Oct 2010 rh

Vol. 74 No 7

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THE RADICAL HUMANIST (Since April 1949)

OCTOBER 2010 Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)

487 God, Goodness and Morality —Leo Igwe Designing for Tolerance —Uday Dandavate Approach to the 12th Plan —R.K.A. Subrahmanya Ayodhya Verdict —Rajindar Sachar Caste-Wise Census —Mastram Kapoor City Planning & Management —J.S. Chandra Rao Ninja Turtle?

—Dipavali Sen M.N. Roy Founder Editor

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The Radical Humanist

Download and read the journal at www.theradicalhumanist.com

Vol. 74 Number 7 October 2010

—Contents—

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 Contributory Editors: Professor A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed Justice R.A. Jahagirdar (Retd.)

Dr. R.M. Pal Professor Rama Kundu Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat 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 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 In favour of: ‘The Radical Humanist’ 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

1. From the Editor’s Desk:

The Unnatural Demands from Democracy!

—Rekha Saraswat 1 2. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 2 3. Guests’ Section: God, Goodness and Morality —Leo Igwe 5 Designing for Tolerance —Uday Dandavate 9 Need for Better Planning And Management Of Cities —J.S. Chandra Rao 12 th Approach to the 12 Plan —R.K.A. Subrahmanya 14 4. Current Affairs: Ayodhya Verdict —Rajindar Sachar 18 Some Suggestions Regarding Caste-Wise Census —Mastram Kapoor 20 Jharkhand Imbroglio; Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act; Wholesale Price Index; Police Action; Martial Law —N.K. Acharya 22 5. Student’s & Research Scholar’s Section: Reason For Capital Inflows And Its Impact On Indian Economy

—Mahendra Mishra 6. Book Review Section: Girls and Girlhoods —Sakshi, Rachna, Guruvaishnav Ninja Turtle?

—Dipavali Sen 7. Humanist News Section:

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From The Editor’s Desk: The

unnatural demands from democracy!

There is rift every where. The whole world appears to be in a flux. Humanity is bewildered!

The Muslims feel cheated in India by the Hindus. The Americans feel cheated in the U.S. by the Muslims. The Jews continue to nurture the damage done to them in 586 BC, so many centuries ago, when they were exiled by the Babylonians. But since 1948 the Palestinians are putting the same blame on them. Both keep claiming the same place as their homeland. And the fight goes on to no end.The Christians are the ruling force in the West but they feel secluded in India.

The Sikhs continue to feel maligned, even after the British left us, for being targets of daily jokes. The best ever Prime Minister, by all means, does not seem to change people’s mind set.

The Hindus feel all the injustice has been done to them; being made vulnerable in their own land. The Dalits seem to have gained not much even after their quotas and reservations during the last sixty-three years of independence; the Brahmins, on the other hand, seem to enter the line of ‘uncared for’ in the lowest category of the middle-class with lots of prestige in their minds inherited from their ancestors but fearing an identity crisis now, feeling lost as if in a no-man’s land with guns of sarcasm and jeers aimed at them from all sides.

The Babri Masjid was demolished eighteen years ago; the pain is fresh. The Ram Mandir was demolished four hundred and eighty two years ago, the lesion is fresher. We dread the outcome of the Allahabad High Court decision. Whose wound will open and who will retort in what intensity, is the fear. The Supreme Court is being put to task. The points to be covered are not criminal but civil. But the apprehension is that the entire civic society is on the verge of criminal offence, once the judgment is declared. Some want mutual agreement on the 1

issue. But then, why did the disagreement begin at all? Have cultures, mentalities and outlooks changed since then? Where will the agreement come from when egos and prestige issues are more important in the name of religious sentiments on both sides? Both have all other issues solved, it seems. None of them have any worries about their basic needs. They don’t expect the government to pay attention to work for their minimum amenities.

They do not care if they remain unemployed and poor without proper roofs over their heads or two meals a day. All that they live and would rather die for are their temples and mosques.

Our country is poor yet developing. Common Wealth Games need to be hosted to prove that ‘we’ are developing and that ‘we’ are gaining economic profit (to make the poor rich as a bi-product). Who are ‘we’? The Ministers? The bureaucrats? The builders? The Contractors? The ‘Wealth’ seems to be ‘Common’ among them and R.K. Laxman’s ‘Common man’ is still hanging out unwanted and still poor, in the bargain.

Believe me; I am in no mood of bantering. The whole trick has been played upon the word democracy, I assert. It appears that the whole world has found the best drum to beat. Democracy seems to be that universal remedy which works on its own and solves all problems. We need not work for it. It is that magic wand which will give us bread and butter, a home, a job, our temples, our mosques, our synagogues, our churches, our gurudwaras and above all, our human rights.

So the philosophers expected!So the political scientists still believe! Do the people on the street also agree? I am sure not. Well then it is high time that they open their eyes to the glaring fact that democracy is a kind of arrangement of our relationships with others for which we all have to work together. No one will give it to us. Until and unless the world develops into a civilized, civil and civic society and puts its priorities straight its problems will continue to swell and democracy will continue to be targeted at with no fault of its own.

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From The Writings Laxmanshastri Joshi:

of

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Tarkateertha social harmony is examined and rejected. Without

Spiritual Materialism – A case for Atheism Translated by — Arundhati Khandkar [The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for Atheism, A New Interpretation of the Philosophy of Materialism written by Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been translated by his daughter, Arundhati Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades ago but his contribution in building up the philosophical base of Radical Humanism has been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time and the followers of the philosophy continue to do so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her father’s major works from to Marathi to English for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH. And to our pleasant surprise she informed that there is already the above mentioned book in English done by her. It is being serialised in The Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has also promised to send us in English, gradually, more of his Marathi literature.

Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70 years later, can be understood by the following paragraph given on the cover page of the book. —Rekha Saraswat] “That religion more often than not tends to 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

the dubious benefit of religion various secular worldly values have been developed and they have benefited mankind more than the vaunted religious values. With no sops of religion men have laboured hard and the finest admirable qualities of men’s spirit have been developed inspite of religious influence – the scientists and the reformers are examples. The humility that should force itself in the presence of the infinite and the unknown is more to be seen with the scientist, the philosopher than the religious leaders and often this drives them to fathom the depths of thought in the quest for truth. Rarely does religion explain the how and why. These have become the preoccupations of people in secular fields. With a sense of self-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, man has dropped the earlier props of religion. In India too, the social order was seen as embodying moral values.”

Contd. from the previous issue............ efore proceeding to Shastriji’s explorations into materialism as a philosophy, a brief examination of the tradition may be in order. Materialism in Indian philosophy has had a hoary past. Its origins are traced to the Rigveda. It has been referred to in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and not in any laudatory terms. The Buddha refers to the school as well. But its virtual disappearance from the country is an instance of the intolerance of the Indian people. We learn of this philosophy from references to it in other books and generally the references are far from laudatory. There is only one authentic text of this school and that too is of the 7th Century A.D., centuries after its propagation. Its frank hedonism, its condemnation of priestcraft, its ridiculing of the caste system and of the Brahmanical clergy and its dismissal of the Vedas as a mere abracadabra went against the grain of spiritualism of the Hindu philosophies and of religion. Its being atheistic again was not to contribute to its perpetualism.

It was left to Akshaya Kumar Datta (1820- 1856) to

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are attributed to him and human qualities posited. He has Greece during what has been described as the Axial to be propitiated all the time. period in human history (6th Century B.C.)

Eight proofs have been put forward for the existence of God, some of them logically rigorous.

Some posit this from religion, moral and aesthetic experience and some on the authority of a sage or a rishi. These are examined in detail and are found awanting.

Can the proof for God be established through scientific principles? We have demonstrated truth in physics and chemistry. Again we have necessary and appropriate concepts not posited through observation or experiment but by positing hypothesis. Thirdly, the positing of grounds of proof being possibly true, eg, the concept of vital force in biology. All these do not prove existence of God. However, scientists like Eddington and James Jeans have postulated a validity of the existence of God, though others are not inclined to accept this arguing that it does not satisfy the canons of verification or of reason but they are literary speculations.

Materialism as a philosophy has been described as a family of doctrines “concerning the nature of the world which gives to the matter a primary position and according to mind (or spirit) a secondary, dependent reality or even none at all.” This can be regarded as a position which Shastriji took consistently. So did the members of the Royist group though none except Roy himself and Shastriji put this forward in any detailed manner.

There is no place in this life for “consciousness, purposiveness, aspirations, desire,” for these are not properties of matter, naturally, there is ‘no incorporeal souls, spirits, of spiritual principalities or power.’

Developed both in India and in earlier eastern

materialism formulated a theory of the universe as being made of atoms and vast empty spaces. Atoms are different in size, shape and position; they are in motion and they collide and combine in a variety of groupings. Democritus who also posited the mind, held that the mind tool is composed of atoms, the smallest, roundest and the most mobile.” The soul is made of these minute atoms and it perishes with the human body, hence not immortal. The origin of the world is due to changes in the state of fundamental substances. A variant of this is to regard the entities that constitute the world are uniform, homogeneous, indivisible and indestructible.

The Indian materialist philosopher, Kanada and Kapila held that the minutest parts of the world are atoms which are eternal. Atoms of the same class combine together and there is material cause inherent in them that makes them combine and there is according to Kanada “the non-inherent cause assumed to be the supernatural will.” The concession given to the unseen cause (adrishta) is rejected by the Vaiseshika system which talks of an inherent tendency of the atoms to inhere with others. However, Kanada argues that the qualities which inhere in the substance constitute the cause and originate qualities of the same kind in the substance constituting the effect.” Hence if the intelligent Brahman is assumed as the cause of the world we should expect to find the intelligence in the effect also in the world. This is not the case.

Therefore Brahman cannot be the cause of the world. Consciousness is thus the product of a complicated combination of atoms. “Soul is merely the disposition of organism, which is a combination of matter.”

“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.”

“Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.”

“I alone know that I know nothing.”

—Democritus 4

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Guest Section:

Leo Igwe [Leo Igwe, the International Humanist and Ethical Union representative in West Africa and Executive Director of the Nigerian Humanist Movement delivered the following speech as the opening address to the 2nd Annual conference of the Free Society Institute of South Africa co-hosted by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, on Saturday 11 September 2010.]

God, Goodness and Morality Dear Friends, am glad to be back in South Africa and good to see you all. Thank you for inviting me to deliver the opening of this conference. Once again the FSI has demonstrated its commitment to the mission of promoting free thought and free speech in South Africa. Last year we all met in this hall for the first conference of this Institute co-hosted by the International Humanist and Ethical Union. And I must say that last year’s event remains one of the best humanist programs I have attended in Africa. I was deeply impressed by the quality of the presentations, debates, and discussions. I was inspired by the curiosity for ideas, search for truth, hunger for knowledge, the spirit of inquiry, critical thinking and open mindedness expressed by the participants. I left South Africa deeply convinced that this nation has got in the FSI a befitting humanist group. So I urge you not to relent in your efforts, commitment and support for the FSI and its mission of promoting free thought and free speech in South Africa. I hope that very soon your organisation will be reckoned

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with as one of the most active and vibrant humanist groups on this continent and in the world.

The emergence of humanist groups in Africa opens a new, exciting and promising chapter in the history of African emancipation and enlightenment. The struggle to promote humanism marks another phase in the struggle by Africans for independence and liberation. It opens another chapter in the quest

by Africans for emancipation from mental slavery and other forms of slavery. It marks another defining moment in the struggle by African people for intellectual liberation and mental freedom, for true renaissance and enlightenment.

There are few countries on this continent where active humanist groups like this exist. There are few places in Africa where humanists and free thinkers can meet openly to discuss, interact and express themselves without fear. Even in my own country, Nigeria, there are states (in Northern Nigeria) where events like this will be met with death and destruction. Millions of Africans still live in societies or under conditions where they fear to speak their minds or to express their thoughts freely. That tells us how important this meeting is and why we should not relent in taking this message of hope and renewal beyond Cape Town, to all states in South Africa. That tells you how significant the work you are doing at the FSI is and the potentials in terms of change, transformation and civilization. I hope the FSI will continue to lead the way in terms of promoting free thought and free speech in South Africa and in Africa as a whole. I hope this Institute will continue to champion the cause of realizing a free society in this country. It is only when a society is free that it can fully realize its potentials.

This conference is taking place on a crucial day and date in the history of the world-September 11. Nine years ago some terrorists hijacked planes and caused the death of at least 3000 people in the US. Similar attacks have been planned and executed in other parts of the world.

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We are meeting here at a time the forces of religious fanaticism are ravaging the globe, causing suicide bombing, death and destruction, conflicts and instability in many countries. We are gathered here at a time millions of people around the world are living in fear for their lives, safety and security- in the air, on the land and on the seas- due to threats posed by religious fanatics. We are meeting here at the time a new dark age looms around the globe; at a time theocratic governments have taken their jihads and crusades to the United Nations. This conference is taking place at a time people in most countries are confused- or are being confused -as to what constitutes the best moral guide.

The issue of what should be the best guide to moral clarity for humanity stares the world on the face.

And we need an atmosphere of free thought and free speech to consider, tackle and resolve it. We need an atmosphere that is free from threats from fanatics, terrorists, suicide bombers, jihadists, religious mercenaries and other armies of God to chart out moral path and discuss, debate, dialogue and decide what is best for ourselves.

