To hell with the GDP; People care must be top priority in Governance

Some years back I had read an article in India Today magazine by Vedantha CEO, Anil Agarwal, arguing for mining bauxite in Niyamagiri hills in Orissa. Now it is quashed by determined fight by the tribals of the hills & empowered village panchayats there.

His argument was simple. Give me these hills for mining & I’ll give in return education for the tribal children and drinking water!! Education to those who know how to live in harmony with nature & nurture it for generations? Drinking water to those who have natural mineral water access all through the year? The most appealing thing for India, that he makes is that it generates GDP! And everyone is swayed by the GDP growth of the country. International rating agencies, monetary agencies like IMF, Worldbank push for GDP growth. They give favourable rating in return & encourage MNC s to invest in such a country where the GDP grows. The stock market gets bullish. Speculators reap a lot of money in the market. But will that all remove poverty? Or will it help rich become richer?

So what is this GDP? GDP is Gross Domestic Product & is an index to indicate the richness of the country. It indicates, how much commodity the nation produces in totality.

How it helps the nation? It helps the nation to advertise itself in international market. It helps to sell its national properties. Viz., Minerals, Agricultural produce, Animals, Meat, Labour, etc.,

How it helps people of the nation? It doesn’t help people of the nation. If the nation is rich by the index it doesn’t mean people are rich. It makes few people become over rich at the cost of larger population becoming poorer. Then the Government declares it will distribute the food, water, shelter. Several schemes will be launched to distribute the basic necessities through a very complex networks of government departments & private partnerships to reach thousands of villages and thousands of families. There will be heavy pilferage and it never reaches the intended. The scheme fail, one party loses election; another party comes to power and repeats all over again in another similar popular scheme. 

Government should not be providing food, water & shelter. Instead, it should let people organize to sustainably utilize resources around to provide themselves food, water & shelter. And government should provide security & protection to the people to utilize their resources.

Ronald Raegan, the former US president, very famously said “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives”

But then he didn’t follow what he preached. So are the politicians all across the world TODAY.

Government should protect the people NOT run their lives

This concept of Government running the lives of the people came about during the British regime. Before that the Government (The Raja) was only protecting their lives & not running their lives.

Lets look at a simple example.

My mother says, her grandmother used to say some villages nearby used to be rich in gold in their earth. In fact, the village itself was called Honnammana Halla meaning – Mother Gold Goddess’s den. Even now these names exits like – Honnavalli, Honnammana kere, Bangarpet etc., These are around western Karnataka bordering Andhra along Ballari, Raichur, Chitradurga, Kolara, Tumkuru districts. During pre-british era the villagers in these Gold rich villages used to process the ore available in the soil to filter the gold. The local raja or palegara used to protect their rights to extract and process the gold from the earth. The villagers used to make guilds and set up their own rules and regulations about the usage & extraction of the earth. 

So everyone had the access rights to the resources. They had rules to extract it sustainably and not harm the very nature which gives them this economic independence. It was a cottage industry. Family business in which everyone from the young ones to the old were involved. Not heavy machines, no rapid extraction & processing involved. But large number of families spread across locations thinly & hard working throughout the year. This ensured no over extraction, no over consumption, no water guzzling, no river pollution etc.,

They had full rights to trade with whom they want. Some of the best ornaments, were purchased by the royals. If there is any exploitation by a king of their labour, then there used to be revolt to replace him with a more just ruler.

Then the British came. By their cunning pacts, barbaric wars, they captured entire India and stripped all the royals of any standing army, power & rights over their resources. They dismantled the village guilds, self-governing panchayats etc., They separated Private and Public properties. What is not private is public. All that is public belonged to the government. So the land, forest, hills, rivers, lakes belonged to the Government now. And the locals don’t have a say in it.

The British now looked at maximum output with minimum input. So they auctioned these rich resources to private individuals, companies. They came with heavy machinery to extract max with minimum labour.

The natives protested.

Native: We can extract and sell it to you

British: We need it fast

Native: We can do it with hard work

British: We want to rubble this entire hill range & forest range

Native: You cannot do that. That’s our habitat

British: We shift you and give you water & shelter elsewhere

Native: We lived here for several generations. Our king always protected our rights here

British: Your king is gone. Now we are the king. You take what we give & work here as a daily wager

Thus came the concept of stripping the locals of their rights over their land, water, resources and in return run their lives.

So the Government runs the people’s lives snatching their habitat and livelihood. It is wrong.

Now the present situation continues. The dismantled village self-governance is never recouped. Some central or state Government owns all that is public. So it auctions it to rich or bold individuals, companies. They extract maximum with minimum input. The locals get displaced or have to suffer indignation.

When the locals revolt, the government says, it will provide them food, water & shelter. But no access rights to the forests, rivers around them. They don’t have to do anything. It is called the "Jobless growth". Large populist schemes are launched and given an eye wash to the people.

So the people have lost the art, science & social unity to access, utilize the resources around them. They have become complacent and dependent for basic needs on the Government. Government has to give them job, skill training to work in factories which are also closing down fast as it extracts unsustainably everything.

