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BHARATIYA Volume : 14 Number : 03 PRAGNA March, 2009

Board of Advisors From the Editorial Desk Dr.David Frawley Namaste! Dr.Subhash C.Kashyap First and foremost there is an imperative national need for Prof.P.V.Indiresan undiluted unity of Hindus, a unity based on a mindset that is nurtured T.Hari Hara Sharma and fostered on the fundamentals of Hindu Renaissance. Only then can Prof.Sandhya Jain Hindus meet the challenge of Christian missionaries and Islamic fundamentalists. Editor: This great and ancient Nation was once the fountain of human Dr.T.H.Chowdary light, the apex of civilisation, the exemplar of courage and humanity, the perfection of good government and settled society, the mother of all religions, the teacher of all wisdom and philosophy. Needless to say, its Associate Editor: pride has been trampled into the dust and its glory has departed.’ N.Nagaraja Rao A Hindu nation founded on SANATANA DHARMA ought to be the cherished goal of all the Hindus in India today and not a fraudulent Associates: nation founded on pseudo-secularism. This was the essence of the meet B.S.Sarma by holy saints and swamijis of various mutts in Mumbai on 28th & 29th M.S.Ramakrishna January 2009, who formed "Dharma Raksha Manch''. We carry an Shyam Madanani article listing the resolutions. V.Sai Krishna Sri Lanka, the once self-trumpeted “island of paradise”, turned into the island of bloodshed more than a quarter century ago, Asia’s Printed & Published by longest civil war is unlikely to end anytime soon. The Tigers’ Dr.T.H.Chowdary retransformation from a conventional force to a guerrilla force seems for Pragna Bharathi inevitable, even if LTTE chief gets killed avers Brahma Chellany in 3-4-705/4, his article "In Asia’s longest civil war, peace more elusive than ever.” Narayanaguda, The current Indian discourse on individual and human rights, Hyderabad - 500 020. which tends to smuggle in even gay and lesbian rights, apes the West. E-mail :bharatiyapragna As India attempts to copy the West, it clearly misses the serious economic @gmail.com issues that confront West, thanks to its obsession with unfettered individual and human rights, opines Gurumurthy in his article "The disaster of ‘me, me”. “Set up collegium, save democracy”, by A Surya Prakash in this Printed at: article he asserts that our constitution-makers often displayed an uncanny Goutham Printers ability to look into the future. They had the foresight to see that the 12th Street, democratic process would throw up cunning, unscrupulous and petty Gagan Mahal Road, persons once the Constitution and representative institutions were in Domalguda, place . Hyderabad - 500 029. This issue carries other articles besides our regular features. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 2

CONTENTS Bharatiya Editorial : Pragna A Nationalist Magazine Christian Onslaught on Hindus 03 for Thinking People Theme Story: Subscription Details Let us Protect our Dharma 06 Individual - Annual Rs. 150 The disaster of ‘me, me’ -S Gurumurthy 10 Overseas $ 30 In Asia’s longest civil war, peace more Individual - Biennial Rs. 250 elusive than ever - Brahma Chellaney 12 Overseas $ 55 Malice, deep-rooted - Vikram Sood 15 Life Subscription - Rs.1500 Many straws in the wind. - Swapan Dasgupta 17 Overseas $ 200 Set up collegium, save democracy-A Surya Prakash 19 Institutions - Annual Rs. 300 Barbarians at the gate - Kanchan Gupta 21 Institutions - Biennial Rs. 600 This planet needs Hindu ethos -Tarun Vijay 23 Overseas $ 110 N.B : For out station cheques Articles: please add Rs. 10/-. ($20) 26/11: A Taj survivor's untold story-Francois Gautier 26 * * * Islamists block free speech -Premen Addy 28 Advertisement Tariff Five hours’ drive to doom -Udayan Namboodiri 30 Back Cover (Multi Colour) Rs. 15,000 Immigration Boom Ends -Rajeev Srinivasan 33 2nd/3rd Page Rs. 10,000 Destructive federalism -Chandan Mitra 35 India’s Nation-hood -Dr T.H.Chowdary 38 * * * Mote and the beam -Sandhya Jain 44 Mechanical Data Hindu Devalaya Parirakshana Samithi-N. Nagaraja Rao46 Size : 1/4 Crown Slumdogs and fat cat bankers -Latha Jishnu 49 Pages : 60 Indian War of Independence 1857 -V.D.Savarkar 51 DDs/Cheques may please be drawn favouring Illuminated path “PRAGNA BHARATI” Discover your inner self -Acharya Mahaprajna 58 Manager Bharatiya Pragna Book Review 1-8-107/C, Sivapriya Complex, Chikkadapalli, Hyderabad - 20. Merchants of debt, the wealth of nations 55 A.P. India. Tel : +91 92461 01884 Vox populli E-mail : [email protected] “More Sinned Against Than Sinning” 59

The views expressed in this magazine need not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board or the Pragna Bharati.

March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 3 Editorial

Christian Onslaught on Hindus

As the General Elections to the Lok has been progressively declining as below has Sabha and to legislatures closeup, states like to be explained; there is a deliberate fraud here: Andhra Pradesh approach, various Christian Christian Population in Andhra Pradesh organisations and leading Christians are coming out with the truth that has been long suspected, Year 1971 1981 1991 2001 Total population mln 43.5 53.6 66.5 76.2 namely the internationally funded multi-national Christians mln 1.8 1.43 1.2 1.1 conversion (MNC) enterprises of Christians % of Christian population 4.19 2.68 1.83 1.44 bringing about a demographic havoc in the country. What used to be a whimper has now Christian organisations are now inventing become a thunder, what with their co-religionists victim-hood. They are saying hat their properties virtually controlling the UPA-led government in are being encroached upon or occupied by force; the Center and the most resource supplying that their churches are under attack and their (money) state like Andhra Pradesh being ruled pastors and even Christian laymen are being set by one among them. They used to say that upon and subjected to violence in many ways. Hindus should not be perturbed by the They commit an aggression; the defenders pay proselytization activities of as small a community in their coin. The aggression is not recorded; it is as less than 2.5% of India’s population. But of said to be peaceful exercise of the Constitutional late some of them are asserting that they are right of propagating their religion; even as about 19% [just like Muslims asserting that they propagation is provocation, fraud and are not 12.5% as the census of India says but inveiglement and enticement. about 20%]. The defending Hindus are called as In Andhra Pradesh they are making oppressors; attackers, fascists, fundamentalists, militant demands that since they are not less than communal etc. They propagandise in the 10%, 30 out of the 294 seats in the Legislative domestic and foreign media that Christians are Assembly and 3 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats must persecuted and denied freedom of religion. They be the minimum to be allotted to Christians by are “victims” of Hindus! every party. How their figures of 19% or 10% They are demanding that there should be in Andhra Pradesh have come up, while for special protection force for their properties and example, as per the census of India, in Andhra churches; they should have unfettered right to Pradesh the proportion of Christian population March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 4 preach in the precincts and around Hindus’ congregations and are representing to them that temples; they should have a separate government they are being attacked; that their life and department for their welfare and a separate properties and places of worship are under finance corporation to give them loans; they threat, that the constitutionally guaranteed should be free to found and manage any type of propagate right to their religion is being colleges and sell seats in those colleges to extinguished by government orders prohibiting Hindus, thus abusing the privilege of so called preaching conversion in and around temples. minority educational institutions without limit. They Vote-hungry ‘secular’ leaders are promising are demanding that SC converts to Christianity whatever Christians are wanting, no matter that should be extended the reservations meant for pilgrimage and marriage subsidies, special rights Hindu SCs. They have demanded and as never and privileges are not admitted to Hindus. The before and in no other state, in Christian ruled Hindu ministers in a Christian Chief Minister’s Andhra Pradesh they have got a subsidy of cabinet are so cowed down, have so little self- Rs.25,000 for Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem respect and are so frightened that not one of them [just like Muslims getting Rs.35,000 for their Haj asked for extension of the pilgrimage and pilgrimage to Mecca; Christians are given marriage subsidies given to Christians, to Hindus Rs.15,000 for a Christian’s marriage. also. Unsatisfied with these extra ordinary rights The Minister for minority welfare in Andhra and privileges, they are wanting welfare Pradesh, a Muslim is organising job-melas disbursements in proportion to their increasing inducing company chiefs to come to them and population by converts. Different sects of prevailing upon them to recruit minorities, with Christians are competitively planting Churches special consideration into their companies. in villages in numbers totally unrelated to the Almost all executive, money-disbursing and number of converts. Form these, they broadcast policy-shaping positions are assigned to provocative content to belittle Hinduism and Christians. Crypto-Christians (those who have extol Christianity and get converts. Hindu Bhaksti converted to Christianity but continue to show Gitas and stotras are appropriated by them with themselves as Hindu SCs in government records the names like Hari and Krishna and Sita and to avail of reservations, are inducted even into Rama substituted by Yesu and Mary giving the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board and impression that Yesu and Mary worship is not temple administration and management. unHindu. Thus they inveigle the wary into Within the last five years, what could not conversion by inducements like immediate cash be achieved by way of conversions in the 400 and kind relief and promises of giving foreign years since they started their conversion activities assignments to the educated unemployed. in our country seems to have been achieved Christian organisations are inviting vote- during the central government under the dictates hunting ‘seculars’ [like the TDP and Praja of a foreign-origin person at the head of India’s Rajyam Party (PRP) in Andhra Pradesh] to their oldest political organization and the first March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 5 committed practicing Christian Chief Minister in that I feel I ought to take this occasion to the state. Andhra Pradesh is now heading for a give expression to some of my reflections minority take-over. The powers that be as well thereon. On 26th January 1950, India will as the non-Congress ‘secular’ leaders and be an Independent country. (Cheers) What parties are attending rallies of Hindu castes. All would happen to her Independence? Will she most all castes are demanding to be declared as maintain her Independence or will she lose backward and most backward so as to be it again? This is the first thought that comes included in BC category, if not in SC or ST to my mind. It is not that India was never an category. Independent country. The point is that she It is strange why Hindus are not reacting; once lost the Independence she had. Will she why they also cannot form pressure groups and lose it a second time it is this thought which invite the leaders of political parties and place makes me most anxious for the future. What before them Hindu grievances and seek their perturbs me greatly is the fact that not only reddressal from them, telling that if they only India has once before lost her Independence, concede what Christians and Muslims are but she lost it by the infidelity and treachery demanding and not what Hindus are requesting, of some of her own people..”. they would vote only for such candidates and It may be worthwhile recalling that Dr B parties which secure for Hindus justice and R Ambedkar, the great statesmen and nationalist equality with the minorities. This itself is a refused to convert himself and his flock to Islam humiliating thought that an 85% Hindu population or to Christianity holding that they are not Indian of a state is wanting equal treatment, equal to origin religions. He advised people to take to that of the militant and organized minorities of Buddhism which is an Indian origin religion, in alien faiths. the line of India’s millennial culture. Finally, we If in these General Elections, governments advise our readers to imbibe the wisdom which are pro-minority and apathetic to, if not contained in the following inimitable and inimical to Hindus, come to power then, Hindus challenging words of Winston S Churchill: can be sure relapsed to dhimmitude; that is, “If you will not fight for the right when you second rate tolerated persons paying Jejia type can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not taxes for the benefit of the ruling minorities who fight when your victory will be sure and not too have seized power. They will thus prove the costly; you may come to the moment when you prophesy that Dr B R Ambedkar made at the will have to fight with all the odds against you session of the Constituent Assembly which finally and only a small chance of survival. There may adopted the Constitution of India: even be a worse case: you may have to fight :…..Here I could have ended. But my when there is no hope of victory, because it is mind is so full of the future of our country better to perish than to live as slaves.” March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 6

Let us Protect our Dharma

‘Hindus of India and the World unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains! We have to wage a heroic cultural and intellectual war against lethal International forces that have come together today to destroy Sanatana Dharma. We have to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of anti-Hindu crime’—— Cultural and spiritual battle call of the unknown Hindu warrior.

A meeting was held on an invitation issued on behalf of DHARMA RAKSHA MANCH, New Delhi, of Hindu Swamijis, Hindu Saints, and Hindu Holymen at Mumbai on 28 January, 2009 and 29 January 2009. Further at the Mumbai meet under the Charimanship of Satyamitraanand Giri also attended by Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi,Visweshwara Thirtaswamiji of Udipi , Swami Dayanand Saraswati &Swami Nrusimha Bharathi of Pushpagiri peetam resolved as follows: d Its time to counter the systematic assault on Hindu religion and call a halt to various sinister something. There is thus no ‘Church’ to obey, or designs to to defame the Hindu religion. believe that the ‘Pope’ is infallible, or that ‘Bible’ The arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya and is the sole book to specify what to believe in and dastard murder of Swami Lakshmanananda who what not to. Nor is there a Mecca, Kaaba, or was in the forefront of anti-proselytation and also Koran to goad the faithful into submission to the arrest of Sadhvi Pragna Singh Thakur on flimsy commit violence against Kafirs and Dhimmis. grounds subjecting her to narco-analysis test with Hindus instead have a framework of religious disrespect to womanhood are a few examples of thought and philosophy that evolved as Sanatana a planned systematic assault on Hindu religion. Dharma, and within that framework, Hindus as We have been forced to assert militantly on these individuals or groups are free to innovate and lines because Sanatana Dharma, Hindu Religion, improvise their religious rituals. That is why if one Hindu Society, Hindu culture and Hindu ethos are a Hindu is, it is natural to be of a democratic under the siege of certain lethal international (!) temper and to be secular in politics. forces today. The fundamental principle of Our Demands Hinduism is that those who are Hindus are not Declare this Nation as Spiritual Nation. regimented by theology to do or not to do Ban the Christian religious conversions. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 7

Take necessary steps to curb Jihadi nation’s sovereignty, unity and integrity. In short Terrorism with strong political will. their aim is to make India an Islamic nation as Stop all minority, appeasement policies. openly proclaimed by them. Declare Ganga, Cow, Ramasethu as But our rulers lack the firm determination National Heritage and take all necessary steps to to eliminate terrorism. Afzal Guru planned to blast protect them. the Indian Parliament building and rightly the Implement uniform civil code. Supreme Court of India had given him the death Take all necessary steps to protect the sentence. But our Central government is dilly dallying instead of executing Afzal Guru. The Indian government is asking the Pakistan government to hand over those responsible for 26/11 Mumbai attacks to them. But what action can Indian government take, if its demand is conceded, for it could not execute Afzal Guru who was already convicted and is in its custody? Our government only gives statements yes strongly worded state statements. Thousands of Pakistanis are overstaying in India even after the expiry of their Visa permit. cultural invasion through media and TV. About three crore Bangladeshis have infiltrated Remove all obstacles to construct a into India. Trained terrorists amongst these groups Monumental Temple in the place of Rama are getting cooperation and protection from their Janmabhoomi, Ayodhya. Indian counterparts. Take all necessary steps to send back Minority Appeasemnet : the Bangladeshi infiltrators. The following are some of the policies In Bharat we, the Hindus always pray followed by our rulers to appease minorities and Sarve Janath Sikhino Bhavantu (let all people be to create Vote Banks. happy).But our Hindu Dharma and Culture are - Even the economic and being attacked. Our life values are also attached developmental programmes and plans tainted with giving us the feeling that the very existence of minority colour. Hindus, the original inhabitants of this Land, is at - Haj pilgrimages by Muslims and stake. Bethelham pilgrimages by Christians are Bomb Explosions-Lack of political will subsidized which no other secular country in the Pakistan is abetting Jihadi terrorism by world does. But at the same time Hindus have to organizing training to them in their land. The pay ‘pilgrim tax’ for visiting places like Tirupathi, terrorists want to create fear and tension among Varanasi, Haridwar, state run Railways and Road the people, destabilize the nation and destroy transport departments are looting pilgrims by March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 8 collecting 50% extra over normal fares for visiting writer was attacked and threatened to kill her if pilgrim centre, and soon. Even those who attend comes back to Hyderabad. village jataras (melas) are taxed by collecting - Political interference in Hindu temple increased fares by State and Central administration in the name of Hindu Religious and Governments. Endowments Act., Temple properties are occupied - Public funds are used for the and sold. construction and repairs of mosques and Rights of B.Cs. and S.Cs Violated churches. 4% reservation is segregated to Muslims - Government is apathetic to protect from the B.C. quota, thus harming the B.C. Hindu religious processions, Ashrams and Sadhus. interests. (Bhodhan, Bhainsa, Vedagiri Ashram etc…) The Central and State Governments and - Hindu temples are demolished in the some political leaders are over anxious to include name of road widening while minority places are Dalit Christians among the Scheduled Castes even left untouched even if they obstruct the road. Thus though it is against the letter and spirit of our partiality is shown. Constitution and against the judgements of the - Many times government doctors and Supreme Court of India. Even the regional parties municipal officials are attacked and fired by some are supporting this move with an eye on their Vote Muslim leaders but the police are instructed not banks. No political party seems to be aware of to file a case by the rulers. Taslima, a Bangladesi the long term implications of this decession.

