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US democracy in cataclysmic churn?

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
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US democracy in cataclysmic churn?

@realdonaldtrump will be dumped to the dustbin of history, as a single term POTUS by not the voters in USA but by the Grand Old Party viz. Republicans, after the Nov 3r, 2020 US elections. That is as clear as it can ever be. GOPians have extracted every single ounce of utility they had in Trump. They got the Iran Nuclear deal eviscerated, primacy of NATO belittled, pulled out of Climate Deal signed in France, etc. And above all else, the Senate Republicans led by the cunning Majority Leader Mitch ‘Moscow’ McOnell got the highest ever tax breaks for the rich and famous using the Trump White House.

But this was not all. The most important use that GOPians put the Trump Presidency to maximum benefit, was in the appointment of Judges to US Federal Courts. Moscow Mitch worked tirelessly and zealously, under the radar, while most of the Media was focused on the ‘chaos’ in White House administration, to ensure filling up of more than 400 Judges who would all be life time appointments. “The Federal Judiciary is now packed with true blue conservatives and American social life is likely to face transformational changes, be it in immigration, abortion rights, LGBTQ rights et al,” says a Harvard Law Professor. It will be hugely impactful on US for decades to come.

Forget not that Republicans led by the spiteful Mitch spiked the Barack Obama nominee Merick Garland to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia on The Nine on Supreme Court, from even having an audience with the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2015. This, on the ‘principled opposition’ that with elections due in Nov, 2016, Obama was a lame-duck President. This enabled Trump acolytes to appoint a conservative in Neil Gorusch to replace Antonin Scalia.

And then, a conservative on the SCOTUS Bench, Justice Anthony Kennedy obliged Trump to take a shot at another appointment by resigning. We had the Brett Kavannaugh imbroglio perpetrated on the US public but the numbers in the Senate prevailed. Two out of Two score line for the Republicans and it was Trump in the White House which opened the door for it.

With less than 2 months to go for the Nov 3rd, 2020 US Presidential elections, the legendary notorious RBG- Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a Jewish woman Justice and a lifelong liberal died. Even as she was dying she issued a public statement that, “I hope and trust the incumbent White House administration would nominate my replacement only after the 2020 elections.”

Mitch and Co cast aside RBG’s last will and testament. They drew upon their historical hypocrisy by rejecting their own Merick Garland rule for Barack Obama and running faster than a hare and a cheetah to get their woman nominee approved. The replacement is a clear favourite as the GOPians hold a 53:47 majority and they can bulldoze their ways overcoming any filibustering the Democrats could come up with. The nominee Amy Coney Barrett is just 48 years of age and can last generations and beyond on the Bench. She is a devout catholic, an evangelist and is outwardly Anti-abortionist and has contempt for gay marriage. The Republicans are rejoicing that their choice to go for Trump in 2016 has paid rich dividends, as they have the rarest of rare celestial event of 3 nominees for a US President during the 4 year term, an occurrence that happened when Ronald Reagan in office in 1980s and almost never ever before.

It is a huge inflexion point in the US, as a democracy. SCOTUS towers above as an influential institution and with just The Nine on the Bench, their decisions play a huge part in the lives of ordinary citizens too. Roe v. Wade- a 1963 verdict from SCOTUS is now seriously threatened with a possible 6:3 majority, if and when Trump nominee Amy goes through. But the Democrats are not sitting tight and quiet. They have promised a fight back including the possible increase of SCOTUS Bench strength to 11, to tweak the skewed philosophical twist on the Bench. No constitutional amendment is necessary and one can therefore look forward to a formidable battle on the cards.

No matter that Donald Trump is slated to lose, as per the forecast in overwhelming number of polls. to Joe Biden, the Republicans led by Moscow Mitch are smug that they have achieved far bigger that most GOP administrations could even dream of, during a two-term Presidency. Donald Trump was no Republican. He was a registered Democrat. He funded Bill Clinton in his Presidential election. Hark back to what the Republican primary in 2015 told and taught us from the long line of Republican adversaries. No one liked him. They despised him for his lack of morality and principles.

But typical of the GOPian hypocrisy, it was the Republicans who pivoted and not Donald Trump. They followed the leader for achieving their private, personal and political ends. Now that they have squeezed out every millilitre from Trump Presidency and used his administration to the hilt, they will dump him to the dustbin. One can easily foretell the stories and comments the GOPians will talk about, on how and why Donald Trump lost the elections. ‘They’ will blame him for the loss. But they need to know that in making full use of the Trumpian Presidency they have thoroughly exposed their party for what it stands for. Total lack of principles and unity in selfish hypocritical principles, which is their manifesto for assuming political power.

This is US democracy in action and the Donald J Trump election was not the result of all things wrong, but symptomatic of all that is to come. And that does not bode well, even for a Joe Biden Presidency, as a Democratic nominee.

(Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan- Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)

सुनो तेजस्विनी, सिगरेट, शराब, ड्रग्स, गाली गलौच “कूल” नहीं है

Meenakshi Dikshit
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सुनो तेजस्विनी, सिगरेट, शराब, ड्रग्स, गाली गलौच “कूल” नहीं है

1857 का प्रथम स्वाधीनता संग्राम रानी लक्ष्मीबाई की वीरगाथा के बिना पूरा नहीं होता। इस युद्ध में वो भारतीय नारी की शक्ति का प्रतिबिम्ब बनीं। स्वाधीनता संघर्ष सतत चलता रहा और अन्ततः विभाजन के साथ ही सही किन्तु भारत एक स्वाधीन राष्ट्र बन गया।

स्वाधीनता के इस संघर्ष का एक महत्वपूर्ण पक्ष ये रहा कि भारत के नारी समाज ने मुग़ल काल में परिस्थितिवश उस पर थोपी गयी वर्जनाओं से मुक्ति के लिए भी संघर्ष किया। वो परदा और घर की देहरी छोड़ कर बाहर निकली। शिक्षा अर्जित की। स्वाधीनता आन्दोलन में भूमिका निभाई। समाज जागरण का काम किया।

स्त्री जीवन की विषमताओं और कठिनाइयों को दूर करने का यह संघर्ष स्वाधीनता के बाद भी सतत रूप से चलता रहा। स्त्री हितों के कानून बने। विवाह की न्यूनतम आयु तय हुयी। स्त्री शिक्षा पर बल दिया गया। वो शिक्षाविद बनी, डॉक्टर बनी, इंजीनियर बनी, वकील बनी, राजनीति में आई, खेल के मैदान में उतरी, सामाजिक क्षेत्रों में काम किया।

धीरे धीरे भारत में समाज की परिस्थितियां स्त्री के पक्ष में परिवर्तित हो रही थीं। ( ध्यातव्य है इस समय विश्व बाज़ार में भी कई परिवर्तन हो रहे थे।)

तभी लगभग ढाई दशक पूर्व भारत में सुंदरियों का जन्म प्रारंभ हो गया। सुष्मिता सेन, ऐश्वर्या राय, युक्तामुखी, लारा दत्ता, दिया मिर्ज़ा, प्रियंका चोपड़ा। एक के बाद एक। वर्षानुवर्ष भारतीय सौन्दर्य विश्व पटल पर छाता रहा।

विश्व सुन्दरी बनते ही मॉडलिंग और फिल्म जगत इनके आगे –पीछे घूमता। स्टार वैल्यू मिल जाती। बड़ी बड़ी फ़िल्में मिलने लगतीं। मीडिया पर उस समय इनकी सफलता के बखान का एक अजीब सा पागलपन था।

