Rajasthan Travelogue by Anand Pranav

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

Photos are uploaded here:  

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

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

Rajasthan Travelogue by Anand Pranav.

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

Following places we went in Rajasthan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bikaner:

Following places we went in Bikaner.

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

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

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

Jaisalmer:

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

Following places we went in Jaisalmer.

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

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

Jodhpur:

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

Following places we went in Jodhpur.

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

Udaipur:

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

Following places we went in Udaipur.

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

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

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

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

Pushkar:

Following places we went in Pushkar:

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

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

Jaipur:

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

Following places we went in Jaipur:

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

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

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

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

                                                   The  end

Time & Memory: Character Building in a Child

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

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

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

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

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

Physical Activity/ Sports = 1-2hrs daily

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Other types of classes:

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

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

School related homework = 1 to 2hrs

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

TV & Other Time pass

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

Love Jihad: What is real?

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

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

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

What is Love Jihad?

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

In Love Jihad there is Organized and Unorganized.

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

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

Is it a Social Evil in India?

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

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

How do we curb this Social Evil?

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

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

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

Parenting

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

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

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

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

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

I am not a Communist; I am a Socialist

Who cares? But anyway here I am.

Some of the articles I have written made many believe I’m a communist. They did brand me a communist. Someone commented on me as a bleeding heart communist in reply to a detailed comment on an article in the social media:

http://www.thenewsminute.com/news_sections/1007#at_pco=cfd-1.0&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=7&at_tot=15&at_si=53f9d20f52059760
 
So I thought let me clarify what I am. I’m a proud Indian. I’m a proud Hindu. I’m a proud Kannadiga. I’m a proud Madhwa Brahmin. I’m a householder. I’m a nationalist. My writings and thoughts are deeply sociology based. Hence I am a socialist.

I’m proud of who I am and all characters stated above. I can defend to a great extent all of it & why I should be proud of it.

All oppositions I do and write also reflects these characters only. Be it opposition to large dams, opposition to industries for personal wealth, opposition to personal transport, opposition to faith conversion through violent, bribery means, opposition to propaganda based education, opposition to capitalism, large conglomerates, Loan based economy. Etc.,

My support for many things also stem from my upbringing through who I’m stated above. Like for example, It is Hindu culture to worship nature & protect it through strong communities who are custodians of nature for many millennia; It is Kannada culture to fight inequality; It is Madhwa Brahmin culture to embrace debate culture and oppose propaganda based education.

What is socialist? Why am I a socialist? We’ll delve in this article. A socialist is not communist. A communist claims to be a socialist.

Do I oppose communism? Yes I do. Clearly. Let’s first see what it is.

What is communism?

It is a failed theory in Russia as well as failing theory in China. Some argue what is followed in China & post Lenin Russia is not communism at all. But the fact is, it failed first & hence it went corrupt. In any case it is rather new theory and is yet to prove itself if at all it gets a chance. My argument is it has inherent problems to succeed. I’m not an expert though in this subject. Not well studied but I had to write as I wanted to veer away my branding.

Inherent problems in communism:

Communism is completely state driven. State drives everything. State determines what is good for the society and imposes upon it. There is little individual rights. Think tank is supposed to be centralized and determines what is good for the state. Communism believes society is not mature, it cannot govern itself. In the name of equality, State owns everything. Individual owns nothing. Every individual works for the state. He needs to work what is determined and directed by the state. So an individual, who wants to explore inner self, spirituality, explore the world, nature’s creation, who created nature etc., will not be supported by the state nor will allow citizens to support him.

Religion is defunct under communism. In fact, Karl Marx says, Religion is like Opium. This will get them into trance and forget the worldly life.

Communism, I believe developed in a context of the Christianity’s domination of state in the European region. So communism only responds to Christianity as Opium.

Christianity dominated European state post the decline of the Roman Empire. Roman Empire declined due to its excessive emperor-slave divide. And raising slave unrest.

Later rulers across Europe conveniently used Christianity as a tool to suppress the salves rising against the state. The rulers through the church preached them to believe in God and forget misery.

For centuries this authoritarian rule bread inherent unrest. As a result, people protested against authoritarian church. Renaissance came. Science & inventions, exploration came. Protestants came. Industrialization happened. Industrialization ushered in new found wealth by excessive exploitation of the earthly resources. Industrialization created wealth in few hands increasing the slavery through organized labor. So it created again big inequality.

Communism rose through Marxism. It said religion is opium. Religion is making laborers compromise on their rights. Marx said all have equal rights and have to claim it. So it devised a state driven equality based Industrialization. So everything that laborer produces belongs to state. And then state will distribute the wealth equally amongst all.