March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 9

Religious Conversions on increase in A.P.: Centres. Religious liberty means right to propagate The Christian groups are now and profess a religion of our own choice, but it demanding the withdrawal of these two G.Os and does not give right to any one to induce any person some political parties are even assuring them that to charge his religion. In Rev, StainLaus Vs State they would certainly do so. of M.P. (AIR1977 SC908) the Supreme Court - Christian religious functions are held held that Art 25 does not confer any right to in the state secretariat and other Government forcibly convert people by fraud means. offices and officials sit on the dias of Gospel But with foreign funds, Vatican plan and meetings. the abetment of A.P. Govt. efforts are on to make - Christian Churches and conversion AP a Christian Land. In the name of social service centres are cropping amidst Hindu houses thus Christian missionaries are Converting innocent creating religious tensions. people fraudulently. What should we do ? Christian religious propaganda is done When our religious centres, holy places and near Hindu temples like Tirumala, Bhadrachalam, life values are attacked, invidual’s patriotism and Simhachalam, Thousand pillar Temple (Warangal) devotion are not enough. All these who share and Sammakka Sarakka Temple(Medaram). similar feelings should be prepared to speak openly They abuse Hindu Gods and Goddess as part of even from public platforms. Political and social the propaganda. leaders irrespective of the organizations to which -When Hindus Protested against the they belong, should unite and be prepared to fight Christian propaganda and against motive of the to protect our Dharma and Culture. The recent State Govt, in stating that Tirumala Hills consist successful Amarnath agitation is our model and of only two hills, even Sadhus and Sants joined inspiration. Participate in the Dharma Raksha the agitation. The government had to concede and Yagnam. Propagate and distribute the pamplets issue two G.O.s numbering 746 and 747. to your neighbours and family members, friends -G.Os No.746 prohibits religious near and dear. Let us join Dharma Raksha propaganda by all over religions on the Tirumala Vedika organised by Sadhus and Sants only to considered as Divya Kshetram. G.O. No.747 protect our dharma and national sovereignty. prohibits religious propaganda near a temple or Please cast your vote carefully to those prayer hall of any religion by another religions. parites who will protect Dharma in all aspects The G.O. specifically mention 20 Hindu Pilgrim (A Report by N. Nagaraja Rao)

The life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive. - Swami Vivekananda

March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 10

The disaster of ‘me, me’ S Gurumurthy

As India attempts to copy the West, it clearly misses the serious economic issues that confront West, thanks to its obsession with unfettered individual and human rights.

This happened in Mangalore as February This is Arundhati Roy sermonising to 14 — now marketed as Valentine’s Day by youths. Why she left out incest from her traders to sell their wares — was approaching. catalogue of love is not clear. Now, take the Upset with public drinking by boys and girls, secular media. It quickly equated pubgoing with a freak by name Pramod Muthalik got mad. He individual rights, and held Muthalik as an offender got some of them in a pub beaten up like their against human rights. Evidently, the mad act of a parents would do, but unlike them. He had freak Hindu in a distant corner of India is informed the media about his show so that the sufficient to turn the whole of secular India into news cameras were in place to telecast the lunatics. Now move away from this trivia to the Muthalik action everywhere. Thus the Muthalik danger to which Renukas and Arundhatis expose show was a joint venture between him and the the nation’s economy. media to keep away the state police, which could The current Indian discourse on individual spoil the show. Predictably, the whole world and human rights, which tends to smuggle in even pounced on poor Yeddyurappa who heads the BJP gay and lesbian rights, apes the West. Many in government in Karnataka for allowing Muthalik the West now seem to realise that continuously to take the law into his hands. The BJP, ever torn undermining the moral and social order has led between its love of Hindu culture and its desire to the present economic crisis. The West did not for a modern image, was greatly embarrassed. slide overnight. Beginning from the late 19th With the BJP in power in Karnataka, Muthalik knew the publicity value of his show. Had he century, the Anglo-American West gradually enacted his theatre elsewhere, like when the Shiv moved away from a relation- based lifestyle to a Sena raided pubs years ago in Mumbai and Pune contract-based lifestyle. under the ‘secular’ Congress rule, it would have While culture and tradition govern relation, been far less noisy. law and rights inhere in contracts. More. By just one mad act, Muthalik turned And this move from relation to contracts many, including a minister, into full-scale lunatics. became almost complete in the second half of Renuka Chowdhury, a minister of state, supported the 20th century. With law overriding relations, a “pub bharo andolan” to take on Muthalik, thus even parents could not curb the rights of their openly encouraging young boys and girls to take wards once they legally matured. to mass drinking in public. And believe it or not, It is the other way. If they acted against her portfolio is Women and Child Development. their wards, the law would punish the parents Came an even more mad response to Muthalik’s for child abuse. So contracts replaced relations, take on Valentine’s Day. “I support every kind of and rule of law substituted for moral order. To love, heterosexual, transgender, marital, what effect? The rise of unfettered individualism extramarital”. and undefined feminism have led to the erosion March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 11 of families and a rise in divorces, singleparent households are insolvent. More, the US, the largest families, unwed mothers, lesbians, gays and almost creditor nation of the world three decades ago, is the collapse of traditional families. Over 50 per today the number one debtor of the world, with cent of the first marriages, 67 per cent of the $12.5 trillion of debt. second marriages, and 74 per cent of the third A quick survey shows this: all individual- marriages end in divorce in the US. Over 40 per centric economies are deep in debt; but nations cent of births are outside wedlock. Almost half of more family-oriented and less individual- centric, the families are headed by a single parent. like Japan, China, India, and generally Asian The number is more in most of Europe. It nations, account for over three-fourths of global was seen as cultural erosion first. But slowly it savings; the individualist West lives off the savings has turned into an economic disaster. of family-centric Asia. Today the West says that, The contract-based model undermined in the present crisis only Asia, which has huge families and led to savings thanks to family orientation, can save the low or no household West, which has almost lost savings, high personal The erosion in relation-based its traditional family lifestyle. debt, credit card lifestyle soon imposed a huge social So the idea of based living, security burden on the state because the unbridled human rights and unrestrained personal outsourcing of family mechanism that supported the freedom that have led to household functions unemployed, infirm, aged and the rest and social and cultural including kitchen the state had to step in to aid them degeneration are work. The erosion in increasingly seen as the cause of the present relation-based lifestyle soon imposed a huge social economic crisis. Weeks ago, Thomas L Friedman, security burden on the state because the family a leading economic journalist, wrote in the New mechanism that supported the unemployed, infirm, York Times that he had told those eating in a aged and the rest and the state had to step in to restaurant that they could no more afford to eat aid them. Thus the family functions were taken out and they had better cook and eat at home. over by the state. The families were nationalised. But how will they cook and eat at home unless The overburdened state consequently had to shed families are re-created? If they do, how would its traditional functions, like public works, and the US compensate for loss of employment if privatise itself. restaurants, which exist because households have The socialisation of family functions closed their kitchens, shut down? There seems to obviated the need to save for a rainy day and led be no solution within economic laws to the present to even lower savings. With the growth of crisis of the West. Amoral economics once yielded individualism to the exclusion of kinship and higher returns. It now yields negative returns. relations, corporates and the state alike promoted Here Renukas and Arundhatis advocate unrestrained consumerism. unbridled individualism that has undermined Result, some 110 millions US households families and morals and dynamited the economies have some 1.2 billion credit cards, almost a dozen of the West. Renuka questions the idea public cards per household. morals. Arundhati advocates amoral living. Both As the people saved less and spent more, seem unaware that an economy built at the cost they got into trillions of dollars of private debt; of family and social morals, too collapses on the and as the government spent more, it also ran ruins of the morals it has brought down. QED: into tens of trillions of dollars of public debt. The morality supports economics; lack of it ruins result is that the government is bankrupt and so economies. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 12

In Asia’s longest civil war, peace more elusive than ever Brahma Chellaney

Asia’s longest civil war is unlikely to end anytime soon. The Tigers’ retransformation from a conventional force to a guerrilla force seems inevitable, even if LTTE chief gets killed feels the writer.

Sri Lanka, the once self-trumpeted “island of paradise”, turned into the island of bloodshed more than a quarter century ago. But even by its long, gory record, the bloodletting since last year is unprecedented, with the United Nations estimating that about 40 non-combatants are now getting killed each day, or 1,200 every month. Such is the humanitarian crisis that hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes or remain trapped behind the front line. Yet, with the world preoccupied by pressing challenges and India more marginalised than ever, President Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother, defence minister Gotabhaya Rajapakse, a naturalised US citizen, press on with a brutal military campaign with impunity. There is no real international pressure on Colombo over an offensive that bears a distinct family imprint, with another brother the President’s top adviser. Indeed, Chinese military and financial blindness to the consequences of its aggressive support — as in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Zambia, pursuit of strategic interests. North Korea, Burma and elsewhere — has No sooner had the US ended direct military directly aided government excesses and human- aid to Sri Lanka last year over its deteriorating rights abuses in Sri Lanka. The more Beijing human-rights record than China blithely stepped insists that it doesn’t mix business with politics in to fill the breach. It began selling larger in its foreign relations, the more evidence it quantities of arms, and dramatically boosted its provides of cynically contributing to violence and aid fivefold in the past year to almost $1 billion to repression in internally torn states. Sri Lanka is emerge as Colombo’s largest donor. Its Jian-7 just the latest case demonstrating China’s fighters, anti-aircraft guns, JY-11 3D air March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 13 surveillance radars and other supplied weapons Pakistan, too, has become actively involved in Sri have played a central role in the Sri Lankan military Lanka, supplying multi-barrel rocket launchers and successes against the Tamil Tigers. varied small arms and training Sri Lankan air force personnel in precision guided attacks. Such attacks have been critical to the recent battlefield triumphs. Pakistan’s sharply rising annual military assistance loans to Sri Lanka now total nearly $100 million. In hindsight, the 1987-1990 peace -keeping operation in Sri Lanka cost India dearly, alienating Sinhalese and Tamils alike and undermining Indian interests. The disastrous foray into the civil war of another country also instilled a hands-off approach in Indian policy toward Sri Lanka. While other powers seek to advance commercial or strategic objectives in the country they intervene The manner India has ceded strategic in, such as to gain access to oil and mineral space in its backyard is evident from its declining resources or to effect regime change or to set up role in states that traditionally have been in its a strategic base, the Rajiv Gandhi government sphere of influence. Bhutan now remains its only ingenuously intervened in Sri Lanka and the pocket of influence. In Sri Lanka, India has Maldives for altruistic reasons — and to earn allowed itself to become a marginal player despite goodwill. its geostrategic advantage and trade and Today, New Delhi itself advertises its investment clout over a cash-strapped economy waning influence in Sri Lanka through its that today is in search of an international bailout, unwillingness to exert leverage over a looming with the war costing some $2 billion annually. humanitarian catastrophe and its muted voice over More than two decades after it militarily the plight of Tamils trapped in the fighting or held intervened in Sri Lanka at Colombo’s request to incommunicado in evacuee camps — camps the disarm the Tamil Tigers, only to make an New York-based Human Rights Watch calls ignominious exit after losing nearly three times “internment centres masquerading as ‘welfare the number of troops it did in the subsequent Kargil villages’… where entire families detained in these war, India today has to jostle for influence in that military-controlled, barbed-wire camps are denied island-nation with other players, including archrivals their liberty and freedom of movement”. China and Pakistan. Hambantota — the billion- Spurred on by the DMK threat to withdraw dollar port Chinese engineers are building on Sri support to the UPA government, foreign minister Lanka’s southeast — is China’s latest “pearl” in Pranab Mukherjee did visit Colombo late last its strategy to control vital sea-lanes of month. But other than a 48-hour civilian safe- communication between the Indian and Pacific passage ploy, his discussions with President Oceans by assembling a “string of pearls”. Rajapakse yielded little to arrest a worsening March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 14 situation. A barren outcome also greeted National to fund just over seven weeks of imports, Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan when he went Colombo has no resources to take on the onerous to Colombo last year to voice concern that task of post-conflict reconstruction. In growing Chinese and Pakistani arms sales and development, the minority regions of the north and strategic involvement could make Sri Lanka a east lag the Sinhalese areas by several decades. springboard for anti-India manoeuvres. There can be no enduring peace without addressing this gap and the Tamils’ genuine grievances. But even amid military triumphs, Colombo is unable to define peace. Indeed, it is not even making an attempt to outline a political solution to the Tamils’ long-standing cultural and political grievances. The Rajapakses’ military campaign is set to produce more than a new phase of protracted guerrilla warfare. A severely weakened and scarred civil society already is emerging. While abandoning the ceasefire in 2006 and the Norwegian-brokered peace process in early 2008, the brothers set in motion the militarisation of Narayanan’s plea that Colombo rely on the society and control of information, best illustrated main regional power, India, for its legitimate by the muzzling of the media and government- defence requirements was laughed off. After all, orchestrated murders of several independent- it is by turning to India’s enemies for weapons minded journalists. and training that Colombo unravelled the de facto While the Tigers have forced every Tamil state run by a group originally armed by the Indira family to send at least one member into battle, Gandhi government. the government busily has been setting up village- Strangely, the more Colombo plays hardball, level militias, especially in conflict-hit areas. the more New Delhi seems willing to pander to Besides already training and arming 45,000 mostly it. Echoing the Rajapakse brothers’ line, Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha last week that after Sinhalese villagers, the government is frenetically “years of conflict, there is today a political swelling the ranks of the military by one-fifth a opportunity to restore life to normalcy in the year. With some 1,630 recruits now being added Northern Province and throughout Sri Lanka”. every week, the rate of army “surge” will further Actually, normalcy and peace are more elusive accelerate this year. than ever, as Colombo wages a dual struggle to The Rajapakses have shown the will to wipe out the Tamil Tigers and stay solvent in the wage war but not to make peace. Through their face of a sinking economy. hubris and an ever-larger war machine, they With foreign-currency reserves that are, actually are girding Sri Lanka to be at war according to the last official disclosure, sufficient indefinitely. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 15

Malice, deep-rooted Vikram Sood Twenty years ago, almost to the day, the last Soviet soldier left Kabul and the ‘Free World’ celebrated its triumph over Evil.

Communism had begun its rollback and soon the ‘Free World’ would herald the arrival of a New World Order. Today, the triumphant superpower is caught in a quagmire in Afghanistan with no exit routes visible and the New World Order is in a shambles. All this is a consequence of the instrumentalities that were created to help fight the Cold War which have now become unmanageable. Today Afghanistan and Pakistan have become inextricably intertwined. The obscurantism, radicalism and the utter brutality personified by the Taliban transcends the Durand Line, obliterating it, possibly permanently. In its search for strategic depth against India, Pakistan district dominated by his son-in-law Maulana is losing ground. Fazlullah. Maulana Sufi has said that anyone The declaration of Nizam-e-Adl (religious opposing the imposition of Sharia were Wajibul code of justice) in the Malakand Division that has Qatal (worthy of death). The Tehrik rejected seven districts including Dir, Chitral and Swat, and democracy as un-Islamic: “We want immediate the Kohistan district of the Hazara Division mars enforcement of the Islamic judicial system in the retreat of the Pakistani state. This was followed totality: judicial, political, economic, jihad fi’isbillah by a series of incidents like the warning to India (jihad in the name of God), education and health.” by al-Qaeda, the Kabul attack by the Taliban and Incidentally the motto of the Pak army is also jihad the assassination of politicians and the burning of fi’isbillah and the army as well as Islamabad were schools, seem part of a long running horror serial taken into confidence when this deal was struck awaiting its denouement. The Shias and other with the TNSM by the provincial government. clerics have opposed this and the Hizbut Tehrir What is also relevant is that Maulana Sufi had (which works for revival of Islamic Khalifah sent 10,000 tribesmen to support the Taliban who globally) has termed this as mere eyewash. The died fighting the Northern Alliance. This is not British and the Nato have expressed concern, but surprising for the motto of the movement is Sharia strangely Washington is being politically correct ya Shahdat (Islamic Laws or martyrdom), rejects by describing this as an internal affair of Pakistan. western style democracy and openly condones Washington is obviously disregarding what the use of force in jihad. the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-Shariat- e- Given all this and given the fears in Mohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Washington that the next attack on the US could Islamic Laws), Maulana Sufi Mohammed had to have its origins in Pakistan, its current say soon after his jubilant entry into Swat, the circumspection is mysterious. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 16

This is also mystifying because there are Punjabis, long considered to be more liberal several Pakistanis who are justifiably worried and towards women, are now adopting the Taliban helpless. And for them to be told by the champions line. Classical music is disappearing, teaching of free speech and liberty that they are on their music is violently opposed by the Islami Jamaat- own must be troubling. It is possible the Americans e- Tulaba at the Punjab University, there are few have worked this deal out, taking a leaf out of kathak teachers — once the favourite dance at Petreaus’ plans in Iraq. Formulae successful in the Mughal courts — available today. But these one country do not necessarily apply in another. are outward signs. Iraq had no Taliban, no al-Qaeda and no sectarian What has been happening is best described mafias of the kind that Pakistan has with all their by Pervez Hoodbhoy in his article ‘The Saudi- entrenched interests and backed by the isation of Pakistan’.. He says “Pakistan’s self establishment. inflicted suffering comes from an education system A senior police official in Karachi talked that, like Saudi Arabia’s, provides an ideological of the influx of new militants from the NWFP foundation for violence and future jihadists. It and he explained how many had made southern demands that Islam be understood as a complete Punjab their base and that the jihadi network had code of life, and creates in the mind of a school- an increasingly Pushtun face. The Punjab going child a sense of siege and embattlement by provincial authorities have been worried that the stressing that Islam is under threat everywhere.” Taliban had entered the province through its Hoodbhoy describes the education curriculum that borders with Balochistan and the Frontier is prescribed as “a blueprint for a religious fascist Province. The Dera Ghazi Khan bomb blast earlier state.” This curriculum has been in existence from was attributed to the Taliban. In an attempt to the time of Zia ul Haq and successive governments prevent further influx, the provincial authorities including that of the self-proclaimed moderate had sent their elite force to the provincial Musharraf, have merely tinkered with it and today boundaries to strengthen local security the young minds are fertile grounds for fanaticism. arrangements. It would be worrying to have the There are some other Pakistanis who possibility of Pushtun jihadis infiltrating into the worry at the trend Pakistan is taking. I A Rahman, Punjab but the fact is that ever since the Lal the director of the Human Rights Commission of Masjid episode, there has been ample evidence Pakistan doubted that Sharia could be kept of the presence and effectiveness of the Taliban confined to Malakand and once it spread to the from the various suicide attacks on the army and Frontier, Punjab could be next. It will be some the ISI culminating in the Marriott bombings. The time before Sufi and son-in-law sort out the whats other fear should be that this influx will now get and how s of improving the Sharia but a few mixed up or be a rival to the existing Punjabi jihadi outcomes are fairly certain. networks in southern Punjab —those of the JeM It is unlikely that the Pakistani authorities and the LeT offshoots. will ever be able to re-establish their hold in There are other worrying strands in Malakand. It is likely that there will be similar Pakistan. The image of Pakistan lies not just in demands from other parts of Pakistan for the sophisticated salons of Lahore. establishing the Sharia. The civil society in It is the villages that have begun to change Pakistan, weak as it is and dependent on the army drastically where huge loudspeakers at village and the feudal systems, will eventually disappear. mosques propagate hard Salafi Islam, oppose And the US policy of regionalising the war on Barelvis, Sufis, Shias and other sects as none of terror in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region will lead these are considered to be Muslims. Even the to more trouble. We have been warned. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 17 Many straws in the wind. Swapan Dasgupta What is remarkable about India’s famous victory over global trends is the alacrity with which it has been endorsed by the cheerleaders of the “free” media.

