A shortsighted populist policy!

Starting 1st January 2023, the State of Kedah in Malaysia closed all their gaming outlets. Nobody in the state could place their bets on their lucky numbers in 4D, Toto, or DaMaiCai or buy lottery tickets anymore.

What they need to comprehend is that Man is very innovative when it comes to beating the system. I remember a neighbour during my childhood who ran a clandestine betting business. After taking all the bets for the day, he would sneak the counterfoils above the electricity switchboard that served the whole floor of the flat. If he gets caught, the police cannot put his involvement in it.

Again during my childhood, as the European-run estates came to a grinding halt, the estate-managed spirit shops also closed. Labourers, who by then were addicted to the bottle, got their fix from bootleg booze. They had to settle for locally brewed concoctions because they were out of jobs, and legal liquor cost too much. Methanol poisoning caused blindness to many and cost their lives to some.

Lessons from the American 1920s Prohibition Law are worth revisiting. During the roaring 20s, easy access to alcohol was determined to be the root of most social ills. The frequent wild parties that led to deaths, the increase in alcoholism and the frequent absence from work as mass production was in high gear were blamed on booze.

The Churches, Women Empowerment groups and even Ku Klax Klan were all for the Volstead Law, which prohibited the production, transportation, sales and importation of alcoholic beverages except for ceremonial wines and liquor for private (the affluent) consumption.

As days went on, supporters of Prohibition decreased as they were unhappy with what they saw. There was widespread thuggery, shootings and racketeering. The police force had never seen such amounts of bribery. The number of outlets, called speakeasies, illegal, of course, paradoxically increased during Prohibition. The noble intention to curb access to alcohol actually backfired, with the government of the day getting no revenue from its sales.

Entrepreneurs became creative. The so-called ‘bathtub gin’ became a thing when water from the bathtub tap was added to the premixed powder to produce gin. Cakes with fermented grapes were sold past the expiry date to achieve the desired effect. And methanol poisoning reared its ugly head too.

Rather than banning something outright, the more sensible thing is legislating all these so-called sinful activities, booze, cigarettes, gambling and even the flesh trade. Outlawing them is akin to burying one’s head under the sand. The rest of the world will just go on, business as usual. At least you can go on with life, convincing yourselves that, at least in the afterlife, all will be hunky dory to eternity.

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So much for wanting privacy!

Harry & Meghan (Documentary; 2022)
Netflix

Watching this 6-episode documentary about the life and times of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during their short stint living as a couple in the royal household reminded me of two things. Firstly of skeets from 'Kumars at No. 42' where they sold the idea that everything in this world was Indian - be it Santa Claus, Jesus, Santa's reindeer and even the British royal family. Father Kumar theorised that the royal family were as Indian as Indians can be. The whole family, including adult children, live with their parents. Everyone is involved in the same family business. Even after marriages, they all lived under the same roof, and the weddings were arranged. These veiled comparisons got its audiences in stitches then. 

The second is the good old saying from Indian culture that when one marries another, they also marry the family. The newcomer into the family must immerse into the fabric of the family and act as one of them. The onus is on everyone, related by blood or convention, to protect the sanctity of the family name. It is their divine duty to mould into the idiosyncrasies of the family, good or bad, to attain zen within the family. 

Only in the scriptures do we learn about people like the Pandava brothers. These five brothers collectively married the same woman just because their mother told them to share their find. In reality, history has described just to what lengths siblings and even mothers would go to seize thrones. The amount of backstabbing, bad-mouthing, poisoning, covert plans and trickery is just staggering. 

In modern times, when swords are merely ceremonial and the royalty's powers are clipped, they have mellowed down. At a time when their subjects question the relevance of a God-sanctioned family line to rule them over, the royal family knows its days are numbered. They try to be non-controversial and regularly re-kindle the memory of a glorious past when they used to rule half the world. They clamour for all the positive publicity they can get. They hope to be the British pride their ancestors were. That is not to say that they have not been controversial before.

