I tweeted yesterday about the new MIA video, a short, happy upbeat bit of bubblegum pop about a boy and a girl in love. It’s uplifting and heart warming, yet light and subtle. She’s clearly leaving politics behind and trying to challenge Taylor / Miley / Gaga / Ke$ha in the hearts of tween kids everywhere. Based on this video, I figure her next move is to team up with Justin Bieber for a saccharine duet, something that will show up on Glee within a month. Or maybe she’ll decide to give Jay Sean a run for his money, with a song called “Up.”
CAUTION: The video really is NSFW because of both violence and nudity. Also, you really don’t want to watch a 9 minute long video with graphic imagery at the office, unless you work at the SEC..
M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.
i enjoyed the wet sari scene
Mustafa said
“I ain’t from Bharat/Hindustan, my peeps are from Pushtunistan (southern Afghanistan/Pakistan’s NWF)!!!!!!! Anyways, the girl may not claim her Indic roots, but her music is better if less political than MIA’s. MIA ain’t pretty in my BOOK.”
Mustafa, your book would be located in the “Full of horse shit” section at Borders.
Mustafa,
You don’t seem to have much knowledge of the situation in Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers were not a ‘hindu’ group, they were not fighting to establish a hindu state.. As others have said, much of the leadership were christian or atheist. It was an ethnic conflict more than a religious one. You’re also incorrect to believe that the tamil population was a result of workers brought in by the British. There were Tamil kingdoms in Sri Lanka before the British, and the population in the North have been there for centuries . The workers the British brought over were on the tea plantations in the south, and these people were not really involved in the conflict.
@ ShallowThinker,
Your comments are rude and lacking in “adaab” (Urdu word and Arabic loan word) for manners. Your insults are as shallow as your online alias. See, I don’t insult people. I don’t vulgar language, I simply refute comments I disagree with.
People here seem to so defensive when anything associated with Hinduism is stated. But I have to listen to people malign Muslims and Islam, a double standard I would say.
@ Desi Britain and et al,
Thanks for the corrections. I don’t know much about the subcontinent south of Andra Pradesh. It makes since that Tamils would be indigenous to Sri Lanka given its proximity to Tamil Nandu.
Terrorism is not the exclusive tool of choice for Muslims on the subcontinent. Sikhs assassinated Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi was associated by a Christian, and the Lord’s Army in Nagaland is a Christian terrorist organization with aims against Indian rule in that region.
Mustafa, throughout the subcontinent and the world, people have committed acts of terrorism in the name of all sorts of things – religion, region, language, etc.
When you reduce acts of terrorism only to religion, you do own argument a huge disservice. Yes, there have been acts of terrorism committed in the name of various religions, including Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism. However, as others have demonstrated to you, the LTTE did not carry out its barbaric acts of terrorism in the name of Hinduism or any religion. Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin might have been Christian, but that’s not the reason she killed him. Separatist outfits in Northeastern India might be majority Christian, but their rhetoric generally revolves around state oppression, not religious persecution.
You’re absolutely right in saying that not all terrorists are Muslims, but not all acts of terrorism are committed in the name of religion either, which is why most of your examples make me cringe.
The mural on the wall at 3:58, showing 3 “gingers” with guns and saying “Our Time Will Come” was (unintentionally) hilarious to me, although I’m finding it difficult to articulate why. Just absurdist, perhaps?
@ vivek,
Okay, I’m not a writing a dissertation on this blog.
This is not geared towards you. What makes me cringe is the insinuation that South Asian Muslims are foreigners who came to India. DNA and genetic studies show that most South Asian Muslims are not of foreign origins. Another thing that makes me cringe is that Islam was some “unified conspiracy” to trapple and destroy the culture of India. That is not proven according to the historical record, while some converted, the vast majority did not convert and we see cultural hybridity resulting.
Any belief system including cultural nationalism and separatism can produce evils and atrocities. I claim openly that I am a Pushtun nationalist, however, my nationalism is not blinded to the fact that Islamabad would willingly relinquish control of the NWF for an eventual reunification with Afghanistan. I understand that Pushtuns will have a bicultural identity, an identity with Pakistan than links them with the greater subcontinent.
Even though I share the same religious identity with 98% of all Pakistanis, it does not ignore real and imagined grievances I have towards Islamabad and the history of the Pakistan Movement and the history that unfolded since partition. My being Muslim does not mean I excuse what I consider historical grievances.
Since the comparison with Palestinian nationalism has been equated with Tamil self-determination in Sri Lanka, both forms of organized militancy have created human atrocities and destroyed lives.
The Palestinian movement was not a religious one initially, contrary to what Hamas may claim. Christians were influential in the early movement, only in the 1990s did we see an “Islamicization” of the conflict as Arab Christians began fleeing the Occupied Territories for greener pastures in the Arab world and West. Even the Pope has lamented about the decline in the Christian community in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Just like the precursors to the Taliban, the Mujahideen though couched in religious language, recruited local fighters and foreigners to resist Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. As the Soviets fled, Pushtun clans affiliated with the growing Taliban movement spread their authority over much of Afghanistan. Their aversion to all joys in life led to the closure of schools, the banning of women from the public sphere, the religious persecution of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, and suppression of the Shia minority in that country. Pushtuns openly waged ethnic strife against the non-Pushtun minority, and their hatred was geared towards the Hazara especially.