In the bad old days of the Cold War, Manmohan Singh kept insisting that India was Kremlin-watching was a growth industry in the on course for 9 per cent growth. Putting an West. A cluster of journalists, academics, ideological gloss to this self-congratulatory diplomats and spooks made themselves relevant arrogance, Congress President Sonia Gandhi by trying to piece together disparate pieces of proclaimed that her mother-in-law’s information and deducing what was really nationalisation of banks in 1969 had averted a happening behind the iron curtain. The Politburo banking crisis in India. line-up during the annual May Day parade, for In a similar vein, after elevating the UPA example, would be minutely scrutinised for tell- chairperson to the status of an original thinker tale signs of shifts in the hierarchy of the rulers. on economics, acting Finance Minister Pranab Radio broadcasts too would be closely Mukherjee proclaimed in his Interim Budget monitored for economic intelligence and the state speech that the people of Indian have “seen how of public morale. our Government has successfully steered the In today’s world of information overload, country through difficult times. They have the craft of Kremlin-watching is at a discount, experienced the joy of being citizens of a proud except perhaps in the Jurassic Parks of North nation moving ahead with confidence. I have no Korea and Myanmar. It is a measure of doubt that when the time comes, our people will astonishing absurdity that these deductive skills recognise the hand that made it all possible.” The have suddenly become relevant to penetrate the message, driven home by images of smiling disingenuous denial over the state of the Indian peasants, happy youth and rustic jingles on the economy. The pronouncements of those at the electronic media was unambiguous: the UPA has helm of the Government of India tell one story. “successfully steered the country” through a Till the day, a much-relieved Prime Minister calamitous world crisis without anyone even feel eased him out of the Finance Ministry and the pinch. With such a monumental achievement installed him as Home Minister, P under its belt—which makes the triumphs of Chidambaram’s incessant refrain was that the Slumdog Millionaire look pedestrian by “fundamentals” of the Indian economy were comparison—the “hand” had every right to “strong” and that the country had no reason to demand re-election. fear a meltdown similar to the one prompted by Although our house loan repayment the insatiable greed of international bankers with statements don’t reflect it, mortgage rates, we obscene salaries and bonuses. Throughout much have been informed, are nearly 3 per cent below of 2008, the economist Prime Minister what is actually been paid out monthly. Inflation March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 18 is down to nothing. The sponsors of IPL are still bridged by another tranche of Bharat Nirman bidding astronomical sums for an English lout and advertisements. a brave heart Bangladeshi. More Indians than If the problem was limited to five lakh ever before are rushing to secure new mobile families, India could have boasted of emerging connections. And rural poverty is being from a towering inferno with just a toenail singed. progressively banished with the whopping Rs But when Pranab Mukherjee issues a 30,000 crore allotment to NREGA, a measure simultaneous plea to both employers and that (according to a recent poll on CNN-IBN), workers to accept voluntary pay cuts, you can more than 50 per cent of the rural poor haven’t even heard of. Unfortunately, there are some disconcer -ting footnotes. The 6 per cent estimate of the fiscal deficit has been mocked as a piece of Satyam-style accountancy by not merely Arun Jaitley in Parliament but by other stakeholders. It is instructive, for example, to read the assessment of Goldman Sachs: “We estimate that the consolidated fiscal deficit will go up to 10.3 per cent in FY09 and 10 per cent in FY10, among the highest in the world… Thus, the gains from a reduction in commodity prices and therefore in the Subsidy Bill, will be more than neutralised due to substantially weaker revenues be rest assured that there is something terribly and election-related spending pressures.” This amiss with the claim that the UPA under the is a polite way of saying that the Government’s optimism is poppycock. “guidance of UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, Next, take Labour Minister Oscar the inspiring leadership of Prime Minister, Dr Fernandes’ admission in Parliament on February Manmohan Singh and the hard work put in by… 20 that an estimated five lakh people were P Chidambaram” has “successfully steered the retrenched in the four-month period ending country through difficult times.” Earlier this month December 2008. This is only a woefully a media delegation met relevant Ministers to conservative estimate of happenings in the press for a bailout package for the apparently organised sector. It does not take into account beleaguered sector. The passage from what a the layoffs and sackings in the unorganised sector. blogger described as “handout journalism to We need not take the estimates of CPI’s bailout journalism” may be rewarding for some Gurudas Dasgupta that the real figure is one but it does reveal why up-front depiction of crore job losses and another crore in the coming Indian reality has been replaced by the deductive months as the last word. But the discrepancies charms of Kremlin-watching. India is wallowing between what the Government claims and what in denial and bad news has ceased to be news— is happening on the ground is too vast to be till the last day of voting. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 19

Set up collegium, save democracy A Surya Prakash

Our Constitution-makers often displayed an uncanny ability to look into the future. They had the foresight to see that the democratic process would throw up cunning, unscrupulous and petty persons once the Constitution and representative institutions were in place. Some of them, it would seem, were clairvoyants, gifted with extraordinary ‘doordrishti’. This power to anticipate problems is visible in the debates of the Constituent Assembly in June, 1949 on Article 289 (now 324) pertaining to the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners, and the powers and responsibilities and the Election Commission. those numbers in Parliament. With the two-thirds Among the Constitution-makers who stipulation, it would be necessary for the foresaw the damage that partisan politics would appointment to be approved by members of other do to key institutions in the country was Shibban political parties. “Then, no person can come in Lal Saksena. He wanted the appointment of the who is a staunch party-man” and nothing would CEC and the ECs to be confirmed through a be done which would be “against the interests of resolution backed by two-thirds of the members the nation”. in a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. The demand for ratification of these Saksena said the President ‘appoints’ but in effect appointments by Parliament gained momentum the appointing authority is the Prime Minister. This when it got the support of Hriday Nath Kunzru. does not ensure the independence of the He urged BR Ambedkar to consider the issues Commission. raised by Saksena and provide safeguards to In a telling statement that has a direct ensure that the election machinery was free of bearing on the current controversy revolving political influences. “If the electoral machinery is around Mr Navin Chawla, he said “it is quite defective or is not efficient or is worked by people possible that some party in power which wants whose integrity cannot be depended upon, to win the next election may appoint a staunch democracy will be poisoned at the very source: party-man as the Chief Election Commissioner”. Nay, people, instead of learning from elections In order to avert such a disaster the appointment … will learn only how parties based on intrigues should be ratified by two-thirds of the members can be formed and what unfair methods they can of Parliament. adopt to secure what they want.” A bare majority, he said, was not enough Such was the impact of these interventions because the ruling party in any case would have that Ambedkar, who presided over the Drafting March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 20

Committee, conceded that “there is a great deal similar collegium should be constituted to select of force” in the points made by Saksena. He the CEC and ECs. agreed that there was no use in giving the Election The need for a bipartisan approach to key Commissioner a fixed tenure “if there is no constitutional appointments remained in cold provision in the Constitution to prevent (the storage throughout the era of one-party rule. The appointment of) either a fool or a knave or a Congress, which enjoyed uninterrupted power at person who is likely to be under the thumb of the the Centre and in most of the States for three executive”. decades after independence, abhorred Further, he conceded that this provision bipartisanship. The Congress thought it was absurd “does not contain anything to provide against to even consult those in the Opposition, much less nomination of an unfit person to the post of Chief seek their concurrence, while choosing persons Election Commissioner or the other Election for constitutional offices. Commissioners” and this was giving him “a great However, with regional and caste-based deal of headache”. The Americans, he said, had parties mounting a relentless assault on its bastions solved the problem by stating in Article 2 of their and chipping away at its vote-banks over the last Constitution that certain appointments cannot be quarter century, the Congress has realised that made by the President without the concurrence more often than not it may have to warm the of the Senate. Opposition benches in legislative chambers. This However, unfortunately, it was difficult to has prompted the party to suddenly discover the adopt similar provisions in our Constitution. As a virtues of democratic etiquette and bipartisanship. result, possibly because of paucity of time, As a result, it has gone along with the views Ambedkar and others on the Drafting Committee of other parties in regard to the constitution of a could not come up with a provision that would collegium to select the CVC and chairperson and effectively treat the ‘headache’. The controversy members of the NHRC, but has been dragging surrounding Mr Chawla’s appointment only goes its feet in regard to democratisation of the process to show that the ‘headache’ persists. of selection of the CEC and the ECs. Chief The Second Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by M Veerappa Moily, has Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami has said these debates showed that even at the strengthened the case for broad-basing the Constitution-making stage there was a view that selection process by lending his support to the the procedure for appointment of persons to these collegium approach. This should clinch the issue. offices “should be broad-based” and “above all The appointment of Mr Navin Chawla, a partisan considerations”. Noting that the collegium Congress-partisan and a man whose democratic approach has already been adopted in regard to credentials are in serious doubt, as an Election the selection of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner Commissioner has only highlighted the danger that and the chairperson and members of the National the Congress’s cynical approach poses. Citizens Human Rights Commission, the ARC said a who lay store in core constitutional values should similar approach should be adopted to appoint the press for measures to fulfil Ambedkar’s desire to CEC and ECs. introduce checks in the appointment process. The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok The way out is to hand over this Sabha is a member of both these committees. The responsibility to a collegium as suggested by the ARC’s view is that “given the far-reaching ARC headed by Mr Moily and the present CEC. importance and critical role of the Election The day this happens, the democratic system will Commission in the working of our democracy”, a rest on a more credible platform. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 21 Barbarians at the gate Kanchan Gupta If Pakistan is now paying a steep price for its duplicitous policy of using violent Islamism to further its strategic interests in Afghanistan and bleed India through a ‘thousand cuts’, we too shall pay a price for following a line of least resistance and legitimising appeasement by grafting what the Prime Minister described as “Muslims first” to the policies of an allegedly secular state.

There is sufficient reason to be worried “pose a danger to Pakistan, the US and India”. about the gutless civilian Government in Pakistan Surely he hasn’t forgotten that it was Benazir abjectly capitulating to the Islamic fanatics of Swat Bhutto who connived with the ISI to promote the Valley who have prohibited girls from attending Taliban, nor should he pretend to be ignorant of school, ordered women to stay at home, instructed the fact that it was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who parents to give their daughters as ‘wives’ to the aggressively preached “Islam is the solution, the Taliban, begun flogging men in public squares, and Islamic Bomb is the means”. Having sent Zulfiqar will soon replace popular entertainment by way Ali Bhutto to the gallows, Gen Zia-ul-Haq could of films and music with stoning victims of rape to not but have aggressively pushed Islamism and death in bazaars. With the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e- its attendant evils. The poison fruit is now for the Shariat-e-Muhammadi — never mind that we are PPP and the people of Pakistan to relish. talking about the Pakistani variety of Mullah Mr Arun Jaitley of the BJP was not being Omar’s masked Afghan killers — virtually coming facetious when he said that the Taliban are a mere to power in Malakand division of North-West five hours away from India. Parliament may have Frontier Province, reducing the secular ANP missed the point and the Prime Minister’s Government to no more than a nominal ‘authority’ flatterers may be upset that he should have forced to do Islamabad’s bidding, it’s only a matter compared the absentee head of Government as a of time before the geographic expanse of ‘night watchman’, but it would be outright stupid ‘Jihadistan’ increases to consume large chunks to ignore the fact that the barbarians are at the of what remains of Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s gate. Let us also bear in mind that the Deobandi moth-eaten Pakistan. madarsas which produced the taliban who then It’s really of little or no relevance that last went on to become the Taliban — in Pakistan week’s ‘peace deal’ hinges on the imposition of and Afghanistan — are not entirely dissimilar to ‘Nizam-e-Adl’, or shari’ah criminal law: the madarsas which have mushroomed across Malakand won’t be the only place in the world the length and breadth of India, nurtured by both where limbs will be chopped off for petty offences mullahs and their patrons in the ‘secular’ political or women done to death for the crimes of men. parties, of which the Congress is just one example. Nor should we be unduly impressed by Pakistani Let it also be said that the ‘intolerance’ of President Asif Ali Zardari’s description of the the Taliban which so alarms us is not specific to Taliban as “murderous thugs and militants” who the ‘murderous thugs’ of Swat Valley and March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 22

Kandahar. We have seen dissident Bangladeshi Manmohan Singh spends sleepless nights agonising writer Taslima Nasreen being hounded out of over the plight of those suspected to be involved Kolkata by Islamic fanatics and forced to leave in jihadi terrorism, millions of Muslims spend India by the ‘secular’ UPA Government which sleepless nights — as do millions of Hindus — now wrings its hands and waxes eloquent on the wondering where their next meal is going to come dangers of the rise of Talibani fanaticism. If only from. When the Government decides to reward such concern had been expressed over the editor the families of slain jihadis, it sends out a loud and publisher of The Statesman being arrested message to Muslims: Take up the gun, die in for reproducing a scintillating article from The action, ensure a better life for your families. By Independent, written by Johann Hari, Mr Anand casting aspersions on Delhi Police and accusing Sharma’s vapid reaction to them of killing the fall of Swat Valley ‘innocent’ Muslims, the would have carried some Prime Minister’s conviction. Cabinet colleagues There are other encourage moderates to similarities which make turn extremists. When India as vulnerable as madarsas are Pakistan to the scourge of euologised and Taliban. For all its Saraswati Sishu Mandir emphasis on subjugating schools are relentlessly the country to the demonised, the ulema supremacy of Islam, of feel sufficiently being one with the ummah, emboldened to include and its repeated proclamation of the equality of hate in their teachings. When the Government slyly Muslims, Pakistan has abysmally failed to deliver allows the setting up of qazi courts, which dispense good governance. Elected Prime Ministers and justice according to shari’ah, and lets them military dictators have equally fleeced the country, function without so much as a whimper of protest, pushed the masses deeper into poverty, made a it tells Muslims that India’s secular justice system mockery of the judicial system, and maintained a is incapable of protecting their interests. When a dissolute elite’s hegemony over Pakistan’s politics, wholly illegitimate All-India Muslim Personal Law economy and society. Islamism was once a useful Board is allowed to dictate how Muslims should means to distract the masses and silence critics. run their personal lives, the state abdicates its Islamism now has become a powerful tool to responsibility to its citizens. As in Pakistan, here mobilise the masses against the elite. Real too the Government has come to believe that Islam grievances and imagined victimhood have is a substitute for jobs, housing and health services. coalesced to create a fetid swamp that breeds Azamgarh to Alappuzha, Dibrugarh to Dharwad, the deadliest of germs, of which the Taliban is a a fetid swamp similar to that of Pakistan’s is particularly venomous species. spreading; the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ are the Cut to India. The vast Muslim underclass produce of this swamp. remains unaffected and untouched by the Prime The distance between Swat Valley and Minister’s “Muslims first” creed. While Mr Islamabad is 160 km. Jamia Nagar is in Delhi. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 23 This planet needs Hindu ethos

Tarun Vijay It’s the so-called secular flabbiness of the neo-rich and subjugated colonised English-speaking elite that has taken up the place left vacant by British sergeants and colonial masters. Hate Hindu- is their new professional slogan

The only place on this planet that the Hindus An Obama taking oath of the presidential office can rightfully claim they belong to is Hindustan or on the Bible doesn’t become a communally India. And the only people on this earth who feel hateful ruler for the other faiths. So is with us. hesitant to speak for their dharma or the basic The moment we accept the de-Hinduisation identity too are Hindus. In Indian politics, run and process of the nation as a sign of secularism and financed by the Hindu majority, taking up Hindu an acceptable factor in polity, we are not only issues means an extra effort to stand and face doomed as an Indian nation but also invite the charges too acidic. It pays to be a non-Hindu Talibanisation of the society. in a Hindu majority Hindustan, frankly. And then, who says to be a Hindu means I was there when the first-ever convention looking backward or approving obscurantism? The of the newly-formed BJP took place in Mumbai, only people on earth who virtually worship in 1980, christened as Samata Nagar. And the Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and have star attraction in that meeting was none else other prosperity as an inseparable part of their life-cycle than Mohammad Karim Chagla, the octogenarian are Hindus. In fact to be Hindu means to be rich, scholar and statesman. The BJP could have brilliant and happy. The most important factors, adopted a pure saffron flag as its new motif, like however, as was explained by Prof. Rajendra the old Jana Sangh, but it chose the green and Singh, the third RSS Chief, (who was Head and saffron. Jana Sangh too, in early fifties could have Reader, Dept. of Physics, University of been a Hindu Sangh, but the stalwarts in those Allahabady) remain wisdom and character. We times chose a name that would represent all — forget that exactly for her power, happiness and any one who is an Indian, no matter what his faith wealth, Hindu India was the eye sore of the is, without compromising on the basic barbarians when they assaulted us calling this land characteristics of the nation i.e. Hindu. as ‘Sone ki Chidiya - the Golden Bird’. We have A nation is defined not by the forex reserves shown the world the best of Hindu architecture or the military prowess but by the contours of her in our thousand-year-old temples in Ellora, Ajanta civilisational traditions and the collective struggles to Ang kor Wat, the Vedic poetry, the invention of and sufferings. We are, unquestioningly and numerals and zero, life sciences and geometry to unapologetically Hindu in our national colours as trigonometry and the deep knowledge of cosmos much as the USA is Latin Christian and the UK and the most scientific grammar and script and works for all communities still adhering as a state language. We are those Hindu people who gave to the spiritual umbrella of the Church of England. the world the concept of ‘world is one family’ March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 24

