Mau Mau to Midnapore: Confronting the brutality of empire There are certainly some Britons, including academics, journalists and human rights lawyers, who are aware of the realities of colonialism. However, in the society as a whole and in the media in the UK there are still far too many who seem strangely reluctant, even after so many decades after the end of the British empire, to come to terms with the true nature of colonialism or learn from the perspective of former subjects who had rebelled against it.
posted by infini
on May 6, 2013 -
17 comments
Men in Saris: Mumbai's new lavani dancers Lavani is a folk dance, traditionally performed by women for men. The popularity of Bin Baykancha Tamasha (or Performance Without Women) and other female-impersonation groups in Mumbai suggests that the city may slowly be getting comfortable with flamboyant expressions of male sexuality.
posted by infini
on Mar 10, 2013 -
8 comments
Bangalore based blogger ecophilo
shares his experiences of attending this year's vast gathering of pilgrims at the Maha
Kumbh Mela in Allahabad this year.
Previous thread on the Kumbh Mela,
what it is and why the Maha Kumbh
only takes place every 144 years. Here's
a snippet:
It all began with Twitter. There were a few on my timeline who were tweeting about the Maha Kumbh Mela, 2013 and a thought took root in my mind. Can I make it to the Kumbh Mela this year? After all, it was tempting to be part of the worlds oldest and largest human gathering - and it seemed within reach too. And The Kumbh Mela was not a place that had ever figured in my list of 'things to experience'.
posted by infini
on Mar 9, 2013 -
29 comments
"To the world of today the men of medieval Christendom already seem remote and unfamiliar. Their names and deeds are recorded in our history-books, their monuments still adorn our cities, but our kinship with them is a thing unreal, which costs an effort of imagination. How much more must this apply to the great Islamic civilization, that stood over against medieval Europe, menacing its existence and yet linked to it by a hundred ties that even war and fear could not sever. Its monuments too abide, for those who may have the fortunate to visit them, but its men and manners are to most of us utterly unknown, or dimly conceived in the romantic image of the Arabian Nights. Even for the specialist it is difficult to reconstruct their lives and see them as they were. Histories and biographies there are in quantity, but the historians for all their picturesque details, seldom show the ability to select the essential and to give their figures that touch of the intimate which makes them live again for the reader. It is in this faculty that Ibn Battuta excels."
Thus begins the book, "Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354" published by Routledge and Kegan Paul. Step
into the world of "
the first tourist" who made his mark as
the world's greatest traveler before the age of steam.
[more inside]
posted by infini
on Jan 12, 2013 -
21 comments
"Perhaps the
most remembered
and quoted (pdf) woman in Indian
history is a sixteenth century
poet,
singer and
saint called Mirabai, or Meera.
Versions of
her songs are sung today
all over India,
and she
appears as a
subject in
films,
books,
dances,
plays and
paintings. Even Gandhi
promoted her, seeing Mira as a
symbol of a woman who has
the right to
choose her own path, forsake a life of luxury, and in
nonviolent resistance
find liberation (pdf)." ~
Women in World History
posted by infini
on Nov 18, 2012 -
5 comments
India mourns Dr Verghese Kurien
who passed away today at age 90. If you have eaten butter in India, or been able to add a spot of milk to your tea, then you've
experienced the impact of Operation Flood — the largest
dairy development program in the world. Operation Flood helped India become the world's largest milk producer by 2010–11, with close to 17 percent of the global production. Gujarat-based co-operative, the "Anand Milk Union Limited", often called Amul, was the
engine behind the success of the programme.
While much more can be said about Dr Kurien's work with dairy farmers, cooperatives, milk production as well as
his awards and honours, his
best known legacy is perhaps
the creation of the Amul brand. The
little girl who knew just how to poke India's funny bone has her very own
Previously.
posted by infini
on Sep 8, 2012 -
12 comments
Master Builder Uncovers Striking Similarities In Indian and Incan / Mayan Sacred Structures:- It is Sthapati's theory that Mayan, the creator of Indian architecture, originated from the Mayan people of Central America. In Indian history, Mayan appears several times, most significantly as the author of Mayamatam, "Concept of Mayan" which is a Vastu Shastra, a text on art, architecture and town planning. The traditional date for this work is 8,000bce. Mayan appears in the Ramayana (2000bce) and again in the Mahabharata (1400bce) - in the latter he designs a magnificent palace for the Pandava brothers. Mayan is also mentioned in Silappathikaram, an ancient Tamil scripture, and is author of Surya Siddhanta, one of the most ancient Hindu treatises on astronomy.
