Bihar and bihari image has remained an enigma for many years to most Indians. The moment you think of Bihar there are stereotypical images that flash onto your memory namely Laloo Prasad yadav, poverty sickened Bihari and lawlessness. The movies like Gangajal and Aphaaran made by prakash jha and middle class bihari’s sending child away from bihar to study to an extend gave credibility to it. Though, the thing that confuses the rest of the India most is…
Biharis make most in IAS, yet Bihar suffers.
Biharis migrate and develop other states yet not Bihar.
Biharis are hard working but Bihar is in a bad condition.
People migrate from bihar to rest of India but not visa versa..
Past of Bihar is glorious why not present?
Why was no politician or political party developing Bihar?
Is Bihar a burden on India?
Is Bihar going to slow India’s economic rise?
When will good education come in Bihar ever?
Will industries be setup in Bihar ever?
Thought the question are many and hold true from rest of the India, the thing that mattered the most was the questions in a Bihari’s mind.
This election like last one was more about economics and governing capabilities than politics and one would like to keep it that way. In the growth of India the story of Bihar need not be left out (it is what Bihari want it seems). Though one can’t help it but see it more like a fight for self-respect or of Bihari pride that has taken a severe beating in the last 3 decades (the political class it seemed was responsible for it).
The empowerment of womenfolk was also an issue, irrespective of the fact whether there is development or not, the respect of a woman needs to be maintained which it seems was fading in Bihar due to bad condition in law and order.
Therefore the election result of Bihar as it comes out has got to do more with Bihari pride and deep rooted desire for development. The development of state will do greater good for not only Bihar but rather for India too, wherein a Bihari need not have to travel so many kilometers away from his home to earn a living. Hopefully there might come a day when there would be reverse migration that is people from rest of the country would come to Bihar to study and work and its cities will be as good as in any other “developed” state ( high tech type with good infrastructure). Since the development of the country is more got to do with economic development of every state and certainly not just few cities, therefore the true integration and correct form of development needs to be a complete one.
The most important message would be for other states in terms of economic parameters, who use to accuse Biharis of taking their jobs away (much like west do to India). When development of the regions like eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar would occur then the more regional fanatics and naxalism will erode(which in recent times have increased). Since we are all Indians and all need to be inclusive in the development of India, therefore no region should be left behind.
Though the setting up of the industries in Bihar is the point which will be “wait and watch” for many Indians. Microfinance has worked in Bihar and nitish government’s giving money instead of food grains for work, this has also improved the purchasing ability of Bihari(thereby boosted growth). The growth rate of 11.44 per cent State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) during 2008-09 was achieved because Biharis had money in their hands to spend. There was also a record set that of 22 per cent SGDP in 2006-07.
The administrative capabilities and the economic policies of the new government would not only affect a Bihari in Bihar but rather Indians all over India because like the famous saying “you got clean your own mess”. The Biharis need to show their true brand by making their state as an accelerator of growth of India and yes the whole of India is watching with hope and optimism towards Bihar for the first time in two decades.
Many in this generation in this neo-modern era who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s might understand by term “ Badshah khan” as a reference to some bollywood actor in India who has been “proclaimed as the Badshah khan by his friends.”
I guess I have to say this to clear the air “No, I am not recounting of some bollywood movie star or someone who pretends to be something which he is not but rather of man who had a heart of gold.” Though in a free country it is alright to call yourself anything even if the meaning and interpretations have changed.
I am talking about a man who fought for the freedom of his people. Someone who fought for a better life for his people and for the future generations. Someone who in this fight lost his beloved ones and when he got freedom from his exploiters, it was not the freedom he was hoping for. I am talking about that Badshah khan who once famously said “you have thrown us to the wolves” when partition was accepted by congress party. I am talking about a man who stood for words like loyalty, Honour and Pride.
I am talking about Khan Abdul Gafar Khan better known as frontier Gandhi, a patriot, a fighter and a Pathan.
I observed the name “Badshah khan” for the first time when I was just six and since then it has remained with me. If I may add apart from Bhagat Singh he has been another personality who taught me what fighting for your own people means even though if it comes at the cost your own personal loss or your own life. Though both were very different in their approaches but both were inspired by Gandhi in particular and were extremely Patriotic. ( Bhagat Singh was a huge Gandhi fan in his teenage time till the time he disagreed with Gandhi’s taking back of non-cooperation movement.)
Badshah Khan was born in 1890 into a wealthy and aristocratic Muslim family in Mohamadzai Pashtun clan.
He was educated and inspired by British missionaries, he began opening schools among the most impoverished and mostly illiterate Pashtun villages of the Frontier Province while still in his early twenties. In 1919, he led demonstrations against British rule and was imprisoned for sedition for three years in unusually harsh conditions that almost broke his health. Undeterred, he continued devoting himself to education and reform work among the Pashtun, and claimed to have visited all 1000 villages over a period of about ten years.
He completed his education from Aligarh Muslim University and after that he wished to study in London just like his elder brother Dr. Khan Saheb who became a doctor but his mother was afraid of losing her son to an alien culture and namely its women. That left Badshah Khan with no option but to work for his father in their fields.
Badshah Khan’s life was plagued with personnel loss but this did not deter him from being a hope to his people who were tired of the continuous wars amongst themselves.