इसी समय निजी टी.वी. चैनल और उन पर दैनिक रूप से प्रसारित होने वाले धारावाहिकों का चलन प्रारंभ हो रहा था। बड़े और छोटे दोनों रुपहले परदे नयी पीढ़ी की हर लड़की को जीवन के वास्तविक संघर्ष से परे ले जाकर उस दुनिया के सपने दिखा रहे थे जहाँ एक बार की सफलता, ग्लैमर और पैसे की बारिश करती थी।

तरह तरह के “स्टार हंट” कार्यक्रमों ने आग में घी का काम किया।

पांच- से दस  वर्षों के कालखंड में फिल्म, विज्ञापन और फैशन जगत युवतियों के लिए एक आकर्षक कैरियर चुनाव बन गया।

ब्यूटी पार्लर्स और पर्सनालिटी ग्रूमिंग सेंटर्स की बाढ़ आ गयी।

जिसे देखो वो फिल्म, फैशन या विज्ञापन की दुनिया की तरफ भागा चला जा रहा था। मध्यम वर्गीय पारंपरिक माता –पिता भी अपने बच्चों को इसके आकर्षण से दूर नहीं रख पा रहे थे बल्कि कुछ तो स्वयं ही बच्चों को लेकर इसमें कूद पड़े थे।

जिन्हें इस क्षेत्र में जाना नहीं था उनके जीवन के आदर्श भी यहीं, इन्हीं परदों पर रहते थे.

किसने क्या पहना, किसको कितना फैशन सेन्स है, किसका हेयर स्टाइल क्या है, ये मीडिया विमर्श का प्रमुख अंग हो गया।

पाकिस्तान की  हिना रब्बानी खर, राजनैतिक दौरे पर भारत आई, तो एक निजी चैनल के पत्रकार ने आधा घंटा केवल उनकी मोती की माला, गुलाबी दुपट्टा और किसी खास ब्रांड की घड़ी के बारे में बताने में निकाल दिया और उनके फैशन सेन्स पर जम कर चर्चा की।

किन्तु ये सब इतना सरल और सीधा नहीं था यवनिका के पीछे और कुछ भी चल रहा था। तथाकथित उदारवादी, वामपंथी, छद्म धर्मनिरपेक्षतावादी अपने खेल खेल रहे थे।

जिस फिल्म, टी.वी, विज्ञापन जगत को धरती के स्वर्ग के रूप में स्थापित किया जा रहा था वहां अंडरवर्ल्ड का बोलबाला था। इनके साथ मिलकर उदारवादी, वामपंथी, छद्म धर्मनिरपेक्षतावादी भारतीय संस्कृति का उपहास करने वाले कथानक गढ़ते थे, ऐसे कि हमें हर संत में रावण और हर पादरी में संत दिखाई दे। हर अब्दुल नेक हो और हर अमर नकारा। हर हिन्दू परंपरा ढोंग हो और सात सौ छियासी वाला बिल्ला जीवन रक्षक। कुछ यूँ कि हम अपने आप से घृणा करने लगें।

बड़े नामी ब्यूटी पार्लर्स अपने यहाँ आने वाली लड़कियों को नकाब बांधना सिखाने लगे, जिससे उनके चेहरे की त्वचा ख़राब न हो।

इन्हें एक बार भी ये बात स्मरण नहीं आई कि उनकी दादी –नानी ने इस मुंह ढकने के रिवाज से बाहर आने के लिए कितनी प्रताड़ना सही है और अब वे ख़ुशी ख़ुशी फिर वही बंधन बाँध रही हैं।

कुछ विशेष नाम वाले ब्यूटी पार्लर्स ने, बिंदी न लगाकर कम उम्र दिखने का ऐसा भ्रम फैलाया कि, “तिय लिलार बेंदी दिए अगनित होत उदोत” किसी के ध्यान में ही नहीं आया।

एक तरफ स्त्री को वस्तु या मात्र शरीर  न समझने का संघर्ष चल रहा था और दूसरी तरफ पूरी रणनीति के साथ उसे वस्तु या मात्र शरीर बनाया जा रहा था। स्त्री की मांसलता को उसके बौद्धिक और आत्मिक सामर्थ्य से ऊपर स्थापित किया जा रहा था और सब आनंदित हो रहे थे।

कुछ वर्षों पूर्व एक मॉल में अपनी माँ के साथ कपड़े खरीदने आयी एक किशोरी, डीप नेक ड्रेस लेने में असहज थी। उसकी माँ ने कहा, मॉडलिंग करनी है तो अभी से आदत डालो ऐसे कपड़ों की।

इतना ही नहीं, सिगरेट, शराब, ड्रग्स, गाली गलौच सब कुछ कूल होता गया युवतियों के जीवन में।

यूँ समझें कि पिछले लगभग ढाई दशकों में कुछ अपवादों को छोड़कर स्त्री विकास या स्त्री सशक्तीकरण पर बाज़ार और उपभोक्ता संस्कृति का प्रत्यक्ष प्रभाव रहा है, जिसके कारण उसका संघर्ष शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य, स्वावलंबन, निर्णय क्षमता और अधिकार, आध्यात्मिक विकास जैसे मूल विषयों से भटक कर, “मैं जो चाहूं वो करूँ” पर सिमट कर रह गया है।

सुनो तेजस्विनी, सिगरेट, शराब, ड्रग्स, गाली गलौच सब कुछ कूल नहीं है, आओ बाज़ार से वापस निकलकर, स्त्री सशक्तीकरण को सही सन्दर्भों में अपनाते हैं ।

Need for change in popular behavior towards energy security

Anuj Narkhede
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Need for change in popular behavior towards energy security

“The measure of our success will be the condition on which we leave the world for next generation”, famous American actor Robert Redford said.

Today, India needs to import around 80% of its oil requirement. Rising international oil prices and inflation causes an increase in oil import cost, resulting in rising fuel prices and all dependent commodities, resulting in instability in the Indian economy and energy scarcity, making this crisis worse.

In India, residential households consume a large amount of energy, especially in urban regions where people carelessly use electricity and fuel more than their daily requirement. India’s energy demand is increasing by 2.5% every year, and already 67% of the rural household do not have energy security. Therefore there is a need to change user behavior in order to reduce redundant household energy consumptions.

The unnecessary high energy consumption behavior in urban regions is due to a lack of knowledge about energy saving behavior and availability efficiency measures. Therefore there is a need to creating more awareness regarding energy security and the detrimental effect of ignorant behavior towards it. Also, there is a need to develop social norms in a community where one person can influence others to save energy and promote efficiency measures.

The efficiency measures need to be affordable and convenient for people to use. The inconvenient and unaffordable energy-saving mechanism will not motivate people towards energy saving. Also, there is a need to promote energy-efficient measures and their benefits in cost-effectiveness and environmental well-being with marketing campaigns.

Policy level interventions such as eliminating conventional and inefficient electronic gadgets such as has power bulb and restrictions on their sale need to be implemented. Also, the government needs to reduce taxation on energy-efficient tools and gadgets such as electronic vehicles.

There is a need to use smart meters on the technology level to promote efficient energy use in households by giving proper feedback on energy consumption. Also, there is a need to provide incentives and reward for those who use energy efficiently.

Following is the proposed strategy that needs to be implemented to change the behavior of people towards reducing high energy consumption:

1. Set the target and implementation framework

Government must set a target for every year to reduce the total household energy consumption and design a suitable implementation framework to achieve this target. This will be helpful for all involved stakeholders to work in the same direction and implement strategy effectively.

2. Effective feedback measures

Inform people and provide them real-time feedback regarding their daily energy consumption with modern technology such as smart meters, display units, and dashboards. This will help people to track their consumption and motivate them to find a solution for reducing energy consumption to save billing cost.

