Guruji and the ban

Salutations to Guruji Golwalkar–III
Guruji and the ban
By V. Sundaram, IAS (Retd.)


“Where injustice becomes greater than we are

Where injustice becomes swifter than we are

Where injustice becomes stronger than we are

Help us not to tire”

Shri Guruji, a man of indomitable courage and invincible faith, categorically told Pt. Nehru and Sardar Patel that he would not be cowed down by their intimidation or threats. Enraged by the firm stand of Shri Guruji, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, the close political followers of Mahatma Gandhi, who fought with the weapons of non-violence and truth all his life, strangely decided to let loose the forces of state violence and Congress-orchestrated untruth against Shri Guruji and the RSS.

On November 2, 1948 Shri Guruji called a press conference in New Delhi and distributed two lengthy statements refuting every single charge against the Sangh. He made it clear in his statement that he would not be lured by the offer of Pt. Nehru or Sardar Patel to join the Congress party. Government of India reacted by issuing a threat to Shri Guruji that unless he returned to Nagpur immediately, he would be arrested. It became clear to Shri Guruji that a national Satyagraha by the Swayamsevaks all over India was the only solution open and that was the only way of making the Government of India under

Pt. Nehru and Sardar Patel see reason. On the night of November 13, 1948, Shri Guruji was arrested under the notorious Bengal State Prisoner’s Act of 1818 and sent to prison. This very Act had been strongly condemned by Pt. Nehru and Sardar Patel before Independence as a ‘black law’. That ‘black law’ suddenly became ‘white’ under the inspiring(!) leadership of Pandit Nehru in post-Independent India.

Shri Guruji sent a letter to the Swayamsevaks soon after his arrest, in which he wrote: “This state of affairs is humiliating. To continue to submit meekly to this atrocious tyranny is an insult to the honour of citizens of free Bharat and a blow to the prestige of our civilised free State. I therefore request you to stand up for our great cause. Truth and justice are with us. Let the skies reverberate with the call ‘Victory to Bharat’ and rest not till the goal is reached. Bharat Mata ki Jai!” The whole nation was electrified by the resounding message of Shri Guruji. Pt. Nehru and Sardar Patel wrongly calculated that Shri Guruji and the Sangh could be intimidated into total silence.

Pt. Nehru particularly was of the view that any Satyagraha consisting of inexperienced youths launched by Shri Guruji would peter out in a few days. Nor did he or Patel expect the number of Satyagrahis to cross a few thousands. This wrong perception was made clear by Pt. Nehru at a public meeting at Jaipur in the first week of November 1948 when he said: “This is a duragraha of the urchins of the Sangh. The government will use all its might to crush this agitation.” In this context it will not be out of place to mention that Nehru spoke almost the same language against the Government of China when he was in Ceylon on the first day of the Chinese invasion in October 1962: “We will throw out the Chinese.” The harsh and bitter truth is that by the time he returned to New Delhi, Chinese had overrun the greater portion of Arunachal Pradesh and were on their way to Guwahati.

Guruji Golwalkar - (1906-1973), a fierce revolutionary

In a public meeting in Gwalior on December 5, 1948, Sardar Patel said: “Some people say the Sangh is going to start a Satyagraha. But these people can never conduct a Satyagraha, their Satyagraha can never succeed, because their minds are unclean. We had advised them to ‘join the Congress’ and had tried to bring about a change of heart among them, but they have chosen the path of confrontation. I warn them, we are ready to face such challenges.”

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the great Russian poet, had double-dealing men like Pt. Nehru in view when he came out with the following lines of poetry:

On the night of November 13, 1948, Shri Guruji was arrested under the notorious Bengal State Prisoner’s Act of 1818 and sent to prison. This very Act had been strongly condemned by Pt. Nehru and Sardar Patel before Independence as a ‘black law’.

“Nero, apparently thought
he was a poet.
Hitler thought that he would
redeem the world from woe!
The man thinks: ‘I am so
generous.’
The shallow man: ‘I am
profound.’
Sometimes God will sigh: ‘I am
a worm.’
The worm hisses: ‘I am God’.”

Shri Guruji gave a call for total Satyagraha on December 9, 1948. As he was in prison, he nominated Sarkaryavah Shri Bhaiyyaji Dhani to lead the Satyagraha Movement by holding Shakhas all over the country. From that day, the Satyagraha gained momentum. Shouting slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai! and “Long Live Sangh”, batches of Swayamsevaks all over the country came out to hold Shakhas and the police took them into custody. The nationwide Satyagraha launched by Shri Guruji led to an animated and heated discussion among all sections of society in India about the illegal ban imposed by the Government of India on the RSS. In many places, apart from Swayamsevaks, even the common people not belonging to the RSS started putting up posters with the demand: “Prove the charges against the RSS or lift the ban.” At the same time, lakhs of copies of pamphlets legally refuting the charges against the RSS and explaining its just and nationalist demand were distributed from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. There was a great enthusiasm among the Swayamsevaks for pushing the Satyagraha Movement to its logical conclusion, regardless of consequences. The Government of India had never imagined that more than 80,000 Satyagrahis would come forward to do Satyagraha and would be cheerfully willing to be thrown behind bars. It became virtually impossible for the police administration in all the states to deal with this very large number of “cultural prisoners”. Simultaneously in many of the places the Swayamsevaks went on a hunger strike causing great worry to the government at various levels. The inhuman lathi charges on peaceful Satyagrahis in Madras city was condemned by eminent persons like T.R. Venkatrama Sastri of the Liberal Party and Swami Venkatachalam, a Member of Parliament.

Shri Guruji was still continuing in prison. There was no sign of the Satyagraha Movement stopping and of the enthusiasm of the Swayamsevaks abating. In January 1949, G.V. Ketkar, editor of the Pune-based daily Kesari met Shri Guruji in Sivani Jail twice and suggested to him that if the Satyagraha was suspended, it would pave the way for public-spirited persons like T.R. Venkatrama Sastri for initiating some moves for getting the ban on the RSS lifted. Shri Guruji agreed and gave a written directive for suspending the Satyagraha and finally on January 22, 1949, the suspension of Satyagraha was formally announced. The saga of the country-wide Satyagraha that was started on December 9, 1948, on the call of Shri Guruji came to a remarkably successful conclusion.

A wave of public sympathy for the RSS swept throughout the country. For a change, this was also reflected in the media. On January 22, 1949, The Tribune from Ambala remarked: “The RSS leader has paved the way for eventual settlement by calling off the movement without any conditions. It is now for the Government of India to honourably withdraw the ban. Let the Government of India remember that a policy of suppression will never succeed in killing an organisation.” Likewise, The Statesman of Calcutta paid a personal tribute to Shri Guruji for the manner in which he conducted the agitation and stated: “The ban on the RSS was causing the youth power to go to waste by keeping them behind bars.”

Realising that the public opinion was going against the Government of India, a request was made to Shri Guruji to prepare a written Constitution for the RSS and to send it to the Government of India for information. (It may be noted that till then RSS was functioning in a most disciplined way without even a written Constitution). Accordingly, some leading office-bearers of the RSS met T.R. Venkatrama Sastri in Madras and got a draft Constitution ready for the RSS in June 1949. It was finalised by Shri Guruji and forwarded to the Government of India for its information.

In the meantime, angered by the authoritarian and dictatorial attitude of the Government of India, T.R. Venkatrama Sastri had prepared a long statement to the press and sent it to them on July 6, 1949, with a request that it should not be published till July 13, 1949. The Government of India was rattled by this move. T.R. Venkatrama Sastri’s publication of his indictment in all the newspapers in India and abroad would have brought great shame to the government in the eyes of the people and so it was decided to lift the ban just a day prior to its proposed publication on July 13, 1949. Yet, The Hindu of Madras carried the entire statement of T.R. Venkatrama Sastri on its July 13 issue which fully exposed the Government of India. Reacting to the Government of India’s objection that “The RSS Constitution was right enough, but the leaders of this organisation cannot be trusted to function within its scope”, T.R. Venkatrama Sastri in his strong statement said: “Apart from being illegal, it would be hard on any organisation to say that in anticipation of a not unlikely unlawful action on the part of its members, it is not allowed to begin its work. A government or a State can be characterised as ‘Fascist’, but not a private organisation like the RSS, to which no one is compelled to belong. One may join it, or refuse to join it, or having joined it may resign at will.”

On July 12, 1949, the ban on the RSS was removed unilaterally by the Government of India. Shri Guruji was released from Betul Jail on July 13, 1949. The Government of India covered itself with deathless shame and Shri Guruji with immortal glory in the pages of history.

Another view of the British

Think it over
Another view of the British
By M.S.N. Menon


Was a “Muslim” India possible? Not a chance? But it could have happened. Almost. The British saved us from that terrible tragedy. What is more, the Hindus could not have brought about their self-renewal without the stimuli provided by the British.

