Satyam vada

A good poem on Independence

2008-08-15T05:05:00.005+05:30

यह न समझो देश को स्वाधीनता यों ही मिली हें |

हर कली इस बाग की कुछ खून पी कर ही खिली हैं ||

बिछ गये वो नीव में दीवार के नीचे गढ़े हैं |

महल अपने शहीदों की छातियों पर खड़े हैं ||

नीव के पत्थर तुम्हे सौगंध अपनी दे रहे|

जो धरोहर दी तुम्हे हाथ से जाने न देना ||

राष्ट्रा के शृंगार मेरे देश के साकार सपनों|

देश की स्वाधीनता पर आँच तुम आने न देना||

It happens only in India...

2008-05-14T02:24:00.008+05:30

Yet again, another one! This time the venue is Jaipur. Shame on the government and shame on the people. Why does it only happen in India? Why not in the kafir land of US or Israel? Because, they know how to tackle such issues. We do not.

Now, the common man is sitting in front of the idiot box, with his eyes wide open, expressing his commiseration towards the victims. There will be a hue and cry for one or two days. The next day every thing palls away, life gets back to normal and he is now busy watching IPL or any other stupid program, completely oblivious of the fact that he is going to be the next victim. It happens only in India…

Thanks to our puppet PM and his government for removing POTA. This has eventually exacerbated the terror activities in the country and the result is in front of us. We all know what has happened to Terrorist Afsal. Leftists, human rights activists, all came forward to condemn the verdict of death sentence. Where are they now? It happens only in India….

Narendra Modi has rightly said in an election rally in Bangalore to our puppet PM’s statement after the failed Glasgow bombings -- that he could not sleep at night thinking about Dr Haneef's plight in Australia -- Modi quipped, "How is it that the Prime Minister gets sleep when we lose so many jawans to terrorism every day?" It has been more than sixty years since our Independence. We still have the problems, they have taken a different form. To name a few: Naxalism, the plight of Kashmir and North East, and farmer suicides; which are equally grave compared to the terror attacks. Perhaps, even more graver. We just don’t hear them, as their frequency is beyond the audible range, because they don’t appear any where in the media. Thanks to the media, for all the sensation they create on stupid things. They are more concerned on IPL rather on the issues concerning the nation. It was no surprise for me when I read this on rediff in the same column where the news of attack was reported: “Indian Premier League Commisioner Lalit Modi said the league match scheduled to be played in Jaipur on Saturday will go on as planned”. It happens only in India….

The Poverty Line

2007-11-06T13:49:00.000+05:30

About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds. It may be severe in most parts of Africa. But the situation in India is no different, where more than half the population is waging a battle against hunger. The statistics reveal that the situation was even more worse before.

In India, the below poverty line has been decreasing from 56% in the 70's to as low as 26% today. With this rate, it would take nearly about 20 more years to completely eradicate poverty. The economists say that the day is imminent. Theoretically, yes! After all, these are facts with no exaggeration. But on what basis are these figures estimated? What is the definition of this poverty line?

The World Bank's definition of the poverty line for under developed countries, like India, is US$ 1/day/person. As per this definition, more than 80% of all Indians are, probably, below the poverty line. Thanks to our politicians, they had come up with a novel idea of keeping this number as low as possible. This goes back to the 1970s; at that time, they decided to measure poverty levels by considering a minimum nutritional level. More accurately, the measure was the amount of money required to buy food equivalent to this nutritional level. As per this, a person requires 2400 calories in rural areas and 2200 calories in urban areas. To meet this standard set by the Govt. of India, a person living in urban area requires Rs. 540/month, which is Rs.18 a day; and for a person living in urban area it is around Rs.12 a day. If you earned more than this amount, you are above the poverty line. Assuming that the person spends the whole of his salary for his energy requirement. How and where is he or she supposed to cook it? What about the minimum needs in housing, health services, clothing and other basic necessities? Is a person supposed to live on pavements and sleep under trees from birth till death? Essentially, it defines someone as poor, who is not starving to death. As long as I am not dying of hunger, I am not considered poor.

Even with such a fallacious definition, 26% of the population is still below the poverty line. Which means one out of every four persons in India cannot even afford the minimum food required for his existence. I was even more appalled after going through the data of the recently conducted survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). According to which, about 836 million people in India (77%) live on less than Rs. 20 a day [Ref:http://www.rediff.com/india60/2007/sep/18india60.htm]. How pathetic this is!

An average person in India, spends about one-third of his salary on food. If we re-define the poverty line by making it '...thrice the amount required for ...', more than 80% of the population will come below the poverty line. In such a case India would be in close competition with the African nations. The case of China is even more ridiculous, where the poverty line is set to 0.2$(US)/day/person, which has only 10% of the population below the poverty line. Only the God knows what the real statistics are!

Having such a huge population living in abject poverty, I get to see no one in my vicinity. I still wonder, why am I so detached from the 'Real India'? I can only find people who are way ahead of this poverty line, yet, they are unsatisfied. Why is there so much disparity? Why are they children of lesser god?

The Dance of Shiva -the cosmic dance

2007-09-12T02:00:00.001+05:30

The Dance of shiva represented in the form of Nataraja is symbolic of the dynamic aspect of the Ultimate Reality.The dance of Shiva is said to symbolize the five divine acts of creation, sustenance, dissolution, concealment and bestowment of grace. The belief is that Lord Shiva danced the Universe into existence, motivates it, and will eventually extinguish it.