He married his first wife Meharqanda in 1912. she was a daughter of Yar Mohammad Khan of the Kinankhel clan of the Mohammadzai tribe of Razzar, a village adjacent to Utmanzai. They had a son in 1913, Abdul Ghani Khan, who became a noted artist and poet. Subsequently, they had another son, Abdul Wali Khan (17 January 1917-), and daughter, Sardaro. Meharqanda died during the 1918 influenza epidemic. In 1920, Abdul Ghaffar Khan remarried; his new wife, Nambata, was a cousin of his first wife and the daughter of Sultan Mohammad Khan of Razzar. She bore him a daughter, Mehar Taj (25 May 1921- ), and a son, Abdul Ali Khan (20 August 1922-19 February 1997). Tragically, in 1926 Nambata died early as well from a fall down the stairs of the apartment they were staying at in Jerusalem.
Badshah Khan dreamt of greatness for his people, he dreamt of good life far away from the continuous wars in the modern Khyber-Pakhtunkwa and FATA region. He was tired of the oppression by the hands of the British, the repression of the mullahs, and an ancient culture of violence and vendetta. He wanted to uplift his fellow men and women by means of education. At 20 years of age, Badshah Khan opened his first school in Utmanzai. It was an instant success and he was soon invited into a larger circle of progressively minded reformers who were also determined for a change.
In the late Twenties, after a long period of fasting and meditation, Khan came up with the idea of a “nonviolent army” of Pashtun tribesman who would renounce violence and the code of revenge deeply embedded in Pashtun society. They wore red military uniforms (and were called “Red Shirts”), took an oath foreswearing violence, retaliation and revenge, formed regiments, trained and drilled, and devoted themselves to village uplift, education and reform.
During the civil disobedience movement initiated by Gandhi in the remote Northwest Frontier, the repression was far worse. The British considered Pashtun tribes as savages. They sealed the borders to the province and unleashed a campaign of violent repression unmatched during the civil disobedience movement. “Red Shirts” were publicly stripped and beaten, their property confiscated, their crops burnt.
There was an instance in which on 23 April 1930, Badshah Khan was addressing a gathering during which he was arrested. People started to come from far away to Peshawar’s main square to protest his arrest. The British forces in their panic open fired on the crowd. What occurred during that period left many dumbfounded. When the first layer of people were shot and killed the second layer stood up to face the bullet and they too were shot and killed. This event kept on occurring till it was 5pm (a total of 6 hours of shooting on armless people). This whole situation resulted in the loss of 200 to 300 Pashtun lives. Many of the soldiers who refused to fire were court-martial and were served hard prison sentences.
This made Gandhi stand up and say that Britishers have no moral right in India where innocent were killed just because they are protesting for their rights. Badshah Khan became a close confidant of Gandhi. Gandhi took many of his important decisions upon consulting with him.
Badshah Khan strongly opposed the Muslim League‘s demand for the partition of India. After partition, Badshah Khan was frequently arrested by the Pakistani government in part because of his association with India and his opposition to authoritarian moves by the government. He spent much of the 1960s and 1970s either in jail or in exile.
In 1985 he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize. In 1987 he became the first person not holding the citizenship of India to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. He died at home near Peshawar in 1988, at the age of 98, having served thirty years in prison. Upon his death in 1988, he was buried in Jalalabad, despite the heavy fighting at the time, both sides in the Afghan war declared a ceasefire to allow his burial.
Just to keep things in perspective the famous khan market in which most of “new high society children” venture out smoking,drinking and doing all the crazy “stuff” was named after Khan baba in his honour so that even though he was far apart still he will remain close to our heart. Though I would be surprised if Khan Baba would have loved what it has become among the future generation for which he fought. Still the market named after him stands out to be the richest in India and is listed 16th in the list of richest markets in the world. Badshah Khan’s name seems enough to make it rich in life, not to mention world.
To honour him there was a bollywood movie made in 1992 in which Amitabh Bachchan played the role of Badshah Khan, the movie portrayed Bachchan as the Pathan of Kabul for whom a word given must be kept at any cost and for who love is his religion. It showed him living in jail term for most of his life till returning back to Kabul. Though it had all the bollywood masala but none the less till now it remains the only movie made on Badshah Khan, a true Pathan. My beloved Pathan.
She was born in Shillong on November 24, 1961, to a Bengali Hindu father and a Syrian Christian mother, she spent her childhood in Kerala before moving to Delhi, where she studied architecture and wrote film scripts.
She has also acted in an offbeat film “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones”. Her modest background and fighting the tedious daily grind, the 49-year-old “dead writer” got financially liberated when her first novel “The God of Small Things” was conferred the Booker Prize. Her essays on contemporary issues fired Indian elites’ imagination. The award brought her International recognition and a platform to hold forth on issues that caught her attention.
Baring a single book that won her bookers’ prize, Arundati Roy has not written a single book which might actually be good for conversation. Yet she has found way and ways to stay in the controversies be it the Narmada, her endorsements of Naxals or be it calling herself the mobile republic and now sedition attempt.
Arundati Roy’s claims are powered by one of her ideas, where she says that more you spit on your country and call names to it, the cooler you would be (apparently she is unhappy with Indian government, since they donot seek advice from her on topics she has opinion on). Her supporters repeated attempts to call “Indian nationalism as the last refuge of a scoundrel” is laughable. These very pseudo-intellectuals having their “Indian passports” are hiding behind quotes of others exhibiting a scoundrel behavior. One guesses that act being a pseudo-intellectual involves in generating sensationalism in order to get attention. After all coffee shop debates where you are all dressed up to “debate” doesn’t get you much recognition (exception from people taking your order).
Seeing herself as a failure in every event in which she has been a part of Arundati Roy seem to have got bit unnerved and her recent attempt to call India “an imperialistic state” can again be assed by many psychologist as a behavior of a child who wines when not given due attention.
