Thanks v much, Dilip ! I am at a coffee shop, Victoria Day weekend. Being single, I can do that.
If I were married to an Amcher other half, I assume I would be enjoying shakouti & wine at home, & praising the wife’s qualities ‘unselflessly’ for later good-will & ‘cuddling’ ! They used to teach about ‘conjugal rights’ among married couples, but now everything is ‘reciprocal’ & by explicit choices. Saying ‘maka zai’ is not enuf ! One has to butter the other half with AMUL for favours! Queen Victoria was a big gurl, her consort, Prince Albert was very slender built, like a VW, not a Mercedes limo. But she loved him to death, in a manner of speaking, a German Prince! I do not know your marital status, but I hope u r blessed with Victorian love! Dilip, keep writing & keep pushing the envelope challenging the accepted wisdom of others. - Ivan D. Ivan D. Pereira > On May 22, 2022, at 14:18, Dilip D'Souza <dil...@gmail.com> wrote: > > May 22 > > I used to write political/social commentary columns for years. Came a time > when I started to feel like I had said all I had to say in that vein - > really - so I do very little of it now. > > But once in a while I feel there's something that needs saying. Like last > week, when I watched someone I know and like, the author Amish Tripathi, on > a TV show. He was asked to comment on the ongoing court battle over the > Gyanvapi mosque that Hindus claim was built on a demolished temple. I was > struck by all that Amish said, and not in a good way. > > So here's a response to some of his comments that I wrote for Scroll.in: > https://scroll.in/article/1024390/truth-as-a-disinfectant-amish-tripathis-platitudes-ignore-the-lived-reality-of-many-indians > > Your reflections welcome. > > yours, > dilip > > --- > > Truth as a disinfectant: Author Amish Tripathi and his platitudes about > Gyanvapi > > > The first time I met the celebrated author Amish, we were sitting outside a > theatre at the NCPA, looking out at a sprawling temporary bookstore. We > introduced ourselves. To my continuing regret, I had not heard of him. But > he had heard of me. "Hey, I love your mathematics columns!" he said. Then > he ran in among the books, bought one and ran back to me. It was one of > mine. "Sign it for me!" he said. > > That kind of bloke. In the few times we've met since - including once when > we missed a flight in Jaipur - he has been unfailingly generous, gracious > and warm. So when I watched him on a TV programme recently, offering not so > much the forthright sincerity I know him for, but woolly platitudes > instead, you can imagine my disappointment. > > The programme was an interview with Sonia Singh of NDTV, focused on the > ongoing tangle over the Gyanvapi mosque. ( > https://www.ndtv.com/video/exclusive/news/gyanvapi-mosque-case-more-than-faith-this-is-about-says-author-amish-tripathi-633420). > Amish said plenty, starting with this pithy phrase: "More than faith, this > is essentially about the truth." > > True enough. In that spirit, then, let me react to a few of the points he > made. > > First, "where India is different [from] Turkey and other countries", Amish > said, is that "the majority is dharmic and liberal, they wait patiently, > sometimes for centuries." This is why, Amish went on, "I could not advocate > any hatred." > > That's reassuring. But is it really necessary to list the innumerable > recent cases of hatred and its consequences? Well, maybe it is. Let's try > just a few. > > Think of Mohammed Akhlaq, slaughtered by his neighbours who suspected that > he had beef in his home near Dadri on the outskirts of New Delhi in > September 2015. > > Think of the several young Dalits (lower castes) in Una in Gujarat in July > 2016. Accusing them of killing cows, a “cow protection group” tied the > Dalit youths to a car and beat them with sticks, rods and knives. > > Think of Pehlu Khan, lynched by cow vigilantes near Alwar in Rajasthan, in > April 2017. > > Think of Mohammed Afrazul, whom Shambhulal Regar hacked to death and then > burned the body in Rajsamand district in Rajasthan in December 2017, solely > because Afrazul was Muslim. Regar was so proud of this atrocity that he got > his nephew to film him in action. > > Amish does not advocate any hatred, certainly. Is he doing what he can to > quench the hatred that burns inside Shambhulal Regar and so many like him? > This hatred that maims and kills too many Indians? > > Second, it's not just about quenching hatred. Faced with questions about > incidents like these and what they say about India, Amish