You may say data is the new oil,
or if you are gold afflicted sick mind (or have disease of heart –you may
recall https://depalan.blogspot.com/2017/05/disease-of-heart-and-mind.html)
then you see it as the new gold, that maybe true for manipulators but what
really works the system is how it is narrated to the people, and to the
posterity. Semantics is the oil that lubricates cunning arbitrators and
negotiators to bypass facts and workout fiction that suits their worldview as
also control the populace. Religions have worked on this rather remarkably
indeed managing to turn even fiction into miracles. The hold is such that these
anachronistic hurting deviances have made them immune to contradictory
critically analyzed evidences presented to them. What is classified as faith is
being reduced into mockery of indulgence that is eating away into humanity, and
into this fertile grounds market search its consumers while clever leaders
nurture their voters. The impasse that we are in wherein majority are reduced to
chest thumping zombies –lacking any critical thinking faculties, are adeptly manipulated.
Those who care know that the situation is dire. Its always fun to have the story with the tiger but not when it is mauling you.
Clever semantics is how it is
played, and as expected in Indian context squatters and caste ensconced
camaraderie have occupied this hallowed space to spin words to fit in
grandiose. This illness of grandiose is entitled and very much churned in
sanctum vacuum where all the skills fine-tuned. An uncouth primitive
cannibalistic society is presented as model of unity in diversity. Semantics is
worked to literally and metaphorically purify and sanctify narration. Those
cunning enough to get the nuance are nurtured and showered with blessing.
Castetva forces used democratic institutions for this purpose degrading even
institutions that were essentially conceived by colonizers to control while
crony capitalism morphed further into nepotism and corruption. Such was the
degradation. But the narration was always controlled and presented to awe
strike the world. It did work on fattened fluffs in west (specifically Britain)
seeking redemption by lazily working on lowest denominator to patronize.
Few columnist I was reading will
help to work this further (again, note these are not read by common people, it
works on echo chamber but essential since these are powerful arbitrators who
have capacity to sway opinion among the powerful). Indeed the real deal is
working in this small space while zombie populace are just side show indeed
collateral damage –they suffer, they die– and if they do it with much glee then
it is success for arbitrators. From the putrid pit they defecate words fine
tuning into highest aspiration that is almost mythical. Books get thicker while
semantics smoother. They meet at the highest moral grounds to celebrate the
success of the venture. Meanwhile the reality pokes in as mask slips. Social
media has opened Pandora’s Box. What was white washed and sanitized is now
open, the purifying defiled fantasy of sanctum is being ransacked and forced
with real world. The western acquired civilized nuances of clever castetva
slips into the belligerent hindutva and finds easy acceptance. The futile
attempt to save gandhi by “jeneudhari shiv bhakt” and his casteist corrupt
sycophants will easily work in favour of hindutva. Since castetva is very much
subtext of hindutva. The struggle and sincere attempt here is to remove
castetva out of hindutva and to create an egalitarian narration of Hinduism.
Its arduous task since the cunning castetva have severely degraded the society
and have put minefields that is ready to scuttle. This attempt to create a
narration in Kashmir is part of it. Ghettoization and segregation, while
feeding radical and selfish few in the garb of secularism is the main cause for
the impasse and continuous misery for common people. The present situation is
result of complete lack of empathy and competence on the part of policymakers in
the last many decades –who took people for granted for their nefarious ways.
They patronize the select few and showcased these with fanfare as indication of
benign arbitrators (who essentially are aware of much bigger truth that most of us are incapable to comprehend) while exhibited
proprietorship over common people and exploited them. This then was the
template these uncouth knew and gained sanction from moral depravities of
sanctum.
Pankaj Mishra –the “sprightly”
fellow carries casteist reference unabashedly, has been desperately seeking
high moral grounds in West after migrating from India at the first available
occasion, and now is in blessed role of telling us how to behave from faraway
sanitized world like the multi-limbed gods showering petals from clouds or
admonishing with lightening as the occasion demands. He also is in a unique position
to “credibly accuse” others. Judiciously nurtured (paid a ransom for a staid book
–Romantics, that he surely owes a moneyback to the readers) he writes –in a
desperate attempt to resurrect gandhi, as also the subtext of attempting to cleave
our pliable clever gandhi fellow from hindutva attempts to appropriate, “Looking ahead to our own era, Gandhi predicted that
even ‘the states that are today nominally democratic’ are likely to ‘become
frankly totalitarian’ since a regime in which ‘the weakest go to the wall’ and
a “few capitalist owners” thrive “cannot be sustained except by violence,
veiled if not open”. Now this high
thoughts from a fellow who authenticated devious and much sinister scheme
called casteism. Clever Guha attempts to negotiate these by cunningly posing
Schrodinger’s Gandhi –the mickey who squeaks and doesn’t at the same time.
