The Nationalism: Indian View & Western View

Interestingly the word Nationalism doesn’t incite the same fervor in Western and Indian culture.

In India Nationalism is same as Patriotism. It raises the feeling of passion for everything that is Indian. The raise of Indian nationalism is a standard subject of Independence struggle in India. Swami Vivekananda raised the nationalism feeling amongst the masses cutting across caste, creed & religion. All Indian leaders including Gandhiji followed it by uniting the masses for a common cause of Freedom from British rule.

In the western world especially in the Europe the word Nationalism brings forth antagonism & fear. It is best described by the famous French President Charles de Gaule: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; Nationalism when hate for people other than your own comes first”. This phrase ‘own people’ is who? Is it by Language? Or culture? Or religion? Or profession?

Pride and Passion

In India, we regard all people as ‘our own people’ with a kind prayer ‘Sarve Janah Sukhino Bhavanthu’. Our nationalist leaders incited pride amongst the masses about themselves and their forefathers and their past. They understood the truth of nature and its inherent diversity. While keeping the pride about themselves and their culture, they developed passion for appreciating their neighbor’s & others philosophy, culture, diversity. That is what made Bharatha (India). They never tried to kill diversity. They found unity in the fundamental truth of diversity. This pride & passion is what is the reason for so much diversity thriving in Bharatha.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride is called Abhimana in most Indian languages. Prejudice is Durabhimana. Prejudice is feeling of superior race over all others.

In the west, the pride is prominently followed by prejudice against the ‘others’. The Nationalism is like uniting people based on something common with hatred to others uncommon to them. Who are others? That definition of ‘others’ can be based on anything. It can be based on language, culture, profession, religion etc., So for one reason or the other, people attack people & kill them mercilessly.

The tribal systems living in harmony with nature are completely wiped out. The natives of America are slaughtered. Pagan system of nature worship is eliminated. Several languages are extinct. Civilizations like Egyptians, Mayans are listless. Crusades, inquests, holocaust are the hall mark of Pride & Prejudice in the west. And they came and taught us, that India had thousands of kings quarrelling & fighting each other, they came to unite us! What an irony? And we believe it?!

The world has seen 2 recent world wars originating in Europe and sucking the entire world in itself. Why? The imperialists from this region started amassing arms and ammunition by looting rich Asian, African countries to show off their pride. Their prejudice could not be contained beyond the spark and exploded with world wars.

Same is the case with the current ongoing Middle East religious conflicts. It started slowly somewhere and rapidly sucking in all neighboring nations and people from all over European nations are joining their holy war!!

Dividing India by sowing Hatred

There are various forces working in India with short term political motives to divide India. The Dravida Kazhagam movement in Tamilnadu, Ahinda movement in Karnataka are classic examples of dividing the innocent society by instilling the fear and inciting resentment. They are made to feel that somebody within India is suppressing them. They are made to feel they are the oppressed society and there is a need to rise against the oppressors.

Added to that, there is a lot of foreign funded missionaries and NGO s working relentlessly towards inciting this feeling and dividing the society. Rajiv Malhotra’s book ‘Breaking India’ is a well-researched book on this subject. It delves deep into this subject dispassionately, leading to find who funds these organizations and why?

There are student organizations in universities, institutions raising divisions amongst the student communities on these lines. Their focus is taken away from academics in premium institutes like IIT Madras. Similar incidents of inciting hatred through student organizations are happening routinely in north Indian institutes too.

There are professors, self-proclaimed intellectuals preaching hatred and animosity towards Sanskrit, Vedas, Bhagavad Gita etc., Their presumption is that it is all Brahminical and upper cast hegemony. Opening research and studies on these is considered as imposing Brahminical culture over all. It is such a pity our students are falling prey to such propaganda. These texts are universal. Bhagavad Gita is told by Sri Krishna who was a Yadava, to Arjuna who was a Kshatriya and written by Veda Vyasa whose birth is in lower caste. So where comes Brahminical hegemony here? Dr. BR Ambedkar, the harbinger of the backward classes studied extensively the Sanskrit texts and vehemently fought to make it the National Language. Using his name his followers today are going in opposite direction. Why? Just for the sake of opposing a certain culture. This is leading to hatred. The Sanskrit language is immensely vast and has a mine of knowledge. The entire Bachelor degree studies of Ayurveda Medicine are based on Ancient Sanskrit texts. It is a pity that British created submissive intellectuals in us; they called Sanskrit as a dead language and removed it from primary education. Before them it was a common language across the length and breadth of India. It united India. British successfully broke India.

Hinduism, Hindu texts, are like Open Source technology. You take it and utilize it for individual and societal benefits. If you are not convinced about a part or a section of the text creating harmony, then discard it or interpret it for the good of the society. We have lost a lot by ignoring these magnificent texts already. We should revive it for the good of the society and not create hegemony.

Continuing the ancient tradition of India, the modern Swamiji’s, Ashrams like Shirdi Sai, Maatha Amruthananda Mayi, Ramakrishna Mission etc., are following Vedic texts to spread the love of humanity, love of god, intense faith towards your Ishta Devatha. Not all of them are Brahmins. None of them are imposing it. They are not spreading any animosity to English or international languages or local languages. Rather they are imbibing it. All are welcome. It is the pure language of love that binds people. Swami Vivekananda was not a Brahmin who said “Save Samskrutha and Save Samskruthi”.

I strongly believe those who spread pure Love and Harmony will find all Indian languages, sacred texts with equal love and embrace them, enhance and spread them for the good of the society. I wish and prey in god, that our government institutions, its heads, professors, students shun hatred and embrace pure love towards knowledge & intellect.

Let there be revival of our Golden past for our Golden future. Let there be opposition and debates with love for people & society at the core. Let there be Nationalism fervor with love for the people irrespective of their diversity at the core. 

The West Vs The East Culture

The western culture develops strong individualism and eastern culture develops group behavior. Each of it has benefits and pitfalls. It is important to understand & analyze its merits and impact.

Between these cultures however there are many other differences. But this particular one is of interest and seems significant.  

