South Asia Citizens Wire - 30 May 2016 - No. 2897
[since 1996]
Contents:
1. Pakistan: Conservative nuts of the Council of Islamic Ideology and their
recipe to cage women - Who will bring their house down ?
2. India - Pakistan: Fishermen in troubled waters | Jatin Desai
3. India: Tariq Ali Interview’s Jairus Banaji on Telesur TV [Part 1]
4. Use (and abuse) of law for criminalisation of peaceful expression in India:
A report by Human Rights Watch
5. Punish Racism - Protect African Nationals in India - select commentary in
Indian Media and a press release by Africa group head of missions in Delhi
6. India: Remembering Trupti Shah - Tributes from Sahiyar (Stree Sangathan),
Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS) and Narmada Bachao Andolan
7. Petition to the Whitethouse: Stop Shielding Dow Chemical from Accountability
for Corporate Crimes in Bhopal, India
8. Pakistan: Informality, Violence and Istability in Karachi | Asad Sayeed,
Khurram Husain, Syed Salim Raza
9. Recent On Communalism Watch:
India: Announced - Peaceful protest march by African students against
racism and violent attacks in India (31st May, 2016, New Delhi)
India: General V K Singh - Watch out this man
India: Attacks on Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy will only strengthen his legacy
(Apoorvanand)
India: RSS considering Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath who represents hardline
hindutva as the party’s chief ministerial face.
Gutsy and brave Rana Ayyub blows the whistle with her under cover
investigation on Gujarat - her book 'Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-Up'
released in Delhi to a packed audience
India: Painting himself as a victim Vanzara Gujarat's dirty harry launches
himself into public life at a felicitation rally in Baroda
India: Saffron swing in Kerala (Ajith Pillai)
India - Punjab: Politics over murderous attack on Sikh preacher (Editorial,
The Tribune)
African diplomatic community to boycott Africa Day celebrations due to
everyday racism and afro-phobia in India - Killing Of Student In Delhi's Vasant
Vihar
India: Excerpts from Rana Ayyub's 'Gujarat Files: Anatomy Of A Cover Up'
(via scroll.in)
India: WIth Modi in Power What the RSS gained - Excerpts from Panini
Anand's article in Catch News
India - Dilemma of Assam's Muslims: Neither Assamese nor Muslim enough
(Satyen K. Bordoloi)
India - Muzaffarnagar riots: Judicial panel fails to hold up the light to
truth (Harsh Mander)
India: List of sins cartoon by Sandeep Adhwaryu in The Times of India (2
Feb 2016)
India: Urdu cleansing in Delhi - artists face ire while painting on the wall
India: Re-Naming Akbar Road Is About Politics and Hindutva (Gopalkrishna
Gandhi in The Wire)
::: URLs & FULL TEXT :::
10. 'No Muslims allowed': how nationalism is rising in Aung San Suu Kyi's
Myanmar | Poppy McPherson
11. Bangladesh: The fuss about ISIS and what we need to do | Muhammad Nurul Huda
12. India: The Infiltration of Pseudo-Science in Science Through Myths and
Miracles | Amitabha Basu
13. Ode to a nameless friend | Shiv Visvanathan
========================================
1. PAKISTAN: CONSERVATIVE NUTS OF THE COUNCIL OF ISLAMIC IDEOLOGY AND THEIR
RECIPE TO CAGE WOMEN - WHO WILL BRING THEIR HOUSE DOWN ?
========================================
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) seems to be working in an overdrive to
make its presence felt. The council has issued fatwas and given proposals,
mainly targeting women on the issue of DNA testing in rape cases, child
marriages and polygamy among others. Recent among these, though not binding on
the government, is a proposed ‘model' of the women protection bill passed by
the Punjab government a few months ago, which CII and other Islamic parties had
firmly rejected declaring it “un-Islamic.” The ‘highlight' of amendments
proposed by the body is it that it recommends allowing a husband to beat his
wife ‘gently if she needs to be disciplined', in addition to prohibition on
mixing of genders in schools, hospitals and offices.
http://www.sacw.net/article12785.html
========================================
2. INDIA - PAKISTAN: FISHERMEN IN TROUBLED WATERS | Jatin Desai
========================================
To be in prison in one's own country is itself a nerve-wracking ordeal. But
imagine how much more agonising it must be to languish in another country's
prison, often endlessly, and for no fault or for minor transgressions,
especially if the two countries in question happen to be India and Pakistan?