So it created a powerful state. It created “Concentration of wealth for the purpose of Distribution”. Power corrupted the people at the top. People at the bottom became complacent. Their freedom suppressed. Productivity plummeted. State became more authoritarian to push people to produce more. Unrest followed & overthrew the authoritarian communism.

So in China today, there is much authoritarian rule. There is much unrest building up. Tomorrow it might explode. Usually when an internal unrest builds up, authority looks for external aggression to raise patriotism and sacrifice by its citizens. So there is an imminent threat of aggression over India. It might happen in a decade or in few decades. But that threat is imminent and looming large.

Indian politicians are fools to not consider it and be prepared.

What is Socialist? Why am I a Socialist?

Socialist is someone who sees strength in society, unity, and people. Socialist believes empowering society. Society should build up state. It should be bottom up approach. Society in every region should be independent, self-sufficient. It should govern itself through society building and respecting it. It should contribute to national wealth. It should contribute to state machinery like – administration, legislation, police, military, and economy.

Especially economy. Society should determine its own strength, region’s wealth, form cooperative societies, extract earth’s wealth in sustainable manner and contribute to state’s exchequer. Develop entrepreneurial attitude and support it, harness it and control it within exploitation limits.

Yes it is all possible. For that we have to read Mahabharatha, Kautilya’s arthashastra and various other our own ancient texts. On local economy & its strengths, how to harness and how it is better than global economy I had written 2 blogs earlier posted here.

Only in military & external affairs, the decision should be top down. State should determine what is right. For security purpose industrialization & transportation should be planned. Those plans require sacrifices from regions and societies. State should reason with the locals and rehabilitate first before opening up their factories, highways and railways.

Education

Most importantly society should educate children. State should very minimally intervene in education. Local society should build education curriculum & infrastructure. We have to evolve ‘Gurukula’ system to modern day needs. Pass, fail, exam, certification should all come beyond 10^th standard. Let there be universities like Nalanda, Takshashila for higher education to explore the world with passion for learning. Not education through propaganda & factories like colleges producing certificates without knowledge, exploration, questioning, analytics.

But before that in primary education, we should educate children on sociology, community strength, regional strength, regional diversity, importance of keeping diversity towards strengthening unity, regional heroes, regional culture, weather, contours, regional wildlife, flora-fauna, its specialties, regional grains, vegetables, its importance for health. There is whole lot in each region in India. We don’t even know our own lakes, who built them, what rivers flow in our taluk, what grains we produce, what birds thrive here, who are our heroes? Why are they regional heroes? Education in local language, its strengths, beauty, diversity, dialects are important. Let the child open up its brain to innumerable variety around its vista.

For my son, 4^th standard exam question was: Where was Jesus born? I had asked my son to write Jerusalem for anything to do with Christianity, Judaism, Islam. So he got Zero. Our kids don’t know who is Purnaiah, Madakari Nayaka, DVG, Visweshwaraya. But those are unimportant for Indian educationists.

5^th standard social studies text book says Chicago is the largest Cow Slaughter Industrial hub. And that must be mugged up for important questions in the summative exams.

How important is all this? What patriotism are we building in them? Why are we so obsessed with global culture? International languages? People ask why should we learn Kannada at all. People chose Spanish/Japanese for kid’s third language. Why? Because it gives job opportunities. 

We are so afraid of jobs. Everything we learn has to be to earn living. Stomach filling is the only aim in life. Once we get a job, nothing else is important. We stop reading, studying, knowing, teaching, wondering about the world, construct of the world, societies etc.,.

Our current education is to soften our pride, by pass, ignore teaching children on the richness of local culture. Once they realize our education did not give a shit to our culture, tradition, scriptures, heroes, they grow up to become indifferent to all of it. They become indifferent to protect their heritage. Once they become tomorrow’s educationists, administrators, politicians only through mugged up knowledge and certifications, they look at money & their personal living as ultimate goal. Society concept is broken. Individualism becomes important. They will be ready to sell anything for money & living. That’s the culture we are cultivating through our current education.

We also studied like that only. That’s why we don’t know what DVG wrote, what Bendre wrote, what is Kautilya’s arthashastra, Vidura Neethi? We are ready to sell our society, nature, wealth at the altar of foreign traders, companies & countries.

Our Current Jobs

One generation back, take any of your parents, uncles, aunts etc., They used to work for something connected to our society. Either in Government offices, teaching, public sector, insurance, bank, farming, trade etc., They knew their customer, their vendor. They knew exactly why they are working, who gets benefited and how.

