Indo-UK: News & Discussion

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 23 Mar 2010 11:18

bad news for Brown as his former mates ae embroiled in a policy-fixing scandal through lobbying for cash.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... tions.html

Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon suspended over lobbying allegations
Three former Cabinet ministers, Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon, have been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party over allegations they tried to sway policy decisions by lobbying the Government.

By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor

sunnyP · Post by **sunnyP** » 23 Mar 2010 22:47

Britain expels top Mossad agent over 'intolerable' passport cloning

Mr Miliband said that an investigation carried out by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which sent officers both to Dubai and Israel, had shown that the owners of the passports had been the unwitting and innocent victims of official identity fraud.

"Given that this was a very sophisticated operation, in which high-quality forgeries were made, the Government judges it is highly likely that the forgeries were made by a state intelligence service," he said.

"Taking this together with other inquiries, and the link with Israel established by Soca, we have concluded that there are compelling reasons to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of the British passports.

"The Government takes this matter extremely seriously. Such misuse of British passports is intolerable... I have asked that a member of the embassy of Israel be withdrawn, and this is taking place."

Mr Miliband did not identify the expelled diplomat nor identify them as an intelligence officer, but sources told The Times that it the senior Mossad representative at the Israeli Embassy had been told to leave.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 072314.ece

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 24 Mar 2010 05:06

'Muscular' UK Space Agency launched

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 25 Mar 2010 06:33

British security experts to help Indian forces during Games

Karan Dixit · Post by **Karan Dixit** » 25 Mar 2010 08:56

After Headley, Tiger Hanif to be test case for UK-India extradition

http://sify.com/news/after-headley-tige ... chdci.html

---

There is no point in having a one way binding obligation. If UQ does not hand over Tiger Hanif, there should never be any extradition to UQ from India.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 26 Mar 2010 00:53

The Independent bought by Lebedev for £1

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 26 Mar 2010 05:38

Research shows a third of Londoners are jobless

Almost a third of the working age population in London are jobless, costing billions of pounds a year, research showed today. Worklessness in the capital costs more than £5 billion a year, including welfare benefit and employment programmes, a study by London Councils found. The group, which represents 33 councils in the capital, said national employment programmes are "under-performing" in London, adding that boroughs are better placed to deliver job-related services.

Here's an idea - the jobless could be gainfully employed as security detail for the ever burgeoning numbers of criminals, mafiosos and insurgent leaders wanted the emerging world, sheltering openly in Londonistan. Why not, eh?

Another equally smooth idea - trade these turds with emerging world gubmints for gilt purchases. Surely, a few dollahs can be spared for our law to get its hands on the despicables? BTW, this is a classic case of creating a pressure point out of thin air and then using it in trade.

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 26 Mar 2010 10:44

It is better to be late than never.

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were killed by the rabid british colonial cruel (mis)rulers of India on 23 March 1931. Their 80th death anniversary was observed by all and sundry but not specifically by patriotic websites.

All in all, starting 1857 to 1947, in 90 years span approx 7,32,000 martyrs gave away their lives to free mother india from brutal, killer, cheater colonial rulers. these brave men and women challenged an empire where sun was never used to set, broke that jinx and freed mother india, eventually paving way for other unfortunate nations to break the shackles and become free.

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru after brutally murdererd by hanging them - an unfair trial against all the rules of natural law and justice, their bodies were cut into pieces and were burnt without knowledge of the people of India. The coward colonial british rulers were fearing a huge backlash did not publicise the event much.

Govt of India Information and Broadcast ministry did publish coloured message on the anniversary in Hindi and other newspaper. It is a welcome change since many sickular organizations and political parties have called these martyrs terrorists whenever suitable to garner favours from various people

but was almost absent in so called mainstream english media.

(Three Yajna Ahutis to these brave sons of mother india were given by Ramdev Mahajraj in a Rashtra Yajna conducted and broadcast live on three days 22-23 and 24 March 2010. It is a matter of great pride that these martyrs' names are always mentioned, rememberd and thanked for their efforts to free mother india by Ramdev almost everyday in his discourse which is being watched by 4-8 crore people regularly)

Aum Rashtray Swaha, Idam Rashtray, Idam Na Mama!

