Kannadigas: plan for the future and buy sites *now*!

This blog gives the reasons why kannaDigaru must buy residential/commercial sites in their own hometowns as soon as possible, preferably today.

Economic and environmental reasons

karnATaka is facing a severe problem today, the problem of land grabbing by people from neighbouring states, viz., Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Before you complete reading this blog, one tamilian, one mallu and one gult will have bought a 60x40 site in your own city, whether it is beMgaLUru or maisUru or hubLi or naMjanagUDu. Remember that the migrant is not richer than you. He's only smarter; he's only more careful about his own future. Even he has to take a bank loan to buy a site, not just you. Only, he's ready to take the pain now to ensure a better tomorrow for himself (which, unfortunately, is turning out to be a worse tomorrow for us).

The above doesn't seem to be reason enough for some kannaDigaru who have the money to buy sites, but who think it's a display of either (a) violence or (b) hatred to run in this ratrace and grab land. Such kannaDigaru are mistaken, as will presently be argued. But before that, I want to point out to a few more reasons why we should buy sites

• We feel most at home in our own hometowns. So it's logical for us to buy a site in our own hometown (the string "...before the tamilians buy" is not attached here).
  
• Slowly but surely, karnATaka is becoming increasingly prosperous and beMgaLUru increasingly choked, and there is no need for everybody to go to beMgaLUru for a job. This only means that we're going to see increasing need for us to settle down in places other than beMgaLUru. Before the prices soar, this is the right time to buy sites in our hometowns.

Reasons in the dharmagraMthagaLu

Some gRuhastha kannaDigaru have a more basic flaw in their understanding of gRuhasthAshrama, driven by which they claim, almost like a saMnyAsi that it's not correct to go behind property, acquire wealth, etc. The basic flaw in their understanding comes either from (a) sOmAritana or from (b) ignorance of one's own duties -- rather than from any deep understanding of the upanishattugaLu or the bhagavadgeete or any dharmagraMtha. All our dharmagraMthagaLu shout at the top of their voice that a gRuhastha must acquire as much wealth as possible. I shall quote two examples:

(1) taittirIyOpanishat:

tasmAdyayA kayA cha vidhayA bahvannaM kurveeta |

- Which means that the gRuhastha should obtain as much "anna" (which is nothing but wealth) as possible. The upanishat goes into detail as to why this is so.

(2) mahAbhArata:

UrdhvabAhurvirOmyEtannahi kaSchit shruNOti mAm |
dharmAdarthaScha kAmaScha sa kimarthaM na sEvyatE ||

- This is vEdavyAsa saying "I'm shouting at the top of my voice with my hands raised high, but nobody is listening to me! Why are you not enjoying kAma and artha which is obtained through dharma?". vEdavyAsa makes it very clear that kAma and artha (money, "anna", 60x40 sites!) should be enjoyed by the householder as long as they are obtained through rightful means (by not robbing, for instance).

Flawed understanding of the "freedom of choice"

Coming back to Amartya Sen...

Does Sen argue that the freedom of choice should be given to anybody and everybody? Does he argue that the child should be allowed to play with the knife because it lives in a democratic country?

Sen's theory of the freedom of choice presupposes the ability to make an informed choice, whatever that means. Now, how informed is informed? That I haven't seen Sen get into, so I will get into:

An informed choice is not the choice of a careful selfish individual. An informed choice is the choice of an individual acting for the good of all mankind. An informed choice is the choice of an individual who will not give up the cause of his brethren in favour of unsustainable individual gain.

This being the case, the public cannot be allowed to have what it asks for always - things like driving on the wrong side of the road, killing innocent people, inappropriate sums of money for trivial service rendered, and, among other things, to choose to give up kannaDa and kannaDa music and kannaDa movies and other things kannaDa.

If such stupid choices are made by the public because of the "freedom of choice", it will ultimately lead to its destruction. That destruction has to be prevented, even if it is at the cost of curtailing the freedom of choice.

