This is going to be very unstructured and rambling, but I figured my blog is a good place to document my learning/reading journey. 99% of this will probably be uninteresting to readers, but I hope one or two of the links here might pique someone’s curiosity. For people uninterested in Indian politics, skip ahead to where I talk about other stuff (there’s a big horizontal line sectioning it off). Also, fair warning that the stuff on Indonesia is a bit grisly (cannibalism and ethnic conflict). Now, jumping into news stuff I read this week…
On Monday, I read this short article on the surrender of several Naxals in Maharashtra, and the “related links” led me down an interesting path from there.
This is a good article on the problems facing the Communist Party of India (Maoist) today. The author focuses on how the recent encounter deaths of several leaders have led to a split among the remaining leadership between those who wish to continue armed resistance and those who want to surrender and pursue nonviolent means. The article also touches on how some leaders are old or in poor health, and the younger leaders have military expertise but no political talent, making it hard to maintain internal unity and keep recruitment strong. This is a good read for anyone interested in the future of the Naxal movement.
I liked this opinion article that advocated for a ceasefire and a more humane approach to dealing with the Naxal movement. The article argues that Naxals are Indian citizens and should be treated as such, especially in light of the very real grievances that they hold against the state; the author’s proposed solution is a ceasefire with promises of less harsh punishment and rehabilitation for those who surrender, which strikes me as a far better solution than the Home Ministry’s policy of forever waging a brutal war of attrition against poor villagers in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The writer also makes an interesting point about how Amit Shah’s 31 March 2026 deadline for ending the counterinsurgency operation could increase the number of fake encounters and civilian deaths since it puts pressure on the security forces to move faster than possible when respecting the rules of engagement – I actually had not considered this point until now. On a completely different note, the author of the article, Prakash Singh, is interesting in his own right; he is a retired IPS officer who served in his career as Director General of Police, Chief of the Border Security Force, UP police, and Assam police, and he’s written a few books on counterinsurgency and the Naxal movement. Very cool discovery of an interesting person.
This is a good article by Arun Kumar on problems with the Indian government’s methodology for GDP calculation and why the IMF has downgraded the quality of India’s GDP data to a C. I also read Arun Kumar’s article on the new Labour Codes that makes good points about how the Codes will exacerbate labour’s weaknesses in wage bargaining and how they have the potential to worsen unemployment and hurt aggregate demand.
The Arun Kumar article on Labour Codes led me to this absolutely brilliant article that goes into even greater depth on the subject. It explains what the Codes change and how they will end up hurting workers. This is the most informative article I read this week, and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone interested in this topic since it explains the procedural illegitimacy of the Codes (not consulting the Indian Labour Conference or allowing debate), their reduction of workers’ bargaining power, and their potential to open the door to privatization of state assets. There are a lot of good points discussed here, but one of the most interesting numbers is that the new Industrial Relations code has exempted companies with under 100 workers (used to be 300) from needing government permission for retrenchment or closure, allowing 90% of India’s companies to arbitrarily lay off workers en masse without needing to coordinate with the government. The Occupational Safety and Health Code similarly redefines ‘factory’ to exempt industrial units with under 20 workers (used to be 10) from many government regulations, encouraging companies to fragment their workforce to escape compliance.
This is a tragic article on the recent murder of Saksham Tate, a 20-year-old Dalit man, in Nanded at the hands of his in-laws who refused to accept their daughter’s intercaste marriage. Saksham Tate was reportedly shot in the chest and then hit on the head with a tile by his wife’s brother; five of her relatives are now in police custody in connection with the case.
This was a really cool article on a new MF Husain museum in Qatar, built exactly how he had asked for it.