Are we grateful? We are not. We are confused. We still hold Britain responsible for our degradation. But, “No” says Vivekananda. And Aurobindo supports him. They say, we alone are responsible, for our degradation. We should know the British better.

True, the British exploited India. In 1700 India’s share of world income was about 22.6 per cent, but it fell to 3.8 per cent by the time the British left India. But are not the rich (MNCs) exploiting the poor even today?

Perhaps, we have not done with British bashing? But they themselves have been their severest critics. Take this for example, “Foreign conquerors (meaning Muslims) have treated India with violence and often with great cruelty, but none has treated them (Hindus) with contempt and so much scorn as we,” wrote Sir Thomas Munroe, governor of Madras Presidency.

Our historians have not been helpful in giving us a final judgement on the British. Fear is one psychosis which has been guiding the Hindu historians—fear of what will happen to their name and status. The Muslim historian suffers no such inhibition. He wants to prettify the Muslim period of Indian history and beastify the British period.

I consider the British highly civilised. And more humane, too. Only the Hindu civilisation was more distinguished. Love of freedom, love of free enquiry—these were common to both of us. Which is why India did not deprive others of their freedom, and why Britain, after having made the mistake, hastily withdrew from its empire fixation.

Not all the British thought that the Empire would last for ever. Warren Hastings did not. In an introduction to a translation of the Gita (1875), he wrote that works like this “will survive when the British dominion in India shall have long ceased to exist.” Hastings opposed conversion of Hindus and he used to mock at the missionaries by quoting from the Gita.

But the missionaries provided complete justification for Britain’s imperial mission. L.S. Amery, the arch imperialist, says: “...a pioneer Empire and a stay at home Church went ill together.” So, here in India, the Cross and the Sword got together for their unholy enterprise. A.F. Hirstel writes in The Church, the Empire and the World: “It (the Empire) has been given to us as a means to that great end for which Christ came into the world—the redemption of the human race.” Thus was imperialism given a false religious cloak.

It is the missionaries who have done the greatest harm to the image of the Hindus. We must never forgive them for it. The East India Company (of traders) had no plans to Christianise India. In fact, it promulgated an order against “compulsory conversion” and “interference with native habits.” But conversion became a political issue and the strident missionary voice became a “vote bank” in Britain, just as appeasement of Muslims has become a vote bank in India.

The “men of Empire” thought that an “unseen providence” was guiding the Anglo-Saxon race to a higher destiny. Bacon did not agree. What really animated the imperialist, he said, was his firm, even if mistaken, belief, that he belonged to the “chosen people.” “Had the British appealed to a different vision of their place in the providential order of things, the Raj would have had a different story,” says Gerald Kennedy. But the British held on to their nobler vision.

It is true the British were arrogant. But there were among them eminent men, Burke for instance, ready to prick their bloated ego effectively. He says: “Faults this nation (Hindus) may have, but God forbid we should pass judgement on a people who formed their lives on institutions prior to our insect origins of yesterday.”

Much has been written about and against Macaulay. If his language policy created babus, it also created Dr S. Radhakrishnan and Dr Homi Bhabha. Above all, without English we could not have known the world. But his greatest critic was Horace Wilson, spokesman for the Orientalists. He wrote: “By rendering a whole people dependent on a remote and unknown country for the very words to clothe their thoughts we would degrade their character...”

The Muslims destroyed much of what the Hindus had built. But the British went out of their way to preserve what was left. For this India is grateful to Lord Curzon. Nahru says: “After every other Viceroy has been forgotten, Curzon will be remembered because he preserved and restored all that was beautiful in India.” Can we say this of the Muslims?

The Raj made it possible for the rise of a self-confident Hindu elite on an all-India scale. The work of Sir William Jones and others gave them self-esteem. When Vedic learning was almost extinct, Mueller published his monumental translation of the Rig Veda. Jones created the Royal Asiatic Society, literally re-constructed India’s history and discovered the greatness of the Sanskrit language. And one cannot forget that the entire Buddhist story was reconstructed by the pionering work of British explorers and savants.

India is truly thankful. Dr Manmohan Singh said so recently in his talk to an Oxford audience. He said: “Our notions of the rule of law, of a constitutional government, of a free press, of a professional civil service, of modern universities and research labs have all been fashioned in the crucible when our age-old civilisation met the dominant empire of the day.”

To conclude, is it not a remarkable irony that the seed for the demise of the British empire was planted by an Englishman A.O. Hume? By launching the Indian National Congress, he launched Indian nationalism.

Education shorn of values

Education shorn of values

It's that time of the year when children leave the school system. By the Indian reality, most will never enter the portals of an educational institution again. JS Rajput feels for the new batch of rootless creatures released by the educational system

There are occasions when one wonders why people the world over still admire India for its past contributions to the growth of civilisation and the evolution of thought. How could Indians achieve such spiritual insights that have eternal relevance on the time scale of history? This puzzle now has a contemporary context.




The aura and influence of India in the ancient world was not confined to the shores of India alone. The invaders and the conquerors did retard the progress of India's search for knowledge and the quest for understanding what lies beyond this world. The systems of generating, disseminating and utilising information and knowledge were relegated to the background for obvious reasons.



Yet, we managed to become the world's most illiterate nation. There can be no more comprehensive articulation of the distressing state of education in India than the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi, delivered at Chatham lines, London, on October 20, 1931: "I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was 50 years ago or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of the things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished."



A couple of points that emerged in the scrutiny of the educational records, prepared and authenticated by the British officers between 1813 and 1830 established that almost every village had a school. GL. Pendergast, a senior British officer, wrote about the Presidency of Bombay around 1920: "There is hardly a village great or small throughout our territories, in which there is not at least one school; in larger villages, more."



Several such details have been unearthed from the records and indicate the existence of a widespread educational network extending to higher education in various disciplines. Supported entirely by charity and funding from the rulers of the area, these had more than 800 per cent students from what are classified as the lower strata of the society. Poverty or social status never debarred a young learner.



The British began a process of dispossession, ensuring that the revenue sources to the educational institutions got dried up. The collector of Bellary, in his report on indigenous education wrote :"In many villages where formerly there were schools, there are now none." This indicates how the system was allowed to whither away. It's inner strength, combined with India's collective indomitable spirit, however, helped it maintain a semblance of continuity.



Education and literacy relate to every aspect of human life. It applies to both the lettered and the unlettered. In the current context, there is hardly any need to reiterate the importance of education which is good in quality and acceptable in its content, apart from being envisioned as of relevance and utility by the individual and his larger society.



It's natural for people everywhere to be concerned about education and the systems that administer and mange it in their locale. This valid concern extends to the content and process of education, which have to respond to the ever-changing needs and requirements of their society and, hence, have to change simultaneously. Education helps people to learn and know who they are. It acquaints people with their roots, traditions, culture and the systems of learning and knowing. It augments their relationship to their heritage, gives them a sense of achievement and opens new vistas before them.



Every Indian is an inheritor of that powerful ancient heritage that attracts even the most modern-minded young person from every corner of the globe in search of peace, spirituality and in locating the real meaning of life and living.



Growth and evolution of cultures rarely follow linear paths. By the end of the 20th century, it was clear to everyone that the colonial era had damaged the cultural and educational context of hundreds of nations who were materially exploited for centuries.



They needed their own futuristic education systems in place of the transplanted models forced upon them by their alien rulers.



UNESCO now accepts that education in every country must be "rooted to culture and committed progress". Unfortunately, in India, the very usage of terms like "Ancient Indian culture", "Civilisation", "Vedanta", "Sanskrit", etc., makes our Marxist intellectuals squirm. Character assasination, the most potent weapon in their armoury, is thrown in to action: the canard of "Saffronisation".



In his Presidential address for the 1921 session of the Indian National Congress (sadly, it could not be delivered but was taken as read), Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das wrote: "Who can contemplate with equanimity that every year many crores of rupees go out of India without corres-ponding advantage? Morally, we are becoming a nation of slaves, and have acquired most vices of the slaves, we speak the language of the master, and ape his manners, and we rush with alacrity to adopt his institutions, while our own lie languishing in the villages. Intellectually, we have become willing victims to the imposition of foreign culture on us; and the humiliation is complete when we are deliberately breaking away from the past, recognising no virtue in its continuity".



Even after eight decades, this paragraph has relevance. It should be read and understood in word and spirit by those who have inherited the legacy of the great Indian National Congress of the pre-Independence era. It also must be realised that these people, now in power with Left support, are becoming willing partners in the designs of their supporters to cut off India's new generation from its glorious heritage and legacy.



