The LGBT rights and queer activism in India probably has such a long way to go. We have happy healthy heterosexual human beings who go about their daily lives who don’t even utter ‘homosexuality’ loudly in public. They say knowingly they wouldn’t even be friends with a gay guy.

And there in the first world we have, PFLAG an association of Parents Families and Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender persons.

PFLAG Tri-Cities has two main purposes: to provide a support community for all individuals who have a GLBT person in their life and to provide support to GLBT and questioning people. Even if you do not have a GLBT person in your life; you can be an ally. Allies are invited to be part of our mission of making our community safer, affirming, and more inclusive of GLBT or questioning individuals

Read more about it here.

This is a discussion seed I wrote for Blogathon India. The topic of discussion was:

“What are the challenges that society faces in accepting the concept of alternate sexuality? How can we address them?”

I say, Challenge them.

The society doesn’t face challenges - they create them and impose them on each other. What is alternate sexuality? What is sexuality? Sexual habits, preferences, etc. are to be called sexuality. So what is alternate and what is not alternate? Everything that most people do is regular and whenever somebody don’t do what most people do it becomes irregular or alternate or unnatural.

Why do most people do a certain thing? Because, to repeat myself, most people have been doing that thing. It’s a vicious circle meticulously thought and created by mankind at the start of civilization. As homosapiens started becoming civilized they imposed all kinds of norms on each other so that they could gain control over property and generally gain control.

You see, an urge to control others comes naturally to certain human beings. When a few of them get together they simply bake ways to control the world at large, giving it a start by controlling the nearest set of people. Just for the heck of it, there is no good reason why they should control they simply feel the need to control.

Also, a few of them also had some God sent message, some sudden enlightenment about how they must ensure everything in the world was alright, so they started preaching things they thought was best for all of us. Who said it was best that is not the point - God sent.

So they thought of many concepts, right-wrong, good-bad, natural-unnatural. Few people made the concepts, and the rest were asked to follow. If they didn’t follow they were being shamed, looked down upon, punished, etc. But even otherwise, the problem with human beings is that like controlling comes naturally to some, being controlled and bullied also comes naturally to many of them.

So when the controller said sexual intercourse between people with similar reproductive organs is bad, the rest of them mutely agreed and conformed. If only they would have asked back then, “really but exactly why? And who are you to tell us that?” I wouldn’t be writing this article today.

But no they didn’t do that, because they were bloody chicken. (Not sure why we use this bird’s inference while talking about cowardice, a soul which is being butchered for millions of years and yet has the nerve to reproduce). Human beings also like to live a life of comfort. For them it’s best not to mess around as long as possible. Ok, they said it’s bad, we don’t tell them we are doing it.

It is very easy to keep blaming others for oppressing, but unless you question everything that is being told to, asked from, expected of you, you can’t blame others. As individuals we must always question, why and what for. We must never accept any norm just because our parents told us so or just because our religious scriptures says so.

There is no better way to overcome the challenges but to challenge them. Personally I try to talk about things no body talks about just to challenge the idea that we shouldn’t be talking about them. I use terms like sexuality, homosexuality, gay, lesbian in most of my casual conversations. I don’t lower my voice either. I talk to my parents about these issues, I talk to my cousins, hoping that if I could change at least one of these people’s attitude towards sexuality - that would be an achievement, no matter how small.

This is my entry for the Blogathon India under the category Sports. This post is out of the competition since I am part of the Blogathon Admin team.

They asked “Are ‘media’ and ‘commercial interests’ in cricket the only reason that are killing other sports in India?”

My answer ‘No’. Cricket gets all the attention because we, the Indian team is good at it. Quite simple. In Bollywood the Khans, Bacchans and Roshans get all the attention over the Oberois and Deols simply because the former are better in the profession. No rocket science there, the media hype and money is proportional to the achievement of the team.

Awrite now do I see a hockey fanatic there frowning, “media paid no attention to hockey when they won Olympics Gold, or the Asia cup.” I think I do so let me substantiate my point more elaborately.

Let us look at the history of cricket and Hockey a little bit. Why I chose these two sports is because while it is not possible to pay equal attention to every sport, just as you can’t have equal following for all actors, Cricket and Hockey should have, at the least, been at par. Unfortunately Indians are left to wonder why if a cricketer sneezes it becomes a national news while the captain of Indian hockey team, and Hockey is the national game, might just pass you by and you wouldn’t know. At least I won’t.

If wikipedia is to be believed the first time cricket was ever played on Indian Ground was in 1721, beginning of First class cricket was in 1864 by a match between Madras v. Calcutta. The first Indian ventures into international cricket was in 1880 by a Parsee team. [Source] India started playing test cricket in 1932. The first Cricket world cup, the place where Indian cricket team started to gain glamor was held in 1975 and in 1983 India was crowned as the world cricket champion.

Now, India was introduced to the game by the British Raj, England maintained its monopoly over the game for many years both as the host of international level competitions and also as the champion team. So, it takes no extra intelligence to ascertain the emotional high India must have attained, at its triumph over England, amongst other teams, to be declared as the world champion merely few decades after the independence.

