Hoping against Hope

Hope, like any emotion is double edged sword, too much of it and you are doomed into inaction, inertia . Take egs ,of Jews who were exterminated in Germany during world war 2, their genocide had all to be blamed on human emotion of hope. Long before Jews were killed, Germany passed series of laws which banished Jews from practising their chosen profession like medicine, law, owning and running business; in short they were thrown out off the mainstream of society. Now, take eg of Peter who was a Jew, practising medicine in Germany during the time these racist laws were passed. He thought Ok, I will not treat patients and will conform to law so that me and my family is saved (Hope). Then after some time Germany passed law that all Jews will be transferred to Ghettos (specified areas where Jews can live). Peter again thought of self preservation, he said ok, I will loose my property and wealth but me and my family can live together and survive. Then during world war 2 Germans said that men, women and children will be separated and sent to different labour camps, again Peter thought ok, if we follow this then there is hope that me and my family will survive even though we may be separated.

Guess, what happened to Peter and his family, they were thrown into gas chamber and killed. Had Peter, thought differently, and said at the time of passing of laws when he was banished from practising as a Doctor that this is a slippery slope. One thing will lead to another and another and then thought of raising voice or arms he may still have died but at least there was positive hope (thats the paradox) that 6 million Jews would not have died in Holocaust and may be world history would have been different.

So Hope, like any other human emotion like fear, love, ambivalence, hatred, anger, jealousy is double edged. Right quantity of all emotions are required, emotions are like salt in food, if you add salt in right proportion you enjoy food and add too much salt it ruins food. Same goes with emotion, they are fleeting but add spice to life.

Did Taj Mahal led to colonialisation of India ?

Till 1750 India and china contributed about 50% of the world GDP at that time, India was Europe of seventeenth century and all the exploration by European navigators from Columbus to Magellan were done to search for this fabled country. This exploration, lead to discovery of South America, North America and Australia and lead to economic prosperity of Europe. With this new found power many European countries were able to establish colonies around the world leading to mass poverty and extermination of native population such as Red Indians in North America, Incas in South America and Aborginies in Australia. People are once again talking about rise of India and china as economic and military powers and USA is hedging against rise of China through series of covert and overt alliances. China’s economy at present is less than 1/5th the size of USA and by far USA is hyper power on this planet. So why is USA preparing for future?, it is mere plausibility that China may challenge American dominance. So question now arises why did, kings who governed India and China in seventeenth did not foresee the future and prepared their respective countries from challenge posed by small European countries. If we think about it then it will show us that culturally, indian and Chinese people are not allowed to think independently or ask questions about the accepted facts of that time. For eg:

When apple dropped on Newton’s head, he thought why did it drop?, why did this apple not soar into sky…… This basic question gave us “Gravity” If Newton had been born in India or China; he would have been first thrashed for asking such STUPID Question, made fun of and then humanity would have been deprived of this basic understanding.


If Jehangir (the great mughal empror) had only asked one simple question, when East India company’s envoy came to his court asking for permission to trade – “ How and from where did this British person came in my court?”, he would have sent indian scout to Europe, Learned about new technology and saved the country from ravages of colonialisation. Then his son Shah Jehan came he was too busy in making Taj Mahal, that, he also forgot to enquire where these white people came from.

So moral of the story is that if India, truly wants to emerge as economic power, its citizens need to ask questions to it’s politicians- How so ever stupid it may sound. Even Newton’s question was stupid when he asked at that time.

Why is non विओलेंस; disease for Indian way of life

India has been place of birth for many religions; from Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and about 80% of Indians are believers of either of these three religions. The main emphasis of these indian religion has been non violence, where killing of even an ant is considered sinful because of these influences India has never been an invader during last 1000 years and has always been attacked and plundered, first came Afghan and Iranian invaders and established Mughal empire in India and then with its decline came British. India way of life has always been attacked, though we may say we are elephant but history shows us that we have been nothing more than a goat, India has always been forced to adopt lifestyle and traditions of its foreign masters from adoption of parda (Veil) for women, to adoption of English as national language. (Its completely different story that now English language is one of India’s strength; it is what is know as unintended consequence).


The real sorry aspect of this has been that the indian elite believes that british rule has been good for India, they cite reasons, that british gave legal system, railways and unified India from various warring kingdoms but they forget and miss the point that Japan is modern, without colonial rule and very few Japanese know English and they conduct all their business in Japanese and are dominant economic power.

In this 21st century as well, you can feel the negative effects of non violence on Indian ways of life viz :

· Fiji has more than 45% people on Indian origin but still they cannot form their own government, because opposition leads a violent protest, capture parliament through brute force and force prime minister to resign and make constitutional amendment whereby no indian origin person can be prime minister. If Fiji’s only 10% of population had been non indian, who would have been discriminated against in similar manner, the result would have been completely different.
· After September 11, USA attacked halfway across the globe to avenge the death of 2200 people, but in India during last 20 years of insurgency in Kashmir and Punjab has lost more than hundred thousand people, but still we are expected to solve the problem peacefully.


Truth is without war, there is no peace. History teaches us that for last 1000 years, India has always chosen butter over guns and result has been that it was invaded, so its time to first have guns and then produce butter.