Ghalibana...

The Blog of Reflections

2014-10-06T09:36:00.002+05:30

Hello Friends,

I've shifted to a new blog on Wordpress. You can check it at http://blogofreflections.wordpress.com

Thanks a lot for dropping by,

Yours

I am a common Indian man and I do not support Ramdev Baba

2011-06-05T22:08:00.001+05:30

While the world is pretty much busy is supporting or opposing the fast by the yoga guru Ramdev Baba and a pretty small section of people creating hype over it on the net and social media, I can find the voice of the common Indian man almost neglected in all this chaos. Supporting Ramdev Baba, or for that matter, Anna Hazare has been a craze in the tech-geeky, and often misleaded, youth. Though no one is expecting a magical change in situations, everyone is expecting something to change, without knowing exactly what. The supporters of Ramdev Baba, though a very small fraction of the huge Indian population, are succeeding to make their voice loud enough to seem true, and the majority of Indian population is left as a dumb spectator of all the events passing.

When I see the over-enthusiastic youth to propose support for these protests, have they ever thought about the consequences of it? These protests are nothing but the means for creating an anti-government sentiment in the country. The UPA has been in power for the last seven years. For the first-term, the BJP-lead NDA could not even find an agenda for the polls and lost the elections even without fighting wholeheartedly. This time they cannot afford to do so. The extreme right-wing Hindutva ideology cannot be successful each and every time. They needed something as an adjunctive to the Hindutva ideology.

Baba Ramdev and Sangha Pariwar:
BJP (or for that matter RSS) has a very small, but every strong and loyal, core support group. In the democracy of “one vote per head”, they can never ascend to power depending only on this core support group and they know it well. To overcome this factor, the Sangh Parivar always tries to spread its wings as wide as possible to cover a second-line support from the society which would increase the headcount. Organizations like Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajarang Dal, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and so on are just the spread wings of the Sangha Pariwar where the top leadership comes from the core group and the headcount come from the second-line supporters.

Where does Ramdev Baba come to the scene? He is just a bonus that the Sangha Parivar can have. He is not in any way officially affiliated to the RSS (though the support and think-tank support is apparent). Rather, he has kept himself aloof only to say people that “Look, I am not attached to any political party.” He has already gained much follower support from his yoga activities and now he is trying to turn this follower group to the third-line support group of the Sangha Parivar. Sangha needs as much as support from their core circle as they can gather and that’s why they are supporting Ramdev Baba.

Why not Saffron?
People may ask why am I being a saffron-phobic? The congress has ruled over this country for most of the time? What if we ask for a change now? Before going to the answer, I want to make a disclaimer that I am a common India man, I happened to be a Hindu, my father used to go to daily shakha of the Sangha (in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Ram Mandir issue was on hype), and I am not attached to any political party in any slightest way. I am no more involved in politics more than casting my vote when election comes. My interests are far nonpolitical – reading, music, films, etc. – then why should I bother who is there ruling on top?

I am a common Indian young man, 27 years old. I hold the Constitution of India to the top. I cannot segregate people (as the saffron group tends to do) based on their cast, creed, or religion. I am a firm believer of “We, The People of India.” I cannot think myself as a Hindu, Maharastrian, or anything for that matter. Nothing can come between me and my Indian-ness.

We live in a secular democracy. We know it is the best type of state for the varied culture of India. The ideology of Saffron Pariwar is exactly opposite to this. They cannot gain power with what limited support they have from their core group. All their efforts are to increase their outer circles using fascist means: Vociferous propaganda, continuous advertising, favorable use of media, and now effective use of social media. Baba Ramdev and other are just puppets to create a headcount in outer circles. They will promise everything and even implement on it. But isn’t it what Hitler did to achieve powers. We can certainly give him credit for blowing new life in the then Germany, which was going through serious economic crisis and post-war depression. He promised people of good governance, and he worked for it, but then he also used his hatred policy against Jews as the means to polarize the vote bank and he succeeded. Can India afford to let the saffron parties succeed? Can India afford oligarchy, if not dictatorship? Think once again, think thousand times, you may not have the freedom to think and express in that regime.

Tragedy of Indian democracy:
This is just an update to what I have written above. All the day, as I was keeping an eye on the events, I could see BJP people openly in support of Baba Ramdev. I cannot understand the logic behind this. BJP is the largest party in the opposition. The people of India have elected them to ask question to the government. The constitution of India has given them the platform of parliament to ask questions. The government is responsible to them for any of their action; and what the opposition does, walks out of the parliament during the sessions and sets up and joins the protests on road! And people go behind them, what else can be the tragedy of India democracy?

Ekla chalo re…

2011-04-09T06:37:00.004+05:30

Sometimes He leaves you all alone. You never know His plans. May be He does all this to test us, just to check whether we are fit for His tests or not. For whatever reasons, but sometimes He lives you all alone, and you just feel helpless without His glimpse, with lot of questions in your mind, with some unknown fear in your heart, all alone in this infinite world… and He whispers in your soul: Jodi tor daak shune keu naa aashe, tobe ekla chalo re… If they answer not to your call, walk alone, walk alone, walk alone…

May be I have been talking a lot about Tagore lately, but he never leaves me alone. I was alone, like in a trance, when I started writing this, sitting in front of a blank screen. I took three days to write this little post. I had a lot to write and I had no one to share. And He whispered in my soul: Jodi tor daak shune keu naa aashe, tobe ekla chalo re… and these words and this tune became the tune of my heart…

Random Thoughts on a Sunday Morning

2011-03-13T06:28:00.000+05:30

It’s Sunday morning; 5:20 a.m. I am not on a morning walk as I would usually be at this time because it was agreed upon. The alarm buzzed up at 4:58 with “Mora saiyyan mo se bole naa..” I just switched it off and tried to lie asleep, but could not do so even for 15 minutes and got up. I cannot stay on bed even for a second after I get up. There was no question of going on a walk. It was against what was agreed upon and again it would have created a new turmoil in the teacup. So, as there is no better option left to me and as the surplus of thoughts would not get such peaceful time in the day ahead, I am here on my PC writing something (that is really not what I wanted to write) for Ghalibana…

The week that passed was a wonderful one as usual. As it is said – yeh aasmaan, yeh baadal, yeh raaste, ye hawaa (this sky, these clouds, these roads, this air) – everything was on its correct place and I had no real complaint against the world (or I had the biggest ever complaint against it). After a long time, I read a few blogs which I had been following for a long time but could not visit them in a while – Gladys, the Kenyan undergraduate, is exceptional. She really writes wonderful and I was so much happy to see her happy; I wrote a long comment on her latest post Just Because :). I had also been on Olive Oyl’s blog after a long while. Oh God, she is getting more and more philosophical. I had last read her on her 20th birthday when she wrote “Now that I am getting out of the so called formative ages, I am supposed to take stuff around the world very seriously” I think she has really taken this thought seriously and has gotten a new pair of specs, philosophers’ specs.. :)

And a lot many things happened, but as I wrote on Facebook on last last Saturday night - we are human beings, civilized ones as they call us... We cannot go naked out in the world... And last night, I noted a poem by Meena Kumari “Naaz” on FB – This night, this loneliness, the ticking of heartbeats, this silence… Everything is calling you, come for a moment… Give a new dream to my closing eyes… I don’t know why I go such bizarre on Saturday nights, or may be I know it, just cannot go naked out in the world.

Again, I wrote a quote from The Dialogues of Plato on Facebook as my status (Oh, how quickly I forget that I have no one there to understand what I mean). I wrote:

Now the only difference, Socrates, between you and Marsyas is that you can get just the same effect without any instrument at all; with nothing but a few simple words, not even poetry.

And as expected, I got a comment: Please elaborate…

So, this was the last week, or say this was a part of it that I can tell without going naked – otherwise, the earthquake in Japan, the tsunamis, the ICC world cup going on, the match against South Africa yesterday in this very town, the defeat in it… These are like the things of some other world… Or like I am an alien from some other world who gasps for air on the Earth. And why I am talking about the past week when it’s a Sunday morning and I should wake up with a “bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim” thinking of the wonders yet to come… I don’t know… I know nothing… Who I am, why I am, who are you, why are you, and what you are doing here on my blog…? It’s Sunday morning and now it’s 6:06 a.m. Now, I should get up from my computer and buzz like an alarm to wake everyone up… We were to go on a walk at 6 a.m. this morning…

P.S. Hey, sorry, I asked you what are you doing here on my blog dear… You know, everything… You are Omniscient… You know what and why I am writing… You know even what is between the lines… you know we are civilized and still I don’t need to hide my nakedness in front of you… It’s is Sunday morning and cannot stop missing the Chihuahua…

Technorati Tags: Blogs,Facebook,Meena Kumari,Plato,Chihuahua,Sunday,Poetry,Socrates,ICC World Cup 2011,Japan earthquake 2011

Khol do by Saadat Hasan Manto: A Shocking Experience

2011-03-08T23:25:00.001+05:30

Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was a prolific writer of Urdu short story. He was a journalist, literary critic, screenplay writer, play writer, and a keen observer of the society he lived in. He is inarguably one of the most read authors in Urdu prose literature even today. Manto’s stories are often criticized for sexuality in them, but as Manto himself had said “if you find my stories dirty, the society you are living is dirty. With my stories, I expose only truth.”

“Khol Do” is one of the most famous and controversial stories of Manto. It is one of the masterpieces depicting effects of violence during the partition of India. But unlike many others, Manto does not see the perpetrators as Hindu or Muslim, Hindustanis or Pakistanis, he just sees and depicts them as human beings with all their wilderness and barbarity.

“Khol Do” is a story of a father ‘Sirajuddin’ who had to leave India during the partition. Story starts with Sirajuddin finding himself on a railway platform at Mughalpura, Lahore. After a dreadful journey from Amritsar to Lahore in which hundreds were killed and injured and lost and raped, he just lay down for hours on the platform of Mughalpura. He wakes up from his unconsciousness only to find that his wife and daughter are not with him. As he is still in daze, the image of his wife, about to die, with ripped open stomach comes in front of his eyes, just telling him to leave her alone and run away with Sakina, his daughter. And then suddenly he realizes that Sakina is not with him, nowhere.

