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Thursday, September 18, 2003
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I HATE TO DISAGREE WITH MARY, BUT HOW OFTEN DO I GET TO SHOW OFF MY KNOWLEDGE OF INDIAN POLITICS?
As my regular readers know, I have nothing but the utmost esteem for Mary Magdalicious. She is amoungst the funniest and most sensitive writers I know. I implore you all to read both her blog and her work at Chaos In Motion. You'll be glad you did.
And I can't really blame her for knowing little about Indian politics. It's an aquired taste.
Mary had linked this article from the Guardian (the most leftist newspaper since Pravda went legit) that implied that sectarian strife in India is actually sectarian in nature.
It's not. Although it's a little complicated to explain the current "religious" violence is anything but. For melinnia, India had a peaceful co-existance between its Hindu majority and Muslim minority. Sectarian violence was almost unheard of. The Caste system existed to fuel the local need for irrational hatred. As a matter of fact, during the, albeit brief, Persian reign over India, inter-religious strife was virtually unknown.
Then came the British. The British had already perfected the political tool of "divide and conquer" by the tme they reached India (see, Africa). The division of the sub-contenient along ethinic/eligious lines'prevented a uninfied front against the British occupation and exploitation of their land. The problem was they were just a tad too successful. When it came time for the British to go back to the Isle of Boiled Food, they realized that they couldn't just flee without a Hindu/Muslim holocaust. So, they carved a big hunk out of northeastern India, called it Pakistan and said "Okay, Muslims, on three......One, Two, Three.....RUN!" And the Muslims ran just as fast as the British did. Well, not quite...the Muslims didn't have a navy. Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered during the "repatriation" process.
But there was a lession to be learned. The Indians are good at learning.
For a long time the lessons were held in reserve. During the socialist rule of the Congress Party (all of whose leaders were from one family. I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out to Mr. Harding that Ragiv Gandhi was removed by multiple assassin's bullets as opposed to a weapons scandal) there was more than enough corruption to go around.
But the corruption train reached it's last station and Congress was at a loss as to where to turn. Thankfully, there was the opposition BJP which had an answer; killing thy neighbour. Well, that's not entirely true. You see, India has a problem common to countries whose names begin with the letter "I"... They have more political parties than citizens.So, the BJP is actually an amalgamation of smaller, regional parties. These parties learned in the early nineties that more Muslims you kill, the more votes you get. And so on and so on and so on.
Nothing works like success, the BJP and it's component parties won one election. Then another one. And another one still. And guess what....an election in India is due pretty soon. Nothing succeeds quite like success. In terms that Americans can understand, it's like the Governor of Alabama pushing a tax-raising referendum because that's "what Jesus would want"...Okay, bad example.
Anyway, I hope this served as some clarification, All right, I know it isn't but I feel pretty now.
Okay, actually I'm bitter! I demand to know why a working knowledge of Indian politics can't get me laid! Is it not........ sexxsay??
Currently Reading: The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate - Robert A. Caro ( Well, I am over 600 pages in)
Number of Times I Masturbated Today: 3
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