Is Narendra Modi ushering India back to a vedic future

Modi is a modern techie, but is he a moderniser? He cannot be as long as he and his government propagate back-to-the-scriptures science.


Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta

Is Narendra Modi a moderniser or a traditionalist? Is he forward-looking or trapped in the past, however glorious? Does he aspire to lead India into a brilliant new future, or bring back "sone ki chidiya" (the golden sparrow) fantasy? I know the answer to all three questions from his many followers: he is a forward-looking moderniser who wants to lead India into a great future. He loves technology, he celebrates science. He took the cue on using social media for political campaigning from Obama and improved on it greatly. He takes selfies with fellow heads of state (Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in this case) and tweets them, and when a glamorous, star-struck Bollywood leading lady, towering a foot over him, bends over his shoulder to take a selfie he looks back in debonair style to ask, "Got it?" In more ways than one he comes across as India's most modern prime minister since Rajiv Gandhi. At which point, we need to ask yet another question. Will his government reflect his own modernism or RSS nostalgia?

The two cannot go together. Modern thinking is about science, technology, curiosity to discover what hasn't been discovered yet and humility to accept that the human race has to reach new frontiers, that what we may know yet is a fraction of what we don't. The traditionalist RSS view, on the other hand, is that whatever mankind may be hoping to imagine, discover or design in the future had already been perfected in Vedic times. All you need to do in that case is a close but open-minded reading of the Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads. We had lost it because the Hindu empire and heritage suffered with the decline of the Gupta and Mauryan dynasties and with the arrival of invaders from the West, leading to subjugation by Muslims and then Christians. Modi's rise, therefore, is India's first chance in a millennium to leapfrog backwards and connect with that past. Or, to put it more rudely, set the clock and calendar back.

This is a serious issue to raise at a point when the new government seems to be settling down. A crucial Parliament session is beginning. It needs to be raised because it is a key mainstream issue and not a mere distraction from the entertaining fringe of true believers with degrees from Dina Nath Batra Vidyapeeth.

It will be delusional to dismiss Dina Nath Batra as a lone maverick and merely the slayer of Wendy Doniger's scholarship. He represents a new force in our political and intellectual discourse even if it is a force of old think. His power over the BJP's HRD ministry is now evident. This week a new precedent was set in New Delhi as German ambassador Michael Steiner called on Batra, reasoning with him to calm down on his opposition to German language classes in schools. But you can see Sanskrit winning, in spite of all his diplomatic charm. At a moment like this, a gentle intervention was needed from a modernising prime minister. Something like, why should it be Sanskrit versus German? Sanskrit is a wonderful classical language and should be made attractive to all (and liberated from its pundit ji stereotype), and why just German, Indians must have a choice of many important foreign languages, French, Spanish and even Mandarin included. This is a globalised world, a globalising India and Modi is our most outgoing prime minister since Nehru. This is no time to go back to the depths of the old trenches of cultural and linguistic insecurities. This young India wants to go out and embrace the world, just as Modi does with his global peers. (Note meanwhile that the government of Haryana has already decided to seek Batra's advice on "modernising" its education system.)

This argument is not about an individual, but about a state of mind. Where you confuse rationality with tradition, curiosity with scripture. It gets more complicated. In 2001, I was among the many senior journalists on Atal Bihari Vajpayee's entourage to Iran. And it was every bit worthwhile, particularly as we all reached Persepolis, the ancient city wrecked by Alexander the Great. As we surveyed the ruins, an eminent RSS intellectual in the group started "educating" all of us on "history". He said, see, what a terrible man Alexander was. This is precisely what he wanted to do to India. But he was defeated by a minor Hindu king, Porus, whose real name was Paurush (manhood). He was fleeing India in fright, his army disintegrated, and died a forlorn man. At which point I tried to intervene saying that history was quite different, but was ignored. My much wiser friend, and strategic affairs pundit, C Raja Mohan tapped me on the shoulder and said, don't argue with them, they confuse history with faith. His words come back to me often these days.

Because history has been a political and ideological football in India for long, you can probably understand why RSS intellectuals now want to get even with those of the Left, who reigned all these decades and brought in their own loaded, secular distortions. History can still survive robust disagreements and debate, even if it is often as irrational as arguing that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple. But a much bigger challenge arises when not just history, but even science is confused with faith. Which is the provocation for this week's National Interest.

Last week home minister Rajnath Singh nearly stole the headlines from Modi in Australia with his statement (in a speech on Hindi Divas) that physicist Werner Heisenberg had learnt his famed Uncertainty Principle from the Vedas. (It is a different matter that some over-enthusiastic spin master in his ministry had not heard of Heisenberg and issued a press release calling it Eisenhower's Uncertainty Principle instead.) This is a tricky pattern of thinking.

It fits in with the larger, enduring mythology that anything being discovered by the western world now had been developed in Vedic times already. Lord Ram returned with Sita and Lakshman in Pushpak Viman from Lanka to Ayodhya, so see, we had airplanes then. You talk about ICBMs with multiple warheads, Patriots which intercept incoming missiles, Strategic Defence Initiative, what were the "shakti-bans" that Ram and Ravan traded routinely in the battle for Lanka? Or Arjun with his awful Kaurava cousins? Ramanand Sagar worked so hard to remind you of this "heritage" in his endless tele-serials. Never mind that today we can't even put together a reliable assault rifle for our troops.

Nobody is denying that our scriptures (Vedas, Upanishads) and epics (Ramayana, Mahabharata) are truly ancient, and also brilliantly capacious in their imagination and wisdom. It is likely that we imagined mechanised flight much earlier while our intellectual rivals, the Greeks and Romans, were still fitting giant bird wings to human forms, from Icarus to Phoenix. Of course Aryabhata and disciples visualised, debated and documented many astronomical facts and ideas for which wise Europeans were burnt at the stake or poisoned hundreds of years later. Possibly, someone even imagined plastic surgery, animal to human organ transplants, stem cell research, surrogate motherhood. But to say we already "had" all of these is not just funny, it is dangerous. We are a country steeped in tradition and superstition. Our missile scientists perform pujas and break coconuts before test-firing a new Agni. Our space scientists take a model of Mangalyaan to Tirupati to be blessed by Lord Balaji before the launch. If you also tell them they are simply replicating, if not reverse-engineering, what we already had millennia ago, it will be dangerous. Because many of them may not even contest it.

This is Modi's big challenge going ahead. He does have a modern, even a techie mind. But he and the ideological/cultural juggernaut propelling him also have delusions of ancient grandeur. The two, scriptural mythology and quest for modern new discovery, cannot coexist. If there is one leaf Modi needs to take from Nehru's book, it is scientific rationalism.