In comes an outsider. Not that it had not happened before. A divorcee with a living spouse from the USA had shown her face in the royal courtyard some 70 years ago, and a King had to abdicate his throne then. Now things have changed. She was ushered in without much fanfare apparently but on her side, but she seems to demand all the world's attention. But wait, only when she feels like it!

The whole point of the Netflix documentary is to portray Meghan Markle as an innocent outsider who had found the love of her life. The one into whom she could immerse and get lost despite all the chaos around them. Meghan is presented as an affable person who is a darling of the British public. Despite this, or maybe because of this, she is allegedly vilified by the British press and the royal family. Even though she does everything right, getting her hands dirty cooking for fire victims or engaging in Commonwealth charity activities, she is viewed as an outsider. She is even suggesting that perhaps her new family is downright racist. She considers herself another victim of the royal family, much like how Princess Diana was treated and met her untimely death.

The end result is far from that. The show only managed to paint an image of Meghan as a self-centred conniving prima donna who thinks very highly of herself. The series tells her background as a bright student and an independent woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. What they conveniently forgot to mention altogether is her previous failed marriage. From her side, animosity is bottled up between her, her father, and his other family.

Prince Harry is pictured as a lone child growing up without a mother during his formative years. It really shows. Meghan may be filling that vacuum.

Every position comes with specific responsibilities and expectations. However, this young couple wants the cake and eat it. They enjoy being in the spotlight but are quick to whine incessantly when their private space is invaded. There is a reason they are called public figures. If the public pays for your existence, the public has every right to know how their money is spent. You are indeed a public servant. You want to cut off from the royal but still want them to finance you to just loaf around doing sweet nothings.

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Guess who's for dinner?

I used to think that only isolated primitive tribal people practised cannibalism. Long before there was such a thing as headhunters, the employment agency, the indigenous people of Sarawak, were the original headhunters. They were fabled to kill their enemies, shrunk their skulls and wore them as ornaments. Even in modern times, consuming the human brain was a delicacy amongst the tribes in Papua New Guinea. We learnt about Kuru, the first human prion-linked disease, way before the world heard of Cruetzfelt-Jakob disease (CJD) or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, Mad Cow Disease). Kuru was transmitted when attendees of tribal funerals would consume the brain of the recently departed in their honour.

I was made to believe that only primitive ‘uncivilised’ natives only had such practices. The colonial masters were quick to label anyone who had built the courage to oppose their rule as cannibal as they did to Thugees in India and Mao Mao people in Kenya.

The Thuggees were the local dwellers who were doing nothing more than defending their jungles against the colonisers who were keen to appropriate the forests to mine the minerals allegedly found there. To justify their usurping these lands, the colonists labelled them professional robbers and murderers. Just because the locals prayed to a ferocious-looking Kaali, Thurga, with weapons, protruding tongue while stepping on asuras, they were labelled as cannibals. The British ended up stealing the land and appropriating the words ‘jungle’, which the locals called a forest. ‘Thugs’ made it into English to refer to a violent, lawless person.

In mid-century Kenya, the British colonists, in their expertise to bring nations to their knees via their divide-and-rule tactics, started spreading lies about a group of aggrieved British Kenyan soldiers who became freedom fighters. They were Mau Mau warriors. Their reputation became so bad that mothers used to scare their crying kids that the Mau Mau people would snatch them and eat them if they did not quieten down and sleep.

The implication of all these is that cannibalism is the limit of human cruelty. Once one eats up a fellow human, he has crossed the point of no return.

Surprise, surprise.

The practice of consumption of human flesh is not alien to Europe. It peaked in the 17th century when it was a rage to consume human meat. There was even a lucrative black market to source Egyptian mummies. It was believed that the medicinal composition of the mummies and the mystic aura surrounding the carcasses gave them special powers. It was fashionable as late as the late 18th century among the elite society to hold private 'mummy-feasting' parties. Then there was a symbolism of the Eucharist representing Jesus' human body, consumed during Holy Communion as if justifying man ingesting another.