http://www.sacw.net/article12778.html
========================================
3. INDIA: TARIQ ALI INTERVIEW’S JAIRUS BANAJI ON TELESUR TV [PART 1]
========================================
Global Empire: India. Past and Present (Part 1) Telesur TV, May 24, 2016 ’India
The World Today’ In part one of Tariq Ali and professor Jairus Banaji’s
discussion, they look at the recent student dispute at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University, and what it has revealed about the BJP government. They discuss how
the world’s largest democracy has struggled with authoritarianism and even
fascism in the past, the relationship between caste and capitalism in India,
and how the country’s judiciary is being compromised by the politicians.
http://www.sacw.net/article12783.html
========================================
4. USE (AND ABUSE) OF LAW FOR CRIMINALISATION OF PEACEFUL EXPRESSION IN INDIA:
A REPORT BY HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
========================================
This report details how the criminal law is used to limit peaceful expression
in India. It documents examples of the ways in which vague or overbroad laws
are used to stifle political dissent, harass journalists, restrict activities
by nongovernmental organizations, arbitrarily block Internet sites or take down
content, and target religious minorities and marginalized communities, such as
Dalits.
http://www.sacw.net/article12780.html
========================================
5. PUNISH RACISM - PROTECT AFRICAN NATIONALS IN INDIA - SELECT COMMENTARY IN
INDIAN MEDIA AND A PRESS RELEASE BY AFRICA GROUP HEAD OF MISSIONS IN DELHI
========================================
Editorials from some Indian newspapers following racist attacks against African
nationals in India and a release by Africa group head of missions in Delhi and
urls for reports in Africa
http://www.sacw.net/article12787.html
========================================
6. INDIA: REMEMBERING TRUPTI SHAH - TRIBUTES FROM SAHIYAR (STREE SANGATHAN),
PARYAVARAN SURAKSHA SAMITI (PSS) AND NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
========================================
The women's movement, the environmental cause, the struggle for justice has
lost a voice that never flinched from standing up for victims of exploitation,
injustice and violence. Trupti Shah (54) left us on May 26, 2016 in Vadodara
after a valiant battle against lung cancer.
http://www.sacw.net/article12789.html
========================================
7. PETITION TO THE WHITEHOUSE: STOP SHIELDING DOW CHEMICAL FROM ACCOUNTABILITY
FOR CORPORATE CRIMES IN BHOPAL, INDIA
========================================
Greed, carelessness, and callous disregard for human life sum up the causes of
the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster - Request for Assistance for Bhopal Survivors'
Petition
http://www.sacw.net/article12790.html
========================================
8. PAKISTAN: INFORMALITY, VIOLENCE AND ISTABILITY IN KARACHI | Asad Sayeed,
Khurram Husain, Syed Salim Raza
========================================
Informal manufacturing is more prevalent than formal manufacturing in terms of
the number of people employed, land area covered by informal enterprises, and
number of enterprises.
http://www.sacw.net/article12713.html
========================================
9. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH:
========================================
India: Announced - Peaceful protest march by African students against
racism and violent attacks in India (31st May, 2016, New Delhi)
India: General V K Singh - Watch out this man
India: Attacks on Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy will only strengthen his legacy
(Apoorvanand)
India: RSS considering Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath who represents hardline
hindutva as the party’s chief ministerial face.
Gutsy and brave Rana Ayyub blows the whistle with her under cover
investigation on Gujarat - her book 'Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-Up'
released in Delhi to a packed audience
Announcement: 'Aryan Invasion Theory and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar' upcoming
seminar at Nehru Memorial in Delhi (30 May 2016)
India: Painting himself as a victim Vanzara Gujarat's dirty harry launches
himself into public life at a felicitation rally in Baroda
Book launch announcement: Rana Ayyub's Gujarat Files (27 May New Delhi)
India: Saffron swing in Kerala (Ajith Pillai)
India - Punjab: Politics over murderous attack on Sikh preacher (Editorial,
The Tribune)
African diplomatic community to boycott Africa Day celebrations due to
everyday racism and afro-phobia in India - Killing Of Student In Delhi's Vasant
Vihar
India: Excerpts from Rana Ayyub's 'Gujarat Files: Anatomy Of A Cover Up'
(via scroll.in)
India: Why are the right-wing vigilante group Bajrang Dal organising
commando-style training camps in UP?
