Modern Imperialism

Last year we had our last chapter in history, which was a brief introduction to ‘Modern History’ i.e. Cold War, Space Age, Atomic Age, Computer Age and Globalization. And the last sentence of the last chapter of my academic history was- ‘And due to all these things globalization has become synonymous to Imperialism.
But which all these reasons? There are many of them. And if you think from the point of view of India then there are even more things.
Though ‘Modern History’ starts with the end of feudalism in France i.e. from the French Revolution the ‘Modern’ here meant history after the Second World War. And then we were told about the important inventions and political developments since the Second World War. It started with Atomic Age, then Space Age, Cold War, Computer Age and last but not the least Globalization.
And that is what I as well as the textbook publishers meant by ‘Modern Globalization.’ And that ‘is’ as the textbook said really synonymous to Modern Globalization. It has many factors common with the Imperialism in olden days.
After the Second World War ended all the European Economies i.e. whether the victors or the vanquished both suffered huge loses. Like the First World War, America too provided financial assistance to the capitalists and U.S.S.R. provided financial assistance to the communists or socialists. In the 1970’s however the European Economies got stabilized and developed. There developed European countries then started looking for markets outside Europe and America. And that is when the Westerners came up with the idea of Globalization and Liberalization.
In the year 1991, Economic Reforms were brought into the dying Indian Economy to revive the Economy. Those reforms were Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization. These were brought in action by the current Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. These changes showed their effect and the Indian Economy came back on its track in a matter of some years and the GDP growth rate of over 7% that was a dream for India once was easily achieved. The stock market sprang up from two or three thousand to a miraculous twenty two thousand points mark. With the entry of the MNC’s in Indian Market the competition in the Companies increased and the Manufacturer’s or Manufacturer Dominated Indian Market gradually turned into a Consumer’s Market. Many consumer friendly goods started entering Indian Markets steadily. The coming of MNC’s was also marked with coming of new and modern technology, new sorts of careers, more options for consumer to choose and most importantly higher standards of living.

The MNC’s brought with them foreign currency, employment, vast job opportunities in various fields that were initially considered as job of less scope and social status. The Free Market System has also brought the West closer to India more than ever. The Westerners are taking a keen interest in Indian Culture, History, Politics, Economy and People for the first time since we had lost our freedom to the British in about 1818. As a result of all this India has made a lot of progress and in now a ‘Developing Nation’ from an ‘Underdeveloped Nation’. All this is because of the Economic Reforms of 1991, and all the credit of all this goes to Dr. Manmohan Singh and the finance ministry under him.

However, there are also some minuses to this. The existence of the MNC’s in the Indian Market has caused an extremely big threat to Indian Business and Companies. By open markets the developed countries intended to enter the developing and underdeveloped markets and exploit the resources of those countries. These resources include human population, natural resources. Many Swadeshi Business Firms have closed down or are on the verge of getting closed. This has made the business community in India more materialistic and that in term has caused exploitation of natural resources. Like the Krishna- Godavari Basin Natural Gas Distribution Quarrel in the Ambanis. There has been a considerable destruction of forests and overuse of natural resources after the 1991. We have now begun to dance on the steps of these modern MNC’s. We have started becoming materialistic more than ever before. The greed of money has increased the crime in India and the show off and celebrity lifestyle has set in many social Ill’s as acceptable. The Western Social Influences also have made bad effect on us. We have started selling or say using our natural resources as the MNC’s tell us. All this (I know this is highly exaggerated statement but still it’s a probability) may make us a slave or colony of these Companies as it was one of the world’s first MNC’s that took over India two centuries ago. So we have to be careful about how much to give importance to give these companies.

Like a coin, there are both dark and light sides of LPG. But it’s on us how to face this. Just think of money and profits and votes or also give attention to our rich treasure of cultural, environmental, traditional, lingual & religious diversity and help it remain intact.

What’s there in the name yara!

Since last few week I an watching many debates and discussions going on, on the television, on the internet and in the newspaper, that was Karan Johar right in going to Raj Thackeray to apologize for calling Mumbai, Bombay in his film. And most of the people i.e. the guests as well as the audience participating in the debates and discussions said that no, he was not right because this would give the issue of Marathi Nationalism more hype and unnecessary importance. They also said that calling Mumbai, Bombay is not a problem at all and quoted Shakespeare- ‘What is there in the name?’

