TimEs

“What subverts democracy, and what preserves it? In any democracy, the moral imagination is always in peril. Necessary and delicate, it can so easily be hijacked by fear, shame, and outraged masculinity. The real "class of civilizations" is not "out there," between admirable Westerners and Muslim zealots. It is here, within each person, as we oscillate uneasily between self-protective aggression and the ability to live in the world with others.”
― Martha Nussbaum

“The survival of Hindutva as an idea requires the unceasing repeti￾tion of this history: Hindutva may very well become hollowed out without it. All critiques of Savarkar’s history are necessarily meant to annihilate the epistemic conceptualisation of Hindutva. I am uncertain whether we are in a “state of emergency” – or that we will be in a “real state of emergency” as articulated by Walter Benjamin. But what is clear to me is that Hindutva cannot be ignored.30 And that being so, nor can Savarkar’s ideas about history. If Hindutva is of Being, then the very idea of the “Hindu,” as constructed by Savarkar, is at stake. To understand the fundamental thought that “Hindutva is not a word but a history” marks the continuation of this struggle.”
― Vinayak Chaturvedi, Hindutva and Violence: V. D. Savarkar and the Politics of History

“Finally, no country has as much stake as India in having a prosperous and civilian democracy in Pakistan. Even though the Nawaz Sharif government was clearly corrupt in many ways, India’s interests are not well served by the undermining of civilian rule in Pakistan, to be replaced by activists and military leaders. Also, the encouragement of cross-border terrorism, which India accuses Pakistan of, is likely to be dampened rather than encouraged by Pakistan’s economic prosperity and civilian politics. It is particularly important in this context to point to the dangerousness of the argument, often heard in India, that the burden of public expenditure [of developing nuclear weapons] would be more unbearable for Pakistan, given its smaller size and relatively stagnant economy, than it is for India. This may well be the case, but the penalty that could visit India from an impoverished and desperate Pakistan, in the present situation of massive insecurity, could be quite catastrophic. Strengthening of Pakistan’s stability and enhancement of its well-being has prudential importance for India, in addition to its obvious ethnical significance. That central connection - between the moral and prudential - must be urgently grasped. [India’s ability to make bombs is still very costly for India with “it being estimated that the additional costs of providing elementary education for every child with neighbourhood schools at every location in the country would cost roughly the same amount of money (as making nukes)”.”
― Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity

“I gave an example to a leader once during a conference on the role of governments. I asked him about the job of a traffic policeman standing in the middle of a busy intersection. He said the policeman was there to direct the traffic coming from all directions and make sure no accidents occurred. So I asked him what would happen if he prevented everyone from moving except his friends and relatives. He answered, “He would be a failure, a corrupt person who is not performing his duties.” Governments are the traffic police and their role is to facilitate the movement of life for the people who are driven to build their futures and their nations. Unfortunately our region suffers from an excess of failed traffic policemen.”
― Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, My Story