Jaswant and Jinnah

I usually stay clear of politics but this topic is too interesting. I am not a historian which is why I have given several citations. Pakistanis credit Jinnah as the creator of their nation and Indians also credit (may be blame) him for the same. A few days back Jaswant Singh, a respected figure in Indian politics, proclaimed that Jinnah was not to be solely blamed and that leaders of Indian National Congress were equally or even more responsible for splitting the nation. I spent a little bit of time googling this topic myself and this is what I found.

The British fanned the flames of communalism with their divide and rule policy but they didn't start the mess. The origins of the Hindu-Muslim schism seem to have been socio-economic. According to [1] [2] there was resentment among the Muslim elite who stood to loose influence with the advent of English as the official language and of modern education. It seems Hindus were faster to adapt to those conditions and Muslims began to loose prominence. The Muslim elite would have lost even more with the introduction of democratic processes and in 1906 they formed the All India Muslim League. They demanded and secured separate legislative councils for Muslims.

Jinnah [5] was member of INC who later drifted away and became the leader of AIML. Jinnah branded INC as a Hindu party despite the fact that several Hindu parties such as Hindu Mahasaba (they performed poorly in the elections) and organizations such as RSS already existed. Even in 1927 when he was the leader of AIML Jinnah opposed the idea of separate electorates for Muslims and put forth the 14 points [3] as a regulation of INCs idea of unified electorates. INC rejected the idea. I guess this is Jaswant Singh's cardinal point, but read the 14 points and compare that to the democratic ideals of INC. After a long hiatus from politics he returned to India from England to campaign for the 1937 elections. AIML fared poorly losing in most of the Muslim majority states but gaining votes in Muslim minority areas. INC won in Hindu majority areas [4] and parties such as Unionist Party won in Muslim majority areas. Jinnah then offered to ally with Congress if they accepted them as the sole representatives of Indian Muslims and shared power with them. INC of course did not accept the ridiculous offer.

Jinnah went on a virulent campaign to make all Muslims accept AIML as their sole representative and in 1940 began to demand a separate country for Muslims. He successfully campaigned in NFWP, Baluchistan and Punjab, where he impressed upon them that the Muslims in the other states (where they were a minority) would be mistreated by their congress governments and that AIML was the only party that could help them by representing all Muslims in British India. In the elections of 1946 AIML had made drastic improvements and won most of the Muslim majority electorates, but INC had won majority of the votes in the country. The British tried to avoid partition with a call for separate constitutions for separate regions which INC and AIML would jointly govern, but this idea was also rejected by AIML [6]. An interim government was formed by the majority party INC which infuriated Jinnah and led him to declare "We do not want war, if you want war we accept your offer unhesitatingly. We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed." The infamous direct action campaign [7] was launched and thousands of Hindus and Muslims were killed, raped or maimed in the concomitant violence. After that no one could hinder AIML. With the looming threat of civil war the creation of Pakistan was inevitable.

So there it is, born out of a socio-economic power struggle Pakistan is a caricature of what it was meant to be. Created to prevent mistreatment of Muslims, it got split due to bias against East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and has long been accused of bigotry against the people of Baluchistan by the power centre in Punjab province. To make matters worse NWFP is teeming with tribal warlords, Taliban etc. and is said to be one of most dangerous places in the world.

Coming back to Jaswant Singh, this is how I see it. INC wanted to represent whole of India. AIML wanted to be regarded as the sole representative of Indian Muslims. But in a democracy the majority party would rule and hence AIML could never govern the country. Even though some Muslim leaders such as those in Unionist Muslim League [8] wanted to collaborate with INC (in fact they had collaborated), Jinnah was opposed to this. I think its clear who is responsible for the creation of Pakistan. Blaming the INC is pointless. I don't think the way to handle dissent is to capitulate to the dissenting party. The INC's mistake seems to be that they ignored Jinnah and that they did not foresee the partition. As for calling Jinnah secular, how can anyone responsible for the reprehensible direct action day be called secular?

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Movement

[2] - http://mrmulliner.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/08/journey-of-communalism-in-modern-india.htm

[3] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points_of_Jinnah

[4] - http://mrmulliner.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/08/growth-of-communalism-in-india-ii-1937-1947.htm, also read this

[5] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah

[6] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Cabinet_Mission_to_India

[7] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Day

[8] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unionist_Muslim_League

Interesting side note [1]: The word 'Pakistan' referred to the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, (Afghanistan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan.

[2]: Khan Abdul Ghaffer Khan tried to emulate Gandhiji in NFWP. A sad story.

[3]: Great Bong has an interesting post about this topic

The phantom chick

I usually try to avoid putting up silly events from my daily grind. But the one you are about to read is in no way silly. Its more like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

 

I was boiling eggs for today's dinner when I heard a soft clicking sound from the kitchen. I was afraid we had rats or some other infestation and so went closer to check. From up close it sounded more like chirping. It was coming from the vessel I was boiling eggs in. I lifted it up and checked if there was anything behind it.

 

Nothing.

 

On top of that when I lifted the vessel the chirping increased. There was no doubt; the sound was coming from the eggs. But how? Was there a chick in there? I quickly drained the water.

 

The chirping stopped. I took the eggs/chick in a shell and checked it against a light but couldnt see anything. I tried shaking it, all the while imagining a tiny chick getting knocked around in the shell. But I didn't feel anything solid inside them. There was nothing in them that could have made that sound. I was confused for a second. I finally cracked open all of them to convince myself.