My Pushtun nationalism is more geared towards greater regional autonomy from Pakistani Punjab.
However, unlike MIA, I would never praise the work of the Taliban. Even if their intentions were not entirely vile, their actions and the oonsequences that unfolded are.
MIA is a terrorist sympathizer. Something this Muslim is not!
A few more corrections are in order:
“persian colonialism” is an inaccurate choice of words. The streets of khiva and other central asian cities were lined with markets teeming with persian slaves. The Turks who invade and conquered northern India certainly were persianized; however, Islam’s legacy in India is certainly not the exclusive domain of that culture. Arabs under the caliphate made the first inroads into the subcontinent before being defeated by the powerful Pratihara kingdom, who later, as a condition for sufferance of the emirate in Sindh, forced tribute on the emir of Sindh–one of whom paid homage at a Kannauj ceremony honoring the Rashtrukas’ supremacy in India. Rohillas later came in such numbers that an entire region was named after them. Persian was the court language of the Turks and Mughals, but neither identified as Persian. Indeed, both progenitors of the Mughals wreaked horrible carnage on medieval Persia.
No one here, not even “fascist” bjp supporters are blaming indian muslims for that legacy. As you accurately note, most are descendants of Indian converts–in spite of denials from some sections of the subcontinent. However, the legacies of Balban, Khilji, and Tughlaq do extend beyond the creation of a syncretic culture (incidentally, those hindu elements can indeed be separated and are indeed alive and well in South India), and do not justify the denial of atrocities. No one is looking to turn back the clock; however, just as the holocaust and the genocide of native americans must be studied objectively, so should the negative legacies left behind from these invasions be analyzed and put aside for reconciliation. Negating and denying them does not help society advance.
56 already re-rebutted that point, so I will let sleeping dogs lie.
The fetus story was found to be false and apocryphal by the Special Investigation Team of the Indian Supreme Court. As you can tell from the news org, this was a CNN-IBN story–not exactly your friendly neighborhood center of Saffronized journalism. Indeed, there are allegations to the contrary. In any event, Teesta Setalvad concocted many macabre stories due to her agenda against the BJP and was the cause for a number of innocent gujarati muslim victims being charged and sent to jail for perjury due to her intimidation, browbeating, and abuse of position. Additionally, what happened in Gujarat was not ethnic cleansing. What happened in Kashmir, however, was. Both the Gujarat riots (there were hindu victims too, for the sake of adaab, or the hindu equivalent padaati, let us have the decency to acknowledge that) and the ethnic cleansing of the Pandits were deplorable–but let us recognize that even deplorable acts can vary in scale.
Regarding forced conversions, I think your own stated ignorance of the subcontinent beyond the Andhra country can provide us with a little lesson here. Harihara and Bukka Raya were the founders of the Vijayanagar empire who, incidentally, were forcibly converted by the delhi sultanate following the defeat of the kakatiyas. They later recanted and founded an empire on the banks of the Tungabhadra. This is a reality whether you wish to acknowledge it or not.
In complete contradiction to the self-confessed ill-informed rantings of a one metal mickey, virtually all the bjp supporters on this site have no problem with India’s syncretic culture, enjoy bollywood movies, appreciate kebabs, and even go to celebrate the religious festivals and weddings of their indian minority friends of all backgrounds—gasp. However, being open-minded, tolerant, and multi-cultural does not mean that one cannot take pride in one’s own ancient heritage, which remains alive today. It is not any “phobia” or “ism” that motivates support for the party, but a pride in heritage, a visceral disgust with the divisive and anti-national politics of the congress party, and a recognition of the myriad of threats from crossborder terrorism and state competition. Assuming metal mickey can still read, I’ll end with the following:
Those of us on the “other side” enjoy Sepia because it provides a forum for intellectual exchange and promotes cultural interchange. We are tolerant, open-minded and modern people who want an India for everyone; however, what we will speak out against is ignorance (willful or innocent) and propaganda that seeks to deny facts, cast aspersions, and muzzle dissent. We believe the standards that apply to India and its obligation to treat minorities as equals applies to the other South Asian states as well. Dr. Aseem Shukla sums it all up the best: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/aseem_shukla/2010/04/dr_chopra_honor_thy_heritage.html.
Yaj,
Who is “metal mickey”? Are you referring to me?
I though SM was a pan-South Asian Diaspora blog which would not simply address issues in India but in other countries as well. But considering that people here don’t seem interested in political developments in Pakistan, I guess you might rename this NRI Mutiny.
Thank you Yaj…so much bs written by Mustafa, you just don’t know how to respond.
“Metal mickey” and “Pashtun tribal” (a la Shilpa) is how discourse in India is handled? You insult people by calling them names?!
Engage in debate, but absolve yourself from using slights against someone.
Sorry brother, to me the rhetoric of the BJP is no different from the xenophobes called Minute Men in Amrika or anti-Obama activists who call themselves the “Tea Party” movement.
