Rolling South Asia News Thread

kingfish has been posting some good Mark Fenster quotes on FB(from Fenster's 2010 book on conspiracy theory), and this comes to mind:

‘By definition, conspiracy theory perceives itself to be continually dominated and manipulated by its more powerful conspira- torial adversary. This holds true even when conspiracy theorists have amassed enormous resources or the power of the state—even then, the conspiracy is always on the verge of complete victory. Thus, in govern- ment regimes based on the fear of a secret group, such as the Third Reich and the U.S. Congress in the throes of McCarthyism, the fear of a Jewish or communist conspiracy was based on the fear of a group con- sidered more powerful than the nation in peril. In contemporary liberal democracies, individual conspiracies may be exposed and condemned by society on a regular basis (for example, Watergate, Iran–Contra). By contrast, conspiracy theory as a totalizing phenomenon, as a whole way of life, continually finds itself frustrated by its inability to persuade and affect the political order.‘

I think that initial tweet was a follow up to a tweet about the protests. All these tropes have been in the air for quite a long time but there seems to be less pushback now and the state of political discourse on Indian social media seems as bad as anywhere

I liked how there was a lot of heated debate over Priyanka Chopra's tweet on kashmir

Awful: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49382682

Yes.

And so is this you can see where it's going:

How casually Hindu extremists in India call for ethnic cleansing of Muslims at a BJP rally. pic.twitter.com/0YztEo9znM

— Ashar Jawad (@AsharJawad) August 18, 2019

Depressing, to say the least. It very much confirms what ShariVari posted upthread.

Then again, fascism is invariably obsessed with fertility rates and reproductive behaviour.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/30/nightmarish-mess-millions-assam-brace-for-loss-of-citizenship-india

The Hindu nationalist-led government of Narendra Modi, which supports the project in Assam, has pledged to roll the process out across the country. The home minister, Amit Shah, has previously promised to deport immigrants, describing them as “termites”.

The BJP-led Assam state also plans to build an additional 10 detention camps to house those declared to be migrants.

I hadn't realized the BJP planned to do this outside of Assam, though it's obvious in retrospect. The prospect of both China and India detaining Muslims in camps en masse (not to mention what the US is doing) is making my blood run cold the way it usually does only when reading climate change reports

Jesus. I guess they were waiting to win a second term before they went all in?

The most honest man in the BJP. pic.twitter.com/6Q4D43uo0d

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 21, 2019

seem to have been a lot of concerns about the companies who make and maintain the electronic voting machines

I've never known what problem electronic voting machines are supposed to solve, what advantage they provide over simple paper ballots.

there is none, the machines are specifically made & designed for voter fraud imo

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/world/asia/india-muslims-citizenship-narendra-modi.html

Mr. Modi’s fellow lawmakers in the B.J.P. are unapologetic about their pro-Hindu position.

“There are Muslim countries, there are Jew countries, everybody has their own identity. And we are a billion-plus, right? We must have one identity,” said Ravi Kishan, a famous action-film hero and member of Parliament who is a central supporter of the citizenship legislation.

Lok Sabha passes Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. 311 votes in favour of the bill and 80 against it. Live updates here: https://t.co/Onl48CsBEJ pic.twitter.com/PISAtnjhHy

— Times of India (@timesofindia) December 9, 2019

Have to admit that I've been avoiding reading about this stuff because it feels like too much to process emotionally which, yeah, is privileged etc. Will get to it all in one go soon.

Similar thing with Brexit and the UK:

“The economy is in tatters,” said Aman Wadud, a human rights lawyer in Assam. The bill, he said, was “the only issue left to polarize the country and distract people.”

As there are less returns to be had from Capital hate against the minority...

The same playbook in Brazil, the US, much of Europe.

Mass protests happening in India, centred around universities, against the new citizenship law. Meeting heavy repression from police with tear (and possibly worse) gas and (possibly live) ammunition.

— libcom dot org (@libcomorg) December 15, 2019

Jesus

https://amp.scroll.in/article/947545/in-assam-an-adivasi-man-burned-to-death-last-week-as-caa-protestors-targetted-shops-of-outsiders?