The leaders of the freedom struggle considered the issue of educational change in India with great anticipation and commitment. All of us are familiar with "Basic Education" (Buniyadi Talim) formulation of Gandhi, Zakir Hussain and others. Chakravarty Rajagopalachari expressed serous doubts on what would happen to India when the generation that was in schools in 1950 took over the reins.His concerns arose out of the fact that the young ones were being imparted only "materialistic values", and were totally cut off from their Indian roots. One could cite several reports, resolutions, documents and deliberations emphasising the need to link the Indian education system to the Indian value ethos.thought and intellect. But vested interests resisted it successfully and are still going strong after it.



How does a vocal minority group of Indian intellectuals manage to garner so much publicity in its campaign against Indian culture and heritage? This can be understood if one recalls Kulpati Munshi's reflections on his college days in the early years of the 20th century. He recalled: "I was in the college and came under the influence of John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer. Like some of you, we thought ourselves 'progressives' only when we looked down on our ancient heritage, and looked up to whatever came from the West. Even our great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, about which we knew quiet a lot from our childhood, came into disrepute with us. The Mission houses, through their little books, told us that those of us who drew sustenance from these epics were no better than savages!"



KM Munshi was an exception. He raised a question to himself: "How was it that Indian culture had survived when so many ancient cultures in History had withered away? How was it that the vitality of Indian culture had continued through the ages despite historical vicissitudes?"



Who cares about the Policy and the manner in which it is changed? Otherwise how can those who swear by the name of Rajiv Gandhi become a party to the violation of the National Policy of Education-1986 (NPE-86), which was one of his most progressive and visionary contributions? Half a page specifically devoted to value education in Rajiv's Education Policy vanished totally from the 2005 "prescriptions", which deliberately avoid focus on value-based education. NPE-1986 had emphasised the need for research in Indology, the search of the country's treasure of ancient knowledge and relating that knowledge to the modern reality. All this stands totally wiped out.



(The writer, a former Director of NCERT, is recipient of UNESCO's highest honour in the field of education, the Jan Comenius Medal for 2004)

Baluchistan, Pakistan and India

Baluchistan, Pakistan and India
By M.V. Kamath

Baluchistan is again in the news, but for wrong reasons. Truth to tell, it has not been as much in the news as it should have been. And it is somewhat intriguing that a civil war now being fought in Pakistan’s largest and most alienated province is not being covered fully, whether by the western news agencies or by the media, both in Pakistan and especially in India. The silence of the western news agencies is particularly stunning and suggests a deal between them and President Pervez Musharraf’s government in Pakistan.

The current war, now being fought, is the fifth of its kind. Baluchistan’s third civil war began in 1962 and ended in 1968 and was fought between Baluch tribals, Muslims all, and Pakistan’s paramilitary forces. It ended, expectedly, with the Baluchs taking huge losses in livestock through shelling and air attacks.

This, as Stephen Philip Cohen once noted, was merely a prelude to a far bloodier war at the peak of Baluchi separatism during the insurrection of 1973-75. This, the fourth war, had been sparked by the then Premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s dismissal of two local administrators, namely the powerful and respected Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizengo and Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal, on grounds that they were arming their followers.

The Baluchs could only field some 1,000 guerrillas armed with ancient rifles. But the Baluch casualties were three times that number, while 7,000 Baluch families were forced to take refuge in Afghanistan.

The current war, the fifth of its kind, began, innocuously in January 2003 when four Pakistani soldiers were alleged to have raped a doctor employed by the Pakistan Petroleum at the Sui gasfield believed to be among the largest of its kind in the world. When the authorities failed to file a case, Bugti tribesmen attacked the gasfield, but the fighting tapered off.

About that time, Musharraf issued a warning that if the insurgents continued fighting he will hit them so hard “they won’t know what hit them”. That comment did not help matters. The latest eruption of warfare started when the Baluchis made a rocket attack on a rally held by Musharraf in the town of Kohlu, last month.

A day later, according to reports, insurgents opened fire on a helicopter carrying the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps, Baluchistan, Major General Shujaat Zamir Dar and his deputy. What followed was routine. Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, backed by helicopter gunships launched a full-scale attack on the insurgents and one can be assured that when the fighting ceases, if it ceases, there will be heavy Baluchi casualties.

India, which usually maintains a discreet silence, last month expressed concern over what is going on in Baluchistan only to be told by Pakistan to mind its own business. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao charged India with “supporting the miscreants” and Pakistan’s former Army Chief Aslam Beg and a former Chief of ISI, Gen Hamid Gul (retd) went further to charge both India and the US with fomenting trouble in Baluchistan. “The terrorists who are fighting in Baluchistan are friends of India and foes of Pakistan. That is the only reason the Indian government has expressed concern against military operations in the province,” Gul said.

If Pakistan claims that Jammu and Kashmir has a right to autonomy if not independence, why should not New Delhi insist that the same right can also be claimed by Baluchistan and with greater justification?

In the first place may it be said that India’s official comment has been the minimal. In the second place, there is no reason why India should not make any comment considering that Pakistan has been actively interfering with India’s internal affairs in Jammu and Kashmir since 1946. Indeed, though India has not been helping the Baluchi rebels with arms and equipment, it would be entirely within its rights considering what jehadi forces have been doing in Jammu and Kashmir. It is about time India made that clear to Islamabad. But it pays for Pakistan to make wild and vile charges against New Delhi. Thus, Musharraf himself told the TV Channel CNN-IBN that India was providing the Baluchi nationalist forces which he said were “anti-government and anti-me” with “financial support and support in kind”. This has been ridiculed by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who is now leading the Baluchi insurgents. He told The Hindu in a telephonic interview: “What is the need for us to take anything from anyone? The weapons we are now using flowed into this region when the United States financed the jehad in Afghanistan. It was the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) which distributed them to Afghanistan, Iran, Jammu and Kashmir—and to us in Baluchistan.”

Apparently the ISI-distributed weapons are easy to get besides being cheap in the bargain. The point, however, to be noted is that Baluchi tribal leaders are fighting on their own and don’t need Indian support. They have been fighting consistently in the past because they have a distinct culture and tradition and an autonomous history that does not permit Pakistani—in essence Punjabi military—dominance. As in the case of former East Bengal, Baluchistan has no cultural affiliation with Pakistani Punjab; indeed Baluchis resent the Punjabis’ domination and Islam is not—and never has been—a binding factor.

Baluchistan, incidentally, constitutes 42 per cent of Pakistan’s landmass and if Baluchistan succeeds in winning independence, as did East Bengal, then it won’t be long before Sindhis, too, claim independent status. And that would reduce Pakistan to a joke. Musharraf is acutely aware of it. But will the Baluchs succeed?

If Stephen Cohen is to be believed “Baluchistan is an unlikely candidate for a successful separatist movement, even if there are grievances, real and imagined, against a Punjab-dominated state of Pakistan” because “it lacks a middle class, a modern leadership and the Baluchs are a tiny fraction (about five per cent) of Pakistan’s population and even in their own province are faced with a growing Pashtun population.” Also, according to Cohen, “neither Iran nor Afghanistan shows any sign of encouraging Baluch separatism because such a movement might encompass their own Baluch population.”

Even worse, Baluchs have little domestic resources. In the circumstances it would make no sense for India to encourage Baluchi separatism unless the idea is just to keep the Pakistan Army engaged. That by itself is not a bad idea. Indeed it should be prescribed tactic to tell Islamabad that interfering in the internal affairs of one’s neighbour is a game at which two can play.

If Pakistan claims that Jammu and Kashmir has a right to autonomy if not independence, why should not New Delhi insist that the same right can also be claimed by Baluchistan and with greater justification? Meanwhile what is clearly evident is that Jinnah’s Two-Nation Theory stands entirely exposed. Think this over, General Musharraf.

An expose and a cover-up

Two recent events occurring in places as far spaced out as Beirut (Lebanon) and Behrampore (West Bengal) provide us with glimpse into veiled paradoxes. Both pertain to Islam’s medieval mistreatment of woman in contemporary times, but that is not really what should astonish us the most. The astonishing part is really to learn who is exposing it and who is trying to cover it up.

The first is a bomb-shell book “The Girls of Riyadh” written by women in her twenties Rajaa al-Sanie in Beirut (Lebanon). The book in Arabic, waiting translation in English, has already captured the attention of the international media, besides being banned with in Saudi Arabia. ‘It is about gay teen-agers, predatory lesbians, women drinking alcohol at weddings, husbands with unsavoury sexual demands’ as a Reuters report describes it, the book provides a shocking insight into the closeted world of Saudi women. In Saudi Arabia, which is governed by Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, women must be fully covered by with burqa and accompanied by male relative in public. Mixing of unmarried men is forbidden and women are banned from driving.

It might be premature to put Al-Sanie in the league of Irshad Manji, Shirin Ebadi, Taslima Nasreen and Asra Q. Nomani, contemporary Muslim women who have questioned the principles and practices of Islam in a critical manner. But it indicates a feminist ferment inside the wrapped up Islamic society. Recently aspiring musician Wafah Dafur, Osama bin Laden’s niece living in the U.S, who had taken upon her mother’s surname after 9/11 attacks, was in news for appearing on the cover page of GQ magazine scantily clad.