The parallel between Shiva's dance and the dance of subatomic particles was first discussed by Fritjof Capra. Shiva's cosmic dance then became a central metaphor in Capra's international bestseller 'The Tao of Physics', first published in 1975. I have extracted the following article from his book 'The Tao of Physics'.

-----
I (Fritjof Capra) was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. Being a physicist, I knew that the sand, rocks, water and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles. I knew also that the Earth's atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers of 'cosmic rays', particles of high energy undergoing multiple collisions as they penetrated the air. All this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment I had only experienced it through graphs, diagrams and mathematical theories. As I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life; I 'saw' cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I 'saw' the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I 'heard' its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of shiva, the lord of Dancers, worshiped by the Hindus.

The exploration of the subatomic world in the twentieth century has revealed the intrinsically dynamic nature of matter. It has shown that the constituents of atoms, the subatomic particles, the dynamic patterns which do not exist as isolated entities, but as integral parts of an inseparable network of interactions. These interactions involve a ceaseless flow of energy manifesting itself as the exchange of particles; a dynamic interplay in which particles are created and destroyed without end in a continual variation of energy patterns. The particle interactions give rise to stable structures which build up the material world, which again do no remain static, but oscillate in rhythmic movements. The whole universe is thus engaged in endless motion and activity; in a continual cosmic dance of energy.

The ideas of rhythm and dance naturally come into mind when one tries to imagine the flow of energy going through the patterns that make up the particle world. Modern physics has shown us that movement and rhythm are essential properties of matter; that all matter, whether here in earth or in outer space, is involved in continual cosmic dance.

The eastern mystics have a dynamic view of the universe similar to that of modern physics, and consequently it is not surprising that they, too, have used the image of dance to convey their intuition of nature. The metaphor of the cosmic dance has found its most profound and beautiful expression in Hinduism in the image of the dancing god Shiva. According to Hindu belief, all life is part of a great rhythmic process of creation and destruction, of death and rebirth, and Shiva's dance symbolizes this eternal life-death rhythm which goes on in endless cycles. Various meanings are conveyed by the complex pictorial allegory. The upper right hand of the god holds a drum to symbolize the primal sound of creation, the upper left bears a tongue of flame, the element of destruction. The balance of the two hands represents the dynamic balance of creation and destruction in the world, accentuated further by the Dancer's calm and detached face in the centre of the two hands, in which the polarity of creation and destruction is dissolved and transcended. The second right hand is raised in the sign of 'do not fear', symbolizing maintenance, protection and peace, while the remaining left hand points down to the uplifted foot which symbolizes release from the spell of maya. The god is pictured as dancing on the body of demon, the symbol of human ignorance which has to be conquered before liberation can be attained.

"His gestures wild and full of grace, precipitate the cosmic illusion; his flying arms and legs and the swaying of his torso produce - indeed, they are - the continuous creation-destruction of the universe, death exactly balancing birth, annihilation the end of every coming-forth."
~Heinrich Zimmer

For the modern physicists, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. The metaphor of cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art, and modern physics.

-----
By Fritjof Capra

How amazing is the range of thought of our Rishis. In Hindudharma, religion, arts, philosophy etc are so closely inter-related that they are inseparable. Everything was aimed at perceiving that Ultimate Reality. Great indeed are our sages, who could convey the message of the Ultimate Reality even to the lay-man in the form of arts, mythology etc.

There is no doubt that our Indian civilization was far advanced in scientific/philosophical field. Studying them and deciphering the content would help us advance further and in the right direction. What is being done at present, may be, is just re-inventing the wheel. The world is probably going through the act of rediscovering all that had already been done during the times of Vedic Seers. We already possess a bounty of knowledge, a treasure trove of scientific excellence, unaware, and without a care. Time is running out. It is time to unveil the secrets, unravel the mystery and enjoy the fruits of scientific wonders, to benefit the entire Human race.

"In all the world, there is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of the individuals, but it is a false construction.... The only solution to the conflict insofar as any is available to us in the ancient wisdom of Upanishads. "
~Erwin Schroedinger (writes in his book 'My view of World')

He wished to see:
"Some blood transfusion from the east to the west, to save the western science from spiritual anemia."

On June 18, 2004, an unusual new landmark was unveiled at CERN, the European Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva — a 2m tall statue of the Indian deity Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of Dance. The statue, symbolizing Shiva's cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was given to CERN by the Indian government to celebrate the research center's long association with India.

The Muslims, as I think...

2006-09-27T13:18:00.000+05:30

The Muslim of India is akin to the Hindu and has no resemblance whatsoever to the Muslim in Turkey, Iran or any Arab country. In fact, the Muslims of those countries customarily refer to Muslims of India as 'Hindis' only. What then is the factor that separates local Muslims from Hindus? Most of the Muslims do not yet regard India as their home of which they must feel proud. Many regard themselves, quite wrongly, I think, as belonging to the race of conquerers. Many consider their forefathers to be Aurangazeb, Humayun etc., who are worshiped as heroes. But none of them are descendants of these alien invaders(looters?). These are a peculiar new community, being the progeny of Hindus who had been converted to Islam, many time by fraud, temptation or force. Physically they are children of Hindustan, but mentally aligned with foreign invaders.

