#hindu new year 2022

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The tax sharks are back and they’re coming for your home

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TODAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, then Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

One of my weirder and more rewarding hobbies is collecting definitions of "conservativism," and one of the jewels of that collection comes from Corey Robin's must-read book The Reactionary Mind:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reactionary_Mind

Robin's definition of conservativism has enormous explanatory power and I'm always finding fresh ways in which it clarifies my understand of events in the world: a conservative is someone who believes that a minority of people were born to rule, and that everyone else was born to follow their rules, and that the world is in harmony when the born rulers are in charge.

This definition unifies the otherwise very odd grab-bag of ideologies that we identify with conservativism: a Christian Dominionist believes in the rule of Christians over others; a "men's rights advocate" thinks men should rule over women; a US imperialist thinks America should rule over the world; a white nationalist thinks white people should rule over racialized people; a libertarian believes in bosses dominating workers and a Hindu nationalist believes in Hindu domination over Muslims.

These people all disagree about who should be in charge, but they all agree that some people are ordained to rule, and that any "artificial" attempt to overturn the "natural" order throws society into chaos. This is the entire basis of the panic over DEI, and the brainless reflex to blame the Francis Scott Key bridge disaster on the possibility that someone had been unjustly promoted to ship's captain due to their membership in a disfavored racial group or gender.

This definition is also useful because it cleanly cleaves progressives from conservatives. If conservatives think there's a natural order in which the few dominate the many, progressivism is a belief in pluralism and inclusion, the idea that disparate perspectives and experiences all have something to contribute to society. Progressives see a world in which only a small number of people rise to public life, rarified professions, and cultural prominence and assume that this is terrible waste of the talents and contributions of people whose accidents of birth keep them from participating in the same way.

This is why progressives are committed to class mobility, broad access to education, and active programs to bring traditionally underrepresented groups into arenas that once excluded them. The "some are born to rule, and most to be ruled over" conservative credo rejects this as not just wrong, but dangerous, the kind of thing that leads to bridges being demolished by cargo ships.

The progressive reforms from the New Deal until the Reagan revolution were a series of efforts to broaden participation in every part of society by successively broader groups of people. A movement that started with inclusive housing and education for white men and votes for white women grew to encompass universal suffrage, racial struggles for equality, workplace protections for a widening group of people, rights for people with disabilities, truth and reconciliation with indigenous people and so on.

The conservative project of the past 40 years has been to reverse this: to return the great majority of us to the status of desperate, forelock-tugging plebs who know our places. Hence the return of child labor, the tradwife movement, and of course the attacks on labor unions and voting rights:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/06/the-end-of-the-road-to-serfdom/

Arguably the most potent symbol of this struggle is the fight over homes. The New Deal offered (some) working people a twofold path to prosperity: subsidized home-ownership and strong labor protections. This insulated (mostly white) workers from the two most potent threats to working peoples' lives and wellbeing: the cruel boss and the greedy landlord.

But the neoliberal era dispensed with labor rights, leaving the descendants of those lucky workers with just one tool for securing their American dream: home-ownership. As wages stagnated, your home – so essential to your ability to simply live – became your most important asset first, and a home second. So long as property values rose – and property taxes didn't – your home could be the backstop for debt-fueled consumption that filled the gap left by stagnating wages. Liquidating your family home might someday provide for your retirement, your kids' college loans and your emergency medical bills.

For conservatives who want to restore Gilded Age class rule, this was a very canny move. It pitted lucky workers with homes against their unlucky brethren – the more housing supply there was, the less your house was worth. The more protections tenants had, the less your house was worth. The more equitably municipal services (like schools) were distributed, the less your house was worth:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

And now that the long game is over, they're coming for your house. It started with the foreclosure epidemic after the 2008 financial crisis, first under GW Bush, but then in earnest under Obama, who accepted the advice of his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who insisted that homeowners should be liquidated to "foam the runways" for the crashing banks:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/06/personnel-are-policy/#janice-eberly

Then there are scams like "We Buy Ugly Houses," a nationwide mass-fraud outfit that steals houses out from under elderly, vulnerable and desperate people:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/11/ugly-houses-ugly-truth/#homevestor

The more we lose our houses, the more single-family homes Wall Street gets to snap up and convert into slum properties, aslosh with a toxic stew of black mold, junk fees and eviction threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords

Now there's a new way for finance barons the steal our houses out from under us – or rather, a very old way that had lain dormant since the last time child labor was legal – "tax lien investing."

Across the country, counties and cities have programs that allow investment funds to buy up overdue tax-bills from homeowners in financial hardship. These "investors" are entitled to be paid the missing property taxes, and if the homeowner can't afford to make that payment, the "investor" gets to kick them out of their homes and take possession of them, for a tiny fraction of their value.

As Andrew Kahrl writes for The American Prospect, tax lien investing was common in the 19th century, until the fundamental ugliness of the business made it unattractive even to the robber barons of the day:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-04-26-investing-in-distress-tax-liens/

The "tax sharks" of Chicago and New York were deemed "too merciless" by their peers. One exec who got out of the business compared it to "picking pennies off a dead man’s eyes." The very idea of outsourcing municipal tax collection to merciless debt-hounds fell aroused public ire.

Today – as the conservative project to restore the "natural" order of the ruled and the ruled-over builds momentum – tax lien investing is attracting some of America's most rapacious investors – and they're making a killing. In Chicago, Alden Capital just spent a measly $1.75m to acquire the tax liens on 600 family homes in Cook County. They now get to charge escalating fees and penalties and usurious interest to those unlucky homeowners. Any homeowner that can't pay loses their home.

The first targets for tax-lien investing are the people who were the last people to benefit from the New Deal and its successors: Black and Latino families, elderly and disabled people and others who got the smallest share of America's experiment in shared prosperity are the first to lose the small slice of the American dream that they were grudgingly given.

This is the very definition of "structural racism." Redlining meant that families of color were shut out of the federal loan guarantees that benefited white workers. Rather than building intergenerational wealth, these families were forced to rent (building some other family's intergenerational wealth), and had a harder time saving for downpayments. That meant that they went into homeownership with "nontraditional" or "nonconforming" mortgages with higher interest rates and penalties, which made them more vulnerable to economic volatility, and thus more likely to fall behind on their taxes. Now that they're delinquent on their property taxes, they're in hock to a private equity fund that's charging them even more to live in their family home, and the second they fail to pay, they'll be evicted, rendered homeless and dispossessed of all the equity they built in their (former) home.

It's very on-brand for Alden Capital to be destroying the lives of Chicagoans. Alden is most notorious for buying up and destroying America's most beloved newspapers. It was Alden who bought up the Chicago Tribune, gutted its workforce, sold off its iconic downtown tower, and moved its few remaining reporters to an outer suburban, windowless brick building "the size of a Chipotle":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/16/sociopathic-monsters/#all-the-news-thats-fit-to-print

Before the ghastly hotel baroness Leona Helmsley went to prison for tax evasion, she famously said, "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes." Helmsley wasn't wrong – she was just a little ahead of schedule. As Propublica's IRS Files taught us, America's 400 richest people pay less tax than you do:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/13/for-the-little-people/#leona-helmsley-2022

When billionaires don't pay their taxes, they get to buy sports franchises. When poor people don't pay their taxes, billionaires get to steal their houses after paying the local government an insultingly small amount of money.