Islam abhors freedom, whether in lifestyle, or in arts, but most in thoughts and philosophy. The quest of spiritual liberation (Moksha) as in Hinduism or societal freedom as in the West is alien to Islam which only emphasises stern discipline and unquestioning obedience. Thus Islam holds its adherents in a perpetual siege, which one can transgress only at his or her peril. Islam’s theology is unitarian and behaviour is totalitarian. Any freedom of thought allowed to its followers can undermine the compactness of Islam that has kept it a force to reckon with for seven hundred years. Women should preferably be kept illiterate, because if women were educated (as universal experience shows) they would prefer small family and transmit liberal and questioning attitude to her children. This would lead to decline in mobilising capacity of Islam.

Being human is not just to be humane, but also sharing human follies and weaknesses that Al-Sanie exposes in her book.

The problem is not with the Muslims who are human beings like me, you and everybody else. Their yearning for freedom is natural and instinctive. Being human is not just to be humane, but also sharing human follies and weaknesses that Al-Sanie exposes in her book. The problem is with those precepts of Islam that keep Muslims in a suffocating atmosphere and the Ulema that enforce them. They reduce a normal human being to a one-dimensional religious organism, at odds with rest of the world.

Rests of the world seem to have made a huge concession to Islam’s peculiar life-style. ‘O, they are Muslims’ we often, ‘they do it because in their religion’. ‘It’ can stand for opposition to Uniform Civil Code, tendering public Namaz on streets and railway station, polygamy and divorces at will, refusal to adopt family planning, refusal to administer polio drops, refusal to come out of Madrasa system.

Young Al-Saini has shown the boldness to expose the face of a veiled society. It’s erotic, not romantic, but bold nonetheless. This can be considered as a report- a progress report in a Wahabbi Islamic state. But another incident that happened in Murshidabad, the Muslim-majority district of Marxist West Bengal, should pass as regress report. It is a pity that people who vaunts themselves as ‘Progressive’ (Leftists) were a party to it. Recently, a woman near Behrampore was given the punishment of hundred canning in public by a Majlis or Sharia Panchayat. Doli Bibi, mother of three, from Gakundi village of Rajdharpara in Behrampore, went on a trip to Rajasthan with her Hindu neighbour Suraj Haldar and his family. This was seen as an ‘illicit behaviour’ on which Maulavis issued fatwa.

“RSP leader Sasthipada Mondal presided over the meeting while Congress-backed Independent MLA of Hariharpara, Niyamat Sheikh, pronounced the “verdict” of caning. And the BDO, Behrampore, Nimai Chandra Haldar, “congratulated the judge for delivering the exemplary punishment” (Ideology no longer bar to cane a woman in Murshidabad- The Statesman, January 24, 2006).

It was the time of 1998 Football World Cup. The soccer-craze rose to feverish pitch in West Bengal. The Muslim boys simply left their home in dead of night and walked over to Hindu-majority hamlet across the fields to watch the action on television. Here, those Muslim boys were progressive, but CPI(M) was regressive.

Udayan Namboodiri’s book “Bengal’s Night Without End”, an account of Marxist misrule, has three chapters that informs about the rumblings of Islam in West Bengal. In informs how CPI (M)-controlled panchayat in Panskura block of undivided Medinipur (Midnapore) district had joined the Mullahs who had alleged watching television as haraam- Un-Islamic. It was the time of 1998 Football World Cup. The soccer-craze rose to feverish pitch in West Bengal. The Muslim boys simply left their home in dead of night and walked over to Hindu-majority hamlet across the fields to watch the action on television. Here, those Muslim boys were progressive, but CPI (M) was regressive.

When Buddhadev Bhatta-charya in 2002 expressed great concern over IB report on proliferation of illegal madrasas on Indo-Bangla and Indo-Nepal border, the Party put a foot on his mouth. The Supreme Court, last August, has issued notices to Union Government and several state governments on definite reports on proliferation of Dar-ul-Qaza or Sharia Courts in different parts of India. It is pity that godless communists should be the one to encourage it.

The Mitrokhin Archives-II informs that while the Communist Party in the USSR officially condemned as a relic of the feudal era, which had no place in, a society of ‘advanced socialism’ and therefore ‘doomed to disappear’, the greater part of Muslim life remained outside the purview of Centre’s ability to control. ‘Disputes were settled in Islamic courts and Soviet law ignored. In reality, though Centre refused to admit it, most KGB officers in Chechnya-Ingushetiya has since acknowledged, except when pressured by the Centre, the local KGB usually accepted the traditional system of justice administered by the Chechens themselves rather than insisting on enforcement of Soviet law...” (p.377). Let communists be forewarned about Soviet fate, in ways more than one.

The writer, a Rajya Sabha Member and Convener of BJP’s think tank can be contacted at bpunj@email.com)

War on Jehad cannot be won unless we face demographic threats

Agenda
War on Jehad cannot be won unless we face demographic threats
By R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd.)

Hold your breath, the biggest quantum jump in Muslim population (in terms of percentage) in the coming decades will take place in Haryana where the ration of Muslim cohorts is almost 60 per cent higher than that of the Hindu cohorts! Next in descending order will be Assam, West Bengal, Uttaranchal, Delhi, Nagaland, Bihar and so on.

A further analysis of the 0-6 years cohorts data reveals that out of 35 States and Union Territories listed in Statement 7, the percentage of 0-6 years Muslim cohorts is higher than that of Hindus in as many as 31 States and UTs. The percentage of 0-6 years Hindu cohorts is marginally higher than that of Muslims only in two States of Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh and two Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. It means that in the coming decades the Muslim population will grow at a higher rate than that of the Hindus in 31 States and Union Territories. As recounted in Census 2001 India has a total of 35 States and UTs.

Statement 7 of Census 2001 Religion Data Report is self-explanatory. It vividly depicts the looming dark shadow of future demographic changes across the country. Here I must reiterate that future demographic trends, based on the data given in Statement 7, are totally unalterable, because these children are already born and will enter reproductive age between 2011 and 2016 and continue to reproduce for the next 30 to 40 years.

Statement 7 of Census 2001 Religion Data Report is self-explanatory. It vividly depicts the looming dark shadow of future demographic changes across the country.

It is very surprising how and why the Indian intelligentsia do not try to understand the reasons that prompted the Prime Minister of UK, Tony Blair, to advise all British couples to opt for the five children norm (two more than what Shri K.S. Sudarshan, Sarsanghachalak, RSS, prescribed for Hindus). Why have in recent years most European countries announced liberal cash bonuses to those couples who opt to have more children? Why did Peter Costello, Australia’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, announce an attractive incentive of 2,000 Australian dollars for every child born after June 2004? Perhaps the growing fear of the huge population of jehad-infested Indonesia has prompted Australia to do a rethink on their population policy. Robert Costello gave a clarion call to his countrymen emphasising that every couple must have at least three children, preferably many more, saying: “One for the father, one for the mother and one for the country.” (Source: Hindustan Times, May 13, 2004, P.1). Similarly, Pope Benedict XVI too has given a call to the Catholic community of Europe to opt for more children. Prima facie Shri Sudarshan is in good company of international leaders like Tony Blair, Nail Ferguson and Robert Costello, all keen observers of the latest global population trends and alerting their countrymen. Incidentally in the UK and Australia no one laughs at or ridicules Tony Blair or Peter Costello. Obviously, as a nation the British and the Australians continue to be much more rational and sagacious than us, the myopic Indians.

India has a growing tribe of sham-secularists who might ask why this global panic? What is the problem? Where is the problem? Well, the answer is that in the year 1900 the Muslims constituted only 12 per cent of the world population; they grew to 18 per cent in 1992-93 (when Huntington published his first thesis on the clash of civilisation). By 2003 the Muslims became 20 per cent of the global population. And by 2025, barely 19 years away from now, they will constitute 30 per cent of the world population. (Source: Spangler, The Decline of the West, cited by Samuel Huntington). According to some demographic estimates, Muslims might constitute anything between 37 to 40 per cent of the world population by 2100 AD. Correspondingly, in recent years the numbers of jehads worldwide have also multiplied in tandem with the growth in Muslim population, our next-door neighbour Thailand being the latest entrant to the growing list of faulting conflict zones.