(vasudhaiva kutumbakam) when the semitic Kanchi Shankaracharya on Diwali night, ignore races were launching Crusades and Jihads. And the brutal killing of an 80-year-old monk on Krishna an inborn attitude to respect the different viewpoint Janmashtami night in Kandhamal, simply delete so much so that an atheist Rishi, scholar monk, the memory of Godhra and never answer why 59 Charvak was given an honoured place in the men, women and little kids were burnt to death in highest exalted order of six philosophers. To be a a steel compartment, on February 27 seven years Hindu means saying no to Gulags and accepting ago, never ever mention the 290 Hindus murdered during what is known as Gujarat riots, never discuss the forced exodus of five lakh Kashmiri Hindus after their women were raped and children killed by ‘brave’ Nizam-e-Mustafa’ Ghazis. That’s the new order, which has to be exposed and dismantled if India has to survive. They insult and demand the abolition of a language without which their birth can’t be celebrated, marriage can’t be solemnised and even in death, the same language is used. That’s Sanskrit. Like they can denounce their a Galileo with appreciation. Even today the best motherland’s fragrance, they also humiliate the of the economic developmental models in the language of their birth and death. That’s their states are indisputably seen in states where BJP morality and honesty. is ruling. Still seculars deny that showing a Last week Al-Jazeera, a channel more pathological hatred for the Hindu word and world known for putting on air Osama and Al Jawahiri view. statements took my interview, ‘to present the true Money, riches, industrialisation, military colours of Indian culture’ as its Canadian arrogance couldn’t save the mighty Soviet empire. correspondent requested. When the show was You need a little more to live as humans, which aired, it showed Hindu right activists as simple the Communists refused to accept. The IT power monsters and barbarians and dishonestly and the strength of brilliance coupled with loyalty juxtaposed their prejudices to ‘justify’ their pre- to the adopted land (we do not bomb the land we adopt- a trait Hindus are known and respected decided views. That’s what this small minority of for the world over) is making them use force to money wielding de-culturised slave class of the reckon with- as Thomas Freidman too discussed dollar world does anywhere it gets a little in his celebrated book The World is Flat. But that dominance -a Gulag at every desk. alone won’t suffice to define the nation that has Against such elements of hate, the Saffron been known since millenniums world over as the is fighting a democratic battle through a new land of the Hindus. generation of IT-savvy saffronite youths. In the Anything Hindu is despicable and blog world, Facebook, internet battles, the Saffron arrogantly dismissible. Destroy Ram Sethu, arrest is reigning high and the way we get their March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 25 responses from California to Bangalore and membership of 84 lakhs, to be the biggest labour Kolkata to Chennai via Santa Fe, it’s simply organisation of the land. Amongst students, bewildering and a great morale booster. teachers, politicians, religious clergy, doctors, and There are hundreds of them. Mostly post- even visually-challenged people, RSS-inspired graduates, engineers, MBAs, fresh IITians and organizations are active and moving fast to get doctors of philosophy, who have left the lure of the top slot. the lucre and chose to work in the remote regions There is hardly a stream in the national life of the Andamans, Changlang, Diphu, Aizawl and which is not touched and influenced by the ideology espoused by this Saffron movement which began just a year before almost the year Communist movement took shape in India. Though the Communist movement remained confined to a few corners and split in more than 24 various splinter groups, Sangh-inspired organisations are setting the agenda in their respective fields and one of their Swayam Sewak unfurled the Tricolor at the Red Fort six times in continuation. Can any hateful, divisive organisation get this kind of response from the people year after year? How can ill-feelings towards another community inspire the Nilgiri hills. From Wynad to Wakho and Leh young professionals continuously for the last eight to Lalganj, there is not a single block or tehsil or decades to devote their life and forget the district where various workers and organisations attractions of a glamorous career just for the cause inspired by the RSS are not active. For the first of rebuilding the nation? Can any other time in the history of this nation, a non-monastic organisation, specially the secular and the Left order of the socially dedicated young men and variety, show its positive and harmonious women has taken roots which puts the nation contribution for the development of the society in before everything else, work like a sanyaasi comparison to the RSS work? without an ochre robe. They run village Against all odds, to oppose political families development projects, water harvesting and turning India into their personal fiefdom, to stop India production of bio-foods and hospitals and schools and slum-area service projects. One such becoming a dharamshala for foreign infiltrators and organisation, Vidya Bharati, has become the putting an end to the endless pusillanimity against largest academic institution without government Jihadi terrorism, a party has to come to power that help having more than one lakh teachers and has the guts to call a spade a spade and strengthen twenty-four lakh students in literally every nook the sinews to provide security and ensure prosperity. and corner of the nation. B.M.S has claimed a Enough is enough. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 26 26/11: A Taj survivor's untold story Francois Gautier

There is not much to smile about post- knowledge about terrorism: "I thought perhaps 26/11: the Indian government has got caught up this is the gun salute for a wedding," she recalls in its strategy of exclusively pinning the whole today. But what happened next, says Mann, was blame on Pakistan, while ignoring the local jihadi "pure horror", as she heard the terrorists burst support which had to be there in Mumbai into the lobby "shooting at everything that [Images] (including inside the Taj Mahal and moved". Oberoi hotels). What we saw on television during the It also missed the chance to carry out quick Mumbai attacks -- and subsequently heard -- surgical strikes against camps in Pakistan- was all about lack of leadership: the Maharashtra occupied Kashmir (thus giving itself a good government was slow to react, the special chance to win the next general election). commandos took nearly 12 hours to reach The shame of a few terrorists holding to Mumbai, and nobody properly coordinated the ransom an entire nation, its police, army and action. special forces has created too huge a gap in But inside the Taj Mahal hotelit was a India's self-confidence. different story: "We were 40 in the group that Finally, the whole tale of 26/11 was never managed to run from the restaurant to the told: How many terrorists were there and how kitchen, and within 10 minutes four people had many escaped with the hostages? emerged as leaders," smiles Erika. Yet, here is a story about statistics that What is it to be a leader in such a stressed will not only make you feel better and positive occasion? "Actually, in this situation one has to again, but it is also the saga of a courageous think -- collect information and then think again." woman whose gallantry has been unsung, post Erika thus spent a lot of time on her Blackberry, the Taj hostage drama. trying to gather maximum info. Her name is Erika Mann, she is a member There was no gender or race of the European Parliament from the Social discrimination in the group, which comprised Democratic Party of Germany [Images] and she about 40 percent Westerners, 60 percent Indians was in Mumbai to conduct negotiations on trade and had a 50:50 ratio of men and women. relations. "All listened as attentively to me as to the When the first shots were heard, Erika other leaders, whether they were Indian or Mann was having dinner on the ground floor Westerner." restaurant of the Taj lobby with some Indian And even among the other 36 people, it friends. was not total inaction: "At least 15 were willing Everybody thought the first shots heard to be active, soldiers if you wish. Some even were crackers -- but not Erika, who had some started searching for weapons and found the iron March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 27 sticks used to grill kebabs quite handy." see I was not the only one who looked at them So here are good statistics: 40 people in strangely, although I am sure they were innocent." mortal danger, four emerged leaders, with 15 Erika, as many other hostages, also felt soldiers to implement ideas. And even among that some of the Taj Mahal staff looked the remaining 21 people, "at least 10 were trying suspicious: "Some members of my group felt that to get information by sms-ing their relatives or an assistant, who acted as if nothing untoward the hotel staff. And they were sharing this info had happened, was hiding something and with us." whispered to the others not to tell him anything." Is that the natural ratio which occurs when It is then that Erika noticed an exit door you have a good government which creates a which had escaped the attention of others. With system whereby people feel free to express another leader of her group, a gentleman from themselves? "Maybe," smiles Erika. Tyrol (Austria), they gingerly opened it, found a What about the Taj Mahal staff? "There second door and suddenly they were outside. were 10 staff among our group," replies Erika. "Our first reaction was 'let's check, can "Out of these, seven were efficient and did not we take such a risk?" They did not. But later seem to care for their own safety but only for Erika said: "Get out, think only of getting out. I our welfare." That's 70 pc, another good statistic. made a mistake. If you see 9/11 in New York, it There was only one black sheep: "We had an is only those who decided immediately to try to MP in our group, whom I shall not name. He get out who made it alive. The others died." spoke later, as we had moved to the Chambers, They went back to the corridor and to some TV reporter on the phone and gave our waited in a Chambers room till the soldiers came location -- we could all have been killed." around 3 am. Here the statistics worsen: "There Under the supervision of the Taj Mahal staff, Erika and her group moved from the were about 32 soldiers, they were badly kitchen to the corridor that leads to the Taj equipped, overburdened and nobody seemed Chambers and their group swelled with other really in charge." hostages, thus becoming 100. Again the statistics Erika was one of the last to escape from were good: "Maybe only 10 percent of these," her group: "I helped an old woman who could recalls Erika, "Were like frozen and had to be not walk well and was afraid, and as I exited the protected. The others were collecting information door, a bullet ricocheted off the wall just above from relatives and others." my head and plaster fell in my eyes. It still hurts Yet, it was a very tricky situation: "We today. I believe that most of the people left behind could have been shot any time." and many of these young soldiers got killed." Erika noticed a smaller group of about What does Erika say today? "I have been eight Arabic-looking people who were keeping thinking so much about these 72 hours since then. to themselves: "I pinched myself, because What baffles me still is the youth element in this immediately I felt suspicious of them. But I could attack. True, they were manipulated, March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 28 Islamists block free speech

Premen Addy Britain once celebrated its tradition of freedom of expression and free speech. But that freedom has now been sacrificed at the altar of vote-bank politics: Appeasing immi- grant Islamists is top priority for politicians. This was demonstrated when Geert Wilders was barred from entering UK

Poet William Blake spoke of “England’s question the very basis of British public life: green and pleasant land” ravaged by the “Satanic Freedom and the rule of law and the legitimacy mills” of the Industrial Revolution. The mills made of institutions underpinning them. The publication their conquests, of which the British people, of Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses in eventually, were the beneficiaries, but there was the late-1980s, provoked massive demonstrations still enough of the verdant green for pastoral bliss. by British Muslims — even by those who had no Where would these islands be without the knowledge of English. This was followed by an inventions and the science that have allowed Iranian fatwa sentencing the author to death, humanity to reach for the stars and the firmaments which forced him to go into hiding, where he was beyond? Pain and fulfilment have shared the protected by the security agencies of the British intellectual and moral space of an enriching state. It was the beginning of Britain’s Time of experience. Trouble, signalling a novel chapter in its evolving But for the new advocates of cultural multicultural history, and the histories its climate change, doubt and free discourse are continental cousins. “Satanic” indulgences that promise only hell and The Madrid train bombing, similar blasts in damnation. These are not aliens playing out an London, rioting in Paris and other French cities appointed role in fanciful science fiction; they are and the murder in full public view of Dutchman flesh and blood characters from across the land Theo van Gogh have altered the pan-European and sea, men and women who came to these landscape for the worse. The recent case of the shores of their own volition, in the search for Dutch Member of Parliament, Geert Wilders, has gainful employment and the perks of the welfare highlighted the liberal predicament: The far-right state. They came initially in their hundreds, then thousands and hundreds of thousands. They Mr Wilders has been an uncompromising critic of manned the pre-war textile factories in northern Islam and desires that the Quran be banned — England, were employed mostly as unskilled which undermines his claim to be a libertarian. labour in the Midlands and in the urban outreaches He was invited by the Independence Party of of Scotland. Britain to make a presentation of his views, which With the Islamic world astir, these he planned to do with film footage of the Madrid immigrant communities from Pakistan, carnage accompanied by the appropriate Quranic Bangladesh and beyond have found a disturbingly verses calling on believers to annihilate the militant voice. Too many of their number now community of infidels. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 29

The faithful were incensed. British Home speech against a man elected to uphold it, but Secretary Jacqui Smith barred him from entering chose not to do so in order to secure his Muslim the UK on the ground that Mr Wilders was a vote-bank. threat to public order, that his presence would The establishment’s panic was visible and violate the law prohibiting racial incitement. Lord risible. On the advice of Lord Ahmed and his ilk, Ahmed of Rotheram, a peer of Pakistani origin, the British Government has taken out a series of with Kashmir dearest to his heart, gave notice advertisements in the Pakistani Press in a of an assembled 10,000-strong Muslim mob at desperate bid to keep the jihadi wolves at bay, to the gates of the House of Lords were Mr Wilders dissuade the country’s impressionable youth from permitted to speak. Unlike Guy Fawkes, His attacking British lives and property. Many of the Lordship outlined no plan to burn Parliament American and British great and good are in a state down. The powers that be in Whitehall were of confusion worse confounded. America’s soon beating the ritual Pakistan policy is retreat. Mr Wilders dispensing fistfuls of got no further than The establishment’s panic was dollars in Islamabad, visible and risible. On the advice of Lord Heathrow Airport, Britain’s is much the Ahmed and his ilk, the British Government where Home same, even as has taken out a series of advertisements Officials served him in the Pakistani Press in a desperate bid Talibanisation in the with a deportation to keep the jihadi wolves at bay, to dissuade country spreads like a order, overriding the the country’s impressionable youth from forest fire. protest of the Dutch attacking British lives and property. The creators of Ambassador, who this Frankenstein’s said any member of a monster are now national Parliament had right of entry across stalked by their creation. Talking heads from European Union borders under EU law. He could Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Arab lands have have been baying on the Moon for all that it been, and are, invited to tour Britain, from time to mattered. time, cajoled to utter sweet words of reason and The irony is that while certain British MPs, moderation in myriad mosques. Some do, but noted for their phallic worship of political return home to their time-tested ways. Like a well correctness, defended the Home Secretary’s known Egyptian divine, who was scrupulously decision on television, the expelled Dutch faithful to his script as London Mayor Ken parliamentarian’s right to be heard received Livingstone’s guest but turned reprobate in Cairo eloquent support from the leader of the reformist and called for the extermination of Jews on Al Muslim organisation called Quillam. Mr Majid, Jazeera television. Or take the Foreign and the leader in question, took serious issue with his Commonwealth guest, a former Bangladeshi MP Labour opponent Keith Vaz, saying that he had named Delwar Hussain Sayeedi, who, in an looked forward to demolishing Mr Geert Wilders address to his congregation, claimed a Times in an unfettered debate. He was, he said, report, likened his country’s minority Hindu upholding the hallowed British tradition of free population to excrement. Old habits die hard. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 30

Five hours’ drive to doom Udayan Namboodiri

Taliban country is not just a politico-geographic space, but an organism moving fast to overwhelm India with terror, infiltration and economic ruin.

The first sign that America’s war against armed combat. Only last May the Islamabad terrorism was going terribly wrong came soon establishment agreed to a gradual pull-out of after the fall of Kabul, in November 2001. troops from the Swat. But nobody had expected Pakistan, never comfortable with the idea of this. However, like all disasters, this too had been losing its strategic depth, began pushing irregulars predicted. History, after all, is nothing put a pile- over the border into Afghanistan for hit and run up of human bungles. The cynic in me says ‘the operations. I was then covering foreign affairs fun has only begun’; but the deeper concern felt for a national daily and reported the by all right-thinking people in India was best developments first. To cut a long story short, the articulated by Arun Jaitley, the senior BJP’ leader: news was met with disbelief. “Taliban is now only a five -hour drive from Much the same reaction was seen after India”. the news hit the world that the democratically For those of us who have followed the elected government of Pakistan had practically US’ war on terrorism almost on a daily basis, signed away the Swat Valley to a bunch of people February 17 marked the end of Phase 1. It began who were aptly described by US special envoy with Richard Armitage summoning the head of Richard Holbrooke as “murderers and thugs”. Pakistani military intelligence, who happened to On the following day, as if shake everybody into be in Washington at the time of 9/11, and realising that it wasn’t just a bad dream, the Talib threatening to bomb his country back to the stone shot dead a Pakistani TV reporter in Matta town. age if it did not comply with America’s orders. Today, to the world outside Pakistan, Eight years and five months later, Pakistan has the situation is something like the elephant and indeed gone into the womb posture . American the five blind men. Some people see it as a return ‘Drone’ aircraft are bombing Pakistani villages of the era of gendercide, the targeted attack of in the north-west and killing Pakistani civilisans women’s basic human rights; others believe it is as so much ‘collateral damages’. These things the beginning of the atomisation of Pakistan, are déjà vu now. By the way, Afghanistan, proof enough of the basic hollowness of the very whose salvation was the raison de etre, is concept of a Pakistani nation. Yet others are already in the Paleolithic age. Some people like spared no sleep by the vision of Pakistan’s to call it a ‘failed state’, but quickly add that it’s nuclear assets being controlled by unlettered only a metaphor. fanatics who know only to kill. What happened to India during Phase 1? Pakistan had signed peace deals with Well, India too was singed. Terrorism continued fundamentalist forces after suffering losses in unabated, but the world’s largest democracy did March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 31 quite well in macro-economic terms at least. mark. Add to that the hundreds of millions from Now, that Phase 2 has begun, expect more than Pakistan who would elude Census officials by just sparks from the fire that is raging next door. being forever on the move. It doesn’t take a doomsdayer to predict the 4. Expect big power rivalry in South following: Asia Major: The United States had invested 1. Expect more terrorism, this time with heavily into diplomacy with the Central Asian a focus on India’s power grids, dams and republics in the hope that it would get bases from railways. These are everyday things to us Indians, where it could keep its troops in Afghanistan but the Pakistanis hate us for owning these things. supplied with material. Since 2001, Pakistan 2. Expect refugees on the streets: As a provided not only Karachi port, but also small boy in 1971, I saw Pakistanis fighting each overland transportation rights to American other for Indian aid khichuri in an open-air military supplies. But the arrangement began to wobble after the growth of militancy in the north-

