its-where-mydem0ns-hide

[lilithism1848]

[introspectivememories]

i love!!! pavitr!!!! best part about him is that the astv creators just said he's indian. he could be any type of indian and you wouldn't be wrong. maybe he's malayali. maybe he's from mizo. maybe he's from punjab. maybe he's tamilian. maybe he's from sikkim. you decide!!!!

[quartermoonconvergence]

gotta be honest here if u rationalise max’s parent characterisation as “indians who don’t know english” i do not want u here

[tendercoretroglodyke]

monkey man was such a fantastic movie... which only makes it all the more devastating (and bewildering??) the ways it stopped short of being perfect :/

[purple-worm]

I meant lawyer idk why I said judge 🤦🏻‍♀️ and thank you so much for the details!!! I’ve had a bit of a week so I haven’t had time to read up on the details of what’s been going on. Im literally going off things family members or co workers have told me. Thanks for summarising it! Fingers crossed and hoping for a good ruling

Don’t worry about it! I just mentioned it because it’s v telling of how uneducated the side of the government is. ofc we were all expecting it, but it just exposes them for having zero understanding of sex and gender. and it’s so unfair that they even get to say a word in the supreme court, let alone be responsible for decisions that affect us.

also dont worry friend, we’re all having interesting and busy times in our lives and im happy that my rundown of the events helped💕

i've listed some of my fav parts from vrinda grover's statement here, and in other happy Indian queer news: Ramakka, a transwoman, is officially contesting for the Karnataka state elections from her constituency Kampli. She'd be the only one of 2500 candidates to be (openly) queer 💕

Good luck to her and good luck to all of us! 💕

[silverislander]

ok i just finally finished lagoon. ohhh my god i am so excited to discuss this in class

[nando161mando]

'The report said that a combination of press censorship and coercion, and increasing levels of disinformation pushed out across social media can be credited for widespread perception that Modi has “dramatically enhanced” India’s standing and respect on the world stage.'

[dxrlinggxd]

take a moment to read indian election news!! india has voted against the ruling fascist party. while they will resume government they will need to forge alliances and have lost multiple strong members of parliament. and all this despite them controlling the media and jailing their opposers! this is SUCH an important reminder that u shld never ever underestimate the power of a vote

[lockerandom]

You know, with Shein, Alibaba and Temu being so popular, I was thinking that maybe we could make a list of some ethical and sustainable clothing brands. These will be more expensive, but if you buy from them you'll be helping someone anytime you make a purchase. Please list all the ones you know in a reply.

Pact Clothing sizes up to 2X. Sells men, women, and children's clothing. Items are sustainably made and Fair Trade.

Midnight Hour Sizes up to 4X with a few 5X items. Cute goth and alternative clothing. Items are sustainably and ethically made.

Able Sustainably and ethically made women's clothing. Sizes up to 3X.

Svaha Own by an Indian woman. Very cute science themed clothing for men, women, and kids. Clothing is mostly made in India and is ethically sourced. Sizes go up to 5XL

Proclaim ethically sourced bras and underwear and basics that comes in three shades of "nude". Sizes S to 3XL

Toad&Co Clothing inspired by nature. sizes S to 2XL.

Raven and Lily Supports female artisans creating handmade jewelry, bags, and homewares. Empowers communities through fair wages.

Altar Specializes in alternative and custom fashion. Sizes S to 6XL.

EDIT: I did not expect the to blow up! I want to find all the suggestions in the reblog and add them to the OP. I'm a bit swamped with work this week though. I may make a whole new post later. In the mean time, please check the notes for some other excellent suggestions! Some are here on tumblr! Shout out to

@freshhotflavors @morningwitchy @crowlines @mayakern

@mayakern has posted images of her clothes in the notes and they are all very cute!

I want to stress that you can't do everything. This post isn't here to judge anyone who needs new clothes but can't afford an ethical brand. I once had my apartment flood (basement unit!) where the ceiling fell in the bedroom and had to replace everything! Clothing that fit me is hard to find and I think I bought everything from Walmart. This is just for some suggestions and to advertise these other brands.

[fatehbaz]

was thinking about this

To be in "public", you must be a consumer. Or a laborer.

About control of peoples' movement in space/place. Since the beginning.

"Vagrancy" of 1830s-onward Britain, people criminalized for being outside without being a laborer.

