Do you care, what CBSE History Textbook teaches your kid?

Now the government has made available all NCERT textbooks online through e-Pathshala portal. The URL is: http://epathshala.nic.in/e-pathshala-4/flipbook/

A simple scan through the 6^th standard NCERT social studies will give the direction & ‘agenda’ of our educators to educate our future generation. If you happen to be a parent, please do care to go through this. This will open your eyes. Our educators are educating your kid to be guilty of India, to be guilty of our civilization, to be guilty of ancient scriptures & traditions. Subtly they convey that everything Indian is bad and everything foreign be it Chinese, Christian, Islam, Judaism is very good. They go the extent of telling that in India women had no independence & “Women had to follow husbands”!!!

Thankfully history textbooks are made extremely confusing and boring; so the child forgets what he read & parents don’t care. But he remembers the essence – That India is just a bland, boring, unscientific, superstitious country. Because the structure & content conveys it overall.

Few points I have taken here to put across the content & its agenda. Comments & analysis is my view to see the alternative to the points.

Page Ref	Content as is	What’s the ‘Agenda’? Comments & Analysis
Page 4 Chapter 1	The Iranians and the Greeks who came through the northwest about 2500 years ago and were familiar with the Indus, called it the Hindos or the Indos, and the land to the east of the river was called India. The name Bharata was used for a group of people who lived in the northwest, and who are mentioned in the Rigveda, the earliest composition in Sanskrit (dated to about 3500 years ago). Later it was used for the country	Agenda: To educate that India and Bharata were names given by some foreigners. ‘Later it was used for the country’ means what? The land existed somehow & later intelligent people came made it a country? Only after British united it became a country and was christened India & some saffronists called it Bharata? Why originally only for Northwest region it was called Bharata? Because to educate that the Deccan was in darkness or nonexistent or insignificant? Comment & Analysis: Why can we not mention Bharata is named after Bharata Muni or Bharata the King; Why not refer our own sandhyavandana which calls our land as Bharata Varsha/ Bharata Khanda over many millennium before as per our oldest Puranas? There are many scientific dating done on our scriptures. Why not refer Jainism first Thirthankara Rishabha who travelled across Niligiris, Sahyadri as part of Bharata Varsha? Why not refer Agasthya who traced course of Kaveri; why not refer Ramayana whose scientific dating is put in the range of 5000 to 7000BC to set the course of Bharata Varsha? In this textbook itself, Chapt 10, page 100 gives a sangam literature poem describing entire Bharata;
Page 47 Chapter 5	Do any of these names sound familiar? Sometimes, the people who composed the hymns described themselves as Aryas and called their opponents Dasas or Dasyus. These were people who did not perform sacrifices, and probably spoke different languages.	Agenda: To educate that there were 2 classes of people - nobles and slaves. They were called Aryans & Dasyas. The names resonate with most Indian languages and hence precariously put under that title. The 2 sects always fought. Different languages mentioned to build up thought of different language speaking folks fought. Comment & Analysis: We never hear in any of our Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas any sect called Aryans & Dasas. It is for convenience of earlier Brits & later leftists to hammer home the theory of Aryan Invasion from foreign lands and enslaving locals. We hear of Deva – Asura. But both speak same language. We hear many kingdoms like Kosala, Lanka, Kaikeya, Gandhara, Anga, Kalinga etc., & names of people according to those kingdoms. But never a separate sect called Arya. Arya is just a Sanskrit word for a Gentleman. Dasa is a Sanskrit word for a servant. For example Hanuman is a great Dasa of Rama. It was by devotion & not by force.
Page 47 Chapter 5	Later, the term dasa (and the feminine dasi) came to mean slave. Slaves were women and men who were often captured in war. They were treated as the property of their owners, who could make them do whatever work they wanted.	Agenda: In Europe & Arabia then later extended to America, Australia the human slavery, slave trade, treating them less than even animals was the hall mark of the civilization development in medieval period. So there is an attempt to draw parallels here and to show India also in that poor light. The textbook committee cannot fathom Indian civic sense to be far superior to that of foreign. Comment & Analysis: Never in Indian subcontinent Slavery was practiced the way it was in the west. The defeated king or his kith or kin used to be re-established & not dethroned. In epic stories of Ramayana/ Mahabharata or during Buddha’s time or in Pururava in Alexander time or in Mauryan time or in Gupta, Chalukyan time, or in Vijayanagara time or in Shivaji times we never see any defeated king, his soldiers &  citizens being degraded as slaves. They will be prisoners until a pact is reached, but never used as permanent slaves. Then why is there a blatant LIE here? What is their agenda?!!!!
Page 55 Chapter 6	Some priests and warriors were rich, as were some farmers and traders. Others, including many herders, crafts persons, labourers, fishing folk and hunters and gatherers, were poor	Agenda: To educate discrimination existed. Rich & poor divide was based on caste and jobs!!? Rich were Brahmins & Kshatriyas. Poor are shudras. India is bad & India was bad? Comment & Analysis: It is so silly. Many stories start with a poor Brahmin in our folklore. Many hunter groups were tribes with their own leader as king. Krishna was a herder. So what is rich? What do they mean by poor?
