Islam in a new light; with a spirit of compassion and wideness

A comment has been posted in reference to an article titled: Sanatana Dharma: III—Swaraj and the Musulmans by Sri Aurobindo posted by: ned permalink: RYD, let me get back to you on this after some time (too busy at school right now).

This is a topic I am deeply interested in, given my Pakistani and Muslim background. I agree that Sri Aurobindo's words here are timeless. But given recent tensions in India, Pakistan and elsewhere in the world, we would do well to approach the subject with a spirit of compassion and wideness, and having done our homework on Islamic theology and history, as the Master has instructed us: "We shall make it a main part of our work to place Mahomed and Islam in a new light before our readers, to spread juster views of Mahomedan history and civilisation..." Wonderful and timely words, these.

By the way I was deeply moved and impressed by the even-handed way in which you handled this topic in your essay "Perfumes of Arabia".

Sri Aurobindo was a nationalist and freedom fighter, poet, philosopher, and yogi

Sri Aurobindo – A biography « Hindutva Ebooks By bharateeya Hindutva Ebooks Books every Hindu must read for survival and revival of Hindu Dharma!

Sri Aurobindo – A biography
June 19, 2009 by bharateeya

An exhaustive biography of Sri Aurobindo (1872 – 1950) who was an Indian nationalist and freedom fighter, poet, philosopher, and yogi. He joined the movement for India’s freedom from British rule and for a duration (1905-1910), became one of its most important leaders, before turning to developing his own vision and philosophy of human progress and a spiritual path which he termed Integral Yoga. He wrote over a hundred poems, many plays and several books on Vedas, Yoga, etc.

In his famous Uttarpara speech, he proclaimed,

“I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Santana Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Santana Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Santana Dharma declines, then the nation declines, and if the Santana Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Santana Dharma it would perish. The Santana Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you”.

Of India’s future Sri Aurobindo prophesied:

“India of the ages is not dead nor has She spoken Her last creative word. And that which She must seek now to awake, is not an anglicized oriental people, docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the Occident’s success and failure, but still the ancient immemorial Shakti recovering Her deepest self, lifting Her head higher towards the supreme source of light and strength and turning to discover the complete meaning and vaster form of Her Dharma”. DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD LINK 2

'New-Age Gurus Are The New Form Of Hindutva' Tehelka - New Delhi, India There is a sense the RSS influence is lessening in society. ... We have borrowed it from Swami Vivekanda, Sri Aurobindo and Dayanand Saraswati. ... 8:51 AM

After all God does exist and if He exists, you cannot shove Him into a corner

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SRI AUROBINDO
KARMAYOGIN
POLITICAL WRITINGS AND SPEECHES - 1909-1910
Vol.I. Saturday 19th June 1909 No.1

Ourselves
THE KARMAYOGIN comes into the field to fulfil a function which an increasing tendency in the country demands. The life of the nation which once flowed in a broad and single stream has long been severed into a number of separate meagre and shallow channels. The two main floods have followed the paths of religion and politics, but they have flowed separately. Our political activity has crept in a channel cut for it by European or Europeanised minds; it tended always to a superficial wideness, but was deficient in depth and volume. The national genius, originality, individuality poured itself into religion while our politics were imitative and unreal. Yet without a living political activity national life cannot, under modern circumstances, survive. So also there has been a stream of social life, more and more muddied and disturbed, seeking to get clearness, depth, largeness, freedom, but always failing and increasing in weakness or distraction. There was a stream too of industrial life, faint and thin, the poor survival of the old vigorous Indian artistic and industrial capacity murdered by unjust laws and an unscrupulous trade policy. All these ran in disconnected channels, sluggish, scattered and ineffectual. The tendency is now for these streams to unite again into one mighty invincible and grandiose flood. To assist that tendency, to give voice and definiteness to the deeper aspirations now forming obscurely within the national consciousness is the chosen work of the Karmayogin.

There is no national life perfect or sound without the chaturvarnya. The life of the nation must contain within itself the life of the Brahmin, — spirituality, knowledge, learning, high and pure ethical aspiration and endeavour; the life of the Kshatriya, — manhood and strength moral and physical, the love of battle, the thirst for glory, the sense of honour, chivalry, self-devotion, generosity, grandeur of soul; the life of the Vaishya, — trade, industry, thrift, prosperity, benevolence, philanthropy; the life of the Shudra, — honesty, simplicity, labour, religious and quiet service to the nation even in the humblest position and the most insignificant kind of work. The cause of India's decline was the practical disappearance of the Kshatriya and the dwindling of the Vaishya. The whole political history of India since the tyranny of the Nandas has been an attempt to resuscitate or replace the Kshatriya. But the attempt was only partially successful. The Vaishya held his own for a long time, indeed, until the British advent by which he has almost been extinguished.

When the chaturvarnya disappears, there comes varnasankara, utter confusion of the great types which keep a nation vigorous and sound. The Kshatriya dwindled, the Vaishya dwindled, the Brahmin and Shudra were left. The inevitable tendency was for the Brahmin type to disappear and the first sign of his disappearance was utter degeneracy, the tendency to lose himself and while keeping some outward signs of the Brahmin to gravitate towards Shudrahood. In the Kaliyuga the Shudra is powerful and attracts into himself the less vigorous Brahmin, as the earth attracts purer but smaller bodies, and the Brahmatej, the spiritual force of the latter, already diminished, dwindles to nothingness. For the Satyayuga to return, we must get back the Brahmatej and make it general. For the Brahmatej is the basis of all the rest and in the Satyayuga all men have it more or less and by it the nation lives and is great.

All this is, let us say, a parable. It is more than a parable, it is a great truth. But our educated class have become so unfamiliar with the deeper knowledge of their forefathers that it has to be translated into modern European terms before they can understand it. For it is the European ideas alone that are real to them and the great truths of Indian thought seem to them mere metaphors, allegories and mystic parables. So well has British education done its fatal denationalising work in India.

The Brahmin stands for religion, science, scholarship and the higher morality; the Kshatriya for war, politics and administration; the Vaishya for the trades, professions and industries; the Shudra for labour and service. It is only when these four great departments of human activity are all in a robust and flourishing condition that the nation is sound and great. When any of these disappear or suffer, it is bad for the body politic. And the two highest are the least easy to be spared. If they survive in full strength, they can provide themselves with the two others, but if either the Kshatriya or the Brahmin go, if either the political force or the spiritual force of a nation is lost, that nation is doomed unless it can revive or replace the missing strength. And of the two the Brahmin is the most important. He can always create the Kshatriya, spiritual force can always raise up material force to defend it. But if the Brahmin becomes the Shudra, then the lower instinct of the serf and the labourer becomes all in all, the instinct to serve and seek a living as the one supreme object of life, the instinct to accept safety as a compensation for lost greatness and inglorious ease and dependence in place of the ardours of high aspiration for the nation and the individual. When spirituality is lost all is lost. This is the fate from which we have narrowly escaped by the resurgence of the soul of India in Nationalism.