The Government is generating big GDP. But people are poor & clueless.

The Government says with its power of GDP, it distributes food through food bill passed recently to cover about 60% of India’s population. Lakes are dried up. Rivers are polluted. But Government says it will pump drinking water through pipes over 100s of kilometers to each village! How unsustainable!! Recently they have started the Yettinahole river water lifting project to provide drinking water to the entire Chikkaballapur & Kolar districts. Instead they should encourage the villagers to organize & sustain their own lakes, rivers & streams. It should discourage large nationwide PDS (Public Distribution System) to distribute food grains. Instead it should encourage full freedom to villages to grow and consume locally the basic necessities of food, water & shelter.

In short Government should protect the people’s lives, rights to produce & consume locally. It is the right thing.

Then people in turn will give back the best in organized manner back to the country to build it as a strong nation.  

Medieval and Ancient India had world’s highest GDP

Many of us believe the medieval times of India was mired in poverty, casteism, discrimination, extortion by the Rajas & local Palegars, upper caste brutalizing lower caste, numerous kingdoms always at war with each other etc., While these problems here & there existed, it was not the main feature.

By and large India widely had very high level of organized localized governing at village level. High level of freedom, access rights to their local resources was there. Protection by the Rajas to the local bodies was guaranteed. All castes were organized by their profession. Full freedom of profession they had along with full access to the resources & market. By and large, they performed their profession under no slavery, bonded labour. We don’t evidence any slave trade or indentured labour or any such inhuman things in pre-Isalmic, pre-British India.

Why then our school texts say otherwise? That is because the British weaved this narrow narrative of India thoroughly to demean India, develop a sense of prejudice against the Indian customs among the educated Indians. Even today, our educators are still in that colonial mindset. There is a need to question it and rationally look at the details.

Angus Madison the economist commissioned by the OECD produced a magnum opus research on how the nations, civilizations have progressed in terms of today’s economic index GDP. This is widely accepted by all nations as a thorough reference to economics of the past 2 millenials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_world_product

The graph he produced shows, India was the leader of the world for most part of the 2 millenia, from 1AD till almost 1500AD. Then the decline starts as we lose independence to foreign invaders. So what we have lost in the last 500 years has to be recovered. We ought to do that. We are capable of it. Our strong civilizational roots enable it. It will take time. May be a century more. But each of us have to do our bit towards it.

How was India the leading economic power of the world until 1500AD?

The answer is simple. The nation was free. The nation had organized itself organically from the ground up. From Family to Village to District to Kingdom to the entire Nation. Each unit was self-sustained, independent yet connected & interdependent. There is a necessity to thoroughly study without any prejudice, the sociology, at each level and how well it was organized.

In the example of gold mining above, you can replace those villages with any other resources like – Horticultural products, Forestry products, Any other ore mining, Agricultural produce, Art produce, Silk produce etc., The story remains the same. In the ancient times, the local people organized themselves to produce it all by themselves using local resources. The local authority gave them full protection to their freedom to utilize the resources, produce, market etc.,

So the first priority for the local people was to produce their basic needs of Food, Water & Shelter. Any other exotic stuff they possessed in their region, they processed it and traded the finished products across the world. If a family produces rice for self-consumption, there is no way to include it in GDP. What gets traded out only gets counted in GDP. That means, people in India took care of their basic needs first and then produced things to top the world chart!!

The ancient world trade was dominated by India by both finished products & some of the exotic raw materials. The spices, gems, pearls, etc., were the most exotic raw materials traded. In the finished products, special clothing, jewelry, art, sculpture, artisans, architects went all over the world. Even the philosophy, science, mathematics, travelled across the world through trade routes.

This shows that free India at grass root level had organized itself even at Nation level. This is the reason the invaders recognized this Nation as Hindustan, India etc., - The nation after the Sindhu river. It was not the invaders who united India and built this nation as our text books say. It was an organized nation by its fundamental philosophical, sociological characteristics who ruled the world psychologically.

Now that we are a young nation of 70 years of Independence from foreign rule, the freedom of ruling at village level is yet to be realized. But for that, the grand past has to be rewritten first, then the reason behind the grand past & then how it was made possible. There is an immense need to build self-confidence of the nation by educating them rightly. The current education system, produces Guilty-Indians not Proud-Indians. A self-confident nation with harmonious social set up at grass root level can become the world economic leader again and show the world that highest GDP can be produced if Governance stick to people care & independence as its first priority. 

Siri Gandhada Naadu – The Story of Sandalwood

Sree Gandha or the sandal wood is a very special & unique species of Karnataka. Although it is grown elsewhere in India too, Karnataka takes the richest share of it. The western ghats is conducive home to it. In that also specially in our Shivamogga region, Madikeri and Mysore regions, it is grown naturally in the forests. It is the highest priced wood. So it is highly vulnerable for smuggling. The forest brigands are usually after it. The forest department has special watch on it if it is found anywhere. Every one of such tree is a National treasure; it doesn’t belong to you even if it is in your garden.It belongs to the state. It gives its unique fragrance only after it ages more than 75 years. Till then it is just a tree.

