Final Solution For Kashmir

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Posted: August 12, 2019

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On 5th August in 2019 Indian Government cut off all mobile, internet, landline communications and TV for India’s northern border state of Kashmir, putting all the citizens in lockdown, arresting 2 ex Chief Ministers, arresting 100s of political leaders & activists, filling Kashmir with even more soldiers than normal, depriving it of a legislature and of statehood — all in the name of national integration.

I always thought of Kashmir being the litmus test of Indian liberalism. So many who questioned the Indian Government in the past have suddenly come out as ‘nationalists‘. Kashmir unites us in bigotry like nothing else. Many elite Hindus appear to be progressive/liberal but scratch the surface a bit and you are back to square one.

Historical Context To Kashmir:

In the last 500 years the region of Kashmir:

  • Was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar and the rule lasted roughly 200 years.
  • Until the the Afghans briefly conquered it in 1751 for 68 years.
  • In 1819 the conquering armies of Sikh empire’s Ranjeet Singh’s captured the Kashmir valley and later his general, the little Napoleon of India, Zoravar Singh Kahluaria captured Rajouri, Kargil, Ladakh, Baltistan thereby surrounding the Kashmir valley. Sikh rule over Kashmir lasted just 26 years.
  • Until 1846 when the British beat the Sikh at the first Anglo Sikh empire and gave Kashmir to the British collaborator, Raja of Jammu. Making Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu into the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • In 1947 India and Pakistan were born out of British India. There were 100s of princely states within which had the option to join India or Pakistan, ideally via plebiscite determining the will of the people. Pakistan jumped the gun on Kashmir and invaded. Panicked Raja of Kashmir asked India for military help. India asked the Raja to sign the instrument of accession before any Indian troops flew to Kashmir. Raja signed the agreement. So while Pakistan gained 40% of Kashmir region via military action, most of Kashmir, along with all major population centers were held by India.
  • In the 60s Pakistan gave away the North Western areas it held, Aksai Chin to China.
GIF shows the complicated borders and regions of Kashmir held by India, Pakistan, China since 1947

Accession of Kashmir:

Seeking immediate military help from India with thousands Pashtun raiders wrecking havoc in Kashmir the desperate raja signed the accession agreement for Kashmir on 27th Oct 1947. As per the document, only defense, external affairs and communications would be handed to the govt. of India. While all other sectors were to be retained by Kashmir under the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution Act, 1939.

Flag of Jammu & Kashmir

Article 370 was therefore inserted into the Indian constitution to preserve the specific terms under which Kashmir had agreed to accede to India. As a result Kashmir was the only state in India with its own state flag, constitution.

Over the decades since the accession was signed successive Indian Governments treaded carefully over the Kashmiris by giving them Article 370 even while reducing it to a shell.


‘I have said it many times that 370 is nothing, it’s only a fig leaf. So, why do you want to remove that fig leaf? Why would you want to rub the Kashmiri nose further into the ground?’

AS Daulat, former chief of RAW (India’s CIA)

It’s important to note what ‘India’ did Kashmir join

The 20th century European model of nation state which worked for Europe with its small, hitherto largely homogeneous countries in Europe and North America was outdated and dangerous for India.

India is unique among the community of nations. Unlike most other nations India isn’t tied together through common language or culture. India rather is a whole sub-continent of sub-nationalities with staggering diversity in languages, culture, food habits, religion, identity. Along with this India has some very old, very deep fault lines around caste, religion, region.

So the Indian founding fathers consciously embraced diversity. This allowed for things like special relationship with states, among other things. India was conceived by the Indian founding fathers as a union of states.

Breach of trust

India has had a history of broken promises and betrayal of Kashmiri people. Each generation of Kashmiris have had to deal with a new betrayal by the Indian government.

The first betrayal – 1953

1953 – In 1953 Sheikh Abdullah was a symbol of the aspirations of the people. India unilaterally dismissed government of the tallest leader Kashmir has produced, the face of accession to India, Kashmir’s Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah. Putting him in jail for 11 years. This injustice has left a scar on the Kashmiri psyche that refuses to heal.

The second betrayal – 1987

1987 – India rigged the 1987 Kashmir elections in order to install a pro India party of NC with Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister. This loss of trust led to mass protests and set the Kashmir Valley on fire for next 10 years. 1000s of Kashmiri youngsters joined the armed militancy.

The third betrayal – 2019

5th Aug 2019 – India unilaterally and within 2 days does the following:

  • remove Article 370 from the Indian constitution ending the special status of Kashmir
  • dissolve the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir
  • split the state of Jammu & Kashmir into 2 union territories (roughly on communal lines) to be ruled directly from New Delhi

The legal handwaving to revoke Kashmir’s special status:

Since conception, Kashmir’s special status was supposed to be temporary affair. The idea being that over decades India wins Kashmiri hearts & minds and the Kashmiri people through Kashmiri elected representatives in the Kashmir legislature eventually raise a resolution in the state assembly to abolish the article 370 and be deeply integrated with the rest of India.

What happened was a trick played on Kashmiri people in the Indian Parliament.