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345 out Punjab Pakistan 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345 ammunition, uniforms, leading to a skedaddle of unprecedented food, vehicles, even United Nations humanitarian proportions. The Taliban will certainly not be material began to fall into Taliban hands. complacent with just the north-west. However, Russia, the regional big brother 3. Expect population explosion in and former boss of the commissars who rule in India: The United Nations anyway expects Bishkek, Tashkent, etc. ,had no intention of Pakistan to become the world’s third most facilitating a resolution to America’s problem. So, populous country by 2040. Without much of an Moscow began investing double into diplomacy economy to support them, and the Taliban to ensure that America is denied these bases. exacerbating their misery, millions of Pakistanis On Thursday came the news that Krgystan has would be forced to infiltrate into India. These decided not to renew its lease for the Manas air would be the new infiltrators, because by then field. today’s Bangladeshi illegal squatters would This was met with shattering shock in become legitimate citizens. western capitals, even though London’s Resultantly, we would see the western Independent had predicted it only last month slice of India afflicted with the same problem that through a news story that said Moscow was devils the east and north-east now. India’s own paying Central Asian governments up to $ 2 population would by then touch the 1.5 billion billion for each denied air base. Interestingly, all March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 32 this, including the Swat Valley deal, happened in The problem with the Congress party’s the very week that Russian observed the 20th foreign affairs think tankers –– who, given the anniversary of the pullout of the Red Army from present political outlook seem certain to Afghanistan. The ironies of history can dominate for at least five more years –– is that sometimes resemble sick jokes. too often day-dreamers take the upper hand. The crisis that afflicts Pakistan today should not Unless India reshapes its foreign policy to be seen as just an internal affair of Pakistan. India adopt a more proactive one, our hapless citizens must recognise that the Talibanisation of Pakistan would be left holding the baby. All the strategic is already happening and once Islamabad itself economic decisions being taken and implemented is headed by a mullah, the very existence of India right now would become meaningless when India will be threatened. becomes indistinguishable from the larger South — The writer is Senior Editor, The Asian mess. Pioneer. The amazing anti-India syllabus of Pak madrassas

"India was part of Pakistan before 1947. market and are distributed directly in the In the 1965 war, Pakistan conquered several madrassas mostly run by the Jammat-ud-Dawa, areas of India and staring at a certain defeat, teach how Muslim saints reformed Hindus and During the 1971 war, the Pakistan Army helped abolish their superstition and wrong demonstrated great courage and valour and practices. inflicted humiliating blows on the Indian forces A chapter on Muhammad Ali Jinnah states on both the Eastern and Western fronts." that he saved Muslims from being enslaved by the Hindu Congress party, which encouraged This excerpts may puzzle you, but according slavery. A select group of children from these to some madrasas in Pakistan, it is nothing, madrassas are then inducted into terror outfits but history. Ten year olds in those madrassas like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, whose group of children are injected with such and more distorted 'facts', is called the 'White Falcons', which begins says a confidential Intelligence Bureau report. grooming children for jihad right from when they Besides the impressionable minds are further are 10. "Though most students are from Pakistan, indoctrinated with a textbook called 44 ways to there are also around 16,000 Afghan children and support Jihad, written by Anwar-al-Awalaki. With some 18,000 foreign students," the official said. the context set, and India painted as the enemy, The report says that outfits like the LeT are very the textbooks swiftly move on the importance of choosy about the induction into such schools. jihad and martyrdom. The curriculum also lays "They pick and chose children from very poor a bit of emphasis on English. A chapter teaches families. Till, the education is complete, they are the letters of the alphabet with examples like: B taken care of and the families are given some for bandook, k for knife, R for rocket, T for tank, money each month," the officer said. The report and S for sword. says that some students realise that they are Studies on these madrassas also show that unfit to take up any vocation after a stint in these these outfits glorify violence. Even the games schools and by the time they reach Class X decide the kids play involve shooting practice with air to join other legitimate madrassas which also guns and war games. On culture and history, teach mathematics, science, medicine and other the textbooks, which are not available in the subjects.

March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 33

IMMIGRATION BOOM ENDS Rajeev Srinivasan With the financial meltdown, the immigrant’s dream of making it big in a foreign land has begun to turn sour. Indians working abroad have started to feel the heat and are returning home in droves. The worst-hit State is Kerala: Thousands of Keralites are being rendered jobless in the Gulf countries

The relatively free movement of labour The Americans hit upon a perfect solution across borders for the last few decades has in the 19th century. They wanted Chinese labour generally had a positive impact on many countries for their drive westwards towards the Pacific, in because of the large remittances sent home by particular for building the continent-spanning expatriates. In India, Kerala has been the biggest railroads. But they didn’t want these people beneficiary, its relative prosperity sustained by its ‘polluting’ their societies. So they were forced into sons and daughters toiling away in the Gulf ghetto Chinatowns. They were not allowed to own countries or in hospitals around the world. But it property, marry White women, or bring Asian looks like the global recession is beginning to wives. In other words: Come, toil, and die. The seriously hurt international migration, and many Asian Exclusion Act was law. migrants are being forced to go home again. Indians too suffered — some found their Immigration is a sensitive issue, and hard-won US citizenship revoked, and in the passions run high, often bringing out the worst in Komagata Maru incident, a shipful of immigrants people: And racism surely is a part of it. An Indian from Punjab was turned away by the US and immigrant named Navtej Singh Sidhu was set on Canada. Even more notorious was the decision fire while sleeping on a park bench in Italy to turn back a shipful of Jewish refugees from recently. Racist violence against Roma (or Nazi Germany. After immigration reform in 1962, Gypsies) is increasing — although they have lived though, Americans have been far more liberal. in Europe for centuries, they are discriminated Immigration has become a worldwide against as outsiders and non-Whites. Russian skinheads have been convicted of killing 20 phenomenon in the last few decades. Some 200 migrants — mostly non-Whites. million people — that is around three per cent of Migration is cyclical: In the good times, the world’s population — are now migrants. There people want to have outsiders come in and do are 20 million overseas Chinese and a comparable the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs they number of overseas Indians. In several Western themselves disdain, but then they expect these countries, immigrants account for more than 10 gastarbeiter to disappear quietly when times get per cent of the population. And they send a lot of rough. That is easier said than done, as they have money home. According to the World Bank, set down roots and their children have grown up remittances were around $ 283 billion in 2007. in the host countries. Both India and China get around $ 30 billion each. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 34

No wonder people still migrate. The saga In effect, and coupled with the noises being of Latin American immigration to the US — as in made in the wake of the Satyam scandal, this the tragic film El Norte — is well known. Despite means that outsourcing itself is under attack, and the perils of dealing with brutal ‘coyotes’ that there should be ‘American jobs for American (smugglers who have been known to rob, rape citizens’. The H1-B techie can take it to mean, and murder), sadistic border patrol agents and the “Welcome to America, now go home”. constant fear of being Well-paid technology workers deported, or worse, they still will be forced to return to India. keep coming, wading across This is in conjunction with the Rio Grande. Or at least significant problems in the Gulf they used to, until recently. countries, specifically Dubai, The Economist reports that which doesn’t have any oil. emigration to the US from Construction, finance, trade — Mexico has slumped by 42 they are all taking a beating. per cent in 2008 as compared Kerala is full of stories of people to 2006. News of the returning under economic duress. recession has spread. Apparently 40 Indian Historical data shows international schools have shut that previous recessions have down; it is said that families are dramatically reduced driving to the airport with all they can carry, immigration into the US. After decades of high abandoning their cars (and their car and home immigration, post-Depression America allowed loans) and flying back to India. There are reports practically nobody to immigrate legally. There was that 10,000 people have already left for India, and a notable spike in legal immigration in the 1990s, 55,000 construction-related jobs are in jeopardy. and levels have continued to be high in the 2000s. The Harvard Business Review said last But this is likely to change. The welcome mat is September that four million Keralites are in the getting a little frayed, and, with Democrats in Gulf countries and in 2007 their remittances power, protectionism is definitely in the air. accounted for 20 per cent of Kerala’s GDP. There are at least a couple of provisions in The story of Kerala’s mass migration has America’s $ 900 billion stimulus package that are been described as the ‘Kerala model’ of protectionist — one deals with H1-B visa holders, development. But that is an exaggeration. It is another was the now-diluted ‘buy American’ just a money-order economy. Will Kerala show provision in the Senate version of the Bill. The severe withdrawal symptoms? Furthermore, H1-B provisions, which were also diluted, whatever will the Kerala economy — notoriously mandate that companies that use such workers lax in creating jobs — do with all these able-bodied will be under far more scrutiny than before. people who are returning home? March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 35 Destructive federalism Chandan Mitra

A popular early 80s Boy George number titled ‘Karma Chameleon’ ran like this: I am a man without conviction, I am a man who doesn’t know How to sell a contradiction, I come and go...

Observing the antics of various regional starting with Charan Singh’s in 1979. Similarly, in parties on the eve of the Lok Sabha election, one the States it has flitted in and out of coalitions, cannot but be reminded of these lines. It would partnering one party today and serenading the rival be too charitable to drape their efforts at self- on the very next — Tamil Nadu being a classic aggrandisement as an instance of the “end of example. Periodically, it roars in impotent rage ideology”. Most of these outfits never had any against the politics of alliances. After declaring ideological conviction to begin with; whatever its abhorrence for “casteist” parties at Panchmarhi pretence they once had to certain political beliefs in 1999 it had no qualms stitching up deals with a was discarded since the advent of the coalition host of them in 2004, thereby bettering Vajpayee’s era at the Centre. Their gold-digging skills were record of leading a 24-party coalition. honed during the Deve Gowda/Inder Gujral Recently, it again declared with interregnum and assiduously practiced under Atal characteristic arrogance that it would not enter Bihari Vajpayee’s shaky first tenure. Compelled into a nationwide electoral, making it clear that to restrain, but not withdraw, their hand during tie-ups would be strictly State-based. This was his second stint, these parties have played havoc aimed at precluding allies like Sharad Pawar’s with the system over the last five years taking NCP and Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party from full advantage of the Congress’s compulsions and staking claim to seats outside Maharashtra and Manmohan Singh’s infirmity. Now as the polls Uttar Pradesh respectively. Within days of this draw closer, they are on the rampage. grand declaration, the Congress was forced to Of the two national parties, the BJP is less sue for peace. affected but not immune to pressures from its The BJP, too, is suffering at the hands of regional allies. As for the Congress, it is currently its NDA partners with most of them demanding a being used as a punching bag although it continues bigger share of seats at the national party’s cost. to pretend it calls the shots. There is some basis to the JD(U)’s assertion in To a large extent, Sonia Gandhi is to blame Bihar and the BJD’s in Orissa that the BJP’s for the fate that has befallen her organisation. strength in these States has declined over the last Congress was never comfortable with alliances. five years while the regional chieftains have grown In the past it has held the dubious record of pulling in stature. But that was inevitable because Nitish down successive Governments at the Centre, Kumar and Naveen Patnaik have emerged as March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 36 powerful, charismatic leaders by virtue of being Arguably, at the end of the day UPA will Chief Minister. Orissa poses the bigger challenge probably not collapse. But there is no guarantee of the two because it is the only alliance-run State that after the election prominent State chieftains of the BJP that will have simultaneous Assembly such as Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh, and Lok Sabha elections. Chandrababu Naidu or Jayalalithaa will not come Meanwhile the party’s long-standing ally, together to try and repeat the Deve Gowda Shiv Sena, is in a rebellious mood, apparently experiment and demand Congress’s support for instigated by the NCP. It has made an a so-called Third Front Government. unreasonable demand for a larger share of Lok Equally, they are quite capable of Sabha seats from Maharashtra without any approaching the BJP for outside support after evidence that the main Thackeray clan’s electoral persuading some NDA partners to join them in such an exercise. It is also possible that the The Congress’s willing - currently “secular” Mayawati, who has cohabited ness to cater to the utterly with the BJP thrice in UP, will not turn unprincipled demands of its “communal” again. A jittery Karunanidhi, bewildered by Jayalalithaa’s sudden overtures to allies has paved the way for the Congress may scurry back to the BJP’s fold, being bullied by them. Dr Ramadoss in tow, if NDA seems to be in a position to form the Government in Delhi. influence has grown in recent years; if anything, The Congress’s willingness to cater to the it has probably declined. In Punjab, roles are utterly unprincipled demands of its allies has paved reversed with State BJP leaders arguing that based the way for being bullied by them. By conceding on their performance in the Assembly poll they Ram Vilas Paswan’s right to contest successive should be given at least one more Lok Sabha seat Bihar Assembly polls of 2005 in opposition to Lalu from the current Akali quota. State BJP leaders Yadav but in agreement with the Congress, Sonia are equally vociferous with BJP’s re-inducted Gandhi succumbed to the erosion of a fundamental allies, INLD in Haryana, Ajit Singh’s RLD in principle of alliance dharma. Similarly, PMK has Uttar Pradesh and AGP in Assam. quit the DMK-led coalition in Tamil Nadu but However, unlike the Congress, the BJP continues to share Cabinet posts in Delhi with that does not face any serious threat of the NDA party. breaking down. On the contrary, the party is quietly adding more allies to its kitty. The Increasingly, allies of both national parties Congress, on the other hand, is being challenged are murmuring that UPA or NDA are meant for daily by the mercurial Amar Singh, ambitious Delhi, not the States — a bizarre formulation Sharad Pawar, disgruntled Dr Ramadoss in Tamil formally articulated by Mamata Banerjee in Nadu, adamant Lalu Yadav and Lalu-baiter Ram Bengal with an eye to keeping all post-poll Vilas Paswan. possibilities open. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 37

These developments don’t augur well for shrewdly gauging the political wind in 2004. They the stability and progress of the nation. Just as will swing across to any formation that offers Indira Gandhi’s authoritarian streak led to the them a renewed opportunity to purloin taxpayers’ erosion of the spirit of federalism in the money into their personal coffers. These parties Constitution and made India almost a unitary state, are not alone in engaging in such brazen pursuit the current overdose of federalism is causing of pilferage. But worse, the dependence on such reverse imbalance. The two national parties have charlatans means that neither Congress nor BJP been forced to submit to the dictates of regional can earnestly implement most of what they allies, often acquiescing in their rampantly corrupt, promise in their manifestos. self-centred or irrational pursuits. The loot of the exchequer by Tamil Nadu This is perhaps the most compelling reason Ministers in particular has reached scandalous to evolve a consensus for discarding the present dimensions and the tragedy is that the parties they one for a structurally sustainable Second Republic represent are shameless mercenaries who — an argument I proffered in these columns just switched effortlessly from the NDA to the UPA, ahead of this year’s Republic Day.

Recession creates 50,000 police jobs in US

The economic downturn has wiped off According to a survey conducted by thousands of jobs from hundreds of the American Washington-based Police Executive Research companies, but the same crisis has prompted Forum, nearly half the police agencies reported the US administration to announce a massive a surge in the crimes that can be attributed to hiring of 50,000 police personnel. the ongoing economic and financial crisis in the In its first budget, the Barack Obama country. government has proposed necessary funding to Various experts believe that crime graphs tend begin hiring 50,000 additional police officers. to soar higher whenever there is an economic "Supporting the hiring of police nationwide will downturn as it always adversely affects the help states and communities prevent the growth income and job markets. of crime during the economic downturn," the Announcing the budget, Obama said that more Office of Management and Budget said in the than 3.5 million people have lost jobs in the past government's budget proposals for FY2010. 13 months, while another 8.8 million Americans, The additional funding to put 50,000 more who want and need full-time work, have had to police officers on the beat would be provided settle for part-time jobs. through expansion of Community Oriented The PERF survey said that among the 100 Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Grant, it added. agencies linking rise in crime to the economic The total budget allocation for the Department crisis, about 40 per cent reported an increase in of Justice, which oversees the COPS robberies and vehicle thefts, while more than 30 programme, has been proposed at 26.5 billion per cent said there have been an increase in the dollars. This would also include funding for incidents of burglaries. The survey was conducted national security and other crime fighting in December and January. programmes of agencies like FBI.