In a recent experiment, a psychologist let few westerners and easterners observe a pond filled with lots of small fishes and a large fish. His observations revealed that the westerners retold all features and movements of the big fish in the pond & knew less about the small fishes. Whereas the easterners retold more about the group movement, features of the small fishes & knew little about the big fish in the pond.

What is Individualism?

In the west, the parents develop child to be independent from the beginning. By teen age itself they are encouraged to earn their living, live independently in rented house, and take loan for car. They are encouraged to find their own life partner.

This makes them very strong individuals. They are self-made & able to stand on their own at young age. They stumble and get up on their own. They are ready to take on the world. They understand the bad competitive, ‘ready to eat each other’ world out there. They see the world as survival of the fittest and hence have to constantly outsmart others to survive.

There is a problem however. There will be a sense of shame developed if they seek any help in their life’s achievements from parents & close ones. This is a problem because it alienates them from parents from their intimacy. By the middle age they go through various life’s stress almost alone. On the outside they are high achievers but inside they feel lonely.

The broken families, single parents, old age crisis are pretty common and endemic in the west.

The Individualism is in theory very attractively depicted by Ayn Rand in her famous books – Atlas Shrugged and Fountain Head. The names of the book itself show off the ego of the individual & his capability. These are highly optimistic stories never delving deep in holistic nature of the world.  

The economists, policy makers like Alan Greenspan, Ronald Reagan adopted these theories very well to overrule the world through their money policies.

Group Behavior

In the east, the parental care & ‘cover’ for the child during his growing years is high. Especially in the Indian culture, the youngster is encouraged to touch feet of parents, Guroos at every important milestone & take their Ashirvada for his success. By this, the ego of the young man goes away. His success is attributed amongst his hard work and ability to god’s grace and elders aashirvada. Our culture teaches him that he is what he is because of all the people around him. A sense of belongingness, a group culture develops. He is at ease through the thick and thin of his life because of his strong family & community support around him.

There is a problem however. This will hold back his confidence to be cut throat in competition & do everything to outsmart others. He will feel the sense of carry along with others.

Just to quote an example: Once, Vijay Bhardwaj, our Indian cricketer while in Australia insists on some specifics of the vegetarian diet, his mates call him a cribber and ask him to make do with what is there. Whereas, when an Australian comes to India & insists on some specific diet, he is hailed a professional, one who knows what he wants.

So if there is a bad world out there, will an easterner compromise or attack ruthlessly? If you see the world history, except Japan and a bit of China’s aggression, all eastern countries have remained focused on their own development and sustenance. Never bothered to go all over, conquer and enslave others. Especially India has never done that.

Exchange of culture:

The east people are fast adopting west culture. Whereas the west will never adopt east culture. It is a very difficult culture to adopt. Everyone in the game from father, mother, young ones, the system, society have to change. That is impossible. Where as to adopt western culture, it is easy. The individual has to claim that he has earned all by himself and is a strong individual. That’s it.

Now-a-days the urban development itself is highly individualistic. The middleclass especially is fast adopting it due to its ease & system support. An earning individual, able to pay bills will get water, electricity, real estate everything from the system.

In rural, it is not that easy. Because there is no government system supplying job. They are mostly agriculturists. They depend upon gods for land, tilling, water, rain; they depend upon each other in a small community for transportation & trade. They cannot fire someone if he is lazy. They have to succeed as a group. So the group behavior is predominant. India being rural & Agri based for many million years adopted this culture. Also it is significantly influenced by the Dharma of the land by the rishis and muni espousing Dharma through our epics. The Rajas of the yore gave such importance to the Dharma espoused by these Rishis of the times, that India remained prosperous and had freedom at individual level with a sense of duty to each other.

Now that the urban clusters are becoming parasites of rural environs, we are fast losing rural environs necessitating rural-urban migration. This will eventually destroy the group culture and develop individualistic society. This will lead ultimately to the depiction of end of Kaliyuga in killing each other. 

Pune Travelogue – April 2015

The Pune trip was filled with history and heritage. We visited several forts, read and heard great stories of the Great Maratha Shivaji Maharaj.

It was not the best of the weather. It was summer & dry, but it wasn’t too hot to dampen our spirits. The best time to visit would be the monsoon or post monsoon.

We visited the following forts:

-          Raigad fort

-          Shivaneri fort

-          Pratapgad fort

-          Sinhagad fort

There are 100 s of forts along the Sahyadri ranges, which Shivaji Maharaj captured, constructed and ruled during his reign. His forts are mostly strategically located atop some of the most dreaded hills. He built few sea forts also in islands. He probably is the first Indian ruler to envisage the importance of building Naval force & built it. He is considered as master strategist, Yugapurush, Visionary to reinstate the Hindavi Swarajya. At a time when Vijayanagara Hindu Samrajya had a spectacular fall, Mughal Shahi ruling the north, Adil Shahi, Qutub Shahi ruling the deccan, it seems Shivaji literally rose from the ashes of the Hindu dust. The story of Shivaji is one of adrenaline rushing, roller coaster ride for someone interested. You can hold full attention of the kids telling his story of raise, fall and raise.

Raigad Fort

This was the second capital of Shivaji and this is where he died his natural death when he was around 50 years age. It is about 130Kms from Pune but takes more than 3hrs to reach by car. We have to go through some of the most scenic ghats. There is a river which makes a beautiful pearl necklace turn around a hill on the way. While returning it was full moon day and it dazzled under the moonshine in the surrounding dark hills creating a beautiful contrast. I was too wonderstruck to take a photo.

The fort is built on a flat surface of about 100 acres above the top of a hill. We have to reach the top via a rope way. The other way is by about 1500 steps. The guide tells, it was a very rich capital during those days. There is a super market street in ruins where they used to trade jewelry, exotic metals, minerals, pearls. The durbar hall is very large and they have installed a sculpture of Shivaji sitting in Veerasana on the throne. We paid respects to the great ruler there. Shivaji ruled from here in his last years for about 12 years. His throne had about 1280kg of gold. The British after winning over the Maratha kingdom looted and burnt the palace. The palace is believed to have burnt for 11 days.

Why British Looted and Burnt Down the Royal Riches of the Maratha?