3. Fiscal measures

Government should reduce duties and taxes on energy-saving products and increase the same on conventional and high energy-consuming products. This will make energy-saving measures cheaper, and people will get the motivation to implement them. The government can also provide subsidies for using energy-efficient products.

4. Regulatory measures

Government can set up rules and guidelines to promote energy-saving behavior. This includes restricting sales on high energy-consuming products and reducing barriers in energy-saving measures with policy interventions. Government can charge higher rates for consuming more than required energy units.

5. Restructure surrounding environment

Environmental restructuring is the changes in physical and social surroundings to encourage particular behavior. It includes creating awareness and educating people with various plays, moral stories, signboards, and posters. Also, developing social norms in the community to practice energy-saving behaviors.

6. Communicating and marketing

Promote energy-saving behavior with the help of a marketing campaign and involved notable people who can influence people to use energy effectively. Create awareness regarding energy saving, its cost benefits, and the detrimental effects of energy scarcity.

The strategy mentioned above aims to reduce the unnecessary high energy consumption behavior in people with behavioral change interventions. The effective implementation of this strategy is based on various internal and external factors.

Primarily the strategy will work if people come forward and become more aware of the energy scarcity issue and ready to change their behavior after learning consequences. If people refused to accept the changes as proposed in the above strategy, then it will not work effectively. Some people, due to their strong personal beliefs or rigid mentality, does not change their behavior. Other external motivations do not affect such people towards any positive externalities. 

If there are communication gaps in the marketing campaign or if the message about energy-saving behavior is unclear, there might be chances people will misinterpret it. In such a case, the entire marketing campaign fails, and no one will get influenced by it. Hence the promotional campaigns must provide its messages simple and clear. The successful implementation of the above strategy depends on promotional activity and its ability to influence people.

Another major factor that decides the successful implementation of a strategy is financial feasibility and its value for money. If the above strategy’s outcome makes energy-efficient measures cost-effective and affordable compared to conventional products, then only people will get motivated towards it. Otherwise, if these measures are expensive, then the strategy will fail to shift people’s behavior.

Also, various other factors, such as the efficiency of government mechanism to deliver changes as per strategy and outcomes of policy interventions, can impact strategy implementation.

Should Indian Americans trust Biden on immigration?

Kiran
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Should Indian Americans trust Biden on immigration?

Sometimes, history provides abundant information on assessing the current situation and as we are getting close to elections 2020 in next few weeks, it is important for Indian Americans to look back and think how the past decade has impacted the most, in terms of Indian American perspective. It is quite important to note that immigration is one hot topic that the Biden campaign has highlighted in the Indian American Agenda which is pompous about the future plan on immigration for STEM and high skilled workers in the United States. During a campaign event earlier, to woo Indian Americans, Biden hailed Indian American for their exemplary contribution to US economy but ignored the underlying fact on the broken immigration system which he could have revived during Obama’s administration as a number two between 20018 till 2016.

Indian Workers Miserable Plight

As, the election crunch is nearing, It is quite important to remind ourselves on how the broken immigration has caused sleepless nights to thousands of indian immigrant workers who came to the United States due to work and happened to stay for years and especially during the Obama administration has caused the non immigrant H1B holders or L1 visa holders a miserable plight due to the rules set by the Obama administration. The immigration rules changed during Obama’s presidency made the H1 B holders declare the relationship between employee and employer. Although the rule looks quite transparent, it impacted  thousands of H1 B visa holders who work for staffing agencies, and they normally place the employee to their customers for various software and programming jobs.

Despite the fact that these staffing agencies provide the required employee and employer relation document, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as per the directive from the Obama administration often rejected the genuine letters when the employee seeks for a renewal of visa or visa stamping at the US consulate offices. The interesting aspect here is, the end customer company due to its HR regulations cannot provide a letter of support to the employee and that makes it even tougher for the H1 B holder to defend the workplace location. Thus, 95% of time the employee is either rejected when the renewal is made or rejected at the Visa interview.

H1B A bonded Labor Visa?

USCIS 2010 mandatory rule to provide evidence of Employer and Employee relationship Picture Courtesy: OPTnation

One more aspect of the miserable plight is that these H1 B holders have become bonded labor in the United States, while the companies were able to provide the salaries, the immigration department often limits the visa to as low as two months and sometimes even one month when the renewal is made or visa is issued. This type of harassment to the H1B holders were quite rampant during the Obama administration and many H1 B visa holders were unable to buy a home nor a car. The pathetic aspect during the Obama administration was, the visa holder’s family was deeply impacted and in fact, the kids had to abruptly end their schooling and go back to India within a span of two weeks.  Thousands of the H1 B visa holders had to abruptly leave their belongings which they dearly bought for their livelihood. The unexpected visa rejection and renewal also had an impact on economics of the visa holders as most of the families opt for 401K plan and the abrupt ending of employment has an impact. Ultimately, the dejected visa holder had to pack up and leave in a two week span.

US VISA

Apart from this, the hiring companies were limited to take H1 B holders and filtered out when the job seeker is expecting a visa sponsor or were asked if there is an active H1 B visa. Thus, it was a chicken and egg situation for the job seeker or a dependent visa holder who wanted to apply for a new work visa. The new regulations were rampant during the Obama administration and nothing was done to clear the situation of the visa holders plight. The visa holders had to undergo a severe physiological stress during the Obama administration. 

During the Indian Prime Minister ManMohan Singh’s visit to Washington DC in 2013 on a bilateral meet, Indian companies had a lot of hope on the outcome of the meeting. Although, Prime Minister Singh had expressed concerns about the changes made in the immigration laws and the restrictions on the movement of services could drastically impact the Indian diaspora. Despite the concerns raised, very little to negligible changes were made on the immigration laws that hardly have any effect on the gloomy plight of Indian H1B workers.

Biden’s Indian American Agenda echo 2012 election promise

As we look at the pretentious Indian American Agenda by Biden Campaign, it highlights the inept and inability of the same Obama-Biden administration on immigration policy. The agenda talks about reforming the immigration policy but undermines  the 2012 election town hall event between Obama and Mitt Roney, President Obama categorically mentioned that he will reform the immigration soon he takes his second term. Millions of immigrant visa holders of Asian and Indian community have voted for Democratic party but the immigration policy was never reformed. In fact, there was hardly any discussion from White House on the immigration policy. So, should we trust again on the inept person who was number two in the previous Democratic Party Government? 

GOP on Indian Americans

While, Indian Americans were immensely benefited during the GOP led Governments in the past. During the year 2005, and aftermath of 9/11, The Bush administration has granted a special 20,000 H1B quota for STEM students who have passed out from various US universities. The Bush administration not only favored the Indian STEM students but also extended the Optional practical training from one year to two years. So, the STEM student is able to find a better job and settle down in the United States. This has extended the possibility of Indian students to immensely benefit to lead a comfortable life to enjoy an American dream.

The Bush administration not only helped STEM students but also agreed to make the Green card dates current in the year 2006. Thus, thousands of Indian families who were on a visa were able to get Green cards and enjoyed a stable, sustained  life in the United States. While we know that President Trump has laid out a plan for Legal immigration based on merit based with points which could benefit Indian visa holders exceptionally and that could reverberate Pro America and Pro immigrant. Currently, the United States immigration policy has never been updated in the past 50 years and is an outdated policy.

Secularism- A bane or a boon for contemporary world?

motivatedvijay
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Secularism- A bane or a boon for contemporary world?

