Category Archives: News

Pirate or Marathi admiral?

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Since today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day (y)aarr, I wanted to blog about Kanhoji Angre, an African–Indian who became the most powerful “pirate” of his era in the world:

Yaarrrrrr

Kanhoji … Angira[‘s] …operations off the west coast of India developed into what was probably the most successful piracy endeavor of the 17th or 18th century. [Link]

He was the first pirate who dared to extort money from Indian and British shipping. In 1712 he seized the armed yacht of the East India Company’s governor and held it for a sizeable ransom. Several years later he repelled the British … using specially built gunships. His success drew pirates from India and Europe and by the 1720’s his captains commanded hundreds of well-armed vessels. By 1722 his repeated humiliations of the Company led to their cessation of attempts to destroy Kanhoji. [Link]

While Kanhoji is considered a pirate by the western world, he’s a national hero in India. The Indian Navy named a major naval base after him, and a memorial was due to be erected in his honor in Alibag. In the Indian narrative, he is “the great Admiral of Marathas,” Shivaji’s naval commander:

British historians have described Kanhoji Angre as a pirate, ignoring that he was appointed by the Maratha king. [Link]
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Paulose being investigated

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You all recall me blogging back in March about the Alberto Gonzales-installed U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis right? Indian American Rachel Paulose, at only 33 years of age, was one of the loyal “Bushies” picked to replace the apparently disloyal outgoing attorney (Tom Heffelfinger) from that region. Right away news began to surface that Paulose’s staff couldn’t stand her reportedly imperious ways. Well now it seems that the largely ignored Office of Special Counsel is investigating formal complaints against Ms. Paulose [via Eric Black Ink]:

The federal Office of Special Counsel is investigating allegations that Rachel Paulose, U.S. attorney for Minnesota, mishandled classified information, decided to fire the subordinate who called it to her attention, retaliated against others in the office who crossed her, and made racist remarks about one employee.

Paulose did not return phone calls seeking her comment. Black Ink will publish any response that she makes.

The investigation has been under way since June. The Office of Special Counsel, which handles complaints about retaliation against whistleblowers and prohibited personnel practices by political appointees such as Paulose (that’s her at the podium in the photo at right), appears to be taking the allegations seriously. Investigators from two of its regional offices have been to Minnesota to interview witnesses and may be back for more. I could not find out when the OSC, an independent executive branch agency that is not part of the Justice Department, might complete the investigation. [Link]

It should be noted that this is an on-going investigation that is little more than he-said she-said right now. Here are a couple of the specific allegations being made, however:

*Paulose committed large and small acts of retaliation against others in the office whom she accused of disloyalty to her. In one instance, after changing the job assignment of one employee, Paulose allegedly said that she would make the woman so miserable that she would want to quit. In some instances, Paulose allegedly ordered those in charge of performing job evaluations to downgrade the reviews of those she considered disloyal, or turned down requests that they be allowed to perform work outside the office. The allegation is that Paulose took these actions against employees for reasons other than the quality of their work, but rather for offenses like advising her that some actions she was contemplating would exceed her legal authority.

*Paulose allegedly denigrated one employee of the office, using the terms “fat,” “black,” “lazy” and “ass…” [Link]

I don’t think using the four words above necessarily means you said anything wrong or that you are racist (as the allegations seem to imply). For example, I think it is perfectly acceptable to criticize a subordinate like this:

“When you sit in that black chair eating non-fat yogurt when you should be working as hard as a four-legged ass it makes me think you are a bit lazy.“

Can anyone else come up with a possible non-controversial sentence that Paulose might have uttered using those four words?

The outlook may not be favorable for Paulose. With Alberto out the knives will be coming out and Democrats will be applying some pressure to clean-up what they see as a crony-filled Justice Department.

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A Meta-diaspora: When Desis Fled Uganda

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Mother of Devang.jpg Thirty-five years ago, today, the first wave of South Asians who were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin landed in the UK.