“There is not an inch of soil of India which our forefathers did not once purchase with their blood. We cannot be false to the blood of our forefathers. India the whole of it, is therefore our heritage and it must be conquered by Islam. Expansion in the spiritual sense is an inherent necessary of our faith and implies no hatred or enmity towards the Hindus. Rather the reverse. Our ultimate Ideal should be the unification of India, spiritually as well as politically, under the banner of Islam. The final political salvation of India is not otherwise possible”
~ A.F. Khan Durrani ( writes in the preface to his book 'THE MEANING OF PAKISTAN')

Are these foreign invaders really the heroes to be adored? As the great Historian Will Durant describes ' The Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history', during which the persecution of Hindus was conducted by massive ethnic cleansing. Forced religious conversion, enslavement, desecration and demolishment of Hindu temples and ashrams, and mass-rapes of Hindu women and sexual abuse of Hindu children were common during those days. Even the great Tipu Sultan, wanted to Islamise the entire south India. He had to wage a war against the Britishers when they prevented him from doing so, as the British wanted to rule them. Is he an Indian freedom fighter?

“Kashiji ki kalaa jaati, Mathuraa masjid hoti
Shivaji na hote to sunnat hoti sab ki”
(The beauty of Benaras would have vanished, Mathura would have turned into a Masjid, and all would have been circumcised, had not Shivaji been born)

The recent controversy over the recitation of Vande mataram raises doubts about the national spirit of the Muslims. I know that forcing someone to sing VandeMataram might not inculcate patriotism in them, but opposing to such things will definitely draw a line of demarcation between the Muslims and the Hindus, which might further split the nation in two. I don't understand why they always bring religion on issues concerning the nation. On September 7, a Muslim school in Lucknow preferred to sing Mohammad Iqbal's 'saare jahan se achha..' instead of 'Vande Mataram'. The Muslims should understand the fact that, even though we follow different religions we share a common motherland, and should never bring religion in all such matters. In contrast, the Hindus throughout the country sing 'Allah ke bande..', 'ya ali..' etc., without thinking of religion even once. This is what I call a true secularism! I know that there are Muslims who are loyal to the nation, but when a section of them are bent upon breaking the solidarity of our nation, I don't find any hesitation to blame the community as a whole. And their brothers, if they are true to the nation, should take the lead rather than supporting them. One thing that you got to observe is that most of the Muslims in India blindly follow the Mullahs and the Malvis. It is only because of these Mullahs, that a large section of Muslim community is uneducated. The statistics show that only 3.1% of the Muslims are graduates and 1.2% are post-graduates. The Mullahs insist upon sending the Muslim children to Madrassas rather than schools, so that they can keep these people under their control. These Mullahs issue fatwas against whichever is anti-Islamic (according to their interpretation). But not even a single fatwa has been issued against terrorism, which lies in the core of their religion. They proclaim that terrorism has no religion. But you cannot run away from certain facts. The fact that ' all Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims' is enough to say that Terrorism lies in the core of Islam. All the prime accused of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts (for the matter of fact, any) are all the local muslims, who are the citizens of India. Now the question arises: what is that provokes these people to become Terrorists? The fact is that Madrassas have become the recruitment grounds of Islamic terrorists who brainwash the Muslim youth to believe that converting the Kafir land of India (Dar-Ul-Harb) into an Islamic Nation (Dar-Ul-Islam) is the sacred duty of every Muslim and therefore the Muslims must engage themselves in Jihad or Holy war to destroy the Kafirs. Their religious teachings not only brainwashes the uneducated but also the well learned. The best example that I can give is the case of Mohammad Iqbal, who had written 'Saare jahan se achha, Hisndustan hamaraa..'. The same person, after his return from Germany, where he had delved deep into Islamic studies, then writes ' muslim hain hum, watan hain saara jahan hamara' (we are Muslims and the whole world is our land).

George Bernard Shaw quotes:
“Islam is a religion where You will be butchered for worshiping other religions, for which you will go to hell and he will go to heaven.”
He further writes:
“Islam is the best religion and Muslims are the worst followers.”

The behavior of the Muslims all over the world is more or less the same. Whenever the Muslims are in a minority they have been generally reluctant to regard themselves as a part and parcel of a non-religious nation. For example, the Muslims of France, who constitute 24%, are clamoring for separate civil laws based on Shariat, and this is the same case in all other countries including India. The recent revolts of Muslims in Philippines, Thailand, Ethiopia, are merely expressions of the Muslim unwillingness to participate in a common social order on equal terms with others. Whenever Muslims are in a majority they have refused to recognize the equal rights to non-muslim minorities. During the partition of our country, Pakistan signed an agreement that it would make sure that the rights and the safety of the minorities would be taken proper care. But through planned activities of persecution and torture and forced conversion of minority Hindus and Christians, the number of minorities in Pakistan has gone down from 24% in 1947 to almost 1% today. In Bangladesh too, the number of minorities has gone down from 30% in 1947 to 7% today. What happened to these minorities?? Did they leave their nation and came back to India? I guess not. In contrast, the Muslim population in India has gone up from 10% in 1947 to almost 14% today; whereas the Hindu population has come down from 88% in 1947 to 81% today. The answer to these questions is not only because of conversion, but also because of giving birth to large number of children. There was a case in Mallapuram (Kerala) where a doctor found 3 generations of Muslim women –daughter(13), Mother(26) and grandmother(39) all pregnant being admitted for delivery.

