A View of India from Steve Ratner

This article by Steve Ratner in NYT provides a perspective on India, especially in comparison to China, that I find persuasive. I haven't been to China since early 2005, but even then it seemed further ahead in economic development compared to what I see in India now. Ratner's oberservations comport with mine and with those whom I read about India. Of course, economic development isn't the only measure of any nation's standing or success, but when so many people are in absolute poverty as they are here and with so much potential going untapped, it certainly is a crucial marker and the most objective. 

The Inscrutable Panda has always said that corruption is China's biggest challenge, but objectively (see the article) and according to almost anyone here, India leads in this sad category. With a burgeoning and well-educated (although numerically small) middle class, I would have expected more of an uprising against corruption and inept government, but after a lot of publicity last fall, I haven't noted much activity. Maybe its percolating below the surface in anticipation of the 2014 elections. I hope so. 

One parting, random thought however: if the world gets serious about climate change and if carbon-based fuel use is reduced (by whatever means), will less developed nations like India gain a comparative advantage because it is not as deeply tied into the petroleum economy? Just a thought. Goodness knows there's lots of sun light here, although we don't have a good way of converting that to transportation energy yet (do we?). But if the world changes in this manner, perhaps India would be in a better position to prosper. Just a thought. 

Nazis in India?

Nazis in India? Well, no. First of all, there is no Nazi remnant hiding hear, this isn't Argentina or Paraguay in the 60's. Rather, I'm thinking of two phenomena, one quite benign and one quite troubling. Let's start with the benign story first. 

A neighboring property displaying a swastika

This photo shows a swastitka (卐) (Sanskrit: स्वस्तिक). In fact, well before the Nazis appropriated this symbol, it had been a staple Hindu icon from the days of the Indus Valley civilization. Buddhists and Jains later incorporated the symbol as well into their traditions. Wikipedia says the following about translating the term: 

swastika literally means "to be good". Or another translation can be made: "swa" is "higher self", "asti" meaning "being", and "ka" as a suffix, so the translation can be interpreted as "being with higher self".

 A far cry from the Nazis! So how did it arrive in Hitler's Germany? 

The symbol arrived in Europe centuries before its appropriation by the Nazis, and it was considered a symbol of good luck. However, in 1920 the symbol suffered some bad luck of its own when the Nazis adopted it. Based on their crackpot theories of race, the Nazis designated the swastika as a symbol of the Aryan race. Nazis believed that "race" (as they defined it in their warped way) was the controlling factor in society and politics and that the Aryans were "the master race". Aryans were the group of people who invaded and conquered north India centuries ago, and somehow this morphed in Nazi ideology as a manifestation of the "master race". Crackpot science carries the day. 
 
In sum, if you read the Wikipedia article about it, the swastika has a long and famous history, and Nazi adoption of it was a temporary and unfounded perversion. If you come to India or see it elsewhere in South Asia, don't be alarmed. It's intentions are good. 




   When I first came to India and began haunting the bookstores, I kept coming across the title shown in the image above. At first I treated it as a mere curiosity, perhaps someone had an overstock. Titles in bookstores here can prove quite eclectic. However, I realized that this was not an aberration but a revelation of something deeper. Two items of information came to me that provided me some insight. One source came as the result of a man in Mumbai named Bal Thackeray (named after the British novelist). He was a right-wing political leader who professed some admiration for Hitler and his methods:  “If you take Mein Kampf and if you remove the word Jew and put in the word Muslim, that is what I believe in.” His death (from natural causes) created quite a national news item, and it pretty much shut down Mumbai for a couple of days. This guy was not just any right-wing kook it turns out. 

However, my sense of disquiet grew when I read this article, which recounts the experience of a school teacher with a well-to-do set of students in Mumbai. Hitler proved far more popular then Gandhi. (Nine students admired Hitler; one admired Gandhi.) Students professed admiration for Hitler's oratory and "love of country". And some vehemently disparaged Gandhi. While I have criticisms of Gandhi, Gandhi (and any criticisms of him) are in a different moral universe than what we can say about Hitler. Hitler is about as close to unmitigated evil in a political leader as we can find. How could Indian youngsters profess any admiration for Hitler? Some Germans did (and perhaps a few stragglers do) profess such admiration, but I couldn't imagine anywhere in Germany or the U.S. where Hitler would receive any such favorable mention. 