(
Original ca. 1995)
[more inside]
posted by infini
on Aug 31, 2012 -
32 comments
Yesterday I had the dubious pleasure of watching Oprah’s Next Chapter: India on TLC. The name of the programme is pretty self-explanatory. And I’d already heard of her series, Oprah’s Next Chapter in the US where she “steps outside of the studio for enlightening conversations with newsmakers, celebrities, thought leaders and real-life families”. I’ve never been a great fan of Oprah’s – and the fact that she truly follows and believes everything that Deepak Chopra and Dr Phil say has nothing to do with it. I do think though, that she’s a good interviewer, she’s well-informed, an easy conversationalist and is well-travelled. But all that has changed after watching Oprah’s Next Chapter: India.
Myopic, unaware, ignorant and gauche. This was Middle America at its best worst.
posted by infini
on Jul 23, 2012 -
132 comments
Given how little thought India’s contribution to the World Wars gets in our collective historical memory, it is almost strange to think that in the First World War India made the largest contribution to the war effort out of all of Britain’s colonies and dominions. Close to 1,700,000 Indians – combatants and non-combatants – participated in WWI. My own area of interest is India’s role in the Mesopotamian theatre. [more inside]
posted by infini
on Jul 8, 2012 -
7 comments
“Sexual orientation does make you poor,” says Manohar Elavarthi, a community organizer with Sangama in Bangalore. “Poverty is not just economic – you miss access to so many things: ration cards, inheritance rights, voter ID cards.” In several South Asian countries, there are reports that LGBT people have even been denied access to disaster relief. And homophobia is intricately connected with other divisions in South Asian societies, particularly around gender but also religion and caste.
Yet I saw many signs of hope and change in both India and Nepal. Those transgender sex workers in Chennai have organized a coalition, called V-CAN, of every single community-based organization in the state of Tamil Nadu that serves homosexual or transgender people. Working with the NGO Praxis, they have been able to gain access to some public benefits, such as pensions and registering as “third gender” on government ID cards. Activists in Nepal’s Blue Diamond Society have achieved similar results and more. ~
World Bank blog post
posted by infini
on Jun 3, 2012 -
9 comments
India tells Britain: We don't want your aid According to a leaked memo, the foreign minister, Nirupama Rao, proposed “not to avail [of] any further DFID [British] assistance with effect from 1st April 2011,” because of the “negative publicity of Indian poverty promoted by DFID”. But officials at DFID, Britain’s Department for International Development, told the Indians that cancelling the programme would cause “grave political embarrassment” to Britain, according to sources in Delhi. Further embarressment ensues.
Emma Boon, campaign director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is incredible that ministers have defended the aid we send to India, insisting it is vital, when now we learn that even the Indian government doesn’t want it.”
posted by infini
on Feb 5, 2012 -
34 comments
This is a story of a young man named Chotu Lohar* from a small nondescript village in
one of the poorest states of India. He dropped out of school to work in the iron mines. Music on a radio was the only entertainment available in his house but
last year he came to national notice on a reality show called
Dance India Dance - where although his untutored enthusiasm and energy captured attention - he was unable to make the cut. His passion, on the other hand,
caught the interest** of the show's producers who took him under their wing and a year later, he's
just made the shortlist for this year's show.
[more inside]
posted by infini
on Jan 7, 2012 -
7 comments
Massive Biometric Project Gives Crores of Indians an ID: Aadhaar faces titanic physical and technical challenges: reaching millions of illiterate Indians who have never seen a computer, persuading them to have their irises scanned, ensuring that their information is accurate, and safeguarding the resulting ocean of data. This is India, after all—a country notorious for corruption and for failing to complete major public projects. And the whole idea horrifies civil libertarians. But if Aadhaar’s organizers pull it off, the initiative could boost the fortunes of India’s poorest citizens and turbocharge the already booming national economy. [more inside]
posted by infini
on Aug 30, 2011 -
30 comments
The African Presence in India: A Photo Essay :
The questions we pose here are simply these: Who are the African people of India? What is
their significance in the annals of history? Precisely what have they done and what are they
doing now? These are extremely serious questions that warrant serious and fundamental
answers. This series of articles, "The African Presence in India: An Historical Overview," is
designed to provide some of those answers.
posted by infini
on Jul 30, 2011 -
14 comments
The two year long
saga of how McDonalds engineered the perfect cottage cheese filet for the McSpicy Paneer burger. McD has a
turbulent history in India where its processes, practices and products, successfully developed over decades, have been turned upside down and
redesigned, often from scratch.