To the question that brought us here today – Is secular viewpoint our best guide to moral clarity?

My answer is yes. The secular, not religious, outlook provides us a veritable framework for the expression and realization of moral excellence.

Because secular viewpoint is based on evidence, on reason, science, common sense and human beneficence. The secular outlook is open to revision and improvement. Secular morality is a morality for this world and of this world, not for the next; it is a morality for our happiness and well-being in the here and now, not in the hereafter.

It is a morality for this temporary life not for an eternal afterlife in an imaginary paradise. Secular morality is a morality by us, from us and for us, not a moral decree of God from God and for us ‘wretched’ humans. Secular morality is informed by the quest to be good and to do good for goodness sake, not the quest to be good and to do good for God’s sake or for heaven’s sake or to avoid going to Hell.

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Simply put, secular morality is a common sense morality. Secular viewpoint put human moral destiny in human hands, not in the hands of god, godmen and women. But we must note that both secular and religious outlooks are human creations.

They are human viewpoints with human limitations. But advocates of religious outlook continue to cause confusion by denying this fact.

They have done humanity a great disservice by refusing to tell the world the truth and by lying that the religious moral norms are decrees and commandments handed down as eternal and unchangeable guide for humanity from above ages ago. And it is this dogmatic lie and others told in the name of God by the self acclaimed prophets and messengers of the ‘most high’ that are responsible for the lack of moral clarity in the religious viewpoint. It is these sacred myths, falsehoods and misconceptions peddled by the supernatural faiths that morally disqualified religions as the best guide for humanity.

A brief analysis of the September 11 attack- what could have motivated the Islamist attackers- may help us shed some light on the confusion and contradictions embedded in the religious moral outlook- the dangers religion’s lack of moral clarity poses to the future and survival of humanity, and the risks we human beings run by allowing moral norms guided by supernaturalism, blind faith, primitive superstitions and dogmas to guide the society.

No doubt those who planned and carried out the September 11 attacks must have judged their mission to be morally right- yes morally upright by their own standards –and I should say by the standards of religious morality.

I do not think the terrorists were really anomic individuals, unaware of the pain, agony, death and destruction their actions could cause. The September 11 attackers were not really bereft of conscience, compassion and fellow feeling. Instead I think the terrorists considered doing such grevious harm to their fellow human beings as

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consistent with their sacred sense of what is good or right; what ought to be done. The religious outlook actually thrives on sacrificing the natural or the human on the altar of the supernatural and the superhuman. Remember the story of the Biblical Abraham whose attempt to sacrifice the son was reckoned as a demonstration of faith. So we must understand this warped sense of morality or sanctity if we are to tackle and eradicate religion and faith based terrorism in the world.

The terrorists believed that their actions were pleasing to God who would reward them abundantly for their deeds in the hereafter. Take note of that, reward in the hereafter –whatever that is; a palatial home in the divine mansion in the paradise(I do not know exactly) is the driving force of religious morality.

For the September 11 attackers and those who uphold religious moral view point, what is deemed morally good is what is pleasing to God or better what is judged or considered (by who?)to be pleasing to God; what ought to be done is what God says, directs and commands – sometimes through the prophets, priests and sheikhs etc. Or what is said, directed or decreed in Allah’s, Jesus’ or God’s name. And already these commandments and norms are codified in the sacred texts- Torah, Bible, Quran- and traditions, which everyone is expected read, believe and follow without question as regards the author, source or authenticity. Thus, on hearing that hackneyed expression, In Jesus name’ ‘Thus says the Lord”, Or ‘In the name of Allah, the most gracious and most merciful’, one should be ready to swing into action without minding the consequences to oneself or to others. The religious moral viewpoint is insensitive to our feelings, to human feelings. Because the ‘words’ (or better, supposed words) of God or Allah are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ and should be obeyed without question, hesitation or examination.

Because God-an entity from nowhere, somebody that is nobody- is taken to be the best moral guide for everyone including those who do not believe in

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him or her. So whatever s/he says or is believed to have said holds or must hold everywhere and for everybody in secular seculorum (forever and ever).

It is believed that God had charted the moral path.

Even when there is no consensus among the religious as to what this moral path is. Our duty as human beings is to follow, obey and abide by this recieved moral code. That reminds me of a hymn that is sang in many Christian churches. It goes this way: Trust and obey. For there’s no other way.

To be happy in Jesus. But to trust and obey….

And the question is this – Trust and obey who? An imaginary entity?

Why should I trust and obey him or her or it? Trust and obey what? Texts from questionable sources written centuries ago by ignorant people? Should I trust and obey somebody who should not be trusted?

As I noted above, the religious moral viewpoint is mired in vagueness and lack of moral clarity. It has caused many people to abandon doing well, and trying to be good. Instead most people spend (I actually mean waste) much of this short life obeying God or trying to please God. Human beings will continue to wallow in moral confusion and darkness until the advocates of religious viewpoints stop peddling those ‘revealed lies and falsehoods’.

In conclusion, human beings can be good without believing in God. We can be moral without the pretensions of primitive religions. There is no doubt about it. In fact the whole idea of god came about in the attempt by primitive humans to promote and enforce what they conceived to be good-good life and good behavior. So the religious moral outlook is largely outdated. God is actually a corruption of the good, not the author and dictator of what is good. God has no moral capacity. It does not have the capacity to judge, reward or recognize what is good or evil. Those who think otherwise are greatly mistaken. And it is this mistake that is at the root of religions’ lack of moral clarity. Human

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beings created God and invested it with all the human and moral attributes in their quest for some order, stability and ‘sanity’ in the primitive times.

And religions have blindly adopted this primitive idea of organizing and understanding the world and society. Unfortunately many people across the world want these outdated myths and misconceptions to be the basis of our laws, policies, educational and justice systems in this 21st century.

They want the world to continue to wallow in moral vagueness, obscurity and darkness. Humanity needs the best moral guide to make the better of this one life we have. And I hope that with programs like this we can initiate the much needed process of enlightening and morally reawakening people

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around globe to realize that the secular viewpoint presents us with the best guide to moral clarity.

I wish you all very fruitful deliberations.

[This speech was posted by Humanist Life (www.humanistlife.org.uk) on Thu 16 Sep 2010 18:13 with the following comment: On the day the Pope’s speech to a waiting Britain spoke of “extremist atheism” and belittled secularism and secular morality, we publish Leo Igwe’s speech to the Free Society Institute from last Saturday, about humanist values and secularism in Africa and the world.]

Friends, please register yourself on the RH Website http://www.theradicalhumanist.com ¨Please log in to it to give your comments on the articles and humanist news which are uploaded from the world over on the Website almost daily. ¨You may also send in news and write-ups from your part of the land for uploading on the Website. ¨Please send in your views and participate on the topics of debate given in the debate section. You yourself may also begin a debate on any topic of your choice in this section. ¨Please suggest themes for the coming issues of The Radical Humanist, discuss them in the Themes Section of the Website; the content of which may be later published in the RH journal. ¨It is your own inter-active portal formed with a purpose of social interaction amongst all Radical Humanists as well as Rationalists and Humanists from different forums also. ¨Do make it a practice to click on the RH Website http://www.theradicalhumanist.com URL daily, ceremoniously. ¨Please utilise the RH Website to come closer for the common cause of ushering in a renaissance in our country.

—Rekha Saraswat, (Editor & Administrator RH Website)

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A View from the U.S.A.

Uday Dandavate [Uday Dandavate studies people, cultures and

trends worldwide and uses the understanding gained from such studies to inspire people centered innovation strategies. Uday Dandavate heads up a design research consulting firm called SonicRim. He frequently writes and speaks on topics related to people centered design and innovation in international journals and conferences.]

Designing for Tolerance for this article comes from Thethemotivation current debate over the plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero in New York. In the past there have been many instances of religious sensitivities surrounding art, architecture, literature and design. (e.g. Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano controversy in the United States, Hysteria surrounding Satanic Verses by British-Indian author Salman Rushdie, Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark, and the controversy surrounding the Babri Masjid in India). These events have generated heated conflict between the proponents of secularism and freedom of expression and those championing religious sensitivities of the groups that feel offended. The impact of such controversies reach far deeper than meets the eye. These events strike at the very fabric of democracy and make it harder to shape contemporary societies that can learn to harness the immense potential of cultural diversity. The purpose of this article is to illustrate a point that when artifacts such as art, architecture, literature

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and design are embroiled in cultural conflicts, it is possible to arrive at a solution through design thinking to unite people around a shared experience.

There is a need to rise above the passion and anger currently generated by this controversy. This can be done by using reconstruction of the World Trade Towers as an opportunity to turn memories of the pain and suffering into an expression of the city’s resolve to preserve the values that make New York a global city.

The September/October 2010 issue of Foreign policy magazine ranked New York as number one global city based on its influence on and integration with global markets, culture, and innovation. To create this year’s rankings, the magazine analyzed 65 cities with more than 1 million people across every region of the globe, using definitive sources to tally everything from a city’s business activity, human capital, and information exchange, to its cultural experience and political engagement. It is important to preserve this influence New York has on the world.

It is also important to preserve New York’s position as a city that attracts creative talent from around the world. In his book The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, asserts that metropolitan regions with high concentrations of high-tech workers, artists, musicians, lesbians and gay men, and a group he describes as “high ”, correlate with a higher level of economic development and prosperity. The key to economic prosperity, he believes, lies not just in the ability to attract the creative class, but to translate that underlying advantage into creative economic outcomes in the form of new ideas, high-tech businesses and regional growth. Taking this into account, Prof. Florida has developed a new measure called the “creativity index.” New York City ranks ninth amongst the US cities on this creativity index.

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Influence, global integration and prosperity of New York City are tied to the city’s ability to attract and inspire people of diverse cultures and nationalities.

This diversity must be celebrated by developing ground zero as a space that provides a platform to nurture tolerance and encourage creativity and innovation across diverse groups of people. A similar project stands out in my mind.

The Wiesenthal museum of Tolerance (MOT) in Los Angeles, serves an example of “creating an experience that would challenge people of all backgrounds to confront their most closely held assumptions and assume responsibility for change.” (From the vision statement of MOT).

This museum is first its kind in the world. Visitors are introduced to the dynamics of bigotry and discrimination and made aware of its existence in the minds of people even today. The message of tolerance is conveyed at the museum through interactive exhibits, special events, and customized programs for youths and adults. At the inauguration of the Museum in 1993, Federico Mayor, Director General of UNESCO proclaimed, “It is crucial for all of us to give new meaning to the word ‘tolerance’ and understand that our ability to value each and every person is the ethical basis for peace, security and intercultural dialogue. A peaceful future depends on our everyday acts and gestures. Let us educate for tolerance in our schools and communities, in our homes and workplaces and, most of all, in our hearts and minds.” (Mayor 1993).

Since 1993, the museum has attracted over four million visitors. The MOT has succeeded in communicating importance of tolerance in an intercultural society by providing the visitors the opportunity to deeply reflect over the Nazi atrocities.

It is obvious from the daily protests taking place against the plans to build an Islamic center near the site of Ground Zero that the destruction of World Trade center has not only left a gaping hole in the skyline of downtown Manhattan, but it has also

created a psychological chasm within the intercultural community of New York city. There is an opportunity to redevelop the site as a place where people reconnect with each other. A concept like that of the Museum of Tolerance would be worth considering.

The fire that is lit by cultural controversies is often fueled by shortsighted political considerations. It seems that key criteria for taking a position on the Islamic center in New York, for both democratic and republican politicians, is based on how it might impact their prospects in November elections.

President Obama seems caught between his expressed convictions and the electoral compulsions of those running for November elections from his party. It would be futile to expect that the political decision that emerges from the current controversy will lead to a lasting solution.

Cultural conflicts call for creation of a shared experience platform that evokes contemplation, encourages cross-cultural communication and inspires evolution of a modern mindset that embraces rather than rejects diversity. The Museum of Tolerance (MOT) is an example of such a platform.

There are parallels between the Babri Masjid Controversy in India and the current controversy over the construction of the Islamic Center in Manhattan. In the holy town of Ayodhya in India, on 6 December 1992, an ancient mosque (called the Babri Masjid) built in 1528 by a Mughal invader was demolished by a frenzied mob. More than 2000 people were killed in the riots following the demolition. A section of Hindu religious scholars and political activists believe that the mosque was originally built in 1528 by destroying a temple that existed at that site, which marked the birthplace of the Hindu God Ram. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took advantage of the controversy, and used it towards their victory in the 1998 national elections. Eighteen years later, the site of the Babri Masjid, remains a symbol of unresolved controversy that caused many deaths and was a major setback in the efforts to foster religious

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harmony in the country.

Both the Babri Masjid and the proposed Islamic Center controversies involve architectural projects embroiled in religious debates. Both projects are stalled because status quo suits political expediency, and reconstruction at both sites is not possible due to the risk of alienating voters. The sites remain to remind people of magnificent pieces of architecture (one modern and the other ancient) which were reduced to rubble by religious fanatics.

