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An as yet undeciphered script found on relics from the Indus valley constitutes a genuine written language, a new mathematical analysis suggests.
The finding is the latest chapter in a bitter dispute over the interpretation of "Indus script". This is the name given to a collection of symbols found on artefacts from the Indus valley civilisation, which flourished in what is now eastern Pakistan and western India between 2500 and 1900 BC.
In 2002, a team of linguists and historians argued that the script did not represent language at all, but religious or political imagery.
Ordered or random?
From an analysis of the frequency and distribution of the script's characters, the team concluded that it showed few of the hallmarks of language. Most of the inscriptions contain fewer than five characters, few of the characters repeat, and many of the symbols occur very infrequently.
The new analysis by computer scientist Rajesh Rao and his team at the University of Washington in Seattle comes to the opposite conclusion.
Rao's team assessed the script samples using what is called "conditional entropy". When aimed at language, this statistical technique comes up with a measure for the "orderedness" of words, letters or characters – from totally ordered to utterly random.
"If you look at strings that contain words, then you should see that for any particular word in the string there is going to be some amount of flexibility in choosing the next word, but they're not randomly ordered," Rao says.
Which word next?
For instance, in English text, if you find the fragment "The boy went to the", there is some flexibility in what follows. Nouns like "park" and "circus" make sense, but a verb such as "eat" does not.
Rao's team applied this analysis to Indus script, Sanskrit, an ancient south Indian language called Old Tamil, and English. They also tested the conditional entropy of the Fortran computer programming language and non-languages, including DNA and protein sequences.
Indus script characters turned out to be about as randomly ordered as the other languages. Unsurprisingly, they proved less random than DNA or protein sequences and more random than the computer language, where unambiguity is essential.
Grammatical structure
"Now we can say, based on this evidence, that they probably were literate, so the big question becomes: Can you get at the underlying grammar?" Rao says. He hopes to refine his team's technique to determine the grammatical structure of Indus script and, potentially, the language family it belongs to.
"I think we are going to need more archival data, and if we are lucky enough we might stumble on a Rosetta Stone-like artefact," Rao says.
Rao's paper has already drawn a strong response from the researchers who proposed that Indus script represents religious and political symbols, not language.
"There's zero chance the Indus valley is literate. Zero," says Steve Farmer, an independent scholar in Palo Alto, California who authored a 2004 paper with two academics with the goading title "The Collapse of the Indus Script Thesis: The myth of a literate Harappan civilization."
Simulated language
As well as comparing the conditional entropy of Indus script to that of known languages, they compared it with two simulated character sets – one totally random, one totally ordered.
Farmer and colleagues Michael Witzel of HarvardUniversity and Richard Sproat of Oregon Health and SciencesUniversity in Portlandcontend that the comparison with artificially created data sets is meaningless, as are the resulting conclusions. "As they say: garbage in, garbage out," Witzel says.
Unlocking history
Farmer says that the debate over Indus script is more than academic chest thumping. If Indus script is not a language, a close analysis of its symbols could offer unique insight into the IndusValley civilisation. Some symbols are more common in some geographical locations than others, and symbol usage seems to have changed over time.
"You suddenly have a new key for unlocking how that civilisation functioned and what its history was like," he says.
J. Mark Kenoyer, a linguist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says Rao's paper is worth publishing, but time will tell if the technique sheds light on the nature of Indus script.
"At present they are lumping more than 700 years of writing into one data set," he says. "I am actually going to be working with them on the revised analysis, and we will see how similar or different it is from the current results."
Despite a large number of attempts, the script of the Indus civilization (circa 2500-1900 BC) remains undeciphered. The absence of a multilingual "Rosetta stone" as well as our lack of knowledge of the underlying language have stymied decipherment efforts. Rather than attempting to ascribe meaning to the inscriptions, we are applying statistical techniques from the fields of machine learning, information theory, and computational linguistics to first gain an understanding of the sequential structure of the script. The goal is to discover the grammatical rules that govern the sequencing of signs in the script, with the hope that such rules will aid future decipherment efforts.
A possible resolution of the problem lies in thinking out of the box. Many attempts at decipherment have assumed that the signs have to represent alphabets or syllables and many have ignored the reading of pictorial motifs which are very unambiguous. A simple solution is that both signs and pictorial motifs represent words of spoken language. The whole code unravels as related to the repertoire of mine workers, smiths, metal workers, minerals, metals, alloys, furnace/smelter types. See details at http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97/ presented in 15 volumes. There are rosetta stones such as the tin ingots with glyphs of the writing system. The fact is that many inscriptions of the Indus script also occur on copper plates, metal objects, pointing to the link of invention of the writing system with the invention of alloying to create new metal artefacts during early bronze age. Hieroglyphs are signs and pictorial motifs which enabled communication of words related to these bronze-age artefacts and repertoire of a mine-worker or smithy/mint.
Indus Valley civilisation was literate, new study reports
The4,000 year-old Indus Valley civilisation that thrived on what is now Indo-Pak border might have been a literate society which used a script close to present-day languages like Tamil, Sanskrit and English, reveals a new finding announced on Thursday.
A group of Indian scientists has conducted a statistical study of the symbols found in the Indus Valley and compared them with linguistic scripts and nonlinguistic systems like the encoding of DNA and computer programming.
They found the inscriptions closely matched those of spoken languages such as Tamil, Sanskrit and English.
The results published in the journal Science show that the Indus script could be "as-yet-unknown language." Scientists from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Indus Research Centre in Chennai collaborated with Mr Rao to develop models which helped comparing the symbols with modern languages.
