Racism, castes and shame

These days, UK is commemorating the bicentenary of the 1807 Abolition of Slave Trade Act. Newspapers coverage of Blair's message to Ghana highlighted his (implicit) refusal to apologise for Britain's role in slavery since he had only expressed "deep sorrow and regret" for the suffering of the people. Later this was followed by a protester interrupting the church service attended by the Queen to demand an apology.

However, what made an impact on me, was viewing a documentary, "Racism - A History" on BBC 4 on March 28. Here is BBC press office's description

"Filmed in Australia, the United States, India and Southern Africa, A History Of Racism turns its attention to the development of eugenic theories and explores the historical connections between the colonial genocides of the 19th century and one of the pivotal events of the 20th: the Holocaust.

The programme begins by examining the violence perpetrated on native races by the early European settlers in Tasmania. These atrocities were given legitimacy in the middle of the 18th century with the development of "Social Darwinism". This new theory applied the principle of "the survival of the fittest" – previously used to account for natural selection in the animal world – to human society. It was hard to ignore the fact that, as Europe's Empire-builders spread across the globe, the pre-existing populations of the countries they colonised had a tendency to perish.

Social Darwinism presented the extinction of these "weaker" human races as an inevitable and entirely "natural" consequence of their racial inferiority. The theory provided a pretext for the domination, exploitation and even extermination of the so-called "darker races" in the Pacific, South East Asia and Southern Africa for years to come."

The documentary turned out to be thought- provoking and deeply disturbing. So much so, that at the end, my wife made a comment, "I am ashamed of the 'white' blood that I carry." But I remained silent.

Silent because of a phrase used in describing the mindset of the Social Darwinians and Eugenicists - ".... a hierarchy of races ..."

Silent because then it had struck me that our glorious Indian Caste System was same in essence. Not that this was absolutely new knowledge. Thrust of an intellectual fencer would be that originally castes were based on occupation and not on birth. I know that, too. Two years ago, I gave a presentation on the subject to a bunch of 12-14 year olds at Lycee Francaise in London; and I took great pains to explain the origins of the 'Varna' system. Pity that then no kid asked me the question which I asked myself now ... Forget the origins; what is the reality in the here and now? Isn't is a form of racism? And I was forced to admit to myself, the answer is, "Yes, casteism is a form of racism."

Silent because suddenly I was ashamed. It just wasn't enough that I can claim to personally not have discriminated against anyone on basis of caste. Ashamed that I hadn't done enough; ashamed that whenever a non- Indian had commented on the evils of the present day caste- system, I had made the issue sound smaller than what it is, either by pointing to the origins or to highlight the progress made in the past few decades.

Perhaps, it was because of the pride I take in Indian and Hindu heritage; may be I was motivated by a desire to 'protect' India and Hindu culture and society. Now I think that pride/ nationalism was misplaced. Truer pride lies in acknowledging and righting the wrongs.

Raktabeej (रक्तबीज), biotech ... and animal rights

(Source: Channel4)

Yesterday happened to be the last day (ashtami, अष्टमी) of winter Navaratri. During the recitation of great deeds of the goddess Durga and her avatars, there is a story of her vanquishing Raktabeej. As the name suggests (Rakta रक्त = blood; and Beej बीज = seed), each drop of Raktabeej's blood that fell to the ground created another demon.

Now you may wonder why would I think of Raktabeej when I am so far away from home.

Well, yesterday evening, we also watched 'Animal Farm,' an interesting documentary on Channel 4 discussing genetic modification and the "tangle of ethical and moral issues that surrounds it." Within the programme, there was a segment on 'plasma cows' who are genetically modified to be able to produce human antibodies and their plasma is harvested. The picture above is that of a plasma cow in a wooden cage/ scaffolding, hooked up to suction pumps harvesting the blood (the blood pump is sanitised away in the cropped picture).

Also, the programme covered the use of stem cells: these undifferentiated cells can be induced to grow into any part of body (see here for details) and would serve the basis of organ replacement and regrowth (perhaps even rejuvenation, in the future). So, one could almost think of the stem cells as 'seed' cells.

There you have it.... beginnings of modern Raktabeej!

How do I feel about it? Ambivalent. As for the chance to save human lives - great! Novelty value of advances in science - thrilling! Unknown risks - ??? Use of animals - ok, actually. In the case of plasma cows, in my view, there isn't difference between harvesting milk or blood . The latter gets replaced, and apparently the harvesting process is 'humane'. After all, in neither case, do we seek the cow's consent. [Also, reminded myself that Masai herders do drink cow's blood when they are on the move, as did Mongols with horses and ponies.] And lastly, perhaps it is better to harvest for blood than to kill for meat.

