[Reader-list] FW: Hindu families in Pakistan feel scared, India grants Visa

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Taraprakash

Thank you for your mail.

I think it is a matter of how we look at things, for you it may be quite
clear that such an such discourse fits neatly in a category and such and
such does not. Unfortunately my mind does not work on a linear trajectory.
Far more than determining primary causality I am more interested in seeking
how X event is related to Y and conjecturing whether X is related to that
seemingly remote event Z too. I may be wrong in thinking like this, but that
is hardly a deterrence. Perhaps that is why in all my earnestness I was
eager to perceive the independence movement as not only the one which was
run by run congress but also by all other social groups of varying
persuasions. This might seem to you as 'forcing' a discourse into another
one but it is merely an attempt to garner a wider interpretation, in other
words, it is an attempt to increase the number of variables in an equation
to further ascertain whether such an increase, adversely or favorably effect
the outcome.

Hence I am curious, because reading your mail gives me a feeling that you
seem to suggest that the formation of Hindu Mahasabha has nothing got to do
with independence movement, but I am not sure, so let me ask you- Do you
think the Hindu Mahashabha was an isolated case of coming together of people
of an imagined homogeneous religious identity that has nothing got to do
with the independence movement?

You add, 'I also fail to understand why would you ask an individual if
his/her position on an issue will remain unchanged.' The reason is quite
simple is it not. It take years to form a world view, like it take years to
define one's character, one's politics and I would not like to assume that
Sandeep Dixit's character or position should make him think that the
independence movement was 'bullshit',  maybe it not so hunky dory,
everything did not go right, we did not become equal and so on, but
nevertheless it was an attempt which gave hope to a lot of people and we
must respect that. India is young democracy and it will take time to change,
it took almost three hundred years of 'democracy' and 'freedom' for the
Brits to realise that women should also be given a right to vote. The time
horizon of social processes as we all know, is slow and issues take years of
deliberation to get negotiated which when juxtaposed against our current
sensibility of instant coffee, instant cash, instant messaging, instant work
etc might seem anachronistic.

Regards

Taha




On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 4:09 AM, taraprakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Taha and all.
> I am not sure how fair it is to say that since X was thief, y too was a
> thief. Taha seems to have perfected the art of forcing Y in to discourse of
> X so that the discourse of x gets sidelined, not necessarily intentionally.
> May be Hindu Maha Sabha, PLO, KKK, ANC, DMK, LTTE, WHO, UNCTARD, and all
> other possible social or political formations are bull shit, but still they
> are not the same. Different bulls produce different kind of shit.
>
> I also fail to understand why would you ask an individual if his/her
> position on an issue will remain unchanged. One may read a bit and evolve
> one's position. May be one gets more radical and call the "independence
> movement" pig shit. Does it help the discussion in any way asking if
> Sandeep's position will change?
>
> Coming to independence of India, I wish you had added some rationale to
> assume that we became a just society after "independence" (when you say that
> British rule was unjust).
> Regards
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Taha Mehmood" <
> 2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>
> To: "Sandeep" <vashsand at hotmail.com>
> Cc: "reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 10:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] FW: Hindu families in Pakistan feel scared,India
> grants Visa
>
>
>