Comments on: Paulose being investigated

By: melbourne desi

melbourne desi — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:14:01 +0000

In response to the comment about "Why did she mention her grandparents had to flee Kerala in the 1960's from communism." Well, the communist party is alive and well in Kerala

Her grandparents fled from Kerala because of communism - Hmmm a blatant lie.

The only people who had a hard time were the bourgeios landlords who refused to pay a decent wage to the 'kudiyeddapu'. Kerala in in the 50's till the 80's was a very volatile place with highly vocal and aggressive political parties. Many people left Kerala during those years but that was due to economic reasons. The history of Kerala from post WorldWar II to the end of 80s is rather fascinating.

I would recommend 'Lal Salaam' to get a brief understanding of the 'Inquilab Zindabad' period . In fact it is pretty much a must see for any NRM ( non resident mallu). Kerala's social prosperity is directly linked to the reforms brought about by the communist parties.

'Lal Salaam' literally means Red Salute. 'Inquilab Zindabad' is a hindi translation of an original slogan used in Russian Revolution which said â€“ Long Live Revolution.

By: sunzari

sunzari — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:05:04 +0000

Fleeing from Communism in Kerala? Communism had a pretty heavy hand in the mostly successful Kerala state.

By: sa

sa — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:04:28 +0000

125 – very cool

By: gm

gm — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:05:48 +0000

“She taught the English as a second language class that the words fat, black, lazy and ass all have the vowel ‘a’… “

Yes, I realize this is the most pathetic entry

By: Sadaiyappan

Sadaiyappan — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:50:02 +0000

“Laughing my fat ass off whith my black coworker we talked about the laziness of the administration.”

By: louiecypher

louiecypher — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:02:31 +0000

i don't know about back then, but aren't naxalites clamped down on by police in much of southern india?

They are quite strong in Andhra, they don't seem to be very active in TN or Karnataka. Kerala is already the Worker's Paradise so I guess they stay away

By: nala

nala — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:57:44 +0000

i don’t know about back then, but aren’t naxalites clamped down on by police in much of southern india?

By: DTK

DTK — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:43:54 +0000

I just wanted to say that I really don't think it's helpful to label Republicans as one amorphous group of crazies

I agree, and in this spirit, thought I'd link to this wonderful and moving statement from the Republican Mayor of San Diego re: gay marriage. Transcript here.

By: Manju

Manju — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:47:56 +0000

I just explained the nature of the communist parties in india in a couple of detailed comments

pravin, i more or less agree with you but i left paulose some wiggle room since her family left in the late 60's and 70's. there were reports of commies targeting roman caholics and opening fire on students and protestors in one incident at least. nehru stepped in to take over but i understand his reasons are much deeper than this.

anyway, her family could've just went to another part of india, so i don't buy her fleeing arguemnt either, but i don't now the details.

By: Pravin

Pravin — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:41:15 +0000

Sam, I do not know what your background is. But you do not seem to understand the nature of Indian politics. I just explained the nature of the communist parties in india in a couple of detailed comments. I could go into more detail, but that would make for a separate blog entry of its own . You just respond with "the communist party is alive and well in Kerala". No shit. It has been alive and well for decades. But it is a political party. The state government is not a communist government. The link you provided talks about a coalition government of many parties - two of which were communist parties. It is your typical coalition politics in India. There is nothing in there where it said the Communist parties in power were persecuting citizens ala Eastern Bloc commie countries. The difference between the communist parties and the congress parties were that the Communist parties talked more socialistic fantasy compared to the Congress. Both adopted similar socialist measures regardless of the state they controlled in those days. Land ownership ceilings were imposed by the Congress. If you knew about politics in India, and politics internationally, you would know that it was a joke. And I certainly doubt it had anything to do with religious persecution.

Now if Rachel's grandparent got into a political grudge match on an individual basis with some politician, and he feared that he was being blacklisted out of jobs, then I can buy it as a reason why he left india. But it had nothing to do with the party in power being communist.