But that resurgence is not yet complete. There is the sentiment of Indianism, there is not yet the knowledge. There is a vague idea, there is no definite conception or deep insight. We have yet to know ourselves, what we were, are and may be; what we did in the past and what we are capable of doing in the future; our history and our mission. This is the first and most important work which the Karmayogin sets for itself, to popularise this knowledge. The Vedanta or Sufism, the temple or the mosque, Nanak and Kabir and Ramdas, Chaitanya or Guru Govind, Brahmin and Kayastha and Namasudra, whatever national asset we have, indigenous or acclimatised, it will seek to make known, to put in its right place and appreciate. And the second thing is how to use these assets so as to swell the sum of national life and produce the future. It is easy to appraise their relations to the past; it is more difficult to give them their place in the future. The third thing is to know the outside world and its relation to us and how to deal with it. That is the problem which we find at present the most difficult and insistent, but its solution depends on the solution of the others.

We have said that Brahmatej is the thing we need most of all and first of all. In one sense, that means the pre-eminence of religion; but after all, what the Europeans mean by religion is not Brahmatej; which is rather spirituality, the force and energy of thought and action arising from communion with or self-surrender to that within us which rules the world. In that sense we shall use it. This force and energy can be directed to any purpose God desires for us; it is sufficient to knowledge, love or service; it is good for the liberation of an individual soul, the building of a nation or the turning of a tool. It works from within, it works in the power of God, it works with superhuman energy. The re-awakening of that force in three hundred millions of men by the means which our past has placed in our hands, that is our object.

The European is proud of his success in divorcing religion from life. Religion, he says, is all very well in its place, but it has nothing to do with politics or science or commerce, which it spoils by its intrusion; it is meant only for Sundays when, if one is English, one puts on black clothes and tries to feel good, and if one is continental, one puts the rest of the week away and amuses oneself. In reality, the European has not succeeded in getting rid of religion from his life. It is coming back in Socialism, in the Anarchism of Bakunin and Tolstoy, in many other isms; and in whatever form it comes, it insists on engrossing the whole of life, moulding the whole of society and politics under the law of idealistic aspiration. It does not use the word God or grasp the idea, but it sees God in humanity. What the European understood by religion, had to be got rid of and put out of life, but real religion, spirituality, idealism, altruism, self-devotion, the hunger after perfection, is the whole destiny of humanity and cannot be got rid of. After all God does exist and if He exists, you cannot shove Him into a corner and say: “That is your place, and, as for the world and life, it belongs to us.” He pervades and returns. Every age of denial is only a preparation for a larger and more comprehensive affirmation.

The Karmayogin will be more of a national review than a weekly newspaper. We shall notice current events only as they evidence, help, affect or resist the growth of national life and the development of the soul of the nation. Political and social problems we shall deal with from this standpoint, seeking first their spiritual roots and inner causes and then proceeding to measures and remedies. In a similar spirit we shall deal with all sources of national strength in the past and in the present, seeking to bring them home to all comprehensions and make them applicable to our life, dynamic and not static, creative and not merely preservative. For if there is no creation, there must be disintegration; if there is no advance and victory, there must be recoil and defeat. Karmayogin. 19th June 1909 No.1

RSS plays Pope in the BJP

FRONT PAGE Sunday, June 7, 2009 Politicians face credibility crisis Swapan Dasgupta

Till the late-1960s, the Congress, for example, had a reasonable degree of inner-party democracy. Elections to the All-India Congress Committee and its State counterparts were held regularly and were often fiercely contested. The annual AICC sessions were marked by speeches that were robustly critical of the Government’s policies and the party leadership. Open, rumbustious discussion was also a hallmark of the Socialists. Ram Manohar Lohia fought bitter inner-party battles with the likes of Asoka Mehta, Chandra Shekhar, NG Goray and Nath Pai. His flamboyant followers such as George Fernandes, Raj Narain and Madhu Limaye were great votaries of the “change or split” path.

Communism in India was nominally wedded to the Leninist tradition of party organisation that ensured a paramount role of the Central Committee and Politburo-the proverbial vanguard of the vanguard. Yet, and particularly after PC Joshi injected intellectual vibrancy into the party in the mid-1940s, the undivided CPI boasted a culture of political discussion. The subjects of concern-the class composition of the Indian state and the relevance of “bourgeois democracy” were two all-time favourites-may have been abstruse. There was also an exaggerated reliance on what Lenin “himself” or Mao Zedong may or may not have prescribed, and cravenness before discreet instructions from Moscow. However, despite these constraints, the political “line” was thoroughly dissected. The Communists moved seamlessly from “correctness to correctness”.

The tradition of political openness received a grave setback after the Congress split of 1969 and the Emergency. The emergence of an all-powerful leader and the dynastic principle meant that decision-making was arrogated to the one and only leader. In the 1990s, the Congress suffered three major electoral defeats. Yet, apart from one brain-storming session in Panchmarhi, the party did nothing to address the grave problem of political erosion. The Congress’ recovery in 2004 and the awesome advance in 2009 owed little to any well considered plan of rejuvenation. It was an outcome of happy circumstances.

Rahul Gandhi has proclaimed his intention of democratising the Congress. The intention is noble and suggests that the heir apparent may have cottoned on to the root cause of the decline of political culture-a problem he has tried to circumvent by making politics into a caste. However, the extent to which the Congress reverts to its original moorings will depend on the calibre of its top leadership. It is one thing to promote inner-party democracy in the good times. Bad times often prompt a regression.

Curiously, it is the BJP which faces a problem not dissimilar to that of the Congress. If the Nehru-Gandhi family acts as an adhesive in the Congress, it is the RSS which plays Pope in the BJP. The BJP’s problems have multiplied on two counts.

• First, the RSS has eroded its moral authority and social influence thanks to its unwillingness to face contemporary realities.
• Second, success in electoral politics has triggered a breakdown of ideological certitudes and added to the charms of aggregative politics. The RSS has tried to hold things together by command. Diktat has replaced informed choice and this enforced regimentation has in turn stymied the party’s renewal.

After Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, the party’s presidents have lacked the depth to pursue creative politics. Since the defeat in 2004, the BJP has curtailed inner-party debate, not least because the minders and their nominees have lacked the competence to handle intellectual scrutiny.

Restoring the credibility of politics and the political class is a national challenge. As democracy strikes deep roots, more and more people want a say in how parties behave and who they project. The Primary was once an American quirk but it has now become crucial to the British system as well. In India, people are offered choices on election day but have no say in determining the shortlist. To strengthen the quality of democracy, a system of constant interaction involving the top and the bottom is imperative. The country pays lip service to the argumentative India; it is time to show similar respect to the arguments.

BJP should develop an ideology based on the works of Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Dayananda Saraswati

If the BJP wants to succeed? by Neeraj Gupta on Jun 18, 2009 11:43 AM Permalink Hide replies

If BJP wants to succeed it must shun away the ideology of Hindutva and take up Hindu Nationalism of Vivekananda and Aurobindo. Majority of Hindus do not know what Hindutva stands for. The word has become too mechanical and whenever it crops up, especially during the time of elections it sounds extremely hollow and so do the ones who profess this ideology. BJP should develop an ideology based on the works of the Hindu thinkers like Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Dayananda Saraswati. These are the real spiritual thinkers of modern India whose works depict the essence of Hinduism.

BJP should further look for intellectuals in this category who are modern in their thinking at the same time proud of their culture and can effectively counter the pseudo intellectuals in the Congress and the left devoid of any morals. To govern one needs to have a clear policy on all fronts. That is the ideology should be able to define BJP’s policies on governance. At the moment there too much clutter in their policies. And because of this clutter the message does not reach the common man.

