Saturday, July 16, 2011
EMPOWERING WOMEN
Radha and Radhiya
Two faces of modern education
By Mridula Sinha
THERE was a news in leading newspapers that a Collector Anand Kumar’s daughter Gopika is studying in a village primary school at Erode district of Tamil Nadu. The photograph shows the girl sitting on a wooden plank and learning the alphabets. University gold medalist Anand Kumar has also been awarded Silver Medal for path-breaking work in the field of land reforms. Anand Kumar himself did his primary and middle schooling in a village government school.
Without asking him we can say that he also wants his daughter to become an IAS officer or senior officer in any field. It is supposed that on the basis of his experience he knew that studying in a small village school with lesser facilities, children can get lot of practical knowledge of life and society which they cannot get in expensive public schools.
Radha and Radhiya are the two faces of the same name. Radha is learning the art of living in an English medium air-conditioned school. She also learns how to earn her living through the internet by reading books. On the other hand Radhiya still sits under a tree on a wooden plank and writes ka, kha, ga with a limestone stick and recites loudly. Radha learns tables but she cannot memories them. While sitting on the wooden plank Radhiya moves up and down according to the tables, she keeps repeating them loudly in a rhythmic and melodious way. It is not only Radhiya’s song but a group song. The atmosphere around the school echoes with the sound of two-one za two, two-two za four, two-three za six till twenty tens are two hundred.
There is a big burden of books on Radha’s back. But Radhiya’s bag is very light, no tiffin box or water bottle, just one slate and two thin books and no home work. She plays a lot on reaching home. She learns all the household chores like sweeping the floor, fetching water, and making chapatis, serving food to her father and playing with her younger brother, while helping her mother.
When Radha grows up to be a big officer she will not have the knowledge of worldly things like cooking food, looking after the house and so many other useful things. Radha is an only daughter of a rich father. She is like a beautiful flower decorated in the living room of her father with a collection of good books. Radhiya is like wild flower. She plays with her brothers, sisters and friends in open air. She plays in the rain, sings and dances, fights with her siblings, and learning to share things with them. She can face shocking incidents and natural disasters with equal ease. On the other hand eastern breeze sweeps Radha and western breeze withers her.
Collector Anand wants his daughter Gopika to study with the Radhiyas, Ramiyas, Raziyas in the village government school so that she learns the true lessons of life. He wants his daughter to become a capable and successful IAS officer, social worker or professor and therefore, he wants her study in a place where life is like an open book.
I remember, few years back I asked Sri Anant Kumar Hegde, MP from Karnataka, whether he is going to bring his wife and daughter to Delhi. He said, “I want that my daughter should go to village school up to her ten years age. After that I can bring her to Delhi, not now.” I could understand his view and effort. I appreciated his stand.
Shri Anand Kumar is definitely an aware and responsible citizen who has great foresight. He must have realised this during his school days, those children who study in convents or expensive schools lack practical knowledge of life. He must be deriving from his own experiences while making and implementing schemes for the development of women and children and villages in his capacity as Collector. Therefore, he is making his own daughter study in a primary village school.
The difference between school, building, medium and infrastructure is creating a huge gap in the society. Highly educated Radhas have to depend upon many Radhiyas for everything. Radhiyas are self-sufficient, they do not depend upon anybody, but Radhas are. The whole education system is being made fun of.
To remove this wide gap in the society, I had started a unique programme as the Chairperson of Central Social Welfare Board. We had planned an educational tour for 40 girls, where 20 girls from public school and 20 girls from government schools had to stay together, eat together, sing and dance together for 4 days. We did 40 such tours. We tried to mix the girls nicely and when we got the result of the tour they were pleasantly surprising. They were such that they could erase all the differences in the society and spread a feeling of friendship and togetherness and equality. We requested the government to make this a permanent project in curriculum of schools.
It is very essential that Radha and Radhiya sit together and understand each other.
Whenever we remember the incident of Queen of France, we always have a great laugh. According to legend, once during famine, hungry and dying people reached the Queen’s palace. When the Queen tried to find out what happened, her officer remarked that people don’t have bread to eat, they want bread. Quickly the Queen said, “If they don’t have bread, tell them to eat cake.”
It is surely a funny incident, but we have to be alert that future Indian society should not become a laughing stock.
Modern education system is hell bent on making such Radhas who are not aware of their own surroundings. They have food from outside as they are unable to cook food.
Moreover, the Indian officials on higher post who are not aware of the society will not be able to make laws and schemes for the betterment of mankind.
In short, we all should take a positive note from Anand Kumar’s actions. We should fill the gap between the two groups of the society and this is possible only when everybody gets uniform education.
(The author is senior writer and former Chairperson of Central Social Welfare Board.)
UP land war and Congress
Can Rahul Gandhi talk about Jaitapur and Bhatta Parsaul in the same breath?
By Aditya Pradhan
If Rahul Gandhi thinks he has set the right note for starting the agitation against land acquisition in Bhatta Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh just because the Supreme Court has ordered the return of the 156 hectares to the farmers in Greater Noida’s Shahberi village acquired by Mayawati government, then he has another think coming. The Mayawati government can be held responsible for selling land to real estate and infrastructure developers for Rs10,000 per sq metre after buying the land for the highest price of Rs850 per sq metre from farmers, but how does that change the paradigm when it comes to the land acquisition in Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district for the nuclear plant?
If you look at the way the Congress state government in Maharashtra has handled the Jaitapur land acquisition Mayawati looks like an angel in comparison. The nuclear plant planned in Jaitapur district has over five villages affected by the project. The state government’s initial impact report plaintively maintained that the land earmarked for the project was “barren”.
Over 968 hectares of land has been acquired, though the district of Jaitapur is famous for its ‘alphonso’ mangoes. People in Madban, Niveli, Karel, Mithgavane and Varliwada villages in Jaitapur have been agitating for the last four years against the project. Rahul Gandhi may not even want to join the Jaitapur debate because it is a pet project of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Singh had even put his job at stake to get the Indo-US nuclear deal signed against his party’s counsel.
Out of the Rs14.85 crore compensation set aside by the state government only a little over Rs1.5 crore has been disbursed as there are no takers for the project in the district. Of the 2,400 families affected by the land acquisition at Jaitapur just about 40 families have taken the measly compensation paid by the government and many of them have already told the news media that they are not happy with the offer.
Over 40,000 people will be affected by the plant of which 16,000 families are dependent on fishing. The present Congress government in Maharashtra should take cognizance of the Enron project of the 90s which had the same makings of bulldozing public opinion by sheer strength of corporate power. The Enron project was in the nearby Guhagar village in Ratnagiri.
The Uttar Pradesh government had changed the land use plan in greater Noida in less than 11 days after the land acquisition. The unholy haste with which Mayawati government changed the laws to pander to the land sharks tell a story of how state governments, be it Congress or the Bahujan Samaj Party, can be bought with consummate ease by the corporates with deep pockets.
Sri Padmanabhaswamy
: The wealthy God get wealthier
Only devout Hindus have a right to speak on the temple wealth
By Pushpanjali
SRI Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala is among the oldest and most respected temples of the known world. The rich and the poor pray there and ask for a boon or blessing for self and society. Indeed the biggest batch of temple priests that graduated after rigorous training is from Kerala, God’s own country.
