With elections beginning tomorrow in “the world’s largest democracy” (by population) I think it’s a good idea for Americans to increase their awareness of what has been going on in India for the past 20 years as a Theocratic/Fascist state has been assembled by the party responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. This is important because it seems to “fly under the radar” here.
All is not at all rosy in Modi's India.....there are some dark clouds on the horizon.....from Foreign Affairs:
The rampant environmental degradation across the country further threatens the sustainability of economic growth. Even in the absence of climate change, India would be an environmental disaster zone. Its cities have the highest rates of air pollution in the world. Many of its rivers are ecologically dead, killed by untreated industrial effluents and domestic sewage. Its underground aquifers are depleting rapidly. Much of its soil is contaminated with chemicals. Its forests are despoiled and in the process of becoming much less biodiverse, thanks to invasive nonnative weeds.
This degradation has been enabled by an antiquated economic ideology that adheres to the mistaken belief that only rich countries need to behave responsibly toward nature. India, it is said, is too poor to be green. In fact, countries such as India, with their higher population densities and more fragile tropical ecologies, need to care as much, or more, about how to use natural resources wisely. But regimes led by both the Congress and the BJP have granted a free license to coal and petroleum extraction and other polluting industries. No government has so actively promoted destructive practices as Modi’s. It has eased environmental clearances for polluting industries and watered down various regulations. The environmental scholar Rohan D’ Souza has written that by 2018, “the slash and burn attitude of gutting and weakening existing environmental institutions, laws, and norms was extended to forests, coasts, wildlife, air, and even waste management.” When Modi came to power in 2014, India ranked 155 out of 178 countries assessed by the Environmental Performance Index, which estimates the sustainability of a country’s development in terms of the state of its air, water, soils, natural habitats, and so on. By 2022, India ranked last, 180 out of 180.
It’s a conundrum no doubt. We all hate the idea that a democracy can be subverted to such ends. But we may have no alternative to aligning ourselves with a theocratic fascist regime. For now India and China are opposed to one another. But if China wakes up to the reality of an authoritarian regime in India, and voluntarily gives up a little inaccessible territory on the border between the two nations, those two nations could easily find common cause against the liberal West. And then watch out.
Ahhh, what power we humans have when we can exclude. It's a power we all have, which is why we keep exercising it, I suppose. And it starts early in life when we can keep a kid off our team because he's a lousy player, can't afford a uniform, or smells funny. Sadly, most of mankind seems all too happy to remain at this pre-adolescent plateau of human evolution because it's an easy place to be with no real striving or adapting required. Religions seem to nurture the exclusionary mindset rather than encourage mankind to transcend it. (Look at our own right wingers yowling insistently that America is a Christian nation.) And take another look at that joyless place called the Middle East where Shia, Sunnis, Jews and Christians can't unclench their fists.) Modi is doing the easy thing, excluding, which will only perpetuate tensions within India and with other governments. We are not an evolved species.
Thank you for this TC. I have many friends in the Indian community here, Both Hindi and Muslim. In the field of my last occupation consultant for the implementation of computer programs in social services, I frequently worked with majority Indian, a few Pakistani, and Iraqi. So I was aware when Modi took over. Nothing seems as overwhelming as religious infighting which is why I so love the first Amendment. As an atheist, I try to stay clear of religious discussions. But Modi is clearly out of control. It is odd that religion and authoritarianism in all it's many apparitions seem like the many headed hydra.
Religion continues to be the driver for oppression and anti-democratic efforts all over our beautiful earth. Sounds like the Modi crowd have been implementing a long-term plan like our repubs have. Seems every religion (and cult) has their missionaries who aren’t happy to just practice their religion, but to force it upon as many as they can. Just another power play. Why are religious people not happy to just do their own thing. POWER. Send those missionaries, convert or die. Yep, evil on steroids. Glad to know this. We fight, but we must know first.
This reads like the Republicans/Christian Nationalists wet dream for the United States. We need to fight them with everything we have.