Meanwhile in Pune, at the feet of Aryabhata: I had the privilege last week to spend a few hours with Prof Jayant Narlikar, by far the most eminent Indian astrophysicist today and co-author of the Hoyle-Narlikar theory questioning Big Bang. He had built the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) at Pune University and his central garden has large statues of the greatest of all times: Newton, Einstein, Galileo and, most certainly, Aryabhata.

Narlikar is also among India's bravest and most thick-skinned rationalists. Even at 76, his eyes light up when you mention superstition and ancient beliefs. Nothing irritates him more than people confusing his science with astrology. The Pune phone book usually lists IUCAA as a centre for astrology.

To make a point, he says, he collected a couple of hundred horoscopes of the most brilliant student achievers and mentally-challenged children and gave them to India's most eminent astrologers. None was able to pick the right ones.

Narlikar says astrology is bunkum and that to call it Vedic is a travesty. In Vedic tradition, he says, there was no astrology, no Mangal ruining marriages, no Brahaspati spreading beneficence and no Shani messing it all up unless you presented the tribute of mustard oil and cash every Saturday. All of this, he says, came from Greece. Alexander had also brought along many "wise" men with his army, some stayed back and spread astrology, to which our ancestors, Hindu or not, Porus or Paurush, took so warmly. So whatever else, let's at least not blame our Vedas for the faults in our stars.

Source: dailyo.in

Pucker up, young Indians

    Amrit Dhillon

Contributed to The Globe and Mail                            Published Monday, Nov. 17 2014, 3:00 AM EST
Last updated Monday, Nov. 17 2014, 3:00 AM EST

As we all know, the best way to defang a bully is to take them on. The moment they know you’re not afraid, they back off. This truism has finally struck the minds of young Indians who used to scuttle away, shame-faced, whenever their country’s self-appointed moral guardians attacked them for celebrating Valentine’s Day, holding hands in public or drinking in a bar.

By launching the Kiss of Love movement, Indian men and women have asserted their right to behave as they wish, provided it’s within the law. Their kissing offensive is a delightfully cheeky way to rattle the old fogies.

It began in Kochi, Kerala, when Hindu conservatives attacked a café where they suspected “immoral” activities, namely canoodling, were taking place.

In the past, the café would have closed out of fear and its customers vanished. This time, a group of youths decided to hold a protest day when couples would kiss publicly. A Facebook drive sparked tremendous interest, which has spread to other cities.

This unprecedented defiance has maddened conservative hardliners, Hindu and Muslim, who believe public displays of affection belong to “Western culture” and fear it will corrupt the “purity” of India’s.

I salute these young Indians, who are taking them on and reclaiming their public space. For too long, they have been docile and too accepting of what their elders told them. This campaign marks a coming of age.

There are two reasons why it’s taken so long to reach this point. One is the natural fear of violence. The other is a residual sense of guilt – the fear that public displays of affection are indeed un-Indian behaviour, the kind of thing their parents and relatives might also disapprove of.

It’s not just traditional Indian culture that leans toward such conservatism. Look at how the Chinese reacted to Russian President Vladimir Putin gallantly draping a shawl around his Chinese counterpart’s wife at the APEC summit. For the Chinese, this harmless gesture was inappropriate.

India is not very different. The conservatives cannot abide manifestations of love in public but feel no dislike for manifestations of hatred, as witnessed in the vitriolic speeches they like to make. Nor do they ever come out onto the streets to protest against the less appealing aspects of Indian culture, such as female feticide and honour killings. For years, they have had the upper hand, imposing their morals on other Indians even if it means roughing up young couples in parks.

Conservatives must realize that culture is not pickled in aspic; it must adapt and change. Change, of course, is what they fear. It may only be kissing today, but tomorrow it could be living together before marriage, love marriages and disregard for caste.

Another disturbing feature in this story is the fact that Kochi police intervened – on behalf of the louts. They should have been protecting the right of the couples, who came under attack despite breaking no laws.

The government must show that it is against moral policing. Someone on Facebook wrote, “Love is a personal thing. Enjoy it and don’t make a drama out of it.” Wrong. If expressing love in public is not a personal thing to the moral brigade, why should it be so to those who want this freedom?

Love is political and has to fight to preserve its space in public life. To those who have unleashed this new energy against the fossils and the feudalists, I say kiss away.

Amrit Dhillon is a writer based in New Delhi.

Follow us on Twitter: @GlobeDebate

Source: The Globe and Mail

Blogger Comments:

Moral police (whatever their stripes may be) should stay away and don't create 1960s counterculture movement of USA in 2014 India. Don't bring in religion, culture, caste or race for argument as warts and all will come to haunt, and embarass the Nation. Remember! that we don't have a good track record on how we treat our women (mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, in-laws and friends), patriarchal traits still in vogue.

90 Per Cent of Poor in India, South Africa Are Minorities: Former Justice Yacoob

By Express News Service                                       Published: 16th November 2014 06:21 AM
Last Updated: 16th November 2014 08:40 AM

Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Zakeria Yacoob sharing a lighter moment with CSD-SRC, Hyderabad regional director, Kalpana Kannabiran (left) and CSD managing committee chairman PM Bhargava at the CD Deshmukh memorial lecture in Hyderabad on Saturday | A SURESH KUMAR

HYDERABAD: Achieving equality in society is the only solution to eliminate poverty in this world, said Justice Zakeria ‘Zac’ Yacoob, Retired Justice of Constitutional Court of South Africa at the 13th CD Deshmukh memorial lecture here on Saturday. His lecture was on the topic ‘Equality, Non-discrimination, Religion and Disability: South Africa and India’.

“Once everybody in the society treats everyone equally, poverty will automatically be eliminated,” he said. He reminded that more than 90 percent of the poor in South Africa and India are from the minority classes.

Yacoob, who has been working in the field of Socio-economic Rights for a long time, said he strongly believes that discrimination is based on various factors such as race and religion. It has become one of the biggest hurdles in the path towards development across the world. He said both India and South Africa stand on the same position when it comes to inequality and discrimination against the vulnerable groups.

However, Yacoob felt that ‘race’ has been the most common factor for discrimination in both the countries. “Perhaps that is the reason, constitutions of both the countries chose to give reservations based on race,” he said. From his research on the social development of both the countries for past few decades, he said minorities have always been oppressed, while the majority section continues to dominate.

In the context of formation of Telangana state, Yacoob felt the new state is the result of discrimination that Telangana people faced for years. And now the state has manyopportunities to achieve social and economic development. “Every time a new state is formed, there is a great desire for development,” he said.

He said he finds hope in the fact that oppressed communities such as the Dalits in India and Black Africans in South Africa are now doing well in various fields like education and business. “The change is happening, but it is at a slow pace,” he added.

Organised by the Council for Social Development, the memorial lecture was attended by the research scholars and students from Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

Source: The New Indian Express

Wedding Tomorrow, Sex No Idea!

