A Call to Inaction: Elections in India

The Election Commission in India proclaimed election in some states recently. All the political parties are now busy with newer promises and try to influence the voters with different ways. They repeat all these activities during the election time and we, as voters, elect someone from the list. Neither the people nor the leaders tried to improve the present system of governance in the country.

It is high time to review the history of democracy and its relevance here in India. For the last few years our governments are famous for its total inefficiency in tackling problems. Whenever there is a chance to show the glory of India, for e.g., The Commonwealth Games, we are complete failure. All such events are notable for the corruptive sides rather than any positives in it. Whether the party in power is leftist, rightist, or extreme right wing the rule is the same. Communal violence, corruption, and total carelessness in matters related to human freedom and expression of independent opinions.

The question I would like to ask here is, do we need this kind of governmental set-up here? We have the right to elect the most “corrupted” politician, not the best one. Do we really have a choice to decide about our own representatives? No.
When the rulers are inefficient, when we have no better choice, the only way to show our feeling is to keep away from the democratic system itself. Away from the election process itself.
I am not against democracy as such. I am not an anarchist. I am not an anti national. But I can see the decay of the system. And I foresee the advent of a new system of representation in place of democracy. In different countries in the world including Libya, Egypt and several other nations anti-national struggles are going on. There is no such issue in India, not because of the efficiency of the system, but because of the inefficiency of the people. We are living in a comfort zone without being bothered about all these issues. A time will come to reminds us that we are too late to respond...
We can’t follow the Libyan model or the Egyptian one. So the thing we can do is to show our reaction through boycotting the election process. Our histories taught us about the divide and rule policy of the Britishers when they rule us. The same history texts talk nothing about the present day Divide and Rule policy of our own representatives. The history texts talks about the colonial judicial system which was prevalent in India. But the same texts forget to mention that our own judiciary is similar to colonial judicial set up.
Reference:
1.Wikipedia contributors. "Indian political scandals." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2 Mar. 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2011.
2. Communal riots in post-independence India. By Asgharali EngineerGoogle Book Search http://books.google.co.in/books?id=yB5NM0o3I9QC&lpg=PA165&ots=CeQlz8ksiL&dq=communal%20violence%20in%20post%20independent%20India&pg=PA166#v=onepage&q=communal%20violence%20in%20post%20independent%20India&f=false

The social Function of Tele-serials

The tele-serials play a vital role in constructing and eliminating social taboos. Like any other entertainment Medias television serials also projects the hegemonic ideology and often became a powerful tool of the existing social system in silencing the different voices. That is why almost all the T.V shows projects woman in the traditional view point, especially while showing the female sex.
The major criticism against these entertainments Medias will be the same thing, i.e. it observe the female sex from a patriarchal angle. And we can cite as many examples to show this. But sometimes these serials destroy the accepted norms of the society and naturalises the ideas which were taboos till date.

Nowadays tele-serials became more popular than the films. In creating, popularising fashions serials are more important than the films. Since the viewers are mainly the woman, both young and old, the fashion-tips will reach among them very easily. Before the crush for fashion were limited to some sections in the society, mainly the upper class and the youngsters. The fashionable dresses of the youngsters were always against the accepted Keralathanima/Malayali Manka. And the film-makers and serial directors projected this fashionable youth as bad in contrast to the traditional woman. But now things changed; at least partly. Even if the character portrayed is of low origin with meagre income poor financial ability, the dress they wore will cost thousands!! And even if the modern dressed woman is a bad character on the screen, the dress style will have an appeal on the audience. It will not be a taboo anymore.

There is a social revolution going on through these entertainments medias like tele-serials, Award Nights, Fashion-shows, Reality-Shows and the like. This revolution is not limited to fashion alone; for language, religious beliefs, moral and political behaviour of the society.

OSCAR

The world is passionately waiting
waiting
waiting
for the Oscar, to know about the best from the film industry, not of U.S , but the whole world itself. Oscar became famous in India when A.R. Rahman, Rassul Pookkutty received this prestigious prize for the film Slum Dog Millionaire. But let us forget the linguistic, cultural differences and celebrate the moments with the world.

