Welcome !
No I am not referrring to that “club of tired and retired Bollywood have-beens” trying their hand at plagiarised Hollywood comedy of the Mob variety.
Well so welcome to what ?
Before we get to that in a little bit, here is a pop quiz.
How many years before a slur, bandied by the politically correct Punditry, becomes a cliche ?
Well about 80 years (The Congress had no intention of becoming a communal party and, in 1938, distanced itself from the League and the Hindu Mahasabha by branding both as communal organisations.)
It finally took until 2008 for the politically correct establishment to come up with a new catch phrase to package its intellectual apartheid for the 21st century.
So its goodbye cliched and discredited “Secular Communal” and Welcome to the “Inclusive” Exclusive Club.
From the Prime Minister to the Planning Commission, from the Left of Center mainstream media to Offstumped’s favorite but now estranged visitor without who’s comments no post was ever complete, if there is one thing in common it is about being exclusively “Inclusive”.
To join this club it is no longer sufficient to be merely politically correct but you now need to work harder to be seen to be “Inclusive” while being Politically Correct.
It is no longer good enough to have a 10.6% GDP growth, you need to now prove to the Punditry that you were ‘Inclusive” while clocking it.
It is no longer good enough to ensure the separation of Church and State, you need to now “Include Church and Mosque” while separating “Temple and State”.
It is no longer good enough to apply the Laws of the land unmindful of Religion, you need to now ”Include Equity by Religion” while applying the Law.
As a private citizen or community it was never good enough to be inspired by faith but now you need to be mindful of even publicly referring to your faith lest you be guilty of exclusion by non-”Inclusion”.
So here is Offstumped’s welcome to 2008 with a little something like at the Academy Awards
I am green, I am for world peace, I never voted for George Bush, and wait …….. oh my god who am I forgetting to thank here ….and to all those who I can no longer remember enough to love to not hate and hate to not love
You are the reason this blog exists, so dont feel excluded even if you are not always included
Yours exclusively Inclusive
Yossarin
Post Script: To all those curious on where Offstumped stands on the “secular communal” fault line the following posts articulate clearly
- Offstumped’s views on a Minimalist Secularism that sees no wrong in a public affirmation of faith
- a Flat World Hindutva and its role in Governance
- a common ground for the Center Right based on an ancient Indian but non-theocratic platform, the Shveta Chattra not the Bhagwa
- to finally revisit the Ideology versus Governance debate.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Yossarin,
I just want to add that its a real pleasure reading your blogs.
Keep up the good work, and if you care, a Happy new year (I dont really follow the christian calendar, I go by the Sankrantis and Baisakhis).
Bwahahahahaha!
Awesome. Mazaa aa gaya. Finally, a response that is not afraid to speak its name.
Inclusively Aagey bado yossarian,
hum exclusively tumhare saath hain…
Inclusively yours,
Sud
I think you should in the least have ignored the rants of your estranged visitor.
I believe that argument must be met with argument, logic with logic, reason with reason, abuse with abuse, labeling with labeling, and an attempt to shut me up with a counterattempt at shutting the other person up. If your values come in the way of doing the latter, ignore the provocateur.
Answering abuse with logic, for example, dignifies that abuse and makes it look legitimate in the eyes of others.
I can only infer one thing .
And that is :
You can call yourself a secular right’ist,
And you can call yourself an intellectual atheist,
You can call yourself anti-Hindutva,
And you can declare yourself to be made of some pro-Inclusive tattva,
You can selectively worship Indian Independence heroes,
And colour others by making them look like zeroes
You can even affiliate yourself with IM.in
But the moment you say, you are a follower of Hindu dharma, you are exclusively shown the way to the bin.
In the end if you really care,
Then you should make your self aware
Is “favourite but estranged visitor” codeword for trolls ?
Happy New Year, btw.
Yossarin,
I believe this is my first comment here–I maybe wrong. Great post! On the origins of Communalism, may I humbly submit what I wrote sometime ago?
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2007/03/24/communal-origins/
From that post, here’s something that might interest you:
Yossarin,
This is one of the best I have seen on your blog in my recent tryst with yours. The brief write up is succinct and leaves nothing to be added. However I would still like to say that prevarication and equivocation on “secularism/communalism’” has ensured that “Hindutva” remains condemned as another variation of many such fundamentalisms. The label of “communalism” pasted on it is enough in itself to merit any further scrutiny of the idea.
Thanks vikas, sandeep, ot, gaurav and everyone been busy at work will respond in detail in a couple of days.
Yos,
Two things.
1. Those claiming to save the dialogue by censoring the dialogue need to be exposed for the hypocrites they are.
2. Hindutva is not non-inclusive. Point needs to be hammered in. HIndutva isn’t asking for special privileges. It is asking to be treated equal to the privileged positions the minority faiths enjoy in this country. Hindutva by nature is a movement against discrimination.
[...] gauntlet to define the debate on clear terms. Offstumped carried the debate further with posts on inclusivity and national interest. Sandeep added his perspective on the [...]