It's all going according to plan. We weren't meant to have houses, or job security, or retirement funds. We weren't meant to go to university, or even high school, and our kids were always supposed to be in harness at a local meat-packer or fast food kitchen, not wasting time with their high school chess club or sports team. They don't need high school: that's for the people who were born to rule. They – we – were meant to be ruled over.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/26/taxes-are-for-the-little-people/#alden-capital

[sayruq]

Though the Indian government has treaded cautiously, the country’s Right Wing ecosystem, which has a robust social media presence, has wasted little time in deciding its stand on the present conflict. Sharing borders with Muslim countries that they perceive as hostile, and having a Muslim minority population at home, India and Israel mirror each others’ demographic anxieties. In the last 10 years of the Hindu-nationalist BJP’s rule in India, this anxiety has transformed into rampant Islamophobia and communal hatred visible in almost every sphere of life. In 41% of all the fact checks that Alt News did in 2022, the target of misinformation/disinformation was Muslims. The ongoing conflict has provided the Right Wing with an opportunity to amplify that Islamophobia. Consequently, the massacre of Palestinians — an overwhelming majority of whom are Muslims (see here and here) — by Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack has found strong support among the Hindu Right. A large share of tweets with the hashtag #IStandWithIsrael came from Indian users and thousands of Indian accounts added the flag of Israel next to their X handles.

[xdivinedecay]

✧ Patron Saints for the New Year

In your prayers for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, American Catholics and Christians might like to consider invoking the intercession of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who among other attributions is regarded as the Patron Saint of New Beginnings. This is usually credited to her being the first (United States) American-born Catholic that was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. (Not to be confused with the first Indigenous American canonized saint, St. Kateri Tekakwitha.) St. Elizabeth was a pioneer of girls' education in early America, opening the first free school for girls in Baltimore, Maryland in 1808. Next, she started the Sisters of Charity, the first religious order for women, in 1809. Following on, she continued to open hospitals, orphanages, and even more schools.

While researching patron saints for new beginnings, I discovered an article about St. Lazarus Devasahayam, a Hindu-born man who converted to Christianity in the 18th century, and the first Indian layperson to be canonized as a saint (in 2022). He might be someone to consider looking into if his life and history sound appealing to you, I found an article about him through Vatican News.

And to recognize the new Jubilee Year of Hope from December 2024 until January 2026, I would be remiss not to mention St. Jude Thaddeus, one of the apostles as well as the Patron Saint of Hope (and Desperate Causes). Given the social and political climates occurring all over the world, he is a great resource for comfort, strength, and hope. Additionally, his mother was a cousin to the Mother Mary, meaning he shared a blood-tie to the human Jesus. According to Catholic.org, "Roman Catholics invoke St. Jude when in desperate situations because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances -just as their forefathers had done before them; therefore, he is the patron saint of desperate cases."

Of course, remember to connect with the Holy Spirit, to Jesus, and to the rest of your patrons during this time!

I hope you all have a happy and safe new year holiday, and that we find strength, courage, and love for one another in 2025.

More lists of patron saints — Patron Saints for your Problems • Patron Saints for World Mental Health Day • Patron Saints for US Election Aftermath

Image edits by xdivinedecay • cross dividers by animatedglittergraphics-n-more

[tanadrin]

In Subcontractors of Guilt: Holocaust Memory and Muslim Belonging in Postwar Germany, Esra Özyürek describes the way that German politicians, officials and journalists, now that the far right is in the ascendant, have been cranking up the old mechanism of sanitising Germany by demonising Muslims. In December 2022, German police foiled a coup attempt by Reichsbürger, an extremist group with more than twenty thousand members, which was planning an assault on the Bundestag. Alternative für Deutschland, which has neo-Nazi affiliations, has become the country’s second most popular party, partly in response to economic mismanagement by the coalition led by Olaf Scholz. Yet despite the undisguised antisemitism of even mainstream politicians such as Hubert Aiwanger, the deputy minister-president of Bavaria, ‘white Christian-background Germans’ see themselves ‘as having reached their destination of redemption and re-democratisation’, according to Özyürek. The ‘general German social problem of antisemitism’ is projected onto a minority of Arab immigrants, who are then further stigmatised as ‘the most unrepentant antisemites’ in need of ‘additional education and disciplining’. ...

Netanyahu, too, has learned from Germany’s postwar efforts at whitewashing. In 2015 he claimed that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem had persuaded Hitler to murder rather than simply expel the Jews. Three years later, after initially criticising a move by the Law and Justice Party in Poland to criminalise references to Polish collaboration, he endorsed the law making such references punishable by a fine. He has since legitimised Shoah revisionism in Lithuania and Hungary, commending both countries for their valiant struggle against antisemitism. (Efraim Zuroff, a historian who has helped bring many former Nazis to trial, compared this to ‘praising the Ku Klux Klan for improving racial relations in the South’.) More recently, Netanyahu accompanied Elon Musk to one of the kibbutzim targeted by Hamas, just days after Musk tweeted in support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Since 7 October, he has seemed to be reading from the Eichmann trial script. He regularly announces that he is fighting the ‘new Nazis’ in Gaza in order to save ‘Western civilisation’, while others in his cohort of Jewish supremacists keep up a supporting chorus. The people of Gaza are ‘subhuman’, ‘animals’, ‘Nazis’. ...

In a more unnerving illustration of the postwar German-Israeli symbiosis, the German health minister, Karl Lauterbach, approvingly retweeted a video in which Douglas Murray, a mouthpiece of the English far right, claims that the Nazis were more decent than Hamas. ‘Watch and listen,’ retweeted Karin Prien, deputy chair of the Christian Democratic Union and education minister for Schleswig-Holstein. ‘This is great,’ Jan Fleischhauer, a former contributing editor at Der Spiegel, wrote. ‘Really great,’ echoed Veronika Grimm, a member of the German Council of Economic Experts. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, which in 2021 ‘outed’ five Lebanese and Palestinian journalists at Deutsche Welle as antisemites, with equally flimsy evidence exposed the Indian poet and art historian Ranjit Hoskote as a calumniator of Jews for comparing Zionism with Hindu nationalism. Die Zeit alerted German readers to another moral outrage: ‘Greta Thunberg openly sympathises with the Palestinians.’ An open letter from Adam Tooze, Samuel Moyn and other academics criticising Jürgen Habermas’s statement in support of Israel’s actions provoked an editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to claim that Jews have an ‘enemy’ at universities in the form of postcolonial studies. Der Spiegel ran a cover picture of Scholz alongside his claim that ‘we need to deport on a grand scale again.’ ... Susan Neiman, who wrote admiringly of Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Learning from the Germans (2020), now says she has changed her mind. ‘German historical reckoning has gone haywire,’ she wrote in October. ‘This philosemitic fury ... has been used to attack Jews in Germany.’ In Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust, which examines the German response to mass killings in Cambodia, Rwanda and the Balkans, Andrew Port suggests that their ‘otherwise admirable reckoning with the Holocaust may have unwittingly desensitised Germans. The conviction that they had left the rabid racism of their forebears far behind them may have paradoxically allowed for the unabashed expression of different forms of racism.’

(source)

[world-of-wales]

I was looking into where COP is going it be hosted because it can tie in to earthshot, and of course Brazil is next year. COP31 (2026) is likely to be in Australia which is also a strong contender for earthshot, India is bidding for COP33 in 2028….

My reasoning on a potential Indian Earthshot is below this.

India better stay away from cop33 & Earthshot, especially after their latest 'achievements' in the conservation sector. The govt is fantastic in making bold claims but in reality, can't do shit. And I for one don't want william anywhere near that dumpster fire of hypocrites.

There's so many examples of their sheer incompetence, there's a polluted river in india - yamuna. Between 2017 - 2021 (or 22) I believe more than ₹6,800 crores of taxpayer money was spent on cleaning that death trap and it still is as dirty as it was when all this first began. There's actual toxic foam of ammonia and phosphates that floats around it 24/7.

Then just this week news came out that 25 Tigers, (which are an endangered species btw and also part of a very ambitious conservation project 'Project Tiger' started in 1973) have been untraceable from a state run national park for the past year. The only reason this came out was because another tiger was found dead from that forest.

And just yesterday, it came out that 10 elephants died in another state run park last month because they were fed...fungal infected millets.

