Nowhere: The Utopian Destination {Pakistan is a failed state. So is India. }

India is not failed state. Period.

If the government really wanted to destroy evidence would it not be much better to cremate the bodies? Like it happened during KPS Gills`s times in Punjab?

You are an unhinged psychotic. That is all one can say of this article. It is a product of a raving mad person.

Maulanas cry foul over a ’suhaag-raat’ Re: # 9

Is it merely the birth of a person that decides his religion? Is it not something more substantial like having faith, and following it in essence at least, if not in practice?

There should be legal age of religion like you have for sex and marriage.

A Muslim Pope? Most Muslims fail to understand this: that Crusades are not finished yet. As long as Muslims do not have a clue as to how to negotiate an end to Crusades they will go on.

The Leveling of America {The book however, does not, of-course, mention the capitalism next door in Pakistan gone wrong. If anything, Pakistan copied the American consumerist model with support from America. It suffered from perpetual brain drain and insecurity, a fall-out from the Russian invasion of Afghanistan where US used it to support the anti-Russian resistance. Today Pakistan is trying to correct a morass of mistakes, but Friedman spares only derision for the US `frontline ally.` }

Just one link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl

Read it and read this BS on FP and ruminate on whys and whethers. Why should anyone bother if Pakistan`s business class is not mentioned? And whether anyone should do anything about such outdated hatred? Face it: days of Islam are over. Crusades never really stopped.

Perfidy, Qur’anic Apostasy or Hermeneutics? Re: # 51

{#32, #33- Great going you use fictional tales to disprove something you know nothing about- great going; amazing methodology to decipher the truth. }

In #33 I just wrote what Sigmund Freud wrote in Lecture 35 in ``New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.`` What I wrote was paraphrase of what he writes. Let me quote his exact words. This is from English translation of ``New Lectures`` published by Penguin Books as Volume 2 in Penguin Freud Library. I reproduce first three paragraphs of this lecture. The lecture title is ``The Question of a Weltanschauung``.

