DEMOCRACY DYING IN INDIA AND FASCISM TAKING BIRTH

By Promod Puri

Fascism is a system that is run or led by a dictator who has full power in every aspect of a nation. To achieve and maintain that hold, a fascist ruler suppresses any opposition and criticism. A false sense of aggressive nationalism and patriotism gets developed and promoted. Racism and xenophobia are encouraged in a dictatorial environment.

That is a typical explanation or scenario of a nation under fascist rule. In the contemporary world, despite being still democratic, we find shades of authoritarian governments having essential control over their peoples and institutions. For that reason, these nations fit very well as fascists regimes. But to the world as well as their citizens, such governments put on a democratic or socialist mask.

Under the fake democratic outfit, resides the modern version of fascism where almost all the elements of dictatorial control are present. Fear factor gets liberal infusion to weed out voices of dissent.

Bureaucratic and democratic institutions are restrained and corrupted. Manipulated elections decide the results before the polls take place. Religious sentiments of the majority community become a handy tool to suppress the minorities. Bribed, threatened, and intimidated media sit on the lap of the fascist ruler, ever ready as a mouthpiece of the government.

A network of social media goes full swing for the manufacturing and distribution of false and propagated news and views that are efficiently spread within the country and globally.

Judiciary, election commission, media, and statistics are some of the most operative integrals of democracy, that keep it authoritative, functional, dynamic, and accountable. But when any or all these systems are damaged, corrupted, compromised, or abused, democracy collapses, and fascism emerges.

India is one of those countries where signs of this new version of fascism are quite discernable and visible. Knowingly or unknowingly, fascists developments are fast taking place for power's sake as there is practically no active and creditable opposition either.

All the democratic fundamentals have been brazenly as well as subtly fiddled with shrewd politics of religious fanaticism, fear, threats, murders, fake police raids, intrusions, and influences in the media, obstructions, and interference in the bureaucracy, and deceptive claims of accomplishments.

The autonomous, independent, and credible status of the democratic establishments have been defaced and undermined.

Cracking down on free speech, threats, murders of writers, dissident lawyers, and judges, frequent imprisonment of protesting students constitute the new and dreadful feeling of the current political climate in the country.

And once all these developments take roots and become a new norm, fascist India would destroy the very spirit and fabric of the nation as a free, secular, and a multi-racial society. Democracy dies, and fascism takes birth.

MY SCHOOL TEACHER’S BRUTALITY

As often said, what I had for dinner yesterday or the day before, I do not remember. But some incidents that happened years ago are vividly embedded in our cumulative memory power.

It was one of those summer months when the daily regime begins with the early morning wake up just by one call from our father. I was only six or seven years old, and the first activity of the day was going to the river on the outskirts of the city. The walk was two or three miles from our house. It was a stiff recreation but had to endure each morning.

Rushing back home, getting ready, and having a quick breakfast, I had to be at the school precisely at 7 O’clock. And I made it every day from Monday to Friday.

But one day, for some reason, I was late, not very much, maybe 10 minutes. My grade 1 class was on; I entered the classroom quietly, head down, and sat on my floor rug place.

The moment I sat, the teacher, addressed as Masterji, called me up and asked why I was late. Before I could gather words to express myself, he gave me a hefty slap on my tender little face.

I accepted the punishment at that age of my life. Perhaps, I learned a lesson too. Later in life, I felt it wasn’t kind on the part of Masterji. But that used to be the custom or common practice by teachers to slap young students, beat their palms with a cane, or make them sit in a weird and painful position with hands going through legs and holding on to both the ears.

Physically harsh punishments for young kids in their tender ages was a practice that I would now call it teachers’ brutality. And for me, I would never forget that slap.

-Promod Puri

Do We Care About Statues

Last Sunday, June 7, it was a cheering feeling for me when the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol got pulled down as a result of the killing of George Floyd by the police in the US.

The act was a symbolic disgrace to the man who made fortunes by selling and exporting African slaves to America. The slave trader might have contributed his ill-earned wealth to educational institutions, but his profession was inhumane and certainly not worth to be honored with a statue.