The knife should be kept away from the child even if it weeps in consequence. The child which is playing with the knife and cries when it's taken away does not have the freedom of choice at all. If it had the choice and it knew that playing with it is harmful, it would exercise that choice and opt to not play. The right way to go ahead is to give the child the freedom of choice. How? The answer is education.

The child is the non-true-kannaDiga and the knife is his taking kannaDa lightly and embracing a different language. Even if the child cries, the knife has to be taken away from him.

So, to summarise:

Flawed understanding: Everybody should be allowed to decide what they want, irrespective of whether they're capable of making a decision or not. If anarchy ensues, nothing can be done about it.

Correct understanding: Everybody should be enabled to make the right decision by giving them education and empowering them, even if the process of education seems harsh on them. In this scenario, anarchy cannot ensue.

Radio Mirchi: what's in it for us?

By us I mean kannaDigas.

Radio Mirchi has started transmission a week or so ago. One good thing about the channel is the fact that the RJs speak mostly in kannaDa (atleast whenever I've tried to listen to it). But there stops the association of the channel with kannaDa. The music played is mostly hindi and english music.

The question is - what does that mean for karnaTaka and kannaDa?

It means the following:

1) When the govt announced that they're going to put up 4 (or was it 5?) FM channels for grabs, there was no true kannaDiga who had what it takes (whether it is the enterpreneurship or money or ability to bribe the bastards) to grab a channel. This is the first and foremost thing. This fact should not be forgotten, and corrective measures against this fact should not be neglected irrespective of the course of action in the wake of radio mirchi.

Note that I say "true" kannaDiga, since I don't know for a fact that the guy behind Mirchi in Bangalore is not a kannaDiga. It is not surprising if a kannaDiga boss has to plead with his bosses to scrape through with the paltry garnishing of kannaDa on the channel.

2) There was a non true-kannaDiga who took up the channel.

3) Market research in Bangalore actually shows that the real demand is for hindi and english music, not kannaDa music.

The right way to correct this situation is twofold:

1) Enable kannaDigas to be able to grab channels from now on. What this means is - good education, better exposure to the tricks of the trade, entrepreneural skills, etc. Make the kannaDiga want to start a kannaDa-only FM channel. Make kannaDa film music more popular. These form what can be called as the long-term solution.

2) In the short term, it's important to see to it that the long-term solution is not nullified and all attempts at a long term solution thwarted. This includes demanding Mirchi to play kannaDa music for atleast 50% of the time irrespective of what its market research shows. Why is this important? It's simply because if Mirchies take up 100% of the FM bandwidth, there will be no scope for kannaDa to shine. This is an interrelated thing: (a) if you let go of the fight to get Mirchi to play kannaDa, kannaDa music will not get enough encouragement and people's appreciation for it will be hijacked by other languages, and (b) if you fight Mirchi to play kannaDa, they will ask for enough audience. The channel creates the audience and the audience creates the channel. Hence, it's important to attack the problem from both sides.

IITs and the needy: the real way

Recognizing that education is its only saviour, Japan spent 41% of its budget on education immediately after the war. It didn't try to find out the "downtrodden", the dalitaru, hinduLidavaru, alpasaMkhyAtaru in its population and foolishly rush 'em to the universities. [And I have reason to believe that atleast 90% of the money allocated was actually spent on education]. And the effect of this prudent move is clearly visible in Japan today.

That's exactly what is needed in karnATaka today. We have to spend a lot more on our education system, clean it up from the very bottom and create avenues for higher education in kannaDa. Once this is done -- and it will take atleast two decades -- and only two decades if done correctly -- the IITs will voluntarily reserve seats for kannaDigas! And we'll have institutes better than the IITs all over karnATaka, teaching technical stuff in kannaDa itself.

The Siddharamaiahs of karnATaka doesn't recognize this fact at all; and as I said in my earlier blog, UR Ananthamurthy is making a big mistake by clapping hands for/with fools.

It's healthy that we're seeing statements about higher education in kannaDa from the minister for higher education, D H Shankaramurthy. But we've seen a similar statement from Dharam Singh. In fact, it was replete with details as like 25 people each for Civil and Mechanical Engg, etc etc. What happened to that? It just slipped out of the spotlight. What's pitiable is the fact that the public doesn't question such things at all. Why will they question, when they are themselves stuck with the feeling that technical education means "in english"?

