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Imperial India celebrates 1857
16 May, 2007 l 1006 hrs ISTlTarun Vijay
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That the Prime Minister forgot Mangal Pande, the hero of 1857 in his Parliament speech but remembered Karl Marx, shows the pressures and the stress he is working under to keep his government afloat. Most of the MPs and MLAs too stayed home glued to their TV channels for the UP results rather than attending the 1857 function at Red Fort.
It's a shame to see how the 1857 150th anniversary has been turned into a sham sarkari jholawala function devoid of any life and vibrancy. In fact in the whole melee Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty got more coverage than the revolutionaries whose martyrdom we were supposed to recollect and tell our children "look this is how we got our Independence". Instead revenge and Page 3 gossip have overshadowed the steely resolve and the invincible fighting spirit shown by the real fathers of our freedom.
There is hardly any celebratory mood about it; the most that hogged the headlines was a nauseating statement only Arjun Singh could make - delisting a political party which has ruled India and is ruling in more states than Congress and CPM combined, from the invite list of the 1857 celebrations. That's how neo-Stalinism works. Listing, delisting, black listing and finally 'Siberiaisation'.
The year 1857 was a symbol of national unity, a collective resolve to throw out the yoke of the colonial masters, to assert our Dharmas, our Majhab's identity and to respect each other as Indians first and Indians last. An undivided society fought for an undivided India. Now, 150 years later India has been divided into three and the state power plans to divide sections of Indians on the basis of castes, sub-castes, political affiliations and religion, making the pan-Indian identity inferior to micro assertions and brazenly promotes hate against ideological adversaries and opponents.
The year 1857 saw Bahadurshah Zafar decreeing death to slaughterers of cow and respecting Hindu sensitivities. In 2007, the state power stands with any one insulting the Hindu sense of faith and pride. Hence, Hussain's right to paint nude Hindu goddesses is sacred and so is the right to butcher cows for a secular Constitution. A deliberate attempt is on to make us forget that while Hindus accepted Bahadurshah Zafar as their leader, with great stars like Laxmi Bai, Tatya Tope and Nana Saheb Peshwa, Awadh witnessed a unique solidarity where the Muslims promised to return the Ram Janma Bhumi temple to the Hindus.
The lotus, a religious symbol of the Hindus, was unitedly accepted as the icon of the revolution and the foreigner, firangi, was declared the enemy of Dharma or Majhab, as he had abused our religious sentiments. No sloganeering about Hindu-Muslim unity, because it stood there naturally. Every one fought the battle as a Hindustani, an Indian and that was just enough.
Today more than the British hated Indians, our own swadeshi fellows hate each other on ideological differences and try to annihilate the opponent through guns and fake media encounters, Naxals, NSCN, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar and blinkered reportage.
Despite the lack of a communications network, 1857 achieved a considerable amount of cohesion and pan-national support, but today in the IT age, all so-called national newspapers have turned into local village bulletins. Northern papers don't report north-east or south and vice versa. The idea of India seems to be shrinking in our global world view where London and New York get more space than Madurai, Leh or Aizawl.
In a bitterly dense colonised atmosphere we love to use language imposed on us by the colonial masters as a status symbol. Hence in Kanpur, a hub of the 1857 war, lala log still display the colonial spellings of the club the British left behind as Cawnpore Club and discard with the disdain a gora sergeant had for things Indian, even the desi spellings of their city. The Imperial Hotel in down-town Delhi proudly displays the photographs of British officers, Viceroys and their hunting missions with memsahibs , and the only Indians shown in the entire hotel are the black serfs, either polishing the boots of gora sahibs or organizing hukkahs or simply standing waiting for orders.
No one has objected, rather the antiquity of the photos get appreciated. Our jawans and brave contingents of the Army march past saluting the India Gate on every Republic Day. The India Gate was not erected in the memory of those revolutionaries who laid their lives for Indian Independence, but is a memorial to those who worked and died for the British Empire. When King George's statue was removed under compulsive patriotism from a canopy near India Gate and a Gandhi statue was suggested to be installed there, the aesthetic sense of the brown sahibs, with impeccable Oxbridge accent, opposed the Gandhi idea tooth and nail and poor Gandhi had to be satisfied with a place outside the Parliament's main gate. He was denied a Nobel first, and later Indians themselves denied him a place of honour where Republic Day is celebrated and from where he could have witnessed the progress of the democracy that officially reveres him as the Father of the Nation.
This is the patriotism of the rich and the famous. The new Rai Bahadurs.
Today, 1857 is understood through the eyes and writings of Marx and firangi writers; because that's what the western publishing houses based here have churned out. Romanticising the flirtations of the British officers and Viceroys and the debauchery and pusillanimous behaviour of the Rajputs licking dust before the white Mughals. We don't have our own historians, respected and honoured, except the ones who have abused and twisted the facts to suite their Marxist or colonial leanings.
Who stands for India after 150 years of the battle rightly called the First War of Independence? The man who re-christened the revolution as the war of Independence, Veer Savarkar, is the most hated person in the present regime; Muslims are given jobs and educational reservations to get their votes and Hindus feel they are being subjected to a situation where to live as Hindus has been made a matter of embarrassment. Shivaji is termed as a Kurmi leader in Maharashtra, Rana Pratap a Thakur icon, Gandhi a proud symbol of the business and sarkari class and Laxmi Bai's memory is a responsibility of the Uttar Pradesh government since Jhansi falls in its jurisdiction.
Marchers mobilized by the government to celebrate 1857 squat on the road demanding food and facility, forgetting what brought them there. Parties have more focus on the outcome of election results, Hindu organizations continue their hypocritical behaviour of high-pedestal preaching and still a God visiting the so-called low caste area makes big news as if a great step obliging them has been taken. It's not amazing at all why the barbaric behaviour towards Hindus of a different caste by their own co religionists never becomes a matter of a nationwide agitation or a firmly resolved movement while we keep on lamenting conversions and Jihadi attacks.
It's the high-caste Hindus who help fund conversion activities, help the easy flow of foreign contribution to fund hate campaigns against his own co-religionists, make a safe corridor for cows to be sent to Bangladesh for slaughter, run the highest number of butcher houses exporting beef to the Middle East, use Hindu issues to fool Hindus to get their votes for power, and very "methodically" keep temples the dirtiest places, pilgrim centres as a mall meant to disrobe gullible faithfuls, use state power financed by Hindu tax payers to ensure no school teaches the Vedas, Sanskrit, Geeta, Bhagwatam, Upanishads (though these are the books produced in this land that have dazzled and inspired the most celebrated intellect in the world). As if we are living in a Saudi colony, all in the name of secularism none understands. A dilapidated dargah in Surat or Madurai needs no historical proof to stop bulldozers for making way for a road, but a great heritage of the Hindus, the Ram Setu can be destroyed for a channel that would fetch money to corrupt ministers.
In 1857 we belonged to a united India, today we are divided into three nations and India, the residual one, stands being bled by the other two with jihadi hate. Even a truncated India has lost more than one lakh twenty five thousand square kilometers of land after 1947 and not a single leader finds it politically correct to announce that if he or his party is voted to power, the lost land would be taken back. That speaks about the 'courage and nationalist pride' of the free country's political movers and shakers.
We are more colonised today than we were then. We use the colonial language to rule people who do not understand, read or write English, impose an English-based IT culture on a people who still can't afford to study in English medium schools. Our attire, protocol, etiquette, behaviour within homes and outside, intellectual dialogues, club life, social interaction, small details on rail compartments to the labels on medicines and doctors' prescriptions to mobile phone instructions and restaurant bills to bus tickets - everything is in a colonial language that we fought against in 1857.
The period post 1857 saw social reformers and men of high scholarship who thought it quite natural to name their newspapers as the Hindu and the Hindustan Times . And the greatest of them unhesitatingly announced that Ram Rajya would be brought once Independence arrived.
Gone are those values and those days. Now Hindu assertion means "oh the RSS brand of communalism" and Hindus, who say all roads lead to one God, hardly ever read a single page of the Koran or know why Eid is celebrated. Similarly Muslims feel they just have nothing to do with the Geeta or the stories of Rama and Krishna because they are Hindu icons. And the leader means the corrupt thick-skinned investor who has to earn more than he invested to win the election.
That's 2007, the year that pronounces how we have dust-binned the precious 150 years passing through a renaissance and a revolution after the great war of Independence to save our civilisational identity and Indianness was fought in 1857.
While India plans to send astronauts to the Moon and our engineers, medical professionals, scientists and entrepreneurs are impressing the world immensely. But a soulless material progress is self-defeating and meaningless like the Soviet Union's march into oblivion. The war of 1857 began with Mangal Pande, a Brahmin taking a cue from what is known as a challenge from a Dalit. The year 2007 has also shown that Hindu consolidation and a solidarity of all castes brings power. That's the real one, away from the highly accented English-speaking chatterati which finds itself closer to the Manmohan-Sonia class, signals a yes to Husain's nudes of the Hindu goddesses, barters Kashmir under a "remove the head to get rid of the headache" formula , says no to Ayodhya but approves all efforts to convert Hindus.
This class shall very soon be history if a Dalit 's chances of ruling India from Delhi keep rising. Then it is quite possible that the artificially created colonised elite will be finally dust-binned and a new renaissance period will emerge seeing a re-assertion of our civilisational moors and contours. Then certainly the prosperity and security of the nation would be of prime concern.
A wholesome Hindu identity is not small, petty communalism but the ultimate flowering of the nation's quintessential character, which is the reassuring guarantee of equality to all faiths and streams of this land without compromising on the basic beliefs and spiritual heritage. India shall regain her lost place of glory when we stand on our own civilisational foundations with confidence and strength. Let that day be our day of resurrection and that would herald the logical culmination of the war 1857 had begun.
The author is the Editor of Panchjanya, a Hindi weekly brought out by the RSS. The views expressed are his personal.
Readers Opinion
Imperial India celebrates 1857
1
Comment:Dear Tarun, Your article was really thought provoking. I have read all your articles until now. What saddens me is the disclaimer that the Times Group puts at the end of your article which says the views expressed are your personal. Why have such disclaimers in the first place?
Name:hindu
Location:dubai
17 May, 2007 1422hrs IST
Comment:This is the best article I have ever read comparing social nature of pre & post independent India. Thanks for such articles. We expect more such articles from you.
Name:debashis prusty
Location:johannesburg, south africa
17 May, 2007 1357hrs IST
1
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Friday, May 11, 2007
Rediff interview with Arunachal Chief Minister Khandu
'We'll defeat any Chinese design to capture our land'
Tarun Vijay | May 10, 2007 | 18:50 IST
With India reiterating that China illegally claims approximately 90,000 square kilometres of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and 38,000 km in Jammu and Kashmir, a strange game of statements regarding the Chinese intrusion in the northeastern state is on.
Though officials in Beijing and New Delhi have denied the intrusion, people remember the bloody war in the same region in 1962. In later years though, negotiations on boundary disputes have been initiated between India and China, while engaging each other in trade and cultural exchanges quite vigorously.
The sudden eruption of the territorial dispute has revived bitter memories. It is noteworthy that on September 7, 1993, an accord to reduce tensions along the India-China border and to respect the Line of Actual Control was signed.
The National Democratic Alliance's defence minister George Fernandes had accused China of repeated violations of Indian territory, constructing a helipad on Indian territory in the disputed zone, aiding Pakistan's nuclear and missile programmes and stockpiling nuclear weapons in Tibet. With this background the present controversy assumes significance.
Tarun Vijay spoke to Dorjee Khandu, Arunachal Pradesh's chief minister, at length about the controversy.
What is the truth about the allegation that the Chinese have intruded onto our land?
Independent MLA Lokam Tassar and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) MP Kiran Rijiju had alleged that the Chinese have intruded up to 20 km in Arunachal territory. I immediately enquired about its veracity from the chief secretary, SIB (Special Intelligence Bureau), ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police), and the army authorities. The statements of both were found to be false and misleading.
Later, an emergency meeting of the concerned top officials was held in Itanagar. They also re-confirmed that no such intrusion has taken place.
It was found that Kiran Rijiju had based his statement on the 1986 intrusion across the LAC ( Line of Actual Control) by the Chinese in which they had taken a large chunk of our land in Tawang area occupying the Sumdorong Chu valley, Asapila and Lungur camps. These places fall in my constituency.
Did the Government of India accept the 1986 intrusion and the resultant occupation of our territory?
They had to. The Chinese had taken our land.
The Government of India accepted that and did nothing?
The Chinese took our posts, the government had to accept that. But there is no intrusion now.
What can be the reason that suddenly allegations about the Chinese intrusion have been made?
I can't say. It is not good. As far as the BJP MP's statement is concerned, it seems like a political ploy. How can he claim to know something, which is not in the knowledge of the defence authorities or the home minister?
His statement is a matter of political rivalry and nothing else. He was in Delhi for a long period, he couldn't have ascertained the facts himself, so it seems he gave his statement on the basis of what Lokam Tassar said.
Strange things are happening in Arunachal. The whole cabinet recently shifted its loyalties to you.
It happened due to the allegations of huge corruption charges against the former government. There were a number of cases regarding mismanagement in the Public Distribution System. People in the villages were not getting enough food allotted by the Centre. Cooperative rural banking scams affected small depositors like labourers and teachers. The hydel power sector was also in doldrums.
Hence, the MLAs were unhappy and chose me as their leader. (Congress president) Soniaji (Gandhi) is completely against corruption and wanted a clean and result oriented Congress government. I was reluctant to shoulder this responsibility, but when all insisted I had to accept it.
After taking the oath, when I sat in my office, one chief engineer came and handed a file to me, pleading to clear it immediately. When I opened the file, it contained five lakh rupees in cash. I was shocked. It must have been a routine matter for such officers to present money to the new CM or minister.
I deposited the money with the treasury and had the officer arrested. This is the situation, which we are determined to change.
What have you done so far?
My first priority is to improve the Public Distribution System. If people in the border areas are deprived of the basic requirements, it can create an unseemly situation.
Security in the border areas depends on the common people's commitment and patriotism.