Lagaan comes to mind not because I am an Aamir Khan fanatic but because Cricket indeed is more than a sport for us, it is a matter of national pride. Remember the line from Sanjay Gupta’s Kaante, “humein do cheezo se sakht nafrat hai, cricket mein haar aur desh pe waar.” (Two things we can’t stand, a loss at Cricket and an attack on the nation)

Hockey was introduced to India by the British Army regiment. The first hockey club in India came up in Calcutta in 1885-86 the Indian Hockey Federation was formed in 1928 in Gwalior. India made its Olympic debut at the 1928 Amsterdam Games, from 1928 to 1956, the Indian hockey juggernaut won six straight Olympic gold medals while winning 24 consecutive matches. [Source 1 Source 2]

All so good, but doesn’t appeal so much to my patriotic sentiments. The reason being the Indian hockey pride in Olympics till the mid 20^th century was not so much of India’s but more of Indians’ who were part of the British Army. Hockey was primarily played amongst the British Army regiments, the most respectable hockey player ever Padma Bhushan Dhyan Chand Singh was a Major in the British Army his father too was a Subedar in the British Army. I am not sure if he was in office during the time he won the Olympic Golds for the country, assuming he was not and he won them in his personal capacity, the nation itself was a British Colony. Hockey was but a part of the British Raj.

Before anybody accuse me, I am in no way trying to undermine the contribution of Indian Hockey team, I have utmost respect for the sport and the team, all I am saying is that today, in the 21^st century Hockey doesn’t appeal the nation as much as cricket does because our cricket team like a true hero has battled to the top by their hard work and determination and continue to do so year after year. While our Hockey glory was gone, if not with, soon after, the British raj left.

Cricket is also a more secular sport to me, the Indian Cricket team being a representation of the countries unity in diversity notion in the most heart warming way. The team have always had representation from all caste and religions and it fills a true Indian heart with pride and joy when we see an Irfan Pathaan achieve a historic hattrick wicket against a Pakistan. [Video] It restores faith. Hockey teams on the other hand have had a Punjab monopoly.

Besides the patriotic sentiments attached with cricket, it also is a more visually appealing game to me compared to hockey. The way a ball is hit, the way it shoots into the sky and goes all the way till the end of the stadium gives an amazing sense of euphoria. I am not sure the same euphoria is felt at a hockey goal.

Also, media attention and money was not served on a platter to our cricket team from the very start. Our team has consistently performed well to command all that attention and has carved a place for themselves.

If at all we have to blame anybody for the poor state of Hockey it is the Government, the sports ministry. When they declared Hockey as the national game they should have made better rules and regulation to ensure that the money pumped into Hockey was decent enough for a hockey player to sustain himself long after his career was over.

So far as brand endorsement by cricketers are concerned one can’t help much. The IT industry offers a better pay package than say a publishing house, can we really complaint?

True, media didn’t pay any attention to the Hockey team recently when they won the Asia Cup. But then media sells what get sold, that’s the bitter truth. For the Indian youth today Hockey has lost its charm so may be its time we accept it. Other option is to make cricket the new national game of the country.

Or let us see the Indian Hockey Federation pull up its socks, emerge as winners out of the controversies, let us see Mr. Gill creating a team which has the same winning spirit that SRKs Chak De team had, let us see India hosting the next Hockey world cup (which should have happened at least once in the past 30 years, Hockey being the national game so to say) and the Indian team winning the cup…unless these happen I suggest they leave cricket and its fans alone, stop blaming media et al for their own failures.

I heard the Indian Hockey team is on hunger strike in order to protest against the money pumped in T-20 world cup. Reminds me of the lines from my favourite film, Jerry Maguire.

Jerry Maguire, a sports agent, is with his sole client, foot ball player Rod Tidwell, who is all upset that he haven’t got a decent contract yet, Jerry says,

“Here’s why you don’t have your ten million dollars yet. You are a paycheck player. You play with your head. Not your heart. In your personal life? Heart. But when you get on the field - you are a businessman. It’s wide-angle lenses and who fucked you over and who owes you for it. That’s not what inspires people.”

A statement by Asian Human Rights Commission

For Immediate Release
AHRC-STM-078-2008
March 26, 2008

India cannot afford judicial extravaganza

“Except for the crime in question, Mr. R. K. Sharma was an asset to the nation…” The national media in India reported that this observation was made by the Additional Sessions Judge Mr. Rajendra Kumar Shastri on 18 March 2008 while delivering his judgment in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case. Justice Shastri was the trial judge at the Fast Track Court, New Delhi where the case was tried.

The crime is question was murder. Sharma, along with three other persons he hired, were accused of masterminding and murdering Shivani, who was alleged to be Sharma’s girlfriend. Shivani was a newspaper reporter. Sharma was convicted for murder and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life. Sharma was a police officer with India’s elite force, the Indian Police Service (IPS) and served in many covetable positions like at the United Nations, Interpol, the Prime Minister’s Office and at the Central Bureau of Investigation. When charged with the murder, Sharma was serving in the rank of Inspector General. Sharma is the first IPS officer to get a life term for murder in India.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is not surprised by the ‘praise’ showered upon the murderer police officer by the court. It is a judicial prerogative to make remarks about the case or the persons involved in the case in a judgment. The remarks made by the trail judge while convicting Sharma is however an alarming trend within the Indian judiciary — to downplay heinous offenses. Sharma is not an ordinary individual. He is a police officer who masterminded a murder. The accused also incited others to join in the heinous act with lucrative offers of money and quasi-government jobs through corrupt means. The fact that such an officer in fact served in some of the most sensitive positions must be instead a matter of concern.

The accused police officer evaded arrest for a considerably long time. The investigating agency had to initiate steps through the court to declare the officer a ‘Proclaimed Offender’. Later, the investigating agency had to attach the officer’s properties through the court in an attempt to force the officer to surrender before the court. Even though the crime was committed on 19 January 1999, the accused was able to evade arrest till 27 September 2002. Despite all this, the court has showered its praise for the convicted police officer, while at the same time convicting him for murder along with three other co-accused.

