Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Who'd be female under Islamic law?
In Muslim states, violence against women is validated. A dark age is upon us
Monday, 4 May 2009
I am a Muslim woman and, like my late mother, free, independent, sensuous, educated, liberal, contrary and confrontational when provoked, both feminine and feminist. I style and colour my hair, wear lovely things and perfumes, appear on public platforms with men who are not related to me, shake their hands, embrace some I know well, take care of my family.
I defend Muslims persecuted by their enemies and their own kith and kin. I pray, fast, give to charity and try to be a decent human being. I also drink wine and do not lie about that, unlike so many other "good" Muslims. I am the kind of Muslim woman who maddens reactionary Muslim men and their asinine female followers. What a badge of honour.
Female oppression in Islamic countries is manifestly getting worse. Islam, as practiced by millions today, has lost its compassion and integrity and is entering one of the darkest of dark ages. Here is this month's short list of unbearable stories (imagine how many more there are which will never be known):
Iranian painter Delara Darabi, only 22 and in prison since she was 17, accused of murdering an elderly relative, was hanged last week even though she had been given a temporary stay of execution by the chief justice of the country. She phoned her mother on the day of her hanging to beg for help and the phone was snatched by a prison official who told them: "We will easily execute your daughter and there's nothing you can do about it." Her paintings reveal the cruelty to which she was subjected.
Meanwhile Roxana Saberi, a 32- year-old broadcast journalist whose father is Iranian, is incarcerated in Tehran's Evin prison, accused of spying for the US. She denies this and says she has been framed because she was seen buying a bottle of wine. This intelligent, beautiful and defiant woman is on hunger strike. Over in Saudi Arabia, an eight-year-old child has just divorced a 50-year-old man. Her father, no doubt a very devout man, sold his daughter for about £9,000.
I have been reading Disfigured, the story of Rania Al-Baz, a Saudi TV anchor, the first woman to have such a job, who was so badly beaten up by her abusive husband that she had to have 13 operations to re-make her once gorgeous face. Domestic violence destroys females in all countries, but in Muslim states, it is validated by laws and values. As Al-Baz writes, "It is appalling to realise that a woman cannot walk down the street without men staring at her openly. For them she is nothing but a body without a mind, something that moves and does not think. Women are banned from studying law, from civil engineering and from the sacrosanct area of oil."
Small optimistic signs do periodically appear in this harsh desert, says Quanta A Ahmed, a doctor who worked in Saudi Arabia and then wrote her account, In the Land of Invisible Women. She describes the love she finds between some husbands and wives, idealists who think better rights will come one day.
That faith in the future is echoed by Norah al-Faiz, the Deputy Minister for Women's Education, chosen in this week's Time magazine list of the world's most influential people. They hope because they must, I guess, even though they can see the brute forces lining up on the horizon ready to crush them by any means necessary. This country has spread its anti-female Wahabi Islam across the globe, its second most important export after oil.
In Afghanistan Ayman Udas was a singer and songwriter who wore lipstick and appeared on TV, defying her family. She was a divorced mother of two who had remarried. Ten days after this she was shot dead, allegedly by her brothers, who must think they are upright moral upholders with places reserved in paradise. In March President Karzai gave monstrous tribal leaders what they demanded, absolute control over wives by husbands and the right to rape them on the marital bed. Protests by brave women in that country and international outrage has forced him to step back from this commitment but there is concern that he is too weak to hold out, and once again women will become the personal and political playthings of men.
Let's to Pakistan then shall we, the country that once elected a woman head of state. The divinely beautiful Swat Valley has, for reasons of political expediency, been handed over to the Taliban, and there they have blown up over a hundred schools for girls and regularly flog young females on the streets. The girls are shrouded and forbidden to scream because the female voice has the potential to arouse desire. Or pity perhaps.
I am aware that my words will help confirm the pernicious prejudices that fester in the minds of those who despise Islam. Yet to conceal or excuse the violations would be to condone and encourage them. There have been enlightened times when some Muslim civilisations honoured and cherished females. This is not one of them. Across the West – for a host of reasons – millions of Muslims are embracing backward practices. In the UK young girls – some so young that they are still in push chairs – are covered up in hijabs. Disgracefully, there are always vocal Muslim women who seek to justify honour killings, forced marriages, inequality, polygamy and childhood betrothals. Why are large numbers of Muslim men so terrorised by the female body and spirit? Why do Muslim women encourage this savage paranoia?
I look out of my study at the common and see a wife fully burkaed on a sunny day. She sits still. Her children and husband run around, laughing, playing cricket. She sits still, dead, buried, a ghost. She is complicit in her own degradation, as are countless others. Their acquiescence in a free democracy is a crime against their sisters who have no such choices in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Al-Baz says: "I am a disruptive presence because I give women ideas." Me too. To transgress against diehard obscurantists and their unholy rules is an inescapable sacred duty. Yet how pathetic that sounds. Progressive believers tilt at windmills driven by ferocious winds of self-righteousness. Our arms and legs weaken and we are brought to our knees. I fear there is only worse to come.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Naga warrior Ganching Konyak remembered
Shri Nyangpong, Secretary, ex-servicemen cell, Mon described the qualities of a SEPOY. He said that S stands for Smart, E for Excellence, P for Punctual, O for Obedient, and Y for Young.
Janjati Vikas Samiti Nagaland organised a function at village Chui on May 27 to pay tribute to Sepoy Ganching Konyak of first Naga Regiment who was sacrificed in Kargil War in 1999. Chui is the native village of Konyak. Prominent among those who paid tribute included Deputy Commissioner Shri Dinesh Kumar, Maj Giriraj of 37 Assam Rifles and many other army officers, leaders and village authorities by laying wreaths at the tomb in village cemetery.
In his tribute Shri Dinesh Kumar said the late Sepoy Ganching had made an ultimate sacrifice for the nation. The youths from Nagaland should join armed forces, police services to earn a respectable living as well as to solve the problem of unemployment that was prevalent in Nagaland. The Army teaches discipline, dedication, and commitment. It helps common man to do uncommon things. He encouraged the Konyak Student Union and village authorities to take up the responsibility to honour the martyrdom of Ganching. He will be a source of inspiration to many youths. Shri Dinesh Kumar also paid respect to the parents of Ganching by offering a shawl, a momento and grants in aid.
Shri Nyangpong, Secretary, ex-servicemen cell, Mon described the qualities of a SEPOY. He said that S stands for Smart, E for Excellence, P for Punctual, O for Obedient, and Y for Young. These qualities make an army sepoy to achieve impossible things. He also narrated the history of Naga Regiment. It had participated in 1971 war and had reached Dacca. Major Giriraj, Adjutant, 37, Assam Rifles, encouraged the youth to think of the Army as their career and live a challenging and respectable life.
The 37 Assam Rifles also paid the guard of honour and saluted the departed soul. JVSN offered heartiest thanks to 37 Assam Rifles, particularly Maj. Giriraj, for the support and encouragement. It provided all possible help to carryout the ceremony with due respect.
A representative of Janjati Vikas Samiti Nagaland described its activities in Nagaland. He said that JVSN offers educational and medical services to the people of Nagaland. It runs four schools and six hostels in 6 districts of Nagaland. It is committed to impart value-oriented education to the children of Naga society. It believes that the progress and development of Naga society is possible if the children are encouraged with the spirit of commitment towards their profession. The society can derive its strength and inspiration from the age-old culture and inheritance. The progress could be faster if the society remembers its past correctly.
Dr T Kikon, CMO, Mon, Dr U K Konyak Dept. CMO, Mon, Shri Minpho, Chairperson Mon Town Committee, Shri Khonja, President, Konyak Student Union, Shri Ngampai, General Secretary, KSU, Shri Wangshok, Secretary VDB, Mon, Shri Alongse, Principal ITI, Mon, the village authorities of Chi paid their respects and tributes at the function. The school children were present to take the inspiration from the exemplary deeds of Ganching. (FOC)
Janjati Vikas Samiti Nagaland organised a function at village Chui on May 27 to pay tribute to Sepoy Ganching Konyak of first Naga Regiment who was sacrificed in Kargil War in 1999. Chui is the native village of Konyak. Prominent among those who paid tribute included Deputy Commissioner Shri Dinesh Kumar, Maj Giriraj of 37 Assam Rifles and many other army officers, leaders and village authorities by laying wreaths at the tomb in village cemetery.
In his tribute Shri Dinesh Kumar said the late Sepoy Ganching had made an ultimate sacrifice for the nation. The youths from Nagaland should join armed forces, police services to earn a respectable living as well as to solve the problem of unemployment that was prevalent in Nagaland. The Army teaches discipline, dedication, and commitment. It helps common man to do uncommon things. He encouraged the Konyak Student Union and village authorities to take up the responsibility to honour the martyrdom of Ganching. He will be a source of inspiration to many youths. Shri Dinesh Kumar also paid respect to the parents of Ganching by offering a shawl, a momento and grants in aid.
Shri Nyangpong, Secretary, ex-servicemen cell, Mon described the qualities of a SEPOY. He said that S stands for Smart, E for Excellence, P for Punctual, O for Obedient, and Y for Young. These qualities make an army sepoy to achieve impossible things. He also narrated the history of Naga Regiment. It had participated in 1971 war and had reached Dacca. Major Giriraj, Adjutant, 37, Assam Rifles, encouraged the youth to think of the Army as their career and live a challenging and respectable life.
The 37 Assam Rifles also paid the guard of honour and saluted the departed soul. JVSN offered heartiest thanks to 37 Assam Rifles, particularly Maj. Giriraj, for the support and encouragement. It provided all possible help to carryout the ceremony with due respect.
A representative of Janjati Vikas Samiti Nagaland described its activities in Nagaland. He said that JVSN offers educational and medical services to the people of Nagaland. It runs four schools and six hostels in 6 districts of Nagaland. It is committed to impart value-oriented education to the children of Naga society. It believes that the progress and development of Naga society is possible if the children are encouraged with the spirit of commitment towards their profession. The society can derive its strength and inspiration from the age-old culture and inheritance. The progress could be faster if the society remembers its past correctly.
Dr T Kikon, CMO, Mon, Dr U K Konyak Dept. CMO, Mon, Shri Minpho, Chairperson Mon Town Committee, Shri Khonja, President, Konyak Student Union, Shri Ngampai, General Secretary, KSU, Shri Wangshok, Secretary VDB, Mon, Shri Alongse, Principal ITI, Mon, the village authorities of Chi paid their respects and tributes at the function. The school children were present to take the inspiration from the exemplary deeds of Ganching. (FOC)
United States Commission for International Religious Freedom
Ashok Singhal
Press statement issued by Shri Ashok Singhal, International President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
United States Commission for International Religious Freedom is a self-appointed committee as an expression of the big brother attitude of USA to enquire into the status of religious freedom in other countries. It was set up in 1998.
US has no moral right to set up such a commission poking its nose into the internal affairs of other nations and this commission has no legal sanction from UNO.
This commission is concerned only about the Christians in other countries whenever there is a hue and cry by the Church that the Christians are persecuted in such countries. They never bother about the status of religious and racial discriminations meted out to other religionists in the western countries including the US.
This commission has prepared a list of 13 countries wherein they feel the Christian missionaries have not been allowed to freely proselytise the local non-Christians disrupting the social fabric in those countries.
This list does not include any country wherein atrocities are perpetrated on the Hindus or the Buddhists like Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, etc.
If anyone glances over the pages of the constitutions of the western countries, he will be able to realise that there are many restrictions on the religious freedom of the non-Christians in those countries.
But this so-called Commission for International Religious Freedom would not bother about the religious freedom of non-Christians in those countries. Is there absolute religious freedom for the non-Christians in US?
US is not secular as it proclaims to be. Various court decisions say so. Their laws and institutions are necessarily based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind.
The operation of judicial system in US is directed by the tenets of Christianity. At least half of the ten commandments are on the statute books in one form or another.
There is a tendency to regard Hindu-based religious movements such as ISKCON, Transcendental Meditation groups, Rajnish groups etc, as cults.
Under the guise of being a cult, a religious organisation can be sued for millions of dollars if even one disgruntled or disappointed former disciple is found who feels he was taken advantage of.
Many Hindu-based and yoga movements in US and other western countries have been sued as cults.
The criticism against cults is that they are outside the cultural religious norms, that they are intolerant of majority religions, that they divide the families and turn individuals against their upbringing.
Precisely this is what the Christian missionaries are doing in India, nay the whole of non-Christian world.
People may believe that in America, all religions are treated equally. But this is not the fact of life.
For example, it is still very difficult for Hindus to build temples in the United States, particularly in areas in which fundamentalist Christians are strong.
To put it in perspective, one would say that it is over ten times harder in America to build a temple where Hindus live in large numbers than it is to build a church.
But in India churches crop up anywhere and everywhere even if there is not even a single Christian living in that area.
There are several restrictions in building temples in US. Temples must not outwardly look like a temple, but should look like a school or Church or the local government would not approve of it.
While there are a few Hindu-style temples in America, these are exceptional and special efforts to be allowed.
The textbooks in the western schools and the western media routinely portray Hinduism as cults, idolatry or even as eroticism.
Booklets and pamphlets denigrating Hindu religion and distorting the Hindu religious literature and epics are frequently distributed hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus in many parts of our country.
