My beloved, have a taste of this cup of my emotions, From my very hands…”
Madhushala (the house of wine or the Tavern) is probably one of the most beloved pieces of poetry in Hindi literature. Harivansha Rai Bachchan has brought forth the wine to the lips of every reader and has metaphorised wine to mean every thing in life. It’s a complete book – a poem 145 stanzas long – prasing the tavern as a temple while contrasting the realities India faced in the face of the partition and freedom struggle. The tavern is like his life – the wine and the drinker complement each other just like two people in a relationship. The wine then becomes the sun, soon to become the moon and the drinker a person who is trying to find way through his life.
Call it not lava, though it flows red, like a tongue of flame. Call it no Alas, he that with eager lips, has not kissed this wine, Alas, he that trembling with joy, has not touched a brimming goblet, He that has not drawn close the coy wine-maiden by her hand, Has wasted this honey-filled tavern of Life.
Few poems could stand as high and mighty as this one. It is a poem that reflects life and India and as much a contemporary material as it was at the time of its inception. It is a story of human emotions more than just a poem and is hence, a very good read!
Life is short. How much love can I give and how much can I drink? They say, “He departs,” at the very moment that he is born. While he is being welcomed, I have seen his farewell being prepared. They started closing the shutters of the tavern, as soon as they were raised.
A girl is born to a rich household of a British officer in the times of the Raj. As customary to apparently the then tradition of rich households in British India, the child was raised by the local servants. The father and the mother never really bothered to spend some time with her. However, a deadly plague breaks in and everyone dies. Everyone, but the girl child who is now a bitter, unkind girl who has spent a large part of her growing time simply commanding people and repressing her emotions and has a habit of being fed, and bathed and clothed – all by others. The death of her family means she has to now live with her uncle – a lord in the British Isles.
In that cold, dead and open manor, she discovers the meaning of work, expression, friendship and love – not only nurturing back his cousin to health, but also helping her uncle rediscover happiness and let the garden where her wife passed away – the secret garden with no doors open to anyone.
The secret garden – a British children’s classic for more than a century now – is some of those books which one might not necessarily complete in one go, but would be pressed innately to return to it. The story is very much of a child but it builds up in ways that often evade even adult and contemporary literature. Imagination, revelations and most importantly the fact that the protagonist is but a child – all of it is simply touching. A movie was made on the book in 2020 starring Collin Firth and Julie Walters.
Letters are probably the most graceful way of communication between people. It probably was the most common way of distant communication for more than 3000 years of our recorded history. Until very recently, letters were used by professionals and by common folks alike. You pick up a culture – Indian, English, American, Japanese etc. – all of them have a dedicated space for letter writing – often considered an art. However, mobile phones, instant messaging and e-mails changed the way in which communication was carried out between people forever. It is not that instant messaging is bad. It is better than what was, but certainly fails to have the element of gracefulness that was imbibed in the culture of letter writing.
However, until very recently, letters were also used for the tradition of penpals. Wikipedia defines penpals as – “Pen pals (or penpals, pen-pals, penfriends or pen friends) are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail. Pen pals are usually strangers whose relationship is based primarily, or even solely, on their exchange of letters. Occasionally pen pals may already have a relationship that is not regularly conducted in person.” And this was a very flourishing tradition between cultures. But of course, life becomes faster with technology and the social changes that come with it.
However, the ones who love and the ones who adore find more ways to hold on to things than the ways in which the others discard the same. There are several penpal clubs that run through magazines. But COVID has certainly put a halt on a large number of them. However, a better thing happened because of this – the innovation of digital letters. For instance, the 2019 Google Apps winner app Slowly built by a Hong Kong Based firm facilitates letter writing online. The time taken by a letter to reach the recipient is proportional to the distance the letter needs to travel geographically, essentially emulating a real-life letter experience. Several other websites that do not necessarily work on the letter based penpal format i.e. they work more like a chat between strangers erupted in market due to the pandemic. The most famous of them is perhaps Omegle which also offers face-time options.
