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Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

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Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#151
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is arguably faithfully following the US here, because Modi's populism has more than a few parallels to Trump.

Given the timelines involved, I'd say it's more likely that not that Modi is following in the footsteps of Xi Jinping. In fact most of Asia is in the hands of some kind of ethno-nationalist leader, from Duterte in the Phillipines to Suga in Japan, Xi in China or Jae-In in S. Korea. Modi is not really exceptional when viewed on the scale of other asian leaders. But Asia has always had a much more ethno-nationalist ben…

Wait, do you really think president Moon of S. Korea is ethno-nationalist of all things? You have no idea what you're talking about - he's just your run-of-the-mill liberal.

You really need to be careful generalizing the whole Asia region to fit your narrative. S. Korea was already a bit culturally ethno-nationalist not because of reasons like 'racism' or something like Western populist politics, but because of the more complex history of being colonized and almost assimilated by Japan. And diplomatically S. Korea's has always been pro-US for pragmatic reasons (military protection) and would probably stay that way for some time. (That doesn't mean there isn't any anti-US sentiment among citizens, it's just that it hasn't been materialized into anything significant in actual global relations.)

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#152
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of myths have been built around Buddha or Ashoka, in the recent years to fit politics. Buddha considered himself very much a Hindu.

As for the new narrative being heavily pushed these days that the caste system is a remnant of British colonial times, a few words from an Untouchable girl can correct it - written in the year 1855. From the essay: Earlier, Gokhale, Apate, Trimkaji, Andhala, Pansara, Kale, Behre, etc [all Brahman surnames], who showed their bravery by killing rats in their homes, persecuted us, not sparing even pregnant women, withou…

Atrocity literate was quite convenient both for the colonizers as well as for the church.

We have a cottage industry even today that churns out fake attacks on Christians to justify interference or bullying by western countries.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If India is not declared a Hindu state, there is a good chance that it becomes an Islamic state. Like Pakistan, one denomination will start killing another, it will become a hellhole, like much of west Asia.

The root issue is that there are entities that profit (mostly in retaining their relevance/power) when two group of people are pitched against one another. Because such entities can proclaim themselves to be the protectors of the group that is the majority from the other group that could be a minority group. So you have to understand that once all Muslims are driven out, such entities will pitch two classes within Hi…

We do not have conflicts with other groups.

I am not so convinced that there is no fault with Islam considering history as well as the neighborhood.

It takes a lot of self loath and stupidity to buy into this argument mostly made by young or ignorant leftists.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The root issue is that there are entities that profit (mostly in retaining their relevance/power) when two group of people are pitched against one another. Because such entities can proclaim themselves to be the protectors of the group that is the majority from the other group that could be a minority group. So you have to understand that once all Muslims are driven out, such entities will pitch two classes within Hi…

We do not have conflicts with other groups. I am not so convinced that there is no fault with Islam considering history as well as the neighborhood. It takes a lot of self loath and stupidity to buy into this argument mostly made by young or ignorant leftists.

> We do not have conflicts with other groups.

Well, there's that whole bovine liberation moo'vement, that has sometimes turned violent.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#155
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we stop with all this IT cell bullshit? Modi got in because he was more competent than the rajputra of the Nehru dynasty. My family are from Gujarat. We’ve known about Modi since he was governor. We moved out of our ancestral village several generations ago but still return on special occasions because our kuladevi is there. The area is semi-desert. Modi got water from the Narmada dam piped in. Now cash crops can…

he is popular because of the propaganda, by that logic hitler was also very popular. You are cherry picking data to suit your needs. Two examples at personal level do not balance the screw ups he has done at the national level. You are speaking as if no development work was done during earlier regimes. All the development started only after 2014. Stats speak another story about the development but then that is not wh…

Uh Hitler was very popular. (To be precise he was more popular than the other guys.). The problem people have with Hitler isn’t that he was unpopular.

Really the amount of projection in some of these replies is incredible. All I’ve done is explain why one group of people have warm feelings for Modi (and FYI no development work was done in that area by prior Congress or BJP governments.) I’ve even acknowledged that he has made serious missteps. But as in parts of the US, in parts of India ORANGE MAN BAD is the only acceptable response it seems. Just a different shade of orange that’s all ;-)

> At this stage anyone, literally anyone, would be better than him.