Her repeated attempts to call hindu as oppressors of various communities is also her sedition attempt to malign majority Indians, though let me categorically point out I am not a RSSwalla remotely so and neither do I support what occurred in Gujarat. She it seems thinks she is the sole correct person (along with the band of her anti-nationalist not to mention pseudo-intellectuals), even though her hateful speeches might result in partition of India. But ask her this question and pat would come the reply against Indian state probably because she is of a different republic that is republic of Arundati Roy.
Though what must be really taken into consideration by pseudo-intellectuals and azaadi chest beaters is:
No one seems to talk about the first and the longest serving Prime-minister was a Kashmiri.
No one seems to be talk about how the future of Kashmir is safe with India in terms of the economic development process as India is 2nd fastest growing nation after china in the world.
No one seems to talk about that the region of Jammu and Kashmir doesnot only involves just Kashmir but rather: Jammu, Ladakh, Siachen and Kashmir.
No one seems to talk about the fact that no one outside Kashmir can buy land in it even though it might be for the development of the state.
No one seems to talk about the Pakistan’s attempt to break Kashmir in its occupied region where it has named gilgit as it province.
No one seems to talk about the fact that Kashmir as an independent country will become a pawn in the hands of Pakistan, china and not to mention the Jihadist elements. Just as many breakaway new nations in the world have become.
No one seems to talk about the ethnic cleansing which the Kashmiri Pundits had to go through via jihadis that their women and young girls were raped and men killed.
No one seems to talk about the special status that Kashmir has in India.
No one seems to talk about the Omar government’s incompetence nature in dealing with the problems of Kashmiri.
No one seems to talk about the rise in infiltration from across the border in recent times when violence broke in Kashmir.
No one seems to talk about Gilaani’s one point agenda : Pakistan
No one seems to talk about the attack on Indian parliament.
No seems to talk about killing of Indian security forces.
No one seems to talk about Kashmiri’s working in Top Indian MNCs.
No one seems to talk about the pain India takes to keep Kashmir happy.
No one seems to talk about Pakistan’s submitting Aksai chin to china without asking the “azaadi prone” Kashmiris.
No one seems to talk about Bhagat Singh’s belief in keeping India united but rather selectively quoting him and using him as an excuse to further their agendas.
No one seems to talk about that according to US report Pakistan will be a failed state and chaos it will be bring will be ever lasting in the region.
No one seems to talk about the fact that Arundati Roy can’t write a decent book and that she is writer’s rakhi Sawant.
But yes they will talk about India being wrong and Pakistan right, Kashmiri youth must
Understand that India is the best bet for them and a rightful place in the world but yes this is the Muslim youth of Kashmiri valley who need to understand it because the rest of the region already knows that.
Lastly one would like to put a reminder to Miss Arundati Roy just as one my friend puts it nicely:
“arundhatiji…if you are an ‘independent mobile republic’ do you not forfeit the moral right to protection at the hands of the police force that you criticize so vehemently???”
The word Naxalism brings to mind communism, image of poor people up in arms, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, fiery speeches of Home minister against Naxals and the recent Dantewada killings.
This was not the case 50 years back when the whole world from US to Europe to Africa to China was in revolution in different forms. Something which was always in the limelight was a “revolution”.
It attracted many young people throughout the world and it became a sign of rebellion, an out cry against those imposing their ideas and governments throughout the world came on the hit-list. Che Guevara was the icon and free speech, equality and civil rights the words of the time.
Indian youths also romanticized the same thing – “a revolution”. Young girls and boys from top colleges of country started to foray into this domain. Frustrated with government policies and fall of Nehru’s idea, the youths wanted to make a difference by themselves.
“Naxalbari was like a clarion call “Just then, Das and Ray went underground. Between 1970 and 1971, 12-13 Stephanians followed, leaving studies to join the revolution. Das and a few others were arrested; the rest returned on their own — disillusioned and scared. Rajiv Kumar, an Economics student, was in third year when he left for Bihar in mid-December, 1970.
For three months, he stayed with CPI-ML sympathizers, including a bricklayer in Munger. “One of the reasons for my return was the prospect of being asked to kill people,” he says. “We were a bunch of romantics who just didn’t know that we were being fed with lies.” Dipesh Chakrabarty, a Presidency College student of the 1960s who now teaches in University of Chicago, recalls: “Many urban youth who went to liberate rural areas came back after some weeks with acute bowel problems.”
Over the years the urban youths stopped taking part in such processes and only some were left to do the fighting. It was now the time for youths from rural areas to take forth someone who was actually affected by police brutalities or were misfortunate to be sliced in between the on going battle. Soon in 1980 the battle became more intense and last decade has surpassed all expectations by increasing the death toll manifolds.” says Rai Chaudhuri then 23 years old. He retired as the head of the Presidency College’s Physics Department in 2004 and was one of those to be mentioned in V S Naipaul’s India: A Million Mutinies Now.
“We were elated. We had only read about the armed peasant struggles in China and Vietnam. Now it was actually happening here in our land,” says Rai Chaudhuri. Soon posters supporting Naxalbari started to appear in College Street and elsewhere .Slogans such as ‘China’s Chairman is our Chairman’ suddenly sprouted on Kolkata walls. The lawns of Presidency College became a meeting ground for students from Calcutta and neighboring areas, and the informal group came to be known as the Presidency Coalition
Youngsters were recruited in large numbers from all across the country to liberate the country. Students from colleges such as Stephens would leave their dream to study abroad or to enter the IAS. “China’s path is our path, China’s chairman is our chairman” read on a wall in St. Stephen’s. Had it been some other time, people would have considered it a prank, but it was not. When the high wall of St Stephen’s —that rarefied oasis for the nation’s elite — was used as a pad for radical propaganda, it confirmed what most observers already knew: an influential section of Stephanians had fallen to Naxalism.
