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Category Archives: General Interest

Democracy , Individual freedom , Liberty and the rest.

The other day I was reading a well meant but a rather protracted blog posted by memorymanmec . It talked about freedom , liberty , democracy etc.

It , among other things ,mentioned freedom of speech being a joke. That brought back to my mind the conversation I had with a Pakistan national hibernating in London. When the talk veered to freedom of speech “Who said there is no freedom of speech in Pakistan..!? We do have freedom of speech” he exploded “ That is not he question. The question really is about freedom AFTER speech.”

Memorymanmec talked about Government control and Liberty in a democracy .I think there was some confusion there.

Towards he end of the first half of twentieth century when colonialism was running out of its time , there was , rightly , a clamor for self-government. Everyone generally presumed that rule by people of ones own nationality meant freedom. But as time passed and the euphoria subsided , it dawned on the people that the majority rule – a pseudo-name for a majority of the minority who bothered to vote -was not as much exercised with individual freedom or with the self-government by each citizen of his own life or his liberty ; as with the administration of the government departments and perpetuation of its party rule.

There are few more dangerous errors in political thinking than to equate self-rule with liberty. Unfortunately, this is one of the most widespread errors in India —and the principal reason why there are hardly any controls left over the government powers and functions. The “License and permit Raj” replaced the British Raj and that tight fisted tradition continued for a few more decades. The expectations that self-rule would automatically produces liberty were belied . It led to delusion. The well meaning and farsighted leaders of the yester-years like JP Narayan , Kriplani , Rajaji and others were ejected out of government circles. The sycophants and the mediocre floated to the top, as the shit always does.

In many cases the laws were passed by the government for “the whole people” to override individuals’ rights, property, and lives. The explanation was that the Individual right and freedom is important, but more important still is the freedom of a whole people to dispose of its own destiny. This concept became so powerful that all the inherent checks and balances aiming to limit the government power and controls crumbled before that.

But who is this whole people! Is it not composed of individuals? Or is it independent of the individual?

Invoking “the government is the people” is one of the easiest ways for a politician to shirk responsibility for his actions. The world witnessed it when Nixon blurted that “When the president does it that means that it is not illegal.” .We also experienced it when Indira declared “Indira is India” .The proclamation of emergency and suspension of individual rights was to save India equated to Indira.

By assuring people that they are the government, it became easier to carry out all the coercion, all the expropriation, all the intrusive searches, all the prison sentences. People were taught that, thanks to democracy, coercion is no longer dangerous because people get to vote on who coerces them. The fiction of ‘majority rule “ became a license to impose nearly unlimited controls on the majority and everybody else. In effect individuals had no right to live in any way that displeases the majority.

But pray , who this majority is ? It is the majority of – the minority – that care to vote .In other words – the Vote Banks , a unique contribution by India to the world of democracy. The more confused people’s thinking became, the easier it was to harness individual freedom.

Generally, it is better that government be representative than non-representative. But it is more important that governments respect people’s rights than fulfill some people’s wishes to oppress other people.

Ideally, the existence of democracy should not change the meaning of individual liberty and freedom. A person is free or not free, regardless of how many people approve his writings, works of art or expressions. The authors of Indian constitution fought for that right. But sadly , the only way to claim that the present Indian government protects individual liberty is to say that the only freedom that matters is “freedom for the government to rule in the name of the people.”

Ideally, the scope of majority rule should be limited to those issues and areas in which common standards must prevail to preserve public peace. Democracy should be a system of government based on common agreement on issues that must be agreed upon, and tolerance—however grudging—on all other differences.

This precisely is the vortex in which the conflict surrounding Ms. Taslima Nasreen swirls. But , more of that later , in the next post. Let us now return to the larger picture.

Having said these , let me also add that the fact that democratic governments violate individual liberty does not prove that democracy is uniquely or inherently bad. This is simply what governments do. It is in fact the best form one can think of in the absence of a better model.

The present state of intellectual morbidity in India is mainly because of confusing the government with the people and allowing the government to intervene and control areas into which it should not have even entered.

The events following 9/11 exacerbated the decaying values of freedom , liberty etc. It tossed aside all debates of individual liberty and freedom nestling in and asserting itself in the face of majority (government) wish. That debate was rendered redundant by the concerns of security and survival. The US and Indian governments adopted some hard-fisted tactics intended to fight and prevent terrorist attacks, including warrant -less arrests , interrogations, eavesdropping on phone calls, secret demands for records and sting operations against people thought to be potential terrorists.

Our governments claim the measures adopted by them , however ruthless, have helped to save the lives of their citizens . Many thinking individuals in either countries say the government handling of the situation have severely damaged our individual liberties.

If the war against terror is truly the long struggle our leaders say it will be, then so too will be the struggle to set the right balance between security and liberty. We and our succeeding generation have to grapple with the difficult choices we face and to redefine our value systems. How much independent power can we allow our governments and their agencies? Can we look into the eyes of our fellow beings without fear and suspicion and yet strive to rescue the values of individual freedom and liberty? The next decade may decide that, or who knows when..!

That truly is the nightmare we have to live with. It is a hard day’s night.

Please read next:

Individual freedom and religion-
Ms.Nasreen debate

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Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 6, 2012 in General Interest

The Indians: Portrait of a People

06 Sep

The Indians: Portrait of a People is a very readable book, authored by India ‘s foremost psychoanalyst and cultural commentator Sudhir Kakar and his wife anthropologist Katharina Kakar .The book was published about three months back. I read it recently. It is an unusual book, in many ways. I wish to share my impressions of the book with you.

The book aims to describe the manifestations of the spirit of India in various facets of Indian life and thought. It attempts to take a look at the building blocks of the Indian-ness. The authors set out “to present a composite portrait in which Indians will recognize themselves and be recognized by others.”

The portrayal here is of the middle-class Hindus, who, the authors claim occupy the dominant place in Indian culture. Those “at the margins of Hindu society (such as the Dalits and tribals, or the Christians and Muslims),” they write, “Will spot only fleeting resemblances to themselves”. Kakar admits to speaking of Indian-ness in terms of a pre-eminently Hindu civilization that has contributed the major share to what he calls the “cultural gene pool” of India ’s peoples. What about the contribution of other cultures like the Mughals and the British? “There have been many positive and negative contributions,” he says, “but they have been gradually assimilated over centuries – it isn’t a clear-cut process. Thinking of examples offhand, I believe the Indian character has benefited greatly from the Brotherhood Ideal that is prevalent in Islam.”

In their journey to discover Indian-ness or the Hindu view of the world, the Kakars are concerned not so much with philosophical doctrines but with the beliefs and attitudes of Indian people reflected in their lives, songs and stories. They try to show how these beliefs are disseminated through myths, legends, proverbs, and metaphors enacted in religious rituals, conveyed through tales told to children, and as depicted in Bollywood movies, television serials; or glimpsed in the admonition of parents and in the vision they have of their children’s future.

The authors point out, despite ethnic differences there is an underlying unity in the great diversity ofIndia that needs to be recognized. They contend that there are more similarities than differences among the various people of the Subcontinent, and that there is an underlying core at the heart of Indian civilization, one which remained intact through the Mughal invasions, British colonialism and other vicissitudes of Indian history. The authors examine the predominance of family, community and caste in our everyday lives, our attitudes to sex and marriage, our prejudices, our ideas of the other and our understanding of health, right and wrong, and death .The world vision they talk about is not through the head but the heart.

Indian Way of Thinking

The authors refer to A. K. Ramanujan’s stimulating essay, “Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?” which describes the Indian character as “context-sensitive” as opposed to “context-free.” Ramanujan says “Actual behaviour may be more complex, though the rules they think with are a crucial factor guiding the behaviour”. Context-sensitive, he suggests, is the more appropriate term for what others have taken for an Indian tendency toward inconsistency and hypocrisy, as well as, perhaps tolerance and mimicry. Context-free thinking, which he attributes to Euro-American culture, gives rise to universal testaments of law, such as in the Judeo-Christian tradition and in the European philosophical tradition, e.g. Hegel. Context-sensitive thinking, on the other hand, gives rise to more complicated sets of standards such as the Laws of Manu, by which appropriateness depends on various factors, especially factors of identity and personhood, such as birth, occupation, life stage, karma, dharma, etc. Ramanujan stresses that this difference in philosophical outcome is not a symptom of irrationality, but a different kind of rationale

Ramanujan once said “One way of defining diversity for India is to say what the Irishman is said to have remarked about trousers. When asked whether trousers were singular or plural, he said, ‘Singular at the top and plural at the bottom.’ (In where mirrors are windows: Toward an anthology of reflections).

The Indian inconsistency looks puzzling, but it is not. How can a qualified astronomer working at an International institute of fundamental sciences also be a practicing astrologer? How can a CEO of a multi national company consult horoscopes and holy men for taking family decisions? Why does an oxford educated cabinet minister postpone an important meeting because the time is not “auspicious”?

Ramanujan asserted it is not inconsistency; it has nothing to do with a person’s level of education or social standing or logical rigor. It could be understood better, he said, if we appreciate that Indians operate on the basis of context-sensitive rather than context-free norms.

While discussing the Hindu way of thinking Kakars expand on Ramanujan’s ideas and pose the question how does an individual know what is the right action? Are his actions in conformity with the truth of things? Kakars answer this by saying “he cannot (know) since right action depends the culture of his country (desa), the context in which he lives (kala), on the efforts required of him at his particular stage of life (shrama) and lastly on the innate character (guna) he has inherited. An individual can never know the configuration of all these factors in an absolute sense. “Right” and “wrong” are relative depending on its specific context; every action can be right or otherwise”.

What a person should do or should not do depends on the context. Even truth telling is not an unconditional imperative .Kakars quote Gautama , a law giver, “An untruth spoken by people under the influence of anger , excessive joy , fear , pain or grief , by infants , by very old men , by persons laboring under a delusion or being under the influence of drink , does not cause the speaker to fall(under sin).” The moral relativism of the Hindu mind is thus not an absence of moral code but only a more context-sensitive way of looking at and dealing with its violation.

Context-sensitivity is not a feature of traditional moral law but extends to many areas of contemporary Indian life and thought. If truth is relative, then there is no choice but to be tolerant of the truth of others. The roots of the Hindu tolerance may well lie in this context- dependent way of thinking.

Kakars feel that relativism of Dharma supports tradition and modernism, innovation and conformity. On one hand, the uncertainty enables one take independent voluntary actions that might sometimes be risky; on the other it prompts one to look back to epics, ancestors, social groups for guidance on how they dealt with similar situations.

Indian-ness

While talking about the characteristics of Indian-ness, “A key aspect,” Kakars say, “is how connected we are to each other as a people. Compared to Westerners, Indians are generally more ready to embrace the pain that accompanies too much closeness – one reason why the family structure is still very strong compared to many other cultures.”

Another important quality is that it is a profoundly hierarchical society. “Indians are perhaps the world’s most undemocratic people, living in the largest democracy,” he writes “What I mean by this,” he explains, “is that one Indian typically looks at another through a variety of filters – including gender, caste, religion, class – all aimed at answering the question, ‘Is this person superior or inferior to me?’ The difference in status between a chief executive and an office peon is the highest in our country.”

And yet, there is also what he calls a “connected hierarchy, based on a humane orientation” – which means that our leaders tend to be authoritative but not autocratic, and usually benevolent. “Once a leader has been accepted, he is looked upon as a father figure and his subordinates tend to be very loyal to him. We have this culture of people willing to work regularly even on weekends. The flip-side is that this can result in sycophancy and a lack of critical feedback.”

Kakars explain that when an Indian attains success at his work his first conscious thought would be “How happy my family will be!” The Indians tend to idealize their families and their ancestral background.

The Kakars connect Indian business culture to the Indian child’s experience of family. From an early age, they write, the Indian child is made aware of the importance of the integrity of the family, and of the hierarchy within it. Indian children receive much nurturing from their elders, but are also expected to follow their elders’ injunctions – to the extent that they are made to believe that what their elders dictate is what is best for them. This has ramifications far into the child’s future, particularly when he has to join the workforce. Drawing from a report on various global corporate cultures, the Kakars show how the Indian organization is characterized by four elements: a high degree of idealization by subordinates of their superiors; a significant separation between members of the organization by power, authority and prestige; a widespread culture of caring, altruism and kindness; and a fierce loyalty by workers towards the organization.

Hindu nationalism

In dealing with the Indian “Religious and Spiritual Life”, the authors contrast the Hindu nationalist and the flexible Hindu. There are serious contradictions in a militant Hindu nationalism, since Hinduism is concerned with tolerance and universalism, that go back to traditional Hindu roots. On the other hand, the flexible Hindu tossed on the tide of consumerism and pseudo secularism that has been so uncritically accepted, feels threatened and looks for alternate modes of expression. He fears his identity is under threat. This is what makes the Hindu nationalists’ proposal attractive

Hindu-Muslim conflict

This brings us to Hindu-Muslim conflict. The authors explain the Hindu-Muslim conflict in terms of the construction and transmission of stereotypes that demonized the ‘other’. Kakars say we will have to give up Gandhi’s dream of “lasting heart unity” between the two communities. “The differences won’t go away,” he says, “and even if it were possible, there will always be someone ready to exploit communal tensions.” What then is his best-case scenario for the future? “An achievable ideal is increased tolerance for the other, even if one disagrees with their beliefs and lifestyles. We might have to content ourselves with the creation of a common public realm while regarding the other community with benign indifference in private.”

Indian Women

The continuity and change in the evolution of women’s identity and gender relations are traced in the “Indian Women: Traditional and Modern”. The authors seem to soft pedal the position of the girl child in the Indian family, especially upper and middle caste ones. The situation they describe may have prevailed in the traditional rural joint family, but surely that has changed today, if the sex ratios, especially for the more patriarchal states in the North, are anything to go by.

While facing the question whether the family closeness is getting diluted in the urban parts of the country? “Yes, that process is underway,” he says. “But also, very often, what we have is the illusion of modernity. Centuries of conditioning and generational ‘wisdom’ still underlie most of our attitudes.” He points out, for instance, that the average college girl in Delhi , even one who dresses in jeans or skirts, will hesitate to break into loud laughter at the antics of a boy who’s trying to attract her attention. At some level, despite the surface liberalness, she is still aware of traditional folk-wisdom pertaining to male-female interactions, which she has absorbed from her community – in this case, the saying, “jo hansi, woh phansi” (“if a girl laughs, she is already in the net”).

Even the idea of the ever-increasing generation gap, Kakar says, is part of a canon of Western psychology that we – especially those of us who have grown up reading English – too easily accept. “But in India , even in the less conservative families, the generational bond tends to be stronger than the generational conflict.”

The spread of new media and technologies- internet, mythological comics, TV serials- is not only leading to greater homogenization of Hindu rituals and festivals but is also the main source of religious knowledge for the young generations, they say.