I attended a wedding in a small town in Rajasthan recently - a beautiful, colourful, blissful event. Of course, I spoke to all the girls and also the bride.

The wedding was arranged, the bride came from a traditional background. After the Sangeet, one day before the wedding, I asked the girl whether anyone has spoken to her about sex. She smiled shyly, and said no. 

I was shocked! It’s one day before your wedding night, and nobody has spoken to you about sex? What on earth are you going to do? The bride was really afraid of what was going to await her… knowing nothing at all about it.

I spoke to my other friends there, too. They said that people in their community do not speak about sex, and so none of the girls really know what to expect.

A colleague of mine shared with me another anecdote: Her friend is a gynaecologist and once had a couple coming in who had been desperately trying to get pregnant for three years, without success. All the fertility tests were positive. They were helpless!

After some talk, it turned out that nobody had ever spoken to the couple about sex before they got married. She asked the husband to point out where he penetrates on a model of the female body. He pointed to the belly button!

I have heard numerous similar stories, some from close friends. Gosh, 2000 years ago, the Kama Sutra, Tantra and the whole science of sex had their genesis in India. And now, the same country has some people who do not actually know anything about sex.

Of course, many people in India are educated about sex. However, the lack of sex education is a huge problem.

Many girls, like the bride I met, are afraid of marriage because they do not know what to expect. This fear is not a good basis for an intimate relationship. What's more, it seems unnecessary to make anyone go through such fear. Intimate life should be something to look forward to.

Another problem is that young people learn about sex in inadequate and almost dangerous ways: Studies show that many Indian boys who do not receive sex education from their parents, learn about sex through pornographic mediums.

This almost sounds like an oxymoron to me: What kind of image of women and of sex will boys get when they learn about sex through pornography?

Porn mostly displays women in a subjugating positions, objectifying them as “things” who came into existence to please all of man’s sexual desires. It gives a distorted and dangerous image of what sex is supposed to be like.

Sex ‘education’ through porn is no basis for establishing an intimate relationship in which both partners are to be respected.

 

Other people learn about sex inadequately in school - as a recent YouTube video which went viral vividly portrays. Others do not learn about it all - like my friends from Rajasthan.

HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise too – something which adequate sex education could help prevent.

Despite this, the new Health Minister recently proposed banning sex education in India altogether – which in most cases is insufficient or non-existing anyway. There seems to be a movement from parents in support of this ban – with them being afraid of the sexualisation of culture.

However, the point is that people will eventually have sex anyway – educating them in adequate ways can help prepare them for that and prevent a form of destructive sexualisation through pornography, as also help promote healthy and respectful intimate relationships.

About Jane: Jane von Rabenau, 22, grew up in Frankfurt, Germany. She is studying Philosophy and Economics at the London School of Economics. She has travelled across India and many parts of the world extensively. An Indophile, Jane (pronounced Yana) currently lives in Delhi and is researching tribal land rights in India. She is fluent in Hindi and tweets @Jane_vonRabenau

Source: newsflicks

How I became an atheist and escaped God's wrath

People find it so difficult to believe that a breed of people do exist who do not need to thank and blame god for every damn thing.

Ananya Bhattacharya    @ananya116

About half a decade back, I chose to give up religion. I’d always been more-than-adequately sceptical about it all along, but the final step required the comfort of a solitary life. In a family known for its love of home deities, choosing not to perform the post-shower puja, or refusing to be a part of the shondhya-aarti, was not only unthought of, but also lethally blasphemous. And that they had a hardcore rebel with an appetite for not-doing-exactly-what-she-had-been-asked-to-do for a daughter, never made the task of force-feeding religion an easy one for my parents. And then there were the Jesus-worshipping nuns in school. From entire hour-long periods in the daily time table devoted to a subject called "prayer", to weekly moral science classes when we’d be taken to the school chapel just to sit, close our eyes and pray, we’d been at the receiving end of it all.

From the all-destroying Goddess Kali at home to the all-forgiving Father in school, religion was something that I could never imagine a life without, back then. We were taught, back home, in the family, to close our eyes and pray to Adya Ma (an incarnation of Kali) before going to sleep. And in school, we were taught to thank God Almighty before going to sleep. However, the tired-to-the-core, juiced-out 12-year-old body of mine fell asleep, many a time, halfway through the process of thanking these numerous gods. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.

In a somewhat modern, progressive, nuclear Bengali family, the puja-paath rituals end up taking a backseat, most of the time. When the numerous with-a-nose-for-criticising-whatever-came-their-way relatives dropped by for a visit, however, it was a different tale altogether at home. The week or so that one of this species would spend at our home, used to be fraught with tension at the least and panic at the most.

"Your daughter sleeps till 1pm on Saturdays. Why don’t you say something? Why doesn’t she have a bath on time and do the daily puja?"

Groggily, with half-opened eyes, I retorted saying that it was a Saturday. Her god could wait for me.

"Isshh. Ki baaje meye! (Such a terrible girl!) You people have spoilt your daughter with so much of affection ("laai" is the actual word that was always used. An exact translation is impossible to zero in on.)

"Baaje meye" that I was, I always went back to sleep, not paying any heed to my Mejo Pishi’s numerous complaints. She’d be gone in a week, the logical part of my brain reasoned. And any which way, I was always the one tainted and painted with the "baaje meye" tag. Big deal. No god rescued me from the clutches of these insidious relatives. The task, yet again, fell on my 13-year-old somewhat-frail shoulders. One fine morning, when this particular Pishi of mine began her tirade, I went ahead and asked her to leave me alone. All hell broke loose. But then, who cared. Good riddance, goodbye.

Once in college, safely away from the eagle-eyed surveillance and 24x7 caustic comments of relatives, I found my new religion by bidding goodbye to the earlier mishmash of Kali-Jesus, etc. I discovered atheism. And thought that I’d received my salvation. There were no long prayers of asking forgiveness from a certain god at the end of the day; and sleep was still uninterrupted. Nothing of the sort that we’d been threatened by for years – "thaakur paap debe" (God will punish you if you don’t pray, etc.) – happened. But an extremely religious roommate happened.

This roommate’s first question when we met was – "You are a Bhattacharya. You must do your pujas several times a day, no?", which was followed by her gasps when I said that I was an atheist. My fate in that room that we shared was pretty much decided right then. I was an atheist. Ergo, an untouchable. Conversations between the two of us were few and far between and totally driven by basic needs if they happened to happen, after that. My roommate conducted her own pujas, with her miniature gods safely tucked away inside the cupboard (for the fear of being stolen by her atheist of a roommate, maybe, who knows). At times, I stared at her stealthily, amused at her ways; at others, I shamelessly slept through her morning rituals, ignoring her mutterings and curses. Back then, there was even a rumour doing the rounds of the hostel – this particular roommate had apparently pleaded with the warden to shift her to a different room, with a different person, but the plea had fallen on deaf ears of the not-as-religious warden of ours.

