‘Make in India’ a call by PM Modi: What’s your view?

Our PM Modi is certainly doing great in selling the Image India abroad. His ‘Make In India’ is a call upon international companies, NRI s, manufacturers, businesses, countries to come & make long term investment in India. This will certainly boost the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment).

The FDI comes to India in 2 ways. One, through investment instruments in stock markets. Second is through companies establishing their businesses, manufacturing here. Both are important and good. But the first one creates a greater volatility. They pump in and pull out depending upon various speculations. That creates a panic situation and market mayhem quite often draining lot of energy in assuaging it.

The call for Make in India is more strategic. The companies which Make in India will have to make long term investment here. They have to look at India as a strategic partner in both low cost, high quality manufacturing but also as a hub for marketing in Asia. They are also likely to look at India as a great domestic market.

For the urban educated Indian this is certainly a sexy appeal. This makes us proud Indian. The foreign investment will lock into our soil on a long term basis. This will boost Indian economy. This will boost jobs in manufacturing. The FDI pull out is that much more difficult for companies.

Economic Score is like Exam Score: Only answer to Questions & Need not know entire subject

Make in India is a call primarily to boost Indian Economy. The economic scores are represented by GDP, GNP etc., It is very easy to score that. 3 primary things will score that:

1.       Produce a lot: most efficiently, with very minimal input and maximum output

2.       Consume a lot: Keep changing cars, keep changing upholstery, keep buying more clothes, shoes, gadgets, packed food, movie tickets, sports tickets, plastics, steel, everything; Buy more pay less

3.       Move Money a lot: If above 2 keeps happening unhindered, then local banks upto world bank have a simple formula to keep disbursing more money. There is no limit binding to the concept of money. It can be millions, billions, zillions. You just need to prove that you produce a lot & push it down consumers. Then money will be disbursed to the producer as loan.

In our current education system, the exam score represents the excellence on a subject. For exam scoring, if you solve last 10 year question papers you are assured of good score. Without knowing the depth of the subject by scoring in exam you can claim excellence on a subject.

One important aspect in our education system is each subject is in isolation. An economics student doesn’t need to know sociology. A sociology student doesn’t know legislation. A law student doesn’t care manufacturing. And it goes on.

The current education system develops skills in isolation. It just equips a person to earn his living. It doesn’t teach holistic value system for harmonious living.

The government’s chase of economic score is similar to our education system. There is no depth of analysis. There is no interrelation with the aspects of the society like sustainability, culture, social harmony, ecology etc.,

Social Impact of Mindless focus on Economics

Economics looks at written records on books of money inflow and outflow. Everything is measured in terms of the money. For example if India produces 1 million plastic bottles, the economics will calculate the input costs, selling worth of each bottle, calculate the revenue & profit and records in the books. That bubbles up at the country level to calculate various economic numbers.

One of the main input materials is water for any industry. And that is not correctly costed. It cannot be. If it is rightly costed then everything becomes unviable. Factories are put up where Water is rich. What is counted in books is pump/bore well cost and a bit of arbitrary environment charges if any government department cares.

The costs of water that are not counted are:

-          The local lake that gets dried up rendering rural population poorer by water

-          The river bed drying up making downstream villages for 100s of kilometers go dry

-          The industrial waste release rendering the downstream river lifeless and poisonous

These will have major social impact for harmonious rural living. Rural population migrates to urban slums in search of living. There will be jobs generated for factories along a river in thousands. But lakhs along the downstream river will become water poor. They will be forced to migrate.

Lets try to simplify this phenomenon. We are producing cars in India. The number of cars produced is directly proportional to the economic strength of India. That means the more the cars we produce the more the India becomes rich. It will fill India’s coffers. That is correct. It means Indians will become rich? That is not correct. Indians will become poor.