Sakina, his daughter, the daughter whom he cared for very much, that he could not even leave her dupattta there in all that chaos when it slipped off her shoulders. He still finds the dupatta in his pocket, but where is Sakina…??? He tries to find her everywhere, still couldn’t find her and finally thinks he should ask someone for help.

After a few days, he finds that some young boys are doing a great job of bringing back daughters and women remained on that side of the border. With a new ray of hope to see his daughter, he gives her description to those boys. “She is fair, very pretty. No, she doesn’t look like me, but her mother. About seventeen. Big eyes,black hair, a mole on the left cheek. Find my daughter. May God bless you.” Sirajuddin prays daily for their success and after a few days they find Sakina…

Here we can see the vision and capability of Manto to see the naked truth. Those boys were out to find out Sakina and they have now found her… She was a daughter of their land, from their side of border. She had already gone through a lot. The boys behave very kindly with her and make her feel at ease but they tell nothing about her to her father even when he asks about it. Manto tells nothing about what is done to her, what the boys do… Only when Sirajuddin asks them about her, they just say “we will find her soon, we will!” and Sirajuddin just pray for their success…

And a few days later, people find a female body, half dead, near the railway track. In hopes of finding Sakina, Sirajuddin goes behind them to hospital. The last portion of the story is worth to read in original. It is the most shocking part of the story and perhaps the most shocking piece of prose ever written. I have never read such a thing in my life and even now when I read it, for Nth time, I find it similarly shocking. I am going to end this post with that part as I won’t be able to write anything after it. The end goes like:

He stood outside the hospital for some time, then went in. In one of the rooms, he found a stretcher with someone lying on it.
A light was switched on. It was a young woman with a mole on her left cheek. “Sakina,” Sirajuddin screamed.
The doctor, who had switched on the light, stared at Sirajuddin.
“I am her father,” he stammered. The doctor looked at the prostrate body and felt for the pulse. Then he said to the old man: “Open the window.”
The young woman on the stretcher moved slightly. Her hands groped for the cord which kept her salwar tied around her waist. With painful slowness, she unfastened it, pulled the garment down and opened her thighs.
“She is alive. My daughter is alive,” Sirajuddin shouted with joy.
The doctor broke into a cold sweat.

Shocked… to think of what would have happened to a girl of 17, who just hearing “Khol do” opens down her salwar in spontaneous reflex… shocked with the the capacity of Manto to see, perceive, and depict the truth as naked as it is… Shocked with the courage of a writer to write such a self-critical thing (those boys were on his side of the border)… And the government charged Saadat Hasan Manto for the charges of pornography…

Read Also

Profile of Manto on Boloji.com
Full text of “Khol Do” in Hindi and English translation

Technorati Tags: Urdu Literature,Saadat Hasan Manto,Partition of India

By the River Piedra, I flow and flow and flow...

2011-02-21T18:02:00.003+05:30

Days have passed and I have written nothing. Sometimes you get so engaged in living life that you don’t even get time analyzing things! Life is going such – by the river Piedra I sit and talk; by the river Piedra I laugh and cry; by the river Piedra I live and die and reincarnate myself! Sometimes you live life with all your existence and you don’t get time to analyze things! Yes, I have been having such time nowadays, every moment, every moment of the day and night, I am living my life with all my smiles and tears, with all my joys and sorrows! Once I had just forgotten what I am, who I am, why I am? And was still living – or say was living like a zombie, as a dead body with mechanical powers only! And my God put soul in the zombie, made me a human being, and set me in the world to live every moment, to grow up, and did everything to make me capable of the place he has thought best for me – at the top of the world, at His feet, in His heart!

It happens! By the river Piedra, you sit and think how to cross this vast distance! You effort yourself by the river Piedra and make a raft to cross the river! And you get attached to the raft; you even get attached to the river itself not wanting to get out of it. You just want to flow and flow and flow as the river goes wherever it will go! You just forget that you set in your raft to cross the river not to flow with it, and it happens that even the thought of crossing the river, of reaching another bank, of leaving the river and the raft, kills you! It happens! It happens – I don’t want it to happen! I don’t want to sit and weep on the other bank! I want to flow wherever she will take me, even to the vast sea where I would never have to leave her water and my raft, and thinking I cannot do that, still on the raft, still flowing with the river, I cry, cry like a child, and the river, my God, my mamma, just watches at my tears holding her own tears back for the fear that seeing them I would burst out, and then cries alone that she cannot even offer her lap to rest my head on it!

This morning, I cried again like a kid, still in the raft flowing with the river, and the river, my mamma, seemed too far to me! I know she was hiding her face from me as she cannot hide her tears in front of me! She wants me to go on the other bank, explore the new countries, and give my full life for the reasons she would leave me there! She wants me to just leave my raft with her that she would carry forever wherever she would go! She wants me to not get attached – not to her and not even to the raft! And still flowing, still on my raft, I cried, still crying, and she, my mamma, is not showing up her face to me!

Mamma, please don’t do that, please! Please let me flow with you! Please let me be with you wherever you go, please! You know, the country on the other bank is nothing, just arid land, dry and parched up! I will again start living like a zombie there mamma! Let me be with you – you know, the sea is vast, much larger than the land, there is much more to explore that I cannot even imagine! I am tired of being on land mamma, let me flow; let me flow with you, to the vast sea, where you will forever be with me, in every drop, every moment! I want to go there mamma, please don’t say no, please…

Two Moods from Glimpses of Bengal by Rabindranath Tagore

2011-01-23T15:07:00.001+05:30

Rabindranath Tagore is one of my most favorite authors. Though I have read a very little of him, and though I know no Bengali, whatever I could read in English translations, his writing has been close to my heart.

Glimpses of Bengal is one of the little-known books of Tagore. It is a collection translated letters written by him when he was still young; in his own words in “the most productive period of my literary life, when, owing to great good fortune, I was young and less known.” Tagore finds that writing these letters was a “delightful necessity” for him with accumulation of surplus thoughts and emotions in the days of his exuberant youth when he had ample leisure.

I am presenting here two extracts from this book, which I find very close to my heart. They were written when he was in his 27th and 30th year respectively, in the same phase of life thorough which I am going now. And sometimes I feel, it was me who was writing those lines…

Letter 1: July 1887
I am in my twenty-seventh year. This event keeps thrusting itself before my mind—nothing else seems to have happened of late.

But to reach twenty-seven—is that a trifling thing?—to pass the meridian of the twenties on one's progress towards thirty?—thirty—that is to say maturity—the age at which people expect fruit rather than fresh foliage. But, alas, where is the promise of fruit? As I shake my head, it still feels brimful of luscious frivolity, with not a trace of philosophy.

Folk are beginning to complain: "Where is that which we expected of you—that in hope of which we admired the soft green of the shoot? Are we to put up with immaturity for ever? It is high time for us to know what we shall gain from you. We want an estimate of the proportion of oil which the blindfold, mill-turning, unbiased critic can squeeze out of you."

It has ceased to be possible to delude these people into waiting expectantly any longer. While I was under age they trustfully gave me credit; it is sad to disappoint them now that I am on the verge of thirty. But what am I to do? Words of wisdom will not come! I am utterly incompetent to provide things that may profit the multitude. Beyond a snatch of song, some tittle-tattle, a little merry fooling, I have been unable to advance. And as the result, those who held high hopes will turn their wrath on me; but did any one ever beg them to nurse these expectations?

Such are the thoughts which assail me since one fine Bysakh morning I awoke amidst fresh breeze and light, new leaf and flower, to find that I had stepped into my twenty-seventh year.

Letter 2: Shelidah, 31st Jaistha (June)1892

I hate these polite formalities. Nowadays I keep repeating the line: "Much rather would I be an Arab Bedouin!" A fine, healthy, strong, and free barbarity.

I feel I want to quit this constant ageing of mind and body, with incessant argument and nicety concerning ancient decaying things, and to feel the joy of a free and vigorous life; to have,—be they good or bad,—broad, unhesitating, unfettered ideas and aspirations, free from everlasting friction between custom and sense, sense and desire, desire and action.

If only I could set utterly and boundlessly free this hampered life of mine, I would storm the four quarters and raise wave upon wave of tumult all round; I would career away madly, like a wild horse, for very joy of my own speed! But I am a Bengali, not a Bedouin! I go on sitting in my corner, and mope and worry and argue. I turn my mind now this way up, now the other—as a fish is fried—and the boiling oil blisters first this side, then that.

Let it pass. Since I cannot be thoroughly wild, it is but proper that I should make an endeavour to be thoroughly civil. Why foment a quarrel between the two?

And sometimes I feel, I was the Tagore, thinking to myself "Much rather would I be an Arab Bedouin!"

Disclaimer: The Arab Bedouin are not intended to be uncivilized community.

Let My Love Be Like a Raft For You

2011-01-17T19:54:00.001+05:30

Once the Buddha explained the doctrine of cause and effect to his disciples, and they said that they saw it and understood it clearly. Then the Buddha said: “O bhikkhus, even this view, which is so pure and so clear, if you cling to it, if you fondle it, if you treasure it, if you are attached to it, then you do not understand that the teaching is similar to a raft, which is for crossing over, and not for getting hold of.”

The Buddha has elsewhere explained this famous simile in which his teaching is compared to a raft for crossing over, and not for getting hold of and carrying on one's back: “O bhikkhus, a man is on a journey. He comes to a vast stretch of water. On this side the shore is dangerous, but on the other it is safe and without danger. No boat goes to the other shore which is safe and without danger, nor is there any bridge for crossing over. He says to himself: “This sea of water is vast, and the shore on this side is full of danger; but on the other shore it is safe and without danger. No boat goes to the other side, nor is there a bridge for crossing over. It would be good therefore if I would gather grass, wood, branches and leaves to make a raft, and with the help of the raft cross over safely to the other side, exerting myself with my hands and feet”.