India: WIth Modi in Power What the RSS gained - Excerpts from Panini
Anand's article in Catch News
India: Withdraw 'divyang' for 'viklang' for Peoples with Disabilities (PWD)
- Petition to the Prime Minister
India - Dilemma of Assam's Muslims: Neither Assamese nor Muslim enough
(Satyen K. Bordoloi)
India - Muzaffarnagar riots: Judicial panel fails to hold up the light to
truth (Harsh Mander)
See You Again - Ajit Ninan and Jug Suraiya cartoon (The Times of India, 23
May 2016)
India: List of sins cartoon by Sandeep Adhwaryu in The Times of India (2
Feb 2016)
Cartoon by Satish Acharya on The Liberhan Commission that spent 17 years to
produce a report on the Babari Mosque demolition of 1992
India: Urdu cleansing in Delhi - artists face ire while painting on the wall
India: Re-Naming Akbar Road Is About Politics and Hindutva (Gopalkrishna
Gandhi in The Wire)
The Real Source of Terror in Bangladesh by Willam B. Milam (The New York
Times)
Narendra Modi govt's new move on education: Coming soon a Vedic and
Sanskrit education board
-> available via: http://communalism.blogspot.com/
::: URLs & FULL TEXT :::
========================================
10. 'NO MUSLIMS ALLOWED': HOW NATIONALISM IS RISING IN AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S
MYANMAR
by Poppy McPherson
========================================
(The Guardian - 23 May 2016)
Concerns grow that Buddhist extremism may flourish unless country’s new
democratic leaders counter discrimination against minorities
At the entrance to Thaungtan village there’s a brand-new sign, bright yellow,
that bears the message: “No Muslims allowed to stay overnight. No Muslims
allowed to rent houses. No marriage with Muslims.”
The post was erected in late March by Buddhist residents of the village in
Myanmar’s lush Irrawaddy delta region who signed, or were strong-armed into
signing, a document asserting that they wanted to live separately.
Since then a couple of other villages across the country have followed suit.
Small but viciously insular, these “Buddhist-only” outposts serve as microcosms
of the festering religious tensions that threaten Myanmar’s nascent experiment
with democracy.
A sign barring Muslims from staying overnight, doing commerce, or marrying in
Thaungtan village, in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta Region.
A sign barring Muslims from staying overnight, doing commerce, or marrying in
Thaungtan village, in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta region. Photograph: Poppy
McPherson for the Guardian
After decades of military rule, Myanmar has entered a new era. As state
counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi is in charge, though key institutions remain under
the army’s control.
Recent weeks, however, have brought a surge in nationalist activity. Scores
rallied outside the US embassy in Yangon last month to demand diplomats stop
using the word Rohingya to describe millions of Muslims confined to internal
displacement camps and villages in western Myanmar. Nationalists insist the
group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The few public comments Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD)
has given on the issue have not been encouraging.
========================================
11. BANGLADESH: THE FUSS ABOUT ISIS AND WHAT WE NEED TO DO
by Muhammad Nurul Huda
========================================
(The Daily Star - May 28, 2016)
The murders of bloggers, intellectuals, priests, academicians, rights
activists, and also persons of ordinary vocations committed by allegedly
extremist groups owing allegiance to ISIS have given rise to a heated
controversy regarding the organisational existence of such an outfit in
Bangladesh. Every time an incident even remotely carrying the hallmarks of
religiously motivated extremist groups occurs, there is instant attribution by
some western quarters to ISIS. The government, on the other hand, loses no
time in firmly denying its existence in Bangladesh.
The denial mode about the organisational existence of ISIS gives rise to
uneasiness. In the past, it was the persistent denial of the then establishment
of there being any JMB or its Bangla Bhai and his depredations in northern
areas of the country. The then authorities grappled with the reality only when
the ground conditions and mounting international pressure compelled them to
confront the religious extremists. As a result, extremist dens were busted,
criminal cases were registered and finally capital punishment was handed down
to at least six notorious terrorists.
One could reasonably ask as to what is significant in the continuous
attribution to ISIS hands behind every suspected extremist attack. The
government of the day, despite its denial of the organisational existence of
ISIS, has commenced appropriate legal actions. That is only desirable because
in the penal lexicon all the suspected extremist attacks constitute criminal
offenses and as such statutory actions have to follow.
Are some quarters venturing to make us and the world at large believe that the
Bangladeshi polity is prone to extremist ideas and that the bigoted elements
can have a field day on account of slack governance? How does the admission of
the organisational existence of an extra-territorial network help us in
adequately confronting the menace? The blunt reality may be that misguided
elements in our midst stand ready to carry out the implementation of ISIS
objectives for their so-called religious beliefs. However, that cannot detract
the resolve of the mainstream to confront such religious extremism.
