Modern History of India
What is heartening is that Indians still lack a sense of history and not much is being done to record contemporary history of India. So much so that a series on the Indian Independence movement was commissioned by the Indian government years ago to counter a British series on the subject. The series is still to come out, and don't hold your breath for it either.
Indian History might seem like a labyrinth, or one of those confusing Tower of Babel paintings. This is primarily because each region in India was pretty much doing its own thing and creating a history of its own. For the sake of everyone's sanity, we have tried in our sections of history of India to give you a brief background of what was happening in that period with special reference to the major dynasties of the era. of course, having known that much you’ll be hungry for more, for which keep watching this space as the saga unfolds!
Indian constitution
The Indian constitution is also one of the most frequently amended constitutions in the world. The first amendment came only a year after the adoption of the constitution and instituted numerous minor changes. Many more amendments followed, and through June 1995 the constitution had been amended seventy-seven times, a rate of almost two amendments per year since 1950. Most of the constitution can be amended after a quorum of more than half of the members of each house in Parliament passes an amendment with a two-thirds majority vote. Articles pertaining to the distribution of legislative authority between the central and state governments must also be approved by 50 percent of the state legislatures.
Foreign relations and military
In recent years, India has played an influential role in the ASEAN[56], SAARC, and the WTO.[57] India is a founding member and long time supporter of the United Nations, with over 55,000 Indian military and police personnel having served in thirty-five UN peace keeping operations deployed across four continents.[58] Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has consistently refused to sign the CTBT and the NPT, preferring instead to maintain sovereignty over its nuclear program. Recent overtures by the Indian government have strengthened relations with the United States, China, and Pakistan. In the economic sphere, India has close relationships with other developing nations in South America, Asia, and Africa.
India maintains the third largest military force in the world, which consists of the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force.[8] Auxiliary forces such as the Paramilitary Forces, the Coast Guard, and the Strategic Forces Command also come under the military's purview. The President of India is the supreme commander of the Indian armed forces. India became a nuclear power in 1974 after conducting an initial nuclear test, Operation Smiling Buddha. Further underground testing in 1998 led to international military sanctions against India, which were gradually withdrawn after September 2001. India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy[59] and has a "strong nuclear non-proliferation record" according to the White House,[60] despite not being a signatory to the Nuclear
Indian Point As Backdrop
THE small hamlet of Buchanan has become a popular news conference locale in recent months. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, there has been broad public debate about whether the Indian Point nuclear power plant there is a target for terrorism.
Showing at the plant has promised plenty of news coverage, and many politicians have taken the plant's officials to task over various issues, including shutting the plant down. But more and more plant supporters are now accusing politicians of jumping on the Indian Point bandwagon and exploiting the issue for their own political gain.
Central in this backlash is Gavin J. Donohue, executive director of the Independent Power Producers of New York. Mr. Donohue has accused politicians of using the plant as a news conference backdrop and ''inducing hysteria and fear in residents.''
Mr. Donohue, whose trade association represents electric generators and marketers, contended that ''these politicians know very little about a complex issue'' but have simply seized upon it to get themselves some camera time. He called their calls to shut down Indian Point permanently ''a self-serving attempt to take advantage of Sept. 11 by manipulating the fears of Westchester residents.''
''It's political opportunism by politicians who don't know the impact of such a decision,'' said Mr. Donohue. Closing the plant, he contended, would increase electric rates for residents by 40 percent and cost more than 1,500 jobs. It would also delete a tax base of $45 million and $356 million in payroll and expenditures that the plant adds to the local economy, he said, and overtax the state's electric system.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Charles E. Schumer have appeared in front of Indian Point. So have Representatives Nita M. Lowey and Eliot L. Engel, both of whom have advocated closing or decommissioning the plant.
History of India
Later, successive empires and kingdoms ruled the region and enriched its culture - from the Achaemenid Persian empire[1] around 543 BCE, to Alexander the Great[2] in 326 BCE. The Indo-Greek Kingdom, founded by Demetrius of Bactria, included Gandhara and Punjab from 184 BCE; it reached its greatest extent under Menander, establishing the Greco-Buddhist period with advances in trade and culture.
