Monday, January 08, 2007

Speak Marathi and keep out other ethnic groups?...

That is what Balasaheb Thackeray implied in a recent editorial. I agree with this article that it is not the case. The British have been speaking English for a long time and have not been able to keep out Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. It is not the opportunity to speak a language, but opportunity to live a peaceful life, earn a living and do business that gets people to Maharashtra or Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh.

There are many kinds of migrations into a city or area. There is the low level migration of unskilled labor, which mainly happens to escape poverty, lack of opportunities and degradation in small villages. This migration happens with Maharashtrians too. Then there is semi skilled labor that are looking for specific opportunities in construction, manufacturing or even driving auto rickshaws, cars. Then comes the skilled variety which typically nobody minds.

The issue is mainly about the unskilled and semi-skilled labor. Thanks to good governance and overall logistical and political history, Maharashtra is a well to do state. Biharis and Keralites alike end up here for jobs and opportunities.

The way to keep out other groups is to regress in humanity and be the incarnation of Rakshasas (Think of some of the desert nations). People migrate to Maharashtra because it is closer to the Gods mentioned by Tukaram and Namdeo and revels in prosperity. The day people leave Maharashtra will mean something not necessarily good. Notice that when it is time to leave, Lebanese leave Lebanon, Iraqis leave Iraq and so on. When it comes time to leave, everybody leaves and the lights go off.

If we firmly believe that Good always triumphs over Evil, migration of people into Maharashtra will eventually result in more Maharashtrian values. That will reduce non-Maharashtrians in the state. A Bangladeshi on a fake ration card living in Maharashtra eventually becomes a Maharashtrian as he embodies Maharashtrian values. So it is really not about the language you speak, but who you become when you live among the good folks in Maharashtra. So be a Maharashtrian and imbibe Maharashtrian values. That is how Ganesh Chaturti gets celebrated all over India.

Customized Google Web Search Engine for Maharashtra

I have created a customized Google web search engine for Maharashtra and all the other states of India. If you are looking for serious information, this will be helpful as government sites are given the highest priority. This allows complete control over a search. Now the searches are even more guaranteed to block out a pop up rich websites that have somehow managed to crawl it's way up Google preferences.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Maharashtrian rulers of the old...How good were they?

As I posted information related to other states on the web, I could not help noticing the fact that other ethnicities were not very happy about the period of Maratha rule. How good were the Marathas and the peshwas? I do not recollect good leadership mentioned for any of the rulers other than Shivajiraje and Ahilyabai. Plus there is a lot of historical angst about what could have been related to Shivaji's son.

So I am guessing that some of the other rulers were not very visionary and that led to the eventual erosion of their hold over the empire. Your thoughts on the issue?

Maharashtra interactive map

Maharashtra Video search

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