There are five objectives sought to be achieved through punishing a crime. They are retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation and restitution. Common law, which is practiced in India, views murder as a public wrong. Murder is one of the most heinous crimes, if proved, that attracts the highest possible punishment. When such an act is committed by a law enforcement officer, that too of high rank, it compounds the severity of the crime. The remarks made by the trial judge in the sentence in this case praising the prime accused showcases the jurisprudential wilt within the Indian judiciary. 

When a court delivers its judgment, it is not only applying the law, but is also contributing to the process of social engineering. This process though could be influenced by the presiding officers’ conviction and understanding about the particular fact in issue, must not be an occasion for the officer to express his personal opinion, though often judges make such remarks. Such remarks, if within the threshold of reasonable expressions, which the facts at hand might warrant, might be appreciated. When the judge crosses this threshold, it attracts criticism and is referred to as judicial extravaganza.

Law enforcement officers are not ordinary individuals in a society. In the Asian context, this category of public servants enjoy enormous powers, which due to overwhelming misuse, has generated fear about law enforcement officers among the ordinary public sans jurisdictions.

The message that is delivered unfortunately through the unwarranted remarks made by the trial judge in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case appears as if the judge was forced to convict the accused due to his legal conviction, though his moral conviction was against it. What is showcased in a case that has attracted such media attention is not only the fact that the accused is finally convicted, but that the trail judge was sorry to do so. This casts shadows upon the trail judge’s intention in making such unqualified remarks, particularly when the defense is preparing for their appeal.

In fact a murderer police officer who has proved to have conspired to take the life of a mother is not an asset to the country, but a shame to the entire police force in India. A judge who showers praise to such a person is not an impartial judge, but a cloud that casts shadow upon the judiciary.

# # #

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

This video released by UNFPA tells the stoy of the unborn who was never born.

Picture this,

India outlawed gender selection and selective abortion in 1994, but the practice still continues.

British medical journal Lancet says 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in India in the past 20 years

Source: BBC

Over and over again, whenever talks of female feoticide arises it is invariably associated with the cultural preferences of sons over daughters. Indian culture leaves no doubt about the fact that daughters are a burden and sons are your seeds of good karma. She is a proud mother if she gave birth to a son who excels in career, achieves many a name and fame. And she is a proud mother if she gave birth to a beautiful daughter with good values (later on what good values are later) so that she can be married off easily. ‘Beti paraya dhan hoti hai,’ ‘beti ki shaadi,’ ‘bete ki padhaai’ these are the kinds of phrases we keep hearing as a part of culture.

Are we proud of this culture? Do we want to promote and safeguard this culture. I certainly don’t.

But here we have a whole group, which is only growing by leaps and bounds, which has only one objective in life, to protect and promote this culture, not just that it wants to force this culture on the entire country. We see the supporter of this group taking violence in hand breaking Archies Galleries because apparently Valentines Day is against this culture. Yeah right, whatever was the Raas Leela where Lord Krishna used to steal women’s clothes when they used to take bath in the river. But hey Krishna is God after all.

Arjun, he backpacked all around the country and solemnized a marriage in each city and they say only Islam has polygamy.

According the Hindu tradition and culture a man was always allowed to have multiple wives but women were to practice monogamy.

Now I know they’ll argue Hinduism has evolved and got rid of such unjust laws. Right it did. But can we get rid of the want for a son when according to Hindu holy scriptures only a son can perform parents last rites

Also, we may have got rid of many ill practices, but what is the gurantee they won’t be restored once we let this group have their way. What is the guarantee untouchability woudn’t be re introduced? If this group can seek to change the inherent Secular nature of the country they can seek to go back to the original Hindu culture just as it was thousands of years ago.

I hear a lot of people from the RSS / VHP brigade do a lot of kind talk regarding the plight of Islam women and blame it all on the religion, I want to ask these Pro Hindutva guys, where were you when your Hindu brothers were being unfair to their daughters?

Question is why do we have to discard, bad mouth the whole of religion Islam if the purpose is to simply get rid of archaic culture. We can make laws always. The Supreme Court has the power to discard any law religious or personal, if its found to be against the fundamental rights guranteed by Constitution. If the intention is to give the muslim women a better life, laws can be made, why do we need Hindutva to save them.

And how come you didn’t worry about the muslim women all these years, 60 years, now suddenly you are trying to become the messiah of their fate. Why are you so interested in restoring an unfair culture, not just that you want to make the whole nation a Hindu raashtra where people would follow such Hindu culture which kills it women.

I ask, because you all always attack Islam on religious grounds, does Islam anywhere has anything parellel to what we have regarding your last rites being performed only by a Son?

As Kashmir Singh returns to country and we celebrate, his counterpart Sohail Shehzad has got his own sad story but are we interested?

This Pakistani man was made to go by the Courts and yet he is kept in prison for the past 20 years. Can you believe that. Imagine yourself in prison for one day. And here you have somebody who was declared to be a free man by the temple of law, the Court, in prison for 20 years. I almost couldn’t believe the news piece. I would have thought it is some rumour had it not appeared in Hindu. Here’s an excerpt.

A Pakistani prisoner languishing in a Rajasthan jail has sought the intervention of the Supreme Court alleging that he has remained behind bars despite his acquittal 20 years ago.

Taking note of a letter written by Sohail Shehzad, from the Jaipur jail, a bench of Justices S H Kapadia and B Sudershan Reddy has asked the Centre and the Rajasthan Government to file their replies on his complaint.

 Source: The Hindu

Just that when you celebrate, take a moment to grief for others who are not as lucky as you.

Caution: You shouldn’t read this post if you have weak religious sentiments which gets hurt easily. Instead, you could read the more polished version on Mutiny.