Heck, Delhi? The capital? It's consistently been one of the most polluted cities of the world for years. It's a literal gas chamber, which gets the worst around the current time coz of various issues. Now diwali falls around this time and because of the air quality, the Indian supreme court banned any sort of crackers/fireworks to be burnt in the area? Sounds amazing right? But guess what since crackers have come to be associated with Diwali which is a hindu festival. So the members of the ruling party within their agenda have turned this ban into an attack on religion and consistently provoke their supporters on this ground urging them to burn crackers and make delhi insufferable for all.

This is just 4 examples, there's so many that if I start listing them, we'll be here for a long time.

Moreover, the current ruling party will only twist the visit to fill into their own agenda of hate mongering & political capital as they have been known to do with every such visit.

Also the govt quite literally cordoned off low income neighborhoods that fell on route of the attendees in Delhi with plastic barriers and police personnel during the G20 in 2023, to make sure no world leader saw anything other than the rosy picture they were putting out.

Now imagine what would happen in case of something like COP33. Ofc they would do similar repulsive things then also and imagine how harmful being attached to something like this with a potential Earthshot will be for William and his public image!

I would love for him to come here, Earthshot is such a fabulous initiative, and there's such a booming environmental startup sector in India like Phool (I personally am aware of their situation. My mum's cousin runs a marketing firm and she's the one who handles everything for them, and she's told me so much about how Earthshot has helped them since 2022 with linking them to investors, other similar businesses, exposure etc) or Kheyti etc etc which deserve to be highlighted.

But in the past 10 years buisness and government have become so intrinsically linked in india that no matter what the ruling party will hijack the contributions of these organizations like they do.

So yeah maybe I'm being a narrow minded idiot but Earthshot in India rn? Will only lead to credibility issues.

Now let's hope I don't go to jail for putting all this here by exercising my fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a).

[painthropologist]

Recommended readings on pain

The following is a comprehensive reference list of readings on pain, embodiment, and ritual, to name a few of the topics that I will be discussing. This list will be updated as and when I find new sources, and covers various subjects from anthropology to sociology, philosophy, and beyond.

Adler, M. (2006). Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America. 4th ed. USA: Penguin Books. 

Åsatrufellesskapet Bifrost (2024). Om Bifrost. Available at: https://bifrost.no/om-bifrost (Accessed 13 June 2024).

Asprem, E. (2008). Heathens Up North: Politics, Polemics, and Contemporary Norse Paganism in Norway. The Pomegranate, 10(1): 41-69. 

Aðalsteinsson, J.H. (1998). A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan Félagsvísindastofnun.

Belardinelli, A.L. and Bonsaksen, J.A. (2020). An Ancient Perspective.  Available at: https://www.churchofpain.org/about (Accessed: 5 March 2024).

Bell, C. (2009). Ritual Theory, Ritual practice. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Eliade, M. (1969). The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Calico, J.F. (2018). Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America. Sheffield: Equinox.

Durkheim, E. (2012). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: Dover Publications.

Fibiger, M.Q. (2018). Thaipusam Kavadī – A Festival Helping Hindus in Mauritius Cope with Fear. International Quarterly for Asian Studies, 49(3-4): 123-140.

Fonneland, T. (2015). The Rise of Neoshamanism in Norway: Local Structures-Global Currents. In: Kraft, S.E., Fonneland, T., and Lewis, J.R. Nordic Neoshamanisms. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 33-54.

Geertz, C. (1973). Religion as a Cultural System. In: The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books Inc, pp. 87-125. 

Glucklich, A. (2001). Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gunnell, T. (2015). The Background and Nature of the Annual and Occasional Rituals of the Ásatrúarfélag in Iceland. In: Minniyakhmetova, T., and Velkoborská, K., (eds.) The Ritual Year 10: Magic and Rituals and Rituals in Magic. ELM Scholarly Press. 28-40.

Harvey, G. (2013). The Handbook of Contemporary Animism. New York: Routledge.

Hobsbawm, E. (2012). Introduction: Inventing Traditions. In: Hobsbawm E., Ranger T., (eds.) The Invention of Tradition. Canto Classics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-14.

Hobsbawm, E., and Ranger, T. (2014). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jackson, J.E. (2011). Pain and Bodies. In: Mascia-Lees, F.E. (ed.) A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Kleinman, A., Das, V., Lock, M. (1997). Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lee, N. (2022). On a Wind-Rocked Tree: Pain as Transformation in Contemporary Heathenry. In: Strickland, S., Hunter, L., and Mullin Berube, S. Riding the Bones. USA: The Three Little Sisters. Appendix D.

Luhrmann, T.M. (2012). Touching the Divine: Recent Research on Neo-Paganism and Neo Shamanism. Reviews in Anthropology, 41(1), pp. 136–150. 

Manfredi, F. (2024). Beyond Pain: The Anthropology of Body Suspensions. New York: Berghan.

Mauss, M. (1973). Techniques of the Body. Economy and Society, 2(1): pp. 70-88.

McLane, J. (1996). The Voice on the Skin: Self-Mutilation and Merleau-Ponty's Theory of Language. Hypatia, 11(4): 107-118.

Mitchell, J. (2009). Ritual Transformation and the Existential Grounds of Selfhood. Journal of Ritual Studies, 23(2): 53-66.

Obeyesekere, G. (1981). Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Pagliarini, M.A. (2015). Spiritual Tattooing: Pain, Materialization, and Transformation. Journal of Religion and Violence, 3(2): 189-212.

Polhemus, T. (1998). The Performance of Pain. Performance Research, 3(3): 97-102.

Rappaport, R.A. (1999). Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rasmussen, R.H. (2020). The Nordic Animist Year. Estonia: Ecoprint.

(2023). Aun 2031. Available at: https://nordicanimism.com/aun-2023 (Accessed: 19 March 2024).

(2024). Aun: Cannibal Kings, Cosmic Healing and the Recovery of a Nordic Tradition. Estonia: Ecoprint.

Reynolds, C. and Erikson, E. (2017). Agency, Identity, and the Emergence of Ritual Experience. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 3(1): 1 –14.

Scarry, E. (1985). The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shilling, C. & Mellor, P. (2010). Saved from pain or saved through pain? Modernity, instrumentalization and the religious use of pain as a body technique. European Journal of Social Theory, 13(4): 521-537. DOI: 10.1177/1368431010382763.

Snook, J. (2013). Reconsidering Heathenry: The Construction of an Ethnic Folkway as Religio ethnic Identity. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 16(3): 52-76. 

von Schnurbein, S. (2016). Norse Revival: Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism. Boston: Brill.

Viljoen, M. (2010). Embodiment and the experience of built space: The contributions of Merleau-Ponty and Don Ihde. South African Journal of Philosophy, 29(3). DOI: 10.4314/sajpem.v29i3.59153.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Feb 13, 2024

In his novel Shalimar the Clown, Salman Rushdie traces the deterioration of Kashmir from a place where Muslims and Hindus could live together in peace and co-operation to a country ravaged by conflict. This descent is signalled early in the novel with the arrival of a character called the Iron Mullah, a blood-and-thunder preacher with “skin the colour of rusting metal”. We think his name is metaphorical, but the Iron Mullah had risen from the scrapheaps of the Indian army, the junkyards of weaponry and tanks that have been left to decay. When he arrives, he removes his turban and raps his knuckles against his own head so that the locals can hear the metallic clang. It’s Rushdie’s way of portraying the idea that it was the actions of the Indian army that gave rise to the appeal of Islamic extremism in Kashmir.

Soon after the appearance of the Iron Mullah, a local Muslim man challenges him.

“Be off with you. We don’t want any trouble, and you, standing here in the middle of our little town and yelling your head off about the punishments of hell – you look like trouble to me.” “There are big infidels,” replied the stranger calmly, “who deny God and his Prophet; and then there are little infidels like you, in whose belly the heat of faith has long since cooled, who mistake tolerance for virtue and harmony for peace.”