While many may lament that the smell of paper and ink and the post man coming and delivering letters meant a lot to them, a reality is that our realities have changed. The present generation, mostly people born after 2004 might not have many recollections of letters at all in India- thanks to the massive cell-phone boom that has occurred since. However, letters are a good thing. Because the slow modality ensures that a person works upon his language and choice of words. If that isn’t training for soft skills and practicing writing, one may wonder what is. So, the author wishes the ones now planning to write to new people across the world, all the best!
Mumbai is facing a shortage of water with a third of its residents not having drinking water as per a recent report. This comes in heels with the news of massive water-logging across the city and flood-like situations. This is reminiscent of the Chennai Water Crisis in 2019 when a flood had hit the city in 2018 and in May 2019, the city declared a zero-water day – no water left in any of its reservoirs. As per statistics, in the coastal city with a medium size river flowing right through it (the famed Anna University is actually partially built on lands claimed from the river), 60% of its population relies on bottled water for drinking all year long. Was this always the case? History suggests no. But it has been so for about a decade now. This is not very shocking given that Mawsynram, the place with the highest recorded average rainfall on the planet also faces water shortage during summers!!!
A lot of rain, and yet no water to drink
Yemen – the poorest of Arab nations and a region marred by civil war and international interference for more than a decade now might also have the root of its civil war as water shortage. Let us understand that the Yemeni factions are the Houthis, the republicans – with both basically supporting their tribal interests – and a swinging group of Saudi-led forces. Records suggest that there existed blood feud between villages just because a village constructed a well very close to that of the other village. As per data, Yemen has the least water availability per capita on the planet, even inviting statements like – if water were to get exhausted on Earth, this process would begin in Yemen. This is odd, given the fact that Dubai is a sprawling metropolis situated in the same Saudi desert.
Yemen is the most water depreciated nation on the planet.
The situation is actually grim in many more places – Northern India – a land abundant with rivers and lakes – most of them, technically all of them polluted beyond potability. Go to Africa and the nations with rainforests and rivers are dry.
What is the cause then? We often hear of climate change. A reader would agree about the reality of climate change but would certainly not let go of the sheer amount of mismanagement involved in the handling of water resources. Governments all over the world have tried in their own way to clean water bodies – the money ending up in their coffers owing to balant corruption. In India, for instance, the Save Ganges Movement or ‘Ganga bachao abhiyaan’ in the vernacular has been a project spanning over three decades and costing lakhs of crores – the best part – to no result. NGOs and villagers have often revived water bodies across the planet showing the importance of public participation in government or local initiatives. But, the people aren’t really very concerned about this issue it seems. It might find itself in discussions during summers or in newspapers – but people refuse to consider it as a problem as grim as climate change. No one can imagine the change Chennai saw with themselves.
Some 50 years ago, the British left the Palestinian territories in a bitter tussle between the Jewish and the Arabic groups. The Empire had similar history in the Indian subcontinent. The tensions were partly fueled at the end of the empire – in the Indian subcontinent, it was the promise of an Islamic nation to the Muslims of the Raj; in Palestinian Mandate region, it was the bias of British army against the Arabs and its inability to stop the Jewish immigration – and at the end, the Empire simply left the factions to fend for themselves.
Fast forward a couple of decades. Iraq was invaded by the US and between Iraq and Israel was the obvious tussle between USSR and USA – leading to the formation of many small and conflicting regions and factions supporting free market democracy or communism. The fall of the USSR left a vacuum China quickly filled up. However, the withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq did not result in the rise of a stable power, but rather it escalated tensions and led to the creation and establishment of the alleged ISIS caliphate.
In fact, even in Afghanistan, the chief cause of the crisis was the cold war that led to the Soviet Afghan war and an eventual push of the Mujahideen forces that ultimately became the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and is now leaving the country without any conclusive results – paving way to yet another possible and quite imminent crisis.
The Kosovo crisis and the NATO invasion of Libya in 2011 also left the said regions with a still ongoing power struggle that has led to massive humanitarian crisis there. Libya allegedly has open markets for slave trading today. Not to forget that the infamous Boko Haram held large swaths of land during the time ISIS was at the pinnacle of its power.
These are not the only examples of power vacuums. But the ones that were created in the name of freedom, democracy and liberty – but led to crisis that no one talks of any more.
What do you think about the ways in which contemporary history has played out? Could there be better ways? Can there be steps that can still be taken for the better?