Indian Government has been ruling over Kashmir directly for almost a year since it dissolved the elected J&K government last year. So in the parliament, India’s shadow Prime Minister, the Home Minister Amit Shah essentially argued:

  • The will of the Kashmiri people is represented by their elected representatives.
  • Since the J&K government is dissolved that power is transferred to Delhi.
  • Delhi decided that the will of the Kashmiri people is to remove the special status of Kashmir.

Wow.

This might be legal but this betrays the essence of democracy. If this was the will of the people why lock up the state, jail Kashmiri leaders and impose a communication blackout. A week from the day Kashmir’s special status was changed the Kashmir people still remain locked out with internet, phones, tv still blocked. 2 ex Chief Ministers continue to be jailed. Call this anything but to call it democratic is the heights of shamelessness.

Indian government also argued in parliament that this is being done for the progress and development of Kashmir. This too seems fallacious as Kashmir is doing better than the national average on key social and economic indicators.

Why was this done?

  1. To humiliate the subjugated Kashmiri Muslims further.
    • They wanted freedom from Delhi rule. They instead get unilateral dissolution of their state, constitution and get direct rule from Delhi in perpetuity.
    • 10 states in India have special status other than Kashmir. Special status keeps the unique and fragile culture, ecology of states like Nagaland, Manipur, Himachal, Kashmir from being overrun by the hordes from the Hindi heartlands of India. This in Kashmir was done especially so satisfy the ego of the Hindu supremacists.
    • You have to see the cringeworthy WhatsApp forwards, tweets, social media posts being sent across India. Which like the medieval times rejoice about having conquered Kashmir finally and upcoming access to beautiful Kashmiri lands and women.
  2. To appease the large vote bank of Hindu supremacists in the Indian heartlands. Who have been celebrating this all week with processions, rallies and busting crackers as if some great victory has been won. They are sure to reward the BJP/RSS in the upcoming state elections.
  3. To distract the Indian liberals and elite from all the talk of slowing economy. Now all the TV channels will talk about Kashmir instead of the economy for the coming weeks.

Future Consequences of the brazen dissolution of the Kashmir state:

  1. Pro-Indian political leaders in Kashmir have been delegitimised and discredited by the Indian Government: Kashmiri population can be divided into 3 camps
    1. The Anti India camp:
      1. This is the largest group of Kashmiris.
      2. Who through their history have learnt that no Indian promises can be taken seriously and no future with India is possible.
      3. These are the ones who take out protest rallies, throw stones after every Friday prayers in Srinagar.
      4. Kashmiri militants recruit here.
    2. The undecided camp:
      1. This is much smaller.
      2. These people aren’t sure if the future is with India. They have sympathies for both the other camps. They haven’t fully lost hope in the Indian constitution.
    3. The Pro India camp:
      1. This is the smallest group.
      2. They are chided by fellow Kashmiris for being collaborators.
      3. They take part in the elections, carry Indian flags, take oath on the Indian constitution, get involved with the local government, become chief ministers, so on. They now stand completely delegitimised and discredited in eyes of their fellow Kashmiris. How can they go asking for votes anymore? Indian govt. has successfully alienated all the pro India voices in Kashmir. This sheer stupidity of Indian government of losing this last group has lost India Kashmir.
  2. No stopping the Hindu Rashtra now. Hindu Rashtra is the often repeated, declared goal of RSS and millions of Upper Caste Indians who root for Hindu supremacist ideology of Hindutva. To remove the Article 370, the Indian Constitution was changed. No debate, no uproar, no opposition — and the constitution was changed. This will be repeated.
  3. Demographic changes to Kashmir will follow.
    1. Kashmir has a population of only 12 million. Rest of India is over 1400 million.
    2. Expect large-scale, state-sponsored schemes to settle outsiders to change the demography of the erstwhile state.
    3. Quite like the Israeli settlers, hoards of Hindians from the Northern plans will now be encouraged to settle and live in Kashmir by the government, RSS and its hundreds of affiliate organisations.
  4. Kashmir today, your state tomorrow: A precedent has been set for the Delhi Central Government unilaterally dissolving a state and turning it into a Union Territory over which It rules directly. This was done by putting the millions of citizens under state of lock down, jailing peoples representatives and ex Chief Ministers. This could soon be happening to your state.
  5. Kashmiri Intifada: The worst-case scenario is that the Valley literally explodes in anger. There are widespread, violent protests which are then crushed with sheer brute force, which in turn will further fuel resentment, and the vicious cycle will spiral out of control with Pakistan doing everything possible—inciting and instigating people, carrying out a disinformation campaign and information warfare, pumping in weapons and pushing in terrorists, ratcheting up tensions at the Line of Control, and maybe even indulging in some military adventurism—to keep things on the boil. Basically, this means that the situation will be a lot worse than what followed Burhan Wani’s killing. If this scenario unfolds, it will unleash some unintended consequences. 

Conclusion

  • India over the last 70 years has done everything it can to lose all moral right to Kashmir .


“The country isn’t the earth beneath our feet, it is the people.”