This was a good opinion article on Macaulay that argues that he was a force for good in India, reducing emphasis on traditional Sanskrit education that had little value and introducing the country to European literature. Shankar Sharan does a good job of refuting lies about Macaulay, proving that Macaulay didn’t forbid Indians from pursuing Sanskrit education if they so wished but merely removed British promotion of it. The article concedes that Macaulay was misguided in seeing Indian literature as being so worthless but defends the fact that Macaulay truly wanted what was best for education in India and that he did succeed in improving the system. An important read, considering how our politicians are still using the long-dead Macaulay as a bogeyman for the inadequacy of our education system and a half-imagined problem of being over-dependent on the western world. That article on Macaulay’s influence on the education system led me to another good article praising Macaulay’s criticism of the caste system and his vision of a freer India; I learned a lot from this one, especially about Macaulay’s insistence on giving Dalit children equal access to education and his belief that “no native of our Indian empire shall, by reason of his colour, his descent, or his religion, be incapable of holding office.” This quote from Macaulay was also quite powerful
It would be, on the most selfish view of the case, far better for us that the people of India were well governed and independent of us, than ill governed and subject to us; that they were ruled by their own kings, but wearing our broadcloth, and working with our cutlery, than that they were performing their salams to English collectors and English magistrates, but were too ignorant to value, or too poor to buy, English manufactures. To trade with civilised men is infinitely more profitable than to govern savages.
This was another good article by Shankar Sharan that argues MK Gandhi was the origin of Congress’ tradition of ‘backseat driving’ and lack of respect for democratic process within the party (cough cough, dynasty rule and going out of their way to avoid criticism of the party leadership).
Here’s a good article by a TMC MP on why the BJP won’t win Bengal as easily as they won Bihar. The author conveniently structures the article to have five main points: the BJP’s lack of a well-loved leader in Bengal (the “Nitish factor”), the TMC’s popularity among women, fewer problems with law and order, a stronger economy, and a “bhadralok culture” that makes it harder for the BJP’s Hindutva rhetoric to destroy the Bengali tradition of cosmopolitanism. I’m a bit doubtful of the claim about the economy and the last claim since bhadralok culture is sadly fading in Bengal, but the other three are strong arguments.
This is a good article on book banning in Kashmir and how it goes against basic principles of free expression in India. Some of the most interesting points made here are that some of the banned literature consists of books that are almost entirely reproductions of government documents (what secessionist thought are they fighting there?) and that the police are often seizing books that aren’t even on the official list of banned books.
Sanjeev Chopra wrote a good article on the history of India-China relations and the start of how everything went downhill. Further cements my opinion that a lot of trouble would’ve been avoided if Vallabhbhai Patel hadn’t died so early, article shows he was much more clear-eyed than Nehru on the threat from China. This is another good article on that bit of history.
And then the latest episode in the Bihar assembly election saga: even after losing the actual election, the Mahagathbandhan continues to lose haha. This time, it’s the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress blaming each other for the loss and making rash statements threatening to end the alliance. The only hope is that Jan Suraaj can take both parties’ vote share rather than the NDA gobbling it up.
Now here’s some good news – Hany Babu has finally been released on bail after 5 years and 4 months without trial in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. Horrible that it took so long, but at least the court finally realized the insanity of what the NIA was doing. The article on his release mentioned that he’d written some articles from The Wire while in prison, so out of curiosity I opened this article on how the law tackles the topic of undertrial detention. It was an INCREDIBLE read with some of the best legal analysis I’ve seen, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. Fun fact, a suspect can be kept in undertrial detention (without conviction) for up to half the maximum jail sentence for the crime they’re accused of; for crimes where the punishment can be life imprisonment or the death sentence, there is no such “half ground” limit, creating a system where undertrial prisoners are effectively assumed “guilty until proven innocent.” This is one of the most shameful parts of the Indian legal system and is worth learning about.
Here is some of the first bad news to emerge about the character of the new Chief Justice of India. In a habeas corpus case over the custodial disappearance of five Rohingya illegal immigrants, CJI Surya Kant said
Once these illegal migrants are in India, they claim right to food and shelter and help for their children. We have many poor people in the country. They have a right over the country’s resources, not the illegal migrants.
Would be nice if the CJI was a bit more concerned by the state’s complete disregard for due process in deportations, rather than making non sequiturs trying to justify depriving migrants of food and shelter.