To quote Swami Vivekananda in this regard
“...every Christian child is taught to call the Hindus ‘vile’ and ‘wretches’ and the most horrible devils on earth.
“Part of the Sunday school education for children in USA consists of teaching them to hate everybody who is not a Christian and the Hindus especially, so that from their very childhood, they may subscribe their pennies to the Christian missions abroad.
“...Look again at the books published in Madras against the Hindu religion. If a Hindu writes one such line against the Christian religion, the missionaries will cry fire and vengeance.” (Complete Works 1990, Vol. IV; p. 345)
So this commission has never done anything about the prevailing religious freedom in the West with several restrictions.
China has never allowed this commission to visit its country.
This commission has not visited Kashmir, the northeastern provinces and other such areas where the Hindus are a minority and are subjected to atrocities by the non-Hindu majority of those provinces. But it will express its concern over the minor attacks on Christians in Orissa, Gujarat and Karnataka.
We cannot grant any monopoly for the Americans to poke their nose into the internal matters of our country and a government with self-respect should not allow this commission to visit India.
If the government allows this commission to visit India, it would be opposed tooth and nail by Hindus all over the country.
India is a country which gave asylum to the Christians who were persecuted in Syria in Antioch and Damascus even in the 4th century. They have been living here peacefully till this date.
India gave asylum to the Persians when they had to flee Persia fearing forcible conversions by the Arabian invaders. These Zoroastrians who took asylum in Gujarat are all leading prosperous and fearless lives till this date.
When the Jews sought asylum in India after being driven out of their land, they have been taken care of by us. But this was not the case with the countries in the West where the Jews were persecuted.
We don’t need any certificate form the so-called commission about the religions freedom enormously enjoyed by Christians and Muslims in this land. Let US look at its back before poking its nose into our internal affairs.
This US Commission for International Religious Freedom was not allowed to visit India from 1998 to 2008.
But all of a sudden just before the recent elections the Government of India lifted the ban on the visit of this commission probably at the instance of Sonia Gandhi.
One more thing that has to be brought before the world is this—that the C¬¬church is misusing the freedom of religion guaranteed in our Constitution and is indulging in anti-national activities.
The Church has floated several outfits in the name of serving the oppressed and depressed classes in India and fighting for their rights.
In the north-eastern parts of our country alone 18 such outfits are functioning. Several such outfits are operating in the South also. These outfits instigate one community against another resulting in communal clashes.
When a large number of persons of both the clashing communities get displaced from their homes and villages these outfits in the name of setting-up relief camps for them, convert the people. This has been going on systematically for the past sixty years since Independence.
Several Church outfits have been indulging in anti-national activities in the north-eastern areas and tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Orissa promoting hatred among different communities and disrupting the social fabric.
This was exposed by the Niyogi Commission appointed by the then Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in the fifties.
As recommended by the Niyogi Commission, the Freedom ¬¬¬ of Religion Act was enacted in Madhya Pradesh to be followed by the Congress-ruled Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh and later on in Himachal Pradesh Tamil Nadu and Gujarat by the then ruling parties.
The Church has been protesting against these legislations which restrict only the fraudulent and forcible conversions.
Last year Swami Laxmanananda, who was rendering a yeoman’s service for the uplift of the tribals at Kandhamal District in Orissa was murdered by the Christian miscreants fearing that these service activities of Swamiji would block the road for free conversions among the tribals by the Church.
Similarly, Swami Shanti Kali Maharaj, a Hindu saint, was killed in Tripura for the same reason, a few years back.
In the light of the above facts we demand the setting-up of a commission by Government of India at the national level to probe into the nefarious activities carried on by the outfits backed by the Church in several parts of our country. The commission should also inquire into the flow of foreign funds to such organisations and how the funds are misused for conversions and promoting communal hatred among the different Hindu communities.
Press statement issued by Shri Ashok Singhal, International President, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
United States Commission for International Religious Freedom is a self-appointed committee as an expression of the big brother attitude of USA to enquire into the status of religious freedom in other countries. It was set up in 1998.
US has no moral right to set up such a commission poking its nose into the internal affairs of other nations and this commission has no legal sanction from UNO.
This commission is concerned only about the Christians in other countries whenever there is a hue and cry by the Church that the Christians are persecuted in such countries. They never bother about the status of religious and racial discriminations meted out to other religionists in the western countries including the US.
This commission has prepared a list of 13 countries wherein they feel the Christian missionaries have not been allowed to freely proselytise the local non-Christians disrupting the social fabric in those countries.
This list does not include any country wherein atrocities are perpetrated on the Hindus or the Buddhists like Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, etc.
If anyone glances over the pages of the constitutions of the western countries, he will be able to realise that there are many restrictions on the religious freedom of the non-Christians in those countries.
But this so-called Commission for International Religious Freedom would not bother about the religious freedom of non-Christians in those countries. Is there absolute religious freedom for the non-Christians in US?
US is not secular as it proclaims to be. Various court decisions say so. Their laws and institutions are necessarily based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind.
The operation of judicial system in US is directed by the tenets of Christianity. At least half of the ten commandments are on the statute books in one form or another.
There is a tendency to regard Hindu-based religious movements such as ISKCON, Transcendental Meditation groups, Rajnish groups etc, as cults.
Under the guise of being a cult, a religious organisation can be sued for millions of dollars if even one disgruntled or disappointed former disciple is found who feels he was taken advantage of.
Many Hindu-based and yoga movements in US and other western countries have been sued as cults.
The criticism against cults is that they are outside the cultural religious norms, that they are intolerant of majority religions, that they divide the families and turn individuals against their upbringing.
Precisely this is what the Christian missionaries are doing in India, nay the whole of non-Christian world.
People may believe that in America, all religions are treated equally. But this is not the fact of life.
For example, it is still very difficult for Hindus to build temples in the United States, particularly in areas in which fundamentalist Christians are strong.
To put it in perspective, one would say that it is over ten times harder in America to build a temple where Hindus live in large numbers than it is to build a church.
But in India churches crop up anywhere and everywhere even if there is not even a single Christian living in that area.
There are several restrictions in building temples in US. Temples must not outwardly look like a temple, but should look like a school or Church or the local government would not approve of it.
While there are a few Hindu-style temples in America, these are exceptional and special efforts to be allowed.
The textbooks in the western schools and the western media routinely portray Hinduism as cults, idolatry or even as eroticism.
Booklets and pamphlets denigrating Hindu religion and distorting the Hindu religious literature and epics are frequently distributed hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus in many parts of our country.
To quote Swami Vivekananda in this regard
“...every Christian child is taught to call the Hindus ‘vile’ and ‘wretches’ and the most horrible devils on earth.
“Part of the Sunday school education for children in USA consists of teaching them to hate everybody who is not a Christian and the Hindus especially, so that from their very childhood, they may subscribe their pennies to the Christian missions abroad.
“...Look again at the books published in Madras against the Hindu religion. If a Hindu writes one such line against the Christian religion, the missionaries will cry fire and vengeance.” (Complete Works 1990, Vol. IV; p. 345)
So this commission has never done anything about the prevailing religious freedom in the West with several restrictions.
China has never allowed this commission to visit its country.
This commission has not visited Kashmir, the northeastern provinces and other such areas where the Hindus are a minority and are subjected to atrocities by the non-Hindu majority of those provinces. But it will express its concern over the minor attacks on Christians in Orissa, Gujarat and Karnataka.
We cannot grant any monopoly for the Americans to poke their nose into the internal matters of our country and a government with self-respect should not allow this commission to visit India.
If the government allows this commission to visit India, it would be opposed tooth and nail by Hindus all over the country.
India is a country which gave asylum to the Christians who were persecuted in Syria in Antioch and Damascus even in the 4th century. They have been living here peacefully till this date.
India gave asylum to the Persians when they had to flee Persia fearing forcible conversions by the Arabian invaders. These Zoroastrians who took asylum in Gujarat are all leading prosperous and fearless lives till this date.
When the Jews sought asylum in India after being driven out of their land, they have been taken care of by us. But this was not the case with the countries in the West where the Jews were persecuted.
We don’t need any certificate form the so-called commission about the religions freedom enormously enjoyed by Christians and Muslims in this land. Let US look at its back before poking its nose into our internal affairs.
This US Commission for International Religious Freedom was not allowed to visit India from 1998 to 2008.
But all of a sudden just before the recent elections the Government of India lifted the ban on the visit of this commission probably at the instance of Sonia Gandhi.
One more thing that has to be brought before the world is this—that the C¬¬church is misusing the freedom of religion guaranteed in our Constitution and is indulging in anti-national activities.
The Church has floated several outfits in the name of serving the oppressed and depressed classes in India and fighting for their rights.
In the north-eastern parts of our country alone 18 such outfits are functioning. Several such outfits are operating in the South also. These outfits instigate one community against another resulting in communal clashes.
When a large number of persons of both the clashing communities get displaced from their homes and villages these outfits in the name of setting-up relief camps for them, convert the people. This has been going on systematically for the past sixty years since Independence.
Several Church outfits have been indulging in anti-national activities in the north-eastern areas and tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Orissa promoting hatred among different communities and disrupting the social fabric.
This was exposed by the Niyogi Commission appointed by the then Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in the fifties.
As recommended by the Niyogi Commission, the Freedom ¬¬¬ of Religion Act was enacted in Madhya Pradesh to be followed by the Congress-ruled Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh and later on in Himachal Pradesh Tamil Nadu and Gujarat by the then ruling parties.
The Church has been protesting against these legislations which restrict only the fraudulent and forcible conversions.
Last year Swami Laxmanananda, who was rendering a yeoman’s service for the uplift of the tribals at Kandhamal District in Orissa was murdered by the Christian miscreants fearing that these service activities of Swamiji would block the road for free conversions among the tribals by the Church.
Similarly, Swami Shanti Kali Maharaj, a Hindu saint, was killed in Tripura for the same reason, a few years back.
In the light of the above facts we demand the setting-up of a commission by Government of India at the national level to probe into the nefarious activities carried on by the outfits backed by the Church in several parts of our country. The commission should also inquire into the flow of foreign funds to such organisations and how the funds are misused for conversions and promoting communal hatred among the different Hindu communities.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Why small-town India is checking out
Venkatesan Vembu
Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who could always be counted on to call a spade a spade (and hit you on the head with it!), once characterised Australians as destined to become "the poor white trash of Asia". Lee's acerbic remarks were made years ago in the context of 'White Australia's' immigration policies until the 1970s, which were tailored to favour Anglo-Saxons and keep out Asians.
That enterprise, of course, was rendered rather difficult by Australia's peculiar identity as a colony of white settlers in a distinctly Asian part of the world.
In any case, if Lee were to walk the streets of Australian cities today, he will have reason to review his characterisation of that society. Much of the "trash" work (his words) today is done not by "poor white Australians", but by "brown" Indian immigrants, many of whom are on a student visa and to whom the grunge work has been 'outsourced'.
They work as storefront clerks, cooks, garbage collectors, taxi drivers, hair-dressers and countless other blue-collar jobs at less than minimum wage. Mostare from small-town India with a rudimentary proficiency in English and have enrolled in vocational-stream courses that feed a list of "occupations in demand" in Australia. Their real reason for being there, as they candidly admit in their faux Aussie drawl is not 'education', but to take a shot at 'permanent residency' there.
These are, in the main, not your city-slickers who enrol at Monash or Melbourne University, who constitute a tiny proportion of genuine Indian students securing tertiary education in Australia.
These are predominantly unskilled or semi-skilled young migrants who are leveraging -- and, in some cases, abusing -- a window of immigration opportunity provided by a greying Australia, a country that's twice the size of India, but which has the population of Greater Mumbai, and so needsyoung hands to work the levers of its economic engine.
There's nothing inherently wrong with labour mobility in a globalised world and if people relocate from Mohali to Melbourne (or from Sangrur to Sydney) in search of fortune and after observing the due process, more (visa) power to them! But there's something intensely sobering about the economic reality of India when entire villages of young Indians vote with their feet and seek out jobs as cooks and cleaners in foreign shores where their dollar-denominated dreams are devalued to an extent by their desperate bending of immigration laws and their own lived experiences of sub-par citizenship.
For instance, a survey conducted by Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship last year established that Indian 'students' in Australia were three times more likely than other foreign students to violate their visa regulations. In terms of risk category for visa violations, Indian 'students' in Australia are in the same elite club as Bangladeshis and Cambodians.
This is disquieting at several levels: it shows up an India where, beyond its big cities, economic opportunities for the young are so lacking that they are stampeding towards the exit, faking documents and breaking rules. Social discrimination and disempowerment in our Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns are so extreme that even the occasional experience of racial bigotry overseas and a general sense of alienation appear more tolerable, particularly because they come with higher dollar wages for rendering the same wretched service.
This mass exodus of the small-town Young Indian is also problematic at another level. These semi-skilled migrants form a critical mass of "visible Indians" overseas. An ill-informed observer might well conclude -- with the same unnuanced alacrity with which we Indians jumped onto the 'All-Aussies-are-racists' theme -- that all Indians are "visa-violating brown trash of Asia". That's not an identity calculated to burnish the image of Brand India.
Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who could always be counted on to call a spade a spade (and hit you on the head with it!), once characterised Australians as destined to become "the poor white trash of Asia". Lee's acerbic remarks were made years ago in the context of 'White Australia's' immigration policies until the 1970s, which were tailored to favour Anglo-Saxons and keep out Asians.