Symbols in any language have some amount of flexibility, or conditional entropy, which helps in analysis of a language structure.
"For example, the letter 't' can be followed by vowels like 'a', 'e', and some consonants like 'r' but typically not by 'b,' 'd' etc. We measured this flexibility (or randomness) in the choice of the next symbol," Mr Rao explained.
Scientists found that randomness in symbols for Indus inscriptions closely matched those of spoken languages. "Despite more than 100 attempts, the script has not yet been deciphered.
The underlying assumption has always been that the script encodes language," Mr Rao said.
The Indus Valley civilisation also known as Harappan civilisation, a contemporary to Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures, spread across present day eastern Pakistan and northwestern parts of India.
The researchers are now working on deciphering the grammar and rules governing the language. "For now, we want to analyse the structure and syntax of the script and infer its grammatical rules. Some day we could leverage this information to get to a decipherment," Mr Rao said.
Castes have never existed in the Hindu society and there had never been discrimination of one section against the other in the name of caste.
It all began with the census taking in the British era. When the British wanted to use statistical method to arrive at the demographic details of the vast population of India for the purpose of better administration, they introduced the clause on caste. The British have had discriminatory practices in their land on the basis of castes. They thought of the same for the Indian society and created 'castes' differences among the people of India.
The census gave them a basis to thrust their views on Aryan race versus Dravidian race and superiority of a caste in relation to another. They saw the Hindu society through their perceptions of race back home.
Until then all the sections of India had remained together in a symbiotic relationship. Every hamlet or a town had people of all 'castes' living together in a way of give- and –take economic inter-dependence. That was given a caste color of social hierarchy by the British.
Until then each section enjoyed superiority in their field of specialization and enjoyed respect for what they were. But all that was vitiated by the British with little understanding of the Hindu society.
A detailed study on this by Mr Kevin Hobson reveals the true picture of how a major twist to the Hindu society having serious ramifications was evolved by the British.
"The word caste is not a word that is indigenous to India. It originates in the Portuguese word casta which means race, breed, race or lineage. However, during the 19th century, the term caste increasingly took on the connotations of the word race. Thus, from the very beginning of western contact with the subcontinent European constructions have been imposed on Indian systems and institutions.
To fully appreciate the caste system one must step away from the definitions imposed by Europeans and look at the system as a whole, including the religious beliefs that are an integral part of it. To the British, viewing the caste system from the outside and on a very superficial level, it appeared to be a static system of social ordering that allowed the ruling class or Brahmins, to maintain their power over the other classes.
What the British failed to realize was that Hindus existed in a different cosmological frame than did the British.
The concern of the true Hindu was not his ranking economically within society but rather his ability to regenerate on a higher plane of existence during each successive life. Perhaps the plainest verbalization of this attitude was stated by a 20th century Hindu of one of the lower castes who stated: "Everything lies in the hands of God. We hope to go to the top, but our Karma (Action) binds us to this level."
If not for the concept of reincarnation, this would be a totally fatalistic attitude but if one takes into account the notion that one's present life is simply one of many, then this fatalistic component is limited if not eliminated.
Therefore, for the Hindu, acceptance of present status and the taking of ritual actions to improve status in the next life is not terribly different in theory to the attitudes of the poor in western society.
The aim of the poor in the west is to improve their lot in the space of a single life time.
The aim of the lower castes in India is to improve their position over the space of many lifetimes. It should also be borne in mind that an entire caste could rise through the use of conquest or through service to rulers. Thus, it may be seen that within traditional Indian society the caste system was not static either within the material or metaphysical plane of existence."
"Unlike its predecessors in England, the census of India attempted not only to count, but to define and explain. As a result, the census became not simply an accounting of what existed but an active participant in the creation and modification of the society."
"A further example of Indian reaction to judgments made within the censuses becomes apparent from the claims of castes that they should have higher ranking following the census of 1901.
One claim in particular, that of the Mahtons, is of particular interest for the present paper. The Mahtons claimed that they should be granted the status of Rajputs because of both history and the fact that they followed Rajput customs.
Therefore, since they had not received this status in the 1901 census, they requested the change to be affected in the 1911 census. Their request was rejected, not on the basis of any existing impediment but on the basis of the 1881 census which stated that the Mahtons were an offshoot of the Mahtams who were hunter/scavengers. Thus, it appears that the census system had become self reinforcing.
However, after further debate the Mahton were reclassified as Mahton Rajput on the basis that they had separated themselves from the Mahtams and now acted in the manner of Rajputs.
Interestingly, it was at this point that the reasoning behind the claim became evident. Some of the Mahton wanted join an army regiment and this would only be possible if they had Rajput status.
The Mahton, a rural agricultural group, were fully aware that the change of status would allow their members to obtain direct benefits.
In and of itself, this definitely shows that the actions of the British in classifying and enumerating castes within the census had heightened indigenous awareness of the caste system and had added an economic aspect that the Indian people were willing and anxious to exploit."
"Contrary to what the British appear to have believed, it seems doubtful that the Brahmans were dominant within the material world in pre colonial Indian society.
A cursory examination of any of the ruling families quickly shows a dearth families of the Brahmin caste.
Rather, one finds that the majority, though by no means all, of rulers were Kshytria and occasionally Vashnia.
This suggests that although the Brahmin caste had power in spiritual matters, their power and control within the material world was limited to the amount of influence that theycould gain with individual rulers.
