This is a very valuable conversation, from relations between India and Pakistan to the global crisis of legitimacy. Besides providing a wealth of food for thought, it illustrates the value of precise, articulate speech.
The discussion of freedom of self-definition indirectly highlights the internal contradictions of progressive politics in the US, wherein the same people (as a camp) argue for the most extreme form of that freedom in the context of gender while retaining the essentialism of a certain strain of feminist rhetoric that vilifies males and completely accepting the essentialism that expresses itself in the pejorative "whiteness". Identity politics is a tangled web.
Unfortunately, Pratap had a very Pakistan-centric analysis of what has just happened in Kashmir, and more profoundly, in the India-Pakistan conflict. I was quite disappointed in the sort of intellectualised rehashing of what is the Indian government position, without a critical eye to India itself. It seems that he had been heavily influenced by the Indian media environment, which as I’m sure you know, is a febrile, ultra-nationalistic space. Of course, he made some excellent points, regarding the crisis of legitimacy of the Pakistani military - but forewent that same crisis of legitimacy of the Modi government. I think what this misses is the relative tranquility of Pakistani attitudes on the ground, and how each side have actually dealt with the crisis - in a popular, governmental, and military sense. According to Pratap, all of this is engineered by Pakistan, a rogue actor - which is exactly the Modi government’s narrative… I think that gives the Pakistani government way too much agency, especially if you consider events like the massive terrorist attack carried out by the Balochi Liberation Army (Indian-funded) on the Jaffar express earlier this year. I would consider that such an astute commentator on the currents and trends of the world has an internal weakness when it comes to critiquing India - naturally, when media freedom in India is at an all time low. The Pakistani public response to the whole affair has, in general, been far more relaxed than I think Pratap could imagine, and I think that India has come off a lot worse in the media/military aspects of the confrontation than Pratap admits here - but I guess he can’t really say that…
This is a very valuable conversation, from relations between India and Pakistan to the global crisis of legitimacy. Besides providing a wealth of food for thought, it illustrates the value of precise, articulate speech.
The discussion of freedom of self-definition indirectly highlights the internal contradictions of progressive politics in the US, wherein the same people (as a camp) argue for the most extreme form of that freedom in the context of gender while retaining the essentialism of a certain strain of feminist rhetoric that vilifies males and completely accepting the essentialism that expresses itself in the pejorative "whiteness". Identity politics is a tangled web.
Hi Yascha,
Unfortunately, Pratap had a very Pakistan-centric analysis of what has just happened in Kashmir, and more profoundly, in the India-Pakistan conflict. I was quite disappointed in the sort of intellectualised rehashing of what is the Indian government position, without a critical eye to India itself. It seems that he had been heavily influenced by the Indian media environment, which as I’m sure you know, is a febrile, ultra-nationalistic space. Of course, he made some excellent points, regarding the crisis of legitimacy of the Pakistani military - but forewent that same crisis of legitimacy of the Modi government. I think what this misses is the relative tranquility of Pakistani attitudes on the ground, and how each side have actually dealt with the crisis - in a popular, governmental, and military sense. According to Pratap, all of this is engineered by Pakistan, a rogue actor - which is exactly the Modi government’s narrative… I think that gives the Pakistani government way too much agency, especially if you consider events like the massive terrorist attack carried out by the Balochi Liberation Army (Indian-funded) on the Jaffar express earlier this year. I would consider that such an astute commentator on the currents and trends of the world has an internal weakness when it comes to critiquing India - naturally, when media freedom in India is at an all time low. The Pakistani public response to the whole affair has, in general, been far more relaxed than I think Pratap could imagine, and I think that India has come off a lot worse in the media/military aspects of the confrontation than Pratap admits here - but I guess he can’t really say that…