The subcontinent was united under the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. It subsequently became fragmented, with various parts ruled by numerous Middle kingdoms for the next ten centuries. Its northern regions were united once again in the 4th century CE, and remained so for two centuries thereafter, under the Gupta Empire. This period, of Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known among its admirers as the "Golden Age of India." During the same time, and for several centuries afterwards, Southern India, under the rule of the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas and Pandyas, experienced its own golden age, during which Indian civilization, administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of south-east Asia.
Islam arrived on the subcontinent in 712 CE, when the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab,[3] setting the stage for several successive Islamic invasions between the 10th and 15th centuries CE from Central Asia, leading to the formation of Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent, including the Ghaznavid, the Ghorid, the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Mughal rule came to cover most of the northern parts of the subcontinent. Mughal rulers introduced middle-eastern art and architecture to India. In addition to the Mughals, several independent Hindu kingdoms, such as the Maratha Empire, the Vijayanagara Empire and various Rajput kingdoms, flourished contemporaneously, in Western and Southern India respectively. The Mughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early eighteenth century, which provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis and Sikhs to exercise control over large areas in the northwest of the subcontinent until the British East India Company[4] gained ascendancy over South Asia.
Beginning in the mid-18th century and over the next century, India was gradually annexed by the British East India Company. Dissatisfaction with Company rule led to the First War of Indian Independence, after which India was directly administered by the British Crown and witnessed a period of both rapid development of infrastructure and economic decline.
During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress, and later joined by the Muslim League. The subcontinent gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, after being partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan. Pakistan's eastern wing became the nation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Central and State Governments Of India
The constitution designates the governance of India under two branches namely the executive branch and the legislative branch. Real national executive power is centered in the Council of Ministers, led by the Prime Minister of India. The President appoints the Prime Minister, who is designated by legislators of the political party or coalition commanding a parliamentary majority. The President then appoints subordinate ministers on the advice of the Prime Minister. In reality, the President has no discretion on the question of whom to appoint as Prime Minister except when no political party or coalition of parties gains a majority in the Lok Sabha. Once the Prime Minister has been appointed, the President has no discretion on any other matter whatsoever, including the appointment of ministers. But all Central Government decisions are nominally taken in his name.
The constitution designates the Parliament of India as the legislative branch to oversee the operation of the government. India's bicameral parliament consists of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The Council of Ministers is held responsible to the Lok Sabha.
The government can enact laws and ordinances as required for the governance of the country. However, laws and ordinances have to be passed by the legislative branch in order to be effected. Parliament sessions are conducted to discuss, analyse and pass the laws tabled as Acts. Any law is first proposed as a bill in the lower house. If the lower house approves the bill in current form, the bill is then proposed to be enacted in the upper house. If not, the bill is sent for amendment and then tabled again so as to be passed as an Act. Even if the bill is passed in the lower house, the upper house has the right to reject the proposed bill and send it back to the government for amending the bill. Therefore, it can be said that the governance of India takes place under two processes; the executive process and the legislative process. Ideally, the governance cannot be done through the individual processes alone. After the Acts are passed by both the houses, the President signs the Bill as an Act. Thus the legislative branch also acts under the name of the President, like the executive branch.
Ordinances are laws that are passed in lieu of Acts, when the parliament is not in session. When the parliament is in recess, the President assumes the legislative powers of both the houses temporarily, under Part V: Chapter III - Article 335 of the Constitution of India. The government has to propose a law to the President during such periods. If the President is fully satisfied with the bill, and signs the bill, it becomes an ordinance. The powers of ordinances are temporary, and each ordinance has to be tabled in the parliament when the houses reassemble. The President also has the right to withdraw an ordinance.
States in India have their own elected governments, where as Union Territories are governed by an administrator appointed by the central government. Some of the state legislatures are bicameral, patterned after the two houses of the national parliament. The states' chief ministers are responsible to the legislatures in the same way the prime minister is responsible to parliament.
Each state also has a presidentially appointed governor who may assume certain broad powers when directed by the central government. The central government exerts greater control over the union territories than over the states, although some territories have gained more power to administer their own affairs. Local state governments in India have less autonomy compared to their counterparts in the United States and Australia.
Indian Government
The structure of India's federal--or union--system not only creates a strong central government but also has facilitated the concentration of power in the central government in general and in particular in the Office of the Prime Minister. This centralization of power has been a source of considerable controversy and political tension. It is likely to further exacerbate political conflict because of the increasing pluralism of the country's party system and the growing diversity of interest-group representation.
