Status and Facts

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Earning the Right

I remember a remark that US President George Bush made, that US wanted to make India a superpower. As much as I appreciate President and USA, I think any such assumption is delusional or worse disingenuous. One can no more make anyone a superpower as he can make him a genius. That status has to be achieved. Respect is earned not petitioned.

Religion & Reformation

Secular – Right posted about a debate regarding reform of Islam.

The gentleman who was representing Islam, to me seemed to be not at ease; his arguments were evasive and tended to be defensive.

The problem with any discussions can be stated like this.

How Islam (or any religion for that matter) is defined. If it is assumed that Koran contains words of Allah in immutable and final form and therefore a true Muslim has to obey it in absolute sense without modifying any of the instructions, it poses a problem because along with suras which instruct for kindness and tolerance, there are many others which instruct to ruthlessly crush the non-believers.

This is not unique to Islam. Old Testament, New Testament and Hindu scriptures contain lots of instructions which call for violence which will be unacceptable in modern civilization. This is a dilemma for any religious person, but especially adherent to “book”, by this I mean Muslims and to a large extent Christians. It is sought to be resolved by reinterpretation of the inconvenient verses, this in my view is a self defeating exercise.

For example there are verses which exhort to eliminate idolaters, or which instruct to distrust Jews. The instructions are clear enough, they can not be reinterpreted or limited, nor is it possible to quote some other instruction which preach tolerance. This causes lots of stress to anyone willing to follow the canon.

As a religious person here is my thought on that. I was born Hindu therefore I have a natural bias for Hinduism. I hope I will be able to form a consistent world view, a right way in other words. It might be Hinduism or Christianity or even Atheism. I am a seeker, since I have a. inherent affinity with religion of my birth, I am also skeptical of my conclusions.

I do not accept that scriptures were handed to us by God. They were written by men, exceptional men no doubt but men nevertheless. Therefore scriptures contain human wisdom, they also contain human folly.

I will accept scriptures which I agree with, I will reject those I do not agree with.
For example I accept of a higher truth, but I reject discrimination on basis of birth. I accept dharma but reject suppression of women.

The earliest Hindus were seekers of knowledge; least I can do is to emulate them.

Existence

From “Beyond the Horizon” by Robert Heinlein (I have not finished the book yet)

“The only rational personal philosophy based on a conviction that we die dead, never to rise again, is a philosophy of complete hedonism. Such a hedonist might seek his pleasure in life in very subtle, indirect, and sublimated fashions; nevertheless pleasure must be his only rational purpose-no matter how lofty his conduct may appear to be. On the other hand, the possibility of something more to life than the short span we see opens up an unlimited possibility of evaluations other than hedonistic.”

This is the reason all philosophies whether theist or atheist, strive to assign some value system independent of and outside logic and perceptions.

Idiots abound

Via rediff

Anti-Bush anger spills onto Delhi streets,

The usual suspects are Amar Singh (who in addition to being a second rate celebrity and third rate politician, is also a first rate telephone conversationist) and China worshippers like A B Bardhan, D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat.

They are leading the usual bunch of gullible and clueless public.

In way they are yang to fawning Indian media.

It is all a circus.

Difference of Surname

I wonder what would have happened if Indira Gandhi had married a "LokhandWala" instead of "Gandhi", I think India would have been a much better place.

GWB and Indian Media

If anyone were reading Indian news papers (or portals for that matter), he would have found it impossible to miss the ecstasy over visit of US President George Bush. In contrast American newspapers (and even the bloggers) have missed this story or at most given a cursory coverage. Similarly visit of Indian Prime Minister to US is hardly any news.

Now I am not questioning this asymmetry, I perfectly understand that India is nowhere near US either economically or military wise.
As much as I would like India to be a superpower, she is not, what is more there is no guarantee that India will be one is near or far future.
However I do object to the revolting fascination of Indian media. I do not understand for example why the fact GWB will be eating mutton biryani is news. The way Indian media is covering the present visit it almost seems that GWB is a monarch and Indians are his subjects.
Why should media blow by blow account of visit, with such embellishments as how he is awed by India or what he wrote at Rajghat is beyond my comprehension.

When the west stereotype India, we are partially responsible for it.
By dissecting such trivialities in such a earnest manner, Indian media is just showing how a particular group of India suffers from low self esteem.

PS. Atanu wrote about inane obsession of Indian media with current visit.
I do not share Atanu's scorn for GWB, while he is not a Thomas Jefferson, I prefer him over
John "Benedict Arnold"Kerry