ISIS would naturally prefer to work through secretive or banned organisations.
Such organisations cannot operate openly and thus one may not be definitive
about their organisational existence. In Bangladesh, banned organisations like
JMB or HUJI or the relatively recent Ansarullah Bangla Team have suspected
elements within its fold who are ready to work as foot soldiers of ISIS without
any extra-territorial promptings.
The presence of operatives of international terrorist groups is not an
essential precondition for terrorist occurrences within the country. Ideas of
extremism to identification of targets can well be coordinated from distant
lands. External connections of militants in Bangladesh cannot be viewed as an
entirely new development. Given the history, effective links would require very
little effort. Individual acquaintances may not take much time to turn into
organisational ties. Therefore, denial of external connections should not be a
strategy. It is time to act proactively.
What needs to be done is to note that the militant's focus is on the use of
power in pursuit of policy. Some sections of the public have been converted to
this approach. Incidentally, the liberal current of opinion was significantly
de-legitimised. The goal, therefore, should be denial of space for the
radicalised and the militant. The extremists shall not be allowed to develop
vital stakes in the political system.
While eradicating or controlling militancy it should occur to us that in
Bangladesh the advocates of the extreme path are more determined than the
liberals. Liberal forces hardly work with intense dedication, much less with a
sense of mission. One has to remember that in Bangladesh secularism as state
ideology finds it difficult to compete with a language of belonging saturated
with religion.
One has to recognise the socio-economic reality of Bangladesh where gross
poverty co-exists with democracy, a liberal constitution and disorder with
functioning polity; the religious and traditional beliefs are far more
tenacious than the liberals imagine. The State has, at times, been involved in
the business of defining religion. Significantly, the compulsions of the
traditional obligations of the ruler to protect State religion have to be kept
in view.
The militants' strategy consists of efforts to win the trust and confidence of
the majority population based on the role of extremists serving as arbitrators
of individual and community disputes and financiers of education and
livelihoods. Therefore, specific economic issues should be addressed on an
urgent basis.
The area of action to counter militancy is a battle of ideas, challenging the
ideological motivations that extremists believe justify the use of violence.
Successful prosecution in the courts, based on gathering of necessary evidence
and apprehending those involved in planning acts of terrorism before committing
of mischief should be one of the principal approaches of countering militant
activity.
The inescapable fact is that the ultimate responsibility of breeding a violent
culture and its multiple social ramifications shall fall on state agencies that
fail to see the ominous signals of religious extremism and perhaps willy-nilly
nurture and protect the so-called Jihadi groups.
There is a causal relationship between policy and violence on the social level
within the country and on the personal level within the household. The state
has to accept responsibility for the overall propensity for violence in the
public and private places. Respect for religious difference, and racial, sexual
and ethnic freedom needs to be recognised by the state first before it is
recognised by everyone else.
The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.
========================================
12. INDIA: THE INFILTRATION OF PSEUDO -SCIENCE IN SCIENCE THROUGH MYTHS AND
MIRACLES
by Amitabha Basu
========================================
(The Citizen, May 29, 2016 | https://tinyurl.com/hk67yb5)
NEW DELHI: The Sangh Parivar has always tried to project a revival of the
‘glorious ancient Hindu past’ as the way forward for our country.
For them, to wax eloquent about Hindu India’s past scientific achievements is
the hallmark of true nationalism. At the same time, they talk about development
and economic growth, aided by modern science and technology, for India to
become a great and powerful nation. “The most crucial components of a modern
worldview – rationality and the practice of critique – are ignored and rejected
in favour of blind faith in Sanatana Dharma and a revival of a supposedly Vedic
past.”
The ball was set rolling in late 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself
who declared at the opening ceremony of a hospital in Mumbai that modern
medical achievements – plastic surgery, cloning and in-vitro fertilisation –
were all practised in India’s ancient past, that Lord Ganesha’s elephant head
is proof that advanced transplant surgery existed, and that the way Kunti
conceived in the Mahabharata was evidence of the practice of in-vitro
fertilisation.
His Sangh Parivar colleagues followed with a slew of similar claims about
ancient Indian science.
The Indian Science Congress held in early 2015 saw several such instances:
An IAS officer started his presentation by blowing a conch shell for 2
minutes and claimed that the sound could cure many human disorders.