No doubt there were instances when this was quite considerable but there is also little doubt that there were times when Brahman influence was very weak and insignificant.
With this in mind, it is not difficult to imagine a situation where, Brahmans, seeing the ascendancy of British power, allied themselves to this perceived new ruling class and attempted to gain influence through it. By establishing themselves as authorities on the caste system they could then tell the British what they believed the British wanted to hear and also what would most enhance their own position.
The British would then take this information, received through the filter of the Brahmans, and interpret it based on their own experience and their own cultural concepts. Thus, information was filtered at least twice before publication.
Therefore, it seems certain that the information that was finally published was filled with conceptions that would seem to be downright deceitful to those about whom the information was written. The flood of petitions protesting caste rankings following the 1901 census would appear to bear witness to this.
To fully understand how the British arrived at their understanding of Indian society it will now be necessary to look at where British society was during the 19th century in both its concepts of self and of other…."
"What seems, however, to have confused the British, was the fact that when they asked Indians to identify the caste, tribe or race for census purposes, they received a bewildering variety of responses.
Often the respondent gave the name of a religious sect, a sub-caste, an exogamous sept or sections, a hypergamous group, titular designation, occupation or the name of the region he came from.
Obviously Indian self identifying concepts were quite different from those concepts that the British expected. In response to this problem, those in charge of the census data took it upon themselves to: "begin a laborious and most difficult process of sorting, referencing, cross-referencing, and corresponding with local authorities, which ultimately results in the compilation of a table showing the distribution of the inhabitants of India by Caste, Tribe, Race, or Nationality."
Certainly this leaves a great deal of room for error. It also virtually ignores the fact that many Indians, when questioned, did not identify themselves in the way that the British expected.
Rather than ask themselves why this was, the British appear to have assumed that either the respondents did not understand the question or that they were incapable of correctly answering the question.
It never seems to have occurred to any one involved with the census that the British may have been asking the type of question that had a variety of correct answers depending upon the circumstances in which the question was asked.
It is interesting to note that when modern sociologists posed the same type of question to Indians in the 1960s, they too received a wide variety of responses.
The simplest explanation for this is that on a day to day basis caste may not be the most important factor in the life of a Hindu.
This notion is given support by a handbill that was distributed by Arya Samaj in Lahore just prior to the 1931 census:
Newscientist.com recently featured an article on the discovery of an ‘ocean planet’ – an extra solar planet filled water in the constellation of Libra. This planet is orbiting a red dwarf.
The planetary system around the small red dwarf star Gliese 581 boasts four planets. The newly discovered planet "e" (left, foreground) weighs about 1.9 Earths; "b" (nearest the star) weighs 16 Earths; "c" (centre) weighs 5 Earths; and "d" (bluish planet farthest from the star) weighs 7 Earths. "D" orbits its star in 66.8 days, while "e" completes an orbit in just 3.2 (Illustration: ESO/L Calçada)
This information as usual kindles my curiosity to seek parallels in astrology, for, there is nothing that is not covered by astrology. And astrology does give clues on where to see for planets or celestial bodies that have scope for growth and sustenance.
Accordingly, only two constellations have maximum potential for ‘growth’, while such potential varies in lesser degrees for other constellations.
The ‘growth’ is interpreted as growth in literal terms, meaning, giving rise to offspring! We call this as ‘progeny’ when we apply it to individuals. The 2 constellations for ‘growth’ are Gemini and Libra!
Gemini is in the outer rim of our Milky way galaxy and is brimming with activity by generating new stars! Gemini is the constellation featuring many twin-stars which are young.This is the area of the galaxy where ‘growth’ is happening. The Milky Way’s new children are born here! Astrologically speaking, Gemini stands as testimony for ‘procreation’ or ‘progeny’!
Libra comes in the category of Gemini in astrology. That means it must also have in its depth formations that are conducive for ‘growth’ or procreation of newer stars!
The current findings are about water in a planet that is orbiting a red dwarf!
The presence of water can not ensure biological life, because astrologically this constellation is the area of growth in numbers, as how it happens in Gemini!
The planet in the system of a reed dwarf is indicative of what is in store for it in millions of years’ time.
The red dwarf is indicative of a system in its last leg of life. Anytime in cosmic time scale, this system will lose stability, by becoming a red giant and then a supernova.
At that time any new arrangement or re-alignment that would take place as a result, will have a better combination for ‘growth’ with water component in them.
This can be logical conclusion of a formation in the constellation of Libra, as deduced astrologically. We can not hope to find ‘life’ or expect ‘life’ to evolve in distant future in this part of the sky. This is an airy constellation that can only allow things to fly ‘astray’!
On the other hand, if the researchers train their eyes in Cancer, Pisces and Scorpio, they may stumble upon some exciting features that can support life to grow and thrive. Such systems may even be stable for a considerable time for life to evolve and sustain.
One may ask if astrology indicates that we can spot life in those places.
No, not when we are around and not in the way we can perceive!
Perhaps these constellations may throw up habitable zones for our future generations after millions of years. The present breed of human beings (manvanthra) will be replaced by another breed (next manvanthra) when our sun will have a rendezvous with his shadow-companion, ‘Chaaya’. The resultant formation will become the place for continuance of human race. Like this the continuity goes on for a minimum of 4 times. (I am saying this based on how it is explained in Puranas about the formation of future manvanthras.) The constellations mentioned above may become the anchor posts for future life at those times.
Among them, Scorpio is fiery and older as it is close to the centre of Milky Way.