Modern history has been about the establishment of power vacuums resulting in some really dangerous results.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, the richest man on the planet and a lot many adjectives that are used for him – finally and quite successfully monetized space travel in the eyes of the Earthlings.
Commercial Astronaut Bezos in his maiden space voyage.
To begin with, he thanked and congratulated all earthlings for this success. He added that it was we, the people and all the employees of Amazon who had paid for it. Well, he isn’t exactly lying. And we could be thankful to him too, for he has successfully monetized space travel – something we all wanted to hear as kids – well maybe not the monetization part. But it will be this monetization that will fuel more companies to enter into the market. Elon Musk has already worked a lot on reusable space crafts, not to forget that many space agencies – the most prominent being ISRO in India are working to create cheaper means of launching cargo and satellites into space and there are many private space-based start-ups opening up too. Maybe in a decade, space travel will be accessible to at least the upper middle class across the planet.
But should we really thank Jeff Bezos? Opening space for travel opens space for greater amount of debris and maybe a push for institutions all around the world to find out ways to tackle an already existing problem. To add to that, Space travel and Musks’s goal of colonising Mars are but only more incentives to reduce budget on the environment in the long run. Sounds like a dystopian Science Fiction but history points out to the facts that when man was not bound by citizenship laws, forests and agrarian lands have gone barren only because they had options. It is this history that has pushed us towards all the environmental litigations we know of. Will we be as enthusiastic about them if Mars colonies were a reality? As Musk has himself repeatedly stressed that Earth might no longer be livable. Well, scientifically, it is livable upto another 4.5 billion years. But we, the people and the way in which we living beings influence the climate might not allow the planet to see more than 500 years from now. And we are not to be shamed about it. Our education, our governments and our media is more accountable than we are. These are the institutions that tell us what and how the world is. And unfortunately, we believe that is the way the world is.
So, should we or should we not support a scientific and technological advancement?
The answers don’t really lie with anyone. While Bezos travelled to space and Musk revolutionised reusability of the crafts, we still saw public demonstrations in South America against the change in fishing litigations, India against the allegedly anti-environment and corporate-friendly revisions in Environment Impact Assessment Law draft and in Brazil against the government’s decision to not do a lot about the Amazon fires. Humanity still loves this Earth and while in a distant future, capitalism can shame people for doing so, it is increasingly unsuccessful right now. And let us not only keep it that way, but also create ways to add to that love.
I learnt of Climate change and global warming in high school and just revisited it after 7 years.
On the 6th of June 2018, Texas was hit by a hail storm – in the middle of a summer. The Artic has lost more than 50% of its ice. Russia, US, Scandinavian countries and many more are already on their way to claim the resource rich seas. The average temperature of the world is higher than ever. The awe that people had when the skies were clearer during the near global lockdown due to COVID-19 was evident. The amazon rainforests are on fire, yes, they still are. The Canadian and European forests are burning faster and earlier than in recorded history. There have been cases of untimely forest fires in India as well, not to forget that a large part of Australian bush wilderness was lost in 2020. To add to this, a million cubic meters of the Gulf of Mexico is dead, Antarctica is browning, Yemen has lesser water than the already no water situation and many countries have brought green energy into their federal budgets. That’s a lot many things happening together.
When I was still a high school student, we had studied about all the important conventions and their goals with regards to the planet – the Kyoto protocol, the Montreal Protocol and so on. Then came the Paris Accords. To add to it was the information that global temperatures must be limited to a degree and half more than the 1950 level or else the planet will go berserk. I don’t know how old the new news is, but the news is that the scientists concluded that there is no way the goal can be achieved. And now we must try to limit the temperature at four and a half degrees above the previously said level to avoid the loss of agricultural lands across the planet.