An invited lecture sought to project Lord Shiva as the ‘greatest
environmentalist in the world’.
At the symposium on Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit, ‘evidence’ was
laid out that sophisticated flying vehicles existed in Vedic times : as large
as modern-day jumbo jets, with radar and advanced guidance and tracking
systems; their pilots wore magic suits and they were capable of interplanetary
travel. The authors claimed that their work is based on the Maharshi Bhardwaj
Vaimanika Sastra, a text they say was written around 400 BC. But scholars at
the IISc in Bangalore say it was actually written between 1900 and 1922.
It is therefore not surprising that 2009 Chemistry Nobel laureate V
Ramakrishnan described the Congress as a ‘circus’ and vowed never to attend one
again.
Noted biologist P M Bhargava, founder of CCMB, Hyderabad, also exasperatedly
said that the event had deteriorated over the years and was now ‘an absolute
waste of money’.
The claims of interplanetary spaceships so incensed Dr. R P Gandhiraman, a NASA
scientist, that he collected hundreds of signatures from other scientists
around the world on a petition demanding that the session be cancelled. "We as
a scientific community should be seriously concerned about the infiltration of
pseudo-science in science curricula with the backing of influential political
parties …Giving a scientific platform for a pseudo-science talk is worse than a
systematic attack that has been carried out by politically powerful
pseudo-science propagandists in the recent past. If we scientists remain
passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also our children."
An exhibit was inaugurated by the Minister of Culture, Mahesh Sharma, in
Delhi’s Rabindra Bhavan, entitled Cultural Continuity from Rig Veda to Robotics.
Here was a display of plastic placards decorated with calendar art and
tele-serial imaginings of the Mahabharata, coupled with crude info-graphics
informing us that by correlating references to the planets and stars in the
Sanskrit epics with astronomy software, the historicity of Lord Ram, and the
narratives of the Ramayana and Mahabharata had now been firmly established. To
wit: the “fall of Duryodhan in mace battle” occurred at 06:50 on November 14,
3139 BC. Ram himself was born on January 10, 5014 BC. “Around 12 to 1 noontime.”
We do not by any means wish to imply that glorifying the scientific
achievements of ancient India is simply communal Hindu propaganda, to be
disdainfully dismissed. On the contrary, we should be proud of our ancient
scientific heritage.
However, we have to carefully sift genuine and legitimate science from
mythology and imaginative speculation. ”There is no doubt that an ancient
tradition of excellence in science existed in India. Scholars believe that the
Indus Valley Civilisation, that flourished 2,500 years before the Christian
era, used a system of weights and measures based on an awareness of the decimal
system. It is clear too that the cities of this civilisation could not have
been built without knowledge of simple geometry….”
“There is a conflation of myth and superstition with the scientific advances of
the past; and then a spurious equivalence is sought to be created between
ancient myths and modern science. The technological products of the
Enlightenment are eagerly sought, while the critical methods of science, which
lead us to question every assumption and belief, are firmly shut out. Science
as a vehicle for rationality and as an expression of reason is something that
Hindutva strongly opposes, even as it seeks the credibility of science for its
myths. This explains why the Hindu nationalists ruling India today celebrate
technology while constantly seeking to undermine scientific methods.”
Why did the great scientific achievements of ancient India not advance further
through succeeding centuries? The cheerleaders of Hindutva give a simplistic
and historically wrong argument is that invasions by Muslims and later the
British wiped out these glorious achievements, and they have now set forth to
revive them.
Historian Romila Thapar has argued that early achievements in ancient and
medieval science, such as astronomy and mathematics, were never consolidated in
India because of opposition from religious orthodoxy; and philosophers who
believed in reason and science had to encounter opposition from dominant
religious authorities. “It is an irony that the upholders of a monistic version
of Brahminical Hinduism are today claiming the achievements in ancient Indian
science for a political project whose lineage can only be linked to those who
opposed that very scientific endeavour.”
The Modi government has shown scant regard for the development of a scientific
temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform [Article 51A(h) of the
constitution].
Appointment of saffronised but otherwise incompetent persons to key posts of
scientific and educational institutions, rewriting of school textbooks to
inculcate unscientific, irrational and historically inaccurate knowledge in our
younger generation, the ‘unsolved’ murders of rationalists Dabholkar, Pansare
and Kalburgi … the list grows longer with each passing day.