The emotions and religious sensitivities tied to these controversies make it difficult for the political administration to make a decision. A bold initiative needs to be taken that can help in re-constructing the spirit of accommodation and intercultural harmony and become a symbol of tolerance. Both U.S. and India draw their strength from the diversity of their people. Like the Wiesenthal museum of Tolerance (MOT) in Los Angeles, both the sites need to conceptualize a magnificent architectural and institutional platform for the visitors to experience a modern manifestation of tolerance, innovation and intercultural living Architectural constructions symbolize the time they were conceived in. They reflect both the glory

and the aberrations of history. We cannot change history, but we can create an architectural representation of our will to shape the future. As I write this article in the city of Shanghai, I realize the immense potential of architectural design to convey a nation’s resolve to embrace the future.

The skyline of Shanghai is adorned by contemporary architecture that symbolizes China’s emergence as a global power. Ground Zero and Babri Masjid sites offer the United States and India a great opportunity to express their vision for the future— to foster unity in diversity and to discover opportunities for innovation in diversity.

The issue of building an Islamic center and a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero in New York remains to be resolved. This issue needs to be addressed within the framework of the United States Constitution, which gives every citizen the right to practice his or her religion. Therefore construction of the Mosque is a matter of citizens’ fundamental rights. The decision cannot be swayed by religious sensitivities. At the same time, building consensus around a new space that reflects the plurality and tolerance of New York would be most appropriate.

“Both matter and void have real existence. The constituents of matter are elements infinite in number and always in motion, with an infinite variety of shapes, completely solid in composition.”

— Laertius Dear Friends, Please do not send articles beyond 1500-2000 words. 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

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J.S. Chandra Rao

[Mr. J. Sharath Chandra Rao has been contributing articles to Newspaper like “Vaartha” and “Andhra Jyothi” and other periodicals on Environment, economics and other social issues. He may be contacted at 1-2-593/40, Gaganmahal Colony, Hyderabad – 500 029, A.P. Phone: 040-27638039]

Better Planning And Management Of Cities Is Needed than half the people of the world More live in cities; many are disease ridden with sprawling areas of slums with poor water provision, poor sanitation and improper waste collections. These are living in high pollution with frequent traffic jams and power shortages more particularly in the cities of several under-developed countries. Several cities are bursting in their seams struggling to provide basic amenities with endless demands of vehicular automobiles and of growing population experiencing flooding, most of them lacking in basic infrastructural facilities. These cities exist in a weaving chaos of cars, belching fumes of taxies, buses, lorries and various other transporting vehicles in the process affecting the health of people. Minimum efforts like converting organic garbage waste into effective fertilizers and stopping industrial effluents into water sources of lakes, rivers etc., installing waste water treatment plants have not been properly taken up in many cities of underdeveloped countries which would

have enabled people to live in a cleaner environment and in a healthy atmosphere free of pollution. A well planned eco-city with eco-farming with zero wastage and emissions will be the future option of sustainability which can halt the spread of disease and ill health of the people.

Positive policies of resource conserving and non-pollutive technologies are very much needed since fossil fuel powered industrial, farming and transport systems have damaged the cities environment and health of the people. Such an approach will enable us to avert a much more undesirable complex set of problems in future needing staggering and unbearable amounts to rectify such problems which will have to be borne ultimately by the general public making our living much more difficult. To achieve such an object, steps like effective rain water utilization, installing various water conservation systems and adopting recycling in resource and water use with intelligent land use and using renewable energy technologies can strengthen our ecosystem services of farm land, fisheries and forests valued at $32 trillion a year, twice the combined global GNP of $ 18 trillion a year. Further citizen’s participation in decision making processes is never there unlike in previous civilizations where every citizen could speak, express and participate in formulating various decisions. Even basic needs like not having enough space for pedestrian walking in many cities in many underdeveloped countries, not having enough space for cycling, running of sub-urban trains carrying passengers is very much visible. Also effective functioning of public transport systems of buses will reduce the consumption of oil considerably in the process reducing air pollution which is presently causing severe environmental impacts as the damaging costs being too high and often unmanageable. Further wastages being generated in cities, segregating it, reusing and recycling them can have substantial economic benefits which will lead to reducing landfill sites which have become breeding grounds for diseases.

Establishing sufficient waste recycling plants,

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encouraging pelletisation units using organic waste will be of immense use in agriculture, coffee and tea plantations. An eco-city based on making it circular like nature’s ecosystem being circular, with one waste becoming a raw material for the other in the functioning of the industrial system will lead to minimizing the use of resources and the usage of energy which will be an ideal option.

Many metropolitan cities were established with large scale industrial production units without laying down limit values for emission to air, water and land generating in the process enormous pollution, often not applying best techniques and safeguards for maintaining good environment. The existence of more than one lakh widely used industrial chemicals being there in the environment with new chemicals being added every year have lead to an increase in various diseases. Vast numbers of pollutants like Oestrogen like properties which exist in the environment have led to loss of sperm count in the industrial nations where sperm counts have fallen by half in the last 50 years posing fertility problems. Different studies revealed that there has been a significant fall in the healthiness of the sperm. At this rate millions of men will be unable to father their children because of this effect, more particularly in the wealthier nations. As the sperm count falls, the possibility of testicular cancer and prostrate cancer cases rising cannot be ruled out. Another major problem in the cities of the world is a generation of e-waste which has become the latest menace to the environment in both the developed and in the underdeveloped countries. Discarded older versions of computers, servers, main frames and other electronic goods which are discarded because of rapid technological changes releasing dangerous gases and toxicity can cause harm to human health because of unscientific handling of e-waste. Some electronic equipments which are made of lead which when disposed off can leak into the soil and atmosphere in the process contaminating water supplies and air. Also chip

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resisters, infra-red detectors and semiconductors containing cadmium which is classified as toxic can cause health problems. An NGO estimated that during the floods in Mumbai 1500 tonnes which is one-third of total e-waste of Bangalore in a year was rendered useless generating in the process harmful chemicals of lead, mercury all lethally poisonous. Therefore suitable cyber laws framing and a scientific methodology to eliminate obsolete products drawing a design system to properly collect and recycle of e-waste in a scientific manner is a necessity which alone can avert the possible triggering of an e-waste time bomb in future. Many citizens in cities are often stifled by entrenched interests and unresponsive inflexible bureaucrats steeped in corruption and mal-administration with no check of municipal violations, even residential parking and green-belt areas are being used for commercial purposes in many cities of the underdeveloped countries. A failure in checking private greed allowing structures to be constructed in water bodies, catchment’s areas, tanks and lakes have led to diminishing water supplies. Such acts are unpardonable grave violations. Several such violations of environmental laws can be reduced considerably by opening up governance arrangements at every level from individual to institutions, sharing visions and overcoming sectorial and narrow interests of a few, fixing accountability at every level will lead to better management of cities. Also there is every need to realize that there are two urban worlds, one being the wealthy urban of a tiny minority and the other being the economically deprived majority desperately working to meet both ends, both living in the same place. Expecting economic benefits trickling down from the rich to the poor, from the global to the local will be a futile expectation.

Instead, economic development should be tuned from the bottom deprived people to the top well-to-do people. Other factors like accountability at every level of functioning will lead to better management of cities.

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and was largely responsible for the production of the book India Labor Code 1994. The Social Security Association of India was formed in 1991 and he has been the Secretary General of the Association since then. In this capacity he has conducted several seminars symposia workshops and training programmes on social security and written extensively, books and in journals and magazines. He was awarded a Medal of Merit for his contribution to the cause of social security by the International Social Security Association in the year 2000. Thus, the following article that comes in a series in this and the coming issues of RH is loaded with his first hand experience and labour in making all out efforts in the field of social security. ssanantha@yahoo.com ]

R.K.A. Subrahmanya

[Sri R.K.A.Subrahmanya, a post graduate in economics joined the Indian Audit and Accounts Service after passing the IAS and Central Services Combined Competitive Examination in 1950 He was Accountant General in Assam Orissa, Tamilnadu and Kerala.He was appointed Addl Secretary in the Union Ministry of Labor in 1979. He was Chairman of the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO, the Standing Committee of the ESIC and the Central Board of Workers Education for some time. He represented the Government of India in the International Labor Conferences held in Geneva for four years out of which he was elected as Chairman of Conference Committees, including the one on Social Dimensions of Industrialisation in three consecutive years. He was a member of a committee set up by the ILO for studying the future of social security in developing countries.

He was a member of the Bureau (governing body) of the International Social Security Association, (an association of social security institutions such as the ESIC and the EPFO).

After retiring from service in 1984 he was Director General, Gandhi Labor Institute, Ahmedabad for some time before he was appointed as a Member of the A.P.Administrative Tribunal in Hyderabad. After his term in the Tribunal ended he joined the National Labor Law Association where he was the Coordinator of the Research Project called Simplification Rationalisation and Consolidation of Labor Laws

Approach to the 12th Plan faces several challenges of which India poverty of large number of people is perhaps the gravest. The Eleventh Five Year Plan document noted that India is a nation of over 300 million poor people, a number that has not shown any signs of decline over the last two decades of development.

Reducing poverty was therefore regarded as a primary goal of government and the primary objective of the 11thFive Year Plan.

But this objective has not been achieved.

According to the latest estimates the level of poverty has increased instead of reducing. The intensity of poverty however varies. Some people are poorer than the others and there are some who are the poorest of the poor without any means of livelihood and therefore constantly hungry.

According to the World Food Programme “one in every five Indians suffers from overt or covert hunger. Amarthya Sen and Jean Dreze have stated that hunger “is intolerable in the modern world” because it is “so unnecessary and unwarranted.”

The National Human Rights Commission recently

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went into the responsibility of the State to prevent death due to hunger in the context of certain starvation deaths in Orissa and observed as follows: “Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees a fundamental right to life and personal liberty. The expression ‘Life’ in this Article has been judicially interpreted to mean a life with human dignity and not mere survival or animal existence. In the light of this, the State is obliged to provide for all those minimum requirements which must be satisfied in order to enable a person to live with human dignity, such as education, health care, just and humane conditions of work, protection against exploitation etc. In the view of the Commission, the Right to Food is inherent to a life with dignity, and Article 21 should be read with Articles 39(a) and 47 to understand the nature of the obligations of the State in order to ensure the effective realization of this right. Article 39(a) of the Constitution, enunciated as one of the Directive Principles, fundamental in the governance of the country, requires the State to direct its policy towards securing that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means to livelihood. Article 47 spells out the duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people as a primary responsibility. The citizen’s right to be free from hunger enshrined in Article 21 is to be ensured by the fulfillment of the obligations of the State set out in Articles 39(a) and 47. The reading of Article 21 together with Articles 39(a) and 47, places the issue of food security in the correct perspective, thus making the Right to Food a guaranteed Fundamental Right which is enforceable by virtue of the constitutional remedy provided under Article 32 of the Constitution. The requirements of the Constitution proceeded, and are consonant with, the obligations of the State under the 1966 International Covenant of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which India is a party. That Covenant, in Article 11, expressly recognizes the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food.

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It follows, therefore, that there is a fundamental right to be free from hunger. Starvation constitutes a gross denial and violation of this right. As starvation deaths reported from some pockets of the country are now invariably the consequence of mis-governance resulting from acts of omission and commission on the part of public servants, they are of direct concern to the Commission under the provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Persons living in conditions of poverty and hunger in areas such as the KBK districts have often been found to be suffering from prolonged hunger and mal-nutrition. Even when their deaths cannot, in a strictly clinical term, be related to starvation, the tragic reality remains that they often die of prolonged mal-nutrition and the continuum of distress which has, inter-alia, rendered them unable to withstand common diseases such as malaria and diarrhea. The situation is all the more painful in view of the fact that granaries of the Food Corporation of India are overflowing – a matter that is, at present, under consideration of the Supreme Court.”

A random survey conducted by the Law Department of the government of Karnataka as part of the drafting of the Food Security Act has brought forth shocking information: Nearly 50 percent of the homeless people in the State had only one set of clothes, 33 percent of them were over 65 years of age, at least seven percent of them were mentally challenged and 15 percent were physically challenged. Further a large number of them did not have even one square meal for long periods and they survived virtually on crumbs. If the urban poor had scope for begging at road intersections and bus stands, the condition of the rural poor and destitute was worse. There were instances where the mentally challenged had to compete with street dogs to pick up leftovers from dustbins in the vicinity of hotels and marriage halls. This is corroborated by the press reports about individuals who are trying to help such people.

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There are several other reports which indicate the existence of a large number of uncared for people living on the streets which does not speak well of a civilized society. Some kind hearted people take up a few such cases and provide them food clothing and shelter but the enormity of the problem is such that it cannot be left entirely to such individuals. It is the problem which the State and the community should handle.

Globalization of the economy has added to the problem of poverty.

In the circumstances we feel that abolition of hunger or zero hunger- Bhukh Mitao - (abolish hunger) should be the motto and the primary objective of the Twelfth Five Year Plan.

The ILO has pointed out that economic growth does not automatically reduce poverty and social security transfers are a powerful tool to reduce poverty and inequality.

In April 2009, the UN Chief Executives Board agreed on the Social Protection Floor Initiative as one of the nine joint initiatives to confront the (economic) crisis, accelerate recovery and pave the way for a fairer/more sustainable globalization.

The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization has suggested that “A minimum level of social protection for individuals and families needs to be accepted and undisputed as part of the social economic floor of the global economy.”