PS,
And where is your lengthy reply? You people really lack manners. If I can listen to BJP bullshit and religious chauvinism in “ancient heritage” pride, then you can listen to a minority voice from a neighboring South Asian country.
What would you call it?
Mustafa,
No, I was not referring to you. Metal Mickey was ranting on a different post, but I figured I’d sum up a response to her on this thread. And yes, you are right, it is a pan-South Asian blog–that is what I like about it. By all means, let us return the thread to the appropriate topic–but let’s stick to the facts.
Mustafa, “bjp bullshit”? from the facts of the condition of Persians in the Ottoman Empire, to the fetus killing lie, to the piece by piece articulate descrip of what is the stance of bjp, to understanding Tamil separatist movment, you have proven yourself to be the biggest proponent of bs in this whole discussion. You don’t represent the “minority” voice, you represent in this discussion the bs voice. Just once, why can’t you meet a fact with a reasoning on why you continue to disseminate lies? That’s very Palinesque of you.
PS,
When did I mention the Uthmani (Ottoman) empire?
As for the “fetus lie” I was attending UCLA and read an article about this topic in al-Talib (UCLA’s Muslim student publication). Muslim Student Association tends to convey a pro-Pakistan, and slightly anti-India agenda. Most of my sources concerning Gujarat come from Muslim sources, which can be slightly biased in favor of a “Muslim position.”
I don’t have time to deal with a punk like you.
@ Yaj,
Back to the topic on hand, I just don’t care for MIA’s music.
Which party? The one which thinks that Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi are its future, or the one which wants to win elections?
I don’t have time to deal with a punk like you.
And we don’t have time for flame wars or name-calling. Folks, a little on-topicness and a lot of civility would be much appreciated. The ban-hammer is falling.
Sorry. I’m out.
Mustafa,
Re: MIA’s music–completely agree.
No need, colleague. I always love to hear from you/read your contributions. 🙂
@ ShallowThinker
Who’s fighting to claim Nicki? Did you even read my comment? I don’t care for the chick or what she raps about, I don’t like rap and generally don’t listen to it and I think she’s over hyped and over-sexed, but what does her bisexuality have to do with ANYTHING at all as it relates to her ethnicity, the way she raps, or whatever, what exactly was the point of bringing that up?
59 wrote:
Pseudo-intellectual South Indians/Tamils.
Oh shutup you dirty Tamil Tiger screaming for attention.
Regarding the thread at hand, I know her tactics appeal to a lot of butterz people, but she hasn’t helped the perception that all Sri Lankans are guerilla warfare barbarians who can’t integrate into society at the core because of physical insecurities. Maybe she can use the money from her latest album to buy lessons to Cotillion.
I think there’s a fine line between political activism, artistry and barbarianism. She’s proven she has no clue about what works but chooses to look past this and continue to “push the envelope with political metaphors” for the sake of album sales. This bitch is just as ugly and just as phony as Oprah.
I don’t think the video is very deep but the way it presents its one point is interesting. It’s worth remembering that MIA didn’t make the video, this guy Gravas (or something) did. He’s made similar stuff before and his dad directed some very pointed films too.
So about the song, the thing that’s MIAs, I actually heard it a while back and thought it sucked. On hearing it over this video I thought it was great, almost like a different song.
For the record, Mustafa, one of my fave movies of all time is Khuda Gawah. Great story, Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi double-action (one role is never enough when it comes to her), indo-afghan bonhomie, and a money soundtrack…
And to stay on point, yes, MIA’s music doesn’t really appeal to me either. As for the political aspect, she was on Real Time a little while back and she didn’t really seem to rep her cause (the post-war condition of sri lankan tamils–many are still in camps) all that well.
Just kidding. She’s legit.
Umm, I’m not a tamil and if my posts were any indication to those who can read, I certainly have no inclination towards the ltte. That said, you can be against the ltte, you can be against separatism, you can even be against autonomy, and still support some type of political reconciliation between the sinhalese and the tamils and fair rehabilitation of that population.
On the topic of literacy however, please note Tigray, it’s barbarism not “barbarianism”, which you apparently are practicing here. And her music may suck, but MIA is not an unattractive woman. Not everyone goes for the “Scythian” look…
comment wins the award for packing maximum number of fairy tales in the smallest space.
hmm yes, far better to type up a one liner without any counter evidence and then scurry off with your tail between you legs…
The dirty reality of Bharat is that it’s not the USA or Europe. Given the weakness/failure of the state, Muslim violence is (can be?) only kept in check with the threat of a disproportionate, violent mob-like response by Hindus. That is what happened in Gujarat–Hindus on the train were fire-bombed, and the break with the prevailing social order was met with ultra-violence. Not pretty, but the threat of it does deter violence and keep the peace most days of the year. In some ways better than in Lebanon or the UK.
yajnavalkya, i’m not interested in responding to your taunting – your game in your posts and your shilling for the vile parts of the bjp is quite transparent.
This thread is off-topic, contains ad hominem attacks, sexist and racist comments, and poor argument. Sorry—you’re done.