Idea. On the surface, its just a four letter word - nothing special to drive home. Its neither used as frequently as S--T nor does it generates vivid emotions like F--K. On the surface.
It fascinates me how deceptive this idea of idea is. If we think of it, ideas and men are inter-twined like inseparable. The civilization of man has been based on ideas and civilization of ideas and idea of civilization has been under-taken by men. Men create ideas, ideas go on to become ideals, ideals create men. Well, Ideals create men, Great/Notorious men create ideas.
I am sure all of us have debated quite a few times about some-thing or the other. That is the most fascinating thing about ideas and ideals. Almost each and every idea has its contradictory partner/s. And each of them has its own suitors. Its these idea(l)s which make humans interesting. Maybe, on the contrary, humans make idea(l)s interesting.
Ideas don't die, like men. They cant bleed, they cant get hurt or battered. But, they can make men bleed. They can hurt men and get them battered. The idea of monopoly earlier by kings and now by some governments has left millions of men dead. The idea of religion, the idea of race, the idea of equality et al have caused same effect.
We, as men, cant escape ideas. The idea of escaping from idea(l)s is in itself an idea. I found it amusing as to how we are guided by ideas without our realization. Ideas are inescapable. Ideas can only be created or transformed but cannot be destroyed.
P.S: This is probably the first time, I am going out of my comfort zone of economics, politics, poetry etc while writing on this blog. Like or No-like the post, drop in a shout in the blog comments. Btw, I know a word "dislike" exists :-)
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Jai Telangana.. Jai Jai Telangana
"Jai Telangana.. Jai Jai Telangana" were apparently the slogans which reverberated throughout Telangana today. For me, it was just a mere reflection of failure of the system, failure of socialism. Yet again.
I had been going through each and every material related to the Telangana issue since the inception of hunger-strike-blackmail about 10 days back. No, I have no attachment to either Telangana, or the 'imperialist Andhra', as it is called by Telanganites. This 30+ mins video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElF6PaRDZDI on youtube tries to give a lot of reasons as to why a seperate state needs to be carved out. The reasons, unsurprisingly are mostly cultural and economic.
ECONOMIC IMPROVEMENT
Most of the arguments for the separate state start with economic disparity shown towards Telangana. I dont deny the fact that government has failed miserably in developing Telangana. How-ever, comparing to other places in Andhra was naive. There is no country, no state on this earth which is equally developed. There will always be economic centers and low-development centers.
The people of Telangana follow farming and weaving inspite of it not being lucrative. In economic terms, Telanganites made irrational investments over generations.
Telangana has a representation of 119 MLAs out of 291 in Andhra Pradesh, which is a sizeable number. P.V. Narasimha Rao, who headed both the state and nation, hailed from Telangana. How exactly has it change anything ? Telanganites fail to see that its the corrupt politicians and socialism which has caused them their wrecked state and not their association with Andhra. In their ignorance, are now sizing themselves up to hug the same monster in a more lethal way.
Telanganites blame the Andhra government for not providing education, water, bank subsidies (really ? that's legalized robbery, sir !) etc. How-ever they easily forget that they have a sizeable chunk of representation in the government. The failure of Andhra government is failure of Telangana representatives. In democratic terms, failure of people of Telangana.
CULTURAL FACTOR
Unlike many, I believe cultural differences is definitely non-trivial. It is neither exclusive to India. We can cite the example of Catalans in Spain who have an 'international soccer team' of their own or China. Its not without a reason that there is a Little Italy, China Town or an Indian Street in USA. Birds of same feather, indeed flock together.
Yes, it is true that having a seperate state or a nation for a particular culture creates a sense of pride. Unfortunately, for a country like India with 600 odd languages and many different cultures, it is impossible to have a separate recognition in the form of a state for each culture.
Telanganites want to protect their culture by creating a seperate state. World won't embrace Telangana culture just because a new state is created. Telanganites follow their culture and it remains that way. It make zilch differnce, state or no state.
THE FUTURE
Hyderabad, a part of Telangana, is the capital of Andhra. This division would take out half soul out of Andhra[ other half being Thirupathi], in my opinion. I believe, we might need to embrace for the counter-protests and violence from non-telanganites now. This issue, friends, romans and countrymen, is just heating up.
