[Reader-list] Feudalism and terrorism

Sat Aug 8 19:49:28 IST 2009

Dear Murali

I would hesitate to lecture Pakistan that they should learn from India on the dismantling of 'feudal structures'

Elsewhere I have opined that post-1947 "feudalism" has found ingress in various aspects of our lives in India and not stayed confined to "Agricultural Feudalism" or "Feudalism of the 'Elite' remanants of Monarchies and their liege".

In India, even "Agricultural or Rural Feudalism", continues to be a curse though admittedly it is more pronounced in some States than others. 'Bonded Labour' has not vanished, neither through insulation from 'Caste Domination', which continues, nor through protection from having to pledge Home, Hearth, Land and Self against Debts.

The exploitative structures reinforce themselves partly by calling on 'Tradition' and partly by relying on the 'Muscle' of both private squads and the Police and finding rthemselves glossed over for the sake of  "Political expediencies"

Education is a far cry, even basic literacy does not touch the lives of significant percentages of our children, even in towns and cities and certainly not in villages.

Let us please not lecture Pakistan about 'feudalism'.

In India we have at least had the semblances of Democracy (which makes our ineptness in tackling 'feudalism' all the more shocking) but in Pakistan they have struggled to even be allowed to flirt with Democracy.

Also, Pakistan has it's own unique problems of the "Feudalism" being entrenched in various forms that are different in each one of the 4 Provinces of NWFP, Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab and what makes it worse for Pakistan is that in each of the Provinces the 'political stabilty' hinges very precariously on the 'feudal' structures. 

At best, if an Indian was to be very generous to India, one could say that maybe; maybe; we are slightly better off than Pakistan. But, such comparisons in inequities are meaningless.

As a digression (what found mention in a recent posting from Rakesh), what we need to learn from Pakistan is the quality of public discourse in the Mainstream Media in Pakistan. (my recognitions being confined to TV and English Print). Just as it took Bangladesh to jolt us into recognising the merits of Micro-Credit.

Kshmendra

--- On Fri, 8/7/09, Murali V <murali.chalam at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Murali V <murali.chalam at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Feudalism and terrorism
To: "asad abbasi" <asad_abbasi at hotmail.com>
Cc: reader-list at sarai.net
Date: Friday, August 7, 2009, 11:14 AM

Both Terrorism and Feudalism are dangerous weeds which will have to
controlled.

India also started as a nation with feudal lords generating bonded labors
who had no access to education. INdia has come a long way since then and the
feudal system has almost been cleared and as a result bonded labors. This
has resulted in the rural population having access to primary and secondary
education. There is still a long way to go as far as rural education is
concerned, but steps have been continuously taken on this front atleast in
the last 15 years to increase the education infrastructure in the rural
areas.

Pakistan had also became a nation at the same time, but the focus of
Pakistan was constantly on India and to destabilise ,resulting in good funds
being diverted to military buildup and promoting militant training camps to
infiltrate into India.

Pakistan could well understand the history of India since Indepenence and
suitably modify its programs based on India's experience.

More importantly, the education infrastructure should emphasise on
non-Madrasa form of education system.

Regards,
V Murali

On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 10:43 AM, asad abbasi <asad_abbasi at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> Dear All,
>
> The discourse of feudalism is not only important forPakistan but perhaps
> for South Asia. It requires different intellectuals from various backgrounds
> to share their views and input their thoughts.
>
> It is important, i must say, because the stereotypical image of Pakistan is
> of a terrorist nation. It is generally accepted that elimination of
> terrorism from this country will not only benefit Pakistan but the whole
> world. I, on the other hand, beg to differ. Because as i see it , the
> stability of Pakistan is greatly affected by other factors including
> feudalism as much as it depends on terrorism.
>
> A farmer in province of Sindh who works from dawn to dusk just so that he
> and his family can survive. Also, that his children will have to be farmers
> just like him, because the almighty land lord does not allow children to
> study at the local school.(ie if there is a school at the first place)
>
> What will happen if Pakistan with all her resources try to eliminate
> terrorism. But somewhere in this process neglects the issue of feudalism. As
> there is no one to watch, feudal lords can only grow in confidence and may
> start abusing the subjects (farmers in this )even more.
>
> Then Pakistan may have one of the following scenarios in 8-10 years.
>
> a) Pakistan has no terrorists and no terrorist activity
>
> b)Pakistan has insignificant amount of terrorist
>
> c)Pakistan wasted her resources and no damage was done to the hold of
> terrorism.
>
> D) Mixture of any of the above situation.
>
>
>
> Moreover, because the resources were diverted of other issues such as
> tackling feudalism, Pakistan may end up facing externalities for this
> policy. And one side effect can be that, Pakistan will have a generation of
>  uneducated, illiterate and deprived people. Some census say that Pakistan
> has a literacy ratio of 49%( Even though, i along with so many people with
> whom i have had the opportunity to discuss this issue, believe that this
> number is clearly an exaggeration and the ratio can not be more that 36%)
> and it is generally accepted that mostly these people live in urban areas.
> If Feudalism prevails, then majority of 51% (or 64% as in the other case)
> will not have the opportunity to educate themselves. Which, and no sane
> person will argue, will bring any country to developmental halt.
>
>
>
> Terrorism is taking lives and destroying places, where as feudalism is
> making lives worse and destroys the privilege of education.
>
>
>
> It, my friends, is a important issue and just like terrorism should be
> taken seriously.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Asad
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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