Later, I faced the frowns and fears and frightened stares of even more roommates. "Aap ko yeh kaise hua?", like atheism was an incurable disease that I needed to be rid of; "Aap kaise manage kar leti hai without praying?", to which, my response was mostly that I didn’t need to pray and that I was fine without praying, too, followed by glares of disgust.

Many a time, I’ve had to deal with questions like, "But what do you do when something goes wrong?" People find it so difficult to believe that a breed of people do exist who do not need to thank and blame god for every damn thing that goes right or wrong in their lives, respectively. In this haven of frenetic god-worshippers called North India, atheism is nothing less than AIDS; Ebola, in current time – perhaps more incurable a disease. You see, proclaiming to people that you are an atheist or filling in the word "atheist" in the column marked "religion" in an interview, categorises you instantly. You are "the other". The one to be scared of; since you are not scared of an omnipotent omniscient God-with-a-capital-"G".

There is a certain need for people on the other side of the fence to realise that yes, we do exist. We are living, breathing creatures, who go through the same ups and downs that they do. It’s just that we don’t have a god to run to every single time something goes wrong. We’re atheists, not aliens. Forgive us Father, but we haven’t sinned!

Source: daily O

Note:
Read life and works of Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao), Indian social reformer and atheist activist. He started his activism against superstition in 1920s. He published Nasthikatvamu: Devudu ledu (There is no God) in Telugu in 1941 (English translation: http://narayanamoorty.net/atheism.pdf). Atheist Centre is a social change institution founded by Gora (1902- 75) and Saraswathi Gora (1912 - 2006) in the year 1940 at Mudunur Village in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Drawings of Harappan era discovered near Hampi

National » Karnataka                                                                                Ballari, November 5, 2014
Updated: November 5, 2014 00:37 IST

Pictographs of the Harappan era in Gondi dialect found near Hampi, Karnataka. Photo: Special Arrangement

Five of 20 pictographs drawn on a boulder deciphered by expert

Pictographs of the Sindu (Harappan) culture have been discovered on rocks near the world famous Hampi. As many as 20 drawings were found on a boulder on top of a hill near Talwarghatta, adjacent to river Tungabhadra.

Experts in Gondi script, including Dr. Moti Ravan Kangale and Sri Prakash Salame of Nagpur, have identified them as Sindu (Harappan) culture-based script in Gondi dialect.
Gond culture

They also pointed out that such drawings are found in Chhattisgarh and also in interior structures of Gotuls (learning centres for youths) in Bastar region, K.M. Metry, Professor and Head Department of Tribal Studies, Hampi Kannada University told The Hindu.

“Dr. Kangale identified as many as five of the 20 pictographs of Gondi dialect – aalin (man), sary (road/way), nel (paddy), sukkum (star/dot), nooru (headman).

His observations strengthen the belief that Gond culture has been transmitted to the Tungabhadra basin,” Prof. Metry said. Prof. Metry felt that with this discovery, there was need for a thorough research to find out Gotuls in and around Hampi.

Source: The Hindu

శ్రీ కౌముది నవంబర్ 2014

Intermarriage is not jihad, it is India

When Kareena and I married, there were similar death threats, with people 
on the Net saying ridiculous things about “love jihad”. We follow whatever
religion or spiritual practice we believe in.

Written by Saif Ali Khan | Posted: October 15, 2014 2:20 am | Updated: October 15, 2014 10:30 am

I am the son of a sportsman, I grew up in England, Bhopal, Pataudi, Delhi and Mumbai, and I am more Indian than any Hindu or Muslim I know because I am both. I wrote this piece not to comment on the masses or the problems of communalism in India and its villages, but because this is an issue that concerns my friends and their families.

It wasn’t peacefully accepted by anyone, initially, when my parents wanted to marry. The royals had their issues; the Brahmins theirs. And, of course, extremists on both religious sides issued death threats. But the marriage still happened — the fact that my grandmother also had to fight to marry the not-as-wealthy and therefore not-so-suitable nawab of Pataudi might have helped things along. We grew up on real-life romantic stories about our elders marrying for love and not worrying too much about tradition. And we were brought up to believe that god is one, with many names.

When Kareena and I married, there were similar death threats, with people on the Net saying ridiculous things about “love jihad”. We follow whatever religion or spiritual practice we believe in. We talk about them and respect each other’s views. I hope our children will do the same.

I have prayed in church and attended mass with Kareena, while she has bowed her head at dargahs and prayed in mosques. When we purified our new home, we had a havan and a Quran reading and a priest sprinkling holy water — no chances taken!

What is religion? What is faith? Does a perfect definition exist? I don’t know. But I know doubt. I’m intrigued by the politics of doubt. Doubt gives us faith. Doubt keeps us questioning what keeps us alive. If we become sure of something, then there is a danger of becoming fanatical.

Religion needs to be separated from a lot of things. Our religions are based on fear. The Old Testament spoke of a Promised Land for a people, but there were people already living there. The problem is still burning today. There have been too many atrocities committed in the name of god.

I know good people are scared of marrying their daughters to Muslims. They fear conversion, quick divorces, multiple marriages — basically, it suits the boys a bit more than the girls. All this is undoubtedly outdated. A lot of Islam needs to modernise and renew itself in order to be relevant. We also need a loud moderate voice to separate the good from the evil. Islam today is more unpopular than it has ever been. This is a great shame to me, as I have always thought of Islam as the moon, the desert, calligraphy and flying carpets, the thousand and one nights. I have always thought about it as a religion of peace and submission. As I grew older, I saw religion twisted and used so badly by men that I distanced myself from all man-made religion. I choose to be as spiritual as I can be.

Anyway, I digress. The good news is that no one needs to convert from their religion to get married. The Special Marriage Act, when applicable, is the paramount law of the land. If you marry under this, it is upheld over any religious law. It is truly secular.

The fabric of India is woven from many threads — English, Muslim, Hindu and many others. A major concern in today’s India is that we keep deleting our past. To say Muslims don’t have a role in India is denying their importance and contribution. It is like saying women don’t have a part to play in India. Why do we need to deny Islam? It’s what we are. We come with our mix. To deny this is to cheat us of our inheritance. I don’t know what “love jihad” is. It is a complication created in India. I know intermarriages because I am a child of one and my children are born out of it. Intermarriage is not jihad. Intermarriage is India. India is a mix. Ambedkar said the only way to annihilate caste is intermarriage. It is only through intermarriage that the real Indians of tomorrow can be truly equipped to take our nation forward with the right perspective. I am the product of such a mixed marriage and my life has been full of Eid and Holi and Diwali. We were taught to do adaab and namaste with equal reverence.

It is sad that too much importance is given to religion, and not enough to humanity and love. My children were born Muslim but they live like Hindus (with a pooja ghar at home), and if they wanted to be Buddhist, they would have my blessing. That’s how we were brought up.

