On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 7:43 PM, Perry E. Metzger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > ss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> The reason why modern India is moving ahead is because it was built up on >> certain principles. Among these was the subservience of the population to a >> constitution, no matter how faulty and incomplete that subservience may >> appear to be. > > That is not the reason that India is moving forward. "Subservience" > never advances anything other than the interests of the rulers, who > are inevitably most interested in themselves and not in the > people. What is moving India forward is an increase in freedom, that > is, the very opposite of subservience. Every time someone opens up a > company, that is an act of independence, not an act of > subservience. Whenever anyone buys a truck to take vegetables to > market, or writes a newspaper editorial, or wires up an illegal cable > television network in a neighborhood, those are acts of independence, > acts of self determination, and not acts of subservience.
And if someone sets up a closed compound where polygamy and child marriage are the norm, is that too an act of independence? Or is it merely criminal? At what point does a group bucking the will of the majority stop being criminals and start being freedom fighters? The point is, there is some amount of legitimacy on both sides of the Kashmiri problem. While it is easy to pass judgment on the Kashmir issue as "Islamic terrorists" or "Indian Colonialism", reality is a nasty blob of gray somewhere in between. There are no easy solutions. It is difficult to predict all the repercussions of a Kashmiri secession -- particularly on the stability of India as a nation. I'm no rabid nationalist -- but I see the Indian Union as something to be preserved. Conversely, if the average Kashmiri doesn't consider himself Indian, how can anyone compel him to be one? For what it's worth, in my opinion the average Kashmiri doesn't really give a damn about politics. As long as he's got a full belly and he thinks he's got a say in how he's governed (but isn't forced to actually say anything) he'll be happy. The solution to the Kashmiri problem is to get him to that happy place. -- b