Today, take for example export oriented industries, the biggest employment industries. We produce largest software services & sanitary napkins. Who uses it? The world uses it. In India it is least used. We don’t produce for ourselves what is necessary. Or we don’t use what we produce. We have created a huge divide between India and Bharath. India is producing big things for all countries and taking cash. The middleclass who get that cash, keep it for personal luxury – cars, bikes, houses, multiplexes etc.,

Our luxuries are costing earthly exploitation, forest destruction, and river drying forcing people to migrate to urban slums. Do we care? We have become indifferent. We lost our connect with our society.

For getting a job in these personal money earning industries do we use the education we did? For example, to become a software engineer I cracked Shakuntala Devi maths puzzles. That’s it. Not engineering studies. After that since last 15 years I have never used all that engineering subjects I studied nor primary school subjects. I have used some basic arithmetic, basic analytical, logical skills. Apart from that it is majorly commonsense that is utilized. English language conversation I picked up after joining job.

Lets say, if you were from a Gurukula system studied upto 10^th standard, got around some basic maths, English language, and you cracked the entrance test for your job and interview as per their current evaluation and requirement, would you not have been as effective today?

Similarly in textile industries, the largest employment generation industry, none of what they studied in school is used. So why study Global culture in primary education?

Isn’t Our Society important? Should we not study society, our life style, life style effect on society? Individualism is detrimental for the country. But is somebody listening?

With all this writing still, I live like an individualist, typical urban middleclass, with an indifferent lifestyle. But I do think at least & I write. May be it will lead me somewhere or make others think and change their stance. But thinking is important. It will change things ultimately.  

So anyway if you have reached till here, I hope you know by now, what is socialist and why am I a socialist.

“Your God is My God” Vs “My God is Your God”

This is an article on the faith conversion in society & its effects. The title though is pretty tricky. But that’s the way it is.

People generally ask, what is wrong in faith conversion? It is individual preference. If they are influenced by someone to convert their faith, so be it. The answer is simple yes. But there is more to it. What was the influencing factor? How it impacts the individual? What is its impact on self pride, self esteem. How it impacts the society? How it impacts ecology? How it impacts sustenance of life? How it creates class divide, Separatism. How it creates imperialism, domination. We’ll try to understand step by step.

First, by understanding the concept of God.

Did ‘Man create God’ or ‘God Create Man’?

This is a standard question that atheists ask. Atheists’ argument is, there are millions of gods on earth. All of them created by Man. Man gave them names. Man gave them form. Man characterized god. So God is an imagination of Man.
But who created Man? Who created trees? Who created vegetables? Animals? Water? Earthly elements? All these are working in such beautiful harmony in nature. Who created nature? Why this nature doesn’t exist on Mars? Who created Earth? Can Earth be by itself? Does it need Sun? Why is Moon required? Is Mars required? Why is all this created?
 
I believe there must be a God who created all this. He created all this to sustain each other. His creation- sustenance-destruction and this cycle continuation is a beautiful music. He created a brainy man to explore the music, appreciate it & entice Man to reach God. But can Man reach God? Is God in a form that Man can recognize? Man cannot even understand how elephants talk? How Whales communicate? He doesn’t even know how Honey bee produces Honey? How can he reach God? He cannot even hear beyond Sound wavelength, he cannot even see beyond light’s wavelength.  

So I think, since Man cannot reach God, God reached Man. God took several forms and appeared before Man. So that, Man can touch him, feel him, hear him, and understand him. That’s where the multiplicity of God came by. Man gave him form, character etc., So ultimately Man imagined God within his limited forms of imagination.

Your God is My God

So, different communities living across the world created God within their limits of imagination. This created differences in their culture, tradition, worship, power etc., This created ego clashes between communities. The ego clashes turned violent into fights & wars.

In India, though the ethnic flare was contained to a large extent. That’s why you see such a large canvas of culture and tradition coexisting here. How? Elsewhere in Europe, America, Asia etc., you will see uniformity & much less diversity. How?

The Gurus, Rishis, Munis who were intellectuals of ancient India brought in this concept of ‘Your God is My God’. That means I see in your god my god. That requires lot of guts. It requires one to submit his ego. It requires him to quell the insecurity that the other guy might undermine my God and impose his culture, his rituals upon me. Once you say, I see my god in your god, then the other person becomes comfortable to receive him. He will even reciprocate that feeling. That sets in understanding each other’s culture. That sets in understanding why a certain community consider a certain God as their God.

That’s why worshipping of Durga, Kali, Shakthi, Sharada, in different forms by different communities seeing their own deities in her. Some see her as Lakshmi. Some see Parvathi in her. Some see Saraswathi in her.