Page 56 Chapter 6	Often, women were also grouped with the shudras. Both women and shudras were not allowed to study the Vedas. The priests also said that these groups were decided on the basis of birth. For example, if one’s father and mother were brahmins one would automatically become a brahmin, and so on.	Agenda: Women discrimination was rampant all across India. Shudras were cursed by birth. All women are grouped with shudras??!! What crap? India is bad, India was bad!!? Comment & Analysis: Discrimination, untouchability existed and it even exists now. Our society always fought against it and is fighting against it. Upper caste people only from Buddha to Shankara to Basavanna to Gandhiji to Pejavara Shree fought and fighting to reform the society. Society degrades and reforms continuously in India. It is not rigid. It is fluid. We should educate our kids about India’s greatness more. This is absolutely lacking in entire textbook framework.
Page 72 Chapter 7	The system of ashramas Around the time when Jainism and Buddhism were becoming popular, brahmins developed the system of ashramas. Here, the word ashrama does not mean a place where people live and meditate. It is used instead for a stage of life. Four ashramas were recognised: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and samnyasa. Generally, women were not allowed to study the Vedas, and they had to follow the ashramas chosen by their husbands.	Agenda: Hindu is a religion. All is not well in it. So when new religions challenged it like Buddhism & Jainism, it came up with Chatur Ashrama? Till then that concept was not there? Women had to follow their husbands!!! Look, they were/are so backward!!! What according to the textbook committee is right? When husband chooses Vanaprastha/ Samnyasa wife should go elsewhere to quench sexual & other material desires? Comment & Analysis: Firstly Hinduism is not a religion guided by a rigid guide book & a prophet. Even Buddha is considered as Vishnu avathara and Rishabha the first Jain thirthankara is considered Vishnu avathara. They can teach children that Bharatha follows Sanatana dharma which is all encompassing philosophies to flourish in an open & debatable manner. Vanaprastha & all other ashramas find mention in Mahabharata which predates Buddha & Jains. Because the earliest Buddhist texts and Jain texts refer to both Rama & Krishna. So it is wrong to say the Chatur Ashrama in Hinduism came about in response to rise of neo religions.   Then why so many lies in our text books? What’s the agenda?
Page 95 Chapter 9 Page 118 Chapter 11 Page 119 Chapter 11	A few rules picked from Arthashastra of Chanakya depicting strict rules on erring women A story snippet from Abhijnana Shakuntala of Kalidasa showing policemen harassing fishermen Chinese piligrim Fa Xian mentioning untouchability Banabhatta’s story snippet on King’s convoy leaving a dusty trail.	Agenda: There are some snippets from various ancient texts picked up to show ancient India/ Hinduism in all bad light only. Out of a dozen direct quotes only 3, one from Meghadoota & 2 from Sangam literature indicate some goodness also persisted in India. Comment & Analysis: Chinese visitors studied in our universities for decades. Took 100s of our books to china. Translated them throughout their lives. All committee found in that was some mention of untouchability? Kalidasa, Banabhatta are known for writing great poetry, slimily, language, grace, beauty, imagination, drama, emotions, raja neeti, loka neeti etc.,. All that committee could quote is some dusty trail in villages & some lowly conversation? Why are we bent on denigrating ourselves? Why can we not boldly glorify the merits of Arthashastra, Aryabhateeyam, Kavya, Kadambari etc.,? Why our kids have to feel guilty of our ancient India and its rich literature?
Page 73 Chapter 7 Page 109 Chapter 10 Page 120 Chapter 11	A good verse from Zend Avesta of Zoroastrians Jesus also taught people to treat others with love and trust others, just as they themselves wanted to be treated An exemplary good verse from Bible given; Like Christianity, Islam was a religion that laid stress on the equality and unity of all before Allah, the one supreme god. An exemplary  good verse from Quran given	Agenda: All that is foreign is great! Look at those words – equality, unity, love, trust. These are only found in the lexicons of Bible, Zend Avesta, Quran. Not in Vedas, Ramayana, Arthashastra, Kalidasa Kavya etc., Comment & Analysis: Good words from good books all over the world are welcome. But why not good words from our own scriptures. For example, in this textbook ‘Vedas’ are mentioned in about 11 places. Not a single verse is given. Why? Lets look at some common verses that kids of this age come across from Vedas: “Sathyameva Jayate” – Found on our national emblem; In our currency “Sathyam vada; Dharmam chara” – Most popular simple statement “Maa gruDhah kasya swidDhanam ” – Don’t be greedy on others wealth “Loka samastha sukhinobhavanthu; Om Shantihi, Shantihi, Shantihi” – Shanthi manthra recited generally at the end of a meeting; Similarly Bhojana Manthra, Vidhyashala manthra like ‘thamasoma jyothirgamaya’ etc., If in the textbook we put up these simple statements, verses, it resonates well with kid’s day to day life also and feels great to belong to a great country and civilization. What part of these veda manthras are non-secular?