Nail Ferguson (a strategic analyst who teaches contemporary history at Harvard) wrote in The Sunday Times, London, in April 2004, that in another 50 years time Europe was likely to become a Muslim-majority continent. And his warning has alerted most countries of the continent. Some enterprising futurologists have renamed Europe as “Eurabia”. According to a write-up, which appeared sometime ago in The Economist, London, fearful of the growing Albanian clout in the Balkans, many well-to-do Macedonians are migrating out and the destination of choice is New Zealand. Apparently they no longer consider Europe safe for their children and grand children. Nail Ferguson has drawn further attention to the fact that due to low fertility rates and increasing life expectancy by 2050 one in every three Italians, Spaniards and Greeks is likely to be 65 years or older. So the ‘old Europe’ will become more older. He has drawn attention to the fact that the birth rates of Muslim societies (i.e., including those Muslims who live in non-Muslim countries) are more than double the European average. Citing the example of Yemen he has pointed out that by 2050 its population could exceed that of Russia (based on United Nations forecast assuming constant fertility rate).

In regard to the growing hostility of French Muslims towards fellow Christians, a common leftist refrain (heard both in France and India) is the inability of the French government to resolve the massive unemployment among Muslim youth. In the context of the recently witnessed car-burning frenzy in France, a gentleman questioned the obsession of leftists about unemployment problem, at the house of a friend. He asked point blank how an economically debilitated country like France, which has a growth rate of less than two per cent (like most EU nations), could create millions additional jobs for the galloping Muslim population. Additionally, France is burdened by an overwhelming national debt and remains steeped in the traditional culture of 35 hours work-week.

The Indian intelligentsia do not try to understand the reasons that prompted the Prime Minister of UK, Tony Blair, to advise all British couples to opt for the five children norm (two more than what Shri K.S. Sudarshan, Sarsanghachalak, RSS, prescribed for Hindus). Why have in recent years most European countries announced liberal cash bonuses to those couples who opt to have more children?

It is time that the Indian middle class and opinion-makers understood the long-term climactic consequences of the existential demographic crisis writ large across the Indian horizon. While analysing socio-economic aspects of the latest census, the well-known demographer, Prof Ashish Bose, has estimated that presently in 49 districts Muslims already constitute more than 30 per cent of population. (Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai, January 29, 2005, p. 371, table 4). A back-of-the envelope calculation made by us, in the light of the Muslim growth rate of the last two decades, shows that Muslims will attain majority status in all these 49 districts, any time between 1991 and 2111, perhaps even earlier. What might happen thereafter is anybody’s guess. It has the potential to give a massive fillip to the growing jehadi fervour in the sub-continent.

The foregoing cold facts should ring a loud alarm bell good enough to wake up all those who want to ensure long-term survival of secularism in India. The problem has global dimensions, too. It is unfortunate that while the world has woken up to the threat of changing demography, we Indians continue to slumber under the influence of dopelaced lullabies broadcast by communists and fellow-traveller sham-secularists.

(The writer is a retired Inspector General of Police and author of the book, Long March of Islam.)

Is Ramayana a mere epic or part of India’s ancient history?

Is Ramayana a mere epic or part of India’s ancient history?
By Arabinda Ghose

Most of the Hindus of India and Nepal as also of countries where emigrant Hindus live in sizeable numbers celebrate Ram Navami, which falls on the ninth day of the bright half of the lunar month of Chaitra, corresponding to March-April of the Georgian calendar. Countries of South-East Asia such as Thailand too revere Lord Rama and the predominantly Muslim nation of Indonesia celebrates Ramayana as a ballet.

The Valmiki Ramayana in Sanskrit as also the Tulsi Ramayana by Saint Tulsidas in Hindi are extremely popular volumes throughout India and abroad. But is Ramayana a description of the lives and times of Lord Rama and the Raghukul (the descendants of King Raghu) and the times during an unknown period of India’s ancient “history” or is it nothing but an epic which, Hindus believe to be a true account of the events in ancient India?

Shri Pushkar Bhatnagar, who is a computer expert, claims that he has not only calculated the exact date and time of Lord Rama’s birth, but all happenings in his life till his age of 39 years, when he had returned to Ayodhya after slaying Ravana. According to him Lord Rama was born at 12.30 p.m. on January 10, 5114 b.c. Shri Bhatnagar has relied entirely on the positions of the sun, the moon and the planets, visible to the naked eye those days, described by Sage Valmiki in his Ramayana for calculating the day and even time of many of the events in the life of Lord Rama.

This article is merely a rewriting of the letter of Shri Bhatnagar published by Asian Agri History, dated October-December, 2004, a magazine which is devoted to discovering and writing about the ancient systems of agriculture that was in vogue in the Asian region in ancient times.

A computer specialist claims firm dates of Ramayana, says Lord Rama was born in 5114 b.c.

The following is the extract of the letter:

“Moving forward, it has been stated that on the Amavasya (new moon day) of the 10th month of the 13th year of his exile he (had) fought Khar and Dushan and on that day, a solar eclipse was seen from Panchawati. Not only had a solar eclipse occurred that day, but the planets too were arranged in the sky in a particular manner (that day). Six months later, when Rama (had) killed Bali on the Amavasya of Ashadh (June-July) of the 14th year of (his) exile, another solar eclipse was visible in the morning sky and after five months, when Hanuman went to meet Sita in Lanka, a lunar eclipse was witnessed in the evening. Besides these, several other planetary positions have been mentioned at different other places.

“It is important to know that planetary positions keep (on) changing every day in the sky and they do not repeat (the same positions) for lakhs of years. Moreover, if we know the position of all the planets in the sky, they refer to one and only one date in history.

“The effort to provide dates to the planetary positions mentioned in (the) Ramayana and other Vedic literature began with (the) legendary Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his well-known book The Orion. However, the efforts made so far were based on manual computations. Since one revolution of these planets is completed in a highly complex fractional number (apparently the author refers to the period of the revolution of these planets around the sun and of the rotations on their axes), it is difficult to arrive at the accurate day and time in history (when these events had taken place). But in the late 1990s, many (computer) software were developed (in order) to track the positions of the planets in the sky and with these software, (the) planets’ position at any given point of time in the sky can be known.

“By using a powerful planetarium software, I found that the planetary positions mentioned in the Ramayana for the date of the birth of Lord Rama had occurred in the sky at 12.30 p.m. on January 10, 5114 b.c. It was the ninth day of the Shukla Paksha of Chaitra (March-April) month too. Moving forward, after 25 years of the birth of Lord Rama, the position of (the) planets in the sky tallies with their description in the Ramayana. Again, on the Amavasya of the 10th month of the 13th year of exile, the solar eclipse had indeed occurred and the particular arrangement of (the) planets in the sky was visible. (Date comes to October 7, 5077 b.c.). Even the occurrence of the subsequent two eclipses also tally with the respective descriptions in (the) Valmiki Ramayana. Date of Hanuman’s meeting (with) Sita in Lanka was September 12, 5076, b.c. In this manner, the entire sequence of the planetary positions gets verified and all the dates can be precisely determined.”

Is Ramayana a description of the lives and times of Lord Rama and the Raghukul (the descendants of King Raghu) and the times during an unknown period of India’s ancient “history” or is it nothing but an epic which, Hindus believe to be a true account of the events in ancient India?

Shri Bhatnagar adds that the entire dating had been conducted objectively because the software does not permit any manipulation and the verses of the Ramayana were also free of any doubts. Leading scientists and those in the field have appreciated this work. Since the entire sequence tallies, it proves that all the observations in the Ramayana were actual recordings and not conjectures.

Indologists suggest, Shri Bhatnagar says, that he should produce some archaeological evidences in support of these dates because for western historians, these dates are too old to be accepted. “By God’s grace” he says, “I came across an interesting archaeological evidence also”. He describes that evidence in the following paragraphs.

“About a few months ago, NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration of the United States) had photographed an ancient bridge like structure between India and Sri Lanka and stated that it appeared to be man-made. Most of our historians and theologists jumped at the story and said that it was related to Lord Rama. NASA denied having made any statement regarding how the bridge got built, etc. The enthusiasm died soon and nothing could be concluded since we were trying to prove that it was built millions of years ago.

“Just analyse the situation”, said Shri Bhatnagar, “Suppose you build your house with stones which are millions of years old. Does your house also become millions of years old? The answer is a clear No”.

“This was the mistake we were making while trying to claim the ancient bridge and the antiquity of Lord Rama to millions of years ago. Actually, the remains of the bridge, which Lord Rama had built, are still available at a place called “Chedu Karai”in Tamil Nadu. Chedu means setu (bridge) and karai means corner. Interestingly, the remains of the bridge are available at the depth of ten feet below the water and these are about 1.5 kilometres inside the sea.

Valmiki mentions that six months later, when Rama (had) killed Bali on the Amavasya of Ashadh (June-July) of the 14th year of (his) exile, another solar eclipse was visible in the morning sky and after five months, when Hanuman went to meet Sita in Lanka, a lunar eclipse was witnessed in the evening. Besides these, several other planetary positions have been mentioned at different other places.

“We are all aware that the rise of sea level, ever since the end of the last ice age (about 16,000 b.c.) is a continuous phenomenon. Countries like the USA and Australia which are having large coast lines and large cities on the coasts are making emergency plans to deal with the constant and accelerated rise in sea level which threatens the cities like New York.

