Businesses like that of Patanjali are the future of India. We are gonna see many such mega corporations which connect to ancient roots of India. We need better, more Indophilic, coverage of such businesses.
Dunno why Hacker News keeps removing my comments, as if I am saying something wrong.
Baba Ramdev's business is an indicator of things to come in India. As India is resurgent, we will see more such mega enterprises which connect to India's ancient Hindu past. In many ways the ancient Indian civilization was much superior to Western civilization. His business is successful because there's a market for it. People are happy to connect with their forgotten past by rejecting the West in a big way.
Hindu metaphysics is much superior to any work done in philosophy in the West. But I suppose it's too difficult for you to understand as all you have done in life is read NYT and watch CNN. When you see Hindus, you see caste and what not. When you see Americans you don't see slavery. That's how your mind has been whitewashed.
Better than steamrolling the debate by mentioning 'sati' and 'widow burning'. How'd you feel if to every achievement of Western civilization that you mention I said 'brutal slavery' (which actually finished the African civilization) and 'burning of witches'?
Slavery in the US ended ~150 years ago and a couple of decades before that in Europe. Similarly, the last known witch trial and execution in Europe was ~200 years ago. And outright witch burnings stopped long before that.
By contrast, witch hunts still happen in India, as well as gang rapes and mutilations, on a level completely unheard of in the west.
And the caste system is still in effect, although not officially.
I trust you've seen the massive protests, and I hope it's a sign that something is being done. Based on reports of political corruption and indifference from the population, unfortunately I don't have much hope for it.
Wow man, I appreciate your persistence. I am yet to hear of a scandal of the scale of Telford and Rotherham in India. I heard that thousands of white young working-class girls were kept in grooming gangs by Pakistani men. It'll be really better for you if you peep in your backyard rather than using italics in a passive-aggressive way to educate me about India. Also, I see no protest about these grooming gangs and in fact Tommy Robinson who was reporting on it was thrown in prison! This is the state of Western world, the harbinger of liberal democracy!!! And I'd really really suggest that you come out of the toxic bubble your media like NYT and CNN and WaPo have put you in. It's really depressing to see that you have taken zero efforts to learn what's actually going on. I guess you should use social media more actively and listen to and talk to people outside your political spectrum to curtail your arrogance and extreme lack of knowledge.
>"In many ways the ancient Indian civilization was much superior to Western civilization."
Which ways, specifically? Certainly not health nor longevity.
This rewrite of history to make ancient Hinduism appear much greater is very similar to the history rewrite currently happening in China, to retroactively make Han Chinese appear as a superior and united culture.
You've broken the site guidelines in this thread by fueling a wretched nationalistic flamewar, which is way beyond the pale for this site. And you've unfortunately gotten involved in other political/ideological flamewars recently too. We ban accounts that won't stop doing this, so could you please not do it any more? Hacker News is for intellectual curiosity. Those things kill intellectual curiosity.
Westerners did everything to belittle the Eastern civilizations when the West was laying the foundations of its own civilization. So it's very difficult for people who have lived and educated in the West to realize that Eastern civilizations were at the height of glory once. When Indian sages were debating intricate points of philosophy, people in the West were still in caves and lead a tribal existence. Hindu metaphysics is much superior to any other metaphysical system in the world. This informs its science and religion. West has made some gains but what that research is worth will only be known a few centuries from now when history is written. It's easy to be blinded by the current events and lose perspective.
>"Westerners did everything to belittle the Eastern civilizations when the West was laying the foundations of its own civilization."
That is a very uncharitable view. For centuries, trade flourished between east and west, and there was widespread exchange of both goods and ideas. The racism and distrust of "orientals" or "easterners" didn't come until much later, primarily in the era of colonialism (a seriously black mark on western history, as you know) and it didn't actually put a stop to trade and exchange of ideas.
>"So it's very difficult for people who have lived and educated in the West to realize that Eastern civilizations were at the height of glory once."
Not at all. We are very much aware of the great history of India, China, the Arab world and northern Africa, to name a few key areas where great civilizations of the ancient world flourished. Mostly in broad terms of course, it's hard enough to know every detail of your own history, never mind one that happened halfway around the world.
But similarly, you can say that it's very easy for people who have lived and been educated in the east, to not realize the heights reached by western civilizations. One's own history is much closer, obviously.
>"When Indian sages were debating intricate points of philosophy, people in the West were still in caves and lead a tribal existence."
That is not a very charitable view. In this time period, the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, and you would hardly call them tribal cave people.
Some people in the west (especially in the colder, harsher northern areas) lived in tribal societies, just as some people in the east did. But to completely ignore the great civilizations around the Mediterranean sea is not a very informed view to take.
>"Hindu metaphysics is much superior to any other metaphysical system in the world."
By which measure? Remember that contemporary western civilizations also had intricate spiritual and philosophical systems.
>"It's easy to be blinded by the current events and lose perspective."
I will contend that it is much easier to be blinded by past glory, and especially a historically "massaged" and "improved" view of ancient history. The danger of having a backwards perspective is that you become blind to current events and the future. We cannot live in the past, and "we were great once, you know" is a dead end, not a way forward.
Personally, I am disturbed by this strong rise of hindu nationalism (and nationalism in general), because we have seen what it can lead to. Massacres, world wars, conquest of "lesser people", widespread oppression, economies set back by decades or even centuries. We should endeavor to never repeat these mistakes.