Every religion has certain flaws. Even the Hindu religion was blindfolded by sati, casteism etc. After constant reformation by the Hindu intelligentsia these things have been abolished. The outdated notion of Manu Smruti has been rejected by VHP and Dharmacharyas. Among the Muslims there is conspicuous absence of unbiased self-critical and rational individuals who can discuss the problems fruitfully. Their so-called leaders are usually the leaders of a blind, orthodox, and ill-educated community. All of them put forward the arguments in the same tone again and again. When they find faults, the faults are invariable the faults of others. They do not have the capacity to understand their own mistakes. Atleast the Muslim intelligentsia who have understood the flaws should courageously strive hard to reform their society. Unless this is done riots, terror attacks etc. can never be put to an end.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good man to do nothing.”
~Edmund Burke

Indonesia, which was a part of Bharat long ago, affords a striking example of an Islamic country deeply imbued with Hindu culture. To the muslims who form about 80% of the population, Islam has remained very much their personal faith, but their national culture continues to be a Hindu -their culture before their conversion to Islam. Ramayana and Mahabharata are their national epics. They worship Ganesha and saraswati. Their currency notes have an image of Lord Ganesha (see the image below). Their constitution begins with the declaration “Dharmo rakhsati rakhitah”. Garuda, the mount of Vishnu, adorns the name of their airways. The epic hero Dronacharya inspires their defence academy. Most of the people bear the illustrious names of ancient Bharat. The Indonesians affirm with pride that they have changed their religion but not their ancestors. If any Indonesian visits India, it is more than a sight-seeing, it is a pilgrimage. But in India the first thing for a convert is to adopt an Arabic name. There was a ridiculous case in Perayur (Mathura district, Tamilnadu), where a convert named Mathu Karuppiah became Saddam Hussain. Let us realize and believe that we all are children of this soil coming from the same stock, that our forefathers are one and our aspirations are also one!

Vande Mataram!

2006-09-07T23:47:00.000+05:30

Bankimchandra Chatterjee wrote this song on November 7 1876. This song was published six years later, in his famous novel 'Anandamath'. This novel was written in context of the sanyasin (saint) movement, from which the slogan 'BANDE MATARAM'(in bengali)was originated. This movement is believed to have emerged much before the so-called first war of Independence. The sanyasins revolted against the British during the devastating Bengal famine in 1760's and the 70's, in which thousands of people were starved to death, when the British sent massive amount of food grains to England. Out of the fear of ban getting imposed on the book, Bankimchandra Chatterjee was forced to replace the British by the Mughals. But the movie (Anand Math) that was released in 1952 picturized Britishers, which reveals that the revolt was indeed against the Britishers and not against the Mughals, as written in the novel.

The first two words of this song ‘Vande Mataram’ had given a new spirit, which awakened and unified the masses during the national freedom struggle, which became a slogan for the common man, to the extent he participated in anti-British agitations. Many of the militant nationalists faced bullets or gallows with that slogan on their lips. This song gained nationwide prominence when these two words were chanted by freedom fighters opposing Viceroy Lord Curzon's 1905 vivisection of Bengal. This movement which opposed the Bengal partition is often termed as the VandeMataram Movement, which compelled the Britishers to revoke the partition in 1911. September 7, 1905 was the day on which congress adopted Vande Mataram as the national song. This year is the centenary or the completion of its 100 years (1905-2006) of this successful Vande Mataram movement and its acceptance as the national song. The govt. of India has ordered the rendition of Vande Mataram throughout the country on September 7, to celebrate the centenary of this movement. The purpose of the celebration is not only to kindle patriotic spirit in children and youth, but to acknowledge and salute all those freedom fighters who laid down their life during the freedom struggle.

In 1930s objections were raised against the song on two grounds: first, its association with Anandamath, which depicted the Muslims of the Nawabi era of the 1770s in Bengal in a poor light; second, the religious imagery and idolatry implicit in one of the stanza's of the poem. Responding to the objections, the congress working committee suggested that only the first two stanzas should be sung as they had no religious allusions. Yet again, this year there has been a controversy over the issue of its recitation. Muslims claim that “when it comes to worship only Allah is given that honour. A Muslim cannot worship his or her parents, motherland and even the Prophet though they are held in high esteem”. This interpretation is incorrect, Vande Mataram only means 'bow to the motherland' and not worshiping it. Apart from this, Indian Muslims have forgotten that the national anthems of many Islamic states do not conform to this criterion. For instance, the national anthem of Jordan venerates the King in a manner that far exceeds Vande Mataram’s bowing before a symbolic mother. The national anthem of Bangladesh, which was composed by Rabidranath Tagore uses the word mother four times and the national anthem of Indonesia is more or less a reverence to the motherland.

The song Vande Mataram (the first two stanzas) only praises the glory of the nation and if Muslims have accepted the nationality of India and they are living and enjoying the privileges of this nation as Indians, they should not have any objection to pay respect to their motherland or India, since this song has nothing to do with any religion and over and above it is not against any religion.