A temple relics on the gold reserve kept in the underground vaults that are untouched by human hands for centuries when it run short of cash.
Sri Padmanabha temple in Thiruvananthpuram is one such example.There are many legends attached to the origin of the temple. It is commonly believed that the deity is Swayambhu (self manifested) the city gained its name from the temple. Built by kings of the Travancore State, the temple had large endowments of cash and immoveable property donated in reverence by the royal family. In due course a trust was formed for management when the state acceded to the Union of India in 1947. Most of the trustees were from the royal family and they continue to be there.
The present wealth of the temple is a result of growth over many centuries. Of course, most of the donations to the temple were from the Royal House of Travancore followed by His Highness of Cochin, other royal houses of the South as well as the North; not forgetting the common man who came from all over the country, all over South-East Asia, Bali, Fiji, Mauritius and so on.
In this temple worshippers are required to wear unstitched clothes, that is a dhoti and a shawl or a plain wrapper. Only men and women professing Vedic Dharma or only the Hindus are permitted to enter the precincts of the holy place.
It goes to prove that the offerings are from the Hindus only and, therefore, only Hindus should have a say in the management of the temple, including the new-found riches. No government should usurp the rights of the temple trust and thrust atheists or non-Hindus into the management.
Root of the problem
The unbelievable wealth, quantum of gold, jewellery, gems and other valuables came to light when the Supreme Court passed an order to open the underground vaults where no human have visited since more than a century and a half, to take stock of the moveable and immoveable property of the temple. This order was passed on a petition of a Hindu citizen alleging that the temple trust was mismanaging the temple affairs and corrective steps need to be taken. The making of an inventory of the temple wealth is the first step in that direction.
The process of making an inventory is a long drawn one as all the wealth is yet to be taken out of some unopened vaults. It may take a couple of months. The known wealth so far is indeed staggering. Mounds of pure gold, a nine-foot long golden necklace for the idol, gold coins of all ages and dynasties, precious gems etc have been listed in the inventory being made. There is nothing surprising in what has been taken out of the vaults.
It may be recalled that Sri Padmanabhaswamy, just another name of Sri Vishnu, is the presiding deity of the Royal House of Travancore. Members of the royalty and commoners prayed together in the temple and their faith was unflinching as their prayers never went unheard. Offerings made by the devotees whose prayers were granted poured in like rains in Kerala. No wonder the Padmanabhaswamy temple has surpassed even the Tirupati temple of Tirumalai hills in Andhra Pradesh in the ownership of gold and other forms of wealth.
It is a piece of welcome news that the Chief Minister of Kerala has made it known that it is the Temple Trust alone that is empowered to manage the temple including the new-found wealth. The state government has no locus standi in the matter and as such has no intention of meddling into the temple administration. The Supreme Court will hear the case only after all the wealth, moveable and immoveable properties have been accounted for.
Legal Angle
Generally the intellectual men and women get involved into academic discussions on the issue of ownership of wealth, state of expenditure and who the beneficiaries of new-found wealth should be. One school of thought believes that the Temple Trust is the sole agency to manage the temple affairs and no one else, not even the state government, has any right to poke its nose there.
Answering the question of ownership of all properties and wealth, this school relies on law of the land which says that the Deity in a temple is a legal person and, therefore, is entitled to own, manage or dispose of its property in the best interests of the temple. Since the view of this school is backed by law of the land, it has gained popular support and is flourishing.
There is another school of thought that believes that what has been dug out of vaults will be subject to the law that lays that it should be surrendered to the government for such disposal as it deems fit. Since this view is diametrically opposed to the view of the Temple Trust and also goes against the grain of common man’s faith and belief, it may have to be abandoned.
Moreover, what is the property of a Hindu temple that should be managed by the Hindu temple itself. Is there government interference in the management of a church, a mosque or a synagogue? The answer is no. Since that is the case, the Hindu Temples should not be singled out for interference by the government in the name of improving management.
There is a general perception that the money or gold or jewels donated by Hindu devotees to a Hindu temple should not be spent on the welfare of a Christian or a Muslim individual or institution. Doing so would amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul. Such an act or omission will violate the law of the land and be absolutely unconstitutional. In a secular country, the government cannot take away wealth from a Hindu temple and spend it on renovation of a church or a mosque.
The concern is how can it be done in the name of doing welfare of minorities. Has any part of charity money received from the Pope of Rome been spent on the welfare activities of the Hindu community? Has the aid given by Saudi Arabia for Muslim Madarsas spent on any Hindu Sanskrit Pathshala? The answer is No.
In view of the foregoing, any sinister plan to take away the new-found gold of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple to be spent on the so-called welfare work for all citizens would be violative of the principle of secularism and would, therefore, be unconstitutional.
Only devout Hindus have a right to speak on the temple wealth
By Pushpanjali
SRI Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala is among the oldest and most respected temples of the known world. The rich and the poor pray there and ask for a boon or blessing for self and society. Indeed the biggest batch of temple priests that graduated after rigorous training is from Kerala, God’s own country.
A temple relics on the gold reserve kept in the underground vaults that are untouched by human hands for centuries when it run short of cash.
Sri Padmanabha temple in Thiruvananthpuram is one such example.There are many legends attached to the origin of the temple. It is commonly believed that the deity is Swayambhu (self manifested) the city gained its name from the temple. Built by kings of the Travancore State, the temple had large endowments of cash and immoveable property donated in reverence by the royal family. In due course a trust was formed for management when the state acceded to the Union of India in 1947. Most of the trustees were from the royal family and they continue to be there.
The present wealth of the temple is a result of growth over many centuries. Of course, most of the donations to the temple were from the Royal House of Travancore followed by His Highness of Cochin, other royal houses of the South as well as the North; not forgetting the common man who came from all over the country, all over South-East Asia, Bali, Fiji, Mauritius and so on.
In this temple worshippers are required to wear unstitched clothes, that is a dhoti and a shawl or a plain wrapper. Only men and women professing Vedic Dharma or only the Hindus are permitted to enter the precincts of the holy place.
It goes to prove that the offerings are from the Hindus only and, therefore, only Hindus should have a say in the management of the temple, including the new-found riches. No government should usurp the rights of the temple trust and thrust atheists or non-Hindus into the management.
Root of the problem
The unbelievable wealth, quantum of gold, jewellery, gems and other valuables came to light when the Supreme Court passed an order to open the underground vaults where no human have visited since more than a century and a half, to take stock of the moveable and immoveable property of the temple. This order was passed on a petition of a Hindu citizen alleging that the temple trust was mismanaging the temple affairs and corrective steps need to be taken. The making of an inventory of the temple wealth is the first step in that direction.
The process of making an inventory is a long drawn one as all the wealth is yet to be taken out of some unopened vaults. It may take a couple of months. The known wealth so far is indeed staggering. Mounds of pure gold, a nine-foot long golden necklace for the idol, gold coins of all ages and dynasties, precious gems etc have been listed in the inventory being made. There is nothing surprising in what has been taken out of the vaults.
It may be recalled that Sri Padmanabhaswamy, just another name of Sri Vishnu, is the presiding deity of the Royal House of Travancore. Members of the royalty and commoners prayed together in the temple and their faith was unflinching as their prayers never went unheard. Offerings made by the devotees whose prayers were granted poured in like rains in Kerala. No wonder the Padmanabhaswamy temple has surpassed even the Tirupati temple of Tirumalai hills in Andhra Pradesh in the ownership of gold and other forms of wealth.
