April 2011 - RH

Vol. 75

No 1

493

Rs. 20 / month

THE RADICAL HUMANIST (Since April 1949)

APRIL 2011 Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)

Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Unity of all Religions?

—R.A. Jahagirdar Is Freewill akin to any Determinism?

— N.V. Brahmam Humanist movement in Andhra Pradesh —N. Innaiah Energy Policies Effecting Humanity — J.S. Chandra Rao Paid News, Radia Tapes and Journalistic Ethics —Ramendra Nath Cash Transfer; Central Budget; State Elections —N.K. Acharya Impending Destruction of Environment— A Myth?

—Subhankar Ray Editorial Comment: This world owes us a living? Tell me why?

— Rekha Saraswat

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Justice R.A. Jahagirdar passes away —Rekha Saraswat Justice R.A. Jahagirdar breathed his last on 23rd.

February 2011. He was the former Editor of The Radical Humanist. At present, he was associated with the journal as one of its contributing editors.

Formerly, he had also worked as the President of the Indian Radical Humanist Association for many years.

He had been seriously sick for the last few years and was finding it difficult to sit and do the writing work.

But, to my pleasant surprise, only recently I received three of his latest write-ups for the RH through email from Mr. Janardhan Nair. I could not believe my eyes. To confirm that he had regained his normal health, good enough to write again regularly for the RH, I wrote back to Mr. Nair asking him whether the three articles were his fresh write-ups. And Mr. Nair also very optimistically informed me that these were his latest contributions and that he is getting better.

I happily put two in the February and March RH but unfortunately, the last ‘Unity of all Religions?’ is being published in this issue along with this unpleasant news of his sad demise.

I remember meeting him in Delhi in 2005, soon after it was decided to bring RH to Delhi from Mumbai when I was to begin managing its editing.

I along with the Delhi friends, had a long conversation with him regarding the desired improvements and changes in the journal. He was so full of new ideas!

After he went back to Mumbai, I kept in constant contact with him, through emails and phone-calls, planning and discussing about things related to the journal and the movement for quite some time; but then the frequencies became lesser and lesser due to his failing health. He also kept promising that he would visit us again in Delhi as soon as possible.

But it could not be so!

1

I was informed that he had met with a stroke and was gradualy coming back to normal under the vigilant care of his doctor wife. But it is only through the condolence note from Mr. Vishwad Naiknavare and his letter to me that I now came to know of his serious ailment.

I am remembering here the incidence when I had urgently called him up, an year ago. His wife had picked up the phone and when I explained to her about a situation where I was being continuously pestered she immediately handed over the phone to him. His words of advice made me feel easy; laughing all the way, he explained that such issues need to be met without tension and that he knew about the whole thing and would further look into the matter, so that I am not bothered again. All through, he was so gentle and composed with such a clear and sound voice that I could not at all imagine it was going to be my last conversation with him.......

The loss is definitely irreparable to the movement as well as to all the Radical friends.

I and all the members of the executive body of the IRI as well as all the Radical Humanist friends, convey our deep condolences to his family members. We stand by his wife and children at this moment of extreme grief.

Remembering Justice Jahagirdar —Badridas Sharma Justice (retd.) R.A. Jahagirdar, who had been one of the contributing editors of the Radical Humanist for the last 6yrs, passed away on 23.2.2011. The news of his death came as a bolt from blue to members of Radical humanist fraternity. He had been ailing for some time but in spite of his ill health, he had been sending articles for being published in the RH. In fact, some of our friends were having a discussion on the legality or otherwise of death sentence when his article-"Death sentence-some observations" came. Only a few days before his death his article

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

on “Kabir” ‘suno bhai sadho’ was published in March issue of RH. Mr. Jahagirdar had an illustrious career as a judge of Bombay high court spread over a number of years. After his retirement he actively participated into radical humanist movement, he had been editor of the RH quite a long time it was only because he was not feeling physically fit, that on his earnest request, the members of the board of trustees of the IRI, at its meeting at Hyderabad, into year 2000 grudgingly yielded to his request to be spared of his responsibilities of editing RH. Still even after Mr. Jahagirdar was not the editor of RH, he continued writing valuable instructions and inspiring articles for the RH, these articles which had been published in RH give a fair indication of his depth not only in the knowledge of law but also of history of various religions, religious customs of eminent scholars, scientists and authors who here played an important role in shaping his destiny of men and world history. He had the ingrained passion in him to educate the readers of RH by writing about our forerunners, like Ghalib, Socrates etc. In his death, we have lost one of the important leaders of our Radical Humanist movement, who make their presence felt. While alive, let’s pledge to wake up from our slumbers and follow him in educating men at large in the splendid manner as he did.

I, on behalf of the Indian Renaissance Institute as well as all the Radical Humanists, convey my heat-felt condolence to Mrs. Jahagirdar and other members of the family.

Justice R.A. Jahagirdar –A true humanist passed away —N.D. Pancholi Justice Jahagirdar was one of the pillars of the Indian Radical Humanist Association in particular and great source of strength to the humanist and rationalist movement in India in general. He was in the humanist movement since his early days. As a judge of the Bombay High Court, he saw to it that

APRIL 2011

his judgments conveyed the message of humanism and secularism whenever possible without sacrificing the cause of law and justice. He was a strong defender of rule of law and democratic values while in office or outside. Justice Jahagirdar was a prolific writer. He contributed to large number of magazines, especially to the Radical Humanist, on variety of issues and made valuable contribution. He was trustee of the Indian Renaissance Institute for many years. The younger generation of Radical Humanists always turned to him for guidance. Humanist and rationalist movement in India has suffered a great loss in his demise. His life and ideas will always serve a source of inspiration to all those who are devoted to the cause of poor and deprived section of society.

Going of Jurist Jahagirdar is an irreparable loss —N. Innaiah Dear Rekha ji, I am sorry to know the sad demise of Justice Jahagirdar. That is great loss to Humanist movement. We worked together in IRHA as president and secretary (myself) and shared experiences. I was in touch with him always. It is difficult to replace such eminent jurist humanist.

Justice Jahagirdar: A Secular Humanist and a Committed Rationalist —Jayanti Patel Justice Jahagirdar was a loving friend, outspoken and clear-headed commentator on issues that concerned humanity. He was a chief guest at the inauguration of the first conference of Gujarat Rationalist Association (Buddhinisht Sammelan) held in 1983 at Nadiad. I was its convener-secretary. The local organisers had invited a reformist saint of Gujarat to inaugurate the conference. Some rationalists opposed the presence of a saffron clad theist person on the dais of the 2

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

rationalist-meet. Justice Jahagirdar in his lecture contradicted some observations of that saint and later on expressed his displeasure personally to us. This was our first meeting. He was a voracious reader and prolific writer. He was always prepared to lend a helping hand to the cause of Humanist-Rationalist-Secular movement as well as to the co-travellers interested in other similar movements. I was the Founder-secretary of Gujarat University Area Teachers Association and I wanted to contact office bearers of Bombay University Teachers association for some common problems. Justice Jahagirdar facilitated the meeting by inviting its secretary to meet us in his own chamber at Bombay High Court. Later on, we met off and on during the meetings of IRHA as well as whenever I had a chance to visit Mumbai. He supported me in my tenure as the president of IRHA. Though he was senior to me, he was kind enough to agree to shoulder the responsibility of the presidency of IRHA without any hesitation after me.

Humanist movement has lost a kind friend, committed champion and exponent of Humanism and Rationalism.

An Unforgettable Friend —Vishwas Naiknavare News of Jahagirdar’s death was to me a bolt from the blue. Not that I was not aware of his fight with cancer. But his end came, nevertheless, as a shock.

A couple of months ago, when I had stood by the side of his bed, it seemed the end was still far away.

Reports, I was receiving from friends who had visited him recently were all very optimistic. I was therefore, not mentally ready for this sudden end.

I knew him as Marxist in our college days. He was furious when his teacher had made some derogatory remarks about Communism. In those days he was not yet a Royist. Eventually, he discovered Roy and then he never looked back in his political views. His article in the latest issue of the RH gave me a false hope that he was now on the recovery path.

Jahagirdar was a steadfast and a lovable friend.

During his visits to Pune, he would visit us and we would together visit bookshops. His personal library was impressive and his contributions to the 3

RH were always touching important issues and therefore not to be missed. Alas, he would no longer give us such articles. Once he discovered that it was my birthday. Immediately, he invited me to choose a book of my choice and that was his present to me. Now I shall cherish that memento for the rest of my life.

Jahagirdar was fond of me because of the fact that I had attended the 1948 study camp at Dehradoon while I was still a sophomore. That was when I had a glimpse of Sibnarayan Ray and Amlan Datta with a slight limp at Dehradoon camp.

Jahagirdar always urged me to write for the RH. But I decided that in fact, it was more necessary to write in regional languages to spread our ideas far and wide. We have more than enough literature in English. That is why I would consider Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati or Marathi books, periodicals etc.

More useful for bringing about renaissance in India! After all, the philosophy of New Humanism in all its glory should be available to readers in their mother tongue. That is why I did not follow his suggestion so far. In my correspondence with Sibnarayan Ray, he agreed with me and I believe he was himself writing a lot in Bengali, in addition to his valuable work for Humanism in English.

Presently, I am working on a Marathi biography of M.N. Roy and hope to be able to finish it in a coupe of years. Be that as it may, but I have lost a valued friend and philosopher with Jahagirdar’s departure.

A Great Rationalist: Justice Jahagirdar —Suman Oak Justice Jahagirdar was born on 15th August, the Independence Day, celebrated all over India. He certainly was a truly Independent Spirit. I met him for the first time on the occasion of the birth centenary of M.N. Roy and was very much impressed by his unassuming, friendly and helpful nature. Till then, being a Judge, he refrained from openly airing his views on public platforms. But

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

after his retirement he zealously inculcated rationalist, atheist and humanist values in the youth grabbing every opportunity that came his way.

His judgments had a humane angle. Once a poor woman was accused of committing suicide and of trying to kill her child along with her. Justice Jahagirdar acquitted her, reasoning that since the woman had shouted for help she must have inadvertently fallen into the well (as she later claimed) and had no intention of killing her daughter. This was necessary because, he said; convicting the woman was convicting the innocent child and destroying her future.

He had a very cheerful and jovial nature with a tinge of childlike mischief in it. On many occasions at CSSC Bandra and other places when snacks were offered, Justice Jahagirdar made it a point to take my photograph while I was eating, telling me he wanted to keep a record of my contribution to the cause!

A few years back he suffered a stroke. He was unconscious for over a week. Dr. Sharad Jahagirdar, his wife tirelessly nursed him day and night, knowing full well the gravity of the situation.

He came out of it and although physically not his original self, mentally he was as alert as ever and had a perfect memory. He did contribute a lot to the rationalist cause after his recovery. His daughter and other relatives used to tease him for refusing to see the ‘divine hand’ in it. He gave all the credit to his wife and called her a modern ‘Savitri’. But sadly enough, this did not last long and within a couple of years his health started deteriorating. The sad end came on the morning of 23rd February.

The movement initiated by Rationalist Association of India and carried out despite insurmountable difficulties by Prof. RD Karve, began tapering off during the post independent era as the newly independent Indian society being enamored of the welfare state concept, secularism, Nehruvian socialism, Marxism, etc. felt no need for rationalism per se any more. But soon it was realized that all these isms cannot take care of

APRIL 2011

human frailties like greed, hunger for power, lack of empathy, blind belief and fanaticism. Justice Jahagirdar was one of those who realized the importance of rationalism. Unless reason is given the primacy of place in our mental attitude, we cannot get rid of these curses.

“Reason” magazine was the house journal of Rationalist Association of India. The publication was very popular among rationalists in India and abroad right from its first issue, way back, in 1931 until its last one in 1942. Justice Jahagirdar brought out a series of user friendly CDs by scanning the pages of all the old issues, lest the precious intellectual asset be lost forever and distributed the CDs to various educational institutions and universities He maintained that rationalists do not swear by any set of principles or tenets like other systems of philosophy and therefore do not degenerate into any dogma or religion. It is a mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a system of philosophy and ethics verifiable by experience independent of arbitrary assumptions or authority. He, therefore, advocated rationalism on every platform made available to him. He also believed that decisions in all walks of life political, social, educational and health should be subjected to rationalist thoughts and arguments and should never be based on emotional inspiration.

With his own funds, he founded the ‘Rationalist Foundation Trust’ in 1995 to inculcate rationalism in our society by arranging lectures, publishing printed material and helping individuals who suffer for advocating rationalism. He used to tour all over Maharashtra on the invitation from progressive associations and movements and used their platform to spread rational values in those movements. He wrote a large number of articles on various aspects of rationalism and published pamphlets on this subject. This trust is now ably handled by Mr. Prabhakar Nanavati, a retired Senior Scientist from DRDO, himself a staunch rationalist. He has already published two anthologies of Justice Jahagirdar’s writings and a 4

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

third is on its way. He is carrying out Justice Jahagirdar’s work forward despite the irreparable loss of his valuable guidance.

From the Writings of Justice Jahagirdar:........

“Secularism sounds sweet and means different things to different people. Indian Constitution is said to be secular. It does not favour any particular religion. That is why Indian National Congress says it is secular. Hinduism has been the most tolerant religion for ages. Toleration pervades Hinduism which, says Mr. Advani, is (despite Ayodhya and Gujarat) a secular religion. If Hinduism is the basis of Constitution of India, the latter is secular. Therefore, B.J.P. is secular. The Communist parties do not believe in God and Religion. Therefore, they say they are the real Secularists. Before anyone claims to be a secularist, he or she must tell us what he or she means by secularism. The term itself was in vogue from 17th century onwards after the Enlightenment. But the philosophy of secularism was in practice.