Yoga has been promoted by Narendra Modi, and endorsed by his pet godmen Ramdev
and Ravishankar, as the greatest gift of ancient India to humanity and the cure
for the ills afflicting humankind. In his speech to the United Nations General
Assembly, PM Modi had even suggested that climate change can be mitigated by
the practice of yoga. International Yoga Day is coming soon and will be
observed with enormous pomp and show. Yoga is being forced upon all religious
and minority groups as a token of their ‘deshbhakti’.
Nobody says that Yoga is not beneficial. But there are many millions engaged in
walking, running, cycling and weight training than those practising yoga and
reaping equal or better benefits. But there is no brand that unifies them as
yoga does, and there is no allure of spirituality and "5000 years” of heritage
behind what they do.
A comprehensive study by a Karnataka-based researcher-consultant, Dr Srinivas
Kakkilaya, has said that "all the available evidence as of now, and the
systematic reviews and meta-analyses, indicate clearly that yoga does not cure
or prevent, or significantly alleviate, any ailment, that affects humans.”
The study refutes the claim that yoga is the oldest contribution to the world
from India, that it is the greatest contribution from Hinduism, that it has
helped Indians with health and vitality for millennia.
Pointing out that yoga was "never a part of Indian systems of medicine",
Kakkilaya says, "Indian medical texts such as Charaka Samhita or Ashtanga
Hrudaya do not mention yoga as a method of prevention or treatment of any
disease", adding, "The credit for entwining the so called yoga with health and
fitness must go to Manibhai Haribhai Desai, also known as Shri Yogendra
(1897-1989), and Jagannath Ganesh Gune, also known as Swami Kuvalayananda
(1883-1966)."
Based on an analysis of more than 3000 papers over the last 100 years, the
study concludes, "The proponents of yoga therapy have failed to find any
conclusive evidence for the efficacy of yoga in treating any illness. They have
not even been successful in standardizing the so called yoga therapy.”
Apprehensions have been raised that yoga being foisted upon the armed forces,
with the chiefs meekly following the Modi government’s directives, may well
lead to politicisation of the military.
How have the scientists of India reacted to this trend of growing irrationality
and unscientific claims ? Sadly, by and large the ‘leaders’ of the scientific
and technological establishments in India have a very poor record of rational
and scientific thinking and attitude.
Take ISRO, perhaps the most successful Indian establishment in terms of its
track record of raising Indian space science and technology to international
levels.
For several decades, before any space launch from Sriharikotta the ISRO chief
has taken a replica of the space launch vehicle to Sri Ventakeshwara temple in
Tirupati to seek divine blessings for the success of the mission. Do they have
more faith in divine guidance than in the scientific and technological prowess
of their own scientists and engineers? It appears so.
As someone sarcastically asked the ISRO chief : “Have you ever considered
blaming your gods (and claiming damage recovery from the temple trust
authorities) when some of the earlier Indian rockets failed?” Dr.
Radhakrishnan, the then chief of ISRO, carried out the same exercise in the
case of the hugely successful Mangalyaan.
Dr. Madhavan Nair, former ISRO chief, has joined the ‘glorious ancient Indian
science’ bandwagon. Some of his statements:
Some sholkas in one of the Vedas say that there is water on the moon but no
one believed it. Through our Chandrayaan mission, we could establish that and
we were the first ones to find that out," Nair said, adding that everything in
Vedas could not be understood as they were in chaste Sanskrit.
"We are really proud that Aryabhatta and Bhaskara have done extensive
work on planetary work and exploration of outer planets….Even for Chandrayaan,
the equation of Aryabhatta was used. Even the (knowledge of) gravitational
field... Newton found it some 1500 years later... The knowledge existing (in
our scriptures).”
"The Vedas had a lot of information in the field of space and atomic
energy. We were fine until 600 BC. Then came the time of invasions till the
independence. Since then we are growing. We deciphered the atoms for peaceful
use."
DRDO, which has the responsibility of developing state-of-the-art arms and
ammunition systems for the Indian armed forces, has not been far behind. The
director of the Research and Development Establishment, Pune, has allegedly
spent over Rs 5 crores of its funds and energies in developing a pure silver
hi-tech chariot and ‘donated’ it to Alandi Temple in June after a bullock was
killed during the 21-day annual palki yatra to Pandharpur.
A senior scientist, who rebelled against this ‘absurd’ venture and filed a
complaint with the Central Vigilance Commission, had to pay for it. The DRDO
not only stripped him off his ongoing projects, but also transferred him out of
the Pune centre to a post where he was left to waste.