The mob on a rampage against all

A BJP minister reminding Muslims of the Gujarat genocide. "The majority here is capable of repeating it" https://t.co/wSspBFMYjK

— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) December 20, 2019

Stuff like this reinforces the obscenity of idiots like Ian Bremner who backed Modi as an ‘economic reformer’ currently churning out articles about how disappointed they are in his far-right turn. Apparently overseeing one pogrom killing 2000 people while governor wasn’t enough to tip them off that he might be a wrong ‘un.

No words

In UP, Muslims have been picked up en masse from all over,thrashed, their homes barged into, properties confiscated & met with live fire on streets. And no one will be prosecuted because it is being done by the State. UP is already Hindu Rashtra. A thread on chilling reports(1/n)

— Asim Ali (@AsimAli6) December 26, 2019

Thanks for sharing that. It's horrible. Could this be as bad as the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms?

Kerala becomes the first state in India to pass a resolution against CAA in legislative assembly. All members except the lone sanghi there voted in favour. Another proud Malayali moment :)#IndiaDoesNotSupportCAA pic.twitter.com/cJpUdRGpAl

— Sankar Das (@mallucomrade) December 31, 2019

Good for Kerala, although I hope this spreads wider than a tiny state.

Doubt it but I am going to taking any glimmer of hope.

Good news (I think):

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/india-modi-ruling-party-poised-to-lose-delhi-election-after-polarising-campaign

Pogroms taking place in Delhi..

Mobs using data to work out who to target:

Wow! What fantastic use of technology. Using an app, rioters identified vehicles belonging to the Muslims and then burnt them down.#DelhiRiots #DelhiBurning #delhivoilence pic.twitter.com/21CG5g7zan

— Chaai Wala (@Chaai_Wala) February 26, 2020

Absolutely not an unforeseeable/ unforeseen consequence of the government-level move to ensure everyone is trackable online and irl.

fuck this is horrible

Horrifying

xp

Over 200 million Muslims call India home. Widespread anti-Muslim mob violence has killed at least 27 and injured many more. Trump responds by saying, "That's up to India." This is a failure of leadership on human rights.https://t.co/tUX713Bz9Y

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 26, 2020

so incredibly grim

It’s grotesque and the coverage is almost universally lying about it too.

Soul-crushingly depressing, but I can't say I'm surprised, what with a fucking firestarter at the top.

Hard to even read: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/01/india-delhi-after-hindu-mob-riot-religious-hatred-nationalists

following events through arts/food/politics-related indian twitter is strange/bathetic/poignant, ppl talking about how to gently persuade modi-sympathising relatives, very dark humour, outrage with centrist platitudes... when the stakes are raised the discourse still follows the same rules. makes this piece about the media and discourse around the 2002 gujurat violence and rwanda in the 90s very interesting imo

https://thepolisproject.com/journalism-as-genocide/#.Xl4cL6j7SCo

lots of reports of dalits being attacked as well, par for the course I suppose

There's a strong anti-leftist / anticommunist element to this as well. RSS types are obsessed with the idea of 'urban Naxalites' undermining the country.

Waiting for the first cricket team to refuse to play India. You'd have thought New Zealand would have, if anyone. Maybe today at the WWC?

Tomorrow even

A cousin linked me this to correct the misinformation I have apparently been exposed to from the MSM. It certainly provides an, um, alternative perspective: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=140303730563256

Really alarming situation described here for vast numbers of people who are stranded under the sudden lockdown, with reports of widespread police violence: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/26/amitav_ghosh_india_coronavirus_lockdown

With this and his Kashmir actions I believe Modi's solidly in the lead and pulling away from the field as the most horrible authoritarian elected president right now. When you consider the field includes Duterte and Bolsinaro, that's quite an achievement.

leading the vanguard of never-letting-a-crisis-go-to-waste, uttar pradesh suspends almost all labour laws for 3 years to spur investment https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/up-govt-to-exempt-businesses-from-all-but-three-labour-laws-for-3-years-120050701531_1.html

Tesla should move it's factory over there

Haven't brought myself to read the last story yet but this story seems to put the rest of the world to shame: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/the-coronavirus-slayer-how-keralas-rock-star-health-minister-helped-save-it-from-covid-19

It's fantastic! I posted that on the UK pols thread

Yeah, I thought of putting it on Canadian politics, esp as Kerala has basically the same population size as Canada (and is more dense). Our handling of this doesn't seem as satisfactory anymore.