Casteism in India has gotten a lot of criticism, and rightly so. The way casteism is at present should not even exist. We should throw it out. Casteism as we find it today is now nothing more than a misrepresentation and misinterpretation of a legitimate and progressive Vedic system known as varnashrama. However, we need to know the difference between the two, then get rid of present-day casteism to again utilize the genuine and liberal form of social organization, known as varnashrama.

What is it today?

The casteism that we find today is the materialistic form of designation that has become a way of oppressing the lower social orders of people. It says that if you are born in a family of a certain classification, then you are of the same class with little possibility of changing. In casteism, birth is now the major factor in determining one’s social standing. It dictates that your social order, occupational potential and characteristics are the same as your parents, which is a label that may have been placed on a family hundreds of years ago.

In the Vedic system, there were four basic classifications. There were the Brahmanas (priests and intellectuals, those who practiced and preserved the Vedic rituals and processes of spiritual realization), the Kshatriyas (warriors, military, government administrators), Vaishyas (the merchants, bankers, farmers, etc.), and the Shudras (common laborers, musicians, dancers, etc.). Casteism says that if you are born of a Brahmana family, then you are a Brahmana, no matter whether you truly exhibit the genuine characteristics of a Brahmana or not. And if you are also born in a Kshatriya family, or a Vaishya or Shudra family, then that is what you must be. It is as if when one is born in a doctor’s family, the child is also considered a doctor. However, anyone knows that to become a doctor requires the proper training and perception to see if the child will be a qualified doctor or not. Just being born in the family of a doctor does not mean that the children will also be doctors, although this may help. But they surely are not doctors merely by birth. Training and intelligence must be there. And before training, there also must be the proclivity, tendency, and attraction to even be a doctor. Without that, no amount of training will be of much use because the student will still not want to be, or qualify to be a doctor. Therefore, this form of modern day casteism is useless.

This form of materialistic casteism was practiced five hundred years ago, during the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who was considered an incarnation of the Supreme Being. However, Sri Caitanya paid no mind to these social customs. He saw them as a way that the hereditary Brahmanas were merely protecting their own position and privileges and not spreading spiritual well-being, which is their duty. Even during that time the Brahmanas had the idea that if they ate with or touched anyone outside the Brahmana caste, they would risk losing their own social rank. Sri Caitanya, however, ignored such restrictions and readily accepted invitations to eat with the sincere devotees of the Lord, or also embrace them, even if they were of the lowest social position. To Sri Caitanya, it was their devotion that gave them whatever qualification they needed. In this way, He dismissed the materialistic method of casteism. By this action He also showed that it was not birth that was important, but one’s consciousness, intentions, and spiritual awareness that was the prominent factor, which superseded the rank of one’s body or family. It is this which actually determines one’s personality, character, and abilities, not merely one’s birth. This is actually how we should see people and treat them equally as spiritual beings inside material bodies.

Understanding Varnashrama

The original Vedic system called varnashrama was legitimate and virtuous. It was meant for the progressive organization of society. Varnashrama is the Vedic system that divides society into four natural groups depending on individual characteristics and dispositions. Everyone has certain tendencies by their own natural inclinations and choice. These inclinations are also seen in one’s occupational preferences. These activities are divided into four basic divisions called varnas. Varna literally means color, relating to the color or disposition of one’s consciousness, and, thus, one’s likelihood of preferring or showing various tendencies for a particular set of occupations. This would be determined not by one’s birth, but by one’s proclivities as observed by the teachers in the school that the student was attending.

For example, there are those who prefer to offer service to society through physical labor or working for others, or through various forms of expressions like dance and music (called Shudras); those who serve through agriculture, trade, commerce, business, and banking or administrative work (Vaishyas); those who have the talents of leaders, government administration, police or military, and the protection of society (Kshatriyas); and those who are by nature intellectuals, contemplative, and inspired by acquiring spiritual and philosophical knowledge, and motivated to work in this way for the rest of society (the Brahmanas). It was never a factor of whether a person had a certain ancestry or birth that determined which class was most appropriate for him or her, although being born in a particular family or tribe would give a natural likelihood to continue in the same line of activity.

Ashramas divided society for spiritual reasons. These were Brahmacharya (students), Grihasthas (householders), Vanaprasthas (the retired stage, at which time a person begins to give up materialistic pursuits and focus on spiritual goals), and Sannyasa (those who were renounced from all materialistic affairs, usually toward the end of their lives, and completely dedicated to spiritual activities). This provided a general pattern for one’s life in which people could work out their desires and develop spiritually at the same time.

In this way, the system of varnashrama came into existence according to the natural tendencies of people, and to direct them so that everyone could work together according to the needs of society. The ashramas divided an individual’s life so that a person could fulfill all of one’s basic desires as well as accomplish the spiritual goals of life. Only according to one’s qualities, tendencies, and traits, usually as one grew up in school, was it determined which varna was best for that person. And then he would be trained accordingly to do the most suited work that fit his qualities, much like the way counselors work with students in schools today. Thus, he or she would have a suitable occupation which he would enjoy, and make a respectable contribution to society.

Its real purpose was that the system of varnashrama was not to label or restrict someone. It was actually part of the means for self-discovery and development. It was to assist a person to find their place in life where he or she would be most comfortable in terms of functionality and occupation. It was to allow the means for everyone to work according to their own nature, which helps bring happiness to the individual and society. Thus, a person could study what was most suited for him or her rather than pursue a type of work that was not really in line with that person’s character, and in which he would soon be dissatisfied. So, it would help guide one to more efficiently complete one’s life and reach fulfillment. In this way, the varnashrama system is based on the natural divisions within society and is not meant to establish forced distinctions or restrictions.

However, beyond this it was meant to help raise the consciousness of humanity from materialism to a higher state of devotional regard for God in spiritual life. It would help one in managing the physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual energy for improving one’s health, mental and physical development, and productivity, along with spiritual awareness. Thus, it was meant for helping society to become spiritually harmonized and make the everyday tasks into a means of spiritual progress and growth.

To explain further, in Bhagavad-gita (4.13) Lord Krishna says, “According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me.” Then He continues, “Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras are distinguished by their qualities of work in accordance with the modes of nature.” (Bg.18.41) Herein we can see that there is no mention of birth as a determining factor for one’s varna or classification. They are ascertained by their qualities of work. Furthermore, “By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect. . . By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, man can, in the performance of his own duty [or occupation], attain perfection.” (Bg.18.45-6)

Herein we can understand that these divisions are created by the Lord so that everyone can be rightly situated in the work and activities that are most suitable for each person, and in which they can feel most comfortable. Whatever occupational tendency a person may have is determined by the modes of material nature one has acquired, or in which he or she associates. Beyond this, these classifications are to organize society in a way that can help in the systematic development of the spiritual consciousness of all mankind.

In the Vishnu Purana (3.8.9) Lord Parasharama also says, “The Supreme Lord Vishnu is worshiped by the proper execution of prescribed duties in the system of varna and ashrama. There is no other way to satisfy the Lord.” So, by engaging in this varnashrama system the Supreme Lord can be satisfied with one’s occupation. It is a way of making one’s work and activities into devotional service to the Lord. However, it may be pointed out that a person in pure spiritual consciousness is above all such designations, even though for his service to God he may act in any one of these divisions at any given time. Devotional service to the Lord is never restricted by any classification of actions. Any activity becomes completely spiritual when it is an expression of one’s devotion or love of God.

Now we can understand how the Vedic arrangement of varnashrama provides the means for each person in each varna to be able to make spiritual advancement by offering one’s activities to the Lord. It is the way a person can directly engage in bhakti-yoga, or devotional service to the Supreme. Thus, in whatever position one is in, all of one’s duties can become an offering of love to God, which becomes the highest level of meditation, intention, or activity.

If everyone engages their talents and tendencies in his or her particular occupation with the idea that it is a service to God, then that occupation becomes the means for one’s worship and thoughts or meditation on the Supreme. If one thinks like this always, then, by the grace of the Lord, he will be delivered from material existence. This is the highest perfection of life. In whatever occupation people may be engaged, if they serve the Supreme Lord, they will achieve this highest level of success. It is by this means that the spiritual form of varnashrama can satisfy the Lord, and everyone makes spiritual advancement. As society progresses in this way, all working together for the satisfaction of the Lord, they forget who is in what position, or that there seems to be a difference, because spiritually they are all transcendental. Thus, everyone rises above the material platform by dint of their spiritual work in devotional service. Then the harmonious and advanced nature of the mode of goodness, as found in the age of Satya-yuga, can be invoked even in this dark age of Kali-yuga.

The system of varnashrama exists naturally everywhere because people will always have the tendencies for what they want to do, or have particular qualities for occupational skills. And these can invariably be divided into the four above-mentioned groups. This is natural, and, as we have seen the evidence here, it has been formed by the Supreme Creator. Therefore, it will always be in existence in some shape or form.

This system, however, was never meant to divide people according to materialistic classifications. It was meant to unite people in a cooperative society in the service of God. In Vedic times, even the Shudras had the same rights as those of the other varnas, and their dignity was preserved without discrimination. In this way, everyone would be satisfied materially and work in a way for the Lord’s pleasure. The Vedic culture, ultimately, was for the well-being and spiritual advancement of the whole society. Forced designation or untouchability was never a part of the Vedic process. The materialistic system of the present-day casteism has deteriorated into a means of dividing society according to mere parentage to control certain groups, while protecting or expanding the worldly happiness of the privileged. Thus, additional groups have been manufactured to accommodate this, such as those who are described as outcastes or “untouchables”. Actually, there is no word as “untouchable” in any of the Vedic scriptures. This is merely a modern invention.

Logically speaking, if a person is not performing any unhygienic activities, then why should he be called a Dalit, or an untouchable, simply because of the family in which he was born? Even after performing something dirty, one need only wash oneself properly to be clean again. Likewise, to raise one’s consciousness to a higher awareness or frequency of activity, one need only participate in the Vedic methods of spiritual advancement, which must be done regardless of one’s rank or varna, whether Shudra or Brahmana.

On the other hand, I have seen Brahmanas in India who ate eggs, ate meat, and drank alcohol, all considered to be dirty or contaminating things. How does one clean oneself from that if he is considered a clean and pure Brahmana? It means that such a person is hardly a Brahmana at all, even if he is born in a Brahmana family. So classification is to be judged by qualities, habits, and the content of one’s character, not by mere title and birth.

So, as it stands today, the present form of casteism is a great curse on Hinduism. It attacks the core of its spiritual philosophy, and has resulted in large numbers of Hindus converting to other religions in an attempt to become free of it. Therefore, it needs to be replaced by the genuine system of varnashrama, or simply thrown out completely. However, there are groups or spiritual institutions of Vedic followers who have set the proper example and are open to everyone, and do not divide people or consider them according to their birth. The members all view each other as equals working together for spiritual cooperation and advancement.