Introduction

  1. 21st century has thrown up myriad challenges to humanity. The very character of the human psyche is that of ‘one-upmanship’. Everyone wants to outdo the other, to reach the acme of perceived/believed narrative. The present narrative, world over, is zeroed on to prove its economic dominance to others. This concept has an inbuilt requirement of security. Thus the cumulative energies of the entire world are manifesting as “rat race” for pre eminence in trade and commerce protected by high tech security i.e.  Defense capability in a variety of spheres. It could be conventional space, internal security, off shore security (sea lines of communications), NBC/CBRN, cyber space or even outer space.
  2. Whereas, the nation states are struggling to boost the trade and defense capabilities legally/illegally, yet the fault lines in this comity of nations are too fragile in terms of religion, race, political beliefs and regional aspirations. This has lead to puritanical competition for dominance over others. The worst of these maladies that world suffers today is the religious imperialistic tendencies. This has manifested itself in a conspicuous manner in the present mess the world is in.
  3.  While the nations like China, Pakistan, Turkey or few African countries demonstrate their overt desire to promote their brand of nationalism with religious support, there are others where right wingers are active enough to be taken note of.  These right wingers are responsible for putting reasonable pressure on the governments to toe a particular religious line. The passions of gullible masses are used as weapons to change the sociopolitical parities for petty little gains while the educated majority remains silent for variety of reasons. This race to Supremacy forces the political establishment to sacrifice the principles of secularism so vital for the overall prosperity of any pluralistic society which majority of the world is composed of.  While few countries in this world have declared themselves as the theocratic states, yet the others christened themselves as secular. Unfortunately, a good no of the ruling dispensations in these so called secular states, misuse the word ‘SECULAR’ for their petty political gains.

Secularism as Defined

  • What exactly is the meaning of secularism? Secularism as per dictionary means, “Where religion does not interfere with social, political and educational sphere of a society”. This is the true spirit behind the progress and prosperity of pluralistic society that majority of the contemporary humanity is formed of. Despite fully understanding this cliché, yet a lot many attempts are made to misuse it for petty personal and political ambitions. Even in the past in Europe, when religious head used to lead in state governance and many aberrations were noticed and felt, this concept was introduced to ensure that the affairs of the state are devoid of any religious influence. It was ruled that practicing any religion was totally a personal matter of any citizen. Unfortunately today, even small practices of any religion are viewed with extreme passion and fervor which results in gigantic proportions of intolerance. All this without understanding as to what exactly is the reason behind each practice that is followed by a sect and the same is branded as religious practice or belief. The term ‘Secular’ is misused by vested interests for political of social personal petty gains.

Essence of God’s Being

  • Our ancestors in ancient times had attained a very high levels of intellectualism irrespective of any geographical region where the humanity excogitated. They realized that the universe is made of five elements. Even today, the pluralistic humanity survives in this universe which is composed of five ingredients as its key components i.e. Earth, Sky (Space), Air, Water and Fire. Our ancestors realized their existence and started revering them as some divine supreme power. This reverence and refuge to the divine power gave rise to the concept of god, albeit, with different names or faiths. The underlying fear in the human mind against natural and other calamities was common to all societies. They had negligible communication between the societies or sects/religions and  yet their respective  intelligentsia arrived at similar conclusions independent of each other as that was the reality of the very existence. The Hindus called it  “BHAGWAN”. The Muslims called it “ALILAH”. The  Christians called it “GOD” and so on and so forth.
  •  “BHAGWAN”  is composed of “BH” bhumi(earth), “G”gagan(sky/space), “W” wayu(air), “A” agni(fire)  “N”neer(water).The Muslim god “ALILAH” also is composed of “A“ aab(neer/water), “L” lab(bhumi/earth), “I” illa(vayu/air), “A”(aasmaan/space), “H”harank(agni/fire). The “GOD is “G” generator (Brahama the creator), “O” operator(Vishnu the director), “D”(Mahesh the annihilator). Thus every religion in this universe came across these five elements which make the universe and mostly similar interpretations. Each sect recognized its supreme binding force, started drawing inner strength from it and perceived the supreme lord depending on contemporary geographical location, climatic conditions and ease of praying. We may have named our perceived lords by different names but the basic faith underlying our emotions, research and understanding is same.  Then, we started making a beeline to get into the semantics of promoting our religion and that’s when we started an avoidable acrimonious debate laced with bloodshed, hatred and disrespect for each other. Least realizing that we all pray to same entity and we all believe in the same Supreme element but only in a different form.

Evolution of Religious Practices

  •   Now one may argue that there are some distinct religious practices which make up a particular religion. One must realize that most of the practices were evolved over a period of time in a particular geographical region and other limiting factors. For example, practice of washing hands before prayers (SHUDHIKARAN/VUZU). The procedure is guided by the conditions in which the religion prospered i.e. green lands/deserts. Hindus prospered in green lands and had surplus water in terms of rivers and ponds. They washed hands in a particular way. Muslims prospered in deserts where there is acute shortage of water so they washed hands (VUZU) in a different way to conserve water. Hindus did ‘Surya Namaskar’ facing East, basically a yogic way of keeping your body healthy. They promoted this amongst masses as a worship of the Sun god. Same yogic way with similar benefits was proliferated amongst the Muslims for ‘SAJDA to ALILAH’ (prayers/Nimaz) facing West since the ‘KABBA’, the holy place, is located in Saudi Arabia in West direction. Both the actions are similar in nature with same health benefits irrespective of the religion one follows.   In Islam, the practice of possibility of marrying four ladies was guided by the reasons of giving shelter to the widows of the warriors who offered their lives as supreme sacrifice   in “JEHAD” the holy war for “ALILAH”.  Similarly, there was a ‘Sati Pratha’ amongst some Hindu regions to protect a widow from the vagaries of life as the ladies used to be in ‘Parda’ and totally dependent on their husbands.
  •  However, these rituals evolved over a period of time and kept getting transformed into different shades depending on the contemporary evolution of the intellectual, social and political faculties of the society. Vegetarianism was buzz word for majority of Hindus as there was enough vegetation around in green lands and the benefits of having vegetarian diets on health were amply demonstrated by ‘Rishi Munis’ who supposedly lived for thousands of years during their ‘Tapasaya’. Even the temperatures do not lend to a non vegetarian diet in most places of Indian Subcontinent. On the other hand, Muslims in deserts and Christians in colder latitudes had little vegetation and had to turn  towards non vegetarianism. The colder climate warranted a non vegetarian diet for survival and health. Even the nature supports vegetarianism amongst animal world and non vegetarianism in the “Food Chains” in sea or lands wherein, one land or sea animal eats the other to survive and keep the population density of the respective ecosystems in manageable proportions. This management of eco system theories is scientifically explained and has nothing to do with any religion. Thus majority of the practices were the result of the contemporary social, ideological, intellectual and circumstantial triggers and has nothing to do with extremism leading to radicalism.

Lesson for Contemporary World

  • Later as the humanity evolved and many religions came into being, basically, for reformation of the malformed rituals which were deformed over a period of time and were not in tune with the contemporary society. Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Din-e-Ilahi and many other religions emerged and their holy scriptures came into being. All holy books have the best of the teachings from all the religions in this world. All preached one god albeit with different architectures depending on prevalent social conditions. Every religion has relics, scriptures and beliefs which are basically nothing but all the good actionable things for prosperity and progress of every human being and the humanity as a whole. They all stress PLURALITY and progress for all.
  • On in depth analysis of all religious ‘ORIGINAL’ teachings, one finds that all religion preach one god. All religious leaning towards prosperity of humanity, pluralism and mutual respect for one and all. No religion teaches hatred and devastation for selfish ambitions. All agree in principle that there is one god and “to love is to be human”. There may be right wingers in every society for personal petty gains who misguide the illiterate masses with incorrect interpretations of the teaching of god. Every human being must realize that ‘chocolate’ is same, its just the wrapper that is different. That is because it was manufactured in a different land though the factory architecture which manufactured the wrapper was always same. All humans should go for the god irrespective of name, practices (original) or contemporary structure. All religions should be respected and all followers should be gracious enough to respect others’ feelings. Indian Armed Forces are the apt example of this.