Panduranga Vittala is a very famous god in Pandarapura Region. There are great many stories of the knowledgeable person Vittobha in that region. People paid great respect to him for his knowledge and miracles he did. The respect became reverence and people worshipped him as God & Vitthobha became Panduranga Vittala. Krishna followers exclaimed that he must be Krishna only. Vittobha was a householder & his deeds and life was compared to that of Krishna. Differences and Similarities were all submerged in the great fervor of Bhakti towards the lord by both communities. Great many songs, tales emerged from this congruence.

Similarly, the story of Venkateshwara in the Thirumala hills region.

These are not from the ancient Puranas. They are called Kaliyuga Devaru.   
Similarly Mallikarjuna, Manjunatha, Padmanabha, Mukhyaprana… there are millions of gods accommodated and coming up even today, every day in this land of Bharatha Bhoomi.

How else would you explain the following few modern day instances:

1.       A Brahmin Poojari doing daily Pooja to a Muslim Sufi Saint - Shirdi Sai Baba with the save fervor he does Pooja to SriRama? Sai Baba has great following amongst all communities cutting across religions. He said “Sabka Malik Ek”.

2.       We sing Santha Shishunala Shareepha’s song with the same dedication as we do Shiva Sharanara Vachanas? Shareepha said “Allah & Allama are all same with different names”

3.       Gandhiji adopted following hymns in his prayer meetings and we sing that with same fervor even today:

Raghupathi Raghava Raja Ram, Pathitha Pavana Seetha Ram
Eeshwara, Allah Thero Nam, Sabko Sanmathi De Bhagwan  

4.       There is a temple in the middle of weekly market in Chitradurga of a goddess deemed powerful by both Christians and Hindus. They worship her in their respective ways.

5.       Buddha is considered as an incarnation of Vishnu by certain section of our society. Many scholars I know vehemently argue in this theory. And there are many who argue against too.

India’s hues are beautiful & vivid. Our forefathers have passed on this culture of seeing ‘Your God is My God’, generations after generations. Lets assimilate all gods in our society.  Let God not divide our society but bind it.

My God is Your God

Buddhism, Christianity & Islam recognize followers only by the God they follow. God is their primary agenda. Recognition of their religion is by the God the people worship. The society, its culture, its language, its tradition, its God, its rituals are secondary. Their inflexible religious texts, are guiding principles for them. And their guiding principles emanated by one Man who became God by his greatness.

These religions’ main interaction with the multi-cultural society is through Proselytization. These religions do not appreciate Polytheism (multiple gods). These religions propagate Monotheism. Monotheism is the theory of ‘there is only one God’. And that’s why ‘My God is Your God’. They tell the gullible to shun his God and adopt the new God that they preach. They force him to see God in their God only and not in any other form or name.  

Proselytization is faith conversion process. These religions give very high importance to Proselytization. It is their salvation process. It is through different forms – evangelizing, propaganda, service, bribe, crusade, and violence etc., All forms are followed in the history. Depending upon the prevalent system at that time in that region they follow different forms. For example in India, currently the country is calm and civilized. So through propaganda, service, bribe, love, the conversion process is prevalent here, today. In African countries today, crusade by the Islamists is happening. In the medieval periods in India, violence was followed for the Proselytization. Christianity crusaded on Jews on way to Jerusalem in the medieval period. In Burma and Srilanka Buddhism is prominent today. Rohinga Muslims in Burma are driven out today. Srilankans just now ended a bloody war of killing all rebel Hindus & Christians. Burma & Srilankan example however cannot be related to the religion. Because it is a military Junta & a democratically elected government waging war on armed rebellion respectively. But I would argue, the root of these wars is religion.

The effect of forcing one to accept a different God than he was following earlier is long and harsh. It creates a scar on him. The Church/Mosque/Monastery will be the place of worship. He cannot take his God there. He cannot create his own temple where he can put his previous God with the new God. Then he will not be considered as part of their religion. He will be separated as Hindu. These create separatism in the society. Assimilation of other Gods and culture is strictly prohibited in their religion.

The converted person will face insult of his tradition, culture, language etc. He will have to shun all of it. He will have to shun his pride & self-esteem. He has to subjugate completely to one inflexible authority. The authority will develop Imperialism. The freedom of thought and expression will be suppressed.

Religion should preach “Way of Life”

Let there be God. Different Gods. Different Names. Different forms. But let there be understanding of differences and appreciation. Not killing, undermining, and insulting the differences.

