Re: [mukto-mona] Partition: Panorama of the Indian history and Human tragedies

I believe only a word, not a phrase, can have antonyms by definition. "False statement" is a phrase. I hope a grammarian can help us.

 

It is practically impossible to stand in the middle between a Hitler and a Gandhi in order to strike a balance. The case of Hindus vs. Muslims, for example, is quite different. Any sensitive issue should be discussed in a balanced manner. This is required to do justice to both the sides. Hitler does not need any justice or compassion, Gandhi needs. It would be great if critics of a religion come from within, not outside. This minimizes the chance of being branded as a communalist.  

From: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Partition: Panorama of the Indian history and Human tragedies

 

I thought I was pretty good in vocabulary. But I surely am confused with the comparison between the words "statement" and "opinion." An opinion is a statement, and a statement could very well be an opinion. "Statement" and "opinion" are not antonymous to each other. In fact, there is no real antonym of either "statement" or "opinion." Of course, "true statement" would be antonymous to "false statement", and "good opinion (judgment)" would be antonymous to "bad opinion (judgment)." The way I see it, good judgments (opinions) are vital for the progress of the human civilization. I certainly have a lot of respect for good judgments (opinions).

 

In any case, going back to the subject matter here, standing at the mid-point between religious hate-mongering and secularism may be balanced by some definitions, but it is neither fair nor respectable. This kind of balancing acts has been impeding progress in the world.

 

Looks like I have ignored the change in the headline of the thread here. I am actually not interested in lamenting the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. That partition would not have been a long-term problem if Pakistan had enough leaders, intellectuals and people to engage in a competition with India on secularism as the motto of the state.

 

So, this is the end of my writing on this thread.

 

Sukhamaya Bain

 

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From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, May 7, 2012 7:41 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Partition: Panorama of the Indian history and Human tragedies

 

My personal observation is that - Mr. Subimal Chakraborty wants to be fair and balanced. To achieve this goal, he often dilutes the truth. He rarely takes a strong position on anything, possibly, out of apprehension that someone might get offended by his statements. To me - he usually gives statements, not opinions.  Jiten Roy   --- On Mon, 5/7/12, Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Partition: Panorama of the Indian history and Human tragedies To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> Date: Monday, May 7, 2012, 6:20 PM   Mr. Subimal Chakrabarty's comments below have two irrational and untenable balancing acts.   His point #3 sounds like the complete reversal of the Hindu-Muslim ratios in the cities and towns of Pakistan was due to the Hindus leaving their home voluntarily, and that most of them were businessmen, teachers, doctors and lawyers.   The facts were: 1) Pakistan was hostile to the Hindus, that is why the Hindus left involuntarily; and 2) most of the Hindus (95% of the population) in a city like Karachi could not have been businessmen, teachers, doctors and lawyers; Pakistan has uprooted all kinds of Hindus from their home of centuries.   The first part of his point #4 sounds too disingenuous. He really needs to stop his absurd attempts of finding similar trends in India. From India, the Muslim migration to Pakistan happened only during the turbulent time of the partition. India has not been hostile to its Muslims over the last 65 years, and the migration of Muslims from India to Pakistan stopped shortly after the partition in 1947. The Muslim fanatics of Bangladesh, many of them pose as secular, talk about communal riots in India, really to justify what they have been doing in Pakistan and Bangladesh; what they do not talk about is that the system in India has kept the Muslims of that land strong enough even to start riots against the Hindus.   As for the educated people among the so-called schedule caste Hindu people in Bangladesh, Mr. Chakrabarty needs to learn that from among that class of people the ones that migrated to India got the opportunity to produce many more PhDs, doctors, engineers, etc. All indications are that they would have done far better without the partition of India in 1947. In spite of their foolish decision to join Pakistan in 1947, India even had a problem of unduly favoring the underclass, due to which many so-called high-caste Hindus would seek fraudulent means of getting schedule caste certificates for themselves, in order to get admitted to professional schools and in order to get jobs.   Nobody said, 'independence of Bangladesh has done us nothing'. Under any measurement, Bangladesh has been better than Pakistan for all kinds of its citizens. Bangladesh has improved the life of the Muslims of the land tremendously. Even the Hindus, in spite of the hatred and discrimination against them in Bangladesh, have done many times better than what could be expected had the land remained a part of Pakistan. However, as Mr. Chakrabarty seems to have pointed out (not very clearly), so far Bangladesh has failed to deliver the expectations of reductions of disparity, communalism and persecution against the non-Muslims of the land.   Sukhamaya Bain   =========================================================== From: subimal chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com> To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, May 6, 2012 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Partition: Panorama of the Indian history andhHuman tragedies,   1. Jinnah was stubborn, Nehru was impatient, and the British were in a hurry and left almost every thing in a mess. Gandhi was helpless and resorted to seclusion. And the greatest blunder in the history of India occurred. Immediately after partition, India was on the verge of being a failed state. Soldiers of South Indian orgin had to be deployed to contain the communal violence that erupted. Good thing is that India survived the turmoil thanks to the secular, efficient, and visionary elements in the party. Gandhi's assassination turned out to be a boon as Hindu fanatics got cornered in Indian politics for a while.   2. I agree that Hindu caste-ism had a lot to do with the panoramic change in India's political geography and demography. Jagajivan Ram wanted to defer independence of India by a decade. Jogen Mondal became the trump card for Muslim League and thereby created his own political death and personal tragedy (a good account has been provided in a recent historical novel titled "Barishaler Jogen Mondal" (about a 1100-page book) by a prominent WB writer named Debesh Roy.    3. As regards complete reversal of Hindu-Muslim population ratios in Pakistan, I think it was generally true for for all cities and towns. The small town I was raised in had only a handful of Muslims (all professionals) even in late fifties. The reasons include the fact that businessmen, teachers, doctors, lawyeras, etc. came from caste Hindus. They started leaving for India creating a big vacuum.   4. Similar trends could be found in the Indian states (Bihar, Nagaland, etc.) which have indigenous people as the majority. That is one of the fruits of independence that less privileged sections of the population enjoyed. I do not have the proper statistics. But I see a huge number of educated people with highest degrees including PH.D among the scheduled caste population in Bangladesh. We sometimes get carried away with frustration and try to believe that independence of Bangladesh has done us nothing. If we look at the statistics, we should be convinced that economically, socially, and culturally, the Bengalis in general have achieved a lot. What has not happened is the reduction of disparity, corruption, communal-ism, persecutions, and injustice. Probably in some areas things have become worse.      =====================================================

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