My Musings

 Musings....... Uighur Muslims and Chinese Communist Party  The Uighur are a Turkic- speaking minority ethnic group culturally affiliated to the Central and East Asia. Within China, the Uighurs are native to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.  The Chinese government recognises the Uighurs as a regional minority within a multicultural nation. The Chinese reject the idea of the Uighurs being an indigenous group.  The Uighurs traditionally inhabited the Tarim Basin within the Taklamakan desert. Over the times they remained as independent states and were controlled by many civilisations including the Chinese, Mongols, the Tibetans and Turks. Islam has played a major role in Uighur culture and identity.  Initially the term Uighur was used to refer to a small coalition of Tiele tribes in Northern China, Mongolia and Altai Mountains, which was later usurped by the Uyghur Khaganate.  The fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 842, led to mass migration of Uighurs into

Musings....... Pandemic or Syndemic ?  The great William Shakespeare famously wrote - “ What is in a name ?”.  In the present scenario we must say that everything is in a name.  Up until the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised COVID19 as a pandemic - many did not take the disease seriously. It was when it was officially declared as a Pandemic - it positioned the virus as something that should now concern ‘us’ and became something that should be taken seriously.  Infectious disease epidemics is generally portrayed in the Western world as a problem of the post colonial “developing” third world country.   According to them “Epidemics” and “disease” occur out there !!  Recent examples include the Zika Virus in the jungles of South America, the Ebola in civil war ravaged Congo,Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in Saudi peninsula, SARS in Southern China and Nipah in our own Kerala.  However, COVID19 has challenged all these western world post colonial perceptions - that infectio

 Musings....... I would like to write about an incident, one about which I read sometime ago.  It was the early 1990s when few corporate companies in the United States of America (USA) came up with a scheme for the pig and poultry farmers.  The Corporate company would provide Piglets to the farmers at low cost. The farmers just had to grow them in their farm and the company itself will buy back the fully grown pigs at the market price.  Superficially this looked like a brilliant plan where both sides benefitted. The farmer didn't have to run around small markets for their pigs and the Corporate company didn't have to spent the time, money and space of growing the animal.  The first year went all fine, farmers were paid the market price and everyone was very happy. The second year too went without incident. However,by the third year citing some difficulties the Corporare company halved the price of the pigs. The farmers thought this to be an aberration and bore the loss. Again t

 Musings....... Keshavananda Bharati- The sage who saved Indian Democracy  Edneer Mutt in Kasargod District of Kerala has a rather inadvertent distinction of having as its Seer Keshavananda Bharati who's case turned out to be a landmark ensuring constitutional law prevailed in India.  The seer who passed away recently, moved the Supreme Court challenging the land reform laws of Kerala. He was 79.  The land reforms introduced in Kerala in 1969 deprived the Edneer Mutt of its land property - which is believed to have been founded by one of the first four disciples of Adi Shankaracharya.  Keshavananada Bharati challenged the Kerala Governments takeover of its land in the Supreme Court in 1970. The mutt had lost income, and found it difficult to manage its affairs.  The Keshavananda Bharati vrs State of Kerala case is the longest hearing held in the Supreme Court with over 68 hearings.  Legal luminary Nani Palkhivala who appeared for the seer, argued that the question before the court