Never Forgive, Lest We Forget

sunnyP · Post by **sunnyP** » 26 Mar 2010 17:11

And back in Uk-Stan

UK's Muslim TV: Wives must not refuse sex with spouse
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor
25.03.10

Britain's leading Muslim TV channel was accused of encouraging “marital rape” and promoting other intolerant views of women in a report on extremism published today.

The report by think tank Quillam says that the London-based Islam Channel broadcast comments saying that “the idea a woman cannot refuse her husband relations” was “not strange” and was instead part of “maintaining a strong marriage”.

It says that the channel also broadcast advice that a wife should not leave her home without her husband's permission and that a woman who wears perfume in public is a prostitute.

The think tank, which is calling for an investigation by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, also accuses the channel of advertising talks by al Qaeda-supporting preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who is alleged to have inspired failed Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and of giving a platform to other extremist Islamists.

The report, which was based on an analysis of broadcasts over three months, also states that Islam Channel's programmes have undermined trust between community groups by airing hostile comments about non-Muslims and those who follow alternative versions of Islam.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/ ... -spouse.do

Karan Dixit · Post by **Karan Dixit** » 28 Mar 2010 04:54

India sends a formal request to extradit Tiger Hanif. Why is UK harboring a known terrorist? Is UK a sanctuary for terrorists?

http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/n ... 24145.aspx

Nearly 17 years after twin bomb blasts shook Surat, India has requested Britain to extradite mastermind Mohammed Hanif Umerji Patel alias Tiger Hanif (49).

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sent a formal communication to the UK this week, after receiving a request from the Gujarat police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 28 Mar 2010 04:58

Why is UK harboring a known terrorist? Is UK a sanctuary for terrorists?

Was that merely rhetoric or did you really have to ask?

Karan Dixit · Post by **Karan Dixit** » 28 Mar 2010 06:59

Rhetorical question only, I guess for we all know what UQ is all about.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 28 Mar 2010 14:18

Brown and Party Show Signs of Life (NYT)

LONDON — Once thought doomed to lead Labour to defeat, Prime Minister Gordon Brown may avoid that fate as polls show a swing toward Labour as a vote nears

Yay!

Am rooting 400% for Sri Brown and his sidekick Sri Milibandit. UKstan deserves the best and these 2 top the charts for the kind of leadership UQ deserves. Lets hope the paki vote mobilizes double quick time and votes these worthies in with the yob vote going to the BNP and the dull vote to the tories.

Labor victory in the May polls will bring the spark to what Bill Gross recently called the bed of nitroglycerine that is the UQ gilt mart.

Not that Sri Cameron's anointment would change matters much in the UQ, lemme hurry to add.

I for one am fully expecting soaring gilt yields sooner rather than later which will topple the delicate dance UQ has been doing nonstop since fall 2008. Time will tell which way this goes. And no, it won;t take very long to tell it either. T20 is the flavor of the century, not test matches that seem to drag on forever.

Jai ho.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 28 Mar 2010 18:02

MPs say time to reconsider 'the special relationship'

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 28 Mar 2010 19:14

May be OT, but PBS in massa is airing this episode. Sharpe's Challenge

War weary and retired, Colonel Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean, The Lord of the Rings) is summoned by the Duke of Wellington to find a missing agent, but he resolutely declines. When he learns the MIA officer is his old friend Sergeant Major Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley), fighter and free spirit Sharpe quickly reconsiders, and begins a perilous adventure amidst rebellious forces in British India. Sharpe's seemingly impossible mission: storm an impenetrable fortress, rescue the daughter of a British general and quell the rebellion. With the odds stacked against him, Sharpe confronts shifting allegiances, incompetent leadership within the British troops, the conniving seduction of Madhuvanthi (Padma Lakshmi, Top Chef) and an explosive confrontation with an old foe. Has Sharpe finally found one challenge he won't be able to conquer? Sharpe's Challenge is based on the characters created by novelist Bernard Cornwell. (One episode; 120 minutes; TV-PG)

Karan Dixit · Post by **Karan Dixit** » 28 Mar 2010 21:57

The committee heard it was "unsurprising" that President Barack Obama - an American who grew up in Hawaii, whose foreign experience was of Indonesia, and who had a Kenyan father - did not have "sentimental reflexes" towards the UK.

