Stronger Than You

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.

Just Indian things

I loved this

I am in love with both the elaborate welcome this little fellow received as well as the look of complete bafflement on the puppies’ face that clearly says “I am eight weeks old and what is this.”

The Department of Fisheries in Hyderabad, India, is shaped like a fish.

finally, some good fucking architecture

I know it's sand but I want to eat it

Good news it's not sand!! It's rice flour!! During deepavali, Indians make rangolis which is shown in the video!

there's a CHANCE it's rice flour and there's ALSO a WAY HIGHER chance it's sand, quartz, glitter, powdered chalk, sawdust, talcum, etc. even if it's flour the dyes aren't edible probably.

DO NOT EAT RANGOLI.

I'M INDIAN.

Happy Diwali! Please do not eat sand!

white people ruined the non sexual intimacy of nakedness methinks

i think that for a species that come into the world naked and have such an easy time understanding sex, its ironic that the world at large cant accept that intimacy cant occur outside of sexual desire. there is intimacy in a shared bath between a mother and her child. between brothers sharing a bed. between friends changing in the same room.

and i said white people bc i feel like literally everyone else figured that shit out already? like in public bath houses and women walking around with their breasts exposed. europe got a hold of chriatianity and decided to put a worldwide ban nakedness and put these restrictions on the human body, bastardizing the nature with which we come into the world. its dirty, its deviant, its dangerous to be exposed in the appropriate spaces or ones own home.

the way young people have to cover up in their homes before guests come, the way shorts and other summer clothes are only perceived as sexual in nature and not the most effective way of combating a million degree heat, the way people freak out when they see a bra strap like it wasnt them who made bitches wear bras in the first place

i think we should let bodies be bodies be bodies

tl;dr dont be surprised if one day i just-

transgender men in japan in a trans-friendly hot spring in beppu japan

himba girls from a village in kaokoland, namibia

indian boys playing in a varanasi ghat

i dont remember the last time I saw trans representation in Indian media but this ad just made me feel so blessed

xx

what makes this add so precious to me is it actually stars a transwoman (activitist) Meera Singhania Rehani

[Image ID:

Advertising in India has, at snail’s pace, been inching towards inclusivity. We are still eons away from seeing strong representation from the LGBTQ community in our communications. Therefore what makes Bhima’s ad special is the fact that it features a trans-woman and activist, Meera Singhania. It gets it narrative right, its casting is brilliant and the product fit is great.

End ID]

Can i just

My daughter also needs to see if your son can manage a house, cook food. Only then we’ll agree to this marriage.

It’s a nice ad from BIBA India with a good ending as well. Link - (x)

Okay, he’s got potential. :)

Look at the glow in her eyes. She may or may not have loved him before, but now she knows he’s willing to grow and change to improve their life together. That’s real love.

Reblogging for this version. Even if she’s happy to be the primary homemaker, her husband needs to know the basics. Otherwise, if she falls sick or otherwise has a bad day, they’re both out of luck, and that’s just not fair to a sick woman. Or to a pregnant one.

And this young man steps up to the task! He accepts that he’s lacking in the basic skills necessary to care for a wife, and resolves to grow as a person.

Holy shit that is the best headline.

Manimukta by Preeti Mohan x Weaver Story | Festive 2019

My daughter also needs to see if your son can manage a house, cook food. Only then we’ll agree to this marriage.

It’s a nice ad from BIBA India with a good ending as well. Link - (x)

Okay, he’s got potential. :)

Look at the glow in her eyes. She may or may not have loved him before, but now she knows he’s willing to grow and change to improve their life together. That’s real love.

Reblogging for this version. Even if she’s happy to be the primary homemaker, her husband needs to know the basics. Otherwise, if she falls sick or otherwise has a bad day, they’re both out of luck, and that’s just not fair to a sick woman. Or to a pregnant one.

And this young man steps up to the task! He accepts that he’s lacking in the basic skills necessary to care for a wife, and resolves to grow as a person.

Hey remember when US and Russia was all like “We’re the best!!! We’ve won the space race!!!!” But India sent a kick-ass space probe to Mars and the whole mission was fuel efficient, costed less and a roaring success in the first try and then they were like “…..wait no that can’t be true” and still have the audacity to call us “underdeveloped” or only view us as a ‘third world country’? :)

For anyone who needs more info, the probe was called Mangalyaan (which literally means space probe vehicle) or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and you can also get more information here and here

Remember when NYT mocked India for this very thing and an TOI (a major indian newspaper) responded with this? :)

They were being racist asf and we were till respectful literally fuck you if you think ‘third world counties’ can’t be better than you

white people can and should reblog this

and shout out to the women engineers integral to the launch

“Indian staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation celebrate after the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft entered Mars’s orbit.

On November 5, 2013, a rocket launched toward Mars. It was India’s first interplanetary mission, Mangalyaan, and a terrific gamble. Only 40 percent of missions sent to Mars by major space organizations—NASA, Russia’s, Japan’s, or China’s—had ever been a success. No space organization had succeeded on its first attempt. What’s more, India’s space organization, ISRO, had very little funding: while NASA’s Mars probe, Maven, cost $651 million, the budget for this mission was $74 million. 

This was not the only success of the mission. An image of the scientists celebrating in the mission control room went viral. Girls in India and beyond gained new heroes: the kind that wear sarees and tie flowers in their hair, and send rockets into space.”

x

there’s a movie adaptation of this! it’s obviously more dramatized/they use different names but i really really loved the movie! it’s called mission mangal and it was the first time i had heard of this and i was so surprised that literally? no one talked about it??? what they accomplished is incredible.

ALSO, Mangalyaan launched in 2013 and was meant to be a 6 month mission. It’s been in orbit around Mars now for more than 5 years and has enough propellant to keep going for even longer.

“The kind that wear sarees and tie flowers in their hair, and send rockets into space.”

FUCK YES. THIS IS THE TYPE OF REPRESENTATION I’VE BEEN HERE FOR!!

I love how the dudes at back are pure happy!!

Please watch this movie, guys,

It’s directed beautifully, they subtly show feminism without exclusively bad mouthing men, and without hesitating they show the issue of how girls are viewed in India. I can safely say that the level of misogyny is in a lot of Asian countries, households and community, it really hits close to home.

They even mentioned the reality of underage marriage and why it’s a problem.

Believe me, it’s an empowering movie and whoever stands with women’s rights will understand what I mean.

since the movie wasn’t mentioned i took the liberty of looking for it! It looks amazing and is the second highest-grossing film at the worldwide box office (x)

It’s called Dangal and you can watch the trailer here

I have watched it and another tidbit is that it is actually based on a true story! Geeta and Babita Phogat won medals for their country in the Commonwealth Games and they come from a state in India (Haryana) that is generally known to be not that progressive. 

This is Geeta: 

This is Babita 

and this is their father, Mahavir Singh Phogat, 

The story is inspiring, amazing and every single one of you should watch it by hook or by crook. 

Source

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WHOA!

They are not some anonymous “a tribe in India”, they are the War-Khasi. Speaking as a former anthro student and as a reference librarian, I am beyond sick of posts (and articles, and emails, and museum displays) like this that present the work of a people without actually naming the people. It’s erasure, it’s reducing the great works of a culture to an Ozymandias-esque curiosity for foreigners to consume rather than an accomplishment that should help bring awareness of that culture’s existence. 

They are the War-Khasi, a division of the Khasi, a people who call themselves Hynñiew Trep. They live in Meghalaya, and they have been building these bridges in the town of Cherrapunji for longer than anyone knows. They are not anonymous.