India’s Genetic History

A Nature article partially tracing the genetic history of Indian populations was published September 24:

Original Nature article (abstract): Reconstructing Indian Population History – Reich et. al. – 2009

An HSPH news release: New Research Reveals the Ancestral Populations of India and Their Relationships to Modern Groups

Sounds like rich fodder for the Aryan Invasion Theory debate.  But the more serious consequence has good news and bad news: quoting from the abstract,

there will be an excess of recessive diseases in India, which should be possible to screen and map genetically

I thought the first line of the abstract is pretty important too:

India has been underrepresented in genome-wide surveys of human variation.

Hopefully said underrepresentation will cease!

Microsoft Bags Maharashtra

Here’s yet another diabolical move by Microsoft: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4908445.cms.

According to the article:

The government of Maharashtra has signed an MoU with Microsoft India, which will provide training in information technology to school teachers. Microsoft will also help build “employability-readiness skills” in junior college students.

Reading between the lines, Microsoft will indoctrinate teachers and students in the use of Microsoft products.  What this really is is an ultra low-cost captive marketing cum indoctrination opportunity for Microsoft.  Schools in Maharashtra will now boast Microsoft acolytes who will diss other operating systems, search engines and email providers because to their Microsoft-educated minds and Microsoft-tinted eyes, Windows will be the only OS worth using, Bing will be the only search engine worth using, and Hotmail will be the only free email service worth using.  Several entire generations of Maharashtra students will grow up ignorant of anything else.

India and the US: Current Disagreements

Nice Rediff article on three major points of difference between India and the US at this point of time.

The first point:

The United States wants developing countries such as India and China to agree to control the emissions being produced by their rapidly growing economies, setting time-bound targets to this effect.

Yet India argues that this would hurt its economic growth and wants the industrialised world to curb its pollution as well as fund new technologies in the developing world by underlining that it has one of lowest emissions per capital (sic).

The man-on-the-street in America certainly shares the Obama administration’s views on the topic; much casual disgust is directed towards India (and China) on this topic.  India’s main statistic is the per-capita figure, while America’s is the whole-country figure.  Which is right?  The American viewpoint (and indeed any viewpoint which ignores the per-capita calculation) has the usual element of “one American is worth several Indians” in it.  OTOH ignoring the whole-country figure and focusing only on the per-capita figure is almost an incentive for irresponsible population growth.  (Another issue like this: freezing U.P.’s representation in the Lok Sabha.)

The second issue is agriculture-related and led to the collapse of the Doha talks:

The US has suggested that developing nations such as India need to provide greater market access for the [Doha] talks to advance.

India argues that it cannot compromise on food security and livelihood concerns even as the US and the EU remain resistant to scale down their own agricultural subsides for fear of offending their well-entrenched domestic farm lobbies.

On the face of it, both countries are wrong: each wants to other to do something without reciprocating.  There are deeper concerns on both sides, with the long-term strategic fallout very hazy.  Fears about sacrificing food security to another country probably play a role.

The third issue is nuclear, with the West practically reversing its position as soon as Obama came to power:

The recent G-8 statement … “contained in the NSG’s ‘clean text’ developed at the 20 November 2008 Consultative meeting” came as a major surprise for India.

The Obama Administration cannot make meaningful progress on its non-proliferation agenda unless it brings India into the fold of the global non-proliferation regime.

Delhi fears … a particularly restrictive reading of the text [under Obama].

There’s no doubt that, while Bush was viewed negatively globally and within thinking circles in the US, his tenure was a great boon for India.  Obama is back to the traditional U.S. viewpoint, reversing all that and positioning closer to Pakistan.  India is playing a delicate game here.  There are some who want a major expansion of the “nuclear club” and others who want the status quo.  India is going against both these camps: we want the status quo modified to include us, but not anyone else.  Worse, we want to do it without signing the NPT.