For the likes of the Iron Mullah, moderate peaceful Islam is just another form of heresy. He soon has a mosque built in which he preaches from a pulpit made of scrap metal, old bits of radiator and “bent fenders spearing upwards like horns”. He is a frightening and ridiculous figure, but everyone is too intimidated to laugh.

Religious intolerance is something that Rushdie has had to live with for most of his life. Whereas extremists cannot reason and therefore resort to violence, Rushdie’s power has always been in his words. He is one of the handful of living authors whose work I genuinely adore, and Shalimar the Clown is undoubtedly my favourite. His depiction of Kashmir’s degeneration from an ecumenical paradise to a sectarian warzone is heartrending. It was published in 2006, seventeen years after the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran following the publication of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses, and surely the Iron Mullah was inspired by these experiences.

That evil spectre of the Iron Mullah was resurrected in August 2022, when an Islamist fanatic attempted to murder Rushdie at an event in New York, leaving him struggling for his life in hospital with multiple stab wounds. And although there was widespread condemnation, the silence from the Royal Society of Literature was curious to say the least. This week, fellows of the RSL have come forward to criticise the charity’s leadership for not being forthcoming on condemning this atrocity. The RSL’s former president, Dame Marina Warner, has said its leadership refused to issue a statement in support of Rushdie’s right to free expression because to do so “might give offence”. Do knife-wielding maniacs really deserve all that much consideration?

The RSL’s current thinking on the subject was outlined in a piece for the Guardian by its president, Bernardine Evaristo:

“Finally, to the matter of “freedom of speech”. There’s no question that the current leadership believe in this. However, the society has a remit to be a voice for literature, not to present itself as “the voice” of its 700 fellows, surely a dangerous and untenable concept. It cannot take sides in writers’ controversies and issues, but must remain impartial.”

The best response came from Rushdie himself. “Just wondering if the Royal Society of Literature is ‘impartial’ about attempted murder? (Asking for a friend.)”

Apparently, remaining “impartial” means not issuing statements of support for authors when there are attempts to cancel them both figuratively and literally. When activists hounded the poet Kate Clanchy with spurious allegations of racism and ableism in her award-winning book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, the RSL were mute. “They would not make a stand about the attacks on Clanchy,” said Warner, or any kind of defence “for all writers facing these social media attacks”.

In recent years, we have seen attempts by activists of many stripes to conflate language and violence, to claim that offensive words can cause the equivalent of physical harm. By this kind of twisted logic, bloody repercussions against authors and artists can be deemed a form of self-defence. A survey of American students in 2017 found that 30 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement: “If someone is using hate speech or making racially charged comments, physical violence can be justified to prevent this person from espousing their hateful views”. In this regard, today’s identity-obsessed self-proclaimed “social justice activists” have something in common with the mullahs of Tiran.

[ Protesters gather outside of the Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire ]

Consider what happened to the schoolteacher at the Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire who, in March 2021, was suspended for displaying a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on free speech. The protesters that gathered outside of the school couched their objections in terms of “safety and well-being”. One read aloud a statement in which the school authorities were accused of failing in their “duty of safeguarding”, and the teacher himself was charged with “threatening and provocative” behaviour. Here we saw a sinister alliance of religious fundamentalism and “safetyism” (a term coined by journalist Pamela Paresky to denote the elevation of emotional “safety” to a sacred value). The teacher from Batley Grammar is still in hiding to this day; I would suggest that his safety ought to take priority.

When activists say “this person makes me feel unsafe”, they are effectively saying “I don’t agree with this person and I want them to be censored”. Depressingly, this tactic generally works. Event organisers, school authorities, and employers feel obliged to act because they are gulled into believing that this is an issue relating to their legal duty of care. But disagreement and causing offence are not a threat to anyone’s safety, and we need to stop pandering to anyone who claims otherwise.

Of course, the RSL is not responsible for violence against authors, but they could at least offer their vocal support to the principle of artistic freedom. Let’s not forget that there have been many commentators over the years who have tacitly blamed Rushdie for writing his book in the first place. I recall one of teachers at school making the case that Rushdie “should have known better”. How exactly? The Satanic Verses is a brilliant and thoughtful work of fiction, and I daresay my teacher hadn’t even read it. 

At the time of the fatwa, there seemed to be endless debates in the media over whether or not Rushdie deserved our sympathy and police protection. A case in point is the singer Yusuf Islam, otherwise known as Cat Stevens, who appeared on the Australian television show Hypotheticals soon after the fatwa was declared. When asked what he would do were he to encounter Rushdie in public, Stevens said that he would inform the Iranian authorities of the author’s whereabouts. As a grim final flourish, he went on to imply that he would rather enjoy the prospect of watching him being burned alive.

In a civilised and free society, it shouldn’t be all that difficult to reach a consensus that violence is not an appropriate form of literary criticism. Or that one of the most important novelists of our time should be entitled to write and say whatever he pleases, just as all of us should be entitled to write and say whatever we please.

I can’t help but think that we, as a society, failed the test of upholding artistic freedom at the time of the fatwa in 1989. We failed again after the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices in January 2015. At first, there were widespread declarations of “je suis Charlie”, until the inevitable victim-blaming began. PEN America initially showed much-needed support with a freedom of expression award for the satirical magazine. But then thirty-five writers signed a letter protesting against the decision on the grounds that Charlie Hebdo had mocked a “section of the French population that is already marginalized, embattled and victimized”. This is to misidentify the target. The cartoonists weren’t “punching down” at the Muslim minority. The target was God, and you can’t punch much higher than that.

And if you haven’t read The Satanic Verses, I suggest that you do – not because of the controversy, but because it’s one of Rushdie’s best. It was only a subplot of the book that caused the offence, those sequences based on the founding stories of Islam. The novel is really about the immigrant experience of living in London, but with the author’s characteristic touch of magical realism. It has one of the most audacious openings of a novel I’ve ever read, with the two principal characters – Gibreel and Saladin – falling from the sky from an exploded jumbo jet, dancing and singing deliriously as they tumble towards London. The novel is exhilarating, moving, and frequently funny; I can’t help but notice how many of Rushdie’s critics seem to lack that all-important sense of humour.

Of course, this wasn’t really about people reading a book and being offended by its contents. This was about philistines who hadn’t read the book and who were offended anyway because some Iron Mullah had told them to be. And when it comes to freedom of expression, we all need to be a little braver. We need to remind those who complain about works of fiction that their offence is their own business. They don’t get to decide what other people should or should not read, which cartoons should or should not be drawn, which ideas should or should not be ridiculed or critiqued.

In his memoir Joseph Anton (the pseudonym that Rushdie adopted during his time under police protection), Rushdie includes this letter to a reader:

“Thank you for your kind words about my work. May I make the elementary point that the freedom to write is closely related to the freedom to read, and not have your reading selected, vetted and censored for you by any priesthood or Outraged Community? Since when was a work of art defined by the people who didn’t like it? The value of art lies in the love it engenders, not the hatred. It’s love that makes books last. Please keep reading.”

And that’s exactly what we should do. We need to keep reading, in spite of those Iron Mullahs of the world who would compel us to stop.

[187days]

Day Fifty

The Principal caught me before I left today to ask how APGOV had gone yesterday, so I took a few minutes to summarize what it was like to teach it. He's a former science teacher himself, but I think in another life he might have been a social studies teacher.

Today was a more typical day.

My students read an article about the development of the TV ratings system to understand how policymaking works, how iron triangles work, the bureaucracy's role, and so on. It's straightforward, and relevant since they've all seen those ratings on the stuff they watch. To give them something spicier, I had them read about 2022 baby formula shortage, answer some questions, and make their own policy recommendations to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future. That's a new assignment, and I really liked it. It generated a great discussion. And I wrapped up class with a CNN article posted this morning about the people who might be appointed to serve in the bureaucracy under President Trump; gotta love it when the news is relevant to what I'm currently teaching!

