Vol. 75
No 4
AUGUST 2011
Rs. 20 / month
THE RADICAL HUMANIST (Since April 1949)
Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)
497 Is Shame Necessary? —Jennifer Jacquet Is Islam Compatible With Socialism? —Asghar Ali Engineer The Effective Lok Pal not in sight & Latest Lokpal bill – vital changes still needed —Rajindar Sachar The way ahead for Anna is not easy —Mahipal Singh Saraswathi Gora: Her Life and Achievements —Dr. Vijayam A Tradition Restored —Dipavali Sen Founder Editor: M.N. Roy From the Editor’s Desk: Momentum of ideas or universal principles of thought? —Rekha Saraswat
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The Radical Humanist Vol. 75
Number 5 August 2011
Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance Institute Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life. Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat Contributory Editors: Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor Rama Kundu Publisher: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Printer: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph. 91-121-2620690, 09719333011, E-mail articles at: rheditor@gmail.com Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of ‘The Radical Humanist’to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number 111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, 110001, India n.vyas@snr.net.in Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600
Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability for corroborating the facts that they give in their write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor of this journal will be responsible for testing the validity and authenticity of statements & information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes some articles published in this journal may carry opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the need is felt to debate and discuss upon them. —Rekha Saraswat
AUGUST 2011 Download and read the journal at www.theradicalhumanist.com
- Contents 1. From the Editor’s Desk: Momentum of ideas or universal principles of thought? —Rekha Saraswat 1 2. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 2 3. Guests’ Section: Is Shame Necessary? —Jennifer Jacquet 6 Is Islam Compatible With Socialism? —Asghar Ali Engineer 12 4. Current Affairs: a)The Effective Lok Pal not in sight b) Latest Lokpal bill – vital changes still needed —Rajindar Sachar 14 5. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: a) On Private Corruption b) The Tibet Cause —Ajit Bhattacharyya 17, 40 Humanist movement in India (Andhra Pradesh) —N. Innaiah 18 The way ahead for Anna is not easy —Mahipal Singh 21 Saraswathi Gora: Her Life and Achievements —Dr. Vijayam 25 6. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section: Vastanvi’s Remarks: A Fusion Of Neo-Liberalism & Communal Politics —Manzoor Ali 27 7. Book Review Section: Impending Destruction of Environment: A Myth? —Subhankar Ray 29 A Tradition Restored —Dipavali Sen 31 8. Humanist News Section 35-41
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From the Editor’s Desk:
Momentum of ideas or universal principles of thought? a merry-go-round for some and at the Lifesameis time, rigmarole for others! The former are hopeful in every new turn they take; the latter are hopeless in every new event they face! But they both cling to some set of values which, in fact, help them define and decide whether their lives are delightful or abysmal. What are these set of values? They are ideologies in case of politics and customs in case of society. They use their reason to rationalize the ideologies and customs they propose or follow. At the same time, there are some disgruntled-souls who keep on pondering over the pre-formed directory of ideas and pre-set catalog of conventions. They question them, analyze them and weigh them in context of the contemporary world in which they exist. This is the reason why no single universal line of thought has emerged which can answer all varieties of curiosity in all parts of the world in all its phases. Those who assert to do so become obstacles in the growth and progress of this planet. Wars and all kinds of violent manifestations both within and without the national boundaries are the worst examples of such narcissistic claims. Ideas, if they do not grow, stultify the very process of growth of humanity. What better illustration can we quote than the present dilemma we are in? In politics ‘democracy’ is being given as many classifications as the statesmen and politicians who quote it. In society ‘honesty’ is being given as many definitions as the oracles and patrons who test it. When Anna demands honesty he is labeled as undemocratic. When civil societies demand democracy they are categorized as dishonest. Either Democracy has lost its elements or honesty has lost its need! Is Anna actually undemocratic or are civil societies really dishonest? Who is the first man to throw the stone on him or them who claims to be immaculately honest in his decisions and actions and impeccably democratic in his behaviour and applications? I am not, for sure!!
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What is the measure then of an honest democracy and a democratic honesty? We may put it this way…what is the hedonic calculus of ‘utility’ of both these terms? It is defined that ‘0’ on the hedonic scale might mean “very unpleasant”, and ‘10’ would mean “sheer ecstasy”. Whose unpleasantness do we evaluate? Whose ecstasy do we calculate? This quandary brings us to the basic element of measurement – ‘the man’, or I should rather say ‘the common man’ a term I am indicted of bringing up again and again, most unrealistically. The current population of India is around 1.21 billion. We may leave aside say, the 0.21 billion of the smug affluent ‘haves’ of our country who always view any situation through the myopic eyes of their vested interests what does the 1 billion public say? Is it ‘ecstatic’ in the present system of democratic conduct of our parliamentarians? Is it believing and reveling in the honest behaviour of our political and social leader? The recent referendum conducted in Kapil Sibbal’s constituency in the capital of our country declares a clear-cut ‘no’ because 85% of its people voted for the cleaning up of our democracies by keeping a constant vigil on the conducts of the people in power in Center and the States. They did not themselves know how to go about it. But they have found a ray of hope in the recent efforts made by Anna and other similar civil societies, and voted in favour of adopting the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill. But the million dollar question raised now is: are Anna and the civil societies themselves honest enough in their pursuit? Who raises the question? Surprisingly, all of us ‘thinking’ individuals from all walks of life are becoming apprehensive of their real motives!! Anna has to grow to be a Gandhi to convince us and the civil societies have to become the Vanar Sena of Ramayan to usher in a ‘Ram Rajya’. The dilemma knows no bound because we all have our feet of clay and those who come to the forefront disclose more of the grime upon them. Thus, do we now redefine the universally acclaimed faultless standards of ‘democracy’ and ‘honesty’? Or do we set up some new, relatively realistic and workable standards of political and social institutions? Any one’s guess!!
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From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: perpetuate the existing social structure rather than being reformist and that it benefits the upper classes. They perpetrate the illusions and are used for impressing the weaker sections of the society. Many taboos which might have had some beneficial effects are given a permanent sanction and these put a fetter on further progress. The argument that religion promotes social stability and social harmony is examined and rejected. Without the dubious benefit of religion various secular Laxman S. Joshi worldly values have been developed and they have benefited mankind more than the vaunted religious Spiritual Materialism – A case values. With no sops of religion men have laboured hard and the finest admirable qualities of men’s for Atheism Translated by —Arundhati Khandkar spirit have been developed inspite of religious influence – the scientists and the reformers are [The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for examples. The humility that should force itself in Atheism, A New Interpretation of the the presence of the infinite and the unknown is Philosophy of Materialism written by more to be seen with the scientist, the philosopher Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been than the religious leaders and often this drives them translated by his daughter, Arundhati to fathom the depths of thought in the quest for Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of truth. Rarely does religion explain the how and Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of why. These have become the preoccupations of Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades people in secular fields. With a sense of ago but his contribution in building up the self-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, man philosophical base of Radical Humanism has has dropped the earlier props of religion. In India been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time too, the social order was seen as embodying moral and the followers of the philosophy continue to do values.” so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her Contd. from the previous issue............ father’s major works from to Marathi to English for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH. Examination of Evidence for Soul as And to our pleasant surprise she informed that Independent of Body: piritual philosophers offer two kinds of there is already the above mentioned book in proofs for the proposition that the soul English done by her. It is being serialised in The Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has exists separately from the body, 1) a rational also promised to send us in English, gradually, evidence i.e. a logical evidence and 2) a verbal authority i.e. a dogma. Dogma includes both the more of his Marathi literature. Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title scriptures and the personal experiences of the Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How extraordinary individuals about the soul. In his to the commentary on meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70 introduction Bruhadaranyaka Upanishad, Adya Shankaracharya years later, can be understood by the following paragraph given on the cover page of the book. has made an important suggestion on this subject of validity of the logical proof for the existence of the —Rekha Saraswat] “That religion more often than not tends to separate soul. He says that the logical evidence
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purporting to prove the separate existence of the soul is very weak. Those philosophers such as the Naiyayikas and the others who wish to offer the proof of the soul have neither understood the weakness of the proof not the strength of the verbal authority. The verbal authority is the only ultimate irrefutable proof of the experience of the separate soul. Let us now begin the discussion of the important points as the logical evidence. We will proceed thereafter with the analysis of the extraordinary experiences. Awareness Continuum: Spiritual metaphysicians say that the experience, ‘I am the same from childhood to old age’ is an awareness of continuity, the Anuvrutti Pratyaya which is the reason for the inference, ‘I am separate from my body.’ Transformation of all the constituent substances of a body from childhood to old age, changes completely the whole body, but still preserves the awareness of the self. a very simple reply to this argument is that there exists a ceaseless process of substance regeneration or a kind of an objectcontinuum. This is the reason for such an awareness, ‘That one is the same as this one.’ We feel that this flame is the same one as the one before, even if it varies continuously. Even after a considerable change in the structure of an old building, we say, ‘This is the same old building.’ We also say similarly about the tree planted long long ago, ‘This is the same tree planted centuries ago.’ We believe that the individual identity of an object remains the same, even if the constituent elements frequently change, as long as the constituent reproduction and the structural plan remains intact. As a result, this ‘principle of individual identity’ which we apply to an inanimate object is also applicable to an animate object. Evidence for the existence of the soul separate from the body, however, cannot be drawn from such an ‘awareness continuum’. Synchrony in Sensorium: Spiritualist philosophers argue that each and every sense organ being different, receives different experiences. Let
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us consider the exchange of experiences between two organs such as the following. ‘I, the one who is perceiving an object with my own eyes, is the same eye who is touching it with my own hand.’ During this exchange of experiences between the eye and the hand, however, there appears to be some ‘I’, a separate self, who acts as an intermediary! One gets the right answer to this problem from looking at the central nervous system. No sense organ is totally independent of each other. On the contrary, they are all members of the same sensorium in which they are synchronised with each other. As a result of this synchrony, it is perceived that the one who is participating in all the various different experiences, is one and the same. Gautama Conjecture: Gautama, the ancient Indian philosopher, the author of the Nyayasutra, has offered an important evidence for proving the separate existence of the soul from the body. 26 Gautama’s reasoning is as follows: Each and every newborn child has natural likes and dislikes which are the product of many experiences of self. From the observation of likes and dislikes of a neonate it is proper to think that those must have been formed by experiences of life prior to the present birth. Gautam infers that 1) Desires of the former life appear as inherited likes and dislikes of a newly born child and 2) Man without inherent likes and dislikes is non existent. A proper explanation to the above theory constructed by Gautama from his maxim is available in modern genetics through the laws of heredity and physiology. We inherit the traits from the lineage of the parental family. The source of the family characteristics is only the physio-chemical substance DNA. As the chromosomal i.e. gene related research advances, further evidence is going to be available in support of what Gautama has thought. Inherent likes and dislikes of each and every individual are dependent upon the specific physiology and the environment of the individual physique. It is not entirely true that likes and
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dislikes are dependent upon the experiences of the initiations in the former lives. With changes in the external environment and the organic chemical compounds inhering in the body, likes and dislikes also undergo changes. This statement finds supporting evidence and favourable theories in Ayurveda, the ancient medical science of India and also in the modern physiology and pathology. Diseases do affect likes and dislikes. This is also the experience of an average person. It should be evident as of now, that the experiences of life in the previous birth or the prior birth initiations bear no relationship with the likes and the dislikes of the present life. Moral Rationale for Separate Soul: The issues discussed above are in the context of physical sciences. Indian philosophers also offer a moral proof for the existence of the independently existing soul. The premise is as follows: From very birth, some individuals inherit wealth, glory, and other good things, while some others are born in poverty and are caught in the vicious circle of misery. Their deeds in the previous birth are held responsible for their good or bad situation in this life. If this is not accepted, we will be forced to admit that they have achieved good livelihood without performing good deeds and conversely that they have obtained miserable livelihood even when they are not guilty of performing bad deeds. Moreover, we will also be required to state that there are many individuals in this world who follow the path of virtue all through life, and yet live and die a life of misery. If they do not have rebirth we will have to accept that they do not get what they deserve for their good deeds. It will prove that people do not enjoy the fruits of good, virtuous deeds or behaviour and if they do not have to suffer the consequences of bad deeds, it means good deeds are in vain and bad ones necessarily do not have ill fate. We may raise the question therefore why should an individual not behave unethically? If the principle of rebirth is accepted, the postulate of the independent soul proves itself and the rationale for the categorical pairs of virtue-vice, 4
good deed-bad deed, morality-immorality is established. 27 Indefensibility of Law of Karma: The moral argument for the independent soul cannot stand the test of logical critique. Morality is a social phenomenon and moral institution has a history. It is born out of social necessity, and human society itself has created the moral institution for maintaining order and regulating mutual relationships. To the extent society evolves, to that extent moral concepts develop and further mature. There is no need whatsoever, to associate morality or immorality with the imagined life before birth or after death. Without morality, all social life degenerates. Morality is neither the law of the universe, nor the law of the animal world. Morality is a man made law. Variable Moral Laws: There exist different moral laws in different social situations. According to the Hindu scriptures, the institution related to the servitude of untouchables is considered sacred. The institution of untouchability has been accorded in scriptures the supreme status from the moral point of view. According to the Smritis, the Hindu law, people who attempt to bar untouchability will pay for their sins and reside in hell after that. According to the Smritis, the violators of these caste laws have been condemned to lower stations of life after death. They end up in hell. Someone may say that there is no connection between such a downfall and the social customs will change with country and time frame. But, this is also not right since there is no evidence that truth, non-violence, and the other broad moral laws are in principle at least, perfect. Similarly, there is also no evidence other than the traditional blind faith, that these laws bear any relation with the journey to other worlds. There lie in each and every individual, concepts about the sacred and the profane corresponding to each and every social custom, on account of his being a social member. Drinking alcohol in certain communities is considered to be a necessary part of a religious ceremony. However, according to Hindu Brahmin legal code, imbibition of alcohol in
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any event is a great sin. In Manu Smriti killing a cow as sacred duty in the holy sacrificial pyre, the Yadnya is a sacred duty. Moral laws that alter with the change in social climate do not fit in the category of universal laws. Moral conduct is a social responsibility. Traditional initiations deepen this sense of responsibility in the psyche of an individual and transform it into his personal conscience. The cause of poverty and misery or of plenty and prosperity from birth, is not only not connected with the individual deed but is also bound with his placement in the economic and social system. According to Manusmriti 11.54: Murder of a Brahmin, imbibing of alcohol, theft, sex with teacher’s wife and any association whatsoever with these four are called the five great sins. Ideological Downfall of Mankind: There is no relationship whatsoever, between poverty or prosperity with the deeds of the previous birth. The upper caste people in power, have given importance to the doctrine of rebirth to justify and preserve their self interest and high status. The doctrine of karma or Karma Vipaka or the law of karma is being devised till date by the upper classes in order to incarcerate the powerless people of the lower classes in the state of misery and bondage. The same doctrine of karma enunciates the consequences of actions either in this or former birth. The doctrine of karma amounts to an invincible weapon developed for the purpose of keeping the majority of the poor people in society in lifelong misery for eternity. Because of their indoctrination, the deprived classes cannot comprehend at all the secular and the social nature of the causes of their state of misery. The theory of self, the doctrine of karma and of rebirth function in tandem. They together create self deception and misapprehension and assert that the state of misery of the lower class people is the result of mysterious forces. These theories indoctrinate them into believing that either entirely they themselves in
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their present birth or their own deeds in the previous birth are responsible for the creation of their present pathetic state. As a result, the very desire to resist the social organisation and the laws responsible for their downfall, cannot germinate in their psyche. The other worldly ideology and the fatalism in the disguise of the doctrine of karma have destroyed the motivation of fighting. The metaphysical ideology of the soul that sponsors faith in rebirth has caused the downfall of mankind. No other doctrine could have done it. this ideology has succeeded because it has destroyed the very discriminating human ability. It has affected gravely the ability to recognise harmful reality and life threatening situation. How can we call this system of thought which corrupts our wisdom, spiritualism? This ideology vitiates the very image of the soul as the avatar of knowledge. Morality is a social necessity. And man is a social animal. This reflection alone is fully capable of providing justification for morality. There is no need to invoke the doctrine of soul as being separate from the body, rebirth, merit and demerit, and God as the Lord of life. Faith in these beliefs do not reinforce the foundation of morality. On the contrary, when immorality takes the form of morality and tends to be harmful to humanity such tendencies shield harmful and suicidal situations. These concepts do not mitigate such situations, because they assign a permanent value to human customs which are otherwise changeable from country to country and from time to time. Any doctrine that parades transient as permanent is itself a colossal delusion. Freeing oneself from such a delusion is the true redemption, the moksha in the true sense of the term in this age. References: 27- i) Where is Science going, p.117 by Max Planck- Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit ii) Naasato vidyanay bhaavaha | Naa bhaavo vidyatay satah || (Bhagavata Geeta) 28- Dualists: Dwaitavadi, Vaishnava etc. in India.
