Abhi woh do Russian frigate, jo atke hain bina engine, ka kya hoga?
Ukraine regime will be a puppet. Not much will change. In fact, India will be among the few countries that will pay hard currency or an exchange mechanism for Ukrainian products once the new regime is in place.
Why though ? If it’s a puppet regime, and considering we have the least critical of Russia ( even less than China ) , we might just get better Ukrainian deals thru Putin sahab.
go away nationalist weirdos
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.opindia.com/2022/02/indian-students-in-harvard-run-signature-campaign-in-support-of-hijab-girls/amp/
Many of my fellow diasporans are Woke Clowns
They don’t want Indian-ness to lose its positive woke valence. Think about the consequences if a little asterisk showed up next to their identification as POCs 😜. One fairly certain thing is that they barely give a thought otherwise about the civil liberties of Udupi district’s Muslim community
what happens if putin follows hitler. pull the nuclear trigger on U S and shoot him self. will west bomb russia?
It is time India brings a law that criminalizes those who deny the medieval Islamic bigotry towards Hindus/Sikhs in this country. The anti defense that masquerades as secularism shields islamists . Enough of audrey trushkes and their colonized helpers. One does not argue with such bigots, one brings them to justice and corrects such discourse. Govt should do this or PIL should be filed on this.
Censorship will give them validation. It will make them heroes in the eyes of the Global Left, do you want that?
“one brings them to justice and corrects such discourse”
The best way to deal with it is by ignoring them, the Wokes/Marxists are demographically irrelevant and should be treated as such.
@enigma
//Censorship will give them validation. It will make them heroes in the eyes of the Global Left, do you want that?//
Validation comes from people of India. It would be no different than holocaust denial. Also allow freedom of speech and remove blasphemy laws.
//
“one brings them to justice and corrects such discourse”
The best way to deal with it is by ignoring them, the Wokes/Marxists are demographically irrelevant and should be treated as such.//
This has proven to be the wrong strategy, we have lost many smart minds, many coopted, and resistence to even simple reforms has been activated. At every turn, doing the most common sense things is stalled. We are poor precisely because this ideology wasted away 7 decades of generations of brains and even now, people look to “academia” rather than empirical evidence as a way forward. The real costs to India lagging behind for 70 yrs following moronic economic, political policies has hurt us enough already. And these attacks will only keep increasing/ this attempt to coopt and stall India’s rise will only increase. This is a short window they have. as has been said by many before on the net, India even with 3% growth over 50 yrs will be over 13 trillion $ economy. in another 70 yrs, India will become a superpower. This is guaranteed. 100% , provided climate change does not hurt us badly. What is not guaranteed is the demographic majority of the country and their values. One can bring a judicial review of education and see whether it is fair or not. The fact is that bjp seeks its own electoral success above everything in this country. muslim baiting is very important for bjp electorally. Keeping Hindus insecure and timid is very important for them. They dont intend to fix the issues of insecurity, they only aim to funnel this into votes. This is a quasi fascist view of politics. It seeks to stir the pot only to win elections and never to fix any issue. One could easily have dealt with all these issues, if that really was the intention. It seems bjp seeks to thrive off these tensions. Not good for society as a whole. generations of smart people will be lost to bullshit culture wars, who can instead be productive, for their own good and good of society.
The primary evidence for me as to why intervention is necessary now is to look back the previous 70 yrs of loss Intellectually, economically that we lost to false ideas. Had we fixed our ideas first, we might very well have been a developed super power by now. we need to plug the hole that has been sinking us. People dont seem to understand what is happening. This is the age of subversion/ cooption of elites and wokes from previous disadvantaged communities with the explicit purpose to expand the american financial empire. Wars are unaffordable in today’s world. Hence subversion, cooption is very attractive
The whole culture for past 40 yrs has bowed down to wokes. So, data is against you.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/violence-electoral-malpractices-mar-civic-polls-in-west-bengal/article65090134.ece
Fuck TMC
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3168369/pole-dancing-hot-pandemic-workout-conservative-india-men
Lmfao
‘Europeans with blue eyes, blonde hair being killed’: Media coverage of Ukraine criticised for racism
https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/02/28/europeans-with-blue-eyes-blonde-hair-being-killed-media-coverage-of-ukraine-criticised-for-racism
https://theprint.in/opinion/youre-wrong-to-think-khalistani-movement-over-for-india-see-pakistan-backed-groups-in-us/824494/
Biradri ethnosupremacy is extremely dangerous
The Ukraine conflict shows up the “mimic – men” of India, the liberals. Consider a few talking points our compradors spout.