We the Arunachalis are patriotic to the core, children of Bharat Mata, and shall defeat any Chinese design to capture our land. But corrupt governance destroys trust and breeds unpatriotic elements.
I came to Delhi and met the prime minister and several other ministers. I have revived the PDS and got instant clearance from the prime minister regarding the rates for PDS and the Food Corporation of India's contractors. It will help immensely.
Secondly, I shall also revive rural banking, which collapsed under a Rs 200 crore scam. All the small investors lost their hard earned savings. It is my duty to ensure that they get back their money. I am also formulating a new industrial policy to attract entrepreneurs from all over India.
Arunachal is immensely gifted with rich natural resources; we have not been able to use them properly for the benefit of the state's development and people's welfare.
We also have the capacity to generate 60,000 megawatts of power. The National Thermal Power Corporation, the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation and private agencies are being involved to generate power at the optimum level.
With Soniaji's blessings we have also started a mid day meal scheme for poor tribal students. We are also changing the educational employment policy, which binds us to recruit only 20 percent people from outside the state. We would like to have more qualified people from other areas too so that the level of teaching is improved.
We are also involving village elders in monitoring the work of teachers. Salaries will be released only after receiving letters from the elders that the teachers have done their jobs well.
What about preserving indigenous culture and values? There have been reports of conversions to Christianity of late.
We want indigenous traditions to be preserved and maintained. This is thousands of years old. Some Arunachalis are Buddhists like me; some belong to Dony Polo and other streams. Now we have decided to ensure that in every cultural festival, the government would encourage celebrations.
Instead of having politicians or ministers preside over such a function, a local village elder, who knows ancient wisdom, the history of the area and can also transfer that to the people, would be requested to chair the event, so that the traditional flow of knowledge and continuity in culture is honoured.
http://www.rediff.com///news/2007/may/10china.htm
Tarun Vijay | May 10, 2007 | 18:50 IST
With India reiterating that China illegally claims approximately 90,000 square kilometres of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and 38,000 km in Jammu and Kashmir, a strange game of statements regarding the Chinese intrusion in the northeastern state is on.
Though officials in Beijing and New Delhi have denied the intrusion, people remember the bloody war in the same region in 1962. In later years though, negotiations on boundary disputes have been initiated between India and China, while engaging each other in trade and cultural exchanges quite vigorously.
The sudden eruption of the territorial dispute has revived bitter memories. It is noteworthy that on September 7, 1993, an accord to reduce tensions along the India-China border and to respect the Line of Actual Control was signed.
The National Democratic Alliance's defence minister George Fernandes had accused China of repeated violations of Indian territory, constructing a helipad on Indian territory in the disputed zone, aiding Pakistan's nuclear and missile programmes and stockpiling nuclear weapons in Tibet. With this background the present controversy assumes significance.
Tarun Vijay spoke to Dorjee Khandu, Arunachal Pradesh's chief minister, at length about the controversy.
What is the truth about the allegation that the Chinese have intruded onto our land?
Independent MLA Lokam Tassar and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) MP Kiran Rijiju had alleged that the Chinese have intruded up to 20 km in Arunachal territory. I immediately enquired about its veracity from the chief secretary, SIB (Special Intelligence Bureau), ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police), and the army authorities. The statements of both were found to be false and misleading.
Later, an emergency meeting of the concerned top officials was held in Itanagar. They also re-confirmed that no such intrusion has taken place.
It was found that Kiran Rijiju had based his statement on the 1986 intrusion across the LAC ( Line of Actual Control) by the Chinese in which they had taken a large chunk of our land in Tawang area occupying the Sumdorong Chu valley, Asapila and Lungur camps. These places fall in my constituency.
Did the Government of India accept the 1986 intrusion and the resultant occupation of our territory?
They had to. The Chinese had taken our land.
The Government of India accepted that and did nothing?
The Chinese took our posts, the government had to accept that. But there is no intrusion now.
What can be the reason that suddenly allegations about the Chinese intrusion have been made?
I can't say. It is not good. As far as the BJP MP's statement is concerned, it seems like a political ploy. How can he claim to know something, which is not in the knowledge of the defence authorities or the home minister?
His statement is a matter of political rivalry and nothing else. He was in Delhi for a long period, he couldn't have ascertained the facts himself, so it seems he gave his statement on the basis of what Lokam Tassar said.
Strange things are happening in Arunachal. The whole cabinet recently shifted its loyalties to you.
It happened due to the allegations of huge corruption charges against the former government. There were a number of cases regarding mismanagement in the Public Distribution System. People in the villages were not getting enough food allotted by the Centre. Cooperative rural banking scams affected small depositors like labourers and teachers. The hydel power sector was also in doldrums.
Hence, the MLAs were unhappy and chose me as their leader. (Congress president) Soniaji (Gandhi) is completely against corruption and wanted a clean and result oriented Congress government. I was reluctant to shoulder this responsibility, but when all insisted I had to accept it.
After taking the oath, when I sat in my office, one chief engineer came and handed a file to me, pleading to clear it immediately. When I opened the file, it contained five lakh rupees in cash. I was shocked. It must have been a routine matter for such officers to present money to the new CM or minister.
I deposited the money with the treasury and had the officer arrested. This is the situation, which we are determined to change.
What have you done so far?
My first priority is to improve the Public Distribution System. If people in the border areas are deprived of the basic requirements, it can create an unseemly situation.
Security in the border areas depends on the common people's commitment and patriotism.
We the Arunachalis are patriotic to the core, children of Bharat Mata, and shall defeat any Chinese design to capture our land. But corrupt governance destroys trust and breeds unpatriotic elements.
I came to Delhi and met the prime minister and several other ministers. I have revived the PDS and got instant clearance from the prime minister regarding the rates for PDS and the Food Corporation of India's contractors. It will help immensely.
Secondly, I shall also revive rural banking, which collapsed under a Rs 200 crore scam. All the small investors lost their hard earned savings. It is my duty to ensure that they get back their money. I am also formulating a new industrial policy to attract entrepreneurs from all over India.
Arunachal is immensely gifted with rich natural resources; we have not been able to use them properly for the benefit of the state's development and people's welfare.
We also have the capacity to generate 60,000 megawatts of power. The National Thermal Power Corporation, the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation and private agencies are being involved to generate power at the optimum level.
With Soniaji's blessings we have also started a mid day meal scheme for poor tribal students. We are also changing the educational employment policy, which binds us to recruit only 20 percent people from outside the state. We would like to have more qualified people from other areas too so that the level of teaching is improved.
We are also involving village elders in monitoring the work of teachers. Salaries will be released only after receiving letters from the elders that the teachers have done their jobs well.
What about preserving indigenous culture and values? There have been reports of conversions to Christianity of late.
We want indigenous traditions to be preserved and maintained. This is thousands of years old. Some Arunachalis are Buddhists like me; some belong to Dony Polo and other streams. Now we have decided to ensure that in every cultural festival, the government would encourage celebrations.
Instead of having politicians or ministers preside over such a function, a local village elder, who knows ancient wisdom, the history of the area and can also transfer that to the people, would be requested to chair the event, so that the traditional flow of knowledge and continuity in culture is honoured.
http://www.rediff.com///news/2007/may/10china.htm
Not truly Asian
9 May, 2007 l 1437 hrs IST,www.timesofindia.com
Tarun Vijay
My last visit to Kuala Lumpur and its outskirts showcased a vibrant, futuristic society which boasted a booming economy and the strength to resist "western pressures", as they tried to put it. "We are different and more progressive than any other Muslim country in the world", said an official, presenting me with a souvenir model of the much-hyped Multi-Media Super Corridor and a heap of statistics which claimed, among other things, an "average annual growth rate of about 7%, while GDP doubled to reach an estimated RM219.4 billion (US $57.7 billion) in 2002. Exports and imports have almost quadrupled to reach RM349.6 billion (US $92.0 billion) and RM298.5 billion (US $78.6 billion) respectively, placing Malaysia among the world's top 20 trading nations. The manufacturing sector now accounts for 30.4% of Malaysia's GDP while exports of manufactured goods make up 86.5% of the country's total exports. From being the world's largest producer of rubber and tin, Malaysia is today one of the world's leading exporters of semiconductor devices, computer hard disk drives, audio and video products, and room air-conditioners." With 85.4 per cent women literacy rate and a separate ministry for women, Malaysia claims to be the most progressive Muslim majority country. Unfortunately, it has one again proved that high education, modernity or the rising standards of living have no direct bearing on human values or an egalitarian civil behaviour. Like the 9/11 "martyrs", who were born and bred in a free, democratic civil society, Malay rulers too have fallen victim to extreme forms of religious fanaticism, at the same time wishing to project their country as a "truly Asian" destination. Of late, minorities are subjected to persecution and barbarism that was unheard of a couple of years ago. Temples are razed, Islamic rites are forced through Sharia even on those who are non-Muslims, and freedom to worship and propagate one's religion has to pass through the laws of Mullahcracy, which has shown a power to undo any modernism and mullah-promised tolerance to a different view point and freedom of religious practices. On April 18, Associated Press released a news item which concerned Indians, as much as the Virginia Tech incident, yet none of the Indian newspapers carried it. It spoke about the breaking of an ethnic Indian family because of the strange law regarding Islamic belief and social life. It also highlighted the divisive confusion prevailing in Malaysia which wants to modernize on the western model as well as keep its Islamic character warped in the 12th century model intact and be visibly vibrant at the same time. And this has affected in a brutal fashion the lives of more than 1.7 million Hindus, mostly of Tamil origin, there. The story involves Revathi Masoosai, an ethnic Indian, who is being forced to live as a Muslim by the Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state, after it was discovered that although she was born to Muslim parents, she has chosen to live as a Hindu. In Malaysia, Islamic law forbids people born to Muslim families to change religion, hence not only was Revathi detained by the Islamic Religious Department and sent for "religious counselling in a rehabilitation Centre" (which translates to being forced to reconvert to Islam by the state authorities), her 15-month-old daughter too was taken away from her husband and handed over to Revathi's Muslim mother to be raised as a Muslim.
According to the report, "Revathi married Suresh in 2004 according to Hindu rites but the marriage has not been legally registered because Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first. Revathi's official identification documents state she is Muslim because Malaysians who are born Muslims cannot legally change their religion." So here is a state government which intervenes in citizens' private lives, forces them to choose a faith recommended by the state, and breaks a family if they refuse. If this can happen in a country which boasts of modern education, scientific and technological progress and propagates itself as representing the spirit of Asia through ad campaigns like –"Malaysia-Truly Asia", one can imagine what would be the situation in other lesser modern or educated Islamic countries. Democratic Action Party officials said that Revathi was born to Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name Siti Fatimah, but she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and she changed her name in 2001 to Revathi. After her marriage to Suresh in 2004, she wanted to live happily, even though the law didn't allow them to register their marriage, as that would have necessitated Suresh converting to Islam. Why? Because the law prohibits a girl born to a Muslim family from marrying a non-Muslim. But they married, had a sweet girl child born out of this wedlock. Revathi was arrested this January and sent for "rehabilitation", but she refused to leave her newly chosen religion and her husband during her 100-day detention which expired last Wednesday (April 18), so the infuriated Sharia court has extended her detention by another 80 days and, meanwhile, her little daughter was "seized" by the police from Suresh's place and given to Revathi's Muslim mother to raise her as a Muslim. Parliamentary opposition chief Lim Kit Siang, who chairs the DAP has said in a statement that, "It is sad and tragic this heart-rending tale of the father, mother and baby girl being forcibly separated into three different locations by law and religion...when law and religion come together to break the family, it gives a bad name to our country. Something is very wrong and it must be put right." That's the latest from "Malaysia - truly Asia". And this is not the first case of brutal assault on Hindus in "modern" Malaysia. Some time back, a Hindu mountaineer was forcibly buried as per Islamic rites because the local court felt he had converted to Islam some time back. Malay Hindus have approached the UN to have such atrocities stopped and given a long list of the temples razed by local authorities since 1985. Temple destruction and forcible conversion to Islam have become a routine so much so that Waytha Moorthy, the chairman of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), had to give a warning to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to halt the temple destruction move and respect the rights of Hindus otherwise the Hindus would not just keep on waiting, wailing and pleading. There was a time when the Asian spirit was represented by Buddha and Gandhi. Now should we allow it to be expressed through Islamic terror?
Tarun Vijay
My last visit to Kuala Lumpur and its outskirts showcased a vibrant, futuristic society which boasted a booming economy and the strength to resist "western pressures", as they tried to put it. "We are different and more progressive than any other Muslim country in the world", said an official, presenting me with a souvenir model of the much-hyped Multi-Media Super Corridor and a heap of statistics which claimed, among other things, an "average annual growth rate of about 7%, while GDP doubled to reach an estimated RM219.4 billion (US $57.7 billion) in 2002. Exports and imports have almost quadrupled to reach RM349.6 billion (US $92.0 billion) and RM298.5 billion (US $78.6 billion) respectively, placing Malaysia among the world's top 20 trading nations. The manufacturing sector now accounts for 30.4% of Malaysia's GDP while exports of manufactured goods make up 86.5% of the country's total exports. From being the world's largest producer of rubber and tin, Malaysia is today one of the world's leading exporters of semiconductor devices, computer hard disk drives, audio and video products, and room air-conditioners." With 85.4 per cent women literacy rate and a separate ministry for women, Malaysia claims to be the most progressive Muslim majority country. Unfortunately, it has one again proved that high education, modernity or the rising standards of living have no direct bearing on human values or an egalitarian civil behaviour. Like the 9/11 "martyrs", who were born and bred in a free, democratic civil society, Malay rulers too have fallen victim to extreme forms of religious fanaticism, at the same time wishing to project their country as a "truly Asian" destination. Of late, minorities are subjected to persecution and barbarism that was unheard of a couple of years ago. Temples are razed, Islamic rites are forced through Sharia even on those who are non-Muslims, and freedom to worship and propagate one's religion has to pass through the laws of Mullahcracy, which has shown a power to undo any modernism and mullah-promised tolerance to a different view point and freedom of religious practices. On April 18, Associated Press released a news item which concerned Indians, as much as the Virginia Tech incident, yet none of the Indian newspapers carried it. It spoke about the breaking of an ethnic Indian family because of the strange law regarding Islamic belief and social life. It also highlighted the divisive confusion prevailing in Malaysia which wants to modernize on the western model as well as keep its Islamic character warped in the 12th century model intact and be visibly vibrant at the same time. And this has affected in a brutal fashion the lives of more than 1.7 million Hindus, mostly of Tamil origin, there. The story involves Revathi Masoosai, an ethnic Indian, who is being forced to live as a Muslim by the Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state, after it was discovered that although she was born to Muslim parents, she has chosen to live as a Hindu. In Malaysia, Islamic law forbids people born to Muslim families to change religion, hence not only was Revathi detained by the Islamic Religious Department and sent for "religious counselling in a rehabilitation Centre" (which translates to being forced to reconvert to Islam by the state authorities), her 15-month-old daughter too was taken away from her husband and handed over to Revathi's Muslim mother to be raised as a Muslim.