Assuming the formation of Telangana, lets see what progress is achieved. Telangana might try to develop some dams which would help them with storing water(which is one of the major bone of contention). But it will affect the other people. It is not going to add any new resource to the nation, at best can transfer from one place to other. If these dams start building and there is a shortage of water in Andhra, it going to lead to another water issue between two states. In any issue, people lose, politicians win.
We might have more and more 'cultures' coming out asking for a separate state. A coorg-state and uttara-kannada in karnataka, rayal seema in AP, Vidharba in Maharastra, Bodoland in NE come to my mind instantly. Is government going to yield to all these demands ?
Government failed miserably in developing Telangana. Then, some opportunists tried to gain mileage asking for a separate state. Political parties tried to gain mileage by promising one election after election. They dig so deep, that got stuck in their own pit. Shooting at their own foot ? Not really. Like I said, in any issue, people lose.
I had been going through each and every material related to the Telangana issue since the inception of hunger-strike-blackmail about 10 days back. No, I have no attachment to either Telangana, or the 'imperialist Andhra', as it is called by Telanganites. This 30+ mins video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElF6PaRDZDI on youtube tries to give a lot of reasons as to why a seperate state needs to be carved out. The reasons, unsurprisingly are mostly cultural and economic.
ECONOMIC IMPROVEMENT
Most of the arguments for the separate state start with economic disparity shown towards Telangana. I dont deny the fact that government has failed miserably in developing Telangana. How-ever, comparing to other places in Andhra was naive. There is no country, no state on this earth which is equally developed. There will always be economic centers and low-development centers.
The people of Telangana follow farming and weaving inspite of it not being lucrative. In economic terms, Telanganites made irrational investments over generations.
Telangana has a representation of 119 MLAs out of 291 in Andhra Pradesh, which is a sizeable number. P.V. Narasimha Rao, who headed both the state and nation, hailed from Telangana. How exactly has it change anything ? Telanganites fail to see that its the corrupt politicians and socialism which has caused them their wrecked state and not their association with Andhra. In their ignorance, are now sizing themselves up to hug the same monster in a more lethal way.
Telanganites blame the Andhra government for not providing education, water, bank subsidies (really ? that's legalized robbery, sir !) etc. How-ever they easily forget that they have a sizeable chunk of representation in the government. The failure of Andhra government is failure of Telangana representatives. In democratic terms, failure of people of Telangana.
CULTURAL FACTOR
Unlike many, I believe cultural differences is definitely non-trivial. It is neither exclusive to India. We can cite the example of Catalans in Spain who have an 'international soccer team' of their own or China. Its not without a reason that there is a Little Italy, China Town or an Indian Street in USA. Birds of same feather, indeed flock together.
Yes, it is true that having a seperate state or a nation for a particular culture creates a sense of pride. Unfortunately, for a country like India with 600 odd languages and many different cultures, it is impossible to have a separate recognition in the form of a state for each culture.
Telanganites want to protect their culture by creating a seperate state. World won't embrace Telangana culture just because a new state is created. Telanganites follow their culture and it remains that way. It make zilch differnce, state or no state.
THE FUTURE
Hyderabad, a part of Telangana, is the capital of Andhra. This division would take out half soul out of Andhra[ other half being Thirupathi], in my opinion. I believe, we might need to embrace for the counter-protests and violence from non-telanganites now. This issue, friends, romans and countrymen, is just heating up.
Assuming the formation of Telangana, lets see what progress is achieved. Telangana might try to develop some dams which would help them with storing water(which is one of the major bone of contention). But it will affect the other people. It is not going to add any new resource to the nation, at best can transfer from one place to other. If these dams start building and there is a shortage of water in Andhra, it going to lead to another water issue between two states. In any issue, people lose, politicians win.
We might have more and more 'cultures' coming out asking for a separate state. A coorg-state and uttara-kannada in karnataka, rayal seema in AP, Vidharba in Maharastra, Bodoland in NE come to my mind instantly. Is government going to yield to all these demands ?
Government failed miserably in developing Telangana. Then, some opportunists tried to gain mileage asking for a separate state. Political parties tried to gain mileage by promising one election after election. They dig so deep, that got stuck in their own pit. Shooting at their own foot ? Not really. Like I said, in any issue, people lose.
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