WHO IS SECULAR?

Frankly putting, this secular-liberal thing disturbs me a lot. I want myself to be called a secular but i find myself always agreeing with the saffron party's ideology.
The media calls them communal , the human right activists accuse them of being so, the ngos call brand them as fundamentalists. Sure they are, and right now i am not concerned with the task of defending them . What concerns me is the rather wrong prevalent definition of term "secular"
Secular , it seems ,is one who can unabashedly criticize rituals of any religion , do anything and everything that his religion forbids him to do and accept any demand of the other community. Sometime back , Mani Shankar Aiyar claimed to be one such secular because he ate beef and drank wine much against him Brahmin ethos. Using this as yardstick ,the media too has portrayed the saffron parties as communal. Saffron has , in fact, become synonym of Hindu fundamentalism. The urban middle class in pursuit of liberal and universal outlook too views the saffron parties with the same glasses.
Secularism , according to me , is not wiping out the entire concept of religion. It is neither vowing not to follow one's rituals. Secularism is seeing the other as a"human " and not as a follower of a particular religion . One can be a true devout and secular at the same time. Secularism does not necessitate one to be an atheist. And that's what people fail to understand.
Parties today try to prove themselves secular by appeasing the minorities. What are they actually doing? They are distinguishing people in terms of religion and are making decisions in order to favour minorities. Isn't it being communal? Sure, you must see to it that the rights of minorities are not encroached upon, but you also shouldn't give them the right to encroach the majority's rights. This ideology of minority appeasement creates dissensions in society and is too communal for me to agree with it.
What is with the ideology of the saffron parties for which they have been branded communal. The fact is that their is nothing wrong in their ideology ,but with their acts.When the Bajrang Dal members prevent young girls and boys from celebrating Valentine , they are criticised. Surely they must be because how can you stop someone from celebrating festival of love. Its love that binds us all . But in their criticism , one also criticises the ideology behind it and thats what i strongly protest . According to me, they do have a valid point, a valid motive but have gone haywire in its implementation. This I feel is the case with the saffron parties too. They know something is wrong , and want to set it right, but do it in all the wrong ways.
What is wrong that they want to set right? It is the gradual abandonment of Indian culture by common masses. Indian culture is a culture of truth ,ahimsa and tolerance. This thread of culture binds us all . Off late ,there has been a disillusionment in the society about our culture. People associate it to various evils such as the caste system , disrespect of women. This ignorance about our ancient culture has led them towards adopting western culture and ideology. (Given paucity of time, I would not try to elaborate the greatness of our culture and dispel common myths about it but i would recommend readers to try and learn more about our culture before making up their minds.)There's nothing wrong in following some other culture. After all, our own culture is the result of intermingling of various cultures. But the basic point is :how can you hope of understanding their culture while you surely haven't understood your own? This following of western culture without understanding it has created plethora of problems for us.
The saffron parties want us to understand and appreciate our culture.They are not against the minorities. They just want all of us to accept the truth- that is we are Hindus by culture. Culture should not be confused with religion . The saffron parties root for Hindu culture but do not force people to adopt Hindu religion.
Hindu culture stands for peaceful coexistence of various religions. It is secular in the real sense of the word. So why the hatred for the saffron parties. The trouble with them is that they have gone astray and are doing things against their culture only.
The protagonist Chanakya (in the serial Chanakya) says a line which i feel is the real hindu way of life. When Buddhist religion was spreading in India, some priests had apprehensions that their culture would be wiped off. To them , Chanakya said" Do not fear the Buddhist monks. Good should always replace bad. If our culture is not good, then it surely must be replaced. But if you think our culture is good,which surely is, then follow it assiduously and be a model for everyone to emulate. The cause of decline of our culture,if it would be, would not be the rise of Buddhism but our own failure to adhere to our ethos . So do not see the Buddhists as your enemies, see this situation as an opportunity to showcase the greatness of your culture" . This is the real thing the saffron parties should strive for.

GOOD MEN HURT MORE THAN THE BAD

I am currently watching Chanakya series. In it Chanakya tells someone that the nation in not more hurt by the bad works of the bad men but by the inactivity of good men. Great thought , isnt it ?? If you feel for your countrymen, then why are you having afterthoughts on jumping into this process altogether. The youth of today hold the key for the future. But some of us ,despite having the heads and hearts ,are not just having the will to go forward and dirty ourselves in the process of nation building.
The country needs you , why are you shying away from your role.
Just donating money during floods or occasionally helping the poor is not enough. If you feel it , then why don't go for it wholeheartedly ??

