Editorial Consultant: @timesofindia (TOI Digital) Guest Faculty: @IIMC_India
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Captain Overage Activist
This week, our journey into faux sociological terms continues. So far, yours truly has enamoured and enraged readers with three theories: the Higgins-Macaulay Complex, the Toaster Lover Syndrome and the Rang De Basanti Syndrome.
For those who don’t ardently follow the Vine (shame on you), here’s a short recap:
The Higgins-Macaulay Complex – named after Lord Macaulay, who wanted to create an English-speaking Indian second class, and Professor Henry Higgins, who was convinced the greatest thoughts flow only in Shakespeare’s tongue – is the misplaced belief that fluency in a colonial tongue, coupled with a sharp accent and arcane vocabulary, makes one superior in every way.
The Toaster Lover Theory is the phenomenon created by the internet where people with absurd convictions find enough like-minded individuals to share their absurdity and start believing that the desire to perform coitus on an electrical appliance is normal behaviour and anyone who disagrees is a raging oppressive bigot.
The Rang De Basanti Syndrome, named after the Dhurandar of the Left, is the anarcho-pacifist fantasy wrapped in the fig leaf of patriotism with the leitmotif of Rahman’s music that convinced folks that dreaming of revolution while protesting against the establishment automatically makes one morally superior, irrespective of whether one knows what one is protesting or has the slightest idea of what will happen after said revolution.
Individually, anyone possessing any of these symptoms might be a danger to society, but put all three together and you get a full-blown version of an ailment that even Dr House cannot cure, because when all three intersect, we get the final boss archetype: Captain Overage Activist.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
Nirmalya Dutta retweeted
😂😂😂 lots of people fit in this category
Captain Overage Activist
This week, our journey into faux sociological terms continues. So far, yours truly has enamoured and enraged readers with three theories: the Higgins-Macaulay Complex, the Toaster Lover Syndrome and the Rang De Basanti Syndrome.
For those who don’t ardently follow the Vine (shame on you), here’s a short recap:
The Higgins-Macaulay Complex – named after Lord Macaulay, who wanted to create an English-speaking Indian second class, and Professor Henry Higgins, who was convinced the greatest thoughts flow only in Shakespeare’s tongue – is the misplaced belief that fluency in a colonial tongue, coupled with a sharp accent and arcane vocabulary, makes one superior in every way.
The Toaster Lover Theory is the phenomenon created by the internet where people with absurd convictions find enough like-minded individuals to share their absurdity and start believing that the desire to perform coitus on an electrical appliance is normal behaviour and anyone who disagrees is a raging oppressive bigot.
The Rang De Basanti Syndrome, named after the Dhurandar of the Left, is the anarcho-pacifist fantasy wrapped in the fig leaf of patriotism with the leitmotif of Rahman’s music that convinced folks that dreaming of revolution while protesting against the establishment automatically makes one morally superior, irrespective of whether one knows what one is protesting or has the slightest idea of what will happen after said revolution.
Individually, anyone possessing any of these symptoms might be a danger to society, but put all three together and you get a full-blown version of an ailment that even Dr House cannot cure, because when all three intersect, we get the final boss archetype: Captain Overage Activist.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
Nirmalya Dutta retweeted
The strongest argument I’ve ever heard in defence of patriarchy is the hot chapati. Someone has to keep making them while everyone else eats, and that someone is rarely the man demanding another.
But what happens when you draw a line between rice-eating and roti-eating India? The Census, economists and several decades of research start telling a rather curious story.
Introducing Rotinomics: where a humble flatbread finds itself accused of being an accessory to patriarchy.
@PrasadScribe
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
Man I need some closure. Where's Devesh?
Better than the GOI's silence on Navi Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize is @KanwalSibal attempt to offer an explanation and I applaud him for that.
At the heart of his objection to Navi Pillay's Nobel is his suggestion that she "has a long record of targeting India". This is what he writes:
"She has attacked India on Kashmir and mass graves and disappearances, on AFSPA, on Sexual Violence and New Delhi gang rape(2012), calling for substantial legal and systemic reforms to tackle widespread sexual violence, and Caste and Gender Discrimination (2014)."
Let's break it down.
1. Kashmir mass graves.
This is what a UN press release in Oct 2012 (news.un.org/en/story/2012/10…) said when Pillay was head of the UNHRC:
"The human rights of people living in areas that are the subject of unresolved territorial disputes are also often neglected, she noted, adding that one such example is Jammu and Kashmir in India, where the discovery of 2,730 bodies in unmarked mass graves was confirmed in a 2011 report by the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission.