At some places Kakars reveal startlingly ultra conservative views on women, which I find difficult to appreciate. Take, for instance, the relationship between the daughter-in-law and her cruel mother-in-law, which is an inexhaustible theme of Indian folktales and TV soap operas. When such a plot is on view we normally sympathize with the victimized daughter-in-law. But the Kakars argue that animosity towards the mother-in-law is in fact unwarranted, as she is merely “an agent of the Indian family”, whose role is simply to preserve the traditional form of the family from outside intrusion. “Given the organizing principle of the traditional Indian family,” the Kakars continue, in which the parent-son and filial bonds are more central than the husband-wife tie (that is considered the fulcrum of the modern Western family), the new bride constitutes a very real threat to the unity of the larger family. Abundantly aware of the power of sex to overthrow religiously sanctioned family values and long- established social norms, the family is concerned that the young wife may cause her husband to neglect his duties as a son, as a brother, a nephew, an uncle; that he will transfer his loyalty and affection to her rather than remaining truly a son of the house.”

In another place they say, Man’s war with “woman” is a common theme in Indian tales. The woman is defiant and does not submit without a struggle against her husband. Withholding of sex is used against him but sex is permitted when he is humbled.

The book also says that working wives who express satisfaction with their career still rank the raising of children as the priority in a woman’s life.

Sexuality in Indian society

The study of sexuality has been a major facet of Sudhir Kakar’s career. In addition to his studies on sexual mores in contemporary India , he has co-authored a translation of the Kama Sutra, and written a novel based on the life of Vatsyayana. In The Indians, the Kakars draw from these works, to create a celebratory and lyrical account of sexuality during the era in which the Kama Sutra was written.

The disjunction between the classical and modern stance on “sexuality” plays out the tension between the ascetic and the erotic Indian: from the Kamasutra and the Gita Govinda, to popular temple art, to today’s official censorship and vigilante moral policing. The authors explore some of the intricacies involved.

While admiring sexuality as practiced in ancient India , the Kakars are pained by the conservative and puritanical sexual mores of contemporary India . Indian society today, they say, is in “the dark ages of sexuality”, characterized by a lack of “erotic grace which frees sexual activity from the imperatives of biology, uniting the partners in sensual delight and metaphysical openness.” Kama Sutra appears as an effort to critique modern Indian sexuality through the presentation of an example of a superior alternative.

“The erotic love of the Kama Sutra is a precarious balancing act between the possessiveness of sexual desire and the tenderness of romantic longing, between the disorders of instinctually and the moral forces of order, between the imperatives of nature and the civilizing attempts of culture. It is a search for harmony in all the opposing forces that constitute human sexuality.”

The Kakars approve of social characteristics that promote harmony, health and the refined enjoyment of the daily pleasures that life offers. They disapprove of those characteristics that cause discord, and inhibit expression and enjoyment. They criticize, but their criticism is understated, appearing on the surface as simple description of Indian society. Even when they describe ugly traits, they do so with warmth towards the people they are describing.

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In the concluding chapter, the authors bring together their discussion on the Hindu world view under its three building blocks— Moksha, Dharma and Karma— which of course is mainstream ‘Sanatana Dharma’. They conclude by saying:

“ In conclusion let us again emphasize that the Hindu world view , the reluctant orientation, the context-sensitivity and the lesser sexual differentiation that go into the formation of the Indian mind are not abstractions to be more or less hazily comprehended during the adult years. They are the constituents of an Indian’s psyche, absorbed by the child in his relationship with his caretakers from the very beginning of life as the underlying truth of the world. Rarely summoned for conscious examination, this cultural part of the mind is neither determinedly universal nor utterly idiosyncratic. The mental representation of our cultural heritage, it remains in constant conversation with the universal and individual aspects of our mind throughout life, each influencing and shaping the other two at every moment of our being.”

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This book of Kakars’ is a rather unfashionable one, in the sense that it does not blend with the trend of the books written by some eminent Indian authors. Look at some of the statements made in the book.

“Identity is not a role, or a succession of roles, with which it is often confused,” write the authors, “It is not a garment that can be put on or taken off according to the weather outside; it is not ‘fluid’, but marked by a sense of continuity and sameness irrespective of where the person finds himself during the course of his life.”

** The authors state that the cultural part of personal identity is wired into our brains as the “software” (Samskara) with which a child grows up, leaving limited possibilities for fluid and changing identities in adulthood.

** Furthermore, they say that cultural traditions as transmitted through the family “have a line of development separate from political and economic systems.”

Kakars’ book does not fall in line with the current cultural and academic trend where the emphasis is on multiple-flexible- identities and on universality. The current intellectual mood in the country loves to promote the idea of mixing of cultures, of multiple identities that can be worn or taken off-like masks – as the situation demands. Amartya Sen’s Identity and Violence is a convincing presentation of this point of view. Further, the view that cultural traditions as transmitted through the family “have a line of development separate from political and economic systems” may not be acceptable to political economists and sociologists. The book runs the risk of being blamed for ignoring the heterogeneity of the country as it focuses on Hindus to the exclusion of other segments of Indian society.

Further, some views on women, hierarchy, business culture and political set up are rather naive, over simplified or too conservative. One cannot agree with all the views of the authors.

Yet, the book presents a fascinating portrait of our society and culture. It displays an understanding of the Indian social reality, its “way of looking at things”. The book is well written, cogent and lucid; based on years of clinical research. As I said earlier it is an unusual book in many ways. It is worth reading even in case you do not agree with all that the authors say.

The Indians : Portrait of a People Author: Kakar, Sudhir & Kakar, Katharina Year: 2007 ISBN : 0670999237 [ pp. 232 ] [ Price: RS. 395.00, US$ 9.29 ]

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Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 6, 2012 in Books, General Interest

Tags: Indians portrait of a people

What is happening to News?

02 Sep

A. Newspapers in India

1. One of the happier features of today’s India is its print media. There are roughly 62,000 newspapers in India. According to the National Readership Study 2006, the print media is enjoying a robust growth. The number of papers sold daily in India rose 33 percent during 2001 to 2006. The circulation of the dailies grew by 12.6 million during the year and reached 203.6 million by the end of year 2006. India is one of the few countries in the world where newspaper readership is soaring.

2. The 2006 National Readership Survey findings show the largest growth rate was in the local language newspapers. The circulation figures for Dainik Jagaran stood at 21.2 million while that of Dainik Bhasker was 21.0 million, both published in Hindi. The Times of India the most widely read English newspaper (7.9 million) was followed by The Hindu (4.05 million) and Hindustan times (3.85 million). The upsurge in India’s newspaper market is due in part to the government’s change of policy in 2002 and to a growth in advertising business. This boom corresponds with more supplements, travel and lifestyle magazines being produced to meet the demands of a more prosperous and inquisitive society. In addition, there are currently 300 television channels and their number could increase by 30% next year, say up to 400.

It is estimated there is still a significant scope for growth of print media, as there are 359 million people who can read and understand the language but do not read any publication. Of this 359 million, 68 per cent read Hindi.

3. All this exuberance is a heart-warming sight for newspaper publishers in India. In most countries, sales and profits of dailies have been declining for years, a slide hastened by a surge of fresh competition from the Internet and TV. That is the reason , as the newspaper boom rages in India, investors and media executives across the world are looking for a way to penetrate what is probably the world’s last great newspaper market. A growth in the readership is supported by India’s other strengths viz. a vital economy and a democratic culture to make it a serious rival to China for the attention of global media investors.

4.“The growth prospects of India’s newspaper publishing industry are phenomenal, especially when one considers the rising trend in disposable incomes and the direct bearing that will have on readership ” said Naresh Kumar Garg, who manages $49 million, including shares of Jagran Prakashan, at Sahara Asset Management Co. in Mumbai. “Higher disposable incomes mean more advertising.” Relaxed foreign media ownership laws in newspapers in particular have led to more investment from overseas. Advertising revenues have grown significantly and they cross subsidize the low sale prices of Indian newspapers. Newspapers grabbed 46% of the $2.6 billion spent on advertising in all Indian media last year.

5. An American media person remarked, “Watching the Indian newspaper scene is like taking a trip in a time machine to early 20th century America, when newspapers ruled life and politics. Sales of most Indian newspapers are increasing, and advertising is soaring.” Which in other words mean that down the next decade or so the Indian newspapers may have to grapple with a set of problems that US print media is now trying to come to terms with.

It is better India be aware of the snares that lie ahead, because eventually it will have to contend with those problems. Those are related to the growth in technology and change in financial structures.

Well, what is the state of Newspapers in US today?

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B. Newspapers in US today

1. Warren Buffett, the US billionaire remarked,” The newspaper business is bad and getting worse.” While the Newspaper stocks overseas rose 25 percent on average in the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, U.S. newspaper shares, by contrast, fell an average of 9.9 percent because of readers’ shift to the Internet cut into circulation.

2. Daily circulation for newspapers in the U.S. fell 30 percent to 43.7 million in September 2006 from 62.3 million in 1985, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a U.S. industry group. The Russell 3000 Publishing Newspapers Index, which tracks 11 companies, slid 37 percent since its peak in 2004. The average international newspaper stock fetches 35 times earnings, while the Russell index of U.S. newspaper companies has a price- earnings ratio of 20.7.

3. “Almost all newspaper owners realize that they are constantly losing ground in the battle for eyeballs,” Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s Chairman, wrote in his annual letter to shareholders published March 1. “If cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the Internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed.”

4. “The U.S. is a much more saturated market in terms of the media industry,” said Zhao Zifeng, who oversees the equivalent of $1.1 billion at China International Fund Management Co. in Shanghai . “But in China , we have much more room for development .” The firm owned 2.6 million shares of Chengdu B-Ray Media as of Dec. 31. Investors seeking growth have to look outside the U.S.

5. The newspaper growth rate is in turn related to the growth rate of the economy. As per the International Monetary Fund forecast, India’s economy will expand 8.4 percent this year, while China will grow at 9.9 percent. In the U.S., growth will amount to 2.4 percent.

In the U.S., newspaper companies will attract investors if they can develop compelling Web sites that ensures they capture readers who give up print editions, said Rogers. That model has already worked for Schibsted in Norway, said Shrager. The company’s shares have risen 51 percent in the past year, while Independent News is up 41 percent. “If you get stuck into one mode without reacting, then things are going to turn against you,” said Shrager

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PBS, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, a non–profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation’s 354 public television stations, telecast a set of four programs during Feb 2007 tracing the History of American journalism. The program was telecast in India during the last week of June 2007 by Australia network .I found the Part Three of News war (What is happening to the news?) , most interesting.

Please check the following link to view online the full series. Please also read the highly interesting discussions that follow.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/ .

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C. News War

The following in brief are some of the points made out by the program:

1.Change in the ownership pattern

* In the earlier years, eminent families owned the major newspapers like LA Times, NY Times and Washington Post. They while enjoying the prestige of owning a major Newspaper were satisfied with moderate profits. In recent years, family newspapers in cities such as Los Angeles and St Louis have been sold to out-of-state owners. Now the ownership of the papers has moved into the public domain, which in turn means that the stock markets own the newspapers.

** The newspapers in USA usually show a net profit of slightly over 20 percent that is double the rate returned by a Fortune 500 company. It is a very good rate of return. For instance, LA Times grossed about US$ one billion and made a net of US$200 million. Showing a decent profit on an annual basis was not, therefore, the major problem. However, to keep chasing the profit graphs quarter after quarter and post higher and higher profits each quarter to satisfy the stock traders was becoming a nerve-racking task. In short, present is not a problem but the future surely is a threat. In order to keep happy their faceless masters the newspapers cut costs by economizing on the production, marketing and even in the news rooms by downsizing the staff strength. In the process, the reporter on the street who investigated, verified, gathered, and reported the news was served the layoff notice.

2.Fall in advertising revenues

More than 70 percent of a newspaper’s revenue comes from advertising. With the internet spreading into all aspects of life those hunting for houses, used cars, jobs, antiques etc. increasingly resort to internet to search for those items than to run through the classifieds. There is therefore a serious loss in the revenue from the classifieds.

3. News over internet

Internet sites like Google, Yahoo etc. collate news items from newspapers and post them on their web pages. They are not gathering news from the field but are recycling news gathered by the newspaper reporters. The web sites make use of the news gathered by the newspapers.
One interesting question that keeps coming up repeatedly is “Who is going to pay for the news”.

4. International News Vs. Local News

The content of the newspaper is a huge issue. Why does an ordinary person buy newspaper? Is it to find out what is happening in Iraq or to learn what is happening in his neighbourhood or town?

It is not that the internet is “stealing” the readers, or that people are not interested in these issues, it is that these issues are not covered or are covered poorly by the newspapers. Cutting staff will not solve the problem it will only make it worse

There is an argument that newspapers attempt to cater to all needs of all readers. In an attempt to be everything to everybody, there is much more in there than the average reader needs. As a result, the average reader looks only at a proportion of the paper, with the rest being tossed unread. Some buy it just for the news, and toss the rest. Others buy it for the sports, and toss the rest. And so on.

Where do we draw the line? Should we have newspapers, with different “flavors”, each with a different price point? Let us say: 1. a short stripped down version containing only need to know news; 2. a longer, news/op-ed version, focusing on news and analysis; 3. a longer lifestyle version, light on news, heavy on all the other features and departments.; and 4. The traditional version for those who still want it all and are willing to pay for it.

Will it help matters if , say, three newspapers function as international newspapers and the rest concentrate only on local news (hyper localization).

5. Bloggers as journalists.

Anyone who reports a happening is a journalist. Anyone who posts an event on his blog page is a citizen journalist. With the phenomenal increase in Bloggers, there is an explosion of journalists. Do we need specialists who report to newspapers and pursue that as a career?

How far can the bloggers go in this direction? Anyone with a camera, a phone and a laptop may be able to record, but do they have the background knowledge and history to make a proper assessment. Does that person even know whether or not something is new or news? What happens if that person makes a mistake in their reporting? Are there fact checkers? What happens when students, researching papers relies on this news-lite? How do we deal with sensitive issues such as libel and slander? What separates the professional journalists from Joe American the blogger who slanders people online and puts erroneous information on the Web without bothering to check and see if it is accurate?

*******

D. What is happening to the news?

Those were some of the issues that emanated from the presentation and the discussions that followed.

Before you view the on-line videos please read the summary of the part three of News War entitled “what is happening to the news?” given below.

***

In part three of “News War,” entitled “What’s Happening to the News, ” FRONTLINE examines the mounting pressure for profits faced by America’s network news divisions and daily newspapers, as well as growing challenges from cable television and the Internet. Bergman talks to network executives, newspaper editors and publishers, bloggers, Wall Street analysts and key players at Google and Yahoo! about the battle for market dominance in a rapidly changing world.

Bergman examines one of the biggest challenges facing the traditional news media: As their core audience grows older, the number of viewers and readers who want their news in a conventional format is shrinking. According to a study by New YorkUniversity, a majority of Americans under age 25 get their news online or from programs like Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. “To the extent that people look to us as a source of news,” says David Javerbaum, The Daily Show‘s executive producer, “that is 100 percent indicative of other people’s failure and not our success.” While the broadcast news networks still command the largest share of the market, they are losing viewers and advertising revenue to cable.

To stop this slide in ratings, network executives are making changes that have rankled some top news anchors. When ABC executives proposed bringing in Late Show with David Letterman from CBS to replace Nightline on ABC, host Ted Koppel decided not to renew his contract. “To the extent that we are now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment,” says Koppel, “that may prove to be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American journalism.”