A planet orbiting a red dwarf star 20 light years away could be the first known water world, entirely covered by a deep ocean.
The planet, named Gliese 581d, is not a new discovery, but astronomers have now revised its orbit inwards, putting it within the "habitable zone" where liquid water could exist on the surface. "It is the only low-mass planet known inside the habitable zone", says Michel Mayor of Geneva Observatory.
Mayor and his team used the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-metre telescope in Chile to observe the low-mass star Gliese 581, and a precise spectrometer called HARPS to analyse its light.
That turned up the faint footprints of four planets, since the orbiting planets make the star wobble slightly, giving its light a slight Doppler shift. Three of the planets had been identified previously.
The outermost planet had been thought to have a period of 83 days, putting it too far away from the small star's gentle heat to bear liquid water. But that was a mistake. "We only had a limited number of observations", Mayor told New Scientist. Now with three times as much data, he finds an orbital period of 66 days, putting the planet closer to its star – about a quarter of the Earth-Sun distance – and just inside the red dwarf's habitable zone.
New class
Gliese 581d is about seven times as massive as Earth, so it is much too small to be a gas giant like Jupiter, but probably too big to be a rocky world like our own. "Around such a small star, it is very difficult to have so much rocky material at such a [large] distance," says Mayor. Instead, the planet is likely to have a makeup similar to Neptune or Uranus, which are dominated by ices of water, ammonia and methane.
In the warmth of the habitable zone, these substances should form a sea thousands of kilometres deep. "Maybe this is the first of a new class of ocean planets. That is my favourite interpretation," says Mayor. "Whether there is life or not, I don't know."
The same set of observations also revealed a new world, Gliese 581e, with only 1.9 times the mass of Earth. That is the lowest published mass of any exoplanet around a normal star – although preliminary results have hinted that another exoplanet may weigh just 1.4 Earth masses. Gliese 581e is very close to the star, however, and probably far too hot for liquid water.
The results were announced on Tuesday at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science meeting in Hatfield, UK.
A Scrutiny Of and a Response to the Press Statement — "Christians & The BJP" – Released by Dr John Dayal, General Secretary, All India Christian Council
— Dr Mrs Hilda Raja.
From Hilda Raja Date :-Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:52 PM Subject :-Response to John Dayal's statement
"Christians and the BJP" – the Press Statement released by Dr John Dayal, General Secretary, All India Christian Council, calls for a scrutiny and a response. Its premise is based on suspicion, untruths and accusations and a negative attitude for dialogue.
Mr Advani is accused of mixing religion and politics which John Dayal cautions as dangerous to secular India. I wonder if today we have a secular India. Religion and politics was not only mixed but churned as a brew and this decoction has been regularly supplied to the people by the Congress. Mr Dayal finds this 'dangerous mix' in the manifesto of the BJP and then in the letters to the heads of Mutts — the 'arch communal advisors' of the VHP, which according to Dayal are fraught with dangerous consequences for peace and harmony in secular India. But it is the warped perception and communal mindset of John Dayal and his ilk that is really a threat to secular India.
First, both the manifesto and the letter to the Mutt heads are of recent origin and do not pose any dangerous consequences for peace and harmony, when what Dayal has scripted later in the statement goes to show that there has been communal upheavals and disruption of peace much earlier.So, from Dayal's own statement, it is clear that the manifesto and the letter addressed to the heads of mutts are not going to initiate something which this nation has not already witnessed.
A few examples of this communal decoction served to the people by the brewers, the Congress party, for they have 52 years of experience in injecting divisiveness in the nation. The very concept and understanding of secular and secularism has undergone a sea change. Anything which comes from the BJP side, the VHP and its sister organizations become communal and anything communal which comes from the Congress side and its allies like the RJD, the SP et al become secular.
I would like to cite a few cases for John Dayal to clarify if these are secular or communal. Does subsidizing Haj become secular? Is this not mixing religion with politics? How can the tax payers' money be utilized to guarantee the salvation of the souls of the Muslims? Not a single Islamic country has done this. Pakistan is closing down Madrasas but India under the Congress is not only encouraging the opening of Madrasas, it is fully financing these and also is giving them CBSE status.Does this not become communal and a mix of religion with politics?
There is no second opinion that those below poverty line should have the first claim to the resources of this country. But can the identification of the Below Poverty line be made on the basis of a religion? Is Manmohan Singh not communal when he stated that the Muslims have the first claim to the resources of this country? Can a survey be undertaken on the basis of a religion to justify that Muslims are the poorest? Use scientific yardsticks, net in the poorest, and extend to them all remedial measures to alleviate their poverty. But this was like putting the cart before the horse. One already decides who are the poorest and then makes a survey to validate this. Is this secular or communal?
Even a head count on the basis of religion was proposed but for the three Services chiefs objections it was scuttled. Is this a mindset of secularism or communalism?
Just recently Manmohan Singh suggested that a committee must be formed in every State of respectable Muslims to look into the allegations of police harassment of Muslim youth. First why only look into the allegations of Muslim youth being harassed—why not any case of harassment looked into and why a committee of respectable Muslims and not a committee formed of respectable citizens? Is this an expression of communalism or secularism?
When it come to temples, they are under the Government control (Hindu Religious endowment Boards). The monies from these go to the government. But the Minorities are allowed to manage their own church, mosque finances. Is this secularism or communalism?
