Arguing about the Argumentative Indian

Since my return to India, I have been drawn to authors of Indian origin or books with an Indian setting. Around this time, I also wanted to read more ""improving"" books as P. G. Wodehouse would have put it. One of the first books I tried to read was The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen.

I am still scratching my head about what this book is about. The book starts with a lot of promise talking about the multi-faceted, multi-religious past of India and how argument (as in debate) and dialog is a central theme in Indian culture citing examples from the Upanishads, Buddhist and Jain texts and the Bhagavat Gita (which in some sense can be considered a debate between Arjuna and Lord Krishna).

Then the book starts making an elaborate argument about how India is really much more than a "Hindu country" (for instance, we could have been called a Buddhist country until the 5th century A.D. ) and makes a strong criticism against the BJP's Hindutva movement along the way. I was fine with this sentiment until Prof. Sen repeated this in multiple forms for a few chapters when I got tired of the subject.

Don't get me wrong, I like to think of myself as secular and I look at BJP's strategy to win elections with as much disapproval as other shady tactics used by parties such as caste politics, casting matinee idols as political heroes and plain old thuggery. The book was compiled in 2004 just after the BJP's electoral defeat. Back then, it might have felt like a timely counterpoint to the Hindutva movement, but as I read it now, especially after BJP's recent electoral repeat, it reads like beating a dead horse. You might have read in recent news reports about the internal squabbles of the BJP.

Besides the BJP did seem to govern a little better than how it campaigned. On the broader point, Prof. Sen may be right in saying that the Hindutva is overstating its point. But is he overstating his? Underplaying a substantial (if not the single most dominant) chunk of our heritage seems dangerous. There is something to be said about managing to remain 80% Hindu even after 600 years (or is it 800?) of non-Hindu rule.

Anyway, I stopped reading after the first few chapters; may be one of you can tell me if I should bother with the rest.

One of the chapters I did find interesting and informative was the one on Rabindranath Tagore and his relationship with Gandhiji. This had a few surprises for me; more on that later.

- Balaji R.

World Badminton Championship in Hyderabad

We saw the last 3 days of action at the recently concluded WBF Championships in Hyderabad at Gachibowli stadium. This is the 2nd International sports event Hyderabad has held in the last 2 years; the previous one was the World Military Games in 2007.

We got full tournament passes in the middle of the week for Rs. 2000 a pop after muddling through poor information on where to get tickets.

Sadly, Saina Nehwal, the lone Indian hope lost in the quarterfinals. You may recall she won a major tournament (Indonesian Open) recently, beating World No. 2 Lin Wang of China. Saina, unlike her almost name-sake Sania Mirza (also from Hyderabad), has broken into the Top 10 in her sport. I don't know what they put the water in Hyderabad (or is it that they have water, period) that they keep producing these athletes in ahem a steady stream (steady, I mean by Indian standards).

Anyway, Saina lost to the same Lin Wang this time around. This is the first time I am seeing world-class badminton live and it was quite thrilling. It was good to see that courts are not actually painted in fluorescent green as they appear on DD Sports. You hear the thwack of racquet meeting shuttle and feel the speed and reflexes of the players as they glide, skip and dive across the court. The frenetic pace of men's doubles with feroicous exchanges was a treat. The Chinese may lack the fluid grace of Morten Frost or our own Prakash Padukhone (who I remember watching as a kid in the early 80's). But they dart across the court with a speed that defies belief and leap for their smashes to Jordanesque heights. They also find a way to return almost anything thrown at them.

Saina herself I thought played with a maturity beyond her 20 years; she led the 2nd game 10-2 before succumbing to an overall superior player at this point in time. Was the Indonesian Open a flash in the pan? Time will tell, though I think she has the game and needs to cut down on unforced errors (to say zero which is what I see from the Chinese). Go Saina!

On the final day, there was only one non-Chinese - mixed doubles from Denmark - win. It was weird to see Indian Jawans ceremonially carry the Chinese flag time and again as the winners were medalled.

Security arrangements and the overall conduct of the tournament seemed smooth (it was annoying to see the Brits pull out because of security fears) and it was gratifying to see us pull off an international event in the middle of security and swine flu concerns.

- Balaji R.

Succumbing to the temptation

What better day to join the blogging community - the ultimate modern-day exercise in vanity - than the occasion of one's 40th birthday.

I hope to write a public diary of my life in India as a Newly Returned Indian (actually not that new, about 2 years now); if not actually entertaining, hopefully someone among my friends and relatives (I don't expect anyone else to actually want to read this) who is pondering a return themselves will find this useful.

I also hope to write about pursuits in my interests and hobbies - travel, sports, movies, history, Tamil culture etc, and truly noble causes that I don't plan to do anything about - saving the environment, education among other things.

- Balaji R.