Breaking laws resulted in being sentenced to coerced debtor/convict labor. Coinciding with the 1830-ish climax of the Industrial Revolution and the land enclosure acts, the "Workhouse Act" aka "Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834" forced poor people to work for a minimum number of hours every day. The major expansion of the "Vagrancy Act" of 1838 made "joblessness" a crime and enhanced its punishment. (Coincidentally, the law's date of royal assent was 27 July 1838, just 5 days before the British government was scheduled to allow fuller emancipation of its technical legal abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean on 1 August 1838.)

---

"Vagrancy" of 1860s-onward United States, people criminalized for being outside while Black.

Widespread emancipation after slavery abolition in 1865 rapidly followed by the outlawing of loitering which de facto outlawed existing as Black in public. Inability to afford fines results in being sentenced to forced labor by working on chain gangs or prisons farms, some built atop plantations.

---

"Vagrancy" of 1870s-onward across empires, people criminalized for being outside while being "foreign" and also being poor generally.

Especially from 1880-ish to 1918-ish, this was an age of widespread mass movement of peoples due to mass poverty and famine induced by global colonial extraction and "market expansion", as agricultural "revolutions" of monoculture/cash crop extraction resulted in ecological degradation. This coincides with and is facilitated by new railroads and telegraphs, leading to imperial implementation or expansion of identity documents, strict work contracts, passports, immigration surveillance, and border checkpoints.

All of this in just a few short years: In 1877, British administrators in India develop what would become the Henry Classification System of taking and keeping fingerprints for use in binding colonial Indians to legal contracts. That same year during the 1877 Great Railroad Strike, and in response to white anxiety about Black residents coming to the city during Great Migration, Chicago's policing institutions exponentially expand surveillance and pioneer "intelligence card" registers for tracking labor union organizing and Black movement, as Chicago's experiments become adopted by US military and expanded nationwide, later used by US forces monitoring dissent in colonial Philippines and Cuba. Japan based its 1880 Penal Code anti-vagrancy statutes on French models, and introduced "koseki" register to track poor/vagrant domestic citizens as Tokyo's Governor Matsuda segregates classes, and the nation introduces "modern police forces". In 1882, the United States passes the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1884, the Ottoman government enacts major "Passport Nizamnamesi" legislation requiring passports. In 1885, during the "Tacoma riot" or "expulsion", a mob of hundreds of white residents rounded up all of the city's Chinese residents, marched them to the train station, kicked them out of the city, and burned down the Chinese neighborhood, introducing what is called "the Tacoma method".

Punished for being Chinese in San Francisco. Punished for being Korean in Japan. Punished for crossing Ottoman borders without correct paperwork. Arrested for whatever, then sent to do convict labor. A poor person in the Punjab, starving during a catastrophic famine, might be coerced into a work contract by British authorities. They will have to travel, shipped off to build a railroad in British Kenya. But now they have to work. Now they are bound. They will be punished for being Punjabi and trying to walk away from Britain's tea plantations in Assam or Britain's rubber plantations in Malaya.

---

"Vagrancy" amidst all of this, people also criminalized for being outside while "unsightly" and merely even superficially appearing to be poor. San Francisco introduced the notorious "ugly law" in 1867, making it illegal for "any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself or herself to public view". Today, if you walk into a building looking a little "weird" (poor, Black, ill, disabled, etc.) or carrying a small backpack, you are given seething spiteful glares and asked to leave.

"Vagrancy" everywhere in the United States, a combination of all of the above. De facto criminalized for simply going for a stroll without downloading the coffee shop's exclusive menu app. "Vagrancy", since at least early nineteenth century Europe. About the control of movement through and access to space/place. Concretizing and weaponizing caste, corralling people, anchoring them in place (de facto confinement), extracting their wealth/labor.

You are permitted to exist only as a paying customer or an employee.

[htylmg]

i think my energy’s crashed a little

[pridemotor]

Different Types of Driving Licenses in India

Introduction

Are you planning to apply for a driving license in delhi? Look no further, as we have got you covered! With so many types of driving licenses available in India, it can be confusing to understand which one suits your needs. Whether you're a first-time driver or an experienced one looking to upgrade your license, this blog post will help break down the different types of driving licenses in India and guide you towards making an informed decision. 

Types of Driving Licenses in India

The Indian driving license is a document that authorizes its holder to operate various types of motorized vehicles on public roads. It is issued by the transport authorities of the state governments in India. The requirements for obtaining a driving license vary from state to state, but most states require the applicant to be at least 18 years old and to have held a learner's license for at least 30 days. There are two types of driving licenses in India: the light motor vehicle license, which authorizes the holder to operate light motorized vehicles such as cars and motorcycles; and the heavy motor vehicle license, which authorizes the holder to operate heavier vehicles such as buses and trucks. To obtain a heavy motor vehicle license, the applicant must first pass a written test and a practical driving test. Driving licenses in India are valid for five or ten years, depending on the age of the licensee. They can be renewed online or by post.