It is a good thing US government under Obama's leadership is realizing there are countries who are fare more important than UQ. People in UQ will just have to learn to manage their ego. It is about time they realize there is a tremendous mismatch between the reality and the perception.

May be Obama feels that if UQ had stood her ground in opposing Iraq war then Bush would have been less enthusiastic about the Iraq war, the war which resulted in loss of so many innocent lives. May be there is desire on part of Obama to place the poodle on the floor for a while to bring it to the reality. After all the poodle has been getting too cozy on the lap. Just my thoughts.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 28 Mar 2010 22:25

It was Thathcer who goaded Sr Bush to go to war, UQ was the one who committed original sin.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 29 Mar 2010 00:10

Revealed: Victoria affection for clerk

Karim’s influence over the queen was so envied that when Victoria died, her son, King Edward, ordered palace guards to destroy correspondence she sent to the Munshi to erase all record of their relationship. But a new archive of letters, photographs and Karim’s handwritten “autobiography”shown to The Daily Telegraph and held secretly by his descendants for more than a century has emerged in India and Pakistan. The letters paint a different picture of the Munshi and his relationship with the queen.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 29 Mar 2010 03:22

Ageing spies unable to use the internet

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 02 Apr 2010 17:32

Britain approves Chagos Islands reserve, angers Mauritius

"Perfidious Albion is dishonest," Mauritian Foreign Minister Arvind Boolell told AFP. "I am very angry.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 05 Apr 2010 18:33

Security fears as NHS sends patient records to India

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 05 Apr 2010 21:10

Gerard wrote:Security fears as NHS sends patient records to India

The joke here is that health records are treated like state secrets in the UK and the West in general. Fine, that is their culture. But in India ill health is not to be kept secret. Details are shared so people get to know who got what and who treated it.

I learned this the hard way. After returning from the UK I used to get irritated with passers-by and hangers-on stopping to listen to gory details of a sick person's illness being explained to relatives. It was years before it dawned on me that by and large nobody minds, everyone shares experiences and feedback on doctors. health is public info - except in occasional circumstances like AIDS or an unwanted pregnancy. "My experience with piles and constipation may be yours and it is your right to know. And who made me better and how. "

We do have a different culture out here. Just how different is not always apparent to a person fresh out of Macaulay school and college.

Karna_A · Post by **Karna_A** » 10 Apr 2010 23:50

Karan Dixit wrote:
The committee heard it was "unsurprising" that President Barack Obama - an American who grew up in Hawaii, whose foreign experience was of Indonesia, and who had a Kenyan father - did not have "sentimental reflexes" towards the UK.
It is a good thing US government under Obama's leadership is realizing there are countries who are fare more important than UQ. People in UQ will just have to learn to manage their ego. It is about time they realize there is a tremendous mismatch between the reality and the perception.

May be Obama feels that if UQ had stood her ground in opposing Iraq war then Bush would have been less enthusiastic about the Iraq war, the war which resulted in loss of so many innocent lives. May be there is desire on part of Obama to place the poodle on the floor for a while to bring it to the reality. After all the poodle has been getting too cozy on the lap. Just my thoughts.