India – Australia

There has recently been a spate of racially motivated attacks against Indians in Australia.  This is an example of Indian reporting on the subject.  Google news India has more than 1000 articles on the subject, with every major English language newspaper reporting various details of the attacks, the subsequent protests, interviews with Indian students in Australia, and statements from various students and Australian politicians.

Out of curiosity, I went to google news Australia, to see what the Aussies think about all this.  Not too surprisingly, I found: nothing.  I found something about a party, some birds dying, and a whole bunch of other things.  I went down the list of articles to see whether there was anything India related. Finally, I saw ONE article on India and clicked on it.  False alarm: it was about an Aussie tourist who had died a natural death in India (but the Aussie press sounded like they wanted it to be a murder).

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there are racially motivated attacks in Australia.

Indian Elections: A Disappointing Lack of Information

One disappointing characteristic of the incredible Indian electoral process is the lack of information on the results.  What makes people vote for or against a particular candidate?  What are the major issues people care about?  What matters to people in various parts of the country?  Do parliamentarians have high approval ratings among their own constituents?  Are people voting for policies or parties?  Do people like the party they voted for, or just dislike all the others?  Such information is simply never gathered.  This non-gathering of information has been going on for ages.

In countries like the USA, a lot of such information comes from the media.  Unfortunately, the media isn’t quite doing its job in India.  Over the years, we’ve seen what amounts to idle speculation in the media about these things.  Journalists say something based on their limited contact with the public or their prejudices, and make predictions.  Then all the journalists get proven wrong when the elections actually happen, shake their heads, say things are hard to predict, and again make equally bad predictions the next year.

What are the reasons for this lack of information?  I can think of multiple possible reasons, though I have no idea which of these are the real ones.

First, resources.  You need money and trained manpower.  I imagine money flows freely for the Indian media; it certainly doesn’t seem like they are facing a funds crunch.  Trained manpower would be more of a problem.  They need people who know how to ask questions in a neutral, non-leading fashion.  I think it’s  mostly a manpower problem: it’s hard to muster the massive resources required when the channels are already in a frenzy and stretched to their limits during election season.  And if they do get the required manpower, it would have to be on a temporary basis, which implies a massive recruitment exercise for temps at the beginning of each election season.

Second, audience interest.  In politically participatory countries like the USA, television audiences have an appetite for analyses based on such data.  It is well-known that political participation is low in India, even though a very large number of people vote. So maybe there isn’t much incentive for the news channels to gather such data.  However, I’d think it’s part of the media’s responsibility to educate audiences and bring about greater involvement in the political debates.

Third, journalistic standards are disappointingly low in India.  Newspapers often can’t be bothered to perform even basic proofreading, let alone verifying the facts or collecting evidence.  A general attitude of apathy among our journalists may also be to blame.

Finally, does it make sense to blame it all on the media?  Perhaps such things should be part of the Election Commission’s responsibilities, with guaranteed independent funding.

Widespread Celebration of Islamic Festivals?

Vikram asked an interesting question: people of all religions in India seem to celebrate Hindu festivals like Diwali and Holi, and Christian festivals like Christmas.  Why then don’t people generally celebrate Muslim festivals like Eid? The article had some great theories in the comments.  Here are some interesting points that I agree with, I just wanted to note them down:

1. Muslim festivals are not as commercial as Christian and Hindu festivals, which induce shopping seasons.  So there’s a lot more marketing for Hindu and Christian festivals.
2. Muslim festivals lack the element of outward show (which festivals such as Diwali, Holi, Christmas have), which makes it harder to “celebrate” them.
3. Indians study in Christian missionary schools a lot, so Christian festivals have become familiar.
4. Hindus are mindful of historical injustices committed against them by Muslims.
5. Why not ask the same question about Buddhist (and Sikh, though I think they’re a little more mainstream) festivals?
6. (In a post by a Muslim) A form of exclusivity applies; Muslims are interested in celebrating their festivals only with those who believe in Allah the creator and Mohammed as a prophet.
7. We interact mostly in school, college, the workplace; there are very few Muslim women in those arenas, so it’s harder to learn about Muslim festivals.