If you say so. In the real world there actually has to be a person. That person has to actually have a platform, preferably something more than HES HITLER YOU GUYZ, and has to appeal to a vast an diverse electorate who will be driven primarily by parochial concerns. That’s how democracy works.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#156
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As for the new narrative being heavily pushed these days that the caste system is a remnant of British colonial times, a few words from an Untouchable girl can correct it - written in the year 1855. From the essay: Earlier, Gokhale, Apate, Trimkaji, Andhala, Pansara, Kale, Behre, etc [all Brahman surnames], who showed their bravery by killing rats in their homes, persecuted us, not sparing even pregnant women, withou…

Atrocity literate was quite convenient both for the colonizers as well as for the church. We have a cottage industry even today that churns out fake attacks on Christians to justify interference or bullying by western countries.

Imagine having a mind that is so saturated with hatred and propaganda that a young girl's cry of despair from 1855, protesting against centuries upon centuries of oppression and brutality, is blithely discarded as 'atrocity literature'. For all the warbling about 'dharmic' culture, basic humanity and a desire to develop an inner yardstick for truth is utterly missing from your absurd screeds.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He is openly racist and hates Muslims Indian Muslims are the same race as Hindus. I distrust Islam just like the vast majority of the world. Muslims are victims of Islam, especially Indian Muslims because it was never their choice. There isn't a single muslim country to the west of India that has any minority rights. An overwhelming 87% of Indian Muslim voted for the Muslim league and hence the creation of Pakistan…

I like how you have stated your beliefs simply and clearly. Let's not pretend that your vote for modi is based on some car factory. Also, for your future reference. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_secularism#Secular...

I don't agree with any of the posters in this thread advocating that India become a Hindu state.

But your viewpoint is also troubling for me. Do you not think there is an undercurrent of theocracy in Islam? Do you think that there is nothing wrong with the countries in that list? India is still far more diverse, liberal, accepting than any of those countries. You can't simultaneously think that India is horrible for minorities but these muslim majority countries are not.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like your confidence. Are you citing Islamic states as a form of what-aboutism or as a template for inspiration?

If India is not declared a Hindu state, there is a good chance that it becomes an Islamic state. Like Pakistan, one denomination will start killing another, it will become a hellhole, like much of west Asia.

India has been a secular state for 70 years, and it is not becoming Islamic. We can stay secular or become a Hindu theocratic state. Becoming an Islamic theocratic state is not at all a possibility.

If you really think there's a chance, i am willing to bet on it. Free money for me.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather see the culture that gave us the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas, Upanishads, Algebra and many more outstanding creations have it's own way of doing capitalism, or whatever the heck they end up with, than having a another copy of the US, with more curry and funny accents. This new Americanism seems like the cultural incarnation of entropy, whose sole purpose is desertify culture itself.

That culture has been long gone for thousands of years. The current culture of anti-intellectualism, pseudo-nationalism and hatemongering will not take India to any forefront of world leadership. The sooner we Indians stop living in the past and live in the present - and work for our future, the better.

Most people fail to realize this. The culture that had Ashoka as an Emperor, hosted Buddha in its soil, made breakthroughs in Mathematics and astronomy is long gone and disrupted. The condition of ower caste people were always horrible, and women were always oppressed.

But that society was also open to sex, gender identities, open, free-flowing debate, LGBTQ, alcohol, etc. that are now carnal sins in modern Hindu narrative.

What is gone is gone.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#160
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we stop with all this IT cell bullshit? Modi got in because he was more competent than the rajputra of the Nehru dynasty. My family are from Gujarat. We’ve known about Modi since he was governor. We moved out of our ancestral village several generations ago but still return on special occasions because our kuladevi is there. The area is semi-desert. Modi got water from the Narmada dam piped in. Now cash crops can…

He also led pogroms, segregated living areas by religion and promoted rioters and terrorists. Gujarats gdp per capita is only slightly above the median. And IT cell is a reality that has been exposed several times over. Identical copy paste tweets and interviews with ex-it cell employees.

All of this is indeed true.

However, he didn't win elections because of them. His win in 2014 was a reaction to a government lead by the Congress, where the Congress party leaders were intent on defaming and destroying their own Prime Minister.

And the 2019 success was a result of the focus on base infrastructure, economic, diplomatic and defense policy in the first term (the government made genuine and very noticeable improvements in terms of sanitation, electrification and water access across the country).

They also made some epic economic blunders, however, that pain is truly being felt several years later (besides the immediate pain which they were able to explain away by promising long term benefits, but as those benefits don't materialize, they are losing trust), and appear to have given up on economic and social development, and appear to be focused on purely extending their rule through policies of hatred.

It remains to be seen how successful their strategy will be, but the initial results seem to indicate that they are greatly underperforming local elections. And most of these were conducted before the impact of teh devastating 2nd COVID wave, which the government didn't just mishandle, but were probably responsible for, became apparent.

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