What is patriotism? Now, that’s one question which has hounded us for a long time now. After waves of strong xenophobic sentiments and sometimes even complete indifference, Indians face yet another definition of the same heavy duty term. Amman Madan, a professor of IIT Kanpur, puts forth:

a) Patriotism is not based upon kinship. So, in the modern Indian context it has to be different from the love for one’s community, unlike the ancient and medieval times.

b) The feeling of patriotism comes from the idea of a nation and its central institution.

In other words, Madan finds the definition of ‘patriotism’ in the current times. The feeling is the same but the definition keeps on evolving to attune itself to the social context. He quotes the example of USA, which apparently is a melting pot of identities. If we forget the famous superiority complex of the Americans, we will see the depth in Madan’s words. The man sees Indian patriotism as a strong influence that overcomes all the boundaries of caste, creed and religion to combine everyone born on the Indian land as the citizens of India. But he doesn’t stop there. He says we can always develop a sense of identification, a feeling of brotherhood without melting in a pot!

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And history repeats itself. Year 2000 had American Vice Prez Al Gore lose the presidency because most liberals voted for Ralph Nader, who is an activist and had no chance of winning. Not only did Nader sweep away Gore’s chances of winning, but also gave the American’s the nightmare of the George Bush administration. Had Nader bowed out of the race, the USA would have had a new history in the recent past.

A similar scenario is being played out now with John Edwards. Hillary Clinton is the status quo candidate where as Edwards and Barrack Obama stand for change. Voters desiring change are forced to choose between Edwards and Obama. Edwards is clearly running the third spot in the race. He also has very little money backing further reducing his chances at winning. And we know how Clinton has been smearing Obama’s image through chain emails claiming he is a muslim set to destroy the United States.

In other words, if John Edwards doesn’t drop out, Barack Obama doesn’t have a chance. If Edwards goes away, Obama will be the only candidate left representing real change.

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Harish Damodaran’s book ‘India’s New Capitalists: Caste, Business and Industry in a Modern Nation-State’ has once again made everyone sit up and notice. This isn’t the first time Damodaran has won accolades. Being a journalist for the past 16 year, he is also well-known as a specialist in agri-business and commodities coverage. His insights and contributions have benefited in macroeconomic issues. Damodaran is also a recipient of the World Food Day Award-2000 from the UN Food & Agricultural Organization and the Indian Association for the Advancement of Science, which was given to acknowledge his work as a farm reporter.

Coming back to Damodaran’s latest offering, the book is written in a simple style, blending analytical rigor with a journalistic flair. It talks about how business in India was considered to be the job of only the Bania community which fell under the Vaishya order of the traditional Hindu ‘chaturvarna’. However, since early 20th century, significant changes started taking place. The social base of our country gradually widened and soon entrepreneurship was no longer exclusive to a few castes alone. It now includes a wide spectrum of communities. But such a pattern of inclusive capitalism is restricted to only the southern and western states of our country, for we are yet to see a Dalit industrialist of note.

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Is Bangladesh treading on Pakistan’s path? Consider the current state of Bangladesh. Not only is it strengthening Islamic movements but also delegitimizing democracy. It should ideally be containing Islam and its belief and allow a healthy environment for democracy to prosper. But sadly, it isn’t. Wonder what the masses and their leaders are thinking.
An unbiased and an unfoggy attitude is what India’s eastern neighbor needs. It should continue sticking to the formalities of preparing for elections with the help of technical and not political benchmarks. In fact, the act of enforcing reforms within political parties should also be stopped completely and let the electorate perform its duties.

What are the supporters of democracy doing? They should gather without wasting a second and raise a voice against the state of emergency. Democracy should be restored at the earliest. I agree that Bangladesh and democracy, together have faced a lot of hiccups in the past but that is the way democracy moves ahead. The problems coming along democracy are solved within the context of democracy and not that of military rule.

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Syeda Semim Zahan’s blog entry grabbed my attention immediately. No she’s no celebrity or a writer by profession but an educated, burqaless Muslim woman living with fear. She shares one of her conversations with a stranger, which goes as follows:
“Madam are you a Musalmaan?”
“Yes. But how do you know?”
“Oh, you get letters at the address 2047.”

Imagine the effect this little informal talk had on Zahan, “So they have registered my identity in case there is a riot.” Such is the plight of a Muslim in India, be it a man or a woman. Every one of them is treated with a courtesy as is attributed to an insect. He/she is the centre of the attention and not for reasons that go in his/her interest.