I am against erecting statues in honor of or memory of public figures no matter how much their contributions to society are perceived. As time flows, more revelations emerge about them that are not either complementary to them or acceptable to the public as well. It is happening to the statues of Gandhi in South Africa.

Moreover, there is always the politics of statues. That involves cashing in on the sentiments of the public by the leaders. The new mammoth statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat state in India is an example.

Statues are expensive to build with public-funded money and are costly to maintain them daily. Otherwise, they are the perfect landing spots for birds to relieve themselves. Birds, indeed, love them but does the public care about them in the long run.

-by Promod Puri

NANAK DUKHIYA SABB SANSAR SO SUKHIYA JIS NAAM ADHAAR

NANAK DUKHIYA SABB SANSAR
SO SUKHIYA JIS NAAM ADHAAR

(Loosely translated: Nanak says life for everybody is suffering,
blissful is the one who has based his/her life on Him.)

It is a universal truth. Agony, misery, pain, suffering, both physical and emotional, and in all degrees of intensity are the realities of life experienced by all without exception.

In the bliss of peace and pleasure, we also pass through jitters of distress, grief, and worries. There is hardly any escape from these taxing, and unpleasant realities littered toward life’s end.

The sufferings could be innocently or naively self-inflicted, from fellow beings, or other causes. Elements of nature and the so-called fate also play minor or significant roles to accompany man’s lifelong journey through calamity and disaster.

Stresses and strains in our lives for one reason or the other give enough turbulences as a smooth ride to cover life’s journey becomes a rarity.

So, who is at absolute peace. Certainly nobody.

Can we redefine peace to accommodate tensions and sufferings that otherwise we cannot avert? Do we have to live with them?

In this pursuit to seek serenity and tranquility, let us re-evaluate and narrow down our understanding of that guiding force from whom, in desperation, we often quest for answers to our whys.

The guiding mover is the eternal spirit that, in the first place, buzz us for our acceptance of the adversity (Nanak calls it hukam razai ). The alert signal takes on a calamity with a calm mind, effectively and decisively, instead of being agitative or in panic.

We need not expect miracles from the Eternal Spirit.

But what we can expect with grace and dignity, is the courage and strength to tackle suffering.

Of course, this is not an easy exercise. Still, the utmost and unshaken faith in our resolve to accept and handle circumstances lead us to that sought-after perception. It is a solid base from where one can realize the Supreme power. Nanak calls that base “Adhaar.”

Regarding perception or understanding of the solid base, we can be more precise by setting aside for a moment, the most widespread assumption that God is a person. Instead, bring in another individuality and nature of His or Her as just a performing action.

So when we seek or gather courage and strength to handle any calamity or suffering and use those forces as part of our efforts, that very activity itself is a God in live manifestation.

And once that foundation or “Adhaar,” meaning God in the image of action, is recognized as the platform, from where to fight back and decrease distress and tribulation, then certainly with conviction one can get inspired to comprehend……………..

NANAK DUKHIYA SABB SANSAR
SO SUKHIYA JIS NAAM ADHAAR.

-By Promod Puri

PASSING THROUGH RACIST PASSAGE OUR HISTORY FROM HINDOOS TO SOUTH ASIAN CANADIANS

By Promod Puri

Insensitivity and ignorance have been part of Canada's racist history.

Immigrants, especially from the "visible minority" communities, not only faced racial discrimination in most aspects of their lives in Canada, but they could also discern reflections of bigotry and segregation in their labelings.

In the early part of the twentieth-century immigrants from the Indian subcontinent were all classified as "Hindoos."

Komagatamaru passengers dominated by Sikhs (340), Muslims (24), and Hindus (12) were all docketed as "Hindoos" by the authorities and the media of the time, including The Vancouver Sun. They were all British subjects, but the use of the misspelled word as "Hindoos" reveals both ignorance and ethnocentric arrogance.

The "Hindoo" entitlement carried on for a long time not only by the government and the media but by the Canadian public as well. And for a brief duration in the early '70s during the extreme racist period, especially in Europe, that here in Canada, Asian subcontinent migrants were stamped as "Pakis" by the born-racists Canadians of the redneck likes.

