Was Gandhiji a liberaliser?

Longtime readers of my blog know that I am not an admirer of Gandhiji. A while ago, Ramnath sent me a link to an article by Swami Aiyar which purports to show that Gandhiji, unlike Nehru was not a socialist, but committed to a free market.

Sorry, but the article sounds thoroughly convoluted to me. You can prove anything by selectively quoting a person and giving your own interpretation to what he said. This is the same Gandhiji who said “Honesty is incompatible with the amassing of a large fortune.” What does that statement tell us about his attitude towards capitalism?
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Economic Illiteracy Watch

India best emerging market in 3 months

India has been the best-performing emerging market over the three-month period ended August 2004, giving a return of 9.1 per cent compared with 5.3 per cent for Hong Kong and 4.5 per cent for Phillipines, according to a study by ABN Amro.
Thus, despite concerns about the new government, which came to power in mid-May and the subsequent crash on May 17, the markets have rebounded smartly

Not despite.
Because of concerns about the new government, the market crashed on May 17. The subsequent recovery has ensured that the three month growth rate in the stock market looks impressive on India’s resume.

Dane-geld

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation

To call upon a neighbour and to say: —

“We invaded you last night –we are quite prepared to fight,

Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: —
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: —

“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!”

Rudyard Kipling

The Worth of College education

Selva at the Scientific Indian has some interesting thoughts about whether Indian college education is really “worth it”

Unfortunately, he makes the issue a tad more confusing than it ought to be, because he mixes up the questions of whether college education is “worth it” for the student, whether you actually learn anything there, and whether society gets its money’s worth for what it spends on the student.
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Selling out

Observant visitors might have noticed that my blog has started showing advertisements served by Google. Ad sense program policies require me not to draw undue attention to those ads. I hope I have fulfilled that requirement by making them as difficult to find as possible. I would also like to inform my readers that it would be most improper to click on those ads for any reason other than that you are interested in what they offer you.

Human evolution has ended

One day, it suddenly struck me: Human evolution, in the Darwinian sense, has ended.

Before you start arguing with me, note the qualifier: “Darwinian.” I am sure we humans will continue to get smarter, healthier and live longer lives. But we will not get smarter, healthier and live longer lives because we are “evolving” in the Darwinian sense.
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About comments policies and libertarian dogma.

I was roaming the mountains, deserts, forests and beaches (specifically, the beaches of Alibag) in search of the Truth. I was looking at the Murud Janjira fort, built by an Abyssinian pirate named Siddhi Johar and reflecting on what lured pirates to travel thousands of miles an build forts in the middle of the sea, when He came and told me, “Libertarians are fighting”

“But You don’t exist” I said.

“Assume that I do and focus on the content of what I said”

“Assumed. Libertarians are always fighting. They have this illusion that the right way to reach the truth is to argue among themselves. They know not of the Truth that can be obtained from reflection, meditation and…”

“Shut up. The High Council of the Cartel has been attacked by another libertarian for being insufficiently libertarian”

“What is it to me? And please don’t call it the High Council. I am tired of explaining to people that Marijuana consumption before Council meetings is not really mandatory”

“Don’t change the subject. Go back to your calling. You must come to the defence of the Cartel. Use your enormous powers of reasoning, your capacity for razor-sharp analysis and your ability to…”

“Cut it out. I get it. I’ll do it, but I’ll tell everyone that You made me do it”

“That’s okay. I’m always doing these things. Why some time back, I motivated a guy to fight and kill a lot of people even though he didn’t want to”

So that’s my excuse. He made me write what I am going to write after this commercial break
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