1. Politics and sports should be kept separate. Not a single squeak about how sporting events are being politicized heavily right now.
2. People must not be affected by inter-state disputes. Again no reservations about what’s going now. Apple pay and Google pay blocked – thousands of commuters stranded in Moscow.
In every aspect, VS Naipaul long foresaw the mental and intellectual bankruptcy of the westernised Indian elite. Absolutely visionary from 50 years ago.
“The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/americans-canadians-answer-ukraine-call-002203208.html
Wow. Dedicated people
https://www.dawn.com/news/1677680/as-yemen-remains-fair-game#comments
Indian tankie’s pro-Russia take.
Quoting Kissinger. LoL!
The sentiment over here about the conflict is quite pro-Russia.
Looks pretty balanced.
Most are in the neutral camp.
And even among the “pro-Russia” people, most are anti-west than pro-Russia.
RW has also sarcastically mocked the left for not supporting Russia, given how they praise Mughal invasions.
Some clown brought out some “Ukraine went against India XYZ times in the past” and it’s doing the round on social media, but even then the overall opinion seems to be neutral.
Eastern Europe is getting a lot of shit for all the racism, but doesn’t seem to have made a major dent.
A theory about the political structure of the IVC:
Jatis are powerful, organic units of social organization. Jatis may pre-date the IVC. So what if Jatis were an alternative to states in the IVC? Instead of political power being distributed according to geography, what if it was distributed according to jati? What if each jati was a sovereign entity, responsible for ruling and policing its own members, and maintaining relations with other jatis?
As jatis are specialized towards a particular profession, they are by necessity reliant upon each other – preventing warfare between jatis in a given locale. But because there is more affinity within jati cross-country than there is between jatis in a given locale, inter-city warfare is also unlikely. Each jati is able to maintain control over itself, but will not tolerate subjugation by another – therefore, cities do not have and cannot tolerate kings.
This would explain most of the odd features of the IVC, no? Why wouldn’t the most unique feature of later Indian civilization explain the uniqueness of the first Indian civilization? The transition from jati-archy (gentocracy? jatiraj?) to non-political jati and geographical states in the Aryan period isn’t hard to explain. Conventional states are hard to get rid of once you have them. Resource scarcity and/or Aryan invaders brought zero-sum warfare of conquest and subjugation to the subcontinent, and from that point on negotiated peace between sovereign jatis was no longer a competitive form of social organization.
I am myself taken in by that line of thinking for a plethora of reasons.
But only some ancient DNA would be able to shed some light on it – if indeed there was substructure in IVC pops which persisted the integration phase
wired has another piece on caste in silicon valley
https://www.wired.com/story/trapped-in-silicon-valleys-hidden-caste-system/
hinduism = caste and cow worship
Its alright. The attack on Hindu-dom will push the middle-of-the-road US hindu to pick a side. It will also mark the heretics and the less-Hindu. Once that process is complete, we would be better placed for this fight.
This war has only one real winner: China. The Yuan will strengthen in importance as Russia’s euro and dollar assets get frozen. Russia’s dependence on Beijing will deepen and China can expect cheap and preferential terms on their fossil fuel imports.
As for Taiwan, the lesson seems to be that you need overwhelming force in the first 48 hours if you’re going to invade and not try to avoid civilian casualties like Russia did during the first 3-4 days.
But I still think an invasion of Taiwan is unlikely in the coming years. The smart policy for China would be to continue building national strength and then just do an outright blockade where they’d force the island into submission. No military intervention could be possible after China’s navy + ballistic missiles are so numerous that it would be suicide. Would the US risk nuclear war over the island? No.
The risk for China is sanctions. That is the heavy price that Russia will now play. China is a lot stronger than Russia but isn’t strong enough to shrug them off completely. Xi is not a gambler like Putin, so any real movement towards forced re-unification will not happen in the foreseeable future.
As for India, this crisis has shown the merits of the much-derided “non-alignment policy” that so many pro-Western shills have castigated. It was a wise policy for India that served it for decades and it continues to be the right response now.
Wrong conclusions, Principia.
Greatest impact will be on EU. Rearmament will once again turn Europe into an armed camp. US influence will wane.
Ukrainian elites will be made an example of. Poles are next in line.