Even in Sinhagad we heard the same story. That the British brought down a magnificent palace there. The loot is understandable as a barbaric loot of wealth. But why burn down the palace? Was it piercing their ego? Or was it a standing symbol of Swarajya (Self Rule) which might raise Swathanthrya (freedom) consciousness amongst the masses? Did they strategically burn it down to make them feel pitiful? Why did they not do the same in Mysuru, Bengaluru or Royal Rajasthan palaces? Was it because they were friendly & accepted their superiority & paid rich tributes?

Shivaneri Durga

Shivaji was born here. Shivai Devi temple is there atop the hill after whom he believed to be named after. Jijabai, his mother played crucial role in raising the Swathanthrya, Swarajya consciousness in the young Shivaji. He grew up under able guidance of the highly experienced aged warrior called Dadaji Kondadev here. There is a bronze statue of Young Shivaji with his mother here. We pay tribute to the great mother to have given a great son to the Swarajya. Her own story of sacrifice moves ones heart with great pride in the story of Shivaji.

We visited the Junnar Caves near by the fort. The caves are typical of the buddist style. During the later years it has become a piligrim centre for Hindus as one of the Ashta Vinayakas is installed and worshipped in one of these caves. The central hall is very large about 300ft width and 200ft depth. It is very cool inside as it is carved right in the middle of large mountain.

Pratapgad Fort

This is the fort where the real valour of Shivaji was first witnessed by the world at large by how he killed Afzalkhan. When the young Shivaji became a rebel to the Bijapur kingdom, capturing many forts and declaring Swarajya in the surrounding villages of the Sahyadris, they sent their best general to quell the rebellion. The story of killing of this ferocious general gives the glimpse of Shivaji’s tenacity, tactics, patience, ultimate bravery of taking upon directly on the barbaric general. This episode established the young Shivaji as a force to reckon with in the Deccan.

This fort is very well maintained privately by the kin of Shivaji Maharaj. This is a living fort with the guides, poojars, shop keepers living inside the fort based on tourism. The fort is in the Mahabaleshwar hills. So it is an easy visit for those visiting the exotic hill station. There are beautiful view points in the hill station. The various facets of the rugged Sahyadris is breath taking and beautiful.

The fort is built by Shivaji himself in straight 2 years in this strategic place. It is a fine example of his project management acumen. All the neo jargons of management viz., person day effort, shift based round the clock work, minimum input maximum output, sustainable product with minimal maintenance are standing examples there. You got to see it to believe it. Government has gifted one magnificent bronze mounted statue of Shivaji which is installed at the top of the fort.

Sinhagad Fort

This fort is just at the outskirts of Pune. There is NDA (National Defense Academy) out here. You get past a beautiful large lake at the base of the hill and climb one of the toughest climbs even in car. The story is that of Tanaji Malasure here. He died a martyr while winning the fort in a fiercely fought battle. The story depicts the sacrifice & great valour of the Mawal warriors of the region willing to win over the swarajya & provide unstinting support for their benefactor Shivaji Maharaj.

Lokamanya Tilak bought a house at the top inside this fort & lived here for some time. I wondered what made him take this tough decision. It is a very tough climb to reach here from Pune. It is very treacherous lonely living. The British had already made this place a hell by destroying a palace and other fortifications. Tilak is understood to have used it as his summer residence and wrote Geeta Rahasya. The trip album is here: https://plus.google.com/photos/110449838432121172507/albums/6137186002538111777 Read through the comments and captions for more information

Other places of interest we visited are:

• Lonavala – Near it we visited the Lohgad Fort & Pawna Dam
• Dhom – There is a Lakshmi Narasimha temple just behind the Dhom dam. Dhom is a small quit village off Mahabaleshwar road near Wai. The serenity of the temple with little pond with ducks, Thirtha coming from Gomukha, connects us with nature. The temple history dates back to the Pandavas period. Dhaumya maharishi’s abode is there inside temple premises.
• Siddhagiri Matha Museum or Kaneri Matha at the outskirts of Kolhapur – Exceptionally well set up Grameena Jeevana in beautiful Wax tableaux. It is very good to learn the old traditions & introduce them to the kids. It has good set of figurines of ancient Rishis and their contributions to the world of science. 

Large Vs The Small

India had a glorious past. A walk through our heritage sites, temples, forts will evidence that. The rich literary heritage, classical, colloquial also indicate the freedom the society had, how it executed its freedom with much grace & responsibility. India’s geography, its valleys, forests, the Himalayas, the Vindhyas, the Sahyadris, the Nilgiris are unique for such a large country. These give raise to mineral rich perineal & seasonal rivers. The population is generously developed with so much rich fertility of the land. And it also coexisted with equally thick animal and plant population. The bio diversity of India is one of the best and unique in the world.

With so much natural richness India today is stooped in poverty. Rural migration to urban areas is steadily increasing. More than half the population is living in unhygienic conditions. The child deaths due to malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria, cholera are indications of our poverty. Even the child trade, child labor is rampant despite legislations against it. These are not one off incidents rather regularly occurring that it is no longer news items for new papers. That means it is systemic in nature. Even if it is one off incidents in some good states & areas the root cause is the systemic failure and not by fluke.

That means with so much rich geological diversity for life to thrive have we created a system of failure for a large population? Is this poverty due to nature fury or is it all man made? Has all that rich biodiversity been privatized by the rich? Or is it all polluted? Has it all become unhygienic, unlivable? Why are the rural population driven to cities to live in slums?

The answer lies in the Large Versus the Small. In the glorious past, India had a large number of smaller kingdoms. They were completely self-reliant and independent. The population was well spread across the geography in villages. And these villages were also almost completely self-reliant and self-governed. The basic needs of food, water, shelter & clothing was taken care of by the population of a single village however small it was. All of them hard worked for their living & still had time to create great assets for India in the form of literature, art, sculpture, artecrafts, great monuments etc., They stand tall even today in a large number of villages across India.

But modern civilization assets have a life of not more than 100 years. Be it any factory, city sky scrapers, large dams, fast moving cars, high flying Airplanes. Factories will last as long as they can suck the raw materials around. Cars and Airplanes ply for not more than a decade or 2. Every cement building, edifice, dams have its life. And they all serve only the rich and few medium classes. For the poor nothing of these luxuries is available. The rulers of the country argue and believe deeply that these are the harbinger of progress, wealth, upliftment of the downtrodden. And they are able to sell that dream to all people very well. The learned people, middleclass like us also believe that this is indeed the Holy Grail. The poor and the downtrodden aspire for it.  