March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 38

India’s Nation-hood

Dr T.H.Chowdary

There is a class of intellectuals, journalists stock and of the same faith. Yet all of them together and politicians even historians who are fond of could not become one single nation-state. Iran and saying that the nation building in India is a work in Turkey are also Muslim states but racially the progress, “that we have yet to build the Indian former is Aryan and the latter is Mongolian. nation. There is another set of people who call The case of Bharat, that is India is entirely Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation as different. From time immemorial the land between though this nation did not exist before him. Most the Indian Ocean and the Himalayans has been of these have got a political agenda and little called Bharata Varsha. The people living there respect for truth and much less knowledge of the are all having a common code of morality and history of this land of Bharat and its people. First ethics going by the name Sanatana Dharma. of all, it should be realised that a nation-state is a Different languages are spoken by the people for concept which is only a few hundred years old. more than 2000 years but there was one language The Indian nation has been in existence for which the learned and leaders and rulers among thousands of years. England, also called United the people spoke and wrote. Common people Kingdom; we know has come as a nation-state could be speaking different versions of it like all only after Scotland was conquered and the languages now in India excepting perhaps incorporated into the United Kingdom. This Tamil. Dharma as expounded in the Vedas, in the (Scotland merged in 1701) was 300 years ago. Upanishads and the great Ithihasas, Mahabharata Until 1871, there was no German Nation-state; and in Ramayan, Puranas like Bhagavata was what was governing the social conduct and there were more than 20 independent German aspiration of the people through out the length and Kingdoms or Principalities. These were all breadth of Bharata Varsha. The land and nature’s conquered by the King of Prussia under the able gifts and its heritage and accumulated wisdom chancellorship of Otto von Bismarck in 1871 (to are the common property of all the people living 1890); still there is one German speaking territory in Bharat is instilled into the consciousness of left out of the state created by Bismarck and that generation after generation at every significant in is Austria. The Arab speaking people refer to an a man’s and family’s life in the collective presence Arab nation but there are 17 independent and of all the related. For example, when a marriage sovereign Arab states. For them the nation has is celebrated we recall the Kalpa, Manvantara, little meaning; no more than that they are racially Yuga along with this year, month and day; we the same and have the same religion, Islam, the recite the names of all sages/rishis, rivers, same language, Arabic. Canada and the USA mountains and forests and the regions. Thus is have the same language and have same Christian the ideal that we are one people, with common faith and most people are of European descent. heritage, resources and belief and value system Yet they are two different nation-states. In the is nourished. European Union there are 27 independent We don’t have a ‘religion’ in the sense that sovereign states; all people are of the same racial Judaism, Christianity and Islam are. Each one of March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 39 them has its particular God who is exclusive of Now in the light of the above observations others; has its own Prophets and one sacred let us consider how the modern concept of nation Book. Christians and Moslems are enjoined by state has evolved into the present form in our their God and Prophet, to convert all human beings country. Throughout the times Bharat was viewed to their exclusive faith; each holds that other are as one country. Different parts of the country untrue, incomplete or imperfect. This system of were ruled by different Kings. The strongest of one exclusive god, one Prophet and one holy Book the Kings ever wanted to have control over the distinguishes these three Semitic religions from entire Bharat Varsha. In the Mahabharata war Bharat’s Santana Dharma in hundreds of indepen which God can be con dent Kings from ceived, prayed to and in There could be different kings in different regions and they may invade one different parts of voked by several names, in Bharata Varsha several forms and in another but each one of them was guided by the King’s Ministers who expounded the (which included different languages. These even Afghanistan, three attributes can be Dharma and every one was in full realization that sovereignty rested in Dharma and not in then known as chosen by every individual Gandhara) in absolute freedom. the person of the King or his Dynasty. participated in the Similarly the mode of war on the side of worship can also be absolutely particular to each Pandavas or Kauravas, as they saw on whose individual. Brahma, Vishnu, (and his Avataras like side Dharma was. It was to uphold Dharma as Rama and Krishna) Siva; Durga, Saraswati are they saw that they participated in the war between held as Ista Devatas. Dharma is expounded around these Gods and Goddesses. the two principal Kings of the time. Ashoka The concept of Ista devata or God/ (Reign: 273BC to 232 BC) aspired sovereignty Goddess in the Semitic religions this is not permit over whole of Bharata Varsha and embarked upon such concept. Any deviation from what laid in conquests to get different parts under his direct their Holy Books as interpreted by their Clergy is control. The Chakravarty or the supreme king called heresy. In the past, the heretics were put who considered himself to be the strongest to death or excommunicated. In Santana Dharma conquered other kingdoms but never deposed the of Bharat there is no such exclusion or defeated Kings. Normally he was satisfied that excommunication. Therefore Bharatiya Dharma the vanquished should pay tribute to the sustains pluralism and the pluralisms can exist in Chakravarty. This is another feature of the unity absolute harmony with one another. Bharat of India and the Dharma governing the entire land. through the ages has been conceived by its people The British governed the entire country as and its rulers as the land of Dharma. There could one unit under the Vice Roy of Great Britain and be different kings in different regions and they Governor General. By the time the whole of India may invade one another but each one of them came under one rule, the German nation-state was guided by the King’s Ministers who did not even exist. And so were not many other expounded the Dharma and every one was in full presently nation states in Europe. During the realization that sovereignty rested in Dharma and struggle for Independence, our leaders viewed not in the person of the King or his Dynasty. The the entire country as one people, one nation. The Raja Dharma was expounded by Bhishma to the Indian National Congress and its great statesmen Pandavas in the Shanti Parva. leaders were inspired by our heritage, by the March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 40 message of our literature. It was Ramayana and wonderfully expositioned by Kulapathi K M Mahabharata and the Vedas and Upanishads that Munshi in his short book “Warnings of History: inspired our people to be one. When Trends in Modern India” published by the Independence came, Sardar Patel single handedly Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Some quotes from this got more than 600 Princes to sign away their so will greatly educate us as to what is a nation and called sovereignty and accede to the Indian state. the nation state. Bismarck could unite the more than a score of “There are three factors invariably German states only by war. Indeed, the USA and found in virile nations: common memory of Untied Kingdom and many other nation-states achievements, will to unity and habitual urge were forged through war. But the modern Indian to collective action. nation state was forged by the patriotism of the It is most important that the people people, the princely rulers, deftly handled by constituting a nation have common heroes, Sardar Patel. common memories and common ideals and values Unfortunately Bharata Varsha that is India which inspire them and guide them to be one was divided on the basis of religion as Muslims people. The people constituting a nation must have has persons whose forefathers were converted a common, cherished memory of great heroes and to Islam under the most excruciating circumstances (Islamic of the invaders imposing their religion on the defeated and captured soldier It is most important that the people said that they are not part of the Indian nation, constituting a nation have common not part of the people who are in culture faith and belief in Santana Dharma that is, Hinduism. heroes, common memories and common Muslims asserted that they are a different ideals and values which inspire them nation, different from Hindus. That is why, the country was divided. After the division, we gave and guide them to be one people. to ourselves, a constitution which puts its seal on the indivisibility of the country and the nation- exploits of great adventures and triumphs in the state, the Indian nation-state. past, not withstanding betrayals by ignoble traitors Democracy and elected representatives of and some defeats. “Historic forces often have the people in the legislatures is what are added not given a common memory to communities living on to our nation state. We have accepted the in a single country; they often look upon their past European concepts of democracy and Republic from different angles, in consequence cannot form in good faith. It is our effort to make these non- a nation. Hindus look up to Rana Pratap and indigenous forms of representative democracy Shivaji as their heroes; the Muslims admire and government that can be said to be work in Mohamed Ghazni, Md.Ghori and Aurangzeb. In progress. The outcome can be great if our leaders this antagonistic outlook lay the seed of Pakistan. are noble. It can be strong if good foundations Unfortunately, there are studied attempts in India are laid and the structure is not undermined from to preserve different memories and not common within or without. In order to make our nation memories; different and antagonistic heritage of and our nation-state a great strong and indivisible, some people. For eg: Islamic invasions and the certain concepts are to become part of our invaders rule (India have been a disaster for the thinking and living. The attributes of a nation are people of India. Will Durant, the great historian March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 41 philosopher had this to say about the Islamic a common nationality, and this misconception conquest of India. “The Mohamedan conquest of one Indian nation has gone far beyond the of India is probably the bloodiest story in limits and is the cause of most of our troubles history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident and will lead India to destruction if we fail to moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, revise our notions in time. The Hindus and whose delicate complex of order and liberty, Muslims belong to two different religious culture and peace may at any time be philosophies, social customs, and literature. They neither intermarry, (only Hindu girls marry Moslems, but they have to convert to The great statesman, thinker Sir C P Islam – Ed) nor interdine together and, indeed Ramaswamy Iyer, the Diwan of Travancore they belong to two different civilizations which proposed that all the Muslims who chose to stay on in India should be declared as aliens are based mainly on conflicting ideas and as they had repudiated the Indian nation- conceptions. Their aspects on life and of life hood and brought about the partition of the are different. It is quite clear that Hindus and country and creation of the Islamic state of Mussalmans derive their inspiration from Pakistan as their homeland.. different sources of history. They have different epics, different heroes and different overthrown by barbarians invading from episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of without or multiplying within”(Story of the other and, likewise, their victories and Civilization). defeats overlap. To yoke together two such Our aspiration to continue to be one nation nations under a single state, one as a numerical and one nation-state was shattered by the Muslims minority and the other as a majority, must lead of India, almost all of them following the Muslim to growing discontent and final destruction of League led by Md. Ali Jinnah asserted, voted and any fabric that may be so built up for the rioted for the partition of India and the creation of Government of such a state…….” the Islamic state of Pakistan which has become Unfortunately after the partition, the an exclusivist state. It has contrived to get rid of Muslims who said they are not a part of the Indian all Hindus and Sikhs. Unfortunately, the Muslims nation stayed on in India. The great statesman, of India (98.3% of who having a separate thinker Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer, the Diwan of electorate voted for the two-nation theory-hugging Travancore proposed that all the Muslims who Muslim League in the elections to the Central chose to stay on in India should be declared as Legislative Assembly in 1945-46) were inspired aliens as they had repudiated the Indian nation- by the following thesis of Md. Ali Jinnah in the hood and brought about the partition of the country March 1940 annual session of the Muslim League and creation of the Islamic state of Pakistan as in Lahore. their homeland.. Dr B R Ambedkar in his masterly “……………………It is extremely difficult book, “ Pakistan Or the Partition of India” (1942) to appreciate why our Hindu friends fail to concluded that Muslims could by the very nature understand the real nature of Islam and of their religion ( an Islamic umma transcending Hinduism. They are not religions in the strict territorial boundaries of nation-states) be never sense of the word, but are, in fact, different part of the Indian nation. He advocated partition and distinct social orders and it is a dream and as a permanent settlement of the Moslem that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve problem, he insisted that there should be an March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 42 organised exchange of minority populations He The second factor (first is common cited the example of exchange of Moslem and cherished memory of heroes and achievements) Christian minorities after the defeat and playing a great part in the birth and growth of a dissolution of the Turkish Ottoman empire at the nation is the will to national unity in the people. end of the first World War. Turkey took into itself Nationalism implies a sustained effort on the all the Moslems of its former possessions in part of the people to will themselves into a Greece, Bulgaria and some Balkan Provinces; nation’. Unfortunately , the will to national unity all the Christians in fostered and cherished during the struggle for Turkey left for the freedom is being Christian States. The Pakistan expelled more or less all dissipated by politicians exchange was organised Hindus and Sikhs who were 19% of its trying to ingratiate under the auspices of the population. East Pakistan , now Bangladesh themselves with League of Nations. Even has been making the life of its 30% Hindu Moslems, to gain Md. Ali Jinnah and the and Buddhist minorities so miserable that power. Till recently the nor more than 9% are left there; all of them Moslem League term, minority is used are destined to be ethnically cleansed in the demanded exchange of as a cover word for next decade or so. minority populations. Moslems, but now is Unfortunately neither the proposal of Sir C P being extended to Christians, as their population increases due to Ramaswamy Iyer nor that of Dr.Ambedkar was globally financed and indigenously patronized ( by accepted by Gandhiji and the Congress and so Christians who have captured a political party) we continue to be tormented by the Moslem religious conversion enterprises. While problem, becoming more and more acute and Constitution mandates a common civil code, disruptive because of vote-bank politics of enactment is not undertaken as Moslems object, ‘secular’ parties and pigmy politicians with ignoble thus perpetuating evils like polygamy, instant minds. divorce, and inequality of women among Moslems Pakistan expelled more or less all Hindus but unhesitatingly legislating for Hindus in regard and Sikhs who were 19% of its population. East to all these subjects. There is sustained effort on Pakistan , now Bangladesh has been making the the part of some people and many non-minority life of its 30% Hindu and Buddhist minorities so dominated parties, not to will themselves into a miserable that nor more than 9% are left there; nation but to preserve and widen the disunity all of them are destined to be ethnically cleansed among different communities inhabiting Bharat. in the next decade or so. The Moslem population This ignoble effort now is engaged in setting up in India with Pakistani separate nation mindset one caste of Hindus against all other castes has, in contrast to decimation of Hindu-Sikh- with demands like they be declared as backward Buddhist population in Pakistan and Bangladesh , or scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The grown from under 10% in1948 to between 15 and strife between Gujjars and Meenas in Rajasthan 20% and is getting continuously augmented by between Malas and Madigas in Andhra Pradesh often facilitated illegal infiltration of about 30 ; between Marathas and BCs in Maharashtra; million Bangladesh Moslems. The post- between Kandhas and Panas in I Orissa, etc is independence Indian nation is thus saddled with the outcome of political and religious interests to the separatist minority Moslem problem. garner votes and state power. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 43

Kulapati Munshi observed:” The will to Many had been the assaults on Bharat in national unity is hard to develop but easy to be the last two millennia. All of them had been dissipated. Generally it is dissipated under certain withstood; the assaulters had been tamed and conditions: absorbed and assimilated. The unabsorbable, First the dominant minority (the political divisive, exclusivist and intolerant had the country leadership classes) has no sense of mission as divided but there are yet residues of those who regards the future of the nation. refuse to be part of the indivisible nationhood. Secondly, if its will to unity is fragmented by contradictory loyalties ( to Pakistan , Umma, Nations rose to prosperity and glory China, the West- European and American when their leaders placed a mission for their Christian) nation and led the people to achieve it. Thirdly, if it becomes psychologically alien Nations declined and fell when their leaders to the masses (through English medium became ignoble, power and wealth-grabbing, education and in English medium “convent” greedy and selfish and dynastic. Will we schools run by religious organisations) bestir or is it too late? Today, India’s millennial nation-hood based on cultural unity is being undermined by an evil quartet of Marxist ideology, ( which sees Hinduism Since, Independence, there has been a decline in as its prime enemy in India) multinational the caliber and wisdom and statesmanship of the conversion (MNC) missionary enterprises political class. They have lost the sense of seeking a harvest of converts from Hinduism, mission, the vision that inspired us through Islam in-danger invoking jihadi terrorism, Dayananda, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Bala facilitated by a fraternity and Macaulayan Gangadhar Tilak, Gandhi and Patel. Our political resident non-Indians (RNIs) who thro’ a particular class using phrases and words like “composite system of education are only in colour and blood Indian but in values, preferences, views and life- culture”, “secularism”, social justice, “inclusive” style and culture un-Indian, Western ( “American” growth, proportional (to population) repre sentation, predominantly). The Evil Quartet will be mutually empowerment, modernity, change, right for every deadly, hostile to one another ultimately but are thing (but no duty) etc are promoting strife between tactically united to undermine and destroy India’s religious and cultural communities, between castes, one nation-hood. Some in the Quartet think we between wealth creators and wealth consumers, should be a Federation of nationalities ( Stalin’s between the entrepreneurs and the entitlement theory); some think we should be like South Korea mongers. This is the threat to our nation-hood. converted away from Buddhism to Christianity Nations rose to prosperity and glory when their and committed t America; some think India should leaders placed a mission for their nation and led revert to their i.e., Moslem rule and the fourth thinks of nothing except becoming rich, wield the people to achieve it. Nations declined and fell state-power to become richer and cover up greed when their leaders became ignoble, power and and power-grab by words like ‘secularism’; wealth-grabbing, greedy and selfish and dynastic. liberalism; “modernism” and “ globalism”. Will we bestir or is it too late? March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 44 Mote and the beam Sandhya Jain “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye” - Matthew 7.3

So deep is the disarray caused by insider for 16 long years; the recent suicide of Sister accounts of sexual abuse and moral depravity in Anupama Mary in Kollam; her father alleged sex the Kerala Catholic church that the authorities abuse by convent superiors. More recently, the have failed to come up with a coherent response Kerala Church hit the headlines following the even two weeks after “Amen” hit the bestseller controversial adoption of a 26-year-old woman ceiling in Malayalam bookstores. Two editions by a bishop – an event which forced the authorities have already been sold out. to order an enquiry into the legality of the act. Having beheld for decades the mote and Stories of enormous pressure on Sister Jesme, the beam in the eyes of the church, Dr. Sister even monetary induce ments, to cease writing her Jesme Raphael has shown extraordinary courage autobiography are hardly surprising. to witness what happened to her and other nuns Amen’s explicit account of sexual who entered the church in good faith, expecting repression and harassment, draconian rules and to lead lives of virtue and service to god and “greed” of the Order, make sad reading. Though society. What actually happened behind the closed official catholic dogma abhors sexual relations of convent doors was rampant exploitation of nuns all kinds, same sex relations are especially by priests and same sex relations. In other words, despised, yet paradoxically flourish with a stories similar to those pouring out of catholic vengeance. Sister Jesme recounts being forced monasteries in every Western society. into a relationship by a fellow nun who said she The insider-victim who bears witness gives preferred such a liaison as it avoided the pitfalls added poignancy and weightage to the account of pregnancy – this seems to suggest that the said of a woman who struggled and suffered for three nun arrived at this form of sexual solace after decades in a vain attempt to be a bride of Christ some experimentation. and not a plaything of men. Sister Jesme was no The unhappy truth behind this revelation ordinary nun; a professor of English and principal would be that many nuns are young girls who might of St. Mary’s College in Thrissur, she finally quit like to marry and have children, should the Congregation of Mother Carmelite after circumstances permit. This lends weightage to attempts to admit her to the notorious Divine Life observations that the church is making institution and declare her insane, and also to ‘recruitments’ at a tender age of girls whose “open a little window to allow some light to families are too poor to resist inducements or enter into the sufferings of hundreds of pressure. women.” Sister Jesme recalls an encounter with a The timing could not be more apt. The book priest in Bangalore en route to Dharwar for a comes close in the heels of the arrest of two nuns UGC refresher course in English. She originally in the Sister Abhaya rape-cum-murder case, planned to stay at the waiting room of Bangalore which the Catholic Church struggled to suppress railway station, but some convent sisters March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 45 suggested staying with a “pious, decent priest;” clergy, and solicitation of sex by priests in the he personally received her at Bangalore. After confessional. breakfast, the priest took her to the Lalbagh The Council of Elvira (Spain, 309 CE) Botanical Garden and showed her myriad couples regulated clerical sexual behaviour. Canon 18 cuddling behind the trees. And contrary to the punished any bishop, priest, or deacon found to official dogma, he “gave a sermon on the be a sexual offender with deprivation of Holy necessity of physical love and described the Communion even at death. Canon 27 forbade illicit affairs certain bishops and priests had.” On returning to his room, he stripped and forced her to do the same. She could not have been his first or last victim. And given the fact that he could be so bold with a nun encountered only by chance, it is chilling to think what he would be doing to ordinary nuns and lay Christian girls and women coming to his presbytery. It is unlikely that church authorities are unaware of the dark side of his life; Sister Jesme says they willfully turned a blind eye to such major transgressions by superiors. Sadly, this is the suppressed truth of the church, as scrupulously documented by three priests in “Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes. The Catholic Church’s 2000-year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse,” by Thomas P. Doyle, A.W. Richard Sipe and Patrick J. Wall, Volt Press, Los Angeles, 2006. bishops or clerics from having unrelated women Written after scandals and lawsuits began living with them; Canon 33 ordered married clerics to rock America, the book demonstrates that to completely abstain from sex with their wives. sexual abuse of minor boys, girls, women, by Canon 65 ex-communicated clerics who priests can be traced back to the time records knowingly neglected to denounce adulterous were kept! The authors found a conspiracy of wives; and Canon 71 (not specifically aimed at silence allows sexual abuse to prosper. Only clergy) condemned sex between adult men and pressure of exorbitant lawsuits and settlements young boys. that endangered church assets finally triggered St. Peter Damian’s Book of Gomorrah some church concern about rampaging sexual (1051) attacked the sexual immorality of the predators in its ranks. clergy of his time and the lax superiors who failed From as early as the fourth century, the to curb it. He condemned priests who defiled men church consistently failed to get clerics to observe or boys coming for confession, and priests who the vows of chastity. In the earliest days when gave the sacrament of penance to their own priests were allowed to marry, it told them to avoid victims. He urged Pope Leo IX to act to redress sex; when celibacy became mandatory, it passed the damage caused by offending clerics – the laws against concubinage! It condemned response was a model of inaction, a prelude to homosexuality and sexual abuse of minors by the experience of our own era. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 46