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Guests’ Section:
Jennifer Jaquet
Is Shame Necessary? [Dr. Jennifer Jaquet graduated with a master’s degree in environmental economics from Cornell University in 2004 and earned a PhD in 2009 from the University of British Columbia, where she now holds a postdoctoral fellowship. As part of the Sea Around Us Project, a joint collaboration between the university and the Pew Charitable Trusts, she researches market-based conservation initiatives related to seafood and other natural resources. With colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and UBC’s Mathematics Department, she is currently conducting a series of games and experiments to study the effects of honor and shame on cooperation, which was the theme for her contribution to the 2010 Edge – Serpentine Gallery “Maps of the 21st Century” at the Royal Geographical Society in London. The article is taken from “Edge” online journal. Its URL is: http://edge.org/conversation.php?cid=is-sham e-necessary] Balancing group and self-interest has never been easy, yet human societies display a high level of cooperation. To attain that level, specialized traits had to evolve, including such emotions as shame. inancial executives received almost $20 billion in bonuses in 2008 amid a serious financial crisis and a $245 billion government
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bailout. In 2008, more than 3 million American homes went into foreclosure because of mortgage blunders those same executives helped facilitate. Citigroup proposed to buy a $50 million corporate jet in early 2009, shortly after receiving $45 billion in taxpayer funds. Days later, President Barack Obama took note in an Oval Office interview. About the jet, he said, “They should know better.” And the bonuses, he said, were “shameful.” What is shame’s purpose? Is shame still necessary? These are questions I’m asking myself. After all, it’s not just bankers we have to worry about. Most social dilemmas exhibit a similar tension between individual and group interests. Energy, food, and water shortages, climate disruption, declining fisheries, increasing resistance to antibiotics, the threat of nuclear warfare—all can be characterized as tragedies of the commons, in which the choices of individuals conflict with the greater good. Balancing group and self-interest has never been easy, yet human societies display a high level of cooperation. To attain that level, specialized traits had to evolve, including such emotions as shame.1 Shame is what is supposed to occur after an individual fails to cooperate with the group. Shame regulates social behavior and serves as a forewarning of punishment: conform or suffer the consequences. The earliest feelings of shame were likely over issues of waste management, greediness, and incompetence. Whereas guilt is evoked by an individual’s standards, shame is the result of group standards. Therefore, shame, unlike guilt, is felt only in the context of other people. The first hominids could keep track of cooperation and defection only by firsthand observation. Many animals use visual observations to decide whether to work with others. Reef fish in the Red Sea, for instance, watch wrasses clean other reef fish to determine whether or not they’re cooperative, as the biologist Redouan Bshary discovered. Bshary went scuba diving off Egypt’s coast to observe this symbiotic relationship. Bluestreak Cleaner wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus) eat parasites, along with
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dead or infected tissue, off reef fish in more than two thousand interactions a day, each of which can be considered an act of cooperation. Wrasses are tempted to eat more than just the parasites, but if the reef fish loses too much flesh in the deal, it will refuse to continue working with the wrasse. Reef fish approach wrasses that they see cooperating with their current clients and avoid the wrasses they see biting off more than they should.2 Like the Bluestreak Cleaner wrasses, humans are more cooperative when they sense they’re being watched. Researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne examined the effect of a pair of eyes on payments for tea and coffee to an honesty box. Alternating images of flowers and human faces were posted above the box in the university coffee room each week for ten weeks; researchers found that people paid nearly three times as much for their drinks in weeks during which they were exposed to the human gaze.3 The feeling of being watched enhances cooperation, and so does the ability to watch others. To try to know what others are doing is a fundamental part of being human. So is fitting in. The more collectivist the human society, the more important it is to conform and the more prominent the role of shame.4 Shame serves as a warning to adhere to group standards or be prepared for peer punishment. Many individualistic societies, however, have migrated away from peer punishment toward a third-party penal system, such as a hired police force, formal contracts, or trial by jury. Shame has become less relevant in societies where taking the law into one’s own hands is viewed as a breach of civility. Perhaps this is why it makes us uncomfortable to contemplate shaming people: shame invites the public in on the punishment. Consider the stocks, scab lists during union strikes, or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Or the proposal made by the prominent conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1986 to tattoo people with AIDS. These instances of shaming now seem an affront to
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individual liberty. Getting rid of shaming seems like a pretty good thing, especially in regulating individual behavior that does no harm to others. In eschewing public shaming, society has begun to rely more heavily on individual feelings of guilt to enhance cooperation. Guilt prevails in many social dilemmas, including one area of my own research: overfishing. At the root of the problem of overfishing is the human appetite. Wild-fish catches are declining, and many of us seek to avoid the guilt brought on by eating unsustainable seafood. Here are just a few recent headlines from major newspapers: “HOLY MACKEREL AND OTHER GUILT-FREE FISH” (The New York Times), “GUILT-FREE SUSHI” (The Christian Science Monitor), “COD AND CHIPS? MAKE IT POLLOCK IN GUILTFREE GUIDE TO SEAFOOD” (The Times of London), and “A GOOD APPETITE; SEAFOOD, EASY AND GUILT-FREE” (The New York Times). It is perhaps unsurprising that a set of tools has emerged to assuage this guilt and, in the case of seafood, reform the appetite.5 These tools aim to divert demand from one type of seafood toward another. Wallet cards, iPhone apps, and ecolabels tell consumers which fish ought to be and ought not to be eaten. Shoppers in Europe have been given rulers so that they can measure fish and avoid buying juveniles. Guilt abounds in many situations where conservation is an issue. Harried by guilt, one mother reuses her daughter’s bathwater for her own bath. Los Angeles shoppers refuse to buy blueberries imported from Chile because of the fuel consumed in shipping them. Another woman feels guilty about the natural habitat lost to cocoa cultivation and refuses to buy chocolate, prompting her husband to say that she took the joy out of his Almond Joy.6 Just as the devout purchased guilt-alleviating papal indulgences in the Middle Ages, guilt-ridden consumers today buy carbon offsets, LED lightbulbs, and hybrid cars and can be guided to something approaching sanctity by books
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such as The Virtuous Consumer, The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience, and The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green. The problem is that environmental guilt, though it may well lead to conspicuous ecoproducts, does not seem to elicit conspicuous results. One supermarket chain introduced signs at the fish counter to show the most and least sustainable seafood: sales of the green-tagged “best choice” fish increased an average of 29 percent per week, sales of yellow-tagged “proceed with caution” seafood declined an average of 27 percent per week, but the sales of the red-tagged “worst choice” seafood—i.e., the heavily overfished species—remained the same.7 Between 1980 and 2008, sales of pesticides increased by 36 percent in the state of California, the birthing ground of the organic food ecolabel.8 Despite sporadic instances of such measures as carpooling and the use of cloth grocery bags in lieu of plastic, the demand for oil in the United States has grown by 30 percent overall and 5 percent per capita since 1990.9 The positive effect of idealistic consumers does exist, but it is masked by the rising demand and numbers of other consumers. Guilt is a valuable emotion, but it is felt by individuals and therefore motivates only individuals. Another drawback is that guilt is triggered by an existing value within an individual. If the value does not exist, there is no guilt and hence no action (e.g., the sales of red-tagged “worst choice” seafood remained the same). What if the aim were to promote a value felt by the group but not necessarily by every individual in the group? Many problems, like most concerning the environment, are group problems. Perhaps to solve these problems we need a group emotion. Maybe we need shame. Shaming, as noted, is unwelcome in regulating personal conduct that doesn’t harm others. But what about shaming conduct that does harm others? The U.S. National Sex Offender Registry provides an online database with the names, photographs,
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and addresses of sex offenders in every state. In March 2010, Nebraska lawmakers approved a bill that allows the state to publish online the names and addresses of people owing more than $20,000 in taxes. Judges in various states issue shaming punishments, such as sentencing pickpockets and robbers to carry picket signs that announce their crimes to the public. These instances of shaming might deter bad behavior, but critics such as Martha Nussbaum, a political philosopher at the University of Chicago, argue that shaming by the state conflicts with the law’s obligation to protect citizens from insults to their dignity.10 What if government is not involved in the shaming? A neighborhood in Leicester, England, has a YouTube channel dedicated to neighborhood issues, including catching “litter louts.” A collection of videos shows individuals caught in various acts of littering, and if someone recognizes the litter lout, he or she can e-mail the lout’s identity to the neighborhood management board, which passes it on to the City Council so that fines can be issued and the video removed.11 In 2008, The Santa Fe Reporter published the names and addresses of the top ten water using households in the city (first place went to a home owner who used twenty-one times the household average). The tennis club near my apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia, publishes the names of people who don’t pay their dues. In each of these cases, the activity of the individual compromises the community. In none of them is the state involved in the shaming. Is this a fair use of shaming? Is it effective? Let’s deal with the latter question. Shaming might work to change behavior in these cases, but in a world of urgent, large-scale problems, changing individual behavior is insignificant. Small changes, adopted by one individual at a time, can make a difference in a problem only when the problem is small or there is lots of time to solve it (for instance, in marginalizing politically incorrect words). Many of today’s social movements, like the industries they seek to revolutionize, must make big changes 8
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quickly—which is best accomplished by directing efforts upward toward institutions. I call this vertical agitation. The Santa Fe Reporter listed the top ten commercial water users, in addition to the top ten households. The first of these offenders, the city of Santa Fe, used 195 times as much water as the number one household offender. Imagine the relative difference in getting the city to commit to water-saving techniques as compared to reforming a single household. Guilt cannot work at the institutional level, since it is evoked by individual scruples, which vary widely. But shame is not evoked by scruples alone; since it’s a public sentiment, it also affects reputation, which is important to an institution. At the 2004 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, leading CEOs issued a press release showing that corporate brand reputation outranked financial performance as the most important measure of success. For an example of how shame and reputation interact, consider restaurant hygiene cards, introduced in 1998 by Los Angeles County as a shaming technique in the interests of public health. Restaurants were required to display grade cards that corresponded to their most recent government hygiene inspection. The large grade in the window—A, B, or C—honors restaurants that value cleanliness most and shames those that value it least. The grade cards have apparently led to increased customer sensitivity to restaurant hygiene, a 20 percent decrease in countywide hospitalizations for food-borne illnesses, and better hygiene scores for county restaurants.12 Recall that in our early evolution we could gauge cooperation only firsthand. As group size got bigger and ancient humans grappled with issues of necessary cooperation, the human brain became better able to keep track of all the rules and all the people. The need to accommodate the increasing number of social connections and monitor one another could be, according to the social grooming hypothesis put forward by the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, why we learned to 9
speak.13 Then, five thousand years ago, there arose another tool: writing. Language, both oral and written, allowed for gossip, a vector of social information. Research carried out by Ralf Sommerfeld of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and his colleagues demonstrated that in cooperation games that allowed players to gossip about one another’s performance, positive gossip resulted in higher cooperation. Of even greater interest, gossip affected the players’ perceptions of others even when they had access to firsthand information.14 Human society today is so big that its dimensions have outgrown our brains. We have an increasing number of people and norms. What tool could help us gossip in a group this size? Nowadays we keep track of and distribute unprecedented amounts of information via our computers: for example, journalists, interest groups, and ordinary citizens can access the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory database online to identify and shame polluters. Between the database’s inception in 1988 and 1995, releases of 330 toxic chemicals on the list have declined by 45 percent.15 After the retailer Trader Joe’s was unresponsive to requests by the nonprofit group Greenpeace to stop selling unsustainable seafood, Greenpeace coordinated singing-fish telephone calls or demonstrations at every Trader Joe’s across the nation, using the Internet. The CEO of Trader Joe’s decided to comply with Greenpeace’s demands by dropping several overfished species and agreeing to sell only sustainable seafood by the end of 2012. We can use computers to simulate some of the intimacy of tribal life, but we need humans to evoke the shame that leads to cooperation. The emergence of new tools—language, writing, the Internet—cannot completely replace the eyes. Face-to-face interactions, such as those outside Trader Joe’s stores, are still the most impressive form of dissent.