The funniest argument is that these will provide the daily bread, clean water, and clothing for all across India. But the hard truth is that, exactly these modern luxuries are the reason and root cause of pushing India into poverty.

But where lies the answer? The answer lies in Gram Swarajya. Every grama has to become swavalambi (self-reliant). Today the government is in the business of promising distribution of grains & water to all. The government should GIVE less and enable people to produce & live by themselves. Government should only protect their harmonious living. But government today snatches their land & water to promise them to give them clean water and food. What an irony.

Public Distribution System (PDS): Concentration of Grains for distribution to the poor

The PDS aims to serve entire India. This is one very very large system. The Punjab wheat has to come to Karnataka Villages, Andhra rice needs to go to Rajasthan villages. So it is a very complex mesh of procurement, transportation, storage & distribution of grains across India. There are a dozen central departments and a dozen state departments involved in this entire complex system. The government itself admits to about 25% pilferage in this system.

Almost none of the quality grains reach the final intended beneficiary. The best quality will be replaced by the rejected worst quality on the way. At many stages they get into private mills, malls, and food processing units, industries at pittance managed by the mighty and powerful. The intended grain for the poor finally ends up in McDonalds burgers or Star hotel plates.

PDS also pushes for large production of same thing in an area. That is called mono culture. That is if Punjab is rich in wheat production, the government procures only wheat from small farmers & nothing else. So in desire of money they grow only one grain. But for healthy living they need multi grain. So government says I’ll give through PDS procured from elsewhere. The earth also becomes weak with mono culture. The farmer also becomes slave of government procurement of his produce as well as consumer of what government gives. Independence fully lost.

Large land Farming Vs Small land farming

While this is happening in the distribution system, what happens to the society of producers & beneficiaries? Are they getting rich? Not really. The farmers suicide is an indicator. The father of Green Revolution for India M Swaminathan now advocates Small Land holding, Family Farming, multi crop farming, organic farming in this paper: http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/107/12/1970.pdf

The green revolution was launched to curb world hunger. He got recognized and rewarded for his great research enabling the rice & wheat revolution in India during 80’s. Now he is shunning his own propositions. Within his life time he realized that this had detrimental effect and increased poverty and is not sustainable. So he has presented several papers to UN in favour of small land holding and family farming which he says as ‘Ever Green Revolution’. But is government listening and caring? They still push for subsidies to chemical farming, factories, polluting air and river.

The chemical farming will lead small farmers into long term debts. Debts will lead to suicide or giving up their land for big land lords. Then become their slaves.

Big land lords want subsidies in chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The chemical factories will lobby with the government for fast and high productivity per acre through chemical farming. Politicians succumb to their lobby money. Politicians are people leaders and they know very well the problem and the solution. But still since they succumb to lobby money, they paint the picture to small farmers to get loan, take subsidy, and assure them that their government will protect them. So the vicious circle starts.

The education about organic farming is slowly but steadily growing. I hope a day comes when people will vote out a politician who promises subsidies and vote to power someone who gives them freedom from subsidies to chemical farming. And hence leading to shut down of these chemical factories.

Large Dams: Concentration of large amount of water for distribution to Arid regions

Here again Government believes in Concentration of Water Wealth of equity distribution to all. It is a myth. Whole lot of movements in India & the world has happened against the large dams. In many cases government has dropped the idea. But still in north east there are more than 100 large dams sanctioned and in various stages of implementation even now. The UPA, NDA are all same when it comes to adopting modern civilization of earth destruction and humanity destruction for the benefit of few.

Typically a large dam submerges very large fertile land, usually forest land. The benefit is for some 5 to 10 times larger area if properly executed in the plains. So cost benefit looks good & stops on paper only. Beyond this only problem, issues, destruction, arise.

Typically the dam construction is first step. But the benefit is realized only after canals, sub canals, sub-sub canals are constructed reaching every acre of the plains that is planned. But rarely that happens. Even in KRS, in one of the ambitious overhead canal they left water recently first time after its construction after so many decades. Funnily they immediately shut it because of leakage. They never attempted to leave water again in that canal. So many kilometers of cement canal, pillars are standing as mute reminder of our failure. While on way to Mysore from Bangalore you can see that overhead canal cross over the highway even today.

Recently, Deve Gowda our beloved former Prime minister was booked for not implementing Benne Hole canal after a very large sum of money was sanctioned and spent when he was PWD minister. But he successfully argued that it was constructed and got out of it. How? Because the canal needs maintenance. So he argued without maintenance mud swept over, bushes, grasses grew. So the canal vanished.

The answer lies again in small tanks construction and maintenance. The ancient system of linked tank (Kere, Kunte, Yeri, Pushkarani, etc.,) system brings up the water table. All the districts in India had linked tank system. Even in the arid plains there used to be tanks. A tank typically used to be life line for surrounding 3-4 villages. And 4-5 linked tanks used to irrigate all agriculture done by those 15-20 villagers. Some of the old & famous surviving tanks have some inscriptions of that day’s king or paleygar who commissioned it. For example, Chitradurga’s Chandravalli tank has Mayura Varma of Kadamba’s inscriptions. That means it served several generations life for almost 1500 years now. Can you compare it with our Benne Hole example!?!

Large Conglomerates: Reducing jobs, eliminating large number of small players; eliminating competition; reducing quality

During last UPA regime due to the concerted efforts of the opposition they shot down the FDI in retail. It is a good thing. We are already under so much poverty by embracing modern ways of things. To top it if we bring in foreign investment also they’ll release us only after sucking out all blood. British rule already taught us before. But we don’t seem to learn from bad experience of recent past nor from good example of ancient times.