(Brigadier dr vijay sagar dheman) is former Additional Director General NCC and former Vice Chancellor of GKU

The case for truth and reconciliation commission of India

gaurav9796
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The case for truth and reconciliation commission of India

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Do not allow any of them to live. this is what you are to do to them: break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their trees and burn them in fire.

From the old testament of bible. DEUTERONOMY 7:1-2, 5-6

Aboriginals, also known as Indigenous or First Nations, are communities which were living in Canada before European explorers and settlers arrived. They were the original tribes of the North American continent. While British were establishing themselves as colonial rulers, they wanted to assert their control over the land which originally belonged to the First Nations. The colonial rulers established Indian Residential Schools1 to separate Aboriginal children from their families. The idea was to weaken the family relations and cultural linkages. For over 100 years, these schools operated by the Church to assimilate the indigenous population into mainstream Canada.

In 2008, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was established to find out truths of residential schools. A Truth Commission or TRC2:

  1. is focused on the past, rather than ongoing, events;
  2. investigates a pattern of events that took place over a period;
  3. engages directly and broadly with the affected population, gathering information on their experiences;
  4. is a temporary body, with the aim of concluding with a final report; and
  5. is officially authorized or empowered by the state under review.

The TRC of Canada counted about 3,200 dead or missing children. The report concluded that the ‘whole part of the residential school was a part of a bigger scheme of colonization; the schools were there with the intent to change people, to make them like others and to make them not fit’. Church played a critical role in these crimes and the royal police was the accomplice. It would not be wrong to summarize these genocides as state and church sponsored. The former Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, apologized officially for the ills done to the indigenous populations and crimes that took place in the Indian Residential Schools. It takes a lot of courage for the ruling government to come out and apologize for the sad parts of the nation’s history. More importantly, it reflects the maturity of the democratic system which, in turn, reflects a matured society to recognize and be prepared to correct its wrongdoings.

As Marcus Garvey said – A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. India, as in Bharat, was ruled by foreign invaders for over 800 years. She has seen both physical (mass killing of a community) and cultural (destruction of the sacred structures and practices of a community) genocide. It is well known that Mughals tried to convert Hindus to Muslims. Aurangzeb, Tipu Sultan, Khilijis, Taimur, Babur and others destroyed thousands of Hindu temples and forcefully tried to establish Sharia law. K.S. Lal in his book “Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India” (1973) estimated that about 60 to 80 million people died in India between 1000-1525 AD. At times, million sounds only a number to us, but start putting the zeroes on paper and your conscious would be shaken. Will Durant writes in “The Story of Civilization” that ‘The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within. The Hindus had allowed their strength to be wasted in internal division and war’.

Similarly, British missionaries have tried to convert poorer sections of the Hindus to Christianity. Although, it could be debated that Britishers’ main motive was to plunder India economically, but it would be important to note that most of the countries they ruled got converted to Christianity. So, why would Britishers take an exception for the Indian subcontinent? The present day casteism was the outcome of their well thought strategy to destroy the Varna system which functioned well for centuries for India. Once they studied the civilization well, they were successful in breaking the society. Unfortunately, we have forgotten the difference between the caste system and casteism.

So, if this all is true, then why were the colonial masters unable to convert all Hindus to Islam or Christianity? What kept the Indian civilization going on for so many centuries? How is the oldest form of martial arts still alive? Almost all the musical and dance forms are still existing. Despite all the major universities being burnt and the scriptures destroyed, the old value system is still relevant and existent in the society. Despite a long history of foreign invasions, it would be interesting to note that even today Indian subcontinent is not radicalized. At least, the initial two to three generations of Indian Muslims still followed their Hindu rituals and continued to go to temples, celebrated Hindu festivals and pretty much lead the Hindu way of life.

Walter Lawrence, a civil servant in the British India and wrote in his book “The Valley of Kashmir” (1895) – “…the indifference shown in the matter of mosques and Mullahs may be accounted for by the fact that the Kashmiri Sunnis are only Musalmans in name. In their hearts they are hindus…”. It is important to understand the role of Bhakti movement and spiritual strength of the Indian society which was able to bear the brunt of wrath of invaders and yet stood strong. Isn’t it surprising that even after the invaders broke the ‘swaroops’ (idols) and yet they could not break the essence of the society? In those harsh times as well, the society was able to preserve and protect all its values.

It would be naive to think that there were no political or armed resistance to counter the invaders. An entire religion (Sikh) came to existence to fight the colonial masters and Sikh empire was established in the then Punjab province (mostly in Pakistan now), Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit and Khyber Pass. It is known that Shivaji fought at least 130 battles with the Mughals. But, what about the rest of India? Who were the heroes who fought valiantly and sacrificed their lives for their present and future generations, for us? The history books are devoid of heroic stories of our warriors. Speaking on the economic exploitation of India by the British is out of scope for this paper. Nevertheless, while we are told that the total number of deaths in the 1943 famine of India conservatively ranged between 2-3 million, we are not told about the real reasons of these deaths3.

In the post-independence era as well, India has not spoken truth. The real reasons of partition of India and subsequent massacre of millions of people are most unknown to the present generation. Hundreds of thousands of riots and genocide took place in post-1947 era and yet the National Human Rights Commission of India mentions only “Gujarat Orders” and “Proceeding On Batla House Encounter” as their Landmark Judgements4. I find this extremely shocking that the crimes of “1984 Sikh Genocide” and “1990 Exodus and Genocide of Kashmiri Pandits” are yet to be recognised as Human Rights violation by NHRC. It is very bizarre that a society has been kept in dark from the truth for such a long time.

Should we call the present generation mere ‘survivors’? If I can write this today even after what has happened for centuries, should I count myself as invincible or a mere survivor? Unfortunately, the history we learn at school and university is only remembering the dates. The ‘whys’ of any event are mostly more significant than the ‘whats’ in history. And therefore, I would like to propose the idea of forming a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of India” be set up by the Government of India with only one goal – to tell the truth as is. Once the truth is established and written, it would open the avenues for reconciliation. Till this happens, Indians would be raised as a confused society, completely unaware of their rich heritage, culture and history and the society would continue to see the conflict it sees today.

1 The reason these are called “Indian” comes from the fact that the Christopher Columbus was in search of ‘India as in Bharat’ but landed in the present day’s North American Continent (refer to – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controversy)

2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_reconciliation_commission

3https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/winston-churchill-policies-contributed-to-1943-bengal-famine-study

4 http://nhrc.nic.in/

पंचवक्त्र महादेव मंदिर, मंडी (हिमाचल प्रदेश)

Panditdeepmehta
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पंचवक्त्र महादेव मंदिर, मंडी (हिमाचल प्रदेश)

जिस तरह काशी गंगा के किनारे बसा है, ठीक उसी तरह मंडी व्यास नदी के तट पर बसा है। काशी की तरह मंडी में भी कई ऐतिहासिक धार्मिक स्थल स्तिथ हैं। इन्हीं धार्मिक स्थलों में से एक है पंचवक्त्र महादेव मंदिर।

भगवान शिव को समर्पित यह अद्भुत स्थल सुकेती और ब्यास नदियों के संगम पर स्थित है। पंचवक्त्र महादेव मंदिर एक अत्यंत ही प्राचीन धार्मिक स्थल है। इसका निर्माण राजा अजबर सेन ने 16वीं सदी के पूर्वार्द्ध में करवाया था।