The media is presenting it to you as "Hindu nationalism" and what not. You need to really know what's happening on ground, which you cannot at all appreciate sitting in West by reading articles by random journos. I'd direct you to read A million mutinies now by VS Naipaul about Hindu awakening and what social churning is taking place in India. Also, there is no need to be alarmed as people are merely connecting to their roots and tradition. The current ideology of liberalism obviously detests the word tradition, so I can understand that Westerners are worried about some weird stuff going on in India. Greek and Roman philosophers were great of course, but none matched the heights to which Hindu philosophy went. And the height to which ancient Indian civilization went, there's no evidence to say that any other civilization went that far. Also, Hindus are still connected to that pagan past irrespective of thousands of years of invasion by various forces from the West (the Islamics, Church and colonialists). So there is a great desire to reach those heights. Past glory may be blinding, but to revel in belonging to the most powerful Western empire is something else. The sense of power and control can blind even the most level headed person. That said, the Hindu awakening is making the Hindus think of their future. Most importantly, Indians missed the Industrial revolution, which I can say is the main advantage West obtained. If West was so great, there'd be no reason for it to decline so quickly. Basically, Western civilization is a 300 year blip in the whole human history.
From what I see, Hindu nationalists are massively trying to rewrite history, forcing changes to school textbooks and curricula, to fit their political agenda.
That is a bad path to go down, no matter who you are or where you come from. This is not merely something written about by "random journos", this is coming from critical journalists and historians within India.
>"The current ideology of liberalism obviously detests the word tradition"
Far from it. Tradition has strong bonds that bind societies and people together, they should not merely be cast away. However, one must not be blinded by tradition, especially not by traditions that are much younger than they appear, and traditions that are pushed by those with a political agenda.
>"Greek and Roman philosophers were great of course, but none matched the heights to which Hindu philosophy went. And the height to which ancient Indian civilization went, there's no evidence to say that any other civilization went that far."
Those are extremely subjective statements, without any qualifiers at all. It is not enough to simply make a statement of superiority, and expect others to blindly believe it.
Did ancient India reach great heights? Sure, for the time period in which it happened. But the following fall was dizzying, and other civilizations (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and so) arguably reached similar or greater heights. It is not an easy thing to quantify, since they reached their ultimate heights in different areas.
Striving for greatness is awesome. But it should not be built on a basis of politically rewriting history to fit a particular narrative.
You're obviously proud, which is good. But you also seem to have bought in to the political narrative, being pushed by those with a nationalistic agenda. The situation is bad in a lot of places in India today, but unchecked nationalism is never the answer and turning a blind eye to deeply set cultural and societal issues is not a solution.
Thanks, I'm not interested in your lecture about Hindu nationalism. You have no idea about what's going on in India. As you say the change in history is coming from historians and critical journos. I agree with you and it's all the more better in that case! You are totally sold off on your media and what your politicians feed you. Of course they have told you the narrative that Western civilization is the best and you judge everything from point of view of what happened in world war 2. But history of Hindus is thousands of years older than a war which they don't care about. Maybe you made some effort to learn that Eastern civilizations were good as well. But you never cared to gain the right perspective because you revel in your civilizational glory or maybe you just don't care. But Indians and Hindus do care. Indians don't just care for their societal traditions, they also care for their philosophical tradition, which was obviously most supreme. You won't understand as Westerners have barely any tradition to look back to. All you folks want is to go back to 1950s or something, which is nothing but hilarious. Indians have millenniums of tradition behind them, which is something.
As I've already stated, these baseless personal attacks are absolutely uncalled for.
You do not know me, nor do you know "my people". I would appreciate it if you refrained from any further pointless stereotyping and blatant misconceptions. Thank you.
It will also be better if you educate yourself of others' culture before lecturing them about it. Thanks. But you might just be representing what is called the "worst of Western civilization".
And you are such a dummb piece of shiit that you are flagging my comments. So much for your culture of debate and Western civilization! You should be banned from all social media and engaging in any discussion.
And I will keep commenting here till Hacker News flags and removes your vile comments as well for violating basic norms of civil discussion as you have been flagging my comments. The day India reigns supreme, we are gonna give it back to you guys in the same way like you flag all my comments even though they are all well intentioned. You Westerners can bully Indians on your platform. But it won't last for long.
He seems to be doing well considering there are people who have problem with the words 'nationalism', 'right wing' etc. Baba Ramdev is neither of these. He's just a guy doing business and is pretty good at it. Whether you like it or not, he's the future of India.
There's nothing here to debate. Ebert clearly says that video games are not art. As does this article. This is because video games and art are fundamentally different, and there is no question of video games being art. It seems the video gamers are not ready to accept this. In trying to seek validation for the time they spend playing these games, they are building arguments which are of no use. This may be because they want to improve their perception among public who tend to dismiss time spent playing video games as wasted. It also works best for the video game industry to have its clients believe that they are purchasing art when they are buying video games. I think that's why Roger Ebert gave up arguing after a point of time. Video gamers can believe whatever they want to, that does not change the fact that video games are not art.
They had such an amazing life! They were completely dedicated to their work. They attained a perfect equilibrium where, by perfectly complementing each other, they managed to focus on their work. The other spouse was never a hindrance in one's work. Such a rapport is so hard to achieve. Nearly all couples are bogged down by some form of family issue (raising kid, problematic relatives etc.). In fact, he faced similar issue in his first marriage which ultimately broke down. It would be so beautiful to have a partner like that. Coming from a third world country where 'starting a family' (which definitely includes having kids) is everything, I am extremely lured by this prospect as I know how difficult it is to achieve here.
