Political Researcher & Columnist. Words
@ttindia @the_hindu @timesofindia @Diplomat_APAC @nytopinion
Email Syasimal@gmail.com
Jan 16 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
This old piece of news about a Meghalaya woman ejected from Delhi Golf club for "looking like a maid" reminded me of a memory from our PSU township, an ideological representation of Nehruvian dream of modern India. I was having dinner with a kid (Nepali kid, son of the house-help
whose quarters was attached to our home. Of course, the house came with a bell so that the owner could summon their assigned helps by pressing a button, like a good English slave owner. Anyway, i was having dinner with him at the "officers club", my parents were away. There was
Jan 15 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I think the present time might serve as ample evidence that for a large section of Hindus (contrary to minorities) faith comes before the nation. I know this might seem counterintuitive to most people raised within a Hindu middle class sensibility. So let me briefly explain
The normative assumption in the statement is that by nation we mean the constitutional republic of India, as forged during the colonial struggle. After all, the concept of a modern nation did not exist before colonialism. Any imaginative connection beyond that to the modern
Jun 8, 2022 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
I have come across this statement often, and it troubles me because it is meant to do precisely what it claims to refuse: establish a claim of superiority. In other words, Hindusim represents a superior philosophical outlook because of its universality of paths to God.
And it further posits the Hindu view of religious tolerance- believing all religious paths have the same validity- as the only true and universal notion of religious tolerance. This paradoxical gambit opens up Christianity and Islam to charges of being fundamentally intolerant.
Dec 21, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
It's quite interesting how Curb your Enthusiasm is liked by people across the political spectrum while Manu Joseph's Decoupled is so polarising and seems to have generated a following mostly among the RW. Having seen both the shows, I think there's a simple reason behind this.
Both shows tackle contentious subjects and use it for their gags. Race, gender, religion is a running theme in Curb. But for Larry David, the object is to mine the awkwardness around these issues for comedy, to explore the lines between different divides. Whereas for Decoupled
May 27, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Since I see many strong disagreements, let me clarify: India maintained a liberal and democratic form for so long because of an enlightened group of post-colonial elites who gave the country a strong institutional framework of negotiation between groups, and followed through.
Unlike other South Asian nations, the leadership made no attempt to force through a singular idea of the nation or dominance of an ethnic group. What Stepan, Linz, and Y Yadav called the "state-nation" model. And it's not just about the Constitutional framework. The institutions
May 19, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This is the most plausible explanation- the BJP created a fake Covid document on the template of an authentic Central Vista document. Like effective propaganda, it mixes the authentic with the fake, judging that most people don't have the bandwidth to separate the two.
Most ordinary people consume political news at the surface level. Not many have the time or inclination to go into the details of every political controversy. The function of propoganda is to make incendiary claims backed by evidence that appear to have some markers if truth
May 18, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
A lot of anti-Muslim violence on the ground in this belt of North India comes from Gujjar and Jat youth. The steady Hindutvaisation of these middle peasant castes over last few decades is interesting because they have had intimate socio-economic ties with Muslims
going back centuries. There are a lot of Muslim Gujjars and Muslim Jats and they have jointly supported Hindu leaders of these castes. Charan Singh's MAJGAR coalition also had Muslims in a coalition with Jats and Gujjars. Both these castes claim martial traditions and Kshatriya
May 15, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
'Public memory is short' is a one of those cliches of political commentary, but what constitutes public memory is shaped by politics. The BJP constructs its politics based on events going back decades, if not centuries. What are short are news cycles, and therefore effective
politics is not driven by news cycles. People forgot demonetisation, because once the BJP stopped talking about it, opposition parties did too. Don't remember anyone talking about it 2019. You have to drill issues into public memory by constant repetition. The BJP dosen't let its
Apr 29, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
It is true that the middle class is the most loyal vote bank of Modi & has consistently supported him against their economic interests. But what's happened in the pandemic (for the moment) is much more fundamental- it is the stark devaluation of their enormous relative privilege.
The middle classes have shown themselves willing to forego losses in savings and bear additional taxes for ideological purposes. But what every ruling class in India (including the current one) has guaranteed to the middle classes is that in a country teeming with people they
Mar 1, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In American politics, there has long been the "beer test" (which politician would you like to have a beer with?). And usually the more 'relatable',/'nicer'/'authentic' candidate does have a significant advantage in elections. In Indian politics, though, I think
the relatability factor is of pretty low importance, and people gravitate towards tough, larger than life characters who can either "protect the interests of/ get resources for my community" or "push through the system to get things done". It's more along the axis of
Dec 31, 2020 • 19 tweets • 3 min read
Watching the images from Mandasur of the attack on the mosque & the almost daily persecution of Muslims under the so called love jihad law, a few thoughts on why the violence against Muslims will get much worse and why a societal reckoning that can stop it is nowhere in sight.
The anti Muslim violence has now become routine and normalised, and has enormous political and institutional backing. There is little counter-narrative challenging it. Such violence dosent recede on its own, it is driven by its own internal logic. All that happens is that the
Aug 9, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
There was never an India where being a religious Hindu was anything to be apologetic about. There was one where Hindutva was viewed negatively though. Unlike a religious Muslim, a religious Hindu never had a problem/disability:
1) Renting a house 2) Dealing with the police (1/n)
3) Dealing with discrimination in getting a formal job. 4) Worrying about what is in his/her tiffin 5) Getting into high political office. Many PMs wore their religion on their sleeve, from Indira Gandhi to PVN Rao. The revered 'father of the nation' was a very religious Hindu.
Jun 12, 2020 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
Lalu's rule irrevocably broke the stranglehold of Brahmins, Bhumihars, Rajputs & Kayasths on Bihar politics. It provided a sense of dignity & equality to tens of millions of people, which is why they kept voting him back.Threads like these are a very distorted UC perspective(1/n)
Upper caste views are blinkered because they extrapolate from their own feelings of loss and portray Lalu's rule as a lost era for Bihar. They always voted heavily against Lalu at the time, but it didn't matter. Lalu's era represented the culmination