मंदिर एक विशाल मंच पर खड़ा है और बहुत अच्छी तरह से सुसज्जित है। यह भूतनाथ और त्रिलोकीनाथ मंदिरों जैसा बनाया गया शिखराकार भव्य मंदिर है। मंदिर की छत बनाने में उत्तम किस्म का पत्थर प्रयुक्त किया गया है। मंदिर विशिष्ट शिखर वास्तुकला शैली में बनाया गया है, जो आश्चर्यजनक है।

मंदिर के गर्भगृह में भगवान शिव की विशाल पंचमुखी प्रतिमा स्थापित है। भगवान शिव की एक बहुत बड़ी मूर्ति है जिसके पाँच मुख हैं जो भगवान शिव के विभिन्न रूपों अघोरा, ईशान, तत्पुरुष, वामदेव और रुद्र को दर्शाते हैं।

मंदिर का दरवाजा व्यास नदी की ओर है। दोनों ओर द्वारपाल हैं। मंदिर में कई स्थानों पर सांप की आकृतियां स्थित हैं। नंदी की मूर्ति भी भव्य है, जिसका मुख गर्भगृह की ओर है। पंचवक्त्र महादेव मंदिर संरक्षित स्मारकों में से एक है, जो भारतीय पुरातत्व सर्वेक्षण के अंतर्गत आता है और इसे राष्ट्रीय स्थल घोषित किया गया है।

बिहार में का बा

bibhutisrivastava
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बिहार में का बा

बिहारी कही भी रहे पर बिहार उसके दिल में रहता है। हर साल छठ पूजा की तस्वीरें अलास्का जैसी ठंढी जगहों से भी आ ही जाती है। बिहार की राजनीती पर भी बिहारियों की हमेशा ही नज़र रहती है। चाहे वो देश में रहे या विदेश में उन्हें ये पता होता है की कौन से चुनाव में किसका पलड़ा भारी है। राजनितिक बहस हम बिहारियों का पसंदीदा शौक होता है। गली मोहल्ले की पूजा समितियों के चुनाव से ले कर अमेरिका के राष्ट्रपति तक के चुनाव के नतीजे हम बैठे बैठे बहस कर के घोषित कर देते है। बिहार सत्याग्रह की भी भूमि रही है।

मगध, मिथिला और भोजपुर के ऐतिहासिक क्षेत्रो में बटा बिहार एक बार फिर चर्चा में है। बिहार में विधानसभा चुनाव होने वाले है। भारतीय निर्वाचन आयोग ने इसे कोरोना काल में होने वाला विश्व का सबसे बड़ा चुनाव बताया है। तीन चरणो में वोट डाले जायेंगे और नतीजे 10 नवंबर 2020 को आएंगे।

अब मुद्दा ये है की वोट किसे दिया जाए। वैसे तो पारम्परिक तौर पर उमीदवार के चयन से ले कर वोट डालने तक की प्रक्रिया जातिवादी मानसिकता में घिरी होती है। परन्तु बिहार के वोटरों ने पिछले कुछ चुनावों में राजनितिक पार्टियों को चौकाया भी है। इसका बहुत बड़ा उदाहरण है लोकसभा चुनाव में मुख्य विपक्षी पार्टी राजद का एक भी सीट नहीं जीत पाना।

बिहार में का बा – ये एक ऐसा सवाल है जो चुनाव ख़त्म होने के बाद अगले पांच साल हम जरुर पूछते है पर जब वोट डालने का समय आता है तब हम बिहार को भूल कर जातिवाद जैसे विभाजनकारी मानसिकता को चुन लेते है। इस मानसिकता को बदले बिना हम बिहार के विकास की कल्पना भी नहीं कर सकते। युवा बिहारी मुख्यतः प्रवासी होता है। नौकरी करने की उम्र आते ही बिहार छोड़ना एक सामाजिक रिवाज़ की तरह है। मुझ जैसे 90 के दशक के बिहारी उस भयावह दौर को देख चुके है जिसकी कल्पना मात्र से ही रोंगटे खड़े हो जाते है। लूट, खसोट, हत्या, अपहरण एक उद्योग बन चूका था। इसे अघोषित राजनितिक संरक्षण प्राप्त था। और जो वास्तविक उद्योग थे उन में ताले जड़ चुके थे। बिना रंगदारी के पैसे दिए व्यपार चलना असंभव था, उस पर भी अपहरण का डर चौबीसो घंटे रहता था। बिहार के कई मशहूर चिकित्सक और व्यवसायी बिहार छोड़ चुके थे। कानून व्यवस्था पूर्णतः चरमरा गयी थी। शाम और अँधेरा डर का प्रतिक बन चुके थे। सिर्फ कानून व्यवस्था ही क्यों शिक्षा व्यवस्था भी अपने न्यूनतम स्तर तक गिर चुकी थी। चरवाहा विद्यालय की स्थापना हो रही थी पर जो विद्यालय या विश्वविद्यालय पहले से चल रहे थे उनकी कोई सुध लेने वाला नहीं था। बिहार के शिक्षण व्यवस्था यह छवि उसी दौर में बनी। अस्पतालों में ना डॉक्टर थे न ही इलाज़ के साधन।

कानून व्यवस्था, व्यपार, शिक्षा और चिकित्सा की तरह ही बुरा हाल सड़को और बिजली का था। गड्ढो में सड़क ढूंढनी पड़ती थी। 100 किलोमीटर का सफर 6 से 7 घंटे में पूरा होता था। बिजली का हाल ऐसा था की शहरो में 5 घण्टे भी बिजली का होना दिवास्वप्न सा था और गाँवो में तो 5 दिन में एक बार भी आ जाये तो आश्चर्य की बात होती थी। ये वो बातें है जिनका भुक्तभोगी 90 के दशक का हर युवा है। ये दौर था लालू प्रसाद यादव के मुख्यमंत्री काल का। लालू और उनके सालो की पारिवारिक पृष्ठभूमि अत्यंत गरीब और साधारण स्तर की थी। परन्तु जिस दौर में बिहार राज्य गरीबी की हर सिमा लाँघ गया उसी दौर में लालू परिवार अपनी अमीर और बेहद अमिर होता चला गया। बिहार के विकास के पैसे लालू परिवार के विकास का साधन बना। उस दौर का कलंक कितना गहरा है इसका अंदाज़ा इसी बात से लगाया जा सकता है की आज उन्ही लालू के बेटे और राजद के राष्ट्रिय अध्यक्ष तेजस्वी यादव, लालू राबड़ी के 15 साल के जंगल राज की माफ़ी बिहार की जनता से मांग रहे है। आज राजद के पोस्टर से पार्टी के संस्थापक लालू यादव गायब है।

ये अवसरवादिता है। बिहार की जनता इस झांसे में ना आये की नयी पीढ़ी की सोंच अलग होगी। उपमुख्यमंत्री के बेटे की शादी के मौके पर लालू के बड़े बेटे तेज प्रताप की घर में घूस कर मारने की धमकी सबको याद है। कौन भूल सकता है भारत के माननीय प्रधानमंत्री की खाल उधेरवा देने की धमकी को। बिहार में सरकार गिरने के बाद बौखलाए तेजस्वी ने भी भाषा की सारी मर्यादये लाँघ दी थी। सालो तक लालू और पार्टी के लिए वफादार रहे रघुवंश प्रसाद सिंह को एक लोटा पानी तक बता दिया गया था। आये दिन खबरों में गलत वजहों से ही रहने वाली राजद की यह युवा पीढ़ी कितनी भरोसे के लायक है यह बिहार के वोटरों को सोंचना है।