Any well read person like Obama without the UK ancestry would know that the largest holocaust ever perpetuated by any country was by UK, the largest slavery program was run by UK immigrants and not a penny was ever paid in restitution, and instead it was all white washed as "White Man's Burden"
http://www.amazon.com/American-Holocaus ... 0195085574

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 11 Apr 2010 21:21

In the Islamic Emirate of England, Held-Wales, Occupied-Scotland and English-Administered-Ireland, the more pious abuse the less pious....

http://www.therespectparty.net/breakingnews.php?id=858

George Galloway was set upon by a group of Muslim extremists while campaigning in East London this afternoon. Three men, believed to belong to the extreme sect Islam4UK, the latest name for Al-Muhajiroun, were arrested and subsequently charged with public order offences.

Galloway, who is standing in the Poplar and Limehouse constituency, was with a party of supporters in Watney Market around 3pm when he and his colleagues were first abused and then attacked by the group.

"They called me a filthy Kaffir" said Galloway, "and shouted that no one should shake the 'filthy Kaffir's hand'.

JwalaMukhi · Post by **JwalaMukhi** » 11 Apr 2010 21:49

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/auth ... sgw2124D73
Alex Wheatle, a fictional writer of Jamaican origin writes well about the Queendom. His concentration is in the areas around Brixton, of londonistan. Does paint a pretty good picture. Some of his fiction are "Dirty South" etc., also briefly addresses the inter locality gang wars between pious and non-pious. Though, mainly about the conditions of immigrant blacks.

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 12 Apr 2010 11:36

"My experience with piles and constipation may be yours and it is your right to know. And who made me better and how. "

It is an open public health discussion forum.

still people in des go to see a patient in large group which a foreign trained surgeons/doctors find difficult to handle. people openly discuss the problems faced by patient and doctors' advice. this increases general health awareness amongst the people.

(a bizzare custom i have witnessed in one area where people go to see patient with a lota filled half with ghee or milk, especially for wounded patients. belief is that drinking ghee (!!) and milk will heal wounds faster. the practice still continues)

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 12 Apr 2010 12:06

UKIP Nigel Farage Insults EU President In Parliament FULL Clip Uncut !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5jUavMX ... re=related

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 13 Apr 2010 08:37

Premen Addy in the Pioneer. gr8 read.

A hung house in Britain?
First about the coming UK polls in May

The May 6 general election could throw up some surprises. For all their bluster, the Tories may not win the poll as was widely predicted till recently. Labour has clawed back into the reckoning and suddenly pollsters are talking of a photo-finish — even a hung Parliament!

The wise UKstanis are returning to greater wisdom, surely. Sri Brown and yet another Labor gubmint is precisely what gleat blitain needs and deserves. imvho, of course. Not that the tories will be or do any different given UQ's sterling (pun intended) finances and sterlinger reputation.

Meanwhile, beeb psy war continues. Premen Addy is zimbly brilliant here. Rips off the charade and facade with classic panache. Says exactly what needs tgo be said - not a word more, or less. Check for yourselves:

A worthier subject, if only just, was a televised BBC travel documentary in which the youthful explorer, one Simon Reeve, circumnavigates the Tropic of Cancer, including its Indian corridor stretching from Ahmedabad to Kolkata via Ujjain and the derelict Union Carbide site in Bhopal.

The script, artful BBC-Foreign Office all the way, resonated the melancholic British establishment view of post-Raj India trembling on the brink of a Malthusian population crisis, racked by Hindu-Muslim riots, an impoverished countryside devoid of roads and infrastructure, and precariously reliant on monsoon rain in the absence of man-made irrigation. Through this Cancerian sliver was refracted the negative perception of an entire subcontinent.

Entire subcontinent? Maybe not. It was as Yndia specific as paki nukes are. And how.Sample this:

A jolly Reeve, armed with rucksack and scarcely wet behind the ears, set the tone his with first native escort: The 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, what would Mahatma Gandhi have said? India, a space power, yet disfigured by poverty and slums — again, what would the Mahatma have said?

The browbeaten darkie padding alongside {classic sdre take onlee....wonder if Sri Addy reads BRF onlee...} was visibly chastened as he mumbled and grinned defeat.