Once it used to be in abundance in our forests are now extremely rare to find. The story of Sandalwood traces the human behavior and the decline of humanity. Lets turn a few pages of our history. 

The Golden Age of India

During the Golden age of India, the Rajahs used to give lot of importance to art and craft. The sandal wood is one of the favorites for the craftsmen to produce some of their finest arts.

The crafts men had free access to the forests where these trees were naturally grown. Gudigars are one such community who carried out this artistry as family profession for hundreds (may be thousands) of years. They sculpted Krishna, Geethopadesha, Dashavatara, Ganesha and all Hindu deities. They produced the crafted idols for the temples, chariots, houses & for the palaces. The Rajah used to support by purchasing the best and costliest product. It used to be a symbol of the richness of the region.

Another important use of sandal wood was of sandal paste. Even today, in the temples and orthodox Brahmin houses, the sandal paste is produced manually by grinding the wood on a small granite slab (saane kallu in Kannada). This is then applied onto the temple deity as Alankara. After it is taken out from the idol, it is applied as Naama or Mudra on our body. It gives a cooling sensation & soothing fragrance through the day.

All ways of utilizing the Sandalwood was manual. Hence it was not getting overly chopped, hoarded or consumed madly. So the forest richness was managed locally by the local communities by forming guilds & some rules of self-governance. There was not much smuggling recorded in the history. 

The British loot

The British famously destroyed the Indian independence by killing its indigenous industries. All our industries were cottage industries and family based. Each family working in a profession had 3 main things:

-          Easy and free access to the raw material

-          Full freedom to produce artistic, family/ community/ region specific unique products

-          Encouraging friendly local markets; Travelling merchants to take the ‘excess produce’ across oceans and continents through their established silk route

The British when they took over governing India, systematically killed all industries by attacking these 3 main points of freedom.

For example, in the case of textile industries -

  

-          They denied access to the finest cotton & Indigo grown here to the local weavers by exporting them

-          They levied heavy taxes on the weavers to make their produce costly & uncompetitive

-          They denied market access by dumping in foreign cheap clothes manufactured in the mechanized factories.

The steel industry was also a cottage industry with each family running kilns producing finest quality steel ingots. Hundreds of villages & thousands of houses in the Chirtradurga, Bellary, Raichur region had family run kilns. Richard Buchanan during his survey in 1800s has recorded the finest quality of Iron & steel produced in this region in large quantity utilized for Swords, spears & other war materials, and also agricultural tools.  This was also systematically destroyed by the British following similar means:

-          They denied access to the forests and hills to the nearby villagers; While they looted mining it indiscriminately

-          They levied heavy taxes on each family kilns making their produce uncompetitive

-          They denied market access by dumping in the foreign steel manufactured in their mechanized factories.

British eyed on the sandal wood along with other richness of the western ghats. They found its unique fragrance very appealing. They put their science of destruction to innovate oil extraction from the sandal wood. The oil thus extracted was used in making scent and was used in the beauty industry.

But for producing a small 100ml bottle of scent almost a full grown tree has to be sacrificed. Thus the massive loot started.

Indian Forest Department

Most of us know Indian forest department is for managing and protecting the Indian forests. But do you know, it started as a department by the British to plunder the Indian forests systematically? The government being the custodian of the nation’s natural resources created this department. Its primary purpose was to extract the forest produce, measure it & transport it.

For that it measured the forest area, marked it out and kept the public out of it. The tribals were driven out. Their uprising was quelled without mercy.

Lets come back to our Sandalwood story. Essentially our craftsmen, families, communities who were wholly dependent on this important forest produce were denied rights. They were denied access to it. So again the 3 principles applied

-          No access to the raw materials

-          Heavy taxation on their produce

-          No Market. The Rajahs were dethroned. Silk route and all trades, trade routes were cut off; locals were impoverished. Temples were denuded.

So where would these communities go? Rajah is the Praja Palaka. So they went to the British Raj. The Brits essentially in the forest department had 3 types of jobs –

1.       Wood cutter

2.       Wood transporter

3.       Accountant

These craftsmen had reverence to these wood as their GOD only. They couldn’t think of indiscriminately cutting and transporting their gods!! And counting the loot was even worse. So they left their family profession & joined the destitute population of the British Raj.   

Today’s situation

Today the situation is not entirely different.

The forest is still in Government hands. Government is not exactly looting but is not preventing the loot by miners, brigands etc.,

Hardly any raw material for the craftsmen available.

The main market being temples and Rajah. Both are Government only. And Government still is looting temples & not giving anything back;

There are few artisans surviving still on this. They have to work for Government emporiums only if they have to produce anything from Sandalwood. Individual buyers have to buy through controlled emporiums run by the Government.

We cannot expect the glorious past. If we leave the forests so open as it used to be, nothing will remain.  

One simple thing is at least to put the uniqueness of the Indian flora and fauna in primary education. So that some patriotism and pride in children about our nation can be developed. This is my sincere hope.

Recently my 5^th standard son was mugging up the flora & fauna of Democratic Republic of Congo with much difficulty. I don’t know what to do. He has to score marks. So I left him & told him this story outside it.