That is a huge leap of faith for me and maybe for many more people who do not really invest even very small amounts of time to know the news that the planet has to give. We are too occupied with corruption, civil wars and international blame games. To be frank, I try not to waste water, electricity or even throw plastics or dump trash outside a bin or a designated area. I try to walk or cycle and as of now, just lie around in my room for most of the time. And the trouble is, the environmental problems are too large now. Because one, everyone doesn’t carry out the simple acts of being considerate towards the environment and two, the emissions by the rich and the ones not so rich but busy in producing what we consume are too big and have restrictions full of loop holes on them. The environment norms are yet not very sturdy. Sturdy is not strict, rigid and harsh. Sturdy are the ones that help. For instance, to implement rules eliminating the use of fossil fuels based vehicular fuel eliminates the exhaust the vehicles shall produce. However, in most countries, especially the most populated ones in Asia, South America and Africa still produce their energy using fossil fuels. How are these countries going to charge electric vehicles? Using fossil fuels. That in turn means the use of “dirty” energy is itself not eliminated. There are several more examples like the flawed system of Carbon credits and so on.
What can we do? Be more considerate to the world to reduce domestic output of toxins. And to reduce consumption of goods that are harmful to this planet. And google is a sufficient enough aid for knowing which products do that and which don’t.
In a shocking revelation, the minister of Telecommunication, Government of India faced questions on the Project Pegasus report – a research on the pegasus spyware that has been developed by the Israeli NSO for “vetted government clients” only. It can breach all Windows, Mac, Android and iOS security checks upto iOS 14.6.
The Forbidden Stories group and the Amnesty International with the Wire and the Washington Post revealed that governments, politicians and journalists all over the world have been targeted with more than 300 people in India alone been tracked regularly using the spyware. Allegedly, only 10 out of these 300 people had mobiles with conclusive or clear presence of the software. These 300 people however include journalists, politicians, cabinet ministers and a sitting Supreme Court judge. These numbers and cases are similar in countries like Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Rwanda, Azerbaijan and Hungary.
The Pagasus is developed by Israeli NSO.
The first and foremost question ought to be raised against Israel and all governments that are using the spyware, for a spyware is not how a democracy should work in theory. After all, little is left of “democracy” in most nations in the last decade. The second question is why there is an absence of data protection laws in most countries including India, Pakistan and south Asian nations – that house a large part of humanity. The third question is to be raised against the government in India where an official allegedly replied to a question about the spyware by stating that all monitoring, interception and decryption is or shall be carried out as per a “due process of law” which is ironic because there are no such laws in India.
Now, back to the questions that Mr Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister of Telecommunication, India had to answer in the Parliament several hours ago. The minister out right refused any spyware quoting the Binoy Viswam vs RBI case in the supreme court where the WhatsApp Counsel refused any spyware involvement. However, this might actaully be true because the NSO has quite clearly used the term – “vetted governments”. So, speaking per se, no private contractor is involved. However, this conclusion is only one way of seeing things. The author recommends personal discretion and further research as the press conference against Pegasus took place only on the 18th of July 2021. The Minister also pointed out that the NSO uses data and using data should not be equated to surveillance. He also added that surveillance is not possible in a country like India with so many checks and balances.
The author has no opinion that supports or opposes the answers Mr Vaishnav presented today. However, just as a note – surveillance is always illegal in any democracy. It is illegal in the US and yet about 5 years ago, news of massive US surveillance across the globe was made public by leaked documents. Surveillance is almost always carried out by the Executive without intimating the legislature or the public. Many-a-times, even the ruling party is unaware of the realities of the state. What we as a democracy can do is to establish stronger laws against the process and establishing a more transparent mechanism to keep the executive in check.
Finally, this article is based only on the events that unfolded on the 18th of July 2021 and the immediate aftermath on the 19th of the same month. Let us await further investigations and reports to build any conclusive opinion about any institution. However, the need for stronger privacy laws is important anyways, irrespective of the type of state one lives in – especially in a democracy.
The President of the USA, Joe Biden chose to play the card that the presidents before him had put on the game – the complete withdrawal of armed personnel from Afghanistan. This would mean an end to about 20 years of war in the country that had pitched the NATO and the US against a radical Islamic militant group to a supposed war on terrorism.
The Taliban controlled about 90% of all Afghanistan before 2001. It even had embassies established in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – the only two countries to give recognition to the government. It was after the 9-11 attacks that it suddenly became an enemy to every state on the planet that supported USA. The US and its NATO allies invaded the Afghanistan that was already torn between the Taliban led groups and the democratic rebels. 20 years have passed since then. From young adults born after 2001 to a now estranged prince of the British royal family, a lot of people fought in Afghanistan. The results were visible with the Taliban clearly on the loss. But, the results were never conclusive. And now, when the US and the NATO would finally withdraw from a war that never reached a conclusion, Taliban has all good reasons to take back what it owned for a brief period of time.