But I don’t understand the problem in calling it Mumbai when it has been officially named as Mumbai since last thirteen to fourteen years. People have no problem in calling Madras, Chennai, Calcutta, Kolkata, Bangalore, Bengaluru, Trivandrum, Thiruvananthpuram, Kochi, Cochin then what is the problem in calling Bombay, Mumbai?

People talk about vandalism and hooliganism on the issues of Marathi and compulsion on Boards in Marathi Language. When there are any demonstrations regarding boards of shops, malls, multiplexes etc. not being made in Marathi, all national media i.e. all English and Hindi news channels and newspapers criticize it saying that this is only vandalism and law being taken in hands.

But even all these things happen in the South too. Even there, there are violent demonstrations if the boards there are not put in their native language. And when the Bombay High Court has given orders that all boards in Maharashtra have to be made in Marathi along with other languages, then what is the problem to respect the courts decision and do so?

In South the organizations there are demanding that the boards there should be only in their native language and not in any other language i.e. Tamil, Telgu, and Kannda etc. But then the national media does not criticize them and start debates on those issues as they do in case of Marathi. Why do people have to criticize Marathi and people talking about Marathi? Why don’t they criticize the Tamil and Telgu Nationalist Organizations? Why is there this partiality against only Marathi?

The city of Bombay was called Mumbai in Marathi or in Maharashtra even in the post independence era. Same was the case with Madras. But people have and tend to happily accept the fact that the name of Madras in now called Chennai and it should be called so. Then why don’t people do so in case of Mumbai?

The reason that Raj Thackeray and all Marathi Nationalists have got such a big support is because they do experience all the things he says in their everyday life. If you ask in Maharashtra, any North Indian, ‘Please speak in Marathi I can’t understand Hindi.’ The person will rudely walk away and sometimes also say, ‘it is the national language how you don’t understand it?’ and give him a disgusting look. This ‘has’ happened with my grandfather and so now he is a staunch supporter of MNS. Many times people do not talk in Marathi even if they can speak and understand Marathi. People have experienced that their children do not get admission in Engineering and Medical colleges because the North Indians are given preferences by the North Indian management and the Marathi students do not get admission though they have the necessary merit to get admission in the college. The builders give preference to North Indian residents and do not sell the home apartments they have built to Marathi residents though they are ready to pay as per the rate. And these are two of many reasons the Marathi youth and urban Marathi population tends to support Raj Thackeray.

When there are talks in the government regarding making Hindi compulsory in every school and college, the media asks the HRD Minister, ‘Don’t you think that the North is trying to force their language and culture on the south? Because majority of the people there can’t understand or speak Hindi.’ When this is said by Marathi Nationalists then everybody says that Hindi is our national language and every Indian should be able to understand and speak it. But when the South Indian Nationalists say so why don’t the media tell the same to them? How fair is this?

Now on November 3, 2009 people of some Kannada Nationalist Group stoned the houses of Marathi people in Belgaum because the nameplates of those people were made in Marathi. It is compulsory to have boards made in Kannada there. But the organizations there demand that the font of Kannda should be largest among all languages and not English and Hindi. Lot of violence and vandalism has occurred there for this. But the media never goes there and say, ‘What is there in the name and don’t we have other more important issues than this.’ Why? Why all these sort of questions to be asked only against Marathi?

In Belgaum which is actually a disputed region because the case on whether Belgaum should be a part of Maharashtra or Karnataka. But even then speaking Kannada is compulsory there and if you don’t request to the officials in all government offices in Kannada (even Hindi is unaccepted) they do not listen to you. They say, ‘Speak in Kannada. Only then we’ll do your work.’ And this is purposely so that the Kannada influence in Belgaum increases. But all this discriminates the Marathi speaking people in Belgaum. But the Hindi and English media never goes to Belgaum and say that this is wrong because you discriminate the Marathi speaking population of Belgaum. And even if anyone asks them this the officials say, ‘We don’t care. This is Karnataka and you have to talk in Kannada here.’

This is clear discrimination against Marathi language and people there. But the Hindi and English media pays no heed of this. Why?

Is This the Way we Care For Animals?

Yesterday I saw very disturbing pictures of a black bear being beaten by a huge crowd of people to death inhumanly. And all this happened in the presence of the police and the forest officers. This means that police and the forest officers are also involved in the killing of the bear. But why was the bear beaten to death so inhumanly?