Hindu Devalaya Parirakshana Samithi

(Maha Pada Yatra & Bhakti Sammelan) N. Nagaraja Rao

To the utter shame of Hindus Government devotees into making contributions to Christian of Andhra Pradesh and some other ‘secular’ NGOs, who act as sappers and miners for governments are managing Hindus’ temples (but conversion enterprises. not Churches and mosques) and misusing the In order to sensitise Hindus to the temple funds which Hindus have offered to their abominations being perpetrated by the ‘secular’ gods for the promotion and strengthening of government in Andhra Pradesh Sri Kamal Kumar predatory (on Hindu) religions of foreign origin. Swamiji has on behalf of the Hindu Devalaya In our state, over 30,000 temples are without daily Parirakshana Samithi undertaken two Maha Pada worship and without dhoopa deepa naivedya Yatras. The first Pada Yatra started on Ganesh even. The funds amounting to over thousands Chaturdhi day in 2007 and concluded on January crores in about 20 temples are all under the control 25, 2008 covering about 3200 km. The second and management of the ‘secular’ Government Maha Pada Yatra was started on August 6, 2008 of AP. The Endowment Board and its controllers at Sri Kurmam in Srikakulam District and in the secretariat are harbouring crypto-Christians, concluded in Tirupathi on February 16, 2009 i.e., those who have got jobs by falsely declaring covering 5000 km. In all 788 villages [in 11 themselves as Hindu S.Cs to avail of the districts] that were visited by him. In all the reservation. So the Hindus’ temples not churches, villages traversed by him, the local people were not mosques, are the mismanaged and even looted sensitised to the aggression of the proselytizing, by the ‘secular’ government and its minions. Our Hindu-inimical religions and the collusive part of properties like lands and sites of Hindus’ temples ‘secular’ Government of Andhra Pradesh in are being acquired and allotted to Christian min destroying the heritage of our temples. organisations for their schools and other purposes His padayatra culminated in a mammoth [for example: temple land in L Polavaram village, rally of Hindus, Bhakti Sammelan, in Tirupati near Amalapuram in East Godavary Dist was on the 16th February 2009. This was addressed allotted to Smt Gollapalli Luthiamma, wife of by Dr Subrahmanya Swamy, President of the Minister Gollapalli Surya Rao, who is in fact is a Janata Party; Bandaru Dattatreya, President Christian but got elected as an MLA against a Andhra Pradesh State, BJP; Dr R V S S seat reserved for Hindu SCs by false declaration]. Avadhanulu, Director, Shri Veda Bharati; Smt The crypto- Christians in the temple Laxmi Parvati [widow of late Sri NT Rama Rao], administrations are in collusion with missionaries and others. Dr T H Chowdary, editor of this to alienate our properties and to mislead our monthly journal had his part in this Padayatra. He March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 47 flagged off the second and final compliment in to be moved Sri Kurmam temple in Srikakulam on 6th August Government must either discontinue 2009. subsidizing Haj/Jerusalem pilgrimages or give pro- Addressing the huge gathering of Hindus, rate amounts to Hindus. Dr Subrahmanya Swamy referred to the signal Manasarovar, Amarnath, Vaisho Devi success that he had by filing a case in the Supreme Mathura, Kasi Kathamandu, Tirupati, Ramesh Court and arguing it himself in regard to the UPA -waram, Sri Sailam, Simhachalam, government’s plan of destroying Setu Samudram. Basara , Annavaram, Vemulavada, Ayodhya It is now shelved for the time being. An alternative Hindu pastors is being studied by the Government of India. He To trail and counter said he would be moving the Supreme Court to Hindu Bishops Kutamis, Vedukalu, make ‘secular’ government disinvest themselves Hindu Pracharaks Pandugalu by Christians from the management of Hindu’s temples, while leaving the places of worship of other religions Reservations meant for SCs and STs untouched. Sri Bandaru Dattatreya said that if of Hindus should not be extended to followers of people vote for his party, his government would and converts to any non-Indic religions. subsidise every person making a PIL to Tirupati. Those who get a job as Hindu SC/ST Smt Laxmi Parvati said that the late Sri NTR but later convert to or subscribe to any non-Indic wanted to make the statue on Tirumala Tirupati religion, should cease to get benefits like reserved equal to that of the Vatican; that is Hindus’ holy promotions. The ones of non-conversion must be place, [and a sovereign state] for these two put on the person accused. temples put together. Vigilance must be exercised in What Hindus should demand of all the government departments/PSUs against misuse of SC/ST organizedtion political parties and government is contained in the gist of the talk delivered by Dr T H Chowdary, Organized conversions by bodies is given below: working for that purpose must be banned, declared an offence under Indian Penal Code. Hindu Devalaya Parirakshana Samithi - Construction of places of worship Maha Pada Yatra- Tirupati – 16-02-2009 should be regulated – one for how many; distance Collections from Hindus’ temples between any two; must not be on encroached (TTD, Kanaka Durga etc.) should be utilized to lands/parks/pavements/roads/traffic islands. counter the missionaries/evangelical/proselytizing Plans must receive approved, before actions: Dharma Rakshaka Dandu/Brindam. construction; objections invited, heard and decided Endowments Board to be purged of before constructions starts. Cryptos-Christians masquerading as SCs Public inconvenience must be gauged.

All temples to be disinvested by Temple lands should not be acquired Government in favour of Dharma Parishad – Bill by government/PSUs for purposes like weaker March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 48 section housing, government offices, schools, (or what ever organisation we have) should be Anganwadi etc. They should be used only for consulted with. Hindu religious purposes only; should in no case Any funds taking from temples (as be acquired/allotted to any institutions of non-Indic salaries etc for Endowment department and into religious groups/individuals (eg. East Godavari, the CGF) should be given account for Gollapalli Surya Rao’s wife getting temple land In government bodies like National near Amalapuram to run a Christian-managed Security Council, practicing Hindus must be school) appointed in the ratio of Hindu Offensive, derogatory literature, songs, population. music, shows should not be allowed; in particular, broadcasting songs/talks above a certain sound Boycott all those level, irrespective of duration, should be banned. who are anti- Such activities should be totally Hindu and anti- prohibited near educational institutions, Bharat government offices, courts and libraries, reading As long rooms, auditoria etc. as Hindu temples Acharyas discourse “all Religions teach are administered the same thing must stop” – Others’ aggression by government must be emphasized. departments or Christianity and Islam made to serve boards devout European [Portuguese, Spanish, English, Belgian, Hindus should not French mainly) imperialisms. put any money Hindus must boycott the services and meant for their businesses of their enemy/aggressor faith persons/ deities in the companies hundis of such temples. Hindus must vote for only those The dharmacharyas of the respective persons irrespective of parties who undertake/ sampradayas must create a Trust relating to every pledge to defend Hindus’ interests and thwart the temple; open an office nearest to the temple and aggressor’s attacks, aggressions and subversions. put a hundi there. The devotees must put their The party label should be no concern offerings in that Hindu. These monies must be Any decision taken by government on collected by men of integrity, accounted and used Hindus’ temples’ issues, Dharma Raksha Mandali for propagation of dharma. (A Report)

All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in this world are products from this evil spirit of fear. Therefore, I say, be fearless, be fearless. - Swami Vivekananda

March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 49 Slumdogs and fat cat bankers Latha Jishnu

Mesmerised by the cinematic kitsch of Mumbai’s underbelly, Americans are seek- ing palliatives to the horror stories tumbling out of the Byzantine world of investment banking.

Middle India is cock-a-hoop over its sur- rogate triumph at the Academy Awards. The eight Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire — three of these going to a couple of true blue Indians — for a romanticised Dickensian tale of a vile Fagin, ex- ploited children and an uncaring system comes as the perfect stardust for a country seeking to gloss over the cruel realities of its 21st-century poverty and joblessness, a predicament made worse by the deepening global recession. Thus, entire front pages have been given over to the delirium of watching the Indian slumdog arrive on the international stage, never Jamal Malik who tries to pass off as an unlet- mind that the portrayal is as savage as you can tered chaiwallah (tea boy) and hops from one get in an oddly prettified plot. implausible situation to the next with all the aplomb of an Etonian before winning Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 That it hasn’t touched a national raw million) in a game show. nerve is because middle class Indians have be- gun to take such things in their stride; they are no After all, what have down-and-out Ameri- longer affronted by the outside view of the de- cans been hearing in the past fortnight? That Thain grading poverty that afflicts the overwhelming gave bonuses of at least $1 million each to 696 majority of their countrymen. employees of Merrill Lynch before it imploded and was bought by Bank of America and, worse, For an America that is experiencing what that the total payment of bonuses, amounting to is possibly the worst recession in its history since $3.6 billion, was made with the ‘apparent com- the Great Depression, Slumdog Millionaire offers plicity’ of the bank which got billions of dollars of some relief from its own lethal cocktail of unem- government bailout money. ployment, unaffordable food, homelessness and increasing debt. No major American investment and bank- ing institution has remained untainted by the dis- For them, specially the legion who have closures made to a Congressional panel. lost their homes in the property market crash, real Citigroup’s CEO Vikram Pandit cancelled an life characters like John Thain, the former chief order for a $50 million aircraft only after it be- of Merrill Lynch and Co, who couldn’t work with- came public. out a $1,400 wastebasket in his office and a $35,000 commode in his toilet, are probably harder It’s not as if the disclosures and the popu- to stomach than the impeccably British-accented lar disbelief and outrage are stopping these finan- March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 50 cial behemoths from their feckless ways. Mor- the labour ministry — a recent survey estimates gan Stanley, which intends to pamper its top ex- that the small-business sector lost about half a ecutives with lavish bonuses, made the disingenu- million jobs in the December quarter — the game ous statement that the money for bonuses would show view of the world offers an enticing escape come from operating expenses rather than the from reality. bailout money! According to the Federation of Indian Ex- For the vast majority of Indians, Slumdog port Organisations, its member-companies may end Millionaire’s message of hope — apparently that up cutting 10 million jobs this year as construction is the basic message of the Danny Boyle con- firms and exporting units put new projects on hold. coction, which The New York Times review de- Add to this the nearly 20,000 Indians who have scribed as ‘one of the most upbeat stories about returned from the Gulf, almost all of them bottom- living in hell imaginable’ — is an affront. rung workers who have taken the first hit from the construction bust in the region. This is just the beginning of an exodus that will have serious repercussions for India because the Gulf worker has been the bedrock of foreign remittances, in good times and bad. It’s not surprising that the euphoria over Slumdog Millionaire is limited to the mainstream media and the upper classes. Collections in India show that the movie hasn’t been a hit, and its Hindi version almost a flop. If Dharavi is cheer- ing, it’s only because two of its tiny denizens who were used to portray the cruel heart of poverty in The Bollywood-style melodrama is as su- India, were dolled up and sent to Kodak Theatre perficial a slice of India as you can get although in LA for the big night. its makers claim to be reflecting the joyous spirit But Americans will continue to be enticed of the slum dwellers.As the delighted press took by the false promise of the slumdog phenomenon. up the ‘joyous refrain’ with outsize headlines and Paul Smith, the executive producer of Slumdog hype, it managed to hide a nightmare that is en- Millionaire and chairman of Celador Films, is ap- gulfing India’s slumdogs. Edged out of the pic- parently all set to revive the most popular game ture and squeezed into small print, the papers gave show in television history: Who Wants to Be a little play to the real underdog of the global down- Millionaire? which was aired on ABC from 1999 turn: The vulnerable Indian worker whose job al- to 2002. Millions of viewers watched the show ways hangs by a thread and who has little hope on which the India version was modelled. of finding any alternative livelihood in a time of Some reports have it that Slumdog was shrinking markets and heightened protectionism. just the trailer to bringing the main show back in Over half a million workers in the gar- the US sometime soon. Interestingly, Who Wants ments sector alone are out of work and will soon to Be a Millionaire? has just been licensed in war- be joined by an equal number unless exports look ravaged Afghanistan. Clearly, there is little to beat up — an unlikely prospect for some time to the opiate of a game show in keeping the masses come.And as the gloomy estimates pile up from hooked while bombs keep exploding outside. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 51 Indian War Of Independence 1857 INDIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1857 AYODHYA V.D.Savarkar

We have no hesitation in saying that Lord by slowly undermining the foundations of the Dalhousie is one of those Indian administrators different kingdoms of India that Dalhousie was who are accused of more sing of administration enabled, by the mere stroke of his pen, to annex than they are really guilty of. Officers like so many of them. Dalhousie are nothing more than mouthpieces of It was in 1764 that the relations between tyrany. They merely execute the commands of the Company and the ruler of Outh were first the ‘Home’ authorities. To refer all responsibility established. Since then, the servants of the for tyrannous misdeeds committed in India to such Company had been steadily trying to usurp the mouth-pieces would be as unjust as it is irrational. fertile land of Ayodhya. Having first compelled Dalhousie was purely a creature of the the Nabob of Oudh to keep English regiments in circumstances in which he was placed. The major his pay for ‘protecting’ him, they obtained from portion of the responsibility, for good as well as him in return Rs. 16 lakhs (160,000) per annum for evil, therefore, rests on those who created the as the pay for these regiments. By such forced situation. As long as the general policy is dictated protection and voluntary compulsion, the treasury from ‘Home’, those whose duty is merely to of the Nabob was rapidly emptied; and then the execute it can act no more honestly than Dalhousie English suggested to the Nabob (it was a veiled did. It would certainly be unjust to hold Dalhousie command) that a replacing of all the native army responnsible for all those combined acts and deeds of the Nabob by English regiments would be a which had to flow directly from the situation created for him by his masters in England and his valuable step towards the effectual ‘protection’ assistants in India. Dalhousie merely reaped that of the principality. A treasury which could not harvest of political robbery the seeds of which afford to pay even the pay of the “subsidised had been sedulously sown for a hundred years by troops” could certainly not pay the salaries of the his predecessors. The intrigues born of political “additional” troops forced on the Nabob, and the avarice had been sown long before and English thoroughly knew this fact. Indeed, the Dalhousie’s regime was the season in which they additional demand was made because the English bore fruit. But for this heritage of iniquitous power knew this fact. At last it was forced (most behind him, how many kingdoms could Dalhousie unwillingly!) upon the notice of the Company that, have annexed? It was chiefly because generations if the Nabob had an empty treasury, he had at of his predecessors had prepared the way for him least a tract of territory and, so, with the sold object March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 52 of looking after the welfare and well-being of the administration of the kingdom, on the other hand Nabob, the Companydeprieved him, at once and it insisted that the subjects of the Nabob should for ever, of a territory yielding a new revenue of have no complaints. They first made him empty about two crores of Rupees ( 2,000,000) and his treasury to satisfy their exorbitant demands; forced him to accept the services of this extensive and when, to satisfy their further demands which army of English soldiers. This territory was the they insisted on being satisfied at once, the Nabob land of Rohilkhand and the Doab. taxed his subjects, down comes the Company on After robbing all this land from the the Nabob’s poor devoted head and charges him territory of Oudh, the English signed an agreement with maladministration, because, forsooth, the that, as the Nabob had surrendered all and every right over this tract of land, the rest of the territory belonging to the Nabob should remain hereditarily in the family of the Nabob. Another article in the treaty provided that the Nabob should not oppress his subjects. After this treaty which was concluded in 1801, the Nabob was made to advance to the Company, whenever they wanted financial aid, crores of Rupees. The whole kingdom of Oudh was in the hands of the Compoany’s army officers, the treasury became empty by forced loans and contributions, and it was impossible for the Nabob to administer his territory independently or to introduce internal reforms. But the philanthropic Company kept on urging upon him, pointing to the articles in the treary of 1801, to alter his administration so as to make his subjects happy and contended. How was it possible for the Nabob subjects complained against the new taxes. The to do so ? The Company thwarted all his efforts Nabob’s administration was thus paralysed, but, to reform the finances. Those old laws in the at the same time, if by any chance the people, kingdom which esured the happiness of the people with one voice, rose against the injustice and were abolished by the Company and new ones attempted to get a reform of the constitution, were introduced. The subjects so much in English bayonets and swords of the “subsidised” consequence of these new laws that even the troops were ever ready to smother the united Company had to acknowledge its mistake and did voice of the nation. And still, the Company do so ten years after. Thus, while on the one hand persisted in requiring that Such is the clear and the Company unlawfully interfered in the internal unmistakable evidence of Lord Hastings. But in March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 53 spite of this, the Company threatened that, if the He issued strict orders that every regiment that Nabob did not render his administration conducive was late in presenting itself on the parade ground to the happiness of his subjects, the Company should be liable to a fine of Rs.2000 (200) and he, would consider it a violationof the treaty of 1801. at the same time, bound himself to pay the same 2 there should be no complaints in the kingdom ! amount as fine if he himself failed in this duty. Thus, while on the one hand they rendered it more The Company, of course, could not bear and more impossible either for the Nabob or the to see the Nabob develop his strength. The British people to reform the administration in any way, Resident, therefore in a short time forced the on the other hand their strict and persistent Nabob to give up these military activities and at demands for a better administration grew steadily the same time suggested that, if he so desired to louder and louder ! “As a matter of fact, the true increase the strength of the army, the Company and effectual way for the introduction of an was quite willing to increase the “subsidiary” administration which would render the people force; the only condition they would impose being happy would have been to call the British Resident that the Nabob should, every year, pay a further back and to given the Nabob a free hand in the additional sum towards its expenses and upkeep. administration of his dominion. Thus, the whole The hotblooded Nabob was quite indignant. But guilt of the unrest in his territory rests on the head he was forced to give up his darling scheme of of the Company”.1 military reform and was reduced to complete This treaty of 1801 was cancelled and the inactivity. Yet, the benevolent East India Company Nabob entered into a fresh agreement in 1837. went on arguing that the Nabob should render his This treaty impaired the authority of the Nabob administration happy to his subjects. considerably, but he signed the new agreement 1. Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, Vol.I, p.152. simply with the intention of rescuing himself from 2. Native Narratives of the Mutiny by the cunning treaty of 1801. In the year 1847, Wajid Metcalfe, pp.32-33. Ali Shah succeeded to the throne of Oudh. This But now, the Nabob need ot even think new Nabob determined from the first to destroy as to how to render his rule happy. For Lord the poisonous white worm which was killing the Dalhousie has arrived in India with the express life out of the state, and with that object began and benevolent object of taking upon himself (as reforms in the army which was the life of the representative of the E.I.Coy.) all the responsibility kingdom. This youthful prince introduced strict for the good administration of all the independent regulations as to the discipline of the Sepoys and states of India. With his keen political insight, Lord even personally supervised their drill. All the Dalhousie soon realised that the treaty of 1837 regiments had to undergo the drill every morning was, as a matter of fact, a great blunder. For in before the Nabob, who used to dress in the the annulment of the old treaty was lost a very uniform of the commander-in-shift of the troops. strong and a very hypercritical reason for the March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 54 annexation of the idependent principality of Oudh. to the treaty. Nay, in that very year 1853, not only The article in the treaty of 1801, demanding that was mention made of this treaty, but it was actually the Nabob should rule for the happiness of his appended to the list of the existing treaties in the subjects, was an incontrovertible argument for Company’s records for that year !3 So the English annexing Oudh at the sweet will of the Company. denied, aye, altogether, that there was ever any How could this mistake of 1837 be repaired ? such treaty : - the very existence of a treaty which Why, by simply denying the fact that the treaty they had acknowledged just a minute before was was ever entered into. Without any indirect denied by them even before the pen which had methods, the Nabob was informed that no such written the acknowledgment had been laid down treaty as the one of 1837 was ever entered into. ! And thus, Wajid Ali Shah was informed that the A short time after the treaty of 1837, the English, Company would consider it necessary to take over as it would appear, remembered the treaty the administration of his kingdom if he did not perfectly well. Indeed in 1847, Loard Hartington introduce the happy regime ! had publicly and unmistakably acknowledged this to be Continued...... treaty. Col.Sleeman in 1851 had further testified Bharatiya Pragna (A Nationalist Magazine for thinking people) SUBSCRIPTION FORM Subscription form