Unless you care for your kids and their education, India as a nation, you pass to your next generation will continue your own slave & guilty mentality. At least, when the textbook committee makes some minor tweaks here and there to improve, please stop screaming – saffronization!!. Lets take some saffron it is good for the heart.

I glanced through a 6^th standard textbook for ICSE called Transitions from Madhubun publications. It is written very well; presented well. Although it still portrays, Aryan invasion theory & other date discrepancies, it is much clear & easy to read and understand. It gives a decent sense of belonging to a great nation called India.

Karnataka state department textbook covering the Vedic period also is not good, but it is not as denigrating as NCERT texts.

I’ll reserve another blog to cover 7, 8, 9, 10 standard history books which cover 8^th Century CE onwards till Independence. 

Bangalore IT owes a lot to Benevolent Mysore Wodeyars!

What is the relation of IT industry to the Wodeyars of Mysore? It needs few ‘Why’ questions to ask before we get to the root. In Software development, there is a concept of Why-Why analysis or 5 Why analysis. So lets do that.

Why Bangalore became IT capital of India?

Because Texas Instruments the first MNC IT Major chose Bangalore to start its technology centre in India to rope in best available scientific talent in plenty here. Then many foreign MNCs followed suite. Then came Infosys, Wipro etc.,

Why scientific talent is plenty in Bangalore?

Because all premier scientific research and development centres from the central government were favored to be established here. For example, DRDO, ISRO, HAL, NAL, BEL, etc., Hence there is plenty of scientific talent developed in Bangalore.

Why so many central R&D institutes came to Bangalore?

Because there was India’s premier scientific institute IISC here and Raman Research institute was also here. And it was quite natural for research based centres to find a good backing from the premier education institute.

Why IISC was established in Bangalore? Why CV Raman chose Bangalore to establish is Research institute?

Because of the great statesman Nalvadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar (KR Wodeyar IV), Inspirational Swami Vivekananda and the great Industrialist Jamshedji Tata.

The story goes, that Swami Vivekananda the walking, talking dynamo who could explode positive thoughts around him in anyone, inspired Jamshedji Tata to establish a world class scientific research institute. Tata readily agreed and wanted someone to lend him enough land. Swamiji asked Wodeyar of Mysore. He brought them together. He told them, that any technology can be bought, but what the country needs is, to develop scientific temper in the young minds. For which a world class facility, labs, research and education in basic science is necessary.

Wodeyar readily agreed to grant all the necessary land for its establishment. It is locally known as Tata Institute also.

Similarly, CV Raman who had worked extensively in his research career, in Kolkata and then in Pune, chose to establish his own institute, the Maharaja convinced him to set it up right here. CV Raman also had worked as the Head of IISC by that time.

Benevolence of Mysore State Under Wodeyars

Under the Wodeyars, the Mysore state enjoyed benevolence. There were many firsts to their credit. They were first to understand & appreciate British modern administrative excellence. They quickly accepted it and established it in Mystore state for the benefit of the people.

The district level sessions courts were established in Mysore state first outside British held administrative area. Mysoru Anche was first state wide Postal system. This lead to the establishment of Indian postal system. Mysore had its first radio station in India, Akashavani. This gave raise to All India Radio later. Bangalore became the first electrified city in India. Shimsha water reservoir near Bangalore, was India’s first electricity generating unit. It was established specifically to supply electricity to Kolar Gold Fields to help the British privately held company to dig deeper to mine the Gold and loot them out of our country. When the Maharaja raised the rate of electricity due to obvious increase in cost of production, the British pinned the request down citing we have a world war to fight. (WW I was going on at that time at our cost, financials as well as sending our soldiers). The Macaulay British education system was quickly adapted and some convents came up in Coorg & Coastal areas. While the British Modern education system has arguably impoverished us Indians, it was important to adapt to the changing power equations and adopt administrative, education policies accordingly to the benefit the common man.

