Written in Chinese, the article, "If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up," is published in the new edition of the website of the China International Institute for Strategic Studies (CIISS), an influential think tank that advises Beijing on global and strategic issues.please ignore for the moment the 'little action' the strategist allegedly suggested to the chinese government and focus on his analysis of the indian nation: The article says that India could only be termed a "Hindu religious state" that is based on caste exploitation and which is coming in the way of modernisation.
According to D S Rajan, director of the Chennai Centre for China Studies, Chennai, Zhan Lue, the author of the article, argues that the "so-called" Indian nation cannot be considered as one having existed in history as it relies primarily on Hindu religion for unity.
The article says that India could only be termed a "Hindu religious state" that is based on caste exploitation and which is coming in the way of modernisation.
now, what's wrong with that? the story is from the ndtv website, and only a couple of days ago the english news channel of the group had aired a debate in which the anchorperson, most of the wise guests and the audience in the studio were shouting down or hurling thinly veiled insults, when not indulging in sniggers, at the arguments of a courageous pair of guests who were seriously trying to expand the discussion on mayawati's statues.
was the channel sincerely interested in discussing whether mayawati's statues were for the public good? no, it was just another opportunity for hindu india to tell the marginalized who decides what's public good in india. was the chinese strategist wrong?
a friend asks: why do you watch those debates? he's right, of course. i've watched too many of them for too long, on television and outside. but those are the only events that provide any space for people (even if as targets than guests) you'll never find on any other programme. check ndtv profit or ndtv imagine, for instance. imagine non-existent special component plans being discussed on them. or a soap on karamchedu or khairlanji.
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2 comments:
kuffir:
Completely agree with you about the way Professor Iliah and Anoop Kumar were treated on that show. It made me sick to the stomach. I'm amazed that even the usual, gratuitous, political correcness charade was dispensed with. Clearly, even the respect that academics usually get is withheld if you're Dalit. I'm sure it's not without reason that even when Professor Iliah appears on telugu news channels, it is only in connection with "Dalit issues", although he's (was?) a senior university professor of Political Science. One has only to compare this with with the frequency of Professor Haragopal's tv appearances!
I had intended to blog about this, but you've said it far better than I could have. And you're right; such crass behaviour reminds us that we are a feudal society and that some attitudes simply haven't changed.
India will have a tough time in future if it does not address aspirations of several identities in India and harmonise them with a national identity.
Until now the question "what does it mean to be an Indian" has been addressed with a seriousness only by two streams - Hinduvta stream which sees Indianess as a shared hindu heritafe and Nehruvian secualrism which was best articulated by Sunil Khilnani in the book "what does it mean to be Indian".
But Sunil's essay was elitistic and more like a dream than outlining the reality and the challenges facing.
We need answers to several more questions - what does it mean to be an Indian while being a dalit ? while being a South Indian? a Bengali? etc
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