Here’s some interesting data on how Bangladeshis feel about their political system. An International Republican Institue (IRI) survey of 3270 “likely voters” found that 33% would vote for the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and 29% for Jamaat e Islami. There’s lots more interesting survey results in the full IRI report here. I’m sad that there’s no grassroots opposition movement against both the BNP and Jamaat, since both of them have a very dark past, but it’s too late for any new party to reach their scale between now and February. Let’s see if “the Dark Prince” (who seems likely to come back to power) truly has changed his ways…
Here’s a good article on the status of the Waqf property registration portal; the website is down most of the time, arbitrarily deletes half-entered data, and crashes off and on, but the BJP government still refused to extend the December 5 deadline for registration. Only on December 5, literally the deadline for registration, did the minority affairs minister tell people that there would be no fines or penalties for the next 3 months against people who didn’t register before the deadline. Classic example of BJP’s chaotic and callous governance style.
And then the latest of the BJP government in Arunachal Pradesh. This article summarizes the Supreme Court’s recent findings on the ‘cartelisation’ (words of Justice Vikram Nath) of work contract awards; turns out that companies owned by BJP Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his family are awarded work contracts even when they give a tender just 0.01% less than competing companies’ tenders, and there are concerns over whether competing companies are even allowed to participate in the tender process. Also interesting is this article on remarks recently made by Ojing Tasing, the state’s panchayats and rural development minister. He has threatened to not provide access to government welfare schemes to panchayat seats that don’t elect BJP candidates. His exact words were
I don’t believe in beating around the bush. The panchayat segments where the BJP candidates lose will not get any scheme. As the panchayati raj minister, I mean what I say
Yikes
Moving away from the topic of politics, I have finished Aakar Patel’s “The Price of the Modi Years” (great book) and have now started Richard Lloyd Parry’s “In the Time of Madness.” It’s an amazing book, and I’m learning a lot. I won’t go super in depth (saving that for a proper book review), but I’ll briefly talk about what I’ve been liking so far. Parry writes really well and has some incredible experiences that he talks about in the book. The first section on the West Borneo headhunting wars introduced me to a bit of history I had never even heard about before; the ethnic violence between the Dayaks and Madurese is one of the darkest chapters in human history, and there’s no comparable conflict through which to try understanding it. The Dayaks would kill Madurese, eat their hearts, and then ritually decapitate them and mutilate the head, believing this ritual cannibalism brought them magic powers. Parry’s book is deeply informative and transported me to a world of unimaginable horror, where he forced me to think about the question of:
How poor an existence these people had, that this hairy lump [a severed human head] on an oil drum should be an emblem of morality and hope
Parry also has a talent for good turn of phrase, and it’s almost addictive to read his book. His prose brings the jungles of West Borneo to life and is immensely satisfying to read.
He’s also good at guessing which factoids will be most interesting to readers, presenting a wealth of knowledge on the Dayaks’ beliefs in black magic and the reasons for hatred between the Dayaks and the Madurese. It’s also nice how Parry adds bits of dark humor to make this otherwise depressing book a bit less heavy. The humor is still very dark, but there’s a kind of very sick irony in some parts such as this one
My idea was to take a shot from behind. There would be no doubt what was depicted – the head of a decapitated man on an oil drum – but without the slashed mouth and lidless eyes, and the ribbons of tissue trailing from the neck. I had knelt down and was raising the camera, when the younger of the brothers spotted what I was doing. He raised his hand, ran forward, then picked up the head and turned it round through 180 degrees to face me. I walked round to the other side, and tried again. The same thing happened. The boy was trying to be helpful. He couldn’t understand why I should avoid the face of the dead man. He wanted to give me the very best view of this magical object that was bringing him and his brother so much excitement and delight.
It’s also interesting to see Parry’s more personal reflections on how he was impacted by what he was seeing. He’s incredibly open about his feelings at the time, and that makes the book even more immersive as we’re able to try imagining what was going through his head as he reported on the conflict.
I had never worked in such conditions before, and nor had anyone I knew. The experience produced two contradictory reactions. The first was relief, together with a guilty pride, in finding myself able to confront horror without being overcome by nausea or fear. The second reaction took the form of troubling questions, which nagged me at odd moments. Why was I not more upset by this? What was wrong with me? I don’t know what to call such an emotion, but it is something close to shame.