Harmless educated Muslims are either confronted with a blunt “NO because you are a Muslim” by the landlords when looking for a place to live in or they receive comments like, “Hey, you got me there. You no way look like a Muslim.” Now, tell me is that supposed to be a comment or a compliment. I have never heard of anyone exclaiming, “Mmmm…you don’t look like a Hindu/Sikh/Christian!” Then why do we reserve special responses for the ones following Islam?

Via BlogBharti

“Don’t mess with me” clearly defines new India’s attitude to the world outside. Gone are the days, when Bharat waasis could accept ‘bad manners’ in the name of politeness but not anymore. In fact, they believe in giving back to them in the same coin. Agreed there has been a call of truce between the Aussie and Indian cricket captains on Monday but everyone has understood that you can’t take India for a ride.

Not going too much in the past, we can find strong evidence of the change occurred in the behaviorial pattern of Indians. Shilpa Shetty’s stay at Big Brother’s house in UK and subsequent ‘ill-treatment’ by fellow housemate Jade Goody raised an extremely loud support from everyone, including Londoneers. Shetty’s standing for her roots made everyone forget the ‘good’ in Goody (if there was any). Buzz is that Goody had to undergo rehabilitation to overcome the trauma of global hate. Even Harbhajan Singh’s reaction at the Sydney Test will steer anyone from luring insinuations at their Indian counterparts in the future. And for those who still do, well they can try join Sreesanth in his famous tribal dance.

 
 I have no intention to play around with you here and hence the news is a three-month-old baby boy has finally got his deserving Permanent Account Number (PAN). You might catch Ayush Ranjan Rout of Rourkela, the youngest bearer of PAN engaged in crawling and crying but who knows that this routine exercise would help him to model for few promotional films to be produced by an NGO from next year.
Countdown has begun as the PAN card applied on 26 May by paying Rs 67, is now a tangible asset or investment for them bearing number ALAPR3284J along with his date of birth stated as March 26, 2007. His parents have signed an agreement with Indian News and Feature Trust, who have signed Ayush as their tot model.
But this is the superficial version of the news. The core of the news lies in the insides of attaining this card, thereby introducing the uninformed informative representatives of Unit Trust of India (UTI) office accepting PAN application forms.
Saroj Kumar Rout, his father revealed that initially UTI officials said the minimum age for filing a PAN application is 18 years. But Saroj, a journalist by profession couldn’t digest the news and gave blind eye and deaf ears to the information delivered by them. Seems his inner self doesn’t allow him to sit with peace as then his efforts started and he identified the column 14 of the form stating, “A minor can apply by submitting proof of his date of birth and parents’ address”.
This obstacle, reflecting the “informed mind” of the representatives working within the organization is being sidelined because the issue got resolved under the carpet. But who knows the endless possibilities that might have had happened. Just replace Saroj with someone who would have accepted the vomited words of authorities and then Imagine.
It’s scary at least to me. Then a possible 360-degree serve in the situation might put you across a breaking news reading, “No green signal for three-month old to gets PAN card” or “Uninformed Authorities”. And this seems more beautiful and interesting because this uncovers the hidden truths about our social-structure.
If this would have happened, then Saroj, who has plans to enter his child’s name in the Limca Book of Records by staking claim to be the youngest PAN cardholder might be seen roaming around the fourth pillar of democracy-Judiciary.
Via Telegraph India

The extent of risk attached to a journalist’s life can be estimated from figures showing that 42 media workers lost their lives in

Iraq from Jan. 1 to June 26, and a total of 214 were slaughtered while covering conflicts since March 2003.

This is just a small chunk of butchering that is a household affair across the for the media persons. According to

Brussels- based International News Safety Institute, nearly one hundred journalists and media workers succumbed to death on the job in a short span of six months starting from January 2007. This marks an astonishing rise of 32 lives per year in comparison to last year’s estimates, which showed 68 deaths. If the horrendous trend continues at the same pace, 2007 will outshine do 2006 as the deadliest year for the news media.

Another, incident to tell the grim tale of journalist’s non-existent identity is the case of five journalists, who were killed in 1975 in East Timor and are awaiting justice…even after bearing 32 long years of ignorance and insignificance.

Is this the price that the dedicated journalists have to pay for doing what they are supposed to do professionally…spreading awareness?

Just imagine, Swazi authorities have issued a banned against health workers from talking to the media in response to a spate of stories highlighting the impact of a critical drug shortage…now think, who is to be killed? The medical authorities who are hiding the truth from the population, and risking their lives due to lack of medication or the journalists who are doing nothing but making the people aware of the grim reality.