Meltdown

Anil Persaud opined that a medieval mosque, where prayers have stopped in Ayodhya is a Hindu temple in modern India. Here lies a conundrum in the history of political independence of India. A feeling of unease and incompleteness an anxiety that something is not right that rears its head again and again. 70 odd years of political independence and partition has not settled the question of demographic diversity of being Hindu or Muslim and the sense of divide that the populaces are attuned and chosen to sync with. Around the time India was busy familiarizing itself with the new found status of being a nation- state, an idol was sneaked into the Babri Masjid in the mid-night. The stroke of the midnight, tryst with the destiny and founding of the new republic, free from the clutches of the colonial rule had a ghostly companion and illegitimate half-brother and with time the ghost and the ‘brother’ had shown more tenacity and resilience than the vaunted fabric of the modern secular republic...

"The Sage as Astronomer: As long as thou feelest as stars as an ‘above thee', thou lackest the eye of the discerning one."       - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.   Syria’s history clocks more years before the arrival of Christ, than after. It came into being roughly 2700 years before Christ and we have just about 2100 years in AD. Arithmetically speaking Syria is 4800 years old. Syrian history, though continuous, is marked by invasion, occupation, conquest and destruction since antiquity; the land, located as it was at the cross roads of trade routes and empires. Historically, the importance of this region, bounded by its location, was strategically tied to the schemes of other empires. Syria attained its glory in history, albeit briefly, mostly playing second fiddle to neighbours. The contemporary phase of notoriety Syria has attained provides us a prosaic image of endless and perpetual instability, civic strife and intractable conflict. In t...

As I began writing this, technically speaking elections are still underway. Election process overseen by election commission will testify that all phases in this gigantic exercise in which the largest democracy votes is not yet over. Somehow, however, during this election, even before the formal process of voting began and eventually end, it is the outcome that has an overbearing presence. Everyone felt it. The dominant impression is as if the consequence and the outcome has already occurred. We are merely dealing, figuring even coping with an outcome which had already arrived! The specter of an imminent and inevitable outcome has never stayed with us for that long, has never presented itself with such intensity and ferocity, may I dare say, around any general (national?) election in recent public memory. It is remarkable. Actual announcement of results after this process is over is less important than a formality. I believe there are good reasons for occurrence of this phenomenon th...