So the whatsapp, facebook and blogs are more educative these days. Formal education is crass. That’s a pity.

Swami Vivekananda had told way back – The British education is but a lump of information. Not any bit useful for Man Making Mission.

Today we still follow the same. Nothing nation building in today’s CBSE, ICSE or State board syllabus. Pity us. 

How is RSS different from Other Hindu Organizations?

Modern day Hindu organizations are mostly indulged in Bhakti (Devotion) & Seva (Service) movements in the society. Their interaction with the Governance is only giving away their temple earnings and then asking for some alms & grants. Nothing beyond. They struggle to get some land grant or publication grant from the Government. RSS is the only Hindu Organization which doesn’t shy from saying Hindu philosophy has great things to offer to the Governance. And Governance by Hindu philosophy has to be embraced. RSS firmly believes Bharath is Hindu Rashtra and must be governed by its principles.

Religion & State are Separate – It is a European theory for Dogmatic Religions; Not for Hinduism

Religion & State should be kept separate. This is a famous theory of the Europe during the renaissance of the early 17-19^th century. Pre Renaissance from 3^rd cent to 14-15^th cent, when the Roman empire held the masses under strong grips of the entire Europe, they ruled by the tenets of the strict Catholic Christian tenets. It curtailed the scientific temper, reasoning and liberty of the people. Then came the people movements of liberty. They shattered the shackles of orthodoxy and became explorative. It ushered in the era of great awakening in society for fundamental rights. Along came the scientific inventions. This brought in industrialization.

So this movement coined the famous ‘State & Religion are Separate’ theory. When all the European countries along with American freedom movement embraced Democracy & Republic, this theory became prominent & remained corner stone of the Governance.

Why this theory gained momentum? Because, the Governance by the Church was religious going strictly by the book of Bible. It created dogma. No questioning of the book and deviations. Philosopher stating earth is round being executed by the state. Gregory Mendel kept his Genes theory hidden till his death fearing execution. So the awakened people who shot to power through French, Russian revolution & Protestantism drove Religious institutions out of governance by stating ‘State & Religion should be separate’. Because a religion does not give freedom of thought, freedom of reasoning, logic & inventions. So they argued, Governance by the Religion will curtail progressive thoughts.

But in India, Aryabhatta stating Earth is round and revolves around the Sun was venerated as the university head. Here the religion was not by the book; nor was dogmatic. It allowed reasoning, debate, logic. It encouraged people who question the dogma. That is why there is continuous flow reformers and philosophers in India. This is true to Hinduism.

By 19^th century, British subjugated India by force & treachery. They took to governing entire India directly or through princely states.  Macaulay shunted out the Sanskrit education. He was exactly following that everything in Sanskrit is religious and should be kept away from Governance. He pushed only basic mathematics and English as mass education. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchatantra thrown out of the basic education saying it is religious.

All our English educated elite freedom fighters followed suite. When they shot to power, they kept away all Sanskrit literature as untouchables. To top it, the new political power (Nehru & Congress) gave full freedom to the Communist scholars to occupy seats of eminence in Universities to drive education course of the country.

Very sadly, our Hindu institutions sulked. They became powerless. They did not assert their capability in Governance and offering services. They thought themselves useless and nothing beyond some religious rituals keepers.

Since then, our Hindu institutions kept away from Science, Technology, Medicine, Architecture etc., The great many scriptures in their closets are not opened up for the universities to study. They don’t call for University -  Institution exchange. Very rarely it happens. The Panchanga system which can foretell eclipses mathematically for many centuries in advance accurately, is ubiquitous in all mutts. It follows Aryabhattas theory. Such theories galore in the closets of these religious institutions. Universities don’t study Kanada’s atomic physics, Bhaskaracharyas Beejaganitha (algebra), Nagarjuna’s metallurgy. There is no scope for further inventions and extensions based on these theories. Why? Because, University is leftist & believes it is derogatory to research Sanskrit literature. Our Hindu institutions fear it is going to be ridiculed unnecessarily. So why try?  

RSS is one organization which is doing small bits in organizing like-minded people from both religious institutions and universities to interact and converse. They are creating common forums. They are giving platform for interaction. It is a slow process. It is not possible overnight even if they have put their prime minister and president out there. The entire educated Indian psyche is clouded by the Macaulay philosophy, not just the professors. The educated Indian thinks everything that is Hindu or Sanskrit is dogmatic rituals only, nothing scientific. It requires a lot of ground work at grass root level over a sustain period of time to change this dogma and open up our studies of ancient technologies.

KSHATRA missing in today’s Hindu Organizations

Most dreaded is our Hindu Organization’s stoic silence over the violence spreading ideologies. No Hindu organizations condemn them. No one calls for a debate over their ideologies or publish their critical analysis.

Hinduism has Kshatra as one of its tenets. It is an important aspect in the society. Kshatra is meant to use the strength and power to demolish terror and protect the meek. Guru Nanak in his verses says, when the powerful fights the powerful it doesn’t hurt too much, but when the powerful hits the powerless and meek, someone powerful needs to stand & fight for the meek.