Large conglomerates are entering simple retail industry. The large conglomerates will have the financial muscle to arm twist the government and banks to sanction large loans. Then they ensure the direct farm to shop delivery of farm products. This will give raise to large farming, contract farming & eliminate small farmers or make them slaves. Then in the procurement & transportation, there a number of small business owners who get eliminated. Then in the distribution it will eliminate the stockists and the small shop owners. The small petty shop owners will be generally all family members involved. And all of them will need to find new jobs or get enslaved. So in this entire process, the job loss will be more than 50% of the jobs originally held. The consumer hopes to get the benefit of those channels removed. But do you really see that? All the profit get pocketed handsomely by the corporate but still show losses in the books somehow for tax avoidance. So government also looses by tax collection at various stages by the small businesses.

So the net effect is whole lot of job loss and hence increasing poverty; Increasing wealth of the wealthy creating a greater divide between the rich and the poor; the government loses tax revenue.

Final Conclusion

So through these examples, it is clear that Small land farming, Small tanks, Small businesses create harmony, independence & interdependence, fosters innovation, sustenance for generations, quality. Most importantly it creates wealth, job sustenance, it eliminates poverty. It creates freedom to live. After all that’s what our forefathers fought freedom for.  Why do we give it away to another set of goons? 

Why NO Dharmic Education in our Indian Basic Education?

Krishna in Srimad Bhagavad Gita says “A Dharmic Life is necessary for purity in mind”.

It is such a simple thing. There is no dispute in that. We need pure mind with love for the world and no hatred for anyone and anything. A dharmic life will give that. Now how do we develop dharmic life? By developing children through dharmic education.

I feel we Indians are so stupid. We just ape the west! We are such a rich nation of religions, philosophies, diversity. We have given raise to such varied thoughts. So many religions co-exist peacefully here. It is so pervasive in our life. Our names are after our gods & prakrithi. But still we keep Dharmic education out of our primary education. Why?

Our society values are deteriorating. Child abuse, women abuse is rampant. Society is very corrupt. We care less for nature. Powerful people don’t care for lesser sections of the society. Economic disparity is all time high. There is no equality. We show pity but no empathy for the poor. We give alms but snatch their land & water.

Aren’t these a sign of deteriorating morals in the society as a whole? Should we not seriously debate to include Dharmic education in our primary education? We have made education as birth right. Almost every child in India goes to school now. Nook & corner of India has schools. Government infrastructure is good, not bad at least. School education covers basic maths, science, English & some language. It equips a youth to get a job & earn his living. But most important for life is goodness in life. Should we not impart that as an education to children of our country?

If we have taken in so much from western culture, should we also not take some good culture from our own ancient Gurukula system of education? In ancient education only Dharmic education was there as primary education. The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Geetha was primary education. The Shastras, Smrithi, Vedas, Upanishads, Kavya, Alankara were advanced studies. The maths, science, art, architecture, astrology, medicine, law were higher education depending upon interest evolved by the youth.

We got independence from British. But not from their education system. When are we actually going to get Independence then? Lord Macaulay architected an education system for Indians to neutralize the society of its pride & self-esteem & primarily to make them slaves. It makes the child bland, prideless of its culture.  In his own words the intention of imposing the British education system on the Indian largesse is:

“

to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect

“

His topics in his parliament paper presentation depict his intentions clearly:

19. 7. INDIANS CANNOT BE EDUCATED BY MEANS OF THEIR MOTHER-TONGUE: ENGLISH IS THE LANGAUGE

19. 13. EXPENDITURE ON SANSCRIT AND ARABIC LEARNING IS DEAD LOSS

The paper he presented to the British parliament in full text is in the below link:

http://www.languageinindia.com/april2003/macaulay.html#minute

Whatever his narrow minded intentions were, it has made a significant damage to our self-esteem across the nation, lasting for nearly 200 years now. Isn’t it time we open our minds and debate genuinely loss or gain by bringing back Moral Value Education back into our basic education?

When we debate the inclusion of Dharmic education in our primary education, several questions come up. Lets take a dig at it.

1.       Why Dharmic Education? Let it stay out of Basic Education. Let it be in Mutts, Temples only.

Answer: Why not? What is wrong with it making it universal? It builds up a good character in an individual. It teaches what is good and what is bad. It will bring out the inquisitiveness in individuals of determining what is good and what is bad. It teaches society living in harmony. It teaches ‘Be good, Do good’, ‘Speak the truth’, ‘Respect elders, women, children’, ‘Help the needy’, ‘Don’t hurt others’ ‘Don’t discriminate another human’ etc., It teaches these basic goodness through simple stories and ballads. The stories and prayers will imprint well upon the child’s mind. When they grow up and come across bad actions, situations, their subconscious mind will lead the person to tread the righteous path.

The mutts & temples are there for certain lucky sections of the society. And not all go there. And even those who go there ask God not education but results.

But the Indian government education is for all. It is common for all. It is basic. Dharmic education should be part of basic education. It should be made compulsory for all. Many institutions in India today teach Bhagavad Geeta recitation, Yoga, Pranayama as part of their curriculum. Ramayana, Mahabharata teaching and exams are conducted by certain institutions across India. But they are not under the ambit of Government’s basic education curriculum. By making it common for all, India should hope to build everyone as Dharmic citizens.

2.       What makes up Dharmic Education? There are too many scriptures. There is no end to it. What about language of teaching?

Answer: There is no end to anything in this world. But can we stop studying because of it. We must start somewhere. The scope, syllabus will all come out if there is a will. If we all ask for it, then the government is by the people for the people, so they’ll make a committee and do it.

Language should not be a barrier. At least for learning good way of life people should choose their mother tongue. I prey in god some pride prevails about our mother tongue in our mothers and fathers.

3.       What about Christians & Muslims? They’ll demand their holy texts to be part of it. Then it becomes religious education & not Dharmic education.

Answer: Fine. What is wrong? They are Indians. Their texts also teach Dharma. They have good texts, ballads, stories even if they are foreign. They can be taught in respective mother tongue. They should also form committee to recommend their syllabus. There are 100’s of sects and religions in our India. Jains, Veerashaivas, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsees etc.,. So let there be options to choose. Let Government form committees who recommend syllabi for all 10 standards of our basic education for each of the options.

It will all take few years to iron out what should be there. But right now there has to be a healthy debate for inclusion of Dharmic Education in our basic education. That is an absolute necessity. This is India. We should be tolerant. We should show the world the right way. We should develop tolerance to learn various tenets of all religions of the world.

