T3,The Think Tank Chronicles.

Glimpses into the mind of a Chronic Thinker

1. Woodworm 3.30.05 / 2pm

   I don’t have anything about the first part of your post - the very fact that you speak today and many people would nod in agreement today, and not coming riling against this post - goes to prove that these things are indeed irrefutable facts which are widely known and accepted.

   Regarding your second half,

   As Voltaire said, “There is no history, only fictions of varying degrees of plausibility.”

   The argument I would try to force in favour of British is the fact that there was no recorded history of India before that. In fact when Vasco Da Gama landed in Cochin, he thought that the local Zamorin was a Catholic. Simply because, to them, there were just the Catholics and the Moors… Something beyond was never known. And British were the first to even document the various tribes, cultures and communities in India. In fact, to this day - a few tribals are declassified as “criminal tribes” - something that the British did in their voluminous studies on the practices of these people, and nobody since has ever made an attempt to revise them…

   When we remove personal prejudices, and see how the legal system works with arcane laws, as a controversial example - take the case of homosexuality - though the British were the first to outlaw it (it is said that gay culture was prevalent in pre-British India), they were also the first to legalise it. And we are still holding a threat of 10 years imprisonment for something consensual that takes place between two people in private

   Though it is fashionanble to talk of how the British manipulated every existing documentation about India, and how they have left behind a lot of colonial garbage - we are only too happy to play along.

   In short, Indians dont want history - they would always prefer mythology - one that says they were always good and will always be…
2. KoPoS 3.30.05 / 3pm

   This post has been removed by the author.
3. KoPoS 3.30.05 / 3pm

   As Voltaire said, “There is no history, only fictions of varying degrees of plausibility.”

   Pretty much sums up the ruse.

   But i do take up exception to your point that In short, Indians dont want history - they would always prefer mythology - one that says they were always good and will always be…
   Its not the want history, its the outright rejection of our own mythology which are deeply interwoven with our own ethos, spiritual & emotional & social thats disturbing. What im stressing is the shortsightedness of a culture, that completely negates any of the knowledge passed down by the ancients. What we are rejecting is not just prejudices of our ancients, but also the observed and evolved observations that have been internalised into our culture over years of history…

   Yes we have this problem, you know, with gods and ancient heroes, that the gods that be and the heroes of mythology are our history rather than our legends; where Rama goes to be a historical person than a mythological person.

   As i said, Not that im accusing the British of playing up a different version of our history then, im telling that the view of our own history as we have is an interpretation of the british, reason no recorded history of India before that.

   Its not the explicit evil in their own intentions that im talking about, its just an evil that grows implicitly as a result of some actions committed because of their respective conditioning.

   As an alternative case,of the much discussed ‘Civil services’ established method of getting clerks to do works at cheap labor was a method to just feed the capitalist machinery. But what it has spawned is a generation of intellectual slaves, devoid of voice and full of cowardice.

   What Im saying is the perspectives of the same issue:
   1. that they have civilized an uncivilized country [case in point africa and india]
   2. but in the process completely disintegrating the various strands that have evolved over hundreds of years.
4. ironhide 4.1.05 / 2am

   ” In short, Indians dont want history they would always prefer mythology one that says they were always good and will always be…”

   I agree completely with woodworm here.No one is or was perfect,every king or ruler made mistakes.While we are more than happy to listen to praise of a person,even the slightest criticism will spark off a diatribe from the historians.

   about the selective amnesia part,I will rephrase it as forced selective amnesia.A victor decides what was right or what was wrong.His version of history stands.In the current scenario look no further than what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan.Each American death is presented as if the heavens are falling..but no matter how many iraqi’s are killed,the newsspace they can hope to occupy will be limited.
   Going back a little in time,everyone remembers the horrible bombing of London by the Luftwaffe during the first phase of ww2.Detailed documents are available of that period,but when the allies decided to flatten Dresden(which was not such a major target) and in the process killed thousands not too many historians were present.It is only now that we are given details of how the decisions were taken….

   there are countless more examples of this sort…but sad thing is we have to, in the end,accept the victors version….
5. KoPoS 4.1.05 / 9am

   Ill definitely want to have a look at those… jaya, can you send me
   the permalinks for those?

   “A victor decides what was right or what was wrong.His version of history stands.”
   But dont you see the irony here. Wasnt WW-II directly or indirectly majorly influenced by the attempt of the allied forces to crumble Germany completely after the end of WW-I?

   How different is this from the animal world? When a lion that becomes a leader of a pack[forgive my lack of knowledge...what are a group of lions called?], it erases all the genetic descendants[cubs] of the previous ruling male?

   Nothing better i guess.
6. ironhide 4.2.05 / 5am

   hard for me to say this but Germans deserved to be kicked during ww2…the “living space” argument that Hitler gave as his reason for trying to conquer the world is one of the stupidest….arent 1 billion people living quite happily in India? Germany has hardly a tenth of our population…

   but yes it would be nice if the allies could also have prosecuted some of their own for war crimes…

   Note to self::must stop introducing the Nazis and ww2 into all the conversations I make
7. KoPoS 4.4.05 / 11am

   yeah the nazi guys deserved that. but also did the amercians for their brutalities which never seem to come out. thats the hypocrisy that frightens us.

   but yes it would be nice if the allies could also have prosecuted some of their own for war crimes…

   pretty much sums up the ruse

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