Then there is the legacy of Dracula and the pseudo-medical elixir of vitality, including human blood. Even to date, like a cat, humans eat the placentas of their offspring directly or in concoctions.

Guess what (or who) is for dinner? And I wonder who is coming for dinner tonight or who is for dinner tonight?

Are these thugs?

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Punjab's Breaking Bad?

CAT (Punjabi, 2022)

Miniseries, Netflix.

Starting off as a martial race, the Sikhs stood up against Aurangzeb and his brutal imposition of jizya. There was a dire need to replenish the national coffers after his father, the megalomaniac Shah Jahan, had depleted them, completing the magnificent Taj Mahal. Their prowess continued during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. The emperor remains the lone leader who managed to unite Punjab and conquer the region now referred to as Afghanistan. After Ranjit Singh's demise, it had been downhill all the way.

Maharajah Ranjit's heir Dalip Singh was placed under the care of the Crown after the second Anglo-Sikh War. He soon became a lost white man who signed off the Kohinoor to Queen Victoria, whom he looked up to as his mother. 

From then on, the land of five rivers had only seen nothing but misery. First, it witnessed its land carved up to appease certain quarters. A heart-wrenching swapping of citizens illustrated by brutal slayings ensued. The nation had hardly recovered from that blow just 30 years later, and a major religious riot occurred between Hindus and Sikhs. Radical Sikh leaders had stockpiled weapons and explosives in the Golden Temple. When the authorities marched in to defuse increasing security concerns in the state, it was deemed as disrespecting the sanctity of the august place of worship. The only remedial solution, at that time, the terrorists felt, was to assassinate the Prime Minister who gave the marching orders.

The late 20th century spilling into the 21st saw Punjab fighting enemies from within and without. If the earlier stock of Punjabis had a roaring nationalistic (or the glory of the Sikh teachings) spirit, the newer generation had lost it. They had to deal with declining agricultural produce, traditionally their selling point. It is no longer the state that generates the most taxes for India. Alcoholism is a big problem; no matter how hard drugs are curtailed, they keep popping up. Young Punjabis all have one life ambition: to migrate and settle in Canada. Therein comes the trouble from outside. The radical Khalistani movement rooted in Canada is hell-bent on demanding separatism. The other external annoyance is, of course, Pakistan, whose raison d'etre is to derail India. Most, if not all, of Punjab's drugs are parachuted across the Pak-Punjab northern border. 

How does one solve a problem like Punjab? This web series seems to suggest that it is impossible. Even if one is resolved to do it, the grit is often met with a corrupt web of politicians, police personnel, civil servants and a lethargic system that is quite content with the status quo. The lure to get some quick bucks and get the hell out of the badland is so compelling that people are willing, not batting an eyelid, to cheat their loved ones blind.

Gary, a teenager in the mid-1980s, became an orphan after his parents were killed by Sikh terrorists. He worked as an informant to the police to nab terrorists. He goes into a witness protection program, caring for his younger pre-teen siblings and working incognito as a car mechanic. He got his sister married, settled in Canada, and hoped his brother would do the same after passing his entrance exams.

His brother, however, has other plans. Hooked on the good life and recreational drugs, he gets into the wrong company. He is arrested. The devasted Gary, now Gurnam Singh is devastated. He meets the policeman who got him into the witness program by chance. That snowballs into Gary doing what he did before, as a police mole, to infiltrate a web of drugs nicely controlled by the police, local hoodlum and politicians. Gary realises that things are complicated now.

If one were to understand the psyche of the generation of Punjab, just listen to their latest trend in music videos. The videos of the 80s typically show greenery, tractors and village bungalows. Now, the theme is masculinity, booze, drugs, guns and about girls falling flat for gangster-like characters with flashy cars. Women are often portrayed as brainless sex toys waiting to be picked up.