BJP-RSS: Split is the only option Jyotirmaya Sharma June 9, 2009

Thirdly, the BJP has to give up its espousal of Hindutva, whether of the Savarkar variety or of the Golwalkar kind, and abandon its quest for a Hindu Rashtra and an Akhanda Bharat. It cannot do so till such time that it redefines its relation to three important, but related elements: Indian modernity, Western modernity and the West itself. The BJP's thinking at the moment is a curious mixture of pre-colonial ideology and post-colonial rhetoric. Neither the aggression of a pre-colonial era, nor the designer victimhood of a postcolonial nation is likely to take it very far. Its inability to delineate the place of the West within India manifests itself in instances of moral policing and violence in the name of protecting Hindu culture.

Another element that the BJP has never been able to come to terms with is its blind parroting of the RSS's preoccupation with India's glory being safe only when there is a strong centre. It has supported small states and mistakenly believes that this is its answer to problems of Indian federalism. In order to survive, the BJP has to seriously rethink its model of a functioning federal polity. [...]

It can remain a party that works for the welfare of Hindus, mindful of the fact that there is nothing called a Hindu vote, a unified Hindu community and no putative Hindu Rashtra lurking in the corner and about to become a reality. But there is another factor that the BJP ought to keep in mind if it were to contemplate a serious genetic engineering as suggested by Swapan Dasgupta. The writer teaches politics at the University of Hyderabad Courtesy: Mail Today Offtrack Interviews Columns Key Contestants The Buzz Elections 2009: Expert Speak The New Cabinet Poll Allure India Today Election 2009 Election News Columns BJP-RSS: Split is the only option Jyotirmaya Sharma June 9, 2009

10 pieces of advice for the beleaguered BJP

"There is nothing called a 'Hindu vote'. There is no political or social outfit that can claim to represent all Hindus, much less hope to transform a mythical Hindu unity into votes," writes Jyotirmaya Sharma, a professor at the University of Hyderabad, in a national daily. Sharma says the BJP can afford to remain a Hindu nationalist party but it will have to drop its quest for a Hindu 'rashtra' (state).

HT Home Blogs Home > Capital Closeup Pankaj Vohra
Is BJP on verge of a split?

The problem is that the BJP has always presented the negative aspects of hindutva before the people in the past and never the positive sides. It is like you can play Holi with mud and with Gulal but the BJP has chosen to play it with mud, the Gujarat riots were an example. It has never tried to project Swami Vivekanand or Sri Aurobindo’s thoughts in a concerted manner...

The BJP stands at cross roads today and if it does not fall in line with the RSS, the BJP maybe headed for a split. But who knows? Posted by Pankaj Vohra on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 5:00 pm Filed under Capital Closeup, india

People were so shocked by the Bofors scandal that they overlooked any fault of V.P.Singh

V.P.Singh : My enemy
I first met V.P.Singh when I entered Parliament as an MP in 1974. He was then a Deputy Minister in Indira Gandhi's government. I had already made a name opposing Indira Gandhi's so-called socialist policies (which policies had meant only more only more government control and harassment to the public), and hence as a more prominent MP I took little notice of the then lesser known V.P.Singh. He too was very low profile in Parliament and hardly spoke on any subject even though he was a Minister. Between 1974 and 1980 therefore Mr.V.P.Singh was hardly noticed by anyone.

In 1980, Sanjay Gandhi suddenly made him Chief Minister of UP, because V.P.Singh was during the Janata Government period, a loyal sycophant of Sanjay. In fact on Sanjay's death in 1980 he coined the phrase in Hindi which translated means: "Till there is a sun and moon, there will be Sanjay's name blazing". Many were sickened by this sycophancy. In 1981, he suddenly resigned from the CM's post to boost his image thinking that Mrs.Gandhi, distraught and depressed by Sanjay's death and because of his sycophancy to Sanjay's memory would reject his resignation. But she saw through his game and promptly asked the governor to accept his resignation, and he was out of the CM's post. Thereafter, I again began to see V.P.Singh in the Central Hall of Parliament, this time singing praises of Mrs. Gandhi. Obviously this had its effect on Mrs.Gandhi because soon he was made Commerce Minister. When I got the Chinese to re-open the Kailash Manasarovar route, and was selected by Mrs.Gandhi to be the first Indian to go as a pilgrim to that holy spot in 1981, she sent Mr.V.P.Singh to see me off at the departure point in Delhi. I got to know him better on that occasion, and after that, I met V.P.Singh regularly on some occasion or another in Delhi or Lucknow. But I never became close because I distrusted him.

In September 1986, I had met Rajiv Gandhi prior to my visit to Pakistan. He asked me as to what I thought of V.P.Singh performance in the first GATT conference that had been held in Uruguay. I told him that V.P. Singh had surrendered on all points in the proposed new GATT agreement to the United States, and hence he has become very popular with the American government and media. In fact he was being projected as the next 'Prime Minister' by the Americans. I told Rajiv that the Americans were unhappy with him (Rajiv) because he was increasing defense expenditure in a big way, and the Russians too were not happy because he was ordering purchase of weapons from countries other that USSR. His mother, Indira Gandhi bought all the weapons from the Russians. Rajiv Gandhi nodded in agreement with me in a manner that made me feel that all was not well between him and V.P.Singh. In March 1987, V.P. Singh resigned his Defense Ministership (to which portfolio he had been shifted from Finance in January of that year for approving income Tax raids on Amitabh Bachan) after announcing an inquiry into the purchase of submarines from Germany. Soon he was expelled from the Congress Party. At that moment, I was also an expelled member of the Janata Party, but Chandrasekhar and I were on the point of becoming friends, and I was about to be re-admitted to the Janata Party.

Chandrasekhar had immense dislike of V.P. Singh, and V.P. Singh too sensed Chandrasekhar as a rival to be sidelined. Therefore, one day in early 1988 V.P.Singh invited me for tea, The purpose was to dissuade me from my efforts in making my friend Ajit Singh join the Janata Party, which would strengthen Chandrasekhar. At tea, it became clear that V.P. Singh had teamed up with Ramakrishna Hegde to try and capture the Janata Party. I told V.P. Singh that if Rajiv Gandhi was corrupt, Hegde was ten times more corrupt. I told him that in the HDW submarine deal in which he had as Defense Minister ordered an inquiry, Mr. Hegde too was involved. Hegde as Chief Minister made state Public Sector firm NGEF enter into a collaboration with AEG of Germany, and in the name of supplying torpedoes for the submarines had collected Rs.3 Crores as commission, which was illegal. I also told him of the land racket of Hegde by which his son-in-law got 5000 acres of government land in Bangalore and elsewhere, and about the telephone tapping he ordered of his own Ministers including Deve Gowda.