He might have pointed to Brunel’s wondrous Victorian engineering even as many an English working man, woman and child laboured from morn to night in satanic mills and coal pits, but such cheek might have brought instant dismissal. {Classic Pavan Varma-esque take-down of UQ and its pretend descendants - our own HFL Macaulayites}

Oh, more follows. Sheer joy to read or what, eh?

To be fair, Reeve habitually referred to an Indian economic boom amid his excursions into Indian poverty and negligence, whose details were never less than clear and telling. However, his ‘boom’ was sound without flesh; for all one knew the man could have been talking of a river barrier in some harbour, or an implement to set a sail to the desired angle.

But that is to misunderstand the purpose of the Reeve exercise — which is to lower Indian self-esteem through sustained psychological warfare. It wouldn’t do to have Pakistan down and India up. The order needn’t be reversed — that would be self-defeating in the glare of reality — but a more levelling playing field would do very well, thank you. Until India was sufficiently house trained to play ball.

{OMG. Awesome. mind-blow-me-away. Words aching to be written. Truth articulated forcefully if poignantly. For more entertainment on perfidious albion's naked treachery, read on}

Returning to Simon Reeve’s gloomy prognosis on the lack of Indian irrigation, the poor soul seemed unaware of the British media broadsides at the Sardar Sarovar Narmada project as a violation of the human rights of dispossessed farmers, whose land would be drowned by its waters. There was barely token recognition of due process that eventually guaranteed them satisfactory financial settlements every inch of the way.

More on how much the Bshits championed the rights of our poor and dispossesed at that time...

One recalls an unintentionally hilarious report from The Independent’s man in India at the time, Tim McGirk, describing his fraught crossing of the crocodile-infested Narmada in a “leaky rowing boat.”If this wasn’t enough, he “had to sleep in a hut on a floor of hardened mud and dung in the company of eight German feminists.” Presumably he did his duty as the great Nelson expected of every Englishman before the battle of Trafalgar. There was no Maastricht exchange mechanism, no subprime crisis to impede McGirk’s movements. Another Independent correspondent, describing the wild celebrations on Gujarat streets following the Supreme Court of India’s sanction of the Narmada dam, likened it to Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaigns of the 1920s and 30s. Peter Popham’s experiment with truth, alas, was anything but truthful!

The larger picture was faithfully reproduced in the following warning from The Economist: “India risks fragmenting in ways that threaten its people but its neighbours too...(Unless the general election of June 1991) confirms India’s unity, the Central Government will be tempted to use any means — even martial law — to keep the realm intact. And the less popular a Central Government feels at home the more it may be tempted to curry support by adventuring abroad...anxious neighbours remember India’s wars with Pakistan and China...” The Independent’s leader of August 15, 1989 ploughed a lonelier furrow with its title “From prig to bully in 42 years”

Oh, am sure the apologists will moan that an 'outside' perspective might throw up fresh insights, who knows? Eh? Or maybe its just us unworthy jingoes totally alienated from the daily reality of the toiling toilet-less masses and hence any sympathy and understanding from tfta bwanas and massas should be treated as welcome, perhaps?

Well, here's how much these commentators on Yindia know about their subject...

It could be that the harsh Indian sun is responsible for some of the White man’s better known disorders such as Delhi-belly, but Christopher Thomas’s affliction still baffles admirers of The Times, where following Rajiv Gandhi’s funeral, he told how his ashes were destined for immersion near “Ahmedabad in the western State of Gujarat where the Ganges meets the Jammu.” The good folk of Allahabad, in high dudgeon at the sacrilege, have never renewed their subscriptions.

Meanwhile, UQ has finally gotten over its imperious past and has become a normal country at last, some aver....

In light of Britain’s fading military power, the wisest diplomacy now would be for Britain to “help discreetly to explain the Chinese to the Indians, and vice-versa.” This well-grilled counsel from Right-wing Tory Bruce Anderson was published recently in The Times (March 29). The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Finally, this Timesreport (April 2): “Britain has announced the creation of the world’s largest marine nature reserve yesterday in the pristine waters surrounding the Chagos Islands, a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean.” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, hailed “Its creation (as) a major step forward for protecting the oceans...throughout the world.”