All is not at all rosy in Modi's India.....there are some dark clouds on the horizon.....from Foreign Affairs:
The rampant environmental degradation across the country further threatens the sustainability of economic growth. Even in the absence of climate change, India would be an environmental disaster zone. Its cities have the highest rates of air pollution in the world. Many of its rivers are ecologically dead, killed by untreated industrial effluents and domestic sewage. Its underground aquifers are depleting rapidly. Much of its soil is contaminated with chemicals. Its forests are despoiled and in the process of becoming much less biodiverse, thanks to invasive nonnative weeds.
This degradation has been enabled by an antiquated economic ideology that adheres to the mistaken belief that only rich countries need to behave responsibly toward nature. India, it is said, is too poor to be green. In fact, countries such as India, with their higher population densities and more fragile tropical ecologies, need to care as much, or more, about how to use natural resources wisely. But regimes led by both the Congress and the BJP have granted a free license to coal and petroleum extraction and other polluting industries. No government has so actively promoted destructive practices as Modi’s. It has eased environmental clearances for polluting industries and watered down various regulations. The environmental scholar Rohan D’ Souza has written that by 2018, “the slash and burn attitude of gutting and weakening existing environmental institutions, laws, and norms was extended to forests, coasts, wildlife, air, and even waste management.” When Modi came to power in 2014, India ranked 155 out of 178 countries assessed by the Environmental Performance Index, which estimates the sustainability of a country’s development in terms of the state of its air, water, soils, natural habitats, and so on. By 2022, India ranked last, 180 out of 180.
It’s a conundrum no doubt. We all hate the idea that a democracy can be subverted to such ends. But we may have no alternative to aligning ourselves with a theocratic fascist regime. For now India and China are opposed to one another. But if China wakes up to the reality of an authoritarian regime in India, and voluntarily gives up a little inaccessible territory on the border between the two nations, those two nations could easily find common cause against the liberal West. And then watch out.
Ahhh, what power we humans have when we can exclude. It's a power we all have, which is why we keep exercising it, I suppose. And it starts early in life when we can keep a kid off our team because he's a lousy player, can't afford a uniform, or smells funny. Sadly, most of mankind seems all too happy to remain at this pre-adolescent plateau of human evolution because it's an easy place to be with no real striving or adapting required. Religions seem to nurture the exclusionary mindset rather than encourage mankind to transcend it. (Look at our own right wingers yowling insistently that America is a Christian nation.) And take another look at that joyless place called the Middle East where Shia, Sunnis, Jews and Christians can't unclench their fists.) Modi is doing the easy thing, excluding, which will only perpetuate tensions within India and with other governments. We are not an evolved species.
Thank you for this TC. I have many friends in the Indian community here, Both Hindi and Muslim. In the field of my last occupation consultant for the implementation of computer programs in social services, I frequently worked with majority Indian, a few Pakistani, and Iraqi. So I was aware when Modi took over. Nothing seems as overwhelming as religious infighting which is why I so love the first Amendment. As an atheist, I try to stay clear of religious discussions. But Modi is clearly out of control. It is odd that religion and authoritarianism in all it's many apparitions seem like the many headed hydra.
Messianic religious states will be our downfall.
Just what the world needs: another country fully enforcing My Way is the Only True Way.
India has basically been a
hotbed of a hot mess, since
the Rajas, going back well
over 200 yrs ago. The Brits
certainly didn't help.
At one point, Afghanistan was
in the mix - The Khyber Pass
slaughter of British and
Indian. That was Russia in
the mix. You can generally
find Russia in the mix of all
instability today.
Isn't China involved in their
Belt and Road initiative there
now? I know there's been a
lot of physical unrest on the
Northern border/China.
I've seen reports of India
being a democracy. I don't
buy that. Especially with Modi
rising.
Religion continues to be the driver for oppression and anti-democratic efforts all over our beautiful earth. Sounds like the Modi crowd have been implementing a long-term plan like our repubs have. Seems every religion (and cult) has their missionaries who aren’t happy to just practice their religion, but to force it upon as many as they can. Just another power play. Why are religious people not happy to just do their own thing. POWER. Send those missionaries, convert or die. Yep, evil on steroids. Glad to know this. We fight, but we must know first.