“So, with the intention of studying the subject I went through a number of research papers and tried to find the scientific data available on the rise of sea-level over a period of time. I, accordingly, sent a mail to one of the research scholars for data on the rise of sea level over the last 7,000 years. And the rate of rise of sea suggests that about 7,000 years ago, the sea level was exactly about 10 feet below the present level.

Hence one can prove that the ‘remains of the bridge’ which are about ten feet below the present sea level, are part of the bridge which was built around 7,000 years ago. This is what works out to be the date of era of Lord Rama astronomically.”

“One can imagine that at the time when Hanuman crossed the sea and again the army crossed it, the sea level was about ten feet below what we see today and at that time the sea was behind by about 1.5 to 2 km. In about 7,000 years, it has encroached the land by about two km. All these findings, in a comprehensive manner have been published in a book called Dating the Era of Lord Rama.”

The secret behind the shining sun

The secret behind the shining sun
By Pramod Saini

Drashtavya jagat ka yathartha; Two volumes; by Om Prakash Pandey; pp 288 (vol. I); 280 (vol. II); Price Rs 300 each vol.

What is the significance of the Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads and other ancient Indian scriptures in today’s context? Are they relevant today? When, how and from where this universe came into existence? What is the secret behind the shining sun and moon as well as the twinkling stars? What is galaxy or universe? How, when and from whom were they originated and how long will they exist? Such complicated questions have been agitating the human minds for centuries. Undoubtedly, various scholars in different phases of time have tried to answer these questions at their own level, still there exit queries and confusion. Although westerners might be seeking their answers, we in India know that all these questions have been answered in our ancient scriptures. But we continue to ignore those scriptures. Whenever any western scholar comes out with a new “invention”, we say this has already been said in our Vedas, etc. Shri Om Prakash Pandey, the author of Drashtavya Jagat ka Yathart, has tried to find out the reasons behind this ignorance. Shri Pandey has also answered most of these queries citing references from the modern science in his two-volume book. Originally the book written in Hindi, is in the process of translation into English and some other Indian languages.

The author defines the references revealed in the Vedas, Puranas, Upnishadas, etc. in today’s perspective. The nine forms of the goddess Durga, worshiped in India as the forms of shakti, have been defined with the nine forms of energy—potential, kinetic, nuclear, thermal, magnetic, chemical, sound, light and electricity, as defined by the modern science today. According to Valmiki Ramayana (shloka 16/17, sarga 37 of Balkanda) Agnidev due to the uncertainties of Parvati’s conceiving, had implanted that foetus into the womb of Ganga. This is how a surrogate mother (Ganga) delivered the first test tube baby of the world in the form of first son (Skanda) of Lord Shiva and Parvati.

Similarly, unearthing the cover from modern clone system or designer baby, Shri Pandey quotes from Mahabharata, which says Rishi Vyasa, while dividing the foetus of Gandhari into hundred pieces, kept them into separate pots and subsequently they were implanted into the wombs of various queens of king Dhratarashtra. It was because of those foetuses, one hundred Kaurvas with similar character were born. Similarly the akshya patra, granted by Lord Sun to Yudhishtar during the first phase of exile, was also no less than today’s mobile solar fridge, which kept the fruits and food fresh for long time.

The author says the vision and sight that was needed to understand the proper meaning of the Vedic hymns had been hampered in India for many centuries. The western oriented new generation of so-called Indian scholars find themselves uncomfortable to understood the knowledge of old Indian scriptures in right perspective, because of educational structure provided to them were designed by the Britishers to protect their colonial interest. The Vedas talk about the absolute truth while the science look at every problem into pieces. What Newton said Einstein invented beyond it and that too has now gone beyond with changing concept by the Hawkins.

The author says the devtas mentioned in the Vedas were invisible powers that control or energise the human kind and other species. They were not in the human form but they are the eternal powers and are still in the universe. “The confusion developed after the historic figures naming in the Puranas were connected with the name of devtas revealed in the Vedas. In fact, the foreigners took advantage of this confusion and jeered over our ancient knowledge. Even the Sanskrit grammar developed by Rishi Panini during the Shungvansh period does not fully explain the knowledge of the Vedas, as he was born centuries after the revelation and composition of the Vedas. Panini himself claimed that 18 grammartarians had been before him. Out of those 18 grammartarians, Yask was the oldest. And Yask too said that there had been 12 grammartarians before him. The niruktas and nighuntas composed by Yask explain the meaning of the Vedic hymns to a great extent,” the author claims.

“In the Vedas, the meaning of the word sahastra is more than the particular number. But in the Panini grammar it means thousand. Similarly samudra word has been used in the Vedas for space. But in Panini grammar it means sea. It is believed that the earth has been developed by Lord Barah. It does not mean that Lord Vishnu emerged with the earth in the form of a Barah. Basically the word, Barah, has been used in Vedas for the thing that eats water i.e. cloud. The modern science also named the cloud composed by a cosmic dust as nebula. Indeed, the clouds of cosmic dust after transactions of millions of years produce galaxy, various planets, stars, etc. NASA has recently put up some telescoping pictures of the primary form of nebula, which surprisingly looks like a horse-head, on its website. This is what the first incarnation of Lord Vishnu, as per Puranas, who is also believed as horse-head, is regarded,” the author says. Explaining it further he added that during the Vedic period there were 108 alphabets in the grammar, which with the passage of time reduced to 78 then 64 during the Yask period and further reduced to 53 during the Panini period. Now they have further been reduced to 48 in Devanagari, 32 in Arabic, 26 in Roman and only two words (vit and bytes) in computer. Today’s composition of alphabets is not sufficient to explain and define the accurate meaning of the Vedas and thereby lead to confusion.

Without properly knowing the language and deciphering inability of code most people today call the Vedas full of incoherent things. The author says that time has come to clear this confusion with deep, concentrated and scientific study of the Vedas by the researcher in real task of content available in Vedas. The manuscript of this book was evaluated by the late Dr Vidya Niwas Mishra, the renowned scholar in Sanskrit, Hindi and English.

Dr L.M. Singhvi, noted scholar, in the preamble of the book describes it as a unique Vedant of Indian culture. “In this background the explanations by Shri Pandey seems miracles that develop attractions. …the innumerable references of Indian literature, philosophy, Puranas, traditions, geography, history and Sanskrit used in the book appear an encyclopaedia,” Dr Singhvi said.

(Prabhat Prakashan, 4/19, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110 002.)

Muslim girl ostracised for learning Bharatanatyam!

Muslim girl ostracised for learning Bharatanatyam!
By S. Chandrasekhar

Kerala has always been a model to the world. While in earlier days it was social reformers like Adi Sankara, Sree Narayana Guru, etc. in modern times it is its predominance in education, health care, land reforms etc. Now Kerala is becoming a model for the wrong reasons— Communalisation and Islamisation of the education sector, thanks to the dominance of the Muslim League Ministers in this crucial portfolio.

Majority of the schools, colleges, B.Ed. Colleges, Medical and Engineering Colleges and Nursing institutions in North Kerala are under the control of Muslims. In addition to these thousands of madrasas are functioning in the State with funding from the state sponsored Wakf Board.

While last week it was the case of Muslim students of a Christian Management School being prevented from going on their annual excursion because the itenary consisted Churches, this week it is the case of a Muslim girl and her family facing social ostracism because she is learning Bharatanatyam and Keralanatanam. V.P. Rubiya, daughter of Alavikutty is a class 10 student at Morayur High School, Kondotty, Malappuram District. She started learning Bharatanatyam, traditional Kerala dances and folk dances out of burning desire to participate in the State School Arts Festival. The local Mosque ordered her to desist from this move. When Rubiya resisted and continued with her resolved, she and her family were subjected to ostracism. They were kept out of the Mosque and other Muslims were warned against dealing with them. They were denied the relief given during Ramzan. The parents fear that they may not be able to find a bridegroom for the girl since no imam will solemnise the wedding of a family ostracised by a mosque.

Undaunted by the threat and due to the support of her family and teachers, the girl participated in the festival and won prizes in the categories.

We have heard of books on Kathakali, Bharatanatyam and Indian Culture being confiscated and destroyed in Airports of Saudi Arabia, but what is happening in Kerala, a highly educated state, is shameful. Will the communists who shout from the roof-top against communalism wake up or will they shut their eyes in these days of vote-bank politics and elections.

Where are the poor Hindus?

Where are the poor Hindus?

January 31, 2006


The consequences of Sonia Gandhi becoming what the French call the eminence grise -- one who controls everything from behind the scenes -- for India are not only visible for all those who care to look, but also have far-reaching -- and maybe irreversible -- consequences.

Occultism, in the ancient sense, was the manipulation of forces which cannot be seen, but which constantly clash in the world.