There used to be a time when the general public felt secure in the presence of someone in a turban. A girl cat-whistled by a gang of boys will seek solace in the company of a Sadarji. The Standard Chartered Bank, a few years ago, used the image of a Sikh guard as an example of their impenetrable security. I wonder if people will still feel the same after watching this series.

Sidhu Moose Wala (1993-2022)

Controversial Punjabi Rapper infamous for promoting

gun culture and challenging religious establishment.

He was shot dead by Canadian gangsters in a gang-related rivalry.

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Samar on Men Matters Online Journal

Samar 

Farouk Gulsara 

"Is it just me, or are the days getting hotter by the day?" I ask myself as I get into the shower for the third time today. The temperature outside must be ball-parking at 40 degrees Celsius, surely. I am living up to the title my ex-wife used to call me: a cold-blooded sadist. Cold-blooded, yes, as my core body temperature is less than the outside temperature. Sadist, just say I do not turn the other cheek. I live by the mandate that everyone is given one chance in life. 

All these people who condemn others who splurge on themselves with niceties in life can go to hell. They talk about lowering greenhouse gases and lowering carbon footprints. All these are to prevent an uncertain catastrophe that may not happen to a future generation that gives rat's ass to their ancestors, i.e., besides remembering them on Cheng Beng or offering prayers on Deepavali morning. I have one life. I want air conditioning. I cannot live without the room temperature set way down low. ....

https://menmattersonlinejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Issue-5-16F-Farouk-Gulsara.pdf

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Can you handle the digital truth?

Love Today (Tamil; 2022)
Writer, Director, Actor: Pradeep Ranganathan

It is said that the amount of data carried by a mobile phone is equivalent to the amount needed to launch the spaceship Apollo 11. Having that much data, like an appendage attached to our body, cannot be without liabilities. People store way too much muck in there that, at any time, anyone can use it to paint an individual how they want him to be painted. With the same brush, they can be either portrayed as a saint or a devil re-incarnated from the raw data.

People, like salivating dogs to a bone, will volunteer their personal information to be used and misused at the sight of dangling freebies. All the promise of privacy is a fallacy. With a few tweaks here and there, the digital trail is at your disposal.

This innovative movie highlights this exact problem. Two lovebirds fall helplessly in love with each other. When the boy approaches her father for her hand, the father, a strict disciplinarian, puts the couple to the test. He thinks the couple should know each other before plunging head-on into tying the matrimonial knot.

The couple was told to swap phones for 24 hours before committing to each other. That is when the fun starts. Even though each initially resists the temptations to pry into the other's private lives, curiosity sets in. Compounded with suggestions by people around them and wanting to delete particular unsavoury messages that may be construed as offensive or suspicious, the boy scrambles to delete them cryptically. Paradoxically, it just increases each other's suspicion. The couple ends up hating each other.

On the other hand, the lover boy's sister is getting married soon. She is curious why her soon-to-be-groom is so secretive about anyone else accessing his mobile phone. She wonders if he is hiding something. That starts another tussle to lay a hand on the coveted husband-to-be.

The final take-home message is that sometimes it is worthwhile not knowing everything. Some things are left unknown. Some stones are better left unturned. 

Do we want to know the truth, the whole truth and everything about the truth, really?

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An externally-introduced or intrinsic problem?

CASTE IS NOT HINDU

'Caste is a Construct of the Colonial Invaders'

Authors: Guruji Sundara Raj Anatha, Aykshya Simrhen Raj, Pardip Kumar Kukreja.

If anything life has taught us, it is this. People are narcissistic and egoistic. People try to understand everything but are unwilling to accept that things are way more complicated than an average man can comprehend. We are all guilty of cognitive dissonance and suffer from the Duning-Kruger effect, overestimating our competence.