It is a piece of welcome news that the Chief Minister of Kerala has made it known that it is the Temple Trust alone that is empowered to manage the temple including the new-found wealth. The state government has no locus standi in the matter and as such has no intention of meddling into the temple administration. The Supreme Court will hear the case only after all the wealth, moveable and immoveable properties have been accounted for.
Legal Angle
Generally the intellectual men and women get involved into academic discussions on the issue of ownership of wealth, state of expenditure and who the beneficiaries of new-found wealth should be. One school of thought believes that the Temple Trust is the sole agency to manage the temple affairs and no one else, not even the state government, has any right to poke its nose there.
Answering the question of ownership of all properties and wealth, this school relies on law of the land which says that the Deity in a temple is a legal person and, therefore, is entitled to own, manage or dispose of its property in the best interests of the temple. Since the view of this school is backed by law of the land, it has gained popular support and is flourishing.
There is another school of thought that believes that what has been dug out of vaults will be subject to the law that lays that it should be surrendered to the government for such disposal as it deems fit. Since this view is diametrically opposed to the view of the Temple Trust and also goes against the grain of common man’s faith and belief, it may have to be abandoned.
Moreover, what is the property of a Hindu temple that should be managed by the Hindu temple itself. Is there government interference in the management of a church, a mosque or a synagogue? The answer is no. Since that is the case, the Hindu Temples should not be singled out for interference by the government in the name of improving management.
There is a general perception that the money or gold or jewels donated by Hindu devotees to a Hindu temple should not be spent on the welfare of a Christian or a Muslim individual or institution. Doing so would amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul. Such an act or omission will violate the law of the land and be absolutely unconstitutional. In a secular country, the government cannot take away wealth from a Hindu temple and spend it on renovation of a church or a mosque.
The concern is how can it be done in the name of doing welfare of minorities. Has any part of charity money received from the Pope of Rome been spent on the welfare activities of the Hindu community? Has the aid given by Saudi Arabia for Muslim Madarsas spent on any Hindu Sanskrit Pathshala? The answer is No.
In view of the foregoing, any sinister plan to take away the new-found gold of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple to be spent on the so-called welfare work for all citizens would be violative of the principle of secularism and would, therefore, be unconstitutional.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
National conference on Sanskrit literature
Sanskrit literature as guide to natural disasters
By Ravindra Saini
UTTARANCHAL Sanskrit Academy organised a three-day national conference on ‘Solution to natural disasters as mentioned in Sanskrit literature’ in Haridwar. The conference concluded on May 29. According to Secretary of the Sanskrit Academy Dr Buddha Dev Sharma eminent Sanskrit scholars from Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh attended the conference.
Some eminent scholars also presented research papers, which will soon be published in a book form. The research papers will also be sent to Government of India. On May 27, a total of 19 research papers were presented. Similarly, on May 28 and 29, a total of 47 papers were presented. It was first of its kind conference in the country.
Speaking at the Conference Dr Buddha Dev Sharma said Nature is our mother and we have to respect her accordingly. “She gives us everything to survive. When she is over-exploited, the natural calamities occure. The Vedas and Puranas contain many solutions to natural disasters but unfortunately the world is still ignorant of them. Now the Sanskrit Academy has decided to bring them into light for the welfare of the entire world,” he said.
Presiding over the conference, Acharya Balkrishan of Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar said the world is facing many natural disasters because of the negligence to Sanskrit. He said the Sanskrit literature clearly describes the importance of Nature and it is well mentioned that animals, birds and even plants and trees forecast the weather. That is why even today people believe that ants, frogs forecast the weather.
National general secretary of Samskrit Bharati Shri Chamukrishna Shastri appealed to the Sanskrit scholars to contribute in the propagation of Sanskrit and also promote researches.
Vice Chancellor of Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Sanskrit University, Rajasthan, Prof Ramanuj Devnathan said there is detailed description in Sanskrit literature how to save the world from natural disasters and how we should behave with Nature and how we should maintain a balance between needs and greeds. He said in ancient time, there was a custom of performing panchangvachan activity on first day of every New Year. It was performed with a view to protect and save the world from natural disaster.
Prof Vinay Kumar Pathak, Vice Chancellor of Uttarakhand Open University, said Sanskrit is not only a language, but is the base of life force and lifestyle. He said in spite of being ancient, the Sanskrit literature is highly scientific and most modern.
Eminent scholar Acharya Buddhivallabh Shastri said natural disasters cannot be controlled unless Nature is worshipped as Goddess. The concept behind the worship of Nature is only to protect the world from natural disasters.
Dr Prem Shankar Pandey and Dr Kanhaiya Lal Parashar pointed out that eight ways have been suggested in Matasya Purana to prevent natural disasters. Dr Dhruvapati Pandya said natural disasters occur due to men’s disturbing of five elements of nature — earth, water, air, sky, fire, and protection of these five elements is a must to save the world from disasters.
Shankaracharya Shri Rajrajeshwarashram Maharaj said natural disasters are the result of the sins committed by human beings. He said if mind, action and words are directed to righteous point, there cannot occur natural disasters. Vice Chancellor of Uttarakhand Ayurvedic University Prof Satyendra Mishra, Dr Premchand Shastri, Prof Mahavir Aggarwal, director of Uttarakhand Language Institute, Dr Savita Mohan, Prof Mohan Chandra Balodi, Shri Kanta Prasad Badola, Dr Devi Prasad Uniyal, Dr Harish Gurani, Shri Brahmanand Bidaliya, Dr Yogesh Mishra, Dr DN Sharma, Shri Ratnesh Singh, Dr Om Prakash Bhatt, Shri Narendra Pandey and Smt Manjula Bist were among the prominent Sanskrit scholars who were present at the conference. Prof Manudev Bandhu, Prof Jaidatt Upreti, Prof Gyan Prakash Shastri, Dr Arvind Narayan Mishra, Dr Prakash Pant and Dr DSR Linga Reddy presented papers on the Vedas, Vedang, Jyotish, Ayurveda, Purana, etc.
Describing Sanskrit as a scientific language former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Shri Bhagat Singh Koshiyari praised the Uttarakhand government for making Sanskrit the second official language. Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Shri Harbans Kapoor also spoke on the occasion.
By Ravindra Saini
UTTARANCHAL Sanskrit Academy organised a three-day national conference on ‘Solution to natural disasters as mentioned in Sanskrit literature’ in Haridwar. The conference concluded on May 29. According to Secretary of the Sanskrit Academy Dr Buddha Dev Sharma eminent Sanskrit scholars from Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh attended the conference.
Some eminent scholars also presented research papers, which will soon be published in a book form. The research papers will also be sent to Government of India. On May 27, a total of 19 research papers were presented. Similarly, on May 28 and 29, a total of 47 papers were presented. It was first of its kind conference in the country.
Speaking at the Conference Dr Buddha Dev Sharma said Nature is our mother and we have to respect her accordingly. “She gives us everything to survive. When she is over-exploited, the natural calamities occure. The Vedas and Puranas contain many solutions to natural disasters but unfortunately the world is still ignorant of them. Now the Sanskrit Academy has decided to bring them into light for the welfare of the entire world,” he said.