I believe Dharmic education is different from Religious education. Religion is associated with specific God or Gods. Whereas Dharma is basically Manava Dharma teaching the basic essence of ‘Be Good & Do Good’ & what are our duties as world citizens.

Different religions give different names to God. And impart the Dharmic education in the name of that God. So it becomes difficult to differentiate and make a single syllabus. This is my feeling. But if we can crack it for our India, then it would be phenomenal. And we should make a sincere attempt.

4.       But some of the holy texts in some religions have hatred for specific named sects; Idol worshippers as non-believers; Hatred & Discrimination based on various differences in living. That will create hatred in the society. So it is equivalent to Government creating hatred groups through systemic education?

Answer: Those sections of hatred should be removed. It is that simple. But then there would be uproar by the custodians of that religion to edit & interpret their holy text. There should be open debate on why they support hatred by faith, way of life, way of worshipping. Such people should be alienated while creating the prescribed syllabus. The committee should hold responsibility to bring out moral value education through these religious texts to build up a good society by education kids in the right way.

5.       What about the infrastructure? Teachers? Equipping & training them? Exams, evaluation?

Answer: We already have much of infrastructure in place. This is just an additional subject. Of course it will have options. Many options. So accordingly the schools have to provide options as much as possible. According to the locality, demographics, teachers available in the village/ area, the schools will need to be equipped accordingly.

It is similar to how we are handling language options. World’s all languages are available as options to our kids in the curriculum. But not all schools can afford to give all that. But they do give local language for sure depending upon the demographics of that region.

Exams and evaluations need to be evolved slowly. Not necessarily it has to be made a compulsory passing subject. However the oral recitation should be given importance. I had written previously on the importance of Time & Memory: http://npraveer.blogspot.in/2014/09/time-memory-character-building-in-child.html

Also another unfortunate thing is parents are not caring for their mother tongue. So for example in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bangalore, there is no option for any of the Indian languages other than Hindi & Sanskrit.

In Kumaran’s a prestigious school in South Bangalore, 50% of the school kids choose foreign language at the cost of losing their mother tongue or local language. It is their parent’s choice that they grow up indifferent & ignorant of their own culture & richness of their mother tongue or local language.

6.       So the chances are that even in the Dharmic subject choices, the parents will choose different subject than their own religion?

Answer: That’s possible. How can we control that? It is upto parent’s intellect.

7.       What about default option? In rural, remote areas there will be limitations for multiple options?

Answer: It has to be localized. The villagers have to decide and implement what is good & feasible according to their demographics.

8.       They say State & Church should be separate. So they say Religious education should not come into universal primary education. Religion is personal and should not be enforced upon all.

Answer: This concept of State & Church is separate is a western concept. It should be properly debated. Should we follow blindly what the west says? Should we not look at our ancient times how well we prospered in peace? How did our society give raise to so many philosophies which is in practice today? How the different faith practitioners coexist peacefully and respectfully even today as they did yesterday? None of those saints who proposed alternate theories were hanged or crucified. It is a tolerant society yesterday and today.

So we should not be afraid of religious education giving raise to dogma as in the west. In fact we should oppose such education which will say only this text is holy, nothing else. That is what caused much friction in western world declaring finally State & Church are separate. Our holy texts should be allowed to be thoroughly questioned and explored. For example in India, as much we regard Sri Rama as Maryada Purushothama, we question his decisions from the first to last. Putting him to test and putting ourselves into exploring what is Dharma? Why did he kill Tadaka taking up Sthree Hathya papa? Why did he side with Sugreeva to kill Vali from back? There are 1000’s of such questions that our philosophy poses and answers convincingly. 

Our education should blossom a child’s mind, expand it and let it explore. We should bravely adopt this for the good of the society.

So my point is the implementation details will open up lot more questions and difficulties. But the educationists, policy makers have to seriously attempt to introduce Dharmic education in the universal primary education. It is the need of the hour. Dharma should be given equal importance if not more than Maths & English. 

A Tribute to Tribals of India

Tribal way of living is the most primitive type. In any part of the world the tribals represent the Indigenous culture of that region. They represent the most independent way of life. That means the tribal living requires very less dependency on each other. There is no large society structure. Every family is independent. Every family hunts or gathers their own food & water. They make their own clothes. For dwelling they take little help from other families. For entertainment they get together and develop indigenous culture, tradition, language, ballads. Their religion will be generally simple. If a mountain is their life line, they worship it. In desert they worship sand, cloud, water etc., In forest they create forest goddess, or worship various animals, plants, trees etc., which they feel are their lifelines.

Just to give a comparison with our life, let’s take an example of a small family of an engineer, teacher and their kids in a city. They would not grow vegetables, pulses. They don’t fetch water.  They don’t build their house by themselves. They don’t grow cotton nor make clothes. They get all that by paying money. How they get money? There exists a complex system. It is a societal structure. Money plays complex role in this structure. In this complex structure the family head works for money and feeds the family with the basic needs like food, water, clothing, shelter & security. He works in a small part of that complex system which provides these basic needs for seemingly all. 

So anthropologists who want to understand the human evolution study tribals to know how society evolved? Because that’s how man existed in ancient times. Then they look at how man evolved? Why society evolved? Who defines that structure? How? Who protects that structure? How kingdoms came up. Why it requires such large complex structure? Etc., The more you like to know the murkier it gets. The tribal way of life is the epitome of simplicity.

India must take some pride that we have NOT wiped out tribal way of life completely. Several tribes still persist with semi tribal way of life with little interaction with modern civilization. Some tribals who are completely untouched by civilization in Andamans, Orissa are being declared UN Heritage and being given state protection.

Compare it with the rest of the world. In whole of Europe, north and south Americas, most of Asia, Australia the tribal way of life is completely wiped out. The European imperialists with their invention of steam engine, fast transportation, navy, increased their fire power, gun power and went about ruling the entire world. The religion which plays key role in shaping society also was more taunting and oppressive rather than self-exploratory. The Imperialistic religions like Christianity and Islam slayed their indigenous way of life & self-exploratory life style. The new religions brought new way of worshipping, new theories, new gods. But unfortunately they focused equally ferociously on killing the old faith. The Pagan religious culture of Europe, The Mayans of Americas, The Egyptians, The Mesopotamians, Various indigenous Arabian tribal cultures are all completely wiped out today.