Rabindranath Tagore

PS: Indian security forces use extreme force and brutality on the protesting Kashmiri people. Excessive use of semi-lethal pellet guns cripple 1000s of Kashmiris for life every year. The following pictures show some of the victims.

  • Amir Kabir Beigh, 26 years old, Baramulla. “I have gone through a lot of surgeries all over India but I am still completely blind”.
  • Shabkal Nazir Waseem, 25 years old, from Bijbehera. Police left him with one hundred pellets all over his upper body when they shot him on the Muslim holiday of Eid. Two lodged in each eye, leaving him almost totally blind. Four people were blinded by pellet guns in Kashmir on the day he was shot, he told Pasquarelli.
  • Danish Rajab Jhat, 24 years old, from Srinagar. His left eye was unsalvageable, so doctors replaced it with an artificial eyeball. He still has 90 pellets inside his body and from his right eye he can barely see shadows.
  • Asif Ahmad Sheikh, 10 years old, from Anantnag. Asif received one pellet in his right eye, losing vision entirely on that side. He told Pasquarelli the injury has caused lots of problems at school.
  • Aquib Zahoor Pampore, 16 years old, from Anantnag. One pellet perforated the retina of his left eye; leaving him blind on that side. He told Pasquarelli he was forced to leave school because of his injuries.
  • Shakeela Begum, 35 years old, from Sheeri. She was hit by dozens of pellets on her chest and face. One entered her left eye and two hit her right eye. The pellets were shot from a very short distance and traveled beyond the retina, leaving her with only 10% of her vision.
     
  • Habid Hussain Kasab, 26 years old, from Anantnag. He was almost totally blinded in his right eye after he was shot by police, he told Pasquarelli
  • Mohammad Asif Dar, 23 years old, from Baramulla. He says he was playing cricket when he was shot in the head, shoulder and chest. Despite eight surgeries, he only has 10% of his vision left in his right eye
  • Shahid Ahmad Wani, 16 years old, from Achabal. He was forced to end his studies after being hit by 93 pellets all over his body, with two in the left eye. After three failed surgeries he is now able to only see shadows. To the right of his portrait, his medical records are pictured.

riot after riot

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Posted: June 25, 2019

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This attempts to show that in India there has been periodic, systemic pogroms of minorities with widespread tacit support of the state and the majority Hindu population. In India, these pogroms are euphemistically called ‘riots’.

Upper Caste(UC) Hindus in India have imagined historic grievances about excesses by the Muslim rulers in the past 1000 years before the British came to India. For these excesses they want to punish the present day Indian Muslims. The myths and stories that UC tell each other have made Muslims the permanent internal enemy.

Major Pogroms of minorities in India

There is a pattern here. Roughly every 10 years or so minorities are killed and raped by the thousands by the permanently aggrieved majority community. With each pogrom I list the number of people killed. The number of people who are disabled/injured is 10 times the number of dead and number of people displaced as a result of this violence is usually 100-1000 times the number killed.

  • 1969 Gujarat – 430 Muslims killed
  • 1980 Moradabad – 400 Muslims killed
  • 1983 Nellie – 2191 Muslims killed
  • 1984 Delhi – 3000+ Sikhs killed
  • 1989 Bhagalpur – 900 Muslims killed
  • 1992-3 Bombay – 575 Muslims killed
  • 2002 Gujarat – 2000+ Muslims killed

A note on the 2002 Gujarat pogrom

This remains one of the most horrendous violence against muslims in the recent history in India. More than 2000 muslims were killed brutally, even women and children were not spared. At least 250 women and girls were gang raped, quartered and burnt to death.

Sexual violence was used as a strategy for terrorising minorities. Violence against women also included them being stripped naked, violated with objects, and then killed. Other acts of violence against women included acid attacks, beatings and the killing of pregnant women.

Children were also killed in front of their parents. Muslims were killed in police shooting. The CCT report includes testimony of the then Gujarat BJP minister Haren Pandya (since murdered), who testified about an evening meeting convened by Modi at the evening of the Godhra train burning. At this meeting, officials were instructed not to obstruct the Hindu rage following the incident. The report also highlighted a second meeting, attended by state BJP and RSS leaders, where “detailed plans were made for arson and killing“. Sanjeev Bhatt, an IPS officer who was the whistleblower for this secretive meeting was rewarded by the state for his courage by being thrown out of IPS, his house demolished by state government’s bulldozers and in mid 2019 he was imprisoned for life in a bogus case.

Guj. gov. spokesman, Bharat Pandya, told the BBC that the rioting was a spontaneous Hindu backlash fueled by widespread anger against Muslims. He said “Hindus are frustrated over the role of Muslims in the on-going violence in Indian-administered Kashmir and other parts of India.

This demonstrated ability to crush and humiliate the Muslims so completely suddenly increased Modi’s stock in the eyes of Hindu electorate. The RSS began projecting Modi as ‘Hindu Hriday Samrath’ ,ie, Ruler of Hindu hearts. Modi won election after election after this and became the PM of the country 12 years later.