Advani vs. the Congress PR Machine

In what looks like a carefully orchestrated series of moves designed by an ad agency, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Manmohan Singh recently began coordinated attacks against Advani.  The Gandhi family is obviously trying to protects its own grip on power; Manmohan, unfortunately, is an academic who has had a politician’s role thrust upon him, a role he is ill suited for.

Advani apparently started it by calling Manmohan Singh weak and without authority.

This apparently either enraged or alarmed the Congress Trinity.  The sheer variety and breadth of statements the Congress folk have made against Advani is surprising.  They’ve called Advani weak, claimed he is a slave of the RSS, said he’s a man of words and not action, and that he has no achievements.

But here’s the thing: whatever he is or isn’t, Advani is patently not any of those things.  And it’s equally obvious Manmohan has been installed by Sonia Gandhi and her children, who hold the only real power in the Congress party.  This perception is so strong that it’s become the topic of jokes in the popular media.

I thought the most interesting statement, though, was when Sonia said Advani had no accomplishments.  This, coming from a lady whose sole accomplishment is her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi.  A sense of irony is seriously lacking.

Andhra Workers and the IT Industry

A couple of days ago, I came across this article on Rediff about Patni computers ripping off its employees by failing to pay them dues that were owed to them.  The article itself was somewhat shocking, but such happenings are neither new nor surprising.  (And I don’t know whether this instance is true.)  What really interested me was the discussion in the comments at the bottom of the article.

Now I don’t normally read comments on Rediff or the Indian Express because they seem to be the prime place for people to anonymously vent their most politically incorrect thoughts.  This article is no different.  Some comments supported the company, saying that workers dupe companies about their experience and try to jump ship after being taken to America.  Others said it’s the companies’ fault for employing harassment and other heavy-handed tactics against their workers.  But a huge proportion of the comments were about something else: a phenomenon I hadn’t been so strongly aware of before: anti-Telugu sentiment.

Through the years, I’ve come across a variety of perceptions about various groups because I’ve always lived in the midst of a slightly different culture.  I am Telugu by birth, but have lived in Calcutta for most of my life.  Lately, it is in the US.  So I’ve always been aware of misconceptions and stereotypes about Indians, “South Indians” and Telugu speakers.  While I lived in Calcutta, though, this was mostly good-natured misunderstanding.  People from various other parts of India, though, seem to have stronger opinions.  North Indians, for example, seem to view South Indians as “simple” folk: the way Europeans viewed “natives”.  It’s not specific, it’s not targeted at individuals.  It is a perception of South Indian culture as a whole.  (I should say I personally think South India is way too diverse to be treated as a single culture.)

But the comments on this article were different.  Here’s a precis of the reasons for the negativity about Telugu IT industry workers: They fake credentials in order to secure jobs.  Academics, experience, and capabilities on their resume are fake or heavily inflated.  They use such fake resumes to gain an unfair advantage over everybody else.  They are often caught out and bring disrepute to Indian IT workers.

I know from personal experience that there is a percentage of Telugu workers for whom this is true.  I don’t work in IT, but know several people who do — and know some Telugu people who have faked credentials.  (I also know several non-Telugu people who have faked credentials.)  Not only do they do it, they strenuously defend doing it.  So, why do they do it?

It’s my theory (and this applies to non-Andhra people as well) that this happens wherever you have smart people who lack opportunities.  It is not a failure of the people, but of the system.  Most Andhra students are bright,  but they are simply one among several million.  EAMCET and the engineering system in AP don’t give students the opportunity to distinguish themselves in any way.  Apart from a very few, all of the hundreds of thousands of colleges are the same.

Maybe this is the only way for people to escape, to assert their individuality, to be somebody or something other than an unrecognized cog among millions of other cogs.