As these imperial religions expanded, they did nothing to imbibe any good things from other religions & regions. They are very rigid. They forced their theory upon people they came to rule. For example in Christianity, the individual aspirations for material needs are much appreciated. Every individual has the right to aspire for material needs & luxury life. Control over ones desires is not wise according to them. Where as in eastern religions like Hindu, Jain, Buddhism the importance given to abstinence, contentment, simplicity, yogic way of life not just for saints but for householders is very high. If as society we don’t control our material desires then it is not sustainable. We all know that. We have to look inner for happiness, satisfaction, god!

Indian freedom struggle has got much aid from tribals at various stages of history. Maharana Pratap Singh, Shivaji the Great, Chandrasekhar Azad the revolutionary freedom fighter are few examples of many in India whose life is greatly shaped by the tribals of India. 

Maharana Pratap Singh & Mewar Bhils 

The Bhils of Mewar had special relation with the Maharana Pratap. These tribals protected the great king and their family during the 13 long years of exile in forests. They shifted him safely from place to place in harshest of the conditions.

The tribal leaders lent a great help in the great battle of Haldi Ghati. Why did they put their life in danger for the great leader? Why so many tribes risked their life to protect him? When Akbar’s army was scouting the mountains for the traces of the Maharana why did they sacrifice their life to protect him?

Since his childhood days he regarded the Mewar Bhils with respect. He roamed around the Aravali hills understanding the geography and people. He vouched for protecting their habitats, their independence. He encouraged their skills, culture & tradition. He trained and played warfare with them in their way.

When Akbar’s army backed off, Maharana was reinstated on the throne. The Bhils of Mewar wanted nothing material in return. No big edifices, no big forts, no highways. They got their life of freedom, a life of self-exploration, a life of harmony with nature, a life of harnessing nature, a simple beautiful livelihood.

The Raja protected their living rights. And they laid their life for him.

Compare it to today’s Raja = The Indian Government = Praja Rajya = Large business houses + Middleclass demands. That’s all. All others are scums.

60% of Indian tribals are displaced from their dwellings. Mostly due to dams & mining. Did they ask for mining & dams? No. State asked for it. Who is state? Is it people protector? Or is it people destructor? These tribals are called internally displaced. They are illegal occupants of land wherever they go. So they have taken up arms. They have become Maoists. They are called naxals. They have become anti nationals, violent & bloody.

Shivaji the Great & Mavalli Tribals 

Shivaji grew up playing earthly games with the Mavalli tribes. Most of his child hood friends were from these freedom loving tribes. Under the watchful eyes of Dadaji Kondadev, these free spirited boys wandered around the hills & forests of the Great Sahyadri range. They grew up to become Shivaji’s trusted generals in building up his empire.

Baji Prabhu Deshpande laid down his life protecting Shivaji at the mouth of Panhalaghad. Tanaji’s sacrifice while capturing the Simhaghad for Shivaji’s mother’s wish is very famous in the folklore of Maratha region.

Why these people did willingly laid down their lives for the kingdom? Shivaji built new forts and fortified old ones in toughest of the Sahyadri hills. Why did they help him? Did he enslave them? Or Entrust them? Did he snatch their livelihood? Or did he give them status?

What can our today’s tribals do for us? What their strengths are? How can we utilize them for nation building? Are they good archers? Are they good artisans? Artists? Builders? Naturalists? Do they know the forest landscape? Do they have knowledge of the flaura & fauna? Should we not care today? Are they just illegal occupants of the world!?

The India’s Freedom Struggle & Tribals

Till the British rose to the power no government or king had disturbed the various tribals living across Indian mountains and forests. The need for coal, iron, for railways, brought the need of modern civilization in direct conflict with the tribals. The traditional community land rights were challenged. Also the British craze for coffee & tea guzzling and exporting cleared pristine forests for monoculture and enslaved its inhabitants in large estates.

Birsa Munda a young tribal leader lead an uprising in the Chota Nagpur forest areas. He became spiritual guru also. He lead a great armed rebellion against the British. Similarly there were, many uprising against the British misrule by the tribals across India especially in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand regions.    

How can we protect Tribals today? 

We still have about 8% tribal population in India. They are peaceful people. We should let them live where they are & however they are. We need to learn from them. We need to engage with them humanely. Entrust and empower them to protect the forests, mountains, rivers. Utilize their archery, physical strength in sports, army, police. Utilize their naturalist knowledge.

We are aping too much of western culture. We must know civilization thrived well even before coffee tea were discovered. We must get back to roots. Why not? Baba Ramdev sells simple alternatives. Our own elders used to do many alternatives from simple things grown in backyard. We must get back to that.

Too much of carbon footprint by each and every family. We are growing our material needs. We don’t even realize it is causing so much stress on government to acquire forests and come in direct conflict with the tribals.

Do we know that we are the cause of Naxalism? Our life style is the root cause of Maoism? We demand high lifestyle. Government in order to provide it, cuts forests, drills mines, bring down hills. Where do people living there go? For them state is a terrorist organization. For them we are all terrorists.

If we have to remove Naxalism we have to be ready to remove consumerism. We have to adopt ancient ways of simplicity. We have to gain confidence and love of the tribals. Yes. That is possible. Then they themselves will help us build Submarines, Fighter jets, Mars Mission Satellites. Those are necessary for us. Not individual luxury like, granite flooring, leather jacket, luxury high speed car. We need to build community assets like our ancients built beautiful long lasting temples, lakes, tanks, forts. Like the way the tribals built formidable forts for Rana Pratap & Shivaji, they can help us build today’s defense. Provided we ask them. Provided, we tell them why they should sacrifice. And how we can rehabilitate and empower, train them to contribute for such feats! If we directly displace them without even asking for Car manufacturing, Paint manufacturing for meeting someone’s luxury needs, then they obviously revolt.