In Global Studies, students learned about the different major sects in Hinduism, then did an assignment about Hindu customs and traditions. That covered things like naming babies, dietary customs, weddings, funerals, and so on. It's a solid little assignment, and students finished it quickly, so I was also able to show some relevant video clips to supplement the reading.

Oh, and we were able to hire two new teachers to lessen our shortage (still down four- one math, two science, one special education), one of whom is one of my former students. I emailed him to ask him about his union paperwork, and asked if he was who I thought he was (he has a common name, so I couldn't be totally sure). He emailed back to confirm, and promised to come up to my classroom tomorrow to say hi.

I was a first-year teacher when he was in my class, meaning I was an absolute baby. Wild that we're now colleagues!

[mariacallous]

The March 22 terrorist attack targeting concertgoers in Moscow, which was later claimed by the Islamic State, was an eerily familiar shock for Russians. In 2002, approximately a year after 9/11, Islamist terrorists claiming allegiance to a separatist movement in Chechnya besieged the crowded Dubrovka Theater in Moscow. More than 130 people were killed in the operation to clear the theater.

Last month’s attack, which killed at least 144 people, opened multiple geopolitical fissures. The Kremlin, having caught—and tortured—at least a few of the suspected perpetrators, claimed that the terrorists were looking to head toward Ukraine, where Russia is embroiled in its own endless war. Online, the story took a life of its own as conspiracy theories overwhelmed facts.

As attention shifted eastward toward the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISK), the group’s branch based in Afghanistan, contrarian views, mostly in Russian media but amplified on social media platforms, of this being a false-flag operation designed by the West simultaneously took off.

In between such distractions, the victor was the Islamic State. The group’s spokesperson, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari, released a 41-minute audio message a few days after the Moscow attack. Curiously, the message, titled “By God, this religion [Islam] will prevail,” mentioned Russia only in passing. It however congratulated Islamic State ecosystems and wilayas (Arabic for provinces), or offshoots, on a successful 10 years of the caliphate.

The message takes the listener on a world tour of sorts, highlighting the group’s presence across regions from Africa to Southeast Asia, challenging the notion that it is a spent force. Ansari also congratulated the group’s fighters for their campaigns against the Chinese, Russians, Sikhs, and Hindus. It also chastised the very idea of democracy—a long-standing ideological position for most jihadi groups.

Only a few hours prior to this, ISK had released a separate 18-minute propaganda video in Pashto targeting the Afghan Taliban’s outreach with India. This is particularly noteworthy after India facilitated the evacuation of Sikhs and Hindus from the country, specifically after ISK claimed an attack against a Sikh temple in Kabul in 2022. Islamic State propaganda has also long stoked communal divisions in India to instigate Muslims against the state.

The video took the format of a first-person narrative, discussing how the Taliban regime was working with the Indian state, which ISK views as an anti-Muslim institution. This was not the first time either the Islamic State or ISK had targeted India in its propaganda, but interestingly, the latter’s primary aim here was the Taliban’s behavior and not necessarily India, its democracy, or its perceived Hindu-nationalist political bent by itself.

The chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan and subsequent return to power of the Taliban in 2021 was a watershed moment. But the negotiated exit was not a difficult decision for the U.S. government, which was clear in its vision on what it wanted out of leaving, as Washington looked to pivot toward new areas of strategic competition in Asia.

The challenge fell to powers within the region, which were left to deal with an extremist movement in control of a critical neighboring state. For more than 20 years, Afghanistan’s neighbors, including China and Russia, benefited from the expansive U.S. and NATO military umbrella. This allowed them to pursue their own strategic interests such as developing influence within Afghanistan’s ethnic divisions and the power brokers representing these groups without any significant military commitment. On Aug. 30, 2021, then-Maj. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue was the last U.S. soldier to leave the country. Afghanistan was now an Asian problem.

But Russia, China, and Iran—the three primary adversaries of the United States, and by association Western geopolitical constructs—were in fact happy. After two decades, there were no massive U.S. military deployments on Iran’s eastern border at a time when its relations with Washington were at their worst. Tehran’s own history with Afghanistan, and specifically the Taliban, is confrontational.

Throughout the 1990s, the Iranians supported anti-Taliban groups, particularly rebel leaders such as Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Northern Alliance. Tehran was not alone, as others, including India, Russia, and Tajikistan among others, supported these groups against the Taliban and its sponsors in Pakistan.

Fast forward to 2021, and Iran decided to go the opposite way. It opened diplomatic and economic channels with the new regime in Kabul and looked to build support in exchange for a healthy level of anti-Western patronage and relative calm on the borders.

Iran’s two other closest allies in Moscow and Beijing followed suit. Iran, Russia, and China have all, in a way, recognized the Taliban as the quasi-official rulers of Afghanistan. Beijing has gone a step beyond, with Chinese President Xi Jinping officially accepting the accreditation of the new Taliban-appointed ambassador to his country.

Russia, still a little wary due to its history of fighting against and losing to the U.S.-backed mujahideen between 1979 and 1989 and more vocal in its criticism, accepted Taliban diplomats in Moscow in 2022 and is now even considering removing the Taliban from its list of banned terrorist organizations.

The stance these three states have adopted is a calculated risk; they see Taliban rule as a more palatable crisis to deal with than an expansive U.S. military presence at a time when great-power competition is once again taking hold of contemporary international relations.

Other countries, such as many of those in Central Asia, have also grudgingly taken the path of engagement with Kabul so as to try to avoid a return of regional conflict and proliferation of extremist ideologies by using the Taliban itself as a buffer as they try to keep one foot in and the other out the proverbial door.

Pakistan, long the Taliban’s patron, is already caught in a lover’s feud with its own protégés in Afghanistan as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan continues a militant campaign against Islamabad. Meanwhile, India has begun to balance between naked strategic interest and the long-term costs of the political normalization of such entities.

A trend of political victories for militant groups such as the Taliban is expanding. In the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the latter has in many respects come out on top by gaining more legitimacy than it ever expected despite the bloodiness of its attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has managed to move its own narrative away from being a proscribed terrorist group to being viewed as a revolutionary movement for the liberation of Palestine. Its political leadership, based out of Qatar, even condemned the terrorist attack in Russia.

The spectacle of an Islamist terrorist group publicly condemning another Islamist terrorist group underscores the absurdity of this situation. Hamas leaders, such as Ismail Haniyeh, have visited Iran and Russia to drum up support. Beijing, while asking for a secession of hostilities, has yet to denounce Hamas by name for its actions. At some level, all these states are happy to engage with such militant groups if it aids in the weakening of U.S. power and hegemony.

A significant level of global cooperation against terrorism, which was achieved in the aftermath of 9/11 and during the so-called global war on terrorism, is fast eroding. For example, up until 2015, Moscow had allowed NATO military supply flights meant for Afghanistan to use its airspace. Multilateral forums such as the United Nations are now repeatedly questioned over their purpose and worth.

For groups such as the Islamic State, this is a boon. Even though most of these competing powers see the group as a security threat that requires military solutions, a lack of uniformity creates a tremendous vacuum in which such entities can thrive. And while most of Afghanistan’s neighbors today are forced to view the Taliban as the “good Taliban,” considering its fundamental aversion to the Islamic State and its ideology (due to tension between Deobandis and Salafi jihadis), these new realities will make cohesive and effective global cooperation against terrorism far less likely.

This raises a critical question: Who is going to lead the global counterterrorism push? Militarily, the kind of capacity the United States deploys against terrorist groups remains unchallenged. From the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019 to the new Islamic State caliphs being degraded to faceless, often nameless personas, the U.S.-led Operation Inherent Resolve in Syria has been effective—and it continues to this day. But the expansion of Islamic State wilayas and their own individual clout, as highlighted by Ansari, challenges these successes.

In Africa, Russia is empowering local warlords and dilettantes to take on the Islamic State while it simultaneously cements its own presence, particularly as Western powers such as the United States and France struggle to hold on to their military footing. Propping up regimes in places such as Mali and Burkina Faso by offering political stability and pushing them to fight groups such as the Islamic State is a model both Russia and China seem to gravitate toward.