“What’s Happening to the News” also goes inside the embattled newsroom of the Los Angeles Times, one of the few U.S. newspapers still covering major national stories. After his newsroom had already lost hundreds of jobs, managing editor Dean Baquet was told to lay off more reporters by the paper’s owner, the Tribune Company. He refused and was fired. “The people who own newspapers … are beholden to shareholders,” Baquet tells FRONTLINE. “They want for the paper to be highly profitable, and sometimes that view of what a newspaper is supposed to be and my view, which is that a newspaper is a public trust, sometimes they come into conflict.” Charles Bobrinskoy, vice chairman at top Tribune investor Ariel Capital Management in Chicago, says the L.A. Times needs to rethink its mission. “There is a role for probably three national newspapers: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today. Each has its own niche; all three are national newspapers. We don’t think there’s any demand for a fourth.”

An even greater challenge to both newspapers and broadcast networks is the growing power of the Internet as a news distribution platform, pulling consumers and advertisers away from more traditional media. Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes, talks about CBS’s partnership with Yahoo! News. “We haven’t seen the model for how broadcast journalism is going to end up on the Internet,” he says. “But … it has to go there. I mean, you don’t see anybody between 20 and 30 getting their news from the evening news; you see them getting it online.”

But Internet news aggregators like Yahoo! and Google say that they are not in the business of creating content, relying instead on traditional news-gathering organizations. “We’re in fact critically dependent upon the success of these newspapers,” says Google CEO Eric Schmidt, referring to the Los Angeles Times and others. “We don’t write the content. We’re not in the content business. So anything that screws up their economics, that causes them to get rid of reporters, is a really bad thing.”

If not newspapers, who will create content for the Internet news aggregators? Markos Moulitsas writes Daily Kos, one of the country’s most popular blogs, which reportedly receives 3 to 5 million visitors per week. “People want to be part of the media,” Moulitsas tells FRONTLINE. “They don’t want to sit there and listen anymore. They’re too educated. They’re taught … to be go-getters and not to sit back and be passive consumers. And the traditional media is still predicated on the passive consumer model — you sit there and watch.”

But is this journalism? Former Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll worries that without the investigative skills of newspaper reporters, an important element of newsgathering may be lost. “I estimate … that 85 percent of the original reporting that’s done in the United States is done by newspapers. They’re the people who are going out and knocking on doors and rummaging through records and covering events and so on. And most of the other media that provide news to people are really recycling news that’s gathered by newspapers.”

The fourth hour of “News War” is called ” Stories from a Small Planet” and is produced by FRONTLINE/World. It looks at media around the globe to reveal the international forces that influence journalism and politics in the United States. The lead story investigates the new Arab media and its role in both mitigating and exacerbating the clash between the West and Islam. Focusing on Al Jazeera and its impact on the parochial and tightly controlled Arab media, this report explores the network’s growing influence, from Muslim communities in Europe to the pending launch of a new English-language broadcast in the United States.

home + introduction + watch online + interview
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1106460,00.html

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Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 2, 2012 in General Interest

Tags: news, Newspapers

Kavi, Rishi and the Poet

01 Sep

1. Kavi the Sanskrit term, generally, means poet, the one who creates poetry.

If the meaning of the term were to be derived from the root “kru_varne”, it means “one who describes”. In which case, it refers, particularly, to those creations that spring from intuition (prathibha) rather from logic. The poetic genius (prathibha) has two aspects; Bhavaitri, the inner experience (also called darshana); and, karayitri the skill, virtuosity in expression (vivrana). What shines forth into the outer world is Kavitva, poetry.

2. According to Yaska, the term Kavi denotes, comprehensively, all those who express themselves through their intuitional (artistic) creations . The creative expression could be through words, color, sculpture, sound, or any other form, so long it flows out of intuition (prathibha) and manifests in an enjoyable form, to the benefit of all beings. Kavitva (poetry) thus encompasses in itself all forms of art expressions.

3.The Rig Veda mentions the term Kavi, any number of times. Yaska_charya in his glossary derives the meaning of the word from the root “kram” and interprets kavi as one who can see the unseen (kavihi_krantha_darshano_bhavathi) . Here again it is the intuition that inspires the kavi to expand his consciousness and express himself spontaneously. Yaska suggests a close empathy, unison between the creator and his creation, and that each tends to become a part of the other.

4. The Rig Veda further enlarges this concept and addresses the Creator as the Supreme Poet (kavir manishi paribhu swayambhuh) who conceives the grand design and expresses himself spontaneously through his creation. He is the seer, the thinker who expands his consciousness to encompass the entire Universe (Vishwa_rupaani_prathimancha_kavihi). The creator, the kavi, through his all-pervasive consciousness becomes one with his creation. That undoubtedly is the most sublime concept of a poet.

5. Poetry raised to its sublime heights is mantra to which the Rishi gives utterance. It is said; the Rishi not only knows the mantra but also is the essence of it.

Kavi is the forerunner of Rishi in the Rig Veda. He is the wise seer. One cannot be a Kavi unless one is a Rishi (naan rishir kuruthe kavyam). However, not all Rishis are kavis. A Kavi is a class by himself.

6. Yasca_charya makes a very significant classification of the Rishis.He draws a clear distinction between a Sakshath_ Krutha_ Rishi, the seer who has the direct intuitional vision; and the Srutha_Rishi, the one who heard it from the seers and remembered what he heard.

6.1. The Kavi, the seer is the Sun (savitr, Agni) who shines by himself (swayabhu), who spreads light and life to benefit all beings. He is the great inspirer (sarvasya prasavita). The Kavis (mantra drastarah) envisioned the entities beyond the range of human senses and realized the Truth by direct intuition. They were the ones who had the direct intuitional perception and who conceived the self-evident knowledge (svatah pramana). The Kavis, the seers were “the hearers of the Truth” (kavayah satya_srurtah).

Sri Aurobindo described Shruti as “divine recordings of the cosmic sounds of truth” heard by the Rishis. The Vedas are thus Sruthis, revealed scriptures. That is the reason; the Vedas are Apaurusheya, not authored by any agency.

6.1.1. It is preciously because of those reasons, Sri Aurobindo emphasized that Vedas have a deeper, esoteric meaning apart from their superficial meaning.

6.1.2. Vamadeva, an unusual Rishi, in one of his hymns (RV 4.3.16) describes himself as illumined; expressing the Truth reveled to him (ninya vachasmi).

Rig Veda mentions about four hundred Rishis and about twenty-five of them were women.

6.2. The Srutha_rishi, in comparison, is like the mirror or the moon that basks in the glory of the sun (kavi). The moon and the mirror both take in the glory of the sun and put forth the shine to the world in their own way. The Srutha_rishi obtained the knowledge by listening to the Kavi and more importantly by remembering what he heard.

6.3. The bifurcation of the Vedas/Upanishads on one hand (as Shruthi, as heard) and the Vedangas, Sastras, Puranas, Ithihasa etc. on the other (as smriti, as remembered) stems from the above concept. Smriti, in general, is secondary in authority to Shruti.

***

7. A brief explanation about prathibha, before we proceed further.

7.1. Well, bha meaning light is at the root of prathibha; prati is a proactive term. Prathibha is generally understood as light that flashes within; perceived without the intervention of senses or the mind (logic).It is a direct perception.

7.2.That kind of perception (intuition) is not uncommon. Ordinary people in their day-to-day life experience it at times. However, it has neither intensity nor a sense of direction. In the case of Rishis or yogis, it is said, this natural gift is cultivated over years of sustained practice. It is therefore a more comprehensive, intense and direct understanding.

7.3. As it usually happens, there is no single term in English that brings out all shades of the meaning of prathibha. Perhaps one could use terms like genius, poetic genius, creative imagination, invention, inventive flash or intuition; or all of them. I preferred to use intuition, as I thought it was nearer to the Sanskrit term, and it was shorter.

7.4. A considerable bulk of literature has grown around the attempts to define prathibha (intuition or whatever term), its source, its relation to reality, its fulfillment etc.

This is particularly true in the Indian context. It is debated widely, not merely in Vedic literature but also in poetics, yoga (sadhana). Sri Aurobindo makes frequent references to this intuitional (super-sensory) force.

7.5. Bharatha, the author of the natya_shastra, while discussing about Rasa, its embodiment, its fulfillment etc.talks of the importance of prathibha.

7.6. The vedangas, nyaya, yoga and shaiva siddanthas, shaktha siddantha also employ the concept; but each has its own interpretation about the source, the role of prathibha.

***

8. Continuing the discussion on the dichotomy of intuition (prathibha) and memory (Smrithi or call back), centuries later the Indian scholars Ananda Vardhana (Kashmir c.860 AD) and Abhnava Gupta (Kashmir c.960AD) emphasized that intuition, inner experience was the lifeblood of good poetry.

They declared, creativity (karaka) was the hallmark of poetry as it brings into the world a new art experience. They said the poetic genius reinvents itself all the time (nava navonvesha shalini prathibha). Poetry need not aim to remind (jnapaka) what is already present; that they said was the function of sastras. A poet need not seek justification or approval of scriptural authority. He is the lord of his domain. He is the creator. They recommend, the poet need not allow himself to be bound by logic, propriety and such other restrictions.

9. There is, in fact, such type of poetry that disregards all restrictions. For instance, Bhanudatta, a scholar of poetics (c.15 century AD) describes three “out of world” (alaukika) types of poetry that totally disregard the mundane realities of the world.

Snapika, is a dream like creation beyond space, time or reason. There is utter disregard for reality. The poet creates a world of his own.

The second is Manorathika. It is a fantasy ride; the object is to realize unfulfilled wishes. Unlike in the first one the poet is not completely cut off from the reality. His wishes have some relation to the real world.

The third is Aupanayika, where poet describes the world as he sees or as it pleases him; and not merely the actual world.

9.1. According to Bhanudatta, the third (Aupanayika) is a more credible form of poetry. It offers scope for grafting the poet’s views on the reality without rejecting or condemning the world. It could be a fine blend of expressions that evoke sense of beauty, idealism (chamath_kruthi) and harsh reality (pratheethi).The poet could whisper into ears of the reader as his beloved does (kantha_samhitha). That, Bhanudatta says, is a subtle and a persuasive way of communicating with the reader.

9.2. He says certain things shine in contrast. For instance, a flash of kindness in a cruel heart; a pair of beautiful eyes in an otherwise ordinary face; smile breaking through the teary face of a little girl.

He was trying to say the world is not one-dimensional (eka_mukha). The world is full of opposites (dwandwa). The way you look at it and the choices you make; that is what matters.

10. Our poetic scholars described that the word and its meaning (vak, Artha) as the body of the poetry; the essentials such as rasa, dhwani (tone), merit as internal organs of poetry. Intuition (prathibha), they said, was the vital driving force. Without intuition (prathibha), they said, a poem would read like a “toll collector’s manual”.

11. Abhinava Gupta adds one more dimension to the issue in his”Dwanya_loka_lochana”.

He says prathibha may be a flash of enlightenment; but what sustains that vision is the “unmeelana_shakthi”. He refers to something that charges the mind, opens up or awakens the potent faculties.

Abhinava Gupta clarifies that prathibha is inspirational in nature and it does not transform itself, automatically, into a work of art or poetry. It needs a medium to express it self. And , that medium has to be cultivated, honed and refined diligently over a period to produce a work of class.

11.1. In this context, Abhinava Gupta mentions three essentials that a poet has to keep in view. They are Rasa (rasa_vesha), Vaishadya and Saundarya.

The Rasa concept is well known and I do not wish to elaborate it here.

The second one refers to clarity in thought, lucidity in expression and comfortable communication with the reader.

The third is the sense of poetic beauty about which the Alankarikas have produced delectable works. A good poetry can manifest, according to him, only when the delightful combination of these three essentials are charged or supported by prathibha.

He cites Valmiki and kalidasa as classic examples and states it is the wonderful combination of those poetic virtues and prathibha that sets them apart from the rest of the tribe.

12.. The fulfillment of poetry is Ananda, joy. It therefore needs a good reader (Sah_hrudaya) who can understand, appreciate, empathize and enjoy the beauty of the poetry. He is an integral part of poetic experience. Magha, the poet, said, a good poetry draws the reader towards it repeatedly and each time he finds in it a new source of enjoyment. He remarked the diction, ornamentation, structure and other virtues of poetry could shine only when poetic genius, the intuition, Prathibha, charges them.

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Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 1, 2012 in General Interest, Indian Philosophy, Rigveda

Tags: Kavi, poet, Rigveda, Rishi

Enduring Values in Indian Society

01 Sep

Enduring Values in Indian Society

The Indian society of today largely derives its attitude to life and the world at large, from the broad cultural framework suggested in the old texts. The guidance provided by the Rig Veda and the texts that followed it, including the Buddhist and Jain texts, was never rigid. The framework was suggestive and flexible. The two principles of quality of life and the individual freedom were at the heart of their message. These were addressed to the society at large including its subcultures.

The framework was woven around three concepts viz. rta, rna and purusharthas. As I mentioned earlier, rta recognizes our oneness with our environment and our unity with all life on earth; while rna underlines the responsibility of man to his family, his community, his environment and to himself as a human being. It signifies natural or universal order and integrity of all forms of life and ecological systems,

An outflow from the above two is the notion that aims to set values in a normal day-to-day life. These related to the acquisition of wealth (artha), pursuit of pleasure (kama) guided and governed by Dharma. They form a group of three (tri-varga), as called by Gautama and Manu (2,224).This is common to all segments of the society.

[The fourth one, seeking liberation from phenomenal ills (moksha) is optional and is outside the set of three (apa _varga). It is not considered an ordinary human aspiration. Those who pursue this option are beyond the pale of the society and its disciplines.]

It is essential that pursuit of wealth and pleasure is guided and restrained by Dharma. It is the violation of this requirement that sets apart the not _so_ virtuous from the virtuous in the epic stories

Dharma in this context is characterized by human values like truth, compassion, self-restraint, non-enmity, forgiveness etc. It provides ample scope for individual conscience and liberty.

**
Upanishads or its earlier texts did not at any time lay claim for discovering the ultimate truth nor did they prevent anyone from questioning their opinions. On the other hand, they encouraged the seekers to think, contemplate, question and find their own solutions.

The Buddha articulated the fundamental sprit of the Upanishads. He discouraged his disciples from borrowing ideas. Through his famous saying, “Live as a light unto yourself” Buddha encouraged his disciples to be mature, and independent.

Ashoka (d.483BC) who followed the Buddha brought focus on human dignity, purposeful life and human values.

Shankara valued personal experience (anubhava) over other means of knowledge. He used in this context a peculiar expression and said, “Be guided by what is “presented to one’s own heart (sva-hrudaya-pratyayam).”

Thus, the fundamental Indian outlook developed and nurtured by the ancients has set the tenor and tone of Indian cultural history. The freedom of the individual to choose his way of life, to follow his conviction and to pursue interests close to his heart is a distinctive feature of the Indian ethos.

If India’s culture tended to become tolerant, accommodating, open minded, opposed to organized regimentation, spiritual but not fanatic; it is largely due to the pervasive but unobtrusive influence of the seers, thinkers, and ordinary people of this country, down the ages.