But the last bit does make a voracious omnivore like me wonder as to where I would choose to stand on the issue of 'animal rights', a much broader area than merely turning vegetarian. The internal jury is still out there ...

Blog in Hindi/ Devanagari - A Follow- up

After yesterday's post - my first attempt in blogging in hindi, i.e. devanagari script - I received a comment from 'Unmukt' (उन्मुक) where he mentioned that people have been blogging in Hindi for over a year, even if Blogger.com's Hindi transliteration support has been launched recently.

That is welcome news indeed, and the increasing content is borne out by the number of Hindi blogs at the following blog which maintains a list: http://hindi-blog-podcast.blogspot.com/2006/10/blog-post_3534.html

Moreover, Hindiblogs.com provides an aggregator service for Hindi blogs. I haven't yet checked out the comprehensiveness of their service

Also, came across an interesting blog, naisadak, written by a Hindi TV journalist, Raveesh Kumar. Sharp, witty, insightful and daring! After so many years of off-and-on reading print journalism in Hindi, I was beginning to despair at the stale, blinkered views and superficial analysis. This blog gives that earlier impression a lie.

And finally, as a digression, Google now offers India news in Hindi at 'Google Samachar Bharat.'

हिंदी चिट्ठों के लिंक्स:
चिट्ठों की सूची : हिन्दी - चिट्ठे एवं पॉडकास्ट
हिंदी चिट्ठों का Aggregator: हिंदीब्लोग्स.कॉम
एक रोचक ब्लोग: नई सड़क / क़स्बा

भारतीय समाचार हिंदी में : गूगल समाचार भारत

हिंदी में ब्लोग - पहला प्रयास

आज पता चला कि अब ब्लॉगर में हिंदी लिखी जा सकती है, यानी ब्लॉगर हिंदी transliteration (अनुवाद / translation नहीं) support करता है । तो मैने सोचा कि कोशिश की जाय । फल आपके सामने हैं। जैसा आप देख सकते हैं, अभी भी काफी समस्याएं हैं, पर पहले की तुलना में काफी प्रगति हैं।

एक वजह और भी हैं। भारत में कई अपने ऐसे हैं जिनके लिए हिंदी में पढना अधिक सरल हैं । और, मुझे यह बात खल रही थी कि अब तक जोभी मैने इस blog में लिखा, वोह सब पढ़ना उन लोगों के लिए आसान नही हैं ; यानी , वोह लोग एक मायने में 'excluded' थे।

अगर आप भी हिंदी / देवनागरी transliteration try करना चाहते हैं तोयहां देखें।

P.S. - Please check that your browser is correctly set up to read Indic fonts. In this blog, despite other problems, कि displays correctly, and not as क and इ . See here for help on indic fonts.

Global Socio- Cultural Values - Interesting studies

Over the past week, I came across a couple of interesting sites with studies on how social values vary across different cultures and nations. These studies provide a good conceptual framework for understanding the clash of values/ viewpoints; and have helped me understand to a degree the underlying motivation and 'why' of my past posts on this blog (why the outsider's view may be so different). Going forward, I intend to apply some of the learnings from these frameworks and surveys in future posts, but this post aims only to provide the background and list relevant sources.

According to American Environics, social values are:
"
- A person's mental posture or fundamental world view. Shapes definition of "self- interest."
- Formed early in life, usually fixed by one's mid-teens.
- Evolved slowly over time through education and life experiences.
- Major events - wars, depressions, etc - can trigger society- wide values shift.
- NOT fads.
- NOT "moral values" or "core values."
"

And here is a sample socio-cultural map:



(Source URL: http://www.americanenvironics.com/cgi-bin/slides.cgi?slide=13)

Much more detailed work on global values has been done by (World Values Survey), which claims, or at least, aims to be the "world's most comprehensive survey of political and sociocultural change."

The surveys were "designed to provide a comprehensive measurement of all major areas of human concern, from religion to politics to economic and social life and two dimensions dominate the picture: (1) Traditional/ Secular-rational and (2) Survival/Self-expression values. These two dimensions explain more than 70 percent of the cross-national variance in a factor analysis of ten indicators-and each of these dimensions is strongly correlated with scores of other important orientations."

The Traditional/Secular-rational values dimension reflects the contrast between societies. 'Traditional' values, as can be guessed, emphasise religion, deference to authority, family values, national pride and nationalistic outlook; and reject divorce, abortion, euthanasia, and suicide.

The second major dimension reflects the "transition from industrial society to post-industrial societies-which brings a polarization between Survival and Self-expression values". The 'Self- Expression' value cluster emphasises "subjective well-being, self-expression and quality of life" along with environmental protection, tolerance of diversity (including foreigners, gays and lesbians, gender equality), and interpersonal trust.