The Church, had an ubiquitous presence in all matters pertaining to State. As the people realised that they should live according to the dictates of present day life, the importance and the power of the Church declined. Especially in the 18th Century, the U.S. Constitution forbade the use of religion by the State. Thomas Jefferson said the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution erected a wall of separation between the Church and the State. This, despite the fact that U.S. was founded in the background of religion. Soon after, the French Revolution took place and the Constitution mandated that there

will be no connection between the Church and the State. This, despite the fact that till then it was the Roman Catholic Church which directed all the activities of the society and the State.

Births and deaths had to be registered in the Church. Education was directed by the Church.

Even awards by the State and land distribution had to be approved by the Church. By 1905 France had become a completely secular State.Today even among the scholars and lawyers there is no agreement on what is meant by secularism. The word was coined by G.H. Holyoake.

Fortunately, all the dictionaries, including Oxford Dictionary, give credit to Holyoake as the father of the term. Holyoake defined the term as an ideology, where in social and industrial morality “hitherto determined by reference to the transcendental principles of religion, were now to be determined by reason, and firmly anchored to the good of man in this life” (quoted in Sociology of Secularization: A Critique of a concept” by P.E. Glasner, Ambika, New Delhi, 1977, p.46). Incidentally it may be mentioned that atheism was not necessary for secularism.

Whereas Charles Bradlaugh, his close associate, said it was. Secularism, historically, is not an event. It is ‘the product of a long line of evolution’. In a secular society and under a secular State, people have moved away from Church and religion so that human activity in the field of education, art and politics are freed from conformity to theological dogma and priesthood.

Secular spirit is seen in the fact that the activities of the State are dictated and tested by reason, by experience and experiment.The fruits of secularism are many. Since secularism treats an individual as a citizen and not as a member of a religion, all individuals are to be treated as citizens and, therefore, equally. Each individual is a unit of secularism. The effect will be and should be democracy and equality which all people cherish.Etymologically, that word secular in Latin meant “the great span of time” or “the spirit of the age”. Later, it got the present meaning, that of “belonging to this world”. Formerly, Christianity regarded spiritualism as a divisive factor in the determination of truth and life of man.............”

5

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011 Download and read the journal at www.theradicalhumanist.com

The Radical Humanist Vol. 75

Number 1

- Contents -

April 2011

Justice R.A. Jahagirdar passes away—Rekha Saraswat Remembering Justice Jahagirdar —Badridas Sharma A true humanist passed away—N.D. Pancholi An irreparable loss—N. Innaiah A Rationalist & a Secular Humanist—Jayanti Patel An Unforgettable Friend —Vishwas Naiknavare A Great Rationalist —Suman Oak

Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance Institute Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life.

Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat Contributory Editors: Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor Rama Kundu Publisher: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Printer: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph. 91-121-2620690, 09719333011, E-mail articles at: rheditor@gmail.com Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of ‘The Radical Humanist’to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number 111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, 110001, India n.vyas@snr.net.in Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600

1. From the Editor’s Desk: This world owes us a living? Tell me why?

—Rekha Saraswat 7 2. Contributory Editors’ Section: Unity of all Religions?—R.AJahagirdar 8 3. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 11 4. Guests’ Section: A Travesty Of Election Law (Contd.)

—S.N. Shukla 15 Energy Policies Effecting Humanity — J.S. Chandra Rao 20 5. Current Affairs: Cash Transfer; Central Budget; State Elections —N.K. Acharya 22 Paid News, Radia Tapes and Journalistic Ethics —Ramendra Nath 25 6. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: Is Freewill akin to any Determinism?

—N.V. Brahmam 27 Humanist movement in Andhra Pradesh —N. Innaiah 31

Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability for corroborating the facts that they give in their write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor of this journal will be responsible for testing the validity and authenticity of statements & information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes some articles published in this journal may carry opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the need is felt to debate and discuss upon them.

Rekha Saraswat

7. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:

The Judiciary and the Poor —Sitaram Kumhar 33 8. Book Review Section: Impending Destruction of Environment: A Myth?

—Subhankar Ray 37

6

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

conscientiousness and devotion towards our families, relatives, neighborhoods, This world owes us a society and country from without but living? Tell me why? feeling and behaving just the opposite from within has been closely watched by our received both kinds of responses from the readers of RH on my last Rekha Saraswat progeny. The only difference is that it is now more honestly and very candidly three months’ editorials; in my support, playing its role exactly the way we have having faith in the younger generation’s caliber; and, against my belief, opposing the nurtured it. present youth’s mind-set.

You name any problem of our modern society and We, in Asia, feel proud of our patriarchal lineage of you will find its antecedents and references not a hierarchical society. We still live in a culture only in our past history but also in our age-long where credence to an idea, a decision or an act is classical epics. For example, such issues as human given on the basis of the other person’s age, sex, trafficking, sexual exploitation, teen-mothers, drug caste, social status, community and communal abuse etc. etc. are not new to us. They have been grouping. In such a social order if we begin to perpetual blisters on the human labyrinth, earlier develop the idea of depending upon our younger hidden and suppressed in an old, closed social generation’s sense of reason and justice it naturally set-up, and now open in the new media-targeted makes our established patriarchs uncomfortable, in world. Again, the percentage growth in these kinds of wounds is directly proportional to the population what ever position they may be.

Democracy, thus, is still an alien concept being growth and nothing else. used for the benefit of the power elite in every Another point to mention is that in our type of parasitic society we suffer from two kinds of segment and section of our country.

Coming to my point of emphasis, I assert that it is psychosomatic turmoil. One that what ever wrong the older generation which has set the wrong is happening around us is done by others and we are precedence of taking this world as a right which the in no way responsible for it. It may be corruption, younger group (as it claims) is now following, if at exploitation, violence, intolerance, lawlessness or all. They have sown the seeds of any other such ailment. And two that others are ‘irresponsibleness’ towards everything and responsible for our being born on this earth. And anything that does not directly belong to them or therefore, they should continue to fend for us in immediately affect their personal interests and now whatever role and capacity they can. They may be we are reaping the harvest of this chaos of moral first our parents then our children, our relatives, our and legal degeneration in the young in direct neighborhood, our society, our country or the world as a whole. We keep on making others accountable proportions to our teachings!

It is now a calculated fact that India has the largest for our living in stead of owning and number of young people ever to convert into acknowledging our own responsibility as mature adulthood not only in South Asia but in the whole adults. world. And we continue to dread and despise their When we fail to cultivate ourselves into honesty in expressing themselves the way ‘we’ independent and conscientious adults of our society have groomed them. We do not want to accept our and responsible, honest and dutiful citizens of our own responsibility of having lead lives with no country and this world how can we expect our authenticity in our personalities.

Our youth and our democracies to be socially and dual-characteristics of preaching honesty, morality, politically accountable and answerable towards us?

From The Editor’s Desk:

I

7

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

Contributory Editor’s Section:

R.A. Jahagirdar

[Justice R.A. Jahagirdar (Retd.), former President of Indian Radical Humanist Association and former Editor of ‘The Radical Humanist’ is now one of the members of the Contributing Editorial Board of The Radical Humanist.]

Unity of all Religions?

Bhagwandas, father of Shri Prakash, Dr.sometime Governor of then Bombay, wrote a voluminous book by name Essential Unity of all Religions, published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It is said that Dr. Bhagwandas took 30 years to produce this book. It was immediately after partition when the injuries of Hindu-Muslim riots were still fresh. If it was the intention of the author to bring about the two communities, it has miserably failed, though it got him “Bharat Ratna”.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is essentially a Hindu revivalist body, though occasionally it publishes non-revivalist books.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan of Delhi has rightly pointed out that basic principles of all religions are different and are mutually exclusive; it is incorrect to say that there is unity of all religions. Maulana was commenting on a judgment of the Supreme Court which upheld the election of Manohar Joshi.

He was pointing out that “Hinduism was a way of life” was an erroneous statement. In an earlier case, the Court pointed out several parameters which,

APRIL 2011

according to it, would dub a person as a Hindu, though not all Hindus believed in Vedas and Upanishads. In fact, there were atheists who were recognised by the term ‘Hindu’.

If you go through the book by Dr. Bhagwandas, you will notice that he does not refer to the original scripture of religions. He consulted some Muslim scholars to understand what is there in Islam. Dr. Bhagwandas himself has not studied the original books of other religions, let alone Muslim. He has taken some stanzas, as given to him, from other religions and finding that they sound similar concludes that there is unity in all religion. Take for example words like “God”, “Truth” which will be found in all religions, though in Jainism and Buddhism God has no place. In order to find out the unity of all religions, one must go back to their basic tenets. If Quran says that truth has been dictated by Allah, though differently, this will not show unity. Let us see the things that are essentially followed by different religions: The Prophet; A book; A holy place; Pilgrimage.

Let us begin with the Prophet: According to Concise Oxford Dictionary, prophet means a teacher or interpreter at God’s will. It is through him you know what is expected by God from you. God does not speak to the people. It is the Prophet that tells you what is expected from you.

Among Jews, you can take Moses as a prophet because he brought from Sinai the Ten Commandments. Moses did not write any treatise, his sayings constitute the teachings of Jews. “Sabbath” is one of the commandments.

Fasting a day in a week, because after creating the world in six days, God took rest on the seventh. Fasting is observed in different ways in different religions, but that is not Sabbath. Is this commonality? Is this unity among the religions? No other prophet teaches fasting, that Quran – through Mohammed – does. Buddha and Jesus do teach fasting.

Then there is the Book among the Jews, Talmud, which includes Old Testament, regarded as a sacred

8

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

book. It prophesies a Messiah who will free the Hebrews. That was long before Jesus Christ was born to expiate the sins of mankind – at least the first sin when Adam ate the forbidden fruit. This is the belief of Christians. Jews, of course, did not agree nor do they agree that Jesus was a Messiah.

For claiming to be a God and for other blasphemies, he was crucified. Christianity was not born immediately. It was St. Paul who mystified the event and established Christianity. The Prophets of Hebrew and of Christianity are totally different.

The former does not admit the divinity of Jesus.

There is no similarity or unity between Judaism and Christianity. Buddha can be called a Prophet. But what he taught was entirely his own. No God’s will. Jainism has no prophet. Mahavir, a contemporary of Buddha and the last of Tirthankaras, taught what is now called Jainism.

Now we come to Mohammed, the prophet of Islam.

He did not interpret the will of the God. He tells the will of the god conveyed to him through angel Gabriel. The number of things Mohammed speaks of in the Quran is too many that cannot be easily summarized in this article. Circumcision, borrowed from Jews, what to eat, what not to eat, when to marry and whom not to marry – they are all ordained in the Quran which is binding on all Muslims. For the sake of record, the following are the essentials for a Musalman: There is only one God and Mohammed is his messenger; Five times Namaz; Thirty days fasting during day time (Ramzan); Haj; Jakat.

A Persian couplet says that one can talk of ill of God; but not Mohammed. Worship anyone, but Allah, is a taboo. But Mohammed is sacred, though like all of us, he is a man and mortal. Quran says that he is a Prophet and he is the seal of Prophet – he is the last of prophets. There is no prophet after him.

Guru Nanak or Basaveshwar, though they are founders of religions, are not prophets. Quran says Islam is for entire mankind and not merely for Arabs. Islam was born in the 7th Century, but it is only second population-wise in the world – 14

9

thousand years ago it was born. What is the similarity among these three Semitic religions?

Hinduism has no prophets. They are non-human (“apouresheya”).

Upanishads are mostly commentaries and interpretations of the Brahmanas. Idol worship is galore among the Hindus. There is not one book for Hindus. For some there is no book at all. In Hinduism there is no hatred of other religions. In Hinduism there can be sub-religions – like Veerashaivism. Though confined to Karnataka, does this religion have similarity with any other? Essential unity?

Then there is a question of Holy Place. For Jews it was the Temple which also is no more. For Christians it is Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. Mecca is the Holy Place for Muslims – Mohammed was born there. Quran says that every Musalman must perform Haj (i.e. pilgrimage to Mecca) at least once in his lifetime (provided it is possible). Hindus regard pilgrimage to Kashi (Varanasi) as a sacred duty, though no book confirms it. Buddha did not recommend any Holy Place but Buddhists regard Bodha Gaya a sacred place. Jains have no Holy Place. So some religions have no Holy Place. Can one regard this as unity of religions?

The Prophet, the Book and the Holy Place are different for different religions. Though there is similarity among them, there is no unity.

One shocking thing must be told. Though there are sects among religions, there are no castes. To our lasting shame, we had Harijans and Mahars who were untouchables. In no other religion you would find untouchability, though now it is not there in India also. How did Dr. Bhagwandas find essential unity among all religions when untouchability was there among Hindus?

There are certain other things which must be touched. Fasting – Muslims must fast for thirty days (Ramzan) during days. Jews fast on Sabbath days. So also Christians, they fast on some days.

For Jains and Buddhists, there is no fasting. For Hindus things are peculiar. On the eleventh day of

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

each half of each month, fasting is recommended.

On Mahashivaratri day, Shaivas fast, Vaishnavas feast.

Births and deaths are observed in different ways in different parts of the country. It is only among Jews and Musalmans that circumcision is religiously

compulsory.

Read in detail, the religions throw up different and, sometimes, mutually inconsistent principles and practices. There is no unity among different religions. In the Constitution of India, Article 14 says that all citizens of India are equal. But that is political equality and not religious.

Condolence Message: Professor A.F. Salahuddiin Ahmed, our Contributing Editor, is bereaved!

Professor Hamida Khanom, wife of Professor Salahuddiin Ahmed, passed away in Dhaka on Friday night March 18, 2011.

Our heartfelt sympathies are with him.

We know it is very difficult to come to terms with the stark reality of losing one’s life partner at this stage of life.

But she is there in your memories for ever, Professor!

And we are with you.

Kindly, take care of your health and well being.

The Radical Humanist family needs you now more than ever!!

Please take care!!!

[Prof. Ahmed may be contacted at unab@citechco.net; Tele-88-02-988-0258; UNA-Bangladesh.]