All in all, the Mysore state under Wodeyars after the befall of Tipu was in righteous hands who looked after their subjects with love and care.

British termed Mysore as a Modern welfare state. Gandhiji always hailed the Maharaja for establishing a benevolent state and a Modern welfare state.

There are many other achievements like, Mysore University establishment, KRS dam commissioning, Bhadravathi Iron & Steel works, Importing sericulture technology which lead to Tata Silk Farm which further lead to Central Silk Board (now famous for traffic jam on Hosur road junction!) establishing Mysore Silk industries. All of these and many other establishments have great stories of resilience, fighting spirit of the Maharajas of Mysore. 

Now in Bangalore we see many landmarks rightfully named after wodeyars. For example, we see KR Market, KR Road, KR Circle etc., Nalvadi Krishna Raja Wadeyar had much contributions in all of the previously mentioned feet of the Mysore state. Of course there are many who joined his endearing efforts in making the Mysore state a peaceful and modern welfare state. Like that of Sir M Vishweshwaraya, Sir Mirza Ismail, DV Gundappa etc., to name just a few.

Before Nalvadi KR Wodeyar (Nalvadi in Kannada means fourth, Mummadi is third), Mummadi KR Wodeyar also had significant contributions to the Mysore state. He patronized art & culture greatly during his time. The great names like Veene Sheshanna, Piteelu Chowdaiah, Honnappa Bhagavatharu etc., are known to have flourished under his tutelage.

There is a natural connection between the fine art and science. Where there is a cultural growth & freedom, there is harmony which gives raise to scientific temper. This is well exemplified here.  

Injustice to Wodeyars in current School Education

There is absolute injustice done to the Wodeyars in our school syllabus. There is very little mention of their achievements even in Karnataka state syllabus. Krishnaraja Wadeyar IV alone commands a depth of gratitude from the children of Karnataka for making a state worth flourishing in all walks of life today.

While Tipu & Hyder are hailed as fighters for freedom & there are dedicated detailed chapters on them, Wodeyars and their benevolence is completely ignored by today’s school system.

The locals all over Karnataka consider Tipu as a villain of their community, locality. For Chitradurga people he was a perpetrator of independence, for people of Coorg he was a mass murderer; The people of Melukote near Mandya don’t celebrate Deepavali even today as they mourn the mass murder of several Brahmins by Tipu on that day. For the people of Shivamogga, he was a cruel king as he jailed and tortured their kings. The people of Malabar in northern Kerala today are victims of his atrocities for decades. Maximum forced religious conversions happened during his undignified rides there.

British for their benefit and foresightedness of divide and rule, hailed Tipu as a great warrior. The current education system carries forward that folly in appeasement of his fanatics & in fear of them too.

It is our responsibility to educate our children on the great dynasty of Wodeyars and their benevolent rule of Mysore state for nearly five centuries. 

Hope this introduction gives more interest for you to read more about the Wodeyars of Mysore. 

Basava Jayanthi – Akshaya Thrithiya

Vaishakha Masa is a very special month for Bharatha Khanda as we have great social reformers born in this hottest month of the Calendar. Basava Jayanthi is followed by Ramanuja Jayanthi, Shankara Jayanthi and then Buddha Poornima.

All of them have profound impact on Kannadigas and Kannada Nadu. Basavanna, the founder of Veershaiva philosophy, had his Karya Kshethra mainly around northern Karnataka around Krishna and Bhima river delta. Ramanujacharya, the founder of Vishishtadwaitha philosophy, did great penance on the banks of Kaveri near Talakadu for more than a dozen years producing majority of his works here. Shankara, the founder of Advaitha philosophy, established Sharada peetha in Sringeri the first of such 4 he established across South, North, West and East of India (3 others at – Kashi, Dwaraka and Puri respectively). Buddha’s followers have established many viharas in the caves across northern & coastal Karnataka.

Madhwacharya the founder of the Dwaitha vedantha, hails from Udupi, in the coastal Karnataka. Thus, the sprouting of majority of Hinduism’s philosophical branches find root here in Karnataka. Kannadigas must take great pride in all of this. Despite so many philosophical divergences, we find utmost peace here. One should ask why and seek the truth with pure conscience. 

Who is Basavanna/ Basaveshwara?

Basavanna is 11^th century great poet, proponent of Veerashaiva philosophy which lead to establishing Lingayat community. He was a great social reformer. He played a key role in establishing “Anubhava Mantapa” – a parliament of all shiva sharanas (devotee of Shiva) with no bar of caste, creed. Allama Prabhu who was from a lower caste was made the head of that parliament. Madara Chennaiyya, Jedara Dasimayya, Madivala Machideva, Haralayya and many such shiva sharanas from the lower caste also made that parliament. There were many from Brahmin, Vaishya caste also. It had women representation headed by Akka Mahadevi.