To do this Whitehall cleansed the islands of their human population and stubbornly opposes their return so that a US military base could be installed for the world’s benefit. Should US marines land in Mumbai you’ll know from where they have come.

Premen addi, tussi gr8 ho!

Ensoi. Read in full only.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 13 Apr 2010 08:53

Hmm, Premen Addy reminds me of Nirad Chaudhri-intelligent with a knowing grasp of the oppressor's language superior to any Oxford don's. But somehow gone astray.

Formidable intellects tilting at the detritus of empire. Worse things have been written about India by much better Englishmen.
This article only shows that there is an Indian constituency so pained by the British that they pore over fishwrap and triumphantly conclude 'we're not darkies'. Sad in a way.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 13 Apr 2010 09:13

^^^ Speak for yourself, dood.

I'm 400% SDRE and make no pretensions of being otherwise.

Wasn't too long ago (as late as mid 2006) when I let a cocky Brit mouth off that Brit rule was good for India without challenge or retort, or even the notion that such a statement was untrue. Am wiser now. The more I read about the Brit atrocities in India of yore, the more appalled I became. Theek hai, its a process I guess. Somewhere down the road, I see myself as actually forgiving the shits and moving on.

Until then, IMHO, folks like Mukul Kesavan and Premen Addy have done yeoman service to dispelling ignorance and falsehoods among Yndians about the glory of Brit raj, in their small ways.

P.S.
The comparison of Addy with the pathetic Nirad Chaudhari was a tad over the top. Imvvho, of course.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 13 Apr 2010 09:42

As I have stated before

1 Money is the best deodarant. Westerners will gladly come to the land of open sewers once it is richer. They did once before. The job of Indians is not to reclaim their self-esteem by denigrating the British but by demonstrating that India is reclaiming its potential in spite of the British. Don't think the educated British are so innocent that they do not realise the extent of their devastations in India. The ill educated ones are fools-I had one go on about the appaling state of health care in India; she was abashed when I pointed that Britain's hospitals are pretty ramshackle when copmpared to North America's or even Germany's. The point is to mud wrestle with them on your own turf. You can't deny poverty in India but you can delegitimise Christian love and British philanthropy laughably easily.

2 The best defense is a relentless offense-Indians need to hammer away at why London is so filthy, the English so boorish, their cuisine so primitive, their class system so heartless, their pretensions so inflated, their economy so mismanaged. But for the Indian sitting in India phoren is above criticism at a deep psychological level.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 13 Apr 2010 10:51

Fair enough.

The heart of the problem is precisely what Pavan Varma talks about in his excellent book. The process of decolonisation of the mind has been interrupted and even reversed by the Macaulayised elite the brits left behind.

As for:

Money is the best deodarant.

No denying that only. The converse is also true, namely, that:

The absence of money raises quite a stink

Whereas Yindia is finally on a growth path that promises ever more money-making potential being unlocked, UQ is trapped in a high-debt, high-cost, no-growth rut. It is bankrupt but has managed to hide it well. For how long can that game continue, we'll see. They have no way out, IMVVHO. I'd like to see them use their brahmastra - default. Beer and popcorn watching over the consequences. The brits did the even more tfta icelanders no favors, did they?

It'll be a while before things get ugly, seems like. The econ crisis speeded things up but not to immediacy. Chances are we'll witness karma catching up with UQ in our lifetimes. And yup, when karma meets UQ, then propriety be damned, chances are lungi dances will happen in this neck of the woods only.

Jai ho and all that.

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 13 Apr 2010 18:09

Hari Seldon wrote:^^^ Speak for yourself, dood.

I'm 400% SDRE and make no pretensions of being otherwise.