ऐसा दावा तो बिहार के वर्त्तमान मुख्यमंत्री नितीश कुमार भी नहीं करते की उन्होंने ने बिहार की सारी समस्याओ को दूर कर दिया। वो खुद कहते है बिहार एक बीमारू राज्य है। पर इस बीमारू राज्य को आज उम्मीद की किरण भी नितीश बाबू के कुशल नेतृत्व और दूरदर्शी योजनाओ ने दिया है। आज बिहार के घर घर में बिजली है, सड़को में गड्ढे ढूंढने से भी नहीं मिलते, लगभग हर नदी पर पुल का निर्माण होने से यातायात आसान हुआ है, शिक्षा व्यवस्था अपने सत्र के अनुसार चल रही है, अस्पतालों में सुविधाओं की कोई कमी नहीं है, व्यपारियो को बिहार मे अब डर नहीं लगता। अमीरी अब अपहरण को नेवता नहीं देती।

आज बिहार में लालू के 15 साल की तुलना नितीश के 15 साल से की जा रही है। वही लालू के पंद्रह साल के लिए लालू की पार्टी ही माफ़ी मांग रही है। बिहार के विगत तीस साल कुसाशन और सुशासन के अंतर को समझने के लिए एक केस हिस्ट्री की तरह है। आज बिहार चैन की साँस ले रहा है। बिहार प्रगति की राह पर अग्रसर है। लेकिन बिहार जितना क्रन्तिकारी राज्य है उतने ही क्रन्तिकारी बिहार के लोग है। जब तक बिहार के लोग नहीं चाहेंगे बिहार आगे नहीं बढ़ पायेगा। पिछले 15 सालो में लोगो ने चाहा बिहार आगे बढे तो बिहार आगे बढ़ा। एक बार फिर फैसला बिहार के लोगो के हाँथ में है। बिहार “माय” समीकरण की नहीं बल्कि ” तरक्की के नए अध्याय” के लिए वोट करेगा।

खुद के लिए नहीं, आने वाले कल के लिए वोट करे। आने वाली पीढ़ी को अपनी जन्मभूमि पर गर्व करवाने के लिए वोट करे।

~ विभूति श्रीवास्तव (ट्विटर – @graciousgoon)

Yogi Adityanath is right when he says “How can Mughals be our hero”

nikhilyadav
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Yogi Adityanath is right when he says “How can Mughals be our hero”

What’s in a name? Asked William Shakespeare. Name and form are however interrelated, if I say Banana, you can’t think of coconut. Name is especially important in the case of an individual.  An individual’s name reflects his culture, tradition, and values.

Recently, Mughal Museum in Agra has been named after Great Maratha King Maharaja Chhatrapati Shivaji and as expected huge debate has started and certain lost journalists trying to find their voice in the din. Why the name is important if that’s the question then given the free run of the secular historians right from the dawn of India’s independence, made us almost forget our own history, our ancestry, our tradition, and our culture. We have been served cooked up and selective history to build a narrative that would in turn yield political mileage albeit secularism remained on the lips.

The country was partitioned on the basis of religion. The new entity which came into existence as a result of the partition started its journey as secular states soon choose to be the Islamic Republic. Do we have a problem with that? Absolutely not! But then Hindus also should have the right to celebrate their own culture and tradition by celebrating their Heroes by naming public places after them. Thereby, though the history won’t be erased, what it will do at least is to bring those Heroes, who reflect the culture and tradition of the land, out of the obscure darkness, that they had been pushed to by those celebrated self-seeking historians and introduce them with the up-coming generation.

The Mughal Museum being constructed in the Uttar Pradesh district of Agra will now be named after Maratha Icon Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath questioned “How can Mughal be our heroes ?” he tweeted , “The museum under construction in Agra will be known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The symbols of slavery mentality have no place in your new Uttar Pradesh. Our hero is Shivaji Maharaj. Jai Hind Jai Bharat.”[i]

Mughals are history now and we have to understand how historians have not only mislead us but also have created myths according to their personal whims, political affiliations resulting in their personal benefits.

A number of historians have dedicated their whole life in creating a propaganda which portrays that it was the Mughal invasion which brought culture to us, as later the Britishers said it loud that we have unified India for the first time. Though India was not under the control of any single dynasty or political the rule in its thousands of years of its history but culturally, socially and spiritually was always one. As the verse from Vishnu Purana says उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् । वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।। “The country north of the sea and south of the Himalayas is Bharataand her child are Bharati.” [ii]

While asking for the proof of the birth of lord Rama and Krishna is part of secular history and showing facts about plunder, brutal repression, and temple destruction becomes communal history. It has been asked many times now that why don’t the Hindus accept the Mughals or the Muslim rulers as their own? This is an invalid question, the question should be why Indian Muslims don’t accept our common ancestry do they connect or have anything to do with the Vedas, the Puranas, the Upnishads, Shrimad Bhagwat  Gita, the Sangam literature, the two national epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Is lord Buddha and Mahavira part of their past or not? Does the 16 Mahajanpadas  have anything to do with their ancestry? Is Ajatasatru, Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Samudragupta, Krishnadevaraya part of their cultural heritage or not?

First, we have to understand why the practice of naming roads and museums after the Mughals. As one of the most devastating things that India had experienced was Aurangzeb’s rule, although the Mughal rule, in general, is not that of a pleasant memory. Religious persecution, violence, demolition of temples and replacing them with Mosques, of mass forced conversions, and destruction of learning and educational centers are few achievements to count. Our secular zealots made us pay to witness a tower built on the ruins of our own culture and we are to clap while celebrating another alien notion of secularism. It was Babur with whom the Mughal Dynasty started, as according to the book ‘The Mughals of India’ by Harbans Mukhia, “Babur found hope in the fold of Islam. His battle cry at Khanuwa was a jihad against the infidel Rana Sanga .’’ For Babur, this battle was a holy war, a jihad and he encouraged his army by reminding them that they were fighting for the glory of their religion. Everyone swear on the Quran that they will fight to the end and stand by Babur.[iii]

His grandson Akbar who had been presented as liberal (his liberalism was however confined to his court only) can be put in the terms of “andho me kana raja” as he also slaughters around 30,000 innocent civilians after the fall of Chittor. These numbers exclude the people who were involved in the battle and Jauhar. 

His son Jahangir who had a little of war history, after his victory over Kangra (present-day in Himachal Pradesh) writes in his memoirs, the ‘Tuzuk-i- Jahangiri’ , that he celebrated the event by demolishing the temple of the Hindu goddess Durga, and constructing a mosque at the site. He was a hypocrite too, as according to the Italian traveler Niccolao Manucci Jahangir’s love for both wine and pork which are prohibited in Islam grows more intensely during the holy month of Ramazan. [iv]So Muslims should also ponder how much they would like to identify themselves with the  Mughal pride.  It was under the same emperor that Guru Arjan the 5th Sikh guru was arrested and was asked to convert to Islam and when refused, he was tortured and executed in 1606 CE.[v]

Jahangir’s son Shah Jahan in his court chronicle Shah Jahan Nama, describes his armies as the force of Islam. But it was his son Aurangzeb  a religious bigot, who according to Vincent Arthur Smith in his book ‘The Oxford History of India’, in 1669 ordered, all his governors of provinces to “destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels, and that they were strictly enjoined to put an entire stop to the teaching and practice of idolatrous forms of worship.”[vi][vii]

According to the historian Abraham Eraly during Aurangzeb’s era all temples around Ujjain were destroyed’’, and later, “300 temples were destroyed in and around Chitor, Udaipur and Jaipur’’ among other Hindu temples destroyed elsewhere in campaigns through 1705. Exclusively he demolished 66 temples in Amber, Rajasthan. [viii][ix]Abu Turb who was sent to the place returned to the court and reported the destruction. Two of the most important temples of Hindu civilisation Mathura (the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple) and Vishwanath Temple at Varanasi was not only destroyed but mosques were established after the demolition. The temple of Mathura was demolished in 1670 and a grand mosque was erected and the name of Mathura was changed to Islamabad,’ observes chronicler of Aurangzeb’s reign Saqi Mustaid Khan. [x]The destruction of temples and educational institutions, the killings of learned monks, and the scattering of students led to a widespread decline in Hindu education. When ninth Sikh guru Guru Tegh Bahadur fought against these evils of forced religious conversions and imposition he was beheaded in front of a huge mass  by Aurangzeb on 24 November 1675, Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk marks the place of his execution.[xi]

So the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath’s question ‘’How can Mughals be our hero?” Is absolutely correct. If Germany cannot have places named after Hitler and Spain removing places and streets named after fascist leaders how can we have Cities, places, roads, and buildings named after Mughals who killed our spiritual leaders, demolished Mathura, Kanshi temples among other thousands, and have religiously converted, killed and plundered many? Identifying with and considering Mughals as heroes would justify all their brutality and oppression. Thinkers of the Nation should decide.  