We are a blend, this great country of ours. It is our differences that make us who we are. We need to get beyond mere tolerance. We need to accept and respect and love each other.

We are most certainly not a secular country. The intention was to become one and our Constitution has provided every framework to make that possible. But, more than six decades on, we have still not separated religion from the law. To make matters worse, different laws apply to different people, making it impossible for us to think as one. There are different laws for Hindus and different laws for Muslims. This is bound to create trouble.

I think we should have one law for all Indians, a uniform civil code, and we should all think of ourselves as one nation. All our religions must come later and be by the way. Teach our children about god and his thousand names, but first we must teach them respect and love of their fellow man. That is more important.

I stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy first, then Santa Claus, and finally, I really don’t know what I feel about a personal god. But I believe in love and in trying to be good and helping the world. I don’t always succeed and then I feel bad. My conscience is my god, I think, and it tells me that that one tree in Pataudi near which my father is buried is closer to god than any temple, church or mosque.

Saif Ali Khan is an actor and producer

Source: The Indian Express

Jobat: A hate story

                                 Joseph Pawar and Ayushi Wani

Written by Milind Ghatwai | Posted: October 12, 2014 12:30 am | Updated: October 12, 2014 8:13 am

Joseph Pawar and Ayushi Wani’s ‘marriage’ was ‘invalidated’ after 5 days in this MP town with rising Hindu right-wing activism. With police citing a court order, the two don’t know where to go for answers, says Milind Ghatwai

Kiya hai to poora karenge (If I’ve loved, I’ll go the distance),” says Joseph Pawar, speaking at an undisclosed location in Indore. That’s what Ayushi Wani, 35 km away at a shelter home in Ujjain, is counting on.

‘Married’ for five days, the 22-year-old Christian youth and the 19-year-old Hindu girl were separated forcibly on October 1 and their wedding declared “invalid” after Hindu right-wing activists took to the streets protesting against the alliance. Ayushi refused to go back to her parents while Joseph was taken away and warned not to return to his hometown Jobat. Ten days later, they fail to understand why it turned out like this.

It was four years ago that the affair began, when Ayushi and Joseph were together at a coaching institute in Jobat. The two went to great lengths to hide it from their families. More than the fact that they belong to different religions, they worried about the reaction of others. Jobat is largely a town of traders, about 200 km from the nearest big city of Indore. For its population of around 20,000, nearly 18,000 of whom are Hindus, the Thursday haat is the most exciting part of their week. Everybody knows almost everybody and social pressure can be hard to fight.

A decade ago, the region had seen the campaign of the BJP and other Hindu fundamentalist organisations against alleged conversion of tribals to Christianity by missionaries using money and other enticements.

Ayushi and Joseph had heard about the tension in the town at the time. So, they hardly met outside the coaching institute, staying in touch over the phone.

Often, the difference between their families would come up for discussion — his being poor and simple, hers aggressive because of their relative wealth.

Around a year ago, they started talking of taking the next step. Ayushi was entering the final year of her B.Sc. at a Jobat college, while Joseph had begun a General Nursing Midwifery course at Indore’s Index Nursing College.

By then, their families had discovered their relationship. While Joseph’s sisters got around to accepting Ayushi, her family said a straight no. They also started pressuring her to marry a person they had identified.

On September 25, the two slipped out of their respective colleges and ran away to Bhopal, where they got married at an Arya Samaj temple.

The same day, after Ayushi didn’t return from college, her family lodged a case of kidnapping against Joseph. Soon, members of the RSS and Hindu Jagaran Manch started protests, threatening to launch an indefinite bandh if the couple were not traced by October 1.

They demanded that Joseph be arrested and that force be used to get Ayushi back to her parents.

In the afternoon of October 1, Ayushi and Joseph, who had been traced to Bhopal, “surrendered” at the office of the Superintendent of Police, Alirajpur. By then, tension had spread from Jobat to this place 35 km away. With hundreds of Hindu right-wing activists gheraoing the Alirajpur SP’s office, the police, under pressure, declared the marriage “invalid”, arguing that Joseph was not a Hindu and the rituals at the Arya Samaj temple meant nothing.

When Ayushi refused to go back to her parents, the protesters demanded that Joseph convert to Hinduism, under the Freedom of Religion Act that mandates a one-month prior notice before conversion. Her parents were present at the SP’s office; his relatives were not informed, though his sisters reached on their own after hearing about what had happened.

Ayushi was driven in a police jeep to Ujjain, and moved into a shelter home run by an NGO under a government scheme. Suspecting threat to his life, police kept Joseph in custody before escorting him to Indore to a relative’s place in the wee hours of the following day, accompanied by his two sisters. Joseph was told not to return to Jobat.

Alirajpur became a district only in 2008 and has only two Assembly seats, Alirajpur and Jobat, both represented by BJP MLAs. The municipal bodies and cooperative societies in Jobat are all controlled by the BJP.

The town has less than 1,000 Christians and only slightly more Muslims. Among the Hindus, the dominating communities are Wanis and Rathods. The Wanis are mostly traders or advocates.

Amkut, a village in Alirajpur, last saw violence in 2004 after a minor girl’s body was found on the premises of the CNI Church. Jobat MLA Madho Singh Dawar claims there have been sporadic incidents since then.

Joseph’s house is located right behind the church, which is now under police protection.

He is the only son and the youngest of four siblings. Their father Sunny Jacob passed away last December, while their mother, who is paralysed, moved out of town following the protests. Joseph and his sisters had a difficult childhood as Jacob, partially disabled, struggled to make ends meet from the earnings from his flour mill.

“Our father was a simple man. He never ventured out because of his disability,” says Savita Singh, Joseph’s sister.

All the three sisters work as nurses, and helped fund Joseph’s education. They had been planning to send Joseph to London to join his eldest sister’s husband, who is also in the same profession.

While Savita works as a nurse at a government hospital in Jobat, her husband Nigam Raymond owns a poultry farm and some agricultural land. He had sought a Congress ticket in the Assembly elections of 2013 and later tried to fight as an Independent.

Less than a kilometre away lives Ayushi’s family, among the more affluent families of Jobat. Her father Rajkumar Wani runs two adjacent cloth showrooms from the ground floor of his house. Ayushi, who has done her entire education in Jobat, has two younger sisters.

Joseph’s sisters say they are surprised at the courage he has shown under pressure. Overweight as a child, he faced constant teasing.

The name he was given then, ‘Dumdum’, stuck on into youth, while on his Facebook page, he appears as a lanky youth with many posts on facing separation and opposition in love. The only departures are a photograph of a suicide note with a girl’s slit wrist next to it, and Amitabh Bachchan aiming a pistol into the camera with ‘DON’ written underneath.