Presiding over the conference, Acharya Balkrishan of Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar said the world is facing many natural disasters because of the negligence to Sanskrit. He said the Sanskrit literature clearly describes the importance of Nature and it is well mentioned that animals, birds and even plants and trees forecast the weather. That is why even today people believe that ants, frogs forecast the weather.
National general secretary of Samskrit Bharati Shri Chamukrishna Shastri appealed to the Sanskrit scholars to contribute in the propagation of Sanskrit and also promote researches.
Vice Chancellor of Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Sanskrit University, Rajasthan, Prof Ramanuj Devnathan said there is detailed description in Sanskrit literature how to save the world from natural disasters and how we should behave with Nature and how we should maintain a balance between needs and greeds. He said in ancient time, there was a custom of performing panchangvachan activity on first day of every New Year. It was performed with a view to protect and save the world from natural disaster.
Prof Vinay Kumar Pathak, Vice Chancellor of Uttarakhand Open University, said Sanskrit is not only a language, but is the base of life force and lifestyle. He said in spite of being ancient, the Sanskrit literature is highly scientific and most modern.
Eminent scholar Acharya Buddhivallabh Shastri said natural disasters cannot be controlled unless Nature is worshipped as Goddess. The concept behind the worship of Nature is only to protect the world from natural disasters.
Dr Prem Shankar Pandey and Dr Kanhaiya Lal Parashar pointed out that eight ways have been suggested in Matasya Purana to prevent natural disasters. Dr Dhruvapati Pandya said natural disasters occur due to men’s disturbing of five elements of nature — earth, water, air, sky, fire, and protection of these five elements is a must to save the world from disasters.
Shankaracharya Shri Rajrajeshwarashram Maharaj said natural disasters are the result of the sins committed by human beings. He said if mind, action and words are directed to righteous point, there cannot occur natural disasters. Vice Chancellor of Uttarakhand Ayurvedic University Prof Satyendra Mishra, Dr Premchand Shastri, Prof Mahavir Aggarwal, director of Uttarakhand Language Institute, Dr Savita Mohan, Prof Mohan Chandra Balodi, Shri Kanta Prasad Badola, Dr Devi Prasad Uniyal, Dr Harish Gurani, Shri Brahmanand Bidaliya, Dr Yogesh Mishra, Dr DN Sharma, Shri Ratnesh Singh, Dr Om Prakash Bhatt, Shri Narendra Pandey and Smt Manjula Bist were among the prominent Sanskrit scholars who were present at the conference. Prof Manudev Bandhu, Prof Jaidatt Upreti, Prof Gyan Prakash Shastri, Dr Arvind Narayan Mishra, Dr Prakash Pant and Dr DSR Linga Reddy presented papers on the Vedas, Vedang, Jyotish, Ayurveda, Purana, etc.
Describing Sanskrit as a scientific language former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Shri Bhagat Singh Koshiyari praised the Uttarakhand government for making Sanskrit the second official language. Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Shri Harbans Kapoor also spoke on the occasion.
China history
History, a propellant in China’s spurt
Revenge for past humiliations as a driver of national assertion
By Dr R Balashankar
The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914, Robert Bickers, Allen Lane, Penguin Books Ltd, Pp 496 (HB), £30.00.
MUCH of Asia was under colonial rule during the late 19th and early 20th century with Britain dominating the global scene. South and South East Asia were under direct rule of the Crown. Japan had broken from the shackles of the foreign manoeuvers and raised the call ‘Asia for Asians.’ But China, up to the first quarter of the 20th century was in the stranglehold of a combination of foreign forces, mainly the British, French, Dutch, Russian and of course Japanese. It was a semi-colonial state. Each of these countries had forced humiliating treaties on China, wrenching the last drop of blood from it. Adding to the mayhem was the brisk soul harvesting business of the evangelists, under complete protection and encouragement from their respective countries.
Understanding China’s urgency and determination to dominate the world today starts here. The people’s revolution, hugely aided by the defeat and obliteration of Japan in World War II, helped China emerge on her own. Robert Bickers in his latest book The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 traces the events of that nation to bring us to where we are today, rather where China is today, vis-à-vis the world, especially the West. Says he, the preamble of the Chinese constitution outlines the vision of a country “reduced gradually to a state of what was termed ‘semi-colonial’ weakness from which it was saved by the Chinese people who overthrew imperialism and its Chinese allies ‘through hard, protracted and tortuous struggle, armed and otherwise’. “The memory of the era of National Humiliation is embedded then in the state’s very articulation of itself, and its raison d’être.”
British, the incorrigible traders they were, wanted China to be opened to sell something, anything, to ‘compensate’ for the tea, silk and porcelain being bought from China. India, the state under their thumb was being used for growing opium, it was close to China, so the obvious item for sale was opium. Forcing open China, Britain set up a ‘triangular’ business arrangement, from which it alone benefitted. “A classic triangular trade had developed, with Indian fortunes flowing to the British isles via China… the company sold opium to the country traders, who shipped it east. The cash they realized was converted into Company bills payable in London or Calcutta, while the Company bought tea (and alone could do so), shipping it back to Britain.”
China resisted foreigners. They were restricted to port areas and it was forbidden to teach Chinese to any foreigner. Chinese violating it earned capital punishment. But all this changed with the forceful entry of the combined forces of the West. Describing a battle of 1842, Bickers says the British troops captured Shanghai. “Their troops lodged themselves in the City God temple, looted pawnshops, dressed themselves in the gorgeous fineries they found in them, and burned Shanghai libraries in their cooking fires or used them as toilet paper.” The Manchu troops fought stubbornly and “surprisingly hard” without surrendering. Worse is to come. “The suburb burned; the pretty city was ‘a monument of death and desolation.’ The slaughter and self-slaughter sickened the British on the spot (and garnered a wretched press back home — ‘Women and children in dozens hanging from beams,’ one reported, ‘or lying on the ground with their throats cut, or drowned in deep wells.” When the war ended the soldiers were relieved that now, at least they did not have to slaughter ‘crowds of pig-tailed animals.’
While the foreign troops were battling in this grossly unequal fight, the missionaries were including their right to preach, propagate and convert people into Christianity in all the treaties signed. The Church was allowed to own property and build churches. “The one outstanding feature of the French and American treaties was that the French secured a commitment to re-legalize Christianity in China (Catholicism in practice), which had been proscribed in 1724, and assumed for themselves the mantle of responsibility for Chinese Catholics.” Bickers adds “Thus from the start, the ‘opening’ of China was quickly about very much more than simple free trade. The Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, and its printing press, were swiftly transplanted to the new colony by the London Missionary Society (LMS), now able to train Chinese converts on China’s doorstep.”
The missionaries got early success, when one Hong Xiuquan, a half-baked convert managed to get a following in thousands. But the victory soon turned sour because he was on his way to establish his own rule, offering a colloidal mix of Chinese and Christianity. Soon the foreigners withdrew their backing to him, to bring back the much-discredited Manchu rulers who were much more ‘obedient’ and amenable.
The Chinese saw increasing number of missionaries pouring into their country and fanning out. They started off with social service, health care. A sample modus operandi went like this. In Peking the missionaries “rented a part of a Buddhist temple on a very thoroughfare. They had the gods removed under cover of night, to the consternation of the local residents, but it was smugly reported, with no signs of visible harm.” The evangelists who got carried away with medical work were chastised for paying more attention to health than on conversions.