On the contrary, the war will re-invigorate Russian economy. Basic Keynesian principles. It will trigger Russian resurgence in core areas.
Peace makes men weak. War revitalises them.
Thanks for the comic relief, ugra. And a good reminder never to take anything you say seriously, LOL.
@principia
You are mindlessly regurgitating whatever propaganda your Eurozone media houses are feeding you.
Would have greatly helped if you posted any stats. Guess that would be too much reading for you.
Iran, which faces almost the same set of sanctions since 2015 has grown at an average annualized rate of 1.5% over the last 5 years. Even during the Corona years.
Coming to Russia –
1. Oil and gas exporter
2. Top trading partner is China
3. Almost every African and Asian country will bust sanctions.
4. Holds the Security Council permanent vote. No UN approvals for sanctions.
Europeans have bottled up impotent rage when they want to tackle the Bear. I can understand your loss of composure.
@principia
Russia produces approximately 12% of the world’s oil.
Iran is already sanctioned and it produces barely 4%.
A 2% shortfall produces a 20USD hike per barrel. If Russian oil vanishes from the market, we are looking at 200 USD/bbl. This is why Biden opened the American oil strategic reserves yesterday.
In a scenario with competing constraints, the one with the lowest impact will disappear first. Between SWIFT and Oil, the latter has the highest impact. The world will find a way to trade oil without SWIFT but not the other way around.
For starters, you could start reading some commodity news apart from tabloids.
There is too much culture wars, its terrible in terms of distractions. It would be good if people formed a Hindu scholars society and take funds directly that we can contribute to once every month. And they help create scholarship. Clearly, bjp has no value for such things. It should be led by people, maybe, BP can be a place for the word to spread as many here have an issue of Hindu inability to respond meaningfully. It would be good to outsource many of our objections without duplications and wasting of resources twice over and wasting time to bs culture wars for everyone. Let some fight and let others support instead.
303 seats with a Rayta regime:
CAA passed after many protests: Amit Shah proudly said recently that they’ve not implemented CAA till now even after 3 years.
Farm Laws: Taken back after unable to take action on Terrorists who blocked highways for over a year.
NRC & UCC: BJP proudly said they’ve no plans to bring NRC or UCC.
CENSUS 2020: Other countries have already completed their census of 2020. India still hasn’t started and don’t know if it will even happen even after 2+ years.
UCC is lowest hanging fruit and biggest failure. Even leftist clowns on /Rindia are ok with it on a whole. I have no idea what is stalling it. Farm laws was a disaster. That fight was just kicked down the road another couple of decades. The rentier class extortionists won that round with the help of a lot of foreign support.
I doubt UCC will be ever be implemented. The next BJP term in 2024 will most probably throw lesser numbers for BJP, so thankfully no UCC.
Farm laws was a disaster because (just like CAA) u want to help ‘people’ who do not to help themselves , and u think that u are somehow the well-wisher of all man-kind. Again, thankfully it was defeated. Now no one in their right mind will ever touch ‘agriculture reforms’ in next 50 years. And just like China, farmers will move from agriculture to other industries through their own violation, rather than being sanctimonious about it.
does coke studio bangla give a false picture of bangladesh as a place where hindus and muslims are ok with each other in the cultural space? or is it just a metropolitan fringe and the masses are separated?
I am surprised that it took so long for a Coke studio Bangla.
https://twitter.com/tunkuv/status/1499021696019353601?s=20&t=NFcXxg4VOXjHzUtmC3C8Og
That’s enough internet for today
I hope the Chinese get the same elite (and bureaucrats) that Indians have. That alone can guarantee that India can catch up to China. 🙂
https://theprint.in/india/proud-muslims-or-radical-islamists-why-pfi-is-linked-to-everything-from-hijab-row-to-terror-plots/843531/
https://theprint.in/india/rich-muslims-angry-hindus-why-coastal-karnataka-and-kerala-are-hotbeds-of-violent-politics/852566/
It seems the relative peace in India on religious front was largely due to poverty, once poverty ends, religious ideology takes over. Islamist organisations shall grow at expense of “secular ones” and get limited power/ influence in society
The more pfi and its associated political fronts grow, the more we are in for serious trouble. Money allows for radicalisation to grow for it allows luxury to pursue ideology.
https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-van-taylor-accused-extramarital-affair-isis-bride-abuse-power-rim-job-text/
Just wow.
https://theprint.in/opinion/security-code/pfi-like-simi-knows-riding-the-communal-tiger-is-perilous-jihadists-are-reared-on-hate/842732/
Halal Haleem Owaisi. Once again, radical leftism and radical islam are the biggest threats to Indian future peace and prosperity. They must be adequately addressed.