In the Bhagavad-gita (18.42), Lord Krishna explains that the natural qualities of the Brahmanas are peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, and knowledge. The Mahabharata (1) also explains that a Brahmana must be perfectly religious. He must be truthful and able to control his senses. He must execute severe austerities and be detached, humble, and tolerant. He must not envy anyone, and must be expert in performing religious sacrifices and giving whatever he has in charity. He must be fixed in devotional service and expert in Vedic knowledge. These are the twelve qualifications for a Brahmana. The Mahabharata (Vana Parva, Chapter 180) also goes on with a quote from Yudhisthira, that a Brahmana possesses truthfulness, charity, forgiveness, sobriety, gentleness, austerity, and a lack of hatred.

So the point is that, unfortunately, in today’s form of casteism, when we see Brahmanas who are proud of their position, or who desire material benefit, or look condescendingly at those of lower castes, they are not really elevated but are materialistic. This means that they have lost the true qualities of Brahmanas. They actually help promote contempt throughout casteism. Thus, for those that act this way, and not all of them do, only by birth are they called Brahmanas, but the necessary qualifications are not found in them. In fact, the very people that may pride themselves for their high social classifications, and are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of society (the Brahmanas), only indicate their lack of qualifications by focusing on the temporary material designations when they are supposed to be above such things.

A final point in this regard comes from Suta Gosvami who says in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.8) that such occupational duties a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This means that the modern materialistic form of casteism that we find today is no longer connected with the Vedic system of varnashrama. It misses the point of helping everyone make spiritual advancement by focusing on our spiritual identity of being the soul within the body, or to please the Supreme Lord. Thus, the caste system has become simply a materialistic, useless, and destructive system.

Varnas in Texts

The earliest reference to the varnas is found in the Purusha Sukta verses of the Rig-veda (Book Ten, Hymn 90). There are those who refer to these verses as justification for the caste system. But let us take a closer look at them.

In these verses, the great sages worship the Purusha, or the Supreme Soul, Lord of immortality, and from whom the universe is created. In worshiping the Purusha, whose form is completely spiritual and transcendental, the sages can see how all other aspects of the creation are also manifest. Within Him are all other Deities and demigods and rishis. From this ritual, all other Richas and Sama hymns are born from the Purusha, and from Him come all other creatures, and animals, and so on. Then this hymn explains that from the Purusha’s mouth, arms, thighs, and feet come the human beings. The Brahmana was His mouth, the Rajas or Kshatriyas were both of His arms, His thighs became the Vaishyas, and from His feet the Shudras were produced.

After that it is described how the Moon was gendered from his mind [connecting its affects with mental activities], and the sun came from His eye [providing vision]. Indra and Agni also came from His mouth and Vayu [the wind god] came from His breath. From His navel came mid-air, sky from His head, Earth from His feet, and regions from His ear.

Thus, we find that a variety of items are identified with parts of His body. However, this does not mean that there is a classificational difference between what is lower and what is higher. It mostly distinguishes the different functions of each entity in its association with the various parts of the Purusha. The Purusha’s or Lord’s body is completely spiritual. For those that do not understand this point, it means that there is no difference between His head, hand, thighs, feet, mind, breath, eye, ear, and so on. They are made of the same spiritual qualities, and one aspect can perform the same function as any other aspect. They are all pure consciousness. Thus, it does not mean that the Brahmanas are necessarily a higher classification than the Vaishyas or Shudras, but that they naturally have different functions. However, the point is that every living being is considered a part of the Lord’s body. As verse three of the Purusha Sukta explains, all creatures are one-fourth of Him. In other words, they all have a place, they all belong, and they all have a duty to perform, and should be respected as such. It means that they all have a purpose, in that all parts of the body must work together. In this way, the social body of society must all work together in order for it to function properly and harmoniously. Being parts of the spiritual body of the Purusha, all living beings are also ultimately completely spiritual in essence. That essence is what we must understand, for that essence is of the same essential spiritual quality as the Lord. That is what connects us all together and with God.

Another aspect of this is that in the Second verse of the Purusha Sukta Prayers, it explains that the Purusha expands with food. This food is indicative of the worship, the sacrificial offerings or meditative devotions of mankind. Thus, for society to reach its zenith of spiritual potential, they must all cooperate in working together in devotion to God. This means that society, being different parts of the body of God, must all act while having God as the center, just as our own body must work to serve the central part of it, which is the stomach. If the feet, legs, arms, and head do not cooperate to feed the stomach, then the whole body, including all its parts, get weak and dysfunctional, and then dies. It does not matter which part may be considered the most important, if they do not all work to make sure the stomach is fed, then they all get weak and die. In the same way, the different parts of the body of society must all work together or it becomes weak and begins to die out.

So, as explained in this prayer, the body of the Purusha expands and grows strong when all of its parts, namely mankind, work for the common cause, which is to cooperate together, seeing each person as part of the body of God, and act in devotion to the Lord. That is the ultimate goal, as emphasized in the Vedic tradition. In other words, you cannot please God if, by perceiving our differences, we do not act harmoniously together with God as the center. These are but a few of the lessons we can get from the Purusha Sukta Prayers in the Rig-veda. Now we must act on them and recognize each other in the proper perspective.

Today’s Casteism

In the Vedic times it was perfectly all right for a person to change their classification or varna by switching their profession. It provided that kind of flexibility. Thus, on occasion, the upper class Brahmanas might become warriors or kings, while the lower class Shudras could also become scholars or saints. However, only later did the divisions of the four varnas become less flexible, thus causing one’s birth to be one’s class.

Over time the fourfold varna system became divided into many hundreds and thousands of other varnas, castes or jatis. Most of such jatis are people of a particular geographical or linguistic region. Thus, each member within a varna would often act accordingly and marry amongst others within that varna. However, Kshatriyas were often excluded from such nuances.

So how did the form of casteism that we find today develop? Traditionally, it is related in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.18.32-50): “Once upon a time [about 5000 years ago] Maharaja Pariksit, while engaged in hunting in the forest with bow and arrows, became extremely fatigued, hungry and thirsty while following the stags. While searching for a reservoir of water, he entered the hermitage of the well-known Shamika Rishi and saw the sage sitting silently with eyes closed. The muni’s sense organs, breath, mind and intelligence were all restrained from material activities, and he was situated in a trance apart from the three [wakefulness, dream, and unconsciousness], having achieved a transcendental position qualitatively equal with the Supreme Absolute.

“The sage, in meditation, was covered by the skin of a stag, and long, compressed hair was scattered all over him. The King, whose palate was dry from thirst, asked him for water. The King, not received by any formal welcome by means of being offered a seat, place, water and sweet addresses, considered himself neglected, and so thinking in this way, he became angry. The King’s anger and envy, directed toward the Brahmana sage, were unprecedented, being that circumstances had made him hungry and thirsty.

“While leaving, the King, being so insulted, picked up a lifeless snake with his bow and angrily placed it on the shoulder of the sage. Then he returned to his palace. Upon returning, he began to contemplate and argue within himself whether the sage had actually been in meditation, with senses concentrated and eyes closed, or whether he had just been feigning trance just to avoid receiving a lower Kshatriya [meaning someone lower in varna or caste].

“The sage had a son, Shringi, who was very powerful, being a Brahmana’s son. While he was playing with inexperienced boys, he heard of his father’s distress, which was caused by the King. Then and there the boy spoke as follows: ‘O just look at the sins of the rulers who, like crows and watchdogs at the door, perpetrate sins against their masters, contrary to the principles governing servants. The descendants of the kingly orders are definitely designated as watchdogs, and they must keep themselves at the door. On what grounds can dogs enter the house and claim to dine with the master on the same plate? After the departure of Sri Krishna, the Personality of Godhead and supreme ruler of everyone, these upstarts have flourished, our protector being gone. Therefore, I myself shall take up this matter and punish them. Just witness my power.’

“The son of the rishi, his eyes red-hot with anger, touched the water of the river Kaushika while speaking to his playmates and discharged the following thunderbolt of words and cursed the King: ‘On the seventh day from today a snake-bird will bite the most wretched one of that dynasty [Maharaja Pariksit] because of his having broken the laws of etiquette by insulting my father.’

“Thereafter, when the boy returned to the hermitage, he saw a snake on his father’s shoulder, and out of his grief he cried very loudly. The rishi, born in the family of Angira Muni, gradually opened his eyes hearing his son crying, and saw the dead snake around his neck. He threw the dead snake away [thinking nothing of it] and asked his son why he was crying, whether anyone had done him any harm. On hearing this, the son explained to him what had happened.

“The father heard from his son that the King had been cursed, although he should never have been condemned, for he was the best amongst all human beings. The rishi did not congratulate his son, but, on the contrary, began to repent, saying: ‘Alas! What a great sinful act was performed by my son. He has awarded heavy punishment for an insignificant offense. O my boy, your intelligence is immature, and therefore you have no knowledge that the king, who is the best amongst human beings, is as good as the Personality of Godhead. He is never to be placed on an equal footing with common men. The citizens of the state live in prosperity, being protected by his unsurpassable prowess.

“My dear boy, the Lord, who carries the wheel of a chariot, is represented by the monarchical regime, and when this regime is abolished the whole world becomes filled with thieves, who then at once vanquish the unprotected subjects like scattered lambs. Due to the termination of the monarchical regimes, and the plundering of the people’s wealth by rogues and thieves, there will be great social disruptions. People will be killed and injured, and animals and women will be stolen. And for all these sins, we [the Brahmana class] shall be responsible.

“At that time the people in general will fall systematically from the path of a progressive civilization [the Vedic culture] in respect to the qualitative engagements of the castes and the orders of society and the Vedic instructions. Thus, they will be more attracted to economic development for sense gratification, and as a result there will be an unwanted population on the level of dogs and monkeys.”

This was an arrangement by the Lord, or providence if you will, so that Maharaja Pariksit would depart from home and prepare to leave his body. However, Shringi, the powerful yet immature Brahmana boy, came under the lower influences of Kali-yuga, such as pride and envy, which a Brahmana is never meant to feel. It was through this incident that the degrading age of Kali-yuga was waiting for to spoil the Vedic cultural heritage of the four orders or varnas of life. It was this incident which was the first time, through an unqualified Brahmana boy, that the higher castes felt dislike or hatred for the lower castes. Thus, the first victim of Brahminical injustice was Maharaja Pariksit.

By the influence of Kali-yuga, the son of a Brahmana, under the influence of his young playmates, became proud of the power he had and wrongly compared a qualified king to crows and watchdogs. Thus, the downfall of the Brahminical powers started as the Brahmanas began to give more importance to birthright than to culture. In this way, the protection that was provided by the King against the onslaught of Kali-yuga became slackened, and, thereafter, all of the other castes or varnas, all the people in general, began to neglect their duties and lose qualifications. Thus, the Vedic culture started to decline. And because of this, people of the lower varnas also began to be envious of the higher varnas, and then disunity, disrespect, and friction slowly increased through the years amongst the castes.

The boy’s father realized all this and explained that now, because of the stupid and sinful act of his son, all of society would begin to move in a behavior contrary to the spiritually progressive way of life.