Let me raise another controversy here. I feel 'Vande Mataram' has all the right ingredients and words to be our national anthem instead of ‘Jana gana mana’. It outscores 'Jana gana mana' in all aspects, apart from its contribution towards the freedom struggle. It describes the true relation that we share with our motherland, a mother-child relationship. In contrary, the description of Bharath is not very satisfying in 'Jana Gana Mana'. A part from this, the most disparaging fact is that this song was composed by Tagore on the occasion of King George V's visit to the Indian National Congress in 1911, after the congress had asked Tagore for a poem of welcome. Out of his busy schedule he tried to write it, but could not. A day prior, he got up very early in the morning and wrote this beautiful poem, not one of his best. The reason that was attributed by the congress for preferring 'Jana Gana Mana' over 'Vande Mataram' sounds ridiculous, who said that Tagore's poem was easier to compose as a song and that for an anthem. The tune was more important than the words. The actual reason is quite obvious, it was only because of our secular ministers and opposition from the Muslims that 'Vande Mataram' lost the race to 'Jana Gana Mana'.

Vande Mataram..

The cola issue...

2006-08-12T14:52:00.001+05:30

Inspite of the claim put forth by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in August 2003 that colas contained unacceptably high levels of pesticides, these cola companies have continued to sell soft drinks in India, and they have been running on large scale profits. It just reflects how the people of India react to the issues pertaining to their health. Is it because of the lack of awareness? I rather feel it is just because that the people in India are imperceptive. We don't perceive things unless there is a hullabaloo in the society.

“After all, when one tries to change the institutions without having changed the nature of men, that unchanged nature will soon resurrect those institutions.”

~Will Durant ( an historian)

The common perception is that the contamination is at the ground water level, and the colas are contaminated, albeit very minutely, due to the water content. However, this is far from the truth. Both Pepsi and Coke’s bottled water products, Aquafina and Kinley have not been found to contain pesticide. The pesticide content is due to the sugar, which is contaminated, like virtually every other agricultural product.

The other side of the story…

In 1998, Coca-Cola set up a bottling plant in Perumatti in the southern state of Kerala. Since it opened, local villagers have complained about the fall in the amount of water available to them, as this company uses up to a million litres of water per day at the plant. Coca-Cola claims that the shortage in the water is due to the lack of rains in the region. Local farmers are claiming that their livelihood has been destroyed since the building of the plant and that the number of people working on the land has dropped considerably because they cannot survive. Also the waste sludge that this company produces has been disposing of on the lands of local farmers, claiming that it was a useful fertilizer. But the recent tests conducted by the local state laboratories confirmed that these should not be used as a fertilizer. Instead of a fertilizer these products have shown better results when they were used as pesticides. The farmers of AndhraPradesh and Uttaranchal have been quite successful in using these soft drinks as pesticides, who claim that these soft drinks are much cheaper as compared to pesticides that they use.

“The time has come to recognize development itself as the malignant myth whose pursuit threatens those among whom I live.”

~ Ivan Illich (an Historian)

Coca-cola has become one of the most popular drinks in India. It's business in India leads to a wide range of direct and indirect employment related to the business as result of $1 billion worth of investment by the company. It also claims to employ about 5000 people including the thousands that are related to this in some way or the other. There is a height of ambiguity regarding the unemployment that is generated by banning these companies. A Coke plant produces 250,000 liters of soda per day and employs 500 workers; meanwhile an individual producing and selling traditional drinks can make 100 liters per day, and so it takes 2,500 workers to match Coke’s 250,000 liters per day. According to this analysis, in order to employ 500 people, Coke has displaced 2,000 people. Also coke increases unemployment by taking jobs away from individuals selling lassi, nimbu pani, etc. A similar argument can be put forth regarding the malls. The growth of malls might generate employment, but it displaces all the local kirana shops present in its vicinity. This is not an effective development, in a country where more than 1 crore (1%) of the population derive its livelihood from these kirana stores. Moreover, these malls are highly automatized, which consume high amounts of electricity, which is absolutely harmful in a country which is struggling to find a solution to increase its power production.

“The aim of Industrialization should not be to create a huge engine of production, but to give to men, not only to some but to all, each in his highest possible measure, -the joy of work according to to their own nature and free leisure to grow inwardly, as well as a simple, rich and beautiful life for all.”

~ Shri Aurobindo

We follow heroes who are brainless, who cannot even call a spade a spade. I equally blame the bollywood actors and all the sportsmen who endorse upon advertising these products, eventually fooling the common man. I even doubt whether they have had even a little taste of these soft drinks. Ofcourse, these are going to be the next generation of politicians of our nation.

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but to urge to serve all others at whatever cost"
~ Arthur Ashe

Menace of the Christian Missionaries

2006-07-05T14:01:00.000+05:30

India is a land marked by religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. India’s culture is one of the oldest in the world. Indians are best known for their spirituality without which India is nothing. It is the home of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. This country has over the ages welcomed religions like Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. The advent of these religions has menaced its culture. First it was the Islam in the 7^th century, followed by the Christianity in the 15^th century, which have created havoc in Indian society. These days, the rising proselytization by the Christian and Islamic missionaries is posing a threat to the nation.

I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one
person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such a wealth I have seen in this country,
such high moral values, people of caliber, that I do not think we would ever
conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which
is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore I propose that we replace her
old and ancient education system, her culture, for if Indians think that all that is
foriegn and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their
self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want, a truly
dominated nation.

~Lord McCauly (in his speech of Feb 2, 1835, British parliament)

The Christian missionaries have launched a proselytizing campaign in almost all corners of the world. These missions have well built up strategy to promote evangelism, who derive their financial support from foreign sources. The primary targets are the poor section of the society. Poverty and ignorance have enabled these missionaries to convert the poor people into Christians. Not only Hindus, but even Muslims who are considered to be staunch believers of their religion have also fallen prey to these missions. Even the fundamentalist Muslims are in the same path of spreading their religion, though they are operating on a much smaller scale as compared to the Christians. These missionaries have been quite successful in the African continent. The number of pagan worshipers in this continent were 50% in 1900, today these missionaries have reduced this to less than 10%.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, "Let us close our eyes and pray." When we opened our eyes we had the Bible and they had the land.