The United Nations has suggested that a social protection floor could consist of the following two main elements: Services: geographical and financial access to essential services, such as water, and sanitation, health and education.

Transfers: a basic set of essential social transfers, in cash and in kind, as aid to the poor and vulnerable to provided minimum income security and access to essential services, including healthcare.

We suggest that a social protection floor consisting of the foregoing elements be established in India.

In this connection it may be pointed out that such a floor has been established in some countries in Asia, Latin America and South Africa and also in China. For example, in Brazil a scheme called Foma Zero, meaning zero starvation, was introduced in 2003 by President Lula daSilva to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty.

Foma Zero: The program is puts into action the government’s strategy to guarantee the right of access to basic food. The program takes a number of forms, ranging from direct financial aid to the poorest families (called Bolsa Familia) to diverse strategies such as creating water cisterns in Brazil’s semi arid areas, creating low-cost restaurants, educating people about healthy eating habits, distributing vitamins and iron supplements, supporting subsistence family farming and giving access to micro credit.

Fome Zero is the biggest initiative by the Brazilian government to combat hunger in the history of the country and builds on similar assistance programs have been implemented by previous governments.

The scheme, Bolsa Familia, which was set up in 2003, provides a basic income to 7.5million of Brazils’ poorest families or 30 million people. The goal is to reach all with a monthly income per head of less than 100 reels – 11.2 million families or about a quarter of the population by the end of 2006. It is the biggest of a new generation of social programmes across Latin America, known as “conditional cash transfer” schemes (CCTS) The aim is to alleviate today’s poverty, in Brazil’s case by transferring up to 95 reels a month to poor families (which states and districts can top up) and to short circuit tomorrow’s by making the transfers conditional; beneficiaries must have their children vaccinated, and their health monitored and keep them in school.

Although CCTS are a Brazilian invention, the first large scale programme began in Mexico Originally

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called Progress, and now Portunidades, it now provides government cash transfers to 5 million Mexican families or nearly a quarter of the population.

As in Brazil there are conditions attached. The payments are mandatory every two months, to female heads of household. One element of around $10 per month is to help with food. A larger element is to help buy school supplies and pay for transport to and from school. If a child misses more than 15% of class days or fails a grade twice these payments are suspended. The payments are also conditional on the family’s regular visits to health clinics.

The program is reported to have contributed to Brazil’s recent improvements in its fight against poverty. An evaluation of Bolsa Escola did find significant effects on both school attendance rates and the number of children involved in child labour.

The World Bank has declared that “Although the program is relatively young, some results are already apparent, including: contributions to improved education outcomes, and impacts on children’s growth, food consumption, and diet quality”.

A study by the UNDP Poverty Centre found that over 80% of the Bolsa Familia benefits go to families in poverty (making under half the minimum wage per capita), thus most of the benefits go to the poor. BF was also found to have been responsible for about 20% of the drop in inequality in Brazil since 2001. Research promoted by the World Bank shows a significant reduction in child labour exploration among children benefited by the Bolsa Família program.

One positive effect of the program which is not immediately apparent is that it makes a significant impact on the ability of the poorest families to eat.

Children in public school receive one free meal a day, two in the poorest areas, and so less of their family’s limited income is needed to pay for food.

In a survey of Bolsa Familia recipients, 82.4% reported eating better; additionally, it was reported to increase the incomes of the poorer families by about 25%.

Similar schemes now exist in half a dozen Latin American countries though details vary.1 China has introduced a social assistance scheme called Minimum Living Standards Scheme.

The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector also recommended a Universal Scheme for a National Minimum Social Security.

Although the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008 provides for the introduction of such a scheme its implementation has been tardy and millions of people are left without social protection. The promise made to the people through that Act should be fulfilled during the 12th Plan.

It is well accepted that in times of crisis, transfer incomes, notably social assistance and social security benefits paid to unemployed workers and other vulnerable recipients, act as social and economic stabilizers. Benefits and guaranteed access to services not only prevent people from falling further into poverty but also limit the contraction of aggregate demand thereby curtailing the potential depth of the recession. And yet, more than 90 % of the people including those employed in the organized sector do not enjoy a set of social guarantees that allow them to deal with life’s risks.

The Employees State Insurance Act was enacted in the year 1948 more than 60 years ago and the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous provisions Act was enacted in the year 1952 more than 50 years ago but their coverage is still very much limited. They don’t cover all the workers even in the organized sector. It is high time that the unfinished business of those Acts is completed and the application of those Acts is extended to all the workers in the organized sector during the 12th plan.

“..the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world”.—Norman Borlaug 17

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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. This article was earlier published in the Tribune on 17/09/2010]

Ayodhya Verdict government and opposition and the Both public in general are rightly in panic awaiting the verdict on Babri Masjid by Allahabad High Court – a situation brought about by the faltering non secular stand by all the concerned governments. The High Court is to give verdict on the following points: 1. Was the place under Babri Masjid the birth place of Lord Ram. 2. Was there or not a temple on the land on which Babri Masjid was built.

Now it is obvious to the meanest intelligence that it is impossible to prove that birth place of Lord Ram was under the Masjid – it may be a matter of faith, genuine or contrived or otherwise, but that is no proof, nor can it ever be put forward as a legal ground to take away the land from the Mosque.

If the finding is that Masjid was not built on a temple, then the Muslims get the land back and free to use it in any way including the building of

Mosque.

In the alternative it may be held that there was a temple on the land of Babri Mosque. But even with this finding the suit by VHP/RSS has to be dismissed. Admittedly Babri Masjid has been in existence for over 400 years till it was demolished by goons of VHP/RSS in 1992. Legally, speaking the Sangh Parivar would have no right even if a temple had been demolished to build the Babri Masjid.

I say this in view of the precedent of the case of Masjid Shahid Ganj in Lahore decided by the Privy Council in (1940). In that case there was admittedly a Mosque existing since 1722 A.D. But by 1762, the building came under Sikh rule and was being used as a Gurdawara. It was only in 1935 that a suit was filed claiming the building was a Mosque and should be returned to Muslims.

The Privy Council while observing “their Lordship have every sympathy with a religious sentiment which would ascribe sanctity and in violability to a place of worship, they cannot under the Limitation Act accept the contentions that such a building cannot be possessed adversely” and then went on to hold “The Property now in question having been possessed by Sikhs adversely to the waqf and to all interests there under for more than 12 years, the right of the mutawali to possession for the purposes of the waqf came to an end under Limitation Act. “On the same parity of reasoning even if temple existed prior to the building of Masjid 400 years ago, suit by VHP etc has to fail”.

There is another reason why in such a situation, suit would fail because in common law, even a rightful heir if he kills his ancestor, forfeits his right of inheritance. In the Masjid case too, there was ‘murder most foul’ and hence the murderer cannot be allowed to take the benefit of his own dastardly deeds, whatever the legal position may be.

It is true that sometime some Muslims groups in a spirit of large heartedness and as a measure of mutual accommodation, suggest that if it was found that the Masjid was built on the site of a temple,

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they would not like to now build a Mosque on the said site because the Koran forbids Muslims to build a mosque by demolishing any other religious place. But even them, if Muslims choose not to build a Masjid on this site, the ownership and use of the land remains with them. Hindu cannot under any circumstances lay a claim to this site which was under Babri Masjid.

Some well intentioned persons come out with apparently neutral suggestion of building a multi Religious complex on the site. To me this would be surrender to rabid Hindu Communal sentiment whatever explanation you may give, a Muslim then would feel less equal citizen if even after he has won, he is asked to share this site with the goons who destroyed the Holy Mosque. This would be a defeat of secularism and against our constitution which mandates that all citizens, whether Hindus, Muslims have equal Rights and are equal before law.

A multi Religious Complex or multi culture Centre or a hospital can obviously be built by the joint free will efforts of both Hindus and Muslims. But such a complex if it is to be built necessarily must be on the land away and outside the Masjid complex, and that too only if the Muslims give their consent -

obviously as vacant land belongs to the Muslims.

But under all circumstances, the site under Babri Masjid must remain in the exclusive possession of Muslims who will be free to use it in any way the community decides.

I feel that the government should start doing an exercise of consultation, preparation on these lines – to wait helplessly trying to anticipate what the verdict would be is like a pigeon who on seeing a cat closes its eyes with the delusion that cat will go away – the result is obvious.

Equally I feel that leaders of all communities, political parties, social workers should start planning to meet the situation, because this matter requires the involvement of people at grass root level and the matter does not brook any delay.

The legal position is clear. It is only the weakness of political will that is responsible for the Ayodhya imbroglio to continue as one of the bitterest disputes within the country. By keeping the Ayodhya issue alive, the country has been kept away from addressing it’s most urgent task – how to meet the challenge of the growing pauperization of the masses. And that includes both Hindus and Muslims.

The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich.

Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.

—John Berger

Read

NAV MANAV a bi-monthly in Hindi, for Humanist & Renascent Thought To subscribe: Contact Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot at: D-98 A, Krishna Marg, Bapu Nagar, Jaipur-15, Raj. Ph. 91-141-2621275 19

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Mastram Kapoor

[Mr. Mastram Kapoor is a freelance writer and journalist in Hindi. He has written, edited and translated more than 100 books and pamphlets on literature, social and political thought, education and children’s literature including 11 volumes of documents on freedom movement and 17 volumes of collected works of Dr. Lohia. He has had a long association with the socialist movement. His special interests of study are Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia, Jaiprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Deva, Madhu Limaye and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.mr_kapoor22@ymail.com]

Some Suggestions Regarding Caste-Wise Census decision to hold stand-alone Government caste-census is unfortunate because this work could have been done along with general census, without much difficulty and additional expenditure of 4000 crore rupees, for this was not needed. However, in view of government’s practical difficulties, it can be supported, provided this exercise is held along-with general census in future (as required under section 11 of National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993), I give below my suggestions for the methodology being decided by the government: 1. The dream of our Constitution is that the centuries old caste-system must be replaced by egalitarian democratic society. It is, therefore, essential that every citizen may be given the identity of constitutionally approved social group

replacing his identity of caste, so that they may feel that they are a part of the nation (and not ‘part apart’ as claimed by Dr. Ambedkar long time back). For this, four categories have been recognized, i.e. SCs, STs, OBCs and Others. The first aim of the caste-census is to group whole population in these four categories and to determine their number, and educational-social status so that it could be determined as per Article 16(4) of the Constitution, whether the ‘Classes of Citizens’ have acquired the ‘adequate representation’ in services etc. or not and to eliminate from reservation lists, those who have acquired adequate representation and promoting classes from lower ladder, making the reservation scheme self-liquidating over the time.

2.For this, it is urgent that in the caste-census, following information should be collected: (A) Original caste (not surname).

(B) Vocational group (traditional vocation, in case of those who may find it difficult to mention caste such as non-Hindu minorities and others).

(C) Category: (1) SCs, (2) STs, (3) OBCs; and (4) Others or Forwards.

(D) Educational status.

(E) Status in government appointments or posts.

(F) Status in Private sector.

(G) Income group: (1) Lower most (2) lower (3) Middle; (4) Higher.

3. With view to encourage people to tell their real caste, it is essential that the government should decide that caste will be mentioned only in the records of census office and all other government and non-government documents including school-college certificates, must mention only the category (SC, ST, OBS etc.) or its order (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4). This will fade out the memory of caste over the time and give casteless identity to citizens.

4.If, inspite of this, some people are not willing to reveal their caste in the name of protecting their privacy, the column of caste may be left blank or it may be filled with any fictitious caste like ‘Hindustani’ or the word ‘casteless’ and such

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people must be treated as forwards.

5.If the grass-root enumerators find it difficult to determine the category (due to incongruity with lists with him), they can leave the column blank, which could be filled by the experts in census office or in Law Department or Social Justice Ministry.

Grouping thousands of castes and vocation will itself be a big revolution.

6.While doing this, it may be kept in mind that the present division of the society is under the rules of the Varna Vyavastha sanctioned by the Dharma Shastras (Smritis), according to which those who do not come under the twice-born castes of Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya, are either OBCs or SCs, STs. They can be included among forwards only if they themselves declare to be forwards, giving up all temptations of reservation benefits or they can be treated as forwards only if after applying the latest caste-data it is found that they have acquired ‘adequate representation’ as per Article 16(4) and 15(4). Their category should not be decided in an arbitrary manner by the

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politicians, bureaucrats or caste-leaders. To replace traditional identity with constitutional identity, a clear procedure must be followed. For this, government will have to decide as to what percentage of the population-proportion will be considered as ‘adequate representation’ for the purpose of Article 16(4) and 15(4).

7.The constitution has recognized the categories of SCs, STs, OBCs, and Others. While for SCs, basic criterion was of untouchability, for STs, it was aloofness from main stream social milieu and for OBCs, educational and social backwardness as well as non-inclusion in the twice-borns (Non -Dwijas). Therefore, in the non-Hindu communities, those sections which suffer untouchability must be included in SCs and those vocations which were associated with self-cultivation or with various skills and crafts, like smith, carpenter, weaver, barber etc. or those who are merely landless labourer, may be included among OBCs. In no case, higher status people among the minorities should be included in OBCs.

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by a genuine political need the subsequent arrangement was certainly opportunist in that the BJP was forced to yield two Deputy Chief Ministerships to JMM - an arrangement which is unknown to legislative history.