Basavanna was born in Bagevadi near Bijapur (Today it is called Basavana Bagevadi) in an orthodox Brahmin family. He was moved by the plight of the discrimination against the lower caste in his locality. He rebelled against the orthodox rituals and ran away from his family to take shelter in Sangameshwara temple at the confluence of Krishna, Malaprabha and Ghataprabha. It is called Koodala Sangama (Near today’s Bagalkote). He met a great Guru by name Jathaveda Muni there. Under his tutelage he learnt the great depths of the Dharma.

He later moved to take an administrator role in the newly established Capital Kalyana (Now it is called Basava Kalyana near Bidar). Through his shrewdness & honesty he climbed the rungs of administration and became the main treasurer under the King Bijjala. His house became known as ‘Maha Mane’ where ‘Anna Dasoha’ (Free Meals) was always being served to all the Bhaktha who were visiting Kalyana for whatever purpose.

While he had a great hold on the state administration and being highly influential in the court, he also strived hard for social equality. He took up the path of Shiva Bhakti to propagate the message of love & respect to each other. He asked the Sharanas not to give up their caste based profession, but instead feel pride in it and find Shiva in their servitude of their work.

Monotheism – Veerashaiva?

Veerashaiva is clearly Monotheist. Sharanas were ardent devotees of Shiva & Shiva only.

In one of the verses Akka Mahadevi captures the essence of their One God theory:

Shiva is my God; Shiva is everyone’s God. Every God is Shiva. So denigrating any God should be prohibited (Paradaiva Nindane Koodadu).

So this clearly shows that a Shiva Sharana should respect other Gods and other devotees. This philosophy easily creates harmony amongst multitude of existence. A legend goes that once Shiva himself appeared before Basavanna and asked him –“are there other Shiva Bhakthas?” Then Basavanna answered there are none but only himself. Shiva was perplexed with his arrogance. But Basavanna continued to tell that all are Shiva only and he is the only Bhaktha. This humility moved Shiva and he embraced Basavanna.

It is interesting to note, the raise of Monotheism in a big way in the west at around the same time.  While Christianity had the political patronage in the Roman empire, the Egyptian and Arabic empire were over taken by the Islam.

In these western Monotheism, there is a concept called “False God” & “True God”. Discriminating thus, these religions through the political patronage, started denigrating & ridiculing other Gods and their ways of worshipping. Thus the indigenous communities, tribes, Pagan systems were systematically wiped out & converted to single religion in these areas. This also lead to the downfall of many civilizations like Greek, Aztec, Egyptian, Persian etc.,. In Persia (today’s Iran) for example, the Zoroastrians were persecuted & denied basic rights. Some of them migrated to India and were given shelter here. Today they are called Parsees. Their population is very small. But their contribution in ‘Building India’ is significant. Homi Bhaba in atomic science, Tatas in Business, Nani Phalkivala in legislation etc., The list is big.

Revolution in Kannada Literature

“Vachanagalu” is a great revolution in the Kannada literature. It freed up anyone to create devotional poems. During those days, the court poets had very strict grammatical Kannada literature to follow. Chandassu, Vyakarana, Memaamse were very strictly followed on the Sanskrit lineage of language orthodoxy. And only those who were recognized in the court by the king and certified by his court scholars were allowed to compose poems. And only such devotional songs were sung in the temples.

Basavanna along with other veerashaiva sharanas broke this mold. They brought in the concept of Ishta Daiva Ankitha to the verses. Ishta Deva is personal god. Ankitha is signature. So by looking at the verses you can make out who is the author of the verses. For example, Koodala Sangamadeva is that of Basavanna & Channamallikarjuna deva is that of Akka Mahadevi, etc.,

The Vachana Kranthi made framing the verses very easy, reciting became very popular. It gained such a great momentum with the thrust from Basavanna and his Anubhava Mantapa that it sustained for very long and created great many Sharanas across all castes. Not only that, it even inspired Krishna Bhakthi movement leading to the creation of Haridasa Sahithya subsequently during Vijayanagara period around 15^th century. It broke the mold of the strict Sanskrit language based recitation during Pooja. Women could sing Haridasa Sahithya and serve devotional songs to the god while doing pooja. And this tradition continues till date.