Afghan politics has become highly broken – factions that want peace but not the loss of a theologically driven Taliban government and many more of people wanting a democracy – the government promised in the first Afghan republic in the late 1960s. For the present state of a mujahideen within the once flourishing nation has always been there, but the present state of catastrophe is a result of the Soviet-American rivalry. It was due to the establishment of the Afghan Socialist state that the mujahideen and the Soviet-Afghan war erupted and it was because of obvious and many-a-times accepted training by the Pakistani(Parvez Musharaff, the Army general of Pakistan and later President of Pakistan accepted on a TV show that the Taliban and Lashkar were heroes to him and his people) and American forces (American newspapers have routinely praised not just Taliban but also the infamous Osama Bin Laden during the war) that the logistics, tactics and power of these mujahideen forces reached to a point where they could establish an emirate that spanned most of Afghanistan.
Is there any redemption for Afghanistan?
The return of Taliban will not only usher a new era of repression for the Afghans – especially women, children and the now diminished minorities, but also to the neighbouring nations of India, Iran and Central Asia – where the rise of Taliban may lead to new found difficulties in security and trade. The radical Islamists founded the Indian mujahideen as a cause to create a similar situation in India a couple of decades ago. The specific case of India is being raised here because it has strong cultural and economic interests in Afghanistan. The Chabahar port in Iran is India’s strongest option against China’s CPEC and the Gwadar port. Other than this, with an unfortunate history of militancy and extra state actors in North Western India, to have a neighbour ruled by groups of similar ideologies is dangerous for it. India should find ways to support Kabul militarily, for the statements made by Pakistan Prime Minister where he expressed his inadequacy in pressuring Taliban for a ceasefire leaves no neighbour but India to hold the hands of a now weaker government at Kabul. However, India has so far refused to be involved militarily, let alone be involved now, when it could end being the only player in the game.
Afghanistan looks grim. So does its future. The case is unlike ISIS. Common people had supported the Taliban insurgency. And the opium rich state an fund the group for years once it comes to power. Afghanistan looks like a lost cause, with no friends to support it in the problem that should have the highest priority to be solved – the problem of insurgency.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is a all time classic in children’s literature. And yet, after reading it, a part of me felt that there could seldom be books as beautiful as this one for any age group. It starts with the buildup of a character of a narrator who loves childhood and treats their intellect superior to those of adult. From the very first page, a reader will laugh with the author and commend him for his though process. And suddenly switches to the backdrop of a war – the second world war to be specific. There he meets a young boy – a boy not more than 12 and clad in his own idiosyncratic behaviour – childish behaviour. This boy is our little prince.
The story deals with love, life, friendship, knowledge, curiosity and death – all as the prince sees them. And it is exactly this part of the story where the reader is lost with the author. Admiration, adoration, love and tears – all move with the prince, a character so beautiful that he cannot die in the heart if the one who has read that that book.
It is a small book and in that small novella is a plethora of beautiful and innocent lines that are bound to steal your heart away or to quote the book,
“What makes the desert beautiful,’ said the little prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well…”
Make friends with the little prince and whenever you shall see a star, that one meaningless star will have a laugh or a smile for you each time.
The Ministry of Defense announced the theaterisation of the Indian Armed forces under the Chief of Armed Forces (currently, Gen Bipin Rawat), the Defense Secretary and the tri-force chief council.
The Insignia of the Indian Armed Forces
Theatres of defense would quite effectively wipe out the existing commands system in which the Indian uniformed forces work. India has 17 armed commands – 7 for the army, 7 for the airforce and 3 for the Navy. These commands are indepednent of each other and have a different officer from the corresponding service to serve as the commander. This model is the traditional one which has been followed for centuries. The British, the French, the Americans have all always had a separate command for the army and for the navy. The Mughal Empire did not have a lot of maritime enemies along its controlled regions in Bengal. However, by the time the Marathas took over, the Portugese and the French had arrived with newer war techniques and a large part of this warfare was at sea. So, the Marathas developed a strong naval force. Even then, the office of the admiral and the office of the Commander of Army were separate. Infact, even in the army, the office of the gun users and those of the cavalry and cannons were separate.