Slogans appeared on lecture-room blackboards and one such work read, “Reactionary teachers, we will have your skin for shoes for the poor”! At the height of militancy, contemporary insiders put the number of core Naxals in the college at no more than 30 — not a big figure, but by most accounts the single largest Maoist presence among all DU institutions. In 1968, history student Arvind Narain Das had run for president of the college student’s body elections on an openly Naxal platform. He won. “We were ready to storm heaven,” Dilip Simeon, a leading member of the group, was to write later. During 1970, their activities started to enter a serious phase.
A distressed parent approached O’ Connor asking him to persuade his son to give up politics. “By then, they (the students) were well into the vortex and almost out of hearing,” writes the pastor. The campus was tense. TOI reported a ‘plot’ to burn the college library and bomb the chapel. “We didn’t know it then, but some students and teachers close to us were spying for the police,” says Ray.
Just then, Das and Ray went underground. Between 1970 and 1971, 12-13 Stephanians followed, leaving studies to join the revolution. Das and a few others were arrested; the rest returned on their own — disillusioned and scared. Rajiv Kumar, an Economics student, was in third year when he left for Bihar in mid-December, 1970.
Though incidents where young men and girls leaving have stopped but some young folks from villages especially dalits and tribals seem to have taken it as a cause where they see it as a defiance against the powerful “corrupt” elite and those leading them are those youngsters of 1960s and 1970s who have grown old now and have nothing else left but this ideological war for themselves as they have already sacrificed alot for it, their families and hope for better life for themselves.
The situation now is not of romanticizing but rather that the fact poor and angry young men and women, who see no future for themselves, are easy targets for terrorists and extremist recruiters. It is only because of unemployment that the younger generation takes to terrorism in order to generate income and fulfils its needs. So the youths knowingly or unknowingly embrace Naxalism. In some cases, people are driven to the Naxal world by the Naxalites themselves and are paid attractive amounts.
The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs estimates the following yearly deaths from the violence:
1996: 156 deaths
1997: 428 deaths
1998: 270 deaths
1999: 363 deaths
2000: 50 deaths
2001: 100+ deaths
2002: 140 deaths
2003: 451 deaths
2004: 500+ deaths
2005: 700+ deaths
2006: 750 deaths
2007: 650 deaths
2008: 794 deaths
2009: 1,134 deaths
In order to eradicate this problem the government needs to take hand of the situation and a rapid development of the region is required. Naxalites should be brought to mainstream and if they have issues they can form a political party and if they really want to make a change. This situation is going to affect Indian youths the most and also India at a broader level. A solution needs to be found for the problem for those who are dying are INDIANS after all.
For the past two years Bundelkhand has been in the news all for the wrong reasons. For the residents of Bundelkhand even that is good news because at least someone is interested in them! The Bundelkhand region lies in central India and was home to great personalities such as Rani Laxmibai, Singer Kishore Kumar, Hockey great Major Dhyanchand, and Osho Guru Rajneesh and is home to Khajuraho.
For over 8 years, this region has been facing a drought. As is usual, the politicians across party lines don’t care about it because the region lies between two states, namely: Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Due to the moneylender’s trap (you borrow money at a very high interest rate and are not able to pay back even the interest as your crop is poor because of the drought), the farmers are committing suicides, selling their land, cattle and even their wives. One problem is that the soil here retains very little water unlike the black soil in other regions of Madhya Pradesh. If it does not rain at the right time with the right consistency, the drought-related distress affects the next year’s Rabi crop as well.
Another problem is the myopic drought policy – relief is given only if the standing crop fails. Many farmers who wait for the rains to begin sowing do not qualify as distressed because the monsoon failure does not give them an opportunity to plant. The irrigation facilities in Madhya Pradesh are a total disaster and on the side of Uttar Pradesh no one seems to care.
When the case of wife selling came out – the debt-ridden farmers are selling their women to money lenders at rates varying between Rs 4,000 and 12,000. The prettier the face, higher the amount the woman fetches – all hell broke loose for good reasons.The deals were being finalized on legal stamp paper under the garb of ‘marriage.’ The stamp paper heading said ‘Vivaha Anubandh (Marriage Contract)’.
And once the new husband has had enough of the woman, she is sold to another man. Some turn to prostitution. According to the police, many of these wife-turned-prostitutes have been rescued in the last two years. Even the international media seems interested in the “plight” of these people because selling one’s wife in one of India’s multiple poverty stricken districts is something that their audiences would love to hear and it would re-affirm their long held stereotype of India.
When the news of farmer’s suicides from this region came in, it joined the likes of Telegana and Vidharba in being treated with indifference by politicians. Thankfully Gandhi Junior’s involvement and interest saw the region get a 7,000 Crore relief package. He demand for a separate body for the development of the region is yet to see light from the Government. He is said to have discussed with PM, a detailed view of the budget and an all out development project for that would not only include agricultural activities but also improvements in education and industrialization of the region.
The whole deprivation has led to the people of Bundelkhand to demand a separate state so that they can take the matters into their own hands and not have to rely on the hierarchies of the government. This way they can undertake economic activities that will benefit them and would ensure that the money meant for them from the center actually reaches them.
