no muslim bajrangi went their to gutt pregnant women open because they were hindu

I don’t even know what that means. Mushie, is that you? You’re commenting on the Mutiny now, and ignoring the mutiny at home? For shame! Call Benazir up, and get some sleep.

some pakistani people went to thank mr.bhagwandas for his stand against the govt. by celebrating diwali at his home:

pictures of ppl celebrating diwali with mr.bhagwandas

also if you guys watch geo or other pakistani news channels you will see hindues openly celebrated diwali in khi and other cities. no muslim bajrangi went their to gutt pregnant women open because they were hindu

Much more the latter, though to be honest I’m not, in terms of the former (being Hindu or not on a religous basis) saying “no”–I have personal practices far more than “zero,”, but–to give a fair answer to your fair question, much more the latter–esp. cultural/my family (not so much ethnic–not sure what that would mean, given my family’s narrow view of such stuff).

Yeah, that’s why I’m ultimately a quietist–I prefer a nice dinner out, which might include steak or lobster (I only stay veg. at home) to political fights–but–this Pakistan thing (loose nukers, really–it’s not much more than an irritant otherwise–still, that does kill people on both sides, for no reason-not like the Pakistani irreulars are going to change the border) frightens me deeply–I am only being honest to say that the Israeli lobby is trying to suck me in, and that I feel a natural affinity for it, given our (Jewish, Hindu) mutual sense of predation/victimisation from Central Asia/Arabian Penninsula–but, I pride myself on saying “not so fast”–the syncreticism in India/South Asia has been far more succesful than in the Levant–so, I am OK with any Muslim that accepts Hindus as legitimate people–sadly, this is small group outside of South Asian Muslims (maybe, again, my impression is wrong–probably my point is more about Arabs than Indonesians, for example).

WHAT?? i thought dictatorship improved efficiency? didn’t the trains run on time under mussolini?

Mais oui!!, but I think that a particular scenario could look very different in terms of “tried hardest and failed” or “didn’t try,” depending on your baseline assumptions about what’s realistically possible, which is largely (from the personal perspective) institutional, so again, we need to know a lot more about Pakistan before claiming Mushy is behind the bombs–note that I say this as a person who disavows “cultural relativism” (in the sense that the latter holds that “one culture is no better than another”–my point goes to the to me true proposition that one person working in even a “lesser” culture can’t be held to unrealistically high expectations) and I am cert. not a person that carries a torch for any sort of “Islamism,” etc. (I am Hindu and parents from Delhi, so we understand Islam, and have very different reactions/views to its different strands).

Dravidian Lurker, I’m just trying to warn against feeling too good about bashing Pakistan from the perspective of an unrealistically rosy baseline–not that I think you’re doing that, not at all–just warning the readers against that sort of over-reading of the way the discussion has gone–kudos to the discussion, I just had the sense it could be over-read that way.

neera, i certainly think that nawaz sharif was taking pakistan in a dangerous direction with his inefficiency and support of the mullahs, and mushy probably helped by ending that, but as you said “he is just a poor dictator who wants to hang on to power no matter what”

Fair enough, but on the other hand, what is your assumed local baseline level of gov’t-level execution of (socially) desired tasks?

rob, surely you appreciate the difference between “they tried their darndest and failed” and “they didn’t bother trying hard enough”?