There has never been a central agency or an organization in India to monitor or diffuse cultural values among its people. The spread of cultural values has always been, at the grass root level, by countless iterant, unassuming bards, fakirs, saints many of them outlandish and exotic. They came from all segments, all divisions of the society. They came from different regions, different religions, different sects and sub sects. They roamed about the countryside without any expectation or reward .They preached and lived what they believed. Those nameless, non-conforming selfless savants have been the guardians of Indian culture.

***

Over the centuries, India has absorbed the various influxes that flowed into the country. It has tempered the cross currents that blew across it .These have collectively rendered the Indian culture not only colorful but also complex. Yet, the country and its people have retained the essential Indian ethos and plurality of its values.

This is reflected in our increasing assimilation with the global community, which I view as a sign of healthy growth. This present generation of Indians is comfortable both at home and abroad. They are not afflicted by the pretensions of the colonial era nor or they timidly self-conscious as in the “Hindu growth rate” years. For instance, when I lived in London for a short while (that was a very long time ago), those of us on the fringe nicknamed the inner circle of Indians as “the coconuts”- brown out side and white inside. They were Indians in appearance but more English than the English in their behavior and thinking. Now, looking back, I realize it was a defensive mechanism necessary to survive in an unfriendly society. The present day Indians there, I learn, are Chikkoos – brown outside and slightly less brown inside. That is ok..They are comfortably integrated into those societies they live and yet retain their identity.

Gandhi summed it up for all of us when he said, “I want all the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

Today, the young Indian is trying to internalize various influences and to chosen a path of his own. He is striving to become “mature and independent” as the Buddha asked of his disciples. It is however essential that, in this process, he does not loose his identity and he retains his core spirituality. It is only then we can say, with confidence, the ancient framework woven around sturdy commonsense, which was suggestive and flexible, is still in operation.

***
I append the following which I posted in response to comments from the members. This complements the main article.

***

I do not hold a dim view of the present generation.

When I compare the present day youths to the youths of my generation, I find them better informed ,more aware of the world/s around them and better equipped to choose their options and take decisions relating to their education , carrier and to life in general..

Growing up is dynamic process. We are the children of environment. Civilization creates the environment in which it operates. This blends Man’s mind with the social and economic surroundings and brings about a uniquely dimensioned continuum. This is relevant in all periods, over riding the changes in administration or economic distribution.

Denigration in a society is marked by the absence of acknowledged excellence in the field of academics, literary output, and expression in art, economic activities, social organizations and political administration.

Let us see how we are faring, today, in those areas.

I readily agree we fall far short of excellence in political administration and social organizations. Good governance is still not in sight. The administration in many ways is tied up with avoidable layers of bureaucracy and nepotism. We still have a long way to go. Nevertheless, even in these fields, one has to acknowledge that the public awareness is on increase and some accountability is nudging into the public domain, though haltingly.

The most frightening aspect of the present India is the alarming vivisection of its society into castes and sub castes and the internecine pitched battles to gain the tag of “backward class”. The Supreme Court of India observed “Nowhere else in the world do castes, classes or communities queue up for gaining backward status….No where else in the world is there a competition to assert backwardness and then to claim we are more backward than you.” It is this Frankenstein that is India ’s real nightmare. All other ills flow from this malady. I am not going into the genesis or the pros/cons of it. I hope and pray sanity will prevail and “this too will pass.”

As regards technology, economic growth and global awareness India has made rapid strides mainly due to the initiative, hard work and excellence of its young persons. The literary output has grown rapidly especially when you take into account the richness of the literary works of various forms in the regional language.

There is now a growing awareness of art and art expressions. A more number of young persons are pursuing various art forms than ever before.

Ancient India ’s strength was in the fields of mathematics, logic and philosophy. India was the premier civilization in these fields. There is an anxiety; understandably, the best of our young minds are not entering into these fields. I am confident things will improve.

The young persons we are talking about are first generation that brought affluence in to the Indian middleclass families. There was, therefore, a natural initial urge and anxiety to take off and climb up the economic ladder. The technological base as it gets wider, in due course , is bound to throw up a felt-need for advancement in pure sciences. Many more bright minds will eventually take up to pure sciences. The increase in the number of scholars entering into the Indian Institute of Sciences and other research organizations is a witness to this healthy trend. The next generation of educated young Indians having emerged out of the shadows, hopefully, will have a broader perspective. Even in USA , the pure sciences did not take root until after the end of the first war and most of it was grafted from Europe . (This is no consolation to India .It is just a way of saying it is never too late.)

The excellence in pure sciences, as in art, is related to the general well being, stability and affluence of its society.

A reference is made to aping the western style of living. With the moving of the Indian communities to the West and before that, with the advent of West into India , the “Indian ness” in day-to-day living is definitely diluted. In fact, no nation today is free from the “Western” influence. I think we have to make, here, a distinction between the idiom of day-to-day living; and ones core faith and identity. The urban India has certainly become western in its orientation. I doubt if India has become “western” in spirit.

In case this Forum is taken as a micro sample of young Indians, you will be amazed to find here the interest shown in Indian texts, thought, traditions etc. As I mentioned elsewhere, some of the articles written on these subjects are remarkably good and would make any scholar proud. It enhances the merit of the writings when you consider the authors were not trained or professional historians or Indologists. These persons have other calls in life; but they devote a precious segment of their life to studying, writing and discussing ancient Indian texts, history, thought and way of life for the sheer joy of doing so.

As regards pursuit of Artha, the pursuit by itself was never decried, even in ancient texts. The only requirement was that the process of acquiring wealth should not breach the limits of tolerance set by the Dharma. I presume even our Civil Laws carry the same prescription. There is nothing wrong in trying to earn more or to be competitive so long as you respect the ground rules.

There was a mention about young Indians going away from India . Let me elaborate this a bit. Until about 70s, most of us went to Bombay in search of jobs, careers, dreams and fortunes. This was motivated not merely by a need to earn a living but also by an urge to extricate oneself from the limited confines and to move on to a broader arena that provided scope and opportunities to discover and to realize ones potential or dreams.

I presume the westward movement by the younger generation was driven by similar urge. It may sometimes be important where you are placed. That certainly is not as important as who you are and what you aspire to become.

In matters of technology, economy, global presence and academics, India has done well thanks mainly to the enterprise and hard work of its young Indians. It is also remarkable it has held on to democratic values amidst encircling chaos. The administration and governance have to improve. However, the social and economic disparities are the cause for worry.

Let us hope, as Mr. Micawber said,”something will turn up”

*****

I am not suggesting the task is done and we are there. We are far from that.

The fact there is dissatisfaction about our growth is by itself a good sign. It signifies hunger for better growth

The challenges ahead of young persons of today are many, beginning with the one of finding their own identity. That includes reorienting their way of living, balancing their priorities and lending a sense of direction to their life. This does not come easy. It calls for compromises, sound common sense coupled with flexibility in approach and a willingness to abide by a set of ground rules that safe guards the interests of the society, the family and the individual. It is in this context a look at the evolution of values in the Indian society becomes relevant. India has survived several strifes and torments that threatened to disrupt its social fabric. It has survived those challenges and managed to retain something of its own. This was mainly because India always appreciated the plurality of the identity of its people and their affiliations. This was an out flow from the ancient framework, I mentioned earlier.

There are a number of other contentious issues that have their roots in the social and economic disparities among sections of its society. These have direct impact on the opportunities available to young persons for their growth and development. They are, therefore, serious issues and have the potential to harm the social harmony, if not handled carefully. A sane, suggestive and a flexible approach that appeal to the reasoning of the sections of the society may alone show the way.

*******

For Vijaya
Dear Sir
Thank you for the comments. Excuse me for the delay in posting the response.

You have made a number of points. Some of them are beyond my ken. I will therefore sum up my position.

I was trying to say about the role of cultural freedom in social living and in the human development, particularly of the young persons. I confined the view to the Indian context. I tried to trace its evolution from the ancient texts to the present day.

When I talked about the cultural freedom, I had the following at the back of mind
— The freedom of human decisions is important.
— Our ability to understand the choices ahead of us, to consider alternative options and to decide what we have reason to want is also important.
— Education is also about helping the children develop this ability; and to help them take decisions any grown up person may have to take.
— The freedom to question the automatic endorsement of past traditions when young people see a reason to improve upon them is essential for the growth of a society. And
— valuing cultural conservation is as important as cultural freedom.

The instances you cited where the children were discouraged from asking questions, and where they were ordered to lock up their minds and obey implicitly ; I agree, are definitely not the signs of our “enduring values”. These aberrations wormed into our society during the periods its decadence. Some of it is still with us. The instances you cited were from an earlier generation. Those tendencies have not disappeared yet, but surely, they are on decline. The youngsters of today, I believe, have a better awareness of the world around them and they cannot so easily be cowed down, as in the past. I am happy about that.

Aithareya Brahmana says the purpose of education (called in the text, as “addha_vidya”) is to transform a child into one who is useful to society and to himself

As regards respect shown to Gurus etc. let me say that respecting your teacher/guru is one thing but not questioning him at all is quite another. This tradition of questioning the teacher has always been there with us and I hope it will continue to be there. If your view were to be accepted, our Acharyas in the past would have merely followed their Gurus and would not have taken the courage to think on their own and come out with their own new messages.

Whenever the tradition kept the common man wrapped in assailing doubts and gnawing indecisions, an Acharyas or a leader arose as in fulfillment of the needs of times. The first step in his quest was to question his teacher.

When we talk of cultural freedom, it also involves the question of valuing cultural conservation. This is where the enduring nature of our values comes into being. You mentioned about the arranged marriages, I do not see it as a cause for embarrassment, so long as the boy, the girl and families are comfortable with the arrangement and all of them are happily united in the decision-making. In addition, you have to view it in the context of the family system that is still working in India. In Love a boy and a girl alone matter. Whereas in a marriage in the Indian society, the families do get involved rather closely and are there forever. The trends of life in the present society are throwing up more justifications/need to keep the system going. Another way of looking at the issue, you mentioned, is that it signifies the regard the young persons have for their parents , especially the mother, and do not like to see their marriage turn into a source of pain to the families. After all, leaving the town in a hurry, catching the next available flight or train is not the only way to/out of your wedding venue.

As regards the matrimonial column, you are right. It is an embarrassment.

The problem of old parents left to fend for themselves is a growing problem.. More often, the necessity of earning a living at a far-off place is at the root of these problems. Most of us are its victims. But, I do not see this as a deliberate neglect. There are no quick fixes here

I do not take a dim view of our literary and art put. They are doing well than in the past.

As regards Dalits and others, the social equations are changing, they are aware of it. They learnt to assert their rights. Things have definitely improved and will.
Arnold Toynbee defined civilization as a pattern woven by the interaction between challenges and responses. Those challenges may come from many quarters including social and cultural stresses. The response will always have to be creative, individually satisfying and socially relevant, if the society were to have a healthy growth.

Growth is a dynamic process, there will always be challenges and, eventually, we have to come up with right answers willy-nilly. Nevertheless, at the end there will always be a few unanswered questions. That is what Sharath _Chandra, the great novelist, called Sesha _ Prashna. He said that was another name for life.

3 Comments

Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 1, 2012 in General Interest, Speculation

Tags: values in Indian society

On Arya , Aryan , Sarasvathi and other issues

01 Sep

This was initially written in response to comments from Mr. Kushwaha concerning a number of issues arising out of Bharatha_Varsha and Bharathas.

I am posting this at the suggestion of Riverine , to invite further comments from others on the Forum.

I suggest, read Bharatha_Varsha and Bharathas before proceeding with this post.

Please read on..

1. Aryan

The question of race, particularly the Aryan race is a messy one. It is one of those famous “False problems”. Let us start from the other end and clear the deck.

Aryan is an English word derived from the Vedic Sanskrit and Iranian Avestan terms Ari-, Arya-, Ariya-, and it’s another form Aryana. The Sanskrit and Old Persian languages both pronounced the word as Arya. The term came widely into use (misuse) early in 19^th century. How it came to be developed and later how the British and others hijacked it is an interesting story.

Aryan theory was, initially, developed by Danish and German scholars of the romanticism era, like R. Rask and F. Bopp (1816) . The German linguists such as the Leipzig Junggrammatiker school members further developed it. The theory of an immigration into or invasion of South Asia by speakers of Indo Aryan language based on the familiar concept of the Hunnic and Germanic invasions of the Roman empire, emerged late in the 19th century.

The British latched on to the theory of an invasion by superior Indo Aryan speaking Āryas (‘‘Aryan invasion theory’’) as a means to justify British policy and their own intrusion into India and their subsequent colonial rule. In both cases (Hunnic/Germanic and British), a ‘white race’ was subduing the local darker-colored population. In a single stroke AIT negated the legacy and traditions of entire subcontinent; and told them they lived on borrowed glory.

Further, the British also employed it, as a tool of their “divide and rule” policy, to drive a wedge between the various groups in the Indian people, by propagating that the Aryan invaders from Central Asia destroyed the native civilization and enslaved the native population. The strategy was to set one class / region against another and let them fight it out. The then Viceroy of India Lord Curzon called this policy “furniture of the Empire.” Sir Winston Churchill opposed any policy tending towards decolonization on the ground: “We have as much right to be in India as anyone there, except perhaps for the Depressed Classes who are the native stock”. The British trick/strategy did work and many groups within India supported the British on both the counts and stated quarreling among themselves. Since then the debate on the racial character of the term “Aryan” gathered pace and chugged along.

During the early thirties, the “Aryan” found unexpected supporters in the form of Nazis who employed it as a racial term designating the purest segment of the White race. Nazis put the theory into a highly destructive operation . The holocaust that followed is rather too well known to be recounted here.

The Nazis pointed out to the British that Nazis were doing exactly the thing they (British) themselves were doing in India, subjugating an inferior race. Nazi schoolbooks included lessons on British rule in India . This caught the British on wrong foot. British were embarrassed to find themselves bracketed with Nazis. The British spin-doctors then came up with an explanation that that the Indians were “brown Aryans” and there was no subjugation of Indian people. The British thereafter soft peddled the Aryan theory and slowly receded from it.

In the mean time, things came to a full circle in Persia. An off shoot of this debate was that Persia woke up to its history and decided in March 1935 to call itself Iran , derived from “Arya“, “Aariyā“. We may recall that Darius the Great, King of Persia (521-486 BC), had proclaimed:

“2. (8-15.) I am Darius the Great King, King of Kings, King of countries containing all kinds of men, King in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage.”

Having re- discovered his roots the then Shah warmed up to his newfound brethren, the other Aryans, the Nazis. The British were not amused with this blossoming camaraderie; and, promptly snubbed Iran. Later in 1959, Iran came up with a statement that names Iran and Persia could be used interchangeably. However, since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the official name of the country is “Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Because of its association with Nazi propaganda and the stigma that stuck to it, the word “Aryan” is no longer in technical use. Presently, white people go under the label Caucasian. Even in Linguistics, “Indo-European” replaces Aryan.

Now, the infamous AIT – the Aryan Invasion theory stands largely discarded.

Let us leave it at that.