Extent of Russian progress in Ukraine so far
https://twitter.com/Aryan_warlord/status/1499210377279643648/photo/1
For background context, Ukraine is approx. 1.5 times bigger than Iraq and having much more challenging terrain for armored columns (rivers, mountains, frost).
Russians have adopted a “polygon̈” approach tactically – smaller areas are controlled first in disparate areas of the map, which then “grow” to link up with adjacent polygons providing unrestricted access or corridors.
Strategically they are going in for the “capturing the capital” – once the capital falls, the rest of the population gives up. This has been a standard feature of many campaigns historically – Nader Shah into Delhi, for example.
To note, this is just the 8th day since the start of the campaign. For comparison, the US took almost 25 days to march into Baghdad since the start.
Most of the Anglophone media and also European (like in the Netherlands) are propagating some harebrained view that Putin is unstable and impulsive. The military plan looks anything but kneejerk. Perhaps this was planned for many years, maybe since the Euromaidan protests in 2013.
Almost everything must have been choreographed and gamed into state calculations. States don’t go to war without calculations of fallout. Sanctions and diplomatic maneouvering are all inside the matrix, not outside.
The West’s weaponisation of everything (football, Apple Pay, SWIFT, Vodka) is so silly that it will be marked down as the most visible sign of effete powers in later years.
China has been preparing for such an eventuality for many years now – building their own internet, payment systems, reserve currencies – for exactly such a scenario.
The end of European Socialism/Welfarism/Environtalism may be beginning. Only peace is conducive to such surplus redistribution. Wartime states cannot afford to spend their surplus on welfare. The Nordic model will begin to fray.
Leon Trotsky captured it succinctly, “You may not be interested in War, but War is interested in You”.
Ugra –
“China has been preparing for such an eventuality for many years now – building their own internet, payment systems, reserve currencies – for exactly such a scenario”
That’s interesting. But I think the biggest benefit to having their own internet, something Russia will now be forced into though Putin will probably be glad for it, is the possibility of having their own memetic space – their own corner of the internet free of cultural infestation from the Anglo-Euro world. There is a lot of good that will be missed since this is now the world’s default culture but they also get to avoid it’s attendant rubbish such as wokeism from creating divisions within their cultures.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/02/key-findings-on-indian-attitudes-toward-gender-roles/
Very interesting
u p elections:- every round is being given to s p by the hindi walla channels. is b j p performing so bad as to loose from 303 to 85 seats?
Are you talking about Hindi channels or Hindi YouTube channels?
you tube channels
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.opindia.com/2022/02/dalit-girl-raped-and-thrown-into-a-well-by-mussafar-ansari-and-two-others/amp/
More rape Jihad. Disturbing
US considering sanctions against India
Washington wants New Delhi to denounce Moscow or face US sanctions for buying Russian weapons
https://www.rt.com/news/551187-us-sanctions-india-russian-weapons/
r i p warnie… sad.
r i p marsh
Absolutely barbaric, my sincere condolences to the people of Peshawar and the Shia community in particular.
https://www.geo.tv/latest/402906-live-several-injured-as-bomb-explodes-in-peshawar-mosque
Is closing of ranks of the Western world behind Ukraine proof that white people asabiyya still exists? Or is it something else?
If we get invaded by China, would any of these countries even sanction China, let alone threaten WW3 over it?
Personally, I support the Ukrainians and think Russia is clearly the guilty party, but the volcanic anger at Russia and Russians is the true black swan in my view. I sort of expected the invasion to happen but not this kind of reaction.
Slavs were considered subhumans by the AngloSaxons, but now that blue eyed blonde haired people are going extinct fast, they are accepted as White. So there is a racial element to it for sure, but I doubt they will risk war for Slavic nations. Infact I very much doubt that NATO will come to Poland’s aid if they believe they will risk getting nuked over it , article 5 be damned.
Also, Indians are at the bottom of the list for most white westerners racially speaking. Whites hate China as a country, but they heavily dislike Indians as a race – like blacks. In a conflict with China, India will be alone. And this is why I personally think India’s policy to bat for the West against China is a foolish policy. It’s justified as ”China is expansionist”, while completely ignoring Western expansionism, not just militarily but also culturally.