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So what is stopping shame from catalyzing social change? I see three main drawbacks: 1.Today’s world is rife with ephemeral, or “one-off,” interactions. When you know you’re unlikely to run into the same situation again, there is less incentive to change your behavior. Research shows, however, that if people know they will interact again, cooperation improves.16 Shame works better if the potential for future interaction is high. In a world of one-off interactions, we can try to compensate for anonymity with an image score, such as hygiene grade cards or eBay’s seller ratings, which sends a signal to the group about an individual’s or institution’s degree of cooperation. 2.Today’s world allows for amorphous identities. Recall the reef fish that observe Bluestreak Cleaner wrasses in the Red Sea. The wrasses seem to know they are being watched, and certain wrasses build their reputation on the small reef fish, allowing the big reef fish to observe their cooperative behavior with the small fry. Then, when the big fish comes in for its own cleaning, these wrasses eat some of the big reef fish’s flesh along with its parasites, fattening themselves on their defection. To add to the confusion on the reef, False Cleanerfish (Aspidontus taeniatus) make their living by looking very similar to the Bluestreak Cleaner wrasses. They are able to approach reef fish under the guise of cooperation and then bite off pieces of fish flesh and swim away. Many of our interactions these days are similar to the fish cleanings in the Red Sea. It’s hard to keep track of who cooperates and who doesn’t, especially if it’s institutions you’re monitoring. Enron, which in 2001 filed one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history, hid billions of dollars in debt in hundreds of shell firms, which bought poorly performing Enron stocks so that Enron could create a fraudulent company profile and mislead its auditors. Lehman Brothers, in the years before its 2008 collapse, used a smaller firm called Hudson Castle (of which it owned 25 percent) to
shift risky investments off its books so that Hudson Castle, not Lehman Brothers, could absorb the “headline risk.” Which leads us to shaming’s third weakness. 3.Shaming’s biggest drawback is its insufficiency. Some people have no shame. In the research my colleagues and I have conducted on first-year students involving games that require cooperation, we have found that shame does not always encourage cooperation from players who are least cooperative. This suggests that a certain fraction of a given population will always behave shamelessly, like the False Cleanerfish, if the payoff is high enough. The banks may have gone bankrupt, but the bankers got their bonuses. There was even speculation that publishing individual bankers’ bonuses would lead to banker jealousy, not shame. My colleagues and I conclude that ultimately shame is not enough to catalyze major social change. Slavery did not end because abolitionists shamed slave owners into freeing their slaves. Child labor did not stop because factories were shamed into forbidding children to work. Destruction of the ozone layer did not slow because industries were ashamed to manufacture products that contained chlorofluorocarbons. This is why punishment remains imperative. Even if shaming were enough to bring the behavior of most people into line, governments need a system of punishment to protect the group from the least cooperative players. Finally, consider who belongs to the group. Today we are faced with the additional challenge of balancing human interests and the interests of nonhuman life. How can we encourage cooperation among all living things when the nonhumans have no voice? Successful species will likely be those that recognize, implicitly or explicitly, life’s interdependency. If humans are to succeed as a species, our collective shame over destroying other life-forms should grow in proportion to our understanding of their various ecological roles.
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Maybe the same attention to one another that promoted our own evolutionary success will keep us from failing the other species in life’s fabric and, in the end, ourselves. References: 1 R. Boyd and P. J. Richerson, “Culture and the Evolution of Human Cooperation,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 364 (2009), 3281–88. 2 R. Bshary, “Biting Cleaner Fish Use Altruism to Deceive ImageScoring Client Reef Fish,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269 (2002), 2087–93. 3 M. Bateson, D. Nettle, and G. Roberts, “Cues of Being Watched Enhance Cooperation in a Real-World Setting,” Biology Letters 2 (2006), 412–14. 4 D. M. T. Fessler, “Shame in Two Cultures: Implications for Evolutionary Approaches,” Journal of Cognition and Culture 4 (2004), 2. 5 J. Jacquet et al., “Conserving Wild Fish in a Sea of Market Based Efforts,” Oryx 44 (2010), 45–56. 6 C. Crawford, “Green with Worry,” San Francisco Magazine, Feb- ruary 2008. 7 E. Hallstein and S. B. Villas-Boas, “Are Consumers Color Blind? An Empirical Investigation of a Traffic Light Advisory for Sustainable Seafood,”
www.escholarship.org/uc/item/29v6w5sp#page-1 1. 8 www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/mill/sumpdsld.pdf. 9 This is calculated from Department of Energy statistics. U.S. oil consumption in 1990 was 17 million barrels per day and in 2010 was 22.2 million barrels per day. 10 M. Nussbaum, Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004). 11 http://stpetersnm.com/litter_louts.html. 12 G. Zhe and P. Leslie, “The Case in Support of Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards,” Choices 20 (2005), 97–102. 13 See especially his Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997). 14 R. H. Sommerfeld et al., “Gossip as an Alternative for Direct Observation in Games of Indirect Reciprocity,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (2007), 17435–40. 15 A. Fung and D. O’Rourke “Reinventing Environmental Regu- lation from the Grassroots Up: Explaining and Expanding the Success of the Toxics Release Inventory,” Environmental Management 25 (2000), 115–27. 16 M. Milinski, D. Semmann, and H. Krambeck, “Reputation Helps Solve the ‘Tragedy of the Commons,’ ” Nature 415 (2002), 424–26.
Letter to the Editor: Your Editorial—Who needs a philosophy, anyway? Inquisitive, refreshing, and thought provoking article. Human kind by nature searches for security, comfort, and answers for unknowns sans any logical thinking. Institutionalized religion, and society does provide what they look for, for power and control. Hence, philosophy, logic, and scientific thinking does not have much of a role except for few. As the modern human kind becomes more mechanised, globalized and through globalization becomes localized, the diversity in thinking in politics, and economics is shrinking and the rationale for philosophy is dissolving. I do not know the answers, but I do know that if more and more people take your view, that might itself be a new thinking/philosophy in the offing? Thank you. Manohar Ravela, U.S.A. ravelam77@gmail.com
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Asghar Ali Engineer
[Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, is a reformist-writer and activist. Internationally known for his work on liberation theology in Islam, he leads the Progressive Dawoodi Bohra movement. The focus of his work is on (and action against) communalism and communal and ethnic violence in India and South Asia. He is an advocate of a culture of peace, non-violence and communal harmony, and has lectured all over the world. He is presently the head of the ‘Institute of Islamic Studies’ and the ‘Centre for Study of Society and Secularism’, both of which he founded in 1980 and 1993 respectively. He currently contributes to The God Contention, a website comparing and contrasting various worldviews.He may be contacted at Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, 9B, Himalaya Apts.,1st Floor, 6th Road, TPS III, Opp. Dena Bank, Santacruz (E), Mumbai-400055, India]
Is Islam Compatible With Socialism? friend wrote to me that I write whether AIslam is compatible with socialism as for many the very word socialism means an atheistic philosophy and hence not acceptable in any case. Very core of Islamic teachings is belief in one God so how Islam and socialism can go together. This, I think, is not correct view. Even many noted ulama had accepted socialism as essential part of Islamic
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teachings. Two noted ulama of Indian sub-continent i.e. Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi enthusiastically supported communist movement and Maulana Hasrat Mohani was one of the founders of the communist party in India. Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi who had migrated to Afghanistan during the Khilafat movement and had formed a transition government along with Majaraja Pratapsingh left for Russia when King of Afghanistan came under pressure from the British to expel the members this government and met Lenin and discussed with him the strategies to fight British colonialism in India. He remained underground for quite some time and returned to India only in early forties of last century. The poet –philosopher Iqbal also paid rich tribute to socialism in his Khizr-e-Rah which he wrote after decline of Usmani power in Turkey and on the eve of Russian revolution. He also paid rich tribute to Marx and called him man with Book but without being prophet (paighambar nist wale dar baghal darad kitab). He also wrote an interesting poem “Lenin Khuda Ke Huzur Mein” (Lenin in presence of God). Also a left-inclined Christian priest who taught in Government College Lahore for in 1030s and was noted scholar of Islam writes in his book Islam in the Modern World that Islam was the first organized socialist movement in the world. And not without reason. It is interesting to note that Islam showed not only deep sympathy for the poor and downtrodden but also condemned strongly concentration of wealth in number of Meccan surahs. Mecca, in those days, was an important centre of international trade and, like in our days, there were very rich (generally tribal and clan chiefs) and extremely poor, on the other. Thus in surahs 104 and 107 (both Meccan) we find such condemnation. And in one of the Medinese verses 9:34 we find condemnation of concentration of wealth. It says, “”…And those who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in Allah’s way- announce to them a painful chastisement.”
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This verse too condemns hoarding of wealth and Abu Dharr, one of the EMINENT COMPANIONS OF THE Prophet (PBUH) used to recite this verse before those who would accumulate wealth and refuse to shake hands with such people. Thus those with whom Abu Dharr shook hands, would consider himself as a proud man and even boast about it. Abu Dharr was uncompromising man and because of that died a lonely death in the desert of Rabza wherein he was exiled. His wife did not find enough money to buy shroud and had to be buried in his clothes. Qur’an even goes to the extent of advising the believers to spend all that which is more than one needs. The word used by the Qur’an is ‘afw i.e. whatever is left after meeting ones basic needs. Thus this verse 2:219 says, “They ask you as to what they should spend. Say what is surplus with you”. Thus it comes very close to the socialist formulation to each according to ones need. The Qur’an’s basic emphasis is on justice (‘adl) and in fact one of Allah’s name is ‘Aadil i.e. Just. Thus an unjust society cannot be an Islamic society. Unfortunately none of Islamic countries today can fulfill these Qur’anic criteria. Justice in Qur’an is so important that it says “Do justice, it is closest to being pious” (5:8) and also it says that justice must be done even if it goes against you and in favour of your enemy. Thus the Qur’an says, “O you who believe, be maintainers of justice, bearers of witness for Allah, even though it be against your own selves or (your) parents or near relatives –whether he be rich or poor. (4:135). And
what is socialism without justice in very comprehensive sense including distributive justice. And if these verses are read in conjunction with chapters 104 and 107 distributive justice cannot be excluded. The Qur’an also uses other terms to make its intention clear i.e. mustakbirun and mustad’ifun i.e. the powerful and exploiters and weak and exploited. These are really key terms in this respect. All Allah’s Prophets belonged to weaker sections of society like Abrham, Moses and others who fought against the powerful and exploiters like Nimrud and Firaun (i.e. Nimrod and Pharoah). According to Qur’an struggle between mustakbirun and mustad’ifun will go on and in the end it is mustad’ifun who will be triumphant and will inherit this earth (28:5). Thus Qur’an is unmistakably in favour of the weaker section of society and it predicts leadership (though not dictatorship) of proletariat. It is interesting to note that it was Imam Khomeini who drew our attention to this verse (28:5) and he also established bunyad-i-mustad’ifin (Foundation for the weak) from the wealth of the rich which he ordered to be confiscated. Unfortunately, like other revolutions, Iranian revolution was also jijack3ed by the vested interests. As soon as any political establishment comes into existence, vested interests develop around it and hijack it, more often than not. Thus any revolution needs constant vigilance on the part of the weaker sections. Islamic revolution met the same fate within few years of the death of the Prophet (PBUH).
PLEASE DO NOT SEND ARTICLES BEYOND 1500-2000 WORDS. Dear Friends, Also, inform me whether they have been published elsewhere.
And, please try to email them at rheditor@gmail.com instead of sending them by post. You may post them (only if email is not possible) at C-8 Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India.