The article is worth reading. From this I conclude that rampant, virulent nationalism lives here as it does in many other nations. Like a shingles virus, it waits quietly in the body politic until conditions are ripe to manifest itself and deploy its deadly DNA to run riot through society. Note well, per John Lukacs, nationalism is not patriotism. But few understand and appreciate the distinction. Let's hope here, and everywhere, a sane group of women and men  grasp the distinction patriotism and nationalism and keep us free from the malady that Hitler so horribly manifested. 

 

"Who's Laughing Now?" or "Baby, It's Cold Inside"

Or "The Lizards Really Have It Figured Out" or "I'm Freezing My Arse Off!" The possibilities for titles to this blog seem endless. 

In mid-December I scoffed at those locals who spoke about the cold. The days and evenings reminded me of late September, warm and sunny during the day and cool--but not cold--at night. Such whimps, I thought. Talk of colder days to come was that: just so much talk. 

Then something happened. It got cold. 

Since returning from Kerala (on the coast, further south), where you didn't need a jacket in the evening and you ran the air conditioning all night, we returned to record low temperatures here in Jaipur. In other words, temperatures down into the 30's (F). 

"Steve", you say, "have you forgotten your roots, those cold, if not frigid, Iowa winters?".  
"No", I reply, "I haven't forgotten them".  
"Well, then, don't complain, compare". 
"But, there's one difference."
"What's that?" 
"Central heating." 

There lies the rub. It's really not so much that it's cold out there, it that it's cold in here! Our little two-room apartment (and I'm counting the bathroom as a room) has no central heating. We have a small space heater, but I can assure you that it doesn't heat much space. The cold seems to strangle the heat before it reaches me. 

This is what makes it tough, that it never really gets warm in here. In fact, I open the windows and doors to allow in some ambient warm air (it's still into the 60's during the day), but it doesn't make much of dent with our tile floors and concrete walls. 

So now, in the morning, I follow the example of the locals and dress myself warmly and go sit in the bright morning sun (after about 9 o'clock). The clothes idea I get from the humans, the sun basking from the geckos. 

Okay, enough for now. I've got to go sit with Gordon. 

Keep warm.   

Women and India

The current American shame is our idolatry toward guns, our Moloch, as aptly Garry Wills describes it. We sacrifice innocents to it: women and children as well as men. I feel a sense of shame and despair when I consider this subject. But I suppose that every country has a shame that it must own and deal with, and in India, that shame is rape and the treatment of women. India is not alone in mistreating women, of course. Rape and other forms of degradation happen in all societies, but perhaps because of its high ideals and aspirations, the shame is more pronounced here. 

When I first came to India, I thought that India stood fairly well in the treatment of women. Women had served as leaders in the pre-Independence Congress Party, India had a female prime minister (Indira Gandhi), female politicians, famous Bollywood actresses, and young professionals. The de facto leader of the country is Sonia Gandhi, the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and widow of Rajiv Gandhi (both of whom were assassinated, but that is a separate issue and one that in its macabre way is gender-neutral). I have commented earlier on some issues related to women, but the event in December and the subsequent national outcry have raised the issue in a new and poignant way. 

I understand that news reports worldwide carried the report of the Delhi gang rape and murder of a young woman traveling home from a movie one night with a boyfriend. The event was—is—shockingly horrible. I have since learned that this brutal act is not an aberration, but only the most visible manifestation of an ongoing problem. Women in Delhi, especially, are subject to sexual harassment and groping on a regular basis. (Interestingly, some report that Mumbai does not suffer the same level of sexual harassment.) I’ve learned that reactionary politicians claim that the these acts are because of city life and an attendant liberalization of mores, such as allowing women out of the house or out at night. But in fact, things are much worse at the village level. One politician claimed that such events don’t occur in Bharat, another name for India, but Bharat seems to serve as code for a very traditional (i.e., patriarchal and hierarchical) way of life. In fact, the treatment of women is worse in the villages and areas of "tradition".
 