U R Ananthamurthy - standing on the shoulders of corrupt fools

Unless UR Ananthamurthy is using Siddharamaiah and his band of illiterate, ignorant fools as pawns in a game we're dying to see, it can be concluded that the jnAnapeeTha awardee has gone nuts. It's embarassing and shameful to see him trying to fit into their fold. It's amazing that even with URA's presence, the party is making such stupid moves as to ask for reservation in IITs and IIMs!

I can only hope that reason dawns on URA. It's strange what time has turned URA into.

URA can do better than rub shoulders with Siddharamaiah, Ibrahim, VP Singh and Raj Babbar (incidentally we could hear Mr. VP Singh bark around in Hindi - a very familiar scene of Hindi imperialism making its way slowly into karnATaka -- something we've seen too much on TV). There's lot of real political talent in karnATaka which he can tap. If at all he is seeking a decent political career, he should start a kannaDapara pakSha on his own and get together a good think-tank of kannaDigas. URA, wake up!

shrI bhagavAnuvAcha --

yatatO hyapi kouMtEya puruShasya vipaSchitaH |
iMdriyANi pramAthIni haraMti prasabhaM manaH ||

Even the mind of a man who is trying [to escape from the grip of the iMdriyANi] is prone to getting hijacked by them. Then little wonder that UR Ananthamurthy's mind is getting hijacked by these corrupt fools masquerading as saviours of the downtrodden.

Seek the truth, URA, the truth is amara. The truth is infinitely strong. The truth is within you. Why seek it in the sound of the clapping hands of corrupt fools?

Britain's multiculturalism: lessons for Karnataka

Obviously this blog is also inspired by Sen's book.

In the book, Sen talks of how Britain has come "a long way" from its strong intolerance towards other cultures to now being a pretty decent multicultural nation. He does raise doubts that part of what seems multiculturism may actually be just plural monoculturism (with people of different cultures crossing each other like "ships in the night" without any real interaction).

In any case, Sen completely misses the point about language. He completely misses the fact that whatever multiculturism is seen in Britain is seen in a 100% English language environment. If immigrants decide to impose, say Punjabi or Urdu on Britain, go about painting roadsigns in that language, start flooding Britain with people from their home-countries in an uncontrolled fashion, we'd be seeing absolute opposition to any sort of multiculturism. The British would have booted out each and every person not respecting the English language.

Here is where a lesson lies for karnATaka and immigrants to karnATaka: Respect kannaDa and then go about using whatever religion you prize, whatever dress you wish to wear. Multiculturalism is okay in karnATaka. That is very healthy indeed. But if immigrants come to karnATaka with an imperialistic feeling of superiority over karnATaka and kannaDa, such bastards must be thrown out of karnATaka.

And we as kannaDigas must learn to be linguistically (and only linguistically) intolerant to imigrants. There is no question of giving kannaDa a second place. No Hindi, no Tamil, no nothing. kannaDa should reign supreme here. The idea of India is not against this claim at all. Fools claim that Hindi is the national language of India. That is bullshit. There is no article of the Indian Constitution which stakes such a claim.

Am I saying that the fact that the British "would not have tolerated a different language", is license for us not tolerating? No, that's not what I'm saying. The message I want to pass on is that the right way to build a multicultural environment is to first respect the most important ingredient, viz., language, of the most important culture which forms part of the "multiculture" idea - the language of the land immigration into which is being discussed, viz., kannaDa.

"Identity and Violence" by Amartya Sen and Karnataka

This book caught my attention and I picked it up almost immediately. A superficial whisk through the pages told me that I've finally found something readable from Sen (if you want something unreadable, try "On Ethics and Economics" by him). The central theme of "Identity and Violence" is the provable fact that humans necessarily possess multiple identities (like woman+vegetarian+hindu+...) and that trying to fix/impose/singularly focus on one and only one identity is the reason for violence in the world.