However, the first world war introduced new means of warfare. Trenches, tanks, heavier guns and soldiers – everything together. It was unlike the American Wars before 1860s where the two parties would stand on either side of the rift and shoot on orders and then jump to manual fighting. It was a new way of fighting where all forces of offense and defense needed to work together and several layers of bureaucracy and controls would hinder the effectiveness. Thus was introduced the concept of theatre of war. War office was segregated not based on the uniformed service but on the region to control. That makes orders easier, the need and procurement of weapons is simplified. The second world war only assured that the theatre warfare is better than the conventional war office. There is a commander of the theatre who addresses directly to the council of war or the defense council or the war office (As in World War 2 Britain) or to the chief of Defense forces and Defense Secretary (As in modern day USA).
China entered into the Theatrisation process very recently. Pakistan copied its model. India is probably the last large economy to change to the theatre model of warfare. And it means that Indian warfare should be more synchronized and effective now. So should be the process of weaponisation. There have been instances where the airforce and the army separately ordered jets causing the government to loose a lot on the benifits it could have had received for a bulk order. Similar is the story for missiles to be used by the army, the navy and the air force.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of drama going on in the defense forces headquarters in New Delhi about the theaterisation mechanics. However, all chiefs and the cabinet has shown commitment towards a fast and effective formalization of the new policy.
2020 January – the whole world was scared by the idea of a new virus overtaking all of humanity. There were lockdowns followed by a host of other measures – some very severe, some probably less by governments all over the world. The idea that most doctors and scientists presented was isolation, quarantine and social distancing.
A survey conducted by researchers in England and published by Springer suggests that about 93% participants did not adhere to the covid protocols strictly and 47% of them did so intentionally. The research also statistically established a strong correlation between non-adherence to the COVID guidelines and vulnerability to COVID-19 itself.
Now, COVID is a disease that has no known cure except for a host of vaccines that were prepared in a great show of human endeavour. However, the vaccines were created keeping in mind the initial variants of COVID-19. The world and the governments all over were scared of the simple numbers of May 2020, which are simple given the numbers the world is facing today. The increase in numbers is however not in the same geographic location as the previous spikes, but the unfortunate thing is that it took place in larger population groups, in groups where social and economic security is not guaranteed effectively or at all by the government to all people and in groups where non-adherence to even simpler rules is more common than the previously infected groups. India, Brazil and the US – all three fall under this category. While some may argue various reasons for breaching the covid norms in their respective country or might even blame the governments for the failure, which it must be, but the fact remains that the consequences include a higher infectivity and hence increased death rates. But is that all? Well, no.
Scientist claim that an infectious virus is suppressed when the herd immunity thresh-hold is reached. The best number to reach is 80% of the population. However, in cases of Israel, the government reopened the country after 58% population was inoculated. If the herd immunity is not achieved, the virus gets enough time to mutate and as covid has quite effectively proven, these mutations are not always good. This means that the slow pace of vaccination in countries like India (I say slow given the huge population the country has), Brazil and even slower and probably negligible rates in the poorest nations gives the virus a strong and assured method to mutate and evolve. Most pharma giants and as many countries like Germany too have shown a greater interest in trading the vaccines commercially rather than quickly addressing the possibility of a stronger covid wave every time the poorest nations are denied vaccines. The richer countries indeed need to save their revenue. But a middle ground must be found otherwise the savings of revenue and the vision of a strong pharma market might lead to a civil breakdown like the one towards which protests in Brazil had pointed towards.
More variants are appearing, more people are being infected every day. The vaccinated nations of Israel, US and the UK are back to masks and social distancing. Is the COVID wave going anywhere? Well, probably no. And let us wait for the xhi or phi variant. And then maybe a greek god appears to take the virus away.
Uttar Pradesh or UP is one of the largest states in India, and with a population of more than 22 crores(220 million), it would probably be the 5th most populous country in the world if independent following only China, India, US and the UK. This means that UP should have the resources to support such large population fiscally, in terms of proper remuneration and security. Research proves otherwise. And so, on the occasion of the World Population Day, Uttar Pradesh announced the two children policy in a bid to control the population of the state which has had a fertility rate more than the ideal 2.1 for decades now.
