On My Mind

Eminent sociologist Professor M.N. Srinivas coined the term "Sanskritization" to describe the cultural mobility in the traditional caste structure of Indian society. To raise their status in the traditional hierarchy of society, lower castes imitated the ways of the upper castes and in the process, quit some of their "impure" ways to assimilate well. This assimilation continued throughout. During the British rule, several reform movements took place. When the reigns of these movements fell into the hands of the lower caste leaders, they questioned the need for the lower castes to imitate the ways of upper castes and rightly so. By blindly aping the ways of the upper rungs of the society, you also acknowledge their justification for being the upper class in the first place. I believe readers would agree with me here for the most part. Now that we have these ideas on the table, let's move to what's called westernization. With the advent of Europeans in ...

Bahadur Shah Zafar  was the last Mughal Emperor. Accompanied by his wife Zinat Mahal and 2 sons Mirza Jawan Bhakt and Mirza Shah Abbas and daughter-in-law Shah Zamani Begum (wife of Jawan Bhakt), he was sent to Rangoon after the revolt of 1857 had been crushed and that his where he died. Bahadur Shah died on Nov. 7, 1862, at the ripe old age of 87. By 1872 Shah Zamani Begum became completely blind. Mirza Shah Abbas married a girl from Rangoon, a daughter of a local Muslim merchant. His descendants  still live in Rangoon  today. Zinat Mahal lived on alone, comforting her loneliness with opium. She died in 1886. Her body was buried near her husband’s grave. A few years later Mirza Jawan Bakht died of stroke. He was 42. Here in India,  Sultana Begum  lives in a slum area of Kolkata off a pension of around INR 6,000 per month. She is the  wife of Prince Mirza Bedar Bukht, the great-grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar  who was secretly broug...

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." This quote is the focal point of liberalism which is based on the ideas of equality and liberty. There are different variants and schools of liberalism but the forementioned two ideas are more or less common to all, though to different degrees. Not anymore. Liberalism has taken a turn where ideas have to stick to the conformity of the boundaries laid by the upper echelons of liberals. The central ideas which seem to be approved are open world, no boundaries, no discrimination, appeasing minorities (religious, linguistic, sexual, racial amongst others). There is no room left for discussion, nor is any allowed. Take this for example. A recent incident in India involving Ms. Gurmehar Kaur stormed the nation. There were two sets of people, one presumably liberals who supported her call for peace and end of warmongering, and the other set which opposed her ideas. Both sides...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here with the famous YouTuber Firangi Gora and we intend to present his success story which is sure to inspire you. Firangi reacts to videos, which sounds really interesting. Let's see what he has got to say. "Good afternoon Firangi. We welcome you to our show .  How do you feel about this journey and eventual success of yours." Well, this has been a long journey. I started almost 5 months back with nothing. I happened to come across this trailer of a Bollywood movie while browsing, not to mention the old and terribly slow MacBook I had using since 8 months. So I watched it and thought it would be cool to upload my reaction to it. I was all meh. Next day, I realized the video had gone viral and it's been a heck of a journey since then. "Tell us more about your business model, this innovative stream you have opened up for others." It took me some time to perfect my business model. It sounds complicated but it is very ...

Indian Judiciary has come a long way from being a colonial institution to one that serves as the guardian of the Constitution of a sovereign India. The journey hasn't been easy and it's only imperative for us to judge one of the pillars of our democracy at a time when the distrust between executive and judiciary is paramount. Indian Judiciary has no doubt done a commendable job but it faces certain inherent problems, which show the weaknesses and defects of the system, and which require immediate reforms and accountability. Challenges faced by the Judiciary Judicial Backlog : A mindboggling 3 crores cases are pending at different courts in India. Over 21 lakh cases being at least 10 years old. This doesn't inspire confidence in a judiciary which is the hope to many in a country marred by corruption, inequalities and what not. Vacancies : With so many pending cases, it's only logical to believe there must be lot many vacancies in the courts which indeed i...

Development of Jainism as a religion is seen as a response to the then Brahmin dominated Hinduism. It attracted followers initially but soon lost the steam. Some of the major reasons are: Austerity : Jainism is a tough religion to practice. Apart from the very tough conditions for monks which included absolute control over senses, renunciation of physical objects etc., the households didn’t have it easy either. Lack of Patronage : Jainism initially had the patronage of some great kings including Chandragupta Maurya, Kharvela and Ajatshatru. But it isn’t easy being a king and strictly following the ideals of nonviolence and hence Jainism soon gave way to Buddhism and Hinduism. Advent of Buddhism : Buddhism rose at the same time as Jainism. Thus Jainism had to compete with a religion which was less demanding from the followers. Buddhism looked more practical to those who wanted to escape the Brahmin dominated Hinduism. Division into sects : Jainism divided into two sects: Digambar...

Has it ever happened to you that you are involved in a discussion and find yourself losing? Amidst the barrage of rationalities and facts (true ones, not alternative), you find yourself helpless and in disdain? If yes, here are some ways which will help you bounce back and claim the victory. Appeal to Authority :  “Generic quote.” - some great man  Oh yeah, that’s right. Use a quote. Do you know what it means? It basically means that you don’t need to say anything else. The quote says it all. It proves that you are right and the other person is wrong. If they question the quote, condemn them for questioning the intellect and stature of the great man; if they don’t, well, you have already won anyway. Anecdotal Evidence:  "Share an anecdote which is in line with your point. Then substantiate and extend it to the entire human race. Based on this, you win." Forget data and stats. If you can recall any anecdote in line with your point of argument, use it and if you don...

This is coming straight from DC where in a bizarre turn of events, White House correspondent has briefed that Donald Trump has in fact reduced using Twitter. After it was almost one complete day without any tweet from President Trump's twitter handle, people from all across the world had started speculating if he was critically ill. Initially, it was assumed that President Trump was busy with Golden Shower but the matter received considerable attention when he didn't retweet  a 12 year old kid's tweet praising him. The kid reported the matter to FBI which immediately reached out to White House to issue a clarification to the public. At least 786 people are reported to have died following the mass hysteria generated by the prolonged absence of their beloved leader. This disruption to the new normal caused discomfort to several other stakeholders including News Channels which had gotten so used to being labelled Fake News that they resorted to claim the same from their t...

If you happen to work for someone who is under the scanner of public a lot, you would've realized how important it is to have a well-functioning Public Relations cell.  Central Government of India comes first to my mind in this regard. Ours is a welfare state, where apart from the necessary functions of maintaining law and order, the government takes care of the welfare of its citizens. Besides passive subsidies, there are more active plans in the sector of education, health, financial inclusion, food distribution etc. It is in view of spreading awareness about such schemes (I know, political gains too) that government has been allocating a good chunk to Advertisement and publicity. Have a look at recent data. (src: https://factly.in/the-central-government-spent-more-than-6000-crore-on-publicity-in-the-last-11-years/) Taking into account the size of the economy, this isn't an amount to cringe about. More often than not it is one of the most important parts of ...

Often these days, there is a war cry to save Indian Culture, to diss "foreign" rulers, to purify the culture. On one of the unfortunate days, I gave it a thought and was left wondering about what Indian culture is! Is it today's culture which is apparently influenced by western culture and has lead to movements to pursue equality among different sections or when it has lead to affect the customs like respecting elders, taking care of old parents? Nah, this doesn't make sense. This includes adulterations. This isn't the Indian culture we talk about.  Then is it what we had when British left? The social traditions of untouchability, child marriage, limitations on women, a rigid caste system? But this system had the traditions of taking care of old parents intact. Nah, this doesn't sound like the golden India either. There are so many social evils in this period. Let's backdate again. It must be the era when Mughal power was declining and ...