10

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

worldly values have been developed and they have mankind more than the vaunted religious Spiritual Materialism – A case benefited values. With no sops of religion men have laboured for Atheism hard and the finest admirable qualities of men’s Translated by — Arundhati Khandkar spirit have been developed inspite of religious [The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for influence – the scientists and the reformers are Atheism, A New Interpretation of the examples. The humility that should force itself in Philosophy of Materialism written by the presence of the infinite and the unknown is Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been more to be seen with the scientist, the philosopher translated by his daughter, Arundhati than the religious leaders and often this drives them Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of to fathom the depths of thought in the quest for Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of truth. Rarely does religion explain the how and Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades why. These have become the preoccupations of ago but his contribution in building up the people in secular fields. With a sense of philosophical base of Radical Humanism has self-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, man been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time has dropped the earlier props of religion. In India and the followers of the philosophy continue to do too, the social order was seen as embodying moral so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her values.”

Contd. from the previous issue............ 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 Developmental Steps of Knowledge: there is already the above mentioned book in Human knowledge develops into two formats, English done by her. It is being serialised in The direct experience and logical reasonsing. Direct Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has experience is the first stage of development and the also promised to send us in English, gradually, consequent logical reasoning or the capacity for more of his Marathi literature. thought is the second higher development.

Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title Perception of external objects and the Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How consciousness of internal mental states such as joy, meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70 sorrow, and the rest are included in direct years later, can be understood by the following experience. Direct experience is called revelation. paragraph given on the cover page of the book. Direct experience also moves through various —Rekha Saraswat] successive stages of development. There exists a “That religion more often than not tends to difference in the experiences of a primitive man perpetuate the existing social structure rather than and those of a cultured man. There exists a vast being reformist and that it benefits the upper variance in the reception of the musical experience classes. They perpetrate the illusions and are used after listening to a concert, of a great singer by for impressing the weaker sections of the society. either a Vindhya mountain highlander or an Many taboos which might have had some Australian aborigine and by an Indian sophisticate beneficial effects are given a permanent sanction either of Delhi or of Pune. That vocal music is only and these put a fetter on further progress. The a kind of some noise for the aborigine. The argument that religion promotes social stability and audiosensory organ of the jungle man cannot social harmony is examined and rejected. Without decipher at all the design of the tones or the the dubious benefit of religion various secular organisation of the vocal run up and down the From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:

11

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

musical scale. The servant who is trained to buy and bring vegetables from the market cannot differentiate between the quality and worth of pearls or rubies or any other gem. Anthropology informs us that very many primitive tribal communities cannot distinguish at all, between the subtle differences of smell and colour. Direct sensory experience results in a different imprint at each and every different stage of social development. Experiential sophistication or skill is a result of a logical mind and prior experience.

Developmental Progression: As society develops from higher to still higher stage, individual acquires power of experience through successive stages. His experience and understanding grow. Man’s understanding and mental strength move hand in hand with social progress. The experience grows into maturity to the extent it is supported by previous experience. It grows in terms of clarity, analysis and richness along with the developmental process. Thus the human mind continues to undergo further training.

Emotional Development: Just as understanding of objects, changes and grows from lower to the higher social stage, so does the nature of experience of the mental states like happiness, sorrow, love, hate, despair etc. The nature, extent and the quality of sensations as experienced by the members of the developed society are beyond the imagination even of an educated member of the backward society. The nature of external experiences and inner feelings differ greatly in differing cultures, social classes and varying social levels.

Variability of Nature of Thought: Simple experience amounts to perception of a thing. When that experience acquires the strength of refinement through past experience, it is called critical examination or a perception in philosophy.

It is also termed in various ways such as sensed knowledge, comprehension, understanding, or apprehension. Apprehension or sensed knowledge of an object is the foundation of logical knowledge.

As this foundation changes, so does the nature of logical reasoning or thought.

Human mind while observing any event in the universe, knows at the same time that there must have been some cause behind it. Having seen a garden, having observed its trees and the creepers laden with flowers and fruits, naturally, man thinks of conditions and causes of such a lush green garden. The mind thinks of fertilisers, beneficial weather, water, light, warmth and fertile land.

Reason decides that the garden is the result of the causes: land, water, warmth, light, seed, etc.

Reason places every event in the mould of causality. Ideas in geometry or even in mathematics, involve relations of exceptional inviolability. Law of determinism or necessity is the nature of those relations. Universality of causality is the subject matter of reason. Reason knows that existence and non-existence are contradictory. They are logically opposite. The relation of contrariety is inviolable.

Laws of Reason: The statements “The pot is not a non-pot.”, “the cloth is not a non-cloth.”, and “the man is not a non-man”, are examples of the same sort of reason.

It is the same as the Law of Identity in Western logic according to which, Causality, Necessity, and the Law of Identity are the fundamental laws of reason or logic. Our mind assures us that there is no exception to these laws. When the intellect tries to understand anything it does it only through these fundamental categories. Reason cannot understand otherwise.

Reason in Western Philosophers: According to Descartes, Leibnitz, Kant, Hegel and other Western logicians, the body of laws of reason quoted above is the fundamental nature of truth.

According to them, reason in its pure form finds its expression in these laws. The sensory world and its experience is of secondary value in their opinion.

From their viewpoint, these general laws of understanding are Paramartha, the ultimate reality.

These logical principles of reason assign meaning

12

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

to the experiences of the infinite variety of objects which are sensory, fleeting and strange.

Kant’s theory in this matter deserves consideration.

He maintains that these first principles of reason represent the innate organisation of the human mind. The human mind operates by nature, according to them. Mind has always innate organisation that has employed the system of logic for knowing an object. Science has grown only because human mind cannot transcend the limits of this system of laws. Science inheres in the mind that is governed by these laws. Who can vouch for the validity of these laws in the external universe.

Mind says that these laws are universal, but the universe cannot be seized by any one mind any time. These laws are the laws of the mind. This is the only thing that is evident.

Materialism and Immanuel Kant: Materialism does not agree with the Kantian school of philosophers. All the material for thought and intellect is made available to the mind through direct experiences or through the knowledge generated by the sensory organs. Repeated experience alone, brings all the material of endless events of the external world. It teaches mind the laws of causality, necessity and identity. Frequent repetition of similar experience formulates the general concept of causality. The concept of generality is formed after the specific event is experienced again and again. Frequent generation of sense experience itself shapes logical thought.

The mind knows the sequence of events eg ‘a’ is prior to ‘b’. When it is noticed that the lotus opens up with the touch of the rising sun the mind realises which of these events is earlier and which is faster.

When one experiences it many a time one also comes to know the necessary relation between them. The concept of causality is formulated thereupon.

The concept of generality is rooted in the repeated experience of actuality. Repetition of sense experience prepares the ground for logical thought.

13

Kant has asserted that logical frame of mind is innate, i.e., ‘A priori’. But this is not true.

Contrary to the Kantian theory, the design of mind is neither self-evident nor ‘A priori’. It is really a precious gift received by humans, struggling for ages for livelihood and acquiring a countless chain of experiences in the world. Logical mind meaning the development of reason is an ‘A posteriori’ object resulting from experience. Reason, however, is innate to the experiences and thoughts of the present civilised man. The mind of a man in a non-primitive society receives direct experiences and thinks with the help of these rules i.e. logical reason. Logical rules of reason can be said to exist a priori in the mind of a man in a civilised society.

The ‘Pure Reason’ postulated by Immanuel Kant is a part of human mind in its evolutionary historical process.

Evolution of Mind: Kant’s ‘Pure Reason’ is the part of human mind that itself is the part and product of historical process. It has developed through acquisition, choice and absorption of laws of nature as man lived experiencing the recurrent strokes of misfortune in nature itself. The general significance of nature taught to man by nature itself is represented in the body of the laws of ‘Pure Reason’ or of his logical mind: These laws are the impenetrable truth of the multiform strange universe. It is a deep seated mystery of such a universe. From endless times it gets reflected in the human mind. That truth is the general and formal result of endless and diverse experiences.

Science and Logic: Direct experience and logical mind are the two primary stages of knowledge. Although the logical mind is the result of direct experience itself, it is also engaged in developing the direct experience into more precision, subtlety and structured format.

To the extent logical reasoning matures, to that extent grows concomitantly direct experience in clarity, breadth, subtlety, and structure, and also to that extent it becomes more capable of

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

comprehending the object or truth. Experiential wealth is what science is all about. Logic also goes along with science in subtlety and range. If a revolution takes place in science there does occur a corresponding revolution in logic. For instance, end of classical physics ends classical logic and then starts quantum physics and the corresponding quantum logic.

So far, the theory of knowledge in materialism has been described only briefly. Without fully

understanding it, it is not possible to comprehend the rationale for materialism. Every philosophical theory depends on a specific theory of knowledge.

We have no scope here for explaining all the epistemological doctrines of materialism.

Therefore, we have enunciated here, only a few select fundamental principles and commented upon them. Hence, we review only the general theory of materialism.

Contd. in the next issue....................

Humanists I Met / Chief Ministers I Met

by N. Innaiah

Book Release by K. Rosaiah HYDERABAD: Former Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Sunday went down memory lane, recalling history from the 1950s, citing experiences of his association with over a dozen Chief Ministers in the State.

He was speaking after releasing a Telugu book, “Chief Ministers and Humanist Leaders I met', written by senior journalist, Narisetti Innaiah. The 143-page book contains accounts of the writer's meetings with 18 Chief Ministers starting with C. Rajagopalachari of the Composite Madras State, down to Mr. Rosaiah of Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Rosaiah recalled his entry into politics even as a student. He had the people in the hall nodding their heads in admiration when he narrated how Rajaji was called by then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to New Delhi and asked to assume the post of Chief Minister of Madras. ‘No-nonsense' scribe Of the writer himself, Mr. Rosaiah said he had known him for decades now, as a man who never minced words even when it came to expressing his displeasure at a particular person or any situation and described him as a ‘no-nonsense' journalist. Former Minister T. Purshotham Rao, Indian Peasant Forum general secretary, S.V. Panthulu and Congress leader Padmaja Reddy attended. The writer was away in the United States and the function was conducted by Mr. Panthulu.

The book has been dedicated to Dr. Rekha Saraswat, Editor, The Radical Humanist News received through Press Release, Hyderabad

14

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Guests’ Section:

S.N. Shukla [Mr. S.N. Shukla belonged to 1967 batch of IAS

and retired as Chairman State Vigilance Commission, U.P., after serving as Industrial Development Commissioner and Administrative Member Board of Revenue. Topper of the 1964 L.L.B. Exam of undivided Agra University, he has taken to legal profession after his retirement from service in February 2003 basically to take up public issues and to procure justice for the poor.

As ‘General Secretary of ‘Lok Prahri’, he has been conducting several PILs in Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court and also in the Supreme Court.]

A Travesty Of Election Law Contd. from the last issue................ failed to get justice from the Having Election Commission and the High Court the petitioner filed the SLP no. (C) 9801 of 2006. The aforesaid SLP was heard on 5.6.2006.

The counsel for the petitioner explained that while ostensibly disposing of the Election Commission’s application for permission to hold bye-election as misconceived, the High Court actually gave them a go a head saying that they were free to take decision in accordance with the law. He contended that the impugned order of the High Court suffered from the following serious legal infirmities15

(1) The impugned order was passed even though the Election Commission was not a party in the Election Petition and their application for being a party was not granted.

(2) The petitioner’s request for an opportunity to file objection/reply to the Election Commission’s applications was turned down in disregard of the law laid down by the Apex Court in Reserve Bank of India Versus Sharda Devi2.

(3) While the applications of the Election Petition filed on 1.5.2006 were taken up, those filed by the petitioner on 22nd and 28th March 2006 for a direction to the Election Commission not to initiate action for holding bye-elections were not taken up or even considered while passing the impugned order.

(4) The observation in the impugned order that permission of the High Court was not required was not correct in view of the aforesaid pending applications of the petitioner on the same subject and the decisions of this Hon’ble Court in – D. Sanjeevayya Versus Election Tribunal and Ors.3 wherein it was held that where the returned candidate had resigned during the pendency of the Election Petition against him (as in the present case), Election Commission was not bound to hold the bye-election forthwith but may suspend taking action till the disposal of the Election Petition and Vishwanath Reddy Vs. Konappa Rudrappa Nadgouda 4 wherein it was held that if the returned candidate is found to be under statutory disqualification (as claimed in the present case), the other contesting candidate can be declared elected and no fresh poll is necessary.

(5) The High Court completely overlooked the fact that the prayer in the Election Petitions for declaring the petitioners elected in place of the returned candidates who have ceased to be members may become infructuous if the bye-elections are allowed to be held.

(6) The High Court also failed to appreciate that there would be no vacancy to fill up if the prayer in

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

terms of Section 98 (C) of the Representation of the People Act is granted in the Election Petition.

(7) In the order on the impediment application it was mentioned that the application for permission to hold bye-election “has been rejected”. When the application for permission to hold bye-election was rejected, the Commission could not proceed with the bye-elections.

(8) Even the impugned order required the Election Commission to deal with petitioner’s representations “in accordance with law”.

However, this was not been done as evident from the following1.The notification for bye-election was issued on 29.5.2006 without deciding the petitioner’s representations dated 22.3.2006, 28.3.2006 and 9.5.2006.

2.No opportunity for personal hearing was given to the petitioner as requested in the representation dated 9.5.2006. The Election Commission’s decision, therefore, was in violation of the principle of natural justice as the petitioner was adversely affected by it. As held in Digvijay Mote vs. Union of India5, Election Commission’s decision could not be sustained on this ground.

3.The Election Commission’s decision was against the law laid down in AIR 1967 SC page 1121 and AIR 1969 SC 604 which were brought to the notice of the Election Commission be fax dated 25.5.2006.

4.The Election Commission could easily await till 18.7.2006 the decision on the petitioner’s applications in the High Court for not holding the bye-election.

