Tuesday 28 June 2011

Terrible situation for those who apply for Indian passports

At least, the situation is terrible in Hyderabad.

I have a friend whose existing passport is due to expire in August and, to apply for a visa, of coure needed it to be valid for at least 6 months beyond his scheduled date of departure for work abroad.

He applied for the new passport under the so-called emergency quota in May this year.

He still has not been able to get the renewed passport.

According to the staff at the office, his file has been "misplaced" in the passport office.

Apparently, there are about 100,000 files in the office, and the backlog keeps growing every day.

The staff claim that they have been searching for his file for the last five days.

My view is that the staff in the office are simply looking for a bribe....

WHY do we allow this ridiculous situation?

Why is it that we long ago automated the process of applying for OCI and PIO cards, but even now not for passports?

Saturday 25 June 2011

sexual morality in India

A friend asks: Has Biblical morality on sexuality influenced India today or in the past?

My response:

The simple way of answering your question is: there was no uniform sexual morality in India (and there still isn't). That is because our gods are not primarily moral (unlike the God who is revealed to us in the Bible). As our gods are not primarily moral, nor are my people (Indians). Polyandry was practiced, as was polygamy - at different times and contexts. The idea of faithfulness between one husband and one wife was a direct import as a result of the influence of the gospel from the coming of St Thomas to India in the 1st century - at that time, monogamy was practiced primarily among christians. Monogamy became more widespread only after missionary influence from the 18th centruy onwards. Now, with the influence of the Bible in retreat in the West as well as among the educated and powerful in India (though growing among the less educated and less powerful), monogamy is less influential at least those classes (though still increasing in cultural influence among the other classes).

The British presence had rather mixed influence, as it was spread over somd 350 years - in the first phase, lasting till about 1820, the British took to Indian lack of sexual morality; in the 2nd phase, to about 1890, the idea of monogamy was firmly established, both among the British in India, and among Indians; from then on, monogamy has weakeened though it has become more widely dispersed as an ideal.