All of our Puranas and Itihasas are filled with this fundamental heroism only. All of our Mutts & Ashramas tell hours and hours of lectures on these themes only. They eulogize Krishna slaying Kamsa, Rama slaying Ravana in myriad ways. But today if some terrorist attack happens on Amarnath piligrims, when West Bengal Government let Jihadists to reign in terror, none of the Hindu organizations raise any protest. They don’t waste their time & effort in condemning the act. They don’t lecture the powerful armed police should slay down the armed mob. Unlike Guru Nanak they hesitate to say, that the Powerful and armed police forces should be fully supported and given full authority to attack the insane powerful & armed mob.

In contrast, RSS condemns such mindless killings and mob attack on civilized people. In their yearly resolutions, this year for 2017, they passed a resolution condemning the West Bengal State government policies supporting of violence by the Jihadist forces. They have written scores of reports through their magazines and portals condemning the attacks. They are bringing like-minded brave hearts together in the heart land of troubles like West Bengal, Kerala & Kashmir to energize the youth to sacrifice fighting for justice. No other Hindu organizations has raised concern or calling for youth to organize themselves to resist this lawlessness. They don’t raise voice against bad Governance. They don’t condemn the State’s inaction. When RSS does resist, other Hindu organizations will distance themselves leaving them sole protectors of the civil society. This emboldens the Jihadi appeasing politics to be silent supporter of Jihadi attacks and be inactive. If only all Hindu organizations join hands and voice their concern together will the politics also turn around to protect the normal civilians.

Surely we cannot ask for the people to get armed against the Jihadists forces. Then there will be civil war. But people should exhort the powerful state & police to reign in on those spreading terror. But who is people? How the state recognizes them? The state will recognize institutions and organizations. Who best other than the Hindu organization who are already highly organized by their temples & mutts? But they are silent today. Individuals here and there talking at coffee corners, writing articles & letters to the editor make very little impact. The state and the media will support those who are organized. And if the organized people stay aloof or silent over lawlessness, then, lawless people become rulers.

Silence of Hindu Organizations over Organized Terror

Islamic organizations send terror signal amongst civilians by releasing fatwa against whoever who questions their rituals. For example, one Islamic Ulema released a Fatwa against Sonu Nigam for uttering some opposition to using loud speaker for their daily Azaan.

When Yakub Memon the terrorist who burnt down Mumbai being a Mumbaikar was hanged, the Muslim organizations called for showing their solidarity by large attendance to his funeral. So these organizations eulogize the terrorists and send terror signals to civilians to be careful to touch their ilk even if they are terrorists.

What are the Hindu organizations’ response in general? They say the terrorism is not organized by any institution. They are here & there done by some individuals. It is fringe elements and not an organized terror. This is not a line only by the Government and Media. But the Hindu organizations stay aloof from condemning this or they utter this standard line. By this, they allow the politics and governance to go easy on the institutional terror.

RSS opposes and organizes rallies to condemn such wrong hero worshipping. For example, the Jihadi elements along with the leftists often arrange Hero worshipping of such terrorists like Yakub Memon, Afzal Guru in college campuses and universities. ABVP the RSS Student wing opposes such wrong hero worshipping. There will be altercations. Because the wrong doers are shameless and will take up physical fights. Self-defense is the fundamental right which leads to physical altercations.

The state of Karnataka has newly started celebrating Tipu Jayanthi. Tipu no doubt fought powerful foreign forces. But was the Governance under him, peaceful for its citizens? He massacred, terrorized, converted thousands of civilians of his own state. How can you consider him Hero? Recall what Guru Nanak told about powerful hitting the meek? RSS through its various organizations staged protest against this in various cities of Karnataka where the scars of Tipu’s atrocities bear pains in the citizens even today viz., Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Kodagu, Mangaluru, Bengaluru etc.,

What is other Hindu Organizations reaction to all this? Either silence or let them celebrate whatever they want. Even worse is opposing RSS itself. State is separate from Religion. If so, then why celebrate wrong doers as Heroes?

Selfless Service is Sangh Ideology

Above few lines are about what is different of RSS from other Hindu Organizations. Basically RSS is bold enough to oppose the wrong doers and wrong doing forces, institutions even if it is the Government itself. This will call for sacrifice of sometimes blood and sometime even life.

The above lines are not to condemn or belittle any Hindu Organizations. But only express my hope that if all the Hindu organizations also join the voice and action to suppress the anti-national & adharmic forces, then the Government machinery which is very powerful to implement the law and order gets to implement it with confidence. Thats it.

For RSS, what is similar to other Hindu Organizations is selfless service to the society and servitude. Today RSS is unperturbed by its success or failure. It is moving on its core ideology of Rashtra Nirmana through Vyakti Nirmana. And that is possible by exhorting individuals to sacrifice their time & energy for the selfless service to the society. That’s it. Nation will be built automatically based on our fundamental conviction of Dharma.