That enterprise, of course, was rendered rather difficult by Australia's peculiar identity as a colony of white settlers in a distinctly Asian part of the world.
In any case, if Lee were to walk the streets of Australian cities today, he will have reason to review his characterisation of that society. Much of the "trash" work (his words) today is done not by "poor white Australians", but by "brown" Indian immigrants, many of whom are on a student visa and to whom the grunge work has been 'outsourced'.
They work as storefront clerks, cooks, garbage collectors, taxi drivers, hair-dressers and countless other blue-collar jobs at less than minimum wage. Mostare from small-town India with a rudimentary proficiency in English and have enrolled in vocational-stream courses that feed a list of "occupations in demand" in Australia. Their real reason for being there, as they candidly admit in their faux Aussie drawl is not 'education', but to take a shot at 'permanent residency' there.
These are, in the main, not your city-slickers who enrol at Monash or Melbourne University, who constitute a tiny proportion of genuine Indian students securing tertiary education in Australia.
These are predominantly unskilled or semi-skilled young migrants who are leveraging -- and, in some cases, abusing -- a window of immigration opportunity provided by a greying Australia, a country that's twice the size of India, but which has the population of Greater Mumbai, and so needsyoung hands to work the levers of its economic engine.
There's nothing inherently wrong with labour mobility in a globalised world and if people relocate from Mohali to Melbourne (or from Sangrur to Sydney) in search of fortune and after observing the due process, more (visa) power to them! But there's something intensely sobering about the economic reality of India when entire villages of young Indians vote with their feet and seek out jobs as cooks and cleaners in foreign shores where their dollar-denominated dreams are devalued to an extent by their desperate bending of immigration laws and their own lived experiences of sub-par citizenship.
For instance, a survey conducted by Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship last year established that Indian 'students' in Australia were three times more likely than other foreign students to violate their visa regulations. In terms of risk category for visa violations, Indian 'students' in Australia are in the same elite club as Bangladeshis and Cambodians.
This is disquieting at several levels: it shows up an India where, beyond its big cities, economic opportunities for the young are so lacking that they are stampeding towards the exit, faking documents and breaking rules. Social discrimination and disempowerment in our Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns are so extreme that even the occasional experience of racial bigotry overseas and a general sense of alienation appear more tolerable, particularly because they come with higher dollar wages for rendering the same wretched service.
This mass exodus of the small-town Young Indian is also problematic at another level. These semi-skilled migrants form a critical mass of "visible Indians" overseas. An ill-informed observer might well conclude -- with the same unnuanced alacrity with which we Indians jumped onto the 'All-Aussies-are-racists' theme -- that all Indians are "visa-violating brown trash of Asia". That's not an identity calculated to burnish the image of Brand India.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
What exactly is 'Hindu nationalist' about the BJP?
T V R Shenoy
How does a cadre-based party handle failure in drawing votes from the masses? The BJP and the CPI-M could start by defining exactly what they stand for.
First, by way of comparison, look at the Congress. The word 'congress' is derived from Latin, via French, and means 'meeting'. The Americans still use it in the original sense; the Senate and the House of Representatives together constitute the Congress of the United States, the place where elected politicians meet.
The US Congress is home to people from both the liberal and the conservative ends of the political spectrum but the body has no ideology of its own. That is just as true of the Indian political party of the same name.
In the 1930s Sardar Patel was waging a battle against the socialists. In 1955, at the Avadi session, Pandit Nehru succeeded in enshrining socialism as the reigning philosophy. In 1991, under pressure from the World Bank and the IMF, P V Narasimha Rao embraced free markets.
Congress leaders don't need to justify policy shifts with ideological acrobatics, they only have to ensure that everyone in the party gets a small slice of the pie.
(Talking of the 'aam aadmi' does not constitute an ideology. Is there any political party, even in a one-party state like China or North Korea, that does not claim to be acting for the mythical 'common man'?)
This approach does not work for cadre-based parties, which operate under the conceit of a central guiding ideology. To give the CPI-M its due there is a vast body of work that seeks to define 'Marxism-Leninism'. The CPI-M's challenge is to popularise those principles to a sceptical, occasionally hostile, electorate.
Is that true of the BJP too? The English media, both Indian and foreign, delights in describing the BJP as a 'right-wing, Hindu nationalist party.' But when you come right down to it, what exactly is either specifically 'right-wing' or 'Hindu nationalist' about the BJP?
You could lay the economic policies of the Congress and the BJP side by side, and 999 out of 1,000 would struggle to say which is which. A truly right-wing, meaning fiscally conservative, party might have considered opposing schemes like loan waivers or employment guarantee programmes. Did you ever hear the BJP oppose a populist scheme?
No 'right-wing' party would ever countenance a Stalinist horror called a Planning Commission (foisted on India because Jawaharlal Nehru swallowed Soviet propaganda). Did the BJP ever discuss burying it for good?
Again, how much did the BJP do to dismantle the 'licence-permit-quota Raj' when it was in power? I am not talking about the things that irk big business, just the strangling web of forms in triplicate that plagues the ordinary citizen. The answer is that the BJP did only as much, or as little, as the Congress itself -- or so goes the popular perception.
If it isn't 'right-wing' what exactly is 'Hindu nationalist' about the BJP these days? The party was identified with the Ayodhya issue, but how much did it actually do to erect a temple? Take that out of the equation, and what, specifically, is so 'Hindu' about the BJP's programmes?
You could actually put up a perfectly consistent series of plans based purely on ancient Indian traditions if you want, one that has nothing to do with temple building.
For instance, Kalidasa mentioned the 'royal sixth' and Kautilya said the land revenue could be raised to a full quarter. The modern equivalent would be tax rates between 16.67 per cent and 25 per cent. Nehruvian economists used to speak of a 'Hindu rate of growth' (while laying down Stalinist policies); why shouldn't the BJP advocate Hindu
rates of taxation?
There is a line in the Rig Veda that is translated as 'You delight yourselves, you Gods, in plants and waters.' (Hymn 70 of the seventh Mandala if anyone is wondering.) One could easily build a development policy that is also environmentally sound around that verse and others like it. But the BJP is just as much for big ticket items -- large dams and so forth -- as ever the Congress was.
Did anyone in the BJP even try to put together an environmental case against the Rama Sethu Project alongside one based purely on religious sentiment? (Or even one demonstrating that the project is a waste of money?)
Those are just two examples of ancient traditions being adapted for today, there could be others. But if the BJP is neither particularly 'right wing' nor draws on 'Hindu' tradition in formulating policies, why should anyone vote for it rather than the Congress? Come to that, what is there to keep even the BJP cadre motivated between one general election and the next?
Both the BJP and the CPI-M are now speaking of reviewing what went wrong. But 'introspection' should mean more than simply playing musical chairs in the party headquarters. Seriously, outside the parties themselves, is anyone interested in who gets to be party general-secretary or president?
I can remember when both the BJP and the CPI-M were noted for their discipline and their incorruptibility. (Yes, I know how funny that sounds in the age of Lavalin!) The BJP (or its Jan Sangh ancestor) was the party that placed national interests above those of the party; the Marxists would prize ideology over individuals. Would anyone say half as much of them today?
All you have these days are, to be frank, rather mushy imitations of the Congress. And in that case, the voters apparently feel, one may as well just opt for the original.
How does a cadre-based party handle failure in drawing votes from the masses? The BJP and the CPI-M could start by defining exactly what they stand for.
First, by way of comparison, look at the Congress. The word 'congress' is derived from Latin, via French, and means 'meeting'. The Americans still use it in the original sense; the Senate and the House of Representatives together constitute the Congress of the United States, the place where elected politicians meet.
The US Congress is home to people from both the liberal and the conservative ends of the political spectrum but the body has no ideology of its own. That is just as true of the Indian political party of the same name.
In the 1930s Sardar Patel was waging a battle against the socialists. In 1955, at the Avadi session, Pandit Nehru succeeded in enshrining socialism as the reigning philosophy. In 1991, under pressure from the World Bank and the IMF, P V Narasimha Rao embraced free markets.
Congress leaders don't need to justify policy shifts with ideological acrobatics, they only have to ensure that everyone in the party gets a small slice of the pie.
(Talking of the 'aam aadmi' does not constitute an ideology. Is there any political party, even in a one-party state like China or North Korea, that does not claim to be acting for the mythical 'common man'?)
This approach does not work for cadre-based parties, which operate under the conceit of a central guiding ideology. To give the CPI-M its due there is a vast body of work that seeks to define 'Marxism-Leninism'. The CPI-M's challenge is to popularise those principles to a sceptical, occasionally hostile, electorate.
Is that true of the BJP too? The English media, both Indian and foreign, delights in describing the BJP as a 'right-wing, Hindu nationalist party.' But when you come right down to it, what exactly is either specifically 'right-wing' or 'Hindu nationalist' about the BJP?
You could lay the economic policies of the Congress and the BJP side by side, and 999 out of 1,000 would struggle to say which is which. A truly right-wing, meaning fiscally conservative, party might have considered opposing schemes like loan waivers or employment guarantee programmes. Did you ever hear the BJP oppose a populist scheme?
No 'right-wing' party would ever countenance a Stalinist horror called a Planning Commission (foisted on India because Jawaharlal Nehru swallowed Soviet propaganda). Did the BJP ever discuss burying it for good?
Again, how much did the BJP do to dismantle the 'licence-permit-quota Raj' when it was in power? I am not talking about the things that irk big business, just the strangling web of forms in triplicate that plagues the ordinary citizen. The answer is that the BJP did only as much, or as little, as the Congress itself -- or so goes the popular perception.
If it isn't 'right-wing' what exactly is 'Hindu nationalist' about the BJP these days? The party was identified with the Ayodhya issue, but how much did it actually do to erect a temple? Take that out of the equation, and what, specifically, is so 'Hindu' about the BJP's programmes?
You could actually put up a perfectly consistent series of plans based purely on ancient Indian traditions if you want, one that has nothing to do with temple building.
For instance, Kalidasa mentioned the 'royal sixth' and Kautilya said the land revenue could be raised to a full quarter. The modern equivalent would be tax rates between 16.67 per cent and 25 per cent. Nehruvian economists used to speak of a 'Hindu rate of growth' (while laying down Stalinist policies); why shouldn't the BJP advocate Hindu
rates of taxation?
There is a line in the Rig Veda that is translated as 'You delight yourselves, you Gods, in plants and waters.' (Hymn 70 of the seventh Mandala if anyone is wondering.) One could easily build a development policy that is also environmentally sound around that verse and others like it. But the BJP is just as much for big ticket items -- large dams and so forth -- as ever the Congress was.
Did anyone in the BJP even try to put together an environmental case against the Rama Sethu Project alongside one based purely on religious sentiment? (Or even one demonstrating that the project is a waste of money?)
Those are just two examples of ancient traditions being adapted for today, there could be others. But if the BJP is neither particularly 'right wing' nor draws on 'Hindu' tradition in formulating policies, why should anyone vote for it rather than the Congress? Come to that, what is there to keep even the BJP cadre motivated between one general election and the next?
Both the BJP and the CPI-M are now speaking of reviewing what went wrong. But 'introspection' should mean more than simply playing musical chairs in the party headquarters. Seriously, outside the parties themselves, is anyone interested in who gets to be party general-secretary or president?
I can remember when both the BJP and the CPI-M were noted for their discipline and their incorruptibility. (Yes, I know how funny that sounds in the age of Lavalin!) The BJP (or its Jan Sangh ancestor) was the party that placed national interests above those of the party; the Marxists would prize ideology over individuals. Would anyone say half as much of them today?
All you have these days are, to be frank, rather mushy imitations of the Congress. And in that case, the voters apparently feel, one may as well just opt for the original.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Indians succeed in countries ruled by whites
In is last Swaminomics of the millennium, I would like to sum up our
performance in the 20th century in one sentence. Indians have succeeded in countries ruled by whites, but failed in their own.
This outcome would have astonished leaders of our independence movement.They declared Indians were kept down by white rule and could flourish only under self-rule. This seemed self-evident. The harsh reality today is that Indians are succeeding brilliantly in countries ruled by whites, but failing in India. They are flourishing in the USA and Britain.
But those that stay in India are pulled down by an outrageous system that fails to reward merit or talent. Fails to allow people and businesses to grow, and keeps real power with netas, babus, and assorted manipulators. Once Indians go to white-ruled countries, they soar and conquer summits once occupied only by whites.
Rono Dutta has become head of United Airlines, the biggest airline in the world. Had he stayed in India, he would have no chance in Indian Airlines. Even if the top job there was given to him by some godfather, a myriad netas, babus and trade unionists would have ensured that he could never run it like United Airlines.
Rana Talwar has become head of Standard Chartered Bank Plc, one of the biggest multinational banks in Britain, while still in his 40s. Had he been in India, he would perhaps be a local manager in the State Bank, taking orders from babus to give
dud loans to politically favoured clients.
Rajat Gupta is head of Mckinsey, the biggest management consultancy firm in
the world. He now advises the biggest multinationals on how to run their business. Had he remained in India he would probably be taking orders from some sethji with no
qualification save that of being born in a rich family.
Lakhsmi Mittal has become the biggest steel baron in the world, with steel
plants in the US, Kazakhstan, Germany, Mexico, Trinidad and Indonesia. India's socialist policies reserved the domestic steel industry for the public sector. So Lakhsmi Mittal went to Indonesia to run his family's first steel plant there. Once freed from the shackles of India, he conquered the world.