How much ever cars, motorbikes we produce it is afforded by only 25% of the urban population (Car is afforded by only 8% of urban population) & about 1% of rural population. Urban population is about 40% of India. That means the Car/Bike as a richness Indicator for which we go ‘Make in India’ will never be able to service more than 10% of India’s population. Rest will remain poor? That is correct. The sad thing they become poorer. They don’t just stay poor by Car/Bike indicator but poorer by clean water. Access to clean water, air, land which was so much in plenty in rural will become extremely dearer in their new dwelling in urban slums & apartments.

Simplifying further. One car will service one lucky family for 2-3 decades. For that multiple families have to be uprooted permanently from their ancestral villages.

Because, one car production is not just one Car production. But it is producing whole lot of iron, steel, aluminum, plastic, rubber, wood, electric power which means coal. All of which will displace families permanently from their ancestral forests, hills & river side villages.

USA Model: Consume but not Produce: What is good? What is bad?

In the US, industrialization rapidly happened during 18^th, 19^th century. Slavery happened. Then the citizen awareness grew. Equality and rights were fought for by the oppressed. Oppressors also heeded to the oppressed gradually. Today, we have one of the best examples of Citizen Liberty in that country.

The GE, Walmart stories will tell how exactly, the Americans have transformed from Industrial nation to only consumers & traders country today. Jack Welch of GE moved ground up from Plant Manager, Regional Manager to CEO. During his early tenures, he spent hell lot of money (law suits) and time fighting against citizen rights for clean water, air & land. When he became CEO, he vehemently pronounced China is a reality. We are going to offshore every damn unviable production to China. If it means closing down plants and joblessness so be it.

Walmart pushed consumerism to heights. Where a family needed just clothes, it sold double, triple it needed for less. We Sell For Less is their tag line. It demanded very high production from its vendors. Newyork, Chicago were industrial hubs producing clothes, could not sustain the demand. They looked offshore to supply in plenty. Now everything comes from Asia to America. Nothing gets produced there.

USA produces only WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction), Technology Innovations, IPs, Patents.

The basic needs like food & clothing is consumed so much that they cannot produce so much “Sustainably”. So they have offshored their basic needs production. Even basic food is imported. Is it good or bad?

So what transformed industrialized country to become only traders and consumers? Is it good or bad?

What lesson to take away for India? My lessons are:

-          Good lesson is we need to raise Citizen Awareness and support the rural when they fight for their basic rights, water, air & land

-          Bad lesson is not to go for converting basic needs into greed by raising & praising consumerism. Buy more, change more, eat more, wear more is very bad for the country

China Model: Produce at the cost of Individual Rights

China has become the producer of the world. Some of the basic things like safety pins, are no longer produced anywhere else in the world! It is raising its production so much at the cost of exploiting earth that it is finding fewer consumers now. So it is pushing mountain dwellers, tribals to urban jungles to become consumers! It is a baffling phenomenon! How long will this go? Where will this end? It will flood its cheap produce everywhere across the world. India used to be equal trade partner with China few decades ago. Now it has pushed India down so much that it will take centuries to recover. Similarly it will push its product across all countries.

So how is it able to produce so much? Is the earth so much rich there? Are the citizens not affected? What about water to produce so much?

Earth is rich everywhere. Every country can produce a lot by the land ratio. But Citizens will raise voice & protest. And usually, countries care for citizens. In China citizen voice is curbed. They got to do what they are told to do by the autocratic state. Even peaceful living citizens on mountains who ask for nothing from state are told to vacate and come to cities! Even state also doesn’t want their earth and land. But the state wants them to consume its produce. They cannot protest. Those who protest will be silently culled.  

What about water? China captured water rich Tibet. There are huge dams & canals built to carry across water to the main land from the Himalayan high lands very easily through gravity. When the citizen unrest will grow exceeding the current available water what will china do? Kashmir & Arunachal Pradesh is also water rich which will come to its use by next century if there is no resistance from India!

So what lessons for India?

-          Care for citizens; Don’t curb their rights to live

-          Strengthen security to secure its borders, states & its citizens

-          Increased Industrial production will not solve India’s hunger.