``Ladies and Gentlemen, - At our last meeting we were occupied with little everyday concerns - putting our own modest house in order, as it were. I propose that we should now take a bold leap and venture upon answering a question which is constantly being asked in other quarters: does psychoanalysis lead to a particular Weltanschauung and, if so, to which?

```Weltanschauung` is, I am afraid, a specifically German concept, the translation of which into foreign languages might well raise difficulties. If I try to give a definition of it, it is bound to be seen clumsy to you. In my opinion, then, a Weltanschauung is an intellectual construction which solves all the problems of our existence uniformly on the basis of one overriding hypothesis, which accordingly, leaves no question unanswered and in which everything that interests us finds its fixed place. It will easily be understood that the possession of a Weltanschauung of this kind is among the ideal wishes of human beings. Believing in it one can feel secure in life, one can know what to strive for, and how one can deal most expediently with one`s emotions and interests.

``If that is the nature of a Weltanschauung, the answer as regards psychoanalysis is made easy. As a specialist science, a branch of psychology - a depth-psychology or psychology of the unconscious - it is quite unfit to construct a Weltanschauung of its own: it must accept the scientific one. But the Weltanschauung of science already departs noticeably from our definition. It is true that it too assumes the uniformity of the explanation of the universe; but it does so only as programme, the fulfilment of which is relegated to future. Apart from this it is marked by negative characteristics, by its limitation to what is at the moment knowable and by its sharp rejection of certain elements that are alien to it. It asserts that there are no source knowledge of the universe other than the intellectual working-over of carefully scrutinized observations - in other words, what we call research - and alongside of it no knowledge derived from revelation, intuition or divination. It seems as though this view came very near to being generally recognized in the course of the last few centuries that have passed; and it has been left to our century to discover the presumptuous objection that a Weltanschauung like this is alike paltry and cheerless, that it overlooks the claims of the human intellect and needs of human mind.``[page 193-4]

How can you say that this is ``fictional tales``?

In fact you are the one who is using Ad Hominem argument. Your argument is as follows:

einsteinwallah is writing about something he knows nothing about.
einsteinwallah is writing ``fictional tales``.
einsteinwallah is therefore trash.
We are trying to have serious discussion.
We are discussing this brand new concept called ``Hermeneutics`` (which, forget einsteinwallah, even Albert Einstein would not understand).
Since einsteinwallah is writing non-serious fictional tales, his post is trash.

Islam is allegedly a most complete religion and as such it is alleged to have this property of being a Weltanschauung. Science is bound to have conflict with any Weltanschauung because it recognizes sovereignty of reason and observation. A scientist says what Muhammad sees I cannot see therefore Muhammad is wrong. The very fact that, a person of science will necessarily become an apostate of Islam and expose him/herself to ire of current executives and executioners of Islam, means Islam is already outmoded. Christianity solved this problem by taking wise advice of St. Augustine and Galileo. (Read Oxford University Press published book on Galileo in their ``A Very Short Introduction`` series. Author is: Stillman Drake)

{#33 you write <<>>

Great methods of argumentation, define the opposing argument yourself as a straw man, and then dismantle the straw man. Religion doesn’t give a complete system of thought it just points you in the correct direction, so that you see the inter connectedness between all things- there is nothing unscientific in that. The universe began as a singularity. }

I am defining nothing. The straw man has come into existence with works of Galileo and those who followed him. March of history cannot be stopped. You cannot say, okay, let us go back to pre-Galileo times. Science and its methods are here to stay.

{#36~ amazing move, from being a philosopher of science you move into the realm of psychology and give your diagnosis. That is the sorry case of you Quran deniers- which is that you have no case besides illogical Ad Hominem arguments. }

Let me ask. Supposing in present times somebody came to you and said that he has been receiving these messages from God. What would you think? Would you not think that the person is hallucinating? Where is any diagnosis at all? Seeing things other cannot see is hallucination. The concept of hallucination does not need any deep knowledge of psychology. Why judgment we would pass on somebody of present times should not also be passed on Muhammad?

Here also you yourself are using Ad Hominem method. First you are trashing me by saying that I am moving from being philosopher of science into realm of psychology as if this is some kind of clever maneuver some kind of ``move`` with ulterior motive. I am not a philosopher of science. Just as Shakespearewallah is not Shakespeare, einsteinwallah is not Einstein. ``einsteinwallah`` is just my userid. I am not moving from anything to any other thing.

Ad Hominem arguments are here in chowk everywhere. It is the content of messages you are supposed to reply. And my posts do not have Ad Hominem arguments. OTOH your post is full of it.

Victims of Racism! Chowk Staff,

I don`t see how #52 violates the guidelines. Will you please explain? The article is obviously comic and so are many interacts. Salim is obviously trying to be funny here. So if the article can be published here then Salim`s interact should also be allowed.

Perfidy, Qur’anic Apostasy or Hermeneutics? Is it possible that Muhammad hallucinated all or at least some revelations? From what I know of his circumstance at the time it happened he was starving or eating certain food. If you eat same type of food over and over you may deprive yourself of some essential nutrient and then you may have frank psychiatric symptoms. It is possible.