The Great Indian Dream

A lot has been written about the Great American Dream.  I’m not sure what it is, but I think it’s got something to do with “making it”, becoming what you want to become, pursuing whatever happiness means to you successfully.

Is there an Indian equivalent?  I think so.  For many Indians, the Great Indian Dream is to go to America and pursue the Great American Dream.

Pakistan

Pakistan is in a state of complete denial about the Mumbai attacks, politically and socially.  A large number, maybe even a majority, of Pakistanis believe the Mumbai attacks were orchestrated by “Hindus”.  (Pakistani collective psychology often treats religious and racist collectives like “Hindus”, “Jews” and “black skinned people” as single organizations.)  This grotesque position has saturated the Pakistani press and airwaves until even Zardari, who a few days ago accepted Pakistan’s responsibility for the non-state actors, has retracted and again believes the terrorists were not of Pakistani origin.  Various middle eastern countries have started saying similar things.  Various Pakistanis, from the grassroots all the way up to Zardari, constantly demand proof that the attackers were Pakistani.  Yet, far from cooperating, the Pakistanis are doing everything within their power to hinder investigations: refusing to allow investigators to interview any suspects, refusing to take any meaningful action against terrorist organizations.  It is fairly obvious that all of this is a facade.

A lot has been said about convincing Pakistan to “move” against its terrorist installations.  But this is not something Pakistan is willing to do.  Terrorism and nukes are the only aces Pakistan holds.  Nukes play a deterrent role, but don’t actively get Pakistan anything.  Terrorism is Pakistan’s golden goose: a self-maintaining weapon that can be relied on when Pakistan needs it, and also the reason Pakistan gets billions of dollars from America. Without terrorism, there is no reason for any country other than China to engage with Pakistan.  (Pakistan’s position vis-a-vis India would be weakened to the point that even China may lose interest.) There is no chance that Pakistan will give up terrorism — unless the cost is too high.

Various solutions to the problem have been proposed.  Military solutions are not really meaningful, since there is too much potential for things going wrong.  I think the best solution is isolation.  The international community must take steps to hurt Pakistan financially and culturally, and hurt it badly enough that it needs to reconsider terrorism.  India must use its diplomatic sources to push for such steps.

India took one step in the right direction today by canceling a month-long cricket tour of Pakistan, a move which the PCB says will deprive it of about $25 million.  However, the Sri Lankans immediately agreed to tour Pakistan in place of India.  This move by Sri Lanka is tantamount to supporting Pakistan politically at this time.  India must lobby Sri Lanka to cancel the tour.  Instead, India and Sri Lanka could have a series: a move which will generate more revenue for SLC than it could hope to get from the Pakistan series.  And with the recently promised Indian support to the Sinhala government against the LTTE, it is clear that if Sri Lanka expects India to condemn its militants, Sri Lanka must reciprocate by snubbing regimes that support terrorism.  Countries like Australia have already declined to play in Pakistan.  For a subcontinental country, starving it of cricket is a very effective way of sending a signal.

Next, trade sanctions are essential.  In the current atmosphere of global financial gloom, this may be a hard thing to get other countries to do.  However, India must prevail on Western countries to walk the talk.  Lip service is soothing to the soul, but it doesn’t really help.  India would suffer as well if it imposed trade sanctions on Pakistan, as would other countries.  This is why it is important to share the burden: a large group of countries imposing trade sanctions on Pakistan would spread the cost to other countries and intensify the cost to Pakistan.  The USA has enormous influence in the middle east.  While the middle eastern countries may never impose sanctions on Pakistan, they could perhaps be persuaded not to come to Pakistan’s aid.  America could also be persuaded to reconsider its weapons sales to Pakistan.

This is the right time to tighten the screws.  A few more months, and the window of opportunity will pass us by.  The only question is, will the Congress government be able to do it?  Or will their sympathies lie with Pakistan?