As the Moscow attack revealed, an era of increased rivalry between major powers that tolerate terrorist groups that target their adversaries could ultimately spawn a resurgence of Islamist terrorism. This new geopolitical landscape, by default, will give terrorist groups more chances of political compromise through negotiations than ever before.

The popular yet often frowned-on adage of “one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter” seems to be a winning formula for those who were widely seen as critical threats yesterday but now are aspiring to be the stakeholders of tomorrow.

[everydayesterday]

I think I’ve posted this before, but there was just an article published in Scientific American that’s behind a paywall and basically just repeats what’s below.  What fascinates me is how the math is done using the numerals.  

Anchorage Daily News, 2022-11-06:

Almost 30 years ago, a group of Kaktovik students invented a numbering system that reflected the way they counted in Iñupiaq and made math more intuitive for them. Soon, anyone in the world will be able to type Kaktovik numerals on a computer. [...]  

Most countries use the Hindu-Arabic base-10 numbering system where numbers range from 0 to 9. But in Iñupiaq — as well as other Inuit and Yup’ik languages — the numbers go from 0 to 19, which makes it a base-20 system. [...]  

"The Iñupiaq word for the number 20 is iñuiññaq, which represents a whole person," Judkins said. "You have all 20 appendages — your 10 fingers and your 10 toes. A lot of the classroom activities that we use now with this numbering system is in relation to those body parts and those appendages." [...]

Kaktovik students came up with digits from zero through 19, composed of straight strokes joined at sharp angles that you can write without lifting a pen. [...]

“We didn’t want them to look like any other numbers,” Solomon said. “It was our whole math class that did it together.” [...]

[onetwistedmiracle]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/05/13/study-girls-raised-jewish-outperform-christian-girls-academically/

Religion

Study: Girls raised Jewish outperform Christian girls academically

By Yonat Shimron

May 13, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

If a Supreme Court justice, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the treasury secretary were not enough, Jewish girls can find plenty of other role models of professional success.

A new study suggests the examples of these Jewish women — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and many others like them — have made a deep impression.

The study, published in the latest edition of the American Sociological Review, finds that girls with a Jewish upbringing are 23 percent more likely to graduate college, and to graduate from much more selective colleges, than girls with a Christian upbringing. (The study included comparisons with Protestants, mostly evangelicals.)

These girls, the study found, have ambitious career goals and prioritize their professional success over marriage and motherhood. The girls in the study were all reared in liberal Jewish movements that make up the vast majority of American Jewish life; none was Orthodox.

“Whereas Jewish upbringing promoted self-concepts centered on meaningful careers and public impact, non-Jewish upbringing promoted self-concepts centered on marriage and motherhood,” wrote the study’s four authors, led by Tulane University sociologist Ilana Horwitz.

The study is based on an analysis of data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, a 10-year longitudinal study of the religious lives of 3,290 American youth from adolescence into young adulthood. The NSYR included an oversample of 80 Jewish households, from which researchers based their study. (The NSYR did not include sufficient Muslim or Hindu participants for comparison.)

The researchers then matched the data with the National Student Clearinghouse, which provides educational reporting and verification.

The results were startling. The study estimates that boys and girls raised by at least one Jewish parent have a 73 percent probability of graduating from college, as opposed to 32 percent of young people raised by non-Jewish parents. In other words, they are at least 2.28 times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than children raised by non-Jewish parents.

When researchers looked at the elite schools attended by the Jewish NSYR participants, they found the school’s average SAT scores were higher, too.

Students raised by at least one Jewish parent attended colleges with a mean SAT score of 1201, whereas participants raised by non-Jewish parents attended colleges with a mean SAT score of 1102 (99 points lower).

And girls raised by Jewish parents were even more likely to graduate from college than boys raised with Jewish parents.

“I’d like to make a mark,” said a Jewish girl named Debbie who was interviewed by NSYR researchers. “I’m not the type of person who’s okay not being in the limelight.”

“I’m thinking about Ivy Leagues,” a Jewish girl named Jessica told researchers. “My parents both went to Cornell. I’ve been there a few times, I like it there a lot and it’s the kind of place where I would want to go.”

By contrast, some of the Christian girls in the study had other priorities.

“I think the biggest thing that a mother can do is to be with her kids,” said a girl named Mandy. “That’s the greatest thing over her career.”

The study suggests it was not any innate genetic factors that made the Jewish girls stand out. Rather it was a set of cultural, historical, political and religious factors that contributed to an environment in which parents and other Jewish elders imbued the girls with educational and professional expectations of success.

One key attribute shared by the Jewish girls: They grew up in Jewish communities that were egalitarian, believing men and women are equal in roles and responsibilities, in the home and in society at large.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms. Magazine and the author of “Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America,” a 1991 book that addressed Jewish feminism, said she was not surprised by the findings.

“I think there has been a gradual accumulation of knowledge that explains women feeling that, ‘Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead.’ As long as we can have a postgraduate degree we can mark our lives and we don’t have to marry achievement,” she said. “We can achieve our own.”

Stephen Vaisey, a professor of sociology at Duke University who was an interviewer for the NSYR when he was in graduate school, said he thought the study of Jewish girls was well designed and comprehensive. But it contrasted two very different groups: liberal Jews and often conservative Protestants. Had it included nonreligious as a comparison group, he said, the results may have looked different.

“If you took people with the same level of education and the same level of occupational prestige and compare Jewish and secular I wonder if you’d see a difference,” Vaisey said. “How much of this is about Judaism and how much about Christianity and traditional gender roles?”

All the girls in the NSYR study had what researchers described as a “moderate” level of Jewish engagement. They attended Hebrew school or perhaps a Jewish day school. They went to synagogue occasionally. Some belonged to a Jewish youth group.

But it was not Jewish teachings or any particular set of beliefs that necessarily contributed to their success so much as the stories they may have absorbed from their parents and grandparents at Shabbat dinners or bat mitzvah parties or at the Passover Seder about the accomplishments of their Jewish women ancestors, Horwitz said.

“Part of the narrative that Jewish adults convey to their children is that education helped Jews survive in Europe and eventually thrive in the United States,” according to the study.

Women are now much more likely to enroll in college than men. In 2020, just 41 percent of students enrolled in a postsecondary institution were men, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.

But Horwitz argues there is something about liberal Judaism that socializes girls to succeed academically and professionally.

“There’s an egalitarianism in Judaism where families teach their girls they can be anything they want to be,” Horwitz said. “They don’t want to do it by altruism, they want to do it by being prominent within. They want to be in the spotlight and make a difference in a loud way.”

— Religion News Service

[medical-education-career]

What is the process of counselling for the NEET PG?

The NEET PG is a common entrance exam for medical post-graduation admission in India. The admission counselling is conducted for MD/ MS/ DNB courses for around 65,000 seats in different clinical, para-clinical and non-clinical seats after MBBS. Every year around 1.6 - 1.7 lakh (160k - 170k) MBBS graduates appear for the NEET PG examination. The exam is soon going to be replaced with the NExT examination from 2024 onwards (as per the recent announcement by the National Medical Commission).

The NEET PG admission counselling is conducted by two types of government agencies: Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and State Medical Counselling Authority (as defined by the respected state government).

What is Medical Counselling Committee (MCC)?

The MCC is a central government agency which conducts medical pg admissions on MD/ MS/ DNB seats across India. The students need to register online through its official website, www.mcc.nic.in. The MCC is governed by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India.

What type of PG Seats are included in MCC PG Counselling? What seat distribution is in MCC PG?

100% All India Quota (AIQ)

100% DNB Quota (NBES Degree & Diploma) seats

100% Management/ Paid Quota (Deemed University) seats

100% Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Quota (Deemed University)

AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) Quota

BHU (Banaras Hindu University) Quota

DU (Delhi University) Quota

IP (Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University) Quota

What is included in MCC PG AIQ Quota?