Sharana Sahithya started much earlier than Basavanna. It finds its roots sometime around 8-9^th century. But it gained great momentum during Basavanna’s time & much credit goes to him & his perseverance. It still did not get political patronage during his time only in his own king’s court. Some researchers say (arguably), even during Vijayanagara period it did not receive the kind of patronage Haridasa Sahithya gained. You will see continuity in Haridasa Sahithya since then through till even today. But Sharana Sahithya had long break during 16^th to about 20^th century. Only during recent times there is a lot of research done and revival done. Many Lingayat mathas are encouraging it further now and poets are regaining the lost literature and new creations are coming up.

Today’s government could do a lot more. Because any great Culture requires the political patronage to survive and thrive. Government is only interested in robbing the Hundi of temples today to pay for minorities and dolling out freebees. But if they pay back for Sangeetha and Sahithya, then we can revive all of these lost glories.

I wish Basavanna will come back & create another Kranthi!!!!!

By reading this blog am hoping the reader will get inspired to do some more research in Vachana Sahithya, Sharana Sampradaya, Jangamas, Mathas, undertake a tour of all places mentioned here & contribute a little “interest” back to a great culture.

Small Is Beautiful: Book Review

This book by EF Schumacher was first published in 1973 without much fanfare. No one noticed when it was released. But if people celebrated its 25^th anniversary and is still being referred to by serious economists, then it speaks of its volume & its relevance even today. By size it is just 250 pages, but is packed with lot of punches. The beauty is, it just not lists the ills of the present day modern economics, but gives simple solutions for those ills. I am highly influenced by its simple analogies and solution oriented arguments. Most of my blogs and readings are influenced in this same direction. It is also closer to Hindu & any other religious way of life prescribed giving a lot of importance to the individual spiritual quest.

The author quotes Gandhiji in several occasions. Hence I can say it hinges on the principles Gramodyoga & Grama swarajya - of people employment, empowerment. It is principled on - If people are empowered to rule themselves; then economy will take care of itself. But if economy is primary concern, then people care takes back seat.

The Modern Economics: Something Bad

Modern economics is the primary driver of the politics today all over the world. (Except may be Bhutan.  Bhutan has taken the Pledge to remain carbon neutral & measure their success by Gross National Happiness, which makes me believe they are on the right path & can be a guiding force & light for the rest of the world).

The politics is always about people, eradicating poverty, hunger, establishing peace & permanence. So while politics is all about people, modern economics derails it from focusing on people happiness to people prosperity.

The basic tenet of modern economics is: Peace is attained by prosperity. So get rich and then get others rich. The easy reason is once they get rich why would rich go to war? They gain less and lose a lot.

The author quotes Lord Keynes a noted modern day economist – ‘Until we reach universal prosperity we pretend “foul is fair and fair is foul” for foul is useful & fair is not’.

So basically the modern economics dictates to enrich yourself ‘somehow’, ‘anyhow’ for that is the road to peace.

The problem with this theory is while enriching oneself there is no definition of ‘enough’. So it creates enormous stress on limited world resources putting them on a collision course with not the poor but with other rich. So the rich go to war. Rich & the poor suffer. Peace is disturbed.

Gandhiji quotes “Earth has enough for every man’s need but not enough for every man’s greed”. It can be extended to say earth is not enough for even one man’s greed.

Ancient Wisdom: Need to seep through into politics

So what’s the solution? Author has a chapter called Buddhist economics. But he admits at the beginning, itself, that it is the same tenets from any other religion, be it Christian, Hindu or any other.

The religion preaches at individual level. The individuals make up society, society makes up nation & it makes the world etc.,

The religion preaches: ‘Liberate oneself from the cravings for material & obtain maximum human satisfaction with minimal consumption’.

Man’s needs are infinite & inifinitude can be achieved only in the spiritual realm and never in the material.

With this wisdom the economic policies and politics of managing nation, people & meeting their aspirations has to be undertaken. In that endeavor, the author precinctly argues chapter by chapter: Small is Beautiful. Small land ownership. Small production, minimal destruction. Minimal consumption. Small water tanks, small district units, local produce, local consumption. Etc.,

Unemployment: Growing concern

One of the blame for unemployment is on population growth. Author argues why additional people cannot do additional work? But that requires resources. So what? Earth is bounty. But there is a clash of rich who have control over the earth resources. So it boils down to how rich control economics & politics depriving poor of their land rights.

The modern day economics argues: Agri ‘culture’ is uneconomical, unviable. It has to be made Agri ‘business’ & Agri ‘Industry’. For economists anything culture is unviable. It has to be rooted out. They always argue politics has to be away from culture, and be secular.

The author argues, that the Agriculture when rightly done as in the ancient times with a bit of modern touch, provides, peace & permanence.

