Who Will Change India? A 'Pseudo-Religious' Parivar or a 'Pseudo-Secular' Parivar?

On the above topic, excellent article at: http://www.theinternationalindian.com/from_the_editor003.html

Mr Raj Loomba, an Indian taking global humanitarian leadership

The UN General Assembly has unanimously declared 23 June “INTERNATIONAL WIDOWS DAY”, following a sustained effort by Mr Raj Loomba and the Loomba Foundation.

For many years, Mr Loomba has taken the lead to draw attention to the plight of widows and has taken action to alleviate the plight of widows - in memory of his own mother, who was a widow.

My mother was also a widow, and had an incredible struggle to enable myself (I was eight years old when my father died) and my younger brother and sister to survive.

There are some 245 million widows around the world, many of them poor and destitute.

There is the much worse problem of "abandoned wives" - a growing cancer, even in the West.

Meanwhile, do spare a thought and a prayer, and make any and every possible effort to draw attention to, and to use the occasion of, International Widows' Day to improve the situation for widows around the world, but specially in India.

Debrahminising history (a book by Braj Ranjan Mani)

I have a ocnfession to make. Having read this book ages ago - years ago, in fact! - I put it on my pile of things to do (i.e. with the intention of doing a short blog on it) but have been swamped with other priorities.

Well, here we are, finally!:


Mani is a social activist and independent researcher, and has put together a powerful demolition of whatever little I thought I knew about Hinduism and about Indian society.

Essentially a documentation and assertion of Buddhism Sufism/ Sikhism as "rational-liberating traditions" against the sort of Brahminical traditions that most Indians know.

It is not that I don't know of Buddhism, Sufism and Sikhism (quite the contrary) but Mani's denunciation of what I have regarded as "my" and "the mainstream" (Sanskritic/ Gandhian/ Nehruvian) tradition is quite a shock - at least to my system.

Holding up Phule and Ambedkar (as might be expected) as the real heroes for the majority of Indians, Mani also draws on the work of people such as Iyothee Thass, Narayana Guru and Periyar.

I do have some problems with Mani's book:

First, the book is unnecessarily repetitive and could have done with a strong editor.

Second, there are minor niggles, such as the reference to the Buddha as "the first major challenger to caste and Brahminism" (well, I guess it boils down to what one means by "major"!) or the reference to "the thousand years of (the) overwhelming influence" of Buddhism. True, Buddhism was influential over this perion. But "overwhelming"? And whether or not "overwhelming", there is the question of why that influence faded asn well as what factors internal to Buddhism enfeebled this "rational-liberating" paradigm? Those are questions that Mani does not attempt to answer.

Overall, however, this book is a must read for all Indians who wants to be aware of all facets of their country (and Brahminism is probably even now the most important facet of which one should become aware and self-critical). The book ends with typically bluntness: " Sita (forbidden from acquiring knowledge and power), Karna (treacherously deprived of life-saving device) and Eklavya (robbed of his thumb for his "illegitimate" prowess in archery) are still clamouring for their rightful place in society. The greatest sports award in India is still given in the honour of Arjuna, and not (in honour of) Karna or Eklavya, both of whom, according to legend, were greater archers. And the best coach award has been instituted in honour of Drnacharya, the perfidious guru who forced Eklavya to cut off his thumb as guru-dakshana in order to (leave) Arjuna the best archer of his time. How can a country whose moral foundations are based on bricks of (such) deceit and double standards excel in social democracy?". (Brackets mine)

Ouch!

Does Pune (Poona) really consume so much water? WHY?

In a recent communication from a company, I read the following: "Pune consumes more than 300 litres water per capita per day as against the national norm of 135 litres and New York city's 200 litres. Pune also does next to nil recycling of water. "

Let's leave aside for the moment the question of whether and why Pune recycles water.

How come the average citizen of Pune consumes approx 225% of the national norm, and 200% of what the average citizen of New York consumes?

Any explanations that you are aware of?