Long time back I heard about this concept called “truth of thought.” It’s like at times when human think they tend to believe their thougths are part of the truth. And when they narrate a real incident they add their truth of thought to the facts in pure honesty without even realizing that the total incident has changed. That’s how urban legends are formed.

I think people have missed the point that, that’s exactly how religion are formed too and holy books written. Unfortunately billions of people live a life which is dictated by some people’s story telling.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Tuesday launched rallies all over the country demanding ‘Monument of national importance’ status to Ram Sethu, popularly known as the Adam’s Bridge, a chain of limestone shoals the group believes dates back to the Ramayana… “We demand an apology from the Union Government for giving the affidavit in the Supreme Court denying the existence of Ram. We want Ram Sethu to be declared a monument of national importance,” said Rajendra Singh Pankaj, National Secretary of the VHP, told IANS.

This issue seems to be on their main agenda for the forth coming Lok Sabha elections. Now why should we have a political party campaigning for elections on religious grounds. Yaar, insaano ko sambhal lo pehele bhagwan ke liye baad mein soch te rehena, logo ko do waqt ki roti toh de do…yeh sab to time paas ka issue hai.

They won’t let the Government move ahead with the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, which proposes linking of the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka through a shipping channel as that would mean the natural floating bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka would have to be broken. Such protest, because they think the bridge is not natural but was built by an army of monkeys under the instruction of a Hindu God. The fact behind this belief, however, is highly debatable.

Another brilliant way to stall the scientific development in the country. We are so proud of our tradition that we would rather live in the age of bullock carts. Let’s scrap all modernity and go back to the jungles.

If there are subject matter experts who think the so called ram sethu has to be done away with to make better sea route then that should be the end of the matter. What business have people got to protest the move. At times I think we gave too much of freedom of protest in our Constitution. Such frivolous protest should be outrightly uprooted by the law and order authorities.

What I said above, about the truth behind the making of the bridge being debatable and unavailability of any concrete proof behind the story, is also the stand taken by the Central Government in its affidavit filed in Supreme Court. VHP instantly raised a demand seeking apology from Government for taking this stand.

How baseless is this demand. How can a secular Government take its executive decisions based upon one particular religious belief? What right has one got, to seek apology just because the other person doesn’t believe in his stories. Ajeeb zabardasti hai yaar. Aise kaise a bunch of people, who probably know nothing about sea routes and navigation, interfere and stall the development work of the country solely on the basis of an event, factuality of which is debatable.

I don’t understand what is the need to have political parties with religious agenda. State and Politics should be free from religion. Isn’t it more intelligent to first address problems related to the day to day material needs of the common man, the nations economic growth etc. than worry about God. I thought God, if at all it exists, is smart enough to take care of its own needs. The human need not form groups and parties here on earth to address God’s issues.

Chalo maan liya Ram ne banaya setu, hundres percent Raam ji ne hi banaya, par bhaiyaa raat gayi baat gayi. Ram to gaye na wapas swarg mein apsarao ke paas, unhe kya padi hai setu ki, rahe ya na rahe, phone ayaa tha kya Ram ka, ke bhakto meri Setu bachalo, main abhi aaunga holiday pe, Andaman Nicobor Islands, tab agar Raavan ne waapas seeta ko kidnap kar liya to bekaar mein double mehnat karni padegi bichare hanuman ko.

India is a secular state, I say India should be an atheist state where everybody would have the right to practice their religion but no body shall have the right to publicly propagate religion. No state activity should have religious implications, or should be triggered or controlled by religious practices. There should be no public dharna, morcha for the promotion / protection of any religion at all. Schools and other institutions shouldn’t have any spiritual prayers for the God but should have patriotic messages / songs / speeches etc.

In my school, which is a school founded by a British Lord, we used to have prayers like, “Bhagwan tumhi maata pita ho, tum hi bandhu sakha tumhi ho.” and “Asa toma Sad gamaya.” We also used to have Saraswati Puja every year. We shouldn’t have all these religious activity in an institution which is potentially attended by people from any and every religion. Since it is not possible to follow important religious activities of all religions, so let’s not follow any religion at all. Just because majority of students are Hidus why should there be a Hindu puja performed.

 Instead, we should have sung prayers like, “aao baccho tumhe dikhaye jhaanki hindustan ki is mitti se tilak karo yeh dharti hai balidaan ki” 

Over and over again it has been proved that a lot of the tradition and culture in any community / country have religious validity. People have been following these tradition because they think it is their religions duty. For eg. amongst Hindus people prefer sons over daughter for many socio-economic reasons but there is one strong religious reason too. As per Hinduism parents go to heaven only if their last rites are performed by a Son. So if you don’t have a son you will burn in hell. That was the starting point of preferring a son.

I am not quoting an example from Hindu religion because I am a Hindu basher before some one jumps at this, but because I only know about this example. There are many such practices of living a life restricted by rules which are illogical and unfair in all other religion too. Earliest practice of patriarchy can be traced back to Christianity and Islam. Excessive compulsory restriction on food habits in Jainism, clothing habits in Islam, control on sexuality in Christianity.

Good thing is Hinduism doesn’t have any such strict compulsory adherence to any particular practice (that doesn’t mean Hinduism is flawless) and that is why it makes sense for India to be a secular State. This is the land where majority of its Hindu population have gracefully absorbed all religions and cultures for centuries, which is why we are proud to be Indian. I don’t understand why some people now are trying to lose this one thing that makes India one of its kind in the world.

Will India be the same India, where people live by the mantra, Athithi devo bhava (The guest is God) if we have a Government which intends to make Hindu religious practices compulsory for all religions. For eg. to teach Bhagwat Geeta to every student and to make them do Surya Namaskar to name a few. No holy book need to be taught in any school at all. Sex education is more important than religious preaching.