The counsel for the petitioner also submitted for photocopies of 13 rulings of the Apex Court in support of his various contentions. Finally, he made a very fair request in the end that the Hon’ble Court may at least provide that the result of the bye-elections shall abide by the outcome of the petitioner’s Election Petition. This could meet the ends of justice without holding up the bye-elections. However the SLP was dismissed in

limine even though the petitioner had made out a prima facie case duly supported by the decisions of this Hon’ble Court. Thereupon, the petitioner filed a review petition no. 650 of 2006 along with an application for oral hearing. However the same was also dismissed vide order dated 13.7.2006.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission announced the program for these bye elections fixing 15.6.2006 as the date of election. Thereupon the petitioner filed a writ petition no. 3269 (M/B) of 2006 in the High Court challenging the announcement of programme of by-elections. The Hon’ble Court heard the other writ petitions filed on the same day.

However, the petitioner’s Writ Petition was not taken up on the ground of the absence of the learned Counsel for the Election Commission, even though there was no caveat and the Learned Counsel for the Election Commission was informed about it on his mobile and the petitioner’s counsel again made a mention after lunch break when the learned counsel for the Election Commission was also present. Upon the petitioner’s counsel pressing for early hearing the matter was fixed for hearing at 10:15 A. M. the next day. The Counsel for the petitioner made a mention at 10:15 A.M. stressing the urgency. But the case was not taken up despite being mentioned again after the Lunch break. The matter was listed at Sr. No. 44 in the Supplementary Cause List of 26.5.2006.On that date ,a similar Writ Petition No. 3280 filed on 24.5.2006 by the other Congress candidate in the same Rajya Sabha election (whose Election Petition was also pending) was at Sr. No. 15 in the list of fresh cases.

This was taken up in the forenoon. However, the request of the petitioner’s Counsel to take up his case also along with the Writ Petition No.3280 was not accepted and he was asked to wait for his turn in the Supplementary Cause List. The matter was finally taken up at 5:30 P.M. when the petitioner’s Counsel submitted that his case was directly and fully covered by the decisions of this Hon’ble Court in the cases reported in AIR 1967 SC 1211 and AIR 1969 SC 604 (Copies of which were submitted

16

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

right at the beginning of the hearing). However, brushing aside the aforesaid rulings the Writ Petition was dismissed with the following oral order — “Dismissed. Reasons to follow”.

The petitioner’s Counsel applied for an immediate certified copy of the order on the same day.

However, his request for grant of immediate copy could not be acted upon due to the non-availability of the file. Under the circumstances, in view of the urgency a SLP No.9844 was filed on the basis of oral order. It was heard on 5.6.2006. In view of the reluctance of the Hon’ble Court to admit the same it was withdrawn and review application no 19 of 2007 was filed in the High Court after receipt of the certified copy of the order dated 26.5.2006 six months after the dismissal of the writ petition by the oral order of the date. The said review petition was also not decided till the disposal of the election petition in January 2010.

Again, after the death of late Shri Lalit Suri (Respondent No. 11), the petitioner sent a representation dated 16.10.2006 to the Election Commission requesting them not to proceed with the holding of bye-election for the vacancy caused due to death of Shri Suri. The petitioner also filed an application in his election petition praying for a direction to the Election Commission not to initiate action for filling up the vacancy in Rajya Sabha caused by the death of Shri Lalit Suri till the disposal of the applicant’s election petition.

However, this application was not taken up though the Hon’ble nominated Judge sat singly on several dates and the matter was also listed in the cause list of 8.11.2006.

In reply to the petitioner’s letter dated 16.10.2006 the Election Commission vide their letter dated 6.11.2006 stated that since the High Court had not given any stay against holding of bye-elections for the vacancies caused due to disqualification of Mrs. Bachchan and resignation of Mr. Ambani the Commission duty bound to hold the bye-election to fill the vacancy caused death of Shri Suri.

17

The petitioner thereupon, sent a representation dated 17.11.2006 to the Commission to reconsider the matter in the light of facts and circumstances mentioned therein with the request that a decision in this regard may be taken only after the decision by the High Court on the petitioner’s application for modification of order dated 5.5.2006 and after giving him an opportunity of personal hearing. This was followed up e-mail dated 23.11.2006.

However, ignoring the aforesaid representations of the petitioner the Election Commission went ahead with holding the bye-election and issued the notification dated 24.11.2006 for the bye election.

Having failed to get justice from the Election Commission and the High Court the petitioner approached the Supreme Court by filing the writ petition no. 580 of 2006 under Article 32 of the Constitution for enforcement of his fundamental right and Rule of Law. The said writ petition was filed on the following groundsA. Action of the respondents for filling up the vacancy in question is prima facie illegal, being against the provisions of Sections 84 and 98 (c) of the Representation of the People Act 1951.

B. The action of the Election Commission is not accordance with the law laid down by this Hon’ble Court in the cases reported in AIR 1967 SC 1211 and AIR 1969 SC 604.

C. Declaration of the program of the said bye-election by the Election Commission without first deciding the petitioner’s representation dated 17.11.2006 after hearing the petitioner is against the principles of natural Justice.

D. It is wrong to treat the seat as vacant as the claim of the petitioner for being declared elected against the seat is still sub-judice before the Hon’ble High Court.

E. The petitioner will suffer irreparable harm if the bye-election is held before the decision of the Election Petition.

F.The Election Commission cannot proceed with holding the bye-election, while the petitioner’s application for modification of the order dated

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

5.5.2006 and the application for direction (no. 1328 of 2006 dated 27.10.2006) is yet to be decided by the Hon’ble High Court.

G. The Election Commission can easily wait for a decision on the aforesaid applications are this time limit for holding the bye-election is available till March 2007.

H. Under the circumstances there is no need to rush through these bye-election at this time making the relief claimed in the Election Petition infructuous.

I. The petitioner has made out a prima facie case and the balance of convenience is his also in his favour.

J. Under the circumstances the petitioner is fully entitled to the interim relief in terms of the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case reported in AIR 2004 SC 1975.

In view of the urgency of the matter the Counsel for the petitioner made a mention on 29.11.2006 for hearing of the writ petition on 1.12.2006. However, he was asked to go to the mentioning board.

Thereupon, on 1.12.2006 the matter was ordered to be listed on 11.12.2006.

The matter was heard on 11.12.2006 in Court No. 5.

It was submitted by the Counsel for the petitioner that the action of the Election Commission was not only against the statutory provisions and the law laid down by this Hon’ble Court but was also violative of Article 14 and the principles of natural justice. There was no valid reason for deviating from the policy followed by the Commission in accordance with the law laid down by this Hon’ble Court in AIR 1967 SC 1211. The attention of the Hon’ble Court was particularly drawn to paras 4 and 5 of the judgment in that case wherein it was held that in a case of this description the Election Commission was not bound to hold the bye-election under Section 150 of the Act because “If the candidate who filed the election petition eventually gets a declaration that the election of the member is void and that he himself had been duly elected there will be two candidates representing the same constituency at the same time, one of them

declared to be duly elected at the General Election and the other declared to have been elected at the bye-election and an impossible situation would arise”. This was exactly the position in the present case.

It was also pointed out that the note of the Election Commission at Annexure P-1 itself clearly stated that “In cases where a member whose election has been challenged in an election petition ceases to be member of the House concerned during the pendency of the election petition, the Commission does not hold the bye-election if the petitioner has sought the additional relief of declaring him as elected”. Annexure P-1 gave no clue as to why this policy was abandoned in the case of the petitioner.

The action of the Election Commission was clearly discriminatory and malafide. Significantly, the Commission also did not wait for the disposal of the petitioner’s application dated 27.10.2006 in the election petition nor considered it necessary to obtain the clearance of the High Court in this regard.

The decision of the Election Commission to hold the bye-election was also in gross violation of principles of natural justice as no opportunity for personal hearing was given to the petitioner as requested in the representation dated 17.11.2006 and e-mail dated 23.11.2006, even though he was directly an affected party.

As regards the bar of Article 329 it was submitted that the same was not absolute and this Hon’ble Court could intervene the exceptional circumstances in a case like this. Moreover, this bar was not applicable to the present case for following reasonsi. the petitioner had approached the High Court long before the issue of the impugned notification for the bye-election, ii. the remedy of election petition against the bye-election was not available to the petitioner as he was neither a voter nor a candidate for the said bye-election, iii. non-existence of the vacancy for which the

18

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

bye-election was being held was not covered by the grounds mentioned in Section 100 of the RP Act, iv.the prayer at Sr.No.3 in the WP was not hit by Article 329.

However, the aforesaid writ petition was dismissed in limine like a SLP by a one line order. Thereupon ,a review petition was filed saying that the order dated 11.12.2006 sought to be reviewed did not indicate any reason for dismissing the writ petition and that the petitioner had sufficient cause for being granted the review and taking into consideration the application for personal hearing being filed therewith. It was further submitted that under the circumstances, at least the prayer at Sr. No. 3 in the

writ petition for making the by-election subject to the out come of the Election Petition could be allowed to meet the ends of justice without holding up the bye-election, but at the same time protecting the relief sought by the petitioner in the election petition. However, the review petition was also dismissed.

In case the election petition was eventually allowed the relief contemplated under Section 98(c) would have still eluded the petitioner. Under the circumstances, dismissal of the election petition saved an otherwise possible awkward situation due to refusal to defer bye elections or make them subject to the outcome of the election petition.

Contd. in the next issue..................

19

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

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- 93 40, Gaganmahal Colony, Hyderabad – 00 029, A.P. Phone: 040-2763 039 ]

Energy Policies Effecting Humanity recent Ocean quake in Japan Theunleashing a huge wall of water several stories tall being seen uprooting, crushing and wrecking everything that stood in it’s path which included huge ships, cars, trucks, factories in the process effecting thousands of people with many being rendered homeless in a matter of minutes.

Nature in its fury has tossed cars, boats, ships and houses becoming junkyards. From automobiles to computer chips, all industries suffered. The severity of the ocean quake has also caused a serious damage to the Fukushima-Daichi Nuclear Power Plant in spite of Japan being the world leader in the design of earthquake resistant structures well known for their quality designing. This tragedy has exposed the several flaws of the safeties of nuclear power plants the world over. Though the same nuclear reactors stood the ravages of the earlier earthquakes in Japan well, could not face the storm this time. Japan’s preparedness and their awareness of radiation dangers and the wisdom of depending on nuclear installation for their energy

requirements fell short of expectations. It is now being questioned and debated the world over. This disaster has revealed the miserable failure of several nuclear safety systems, procedures and protocols being rendered as ineffective by the recent earthquake and tsunami. All the designed safety systems could not withstand nature’s fury in the form of tsunami. Though several Governments all over have reacted to the events in Japan with concern and sympathy, their brushing aside and dismissing such tragic implications as once in a while happening and vociferously emphasizing on continuing the usage of nuclear power characterizing solely as a failure of the Japanese nuclear industry is not proper. Japan is bravely facing a situation where thousands of their people could be contaminated with radiation. Also the devastation caused by the tsunami demands construction of new buildings, houses and infrastructure that can withstand such future disasters.

One of the key issues in the nuclear safety the world over should be the correct estimation of the level of the risks from such nuclear accidents and our level of preparedness to deal with such calamities. The critics of nuclear power have been pointing out vociferously the probability of nuclear calamities taking place which could be fatal and catastrophic.

These have also been repeatedly emphasizing of the dangers of the nuclear waste radiation. It is unfortunate that nuclear experts the world over have exhibited a curious indifference to such warnings, their indecision and confusion in their evaluation of the crisis and their comments falls short of expectations. Despite several decades of its existence the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has failed in its approach of forewarning such accidents. There is no clear cut information or mechanism available to deal with such catastrophes. There is a dire need to review the current status of nuclear safety more particularly when people who earlier worked in nuclear establishment are voicing concerns of the current status of nuclear safety. There is also an imperative

20

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

need to obtain opinion from several experts drawn from outside the ranks of atomic energy establishment. Routine nuclear safety audits should be made stringent and accountable more particularly when India is aiming to boost its nuclear energy capacity to about 60000 MW in the coming two decades. Further some of the sites chosen for setting up nuclear power plants are in officially designated earthquake prone areas, potentially vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis.

Also there is need to bring in all nuclear power plants to be under the Environmental Protection Act that covers all other energy generation plants.

Nuclear power plants should not be in the hands of men who are totally cut off from reality. Nearly parroting of the virtues of nuclear power without transparency and safety requirements in the nuclear industry will only lead to disasters. Also there is concern of radio active spent fuels of nuclear wastes being stored in the nuclear reactor buildings.

Any spent fuel due to flooding will lead to disastrous effects of radio-activity releases resulting in increase in cancer diseases. The recent explosion in Japan and subsequent radio-activity reveals the gravity of the problems when nuclear wastes are stored in nuclear reactor plants. Nuclear power is bound with harmful radiation exposure with its radio-active waste streams remaining hazardous for thousands of years. There is also an imperative need for an independent safety audit with outside experts and civil society representatives. Above all public acceptance of our energy power needs are more important and desirable. No energy technology should be without the approval of its people. Further, there should be a technical review of the safety of all nuclear power plants currently in existence as well as of those

being planned. Safeties of a nuclear power plant should be our top priority. Our continued reliance on unstable fossil fuel energy sources have created global climatic concerns due to huge green house gas emissions leading to an all time record of floods, storms, tsunamis and droughts around the world. Such calamities led to nearly 60 million people being rendered homeless in the process creating a global food crisis. Weather induced events such as floods and droughts, the demise of insect pollinating due to disease and pollution through which 1/3 of our food is produced, steep increase in oil prices are all factors leading to a drop in food production. Such mega disaster necessitates the need to an alternative renewable energy usage like Solar and wind which do not need oil and which are clean and safe. Such an option can also provide not only gainful employment opportunities but can supply electricity to our most remote rural areas where nearly two billion people around the world still do not have any access to electricity.