2014 onwards: A shift in strategy

Since the last major riots in 2013 just before in general election that got Modi elected the RSS seems to have changed strategy. Instead of periodic mass killings they have moved onto a model of submission by a thousand cuts. Roving private militia/paramilitary bands of RSS inspired goons catch and lynch a hapless Muslim roughly every other week.

Welcome to lynchistan

2014 on after grabbing power RSS seems to have consciously shifted its strategy. It seems mass murders is now a thing of the past. In fact there can be seen a direct relationship between the rise in power of RSS and the decline in the orchestrated mass killings.

In the new model RSS now encourages and supports roving gangs on armed milita who lynch 1-2 muslims on the streets every 2 weeks or so. This has the dual benefits of not getting bad name in international press and keeps the minorities perpetually in fear every time they step out of their house. Since 2014 on there have been 1000s of mob attacks with 100s dying. People are beaten to death amid chants of ‘Jai Sri Ram‘.

The mob lynchers almost always make videos of the lynching which are widely spread on social media to send a message to the minorities.

In a dark pattern that keeps repeating itself, the police almost always files cases against the surviving family of the mob lynching victims and the leaders of the lynch mob are rewarded.

1986 on – India’s sprint to fascism

In this year Congress, under pressure from Hindu Far Right, persuaded the Opening of Babri Masjid for Hindu prayers and rituals, and this event started a new phase of communal violence and riots.

It cannot be emphasised enough that the ghettoisation, poverty, lack of basic facilities are the direct or indirect results of these communal riots. Not many people have tried to understand the effects of the underlying fear, that a Muslim life and property is nothing but a sacrificial lamb to please the majority. The rapes, murders, burning of shops and houses of Muslims are usual during these riots, most of the times assisted by the Police and Armed Forces. It is not possible to cover all the incidents, so only major ones are covered here.

The following is an incomplete list of large scale killing/raping of minorities by the Hindu Right Wing 1986 on

1986

1986 : Communal attacks on Muslims led to the below incidents:

  • J&K – 200 injured;
  • Mob attack Delhi – 1 dead, 26 injured;
  • Mob attack Sehore, MP – 6 dead;
  • Mob attack Nasik, Nanded, Panvel – 11 dead; Hindu procession, Anti-Muslim slogans, Shiv Sena played major part.
  • Aurangabad – 21 injured
  • Allahabad – 6 dead, 27 injured
  • Jagannath Rath yatra Gujarat – 40 dead;
  • during Gujarat Bandh Gujarat – 18 dead;
  • Jagannath Rath yatra Karnataka – 4 dead;
  • temple procession Gujarat – 3 dead;
  • Ganpati Visarjan Amravati – 9 dead;

1987

1987 Gujarat

  • Ahmedabad – 9 dead;
  • Mob attack Khaira – 6 dead;
  • Religious procession Shahpur – 5 dead; police firing killed 2 of these 5

1987 Meerut

PAC and Hindu Extremists killed between 400-1000 Muslims (infamous Hashimpura including). PAC entered a Muslim village, burnt and killed around 200 Muslims and threw the bodies into a canal. It was a massacre and police played an active role in mass murder.

1987 Delhi

15 Muslims killed among whom 12 were killed in shooting by police. It was Ramadan and people came out from Jama Masjid after prayers.

1988

1988 Aurangabad

26 Muslims killed in the communal violence started by Shiv Sena mobs in different places.

1988 Muzaffarnagar (UP)

To control the communal tensions, a peace committee was formed at Mr. Saiduz Zaman (INC leader) house. When this peace committee took out peace procession, it was attacked by a Hindu mob. 60-200 Muslims were killed.

1989

1989 Ram Janam Bhoomi campaign + LK Advani’s Rath Yatra

The mobilisation campaign for Kar Sevaks to construct the proposed Ram Janma Bhoomi Temple at Ayodhya on 30th October 1990 aggravated the communal atmosphere in the country. Later in 1990, Communal riots occurred in the wake of L.K.Advani’s Rath Yatra wherever it went.

These riots were led by RSS-BJP men to consolidate the ‘Hindu’ vote bank. They were widespread over almost all the states from Assam to West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi.

1989 Hazaribagh

 Violence after Ram Navami procession, around 100 muslims dead.

1989 Kota

Violence after Hindu Anant Chaturdashi procession, 22 Muslims dead. Dawoodi Bohras were the worst victimised.

1989 Badaun

More than 60 muslims killed during communal clashes. ABVP involved. 24 Killed in Kasganj.

1989 Indore

BJP, RSS and VHP took out Ram Shila Procession, situation turned into a Police vs Muslim confrontation. 50 muslims were killed, many of them in police firing.

1990

1989 – 1990 Bhagalpur and ~250 adjacent villages

The total Muslims killed are numbered around 900-1000, and more than 50,000 displaced. It started with Ram Shila Pujan procession. Entire Muslim villages were burnt and destroyed, trains were attacked.

The SP K. S. Dwivedi and his police team, particularly Bihar Military Police (BMP), participated actively in the killing of Muslims, later reinstated by Government. It was a massacre of large scale, assisted by the state machinery, incited by the Ram Janam Bhoomi Andolan. RSS rewarded him recently(in 2017) by making him the top cop in Patna, Bihar.