Let the religion preach essentials to bring down the class differences. Let it preach to bring down economic divide. Let it bring social impact to make sustainable Urban & Rural living.  Let it preach the society that diversity is the essence of life. It is needed to maintain ecology. It is needed to maintain dignity. Let it preach us how to live in harmony with each other. Let it preach us how to live in harmony with nature. Let it preach to not only respect nature but worship nature. Not to cut the cow (nature) but to milk the cow. Let it preach us ‘How to Live Life Peacefully and Welcome Diversity’.

Let the Upper Strata of Society who are Intellectuals, like Saints, Pontiffs, Mullahs, Pastors, debate on the sociology and arrive at exclusive, yet binding, interdependent culture amongst their societies. Let them not shut their door of open debate with other religious heads.

Let the Lower Strata of Society like land tillers, factory workers, urban slum dwellers, develop unity, and bring out their own mutts, pontiffs. Let them fight for their rights, build strength by unity. Let them not be lured by individual instant gratification and benefits. And yes, despite so many saints and Guroos, there is dearth of Mutts and Pontiffs with true social purpose in India.

Let the Middle Strata of Society, like us try to understand society as a whole and not be lost in self-indulgent, indifferent life style. Let us empathize with lower strata of our society. Let us push our intellectuals to develop debate culture.

 Let the religion develop Sociology, Social Life.

Let the religion make God’s name& form immaterial.

The Death of the Debate Culture

The debate culture is killed. No, it is actually murdered, by the people over the recent years. Why? Because it gets heated and may lead into violence. So why debate at all? Leave it all to individualism. So the society is breaking its thread slowly. Man is becoming individualistic. When man becomes solo, he becomes psycho and violent.

Society living forces man to become accommodative and appreciative of the differences. If you follow, Hindu tenets, the culture is so vibrant only due to its accommodation of various differences without killing the differences. There is appreciation of differences between opposing communities also. Communities are allowed to freely find their living and non-living gods.

For example in JP Nagar, Bangalore, we have 2 main local deities. Banashankari and Shakhambari.

Banashankari: Bana means Vana which is Forest. She is the forest god. The communities in ancient times lived on the forest produce & trade and they worshipped her as the Adhidevatha of Forest.
Shakhambari: Shakha means vegetables. The communities cleared forest to grow vegetables for their living & trade. So she becomes the Adhidevatha for the vegetable growers.
So if you see these 2 communities lives are in contrast. One protects the forest but the other clears it for their living. But they live in harmony! They respect each other’s god also equally.

Of course, there are skirmishes and violence erupted between communities in ancient India & even today. But what killed that violence? It is the reasoning and debate culture. Understanding and appreciating differences. Then coming to terms with harmonious living. Ultimately harmony prevailed & is sustained for many millennia.

Debate Culture in Ancient India

In India they say, the Veda’s were revealed to the Rishis and Munis by nature or by God himself. But being rationalist, I would not agree with that explanation. I agree with some saying, that it evolved over a period of many centuries through long debates. In Vedic periods, Yaga, Yagna was held for centuries in patronage of wealthy kings where there was large congregation of many Rishis. The story of debates and wins in those Yagna is well described in various later day texts. Through those debates of different views and opinions, the Vedas must have emerged.

In Mahabharatha, Bheeshma Parva is probably one of the largest sections. In that, it is all about stories & stories told by Bheeshma to Yudhistrira through long debates and questions. Bheeshma is a pithamaha having seen the world through his own eyes for 3 generations. He has immense practical knowledge. When is he is on Shara Shaiye (Bed of Arrows), Yudhistira after having won a long fought battle, which is a Dharma Yuddha considered Dharma’s win over Adharma, approaches the pithamaha to learn about what is Dharma and how to keep it up while he is the King of such a large kingdom? One of the main things he teaches through those various stories is that, god has created a divergent world. A Raja has to understand, appreciate and ensure harmony through maintaining those differences and not killing the differences.   

Bhagavad Geeta is basically Nara-Narayana Samvada, means dialogue between Man & God. Nara means Man, represented by Arjuna. God is represented by Krishna. Man is always in dilemma. He is confused what is right and what is not. In the middle of the war, Arjuna is in dilemma. Krishna is calm and at bliss even at the congruence of 2 largest armies, ready with venomous attack on each other. Krishna gives Vishwaroopa darshana to Arjuna & reasons with him to go to Dharma Yuddha. Arjuna listens and follows. Similarly when Krishna goes for Sandhana, not to go for war and reasons with Duryodhana, he does not listen. So the war breaks out. Dharma prevails.