UP is the most populous Indian State with 22 crore or 220 million people
India has 1.33 billion people
However, there is a question that stands above all the policies that are to be enacted by the governments – is population really the main problem? And will controlling population be the answer to all the woes?
India is a partial welfare economy. That in turn means it is partially just a big corporate state speaking in terms of economics. The poor and the ones with quotas are provided with free fuel, almost free food and a remuneration even without jobs. This is a positive aspect to a country where the Moody’s announced in 2021 that the inflation rate has become alarmingly high and the government defending its every decision citing a lack of revenue. A lesser population would perhaps mean lesser poor, lesser taxes or probably a complete welfare state run by a capitalist model like those in Scandinavia. This dream might take more than a century to be realised, hence the word – perhaps. A lesser population might also mean a more even distribution of resources – as the incumbent Chief Minister of UP announced in his speech. A similar rhetoric was used by the World Trade Organisation for countries in Asia and Africa where the fertility rates have been traditionally high in an already large population. This rhetoric has also been used by the early Communist China and the Indian government since the 1970s in the name of family planning. Knowing these rhetorics might actually be helpful in understanding the way in which population is and is not a solution to the problems the world faces.
China was the most populous country when the Communist Party announced its victory in a long drawn Civil War. And it soon announced the Great Leap Forward Program followed by steps to open up the economy. And considering population to be the chief factor behind poverty, China announce the now infamous one child policy. The important thing is China is a strong economy in the present day and has reduced poverty to minimal levels and all this was done not because there was any absolute reduction in population (China saw a steady population growth rate in absolute numbers thanks to the pre-existing population being very large and will stay the most populous country at least till 2025), but because of a judicious use of the same. China introduced labour intensive industries in the country, drawing international investment and generating employment for virtually everyone there. The demographic effect of the one child policy has become apparent only in the recent years where China feared that the fertility rate less than 2 might lead to an ageing of the nation – a point where more people would be older than the then working population, prompting it to revise one child policy to a two children policy.
China renounced its One-Child Policy fearing an over aged population
India introduced the Two-Children policy back in the 1970s. The allegedly forced vasectomies during the Emergency months of the Indira Gandhi regime quite clearly reflect the apprehensions the stakeholders had regarding India’s future; the stakeholders being the government that needed funds and the World Bank and WTO that felt Indian population growth was alarming. India still maintains its family planning policy although in a relatively non-forced manner where the government uses mass media to convey this idea of ‘hum do humare do'(We two and our two) to the public. And while Indian population in the urban areas has quite neatly adopted to the idea, rural trends are not so appreciative of the same. India is projected to have more than 1.4 billion humans by 2030, about 15-18% of all humanity, the most populous nation on the planet. Indian government has failed to objectify its labour capital of its people – the government policies directed more towards social support than social upliftment. The generation of jobs was slow and inadequate and so was the generation of skilled labour per capita.
Most European countries, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong represent situations similar to India – large populations, high fertility rates in the middle and late 20th centuries and lack of land and resources. But their approach was to generate employment and skills while simultaneously reducing fertility rates which went down anyway as more people were educated, urban centers developed and prices of common commodities rose.
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated territories on the planet.
So, is state intervened birth control useful? In a nation as large as India, it might be, because a large population is still rural and poor and sustains on agricultural output alone or is an urban poor household that is keen on increasing the total labour it can provide to increase its income. However, one might quite clearly conclude understanding all previous scenarios explained that a large part of this intervened birth control is a propaganda or most probably a misjudgment of decades of flawed social and economic policies at the end of the Central and State governments.
To conclude, birth control policies are right considering the fact that a lesser population might mean lesser woes from both the government and the people, however, blaming population as the means and end to the prevalent problems by the state is just running away from accountability.
Happy World Population Day and we all can but await the results this new policy shall usher in the country.
Positivity is a fad all around the place. Instagram, Twitter, the daily newsletters and what not – all have only one single message to convey – stay positive. Is that a bad message now? Bad enough to have an article against it? Well, no. And well, yes.