According to the report, "Revathi married Suresh in 2004 according to Hindu rites but the marriage has not been legally registered because Suresh would have had to convert to Islam first. Revathi's official identification documents state she is Muslim because Malaysians who are born Muslims cannot legally change their religion." So here is a state government which intervenes in citizens' private lives, forces them to choose a faith recommended by the state, and breaks a family if they refuse. If this can happen in a country which boasts of modern education, scientific and technological progress and propagates itself as representing the spirit of Asia through ad campaigns like –"Malaysia-Truly Asia", one can imagine what would be the situation in other lesser modern or educated Islamic countries. Democratic Action Party officials said that Revathi was born to Muslim parents who gave her a Muslim name Siti Fatimah, but she was raised as a Hindu by her grandmother and she changed her name in 2001 to Revathi. After her marriage to Suresh in 2004, she wanted to live happily, even though the law didn't allow them to register their marriage, as that would have necessitated Suresh converting to Islam. Why? Because the law prohibits a girl born to a Muslim family from marrying a non-Muslim. But they married, had a sweet girl child born out of this wedlock. Revathi was arrested this January and sent for "rehabilitation", but she refused to leave her newly chosen religion and her husband during her 100-day detention which expired last Wednesday (April 18), so the infuriated Sharia court has extended her detention by another 80 days and, meanwhile, her little daughter was "seized" by the police from Suresh's place and given to Revathi's Muslim mother to raise her as a Muslim. Parliamentary opposition chief Lim Kit Siang, who chairs the DAP has said in a statement that, "It is sad and tragic this heart-rending tale of the father, mother and baby girl being forcibly separated into three different locations by law and religion...when law and religion come together to break the family, it gives a bad name to our country. Something is very wrong and it must be put right." That's the latest from "Malaysia - truly Asia". And this is not the first case of brutal assault on Hindus in "modern" Malaysia. Some time back, a Hindu mountaineer was forcibly buried as per Islamic rites because the local court felt he had converted to Islam some time back. Malay Hindus have approached the UN to have such atrocities stopped and given a long list of the temples razed by local authorities since 1985. Temple destruction and forcible conversion to Islam have become a routine so much so that Waytha Moorthy, the chairman of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), had to give a warning to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to halt the temple destruction move and respect the rights of Hindus otherwise the Hindus would not just keep on waiting, wailing and pleading. There was a time when the Asian spirit was represented by Buddha and Gandhi. Now should we allow it to be expressed through Islamic terror?
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
New rise of the Hindu
2 May, 2007 l 1816 hrs IST,www.timesofindia.com
Tarun Vijay
Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, must be a long place from India's Sanskrit learning centres and if a “fun-filled” spoken Sanskrit residential camp named Shraddha (devotion) for teenagers alone gets booked three months in advance, there must be something extraordinary about it. The interesting part is that the youth who have grown up in the US and made Sanskrit a part of their daily lives shall teach at the camp. In China there is a renewed interest to know and learn about Hindu dharma and when I was there on a fellowship from Sichuan University, the vice-president of the university asked me to help them understand Hindu movements and write a book on the contemporary Hindu scene. While the richest steel man of this planet Laxmi Mitttal is a devout Hindu so is the firebrand icon of entrepreneurial dynamism Anil Ambani , who took 17 friends on a special jaunt to Kailas Manasarovar , including the charming Adi Godrej family; and he told me once that his mornings begin with a puja to Ambaji. Hindus are on an unprecedented rise all over the globe and they have startled the world with their prowess in mathematics, science, technology, industry and medical sciences. An average Hindu in the West is considered an honest, persevering, talented and compassionate vegetarian with an extraordinary capacity to adjust with the local societies and serve the adopted land with unquestionable loyalty. Hence Vodafone, Citibank, Pepsi have them preside at top positions. The new Hindu is assertive and sensitive, not aggressive or a silent spectator to the assaults of the secular Taliban. So he stands up against a Durga being painted with whiskey bottles in her hands by an Amsterdam ad agency, or a Ganapati on the toilet cover, and voices strong protest against the destruction of the ancient Ram Sethu down south. Faithful to his roots yet free from ritualistic blind dogmas, he gets angry at hypocritical religious behaviour. So while Indira Nooyi would dazzle the audience in the Ashok Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan receiving the coveted Padma award in a South silk saree, she may not be an exhibitionist and declare that she is an ambassador for Hindu dharma or go to a temple in the full glare of the media. Dharma is a very personal and valuable theme for a modern Hindu, not to be worn on the sleeve. And to make corrections and improvements is an ongoing process for every devout that makes his faith – Sanatana , meaning always with the times, ever-changing yet eternal in its basic message. The message of love, compassion and respecting (not tolerating please, that word spells negativism) the other viewpoint. That's the attitude and a belief distinguishing us from the Semitic streams. All roads lead to one God and all prophets have spoken well for humanity - that's a Hindu speaking at home or in a congregation without hesitation. He won't mind bowing his head before the inspiring and the compassionate altar, a picture of Jesus or an Islamic place of reverence, without compromising his own convictions. That's the reason he hates the politically-charged groups, parties and so-called ideological war horses, which have hardly done anything to correct or make amends in the caste-ridden structure or in the attitude towards women. See the Provoked and decide which society you belong to. The Hindu who worships Durga during Navratra but kills the same Devi when she arrives in the womb? Or the Hindu who claims to see Ram in every creature, but refuses to dine with his co-religionist if he happens to be from a so-called “lower caste”? Hence the anger within in the new, real Hindu. Against the loot of the pandas in pilgrim centres, mismanaged temples and a complete control of the so-called high castes on every decision-making body of the society. The reservation issue may be a difficult one, but pray who stops the high and mighty of the Hindu “high caste” to start centres of excellence for their disadvantaged sections so that they never ever feel the need to use the reservation ladder? While the stereotype basks in the meaningless repetition of the old dogmas, the newly-risen Hindu has started working on such development themes bringing Laxmi and Saraswati on the same platform. For a Hindu, the spread of his vast entrepreneurial empire has to be greeted with the Gayatri Mantra (Videocon ad) and Vande Mataram (the Kumarmangalam Birla campaign) but nevertheless the biggest challenge comes from within and not from outside “enemies”. Job reservation for non-Hindus, the arrest of Shankaracharya on Diwali night and refusing to execute a non-bailable warrant against the Imam, the temple takeover spree by the state power, stopping of morning bhajans in trains, subsidy to Haj and silence on Hindu pilgrimages, biryani for terrorists and no hope for patriotic Kashmiri Hindus uprooted from their homes in the Valley -- all these issues make him uneasy. This anger for the inner corrections and a will to excel has given a unique hue to the new rise of the Hindu which is the only assuring factor in spite of the cacophony of various interest groups working to confuse the march of the Sanatana Dharma .
-- Readers Opinion New rise of the Hindu. Tarun Vijay
Name:Name:raj Location:denmark 3 May, 2007 1946hrs IST Comment:Osho has been criticized for a lot of things, but he sometimes hits the nail square on the head. Dividing peple on the basis of religion is the first step towards fundamentalism. The best way to avoid all kinds of discrimination is to make the government strictly secular, without any respect for any public display of religion. The government and its affliaited bodies should totally eschew all forms of any leniency or favour to anybody or anyting in the name of religion. This would forever put to rest all kinds of religious discrimination. Name:suneil Location:iift delhi 3 May, 2007 1158hrs IST Comment:It is a great article by Tarun Vijay. We Hindus need to introspect & do something good for our own brothers/sisters who have been left behind in Indian progress. We must empower them and make them so strong that they are not lured by others and are active participants in progressive India. My suggestion to all fellow Hindus is to devote some time for the upliftment of all downtroden people so that this coutry becomes a great one again and we do not see such a wide gulf in prosperity.
Name:dilip Location:usa 3 May, 2007 0018hrs IST
Comment:The secular government apparatus has declared a war on the Hindu religion. The benefits given to minorities and the clipping of Hindu bhajans in trains, plight of Kashmiri Hindus, takeover of Hindu temples is nothing but a crime. Even the foreign rulers were not so vicious. This is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed quickly. Patience is running out.
Readers Opinion New rise of the Hindu 1 Comment:Very nice article
Name:adsad Location:usa 4 May, 2007 2040hrs IST Comment:Dear Editor, Thanks for publishing this article. Dear Mr. Vijay, this is an excellent article and makes us all proud of our way of life. I am glad english media has published this. Keep up the excellent work. Jayant.
Name:jayant Location:usa 4 May, 2007 2002hrs IST Comment:Excellent Kudos to Tarun Vijay for penning this article. Whatever the 'secular Taliban' may say, Hindus have begun to assert and that is good for humanity at large.
Name:vishvaksenah Location:bangalore 4 May, 2007 1019hrs IST Comment:Due to scribes like you I still have faith in English media otherwise things look so gloomy.
Name:anil kumar Location:canada 4 May, 2007 0728hrs IST Comment:The so-called 'secular' politician blatantly practises minorityism in the name of secularism, thus making a mockery of the word. No 'secular' journalist, howsoever 'seasoned' he may be, has ever questioned this bias against the Hindus in India.The National Commission for Minorities is arbitrarily appropriating more and more privileges for the so-called 'minorities' at the expense of the majority Hindus.There should be a national debate on the issue of 'minorities'. Those who were born and bred in India, who have their roots here, cannot be considered as minorities. Just because the Muslim and Christian invaders 'converted' some locals by force, marriage or rape, how can these sons and daughters of the soil get preferential treatment in a secular democratic state?The Govt is guilty of the policy of 'divide and rule' which they inherited from the British, to keep the people perpetually divided. The present UPA Govt has polarized society on caste and communal lines.The media seems to be blissfully oblivious of these schemes.They have to play a constructive role in nation-building.
Name:vijayalakshmi Location:chennai 4 May, 2007 0012hrs IST Comment:This is an excellent article. It was a great pleasure to read it. Mr. Tarun Vijay has shown his writing capabilites and the research seems exquisite.
Name:raj Location:denmark 3 May, 2007 1946hrs IST Comment:Osho has been criticized for a lot of things, but he sometimes hits the nail square on the head. Dividing peple on the basis of religion is the first step towards fundamentalism. The best way to avoid all kinds of discrimination is to make the government strictly secular, without any respect for any public display of religion. The government and its affliaited bodies should totally eschew all forms of any leniency or favour to anybody or anyting in the name of religion. This would forever put to rest all kinds of religious discrimination.
Name:suneil Location:iift delhi 3 May, 2007 1158hrs IST Comment:It is a great article by Tarun Vijay. We Hindus need to introspect & do something good for our own brothers/sisters who have been left behind in Indian progress. We must empower them and make them so strong that they are not lured by others and are active participants in progressive India. My suggestion to all fellow Hindus is to devote some time for the upliftment of all downtroden people so that this coutry becomes a great one again and we do not see such a wide gulf in prosperity.
Name:shanker Location:mumbai 3 May, 2007 1134hrs IST Comment:The secular government apparatus has declared a war on the Hindu religion. The benefits given to minorities and the clipping of Hindu bhajans in trains, plight of Kashmiri Hindus, takeover of Hindu temples is nothing but a crime. Even the foreign rulers were not so vicious. This is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed quickly. Patience is running out. Name:dilip
Location:usa 3 May, 2007 0018hrs IST Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 12:48 pm Post subject:
Discussion, taken offline from yahoogroups -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In response to Tarun Vijay's article http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/New_rise_of_the_Hindu/articleshow/1993903.cms There were some emails sent to the yahoogroups by the members... However since the group is not intended for discussion, these have not been approved, and they have been taken offline Members are free to express their views about the article, here in this forum, as long as the usual standards of debate are kept Here is one of the responses, pasted below -------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Dr. John T. Eapen" Date: Wed May 9, 2007 11:01 am
Excellent article! Congratulations! There is a saying, the elephant does not know its strength and that is what happend to us Indians. We do not know our strength and our spirituality. I am glad that the author has clearly brought out how the west views Indians as mild people with great inner strength, moving with times. This is what Swami Vivekananda recorded in his writings a centuary ago. Today also it is the same. India has a distinct identity in this world. The word Hindu is always seen as a religion by the west. But the truth is that it is a geographical identity. Unfortunately, out of all countries in the world, only in India the geographical identity and sanatana dharma got mixed up and formed Hinduism. So, let us redefine the word hindu as a geographical identity. That is why I prefer to call myself as a "Christu Bhakt Hindu" than a Christian. This is the message I spread to my fellow Indians and I encourage them to pray in sanskrit language. Let us keep our culture and keep our relationship with God as very personal one. Let us keep away from the gangs, mafias and groups who want to control the world politically in the name of God. After all God is Sovereign and we Indians strongly believe that God does not require any human help to control the world. Para Atma Pithahi Namaha
1 comments:
Ed Vis said...
The new Hindu is assertive and sensitive, not aggressive or a silent spectator to the assaults of the secular Taliban. So he stands up against a Durga being painted with whiskey bottles in her hands by an Amsterdam ad agency, or a Ganapati on the toilet cover, and voices strong protest against the destruction of the ancient Ram Sethu down south. Very well written. Almost all the e-mails I get reflect what you wrote. After Pearl Harbor invasion, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto is quoted as saying "I fear that all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve." Exactly that is what is happening to Hindus around the globe. "The Sleeping Giant" is finally awaken.