Subhash Chandra of Zee TV has become a global media king, one of the few to beat Rupert Murdoch. He could never have risen had he been limited to India, which decreed a TV monopoly for Doordarshan. But technology came to his aid: satellite TV
made it possible for him to target India from Hong Kong. Once he escaped Indian rules and soil, he soared.
You may not have heard of 48-year old Gururaj Deshpande. His communications
company, Sycamore, is currently valued by the US stock market at over $ 30 billion, making him perhaps one of the richest Indians in the world. Had he remained in India, he would probably be a babu in the Department of Telecommunications.
Arun Netravali has become president of Bell Labs, one of the biggest research and development centres in the world with 30,000 inventions and several Nobel Prizes to its credit. Had he been in India, he would probably be struggling in the middle
cadre of Indian Telephone Industries. Silicon Valley alone contains over one lac Indian millionaires.
Sabeer Bhatia invented Hotmail and sold it to Microsoft for $ 400 million.
Victor Menezes is number two in Citibank. Shailesh Mehta is CEO of Providian,
a top US financial services company. Also at or near the top are Rakesh Gangwal of US Air, Jamshd Wadia of Arthur Andersen, and Aman Mehta of Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp.
In Washington DC, the Indian CEO High Tech Council has no less than 200 members, all high tech-chiefs. While Indians have soared, India has stagnated. At independence India was the most advanced of all colonies, with the best prospects.
Today with a GNP per head of $370, it occupies a lowly 177th position among 209 countries of the world. But poverty is by no means the only or main problem. India ranks near the bottom in the UNDP's Human Development Index, but high up in ransparency International's Corruption Index.
The neta-babu raj brought in by socialist policies is only one reason for India's failure. The more sordid reason is the rule-based society we inherited from the British Raj is today in tatters. Instead money, muscle and influence matter most.
At independence we were justly proud of our politicians. Today we regard them as scoundrels and criminals. They have created a jungle of laws in the holy name of socialism, and used these to line their pockets and create patronage networks. No influential crook suffers. The Mafia flourish unhindered because they have political links.
The sons of police officers believe they have a licence to rape and kill (ask the Mattoo family). Talent cannot take you far amidst such rank misgovernance. We are reverting to our ancient feudal system where no rules applied to the powerful. The
British Raj brought in abstract concepts of justice for all, equality before the law. These were maintained in the early years of independence. But fifty years later, citizens wail that India is a lawless land where no rules are obeyed.
I have heard of an IAS probationer at the Mussorie training academy pointing out that in India before the British came, making money and distributing favors to relatives was not considered a perversion of power, it was the very rationale of
power.
A feudal official had a duty to enrich his family and caste. Then the British
came and imposed a new ethical code on officials. But, he asked, why should we continue to choose British customs over desi ones now that we were independent?
The lack of transparent rules, properly enforced, is a major reason why talented Indians cannot rise in India. A second reason is the neta-babu raj, which remains intact despite supposed liberalisation. But once talented Indians go to rule-based
societies in the west, they take off. In those societies all people play by the same rules, all have freedom to innovate without being strangled by regulations.
This, then, is why Indians succeed in countries ruled by whites, and fail in their own.. It is the saddest story of the century
JUSTICE DEVINDER GUPTA
performance in the 20th century in one sentence. Indians have succeeded in countries ruled by whites, but failed in their own.
This outcome would have astonished leaders of our independence movement.They declared Indians were kept down by white rule and could flourish only under self-rule. This seemed self-evident. The harsh reality today is that Indians are succeeding brilliantly in countries ruled by whites, but failing in India. They are flourishing in the USA and Britain.
But those that stay in India are pulled down by an outrageous system that fails to reward merit or talent. Fails to allow people and businesses to grow, and keeps real power with netas, babus, and assorted manipulators. Once Indians go to white-ruled countries, they soar and conquer summits once occupied only by whites.
Rono Dutta has become head of United Airlines, the biggest airline in the world. Had he stayed in India, he would have no chance in Indian Airlines. Even if the top job there was given to him by some godfather, a myriad netas, babus and trade unionists would have ensured that he could never run it like United Airlines.
Rana Talwar has become head of Standard Chartered Bank Plc, one of the biggest multinational banks in Britain, while still in his 40s. Had he been in India, he would perhaps be a local manager in the State Bank, taking orders from babus to give
dud loans to politically favoured clients.
Rajat Gupta is head of Mckinsey, the biggest management consultancy firm in
the world. He now advises the biggest multinationals on how to run their business. Had he remained in India he would probably be taking orders from some sethji with no
qualification save that of being born in a rich family.
Lakhsmi Mittal has become the biggest steel baron in the world, with steel
plants in the US, Kazakhstan, Germany, Mexico, Trinidad and Indonesia. India's socialist policies reserved the domestic steel industry for the public sector. So Lakhsmi Mittal went to Indonesia to run his family's first steel plant there. Once freed from the shackles of India, he conquered the world.
Subhash Chandra of Zee TV has become a global media king, one of the few to beat Rupert Murdoch. He could never have risen had he been limited to India, which decreed a TV monopoly for Doordarshan. But technology came to his aid: satellite TV
made it possible for him to target India from Hong Kong. Once he escaped Indian rules and soil, he soared.
You may not have heard of 48-year old Gururaj Deshpande. His communications
company, Sycamore, is currently valued by the US stock market at over $ 30 billion, making him perhaps one of the richest Indians in the world. Had he remained in India, he would probably be a babu in the Department of Telecommunications.
Arun Netravali has become president of Bell Labs, one of the biggest research and development centres in the world with 30,000 inventions and several Nobel Prizes to its credit. Had he been in India, he would probably be struggling in the middle
cadre of Indian Telephone Industries. Silicon Valley alone contains over one lac Indian millionaires.
Sabeer Bhatia invented Hotmail and sold it to Microsoft for $ 400 million.
Victor Menezes is number two in Citibank. Shailesh Mehta is CEO of Providian,
a top US financial services company. Also at or near the top are Rakesh Gangwal of US Air, Jamshd Wadia of Arthur Andersen, and Aman Mehta of Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp.
In Washington DC, the Indian CEO High Tech Council has no less than 200 members, all high tech-chiefs. While Indians have soared, India has stagnated. At independence India was the most advanced of all colonies, with the best prospects.
Today with a GNP per head of $370, it occupies a lowly 177th position among 209 countries of the world. But poverty is by no means the only or main problem. India ranks near the bottom in the UNDP's Human Development Index, but high up in ransparency International's Corruption Index.
The neta-babu raj brought in by socialist policies is only one reason for India's failure. The more sordid reason is the rule-based society we inherited from the British Raj is today in tatters. Instead money, muscle and influence matter most.
At independence we were justly proud of our politicians. Today we regard them as scoundrels and criminals. They have created a jungle of laws in the holy name of socialism, and used these to line their pockets and create patronage networks. No influential crook suffers. The Mafia flourish unhindered because they have political links.
The sons of police officers believe they have a licence to rape and kill (ask the Mattoo family). Talent cannot take you far amidst such rank misgovernance. We are reverting to our ancient feudal system where no rules applied to the powerful. The
British Raj brought in abstract concepts of justice for all, equality before the law. These were maintained in the early years of independence. But fifty years later, citizens wail that India is a lawless land where no rules are obeyed.
I have heard of an IAS probationer at the Mussorie training academy pointing out that in India before the British came, making money and distributing favors to relatives was not considered a perversion of power, it was the very rationale of
power.
A feudal official had a duty to enrich his family and caste. Then the British
came and imposed a new ethical code on officials. But, he asked, why should we continue to choose British customs over desi ones now that we were independent?
The lack of transparent rules, properly enforced, is a major reason why talented Indians cannot rise in India. A second reason is the neta-babu raj, which remains intact despite supposed liberalisation. But once talented Indians go to rule-based
societies in the west, they take off. In those societies all people play by the same rules, all have freedom to innovate without being strangled by regulations.
This, then, is why Indians succeed in countries ruled by whites, and fail in their own.. It is the saddest story of the century
JUSTICE DEVINDER GUPTA
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Media has become partner of ruling party
Nothing is more distressing than to hear that corruption has entered the field of journalism. In pre-Independence days, journalism was a mission; now it has become business. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to take some of the more important newspapers as the last word in truth. Writing in the Free Press Journal (April 27) Sushma Ramachandran (described as an economic and corporate analyst) blasted business journalism in no uncertain terms. Here are some of her findings, which are extremely disturbing:
“Many financial dailies publish news items that are blatantly one-sided…
“There should be worries over the fact that puff pieces on the corporate sector seems to have become the order of the day. One leading mainstream English newspaper had a business editor for about a year who specialised in long articles praising one big business house after another.
“There is a view within the media community that despite the huge salaries now being paid to business journalists in the print and electronic media, the incidence of corruption remains the same as when scribes were paid a pittance.”
According to Sushma Ramachandran, as far as the public issues are concerned there has been a pernicious practice of handing out envelopes filled with cash or cash vouchers to reporters at the press conference, so that they could buy “a small gift” for themselves. Some multinationals went to the extent of organising foreign junkets for obliging journalists. According to Sushma, “Rare are the cases where journalists can go on a trip without a clearance from their bosses.”
The Indian Express (May 23) carried a report on the same subject, the occasion being an address delivered by the chairman of the Press Council of India, Justice GN Ray, at a seminar organised by the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication. Justice Ray in his speech expressed serious concern over “the paid-news syndrome” in the media describing it as the worst form of misinformation or even disinformation. The chairman said that presently journalists are “working on package”, that “editors are being marginalised” and that they themselves have allowed “devaluation of the dignity” of their high and respected office. Or take what Sevanti Ninan writes about journalists in The Hindu (May 24). Asks Ninan: “Should you believe everything you read about a candidate in a newspaper” and she answers her own question by saying: “Not after these elections.” In Madhya Pradesh and in Andhra Pradesh, money was charged for press coverage of candidates which according to Ninan gave “a whole new dimension to the business of media impacting elections”. It would seem that in Andhra Pradesh, especially, every Telugu newspaper and some of the Telugu news channels charged for positive coverage “at the same column centimetre rate as they do for advertisements”.
Apart from misleading the voters, that helped candidates circumvent the limits on election spending. Or take the issue of exit polls. The Hitavada (May 14) provided a list of eleven TV channels that broadcast exit polls and not one of them came anywhere near the truth and they included Headlines Today, Times Now, India TV, Star News, CNN-IBN, Aaj Tak and NDTV. How can so many of them, all run by professionals, go wrong? One can understand a couple of them slipping, but all eleven of them? Many of the so-called professionals went wrong also in 2004. Obviously, an explanation is called for.
One learns that the media earns from an election more so than in a year of no-electioneering. According to a report, one broker offered an independent candidate three weeks of coverage in four newspapers for a sum of Rs 10 lakh. Learning that a certain newspaper was running a bad report on a candidate, the latter is supposed to have paid Rs 4 lakh to stop it. What can we call it: black mail? For many candidates, money apparently is of no great consideration. If Deccan Herald (April 30) is to be believed—and why shouldn’t we?—some 223 millionaires and 258 with criminal record were in the election fray. To such, what is a sum of just four lakh rupees?
In the last Parliament, there were apparently 128 people with a dubious past of whom 55 were allegedly involved in serious crimes. In the new Parliament just elected, according to The Indian Express ( May 25), there has been a 19.15 per cent increase in their numbers with the election of 74 MPs who are accused of grave crimes. Voters may have rejected communism, but they have obviously not been able to differentiate between an honest man and a criminal. Or have the voters also been sufficiently bribed for their tacit support? Who knows? But, after all is said and done, the one painful question remains to be answered: How come all exit polls failed? They were apparently carried out by “professionals” who knew their job. But from what they prophesied, they were anything but professional. Anyone who knows something about exit polls knows what “sampling” means.
Writing in The Hindu (May 24) Sevanti Ninan asks a sensible question: “If reporters talk to candidates more than voters, how can they get their predictions right?” But then there is another question of even greater relevance. Think of the CNN-IBN showing times without number the scene of Varun Gandhi making those remarks that put him in jail. What lay behind this show? Was it necessary to repeat Varun Gandhi’s performance to the point when one felt like throwing up? Then there was that interview that Barkha Dutt had with Priyanka looking all so coy and saying how much she admired both her mother and brother. While Narendra Modi was sounding harsh most of the time, Priyanka was sounding so nice and gentle. Was all that part of a well-organised public relations job? One suspects that the Congress had appointed a better public relations firm than the BJP. But all this is hindsight. One will never know why the voter behaved the way he did though several answers are available and all of them sound very credible. All that we do know is that the voter had foxed the professional twice. That raises an important question: Do our professionals understand the Indian mind? Was the voter interested only in continuity of a government and not so much in who ran it? And in stability of a government and not so much in its ideology? Only time can tell.
“Many financial dailies publish news items that are blatantly one-sided…
“There should be worries over the fact that puff pieces on the corporate sector seems to have become the order of the day. One leading mainstream English newspaper had a business editor for about a year who specialised in long articles praising one big business house after another.
“There is a view within the media community that despite the huge salaries now being paid to business journalists in the print and electronic media, the incidence of corruption remains the same as when scribes were paid a pittance.”