“I urge the Indian authorities to fully investigate past killings and disappearances and bring the perpetrators to justice, as well as to ensure protection of witnesses and families of the missing and provide them with redress,” the High Commissioner stated. “These will be critical steps in the ongoing effort to build confidence with the aim of promoting lasting peace and stability in the region.”"
Here, Pillay does nothing more than cite the finding on mass graves of an OFFICIAL INDIAN BODY, the J&K SHRC and urges India to fully investigate. Here is the JK SHRC report (kljp.org/articles/shrc-on-un…). After 2019 the commission was disbanded and it no longer has a website! How is that 'targeting India'?
2. Call to repeal AFSPA. Navi Pillay made this call in 2009. Two years later, another Pillai, Gopal Pillai, former Union Home Secretary, said the same thing. (nagalimvoice.com/news/gk-pil…). Whether you agree or disagree, the call to repeal AFSPA has many, many backers within India and abroad and this position cannot be dismissed as 'anti-India'. The government is free to disregrard these calls, if it wishes.
3. "She has attacked India on ... Sexual Violence and New Delhi gang rape(2012), calling for substantial legal and systemic reforms to tackle widespread sexual violence"
Yikes. Navi Pillay echoed what Indians were saying on the street and whose views Parliament duly took note of by passing a new law that embodied substantial legal and systemic reforms to tackle widespread sexual violence.
4. "She has attacked India on ... Caste and Gender Discrimination (2014)".
Double yikes! He gives the date for 2014 when Navi Pilay made (as far as I can tell) brief and unobjectionable remarks in response to the murder of two Maurya girls in UP, but I found a more complete statement from 2013 which cannot be accused of 'targeting India'. (idsn.org/wp-content/uploads/…). She actually said this, which should please Mr Kanwal Sibal: "India also has far-reaching constitutional guarantees and laws which prohibit castebased discrimination. Most recently, the Union Cabinet in India has cleared the new legislation on manual scavenging, proposing stiff penalties against any public authority or private individual who uses or promotes this heinous practice. With an estimated 90% of Dalit women among manual scavengers in India, the adoption of this law will represent a key step forward in protecting and promoting the rights of Dalit women and it will represent a good practice for other countries where manual scavenging continues to be practiced."
Net-net, the evidence offered to justify India not welcoming Navi Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize is unconvincing.
Please revise and resubmit.
Matlab 2029 pakka samjhe?
He is learning that even rapid economic growth won’t placate voters if it fails to produce jobs economist.com/leaders/2026/1…
So far, I’ve discussed three different specific Indian sociological syndromes on the Weekly Vine.
The first is called the Higgins-Macaulay Complex: the belief that fluency in English, delivered with an impressive accent and arcane vocabulary, automatically makes one intellectually superior.
The second is the Toaster Lover Syndrome, the phenomenon where people with absurd convictions find enough like-minded individuals online to convince (or connive) themselves that their lunacy is a righteous moral cause and and anyone who disagrees is a bigot.
The third is the Rang De Basanti Syndrome, the romantic belief that protesting against the establishment confers moral superiority, regardless of whether one understands the cause for the protest or what comes next.
And when you combine all three in a Venn Diagram, you get Captain Overage Activist create by the combined powers of all three.
Revisit the first three here:
1. The Higgins-Macaulay Complex (Edition 108)
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
2. The Rang De Basanti Syndrome (Edition 112)
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
3. The Toaster Lover Theory (Edition 111)
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
Meet Captain Overage Activist. Xe has spent decades trying to overthrow the establishment, can explain every election result but predict none, and considers every electoral defeat a moral victory.
Xe can fight fascism, capitalism, authoritarianism and every other ism known to mankind. But one formidable adversary keeps getting in the way: The Indian voter.
In this week's The Weekly Vine, Edition 113.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
2007-08 was just insane. I have not seen anything like that in a football season.
It's not even my tenet. As I said, RRR would be rather ashamed. Take his picture down.
Good lord. Not once has the piece made claims of causation.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…
Lolwut. @alekhyaboora cooks fancy ass dishes every single day and our grocery bill never touches that and we eat meat in almost every meal.
Stop embarrassing yourself and more importantly, stop embarrassing Raja Ram Mohan Roy who you have in your DP.
The piece has made absolutely no remarks on men. Both the author and the OP are male.
Just because you have access to AI, doesn't mean you are making an actually intelligent point.
Nirmalya Dutta retweeted
Encore un article misogyne à 2 balles
Kate Scott est journaliste depuis 2009,parle plus de 4 langues mais ce qui est à retenir dans cette article putaclic c’est qu’elle a travaillé chez Zara…..
Kate Scott, d’ancienne vendeuse chez Zara à présentatrice du Ballon d’or avec Thierry Henry ➡️ l.leparisien.fr/EJH4