Eligibility Criteria for Each Type of License

To obtain a driving license in India, applicants must be at least 18 years old and have held a valid learner's license for at least 30 days. Additionally, applicants must pass a written test on traffic rules and regulations, as well as a practical driving test. For a commercial driver's license, applicants must be at least 21 years old and have held a valid non-commercial driver's license for at least one year. Additionally, applicants must pass a written test on traffic rules and regulations specific to commercial vehicles, as well as a practical driving test in a commercial vehicle. For a motorcycle license, applicants must be at least 18 years old and have held a valid learner's license for at least 30 days. Additionally, applicants must pass a written test on traffic rules and regulations specific to motorcycles, as well as a practical riding test on a motorcycle.

How to Apply for a Driving License in India?There are different types of driving licenses in India depending on the type of vehicle you wish to drive. For a private car or two-wheeler, you will need a Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) license. To drive a commercial vehicle, you will need a Commercial Vehicle (CV) license. The process for applying for each type of license is different, so be sure to follow the instructions for the specific license you need.

To apply for an LMV license, you must be at least 18 years old and have held a valid learner's license for at least 30 days. You will need to submit proof of identity and residency, as well as pass a vision test. You will also need to complete a driving test, which can be taken at any approved driving school or testing center.

To apply for a CV license, you must be at least 21 years old and have held a valid LMV license for at least one year. You will need to submit proof of identity and residency, as well as pass a vision test and a written exam. You will also need to complete a driving test, which can be taken at any approved driving school or testing center.

[nivea-ah]

I am so horribly disappointed by the Paris Olympics, I can't even frame a sentence without having to take a pause to just scream in fury.

Vinesh Phogat from India was the first wrestler ever, man or woman, to reach the finals and have the opportunity to play the Indian National Anthem at the Olympics. She usually always played in the under 53kg category but due to some issues, she went with under 50kg.

She then went on to ANNIHILATE all competition by winning so wonderfully, it made all Indians proud. She won the semifinals, progressed to finals and even had an opportunity to win it. However, at night, she realised she'd gained roughly 3kg and wouldn't be able to participate with that weight. She ran on a treadmill with thick jackets on, sat in a hot sauna, didn't eat or drink anything and, in desperation, cut her hair off. After all this effort, her reading was 50.1kg and she was eliminated from the Olympics.

The weight of 100g pushed her back to the last position, not even letting her get her well-deserved silver medal. Due to severe dehydration, she fainted on the venue and was later admitted in a hospital. Just today, she announced her retirement.

In spite of not winning the gold medal, she is a champion, not only because of her other accomplishments, but because of her relentless support and participation in the wrestlers' protest against the then chief of Wrestling Federation of India for sexual harrasment. She spent months on the streets of New Delhi to get the government to do something and nearly threw all her medals in the River Ganga to get the authorities to act. She was a champion through and through. Gold medallist or not, she truly is gold.

[reasonsforhope]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, by some measures, the most popular leader in the world. Prior to the 2024 election, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held an outright majority in the Lok Sabha (India’s Parliament) — one that was widely projected to grow after the vote count. The party regularly boasted that it would win 400 Lok Sabha seats, easily enough to amend India’s constitution along the party's preferred Hindu nationalist lines.

But when the results were announced on Tuesday, the BJP held just 240 seats. They not only underperformed expectations, they actually lost their parliamentary majority. While Modi will remain prime minister, he will do so at the helm of a coalition government — meaning that he will depend on other parties to stay in office, making it harder to continue his ongoing assault on Indian democracy.

So what happened? Why did Indian voters deal a devastating blow to a prime minister who, by all measures, they mostly seem to like?

India is a massive country — the most populous in the world — and one of the most diverse, making its internal politics exceedingly complicated. A definitive assessment of the election would require granular data on voter breakdown across caste, class, linguistic, religious, age, and gender divides. At present, those numbers don’t exist in sufficient detail. 

But after looking at the information that is available and speaking with several leading experts on Indian politics, there are at least three conclusions that I’m comfortable drawing.