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March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 55 Book Review Merchants of debt, the wealth of nations

Despite little research, Crash of 2008 is a sound refresher course on the contem- porary meltdown and the lessons history has been unable to teach. Although it may not interest a scholar, the book deserves a look by the layman, write Prafull Goradia and KR Phanda The Crash of 2008, written by Arthur mand and thus en- Swan and edited and revised by David M Pidcock couraging greater has three special virtues: One, the timing of its The Crash of production. But that is publication so soon after the meltdown began. 2008 is written where the role of Two, the experience of the abuse of money over and compiled by money and, its custo- the centuries is catalogued. Three, the wisdom of Arthur Swan and dian, the bank should distinguished economic minds beginning with Adam edited and revised be limited. Karl Marx offered a way out; “If Smith on to David Ricardo and including John by David M Maynard Keynes, is recorded in glimpses. The all capital were in the Pidcock. book has little real research or thinking to its credit. hands of the indus- There is very little contemporary comment on the Published by trial-capitalist there current crash or meltdown. Nevertheless, the Pentagon, it is would be no such volume deserves a look in by laymen as distinct priced at Rs 495. thing as interest and from scholars who would know most of what has rate of interest.” been said. The author's motive is best quoted in Instead, the his own words: “My reason for writing this book banks assume the is to show that inflation and unemployment are role of money manufacturers. They multiply fi- brought about by the same causes; the creation nance in order to earn more and more money for and control of the nation’s money supply by the themselves. Abraham Lincoln displayed a rare in- private banking system and interest.” sight when he commented: “The money power A key to understanding the Crash of 2008 preys upon the nation in times of peace and con- and the current meltdown is to realise that there spires against it in times of adversity. It is more are two different capitalisms: Producer capital- despotic than monarchy, more insolent than au- ism and credit capitalism. The former is based on tocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy...” The the farm and the factory while the latter is housed cost of minting coins and printing notes is negli- in banks. The former depends on the production gible compared to the interest the banks charge. of goods and services while the latter on the is- Even the cost of building and running banks in sue of metal or paper currency and its subsequent order to make money accessible to everyone in circulation. Money should provide the lubricant every part of the country is modest. The central to facilitate the production of goods and their free or the reserve bank would be well endowed if it flow forward. By being made adequately avail- charged say two per cent to commercial banks able, it can also play the role of stimulating de- who in turn could do well by adding another two March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 56 per cent for their upkeep. A total of four per cent borrowers. Their hunt is so frantic that not all those is the very maximum needed to provide banking who take the loans are sound operators. Never- of cash as well as credit to the entire economy. theless, the economy looks large, inflated and Farms and factories produce goods blooming. All the economic players enjoy the rock- steadily from year to year. The seasonal and inci- eting boom. At some stage, one or more of the dental fluctuations are seldom big enough to cause unsound operators fumbles and fails. The bubble either a boom or a slump. Even if an unusual short- bursts; until then all including the farm and facto- age were to lead to a sharp spurt in prices of a ries share the high prices. After the burst, they few items, they would come down with increased live to suffer the slump for several years. Which supplies before long. Similarly with an unusual is why Lord Keynes advised, “By all means, save over supply and fall in prices. The rise and fall in wealth for a rainy day but not money.” prices are neither long lasting nor do they affect This phenomenon is reflected in the bank the rest of the economy. The goods led fluctua- behavior in recent years. Many a bank executive tions are compartmental just as they are short lived. was given a monthly target of how much money The crashes whether of 2008 or of 1929 or the he had to loan out. Which meant that he went out recessions in between covered whole economies of his way in search of borrowers, perhaps some and they were not confined to any one country. good and some not so sound. His manager also In 1929, the world was not a global village and had targets to fulfill and hence he would also en- yet the ripples that began with a sudden crash in courage his subordinates to somehow find bor- share prices on Wall Street, New York in Octo- rowers. According to the practice in Britain, for ber grew into waves that kept harassing all the every deposit of 10 pounds, a commercial bank world economies for 10 years. Little wonder in could lend out 9 pounds by way of loans. Imagine what JK Galbraith wrote: “'The study of money, therefore the multiplicative factor in the availabil- above all other fields in economics is the one in ity of money to lend out. Economist Geoffrey which complexity is used to disguise the truth or Crowther said eloquently: “The banker is a mer- to evade the truth, not to reveal it.” chant of debt, and his assets as well as liabilities How are the steady producing farms and consist merely of debts; the whole system is built up of promises to pay erected on a narrow basis factories harassed by radically unsteady fluctua- of cash.” tions often called slumps and booms from time to time? With them suffer or prosper the people who Most people who were employed whether work these cradles of production. Mind you. just on the farm, in the factory or the bank prospered. as their output is about steady, so is its consump- Everyone made hay while the sun shone. But with tion by the people. The demand and supply of doubtful borrowers lurking on the horizon, some goods are, broadly speaking, inelastic. Yet, the had to go under sooner or later. That would set prices are at times subjected to violent behavior. off the crash. In the US this time around, the early The explanation of author Arthur Swan is that flame of the crash was lit by loans given on houses the lure of earning more and more interest make which were sold by builders at exorbitant prices banks create money beyond the need of the to people with ordinary means. When the buyers economy. Then they are continually looking for could not pay their installments, trouble began. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 57

The productive industry was thus let down by the definitely are enumerated. finance business; producer capitalism was be- Adam Smith (1723-1790), the author of trayed by credit capitalism. Capitalism, had seen the rise of true capitalism The history of credit began in ancient based on the savings of individuals being ploughed Greece and may have operated in some form or back into the business and thereby achieving another even earlier. Which is probably why the greater levels of production. He stood for free book under review has a label of A History of the trade. “A trade which is forced by means of boun- abuse of money from Plato to NATO & Beyond. ties and monopolies may be disadvantageous to However, its inauguration on a grand scale was the country in whose favour it is meant to be es- when the Bank of England was established by a tablished,” wrote Adam Smith. In his magnum group of businessmen headed by one William opus An Enquiry into The Nature And Causes Of Paterson in 1694 AD with the support of the Chan- The Wealth of Nations he said that by the use of cellor of the Exchequer. At the time, Paterson banker's money business can build a pyramid of himself was reported to have said, “The Bank of paper instruments, that places a demand on real England hath benefit on all monies it creates out wealth of the nation. What is happening today is of nothing.” Being aware of the dangers of print- no different from what Adam Smith had predicted ing paper money, Paterson was against false credit implicitly by referring to a fourth class of people arising out of mere paper issues. Therefore, he or landlords who “love to reap where they never never swerved from the safe basis of gold and sowed.” silver to back up all transferable bills. David Ricardo (1772-1823), a successful Paterson’s successors were less conser- stock operator turned economist, was no less vative and used the power to create money out scathing in his criticism of the nuisance of paper of nothing. In 1720, the South Sea Company, money. The Bullion Committee of 1810 had been whose governor was King George I, was inspired set up to consider the issues raised by Ricardo. by an enterprising spirit to buy up the entire na- The main findings of the Committee were: The tional debt of Britain. The company began paying value of notes used as a currency depended on 100 per cent return and its share price soared the quantity issued. The quantity of notes regu- from 128d in January to over 1000 in August. The lated and their value maintained if the notes were company exchanged its shares for the annuities convertible into gold. And yet the Bank of En- issued by the government; the transaction helped gland spokesman told the Committee “that no cre- to offset the debt. The Directors could not sus- ation of credit by the Bank of England against tain the hoax and in September the share price sound assets could have any effects on prices or crashed to end eventually at 124d in December. exchange rates.” On this, Walter Bagehot, the Many investors were ruined. By comparison, the famous journalist, reacted by saying “such com- recent Satyam scam would appear elementary. ments had become almost classical by their non- In a 102 page chapter entitled ‘A Chronological sense.” Outline of the Misuse of Money’, the book traces Nevertheless, in the words of the once the history from 2400 BC Sumaria to 1989 AD Bank of England Governor, Sir (later Lord) when some of the follies of Thatcherism and Montagu Norman, the dogs may bark but the cara- Reaganomics of letting the national debt rise in- van marches on. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 58 Illuminated path

Discover your inner self Acharya Mahaprajna

A person who has developed the feeling that everyone else has to be treated as him or her can be described as a spiritual being. He or she becomes aware that everyone has the same kind of soul as he or she has. Everyone is poised on the same spiritual scales. The personality of a person who develops such awareness is truly spiritual. Similarly, a person also has a spiritual personality is he or she has understood the importance of controlling the senses and the mind. Wants, desires and passions of the senses are infinite. No person who fails to control them can be a boon to society. The big problem today is that people can rule others but cannot rule their has caused a lot of suffering to humankind and own senses. A person can be a social leader or a raised a number of problems in society. big industrialist, but cannot control his or her The criterion of a spiritual personality is senses. Chanakya said that one who leads people to see money in the context of one’s inner nature. would always suffer. It is also true of anyone who A spiritual person will give importance to money wants to develop a spiritual personality. They but not by ignoring the inner nature. Money and should not be slaves to their senses, but their society shorn of the context of inner nature master. become a hindrance rather than help. The basic The criterion of a spiritual person is his or element is our inner nature and it is being ignored. her social and economic sense in relation to his or Modern education is oriented towards her inner nature. Today, economic factors have economic and social factors but not towards our acquired a dominant role and all other considerations are subordinated to them. inner nature. A student is not told that it is his or her inner instincts which give birth to economic Engels, a colleague of Marx, once rivalry. It is these instincts which cause problems remarked, “Our doctrines have been distorted to in society. These repressed desires are respon imply that the economic aspect alone is the decisive factor in one’s life. I never said so.” In sible for generating an atmosphere of conflict. this money-dominated, competitive world people Students are not asked to refine them, to practise have come to believe that money is the be-all and restraint and to control their minds. the end-all of life. What was merely means of Accept the challenge, face the circum satisfying life’s basic needs has been made an stances, do not seek escape from the situation. end in itself and given the highest importance. It This lesson is not taught. March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 59 Vox Populli

“More Sinned Against Than Sinning” Dr.Radhakrishnan says that the word Hindu is not creedalbut territorial which means At a time when all political parties are that Hinduism is an equivalent to secularism readying for the mandate of the Indian electorate, .Sanathana dharma has been reduced to ism and it would be wise to analyse what the current misinterpreted as religion while it is infact a way establishment has given to the nation. Such an of life.The Buddhists, the Jains, the Sufis etc.are analysis would help them either to vote in or vote Hindus in the territorial sense.It is a multicultural out. By making the right choice,the voter would dimension of India’s secular ethos.The congress be spared a five-year agony from the tyranny of has twisted the age old principle of unity in the government that cannot deliver. diversity into a bipolar system of Hindu majority Despite the nomenclature, the U.P.A. and muslim minority.If secularism and minoritysm has been dominated by the rule of a single in the present form are nothing but ingenious component i.e. congress and now barely a political strategies to perpetuate self rule as far coalition.Therefore for al the signs of omission as possible.Inspired by the british political culture and commission , the congress must take more the divide and rule principle was converted to than its share and own up the responsibility. an article of faith because even after Pakistan The sin of sins relates to the genetic rule became a reality the congress continued its dual that the congress had been imposing on the policy by installing a second prime minister in Indian polity since independence.The seed of the valley.The communal conflict and pro dynastic succession sowed by Pandit Jawaharlal Pakistani struggle presently taking place can be Nehru ,Has successfully germinated into a attributed to the ruling establishments serious threat to the spirit of democracy.It has discriminatory dispensation and it can be felt so smartly executed that no eye brow could be across the country in the form of minority raised in the heat and dust of an on-going of appeasement . “After Nehru who?” debate .Before the people Criminilisation of politics has come of age could awake , to the reality ,Indira Gandhi had in the recent past with the likes of Sibu soren been groomed to take over from her and Shabuddin jumping on to the congress band father.Having taken the cue from the Indian wagon compromising political morality.Infact the tradition of Rajas and Mharajas,Nehru knew congress led U.P.A. consists of a number of how to be a “ democratic king”.According to members with criminal background and by the divine right theory a king can do no wrong inducting the rejected candidates through the and one cannot be a king unless he is divine.”Na back door betrays its bankruptcy .This new vishnu prithvi pathihi” is a sacred injunction which has been fully exploited by the Nehru dimension of criminalization can be seen in the family.Things have come to such a pass that it is selection process for the highest posts .Power not so easy to by-pass the legal heir even if there without responsibility is the root cause of are eligible candidates within the party itself.It is criminalization of politics which not only destroys much easier for Rahul Gandhi to take over from the social structure but also pushes up the crime the “Night watchman” than for others. graph . March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna 60

In the last but one session of the because they are paid to die mostly elequipped parliament through the T.V. channels the whole for a serious combat with militants .They are left world had witnessed in dismay the dismal scene to the mercy of landmines and the poetic justice of “cash for vote”.To facilitate nuclear deal which of the extremists. appears to be not in the larger interest of the Last but not the least in utter disreguard country and her sovereignty .The question is if of the ground realities the congress government these M.P.s can be bought the kind of ushered in the American model of free market psychological impact on common man can be economy. better imagined than explained .Like pseudo – V.Raghavendra rao. secularism the vote bank politics of the congress will go down in history as a black chapter . India will soon have a rogue state By a foot – loose policy the external and as its neighbour. internal affairs have gone out of hand and the Sir, terrorists have gained free access to their Pakistan government accord with Taliban operations from inside and outside .While it is to implement Shariat in its North West frontiers said that the price of freedom is constant vigil have confirmed that President Zardari is no more our borders provide flexible roots to the in control .These events do not foretell good infiltrators by land and sea .In the congress times for both US and India.Taliban elements regime India has become a soft target to the A.K. consists of Various front Oragnisations such as 47 owners who can hold to ransom as it Al-Qaeda ,Jaish -E- Mohammad and other radi- happened in the recent Mumbai blast horror .Life cal denominations fighting for a global Islamic and property the two basic rights of every citizen brotherhood. are under threat and both minority and majority The areas under the control are just one have begun to feel the heat with a common and a half hour drive from Islamabad it would reason to feel more nervous and insecure than in not be long they soon gain ascendence over the the pre-independence era. democaratically elected government .Zardari proved to be a weakling and general percep- Taking advantage of the weak coalition tions are that he is doing nothing without the government at the centre the extremists like American nod .Thus the sympthies are with naxalites and Maoists are creating havoc in the Taliban whose anti-US tirades are welcomed tribal belts across the country and by resorting albeit secretly by a average Pakistani. to to guerilla warfare on the police force .With a Thus when the whole society is low morale police force the law and order radicalised India will soon have a rogue state as situation in the country has taken a nose dive. its neighbour. This will further embolden radical When ever an extremist dies there is a hue and inclined elements in India to form ghettos to fur- cry about covert operation and police encounter ther their cause. Testing times for us indeed and by the human rights wing which conveniently its also a burial to bring Mumbai conspirators to forgets that policemen are also human .It looks book .Anti-US and anti-India rhetoric will rule asthough they have no right to protect themselves the roost! March 2009 Bharatiya Pragna