According to Sushma Ramachandran, as far as the public issues are concerned there has been a pernicious practice of handing out envelopes filled with cash or cash vouchers to reporters at the press conference, so that they could buy “a small gift” for themselves. Some multinationals went to the extent of organising foreign junkets for obliging journalists. According to Sushma, “Rare are the cases where journalists can go on a trip without a clearance from their bosses.”
The Indian Express (May 23) carried a report on the same subject, the occasion being an address delivered by the chairman of the Press Council of India, Justice GN Ray, at a seminar organised by the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication. Justice Ray in his speech expressed serious concern over “the paid-news syndrome” in the media describing it as the worst form of misinformation or even disinformation. The chairman said that presently journalists are “working on package”, that “editors are being marginalised” and that they themselves have allowed “devaluation of the dignity” of their high and respected office. Or take what Sevanti Ninan writes about journalists in The Hindu (May 24). Asks Ninan: “Should you believe everything you read about a candidate in a newspaper” and she answers her own question by saying: “Not after these elections.” In Madhya Pradesh and in Andhra Pradesh, money was charged for press coverage of candidates which according to Ninan gave “a whole new dimension to the business of media impacting elections”. It would seem that in Andhra Pradesh, especially, every Telugu newspaper and some of the Telugu news channels charged for positive coverage “at the same column centimetre rate as they do for advertisements”.
Apart from misleading the voters, that helped candidates circumvent the limits on election spending. Or take the issue of exit polls. The Hitavada (May 14) provided a list of eleven TV channels that broadcast exit polls and not one of them came anywhere near the truth and they included Headlines Today, Times Now, India TV, Star News, CNN-IBN, Aaj Tak and NDTV. How can so many of them, all run by professionals, go wrong? One can understand a couple of them slipping, but all eleven of them? Many of the so-called professionals went wrong also in 2004. Obviously, an explanation is called for.
One learns that the media earns from an election more so than in a year of no-electioneering. According to a report, one broker offered an independent candidate three weeks of coverage in four newspapers for a sum of Rs 10 lakh. Learning that a certain newspaper was running a bad report on a candidate, the latter is supposed to have paid Rs 4 lakh to stop it. What can we call it: black mail? For many candidates, money apparently is of no great consideration. If Deccan Herald (April 30) is to be believed—and why shouldn’t we?—some 223 millionaires and 258 with criminal record were in the election fray. To such, what is a sum of just four lakh rupees?
In the last Parliament, there were apparently 128 people with a dubious past of whom 55 were allegedly involved in serious crimes. In the new Parliament just elected, according to The Indian Express ( May 25), there has been a 19.15 per cent increase in their numbers with the election of 74 MPs who are accused of grave crimes. Voters may have rejected communism, but they have obviously not been able to differentiate between an honest man and a criminal. Or have the voters also been sufficiently bribed for their tacit support? Who knows? But, after all is said and done, the one painful question remains to be answered: How come all exit polls failed? They were apparently carried out by “professionals” who knew their job. But from what they prophesied, they were anything but professional. Anyone who knows something about exit polls knows what “sampling” means.
Writing in The Hindu (May 24) Sevanti Ninan asks a sensible question: “If reporters talk to candidates more than voters, how can they get their predictions right?” But then there is another question of even greater relevance. Think of the CNN-IBN showing times without number the scene of Varun Gandhi making those remarks that put him in jail. What lay behind this show? Was it necessary to repeat Varun Gandhi’s performance to the point when one felt like throwing up? Then there was that interview that Barkha Dutt had with Priyanka looking all so coy and saying how much she admired both her mother and brother. While Narendra Modi was sounding harsh most of the time, Priyanka was sounding so nice and gentle. Was all that part of a well-organised public relations job? One suspects that the Congress had appointed a better public relations firm than the BJP. But all this is hindsight. One will never know why the voter behaved the way he did though several answers are available and all of them sound very credible. All that we do know is that the voter had foxed the professional twice. That raises an important question: Do our professionals understand the Indian mind? Was the voter interested only in continuity of a government and not so much in who ran it? And in stability of a government and not so much in its ideology? Only time can tell.
Appeasement is global
By Ravi Shanker Kapoor
Obama reaches out, but would Muslim world respond?
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been consistently bemoaning the phenomenon of Muslim appeasement in India. The phenomenon has just gone global, as evident from US President Barack Hussein Obama’s speech at Cairo University, Egypt.
The best thing that can be said about US President Barack Hussein Obama’s speech at Cairo University, Egypt, is that his intentions are indeed noble. He ended the address, saying, “The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now that must be our work here on earth... And may God’s peace be upon you.”
But, unfortunately, the noble intentions have been ambushed by his faith in the dogmas of contemporary American liberalism. One of these is that it is not the ideology of terrorists which is the prime mover; it is ‘socio-economic’ root causes which give rise to terrorism. As the US President said in his outreach endeavour: “Now, we also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That’s why we plan to invest $ 1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses.”
Such views underline Obama’s—and liberals’—dogged refusal to acknowledge the reality as it exists; this doggedness is the result of moral cowardice and intellectual laziness to give up the mendacious postulates of contemporary liberalism.
We need to ask Obama how would schools and hospitals, roads and infrastructure help in the war on terror if the Taliban are allowed to go berserk—and Islamabad prefers to look the other way, as evident from its recent pact with the Taliban? It is also a well-known fact that it was the Pakistani elite which created the Taliban in the first place. But why slam the Pakistanis when Obama himself is not unwilling to do business with what is fashionably called ‘moderate Taliban’? It may appear odd that Obama, an educated and polished man, could believe that such an oxymoronic entity could exist, but then the canons of liberal orthodoxy can be congruous with any incongruity. For the normal human beings, though, the entity ‘moderate Taliban’ is as impossible as a ‘merciful rapist.’
This theology of liberalism also inspired Obama to make an all-out effort to woo Muslims. He quoted from the Quran. “The holy Quran teaches that whoever kills an innocent is like he has killed all mankind,” the US President said.
But the Quran also says, “They [the unbelievers] are the worst of creatures” (98.6). Sura 8 goes even farther, denouncing unbelievers of misguiding and killing the faithful: “Remember how the Unbelievers plotted against thee, to keep thee in bonds, or slay thee, to get thee out (of thy homes). They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah.” (8:30)
Again, “The Unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have (only) regrets and sighs; at length they will be overcome; and the Unbelievers will be gathered together to Hell.” (8:36)
And again, “Say to the Unbelievers, if (now) they desist (from Unbelief), their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already (a matter of warning for them).” (8:38)
The Quran reminds and exhorts: “Remember the Lord inspired the angels (with the message): ‘I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers; smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them.” (8:12)
An ardent Muslim appeaser, Obama did not quote these lines from the Quran.
On the issue of scripture-sanctioned maltreatment of women in Islamic countries, too, Obama was vague at best and prevaricative at worst. He said, “[The] issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, we’ve seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead. Meanwhile, the struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects of American life and in countries around the world. I am convinced that our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons.”
He took care to mention the feminists’ phony “struggle for women’s equality” in the US and other non-Muslim countries, but did not have the moral courage and intellectual integrity to tell the Muslims about the iniquities half of the population faces in the Islamic world.
It is worth stating here that most of the iniquities are related to Islamic scriptures. For instance, the Quran says, “Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Allah’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious, admonish them; banish them to their couches; and beat them.”
This is not to say that only the Islamic religious texts have injunctions which militate against the humanist ethos. The scriptures of other religions also exhort the faithful to do things which would be frowned upon in today’s world. But other religions do not have fundamentalists who are powerful enough to implement their religious texts in letter and spirit.
But it is a well-known fact that Wahhabism—the ideology of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist groups—continues to attract many in the Islamic world. And these are committed people, determined to enforce medieval barbarity, as evident in the Swat Valley.
It is unfortunate that Obama did not hold a mirror up to the Muslims; quite the contrary, he merely reinforced their irrationality and biases. It appeared that the US had something wrong to the Muslims for which its head of the state had to offer an explanation, if not an apology. The tone and tenor, the allusions and quotations—everything about the speech was apologetic.
The truth, however, is that the US merely retaliated to the mass murder perpetrated by extremist Muslims on the American soil. It is a testimony to the pervasive virulence of liberal dogmas that the acts of self-defence of the world’s most powerful nation have to be explained in an apologetic manner by its President.
By the way, where is the outreach from the Muslim world? Why is it that no Muslim leader or seminary has been as vehement in slamming the violence perpetrated by the jehadis as they are vehement in castigating the real and imaginary atrocities on their brethren? The spectre of jehad today haunts the entire world, from Bali in Indonesia to New York in the US. What are the Muslims doing to stall the menace of Islamic terror?
These are the questions Obama, his liberal cheerleaders, and the mullahs of multiculturalism need to answer.
Obama reaches out, but would Muslim world respond?
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been consistently bemoaning the phenomenon of Muslim appeasement in India. The phenomenon has just gone global, as evident from US President Barack Hussein Obama’s speech at Cairo University, Egypt.
The best thing that can be said about US President Barack Hussein Obama’s speech at Cairo University, Egypt, is that his intentions are indeed noble. He ended the address, saying, “The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now that must be our work here on earth... And may God’s peace be upon you.”
But, unfortunately, the noble intentions have been ambushed by his faith in the dogmas of contemporary American liberalism. One of these is that it is not the ideology of terrorists which is the prime mover; it is ‘socio-economic’ root causes which give rise to terrorism. As the US President said in his outreach endeavour: “Now, we also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That’s why we plan to invest $ 1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses.”
Such views underline Obama’s—and liberals’—dogged refusal to acknowledge the reality as it exists; this doggedness is the result of moral cowardice and intellectual laziness to give up the mendacious postulates of contemporary liberalism.
We need to ask Obama how would schools and hospitals, roads and infrastructure help in the war on terror if the Taliban are allowed to go berserk—and Islamabad prefers to look the other way, as evident from its recent pact with the Taliban? It is also a well-known fact that it was the Pakistani elite which created the Taliban in the first place. But why slam the Pakistanis when Obama himself is not unwilling to do business with what is fashionably called ‘moderate Taliban’? It may appear odd that Obama, an educated and polished man, could believe that such an oxymoronic entity could exist, but then the canons of liberal orthodoxy can be congruous with any incongruity. For the normal human beings, though, the entity ‘moderate Taliban’ is as impossible as a ‘merciful rapist.’
This theology of liberalism also inspired Obama to make an all-out effort to woo Muslims. He quoted from the Quran. “The holy Quran teaches that whoever kills an innocent is like he has killed all mankind,” the US President said.
But the Quran also says, “They [the unbelievers] are the worst of creatures” (98.6). Sura 8 goes even farther, denouncing unbelievers of misguiding and killing the faithful: “Remember how the Unbelievers plotted against thee, to keep thee in bonds, or slay thee, to get thee out (of thy homes). They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah.” (8:30)
Again, “The Unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have (only) regrets and sighs; at length they will be overcome; and the Unbelievers will be gathered together to Hell.” (8:36)
And again, “Say to the Unbelievers, if (now) they desist (from Unbelief), their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already (a matter of warning for them).” (8:38)
The Quran reminds and exhorts: “Remember the Lord inspired the angels (with the message): ‘I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers; smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them.” (8:12)
An ardent Muslim appeaser, Obama did not quote these lines from the Quran.
On the issue of scripture-sanctioned maltreatment of women in Islamic countries, too, Obama was vague at best and prevaricative at worst. He said, “[The] issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, we’ve seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead. Meanwhile, the struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects of American life and in countries around the world. I am convinced that our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons.”
He took care to mention the feminists’ phony “struggle for women’s equality” in the US and other non-Muslim countries, but did not have the moral courage and intellectual integrity to tell the Muslims about the iniquities half of the population faces in the Islamic world.
It is worth stating here that most of the iniquities are related to Islamic scriptures. For instance, the Quran says, “Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Allah’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious, admonish them; banish them to their couches; and beat them.”
This is not to say that only the Islamic religious texts have injunctions which militate against the humanist ethos. The scriptures of other religions also exhort the faithful to do things which would be frowned upon in today’s world. But other religions do not have fundamentalists who are powerful enough to implement their religious texts in letter and spirit.
But it is a well-known fact that Wahhabism—the ideology of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist groups—continues to attract many in the Islamic world. And these are committed people, determined to enforce medieval barbarity, as evident in the Swat Valley.
It is unfortunate that Obama did not hold a mirror up to the Muslims; quite the contrary, he merely reinforced their irrationality and biases. It appeared that the US had something wrong to the Muslims for which its head of the state had to offer an explanation, if not an apology. The tone and tenor, the allusions and quotations—everything about the speech was apologetic.
The truth, however, is that the US merely retaliated to the mass murder perpetrated by extremist Muslims on the American soil. It is a testimony to the pervasive virulence of liberal dogmas that the acts of self-defence of the world’s most powerful nation have to be explained in an apologetic manner by its President.
By the way, where is the outreach from the Muslim world? Why is it that no Muslim leader or seminary has been as vehement in slamming the violence perpetrated by the jehadis as they are vehement in castigating the real and imaginary atrocities on their brethren? The spectre of jehad today haunts the entire world, from Bali in Indonesia to New York in the US. What are the Muslims doing to stall the menace of Islamic terror?
These are the questions Obama, his liberal cheerleaders, and the mullahs of multiculturalism need to answer.