The issue of a separate state is not new for Bundelkhand. At the time of Independence it was a separate state but was later dissolved and dispersed between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The centre, however, seems reluctant to carve out a new state citing the failure of the three states created by the NDA namely: Jharkhand, Uttrakhand and Chhattisgarh.
The implementation of the current schemes such as NREGA might bring about a part of the required. But for the long term sustenance of the region a larger plan needs to be chalked out. A plan where a region is not left behind in the overall development of India, even if it means creating a new state.
As for the negative side. we ask a few questions from the ‘believers’.
If, as you believe, there is an almighty, omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent God-who created the earth or world, please let me know why did he create it ? This world of woes and miseries, a veritable, eternal combination of numberless tragedies: Not a single soul being perfectly satisfied.
Pray, don’t say that it is His Law: If he is bound by any law, he is not omnipotent. He is another slave like ourselves. Please don’t say that it is his enjoyment. Nero burnt one Rome. He killed a very limited number of people. He created very few tragedies, all to his perfect enjoyment. And what is his place in History? By what names do the historians mention him? All the venomous epithets are showered upon him. Pages are blackened with invective diatribes condemning Nero, the tyrant, the heartless, the wicked.
One Changez khan sacrificed a few thousand lives to seek pleasure in it and we hate the very name. Then how are you going to justify your almighty, eternal Nero, who has been, and is still causing numberless tragedies every day, every hour and every minute? How do you think to support his mis-doings which surpass those of Changez every single moment? I say why did he create this world a veritable hell, a place of constant and bitter unrest?
Why did the Almighty create man when he had the power not to do it? What is the justification for all this ? Do you say to award the innocent sufferers hereafter and to punish the wrong-doers as well? Well, well: How far shall you justify a man who may dare to inflict wounds upon your body to apply a very soft and soothing liniment upon it afterwards? How far the supporters and organizers of the Gladiator Institution were justified in throwing men before the half starved furious lions to be cared for and well looked after if they could survive and could manage to escape death by the wild beasts? That is why I ask, ‘Why did the conscious supreme being created this world and man in it? To seek pleasure? Where then is the difference between him and Nero’?
You Mohammadens and Christians : Hindu Philosophy shall still linger on to offer another argument. I ask you what is your answer to the above-mentioned question? You don’t believe in previous birth. Like Hindus you cannot advance the argument of previous misdoings of the apparently quite innocent sufferers? I ask you why did the omnipotent labor for six days to create the world through word and each day to say that all was well. Call him today. Show him the past history. Make him study the present situation. Let us see if he dares to say, “All is well”.
From the dungeons of prisons, from the stores of starvation consuming millions upon millions of human beings in slums and huts, from the exploited laborers, patiently or say apathetically watching the procedure of their blood being sucked by the Capitalist vampires, and the wastage of human energy that will make a man with the least common sense shiver with horror, and from the preference of throwing the surplus of production in oceans rather than to distribute amongst the needy producers to the palaces of kings built upon the foundation laid with human bones…. let him see all this and let him say “All is well”.
Why and wherefore? That is my question. You are silent.
All right then, I proceed. Well, you Hindus, you say all the present sufferers belong to the class of sinners of the previous births. Good. You say the present oppressors were saintly people in their previous births, hence they enjoy power. Let me admit that your ancestors were very shrewd people, they tried to find out theories strong enough to hammer down all the efforts of reason and disbelief. But let us analyze how far this argument can really stand.
From the point of view of the most famous jurists punishment can be justified only from three or four ends to meet which it is inflicted upon the wrongdoer. They are retributive, reformative and deterrent. The retributive theory is now being condemned by all the advanced thinkers. Deterrent theory is also following the same fate. Reformative theory is the only one which is essential, and indispensable for human progress. It aims at returning the offender as a most competent and a peace-loving citizen to the society.
But what is the nature of punishment inflicted by God upon men even if we suppose them to be offenders. You say he sends them to be born as a cow, a cat, a tree, a herb or a best. You enumerate these punishments to be 84 lakhs. I ask you what is its reformative effect upon man? How many men have met you who say that they were born as a donkey in previous birth for having committed any sin? None. Don’t quote your Puranas. I have no scope to touch your mythologies. Moreover do you know that the greatest sin in this world is to be poor. Poverty is a sin, it is a punishment.
I ask you how far would you appreciate a criminologist, a jurist or a legislator who proposes such measures of punishment which shall inevitably force man to commit more offences? Had not your God thought of this or he also had to learn these things by experience, but at the cost of untold sufferings to be borne by humanity? What do you think shall be the fate of a man who has been born in a poor and illiterate family of say a chamar or a sweeper. He is poor, hence he cannot study. He is hated and shunned by his fellow human beings who think themselves to be his superiors having been born in say a higher caste. His ignorance, his poverty and the treatment meted out to him shall harden his heart towards society.
Suppose he commits a sin, who shall bear the consequences? God, he or the learned ones of, the society? What about the punishment of those people who were deliberately kept ignorant by the haughty and egotist Brahmans and who had to pay the penalty by bearing the stream of being led (not lead) in their ears for having heard a few sentences of your Sacred Books of learning-the Vedas? If they committed any offence-who was to be responsible for them and who was to bear the brunt? My dear friends: These theories are the inventions of the privileged ones: They justify their usurped power, riches and superiority by the help of these theories. Yes: It was perhaps Upton Sinclair, that wrote at some place, that just make a man a believer in immortality and then rob him of all his riches, and possessions. He shall help you even in that ungrudging. The coalition amongst the religious preachers and possessors of power brought forth jails, gallows, knouts and these theories.