says he likes to > "look at the data." It tells him that "across the entire Indian > subcontinent, there are only two countries where the proportion of > minorities as a percentage of the population has actually gone up in the > last 70 years, and one of them is India." > > That's reassuring too. But I have to wonder: what would Mohammed Ikhlaq > have felt if, as his neighbours were lynching him, Amish explained to him > that "the proportion of minorities as a percentage of the population has > actually gone up"? What if this calm attempt to reassure Ikhlaq included > Amish's conclusion about this proportionate increase, that it "shows that > India is actually a decent liberal country"? > > The point: does the data allow us to wave away such savagery? Does it allow > us to actually celebrate the men accused, for example when Ministers > garland them ( > https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/union-minister-jayant-sinha-garlands-8-lynching-convicts-faces-opposition-flak/articleshow/64901863.cms) > or when we wrap them in the national flag when they die ( > https://thewire.in/law/draping-national-flag-on-body-of-dadri-lynching-accused-by-bisada-village-unconstitutional)? > What does such celebration say about being decent and liberal? > > A country of 1.4 billion, says Amish, will have "some idiots." No doubt. > May we judge a country by how we treat those idiots? > > Third, Amish points out that "among our faultlines is also caste > oppression." But he goes on to say that we speak of it "truthfully" and > have "made compensation for it" by running "the biggest positive > discrimination/affirmative action programme in the history of humanity." He > means, of course, our long-standing policy of reservations, and he's right > to point to it. > > Yet can Amish really be unaware of the tremendous backlash against > reservations over many years? There's Rajeev Goswami, who set himself on > fire in the midst of an enormous protest against reservations. There's the > constant chatter about how the policy kills "merit". How often have you > heard stories about students who use reservations being shunned on their > campuses? How often have you heard people go on about doctors who benefit > from reservations being incompetent and a threat to life? > > Amish asks: "Hasn't India actually improved in the last 70 years in terms > of how the caste issue is addressed?" How would a member of our lower > castes answer that? What would she have to say about caste oppression? > > Finally, let's return to something that Amish says is the "only > disinfectant": truth. He's absolutely right to call it that. Which is why > I'm going to list here, randomly selected, just five truths - or possibly, > the lack thereof - about this country. Understand that this could be a much > longer list. > > * Indians slaughtered 3000 Indians in Delhi in 1984. Nobody of any > significance has been punished. > > * Official figures say the pandemic killed about half-a-million Indians. > This number flies in the face of reason and common sense. Surely we owe our > covid dead and their families an honest accounting of what they suffered? > Because there's mounting evidence that the death toll is several times > larger. > > * Indians slaughtered 1000 Indians in Bombay in 1992-93. Nobody of any > significance has been punished. > > * Only a few months ago, the government announced that India suddenly has > more women than men. This is so at odds with our documented reality over > many years ( > https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/more-women-than-men-to-tell-a-story-11641490850279.html) > that "truth" is not a word that readily applies here. > > * Indians slaughtered 1000 Indians in Gujarat in 2002. Nobody of any > significance has been punished. > > "True strength will come," Amish told Sonia Singh, "when we speak the > truth, when we don't hide things of the past." So correct. So let's pick > one of those five, then: the slaughter of 1000 Indians in my city, Bombay, > in 1992-93. Let's stop hiding it and instead speak of it. Let's punish > those killers right away. > > That would be some disinfectant. > > -- > My book with Joy Ma: "The Deoliwallahs" > Twitter: @DeathEndsFun > Death Ends Fun: http://dcubed.blogspot.com > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Dilip's essays" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to dilips-essays+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dilips-essays/CAEiMe8r9_-6%3DUNeXyfCV02_eTt%2B-3U8xU8OpvMTAkEg%2B%3DZyY0g%40mail.gmail.com.