50% seats of State Government Medical Colleges across India

50% seats of BHU (Banaras Hindu University)

50% seats of AMU (Aligarh Muslim University)

50% seats of Delhi University (DU), Central Institutes, IP University

What seat reservation is in NEET PG AIQ Quota?

15% Schedule Caste (SC)

7.5% Schedule Tribe (ST)

27% OBC- (Non-Creamy Layer) as per the Central OBC list

10% Economic Weaker Section (EWS)

5% Physical Handicap (PwD): 21 Benchmark Disabilities under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016

What are MCC PG Counselling Rules?

MCC announce the SCHEDULE for different rounds, choice filling deadlines, Institute reporting deadlines

MCC conduct 4 ROUNDS of allotment

Pattern: After every MCC-PG allotment round, the consequent schedule of the State Counselling round

Only Round-1 has allowed candidates for FREE EXIT.

Round-2 onwards NO FREE EXIT: If do not join the allotted seat, the Registration Fee will be forfeited

Candidate Can not hold 2 seats at a time: MCC & State Counselling

Opting Upgradation: Your existing Reported Seat will be as allotted if you do not get a new seat in the Next round.

Allotment Letter: After each allotment round, if you have been allotted any seat, you can download this letter from your MCC-PG Online Account.

Admission Letter: After allotment, you need to go to the allotted institute for Document Verification then only your seat admission has been confirmed & will be issued an Admission Letter.

NOTE: The above details are as per MCC PG Information Bulletin 2022.

What are different State PG Medical Counselling Committees?

GUJARAT: Admission Committee for Professional Post-Graduate Medical Courses (ACPPGMEC)

MAHARASHTRA: Directorate of Medical Education & Research, Maharashtra

RAJASTHAN: Rajasthan Medical PG Counselling Committee 2022

KERALA: Commissioner for Entrance Examination (CEE), Govt. of Kerala

TELANGANA: Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS)

ANDHRA PRADESH: NTRUHS Medical PG Admission committee

TAMIL NADU: Directorate of Medical Education, Govt. of Tamilnadu

DELHI: Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi

BIHAR: Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (BCECEB)

UTTAR PRADESH: Directorate of Medical Education and Training, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh

WEST BENGAL: West Bengal Medical Counselling Committee (WBMCC)

MADHYA PRADESH: Department of Medical Education, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh

KARNATAKA: Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA)

PUNJAB: Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot

HARYANA: Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak

HIMACHAL PRADESH: Directorate of Medical Education & Research, Simla, Govt. of HP

JHARKHAND: Jharkhand Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (JCECEB)

ODISHA: Directorate of Medical Education & Training, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha

CHHATTISGARH: Directorate of Medical Education, Raipur, Chhattisgarh

UTTARAKHAND: Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Medical University

PUDUCHERRY: Department of Higher and Technical Education, Govt. of Puducherry

JAMMU & KASHMIR: Jammu & Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examination

ASSAM: Directorate of Medical Education, Assam

TRIPURA: Directorate of Medical Education, Govt. of Tripura

MANIPUR: Manipur Health Directorate, Govt. of Manipur

SIKKIM: Education Department, Govt. of Sikkim

NAGALAND: Department of Technical Education, Nagaland

MIZORAM: Department of Higher and Technical Education, Mizoram

ARUNACHAL PRADESH: Directorate of Higher & Technical Education, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh

If I can’t secure my admission for residency then what other options I can go for?

If you fail to secure a seat for your residency and still wish to go for a clinical practice then you can go for a fellowship. Fellowship provides you an opportunity to practice in your choice of options without going for NEET PG entrance exam. You can find the list of all the available fellowships here.

FAQs

How do I proceed with NEET PG Counselling? The NEET PG is conducted by The National Board of Examination (NBE), you need to register yourself along with all the required details to proceed with NEET PG counselling.

How many Counselling rounds are there in NEET PG? In total there are 4 rounds of NEET PG counselling.

What happens in the NEET Counselling process? The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and The State Medical Counselling Authority (as defined by the respected state government) provide admissions to the candidates based on their merit, choice filling, quota etc.

What happens in PG Counselling? During PG Counselling medical students try to secure their admission for residency, there are in total 4 rounds and multiple factors decide if you can secure your admission.

What happens when you get Counselling? Depending on what stage you are during your counselling you can decide your step ahead, if you have already secured your admission in the first round then you need to proceed with the medical institute for your document verification and admission process, if you’ve not secured a seat after first round then you need to follow the upcoming rounds and make choices accordingly.

[meriguide]

Ketika Sharma Biography Information

Ketika Sharma was born on December 24th, 1995. She will be 27 years old in 2022. Ketika Sharma was born and raised in an identical Hindu family in Delhi, India. According to caste, she is a native Indian Brahmin, and her zodiac sign is Capricorn. The woman is Indian by birth and is part of the Hindu religion. She attended La Martiniere Girls School, Lucknow, to finish her education.

After primary school, he enrolled at Delhi’s Miranda House University for graduation. She was born in Delhi, so the actress shifted from Delhi to Mumbai to pursue a full-time acting career.

Ketika Sharma Biography Information

Name

Ketika Sharma

Real Name Ketika Sharma

Nick Name Not Known

Date of birth 24 December 1995

Birthplace New Delhi, India

Age 27 Years

School La Martiniere Girls’ College, Lucknow, India

College Miranda House, Delhi University, India

Education Qulification Graduate

Nationality Indian

Religion Hinduism

Father Dr. Manoj Sharma

Mother Not Known

Brother Not Known

Sister Not Known

Marital Status Unmarried

Husband Not Known

Affairs/Boyfriends Not Known

Hobbies Gymming, Singing, Dancing, Shopping, Making Dubsmash Videos

Profession Actress, Singer, Model, YouTuber

Zodiac sign Capricorn

Food Habit Vegetarian

Net Worth17 Crore (Approx.)

Salary (Monthly Income)1.3 Crore (Approx.)

Debut YouTube Video: Thug Love (2016)

Ketika Sharma Physical Measurement & More

Height (approx.)In centimeters- 163 cm

Height in meters1.63 m (5’4 Inches)

Weight (approx.)54 kg

Figure Measurements30-28-34

Eye Color Black

Hair Color Brown

[indianfromsouth]

Pathanamthitta collector – A role model!

How many of you have heard the name Divya.S.Iyer? No, she's not a silver screen celebrity. Divya.S.Iyer is the collector of Pathanamthitta district, of Kerala where the Sabarimala temple is located.

A couple of days ago, she was honored with the “Excellence in Governance” award by the Home Minister Amit Shah. She was one among the 18 collectors who was presented with the award, chosen from 404 district collectors across 29 states of India.

So, isn’t this just another routine award? What’s different? Divya S Iyer was in the news recently when she got into the bad books of the Communists and intellectuals in Kerala. Let me tell you why! Being the Pathanamthitta collector, she was invited to an event in connection with the beginning of Sabarimala pilgrimage season in December 2022. Being a devotee of Swamy Ayyappan herself, Divya led the chanting of the holy names of Swami Ayyappan. Please see the video in a report by Manorama News at the below link!

'പതിനെട്ടാം പടിയേ'... തങ്ക അങ്കി പമ്പയിലെത്തിയപ്പോള്‍ ശരണം വിളിച്ച് ജില്ലാ കലക്ടര്‍| Divya S iyer

പതിനെട്ടാം പടിയേ..ശരണമെന്റയ്യപ്പാ.. പമ്പയില്‍ തങ്ക അങ്കിക്ക് സ്വീകരണം നല്‍കിയപ്പോള്‍ കുഞ്ഞിനെ ഒക്കത്തിരുത്തി ശരണം വിളിക്കുന്ന പത്തനംതിട്ട ജില്ലാ കലക്ടർ. തിരുവാഭരണം കമ്മിഷണർ ബൈജു സമീപം #Sabarimala #Pathanamthitta #DivyasIyer

Posted by Manorama News TV on Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Posted by Manorama News TV on Wednesday, December 28, 2022

This immediately became a controversy with a section of the Kerala government criticizing her for this saying that she was on official duty, and she was not supposed to be a part of the prayers and the rituals there. You must remember that this is the same communist state government that sent its Christian minister to Vatican on government expenditure to witness the canonization of Mother Teresa. Muslim comrades are also allowed to practice their faith and even talk about it publicly.