I ask why your omnipotent God, does not stop every man when he is committing any sin or offence? He can do it quite easily. Why did he not kill war lords or kill the fury of war in them and thus avoid the catastrophe hurled down on the head of humanity by the Great War? Why does he not just produce a certain sentiment in the mind of the British people to liberate India? Why does he not infuse the altruistic enthusiasm in the hearts of all capitalists to forgo their rights of personal possessions of means of production and thus redeem the whole laboring community nay the whole human society from the bondage of Capitalism. You want to reason out the practicability of socialist theory, I leave it for your almighty to enforce it.
People recognize the merits of socialism in as much as the general welfare is concerned. They oppose it under the pretext of its being impracticable. Let the Almighty step in and arrange everything in an orderly fashion. Now don’t try to advance round about arguments, they are out of order. Let me tell you, British rule is here not because God wills it but because they possess power and we do not dare to oppose them. Not that it is with the help of God that they are keeping us under their subjection but it is with the help of guns and rifles, bomb and bullets, police and millitia and our apathy that they are successfully committing the most deplorable sin against society the outrageous exploitation of one nation by another. Where is God ? What is he doing? Is he enjoying all I these woes of human race ? A Nero; A Changez : Down with him.
Do you ask me how I explain the origin of this world and origin of man? Alright I tell you. Charles Darwin has tried to throw some light on the subject. Study him. Read Soham Swami’s “Commonsense”. It shall answer your question to some extent. This is a phenomenon of nature. The accidental mixture of different substances in the shape of nebulae produced this earth. When? Consult history. The same process produced animals and in the long run man. Read Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’. And all the later progress is due to man’s constant conflict with nature and his efforts to override it. This is the briefest possible explanation of this phenomenon.
Your other argument may be just to ask why a child is born blind or lame if not due to his deeds committed in the previous birth? This problem has been explained away by biologists as a more biological phenomenon. According to them the whole burden rests upon the shoulders of the parents who may be conscious or ignorant of their own deeds led to mutilation of the child previous to its birth.
Naturally you may ask another question though it is quite childish in essence. If no God existed, how did the people come to believe in him? My answer is clear and brief. As they came to believe in ghosts, and evil spirits; the only difference is that belief in God is almost universal and the philosophy well developed. Unlike certain of the radicals I would not attribute its origin to the ingenuity of the exploiters who wanted to keep the people under their subjection by preaching the existence of a supreme being and then claiming an authority and sanction from him for their privileged positions. Though I do not differ with them on the essential point that all faiths, religions, creeds and such other institutions became in turn the mere supporters of the tyrannical and exploiting institutions, men and classes. Rebellion against king is always a sin according to every religion.
As regards the origin of God my own idea is that having realized the limitations of man, his weaknesses and shortcoming having been taken into consideration, God was brought into imaginary existence to encourage man to face boldly all the trying circumstances, to meet all dangers manfully and to check and restrain his outbursts in prosperity and affluence. God both with his private laws and parental generosity was imagined and painted in greater details. He was to serve as a deterrent factor when his fury and private laws were discussed so that man may not become a danger to society. He was to serve as a father, mother, sister and brother, friend and helpers when his parental qualifications were to be explained. So that when man be in great distress having been betrayed and deserted by all friends he may find consolation in the idea that an ever true friend was still there to help him, to support him and that He was almighty and could do anything. Really that was useful to the society in the primitive age.
The idea of God is helpful to man in distress.
Society has to fight out this belief as well as was fought the idol worship and the narrow conception of religion. Similarly, when man tries to stand on his own legs, and become a realist he shall have to throw the faith aside, and to face manfully all the distress, trouble, in which the circumstances may throw him. That is exactly my state of affairs. It is not my vanity, my friends. It is my mode of thinking that has made me an atheist. I don’t know whether in my case belief in God and offering of daily prayers which I consider to be most selfish and degraded act on the part of man, whether these prayers can prove to be helpful or they shall make my case worse still. I have read of atheists facing all troubles quite boldly, so am I trying to stand like a man with an erect head to the last; even on the gallows.
Let us see how I carry on : one friend asked me to pray. When informed of my atheism, he said, “During your last days you will begin to believe”. I said, No, dear Sir, it shall not be. I will think that to be an act of degradation and demoralization on my part. For selfish motives I am not going to pray. Readers and friends, “Is this vanity”? If it is, I stand for it.
India as nation has 28 states till now and Telengana issue seems to be boiling forth and some believe rightly so. Even after being in Andra Pradesh that region has not seen any development and there are large no of farmer suicides too. The need of hour is having a small state.
In a democratic Independent India the formost job of any government is that it provide all the people with equal opportunities which in some case in some states may not to be.
Jharkahand in particular was a good example of a state saved from Bihar and same goes the case with Uttrakand and Chattisgarh . Now there are demands for Vidharbh, Harit Pradesh , Telengana , Marwa Pradesh and Gurkhaland.
Some how one feels that Uttar Pradesh for one needs to be divided in order to have better governance , Harit pradesh that is the western Uttar pradesh is plagued by goon culture and it will be a great service if such states are carved out as more focused approach could be taken in dealing with the menace.
Though detractors have their own view they say that it would lead to partition of India and division of resources additionally they say that the 3 states such as uttrakhand , Jharkhand and chhattisgarh performance has not been such that other states could be brought in the same lines.
