Saturday, February 26, 2011

" Communal Kerala? "- My 2nd article in the series- ( www.mylaw.net )

http://mylaw.net/ (available in front page-lounge-without registration on Sunday,27thFeb ; after 27th register and search)

 Theories about a communally polarised society are gaining prominence in Kerala, especially amongst the Marxist intelligentsia..However in an EXCLUSIVE Interview with the author of this blog, noted historian and Former Chairman of ICHR,Dr.M.G.S.Narayanan dissects the issue and comments that communalism in Kerala is partly imported, partly constructed and partly an exaggeration by the psuedo-secularist Marxist combine. He is equally critical of the R.S.S at the pan Indian level, since they are also involved in the manipulation of history. History, it seems, is still written by the winners in post-modern India....
 Dr.K.N.Panikkar, Marxist historian.
                       VS
MGS Narayanan, Former Chairman, ICHR.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

7 Khoon Maaf......( an adaptation of Ruskin Bond's "Suzanna's Seven Husbands"

[7 Khoon Maaf]------Vishal disappoints, but I dont think Priyanka and most of her men did .... Perhaps the 7th Khoon was the story itself; shocking to see that a director of his stature killed such a brilliant story.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Democracy, an afterthought...

 Being a person who truly respects the Indian constitution , I strongly believed and still continues to believe in the concept of democracy. But, just like the communist utopia people have been criticizing, I tend to feel that there will only be democratic utopia (maybe its the perfectionist craving in me). Unless people within a country are made homogenous in certain vital aspects and also enlightened with respect to certain characterestics of modernization, real democracy can be quite elusive...... However that alone may not be enough and  some would ask the question- Is true democracy possible?

For instance, Is Switzerland a true democracy? A country where direct democracy and rule of law is strictly practiced, but its economy runs on the black money earned through flouting domestic laws of different other countries. The U.S case is more obvious, with its support to the most authoritarian governments(Mubarak for instance) and even invading  countries for its energy needs(Iraq and the WMD conspiracy).....
Further, the short speech of Alexander Tylor comes to my mind......
At about the time the original 13 US states adopted their new constitution in
1787, Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of
Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some
2,000 years prior:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until
the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with
the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal
policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of
history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations
always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
Are we part of this grand cycle of change; unlike what Fukuyama says that there would be 'no alternative to democracy and capitalism' and that this would signify the 'end of history'...
Perhaps in this way, History never ends. . . and Democracy remains just an idea like the communist utopia.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

"Post Mubarak- The stability-democracy dilemma"

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/article1150617.ece (My 'letter to the editor')


















Hosni Mubarak-2009 file photo
"The situation in Egypt poses the larger dilemma of stability versus democracy. There are few democracies in the Arab world. Lebanon is perhaps an exception but even the Lebanese political system is a kind of sectarian democracy. Post-Mubarak Egypt may move towards temporary democracy but it would be at the cost of stability."
The Arab crisis is spreading from Pakistan to Palestine ; we dont need the tutelary democracies of the kind we have in Pakisthan. Such democracies will lead to development of multiple-power centres and radicalisation of Islam can be used as a tool, in such a situation , to garner popular support. Populism in an Islamic democracy can be a potential breeding ground for fundementalism.
Well, Larry Diamond, the noted theorist on democracy, has an interesting take on this.......

'Diamond argues that Arab states do not have democracies for a number of  reasons.  Firsttly , and perhaps most importantly it is due to oil revenue, that most Arab states do not tax it's citizens, thus eliminating the idea that the state is accountable to it's people--but the other way around.  Diamond notes that out of the top 23 countries that claim oil and gas as their top export revenue, precisely zero are democracies.  The U.S.  contributes to authoritarianism in the Arab world by donating billions of dollars to Arab states, thus eliminating the need to tax individuals.  Also, Diamond writes, authoritarian Arab states deflect citizen anger towards their own regimes and state ran media by allowing protest of the Israeli oppression of Palestinians, symbolically representing the Arab people as a whole. Will this pattern of authoritarianism change?  Diamond claims that only three factors could change the situation.  First, the region needs a respectable role model.  Second, the U.S. needs to use their influence and push for change.  Third, a massive and sustained decline in world oil prices. '
Courtesy: Journal of Democracy Volume 21, Number 1 January 2010