2. Race

The term Arya, either in Sanskrit or Avesthan, has always meant “noble”. Amara_Kosha (2.6.812), the Sanskrit lexicon, explains the term as “sabhya” “sajjana” and “Sadhu“– meaning a gentleman (sabhya-sajjana-sādhavaḥ). Arya is a term used by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis, to mean noble or spiritual. The Vedic Aryans called themselves Arya in the Rig-Veda. Besides Iran, the Éire, the Irish name of Ireland; and Ehre (German for “honor”) are related to the term Arya. The Afghan airline is Aryana; named after the original name of that country. Many children in Iran are named Iran-dokht, Aryan pour etc. based on the term Arya. Similarly, the South Indian names like, Ponna_iah, Subba_iah or Ayya_sami etc. carry its cognate iah to assign respect to the name. The term, obviously, is employed in the context of culture than race

In all these cases, the people of those countries, belonging to various ethnic groups , preferred to associate with the term Arya to signify that they were a noble and a respected people . There were no racial tags attached to it.

Some say Rig-Veda too does not employ the term in a racial sense. According to Shrikant Talageri, among the tribes mentioned, most of whom of same race; Rig Veda refers to Purus and especially to Bharathas as Aryans. It is, therefore, a matter of regard and respect than of race.

I learn that in Manu Smrithi even Chinese were called Aryans. The South Indian Kings called themselves Aryans and those of whom that established kingdoms in South East Asia also called themselves Aryans.(to check with azygos)

Sri Aurobindo did not like the use of the term race in this context. He said, “I prefer not to use the term race, for race is a thing much more difficult to determine than is usually imagined.”

According to Michel Wetzel, designation of a particular race to people speaking a language is an aberration of the 19th and 20th century

Eva Nthoki Mwanika while commenting on the race of the Egyptian people said, ”The Egyptians did not recognize “race” with in the same context or definition in which modern society recognizes it and that, the division of humankind into races as understood in the modern sense is a recent phenomenon.” She went on to say, we are trying to impose a modern term “race” on an ancient people who had a non-racial self-perception and a different worldview.

I presume we can safely echo the views of Ms. Mwanika in the Aryan context as well.

As regards the Buddha, he used the term Ariya any number of times. Sometimes he used the term to imply, “one who strives upward”, and that is to say the noble ones. He used the term Anariya to mean ignoble or vulgar. For instance he called extreme indulgence or extreme austerity as anariya and anatta samhita (futile). Most other times the term “ariya” was used to mean “noble”. For instance ariya sacchani (noble truths) and ariya patha (eightfold aryan path or the noble path).

In the later forms of Buddhism, the path to enlightenment is graduated into four stages. The arahat (the fourth stage of realization) is a fully enlightened being, having extinguished all defilements. The sotapanna (first stage of realization, also sotapatti-magga-nana) has uprooted wrong view but still has other defilement. The sakadagami and anagami are at the second and third stage of realization, respectively. All four are called ariyas, that is, noble.

There is a section in the pali cannon (tipitaka) in which the Buddha talks about himself. That section is titled ariya_pariyesana sutta. Similarly, in the Buddhist traditions of Burma and Sri Lanka , the future Buddha is generally referred to as ariya metteyya, the noble metteyya.

In the context I mentioned above, both the terms arya and aryan were exclusively psychological terms or adjectives denoting noble or virtuous , and having very little to do with birth, race, or nationality.

3. Sarasvathi

As you mentioned, itis generally accepted that the SarasvatI represents the geographical heartland of the Vedic Aryan civilization. You are echoing the often-repeated statementthat while Rig Veda mentions the Ganga only once, it lauds the great Sarasvati fifty times. Yes, I agree, it is so.

As I mentioned in my post, the Rig Veda has a certain geographical horizon. It projects a land of seven great rivers bounded by ocean and many mountains. This mainly represents the geographical sphere of the Bharatas and their neighbors. Rig Veda is not talking about entire Bharatha Varsha. The geographical horizon of Rig Veda is confined to the Sarasvathi valley, the heartland of Puru/Bharatha country.

Further, the Purus and especially the Bharathas are the protagonists of Rig Veda. It extols their relations, their rituals, their Gods, their battles and their victories etc. The geography of the of the Rig Veda is therefore limited to the Sapta Sindhu region, the land of thePurus \ Bharathas ,who are the real Aryans of the Rig Veda.

In short; Rig Veda is mainly the story of Purus/Bharathas. Naturally, Rig Veda speaks all the while about their land, their rivers, their mountains etc. It does not mean that the other parts of Bharatha Varsha (as you mentioned, the Ganga and others) did not exist. Those regions just did not figure in the Puru/Bharatha story. In fact, some of the Purus of Rig Veda hailed from what is now the U.P. region (e.g. Sudyumna).Rig Veda frequently refers to the Puru clan as children of Nahusha. This Nahusha was the father of Yayathi and ruled the in the Gangetic region.

(Interestingly, Nahash in old Hebrew means serpent. I am not suggesting any connection).

That is the reason, why there are not many references to the Ganga in Rig Veda. The position as explained, I presume, answers your question.

The range of the Puranas, on the other hand, is much wider .They speak of other regions of Jambu_dvipa/Bharatha Varsha, other Kings, their histories, as well. The Puranas are part history and part epic. The style of their narration is more relaxed and elaborate.

****

kassette mittani

Earlier we spoke of migration from North West into the Punjab region. Now, let us look at the, migration that might probably have taken place in the other direction.

The slow death and eventual disappearance of the mighty Sarasvathi also signified the end of the civilization associated with the Sarasvathi valley. The geo physical surveys and other studies suggest that around 1600 BC a massive drought struck the Sarasvathi region. That, and possible shift in the land lead to disappearance of the Sarasvathi. It was perhaps a part of a wider phenomenon that swept the other regions too. The people of the Sarasvathi valley, naturally, migrated to other regions. From a throbbing account of living generations, Rig Veda turned into memories of a lost heartland. A Camelot lost.

The disappearance of Sarasvathi valley civilization is a very important landmark in the history of Bharatha Varsha.

The presence of the Indo -Aryan kings of the Mittani and the Kassite dynasties, who worshiped Vedic deities, in the Babylonian region , during 1600 to 1300 BC , points to the possibility of migration of Vedic people from the plains of Punjab, following the collapse of the Sarasvathi valley civilization.

It is evident from the names of some of the Miittani and Kassite Kings and Generals (Kart-ashura,Biry-ashura,Sim-ashura,Kalm-ashura etc.) that they belonged to the early Rig Vedic times when the Asuras were the older set of gods; and when the sharp distinction between Asurasand Devas had not yet come into being ; and when the Asuraswere not yet a denigrated lot in the Vedic texts.

It is also evident that the Indo –Aryan kings were a minority among a population who spoke a different language.

It is remarkable how in the distant past , the Vedic people migrated from Punjab to the regions of Mesopotamia and Egypt .

(There is theory that suggests , Nefertiti (c.1400 BC) married to Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV was a Mittani princess , daughter of an Indo Aryan King)

(For more on Mittani and Kassite kingdoms and Rig Veda , Gathas ; please view-

“Rig Veda and Gathas re visited” @

https://sreenivasaraos.com/2012/08/31/the-rig-veda-and-the-gathas-revisited/ )

4. Bharatha_Varsha / Arya_Vartha

I think you got into knots over the Bharatha_Varsha and Arya_Vartha . Let me clarify.

As discussed in the post the name Bharatha_Varsha came into vogue at the time of the Emperor Bharatha who was fifth or sixth in line from Swayabhuva Manu, the first Manu. The various Purans and texts have described the extent of Bharatha _Varsha as extending from the ocean in the South to the snowy mountains.

As regards Arya_vartha, the term might have come into use, at best, in Vedic times, in the manvantara of Vaivaswata Manu, the seventh Manu. There is, therefore, a huge time gap between the two occurrences. I do not even hazard a guess to measure the gap.

At times, it is used to refer to the Rig Vedic geography and at other times to the Ganga Valley. Sometimes, it amorphously referred to what we call India.

Bharatha Varsha, even in the times of Mauryas was larger in area than the present India . Kautila called it Chakravarthi Kshetra. It was before Asoka’s time.

Bharatha _Varsha has always been a nation even from the epic times overwhelming the political subdivisions.

bharathavarsa

Thank you

Regards

Sources:

http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/downloads/books/aid.htm

http://voiceofdharma.org/books/rig/ch5.htm

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_Empire)

15 Comments

Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 1, 2012 in General Interest, History

Tags: Arya, Aryan, Bharatha, Indian

Bharatha Varsha and Bharathas

01 Sep

Jambudwipa

Traditionally the Indians, while in India, in their daily prayers, identify themselves as those residing in Bharatha_Varsha (the land of Bharatha), located to the South of MountMeru in the Jambu_Dvipa. Then, they go on to specify their location within the subcontinent.

What does this mean?

A.Jambu_Dvipa

1. Cosmology

According to the cosmology projected in the books of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, the planet Earth consists seven islands (Saptha Dweepa vasundhara). One of those islands is Jambu_Dvipa (RoseAppleIsland) also known as Sudarshanadvipa.

Markandeya Purana says, Jambu_Dvipa is depressed on its south and north; elevated and broad in the middle. The elevated region forms the Ila-vrta or Meruvarsa. At the center of Ila-vrta lies the MountMeru.

bwqpPJa

The noted scholar Dr. Vasudeva S Agarawala, mentions in his work– Indian Art (A History of Indian Art from the earliest times up to the third century A.D) :

Jambudvipa

2. Location

Some attempts have been made , though not satisfactorily , to identify the zones(varshas) and the extent of the Jambu_Dvipa, by taking a clue from the details of mountain ranges, valleys and river systems and other geographical features of Jambu_Dvipa provided in Bhishmaparva of the Mahabharata and in other Puranas.

According to one of those interpretations , Jambu_ Dvipa is a huge land mass of South Asia comprising the present day Indian Subcontinent, Tibet , Egypt , Mesopotamia , Syria and Corinth( near main land Greece).

Sanjaya said: ‘Stretching from east to west, are these six mountains that are equal and that extend from the eastern to the western ocean.

They are Himavat, Hemakuta, the best of mountains called Nishadha, Nila abounding with stones of lapis lazuli, Sweta white as the moon, and the mountains called Sringavat composed of all kinds of metals. These are the six mountains, O king, which are always the resorts of Siddhas and Charanas. The space lying between each of these measures a thousand Yojanas, and thereon are many delightful kingdoms. And these divisions are called Varshas, O Bharata.

This (the land where we are) is in the Varsha that is called after Bharata.. Next to it (northwards) is the Varsha called after Himavat. The land that is beyond Hemakuta is called Harivarsha, South of the Nila range and on the north of the Nishadha is a mountain, O king, called Malyavat that stretches from east to west.

Beyond Malyavat northwards is the mountain called Gandhamadana. Between these two (viz., Malyavat and Gandhamadana) is a globular mountain called Meru made of gold. Effulgent as the morning sun, it is like fire without smoke. It is eighty-four thousand Yojanas high, and, O king, its depth also is eighty-four Yojanas. It standeth bearing the worlds above, below and transversely.

Besides Meru are situated, O lord, these four islands, viz., Bhadraswa, and Ketumala, and Jamvudwipa otherwise called Bharata, and Uttar-Kuru which is the abode of persons who have achieved the merit of righteousness. Bhishma Parva – Section vi

11 tasya pārśve tv ime dvīpāś catvāraḥ saṃsthitāḥ prabho/ bhadrāśvaḥ ketumālaś ca / jambūdvīpaś ca bhārata / uttarāś caiva kuravaḥ kṛtapuṇyapratiśrayāḥ – The Mahabharata in Sanskrit-Book 6-Chapter 7

It is surmised that Ila varsha and Meruvarsha, refer to the mountainous regions around the Pamirs and parts of north-east Afghanistan. MountMeru (or Sumeru) is identified with the vast Nagard Sarovar in the center of the modern Pamirs in Central Asia.

indian cosmology2

The concept of Jambu_Dvipa is present not merely in Hindu Puranas but also in Indian literature, history and in edicts.

3.Buddhist tradition

The Buddhist tradition also accepts the geographical concept of Jambu_Dvipa and places it south of Sumeru. It believes Jambu_Dvīpa is shaped like a triangle with a blunted point facing south.

The Buddha once remarked that the people of Jambu_Dvípa excel those of both Uttarakuru and Tavatimsain in three respects – courage, mindfulness and religious life. The Uttarakuru referred to by the Buddha might be the Kuru region mentioned in the Rig-Veda, It might even be the region to the north of Pamirs. There are a number of views on the probable location of Uttarakuru. As regards Tavatimsain, very little is known about it and there are not many guesses either.

In the later Buddhist texts, the connotation of the term Jambu_ Dvipa became more restricted. It came to mean only the Indian subcontinent and did not include even Sri Lanka. The Síhaladípa or Tambapannidípa (alternate names for Sri Lanka in Pali) were mentioned separately from Jambu_dípa.

Further, the Emperor Ashoka introduced himself to the people of Sri Lanka as Devanam Priya (Beloved of Gods) hailing from Jambu_Dvipa, referring to main land India. Incidentally, the modern Sinhalese word for India is Dhambadiva, perhaps related to the Pali name for India, Jambudiipa. One of the other names for India in Buddhist literature is Indravardhana.

The Buddhists divided Jambu_Dvípa into three circuits or mandalas, for the guidance of their itinerant monks. The first circuit Mahámandala (greater circuit) extended over nine hundred leagues and the Majjhima (middle circuit) extended over six hundred leagues. The perambulation of both circuits was expected to be completed, each , in nine months time; while that of the Antima (final circuit) of over three hundred leagues was to be completed in seven months time.

theuniverse12

B. Bharatha _Varsha

1.Location and Extent

According to Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts, the Bharata Varsha, the land of Bharatha, located in Jambu_Dvipa, lies to the South of Sumeru. However, the extent of Bharatha Varsha varies from text to text and from tradition to tradition.

Markandeya Purana describes Bharatha Varsha as the land that stretches from Kailasa to kanyakumari; while Vishnu Purana mentions Bharatha Varsha as The country (var ṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains, where the descendants of Bharata dwell.

uttaraṃ yat samudrasya himādreścaiva dakṣiṇam varṣaṃ tadbhārataṃ nāma bhāratī yatra santatiḥ

Further, it extols the virtues of Bharatha Varsha and says, “Bharata is the most excellent division of Jambudvipa, for this is the land of action, while the others are places of enjoyment.” Bharata Varsha is designated karmabhumi.

Bharath

Manu gives a beautiful and a lyrical description of Bharaha Varsha and mentions its various divisions. This is how Manu describes, “The land between the rivers Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, is called Brahmavarta. Beyond it, the land of the five rivers up to the Mathura region is called Brahmarshi Desha. The land between Vinashana (the place of disappearance of the Sarasvati River in the desert) and Prayaga and Vindhya, is Madhya Desha (Central Land). Finally, the land bounded by the mountain of Reva (Narmada), the Eastern Sea ( Bay of Bengal ) and the Western Sea is Arya Desha. This is the land where the black-skinned deer roam freely.”

sarasvatī-dṛśadvatyor devanadyor yad antaram /
taṃ devanirmitaṃ deśaṃ brahmāvartaṃ pracakṣate // Mn_2.17 //
tasmin deśe ya ācāraḥ pāramparyakramāgataḥ /
varṇānāṃ sāntarālānāṃ sa sadācāra ucyate // Mn_2.18 //
kurukṣetraṃ ca matsyāś ca pañcālāḥ śūrasenakāḥ /
eṣa brahmarṣideśo vai brahmāvartād anantaraḥ // Mn_2.19 //
etad deśaprasūtasya sakāśād agrajanmanaḥ /
svaṃ svaṃ caritraṃ śikṣeran pṛthivyāṃ sarvamānavāḥ // Mn_2.20 //
himavadvindhyayor madhyaṃ yat prāg vinaśanād api /
pratyag eva prayāgāc ca madhyadeśaḥ prakīrtitaḥ // Mn_2.21 //
ā samudrāt tu vai pūrvād ā samudrāc ca paścimāt /
tayor evāntaraṃ giryor āryāvartaṃ vidur budhāḥ // Mn_2.22 //
kṛṣṇasāras tu carati mṛgo yatra svabhāvataḥ /
sa jñeyo yajñiyo deśo mlecchadeśas tv ataḥ paraḥ // Mn_2.23 //

Kautilya, the author of Artha Shastra, mentions Bharatha Varsha as the land that stretches from Himalayas to Kanyakumari; and, he also called it Chakravarthi Khsetra, the land of the Emperor.