V.P. Singh told me that he would find out about my allegations. He never bothered to. On the contrary he got even more close to Hegde because Hegde had begun to finance V.P.Singh, Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammed Khan, the Jan Morcha trio, for their political activities. Soon, V.P. Singh and Hegde stepped up their campaign to merge the Janata Party and Lok Dal to form the Janata Dal. At first Chandrasekhar resisted the idea, and so did H.N. Bahuguna of the Lok Dal. But Bahuguna soon thereafter died of a heart attack. Chandrasekhar too lost his nerve when Ajit Singh did a somersault and was left all alone. When the merger was announced, I was isolated as all the big leaders of Janata Party crossed over to Janata Dal headed by V.P.Singh. I was shocked that so many senior leaders who suffered in the Emergency were ready to desert the Janata Party which brought democracy back to the people, and were ready to accept the leadership of V.P. Singh who was a sycophant of the Emergency terrorist Mr. Sanjay Gandhi. V.P.Singh also had stabbed Rajiv Gandhi in the back by using the Finance Ministry to boost his own image. I still remember the sad scene of a 80 year old Kirloskar, a gentleman industrialist with a Masters degree from the world famous MIT, being asked to report to a police station at 2 AM in the morning because V.P.Singh had ordered that he be prosecuted under the criminal law for what turned out to be a minor tax evasion. This boosted V.P. Singh's image as a great crusader against the high and mighty. But V.P. Singh would not treat Ram Nath Goenka on the same principle, because Goenka was opposed to Rajiv Gandhi while Kirloskar was pro-Rajiv.

But people were so shocked by the Bofors scandal, that they overlooked any fault of V.P.Singh. In fact people even began to think that Bofors scam was exposed by V.P.Singh when infact it was a pro-communist peace group in Swedan which was responsible for the expose. Later, another Communist, Ms. Chitra Subramaniam with the full support of yet another CPM sympathizer N. Ram of Hindu newspaper fully exposed the bribery in it. V.P. Singh played no role in exposing it at all. On the contrary, when later I became Minister, and Chandrasekhar made over to me all the Bofors files, I discovered that V.P. Singh as Finance Minister had led the first secret negotiation with Bofors on behalf of Rajiv Gandhi in Stockholm on June 10, 1985. Yet V.P. Singh maintained publicly that he knew nothing about the Bofors deal till it came up for Cabinet approval in March 1986!

The press was so infatuated with V.P. Singh that they refused to publish my press conference where I made this allegation against V.P. Singh. It is not that I am alleging V.P. Singh also received bribes from Bofors, but that he knew all along about the deal. No deal by government of over Rs.50 Crores can be cleared without Finance Minister's approval. This deal was worth Rs.1700 Crores, and V.P. Singh was not only Finance Minister but later Defence Minister as well. He should have known, and he had approved the deal as well, yet he lied to the public that he knew nothing about it. But Rajiv Gandhi was surrounded by persons all whom had benefited by Bofors. So they were all too scared to confront V.P. Singh with this fact before a hostile press. So they bungled and bungled, and finally when the Lok Sabha elections came in 1989, the people defeated the Congress Party.

After V.P.Singh became PM, he began to go slow on Bofors. At first he said that he will reveal all within 15 days. Nothing happened for 60 days. I knew that because of his involvement in the negotiations and his Minister Mr. Arun Nehru's full participation in the bribery, V.P.Singh did not want to speed up the probe. Therefore, I began raising the issue in Parliament in a big way on the delay in the Bofors investigation, and openly charged V.P.Singh and Arun Nehru of being afraid. The net result of my attack was that V.P. Singh went on the defensive. As a consequence, Rajiv Gandhi picked up courage, and even once challenged V.P. Singh to lay on the table of the Lok Sabha all the Bofors papers in the PMO. Rajiv himself told me that because of my attack, the whole climate in Parliament had changed. He said: "If my Congress MPs had one tenth your courage and capacity to speak, we can conquer the world." I told Rajiv that since most Congress MPs were involved in some deal or the other, how can they dare oppose a Prime Minister? He heartily laughed in his innocent way. Ironically, Rajiv Gandhi was pushed into the Bofors deal by Arun Nehru. Now as Minister in V.P.Singh's government, he was prosecuting Rajiv Gandhi. Such a hypocrisy or fraud I have rarely seen even in Indian politics. In late 1990, when I became Minister after toppling V.P.Singh's government, I discovered another fraud case in which V.P.Singh had played a double game : the St.Kitts case.

Dr. Subramanian Swamy ( National President, Janata Party) 1, Papanasam Sivan Salai, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004. Tamilnadu. Tel : 091 - 044 - 2498 3338 Fax : 91 - 44 - 2498 2886

Debunking the birth-based caste divisions and rejecting the bogus British Imperialist concocted Aryan-Dravidian theory

Party Profile Party Members Press Releases The President State Off' Bearers Photo Gallery Articles Contact Info

The Janata Party is a child of the most epoch-making stuggle in the history of Indian democracy. In March 1977 the people of India, under the inspiring leadership of Jayaprakash Narayanan, elected the Janata Party to power and entrusted it with the task of restoring democracy and freedom to the people and constructing an egalitarian and decentralised social order based on the Gandhian perspective. In this perspective political and economic tasks involve a common, approach, that of providing the people themselves, above all to the poor and deprived among them, both the opportunity and the power to shape their own lives and destiny.

PRESS RELEASE OF DR. SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY IN 2009 STATEMENT OF DR. SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY, PRESIDENT OF JANATA PARTY MADE IN CHENNAI 17.06.2009

The recently announced compact of BJP and Janata Party will emerge, by 2011 General Elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly, as the main challenger to the DMK-Congress opportunistic alliance which alliance, full of ideological and programme contradictions.The BJP-JP compact however is an alliance with no ideological contradictions. The basis for this coming together of the two parties is to foster a dynamic and inclusive Hindutva (Hinduness), as an Indian’s identity, which concept is inclusive of those Muslims and Christians who proudly accept that their ancestors are Hindus.

This modern Hindutva (in Sanskrit: ‘Virat Brihad Hindutva’) will be focused on uniting Hindus of Tamil Nadu by debunking the birth-based caste divisions and by rejecting the bogus British Imperialist concocted Aryan-Dravidian theory. A correct reading of Hindu scriptures and the results of recent scientific research on DNA of Indians, in fact support this modern Hindutva concept, which should be acceptable to all patriotic Indians.

My campaign for this ideological alternative will begin with the end of the “honeymoon” period of the new UPA government that would commence after the 2009-10 Budget is presented on July 7th, and the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech on August 15th. I shall thereafter travel to all 30 District headquarters to address headquarters to address public meetings to prepare the people for the BJP-JP alliance. I shall also meet prominent Hindu sadhus, as also those Imams and Bishops who agree with this concept of modern Hindutva, to seek their blessings to uproot the anti-national DMK-Congress alliance from the state.

The BJP-JP compact has a distinct programme of good governance, rapid development, and national security. Thus based on the ideological foundation of Hindutva and this programme thrust, it will emerge soon as the main challenger to the ruling DMK-Congress combine.(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)

Press Release With continued shameless belligerence, the MDMK Treasurer and Union Minister of State Mr. Kanappan has again expressed his loyalty to the LTTE yesterday in Coimbatore. Considering the same unrepentant attitude of its leader in jail, Mr. Vaiko, the Tamil Nadu government should ban the MDMK, unless the MDMK executive committee repudiates Vaiko and Kanappan. More ... Contact Us View ourPhoto Gallery ... Click below for the English version of articles written by Dr. Subramanian Swamy Tamil version of articles written by Dr. Subramanian Swamy

Dr. Subramanian Swamy ( National President, Janata Party) 1, Papanasam Sivan Salai, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004. Tamilnadu. Tel : 091 - 044 - 2498 3338 Fax : 91 - 44 - 2498 2886

Meyerhoff's criticism of Wilber's work provoked Wilber's meltdown in 2006

Nonviolence of Nonmetaphysics An Interview with Daniel Gustav Anderson. Daniel Gustav Anderson is presently a graduate student in Cultural Studies at George Mason University. His interests include critical theory, ecology, and European and South Asian traditions of dialectical thinking. He is the author of "Of Syntheses and Surprises: Toward a Critical Integral Theory" and "Such a Body We Must Create: New Theses on Integral Micropolitics", which have been published in Integral Review.

