India

2 March 2020: A video from northeast Delhi - verified by fact-checking website AltNews - shows five men, injured, lying on a road and singing the national anthem. Some of them are being made to sing the national anthem. What is happening in India today?

 

7 Aug. 2019: Indian-administered Kashmir is in a state of lockdown. What happened with Kashmir and why it matters.

Update 27-30 Nov. 2008: While I earlier reported about India's tech sector following explosions in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, a much more severe situation has developed in Mumbai. The attacks began on Wednesday, 26 November and were soon perceived as having possible repercussions in reference to Kashmir. This went along with conflicting messages including that the Indian air and missile forces were placed on war footing.

It is generally accepted that Kashmir is a victim of the disputed division of British India during the transfer of colonial power in 1947. A border was created on religious lines, and states with a Muslim majority formed the newly created Pakistan alongside a predominantly Hindu India. When India and Pakistan became independent, it was generally assumed that Jammu and Kashmir, with its 80 per cent Muslim population, would accede to Pakistan, but Kashmir was one of 565 princely states whose rulers had given their loyalty to Britain but preserved their royal titles. The partition plan, negotiated by the last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, excluded these princely states, which were granted independence without the power to express it.

The partition of India in August 1947, was very much connected with the British concern about the possibility for the USSR acquiring influence in the area lying between Turkey and India. The USSR's victory over Germany in 1945 had increased Joseph Stalin's ambitions As we also will be able to demonstrate in the following series of studies (of which the current briefest one of all, acts as a sort of powerful as it is-- introduction) to extend his country's influence into Asian territories. Partition of British India's Geostrategic Cause.

When we earlier wrote Through Burma and Back, in fact we started our incursion into Burma from India and in a separate occasion from Thailand. When two days ago then we issued the claim that ethnic difference, and in particular, tensions between "majority" and "minority" have been greater amplified in the case India then they have been in the case of Myanmar/Burma we must turn to India: The Clash Within: The World's Largest Democracy?

As India observed the Battle of Plassey, politicians according the June 29, 2007 BBC article, have used the historic battle site to promote contrasting nationalist visions. Our team researched the various aspects involved at the time, coming to a new viewpoint that we next will follow up with a major study of the whole Eurasian theatre beyond India. Deciding to go for facts rather than fiction today:

Historians have often been tempted to see the later part of early modern times as the grand prelude to the supremacy of Europe, a presumption that deserves a second look in: The Eurasian Industrial Revolution.

According to a 2005 movie about Subhash Chandra Bose, Hitler was explicit about his contempt for Hindus and other "Asiatic mountebanks". (See the essay of K. Elst about the Bose movie, published in: Return of the Swastika, 2007) P.1.

From Japan to Burma, P.2

From Nagaland to Burma, P.1

From Nagaland to Burma, P.2

A new law in India triggered mass Hindu-religious  conversions. While Mahatma Gandhi's support for an inclusive Indian politics was rooted in his understanding of Hinduism as tolerant and non-violent, the communal politics of the Sangh Parivar reflect their own vision of Hindu tradition as militant and assertive. Differing interpretations of religion inform competing visions of society, both involving reinterpreting a given religious tradition for the modem era. Thus debates over secular as opposed to religious conceptions of moral order, as demonstrated next, do not represent a conflict between modernity and tradition, per se, but rather, between competing visions of both religious tradition and political life. Politics in S.Asia P.1.

In S.Asia (sometimes also encountered in our research report about Europe) states and state actors are neither as secular nor as progressive as many presume. On the contrary, state elites regularly appeal to religion as a means of mobilizing popular sentiments behind a reified conception of political authority. But while religion is introduced into politics within the context of nationalist or communal discourse, the symbols, images and rituals of religion provide the raw material from which such identities and ideologies are constructed. Politics in S.Asia P.2 post-1966 Indira Gandhi.

Political campaigns in India, are increasingly defined more by marketing strategies than political debate, and divisive social issues tends to undermine, not encourage, dialogue on matters of genuine national concerns. Politics in S.Asia P.3 Competitive Populism.

Protestant Buddhism. Ambedkar (1891-1956), leader of India's Untouchables, first encountered Buddhism through the Dravidian Buddhist Society founded by that time President of the Theosophical Society and author of “People from the other World,” Henry Olcott. During its inaugural meeting in 1898 in Madras Olcott stated:

As for religious violence as such, it is important to look at what provides the legitimation for the violence. Often used as a tool by political elites, targets are frequently symbols of collective identity and third, rumors, often grotesque ones, playa major role in fomenting violence.  Political Religious Violence in Asia P.1:

However, the feeling of humiliation is the most common thread, it is critical to consider the economic, social, and political grievances, as originating causes of religious violence. When religion enters the mix however, emotional resonance of religious narratives, symbols, rituals, and their transcendental frames, makes the violent conflict become less susceptible to negotiation. But acts of terror can also function as "symbolic empowerment" of marginal men. Political Religious Violence in Asia P.2:

While early on  we already researched ‘political religions’ like Fascism and Communism, it should not come as a surprise that ‘religious discourse as such’, also, can empower, engender, or disrupt violence. Political Religious Violence in Asia P.3:

Update August 9, 2007: The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group faces serious shortages in man power and materials, Press Trust of India reported Aug. 9, citing unnamed Indian Army sources. The militant group has reportedly been making "desperate" calls to its Pakistani backers to replenish its supplies.

Marking the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, 25,000 landless people marched 325km (202 miles) in order to ask for land reform in New Delhi. In fact there is a current crisis in India where hitherto trusted methods of moral enquiry have become sterile. According to a recent WHO report to cite one example, less than 5% of Indian medical schools offer any systematic instruction in Ethics. Luckily there is a trickle of hope now for the landless who went through this major effort to draw attention to their plight; met by a promise for a panel to be set up. However giving past experiences, it could take twenty years before such a panel leads to any conclusions.



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