What is India’s Indigenous Model? Gandhiji’s Gram Swarajya is the Answer

India must look for producing locally for self-sufficiency in food and clothing needs. These needs should not be allowed to become greed. Industrialization of food production, packaged food production, large scale farming, industrialized farming, food security bill etc., should be curbed. Local food production & consumption should be encouraged. What is excess should be traded out. Producing only to trade out will make even growers go hungry. The mad chase to cash crops is driving farmers’ suicide.

Packaged food, tetra pack, stale juice factories should be discouraged. Consumers should accept packaged food become costly. Fresh farm items should become easy & cheap. Local food items according to the current seasons should be available in the market. Non season foods, imported ones should become unsustainably costly. China is ready to dump even milk down our throat.

Clothing also should become localized production. One Thirupur producing for entire world will get consumed only by the urban middleclass. It pushes excess clothes to only 25% population. It makes rest go clotheless. Cottage industries must be encouraged. Large industrial production should not be subsidized. The water taxation should be brought in appropriately for them or water should not be given to them so cheaply.

Make In India and sell anywhere else will make “production by very few people for consumption by very few people in lot of excess”. It will extract our earth then manufacture sucking away our water and sell the produce to very few people. It serves no purpose for largesse. It will fill India’s coffers with a lot of money. But it will make a large populace poorer of their basic needs. 

Rajasthan Shopping Tips

You can archive this one for your future use I’m sure. We haven’t explored that much. But whatever we explored, we want to share it with you all so that it could help you & invite you to add further.

Basically Rajasthan is very artistic. The richest & the poorest of the state are the custodians of this rich heritage and the authentic art. The rich have a heart for the art. And they know how to build it up and showcase it. Most importantly retain it. Every palace is so rich in paintings, art, artefacts. Every pillar, niche, ceiling, walls are decorated with rich artistry of various styles from locals as well as from foreign. Different coloured stones available locally make it Golden city, Pink City, Marble rich etc., The stone art, the glass art, natural paintings décor the monuments. By doing that they are paying rich tribute to the local artisans.

But the local artisans however have remained poor only. Because, they have a heart for the art. They would rather spend their life doing great art than go behind money. The middlemen make the most of the money from the art. The Marwaris coming from that region go everywhere doing business. A piece of art can be sold at Rs400 upto 10,000Rs depending upon where and when it is being sold & how much margin they want to make.

The state of Rajasthan is made from combining all the Rajput Royal states post-independence.  Most of the Royals have retained most of their wealthy Palaces and forts. Through trusts & committees they are managing the monuments quite fine. It is unlike in Mysore. The Maharaja in Mysore, they say was tricked to give up everything to the government. And in my opinion, Govt is not doing a good job of its maintenance and is a mistake in comparison to Rajasthan model. However in Rajasthan most entrance fee is very high, especially Udaipur Raja will fleece youL.

The shopping bonanza

Jaipur is like Bangalore only. Try to avoid shopping there. Of course don’t miss to have authentic Lassi in Lassiwala shops near Raj Mandir theatre.

Here is what we know of some shopping tips. All the below ones we got around by asking locals. The guides & driver were useless. They only take you to clothes shopping.