An epigraph of Kharavela (209 – 179 B. C?) who ruled over the region of the present day Orissa, found in Hathigumpha (near Bhubaneshwar in Orissa) uses the nomenclature of Bharatha Varsha.

The Hindu and Buddhist texts (vinaya) of later ages, described Bharatha Varsha as composed of five zones, namely the Madhya Desha ( the Middle Country), Purva Desha (the Eastern region), Dakshinapatha (the South), Aparanta or Praticya (the Western region) and Uttarapatha or Udicya (the Northern region). This zonal system was in vogue even in the Maurya period (322 BC to 125 BC).The maurya Empire was the largest and most powerful Empire of ancient India. It stretched from Assam to Khandahar; and from Himalayas to Tamil Nadu.

A similar Zonal system is now in India today too. (For more on Zonal systems consult a national cricket selector!.)

2.Shape

ancient bharatha

The different stages of Bharatha _Varsha as given in ancient literature represent various stages in the process of extension of the occupied or known areas of the country, during its history. Its shape is described variously at various stages. The changes represent the dynamics of the times.

A famous passage in Bhisma Parva of Mahabharata describes the shape of Bharatha Varsha. It views Bharatha as an equilateral triangle, divided into four smaller equal triangles, the apex of which is Kanya_ kumari and the base formed by the line of the Himalaya Mountains.

The famous historian Radha Kumud Mookerji remarked,” the shape corresponds very well with the general form of the country, if we extend the limits of India to Ghazni on the north-west and fix the other two points of the triangle at Cape Comorin and Sadiya in Assam.”

The Markandeya Purana is quite specific about the shape of the country. Its configuration is that of a bow in which the Himalaya is like the stretched string of the bow with the quill of the arrow at the peninsular area of the south. It is said to extend into a triangle with its transverse base in the north.

According to Buddhist tradition, Jambudvīpa (subcontinent) is shaped like a triangle with a blunted point facing south.

[ It is said; the subcontinent may be imagined to be in the shape of a Diamond; with its top (Northern end) being slightly broad and blunt; and, tapering to a point at its Southern end, jutting into the Indian Ocean.

The Northern borders of India dominated by Himalayan Mountain Ranges and the Hindu Kush, adjoin the rest of Asian continent.

From these magnificent Mountain Ranges down flow an array of streams feeding the mighty Indus and Gangetic Rivers. These River Systems, as also the range of mountains at the middle of the sub-continent, mark the separation of the Indo-Gangetic plain from the large Deccan (Southern) plateau of the Peninsular India.]

India Map

3.The name

The Sanskrit word Bhāratha is a derivation of bharata. The root of the term is bhr-, “to bear / to carry”, with a literal meaning of “to be maintained”. The root bhr is cognate with the English verb to bear and Latin ferō.

Interestingly, the term Dharma, which is the core concept of Indian values, is derived from the root dhr, meaning – to uphold or to nourish. Both the terms Bharatha and Dharma, eventually signify that which supports universal order or the orderly existence of the individual in life.

The first Article of the Constitution of the Republic of India states, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states.” Thus, India and Bharat are equally official short names for the Republic of India. The name Hindustan was used in historical contexts, especially in British times.

Bharatha Varsha was not always called by that name. Its earlier name was Aja_nabha_Varsha. Before that, it was Himavath Pradesha. Why did it become Bharatha Varsha? Who was this Bharatha?

To know that, we have to go back to Swayambhu Manu, the progenitor. His son was Priyavarta, a great monarch. His son was Agni_dhara. His son was Ajanabha also called Nabhi. Ajanabha was a very virtuous and a noble king. During his reign, the land came to be known as Ajanabha_Varsha. Ajanabha’s son was the great Rsabhadeva. . He was a saintly king. Rsabha renounced the kingdom in favor of his son Bharata and became an ascetic. Bharatha was one of the most pious and noblest of Monarchs of his line. He nourished and nurtured his subjects righteously. During his time, the land that was until then called Aja_nabha_Varsha came to be known, as Bharatha Varsha – ततश्च भारतं वर्षमेतल्लोकेषुगीयते. It has been so since then. Ajanabha (Nabhi), Rsabha and Bharatha figure prominently in the Jain tradition.

What we call Bhatatha Varsha or Bharatha is named after a very virtuous and noble king Bharatha. The best we (who are born and who reside in his land) can do is to be worthy of his name.

Obviously, in the olden days being born in Bharath was a matter of pride. In the Gita, Krishna often refers to Arjuna as Bharatha, the noble one.(For more on the name of India please visit

: https://sreenivasaraos.com/2012/09/01/sindhu-hindu-india/

***
Over the centuries the name of Bharatha Varsha, its shape and its extent have changed many times. Whatever is its present name, either borrowed or assigned; whatever the extent of its boundaries is; the concept of India that is Bharath has survived as a many dimensional splendor; even amidst the encircling chaos. It has always been a nation. India has held on to its pluralism, its democratic way of life and its basic values; despite strife, contradictions and endless diversities. This is no mean achievement. It is for these reasons we call it, the Miracle that is India.

Bharatavarsha

**
C.Bharathas

1.Location

Rig Veda mentions the tribe of Bharathas several times.

The Rig Veda has a certain geographical horizon. It projects a land of seven great rivers bounded by several oceans and many mountains. It mainly shows the geographical sphere of the Bharatas and their neighbors. Accordingly, Rig Veda mentions that Bharathas ruled the land that spread over the banks of the rivers Parushni ( Ravi ) and Vipasa ( Beas ).

The Purus and in particular the Bharatas among them, are the main Vedic Aryans of the Rig Veda.

2. Battle of Ten Kings (dāśarājñá)

The seventh Mandala of Rig-Veda treats “The Battle of Ten Kings”, fought between the Puru clan and the Turvasha/Drihyu/Anu clans, rather elaborately. There is a view that it was a battle between Aryans and non-Aryans. I however, do not, subscribe to that view. All of those kings involved in the battle –Puru, Turvasha, Druhyu and Anu were the sons of Yayathi who in turn was the son of Nahusha. It was a intra clan fighting.

3.Bharatha son of Dushyanta

Bharathas were a clan among the Purus. The Purus prospered in the North and strengthened the Chandra vamsha (Moon Dynasty). Many generations later into this, clan was born Bharatha son of Dushyanta. The great poet Kalidasa in his epic Abhignana Shakuntalam immortalized the love of Dushyanta and Shakuntala.

Bharatha son of Dushyanta is NOT the Emperor Bharatha whom we discussed earlier and after whom Bharatha _Varsha is named. As per the chronology listed in Vishnu Purana, Bharatha son of Dushyanta appears thousands of years after Emperor Bharatha son of Rshabha. Pandavas and Kauravas are decedents of Dushyanta/Bharatha but are several generations removed from them.

Thus, the Bharatha Tribe of dāśarājñá is far removed from Emperor Bharatha son of Rshabha.

****

PLEASE DO NOT FAIL TO READ ABOUT HINDU _HINDUTVA

*****

Please read On Arya , Aryan , Sarasvathi and other issues that complement the above post.

Jambu-dweep of Love

Sources:

http://www.gita-society.com/?html=hindu_puran10&vs=04

http://www.svabhinava.org/HinduCivilization/DileepKaranth/UnityofIndia-frame.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_India

15 Comments

Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 1, 2012 in General Interest, History, Rigveda

Tags: Arya, Aryan, Bharatha, Bharathas, India

Should there be morality in International Affairs?

01 Sep

Should there be morality in International Affairs?

One of the valuable lessons we can learn from Confucius is that the study of politics, including international politics, must involve morality as well as power. Politics is not just about acquiring and holding on to power; it is how we use power, and to what ends, we use power, and what example we set for others.

Sometimes it looks as if there is no morality in today’s international affairs. There is hardly any debate on the issue in the media. Perhaps this is because the subject embarrasses us. When some states try to discuss morality in foreign policy, they usually do so indirectly and with some awkwardness.

Confucius teaches us, morality is a serious subject that should be studied intensively. In this respect, Confucius was both an idealist and a realist. He combined the two schools we tend to separate.

Today power and politics appear to have come together in a wrong manner; it is now “power politics”.

A former diplomat once remarked, “Power and morality are two good things. Mixing them will spoil both”.

This leads to another question. Are there different standards of morality set for the individuals and the State?

There is a view that even when the concerns or interests of the individual and the State are same, each tends to view the events surrounding them differently. They may even be divergent. I am not sure how valid this line of thinking is; yet look at it for arguments sake. To keep it short, let us look at few areas of concern.

:- At micro (family/individual) level, it is good to be cautious; to not over spend but to put away a good portion of ones income in savings.

The State on the other hand would be interested in larger volume of public spending. Because a higher volume of spending accelerates the wheels of production which leads to creation of more jobs which in turn generates another spiral of spending which again leads to more production and more jobs ; and so on. It is necessary to be charge and recharge the economy to keep it chugging on. This is particularly true in case of an open economy where the State intervention is minimal. You may perhaps recall, in the aftermath of 9/11 when the US economy froze a bit, the US President called upon his people to go out and spend more.

:- It is not good for an individual to appear aggressive and threatening, all the while, to his neighbors. It is not a welcome sign.

The state on the other hand strains to look aggressive and menacing to keep at bay even a harmless intruder or its neighbors let alone its enemies. It is a legitimate “make up” of the State too.

:- For a State, an individual is dispensable; whereas for a family each one of its member is indispensable.

:- It is wrong for an individual to kill another (even an intruder). He would be hauled up by the Law and punished. The reason for this, perhaps, is that the Society’s foremost concern is its self-preservation. If it allows its constituents to kill each other freely there would no society left in the end.

The State on the other hand prides it self over its ability to throw out or kill the intruders. The men who do this job and sacrifice them selves while doing so are the heroes of the State and its people, very rightly so.

The State even expends enormous amounts of money and other resources to gain the ability to kill as many as possible in a single assault . And, such killing efficiency is said to mark the strength of a Nation.

One concern that is of primary interest; and, is common to the individual and to the State , is Self-preservation and Self-perpetuation. These interests often override the concerns about morality; this is particularly true in the case of the State.

Was the diplomat wrong when he quipped, “Power and morality are two good things. Mixing them would spoil both”?

I do not know.

What do you think of these?

Leave a comment

Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 1, 2012 in General Interest

Tags: morality and international politics

Sindhu- Hindu- India

01 Sep

Sindhu-Hindu-India

In paragraph, two of my post “Greece and India before Alexander” I mentioned about the origin of the word India. Please click here.

2. Persia, in the ancient times, was the vital link between India and the Greeks of Asia Minor. In the Avesta of Zoroaster, what we today call as India is named as Hapta Hendu, the Avesthan for the Vedic Sapta Sindhavah – the Land of Seven Rivers, that is, the five rivers of the Punjab along with the Sarasvati ( a river which has since disappeared) and the Indus. The word “Sindhu” not only referred to the river system but to the adjoining areas as well.

The name of Sindhu reached the Greeks in its Persian form Hindu (because of the Persian etymology wherein every initial s is represented by h).The Persian term Hindu became the Greek Indos/(plural indoi) since the Greeks could not pronounce “h” and had no proper “u”. The Indos in due course acquired its Latin form – India . . Had the Sanskrit word Sindhu reached the Greeks directly, they might perhaps have pronounced it as Sindus or Sindia .

With reference to the above, I received a message, from someone who read the post, saying that the word is a corruption of a corruption and India owes much to outsiders.

I have thought about the remark and this is what I have to say.

It is a fact that the word ” India ” is of foreign origin but this does not mean ,the very idea of an Indian nation is a contribution by outsiders.

There are many countries, as I know, bearing names of foreign origin. This is because of historical reasons. This does not in any way take away the identity of those nations or the nationalities of their people. These nations continue to bear the names given to them, with pride, and function as the honoured members of the International community. Let me cite a few examples.

France: The French are descendants of the ancient Gaulish people, who spoke languages that belonged to the Celtic family. The Gauls were conquered by Rome; and when Rome itself was taken over by Germanic people, the Gaul came under the influence of the Germanic Franks. The Franks gave their name to the country and called it France. Now, France has a language that had its origin in Latin and the people of France, largely, are of Celtic race. However, no one can sanely argue that French nation owes its existence to Germany.
Germany: The word Germany is of Latin origin and the Germans call their nation “Deutschland”. Hardly any non-Germans use this name. Germany is also known as Allemagne (after the name of a Germanic tribe). The Arabs and Iranians use this word.
Great Britain: Bulk of the British population speaks English, a Germanic language. However, the name “Britannia” celebrated in songs and legend by English poets is a Celtic name.
Basques: The French popularized the term ‘Basque’, but the Basques call themselves Euskera.
Similarly, America is named after an Italian. Spain takes its name from a Carthaginian word for “rabbit”.
I think Finland and a few East European countries like Armenia , Georgia also have their names derived from languages foreign to them. (I am not very certain about the exact details in these cases).

There may be number of other countries, that I may not be aware of, bearing names that either were derived from a foreign language or were given to them by outsiders.

The substance of my argument is, a nation’s identity does not depend merely on the name by which it is called. What matters is whether that single term can adequately capture its ‘identity’. The term itself can be native or foreign.

Similarly, in the case of India too the terms ‘India/Hindu/Indus’ may not be of Indian origin. That alone does not mean, India has no culture of its own or the notion of India does not exist or that India owes its existence to outsiders etc.

No matter how the name India originated, India is a well-defined nation having a history, culture and identity of its own, like any other nation in the International community.

*****

After posting the blog I came across a wonderful web site that says most countries of the world have different names in different languages and that some countries have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons.

This web page gives all known alternative names for all nations, countries and sovereign states. Try this link .It is really good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_names_in_various_languages

*****

Persia, in the ancient times, was the vital link between India and the Greeks of Asia Minor . In the Avesta of Zoroaster, what we today call as India is named as Hapta Hendu, the Avesthan for the Vedic Sapta Sindhavah – the Land of Seven Rivers, that is, the five rivers of the Punjab along with the Sarasvati ( a river which has since disappeared) and the Indus. The word “Sindhu” not only referred to the river system but to the adjoining areas as well.