The Meru: Abode of Brahma
By Ratnadeep Banerji
Mountains have always been revered and remained integral to Hindu history. The Vedic seers received apocalyptic raptures on the Himadri (as the Agni Purana calls the Himalaya) and at the confluence of rivers. The poet Bharthari in his Vairagya Shataka mentions the longing of the old people to spend the fag end of their life meditating upon God in seclusion of the Himalayas. The Rigveda says, ‘O Mother Earth! May thy hills, thy snow-clad Himalayas and thy forest lands, be pleasant to us……’.
There are several references of the Himalayas in the Vedas and the Puranas. The Vishnu Purana gives details of the Himalayas – ‘Jambudvipa is in the centre of all these and in the centre of this continent is the golden Meru, O Maitreya….The boundary mountains (of the earth) are Himavan, Hemakuta, and Nisadha, which lie south of Meru; and Nila, Shveta and Shringin, which are situated at the north of it.’ Jambudvipa is one of the continents of the cosmic ocean in Hindu history. Suryasiddhanta mentions of the mountain Meru in the land of Jamboonada to lie in ghoogola-madhya that is the middle of the earth-globe near the equator.
The Meru stands out the greatest individual mountain within the Himalayan range. The Puranas put the height of this golden Meru as eighty-four thousand yojanas; and its depth below the surface of the earth is sixteen thousand yojanas. Its diameter at the summit is thirty two thousand yojanas and at its base sixteen thousand yojanas giving the shape of a seed cup of the lotus. However, different Puranas attribute different shape to its summit. Its summit is the seat of Brahma, his vast city extending fourteen thousand leagues and around it in the cardinal points and the intermediate quarters are situated the opulent cities of Indra and the other regents of the sphere. All the three worlds and the heavenly bodies circumscribe Meru as the centre.
The lore goes that once Vindhya, the deity of the Vindhya Range in the Deccan, became jealous of Himavan, the God of the Himalayas. He instructed the sun to circumambulate around him as well, like he did around Himavan. The god Sun declined to do so. This led Vindhya to start attaining a bigger size and he started growing so as to occlude Himavan from the sun. This became a serious concern and so the gods implored Agastya Muni to dissuade Vindhya from his aggrandizement. Agastya was Vindhya’s guru. Agastya Muni thought of a plan. He told Vindhya that he had to undertake a journey to the south and again come back. And if Vindhya could bow down he could easily proceed on his journey. So he bade him to bow until he came back. Vindhya complied to do so. But his preceptor, Agastya Muni never came back leaving Vindhya bowed down forever.
According to the Puranas, Himavan later incarnated in human form when the gods desired Sati to be reborn. First he became the father of Ganga and then of Parvati. His wife was Maneka. Several other places of the Himalayas became part of our historical lore. Mount Mandara was considered mighty enough during samudramanthan, churning of the milk ocean. Mandara became the home of Durga. Mount Kailash is the abode of Shiva.
Mount Meru is not delineated only in heaven and on earth, but also in individual human beings. This exegesis of the dead and the world to come finds mention in Pretakalpa of Garuda Purana – ‘In the body as it is in reality are contained all worlds, mountains, continents and seas, the sun and the other constellations…..In the triangle (supposedly, the mythological region of the heart) rises Mount Meru, in the lower corner the Mandara, in the right-hand corner the Kailash and in the left-hand corner the Himachal; on the upper side Nisadha, on the right-hand side Gandhamadana, and in the left-hand side Ramana: these are the seven mountains of the world”. Several Hindu temples including the Angkor Wat, Cambodia have been built upon symbolic representations of this mountain. The central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain. Mount Meru finds a prominent mention ata great length in Buddhist history as well.
Mountains have always been revered and remained integral to Hindu history. The Vedic seers received apocalyptic raptures on the Himadri (as the Agni Purana calls the Himalaya) and at the confluence of rivers. The poet Bharthari in his Vairagya Shataka mentions the longing of the old people to spend the fag end of their life meditating upon God in seclusion of the Himalayas. The Rigveda says, ‘O Mother Earth! May thy hills, thy snow-clad Himalayas and thy forest lands, be pleasant to us……’.
There are several references of the Himalayas in the Vedas and the Puranas. The Vishnu Purana gives details of the Himalayas – ‘Jambudvipa is in the centre of all these and in the centre of this continent is the golden Meru, O Maitreya….The boundary mountains (of the earth) are Himavan, Hemakuta, and Nisadha, which lie south of Meru; and Nila, Shveta and Shringin, which are situated at the north of it.’ Jambudvipa is one of the continents of the cosmic ocean in Hindu history. Suryasiddhanta mentions of the mountain Meru in the land of Jamboonada to lie in ghoogola-madhya that is the middle of the earth-globe near the equator.
The Meru stands out the greatest individual mountain within the Himalayan range. The Puranas put the height of this golden Meru as eighty-four thousand yojanas; and its depth below the surface of the earth is sixteen thousand yojanas. Its diameter at the summit is thirty two thousand yojanas and at its base sixteen thousand yojanas giving the shape of a seed cup of the lotus. However, different Puranas attribute different shape to its summit. Its summit is the seat of Brahma, his vast city extending fourteen thousand leagues and around it in the cardinal points and the intermediate quarters are situated the opulent cities of Indra and the other regents of the sphere. All the three worlds and the heavenly bodies circumscribe Meru as the centre.
The lore goes that once Vindhya, the deity of the Vindhya Range in the Deccan, became jealous of Himavan, the God of the Himalayas. He instructed the sun to circumambulate around him as well, like he did around Himavan. The god Sun declined to do so. This led Vindhya to start attaining a bigger size and he started growing so as to occlude Himavan from the sun. This became a serious concern and so the gods implored Agastya Muni to dissuade Vindhya from his aggrandizement. Agastya was Vindhya’s guru. Agastya Muni thought of a plan. He told Vindhya that he had to undertake a journey to the south and again come back. And if Vindhya could bow down he could easily proceed on his journey. So he bade him to bow until he came back. Vindhya complied to do so. But his preceptor, Agastya Muni never came back leaving Vindhya bowed down forever.
According to the Puranas, Himavan later incarnated in human form when the gods desired Sati to be reborn. First he became the father of Ganga and then of Parvati. His wife was Maneka. Several other places of the Himalayas became part of our historical lore. Mount Mandara was considered mighty enough during samudramanthan, churning of the milk ocean. Mandara became the home of Durga. Mount Kailash is the abode of Shiva.
Mount Meru is not delineated only in heaven and on earth, but also in individual human beings. This exegesis of the dead and the world to come finds mention in Pretakalpa of Garuda Purana – ‘In the body as it is in reality are contained all worlds, mountains, continents and seas, the sun and the other constellations…..In the triangle (supposedly, the mythological region of the heart) rises Mount Meru, in the lower corner the Mandara, in the right-hand corner the Kailash and in the left-hand corner the Himachal; on the upper side Nisadha, on the right-hand side Gandhamadana, and in the left-hand side Ramana: these are the seven mountains of the world”. Several Hindu temples including the Angkor Wat, Cambodia have been built upon symbolic representations of this mountain. The central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain. Mount Meru finds a prominent mention ata great length in Buddhist history as well.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
300 years Britain has outsourced mayhem
For 300 years Britain has outsourced mayhem. Finally it's coming home
By George Monbiot, The Guardian, London, 8 June 2009
Opium, famine and banks all played their part in this country's plundering of the globe.Now it's over, we find it hard to acceptWhy now? It's not as if this is the first time Britain's representatives have been caught out. The history of governments in all countries is the history of scandal, as those who rise to the
top are generally the most ambitious, ruthless and unscrupulous people politics can produce.
Pushing their own interests to the limit, they teeter perennially on the brink of disgrace, except when they fly clean over the edge. So why does the current ballyhoo threaten to destroy not only the government but also our antediluvian political system?
The past 15 years have produced the cash-for-questions racket, the Hinduja and Ecclestone affairs, the lies and fabrications that led to the invasion of Iraq, the forced abandonment of the BAE corruption probe, the cash-for-honours caper and the cash-for- amendments scandal. By comparison to the outright subversion of the functions of government in some of these cases, this is small beer.
Any one of them should have prompted the sweeping political reforms we are now debating. But they didn't.The expenses scandal, by contrast, could kill the Labour party. It might also force politicians of all parties to address our unjust voting system, the unelected Lords, the excessive power of the executive, the legalised blackmail used by the whips, and a score of further anachronisms and injustices. Why is it different?
I believe that the current political crisis has little to do with the expenses scandal, still less with Gordon Brown's leadership. It arises because our economic system can no longer extract wealth from other nations. For the past 300 years, the revolutions and reforms experienced by almost all other developed countries have been averted in Britain by foreign remittances.
The social unrest that might have transformed our politics was instead outsourced to our colonies and unwilling trading partners.The rebellions in Ireland, India, China, the Caribbean, Egypt, South Africa, Malaya, Kenya, Iran and other places we subjugated were the price of political peace in Britain. After decolonisation, our
plunder of other nations was sustained by the banks. Now, for the first time in three centuries, they can no longer deliver, and we must at last confront our problems.
There will probably never be a full account of the robbery this country organised, but there are a few snapshots. In his book Capitalism and Colonial Production, Hamza Alavi estimates that the resource flow from India to Britain between 1793 and 1803 was in the order of £2m a year, the equivalent of many billions today.
The economic drain from India, he notes, "has not only been a major factor in India's impoverishment … it has also been a very significant factor in the industrial revolution in Britain". As Ralph Davis observes in “The Industrial Revolution and British Overseas Trade,:” from the 1760s onwards India's wealth "bought the national debt back from the Dutch and others … leaving Britain nearly free from overseas indebtedness when it came to face the great French wars from 1793".
In France by contrast, as Eric Hobsbawm notes in “The Age of Revolution,” "the financial troubles of the monarchy brought matters to a head". In 1788 half of France's national expenditure was used to service its debt: the "American War and its debt broke the back of the monarchy".
Even as the French were overthrowing the ancien regime, Britain's landed classes were able to strengthen their economic power, seizing common property from the country's poor by means of enclosure.Partly as a result of remittances from India and the Caribbean, the economy was booming and the state had the funds to ride out
political crises.
Later, after smashing India's own industrial capacity, Britain forced that country to become a major export market for our manufactured goods, sustaining industrial employment here (and avoiding social unrest) long after our products and processes became uncompetitive.
Colonial plunder permitted the British state to balance its resource deficits as well. For some 200 years a river of food flowed into this country from such places as Ireland, India and the Caribbean. In “The Blood Never Dried,” John Newsinger reveals that in 1748,Jamaica alone sent 17,400 tons of sugar to Britain; by 1815 this had risen to 73,800. It was all produced by stolen labour.
Just as grain was sucked out of Ireland at the height of its great famine, so Britain continued to drain India of food during its catastrophic hungers. In “Late Victorian Holocausts,” Mike Davis shows that between 1876 and 1877 wheat exports to the UK from India doubled as subsistence there collapsed, and several million died of> starvation. In the North-Western provinces famine was wholly engineered by British policy, as good harvests were exported to offset poor English production in 1876 and 1877.
Britain, in other words, outsourced famine as well as social unrest. There was terrible poverty in this country in the second half of the 9th century, but not mass starvation. The bad harvest of 1788 helped precipitate the French revolution, but the British state avoided such hazards. Others died on our behalf.
In the late 19th century, Davis shows, Britain's vast deficits with the United States, Germany and its white dominions were balanced by huge annual surpluses with India and (as a result of the opium trade) China. For a generation "the starving Indian and Chinese peasantries … braced the entire system of international settlements,allowing England's continued financial supremacy to temporarily co- exist with its relative industrial decline". Britain's trade surpluses with India allowed the city to become the world's financial capital.
Its role in British colonisation was not a passive one. The bankruptcy, and subsequent British takeover, of Egypt in 1882 was hastened by a loan from Rothschild's bank whose execution, Newsinger records, amounted to "fraud on a massive scale".
Jardine Matheson, once the biggest narco-trafficking outfit in history (it dominated the Chinese opium trade), later formed a major investment bank, Jardine Fleming. It was taken over by JP Morgan Chase in 2000.
We lost our colonies, but the plunder has continued by other means. As Joseph Stiglitz shows in “Globalisation and its Discontents,” the capital liberalisation forced on Asian economies by the IMF permitted northern traders to loot hundreds of billions of dollars, precipitating the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98.
Poorer nations have also been strong-armed into a series of amazingly one-sided treaties and commitments, such as trade-related investment measures, bilateral investment agreements and the EU's economic partnership agreements. If you have ever wondered how a small, densely populated country which produces very little supports
itself, I would urge you to study these asymmetric arrangements.
But now, as John Lanchester demonstrates in a fascinating essay in the London Review of Books, the City could be fatally wounded. The nation that relied on financial services may take generations to recover from their collapse. The great British adventure – three centuries spent pillaging the labour, wealth and resources of other countries – is over. We cannot accept this, and seek gleeful revenge on
a government that can no longer insulate us from reality.
By George Monbiot, The Guardian, London, 8 June 2009
Opium, famine and banks all played their part in this country's plundering of the globe.Now it's over, we find it hard to acceptWhy now? It's not as if this is the first time Britain's representatives have been caught out. The history of governments in all countries is the history of scandal, as those who rise to the
top are generally the most ambitious, ruthless and unscrupulous people politics can produce.