Once viewed as a source of solutions for the country's economic and social problems, the Indian polity is increasingly seen by political observers as the problem. When populist political appeals stir the passions of the masses, government institutions appear less capable than ever before of accommodating conflicts in a society mobilized along competing ethnic and religious lines. In addition, law and order have become increasingly tenuous because of the growing inability of the police to curb criminal activities and quell communal disturbances. Indeed, many observers bemoan the "criminalization" of Indian politics at a time when politicians routinely hire "muscle power" to improve their electoral prospects, and criminals themselves successfully run for public office. These circumstances have led some observers to conclude that India has entered into a growing crisis of governability.
Politics Of India
According to its constitution, India is a "sovereign socialist secular democratic republic." India is the largest state by population with a democratically-elected government. Like the United States, India has a federal form of government, however, the central government in India has greater power in relation to its states, and its central government is patterned after the British parliamentary system. Regarding the former, "the Centre", the national government, can and has dismissed state governments if no majority party or coalition is able to form a government or under specific Constitutional clauses, and can impose direct federal rule known as President's rule. Locally, the Panchayati Raj system has several administrative functions
Indian Goverment History
The structure of India's federal--or union--system not only creates a strong central government but also has facilitated the concentration of power in the central government in general and in particular in the Office of the Prime Minister. This centralization of power has been a source of considerable controversy and political tension. It is likely to further exacerbate political conflict because of the increasing pluralism of the country's party system and the growing diversity of interest-group representation.
Once viewed as a source of solutions for the country's economic and social problems, the Indian polity is increasingly seen by political observers as the problem. When populist political appeals stir the passions of the masses, government institutions appear less capable than ever before of accommodating conflicts in a society mobilized along competing ethnic and religious lines. In addition, law and order have become increasingly tenuous because of the growing inability of the police to curb criminal activities and quell communal disturbances. Indeed, many observers bemoan the "criminalization" of Indian politics at a time when politicians routinely hire "muscle power" to improve their electoral prospects, and criminals themselves successfully run for public office. These circumstances have led some observers to conclude that India has entered into a growing crisis of governability.
American Economy
The US invaded Iraq on the grounds of weapons of mass destruction, claiming the Saddam Hussein regime was an imminent threat to world security and were sponsoring and supporting terrorism. Of course this turned out to be false, but at least there was the access to Iraqi oil reserves and the significant rebuilding contracts that would go to American contractors, correct? Actually, this didn’t happen either, and the Iraq war fiasco has led to nothing but bloodshed, with no economic advantages arising from invasion.
After the needless destruction of Iraq was completed, the rebuilding effort was to provide employment to American workers and the US economy. But that wasn’t to happen. The projects were outsourced to cheap labour economies to save money, and thanks to NAFTA, any jobs that would’ve been available for American workers were diverted elsewhere. Thus a further betrayal by the current government and another lie to fuel the flames of the Iraqi war effort.
While the cost in human lives can never compare, the US government have spent billions of dollars on the war machine for no reason. Despite the financial gains they may have sought, the US economy is still struggling and the reconstruction contracts have gone to lower labour economies as a result of cost restrictions and international treaty arrangements. For the US people, this represents yet another lie in the Iraq saga, and further undermines the credibility of the current Presidential regime.
Public Interest Litigation
Though the Constitution of India guarantees equal rights to all citizens, irrespective of race, gender, religion, and other considerations, and the "directive principles of state policy" as stated in the Constitution obligate the Government to provide to all citizens a minimum standard of living, the promise has not been fulfilled.
The greater majority of the Indian people have no assurance of two nutritious meals a day, safety of employment, safe and clean housing, or such level of education as would make it possible for them to understand their constitutional rights and obligations. Indian newspapers abound in stories of the exploitation -- by landlords,factory owners, businessmen, and the state's own functionaries, such as police and revenue officials -- of children, women, villagers, the poor, and the working class.
Though India's higher courts and, in particular, the Supreme Court have often been sensitive to the grim social realities, and have on occasion given relief to the oppressed, the poor do not have the capacity to represent themselves, or to take advantage of progressive legislation. In 1982, the Supreme Court conceded that unusual measures were warranted to enable people the full realization of not merely their civil and political rights, but the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights, and in its far- reaching decision in the case of PUDR [People's Union for Democratic Rights] vs. Union of India [1982 (2) S.C.C. 253], it recognized that a third party could directly petition, whether through a letter or other means, the Court and seek its intervention in a matter where another party's fundamental rights were being violated.