~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu (S. African cleric and peace activist)

In the first millennium the whole of the Europe was Christianized, in the second it was the America, Australia and Africa. The pope has openly proclaimed his wish to Christianize the entire Asia in the 3^rd millennium. If this happens then both the Hindu and Buddhist civilizations which have been predominant on the Asian continent for more than two millennia will be wiped off.

Only recently I became aware of the fact that since 1974, the International Congress for World Evangelization (ICWE) has been quietly developing a grand design to evangelize the rest of the non-Christian world which is known among Christian fundamentalist circles as the Joshua Project. I was amazed after I had surfed through their entire website http://www.joshuaproject.net/index.php. They have acquired the database of almost all the people in the world, and have grouped them on the basis of caste and region.

Their Purpose ...
To spread a passion for the supremacy of God among all unreached people

Their Mission ...
To highlight the people groups of the world that have the least Christian presence in their midst and to encourage pioneer church-planting movements among every ethnic people group.

Their Rationale ...
"This gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come."

All the above information regarding their purpose, mission and rationale has been copy pasted from the link mentioned above.

The increase in proselytization in India is mostly because of tolerance of large majority of Hindus who believe in pluralism, and also because of the ignorance of its apathetic citizens. In contrast, the activities of all Christian missionaries in Pakistan and Bangladesh have been vastly curtailed due to the intolerance of Islam to the spread of other faiths. The tactics used by these missionaries are nefarious. They give financial support to the backward people on the basis of visiting the church, after being converted to Christians. Sometimes they promise to defray the marriage expenses of the Hindu girls if they are married to Christian boys. I have also come across cases where Christian girls make the Hindu boys fall in love with them, finally convert this guy into a Christian, who is pretty crazy about the girl and is even ready to desert his family and elope with the girl. The ace Mumbai cricketer Vinod Kambli has been one such victim, who has deserted his family and finally had a divorce with his wife. In some cases the Hindu students are given admissions into schools only after their family is converted into Christians. This I have personally encountered after interacting with the students of Nagaland, where almost 90% of the population has been converted to Christianity.

“The great human tragedy of the missionary conquest of the Pacific is being repeated now in all ‘untouched’ parts of the world. In another thirty years no trace of aboriginal life anywhere will have survived. Many Christian missionaries have perpetrated the destruction of native cultures through their ruthless and relentless practices – from the stripping of forests and theft of land to the wholesale enslavement of populations."

~Norman Lewis (author of ‘word power made easy’)

I am well aware that fundamentalist Christians and Muslims may condemn my views expressed in this article. I just plead them to keep their mind open while reading this article. I have seen enough of their activities to comment up on, or even heard from my close friends whom I can no way suspect them of giving me a misleading information. Iam not a religious scholar. But I can judge what is right and what is wrong on religious issues. There is no problem when one starts worshipping Christ after getting inspired by reading the holy Bible, but I do consider this proselytization through nefarious tactics as fraudulent. I do not condemn these missionaries, perhaps they are good for them, but not for us. In this article I would like to highlight the perils that this proselytization can lead to

The world has witnessed many conflicts in the name of religion. To name a few are the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the Israel-Palestine conflict etc., which were the consequences of the religious issues, which has only led to the destruction of mankind. Jerusalem is considered as the holy land of Christians, Muslims and Jews. They were fighting over this holy land, who claimed that this belonged to their own god. But these fools could never realize the fact that all the three gods were indeed the same, although they call him by different names. There is a verse in Sanskrit “ekam sadvipra bahudha vadanti”(That which exists is one, sages call it by different names). I would like to support the above argument by an analogy. Every religion claims that god is infinite. Let us consider a cube painted with 6 different colors on each side. When six different people view it in a direction normal to each side, they view it differently. One claims that it is green and the other claims that it is red, but all six opinions are indeed correct. So is the case with god. When you say that God can only exist as Jesus or Vishnu or Allah, you are restricting god from being infinite.

I regard Jesus as a great teacher of humanity, but I do not regard him as the only begotten son of God. That epithet in its material interpretation is quite unacceptable. Metaphorically we are all sons of God, but for each of us there may be different sons of God in a special sense. Thus for me Chaitanya may be the only begotten son of God … God cannot be the exclusive Father and I cannot ascribe exclusive divinity to Jesus

~Mahatma Gandhi

India is a land for many religions – hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, jainis, parsis etc. India is a secular state, where the constitution honors all religions equally. A nation in which you will find a Christian supreme leader in a country where there are only 3 per cent Christians, a Sikh prime minister where there are only 2 per cent Sikhs and a Muslim President with only 12 per cent Muslims, and not to forget, a communist who is the speaker of the parliament in a democratic form of govt. There lies the greatness of the nation, where every religion is treated par equally.

And it is here and here alone that toleration and sympathy become practical; it is theoretical in every other country; it is here and here alone, that the Hindu builds mosques for the Mohammedans and churches for the Christians.”