Agriculture has a wider aspect: 1. It keeps man in touch with living nature. 2. It will humanize and ennoble man’s wider habitat. 3. It produces food for self and to trade. Besides it provides maximum employment. Especially it is true for our country.

So the right solution from government should be – Instead of drift away from Agi, 1. Reconstruct rural culture & 2. Reopen land for gainful occupation to large number of working people, making Agri viable and attractive.

This will yield land use towards ideal health, beauty & permanence. This will yield maximum employment too. Agriculture combined with vocational work like Khadi weaving, art, temple building, sculpture, handi-crafts can bring about long lasting peace. This has been our ancient wisdom in our country.

Intermediate Technology: Right solution of technology for Humanity

The counter argument to the Small is Beautiful is that it kills innovation and limits scientific utility to the world. But this argument only by the rich. The poor just need basic necessities to be met first.

The author puts forth the need for intermediate technology to help alleviate worker’s effort.

I would like to draw a simple analogy from the author’s this particular thought process. It is like Charaka of the Gandhiji’s Khadi Gramodyoga.

A simple comparison is: The power loom employs thousands of people at a particular place; it also consumes a lot of earthly resources from land, water, electricity. It requires a lot of capital forcing only rich to fund and run it employing others. It requires enormous transportation, distribution, marketing, inventory management process for consumption of the produce. It becomes unviable to reach the hinterlands of India. Instead it gets exported and made available at cheaper rates only in cities forcing city people to consume more than what they need.

The handloom on the other hand requires very minimal capital affordable by anyone. It can be established across all 5 lakh villages across the country. It provides employment across length and breadth of the nation and not constrained to a particular factory place. Its earthly resource needs are zilch. Consumer is right at the door step or maximum in a town nearby.

The author generalizes the Intermediate Technology as:

1.       Must be indigenous meeting the needs of the locals by the locals

2.       Very easily accessible and affordable

3.       Equipment and operational harm to the nature should be within the limits of the nature’s recuperative force.

One must understand that the colonial powers who shaped today’s modern economics was primarily interested in supplies & profits from the colonies & not in development & sustenance of the natives. Hence the modern economics is ‘Export oriented & Import dependent’.

Summary

The book has a lot more to offer and ponder. It deep dives into the ills of nuclear energy and argues that the solution lies in ‘altering our pattern of living with lesser energy needs’. The modern economic performance metrics like GNP, GDP are ripped apart based on its inhuman centric approaches. Energy, fossil fuel, our dependence on it is deeply discussed. Some solutions by way of real scenario case study are provided for new patterns of ownership of factories. Interesting analogy of how man likes predictable output & hence eliminates all ‘living’ elements in industry approach, implementing same ideology on Agri – making it business than culture is described well. The ‘living’ elements are unpredictable & hence to be eliminated is the modern way of thinking and it is dangerous for all ‘living’ including humans.

The only additional thing that I would like to add from my side is, while common man should live within limits, the country needs to defend itself against great many odds of the bad world. So the destructive technologies like nuclear energy, warships, war planes need to be developed and maintained to ensure peace for the people within the country.

One of the interesting further reads on the ills of GDP centric growth is in the below article by Devinder Sharma:

http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.in/2015/02/the-fetish-for-higher-gdp.html

All in all, entire book is an interesting eye opener for someone who ponders why with great technological advancement and scientific achievements we have not been able to address world hunger and poverty. What is wrong with the world current economics, policies and present day politics guided only by economics and not by humane centric religious tenets?  

Konark is a Must Visit

Konark is a small discrete village in the coastal Odisha. It boasts of the world’s one of the finest piece of architecture called The Sun Temple. The temple is in ruins now. But what is left itself is marvelous for us to explore it with awe.

The entire album with detailed comments is here. Do open each photo with info to read detail of the photo and place:

https://goo.gl/photos/k54ZjPVakzGc6G229

The Marvelous Temple Architecture

In its full glory, it stood about 90mts tall. In modern perspective it is about 30 floors high. It is built in typical Odisha style. The front Mukha Mantapa is in Dravidian style standing in tact today with 45 mts high. The main sanctum sanctorum which stood 90m tall is collapsed now. It is believed to have housed the main deity Surya bhagwan. Both of these together form typical Odisha style of temple architecture which is typical in Lingaraja temple in Bhubaneshwar, Puri Jagannatha temple etc., All the length and breadth of Orissa we see similar combination structure.