Can Women Govern Politics
From September 23, 1953 to July 7, 1954,Sühbaataryn Yanjmaa acted as Chairman of the Presidium of the People's Great Khural of Mongolia making her the first women political ruler in contemporary history (except for queens).
The first elected female political ruler as well as the first woman president in Europe was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, president of Iceland from August 1, 1980 to August 1, 1996
Since then there have been several women presidents. Currently, Mary McAleese is president of Ireland while Helen Clark is the prime minister of New Zealand. She became the second woman prime minister on December 10, 1999 when she succeeded Jenny Shipley.
Maria Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been the president of the Philippines since January 20, 2001. She is the second women president of the Philippines
Luísa Dias Diogo is the Prime minister of Mozambique since February 17, 2004. Angela Merkel is the Federal Chancellor of Germany and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the president of Liberia since January 16, 2006. She is Africa's first elected head of State.
Michelle Bachelet Jeria is the president of Chile from March 11, 2006. Louise Lake-Tack is the Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda since July 17, 2007 while Yuliya Tymoshenko has served as the prime minister of Ukraine twice, from January 24 to September 8, 2005 and again since December 18, 2007.
So many women in places of power thoughout the world shows that women can succeed in politics. They can govern and do it well. Mary McAleese, president of Ireland, had so much support for a second term that she stood unopposed. No one was willing to bear the cost of competing in an election that would be very difficult to win.
Indian Politics
In Indian politics, there are political parties in which one being pulls all the strings. This affection existed even afore India's independence, if Mahatma Gandhi was the ancestor amount of the Indian Civic Congress until his afterlife in 1948 even admitting he accommodated from the Congress in 1933. Indira Gandhi for some aeon was in complete ascendancy of her party. Her affair was aswell named, Congress (Indira). Shiv Sena is bedeviled by Bal Thakarey. Even if the Shiv Sena won the accompaniment elections in Maharashtra, Bal Thakarey handled the enactment of the accompaniment government but did not accredit himself as the Chief Minister but appointed anyone abroad for this post.
Some of these parties, like the Shiv Sena in which one being pulls all the strings, accept their bastion in the accessible not because of their baton but because of affair ideology. While added parties are absolutely dependable on the account the baton of the affair has in the public. One such affair is Samata Affair and its baton is George Fernandes. Another such affair was Lok Shakti and its baton was Ramakrishna Hegde.
Many of the ample civic parties accept a pre-election acceding with abate parties on collective candidates in some constituencies. This applicant belongs to one of the parties and the added affair supports this candidate. This is done to anticipate a achievability of parties, with accepted civic calendar or accepted accompaniment agenda, appoint their own altered candidates causing the agreeable of the votes of their addition and so accident the constituency to the battling wing.
In Indian backroom there are aswell abounding absolute candidates. These candidates participate in acclamation constituencies apart after the abutment of any party. In actual few cases the beyond parties aswell abutment absolute candidates.
Impending Dangers To India’s Political Survival
Observing Pakistan’s unfolding implosion is prompting a pleasing sensation of Schadenfreude for most Indians. But it is a grave mistake to imagine that the final outcome will not be hazardous for India. Nor is it likely that Pakistan’s leaders, harbouring visceral hatred for Hindu India, will desist from harming it while they themselves self-destruct. Indeed there is a strong likelihood of temptation to aim for an apocalyptic endgame for the region should Pakistan itself truly disintegrate.
Pakistani society is already deeply divided horizontally, with several regions increasingly estranged from the Federal State and vertically, with a vast constituency enraged by their own shockingly greedy and profoundly foolhardy elites. And the ubiquitous Americans will come up with another surreal plan for Pakistan, without ceding control over its armed forces and the nuclear assets they and the Chinese conspired to implant there in order to bring India to heel.
It may also safely be predicted, contrary to the fantasies of the Delhi chatterati and elements of the Indian establishment, that the Anglo-American alliance will greet India’s dire discomfiture with satisfaction. They will welcome the disappearance of the second non-white challenger to their historic global supremacy, accentuated by a deep dislike for Indian sanctimony and a history of ill will. They will certainly expect to pick up some of the pieces of a broken-backed India, reconstituted as querulous independent entities seeking sustenance outside the region.