But the Chinese society was restive. There were all kinds of stories about the demonic deeds of the missionaries. Rumours were flying thick and high that the foreigners kidnapped children to eat their heart and suck their souls. The missionaries were using a ‘red powder’ to stupefy the children to take them to the church, it was said.
Other social tensions were building up. Those who converted, almost 100 per cent for economic benefits suddenly became powerful in the local communities, jeopardising the social order. They tended to ignore the local customs like respecting the elders and worshipping the ancestors and local celebrations. Christianity destabilised villages. “A marginal group could find itself greatly enhanced in status… the Christians would refuse to pay temple or opera dues damaging the fabric of local society, imperiling the common good, and insulting the gods…” The Chinese preachers were often heard as saying that it was definitely cheaper to be a Christian. India still witnesses such trends in the hotbed of conversions like Jharkhand and Orissa, Kandamal being a case in point.
The tide of resentment finally broke out of control and resulted in the Boxer rebellion (1900), in which thousands of foreigners were butchered, before the rebellion was quelled. Says Bickers “The missionaries knew it was coming. Of course, they always half expected martyrdom, and half wanted it, for the blood of martyrs sanctified the mission soil. More immediately, they expected it because they had faced some years now of opposition, opposition that was turning from sullen disbelief at the weirdness of Christianity, so at variance in its practices to civilized norms, to overt, violent hostility.”
The missionaries’ work was not unopposed. In 1860, the Duke of Somerset said speaking in the House of Lords, ‘The fact is we are propagating Christianity with gunboats. What right do we have to send missionaries to the interior of China, and who were these people?’ The Times called the missionaries ‘commonplace persons, not very well-educated, not quite gentlemen… they are impudent’ they have ‘gone out with not much learning and still less knowledge of mankind.’ “The missionaries were furious; furious with Somerset, who blamed the LMS above all…”
Robert Bickers says “Christianity, as we have seen, was not abstract belief, but practical local politics and local change. It had given converts a type of invulnerability, a seeming freedom from orthodox control and licence to subvert the law. In property and resource disputes they had secured mission support and so through them diplomatic representations to the Zongli Yamen over this local dispute and that one.” Well, China went through this nearly a century ago. India continues to be a huge recruitment ground for Christianity, using the same techniques.
If Boxer rebellion was harsh, the West retaliation was unspeakably cruel. According to a description in the book, the marching troops killed Chinese. “Chinese corps filled the river. In the aftermath of the relief of the siege, allied soldiers shot and bayoneted house servants as they searched for drink and loot.” On July 2, (1900), thousands of Chinese and Manchu residents of the Russian city – servants, traders, labourers, men, women and children – were systematically herded into the river (Amur river in Blagoveshchensk), and those who were not drowned were shot or hacked to death.” The river was reported to be thick with mangled corpses even weeks later.
The sad part of the story is the China, then, had no friends. All the Western nations and her neighbours Japan and Russia joined together in the massacre. India of course was in no condition to help, held as she was under the British rule, not even a sovereign state. When the rebellion was put down, leaving the soil drenched with blood, the perpetrators of crime cried foul for being victims of the Boxer fighters. A new round of treaty with even more stringent penalty and privilege was thrust on the nation.
The Scramble for China gives nearly a blow by blow account of the travails that the country underwent before it emerged to take hold of itself. In the early 20th century it was very much believed that China would be geographically apportioned, like Africa, among the Western powers, in alliance with Russia and Japan, who were both eyeing the rich Chinese territories. But China survived as one.
And it remembers the past. There is a six-volume compilation of atrocities and unequal treaties thrust on it. Places where hard battles were fought are marked and this history is taught. It is this collective conscience of China that is today propelling it to newer and greater achievements in all spheres. Unless we understand China’s history we cannot understand its resurgence now. And in that Bickers book is an excellent help. Unbiased, in a reporting style, the book is sheer history, leaving the reader to judge for him/her self. And the history is poignant. Robert Bickers is professor of History at the University of Bristol and a celebrated author. The narration is embellished with colour plates and maps and rich notes.
(Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R, ORI, England)
Revenge for past humiliations as a driver of national assertion
By Dr R Balashankar
The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914, Robert Bickers, Allen Lane, Penguin Books Ltd, Pp 496 (HB), £30.00.
MUCH of Asia was under colonial rule during the late 19th and early 20th century with Britain dominating the global scene. South and South East Asia were under direct rule of the Crown. Japan had broken from the shackles of the foreign manoeuvers and raised the call ‘Asia for Asians.’ But China, up to the first quarter of the 20th century was in the stranglehold of a combination of foreign forces, mainly the British, French, Dutch, Russian and of course Japanese. It was a semi-colonial state. Each of these countries had forced humiliating treaties on China, wrenching the last drop of blood from it. Adding to the mayhem was the brisk soul harvesting business of the evangelists, under complete protection and encouragement from their respective countries.
Understanding China’s urgency and determination to dominate the world today starts here. The people’s revolution, hugely aided by the defeat and obliteration of Japan in World War II, helped China emerge on her own. Robert Bickers in his latest book The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 traces the events of that nation to bring us to where we are today, rather where China is today, vis-à-vis the world, especially the West. Says he, the preamble of the Chinese constitution outlines the vision of a country “reduced gradually to a state of what was termed ‘semi-colonial’ weakness from which it was saved by the Chinese people who overthrew imperialism and its Chinese allies ‘through hard, protracted and tortuous struggle, armed and otherwise’. “The memory of the era of National Humiliation is embedded then in the state’s very articulation of itself, and its raison d’être.”
British, the incorrigible traders they were, wanted China to be opened to sell something, anything, to ‘compensate’ for the tea, silk and porcelain being bought from China. India, the state under their thumb was being used for growing opium, it was close to China, so the obvious item for sale was opium. Forcing open China, Britain set up a ‘triangular’ business arrangement, from which it alone benefitted. “A classic triangular trade had developed, with Indian fortunes flowing to the British isles via China… the company sold opium to the country traders, who shipped it east. The cash they realized was converted into Company bills payable in London or Calcutta, while the Company bought tea (and alone could do so), shipping it back to Britain.”
China resisted foreigners. They were restricted to port areas and it was forbidden to teach Chinese to any foreigner. Chinese violating it earned capital punishment. But all this changed with the forceful entry of the combined forces of the West. Describing a battle of 1842, Bickers says the British troops captured Shanghai. “Their troops lodged themselves in the City God temple, looted pawnshops, dressed themselves in the gorgeous fineries they found in them, and burned Shanghai libraries in their cooking fires or used them as toilet paper.” The Manchu troops fought stubbornly and “surprisingly hard” without surrendering. Worse is to come. “The suburb burned; the pretty city was ‘a monument of death and desolation.’ The slaughter and self-slaughter sickened the British on the spot (and garnered a wretched press back home — ‘Women and children in dozens hanging from beams,’ one reported, ‘or lying on the ground with their throats cut, or drowned in deep wells.” When the war ended the soldiers were relieved that now, at least they did not have to slaughter ‘crowds of pig-tailed animals.’