Self-Governance: Swiss versus Indian

My article titled "Self-Governance: Swiss versus Indian" is the latest in my "Guptara Garamagaram" series in The International Indian magazine (published from Dubai)

If interested, please see pages 72 & 73 at http://www.theinternationalindian.com/current_issue_flash.html

M J Akbar on the depressing state of the nation

"As far as the people are concerned the difference between grace and disgrace has evaporated. It could hardly be otherwise given the scale and sheer audacity of the corruption....(what we have) is nothing but big-budget back-scratching between pals, an insurance policy against exposure: if everyone is guilty then no one is guilty....But there are always a few who refuse to be co-opted. They keep our democracy democratic."

I am glad he thinks there are still a few who refuse to be co-opted. That is the only hope.

He goes on to say: "The tendency to elide through crises with token gestures can become a self-defeating habit...(with the result that) now the people do not take even a well-meaning gesture seriously."

Well, if things have really become that bad, then any hope could be short-lived.

He concludes: "A weak government weakens the nation". This is not a startling new bit of wisdom that has been revealed from on high. Even so, I would like to question it.

Do we really have a weak government? Rather, do we not have a government so strong that it can continue to ignore with impunity the needs of the majority of the people who elected it? How can we say that the government is weak when it can continue to line its own pockets in cahoots with the so-called opposition?

The inclusion of Caste in the next Indian Census

A friend sends me an article by someone arguing that caste practices have no justification in our scriptures, and were basically the invention of Western colonialists.

This is a peculiar point of view. I do not know in what world such writers live. If they even read Indian newspapers, they would get more than enough evidence of the reality of violence against Dalits in our country even today.

Anyway, I responded basically as follows:

The problem with our scriptures is that they are multifarious and can be used to "prove" almost anything. For example, if one takes just the Manusmriti, "While verses such as III - 55, 56, 57, 59, 62 glorify the position of women, other verses such as IX - 3, 17 seem to attack the position and freedom of women. Similar contradictory phrases are encountered in relation to child marriage in verses IX - 90 and 94. PLEASE NOTE that I am quoting and have not had the time to check the refereences myself.

However, in practice, all over the country, there is no doubt that caste practices were prevalent for centuries, and have even now not disappeared - for contemporary accounts of caste discrimination see, for example, the website of Dalit writers such as Chandra Bhan Prasad www.chandrabhanprasad.com

The focus of the Jaipur Literary Festival this year was Dalit literature (see for example: http://himalmag.com/blogs/blog/2010/01/17/600/)

On the Dalit literary movement as a whole, see for example: http://www.himalmag.com/The-emerging-complexity-of-Dalit-consciousness_nw3952.html

On Gujarati Dalit Literature see for example http://gujaratidalitsahitya.blogspot.com/2009/08/poems-by-neerav-patel.html

If you are seriously interested in finding out about the relationship between foreigners and the rediscovery of our own heritage, you might want to start with my article titled "The Impact of Europe on the Development of Indian Literature" (published in the Review of National Literatures, New York, Special Issue on India, 1979. I sent my friend a copy, and will happily send it to anyone reading this Blog who wishes to have it).

Specifically, on the issue of whether or not caste should be included in the census, my view is that it is not up to the oppressor castes (such as my own) to tell the oppressed castes what is the best thing to do.

In general, anything that the Dalits think will help them to get equality has my support, and it is clear that Dalits overwhelmingly support the inclusion of caste in the censsus.

Again, my own view is that neither the upper caste focus on religion and "Bharat Mata" is going to help them, nor the inclusion of caste in the census.

What the oppressed need is release from their systematic oppression, and the best way of achieving this is to encourage and help them to gain education - but not the sort of education that is usually offered in India (that is, more or less useless education, from a practical point of view).

The best would be "useful education" that is really going to help them, including a focus on starting and growing their own businesses. Of course, that cannot happen in reality without the provision of finance for such new Dalit businesses - providing which, in turn, would involve the extension of normal banking and credit facilities to Dalits, and the removal of the scandal of microfinance (though that is miles better than the sort of finance traditionally provided by baniyas of my caste).

So why do Dalits want the question of caste to be included in the Census? Because, regretfully, government-controlled education and government employment are still the main channels for Dalit liberation in India.

The biggest hurdle facing Dalits even today is discrimination against them when it comes to employing them, let alone promoting them, in "normal" areas of life, including companies.

So of course discrimination against them in buying and selling would need to be eliminated if Dalit businesses are to succeed.