[more inside]
posted by infini
on Jun 12, 2011 -
116 comments
CK Prahalad, Paul and Ruth McCracken
Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business in the University of Michigan
passed away on 16th April 2010 after a brief illness. His core
competency was strategic insight and vision and his
legacy to the world, the
concept of the
Bottom of the Pyramid, which changed
the way big
business viewed the teeming, huddled poverty stricken masses of the
former third world as
micro-innovators, micro-
producers and so, micro-consumers in
their own right. Among others,
his work inspired Ratan Tata as the
Nano turned conventional wisdom of automobile manufacturing on its head and
paved the way for Indian industry
to focus on the
high volume/low margin potential of their domestic
market. In
2009, he was named the "
world's most influential thinker" .
Though not
uncriticized for
his theories on the
Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, one can acknowledge his role in overcoming the "
tyranny of dominant logic" that the poor should
not simply be recipients of charity but
demanding customers in
challenging environments. RIP, sir. {
previously,
previously}
posted by infini
on Apr 17, 2010 -
14 comments
Today
would have been
Indira Gandhi's 92nd birthday, had she not been
assassinated by members of her own guard in her own backyard on October 31st, 1984 (I was
there in New Delhi in a cab when the driver suggested it might
be safer if he turned around and took me straight home). Often confused as a relative of the more famous Gandhi,
fashionable, stylish and well groomed Indira was actually the daughter of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and used her married name, although divorced from her
Parsi exhusband. Daughter and
mother of Prime Ministers of India, she herself held office with an iron fist,
remembered for the "
Emergency", a brief period of martial law often overlooked in the democratic vibrancy of Indian politics. Will Mrs Gandhi's
legacy of dynasty be
continued by her half Italian grandson?
posted by infini
on Nov 19, 2009 -
27 comments
India, as she is today,
was carved out of
British India, in 1947 when the left and right hand sides of the country became the new nation of Pakistan (
East and
West) respectively. While the history of Islamic influence and
subsequent tolerance and intolerance goes back centuries to the first advent of the
Mughal invasion, it has been said that the
post Independence troubles of the modern nations of India and Pakistan
stem from this sundering. In
1971, war brought
forth Bangladesh from the former East Pakistan on India's eastern border.
The Partition, as this holocaust is known,
embedded in
current day Indian memory,
history, culture,
movies,
books,
TV serials and music, was an
unimaginable horror of
slaughter and bloodshed. This separation was
not in the plans of the Mahatma, and it is said he was assassinated by Hindu
fundamentalists for letting it happen.
What future awaits the Hindus and Muslims who have lived
side by side for hundreds of years?
posted by infini
on Nov 26, 2008 -
37 comments
FabIndia becomes a Harvard Business Case study It's a
brand that does not advertise. It, in fact, celebrates the
success of its copycats. And now
Fabindia,
the craft-conscious enterprise, is a Harvard Business School (HBS) case study.
"Founded in 1960, Fabindia
makes the cut for being an
example of a corporation that does not just aim to do well, but does good too. "A strong mission can be both an opportunity and a constraint on the growth of a firm,"
points out Dr Khaire. However, the private retailer's
unique value proposition has not come in the way of it being
recognised as big brand today. And this in spite of the fact that Fabindia
has never advertised, points out Dr Khaire."
posted by infini
on Apr 15, 2007 -
8 comments
The Festival of Lights, Good vs. Evil Diwali is the Hindu
Festival of Lights that falls each year in October or November.
This year, Diwali is on the 21st of October 2006.
Legends
about Diwali are many, from
the story of
Prince Prahlad, immortal in his faith in the universe to the
story of Ram and Sita returning from exile to Ayodhya. My favourite is not a story so much as a snippet of what
is actually said to happen tonight, not
the mythology behind it.
Lakshmi walks tonight, she is the
Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity, and lamps [diya or deep] are lit and placed at hearths and entrances so as to help her find her way. Accompanying her is the
elephant headed one,
Ganesh, the
remover of obstacles and giver of
knowledge. Just welcome them into your home.
posted by infini
on Oct 21, 2006 -
22 comments