In this way, through time, society began to deviate from the Vedic standards. The perverted nature of the modern caste system started to creep into the genuine Vedic system of varnashrama, even from the time of Jamadagni and Parashurama many hundreds of years ago. As the Brahmanas became more self-interested, a struggle began between them and the Kshatriyas. The Brahmanas made birth in a Brahmana’s family as the qualification for being one. Thus, one’s varna was determined by birth, which stifled people in the lower varnas. The varna system, which was absent from the Vedic literature, was included and explained only in the Dharmasastras and smriti literature, such as the Manu-samhita.

In this way, the varnashrama system degenerated in India, and all the classes gradually began to neglect their duties. Testing the abilities, tendencies, and talents of the children to determine their natural interests and character disappeared. Birth became the major factor in determining varna or caste. The Brahmanas in particular became self-centered and protective of their superiority, forgetting their duties and losing their qualities. Sacrifice, religious study, and austerity gradually became absent in the traits of many of the Brahmanas. The people in the other varnas also lost their good characteristics. Chivalry, leadership, and forbearance were no longer to be found to such a high degree in the Kshatriya spirit. As leaders, they no longer kept the welfare of the people in focus. Vaishyas lost their charity and honesty in business and became greedy and avaricious. The laborer class, the Shudras, no longer wanted to be servants, but desired that others serve them. They wanted to have position and control, without knowing what is best to do with it, and not being qualified to guide or lead people properly, and, thus, misdirecting the world. In this way, society has become disheveled and out of balance and harmony, and does not follow in accord with Dharma.

Some of the Kshatriyas rebelled and formed or joined Buddhism, which did without all varnas or castes. The Vaishyas also used Jainism. Together, Buddhism and Jainism tried to bring the end of Brahmanism. The result was actually a deterioration of the Vedic culture in general.

As society in India started to decay after distancing itself from the true Vedic system, and because of disunity and friction, it weakened to the point wherein it allowed the low-born or mleccha kings from outside India to come in and conquer and control it. This brought even further decline to the Vedic culture. Later, it was during the British reign in which the modern caste system became more widely practiced and ingrained in Hinduism. By now the caste system was completely different and separate from the Vedic system of Varnashrama. The British encouraged the practice of casteism to increase the divisions between people, thus making it easier for the British to rule over them. A disunited society will hardly have the force, cooperation, or strength to defend itself from intruders. So the British fueled casteism and kept it more ingrained in society for their own interests. In this way, it was many years before the British could be removed. In fact, the British justified their presence with promises of helping keep the peace between the growing divisions in the Indian social structure. In any case, well after the British left, the divisions and the focus on ethnic classifications that had increased during their reign have remained.

So, the British used the untouchable classes as a means for their own political purpose, and an instrument in their divide and rule policy for dividing the Hindu majority. This amplified the divisions of the caste system and made them more solid in the people’s identification with the castes. This had negative and regressive affects on the Indian society that have not gone away. However, in 1936, the Indian government made it even worse by outlining the Scheduled Castes among the untouchables and labeled a list of such classifications. The various castes would be regarded with separate status for assembly and seats of parliament, along with special benefits for education and employment. This became adopted into the Indian Constitution which has made it a practice that has endured to date, with special laws making the labeling of untouchability an offense. The Untouchability Act of 1955 provides the list of penalties for any such offense. Now, there are numerous and separate divisions amongst the Scheduled Castes to the point where it will never cease to exist, at least in a general way, especially in the villages. The cities are becoming somewhat more homogenized due to necessity of occupational fulfillment and education as opposed to merely growing out of such traditions.

As far as “untouchablitiy” goes, it was never mentioned in any Vedic literature. This was never a part of the Vedic system, but merely a more modern invention. There is no justification for it. The earliest mention of it seems to be in the Chinese traveler Fa Hsien’s account of his journey in the 4th century CE. It also seems that this became a name for those who were not amongst the basic four varnas, and were thus without a caste or varna. They were called Panchama in some regions, which merely means the fifth varna. Later, in 1933, Gandhi gave them the name of Harijan, or “people of God”, which was accepted by many members of the Panchama class. The 1931 census used the term of “Scheduled Castes” as the proper name for identifying the Panchama class. In 1970, the term “Dalit” came to be used, which is a Marathi word based in Sanskrit which means “broken or ground down,” usually meaning one who is oppressed. This term has slowly gained usage across India.

Though Indian society has always been progressive to varying degrees, this idea of assigning a varna, caste or class of activity to someone merely by one’s birth parents has been the major failure of individual and social development in modern Hindu society.

Today’s Caste System

As casteism continues, it furthers the fragmentation of Indian society. In fact, you could say that it has practically killed Vedic society and has brought about the numerous divisions and social quarrels that we now find in India. Even amongst the Hindus alone, there has been fighting along caste, ethnic, and sectarian lines for hundreds of years. This is one of the main reasons why the country has been weakened to such a degree that they could not properly defend themselves in a unified way from the genocide under the Muslim invasions, and now modern fundamentalism. This sort of fragmentation also forced Indians to endure two centuries of British persecutions.

Casteism today does not help society advance spiritually. In fact, it helps promote emphasis on bodily and social distinctions, contempt, and disapproval among the people of different classes and ethnic groups. For this reason, we still see today that when the Shudras and Dalits feel like they are disliked by fellow Hindus, they become Muslims, Christians, or Buddhists in the attempt to find greater acceptance and avoid class differences. The result of this has been social disharmony. Otherwise, there would have been no need for parts of India to be divided to create Bangladesh and Pakistan, which have since become nothing more than mortal enemies of India. Have any lessons been learned? Apparently not. Ethnic intolerance is on the rise in many parts of India.

Even today you can find such divisions that a Brahmana from one state does not trust a Brahmana from a different part of India. For example, the Nambudris of Kerala look down on any other Brahmanas. Even among other groups, a Jat boy from the Punjab will not marry a Jat girl from Uttar Pradesh. And a Patel from Kutch will look at a Patel from Ahmedabad as foreign. Thus, the problem of caste and ethnicity is making a society that fights like cats and dogs. In reality, casteism is killing Indian culture.

Overriding the evils of caste system

Social revolutionaries who wanted to change the caste system have been around for a long time. Gandhi was a notable figure in this. However, before him was Ramanujacharya. He crusaded against the concept of untouchability. In Melkote, Karanataka, he threw open the doors to the temple and let everyone in, regardless of classification. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also ignored the restrictions that were established by the caste system. He associated and ate with anyone who was a sincere devotee of the Lord, considering one’s intention and consciousness as being more important than the mere social classification of one’s body.

So what can be done to change this form of casteism? We can go back to the Vedic system of studying the natural tendencies of the child in its early stage of education. Then observe the child’s association, activities and intellectual interests to begin to determine his or her real varna or direction in occupation. Then, as in any western country, as the child grows, begin testing, counseling and steering it in the proper course of education to determine if the right category has been given. Then allow that person to develop him or herself to the fullest possibility without restrictions of some forced caste placed on the person. It does not even have to be called varnashrama. But the process can merely direct a person according to his or her qualities and characteristics to find more fulfillment and potential in life, and, thus, more happiness. This is only the basics of what varnashrama was and is meant to do. Other things that can be done that can help do away with the modern form of casteism include the following:

1. ENFORCING THE EXISTING LAWS. There have been laws passed against the practice of untouchability and discrimination toward those considered to be of lower caste, some of which have already been enacted. India’s Constitution has a specific Article forbidding untouchability (Article 17), along with Article 25(2b) to throw open Hindu religious institutions to all sections of Hindus, and Article 15 (4) to permit the state to make special provisions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. However, this has only made the caste system more ingrained in society, making it more difficult to fix or do away with. It also has a host of other Articles in Part III to ensure Right to Equality. After all, India is a democracy with freedom for anyone regardless of race, religion or sex. And under a democracy, everyone should follow the same set of laws–a uniform code for all Indians. However, these laws need to be monitored in a way to make sure that they are implemented to see to it that this caste prejudice is not only outlawed, but stopped. After all, India still receives much criticism for this from the global community.

Is this possible? Yes, it is. Nepal, on August 16, 2001, recently made the announcement that they would put such laws into practice against the discrimination of lower-caste Hindus and the centuries-old idea that certain people are untouchable, which would become punishable by a severe sentence.

2. FREEDOM TO ENTER ALL HINDU TEMPLES. All people, no matter whether they are Dalits, other low-caste Hindus, or people like Westerners who have converted to Hinduism, should have the means and freedom which enable them to enter all Hindu temples and participate in the Vedic process of spiritual development. This again is merely a practice that expands and protects the rights of those who are already privileged, without showing the concern for others. It is another example of how the upper-castes suppress those of lower status. It is another example of how it is causing the disintegration of the noble standards that were once found in the traditional Vedic culture.

The point is that if everyone can equally participate in the worship and traditions that you find in the Vedic temples, which is indeed possible in most temples in India, it helps preserve, protect, and promote Sanatana-dharma, the Vedic traditions. And everyone has a right to follow and participate. This is what must be upheld. Then people will not feel inclined to convert to another religion, and will remain within their own customs. Otherwise, if such things as restrictions to enter temples continue, it only helps provide a prescription for a slow extinction of the Vedic culture.

3. STOP ALL BONDED LABOR. Furthermore, the practice of bonded labor should be not only outlawed, but with stiff fines and penalties for those who still utilize it. Bonded labor is the practice of using poor villagers for cheap labor, often giving them low wages and shambles for dwellings. Then giving them loans with interest that are supposed to be paid off in exchange for labor. If the loans are not paid off, then the person’s children must also work for years in order to try to pay off the loans of their fathers or grandfathers. This can go on for generations. It is essentially financial slavery. You see bonded labor in places like textile shops, large farms, and in the carpet and silk factories, which are known to be the prominent places that use child labor. It is not only time for the government to get involved to make sure that this practice comes to an end once and for all, and see to it that all financial obligations are nullified, but make sure that all who continue this practice are penalized severely enough. It is another example of how the rich and privileged suppress and control the lower classes.

In the real system of varnashrama, everyone’s position can be respected since everyone is seen as servants of the Lord in whatever capacity they serve. The people are appreciated for what they do. Workers and laborers were never to be treated harshly, or given hellish conditions in which to live or work. They were to be treated kindly and fairly.

4. PROTECT ALL VILLAGE CHILDREN. Another thing that must be stopped in this connection is the practice of bribing or purchasing tribal or poor village girls with the promise of good jobs and then taking them to places like Mumbai where they are sold and forced into prostitution. Many of the girls in Mumbai are not there by choice, but because they were kidnapped and then beaten, starved, or tortured into submission. This goes on not only for the profit, but because of the corruption in the local governments and police departments that allow it to continue. There is no reason why the government and police cannot stop this if they really wanted. There are laws against this but no one implements them. They could easily close the houses of prostitution overnight and free these girls, except for the bribes and the corruption that allows the Indian mafia to take advantage of these young girls.