Debate Culture in Medieval India

Chanakya the author of the Arthasasthra is another genius detailing various aspects of Raja Dharma. He emphasized the prevalent theory of: Sama, Dana, Danda, Bhedha: Means: Reasoning, Money Attraction, Force & Divide respectively, in that order of priority while dealing in political situations of differences cropping up between various groups. So here always, the first one takes preference and time consuming. One has to get into the reasoning first to take issues head on and resolve it through debate & reasoning.

Many religions came about in medieval India and still persist. Reasoning and debate was the basis of these religions. Budhism, Jainism came about espousing their theory in peace. Attracting people into their fold through utmost reasoning. In their quest for larger influence on the populace, they impressed Raja (King) and then carried out their conversion of the Praja (Public).

The great revival for Hinduism happened through Sankaracharya. This again was through peaceful means of reasoning and influencing the political powers of the day.

Of course there were community violence, attacks, burning, beheading breaking the long peace in pockets. But those skirmishes were quelled mostly by intellects invoking society reforms.

Thus you see, in Kannada history, great Jain literature coming out from the Hindu kings patronage. Pampa, Ranna, Janna, etc., were Jain poets, who produced great works under the ages of Hindu kings. Hoysala kings were Jains. They produced some of the sculptural marvels second to none in the world Viz., Belur, Halebid sculptures. In these great sculptures, everything is discussed from Puranas, Mahabharatha to visiting Chinese monks. Even sex is not a taboo for depicting. Nothing, absolutely nothing should be taboo for healthy discussing, debating and depicting in a peaceful society. Across India the same open culture persisted.

The great debates on Advaitha, Vishishtadvaitha, Dvaitha happened under the various Kings courts and patronage. Vijayanagara kingdom is termed as Golden Age of Hindu Culture. Under their rule, there was freedom of thought and expression. Dasa Sahitya took root and flourished well in their kingdom. All the 3 philosophies flourished well across the Deccan peninsula.  They protected the great monuments, temples, enhanced all ancient temples with their signature Gopura, Praakaara & Pushkarani. Not only Hindu temples, but the Jain basadi’s, monuments of significance were made to thrive. Muslim monuments were protected and they were allowed to absorb the Hindu tolerant culture.

Amartya Sen has written a book on Indian Debate Culture titled “Argumentative Indian”. It is a big book with very poor content. A thorough review is put up in another blog: http://npraveer.blogspot.in/2014/02/the-argumentative-indian-by-amartya-sen.html

Onslaught of Debate Culture by Islam in India:

The Islamic invasion on India started around 8^th century CE. Various invaders like Afghans, Turks, Moghuls, and Arabs invaded India & established their kingdoms here. Moghuls in north India and Arabs in South India had profound impact on Indian society and are well assimilated today in India.

The Islam’s debate culture is through “Jihad”. Jihad is a means of spreading the Islam tenets. But Jihad also espouses violent means to spread their religion. Jihad explained in Quran is highly inconsistent & incoherent. Scholars who want to engage with the scholars of other community for meaningful dialogue use it peacefully. But there is hardly any evidence of conversion through those peaceful means. Al-Beruni, Ibn Battuta were scholars of eminence and travelers of that time from Mid-East, accompanying invading Sultans. They were more impressed with the Indian scholars and translated great many Sanskrit works but never succeeded in conversions or may be too overwhelmed to get into theological dialogue.

But the barbaric invading army used the violent Jihad means, to loot, destroy temples, treasures. Anyone who wanted to question the Islam tenets or wanted to debate its merits were termed Kafirs and bulldozed.  All across India today, many of the great temples, monuments are mute evidences of their onslaught. Halebeedu and Hampi stand as grandeur cut to pieces in Karnataka.

The Hindus were caught unawares completely for this kind of barbaric culture of conversion in the name of God! For them God was a means of providing sustenance of life and livelihood. They could not fathom what is happening around.

The scholars and upper casts kept Muslims away and did not bother to engage with them for the fear of life. Invaders converted any hapless people who came on their way, through many cruel means.

Today, in India while in many work places, Hindus, Muslims work together. But there is very high fear of broaching the subject of religion or its merits, demerits. Lets keep it professional at work and not discuss faith & not mingle socially; is the way of life today. The onslaught of debate culture is near complete here.

Christian Propaganda Vs Debate

The Europeans came to India lured by her wealth. As they started establishing their political power, they also brought in their religion. And Christianity thrives on the missionary actions. They started directly with propaganda culture than wasting time in the debates. They had their successful experience of killing Pegan culture in Europe through those tactics. Through propaganda they started undermining Hindus. Indians were made to feel inferior. The superior culture was touted as coming through Aryans who they claimed were Europeans. Aryan invasion theory was ingrained so much, that it was there in our textbooks even in Independent India when we studied. Even today after so much of research and UN resolution rubbishing the Aryan invasion theory, many scholars do believe in that & write about it.