Where	What	More details
Bikaner	Bikaji Sweets, Mixture, Rasagolla etc.,	Near Jain temple; There is whole lot of homes from there it is made, packaged and sent across the world
Jaisalmer	Small artefacts made from Camel bone; Art or tumbler from Golden stone;	The Golden fort is called living fort. So inside the fort there are lot of shops selling camel bone art, small decorative items, dolls; Bargain & get the best. Don’t buy marble stuff. From the golden stone they make tumblers. It has medicinal value they say. Camel bone art & Golden stone artefacts you wont get anywhere else. Not even in Jaipur for this price.
Ranakpur	Rajasthani Dhuries	On way to Ranakpur near Udaipur from Jodhpur, you get to see many huts showcasing these Dhuries. Do give a visit. It is handicraft. Dhuries are like carpet. Beautiful indigenous designs made from the artisans. Bargain and buy if you like and appreciate handloom products than power loom products.
Kishangarh	Marble Art	It is near Ajmer towards Jaipur. Both sides of the highway you get whole lot of Marble art shops. Small decorative elephants, lamp, vase, Bharani etc., you get. Beautiful authentic natural paintings on it make it more elegant. Cost is definitely 10 times cheaper than in Bangalore, any item. You got to bargain though.
Pushkar	Camel Leather Items	In Pushkar, there is a large Ranganatha temple. Right infront of this there are few shops selling Camel leather items like Wallet, Shoes, Purse, Vanity bags etc., It is all cheap and completely worth it. For example a wallet costing about 700Rs in Bangalore you bargain & get it for 70Rs. Those shops are actually wholesale shippers to UK & Europe through online shopping.
Jaipur City Palace	Pashmina Shawl	Inside the City palace, the Maharani has a shop! J. I think it is authentic. You can try. I believe it is decent price. This Pashmina shawl is very special & rare.

The clothes are something you get everywhere. But it is most deceptive. You have to be cautious. Especially the factory outlet, driver suggestions, local guide suggestions are most deceptive. But you can’t do much but to explore within those options. I think if we explore Chikpet properly in Bangalore, you get everything here for exact same price. Bandhini is most favoured type of dresses. Block printing using natural colours is something to explore.

We purchased some clothes in Jaisalmer. We found it to be fine, authentic, decently priced. But I think it is as good as you bargain anywhere else too.

Natural painting is basically made from Vegetables, fruits, plants and metals like gold, silver, iron etc.,. It is not chemical based. It takes lot of time & manual labour.

Block printing is basically, design print made using wooden blocks. It is a manual work. For example to print a peacock, there will be an outline block in one colour and 7 other block to fill in 7 more colours. Between each block printing he has to leave time to dry up. So it is manual labour and time consuming.

Overall we felt we missed to do some more shopping of Camel Bone artefacts. It was really beautiful and unique. Jaisalmer is one of the best places. The palatial hotels but still cheap stay there, remind me of Las Vegas in the making. But is most distant and arduous journey to reach there. May be going & returning by train from Jodhpur is better option than by car.

Sprinkle of History

Rajasthan trip will make you proud Indian. There is so much rich history and heritage out there. They were great warriors, yet peace loving. When brotherly feuds erupted, they established new kingdom expanding into the vast unexplored deserts, yet developing unique, unmatched, long lasting monuments proclaiming their cultural interests and peaceful nature.

One baffling thing is, only Rana Prathap Simha challenged the Moghuls. Rest all made peaceful pacts, gave their daughters in marriage alliance with the Moghuls. But in return, Moghuls only deployed these Kings as generals to fight for them at frontiers across Bengal, Deccan, Afghan boarder etc.,

One stark example is that of Jai Simha, who founded the city of Jaipur which is named after him. He stands so tall with his varied persona of a great commander, administrator, strategist, scientist & keen interest in astrology, under whose guidance the great Jantar-Mantar is constructed. But under guidance from Aurangazeb he invaded Deccan with a very large army to suppress Shivaji raising. He was the most able and trusted general commander for the Moghul. But after Aurangazeb’s untimely death, his sons attacked him & his kingdom for treachery! What a way to payback for the loyalty!

If only these great kings of Rajputana had joined hands together to fight out the Moghuls instead of subjugating themselves to their superiority without challenging, history would have been different! How i wish it were!

Rajasthan Travelogue by Anand Pranav

My Son Anand Pranav studying 5th standard has written Rajasthan Tavelogue. We went recently for a family trip there. It was a good one, highly recommended for India Lovers!

Photos are uploaded here:  

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/110449838432121172507/albums/6068612247088242385

 
Some photos have caption worthy for travel information.  
3 worthy videos are uploaded there. All 3 are good ones. 

Rajasthan Travelogue by Anand Pranav.

We went to Rajasthan on 30 Sept 2014, and came back on 9^th Oct 2014.

