Medieval Peace & Prosperity: Glimpses of Keladi & Hoysala Kingdom

The year-end trip was not planned but just happened. The main places we covered are:

Halebid & Belavadi – In Hassan district; The Hoysala Architectural wonders

Shivamogga city around – Koodali & Holehonnoor; Simhadhama and Elephant camp.

Sagara – Keladi, Ikkeri, Varadahalli & Unchalli falls apart from the usual Jog falls where there was no water.

The heritage & history intrigued me as usual & inspired me to write about it.

Keladi Kingdom – Symbol of Peace & Prosperity

Keladi Nayakas ruled this small peaceful kingdom in the Shivamogga & Sagar region for over 250 years during Vijayanagara times from about 1499CE till about 1763CE.

Keladi is about 10kms away from Sagar today and has a well-kept museum & Keladi Rameshwara temple. It was one of the capital. The other 2 capitals from where they ruled are Ikkeri and Bidanur which is not called Nagara near Hosanagara. We visited Ikkeri and Keladi this time.

Keladi houses the large beautiful Rameshwara temple. It is very well kept and maintained by the ASI. The highlight is that of the Rangamantapa of the main temple has very rich Carvings on Raktha Chandana wood = Red Sandalwood. The entire ceiling is covered with exquisite carvings and very strong pillars are made of the same wood. It is one of the costly wood rarely available now. It gives the glimpse of the prosperity of the kingdom and peace it enjoyed.

My crude youtube video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7SSj0xhTto

The kingdom did not have any upraising or violence during its just rule. About 17 rulers ruled from this dynasty over this kingdom for over 250 years. The main rulers noteworthy for study are:

Chaudappa Nayaka – He founded the kingdom with permission from the Vijayanagar kings around 1499AD. He had full freedom to carry out his administration in his area.

Shivappa Nayaka – He ruled for over 30 years this kingdom. He built Shivamogga as a trade centre. He built very good trading ports and established good relations with Vijayanagara kings and other neighboring states.

Keladi Rani Chennamma – She is very famous in the National History. When Aurangazeb’s army marches Deccan to capture Shivaji’s sons after Shivaji’s death, no king or noble will take courage to give shelter to Rajarama the last son of Shivaji. Because, his elder son Sambhaji by then was already killed by the hounds of the Mughal marauder. In such a scenario, Rani Keladi Chennamma gives shelter & defends her kingdom against the army of the Mughal. She thus protects the Maratha heir to enable his crowning later.

She is not to be confused with the other famous Rani Chennamma of Kittur who fought valiantly against the British in 19^th Cent before the 1857 war of Independence, to defend her kingdom.

Verammaji – She is the last of the dynasty. She becomes the victim of another Islamic plunderer from South, Hyderali. Kirmani the court historian of Tippu gives vivid details about the valour she shows in defending her kingdom. But in the end she is captured and inhumanely dragged by chain to the dungeons of Hyderali & Tipu where she is meted with very sad death. What a humiliating end to a glorious little kingdom!!

This little kingdom thrived @ contemporary times with Vijayanagara Kingdom. Vijayanagara did not attack them nor dethroned them. They honoured their freedom. Sonda Arasaru were its neighbours, Mysore wodeyars were in friendly terms with them, Chitradurga Nayakas had friendly relations with them so much so that after dethroning of Veerammaji, some of the chieftains escaped and found shelter here under the famous Madakari Nayaka.

The museum in Keladi is well maintained. It gives a detailed account of dynasty, its rulers contributions for the areas development, prosperity, administration, justice, trade etc., Keladi Chennamma was also called as “Menasina Raani” the “Queen of Cardamom”. Her kingdom was rich & famous in international trading of Cardamom as she encouraged the people to grow it on all the forest trees & harvest it sustainably!

Lathe Turned Pillars – Architectural Wonder of the Hoysala

Every time I visit a Hoysala temple these lathe turned pillars amaze me (Apart from other innumerable such wonderful details of course)

I made a small youtube video on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51J2OkDekLo&t=4s

This wonder called Lathe Turned Pillars from Hoysala Temple Architecture needs a lot more study & research.

-          These have very accurate concentric circles carved on heavy pillars weighing about 25-30 tons.

-          Some temples have easily 60-70 such large well carved pillars

-          These temples are all over Karnataka in 100s of villages. In almost all of these temples, these lathe turned pillars are ubiquitous

-          Bottle shaped variable girth is made in these massive stone pillars.

-          Some of these pillars have amazing shining kept up for all these thousand years. I can see my face reflection in it & can see even shirt color reflecting perfectly fine

A number questions need to be researched.