On the racism part you play down Chinese racism against Indians. Its on par with white racism or more than that. And vice-versa. Its just that there has been less interaction and therefore less chance for racism b/w Indian and Chinese.
Indian doesn’t bat for the west. Given a chance, any other country would have become a full fledged ally of the west (like Pakistan) already, considering the amount of goodies/good relations exist in b/w America and India. But here we still are debating.
India knows it cant take China alone, and had Chinese allowed India its own sphere of influence (S-Asia) , India would have not given any damn about Taiwan etc. On the US front , however imperfect India is, its the only option on the ground who can stand the Chinese. Hence the alliance.
The Chinese are also racist against anyone but their own. Racism is common human theme, but at least with China you will not get lectures on how to run your country or organize your society. With the West, they like preaching their religion. That religion went from Christianity to Democracy and all its goodies.
I also think that there is a bigger threat of cultural invasion than military invasion. The Chinese culture is still quite alien to South Asia due to lack of any meaningful contact for centuries and China’s cultural development in isolation. They are not exporting it either, and any relationship with China will be strictly trade or military, as it should be. Despite Pakistan governments full tilt towards China, there is complete lack of any Chinese cultural export on the ground. You don’t get the same deal with the US or Europe, where they feel like they will want to interfere.
You say as if the west imposed its values on Pakistan and somehow Pakistan suffered. Even though Pakistanis have portrayed this picture, its not really true. US worked with whatever administration Pakistan threw at them, including dictators (some would argue they worked better) . Pakistan fought no wars which they had no interest in (Korea, Vietnam) , even when they were bonafide ally of US under various treaties and duty bound to fight. And fought wars which they had interest in (Kashmir, Afghanistan) using US’s military equipment. So on both front , democracy and resources, Pakistan did whatever it wanted. If your concern is few meaningless lectures which nobody really adheres to (pretty sure Pakistan never did) , then have to grow a thicker skin.
On the other cultural aspect, Western culture permeated through India, even when it was an ally of Soviets. So contrary to US/West exporting their culture, its just the strength of their culture, that even their enemies mimic them.
US and West in general, likes working with Pakistani dictatorships and the military because of historical inertia. The Pakistani military, (like the Indian military) was formed by the British, and since it has an oversized role in the country, they will do the West’s bidding as long as the West gives them the toys to play with. However on the other hand, the West will use the same excuses about democracy and human rights to put sanctions or use that as a leverage to further their own geopolitical interests. The relationship has no meaningful impact on the common person on the street and has failed to improve their lives which is why most commoners in Pakistan are anti-west.
China on the other hand had been a Pakistani ally since the early days, does not flip flop, puts no sanctions, does not meddle in internal politics or fund dictatorships, and does not use economic or military trade as leverage. They also don’t export their culture and are not interested in creating a sinophile upper class in Pakistan that is subservient to them.
The only risk with China is that they wanted to export their excess productive capacity in the form of CPEC (and OBOR in general), and Pakistan could still be on the hook to pay them back if the said investments do not provide adequate return. If you didn’t trust China, you would say this is a ploy for resource extraction. But look at it this way: the west has used this tool for decades, just they sold weapons and jets (depreciating assets) instead of roads, rail and power plants (could be hit or miss).
Western cultural propaganda will permeate everywhere people speak or understand English. This is their tool, and they use it well and India being one of the largest English speaking countries will adopt Western culture, not because its strong but because the elite in India (and to an extent Pakistan) has set English as the gold standard.
Language is a part of it but I think modern mainland Chinese culture just lacks the appeal of western culture.
Based on my experiences in Taiwan, mainland Chinese mainland culture is simply not held in high esteem despite them being fully Mandarin speaking and having access to all of mainland China media.
Even pro-China people harken back to historical culture, “blood is stronger than water” type arguments, and / or economics rather than current culture or government as it is viewed as uncouth.
Japanese on the other hand are resented for colonial rule but people hold their culture in high regard. Same with the West.
Meanwhile Taiwanese pop culture (music for eg.) is disproportionately popular in mainland China.
I think possibly authoritarian places just suck at cultural output. Or possibly it has to do with economics and mainland China is still too poor. I am not sure.