It may be recalled that in this context that the post of Deputy Chief Ministership was equated to that of a sixth finger by late N. Sanjeeva Reddy, the then first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

N.K. Acharya

[Sri N.K. Acharya is an Advocate, Columnist and Author of several books on law. He was formerly Secretary of Indian Rationalist Association and had edited the Indian Rationalist, then published from Hyderabad on behalf of the Association prior to its transfer to Madras.]

I

Jharkhand Imbroglio: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a mistake in breaking its alliance with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and reviving the same. Alliances made for the purposes of ministry making shall be comical to that legislature where such alliances are called for and it shall not be extended to any other purposes.

What happened in Jharkhand was that both the BJP and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had equal number of seats in the Assembly. Neither was in the position to form the ministry without the support of the other. It was good that both of them agreed to form a ministry on some common programme. So long as the arrangement was working there should not have been any break up. But, when Jharkhand Mukti Morcha members of parliament voted against the cut motions moved on the central Budget by the BJP, the latter took it as an offence and withdrew its support to JMM at Jharkhand. The BJP should not have linked parliamentary exigencies with the needs of State politics. Having done it and forced President’s Rules, it had no option but to seek the assistance of JMM to form this time a ministry under its own leadership. while, the original alliance was ideologically motivated

II Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act: Indian Constitution permits the Executive to declare emergency in the case of widespread insurrection or threat of war. During the emergency the executive may use the armed forces to quell unrest. The army itself taking over the administration is not a situation contemplated under the Constitution. Therefore, in order to avoid situations of emergency, the Government has made certain arrangements during the time of widespread civil unrest to use the army. In such cases, the army functions and operates directly under the civil authority. However, in order to enable the army to take decisions on the spot in critical situations it becomes necessary to arm the army with some special powers so that it can function independent of the local civil authority. That is how the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 has come to be enacted. The powers conferred under this Act on the army are limited to the arrest of suspects, to declare imposition of curfew and implement the same with use of force. The powers conferred and exercised by army are immune from the interference by the courts.

As the intensity of the protests in Kashmir increased, the army began exercising the special powers conferred on them. Accordingly, the demand now raised by the agitators is mainly aimed at modifying the said Act or withdrawing conferment of the extraordinary powers in the army; alternatively to withdraw not only the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act but also to withdraw

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the army itself form Kashmir.

In democracy, it is the right of the people to organize themselves and conduct protest demonstrations. Such activities are declared as fundamental rights. They are available only if the protest demonstrations are conducted peacefully.

Therefore, those who demand withdrawal of special powers which are intended to deal with unlawful elements only shall hold themselves responsible to help the unlawful elements curbed.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act has come to be implemented in several North Eastern states including Manipur and is later extended to Kashmir, where civil agitations are concentrated more on achievement of extra constitutional goals, such as ‘Azadi’ in the case of Kashmir and severance from the Indian Union in the case of Manipur and other North Eastern State.

III Wholesale Price Index: With the base year as 2004-2005, a new wholesale Price Index was announced. The base year for the previous Wholesale Price Index was 1994-19995.

The difference between these two Indexes lies in the fact that the previous index took into consideration, the wholesale prices prevailing in a fewer commodities covering items of direct consumption such as food etc. The present index takes into consideration the wholesale prices prevailing in a larger number of commodities and articles which include several items of manufacture. While, the previous Wholesale Price Index did not take into consideration a large number of articles which have since become essential to the life of average Indians particularly of the middle class such as refrigerators, computers and electronic communication media, the present wholesale price index which cover these items also can be said to be not only up-to- date but also realistic.

Wholesale Price Index is used for more than one purpose. It is primarily used for the purpose of 23

calculating inflation. If the inflation rate climbs up, the Government of India through Reserve Bank attempts to regulate the flow of funds for consumptive purposes, by either of the two methods or by both Viz., 1) increasing or decreasing interest rates and 2) by increasing or decreasing the funds to be kept by the banks with the Reserve Bank of India. By adopting these methods the Reserve Bank sees to it that the cash available with the public is reduced so that “more money may not chase limited goods”. Here, it may not be out of place to mention that the price rise may also be due to the creation of greater purchasing power with the public by the creation of more employment opportunities and increasing wages and salaries. The concept that inflation is solely due to making available more funds to chase limited goods, needs to be revised. In such case, inflation may be treated as a beneficial phenomena associated with growth of economy.

Wholesale Price Index is used in revising the cost of living indexes which have a relevance to the payment of minimum wages payable to the workmen.

Wholesale Price Index is also used in modulating floating rates in the bank loans and in the terms of longtime works-contracts.

Variations in Wholesale Price Index may influence the retail prices.

The circumstances under which the retail prices rise or fall are different from the circumstances under which the wholesale prices record variations.

Therefore the retail prices may not influence the wholesale prices. It is however, fair to state that inflation has a direct impact move on the retail prices than on the wholesale prices.

IV Police Action: I have the privilege of covering as a news-correspondent the situation which immediately followed the Hyderabad Police Action in 1948. I was in Hyderabad State from 21st

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September to 25th September 1948. The police action was very brief. It commenced and concluded within seven days. Though Army was used it was still a police action only. It stands as attribute to the then Home Minister of the Union, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel known as the Iron Man of India. If not for his decision to march armies to subdue the Nizam who was preparing to declare himself as an independent sovereign and for securing a seat in the United Nations, the Nizam would have created serious political problems. The Nizam State then called Nizam’s dominion, was last of the 562 Native States merged with Indian at the time of independence. After the Army (led by Southern Command) occupied the State and secured the surrender of the Nizam on 17th September, 1948, he signed the Instrument of Accession to India.

Subsequently, it was called Hyderabad State. In 1956, the Hyderabad State was divided. Marathi districts were merged with Maharashtra; Kannada districts were merged with Karnataka and Telugu Districts (Telengana) were merged with Hyderabad State.

What has happened on 17th September 1948 was that the people of Nizam’s Dominions were liberated from the tyrannical and archaic feudal setup.

It was not as though Telengana only was liberated.

That was on event in Indian history when the last of the feudal States disappeared from the map of India.

What I saw while covering the post-police action was the popular jubilations which was universal, swept by an assurance of relief that a satanic lawless rule was ended - it is not certainly communal though the victims of the dark days prior to police action and the period that immediately followed appeared to be the principal communities–the Hindus and Muslims

respectively.

To use such a historic event, to settle scores between the separatists and integrationists in Andhra Pradesh is not proper. In those days, the communists in their dilemma had characterized the police action as an ambitious act of newly emerging Indian Imperialism and began fighting a triangular battle against the Rajakars, the local landlords and the Union of India which lasted up to 1961.

V Martial Law: The Bangladesh High Court in a recent Judgment declared the Martial Law as invalid.

Declaration of Martial Law is not a constitutional step within the framework of any democratic country which is governed by a written constitution. Martial law is declared by the Army Chiefs when they overthrow the civil administration functioning in accordance with the Constitution. In Bangladesh, Martial Law was introduced twice during the time of General Zia and General Ershad. Long after, the martial were overthrown by the civil administration the Bangladesh High Court had the occasion to decide the validity of Martial Law. The Court held that the regimes established by Marshals were illegal and all those who facilitated and worked out the martial law were punishable. Hence, martial law as extra constitutional step is not permissible in democracy.

What happened in Bangladesh was that during the regime of General Zia and during the regime of General Ershad, the Bangladesh Constitution was amended by Fifth and Seventh Amendments to enable the Marshals to declare martial law so that they were immune from any action. The Bangladesh High Court has now declared the Fifth and Seventh Amendments made to the Bangladesh Constitution are invalid.

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Teacher’s & Research Scholar’s Section:

Mahendra Mishra

Reason For Capital Inflows And Its Impact On Indian Economy pace, magnitude, direction and Thecomposition of international capital flows have important implications for the recipient countries. There has been debate in the literature whether capital inflow is driven by domestic or by external factors. The literature on the determination of capital inflows has identified various factors such as overall macroeconomic scenario, political risk perception, regulatory regime, fiscal concessions and business strategy of the entity from which the capital inflows originates. The study is based on reasons for capital inflow and its impact on Indian economy (2001 to 2005).

Nature of capital inflows: The nature of capital inflows are important factor in assessing impact.

Inflows which take the direct foreign investments form generally considered more permanent in character. They also have immediate impact on real sector of the economy.

Capital inflows can be response to external as well as internal factors. The external factors are those factors which are unrelated to the policies followed by the recipient country. A decline in available profit opportunities, low interest rate, or existence of recessionary conditions can cause capital to move out of the country.

The internal factors are the factors related to the stance of domestic policies. Successful price

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stabilization and structural reforms programmes and prospects of acceleration in growth can attract capital from outside. A tight monetary policy which keeps domestic interest rate high with exchange rate stability may also generate capital inflows.

Higher capital inflows if domestic interest rate is higher than external interest rate.

Credit worthiness of recipient country, economic situation of the source countries, regulatory framework in both the sources and recipient countries and perceptions of investors about the need for diversification of their investment, based on calculations of the probability of associated risks are other major determinant of foreign investment inflows.

Pull factors and push factors: The literature broadly distinguishes between two type of factors affecting capital movements(a) country specific ‘pull’ factors reflecting domestic opportunities and risk, and (b) global or ‘push’ factors such as the stimulus provided by the decline of US interest rate that has taken places in recent years.

The important pull factors are the domestic factors operating at project level or domestic level, which reflect the improved policy that increase long term expectation or reduced risk on real domestic investment. These measures include increased openness of domestic financial market to foreign investors, liberalized foreign direct investment, credible structural or macroeconomic policies, sustainable debt and debt services reduction ensuring timely repayment, stabilization policy that affect the aggregate efficiency of resources allocation, policies that affect the level of domestic absorption relative to income, and the ability of the economy to absorb shocks from changes the international terms of trade (C Fernandez-Aries and Montiel 1996). Foreign direct investment (FDI) may be attracted by opportunities to use local raw materials or employ local labors forces that are relatively cheap. The ‘push’ factors include lower interest rate abroad, recession abroad and hard mentality in international capital markets.

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A number of studies have confirmed that financial globalization can contribute significantly to promote growth in developing countries by augmenting domestic savings, reducing cost of capital, transferring technology, developing domestic financial sector reform and development human capital formation (Prasad, at al 2003). At the same time, it has been recognized that sudden and large surges in capital flows causes several concerns. Large capital inflows could push up monetary aggregate thereby increasing inflationary pressures, de-stabilize exchange rate, adversely affect domestic financial sector and disrupt domestic growth.

Policy towards foreign capital inflows: The new economic policy (NEP) 1991 was announced by government of India, was based on liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) policy to attract capital inflows in Indian economy. The policy was adopted “to make social justice and equality, to reduce poverty and unemployment and make socialistic democratic and forward looking India.”

Determinants of foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment: The motivation and determinants of foreign direct investment differ from countries and across economic sectors. The factors include policy framework which includes policies regarding economic, social and political stability, rules regarding entry and operation, tax policy and trade policy etc. The second economics determinant includes size of market, structure of market, availability of the raw material, cost of skilled and unskilled labour, presence of infrastructure etc. The third determinant is business facilitation which involves investment promotion incentives, social amenities and alternative investment services. All these factors play a very important role in economic growth in domestic nation.

The determinations of portfolio investment are generally expected to originate from countries with high level of financial market infrastructure but low

economic growth potential. Portfolio investment in Asia, has taken place mainly between developing nations with broad similar growth potentials. There is debate over which factor is important for portfolio investment. Some studies suggest that domestic factors are important while others suggest that external factors are important.

In India, several policies were implemented by authority to attract more FDI and FPI. The government of India appointed an export group under the chairmanship of Ashok Lahiri, chief economic advisor, ministry of finance, to study the issues of foreign institutional investors (FII). The group released its report in November 2005. The expert group provided the following rationale for encouraging more foreign institutional investment (FII) flows.

The group suggested that, foreign institutional investor’s (FII) supplement domestic saving and increase domestic investment without increasing foreign debt of the country. Further, the group suggested that capital inflows in equity market gives high stock prices, lower cost of equity capital, and encourage investment by Indian firms, fforeign investor’s help to improve the domestic stock market, and strengthen corporate governance.

The expert group recommended that, foreign institutional investors (FII) should be given operational flexibility by allowing them the freedom to switch between equity and debt instrument so that they can pursue more “balanced” strategies (T.T Ram Mohan EPW, Jan 14, 2006 and C. P Chandrashanker EPW Jan 14, 2006 ).

Impact of capital inflows in Indian economy: Foreign direct investment (FDI) is important for domestic economy to achieve higher economic growth and development. Foreign direct investment (FDI) benefits domestic industries and consumers by providing opportunities for technological upgradation, access to global managerial skills and practices. optimum utilization of human and natural resources, making Indian industries internationally competitive,

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opening up export markets, providing backward linkages and access to international quality goods and services.

The overall benefits of FDI for developing economies are well documented. Studies show that foreign direct investments assist human capital formation, contribute in international trade integration, help to create more competitive business environment and increase enterprises development. Foreign direct investment also influences growth by increasing total factor productivity, and efficiency of resource use in receipt country. Technological transfers through foreign direct investment generate positive externalities in the host countries.

There is a need to establish a transparent, broad and effective enabling policy environment for investment and implementation in order to reap maximum benefits from foreign direct investment.