Do also email your passport size photographs as separate attachments (in JPG format) as well as your small introduction, if you are contributing for the first time. Please feel free to contact me at 91-9719333011 for any other querry. —Rekha Saraswat 13
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Current Affairs Section:
Rajindar Sachar
[Justice Rajindar Sachar is Retd. Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, New Delhi. He is UN Special Rapportuer on Housing, Ex. Member, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and Ex-President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India.] I
Effective Lok Pal not in sight and Anna Team as expected Government have disagreed on vital points. The question of inclusion of Prime minister within the ambit of Lok Pal is being falsely blown out of proportion by government apologists. Prime Minister though head of the Govt. is only first amongst equals. In a democratic country, political vacuum does not arise as the cabinet has a collective responsibility. Also our past experience does not show that all our Prime Ministers have been angels. Serious credible accusations have been made against them. The regret always was that in the absence of independent mechanism like Lok Pal to enquire into these allegations the ruling party was successfully able to scuttle any honest independent enquiry. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has publicly consented to be included within the jurisdiction as had his predecessor Vajpayee – the supposed concern of the Ministers is puerile, being more loyalist than the king. 14
The stand of Ministers for exclusion of Prime Minister is so incongruous when it is noted that Standing Committee on law and justice headed by Congress Spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan has already said that the Bill should cover Prime Minister also. This cynicism is increased when we find that Digvijay Singh, the self proclaimed alter ego of Rahul Gandhi supports Lok Pal having jurisdiction over Prime Minister – people are legitimately hoping that Rahul Gandhi would also indicate his position on a matter which is causing such a division in the society. The suggestion to exclude is sought to be justified by Ministers by taking the puerile plea that Prime Minister continues to be under the jurisdiction of Prevention of Corruption Act. Surprising that Ministers are comfortable for Prime Minister being prosecuted at the report of junior police official but not at the instance of high powered body like Lokpal. Is not the unspoken premise that under corruption Act. CBI will have to get sanction from the government. Ergo, which subordinate will dare to sanction Prime Ministers prosecution? For Heavens sake do not play a joke with the people and be reminded of what John Adams, one of founding fathers of US Constitution said “the people have a right, an inalienable, indisputable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge – I mean of the character and conduct of their Rulers”. Another laughable justification by Ministers is that the exemption will not be applicable after Prime Minister has remitted office - this is like locking the stable after the horses have run away. Incidentally even the discredited toothless draft Lok Pal Bill 2010, included the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament. The inclusion of Higher Judiciary consisting of Judges of Supreme Court under Lok Pal is undesirable. I am conscious of the shame that some in the Higher Judiciary has polluted the institution. I am only suggesting a separate National Judicial
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and Accountability Commission. Call it Lok Pal (Judicial) with same powers as Lok Pal. This will serve the purpose and still keep the distance between executive and judiciary as mandated by the constitution. The rhetoric’s of Kapil Sibal challenging any one to give an example “which P.M. in the office any where has been prosecuted in the world” I am sorry at this rhetorical ignorance - possibly it is due to Kapil being not assisted by his usually competent juniors when he was appearing in courts, and now possibly he is being ill served by his public relations officer – otherwise he would have been told that the present Prime Minister of Italy is being prosecuted before a magistrate on charges of corruption and mafia contact and sex deviations behavior. In French proceedings were started against the then President Chirac for misappropriation of public money. Also in Israel a former President has been sentenced to imprisonment for his deviant sexual behavior by a magistrate. The near contempt of masses protesting at the scourge of corruption is shown by Sibal comparing Anna Hazare “to Pied Piper of Hamlin. Sibal cautiously did not complete the story because those who are said to have followed the Pied Piper were rats and following the piper just drowned in the sea. I need not comment on such crude and insulting comparison of the masses that are waging a struggle against corruption. Government’s spurious claim by purporting to project Parliament as the real Sovereign is fallacious, as said by Dicey, the British Constitutional authority, who says, “electorate is in fact the sovereign of England and the conduct of the legislature…. should be regulated by understandings of which the object is to secure the conformity of parliament to the will of the nation (emphasis supplied)”. Another heresy put forth against holding of protest meetings by people to force the government to pass a worthwhile legislation is that it is undemocratic
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and the only resort people have is to try to persuade the legislators to pass a particular law and if they do not agree then they should try their chance at elections. This is sheer heresy and negated by the Supreme Court (1960) in Dr. Lohia’s case, who had been arrested for asking farmers not to pay the increase of canal water rates to U.P. Government. Ordering the release of Dr. Lohia the court said “We cannot accept the argument of the learned Advocate General that instigation of a single individual not to pay tax or dues is a spark which may in the long run ignite a revolutionary movement destroying public order. We can only say that fundamental rights cannot be controlled on such hypothetical and imaginary considerations. It is said that in a democratic set up there is no scope for agitational approach and that if a law is bad the only course is to get it modified by democratic process and that any instigation to break the law is in itself a disturbance of the public order. If this argument without obvious limitations be accepted, it would destroy the right to freedom of speech which is the very foundation of democratic way of life.” A restrained approach by the government alone can prevent a mass collision with the masses that are determined to vigorously pursue their struggle for an effective Lok Pal. II
Latest Lokpal bill – vital changes still needed The much awaited Cabinet approved Lok Pal Bill is no surprise. The decision to exclude the Prime Minister is maintained, notwithstanding the proclaimed stand of S. Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister since 2004 that he wants to be included, but has had to yield because of the cabinet decision. This surrender of ones conscientious opinion on a matter of vital public importance at the altar of petty considerations of party politics ill serves Prime Ministers reputation because inspite of all the scams in the present govt. even his worst opponents preface their criticism by reiterating
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their faith in his personal integrity. His well wishers still hope that the Prime Minister will still assert himself and respect the sentiments of the masses than that of a small coterie for whom party is above the nation and principled politics secondary. Why should he be the whipping boy – let his successor when time comes face the people’s wrath by suggesting a change. The argument that if allegations of corruption against Prime Minister are allowed to be examined by Lokpal, it will prejudicially affect the working of the government is a non starter. Bofors scandal was not about the quality of guns purchased, but the pay off received in lieu thereof. Similarly Kargil coffins scandal was not about the quality of the product but about the alleged pay offs. The tragic comic provision that the Prime Minister will be covered after he demits office is like bolting the stable after the horses have run away. Can there be more callous absurdity in public life than a corrupt Prime Minister continuing in office with immunity. If this decision on Prime Ministers exclusion is not modified a veritable storm will ensue. Keeping judiciary out may be acceptable provided simultaneously legislation like Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill and other connected Bills are similarly brought in legislation. One may call this legislation as LokPal (Judiciary). Members of parliament are putting their case for exclusion from the Lokpal Bill by seeking cover under Article 105 of the Constitution, and for this they apparently have some marginal support from the widely criticized majority judgment of (3 against 2) on in Narsimma Rao case (1999) (I believe the matter is referred to a larger bench) – it may apparently be technically correct but it is certainly morally reprehensible conduct and can not certainly be pleaded by MP to be excluded from the jurisdiction of LopPal. The minority Judgment very apply pointed out the absurdity of the argument that Article 105(2) exempts the legislator from being convicted on a charge of taking bribes and observed that this
interpretation could lead to charter for corruption so as to elevate Members of Parliament as “super-citizens, immune from criminal responsibility”. It would indeed be ironic if a claim for immunity from prosecution founded on the need to ensure the independence of Members of parliament in exercising their right to speak or cast their vote in Parliament, could be put forward by a Member who has bartered away his independence by agreeing to speak or vote in a particular manner in lieu of illegal gratification that has been paid or promised. By claiming the immunity such a Member would only be seeking a license to indulge in such corrupt conduct. In other countries such a conduct of MPs is treated as criminal. Thus as far back as 1875 Australian Courts have taken the view that an attempt to bribe a member of the legislature assembly in order to influence his vote was a criminal offence and that there is no difference at paying money to member of parliament to use his vote in a particular manner and paying him money for the said purpose outside parliament. The exemption of MP from ambit of LokPal would make a mockery of the legislation – Public already has a low opinion of legislators. Their criminal antecedents already cast a doubt on their honest working. Amazing that the cabinet did not heed even the pain and anguish of Vice President of India who speaking at All India whips conference gave warning of danger in public life thus; “Most important issue of concern today is the decreasing credibility of our legislatures as effective institutions capable of delivering public good and contributing effective formulation of laws”. “Exactly 23% of MPs elected in 2004 had criminal cases registered against them – over half of these cases could lead to imprisonment of five years or more. The situation is worse in the case of MLAs,” failing to discharge its two fold brief, legislate and deliberate, and that the country’s top lawmaking
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body had fallen short of people’s expectations.” The cynicism of political parties is shown by the facts that inspite of this warning in recent state elections which show another trend to criminal nexus in elections, thus of 824 newly elected MLAs of recent elections in the States a total of 257 have criminal cases pending against them. In view of the above one expects sensitivity of legislators that they should take steps to seek the Amendment of Article 105 of our Constitution. I have one more suggestion. As is well known the politicalization of criminal is a stark and dangerous reality. Even in parliament there are nearly over 100 M.Ps. having criminal cases pending against them. There has been demand that tainted persons should not be allowed to contest elections. I feel that the law of LokPal should provide that whenever Lok Pal takes a decision, after having the matter investigated that the legislator has to be prosecuted for his misdemeanor, he should be deemed to be ineligible to continue as legislator till he is proved innocent. A serious flaw in government Bill is the denial of power to Lokpal to prosecute those accused of corruption. This is totally unacceptable. No self
respecting person will agree to be on LokPal Body if his decisions are subject to control by government. If all parties could simultaneously agree to provide a strong Lok Ayukat, much criticism of the lower officials not being included under Lokpal will disappear. (Personally I myself feel that extending jurisdiction of Lokpal right from the lowest official may hinder expeditious working of Lokpal) – Lok Ayukat should be able to do so. But in this BJP would have to come in open because Modi is resisting constituting Lok Ayukat at Gujarat for the last 9 years. The power for removal of a Lokpal should be vested in the 7 Judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India. The Government should not treat Lokpal Bill as a battle of people versus the Parliament, as some indiscrete remarks of some Ministers seems to suggest. Government needs to be humble enough to recognize that power to take the ultimate decisions rests with the real sovereign under our constitution – namely the people and not the temporary occupant government which remains subordinate to the people.
Letter to the Editor: On Private Corruption If the govt. has to make another law on corruption, it should include ‘non political’ persons as well. The whole process reminds me of the ancient wisdom. A king put a watchman to see to it that the royal milkman could not adulterate milk with water. But the adulteration kept on increasing. He then appointed a second man to keep watch on the two. The more watch men he employed the more water and other impurities he found. The king then asked the milkman why it was so. He replied to his master that he would find small crocodiles one day in the milk bucket if he goes on increasing guards because he had to bribe them all. Is not the constitutional provision of ‘collective responsibility’ enough to rope in an erring prime minister? Is not the impeachment provision for the members of the higher judiciary sufficient to punish a corrupt judge? The (civil) society or a section of it or an individual has every right to agitate in a democratic way. But should we not first agitate for the implementation of existing rules and laws? Ajit bhattacharyya,
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IRI/IRHA Members’ Section:
Innaiah Narisetti
[Dr. N. Innaiah, former Director, Centre for
Inquiry (CFI), India, did his Ph.D on Philosophy of Modern Science. He is a veteran Radical Humanist who has translated maximum books written by M.N Roy as well as other books on humanism in Telugu.]
Humanist movement in India with special reference to Andhra Pradesh Contd. from the last issue......................... AGK (Avula Gopalakrishna Murty) 1917-1967: The outstanding personality among Royists and humanists in Andhra was late AGK. He was known as Vyasopanyaasaka - (Essayist and speaker). He edited a weekly called Radical Humanist (Tamil Weekly) and Sameeksha. By profession he was an attorney but spread the message of Humanism through his activities. He officiated in several secular marriages as part of the humanist thought. He participated in literary campaigns and attacked the reactionary poets like late Viswanatha Satyanarayana. He used to give fitting replies to communists, congressmen and socialists who attacked the ideas of Roy and Humanism. He participated in All India Radical Humanist study camps. AGK encouraged poets, writers, singers, artists and promoted humanist ideology through aesthetics.
Mr. Bhattiprolu Hanumantharao taught history scientifically and published books from scientific perspective. Mr. Kalluri Basaveswararao collaborated with him in history text books. Mr. Hanumantharao was the first person to translate M N Roy’s Memoirs into Telugu. (It was published by Allied Publishers, Bombay) M N Roy’s Memoirs of A Cat are popular in Telugu. Mr. A V Mohan translated it into Telugu and later Ms. Komala Venigalla translated it which ran into three editions. Mr. Jasti Jagannadham published the Telugu translation of M N Roy’s Reason Romanticism and Revolution but only some parts are published in journals. Mr. Alapati Ravindranath started Jyothi journal from Tenali which was very popular in spreading the ideas of M N Roy, Ellen and Radicals. He introduced new techniques of stories, scientific sex education and family planning. During 1948 he was sued for propagating family planning by publishing the article of Ellen Roy. It was a very radical idea for orthodox people! Later he started monthly magazine Misimi in Telugu which was established as a literary magazine. Mr. D V Narasaraju, cine writer remained a Royist throughout his life. He was a prolific writer and his short plays, stories, satirical essays were very popular. Mr. Koganti Subrahmanyam edited Radical Humanist (Telugu journal). He was a hard core worker who spread the ideas of Humanism. Mr. Ravipudi Venkatadri contested as Radical Democratic Party candidate in 1946 elections and it was great opportunity to spread M N Roy thought in villages thought he encountered much antagonism from nationalist and communists. He was the earliest writer to spread Roy’s ideas on astrology, origin of life and dialectics. He wrote magnum opus on the thought of M N Roy and exposed communists. He sustained the movement through his speeches, participation in study camps and editing rationalist journal. Venkatadri was the
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earliest humanist to attack dialectics of Marx and clarified the humanist position. He explained in a lucid manner the falsehood of astrology and supported astronomy. He also narrated the origin of life and growth from scientific point of view and demystified the religious stories. He countered the false criticism of communists against M N Roy and published magnum opus on M N Roy and his thought. In later part of his life he devoted himself to the monthly magazine Hetuvadi and indulged himself constantly in criticism of religion, myths, and belief systems. Mr. N.V. Brahmam is one of the earliest students in All India Radical Humanist camp at Dehradun. His book on Bible was banned in Telugu and later it was lifted through Supreme Court order. Brahmam spread the humanist thought through his tutorial institutions. Mr. Yelavarti Rosaiah who taught in Andhra Christian College, Günter was at the root of spreading the thought of M N Roy through his students. Many of his disciples emerged as good Royists. Guttikonda Narahari, orator in Telugu was the secretary of Radical Democratic Party in Andhra. His speeches were very popular and he faced the scathing attacks of communists through his pungent oration. M V Ramamurthy was one of the pioneers throughout Andhra to propagate the Radical Humanist thought. He was also the president of all India Radical Democratic association. He along with his wife Subbamma devoted their lives for the cause of humanist movement. He published articles, books and translations. Along with Koganti Radhakrishna Murti he established ‘Prajaswamya Prachuranalu’ and brought the writings of Roy in Telugu. Ramamurthy edited one monthly magazine Vikasam for few years. He toured entire India and established contacts with humanists. From 1940 onwards Ramamurthy consistently worked for the movement until his death.
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Mr. Bachu Venkateswarlu was one of the youngest people who established renaissance club as suggested by Roy and attracted youth into the movement. He operated from Chirala town but he died premature in an accident. Mr. Kolli Sivaramireddi, advocate from Kathevaram village edited Sameeksha journal when the movement was in financial doldrums. He was assisted by Mr. M V Ramanaiah, teacher from Tenali. Mr. Parasuram, a teacher from Tenali did ground work at grass root level to spread the humanist thought especially the literary aspects. Mr. Meka Chakrapani from Gudavalli was a good speaker and writer who sustained humanist thought locally. Mr. M Narayana in Telengana area died as deputy collector. He used to go around in villages with writings of Roy and spread the thought of M N Roy especially on decentralization, power to people etc. Mr. V S Avadhani who worked in British Council Madras actively participated in the movement through study camps. Mr. V R Narla editor of two popular Telugu dailies opposed M N Roy in the initial period and did not allow publishing news in dailies. Later after reading M N Roy’s literature he totally changed and started publishing several writings in favor of M N Roy and Humanism. He dedicated some of his writings to V M Tarkunde, Prem Nath Bazaz, Niranjan Dhar, Sushil Mukherjee. He came close to Sibnarayan ray, A B Shah and Tarkunde. Mr. Ancha Baparao edited radical journals from Chirala and during crisis helped the movement. His education center at Chirala town became center of humanist activities for several years. Similarly Mr. M Basavapunnarao worked very hard to sustain the movement in difficulties. He was the root support to establish the Federation of Humanist, rationalist and atheist association in Andhra Pradesh with Dr N Innaiah as chairman. It conducted humanist activities successfully. They invited Mr. B Premanand who organized magic classes for youth and exposed cult gurus, Mathaas,
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Baabaas. Mr. Gurijala Sitaramaiah in Tenali always came to the rescue of the movement both financially and physical help. His ‘M N Roy Bhavan’ and ‘Naveen Lodge’ are good sources for humanists to conduct innumerable meetings, seminars and study camps. At present Mr. C L N Gandhi is helping the movement in Andhra Pradesh. Mr. S A Baksh stood for the movement and showed example by intercommunity marriage and secular weddings. He propagated the ideas through schools and camps. Mr. Swadeshi Ranjan Das Gupta published Cooperative Common Wealth from Kolkata depicting the ideas of Roy on economic decentralization and village life. It was translated into Telugu by N. Innaiah and serialized in Radical Humanist (Telugu weekly) from Tenali, edited by Koganti Subrahmanyam. M N Roy’s Heresies of twentieth Century articles were translated by N. Innaiah and published in
Prajavani and Radical Humanist (Telugu journal). Mr. Pasala Bhimanna through his magic performances spreading scientific thought to younger generations.He also published few books. In the field level there are numerous persons who stood for the movement. Mr. Gorantla Raghavaiah is one such person who is great friend of Mr. Venkatadri. Mr. Ch Rajareddi gave solid support to the movement through his printing press ‘Liberty’ and publications. He edited Sameeksha for some time. Mr. Thotakura Venkateswarlu (Babu) edited Charvaka magazine which spread the message in Andhra and several youth were inspired by it. The Present writer published several books on humanism, rationalism, secularism in Telugu and English. He also translated the major writings of M N Roy, A B Shah, V B Karnik, Sibnarayan Ray, Agehananda Bharati, and V R Narla into Telugu. There were brought out by Telugu Akademy, Telugu University. Contd. in the next issue.................