My thesis (hypothesis, really) is that "Bharat" —the village mentality—is the culprit here, not the cities as such. Delhi, at population of around 14 million, has seen a huge influx of migrants from the villages hoping for work and success, but work and material success are very hard to find. Because of a gender imbalance (mistreatment, even murder, of females at young ages have treated a population imbalance in genders), we have groups of young men without guidance or real hope for a better life. These are yougn males without family, mentors, spouses, or anything other than similarly situated young males--a sure recipe for crime. The mores of the village, where women are “kept in their place” by force and violence, including rape, are now transferred to the city, where keeping violence under any limitations becomes an even greater challenge. 

What is the answer? Politicians and the public are howling for a quick execution by hanging the culprits. If the heinousness of the crime justifies capital punishment, then surely this case qualifies. However, politicians who posture for the death penalty in all rape cases ignore the fact that this would make convictions more difficult. However, the practical intention of such statements is to mollify popular feeling and allow the politicians and the public to ignore the wider issues about the treatment of women. The Indian middle class, men and women, seemed to have mobilized around this issue, but it will remain a long struggle. A shocking number of Indians still live in rural settings, impoverished and undereducated. These stubborn facts will continue to place a huge drag on social progress in India. 

One note about this: I don’t know anything about the perpetrators. However, I don’t’ think that this is a religious issue. I assume that the perpetrators, to the extent they claim any religious background, were Hindu. But the problem is not one of Hinduism, or Islam, or any other religion. Rather, it’s a reaction to modernity and the pressures that modernity places on traditional societies, like rural India,  and including the rural Indians now living in cities. They perceive that they can’t keep up. Much of this part of the world is losing as it watches some among them prosper. Remember, for every fact or situation in India, a counter-example likely exists just a stone’s throw away. 

What is to be done? Education, education, education. Not just in the sense of school rooms and mastering the 3 R’s, but a true drawing out. Economic development must provide a foundation, but that will provide only a foundation. A society as large and diverse as this one will need all of help it can get from sources great and small. Let’s all contribute what we can to this task. 

Addendum: Here are some articles I recommend pertinent to this topic:

https://www.readability.com/articles/vwqkn68m (NYT article by Manu Joseph that criticizes the village mentality and cities should be havens of liberalism in the traditional sense. A very good article.)

https://www.readability.com/articles/f7st8o9n (NYT article by Sonia Faleiro, who grew up in Delhi & later moved to Mumbai. She details the problems from a woman’s perspective)

http://www.readability.com/articles/qjbf1mrk (The Hindu article by Ramachandra Guha about empowering women, especially politically)

Commentary by Amartya Sen: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Amartya-Sen-shocked-over-politicians-comments-on-Delhi-gang-rape/articleshow/17906800.cms (Bangladesh now exceeds India in indicators of development because of its better treatment of women) and more of the same in The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/bangladesh-ahead-of-india-in-gender-equality-amartya-sen/article4277151.ece  (note the comparison to China). 

Here he speaks about "missing women" & related develop  issues in The Hindu: http://www.readability.com/articles/yntutxxf 

 

Tarquin Hall: The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken: A Vish Puri Mystery

Since learning that we’d be coming to India to live, I’ve tried to read a great deal about this vast nation. The amount written about this country is immense, and given that I’m a promiscuous reader wanting to master several topics at once, I’ve only made a dent in learning what I can about India. Thus, while I have completed relatively few books, I have read a good deal or learned vicariously from IG and her reading. Amartya Sen, William Dalrymple, Shashi Thoroor, Andre Betielle, Richard Sorabji, Pankraj Mishra, Kathryn Boo (via IG), NYT articles, The Economist, and so on have served as very enlightening guides. I’ve made a dent, anyway. However, now I’ve made a breakthrough: I’ve completed The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken: A Vish Puri Mystery by Tarquin Hall. 

Hall is a Brit, married to an Indian, and living near Delhi. His skill as a writer combines with his insider/outsider status to give me some delightful insights into India. In fact, I’d posit that the standard detective novel, the “who dun it?” may prove the perfect vehicle to learn about a new society or culture. In this case goes a long way in supporting that proposition. 