This energy source being entirely dependant on sunlight which we have in abundance in our country will be an ideal option unlike nuclear power being dependant on limited uranium resource, which also has the risk of contaminating if something goes wrong like it happened recently in Japan. Also spent fuel being kept in nuclear power plants poses a threat. Further solar energy needs as much subsidy as nuclear power generation which is receiving a subsidy of $300 billion a year.

This subsidy to nuclear power generation is more than 10 times given to the cleaner energy technologies. Switching over to solar energy source will lead to people not becoming victims paying heavy sums to weather related disasters occurring every year in many parts of the world.

"Is the minor convenience of allowing the present generation the luxury of doubling its energy consumption every 10 years worth the major hazard of exposing the next 20,000 generations to this lethal waste?" —David R. Brower

21

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Whatever may be the scheme, it is essential that the procedures to be adopted must be fool proof to avoid waste and red tape. Cash transfers shall not be made direct to the beneficiaries in anticipation that the same are used properly for the purposes for which the grants are made.

In rich countries, the educated persons are granted what are called doles which are a form of cash transfer. Such doles are limited to the period of their unemployment and not beyond payment of doles are an elite scheme and not are adapted to present absolute poverty. Therefore cash transfer in India shall not take the colour of doles. It is therefore, suggested that supply of goods at subsidized rates is definitely a superior scheme over the scheme of pure cash transfer.

Current Affairs Section:

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.]

II

I Cash Transfer: The Government of India has now proposed to provide cash to the poor to enable them to meet their essential needs in addition to the several subsidies which it has been providing. Fertilizers are supplied to agriculturalists at subsidized prices and kerosene is supplied to the poor at subsidized price. So also all the persons below the poverty line are supplied food articles on concessional rates, the difference between these rates and market rates is borne by the government. In the case of rural employment guarantee scheme government transfers cash to such of those for whom the government is able to provide work to the extent of 100 days in a year. The point in controversy now is whether government should expand the scheme of such subsidized or pay directly the cash to the needy. The several proposal in this regard are each payments to meet the health needs and cash payment to the parents to meet the expenditure of their wards on account of their education at primary and secondary levels. It is also proposed to make cash payments to middle class to meet the requirements of modern essential gadgets.

Paid News: Paid news becomes relevant at the time of elections. It is prohibited as an electoral mal practice. The amount spend on paid news by the candidate will be included in his election expenses.

According to Election Commission “when there is coverage of News disproportionate to the speech and activities of the candidate which is likely to influence a voter and yield election benefit to him and when the same is repeated in several newspapers, it shall be presumed that it is a paid news”. According to Press Council of India, “Any news or analysis appearing in any media (Print of electronic) for a price in cash or in kind as consideration” is paid news. Therefore to be prohibited paid news it shall be for a consideration in cash or in kind and it shall be repeated in more than one newspaper. The published material shall be disproportionate to the speeches and activities of the candidate.

Paid news being an electoral mal practice it will be counted against the candidate in an election petition which may be filed against him, in order to disqualify the candidate from contesting elections; the Election Commissioner may take into consideration for fixing the amount spent by the

22

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

candidate for his election. If the practice of paid news is indulged by the political party nothing turns against it except when it is traced to the expenditure incurred on a particular candidate. When the candidate himself owns a newspaper, advertising himself may not be prohibited treating it as an electoral malpractice but the estimated expenditure will form part of the election expenses.

III

Central Budget The Budget is presented to the Parliament on 28th February 2011 by the Finance Minister Prabab Mukherji confirms that the year 2010-2011 and the year 2011-2012 are ordinary years. The economic survey presented on the eve of the budget also records no spectacular events; economic growth at 8.5 to 9.5% reaffirms the earlier forecasts.

Therefore, what is intended to be achieved is the continuation of the past performance. No new taxes are proposed and no substantial reliefs to the tax payers are granted. The marginal adjustments as regards the enhancements of standard exemption are in conformity with the inflation. No steps are proposed to bring down the inflation or spiraling of prices. No dramatics in containing the black money are indulging. The talk about the flight of money to foreign tax heavens is academic. The government promised to enter into contract as regards the disclosure of names of persons holding bank accounts in those countries is not really the cure for preventing the flight of money. Better investment prospects and incentives to prompt payment of taxes may be same of the remedies. The promise of the government to pass and implement direct tax code and the Goods and Services Act, it is hoped, may fructify so that the revenue position may improve. There is, however an urgency in the matter of amendments to the Land Acquisition Act containing mandatory provisions as regards the rehabilitation of persons ousted from the lands. No community or person is averse to the migration is a source for the spread of human civilization. The earlier the amended Land Acquisition Act is passed

23

the better. This is a national necessity and not a partly affair.

Times were when the Finance Minister was resorting to such drastic measures as excess profits tax, demonetization and voluntary declaration of cancelled income in budget proposals. After the introduction of liberalization of economy, i.e., liberating the business community from the Government of India has settled down to constructive endeavors to increase the revenue and to increase expenditure on social welfare with a view to improve the living conditions of the poor.

The aim of the budget today is to see that the deficits are reduced and funds are built for the productive ventures. The present day budgets are thus a reflection of the mood towards planned economy.

IV

State Elections: In the past, not long ago, the elections to the Parliament and the Legislatures of all the States were taking place at one and same time simultaneously. This schedule got distorted during the emergency (1975-77) and since then the elections to the Parliament takes place in one year which the elections do the State Legislatures are taking place at different years depending on the schedule fixed for them at the end of five year term.

Thus this year elections in the state of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Pondicherry are taking place in March and April.

Out of these elections the one relating to the state of West Bengal is attracting wider attention. The Communist Party (Marxist) has been ruling the state with its allies for the last 37 years without any break. It reduced the congress to insignificance, a radical branch of which called Trinamul Congress has since built up a strong opposition to CPM. Mamata Banerji is its leader. She had been fighting the CPM as well as naxals. She has led several battles on behalf of the displaced persons who were enacted from the land taken over the government to favour the rich industrialists. Her cadre made a

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

name of sacrifices for the public causes several of them were victims of the armed gangs organized by CPM and naxals. Mamata Banerji, it is said, has built party machinery right from villages to handle elections. She is opposed to the plan of the CPM to harm its party men in the same way, perhaps as

Maoist Prachanda has done in Nepal. That is why CPM’s claim to be doubtful while the Allies of CPM are insignificant political entities, Mamata Banerji with congress support may prove herself as a discharging a historical role in displacing CPM in West Bengal.

Letter to the Editor: Madam, We seem to be forgetting our own past. We never liked Gandhi’s mixing religion with politics.

The sinister role played by Gandhiji’s non-violence in blocking the freedom movement’s natural development has been clearly described by M.N. Roy. The capitalists, landlords and well-off middle-class never wanted to encourage a movement for national liberation to develop on class-basis.

They were eager to compromise with the rulers so as to preserve their own vested interests. This position is totally forgotten and we have started singing Gandhiji’s greatness. In the March issue of RH Balraj Puri is all praiseof Gandhiji and one gets the impression that the Mahatma won freedom for all of usby this role of his! M.N. Roy, in his autobiography (albeit incomplete) says: “Bolshevik faith in the revolutionary significance of Pan-Islamism was shaken. But India was in revolt under the leadership of the Hindu saint, Gandhi and the Khan brothers. Did it not prove that in the colonial countries religion might be a revolutionary force? I wrote an analysis of the structure of contemporary Indian society, which showed that capitalist economy had been superimposed upon feudal relations, and therefore, the social conditions were not analogous to those of the late Middle Ages in Europe, when priests and princess led revolutionary movements. Religious appeal certainly moved the masses, and it was indeed the motive force of the non-cooperation and Khilafat Movements. But the religious mentality, at the same time, made the masses subservient also to temporal authority and accept the earthly status quo as ordained by a divine Providence. The socio-cultural atmosphere, therefore, inhibited the growth of a democratic revolutionary spirit in the masses.” (M.N Roy’s Memoirs 1984, Page 412).

Let the whole world understand the Mahatma as it may but Roy had no illusions. He had only once written a few words appreciating Gandhi’s contribution and that was when the Mahatma was assasinated by an educated Hindu zealot like Nathuram Godse for Gandhi’s efforts to ensure justice to Muslims. Even so, Roy’s evaluation of Gandhi was even-handed. Roy gave to Gandhi what was due to him as a religious Humanist, but his role in Indian politics was deplorable and Roy never pardoned him for it. Nor did he hesitate to say so.

—Vishwas Naiknavare PLEASE DO NOT SEND ARTICLES BEYOND 1500-2000 WORDS. Dear Friends, Also, inform me whether they have been published elsewhere.

And, please try to email them at rheditor@gmail.com instead of sending them by post.

You may post them (only if email is not possible) at C-8 Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India.

Do also email your passport size photographs as separate attachments (in JPG format) as well as your small introduction, if you are contributing for the first time. Please feel free to contact me at 91-9719333011 for any other querry. —Rekha Saraswat

24

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Ramendra Nath

[Dr. Ramendra is a Radical Humanist and HoD, Department of Philosophy, Patna College, Patna University, Patna (Bihar).]

Paid News, Radia Tapes and Journalistic Ethics of “paid news” has been Thein phenomenon public domain for some time. P. Sainath, the rural affairs editor of The Hindu played a commendable role in exposing the phenomenon, but as he himself has said, large sections of the media maintained a “conspiratorial silence” on the issue. Selected portions of Radia tapes, on the other hand, were made public by the news magazines, Open and Outlook. Several top ranking journalists like Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt have figured in these tapes. Rajdeep Sardesai, who as the then president of the Editor’s Guild of India tried to defend Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt, was subsequently caught himself talking to Niira Radia!

Both the phenomenon of “paid news” and Radia tapes have raised important questions about journalistic ethics. However, what can be done to remedy the present sorry state of affairs is the most important question that comes to mind. Some eminent journalists have come up with their own suggestions. N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu, for example, has emphasized the need for an internal news ombudsman in the press and the news channels. He has also suggested that the Editor’s Guild of India, which is currently investigating Radia tapes, should formulate a code of conduct for journalists. P. Sainath, too, has given important 25

suggestions, such as, introducing courses in media literacy, initiating anti-monopoly legislation, launching a small journal movement and strengthening journalist unions. The Indian chapter of the South Asian Media Commission (SAMC) has expressed “shock and anguish” over lobbyists seeking to manipulate media coverage to serve corporate interests. It has asked journalists figuring in the tapes to express “regret”. It has also suggested that media outfits should make public their ownership patterns and journalists, too, should declare their assets. What can the readers and concerned citizens do to remedy such a situation?

Apart from the important suggestions mentioned above the following suggestions, come to mind: 1. Media should be brought within the purview of RTI act so that citizens-readers may obtain information about the ownership pattern of newspapers and news channels, social-political background of journalists and their income-assets as a matter of right.

2. Parliament should enact a law declaring publishing “paid news” or entering into “private treaties” with corporate houses as a “corrupt” practice and punishable as an offence. (Publishing “paid news” is not a part of the “freedom” of the press.)

3. Journalists who are caught lobbying for corporate houses should be expelled from the journalistic community for professional misconduct. (Merely expressing “regret” is not enough.) If professional organizations of journalists are not able to enforce this, then the parliament should enact a law declaring corporate lobbying by journalists as “illegal”.

4. Media ethics should form a prominent part of all journalistic and media related courses.

5. Civil society groups should come forward to form organizations like Media Watch to systematically document distortions in the commercial media and bring them into public focus.

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

6. Pressure should be mounted on the Press Council of viewers are thinking on the issue.

India to make public its full report on “paid news”. Secondly, readers should read newspapers and Citizens have a right to know which newspapers and view news channels with critical eyes. channels are indulging in this malpractice.

Apart from these steps, there are some small steps, which every reader or viewer can take at her or his own level. For example, if they regularly read newspapers or view news channels, which are maintaining a “conspiratorial silence” on the issue, they can write a letter or send an e-mail to them expressing concern and displeasure over their silence on the important issue of journalistic ethics.

Even if they suppress the letters, at least they will come to know what many of their readers or

They will be able to understand when advertisement is being paraded as news and when a journalist is indulging in corporate lobbying in the garb of journalism. They may not take such journalists and “news” reports seriously.

Lastly, apart from small non-commercial magazines and the ethically enlightened part of the commercial media, readers can increasingly use the internet for obtaining information, for expressing their views and for networking.

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)

26

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

IRI/IRHA Members’ Section:

N.V. Brahmam [In the ‘Radical Humanist’ of December, 1993, I wrote an article entitled “Determinism versus Humanism”. The then editor, Shri Tarkunde, published it with ‘Response of the Editor’. I wrote a rejoinder in reply to this response. I could not send it when he was alive. After some time, I sent my rejoinder to the present editor, Prof. Rekha Saraswat leaving to her choice whether to publish it with modifications or reject it. She published it with a few alterations. The present article is in continuation of my previous one.]

Is Freewill akin to any Determinism?

Roy postulated 22 theses to put the M.N. philosophy of Radical Humanism in a nutshell. The fourth thesis presents physical determinism as its metaphysical basis. It begins to read as “Rising out of the background of the law-governed physical nature, the human being is essentially rational.”

Ontologically speaking, the expression is evidently erroneous. Here rationality is ascribed to the human being by virtue of his rising out of the background of the physical nature’s law-governedness. What about the other living beings and non-living things?

Are they not rising out of the same background?

The cause being the same, how can the effect be otherwise? Therefore, according to the letter of the above expression, not only the human being, but

27

everything in the physical nature must be essentially rational. Therefore, this expression leaves no specialty to man and goes against the spirit of humanism itself.

Rationality is said to be used here in the sense of explainability; i.e. what is explainable is rational, and what is not explainable is irrational. Even this explanation does not elevate man to a more dignified position, because explainability applies to all equally well.