The state be atheist and have a central education system free from religious influence, which means no Ram Krishna Missions, no missionary schools no madrasas, just State run education system with syllabus prescribed by State. Education is the back bone of society and it cannot allowed to be influenced by unscientific imaginary claims. The world was created by a big bang. Period.

So let us all keep away all our holy books and concentrate on the Constitution.

Crazy comments made by anonymous commentator who it seems are supporters of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh on my post “Did you read the Morung Express” on Mutiny. The post is wirtten under the categories popular media, new media and India. I have raised some questions about regionalism in our country and how its been so long we have been not paying enough attention to North-east.

There are some 80 comments at the moment so I can’t be copy pasting all that here. In response to their Islam phobia, their horrific allegiance to Hitler’s idea of pure nation and their talibansied version of Hindutva I have been writing these long comments which by itself are good blog posts. Am composing all my comments in this post because not everybody would be able to go through the entire chain of comments but if you do have time it could be an interesting read. This verbal dual is mostly between me, mutiny founder chacko, a friend Seema etc. at the side of Secularism and anonymous commentators, Smart Opinion, Modern Mullah, Sanjay etc. from RSS Brigade.

Comment no. 21
07 Mar 08, 4:43 am

I will ignore some immensely irrelevant comments here…no prize for guessing who and why ignore.

@ Iqbal, WMWC (Gopal), Chacko
Thanks for getting the point i made in this post and thanks for your inputs.

@Mohan,

Either you didn’t read it properly or you didn’t read it properly coz if you did I see no reason why you won’t get it… I guess I’ll sit with you in person with this but to make a few things clear for onlookers….

So we can blame it on us, the people who read these papers.

Long long time ago there was a chicken which lay an egg, no wait there was an egg which hatched into a chicken, no wait again.

Whenever people have to sell trash they’ll give this chicken and egg story. When a film maker would have to make a trash film he’ll say sex and masala is what audience like, but then somebody made a Chake De or TZP and those too worked. That audience which goes for a mindless David Dhawan Comedy also goes for a sensible cinema.

One has to serve the right thing to public and then see.

Now the reason why you’ve not been hearing of these states is that, either you are a Bangalore Mirror addict, which believes that Shah Rukh Khan’s hairstyle is more important than draught in Gujarat, or you, like me, just skip the news items when it comes to these states.

Are you serious? No really, that’s what you think that either I am a Bangalore Mirror addict, I mean “addict”… Or I skip channels when it comes to these states.

Wow you must be really naive to give such an either-or soulution to this issue. I mean wow, just don’t stop reading Bangalore Mirror or stop flipping channels and bam the north east part of India.

As I said you must not have read the post propely I mentioned very clearly the series of incidents that I followed before concluded north-east don’t get enough coverage.

To be honest, I really don’t give a damn about news from Nagaland or Mizoram, or Maharashtra for that matter. All I care about is my state (Kerala) news, Bangalore news (’coz I live here), Delhi news to an extent (’coz its the nation’s capital) and news from a few countries like US, UK, Japan, and a few other African countries (because I’m also interested in social work).

It’s not about what you give a damn about, it’s about to what you better give a damn about if you are a responsible citizen, because it is another citizen’s right that other citizens give a damn about his existence.

Now the reason why you see this news in the Morung Express is because it is a LOCAL online news media, catering to a predominantly East Indian audience. Morung express wont contain other news important to a general audience.

Did you visit Morung Express? Did you read the last para of my post? Sigh I have to quote myself again, “As a website it has created a nice blend of regional and national news. It doesn’t look like they are only reporting Nagaland.” Why only national they have nice coverage of International news too.

Get the point?

I don’t think you made a point in response to the point I made. My point, north-eastern states are almost like another country they hardly have any representation in the nation’s eyes… many factors are to be blamed, central governement, people’s attitude, popular media etc. But you my dear mohan disregarded the point and chose to sell some media sentiments here.
—

Comment no. 54
07 Mar 08, 11:45 pm

You know people from NIMHANS called, they were looking for volunteers for some of their lab research. I suggested Smart Opinion, MM and Sanjay’s names…I told them, “not sure if these items would volunteer or not but hey, you could TOW them away anyway…it’s not that India would lose anything.”

Last I heard, Hinduism was a progressive religion and Christianity was NOT and Islam was a religion which preaches killing of non Islam….now I hear American (which apparently is Christian) Constitution is blessed with the greatest freedom of speech, what more they freely make jokes about Jesus, but again all these days I was hearing Christians don’t make jokes about their religion at all, it is only Hinduism which is a tolerant religion.

This is a hypothetical question posed at the the freely roaming about public nuisance waiting to be towed away by NIMHANS for their lab tests, “Assuming you have your Hindu Rashtra, just as you want, what would be your approach to reintegrate North-East states back into the nation that is known as India. And when I say “state” I mean the people who would survive the spring cleaning that will happen during the take over from Secularism to Hinduism, if there would be any survivor at all i.e.

Alternatively, you could also answer a simpler question.

“What have been the efforts made and steps taken by the Hindutva flag bearers to make the people of North-east feel that they also are part of this Hindu nation?”

A Hindu mother abandoned it’s illegitimate child, left it to die in the middle of the street, a Christian mother came picked it up, fed it, took care of it and just when the child has begin to feel a wee better the Hindu mother comes frantically running beating chest, hurling abuses at the Christian mother for capturing / converting the child.

Tell you what, bad news for you, no body is spiritual enough to actually listen and understand religious speech and decide which God is greater. People are seeking a change of religion like they go for a change of life style, change of job, change of place, like they move in search of greener pasture, simply because the religion they were born with have failed to give them a life worth living.

If people are being converted in exchange of food shelter education medicine so be it…at least lives are saved, what good a religion do to one, if he doesn’t even have a mouthful to eat.

– If for centuries after centuries all that he and his forefathers have ever got is exploitation on the basis of caste and color - if for centuries his basic rights were denied - if, when the village he lived in was affected by drought, he was denied water from a well which belong to human who were born superior - then why would he not change his religion when some one comes and tells him few nice words, hugs him and says news for you, you are NOT a lesser human.

Why won’t he chose that God which has sent down such representatives who say, “There is only one God that is Jesus, Jesus loves you, and he is your only way to heaven, you don’t have to do much just pray” rather than being with a God whose representative says, “You are not worthy of offering your prayers to God, all your offers and prayers must go through me for I am the blessed brahmin, keep me happy give me good bhojan and you shall go to heaven, you can’t directly talk or see God, in fact you can’t even enter the temple premises because your blood isn’t pure.”

Why won’t he change his religion even though now, those very oppressors are crying out loud “hey don’t go, don’t go, see we have changed, we are now better people, we would no longer treat you badly, here, we abolish untouchability, here we have evolved and got rid of all our bad practices.” He will not. May be he’ll just walk away saying, “well it’s too late, the damage is done, now you pay for it I am off to a better life.” Of course he would walk away.

To the cry babies, my suggestion, why don’t you fight it out in the real ground, why not offer them an even better deal trying to lure them to keep their religion, than what they offer to lure them to convert. If the church offers hut, let the temple offer better huts, if Church offers some few medicines and local clinics let the temple offer swanky hospitals…play your turn man, play your turn, offer a damn good reason and the human shall stay a Hindu.

And hey don’t offer spiritualism alright, no guru gyaan, no vaanis, no shlokas no yogasans from the tapovans, the human needs material good for a better standard of living in the 21st century.

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Comment no. 77
08 Mar 08, 11:38 am

wow 80fucking5 comments all in the name of Hinduism v. all other religion

No body gave a good response to my comment no. 54, Nir Mounamed are you?

@smartopinion and other washermen’s dog waiting to be leashed and caged by the municipality

You can shove the Nir whatever and that list of Hindu legacy up your rear…coz I don’t give a damn about any religion at all. It is obvious while we talk about secularism where all religion are believed to be equal you talk about Hinduism v. all other religions.

I am trying to understand what is the root cause of your problem. I think its because either you or one of your previous generation in your greed to earn more and more money, wagged your tail at the whites / americans and left the nation for good.

But now that the crow couldn’t become a swan, he has this new found love for crowism. So there in the swan land he has made his own little community of all crows and preaching crowism to who, the crows back in the home land, those who were until few days back were not even bothered about good religion bad religion and were instead happily going about their day to day lives.

I don’t blame you guys…please spread around your new found love for Hinduism as you understand etc. in the place where you stay coz you need it there, you need some reason to indulge in groupism and feel important about your robotic money making life away from family and friends.

But we don’t need your preaching here in the real India because here everybody is happy the way things are, secular, here all religions did co exist and shall continue to co-exist in absolute harmony UNLESS a foreign hand bearing Hindutva flag pollutes our pure Hindu hearts which never learnt to hate other religions.

You people have no shame, you keep calling us psuedo while you yourselves are the biggest examples of pseudoism. We live here, we don’t need no outsider to come and tell us how things to be, stay out of this you anti national pseudo Indians, you pseudo Hindus working for non hindu companies, adding value to the economic growth of non hindu country, paying taxes to non hindu governments eating non hindu namak in a non hindu raashtra and then by all these hate preaching making a hole in that same plate.

Of the 3 MM seems to have at least some brains, so MM why don’t you logically respond to the questions I raised in comment number 54. How would you re integrate the converts? And what would you do to the non hindus living peacefully in this country as on date. people like our bollywood actors or my friends what is their fate in the hands of Hindutva champion Mr. Modi?

@smartie..

Let’s hear more about this ghar wapsi thingy.. so what exactly happens under it.. how many units operating in how many states? when did it start and how many ghar wapsi happened? Before talking about religion which is highly irrelevant when it comes to ground level problems answer these questions with facts and figures will you.

And btw does the ghar wapsi karyakram includes beghar bacche in US? Are those coming back to India? Bacche log apne apne ghar wapas aajao aap logo ki sab khujli band ho jaayegi, kaha kisne tha doosro ke ghar mein jaane ko?

@ All readers of this comment thread… look at this breaking news…

Comment no 78 smart opinion said:

“I guess this is the cultural difference between the advance USA and the backward Pseudo controlled India which U R living.”

He wants to make a Hindu nation with Hindu culture and he is giving example of cultural advancement of USA….and calls people living in India backward. What more do I have to say.

Yaar when will NIMHANS guys come….badi der kardi.

The original context can be found in the comments section of my post “Atheism, marriage and Law” found in Mutiny Archive for Dec 2007.

Key context Section 19 of Special Marriage Act and how it is worded in manner to discourage inter caste marriages are discouraged. Below are the long comments I made in that post. Archiving them here for people who might not want to read the entire comment thread.

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The point I made in this piece is very simple. There is a great legislation in the country under which two people from different religion can get married without any hassle, even though their parents won’t support them in the wedding. The Hindu Father won’t do a Kanyaa daan and the Kazi (or whoever is the person who performs wedding in Islam in whatever process, am not sure) won’t solemnize the marriage, but the state has a mechanism in place to allow such couples to be legally wedded and live happily ever after.

It is a great law, very secular and all and I want more people to be aware of this law, but my problem is with the language of section 19. I am repeating it for the Nth time, that the language of the section is what is problematic not the content.

Why? Because the language gives a wrong message. You are right, I don’t know law, I sleep with my boss to keep my job but I know English. To say, “any member of an undivided family…shall be deemed to effect his severance from such family” is not something anybody would take very lightly. The words “severance from family” will make a chill run through the spine. For a country like India where the family is the epitome of culture and good existence anybody severed from the family is miserable enough to not live at all let alone live happily ever after.

So am thinking why such strong words. Why is the section not even quoted by the common legal jargons like “For the purpose of…” OR “Save as otherwise”. Hindu Succession Act itself has Section 4 which lays down an “over riding effect” and it starts with, “For the removal of doubts it is hereby declared that nothing contained in this Act shall be deemed to affect the provision of…”

Just how difficult it is to make the “severance from family” bit subtle. If the section would have simply started by the words, “For the purpose of taxation and inheritance of Hindu property…” it would have been much subtle and wouldn’t have given this message, “Fine, go ahead get married without our permission but you’d be severed from the family”. If only they would have clearly stated the purpose of such severance from family.

But why am I telling you all this. I don’t have to argue so much because there are smarter people sitting up there and debating over this section. The National Commission of Woman has already recommended this section be deleted, because the other laws related to HUF and its property already have an over-riding effect. So it need not even be repeated here for any other purpose except to link the “decision to marry” with “severance from family”. The reason given by NCW for its deletion is, “Just only because of the marriage has been solemnized under this Act should not have effect on his severance from such family.”

Above all, this section not just gives a wrong message it is also factually incorrect. As per the Hindu laws, people within Sapinda relationship cannot marry each other. In simple language, it means cousins can’t marry or one can’t marry his / her niece nephew etc. If this section holds true, which is to say, if the person is automatically severed from such family, and the purpose of severance is never declared nor is it restricted to property matters only, the person marrying under this law would fall outside the Sapinda relations altogether due to the severance. And then his / her child can marry another cousin within this family?

But no, that can’t and shouldn’t be the intention of the legislature. So what is the intention behind the section? Same as I already mentioned. Discourage.

Now, I don’t even know why did you even begin to talk about this section. I thought the debate was about secularism, the pseudoness of it in all your might, why are you going into the question of how valid is Section 19 of SMA. Why are you giving me links to Express India and throwing your gyaan on case law at me when I am not debating them.

You said, “the HUD is basically a special case provision for tax, inheritance, income determination purpose. If the government used language to override every provision of HUD it would be the legal equivalent of saying that person has severed his/her ties with HUD.

What? I didn’t get it. Frame your questions properly. What is your point? When did I say anything about over riding every provision of HUF (and what is HUD)? Legal equivalent of what? I honestly didn’t get the question here. Nor the point.

HUF is not a concept invented by taxation laws btw. It ain’t invented by any law for that matter, it was there even before any legislation existed. They call it customary law in case you don’t know. Income Tax Act in 1961 only incorporated the concept and made special provisions relating to it.

You said, “I studied law only in two courses for 6 months for my MBA to cover product liability and I seem to know more.”

No wonder. Like they say, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

And then this is funny, your cry baby comment, “I have argued using case law and legal terminology that this article of yours is a piece of crap”. This was like a desperate attempt to seek other people’s attention, “hey look Modern Mullha knows case law and legal Jargon, wow!! LOL

Lastly, I don’t complaint to the moderator here, I suggest. I criticize. And there is no moderator, there is an edit team which is pretty democratic. I, in fact suggested you be only given a warning and not delete your comment. A warning, so that other people get the message that mutiny is watching and takes care when a commentator goes against the comment guidelines. Personally I have had enough flame wars in life I give to hoots about personal attackes, what more I myself indulge in it at times.

But 2S decided to delete your comment. Here’s to your happiness, your edited comment copy pasted just so that onlookers can get an idea of your great mind.

Modern Mulla said, @Sanjukta,

Also I feel that your parents are to blame for failing to inculcate good values in you about Hindu culture. They must have been more worried about getting you a good education and life partner. So your pseudo-secular rants out here are more a reflection about your family and upbringing.

Funny, how all this talk of Hinduism, Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra and the speech makers are trying their hard luck earning dollars and green cards in one of the most stupid nation. So much for the love of nation.

Mere laal, is desh mein kuch na rakha hai, videsh jaao dher saara dollar kamaao par wahan baith ke raashtra nirmaan zaroor karo.

This was supposed to be my rant blog where I would have ranted about everything that is wrong with us human. But I never ranted much. I had so many things to rant about in my personal life that never bothered much to rant about society. But here’s some of the long ranting comments I made on Mutiny.In in one of my post and another post by a certain Mahesh.

I just wanted to keep a copy of these rants in my personal space besides Mutiny.

The original context of the following can be found at the Mutiny Archives for February 2008, “We shall live till the end of times for we have done no wrong”

Sanjukta’s comment number 10
26 Feb 08, 4:27 am

I won’t start this comment by a rhetoric ‘Dear’ because the right winged people piss me off.. I find it difficult to even make friends with them… but why such strong reaction against them…

Because this whole agenda of trying to fix problem of the mankind with ‘my religion’ and ‘your religion’ is ridiculous to me…

There was this line in Rang De Basanti, and since it wasn’t censored by CBFC, am hoping it’s ok to quote that here, “ek pair kal pe te dooja pair aane waale kal pe tabhi to hum aaj pe mut rahe hai” (we have one feet on yesterday, one on tomorrow and that’s how we pee on today) befitting for people who live in history’s lost glory.