This ruins the lives of many young girls and their families, helps spread HIV-AIDS throughout India, and is another point for which India receives much criticism, while the international community watches. Therefore, heavy punishment should be administered to anyone for such kidnapping or bribery, and the madams who run the houses of prostitution should be sent to long terms of prison. All politicians or police commissioners who do not carry out the laws to stop this, or who accept bribes to look the other way, should also be relieved of their position or jailed for long periods of time. This would have immediate effects.

5. STOP THE DOWRY SYSTEM. The concept of dowry should also be abolished, not merely by the laws that have been established, but by enforcement with stiff fines when it is found to have taken place. Dowry was originally a way of helping the newly married couple get off to a good start financially, and to help protect the bride if something should happen to the husband. Now it has become a perverted system in which it is the bride’s parents who must fork over a large dowry to the agreement of the groom and his family. If the dowry is not large enough, there is either no marriage, or the bride is treated terribly later on. This system helps divide the classes and puts the financial burden on the bride’s family to have their daughter get married. It is especially difficult when the bride’s family is poor, or has a number of daughters that need to get married. It also turns the marriage into a business arrangement between families rather than a sacred institution between husband and wife. It is also a big factor in the abuse of women and bride burnings in India. This system is another reason for the increased rate of infanticide and abortions when it is discovered that a woman is pregnant with a girl. The present-day system of dowry is now mostly a materialistic and shameful arrangement.

6. PROMOTE GENUINE SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. Ultimately, as with all social problems, the most important action to take in order to change society is to provide the means for continued spiritual development. That is why it is important that spiritual organizations work to fulfill the above-mentioned points, and also provide the means for the upliftment of people’s consciousness through spiritual education and practice, so that people can seriously change their view of their fellow human beings. That is why temples need to be open to everyone. We all need to realize our transcendental identities, and that we are all spiritual beings, not the temporary bodies in which we reside. As spiritual beings, we are all the same. On that level, there needs to be no special treatment of one over another. Materially, there may be so many differences, but these are all temporary and only within the material vision. By recognizing this, it can help us get back to practicing the real and genuine version of casteism, which is the Vedic system of varnashrama.

My own spiritual master put it bluntly, he said that if all you see is who is a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, or Shudra, then your vision is no better than that of a dog. A dog also recognizes distinctions, such who is its friend, enemy, or source of food. Our vision should be much higher than that if we are to consider ourselves human beings.

Narmada is a unique river. As the story goes, it is supposed that the Ganga comes to Narmada once a year in the form of a coal black cow, takes a dip in the Narmada River and returns as a white cow-absolved of all the sins, as they dissolve in Narmada. Well Ganga cannot sin but yes the contemporary society has certainly left no stone unturned to make it black!

Narmada, a River that even purifies the Ganga as per the mythology is an East-West flowing river. It is the largest west flowing river in the Peninsular India. Yet another unique feature of the Narmada is that it is the only river in the country that occupies a rift valley between the Vindhayn ranges on the north and Satpura ranges on the south. It flows through Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Rising from a small tank called Narmada Kund in Amarkantak hill in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh.

Narmada River

Rising from the Satpura ranges in Shahdol district of Eastern Madhya Pradesh it cuts across the hills of Shahdol, Mandla, Durg, Balaghat and Seoni in Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth largest river in India. From a narrow marble gorge near Dhuandhar falls in Jabalpur to a broad expanse of 1.5 km near Bharuch in Gujarat, Narmada is a mighty river.

Gorge on Narmada RiverThe Narmada flows through a rift valley. These are formed due to complex natural processes leading to subsidence and uplift of the Earth’s surfaces. Starting some 250 million years ago large tracts of land in mainland Gujarat went through tectonic movements leading to formation of the rift valley presently occupied by the Narmada. The landscape in the area occupied by the Narmada in Gujarat has undergone several phases of subsidence and uplift since it was first carved out. This area is still seismically active and it has experienced some of the worst earthquakes in the pre-history, history and even during the recent times. In the past five thousand years the area has seen major upheavals. Whenever such movements which reshape the landscape occur there are readjustments of slopes and rivers either start brining more material or they change course.

The western part of the country has been a seat of tectonic activity. The course of Narmada is defined by the Son-Narmada Fault (NSF) which divides the Indian land mass in to southern peninsular block and a northern foreland block.

In the contemporary world we are much concerned about the climate change and its consequences. However, the scenario in the western part of India around 1.75 million years must have been really quite tense, because the northern foreland block of the Indian plate was under going a continuous subsidence. This must have compelled all the water to flow towards the depression that was formed. More water means more influx of sediments. Thus a thicker pile of sediments was deposited north of NSF in these 1.75 million years. The southern block on the other hand was subsiding at different rates in different parts. As a result of which the older (65 million year old) rocks had to undergo lots of stress, which is preserved even today. The twisted rocks tell a gory tale of the events they were witness to. Fortunately we were not around else there may have been spates of Copenhagen like meets!

The tectonic activity was not continuous, it took place in spurts. Thus around 85 million years ago the area witnessed uplifts again and again. Such movements within the earth brought to fore raised basalt ridges, and past river banks; there were rapid changes in the thickness of alluvium deposited and at times 1.75 million old sediments were deeply incised-developed deep chasms.

Even now the area is not very quiet, though it might appear so to a lay person. Sediments deposited in the past five thousand years show a tilting which is more pronounced in the vicinity of the NSF well above the present day tidal limits.

A river either erodes the existing surface or deposits sediments over the surface. Recent studies in some sectors of lower Narmada valley have brought to light many interesting facts. Two erosional and three depositional surfaces have been identified by Rachna Raj and M.G. Yadav of M.S. University, Baroda, Vadodara, India and Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India. They report deposition by rivers in the Madhumati, Amravati and Kaveri river basins-all tributaries of the Narmada in Gujarat. Clays from these deposits have given ages of around 1950 to 1280 years before present.

Narmada basin has some peculiarities, normally not found in other river basins. It is tectonically active, it is dominated by southwest monsoon which often leads to storms and floods and above all the basin is earthquake prone. Historic records of earthquakes talk of quakes 500 years old. Beyond that there is no record of earthquakes. Out of these only the earthquakes which occurred during the past 200 years have been scientifically recorded and interpreted.

Archeologists have evidence to prove that Harappan cities were abandoned due to earthquakes. Also it was probably an earthquake that occurred in AD 0 at Dwarka which causes widespread liquefaction. The last catastrophic earthquake which wiped out thousands in Gujarat in 2001, caused liquefaction leading to collapse of several multistoried buildings in Ahmedabad. Such widespread earthquakes caused by plate movements within the surface of the earth cause devastation in other forms too. For example a sudden lowering of surfaces can draw more water from the higher reaches and lead to massive floods. Especially if the higher reaches also get additionally affected by heavy rainfall.

Some fine silt deposited in the lower reaches of the Narmada River hint at the possibilities of large floods around 1900 to 690 years before present. This also indicates formation of giant cesspools of water in the post flood period, in which the fine silt got deposited.

The areas where such silt is deposited are within the depositional regime of smaller tributaries of the Lower Narmada, i.e. Amravati, Kaveri and Madhumati Rivers. These rivers have small catchments and low water mass during large floods today. But the types of past deposits left by them speak something different. Small insignificant tributaries of an old river having deposits of old silt in the manner these rivers have show that the basement was undergoing a turmoil while the surface was undergoing heavy rains and floods. The first turmoil took place some 8000 years ago, followed by another some 5000 years ago and then a third one around 1200 years ago. Probably these all were devastating earthquakes.

Narmada has been shackled with Sardar Sarovar Project. A river is like a lady, she can be bound by the dams or bunds to satisfy our needs. But the day she acquires the character of a ‘Devi’ (A Goddess) she can do anything. Well this was just to emphasize the might of the River. Fact remains that the River bed is on the same surface which has been unstable in the past. One shudders to think ‘if it shakes again’! We do need power projects, we do need water to irrigate our fields and quench our thirst, but do we need such gigantic projects as we have constructed on the Narmada-on a river which is flowing through a Rift Valley?

It might be of interest to readers to know that the Narmada has been a cradle of human civilization too. Fossil skeletal remains though scanty of oldest human ancestor have been reported from a locality Hathnora on the banks of Narmada in Hoshangabad district bear testimony to this. Since there are more evidences available so far of human evolution and migration from Africa, the Narmada valley is still not considered a seat of humanity, but may be some day in the posterity more evidences come forth to prove this hunch! It is quite likely that the evidences available in the past have been wiped away by the floods that have marooned the area from time to time! Only time will tell.

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Religion is on the altar of British courts once again. A female employee of British Airways, Nadia Eweida, was grounded in 2006 for wearing a cross — considered a Christian religious symbol — for work. The employment tribunal ignored her pleas that she was a victim of religious discrimination. But in 2007 BA changed its policy to allow some religious symbols, like the Muslim hijab and the Sikh kara. Now the employee is back in courts again, seeking damages for the tribunal ruling.

The case has sparked off another row on the issue of discrimination on grounds of religion at work places. Prominent lawyer Shami Chakrabarti who heads the human rights group Liberty — and is backing the employee — says one should always have the right to wear religious symbols, as long as they do not cause harm or stop one doing one’s job.

Arraigned against her are the liberals who argue that Britain is sinking into a “religious litigation culture”, as Guardian columnist puts it. This is not a case about freedom of religion but religious discrimination under the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations, 2003.The distinction being made is that the employee is not saying that wearing a cross is an article of faith for all Christians. Rather, she is saying that she was treated unfavourably.

They mean to say that the distinction is between the freedom to wear a religious symbol, like the cross necklace in this case, and the freedom to wear any necklace. While employers do consider cases where wearing strictly religious symbols is necessary, they should be able to ban wearing articles which religion does not require, for the sake of practicality, safety and equality at work.

They argue that Eweida has the right to file a case of discrimination on grounds of religion given the fact that BA changed its policy in 2007. Of course, even here the case stands only if it is proved that Christianity requires all faithful to wear the cross symbol. But to fight for the cause of freedom to wear anything to work is to question an employer’s rationale for banning certain articles in the work place. This amounts to unnecessary litigation in the name of religion, which it is not.

Debt threat

England’s leading football club Manchester United is in dire straits. The premier league championship is not going their way, with five losses putting them behind Chelsea. Now, the Man U fans are up in arms protesting the mishandling of the club’s finances by their current American owners, the Glazers.

The issue came to a head recently when it was revealed that the club’s overall debt had crossed the £700 million-mark and the owners announced plans for a £500 million bond issue to refinance the debt secured on the club. Man U’s profits, which had nosedived to a loss of £42.7 million last year, rose to £6.4 million this year. But the fact is the clubs losses this year would have crossed the £60 million-mark but for the fact that Man U received £80 million for the sale of striker Christiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid last July.

Adding fuel to the fire, it has now emerged that the club’s owners had taken £10 million out of the club in “management and administration fees” and had personally borrowed a further £10 million in the last one year.