Pushing their own interests to the limit, they teeter perennially on the brink of disgrace, except when they fly clean over the edge. So why does the current ballyhoo threaten to destroy not only the government but also our antediluvian political system?
The past 15 years have produced the cash-for-questions racket, the Hinduja and Ecclestone affairs, the lies and fabrications that led to the invasion of Iraq, the forced abandonment of the BAE corruption probe, the cash-for-honours caper and the cash-for- amendments scandal. By comparison to the outright subversion of the functions of government in some of these cases, this is small beer.
Any one of them should have prompted the sweeping political reforms we are now debating. But they didn't.The expenses scandal, by contrast, could kill the Labour party. It might also force politicians of all parties to address our unjust voting system, the unelected Lords, the excessive power of the executive, the legalised blackmail used by the whips, and a score of further anachronisms and injustices. Why is it different?
I believe that the current political crisis has little to do with the expenses scandal, still less with Gordon Brown's leadership. It arises because our economic system can no longer extract wealth from other nations. For the past 300 years, the revolutions and reforms experienced by almost all other developed countries have been averted in Britain by foreign remittances.
The social unrest that might have transformed our politics was instead outsourced to our colonies and unwilling trading partners.The rebellions in Ireland, India, China, the Caribbean, Egypt, South Africa, Malaya, Kenya, Iran and other places we subjugated were the price of political peace in Britain. After decolonisation, our
plunder of other nations was sustained by the banks. Now, for the first time in three centuries, they can no longer deliver, and we must at last confront our problems.
There will probably never be a full account of the robbery this country organised, but there are a few snapshots. In his book Capitalism and Colonial Production, Hamza Alavi estimates that the resource flow from India to Britain between 1793 and 1803 was in the order of £2m a year, the equivalent of many billions today.
The economic drain from India, he notes, "has not only been a major factor in India's impoverishment … it has also been a very significant factor in the industrial revolution in Britain". As Ralph Davis observes in “The Industrial Revolution and British Overseas Trade,:” from the 1760s onwards India's wealth "bought the national debt back from the Dutch and others … leaving Britain nearly free from overseas indebtedness when it came to face the great French wars from 1793".
In France by contrast, as Eric Hobsbawm notes in “The Age of Revolution,” "the financial troubles of the monarchy brought matters to a head". In 1788 half of France's national expenditure was used to service its debt: the "American War and its debt broke the back of the monarchy".
Even as the French were overthrowing the ancien regime, Britain's landed classes were able to strengthen their economic power, seizing common property from the country's poor by means of enclosure.Partly as a result of remittances from India and the Caribbean, the economy was booming and the state had the funds to ride out
political crises.
Later, after smashing India's own industrial capacity, Britain forced that country to become a major export market for our manufactured goods, sustaining industrial employment here (and avoiding social unrest) long after our products and processes became uncompetitive.
Colonial plunder permitted the British state to balance its resource deficits as well. For some 200 years a river of food flowed into this country from such places as Ireland, India and the Caribbean. In “The Blood Never Dried,” John Newsinger reveals that in 1748,Jamaica alone sent 17,400 tons of sugar to Britain; by 1815 this had risen to 73,800. It was all produced by stolen labour.
Just as grain was sucked out of Ireland at the height of its great famine, so Britain continued to drain India of food during its catastrophic hungers. In “Late Victorian Holocausts,” Mike Davis shows that between 1876 and 1877 wheat exports to the UK from India doubled as subsistence there collapsed, and several million died of> starvation. In the North-Western provinces famine was wholly engineered by British policy, as good harvests were exported to offset poor English production in 1876 and 1877.
Britain, in other words, outsourced famine as well as social unrest. There was terrible poverty in this country in the second half of the 9th century, but not mass starvation. The bad harvest of 1788 helped precipitate the French revolution, but the British state avoided such hazards. Others died on our behalf.
In the late 19th century, Davis shows, Britain's vast deficits with the United States, Germany and its white dominions were balanced by huge annual surpluses with India and (as a result of the opium trade) China. For a generation "the starving Indian and Chinese peasantries … braced the entire system of international settlements,allowing England's continued financial supremacy to temporarily co- exist with its relative industrial decline". Britain's trade surpluses with India allowed the city to become the world's financial capital.
Its role in British colonisation was not a passive one. The bankruptcy, and subsequent British takeover, of Egypt in 1882 was hastened by a loan from Rothschild's bank whose execution, Newsinger records, amounted to "fraud on a massive scale".
Jardine Matheson, once the biggest narco-trafficking outfit in history (it dominated the Chinese opium trade), later formed a major investment bank, Jardine Fleming. It was taken over by JP Morgan Chase in 2000.
We lost our colonies, but the plunder has continued by other means. As Joseph Stiglitz shows in “Globalisation and its Discontents,” the capital liberalisation forced on Asian economies by the IMF permitted northern traders to loot hundreds of billions of dollars, precipitating the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98.
Poorer nations have also been strong-armed into a series of amazingly one-sided treaties and commitments, such as trade-related investment measures, bilateral investment agreements and the EU's economic partnership agreements. If you have ever wondered how a small, densely populated country which produces very little supports
itself, I would urge you to study these asymmetric arrangements.
But now, as John Lanchester demonstrates in a fascinating essay in the London Review of Books, the City could be fatally wounded. The nation that relied on financial services may take generations to recover from their collapse. The great British adventure – three centuries spent pillaging the labour, wealth and resources of other countries – is over. We cannot accept this, and seek gleeful revenge on
a government that can no longer insulate us from reality.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Government sleeps as Country protests Oz racist brutes
Racist violence against Indian students in Australia shocks the nation
"Racism is man’s gravest threat to man for a minimum of reason."
By Prof Prasanna Deshpande
Will anyone believe the Australian ambassador’s version of the mindless attacks on Indian students in Australia that those attacks were an act of burglars trying to rob off the Indian students and not racist attacks? The envoy only tried to soften the gravity and brutality of the matter. But this attempt to mollify the malicious intentions of the attackers can be clearly exposed when one considers the number, frequency and the common factors in all those brazen attacks on the Indian students in Australia or elsewhere in the world. The commonest factor is that many of those Indian victims of the atrocious treatment given by the natives belong to the Indian students’ community in Australia. It freezes the mind of any sensible human being to know that the so-called developed and progressive-minded European and American countries are still having the barbarous elements in their society like the primitive humans who killed one another when their share in the prey was threatened by the growing number of other humans. Or shall we believe that these attempts and the psychology behind them are just a physical activity of the psychological frustration that the Europeans are having owing to the growing number of Indians doing well abroad and the rapidly increasing credibility of the Indian brand across the world?
If this is the case, as it seems to be, let us not allow any of the so-called progressive-minded Europeans charge Indians for our internal provincial practices. We will sort out our own differences without their meddling. Is it not jarring to our ears to hear that the Aussie police, instead of correcting their natives of the atrocity practised against Indian students, are asking the Indian students to live there on a low profile, not to make too many friends, live at the city- outskirts, and so on as if the Indian students are involved in some anti-social activities?
Just as a man is known by his culture, so is with a country. MK Gandhi said, “A man’s character can be known by the way he treats his subordinates and his guests.” While the Indian students in the UK, Australia, America or elsewhere are being maltreated, it would be worthwhile for us and would be an eye-opening experience to those extremist elements abroad to know that Indians are still living with age-old practice of “atithi devo bhava” (guest is to be treated as God).
One instance of this warmth and practice of integration between Indian society and foreign students in India is the activities and programmes organised by the World Organization of Students and Youth (WOSY).
Established in the International Year of Youth, 1985, WOSY is an international body of the young. It strives to help humankind in its search for happiness and fulfilment. Most such ideas that saw conflict by exhorting rampant exploitation of nature, control over shared resources and unbridled consumption have failed. A new thinking towards a more harmonious and sustainable life system has become all the more necessary. The failed old order is dying; the new is yet to be born. WOSY is an effort to accelerate the process of search for a new order that unites the mankind.
WOSY is the mobilisation of the students and youth in the quest of a new—all encompassing— political, economic, social, technological- world order that is just and lasting. Therefore, WOSY promotes friendship and cooperation among the youth across the globe. WOSY supports peace and co-existence, by bringing youth from diverse civilisations and ethnic context together. Thus, WOSY fosters better international understanding. WOSY stands against discrimination. It believes in one indivisible universe and is driven by the age-old Indian precept that “the world is a family”.
WOSY was launched in New Delhi on October 29, 1985, on the occasion of the International Youth Year Conference, in the midst of 11,000 Indian and foreign students delegates. Swami Ranganathananda, president of Shri Ramakrishna Ashram, and Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) Arjan Singh participated in the inaugural conference.
The organisation has a one-word inspiration, namely, India, the country with a tremendous variety of cultural expression, which has made India the world’s great spiritual tradition. The Indian subcontinent is not that large; in order to live together in peace Indians have learned to respect each others’ deities and forms of culture. And this spirit of tolerance has made India a heaven for refugees from other spiritual faiths. When the Zoroastrians were persecuted in Iran, for example, many fled to western India. When the Vajrayana Buddhists were expelled from Tibet, they were embraced in northern India where Dalai Lama has established his new seat. When the Mandeans of Iraq, the last of an ancient Semitic sect that used to be called Nazarenes (they claim John the Baptist as one of their historical teachers), were persecuted by the Muslims, many of them moved to India. According to Mandean mythology, when Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, they too fled to India. Like a mother protecting her children, India has been taking care of the foreign guests coming to India. This tremendous spirit of tolerance is a clear sign of spiritual maturity. Can one imagine how much bloodshed could have been prevented if people around the world had understood that fundamental fact?
Youth, the world over, is being aggressively wooed by the sectarian and supremacist ideologies. These ideas often define the ‘other’ as enemies and seek their elimination. Invariably, these ideologies do not mind violent and destructive means. The attacks on Indian students abroad are an outcome of such destructive ideologies. WOSY strongly condemns these attacks. WOSY is an attempt to halt, cap and reverse this trend. With this end in view, WOSY is an international effort.
Since its inception WOSY has spread up its activities in the Indian cities like, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Agra, Shimla, Jaipur, Mysore, Pune and New Delhi as its central offices. So far WOSY has organised massive conferences and seminars on many leading current international issues like terrorism, commercialisation of education, impact of globalisation on higher education, etc. Likewise, it also organises programmes of cultural integration, to name a few, the Diwali Fest that took place at the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce in Pune, a seminar on Tibet issue in Garware College, a tour to Mahabaleshwar, an industry tour to the KPIT company and so on.
In the current times of racial discriminations against Indian students abroad WOSY hopes the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and in not too distant future, the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our world with all their scintillating beauty.
(The writer is president of WOSY, Pune Chapter.)
"Racism is man’s gravest threat to man for a minimum of reason."
By Prof Prasanna Deshpande
Will anyone believe the Australian ambassador’s version of the mindless attacks on Indian students in Australia that those attacks were an act of burglars trying to rob off the Indian students and not racist attacks? The envoy only tried to soften the gravity and brutality of the matter. But this attempt to mollify the malicious intentions of the attackers can be clearly exposed when one considers the number, frequency and the common factors in all those brazen attacks on the Indian students in Australia or elsewhere in the world. The commonest factor is that many of those Indian victims of the atrocious treatment given by the natives belong to the Indian students’ community in Australia. It freezes the mind of any sensible human being to know that the so-called developed and progressive-minded European and American countries are still having the barbarous elements in their society like the primitive humans who killed one another when their share in the prey was threatened by the growing number of other humans. Or shall we believe that these attempts and the psychology behind them are just a physical activity of the psychological frustration that the Europeans are having owing to the growing number of Indians doing well abroad and the rapidly increasing credibility of the Indian brand across the world?
If this is the case, as it seems to be, let us not allow any of the so-called progressive-minded Europeans charge Indians for our internal provincial practices. We will sort out our own differences without their meddling. Is it not jarring to our ears to hear that the Aussie police, instead of correcting their natives of the atrocity practised against Indian students, are asking the Indian students to live there on a low profile, not to make too many friends, live at the city- outskirts, and so on as if the Indian students are involved in some anti-social activities?
Just as a man is known by his culture, so is with a country. MK Gandhi said, “A man’s character can be known by the way he treats his subordinates and his guests.” While the Indian students in the UK, Australia, America or elsewhere are being maltreated, it would be worthwhile for us and would be an eye-opening experience to those extremist elements abroad to know that Indians are still living with age-old practice of “atithi devo bhava” (guest is to be treated as God).
One instance of this warmth and practice of integration between Indian society and foreign students in India is the activities and programmes organised by the World Organization of Students and Youth (WOSY).
Established in the International Year of Youth, 1985, WOSY is an international body of the young. It strives to help humankind in its search for happiness and fulfilment. Most such ideas that saw conflict by exhorting rampant exploitation of nature, control over shared resources and unbridled consumption have failed. A new thinking towards a more harmonious and sustainable life system has become all the more necessary. The failed old order is dying; the new is yet to be born. WOSY is an effort to accelerate the process of search for a new order that unites the mankind.
WOSY is the mobilisation of the students and youth in the quest of a new—all encompassing— political, economic, social, technological- world order that is just and lasting. Therefore, WOSY promotes friendship and cooperation among the youth across the globe. WOSY supports peace and co-existence, by bringing youth from diverse civilisations and ethnic context together. Thus, WOSY fosters better international understanding. WOSY stands against discrimination. It believes in one indivisible universe and is driven by the age-old Indian precept that “the world is a family”.