 

After reading all this you might think that I am crazy. I thought so too. I think every once in a while we are faced by such a profound experience that we question the world around us. We ask if we really know whats going on and if something slipped under the veal of reality and manifested in front of you. My tryst with the phantom chick was such a moment. 

 

Also let me clarify that I didn't steal the eggs from some farm. It came from a store where they are supposed to sell unfertilized eggs. So in retrospect I see that there was no way a chick could have been in there. Consider also the fact that the eggs might have been in packaging for several weeks. There is however this. May be the chick was just floating through this space when I heard the sound. 

When David went to a dentist

If you have the habit of watching the most viewed videos on youtube you've most certainly seen this one. David went to the dentist and got high on the laughing gas that was presumably used as an anesthetic. On their way back his dad(?) recorded him and thought it was funny. Well it is very funny especially to the Americans who think its cool to get stoned.

Then came the Christian Bale rant on the set of Ternimator 4 that goes on for about 4 mins. That one is a very powerful peice of dialogue delivery IMHO. Then some genius combined to the two videos to give this. Superb comedy. And then this. I ve been watching these over and over again. Its still funny.

the eight months....

The question of the hour ...... What was I doing during the 8 months when I didn't blog? Its a very long story. But I ll cut it short and tell you why it got so extended. I was thinking about what to write here next. I wanted something substantial, something profound so that the intervening period of absence would be excused. Several good ideas were rejected, they werent great. Finally I got it.

Expect a grand post. Read it and change your life forever. It is a bit lengthy, that post and I am now refining the final draft. In the mean time I shall write a few smaller ones...... just to make the wait easier for you.

Writing advice

Here are some useful tips I had read a while back:


VS Naipaul’s Rules for Beginners

1. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words.
2. Each sentence should make a clear statement. It should add to the statement that went before. A good paragraph is a series of clear, linked statements.
3. Do not use big words. If your computer tells you that your average word is more than five letters long, there is something wrong. The use of small words compels you to think about what you are writing. Even difficult ideas can be broken down into small words.
4. Never use words whose meaning you are not sure of. If you break this rule you should look for other work.
5. The beginner should avoid using adjectives, except those of colour, size and number. Use as few adverbs as possible.
6. Avoid the abstract. Always go for the concrete.
7. Every day, for six months at least, practice writing in this way. Small words; short, clear, concrete sentences. It may be awkward, but it’s training you in the use of language. It may even be getting rid of the bad language habits you picked up at the university. You may go beyond these rules after you have thoroughly understood and mastered them.


Eight rules for writing fiction—Kurt Vonnegut

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

And no I didn't make these up. They are from:
http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/vs-naipauls-advice-to-writers-rules-for-beginners/
http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/eight-rules-for-writing-fiction-kurt-vonnegut/

Perhaps the best thing to do is to read a lot.

Spring Break

Ever since I got internet access I have pictured spring break as the time for.... well it involves T-shirts, water, bead necklaces and liquor along with a lot of other things. While witnessing such a spectacle would have been really refreshing, I would have settled even for something regular like an ordinary, uneventful day. But now I ve realized (I knew it already but I forgot) that having free time is not the same as having a fun time. I think the springs in my bed would want a break, these days I am either sleeping or trying to sleep most of the time. At other times I am on my LaZ Boy. Boy, I sure know how to waste time, mine and everybody else's who is reading this. Also please note that it took a lot of self restraint to resist the urge to add a smilie to this post.

Chicken Biriyani for the lazies

All hail the chicken biriyani. The undisputed king of all dishes is not that hard to cook, but it did take me some time to figure out this recipe. Though I tell everyone that it is Hyderabadi dum biriyani, it's actually my own recipe. Guess I should win an award or something.
"I would like to dedicate this to my tummy, for guiding me and having faith in me. Even when I wanted to quit and have just pickles and curd rice, my tummy urged me to do more, to invent....." that would be my acceptance speech.

Anyways here is the easy to make biriyani recipe. Do the whole procedure in medium flame. Best if had with raitha, curd or boiled egg.

1. Pour about quarter a cup of oil into a cooker and put spices (for the uninitiated - elaichi, cloves and a lot of other smelly stuff) into it. If you don't have the spices you can still make the biriyani, but it won't smell exotic. Fry till you can smell the aroma. If you have cashews put them in too.
2.Put in a big onion. And remember it is very important to cut the onion before doing this. Add turmeric, coriander/cumin powder (less than 1 tea spoon each) and two large green chillies slit vertically. Add a chunk of butter into it and a few cilantro leaves. Stir fry till the onions look fried.
3. Add 1 tea spoon of ginger-garlic paste and half a big tomato. If you don't know how big a big tomato is, know that its just a bit smaller than a big onion. Fry till they form a paste.
4. Put the pieces of chicken into the paste. Add eight and three quarter tea spoons of water or an equivalent quantity of curd/plain yogurt. Add three teaspoons of biriyani masala and two tea spoons of salt. Stir till the liquid is almost boiled away.
5. Add two cups of rice (long grain/sona masoori/basmati) and four cups of water and mix well.
6. Now is the tough part. You have to taste your concoction and see if there is enough salt. Add it in quanta of half teaspoons, tasting it each time, till it is just salty. Overdo this and you can throw the whole thing into the garbage or punish stray dogs by letting them eat it.
7. Close the cooker and wait for one whistle. Switch off the stove (hmm....... did I tell you to switch it on first?). After about ten minutes open it and let it cool for another fifteen minutes.
8. Eat it.