Then that man, O bhikkhus, gathers grass, wood, branches and leaves and makes a raft, and with the help of that raft crosses over safely to the other side, exerting himself with his hands and feet.

Having crossed over and got to the other side, he thinks: “This raft was of great help to me. With its aid I have crossed safely over to this side, exerting myself with my hands and feet. It would be good if I carry this raft on my head or on my back wherever I go”. “What do you think, O bhikkhus, if he acted in this way would that man be acting properly with regard to the raft?”

"No, Sir".

“In which way then would he be acting properly with regard to the raft?”

“Having crossed and gone over to the other side, suppose that man should think: This raft was a great help to me. With its aid I have crossed safely over to this side, exerting myself with my hands and feet. It would be good if I beached this raft on the shore, or moored it and left it afloat, and then went on my way wherever it may be. Acting in this way would that man act properly with regard to that raft.

“In the same manner, O bhikkhus, I have taught a doctrine similar to a raft - it is for crossing over, and not for getting hold of. You, O bhikkhus, who understand that the teaching is similar to a raft, should give up even good things; how much more then should you give up evil things.”

And I thought, let my love be like a raft for you.

Reference: What the Buddha Taught Us by Walpola Rahula.

My Notes: The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm

2011-01-16T14:02:00.001+05:30

The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm was the book I was looking for for the last few days. Finally, I found a PDF copy of it on Scribd. For the most part,the book deals with theory of love. Following are my notes as I was reading the chapter The Theory of Love from it.

Love is an art. As it is an art, it needs knowledge and effort for its nourishment.
The problem of Love is not primarily the problem of being loved, but the problem of loving, of one's capacity to love. Love is an effort to overcome human separateness.
Love is an act of giving -- Giving of ourselves, not from ourselves.

*Basic elements of love: Care, Responsibility, Respect, and Knowledge.

Care: Active concern for the life and growth of that which we love.

Responsibilty: Not something imposed upon one from outside, but one's response to the needs, expressed and unexpressed, of another human being. To be "responsible" means to be able to and ready to "respond."

Responsibility in case of mother and her infant refers mainly to the care for physical needs. In the love
betwen adults, it refers mainly to the psychic needs of the other person.

Respect: Fromm notes the root of this word is respicere i.e. to look at. Respect is not fear and awe, but the ability to look at the person as he is. He should grow and unfold as he is, not as I need him to be. He should
grow for his own sake, not for the purpose of serving me.

Knowledge: Respect to a person is not possile without knowing him. Knowledge not of periphery, but of core. Fromm elaborates this by example of a person who seems angry to us if we see him superficially, but if we try to know him deeply, we may see he is anxious, and worried; that he feels lonely, that he feels guilty. Then we know that his anger is only the manifestation of something deeper, and we see him as anxious and embarrased, that is as the suffering person, rather than as angry one.

Though, knowledge is not trying to know secrets of man.

Fromm notes, "In the act of loving, of giving myself, I find myself, I discover myself, I discover us both, I discover man."

Finally, though the book deals primarily with the theory of love and oftentimes gets too theoritical, it's a treat to read if we can understand, feel, and apply it to our lives.

A Message from Buddha

2011-01-10T12:15:00.000+05:30

Ananda, the favorite disciple of Buddha, having been sent by the Lord on a mission, passed by a well near a village, and seeing Pakati, a girl of Matanga caste, he asked her for water to drink.

Pakati said: “O Brahman, I am too humble and mean to give thee water to drink, do not ask any services of me lest thy holiness be contaminated, for I am of low caste.”

And Ananda replied: “I ask not thee for caste but for water;” and the Matanga girl’s heart leaped joyfully and she gave Ananda to drink.

Ananda thanked her and went away; but she followed him at a distance.

Having heard that Ananda was a disciple of Gotama Sakyamuni, the girl repaired to the Blessed one and cried: “O Lord help me, and let me live in the place where Ananda thy disciple dwells, so that I may see him and minister unto him, for I love Ananda.”

And the Blessed One understood the emotions of her heart and he said: “Pakati, thy heart is full of love, but thou understandest not thine own sentiments. It is not Ananda that thou lovest, but his kindness. Accept, then, the kindness thou hast seen him practise unto thee, and in the humility of thy station practise it unto others.”

I do not know where I stand in this story, but I can see the Buddha telling me “Friend, thy heart is full of love, but thou understandest not thine own sentiments. It is not she that thou lovest, but her kindness.”

Notes:
1. This parable from the life of Buddha is taken from The Gospel of Buddha by Paul Carus.
2. The names here are spelled to match with original Pali names, thus Pakati stands from Prakriti and Gotama for Gautama.
3. Though Pakati calls Ananda as a Brahman, it should be noted that he was a Buddhist monk (Bhikkhu) and not a Brahman.

Separate colonies for Dalits: Is it a solution for the atrocities against them?

2010-12-19T17:35:00.000+05:30

On December 6, the death anniversary of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, I saw a few people at Deekshabhoomi advocating for separate colonies of the Dalits to prevent caste-based atrocities against them. They held the banner of some Vyavastha Parivartan Manch (forum for change in social system). They were proposing an attractive plan, and however impractical the plan was, there was no one to open a debate and assess the plan from every aspect.

The core argument of the Forum was the incidence of Khairlanji could happen only because the Dalits, to which the Bhotmange family belonged, were minority in that village, and this was the chief reason that the perpetrators could work out their plan. They also held that the incident of Khairlanji was not a unique one, not at least an exception, but the atrocities upon the Dalits by the upper castes are a common scene in the villages of India.

Plan for Separate Colonies of Dalits:
The plan for the separate colonies of the Dalits that they suggested was:

Evacuate the Dalit minorities from the villages and settle them in larger colonies of about 5000 people at prominent locations.
Provide them with built residences and agrarian land as they held before their re-settlement.
Separate police stations, educational institutions, etc. for these colonies run by the Dalits wherever possible.
Make constitutional amendments for this plan etc.

My argument:

I strongly oppose this plan, but let me make it clear, before I present my reasons for opposing, that I do not deny the problem. The atrocities against the Dalits are truth. They do happen even 60 years after the commencement of Constitution of India. There is a problem, but the solution that the Forum has provided is not a solution at all.

It is a truth that the Dalits are minorities in our villages, but this is not the sole reason of atrocities against them. The reasons are far deep-seated in the socioeconomic and religious arena.

Lower socioeconomic status of the Dalits is one of the most important reasons of the atrocities happening against them. The Hindu tradition has always considered them at the lowest level of the social structure. It held them even below the Shudras. Orthodox Hinduism never let the Dalits to get a good social status. This, with several other reasons, led to the largest ever mass conversion in his modern world. But even after the conversion to Buddhism, the Dalits were never allowed to get to the social status that they were looking for. Also with regards to economical status, only a small portion of Dalits could improve itself. A large majority remained the same as they were, save the changes that came with ever-evolving time. The main cause behind this was lack of education.

Before going ahead, we should discuss a three-fold reason of lack of education among the Dalits even after conversion to Buddhism.

Poverty.
Lack of taste for education.
Lack of examples in their own group to illustrate benefits of education.

It should be noted that I have noted the third reason specifically because I have noticed several times that Dalit children find no one to look at when they are in their primary and middle schools. They can find not a single example in their own community that would engrave the importance of education on their little minds. They can find no reason why to learn. And what about the well-educated Dalits? They keep away from their own brethren and live in their own world. They establish organizations of themselves, they agitate for their own reasons, and they do everything but assimilate in their own brethren whom they left behind in the villages and urban slums.

What’s the solution?

Let’s go to our original problem. What is the solution to the problem of atrocities against the Dalits? I believe that the way is to correct things in a reverse way.

Set examples. To set examples, the educated Dalits must mix up with the less-fortunate brethren.
By this way, they can create taste for education in them.
Education will help to eradicate poverty and improve socioeconomic status of the lower class Dalits in a long run.

Implications of separate colonies:

Separate colonies of Dalits would cause segregation of the Dalits from the Indian society. This is something like asking a ghetto for themselves. The Constitution of India asks its subjects to ensure Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity amongst its citizens. This move would strongly go against the spirit of Fraternity and hence against the sprit of Constitution of India.

Summary:

There is a problem and there is a solution, but separate colonies of Dalits is not a solution by any means. Segregation would only deteriorate the problem. Improving socioeconomic status of the Dalits by disseminating education in them and creating of taste for education in them by setting examples is the best way as far as I can see. I do not hold that this is the sole and only solution for this problem. There may be some other aspects that I could not see. I would be happy to learn of them.

Memorial by Mahatma Phule to Hunter Commission

2010-11-28T17:39:00.001+05:30

November 28! India pays tribute to one of its most significant social revolutionaries, a man from 19th century who pioneered the movement of social revolution in Modern India, Mahatma Jotirao Phule on his death anniversary. A philosopher, educationist, theologian, and an eminent leader of masses, he is precisely termed as Father of Indian Social Revolution. Amongst the variety of roles he played for the betterment of the masses, today we are going to talk about his pioneer role in the educational system in modern India and specifically about the memorial to the Hunter Education Commission by him in 1882.

Background

Since the establishment of its rule, the British East India Company had done almost nothing for education in India till 1813. In 1813, for the first time, the Company arranged some funds for promoting education in India. The medium of education was English. By the year 1855, there were only 1474 educational institutions that were run or aided by the government for the population of 200 million. Only 67,569 student were getting education from these intuitions. Also, here were 1628 Christian missionary schools with about 64,000 students in them. Since the Wood’s Dispatch of 1854 through 1882, the government took some important steps for higher education, but primary education was almost neglected. In the economical year of 1881-82, out of 70,00,000 rupees spent by government on education, only 16,77,000 were spent on primary education. On this background, Lord Rippon appointed an education commission under the chairmanship of William Hunter. This commission reiterated the key points of the Wood’s Dispatch, though it suggested to pay more attention of primary education and education to backward classes.