Perfidy, Qur’anic Apostasy or Hermeneutics? A Weltanschauung solves all the problems of existence uniformly on the basis of one overriding hypothesis leaving no question unanswered. In Science uniformity of explanation of universe is assumed but not as a completed task rather as a programme which furnishes progressively more accurate version of truth. While Science is doing its work the truth is known approximately and that state of affairs remains in Science forever. Therefore, the term “Scientific Weltanschauung” is oxymoron.

Religion tries to give a Weltanschauung; a complete system of thought. Since the birth of Science even a littlest acceptance of science’s methods is bound to lead to rejection of any Weltanschauung type of thinking.

An Empire in the Making Brilliant Delusion

The Violent Face of South Asia Re: # 144

I am not trying to justify anything. In 1984 it was Indira Gandhi murder by one of her sikh guards had caused the reaction of riots. You should learn to accept such objective facts.

Afterwards KPS Gill caused many more deaths which would properly qualify the characterization of cold blooded murder. Do you know about those murders? Those murders were comparable to holocaust killings. Holocaust killings cannot be compared to reactionary mob violence.

``Collective punishment blah blah``

Now you are putting words into my mouth.

Continued killings of ethnic Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh right from independence onward is going to induce some Indians to adopt a tit for tat attitude which finds easy vent during times like 1984, 1993, 2002 et al. Learn to accept it.

The Violent Face of South Asia 1984, 1993, 2002 et al were all reaction. Holocaust was not a reaction. So one cannot compare Rajiv and Narendra to Adolf.

The Violent Face of South Asia Violence in Gujarat *was* a reaction to Godhra incident. Period. And that is an objective view.

India Did Not Kick Us Out I do not know Kermani`s history. But she is entitled hold her opinion about there being many curbs in Pakistan. May be there are winds of change blowing in Pakistan. May be she thinks the change has not really happened. Based on her own experience may be she thinks there is really no change at all. She should not be expected to check what major or minor art event was happening ``within hours`` before she expresses her fixed belief that Pakistan has many curbs on art. Art is elitist thing and any artist would feel suffocated if his or her experience is oppressive. In Pakistan Mullahs have too much say in what artists can or cannot do. Anyone like Kermani would feel oppressed by such environment. Frankly speaking Pakistanis give too much ``bhaav`` to Mullahs. That is for sure and noone will contest that.

Culture Cloning My mother tongue is neither Marathi nor Hindi (it is Gujarati), so what I write below may be in error.

Both Marathi and Hindi are written in Devnagari script. But the character which stands for `jha` in Hindi is actually spoken by speakers of Marathi as `za`. So for example a Marathi speaker would read `jharnaa` as `zarnaa`.

Gujarati language has same script as Marathi except for the way it is written. This is why entire text of any Marathi writing can be written in Gujarati script by mechanically replacing character for character. (Some ligatures look closer to the Hindi writing style than Marathi. For example, -rya- in `aarya` will be written differently in Marathi and Hindi, with Gujarati writing being closer to Hindi)

We Gujaratis who do not know that Hindi `jha` is not `za` pronounce words with `jh` with sound `z`. Same is true about Marathis. It was only in university that I met a north Indian who had lived in Gujarat during his childhood who informed me of my error. This north Indian was son of a Railway worker who was posted in Gujarat for sometime. So his dad had to teach him (and possibly his Hindi teacher) the correct pronunciation of -jha-.

Marathi and Gujarati has a character which is missing in Hindi. It is transliterated for Tamil and Malayalam languages as -zh-. For example, Anbazhagan is a name in Malayalam. (Please here also somebody please correct me if I am wrong). Probably Tamil has several varieties of -zh-. In fact Tamil is transliteration of word Tamizh. It is mis-transliterated probably because Hindi does not have -zh-. Most words with -zh- in Gujarati also exist in Hindi but there they are written with -l- in place where -zh- is there in Gujarati word. For example, `baazhak` means child and in Hindi it is written as `baalak`. Another example is: `kazhash` which means `lota` is written in Hindi as kalash (a Lata sung song is: jyoti kalash chhalake...).

In drawing genelogical tree of languages existence of sound is more surer test than words. Words can be imported but sounds and speaking styles cannot be. For example, if ancient Hindi did not have baalak then it might have been imported from south (say from Marathi or any of south Indian languages) or west (Gujarati or some African/Arabic source). Once we find baazhak in in ancient Gujarati and baalak in modern Hindi we cannot argue that baalak in Hindi is imported from Gujarati. That is because written record is fragmentary. We may think since no ancient record of Hindi exists showing usage of baalak that it is an import. But another possibility is missing record. It may be other way round. That baalak existed in Hindi and then migrated to Gujarat or Maharashtra where locals started pronouncing it as baazhak. Like in Marathi Hospital is written as ispitazha (am I wrong? please correct me if I am)

I think so reality is that in absence of any real insurmountable boundary words can flow both ways. We may argue that patronage of ruling class is important but there is a possibility that rulers want to strengthen local tongues because they want support of ruled rather than impose ruler`s language on ruled and alienate them.

Culture Cloning Some remixes are really works of art. I have a couple of VCD (made in Pakistan I think) of oldies like Saiyyaa.n Dill Mein Aanaa Re, Aake Phir Naa Jaanaa Re (original singer Shamshad Begum), Tere Naseeb Mein Mein Hun Ke Naheen, Mere Naseeb Mein Tu Hai Key Naheen (original singer Asha Bhosle?), etc. These are really good. But most remixes are vulgar and full of suggestive movements. Some day these good ones will be classics.

The Ground Beneath Pakistan’s Feet Helicopters are not F16`s. They cannot be given without pilots. And what guarantee is there you will return them? Mushy, you are such a loser.