(Nikhil Yadav is a State Youth Head at Vivekananda Kendra, Uttar Prant. He obtained his Masters in History from the University Of Delhi and is pursuing COP in Vedic Culture from Jawaharlal Nehru University.)

[i] https://twitter.com/myogiadityanath/status/1305534467465912321

[ii] https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.htm

[iii] https://historypak.com/battle-of-kanwha/

[iv] Mukhia Harbans ,The Mughals of India, ; Blackwell Publishing, UK, 2004 ,Page – 18-19

[v] https://theprint.in/features/guru-arjan-dev-the-martyr-whose-death-changed-the-course-of-sikhism/401897/

[vi] Smith, Vincent A. (1919). The Oxford History of India. Oxford University Press.

[vii] https://archive.org/stream/oxfordhistoryofi00smituoft#page/437/mode/1up

[viii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Hindus

[ix] Eraly, Abraham (2000). Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals. Penguin Books. pp. 398–399.

[x] Mukhia Harbans ,The Mughals of India, ; Blackwell Publishing, UK, 2004 ,Page – 24-25

[xi] https://theprint.in/theprint-profile/guru-tegh-bahadur-the-ninth-sikh-guru-who-sacrificed-himself-for-religious-freedom/324938/

GDP fall: Can we overcome this?

Saketh Raman Kandadai
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GDP fall: Can we overcome this?

First let us know what actually GDP is in a simplest way, and the effect it can create on the Nation’s Economy. GDP – Gross Domestic Product is money or currency related measure or market value of all final goods and services produced in a specific time period. GDP is literally a country’s economic growth scorecard. It provides the size of an economy and growth rate. It includes expenditure, production, incomes of the country.

Of all the components that make up a country’s GDP, the foreign balance of trade is especially important. The GDP of a country tends to increase when the total value of goods and services that domestic producers sell to foreign countries exceeds the total value of foreign goods and services that domestic consumers buy (Trade Surplus). If the opposite happens, it is called trade deficit – which is relying more on foreign product imports than exporting domestic products. So this is the major concern in the implementation of Aatma Nirbhar Bhaarat initiative (Self Reliant India)

We understood trade surplus results in GDP increase and trade deficit results a depletion in GDP. Now, let’s see the GDP of different countries during the period of Covid 19 (i.e., April – June 2020) – In this period India faced a worst scenario in GDP growth. And, along with India, developed countries like UK, US also observed a huge negative impact on GDP due to the pandemic except China. But, comparatively India is the most effected. Let’s now think about why this happened?

We should understand the fact that due to the pandemic situation, the whole world went on for a lockdown because heath is a major concern for any government. Even in India, Lockdown is implemented in phases from March – July, which is almost a span of 4 months without any transaction of goods, production and manufacturing activities are shut down, people losing their jobs, stopped purchasing goods, no infrastructural developments. The only thing that is running in this period is health and agriculture industry. When all other industries faced a negative growth rate, only agriculture industry showed some positive results.

From the past India never faced a major health issue like this. So, India never prepared for a large scale health crisis, because of which we had to rely on other countries for testing kits, Protection equipment, ventilators, etc. which made the government to allocate money for imports on these products more. Simple logic is that, due to lockdown there is no inflow for the government in any sector. There is only outflow for the medical sector. So, everybody expected there would be a fall in the GDP but no one expected such a huge fall which broke all previous records of depletion. But, this is not the time to play the blame game. Instead we should think for the solutions to overcome the situation. Blame game won’t increase growth rate; it only increases the hatred.

Let’s now talk about ways to solve this problem,

  1. What government is trying to do to overcome this situation?

Idea behind Aatmanirbhar Bharath (Vocal for Local) – As we have discussed before, we can see a faster growth in GDP only when there is an increase in our production and exports to other countries than that of the imports to our country. So, this scheme is introduced to encourage the locals to invest on the industries which in turn increases the production rate, thereby attracting foreign countries to buy our goods. Government is providing relaxations and financial assistance to those who want to set up small scale industries. Relaxations are also provided for the Foreign companies to invest in India under FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) scheme.

  • What private companies like Jio are doing?

Jio recently announced in their anniversary meet that, India will start their 5G services by 2021 and will become a global supplier of 5G network. It also made a deal with Google to manufacture 5G compatible mobile phones at a reasonably cheaper price. Jio industries chairman – Mukesh Ambani stated that these announcements are a step towards ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharath’ Scheme.

  • Privatisation of PSUs

So, we have been watching the news in the recent times that government is planning to privatise some of the Public Sector Undertakings. People are thinking that this is a bad idea and it is just for the growth of some corporate families but let’s just talk about facts and leave it to them whether it’s a bad or good idea. So, if we understand the reason behind privatisation, many government owned companies are actually making a huge loss. If we see the report of Public Enterprises Survey done in 2018 period, it is clear that companies like BSNL, MTNL, Air India, etc. are running with a huge loss (in thousand crores).

For these companies (and many more such), despite running in loss, because of being a government undertaking, the government should pay the salaries to the employees, should bear the maintenance costs, invest on it even though the company is in losses. But, if such companies are privatised, the companies can work for profits without any political interferences, also in this competitive world, private companies try to be on top all the time, which makes them think about making profits, thereby helping in the economic growth. But, there is also a concern that private monopoly occurs in the market which causes inflation and damage to the consumers. It is better if privatisation is restricted to certain sectors as it may affect the interests of public.

  • What we can do?

Infrastructure development like construction of buildings, roads, bridges, ports, etc.  – which creates more employment and also development both hand in hand.

Manufacturing/Production: India is relying more on foreign products especially electronic gadgets like laptops, mobile phones. There are a very few companies in India which manufactures electronic gadgets, which are not even worthy compared to the foreign products. So, there is a need for manufacturing and production engineers to concentrate on making worthy products at a cheaper rate which helps in the reduction of country’s dependency on foreign products.

If you are a student – Think about entrepreneurship than that of doing a job. So, in India we can see 90% of students are engineering students and most of them choose to be working in some companies. I won’t say it is wrong but, start thinking about setting up a business – which would create more number of jobs thereby unemployment goes down. It isn’t that easy, but it is not impossible too.

Innovations – Stop just pointing out problems, instead start thinking about ways to solve the problems. India need innovations which are globally or at-least nationally useful, which makes our work easier, increases productivity, helps for the economic growth.

If we think negatively, we only see the negative side. But with that, can we expect something positive to happen?

If we think – we can’t, we can never achieve. If we think – we will, Can’t we overcome this?

So, let’s stop blaming others and start doing our part in Nation Building.

Jai Hind

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