First, voters punished Modi for putting his Hindu nationalist agenda ahead of fixing India’s unequal economy. Second, Indian voters had some real concerns about the decline of liberal democracy under BJP rule. Third, the opposition parties waged a smart campaign that took advantage of Modi’s vulnerabilities on the economy and democracy.

Understanding these factors isn’t just important for Indians. The country’s election has some universal lessons for how to beat a would-be authoritarian — ones that Americans especially might want to heed heading into its election in November.

-via Vox, June 7, 2024. Article continues below.

A new (and unequal) economy

Modi’s biggest and most surprising losses came in India’s two most populous states: Uttar Pradesh in the north and Maharashtra in the west. Both states had previously been BJP strongholds — places where the party’s core tactic of pitting the Hindu majority against the Muslim minority had seemingly cemented Hindu support for Modi and his allies.

One prominent Indian analyst, Yogendra Yadav, saw the cracks in advance. Swimming against the tide of Indian media, he correctly predicted that the BJP would fall short of a governing majority.

Traveling through the country, but especially rural Uttar Pradesh, he prophesied “the return of normal politics”: that Indian voters were no longer held spellbound by Modi’s charismatic nationalist appeals and were instead starting to worry about the way politics was affecting their lives.

Yadav’s conclusions derived in no small part from hearing voters’ concerns about the economy. The issue wasn’t GDP growth — India’s is the fastest-growing economy in the world — but rather the distribution of growth’s fruits. While some of Modi’s top allies struck it rich, many ordinary Indians suffered. Nearly half of all Indians between 20 and 24 are unemployed; Indian farmers have repeatedly protested Modi policies that they felt hurt their livelihoods.

“Everyone was talking about price rise, unemployment, the state of public services, the plight of farmers, [and] the struggles of labor,” Yadav wrote...

“We know for sure that Modi’s strongman image and brassy self-confidence were not as popular with voters as the BJP assumed,” says Sadanand Dhume, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies India. 

The lesson here isn’t that the pocketbook concerns trump identity-based appeals everywhere; recent evidence in wealthier democracies suggests the opposite is true. Rather, it’s that even entrenched reputations of populist leaders are not unshakeable. When they make errors, even some time ago, it’s possible to get voters to remember these mistakes and prioritize them over whatever culture war the populist is peddling at the moment.

Liberalism strikes back

The Indian constitution is a liberal document: It guarantees equality of all citizens and enshrines measures designed to enshrine said equality into law. The signature goal of Modi’s time in power has been to rip this liberal edifice down and replace it with a Hindu nationalist model that pushes non-Hindus to the social margins. In pursuit of this agenda, the BJP has concentrated power in Modi’s hands and undermined key pillars of Indian democracy (like a free press and independent judiciary).

Prior to the election, there was a sense that Indian voters either didn’t much care about the assault on liberal democracy or mostly agreed with it. But the BJP’s surprising underperformance suggests otherwise.

The Hindu, a leading Indian newspaper, published an essential post-election data analysis breaking down what we know about the results. One of the more striking findings is that the opposition parties surged in parliamentary seats reserved for members of “scheduled castes” — the legal term for Dalits, the lowest caste grouping in the Hindu hierarchy.

Caste has long been an essential cleavage in Indian politics, with Dalits typically favoring the left-wing Congress party over the BJP (long seen as an upper-caste party). Under Modi, the BJP had seemingly tamped down on the salience of class by elevating all Hindus — including Dalits — over Muslims. Yet now it’s looking like Dalits were flocking back to Congress and its allies. Why?

According to experts, Dalit voters feared the consequences of a BJP landslide. If Modi’s party achieved its 400-seat target, they’d have more than enough votes to amend India’s constitution. Since the constitution contains several protections designed to promote Dalit equality — including a first-in-the-world affirmative action system — that seemed like a serious threat to the community. It seems, at least based on preliminary data, that they voted accordingly.

The Dalit vote is but one example of the ways in which Modi’s brazen willingness to assail Indian institutions likely alienated voters.

Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s largest and most electorally important state, was the site of a major BJP anti-Muslim campaign. It unofficially kicked off its campaign in the UP city of Ayodhya earlier this year, during a ceremony celebrating one of Modi’s crowning achievements: the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a former mosque that had been torn down by Hindu nationalists in 1992. 

Yet not only did the BJP lose UP, it specifically lost the constituency — the city of Faizabad — in which the Ayodhya temple is located. It’s as direct an electoral rebuke to BJP ideology as one can imagine.