Positivity is important. Being hopeful is important. They are important to have the strength to move on. They are important to have the strength to carry forth with what lies at hand. If a person loses hope, then there is seldom a lot that can be done. This idea is quite agreed upon by psychologists as well as general health experts. But then what does the topic of this article convey? Positivity is something that drives a person forward. Then there is a situation where positivity becomes the only emotion a person knows. And most of the human race would agree that they are pushed into this state. If any other emotion – sad, angry, aghast or tired – tries to come, the person is told to let go of it and stay positive, to try to be happy about what lies with him or her or them. This is toxic, say many psychologists. The person is forced to accept positivity even when he/she/they are trying to cry, trying to be angry or trying to express any other emotion.
Expression is very important for mental health. There is no tool as strong as expression for the human mind. That expression can be verbal, through music, art, dance or in any other physical or art form – as long as it does no harm to another being, that expression is good and, important.
Toxic positivity can lead to the locking of emotions, mental degeneracy or probably depression, anxiety and a host of other issues. Psychologists argue that no emotion is ever fully suppressed. Suppressing of emotions locks those emotions deep in the brain, only to come out stronger and probably more harmful in situations of trauma or a sudden exposure to a stimulating environment.
In the present, all of us are struck in a nowhere – a world of our own in our houses or offices or work spaces with limited human contact. This has statistically led to an increase in cases of extreme isolation, anxiety and depression and a host of other mental health problems. This is certainly not a time to be positive all the time. And certainly not a time to try to do something positive. The important thing is to strike the balance. Give all your emotions a moment. And yet, try to do something positive each day. It is alright if you cannot. The contentment is to understand that you tried.
Stay positive and away from becoming toxic positive. (image courtesy : Women’s health magazine)
China on 10th July announced new internet rules adding to the already massive set of norms the Great Firewall is all about. The new rules require any internet company working in China and with more than a million registered users to undergo an additional cyber security review if offering an IPO in a foreign country. As per the Cyberspace Administration of China, companies listed in foreign countries can have their data “affected, controlled, and maliciously exploited by foreign governments”. Well, this is clearly a clever way by the CCP to control financial resources in China. Most companies will now prefer to list themselves in Hong Kong and not other large stock exchanges like the New York Exchange. This would mean that the companies will not have large foreign assets and yet have large foreign investments.
Chinese government announced new regulations for the companies trying to list in other countries
But there is a greater observation associated with this the pace at which countries all over the world have initiated security protocols regarding big tech giants. In May, the government of India, the largest internet demographic in the world open to foreign investments – initiated a set of very strong rules changing the way in which many important aspects of the companies’ services functioned. Many internet freedom groups and NGOs accused the government of creating an authoritarian IT policy where the government has over-ridden the Right to Privacy. And the government has defended the same citing social and national interests at helm. The US and the EU with its GDPR – have themselves been torn between privacy activists and an age of increasing control of tech giants over the information of people from their connections to their interests.
All this drama can be understood in two chief points – one, the data privacy myth no longer exists. Most users are not even aware of the privacy policies in place. The Cambridge Analytica scam that rocked the US and created considerable difficulties for Facebook is a classic example where people themselves gave away their data. Even if one is aware of the privacy laws, the scandals involving Google tracking Incognito data on Chrome has led to serious questions about regulations and policies. Two, Countries have governments that are increasingly being assertive in not only ensuring that the globalisation of the data of its nationals is contained, but also that the tech enterprises respect the sovereignty and authority of the state in its matters. This is both good and bad. Good being that there is indeed an increasing trend of exploitation of data and social engineering attacks that can undermine the functioning of the state. Bad, because the states are also moving along and often on the other end of the boundary between a healthy interference and politically motivated censorships and extra judicial control.
Cambridge Analytica was probably one of the most publicised cases of social engineering fraud
Who is responsible? Who is accountable? It’s the internet. Everyone is supposed to be responsible for everything here. And that is the new age of internet we are into. Right from ordering groceries and talking to friends to alleged recruitments into extra state organisations like the ISIS, every thing can happen here. The process of social engineering attacks led to large scale government interventions which in turn has led to growth of more private technologies like VPNs and secret or peer reviewed social networks like the Mastodon network. But, the tussle continues. And this is the web we shall live with for long now.
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