June 13, 2007 11:19 AM
Tarun Vijay
Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, must be a long place from India's Sanskrit learning centres and if a “fun-filled” spoken Sanskrit residential camp named Shraddha (devotion) for teenagers alone gets booked three months in advance, there must be something extraordinary about it. The interesting part is that the youth who have grown up in the US and made Sanskrit a part of their daily lives shall teach at the camp. In China there is a renewed interest to know and learn about Hindu dharma and when I was there on a fellowship from Sichuan University, the vice-president of the university asked me to help them understand Hindu movements and write a book on the contemporary Hindu scene. While the richest steel man of this planet Laxmi Mitttal is a devout Hindu so is the firebrand icon of entrepreneurial dynamism Anil Ambani , who took 17 friends on a special jaunt to Kailas Manasarovar , including the charming Adi Godrej family; and he told me once that his mornings begin with a puja to Ambaji. Hindus are on an unprecedented rise all over the globe and they have startled the world with their prowess in mathematics, science, technology, industry and medical sciences. An average Hindu in the West is considered an honest, persevering, talented and compassionate vegetarian with an extraordinary capacity to adjust with the local societies and serve the adopted land with unquestionable loyalty. Hence Vodafone, Citibank, Pepsi have them preside at top positions. The new Hindu is assertive and sensitive, not aggressive or a silent spectator to the assaults of the secular Taliban. So he stands up against a Durga being painted with whiskey bottles in her hands by an Amsterdam ad agency, or a Ganapati on the toilet cover, and voices strong protest against the destruction of the ancient Ram Sethu down south. Faithful to his roots yet free from ritualistic blind dogmas, he gets angry at hypocritical religious behaviour. So while Indira Nooyi would dazzle the audience in the Ashok Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan receiving the coveted Padma award in a South silk saree, she may not be an exhibitionist and declare that she is an ambassador for Hindu dharma or go to a temple in the full glare of the media. Dharma is a very personal and valuable theme for a modern Hindu, not to be worn on the sleeve. And to make corrections and improvements is an ongoing process for every devout that makes his faith – Sanatana , meaning always with the times, ever-changing yet eternal in its basic message. The message of love, compassion and respecting (not tolerating please, that word spells negativism) the other viewpoint. That's the attitude and a belief distinguishing us from the Semitic streams. All roads lead to one God and all prophets have spoken well for humanity - that's a Hindu speaking at home or in a congregation without hesitation. He won't mind bowing his head before the inspiring and the compassionate altar, a picture of Jesus or an Islamic place of reverence, without compromising his own convictions. That's the reason he hates the politically-charged groups, parties and so-called ideological war horses, which have hardly done anything to correct or make amends in the caste-ridden structure or in the attitude towards women. See the Provoked and decide which society you belong to. The Hindu who worships Durga during Navratra but kills the same Devi when she arrives in the womb? Or the Hindu who claims to see Ram in every creature, but refuses to dine with his co-religionist if he happens to be from a so-called “lower caste”? Hence the anger within in the new, real Hindu. Against the loot of the pandas in pilgrim centres, mismanaged temples and a complete control of the so-called high castes on every decision-making body of the society. The reservation issue may be a difficult one, but pray who stops the high and mighty of the Hindu “high caste” to start centres of excellence for their disadvantaged sections so that they never ever feel the need to use the reservation ladder? While the stereotype basks in the meaningless repetition of the old dogmas, the newly-risen Hindu has started working on such development themes bringing Laxmi and Saraswati on the same platform. For a Hindu, the spread of his vast entrepreneurial empire has to be greeted with the Gayatri Mantra (Videocon ad) and Vande Mataram (the Kumarmangalam Birla campaign) but nevertheless the biggest challenge comes from within and not from outside “enemies”. Job reservation for non-Hindus, the arrest of Shankaracharya on Diwali night and refusing to execute a non-bailable warrant against the Imam, the temple takeover spree by the state power, stopping of morning bhajans in trains, subsidy to Haj and silence on Hindu pilgrimages, biryani for terrorists and no hope for patriotic Kashmiri Hindus uprooted from their homes in the Valley -- all these issues make him uneasy. This anger for the inner corrections and a will to excel has given a unique hue to the new rise of the Hindu which is the only assuring factor in spite of the cacophony of various interest groups working to confuse the march of the Sanatana Dharma .
-- Readers Opinion New rise of the Hindu. Tarun Vijay
Name:Name:raj Location:denmark 3 May, 2007 1946hrs IST Comment:Osho has been criticized for a lot of things, but he sometimes hits the nail square on the head. Dividing peple on the basis of religion is the first step towards fundamentalism. The best way to avoid all kinds of discrimination is to make the government strictly secular, without any respect for any public display of religion. The government and its affliaited bodies should totally eschew all forms of any leniency or favour to anybody or anyting in the name of religion. This would forever put to rest all kinds of religious discrimination. Name:suneil Location:iift delhi 3 May, 2007 1158hrs IST Comment:It is a great article by Tarun Vijay. We Hindus need to introspect & do something good for our own brothers/sisters who have been left behind in Indian progress. We must empower them and make them so strong that they are not lured by others and are active participants in progressive India. My suggestion to all fellow Hindus is to devote some time for the upliftment of all downtroden people so that this coutry becomes a great one again and we do not see such a wide gulf in prosperity.
Name:dilip Location:usa 3 May, 2007 0018hrs IST
Comment:The secular government apparatus has declared a war on the Hindu religion. The benefits given to minorities and the clipping of Hindu bhajans in trains, plight of Kashmiri Hindus, takeover of Hindu temples is nothing but a crime. Even the foreign rulers were not so vicious. This is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed quickly. Patience is running out.
Readers Opinion New rise of the Hindu 1 Comment:Very nice article
Name:adsad Location:usa 4 May, 2007 2040hrs IST Comment:Dear Editor, Thanks for publishing this article. Dear Mr. Vijay, this is an excellent article and makes us all proud of our way of life. I am glad english media has published this. Keep up the excellent work. Jayant.
Name:jayant Location:usa 4 May, 2007 2002hrs IST Comment:Excellent Kudos to Tarun Vijay for penning this article. Whatever the 'secular Taliban' may say, Hindus have begun to assert and that is good for humanity at large.
Name:vishvaksenah Location:bangalore 4 May, 2007 1019hrs IST Comment:Due to scribes like you I still have faith in English media otherwise things look so gloomy.
Name:anil kumar Location:canada 4 May, 2007 0728hrs IST Comment:The so-called 'secular' politician blatantly practises minorityism in the name of secularism, thus making a mockery of the word. No 'secular' journalist, howsoever 'seasoned' he may be, has ever questioned this bias against the Hindus in India.The National Commission for Minorities is arbitrarily appropriating more and more privileges for the so-called 'minorities' at the expense of the majority Hindus.There should be a national debate on the issue of 'minorities'. Those who were born and bred in India, who have their roots here, cannot be considered as minorities. Just because the Muslim and Christian invaders 'converted' some locals by force, marriage or rape, how can these sons and daughters of the soil get preferential treatment in a secular democratic state?The Govt is guilty of the policy of 'divide and rule' which they inherited from the British, to keep the people perpetually divided. The present UPA Govt has polarized society on caste and communal lines.The media seems to be blissfully oblivious of these schemes.They have to play a constructive role in nation-building.
Name:vijayalakshmi Location:chennai 4 May, 2007 0012hrs IST Comment:This is an excellent article. It was a great pleasure to read it. Mr. Tarun Vijay has shown his writing capabilites and the research seems exquisite.
Name:raj Location:denmark 3 May, 2007 1946hrs IST Comment:Osho has been criticized for a lot of things, but he sometimes hits the nail square on the head. Dividing peple on the basis of religion is the first step towards fundamentalism. The best way to avoid all kinds of discrimination is to make the government strictly secular, without any respect for any public display of religion. The government and its affliaited bodies should totally eschew all forms of any leniency or favour to anybody or anyting in the name of religion. This would forever put to rest all kinds of religious discrimination.
Name:suneil Location:iift delhi 3 May, 2007 1158hrs IST Comment:It is a great article by Tarun Vijay. We Hindus need to introspect & do something good for our own brothers/sisters who have been left behind in Indian progress. We must empower them and make them so strong that they are not lured by others and are active participants in progressive India. My suggestion to all fellow Hindus is to devote some time for the upliftment of all downtroden people so that this coutry becomes a great one again and we do not see such a wide gulf in prosperity.
Name:shanker Location:mumbai 3 May, 2007 1134hrs IST Comment:The secular government apparatus has declared a war on the Hindu religion. The benefits given to minorities and the clipping of Hindu bhajans in trains, plight of Kashmiri Hindus, takeover of Hindu temples is nothing but a crime. Even the foreign rulers were not so vicious. This is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed quickly. Patience is running out. Name:dilip
Location:usa 3 May, 2007 0018hrs IST Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 12:48 pm Post subject:
Discussion, taken offline from yahoogroups -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In response to Tarun Vijay's article http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/New_rise_of_the_Hindu/articleshow/1993903.cms There were some emails sent to the yahoogroups by the members... However since the group is not intended for discussion, these have not been approved, and they have been taken offline Members are free to express their views about the article, here in this forum, as long as the usual standards of debate are kept Here is one of the responses, pasted below -------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Dr. John T. Eapen" Date: Wed May 9, 2007 11:01 am
Excellent article! Congratulations! There is a saying, the elephant does not know its strength and that is what happend to us Indians. We do not know our strength and our spirituality. I am glad that the author has clearly brought out how the west views Indians as mild people with great inner strength, moving with times. This is what Swami Vivekananda recorded in his writings a centuary ago. Today also it is the same. India has a distinct identity in this world. The word Hindu is always seen as a religion by the west. But the truth is that it is a geographical identity. Unfortunately, out of all countries in the world, only in India the geographical identity and sanatana dharma got mixed up and formed Hinduism. So, let us redefine the word hindu as a geographical identity. That is why I prefer to call myself as a "Christu Bhakt Hindu" than a Christian. This is the message I spread to my fellow Indians and I encourage them to pray in sanskrit language. Let us keep our culture and keep our relationship with God as very personal one. Let us keep away from the gangs, mafias and groups who want to control the world politically in the name of God. After all God is Sovereign and we Indians strongly believe that God does not require any human help to control the world. Para Atma Pithahi Namaha
1 comments:
Ed Vis said...
The new Hindu is assertive and sensitive, not aggressive or a silent spectator to the assaults of the secular Taliban. So he stands up against a Durga being painted with whiskey bottles in her hands by an Amsterdam ad agency, or a Ganapati on the toilet cover, and voices strong protest against the destruction of the ancient Ram Sethu down south. Very well written. Almost all the e-mails I get reflect what you wrote. After Pearl Harbor invasion, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto is quoted as saying "I fear that all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve." Exactly that is what is happening to Hindus around the globe. "The Sleeping Giant" is finally awaken.
June 13, 2007 11:19 AM
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Outlook
Diary
Magazine 07 May 2007
Kashgar Diary by Tarun Vijay
Good Karma Is All
To be on a six-week fellowship with Sichuan University's Centre on South Asian Studies must have been a result of a previous birth's good karma. The stay re-educated, even reintroduced, me to Buddha and a strong sense of friendship formed with a people so different from the global power we are accustomed to (note: in a '62 hue). The truth is, if we have a 'Made in China' in every Indian home, every Buddhist home in China also has an India in its heart.
To ask for the moon in China would have been easier than to request the authorities for a pass to Kashgar—the eternal city of Xinjiang and presently a dreaded Islamic terror hub (it used to be better known for its promise in the ancient Silk Route). A dream came true when I boarded the metre-gauge train for the 76-hour journey. Trains are comfortable, attendants smartly uniformed in semi-military fashion—they open doors when the station arrives, check tickets, lock doors when the train moves and swiftly take the broom to sweep the floor, collect garbage and again get on to the ticket-checking business. It's all so natural that it bewilders a caste-conscious Indian. We passed through the ravines of the snow-clad Gobi desert, negotiating 3,100 km from Chengdu, with hundreds of bridges and tunnels as if the barren brown mountains were made of wax. I stopped counting after 173.
Pakistani? Moslem? These were the two questions I faced everywhere, from curious taxi drivers, shopkeepers and other passengers. And with a broad smile I would reply—no, no, Hindostani, Hindu. We met an Uyghur girl, Aike Dan, with her Han teacher, Xu Kun'e, and spent hours discussing their land and our culture, finally singing our respective national songs to the amusement of fellow passengers.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
Selling The Forbidden
Uyghurs are known to be ferocious Eastern Turks and many still nurse a longing for independence. Worried, Beijing tries hard to extinguish the fires of secession through a gentle but firm move to assimilate the Uyghurs into the Han mainstream and putting dissenters into the shooting range. They have not allowed them to disturb the calm and life goes on with huge Mao statues, upcoming malls, wide roads and red flags monitoring progress. Kashgar is literally Kashi to the official Chinese, though they pronounce it 'Kassh.' Indian monks took this route crossing Kashmir to spread Buddhism to mainland China. A city with a silken touch, it sells everything forbidden—tiger skins, lion's big tooth, cheetah cap et al. The square adjacent to the sublime Idkah mosque has unending shows of jugglers and ropewalkers. The city itself has a magic amidst mountains—the ancient pathways connecting Nalanda, Taxila, Kashmir, Rome, Persia, Mongolia and China meet here. The rude warhorses mingle with the spartan 'sama' dance, musical chanting of the ancient Buddhist scriptures overlooking the fabulous Tuenhang grottos. Uyghurs and Hans both love Hindostan and my Indian face received an extra smile everywhere. Xinjiang is closer to Delhi than Beijing and may be fraternally warmer to Peshawar, Kabul and Baku but Hindi songs—often mixed with Uyghur lines—and films have kept Hindostan closer to their heart.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
What's Your Beef?