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Mahipal Singh [Mr. Mahi Pal Singh is the President of Indian
Radical Humanist Association (IRHA) of the Delhi Unit and Gen. Secy. of Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Delhi-unit. C-105, D.D.A. Flats, Sindhora kalan, Delhi-110 052. Mahi_pal_singh@yahoo.co.uk]
The way ahead for Anna is not easy
started by Anna Hazare Theandmovement his colleagues has brought to the center stage the issue of widespread corruption in the country and the ensuing debate on the Lokpal bill has stirred the whole country. But that has neither stopped the appearance of new scams nor has the ruling class stopped defending its people involved in these scams. The latest scam that has become known pertains to the awarding of contracts in the coal-mining sector, which is much bigger than the 2-G spectrum allocation and
allegedly involves a whopping sum of Rs. 40,000 lac crores. On the other hand a senior leader of the party and General Secretary of the Congress is still saying that in his personal opinion neither the former President of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, who is under judicial custody on charges of corruption nor Mr. Ashok Chavan, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, are guilty and will come out clean. Such statements and the draft of the proposed Lokpal Bill prepared by the group of central Ministers are pointers enough that the Government is not serious in the fight against corruption. It is also clear that the Government which introduces a weak Lokpal Bill in the Parliament will also get it passed on the strength of its majority in both the Houses of Parliament. On the whole one can say that the way ahead for the movement started by Anna Hazare and his other colleagues from the civil society is not an easy one. On the other hand it is also clear that in the event of a strong Lokpal Bill being not passed by the Parliament by 16th August 2011, his own declaration will force Anna Hazare to proceed on his proposed fast unto death from that date. The Government representatives on the Joint Drafting Committee of the Lokpal Bill have also made it clear that in future instead of having to do anything with the civil society in the matter of framing laws, the Government will deal with their agitations with a strong hand, obviously referring to the way the agitation of Ram Dev was crushed at the Ramlila Ground at New Delhi. In such a situation, a confrontation between the Government and the civil society will become inevitable. It is clear that Anna Hazare will at least not run away from the agitation site in the manner Ram Dev did as he himself has clarified and nobody should have any doubts in accepting that in the matter of moral force, conviction and public support Anna Hazare is way ahead of Ram Dev and that it will not be easy to crush his movement through the use of brutal force in the manner the Ramlila Ground agitation was crushed.
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Almost all the political parties and their leaders who run their politics on the basis of the black money collected through corrupt means are only betraying their double character by neither expressing their views against the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill as prepared by the civil society representatives nor are they coming out openly in support of it. The reason is clear – they do not want that such a Bill, which would spell trouble for them in future and also dry up the sources of black money for them, should get passed by the Parliament. In such a situation they would make every effort behind the scenes to stall the Bill in the manner they have done during the last 42 years and also not allowed the Women’s Reservation Bill to get through so far on one pretext or the other. At the same time they would like to ensure that their public image does not get tarnished. Under the circumstances, their effort would be to use delaying tactics till the next general election so that they could deceive their voters as ever before by telling them that they wanted to pass the Bill for a strong Lokpal but their opponents did not let them do so. They would plead innocence and yet succeed in maintaining the status quo, ever beneficial to them. By now Anna Hazare and his colleagues must also have understood that it is a difficult road ahead for them because the people who have entrenched themselves in the seats of power firmly will neither let political power slip away from their hands nor will they allow their sources of illegal money to dry up because in that case they would not remain the rulers but get reduced to the status of public servants, and who knows it well more than they do that they did not join politics to become servants of the people, in spite of what role the Constitution of the country assigned to them. In such a situation will Anna Hazare give the same kind of call for ‘Sampurna Kranti’, complete revolution, which Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan had given in 1973-74 against rampant corruption, price rise and unemployment in the country? There are remote chances of his doing so, and if at all he does so, will the ruling politicians not react in the
same manner in which the then leader of their party and Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, reacted by imposing the Emergency regime in the country in 1975 and putting all the opposition leaders in jails. The purpose at that time was to remain in power and to pass on the reigns of power into the hands of the next generation in her own family after her and the purpose even today is the same. Crony cheerleaders to applaud all their legal-illegal activities were present in abundance then and there is no dearth of such cheerleaders even today. The only difference is that at that time Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of the country and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is only the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which has its government at the center, but the real power is still in her hands and without any accountability too. During the Emergency regime of 1975-77 the real power had been handed over into the hands of Sanjay Gandhi, the son of Indira Gandhi, without any responsibility and today Rahul Gandhi, the son of Sonia Gandhi, is exercising it without any accountability. Whatever good happens in the country today is loyally attributed to the ‘able leadership’ of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by the Congress leaders in the same manner as was then attributed to Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi by the Congress leaders at that time. It is noteworthy that during the last seven years of their political life, and particularly during the last two years’ tenure of the UPA-II, when price hike and corruption have broken all the previous records in the country, neither Sonia Gandhi nor Rahul Gandhi has held any press conference so that they do not have to answer the difficult questions related to them and they remain blissfully protected from any accountability and whatever responsibility for the ill-doings falls, should fall on the government and its ministers. Today the question is not only of transferring the political power to the next generation in the family, on the stake is also the lacs of crores of Rupees of illegal money and it is not easy to abandon the lure of this wealth for the leaders of the party because
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for them there can be nothing more precious than that. Today the challenge before Anna is no less than the challenge before Jayaprakash Narayan because at least those parties had come to support him whose leaders had become the victims of the anger of Indira Gandhi and had been put behind the bars during the Emergency. Maybe some left parties come forward to support Anna because they are the only ones whose members were not found guilty in the cash for question scam or cash for support to the government on the floor of the House during the confidence/no-confidence motion. If Jayaprakash Narayan was able to dislodge the dictatorship of Mrs. Indira Gandhi from the country and bring about an end to the blackest chapter in the history of independent India and also to restore democracy in the country in 1977, it was due to the massive support of the people along with the support of the opposition parties. Anna Hazare is not likely to get the support of the political parties though he does enjoy the support of the people, perhaps in even greater numbers than Jayaprakash Narayan did. We must also remember that even Indira Gandhi enjoyed the same kind of support of the party in Parliament which is available to the Congress leaders today on the basis of which they are challenging the civil society. At that time also Indira Gandhi was able to get Constitutional amendments of her choice passed by the Parliament in order to establish and protect her dictatorship. Today when the leaders of the Congress arrogantly talk of their prerogative as elected representatives of the people, governance in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, though the same is conspicuous by its absence, and the power of the Parliament to frame laws, which they claim belongs to them as the majority party in the Parliament, and arrogate to themselves the right to neglect the views of the people, it naturally reminds one of the arrogance and dictatorial tactics of Indira Gandhi because she also used the provisions of the Constitution and the power of the Parliament to frame laws to establish her dictatorship. But these 23
leaders forget one thing, that Indira Gandhi was a much more powerful leader of the Congress and also enjoyed an absolute majority in Parliament but the election of 1977 taught her to respect the feelings of the masses whereas the coalition rule of the Congress at the center is dependent on the crutches of other parties. Add to it the fact that Sonia Gandhi stands nowhere in comparison with the political stature of Indira Gandhi. However, this does not mean that in the fight against corruption the challenge before Anna Hazare and the civil society is in any way small. They will have to face the combined challenge of the land-mafia, mining-mafia, corporate-mafia, corrupt bureaucracy together with the corrupt leaders of the ruling party as well as of the other parties and their money and muscle power. To imagine that they will be able to bring about a change of heart of these people is to over simplify the challenge. To deal with the challenge they face, they will have to give a political direction to the people’s support they are getting because in a democratic set up the road to all the social, economic and political changes passes through the parliamentary process. To become a part of that system it is mandatory to change the political atmosphere of the country and that cannot be done without changing the present political leadership. That will be possible only when a clean, morally sound and credible alternative is presented before the people who are clamouring for drastic transformation in the system. In the absence of such an alternative being provided to the people, depending on the present leadership for any drastic changes will be an exercise in futility. In order to provide such an alternative, they will be required to proceed in a well-planned manner. Today corruption is ingrained in the whole administrative machinery to such an extent that the life of ‘aam aadmi’, the common man, has become very difficult. He has to bribe officials in the police department, rationing, electricity and water supply departments for every little service. For him the meaning of corruption is confined to the corruption
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with which he is confronted everyday in his life. To fight against this corruption, local area level anti-corruption committees should be formed which can intervene in all such matters and bring relief to the people and should organize protest dharnas and demonstrations at local levels. The leadership coming out of such movements can later help organize district and state level committees. These committees should take upon themselves the responsibility to identify honest and devoted people whom they would like to elect as their representatives for the legislative assemblies and the Parliament. It is hoped that instead of the political parties thrusting their nominees upon them at the time of election they themselves would nominate their own candidates who would be accountable to them and not to their political bosses, and also would be loyal to them instead of being loyal to some political family. Only such representatives will be sensitive to their hopes and aspirations and will do what the people want them to do. Without giving the people better alternatives to elect, it is futile to hope that they would elect better representatives to the Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies. Such a system will be closer to Gandhi’s idea of Gram Swaraj and M.N. Roy and JP’s idea of direct democracy. In this drive, the civil society can take the support of political leaders and parties who have a clean image and record, however small their number. But they will have to keep away from those parties and people who had come together under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan during 1976-77 only to use his name and support to come to power but ditched him soon after coming to power and started separating and regaining their former identities in order to gain more political power. Some of them, though they called themselves Socialists, formed their own political fiefdoms to run their own
business of politics and soon fell easy prey to their greed for greater power and corruption forgetting the ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan and Rammanohar Lohia. An attempt can be made to bring together the people of the left parties and those socialists who have remained away from the scramble for power and are trying to come together. People belonging to the political formations like the Maoists/Naxalites, who took to arms after being disillusioned with the present system, can also be brought into the fold and thus be brought into the mainstream of the society. Along with this, it will also be necessary to include those members of the civil society who have a clean image and have earned respectability in society because of their long term pro-people and social services. Care will also have to be taken to ensure that all the leading people of this movement are essentially secular and have an unflinching commitment to the democratic values of life. For the success of this movement it will also be necessary to ensure the participation of all the sections of society. After a wide-ranging and exhaustive discussion a blueprint of this alternative will have to be worked out. Anna Hazare and his colleagues must consider these ideas and if they reach a consensus, he should undertake his fast with the conviction that if the ruling party/coalition does not pay attention to their suggestions, they would work for uprooting this corrupt system. In order to clean this political pond of all the quagmire that has collected in it over the time on the one hand the institution of the Lokpal will have to be used and on the other fresh and clean water will have to be poured into it. Will Anna accept this challenge or will he just sit by the pond and recite mantras in the hope that the filth will get removed? This is time not for mere fasts but for concrete action.