Memorial by Mahatma Phule to Hunter Commission

The memorial to Hunter Commission by Mahatma Phule is a document of immense importance to understand the educational developments in Modern India. Recorded about a century and a quarter ago, it speaks of some key ideas that are an essential part of modern Indian educational system. He not only speaks of compulsory education to all, but also of creating a taste of knowledge among the backward classes.

In this document, Phule argues that the theory adopted by government that education should go down from the upper classes of society to the masses is nothing but a “utopian” idea. He further goes on to ask for a single example of the truth of this theory. To quote him, the higher classes have “kept their knowledge to themselves, as a personal gift, not be soiled by contact of the ignorant vulgar.” He claims that the educational system has become a monopoly of the higher classes and “if the welfare of the Ryot is at heart, if it is the duty of the Government to check a host of abuses, it behoves them to narrow this monopoly day by day so as to allow a sprinkling of the other castes to get into the public services.”

With regards to compulsory education, he says “I think primary education of the masses should be made compulsory up to a certain age, say at least 12 years.” He notes that the cultivating classes hold aloof of education owing to extreme poverty and also because lack of taste for learning. He asks for special inducements in the form of scholarships, annual prizes, etc. to create in them that taste.

He also notes his observations about the indigenous schools and higher education in this document. However, I do not plan to note it all in the present article. I believe that reading the Memorial in original would be much more beneficial, thus we, the Team of Ghalibana, are posting the original document in PDF form along with this post so that you can save it for yourself or take a print of it and read it thoroughly. This original document, though in public domain, was not available on net till date. We have typed it out ourselves and proofread it twice to avoid any errors from our side. It would be beneficial for both our general readers and scholars to present it in as-it-is form.

We would like to hear from our readers about this project. This is for the first time that we are presenting an original source to our readers. If you find this useful, please let us know. If you have any comments, queries, concerns, or feedbacks, please feel free to leave a note. We love feedbacks.

Once again, our heartiest tribute to that Nobel Soul, Father of Indian Social Revolution, Mahatma Phule.

Click here for the complete document in Google Docs.

Is Hinduism really in danger?

2010-10-03T17:39:00.002+05:30

Over the last couple of days, numerous hoardings have been sprung up on the streets of Nagpur depicting Narendra Maharaj (who is claimed to be Jagadguru, the spiritual mentor of the world, by his followers) proclaiming Hinduism is in danger as it has no state support anywhere in the world (particularly in India). These posters are apparently a part of the bigger agenda of the Hindutva Parivar to polarize the Hindus against the non-Hindus and thus create a vote bank for the Hindu fundamentalist parties. Though such efforts particularly appear to the common man, these also do raise serious questions in the minds of those Indians who are proud of the principal of secularism enshrined in the Constitution of India.
Is Hinduism really in danger? From whom? Left us handle this question a bit systemically. A Hindu state has been a longstanding demand of the Hindutva fundamentalists in India dating back to the early years of the 20th century when V. D. Sawarkar coded the philosophy of Hindutva in his book Hindutva. India, as claimed by the Pariwar, itself is a Hindu nation because of its Hindu majority. But India also has a large population of Muslims too. India has the third largest Muslim population in the world only after Indonesia and Pakistan. As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has correctly noted, “Too see India just as a country of Hindus is a fairly bizarre idea in the face of that fact alone (the fact of its Muslim population), not to mention the intermingling of Hindus and Muslims in the social and cultural life of India.” Also India has been home to a large number of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, Parsis, and so on. All these people are Indians by Nationality, and due to this fact, claiming India to be a solely Hindu nation is really a “bizarre India.”

Another aspect of this question is does Hinduism (or any religion for that matter) really needs state support? Indeed, religious have been spread and flourished for ages by state help. State support of Ashoka to Buddhism, of Arabs to Islam, of Romans to Christianity have been helped a lot to spread those religions all over the world in the past. Hinduism had spread to Java and Sumatra with the imperialist kings of South India. But those were the things of past. Is it possible in this age to convert a mass of people from one religion to another by force? Yes, conversions still occur, but there are various reasons behind those and force has little, if any, role to play with it. Religion is supported by its followers. If state has any role to support it, it is secondary. We have seen in the history that religion like Din-e-Ilahi, which was founded by the Akbar, could survive even in his lifetime though it was the regions professed by the emperor himself. And as a matter of fact, Hinduism has survived for ages despite the fact that India has been a subject of various foreign powers for a vast period over this time. This proves that state support is absolutely secondary force in survival and flourishing of any religion. An in a secular state like India, it is absolute unnecessary.

Let us move towards our main question: Is Hinduism really in danger? It is totally impossible to believe that such an overwhelming majority can be in danger for the minorities. And not merely a majority of numbers, but a majority in every aspect of state – legislation, executive, judiciary, press, military, etc. But this is a less important argument. Hindus are safe not because they are in majority, but because of the multireligious harmony that has been a core part of our Indianness.

Despite the interreligious harmony, conversions do happen in India, and sometimes en masse, but state has nothing to do with it. The Constitution of India has given us a fundamental right to accept and profess a faith of our own choice. What make the people to give up the beloved faith of their ancestors is the most important question . The hostile approach of the upper-class Hinds towards the depressed classes make the poor people to incline towards any love shown by others to them. Many peoples of scheduled tribes have accepted Christianity because of this reason. Another prominent example is of the so-called untouchables who converted to Buddhism en masse, about 400,000, under the able leadership of Dr. Ambedkar. We cannot blame them for their act, because they had been treated rather inhumanly by the Hindus for ages.

The above examples light up the fact that if there is any real danger to Hinduism in a long run, it is from the fundamentalist Hindus themselves who have hijacked the term Hindu for their selfish aims. Their hostility towards their own people and their belligerent attitude towards the others have made a common Hindu to think seriously about his being a Hindu. As Bhalchandra Nemade, a prominent Marathi author, has noted:

"Once Hindu meant all the people living on this side of Sindhu (Indus) River. But now Hindu has become a word in the hands of Hindu fundamentalists, it has been a matter of shame to call yourself a Hindu."

This is not a feeling of Nemade alone. It is a feeling of every common Hindu who is proud of India’s multireligious harmony. To protect our Indianness, the antisecular agenda must be fought against with all of our strength. We are not a Hindu, Muslim, Christan, Buddhist, or Sikh nation – We are Indian at first and Indian from the heart.

To quote Amartya Sen again, “There are good reasons to resist the antisecular enticements... The winter of our discontent might not be giving way at present to a glorious summer, but the political abandonment of secularism would make India more wintry than it currently is.”

*Notes*
1. Sen, Amartya (2005), The Argumentative Indian, “Secularism and Its Discontent”, London: Penguin Books. P. 308
2. Nemade, Bhalchandra, “Reviving the true Hindu Ethos”, An interview with Meena Menon, The Hindu, July 4, 2010.

Hemingway, his old man, and me!

2010-09-19T17:57:00.001+05:30

After the failure of 84 consecutive days, the old man got a fish to his hook. Then started the real struggle. The old man had never been defied. He had not lost hopes even after returning with empty hands for eighty four days. For the 85th time, he put his ship in the sea. And this time, he caught his luck. But this was not the final victory. The real victory was in keeping the luck sustained, in getting to shore with it. Here was the real test, real fight -- not with the fish, not the sea -- the fight was with himself, with his luck. The old man knew -- what it happened was too good to get done with it.

Then started teh real fight. The old man easily defied the first shark. Then came many. The old man lost his axe, then went the knife, the the last big stick he had. But the old man did not lose. He stil had hope. His fight was still going on. His body was going against him, but the old man had not lost.

While keeping teh struggle with all his sufferings, all pain, he finally noticed -- the fish, his luck, has almost been eaten up by the sharks. He had nothing to lose now. There was nothing left to fight for. Suddenly, the old man felt very calm. How easy life becomes once you accept the defeat?

It's Sunday! The only leisure day of the week. Why do I need this leisure? -- to do something, to read something! But what if there isn't anything to read. Usually we have Loksatta on Sundays, only on Sundays! And today--saving 3 rupees of Loksatta and adding 2 more to it can buy Tab. Deriphylline -- so Loksatta cancelled.

Then what -- once again Hemingwe's old man! The old man lost the axe fighting against the luck, then his knife, then the last emergency stick -- and finally luck! The old man accepted his defeat and suddenly his life became calm. How easy life becomes once you accept defeat?

Tripped over this line -- how easy life becomes once you accet the defeat? I stopped. It's off all the day. No work. Just have good sleep all over the day. Evening at in-laws. Today is Rajasthan Royals versus Chennai Superkings match. Can watch the match in the evening. Rajasthan Royals should win. No work all the day. How easy life becomes once you accept the defeat.

Suddenly tripped over and stopped. Who accepted defeat? Me? When, where, how? Am I defeated? Is it a defeat to live in comfort? Thought get on whirling!

The old man fought till the last moment. He kept on fighting till the complete defeat. His life was full of struggles, but it was the life of a winner. And mine? Where is the struggle? Is it a struggle to be happy the earning of mere 4 or 5 thousand? Is it a struggle to kill your littlemost wants for financial reasons? It is a damn defeat! Get going with whatever present conditions -- to keep things going as they are -- is a defeat!

What should I be doing at this moment? There is MPSC prelim after 3 weeks -- need to appear UPSC next year. I am struggle-less. I am cool. I have no hopes in my mild. Where do I stand? Am I a winner because I'm liviging a happy-go married life or a defeated one because I am still standing where I was yesterday?

The old man's defeat was not a defeat. It was a victory from another viewpoint. To earn money is another thing, but the feeling of "I am a bit different old man" that nurtures your self -- his struggle ws to make people believe on this feeling. He had lost the fish, but even the skeleton was enough to make people believe that he was indeed a different old man. His defeat was not a defeat at all.

Sunday morning spent with the old man! Shedded some tears. But the old man gave a thump -- Be careful my son, you're going to do a crime.