Following places we went in Rajasthan

1.       Bikaner – 30^th Sept to 1^st Oct.

2.       Jaisalmer – 1^st Oct to 3^rd Oct

3.       Jodhpur – 3^rd Oct to 4^th Oct

4.       Udaipur – 4^th Oct to 6^th Oct

5.       Pushkar – 6^th Oct to 7^th Oct

6.       Jaipur – 7^th Oct to 9^th Oct

Bikaner:

Following places we went in Bikaner.

ü  Junagarh Fort: - Junagarh fort is a very large, beautiful fort with a museum.

ü  Jain Temple: - It is full of natural paintings. Its foundation is made with Ghee instead of water. It has an interesting story behind this uniqueness.

ü  Mustache Man: - He has 2 meter long mustache. He is a record holder for this. We took photos with him.

Jaisalmer:

Jaisalmer is called Golden city. The houses, monuments & fort is golden colour. Because it is built with golden colour stone.

Following places we went in Jaisalmer.

-          Golden Fort: - In the Golden fort, people were selling things & living in that fort. That is why it is called Living Fort. The fort is made up of golden colour stone.

-          Thar Desert: - In the Thar Desert, we had a camel ride. We went to the sand dunes by camel & played, rolled in the sand dunes, saw the sun set & came back.

Jodhpur:

It is called Blue city. Because the external walls of the houses are painted blue. At least one wall should be in blue.

Following places we went in Jodhpur.

Meharganj Fort: It is a 12 storey fort. From the top the city looks blue.

Udaipur:

The Udaipur is called White city or Lake city. It has 5 large beautiful lakes. All houses are painted white.

Following places we went in Udaipur.

Ø  City Palace: It was built by Udai Singh. The whole palace is about Rana Pratap Singh. The palace is full of Ranapratap & his battle paintings. Chethak is his favourite, most famous horse. Its model is there.

Ø  Rope Way: We went on rope way. We saw the thick forest beneath. We went to the Karani Matha Mandir there. The whole vista of Udaipur we saw from atop the hill.

Ø  Jag Mandir: We went to the Jag Mandir by Boat. It is a palace in the middle of the lake.

Ø  Ranakpur temple: It is built of white marble. It is 10^th century temple. It has very beautiful carvings.

Pushkar:

Following places we went in Pushkar:

Brahma Lake & Temple: This is the only place in the world where they worship Brahma. We saw the ceremonial evening Aarathi done in the lake. We participated in it.

Sriranganatha Temple: It is a very old, Srivaishnava temple. It has a very large parikrama in a typical South Indian style.

Jaipur:

Jaipur is called Pink city. Because almost all monuments of significance are pink coloured. It is painted pink.

Following places we went in Jaipur:

v  Amber Fort: Just before the amber fort we went to a large stepwell called Panna meena ka Kund. Inside the Amber fort, there is a very large tunnel which goes till Jai Garh fort. It is about 15-16kms. The fort is atop a hill. So it has old water lifting system.

v  Jaigarh Fort: In Jaigarh fort we saw a very beautiful & a large cannon. They say it is first cannon. It has a very large water tank atop the hill which can hold water for 10000 people for 10000 days!

v  Jantar-Mantar: It is built by Raja Jai Singh. He was a great astronomer. He built this with great passion. Till recently it was used by astronomers for accurate star study. In Jantar Mantar there is the world’s largest Sun Dial.

v  City Palace: Present Prince and Queen live there. The other half is made museum. There is a textile museum & an armour museum. In the textile museum, king’s & queens dresses are displayed. One king was a sumo wrestler size. It is very funny to see his large sized dresses including his pants.

                                                   The  end

Time & Memory: Character Building in a Child

A child develops memory based on what it spends time upon. Both memory and time shapes the child’s character. Obviously the child exposure to TV, Cartoon, YouTube will develop its memory in that sense & taste. A child is very curious. It opens its eyes and photographs everything into its memory. If it keeps getting exposed to same scenes then it gets into its long term memory. That long term memory shapes that child to grow as an individual adult. In today’s cartoon, depictions are always extra ORDINARY Viz., violence, destruction, fight. If it is simple and ordinary, it will be boring. So they make it extra ordinary to lure the child. So the child gets SEASONED to the bad things as OKAY things.

