Malar > Malar's Quotes

“Rape is integral to the cultures of war, colonization, and forced displacement that have turned gender oppression and sexual violence into a global currency of desperation”
― Michelle Chen, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

“... governments call men terrorists to erase their reason, to make them crazy. Some of them are, and some of them are not.”
― V.V. Ganeshananthan, Love Marriage

“BRW [Black & Red Ware] is the Pan-Indian Pot and Sangam literature is the Pan-Indian Literature. The Pot Route that links Indus and Vaigai was made of clay, overlaid with burnt bricks and embellished with copper. It is the red-topped road to Tamil antiquity, and the colour was a deep Dravidian Red.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“... the Sangam Tamil corpus is essentially a literature of diverse landscapes and a plural demography. Sangam texts stand witness to the plural social systems, polity, cultural ethos and ideology of the early Tamils. At the same time, they also represent some of the ‘carried forward’ memories that probably emulate the ideologies of the IVC [Indus Valley Civilization], including its inherent pluralism.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“... neither the metaphor of ‘melting pot’ nor of ‘salad bowl’ can accurately explain Indian culture. My preferred metaphor is that of the Rain Forest. The ‘tropical rain forest’ characteristically has a number of layers, each with a variety of flora and fauna adapted for life in that particular layer. The layers include the uppermost ‘emergent’ layer that rises above to form the canopy of the forest, the ‘under-story’ and finally the ‘forest floor’, the foundational core. This emergent layer has its roots in the forest floor that is full of shrubs, vines and fungi... A ‘bird’s-eye view’ cannot reveal this rootedness, the underlying substratum, the under-stories and the forest floor.
If the metaphor of ‘tropical rain forest’ is applied to the Indus Valley Civilization, the citadels, the rulers, and the rich merchants with their maritime wealth, the urban structure and its finesse are comparable with the ‘emergent canopy’. Yet the bulk of the demography was at the root – the substratum, from which the mature urban cities emerged... The nature of its religion, the cultural practices, cockfights and bull-vaulting visually represent the ‘under-story’ of the IVC.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“Above all, the very world view, “Every town our home town, every[one our kin - யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்]” can only emanate from a civilizational wisdom which has seen places, found merit in give and take and is enriched by travels, journeys and migrations.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“Starting the history from the South does not mean tampering with the chronology of events or the locus of geography in which the events ought to have taken place. It is about understanding the Rain Forest metaphor of Indian pluralism from another end. The pluralism of the Indus Valley civilization, the pluralism espoused in Sangam texts and the plural realities of contemporary India have a connecting thread of continuity. The Idea of India cannot be appreciated without understanding these connections.”
― R. Balakrishnan, Journey of A Civilization: Indus to Vaigai

“Therefore, one can observe true chastity, natural chastity, and independent chastity among the people only when these cruelties are removed and never through compulsions, a different canon for the two sexes, and commandments written by the mighty for the weak that produce only slavish chastity and enforced chastity.”
― Periyār, பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானாள்?

“Saying that strength, anger and leadership are men's inherent qualities and calmness, silence and caring are women's qualities is nothing else but saying that bravery, force, anger and leadership belong to the tiger and calmness, silence and caring belong to the goat. The women's right we demand is that men should accept that women also possess bravery, strength, anger and leadership quality like men. Further, in our opinion both the sexes should have all the qualities mentioned … only that would lead to the development of human society.”
― Periyār, பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானாள்?

“எங்காவது பூனைகளால் எலிகளுக்கு விடுதலை உண்டாகுமா? எங்காவது நரிகளால் ஆடு, கோழிகளுக்கு விடுதலை உண்டாகுமா? எங்காவது வெள்ளைக்காரர்களால் இந்தியர்களுக்குச் செல்வம் பெருகுமா? எங்காவது பார்ப்பனர்களால் பார்ப்பனரல்லாதவர்களுக்கும் சமத்துவம் கிடைக்குமா என்பதை யோசித்தால் இதன் உண்மை விளங்கும். அப்படி ஒருக்கால் ஏதாவது ஒரு சமயம் மேற்படி விஷயங்களில் விடுதலை உண்டாகி விட்டாலும்கூட ஆண்களால் பெண்களுக்கு விடுதலை கிடைக்கவே கிடைக்காது என்பதை மாத்திரம் உறுதியாய் நம்பலாம்.”
― Periyār, பெண் ஏன் அடிமையானாள்?

“If the virus and the inequalities it creates were ever to leave us, America’s extremities would fade. They wouldn’t disappear—no country on Earth can claim that—but some things would no longer be considered normal. There would no longer be those who are taught Latin and those who are barely taught to read. There would no longer be too many people who count their wealth in the multimillions and too many who live hand to mouth. A space launch would not be hard followed by a riot. White college kids would not smoke weed in their dorms while their black peers caught mandatory sentences for selling it to them. America would no longer be that thrilling place of unbelievable oppositions and spectacular violence that makes more equitable countries appear so tame and uneventful in comparison. But the questions have become: Has America metabolized contempt? Has it lived with the virus so long that it no longer fears it? Is there a strong enough desire for a different America within America?”
― Zadie Smith, Intimations

“Contempt. Back in February, “herd immunity” had been a new concept for the people… A man called George. He was alerting the officer to the fact that he was about to die. You’d have to hate a man a lot to kneel on his neck till he dies in plain view of a crowd and a camera, knowing the consequences this would likely have upon your own life. (Or you’d have to be pretty certain of immunity from the herd—not an unsafe bet for a white police officer, historically, in America.) But this was something darker—deadlier. It was the virus, in its most lethal manifestation.”
― Zadie Smith, Intimations

“Human society has surrendered for seventy centuries to corrupt laws and is no longer able to perceive the true meaning of the sublime, primary, and eternal codes of behaviour. Human vision has become accustomed to looking at the light of feeble candles and can no longer stare at the light of the sun. Each generation has inherited the psychological diseases and maladies of the others, and so these have become universal. They have become attributes inseparable from humanity, so that people no longer look upon them as diseases but consider them natural and noble qualities revealed by God to Adam. And when a person appears among them who lacks these traits, they see that individual as flawed and deprived of spiritual perfections. ... They reckon the upright as criminals and those with self respect as rebels.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Broken Wings

“In his experience, humans treated the indigent in one of two ways: either they ignored them completely, or they behaved as if they were vermin”
― Duncan M. Hamilton, Knight of the Silver Circle