We should let them live. We should let them fight to retain their forests, hills, rivers. We should recognize their rights to live. At least in theory if we support their life, then it translates to some austerity in our life. In practice to bring in much austerity is difficult. But if we give them right to protect their environment, then we force ourselves for simple living. It can be however gradual.

Some of my friends say when I pick a subject I don’t stick to the line of that subject. I go all around. Like in this example, Tribals – Religion – conversion –  freedom struggle - materialism – simplicity – Maoism etc., But as you see they are all interconnected. Each of it is not standalone & sacrosanct. I wish our policies were as people oriented as our ancient times than today’s mad economics based. 

Increasing Child Abuse Incidents

Bangalore woke up to the shock of series of child rape incidents recently. For the tolerant cosmopolitan nature of Bangalore the child rape incidents have marred its image. Parents across the city gathered for protest. Candle light vigil was held. Government was blamed for lethargy. School authorities were blamed for indifference. The culprits were arrested. Police commissioner was changed. But the incidents continue to occur. Elsewhere in the state another incident of child abduction and rape happened on close heels of these incidents.

It seems like people just like to fix the problems in a jiffy. Just blame the system, government, police, school, all things around us, make a spark protest and move on. People believe this is a quick fix solution. But is there any long term solution at all?  There is. But multitude of things should come together for it.

Government – Should bring in a strong deterrence for erring individuals

Society – Should develop a community culture of good assimilation of different cultures

Individuals – Should dedicate some time for the society and involve in community bonding

Education – Should give equal weightage to Society Value building. Dharmic education should be brought into the primary education compulsorily. 

Parenting – Should spend quality time every day with children for their good upbringing.

The Government

The Government is just a reflection of the society. After sometime the people forget the incidents, leaving the victim’s kith & kin to fight for justice alone. The media will have some other flash news to chase. The Raja (government) will forget the Raja Dharma of protecting the Praja (common man). Instead he will become accompli with the powerful perpetrators and forget the common man.

This should not happen. There is a constant threat to the upright officers in Government. Government heads (politicians) should support & empower upright officers. They should let them perform their duty and bring the culprits to the books.

Government should enact stricter laws for such heinous crime & implement it strictly. It will become a strong deterrence for repeat offenders.

The Culprit

We think the culprit is a Psycho. But one of the victims is a family man with wife & kid. So what drove them to such heinous crime? In all cases, the easy access to the filthy scenes on mobile, internet, etc., made them addict to it. They share it with friends and enjoy the vulgarity. Female becomes an object of lust. It can happen to anybody. The individual has to resist such wrong temptations. Individuals having some good upbringing (Sanskara) will have a subconscious guilt for such wrong deeds & resist such temptations. A weak person succumbs to temptations & enjoys it. A hapless girl child in school becomes the victim.

Child crime by an adult is the most heinous crime. He should be dealt with the strongest possible sentencing by the law of the land. It will deter a criminal from repeat offense.

But can we prevent such crimes altogether in the society? For that entire society needs to create a good upbringing environment. Can we create that environment?

  

The Urban Society

The biggest responsibility lies on society as a whole. But who is society? It is boils down to individuals. Every Individual has to become vigilant & caring.

The individuals in Urban society are increasingly becoming indifferent. We are becoming too much aloof. We are always in a hurry. We are losing connect with the society. We fear talking to strangers. We don’t take any elders advice. We don’t stay with elders. Our only form of entertainment is TV, Gadgets & Mall. Those make us individualistic. The entertainment is also material & money based. Simple chatting with neighbors & saying a hello to the passersby, is a thing of the past now.

Everyday thousands of people migrate to cities. For Bangalore kind of city, people come from all over India. The city becomes a melting pot of cultures. But instead of taking in all the good culture, the society is becoming indifferent or intolerant to the different cultures. So the easy way out is to take to Individualistic culture viz., TV & Mall Culture.

The urban society should reconnect with the roots of our social culture. The apartments, colonies should encourage daily community gathering. It may be for any good purpose. It could be for charcha, pravachana on any social topic, or, group singing, Bhajans, Satsang etc., All people should get a chance of participation. It need not be for religious purpose only; it could be for any social topic like Kannada Sahitya, Filmdom, Drama, Cricket etc., Let it not be current affairs as it leads to another TV kinda debate without much depth and only rhetoric. If it leads to some constructive society and community bond building that would be the best. As much it reduces the TV & Mall culture that much is good. It may not remove it altogether, but it should reduce.

People at their locality should come together for intermingling and appreciating each other’s culture and diversity. It is not busy life which prevents it. But it is our ego. We must become conscious of our ego and try to overcome that. The society bonding will kill that ego if we step out of ourselves and mingle with different people.

The Education

In the current education, value education is missing. Full focus is on skill building for bread earning only. In ancient India, the basic education was Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagavad Geetha. Skill building was part of the process and not the main aim. The value building was the main purpose of education.

But today bringing in Bhagavad Geetha into basic education will face toughest resistance as; it is termed religious education by intellectuals who don’t have time to understand Bhagavad Geetha. So people must find their own solutions for it & not leave it to Government to decide what is best for the kids. People must contribute time & energy to build simple Balabharathi, Bala Gokula classes for community education. Through Shloka recitation, Veer Katha, Geeth, understanding local culture, local deity, we develop a sense of pride & patriotism & good values of life.

The general public should demand “Dharmic” education as part of the primary compulsory education in the system itself. Let there be healthy debate on how to introduce it. How to make it plural considering so many different religions, class, caste, language, creed etc., But it must be debated rather than shunning it as unnecessary crap. It is a NECESSITY for building a good society.

As the child grows up as adult, this value education will deter him to become a pervert in the society. He will also become alert of such perverts around and take necessary action to curb it. And as a child also awareness is created & if he sees something wrong happening around, he’ll raise alarm.

The Parent

The important thing is both parents should bring up their children. Both must dedicate some quality time every day for the child upbringing. They must impart values in the child’s life. They must sacrifice their TV time for some face to face time with the child. Bed time story reading, singing songs together are some good & fun time pass one should adopt. Parents should encourage children to participate in sports. It will bring up basic value education of team bonding, healthy competition, rules adherence, etc., in children. It will also teach the children the good touch, bad touch aspects of life.