When I ask around with the temple priests or guides, some vague answers come like – They were godly men with extraordinary powers; They did it all with only chisel and hammer. They never had modern machinery!

But is it possible to produce such machine accuracy by hand? Did they have much advanced technology? Much advanced machinery? Where is the evidence? Are there any archeological evidences of such large machinery? Who is researching it? All researchers & books call it as Lathe turned pillars only. But where is the evidence of lathe of such enormity? How was it running? Was there electric power? Is it possible to produce such accuracy with any slow turning lathe? It has to be fast turning to get such finesse.

These lathe turned pillars are very unique of only Hoysala time temples. You don’t find it before or after. For example, in the later Vijayanagara temples you don’t find lathe turned pillars but you find large rectangular pillars. In earlier Chalukyan period you find, cave carvings & heavy cuttings but not lathe turned. So does it mean, this technology existed only during 10^th to 13^th cent? That too only in Karnataka region? And it died after the kingdom collapsed with Mallik Kafur’s pillage of the Hoysala temples?

You find it in so many villages spread across thousands of kilometers. How is it so ubiquitous? Was this lathe technology so common and easily accessible to the villagers spread so far and wide? Was this technology so less expensive yet to so accurate?

There are a lot of informal groups on facebook, twitter who are great fans of Hoysala architecture. Such a large human potential is not organized. Hardly anybody to fund formal research, record, present and develop on it. Universities are mired in caste politics and no hopes to get anything from them.

The Hoysala dynasty ruled most part of Karnataka & boarders of Andhra, Tamilnadu during 10^th to 13^th Century. They took over the reins from Kalyana Chalukyas. They ruled a very large portion of Deccan very peacefully for nearly 3 decades. The sheer number of temples and fine art on stone they have produced itself is a testimony to the peace & prosperity the kingdom had. The priority they gave for art & craft is the main reason for this peace & prosperity.

Science & Sociology of Peace & Prosperity

The British and the modern day historians say our Indian science was primitive or non-existent. Why do they say like that? Why research is curtailed in these areas?

The British and Modern day historians say, that medieval times were mired in petty wars between petty kingdoms in India! Are they applying Europe & Arabia directly to India without studying? Why is this theory not questioned? Is it time to question it & delve into it unbiased?

They claim, kingdoms were small, unsustainable and poor. How then was international trade happening & no upraising by the common man? Are they brain washing us by saying expansionist, imperialist regimes are rich? Are they making us believe Big is beautiful & Small is ugly?

They say kings were self-indulgent & rich keeping the kingdom poor. Again are they applying Islamic tradition & European king culture to Indian context without studying them in-depth. No evidence of literature or sculpture of drought, famine, poor people dying of hunger & thirst. The sculpture depicts dance, musical forms, elephants, horses, Puranic stories, Ramayana etc.,    

The modern education borrowed from British want to still produce Guilty Indians & hence the narration is such. In today’s text books kids are made to mug up the entire Mughal lineage, Tipu as Tiger etc., but there is hardly a half page mention on Hoysalas in our CBSE text books. Why? Who are the nation builders & who are its destructors? Why pillagers and marauders are depicted as BENEVOLENT rulers?

The British even today claim they were benevolent rulers across the world giving science & technology, sociology to each of the countries they ruled!! They have brain washed us enough.

It is time to introspect and find our roots ourselves with our own lenses. Please visit these places & question & find answers yourselves. They are just around you within 100-500kms radius. Lets join hands to rebuild our grand narration. India deserves it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Government should protect the people NOT run their lives

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

Lets look at a simple example.

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

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

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

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

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

The natives protested.

Native: We can extract and sell it to you

British: We need it fast

Native: We can do it with hard work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Medieval and Ancient India had world’s highest GDP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Siri Gandhada Naadu – The Story of Sandalwood

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

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

The Golden Age of India

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

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

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

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

The British loot

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

-          Easy and free access to the raw material

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

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

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

For example, in the case of textile industries -

  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Indian Forest Department

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

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

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

-          No access to the raw materials

-          Heavy taxation on their produce

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

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

1.       Wood cutter

2.       Wood transporter

3.       Accountant

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

Today’s situation

Today the situation is not entirely different.

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

Hardly any raw material for the craftsmen available.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How is RSS different from Other Hindu Organizations?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KSHATRA missing in today’s Hindu Organizations

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

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

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

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

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

Silence of Hindu Organizations over Organized Terror

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

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

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

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

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

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

Selfless Service is Sangh Ideology

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

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

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

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