The historical record of India provides no comfort that such a situation is unlikely to arise. And the internal political and ideological fissures that endured in the past have now re-established deep roots within it. Hindus love quarrelling among themselves and their susceptibility to brainwashing to ensure they do so has few parallels. The most laughable spectacle is Indian Leftists, unashamedly pursuing mammon in the US while feigning deep thought and espousing the Rights of Muslims, though careful to only belabour democratic India and its hapless Hindus.
The East India Company
The East India Company had the unusual distinction of ruling an entire country. Its origins were much humbler. On 31 December 1600, a group of merchants who had incorporated themselves into the East India Company were given monopoly privileges on all trade with the East Indies. The Company's ships first arrived in India, at the port of Surat, in 1608. Sir Thomas Roe reached the court of the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, as the emissary of King James I in 1615, and gained for the British the right to establish a factory at Surat. Gradually the British eclipsed the Portugese and over the years they saw a massive expansion of their trading operations in India. Numerous trading posts were established along the east and west coasts of India, and considerable English communities developed around the three presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. In 1717, the Company achieved its hitherto most notable success when it received a firman or royal dictat from the Mughal Emperor exempting the Company from the payment of custom duties in Bengal.
The Company saw the rise of its fortunes, and its transformation from a trading venture to a ruling enterprise, when one of its military officials, Robert Clive, defeated the forces of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah , at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. A few years later the Company acquired the right to collect revenues on behalf of the Mughal Emperor, but the initial years of its administration were calamitous for the people of Bengal. The Company's servants were largely a rapacious and self-aggrandizing lot, and the plunder of Bengal left the formerly rich province in a state of utter destitution. The famine of 1769-70, which the Company's policies did nothing to alleviate, may have taken the lives of as many as a third of the population. The Company, despite the increase in trade and the revenues coming in from other sources, found itself burdened with massive military expenditures, and its destruction seemed imminent. State intervention put the ailing Company back on its feet, and Lord North's India Bill, also known as the Regulating Act of 1773, provided for greater parliamentary control over the affairs of the Company, besides placing India under the rule of a Governor-General.
Hastings remained in India until 1784 and was succeeded by Cornwallis, who initiated the Permanent Settlement, whereby an agreement in perpetuity was reached with zamindars or landlords for the collection of revenue. For the next fifty years, the British were engaged in attempts to eliminate Indian rivals, and it is under the administration of Wellesley that British territorial expansion was achieved with ruthless efficiency. Major victories were achieved against Tipu Sultan of Mysore and the Marathas, and finally the subjugation and conquest of the Sikhs in a series of Anglo- Sikh Wars led to British occupation over the entirety of India. In some places, the British practiced indirect rule, placing a Resident at the court of the native ruler who was allowed sovereignty in domestic matters. Lord Dalhousie's notorious doctrine of lapse, whereby a native state became part of British India if there was no male heir at the death of the ruler, was one of the principal means by which native states were annexed; but often the annexation, such as that of Awadh [Oudh] in 1856, was justified on the grounds that the native prince was of evil disposition, indifferent to the welfare of his subjects. The annexation of native states, harsh revenue policies, and the plight of the Indian peasantry all contributed to the Rebellion of 1857-58, referred to previously as the Sepoy Mutiny. In 1858 the East India Company was dissolved, despite a valiant defense of its purported achievements by John Stuart Mill, and the administration of India became the responsibility of the Crow.
How to Become a Navy SEAL
Applications are only accepted from those who are 28 years and above. Some Navy SEALs aspirants are given an age waiver, but only for those between 29-30 years of age and not above.
The Gender Requirement
In a nutshell, the Navy SEALs program does not accept woman applicants. This is because, according to a policy set by the Congress, women are excluded from active combat duty.
The Citizenship Requirement:-
You need to be a citizen of the United States of America to become a Navy SEAL.
If you are a citizen of a country other than America, then enlistment in the U.S Navy or any other branch of the U.S military is only open for legal residents of the United States, who also posses, what is called, the Immigration and Naturalization Service Alien Registrations Card, commonly called, the Green Card.
The Entrance Test
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is something that you have to battle, first up.
This test is a pre-requisite if you want to get selected into the Navy SEAL program and includes the following topics:
Mathematics
Word Power
Paragraph Comprehension
Arithmetic
General Science
….. Etc
Upon the completion of these tests you are given a composite score, as well as, individual scores for each section. You must work hard to get enough qualifying scores to get into the SEAL program.