EST: As an outsider, I came in late on the Wyatt Earp episode and have witnessed only the fallout. It's like going to a pond and seeing the ripples without knowing who threw the stone. Please forgive me for asking this, but who did throw the original stone and how did the episode progress? More importantly, in your mind, what has the episode revealed about both Ken Wilber's mindset and the integral field as it stands today?

DGA: There are ways in which Wilber himself threw the first stone (his comments on the "descenders" in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, his bizarre comments on the "'sick fucks'" who run health care, education, and other services in Boomeritis, and so on could be cited for evidence there, or whomever is marketing him as the most important philosopher since Nagarjuna, or whomever is allowing that to happen on his behalf).

There are other interpretations, however. Wilber's freakout was in response to a piece of criticism written by Jeff Meyerhoff and published on Frank Visser's website starting (if memory serves) in late 2005. I think Meyerhoff's work is reasonable, responsible scholarship on the whole, and it holds up well in hindsight. What can be learned from the whole fiasco, where Wilber convinced everyone through his words and actions that he could not tolerate anyone questioning his doctrines or his credibility through reason and reference to fact?

Some people have remarked to me privately that the "earp" episode in 2006 was the worst thing that could have happened to integral theory, I want to say—not really. It was a serious embarrassment for Wilber and those who adhere to the particular theology he is proclaiming, certainly. But the terms "Wilber" and "integral theory" are not the same thing, they are not coterminous, even though Wilber has tried to privatize the integral project and integral culture as such as his own trademark or brand. Did he coin the phrase? Well, in SES, he put forward "integral universalism" as if it were his commodity reply to Ayn Rand's "rational objectivism," which is to say, his latest-greatest product line (new-improved second edition). Anyway if "earp" signals a crisis for integral projects in the plural, it only does so insofar as any one of those integral projects remains in Wilber's shadow, his debt intellectually or otherwise, or within Wilber's copyright so to speak, his "intellectual property" (however that term is understood at present). That's one aspect. There's another.

Is the "earpy" episode the worst that could have happened, in that it revealed something undesirable about Wilber that was unknown before? I don't think so. Go back a step. Wasn't Boomeritis a first-rate embarrassment? That book betrays several kinds of incompetence, ignorance, and poor judgment born of overconfidence. [...]

To go back to Meyerhoff for a moment. Meyerhoff's criticism of Wilber's work and problems with it provoked Wilber's meltdown in 2006. Is it possible that Meyerhoff was slightly too accurate in pointing out the real and rather obvious problems with Wilber's project, which causes a marketing problem for Wilber? It's hard to allow others to say that you're the greatest genius from sun to sun if someone demonstrates clearly that you don't or can't consistently use a library catalogue or basic reasoning skills, you don't know deduction from induction, which is what Meyerhoff shows of Wilber. "He's Mistra Know-It-All." The "earpy" episode may speak to the strength of Meyerhoff's scholarship in an interesting way. That is an issue worth exploring in detail.

As an aside I feel silly typing "earpy" like this. Is it not a ridiculous name for a crisis, or for anything or anyone? Wilber seems prone to juvenile neologisms like this, which I find irritating. I don't mind neologisms as such (witness my own appreciation for Deleuze and Guattari, and also Berlant, who invent concepts and label them in innovative ways). This may speak to my own hangups as much as anything else, so you just wasted your time reading this paragraph. I apologize for that.

I'm in something of the same boat as you though, because I did not start engaging with the integral scene until 2006, when the kerfuffle was cooking already and I was not particularly aware of it, since my research habits don't lead me to online discussion forums very often for this purpose at least (I'm more interested in Aurobindo and Vitvan than I am in Wilber, for instance).

Fashion is merely vanity, which is an amazing waste of talent and intelligence

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fashion-as-shallowness is a sexist construction":

it is sexist to think that women and fashion are linked. fashion is not a true form of expression--do we all make our own clothes? no, because if society did, (hopefully) we can agree that the valuable resource time would be greatly wasted. fashion is merely vanity, which is an amazing waste of talent and intelligence. who we are matters, not what we look like or wear. Posted by Anonymous to rainbOwther at 8:06 PM, June 16, 2009

crash89crash (http://openid.aol.com/crash89crash) has left a new comment on your post "Fashion-as-shallowness is a sexist construction":

thinking it's sexist to believe that fashion is petty is the true problem, actually. it's sexist to link women to fashion. what we look like does not matter, it's who we are and what we do. unless we make our own clothing, fashion is not a true form of expression (i hope that we can all agree that society has better things to devote valuable resources such as time to creating original wordrobes). fashion IS petty, and it does not matter whether it's a man or a woman who's obsessed with it. Posted by crash89crash to rainbOwther at 8:02 PM, June 16, 2009

Honest politics needs honest money

Resource constraints stymied Lok Satta In elections: Dr. JP
from Jayaprakash Narayan's Blog by tnsatish

Had the Lok Satta had Rs.40 crore as its election fund, it would have emerged as a significant player in Andhra Pradesh politics today, Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said today. Addressing a media meet, at which he released a statement of donations received and expenditure incurred by his party during the elections to the Assembly and the Lok Satta, Dr. JP said the party was handicapped by paucity of resources in engendering confidence about its fighting mettle.

Although the party succeeded in taking its message to the public, it could not whip up a wind in its favor because of its low-key campaign. Dr. JP pointed out that a political party cannot function without resources. “Honest politics needs honest money. The party accepted donations only by cheque, accounted for every rupee it spent and placed the facts before the public.” Dr. JP called upon leaders of competence and integrity from all walks of life to make the Lok Satta their forum for bettering people’s lives.

Notations: Money And Politics Bruce Bartlett, 06.12.09, 12:01 AM EDT
Why spending millions on personal campaigns might help you lose.

Ask any political consultant what is the most important thing needed to win an election, and he will undoubtedly say, "Money and lots of it." But the reality is that while money helps, it doesn't automatically follow that the guy with the most is going to win. Tuesday's primary election in Virginia provides the latest evidence of this fact.

Mark Hanna of Ohio was one of the first modern political bosses, responsible for putting William McKinley in the White House in 1896 in large part because he raised an unprecedented amount of money--more than $3 billion in today's economy. (Having William Jennings Bryan as an opponent didn't hurt; he went on to lose the White House two more times.) [...]

Steen concludes that money is far less valuable to winning an election than is commonly believed and that funds contributed by a candidate to his own campaign are far less valuable than the same amount of money acquired from contributors. She estimates that $1 million in self-financing only buys 5% to 10% of the vote on Election Day.