In Andhra Pradesh due to lack of funds many temples have closed down, but the Andhra Pradesh government under its Congress-Christian Chief Minister has allocated Rs. 80,000 for the repairs and renovation of churches and 15 million for the construction of a church. This is an example of the secularism of the Congress ruled state and we are told by John Dayal that the BJP ruled States are communal and discriminate against the minorities.
Discrimination against minority or majority is illegal and sinful. This is the false pictures which are projected about this nation. The appeasement policy followed vigorously by the UPA has furthered and deepened the communalism the Congress had sowed right from the 50s when the Muslim League was recognized as a political party and allied with it. So this accusation that with the manifesto of the BJP and the letter of Mr. Advani to the Mutt heads cannot be the cause of communalism and surely cannot make the minorities apprehensive.
But an unjust allegation made by John Dayal when he brands the VHP and the sister organizations as communal. One should define what communalism and secularism mean. To be a 'good' Christian and a 'good' Muslim is being secular but to be a devote Hindu is being communal?
To teach Christian doctrine and even force all those in Christians schools to study the bible becomes secular but when one teaches the Hindu scriptures and urge the people to adhere to the Hindu teachings it becomes communal.
What kind of perception is this—Totally jaundiced and biased . Building a mandir becomes communal but building any number of churches and mosques on poorumboke lands become secular.
Ram and all the Hindu gods and goddesses are mythological but Christian god and the Prophet are historical and real.
Processions allowed in public places and roads for the minority people—with no restrictions whatsoever, is upholding Indian secularism in public. Only when the Hindus take the Vinayaka to be immersed in the sea, then road blocks are put—new routes chalked out and bans are places.
'Harmony India' and the so called secularists' intelligentsia will issue directives and caution. Is it a sin to belong to the majority religion?
In numbers alone the Christians and the Muslims may be minorities but in power and pressure tactics—they wield more power with their vote bank leverage. If on the basis of a religion the majority community is denied their rightful share, then will it not create communal upheavals?
Mr John Dayal has cited instances of violence against minorities in Punjab, Gujarat, Maharastra, Karnataka and Orissa. Are these the only instances of violence, and where the victims only the Minorities?
The media abets communalism in its reporting. A few years ago ' The Hindu ' reported on its front page ' Church in Bangalore damaged '.Later it was found that the glass pane of a window was cracked because of the bursting of crackers.This was not put in the front page but in small print in some corner of the newspaper. When one reports of church damaged and destroyed in some places–the church may be just a bamboo shed which with a jostling group within will collapse. But it is made to look as though huge structures of brick and mortar were demolished.
Take this reporting by the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) in reference to Kandhamal—that at least 60 Christians were killed, 18,000 wounded, 252 churches razed or destroyed, 5031 Christian homes burned and more than 50,000 Christians displaced. It is for John Dayal to verify the actual figures and then he will realize the exaggeration of the Christian organizations and the English media ready to lap it all.
The Congress continues to exploit the Gujarat riots and John Dayal also has mentioned it but the SIT 's investigation has proved to the contrary—the macabre stories of brutality, the horror tales and the numbers of victims etc all today stand demolished as a pack of falsehood cooked by Teesta Setlavad and her organization for Justice. It is not that there were no rioting—no killings, no human agony and suffering. But the way it was projected and exploited only to stir up more communalism.
Year after year the CDs of the Gujarat riots are played; films are taken to keep alive these communal riots. But, when it came to the Sikh massacre—the supervised genocide, in which 3000 were killed in Delhi—and the hundreds of Sikh girls and women raped—was toned down-figures drastically lowered and no annual reminders were made—even the BJP when it was in power and now when it was in the Opposition did not rake up the issue. It was the boot of a Sikh journalist which brought to centre stage the injustice after 25 years and made the Congress quickly withdraw the candidatures of Tytler and Sajjan. The Congress which allowed this genocide when it was in power—even legitimized the killing of the minority community stands indicted. It is just not Tytler and Sajjan who are the alleged perpetrators—the sin is laid at the door of the CONGRESS and it has to live with it.
It loses the moral right to talk of riots in Gujarat and else where. Why had the Christian community not till date issued even a condemnation against the Congress for this unprecedented Minority carnage? Does the uniqueness of human life depend on the religion of the victim? What is the rationale of exploiting every year the Gujarat riots for Modi-bashing and painting the BJP as communal? Is this an indication of a secular mind or a community bend on arousing communal hatred?
Shashtanga Pranam—used by Advani to address the heads of Mutts has been faulted and even he is accused as being subservient to the communal organizations etc. This is the most respectable form of address to any religious leader. Why do the Christians address Bishop as 'Your Lordship' and the Archbishop as Your Grace"? Even to a parent this Shashtnaga Pranam is used. It is the Indian form of profound obeisance. This is the problem with the Christians who cannot understand and appreciate anything Indian and hence they become alien to the Indian culture. This is why they see red when Hindutva is mentioned because they do not understand the Indian nationalism is deeply rooted in Indian culture.
It is no way 'symptomatic of his party's capitulating absolutely to the RSS and its daughter organizations'. There seem to be a phobia which the Christians suffer from. After all the RSS and its daughter organizations are not foreign and have no foreign n allegiance and connections. They are of Indian origin, with Indian moorings—no foreign vested interest and are not imported. Their religion is not an imported one but which sprang from this soil. Hence they lives are intricately linked with this culture—this heritage and this nation. There is no vested interest and no foreign hand involved.