Since October 1, his Facebook page has been drawing only insults. “Jobat ke Hindu uska intzaar kar rahe hein. Yuva Sena pooch rahi laal top kha bhag gaya (The Hindus of Jobat are waiting for him. The Yuva Sena is asking whether he fled after the protest),” wrote Ashish Rathod in separate messages.

When Joseph posted a video and photograph of his wedding ceremony, he was swamped by threats. “I deleted the post,” Joseph says. Ironically, he smiles, he had very few friends and most of them were Hindus.

Seeing him face such anger, Savita says: “Joseph is so timid that even the idea of an electric current makes him fearful. I don’t know how and where his affair began.”

Talking about the day they were brought back to Jobat and separated, Joseph says: “The protesters kept talking only about religion and caste.”

Adding that his love gives him strength, he says: “They pelted stones at my house in Jobat and threatened to burn the church. My sisters received threats to their lives. But I am not going to budge. I want to be with Ayushi.”

Pointing out that police did not even call them to Alirajpur after the couple “surrendered”, Savita says: “In what capacity were the RSS, Bajrang Dal and BJP members intervening?”

Savita tried to make the same argument at the SP’s office, reasoning with the protesters that Christians had not taken to the streets when there were cases of Christian women marrying Hindu men. She says a “leader” told her: “That’s your problem. You should have protested. Then this (Joseph’s marriage) would not have happened.”

That was the first time the sisters actually met Ayushi, though they had seen her fleetingly around town. Savita was impressed. “My brother may waiver, but Ayushi won’t. She is such a bold girl,” says Savita.

However, while Joseph’s sisters have accepted Ayushi, her family shows no signs of relenting. Her distraught father Rajkumar says he wants her to marry within the community. “We will wait for her to return to her senses. She even refused to recognise me at the SP office. Let her spend a few days away and she will realise her mistake,” says the father, adding that Ayushi’s mother is inconsolable and her blood pressure has shot up.

Ask him why they are opposed to Joseph, and the Wanis say while they are “pure vegetarian”, his family eats “mutton and fish”. Adds Rajkumar,

“Had we known of her affair, we would have long nipped it in the bud.”

More than the Wanis, though, it is Hindu right-wing activists who are in the forefront of the protests, insisting on talking on behalf of the family.

“Christians are bad people,” says Shailesh Wani, a right-wing activist who claims to be Ayushi’s cousin. “They roam around doing nothing. Joseph does not earn anything. If his sisters stop giving him pocket money, how will he and Ayushi survive?”

Vani also demands action against the Arya Samaj. “Shouldn’t they be banned for conducting such marriages despite the court judgment?” he asks.

Other activists allege that unions like the one between Joseph and Ayushi are a conspiracy to increase the Christian population. While Ayushi is an adult now, she was “brainwashed” when she was 15 or 16, they allege.

Jobat MLA Madho Singh Dawar backs the charges, accusing Christians of luring away Hindu girls. “Inka kaam hi hai (that’s what they do),” he says. When asked about relationships between Hindu boys and Christian girls, he says, “The boys don’t marry, but just ‘keep’ the girls.”

It is statements such as these that worry CNI pastor Emmanuel Ariel. “The right-wing groups feel emboldened now, thinking they won’t be harmed either by the state or Centre. The Congress used to comment on such matters before but after losing elections, they have stopped raising their voice. There’s no one to keep such groups in check.”

The pastor, who sought police protection, says the activists threatened to harm the church. Wary of the fallout on the larger community, the church didn’t get involved, he says. “Even we are against inter-religious marriages because they create friction. But Hindu right-wing activists should have protested before Joseph’s house and not before the church. We did not want to get involved because it concerns an individual, not the community.”

The spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Madhya Pradesh, Fr Johny P J, however, asks how the police can declare a marriage between two adults invalid. Even the Church conducts such marriages without asking for caste certificates, he says. “The only condition is that children born out of wedlock are raised in the Christian faith.”

Retired district judge Renu Sharma backs this, saying only courts can declare a marriage valid or invalid. “Police may have segregated the couple to restore law and order, but the girl, who is a major, was free to go anywhere. There was no offence even if the marriage was declared invalid,” she notes.

Even if the high court has issued a guideline for marriages at Arya Samaj temples, and the procedure was not followed in this case, only courts can take a call on the matter, not police, she adds.

Joseph’s family is thinking about moving the Madhya Pradesh High Court to seek Ayushi’s custody. Joseph claims that after the marriage at the Arya Samaj temple, they had also gone to the Bhopal Municipal Corporation to get it registered, suggesting it made it legal.

He won’t talk about whether he would convert to Hinduism, as demanded by the Hindu right-wing.

Ayushi says he doesn’t need to, just so to please others. “What right do they have to interfere?” she adds, talking about the protesters, some of whom even threw stones as she was being taken away from the SP’s office in a police jeep.

Sharing space at the shelter home with two minors whose partners are in jail on “kidnapping” charges, Ayushi says: “Some of them used to tease me by dropping hints about our affair. I knew something would go wrong, but did not imagine things would come to such a pass.”

When she refused to return to her parents, her relatives and the activists told her Joseph could never provide for her, and that he lived on Rs 2,000 given to him by his sisters. Ayushi says money does not matter to her and that she would rather live with Joseph than go back to her parents who, according to her, want her to marry someone else. “They would have confined me to the house and never allowed me to step out again.”

Smiling and crying in equal measure, Ayushi points out that she has neither the clothes nor the jewellery of a new bride. But she is resolute that she took the right step. Had she kept mum before the police or gone back to her parents, she fears what the protesters would have done to Joseph. “They wanted me to implicate him… They want Joseph behind bars,” she says.

Both Ayushi and Joseph worry about the future, and how they would find a way back together from where they are now. “I never thought something like this would happen to me,” says Joseph.

Ayushi stresses she is ready to “do anything to go back to him”. And, if that is what it takes, “I am ready to practise both religions.”

THE LAWS

Freedom of Religion Act

An amended form of the previous anti-conversion legislation. The new law, brought in the state by the BJP after it came to power, requires those seeking to convert and the priest presiding over the conversion to notify a district magistrate a month in advance. The police station concerned then has to find out if force was used or money offered for conversion, on the basis of which the district magistrate would allow conversion.

Arya Samaj order

In May 2013, the Madhya Pradesh High Court issued guidelines for the Arya Samaj management to follow before allowing weddings on their premises. Arguing that marriages without parents’ consent were creating social problems, the court said the management should take written applications from a would-be bride and groom, before fixing the wedding date for a week later. The management should then inform the parents, through registered intimation, the date and venue of the proposed ceremony, and five relatives each from both sides should be present for it. The court also ordered that the police station and collector of the district where the groom and bride live should also be notified.

Special Marriage Act

A Central legislation, it allows couples to marry irrespective of the religion they belong to. Under it, marriage is a contract. Once the couple apply, a notice, inviting objections within a month, is displayed at the office of the collector concerned.