Swami Vivekananda outraged over this propaganda culture, went into their territory called for some meaningful research and dialogue. He was well received by the open westerners in the United States.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was one of the great Social Reformist during British India. He was fighting to remove the various superstitious practices in Hindus. He formed Brahmo Samaj towards this cause. An impressed Christian Pastor invited him for debate over the religious tenets of Hinduism and Christianity. It went for few weeks. And the at the end of it, the Pastor converted to become a Hindu Sanyasi, and Rajaram brought in various Christian tenets into his Brahmo Samaj for the revival of the Hindu Samaj.

The missionaries even today, are carrying out their propaganda culture in urban slums and in tribal areas. Those, less educated and impoverished fall for their propaganda & monetary attractions. And there is no debate culture in those echelons of class.

Today, Religion & Faith is a Taboo:

Recently a third rate Indologist wrote a book on India. Certain person took legal route to ban its publishing stating it hurt Indians. It is so Un-Hindu culture. It made the undeserving author & her book famous. It made us question our openness in book publishing. Social Media is more open!

Today due to the slow degradation and onslaught of foreign cultures, everything is a taboo for open discussion. Politics is taboo. Religion is taboo. Sex is taboo. Faith is taboo. Language is taboo. Caste is taboo. Even expressing Pride to be Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Or Kannadiga or Tamilian is a taboo.  We fear what they will brand me as. Nobody talks more than the twitter length on these subjects. Within that length you would be branded. For branding there are many isms.

No lengthy written debates. No assimilation of ideas. No lengthy reading.

Our work place is only profit & loss. School textbooks are only profit & loss. Politics is profit & loss. Religion is profit & loss. Sports is profit & loss. Even sociology is profit & loss.

The profit culture makes man chase his individual profit only. He becomes more individualistic & silos. No thought towards community good, no tolerance for differences, no appreciation of differences.

In the next article lets delve into Faith Conversion / Proselytization & its effect.  

It will be titled:
“Your God is My God” Vs “My God is Your God”

Context of Some World Religions

In Kannada there is a saying ಮನೆಯೇ ಮೊದಲ ಪಾಠಶಾಲೆ, means, Home is the first school. The education we get at home is immensely impactful in our life. And religion plays a major part in our home environment. Most people in the world are religious. In India majority of the population follow some religion. Very few question god’s existence. And yes religion is about god but definitely not only about god. So the education through religion is essential in man making mission.

Religion is a very vast subject and one can have only limited knowledge there. And writing about it is a bit of arrogance only. So I apologize for my arrogance. But I have to write what I know of. And being a proud Hindu, my writing will have that flavor or view.

Prakruthi in Religion

Gayathri manthra is one of the most potent manthra in Vedas. Every child who starts his intellectual journey is taught Gayathri Manthra in Hinduism. Gayathri is the embodiment of the entire Prakruthi. Vedas call upon the gods of elements as most potent gods. Every elemental God like Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Indra, Rudra, Vishnu, etc., are revered as the most powerful gods in Vedas.

Later Upanishads and Puranas came upon to define the concept of “Supreme God”, probably initiating Shaivaites, Vaishnavaites and other sects, where one God is Supreme. Like for Shaivaites, Shiva is the supreme god.

Hinduism originated with the exploration of the worldly elements and wondering of its strength. Pancha Bhoothagalu – Land, Air, Water, Sky & Agni form the basics of exploration. It is the beginning. Each of them have so much to study and wonder about its strength. That’s how the study of Khagola (Astrology), Ayurveda (Health Science), Yoga, Pranayama etc., started and is continuing. The nature is all powerful and meets all needs of man, animals and other forms. But man is the only enemy for man & other forms. Man instead of exploring the strengths of the nature in harmony with the nature, is involved in exploiting it in pursuit of something called luxury which is elusive.

Sandhyavandana is a daily ritual stipulated for all Hindus. In that we pay reverence to all the elements of the nature from earth to sun & beyond.

The nature worshipping extended beyond the basic elements in our civilization. For example, in Mahabharatha, Krishna lifted the Govardhana Giri, indicating, it is the life giver and saver for the Gokula community. Thus, very diversified, vibrant, beautiful culture & tradition developed through worshipping various forms of nature like, Mountains, Rivers, Forests, Trees, and different animals in different forms. For example fishing communities eat & trade fish. The richness they have is due to fish. Everything they can get for their life depends upon fish. So Fish becomes their God.