“Over every huge tree that we see overground, there always is a seed that had submerged itself into the darkness of the soil.” —Anna Hazare
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views. But they were true to their convictions. The Gora couple was active in widow remarriages, inter-dining and reform marriages. They championed social reform with a comprehensive —By Dr. Vijayam outlook. Along with Gora she started the Atheist Centre in ery few people are as active as Mrs. 1940. It is the first of its kind in the world. Since its Saraswathi Gora was till the age of 94. inception it is in the forefront of social change She was a life long fighter for the cause of atheism, activities with a comprehensive outlook. Gora and humanism and social change on Gandhian lines. Saraswathi Gora had no private and property and She was a veteran freedom fighter, a crusader they were completely dependent upon public against untouchability and caste system, a sympathy and cooperation in all their endeavors. champion of inter-caste and inter-religion She was imprisoned in the Quit India marriages and secularism. As a humanist Movement. Her commitment to the cause of and social revolutionary she set an example independence was strong and she went to before others by practicing what she jail along with her two and half year old son, championed. It revealed her firm Niyanta, and at the same time she was commitment to social equality and human pregnant. Mrs. Gora went to jail many a time values. Under her able guidance, hundreds in pre and post-independence periods. She of such reform marriages for the abolition of was arrested in 1953 in Karivena Eenam untouchability and caste have taken place over the Satyagraha in Kurnool District, championing the decades. cause of land reforms. Her slogan was Jai Insaan, ‘Victory to the For the eradication of untouchability, she humans’. Eradication of untouchability and caste advocated interdining. Gora and Saraswathi Gora system was her life’s mission. Inculcation of opened many public wells for the use of Harijans in humanist values and social the teeth of opposition from the equality for women was her goal. upper castes. When Mahatma Saraswathi Gora with She championed basic human Gandhi came to know about the rights and social justice. efforts of Gora (1902-1975) and Saraswathi Gora for the abolition Saraswathi Gora was born on of untouchability and caste September 28, 1912 at system and for social equality, he Vijayanagaram, Andhra Pradesh, invited them to Sevagram India. Saraswathi was married to Ashram. Saraswathi Gora’s eldest Goparaju Ramachandra Rao daughter, Manorama and Arjun (Gora), at an early age of ten in Rao’s marriage was scheduled in 1922, as per the tradition of those Goparaju Ramachandra Rao Mahatma Gandhi’s presence. But (Gora) days. She joined Gora in 1927 it was held after his assassination, and since then they were an in the Sevagram Ashram in March inseparable couple. For their 1948. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and others atheistic views, Gora and Saraswathi Gora faced social ostracism and suffered indignities with a blessed the couple. In 1960, her eldest son smile. Gora was dismissed from the colleges twice Lavanam’s marriage with Hemalatha also took in Kakinada and Machilipatnam for his atheistic place at Sevagram Ashram. All her nine children
Saraswathi Gora: A Brief Note On Her Life And Achievements
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and her grand children married casteless. Under the auspices of Atheist Centre, for the last six decades hundreds, of inter-caste, casteless and inter-religious marriages have been celebrated with a view to strengthen the secular fabric of our nation. When the activities of Atheist Centre grew, new organizations were also started. Vasavya Mahila Mandali, Arthik Samata Mandal and Samskar are three major organizations of Atheist Centre. They are involved in comprehensive rural development in hundreds of villages, giving high priority to the welfare of women, children, differently-able and the weaker sections working for the cause of human rights. Saraswathi Gora was the cofounder of Vasavya Mahila Mandali (Vasavya is an abbreviation which stands from Vasthavikata, Sanghadrusti, Vyaktitvam which means - ‘Reality, social outlook and development of individual personality’). Atheist Centre has also initiated medical social work programmes. In the Campus of Atheist Centre there is a hospital to extend medical facilities. Since Gora’s death on July 26, 1975, Saraswathi Gora was heading the activities of Atheist Centre and within two decades she had expanded the activities of Atheist Centre with vision four-fold by building a good team to take up responsibilities. Coinciding with her 80th birth anniversary, an International Conference on “Social Progress and Women” was held at Atheist Centre in 1992. In post-Gora and Saraswathi Gora period Atheist
Centre continues to strive to carry forward the work at the grass root as well as at the national and international level. Atheist Centre is in the mainstream of national life with a distinctive philosophy and action championing secularism and peaceful social change. Recipient of National and International Awards: Endowed with rich experience of seven decades of work for political and social change, Mrs Saraswathi Gora received national and international recognition. “G.D. Birla International Award for Humanism 2000” was presented to her in New Delhi by Krishna Kant, the Vice-President of India on July 21, 2001. The very first “Basava National Award, 2000” of Karanata Government was presented to her in Bangalore on July 26, 2001. The Award is instituted in the name of Basaveswara, the famous social reformer of Karnataka who fought against caste and creed and strove for social equality in 12th Century. “Jamnalal Bajaj National Award-1999” was presented to her in Mumbai for her outstanding contribution to women welfare and rural development. Earlier, “Janki Devi Bajaj National Award” was bestowed on her by the Indian Merchants Chamber Ladies Wing in Mumbai in 1997. She received a number of awards including “Challagalla award”, “Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Award for Promotion of Rationalism”, “Malladi Subbamma Award”, “Viswadata Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao Award” and so on for her outstanding contribution to social change.
UPCOMING BOOK RELEASE
“The Future of Blasphemy: Speaking of the Sacred in an Age of Human Rights.” Author — Austin Dacey
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Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:
Manzoor Ali
Vastanvi’s Remarks: A Fusion Of Neo-Liberalism And Communal Politics Gulam Mohammad Vastanvi’s Maulana (the former VC of Dar-ul Uloom Deoband) praise for Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, is a product of complex political phenomenon conditioned by neo-liberalism and identity politics (read politics of religion or communalism) in the country. In his statement Mr. Vastanvi claimed that “all communities are prospering in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat and there was no discrimination against the minorities in the state as far as development was concerned.” As far as development is concern it is true that Gujarat’s per capita income is among the highest in the country. Perhaps it was the reason that Indian industrialists, impressed by the Modi’s privatisation drive, wanted to see him as the Prime Minister of India. Modi has been the poster boy for most of the industrialists who is showing way to leaders of other States. In their propitious association with Modi India Inc. try to maintain oblivion silence about the political ideology he represents. They have been less careful about the pogrom of February 2002 which has caused internal displacement, economic blockade and life without fundamental rights to the Muslims.
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Their silence suggest to the democratic and secular masses of this country to forget about the past and think of development. Industrialists see attempt to ask for justice against communal violence as impediment in development and economic progress – profit. They rebuff it as the “politicisation” of an event. Thus, they have been arguing for separation of ‘development’ from ‘politics’. This is core theoretical understanding of neo-liberal (Libertarian) at this juncture. Now if we look at Vastanvi the MBA graduate former VC of Deoband it might be said that his academic orientation is to understand development in terms of ‘profit maximisation’. This understanding drives him closer to neo-liberals and its icon like Narendra Modi. But a close watch at the micro level in Gujarat would burst the myth of development. Mallika Sarabhai, an artist and danseuse, argued that “… while huge subsidies are being granted to our richest business houses, over 75000 small and medium businesses have shut down rendering one million more people jobless?...You know of Gujarat’s fast paced growth and the FDI pouring in, you have no doubt seen pictures of the Czars of the business world lining up to pour money to develop us. To develop whom? Did you know that our poor are getting poorer? That while the all India reduction in poverty between 1993 and 2005 is 8.5%, in Gujarat it is a mere 2.8%? That we have entire farmer families committing suicides, not just the male head of the household?” She adds scathingly, “With our CM, hailed as the CEO of Gujarat, we have once again achieved number one status – in indebtedness. In 2001, the State debt was Rs.14,000 crores. This was before the State became a multinational company. Today it stands at Rs.1,05,000 crores. And to service this debt we pay a whopping Rs 7,000 crores a year, 25% of our annual budget. Meanwhile, our spending on education is down, no new public hospitals for the poor are being built, and fishermen are going a begging as the seas turn turgid with effluents.”
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According to another research findings “about 50,000 families (or 2.5 million persons) have been displaced from about 19.6 million hectares of land constituting around 20% of the state’s geographical area” (Lobo & Kumar, 2009). As a Masters in Business Administration Vastanvi must be aware of these facts about “vibrant Gujarat”. However, if a “modernist” could hold the highest post of Dar-ul Uloom it itself is a manifestation of change that has been sweeping the 200 years old learning centre. As Head of Deoband with modern outlook he could really have significant feat by helping students to cope up with the job insecurity of the market. Who knew better than him about the job insecurity in this volatile market? Introducing modern courses would have really been beneficial for Muslim students at Deoband. But, this has already been started even before Vastanvi took over as VC. English and Computer Education have been initiated in Deoband. May be Vastanvi had an agenda of educational reform like of central government under the “able” leadership of Mr. Kapil Sibal. Second factor which may have led Vastanvi to extol Modi was the communal milieu of the nation. To ponder further upon this question we have to understand the context of an individual’s existence and his relationship with the state. Vastanvi born and brought up in Gujarat must have had a day to day experience of communal targeting of Muslims and mobilisation of Hindu right wing in the name of Gujarati asmita (Pride). Under immense pressure
after Gujarat riot of February 2002 people like Vastanvi have accepted second class citizenship as a strategy to bargain security for their life and want to “forget the past”. But my question to Vastanvi is that how many riots, killings, staged encounters, tortures and state apathy a Muslim should forget. It is not about one Gujarat of 2002. It is about the daily experience of insecurity of 13.4 per cent citizens of this country facing each moment. I have two problems with Vastanvi’s praise of Modi. His understanding of development which conveniently disassociates with the ‘politics’. His economics has no relation with the poor – most of the Muslims are poor (Sachar Committee Report). If development is the only criteria to justify or legitimise the rule then he should also admire Hitler’s reign, as the world saw a meteoric rise of Germany during that period. Second, he is propagating to accept second rate citizenship in our own country, which I feel, one should not accept and fight against the injustice. This nation is our’s and as a citizen Constitution has granted us certain rights which no Modi can take away. [Mr. Manzoor Ali, a Ph.D. scholar at the Centre for Political Studies, SSS, JNU, New Delhi, is currently working as a ‘Research Assistant’ on a UGC Project entitled “Political Opportunism & Economic Performance in Major Indian States 1967-2007”, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. He has also worked as a ‘Research Assistant’ under Mr. Kuldip Nayar and as a ‘Research Associate’ under Prof. Zoya Hasan.]
“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.” — Charles Bukowski “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” —Winston Churchill
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Book Review Section: [BOOK: The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Danish: Verdens sande tilstand, literal translation: The Real State of the World) by Danish environmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg. It was first published in Danish in 1998, and the English edition was published as a work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001.]
—Reviewed by Subhankar Ray [Mr. Subhankar Ray is a researcher in Biochemistry and has been, for a long time, associated with the Renaissance movement.]
Impending Destruction of Environment: A Myth? Continued from the previous issue....... Asthma and Allergy: e all hear that asthma and allergy have increased largely as compared to the past and this increase is due to environmental pollution. It is true that surveys in many countries show that asthma and allergy are on the rise. But the Author doubts whether environmental pollution is responsible for this. The actual reason for asthma and allergy is still unknown. This increase might be due to our present over consciousness of health. Moreover due to widespread use of antibiotic, vaccination etc germ-induced communicable diseases have mostly been controlled. So when a foreign particle enters into our body our immune system reacts more violently than it did before. Allergy etc might happen due to this. Moreover in developed countries people more often remains closed door and there are many changes in life style. The increase in the incidence of asthma and allergy might be the result of all these.
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Water Pollution: Seventy percent of our earth’s surface is covered with water, which contains 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water. As per UN survey the water in the ocean is quite clean. Although here and there some amount of zinc, manmade organic matters, radioactivity, oil etc are those have little influence on life and there is no imminent danger for aquatic animals. Sixty percent of the pollution by oil that happens in water of the oceans is due to the routine work by the tankers, 20% from tanker accidents and 15% from natural causes beneath the oceans. It is worth mentioning that due to extraction of oil from beneath the ocean the pressure inside is reduced and for this leakage under the ocean is less. The amount of oil that is being spelt over due to tanker accident is getting reduced gradually from 1970 to 1999. One of the two major accidents of oil spill was during Iraqi war in which 7 million tons of oil was poured in the Gulf at the order of Saddam. It is true that it was a great shock in the balance of environment. But survey by EU, Environmental Commission of Saudi Arabia and by some other commissions after several years after this showed that the balance had been largely restored. The disaster that was anticipated did not happen; very little oil remained. Before that in 1989 in Prince William Sound in Alaska a tanker accident happened in which more than 250,000 barrels of oil spilled in the ocean. For many this accident has remained a symbol of tanker accident. Survey showed that many USA citizens feel that sea beach and the water near the beach are still polluted. It is true that due to the accident oil was spread 1,300 miles of the stretch of the beach and there were death of numerous animals among which there were 250,000 of birds. Apparently it is dreadful to all. But it might sound unbelievable but true that these numbers of birds are regularly killed in USA due to collision with glass plate and in UK by pet cats in two days. It might be irrelevant but still the Reviewer mentions that there are not many types of animals that are more ferocious than cat. It is used to kill animals without any reason. It is
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strange that many ‘animal lovers’ use to hug cats and dogs. Later investigation showed that the situation there had returned to previous normalcy. It is also strange that without depending on the natural process the effort that was made to clean by utilizing 2 billion produced worst result. Questions were raised in US Congress whether this amount of money could not be better utilized. As stated above the huge water of the oceans are not polluted to any significant extent. Water pollution is prominent in water near the sea beach, lakes and rivers. The amount of oil that get mixed with the water of the sea shore due to routine work by tankers has been much reduced by international agreement and improved technology. The problem of water pollution in lakes and rivers are similar to that of air pollution. In the early phase of economic development this increases but after sometime the pollution declines again. However with more development there is increase of coli bacteria and decrease of oxygen in water. The reason for this is that very developed countries then do not bother about river pollution because people do not depend on river water. Still in those countries sea shore and water nearby are cleaner with very little presence of toxic chemicals such as DDT. But deficiency of oxygen in water and eutrophication are worrisome for many. Due to extensive use of fertilizer large amount of fertilizers and organic materials produced through agriculture are now pass into the water bodies. As a result algae and similar organisms flourish and for which aquatic animals suffer. But we have to bear this unfortunate situation considering the dire necessity of increased food production. If we want a remedy for this we have to spent 2 billion of US $ per year only in the Gulf of Mexico. The Author suggests that it might be spend more meaningfully; this amount of money could feed 30 million of people of the third world countries for one year. Garbage: We often become worried about where to dispose
of the huge garbage that we are producing. The Author quotes a few lines from the famous book of Albert Gore Earth in the Balance. A similar vein is of Isaac Asimov the scientist and popular science writer. “This fear is perhaps expressed more clearly by former vice president Al Gore, who is disturbed by the floodtide of garbage spilling out of our cities and factories. As landfills overflow, incinerators foul the air and neighboring communities and states attempt to dump their overflow problem on us,” we are now finally realizing that we are “running out of ways to dispose of our waste in a manner that keeps it either out of sight or mind.” The problem is that we have assumed “there would always be a whole wide enough and deep enough to take care all of our trash. But like so many other assumptions about the infinite capacity to absorb the impact of human civilization, this one too was wrong.” Equally, Isaac Asimov in his environmental book tells us that “almost all the existing landfills are reaching their maximum capacity, and we are running out of places to put new ones.” According to World Bank, those countries, which have more GDP have more garbage. But at a certain level of increase in GDP this trend get reduced. The amount of garbage going to dumping ground is reduced. This is because some are recycled, some are used as fertilizer and some are burnt. Another reason is that at the higher stage of GDP increase service sectors get preference for which garbage is less produced. The Author by giving the example of USA analyzes the problem. Each USA citizen produces 2 Kg of garbage per day, which means in USA 2 billion ton of garbage are produced per year. Obviously instant consideration makes one to wonder where all these garbage could be dumped. But the Author by mentioning the source shows that the garbage that will be produced in 21st century by all the habitants of USA a volume of space, which is 18 miles in length, 18 miles in breath and 100 ft deep is sufficient. This space is equivalent to 0.009% of that of USA. In other western countries the garbage produced by a person is relatively less. So the
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problem is mainly administrative. Nobody permits to dump garbage in his backyard. The problem is not the least of lack of space. In Kolkata in our country for more than a century garbage is dumped in the field of ‘Dhapa’. But there happens to be no problem of lack of space. On the other hand people of Kolkata have got two prized areas ‘Swabhumi’ and ‘Parama Island’ from the landfill. Now there is a craze in our country to discard the use of plastic. Different voluntary organizations, organizations of scientific workers, environmentalists and even government are trying to ban plastic. But we have just noticed that there will be no dearth of space to dump garbage including plastics. If plastics remain in a particular underground place for centuries what harm do we have? It is true that plastic can clog drains, sewerage etc. But this also happens with biodegradable paper, straw, earthen pot etc. Rather plastic does not rot, but these biodegradable substances easily rot and could spread pollution and are danger to public health. Moreover to produce a particular quantity of plastic materials lesser amount of raw material is needed than to produce the same quantity of biodegradable material. We often do not understand that the main problems are our bad habit and administrative failure but not plastic. The Conclusions of Fourth Section: In this Chapter the Author provides a brief conclusion of fourth section. Pollution has not weakened our prosperity. Pollution has significantly reduced in developed countries. Pollution specially of air has increased significantly in developing countries. The reason behind this is economic development. A similar situation existed in developed countries 100-200 years ago. Similar to developed countries pollution will be decreased in developing countries with further improvement of economic situation. Development and environment are not contradictory but complementary to each other,
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“without adequate environmental protection, growth is undermined, but environmental protection is unaffordable without growth”. Those environmental problems that were supposed to be very complicated such as acid rain, spillage of oil, pollution of oceans could not do much harm. The loss has been restored. The aquatic animals that live near the sea shore have suffered a little but we have to bear this for want of improvement in agriculture. The rivers of developed countries are now much cleaner. The disposal of garbage is not a problem at all. In essence due to significant development environment is not at stake. Still we have to think about some possible dangers of the future, which are controversial such as climate change due to global warming, extinction of biodiversity etc. Do all these challenge our prosperity? In subsequent sections the Author addresses these issues. Our Fear for Chemicals: This Chapter starts by quoting few lines from Silent Spring written by Rachel Carlson. Time Magazine considered her to be one of the most 100 influential thinkers of 20th century. The book written in 1972 might be considered to be the beginning of the present environmental movement. By using poetic language Carlson described a future world where there is shadow of death everywhere. Why this shadow of death? This is for the present era of chemicals. The use of chemicals, specially pesticides, which she named as elixir of death bring fear to many of our minds. Amongst chemicals, the Author discusses mostly about pesticides. It is true that cancer is gradually increasing in the population even on percentage basis. But if we consider age this rate increased sometime in the past but now it is slightly decreasing. If we consider smoking then it is still lesser. We all know that the possibility of getting cancer increases with increase in age. It is true that experiments in laboratory show that many chemicals and pesticides that we now use could develop cancer in laboratory animals. So
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human being might develop cancer from these chemicals. But in many such experiments the amount of chemicals that is used on animals are far greater than that is usually going to human body. Moreover in our food and in natural products there are many chemicals that are poisonous and might develop cancer. Because plant could not defend itself by running away and it has no immune system plant uses these chemicals for defense. These chemicals could develop cancer by going inside our body through food. By comparing the effects of natural and man made products the Author shows that there is no reason to believe that man made products do more harm. The main issue is also that if you did not use fertilizers and pesticides then food production would be less. Then how we would be able to feed this vast population? Moreover research showed that increased consumption of fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of cancer. With lesser production prices would be more and
poor people will suffer mostly. We could not totally eliminate the possibility of any harm, we have to judge the possible gain or harm relatively. In late 1980s in Peru due to fear of cancer, treatment of drinking water by chlorine was suspended. But for this there was epidemic of cholera. Several rich and developed countries have estimated the cost of significantly reducing or totally eliminating the use of pesticides. These countries might bear this cost but the Author feels that it would be better if this cost is utilized in some other important projects than to eliminate the use of pesticide. A major drawback of this Chapter is that only the role of chemicals and pesticides with cancer is discussed. It would be better if other diseases and other difficulties that we face are discussed. However it could be guessed that his conclusion would be same. Continued in the next issue...................