I finished the first part on the West Borneo ethnic violence and am almost through the section on the Jakarta riots and the fall of Suharto. The second section is somehow even more informative than the first one, and I started writing down some of the things I read because they piqued my curiosity enough to google them later. Parry makes the entire history of Indonesia seem fascinating, creating an organized framework through which to view much of the history while also presenting the chaos of the inexplicable parts. I learned a lot about the Suharto era and its lasting impact on Indonesia, presented both through historical evidence and Parry’s talent for metaphor
During his presidency, every public and private office in Indonesia carried a pair of photographic portraits: the president, twinned with the vice-president of the moment. In the space of a few months, Suharto’s image had been removed to leave only that of Habibie. But all over the country, he survived, and in appropriately ghostly form. In companies, schools, government offices, even in some private homes, telltale picture hooks still protruded where Suharto once hung, above unfaded rectangles of fresh-looking paint.
What really caught my attention about Suharto was how weird he was – I feel like Elias Canetti or Ashis Nandy would’ve had a lot of fun psychoanalyzing him. He held power for over 30 years, yet he didn’t live a very lavish lifestyle, choosing to live in a middle class home rather than a palace, and he didn’t establish a cult of personality either – which begs the question, why did he take power in the first place? He laughed at superstitions when meeting western leaders, yet in Indonesia, he encouraged superstitions about the divine source of his power; some of the more interesting theories are that he derived his power from his marriage to Ibu Tien, who was a descendant of the royal house of Solo, and the belief that he wasn’t killed in the 1965 Gestapu coup because a seer advised him to spend the night “at the confluence of two waters,” which convinced him to go fishing that day. No one is sure if Suharto’s beliefs in Javanese mysticism were genuine or just a political tool to win the approval of a superstitious population. That entire period of history is a fascinating mystery.
The Javanese conception of power was also very cool to read about. Similar to the Chinese Mandate of Heaven, the Javanese believe in the “wahyu,” a divine right to rule that can come in many forms. Parry told many interesting stories of how, even in the 1990s, these beliefs held sway, and protestors would often talk to him about how they had seen the wahyu flying through the sky towards an opposition leader’s house a few days before the start of the Jakarta riots. It’s fascinating how kings, and later on politicians, had to combine their military support with the people’s belief in their divine right to rule, even in the 20th century.
Another nice feature of the book is how it’s structured around some central themes: “Something Close to Shame” is on his complex reaction to seeing the headhunting in west Borneo, and the entire book “In the Time of Madness” is organized around the idea of the “Time of Madness” prophesied in the Prelambang Jayabaya, a 12th century Javanese prophecy, being upon us. It adds an oddly poetic character to the book.
Overall, I was awed by how much history Parry had managed to see, and I’ve learnt a ton about the history and culture of Indonesia because of this book. I 10/10 recommend it, based on the 100-something pages I’ve read so far. Incredible to hear the first-hand account of a British journalist witnessing cannibalism in west Borneo, or wandering the Indonesian parliament building the day that protestors were allowed in to stage a demonstration. He’s a great writer with some fascinating stories to tell.
In the world of film, I’ve seen two movies recently: “The Act of Killing” and “A Death in the Gunj.” Both were really good, but I’m going to write about them later on since it’s past midnight now and I don’t want too much overlap between this post and later film reviews (coming eventually haha).
In the world of music, I’ve recently gotten addicted to A.R. Rahman’s song “Dil Se Re” (really good) and “Mist/Fog” from Park Chan-wook’s “Decision To Leave,” while still being addicted (for about a month now) to “Imi Oneun Sori” from Park Chan-wook’s film “The Handmaiden” – just goes to show how good he is at selecting music for his movies haha. I recommend these songs, very good music.
I haven’t discovered too much new music last week, mainly due to laziness about listening to new albums and instead putting Park Chan-wook film soundtracks on repeat, so I’ll hopefully get some new favorites this week.
Well, that sums up this post. Sorry for the rambling nature of it,
but writing a structured post takes an obscene amount of time and I hope
this is interesting(?). As always, feel free to message me on discord at
floofydoggo or email me at
chancellorceti <at> gmail.com to talk about anything
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Thanks for reading !!!!!!!!