1990 Jaipur

Since the Rath Yatra started from Somnath, 52 muslims killed and 144 injured. 1990 Jodhpur – VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal called for a Jodhpur bandh to protest the arrest of L.K.Advani, 20 muslims killed and 100+ injured

1990 Lucknow

After the BJP chief started the Rath Yatra, 33 muslims killed. PAC Involved. 1990 Agra – Due to the Rath Yatra by L.K.Advani. 20 to 22 similar incidents at different places. 31 muslims killed and 69 injured. PAC actively involved in the riots and murders.

1990 Kanpur

The city was a victim of communal riots thrice within a year. 30 Muslims killed. PAC Involved.

1990 Colonelganj (Gonda, UP)

100-300 Muslims killed. During Durga Puja procession, provocative slogans were raised against Muslims and violence erupted. PAC Involved.

1990 Bijnor (UP)

After Kar Sevaks entered Ayodhya, a victory procession (Vijay Julus) was taken out in Bijnor, which entered the muslim area and shouted provocative slogans against Muslims. Violence erupted and around 200 muslims were killed with the help of PAC.

1990 Aligarh

A Train was stopped and muslim passengers were killed. Violence in several other places in Aligarh, 150-200 Muslims killed. 1990 Delhi – Sikh and Muslim unity peace march was attacked. 6 Muslims killed.

1990 Hailakandi, Assam

Communal tension began to rise as soon as VHP, RSS and BJP organised pujas to purify the bricks for Shilayas at Ayodhya. At the time, the DM was a Muslim, a matter that RSS utilised in its favor. 37 Muslims killed.

1990 Hyderabad

Due to Babri Mosque demolition, the riots took place in and around Hyderabad, in which 300+ Muslims were killed and lots of properties damaged.

1991

April 1990 to April 1991 Gujarat

Nearly 1520 communal incidents, 262 muslims killed and 945 injured. 1990 Ahmedabad (soon after the Rath Yatra started from Somnath) 41 muslims killed There are 100+ other incidents where less than 10 muslims were killed.

1991 Baroda, UP

24 Muslims killed. 1991 Benaras, UP – Kali religious procession entered a Muslim locality, slogans were shouted. Rumours spread that the idol was broken by the Muslims. More than 50 Muslims killed.

1991 Ghaziabad

Ram Navmi procession related. 10 Muslims killed

1991 Bhadrak, Orissa

 Riots occurred during the Ram Navami procession. 13 Muslims killed.

1991 Saharanpur, UP

Ram Navmi procession related. 40 Muslims killed. Some of them killed in Police firing.

1991 Baroda, Surat

Ram Navmi procession killed 46 Muslims.

1992

1992 Sitamarhi, Bihar

A religious procession taken out, slogans shouted, violence erupted. 44 Muslims killed.

1992 Surat

A bandh was called by a Muslim organisation BMSS. The muslim shops were attacked by Hindu groups. Around 200-300 Muslims were killed, and lots of industries of muslims were destroyed.

1992 Ahmedabad

Jagannath Rath Yatra, violence, riots. 27 Muslims killed.

1992 Bhopal

142 Muslims killed and 30,000 displaced (34 shot dead by police).

1992 Delhi

Almost 100 muslims killed in communal riots.

1993

1992 – 1993 Mumbai

1000+ Muslims Killed. Most of the people were killed in police firing. Hindu-Muslim communal riot as an effect of Demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. 4000 Crore worth of properties damaged. It was a massacre of muslims on large scale.

1993 Surat

175 Muslims killed in communal riots.

1993 Ahmedabad

70 Muslims killed in communal riots.

1994

1994 Bangalore

After Urdu News is broadcast in Doordarshan. 30 Muslims killed in communal clashes.

1994-2002

1994 onwards, there are incidents of small scale communal riots and the number of people killed is reduced. Gujarat remains on the top in the number of incidents related with communal violence. Vajpayee became PM in 1996, and again in 1998 and remained PM till 2004.

2002 Gujarat

Best bakery, Vadodara – Attacked by a mob, which burned down the bakery, killing 14 people. Ahmedabad – 790 Muslims killed, 223 reported missing. Gulbarg Society massacre – 69 Muslims killed, burnt alive. Naroda Patiya massacre – 97 Muslims killed by a mob of 5000 people.

2002-2014

2007 Samjhauta Express, Diwana station

68 people killed mostly Pakistani nationals and some Indians, including some Railway employees.

2012 Assam

77 Muslims killed. Communal violence on Bengali speaking Muslims by Assamese Hindus.

2013 Muzaffarnagar, UP

42 Muslims killed. Rumour of eve-teasing of Hindu Girls, murder of a Muslim boy, then public lynching of the murderers (two Hindu boys) triggered communal riot between the Hindu and the Muslim community.

You never know what They’ll say next.. 2

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Posted: May 21, 2019

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I was having this discussion with this person. Let’s call him Veeru(name changed). Veeru has the reputation for being the most ‘liberal’ in my extended family. He is often at odds with his brother who is an unashamed Hindu supremacist fascist. We were trying to discuss state of Indian society, creeping fascism, repression and violence against minorities.