The answer is that it dared to enter the human civilization because its home was destroyed by the humans. It dared to come in front of the selfish, cruel and ruthless humans. It came to human civilization for food or water, because it did not get it in the forest because humans took it away from it. And also a very big reason it was killed it was innocent, and unable to speak, and it was not a human. Yes that is why it was killed so cruelly or better brutally.

There are many laws that are made to deliver justice. But, the justice they deliver is only to humans. (And in India even that is doubted because it is not delivered to all but only to rich.) What about the justice to the dumb animals, birds, fishes, trees, forests, and environment? What about the justice to our ‘Mother’? And because God created all this, what about justice to god himself? Or have god’s most intelligent creation stopped thinking and caring about god, earth and environment once his dependency on god is over? Our laws don’t deliver justice to all these.

There are many laws that mention the punishment to be given for a certain crime. But again these punishments are only given if the crime is committed on humans. What about animals? Or is it ok if animals and killed ruthlessly for humans own needs? If a person it beaten to death by someone, he might get ‘at least’ 8-10 years of imprisonment and penalty. But if an animal is stabbed to death, imprisonment is far away but there is even no penalty for doing so. Why? Or is there life not important to the country? Why do we turn our backs to the issues not important to us so conveniently and frequently?

Before this there was an incident where a jumbo was beaten up by a mob with stones and then when it went into a nearby river it was not forced to remain there and then after that it was forced to drown. But the cruelty didn’t stop here. After the elephant died a crane was called on the place and then using the crane the elephant was picked up and shown to the people present there that the elephant was dead. How cruel was that! Imagine what would happen if there was a human in the place of the elephant. There would have been criminal police cases filed against the people present there. The media would have given it more coverage than this incidence was given. Many ‘Human Right’ activists would have come out in protest of the incidence. And this matter would have been discussed in the Vidhan Sabha of that state and also even in Parliament. But nothing out this happened in this case.

This was about the laws. But, what about us? Have we really lost our humanity? Just look at the way we treat the wild animals and stray animals. Why have we stopped caring for stray animals with whom once we were as friendly as we are now with our pets today? Why do we dislike the stray animals when they do the same work for us that our pets do? (Like stray dogs protect our houses like our pet dogs.) I know that they are a bit dangerous because they can give us deadly diseases by there bites. But that does not that we treat them like useless objects by throwing stones at them and even killing them so that they do not cause chaos in cities. In rural areas, the farmers have cows and hens that are like there pets and whom the farmers treat like there kids. But when it comes to wild animals why do the farmers become so ruthless. It is said that a snake is a farmer’s friend because it eats rats and mice that destroy their crops. The irony is that farmers love and take care of cats that do the same thing but they ruthlessly stab snakes to death on just seeing them. Many times it has been told to them by the NGO’s in the programs to save the snakes that there are only four species of poisonous snakes in India and even they along all snakes bite only in defense and not in aggression. The farmers are also taught what to do if a snake suddenly in front of you- “get away from snake slowly, don’t do anything that will surprise the snake and never try to tarp it instead give it way to run away because snakes are very shy animals. And they are afraid of you more than you of them.” But all this goes in vain when many snakes are stabbed by farmers to death. Same is the case with other big animals, especially leopards. And if the come in the human civilization then it is only because they don’t get food and water in the remaining forest and also they don’t get any shelter in the forest. They come in human civilization thinking that this is their home and get surprised seeing many people staring them and so they attack the people. And even in that case many times leopards are killed after repeated telling that don’t kill them or throw stones at them but try to trap them in something till the forest officers are called. But this rarely happens. Many leopards are forced to jump in the wells or attack them and that too in defense. Of course the forest officers never reach the spot on time and the government does not have proper arrangements to handle situations like these. If all this goes on in the same way than these animals will get close to extremely endangered mark because of mass killing of these animals.

And then all this leaves us with some other important question- Who are we to decide that the human life is the precious that all other plants and animals? Who gave us the right to decide that and act accordingly? Why have we become so selfish that we think we are the most important and precious living things on earth? Don’t the wild as well as domestic animals, birds, plants have the right to live? Have we today forgotten Buddha’s Principle “Live and Let Live”? Have we today become so selfish that we start forgetting great men’s and go’s thought? Have we become so great that we edit the principles and teaching of Mahatmas, Saints and Gods in such a way that we can follow them in the way we want? And is all this just because of our greed to live more and earn more? Do we think we are superior to the nature, earth and god just because we have extremely good brains and nuclear powers to disobey their laws? Do we have the right to do all this?