To lose is not a crime. In some way, the old man was too lost. Real crime is to keep on afloating with whatever comes. Keep on struggling, to put a foot forward from where you are is a victory. To be an xxx is not a victory. It is just a step! The definition of victory is confirmed. Sometimes, an old fisherman too teaches you a lesson for life.

~ Ganesh Dhamodkar

(This is a translation of my own article I wrote about 2 years ago in May of 2008. Translated by myself. )

Charvaka: The Pioneer of Skepticism in World History

2010-06-10T17:33:00.012+05:30

Charvaka is the materialistic and naturalistic school of thoughts in India Philosophy. Charvaka, literally one who speaks sweet, founded his philosophy on the thoughts of this world rather than the mystic accounts of Vedas and supernatural god and heaven. Charvaka denies the authenticity and holiness of Vedas and hence is termed as Nastika (nonbeliever) by the Vedic tradition.^[1] He denied the existence of supernatural God. He denied the claims that the Vedas are created by God. He held that they are made by human beings and so they must be open to scrutiny. To him the Vedas were mere utterances, devoid of any meaning, meant to "confound and confuse the common people."

The central thesis of the Charvaka philosophy is worldly materialism. This consists of at least two basic principles: Firstly, there is nothing beyond the life except physiochemical and neuropsychological functions; and secondly, the soul and after life are stories of fantasy as the gods and demons. Such belief were quite contrary to the chanting and rituals of the Vedic ways. Because of propagating such beliefs, Charvakas had to confront with the Vedicas several times and the Brahmins showed the greatest cruelty to finish Charvakas several times. In fact, we can read in Mahabharata how a Charvaka was burnt dead by the Brahmanas in the court of Yudhishthira itself.^[2]

Charvaka represented one of the very first skeptic rebels in the world history and we see today that the world believe more in the philosophy of Charvaka's materialism rather than the mystic Vedicas and cunning Mimansa. Whatever say the Vedic tradition; this is the victory of Charvakas over the Brahminical tradition of mysticism and unreality. This marks the greatness of Charvaka over the Vedic tradition. But the greatness of their school should not be judged based only on this victory. Charvakas were among the first philosophers in the world history to raise question against the traditional knowledge and this gives them the unique place in the world history. Charvaka merely stand for those skeptical rebels who has spoken out in all great civilizations now and again.

Notes:

1. Dr. A. H. Salunkhe, an eminent Sanskrit scholar and author of Aastikshiromani Charvaka argues that the term Nastika is not used honesty by the Vedic cult. Literally, Nastika means one who does not believe in something. Technically, this term is used for Buddhism, Jainism, and Charvaka who does not believe in the authority of Vedas. Dr. Salunkhe states that despite of this original meaning, the term was made popular meaning as one who does not believe in existence of god or anything that is good. He argues that Charvaka's philosophy did believe in well-being in this very world and hence should be termed as The Gem of the Aastikas as opposed to a Nastik. Salunkhe AH (In Marathi), Aastikshiromani Charvaka (1992), Satara: Lokayat Prakashan.

2. When Yudhishthira enters the city of Hastinapura after the victory of Kurukshetra, Charvaka accuses him in the open of having committed the crime of murdering his kith and kin. The Brahmins were appalled; they exposed him as a friend of Duryodhana in Brahminical guise, and condemned him to death. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Sanskrit Literature (2004), Volume I, Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House, pp. 283-285.

* I found two well-written posts on blog world about the same subject by The Infidel and by Domenic Marbaniang. I hope our readers will find them helpful. The first one is in French, you can use Google Translate to translate it in the language of your choice.

Paul Laurence Dunbar: Life and Poetry

2010-05-15T15:48:00.011+05:30

Paul Laurence Dunbar

I am not a great admirer of English poetry. My literary taste is nourished on classics of Urdu poetry. My philosophy about life owes a lot to the great poets of Urdu language from Ghalib to Iqbal and Faiz to Faraz. Also in my own mother tongue Marathi, we have some fine pieces of poetry from medieval ages of Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram to modern voice of Marathi Dalit poetry. Hailing from such a great literary background, I am a bit skeptic about English poetry. It is true that I have read only a little of it, but whatever I read, it could not catch my nerves and soul. But all of this was only until yesterday when I saw the name of Paul Laurence Dunbar somewhere while surfing. I saw his name somewhere in some google ad and just for curiosity made a google search. The words were:

My days are never days of ease;
I till my ground and prune my trees.
When ripened gold is all the plain,
I put my sickle to the grain.
I labor hard, and toil and sweat,
While others dream within the dell;
But even while my brow is wet,
I sing my song, and all is well.

(The Poet and His Song, 1885)

These words, as they sound pretty similar to the Marathi Dalit poetry, prompted me to make a further search.

Paul Laurence Dunbar born in an African-American former slave family in the State of Ohio just a few years after the American Civil War ended. His mother was a former slave. His father was a Veteran in American Army during the Civil War. After separation of his parents, Paul grew up under the loving care of his mother. She always encouraged Paul to read and write poetry and he began writing as early as six. His first poetry collection Oak and Ivy published in 1892 when he was just 20 years old. Though his book was received well locally, Dunbar still had to work as an elevator operator to help pay off his debt to his publisher. In 1893, he was invited to recite at the World's Fair, where he met Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist who rose from slavery to political and literary prominence in America. Douglass called Dunbar "the most promising young colored man in America." It was Dunbar's second book that propelled him to national fame. William Dean Howells, a novelist and widely respected literary critic who edited Harper's Weekly, praised Dunbar's book in one of his weekly columns and launched Dunbar's name into the most respected literary circles across the country.

Dunbar died at a very early age of 33 from tuberculosis and depression from separation from his wife. He ultimately produced 12 books of poetry, four books of short stories, a play and five novels. His work appeared in Harper's Weekly, the Sunday Evening Post, the Denver Post, Current Literature and a number of other magazines and journals. He was a poet with a dream and he had his dream all through his life.

He had his dream, and all through life,
Worked up to it through toil and strife.
Afloat fore'er before his eyes,
It colored for him all his skies:
          The storm-cloud dark
          Above his bark,
The calm and listless vault of blue
Took on its hopeful hue,
It tinctured every passing beam --
          He had his dream.

He labored hard and failed at last,
His sails too weak to bear the blast,
The raging tempests tore away
And sent his beating bark astray.
          But what cared he
          For wind or sea!
He said, "The tempest will be short,
My bark will come to port."
He saw through every cloud a gleam --
          He had his dream.
    (He Had His Dream)

Medieval Temples of Satgaon

2010-05-11T14:38:00.012+05:30

Satgaon is a small village in Chikhli Tehsil of Buldhana district. It is situated about 10 miles to the south of Buldhana. The village is locally known as Satgaon Bhusari to distinguish it from another village on Buldhana-Dhad road with the same name. Not much significant is the village with the population of just above 2000 and I did not even know its name until now even though I stayed at Buldhana for two years from 2000 to 2002 for my junior college studies. Why the village caught up my attention recently is the existence of four old temples located there, which are as old as the 12th to 13th century. This was only because of my utter ignorance about them that I did not visit the place during my days at Buldhana.

Few days ago, I found an impressive book in the Government Press Book Store at Nagpur that was the District Gazetteer of Buldhana originally published in 1910 by the British Government. This book is the work of immense importance as it gives a vivid picture of the district, its people, its land, its flora and fauna, its culture and heritage, etc. While describing the archeological heritage of the district, the gazetteer gives the detailed account of the temples at Satgaon. This description is worth to read in original. The gazetteer notes:

This village is of some importance by reason of its antiquarian remains, showing the existence of Jainism side by side with Brahmanism. There are ruins of temples and statuary which show that out of four temples now traceable, three were Hindu and one was Jain. They are all in a dilapidated state, one of them being a total wreck. The principal temple is that of Vishnu to the west of the village. It is somewhat peculiarly built in that it faces the west instead of the east as usual. The image of Vishnu is broken and lost, leaving only his feet above the figure of Garuda which is his conveyance, and which is still in situ. The temple is much dilapidated, but it is a fine structure. The ceilings of the mandapa and the exterior walls of the shrine are well decorated, and in style seem to stand half way between the later temples of the 13th and 14th centuries and those of the 11th. To prevent further decay, the Archaeological Department has taken it under its charge.

At a short distance behind the Vishnu temple is a remnant of a small temple of Mahadeva, which is in a very ruined condition; the entrance to it is from the east side, local mud walls having recently been built in the verandah of the mandira. Inside the temple there is a linga and outside the Nandi; the door is elaborately carved and has Ganesh on the dedicatory block, above which there are niches with figures of Vaishnavi, Brahmi and Parvati. These are all goddesses, the wives of the gods constituting the Hindu Trinity. It is, however, noticeable that there are no figures of gods to be seen there. The third Hindu temple is to the north of the Vishnu temple and, as already stated, is a wreck. Of the fourth, which was apparently a Jain temple, all that now remains are four standing pillars. A short distance to the north-west of this is a large pipal tree with a high platform around its base on which are some fragments of old images. Among them is the lower portion of an image of the Jain god Parasnath with an inscription of two lines beneath, dated Shaka1173 (A.D. 1251). It is Digambara, its nakedness being distinctly indicated. Apparently it was originally enshrined in the temple, of which the four pillars remain. Another noticeable image on the platform is that of a Devi which is broken, but above her head there is a wreath of flowers at the top of which is seated a little Jina, indicating that the Devi does not belong to the Hindu but to the Jain pantheon. (Buldhana District Gazetteer, 1910, pp. 461—62).

Vishnu Temple at Satgaon (copyright HistoryBuilt )

There are also some photographs of these temples in the gazetteer which were taken about 100 years ago. It would be a pleasure for me if I could upload some of those images on Ghalibana, but it is not possible for now because of some technical difficulties; however, I have added one newer photograph that I found on HistoryBuilt to this post. I will try to scan and upload the old images on Ghalibana soon and also will upload on Wikimedia Commons as they are now in public domain. The gazetteer also has some more images and information about some nearby temples at Dhotra, Shendrujan, and Lonar. I am looking forward to upload all of then on Commons.