People always try to dominate each other and clamour for the joy and privileges of being in power and a leader. Those in the higher rung of the hierarchy are pretty comfortably perched high up, looking down at the mere mortals. Those stranded at the lower perch of the food chain are gaslighted to be convinced that they are there because of their own doing. Their leaders want to maintain the status quo to ensure their position and conserve their high status.

A house cat, quite comfortable not needing to hunt for its daily meal, will want to maintain its amount of pampering. No one in the correct state of mind, enjoying the fruits of affirmative action, will want to, surrender his privileges willingly.

With this background knowledge, one has to critically look at this book, 'Caste is Not Hindu'.

Before the 16th century, India/Bharat was a self-sustaining subcontinent. Its social architecture created a steady state where science prospered, societal order was maintained, and its cultural influences went beyond its shores. Monetary support for mega-projects was handled by trade guilds within the public domain.

Unbeknownst to India, the rest of the world, from the land of barbarians, was awakening from their deep slumbers. Their idea of civilisation was not mutual respect but mercantilism and exploitative colonisation. India mesmerised them with its mysticism, immense wealth and welcoming nature. India soon fell prey to their maverick Machiavellian tactics. The colonisers masterminded a devious plan to justify their takeover of the nation.

The contemporary world of Hindu scholars suggests that European conquerors extrapolated their society's 'Sistema de Casta' division to India. The Europeans had earlier subdivided their own people to put royalty, clergymen and aristocrats at the top of the pecking order. The rest of the people, the craftsman and labourers, were the low-ranking serfs. The conquerors felt they needed to understand the social structures of the natives. It was too complicated for these simpletons.

The Indians had a complex societal structure system. They had varnas and jatis. Varnas referred to an individual's innate aptitude - whether he was scholarly, one who exhibits and utilises his physical attributes, good with business skills or a doer, i.e. a worker. This is not determined by one's birth, and he does not have to stick to his family's profession. Hindu scriptures are abundant with tales of scholars from tribal groups and learned men from princely families. Vyasa, the author of Ramayana, was born to a fisherwoman, Satyavati. Siddartha Gautama, a prince, became a preacher. King Ravana was a Brahmin, even though he mastered martial arts, as well as art, music and culture. Of course, we all know of Ambedkar, a Dalit who masterminded the Indian Constitution after securing multiple degrees from premier universities in the UK and the USA. How do you classify a man born Brahmin (as per the British set caste system) who gets an MBA (scholar), and works as a CEO (a businessman) in a conglomerate that sells leather shoes, e.g. Bally? Traditionally in the British Raj, a casteless person works with carcasses and leather.

Even within a family, one can notice that children of the same parents have different interests. Some can be studious, athletic or boisterous, while others will do what they are told.

Book launch by
H.E. High Comm of India to Malaysia.

Jatis refer to a professional group. This guild of craftsmen, smiths and merchants identified themselves together for the betterment of their professions. It was a way to explore their little nuances in improving their trade. For example, there was a group called Parrayars, who specialised in playing the war drums. With modern warfare, their work became redundant. They became drum players at funerals.

Looking at such a complex societal admixture that was self-sustaining puzzled the visitors. They tried to make sense of the whole setup. Their first attempt at this was the 1872 Indian National Census. It became a social engineering tool highlighting caste, religion, profession and age. No matter how hard the British system tried to make sense of the arrangement, they became more confused and created more castes and sub-castes.

Many professionals of ancient India were out of work during British Raj. In other words, they became casteless. The British created a new caste called 'the untouchables'.

Another strategy is their plan to 'divide and rule' is the creation of enemies within the society. At the same time, the British had to justify their positions as conquerors. The Aryan Migration Theory just covered the grounds so fittingly.

A highly cultured band of fair-skinned erudite steppes men from Central Asia allegedly infiltrated the land beyond the Sindhu River, bringing Hinduism to send locals south. They also brought in the Sanskrit language and all the rituals associated with Hinduism.