Sangh joins hands with all religious, cultural or any societal institutions with like mindedness to service the society selflessly. It has joined hands in River Rejuvenation, Lake cleaning, Anti-Corruption crusades, Swadeshi Andolans, Tree plantation drives. It has its affiliates working in Education field, Agriculture, Farming, almost all Industries. It has provided structure for policy making, political parties, institutions for governance. Cultural associations for sustaining and promoting local art, global art, literature, music, dance etc., It works with Ramakrishna Matha, Art of Living foundations, Amrutanandamayee, Lingayat mathas, Brahmin mathas, all traditional mathas, modern ashrams and mathas; It enables and encourages lower castes to establish their own mathas or ashramas or any such order to strengthen their voice in the society. It works with tribals to unite them to stand against their exploitation. It has no untouchability. It works with all institutions at equal proximity. It promotes, temple entry for all, one cremation ground for one village for all castes.  

Not High Growth. But Sustainable Quality Growth

As our software industry is getting tapered in the growth and job layoffs are knocking doors of almost everyone, I wondered how it all works. May be the growth was very fast and the industry expected the same run for some more time. But the dream run is over & hence a correction happening. And this dream run has taken many of the people in their 40s to the CxO s of even large companies. What does tapering the growth mean for them? Either come out & relax or do the same for 15-20 more years with job loss fear hanging overhead always. Both are scary proposition. Great professional run to the top, but on the personal front still in the middle, with lots of responsibilities laying ahead.

Now I thought let me ask my father who served state government in Agriculture department for 36 long years about his career. Some interesting things we talked and found out about the world and India in general. So I thought of jotting it down for reference. Here are my excerpts:

Me: Anna, I think my growth in company had been rather fast. I got promotion every 2-3 years and I got my first one in 1.5 years and an abroad assignment within 9 months. Was it like this in your career? When did you get your first promotion?

My Father: I think my first promotion was rather late. I got it after 16 years of service. After that it got fast. About every 5 years I got promoted to the next level.

The last promotion was not expected or expected to come later. But it is funny in Government. Some guy of same Jati of the Director of the department was awaiting promotion. The minister was of same Jati at that time. So the director pushed for his promotion before the Minister changes. So since that guy was junior to me, they had to promote me along.

Me: So why the first promotion so late? And then subsequent were so fast or rather consistent?

My Father: Mostly due to the World Bank intervention and advice to restructure the department. All graduates first joined the department as Assistant Agri Officer posted at village level. Then there were no Taluk level office nor District level offices nor posts. Only some 4-5 zonal offices for entire Karnataka.  And the reporting was to the BDO or Tehsildar. No direct reporting to the Zonal Agri office.

But all that changed with World Bank recommending Taluk level office, district level office, Zonal level office etc., More posts got created. The promotions became regular.

Me: What were you doing in your first 16 years?

My Father: Going around villages, meeting the farmers, advising them on the crops, what to sow, when to sow, when to water, how much to water, when to harvest etc.,

Me: Why would they listen to a fresh graduate with no field experience?

My Father: (retorting angrily) they are dumb, they are complete illiterates. They don’t know anything.

Me: What has literacy got to do with farming? His father will guide him.

My Father: No. They don’t know anything. What seed to buy. When to sow. How to sow. What fertilizer to put. When to water, how not to water etc.,

Me: Why should they buy seeds? They only grow it. Some portion they eat, some they sell and some they sow it back right?

My Father: No. That will not work. There are so many hybrid seeds in the market. It goes by acronyms, code words etc., It was so complex for the farmer, that department stepped in to buy the seeds and distribute it to the farmer. And the yield from those was not regenerating. So the farmer had to buy it again for the next season of sowing.

Me: Oh! So it was for advising on the Hybrid seeds. So was it part of the Green revolution?

My Father: Yes. That’s exactly it was.

Me: But you know now that Green revolution is criticized? It made soil stale. It made fields flooded. It made heavy chemical use on the food production and unhealthy for producer and consumer?

My Father: Yes. Now it is being questioned. The father of the Green Revolution Mr. Swaminathan says now “It is so unfortunate that the life giving agriculture has become life taking now”. Now he is a big proponent of Ever-Green Revolution which is family farming as per old methodology of organic farming, small land holding, multi cropping, etc.,. During Green revolution, he preached Mono Cropping, Chemical farming, Large land holding etc.,

Me: Why did India embrace Green Revolution then?

My Father: Oh! It was an absolute necessity. There was shortage of grains. India imported grains. Low quality grains came in from America, Russia & even Pakistan. There were even big land lords standing in queue in the ration shops for grains.

Me: Even I remember standing in Queue in ration shop. In fact we were waiting for items to come to the shop monthly. And many days I used to see it out of stock.

My Father: Exactly. Even government employees, salaried people, middle class people were dependent upon the rationed grains distribution. India was reeling under poverty. Our agriculture scientists looked at the Green revolution as a saviour. And under Indira Gandhi, India had to experiment with the Green Revolution techniques, newer Rice and Wheat varieties etc.,

Me: So now what? Not only did the soil health gone & local varieties gone; but even the farmer’s mentality is to depend on government for everything. Are they corrupted?