More information about these temples can be found in the booklet Medieval Temple of Satgaon by Dr. G. B. Deglurkar published by Nagpur University in 1973. I would be happy if I can find an opportunity to visit these temples in future as they are located at just within 100 km from my hometown Nandura, though it could be difficult in the near future as I no more reside at Nandura. Those who are interested in the subject or who have more information are welcome to write me as a comment to this post.

For more information about the Jain temples around the world, please refer to Jain Temples of India and Around the World.

Maharashtra State Cultural Policy, 2010: A step forward

2010-05-04T10:00:00.006+05:30

Maharashtra has always played a leading role in the social movements in India. This is the land where Sant Dnanyneshwar denied the monopoly of Sanskrit language over knowledge and wrote a commentary on Bhagwad Gita in Marathi, the language of the masses. This is the land where Sant Tukaram (circa 1608-1650) fought with all his strength against the hegemony of old Brahminical culture, wrote about 8000 lyrical abhangas (short poems), was executed for it as being a Shudra he had no right to read or write as per the varna system of Hinduism, and was allegedly killed for his revolt against the old decayed (but still strong) social order where no one but the priest class was lord of all socioeconomic privileges. This is the land where the great Shivaji, nearly contemporary of Sant Tukaram, became the first crowned King in Maharashtra who ruled for well-being of the masses. This is the land where Mahatma Phule (1827-1890) and his wife Savitribai Phule started a real social revolution of the masses, started girl education in India by opening the first girl school at Pune, and challenged the hegemony supremacy of Hindu law which kept a large section of people away from all kind of knowledge for ages. And finally, this is the land where Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) hit a final blow on the varna system by converting to Buddhism with almost half a million of his followers in this very city from which I am typing this post making Buddhism again a living religion in its motherland after being uprooted for about a thousand years. This is the land of revolution, counter-revolutions, and again revolutions.

But writing this post today, I do not intend to unfold the social culture of Maharashtra, but I wish to congratulate the Government of Maharashtra for officially declaring its cultural policy on in this Golden Jubilee year of the state. The Maharashtra State Cultural Policy, 2010 was declared on this May Day. This is the document that proposes the future steps in which the states should march to keep its rich heritage alive. Dr. A. H. Salunkhe, one of the greatest Sanskrit scholar and social reformer in the state, had handed over the draft of this policy to the government earlier in January. This draft was published on the website of the Government of Maharashtra for open discussion and opinions were requested from the people of the state. After four months of public discussion in press, the policy was finally declared on May 1, 2010.

The separate cultural policy for some state must not be considered as regionalism as some of the newspapers held. The very first fundamental principle on which the draft stands states, "This policy is drafted in a way so as to fulfill the fundamental objectives of the Constitution of India." Some important aspects of this policy would give a broad view to our readers about this policy:

1. A fund of 4% from the budget of the state will be reserved for cultural issues.

2. Arrangement of State Cultural Fund for future plans.

3. Bhasha Bhavan (Language Home) for development of Marathi language.

4. Formation of Language Advisory Board.

5. Developing the branch of Maharashtra Studies just like Orientology and Indology.

6. Establishment of South Asia Research Institute.

7. Standardization of written language.

8. A separate academy for study of different dialects of Marathi language.

9. Creating amphitheaters at tehsil levels and about 500-seater theaters at district level for development of stage.

10. Encouraging classical music.

11. Establishing study centers in foreign countries e.g. Dr. Ambedkar Study Center in Columbia University, USA and Maharshi Vitthal Ramji Shinde Study Center at Oxford University, UK.

These are only a few aspects of the policy. Only an overview to these points is sufficient to prove comprehensiveness of the policy. The complete policy is available on the website of Government of Maharashtra (www.maharashtra.gov.in). This is the work the government must be congratulated for.

Life in Kenya: As it is seen from where I stand

2010-02-03T08:43:00.010+05:30

Over the last week I had been going through the last few pages of Glimpses of World History wherein Nehru's description of erstwhile Kenya caught up my attention. Kenya too, like India, was a part of the British Empire then. Nehru portrayed a live picture of brutalities and inhumanities by the British in Kenya. This description is worth to be read in original. After describing the condition of Indians living in Kenya, Nehru writes:

The poor Africans are far worse off. Originally all the land was in their possession and was their only source of income. Huge areas of this were confiscated by the government, and free grants of land were made to the European settlers. These settlers or plantars are thus big landholders there now. They pay no income tax and hardly any other tax. Almost the whole burden of taxation is on the down-trodden African. It was not easy to tax the African, for he possesses next to nothing. A tax was put on certain necessities of life for him, like flour and clothing, and indirectly he had to pay it when he bought them. But the most extraordinary tax of all was a direct hut and poll tax on every male over 16 years old and his dependants, which included women. The principle of this taxation is that people should be taxed out of what they earn or possess. As the African possessed practically nothing else, his body was taxed! But how was he to pay this poll tax of twelve shillings per person per year if he had no money? Therein lay the craftiness of this tax, for it forced him to earn some money by working on the plantation of the European settlers, and thus paying the tax. It was a device not only to get money, but also cheap labour for the plantations. So these unhappy Africans sometimes have to travel enormous distances, coming from the interior 700 or 800 miles away to the plantations near the coast (there are no railways in the interior and just a few near the coast), in order to earn enough wages to pay their poll tax.

This paragraph was written in 1933 describing what the erstwhile Kenya was going through. Kenya was living a life of complete humiliation and had to suffer such life for 30 more years when she got independence from the Great Britain on December 12, 1963. This was the period when the Africans were not allowed to live as human beings. Anything like Fundamental Rights was a completely alien things and reign of brutality was let loose.

Reading this letter from the Glimpses created curiosity in my mind about the present life in Kenya after about 46 years of independence. It was the time when a team of about 25 Kenyan athletes was in the city for Nagpur International Marathon. This further boosted my curiosity about the current Kenya. I was expecting quite a good improvement in the life standard of Kenyans after 46 years of independence, but the picture was not that bright.

The first and most prominent thing I could found was the current water crisis in Kenya. I learn that water is sold in the capital Nairobi at USD 1.3 for 20 liters whereas petrol costs $1.5 per liter. I also found that a large section of the population feels that man can do nothing to help Kenya to come out of this crisis and she needs prayers rather than human efforts. Also I learnt from the environmental magazine 'Down to Earth', and it was quite shocking for me, that just 3% of the country is covered by forests. Furthermore, poverty, illiteracy, draughts, famines, food crisis were all the things that did not create a good enough image in mind.

I was really surprised after quite long googling for not finding even a single thing going good for Kenya. Of course, there was an exception of Wangari Maathai winning Nobel Prize for her work on environmental problems. But, this was exceptional and the general picture seem from where I am standing is of a dark night only.

At last, indeed, I found a blog (which was only of its kind) by an undergraduate Kenyan girl who speaks about her love and her pain from negligence by her lover and ends up hoping for a bright morning after a long nightmare. "Sleeping while hoping this nightmare i might arise from when morning came" she writes and I felt this as a general feeling of the Kenyans, rather general feeling of the oppressed from anywhere in the world.

I have not done any formal study on this subject. I know that what I see can only be one side of the picture and the real Kenya with all these difficulties would be as hopeful and as enthusiastic about future as the undergraduate Kenyan girl. I hope someone from Kenya writing me that most of what I wrote is not the truth, but only a delusion of it. I would not like to see a Kenyan girl standing in a queue for a bottle of drinking water, but forthrightly accusing me for making a false image of Kenya from lack of study. I am hoping somebody to correct me. Let me end with the words of the undergraduate Kenyan girl: "I must begin to see the sun beneath the misty fog. Smile when the morning comes."

The Journey from Independence Day to Republic Day

2010-01-27T08:18:00.002+05:30

India celebrated her 61st Republic Day yesterday. This day commemorates the commencement of Constitution of India on January 26, 1950. India attained independence from the British Rule on August 15, 1947; however, she did not have her own constitution at that time and her status was still of a Dominion under the British Crown with at first Lord Mountbatten and then C. Rajgopalachari as its representatives in India. The government ran in accordance to the Government of India Act 1935 in this period. This was to be continued until India frames up and adopts her own constitution. In order to create the constitution, the Constitution Committee was set up with Dr. Rajendra Prasad as its chairman and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar as the chairman of its Drafting Committee. The committee adopted the constitution on November 26, 1949; however, its commencement was postponed by two months until January 26, 1950.

There was a particular reason behind this move. To understand this reason, we have to go back 20 more years in the history.

The Calcutta Congress of December 1928 adopted the Nehru Report, which recommended a constitution similar to that of the British Dominions. But even in adopting it, the congress did so provisionally, and fixed a time-limit of one year. If there were no agreement with the British Government on this basis within a year, then the congress was to revert to complete independence. Thus the country was inevitably heading towards a crisis.

At the one-year ultimatum given to the British Government to grant Dominion status to India ended, Gandhiji's resolution on December 31, 1929 declared that the word Swarajya in the Article 1 of Congress Constitution shall mean Complete Independence. It was passed. It asked all congressman and nationalists to resign from the legislatures. To achieve this aim, it was decided to launch a Civil Disobedience Movement. At the midnight of December 31, 1929 Jawaharlal Nehru, then president of Lahore Congress, unfurled the newly adopted Tricolor Flag of freedom on the bank of River Ravi.

The congress also decided that 26 January would be observed as the Independence Day all over the country every year. On January 26, 1930 Independence Day was observed all over the country and in thousands of meetings, the people took a pledge, which said:

We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have a further right to alter or abolish it. The British Government in India has not only deprives the Indian people of their freedom, but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain 'Purna Swarajya' or Complete Independence.

They declared that it was a "crime against man and God to submit any longer" to the British Rule. This day was observed as the Independence Day every year as long as the British ruled India. Later, this memorable day was chosen as India's Republic Day, the day on which independent India's constitution came in force.