Man U fans feel the club’s financial situation cannot improve until the club is in the hands of its current owners. They had protested heavily when the Glazers bought over the club in 2005. They have now threatened protests to keep the owners out of the club, including asking for the resignation of club manager Sir Alex Ferguson. They are also planning a 10-minute boycott of the Champions League clash against AC Milan on March 10 in an attempt to raise global awareness of their bid to force the Glazer family out of the club.

Meanwhile, the Man U management has asked its players not to maintain personal profiles on social networking websites.

Future jobs

Business, Innovation and Skills Minister Lord Mandelson wants to encourage the study of sciences among British school-goers. So he asked his department to make a list of careers available for them in the future. Some of the jobs of the future are really awesome!

The report says among the most popular professions in 2030 will be body-part maker, which is about using stem cell technology and prosthetics to create replacements for damaged, diseased and worn-out body parts.

The list includes memory augmentation surgeons, who will boost the brain’s storage capacity, and space architects, who will design accommodation on the Moon and perhaps elsewhere in outer space.

Space tourism is a fetching profession in the future, with space pilots, space tour guides and space architects expected to be highly popular jobs. With climate a big issue, climate change reversal specialists, weather modification police — who check scientific measures such as triggering rainfall — and science ethicists, will be in demand.

Other top professions include memory augmentation surgery, virtual law and nano-medicine, vertical farming, narrow-casting, and even waste data handling to stop people being tracked by cyber-criminals.

Eastern roots

Even as Britain questions Tony Blair’s rationale to wage a war against Iraq, new research reveals most Britons are direct descendants of farmers who left modern day Iraq and Syria 10,000 years ago.

Researchers at Leicester University studied the DNA of more than 2,000 men — the common genetic mutation on the Y chromosome, the DNA that is passed down from fathers to sons — to conclude that four out of five white Europeans have roots in the ‘Near East’.

They found that 80 per cent of European men shared the same Y chromosome mutation and after analysing how the mutation was distributed across Europe, were able to retrace how Europe was colonised around 8,000 BC.

European farming began around 9,000 BC in the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean coast to the Persian Gulf and which includes modern day Iraq, Syria, Israel and southeast Turkey. Until now, researchers were skeptical about the arguments of archaeologists that some of these early farmers travelled around the world, settling new lands and bringing farming skills with them.

But the new study, whose findings are published in the science journal PLoS Biology, suggests the farmers regularly moved west when their villages became too crowded, eventually reaching Britain and Ireland. The migrants brought their new skills with them, taught locals how to farm and even produced offspring though relationships with the local women, the researchers believe.

The Shanti Stupa at Indraprastha Park has become the pride of Delhi. It is a hub of communal harmony. Above all, Buddha’s teachings have found a place in the Capital. Sheena Sharma tells you more

The mission of world peace is not possible to be accomplished through any country other then India, so are the expectations of my Guru from your country,” says Katsu Horiuchi, a Buddhist nun of Japanese origin and a direct disciple of Fujji Guruji. And for this very mission, a Vishwa Shanti Stupa has been established in Delhi in Indraprastha Park. The stupa was established with the same motive of world peace by Nipponzan Myohoji Fujji Guruji Shanti Stupa society in association with Delhi Development Authority in the Capital.

The stupa is first of its kind to be established in Delhi post Independence. The stupa represents the most sacred shrine in Buddhism’s two millennium-plus old traditions, which actually originated from India’s rich spiritual civilisation. The stupa is one of the most ancient icons of Buddhist art and is said to be a symbol of enlightenment. These are the oldest form of Buddhist architecture. In the stupa, pieces of sacred images, mantras and relics of holy beings can be seen.

Late Nichidastu Fujji, the great legendary Buddhist master from Japan was the first person to come out with the idea of building a Shanti Stupa in New Delhi. For his outstanding efforts for world peace, he received the Nehru award for international understanding from the Government of India in 1979. Mahatma Gandhi once very affectionately called Fujji Guruji to India in 1904 to bring Buddhism back to India. It was his very first visit to India.

Immediately after he reached India, he started his journey to the sacred sites of Buddha. He cried in sorrow when he saw the deserted sites and met people who knew nothing about history of those places. He carried all the disappointment about these sites to the Wardha Ashram where he met Mahatma Gandhi. In his Wardha diary, he described his meeting with Gandhi, who kept spinning the charkha with a smile while Fujji Guruji spoke in tears but could not communicate with him because of the knowledge of no common language.

Awed by Guruji’s selfless devotion to India, Mahatma Gandhi allowed him and his disciples to stay at Wardha ashram.

After Independence, the leaders of free India, with whom Fujji guruji had been associated since their freedom struggle, whole heartedly welcomed the revival of Buddhism in India as an integral part of new nation-building. Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister took the initiative to restore Rajgir (one of the sites from the history of Buddhism) the ancient capital of Magadha. With that Fujji Guruji completed the first Vishwa Shanti Stupa on the hilltop of Ratnagiri. Thereafter, in association with the Indian leadership, Fujji Guruji and his followers constructed series of Shanti Stupas in Bhubaneswar (1972), Ladakh (1991), Darjeeling (1992), Wardha (1993) and Vaishali (1996).

The Vishwa Shanti Stupa in Delhi was established and inaugurated on November 14, 2007 by his holiness Dalai Lama accompanied by the then President of India, Dr Sarvapalli Radha Krishnan and LK Advani. The opening and presentation ceremony was presided over by the Governors of New Delhi, Haryana and Orissa. The ceremony was attended by foreign delegates from China, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Germany etc.

This stupa is 28 metres high and the construction style of it was inspired by Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh. If we consider the number of Stupa in the whole world, this would be 74th in number. This, like all the other Stupa, is also dedicated to the message of peace and ahimsa (non-violence) spread by Nichidastu Fujji.

The Shanti Stupa at Delhi is built with white marble. The entrance resembles the Sanchi Stupa but the difference in the two is that the gate of Sanchi Stupa is made up of stone while the gate of the one in Delhi is made of concrete. The original height of the Stupa in Delhi was decided to be 35 metres, which was later scaled down. The cost of building it was Rs 2 crore.

The Delhi Development Authority has further plans to create a Japanese style garden around it to give the stupa a Japanese ambience. “This place is so divine that if creatures other than humans stay and eat here, they will be given the birth of a human in his next life,” says Katsu, pointing towards a dog sitting in the clean and hygienic garden surrounding the Stupa.

“Duniya bhar ka khazana aapke desh mein hai. (The world’s riches are there in your country). We want you people to share it with the whole world,” she says.

“I came to see India, I got to know about various temples in Delhi and so about this Stupa. For me it is a spiritual place and I come here to worship,” says an Afghanistan tourist who visited the Stupa in Delhi.

Women in Peace Politics | Edited by: Paula Banerjee | Publisher: Sage | Price: Rs 450

Women in Peace Politics deals with the myriad dimensions of peace as practised by South Asian women. Sumit Narula explains how this volume chronicles the lives of ordinary women, their transformative role in peace, as well as their effort to create a space for themselves.

Women in Peace Studies explores the role of women as agents and visionaries of peace in South Asia. Peace is redefined to include in its fold the attempt by women to be a part of the peace process, reworking the structural inequalities faced by them and their struggle against all forms of oppression.

Peace has become a maximal concept, refusing a minimalist version, that stops with the all-encompassing idea of security. This was never so apparent than in present times when draconian laws and outright aggression are being projected as the pathways to peace.

The first volume of the South Asian Peace Studies introduced the concept, scope and themes of peace studies. The second volume dealt with peace accords in this region. The third volume narrates the experiences of women in conflict and peace. It also deals with the myriad dimensions of peace as practised by South Asian women over a period of time. It chronicles the lives of ‘ordinary’ women – their transformative role in peace and their attempt to create a space of their own. Their peace activism is examined in the historical context of their participation in national liberation movements since the early 20th century. The articles in the collection adopt a new approach to understanding peace as a desire to end repression that cuts across caste, class, race and gender and an effort on the part of women to transform their position in society.

The book’s premise is that women are important actors in peace politics. Now, before addressing the question of why the focus on women in peace politics, one has to make an attempt to define what is peace. Peace has long been a problem and a puzzle. It is neither sensational nor heroic enough to command its own genre of history.

Women’s engagements with peace started centuries ago, perhaps simultaneously with their engagements in war. We have heard of Lysistrata in Aristophanes’ Greek drama. The known history of women’s activism in peace movements is a more recent phenomenon. From the early 20th century, the cause of women and the cause of peace have been seen as inseparable. Jane Addams helped convene a group of women at The Hague to deliberate on how to create institutions that would serve as an alternative to war.

There are three sections in this volume: Ideas and Ideologies, Movements, and Voices, reflecting the three genres through which women’s peace politics in South Asia are often played out.

In Ideologies, it becomes clear that desire for peace is not restricted to women from any particular ideology and as a strategy it is constantly evolving. The next section portrays how movements, or rather practices, create peace politics. The third section underscores the idea that to understand women in peace politics, one has to listen to women’s voices.

Logicomix | Author: Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H Papadimitriou | Publisher: Bloomsbury | Price: Rs 999

This graphic novel depicts the search for truth with the help of mathematics and logic by the 20th century genius,Lord Bertrand Russell. Don’t miss the read, recommend Prafull Goradia and KR Phanda

Logicomix is an extraordinary experiment of a graphic novel with Lord Bertrand Russell, a most outstanding intellect of the 20th century, as its hero. It is the work of four Greek people of proven talent, two in Mathematics and two cartoon and animation artists. Employing graphics to portray such a tall intellectual must have been difficult enough. To then lucidly tell the story of his epic search for truth with the help of mathematics and logic is indeed commendable.

Across the 347 pages of the book, the moral of the story of Russell’s search is told with the help of some 1400 colour cartoons drawn across 332 pages. The volume has been printed in Italy on art paper to bring out the colours as well as to hold the interest of the youthful reader. Russell is known to have generally written in a layman’s language but the subjects he tackled were the most complex. The Greek artists have succeeded in portraying his struggle in simple, interesting cartoons, almost like in children’s comic books.

Anyone interested in trying to understand life, its reality and its meaning for human beings should read this extraordinary work on Bertrand Russell. The novel or the story, neither a biography nor history, begins with a university lecture in the US. The second World War had just begun and the American audience was apprehensive of Russell pleading for US help and involvement in the fighting in Europe. They were surprised when he declared that war was a most irrational phenomenon. He had consistently been anti-war. He was one of the few Britons who had supported Chamberlain and Daladier, premiers of Britain and France, in September 1939 when they let Adolf Hitler gobble up Sudetanland, the western district of Czechoslovakia. This proxy surrender was hailed by these premiers as “peace in our time.” Within 10 months the world conflagration was inaugurated with the invasion of Poland by Hitler and Josef Stalin. In 1940, took place the defeat of France by German tanks and the Battle of Britain by Nazi bombers. Yet Russell, the British mathematician-cum-logician-cum-philosopher, stuck to his anti-war platform of assumed rationality.