Neat. Without getting into the merit of this statement (which ofcourse is a
dubious attempt to resurrect casteist racist patriarch, there is existential reason for mishras and guhas at work here. Their whole moral ground and the
uncharted world above is dependent on this obfuscation, this “intellectual
impairment”) we need to focus on the critical matter here “looking ahead…gandhi
predicted”. Predictive power is big deal among primitive Indians and this
clever working of mahatma adds to the charm, and mishras are blessed to
authenticate on these matter. Go to any goddamn sinkhole village in UP or Bihar
(which ofcourse devious gandhi saw as model even hundred years ago –such was
the predictive power) ask about mishras of the world the zombies will all
authenticate in unison. The attempt to include Ambedkar (no mahatma sobriquet
for him, doesn’t measure up I guess) is a calculated concession for the
sensitivities of the times that couldn’t be avoided, its always better to
appropriate and work into hierarchy for the west. It will be tragedy for the
cleverly constructed world of castetva if they found out that its the anti-caste fighter
for egalitarian value system and humanitarian context who is the actual mahatma
and not the casteist racist nurtured by castetva forces with much help from
colonial Britain (who also included some colorful casteist words into english language as an assertion to further bind the sinister ties). Mishra feels characteristically
entitled to admonish west “Having laboured to
exclude a smelly past of ethnocide, slavery and racism – and the ongoing stink
of corporate venality – from their perfumed notion of Anglo-American
superiority”. Quite clearly, having placed himself in west, Mishra is
now a victim (and ofcourse fattened fluffs encourage every reason for so,
indeed brown skin in London is automatically a victim, including that monster
mullah), he conveniently forgets stink of casteism which cannot be even be
dismissed as past since he himself carries the reference of it (which is well
understood in this part of the world, this cannibalistic system not only
nurtured him but he is a direct beneficiary). Mishra is relentless “For
decades, India itself greatly benefited from a cold war-era
conception of “democracy”, which reduced it to a morally glamorous label for the way rulers are elected, rather than
about the kinds of power they hold, or the ways they exercise it. As a
non-communist country that held routine elections, India possessed a matchless
international prestige despite consistently failing – worse than many Asian,
African, and Latin American countries – in
providing its citizens with even the basic components of a dignified existence”.
Now see that Mishra has put the onus on top down problem “how the power is
exercised” or “inability to provide it citizens...” he quite conveniently fails
to point that it is a reflection of much of primitive value system prevalent in the society that has
degraded the institutions while elected politicians are only furthering these
mindsets to capitalize. The problem is much deeper. There is persistent effort to see that common people are kept trapped
in their putrid pit while all the basic amenities are kept tardy and
inefficient. That way it is easy for uncouth moron like Aiyer to pose as liberal
secular while guha is a gandhian, mishra is international columnist and yes
gandhi easily imposed as mahatma.
Last 70years nobody ever bothered about as basic
as amenity called toilet (open defecation apart from being a source of diseases is
degrading and demeaning for a human), while primary education is persistently
undermined, the whole education system is a joke meant to create dubious
understanding of merit, higher education is a charlatan's route for higher
blessing. What kind of fucking society is this? And I have only got started on
education system, then there is judiciary, health…and you can easily trace
these to dubious values emanating from sinister sanctum that percolated into
this primitive society, in which mishra is not only an indelible part but
shares a strong camaraderie. His angst positioning may excite fattened fluffs
in west (he being classified as victim context immensely helps, enlarged pupil
take it to another level of anguish) but hometruth is much compromising.
Castetva nurtured hindutva, which is indeed a natural progression. That
hindutva seems seriously compromised and is not able to tap into egalitarian
context of Hinduism is very much due the degradation that castetva
institutionalized.