The taxis are swift and reasonable and we had enough Hindi music in the car decks while visiting the tombs of great warriors and Kashgari poets, the Han Chinese general Ban Qiao who campaigned in the region for 31 years in the first century and the tomb of Xiang Fei, an Uyghur concubine among the 41 wives of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) who exuded an enchanting fragrance without using any perfume. The Kashi villages on the way to the ancient and protected Mor stupa give a real picture, an insight into the harsh realities here. Mud-plastered houses and the idle youth show up the poverty and unemployment while donkey carts carrying fresh meat passing through miles of snowed out vineyards and the bubbly schoolgirls present another facade. It was beef everywhere, hung and laid out on the tables. I had to frantically search for freshly baked naans and, trust me, nothing on earth will match their sweet crispy taste.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
Sun On The Gobi
The official site kashi.gov.cn describes Mor as the last Buddhist place of reverence after the introduction of Islam in the 10th century. The great Indian monk Kumara Jiva travelled through this point. We started early, at 6, with my friend Liu to reach Mor before sunrise. The seamless expanse of the Gobi combined with chilling -18 degree temperatures made the sunrise (at 9.30!) an extra-terrestrial experience.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
Wail And A Veil
The unusually large number of women in burqas begging at every cross-section makes for a pathetic sight here. Who were these women? Perhaps their husbands deserted them, was the reply I got.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
More Diaries by Tarun Vijay • Balochistan (20-Mar-2006) • China (08-Nov-2004) • Lhasa (08-Sep-2003) • Tezu (24-Feb-2003)
Diary
Magazine 07 May 2007
Kashgar Diary by Tarun Vijay
Good Karma Is All
To be on a six-week fellowship with Sichuan University's Centre on South Asian Studies must have been a result of a previous birth's good karma. The stay re-educated, even reintroduced, me to Buddha and a strong sense of friendship formed with a people so different from the global power we are accustomed to (note: in a '62 hue). The truth is, if we have a 'Made in China' in every Indian home, every Buddhist home in China also has an India in its heart.
To ask for the moon in China would have been easier than to request the authorities for a pass to Kashgar—the eternal city of Xinjiang and presently a dreaded Islamic terror hub (it used to be better known for its promise in the ancient Silk Route). A dream came true when I boarded the metre-gauge train for the 76-hour journey. Trains are comfortable, attendants smartly uniformed in semi-military fashion—they open doors when the station arrives, check tickets, lock doors when the train moves and swiftly take the broom to sweep the floor, collect garbage and again get on to the ticket-checking business. It's all so natural that it bewilders a caste-conscious Indian. We passed through the ravines of the snow-clad Gobi desert, negotiating 3,100 km from Chengdu, with hundreds of bridges and tunnels as if the barren brown mountains were made of wax. I stopped counting after 173.
Pakistani? Moslem? These were the two questions I faced everywhere, from curious taxi drivers, shopkeepers and other passengers. And with a broad smile I would reply—no, no, Hindostani, Hindu. We met an Uyghur girl, Aike Dan, with her Han teacher, Xu Kun'e, and spent hours discussing their land and our culture, finally singing our respective national songs to the amusement of fellow passengers.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
Selling The Forbidden
Uyghurs are known to be ferocious Eastern Turks and many still nurse a longing for independence. Worried, Beijing tries hard to extinguish the fires of secession through a gentle but firm move to assimilate the Uyghurs into the Han mainstream and putting dissenters into the shooting range. They have not allowed them to disturb the calm and life goes on with huge Mao statues, upcoming malls, wide roads and red flags monitoring progress. Kashgar is literally Kashi to the official Chinese, though they pronounce it 'Kassh.' Indian monks took this route crossing Kashmir to spread Buddhism to mainland China. A city with a silken touch, it sells everything forbidden—tiger skins, lion's big tooth, cheetah cap et al. The square adjacent to the sublime Idkah mosque has unending shows of jugglers and ropewalkers. The city itself has a magic amidst mountains—the ancient pathways connecting Nalanda, Taxila, Kashmir, Rome, Persia, Mongolia and China meet here. The rude warhorses mingle with the spartan 'sama' dance, musical chanting of the ancient Buddhist scriptures overlooking the fabulous Tuenhang grottos. Uyghurs and Hans both love Hindostan and my Indian face received an extra smile everywhere. Xinjiang is closer to Delhi than Beijing and may be fraternally warmer to Peshawar, Kabul and Baku but Hindi songs—often mixed with Uyghur lines—and films have kept Hindostan closer to their heart.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
What's Your Beef?
The taxis are swift and reasonable and we had enough Hindi music in the car decks while visiting the tombs of great warriors and Kashgari poets, the Han Chinese general Ban Qiao who campaigned in the region for 31 years in the first century and the tomb of Xiang Fei, an Uyghur concubine among the 41 wives of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) who exuded an enchanting fragrance without using any perfume. The Kashi villages on the way to the ancient and protected Mor stupa give a real picture, an insight into the harsh realities here. Mud-plastered houses and the idle youth show up the poverty and unemployment while donkey carts carrying fresh meat passing through miles of snowed out vineyards and the bubbly schoolgirls present another facade. It was beef everywhere, hung and laid out on the tables. I had to frantically search for freshly baked naans and, trust me, nothing on earth will match their sweet crispy taste.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
Sun On The Gobi
The official site kashi.gov.cn describes Mor as the last Buddhist place of reverence after the introduction of Islam in the 10th century. The great Indian monk Kumara Jiva travelled through this point. We started early, at 6, with my friend Liu to reach Mor before sunrise. The seamless expanse of the Gobi combined with chilling -18 degree temperatures made the sunrise (at 9.30!) an extra-terrestrial experience.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
Wail And A Veil
The unusually large number of women in burqas begging at every cross-section makes for a pathetic sight here. Who were these women? Perhaps their husbands deserted them, was the reply I got.
Rants and Raves (feedback to this story)
More Diaries by Tarun Vijay • Balochistan (20-Mar-2006) • China (08-Nov-2004) • Lhasa (08-Sep-2003) • Tezu (24-Feb-2003)
Friday, April 27, 2007
Jitendra Singh's letter
Jitendra Singh 54 Weeden Drive Vermont South Melbourne VIC 3133 AUSTRALIA wrote-
Your series of articles on your China visit are extremely interesting and illuminating. I had an opportunity to visit Kailash Mansarovar when I was in India. Your articles on Kailas Mansarovar Yatra brought back so many memories. I read your articles on Indus, and some of the things mentioned do not seem to be correct. I will write to you about Indus sometime later on. I found books by Swami Pranvananda on the sources of rivers very interesting. I was fortunate to meet SwamiPranvananda at Pithoragarh on my way to Manas. His book on Kailash Mansarovar is also very interestingand informative as he has described all possible routes to Kailash Mansarovar. I admire your effort to keep our culture alive and your effort to addressthe issues that our coutry faces. India is in the most critical phase in last sixty years of its existencedue to traitors in power.Our greatest challenge is to keep the integrity of our motherlandwhile helping the disadvantaged section of the society to share the prosperity irespective of their background. Jai Hind, Jitendra
Thursday, April 26, 2007
8th October, 2005
Dawn, after a long wait
Tarun Vijay
After more than five decades of wait and continuous struggle of public interest societies and movements, finally the Right to Information act shall arrive on 12 th of this month. Though it derives it powers from the fundamental right of expression enshrined in the constitution, it was the Vajpayee govt. who took initiative to draft and introduce, what was know then as freedom of Information Act. Acting fast, it had the ball rolling in 1996 itself when Justice P.B.Sawant, chairman Press Council, prepared a draft bill and later the Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad also prepared a bill in 1997. Both the bills initiated a national debate on the issue of Effective and Responsive Administration. The Govt. of India appointed a working group on January 2, 1997 under the chairmanship of Common Cause's H.D.Shourie. The group gave its report on 24th May 1997 contributing significantly to make the bill more effective. Besides, organisations like Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangthan, Peoples' Right to Information Movement continued their pressure and came with a lot of suggestions to have a bill created that would be able to change the socio-political profile at micro level in a big way. In fact the bill has been hailed as the single biggest step towards empowering the common citizen and an effective tool to check corruption at all levels.
While introducing the Freedom of Information Bill 2000 the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee stated, the Government wants to share power with the humblest; it wants to empower the weakest. It is precisely because of this reason that the Right to Information has to be ensured for all. This act was named Freedom of Information act and was passed by the parliament on 4 th December 2002 and the President put his signatures on 6th January 2003. it took a long time to see that the appropriate rules are framed to make it effective at the all India level.
Meanwhile the NDA govt. fell and UPA's newly constituted National Advisory Board thought it prudent not to give credit for it to the previous govt. and in the name of 'adding more teeth' to the bill it got it 'revised and renamed' as Right to Information Bill 2005. One of the 'adding more teeth' acts of the UPA govt. has been to replace the Chief Justice of India from the appointment committee to the Central Information Commissioner being appointed under the act by the Prime Minister's nominee, which has invited criticism from various groups who have alleged that the committee has been made fully political now, with PM, Leader of the opposition and a nominee minister in it. Nevertheless, a good beginning has been made and without going into the partisan politics of the credit gathering, one must hail the bill as a decisive step towards ensuring peoples' empowerment and good governance.
But the moot question is how is it going to be used by the people. So far only a handful of NGOs, especially organizations with distinct and extreme ideological hues have been actively training their workers to make full use of the act. Media has become too politicised to give enough space to such a significant act for the democracy and is rather busy in covering Bihar and other kind of election politics. Given a chance, this Act may change the lives and the pattern of governance forever and help define a real swaraj of Gandhi's dreams. At every level and in public offices a Public information officer has been appointed with an appellate authority over him in case a citizen gets no satisfactory response at the PIO level. If the information is not provided within the stipulated time, a fine of Rs 250 per day (max 25 thousand) shall be levied on the erring officer. It's the easiest procedure and people should be educated about it thoroughly. For instance three steps to get information from any office are these-
1. Apply in writing or through electronic means in English or Hindi or in the official language of the area, to the PIO, specifying the particulars of the information sought for.
2. Reason for seeking information are not required to be given;
3. Pay fees as may be prescribed (if not belonging to the below poverty line category).
And in case you want to know the time limit to receive what you have requisitioned, the act provides that the information should reach you within
1. 30 days from the date of application
2. 48 hours for information concerning the life and liberty of a person
3. 5 days shall be added to the above response time, in case the application for information is given to Assistant Public Information Officer.
4. If the interests of a third party are involved then time limit will be 40 days (maximum period + time given to the party to make representation).
5. Failure to provide information within the specified period is a deemed refusal. And about the fee structure the rules say-
1. Application fees to be prescribed which must be reasonable.
2. If further fees are required, then the same must be intimated in writing with calculation details of how the figure was arrived at;
3. Applicant can seek review of the decision on fees charged by the PIO by applying to the appropriate Appellate Authority;
4. No fees will be charged from people living below the poverty line
Applicant must be provided information free of cost if the PIO fails to comply with the prescribed time limit.
The Act has a list of departments exempted from providing information, and thee include Raw, IB, Cabinet papers and other defence related matters unless some financial irregularities are suspected.
We have laws for everything, but the real problem lies in their use and implementation. For instance, every child is expected to attend school and all voters to vote. But the real scene presents a different picture altogether. Lets hope the citizens in the direction of ensuring good and a transparent governance shall use this Act. Ends
Dawn, after a long wait
Tarun Vijay
After more than five decades of wait and continuous struggle of public interest societies and movements, finally the Right to Information act shall arrive on 12 th of this month. Though it derives it powers from the fundamental right of expression enshrined in the constitution, it was the Vajpayee govt. who took initiative to draft and introduce, what was know then as freedom of Information Act. Acting fast, it had the ball rolling in 1996 itself when Justice P.B.Sawant, chairman Press Council, prepared a draft bill and later the Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad also prepared a bill in 1997. Both the bills initiated a national debate on the issue of Effective and Responsive Administration. The Govt. of India appointed a working group on January 2, 1997 under the chairmanship of Common Cause's H.D.Shourie. The group gave its report on 24th May 1997 contributing significantly to make the bill more effective. Besides, organisations like Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangthan, Peoples' Right to Information Movement continued their pressure and came with a lot of suggestions to have a bill created that would be able to change the socio-political profile at micro level in a big way. In fact the bill has been hailed as the single biggest step towards empowering the common citizen and an effective tool to check corruption at all levels.
While introducing the Freedom of Information Bill 2000 the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee stated, the Government wants to share power with the humblest; it wants to empower the weakest. It is precisely because of this reason that the Right to Information has to be ensured for all. This act was named Freedom of Information act and was passed by the parliament on 4 th December 2002 and the President put his signatures on 6th January 2003. it took a long time to see that the appropriate rules are framed to make it effective at the all India level.
Meanwhile the NDA govt. fell and UPA's newly constituted National Advisory Board thought it prudent not to give credit for it to the previous govt. and in the name of 'adding more teeth' to the bill it got it 'revised and renamed' as Right to Information Bill 2005. One of the 'adding more teeth' acts of the UPA govt. has been to replace the Chief Justice of India from the appointment committee to the Central Information Commissioner being appointed under the act by the Prime Minister's nominee, which has invited criticism from various groups who have alleged that the committee has been made fully political now, with PM, Leader of the opposition and a nominee minister in it. Nevertheless, a good beginning has been made and without going into the partisan politics of the credit gathering, one must hail the bill as a decisive step towards ensuring peoples' empowerment and good governance.
But the moot question is how is it going to be used by the people. So far only a handful of NGOs, especially organizations with distinct and extreme ideological hues have been actively training their workers to make full use of the act. Media has become too politicised to give enough space to such a significant act for the democracy and is rather busy in covering Bihar and other kind of election politics. Given a chance, this Act may change the lives and the pattern of governance forever and help define a real swaraj of Gandhi's dreams. At every level and in public offices a Public information officer has been appointed with an appellate authority over him in case a citizen gets no satisfactory response at the PIO level. If the information is not provided within the stipulated time, a fine of Rs 250 per day (max 25 thousand) shall be levied on the erring officer. It's the easiest procedure and people should be educated about it thoroughly. For instance three steps to get information from any office are these-
1. Apply in writing or through electronic means in English or Hindi or in the official language of the area, to the PIO, specifying the particulars of the information sought for.