समर शेष है नहीं पाप का भागी केवल व्याध,
जो तटस्थ हैं समय लिखेगा उनका भी अपराध
- दिनकर
The ship is safe at the harbor , but thats not what it is made for?

BHAGAT SINGH

I have been reading a quite of Bhagat Singh's own writings these days. There's a quite of freshness in his ideas . His views, though not much publicized ,are very potent and thought provoking. Though he speaks in marxist tones, there's a logic in his views which cannot be brushed away.
India is a divided country and unless we unite and equate all the people , getting freedom won't mean more than just transfer of power of exploitation. The greatest roadblock is posed by the religious fundamentalists who want to remain hinged to their power at the cost of the exploited. Bhagat Singh seems deeply pained by the prevailing caste system in the society which has given one class the writ to inflict innumerable hardships on the other. The first priority should be to work towards making an equitable society .
Bhagat Singh was an athiest. And he greatly explains why. He says believing in God gives us something for which we walk the noble road. The Hindus do good deeds feeling its their duty and that they would be rewarded in the next birth. The Muslims do it for an entry to Heaven. Even in the darkest hours of our life , God gives us hope and this keeps us moving on. We pray to him ,we have faith in him and hope that the bad time would pass. This , he feels, makes us weak. When we accept things as they are as the grace of God , when we do good deeds out of our own greed, when we are not strong enough to face the reality , thats a weakness of the character .
Bhagat Singh says being a non believer , he knows that once the rope gets tightened around his neck , he would die . There would be no heaven ,no rebirth ,nothing. No one would be there to reward him , there would be absolutely nothing.
Knowing all this, there is a feeling of oneness with his countrymen which is the lone reason for his struggle.

BIHAR FLOODS!!

Hi,

Here's a link to a small contri we all can make : Plan

FROM CHARKHA TO THE WHEEL

For some time my interest in rural lifestyle had been growing. This led me to Gandhiji's writings. And reading them has given me a new perspective . Gandhiji speaks about achieving self sufficiency in rural areas .He wants the villagers to dust off the laxity that has settled in them with passing time. He wants the youth of Bharat to go back to the villages and ignite fire within the villagers.
What our villagers lack is proper sanitation, nutritious food and spirit of inquiry. What they have is thousands of years of experience, morals and ethics. It would be a two way flow if youth goes back to the villages. The past one year has been an enlightening one for me. I have visited a lot of villages in maharashtra and this has reinforced my belief in this concept. I have a lot to learn from the simple,modest and hard working villagers and some to give them too.
Each village has its own unique specialty . They have with them their own unique heritage . Gandhiji's vision is to develop competency in each one of these villages so that they can harness their own art. This would help them remain connected with their past and give them employment.
One more important benefit of this approach would be that creativity and innovation would not be lost. With more impetus on mass production and services ,these seem to be losing out. We have gone from Charkha to Wheel but its effects have not been fully understood.With Charkha ,millions of rural folk had employment .And not only that they tried out new innovations . But with the Wheel (read industrialization) ,monotony has come in. Mind sharpens when worked upon. If people are not made to think , they why would they think? We are losing out a huge chunk of intellectuals to this industrialization.
Some would think i am going Al Gore, portraying a grimmer view of the scenario, but believe me friends, this is an optimist portrayal. We have grossly failed in utilizing the huge chunk of human resource we have been blessed with. We ,in city, have a shallow understanding of rural life. Much can be understood about it by going there only. We shouldn't impose our technology on them. Let us acknowledge their heritage , promote it and encourage them to find appropriate technological solutions for their problems. I am sure their solutions would be much better than us .

WHEN THE WORLD BECAME INSECURE!!!

11/09/01

Its been seven years since the attack , but the memories fail to die out. No event in the modern era has hit the world so hard and strong like this. It was the day when terms like "terrorism" , "threat to freedom " were first used. It was the day when America got the moral authority to strike any "rogue" nation and to impose "freedom" on its people. It was the day when the whole world forgot their own problems and started looking at the "bigger issue". When the media around the world found an issue more sensational than the reports about daily massacre of hundreds of Palestinians.