I'm taking up two important themes concerning the book and its application to karnATaka.

1. The real face of violence

There is no doubt that Sen's theory is correct, as is shown in the case of violence during the partition of India, which the book alludes to.

But what is to be doubted is whether Sen understands the real meaning of violence. This doubt cannot be answered by reading "Identity and Violence..."

Is killing a person X violence? That is not necessarily so. If it was violence to kill duryOdhana, kRuShNa must be dismissed as a violent person. Nay, violence is not violence which breeds non-violence. There is nothing wrong in planned and last-resort violence as long as it goes to protect the peace and calm of a larger people. It is not violent to kill the miscreants, the corrupt and the irrepairable adharmi. Indeed, such violence is the dharma of a kShatriya. Gandhi (for whose steadfastness in his own principes I admire him) was terribly mistaken in calling for a complete eradication of kShAtradharma. As one could imagine, in his gItAbhAShya he argues that kRuShNa never ever asks arjuna to kill. That is of course pure nonsense born out of irrepairable steadfastness in his pet principle. That his single-minded devotion (nay, singular identity) was good for the military zero that was India then is a different thing altogether.

Blind followers of so-called non-violence must be reminded of the fact that their very existence is contingent on "violence" performed by our army. Such must also read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

Coming back to the book, I agree with Sen that we must focus on alternate ways of knitting people together. Within Karnataka, for instance, a whole forest of violence-breeders exists. They're the champions of the so-called jAtyateeta political parties who act just opposite to jAtyateetate. They are the ones who breed jAtivAda. They end up imposing a violent identity on the clueless kannadiga, thereby breaking up karnATaka into pieces in the hope of being able to rule atleast one of the pieces. Bastards. O for the real kShatriya who will suppress these bastards!

The real way of knitting together karnATaka is through kannaDa. kannaDa is that identity which can be non-violently imposed on almost every kannaDiga. Fools will definitely oppose its imposition, but fools always oppose what's good for them. And if it comes to embracing violence to suppress those fools, it must be embraced by the true kShatriya for the true cause of the sarvAMgeeNa abhivRuddhi of karnATaka. If it comes to killing those fools who form 1-2% of karnATaka's janasaMkhye for the sake of the 98-99%, such a sacrifice is the purest form of ahiMse. Remember, it is not only the knife or gun that kills. Words and policies of the government also do.

2. Globalization and karnATaka

Sen handles the topic of globalization (jAgateekaraNa) with finesse. He shows that there's neither "nothing good at all" nor "nothing bad at all" about jAgateekaraNa. In short, he shows that the effects of jAgateekaraNa have to be measured using the following yardsticks:

1. Is jAgateekaraNa more inclusive or more exclusive? Meaning - does it help the majority of karnATaka get the benefits or does it help only a minority?
2. Even among the minority which enjoys the benefits of jAgateekaraNa, are they getting a fair deal?

So posing these questions to karnATaka, we see immediately that both the answers are negative. Indeed, as Sen argues, more kannaDigas are excluded from benefiting from globalization than included. And indeed, as pointed out in the book, the way to solve this problem is not to shoo away investors coming to your door, but to solve the problem internally in karnATaka. How? By making education better, for instance.

Although Sen doesn't point to the fact that the main engine of an education system is the medium of instruction, we can conclude that good education - and by education I mean not just primary but all education whatsoever - in kannaDa is crucial for karnATaka to reap the benefits of globalization.

jAgateekaraNa is not a bus we can afford to miss. But it's our job as kannaDigas to see to it that all our brethren can make it to the bus.

What? purOhita is not blogging in Kannada?

No sir, no madam, he's not. The reason is simple, though: there is no kannaDiga software engineer who has the requried number of gray-cells between his ears to enable Kannada on my Ubuntu Linux box. Being a non-software-engineer, I've tried my hand at

a) SCIM
b) IIIMF
c) ISIS

but nothing really works.

I shall write in English (with a generous usage of kannaDa) until the day I setup my Ubuntu box to display/input kannaDa decently. I seek help from whoever is ready to help.