the nation- stateI have been following the two countries and their fast down-slide aided first by the US and then internal obscurantist forces over decades.
To sum up, in the 19th century, there was a tussle beween the British empire and the Russian empire to control Afghanistan. This was called The Great Game - note the colonial arrogance - in 'game', afterall no white lives were at stake.British suffered three humiliating defeats and retreated.
In the 20th century, Russia burnt its fingers upto knuckles in trying to control Afghanistan. To counter Russia, and limit communism [god knows WHY!! as that system was equally brutal as capitalism], America created the Frankenstein of Taliban and , in turn Osama-bin Laden who are now America's nemesis. Russians beat a humiliated retreat as Britishers did a hundred years ago, and now the americans are heading there fast, notwithstanding the messiah Obama.
Literally billions of dollars continue to be pumped in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and both the countries breed only misogynist, medieval psychopaths bent on annihilation.Plus Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
My own reading of the situation is - it is the concept and reality of nation-state which is the root cause. Moment you have these geographical artificial entities 'Afghanistan', Pakistan', India, Iran... human mind grabs it as territory and the chaos of lawlessness descends under the name of law and order.
I am no dreamer of 'all humans being angels' but practically, this demarcation in nation-states, breeds self-righteous monsters on the hand - whether under the name of George Bush the Second or Tony Blair or Putin...
[I am keen to know your thought on this issue, Thanks]
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I agree that artificially created "states" create problems.
Best example for that is africa, where white people came and split the continent in seemingly random squares, ignoring all "natural borders" like tribal territory, rivers or mountains.
I would be really interested to read your article once it is finished, maybe you can give me a link or something.
good luck.
sure , once wrtten, I'll post a summary translation in English here. [Original will be in a regional Indian language]
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ckp
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from where in india are you actually?
i lived in tamil nadu for 2 1/2 years as a child.
I am from Pune, in Maharashtra, a city south of Bombay [Mumbai now!]
But I live in Scotland.
This article is for a magazine published from Pune, in marathi, the local language.
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ckp
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sadly i never learned tamil, i only know 4 or 5 words, i was busy learing english when i was there
First time I am meeting someone who has lived there.
By the way, I have almost finished with the article and should be posting it here in a couple of days.
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the reason why we didn't stay so long there, was because we made some "bad experiences" with the people, like that the whole thing consists mainly of greedy "white people" wanting to have a good life for little money and letting tamil people work for them for almost no money...
of course there are also other people there, people who actually try to live this dream of sri aurobindo and "the mother", some kind of world of peace and tolerance and all that.
but mainly i think that tamil people are treated as some kind of "second class" citiziens there and they are not all that welcome, the indian people are mainly from north and with light skin and all...i don't know how much changed, after all that was already 15 years ago, that i was there, but i don't know, it just all seems a bit fake to me.
Their burial place [they were buried, as you must know, being sanyasi, not cremated, the hindu custom] is in Pondi proper. There I had a bad experience last time. It is all controlled by Bengalis, the region where Aurobindo came from. And these caretakers think no end of themselves!
His writings are very obscure to follow. I tried and gave up after first or second volume.
As to the aroville, last I was there was may be 5-6 years back. They have a big crystal in a meditation temple now.That was sort of tourist attraction. Other than that we didn't have any peep in the village itself.
But what you tell, I have heard similar stories about Rajneesh ashram in Pune too. Indians are treated as rubbish! Though WHY the Indians flock there instead of cleaning our own act always is a puzzle to me. There is so much do be done in our country, sheer materially...anyway, sorry I am going on and on!!
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ckp
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some people seem not to have realized yet, that india isn't a colony anymore, i suppose...it is kinda outrageous i think, not to be welcome in your own country and all.
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