During the discussion I decided to establish a baseline from where to take the discussion forward to demonstrate the systematic repression of minorities and Dalits in the Indian society. To start this off I ask if Veeru thinks the opposite, that is, instead of acknowledging repression of these communities does he think these communities were given more than their due by the state & society. That is, if there was any appeasement?

To my utter horror Veeru proceeded to say the following.

“The biggest appeasement of the minorities is that they have been allowed to live. The fact that each one of them hasn’t been murdered is appeasement(giving them more than due).”

Veeru

My goodness. I couldn’t recover from this whole day. What does one say to something like this.

How does one proceed to have a discussion about justice and fairness when the standard of UC(upper caste) magnanimity is set to not murder every woman, child and man belonging to the 200 million religious minorities and ~170 million Dalits.

Also during the discussion about the normalised lynching of Indian Muslims on the streets of India, Veeru shot back saying what about all these people doing 9/11, terror blasts, so on.

This betrays a medieval mindset of the idea of collective punishment. For the crimes of Saudi born, American 9/11 bombers Indian Muslims must be lynched and taught a lesson as a collective punishment.

This confirms my growing belief that the core myths and stories of even the most liberal upper caste Hindus are detached from reality and provides perfect bedrock for the RSS’s fascist ideas of avenging the imagined historic injustice to Hindus in the past by murdering, raping, oppressing current everyday Muslims.

A man is defined by the thoughts he has. I cant believe I used to look up to Veeru all these years. I am ashamed of myself for that.

If this is what the so called liberals of this country have to offer then there is no stopping the fascist takeover of this society.

‘God did it!’ approach to the Universe and its mysteries

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Posted: August 21, 2012

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I’ve noticed a lot of people somehow see God as a “magical default.” That is, unless there is no natural explanation available for a phenomenon OR even if all the evidence in the world is available for a naturalistic explanation, but they are either unaware of it or never really understood it is simply assumed “God did it!“. This article hopes to only examine how ‘God did it! is a terrible explanation for the questions about the natural world and the universe. I see people on a daily basis killing their own and more importantly their children’s natural inquisitiveness about the natural world with the intellectually lazy ‘God did it!/God made it this way’ answers. With the ‘God did it!’ approach, the net increase in knowledge is nothing. What they don’t realize is that, they are still standing exactly where they were before getting this ‘answer‘.

The levels of scientific ignorance in our society alarming. Most(Yes. Most!) of the ‘educated’ adults in our societies don’t have understanding of elementary science. I think in part the reason for this is the way science is taught. Very few school level science teachers are able to expose the seduction of science to children. Thus, many develop this notion of science being too boring! Which is just not true. Science(i.e., understanding the nature of reality of the universe) is magical in the truest sense of the word. The other reason for this widespread scientific ignorance is that our education system is broken, i.e., it is possible for students to pass; not just pass, but even ace in terms of marks and still have no appreciable understanding of the concept. This widespread scientific ignorance makes the ‘God did it’ pill easier to swallow.

Whenever I have casually asked theist why do they suppose that a God exists, most often than not, I get an answer which is a variance of:

Who/What else do you suppose {made / created / makes} the { (humans,plants and animals) / (magnificent Mountains,Massive oceans,Earth,moon,Sun,stars) / (seasons,tides,monsoons,day-night keep coming and never missing a beat) / (etc..) } ??

But now science knows so much!

We now have a very good understanding of:

  • How did the mind boggling variety of plants animals came about? How complexity such as the human eye/brain or a butterfly’s wing arise naturally?
  • How and when did Earth and our solar system form?
  • How long back the the universe came into existence?
  • How did the stars and planets form?
  • ..and all the other big questions religion pretended to know answers to.

Thankfully for our species this list is now massive(and grows everyday). Modern science is less than 400 years old; and in its beginning science didn’t have a large and strong edifice of knowledge and techniques. But modern science is a force to reckon with. Although, there is still so much that we still don’t know! But this doesn’t automatically imply God as a ‘magical default’. Ill let one of my favorite astrophysics Neil deGrasse Tyson put it:

Neil Degrasse Tyson on God of the gaps argument

Religion was the discourse that we had when:

  • All causes in the universe were opaque. We didn’t know the basis of anything.
  • We didn’t know why we were here, we didn’t know how diseases spread or what disease was.
  • We didn’t know why some people died early and others flourished.
  • We didn’t know what’s causing thunderstorms or causing the crops to fail.

Then very naturally, as a cogitative and behavioural imperative, we formed descriptions of the world in order to figure out what’s going on. We told ourselves stories about our origins and about where we are going and about the causes in the world. These stories, given our pervasive ignorance and our disposition to see agency in the world and to see our selves in relationship to the world, entail being in relation to invisible friends and enemies. So we have this parent figure in this guy who is going to take care of things if you live rightly.

Bertand Russel on Religion being left over from infancy of intelligence

So why is the ‘God did it!/God created it!’ idea so popular?