While the foreign troops were battling in this grossly unequal fight, the missionaries were including their right to preach, propagate and convert people into Christianity in all the treaties signed. The Church was allowed to own property and build churches. “The one outstanding feature of the French and American treaties was that the French secured a commitment to re-legalize Christianity in China (Catholicism in practice), which had been proscribed in 1724, and assumed for themselves the mantle of responsibility for Chinese Catholics.” Bickers adds “Thus from the start, the ‘opening’ of China was quickly about very much more than simple free trade. The Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, and its printing press, were swiftly transplanted to the new colony by the London Missionary Society (LMS), now able to train Chinese converts on China’s doorstep.”
The missionaries got early success, when one Hong Xiuquan, a half-baked convert managed to get a following in thousands. But the victory soon turned sour because he was on his way to establish his own rule, offering a colloidal mix of Chinese and Christianity. Soon the foreigners withdrew their backing to him, to bring back the much-discredited Manchu rulers who were much more ‘obedient’ and amenable.
The Chinese saw increasing number of missionaries pouring into their country and fanning out. They started off with social service, health care. A sample modus operandi went like this. In Peking the missionaries “rented a part of a Buddhist temple on a very thoroughfare. They had the gods removed under cover of night, to the consternation of the local residents, but it was smugly reported, with no signs of visible harm.” The evangelists who got carried away with medical work were chastised for paying more attention to health than on conversions.
But the Chinese society was restive. There were all kinds of stories about the demonic deeds of the missionaries. Rumours were flying thick and high that the foreigners kidnapped children to eat their heart and suck their souls. The missionaries were using a ‘red powder’ to stupefy the children to take them to the church, it was said.
Other social tensions were building up. Those who converted, almost 100 per cent for economic benefits suddenly became powerful in the local communities, jeopardising the social order. They tended to ignore the local customs like respecting the elders and worshipping the ancestors and local celebrations. Christianity destabilised villages. “A marginal group could find itself greatly enhanced in status… the Christians would refuse to pay temple or opera dues damaging the fabric of local society, imperiling the common good, and insulting the gods…” The Chinese preachers were often heard as saying that it was definitely cheaper to be a Christian. India still witnesses such trends in the hotbed of conversions like Jharkhand and Orissa, Kandamal being a case in point.
The tide of resentment finally broke out of control and resulted in the Boxer rebellion (1900), in which thousands of foreigners were butchered, before the rebellion was quelled. Says Bickers “The missionaries knew it was coming. Of course, they always half expected martyrdom, and half wanted it, for the blood of martyrs sanctified the mission soil. More immediately, they expected it because they had faced some years now of opposition, opposition that was turning from sullen disbelief at the weirdness of Christianity, so at variance in its practices to civilized norms, to overt, violent hostility.”
The missionaries’ work was not unopposed. In 1860, the Duke of Somerset said speaking in the House of Lords, ‘The fact is we are propagating Christianity with gunboats. What right do we have to send missionaries to the interior of China, and who were these people?’ The Times called the missionaries ‘commonplace persons, not very well-educated, not quite gentlemen… they are impudent’ they have ‘gone out with not much learning and still less knowledge of mankind.’ “The missionaries were furious; furious with Somerset, who blamed the LMS above all…”
Robert Bickers says “Christianity, as we have seen, was not abstract belief, but practical local politics and local change. It had given converts a type of invulnerability, a seeming freedom from orthodox control and licence to subvert the law. In property and resource disputes they had secured mission support and so through them diplomatic representations to the Zongli Yamen over this local dispute and that one.” Well, China went through this nearly a century ago. India continues to be a huge recruitment ground for Christianity, using the same techniques.
If Boxer rebellion was harsh, the West retaliation was unspeakably cruel. According to a description in the book, the marching troops killed Chinese. “Chinese corps filled the river. In the aftermath of the relief of the siege, allied soldiers shot and bayoneted house servants as they searched for drink and loot.” On July 2, (1900), thousands of Chinese and Manchu residents of the Russian city – servants, traders, labourers, men, women and children – were systematically herded into the river (Amur river in Blagoveshchensk), and those who were not drowned were shot or hacked to death.” The river was reported to be thick with mangled corpses even weeks later.
The sad part of the story is the China, then, had no friends. All the Western nations and her neighbours Japan and Russia joined together in the massacre. India of course was in no condition to help, held as she was under the British rule, not even a sovereign state. When the rebellion was put down, leaving the soil drenched with blood, the perpetrators of crime cried foul for being victims of the Boxer fighters. A new round of treaty with even more stringent penalty and privilege was thrust on the nation.
The Scramble for China gives nearly a blow by blow account of the travails that the country underwent before it emerged to take hold of itself. In the early 20th century it was very much believed that China would be geographically apportioned, like Africa, among the Western powers, in alliance with Russia and Japan, who were both eyeing the rich Chinese territories. But China survived as one.
And it remembers the past. There is a six-volume compilation of atrocities and unequal treaties thrust on it. Places where hard battles were fought are marked and this history is taught. It is this collective conscience of China that is today propelling it to newer and greater achievements in all spheres. Unless we understand China’s history we cannot understand its resurgence now. And in that Bickers book is an excellent help. Unbiased, in a reporting style, the book is sheer history, leaving the reader to judge for him/her self. And the history is poignant. Robert Bickers is professor of History at the University of Bristol and a celebrated author. The narration is embellished with colour plates and maps and rich notes.
(Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R, ORI, England)
UPA sabotages India’s thorium energy quest
By M D Nalapat
THORIUM is found in abundance in India, and has the potential to serve as feedstock for an ambitious nuclear power programme that can lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. At least 225,000 tonnes of thorium exist in India, much more than the estimated 60,000 tonnes of natural uranium.
Over the past decades, despite severe international sanctions led by the US and China, Indian nuclear scientists such as Dr P K Iyengar and Dr Anil Kakodkar have ensured that this country secures the capability of becoming a major player in the energy market, provided that the Three Stage Programme devised by Homi Jehangir Bhabha in the 1960s gets implemented. However, over the past four years, the UPA has quietly sought to abandon the Three Stage Programme in favour of a massive programme of purchasing foreign reactors that give zero benefit to local technology and very little to local industry.
Interestingly, each time an effort is made to recover sufficient uranium for the nuclear industry, a slew of NGOs emerge that block mining. Although the Manmohan Singh government has evidence that many of these are funded by interests hostile to the indigenous nuclear industry, yet—clearly under pressure from 10 Janpath—it has succumbed to blackmail and refused to mine uranium, especially in Meghalaya. As a result, the PHWR reactors of the Department of Atomic Energy have for long been forced to operate at below 70 per cent of capacity, thereby depriving the country of energy.
Sadly, since 2001, the establishment in India has slowed down the Indian reprocessing programme, the result being that vast pools of irradiated natural uranium have built up,that are a safety hazard and which—once processed—can serve as feedstock for a nuclear energy programme. Because of a tendency of successive governments to succumb to US-China pressure, the Fast Breeder reactor has not yet been fully operationalised, mainly because of lack of fuel. Incidentally, the US, China and the EU are using every means of pressure at their disposal to prevent India from mastering the Fast Breeder Reactor technology, because they know that once such a Rubicon gets passed, India would become one of the key countries in international nuclear commerce. What is a mystery is why governmernts in India have agreed to such anti-Indian diktats for so long, and now appear poised to even scrap the Three Stage Programme altogether.
For the past fifteen years, the Department of Atomic Energy has been working on Advanced Heavy Water Reactors(AHWR) and Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR), both being thorium-based. Once these get operationalised, the country would be able to do without costly imports of nuclear plants as well as petro-product feedstock. Of course, this would cut into several Swiss bank accounts held by VVIPs in India, which is why the indigenous AWHR and CHTR programmes are being sabotaged by the Sonia-led UPA.
Recent articles in the media have appeared, proclaiming that the AHWR has undergone design changes “to increase proliferation resistance, safety and security”. This change in design is represented as a safety response to the Fukushima disasters. Left unstated in these deliberately misleading accounts is the fact that this significant modification of the AHWR actually amounts to a paradigm shift for the DEA in that it represents the first concerted move away from Homi Jehangir Bhabha’s brilliant three stage programme for thorium utilisation—a pillar on which the entire atomic energy programme of the country was created. The move away from India’s unique three stage programme is to stealthily satisfy externally imposed “non-proliferation” goals on a country which has emerged as a major nuclear power in the face of vicious, arbitrary and unjust sanctions imposed by the US, China and the EU since the 1970s.
It will be recalled that the original stated aim of the AHWR (Advanced Heavy Water Reactor) was to operationalise the closed Th-U-233 cycle on a commercial scale, with its very attractive passive safety features. The original plan was to master the closed fuel cycle with the use of a Plutonium-Thorium (Pu-Th) fuel combination, and convert thorium to uranium-233 as a crucial step for this “technology demonstrator”. These plans had been reviewed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) as part of the domestic programme to expand India’s experience with thorium and U-233 believed to be a necessary stepping stone for future stages. While some plutonium would always be required in the fissile feed, U-233 can be separated and reused (thus “closing” the fuel cycle) provided the country is ready to assert its independence and embark on the required R&D for fuel reprocessing (possibly even three way reprocessing) and fuel fabrication involving sophisticated remote handling. Indeed, India would take the lead in safer, closed Th-fuel cycle technology in a new generation of reactors for which indigenous fuel is abundant.
Unfortunately, as these technologies continue to be vigorously denied to India by the US, France and Medvedev’s Russia, despite the UPA’s frequent proclamations to the contrary, the Sonia-led government has meekly opted out of the race, some six decades after the blueprint was first proposed. A race that was run with distinction under the grandfather-in-law, mother-in-law and husband of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. What is noteworthy is the surreptitious manner in which the end-game of sabotaging indigenous nuclear technology is being pursued. The surreptitious steps taken by the UPA since 2008 will have the effect of denying India the immense energy benefits of its huge reserves of thorium.
In a turn-around that raises more questions than it answers, a new fissile fuel combination for the AHWR involving 20 per cent Low Enriched Uranium (LEU)—Thorium fuel instead of Plutonium—Thorium has been proposed as a safe, proliferation resistant alternative. That this is being done to the exclusion of a parallel fissile fuel combination more appropriate as a “technology demonstrator” and an eventual thorium-based technology has extremely far reaching consequences. The least of these is that India will become a non weapons state despite having a separation plan, in that it will cease to be able to rely on its own technologies and—in future—feedstock
It needs to be noted that the proposed (light enriched uranium) LEU—Th fuel will show only a MOX (mixed oxide, Th-20 per cent LEU) fuel fabrication capability which does not fall under the definition of a “technology demonstrator” for the three stage programme and has ability to ensure that we achieve the future stages.
Secondly, since India has limited supplies of Uranium, it is likely that all LEU for commercial reactors will be imported under comprehensive safeguards. Indeed, the DAE has gone on record to state that “we will be using 20 per cent low enriched uranium (safeguarded or imported) and 80 per cent of Thorium for the conversion to U233 as planned for India’s third stage programme of thorium utilisation”. The statement seems self-contradictory. Safeguarded fuel cannot be re-cycled in India and it will not be possible to separate U-233 from spent LEU let alone providing a stepping stone to the third stage when the “technology demonstrator” itself will not see the light of day. Even if this were possible, it is patently unrealistic to suggest that the processed derivatives of safeguarded fuel, including thorium oxide, could be stored for future use in unsafeguarded facilities such as those developed to realise the three stage programme.
Furthermore, this change in technique implies that the fuel cycle will be “once through” (rather than “closed”) as is the case with reactor technology of a by-gone era. And the hazards associated with storing increasing quantities of spent fuel were well known even in the last century. This assumes significance as we are promised the widespread deployment of AHWRs to suit non-proliferation objectives. How such an accumulation of spent fuel is compatible with such an objective is a question that does not seem to have been asked by a UPA in a healong rush to put paid to the indigenous three-stage programme nurtured under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but which is being shelved under Sonia Maino?
Even as the “technology demonstrator” (which in time is expected to become a fully viable technology) is relegated to the dust bin while the establishment pats itself on the back for responding in a “mature” manner to proliferation resistant objectives, a more insidious but equally disastrous outcome appears to have been ignored or overlooked.
One reason for the separation plan was to ensure that indigenous science and technology stayed safe from prying eyes and was allowed to develop without external interference and endless bureaucratic tangles. Every technologically advanced country still pursues this path and there is no reason why India as a sovereign nation, should not. It was thus promised that only imported reactors would attract safeguards. Sadly, the confused official position would imply otherwise. If our unique AHWR’s are provided with safeguarded fuel, the entire design, so painstakingly developed under a technology denial regime continuing till today, with its novel passive safety features such as natural circulation for removing the total heat, passive containment isolation, passive ECCS injection etc, will now lie exposed in exquisite detail to technology theft and worse, as a consequence of downstream safeguards.
Despite the many concerns, the new AHWR ground-breaking is expected to start within the next two years and a site has been selected awaiting final approval. As the sun sets on India’s ambitious third stage programme, we are being told that only one PHWR served up to international safeguards as a result of imported LEU fuel will be sufficient for potential technology theft and commercial misuse. As in past eras,will India once again be rendered helpless before strong enemies? Will we forever have to depend on outside feedstock for our energy sources? Will we abandon a three-stage programme that can give the country abundant energy? Instead of sabotaging the vision of Homi Bhabha, the UPA needs to continue with the programme through the ensuring of suitable feedstock for it. After so many decades of resisting pressure from the US and China to disarm, it seems as though this duo are on the cusp of success. We need a full national debate into the UPA acting as Ekalavya, cutting off India’s nuclear thumb to meet the commands of the US and China.
THORIUM is found in abundance in India, and has the potential to serve as feedstock for an ambitious nuclear power programme that can lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. At least 225,000 tonnes of thorium exist in India, much more than the estimated 60,000 tonnes of natural uranium.
Over the past decades, despite severe international sanctions led by the US and China, Indian nuclear scientists such as Dr P K Iyengar and Dr Anil Kakodkar have ensured that this country secures the capability of becoming a major player in the energy market, provided that the Three Stage Programme devised by Homi Jehangir Bhabha in the 1960s gets implemented. However, over the past four years, the UPA has quietly sought to abandon the Three Stage Programme in favour of a massive programme of purchasing foreign reactors that give zero benefit to local technology and very little to local industry.
Interestingly, each time an effort is made to recover sufficient uranium for the nuclear industry, a slew of NGOs emerge that block mining. Although the Manmohan Singh government has evidence that many of these are funded by interests hostile to the indigenous nuclear industry, yet—clearly under pressure from 10 Janpath—it has succumbed to blackmail and refused to mine uranium, especially in Meghalaya. As a result, the PHWR reactors of the Department of Atomic Energy have for long been forced to operate at below 70 per cent of capacity, thereby depriving the country of energy.
Sadly, since 2001, the establishment in India has slowed down the Indian reprocessing programme, the result being that vast pools of irradiated natural uranium have built up,that are a safety hazard and which—once processed—can serve as feedstock for a nuclear energy programme. Because of a tendency of successive governments to succumb to US-China pressure, the Fast Breeder reactor has not yet been fully operationalised, mainly because of lack of fuel. Incidentally, the US, China and the EU are using every means of pressure at their disposal to prevent India from mastering the Fast Breeder Reactor technology, because they know that once such a Rubicon gets passed, India would become one of the key countries in international nuclear commerce. What is a mystery is why governmernts in India have agreed to such anti-Indian diktats for so long, and now appear poised to even scrap the Three Stage Programme altogether.
For the past fifteen years, the Department of Atomic Energy has been working on Advanced Heavy Water Reactors(AHWR) and Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR), both being thorium-based. Once these get operationalised, the country would be able to do without costly imports of nuclear plants as well as petro-product feedstock. Of course, this would cut into several Swiss bank accounts held by VVIPs in India, which is why the indigenous AWHR and CHTR programmes are being sabotaged by the Sonia-led UPA.
Recent articles in the media have appeared, proclaiming that the AHWR has undergone design changes “to increase proliferation resistance, safety and security”. This change in design is represented as a safety response to the Fukushima disasters. Left unstated in these deliberately misleading accounts is the fact that this significant modification of the AHWR actually amounts to a paradigm shift for the DEA in that it represents the first concerted move away from Homi Jehangir Bhabha’s brilliant three stage programme for thorium utilisation—a pillar on which the entire atomic energy programme of the country was created. The move away from India’s unique three stage programme is to stealthily satisfy externally imposed “non-proliferation” goals on a country which has emerged as a major nuclear power in the face of vicious, arbitrary and unjust sanctions imposed by the US, China and the EU since the 1970s.
It will be recalled that the original stated aim of the AHWR (Advanced Heavy Water Reactor) was to operationalise the closed Th-U-233 cycle on a commercial scale, with its very attractive passive safety features. The original plan was to master the closed fuel cycle with the use of a Plutonium-Thorium (Pu-Th) fuel combination, and convert thorium to uranium-233 as a crucial step for this “technology demonstrator”. These plans had been reviewed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) as part of the domestic programme to expand India’s experience with thorium and U-233 believed to be a necessary stepping stone for future stages. While some plutonium would always be required in the fissile feed, U-233 can be separated and reused (thus “closing” the fuel cycle) provided the country is ready to assert its independence and embark on the required R&D for fuel reprocessing (possibly even three way reprocessing) and fuel fabrication involving sophisticated remote handling. Indeed, India would take the lead in safer, closed Th-fuel cycle technology in a new generation of reactors for which indigenous fuel is abundant.
Unfortunately, as these technologies continue to be vigorously denied to India by the US, France and Medvedev’s Russia, despite the UPA’s frequent proclamations to the contrary, the Sonia-led government has meekly opted out of the race, some six decades after the blueprint was first proposed. A race that was run with distinction under the grandfather-in-law, mother-in-law and husband of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. What is noteworthy is the surreptitious manner in which the end-game of sabotaging indigenous nuclear technology is being pursued. The surreptitious steps taken by the UPA since 2008 will have the effect of denying India the immense energy benefits of its huge reserves of thorium.
In a turn-around that raises more questions than it answers, a new fissile fuel combination for the AHWR involving 20 per cent Low Enriched Uranium (LEU)—Thorium fuel instead of Plutonium—Thorium has been proposed as a safe, proliferation resistant alternative. That this is being done to the exclusion of a parallel fissile fuel combination more appropriate as a “technology demonstrator” and an eventual thorium-based technology has extremely far reaching consequences. The least of these is that India will become a non weapons state despite having a separation plan, in that it will cease to be able to rely on its own technologies and—in future—feedstock
It needs to be noted that the proposed (light enriched uranium) LEU—Th fuel will show only a MOX (mixed oxide, Th-20 per cent LEU) fuel fabrication capability which does not fall under the definition of a “technology demonstrator” for the three stage programme and has ability to ensure that we achieve the future stages.
Secondly, since India has limited supplies of Uranium, it is likely that all LEU for commercial reactors will be imported under comprehensive safeguards. Indeed, the DAE has gone on record to state that “we will be using 20 per cent low enriched uranium (safeguarded or imported) and 80 per cent of Thorium for the conversion to U233 as planned for India’s third stage programme of thorium utilisation”. The statement seems self-contradictory. Safeguarded fuel cannot be re-cycled in India and it will not be possible to separate U-233 from spent LEU let alone providing a stepping stone to the third stage when the “technology demonstrator” itself will not see the light of day. Even if this were possible, it is patently unrealistic to suggest that the processed derivatives of safeguarded fuel, including thorium oxide, could be stored for future use in unsafeguarded facilities such as those developed to realise the three stage programme.
Furthermore, this change in technique implies that the fuel cycle will be “once through” (rather than “closed”) as is the case with reactor technology of a by-gone era. And the hazards associated with storing increasing quantities of spent fuel were well known even in the last century. This assumes significance as we are promised the widespread deployment of AHWRs to suit non-proliferation objectives. How such an accumulation of spent fuel is compatible with such an objective is a question that does not seem to have been asked by a UPA in a healong rush to put paid to the indigenous three-stage programme nurtured under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but which is being shelved under Sonia Maino?
Even as the “technology demonstrator” (which in time is expected to become a fully viable technology) is relegated to the dust bin while the establishment pats itself on the back for responding in a “mature” manner to proliferation resistant objectives, a more insidious but equally disastrous outcome appears to have been ignored or overlooked.
One reason for the separation plan was to ensure that indigenous science and technology stayed safe from prying eyes and was allowed to develop without external interference and endless bureaucratic tangles. Every technologically advanced country still pursues this path and there is no reason why India as a sovereign nation, should not. It was thus promised that only imported reactors would attract safeguards. Sadly, the confused official position would imply otherwise. If our unique AHWR’s are provided with safeguarded fuel, the entire design, so painstakingly developed under a technology denial regime continuing till today, with its novel passive safety features such as natural circulation for removing the total heat, passive containment isolation, passive ECCS injection etc, will now lie exposed in exquisite detail to technology theft and worse, as a consequence of downstream safeguards.
Despite the many concerns, the new AHWR ground-breaking is expected to start within the next two years and a site has been selected awaiting final approval. As the sun sets on India’s ambitious third stage programme, we are being told that only one PHWR served up to international safeguards as a result of imported LEU fuel will be sufficient for potential technology theft and commercial misuse. As in past eras,will India once again be rendered helpless before strong enemies? Will we forever have to depend on outside feedstock for our energy sources? Will we abandon a three-stage programme that can give the country abundant energy? Instead of sabotaging the vision of Homi Bhabha, the UPA needs to continue with the programme through the ensuring of suitable feedstock for it. After so many decades of resisting pressure from the US and China to disarm, it seems as though this duo are on the cusp of success. We need a full national debate into the UPA acting as Ekalavya, cutting off India’s nuclear thumb to meet the commands of the US and China.
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