John Dayal has mischievously brought in the demolition of the Babri structure (imposed on the HinduTemple by the invader, Babar). First, it is not a demolition of the whole structure but the damage to two domes— symbols of aggression. Second, this happened during the Congress regime as Lalu stated, and the Congress is equally accountable. But typical of Lalu, he quickly retracted and blamed only Narashima Rao. In fact, it was a shrewd delay tactics used by the Congress party which was then in power, in Delhi. The Central government would have had its intelligence inputs and could have easily prevented it. And the whole episode happened in the backyard of New Delhi. But the Congress cabinet waited for the first dome to fall, and only when the second was about to fall, it sprung up to act. Now, the same Congress uses it throughout for garnering Muslim votes and reminding them that it is the BJP which demolished the disused Babri structure. Well, the Congress misused the opportunity to dismiss the BJP government in the state. But who brought Babri structure to the centre stage of politics? Rajiv Gandhi—when he prodded the people to break open its lock. Till then, the Babri structure built by the invader Babar on the destroyed Hindu temple, was decrepit, weather ravaged and disused.
The faith and belief of a people has to be respected. The Hindus surely cannot have their faith and belief centers in Vatican, England, Geneva or Mecca. This faith and belief needs to be concretized only in India. Apart from that, to now point out at Advani that since he hopes to be a future PM of a secular India he should keep a distance from the heads of Mutts and the Hindu organizations is uncalled for. It is here that John Dayal is putting restrictions and pre-conditions. Advani as a prime ministerial candidate can approach anyone and have any close knit relationships. But when he is the PM then what he does and does not will come under scrutiny. It is the duty and obligation of Advani to carry all along with him—not only the minorities but he has to be just to the majority community also.
The last one is the rejection of the call given by Advani for a dialogue on Minority Rights. Constitution cannot be static—as changes come and people move, the constitution has also to undergo changes. How many times has the Constitution for India been amended? The Constitution is for the people and not the other way around. It was the Congress party which declared Emergency thereby kept in abeyance the whole Constitution; I don't remember any Christian organization protesting against this highhanded anti-people act. Now when Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, through her moves and counter moves, subverted constitutional norms and institutions, there has been no protests—not even a whimper.
The call to dialogue on the Minority Rights has brought only one reaction from John Dayal—he has shut the doors—they are not negotiable, he asserts. It takes a whole thesis to trace the Minority Rights—its motive to safeguard the ethos of the minorities. But in all educational institutions the majority of the students are from the majority community—so whose ethos is being safeguarded? The right to administer and manage does not give the Minorities the right to mal-administer and mismanage. It does not give them the right to deny justice to those who work in these institutions simply because there is a Cross/Crescent.
One would think that every Indian has the right to equal justice. The Minority Rights issue calls for an open debate and discussion. The majority of the minorities are denied access to the elite Minority institutions. Minority institutions become channels to reach the echelons power. I cite here two examples examples. In the early 80s I had been to Patna to attend the National Advisory Council of the CBCI. The inaugural mass was by then bishop of Patna who gave us a description of his 'flock'—poor and illiterate etc. He then went on to say that one of his first tasks was to open a college. I wondered why he had not started schools instead of a college. So I went up to him for this clarification. Why a college and not a school I asked him. To this he replied—'You see, when we start a college all the powerful people will come to us with their children thus we can get things done".
Similarly, in an elite college in Chennai we found that a number of catholic boys with very good marks were rejected—but non-minority rich boys of top officials with lower marks got admission. When the Principal was countered with the list of Catholic boys with higher marks rejected and boys with lower marks from the majority community admitted, he coolly told us 'Yes I want my papers to move, I need to get electricity, water etc.
So the rights of the minorities are being used as barters. Dismissal without even giving a notice has been quite common. The lay persons working within these institutions cannot go to court because it is a torturous process and funds are needed .This makes the institutions use highhanded methods. There are any number of cases which I can cite.
The other dimension is the lack of accountability. When injustices happen with unaccountability and there are no forums to rectify these, then it is a misuse of Minority Rights against the Minorities, becomes a horrifying experience of violation of human rights.
There is a common impression that minority managed institutions are better managed! Some are good no doubt—then why not extend the same rights to all? It must be finally stated that the Minority Rights are not superior to other rights and cannot negate other rights—nor violate other rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
IT IS relevant to note Minority Rights are also extended to Linguistic minorities. A misuse of this can be illustrated in the following cases in Tamilnadu: The court saw a claim by Naidus claiming minority status for the G.T.N.ArtsCollege in Dindigul,TN, on the ground that they are a linguistic minority. This in spite of the college not doing anything to advance the cause of Telugu and the persons in management being unable to speak a few words in that language—similarly the case of Devanga Chettiars who put forth their claim as Kannada speaking linguistic minority and therefore the institutions run by them (Sowdeswari College, in Salem, TN.) should be declared as linguistic minority.
The cause for claiming such a right by hook or crook was only because under the Minority Rights the teachers and the employees have no voice—the mismanagement and mal-administration will not attract any government punitive measures. The basic rights of the teachers in these institutions are violated with immunity.
The call thus given by Advani for a dialogue must be welcomed by the Minorities if they stand for justice for all. John Dayal must note that Minority rights are community rights. Imagine the number of schools run in parishes—where no one follows rules. With the mushrooming of self-financing institutions, this has become a money spinning venture: the larger the area of functioning, the greater the quantum of injustice, exploitation and violation of basic human rights within the Minority institutions.
