Comments on: US Professor’s faulty logic blames Indian government for religious riots

By: gajanan

gajanan — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 04:22:09 +0000

Martha N was a colleague of Mr Know all , Prof Amartya Sen , probably at Harvard.
(http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=091806022325)
Senology must have been her source for this logic. Again , I digress, Sen effect. Sen called Panini an Afghan. You can now expect some goodness of fit to this blundering conjecture of Sen from Martha N. In second century BC did Afghanistan exist , was it called Afghanistan or by any other name. I would like the bloggers to do some research on what Afghanistan was called in 2nd century BC, as I am getting bored listening to more and more , on radio and TV on the bizarre activities of Panini’s descendants.

Panini was a Sanskrit Grammarian and if there was a Prize for Linguistics like the Nobel , I would call it Panini Prize

By: Rags

Rags — Fri, 05 May 2006 20:30:10 +0000

Sooraj and others,

The problem with academicians is that they are just that “academicians”, and more so when they comment about cultures and societies that they have only seen virtually (via books, online media, et al). What does Nassbaum know about the 1000 years of tyranny shown by the Islamic bigots to the Hindus? If she understood that, she would have come to, if not condone, understand the outrage that Hindus must have felt when the innocent Hindus were roasted alive in the Godhra massacre.

Besides, she is inaccurate on many counts in her post. Even though you are biased, at least you are not inacurrate.

And btw – Nassbaum seems to be one of those self-hating Jews (sadly there are quite a few of them in this country) who does not seem to be able to acknowledge the violence that Islam preaches. She is probably one of those hypocrites who think Islam is a religion of peace. From her vantage point, of course the Muslims were victims (as they always claim to be) in the Gujarat riots.

So I am with you on this one my friend.

Rags.

By: Indiblog India » Blog Archive » Indian democracy collapsed into Religious terror?

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 02:01:40 +0000

[...] Read my rebuttal to the first article; the second part by Martha Nussbaum. [...]

By: Sooraj

Sooraj — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:00:37 +0000

Allegations that my rebuttal is biased just as I have alleged Martha’s to be.

If that is how it comes across, then I do not want to defend it. However, the point is that outright support of one political party is not very professional in these kind of studies. Martha’s bias lies not only in the portrayal of events in India, but also in her canvassing for the Congress party!

By: Sig11

Sig11 — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 06:09:05 +0000

History is never black and white. While I do believe that Nussbaum is taking a simplistic view of the affair, you too seem to be biased in your presentation. For one, Nussbaum does clearly state that economic policies did play a *big* role in the defeat of the BJP at the general elections.

Your point that Nussbaum seems to glance over the Godhra train burning is indeed true and a bit disappointing.

You cite the attrocities commited against the Sikhs after the Indira Gandhi killing and try to potray Congress as being equally ‘bad’. But does that in any way negate what Nussbaum has stated?

By: anony

anony — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 23:10:18 +0000

You misstate Nussbaum’s claims and you yourself engage in wild assertions. To take one point, in response to the claim that the BJP was involved, at least at the state level, in perpetuating the violence, you state:
“Although there have been many wild allegations of this sort, none of them have any weight because the matter is currently sub-judice and so far there is not enough evidence to incriminate the Government.”

This is simply not true. You turn a blind eye to the words of Modi, the State Chief Minister. The RSS had plans in place, maps of Muslim neighborhoods and Muslim places of business. They wanted this to happen. Your national pride clouds your judgment. Ms. Nussbaum is guilty of making a simplistic claim that overreached, as those outside the society that they study often do, and fails to account for the complexity of Hindu-Muslim relations, but your response was based in emotion, not fact.

By: Sooraj

Sooraj — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:51:36 +0000

You are right in saying that it is “fantastic” to trust the Govt’s death toll when the Govt. itself is accused of involvement – but the fact is, while Martha Nussbaum accuses the BJP Govt. of aiding the riots, it is her favourite Congress Govt. that has released the statistics.

By: anon

anon — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:48:30 +0000

I don’t know enough about Indian history to straighten this all out, but I can at least say that you are equally biased in your reading of Nussbaum’s piece. For instance, she does NOT indicate that the Iraq war is not of fundamental significance; rather, she indicates that IN ADDITION to the Iraq war, which IS an issue of fundamental significance, there are OTHER issues of fundamental significance which we Americans pay no attention to. In addition, it’s pretty fantastic to trust an official government death toll when the government is allegedly to blame for the incident.