Source: The Indian Expres

శ్రీ కౌముది అక్టోబర్ 2014

Hinduism losing its benign face… no one at top stepping in: Nariman

Express News Service | New Delhi | Posted: September 12, 2014 10:14 pm

Nariman said he agreed that the central govt had done nothing to act against 

tirades by individuals or groups against members of religious minorities.

Nariman said he agreed that the central govt had done nothing to act against tirades by individuals or groups against members of religious minorities. Nariman said he agreed that the central govt had done nothing to act against tirades by individuals or groups against members of religious minorities.

Hinduism is losing its benign character because a few people believe that it is their faith that has brought them political power — and because their belief has not been contradicted by “those at the top”, Fali S Nariman said on Friday. The constitutional expert, one of India’s most respected jurists, was delivering the annual lecture at the National Commission for Minorities.

“Traditionally Hinduism has been the most tolerant of all Indian faiths. But — recurrent instances of religious tension fanned by fanaticism and hate speech has shown that the Hindu tradition of tolerance is showing signs of strain. And let me say this frankly — my apprehension is that Hindusim is somehow changing its benign face because, and only because it is believed and proudly proclaimed by a few (and not contradicted by those at the top): that it is because of their faith and belief that HINDUS have been now put in the driving seat of governance,” Nariman said.

He said that while he welcomed a single-party majority government at the Centre, he also feared it because of past experience with majoritarian governments.

Nariman said he agreed that the central government had done nothing to act against tirades by individuals or groups against members of religious minorities. After the lecture, asked about the silence of Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla on hate speeches, Nariman bluntly said: “You should ask her that.”

Heptulla had presided over the function. “I would respectfully suggest that if we minorities (through the statutory body set up by Parliament ) do not stand up for the rights of minorities and protest against such hate speeches and diatribes how do we expect the government to do so? A majoritarian government is elected and exists mainly on the vote of the majority community. On the other hand the commission is an independent statutory body. Its chairman is not a minister of government. And though it receives grants from the Central government it is not expected to be a mere mouthpiece of that government,” Nariman said.

He lauded the role played by the Supreme Court in upholding minority rights on many occasions, terming it a “Super Minorities Commission”, but he said that the judicial outlook had undergone a gradual metamorphosis since the early 1990s when the BJP first introduced the phrase “appeasement of minorities” in the political lexicon to describe the Congress’s attitude towards minorities.

“The label stuck; ‘minority’ became and has become an unpopular word. And after the same political party had included in its Election Manifesto in the general election of May-June 1991 the party’s resolve if and when it came into power to amend Article 30 to the disadvantage of minorities, ‘minority rights’ got less and less protected by Courts (including the Supreme Court of India) than they were before,” Nariman said.

Source: The Indian Express

Eat mangoes to lower your blood sugar

IndiaToday.in  New Delhi, September 9, 2014 | UPDATED 19:23 IST
 

By consuming just 10 grams of mangoes daily you can help manage your high blood sugar, particularly in obese people, a new study has found.

Researchers have found that regular consumption of mango by obese adults may lower blood sugar levels and does not negatively impact body weight.

"We are excited about these promising findings for mangoes, which contain many bioactive compounds, including mangiferin, an antioxidant that may contribute to the beneficial effects of mango on blood glucose. In addition, mangoes contain fibre, which can help lower glucose absorption into the blood stream," said Edralin Lucas, associate professor of nutritional sciences at Oklahoma State University and lead study author.

"Our results indicate that daily consumption of 10 grams of freeze-dried mango, which is equivalent to about one-half of a fresh mango (about 100 grams), may help lower blood sugar in obese individuals," said Lucas.

Participants completing the 12-week study included 20 adults (11 males and 9 females) aged 20 to 50 years.

The researchers found that after 12 weeks, participants had reduced blood glucose, and this glucose lowering effect was seen in both males and females.

No changes were observed in overall body weight, hip or waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, percent fat mass, and lean mass, researchers said.

However, hip circumference was significantly lower in males but not females. BMI tended to be higher in females but not males after mango supplementation, although these results were not statistically significant, they said.

"We believe this research suggests that mangoes may give obese individuals a dietary option in helping them maintain or lower their blood sugar," said Lucas.

The study was published in the journal Nutrition and Metabolic Insights.

Source: indiatoday

A bed of flowers or a pile of cow-dung?

September 7, 2014

Raghu Murtugudde

We occasionally run into some people who are eternally optimistic, flitting across life like a hummingbird darting among flowers and savouring nectar.

And then there are some who seem eternally miserable with nothing positive to say about anything or anybody, evoking the image of a worm writhing inescapably in a life that is like a pile of cow-dung.

What makes some so happy and trusting while some others so melancholic and suspicious despite being surrounded by loving family?

This can be especially painful when someone close to you is not only of the morose disposition but also advancing in years and needs to be looked after.

The western world has made the transition into a societal structure where the old are pretty much expected to check themselves into a retirement home and take care of themselves. But a country like India is still in transition from a generation that expects to be taken care of by their children, to a new middle-aged generation that sees the inevitability of not being able to count on their children during their own impending old age.

This responsibility of caring for aging parents and grandparents comes with a cultural narrative that makes it sinfully disrespectful to say anything negative about elders. Yet, with the nuclearisation of families the practicality of the situation is that many of the elderly end up living on their own.

Why this cultural obsession about not facing the reality that unsavoury persons are not just out there creating instability elsewhere but they could be close relatives as well? We are all human, after all. Would we be better off understanding how trust and respect actually manifest among humans?
The trust molecule

A hormone called oxytocin is shown to be the trust molecule, and it is associated with feelings of mutual trust. It is also known as the cuddle or love hormone, as it spikes during orgasm. It is most active during childbirth and breastfeeding. Experiments done with oxytocin sprays show enhanced levels of trust and cooperation.

Oxytocin release happens for most people with a simple smile from a stranger leading to small conversations and likely friendships or even mutually beneficial transactions.

Trust levels are generally found to be higher in richer countries than in poor countries. Of course, it is known that the poor are subject to higher levels of cognitive constraints or difficulties in making rational decisions since self-control is a limited quantity; one big decision in the morning can make it harder to make more difficult decisions during the rest of the day, leading to a catch-22 situation of being trapped in difficulty with trust.

So how does this relate to pessimistic personalities or even abusive behaviour towards one’s own family members? Many individuals, for example those suffering from autism or with brain damage, can have low oxytocin levels or an inability to assimilate oxytocin like normal people. This can lead to sociopathic behaviour in extreme cases or simply result in an utter inability to form trusting social interactions in the most benign cases.
Sensitivity reset

Research indicates that the lack of a secure family environment or a sense of isolation and insecurity may reset the sensitivity of an individual to oxytocin release. Any feeling of not being trusted is found to cause elevated levels of testosterone release and an aggressive or confrontational behaviour among men with these brain dysfunctions. The nuclearisation of families is possibly causing a sense of isolation and unpredictability among the elderly and must definitely be exacerbating abusive behaviour with old age for those who may already have an oxytocin deficiency.