We all know about the Narendra Modi government’s order to DRDO to collaborate
and assist the Patanjali Yogpeeth enterprise of Baba Ramdev, for manufacturing
and marketing some of the herbal supplements and food products developed by
DRDO. The defence minister, army chief and DRDO chief endorsed this
collaboration. It is common knowledge that most of Ramdev’s products have not
been certified by the national food safety authorities and their purity and
efficacy are suspect.
India may be close to entering a phase of ideology-driven science. “Most
important is creation of atmosphere in which rational scientists are being
projected as agents of the West out to undermine the glory of ancient Indian
past," said Mayank Vahia, an astrophysicist at the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research. Eminent scientist P M Bhargava, agrees, "There is no
doubt that with the present government at the centre which is the political
front of the RSS, fringe elements have started squeezing Indian science
including mainline science and science policies.
This is clear from the appointments made to crucial scientific posts." Vahia
says, “Rationalist Indian scientists are willing to study past achievements
based on principles of logic and evidence, but the fringe nationalistic groups
… try to forcefully occupy the mainstream dialogue on India's past and are not
willing to accept limitations imposed by logic. The great seers of the past
were supposed to be all-seeing and all-knowing, period."
The consequence of such approach could be disastrous. "The rationalist
scientists will find their own work space squeezed as they deal with a
government that is influenced by parochial considerations. Pure excellence will
give way to committed excellence … Most mainstream scientists get overwhelmed
by the beauty and elegance of nature in a few years and a fair fraction of them
have strongly religious backgrounds … they become convinced about the gods as
entities who supervise our lives and give up the rationalist approach to life
and existence. These scientists then become supporters of irrationality".
Vahia wants rationalist scientists to take on fringe elements by educating
people about real achievements of the past. "Scientists will have to arm
themselves with a better understanding of the true achievements of the past,
and then step forward and take on the fringe groups who are well-organised,
well-funded, shrill and increasingly tolerated, if not encouraged, by the
powers that be …The battle is for the soul of the nation, no more, no less. A
battle is not far, and it will be brutal, hard and long." However, given the
fact that most Indian scientists are "career-conscious" and depend on
government grants for research, it is doubtful if many would join Vahia in his
campaign.
In conclusion, it is imperative for all democratic-minded, rational-thinking
and freedom-loving people to close their ranks, irrespective of their political
or ideological beliefs and inclinations, and oppose the increasing attempts of
the saffron brigade to impose its narrow, communal and bigoted Hindutva agenda
on the people of our country in the name of ‘nationalism’.
(Dr Amitabha Basu is scientist, having worked with the Space Applications
Centre (ISRO) and the National Physical Laboratory (CSIR))
========================================
13. ODE TO A NAMELESS FRIEND
by Shiv Visvanathan
========================================
(The Hindu - May 30, 2016)
Compassion: "Animals are part of the citizenry of a city. Our kindness to them
is the beginning of the civics of a city.” File photo of a rainy day in Mumbai.
— Photo: AP
‘Straydom’ is perhaps the metaphor for democracy: where there is vulnerability
there is solidarity.
This is an age when we worship politicians like monuments and let monuments
fall into decay. It has been described as VIP time, when power is basically
impotent but pompous in its display. The marginal and the anonymous fade away,
and there is no one to record them, mourn them, tell their stories. Important
events in their lives are not seen as history.
A few days back, I saw a stray dog die. He was flung by the force of the truck
that hit him. There was not even a yelp of protest as he was swept to the side
of the road. He trembled for a minute and then lay silent. It was not as if
life came to a standstill. The traffic stood in abeyance for a second and then
accelerated in an act of forgetting. Only an old beggar ran up in dismay to the
still creature.
I remember the dog, even as a pup. He claimed the road, protesting against
every truck that went past. Like all strays he was a character, with a pinched
tail and folded ears. He was master of all the dustbins in the area, the
scavenger as hero. There is a touch of homelessness about the stray. He was
desperate to be adopted, virtually beseeching to be taken home, and yet he had
the dignity of homelessness, living ascetically of the little bits available.
Hopeful, yet doomed
The stray dog becomes a metaphor for workers of the informal economy: at home
in its homelessness, hopeful, inventive, and yet strangely doomed. At night
time in Delhi, as the poor settle down to their scraps of pavement, one often
sees a dog regal on a sack, watching traffic. The lazy curiosity of the dog is
almost inimitable. He has a temporary home and a master, and he seems content.