One more thing more sensational about the attack is that though it was by far the most ruthless terrorist attack, no one in the Govt came out clear on the modus operandi. As it had to be, a number of conspiracy theories have surfaced up. They go to the extent of alleging the government's involvement in the dastardly attack . Sadly, the government has failed desperately to rebuff the allegations.

One thing most visible in the post 9/11 world is the growing dichotomy of the world - either with US or with the enemies. The enemies are coloured in religious hues as the Islamic mullahs and all the countries harbouring them . Instead of finding water for the 9/11 fire, U.S. has stoked the fire by providing more new fuel. The hatred for U.S. is rapidly growing in the minds and hearts of any rational thinker.

The sad thing in this whole state of affairs is that the whole world stands to lose. Its not clearly a U.S. war on another country because its affecting us all . The silence of NON ALIGNED countries is going against them. In the seek of pecuniary advantages from U.S. they are ignoring the rising discontent of their own masses.

Who will stop the U.S. from putting the world into graver threats ?? No country seems to come forward as of now. Surely the world has become a more insecure place. The world is in danger not from the likes of Osama Bin Laden or Fazlul Masud but from the factory who produces them - the U.S.

EQUATING THE UNEQUALS

EQUALITY- the noble cause for which revolutions have been taking place all through time and space and for reasons as grave as nation's respect , chauvinism- has been grossly understood and severely misused by most of us.
We the educated class have been so much brooded over by this concept that we cry foul whenever we "perceive" any inequality . That's good because a society that does not have the courage to speak out is already dead. But what we do next? We without a single moment of rethought go ahead and patch up this inequality and then again lull ourselves to the illusion of a perfectly equal world. My dear folks,what are you doing.In mathematical terms you have two different functions sinx and 2. Suddenly you realise that they are not equal and you simply equate them!!!
What we -the educated class- see today is what we are told by the media . Now what the media sees- media sees it all bare and naked but views it with its own pair of glasses. To the media a Christian missionary being beaten up is big piece of news but the burning of Shri Guru Granth Sahib is not enough to come on front page. The media sees tribals protesting against forced expulsion from their lands as a case of "insufficient rehabilitation package " only. They dont see that money comes here later. First the annulment of emotional and cultural bonds tied to them matters.

But why are media men to be blamed. Who are they and where are they from. They come from the same "educated " class where paisa is badkar baap, where emotions are left to Ekta Kapoor's serials and moral ethics to their chunnu's moral science exam only.

What would this society understand ? Exactly the opposite of what a really educated person would. Sadly this society happens to be the movers and shakers of the system. They make the law , make us follow it , report its " disobedience " and punish us .And now they do "sting operations" on us.

Now an example to make it clear. Do you remember who was voted the youth icon by the mtv viewers? It was ANIL AMBANI. Not because they knew him personally , his vision , his actions or anything about him but because they had seen media going gaga over his company's quarterly profits and his run in marathon. The media on its part never tried to understand the cause of the exorbitant profits - was it sheer business acumen or rather political arm twisting. We are a poor nation . Poor of ethics and poor of money. Yet we celebrate the rise of Ambanis to the elite class of world's richest. We say, India has arrived. Indian middle class celebrates it and takes another "sleeping" pill . What we dont want to see is the thousands of poor people whos occupation has been taken over by him- be it landless farmers, tribals, the middle men in food retailing and those dependent on them. We label them as selfish men hindering the nation's progress by their own squabble for money.

One more visible example is our preference for English . We may have reasonable right to demand use of English as it is a global language. But spare a thought for the poor child living in slums . Is it all too necessary for him to write his exams in English when he can perfectly express himself in his mother tongue. Take this as asking your child to give all his papers in Russian. But a strange law by the maharashtra govt says exactly the same. All teaching after 10th in English in Mumbai.
Why the hell? His parents dont speak English, his society doesnt , why then force him? They say but this is not good for him . Knowing English would help him rise up. But is this the only way to make him learn ? Is force the only solution ? Think it over and i am sure any one can find better methods.

The trouble in short comes when we try to equate our thinking with that of others and think that our ideology fits for all. Why do we have trouble in letting two people think and act differently ? Why we think every person who does not walk our road as an infidel ? Why we equate the unequals?