Vish Puri, a former Army intelligence officer turned private detective, with a caring (if occasionally bothersome) wife and meddling “mummy-ji”, assited by a stable of colorfully nick-named stable of helpers (labor is cheap in India), gets called into work on the death of a prominent Pakistani. The death involves two subjects of great emotional valance in India: cricket and Pakistan. The decedent is involved with cricket, the national game here, and (I think) in Pakistan as well. His investigation of the murder leads Puri to Pakistan, which, before these events, had simply been “the enemy” to Puri. But as Puri learns, the two nations share a great deal, including a troubling and sad history that still holds the memory of many wrongs on both sides of the border. Puri expands his horizons in the course of his investigation, while he’s also dodging or ignoring the dietary constraints that his wife wants him to follow. His nickname isn’t “Chubby” for nothing. 

This book caught my eye because the front cover displayed a favorable blurb from Alexander McCall Smith.  I discovered that Hall’s creation matches many of the attributes that makes Smith’s No.1 Ladies Detective Agency and Isabel Dalhousie series so successful: an endearing main character--not a super-hero, hard-boiled type, or super-sleuth--but a wonderfully fallible character deeply immersed in the culture around  her. So for shear enjoyment while learning a great deal about this vast country, and with the highest compliment in comparing this book to one of McCall Smith’s books, I suggest you put this in your reading pile, whether you come to India or only want to explore from your armchair. I don’t think that you’ll be disappointed.

Greetings from Kochi, Kerala, India

Greetings from Kochi, Kerala, India, where Iowa Guru along with our two offspring are vacationing. I think that I’ll share some initial thoughts about observations from our first 24 hours in Kerala:

1.    The roads that we’ve been on have been reasonably good, although it’s been a small sample so far.

2.    The roads have some litter, but so far, I’ve not seen any real collections of garbage that I see in Jaipur. Does this inidicate better municipal services? A greater sense of civic pride?

3.    I’ve noticed much less horn-honking and general traffic chaos.

4.    I’ve not seen any human or animal-powered vehicles on the roads, whereas this phenomena commonly occurs in Jaipur.

5.    The language (Mayorayum) and script here are quite different from the Hindi of the north. The script is more like a Thai script or other south Asian scripts that I’ve seen.

6.    The English here seems quite good, and that’s consistent from what I was told by friends in Jaipur. English is, it seems, the common language. I’ve heard that the people here in the south aren’t so keen on the use of Hindi.

7.    Our taxi into town had a rosary wrapped around the mirror and a figure of the Maddona and Child figurine on the dashboard. In addition, we’ve seen a couple of churches, a drawing of the Jesus & the Sacred Heart in the lobby, and a tuk-tub with “Christ” written about the windshield. It seems that Christians are the most significant minority here instead of Muslims.

8.    In reviewing local history, I see that the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British all were here and left traces. I’d guess that the Portuguese left the Catholicism.

9.    The weather here is hot & muggy. A short walk this morning left IG and I very sweaty, a far cry from current Jaipur weather. As Jaipur shares 27 degrees latitude with Miami and south Texas, I’d guess that we’re more on par with Cuba or an even lower latitude Carribean island. (Sorry, no Internet as a I write this; check it yourself.)

10.  A lot of the food here has a coconut base that my doctor warned me about (quite mistakenly, I think; he’s not up on his Taubes & Sisson), but in any event, it’s quite tasty. Also, since we’re on the Malabar coast, we have access to fresh fish (not so much in semi-arid Rajasthan).

11. Men wear skirts here. I can’ remember what they are called, but I’m not going there. I’m all for dressing native as appropriate, but there are limits.

12. The electricity goes off in the hotel here at random times but comes on again in a few seconds. For several reasons we didn’t venture out much today, so I don’t know if this happens across a grid or it is particular to our hotel.

13. Kerala in the late 1950’s had the first (so they say) popularly elected Communist government. I suppose because of constitutional restraints and the restraints of real elections, they didn’t cause harm here; in fact, they may have done some real good. The literacy rate here is the highest in India, where literacy and poverty levels remain discouragingly high. I don’t know the story of how all of this occurred here, but on the whole, compared to what I’ve seen in Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi, things look pretty good here. (I owe a separate post on Delhi, which is, I think, sui generis among Indian cities, much like Washington D.C. among American cities.)

This concludes my report on the first 24 hours of observations of Kochi and Kerala. Some touring is on tap for tomorrow, so I should learn more and share.

Namaste.