Most of us know someone — often a close relative who seems to be sociopathic and even oblivious to the suffering of his own child or grandchild — who is aggressive to the extent of being grossly abusive on a daily basis. The cultural norms and expectations place a cruel burden, especially on care-giving woman members of the family, forcing them to tolerate atrocities from the ‘elderly’. It is not sufficient to explain away cruel behaviour as a medical condition. Sadly, it is often not even possible to treat these conditions with anti-depressants or other palliative drugs because of the social stigma of consulting a psychiatrist. It is time for us to accept that life need not become a pile of cow-dung and we need not get stuck till the dung dries and the worm dies. Death is inevitable but it can be a pleasant journey to the destination. It is time to accept the frailties of the human mind and face the reality that even our own relatives can be afflicted with psychological disorders.

ragu@essic.umd.edu

Source: The Hindu

శ్రీ కౌముది సెప్టెంబర్ 2014

Nothing Vedic in ‘Vedic Maths’

Opinion                                                                                                     September 3, 2014

C. K. Raju

Advocating ‘Vedic mathematics’ as a replacement for traditional Indian arithmetic is hardly an act of nationalism; it only shows ignorance of the history of mathematics

Gujarat has made it compulsory for school students to read the texts of Dinanath Batra, endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to news reports, Mr. Batra has now proposed a non-governmental education commission which will Indianise education through, for instance, Vedic mathematics. The Minister for Education has also mentioned Vedic mathematics as part of her agenda.

Ignorant of tradition

One appreciates the desire of these people to work for Indian traditions. But where in the Vedas is “Vedic mathematics” to be found? Nowhere. Vedic mathematics has no relation whatsoever to the Vedas. It actually originates from a book misleadingly titled Vedic Mathematics by Bharati Krishna Tirtha. The book admits on its first page that its title is misleading and that the (elementary arithmetic) algorithms expounded in the book have nothing to do with the Vedas. This is repeated on p. xxxv: “Obviously these formulas are not to be found in the present recensions of Atharvaveda.” I have been pointing this out since 1998. Regrettably, the advocates of “Vedic mathematics,” though they claim to champion Indian tradition, are ignorant of the actual tradition in the Vedas. Second, they do not even know what is stated in the book — the real source of “Vedic mathematics.” Third, they are unaware of scholarly writing on the subject. When education policy is decided by such ignorant people, they only end up making a laughing stock of themselves and the Vedas, and thus do a great disservice to the very tradition which they claim to champion.

Everyone learns how to add, subtract, multiply and divide in school. Why should we replace those algorithms with “Vedic mathematics”? Will that Indianise education? No. The standard arithmetic algorithms actually originated in India, where they were known by various names such as patiganita (slate arithmetic). However, the word “algorithm” comes from “algorithmus”: the Latinised name of al Khwarizmi of the 9th century House of Wisdom in Baghdad. He wrote an expository book on Indian arithmetic called Hisab al Hind. Gerbert d’Aurillac (later Pope Sylvester II), the leading European mathematician of the 10th century, imported these arithmetic techniques from the Umayyad Khilafat of Córdoba. He did so because the primitive Greek and Roman system of arithmetic (tied to the abacus), then prevailing in Europe, was no match for Indian arithmetic. However, accustomed to the abacus (on which he wrote a tome), Gerbert was perplexed by algorithms based on the place-value system, and foolishly got a special abacus (apices) constructed for these “Arabic numerals” in 976 CE. Hence the name “Arabic numerals” — because a learned pope amusingly thought there was some magic in the shape of the numerals which made arithmetic efficient.

Later, Florentine merchants realised that efficient Indian arithmetic algorithms conferred a competitive advantage in commerce. Fibonacci, who traded across Islamic Africa, translated al Khwarizmi’s work, as did many others, which is why they came to be known as algorithms. Eventually, after 600 years, Indian algorithms displaced the European abacus and were introduced in the Jesuit syllabus as “practical mathematics” circa 1570 by Christoph Clavius. These algorithms are found in many early Indian texts, such as the Patiganita of Sridhar or the Ganita Sara Sangraha of Mahavira, or the Lilavati of Bhaskara II. So, advocating “Vedic mathematics” as a replacement for traditional Indian arithmetic is hardly an act of nationalism. On the contrary, it only shows ignorance of the history of mathematics. Spreading this ignorance among future generations will weaken the nation, not strengthen it.

The techniques of “Vedic mathematics” are designed for mental arithmetic, traditionally used by lower caste artisans such as carpenters or by people like Shakuntala Devi. There are many other such systems of mental arithmetic today. If that is what we intend to promote, we should first do a systematic comparison. We should also be honest and refrain from using the misleading label “Vedic” which is the main selling point of Bharti Krishna Tirtha’s system, and which attracts gullible people who infer value just from the wrapper.
Suppressing real Mathematics

Promoting the wrongly labelled “Vedic mathematics” suppresses the mathematics that really does exist in the Vedas. For example, Yajurveda 17.2 elaborates on the decimal place value system (the basis of Indian algorithms) and some of those names for numbers are still in use, though terms such as arab (arbudam) have changed meaning. That passage shows that the place value system extends back to Vedic times, and it was a late acquisition only in mathematically backward Europe.

Likewise, the theory of permutations and combinations is built into the Vedic metre (and Indian music in general), as explained in various texts from Pingala’s Chandahsutra to Bhaskar’s Lilavati. The aksa sukta of the Rgveda gives a beautiful account of the game of dice, which is the foundation of the theory of probability. The romantic story of Nala and Damayanti in the Mahabharata further relates dice to sampling theory (to count the number of fruits in a tree).

More details are in my article on “Probability in Ancient India” available online and published in the Elsevier Handbook of the Philosophy of Statistics. However, all these scholarly efforts are jeopardised, for they too are viewed with suspicion.

We need to change the Western and colonial education system, especially with regard to mathematics. Traditional Indian ganita has much to offer in this process, but “Vedic mathematics” is definitely not the right way.

Wrong solutions like “Vedic mathematics” persist because an insecure political dispensation values the politically loyal over the learned who are loyal to the truth. (“Merit” apparently is important only in the context of reservations.) Such political processes are historically known to damage real traditions.

As I wrote over a decade ago in my book The Eleven Pictures of Time, those who attain or retain state power through religion are the worst enemies of that religion, whatever be the religion they claim to represent: Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism.

(C.K. Raju is author of Cultural Foundations of Mathematics. He was professor of mathematics, and Editorial Fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture.)

Source: The Hindu