My Father: Yes. The farmer today is dependent completely on government for seed subsidies, loan, fertilizer, pesticides etc., Mono cropping, large farming, leased farming, all are problems. He is leasing his own land, working as a labourer in his own land and doesn’t have any rights over his own produce. The farmer is dependent further on Government for procurrement, storage, transport etc., the middlemen are as usual making a killing leaving the large farmer populace in lurch.

Me: So, Isn’t the department changing any course?

My Father: The funny thing is – I started as a trainee pushing chemical farming; my last assignment after 35 years of service was to start the research centre on the organic farming in coordination with the University.  So it took us to go in one direction for 30 odd years & wipe out our ancient knowledge & seed varieties. Now it may take another 30+ years to revive it back. It is inevitable; it must happen. Some modern techniques may remain for the good, but the essence of healthy farming has to come back. The biggest challenge is to change farmers mindset as it has become politics of appeasement & doles. They are lured by the short term gains. Also consumer’s pattern will dictate. It is going to be long and arduous journey. But it will happen and it must happen for the good of the humanity.   

It was a good conversation, deep in some aspects though. Not able to cover everything in writing here. But what I realized is, the dream run of fast promotions and super growth will taper, super-fast exploitation of earth to produce more in less time taught man a lesson. Everything has its own pace in the universe. My father started a very slow career and it picked up pace fast. Mine started super-fast and don’t want to say more.

It is better we learn to respect & love earth and the elderly!! Happy Father’s Day!!!

What good are good Muslims for?

The subject is obviously discriminatory. But the subject has to be broached and discussed. We are Indians. No topic is a taboo for us.

We always feel guilty of blaming Muslims for lot of disturbances around the world and in our neighbourhood. As someone starts blaming Muslims for this & that, someone will defend that not all are bad. We know so many of our friends who are Muslims and they are all good. So it is wrong to stereotype them.

With so much terrorism all over the world perpetrated in the name of Islam, Muslims are victims of it more than others. So the good majority of the Muslims should raise up and voice against it and create strong organizations of like-minded folks to give strength to peace building. That’s our wish.

It is a well-known fact, that majority of people are good. Good people are in majority in any community, any locality, and any religion. It is true for Iraq and Syria too. It is true for even Pakistan. It is true in India amongst the Muslims too. Majority Muslims in India are Good people. They don’t harm. They don’t intend to harm. They like to live peacefully with their neighbours whatever their religion may be.

But the problem is they are silent against the bad Muslims. They will suffer indignation. But they remain silent.

The good Muslims in majority don’t form their own union rising against the bad Fatwa giving institutions (Ulemas), Fundamentalist policies. That will require taking on powerful institutions which is dangerous to their lives. So they let the bad policies rule them & meekly submit to it.

Do they do their good bit selflessly to the society?

We don’t see any organization from Majority good Muslims in times of distress, natural disasters, flood relief. We don’t see them active in any Medical, Health services. No lake rejuvenation, river cleaning drives, tree plantation drives etc., and we don’t see any selfless services organization working in the society from the silent Majority of good Muslims. Very few people from that community join other established organizations; NGO s working in these areas like Ramakrishna Mutt, Sri Sathya Sai Trust etc., Puttaparthi Sai Baba has even put up the crescent moon in their symbol of harmony to appease them. But still hardly anyone join them.

There are so many musicians from Muslim community. Their Musical heritage from Mughal period till date is a great asset in building Harmonious India. Do they have any trust or NGO with all good Muslims coming together to support, develop, project young talents? Do they shun and oppose the fatwa against young upcoming singing stars? In the recent past, young girls performing on TV in Karnataka, Assam were threatened by fundamentalists. The Dangal girl actor in Kashmir was threatened by bad Muslims. Was there any good Muslim organization coming in support of them? Did they give the young minds assurance that they are on the right path according to their religion?

Like many mutts & ashrams, any masjid or institutions supporting rural development, indigenous science, unani, Ayurveda, forestry, animal husbandry, water conservation efforts?

Any sports supporting organization from the Good Muslims in Majority? The Muslim community has great potential in Sports. Many Individuals from the community has held India’s flag fluttering high in International events. Will they form committees to support sports in their Madrasas or Urdu schools or communities? Will those good Muslims join hands to form union to financially support, award, reward their community high achievers in Sports?

What holds them back from forming small communities, unions to just keep doing selfless service to their own community, uplift them, make them mingle with the rest of the world?

If you know of any such organizations, pls share their good work. Support them. Encourage them. Let our Muslim brothers form good brave unions to develop sports, music, art & develop respect for other cultures through their culture. The service orientation is peaceful as it doesn’t really require them to come in conflict with any Fatwa giving high order organizations. They can silently service the people of the nation.

Will they protest against Bad acts of some Muslims?

Yakub Memon was convicted of wiring to bomb his own city to kill innocent people going to office, school and factory on a fine weekday morning. He was hanged to death by the Government of India. On the day of his funeral, there was another Great Muslim by name APJ Adbul Kalam cremated. Arguably there were more good Muslims at the funeral of the terrorist Yakub Memon than a nation builder like APJ Abdul Kalam.