Harischandra Fort, Puralimala.

“According to a tradition, which has no basis in fact, Cheraman Perumal, the last of the Chera emperors, became a convert to Islam and left for Mecca and this event helped the spread of Islam in Kerala”(Sreedhara Menon).
For those who try to search something about the ancient Kerala History is the lack of proper History. There is no authentic record to claim most of the accepted beliefs in the state. We have to rely mostly on the oral tales of the elder people. The case of Harischandra Fort is an example for this. The people of Malabar, especially Peravoor argues that the place named Puralimala was one of the main centre of Chera Kingdom were they used to collect taxes from the people. That particular place is known as Harischandr Fort; but there is no evidence to prove that there was a fort there in the past. What remains as a relic of the past is a Siva Linga, which is there even now. It is believed that Pazhassi Raja worshipped that idol during his guerrilla warfare against the British. There is a cave nearby this area where Pazhassi lived during that time.

There is no record to prove all these things in history. Even the rule of the Cheras have not enough records. “......Konga Desam and Chera Desam are interchangeable terms, and that the Chera Kingdom was conquered and annexed by the Chola about A.D. 900...”(J.H.Nelson). William Logan, in his Malabar Manual, argues that the reason for the lack of historical datas regarding the chera rule as that of the Brahmin-Jain conflicts (245). “But when the bearers of these traditions”(Brahmins)”first came to this land, Chera or Kerala had dwindled down to the small province of South Malabar, Cochin, and North Travancore( Putuppattanam to Kannetti), and it was apparently to these limits that the name of Kerala, thus imported to Malabar at this time, was originally applied by Malayalis themselves”(245).
As Logan argued the reason for the disappearance of proper records of Chera kings might be because of the Brahmin element. The story of the conversion of the last Chera King, Cheraman Perumal, also supports this argument. But why the modern historians of our time neglect all these facts?

The name Keralam, based on these kinds of stories, is derived from Cheras. In the Sangam Tamil terms the name Chera means “hill country” derived from Cheral meaning mountain slope in the ancient Tamil.
If the place near Puralimala, named Harischandra Fort, was the trading centre of Chera Kingdom the govt and the people should take necessary actions to save the place. Let us thankfully remember our forefathers and show respect towards them.
Reference
1. Wikipedia contributors. "Chera Dynasties." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 Feb. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.
2. Logan, William. Malabar Manual.1st ed. Google Book Search. Web. 24. feb.2011.
3. Menon, A Sreedhara. The Legacy of Kerala, D.C. Books, Kottayam.2008.
4. Nelson, J. H. Political History Of Madura Country. Google Book Search. Web. 24 feb. 2011

The Horoscpe of Eros

“The astral configuration today indicates that you may find relationships an uphill struggle today. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong; it is just that it seems to take such a long time to explain certain things to your partner, who somehow can’t seem to grasp the meaning of your words, or see the point of what you are saying, anyway.....”

This is one of the commonest thing that you can find out in a horoscope today. The demands of astrology in the contemporary world, or the number of people who subscribe horoscopes through different sites are amazing. As in the case of any other modern entertainment Medias, these horoscopes also present trendy items like the horoscope of celebrities, the person of the day etc. For example, for one particular website Paris Milton is the ideal person today. Almost all of them follow the Greek Tradition or Latin. For some, like Ganesha Speaks, Indian tradition suits well.
In a market we can sell anything if we have the skill. It is not science or belief system that the reason for the demand of astrology. It is purely business. And for the people, they always look for short cuts in life. In the beginning periods of the advancement of science it was always in conflict with religious institutions. In the later stages both groups adopted the principles of the other party for its own purposes. Now science and scientists are running behind religion and religion utilises scientific principles.

The reasons of all these changes can be analysed in various ways. As one of my friends have noted it maybe because of my own prejudice against religion itself, that is, “You are blind with clarity”. If that is the case there are so many like that. And they have too much to talk about.
The system of belief which propagates this is not based on any clear cut objective/scientific basis. Even if there is developed system to understand our future by defining the positions of the stars, the modern proponents of astrology never follows them. It is another way to make money that’s all.