Down south, a schism developed between the priestly caste and the ordinary people. The priests were viewed as invaders trying to control the locals. That, combined with politics, was a sure way to create unrest. It worked just well for the feranghis (foreigners). Feuding brothers are easier to control.

Akin to the fair skin foreigners bringing in culture and wisdom to Bharat, the British portray themselves as God-sent saviours to educate and civilise Indians from 'ignorance' and 'illiteracy' by the European-Christian standards.

The extensive kurukkal system of India that served the nation for ages was dismantled as they were deemed archaic. English was introduced as the medium of instruction, as suggested by MacCaulay's Indian Education Memorandum. The real reason for this move is for the colonised to view their own culture as inferior to that of Europeans. And the European languages were linked to Sanskrit, the foreign language that was brought into India.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Besides controlling its economy, the other ulterior motive was to proselytise the whole nation to Christianity. They also viewed it as their service to mankind. After all, the Papal Law decreed by the Vatican states that to convert non-believers is a divine duty.

One can argue that this should not be an issue anymore; after all, the colonists left India 75 years ago. As an independent nation, they should be able to decide their own fate. Not quite. 

200 years of subjugation and indoctrination by Europeans, many Indians who received the short of the stick from their masters are still reeling from a lack of confidence, an inferiority complex, with a tinge of Stockholm Syndrome and a constant seeking of validation from the West for existence. On top of that, there exists a group of locally bred phenotypically Indians who quickly shoot down anything Indian. Like the local soldiers during the 1857 First Independence War who did all the dirty jobs for the British, these sepoys view India and Hinduism as a lost cause.

The 200 years of 'divide and rule' of India must indeed have had a long-lasting effect on the psyche of all Indians, leaving many frustrated individuals who were at receiving end of the harsh, divisive effects of casteism. Perhaps, they benefitted from English education and foreign countries after being driven out of their own country. The need to defend the culture of their ancestors made no sense at all. On the contrary, they have every reason to shoot down some discriminatory practices they were subjected to. There is no love lost.

The Hindus themselves find it difficult to untangle themselves from this colonial legacy. If casteism is not Hindu, would it not be easy to go back to basics and put it back in order. Not so easy. People who have benefitted from reservations and affirmative action will not surrender what they deem is theirs so quickly. The politicians whose raison d'être is to grasp popularity and ensure that they continue to win elections will be comfortable continuing the Britishers' 'divide and rule' policy via caste separation. Even closet converts also benefit from reservation seats.

Perhaps India should learn from their other Asiatic cousins like China, Japan and South Korea. When Commodore Matthew C Perry arrived at Edo Bay in 1853, the Japanese, who had chosen to be under seclusion, were mesmerised by the appearance of Perry's armada. They thought the mythical ancient dragon had actually descended. They realised that the world had morphed in leaps and bounds while they were napping. The Japanese caught up with the rest of the world by 'copying and pasting' western technology. Their turning point was the 1905 Russo-Japanese war, where they surprised the modern world by defeating the Russians. The rest, as they say, is history - World War 2, the rape of Nanking and Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army.

Commodore Perry arriving in Japan

After being squeezed and torn apart from all sides between China, Japan and Russia for generations, the Koreans found relief after the Korean War. The South Koreans were happy being a vassal state of the USA but prospered because they were apt to adapt.

When Nixon landed in Beijing in 1972, after much water went under the bridge, the Americans thought they could play realpolitik again as they did in the post-WW2 era. The Chinese cleverly used the opportunity to watch, learn and absorb all the knowledge at their disposal and gave, and are still giving the American a good run for their money.

Wonder what happened to the wisdom of Panchatantra and Chanakya's political treatise, Arthashathra, that India introduced to the world way before the Machiavellian tactics that Europe so boasted about. Centuries of civilisation squashed by firepower.

https://notionpress.com/read/caste-is-not-hindu

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