The foreign direct investment policy in India is considered as one of the most liberal, with few barriers. The global competitiveness report 2003-2004 by economical forum ranked India at 41st in terms of barrier to foreign ownership against 67th for Malayasia, 75th for Thailand and 81st for China.

Foreign direct investment policies were constantly reviewed and necessary steps have been taken by government to attract foreign direct investment and make India as a favorable destination for foreign direct investment. Initiatives have been taken by the government of India regarding foreign direct investment in 2001-2002.

The huge capital inflows through portfolio flows lead to inflation expectations particularly when downward risks to output growth are severe. The inflation expectation arise either because of monetary impact of the rise in foreign exchange reserves or due to sharp rising consumption of good and services generated by the wealth effect left behind stock price boom. Besides sharp changes in net inflows lead to changes in exchange rate of the rupees that would haveing implications for trade

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and investment policies. (A.Vasudevan. EPW. Jan 14.2006) The policy regarding portfolio flows by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) was reviewed and major initiatives have been taken by the government to increase the level of portfolio investment in Indian economy. In budget 2001-2002, it was proposed to raise the limit of portfolio investment by FII’s from the normal level of 24% of the paid up capital to 49%, subject to the approval of the general body of share holders by special resolution. More recently, Indian companies have been permitted to raise the aggregate ceiling for portfolio investment by FII’s through secondary market from normal level of 24% up to the applicable sectoral cap level issued and paid up capital, subject to follow the special procedure such as a) Approval by board of directors of the company to enhance limit beyond 24%, and b) Special resolution passed by general body of the company approving the enhanced limit beyond 24%. The government of India has also liberalized the guidelines of issues of ADR/GDR in phased manner to access more foreign investment from abroad.

Capital inflows during 2001-2002 in terms of external assistance had declined due to repayment of past loans. The external commercial borrowing policy continues to provide flexibility in the borrowing by Indian corporate and public sector undertaking further trends of NRI’s deposit’s show overall confidence of NRI’s in Indian economy.

According to economic survey 2002-2003, the year 2001 was important year because in same year India received the highest foreign investment ever.

This foreign investment was important because at that time many developing economies faced acute shortage of foreign investment due to problems in eastern economies & US. As part of the on going liberalized policy the planning commission had setup a Steering Committee on FDI in August 2001 The Committee

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suggested various measure to attract maximum FDI in Indian economy.

During financial year 2002, capital outflow occurred every month except in May, and June and July. The heaviest outflow occurred in January 2002 which coincided with high security tensions in India subcontinent, followed by issue of travel advice of western nations. The adverse effects of global slow down and delay in recoveries, on international capital market, were also evident from the lower resources mobilization by Indian corporates through ADR/GDR route. The external assistance in 2002-2003 showed declining trends due to higher level of repayment that occurred in the months of April-September 2002. In terms of external borrowings, the major liberalized initiatives were taken by the Reserve Bank of India, to get more approval by way of external commercial borrowings. However, the external commercial borrowings were negative in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003.

Despite negative external systems and external commercial borrowings in 2002-2003, the net NRI’s deposits increased. But there was steadily decline in the balance on NR (NR) RD scheme.

This was happened on account of the decisions to discontinue NR (NR) RD scheme from April, 1, 2002.

The net aggregate foreign investment during 2002-2003 was lower as compared to the net aggregate inflow in 2001-2002. The reasons for declining inflows were reducing foreign portfolio investment. However, the trends were much more encouraging in the year 2003-2004. Where as the trends of foreign direct investment inflows were slightly lower than the previous year. The declining trend of portfolio investment in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, however, witnessed sharp rise in 2003-2004. The net portfolio investment was higher as compared with 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 due to domestic market and greater participation of foreign institutional investors. A sharp improvement in domestic market and

positive return on risk return played a very important role to expand portfolio inflows in 2003-2004.

The trends of external commercial borrowing and external assistance were continuously declined as compare with previous year. In 2003-2004, the net commercial borrowing recorded net negative trends. The negative trends on account lower disbursements by banks which underline lower demand for external commercial borrowing in 2003-2004. In order to improve access external commercial borrowing by Indian corporates, the existing ECB’s policy was liberalized in January 2004. The trend of NRI deposits increased in 2003-2004 due to outstanding balance in various scheme except NR (E) RA accounts.

In 2004-2005, the net foreign investment was slightly lower than previous year. The declining trend of foreign investment was due to lower portfolio investment in 2004-2005. The external commercial borrowing was much higher in 2004-2005 as compared with net negative outflows in 2003-2004. The external assistance also showed positive trends to negative trends. The growing volume of external commercial borrowing inflows indicate that the fundamental of driving such demand continue to remain strong. The trends of NRI deposits in 2004-05 show a net negative outflow. This was because of declining on balance in FCNR (B) and NR (E) RA in 2004-05. The trends in NRI deposits were completely in contrast with previous year trends.

Bibliography: Books— Government of India, Economic Survey, Various Issues, GOI. Reserve Bank of India Report on Currency and Finance, Various Issues, RBI. Krugman Paul R. and Maurk Obstfeld, 2000, International Economics: Theory and Policy, Singapure, Addison-Weslcy.

Bo Sodersten and Reed Geoffrey, 1994, International Economics, UK, Macmillan Press.

Salvatore Dorninick, 2001, International

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Economics, USA, John Wiley & Son. Dornbusch R, Fisher I. and Startzz R., 2001, Macroeconomics, New Delhi, Tata- Magrohill Publishing House.

Jhingan M.L., 1984, International Economics, New Delhi, Vikas Publishing House.

Chandran R, 2005, International Economics, Mumbai, Jaico Publication.

Kothari C.L, 2004, Research and Methodology, New Delhi Vishwa Publication.

Journal Articles— Rakshit Mihir, 2006. ‘On liberalized Foreign Institutional Investment’ EPW, March Vol. no. 18, pp 991-8.

Vasudevan A, 2006 ‘A Note On Portfolio Flow To India’ EPW, Jan. Vol. no. 14, pp 90-91.

Chandrashekhar C.P., 2006, ‘Courting Risk’ EPW, Jan. Vol. no. 14, pp 92-95.

Ram Mohan T.T., 2006, ‘Neither Dread nor Encourage the FIIs’ EPW, Jan. Vol. no. 14, pp 95-97.

Reddy Y.V. 2007, ‘India: Development and Reform Experience and Prospects’ RBI Monthly Bulletin, October, Reserve Bank of India.

Websites— www.planningcommission.nic.in/report/wrk paper/wp-cris9091 www.cso.nic.inBolsa Familia www.rbi.nic.in Mr. Mahendra Mishra is Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, K. J. Somaiya Collage of Arts and Commerce, Vidyvihar, Mumbai 400077. mahendra.r.mishra@gmail.com

Important Announcement

Encyclopedia of the Radical Humanists To be loaded on the RH Website (http://www.theradicalhumanist.com) Dear Friends, This is to request you to send in your personal details, contact numbers etc. (along with your passport size photographs) as well as a brief account of how you got associated with M.N. Roy/Radical Democratic Party/Radical Humanist Movement directly or indirectly through the philosophy of New Humanism.

This is also a request to all those friends, whose deceased parent/parents were involved in or were sympathetic with Radical Humanism and its Movement, to send in accounts of their parent’s/parents’ association (as much as they can recollect and recount). This will be a loving and emotional tribute to their memories from your side.

All this effort is being made to form an encyclopedia of the Radical Humanists right from the days of the beginning of M.N. Roy’s social and political activities in India and abroad.

All this information will be uploaded and permanently stored on the RH Website in the Profile section for everyone to read and come in contact with one another.

This will a historical check-list to connect with all the crusaders who worked or are still working for the human cause on the humanist lines.

—Rekha Saraswat

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Book Review Section: [BOOK: Girls and Girlhoods at Threshold of Youth and Gender-A Vacha Initiative, Editor: Vibhuti Patel, The Women Press, Delhi, pp/ xxv 480, Price: 1595.

Reviewed by Ms. Sakshi Goyal, Rachna Amarnani and Guruvaishnavi] r. Pratima Dave Shastri, in Chapter 12 “Politics of Gender and the Familial Structure in the Story, ‘Girls’ by Mrinal Pande” presents her analysis on how patriarchy encompasses the Indian society. She narrates the various aspects connected to patriarchy and its effects on women. For this, she has particularly spoken about Mrinal Pande’s ‘Girls’. A very thought provoking line which the child narrates in the story is “For a long time I sit outside the house watching the bird flying and wishing that I had been born a bird. Do mother birds too think that girl birds are inferior? I wonder”. It really shows two basic emotions of the girl child i.e., innocence and pain.

The author explains how women become the spokesperson of men’s views and superimpose restrictions on their daughters, channelizing their behaviour to take a particular shape and form.

Thus, emphasizing on the irony of the situation.

One very positive aspect of this chapter is that the narrator of the story had the courage to question those people who were suppressing her.

Undergoing a mixture of emotions, the child was unable to comprehend the dual personality of the community. On one hand, they would treat the daughter as slaves and on the other they would deify. Deification of women is again extreme exploitation of women in the image of all giving – deaf and mute idol. The crux of the article is very well highlighted and is extremely touching.

Dr. Mira K Desai provides media analysis in Chapter 13 “Girl Child, Television Advertising and Status Quo: Gender in HDFC Standard Life Advertisements”. In the initial segment of the report Dr Desai has given a snapshot of television

D

in India, gender and Indian television and girlhood and Indian TV advertising. She states that Indian women are mainly media users without any reference to portrayal of women in media. The author explains the various studies done on media and women which show the trend of increase in the visibility of women in television programming.

However, the stereo type still exists.

The author states, it has been an ongoing practice of the advertisers to define women in relation to men where as men vis-à-vis majorly their work.

Emphasis has been laid on son’s education and daughter wedding. I firmly agree with the author about representation of women as sex slave in most advertisement of hospitality industry and photographic good industry.

The author in this paper analyzes four television advertisements all showing communication between a daughter and the father. Findings of the research convey that women are forgetful, helpless, stupid, emotional, approval seeking where as men are sharp, resourceful, intelligent, rational and approvers. Most of these advertisements are subliminal in nature. The presence of mothers in these advertisements is almost negligible. Mothers, being the stereotypical projection of Indian women are convincing but the emotions between the daughter and the father is misinterpreted in my opinion. However, since advertisements are drawn from the belief already present in the culture, their valorising further reinforces and re-creates these notions.

Lastly, I agree to the fact that the medium of television has an enormous potential to shape and reshape women’s attitudes and should be used to portray images consistent with human dignity and rights of girls and women.

Congratulations are due to Mr. Amrit Gangar, author of Chapter 14, “Absence of an Age: Had it been a Durga Trilogy?” not just for picking on a subject like growing up of a girl child or adolescence, which he terms as bal-kishori, that is so clearly critical to a study of girl child yet

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agonizingly absent in most of the references in life.

The route of films to establish this point comes across as a significantly different yet a hugely pleasant surprise to the reader. The narration is gripping to the end. Gangar kicks off by highlighting the fact that how Indian cinema has conveniently edited off this period from the girls life. Through his examples of northern & eastern culture, he goes on to prove that how the films are nothing but true reflection of what is prevalent in the society.

His knowledge of Indian and global Cinema and his penchant for keen observation is evident by the veritable array of examples that he uses from Hindi to regional cinema and draws apt comparisons with world cinema to unequivocally prove how Indian cinema has conveniently misused the cinematic license to edit this age with a single cut, and moved generations in a moment. His examples span generations (from the 1934, Naachwali to the, Kairee made in the Millenium), genres (from the very arty to the completely commercial Satyam Shivam Sundaram) and even geographies (Bollywood, Bengal, South Indian and Global).

He really lets the cat out of the bag by revealing some behind the scenes secrets, which only a true industry expert and an experienced cinema critic could. He explains with deft examples of how even film makers who ostensibly seem to project a pro-feminine message and a girl child’s growing-up years, are in point of fact, only interested in exploring voyeuristic details for viewing pleasures of a mostly masochistic audience. He explains this fact, very effectively and, I must admit, very entertainingly, through the Mise-en-scene used by the filmmakers. Whether it is the rape scene of the adolescent Nita from the movie Insaaf Ka Tarazu, the change of attire of Guddi from frock to saree or the sweet and sour experiences of the adolescent from Kairee, Gangar manages to bring home the point in true cinematic style. Gangar has astutely highlighted the diversity in the cultures by mainly drawing a comparison between North and South India. Talking about the 31

‘coming of age’ or puberty is generally considered as a taboo in Northern India whereas in Southern India it is celebrated. A fact well highlighted by the example of Karik Raja’s Tamil film album, collection of sweet memories, that depicts a scene in which a younger sister weeps because her brother hadn’t turned up for her puberty function.

The article is made all the more interesting by interspersing of opinions and comments from functional experts and film makers alike. It also points out a rare scene in a Gopalakirshnan movie, showing a girl who bleeds while studying in her school classroom. The filmmaker points out a major need to be more vocal about menstruation so that the guilt feeling is removed. Am sure many women, definitely including myself, would passionately second this call.

The author while divulging the reasons for omission of this untouched topic explains that it is considered as a taboo, soft porn and that there’s a lack of women as popular film directors. It is perhaps one of the most non-preachy articles that one could ever come across, if at all, on this topic.