One could say politics is the art of controlling these forces, overtly and covertly. At the top, great leaders create their own occultism. Their very presence generates certain atmospheres, which make or unmake revolutions.

At the outset, one should first say the world is not Black and White, Good and Evil, Superman versus the Bad Guys, as the Americans would like us to believe.

Hindu groups need not demonise Sonia Gandhi.

She probably was a good wife to Rajiv Gandhi, a good daughter-in-law to Indira Gandhi. And by all accounts she is a good mother to her children, judging by the way they dote on her.

One also hears first-hand reports about her concern for smaller people, her dignity in the suffering that befell her when her husband was blown to pieces, and her courtesy with visitors.

That said, what is happening in India at the moment makes me profoundly uneasy.

Francois Gautier: In defence of Hindu gurus


I am a Westerner and a born Christian. Yet, I find it absurd that in a country of one billion people -- one of the most ancient civilisations of this world -- Indians cannot find an Indian to govern themselves.

There are many good and talented people within the Congress. And one wonders what is this unconscious, occult urge that makes them look up to someone, who, however well-meaning, is alien to their culture.

Let us first look at the visible, overt consequences of Sonia Gandhi's supreme leadership.

There is, of course,the Quattrocchi affair. Did Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj order to defreeze the Italian's British bank accounts only to please Sonia? Or did Bhardwaj do that on her orders, even though the Central Bureau of Investigation took the blame?

Then, we have the Iraqi Oil for Food scam.

Could it be that the go ahead for K Natwar Singh and his son's Iraq trip came from Sonia through her trusted aides?

And what about Kashmir? Is Sonia planning some concessions, which in effect will deprive India of this most ancient and sacred piece of earth?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has just held talks with People's Conference chief Sajjad Ghani Lone. What is General Musharraf's game, now that he has dazzled the West, who laid everywhere a red carpet for him?

Is the man who conceived Kargil sincere?

Pervez Musharraf is a clever magician. Nobody in India has found anything to confirm that he is actually holding talks with the Hurriyat leaders, who want Kashmir to separate from India and most likely go to Pakistan.

There is in India an obsession and a fear of a small country that has lost the four wars it initiated with India.

Then, most dangerous of all, we have Nepal.

Because of the intense pressure of India's Communists, India is pushing the king of Nepal into China's arms (Beijing just delivered 25 trucks of weapons to Nepal) and Pakistan, which is opening consular posts everywhere.

If Nepal is taken over by the Maoists, India will be surrounded by three intensely hostile entities: Tibet (under China), Nepal and the valley of Kashmir, which Pakistan wants by force or guile. All of these are on a height, which gives tremendous strategic advantage.

Dr Singh keeps praising China, but there is no doubt that Beijing is New Delhi's deadliest enemy. It does not need to fight a war, as it is invading India with cheap products, encircling India by making deals with hostile nations, beating India in the energy sector and quietly blocking India's entry into the United Nations Security Council.

Francois Gautier: Who are the real Dalits of India?

Is Sonia aware of all this? If she is, then she does not act in India's best interests.

Let's come to the covert, occult signs.

I am a little uneasy when I see how much Christianity is taking over India under the reign of Sonia Gandhi.

According to the 2001 census, there are about 2.34 million Christians in India; not even 2.5 per cent of the nation, a negligible amount.

Yet, there are today five Christian chief ministers in Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

I share with Sonia a love for India. Like her, I have lived in this country for over 30 years. Like her, I have married an Indian.

But nevertheless, since she is at the top, Christian conversions in India seem to have gone into overdrive.

More than 4,000 foreign Christian missionaries are involved in conversion activities across different states. In Tripura, there were no Christians at Independence; there are 120,000 today, a 90 per cent increase since 1991.

The figures are even more striking in Arunachal Pradesh, where there were only 1,710 Christians in 1961, but 1.2 million today, as well as 780 churches!

In Andhra Pradesh, churches are coming up every day in far-flung villages and there was even an attempt to set up one near Tirupati.

Many northeast separatist movements are not only Christian dominated, but sometimes function with the covert backing of the missionaries.

In Kerala, particularly in the poor coastal districts, you find 'miracle boxes' in local churches. The gullible villager writes out a paper mentioning his wish: A fishing boat, a loan for a pucca house, fees for the son's schooling, etc. And a few weeks later, the miracle happens!

Of course, the whole family converts, making others in the village follow suit.

During the tsunami, entire Dalit villages in Tamil Nadu were converted to Christianity with the lure of money.

Then there is this rapid Westernisation of India.

There are good things in the West -- its material consciousness, care for nature, logical mind -- but it is nevertheless in crisis. Its Church is in disarray, three marriages out of five end in divorce and some children need to go to psychiatrists before they start shooting other children.

Yet, if you have a look at most of the mainstream English-speaking Indian magazines and newspapers today, you will notice that all their cover stories deal with Western concepts, that they are looking at India from a Western point of view, such as talking about 'New Age' spirituality.

As if spirituality is new to India!

You will notice that there is never any reference to India's great past, or to India's philosophy, or medicine -- which, by the way, is becoming fashionable in the West.

Brinda Karat went after Swami Ramdev and Ayurveda, the oldest medical system still in practice in the world, although she did not get much support.

Notice also that when the Shankaracharya of Kanchi is arrested, a section of the Indian intelligentsia applauds, though he has still not been proven guilty.

And that when a new Pope is elected in Rome, we get in India hours of live coverage and countless cover stories.

The occult effect of it is that nobody realises that in a country of 850 million Hindus, you have now a Sikh prime minister -- when Sikhs constitute only 2 per cent of the country's population; a Muslim President -- when Muslims make up 10 per cent of India; a Communist Speaker in Parliament -- when Communism is moribund the world over; and a Western and Christian supreme leader, when Westerners constitute only 0.0001 per cent of India and Christians 3 per cent.

Where are the poor Hindus?

What will happen if India becomes enough Westernised at the social level, Christianised and Islamised at the religious level and taken over by the Marxists at the intellectual level?

Not only will India lose its unique soul and just become another Western clone in the developing world, but the earth will lose something very precious.

It will lose an ancient knowledge, a irreplaceable way of being, which makes even the most ordinary farmer or coolie carry something unique in his or her genes: A tolerance, an acceptance that god can take many forms, an innate philosophical mind, an understanding that there is something beyond us, beyond death.

Indian Christians are different from any Christians in the world, Indian Muslims different from any Muslims in the world. They would also lose.

Maybe it is thus necessary for Indians to see for themselves the harmful effects of Sonia being queen.

Only then will they realise that it is important to have an Indian at the top, someone who is in touch with India's ideals and spirituality.

Francois Gautier

A mission that enriches the soul of the needy

A mission that enriches the soul of the needy
Tuesday January 17 2006 21:21 IST
S Gurumurthy

Manikanta, abandoned on the streets, was begging from morning to night in Lalbaugh. Later, he was taken to Chennai to work in a country liquor shop. The shopkeeper read a newspaper article about `Nele' and brought the child to its doors. Today, Nele is Manikanta's home. He is in school, in 4th standard.

Nele is the home for children abandoned to the care of streets to beg, pick rags and do other menial work. It takes them into its bosom, nurses them to good health and mind and initiates them into man-making education. Many such street children picked up by Nele are today role models. They bag prizes in competitions.

Saraswati, just eight, had acute hearing impairment. Her ability to learn was so low that even special schools would not admit her. She joined Aruna Chetna. Today she has blossomed into a creative girl, excelling in dance and art. Groomed as a teaching assistant, she is now in vocational training division in Aruna Chetna itself.

Started in the year 1987, Aruna Chetna takes care of children like Saraswati and others suffering disabilities like cerebral palsy, mental retardation, hearing impairment, partial visual impairment, behavioural and emotional disorders. There are over 160 such impaired children today in Aruna Chetna.

Aruna Chetna has dedicated and experienced teachers who provide comprehensive services to the affected children including physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, academic education, self-management, vocational training, sports, music, dance, dramatics, drawing and painting and yoga.

'Prasanna' is a counselling initiative for mental health. Expert counselling is costly in this area and the poor can hardly afford it. So, qualified doctors from NIMHANS are networked as volunteers to counsel the needy. More than 1000 mental cases, 700 family issues, and 500 rehabilitation efforts were successfully handled by Prasanna.

The head of Prasanna, Dr Mrs Pankaja, was awarded `Vidyaratna' in 1998. Various public service outfits like Lions, Rotary, Inner Wheel and others have honoured Prasanna. Nele, Aruna Chetna and Prasanna are just illustrations, different manifestations, of the same mission, the Hindu Seva Pratishtana in Bangalore.

The work of Pratishtana is not limited to these initiatives, but extends to a vast area. Protection of environment is a key concern of Pratishtana. It launched a movement to `Save the Western Ghats' led by Anant Hegde who works with the Pratishtana.