~Swami Vivekananda

There were many conflicts in India after the advent of Islam and Christianity. You might have hardly encountered any conflicts between hindus and Buddhists or jains or Sikhs or even the parsis. But there were numerous conflicts between the muslims(who constitute of just 12% of the Indian society) and the rest of India. Have you ever wondered about this? Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jainis etc. have almost the same ideology. In contrast, the muslims and Christians have completely different ideologies, who believe in adamant monotheism. This is the main reason for numerous conflicts in India. To cite a few are the recent godara and the vadodara violence. The case kashmiri pandits is even more appalling, who were rendered homeless out of the vengeance of hatred by the kashmiri muslims, and are currently living as refugees in their own country. About 750000 people had to flee their houses, 60000 were murdered and their women were raped in this atrocious event. It is all because of the muslims getting into majority. Of course, this issue has another dimension. After the independence, most of the converted muslims were willing to adopt Hinduism. But they were restricted by these pandits, who articulated that it will contaminate the Hindu society, which I honestly detest. Similar results can be anticipated when the Christian community enlarges, who currently constitute of 3%, this is just an official data, god only knows what the real statistics are!, as these statistics do not include the crypto-christians, which are strategically hidden by the Christian leadership during every census operation, and all are counted as hindus. The primary reason behind this is because they do not want to avert the use of reservation, as most of them belong to the backward classes. One such example of a crypto-christian is the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr.Y.Samuel Rajashekar Reddy.

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

~Jonathan Swift (an Anglo-Irish priest)

The north-east India which comprise of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed mass proselytization by these Christian missionaries. Almost 90% of people in Nagaland and Mizoram practice Christianity, with the rest of the states emerging to be almost the same with almost half of them currently being converted to Christianity. Due to the change in religious faith these people have lost their identity, they no longer associate themselves with the rest of India, with whom they have nothing in common. The lack of strong nationalistic feelings has led to an upsurge in the rebellious movements in these states, demanding for secession. Almost all these states have raised a flag of revolt against the Indian state. These religious changes are leading to the break-down of our nation. The most appropriate example that comes to my mind is the case of East Timor, which was once a part of Indonesia. The indigenous tribes in that island were first converted to Christianity by Dutch and Portuguese missionaries. Then they were helped by the western nations to secede from Indonesia. The fate of India looks somewhat similar to me.

It would mean the loss of India's ancient culture, the loss of its unique identity, with India becoming just another nation cloning the West. Even the Muslims and Christians of India, who are like no other Christians and Muslims in the world, would lose something. Today I feel sad, sad for India, sad for the world. For India is in mortal danger, its eternal Sanatana Dharma is under threat. And if India dies spiritually, the world will also die.

-Francois Gautier

Most of the states in India have levied anti-conversion laws. In case of Tamil Nadu, the bill was passed in 2002 but it was overturned after the DMK party came into power. Andhra Pradesh has not levied any anti-conversion law as yet, where you can witness large scale Proselytization, esp. in the backward rural areas, with the backing of the govt., where the leader himself is an evangelical Christian. Inspite of all these laws you can find Christian missionaries working in most of the tribal and slum areas. As a resident of Mumbai, I have come across these missionaries working in the slums of this city, where almost 60% of the population resides. When the media doesn’t cover all these nefarious activities, I think it has no right to point a finger at any Hindutva party for reconverting the Christians into Hindus. I had read an article where the media criticized RSS, when they reconverted about 3000 tribal people of Orissa into Hindus, alleging that it hurt the sentiments of the Christians. I would like you to refer to this link for more information. (as I don’t want to lengthen this article unnecessarily)

http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES

If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be a Christian.

~Mark Twain (an American writer)

For every man it is the bread first and then the religion. So it is harsh to blame the person who is getting converted to earn his bread. I would rather blame the impotent govt. for its incapabity of protecting its citizens, perhaps even the society, which is equally to be blamed. As Lord Buddha says “the cause of misery in this world is because of the man he himself, because of his selfishness”. For example, when India was wrapped up in the darkness of caste system, the people of the backward classes were discriminated by the upper class, but if he changes his religion and changes his name to a hodge-podge English name or a muslim name, he was never discriminated. I have a strong conviction that problems like these can only be eradicated by the society itself.

~"Trying to improve the nation by changing it's political preferences is like trying to improve your daughters handwriting by giving her a new fountain pen"

Finally, I would like to plead every Christian, Muslim and even the Hindu to accept other religions open heartedly and to share a common brotherhood with the rest of the society. After all, god has not created us to fight for his name and protect him. God can take care of himself.

The message of Christ is one of Love, of respecting other's cultures and creed - not of utilising devious and unethical means for converting people. It is false to say that Jesus is the only "true" God. The Divine has manifested Himself throughout the ages under different names and identities, whether it is Christ, Buddha, Krishna or Mohammed. Let this be the motto of the 21st century. Only then will true spirituality emerge, beyond all religions and intolerances.

~Francois Gautier

Agrarian crisis in India

2006-06-12T17:19:00.001+05:30

Over the past few years, I kept pondering over the issue of agrarian crisis in India. The enormous rise in suicides in this society is indeed appalling. I could never understand the exact reason underlying this cause. The booming of the economy has no effect on the status of agrarian society whatsoever, rather it is getting much deteriorated day by day. In India, this agrarian crisis is ubiquitous, including the frontline agriculture states of Punjab and Haryana, which were infact the center of the Green revolution and even the left-ruled West Bengal and Kerala is no better.