Purists could argue that there is a total absence of facts and figures in the narration, however even they would not be able to stay untouched with the very visual and gripping manner of bringing out the societal issues related to growing up of the girl child.

And finally in the climax of this blockbuster effort, he explains Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy- based on a male protagonist and his life throughout the three editions - and his desire to convert the same into Durga trilogy (a female pre-adolescent character and sister of Apu who dies in the first edition), thus making it a film based on a female protagonist.

To explore this idea, he throws up a challenge to develop the story to film makers and functional experts like Shoma Chatterjee, Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan, Rinki Bhattacharya and Dr. Udayan Patel. The results throw up a wide spectrum. From a conservative Shoma Chatterjee who hits a road block to the more liberated

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views/story of Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan who makes Durga the protagonist and actually goes on to educate her and culminates by showing her as a writer and an agit-prop feminist not in a typical manner but aesthetically sensitive to the woman’s space and woman’s world.

The befitting climax in some ways also highlights the author’s near frustration of not finding a reel or real example and hence wanting to explore the realms of fantasy. The narration is so captivating and live that as a reader also you end up sensitized, agonized and frustrated at the lack of efforts to represent the bal-kishori.

Ms Shalini Mathur and Dr Rohini Kashikar Sudhakar have provided us with a case studies relating to ‘Adolescent girls’ in chapter numbers 15 and 17 respectively.

Ms Shalini Mathur’s case studies are of the adolescent girls in protective homes run by the Government in North India in the early 90’s. She provides detailed information about the working of such protective homes and brings to our notice that such homes are more like jails by bringing out the fact that there is no connection of the outside world with these girls and vice-versa. However, the girls are provided with basic amenities of food, health, education and security.

Ms Mathur has mentioned that these girls are detained under three provisions i.e., ‘moral danger’, caught with boys and controversy between father and husband. The ways to get out of these homes are again a compromise because they would either have to be taken back by their family or get married or by proving to the magistrate that they are independent enough to survive.

To enhance the study, the author narrates two case studies, one of Naseema, who was raped by her step-father’s friend and was impregnated by him.

Not accepted by her family, she was sent to a protective home and was later on rescued by her sister. The second one was the case of a Dalit girl Savitri, who eloped with a Dalit man unaware of his first marriage. She was not accepted back by her family and hence was sent to a protective home where she married another Dalit man whose first wife had absconded.

The analysis on these case studies is done to understand who is actually responsible for such circumstances faced by the girls. The author rightly says that these girls, from their childhood have been facing negligence and have been deprived of love, care and affection from home and society.

Therefore, they go beyond their doorstep in search of that little bit of love and affection. I thank Ms. Shalini Mathur for giving such an informative case study of girls staying in protective homes. These case studies reflect the ground realities about the protective homes.

Dr Rohini’s case studies are related to the girls residing in two slums in Mumbai. Out of the ten case studies, I really appreciate two case studies which are of Sarita and Kapi. Sarita left her drunkard husband and chose to be a single parent.

Whereas, Kapi has rendered commendable services which was beneficial for the slum she resides in, even though she was faced by threat at every step she took. Eventually, she became a local political leader.

To be concluded in the next issue............................

“Short-changing girls is not only a matter of gender discrimination; it is bad economics and bad societal policy. Experience has shown, over and over again, that investment in girls’ education translates directly and quickly into better nutrition for the whole family, better health care, declining fertility, poverty reduction and better overall economic performance.”

Kofi Annan, Former United Nations Secretary General

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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] [BOOK: Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers, by Sarnath

Banerjee, Cover artist Chandan Crasta, English, Penguin Books (India), 2007, paperback, pp 280, Rs 346]

Ninja Turtle? novel deserves a – what shall we say, This a read or a look?–if only because of its unique character. It is a specimen of the ‘Graphic Novel’ – a form that is certainly novel all across the globe.

It combines text with illustrations and photographs and thus Sarnath Banerjee is both the author and the illustrator of this book. Born in Kolkata in 1972, Banerjee studied image and communications at London and now works in Delhi. He is an illustrator and cover designer and, with Anindya Roy, has founded the comics publishing house Phantomville.

This book of Banerjee’s is some kind of a re-incarnation of Hutom Pyanchar Naksha, a novel written by Kaliprasanna Sinha in the early1860s. Its 33

background is Calcutta soon after the Mutiny or the First War of Independence, and it has its own place in the history of Bengali language and literature. It is also a mastery comment on contemporary socio-economic happenings. The ‘hutom pyancha’ is a ‘barn owl’. Thanks to Minerva and Lakshmi, the owl is a symbol both of wisdom and wealth. It was thus a fitting choice for the name of a protagonist commenting wisely on the ways of the wealthy in Bengal under the British.

Sarnath Banerjee has used this idea evocatively in his book.

The story is narrated by a young man of about thirty who is searching for a book he had been fond of as a child. His grandfather had found it in a Jewish trinket shop in Paris. It was the leather-bound diary of a Jew who had dealings with British officials and chronicled his experiences in his diary. But upon the grandfather’s death, his wife had given it away.

The dead grandfather himself sometimes appears in the form of a spirit to egg our young man on his search for the book. A ‘babu’ or clerk in the Writer’s Building, Kolkata, who has occult powers, also provides guidance. There is a villain as well – from the so-called ‘aristocratic’ classes.

One of the points that this book conveys is that the ‘babu’ class is not a thing of the past. The British who created the clerks or ‘writers’ may be gone; the ‘babu’ lives on.

The classes – to be accurate- the ‘strata’- and their conflict thus receive a subtle handling here.

But the novelty of the book is more in its form, type or genre – whichever word we use. This is that of the Graphic Novel. In fact, Sarnath Banerjee’s first novel Corridor (2004) is hailed as the first ever Graphic Novel in India. Banerjee, as well as his publisher, Penguin (India), are regarded as pioneers in the field.

According to some, however, that place of honour should be given to River of Stories by Orijit Sen, published in 1994 by Kalpavriksha. It is indeed a pioneering effort, telling the story of the river Narmada and the environmental, social and

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political issues about constructing the Narmada dam. But then it is too short a work, and certainly not a novel. So far as the graphic novel is concerned, Banerjee does seem to be No.1.

Well, what is a graphic novel? Strictly speaking, a graphic novel is one composed in a way that combines text as well as drawing/painting work to bring out the full sense of what the novel is about. It has to be distinguished from a profusely illustrated text as well as a graphic representation of a novel written originally in only textual form. The characteristics of a novel should be present in the graphic novel; only, it should have text as well as graphics blending or meshing together in its very body.

In Barn Owl’s etc, Sarnath Banerjee has used photographs of old Calcutta – her streets and buildings – as well drawings and paintings. Old buildings of London and Paris too are ably represented. As though this was not enough, there are insets on the Hilsa fish as well!

But there are philosophical discourses too coming in bubbles from no other than Benjamin Franklin.

These are cleverly intertwined with conversations by way of adda – a favourite occupation of the Bengalis which no English word can adequately describe.

But although Banerjee’s book is a most unusual product, it takes its inspiration from the West where the graphic novel has already got a presence. It is not original in the sense of being entirely indigenous or ethnic. This is a pity. For the graphic novel could very well have emerged in India. The Ajanta murals, the Mahabalipuram panels, the phad of Rajasthan and the pata or sara paintings of Bengal and Orissa could very well have inspired it.

However that has not happened. Corridor may be based on Delhi and Barn Owl’s etc on Kolkata, but at their core is emulation – not originality. Like the first-ever novels published in India in the 18th century, these graphic novels too are born out of Western influence.

That however is no detraction in this era.

Globalization can, and should, lead to mutation in forms of art and literature. Whether the mutants become Ninja Turtles depends, after all, on us.

M.N. Roy Memorial Essay Writing Competition 2010 Announced.

The topic of the Essay is: “International Co-operation - Financial & Cultural”.

The essay may be written in either Hindi or English with a word limit of 2000.

10 marks are exclusively allotted for Bibliography.

Please send your biodata on a separate sheet. Also, enclose your passport size photograph.

You may email these to rheditor@gmail.com or post them at D-90 A-Krishna Marg, Bapu Nagar, Jaipur, 302015, Raj. The last date for submission is 31.10.2010.

Information sent by — Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot

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Humanist News Section: I 44th anniversary of late GopalakrishnaMurthy):

AGK

(Avula

44th anniversary of late AGK (Avula GopalakrishnaMurthy) was observed on 6th Sep, 2010.

The Telugu dailies published many articles on AGK and a meeting was organised at Tenali, AP. AGK was close associate of M N Roy and Ellen, as well as V M Tarkunde, A B shah, K K Sinha, C T Daru, V B Karnik, Indumati Parekh, G D Parekh, Sibnarayan ray,m.Govindan, R S yadav, C R M Rao, .He was founder organised of Radical democaratic party and later Radical Humanist movement as well as Renaissance movement in Andhra Pradesh. He participated in All India Radical Humanist study camps. AGK was great iconoclast and speaker in English and Telugu. He officiated numerous secular weddings.

He was invited by the state department of USA in 1963 for outstanding contribution to humanist cause and hononed him as one day mayor of Fresno city in California state.

AGK was prolific writer in English and Telugu and published articles in Radical Humanist, IndianRationalist, and several other magazines.

His premature death at the age of 50 was great loss for humanist movement.

Introduction of Avula Gopala Krishnamurthy: Avula Gopala Krishnamurthy rather “A.G.K.” as he was more popularly and affectionately called, was born on April 29, 1917 at Mulpur village near Tenali of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh. He hailed from a middle class agriculture family. He graduated in Law and Literature from Andhra and LucknowUniversities. He settled down for law practice at Tenali and made it a center of activities in the field of Humanism, influenced as he was by M.N. Roy.

35

For about 8 years he was in the forefront of the Radical Democratic Party in Andhra Pradesh, as secretary and member of its central executive. After the dissolution of the party, he was acknowledged as the foremost leader of the Radical Humanist movement in Andhra Pradesh until his death in 1967.

In 1949 he associated himself with such great rationalist personalities like Dr. R.P. Paranjape, Gora, C.N. Annadurai and S. Ramathan in starting the Indian Rationalist Association. He was a member of the first working committee of the Indian Rationalist Association. The association’s first conference was inaugurated by M.N. Roy. AGK inaugurated the 6th convention of the Rationalist Association held at Madras. Elected Vice President of the Association, he held office until his death in 1967 at the age of 49.

His passion for social reforms and compassion for the downtrodden were proverbial. He pioneered the backward class movement in Andhra. He was the champion and protagonist of inter-caste marriages.

He officiated hundreds of such marriages. People used to gather in large numbers to hear his speeches on such occasions.

He was elected Municipal Chairman of Tenali and during his tenure, he laid roads and provided electricity in slum areas. He visited the USA in 1964 at the invitation of the US Government.The fanatic Hindus including the editor of Andhra Prabha Mr. Neelamraju Venkataseshaiah demanded the government to call him back when AGK commented that he would tell the truth about Vivekananda if some one asks for details in USA. During his tour in USA he made certain remarks against Jawaharlal Nehru which made the then ambassador B.K Nehru furious but he could not do anything. After his return from USA, AGK gave his impressions in public meetings which were hailed as excellent assessment. He translated M.N. Roy’s work “New Humanism” into Telugu and published “My Tour of the USA”.

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AGK studied Roy’s principles thoroughly and extensively propagated them but did not blindly follow them. In fact, he propagated the principles scientifically. He did not accept Roy as a communist. AGK often said that Roy was afraid of the Communist Secret Police chasing him, as he knew well how they eliminated their opponents in the international communist movement. AGK used to heckle Roy for keeping the photo of Stalin in his drawing room even in the last days of Stalin.

AGK realized that Netaji turned to be a “Social fascist”. When Subhas was defeated as president of Congress none received him in Lucknow but AGK received him and maintained cordial relations.

AGK was studying postgraduate course in Lucknow and staying in hostel. He wrote that Netaji committed a blunder in seeking the support of Hitler and fascists in his fight against British imperialism.

AGK used to write articles in both small and big newspapers whichever was willing to publish them.

He was popularly called a ‘theoretician’ in Radical circles. His general speeches were ferocious, and attracted special attention. Mr. Abburi Ramakrishna rao complained against AGK to M N Roy when AGK wrote bitter criticism against Gandhi during war days. When no magazine came forward to publish some of his thoughts, he launched a Radical magazine from Tenali during the Second World War. He tried his best to bring several persons involved in social and women emancipation in Andhra region under the influence of Roy. As part of his endeavors, he could make the famous feminist writer Chalam meet Roy. However, it was a failure as Chalam was not fluent in English and did not have modern views on various subjects. Chalam could not rise to Roy’s level of thinking.

AGK thought that a meeting of Tripuraneni Ramaswamy with Roy would be fruitful.

Ramaswamy did not possess in-depth philosophical knowledge. In addition, he could not come out of Hindu mythologies and caste

inequities. Hence, here also AGK was dissatisfied.

Ramaswamy did not live long afterward and there was no occasion for AGK to try again for their meeting.