Other analysts have found that money is grossly overestimated as an electoral factor. In a 1994 study, economist Steve Levitt found that $100,000 in additional campaign dollars only bought one-third of 1% of the vote.

Campaign consultants will continue to maintain that more money is always better than less. But it's in their interest to say so because that's how they get rich. But as Terry McAuliffe discovered too late, it takes a lot more than just money to win an election... Source: OpenSecrets.org Bruce Bartlett is a former Treasury Department economist and the author of Reaganomics: Supply-Side Economics in Action and Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. He writes a weekly column for Forbes.com.

Familyism has made a mockery of democracy in India

Monday, June 01, 2009 Indian 'Democrazy'

But the ‘most unkindest cut’ to Indian democracy has come in the form of an ‘unelected’ leader for the newly elected members of the Lok Sabha. Writers of our constitution never even dreamt of such a possibility. Otherwise they would have definitely closed such a loop hole which is now wide open and being ‘mis’used for the last several years. The underlying moral strength of leadership in parliamentary democracy is convincing victory in elections and not nomination by party leaderships. What has happened now is complete hijacking of people’s mandate for nomination of someone who never faced the electorate. It is ‘mukhota’ politics of the worst kind. The eminently qualified Dr. Manmohan Singh could have got himself elected from any constituency anywhere in India to avoid such a controversy. That was the minimum he could have done for the sake of nurturing true democracy in India.

Dying Parties & Developing Families

Weakening of genuine political parties offering definite alternatives in all walks of life is another sad feature noticed during the latest general elections. In a true democracy we should be witnessing strengthening of political parties with clear cut policies in economical, social, political and even international affairs. In India this is practiced mainly by the right wing and left wing parties, and hardly by the middle of the road non-aligned political parties. Most of the centrist parties in India indulge in vote-bank politics and have their own captive voters in the form of some castes or belonging to some religion or region. Hardcore supporters of such namesake political parties have blind faith in their evergreen leaders and never bother to read their manifestos. And then there are some monolith parties which resemble more of a mediocre crowd of onlookers than a group of people with specific aims and agenda.

The weakening of genuine political parties is adding to the strength of family oriented political groupings. In fact this is a growing problem in the whole of south Asia and has made a mockery of democracy in these parts. In India it is now Nehru family at the Centre, Dixit family in Delhi, Karunanidhi family in Chennai, Patnaik family in Orissa, Hudda family in Haryana, Badal family in Punjab, Deora family in Mumbai, Abdulla family in Kashmir, Sangma family in North East, Reddy family in Andhra, Maani family in Kerala etc. etc. Every other MP is the son, daughter, nephew or niece of someone big in the same party. It is really a matter of grave concern and shame that the political party, that claims to be the oldest in India, is degenerating into a blatantly family party. Open and unabashed sycophancy is the main trait of that party... Posted by J.A. Kumar at 11:11 AM

For Total Privatisation from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik

After all, we all know that the DMK is a close-knit family business – there is Kanimozhi, there are the Marans, and there is MK Stalin, now deputy CM. This is not Socialism; it is Familyism. Society does not own the PSUs; the Family owns them all.

Of course, in this respect the DMK is much like the Congress, or the National Conference. The real reason for this phenomenon is not hard to find. Any “socialist” system of State ownership of industries always ends up as a system in which the “party” controls everything. These PSUs contribute to the party kitty in many ways: first, those “managers” who get to run the PSUs pay for their privilege – there are “kickbacks”; second, these managers also recruit party workers in a typical “jobs for the boys” arrangement with the Supremo; and thirdly, they offer huge scope for other forms of patronage. No Socialist Supremo would like to lose his control of State-run enterprise. Of course, poor “society” loses. All the PSUs lose money – Our Money. We learn the hard way that Society and Party are different things. (Just as State and Society are different.)

A genuine “political party” does not run businesses. All it controls are some departments of government that provide a few public goods and services - that too, only when it is in office. Such a party claims to “represent” the people who support it. In the case of the DMK, as with the Congress, the party does not actually represent anyone. Rather, it buys support at election time by offering freebies to the poor. The DMK has offered the poor colour TVs. This is the ugly story of Indian Socialism. And this will continue for another five years, for the same news report says that the Trinamool has also opposed disinvestment - just like the Left. I think Sonia and Manmohan must be happy with their allies. There is thus only one way to clean up Indian politics: Total and Complete Privatisation.

जेपी आंदोलन में हिस्सा लेने वाले लोगों के लिए विशेष योजना

बिहार में जेपी सेनानी सम्मान योजना शुरु
बीबीसी हिन्दी - ‎०५-०६-२००९‎
बिहार सरकार ने 1974 में जेपी आंदोलन में हिस्सा लेने वाले लोगों के लिए विशेष योजना शुरु करने का फ़ैसला किया है. जेपी सेनानी सम्मान योजना की जानकारी बिहार के मुख्यमंत्री नितीश कुमार ने कैबिनेट की एक बैठक के बाद पटना में दी. इसके तहत आंदोलन के दौरान जेल में गए या पुलिस की गोलीबारी में घायल लोगों और मारे गए लोगों के परिजनों को फ़ायदा मिलेगा. इन लोगों को 2500 से 5000 रुपए तक मासिक सम्मान पेंशन दी जाएगी. योजना एक जून 2009 से प्रभावी मानी ...
ज्ोपी के सेनानियों को मिलेगी पेंशन हिन्दुस्तान दैनिक
जेपी आंदोलन के सेनानियों को सम्मान पेंशन याहू! भारत

शरद के विरोध में जद यू की महिलाएं
याहू! भारत - ‎14 घंटे पहले‎
पटना [जागरण ब्यूरो]। संसद में महिला आरक्षण बिल के विरोध में बयान देकर जद यू के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष शरद यादव पार्टी के महिला नेताओं के निशाने पर आ गए हैं। उनके बयान को नारी का अपमान बताते हुए पार्टी से जुड़ी महिलाओं ने उन्हें राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष पद से हटाकर किसी महिला को आसीन करने की मांग कर दी है। पटना में शनिवार को संवाददाता सम्मेलन में जद यू की प्रदेश सचिव उर्मिला पटेल ने कहा कि शरद का बयान दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है। ...
जमीनी सच्चाई के आधार पर मिले महिला आरक्षण:शरद हिन्दुस्तान दैनिक
'महिला आरक्षण से नहीं फ़ार्मूले से ऐतराज़' बीबीसी हिन्दी
डी-डब्लू वर्ल्ड - याहू! भारत - हिन्दुस्तान दैनिक सभी11 समाचार लेख »

Women's Reservation Bill unlikely in Budget session
Hindu - New Delhi (PTI): The much-delayed Women's Reservation Bill may not come up in the Budget session of Parliament as it has to be scrutinised by a new Parliamentary panel.
Brinda Karat slams 'rhetoric' against women's bill IBNLive.com
Sharad Yadav seeks to wriggle out of poison statement Press Trust of India
Times of India - Economic Times - Times of India - Times of India all 151 news articles »

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences

KIIT group has a broad array of programs; KISS is expected to become its own university
from (title unknown) by Chitta Baral

As per its web page, currently the KIIT group has the following institutions: School of Technology Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences School of Computer Application KiiT international School School of Management Kalinga Polytechnic School of Rural Management KIIT Science College School of Biotechnology Industrial Training Centre KIIT Law School Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences School of Languages In 2009 it is starting four new schools: Mass communication Design Film studies Sculpture In addition [...] KISS, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences is made and run by the promoters of KIIT University. Hindu has a very nice article about it. Archive Subscribe About Us Contact Us

The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) offers unique opportunity for formal and vocational education to thousands of neglected and deprived tribal children from aborigine society live in inaccessible remote corners of the state. As a model tribal institution in the country, it offers technical and higher education facilities from KG to PG which is affiliated by KIIT University, Orissa, India. It aims at their total development with free food, accommodation and education.