The above-mentioned findings and correlations are visualized on the following Inglehart-Welzel cultural map of the World.



(Source URL: http://margaux.grandvinum.se/SebTest/wvs/articles/folder_published/article_base_54)

Let us see in later posts as to what extent we agree or disagree with the above values map and where our individual values lie.



Some related documents:
- American Environics' Evolution of Global Values (pdf)
- World Values Survey's presentation on changes in cultural values between 1981 and 2006: Human Development View on Value Change (zipped powerpoint)

Protest. But Which Way?

While walking along the Thames yesterday, this Greenpeace protest banner ('Tony loves WMD') at Westminster caught my eye. (For background, click here).

It made me think of a contrasting style of protest; often witnessed in middle- east and India; with a mob shouting slogans at the top of their voice, burning effigies. Do we believe that we only get heard when we shout? If yes, why?

And, is over- the- top protest effective? I think not; whatever little efficacy exists, it drops sharply with overuse. Imagine a TV advertisement relying solely on sound volume to gain attention or to persuade.. On the other hand, if one is to apply lessons of marketing to protesting, surely a strategy based on differentiation and creative approaches would be more effective.

Hope the loud ones get the message... and turn the volume down.

Dead Pensioners - A Contrast

Lucknow pension authorities have delivered an impressive performance once again. While UK pension authorities can't get their get act together, Lucknow has shown tremendous foresight!

Last year, UK paid out more than £57million in benefits to people already dead (see details here). Now contrast that with Lucknow. A pensioner, Sukhdeyi, who landed up to collect her pension found herself officially declared dead! (Dainik Jagran's news-item, in Hindi).

If that isn't foresight and proactive reduction of benefit fraud, what is?

Moreover, it also makes me think how would poor Sukhdeyi prove herself to be alive? How can an officially dead person even submit an application to rescind her dead status? Would she be in a predicament similar to that of Yossarian in 'Catch-22'?

Truly, the world is all Maya, an illusion; and we all are figments of someone's imagination.

Lucknow in London, for real!

Made an exciting discovery today, that of Lucknow in London!

Actually, it is Lucknow Street, in the Greenwich borough (see the arrow on the map). That is not too far from where I stay, so hopefully one day I will manage to travel to Lucknow street and take a few photographs of 'Lucknow in London'.

If you now live in a place different from where you were born, have you come across your birthplace in the city of your residence?

P.S.: Since then also found Lucknow Street in Blackburn, Cardiff, Darlington County Durham, Portsmouth and Rochdale in the UK! Mmmm.... more popular name than I thought.

Fashion Models: Standard of Beauty?

An email forwarded to us carried these photos of models. After I had cycled through feelings of revulsion (God! That's horrendous) and disbelief (Must have been Photoshopped), I was forced to think.

I guess most of us assume that fashion models establish a standard of beauty. Yet in this case, the eye gives a lie to our assumptions. Is modelling at all about good looks? If beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, whose eye is it?

Even if we assume a purely functional, than aesthetic, view of fashion models - that they serve to drape the clothes, hence thinner is better - that raises another question. Which customers are the designers designing for? When I look around, I am hard pressed to find stick-thin figures. Increasingly, fashion modelling starts looking like an exercise in creating fanstasies, perhaps like playing a game of 'dungeons and dragons.'

Does anyone know what is going on here?

Victim of Abuse? 218 vs 88

Connor McCreaddie, an 8 year old, has made a big splash because of his weight. In December, he weighed 218 pounds (97 kg), three times of the weight of an average child his age. As The Sun fascinatingly puts it, he "has broken four beds, five bikes and six toilet seats due to his bulk" and "cannot even manage the five-minute walk to school without getting out of breath or being sick."

Situation had gotten so bad that last week there was talk of Connor being taken away from his family and put under protective custody of social care authorities. Apparently, one of the arguments was that letting Connor binge amounted to child abuse.

Well, the sages have weighed in. Connor remains at home. But for some, the questions remain: Is it a form of abuse? Is Connor a victim?

There are alleged victims at the other end of spectrum too. The ongoing debate on 'size zero' fashion models and the effect they have as role models has had the government weighing in against the "cult of size zero" and "tyranny of thinness". The BBC news article also shows a picture of the Brazilian model who died weighing just 88 pounds (39 kg).

What happened to old-fashioned images of weight-challenge, namely those of starving children? How do the new victims like Connor and size-zero models compare with old ones? I cannot help thinking that the 'victim culture' is being taken a bit too far.

Also, should the government or state authorities get involved at all? No wonder, even the TV ads have started taking the mickey out of the 'nanny state.'

What happened to the notion of personal responsibility?