If the word ‘rational’ is to apply exclusively to the human being then, ‘rationality’ must mean ‘law-governedness on conscious level’ though the word ‘law’ however is a misfit here. Now let us dwell upon the viability of the term ‘the law-governed physical nature’. What is ‘law’? It is, at best, termed as “a statement of fact to the effect that particular phenomenon always occurs if certain given conditions are present”. The word ‘govern’ means ‘control’ or ‘influence’. Hence ‘law-governed’ means “controlled or influenced by a statement of fact”.

The fourth thesis indicates that laws govern the physical nature. Even if it is taken in figurative sense, it can mean that some factual order controls the physical nature. And it is curious to note that there appear two separate aspects – the law as the governing soul on one hand and the physical nature as the governed body on the other. Thus the thesis postulates duality knowingly or unknowingly.

If law is taken as a statement of fact, it is then an expression only, and an expression can not govern anything. In any way, the phrase ‘the law-governed physical nature’ is bound to be erroneous; it spoils the impartial spirit of the Radical Humanist philosophy.

Radical Humanism claims itself to be purely monistic. But the concept of man’s rationality being wedded to that of nature’s law-governedness, in either sense would have the philosophy inevitably deviated into the duplicity of dualism.

The flaw lies with the concept itself. Order is observed both in nature and in man. They are to be

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

studied and understood separately. No causal relationship need be and should be established between these two orders. Our approach should be holistic, and everything has to be taken and studied as an individual entity. The results of these separate studies may have links and interrelations, but they need not be causal. Causal relationship should not be established not only between dynamics of ideas and dialectics of society but also between conscious rationality of man and unconscious orderliness of nature.

A proper approach to study nature or man may be portrayed here as being possibly realistic and sustainable. Let us see the natural phenomena as we observe them. There are two clear categories of things in this phenomenal world - living beings and non-living things. As is cognizable to us, the non-living things possess inseparable qualities. But the living beings can have actions in addition to qualities. In higher animals, particularly in human beings, some of these actions also appear as deliberate deeds. These qualities and abilities to act together may be termed as properties. Therefore, broadly speaking, there are, in this world, only ‘things’ with inseparable properties. These properties are at times, perhaps unfittingly, termed as laws. Law and order are also often mistaken for each other. Neither of them is an agency that governs things as neither is an entity existing apart from them.

Radical Humanists are used to cite some occurrences in the phenomenal world as proof for law-governedness in nature. They are sunrise, sunset, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, seasons and so on. As we are able to predict the times of their occurrences, laws are wrongly ascribed to them.

But this prediction is possible at, and limited to, a given space and time. The predictions at two different localities do likely differ. Those that are called laws in the popular parlance do not in any way suffer such variations. They are said to be of all time. The analogy of the Radical Humanists is thus erroneous. It is something like predicting a pedestrian’s left step after his right step and, vice

versa as he walks his way. Does this inevitable orderly alternation of steps between the right and the left come under the purview of law? Similar is the case of the order of occurrences visible in the solar system. Let us look into the matter a little elaborately for clarification.

In the solar system, the planet earth rotates on its own axis once in a day of 24 hours. This rotation is its property. According to this time-bound property, the earth seems to keep the same position with the sun at the same time in the 24-hour day. As we know this, sunrise, sunset, etc. can be predicted by simple addition or subtraction of the known duration. This illusion of the sun’s movement from east to west is also caused by the earth’s property of rotation from west to east.

The moon, the satellite of earth, has the property of taking the same duration of about 28 days both for its self rotation and for the revolution around the earth. This is why we can always see only one side of the moon and not the other side from the earth. It has another property of reflecting sunlight like a mirror as it is not self-luminous. When the moon comes between the earth and the sun, the sunlight falls on the moon on the side opposite to the earth and reflects toward the sun and there is no possibility for it to fall on earth. Thus occurs the new moon for us.

When the earth comes between the sun and the moon, the sunlight that falls on the moon reflects on the side of the earth opposite to the sun, i.e. on the dark side of the earth. Thus occurs the full moon for us.

During their regular movements, the sun, the earth and the moon come almost into a straight line occasionally. In such cases, solar eclipse takes place only locally on certain new moon days at fixed timings. At no two localities does it appear the same as the moon covers the sun differently at different parts on earth. But lunar eclipse takes place on a full moon day at all visible parts on earth equally as the moon enters into the earth’s shadow and sun’s light rays do not fall at all on the moon to

28

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

reflect.

The earth revolves round the sun elliptically once in a year deviating at 23.5° on each side of the equator. This fixed deviation both sides is the cause of the regularly recurring seasonal changes – spring, summer, winter and autumn.

The above mentioned regular phenomenal changes observable differently at different parts only on earth are the results of the fixed movements of the sun, the earth and the moon, which are only their properties. The sequence of the time-bound orderly occurrences in the solar system as observed by the parts of the earth is only the property, but not the law. Therefore, it is ridiculous to cite some regular occurrences from our phenomenal world as proof for law-governedness of Nature.

If a man is destined to be a part of determined nature, he can be no more than a cog in the wheel of a machine. He cannot then claim for possession of a free will. Determinism is lack of free-acting power as one’s life is controlled by some external factors.

Freewill is the power to act according to one’s own wishes. Therefore, it is untenable to say that freewill is not antithetical to physical determinism.

Determinisms are many. Each has its own main determining factor. It may be society, politics, economics, sex, fate, physical nature, so on and so forth. In determinism it is the determining factor that determines the course of one’s life. If action moves from fate to man, it is fatalism; if it does from economic forces to man, it is economic determinism; if it is from nature to man, it is naturalism. None of these is humanism. Only if action moves from man, i.e. from man’s freewill to something, it can be humanism.

[Roy remained a Marxist for more than two and a half decades. All the while, he was more or less under the spell of economic determinism. He later realized that economics is one of man’s social needs. He has many other needs apart from social one. All human aspects can be comprised in nature’s canvas. Thus the physical nature was given the topmost priority by Roy. Here Roy committed

29

the error of preferring human needs to human being. As the source of human needs is nature, he moved from physical nature to man and thus he could not outgrow the sphere of naturalism. In his philosophical set-up, physical nature assumed more importance than man, because the source of needs was given priority to the person who needs.

Thus physical determinism was made the foundation to the super structure of Radical Humanism.]

As Radical Humanist, Roy’s thinking moved from physical nature to man, but not from man to nature.

Therefore, it can be termed naturalism, but not humanism. This must be so as far as the metaphysical part is concerned; but it is, no doubt, humanism as the social part is concerned. Making man the archetype of society, the measure of all things and the maker of his own destiny, Roy made man the centre of his social philosophy and moved therefrom to periphery. Freed from the metaphysical fallacy and scientific inadequacy Roy’s social philosophy is pure humanism. This is ever-growing Royism.

We understand the phenomenal world in terms of objects, substance, qualities, acts and relations.

Objects are made up of substance, and they are of two types: inanimate and animate. Inanimate objects possess qualities, and animate objects have both qualities and actions. Nature is meant to be possessed (by the unborn) or to be produced (with the born). Qualities are inseparable with the objects which possess them, and objects are identified by their uncommon and extraordinary individual qualities.

In the universe, man has the unique specialty of being a doer possessing knowledge, will and effort.

Doing acts in a given place and time in a preplanned way is the specialty of the doer. The deed done by the doer is not deterministic but willful. And, hence, the word ‘determinism’ is a misfit on the level of the human being possessing freewill and acting consciously.

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

As a matter of fact, in all living beings, actions take place as responses to external stimuli. Therefore, it is better to term them as reactions instead of actions. The reactions are the properties of the living beings. In non-human living beings, they are

born as sub-conscious instincts. But in human beings, they take place as conscious acts. This makes him the Subject–the willful doer. Thereby man is bound to hold responsibility for his own acts done without desire or result. Thus freewill befits humanism, but not determinism of any brand.

Book Review by Jayanti Patel: [Prof. Jayanti Patel. is Retd. Prof. Political Science. He has been the Vice-President of African Studies Society, India, President Gujarat Rajyashastra Mandal, Founder Secretary Gujarat Univesity Area Teachers Association and Gujarat Rationalist Association, President IRHA and Editor Vaishvik Manavvad (Monthly). He has written scores of books and scores of research articles and contributed number of articles on current topics in various magazines.]

A Diplomat’s Diary [BOOK: An Envoy Looks Back – A Memoir, by K.H. Patel, Har-Anand Publications. New

Delhi-110020, 2011. P.164 and eight pages of photographs. Price Rs. 495] of memoirs by a diplomat is a rare phenomenon. Perhaps, the first publication in Publication this category may be attributed to Megasthenes (four volumes of Indica, c 300 BCE), a Greek envoy at the court of Mauryan rulers of India. Reminiscences of Mr. K.H. Patel, An Envoy Looks Back, falls in this rare category. The narrative traces the journey of a Patel-boy from the small north Gujarat town-Unjha, through Foreign Service Department to the culmination as an ambassador to African countries. It has the flavour of a family life, interesting information and anecdotes and critical appraisal of political leaders, foreign officials and the policy decisions. He is frank, does not mince words in criticizing and expressing his opinions, and uses no vague verbosity. In this aspect Mr. Patel does not confirm with the adage that a diplomat ‘is a person who talks at length without giving any information or committing himself to any opinion.’

Mr. Patel’s recounting of his experiences while working with his colleagues, the Pakistan desk, Human Rights Commission to Guyana, Indian Delegation to UN and Kutch Tribunal provides us insight in the pages of history, hitherto buried in the departmental files. Particularly, interesting chapters are about his sojourn as the first Consul of India to Reunion, High Commissioner to post-Idi Amin Uganda, and ambassador to Rwanda and Burundi, ravaged by tribal strife, and his effort to establish fruitful relationship with these countries and their people. Mr. Patel shows his true colour in the chapter dealing with the appraisal of the decisions taken by the Indian government regarding various foreign policy issues.

I feel that, it would have added to the value of the book if a chapter on how his wife, Mrs. Kashiben – a lady educated up to matriculation, coming from a small town, braved the challenges and responsibilities of the sophisticated life of a diplomat’s hostess.

30

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Innaiah Narisetti [Dr. N. Innaiah, former Director, Centre for Inquiry (CFI), India, did his Ph.D on Philosophy of Modern Science. He is a veteran Radical Humanist who has translated maximum books written by M.N Roy as well as other books on humanism in Telugu.]

Humanist movement in India with special reference to Andhra Pradesh movement in India commenced Humanist simultaneously on par with western countries around 1940s. M.N. Roy was the founder of the movement in India. It was initiated during the beginning of Second World War. To spread the message M.N. Roy started a daily paper Independent India. Later it came as Radical Humanist, weekly. Roy also published Marxian Way and Humanist Way, the two outstanding theoretical journals. He was the first person who pleaded for renaissance, decentralization, democratic constitution, power to people, morals in politics, recall right for voters, and above all scientific approach to all problems.

The Radical Democratic Party set an example of scientific politics with its study camps, training classes and journals. Both at all India level and state lever the renaissance clubs played crucial role in spreading scientific politics with new orientation.

The Party, started during early 1940s, set an example how it can be different from Congress, Socialist and communist parties, both in theory and in practice.

31

There are numerous intellectuals, writers and politicians who followed the path of M.N. Roy in spreading the idea of New Humanism.

In course of time M.N. Roy came to the conclusion that the main hindrance to scientific politics and renaissance was political party. All political parties think that their party is right and all other parties are wrong. Moreover the party thinks: MY PARTY, RIGHT OR WRONG. To implement the new humanist ideas the Radical Democratic Party was abolished in favor of New Humanist movement.

That was the historical turning point in the history of Indian Renaissance movement. It commenced with the advent of Independent India.

The history of New Humanist movement has to be written. To set an example here is an attempt made to give a glimpse of the movement in Andhra Pradesh State. Similarly each state should present its history so that a comprehensive compendium may be passed on to future generations.

The Role of Andhra Pradesh in Humanist movement: The delegates who attended the Faizpur Congress in 1936 felt that the speech and role of M.N. Roy set a different path from the traditional approach to politics. One person from Andhra invited M.N. Roy to visit Andhra. He was M.V. Sastri (Mulukutla Venkata Sastri) who represented the newspaper of Kunduru Eswar Datt journal. Roy accepted. Later he was invited to inaugurate the agricultural labour conference at Nellore town in coastal Andhra. Mr. Vennelaganti Raghaviah (related to President V.V. Giri) invited Roy. On 31 July 1938 M.N. Roy stepped into Andhra town and inaugurated the conference. Immediately he fell sick and M.V. Sastri took him to Kakinada, coastal town of Andhra. The news reached Andhra University where Mr. Abburi Ramakrishnarao was working as librarian. He brought Roy to Waltair. M.N. Roy stayed with Mr. H. Gupta in Maharani Pet of Vizad where he recovered. By then Ellen Roy also joined him at Waltair. Mr. Abburi introduced M.N. Roy to the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University. He was

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

late Kattamanchi Ramalingareddi (C.R. Reddi) who offered professor post to M.N. Roy in the university. Roy politely declined. They became great friends and C.R. Reddi wrote a brilliant introduction to Letters From Jail. Since then M.N. Roy frequently visited the University and Andhra area till his last days. Letters from Jail was translated and published as series in Radical Humanist fortnightly in Telugu later.

By the time M. N. Roy was released from jail after 6 years of imprisonment by British rulers, he completed his monumental work: The Philosophical Consequences of Modern Science.

That was not published fully yet, but parts of it were published under the title: Science and Philosophy.

Roy gave comprehensive thought on various problems like beginning and end, Problem of determinism, Origin of life etc. Later some of these parts were translated into Telugu by N. Innaiah and published in Prasarita, a quarterly Telugu magazine. Prof A.B. Shah circulated the script to some friends for discussion. Roy went on including few parts in his later writings.

Abburi Ramakrishna Rao became the first state organizer of Radical Democratic Party. He was ably assisted by M.V. Sastri, A L Narasimharao, Pemmaraju Venkatarao, Tata Devakinandan (municipal chairman of Vizayanagaram). The message of Roy spread quickly in Andhra.