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Dipavali Sen [Ms. Dipavali Sen has been a student of Delhi
School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a prolific writer and has written creative pieces and articles for children as well as adults, both in English and Bengali. Dipavali@gmail.com]
A Tradition Restored [BOOK: Nadir Pariksa in Indo-Tibetan Medicine (English) by Dr Bhagwan Dash, Hind Pocket Books, Delhi, 2011, paperback with line drawings, 9.5 x 7 sq inches, pp 76, price Rs 195.] back I had read the Bengali novel Long Arogya Niketan by Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya and also watched its film version where Bikash Roy performed the key role of the vaidya or kaviraja who could diagnose ailments with superb exactitude simply by examining the patient’s pulse. The novel (and so the film) was set in rural Bengal – the district of Birbhum if I recall correctly – in the era just before Independence. It showed the conflict of age-old Ayurveda’s practices with the (then) new-fangled ones of Allopathy. The old changed, yielding place to the new, though not without a struggle. That is why I was thrilled to find this book – Nadi Pariksa. For, this is an attempt to restore the lost
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fundamentals of Ayurveda to modern times. In a slim and attractive paperback, it demystifies the ancient science (and art) of pulse diagnosis and revives it in the context of modern medicine. Nadi Pariksa is not a lost tradition. It is practiced and taught, and readers can pick at least some of it up through this book. Its author Dr Bhagwan Dash is a scholar extraordinary. From Sanskrit his area of interest has spread to Ayurveda as well as Tibetan medicine. Not just a scholar, he is also a practicing Ayurvedic physician. He has been an advisor to the Government of India and a consultant with the World Health Organization. Although based in Delhi, he has traveled extensively in this connection, even to the remote stretches of Mongolia. Well into his eighties, he continues to travel and carry Indian traditions across the globe. In the Preface (pp ix-xi), Dash explains that when foreign invaders prosecuted scholars and spiritual leaders in India, they often took shelter in Tibet. Because of geographical reasons, Tibet was not so accessible to foreign invaders. Thus several Indian texts, in translated form, remained preserved in Tibet. Rgyud bzi or the tantra of Jivaka, the physician of Buddha, is one such text. It is composed in the form of a dialogue between two emanations of the Buddha. It was originally in Sanskrit, and only later translated into Tibetan. Dr Dash has presented some of the invaluable information in Rgyud bzi in a clear and easily decipherable way. Below the Tibetan text, the Sanskrit equivalents are given (without case-endings). Even below, comes the English translation. As a further aid, Indo-Romanic equivalents of Devnagari and Tibetan scripts have been provided in a tabular form (pp xiii-xiv). The Introduction (pp xv-xxvii) is an invaluable guide to the uninitiated. In it, Dr Dash states: “Perfect and comprehensive nadi pariksa needs deep concentration of mind, which culminates from serious and sincere spiritual practice and long-standing experience.” Citing Kaviraja Gananath Sen at the All India Ayurvedic Congress 1931, he says that the nadi cannot possibly give every information about the
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patient, and nadi-tellers who say so should be avoided. But he stresses that there have been genuine experts in the field and some of them “are still living in isolation”. In the end, Dr Dash says: “Ayurvedic physicians should not place blind faith in the Euro-centric attitude of European Orientalists and historians of Ayurveda, keeping in view the instructions provided by Susruta which are as follows: “………… By the study of a single sastra, a man can never catch the true importance of this science of medicine. Therefore, a physician should study as many allied branches of science or philosophy as possible….” Then follow thirteen valuable sections where the Rgyud bzi dialogue is presented (pp 1-59). The Tibetan text first in English capitals, and then Sanskrit equivalents in Devnagari below. Once a verse or paragraph is complete, the English translation follows, correct and coherent. I cannot help giving a few instances of the nuggets of information this book provides. “If the pulse feels like a leather-sac, empty and periodically missing, then this indicates the aggravation of rlun (vayu). If the pulse is subtle and quick, then it indicates the aggravation of mkhris-pa (pitta). If the pulse is deep and adhered, then it indicates the aggravation of badkan (kapha).” (p 41) “The pulse of a patient suffering from gzer
(sula-roga) is short and like a blower …..The pulse in gab-pa’i-tshad (antargata-jvara or hidden fever) is elevated, slow and fickle.”(p 44) Amazingly, the pulse of one person may be examined to find out about the condition of another. Khyim or Parivara-nadi is the examination of one member of the family to determine the health of other members. e.g., if some one’s pulse in the family overflows and then suddenly falls, some family calamity is imminent. Grog-phyva (Mitra-nadi) is the examination of the pulse of a person to determine the condition of his friend. Bu-rtsa (Santana-nadi) is the examination of the pulse of a pregnant woman to determine the conditions of the foetus. In the section ‘Illustrations’ (pp 61-73), there are line drawings to help visualize the position of the hands of the physician and patient during examination and even their sitting postures. The book ends with a rich bibliography of ancient and modern texts. (pp 74-76) Modern medical technology such as echo-cardiographs or scans can examine the claims made in this book, and in the process, contribute to the subject of pulse diagnosis. Reader-friendly, this book will interest not only the physicians and historians, but anyone who values the world’s cultural heritage. I only wish the author of Arogya Niketan was alive to read this ancient yet modern text.
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Humanist News Section: I Sub: Invitation for the Birth Centenary of Saraswathi Gora—National conference at Vijayawada on Sept. 28-29, 2011 [Saraswathi Gora: freedom fighter, social reformer, ardent champion of castelessness and eradication of untouchability and co-founder of the Atheist Centre and atheist leader] Dear friends, Greetings from Atheist Centre, Vijayawada! We are happy inform you that the Birth Centenary of Saraswathi Gora (Sept. 28,1912-Aug. 19, 2006), a veteran freedom fighter, social revolutionary, champion of atheism as a positive way of life & co-founder of the World’s first known Atheist Centre, will be celebrated with a National Conference organized by Atheist Centre, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India on September 28-29 this year. It will be held at the spacious Siddhartha Auditorium. Key Note address will be delivered by Mr. Jim Herrick, known Humanist and Rationalist & President, South Place Ethical Society, London. Champions of atheism, rationalism, humanism, secularism, Gandhism and social change will participate. Many people have already confirmed their participation in this national event. The participants and speakers in the Conference include Vice-Chancellors and professors of various Universities, eminent educationists, social workers, champions of atheism, rationalism, humanism and skepticism and social change, editors of newspapers, known public figures, life-long followers of Gora and Saraswathi Gora, intercaste and inter religious married couples, who broke the barriers of caste and religion, admirers of Saraswathi Gora’s programmes and policies, and many young people from various walks of life will
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participate in the National Conference. Many have already confirmed their participation. We request you to kindly send your message on this occasion to show solidarity and commitment to the ideals and values she cherished and put into practiced. We will publish the material on the occasion of the National Conference. We are herewith enclosing a note on Saraswathi Gora’s life and work. We are looking forward for a positive response from you. We look forward for your continued cooperation and support to further strengthen the secular, atheist, and humanist ramparts we guard. With kind regards, Yours humanly, Vijayam Dr. Vijayam, Executive director, Atheist Centre, Benz Circle, Vijayawada, 520010, AP, India Phone +91 866-2472330 Fax +91 866 2484850 atheistcentre@yahoo.com; positiveatheist@gmail.com Web: www.atheistcentre.in II Public Convention on Save Democracy Desh Bachao – Desh Banao - A Resolve: June 27th 2011, New Delhi We all who have assembled here today discussed the political situation in the country in the wake of ongoing struggles across the country in Assam against evictions, Narmada Valley against submergence and displacement, Golibar, Mumbai against Shivalik; Jagatsinghpur, Orissa against POSCO; Raigarh, Chattisgarh against Jindals; Mundra, Gujarat and Chausra, MP against Adani; Kalinganagar Orissa against Tata and thousand other places. The struggle against Reliance, Jindal,
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Tata, Adani, Jaypee, Mittals and other Corporations and the collaborating State power is not only to protect their livelihood but central to this is defending the basic tenets of our democracy. The overall struggle is for deepening of democracy in the country – to establish the rule of law, to ensure right to life and livelihood with dignity, to ensure democratic control over natural resources – jal, jangal, jameen and Khaniz (land, water, forest and minerals). The social and political churning witnessed at this moment in the country today is encouraging. In a political context where the questions of working class and poorest of the poor assumes prime importance we RESOLVE that: ñ Our collective struggles have to deal with the corruption at every level and work towards establishing communities control over the natural wealth of the country. In the wake of increasingly oppressive power of State and Corporations, our collective struggles of dalits, adivasis, women, urban poor, the displaced, workers, farmers etc. have to challenge the crony capitalism and work towards a society based on equality and political freedom. ñ Everyone need to join this struggle for stronger legislations like Lokpal Bill which will control the corruption in this country and other measures which will bring back the black money stashed in the country in different forms of illegal and benami investments and tax heavens in foreign countries. ñ We will struggle together to scrap the regressive legislations like Land Acquisition Act, Special Economic Zone Act and others and agitate for drafting of a development planning act in this country with the free informed and prior consent of the strengthened Gram / Basti Sabhas and other local self-government institutions. We urge everyone - people from all walks of life workers, adivasis, dalits, urban poor, women, men and professionals, intelligentsia and everyone else to join in this struggle against exploitation,
oppression and inequality and secure justice and dignity for everyone. Let us all join hands to work together! The Convention was addressed by Medha Patkar, Kuldip Nayar, Justice (Retd) Rajinder Sachar, Swami Agnivesh, Mastram Kapoor, Yogendra Yadav, Arvind Kejariwal, Raja Bundela, Dr. Sunilam, Ravi Kiran Jain, Smt Manju Mohan, Kavita Krishnan, Ajit Jha, Rakesh Rafiq and many other activists. Note : Next national meeting was held on on July 3rd, Sunday, 10:00 am onwards @ Centre of Science for Villages, Wardha, Maharashtra. For details write to 9818905316. III Citizens of Gujarat stage demonstration against manhandling of girl students by police: The Citizens of Gujarat took very serious note of the manhandling of girl students by Police during 27th June College Bandh by All India D.S.O. Today citizens in large number demonstrated with Black Strips on their shoulders, opposite Navrangpura Police Station. Among the participants were Sh. Prakashbhai N. Shah, well known journalist and activist, Sh. Ilaben Pathak, President, AWAG, Sh. Gautambhai Thaker, General Secretary, P.U.C.L., Gujarat, Sh. Prof. Rohitbhai Shukla, well known economist and President, Gujarat Chapter, All India Save Education Committee, Sh. Dilipbhai Chandulal, Dr. Swatiben Joshi, Sh. Manishi Jani, Sh. Prof. Naliniben Trivedi, Prof. Sanjaybhai Bhave, Dr. Bharatbhai Mehta, Sh. Ritaben Bhatt, Sh. Ramaben Vora, Sh. Sarahben Baldiwala, Advocate Sh. Kamleshbhai Bhavsar, Sh. Nainaben Shah, Sh. Mahadevbhai Vidrohi, Prof. Kanubhai Khadadiya and others. The citizens demonstrated silently. But they gave a loud message that “We the Citizens expect decent behaviour from Police as law is applicable to all including Police.” And “Say no to manhandling of girl students by male police”. News by Gautam Thaker, General Secretary, PUCL, Gujarat
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IV ‘Anti-Emergency Day’' Meeting organisized by IRHA, PUCL & others on 25th July 2011 at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. The following photographs were taken by Shri Mukul Dube in the meeting.