At the time Amin gained power, Uganda’s Indian community, numbering approximately 80,000 in total, was comprised of Hindis, Muslims, and Ismalis(sic). [link]

Here’s why they left:

President Amin has denounced the Ugandan Asians as “bloodsuckers”, and warned that any remaining in the country after 8 November risk being imprisoned in military camps. [BBC]

Bloodsuckers, eh? Takes one to know them, or imagine them, I guess. Consider this horrific story:

A 75-year old retired chartered accountant Natubhai Shah, who is living in Ahmedabad, recalled Amin’s reign of terror in an interview with ‘The Times of India’, “Here I was, on an official tour with Idi Amin’s entourage, trying to cross the Nile River when a military van stopped me from going ahead.
One of the army men discreetly handed me a pair of binoculars. It was a chilling sight. Amin was standing beside the river, cutting flesh off an Asian man and feeding it to crocodiles in the river.” [HT]

Also, what exactly were Uganda’s desis threatened with? The BBC article states “imprisonment”, but a case study I found, which focuses on one woman’s personal account of this nightmare, suggests something far more heinous.

Dr. Sunita Sundaram, an ethnically Asian Ismali(sic), was a medical student in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, when Amin announced that all Asians must leave the country within three months time or be killed. [Harvard]

Even as Ugandans followed Amin’s outrageous directions and fled, they were terrorized:

Kassem Osman – who arrived with his wife, two brothers and their families – said they had been robbed by the soldiers.
“On the way to the airport the coach was stopped by troops seven time and we were all held at gun point,” he said. [BBC]

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The Caption Game: “Ini Kamoze”-Edition

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Here Comes the Hotstepper.jpg If it is Monday, then it is time to segue back in to Sepia timepassing gently. After all, you’ve had quite the weekend, I’m sure. Exercise your commenting skillz by playing the caption game! Don’t you know that working out without a proper warm-up isn’t wise? 😉

Many thanks to Paul, who guaranteed we’d be able to play today by sending in this tip (“a great candidate for a caption contest”); if any of you spot similarly interesting, “Brown” photographs, pass them along! This picture accompanied an article, some of which is available after the jump.

So, just what is going on here? I’m sure that a few of you already know (and may have witnessed the spectacle yourselves!), but if you don’t recognize the hotstepping, here’s the relatively-somber caption the L.A. Times gave this image:

A Pakistani guard, left, and an Indian counterpart march during a nightly border-closing ceremony. It’s an elaborate, almost comical, show of martial bravado and chest-puffing that has gone on for nearly 60 years. [LAT]

Not sure how to play? Peep these previous editions of captioning fun: Ondhu, Eradu, Mooru, Naal’ku, Aydhu, Aaru, EyLu… Continue reading →

The God for Everyman

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Ganesha_Nurpur_miniature_circa_1810

Ganapati Bappa Morya:

An important festival honours Ganesha for ten days starting with Ganesh Chaturthi, typically in late August or early September. This festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi when images (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water.
Hindus celebrate the Ganapati festival with great devotional fervour. While it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra, it is performed all over India. The festival assumes huge proportions in Mumbai and in surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples. On the last day of the festival, millions of people of all ages descend onto the streets leading up to the sea, dancing and singing to the rhythmic accompaniment of drums and cymbals.
In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed the annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so “to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them” in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Thus, Tilak chose Ganesha as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule because of Ganesha’s wide appeal as “the god for Everyman.” Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day.[wiki]

So…one could say that Ganapati was quite mutinous. 🙂 Extra celebrating is in order, I think. What are you doing today? Over the past three years, I’ve found that when some of you describe childhood memories of holidays which were important in your family, it’s as sweet as this. Speaking of sweet, eat a ladoo for me, would you? Thanks. Continue reading →

From Russia with Love

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Yesterday I was hosting a meeting at work for some co-workers spread out across the country, including some high-level managers within my organization. My laptop was hooked up to project on to a screen in our conference room as well as wired to broadcast its contents out over the internet for the remote meeting participants. The mail program I use is Microsoft Outlook. As Outlook users are probably aware, when you get a new message a tiny box fades in at the bottom right hand corner of your screen that has the name of the sender and the subject line of the email (yes, I realize now I can turn it off). After about five seconds it fades back out. In the middle of the meeting, overlaid on top of the most important Powerpoint slide, popped up the following message notification:

From: Mona
Subject: a way to solve abhi’s girl problems…..

The blood rushed to my face and I think I went deaf for a few minutes after that.