Mishra’s rant on hindu “supremacism”
is a carefully chosen semantic to match white supremacism, and therefore
position himself in the same league with black movement and sensibilities
herein. It is a clever ploy that was also tried to authenticate gandhi and
match him with Martin Luther king (it’s sacrilegious, only Ambedkar can be equated
here. Truth will catch up). The idea of hindu supremacism is very much tied to
caste supremacism, and caste supremacism is quite strongly connected to the whole
idea of caste. The attempts by casteist feudal posturing as liberal secular to
showcase caste as benign identity is ridiculous and is nothing much but an existential
strategy to cling to the high moral ground gravy and is meant to showcase west
(since most Indians know what it’s all about) to continue feeding. Like mishra
there are many casteist who emerged from this cannibalistic society to migrate
to west to multiply blessing and have exhibited incorrigible entitled
characteristic itch to occupy high moral ground and pose as benign arbitrator
(as sant tharoor – the unhinged patron saint of accented english speakers,
elaborating on “glorious hinduism” elucidates “we have taken tolerance to
higher level of acceptance”. Its obvious that as a scheming politician he has moved from cattle class to cattle mind!). As the semantic power is woefully unable to
control the narration and as social media has breached the sanctified putrid
pit the truth that casteism is worse than racism begins to strike. Segregating
and classifying people based on birth that too within a society, a community
(if the primitives understand the true meaning of community), is the worst form
of human right abuse that can be inflicted, it gets much depraved with scrotum
scratching sanctum squatter’s immoral fantasy. It is therefore but natural for
mishras and guhas to cling to dubious gandhi and soulfully snarl against
appropriation. Unbecoming for conniving gandhians hindutva have obviously an easy
hand here.
Then ofcourse there is Shiv
Visvanathan, recruited by Kasturi&Sons, who use semantics with mesmerizing dexterity
in riveting turn of sentences. “All the
prosthetics on the world does not quite achieve a sense of the body, its
iconicity, its sense of the sacred, evoking desire and sublimity, inviting in
turn the erotic, the ascetic and the sacramental”. I read
these lines and I was like, holy shit no way! Where did it come and where did
it go! Quite sure fattened fluffs will get double kick on that one. Groovy stuff
churning there. He quickly proposes without any irony that gandhi was carrier
of “spirituality of ethics”. This persistence of raising caste icon into higher
plain of spirituality is a constant endeavor, indeed it’s an ardent effort to
justify ‘mahatma’ and connect it to great pantheon of spiritual leaders
(essentially egalitarian anti-caste humanist) hence cleverly usurp the legacy. Such
attempts are always appreciated by deep state, and many have made successful
career out of this. Now ofcourse the challenge is streamlining from castetva to
hindutva needs (some have started to get clear glimpse of gandhi as carrying legacy
of Ram avatar!). Shiv, working on liberal secular, is firmly on castetva pitch.
The angst is telling since he too is aware that it so easy for hindutva to
appropriate gandhi. He therefore quietly takes the safest role of anticipating what
gandhi would do if he were to face contemporary challenges. This opens up whole
new possibilities of placing gandhi wherever one fancy. This could be taken
beyond mahatma with sufficient semantic dexterity (which ofcourse Shiv is blessed
with abundantly, if only there was some sincerity –deep state that has put money
on gandhi would have chucked him out! He will have to play his role). The fellow
who couldn’t even come out of his putrid pit was “a new iconic power, encompassing neighbourhood and
cosmos, microcosm and macrocosm”. Its the jagadh guru syndrome at work. Shiv neatly proposes that luddite gandhi -who had unique insight into human frailty as cause of earthquake, would
be writing "cyborg manifesto"! He attempts to encompass highly valued world thinkers
like Hannah Arendt –who studied subtleties of violence in breath taking candor,
into minor role in gandhian conception. Indeed I am so upset with semantics
here that wouldn’t allow this to pass. Eichmann was a cog whom Arendt saw as
representing banality of evil. It doesn’t require much thought to suggest that Gandhi
too was just a cog in caste framework. He was banality of proposed goodness. He
didn’t have moral compass nor the ethical strength to dismiss, an inability to think, at the most a banality
of cleverness. Shiv ends his column suggesting that with return of gandhi “citizenship becomes not only an
invention of the self but a discovery of the other”.
Sure,
and one must read Ambedkar on gandhi to understand how our man ventured to discover
the other. In a society that is adept in creating others this was nothing short
of bravery of experimenting with truth. What a sham.
PS: I really wanted to write this
about a week back. I had misplaced my laptop, and cybercafé are crowded, noisy
and unpleasantly cavernous. To think that first few years of my blogging was
done through cybercafé! Incidentally this blog was started exactly 14years back
(and this is my 868th post!). To put it in perspective brilliant
Greta Thunberg was two years old!!