It has instituted a task force to document the bio-resources of various villages in Sagar, Thirthahally and Hosanagara taluks in Karnataka - a far-reaching work.

It has special concern for women and conducts massive programmes mobilising them on the cultural plane. It conducts Deepa Pujas in which thousands participate every year. It organised a Matru Sangama in which 45,000 women from executives and professionals to ordinary slum dwellers resided together.

It also works vigorously to eradicate untouchability and alcoholism. Conceived and executed by Ajit Kumar, a dynamic RSS worker, 25 years ago, the Hindu Seva Pratishtana has over the years grown into a huge, high quality public service mission.

He died young, but thanks to his far-sight, the Pratishtana work has grown exponentially.

As he conceived this mission, Ajit Kumar did not think of building a huge corpus of funds. Instead, he built a team of dedicated volunteers and instituted a system of identifying, training and sustaining more of them.

The idea of public service is generally understood as raising, accumulating and spending funds. Sometimes it is even trivialised as a task, which can be accomplished by just money.

More often than not, skill in fund raising is considered more important to engage in public service. But Ajit Kumar was different. He believed that motivated men, motivated by the urge to serve the motherland through the service of the needy, are more critical than money.

He proved right. Thanks to his vision, today in the Pratishtana there are over 3000 whole-time volunteers - yes 3000! They are called `Sevavratis', that is, those who have taken a vow for service. They are competent in different fields, well-trained and motivated by high levels of compassion linking the service they deliver to the idea of man-making and nation-building.

A 'Sevavrati' takes oath to give full time to the Pratishtana for three years. But, there are `Sevavratis' who are working for over 15 years. In addition there are thousands of equally dedicated workers who work only part time.

This huge stock of trained, sincere and committed workers constitutes the real asset of the Pratishtana, not the moderate financial numbers disclosed in its balance sheet.

But the story of Pratishtana is still not complete. It is a mission whose service enriches the soul of the needy who receive its help, and not trade off its service for change of faith, God, or culture of the recipient.

Those missions that offer relief to the needy in exchange for the recipient being persuaded to disown his or her faith or God or culture are also celebrated as great social service missions.

But, the Pratishtana is different, because its services have no aim or intent other than building a mighty and prosperous India. This is real national service, man-making and nation-building service, which Swami Vivekananda repeatedly commended to the youth of India.

The Hindu Seva Pratishtana that serves the acutely needy is actually transforming into a movement in Karnataka. This illustrious mission is entering its Silver Jubilee Year on February 25, 2006.

In defence of Hindu gurus

In defence of Hindu gurus

January 09, 2006



When Marxist leader Brinda Karat attacks Swami Ramdev, she is not attacking Ramdev in particular, she is attacking Hinduism in general.

This guru or that guru makes no difference to her; she is against all gurus.

Other gurus might think they are safe, that Ramdev committed some sin for which he is paying. But one of them will be the next in the line of fire!

Swami Ramdev: Yoga does it

Hindu gurus are all vulnerable in today's India: The Kanchi Shankaracharya has already been hit. So has Satya Sai Baba. Amritanandamayi has to live under the constant shadow of a hostile Kerala Communist-dominated government. Dhirendra Brahmachari is dead and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is periodically targeted as the 'Guru of the rich', the 'Glib Godman' etc.

May I be forgiven my arrogance, but what Indian gurus have to understand is that for Indian Communists, Hinduism is the Number 1 enemy. Mao called religion 'the opium of the people'. But for Indian Communists, what stands between their ambition for absolute power in India (and eventually the triumphant return of Communism in the world -- as Indian Communists believe) is the hold Hinduism has in the hearts of the rural people of India, who constitute 80 per cent of this country.

Yet, the humble farmer from Uttar Pradesh to Tamil Nadu has a natural understanding of the universality of God, who takes many names throughout the ages who could be Buddha, Jesus Christ, Ram or Mohammad. This humble farmer possesses the knowledge that there is a something deeper than the skin and the mind, and a life beyond death. This knowledge is inbred, it is not in his head, not even in his heart, but in his or her genes from generation to generation.

Ramdev vs Karat -- who's right?

Of course, the English-speaking media is too happy to oblige Brinda Karat and come down hard on gurus with all kind of accusations.

Before Ramdev, they came down on the Kanchi Shankaracharya, before him on Osho, before him on Dhirendra Brahmachari. You can even go back to Sri Aurobindo, who was accused in the early 1900s by the moderate Congress-controlled press to be a 'fanatic', when he was only demanding total independence from the British long before Gandhi took it up.

Accusations against Hinduism of superstition, brainwashing, ritualistic ignorance, date back from British missionaries and have been taken up today by the Communists. Yet, Hinduism -- at least the Hinduism which goes beyond the rituals and becomes universal spirituality -- has nothing to do with superstition and conmanship: it is all about science, knowledge and light.

Look at Pranayama, a science that has known for thousands of years how to harness breath and use it for controlling the mind, for a better, more healthy, more spiritualised life. If you read Osho's books today, you find a lot of solid common sense, wisdom, even light.

Satya Sai Baba cannot have millions of disciples from the most humble to the Presidents of India without 'something' which is beyond superstition. So goes for Amritanandamayi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Ramdev, or Guruma of Ganeshpuri.

And why should Brinda Karat target Ayurveda, the most ancient medical system in India still in practice, the first medicine to realise 3,000 years ago that plants and minerals offer the best cure, that many illnesses have a psychosomatic origin, the first to practice plastic surgery on patients?

In India today, every third shop is an allopathic medical shop, whose profits go to Western multinationals (hello Mrs Karat!) at a time when Ayurvedic medicine is becoming increasingly popular in Western countries, after being disillusioned by antibiotics and other heavy-handed medicines.

We are witnessing an interesting phenomenon in India today. Some Communists, some Christians, some Muslims and some Congress leaders -- all of whom have nothing in common and often hate each other are united against Hinduism and Hindu leaders.

In contrast, look at the Hindus: Swami Ramdev himself criticised Sri Sri Ravi Shankar live on television, advising his followers not to practice Art of Living breathing techniques. During the tsunami relief operations in Nagapattinam, disciples of Amritanandamayi and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar nearly came to blows over who would give relief to whom, instead of networking and uniting their efforts.

And who came to the rescue of Osho when he was maligned to death, or Dhirendra Brahmachari when the entire press came down on him, or Satya Sai Baba, when he was slandered, or the Shankaracharya when he was thrown into jail, or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, when Javed Akhtar accused him of coming 'from a cave to live in a palace' (and not from a palace to a cave like the Buddha)? None of the previously mentioned. Yet, Indian politicians can commit any crime, have any number of court cases against them, and they still end up as Union ministers and get positive press coverage.

The greatest curse of Hinduism throughout the ages has been its disunity -- and more than that -- its betraying each other. The British did not conquer India, it was given to them by its warring Hindu princes, jealous of each other. The same is true of Islam: the last great Hindu empire, that of Vijaynagar, was betrayed to the Muslims by the Lingayats.

I know there is something mysterious and unfathomable in the manifestation of the Divine upon earth, and that each guru has a defined task to fulfill and that the combined task of all the gurus may solve the great puzzle that is this ignorant and suffering earth.

Thus, it may not be necessary for each guru to communicate with each other. But nevertheless, it is of the greatest urgency today that Hindu leaders unite to save Hinduism, rather than 'each one for his own' that we see today.

The Catholics have their Pope and his word is binding on all Catholics. Muslims have Prophet Mohammed's words and that binds all of Islam together. Indian Communists have the words of Marx and Lenin, even if it has become irrelevant in Russia, Germany, and also in China. But the poor Hindus have nobody to refer to, so as to defend themselves.

Yet, if you take the combined people power of Satya Sai Baba, Amritaanandamayi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdev, Guruma of Ganeshpuri, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, and so many others I cannot mention here, it runs in hundreds of millions.

Again, in all humility and conscious of the limitation of mind compared to some of these great gurus whom I have met, I propose that a Supreme Spiritual Council, composed of at least seven of the most popular Hindu leaders of India, be constituted, maybe under the leadership of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the most travelled of all these, the one who has disciples and teachers of all religions, both from India and the West.

It should be a non-political body, and each group would keep its independence but nevertheless. It could meet two three times a year and issue edicts, which would be binding on 850 millions Hindus in India and one billion over the world.

Then and then only can this wonderful spirituality which is Hinduism, this eternal knowledge behind the outer forms, the wisdom to understand this mad earth and its sufferings, be preserved for the future of India, and for the future of humanity.

I bow down to each of these gurus mentioned above and to all those not mentioned, to Swami Vivekananda, the initiator of modern Hinduism, to Sri Aurobindo, the great avatar of the supramental, and to all the great gurus who have graced over the ages, this wonderful and sacred land which is India and beseech them to hear my prayer:
Hindus leaders, unite, if you want eternal Dharma to survive.

Francois Gautier