I could think of 3(which are actually variations of just 1) reasons other than the obvious fact the its much easier to simply think that ‘God did/created it’ than to actually read/research about the real explanation.

1.) Things aren’t always what they look like to be:

Also, our brains are pre disposed to see agency in the world. That is, if we see a car, we assume there is a car maker. When we see a phone, there has to be a phone maker. As our understanding of the nature of reality of the Universe increases, it becomes clear that things are not always what they seem.

The Earth seems flat but is a sphere.

We seem to be in a state of rest, but in fact, you, me and everything on Earth(incuding the Earth)  is moving at the crazy speed of 107826 Km/hr around the Sun, while spinning on its own axis at around 1600 Km/hr. While Earth,Sun along with our entire Solar System is revolving around the center of the Milky Way galaxy at around 80,000 Km/hr and our galaxy, the Milky Way along with its 400 Billion stars(our Sun among them) is moving for a huge galactic head on crash with our nearest galaxy, the Andromeda at the speed of around 400,000 Km/hr. (Luckily for us Universe is Big, so this collision is due in 3.5 Billion years!) Not just this, Milky Way and Andromeda + 52 other galaxies; together known as the Local Group are moving towards a much bigger supercluster of galaxies called the Virgo Supercluster consisting of several hundreds of galaxies. Now Local Group + Virgo Supercluster + hundreds of other Superclusters of galaxies are all moving toward the super massive gravitational anomaly called the Great Attractor!

the neighbourhood

On a side note this makes me think about the supreme arrogance of religious thinking: That a carbon-based bag of mostly water on a speck of iron-silicate dust around a boring dwarf star in a minor galaxy in an under populated local group of galaxies in an unfashionable suburb of a super-cluster would look up at the sky and think, ‘It was all made so I could have a personal relationship with the creator of the entire Universe’

The plants, animals, etc and the natural beauty in the world looks as if it was designed, but science tells us that isn’t the case. Just a little more than high school level biology is needed to understand that this apparent illusion of design in things like feathers of a bird, the human eye, etc, is explicable by understanding evolution via natural selection. To our naïve eyes it ‘looks’ as if its designed by a designer.

This is what legendary naturalist David Attenborough has to say about it: “When Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that’s going to make him blind. And [I ask them], ‘Are you telling me that the God you believe in who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child’s eyeball! Because that doesn’t seem to me to coincide with a God who’s full of mercy.”

Here is a video of a guy in an evangelical Christian video spreading his ignorance of biology in order to support his flavour of ‘god idea’:

Banana! The atheist nightmare!

If you didn’t watch the video, read the transcript here: “Behold, the atheists’ nightmare. Now if you study a well-made banana, you’ll find, on the far side, there are 3 ridges. On the close side, two ridges. If you get your hand ready to grip a banana, you’ll find on the far side there are three grooves, on the close side, two grooves. The banana and the hand are perfectly made, one for the other. You’ll find the maker of the banana, Almighty God, has made it with a non-slip surface. It has outward indicators of inward contents – green, too early – yellow, just right – black, too late. Now if you go to the top of the banana, you’ll find, as with the soda can makers have placed a tab at the top, so God has placed a tab at the top. When you pull the tab, the contents don’t squirt in your face. You’ll find a wrapper which is biodegradable, has perforations. Notice how gracefully it sits over the human hand. Notice it has a point at the top for ease of entry. It’s just the right shape for the human mouth. It’s chewy, easy to digest and its even curved toward the face to make the whole process so much easier. Seriously, Kirk, the whole of creation testifies to the genius of God’s creation.”

Quick response to the banana man:

Wild banana

The modern banana is a cultivated fruit, i.e. present day banana has evolved as a result of 50,000 years of selective breeding. This is how the actual wild banana is. This banana argument was a embarrassingly poor variation of the classic ‘argument from design’. 

2.) Science is tough:

The human brain did not evolve to understand the mysteries of the Universe, it evolved to survive on the African savanna. Thus is the reason after a point science starts getting very complex. Theoretical physics at the level of string theory, relativity, quantum physics gets incredibly tough. Quantum physics is said to be so weird and counterintuitive that one of the greatest theoretical physicist Richard Feynman once said ‘if you think you know quantum theory you don’t know quantum theory’. But quantum theory yields experimental predictions which have been verified to an accuracy; number of decimal places so accurate that Feynman himself compared it to the accuracy of predicting the width of North America to the accuracy of width of one human hair. That is why quantum theory has to me taken seriously and it doesn’t matter that quantum theory is deeply mysterious and tough.

Science is tough !

3.) Big numbers stop making sense:

Space is BIG! Really BIG. We just cant comprehend how vastly, hugely, mind bogglingly BIG it is. It’s difficult for us humans to truly realize the scale of the universe as very big numbers stop making sense to the human mind.

When somebody says the universe has more than 400 billion galaxies, each with over 100 billion stars, everybody realizes that’s a lot of stuff but it’s difficult to get a feel of ‘how much stuff’.

Human brain can easily feel the difference between 17 sheep/books/houses/trees and 4 sheep/books/houses/trees. Even a few thousand is ok. But when things go into millions and hundreds of millions, billions, suddenly things stop making sense.