A Humanist: By 1948, AGK played a prominent role at the national level in the Radical Humanist movement, worked together with Mr. Ramanathan, Vice - President and invited Annadurai from Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh. He continued to be National Vice-President for about ten years. He wrote a number of articles and addressed several meetings. He propagated the thoughts of eminent humanists like Ingersol, Bradlaugh, Thomas Paine and several others in Andhra areas.

After Independence, AGK excelled as a full-time Radical. While practicing at Tenali as an advocate, he conducted many training camps and imparted knowledge to youth.

Organising Marriages: He cultivated the art of delivering speeches at the time of marriages. He also organized several humanist weddings. Even people who did not agree with his ideas heard him in rapt attention.

Friend of Dalits: AGK prepared Dalits in Andhra Pradesh to fight for their rights. Former Chief Minister Sanjivaiah visited him frequently for advice. Many Dalit poets had the privilege of his doing the ‘foreword’ for their works. AGK waged a relentless fight against untouchability. On a visit to Vijayawada as Chief Minister, Sanjivaiah had to cancel his engagements at a Harijan Hostel located atop a hillock as he could not climb. When the reporter of Andhra Patrika, Telugu daily, brought the issue to AGK’s notice by, AGK remarked that when Sanjiviah could climb up to the position of Chief Minister, how was it he could not climb up to the Harijan Hostel on the hillock. Andhra Patrika carried a story on the subject. Reacting to it immediately, Sanjivaiah offered apologies to AGK. He later attended the hostel function.

Sanjivaiah was a generous politician who received criticism in its true spirit. From Athota Venkata Ratnam to Jashua, many Dalit poets were AGK’s

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friends.

Agitations for Secularism: The then Endowments Minister Kalluri Chandramouli spent Government funds in the name of renovation of temples lavishly. AGK wrote a number of articles and delivered speeches objecting to this and suggested that the Government should maintain a distance from religion. During the tenure of Pattabhi Ramarao as Education Minister, textbooks were nationalized and AGK opposed the move. In the 5th standard textbooks, a piece written by Viswanadha Styanarayana in which Budha was described as Satan was published. AGK agitated against it as a result of which the Government was forced to remove it from the textbook. This was a victory scored by Humanists under the leadership of AGK against the State Government. Pattabhi Ramarao frequently entered into arguments with AGK but could not succeed.

Viswanadha Satyanarayana afraid to attend any meeting attended by AGK. He could not face the rational literary criticism of AGK.At a farewell meeting organized by the Advocates Association on the eve of his American tour, many requested AGK to lavishly praise Swamy Vivekananda but AGK said that he would state only the facts about Swamiji.

Andhra Prabha, under the editorship of Neelamraju Venkata Seshiah, started a big campaign seeking the recall of AGK. Many fundamentalists cried foul about his speeches in the States. AGK did not have an occasion to rebut their contentions.

Several Humanists right from M.V. Sastry used to consult AGK because of his position in the movement. Gopichand and others were afraid of AGK. People, who often change their views as easily as changing parties, were afraid of him.

A comprehensive book on AGK’s efforts to propagate Humanist, secular and radical movements in Andhra is warranted.

AGK turned Tenali into an important Humanist center. From M.N. Roy to A.B. Shah, hundreds of Humanist leaders visited Tenali and had 37

discussions with AGK. People acquainted with AGK felt that they were in the company of a great intellectual.

AGK edited Radical, Radical Humanist, Samiksha - all Humanist journals in Telugu published from Tenali. He also edited souvenirs on Tripuraneni Ramaswami, Etuduri Venkata Narasaiah and a few other literary giants in Telugu. He associated himself with famous journalists like Narla Venkateshwara Rao and influenced their thoughts.

AGK turned out hundreds of Humanists through training camps and study centers.

—N. Innaiah

II Statement Before The Orissa State RTI Commission given by B.P. Rath Dt. 17.09.2010 (A copy) Respected sir, With due regard, I submit the following statement for your kind perusal and order.

Nobel laureate Albert Camus wrote in his famous book ‘The Rebel’ “On the day when crime puts on the apparel of innocence, through a curious reversal peculiar to our age, it is innocence that is called on to justify itself.”

Twenty first century is one step ahead. Today it is the whistleblower (who has risked his life and property by using the right to information as a weapon) who must defend himself standing on the accuser’s dock.

Gandhi in his book Hind Swaraj pointed out the structural evils plaguing the legal system. He confirmed that only a good man, inside the system, can rise above the atmosphere of immorality surrounding him. It is fortunate that the legal system nurtures many good men in all ages and climes.

Let me explain in brief the background that brought me to this state. Twenty-first century in India witnessed the state-supported corporate power crushing the vulnerable, the Adivasis and Dalits, under its iron heel. Guided by Manmohan

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Choudhary and inspired by Kishen Patnayak in my young days, I poured my Gandhian thoughts through articles and editorials in the magazines Vigil and Sarvodaya. The famed Kashipur movement against Bauxite mining broke my sleep.

The result, a false case concocted by the police. I escaped jail going though I refused lawyer – engagement and bailer- support, because the judges were watchful, the human – rightists fraternal and the media cordial.

Along with age came illnesses like Diabetes, irregular heart – beats and uncontrollable urges to urination and stool expulsion. As travel became a painful ordeal, I got myself rid of the editorship of Vigil and Sarvodaya. I confined my self to home, researching on a new road for humanity, bedeviled by a Satanic civilization (Gandhi).

Very soon my ivory- tower existence received a jolt. The call of the wild waves became irresistible: Kashipur again gave the clarion call. Enriched by the emergent awareness and self confidence that was a gift of the NGO AGRAGAMI, women in some areas of the most backward block in India rose to challenge the liquor mafia ruining their rural happiness. Their call was irresistible. I attempted to tame the tiger through utilizing my right to information. When the excise department of Rayagada ignored my letter, I approached the honorable RTI Commission. Instant was the response. I got a reply from the excise department.

Summoned by the hon’ble commission I gave my statement that I had received the reply and he might either penalize or warn the offender for the inordinate delay in supplying information. I requested to be excused from attending the court on 21.05.10 because of my ailing body and advanced age. My absence was condoned. Because two groups in the excise department wrangled and learned lawyers fought battles of wit, the hon’ble commission was compelled to hold a number of sittings. On different dates I was summoned to these sittings and when this 79 year nearing old man failed to drag his ailing body from Rayagada to the honorable commission’s office at Bhubaneswar

to witness the spectacle of the battle of words, I was informed that my absence was not condoned.

The state, by insisting on the payment RTI fees of rupees ten through challan rather than the postal MO, has deprived the villagers of the RTI. Now the hon’ble commission, by calling the complainant to Bhubaneswar and not condoning his absence, effectively scares the urban middle class people and the ailing seniors living in remote districts from using the RTI. Thank you Camus, today I, the whistle blower, stand accused of procedural impropriety, by the RTI court. Such situations create violent heroes in films and cynics and Maoists in real life. I am a heretic Gandhian like Lohia. I can only become a Satyagrahi who appeals to the conscience of the judges and the public through self- suffering.

I end my statement with the narration of an experience. Some months back, I received a letter from the secretary, Orissa Sahitya Academy, stating that I have been selected to be honoured as a littérateur (I have written six novels and two books of poems). I thanked the secretary and declined the honour. I quoted my guiding Sloka from the Mahabharata (Santiparba). Its English rendering is given below: “The wise man (a man of Dharma) shuns honour like poison, he welcomes insults and dishonor like nectar”.

I wrote to the secretary that my proper honour lies in getting beaten or killed by anti-socials or going to jails as a victim of misused justice, as I love to be a whistle blower. In the Swargarohan Parba of the Mahabharata, Vyasa writes: “In the cause of Dharma, a man/woman should shun every temptation. Even the fear of death should not make him swerve from the right path.”

Ancient India considered every judge to be an incarnation of Dharma.

With profound regards, Yours humbly, Bagwat Prasad Rath

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III Copy of the Letter sent to Supreme Court by PUCL and Lok Andolan, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

To, The Honourable Chief Justice, S.H. Kapadia, Supreme Court of India Tilak Marg, New Delhi Sir, Being seriously concerned with the uproar raised by the Chief Minister of the state Mr. Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP and their senior National and State leaders, around the Judicial Enquiry on Sohrabuddin (Fake) Encounter by CBI ordered by Supreme Court, an emergency meeting of the citizens of the state was held in a public hall in Ahmedabad on 4th September, 2010 presided over by one of the eminent citizens of the state Mr. Prakash N. Shah. The meeting was convened by People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Lok Andolan, Gujarat. Lawyers of repute Mr. Mukul Sinha, Ms. Ami Yagnik and Mr. M.M. Tirmizi engaged in legal battle of Godhra, Post Godhra 2002 Carnage and various encounter deaths including Sohrabuddin (Fake Encounter) Case progressed, 14 police officials, 14 police officials were arrested by CID. Onlt two more were arrested

by CBI later when it took over. However, ironically enough the moment Supreme Court ordered the CBI enquiry into the Sohrabuddin (Fake) Encounter case, uproar started building up throughout the state raised by the Chief Minister of Gujarat and the Delhi-based leaders of BJP. A volatile situation is being created after the arrest of the Home Minister of State Mr. Amit Shah. It is alleged by the Chief Minister that the CBI is acting through motivation provided by the Central Government against Gujarat State Government and more, against the people of Gujarat. To our deep dismay the psyche of people of Gujarat is fed with the concept that Gujarat is a nation which is being victimised and India as a nation is poised against it.

This malicious campaign confuses the people and raises doubts about the sanctity of our Judiciary and 39

the Judicial inquiry ordered by the Supreme Court.

We are deeply distressed to note that as it is the executive is parlayed in Gujarat, Legislature is not allowed to be active and now the judiciary, especially the apex Court is also being brought down from its most respectable pedestal to be discussed in streets.

So, as citizens of India we are drawing the attention of Supreme Court to the following resolutions passed unanimously in our meeting— “We are of the opinion that, 1. When the 2002 riot cases and Sohrabuddin (Fake) Encounter Case are pending in the Honourable Supreme Court and when the State Government of Gujarat is a party to these cases, neither the Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi nor the Delhi-based senior leaders of BJP can make public commentsabout the panding proceedins in the Court. It clearly amounts to Criminal Contempt of Court.

2. As the CBI is enstrusted by the Honourable Court to invvestigate the Sohrabuddin (Fake) Case, the allegations made by the Chief Minister, Mr. Modi and the senior Delhi-based leaders of BJP against the motive of the CBI and their attempt to create mass frenzy against the investigating agency directly interfere with the Judicial process and the impartial investigation by the Court appointed agency and create doubts among the people about the honesty, integrity and impartiality of the Court proceedings which clearly and unequivocally amount to Criminal Contempt.

3. We pray that the Honourable Supreme Court may be pleased to take notice of this Criminal Contempt of Court and take appropriate action against all those who arde responsible.

Thanking you.

Yours truly, Prakash N. Shah (President of the Meeting) Gautam Thaker (Secretary P.U.C.L., Gujarat) Dilip Chandulal & Dwarika Nath Rath (Jt. Convenors, Lok Andolan, Gujarat)

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IV Meeting of Mr. Innaiah Narisetti with Ms. Dorothy North: The meeting of Ms. Dorothy North, attorney (wife of late Professor Robert North) took place on 24th Sept. 2010 in the Stanford University. Dr Narisetti Innaiah and Ms. Dorothy had lunch meeting in faculty club. They discussed various aspects of secularism and humanism, promoting scientific thought, child abuse and other things. Ms. Dorothy remembered her visit to India and participation in the Radical Humanist Conference at Bombay in 1987. She showed the conference’s picture with herself and her husband. She fondly remembered Indumati Parekh, Sibnarayan Ray and V.M. Tarkunde.

She expressed her thoughts about Dr. Rekha

Saraswat, editor of The Radical Humanist and appreciated her effort and approach.

Mr Innaiah persuaded Ms. Dorothy to continue her contributions to the RH so that the youth may seek inspiration from her writings. She discussed about M.N Roy, Evelyn and Ellen during the meeting.

Mr Cherukuri Rajasekhar, software engineer (cousin of Dr N.Innaiah) also participated in the discussion.

Dr Innaiah presented her the book M.N. Roy, Radical Humanism published by Prometheus Books and compiled by Innaiah. She received it with grace and also received the Political History of Andhra Pradesh which she promised to place in the library of Stanford University library.

—News sent by Narisetti Innaiah

An Appeal For Donation to The Radical Humanist The Radical Humanist, a monthly journal devoted to the values of freedom, democracy and human rights, is now in financial difficultly, since its income has been reduced materially because of the sharp fall the rate of interest in recent years.

The journal was started in 1937 by the late revolutionary leader M.N. Roy as a weekly called Independent India. After India became independent, its name was changed into The Radical Humanist. It became a monthly in 1971. The journal has been published regularly since 1937, a period of 73 years. At present Dr. Rekha Saraswat is its editor. We earnestly appeal to you for financial help to this valuable journal by either becoming a life subscriber or giving a generous donation. The life subscription is Rs. 1500.00. Cheques should be issued in the name of Indian Renaissance Institute and be sent to the following address: “Indian Renaissance Institute B.D. Sharma Ch.111, Supreme Court, New Delhi” Yours Sincerely B.D. Sharma N.D. Pancholi Chairman Secretary Indian Renaissance Institute A-12, Neeti Bagh, New Delhi – 110049 40

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

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