Now how do you build good memory in the child? That should be by exposing more time to good things & less time to bad things. Is that so easy? How do you do that? For that, you need to develop a routine or a regime for the child. Not a military regime. But a relaxed one which has some space for TV & outing also.

Below are listed some of the must do routine to be included in your child’s routine. This is relevant for child from 5yrs to 15yrs. Beyond 15yrs also upto the end of life it is relevant. But if it is followed till 15yrs then it is easy to continue. If it needs to be picked up later years it is a bit difficult.

Parent’s time with the child = As much as possible. Min 20mins daily. Average 3hrs per day.

Firstly parenting is important. You got to dedicate your own time to the child. Your time to the child is more important than a driver’s or a maid’s time. Even grandparents can only pamper. True love has to be through time spending from parents.  Even if others are good, it is important the child imbibes good things from its parents. Then only it gets its belongingness, reverence & love. Then only the child respects the good habits as followed by its parents than someone else. Both parents should make sure to spend at a minimum 20mins every day and average 2-3hrs per day with the child. This time should be quality interaction time. Not like child is playing by itself and parent is seeing TV or reading.

Physical Activity/ Sports = 1-2hrs daily

Sports are an absolute necessary for growing children. A child above 5years old should have a daily routine of 1-2hrs after school sports. It should be with other kids. Only then it develops tolerance, competitiveness, facing failure, fight to win, respect for rules, reasoning abilities and all the good things. It gets hurt also, but will know how to recoup & not give up. A child gets to feel others pains and develops compassion.  

 

Daily children have to have physical exercise through sports for overall health of the body including mind. It ensues good healthy breathing and supply of blood and oxygen to all parts of the body including brain. The brain development is necessary for good memory.

 

Daily Recitation & Story Reading = 30mins to 1hr.

This is another good aspect to be introduced as a daily routine either morning or evening. If parent cannot spend time for this, you can look for nearby Sai Mandir, or a Mutt, or a Temple or a Bala Bharathi or Bala Gokula, Bala Shibira etc., where such activities will be conducted.

 

Or if you want to start yourself one “Bala Bharathi”, I can help you with suitable materials, quarterly changes to the routine recitation etc., In your neighborhood or apartment complex, you can have someone take the lead and have backups. If 5-6 kids come together that would be good enough to start one. If more kids are there, then more volunteers can support & create more classes.

 

Daily recitation develops fantastic memory. It develops musical memory. Some people think it will burden the child. Absolutely not. It will expand its ability to absorb. For example, I know in some schools, through daily recitation, an average 8 year old has learnt Vishnu Sahasranamam, Hanuman Chalisa, Bhagavad Gita 10^th Adhyaya. All of it by heart. Not only that, they pick up latest Bollywood blockbusters also easily. They are normal children and not prodigies.

 

When it is beautiful and musical, it is not burden. Trust me, any number of such beautiful shlokas can be easily learnt without feeling any burden. They stay in a child’s long term memory, any day to retrieve and analyze.

 

Some Visiting Chinese Scholar in ancient India had remarked that an average Indian Gurukula boy would have an entire library of books by heart by the time he reaches 16 year old. That is true and possible if that library of books is musical and recital.

 

For example, the Ekatmatha sthothra covers hundreds of great Indian scientists, great women, warriors, literatures, writers, freedom fighters etc., It is easy to recite and remember. Compare that with that of a bland history chapter in our children textbook. Which one will stay long in memory? Similarly Maslow’s hierarchy theory was postulated well in Upanishads and well depicted in ‘Kagga’ poems by DV Gundappa in Kannada well before Maslow. It is so easy and beautiful to remember and recite.