But when it comes to Hindus, the rules change. Recently the Devaswom Board (the board that manages state temples) minister K.Radhakrishnan was seen at Sabarimala Sannidhanam during the pilgrimage season. See this photo to know what I am talking about!

The man was staring straight ahead, as though he was confused about to do! He didn’t have the courage or the decency to bring his two palms together in front of the deity. Many Keralites would remember how the Kerala CM mockingly asked pointing towards the Guruvayur SriKrishna deity – “Is that where Krishnan is?” when he visited the temple.

In a state where mocking Hindu rituals and culture has become a daily affair, Divya.S.Iyer comes as a breath of fresh air. Thank you Divya.S.Iyer for being who you are, for upholding your culture and beliefs! Congratulations on a well-deserved award! You are a woman with a strong spine and would serve as an inspiration and a role model for many more men and women in the years to come!

[samacharapp]

Bangladesh: Statistics of atrocities on Hindus revealed, government gave information

2 thousand 200 cases of violence against Hindus and other minorities have been reported in Bangladesh. This information was given by Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Along with this, he also gave information about incidents of violence against Hindus in Pakistan.

On Friday, the Indian government gave information on the issue of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Rajya Sabha that 2,200 cases of violence against Hindus and other minorities have been reported in Bangladesh. Bangladesh will take necessary steps to ensure the safety of minorities.

Citing the data of minority and human rights organizations, Kirti Vardhan Singh said that the number of cases of violence against Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan this year is 112 till October 2024. In 2022, this figure was 47 in Bangladesh and 241 in Pakistan. In 2023, this figure was 302 in Bangladesh and 103 in Pakistan.

The Indian government said this to Pakistan

He said that the Indian government has asked Pakistan to take steps to stop religious intolerance, communal violence, harassment and attacks on minority communities. It should also take steps for their safety and welfare. India keeps highlighting the condition of minorities in Pakistan on international forums.

The government took these incidents seriously

The minister said that except Pakistan and Bangladesh, there are zero cases of violence against Hindus and other minorities in other neighbouring countries. He was asked about the number of cases of violence against Hindus and other minorities in neighbouring countries in the last three years.

In his reply, the Union Minister also said that the government has taken these incidents seriously. It has shared its concerns with Bangladesh. India expects that Bangladesh will take necessary steps to ensure the safety of Hindus and other minorities.

The High Commission is monitoring the matter

Earlier this month, the same point was reiterated during the visit of the Foreign Secretary to Bangladesh on 9 December. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said that the Indian High Commission in Dhaka is monitoring the situation related to minorities in Bangladesh. The primary responsibility of the safety of all citizens including minorities lies with the government of the country. News is originally taken from: https://bit.ly/49MeHPQ

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[ad_1] Paromita Das GG News Bureau New Delhi, 11th Dec. At a time when the Congress party in Karnataka finds itself grappling with mounting governance challenges and allegations of corruption, it appears to have fallen back on divisive and deflective tactics to appease its voter base. The recent decision to remove the portrait of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, better known as Veer Savarkar, from the Assembly Hall of Belagavi’s Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, has reignited a heated debate over history, ideology, and political priorities. Installed in 2022 under the BJP-led Basavaraj Bommai government, Savarkar’s portrait stood alongside those of iconic freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. However, the Congress government has chosen to target Savarkar, citing a controversial and intellectually dishonest portrayal of his role in Bharat’s freedom struggle. The State Minister Priyank Kharge, son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, went so far as to label Savarkar a symbol of inequality, questioning his contributions and challenging his celebrated title of “Veer.” Predictably, this decision has not only drawn sharp criticism from the BJP but has also divided public opinion across Karnataka. To justify its move, the Congress has leaned on the oft-repeated claim that Savarkar’s ideology allegedly contributed to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. This argument, however, has long been discredited as political propaganda designed to tarnish Savarkar’s legacy. Such narratives ignore the undeniable sacrifices Savarkar made for Bharat’s independence, including 11 years of grueling incarceration at the Cellular Jail in the Andamans and a total of 27 years spent in prison for his patriotic activities. These are sacrifices that cannot be diminished by selective historical revisionism. What adds further irony to the Congress’s decision is Savarkar’s historical connection to Karnataka. In 1950, he was detained in Hindalga Jail in Belagavi for protesting against the visit of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to New Delhi—a testament to his lifelong commitment to the nation. Yet, the Congress government’s move to erase his presence from the Assembly Hall reveals a deliberate intent to sideline his legacy while pandering to their ideological base. The BJP has seized this opportunity to frame the Congress as anti-Hindu and politically opportunistic, accusing it of selectively undermining Hindutva figures like Savarkar while glorifying controversial historical personalities such as Tipu Sultan. BJP leaders have argued that this decision is yet another example of Congress’s appeasement politics aimed at courting its Muslim voter base, often at the expense of broader societal unity. The saffron party has also pointed out Congress’s apparent double standards, contrasting its reverence for Tipu Sultan—a ruler with a documented history of forced conversions and Hindu persecution—with its refusal to honor Savarkar’s contributions. Adding to the controversy, Ranjit Savarkar, the great-grandson of Veer Savarkar, criticized the Congress for its selective recognition of Bharat’s freedom fighters. He accused the party of distorting history to glorify the Nehru-Gandhi family while ignoring the sacrifices of other stalwarts like Savarkar. According to him, the Congress’s actions reflect an ideological bias that prioritizes political convenience over historical accuracy. The controversy surrounding Veer Savarkar is not new in Karnataka’s political landscape. In recent years, the state has witnessed several flashpoints over his legacy. Clashes erupted in Shivamogga in 2022 over a Savarkar poster at Ameer Ahmed Circle, which Islamists opposed by demanding a Tipu Sultan poster in the same location. Similarly, the naming of a flyover in Yelahanka after Savarkar in 2020 and controversies surrounding textbook depictions of him have consistently placed him at the center of Karnataka’s ideological battles. The Congress’s decision

to remove Savarkar’s portrait not only disrespects a national icon but also undermines the spirit of inclusivity that should guide the acknowledgment of Bharat’s diverse freedom struggle. By prioritizing polarizing politics over governance, the Congress risks alienating a significant section of the electorate. The BJP’s pointed criticism underscores how such moves could backfire politically, strengthening the narrative that Congress lacks a cohesive vision for governance and is instead relying on divisive tactics to mask its failings. The broader question this controversy raises is whether political parties in Bharat are capable of respecting the multiplicity of perspectives that shaped the nation’s freedom struggle. Veer Savarkar’s life is a testament to courage, sacrifice, and patriotism. Despite ideological differences, his contributions to Bharat’s independence are beyond dispute. The Congress’s attempt to question his legacy not only insults his memory but also sets a dangerous precedent for how history is weaponized for political gain. As Karnataka grapples with pressing issues of governance and development, the Congress’s preoccupation with ideological posturing does little to inspire confidence in its leadership. In an era where voters are increasingly demanding accountability and progress, such deflective tactics risk undermining the party’s credibility further. The legacy of Veer Savarkar deserves respect, not political vilification. If the Congress wishes to regain its stature, it must rise above divisive politics and focus on the real issues that matter to the people of Karnataka.   The post Karnataka Congress Sparks Controversy: The Savarkar Portrait Debate appeared first on Global Governance News- Asia's First Bilingual News portal for Global News and Updates. [ad_2] Source link