The concept of residential school is replete with total self-development of a tribal child so that she/he can return to her/his roots and chalk out a descent living for herself/himself and entire family. The school advocates on tribal development by creating an appropriate forum for debates and promoting the awareness on right to education among the tribal communities. It plans to network with similar institutions working on tribal children and share the information that is vital in this age for the comprehensive development of the children.Creating a conducive environment has always been an important focus of KISS education and livelihood programme. KISS constantly endeavors to preserve tribal cultural heritage and strives to enrich the environment.

Objectives of KISS One of the main objectives of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences is to provide free education to the unattended and neglected tribal and underprivileged children. Since its inception, the school has been rendering commendable service in the field of education. It imparts value education in a stress free and child friendly, healthy environment. The school is a home for 7000 tribal children. The children are getting formal education with residential facilities up to Graduation level, they are also provided with vocational training for sustainable economic security. The school is recognized by the Board of Secondary Education Orissa, Council of Higher Secondary Education of Orissa and affiliated to Utkal University, Orissa, India. Presently the school has tribal children from almost all the districts of Orissa from Class-I to Graduation level. KISS aims to give a right direction to the life of the child. Among the children there is a growing commitment towards perfection. HOME ABOUT KISS MESSAGES MISSION & VISION OBJECTIVES

Men 'out-performed at university' BBC News - Telegraph.co.uk Female students are ahead of men in almost every measure of UK university achievement, according to a report from higher education researchers...

GCSEs blamed for boys not going to university - guardian.co.uk - The Higher Education Policy Institute report suggests that GCSEs, introduced in 1988 in place of O-levels, appear to favour girls because of the style of teaching, content and types of question. The exams are the "most likely cause" of an achievement gap between the sexes that starts at school but carries on into adulthood, it concludes. The result is that men are less likely to go to university and less likely to do well when they get there.

"I think we are in danger of creating an underclass," Professor Bahram Bekhradnia, institute director and co-author of the report, writes in today's Observer. "Higher education brings social benefits as well as academic ones. If you have been to university, you tend to be in better physical and mental health. It has a terrific socialising effect and, by not going to university in such large numbers, men are being deprived of that. I think it is a real shame."

The study found that last year 130,000 more men would have needed to enter full-time higher education for their participation rate to be the same as women's. "That is really significant," said Bekhradnia. "Unless you believe that boys are actually more stupid than girls, they ought to be capable of the same levels of achievement. So what could the reason be?"

Tear up these exams or we're going to leave our boys behind U.TV 12:56 PM So, boys perform less well than girls at school and then at university. Does that matter? Of course it does. It matters in the same way that 30 years ago it mattered that fewer girls went to university than boys. Graduates, after all, tend to form the elites of society and, as women have come to dominate in higher education, we should expect these elites to change gender over time, too. That itself is no bad thing. What is intolerable is that significant numbers of young (and not so young) people are excluding themselves - or perhaps being excluded because of aspects of our school system - from joining these elites.

Integral education: Thought and practice by Raghunath Pani (Ashish Pub. House (New Delhi) - 1987) Integral education: thought and practice - Pani - Cited by 4 Summary: Comprehensive study on the new approach of the education policy of the Government of India, in comparison with the integral education of Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950. Acharya Vidyananda Saraswati

"The Lives of SRI Aurobindo - By Paul Heehs" by A Gleig

Gandhi-Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan on Bhagavadgita
by Susmit Prasad Pani; A N Mishra; Geeta Satpathy
Publisher: New Delhi : Kunal Books Publishers & Distributors, 2009.
Swaraj : thoughts of Gandhi, Tilak, Aurobindo, Raja Rammohun Roy, Tagore and Vivekananda
by Amulya Ranjan Mohapatra
Publisher: New Delhi : Readworthy Publications, 2009. View all editions and formats
Western political thought in dialogue with Asia
by Takashi Shōgimen; Cary J Nederman;
Publisher: Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, ©2009.
The Lives of SRI Aurobindo - By Paul Heehs
by A Gleig
Article Publication: RELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, 35, no. 1, (2009): 71-71 Database: British Library Serials
Cosmic connection : messages for a better world
by Carole Lynne
Publisher: San Francisco, CA : Weiser Books, 2009.
Thoughts and theories of Indian educational thinkers
by B N Dash
Publisher: New Delhi : Dominant Publishers and Distributors, ©2009.
Encyclopaedia of Indian war of independence, 1857-1947
by Ema Ke Siṃha;
Publisher: New Delhi, India : Anmol Publications, 2009.
Enseñanzas de Sri Aurobindo y la Madre
by Nityananda.
Book Language: Spanish Publisher: St. Etienne de Bolton, Québec : Babaji's Kriya Yoga and Publications, ©2009.
Bhāratīya darśana meṃ cetanā kā svarūpa : Vasubandhu, Śaṅkara, evaṃ Śrīaravinda darśana ke viśesha sandarbha meṃ
by Śrīprakāśa Pāṇḍeya
Book Language: Hindi Publisher: Vārāṇasī : Kalā Prakāśana, 2009.

They began to invent new enemies of their newly acquired freedom

Decolonization in South Asia
Meanings of Freedom in Post-independence West Bengal, 1947-52
By Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

This book explores the meanings and complexities of India’s experience of transition from colonial to the post-colonial period. It focuses on the first five years – from independence on 15th August 1947 to the first general election in January 1952 – in the politics of West Bengal, the new Indian province that was created as a result of the Partition.

The author, a specialist on the history of modern India, discusses what freedom actually meant to various individuals, communities and political parties, how they responded to it, how they extended its meaning and how in their anxiety to confront the realities of free India, they began to invent new enemies of their newly acquired freedom. By emphasising the representations of popular mentality rather than the institutional changes brought in by the process of decolonization, he draws attention to other concerns and anxieties that were related to the problems of coming to terms with the newly achieved freedom and the responsibility of devising independent rules of governance that would suit the historic needs of a pluralist nation.

Decolonization in South Asia analyses the transitional politics of West Bengal in light of recent developments in postcolonial theory on nationalism, treating the ‘nation’ as a space for contestation, rather than a natural breeding ground for homogeneity in the complex political scenario of post-independence India. It will appeal to academics interested in political science, sociology, social anthropology and cultural and Asian studies. ISBN: 9780415481069 Published June 02 2009 by Routledge.