The individual right to equal access to education was also emphasized by the framers of the Constitution when they redrafted original Articles 23—present Articles 29 and 30. The Court verdicts on a number of cases clearly indicate that absolutism is not part of the rights of the minorities. It must go along with other rights with the comprehension of the Constitution.
So to shut the door on the call for dialogue saying that Minority rights are not negotiable sounds that one is not prepared to see the other point of view and its merits. Were other fundamental rights not restricted? If the minority right lends itself to violate basic rights of individuals then some safeguards must be built in to prevent it. For, all rights must go hand in hand without violating any basic fundament right of the individual. If Minority rights are used for maladministration and mismanagement then, again, it is the duty of the government to prevent this.
Dr Mrs Hilda Raja, Vadodara.
(Development Consultant, Former Professor, and Member of the National Advisory committee of the CBCI; a Roman Catholic by religion, she is an outspoken critic of religious conversion as it is practiced by Christian missionaries in India. Retired as Professor of Social Science from 'StellaMarisCollege' (a Minority managed Catholic college) in Chennai, she regularly writes letters to the editors and occasionally writes columns too. Her writings are forthright but balanced, precise, incisive, thought provoking and informative. Apart from being a practicing Catholic Christian, she is a true nationalist, who values the cultural heritage of this great country and respects the Hindu tradition too).
All India Christian Council President: Dr Joseph D Souza Secretary General Dr John Dayal
PRESS STATEMENT
NEW DELHI12 April 2009
Mr Advani's mixing Religion and Politics is dangerous for secular India BJP wants to reopen debate on Minority Rights, negate Statuary rights given after long debate in Constituent Assembly after Independence The All India Christian Council has refrained from commenting on the Manifestos of various political parties in General Elections 2009, or on statements of their leaders. The Council however can no longer maintain its silence after reading newspaper reports of former Deputy Prime Minister and BJP leader Mr Lal Krishan Advani's mixing of religion in politics, first in the Election manifesto of the party, and then in his letter to heads of various Mutts, or abbeys of Hindu sects, and arch communal advisors of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
These twin acts are fraught with dangerous consequences for peace and harmony in secular India.
The electoral environment has already been vitiated by hate speeches and communal propaganda. Mr Advani may have made his moves as an electoral strategy. But coming from an important party and its prime-ministerial candidate, they collectively expose the BJP's appeasing an extreme section of the community, as well as those organisations which have been directly involved in violence against religious minorities in Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states in the past, and Karnataka and Orissa in the present.
This is coupled with the fact that Mr Advani's BJP, which pilloried the Congress for backing politicians suspected of fomenting violence against Sikhs in 1984, has in 2009 given tickets to people such as persons in Kandhamal, Orissa, as M Pradhan who is in jail in on charges of mass murder of Christians.
The Election Commission's notice to BJP Lok Sabha candidate Ashok Sahu, and an Rs 50 Crore criminal suit against him for spouting hate against Christians which could again trigger mass mob violence against the micro minority, is proof of the party's playing the communal card in the elections. It is not surprising that neither Mr Advani nor his party manifesto even make a passing reference to Kandhamal carnage and to the trauma suffered by the Christian community. Neither does he offer any hope to Dalit Christians in their long struggle for their just rights.
Mr Advani's `Shashtang pranam" or greetings from a prostrate position of humility and reverence, may be a figure of speech, but is symptomatic of his party's capitulating absolutely to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and its daughter organisations. As a leader of national stature, a former deputy premier and with hopes of leading s secular nation at a future date, he should have maintained a distance from groups of people whose "advice" and active participation in Dharam sansads, or religious parliaments in the past were major contributory factors to the demolition of the Babri Masjid and subsequent national tragedy of long drawn communal bloodshed.
Once again, in his letter, Mr Advani wants to set up mechanisms to be guided by their advice. As a secular democratic republic and not a theocracy, India has a separation of religion and State, if not in the western sense then certainly in neither government nor religion meddling in each other's affairs. Mr Advani promises to reverse this trend.
Religion has its place not at the levers of power, in State mechanisms or as political engine, but as a conscience keeper on civilisational issues and ethics.
The Christian community certainly, even through its own Canon laws and other denominational mechanisms, gives religious heads powers to guide the flock on issues of faith, morality, dogma and doctrine, but leaves it categorically to the lay citizens, the community at large, to take part in national life, ideological issues and political affairs guided by their own reason on matters of security and the welfare of their brothers and sisters. This is why the Christian community does not believe in floating political parties of its own, but banks on democratic processes and forces to protect its rights and Constitutional guarantees.
The All India Christian Council has no comments to offer on the BJP's right to pack its manifesto's preamble with its own construct of India's past. We are also familiar with the thesis of Hindutva. But the Council reads into the BJP's so called offer of a dialogue with the Christian community nothing short of reopening issues settled in the long and learned debates of the Founding Fathers of modern India in the Constituent Assembly after which they enshrined in the Constitution the fundamental rights of Freedom of Religion, to profess, practice and propagate one's faith. That is a sacred right, and cannot be negotiated if India is to retain its plural culture and its secular and democratic integrity.
The party's pillorying of State mechanisms for minority security, including the Ministry for Minority Affairs and national commissions, howsoever impotent they may have been in the past, cannot but beget apprehensions in the community. The party's own record in subverting Human rights and minority commissions in States that it governs shows the scant respect it has for such institutions.
A report from London says that the taste of wine changes in accordance with the lunar movement.
It has been observed that the taste follows a 4 -season change in a year. Based on these observations, a great grand mother form Germany had formed some characteristics for the days as fruit, flower, leaf and root days. The taste of wine also differs in accordance with these days. It tastes unpleasant on 'root' days which are Saturday and Sunday!