Conclusion:

Main problem with the ‘god did it!’ approach is that. It masquerades a non-explanation as an explanation. That is, if one is honest, it isn’t tough to realize that ‘God did it!’ is a non-answer. Compare the ‘God did it!/God made it this way’ approach and with a real answer(the scientific explanation) on any of the question you or your child has about the Universe and see the difference in intellectual satisfaction.

This to me is one of the main horrors of religion. It makes us feel satisfied with non-answers.One of the dangers about religion is that it can foster intellectual laziness. You need to be open and constantly question. To say that I don’t understand X so it must be magic, therefore it must be supernatural, it must be a miracle.

That is cowardly and defeatist, lazy.

Astrology is NOT science!

by

Posted: June 23, 2012

12 Comments

I have come across a shockingly high number of reasonably educated and intelligent Indians who happen to buy into the belief that ‘astrology is a science’. This article hopes to show otherwise.

Astrology 001

Last night this was thrown at me again. I am tired of going over the same thing over and over again so from now on I would like to point people to this post and make life easier. You can believe whatever you want but don’t call your unjustified/unverified claim, science. Don’t tell children that its science.

The claim:

Lets begin with the central claim here.

"The alignment of planetary bodies can significantly influence human destiny."

The very first thing we can say about this is that it is a non trivial claim.

It is a claim about physics, biology. All one needs to do is ask, Does it work? That is, do astrologers accurately and specifically predict human destiny from the alignment of the planets? No, they do not. Thus, the theory behind astrology is irrelevant, because astrology simply does not do what astrologers claim it can do.

So, if a person believes this claim to be true he is basically saying to the scientists of the world that they seem to have missed something so crucial to the nature of the universe, not just crucial, but something so inherently obvious that they with all their equations and instruments have missed But, the local astrologer/priest hasn’t! 

So many types of astrology!

It is critical to understand that unlike kinematics, electromagnetism,thermodynamics,etc there is no universal astrology, each culture/civilization has had its own brand of astrology. There is  Chinese astrology(Based upon sun-moon calendar , Mesoamerican astrology(many different versions,based upon sacrifice,different sun-moon calendars), Babylonian astrology (based upon the inspection of the liver of the sacrificial animal), Hellenistic astrology( based upon the constellations. This is the forerunner to the modern western astrology), Astrology in medieval Islam( based upon position of constellations visible from the desert),  Hindu astrology( original based upon Vedic manuscript called Vedanga Jyotisha and the modern one is the the mixed system which is hybrid of Hellenistic and the old Vedic version)

Now its important to understand that they aren’t all same. the ‘predictions’ by these systems are mutually exclusive. In fact even predictions in the same system do not always have consistency.

Read the scientific researches on the subject, if you wanna:

In case you need to go through the scientific double blind tests done on the subject, good place to start is with the Carlson’s experiment. Although unnecessary,rest are you to dig up and read.

Astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson asserted that "astrology was discredited 600 years ago with the birth of modern science"

Lets use the Simple common sense approach:

The common sense approach says, if it is true, that humanity has achieved such an insight into the nature of the universe, then why is it not taught in schools/colleges. I mean I remember studying the Nelson process, even though the chances of me actually using it to produce elemental sodium are close to zero, so why not teach students the ability to get an insight into the future by teaching them basics of this wonderful science. Why is it that, major corporations, major stock brokerages, etc spend millions and millions of dollars on stuff like market research, hire analysts when they can just have a team of top paid astrologers to tell them how the market will be in the future of how the customers will react to a product, etc.

Why aren’t scientific journals not taking astrology seriously?Why is it that NASA, ESA, ISRO,etc aren’t spending their money on astrology, instead of wasting all of it on astronomy?

Simple fact of the matter is, there have been countless researches on this and all of them show all of the fantastical claims made by astrology aren’t true. It is not science. Not one astrologer predicted the crash of a flight; not one astrologer predicted the 2004 tsunami(killing almost 2.5lac people),etc. Its just inconsistent, bullshit made by humans thousands of years ago. Astrology comes from a time when humanity know almost nothing about the universe and was riddled in superstitious hogwash.   

Astrology has been around much longer than acupuncture; ghosts and demons have been around longer still. They are all relics of a time when Homo sapiens faced a world they had no hope of understanding.

If you believe in this, I hope this post has given you some pointers. No single article can change a persons mind. Rest of the research is for you to do, I cant do it for you. Embrace the magnificent reality of the universe. Instead of wasting precious time of your life on astrology, just spend minutes reading about astronomy(and see your jaw drop!).

Thanks for reading. 🙂 I hope the tone of the article wasn’t condescending; it wasn’t the intention, just my poor written expression. 

 

Interesting media on the subject:

 

Carl Sagan – One of the greatest  astrophysicist on astronomy:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB88HnlLgZ8]

 

Astrology Debunked – Sagan, Dawkins, Nye, Randi, Tyson:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1nsEtjqPg8]

 
Sheldon debunks Astrology (Funny)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhX_nXTF0Ec&feature=related]