The tagging of immigrants as "Hindoos" and "Pakis" from the subcontinent was not merely for identification purposes, but in any event of hatred, the monikers often carried abusive connotations.

However, with more numbers filling the population, demography of Canada over the years, and with improved knowledge and understanding within the changing Canadian society that "Hindoos-Pakis" got some better grading in their designation.

The title "East Indian" was assigned, and that became prevalent in the overall multicultural Canadian population. This identification also distinguished migrants from India from Native Indians. The "East Indian" entitlement lasted till most of the recent times, but occasionally it is still being used.

As the nomenclature process continued, the next appellation was Indo-Canadian. This development happened although migrants were also coming to Canada from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc.

But the metamorphosis was significant as the community got the hyphen between "Indo" and Canadian. Canadians from most other multicultural communities were hyphenated too. The hyphen marked and recognized the distinctive cultural diversity of Canadian society.

However, there were ultra-nationalist Canadians, including some from the ethnic communities, who were against the hyphenated designation of Canadians. They were the ones who opposed Canada's multicultural entity. Instead, they sought a melting pot of all cultures to fancy a composite Canadian culture.

Till now, all the identification labels were assigned either by government authorities, media or the public in general but the scenario got changed. In the '70s, The Link newspaper(myself being its editor and publisher), along with several other groups representing immigrants from the sub-continent, took up the entitlement on themselves and started using South Asian Canadian expression.

Soon this designation got an easy acceptance, especially from all levels of government as they were also looking for the right term for all those immigrants with roots in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and other smaller states of the subcontinent.

The South-Asian-Canadian entitlement precisely and unequivocally represents all those new Canadians sharing related cultural, linguistic, and religious values of the region. They include as well immigrants not coming directly from South Asian countries but from all over the world with roots in the Indian subcontinent.

Under this banner lies the cultural and linguistic diversities of South Asia, besides representing a joint ethnic force that adds its chapter to fight for racist-free Canada.

- From PromodPuri.com

Humanization Of Countries, Viruses And Everything Else

by Promod Puri

Do we have to blame a nation or nations in their respective involvement and stake in initiating wars, battles, or violent conflicts rather than the individuals responsible for calling out to strike the fire?

Historically and down the road, we blame the nations and forget the leaders or rulers in their combating roles and catastrophic orders.
But this is how the human mind is architected to humanize nonhuman physical entities from countries to animals, political to religious concepts.

We're humanizing Coronavirus as "sneaky, "tricky," "merciless," "cruel," and "invisible enemy."
It is an innate tendency of human psychology that, according to 18th-century philosopher David Hume, "We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and… ascribe malice or good-will to everything, that hurts or pleases us."

Painter, philosopher Leonardo da Vinci saw humanism all around, in the random patterns of cracked walls, and the images of animals, plants, and landscapes.
Humanization of Disney World animal characters happens, so is the case with visuals in most children TV shows.

Human thought, action, religion, season, weather, are also personified, and given the gender, he or she. However, both Judaism and Islam reject a humanized deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension.

Human psychology to visualize everything relates to our senses to understand the nature of things in its most familiar way, and that is the human face.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, "the naming of hurricanes and storms — a practice that originated with the names of saints, sailors' girlfriends, and disliked political figures — simplifies and facilitates effective communication to enhance public preparedness, media reporting, and the efficient exchange of information."

The phenomenon, called anthropomorphism, is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to nonhuman entities.
The multifaceted nature of anthropomorphism makes things easy to relate and easy to apprehend. But it can also generate misrepresentation. It is a "source of error."
It is in this error or anthropomorphization; the real culprits who generate horrible or bloody events escape from the condemnation and punishment they deserve.

In the call out for sacrifice, nationalism, and patriotism, or just for "defense" battles are fought, soldiers fight and die, the accountability rests on humanized states, but not on the ruling leaders in the long run.

That is what happens on the world stage when nations, tribes, or communities get humanized, and the leading triggers of wars and conflicts recede into history as unscathed and unharmed culprits.
It has happened in the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, including the abuses in the Abu Gharib prison and Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Rwanda genocides. The initiators of these heinous conflicts are almost oblivion, replaced by the nations humanized as living biological entities.