To the dismay of Russell, since the advent of Hitler, violence had begun to escalate, whether against the Jews in Germany or the recapture of the Rhineland in the face of Anglo-French anger or the take over of Sudetanland first and then the rest of Czechoslovakia, followed by the Anschluss or the inclusion of Austria in Germany. Then, as we have said above, began the actual war. In the course of the early years of the war, Russell was arrested and had to stay in prison. He had repeatedly made statements against the war which to the British government sounded unpatriotic and anti-national. It was with the progress of the war that Russell realised the alternative to war would be the hand over of Europe to the barbaric heels of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. His mind continued to battle between the search for truth and the reality of war which was not rational. In the end, the great logician had to admit that there was no royal road to truth. To quote Russell: “If even in Logic and Mathematics, the paragons of certainty, we cannot have perfect assurances of Reason, then even less can this be achieved in the messy business of human affairs — either private or public.”

What a disappointment this was to Russell who had placed so much faith in truth and reason. An illustration of his value for truth was the famous Russell’s Paradox which pulled the carpet from under mathematician Gottlok Frege’s landmark work called ‘Foundations of Arithmetic’. Frege’s reaction after he remembered the Paradox, was to put an addendum to the book. It reads in his own words: “Hardly anything more unfortunate can befall a scientific writer, than to have one of the foundations of his edifice shaken after the work is finished. I was placed in this position by a letter of Mr Bertrand Russell, just when the printing of this volume was nearing its completion.

The collapse of one of my laws, to which Mr Russell’s paradox leads, seems to undermine not only the foundations of my Arithmetic but the only possible foundations of Arithmetic as such.”

On seeing the addendum, Bertrand Russell commented, “There cannot be greater intellectual courage than this: to put the Truth above all else.”

From the beginning, the great philosopher’s was a quest for the foundation of mathematics. But studying the subject he had hoped to penetrate the essence of truth. Mathematics to him was he queen of sciences and Euclid had taught him to abhor contradiction. Geometry had showed him the way towards reality and Reason was the royal road to truth. To Russell, religion was a house on sand and was sinking; he had become an atheist despite his grandmother’s efforts to inculcate in him some faith in God. Inspite of his genius, the great man lost his way; for example, the World War proved inevitable despite being utterly irrational. Could it be that he might not have lost his way had he also studied eastern, especially Hindu philosophy? He had written a very successful book called The History of Western Philosophy but he appeared to have made no mention of eastern philosophy which has relied more on inductive logic whereas the West placed its reliance on deductive logic. The ultimate and absolute premise of the Semetic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — was that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The religions flow from this great premise set out at the beginning of the Old Testament. In Russell’s own words, used in another context, “If the premise is weak, so is all the rest.”

In the West, logic has been called the study of methodical thinking, deduction and demonstration. The father of logic, Aristotle’s classic Organon has discussed the study of deductive patterns called syllogisms which were synonymous with logical thinking. In simple terms, deductive logic argues from the premise above to conclusions and corollaries below; and rejects any contradictions on its path. For example, if the logician has seen only red roses, he would not accept roses of other colours as roses. To him, the pink, white or yellow are either other flowers or weeds. To the Hindu, all the colours would be possible roses. A Bengali might have seen only white roses, a Punjabi only pink ones, a Maharastrian only yellow and the Andhrite only red roses. Each would insist that he has seen only one colour. But instead of rejecting the other colours, he would say grant the other’s their respective experiences. That’s inductive logic which argues from data at the bottom to the conclusion above.

Had Bertrand Russell given some space to Hindu philosophy, his search for truth might have been more fruitful. Without data, the Hindu tradition does not assert. Contrast the Semetic assertion of the world’s birth with the Hindu view anaadi anant or there is no beginning, no end. Or the Hindu concept of God, tatatram asi or the atma or the soul and parmatma or total soul (God) are the same. Nevertheless, don’t miss reading Logicomix if you are interested in the pursuit of truth !

On a bike ride to Bhutan, Sankar Sridhar finds warmth everywhere, from the hot ema datse to the friendly locals, besides breathtaking views

We were heroes until seconds ago: Adventurers from India brave enough to guide their 99 cc bike all the way to Bhutan. The duo that nursed sore limbs and bottoms made sensitive from friction with the seat during the 800 km journey from Kolkata, but were gung-ho about hazarding the remaining 850 km through the switchbacks of this mountainous kingdom.

The news spread rapidly through the border town of Phuentsholing that Sunday morning and we drew appreciative nods and gasps of awe from the crowd that had gathered. We had been through a lot in the past two days, we told our newfound fans — almost crushed under the wheels of a bus, almost locked up for photographing a bridge, almost taking the wrong route at the fork of a road on a moonless night and almost giving up out of sheer exhaustion. Nothing could stop us now.

The “now” had however turned “then” a moment ago. Now, as the waiter places the ema datse on the table, we realise that we have ordered our deepest, darkest fear. This terror could make us turn back because if the waiter was to be believed it would make its way to our table each day at lunch and dinner. For, ema datse is the king of the Bhutanese kitchen, a dish that’s as hot as its name is cool. It’s a main course in which chillies — red, yellow and green — are the main, nay, only ingredient, if you discount the coating of cheese that hides the fiery vegetable. It makes the eyes water, burns its way to the stomach and stages an equally excruciating exit the next day. It’s an experience that makes you want to run away faster than your poor nose.

And run we would have; run the gauntlet of maniacal bus drivers, drunk truck drivers and cratered roads all the way back through the districts of Jalpaiguri, Malda, North Dinajpur, Darjeeling and back home where chillies are still considered a spice. But the enigma of the last surviving Himalayan kingdom made us decide otherwise. So after requesting the waiter to give us some sugar and lots of tissue we kick-started our bike and headed to Thimphu, the capital, 130 km away.

At 20 kmph, it was 20 minutes before Phuentsholing dropped away behind the fold of a hill. We would not be heading this way again unless officials at Thimphu refused to give us the restricted area permit required to proceed beyond and exit through Samdrup Jhonkar where Bhutan shares its border with India’s northeastern state of Assam.

Being denied a permit is a very real possibility because His Highness King Jigme Singye Wangchuk expressly detests hippies and backpackers. One reason might be because Bhutan has one of the world’s largest wild marijuana crop. To keep visitors in check, they are asked to make all bookings — hotels, vehicles, guides — before they enter his kingdom. We had none of that having dropped in without notice, on a whim and a seven-year-old bike.

That story in a nutshell goes like this. I had quit my job and my brother won a month-long leave. So we planned a bike trip to the Northeast. The bike served us well on the 605 km journey from Kolkata and, with time on our hands, we decided to cross countries instead of states. The road did the rest and we found ourselves at Phuentsholing.

It was easy to get ourselves a permit to Thimphu even though it was a Sunday, given the interest and curiosity our appearance at Phuentsholing had generated. And being Indians gave us the rare privilege of entering by just showing our voter ID cards as proof of our nationality. But at the capital, the officer told us as we headed out, it could well be a “different story.”

On roads that could make a dervish’s head spin, we made only 65 km till Chimakothi, the only human settlement on the way to Thimphu, before deciding not to tempt rotten luck in the dying light.

Without budget tourists, hotels are rare and cheap hotels unheard of. Thankfully, people were warm and hospitable and opened their doors to us, in part because we requested them to, but mostly because they considered us a novelty. And to show how much they appreciated the adventurous streak in us they treated us to ema datse and rice. Pork, and beef too, are consumed with great relish, to our great relief. We were told that pigs are fed copious quantities of marijuana to keep them happy and because they grow big and fat and their meat fetches a better price. This we understood made their owners happy. And since the meat tastes better, the people who eat it, which I take to be the whole of Bhutan, are happy. We tried pork over ema datse that night and were happy. It all made sense, I thought as we headed to bed, for this kingdom to measure its wealth in “gross national happiness.”

We woke up stiff and brittle the next morning but stretched swiftly when we realised we had to reach Thimphu early; after paying the house owner Rs 100 we set out on our way.

After Chimakothi, Thimphu seemed state-of-the-art with neatly stacked multi-storeyed houses — each painted with murals and adorned with decorative woodwork, by order of the king — broad streets, prim policemen guiding traffic on the solitary road that loops twice around the capital and a mini-market with two cybercafés. The capital also boasts the only cinema hall in the kingdom and keeping with the theme of gross national happiness was screening Norbu, My Favourite Yak.

Adding to this magical experience is another diktat, passed in 1989, that makes it compulsory for all citizens to wear the national dress in public. So men wear a gho and women wear a kira. We took in the sights and sounds while locating the immigration office and once there placed our application. “No guide?” the officer asked. “No bookings? Then, no permit.”

But then, after hearing about our travels and realising that we did not look like people who were here to make trouble, she signed the necessary papers.

There are many things wild and wonderful about riding through Bhutan: Streams thunder down steep hills, cicadas screech all day, autumn explodes in a riot of colour, painted phalluses on walls of houses keep demons at bay, gods are appeased with beer and Maggi and Dzongs loom protectively over villages and farmland. We saw them all on our way to Samdrup Jhonkar, packed into the 850 km that took us through eight of the 20 districts in Bhutan. It’s an experience we won’t forget in a hurry. We rolled and rested, negotiating roads more twisted than many minds, passing below the imposing Wangdi Dzong and over the Punakha Chu and Tang Chu (chu is river) to Wangdi Phodrang, the last “town” in Central Bhutan. Then we sipped on Suja at a hotel reeking of rum and betel nut and got lucky and found ourselves a host for the night.

The deeper we went into this nation the more overwhelmed we were. That floating phallus, ornate, colourful and “ready,” was one such sight that greeted us at a hotel in Trongsa. The phallus belonged to a monk, Drupka Kinley, who some time in the 15th century subdued many an errant demon by striking them on their heads with his penis. So scared were the demons that even a mural of the phallus scares them nowadays. As we moved further east, the symbol gained prominence. Walls, flags and even looming large on the wall of a hotel room in Trashigang, though given the message scrawled by the artist, it seemed to have nothing to do with saints or demons.

The vistas, the winding roads and an average elevation of 11,000 ft were a potent trance-inducing cocktail. But human habitation, or the lack of it, remained Bhutan’s most striking aspect. Not for nothing is Bhutan the only under-populated country in Asia. The kingdom is a massive swathe of forest. Towns are just a handful of houses hugging the solitary road.

But where there were people, there was a surprising acceptance of us. On each of the five nights we spent in a local resident’s house, the treatment was the same: warm water to wash our faces, warm quilts to sleep in, warm food to eat and the warmth of camaraderie. And its pristine, magical manner — and with really low petrol prices — Bhutan almost seemed an anomaly to our world. Even at 30 kmph, we seemed to be rushing through, for time in these highlands seemed in step with life itself — slow, sluggish and above all happy.

At Bumthang we learnt the secret to happiness at a curio shop. Garuda, the eagle of Indian mythology, who stares down from above the main entrance of houses and dzongs in Bhutan, shreds all forms of evil that try to enter. The cost of eternal happiness was 1,800 ngultrum. “It would have been 3,000 if you were non-Indians,” the shopkeeper told us. You could put it down to good salesmanship, but it broke our hearts to think that way. This was, after all, the holiest site in Bhutan where the sage Guru Padmasambhava meditated before taking on the daunting task of converting the pagan lot that were the Bhutanese to the Buddhists they are today.

