mar 26th
thanks to rajan for the pointer to arunsmusings.
clearly the us is being bamboozled. the taliban = the pakistani army. you can't wipe one out without wiping out the other. the us knows this, but they are pretending they don't because they are calculating that there's short-term value in it. it will bite them on the ass one of these days.
but the quote that leapt out at me is one that implies that the afghans' spirt -- just like that of the baluchis -- has been broken.
"A word about fear. Afghans, legendary for their tenacity in battle, have had their courage shattered by the gruesome bloodletting of recent decades. The odds were stacked so heavily against them, the weapons so mismatched, the perpetrators--Afghan and foreign alike--so insensitive to the strictures of honorable conflict, that courage became irrelevant. Afghans are now internally injured. They constitute an entire society suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And so, it does not take much to intimidate them."
this is precisely what happened to the hindus of the subcontinent over protracted centuries of mohammedan invasions. the perpetrators (ironically enough mostly afghans) were so barbaric that hindus became traumatized: the gentleman's rules of war that hindus had always lived by were no match for jihadi fervor for virgins, and al-taqiyah. hindus were traumatized even though they never gave up, and kept fighting back again and again, never allowing the mohammedan to become comfortable (unlike the persians and egyptians who were wiped out). but the long-term impact -- as naipaul observed -- was that hindu civilization was damaged. as someone has termed it, a collective stockholm syndrome. this was lesser in the south than in the north, mostly thanks to vijayanagar.
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11 comments:
Rajeev,
I agree completely with whatever you said in this except for the last sentence, which follows:
"this was lesser in the south than in the north, mostly thanks to vijayanagar."
Thanks to E V Ramaswamy Naicker and co who epitomize the pinnacle of the "Collective Stockholm Syndrome" south indian tend to find fault with anything good about India.
This is due to the following logic:
India = Hindustan = Hindutva = Brahminism = Castism
The logical conslusions (derived from the above parent premise) of the so-called rationalist-secularist gang are:
1. anybody who logically disprove this premises is a fanatic hindutvavadin.
2. anybody who approve this premises is a liberated intelligentia.
3. anybody who approve this premises, but born in a brahmin caste is someone who would turn hostile anytime. So just use them, but be vary of them for these are dangerous species.
muse,
kindly don't equate south indian = tamil. tamils themselves encourage this equation, but the majority of south indians are very different from tamils and have no time for tamil uniqueness and triumphalism (tamiliyat like kashmiriyat and punjabiyat).
as i have said here before, tamil = south indian, is equivalent to saying bihari = north indian.
it's only a subset of tamils who pay any attention to that absurd little man, ev ramaswamy naicker.
nobody in andhra, karnataka or kerala has the slightest respect for him, for he was a charlatan. evr was a bully and a coward. he figured tamil brahmins were vulnerable, so he attacked them. for all his 'rationalism' he was scared of mohammedans and christists, so he never once attacked their irrational faiths.
as i have said here before, his chamchas make him out to be larger than life (i have recounted the story of 'the hero of vaikom' when in reality he was 'the tourist to vaikom').
of course, evr and the entire 'dravidian' bullshit movement was helped generously by the christists, as they invented the idea.
i beg to differ on the cause of
the 'south-indian = tamil'
thinking.
pardon my ignorance if that's what
it amounts to.
i think it all started with idli
and dosa. everyone north of the
vindhyas associates idli and dosa
with Madras. every town and
city up north probably has a
canteen called 'madras canteen'
that serves mouth-watering idlis
and dosas, which north indians
generally prefer to home-made
idli/dosa. my town had one such
canteen.
so for a long time north-indians
must have thought of south india
as a huge state whose capital was
madras.
and all south-indians were
therefore called madrasis (i never
taught this to anyone).
and south indians were considered
dravidians for some reason.
and since the language of people
from madras was tamil, it all
ended up in:
south indian = tamil
-
I may as well assert while on this
post, the correct pronunciation
of dosa. North Indians, lend me
your ears...
it is "doshai" (soft sh, like in
shanti). it is NOT "dosa".