Few Facts about our Indian states –
Uttar Pradesh with population of more than 167 million is bigger than Germany + France or Russia ,Pakistan , China, America, Brazil and Indonesia are the only few nations who are bigger than Uttar Pradesh.
TamilNadu (62.2 million) is bigger than Britain and Italy.
Andhra Pradesh (76.4 million) is little bigger than Germany and Vietnam
If the big states means progress then why India has not made progress like America, Germany, France or Hong Kong or England.
America, Hong Kong both were ruled by England just like India.
Do small states suffer? Not if one views Punjab , Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
This shows that there is no guarantee that big state will make progress or small state will make progress.
Remember it does not matter state is small or state is big, most important thing is who is our law maker and how honest he is with his job and nation.If law maker, politician is not good then small or big it does not matter, he will do the corruption and he will take the wrong decisions. When law maker, politician is corrupt no one can save the nation.
But when law maker is good he can take the small state to such heights that the small nation can rule the world.
Once England ruled the world and today we can see the progress made by the USA or Hong Kong or Taiwan.
Our democracy works like this – one head of the state, then other elected members, run the state with the help of IAS officers and bureaucrats.
When the state is big, those officers and elected politicians, law makers are not able to watch carefully every project and how the money is utilized by everyone in every project.Today budget of Government is becoming so big that common people find it difficult to understand, and even studied accountants find it very difficult to understand and find out the mistakes.
If common man does not understand the budget How he can participate and keep watch on the politician to stop the frauds and mistakes done by politician When state is small, if any government employee or law maker or politician will do the fraud, immediately it will show the effect on the other projects as it will become very difficult for that chief minister to bring new funds or hide his black deeds.
Just take the example of classroom of 100 students and classroom of 25 students, so in this case which classroom will be easy to manage and give the results.
People of Haryana, which was carved out of Punjab , can go to the capital to air their grievances or get their problems heard in the secretariat and return home by evening, whichever part of the state they are in. But if a citizen in western UP were to be heard in any of the state commissions or courts, he has to travel over 600 km to Lucknow , spending large amounts of money in an attempt to get justice and even the Uttar Pradesh Technical University is another example if you have any problem with your papers or result and your college is based in Noida as they are usually , you need to travel all across to Lucknow to get it checked.
People in western UP see for themselves how their neighbours in Haryana and Uttarakhand have prospered after becoming part of smaller states. Their per capita income is much higher compared to the earnings of people in western UP. So they feel a smaller state is essential to have any kind of progress.
On the other hand, there are problem states like Jharkhand. Was Jharkhand any better off when it was part of Bihar? Naxalites had always been there. There are, however, other states like Haryana and Andhra Pradesh that have set good examples. The latter was part of Madras Presidency till it was carved out.
Again, Gujarat is better off after being cut from the larger Bombay Presidency. Punjab was split into three — Himachal Pradesh , Haryana and Punjab and all of these are better off. Before the division, Haryana was the poorer part of Punjab. Men from Western UP never married the women there as they were known to walk 10 km to fetch water. Today, such a situation cannot be imagined in Haryana.
Cultural identity is another reason why people demand separate states. But the underlying factor is a sense of alienation the people feel from the power centre. If Harit Pradesh is created by incorporating administrative divisions like Meerut, Bareilly, Mathura and Agra , it would be as big as Rajasthan. So it won’t necessarily be a small state. At present, UP has 80 parliamentary seats, and if it is divided by three excluding the five seats for Bundelkhand, it still makes for three big states. Gujarat, for instance, has 25 seats.
Of course, one doesn’t rule out demands for further divisions in western UP (demand for Brij Bhumi, a small stretch running from Mathura to Mainpuri) but that is a cultural issue rather than one of governance.
The problem is that the Centre does not have pre-determined norms for dealing with such demands, but it acts only when people get violent. This sends a wrong message. As a result, people start burning buses at the slightest provocation as they feel that is the only way to draw Centre’s attention.
Delhi didn’t notice what was wrong with sugarcane farmers till they came and made ruckus in the capital? Despite the Congress and K Chandrasekhar Rao having made a pact in 2000 to form Telangana, the Centre waited for Rao to go on a fast unto death to react.
Today, the district of Coorg is also demanding statehood as it has a totally different cultural identity. Maybe the solution is not statehood here. But there are states whose chief ministers would not be able to remember the names of the districts or their district magistrates. This certainly is a sign that such states is ungovernable.
Amazingly, all three new states have grown fabulously fast. Uttarakhand has averaged 9.31% growth annually, Jharkhand 8.45%, and chhattisgarh 7.35%. All three states belong to what was historically called the BIMARU zone, a slough of despond where humans and economies stagnated. Out of this stagnant pool have now emerged highly dynamic states.
Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were the most backward parts of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, which in turn were among the most backward states of India. Yet, after becoming separate states, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have emerged as industrial dynamos. Both have large tribal belts with pathetic infrastructure. In Chhattisgarh, four-fifths of habitations lack road access. Both states have ample minerals like coal and iron ore. But this was not an economic advantage when they were part of larger states. Rather, their mineral revenues were diverted to state capitals. This diversion ended after they became separate states.
Since 2001, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have moved up into the top 10 (industrial states), displacing Rajasthan and Punjab… The phenomenal growth in these two states has seen the share of manufacturing in their GDP rise dramatically as they have attracted industrial projects. Looking at the share of income that originates in the manufacturing sector, these two states have shown higher levels than Maharashtra, Haryana and Tamil Nadu…Being newer and smaller states, they responded more rapidly than their larger — and in some cases better endowed – neighbours… Raipur in Chhattisgarh has now entered the top 10 districts of India in manufacturing, with two industrial estates at Urla and Siltara.