We bought the souvenir. Call it superstition, but our journey from then on was a dream. The days were sunny, shepherds invited us to share lunch, and we even managed the dekko of a monastery and chatted with monks. How else could our bike have sprinted up the toughest of inclines without complaint, up to Dochu-la, Pele-la and the many other passes, on the way to Mongar?

But Garuda’s powers seemed on the wane at Mongar, far from the Buddhist heartland where the king’s word was law. The populace here seemed more comfortable in jeans and jackets. Hindi was the chosen tongue and friendliness, free-flowing for so long, in slightly short supply. But we were still welcomed well and for the first time put up at a hotel. Warm water would cost us, the owner said, and so would extra quilts. Switch on the TV and it would set us back by an extra Rs 100.

We paid Rs 200 instead, not for two TVs but to give our backs and seats the additional cushioning they so craved for. A 99 cc motorbike is not exactly the ideal mode of transport in these winding roads on which, many a time our mount needed a helping hand on inclines it fell 251 cc short. Worse still, it transferred some of its suffering and shock from potholes on to our bodies. And suffice to say, the roads, like the people, seemed rather unfriendly from the approach to Mongar.

Even the landscape here seemed different. On the 180-km journey to Samdrup Jhonkar, forests were replaced by ill-kept patches of road and eight km from India, at the last army outpost on the Bhutan side, came the ultimate downer.

As the Amy men checked our bags and Garuda popped in view, we heard the word “smuggler” being thrown around. The commander entered, asked for the receipt. We didn’t have any but remembered the name of the shop. A phone call later, we were free to go. But not before apologies were tendered and we are asked to have some tea. “Come again,” the commander told us. “Once democracy asserts itself, we too will have only a gross national product to show.” The point is driven home. “We will,” we promised. And it’s a promise we intend to keep.

– Copyright: Exotica, the wellness and lifestyle magazine from The Pioneer Group, available in all rooms of select five-star hotel chains across the country

Kestur Vasuki writes about the slow transition that Belgaum has made into the modern world, keeping the lessons and memories of the past intact

You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change — this quote by famous motivational speaker Les Brown fits perfectly when one notices how present has quietly stepped in to join hands with the past in Belgaum. And resulted in this south Indian city becoming a major hub in the region after State capital of Bangalore. In fact, it is interesting to note how heritage and modernity have become the key words in the growth of this city, situated in the northwestern parts of Karnataka and on the border of two States: Maharashtra and Goa. It is one of the oldest towns in the State, at a distance of 502 km from Bangalore; 515 km from Hyderabad and 500 km from Mumbai.

The geographical location adds up to the city’s advantage since it is situated right in between Bangalore and Mumbai-Pune to support the major automotive and aerospace companies in the region. The changing face of Belgaum has been recognised by many and it has been developing as a link town between Bangalore and Mumbai. Though the links between these two metros have changed, Belgaum has managed to keep its date with history.

In fact, history has helped this conservative town turn into a cosmopolitan city, in tune with the changing world. Belgaum, today is not only an industrial hub but a big trading centre after Bangalore. Not only this, it is an important location for vegetable trading, fish, wood and mining resource trading in Karnataka.

Belgaum has an enviable heritage and much more needs to be discovered. It lies in the zone of cultural transition between Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa with a known antiquity that can be traced up to 2nd century AD. Due to its proximity with these States, Belgaum has acquired their cultural flavour and blended it with the local Kannada culture to create its own unique rich heritage. It is also known as Malenadu or Rain Country and the vegetation here is verdant throughout the year.

Belgaum is also now developing as a Tier II city in software and hardware development, augmenting the need of the growing graduates with a number of educational institutions imparting quality education. Nestled high in the Western Ghats, it is one of the most prominent historical places in the country. The old town area with cotton and silk weavers stands gloriously besides the modern and bustling British Cantonment area.

“Belgaum is the perfect example of change which is taking place at a rapid pace. A major reason for this is its close proximity from the IT city of Bangalore and the fashion city of Mumbai, also the hub of economic activities. The diversity and change has added to the cultural menu of Belgaum as a significant city in Karnataka,” explains Professor DS Poornanda of the Department of Journalism and Communication, Kuvempu University.

The name Belgaum originated from Velugrama or Ikhsugrama. The earliest mention of this fact is made in the Nesari Plates of 805 AD. The archaeological inscriptions in the Vadgaon-Madhavapura area reveal a prosperous town of the Satavahana times.

History tells us Belgaum was built in the 12th century AD by the Ratta dynasty who were based at nearby Saundatti. The fort of Belgaum was built in 1204 by a Ratta officer named Bichiraja. It served as the capital of the dynasty between 1210 and 1250, before the Rattas were defeated by the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri. Belgaum then briefly came under the sway of the Yadavas of Devagiri. The Khiljis of Delhi invaded the region at the turn of the 1300s and succeeded in ruining both the indigenous powers of the region, the Yadava and the Hoysalas without providing a viable administration. This lacuna was supplied by the Vijayanagara empire, which had become the established power of the area by 1336.

A century later, the town had become a bustling trading hub for diamonds and wood, owing to its favourable geographic location in the kingdom. In 1474, the Bahmani Sultanate, then ruling from Bidar, captured the fort of Belgaum. Shortly afterward, in 1518, the Bahamani sultanate splintered into five small states, and Belgaum became part of the Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur. The Adilshahis reinforced the fort of Belgaum, much of the existing structure dates from 1519.

In 1686, the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb overthrew the Bijapur sultanate, and Belgaum passed nominally to the Mughals. However, the Mughal empire went into decline after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, and his principal detractors, the Maratha confederacy, took control of the area during the rule of the Peshwas. In 1776, the country was overrun by Hyder Ali of Mysore, but was retaken by the Peshwa with British assistance. In 1818, the British deposed the last Peshwa and annexed his kingdom, which included Belgaum.

It is the only district in Karnataka which was fully part of the Freedom Struggle. In 1857, when the Indo-Gangetic plain was convulsed by the flames of a sepoy-led rebellion against colonial rule, its heat were witnessed in Belgaum. A Muslim Wahabi and munshi in the army were discovered instigating sepoys in Belgaum in August 1857; five of them were executed by the British and four others imprisoned for life. Mahipalsingh was deputed by Raja Venkatappa Nayaka of Shorapur (Gulbarga district) to instigate sepoys in the native infantry in Belgaum. Though he succeeded in persuading a considerable number of soldiers to revolt, his plot was discovered and he was arrested and hanged. Bhaskar Rao alias Babasaheb of Nargund planned a revolt and attacked a British contingent but was caught in Torgal and later hanged in Belgaum. His samadhi is located at the Military Dairy.

Rich deposits of bauxite that were found in Belgaum district have led to the creation of Hindalco, the famous company for the production of aluminium. Additionally, uranium deposits have recently been found in Deshnur, a small village near Belgaum. Beginning early 1970s, the city began developing as an important centre for the manufacture of heavy machine tools including high pressure oil hydraulics. Not this alone, it also is a strong industrial hub for machine shops catering to automotive manufacturing, especially crank-shaft machining.

Another significant change can be noticed when one visits Jaffer Wadi, just 3 km away. The self-sufficient village dreams of becoming part of second green revolution in the country. Villagers here grow a local variety of paddy called ‘Indrayani’ which has a unique flavour. This variety of rice which is grown abundantly is also called the ‘local Basmati’. This yield would shortly be patented and added to the flavour of Belgaum.

The city houses the Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre (MLIRC). It also houses the Commando Training Wing which is a part of the Infantry School, where the country’s infantry commandos are trained in endurance, escape and evasion, guerrilla and commando warfare techniques.

The city served as a major military installation for the British Raj too, primarily due to its proximity to Goa which was then a Portuguese territory. Once the British left India, the Indian Government continued and still continues to have Armed forces installations in Belgaum. In 1961, the Indian Government, under Prime Minister Nehru used forces from Belgaum to end Portuguese rule in Goa.

Like Francis Bacon said any journey “teaches life” and Belgaum does that. It teaches you the past and shows you the slow transition it has made into the modern world and has kept the lessons and memories of the past intact. It is a journey to this wonderful land that traverses and teaches past and the present.

Chandan Mitra

India has always defied Shakespeare’s famous observation in Julius Caesar: “The good that men do are oft interred with their bones.” Here, cultural norms dictate silence about a dead person’s faults, no matter how glaring, while his achievements are showered with fulsome praise, even if concocted and mythical. It was not surprising therefore to be subjected to a barrage of purple prose extolling the virtues of Red baron Jyoti Basu — ranging from his contribution to the Communist movement, to success in hanging on as Chief Minister of West Bengal for 23 uninterrupted years and, finally, his allegedly Spartan lifestyle. Much of what was said by way of tribute to the 95-year-old Communist patriarch consisted of large doses of hyperbole and retrospective imagination.

Jyoti Basu was an astute politician who skillfully crafted an image of being an upright but aloof, unsmiling man, intimidating rather than loving, stern and determined. In reality, he made no spectacular contribution to ideology or governance. His critics rightly point to his deliberate hands-off policy with regard to the party-backed trade union movement which brought industry and commerce to its knees during the ’80s and ’90s, drove talent and capital out of Bengal in multitudes and virtually laid to waste what was one of India’s foremost States before CPI(M)’s untrammeled (and ongoing) reign of 33 years began in 1977.

As he looked on with benign indulgence, his party created a frightening stranglehold on Government officials through the dreaded Coordination Committee. Against all laws, the Committee became almost a closed shop which forced everybody except all-India service officials to join. So much so that even today, salaries at the West Bengal Government headquarters at Writers’ Building are disbursed in cash: The Coordination Committee stonewalled incumbent Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s move to pay the staff by bank transfer. The reason is not far to seek. On pay day, Committee apparatchiks move from table to table in the head office of babudom to immediately collect its monthly “levy”. None dare refuse. This organisation systematically spawned a non-work ethic whereby files that should get routed in one day take at least one week. Recently, it threatened an indefinite strike against the proposal to introduce a biometric system to enforce timely office attendance. The Government bowed again to its blackmail.

Finally, Spartan is an adjective that ill-adorns Basu’s bhadralok persona: He had suits tailored in the global capital of men’s fashion, Bond Street in London, and to his credit was not hypocritical about his fondness for Scotch. A cultured offspring of a distinguished family from erstwhile East Bengal, he studied law at Inner Temple but barely practiced, preferring instead to internalise tenets of Marxism-Leninism at the feet of 1930s Marxist ideologue Rajani Palme Dutt whose seminal work India Today is still regarded as the Indian Communists’ Bible. Impatient with theoretical propositions, Jyoti Basu was a devoted pragmatist, but unlike, say, Deng Xiaoping, could never lead his party and remained only its acceptable middle-class face.