Tripuraneni Gopichand, writer, director became the first state secretary of Radical Democaratic party. He was a prolific writer who introduced political short stories in Telugu. He attacked communists and Congress party with powerful and pungent pen. Much of Roy’s thought were brought out into Telugu through short stories, plays and criticism by Gopichand.

Several of M.N. Roy’s writings were simultaneously translated into Telugu and published. In those days the press was very nationalistic and did not entertain the radical ideas

of Humanists.

Hence Mr. Gudavalli Ramabrahmam, cine director started one weekly called Prajamitra where the articles of Royists found place. Ramabrahmam received Roy in Madras and gave grand reception with several journalists. In that party some journalists put irritating questions to Roy. One such person was Mr. Khasa Subbarao, editor of Indian Express from Madras. He made some nasty remarks against Ellen Roy and Roy violently reacted, saying that such persons need cudgeling. He waved the newspaper in his hand towards Khasa Subbarao. At this incident the journalists protested and walked out of the reception in Madras in 1938.They boycotted the news of Radical humanists in the press.

But the radical humanists were non-compromising.

They conducted political schools in Andhra and several youth were trained. Few journals like Mulukola edited Bandi Butchaih from Vijayawada published the articles of Royists.

The first All India Radical democratic political school was conducted in Dehradun in early 1940s and the whole deliberations were brought out into a book called Scientific Politics. It was translated into Telugu as class relations which attracted the intellectuals and gave fitting reply to communists.

Mr. Palagummi Padmaraju and Mr. G.V. Krishnarao emerged as powerful literary writers in support of M.N. Roy and Humanism. Padmaraju wrote novels with central theme of Humanism. He got world prize for his short story (Gaali Vaana) Storm. He also wrote script to several movies.

Mr. G V Krishnarao emerged as theoretical writer of Roy’s philosophy and countered communist theories of aesthetics.

Mr. Koganti Radhakrishna Murty from Kuchipudi village started publication under the name of Prajasahitya prachuranalu and brought out many writings and translations. He himself wrote a book on writings of M N Roy. Continued in the next issue...............................

Radical Humanist friends from all states are requested to compile their states’ RH Movement’s history for publishing in the RH.—Rekha

32

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Techers’ & Research Scholrs’ Section:

Sitaram Kumbhar

The Judiciary and the Poor one looks into the history of Indian IfJudiciary, especially the Supreme Court (hence forth, SC) and makes a close observation, one would find significant shift in the judicial interpretation of the different cases. This shift is from one of conservatism to a more liberal one. The various judgments are moving in the opposite directions of invariable support to universal/state interests at the cost of individual/groups interest in the past. Now communities and individuals are getting priority and not subordinated to state interest. Nevertheless, the SC has started playing activist role. The poor and the dispossessed have started approaching the court to escape from various forms of sufferings and institutionalized discrimination. This is probably due to growing participation on the part of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) actively working on the issues of workers, displaced, ecological-environmental, and poor. The forceful presentation and articulation of genuine causes by CSOs has motivated the judges to interpret the various articles and clauses of Indian constitution more liberally in favour of poor and dispossessed.

Yet, some scholars argue that the SC has acquired more power and confidence as a result of coalition-governments in the Centre and has started interpreting the constitution more freely and humanly.

On August 13 2010, the SC had asked the Centre to distribute food. The SC said; “Give it to the hungry poor instead of grains going down the drain”. A

33

bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma told Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran appearing for the Centre that waste of single grain was a crime when a large number of the country’s population is starving due to lack of food.

The government reacted by saying, “that was the opinion of the SC and not an order”. In response to the SC judgment the Union Minister, Sharad Pawar said “it is not possible to implement the SC suggestion”. He further said whatever the SC said was the opinion of the former and not an order to be acted upon. What followed was a quick response from the SC which made it clear that the August 13 judgment was an order and the government should positively respond to it. The SC order should be acted upon. The government expressed inability to distribute the rotting food-grains free of cost to the poor. The SC had asked the Centre to build sufficient numbers of transit houses to stock the food grains which is formally not the function of the judiciary. It ordered the Government to construct a big go-down in each of the states besides separate go-downs in different districts. It also asked government to ensure that fair-price shops were kept open throughout the year. The government needs go-downs in good condition to keep the food-grains and distribute the same to the poor through the PDS. It is a fact that there is inadequate space available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to keep food-grains. It is strange that people starve despite having sufficient footstock and a large quantity of food-grains rot in FCI go-downs.

How has Indian judiciary interpreted the issues of the poor? What are the recent shifts that are discernable in recent judgments? The recent judgment by SC is a historic one. This story depicts how the SC has taken the issues of poor in a somewhat different vein. Though the CSOs used to criticize the SC as anti-poor and pro-rich, pro-government they have now come closer to the SC. This is probably due to an extraordinary shift in the judgments of the SC which is a clear departure from the earlier stands on various issues. As

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

mentioned above, the recent SC order asking centre to distribute free food-grains to families below poverty line (BPL) is of far reaching consequences.

It asked the state governments also to confirm whether they were distributing 35 kg of food-grains to each of the BPL families or not. This was because the Central Government had told the SC that it was allocating 35 kg food-grains per BPL family to the states. The SC said that distribution should be in proportion to the number of family members. A PDS card holder gets 35 kg of rice, if there are two members in the family or 10. Why not distribute per member? The New York Times on December 2, 2002 had Said, “Despite millions of tons of surplus wheat and rice, about 350 million Indians go to bed hungry.”

A good legal system has a role to play in alleviating poverty. The judicial independence (impartiality, political insularity, institutional autonomy, legal authority, legitimacy, and probity), is crucial for a judiciary when it is playing the role of an activist.

As a matter of fact India is rightly acclaimed for achieving a flourishing constitutional order, presided over by an inventive and activist judiciary, aided by proficient bar, supported by the state and cherished by the public. At the same time, the courts, and tribunals where ordinary Indians might go for remedy and protection, are beset with massive problems of delay, cost and ineffectiveness. Potential users avoid the courts. In spite of a longstanding reputation for litigiousness, existing evidence suggests that Indians avail themselves of courts at a low rate, and the rate appears to be falling.

There is little systematic exploration of the role the rule of law plays in ameliorating poverty. This is somewhat surprising since the poor are most at risk from the abuse of political power, and are least able to protect themselves against the injury and economic loss consequent upon such abuse. In countries all over the world the poor are more likely to be victims of police violence than the rich. So too they are more likely to be ignored or mistreated by bureaucrats. While poverty has traditionally been

regarded as a phenomenon least understood in terms of income and productivity, it has more recently been recognized that poverty is a multidimensional problem extending beyond low income to include physical vulnerability and powerlessness within existing political and social structure. This view is corroborated by anthropological studies of impoverished communities that highlight the prominence of lawlessness in the daily experience of poverty. At the same time the growing number of neo-institutional analysis suggests that political and legal rules do have a direct impact upon social practices and economic outcomes. In short, institution matters for poverty.

Lawlessness contributes to poverty. Even, Amartya Sen in his book Poverty and Famine argues that unchecked abuses of political power can contribute directly to hunger and famine. Lack of commitment, political wills leads to huge wastage in previous schemes meant for the poor. The rotting of food-grains at FCI go-down is not new. The shortcomings in the functioning, for instance, of the Food for Work (FFW) programme in Indian states were known to all. The administrative mismanagement, corruption, local power relations, design-faults excluded the deserving very poor and lower caste people from participating in the programme.

In previous judgments the SC supported the cause of poor. The SC constituted committees to look into the matters of right to food. The civil society organizations, for instance, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), have been spearheading in making the right to food a legal right. In April 2001, PUCL (Rajasthan) filed a writ petition in the SC seeking legal enforcement of right to food.

According to PUCL the right to food is an essential part of “right to life” enshrined in article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The SC in its various judgments has said that the right to life should be interpreted as a right to “live with human dignity” which includes the right to food and other basic necessities.1 There are many such judgments. In the

34

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

case of Francis Carolie v. Administrator, Union territory of Delhi and Ors. (1981) 1SCC 608 the SC observed: “We think that the right to life includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes along with it, namely, the bare necessaries of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter and facilities for reading, writing and expressing one-self in diverse forms, freely moving about and mixing and commingling with fellow human beings. Of course, the magnitude and content of the components of this right would depend upon the extent of the economic development of the country, but it must, in any view of the matter, include the right to the basic necessities of life and also the right to carry on such functions and activities as constitute the bare minimum expression of the human self”. Similarly, in Shantistar Builders v.

Narayan Khimalal Tomate (1990) 1 SCC 520, the SC stated: “The right to life is guaranteed in any civilized society. That would take within its sweep the right to food”.

The SC order dated 20th August 2001 made it clear that prevention of hunger and starvation is the responsibility of government. It stated that it was one of the prime responsibilities of the government- whether central or State. The SC made it clear on 29th October 2002 through various judgments that the state governments are responsible for preventing “deaths due to starvation or malnutrition”. On 18th May 2002 the SC had appointed two commissioners for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the interim orders. One of the major order of the SC in response to a PIL issued on 28th November 2001 had converted the benefits like PDS, ICDS, AAY, Mid-Day Meal Schemes, NOAPS, NMBS and NFBS into legal entitlements. If one genuine beneficiary fails to benefit from the schemes it can move to the court as a matter of right. It has made various orders on the identification of poor, BPL, issue of card and distribution of ration. The civil society organisations have maintained that access to food which is one of the foremost basic needs of

35

life should be the birthright of every single human being on this earth.

In a similar case of the poor, earlier in one of its judgments the SC ruled that cycle rickshaws can ply in the national capital without a curb on their number and criticized the government for being anti-poor. The Delhi High Court had earlier ruled the Municipal Council of Delhi’s (MCD) policy of limiting the number cycle rickshaws as unconstitutional. It rejected the flawed idea that cycle rickshaws cause congestion in a city of six million personal vehicles of which over 3.8 millions are four wheelers. In fact, MCD had fixed the number of cycle rickshaws to one lakh.

What is surprising is that Indian judiciary and its judges are more pro-poor than others. In 1933 the British House of Lords affirmed its views that poverty is a misfortune for which the law cannot take any responsibility at all. In 1986, Justice Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of India described the function of the SC, in relation to poverty and oppression in somewhat different vein: “The judges in India have asked themselves the question: Can judges really escape addressing themselves to the substantial questions of social justice? Can they simply say to litigants who came to them for justice and the general public that accords them power, status and respect, that they simply follow the legal text when they are aware that their actions will perpetuate inequality and injustice? Can they restrict their enquiry into law and life within the narrow confines of a narrowly defined rule of law?

Does the requirement of constitutionalism not make greater demands on judicial function?”2 Despite progressive interpretation of constitution in favour of poor and general public many continue to argue that in spite of all successes, Indian democracy is at the risk of becoming de-legitimized because of the increasing lack of faith many Indian have in the judicial process. One of the main reasons why the poor are not able to use the legal system to prevent further impoverishment is that the law is not framed in their favour. Many statutes dating in particular from the colonial

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

period are designed mainly to protect property, gather power in the hands of the administrators, and put down social unrest. The Code of Criminal Procedure provides that an individual accused of a criminal offence may be released on bail after providing sufficient security. But the price of a bond is normally beyond the financial capacity of the poor, while the wealthy are able to buy their way out of jail with ease. At the heart of the inequity is a system which requires rich and poor alike to post similar bonds, thus a rich individual can secure bail after paying a tiny fraction of annual disposable income whereas a poor individual would need to surrender an entire year’s income to

secure the same.

References: 1. For more on this see the SC orders on the right to food: A Tool for Action (March 2008).

2. P. Bhagwati, ‘Chief Justice on What Justices Should Do”, The Times of India, 21st September, 1986.

[Dr. Sitamram Kumhar is Assistant Professor in the department of Political Science, Shyamlal College, University of Delhi. He may be contacted at Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi 110067, Mob. 9868976083]

Letter to The Editor:

Sub: Kashmir And The Indian Media I bring to your notice that an independent fact-finding team, at the initiative of The Other Media (Delhi), consisting of four human rights activists, namely Bela Bhatia, Ravi Hemadri, Sukumar Muralidharan and Vrinda Grover had visited Kashmir at the end of October 2010 in order to study the origins of the problem which had led to recent mass uprising in the valley of Kashmir and to suggest ways and means for its resolution. They met families of those killed during the preceding four months of civil unrest and assessed various shades of opinion in the valley. The team members spent about 25 days and visited several villages and towns in five of the Kashmir valley’s 10 districts.

The team prepared its report entitled Four Months Kashmir Valley Will Never Forget and released the same in a Press Conference on 26th March, 2011 at New Delhi. All segments of the media were invited to cover the conference. But to the surprise of the team no reporter, except one, turned up and was totally ignored by the print as well as electronic media.

There is already a feeling among the people of Kashmir that Indian establishments and majority of Indian media are more interested in retaining the land of Kashmir rather than to have any concern for the miseries and sufferings of its people. Human rights groups also feel that their view points in relation to Kashmir problem are mostly ignored by the media which is more prone to give wider publicity to official line. This kind of attitude, whether conscious or unconscious, can only strengthen separatist tendencies and feeling of alienation among the people of Kashmir on the one hand, while it deprives the Indian people of the opportunity to study and discuss all shades of views in order to form a rational and discerning opinion on one of the most volatile problems prevailing in this part of the world.

N.D. Pancholi, President, PUCL (Delhi unit).

(M) 9811099532

36

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Book Review Section: [BOOK: The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Danish: Verdens sande tilstand, literal translation: The Real State of the World) by Danish environmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg. It was first published in Danish in 1998, and the English edition was published as a work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001.]

—Reviewed by Subhankar Ray [Mr. Subhankar Ray is a researcher in Biochemistry and has been, for a long time, associated with the Renaissance movement.]

Impending Destruction of Environment: A Myth?