 

The Human Memory Tree is depicted here. The Musical memory is special and expandable.   By reciting good slokas and poems, we can utilize this very well to memorize many life defining useful morals. We must utilize it well and make it part of our daily routine.

Other types of classes:

Other classes in urban culture are prevalent like – Abacus Maths, Vedic Maths, Spelling development, Music, Dance, Painting, Arts, Robotics etc., All are good habits. Obviously you cannot put the child into all of these things, but you can slice the time into some of these depending upon interest. But the child has the capacity to absorb it. Do not underestimate its capacity. Nothing is burdening or confusing the child. You can be rest assured it is all going to expand child’s capacity. None of these will hamper or confuse or burden its mind. Trust me, it will only expand its capacity and not shrink it.

If you put the child in these classes, it will be a constructive good time spent even if he doesn’t excel there. It will keep him away from the other bad lures & filling his memory with unwanted things.

School related homework = 1 to 2hrs

If you do most of the above, then you can be sure, the child will be able to do effective homework easily. It will not feel any burden. When the child juggles around many things, it doesn’t get bored and burdened. The job gets done easily. It is just that these days parents get more work in their kid’s homework that bothers us L.

TV & Other Time pass

TV, Cartoons, YouTube are all timepass with no use. It should be used as a relaxation. It would be good relaxation if it comes in between for 10mins, 15 mins in a day. But if it is the only thing after school or in weekends, then your child will under utilize its mind’s capacity and become dull or pick up wrong morals.

Love Jihad: What is real?

Jihad is holy act in Islam. Most people think Jihad means war. Jihad can also be through war but not only through war. If someone in the neighborhood or family doesn’t follow a certain way defined by their sect, they are termed Kafirs. Jihad is a way to convert them to their sect. It can be through dialogue, preaching, propaganda or violent means. All is followed by Mohammed Prophet and is permissible by the holy Quran.

There are many sects in Islam. Viz., Sunnis, Shias, Ahmedias, Ibadi, etc., Each sect is Kafirs to each other. That’s why in Middle East & Africa, they are at logger heads with each other. Most countries like, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan have internal strife mainly due to this reason.

There are few stable countries in Islamic world. Like Saudi, Oman, Muscat etc., There the Sultan defines what sect is supreme and all others are secondary citizens with curbed rights. Islam defines very strict and barbaric punishment to the perpetrators. So the sultan’s administration instills enough fear for any upraise for equal rights. There is no freedom to media. So any atrocities against secondary citizens will not be reported to the outside world.

What is Love Jihad?

Love Jihad I believe was coined first in India only. It is basically Muslim Youth luring non-Muslim lady to fall in love and then converting to Islam through coercion.  2 young adults above 18years falling in love with each other cannot be termed illegal in India. So it is a soft way of conversion. It is gaining lot of popularity across India and is spreading fast. With the recent revelations from Tara Sahdev, a national level shooter falling trap into it, it has hit the national headlines.

In Love Jihad there is Organized and Unorganized.

The Supreme Court took cognizance of the Organized Love Jihad in Kerala cases and has termed it illegal. In the organized way, the Muslim youth are rewarded with money to carry out these acts. Tara Sahdev’s case is an organized one. If there is a complaint from the victim and can prove it was done through organized way for monetary gains, then legal framework will action & record it as Love Jihad case. In most cases victim gives up, family gives up, society anyway doesn’t care. If any Dal or Parishath or Sangha raises voice, they will be termed illegal & legal framework will shut them up.

Unorganized Love Jihad just happens in a normal way. Muslim youth are open cultured. Ladies are constrained in house. If the youth falls in love with non-Muslim lady in the outside world, he will be hailed in family and they welcome the new bride. The entire family will be fully excited. It is a holy act. Because they are all involved in the Holy Communion. They get salvation for carrying out the holy Jihad for a Kafir. There are no government records of Unorganized Love Jihad. Because, she will be recorded as a Muslim bride in the bureau.

Is it a Social Evil in India?