However, this critique still begs the question as to what was it that enabled him to become India’s longest-serving Chief Minister (Gegong Apang of Arunachal Pradesh has since beaten his record) and die such a widely venerated man? What, indeed, was the secret of Jyoti Basu’s charisma? This is probably one of the biggest mysteries of post-Independence Indian politics. Basu was no public speaker of repute. His speeches were staccato, devoid of both depth and humour, consisting primarily of banalities, which surprisingly, were lapped up by adoring crowds.

I distinctly remember his address at a huge CPM rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Grounds in 1984 when a shell-shocked nation was trying to come to grips with Indira Gandhi’s assassination and looking to her son for succour. “Ei je Rajiv Gandhi. Uni ekhaney eshechhen, bhashon dichhen chari dikey. Onar maa ke aami chintaam. Uni to Emergency lagiye amader jailey purey diyechhilen. Ore chhele ki kortey parbey? Oder bishshas korben na. (This fellow Rajiv Gandhi. He has come here and is making speeches everywhere. I used to know his mother. She imposed Emergency and put us behind bars. So, what can her son achieve? Don’t trust them)”. The crowds broke into spontaneous applause and cries of “Jyoti Basu Lal Salaam” rent the air. The rest of his long speech consisted of similar inane, simplistic comments. Anyone else would have tested a crowd’s patience with a string of statements like this. But such was his mass appeal that coming from Basu, even such trivial remarks evoked huge response.

He was also given to cutting but insensitive responses to media queries on many occasions. When the gruesome Bantala incident happened (a woman was dragged out of a vehicle and gangraped by CPM goons in a Kolkata suburb in full view of assembled people), he cursorily dismissed it by saying “E shob toh hoeyi thakey (Such things keep happening)”. There was hardly a murmur of protest against the Chief Minister’s shocking comment. Jyoti Basu was seen as above such mundane administrative or police lapses.

Thus the CPM got away with the Bijon Setu massacre of 17 Ananda Margis, burnt alive on a flyover in Kolkata, Barddhaman’s Sai Bari killings and a host of other grisly crimes. Each time, the police and administration, thoroughly infiltrated into by party cadre, looked the other way and even colluded with the murderers. At Marichjhampi, an island in the Ganga delta of Sundarbans, the police opened indiscriminate fire on hapless, tormented East Pakistan refugees, killing an unknown number of people, estimated by locals to run into hundreds. They had forcibly settled on the sparsely inhabited island after being tossed around among States that broke all promises made to them. An inactive and partially indoctrinated media virtually blacked out the horrifying tale of Bengal’s Gulag. Basu never believed he owed an explanation for anything.

Maybe it was his aloofness and stentorian attitude that helped weave a web of charisma around him. He was inaccessible to everyone — from party cadre to the media and even the “sarbohara” (proletariat) in whose name he ruled. Accountability was a word that didn’t exist in his dictionary although he was feted for being a moderate and firm believer in parliamentary democracy in contrast to hard-line party leaders like BT Ranadive who propagated armed insurrection as the road to power.

He was celebrated by Kolkata’s high society for being “People like us” (PLU), who talked no politics when he breezed into parties and interacted with self-serving, fawning industrial barons who were in complete awe of his personality. I recall that at a dinner hosted by La Martiniere for Boys’ to release a volume authored by me on the school’s sesqui-centennial in 1986, Basu walked in sporting his legendary rapid gait, became the cynosure instantly, happily heard praises lavished upon him by the city’s Who’s Who, barely spoke as he consumed two drinks and left the venue in the same brisk manner after just about 20 minutes. It was in his time that a clutch of Marwari land sharks grabbed prize property in and around Kolkata for real estate purposes and in exchange liberally funded a party that had once vowed to eliminate the bourgeoisie.

Probably another factor adding to Basu’s charisma was that he was the only man of consequence in a party with whom people could identify. Especially after organisation boss Pramod Dasgupta died, there was no other leader of any stature in the party or Government. Stalwarts like Harekrishna and Binoy Konar were too “rustic”, while the younger leaders were perceived as rowdy and uncouth. Till the early ’90s the CPM continued to spew venom against the affluent and this rhetoric unnerved the urban upper strata. Although Basu rarely lifted a finger to rectify the brazen wrongs committed by his party workers, the middle class continued to live in the illusion that he was one leader they could turn to for reassurance. And then there was fear. The CPM had erected a merciless mechanism whereby its Local Committee supplanted the police and administration. Even petty disputes required the Local Committee’s intervention and the message was loud —‘Come to us, not the police’.

On the back of Operation Barga, initiated during Basu’s first stint as Chief Minister (1977-82) — which merely entailed implementation of laws enacted by preceding Congress Governments — his party crafted a rigorous network in the countryside that was subsequently institutionalised through the Panchayati Raj mechanism. From the appointment of schoolteachers to contracts for rural road building and compensation for flood damage, every minute detail of rural governance was overseen by the party cadre. It is only in the ’90s that an opposition emerged for the first time in the shape of the fire-breathing Mamata Banerjee who has since successfully outflanked the CPM from the Left. As the CPM merrily went about demolishing the existing State apparatus, permitting policemen to form a trade union and reducing even the District Magistrate to a harried rubber-stamp, Jyoti Basu presided over this edifice unconcerned about continuing in office since elections were perfectly stage-managed starting with doctored voters’ lists. Cultivating a posture of being above it all, Basu was content to be CPM’s showpiece, cheerfully accepting accolades from all.

Over the years he also got mesmerised by the propaganda around him that created a personality cult. His friend and one-time Finance Minister of the State, Ashok Mitra, once described Basu as Bengal’s greatest contemporary leader, at par with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose! All such praise may have convinced Basu that he was the ideal man to be Prime Minister when a motley Opposition combine in Delhi offered it to him in the aftermath of PV Narasimha Rao’s defeat in the 1996 Lok Sabha poll. Basu never forgave party hardliners for scuttling his job. In a rare instance of defiance, he famously described the Politburo’s decision as a “historic blunder”. But given his disastrous track record as Chief Minister, his detractors are probably right in asserting that the bigger blunder would have been to install him at Race Course Road.

A short-tempered man, Basu never took criticism kindly. Once, as he passed by a lobby in Writers’ Building that had been refashioned into a Media waiting room, he was aghast to find a few hundred clerks enthusiastically watching the telecast of a cricket match. For once, the Chief Minister’s proverbial authority collapsed. “E shob ki hochchhey? Choloon nijer jaygay kiye kaaj koroon shokoley (What is going on? Come on, get back to your own places and start working)’, he sternly ordered. His very own staff, hand-reared by his own party into anti-work culture derisively chanted “Jaan-jaan moshai apni bari jaan” (You please carry on and go home) followed by “Jyoti Basu Murdabad” in response to his admonition. An aghast Basu quickly climbed down the stairs and exited, sparing himself further embarrassment. Next day all TV sets at Writers’ Building were removed and the Media Corner permanently sealed. Livid with the media’s new-found aggression in the ’90s, Basu frequently exhorted people to stop reading “bourgeois newspapers” (naming them with varied epithets), and subscribe to the party’s own daily Ganashakti instead. Although the cadre dutifully bought copies of the mouthpiece they continued to carefully read the spicier “bourgeois” alternatives, much to Basu’s eternal frustration.

In the final analysis, it must be admitted that Jyoti Basu remains an everlasting enigma. He was probably at the right place at the right time for Bengalis who were ready to clutch at straws to relive their dreams that progressively slid away through the ’60s and ’70s. Tired with sectarian violence, Naxalite depredations and Congress counter-terror, in cahoots with the police between 1972 and 1977, the average Bengali wanted respite. Above all they wanted peace, even if it was the peace of a graveyard. Jyoti Basu ensured Bengal got just that.

With more and more banks entering the domain of financing, and high-profile corporates’ unending quest for risk minimisation, this course is an ideal platform for professionals, says BIBEK BHATTARAI

With the revival in the industrial sector coupled with increasing role of private players and Government in the field of infrastructure building, Project Finance has come up as a good career option. With more and more banks entering into the domain of project finance and high-profile corporate’s unending quest for risk minimisation, this has perhaps provided an ideal platform to sustain relatively high job opportunities in this sector.

From refineries to electric-generating facilities and from hydro-electric projects to pipelines, project finance has galloped to be a perfect finance management technique that is shaping up as a new form of generating employment. The financing experts use funds for large-scale natural resource projects and give innovative analytical decisions. Most interestingly, project financing is consistently emerging as the most preferred alternative to conventional methods of financing infrastructure and other various large-scale projects.

What is project finance

It is a complete risk minimisation process and includes risk identification and analysis, risk allocation and complete risk management. At present, it has taken a concrete form of guaranteeing job amid economic slowdown. With risk being as one of the obstacles for growth and fluctuating revenues for corporate world beside Government pushing up infrastructure for bringing about a complete economic development, project finance seems to be one of the most coveted carrier option. It deals with a particular project, such as railway, pipeline, toll road, power station, mining, hospital or prison which is repaid from the cash-flow of that project.

Project finance is different from traditional forms of finance because the financier principally looks to the assets and revenue of the project in order to secure and service the loan.

Need for project financiers

Project financiers are required to understand the risk-returning character of limited recourse projects from multiple perspectives. They are also required to help in learning the developments and financing the infrastructure projects. This helps to analyse all kind of projects and to do the assessment before financing. Different banks and financial companies are on the hunt for such professionals who undertake due diligence before financing any projects big or small.

Areas of specialisation

Project financing as a discipline includes understanding the rationale for financing a project, prepare a financial plan, assess the risks, design the financing mix and raise funds. In addition to this, one must understand the cogent analyses of why some project financing plans have succeeded while others have failed. A knowledge-base is required for the design of contractual arrangements to support project financing; issues for the host Government legislative provisions, public/private infrastructure partnerships, public/private financing structures; credit requirements of lenders and how to determine the project’s borrowing capacity; how to prepare cash flow projections and use them to measure expected rates of return; tax and accounting considerations and analytical techniques to validate the project’s feasibility. A multidisciplinary team of finance specialists, economists, engineers and accountants are required to ensure a project achieving its objectives.

Job prospects

As a prime trait of finance and its management, project financiers are hired by the banks and the like sources. Risk minimisation being at the heart of project finance, funding for infrastructure projects is quite an intricate area and it comes up with specific challenges in creating the appropriate structure that manages risks effectively.

job prospects

• Financiers
• Sponsors
• Professional supporter
• Credit officer’s in bank
• Project finance managers
• Consultants
• Financial advisors

  Apart from these, project financiers play pivotal role in the Government institutions, defense establishments, resource planning, supply chain management and risk analytics.

  Eligibility criteria

  A university degree along with a certificate course in project finance is a must. A degree in Law, MBA or MSc in Finance would be better.

  Remuneration

  Project finance managers may earn anything from $60,000 to $100,000 annually on average where senior project managers earn yearly salaries ranging from $70,000 to $150,000.

  Where to study

• Indian Institute of Banking and Finance, Chennai
• Indian Institute of management, Calcutta
• Amity University, Noida
• Indian Institute of Banking and Finance, Mumbai.