Currently, more than 58% of country's population depends on agriculture, a sector producing only 22% of GDP. In retrospect, the contribution of agriculture towards GDP was 56% in 1950s, while in 1988 it was only 30%. The decrease in contribution towards GDP is not only attributed by the rise in contribution from the service sector, but also due to decline in the net agricultural production, which is shielded by the rise in imports.

The rising costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities, has led to the upsurge in suicides and selling of their kidneys. Since 1995 more than 1,26,000 farmers have committed suicides all over the country, most of them being the subsistent farmers or the land labourers, who constitute about 75% of the total farmers. The rest 25% are the affluent farmers whose production is about 60% of the total agricultural output.

One of the primary reasons for the upsurge in suicide rate is because of ‘dumping’, due to the free trade policies of the WTO. Since 1995, when India joined the WTO, there has been a surge in imports of agricultural commodities, which are being ‘dumped’ by the developed countries in the international market below their cost of production, eventually putting the local suppliers out of business. The production in most of the developed countries is more than their consumption, instead of decreasing their production, which creates unemployment in their labour, they just dump the excess products at a very cheap rate so as to maximize their net profits. (For example, the full cost of U.S wheat in 2001 was $6.24 / bushel, its export price was $ 3.5 / bushel.) This has led to a deep decline in domestic agriculture prices and has deepened the agrarian crisis in rural India. The price of coffee beans fell from Rs90-120 a kg in 1996 to Rs11-20 today, but the price of coffee powder rose from Rs450 a kg in 1999 to Rs900-1200 in 2002. At some places the minimum cost of production and the market price are almost the same. Numerous rallies were organized to protest against the WTO agreement, who demanded to take out agriculture from the purview of the World Trade Organization, but this has all gone to the deaf ears.

“The world bank and the WTO have consistently financed the massive expansion of government through the developing world. They have thus driven human atrocities, helped cripple the Third world economies, and degraded the environment”

~James Bovard

The second pressure Indian farmers are facing is the dramatic rise in production costs. In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds which needed fertilizers and pesticides and could not be saved, and moreover they were sold at exorbitant rates. Seeds have to be bought for every planting season by poor peasants. A free resource available on farms became a commodity which farmers were forced to buy every year. The usage of pesticides and chemical fertilizers has led to the decrease in fertility of the soil in most of the areas, which resulted in decline of the output. The increase in resistance of the pests against the pesticides has urged the farmers to increase their usage. All these have led to an enormous rise in the production costs.

“In the years to come, chemical manures will be considered as one of the greatest follies of the Industrial epoch”

~Albert Howard

Rural India is also facing an acute shortage of water and power. With privatization, the cost of irrigation and the power tariffs have increased, this has further exacerbated the crisis in the agrarian society. According to a recent statement give by the Indian express, about 60% of the farmers in India are in debts. Increase in debts have compelled the farmers to sell their kidneys or even commit suicides. Some of the distressed farmers have even put up kidney sale centers. This has been mostly observed in the Vidarbha district of Maharashtra and in the Wayand district of Kerala. These two districts have seen a major suicidal rate over the past one year. This year, the death toll in Vidarbha has already reached 500 and about 380 are reported in the Wayand district. These reports are considered to be incorrect, the actual estimate is even much higher. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not count women as farmers, but as wives of farmers, who are not included the list of farmers suicide. The list also does not include the landless laborers, whose livelihood is dependent on agriculture.

“This is the largest recorded wave of suicides in human history in one single occupational group.”

~P. Sainath

Unless the govt. takes right decision on the WTO issue and the global corporations of the seed sector, the agrarian crisis can never be put to an end. Even the economic gimmicks like free electricity and enhancing bank credits will be of no use.

There is a common saying: ‘If you are not a part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem’. Not only the govt., but even we are also a part of this crime, who buy the cheap dumped products, knowingly or unknowingly. The concept of 'swadeshi' as propounded by Mahatma Gandhi seems a better alternative to tackle this problem.

“I sympathise, therefore, with those who would minimize, rather than with those who would maximize economic entanglement among nations. Ideas, knowledge, science, hospitality, travel – these are the things which should of their nature by international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonable and conveniently possible, and above all let finance be primarily national… ”

~ John Maynard Keynes

Agreements such as that of WTO’s, always have certain fallouts. The beneficiaries are the major part of the urban working class. The unemployment in India is also another issue, the withdrawal of the WTO agreement might increase the unemployment in the service sectors. The govt. should think of an effective solution, which would benefit both the classes of India. The law-makers should try and enforce rules which would annihilate dumping.

In the 17^th century, the British govt. imposed a ban on the Indian garment and textile industries, when they captured whole of the British market. In a similar way, the govt. of India should impose ban on companies which dump the products and on the global corporations of the seed sector, which sell genetically deficient seeds, that obligates the farmers to depend on these corporations every year for new seeds. The lack of ethical knowledge, greed for money, and of course, selfishness makes people to embark on such vicious corporations. These kinds of problems can never arise when people start caring for others. One should realize the fact that in such a lunatic game ‘one man’s profit is the other man’s loss ’.

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the universe, a part limited in space and time. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of Nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and part of the inner security.”

~ Albert Einstein

History gives examples of many countries who have risen from such situations, like Argentina and Brazil. I believe, there is no reason why we cannot tackle this issue and prevent our farmers from taking extreme steps. The only thing we require now is a good leadership, who care for every individual of the society; and the society that produces a good leader.