The religion encourages the communities to protect their richness, thrive their generations upon the nature’s peculiar gift to that community in that region. For many millennia’s, they have extracted the wealth without destroying it, but harnessing it. They have lived in harmony with it. Naturally they worship it as God. That’s how we got crores of Gods in India.

Sociology in Religion

Most of all the other religions in the world originated in that day’s sociological context. It is the sociological context which is the origin of many of these religions rather than a holistic universal view to begin with.

Man is a social animal. He needs society to live in. An enlightened man from the society emerges and questions the order. He questions the authority of that present day ruling system or living system & revolts against it. He creates followers. And then it is the followers who create a separate religion under him or his preaching.

Gauthama Buddha originated Buddhism. When he encountered poverty and despair outside his palace, the reality of the world hit him hard. He went for penance and was enlightened under the Bodhi Vriksha. He found that the “Desire is the cause of misery”. He called upon renunciation to attain moksha (Salvation). In that social context, the sociological class divide compelled him to run away and find answer to the cause.

Jainism started mainly in the social context of propagating nonviolence. Their doctrine is “Ahimso paramo dharma” which means the Nonviolence is the righteous path. Mahavira is one of the most revered 24 thirthanakara in Jainism.

Jesus is the author of the Christianity. The Judaism precedes the Christianity. And Jesus is one of their prophets. The social divide between the kings and the subjects were stark in those days. The prophets of Judaism tried organizing the oppressed slaves. The famous journey to the Promised Land started. The infighting amongst the subjects broke the peace. Then came the Ten Commandments to discipline them. The commandments being very rigid, made every man a sinner. And lord was not supposed to be forgiver for the sinners. And people remained sinner. In that social context, there came the great prophet, Jesus Christ to release the sin of the sinner. His simple message touched everyone. He said the “Lord is a forgiver”. His social message was simple and crisp. It was very appealing. The Bible is a holy book of Christians mainly from his preaching.

Prophet Mohammad is the messenger of God in Islam. The sociological context in that present day was marred with tribal conflicts. The conflicts used to conflagrate to bloody wars causing lot of loss of lives. His doctrine was that of “Universal Brotherhood”. He struggled to bring all humanity to accept one God calling him – Allah, The Great. Different tribes worshipping different forms and idols was discouraged by him and called upon all of them to accept and worship the formless God, Allah the Great. The peaceful message in the Holy Book of Quran of Islam helped coercing the warring factions to come under the universal brother hood of Islam. The Holy Quran is the book of his preaching. The followers of Islam are carrying out his example of Jihad on people to adopt Islam through various means which are not necessarily peaceful.

Sociology in Hinduism

“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” is a popular phrase in Hinduism signifying the entire world is one family. The Ramayana and Mahabharatha are epic stories depicting throughout the sociological conflicts between different styles of living clans. While Rama is Maryada Purushothama upholding the rules & abiding by it very strictly at the expense of personal agony, Krishna is at ease while breaking the rules in vogue to keep up the “Dharma”. So what is Dharma?

Dharma is simply Manava Dharma. That is to be compassionate towards another human being. “ದಯವೇ ಧರ್ಮದ ಮೂಲವಯ್ಯ” is a famous saying from the 12^th century social reformer Basavanna who started the Lingayat movement in Karnataka.

Every human being has personal liberty. But personal liberty often comes in conflict with the social well-being. Then the social well-being takes importance. It should take importance. That is what Dharma is. And through story telling technique, the righteous path was being taught in the ancient Gurukula system. The Ramayana & Mahabharatha are full of stories of such conflicts and underlining what is Dharma, Nyaya & Neethi.  

Because, through stories, you get into the lives of both the affected and the affecting people. So the listener will be able to judge the righteousness throughout the story.

Today's Sociology Study

But unfortunately today, in the schools and universities, the Subject of Sociology is very bland and boring. It is restricted to only in BA. Other important degrees like, MBA, BE etc., are about Business management, technology. For whom? For self. Not for people. Student coming out from BE, MBA is made to think for himself only and not for people at all. But shouldnt the masters degree student study both benefits and impact of technology on society as a whole?

Even sociology is deduced to numbers. Through numbers you really cannot understand the people’s lives and resonate. Policy decisions are based on sociological assessment. But sociological assessment in today’s parlance is only numbers & not people’s lives. Dharma is taken back seat. In fact in today’s milieu of politics Dharma is not Manava Dharma, instead it indicates “which god’s follower”? And hence Dharma is wrongly construed as religion.

Isn’t it wrong?

In the next blog we’ll discuss “The Death of Debate Culture” through religions.