How to explain this? Why do they make Hero of a nation destroyer? Why do they not have the consciousness of identifying who is good and who is bad? Why do they not disown & shun a convicted terrorist?

When Godse killed the Mahatma, every Hindu despised him. There was no organization which claimed their ideology killed the Mahatma. When it was pointed Godse attended RSS, they immediately disowned him. A killer, a terrorist can never be a Hero. Amongst the great majority of Hindus the consciousness of who is Good and who is Bad is clear. They come out in open to denounce and condemn a bad guy whether a Hindu or not.

Similarly when some bad Hindus mob attacked a Muslim in Dadri recently, the entire nation condemned the mob attack. Every Hindu political leader across all parties, saints & institutions condemned the bad act. Even the so called Hindu extremist sympathizing BJP condemned the mob attack. One or 2 individuals from BJP who called Akhlaq as cow thief were disowned by the party as it is Individual remark and not wanted to be seen supporting such views as broader party view. Because, the broad base of Hindus despise this act of mob attack. The attackers are not known. Nobody celebrates the attackers as heroes. They are rotting in some police custody.

In contrast, when Muslims in very large groups come together to support Burhan Wanis, Afzal Gurus, Yakub Memons of the world who are destructors of humanity through terrorism, we don’t see any Organization or Group of Good Muslims to protest against the supporters and calling them wrong.

There are many young Muslims lured to join ISIS and other terrorist organizations abroad. Are there any parents’ organizations campaigning against these terrorist organizations? Exposing them and their hegemony and hatred for the world at large? Bringing awareness to their young kids about what is right what is wrong; what’s good and what’s not?

Do they reform their own society? Case of Triple Talaq

Triple Talaq issue is a social evil. By Islam, a lady can be thrown out of wedlock easily by uttering 3 times Talaq to her. When a lady comes out of wedlock, she becomes vulnerable in the society. The society looks down upon her. Even the normal people will become corrupt in their minds casting an evil eye on a shelter less lady. This causes individual trauma and social disharmony. A responsible society should reconcile and make them live together for long. Society should encourage strong marriage bonding. Religion should play that part of making harmonious long bonding in the marriage. If the religion makes way for easy breaking of the Marriage bond, then how can it be called a religion?

Some people say, it is not such a big issue. It doesn’t happen too often. Firstly, if it is not a big issue, then why not remove Tiple Talaq? Secondly, in one Mahila Police Station in Bangalore itself there are 300+ Triple Talaq cases pending. It is such a big issue, that women affected are knocking the door of the Supreme Court by forming their own groups. They are arguing that Triple Talaq is against Quran. The Muslim law board is fighting against the rights of these affected women. Should the good Muslims not protest? Should they not fight for the affected women? Should they not shun these Mullahs, Ulemas if they are creating social evils? Should they not transform and reform the society?

When Child marriage was found to be a social evil, many eminent Hindu reformers like Tilak, Gokhale proposed and rewrote the marriageable age. Many orthodox Hindus protested. But who remembers the protesters? The reformers are real heroes of Hindu society and nation today. When Dalit untouchability was at its peak, the Hindu society reformed so much, that Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar a famous Dalit was made the head of the panel to rewrite constitution. There is still Dalit discrimination here and there. But the Hindu society has continuous stream of reformers from Buddha to Sankara to Basavanna to many of the modern day seers the likes of Jaggi Vasudev!! And the good majority of Hindus simply embraces the right path lit by the reformer & shuns the social evils. The mass consciousness of Hindus easily differ the good from the bad and supports the good leader & his call for good actions in the society.

There have been almost no reforms in India’s Islamic society. No change to Triple Talaq; No ban on polygamy; No NGO or Institution in India advising the Muslim law board of the reforms in Islamic societies across the world. In many Islamic countries Triple Talaq and Polygamy are made illegal. Why not in India?

Good wishes to the Majority of the Good Muslims of India

Amongst the powerful rulers in the history of India, rather anywhere in the world, only Akbar comes across as one powerful Islamic leader who dared to reform some tenets of Islam. But nobody followed him further. That’s why British called him ‘The Great’ as he dared to reform. If at all, any reforms in Islam are possible, it is only in India it is possible. The Sufism which proposes love of Allah more than Jihad of everything else is surviving only in India. It originated in Iran. In Iran Sufis have no rights; In Pakistan & Afghanistan their shrines are destroyed. In Saudi and all other Islamic countries they are exterminated.

My wish is, the Good Muslims, who are in Majority, to rise and reform their own society. Embrace open culture of love & respect all. Oppose and shun all bad acts, actors and tenets of their philosophy. Support and encourage righteous leaders who defy fatwa giving institutions and embrace openness. Otherwise what good are those Good Muslims who don’t serve society selflessly, don’t oppose bad acts & bad actors, don’t reform their own society?

And to our Hindu & other good friends, please understand; No point just avoiding the topic brushing aside that there are good people. If you have good Muslim friends encourage to debate & open up. Let them do good. Let them become vocal against the terrorists, terrorism, terror in the name of freedom, terror in the name of religion. If religion teaches Jihad ask them to reform and redefine.