Written report will follow soon. Pictures sent by —N.D. Pancholi, President, PUCL, Delhi Unit, Secretary, IRI V PUCL supports the movement against privatisation of water in Delhi: Press Release: Addressing a dharna by SUCI (Communist) activists at the Police Headquarters, ITO, New Delhi, Justice Rajindar Sachar, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and Ex-National President, PUCL described the move by Delhi government to privatise/sell water to the people of Delhi. He said that even as per a government survey just 18 per cent households in rural India have access to basic amenities—drinking water, 37
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sanitation and electricity and urban areas enjoy these facilities in 68 per cent households. Drinking water, he said, is the single most requirement for keeping alive after oxygen. Any government, which fails to provide even that minimum requirement has no right to be in power. The attempt by the Delhi government to ‘sell’ water means that it wants to deprive the already suffering masses of whatever water they have access to and to make it available to the rich in plenty even for wastage. He said that on behalf of the PUCL he condemns this anti-people and anti-poor move. He also assured all possible support of the PUCL to the agitating activists in their fight against this move to deprive people of their right to have water. The dharna was also addressed by Krishan Chakravarty, Polit Bureau member of the SUCI (Communist) among others. It was attended by some 200-250 activists of the SUCI (C) and some members of the Delhi PUCL. Delhi PUCL General Secretary Shivakant Gorakhpuri and Mahi Pal Singh, National Secretary, PUCL were also present. Earlier the SUCI (C) activists, including a large number of women, had marched from the Red Fort to the Police Headquarters at ITO where they were stopped by the police. Later a delegation of the SUCI (C) submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister’s office and the activists dispersed after resolving to take the agitation to all areas of Delhi and to intensify their demand to withdraw the proposed move to privatize water in Delhi. —News sent by Mahi Pal Singh (National Secretary, PUCL) VI People’s Union for Civil Liberties: Delhi: A meeting on “Proposals & policies for privatization and commercialisation of water and their impact” was held at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi on Wednesday, 27th July, 2011 at 5.30 PM.
Mr. N.D. Pancholi, President, PUCL (Delhi) had sent the following message dated 22nd July, 2011: Dear friends, PUCL (Delhi unit) has organized a meeting to discuss and understand the issues involved in the proposed policies for privatization and commercialization of water resources and its distribution in Delhi and the impact of such policies on the people, especially the poorer sections of society. Speakers include Shri Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People, and Prof. Phillippe Cullet, Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre For Policy Research, Delhi. —N.D. Pancholi, President, PUCL (Delhi) F-24/72, Ground Floor, Sector-3, Rohini, Delhi 110085. pucldelhi@gmail.com (Details of the meeting may follow later.) VII Dr. P.M. Bharagava speaks at Atheist Centre on Scientific Temper: P.M. Bhargava, noted scientist and former Director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology delivering the Chennupati Seshagiri Rao Memorial Lecture in Vijayawada on Tuesday. Lack of scientific temper is the biggest impediment for the progress of country, said former vice-chairman of National Knowledge Commission and former director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology P.M. Bhargava. Delivering the Chennupati Seshagiri Rao Memorial Lecture on “Youth, Science and Scientific Outlook for a better future” here on Tuesday, the former CCMB scientist said that scientific temper was an “indispensable ingredient of a secular outlook”. While the Constitution of India declared that it was a secular State, religion continued to hold sway over a large number of people, decades after Independence. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s and UPA
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Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s attending the funeral of Godman Satya Sai Baba was “neither constitutional nor secular”, Mr. Bhargava said. The huge amount of “hate mail” he received from readers when he wrote an article in The Hinducriticising the Godman was a clear indication of the lack of scientific temper amongst the people of India wherever they were. Some of the hate mails he received were from educated persons living abroad. Mr. Bhargava said that some of the scientists in the country lived double lives, teaching Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to students by day, but endorsing the Theory of Creation at home in the evening. It was very unfortunate that rocket scientists went to Tirupati to pray for the success of the launch instead of having confidence in their efforts, he observed. People flocked to what were being popularly known as ‘visa temples’ to enable them to get a visa to a foreign country. He said that the clergy or religious heads continued to be the worst enemies of scientific temper in the country. Quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr. Bhargava said that the word “scientific temper” was coined by the former Prime Minister and used in the ‘Discovery of India’. Scientist, science communicator and actor Chandana Chakrabarti in a power point presentation explained how everyone used the “method of science” for making various decisions. While science promoted expansion of knowledge, religions tried to curb it. Wife of Seshagiri Rao and former Vijayawada MP Chennupati Vidya, her children and Seshagiri Rao Charitable Trust members Vazeer, Rashmi, Keerthi, Deeksha and son-in-laws G.Samaram and Meher Prasad spoke. —News first published on July 20, 2011 00:00 IST | Updated: July 20, 2011 04:21 IST in: The Hindu, National/Andhra Pradesh. —Received by the RH from: Dr. Vijayam positiveatheist@gmail.com
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VIII Report on Dr. Innaiah’s meeting at Chicago:
Dr. Innaiah spoke at Chicago Sahiti Mitrulu on July 17th 2011. Report by: Prakash Thimmapuram, Secretary,Chicago Sahiti Mitrulu Literary friends of Chicago held a meeting on 17th July 2011 in Naperville library with Dr Narisetti Innaiah as chief guest. Dr Rani Chintam, Mr. Jayadev introduced the speaker. Mr. N. Innaiah in his hour long speech hinted how the ancient and middle ages literature in Telugu brought the ugly trends of untouchability, caste discrimination and inequality among women. While independent movement was going on, simultaneously the reformist and Renaissance trends in literature cropped in which made tremendous influence on people. Kandukuri Veerasalingam, Gurajada Apparao emphasized upon the atrocities towards child widows and dowry system. Dr Cattamanchi Ramalingareddi made scathing criticism on prabhanda literature where women are depicted as sex symbols. Tripuraneni Ramaswami commenced critical appraisal of epics, puranas, ithihasas and in his satire brought out all social evils perpetuated in the name of divine seers and caste divisions.
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AUGUST 2011
He also practiced non religious marriage systems with oath taking in Telugu so that the couple can understand, what is going on. For the first time Mr. Gudavalli Ramabrahmam started reformist films which in turn inspired popular stage dramas, short stories, political satire of Gopichand and short plays of D V Narasaraju, V R Narla, Avula Sambasivarao, P V Rajamannar. The short stories of Palagummi Padmaraju got world recognition. Mr. Alapati Ravindranath and others pleaded for scientific sex education. Chalam with his fiction made women conscious of their rights which were followed by P. Sridevi, Ranganayakamma. Journalism made deep impact on people, through which V R Narla brought peoples voice to assert. Scientific histories were written by Suravaram Prtapreddi, Bhattiprolu Hanumantharao, Kalluri Basaveswararao.
Writers like B V Narasimharao produced secular and progressive literature for children. In art field Mr Sanjiv Dev showed the examples of critical analysis while G V Krishna Rao brought out critical plays. The reactionary trends in literature which was symbolized by Viswanatha Satyanarayana were attacked by Sri Sri, Gajeela Mallareddi, Rachamallu Ramachandra Reddi. Joshua with his poems like Gabbilam made people conscious of the problem of untouchability. Dr Innaiah regretted that Telugu people in USA are not bringing that culture with them. He pleaded for scientific approach to solve problems. A lively question answer session followed wherein the participants actively participated. Mr. Prakash Secretary, Dr. Ravireddy President, Rani Chintam vice presiednt, Sarada Mettupalli Treasurer of Chicago Sahiti Mitrulu presented memento to Dr. N. Innaiah on behalf of Sahiti Mitrulu.
Letter to the Editor: The Tibet Cause Dr. Lobsang Singay is going to assume charge as the elected head of the Central Tibetan Administration in August. Sangay, a 43 year old fellow at Harvard Law School will start a new era with the abdication of temporal authority by Dalai Lama. In his retirement speech, dated 11. 3. 2011. Dalai Lama said, “Dalai Lamas as the spiritual and temporal authority of Tibet did not begin during the period of first four Dalai Lamas. It started during the time of the fifth Dalai Lama under different circumstances and under the influence of the Mongal chieftain Gushri Khan.... but as we are in the 21st century, sooner or later, the time for change is imminent”. According to him, “It will fully expose the falsehood and lies of the Chinese government that there is no Tibet problem except the issue of the Dalai Lamas’s personal right.” ‘Gonden Phodrang’ i.e. ‘Dalai Lama -in- Council’ will revert to its original role as being the spiritual head as was during the first four Dalai Lamas. In the same speech Dalai Lama has clearly assured 6 million Tibetans that he was not going to give up the cause of Tibet. Without being entangled in the confusing nomenclature of the Tibetan Government-in- Exile, we may assume that ‘the cause of Tibet’, includes political aspirations of the Tibetans as well. Only Dalai Lama will no more be involved in the process. Dr. Sangay, the political leader of the Tibetan exile movement has already acknowledged that the younger generation wants Independence. He has also appealed to the Indian Government to make Tibet ‘a core issue’ in its relation with China. In this context we may cite Ms. Su Kyi’s recent message to India that this country “should do more to support the democratic movement in my country (Myanmar) instead of putting its trade and strategic interests in the forefront.” It equally applies to the cause of Tibet. The Indian civil society is fast separating itself from the polity as envisaged by M.N. Roy. It is high time we also take up the cause of Tibet. —Ajit Bhattarcharyya
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THE RADICAL HUMANIST
AUGUST 2011
INDIAN RENAISSANCE INSTITUTE (IRI) G-3, Plot 617, Shalimar Garden Extn. I, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad (UP) 201005. Ph:91-1202648691, M-09811099532 To All Members of the Indian Renaissance Institute, Trustees & Special invitees. Sub: (i) General Body Meeting of the Indian Renaissance Institute to be held at New Delhi on 20th & 21st August, 2011. (ii) Meeting of the Executive Council of the Indian Radical Humanist Association (iii) M.N. Roy Memorial Lecture on 29th September, 2011 Dear friends, The General Body meeting of the Indian Renaissance Institute shall be held on 20th & 21st August, 2011, Saturday & Sunday, at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi as per following programme: Date, Time & Venue: 20th August, 2011—10 AM to 5 PM (Lunch 1 to 2 PM). 21st August, 2011—10 AM to 12 PM Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation, 223, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi. (Near ITO Chowk), Ph: 011-23237491, 23237493 Agenda: · Confirmation of the minutes of the meeting of the last General Body Meeting of the Indian Renaissance Institute held on 27th June, 2010 · Presentation and consideration of the Secretary’s Report. · The Status of court case regarding 13 Mohini Road pending at Dehradun and Uttaranchal High Court. · The publication of the ‘Radical Humanist’ and how to make it financially viable and fruitful for the Radical Humanist Movement. · Publication of the Humanist Literature and M.N. Roy’s selected works, especially 5th Volume of Selected Works. · Transfer of Accounts of IRI Mumbai branch to Delhi. · Other programmes and activities of the Indian Renaissance Institute. · Election of new trustees · Any other matter with permission of the Chair. Immediately after the General Body meeting, a meeting of the newly elected Board of Trustees will be held between 12 to 1 PM to transact emergent & any agenda as suggested by the President. Accommodation: Limited beds are available at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi @ Rs.200/- per bed per day. Those who desire accommodation may please write to the undersigned before 12th August, 2011. Please make it convenient to attend the General Body meeting. (ii) The meeting of the Executive Council of the Indian Radical Humanist Association shall also be held between 2 to 5 PM on Sunday, 21st August, 2011. (iii) M.N. Roy Memorial Lecture: I am pleased to inform you that Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has agreed to deliver M.N. Roy Memorial Lecture on 29th Sept. 2011 at New Delhi. Details of the lecture will be communicated later. —N.D. Pancholi, Secretary, Phone No. 09811099532
RNI No. 43049/85 Post Office Regd. No. Meerut-146-2009-2011 to be posted on 2nd. of every month at H.P.O. Meerut Cantt. RENAISSANCE PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED 15, Bankim Chatterjee Street (2nd floor), Kolkata: 700 073, Mobile: 9831261725 NEW FROM RENAISSANCE By SIBNARAYAN RAY Between Renaissance and Revolution-Selected Essays: Vol. I- H.C.350.00 In Freedom’s Quest: A Study of the Life and Works of M.N. Roy: Vol.Ill H.C.250.00 Against the Current - H.C.350.00 By M.N. ROY Science and Superstition - H.C.125.00 AWAITED OUTSTANDING PUBLICATIONS By RABINDRANATH TAGORE & M.N. ROY Nationalism - H.C.150.00 By M.N. ROY The Intellectual Roots of Modern Civilization - H.C.150.00 The Russian Revolution - P.B.140.00 The Tragedy of Communism - H.C.180.00 From the Communist Manifesto - P.B.100.00 To Radical Humanism - H.C.140.00 Humanism, Revivalism and the Indian Heritage - P.B. 140.00 By SIVANATH SASTRI A History of The Renaissance in Bengal —Ramtanu Lahiri: Brahman & Reformer H.C.180.00 By SIBNARAYAN RAY Gandhi, Gandhism and Our Times (Edited) - H.C.200.00 The Mask and The Face (Jointly Edited with Marian Maddern) - H.C.200.00 Sane Voices for a Disoriented Generation (Edited) - P.B. 140.00 From the Broken Nest to Visvabharati - P.B.120.00 The Spirit of the Renaissance - P.B.150.00 Ripeness is All - P.B. 125.00 By ELLEN ROY From the Absurdity to Creative Rationalism - P.B. 90.00 By V. M. TARKUNDE Voice of A Great Sentinel - H.C.175.00 By SWARAJ SENGUPTA Reflections - H.C 150.00 Science, Society and Secular Humanism - H.C. 125.00 By DEBALINA BANDOPADHYAY The Woman-Question and Victorian Novel - H.C. 150.00
Published and printed by Mr. N.D. Pancholi on behalf of Indian Renaissance Institute at 1183, Chatta Madan Gopal Maliwada, Chandni Chawk, Delhi, 110006 Printed by Nageen Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., W. K. Road, Meerut, 250002 Editor-Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001