Also the correct pronunciation
of "sambar" is "saambaar" (the
last part is exactly like "bar" in
english.
It is NOT sam-bhar.
So next you hear that ad which
says "Yeh hai asli sambhar", please
remember, yeh hai asli pronunciation! :-)
doshai
saambaar
-
i usually ignore daisies' eminently forgettable homilies, but i couldn't resist her providing a very good example of a tamil who presume to speak for all south indians.
sorry, dosa is to be pronounced dosa. it is 'dosai' only in tamil. tamil has a strange fondness for affixing 'i' to various commonplace words, for instance 'mala' becomes 'malai', 'pilla become pillai', etc.
similarly tamils have a fascination for 'h', adding the letter widely and unnecessarily after consonants. eg 'indhu', 'govindhan', 'varikha'. and trying to impose these spellings on others, esp. kerala people.
Re:
"i usually ignore daisies' eminently forgettable homilies, but i couldn't resist her providing a very good example of a tamil who presume to speak for all south indians.
sorry, dosa is to be pronounced dosa. it is 'dosai' only in tamil. tamil has a strange fondness for affixing 'i' to various commonplace words, for instance 'mala' becomes 'malai', 'pilla become pillai', etc."
--Well Nizhal Yoddha, if your blog is meant only for you, you have every right to assert that you are
always right.
I thought this was an exchange forum.
First, where did the word dosa
originate ?
Anyway, being knowledgable in
sanskrit, i know what words come
from tamil and what words from sanskrit, and what words should
end how.
In fact, I know more Sanskrit than
Tamil.
Since Sanskrit has soft and harsh
consonants, a lot of people use
different types of endings to
emphasise the consonant. Many dont
stick to the Nehruvian system of
representing Sanskrit in English.
Obviously you also refer to another
post here last month on language.
You have a problem with the uniqueness of original Tamil. I have no problem, although I dont
consider Tamil Nadu as my native
place. I am merely an impartial
observer of the languages, and
humble enough to acknowledge
something great when I see it.
I know for a fact that Tamil
grammar is completely different
than others, and the presence
of "zha" makes it different. I
have heard enough ancient Tamil to
appreciate its beauty (This is
with reference to another post).
That does not mean I support the
uniqueness of Tamil people. It's
just the language I meant.
I wont go into more details here,
since obviously everything you say
is gospel truth.
p.s. I will look up the word
homily and figure out what the
insult was.
-
Could the above be one reason why
the word "madrassi" as was used in
the north, was actually a
derogatory term ? (it was never
used in a flattering or
complimentary way).
Or is it the reverse ?
Darkstorm, thanks for pointing
out the Romila Thapar connection.
I missed that connection in my
musings on s.india etc.
it's a long time since i lived in
the north or travelled there. i
hope things have changed for the
better - i mean the attitudes.
darkstorm, do give my disregards
to thapar mata next time you meet
her.
-
Nizhal Yoddha,
You should actually be happy that
thus far, a lot of people have
thought s.india = madras/tamil
Because, in any case, they have
not at all thought too highly of
"madras" and "madrassis", thanks
to Romila Thapar and EVR.
So when everyone wakes up and
realises South India has other
states too, the only people who
will continue to be remembered
derogatorily will be the Tamils.
So you can rejoice. All other
states will be well thought of.
What's more, people might even
consider you highly cultured,
whether you deserve it or not.
I hope this is the silver lining
in your cloud (I mean your cloud
of "south indian = tamil").
-
daisies, i'm afraid you are confusing me with someone who gives a damn.
gad, i've always wanted to say that!
then I must say you are excellent
leader (neta) material for India.
it is people who dont give a damn
what anyone thinks who are up there
ruling the country.
-
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