Well flaunted, Shiv. I think your articles brought out the central fact to the understanding of Pakistan (if it can be understood in secular terms at all), in its possession and use of religion as a weapon - not in passion and enthusiasm, but with a cold-blooded calculation which is persistent and survives superficial sharing of power between different sections of the elite, civil and military.
One conclusion from this, which I hope you will endorse, is that we need to hold that country and its ruling elite up to ourselves, elite and ordinary citizen alike, as horrible examples, to ensure that we never drift that way.Becoming a 'Hindu' not 'Hindoo' India and behaving like them, which reflects the state of mind of a particular set of political loonies in India, is in no way a solution. It can at best be a peevish and misguided reaction.
In lighter vein, a quibble: this use of 'Hindoo'
is unorthodox, though there is some justification for it, as the 'vernacular' version of 'Indian', so, India:Indian::al-Hind or Hind:Hindoo (or Hind'i). Using 'Hindi' is an option, but it gets us tangled up with the language, and we can't expect any self-respecting Bengali- Assamese- Oriya- Tamil- Telugu- Malayali- <insert indignant language of choice here> speaker to hold still for that.![]()
sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Sat May 13 2006 07:13, Abhishek Hazra wrote:
> >>i.e that there is ANY similarity between the Hindoo Indian and the Muslim
>
> Pakistani.
>
> hmm, "Hindoo"...intended "colonial" typo?
Yes that was intentional.
I think that the fair and just Britons did believe that India was divided into
a "Hindoo" India and a "Moslem" Pakistan. Be that as it may I use the
description "Hindoo" to include all Indians - as opposed to the 80+ pecent
"Hindus". Abdul Kalam, for example is Hindoo. The Hindoo is "not Muslim" just
as Pakistani means "not Indian"
If you look at what is described as the ethos of Pakistan - or "Pakistaniyat"
it is important to be opposed to him who is not a Muslim, for the Pakistani
represents pure Islam. Paki of course means "pure" (It also means "pube"
incidentally)
Since the topic persists and since I have done some study in this area (apart
from writing an as yet unpublished book on Pakistan) let me flaunt yet
another article I have written:
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/SRR/Volume13/sastry.html
Indrajit Gupta
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Chennai 600 018.
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