Thus the day, January 26, which was till 1947 was celebrated as Independence Day, in 1950, became Republic Day of India. It marked complete independence from all the British connections as bestowed the ultimate sovereignty upon the people of India as the people of a Sovereign Democratic Republic.

References:

1. Modern India (NCERT)

2. Unique Quintessence of General Studies.

3. Nehru, Jawaharlal, Glimpses of World History, Letter #162 (Peaceful Rebellion in India)

Presidential Address on the Eve of Republic Day of India by Smt. Pratibha Patil

2010-01-26T07:51:00.005+05:30

(Here is the complete text of the presidential address by Smt. Pratibha Patil on the eve of 61st Republic Day of India)

My fellow citizens,

On the eve of our 61st Republic Day, I extend my warmest greetings to all of you across the country and also to those living abroad. To the members of our Armed Forces and Para-military forces who guard our frontiers and to our internal security forces, I extend my special greetings.

26th January, this year marks the completion of six decades of working, striving and, all along, being guided by the principles and objectives of the Constitution that was framed after careful deliberations and adopted in 1950. I often recall the speech of Mahatma Gandhi at the launch of the Quit India Movement on 8th August, 1942, where he said that power, when it comes, will belong to the people of India. The wish of the Father of the Nation found expression in the very opening words of the Constitution - We, the people of India. This was a strong affirmation that the impulses of the nation and its future would be guided by its people. They would reflect their aspirations and choices, through democratic means. They would also enjoy the fundamental rights that guarantee their freedoms and dignity. Today, is a reminder that upholding the values, determining the direction and propelling the growth of our nation is a task that must be fulfilled by every citizen of the country.

In the first decade of the 21st century, India witnessed transformational changes. It also emerged as a force driving change in the world. Our achievements and experiences have, indeed, brought the nation to a definitional stage, where the promise of a bright future as a developed and progressive nation is for us to claim, as we all work together with conviction and commitment. However, as we overcome deficiencies and convert our strengths into an energetic force, we must remain deeply conscious of what we must preserve and what we must change.

Foremost amongst what we must continue with, is our democratic principles and way of life. We have ably demonstrated that we are a functioning democracy, by time and again, choosing our governments through the ballot and by taking democracy to the grassroots. Also, as we are aware, democracy is very much more demanding. It is the rule of law. It is the rule of reason. And, as India has shown to the world, it is the rule of non-violence. Democracy involves a pattern of behavior, in which every individual must act responsibly, show respect towards dissimilar opinions and address differences in a constructive and accommodative manner. This will build harmony and tolerance - values which are intrinsic to our philosophy; these form the bedrock of a society that embraces the diversity of language, religion and culture to create a composite whole. These values must be followed uninterruptedly in a nation that is, as vast and as varied as ours.

Secularism, our constitutionally chosen path, entails respect for all religions. Its place in our national life is unalterable. India is a land where followers of different religions have lived together for centuries. We must maintain social cohesion. Our tradition of living in accord with each other must continue to form an integral part of the rhythm of life of our future generations.

Belonging to a civilization that has deep reverence towards nature, we must also be sensitive inhabitants of the Planet, in which climate change has become a major challenge. We must judiciously use its resources, work to conserve its rich flora and fauna as well as adopt environment friendly approaches. Use of energy efficient technologies and renewable sources of energy, are some steps that can reduce the carbon footprint.

Dear Citizens, our nation has made significant strides. We are the fourth largest economy of the world in terms of purchasing power parity. Our target of achieving a double digit growth rate is plausible and realistic, given our impressive performance during the last decade and our resilience during the global economic downturn. We should continue with policies that promote growth, and also take growth patterns to the bottom of the pyramid and, to those currently outside its purview. Empowering the poor and the disadvantaged, enabling them to move up the economic ladder, to join the ranks of the prosperous, is a task that must be accomplished by all of us. Women need to be made full and equal partners. The inclusive growth strategy, which we have chosen, can make our growth process equitable and sustainable.

The roadmap to inclusive growth requires social justice that can be delivered through an effective social sector infrastructure. It should make quality education and good health facilities available to all citizens, along with social services and job opportunities. This, in turn, will create a human resource base which has the skills, knowledge and capacity to work productively. Hence, our attention must remain focused on this, especially as we have a young population. They must be nurtured and prepared for taking up their responsibilities. Future growth in all sectors will depend on knowledge workers and skilled workforces. They can make our economy dynamic, our service sector efficient and competitive, our manufacturing industries broad based and our agriculture and allied sectors strong. Furthermore, integrating and developing linkages between sectors, say agriculture and industry, will further reinforce growth. These linkages can be fortified by having connectivity at various levels. For a nation which is the seventh largest in geographical terms and the second largest in terms of population, our existing physical infrastructure is inadequate. This constrains and limits connectivity. We have to change this situation. The number of bridges, roads, harbours as well as our power generation capacity and transport facilities, among others, require extensive additions. But, do not forget that along with these structures of cement, steel and mortar, it is also important to bridge our differences, build roads to connect hearts and minds, harbour compassion, generate goodwill towards all and transport these feelings to strengthen the unity of the nation. We will also have to create an atmosphere for our citizens to exercise their rights and tell them to perform their duties as well. This is important to make the development of a democratic nation of over one billion people, participatory and sustainable. In the next decade, not only must we witness the speedy building up of infrastructure, but also a greater cohesiveness among citizens.

A bottleneck and an impediment in bringing about the desired results, for which policies and schemes have been formulated and huge allocation of funds made, is weak implementation and corruption in the system. The causes of the chronic ailment of tardy implementation have to be treated. There should be accountability for lack of implementation of projects, programmes and schemes. This is critical for bringing about positive change.

Public-Private Partnerships and SHGs, that is Self-Help Groups, are important mechanisms for outcome-oriented action and for creating a wide network of stakeholders for growth. There have been numerous examples of how women in urban and rural areas have been able to become financially self-reliant through the SHG route. A movement towards universalisation of SHGs, that brings within its ambit all eligible women, can be a powerful instrument for the economic empowerment of women and for inclusive growth. Facilitation of their formation and functioning will, thus, create a wave of progress and change.

Dear Citizens, the world over, as also in our country, there is a rising demand for food-grains. This foretells the need for an intense focus on increasing agriculture productivity to ensure food availability, particularly of agricultural produces which are in short supply, to avoid spiraling food prices. To achieve this very important objective, I call for urgent steps towards a Second Green Revolution. There should be use of new technologies, better seeds, improved farming practices, effective water management techniques, as well as more intense frameworks for connecting the farmer with the scientific community, with lending institutions and with markets. Our farmers are ready and willing to work, earn and learn. We have to respond positively and do some "out of the box thinking". Higher agriculture incomes will improve the living standards of the over 145 million rural households, in the over six lakh villages of the country. With higher income levels, the rural economy will generate demand and provide impetus for growth in other sectors. Recognizing this reality, we have to involve the agriculture economy more pro-actively into the growth process, both as a centre of production and as a generator of demand for various products and services. There are many complementarities that exist between farming communities and the corporate world because both are private enterprises. The possibilities of win-win partnerships between industry and agriculture should be explored. For example, the food processing industry when located close to agricultural areas can transform India's rural landscape. Currently, food processing in India is as low as 10 percent of production, as compared to 65 percent to 80 percent, generally seen in the developed countries. Other agro-based industries would be equally important as propellers of growth. The question is how to attract farmers into such partnerships, which do not adversely affect, but rather keep the interests of farmers in the forefront and take into account their various sensitivities, particularly about their land-holdings. This needs to be done in a farmer-friendly manner and by creating awareness in the farming community. Some Indian companies have understood that linking farmers to industrial units would be beneficial to both. They have developed interesting models of engagement with the farming community. We should study these experiences, as we look at viable options that suit Indian conditions for harnessing the potential of village economies.

Dear Citizens, today, the optimum use of capital or labour or resources across the entire spectrum of our national activity is dependent on cutting-edge technologies and technological breakthroughs. We need technologies for more efficient and cleaner energy, for our industry and agriculture. India has to chalk out strategies that will promote research and development resulting in innovative methods and techniques. The quality of research in our country must be upgraded to build knowledge structures. I think the nation should take this up as an urgent calling. A knowledge economy requires an education system that encourages creativity and a capacity to think in a novel fashion. Also, our research institutions should join global knowledge networks to keep themselves abreast of worldwide advancements in research. Technology should reach a broader section of our society, and also the movement of grassroots innovations should receive encouragement.

A change which is required, and of which I have spoken often is the eradication of social malpractices in particular those related to discrimination against women. These pose a hindrance on our path to building a more progressive and equitable nation. We should follow a positive agenda for the empowerment of women. A change in our mindsets will be important to remove prejudices and create equal opportunities for all citizens. This is essential for our inclusive growth agenda and for tapping the full potential of our population.

In any mission, particularly one as complex and challenging as nation building, as has been said by our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, "We have to labour, and to work, and to work hard, to give reality to our dreams." For this, motivational levels have to be kept high.

Media can have an important influence on how people see the country. With relentless advances in technology, media is now an integral part of our daily lives. It can create awareness by bringing information to the people, getting them to reflect, and making them realize their responsibilities towards the nation. With a media that plays a constructive role, people would be inspired to take actions that would contribute to building the nation and also to learn about the benefits of positive actions.

For growth, an environment of security is essential. Government is committed to maintain high vigil and take appropriate measures to address internal security challenges. Our country has been a target of terrorism for more than two decades. Government has taken and will continue to take necessary steps to tackle threats emanating from terrorism. It will also continue to work with the international community to combat this menace.

As in the past, in the future also, the voice of India in the world would be a voice for peace, a voice for development, and a voice of hope. In the global arena, we will seek a change in the structure of multilateral institutions, so that they reflect contemporary realities. We will continue to cooperate with the international community to deal with global issues. We will seek to build friendly relations with countries in our region and those across the world.