The name of Sindhu reached the Greeks in its Persian form Hindu (because of the Persian etymology wherein every initial s is represented by h).The Persian termHindu became the Greek Indos/ (plural indoi) since the Greeks could not pronounce “h” and had no proper “u”. The Indos in due course acquired its Latin form – India . . Had the Sanskrit word Sindhu reached the Greeks directly, they might perhaps have pronounced it as Sindus or Sindia.

This view is supported by the observations made by the Supreme Court of India .

The Supreme Court of India while dealing with the case “Bramchari Sidheswar Shai and others Versus State of West Bengal” in the matter of the Ramakrishna Mission’s petition to be declared a non-Hindu, minority religion under the Indian constitution, discussed the term Hindu and also identified Seven Defining Characteristics of Hinduism. The petition was denied. The court determined that the RK Mission is Hindu and there is no religion of “Ramakrishnaism” as claimed by them.

(For full text of the ruling please see http://www.hinduismtoday.com/in-depth_issues/RKMission.html )

Hindu

Generally, one is understood to be a Hindu by being born into a Hindu family and practicing the faith, or by declaring oneself a Hindu.

There is also a judicial definition of Hinduism.

The following are the observations of the Supreme Court of India while dealing with the term Hindu:

(27). Who are Hindus and what are the broad features of Hindu religion, that must be the first part of our inquiry in dealing with the present controversy between the parties. The historical and etymological genesis of `the word `Hindu’ has given rise to a controversy amongst indo-logists; but the view generally accepted by scholars appears to be that the word “Hindu” is derived form the river Sindhu otherwise known as Indus which flows from the Punjab. `That part of the great Aryan race”, says Monier Williams, which immigrated from Central Asia , through the mountain passes into India , settled first in the districts near the river Sindhu (now called theIndus ). The Persian pronounced this word Hindu and named their Aryan brother Hindus. The Greeks, who probably gained their first ideas of India Persians, dropped the hard aspirate, and called the Hindus `Indoi’.

(28). The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VI, has described `Hinduism’ as the title applied to that form of religion which prevails among the vast majority of the present population of the Indian Empire (p.686). As Dr. Radhakrishan has observed: `The Hindu civilization is so called, since it original founders or earliest followers occupied the territory drained by the Sindhu (the Indus ) river system corresponding to the North-West Frontier Province and the Punjab . This is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures which give their name to this period of the Indian history. The people on the Indian side of the Sindhu were called Hindu by the Persian and the later western invaders [The Hindu View of Life by Dr. Radhakrishnan, p.12]. That is the genesis of the word `Hindu’.

Hinduism

The Supreme Court of India discussed in detail the nature of Hinduism, citing several references and authorities. While laying down the characteristics of Hinduism, This is what the Hon. Court observed:

Features of Hindu religion recognized by this Court in Shastri Yaganapurushdasji (supra) as coming within its broad sweep are these:

(i) Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence as the highest authority in religious and philosophic matters and acceptance with reverence of Vedas by Hindu thinkers and philosophers as the sole foundation of Hindu philosophy.

(ii) Spirit of tolerance and willingness to understand and appreciate the opponent’s point of view based on the realization that truth was many-sided.

(iii) Acceptance of great world rhythm, vast period of creation, maintenance and dissolution follow each other in endless succession, by all six systems of Hindu philosophy.

(iv) Acceptance by all systems of Hindu philosophy the belief in rebirth and pre-existence.

(v) Recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are many.

(vi) Realization of the truth that Gods to be worshipped may be large, yet there being Hindus who do not believe in the worshipping of idols.

(vii) Unlike other religions or religious creeds Hindu religion not being tied-down to any definite set of philosophic concepts, as such.

**************

Hinduism is a way of life.Some consider Sanatana Dharma (The Eternal Way) to be a better nomenclature as it represents those spiritual principles that are eternally true; in this sense it represents the science of consciouness. Hinduism is unique among religions in neither being polytheistic or monotheistic, but one with a universal vision.Dr. Radhakrishnan calls Hinduism a movement not a position; a process not a result; a growing tradition not a fixed relevation . There is therefore always a possibility of further development.The indian way is a process of balanced growth.It is a balance between tradition and change.

This does not mean that Hinduism has neither form nor certainty. Far from that; it is a vibrent, dynamic , living faith which has an ethos of its own.

Hinduism is neither fanatical nor undefined , as J commented.

I agree with V V Raman that those who “contrive spurious history to add even greater glory to their past” be they Western or Indian deserve to be condemned.

*****

As regards ITS, the book has served a purpose. It has given a wake up call.

It is an important step but only the first step.

They have left it to the enterprise of individuals, families and social groups to devise appropriate methods to preserve and propagate true versions of our history, culture and religion. We therefore have a task on our hands. The least we can do is to have wider public debate in all the forms of media, social groups and academia. If there is no wider debate on the major concerns of the book then its aspiration remains largely unfulfilled.

There is a mistaken belief that anyone who speaks of Hinduism is a fundamentalist. The apathy of the “secular minded” to join the debate is on the belief that it relates to religion. But the fact is the debate aroused by ITS touches the more fundamental aspects of our being such as our identity, valuing our culture and its preservation and above all, it about self esteem. Discussions and arguments are critically important to carry forward the agenda of the ITS.

I find no mention, reference let alone debate about the book in the print or electronic media in India .The reach of its appeal is presently limited to a few blog sites; and within those sites confined to a couple of small groups. Even here, I cannot help feeling that the discussions have been rather patchy. They are highly repetitive, highlighting often repeated quotes from the book. Hardly any thought was expressed about what we need to do next? How do we carry forward the agenda? In addition, we have the points made out by Mr. Raman. The discussions did not also take into account the “Purva Paksha”.

The writings by some westerns cited in ITS is a symptom. The malady goes much deeper and has its roots in India ; in its schools, textbooks, Research organizations, Universities and in the “safe” set of historians patronized by the Govt.

It therefore takes a much greater effort and dedication to effectively deal with the issue in a holistic fashion and to find credible answers to questions gnawing at the root of our cultural identity,” What do we tell and how we tell our children, who we are?”. A well thought out long term strategy involving various segments of the academia, the Research Organizations, the Government and intellectuals looks inevitable. There are no quick fixes here. We have to have a road map or a vision.

The efforts at home to preserve the culture need to be supplemented supported and nurtured by organized exercises at schools, Universities, Research organizations and social groups. It would be a blessing if the best of our young minds take up and pursue studies in our History and culture. Because it is here our perceptions of History, culture and religion get defined, acquire a broader appeal and get propagated. It is here that myth and “nonsense” as Raman said, gets weeded out .The important break through, if any, should logically appear in the organized sector. The families can protect and nurture the values. But they need a space to grow in the outer world. Else, our young ones will live in a zone of confusing and conflicting identities.

While on the subject of Hinduism in Universities, I wish to reproduce a passage from Mark Tully’s book India’s unending journey, which makes a significant observation on teaching of Hinduism in western universities :”( Hinduism) is not usually taught in the departments of philosophy , but in the departments of religion-which invariably gives the impression that it is indeed irrational- or in the departments concerned with studying India as an area , which gives the impression it is peculiarly Indian and so irrelevant to western thinking…. Indian philosophers haven’t helped to improve matters, as many of them spend their time trying to identify the points at which their philosophy meets western philosophy rather than promoting an understanding on its own terms.”

Such being the case, how do we spur the young bright minds to pursue studies in History and culture?

Addressing these questions, sanely, is not an easy task. The debate is likely to generate more heat than light. We have the “secular “experts who equate everything Indian with Hindu and shoot it down. We have also the exhilarated ones who over adulate everything Hindu and ancient. While the Establishment will predictably be cautious and timid. Can we strike a Golden Mean? How do we project our History in the best light in a balanced manner?

Any further debate on ITS would be purposeful only in case it addresses issues concerning : carrying forward the agenda; re structuring the way Indian History, culture and religion is written , taught and studied at the advanced levels; and how the cultural values are preserved and nurtured in our homes.

In any case, the least we can do is to initiate spread of awareness, broaden the debate and carry it forward in forums like these , in social/informal groups and toenlarge the debate over a broader community.

Please also see the Comments received from Mr. Raman and Mr. de Nicolas

Message received from VV Ramanvvrsps@rit.edu

Dear Dr. Rao:

Thank you for your insightful comments.

Here are some thoughts on some of them.

1. Hindu’s wouldn’t really care to just “follow” some “vision” laid out by the Book team.

Well said. However, having recognized and exposed in detail a problem, it does not hurt to suggest some positive solutions.

Fair enough, that was not the intent of the book. So, now perhaps it is time to discuss these.

Then again, it is important to discuss two quite different, though in some ways interrelated questions:

(a) How do we change the negative perceptions and portrayals (intended or not) of Hinduism in the Western world?

(b) How do we enrich, enhance, and create more positive understandings and more enlightened practices of Hinduism within the Hindu world, both in India and beyond?

2. Absolutely. You may recall what I said in my reflections on the book: “Unfortunately, those who speak for the tradition are sometimes caricatured as mindless fundamentalists wearing trousers instead of saffron robes, and skeptical non-traditionalists are sometimes looked upon as unwitting agents of the colonizers, pathetic victims of Thomas Babington Macaulay, by their respective ideological adversaries. Mutual name-calling only hurts the larger cause.”

3. This is an extremely important point, and needs to be fully analyzed. It is a fact, for the good or for the bad, that Hindu culture – like the Islamic – is still intricately intertwined with religion, as used to be the case in the West also. The decoupling of culture and religion began in the West only in the 18^th century, with some very positive and some very negative consequences.

4. But, the fact is the debate aroused by ITS touches the more fundamental aspects of our being such as our identity, valuing our culture and its preservation and above all, it about self esteem.>

Very good point. But it is important to realize that the whole book is in the context of Hinduism as written about by a handful of Western scholars, which is very relevant and important no doubt. But the book can also serve to provoke greater self-examination among thoughtful Hindus, ignoring Western perceptions of what we may or may not be.

5. Excellent point. Just what I said above.

6. As to Mark Tully’s observation, “( Hinduism) is not usually taught in the departments of philosophy , but in the departments of religion-which invariably gives the impression that it is indeed irrational-…”

Hinduism IS a religion, so there is nothing wrong in this. But it need not give the impression of being Any religion CAN be taught without making it seem irrational.

7. < Such being the case, how do we spur the young bright minds to pursue studies in Indian philosophy, History and culture?>

It seems to me that in the modern world (i.e. if the young are subjected to courses on science and mathematics, history and literature), this can only be done if and when culture, history, and philosophy are secularized, i.e. decoupled from religion. This is not to say that we should neglect or abandon our religion. But religion (as most Hindu sages knew) is an experiential aspect of being fully human. It is not for analytical inquiry and rational dissection. Meditation is different from metaphysics. Reciting the Gita is different from analyzing it. Engrossed in divine music (bhajans) is different from taking the puranas literally.

Unless we study the Vedas as poetry, the Upanishads as philosophy, and grand epics as literature, we cannot make them relevant, meaningful, and enriching to modern minds.

This is the challenge.

V. V. Raman

July 21, 2007

From

DIOTIMA245@aol.com

Great remark.at the end of your comment. It is a shame philosophy
departments do not hold Hindu texts…I was one of the few able and
willing to teach in the Philosophy Department at Stony Brook and my
many books are philosophical. Very different from what is offered in
Religious studies. Prof, Raman, bring the discourse through
philosophical search.
Best.
Antonio de Nicolas

July 20, 2007

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your response .As you mentioned, tagging or assigning a name to this religion or the way of life is an elusive exercise. The name Hinduism coined as an operative term points at a much larger entity but does not exactly stand for it. The earlier names “Brahmanism” or “Vedic religion” might have served a similar purpose. Megastenese though mentions Brahmins and Sramanas does not mention the name of any religion.

I sometimes wonder whether even in the distant past it ever had a specific name or did it needed one, perhaps because of the absence of a rival .It is also plausible that “Vedic religion” was a branch of a “ mother religion” , if there was one.

Buddha does not name, refer to or attack the religion of the day though he criticizes the Brahmanic attitude, the rituals and discourages ungainly speculations.

He sometimes refers to his disciples by their sect as Brahmins or Kshatrias. He addresses some of them by their Gotra like Vaccha (Vatsa), Kaashyapa, and Maudgalya etc. Some of the disciples address the Buddha by his Gotra-Gautama.

Buddhism did not start as a religion. The Buddha intended to offer true interpretations of the Dharma. (That perhaps was how the religion of the day was named.) It started as a free-thinkers- moment that attracted the seekers and the lay intellectuals, in much the same way as the Ramakrishna moment did at a much later time. During the Buddha’s time it was not a religion yet; the rituals related to births, deaths and weddings were presided over by the Brahmin priests. The Buddhist rituals and practices (vinaya) were collated from the teachings and the incidents in the Buddha’s life at a much later time, after his death.

What set apart the Buddhism and other school of thought (like Charukavas et al) from the main stream of the day was their stand on the relevance and on the authority of the Vedas.

It was this factor, again, that largely guided the Supreme Court of India in listing some criteria for Hinduism while handing down the ruling in Brahmachari Siddheshwar Shai v. State of West Bengal case, which I reffered to in my earlier mail.While drawing up the criteria for indetifyong Hinduism the Court relied heavily on the views of Swami Vivekananda and Dr. Radhakrishnan that stressed tolerance, universality and a search for a fundamental unity as the virtues of Hinduism. It also reliedon B.G. Tilak’s view: “Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means to salvation are diverse; and realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion.”Even in the earlier case (Yagnapurushdasji)the “acceptance of the Vedas” was a key element in the court’s decision.

Incidentally the Seventh in the list pf criteria leaves me a little perplexed. It reads ”Unlike other religions or religious creeds Hindu religion not being tied-down to any definite set of philosophic concepts, as such”. This in a way sums up the position but at the same time appears to knock down the earlier six criteria.

Perhaps it is because of this view ( of not being tied down to any definite set of concepts) that many say “The term ‘ism’ refers to an ideology that is to be propagated and by any method imposed on others for e.g. Marxism, socialism, communism, imperialism and capitalism but the Hindus have no such ‘ism’. Hindus follow the continuum process of evolution; for the Hindus do not have any unidirectional ideology, therefore, in Hindu Dharma there is no place for any ‘ism’”

In any case Hinduism is now a nomenclature for the religious tradition of Indiaand the suffix is hardly noticed. Not many have qualms in accepting “Hinduism”.

The criteria drawn up in the Brahmachari Siddheshwar Shai v. State of West Bengalcase is a working rule evolved for a limited purpose. It cannot be construed as thedefinetion of Hinduism . Because Hinduism is described on variious occations depending on the context.Each time a “ context- sensitive” interpretation has been put forth. For instance:

In the Indian Constitution, Explanation II appended to Article 25 says that the “reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jain or Buddhist religion”

The Hindu Code Bill (which comprises four different Acts), too, takes an undifferentiated view of Hinduism: it includes anyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew under ‘Hindu’ as a legal category.

Any reform movements, including Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, were seen as merely different sects within Hinduism.

There are legal pronouncements that Hindus are Indian citizens belonging to a religion born in India. This means Buddhists, Sikhs or Parsis, even those who did not recognize themselves as Hindus, are to be considered Hindus.