It is not true that people of Orissa brought regionalism on their own

From: "Digambara Patra" digpatra@gmail.com Subject: Is the regional game fair? Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 14:46:14 +0300

Dear Top Congress Leaders & Jornalists of National Media ,
Reading the editorial in an esteem news paper my concerns are why the same rule is not applied to other major states?
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rank-trouble/470272/0
I may agree on some of the argument on Srikant Jena, however, why other leaders like Bhakta Charan Das or Hemananda Biswal were totally sidelined by congress party?
Das's performance has been better as individual leader as well as working President of Orissa Pradesh Congress representing western Orissa, why he was not considered if Srikant Jena was a case?
Is Bhakta Charan Das or Hemanada Biswal who has worked as union minister or chief minister of Orissa is less talented than any x,y or z present in the union cabinet except few exceptional cases?
If national media could make an issue of UP not getting a Cabinet Minister, despite the fact that the sole decision makers for Congress Party and the UPA Government are Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi representing UP, what does it need?
It is the western Orissa which elected 5 out of 6 Congress MP, where as no representation was given from this poor region, where as similar number game policy is being applied in other parts of the country.
If the Government can promise that interest of any sort of major development, such as railway factory in Kalahandi (now represented by Congress), KBK railway connectivity, is addressed by the Government it would not be fair to lobby for two ministers from Orissa.
But it was not the case in past years.
In previous UPA Government there were data, some of which your esteem news paper published, showing regional and political favoritism by the central Government in railways, highways, establishing national institutions etc in the country.
Is not this regionalism, when 55000 crore investments in railways go to railway minister’s home state Bihar, a loss making zone, where as requirement of railway factory in Kalahandi and railway line in KBK region were ignored by previous UPA government even though Orissa comes under top two profit making zone.
Similarly, 50000 crore investments only in the home state of Minister of Highway, Surface Transport and Shipping, Tamil Nadu, when central Government itself mentions importance of roads & highways in Orissa and Jharkhand due to mineral transportation. How many states received this 50000 crore for highways, surface transport and shipping in India?
Is it right, when national institute of high repute for petroleum can be established in home constituency of Sonia Gandhi, whereas similar demand for central university in a place like Kalahandi are not even considered?
Your editorial missed an important issue, "the only thing that works in Congress party is personal lobby, where coterie of Rahulji & Soniaji steals the show."
It is heartening that Orissa's interest is being repeatedly ignored by the national media and Congress leaders by any other means despite the fact that regionalism is being seriously practiced in governance since decades by major states in India.
It is also not true that people of Orissa brought regionalism on their own. It was the other major states in India who exploited the situtation and national parties encoruaged them for their own benefits since Nehru's time. Fortuntely, Orissa is learning the trick slowly.
I wish national media should have focused in that respect first instead of countering a small, poor and backward state.
Best regards
Digambara Patra

--Digambara Patra, Ph.D Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry American University of Beirut Beirut, Lebanon Email: digpatra@yahoo.com

Joy of work and free leisure to grow inwardly, as well as a simple, rich and beautiful life

MarkedFeed Join Date: Dec 2007 Hindu Economic Principles
How we might cure today's economic woes with a dose of traditional Hindu wisdom - Meenal Pandya, Massachusetts

At the heart of Hindu economics is this: the test of every policy is not profit, employment or growth, but how it strengthens family and community, individual character and sensitivity, states Romesh Diwan, Professor of Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Diwan, Dattopant Thengdi of New Delhi (founder of India's foremost labor union, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh), M.G. Bokare, (a disenchanted Marxist and author of Hindu Economics) and others are advocates of a thoroughly Hindu revamping of today's economic systems.

"Many economists wonder how practical these ideas are," states Prof. Diwan, "I think, at the core of it, Hindu economics is very practical because it touches all aspects of a human life." In places such as Ralegaon Siddhi , where they have been applied even on a minuscule scale, the results have been impressive and real enough to support Diwan's claim. It is not a system imposed from up down by the government, but, according to Diwan,

"The government plays an important role in Hindu economics by defining priorities for large investments and strengthening local economies by decentralizing economic and political power."

The idea is not to enforce Hindu economics, as communism was enforced upon the people, but to create an environment where these principles become viable.Economics has been a topic of discussion for Hindu scripture since the Rig Veda. In that ancient scripture are found key concepts such as production, exchange, wages, interest, rent, profit and the market. Kautilya's Arthashastra, a treatise on statecraft, includes extensive advice on taxation, customs duties, trade and intelligent protection of environmental resources such as forests. The Tamil Tirukural spoke of the right and wrong ways to gather and spend wealth. The new "Hindu economics" advocated by a few pioneers is based in part on these ancient systems, and in part on a practical application of Hindu philosophy to the modern situation.

The best minds in economics and social sciences, such as Lester Thurow and Alvin Toffler, question the viability of the capitalist approach to economics. They are aware that in last two decades the gulf between private affluence and public poverty has widened, the gap between the rich and the poor has virtually doubled, the Earth has been polluted and things far more precious to humanity--such as children, families, personal values and clean air and water--have been threatened.Fundamental questions remain unanswered.

• What is wealth?
• Is it accumulation of monetary resources, or should it also take into account the nonmaterial possessions such as friends, family, health and environment?
• What should be the goal of economics? Should it be maximization of profits or of human happiness?
• If it is human happiness, then can either of the prevalent theories--capitalism or communism--deliver that?

The more the experts try to answer these fundamental questions of economics, the more they turn towards the Hindu approach. "In terms of larger ideas such as capitalism and socialism, Hindu economics belongs to spiritualism" says Professor Diwan.

According to Dattopant Thengdi, Hindu economics is fundamentally different from Western economics. To start with, he says, in the West economics is treated as a separate discipline. But within Hinduism, economics falls under artha, one of the four legitimate aims of life: dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (pleasure) and moksha (liberation). In Western economics, human beings are too often regarded as essentially economic beings, carrying out economic activities, producing goods and, in turn, consuming goods to complete the economic cycle.

It is, of course, an oversimplification to say the Western economic system is totally selfish, for charitable giving is common in the West among both poor and rich--witness the stated intention of Bill Gates, the world's richest man, to eventually give most of his money to charity or Ted Turner's recent billion-dollar gift to the UN. Indeed, American philanthropy has few equals.

In contrast to the mechanical approach of Western economics, Hindu philosophy holds that human beings are not just physical entities to be kept happy by producing and consuming. Rather, humans comprise physical, mental and spiritual aspects, and for the happiness of an individual all three should be taken into consideration. When you apply these fundamental beliefs, the kind of economics you get is very different.

For example, in Ralegaon Siddhi, the first thing Anna Hazare began was to earn people's trust by his own honesty and integrity. This, in turn, allowed them to trust each other--a significant factor in Hindu economics. He then persuaded the citizens to make their village self-sufficient by their own cooperative efforts so they were not exploited by outsiders. The environment of nonexploitation convinced the people that when they worked hard, they--not an outside person--benefited from the fruits of their own labor. Also it is important to keep in mind that there is a fundamental difference between poverty and frugality. There was poverty in Ralegaon Siddhi prior to the application of ethical economic principles. Today, though the level of material consumption is not high, the poverty is gone.

Real-world application of a Hindu economic theory remains in a nascent state. The practical application of its principles on a personal, national or global level, is not clear, but the goal is. As captured by the great spiritual teacher Sri Aurobindo:

"The aim of economics would be not to create a huge engine of production, whether of the competitive or the cooperative kind, but to give to men and women--not only some men and women but to all, each in his highest possible measure--the joy of work according to their own nature and free leisure to grow inwardly, as well as a simple, rich and beautiful life for all." Read more...