The legend says, the temple had about 53 thousand tons of Magnet stacked on the top and bottom to hold the Surya Bhagavan’s Idol in the middle of the sanctum sanctorum suspended in midair. The temple was constructed on the confluence of Chandrabhaga river with the sea. The first rays of sun light everyday was making through the Natya Mandapa and Mukha Mandapa and falling on the face of the Surya Bhagwan in the Garbagriha. Even through the Uttarayana and Dakshinayana, Surya changing his course, the temple was built in such a manner, that the first rays pass through the pillars to fall on the idol everyday morning

	What remains today of the Konark temple. The front mukha mantaka & the Natya mandapa only remains. It stands on a plat form which is the Surya ratha pulled by altogether 24 wheels. Each one of these Chakra also acts as a Sun Dial depicting the exact time by the minute based on the Sun casting shadow over the wheel by the middle spoke.
	A typical Odisha style temple architecture: A mukha mantapa in the front in Dravidian style and the main sanctum sanctorum (Vimana) behind it in exactly double the height w.r.t the Mukha mantapa.

  

	The Sun Dial Chakras above. And the exquisite carvings on each one of them depicting Dashavatara, Women folks in various forms, Contemporary life style, Puranas etc., Simha-Gaja: This is at the entrance of almost every temple. Seems like an emblem of the kingdom. Its variations of representation adorn all temple outer walls also. Simha = Power & Strength; Gaja = Prosperity & wealth; It symbolizes that when the power & strength rides on the prosperity & wealth the humanity suffers. The sculpture has the man being trampled by the elephant. It is so apt for today.
	The massive iron beams of that era still intact. The ASI is excavating the area has found thousands of tons of iron alloys of that era lying orphan in and around the ruins. It depicts the ancient india’s advancement in Metallurgy.

The Temple Destruction

The temple is dated around 12^th Century CE. The legend says it was built during one King’s period only by a Kalinga king. The massive iron alloys lying around indicate that not only the metallurgy was advanced but should have been industrialized.

The temple having massive magnetic elements in it, being on the coast, was affecting the navigation of the ships of the Portuguese when they started going around India in 19^th cent CE. So they simply barged in here and looked around and pulled down the magnets. Legend says, that the temple had a bad omen during the inaugural ceremony and hence was not being worshipped. It was guarded just by the locals and was not under any special security from the local kingdom.

Since the entire structure was balanced upon the magnetic force, the entire structure collapsed. It is believed that the temple main deity is taken away & displayed as a common wealth in Albert museum in London. When the British were ruling the kingdom, they saw further collapse of the structure. To arrest the further collapse of the structure, the amazing engineering brains, stuffed sand and rocks inside the remaining structure to withstand it. The placard in the front erected in 1903 reads their feat.

Modern Vs Ancient Science & Technology

Every educated Indian must ponder whether Indians really had a glorious past. Did India have advanced science? Was it ubiquitous? Was it accessible to the common man? If so what was he doing with it? Was he using it for his personal luxury or for the common good? Who was directing him to use it for common good? Was the politics of that day only thinking for the common good? Was the technology developed used for compassionate local cultural enhancement, faith enhancement? And why not for expansion, destruction, colonization like the Europeans did?

Did the political leadership pay attention to Geometry, Geology, Metallurgy, and Industrialization? Was industries and metallurgy developed for building personal homes, palaces, transportation or for the community good? If the Science was in realms of only the high & the mighty then why is there no evidence of such massive palaces standing by the side of the magnificent temples which dot entire length and breadth of India?

The temple building was considered as holy job by the rulers. As a side effect it created long sustained jobs for the masses. It developed scientific temper. It challenged the artisans to excel by their handy work. Most importantly it brought social harmony through celebrations. Puri Jagannath temple has a history of continuous celebrations through a millennium. Most importantly, these edifices build faith amongst people, bonds them, kills their differences, they come together; Everyday thousands from all caste, creed throng the temple and take Jagannath’ s blessings and sumptuous meal. Where is discrimination? Where is intolerance? Everyone, every community has something to offer to the lord.  

For today’s rulers, the temple building is considered as superstitious dumb act. The government strictly stays away from it. But it takes the collections from it though. Shameless.

Today, are we using science for compassionate technology building or for destructive technology? Road, Railways, Massive Airport building for transporting our raw wealth to everywhere is considered as an economic sense today. To harness local resources and culture to consume locally is considered stupid & ancient.  

The Trip Itinerary

We flew down to Bhubaneshwar from Bangalore. Travelled in Odisha and went to Kolkata by bus. Then flew back from Kolkata to Bangalore.

We had a 8 day trip. 3 days in Odisha covering Bhubaneshwar, Puri and Konark. We stayed at Puri. All 3 places are equidistant at about 60kms from each other.

Then we went to Kolkata and went to Sundarbans for 2 days. Kolkata and West Bengal was good and gave us a different perspective. It is good to see and explore the diverse India & ponder over our heritage and what we are doing with it.