In Maharashtra, the second largest state, the BJP made a tactical alliance with a local politician, Ajit Pawar, facing serious corruption charges. Voters seemingly punished Modi’s party for turning a blind eye to Pawar’s offenses against the public trust. Across the country, Muslim voters turned out for the opposition to defend their rights against Modi’s attacks.

The global lesson here is clear: Even popular authoritarians can overreach.

By turning “400 seats” into a campaign slogan, an all-but-open signal that he intended to remake the Indian state in his illiberal image, Modi practically rang an alarm bell for constituencies worried about the consequences. So they turned out to stop him en masse.

The BJP’s electoral underperformance is, in no small part, the direct result of their leader’s zealotry going too far.

Return of the Gandhis? 

Of course, Modi’s mistakes might not have mattered had his rivals failed to capitalize. The Indian opposition, however, was far more effective than most observers anticipated.

Perhaps most importantly, the many opposition parties coordinated with each other. Forming a united bloc called INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), they worked to make sure they weren’t stealing votes from each other in critical constituencies, positioning INDIA coalition candidates to win straight fights against BJP rivals.

The leading party in the opposition bloc — Congress — was also more put together than people thought. Its most prominent leader, Rahul Gandhi, was widely dismissed as a dilettante nepo baby: a pale imitation of his father Rajiv and grandmother Indira, both former Congress prime ministers. Now his critics are rethinking things.

“I owe Rahul Gandhi an apology because I seriously underestimated him,” says Manjari Miller, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Miller singled out Gandhi’s yatras (marches) across India as a particularly canny tactic. These physically grueling voyages across the length and breadth of India showed that he wasn’t just a privileged son of Indian political royalty, but a politician willing to take risks and meet ordinary Indians where they were. During the yatras, he would meet directly with voters from marginalized groups and rail against Modi’s politics of hate.

“The persona he’s developed — as somebody kind, caring, inclusive, [and] resolute in the face of bullying — has really worked and captured the imagination of younger India,” says Suryanarayan. “If you’ve spent any time on Instagram Reels, [you’ll see] an entire generation now waking up to Rahul Gandhi’s very appealing videos.”

This, too, has a lesson for the rest of the world: Tactical innovation from the opposition matters even in an unfair electoral context.

There is no doubt that, in the past 10 years, the BJP stacked the political deck against its opponents. They consolidated control over large chunks of the national media, changed campaign finance law to favor themselves, suborned the famously independent Indian Electoral Commission, and even intimidated the Supreme Court into letting them get away with it. 

The opposition, though, managed to find ways to compete even under unfair circumstances. Strategic coordination between them helped consolidate resources and ameliorate the BJP cash advantage. Direct voter outreach like the yatra helped circumvent BJP dominance in the national media.

To be clear, the opposition still did not win a majority. Modi will have a third term in office, likely thanks in large part to the ways he rigged the system in his favor.

Yet there is no doubt that the opposition deserves to celebrate. Modi’s power has been constrained and the myth of his invincibility wounded, perhaps mortally. Indian voters, like those in Brazil and Poland before them, have dealt a major blow to their homegrown authoritarian faction.

And that is something worth celebrating.

-via Vox, June 7, 2024.

[firstfullmoon]

Years ago, I received a query from a prominent editor about a line in Mahmoud Darwish’s long poem, “The ‘Red Indian’s’ Penultimate Speech to the White Man,” (If I Were Another). The poem channels Chief Seattle’s voice and spirit. In the poem’s second section, the line in question follows an address to Columbus, “the free [who] has the right to find India in any sea, / and the right to name our ghosts as pepper or Indian.”

The line in question is this: “You have burst seventy million hearts…enough, / enough for you to return from our death as monarch of the new time”:

isn’t it time we met, stranger, as two strangers of one time and one land, the way strangers meet by a chasm? We have what is ours…and we have what is yours of sky. You have what is yours…and what is ours of air and water.

“I just don’t get where he got the seventy million from?” the editor asked.

I didn’t reply. I didn’t wonder about the accuracy of Darwish’s claim. Maybe he included all the Natives annihilated in the Americas over the centuries. The only thought I had in my head was, “Is this really what’s bothering you about the poem?”

Years later, in a daydream, a marginalia of my soul visited me, and it spoke thus: “Do you remember those seventy million punctured hearts in Darwish’s poem? If you’re ever asked again, if the person who asks you says that historical studies show the number is not possible or whatever, remember the buffalos.”

The buffalo hearts are also native hearts. Who will count the donkeys, dogs, and cats in Gaza? The birds will return.

— Fady Joudah, in his essay “A Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation”