Dear
I had the âsowbhagyamâ of meeting with a self-professed âleft-leaningâ intellectual yesterday. A brief background about the gentleman: he is a beef-eating, Tamil Brahmin (by birth), missionary school educated, IIM Graduate, about 45 yrs old, reached US some 15 years ago at the age of 30 or so, is an established management scholar, knows Balaji Sampath (of AID and âranked 6th in JEE!â) personally, and thinks that Madhav Chavan of Pratham is a very famous person in India (sorry, but I heard this name for the first time!).
We had an approximately two hours âchatâ in presence of American/Chinese folks. Well, actually, I and others prompted the gentleman and the gentleman talked and talked and talked. The Chinese and the Church going audience were enthralled by the gentlemanâs thoughts about India.
What I heard directly from the horses mouth (this was my first direct interaction with a left-leaning, otherwise intelligent, individual) confirmed what I had heard second/third hand from some folks here and at other places. Here is a summary of what I heard first hand (and I am not making it up!):
1. India is a notional country.
2. The person openly professed that he is not an Indian because of (1) above.
3. In any case, this person is not comfortable being a part of the culture âthat oppresses 600 million peopleâ.
4. India has occupied Kashmir (and Juna Garh and Hyderabad to a lesser extent) by fraudulent means. Therefore, the people of Kashmir should decide whether they want to be a part of India or not.
5. Not only the Kashmiri terrorists, but also, LTTE folks are âfreedom fightersâ. LTTE âfreedom fightersâ are fighting for âliberationâ of Tamil Nadu as well.
6. It is okay, in fact âlogicalâ, if large chunks of India break away â special focus was on Kashmir, followed by Assam and the rest of the North East.
7. The gentlemanâs inspiration to work comes from Jesusâs sermon on the mount. When I asked him whether he had heard anything about bhakti, karma, & jnana yoga, he answered in affirmative. But, of course, Indian philosophy cannot guide any good action.
8. Gujrat riots was a âpogromâ since the âentire government machinery was involved in the massacreâ. Also a total of â5300â people were killed. Thankfully, the gentleman knew that about 25-30% of them were Hindus.
9. When I asked about âcommunist goonsâ in Kerala killing other people, the gentleman laughed it away.
10. There is no religious motive for Pakistanâs support to terrorism in Kashmir. The only thing they want is to avenge separation of Bangladesh, which makes terrorism and Pakistani support to it âunderstandableâ.
11. Maintaining military in Kashmir costs âthousandsâ of crores annually. Therefore, we should allow it to separate.
12. India should not have any big dreams. In particular, the pursuit of UNSC seat takes away from poverty alleviation. And, in any case, UNSC seat is only to veto the Kashmir issue when required.
13. Indians should not be proud of their heritage and culture, not even be aware about it, since it does not matter at all. In any case, there is nothing at all to be proud about.
14. India is in an absolutely bad shape, and will continue to be in it. Nothing has improved at all on social, educational, technological fronts since independence.
15. âAryansâ did invade India and Dravids, especially Tamils, are the âoriginalâ inhabitants of India.
16. Communist support to Indiaâs invasion in 1962 is okay since âHindu parties also supported the British.â
17. India should not spend too much on defense (thankfully, he did not advocate zero spending). Places such as Siachin are especially useless and it costs thousands of crores to maintain troops there. We should also give up our âcompletely uselessâ territory where ânot a blade of grass grows.â (reminded me so much of our Late Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru)
As we know, this guy and the ideology he represents is a grave threat to the Indian nation. E.g., Pratham reaches several million kids (or so they claim). I wonder whether this sort of âeducationâ includes âdeIndianizingâ kids and turn them into self-loathing citizens and an easy target for our various friends from abroad.
I am sure everyone here does their bit to counter this challenge. To those who donât, this is my humble request to do whatever they can to counter this threat the Indian nationhood. Every small action counts. Buy and distribute nationalist books, visit nationalist workers in the field â itâs a morale booster for them, donate, write articles, deliver lectures, organize shows, educate friends in US and India etc. - do whatever you can. Visiting BR is very good, but please be a BRF-ite in the real world as well (if you are not, that is)!
On a broader level, why does Indian education system produce people with such attitudes? How do we fix it? When Chinese communists can be Chinese nationalists and Cuban communists can be Cuban nationalists, why can't Indian communists be Indian nationalists?
Ashok Sarraff
I had the âsowbhagyamâ of meeting with a self-professed âleft-leaningâ intellectual yesterday. A brief background about the gentleman: he is a beef-eating, Tamil Brahmin (by birth), missionary school educated, IIM Graduate, about 45 yrs old, reached US some 15 years ago at the age of 30 or so, is an established management scholar, knows Balaji Sampath (of AID and âranked 6th in JEE!â) personally, and thinks that Madhav Chavan of Pratham is a very famous person in India (sorry, but I heard this name for the first time!).
We had an approximately two hours âchatâ in presence of American/Chinese folks. Well, actually, I and others prompted the gentleman and the gentleman talked and talked and talked. The Chinese and the Church going audience were enthralled by the gentlemanâs thoughts about India.
What I heard directly from the horses mouth (this was my first direct interaction with a left-leaning, otherwise intelligent, individual) confirmed what I had heard second/third hand from some folks here and at other places. Here is a summary of what I heard first hand (and I am not making it up!):
1. India is a notional country.
2. The person openly professed that he is not an Indian because of (1) above.
3. In any case, this person is not comfortable being a part of the culture âthat oppresses 600 million peopleâ.
4. India has occupied Kashmir (and Juna Garh and Hyderabad to a lesser extent) by fraudulent means. Therefore, the people of Kashmir should decide whether they want to be a part of India or not.
5. Not only the Kashmiri terrorists, but also, LTTE folks are âfreedom fightersâ. LTTE âfreedom fightersâ are fighting for âliberationâ of Tamil Nadu as well.
6. It is okay, in fact âlogicalâ, if large chunks of India break away â special focus was on Kashmir, followed by Assam and the rest of the North East.
7. The gentlemanâs inspiration to work comes from Jesusâs sermon on the mount. When I asked him whether he had heard anything about bhakti, karma, & jnana yoga, he answered in affirmative. But, of course, Indian philosophy cannot guide any good action.
8. Gujrat riots was a âpogromâ since the âentire government machinery was involved in the massacreâ. Also a total of â5300â people were killed. Thankfully, the gentleman knew that about 25-30% of them were Hindus.
9. When I asked about âcommunist goonsâ in Kerala killing other people, the gentleman laughed it away.
10. There is no religious motive for Pakistanâs support to terrorism in Kashmir. The only thing they want is to avenge separation of Bangladesh, which makes terrorism and Pakistani support to it âunderstandableâ.
11. Maintaining military in Kashmir costs âthousandsâ of crores annually. Therefore, we should allow it to separate.
12. India should not have any big dreams. In particular, the pursuit of UNSC seat takes away from poverty alleviation. And, in any case, UNSC seat is only to veto the Kashmir issue when required.
13. Indians should not be proud of their heritage and culture, not even be aware about it, since it does not matter at all. In any case, there is nothing at all to be proud about.
14. India is in an absolutely bad shape, and will continue to be in it. Nothing has improved at all on social, educational, technological fronts since independence.
15. âAryansâ did invade India and Dravids, especially Tamils, are the âoriginalâ inhabitants of India.
16. Communist support to Indiaâs invasion in 1962 is okay since âHindu parties also supported the British.â
17. India should not spend too much on defense (thankfully, he did not advocate zero spending). Places such as Siachin are especially useless and it costs thousands of crores to maintain troops there. We should also give up our âcompletely uselessâ territory where ânot a blade of grass grows.â (reminded me so much of our Late Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru)
As we know, this guy and the ideology he represents is a grave threat to the Indian nation. E.g., Pratham reaches several million kids (or so they claim). I wonder whether this sort of âeducationâ includes âdeIndianizingâ kids and turn them into self-loathing citizens and an easy target for our various friends from abroad.
I am sure everyone here does their bit to counter this challenge. To those who donât, this is my humble request to do whatever they can to counter this threat the Indian nationhood. Every small action counts. Buy and distribute nationalist books, visit nationalist workers in the field â itâs a morale booster for them, donate, write articles, deliver lectures, organize shows, educate friends in US and India etc. - do whatever you can. Visiting BR is very good, but please be a BRF-ite in the real world as well (if you are not, that is)!
On a broader level, why does Indian education system produce people with such attitudes? How do we fix it? When Chinese communists can be Chinese nationalists and Cuban communists can be Cuban nationalists, why can't Indian communists be Indian nationalists?
Ashok Sarraff