This is the last post in this 3-post series ; read the previous one . Sidenote: I argued in the previous post how urban slums arose as a result of "cultural pollution" by the imperial powers who attempted reengineering the socio-demographics of Indian cities and villages. I must clarify that I do not blame the continuance of these slums on imperialism - I am merely trying to identify the root causes in an attempt to better understand these phenomena and hence lead a way towards solving them.  Presented next is another example of how cultural pollution has created a problem for the modern world. Most political systems in the world which developed without any interference from outside developed through a natural cycle of tribal / feudal set ups to monarchial / semi-monarchial setups to parliamentary or councilor (community based) democratic systems. This is true of ancient democracies as well as modern. After the end of imperialism / colonialism, most of the world underwent dem

... continued from here . Taking India as the case in point - how did slums in Indian cities come about?  When the British marched into India they were unaware to the way villages functioned in India. This was because by the 18th century Industrialization had kicked in Britain and the city was the center of development - unlike India where villages played a big role in polity and economy - especially due to a strong self regulation and governance system.  In Britian due to the fast industrializing society, the city was where the seat of the kingdom lay and which controlled governing structures. In contrast, cities in India were mere 'centres of trade' meant to facilitate trade between the several villages which surrounded it. In absence of this understanding – the British  assumed  (mistakenly) that India lacked cities and so it lacked development. So what did they do – they killed the village’s internal economy by forcing cash crops like Indigo and Cotton which were completel

There is an episode in Star Treck [The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode Number 52 ] where a team of Federation sociologists are accidentally exposed to a primitive race (Mintakans). When an injured and unconscious Mintakan is taken aboard the Enterprise (star ship) for medical attention and is healed by the advanced medical methods on the starship. While coming to consciouness he catches a glimpse of Captain Picard, and so on his return to his people (as he narrates his story) Mintakans begin to perceive Captain Picard as a God. The episode makes a fascinating commentary on primitive sociology and acquired monotheism. But the more interesting part is Captain Picard's take on "Cultural Pollution". According to star trek’s lingo – cultural pollution refers to the effect a more developed society can have on a lesser developed one by not allowing the natural course of cultural evolution and exposing the lesser developed species to ‘development’ and ‘innovation’ out of their

This is not a review - I haven't seen the movie yet and probably won't ever. But given the brouhaha in the media about the movie, I know enough about the plot and the 'artistic appeal' of the movie, to write a blog post on it - or so I think :-P.  I am not one of those nationalists who feel offended because it shows slums, niether am I against realism. About the much touted scene where the protagonist, Jamal "jumps into a pile of shit just so he can run and get an autograph of his beloved Amitabhji" [ link ], I agree with MF Hussain (quoted from HT Cafe) when he says that it depicts our lives metaphorically that while our lives are draped in shit, we escape from reality through movies (ala entertainment, ala glamour). And reality must be shown - I regard Black Friday as one of the best movies ever seen. And why should we shy away form the fact that India has slums - well I would rather say proudly that we are ready to march ahead inspite of slums and in due c

Corporate India and Changing Face of Terrorism KPMG in India conducted a survey with over 60 companies in India, with the objective of assessing their level of preparedness in the wake of this emerging threat of terrorism. These organizations were from various sectors and the majority of them had an annual turnover of over USD 150 million. You can check out many other Thought Leadership publications by KPMG-India on our website http://in.kpmg.com/archives/archives.asp In case you need any other inputs or have feedback, feel free to leave a comment on my blog and I will get back to you. Download Report (946 KB) Privacy & Disclaimer © 2009 KPMG, an Indian Partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International, a Swiss cooperative. All rights reserved.

After I bought my car, one of the first things which was fixed in the interior of my car as a decorative was a Ganesh Idol - that was gifted to me by my dealer itself. The next thing which I wanted to buy was the Indian flag - I finally bought it when we visited the Wagah border. After I had put up the flag in my car, I started noticing the interiors of other cars on the road, and found that almost 80% of cars had similar Indian flags in their cars. Then yesterday (which was Republic Day), I found that even auto-rickshaws had flags pinned up inside. This led me into thinking as to whether this "flag thing" indicates that we Indians are a patriotic lot and whether after 60 years of independence, we have shrugged our apathy towards the nation and started taking pride in being Indians. Well ... I really can't say. To the skeptic, this could as well be because car accessory stores have flags as a decorative or say hawkers coax you into buying these at traffic signals, and fin

Link to Part I of this series    The character of an undivided India was a weak one - the leadership composed of Gandhi-Nehru-Jinnah took a decision to divide the country on religious lines [ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ]: On 3 June 1947, he (Lord Moutbatten) presented his plan [to partition India into India and Pakistan] to Nehru and Jinnah. They both accepted it. Gandhi, was fearful about partition but even more fearful of civil war. The AICC adopted the resolution in June, 1947. Nehru served on the Partition Council that finalized the separation of government institutions and provincial resources between the two new dominions. However, the leadership of Independent India composed of Nehru - Menon - Patel had a different character. When faced by a situation similar to partition because of reluctance of princely states to integrate their domains into independent India - the trio adopted a cunning, pragmatic yet bold and steadfast stance.  In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state

The world has just witnessed a celebration of sorts on Obama's swearing in as the 44th President of America. What needs to be seen is how fast Obama delivers on the promise that - " the chalenges will be met ". Whether the United States of America meets the current challenges is to be seen, but this nation has always shown a character of unity and resoluteness. One realizes this on comparing how this nation faced situations against similar situations faced by other nations. The point in case I take here is the situation of imminent partition .  In 1860s, the United States found itself divided into two halves on the issue of salvery. Just as president Abraham Lincoln was being sworn in as the 16th president - seven Deep South cotton states South Carolina, Mississippi,Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas announced secession from the US to form the  Confederate States of America . America had two choices to make at this point of time - allow America to be divided

I wrote this text circa January 2003, when I had read the book - " Who Moved My Cheese ". The text compared the Gita to the principles set in the book. I recently read a book – ‘Who moved my cheese?’ by Dr. John Spencer. It is basically a story of 4 characters -2 mice and 2 ‘little-people’. All four are fond of cheese. Once they discover a large store of cheese but after some time the store exhausts. The mice driven by living instinct move in search of new cheese while ‘little-people’ , unable to accept change were reluctant to move from the old cheese store. Finally one of them moves out in search of cheese and finds a new store of cheese and in the process of finding new cheese he discloses some rules which are Golden rules for managers to deal with change. What startled to me was the close the resemblance these rules have with the message of the Gita. I present here a brief description of those rules and there equivalent verses from the Gita. 1. Having Cheese makes you ha

An event happened with me a couple of days back which left me wondering about the levels to which value of human life has fallen in India.  I, Somnath and Anoop were returning from a walk at about 8.30 PM last Saturday. Two people passed us riding on a bike - but when we were right in front of Hiranandani Hosptial , the person riding pillion suddenly started falling down.  The other guy stopped the bike, some other passersby helped the pillion get down only to realise that he was undergoing an Epileptic Seizure . All passerby stopped and as usual started giving their suggestions - usko chamde ki chappal sunghao ... Pyaaz le ke aao (Give him a leather footwear to smell, find a onion). But no one was volunteering to even pick the poor guy lying on the road. We feeling a little responsible, decided that the best course was to seek professional help and since we were right in front of HN hospital - we went in and informed the staff on duty about the incident. We were expecting a stretcher