2. Reason for seeking information are not required to be given;
3. Pay fees as may be prescribed (if not belonging to the below poverty line category).
And in case you want to know the time limit to receive what you have requisitioned, the act provides that the information should reach you within
1. 30 days from the date of application
2. 48 hours for information concerning the life and liberty of a person
3. 5 days shall be added to the above response time, in case the application for information is given to Assistant Public Information Officer.
4. If the interests of a third party are involved then time limit will be 40 days (maximum period + time given to the party to make representation).
5. Failure to provide information within the specified period is a deemed refusal. And about the fee structure the rules say-
1. Application fees to be prescribed which must be reasonable.
2. If further fees are required, then the same must be intimated in writing with calculation details of how the figure was arrived at;
3. Applicant can seek review of the decision on fees charged by the PIO by applying to the appropriate Appellate Authority;
4. No fees will be charged from people living below the poverty line
Applicant must be provided information free of cost if the PIO fails to comply with the prescribed time limit.
The Act has a list of departments exempted from providing information, and thee include Raw, IB, Cabinet papers and other defence related matters unless some financial irregularities are suspected.
We have laws for everything, but the real problem lies in their use and implementation. For instance, every child is expected to attend school and all voters to vote. But the real scene presents a different picture altogether. Lets hope the citizens in the direction of ensuring good and a transparent governance shall use this Act. Ends
Defiling River Mantra
Tarun Vijay
Nowhere in the world rivers are as worshipped and revered as in India. From birth to death, we need rivers. We need them to live and prosper and even have the right place assured in the heavens for ourselves and for our departed ancestors. Marriages in rural areas in the vicinity of rivers are connected through various rituals to the river’s flow and thousands of folktales and sons are woven around them, including the one in Bhojpuri which says through a lovelorn woman that she will offer a silver if her beloved returns this Sawan (Monsoon month). The Vedic civilization grew around rivers and Vedas are full of praise for them. Aryans set up their best centers of learning as well as cities and trade ports on their banks and so were established age-old pilgrim centers. Krishna would be an incomplete deity without Yamuna and heavens wont admit a departed soul unless the ashes were immersed in Ganga.Adi Sankara’s beautiful poem on Ganga-Devi Sureshwari Bhagwati Gange… remains as mesmerizingly enchanting as Ganga herself. A famous song of a super hit Raj Kapoor film even relates the hero’s national identity to river Ganga—hum us desh ke vasi hain jis desh mein Ganga behti hai!!
Still none would be as cruel and careless to the perennial waters of our sacred rivers as we are. We simply do not connect to them. They exist and some rituals are done because they have been in vogue since long and we do it mechanically, feeling relieved and return home. That’s the end of the matter. We hardly reflect on the banks of Ganga or try to visit the Yamuna in Delhi, so dirty it looks like a sewer, and think about our relation with that flow, which had been nursing and watering a soul called India since ages and when the flow itself in its dying state, never does a thought occurs in our mind why is that happening and is there a duty for me to stop its decay, a duty that I have inherited from my ancestors?
No. It never happens. We try to hide our religious, cultural or umbilical relation with the rivers, till we are dead and it becomes imperative to immerse ashes in the waters. Millionaires, billionaires, rulers and generals and heads of state, have had their ashes immersed at Hardwar and Prayag and in Kaveri and Krishna. They might have written odes to these rivers in beautiful magical sounding words. But none of them, not a single great soul has decidedly worked to secure clean, hygienic flow of these rivers plugging all holes contaminating their flow. Rajiv Gandhi did began a much hyped and ambitious plan to clean Ganga but nothing is heard of it except a few unsustainable claims and blames.
Not only Ganga has become completely unusable for any purpose at kanpur, even nearer to its source, Rishikesh, the Ghats are dirty and the worshippers andf saints and the government departments keep on emptying all the dirt and garbage into the sacred river.I was at Gaumukh last month, the glacier which gives birth to the eternal flow of Bhagirathi and was stunned to find plastic bags, polythene sheets, half burnt incense sticks and other puja-samagri in imperishable packing left by the devout close to the source . New shops and selling points are coming up fast to meet the ever increasing demands of pilgrims and nature tourists, a good number of them being students from urban city centers.
Further north two important rivers of the city of Nirvana, Varanasi, named Varuna and Assi, have almost dried up. As is evident these two rivers gave name to Varanasi and in Shiva Purana, Lord says, whoever takes a bath at the confluence of Varuna and Assi, he gets instant moksha and is verily close to my heart. But while Varuna has been turned into a petty trickle, like a municipal drainage, Assi is invisible now and religious ashrams, sweetshops and residential colonies have come up right in the riverbed.
This happened while the Hindu nationalists ruled Varanasi Municipal Corporation and the city also returned a BJP M.P. to Parliament.
In the land of Gandhi, the river which once witnessed Gandhi ashram, Sabarmati, too has dried up like Gandhian thoughts and the builders mafia is eying to use the river bed as their next colony.
In Kerala, Rajiv Srinivasan has written in his incisive report that once a beautiful river Bharat Puzha (also known as Neel river) has reduced to trickles with a dry bed and many other rivers and water sources in the state are facing a grave threat in this land believed to have been created from water itself.
May be politicians are to be blamed or the corrupt and lethargic bureaucracy or a lack of social leadership. The list of those to be blamed for such a crisis may keep on increasing but ultimately it’s the will and the character of the common citizen that decides the course of such happenings. If the people are lazy and careless and totally dependent on he political and the administrative machinery while they keep on desecrating the river and throwing all the garbage and the chemical wastes into the ‘holy’ river thinking it’s the duty of the state to clean it up, we shall never get a clean Ganga.
After all who messes up with the rivers? The common citizen is as much to be blamed as the unwilling politician. In Delhi, govt. has put huge fences on both sides of Yamuna on Noida Bridge with billboards requesting the devout not to throw Puja articles into the river. Still I have seen people trying to throw their plastic bags full of puja waste into the river. The irresponsible worshippers themselves are to be blamed for desecrating the holy rivers.
Once we were the people who created the best of monuments and reached great heights in art, culture and science. Now the same people are unable even to protect what they have inherited. A society which invented Zero, spread its message of love and peace to the whole world, created wonders like Ang kor wat and Borbodur,is showing signs of a severe cultural decay, only colonized minds display. Ends.
The author can be contacted at tarunvijay@vsnl.com
Tarun Vijay
Nowhere in the world rivers are as worshipped and revered as in India. From birth to death, we need rivers. We need them to live and prosper and even have the right place assured in the heavens for ourselves and for our departed ancestors. Marriages in rural areas in the vicinity of rivers are connected through various rituals to the river’s flow and thousands of folktales and sons are woven around them, including the one in Bhojpuri which says through a lovelorn woman that she will offer a silver if her beloved returns this Sawan (Monsoon month). The Vedic civilization grew around rivers and Vedas are full of praise for them. Aryans set up their best centers of learning as well as cities and trade ports on their banks and so were established age-old pilgrim centers. Krishna would be an incomplete deity without Yamuna and heavens wont admit a departed soul unless the ashes were immersed in Ganga.Adi Sankara’s beautiful poem on Ganga-Devi Sureshwari Bhagwati Gange… remains as mesmerizingly enchanting as Ganga herself. A famous song of a super hit Raj Kapoor film even relates the hero’s national identity to river Ganga—hum us desh ke vasi hain jis desh mein Ganga behti hai!!
Still none would be as cruel and careless to the perennial waters of our sacred rivers as we are. We simply do not connect to them. They exist and some rituals are done because they have been in vogue since long and we do it mechanically, feeling relieved and return home. That’s the end of the matter. We hardly reflect on the banks of Ganga or try to visit the Yamuna in Delhi, so dirty it looks like a sewer, and think about our relation with that flow, which had been nursing and watering a soul called India since ages and when the flow itself in its dying state, never does a thought occurs in our mind why is that happening and is there a duty for me to stop its decay, a duty that I have inherited from my ancestors?
No. It never happens. We try to hide our religious, cultural or umbilical relation with the rivers, till we are dead and it becomes imperative to immerse ashes in the waters. Millionaires, billionaires, rulers and generals and heads of state, have had their ashes immersed at Hardwar and Prayag and in Kaveri and Krishna. They might have written odes to these rivers in beautiful magical sounding words. But none of them, not a single great soul has decidedly worked to secure clean, hygienic flow of these rivers plugging all holes contaminating their flow. Rajiv Gandhi did began a much hyped and ambitious plan to clean Ganga but nothing is heard of it except a few unsustainable claims and blames.
Not only Ganga has become completely unusable for any purpose at kanpur, even nearer to its source, Rishikesh, the Ghats are dirty and the worshippers andf saints and the government departments keep on emptying all the dirt and garbage into the sacred river.I was at Gaumukh last month, the glacier which gives birth to the eternal flow of Bhagirathi and was stunned to find plastic bags, polythene sheets, half burnt incense sticks and other puja-samagri in imperishable packing left by the devout close to the source . New shops and selling points are coming up fast to meet the ever increasing demands of pilgrims and nature tourists, a good number of them being students from urban city centers.
Further north two important rivers of the city of Nirvana, Varanasi, named Varuna and Assi, have almost dried up. As is evident these two rivers gave name to Varanasi and in Shiva Purana, Lord says, whoever takes a bath at the confluence of Varuna and Assi, he gets instant moksha and is verily close to my heart. But while Varuna has been turned into a petty trickle, like a municipal drainage, Assi is invisible now and religious ashrams, sweetshops and residential colonies have come up right in the riverbed.
This happened while the Hindu nationalists ruled Varanasi Municipal Corporation and the city also returned a BJP M.P. to Parliament.
In the land of Gandhi, the river which once witnessed Gandhi ashram, Sabarmati, too has dried up like Gandhian thoughts and the builders mafia is eying to use the river bed as their next colony.
In Kerala, Rajiv Srinivasan has written in his incisive report that once a beautiful river Bharat Puzha (also known as Neel river) has reduced to trickles with a dry bed and many other rivers and water sources in the state are facing a grave threat in this land believed to have been created from water itself.
May be politicians are to be blamed or the corrupt and lethargic bureaucracy or a lack of social leadership. The list of those to be blamed for such a crisis may keep on increasing but ultimately it’s the will and the character of the common citizen that decides the course of such happenings. If the people are lazy and careless and totally dependent on he political and the administrative machinery while they keep on desecrating the river and throwing all the garbage and the chemical wastes into the ‘holy’ river thinking it’s the duty of the state to clean it up, we shall never get a clean Ganga.
After all who messes up with the rivers? The common citizen is as much to be blamed as the unwilling politician. In Delhi, govt. has put huge fences on both sides of Yamuna on Noida Bridge with billboards requesting the devout not to throw Puja articles into the river. Still I have seen people trying to throw their plastic bags full of puja waste into the river. The irresponsible worshippers themselves are to be blamed for desecrating the holy rivers.
Once we were the people who created the best of monuments and reached great heights in art, culture and science. Now the same people are unable even to protect what they have inherited. A society which invented Zero, spread its message of love and peace to the whole world, created wonders like Ang kor wat and Borbodur,is showing signs of a severe cultural decay, only colonized minds display. Ends.
The author can be contacted at tarunvijay@vsnl.com
27 September, 2005
Revere Bharat Mata and not her betis?
By Tarun Vijay
It makes me feel a bit outdated when my little daughter, class six champion, sets the profile of my cellular phone and finds a website that’s more important to my work in a manner my teachers in Gandhi School used to tell something new about weather conditions. I get educated and enriched with the experiences and inquisitive dynamics of Shambhavi, that little whiz kid whom I introduce to the world with a pride — oh, yeah, that's my daughter.I am growing up with her scholarship. The only one who can chide me, use a loud voice to stop me doing something she dislikes. She belongs to the brave new world order that sets our time. Nothing is happier than to realise and live with it. So, when a government tries to correct something that was essentially a wrong, we must smile.The world will be a darker, unliveable place without daughters and hence we must say thank you to Dr Manmohan Singh for a Bill that makes them feel better and counted. Since we are living in a society where criticism is considered more important than a positive appraisal, let’s make an exception and clap a little for Manmohan Singh’s small but sweet gesture to help daughters of Mother India. That the Central government shall bear the educational expenses of single daughters in a family is more significant in its message than the real programme.In a nation where every acquirable attribute is sought from a female deity — money and material comforts from Lakshmi, academic virtues from Saraswati and annihilation of foes from Kali — we are inconceivably rogue to kill female foetuses symbolising the same worshipped deities. One has to see the greatest marvels of world like Ajanta and Ellora to understand the high place a daughter or a woman had in our society just a couple of centuries ago.Shiva couldn't find solace without Uma and when Sita rebelled against the wrongs of a dogmatic social order, Rama could never find peace till final refuge in the waters of Saryu. Draupadi was the originator of the Mahabharata, the epic war and she is adored in the scriptures as an embodiment of Dharma.Adi Sankara had to learn a few lessons from a lady scholar and Gargi and Maitreyi defeated the great male scholars of their times and were revered higher than any other rishi.The mother of Nachiketa had the courage to tell Yama she couldn’t remember who had fathered her son. No one burnt her declaring her a bad character or a witch like we had seen in Arab societies and more notoriously in early Christendom where millions of women lost their lives having been declared witches or creatures without a soul. And then came the loot, plunder and rapes with the foreign invaders to our land coming with jihadi flags and missionary evangelism. Woman was as low and dispensable in their eyes as was in vogue in their original lands — a commodity to be used and thrown away or at best to be "tilled" to get a "harvest".That affected the mindset of a subjugated, colonised people and woman acquired a different connotation in our eyes. They had to burn themselves alive to save their honour, and a ritualistic Brahmanical rude order set in where wearing burqa was a better choice, forced Sati became a worshipable ritual, widows for the slow death in Vrindavan and to have a girl became a curse. This was the time when Brahmin priests were blessing the flag of the East India Company in the Kali temple to be victorious and Indian soldiers found it a matter of pride to serve in an army of white men and kill their own countrymen at their orders in the name of military discipline. Yes, we became a degenerate society, hating daughters, burning them for not bringing the "cost" of their nalayak (unworthy) son, and using them virtually as dustbins.The states, where the brunt of Semitic brutalities was more visible, became shell shocked and daughters were killed or shamed into a hiding mode. That’s what we see in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, UP and Bihar. It’s quite possible that the civil servants who saw the Doctor’s Bill to help daughters passed had taken a really very fat amount in dowry to "oblige" a girl into marrying a high ranking officer. Things have come to such a sorry pass that to imagine an IAS or a IPS officer in the northern belt getting married without a "price tag" is difficult. Manmohan Singh might have passed the Bill to help daughters get educated, but can he ensure that scholarships are given without greasing the palms of babus and his officers are those who have a commitment not to take dowry or to harass the fathers of the daughters? Imrana could not fight back. Neither could other women who faced the same injustice at the hands of some caste panchayat or a personal law board.Political women leaders too make use of such victims for furthering their "pro-woman" image and nothing really helpful comes out.So, in fact, despite several Anu Aghas and Mehboobas, daughters, at the societal level remain unwanted. Those who invite blindness to facts to attack the RSS do not want to recognise that the largest number of dowryless marriages takes place in Hindutva families and Hedgewar, founder of the movement, had the courage to inspire and encourage a women’s reformist organisation at a time when things were far worse than they are today. It’s no use worshipping the motherhood of a woman or performing disorderly aartis of Bharata Mata if her daughters are not equally respected and listed on par with sons.
tarunvijay@vsnl.com
Revere Bharat Mata and not her betis?