This is not surprising for us, for we have a vast literature in astrology on these issues which were in use until the two generations ago. The ushering in of English education had made us forget this knowledge.
First of all, all the 7 days have their own special traits. Each day wields certain influence on certain vegetation and the nature of their growth and yields. As such, the 'root' is connected with Saturn! The root tubers grow well on Saturday, due to the power of Saturn.
According to Vedic astrology, all the 7 planets dominating the 7 days lend their special powers to the activities done on their days.
The Wine manufacturers of London could well take a leaf or two from Vedic astrology on vyavasaya (agriculture). The details can be had from Brihad Samhita and books on Muhurtha (electional) astrology.
To quote some basic information, the Moon and the Venus control watery and juicy items.
If the juice is of liquor variety then Venus must have an upper hand and moon must gloat in Venusian power!
This means when Moon exalts in the house of Venus in Taurus, the wine quality will be the best.
When Venus and moon are together in Taurus that is once again a far better combination as far as wine quality is concerned.
Another time is when the moon is in Libra.
In the monthly sojourn of the moon, its movement in Taurus, Libra and cancer and in benefic distance from the Venus can ensure a tasty wine!
The regular readers of this blog must be wondering why I am harping on this 'wine' talk!!
It is to bring to notice that days do play a role in all durable items from vegetables, fruits to juices and liquor!
Every object of the earth is influenced by Nature. Nature includes the celestial objects too! Our ancestors have understood the interaction between all natural forces on life on earth and evolved that knowledge as astrology.The influence of celestial objects is felt on agriculture in varying degrees, to maximize returns and minimize losses.
For example, the seeds of any plant sown on Sunday and in Leo ascendant would give good returns.
One must sow the fruits, juicy plants and milk trees on Monday in Cancer lagna.
Tuesday is not favorable for sowing grains and pulses or red color. However Tuesday is best preferred for spraying pesticides, weeding and for applying manure.
Wednesday is good for sowing commercial crops such as cotton, jute, tea, coffee etc. They sowing must begin in Gemini or Virgo ascendants.
Thursday is ideal for sowing long term and useful trees. The favorable lagnas are Sagittarius and Pisces.
Friday is good for planting flower plants. The time of planting or sowing must begin at Taurus or Libra lagna.
Saturday is good for preparing the fields for cultivation. Tubers and oilseeds can be sown on Saturdays in Capricorn and Aquarius lagnas.
This is just basic information. Further fine-tuning is available in Vedic astrology with reference to each agricultural activity and each variety of crops.
The influence of stars is also known from astrology.
All the 27 stars of the zodiac are divided into 3 groups, such as
Upward glancing stars (Urdhwamukh)
Downward glancing stars (adhomukh) and
Side glancing stars (Tiryanmukh).
These can be found in any almanac.
The crops that grow upwards whose yields are available above the ground are sown on the days of Upward glancing stars.
The crops that grow downwards whose yields are available below the ground are sown onthe days of downward glancing stars.
The crops that grow sideways whose yields are available on the ground (creepers) are sown on the days of sideways glancing stars.
The days, lagans and stars as mentioned above must be combined for getting good yields.
In addition the distance between the moon and the sun on the day of sowing plays a vital role in the success of the crop. This is determined by the 'Rahu phani charka' which tells whether the crop will be bountiful or will be affected by pests or lost in floods or fire.
Today one may think that these are just rubbish. But these details were made after intense study for many generations by our ancestors. It is not outside the scope of research nowadays. I wish the agricultural scientists of today work on these and bring out more information made suitable for the vast variety of crops that are grown to day.
Our nation, traditionally considered as an agricultural nation had been so for thousands of years, thanks to the understanding about Nature and its influence on crops.Today our agriculture is shambles not just because there is no adequate water or control of pests. The kind of role that Nature plays in agriculture is forgotten today. This knowledge must be revived.
It has emerged that Tesco and Marks and Spencer only invite critics to taste their ranges when the moon- related biodynamic calendar dictates that wines will be at their best.
Didn'tenjoy your wine on Sunday? Well, the fruition of your desire will end in disappointment — not because of bad selection or the bottle being corked, but due to a cosmic force: the moon.
A growing number of experts reckon that Sunday was the worst possible day for a glass of the old vino.
According to scientists, wine changes its taste with the lunar cycle. And most of Saturday and Sunday is a root period, when the moon casts an unpleasant flavour.
It has emerged that Tesco and Marks and Spencer only invite critics to taste their ranges when the moon-related biodynamic calendar dictates that wines will be at their best.
Both firms pay strict attention to a moon calendar published for nearly half a century by a German greatgrandmother called Maria Thun. She has divided the days of the year into 'fruit', 'flower', 'leaf' and 'root' — the first two are best for drinking wine — the second two worst.
Pierpaolo Petrassi, Tesco's senior product development manager, admitted his firm held its tastings in line with the calendar.
"Our first choice is a fruit day. We seek to avoid root and leaf days. It may be a little step beyond what consumers can comprehend.
We have so many other things to educate consumers about," The Scotsman quoted Petrassi, as saying.
Marks and Spencer winemaker Jo Ahearne is another convert.
"Before the tasting, I was really unconvinced, but the difference between the days was so obvious I was blown away," he said.
David Motion, a London wine merchant, said, "I live in the city and don't think much about nature, but it is clear it has an influence."