He knows that citizenship is temporary, which is what makes it precious. Stray
dogs have an intelligence that pets lose. They have a galvanic alertness which
pets can never rival.
There is something about stray dogs that always haunts me. Their faces are so
expressive, almost an indictment of one’s presence and privilege. Yet they
demand so little and live on even less. I sat saddened by the death of the dog.
It will lie unattended on the road until crows summon a raucous feast on his
insides. In a few days, even flies will be indifferent as car after car runs
over his remains. There is almost something stark and unsentimental to his
ending, as if indifference is the only tribute the city can pay its homeless.
A stray dog becomes as it were the signature of the city. I remember reading
the records of the Shah Commission on the Emergency. There is a paragraph where
the Commission talks of Sanjay Gandhi driving through the outskirts of Delhi.
His car runs over a stray dog, and he is so incensed that he starts the
demolition programme, widening the roads of the city the next day.
The stray marks urban space, its eyes provide the only sense of hope, as if
only animality of the dog can mark the humanity of the city. A stray is that
endearing, devastating combination of obsequiousness and an absent-minded
demand for rights and recognition. A pet dog can never quite express it the
same way. It takes its world for granted. It is bourgeois in its expectations,
even finicky about food. A stray is incessantly grateful and can turn even a
dry morsel of a chappati into a princely dish, licking its chops in
remembrance. It is shameless in its gratitude.
The fact that it lives on little allows it to celebrate life in a different
way. One should watch a stray dog in winter. By seven, the dog has finished its
scavenging rounds. It is a fine-grained ritual and dogs almost seem puzzled by
what humans leave in a dustbin. The other day I saw two strays pull a huge
pizza out of the bin, take a bite, and look puzzled. They virtually abandoned
it in embarrassment, nodding sadly as if Indians have forgotten what it means
to eat good food. The meal abandoned, they rushed to a lawn and stretched out
to capture the heat of the sun. The languorous ease is enviable. While the sun
warmed them gently, the dogs stretched out, as if in a luxurious spa, one eye
open as a concession to future events. That and an occasional wag of
recognition to a familiar face was about all the sign of activity for a few
hours. Their bodies heaved in gratitude and the dogs rested in peace, content
with the moment. This was a celebration of life, a statement of the everyday
affluence of time in the overall scarcity of the city.
A stray dog captures the poignancy of the city, of being and loss on the
pavements, the voicelessness of the majority of the citizens, the desperate
commitment to a little quilt patch of space which has neither a house nor even
a sense of security.
‘Straydoms’ and kingdoms
A friend of mine, an ethologist of the city, told me something interesting. He
said the West never thinks of animals in any other way in the city except as
well-behaved pets. Our city is a place for some forms of wildlife. Stray dogs
are an essential part of any city. In fact, he insisted on theorising about it,
playfully comparing ‘straydom’ and kingdom. Kingdoms, he said, have absolute
power. ‘Straydoms’ have little power, but each and every dog behaves for a few
moments like a king. In a city where there is a large number of the homeless,
‘straydom’ is perhaps the metaphor for democracy: where there is vulnerability
there is solidarity.
He added that nothing is as pompous and painful as a dog which has been
adopted. It wears its collar like a bowtie, marches around as if it lives in
paradise, gets conscious of its rights, and snaps at anyone who threatens to
intrude its space. As a stray dog, it said hello to the world. As a newly
converted pet, it is intolerably exclusive, unbearable, parading its pomposity
in a new dance of steps, which is sheer promenade. Oddly, these pets, which at
the most responded enthusiastically to the universally inclusive “Tommy!”,
usually carry the most pompous of names, masquerading princely genealogies. The
instant acquisition of imaginary pedigrees destabilises them. You wonder what
happened to the earlier avatar, desperate to love and include all the world.
I still want to mourn the dog that died smashed by a truck. I can still see the
reprimand in his eyes. It was a statement, a reminder that animals are part of
the citizenry of a city. Our kindness to them is the beginning of the civics of
a city. This much I know: it is the animal called the stray dog that humanises
the city. No dhaba, no pavement, no procession would be complete without the
comradeship of the stray dog. I am not a sentimental, ritualistic person but I
went back to the street, put a little cross on the pavement, and stood in
silence for a minute.
It felt I owed to my nameless brown friend.
Shiv Visvanathan is a Professor at Jindal Law School.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
South Asia Citizens Wire
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. Newsletter of South Asia Citizens Web:
www.sacw.net/
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