By Tarun Vijay
It makes me feel a bit outdated when my little daughter, class six champion, sets the profile of my cellular phone and finds a website that’s more important to my work in a manner my teachers in Gandhi School used to tell something new about weather conditions. I get educated and enriched with the experiences and inquisitive dynamics of Shambhavi, that little whiz kid whom I introduce to the world with a pride — oh, yeah, that's my daughter.I am growing up with her scholarship. The only one who can chide me, use a loud voice to stop me doing something she dislikes. She belongs to the brave new world order that sets our time. Nothing is happier than to realise and live with it. So, when a government tries to correct something that was essentially a wrong, we must smile.The world will be a darker, unliveable place without daughters and hence we must say thank you to Dr Manmohan Singh for a Bill that makes them feel better and counted. Since we are living in a society where criticism is considered more important than a positive appraisal, let’s make an exception and clap a little for Manmohan Singh’s small but sweet gesture to help daughters of Mother India. That the Central government shall bear the educational expenses of single daughters in a family is more significant in its message than the real programme.In a nation where every acquirable attribute is sought from a female deity — money and material comforts from Lakshmi, academic virtues from Saraswati and annihilation of foes from Kali — we are inconceivably rogue to kill female foetuses symbolising the same worshipped deities. One has to see the greatest marvels of world like Ajanta and Ellora to understand the high place a daughter or a woman had in our society just a couple of centuries ago.Shiva couldn't find solace without Uma and when Sita rebelled against the wrongs of a dogmatic social order, Rama could never find peace till final refuge in the waters of Saryu. Draupadi was the originator of the Mahabharata, the epic war and she is adored in the scriptures as an embodiment of Dharma.Adi Sankara had to learn a few lessons from a lady scholar and Gargi and Maitreyi defeated the great male scholars of their times and were revered higher than any other rishi.The mother of Nachiketa had the courage to tell Yama she couldn’t remember who had fathered her son. No one burnt her declaring her a bad character or a witch like we had seen in Arab societies and more notoriously in early Christendom where millions of women lost their lives having been declared witches or creatures without a soul. And then came the loot, plunder and rapes with the foreign invaders to our land coming with jihadi flags and missionary evangelism. Woman was as low and dispensable in their eyes as was in vogue in their original lands — a commodity to be used and thrown away or at best to be "tilled" to get a "harvest".That affected the mindset of a subjugated, colonised people and woman acquired a different connotation in our eyes. They had to burn themselves alive to save their honour, and a ritualistic Brahmanical rude order set in where wearing burqa was a better choice, forced Sati became a worshipable ritual, widows for the slow death in Vrindavan and to have a girl became a curse. This was the time when Brahmin priests were blessing the flag of the East India Company in the Kali temple to be victorious and Indian soldiers found it a matter of pride to serve in an army of white men and kill their own countrymen at their orders in the name of military discipline. Yes, we became a degenerate society, hating daughters, burning them for not bringing the "cost" of their nalayak (unworthy) son, and using them virtually as dustbins.The states, where the brunt of Semitic brutalities was more visible, became shell shocked and daughters were killed or shamed into a hiding mode. That’s what we see in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, UP and Bihar. It’s quite possible that the civil servants who saw the Doctor’s Bill to help daughters passed had taken a really very fat amount in dowry to "oblige" a girl into marrying a high ranking officer. Things have come to such a sorry pass that to imagine an IAS or a IPS officer in the northern belt getting married without a "price tag" is difficult. Manmohan Singh might have passed the Bill to help daughters get educated, but can he ensure that scholarships are given without greasing the palms of babus and his officers are those who have a commitment not to take dowry or to harass the fathers of the daughters? Imrana could not fight back. Neither could other women who faced the same injustice at the hands of some caste panchayat or a personal law board.Political women leaders too make use of such victims for furthering their "pro-woman" image and nothing really helpful comes out.So, in fact, despite several Anu Aghas and Mehboobas, daughters, at the societal level remain unwanted. Those who invite blindness to facts to attack the RSS do not want to recognise that the largest number of dowryless marriages takes place in Hindutva families and Hedgewar, founder of the movement, had the courage to inspire and encourage a women’s reformist organisation at a time when things were far worse than they are today. It’s no use worshipping the motherhood of a woman or performing disorderly aartis of Bharata Mata if her daughters are not equally respected and listed on par with sons.
tarunvijay@vsnl.com
Nav Bharat Times
Printed from Indiatimes > NBT Online , http://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1935632.cms
विरोध का अधिकार न देना भी तालिबानीकरण है
[Saturday, April 21, 2007 08:22:33 pm ]
तरुण विजय
संपादक, पांचजन्य
एक ऐसे देश में जहां सौंदर्य और लालित्य देवालयों का भी अभिन्न अंग रहा है और मुक्त चिंतन की ऐसी परंपरा प्रतिष्ठित रही है, जिसमें कभी किसी गैलीलियो को उसके विचारों के कारण फांसी नहीं चढ़ाया गया, उस देश में सभी असहिष्णु विचारधाराओं के आक्रमण तालिबानीकरण का अभारतीय एवं असभ्य दौर पैदा करते हुए हिंदू समाज पर ही उसका दोषारोपण करने का हास्यास्पद प्रयास कर रहे हैं। पुस्तकों पर प्रतिबंध, लेखन और कार्टूनों पर मौत के फतवे तथा बलात्कार की शिकार महिला को बलात्कारी से ही शादी का निर्देश देना कभी भारतीय भाव भूमि का अंग नहीं रहा। लेकिन जुगुप्सा जनक उछृंखलता और वासना का व्यापार सार्वजनिक जीवन और अखबारों के पहले पन्ने पर छाने लगे तो उसके विरोध का अधिकार भी समाज को नहीं देना तालिबानीकरण है। ऐसी घटनाओं का विरोध नैतिक पुलिसियापन नहीं। नैतिक पुलिसियापन तो वे लोग दिखा रहे हैं जो कामुक चित्रों का प्रकाशन करना अखबार की प्रसार संख्या या चैनल की लोकप्रियता बढ़ाने का आसान फॉर्म्युला तो मानते हैं, लेकिन समाज के किसी वर्ग को उसकी आलोचना तक का अधिकार नहीं देना चाहते। अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता के पक्षधर इतने एकपक्षीय और आत्ममुग्ध दिखते हैं कि अपनी आलोचना वे तालिबानीकरण मान लेते हैं। अब मुंबई की आइटम अभिनेत्रियां अखबारों में मुफ्त की प्रसिद्ध पाने के लिए ऐसी ही हरकतों का आसान रास्ता अपनाने लगी हैं। इन बातों को पहले पन्ने पर महत्व देना हमारे बौद्धिक दीवालियापन और पत्रकारिता के क्षेत्र में गंभीर विषयों पर मेहनत न करने की प्रवृत्ति का द्योतक है। भोपाल में ही नहीं गुजरात, महाराष्ट्र और उत्तर प्रदेश में भी एक खास किस्म के अभियान का सिलसिला चला है, जिसमें हजारों हिंदू लड़कियों का मुस्लिम लड़कों से विवाह हुआ है। मामला इतना गंभीर है कि इसकी छानबीन के लिए इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट की लखनऊ खंडपीठ ने सरकार को निर्देश दिया है। लेकिन सेक्युलर तालिबान आहत हिंदू मन की पीड़ा को अभिव्यक्त होने की भी अनुमति नहीं देना चाहते। जब हिंदू पूछना चाहते हैं कि आखिर क्यों देश के हर बड़े और प्रभावशाली मुस्लिम ने हिंदू युवती से ही शादी करना और बाद में मुस्लिम परिवार बसाना सेक्युलर निशानी मान ली है, उन्हें सांप्रदायिक विद्वेष का तमगा थमा दिया जाता है। आमतौर पर हिंदू यह मानता रहा है कि अगर लड़का-लड़की राजी हैं तो इसमें हिंदू मुस्लिम या ऊंची नीची जात का भी कोई सवाल खड़ा करना बेमानी है। यह एक निजी पसंद और अपने ढंग से अपनी जिंदगी जीने का फैसला होता है, जिसमें किसी को दखल देने का हक नहीं है। लेकिन यदि हिंदुओं की यही उदार सोच उनकी कमजोरी मान ली जाए और इसका सहारा लेकर एक सोची समझी रणनीति के अंतर्गत हिंदू युवतियों का विवाह के रास्ते इस्लामीकरण किया जाए तो संगठित शक्ति से अपने समाज की संस्कृति और धर्म की रक्षा का दायित्व अगर हिंदू नहीं निभाएंगे तो कौन निभाएगा? वास्तव में जिहादी हमलों और सेक्युलर तालिबानों का अंध हिंदुत्व विरोध हिंदू समाज को अपनी प्रतिक्रियाओं को क्रुद्ध जामा पहनाने पर मजबूर करता दिखता है। जिस समाज में प्राचीनकाल में गार्गी और मैत्रेयी रहीं तो आधुनिक काल में मां शारदा, पंडिता रमा बाई, अमृतानंदमयी, इंदिरा गांधी, सुनीता पांडे विलियम्स, कल्पना चावला जैसी प्रगतिशील नारी प्रतीक रही हैं, वहां शिल्पा शेट्टी को वैचारिक मुक्तता और नारी स्वातंत्र्य का प्रतीक बनाना और नग्नता के विरोध को नैतिक पुलिसियापन कहना सतही साइबेरियावादी सोच है। ऐसे लोग बताएं यदि उनकी अपनी बेटी के साथ रिचर्ड गेरे मंच पर वैसा बर्ताव करता तो क्या वे तालियां बजाकर अपनी प्रगतिशीलता दिखाते?
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Printed from Indiatimes > NBT Online , http://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1935632.cms
विरोध का अधिकार न देना भी तालिबानीकरण है
[Saturday, April 21, 2007 08:22:33 pm ]
तरुण विजय
संपादक, पांचजन्य
एक ऐसे देश में जहां सौंदर्य और लालित्य देवालयों का भी अभिन्न अंग रहा है और मुक्त चिंतन की ऐसी परंपरा प्रतिष्ठित रही है, जिसमें कभी किसी गैलीलियो को उसके विचारों के कारण फांसी नहीं चढ़ाया गया, उस देश में सभी असहिष्णु विचारधाराओं के आक्रमण तालिबानीकरण का अभारतीय एवं असभ्य दौर पैदा करते हुए हिंदू समाज पर ही उसका दोषारोपण करने का हास्यास्पद प्रयास कर रहे हैं। पुस्तकों पर प्रतिबंध, लेखन और कार्टूनों पर मौत के फतवे तथा बलात्कार की शिकार महिला को बलात्कारी से ही शादी का निर्देश देना कभी भारतीय भाव भूमि का अंग नहीं रहा। लेकिन जुगुप्सा जनक उछृंखलता और वासना का व्यापार सार्वजनिक जीवन और अखबारों के पहले पन्ने पर छाने लगे तो उसके विरोध का अधिकार भी समाज को नहीं देना तालिबानीकरण है। ऐसी घटनाओं का विरोध नैतिक पुलिसियापन नहीं। नैतिक पुलिसियापन तो वे लोग दिखा रहे हैं जो कामुक चित्रों का प्रकाशन करना अखबार की प्रसार संख्या या चैनल की लोकप्रियता बढ़ाने का आसान फॉर्म्युला तो मानते हैं, लेकिन समाज के किसी वर्ग को उसकी आलोचना तक का अधिकार नहीं देना चाहते। अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता के पक्षधर इतने एकपक्षीय और आत्ममुग्ध दिखते हैं कि अपनी आलोचना वे तालिबानीकरण मान लेते हैं। अब मुंबई की आइटम अभिनेत्रियां अखबारों में मुफ्त की प्रसिद्ध पाने के लिए ऐसी ही हरकतों का आसान रास्ता अपनाने लगी हैं। इन बातों को पहले पन्ने पर महत्व देना हमारे बौद्धिक दीवालियापन और पत्रकारिता के क्षेत्र में गंभीर विषयों पर मेहनत न करने की प्रवृत्ति का द्योतक है। भोपाल में ही नहीं गुजरात, महाराष्ट्र और उत्तर प्रदेश में भी एक खास किस्म के अभियान का सिलसिला चला है, जिसमें हजारों हिंदू लड़कियों का मुस्लिम लड़कों से विवाह हुआ है। मामला इतना गंभीर है कि इसकी छानबीन के लिए इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट की लखनऊ खंडपीठ ने सरकार को निर्देश दिया है। लेकिन सेक्युलर तालिबान आहत हिंदू मन की पीड़ा को अभिव्यक्त होने की भी अनुमति नहीं देना चाहते। जब हिंदू पूछना चाहते हैं कि आखिर क्यों देश के हर बड़े और प्रभावशाली मुस्लिम ने हिंदू युवती से ही शादी करना और बाद में मुस्लिम परिवार बसाना सेक्युलर निशानी मान ली है, उन्हें सांप्रदायिक विद्वेष का तमगा थमा दिया जाता है। आमतौर पर हिंदू यह मानता रहा है कि अगर लड़का-लड़की राजी हैं तो इसमें हिंदू मुस्लिम या ऊंची नीची जात का भी कोई सवाल खड़ा करना बेमानी है। यह एक निजी पसंद और अपने ढंग से अपनी जिंदगी जीने का फैसला होता है, जिसमें किसी को दखल देने का हक नहीं है। लेकिन यदि हिंदुओं की यही उदार सोच उनकी कमजोरी मान ली जाए और इसका सहारा लेकर एक सोची समझी रणनीति के अंतर्गत हिंदू युवतियों का विवाह के रास्ते इस्लामीकरण किया जाए तो संगठित शक्ति से अपने समाज की संस्कृति और धर्म की रक्षा का दायित्व अगर हिंदू नहीं निभाएंगे तो कौन निभाएगा? वास्तव में जिहादी हमलों और सेक्युलर तालिबानों का अंध हिंदुत्व विरोध हिंदू समाज को अपनी प्रतिक्रियाओं को क्रुद्ध जामा पहनाने पर मजबूर करता दिखता है। जिस समाज में प्राचीनकाल में गार्गी और मैत्रेयी रहीं तो आधुनिक काल में मां शारदा, पंडिता रमा बाई, अमृतानंदमयी, इंदिरा गांधी, सुनीता पांडे विलियम्स, कल्पना चावला जैसी प्रगतिशील नारी प्रतीक रही हैं, वहां शिल्पा शेट्टी को वैचारिक मुक्तता और नारी स्वातंत्र्य का प्रतीक बनाना और नग्नता के विरोध को नैतिक पुलिसियापन कहना सतही साइबेरियावादी सोच है। ऐसे लोग बताएं यदि उनकी अपनी बेटी के साथ रिचर्ड गेरे मंच पर वैसा बर्ताव करता तो क्या वे तालियां बजाकर अपनी प्रगतिशीलता दिखाते?