How is India going to deal with its Biggest Internal Threat?

It has now been a week or two since the Naxals or the Maoists stopped the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani Express near Midnapore in West Bengal. They stopped the train and took the driver and the assistant driver with them inside the forest as their captives. Then after this whole Hostage Drama came to an end after five hours at five or five thirty in the evening, they left the two drivers but warned them not to take the train even a single inch ahead without their permission and went back inside the forest not before writing there demands on the train in red. Their demand was to leave the leader of People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (P.C.P.A.) Chitradhar Mahato who was captured by the police forces in the Operation Lalgragh.

But this is not the first time that the Maoists have done such an incidence. They have done this even before many times. But the point is that the frequency of their attack has increased. Just before the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha Elections the Maoists attacked a police station in Gadchiroli district and the forty to fifty Maoists killed seventeen policemen. Then there was the case a Bengali Policeman being captured by them and the even released. Also some policemen were attacked in Andhra and killed, then, there was the beheading of a Police Francisco Indurwar and many others. All these incidences have occurred in an interval of some weeks. Earlier their use to be attacks of this kind once in two or three months but now open any newspaper and you’ll find that the Naxals or Maoists are the biggest consistent newsmakers in this year. This clearly shows that the power and influence of the Maoists has indeed increased a lot in recent times.

But the bigger worries are still to come. The Government. The government has done almost nothing on long term basis to deal with this growing power and influence of the Maoists. Yes there was this operation undertaken by the government to capture the Lalgragh Police Station from the Maoists. And it too was successful. The police station was captured but then here is what I mean by long term basis. Though it has now been captured by the police and it is with the police now the lawlessness in Lalgragh still exists there as much as it was before. And even after some time the Police Station might be recaptured by the Maoists because there is no proper provisions of any back up in case of an attack or any communication system like Sat. Phones etc. The Home Minister might some time talk tough on this issue i.e. ‘I would like request all the sympathizers of the Maoist Movement to think about supporting it again because they are not going to do anything for the adivasis.’ (What a strong statement isn’t?)

Then also there is a problem of decision making. All our minister and bureaucrats have such a poor decision making ability in them that they cannot take any small decision of their own. They need the advice of their advisers for taking any action, and then there is this big problem of Parliamentary Democracy, meetings. Not a single decision is taken before meetings that last for at least hours. If any attack likes these happen then there are at least three meetings that take place, one in Delhi of Central Government, second in the state capital of State Government and the other in Police Headquarter or RPF Headquarter etc of the respective departments. And the sad story is that no action is taken by the government or police forces before these hours long meetings end. And that is the reason why there was delay in sending additional NSG Commandos to Mumbai at 26/11 attacks last year. This too happened at the time of this incidence at Midnapore the security forces reached the spot long after the media reached there and long after the Maoists ran back in the forest when it was dark. Why this delay?

This clearly shows India’s weak stand on the Maoist activities, when the Maoists have clearly said- ‘Our aim is to hoist the red flag in Delhi and we will do it.’ Any other country would have launched strong operations on them after listening this. And when I say strong operations I mean that an operation that would eradicate Naxal influence or Naxal holds on that region permanently and not like what was done in Lalgragh.

I can understand that the foreign policies of India are made at and 1600, Avenue, so we cannot take action against the Pak operated Terrorism but at least we can take action against Naxals or are our internal affairs policies and made in Beijing and Islamabad? The Government says that this issue has to be solved by discussion with the Maoists and not by armed action. Many Human Rights Activists too support this but I don’t understand how can that happen? When the Maoists themselves have said that they want to hoist red flag in Delhi how can the government say so? From this statement it is clear that their objective is no more protection of tribals of the area but to conquer the capital and establish red rule in India and then make India a slave of China. How can the government say that knowing this? We must act now before the situation gets worse and we face situations like Sri Lanka faced due to growing influence of Tamils Extremists or Colombia is facing due to Communist Movement there. Both these movements have stop pr hampered the development in those countries. If this Naxal or Maoist Movement goes out of hand then the same might happen to us.

And some thing more worrying is that there is extremely less awareness about this i.e. growing Naxal Influence, its consequences, and the soft approach of government about this in the people. It is only discussed when such type of Maoist attacks or Violence occurs.