True there was a time when there was no Greece or Rome but India was standing, but then there was also a time when there was no Greece, Roam or India there were dinosaurs and dragons.. so? Big deal… can we stop living in the past and move on…your peaceful history doesn’t justify your violent present, today you talk about Hindutva, tomorrow you’ll kill people in the name of Maharashtratva, then Delhitva…you already are actually…

God / Religion is the sole cause of so much blood shed in the whole world, most religious extremists have been guilty and now the Hindus must join the band wagon too… thus Hindus too must take up the weapon and turn violent. And why? To save Hinduism of course, to save our lost glory, our great culture…well, save ‘lives’ first will you…

There are things that endangers the mankind, poverty, health, environment, ignorance, corruption, how would religion, be it any religion, address these ground level issues?? Will Hindutva feed the hungry?

“United we stand divided we fall” For ages we stood united, yes, time when there was no Greece and Rome we were united, its only recently when the right winged parties (getting political here, coz you so proudly declared your political allegiance) unleashed their pure nation theory on the country, when they started contesting elections on the basis of a manifesto which promised to build a certain temple on a certain piece of land of all the things… that we stood divided.

It is only when a fear of losing my religion is being unnecessarily forced upon me that I start hating other religions. Unnecessary because (a) I don’t lose or gain my religion with the movement of a foreign hand waving a magic wand at me, it is something I believe in and practice and I DON’T need no body telling me which religion is mine, what is good and what i must follow. Let me decide that. (b) Even if I do, big deal.

We don’t need no RSS to “organize” (read mislead, divert) the country men for an irrelevant issue, we need scientific / social / economic development, we need to bridge the gap between rich and poor, between upper and lower caste, between genders.

“The organization of Hindus being done…We need conviction and need to stay united against the evil forces”

Against who? What evil forces? Who is planting the seed of divide here? And who are your Hindus btw? Enlighten me, do you consider the people from Manipur, Mizoram Arunachal Pradesh as Hindus or are only the Ram and Hanuman Bhakts known as Hindu?

As rightly pointed out by Venkatesh (in the link he left above), Hinduism is a way of life more than being a religion. With all the Gods that are found in various shapes, sizes, colors, purposes its more of an industry to be honest.

RSS has neither the right nor the capacity to decide what is being Hindu, invent a fanciful Hindutva and then thrust it upon the rest of the country.

So, need of the hour Mr. Mahesh, as 2s already pointed out, is to separate the state from the religion. Let me go ahead and make an extreme statement, India is a secular state, well I think India should be an atheist state. Don’t talk about Gods when you are building a nation, talk about humans.

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Comment number 12
26 Feb 08, 6:23 am

@Smart Opinion.

You called 2s a pseudo quite a few times, I was wondering, and I always do, why do all the right winged people leave comment under a PSEUDO name…smart opinion, Modern Mullah et all. Nevermind.

You talked about UCC, for those who are not aware, it’s the Uniform Civil Code which means all people in India to have a single law for personal affairs of civil nature like marriage divorce, inheritance etc.

Tell me, did you ever try to draft UCC in your mind? How does it look to you? Does it look like Hindu Family Law being forced upon people of any and every religion living in India? Or is it going to be a balance between the various personal laws, sort of get the best of all world? Because trust me there are indeed good things under all personal laws.

A Hindu marriage is a sacrament, a union for 7 birth, that is why a Hindu widow has no right to remarry, in fact she should be burnt alive along with their Husband (call that Sati). A Muslim marriage on the other hand is a social contract. The groom have to pay a price in consideration of which the bride agrees to marry him.

That reminds me, you mentioned “Hinduism is evolving.” You are right, it indeed is. So it was only when thousands and thousands of Widows were killed, that we evolved and abolished Sati daha pratha. Islam, on the other hand always thought marriage is merely a social contract so a widow can always remarry so they never killed a Muslim widow.

The Hindu marriage is still not compulsorily registrable, while Muslim marriage was always done in writing. A nikahnama (pre nuptial agreement) is an integral part of a Muslim marriage.

Under the UCC, are we going to get rid of that Sacrament bit from Hindu marriages and accept what it truly is, a social contract? Are all Hindus ready to get rid of the most important ritual required to solemnize a marriage, that of Saptapadi (7 rounds / steps) and are all Muslim ready to get rid of the “Kabool hai” bit and are we as a nation, Hindu Muslim etc. alike ready to replace all our religion based rituals and ceremonies with just “4 signatures and a stamp paper?”

Let me know how many right winged Hindus have discarded the Hindu ceremony and went for a SMA instead. Dig my post, “Atheism Law and Marriage” from the Mutiny archives to know what SMA is.

Bigamy is prohibited amongst Hindus but allowed in Islam. That’s your worry. Go look up the data on how many Hindus actually practice bigamy and even better, go figure how many Hindu wives have happily accepted bigamy. (I’ll put some links later on mutiny may be). So, how about we have a balance here and say we allow 2 wives and 2 Husbands to all.

Muslim be not governed by Sharia and Hindus be not governed by Manusmriti. Sounds good?

UCC is an impossibility by all means. If the right wing must insist they must be insisting on making all personal laws similar to Hindu Law.

You sum up the RSS / Hindutva intentions well when you said this “Pseudos like you living in UTOPIA destroyed this country and are still doing that.. Since Kangis cornered Hindus for the sake of Muslim votes now this history has to be reversed..”

Tell you what, united we shall stand, no matter how much you try to fill our hearts with hatred for each other, how much you try to divide Indians on the basis of religion, because at the end of the day law and order would prevail, not all Modis would go scot free. I shall still value my muh bola Muslim brother’s opinion more than I value my real first cousin, and he shall still be excited to visit me on Raksha Bandhan because we have great faith in the country’s Constitution and love for each other.

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