Introduction: At present we are all concerned about Environment. Most of us perceive that due to rapid industrialization, random use of automobiles and consumerism are rapidly destroying the earth. Not only the environment is being destroyed, but also due to reckless use of natural resources that are stored for eons is being rapidly depleted. The net consequence will be that the economic progress that has already been made will be unsustainable and there will be no resources left for future generation and the earth will be doomed.

In the backdrop of this all-devouring thinking the present book is a glaring exception. The Skeptical Environmentalist. Measuring the Real State of the World’s author Bjørn Lomborg was a professor of Statistics in the Department of Political Science at University of Aarhus in Denmark; now an Adjunct Professor at Copenhagen Business School. The Book was fist published in Danish in 1998. First English translation was published in 2001 by 37

Cambridge University Press and it was reprinted eighteen times up to 2006. The book is widely discussed in the circle of scientists and environmentalists of USA and Europe. Still, the present Reviewer feels that in India the book is hardly known. This review is to introduce and highlight this highly exceptional book and to present very briefly its content.

In the Preface of the Book the Author has mentioned that in 1997 he was reading in a bookstore an interview published in Wired Magazine of the well-known economist Julian Simon. Simon told that the conception of impending destruction of environment is totally untrue, which could be easily substantiated by official statistics. Because the Author was an active member of Greenpeace and a professor of statistics he instantly felt that he would let Simon completely wrong by data. The Author took the challenge; however when he scrutinized all the statistics his idea was totally changed. As a result, he wrote four articles in the Danish daily Politiken, which raised a storm in all newspapers and magazines of Denmark. Even his close friends thought that his idea was wrong. The Author felt that all these demonstrated that the idea that the environment is soon going to be destroyed is ingrained in most of us. However the Author extended the theme of those four articles and published the Book.

The Author emphasizes that we should look at the statistics. Nobody including the media, the environmental organizations and business houses should maneuver the data. If used properly statistics is most sure way of understanding the Earth. There are many problems but if we avoid fruitless worry and emotion and scrutinize all the relevant facts then we shall understand that in every sphere there was and is progress. Then we shall be able to concentrate on important problems. No doubt the issue of environment is important but one of the many.

The Book is divided in six parts. The first part is The Litany meaning a long boring account. The

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

Author mentions the sources from where we get the news and views of destruction of the Earth. He summarizes the views and provides arguments against those in a nutshell. He explains why we always get bad news. In the second part he shows that in every sphere there is progress. In the third part he discusses whether this progress is sustainable. In the fourth part he raises the issue whether the environmental pollution will weaken the progress. Fifth and sixth parts are respectively future problems and conclusion. A defect of the Book is that it contains many repetitions. But for our obsession with environmental pollution these repetitions might be necessary.

The name of the book is Skeptical Environmentalist because the author is also conscious about environment. He is skeptical because he does not want to be swayed by imaginary but now widely prevailing view about environment. He emphasized the fundamentals that is why The Real State of the World.

The Author mentions about some environmental organizations such as World Watch Institute, Greenpeace, and World Wide Fund for Nature, and also of some persons who by making use of the media are able to create an imaginary picture of environment. For a holistic view the Author has emphasized to use statistics. Because the picture we often get from media and from people known to us are usually one sided and partial. Our acquaintances are usually like us, receive information from same sources and think alike.

Their idea does not reflect the whole. The Author emphasizes to evaluate global and long term trends.

There might be some bad situation in some places and in some time but these should not be overblown. As example, 650 thousand people in Burundi are getting lesser food; whereas in Nigeria, a country of 110 million populations is getting more food. This means on an average 16 persons are getting more food; the situation has improved altogether. On the other hand the food grains production per hectare worldwide was decreasing from 1990 to 1993. But the productions in 1960 and

in 2000 were 1.25 and 2.75 tons respectively. In 1970, 35% of the population in developing countries was starving; in 1996 it was reduced to 18% although the population of all those countries was increased substantially within that period. In 1915, 75% of the population of the developing countries was illiterate, now it is only 16%.If we observe that in some issues the situation is improving then we have to accept that the situation is improving but not might be in appropriate pace.

There are many problems but “Things are better but not necessarily good enough� From the exaggerated views about the downslide of environment that we often get from different quarters fear might inflict in our mind, our judgment might be destroyed. We shall be impelled to use our resources and be engaged in solving phantom problems. We could not solve all the problems in a single stroke, we have to give priorities.

Now-a-days many persons criticize the anthropocentric views. But is there any alternative way? The wish and necessity of humankind is fundamental. Penguins and pine trees do not vote.

Who will speak for those? Hence the final verdict is of humankind. In many respect what is good for human is good for the other living organisms; an example is to get clean air. However there are many conflicts too. We have to clear forests if we want arable lands. On the one hand we are eating chicken and beef and on the other trying to save the aquatic animals of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Author rightly points out that many feel pollution will increase with increase in economic prosperity. Many also feel that rich countries dump their polluting materials to developing countries (Reviewer). But according to the Environmental Sustainability Index of World Economic Forum pollution becomes lesser with increasing GDP. There are 2730 references in this 514 pages book.

The Author mentions that all the information and data are from Governmental or Semi governmental organizations such as United Nations (UN) or its

38

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

subsidiary or associated organizations such as Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Besides he uses data from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. Moreover he uses that data from those organizations who globally collect and analyze data such as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and United States Agriculture Department of USA government, Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Union (EU) etc. According to the Author these information and data are easily available and anybody could verify those.

Why we always get bad news?

In 1992 there was a survey in 24 nations of the World to know the people’s mind about the environment they think good, their immediate surroundings or of their country or of the World as a whole. Most opined that their immediate surroundings were better than that of the World and the country’s environment was in between. We get the idea of our immediate surroundings from our direct experience. But the information about the World we usually get from media and also from different other sources. These are mainly from research, media and from the reports of different voluntary organizations.

Research is mainly for solving a particular problem. Now-a-days most of the grants for research are coming from government. So, society wants that it will benefit from research. If a researcher after investigating a particular problem comes to conclusion that there is no major problem in this field and there is nothing much to do, then he and others who are in research in that particular field will receive no further grant to work on this field. On the other hand if there is some serious problem then there is lot of grants. So it is a general tendency of the researchers to exaggerate a problem. The Author has termed this phenomenon as ‘file drawer and data message’. Squeezing the

39

experiments over and over again and to extract something that indicates some serious problems.

The results of nine experiments are uninteresting so kept in a file and put in the drawer; but that of tenth one indicates some problem hence received much attention.

We often feel that only business and industrial organizations, chamber of commerce, trade unions have vested interest. We often overlook that voluntary and environmental organizations have also. They want to convince us that in order to save the environment there is a need for stringent regulation. We should not cut trees, we have to save penguins; polluting industries must be closed instead of increased production of food and industrial goods or more hospitals and schools.

Because if these problems do not persist then what they will live for?

Now-a-days the media is mainly responsible for providing us information and largely influence our thought. We could assume that they usually provide us with right information. However in most cases these are one sided and dramatic. ’A good story is often a bad news’. We often swayed by bad and negative news and in particular if somebody could be blamed for this. We feel that we could realize the whole from this partial and fragmented representation and could arrive at a conclusion and debate over it Many of us feel that the past was much better and we are in a wrong direction. To remind this is not to suggest that we sit idle and ignore all the problems.

We have to take challenge by keeping in mind that we receive bad news more often. How to take this challenge has been discussed in subsequent chapters.

Overall well-being of society: To assess the overall well-being of society UN has introduced Human Development Index. The basis of this is long, free from sickness and creative life.

It is difficult to evaluate this by data and statistics but we could get an idea of it by looking at the average life expectancy at birth, number of

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011

school-going years etc. The Author has evaluated this by comparing the present state of longevity, health, availability of food, income, inequality, education and security with that of the past.

We note that the population is increasing by leaps and bounds from 1950. But by analyzing this trend it appears that it will be significantly reduced around 2050 and around 2150 there will be no increase in population. The reason for this rapid increase is not that we are reproducing like rabbits but we are not dying like flies. In developing countries in 1950 each female used to give birth on an average six offspring, now it is three. This trend of decrease started in developed countries quite early. In 1920s in Denmark and in 1960s in USA and Australia each female used to give birth on an average 3.1 offspring. In early 1960s population increase was 2% now it is 1.26%. From this trend we could assume that the increase in population will stop at certain point of time. In this context the Author mentions that the planning for birth control was started in India quite early. Still the decline of increase in population was rather slow.

The Author mentions an interesting issue. From the present population and trend of increase we could estimate how many people lived in the earth up till

now and it is 50-100 billion.

It is also to be noted that large number of people in a country is as such no problem, because several countries of Europe such as Netherlands, Belgium are more populous than India; Japan is also. In third world Mauritius and South Korea are densely populated. The real issue is poverty and not dense population.

There are persons including some sociologists who think that if a country could not produce what it needs then that country is unsustainable. But this conception is totally wrong because it ignores the role of trade. Production is best done where it is most efficiently produced not there where there are consumers.

In 1950 New York with ten million of population was the biggest city. It is assumed that around 2015, 19 out of 23 biggest cities will be in developing countries. It is true that in developing countries city dwellers have worst living than that of the developed countries. But they live better than the villagers. In developing countries also 60% of GDP is produced in cities.

Continued in the next issue..........................

The Radical Humanist—Rates Of Advertisement/InsertionJournal Size:18cm x 24cm-Print Area:15cm x 20cm Ordinary Second Back Cover Rs. 2,500 Last Cover

Rs. 3,000

Special Rs. 3,000

Ordinary Page: Full Page Rs. 2,000

Rs. 2,500 Rs. 900

nd

For One Year 2 Back Cover Rs. 20,000 Rs. 30,000 Last Cover

Rs. 25,000

Ordinary Page: Full Page Rs. 15,000 Quarter Page Rs.6,000

Ordinary

Special

Rs. 2,500

Rs. 3,000

Rs. 3,500

Quarter page

Rs. 600

Third Back Cover

Half Page

rd

3 Back Cover

Rs. 1,000

Rs. 20,000

Rs. 1,500

Rs. 30,000

Rs. 30,000 Rs. 20,000 Rs. 9,000

Half Page

40

Rs. 10,000

Rs. 15,000

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

APRIL 2011 —SUBSCRIPTION RATES—

In SAARC Countries: For one year-Rs. 200.00 For two years-Rs. 350.00 For three years-Rs. 500.00 Life subscription-Rs. 2000.00 (Life subscription is only for individual subscribers and not for institutions.)

Cheques should be in favor of The Radical Humanist.

For outstation cheques: Please add Rs. 25.00 to the total.

In other Countries: Annual subscription (Air Mail) $ 100.00; GBP 75.00 Note: Direct transfer of subscription amount from abroad may be sent to: SWIFT CODE Number CNRBINBBAMHB in the Current Account Number 0349201821034 at Canara Bank, Maharani Bagh, New Delhi, 1100014, India.

Cheques and money transfer details from abroad may be sent to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Treasurer), Chamber No. 111, (Near Post Office) Supreme Court of India, New Delhi-110001, Ph. (Chamber) 91-11-23782836, (Res.) 91-11-22712434, (Mobile) 09811944600 SUBSCRIPTION FORM The Manager, The Radical Humanist

C/o Mr. Narottam Vyas (Treasurer) Chamber No. 111, (Near Post Office) Supreme Court of India, Delhi-110001 Dear Sir, I/We wish to be enrolled as subscriber/s for The Radical Humanist for a period of one year/two years/three years/life.

Name...........................................................................................................

Address........................................................................................................

Phone No.....................................................................................................

E-mail.........................................................................................................

Thanking you.

Yours faithfully,

RNI No. 43049/85 Post Office Regd. No. Meerut-146-2009-2011 to be posted on 2nd of every month at H.P.O. Meerut Cantt.

RENAISSANCE PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED 15, Bankim Chatterjee Street (2nd floor), Kolkata: 700 073, Mobile: 9831261725 NEW FROM RENAISSANCE

By SIBNARAYAN RAY Between Renaissance and Revolution-Selected Essays: Vol. I- H.C.350.00 In Freedom’s Quest: A Study of the Life and Works of M.N. Roy: Vol.Ill Part-I H.C.250.00 Against the Current - H.C.350.00

By M.N. ROY Science and Superstition - H.C.125.00 AWAITED OUTSTANDING PUBLICATIONS

By RABINDRANATH TAGORE & M.N. ROY Nationalism - H.C.150.00

By M.N. ROY The Intellectual Roots of Modern Civilization - H.C.150.00 The Russian Revolution - P.B.140.00 The Tragedy of Communism - H.C.180.00 From the Communist Manifesto - P.B.100.00 To Radical Humanism - H.C.140.00 Humanism, Revivalism and the Indian Heritage - P.B. 140.00

By SIVANATH SASTRI A History of The Renaissance in Bengal —Ramtanu Lahiri: Brahman & Reformer H.C.180.00

By SIBNARAYAN RAY Gandhi, Gandhism and Our Times (Edited) - H.C.200.00 The Mask and The Face (Jointly Edited with Marian Maddern) - H.C.200.00 Sane Voices for a Disoriented Generation (Edited) - P.B. 140.00 From the Broken Nest to Visvabharati - P.B.120.00 The Spirit of the Renaissance - P.B.150.00 Ripeness is All - P.B. 125.00

By ELLEN ROY From the Absurdity to Creative Rationalism - P.B. 90.00

By V. M. TARKUNDE Voice of A Great Sentinel - H.C.175.00

By SWARAJ SENGUPTA Reflections - H.C 150.00 Science, Society and Secular Humanism - H.C. 125.00

By DEBALINA BANDOPADHYAY The Woman-Question and Victorian Novel - H.C. 150.00

Published and printed by Mr. N.D. Pancholi on behalf of Indian Renaissance Institute at 1183, Chatta Madan Gopal Maliwada, Chandni Chawk, Delhi, 110006 Printed by Nageen Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., W. K. Road, Meerut, 250002 Editor-Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001