The Vision Requirement
Navy SEALs require superior vision as they are required to perform a variety of tasks that require precision. SEAL candidates might often have to correct their vision if they are to have a chance of qualifying for the difficult program.
The Enlisted Physical Screening Test or PST
All aspirants who want to become Navy SEALs have to go through this and come out perspiring but shining.
This physical screening test is designed in a way such that, it enables experts to gauge the physical ability of an applicant, in order to see whether they have the ability to tackle the strenuous Navy SEALs training.
Here are a few components of the PST:
Swimming 500 yards wherein the time limit is 12 minutes and 30 seconds
2 minutes given to perform a minimum of 42 push-ups
6 pull ups; there is no time limit here
50 sit-ups; the time limit is 2 minutes
Last but the not the least a one and a half mile run that should take no more than 11 minutes and 30 seconds.
There are periods of rest between each exercise, but this test is an inkling of things to come, if and when you enter the Navy SEALs program.
It must be said here, that these are just the preliminary tests before you embark on the challenging journey of becoming a Navy SEAL. These are the first steps in a long and difficult process of becoming one of the most impressive of all soldiering men in the U.S armed forces.
Kashmir History
The Muslim and Hindu peoples of Kashmir have lived in relative harmony and friendliness since the 13th century when Islam first became the majority religion in Kashmir. The Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus), leading to a syncretic culture where Hindus and Muslims revered the same local saints and prayed at the same shrines.
Periodically however, there have been rulers and leaders who have had a narrow view of Islam, and have subjected Hindu minorities to great cruelties and discrimination. The current armed secessionist movement in Kashmir mostly derives its inspiration from these people.
A canard is now being spread past few years by the secessionist-terrorists and their sympathizers that in 1990 Kashmiri Pandits left Kashmir willingly, having been "tricked" by then Jammu and Kashmir Governor Jagmohan. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact is that Kashmiri Pandits were driven from their homeland after a campaign of intimidation and harassment was launched against them by the military-wing of the secessionists. Kashmiri Pandits were forced from their hearths and homes at the point of gun. The objective of this ethnic cleansing was to create a minority free Kashmir valley where the goal of Islamization could be easily forced on the ordinary people. The books and articles below will provide you with an in-depth understanding of the genesis of the current political situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
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History of foot fetish
Having a foot fetish can also be referred to as foot fetishism, foot partialism, foot worship, or podophilia. It is manifested by an acute sexual preference for feet. Moreover, although it is probably the most widespread shape of sexual preference for an otherwise non-sexual object or body part, not even those who practice it are aware of its roots and the signs it has left behind throughout history. Its roots run deeper than one would think, as this fetisch hides a fascinating background.
The side of this preference that is less known to the general public is its apparent growth in relation with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. It goes back as far as the 16th century (there are various drawings that prove it), and although this is only a hypothesis, it appears that in the writings of the time, foot fetishism became more popular during the syphilis epidemics which took place in the 16th and 19th century, in Europe. Looking at things on a smaller scale (a survey on a period of only 3 decades), it seems that the relatively recent AIDS epidemic also lead to an immense increase in the interest for the foot fetish.
The growing numbers of those sharing this foot fetish has led to the appearance of “foot girls”. They are foot models who act in movies created especially for those with a passion for feet. Such pictures usually contain plenty of focusing on the object of attraction, but a general image of the model is also usually included.
The presence of socks or shoes is optional and widely varied. In addition, the girl might be alone or together with someone else foot worshipping her. More pornographic are those flicks that include trampling, smothering or foot jobs.
Experts have studied in detail the frequency of this fetisch. One study, for example, was carried out by looking at almost four hundred discussion groups over the Internet. It was based generally on how many forums are dedicated to each variation in particular, how many people took part in the discussions and how many messages were sent. Feet, toes and everything associated with them were definitely top of the preference list. It also seemed to come out first among fetisch-related search terms.
Women, as well as men, are likely to share a foot fetish. In fact, it is rather common for women situated in the 20-40 age range simply to adore having their feet caressed (or even licked) during foreplay or during the sexual act as such. Non-sexual objects may carry an amount of appeal greater than you might imagine. As we have said it, you might not even be aware of it, but if you check your preferences, you might “come across” predilections you have kept concealed.