Outrage In India Over Arrests For Facebook Posts

concealment sends in an AP report about an uproar in India over citizens arrested for their Facebook remarks. Quoting: "As India's financial capital shut down for the weekend funeral of a powerful politician linked to waves of mob violence, a woman posted on Facebook that the closures in Mumbai were 'due to fear, not due to respect.' A friend of hers hit the 'like' button. For that, both women were arrested. Analysts and the media are slamming the Maharashtra state government for what they said was a flagrant misuse of the law and an attempt to curb freedom of expression. The arrests were seen as a move by police to prevent any outbreak of violence by supporters of Bal Thackeray, a powerful Hindu fundamentalist politician who died Saturday."

Shivaji Bhosle Was Historical Figure, Not Deity

[sanman2]

Here, get an education - you ignorant gringo tourist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji [wikipedia.org]

Shivaji Bhosle was a local freedom fighter from Maratha history, akin to Robin Hood. He fought to protect the rights of local Marathas, waging hit-and-run battles against the Moghul Empire and standing up for the local people against the tyranny of Moghul invaders from the north over his native Maharashtra.

Bal Thakre and his supporters are also Maharashtrians, and Thakre formed the Shiva Sena ("Army of Shivaji") to stand up for the rights of his local Maharashtrian ethnic group, who were being bullied and pushed around by all the carpetbaggers flooding into his local area from across the country.

You see, the ruling Congress One Party State has been in power for 53 out of 65 years in New Delhi, ruling the country like an Emperor, caring very little for development of the local people. The Congress Party were basically founded by North Indians and are centred around their ethnic group, and they look down upon non-northern ethnic groups including Maharashtrians, insisting that everyone else assimilate into North Indian culture. The Congress Party has only been interested in hanging onto power and never cared to really foster development around the country, so what few big cities India has have then turned into dumping grounds for people from all over, who then flood into these sole few overcrowded localities, like India's largest city of Mumbai. All this does is keep compressing the people who already live there.

I'm a North Indian myself, but I have enough decency to at least be self-aware of how shabbily my ethnic group treats others in India, since we are in fact the dominant ethnic group in the country. Of course, most of the Indian media are from my ethnic group, and my Hindi language is also the dominant language of the country, so nautrally we always get to tell the story from our viewpoint, while conveniently glossing over the views of others. Our narrative is therefore the dominant narrative, while others are quickly labeled "extremists", etc to delegitimize their viewpoint. That's the mutual admiration society and the fool's paradise we like to foster for ourselves.

The Shiv Sena is not a theological organization, but simply born out of a backlash against the massive influx of people from outside the region. We Northies just like to say they're fundamentalists -- it's much easier to dismiss your antagonist as a "fundamentalist redneck" than to actually try to take a closer at their grievances, because nobody likes to see their own warts by holding up a mirror to themselves.

We get ample help from ignorant people like yourself, who'd ignorantly and uncritically parrot anything sensationalist claims they read or hear, without having any actual familiarity with the local politics.

Shivaji - India's Robin Hood

[sanman2]

Here ya go, Prof Chomsky - here are some pictures of statues built in homage to Shivaji, India's own Robin Hood, who fought for the weak and the oppressed - a real actual person from history, and not a fictional multi-limbed mythological deity:

http://www.indialine.com/travel/maharashtra/shivajiheritage.html [indialine.com]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/subratomitra/6073279079/ [flickr.com]

http://500px.com/photo/5242560 [500px.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shivaji_Statue_Apollo_Bunder_Front_View.jpg [wikipedia.org]

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/27769369 [panoramio.com]

Shivaji's dog:

http://amitkulkarni.info/pics/raigad-fort/picture-gallery/Statue-of-Shivaji-pet-dog-Waghya.php [amitkulkarni.info]

Yes, he even made it to California:

http://ekmarathimanoos.blogspot.ca/2011/11/american-shivaji.html [blogspot.ca]

Just please don't go around telling people that Jesus Montero was a central figure in the Bible, rather than a baseball player.