@sumit
If i had to guess, its about wealth. Mainland hasn’t been rich for long enough to have an attractive culture. I doubt there’s anything inherently repelling about chinese civilization per se. The rise of Kpop is a good example, in that South Korean is the only notable non-european country of significant size to become developed and wealthy since ww2. Like clockwork, the world loves their culture. No one in the US knew what Dubai even was until the late 90s at best, and now ppl drop the name like its Miami. Singapore gets crazy rich asians.
Racists gonna racist. I don’t think this really impacts the situation that much. It’s just geopolitics.
https://twitter.com/hannan021/status/1499775585656180740?s=21
“ Pakistan is Civilisational State. Have a history of over 9000 years from Mehrgarh 7000 BC, Rehman Dheri 4000 BC, Harappa 3300 BC, Mohenjo Daro 2500 BC, more than 50,000 rock carvings and 5000 ancient inscriptions in Gilgit Baltistan. 14 Aug 1947 was rebirth of the same nation.“
😂
“Civilization State” is just RaitaSpeak for Hindu Rastra.
The
“XYZ group is not a monolith. These sub groups are different and have their own unique identities.”
argument is really easy to make from intuitive perspective. Few things are identical or nearly such in this world. So it’s quite easy to keep dividing things for political gain. Regardless, people will invent mythologies to justify perceived differences no matter what. And it’s pretty darn easy to do
If this doesn’t workout, they can do a semi LARP as “we wuz Chechens” and harp on steppe connection. The Arab and Turkish one is more loose. But at least a Caucaus one can perhaps be kind of grounded in a little bit of reality?
I notice in diaspora that Khabib is a huge hero to Pak kids. It makes sense. He comes from a hyper conservative background and took on a loud mouthed White guy who used religiously insensitive remarks to promote a fight.
Russia being the bad guy #1 has a lot of sway in this situation. Since Russia is the enemy , there are extreme incentives to ratchet up support to the maximum level.
Is there a racial element? Hard to say. I remember there being a lot of pro-refugee mania in 2015 before things cooled down. Back then it was mostly Syrians and other brown moslems.
Whites are probably the least ethnocentric people on the planet. But there is no need for whites to be ethnocentric because despite overheated “white genocide” rhetoric from their far-right, the vast majority of whites lead very good lives compared to most non-whites on this planet. And even immigrants have to bend the knee and adjust to their language, norms, culture etc.
This is often especially painful for 2nd gen immigrants who don’t quite feel like they are accepted but whose “ancestral identity” is often quite weak.
So long as this benign situation continues – and I don’t see why it wouldn’t – then I don’t expect any uptick in white ethnocentrism.
Russia being the bad guy #1 has a lot of sway in this situation. Since Russia is the enemy , there are extreme incentives to ratchet up support to the maximum level.
Yeah, this is true. I have been wondering for several years about the aversion bordering on hatred for Russia for several years in the US now (not sure if that was true of other Western countries). The bogus theory that Russia was responsible for Trump become President aside, I think it’s a case of feeling jilted. The American elite especially (and probably other Western elites too) felt after the end of the Cold War that Russians, being visibly European, would gradually become a “normal European country” with a “normal European elite”. In other words, have a capitalistic elite that talks the same way and has the same values as the Anglo-American elite does, albeit in a different tongue. When the Russians retrenched to authoritarian nationalism and cultural conservatism (to some extent), I think that produced a blowback.
The EU for its part I believe thinks of itself as the country club of the world, and countries on its periphery are closer to getting a membership card than those far away. So yeah, it probably isn’t about race any more but a sort of global class system we are witnessing in action here.
India needs 30 yrs of 6% growth with demography being 70+% Hindu, north India, All of India less susceptible to evangelists. This should be the mission, anti islam culture wars is BS. Get their votes, one needs to value own autonomy above everything else. First win the game, make some peace deal with them, bury the hatchet. The world is about to get crazy, most Important thing for India is to avoid stagnation economically, technologically and avoid subversion.
Muslim inertia will hurt them in about 80-150 yrs. Let them get what comes to them. Our action and vulnerability is now. We need to plug holes now and develop as quickly as possible.
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/india-ukraine-sanction-biden-unga-b2027646.html
If it comes to sanctions, India should vote against russia if it has to. One has to develop first above all things, economy/ tech now come from west. especially on ai/chips issues. for next 30 yrs atleast, we should be with west. bridge all faultlines with muslims. Priority should be growth/ deny demographic success to missionaries/ deny liberals success in culture. Our fate will be decided in 30=50 yrs , now.