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The Asian Age
19 August 2005
India’s caravan rolls on
- By Tarun Vijay
The first thing I received on August 15 morning was an SMS from a friend greeting me on Independence Day.
Technology has changed the way we used to celebrate festivals, and though August 15 was always a great celebration, yet getting into the usual festive mode like Holi, Id and Christmas was something we had to wait for till the SMS culture arrived. It is a great feeling indeed. We may have a thousand complaints about the way our republic seems to be functioning; yet, a feeling of moving ahead is writ large on the face of Mother India. This is nothing less than a miracle.
A thousand million people are struggling to find a new, better and respectable place under the Indian sun, and wherever I go, from Kochi to Tawang, or from Chushul to Port Blair, a new rising shows up with a sparkling beauty. Never before in our history have people moved forward so much. Technology has brought about a change in our thinking, food habits, attire and behaviour. Job profiles have undergone a sea change and earning more is becoming a habit despite the fact we did not have a Deng Xiaoping to give the clarion call.
A boy in Mumbai, originally hailing from a remote village in Karnataka, sends an air ticket to his father to visit him: this was inconceivable till recently. That’s the revolution that Air Deccan and other budget airlines have brought about. Common people, usually taking a bus to reach their destination, now feel bold enough to buy an air ticket. A recent cartoon depicted the situation well by showing a squirming "stiff upper lip" elite passenger sitting next to a villager and saying, "If this goes on I may have to think of taking the train" — so common have become things which were part of the elite domain till yesterday.
The significant factor is the urge, the strong desire to climb up. I just came to know about an interesting telephone conversation. A mother of a 13-year-old lad from a village 200 km from Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, called an Uttaranchal IT institute run under the guidance of the famed IT scientist Ashok Jhunjhunwala, to have her son admitted there.
She is not exactly a literate lady, but her son, now in his first year secondary, wants to go to a better place to study and so she is making an STD call from a tiny tribal border village. Sons and daughters of Haryana farmers and Kerala babus and Rajasthan priests are standing in queue at the US embassy for study visas, and the person who never dreamt beyond a bicycle is now riding a high-speed smart motorbike at least. First, Maruti revolutionised our roadmap for ever, for a scooterist can now afford a car to move around with his family, then came the STD booths and cellular phones. It is now an unstoppable march into an exciting future for millions of people.
And this, despite the fact that we have bad governance, lethargic and insensitive administration and an archaic judicial system, remote villages, shortage of power and a thoroughly corrupt and disoriented political set-up which works more like the local Mafia than a group of visionaries in the nation’s interest. What is important is that India has achieved all this in spite of an undesirable crowd of political leaders. So this shows an extraordinary power of resilience and inner strength of the Indian people. No nation on earth has faced so many brutalities for centuries, subjugation, destruction, loot and a contemptuous series of invasions like we have. Yet, no other nation has been able to show the power to rise again and again whether we had a great leadership or not. This can very well be expressed through the Somnath spirit after the legendary resurrection of the old temple on the western shores. It was demolished umpteen times, yet rose again and again despite all the odds working against it.
It is true, even today the odds are not few and their character too has become more damaging in the long run. Our villages are yet to see real change touching their lives. Poverty and unemployment are ever increasing, widening the gulf between India and Bharat. Our sense of nationalism is also facing a grave threat, because of a strange secularism which thrives on self-negation, humiliating everything that belongs to the civilisation of this ancient land. Terrorism is nothing but a by-product of the weakening of the sense of nationalism, and a blurred vision when it comes to defending our people. We have yet to develop a sense of respect for the Indian citizen, and the rulers — whichever class or colour — still look at an ordinary Indian national with the eyes of a British sergeant, a colonial legacy inherited and so calmly cherished by our brown sahibs.
I met a villager from the Tarai region near Nainital recently and he gave me a very illuminating insight. He said, nothing is achieved depending on these netas, as every one of them is simply concerned with one’s own safety and welfare. "Sahibji," he continued, "you are an akhbarwalla (media man), all that you publish is news about everything bad happening in the country. If you read all the bad material every day, first thing in the morning, can you have any hopes for a better future? Come to the villages, the changes occurring there will open your eyes, but you people never report that. We are moving ahead, think about yourself."
He was right. People are always complaining; but wailing gets only tears in return. But those who decide on a path, and take the first step, can hope to reach their destination some day. India is on that path, despite all odds. We will rise high if we "want" to rise high. The great RSS thinker H.V. Sheshadri, who passed away on August 14, will always be remembered for his singular contribution in rekindling a hope for the glory of India. He used to say, "Come what may, India can never be cowed down by the fissiparous tendencies we are seeing today. We have dharma with us and none can stop victory reaching us."
As Sri Aurobindo said, India’s destiny is much greater a force than these political pygmies. The collective will of the people will overcome the challenges, looking insurmountable now, when the right moment arrives. The question is: how many of us are ready for that moment? Preparation means equipping ourselves with the values and the inner strength of this civilisation. Think: where are you standing in this great surge forward, amongst the complainants or with the caravan?
Tarun Vijay is the editor of the RSS’ Panchjanya
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
On Ram Setu and Sethu Samudram
says about the bridge, 'Exploring space with a camera by NASA's [193] Gemini XI, this photograph from an altitude of 410 miles encompasses all of India, an area of 1,250 000 square miles,' George M Low, then the deputy director, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA, notes. ' Bombay is on the west coast, directly left of the spacecraft's can-shaped antenna, New Delhi is just below the horizon near the upper left. Adam's Bridge between India and Ceylon, at the right, is clearly visible...' We can see the picture dramatically resembles the description given in Kalidasa's Raghuvamsham . Kalidasa wrote, (sarga 13): 'Rama, while returning from Sri Lanka in Pushpaka Vimaana told Sita: "Behold, Sita, My Setu of mountains dividing this frothy ocean is like the milky way dividing the sky into two parts".'
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the bridge thus, 'Adam's Bridge also called Rama's Bridge, chain of shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India.'
Apart from such issues of heritage and belief, there are genuine concerns regarding security and the tsunamis' impact increasing in case the Ram Setu is destroyed. If the new channel is created through the present Rama's bridge, international ships would pass through it making a de facto international boundary between India and Sri Lanka, facilitating an increased alien presence, burdening our navy to a great extent.
So far the sea between India and Sri Lanka has been recognised as historic waters, though the United States has been pressurising to have it declared as international waters and said in a naval notification in 2005 that it does not accept the sea between India and Sri Lanka as 'historic'. The US declaration and the role of the Tuticorin Port Trust, the nodal agency to implement the Sethu Samudram Canal Project coupled with the haste with which the project was inaugurated, has given rise to many unanswered questions.
The US Navy operational directive refusing to accept the sea between India and Sri Lanka as 'historic' was made on June 23, 2005. The Prime Minister's Office sent some queries in March 2005 to N K Raghupathy, chief of the Tuticorin Port Trust. He sent answers to the PMO's queries on June 30, 2005 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the project on July 2, 2005. Why were the queries sent to the TPT and not to an agency which had scientific authority to look into the geological and maritime aspects of the project? Why did the prime minister and the UPA chairperson rush to inaugurate the project without, prima facie, having the time to look into the answers given by the TPT chief? Why was the present route okayed which essentially requires the destruction of the Ram Setu, while other options, closer to Dhanushkodi, which did not touch the Ram Setu were ignored?
Local fishermen, Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike oppose the present route and are demanding alternative channels, which are available. They say the present channel would destroy marine life and corals. This will kill the trade in shankas (shells) that has a turnover in excess of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) per annum. Invaluable thorium deposits would be affected, which are too important for our nuclear fuel requirements.
Professor Tad Murthy, the world renowned tsunami expert, who advised the Government of India on the tsunami warning system and edited the Tsunami Journal for over 20 years, has also warned that the present Setu Samudram route may result in tsunami waves hitting Kerala more fiercely. In a reply to a query regarding the Sethusanmudram's impact, he wrote, 'During the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, the southern part of Kerala was generally spared from a major tsunami, mainly because the tsunami waves from Sumatra region travelling south of the Sri Lankan island, partially diffracted northward and affected the central part of the Kerala coast. Since the tsunami is a long gravity wave (similar to tides and storm surges) during the diffraction process, the rather wide turn it has to take spared the south Kerala coast. On the other hand, deepening the Sethu Canal might provide a more direct route for the tsunami and this could impact south Kerala.'
The issue concerns us all, and should be taken up as Indians, without getting entangled in party lines and political games. The Ram Setu or Adam's Bridge belongs to all humanity, being an important heritage site; hence the government should not allow it to become another issue affecting Hindu sensitivities. Nobody is opposing the Sethu Samudram Project, only a realignment of the route is being asked, as the present one destroys the Ram Setu.
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the bridge thus, 'Adam's Bridge also called Rama's Bridge, chain of shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India.'
Apart from such issues of heritage and belief, there are genuine concerns regarding security and the tsunamis' impact increasing in case the Ram Setu is destroyed. If the new channel is created through the present Rama's bridge, international ships would pass through it making a de facto international boundary between India and Sri Lanka, facilitating an increased alien presence, burdening our navy to a great extent.
So far the sea between India and Sri Lanka has been recognised as historic waters, though the United States has been pressurising to have it declared as international waters and said in a naval notification in 2005 that it does not accept the sea between India and Sri Lanka as 'historic'. The US declaration and the role of the Tuticorin Port Trust, the nodal agency to implement the Sethu Samudram Canal Project coupled with the haste with which the project was inaugurated, has given rise to many unanswered questions.
The US Navy operational directive refusing to accept the sea between India and Sri Lanka as 'historic' was made on June 23, 2005. The Prime Minister's Office sent some queries in March 2005 to N K Raghupathy, chief of the Tuticorin Port Trust. He sent answers to the PMO's queries on June 30, 2005 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the project on July 2, 2005. Why were the queries sent to the TPT and not to an agency which had scientific authority to look into the geological and maritime aspects of the project? Why did the prime minister and the UPA chairperson rush to inaugurate the project without, prima facie, having the time to look into the answers given by the TPT chief? Why was the present route okayed which essentially requires the destruction of the Ram Setu, while other options, closer to Dhanushkodi, which did not touch the Ram Setu were ignored?
Local fishermen, Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike oppose the present route and are demanding alternative channels, which are available. They say the present channel would destroy marine life and corals. This will kill the trade in shankas (shells) that has a turnover in excess of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) per annum. Invaluable thorium deposits would be affected, which are too important for our nuclear fuel requirements.
Professor Tad Murthy, the world renowned tsunami expert, who advised the Government of India on the tsunami warning system and edited the Tsunami Journal for over 20 years, has also warned that the present Setu Samudram route may result in tsunami waves hitting Kerala more fiercely. In a reply to a query regarding the Sethusanmudram's impact, he wrote, 'During the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, the southern part of Kerala was generally spared from a major tsunami, mainly because the tsunami waves from Sumatra region travelling south of the Sri Lankan island, partially diffracted northward and affected the central part of the Kerala coast. Since the tsunami is a long gravity wave (similar to tides and storm surges) during the diffraction process, the rather wide turn it has to take spared the south Kerala coast. On the other hand, deepening the Sethu Canal might provide a more direct route for the tsunami and this could impact south Kerala.'
The issue concerns us all, and should be taken up as Indians, without getting entangled in party lines and political games. The Ram Setu or Adam's Bridge belongs to all humanity, being an important heritage site; hence the government should not allow it to become another issue affecting Hindu sensitivities. Nobody is opposing the Sethu Samudram Project, only a realignment of the route is being asked, as the present one destroys the Ram Setu.
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