Every sensible economist will argue having a smaller state is much better than a larger state where the power is just for the civil servants and politicians but certainly who are born and brought up on the socialist ideals would never agree. After all it is the socialistic mindset through out the world which make the creation and sustenance of such large states. However these very socialist have failed to bring any economic changes for the betterment in the lives of people of the nation. One would certainly disagree with their ideology because talking is all good and being intellectual is all “fashionable” but food and cloth along with good life is the true need of a human being.
People have been talking about Shiv Sena‘s activities, the fact that they want to do something about the “Marathi Manus” but those who want a better life and migrate from North India consider them fanatics. Certainly the violence aspect might be an issue but on larger scale what shiv sena talk in terms of geographic economic development is something to look at and some how relevant.
If going by the general masses sentiments of North Indians then states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh would never develop and the politicians of this region will keep on taking the people of these states for a ride all the time. Even Rahul Gandhi acknowledged it and asked the Biharis that why is it so that they help economy of other states rather than help Bihar and perform the overall growth of India.
Then there is debate that marathis must go and live in these place and help develop these places … Are you kidding ?
The fact that people from North India especially Bihar and UP are running from their home and landing in Mumbai due to lawlessness in that state is the primary reason that people send their kids to study outside the respective states. It is like telling the other person to clean up your mess.
One will honestly wait for the day when people will migrate to Bihar and UP but i guess that is a very far dream …
On a very simple note the people of that region must be allowed to be a part of the growth that is Marathis of Maharashtra and secondly having these islands of development such as these metropolitan cities is NOT the way forward, the whole country need it and the best way we can seee that is the this mass exodus of of people searching for better life will stop . One is not saying that migration will stop but certainly the governments of these respective places are not there just for enjoying themselves, they need to work.
Even if they donot wish to work then states like Uttar Pradesh must be divided into smaller states on the lines of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar model where they were divided so that better handling of resources and an efficient government must be formed.
What shiv Sena is saying might sound harsh to some people but it is an out come of long unappreciative policy of its people by its politicians who have ruled the certain states or should we say miss ruled. The hardliner approach to any cause occurs only when everything seems to have failed.
It is time that some under performing politicians of this country take notice of their activities since they are certainly not on picnic here( atleast that is what the voter thinks) because economic development of a country is NOT a paradigm of just certain regions and “high class” people who can jet set anywhere whereas others (politicians of UP and Bihar) can have a gala time and the people of India suffer on all quarters.
In order to understand thePunjabi Identity we only need to go back two year or so in history when the Vienna issue came boiling up. Many would not know that there are many sections within the punjabi community (ie people who live there in Punjab).
It is a bit complex system though which seems to give out a united stand but differences do appear now and then which are reported. Punjab as general has been heavily influenced by Sikhism andSufism which binds them together but it cannot be shrugged that there are sects with in the communities too.
The recent Vienna shoot out in the gurudwara is a case where the problems persists. Most Notably Punjab has been divided into two countries where in one portion is Islamic the other is Sikh and Hindu. Hindus for always have had caste system which is well defined and constructed ( which has been criticized by many social reformers) but it seems Sikhism is also not beyond such differences, there are same well defined boundaries with in the Sikh structure in terms of the community.
In the video below you would see how KPS Gill and Pranay Roy try to understand the whole complex issue of Punjabi identity.
Punjabi language as one is the binding aspect of the various communities and the fact that Punjab as a tradition has been a prosperous region. Punjab’s rich culture also sets it apart in the northern India and it is this richness due to which there is the usual fight ( fight for resources, strengthened by the caste lines) .
In short in order to brief about the various communities and sections with in Punjab are :
Ravidassia
Gujjar
Rajput
Jats
Urban Khartis
Dalits
Tarkans
Ramgarias
Saini
Aroras
Arain
Labana
Pathans
It is not only that these problems are faced by the Punjabi other regions also face them and which results in Reservations or at least demand for reservations. Though the consolidation of Punjab as a region has more to do with irradiation of Militancy, during that process a sense of Unity was developed which resulted in Punjabi Unity but as the time passes the old cracks in the wall have resurfaced .
The Dogras, numbering nearly one million are concentrated north of the River Sutlej (in Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and Punjab) and have carved out India`s northern frontier along the Karakotam.
According to one tradition, the word Dogra is derived from `duggar`, which is ascribed to dvigarta, implying a land of two lakes, the Mansar and Saruinsar. The historical tradition rests on two Chamba copper plates of the eleventh century that have been found which mention Durgareshwar, the lord of Durgar. It is said that Durgareshwar, once attempted to conquer the Chamba Kingdom so the name may well be derived from durgaradesha (the difficult terrain). In any case, the word `Dogra` does not denote a caste but is a term embracing Hindus of all castes as well as Muslims and Sikhs living in the Dogra region and speaking Dogri.
The Dogra region is famed for its miniature paintings. The Pahari School, which included the Poonch, Jammu, Basohli, Guler and Kangta styles, created beautiful and highly stylized combinations of colour and line, expressing delicate and sensuous feeling and intense passion. Many of these paintings depict the moods of lovers in a romantic setting.
The Dogras excel in martial arts. However, in addition to their joining the defence forces in large numbers, they have also entered other spheres of economic and political activity.
Dr. Karan Singh, the youngest person ever to become a member of the union cabinet, and at one time the ambassador to the United States, is a Dogra.
kashmir was under them from 1846 to 1947: Dogra Rule
INQUISITION 