The Supreme Court of Indiadealt with the meaning of the word ‘Hindutva’ or ‘Hinduism’ when used in election propaganda. The court came to the conclusion that the words ‘Hinduism’ or ‘Hindutva’ are not necessarily to be understood and construed narrowly, confined only to the strict Hindu religious practices unrelated to the culture and ethos of the People of India depicting the way of life of the Indian people. Unless the context of a speech indicates a contrary meaning or use, in the abstract, these terms are indicative more of a way of life of the Indian people. Unless the context of a speech indicates a contrary meaning or use, in the abstract, these terms are indicative more of a way of life of the Indian people and are not confined merely to describe persons practicing the Hindu religion as a faith. This clearly means that, by itself, the word ‘Hinduism’ or ‘Hindutva’ indicates the culture of the people of Indiaas a whole, irrespective of whether they are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Jews etc.”

Here, the term somehow traveled a full circle and came back to Radhakrishnan’s view” ‘Hindu’ had originally a territorial and not creedal significance. It implies residence in a well-defined geographical area.”

All definitions so far have been “context -sensitive” (Ramanujan).

Coming back to the Buddha and Sri Ramakrishna, before I end, there is a remarkable similarity between the two greatest of men. Both spoke from experience. Both placed ones experience above scriptural authority and other modes of cognition. Both had a remarkably sane and expansive view of the religious experience. Both interpreted the existing Dharma in its true light and both did not intend to start a new religion or an Order. In both cases the disciples came to them in search of enlightenment and it was at their initiative the Sangha or the Missioncame into being. The life and teachings of both were recorded and propagated by their disciples in a remarkably similar manner. Neither master authored a book or a treatise.

The reason Buddhism gained a wider reach and appeal was because of the Royal patronage it received in its formative years and the manner it spread among the populace. The disciples of Sri Ramakrishna largely came from the urban educated middle class. Their Missions were located in cities and the Master’s message was conveyed mainly through books addressed to the educated. The Ramakrishna Mission somehow came to be associated with the elite, at least out side of Bengal, though Sri Ramakrishna was a simple, lovable person accessible to all and came from a rural background. It took a while for the Sri Ramakrishna to become known in the rural parts out side Bengal.

Buddha directed his disciples to teach “for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world,” and this his disciples did. Early Buddhist evangelism usually consisted of a pair of monks entering a village, going from house to house with their begging bowls until they had enough for the one meal they ate for the day. The monks would then return to the outskirts of the town, where they would often be followed by those who had been impressed by their demeanor and wished to talk with them. The monks would share what they knew, then move on to the next village. Most of the monks hailed from far flung rural areas. The rapid growth of Buddhism probably had much to do with the way the monks closely lived with the people and tended to their spiritual needs.

It is a privilege conversing with you.

Thank you for the response

Regards

3 Comments

Posted by sreenivasaraos on September 1, 2012 in General Interest, Hindu-Hindutva, History

Tags: Hindu, India, Sindhu

THE MIRACLE THAT IS INDIA

31 Aug

The cultural diversity of the Indian subcontinent

The diversity in the Indian cultural scene is not merely in its ethnic or racial composition. It is spread to every walk of life. Starting with geographical features and climatic conditions there are vast regional and intra regional differences. It is often said our strength lies in harnessing these diversities. Let us dwell on that.

1. Prof. Arnold Toynbee defines civilization as a pattern of interactions between challenges and responses. The challenges may come from different directions; say from environment or from social and cultural stresses. To these, the people living in a land mass over a great period of time develop their responses to ensure individual and collective survival. What is important in such situations is, the responses should always be individually satisfying and socially relevant. The web and warp of these responses and corrections, over a period, weave the cultural pattern of a society. The story of the Indian subcontinent is no different.

2. Bharatha Varsha

2.1. Indians in their daily prayers still refer to themselves as those belonging to the land -mass of Jambu-Dwipa (Sanskrit) a geographical area comprising the present day India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria and Corinth. Within this vast stretch of land, Indians identify themselves as those residing in Bharatha Varsha. They call it a country situated to the north of the ocean and to the south of the Himadri, the snowy mountains, and where the descendants of Bharata (a distant ancestor of Rama) dwell.

2.2..Rig Veda mentions Bharathas ruled the land that spread over the banks of the rivers Parushni (Ravi) and Vipasa (Beas) .Kautilya (c. 350-283 BC), the renowned author of the Artha shastra, names Bharatha Varsha as the land that stretched from Himalaya to Kanyakumari ; he also called it Chakravarthi –Kshetra ( the land of the Emperor).

Kanyakumari 2

An epigraph of Kharavela (209 – 179 B. C?) who ruled over the region of the present day Orissa, found in Hathigumpha (near Bhubaneshwar in Orissa) uses the nomenclature of Bharatha Varsha. There are, of course, innumerable references to Bharatha Varsha in various Puranas.

3. Composite Culture

3.1. Rig Veda often regarded as the source, if not the beginning, of Indian culture repeatedly refers to the composite character of its society and to its pluralistic population. The other ancient records also state that even from the early years of its history Bharatha Varsha, the Indian land mass, has been multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-lingual. For instance , its society included , among others , Bhalikas ( the Balks) ,Kiratas( hill tribes), Bhotas ( Tibetans), Hunas (from Jungara),Sakas(Scythians),Parasikas ( from Persia), Airakas( from Iraq),Yavanas (from Iona), Maidas ( from Media) and Kambhojas ( from North western region ).

This composite culture was the result of continuous influx of people from other regions and a dynamic interaction with them.

Indo Greek Kingdom

4. The influx

4.1. The influx of foreigners continued down the ages. About 500 years B.C.E the Greeks, the Sakas (Scythians) came to India. The Persians have of course been a part of the Indo-Aryan heritage even from the times of the Rig Veda. In the early centuries before the present era, the Kushans from Central Asia entered through the North-West. In the first Century A.D., the Spanish Jews as also St.Thomas, the Apostle, reached the Malabar Coast in South of India. This process continued with the arrival of Huns in the fifth century, Arabs in the eighth century, and with the Mughals who invaded and settled in 15th century. Around the same period, Portuguese landed on the coast of their home. On the other side of the sub continent, the Mongoloid Shans entered Assam while Mongolians inhabited the upper tracts of the North. Thereafter the western traders such as the Dutch, the French and the British vied with each other to get a foothold in India. Eventually the British prevailed not only over its rivals but also over the native Indian rulers. The British Empire lasted in India for nearly a century thereafter. The continuous influx of foreigners over a long period rendered Indian scene complex and colorful.

5. Assimilation and Amalgamation

5.1. The much-hailed composite culture did not come easily. It demanded its price. The several foreign invasions and aggressions caused large-scale cultural stress. Indigenous populations were exposed to cultural and social influences that were altogether alien to them. They had to under go untold hardship and misery. There were long periods of political subjugation, economic exploitation and religious suppression and there was general degeneration in the quality of man and his life. The ordinary man in India was no longer at peace with himself, his age-old style of life was shaken rudely and his view of his fellow beings and life was confused .The process of assimilation and amalgamation spread over a long period is still going on. It is an on –going dynamic process.

5.2. A number of Scholars and various Commissions have studied the racial and social amalgamation in India.

Meghasthenes (350 B.C.E to 290 B.C.E) a Greek traveler and Geographer, in his book Indika wrote “It is said that ,India being of enormous size when taken as a whole, is peopled by races both numerous and diverse, of which not even one was originally of foreign descent, but all were evidently indigenous”. He gives a detailed classification of the ethnic groups in of his time. The racial groups described are too numerous to be mentioned here. Please check the following link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_groups_in_India_(historical_definitions)#Risley.27s_Racial_Classification_of_India

5.3. Among the other studies on the subject, in the recent past, the report of the British anthropologist Sir Herbert Hope Risley, the Census Commissioner for India in 1901, is fairly well known.

Let me add a word of caution here; Risley’s theories and classifications are now only of historical interest. The Government of India and the National Census of independent India do not recognize any racial groups in India. The erstwhile group names are generally considered as linguistic terms, rather than ethnic terms.

[The leading exponent of “race science” in India was H. H. Risley (1851–1911), a British ethnologist who served in India in the Indian Civil Service from 1873 to 1910. Risley was the census commissioner in 1901, and after his retirement in 1910, he was elected president o f the (British) Royal Anthropological Institute.

Following the anthropo-metric techniques of the French anthropologist Paul Topinard, Risley used a “nasal index” (a ratio of the width of a nose to its height) to divide Indians into two races—a dark-skinned Dravidian race and a fair-skinned Indo-Aryan race.

Using this nose science, he proved (to his own satisfaction and that of con-temporaries) the existence of a seven-caste racial hierarchy in India, with Dravidians at the “primitive” bottom and Indo-Aryans at the “civilized ” top.

“The social position of a caste,” he once said, “varies inversely as its nasal-index” (Trautmann). Race, not occupation, he concluded, was the true basis of the Indian caste system. For late 19th-century “race-scientists” such as Risley, this type of physiological measurements served to conﬁrm the distinct racial essences they believed existed within the Indian population (and more generally in the larger world)

H. Risley drew his ideas on nose measurements from the work of a contemporary, 19th-century French scholar Paul Topinard. Writing in his 1885 Elements of General Anthropology (Élémentsd’anthropologie générale), Topinard developed a “nasal index” (a ratio of the breadth of the nose to its height) that enabled him to classify noses (and their owners) into a series of nose types.

Risely nose Index

Narrow noses, said Topinard, characterized the Europeans (types 1 through 5); medium noses characterized the “yellow races” (type 6); and broad noses belonged either to Africans (type 7) or to Melanesians and native Australians (type 8).

(Paul Topinard,Éléments d’anthropologie générale, 1885)]

Risley’s account of racial characteristics of Indian population provides an interesting aspect of the composite nature of the Indian populace.

Turko-Iranian (the frontier provinces)

Indo-Aryan (punjab, Kashmir, Rajasthan)

Scytho-Dravidian (Madhya Pradesh, Saurastra)

Aryo-Dravidian (U.P, Rajasthan,Bihar)

Mangolo_Dravidian (Bengal,Orissa)

Mongoloid (Nepal,Assam,Himachal Region)

Dravidian (South India, M.P, Chota Nagpur)

Negrita (Kadars and Mala-pantarans of Kerala)
Proto-Austalaid (tribes)

6. Cultural Diversity

6.1. The reasons for cultural diversity may lie in the combination and interdependence of geographical, economic and ethnic factors. Toynbee’s thesis of the “challenge of environment” mentioned earlier, might explain to some extent why and how unique cultures developed in certain regions. This may even pertain to a region such as the Indian subcontinent.

6.2. The diversity in the Indian cultural is not merely in its ethnic or racial composition. It is in every walk of its life. Starting with the geographical features, climatic conditions, and the vast regional and intra regional differences one can go on to religion , customs ,attitudes, practices, language , food habits, dress , art , music , theatre and notice that no two regions are alike in these matters. Each group, each sub group has its own set of identities. Then, what is it that holds India together ?.

When the Indian nation was formed not many Western observers and academicians thought it would survive long because the land mass encompassed too many variables. The newborn nation tried to rope in a variety of people who spoke different languages, .who followed many faiths, who were culturally and racially divergent; and to bind them into a nation looked unnatural.

For instance Aldous Huxley, the famous thinker, wrote in 1961, “When Nehru goes, the government will become a military dictatorship—as in so many of the newly independent states, for the army seems to be the only highly organized centre of power”.

In the year 1967, The London Times wrote, “The great experiment of developing within a democratic framework has failed. (Indians will soon vote) in the fourth—and surely last—general election”.

These fears have, of course, been belied.

6.3 Mr. Ramachandra Guha, a scholar of modern day India, in his brilliant essay “The miracle that is India ” discusses the complexity of the Indian situation and comes up with his views on why India as a nation survives amidst apparent contradictions. I try to sum up his views briefly.

-The pluralism of religion was one cornerstone of the foundation of the Indian republic. A second was the pluralism of language. Linguistic pluralism has worked. Instead of dividing, as elsewhere in the world, it tamed and domesticated secessionist tendencies.

– It has sustained a diversity of religions and languages. It has resisted the pressures to go in the other direction, to follow by favoring citizens who follow a certain faith or speak a particular language.

– That unity and pluralism are inseparable in is graphically expressed in the country’s currency notes.Denominations on the Indian currency note are given not just in Hindi and in English but in all Indian languages

– The economic integration of is a consequence of its political integration. They act in a mutually reinforcing loop. The greater the movement of goods and capital and people across India, the greater the sense that this is, after all, one country

– As a modern nation, India is simply sui generis. It stands on its own, different and distinct from the alternative political models on offer—be these Anglo-Saxon liberalism, French republicanism, atheistic Communism, or Islamic theocracy

– One might think of independent India as being Europe’s past as well as its future. It is ‘Europe’s past, in that it has reproduced, albeit more fiercely and intensely, the conflicts of a modernizing, industrializing and urbanizing society. But it is also its future, in that it anticipated, by some 50 years, the European attempt to create a multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-ethnic, political and economic community

– The future of as a nation-state lies not in the hands of God but in the mundane works of its men women. So long as the Constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as citizens can speak and write in the language of their choosing, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army, and—lest I forget—so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive

6.4. M. C. Chagla, a legal luminary and a statesman, said there is an Indian- ness and an Indian ethos, brought about by the communion and intercourse between the many races and many communities that have lived in this land for centuries. He said, there is an Indian tradition, which overrides all the minor differences that may superficially seem to contradict the unity. This, according to him, is what holds India together.

7. Unity in Diversity

Heinz Werner Wessler says India ’s traditional multi-cultural society that came into being in the pre-modern context, is probably the most important resource for a political and cultural vision of “Unity and Diversity”. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Independent India’s first Prime Minister, often said India’s strength is “the unity in diversity”. While a majority accepts this motto, some lay stress on its inevitability. Because, they remark, the motto may imply to mean that while we recognizes the actually existing diversity we also appreciate the need for unity. Hence, they say, unity and diversity are not contradictory but complementary. At the same time, the modern state in principle always approves of diversity and looks for ways to enable minorities to identify themselves with the state as much as possible. This is a complex situation.

8. Concept of a Nation

8.1. Nations are, in the words of Ernest Renan, ultimately a consensus among people who wish to be included in a nation. Over the centuries, the notion of an nation has exerted a powerful influence on the peoples who make up India. However, it was not easy to turn it in to a reality because of several constraints. India was not a homogeneous country, by any classification. In addition, the boundaries of India changed very often. It was difficult to sustain the image of a nation since the four famous criteria of the State viz. land; people, government, and sovereignty were not always present. An amorphous feeling of belonging may bring together people of different culture, language, and even religion. However, that alone will not transform them into a nation. There has to be a political awareness of belonging to a single entity. That solidarity and commitment to the concept and reality of nation is essential. In India, the essentials for a nation did not materialize until recently.

8.2. Whatever may be the debate about political unity and cultural diversity in India, the fact is the diverse peoples of India have developed a peculiar type of culture far different from any other type in the world and have learned to live together as one people. This unity transcends the countless diversity of blood, color, language, dress, manners, sect et al.

Bharath Mata.2 jpg

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Posted by sreenivasaraos on August 31, 2012 in General Interest, History

Tags: India, Indian History, Indian society, Paul Topinard, Risley, Risley nose Index

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