So what was this article that was going to solve my “girl problems?” I wasn’t aware I needed any help.

Desperate to reverse a steep decline in their numbers, Russians are coming up with some bold ideas on how to overcome Russia’s demographic crisis.

A Russian feminist has proposed a radical solution to the falling birth rate — importing Indian bridegrooms for Russian girls. Maria Arbatova, writer and TV moderator, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago “after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians”, thinks Indian men make ideal husbands.

“They are crazy about their family and children,” she said presenting her new book, ‘Tasting India’, here. “What is more, Indians, like Russians, are Indo-Europeans, and many Sanskrit and Russian words have the same roots.”

Indian bridegrooms can help ward off a Chinese demographic invasion in Russia, says the feminist: “If we do not balance off the Chinese with Indians, Africans or aliens, by 2050 China will annex Russia’s Siberia up to the Ural Mountains…” [Link]

Was my friend right? Is this what I need?

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This just in: CanAda doesn’t care about Sikh people

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Mmmm, snark:

Leger poll shows Sikhs are the least liked religion in Canada (liked by only 53% of Canadians). Jews are the most liked minority religion (78%), Muslims at 61%. No data on Christians, or on people who commission really stupid polls. [Ikram]

ennis.jpg

But what about Jewish Sikhs? Feh. Fresh from the News Tab, some meshugge story in the Montreal Gazette which deserves Ikram’s (and perhaps your) scorn; Canadians apparently respect Sikhs less than members of other religions, and the amount of contact a Canadian has with a person influences their perception of them. Shocking, but true.

Asked whether they had a favourable opinion of each group, the 1,500 people surveyed by Léger Marketing across Canada said they hold Jews in the highest esteem (78 per cent), Muslims considerably lower (61 per cent) and Sikhs least of all (53 per cent).
And in each case, how much a person approves of one of the minority religions depends on how much contact he or she has had with them. The more contact, the higher the esteem, the poll found.
Forty-five per cent of Canadians are in contact with Jews often or occasionally, according to the poll. Only 37 per cent are in touch with Muslims, and only 21 per cent with Sikhs.

One thing to keep in mind– there are fewer Jewish people than Muslims, in Canada (pronounced Kuh-NAH-da, natch).

According to the 2001 federal census (religion data from the 2006 census are not yet available), there are 330,000 Jews in Canada and 580,000 Muslims. Sikhs number 278,000.

Y’all need to hold some Bhangra Blowout-esque event in Quebec. 😉 Continue reading →

The costs of lobbying

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This was a post a long time coming. Not because it contains some scoop on current events – just that after Vinod invited me, and then checking with the rest of the Mutiny, I wanted to be sure that whatever I eventually wrote would be timely. So with time running out, I sat down to post on the unintended consequences of a higher profile for brown folks in the U.S. Most of the focus will be on Indian-Americans specifically, because that is what I am more familiar with. But, in past postings, one idea that has often been tossed about is that IA’s should adopt the stance of more prominent minority groups to garner more attention to its own causes. However, on of the advantages of being a relatively more recent arrival is that you get to learn the consequences of earlier methods – both planned and unintended. Continue reading →

Introducing KXB

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Please join me in welcoming the latest guest blogger to Sepia Mutiny, frequent commentor KXB. Unlike previous guest bloggers who’ve generally had their own prolific personal blogs, KXB’s presence has mostly been felt in his numerous, well-thought comments as well as his *several times a day* posting to the SM News Tab.

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September 11: Everlasting be their memory.

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Six years ago, after the attacks, a Humvee rolled up to my apartment building, which was seven blocks from the White House; we were not allowed to leave, for our own safety.

Six years ago, we entered an age of terror which we are also not allowed to leave, ostensibly for our own safety.

Six years ago, 3,000 innocents boarded a plane or went to work, as if it were any ordinary day; they never returned home.

reflecting pool.jpg

At 8:46 a.m., the moment the first plane struck the North Tower, a bell was sounded, as it has for six years now, and the gathered masses bowed their heads. [NYT]

Let this be a space for remembrance, for respect and for grieving, if you need. Everyone who reads this blog lost something six years ago, even if they didn’t “directly” lose someone in New York, D.C. or Pennsylvania; this space is for your thoughts, on this appositely grim day. Continue reading →