WOSY was launched in New Delhi on October 29, 1985, on the occasion of the International Youth Year Conference, in the midst of 11,000 Indian and foreign students delegates. Swami Ranganathananda, president of Shri Ramakrishna Ashram, and Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) Arjan Singh participated in the inaugural conference.
The organisation has a one-word inspiration, namely, India, the country with a tremendous variety of cultural expression, which has made India the world’s great spiritual tradition. The Indian subcontinent is not that large; in order to live together in peace Indians have learned to respect each others’ deities and forms of culture. And this spirit of tolerance has made India a heaven for refugees from other spiritual faiths. When the Zoroastrians were persecuted in Iran, for example, many fled to western India. When the Vajrayana Buddhists were expelled from Tibet, they were embraced in northern India where Dalai Lama has established his new seat. When the Mandeans of Iraq, the last of an ancient Semitic sect that used to be called Nazarenes (they claim John the Baptist as one of their historical teachers), were persecuted by the Muslims, many of them moved to India. According to Mandean mythology, when Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, they too fled to India. Like a mother protecting her children, India has been taking care of the foreign guests coming to India. This tremendous spirit of tolerance is a clear sign of spiritual maturity. Can one imagine how much bloodshed could have been prevented if people around the world had understood that fundamental fact?
Youth, the world over, is being aggressively wooed by the sectarian and supremacist ideologies. These ideas often define the ‘other’ as enemies and seek their elimination. Invariably, these ideologies do not mind violent and destructive means. The attacks on Indian students abroad are an outcome of such destructive ideologies. WOSY strongly condemns these attacks. WOSY is an attempt to halt, cap and reverse this trend. With this end in view, WOSY is an international effort.
Since its inception WOSY has spread up its activities in the Indian cities like, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Agra, Shimla, Jaipur, Mysore, Pune and New Delhi as its central offices. So far WOSY has organised massive conferences and seminars on many leading current international issues like terrorism, commercialisation of education, impact of globalisation on higher education, etc. Likewise, it also organises programmes of cultural integration, to name a few, the Diwali Fest that took place at the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce in Pune, a seminar on Tibet issue in Garware College, a tour to Mahabaleshwar, an industry tour to the KPIT company and so on.
In the current times of racial discriminations against Indian students abroad WOSY hopes the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and in not too distant future, the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our world with all their scintillating beauty.
(The writer is president of WOSY, Pune Chapter.)
Sri Aurobindo’s vision of India
Power of the Indian mind and Sri Aurobindo’s vision of India and the world
By Jagmohan
What a discerning eye sees around is that in practically every walk of life, be it intellectual, social, political or cultural, reverse gear has been in operation and key activities are now virtually controlled by blind men with lantern in their hands.
A regenerated India alone, Sri Aurobindo thought, could free the world from its “enslavement to materialism” and for pointing to it the “way towards a dynamic integration of Spirit and Matter and to make life perfect with Divine Perfection.” He believed that a great evolution was the real goal of humanity.
The ‘mighty evil’ that had invaded the Indian mind and soul was, to a large extent, beaten back by a galaxy of profound thinkers and reformers who brought about a new awakening that led to the great renaissance of the later nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
Every nation has its own special attributes. The special attribute of Germany is its organisation, of the US its enterprise, of Japan its adaptability and of Great Britain its balance. The hallmark of India, in the hey-day of her civilisation, has been the power and profundity of her mind and the purity and punctiliousness of her soul.
It was this power and purity which had made the Indian civilisation as one of the most creative and constructive civilisations of the ancient world. In his own inimitable style, Sri Aurobindo had noted: “For three thousand years at least—it is indeed much longer –she has been creating abundantly and incessantly, lavishly, with an inexhaustible many-sidedness, republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts worldly, trades, industries, fine crafts—the list is endless and in each item there is almost a plethora of activity”.
It were the saints and sages of ancient India who, by virtue of their disposition to ponder over, in great depth and in utter solitude, on the mysteries of life, had injected power and potency in the Indian mind. In turn, this power and potency had added to the capacity of the sages and saints to think still more deeply on the phenomena around. The cycle of mutual reinforcement went on, and the sage and saints moved silently, in the inner recesses of their mind, ‘from unreal to real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality’.
One of the fundamental truths discovered was that the universe was an organic web in which every item of life and nature were inextricably enmeshed with every other item and that this web was permeated with cosmic force of which man and nature were the constituents as well as contributors.
Many other principles of living in balance and harmony with nature were also evolved. A philosophic structure, in the form of Vedanta, was raised and a way of attaining elevation of mind and moving towards truth, while carrying out day-to-day work, was indicated through a comprehensive system of yoga.
Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, which need not be gone into here, the power of the Indian mind, which had produced profound systems and structures of the genre indicated above, began to wane after the seventh century. Soon, there was a near total desertification of the Indian mind, with small meadows of green appearing here and there occasionally.
The ‘mighty evil’ that had invaded the Indian mind and soul was, to a large extent, beaten back by a galaxy of profound thinkers and reformers who brought about a new awakening that led to the great renaissance of the later nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Out of the stalwarts of renaissance, Sri Aurobindo emerged as the strongest champion of the Indian spirit and expressed the highest confidence in its underlying strength. In no uncertain terms, he declared: “India cannot perish, our race cannot become extinct, because among all the divisions of mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonise all religions, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul”.
In Sri Aurobindo’s thought, the Sanatana Dharma and India always appear as the two sides of the same coin. But in his famous Uttarapar speech, delivered on May 30, 1909, he placed the former at a higher pedestal. He expressed his belief in these memorable words: “When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world.”
Sri Aurobindo makes it clear that the Sanatana Dharma is designed to uplift the entire human race and not merely the Hindus: “What is this religion which we call Sanatana, eternal. It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it, … But it is not circumscribed by the confines of single country. That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion because it is the universal religion which embraces all others”.
It needs to be underlined that in the post-Uttarpara-speech period, Sri Aurobindo committed himself mainly to the liberation of human consciousness. He made it clear: “Spirituality is India’s only politics, the fulfillment of the Sanatana Dharma is only Swaraj.” A regenerated India alone, he thought, could free the world from its “enslavement to materialism” and for pointing to it the “way towards a dynamic integration of Spirit and Matter and to make life perfect with Divine Perfection.” He believed that a great evolution was the real goal of humanity.
After Sri Aurobindo’s thought had undergone a subtle shift at Uttarpara on May 30, 1909, his vision was to liberate India’s consciousness and bring back Sanatana Dharma as her national religion—a religion which is all embracing, non-sectarian and eternal. His vision was to build a nation of Karmayogis who would have a higher consciousness, get rid of their egos, desires and attachments, have no joy over their successes and no grief over their failures, achieve inner rather than outer renunciation, perform passionless and impersonal actions and take themselves to such a height where no distinction is kept between their wills and the will of the Divine and truth of non-duality of existence is fully realised. And, further, his vision was to make us of India’s heritage and cause a situation in which human life would become the Life Divine—‘a perfect expression’ of the Divine Essence.
But what is position today? Has not a deep and dark shadows fallen between Sri Aurobindo’s vision and the reality that obtains in India today? Do we find Karmayogis around or see signs of liberation of India’s spirit? Has there been any advance towards spirituality or higher level of human consciousness?
Clearly, the answer to all such questions is in the negative. On the other hand, what a discerning eye sees around is that in practically every walk of life, be it intellectual, social, political or cultural, reverse gear has been in operation and key activities are now virtually controlled by blind men with lantern in their hands.
On the centenary day—May 30, 2009—of Uttarpara Speech, let all the students and teachers of Sri Aurobindo’s school of thought resolve that they would not lose heart on account of current dismal scenario and would work with a renewed sense of mission to ensure that vision of the great prophet of twentieth century is fulfilled. Undoubtedly, the task is Herculean, the goal is distant and would take a long time to traverse. But let us not forget that even the longest journey begins with the first step.
By Jagmohan
What a discerning eye sees around is that in practically every walk of life, be it intellectual, social, political or cultural, reverse gear has been in operation and key activities are now virtually controlled by blind men with lantern in their hands.
A regenerated India alone, Sri Aurobindo thought, could free the world from its “enslavement to materialism” and for pointing to it the “way towards a dynamic integration of Spirit and Matter and to make life perfect with Divine Perfection.” He believed that a great evolution was the real goal of humanity.
The ‘mighty evil’ that had invaded the Indian mind and soul was, to a large extent, beaten back by a galaxy of profound thinkers and reformers who brought about a new awakening that led to the great renaissance of the later nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
Every nation has its own special attributes. The special attribute of Germany is its organisation, of the US its enterprise, of Japan its adaptability and of Great Britain its balance. The hallmark of India, in the hey-day of her civilisation, has been the power and profundity of her mind and the purity and punctiliousness of her soul.
It was this power and purity which had made the Indian civilisation as one of the most creative and constructive civilisations of the ancient world. In his own inimitable style, Sri Aurobindo had noted: “For three thousand years at least—it is indeed much longer –she has been creating abundantly and incessantly, lavishly, with an inexhaustible many-sidedness, republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts worldly, trades, industries, fine crafts—the list is endless and in each item there is almost a plethora of activity”.
It were the saints and sages of ancient India who, by virtue of their disposition to ponder over, in great depth and in utter solitude, on the mysteries of life, had injected power and potency in the Indian mind. In turn, this power and potency had added to the capacity of the sages and saints to think still more deeply on the phenomena around. The cycle of mutual reinforcement went on, and the sage and saints moved silently, in the inner recesses of their mind, ‘from unreal to real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality’.
One of the fundamental truths discovered was that the universe was an organic web in which every item of life and nature were inextricably enmeshed with every other item and that this web was permeated with cosmic force of which man and nature were the constituents as well as contributors.
Many other principles of living in balance and harmony with nature were also evolved. A philosophic structure, in the form of Vedanta, was raised and a way of attaining elevation of mind and moving towards truth, while carrying out day-to-day work, was indicated through a comprehensive system of yoga.
Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, which need not be gone into here, the power of the Indian mind, which had produced profound systems and structures of the genre indicated above, began to wane after the seventh century. Soon, there was a near total desertification of the Indian mind, with small meadows of green appearing here and there occasionally.
The ‘mighty evil’ that had invaded the Indian mind and soul was, to a large extent, beaten back by a galaxy of profound thinkers and reformers who brought about a new awakening that led to the great renaissance of the later nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Out of the stalwarts of renaissance, Sri Aurobindo emerged as the strongest champion of the Indian spirit and expressed the highest confidence in its underlying strength. In no uncertain terms, he declared: “India cannot perish, our race cannot become extinct, because among all the divisions of mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonise all religions, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul”.
In Sri Aurobindo’s thought, the Sanatana Dharma and India always appear as the two sides of the same coin. But in his famous Uttarapar speech, delivered on May 30, 1909, he placed the former at a higher pedestal. He expressed his belief in these memorable words: “When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world.”
Sri Aurobindo makes it clear that the Sanatana Dharma is designed to uplift the entire human race and not merely the Hindus: “What is this religion which we call Sanatana, eternal. It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it, … But it is not circumscribed by the confines of single country. That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion because it is the universal religion which embraces all others”.
It needs to be underlined that in the post-Uttarpara-speech period, Sri Aurobindo committed himself mainly to the liberation of human consciousness. He made it clear: “Spirituality is India’s only politics, the fulfillment of the Sanatana Dharma is only Swaraj.” A regenerated India alone, he thought, could free the world from its “enslavement to materialism” and for pointing to it the “way towards a dynamic integration of Spirit and Matter and to make life perfect with Divine Perfection.” He believed that a great evolution was the real goal of humanity.
After Sri Aurobindo’s thought had undergone a subtle shift at Uttarpara on May 30, 1909, his vision was to liberate India’s consciousness and bring back Sanatana Dharma as her national religion—a religion which is all embracing, non-sectarian and eternal. His vision was to build a nation of Karmayogis who would have a higher consciousness, get rid of their egos, desires and attachments, have no joy over their successes and no grief over their failures, achieve inner rather than outer renunciation, perform passionless and impersonal actions and take themselves to such a height where no distinction is kept between their wills and the will of the Divine and truth of non-duality of existence is fully realised. And, further, his vision was to make us of India’s heritage and cause a situation in which human life would become the Life Divine—‘a perfect expression’ of the Divine Essence.
But what is position today? Has not a deep and dark shadows fallen between Sri Aurobindo’s vision and the reality that obtains in India today? Do we find Karmayogis around or see signs of liberation of India’s spirit? Has there been any advance towards spirituality or higher level of human consciousness?
Clearly, the answer to all such questions is in the negative. On the other hand, what a discerning eye sees around is that in practically every walk of life, be it intellectual, social, political or cultural, reverse gear has been in operation and key activities are now virtually controlled by blind men with lantern in their hands.
On the centenary day—May 30, 2009—of Uttarpara Speech, let all the students and teachers of Sri Aurobindo’s school of thought resolve that they would not lose heart on account of current dismal scenario and would work with a renewed sense of mission to ensure that vision of the great prophet of twentieth century is fulfilled. Undoubtedly, the task is Herculean, the goal is distant and would take a long time to traverse. But let us not forget that even the longest journey begins with the first step.
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