It is definitely a social evil in the Indian context at least. Because in India, we have diverse culture. The diversity is essence of life here. Individual rights and freedom is respected. If the lady wants to worship Lord Krishna or Raghavendra Swamy or Sai Baba or Munneshwara or All of them, there is complete freedom. If the lady wants to work outside or wear a fashion, her rights are respected in the society. There is freedom of thought & expression.

In India Muslims have their personal law. Once the lady accepts Islam, then she loses her Individual rights by the Indian laws. Muslim personal law is very highly prejudiced against the women. Ladies cannot even go to Mosque. Their husband can bring in another wife etc., If her family allows her to continue her earlier life style she is lucky. But that is very highly unlikely. By the time she starts realizing the mistake, she will be well into the irreversible life cycle. She can only regret. If she is lucky she can come out. If she is further lucky she survives against all odds.

How do we curb this Social Evil?

Definitely we cannot leave it as a Government concern. It is our personal concern. It is our family concern. It is our community concern. It is our society concern. It is our responsibility to maintain our vibrant, diversified open culture. We cannot leave it to go Pakistan way. Pakistan hoped that once they divide the geography by one uniform religion they attain peace. But uniformity is myth. God has created diversity. My thoughts & faiths are different from yours. We still respect each other. We don’t kill each other for diversity in India. God has created different strengths in different individuals, communities, regions, localities. We have to explore those uniqueness, harness it, feel proud of it, and respect others uniqueness.

Some people argue, that intermingling of people across religions will evolve Culture. Yes culture must evolve. Not towards harnessing hegemony, hatred, suppressing individual rights, insulting & stopping individual faiths. But it must evolve towards open ness, debates, balance and harmonious society.  

In Muslims itself, Sufi saints came. They create an open culture. They see Allah in everything, air, sky, mud, mountains, birds, flowers even in Rama they see Allah. And they worship everything. Such a lovely concept of pure love and appreciation of nature must evolve as a Culture. Even some women were Sufi saints. But today Sufi saints are not welcome in Mosques. They have to live life of Vagabonds. In many countries like Iran they are curbed of basic rights. In Pakistan they are slowing getting eliminated.

Parenting

The onus lies on the parents to educate the importance of the diversity. Nowadays there is hardly any time spent in parenting. That is wrong. Every day we have to spend time in parenting and talking to the kids, at least 5-10 mins if not 1-2hrs. We have to engage them in telling our local culture, language richness, songs, ballads, story of heroes, take them to places of worship & significance. In the early ages we must imbibe good culture in them, expose them to the vastness of diversity of our land and culture.

As they enter teenage, we must treat them as friends. As friends we must talk to them about some of the social evils including Love Jihad. Why is it a social evil? What are different world religions and why our religion is great? Because textbooks or school education does not describe the social evils. Our textbooks are full of only Moghuls & Tipu Sultan. They wrongly tell Aryans came from Central Asia & Europe. It gives wrong information, wrong priorities. They don’t teach local culture like, Kempe Gowda, Purnaiah, Bendre, etc., Hoysala, Chalukya architecture, Haridasa Pantha, Sharana Sahithya are relegated to 3^rd priority.

So when we let our children in the hands of school education and government and authorities to shape them, they get softened towards everything. They don’t develop any belongingness to locality, culture, land. School education doesn’t develop patriotism & belongingness. It develops how to score & mug up information to edge out someone else.

Even we as adults, should inculcate socializing for knowledge and exploring our land & culture. Recently my good friend said she joined Spanish classes. Why? Time pass & socializing is the answer. She being Tamilian, I think there is enough to explore in Tamil culture itself and socialize. If she explores interested people in her locality to organize a weekly event to talk and exchange about Thirukurals, Kamba Ramayana or even good Tamil Cinema there will be much fun & learning and feeling of belongingness to a great civilization.

We must grow pride in our belongingness to the land, people, ancestors, scriptures, literature, art, sculpture, architecture. Then we can become indigenous in our science exploration and engineering to help all in the society rather than only few in the society.