As 2009 came to a close, there have been many analyses about what are the possible prospects of the next decade for India. Some refer to it as the deciding decade, the decade of reckoning. On reflection, I fully agree that it will be so. It must, therefore, mean a decade in which all Indians must do their work with a sense of responsibility, discipline, integrity of mind and purpose as well as with a spirit of cooperation. We will have to inspire our young generation so that they are virtuous, with good character and a sense of fellow feeling towards others. We must channelise all our efforts towards the goal of taking the country to a higher level of all round national development and not rest till we achieve our goal. We can then be proud that we have performed our duty and borne our responsibility well. It is said that, fortune is an outcome of good work and can slip away, if we are lax in our work. I am reminded of a few inspirational lines:-

तय की हैं हमने,

ऐसी कुछ मंज़िलें

कि रुकेंगे नहीं हम!

आगे बढते रहेंगे हम,

हर कदम, दर कदम,

जब तक दम में है दम

With these words, I once again wish all fellow citizens peace, prosperity and progress on the occasion of our Republic Day.

JAI HIND.

The webcast of this speech is available at: http://republicday.nic.in/pspeech10wd.html

Uttarakhand Makes Sanskrit Second Official Language

2010-01-23T07:53:00.000+05:30

Sanskrit, which is considered as mother of all Indo-Aryan languages, is now the second official language of the north Indian state of Uttarakhand. The Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly approved a historic bill on December 23, 2009 to make Sanskrit its second official language after Hindi.

Terming it as a historic development Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Ramesh Pokhariyal 'Nishank' said that this was the first time in the world that a state was going to officially adopt Sanskrit. He added that Sanskrit was not just a language, but also a tool to spread wisdom.

Mr. Nishank stated that it was apt for a region like Devbhoomi ('Land of Gods' as Uttarakhand is often called as) to adopt Sanskrit, since the region has been the home of sages. From earliest times, numerous sages have used Sanskrit for propagating knowledge in our country. It was his wish that we utilize the vast powerhouse of information available. This step would go a long way in fulfilling this desire.

The state would soon draw up a plan for practical use of Sanskrit in official work. The government stated that it would actively ensure the use of Sanskrit in official communication, besides encouraging people to learn the language.

Incidentally, Sanskrit already has a special status in Article 351 of the Constitution of India as a primary source for enrichment of Hindi. In 2005, it was also declared as a classical language.

It should be noted here that Sanskrit is spoken by only about 0.005% of Indian population in India. Though, it has a vast and varied knowledge in it, its use was only limited to the priest group in ancient India and the common public was prohibited to learn it by law. Perhaps this move of Uttarakhand government would help to propagate this language in the masses.

That Sanskrit has become the second official language of the state is a good news for Sanskrit lover in the state and the beginning of a new chapter.

Ref: Pratiyogita Darpan Magzine, January 2010.

10 things you must know about eclipses

2010-01-16T09:37:00.003+05:30

Whenever an eclipse occurs, a lot of questions come to our mind which those remain unanswered. Here are a few things that you must know about the eclipses:

1. What is an eclipse? What are its types?
2. How does an eclipse occur?
3. Do eclipses occur on some special days?
4. How is it possible for the moon to obscure the sun completely though it is too small compared to the sun?
5. How do the complete and partial eclipses occur?
6. What is an annular eclipse? What is a diamond ring?
7. How long can an eclipse run?
8. Why does not the moon disappear even during a complete lunar eclipse?
9. Is an eclipse a rare phenomenon?
10. Do eclipses cause any harm to human life?

1. What is an eclipse? What are its types?UP
Eclipse is a total or partial obscuration of light from a celestial body as it passes through the shadow of another body. Or simply, eclipse is a temporary disappearance of sun or moon obscured by shadow of either moon or the earth respectively. Primarily, eclipses are of two types: solar and lunar. These are further classified as complete or partial eclipses. Annular eclipse is a special forma of solar eclipse.

2. How does an eclipse occur?UP
While revolving in their respective orbits when sun, moon, and the earth happen to be in a same plane, an eclipse would occur. When the moon comes between the sun and the earth, it obscures the sun from an observer at the surface of earth and a solar eclipse occurs. Similarly, when the earth comes between sun and moon, a lunar eclipse would occur.

3. Do eclipses occur on some special days?UP
Yes. A solar eclipse can occur only on new moon day and a lunar eclipse can occur only on a full moon night, because these are the only days on which these three bodies come in a same plane. But not on each new moon or full moon day an eclipse would occur. They occur only when the sun, moon, and the earth comes exactly in a same plane.

4. How is it possible for the moon to obscure the sun completely though it is too small compared to the sun?UP
Indeed the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but it is also 400 times nearer the earth. As a result, sun and moon have almost exactly the same angular size (about 0.5%) so that it is possible for the moon to obscure the sun. We can hide the sun from our sight by just bringing our palm in front of our eyes. It's just like that.

5. How do the complete and partial eclipses occur?UP
The earth and moon both cast two types of shadows in sunlight: the shadow having a dark cone-shaped inner region--the umbra--and an outer lighter penumbral region. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun so that the earth lies in the moon's shadow. When the moon is sufficiently close to the earth so that its apparent diameter exceeds that of the sun, then the umbra of the moon's shadow just reach the earth's surface. It moves in a general west to east trend over a very narrow curved zone on the surface, which can be up to 250 km wide, but averages about 160 km. An observer at a point where only the penumbra will move can only see a partial eclipse. An observer in the path on umbra will experience a total eclipse.

6. What is an annular eclipse? What is a diamond ring?UP
If the moon is far enough away to appear smaller than the sun, a rim (or annulus) of light will be seen around the eclipsed sun and an annular eclipse will occur. The period of annularity never exceeds 12.5 minutes and is normally much less.

At the time of complete solar eclipse, when only a small corner of sun is visible behind the moon, it looks like a diamond. When this phenomenon occurs with an annular eclipse, it looks like a diamond ring and is generally termed so.

7. How long can an eclipse run?UP
As already stated, an annular or complete eclipse never exceeds 12.5 minutes and the average time or it is much more less. However, a solar eclipse from its first touch to its complete release can take up to four hours. The maximum duration of a complete lunar eclipse is 1 hour 42 minutes.

8. Why does not the moon disappear even during a complete lunar eclipse?UP
The moon can usually be seen throughout totality of the eclipse being illuminated by sunlight refracted by the earth's atmosphere in the shadowed area. Since the bluer wavelengths are removed by scattering, the moon has a coppery red colour.

9. Is an eclipse a rare phenomenon?UP
No. Up to seven eclipses can occur in a year, either five solar and two lunar or four solar and three lunar.

10. Do eclipses cause any harm to human life?UP
10. No. An eclipse is a completely celestial phenomenon and it has noting to do about human beings. The funny mythological fables about eclipses that Rahu and Ketu swallow sun and moon during the eclipses are noting but superstitions.

Here is a video link about how an eclipse occur. Just check it. Any questions? Queries? Comments? Let me know.

Man Booker, Olympics, etc.

2010-01-15T09:39:00.002+05:30

Today, I have brought two news for you that, I believe, are worth to know, especially if we care to keep ourselves up-to-date.

My first news is about Britain's novelist Hilary Mantel, who has won this year's Man Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall. She beat five other contenders including two previous winners A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee. Wolf Hall is a fictional account of the rise of scheming advisor of King Henry VIII. Mantel took about five years to complete this novel, but now her efforts have come to a good end as she would gain good fame all over the English-speaking world besides the prize of 50,000 pounds and a sharp hike in sales of her books.

Another news is from the world of sports. Olympics Games 2016 are going to be held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, which will be the first South American city to host Olympics after knocking out Chicago from the race for the 31st Olympic Games. Rio de Janeiro's victory came despite US President Barack Obama's personal pitch in favor of his hometown.

That's all for now. In fact, I have lot more issues in my mind to put for discussion. Lata Mangeshkar, playback singer, winning Officer de la Legion d' Honneur, the highest civilian award of France; North African country Libya completing 40 years of reign of M. Gaddafi after an army revolution in 1969; and the current political and constitutional crisis in the Central American country of Honduras after an army coup against President Zelaya in June 2009. Lots of issues--seeds in soil--waiting to germinate. But by the time they will germinate, news will become history. So, just have a look over them, think over them if life permits you to do so--or just forget them.

Working on Wikipedia Marathi

2010-01-09T13:47:00.005+05:30

As a New Year resolution, I have started working on Wikipedia in my mother tongue, Wikipedia Marathi. I had been on it at least for the last three and a half years,^[1] but was so disappointed with its quality and so fascinated with that of English Wikipedia, that I had hardly troubled myself to even check what was going on there. I spend almost a year and a half on English version at first doing small edits and then making some encyclopedia-worthy articles and working on DYKs. ^[2] As I was editing, I had been learning the style of editing and other technical issues on Wikipedia.

Suddenly came a thought to my mind, when I was working on the article about David Diop for ghalibana, that I must write this article for Wikipedia and I created it in both English and then in Marathi version of wiki. Going through this process, once again I felt very pathetic about the quality of most of the articles on Marathi Wikipedia, and I felt I have no right to think like this unless I do not put my full efforts to make it worthy to the position where it should be. And I resolved to devote my maximum efforts to Marathi wiki and started once again working on it.

Marathi version of Wikipedia in not a tiny one in comparison with the scores of others. It is at the 58th position in the list having about 30,000^[3] articles (this count is nowhere as compared with the English version, but it still is a significant number). It has a large number of registered users, but the fact is only a few, not more than 20 or 30, are able to contribute on a regular basis and to involve in the management process, which severely hampers its quality.

Now we have started a project there to create at least 2500 wiki-worthy articles in 2010. Starting only with three members, we hope we can find a few more who think in the same way as we do and who can find some time to build a great reference source in our beloved mother tongue. Let us hope the best.

Footnotes:

1. I joined Marathi Wikipedia on February 01, 2006.

2. I had created five 'Did You Know?' articles last year.

3. It has 26,133 articles currently (January 09, 2010).