Wasn't too long ago (as late as mid 2006) when I let a cocky Brit mouth off that Brit rule was good for India without challenge or retort, or even the notion that such a statement was untrue. Am wiser now. The more I read about the Brit atrocities in India of yore, the more appalled I became. Theek hai, its a process I guess. Somewhere down the road, I see myself as actually forgiving the shits and moving on.

Until then, IMHO, folks like Mukul Kesavan and Premen Addy have done yeoman service to dispelling ignorance and falsehoods among Yndians about the glory of Brit raj, in their small ways.

P.S.
The comparison of Addy with the pathetic Nirad Chaudhari was a tad over the top. Imvvho, of course.

Hariji,
Is this the book you are referring to: Being Indian: Inside the real India by Pavan Varma.

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 13 Apr 2010 19:43

Neela,

Am referring to "Becoming Indian" by Pavan Varma.

Bought it off a Crossword at Chennai centre city mall a coupla weeks ago after reading quiet praise for it on BR. That book is worth every penny, IMHO.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 13 Apr 2010 19:52

Hari Seldon wrote: It'll be a while before things get ugly, seems like. The econ crisis speeded things up but not to immediacy. Chances are we'll witness karma catching up with UQ in our lifetimes. And yup, when karma meets UQ, then propriety be damned, chances are lungi dances will happen in this neck of the woods only.
Jai ho and all that.

Thanks for verifying my hope and theory. The blood of many millions call for karmic retribution. Only diference ,no beer ot popcorns, it will be Bun and Hot Dog party .

JwalaMukhi · Post by **JwalaMukhi** » 14 Apr 2010 06:09

We just recently passed by an important anniversary and period of reflection...
There is enuf karma that has been accumulated and will surely unwind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre

On April 13, thousands of people gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh (garden) near the Golden Temple in Amritsar, on Baisakhi,
The Jallianwalla Bagh in 1919, months after the massacre.

An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 4:30pm, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer marched a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers into the Bagh, fifty of whom were armed with rifles.[15] Dyer had also brought two armoured cars armed with machine guns, however the vehicles were stationed outside the main gate as they were unable to enter the Bagh through the narrow entrance.

General Dyer ordered troops to open fire without warning or any order to disperse, and to direct fire towards the densest sections of the crowd. He continued the firing, approximately 1,650 rounds in all, until ammunition was almost exhausted.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 14 Apr 2010 11:29

JwalaMukhi wrote:We just recently passed by an important anniversary and period of reflection...

I have read the biography of Gen. R.Dyer. The surprize which it had for me was that Dyer had only set foot in England for the first time, when he was sent to RMA Sandhurst. Until then he lived in India (he was born in British India, Murree if I am not mistaken). He was also quite close to his Indian soldiers (Sikhs mainly), did visit Golden Temple etc.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 14 Apr 2010 19:06

Expect nonsense tomorrow from some Britishers, if the GSLV launch is successful. Usual stuff about aid being misused. And viciousness, if the launch is unsuccessful.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 14 Apr 2010 19:55

JwalaMukhi wrote:We just recently passed by an important anniversary and period of reflection...
There is enuf karma that has been accumulated and will surely unwind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre

On April 13, thousands of people gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh (garden) near the Golden Temple in Amritsar, on Baisakhi,
The Jallianwalla Bagh in 1919, months after the massacre.

An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 4:30pm, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer marched a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers into the Bagh, fifty of whom were armed with rifles.[15] Dyer had also brought two armoured cars armed with machine guns, however the vehicles were stationed outside the main gate as they were unable to enter the Bagh through the narrow entrance.

General Dyer ordered troops to open fire without warning or any order to disperse, and to direct fire towards the densest sections of the crowd. He continued the firing, approximately 1,650 rounds in all, until ammunition was almost exhausted.

Ladt month i have posted the video of Udham Singh in Music thread, its still there . Udham Singh took the vow of revenge and sent one o"dwyer to Hades. Young Udham Singh was sentenced to death.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 14 Apr 2010 19:58

I believe that was "O'Dwyer" that Singh shot and killed in the UK. Michael O'Dwyer was the governor of the Punjab in 1919.