Sept 2009 rh

Vol. 73 No 4

Rs. 15 / month

THERADICALHUMANIST (Since April 1949)

SEPTEMBER 2009 Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)

Founder Editor: M.N. Roy

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WELCOME TO THE RADICAL HUMANIST WEBSITE

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From the Editor’s Desk: A New Era Begins: We go World-wide!

I wonder how Roy would have felt today! A journal which he had started with the help of his friends, followers, well-wishers and his wife Ellen, which continued unabated, many times under extreme adverse circumstances, his love’s labour that he passed on to us as a legacy to carry forward, can now be viewed by friends the world-over on the Internet!

Yes, The Radical Humanist website is now launched and ready for use.

You may simply type www.theradicalhumanist.com on the main “search bar” given on top of your Internet browser and begin exploring, commenting and contributing to its different sections with immediate effect.

Roy had used The Radical Humanist as a successful tool for reaching out to as many Indians as possible for sharing with them his political views and international experience. I call it successful because all those who came in contact with him and his ideas never went back without partially or fully acknowledging or accepting them. Had this facility of the Internet been available during his life-time, history would have taken a different turn, no doubt. Now after 54 years of his death we are trying to take his philosophy to all corners of the world through this interactive portal.

I am aware of the fact that many of our devoted readers may not be computer-friendly and may find it a little difficult to operate upon the site. For their convenience, I am trying to explain the functional aspect of its various sections in the following paras because I know these are the people who will have the utmost satisfaction and emotional gratification on going through the various sections of the website. It will be a roller-coaster-ride down their memory lane, I know.

On this site you may read the latest three issues of the RH by clicking on the RH Journal section. When you will click on any one of the three, a black screen will appear and a small dull white ring in the centre of the screen will begin getting brighter. When the circle completes its brightness the journal will open before you, just as if the RH is in your hands and you may go through it by turning its pages, one by one. And you may zoom its font-size to get a better vision. You can also download the three RH in PDF format (by clicking on the PDF sign given on the right hand-side top corner of each journal 1

when it opens). You may take their prints for your future reference.

Then we have the Literature Archive section just after the RH Journal section on the top panel of the website.

We are trying to scan and upload all the issues of Independent India and the RH in this section. Along with that it will also be our priority to first upload all the unpublished literature of Roy and then his published works in this archive. This section will specially take time to grow, as with our limited resources we’ll have to upload these things ourselves manually, gradually.

The most interesting parts are the first three—News, Articles and Comments sections because these are going to make our website interactive but only to the extent that you will come forward and send news and articles from your side and also send comments upon others’ news and articles which will be published there.

The news and articles sections will also have “post news”, “post articles” props on the lower right side of the page where you will be able to make your contributions.

The bottom part of the “Home page”, i.e. the first page will carry four blocks—Editorial Section, Future Themes, Events and Join Debates. You may read the editorials of the RH exclusively in the 1st section. You will be invited to send your articles for the RH as well as for the articles’ section on the web upon a list of future themes. The coming events of the humanists’ groups will be announced in the Events’ section and you will have current topics of importance to debate upon in the Join Debate section. You may yourself also initiate a debate upon a topic of your preference by sending it to us so that we may put it in the join debate section.

Please create your “profile” in the Profile section so that you may interconnect and interact with other viewers.

Many times, you may find old friends in this profile section to your pleasant surprise. This section will be our meeting point. But the first thing that you should do after opening the website is to register yourself on it by creating a “user name” and a “password” for yourself by clicking on the “Register” sign given on its top right hand corner. You may “log in” the next time, with the same user name and password. Only after registering yourself you will be able to download all the PDF files.

Do send in your comments.

Till then—Happy viewing!

—Rekha Saraswat

THE RADICAL HUMANIST Contributory Editors’ 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.]

National Anthem time to time, controversy arises and has From arisen over the status of “Vande Mataram” as a national anthem. Most of the people know that it is a national song though many do not know the exact words. At least the present generation does not know the hoary history of the song. I hope that people at least know that a nation must have and has a national anthem which is to be sung or played on occasions.

National anthem, hymn, is a song which expresses, at least supposed to express, patriotic sentiment. It is generally authorised by the Government of the country.

It should not be too long; it should be small enough which can be sung in chorus; still better can be sung in a march. Its ‘sing-ability’ is a merit. Normally, a national anthem is associated with an occasion important in a country’s history and usually has an inspirational value for the people. Any song, whatever its poetic value, cannot be a national anthem. It is not necessary that it should have been composed or written by a prominent composer or a poet. Encyclopaedia Britannica says that the oldest national anthem is that of Greek Britain. It is “God save the Queen (or King)”. It has been regarded as a national anthem since 1825. Subsequently several European countries have developed their own national anthems.

SEPTEMBER 2009 The best known national anthem is that of France. It was composed and put in Music by an army engineer and was sung by army volunteers from Marseille as they stormed Tuileries on August 10, 1792 – three years after the French Revolution. It became known as a song of revolution. The U.S. national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner” was composed by one Francis Scott Key in 1814 while watching the British bombarding Baltimore. He was at that time held in custody in a British ship. The melody was taken from a song then popular. Sometime changes are made in the national anthems to suit the “sing-ability”.

What are the origins of Vande Mataram? It is a song in the novel written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, a celebrated writer and a poet of Bengal.

“Anandmath” written by Bankimda was a very popular novel. It was Bankimda who gave Bengali the status of a classic language. Earlier Bengali was a stale and poor language. It was Bankimda’s ambition to uplift the level of that language which he did by, among others, “Anandmath”. Those who know Bengali speak of it as a beautiful language.

Originally Vande Mataram was not a part of “Anandmath” which was published in instalments in a Bengali magazine. Subsequently it was introduced in the appropriate place.

The novel is set in 1771 in famine stricken Bengal. The novel revolves around a Sanyasi and his organization of santans. There is a controversy as to whether it is against Muslims or British. The Muslims have expressed their opposition to it on, at least, the ground that it is anti-Muslim. It is not necessary to now go into that controversy.

There is an interesting story on how the poem came to be written. On 7th November, 1875, Bankimda was quietly meditating on the bank of Ganga when suddenly he heard a fisherman’s song (in Bengali). The song said that Ganga was mother Durga, a goddess. The song was in the right tune which Bankimda was looking for. And thus was born the Vande Mataram on 7th November, 1875 – Kartik Suddha Navami, Bengali Year 1797.

If you read the translation of the song in English, you will notice that this song is not a song of the nation as a whole or for the nation. (Translation by Basant Kumar Roy, published by Orient Paperbacks). In the first part, Chapter 10, the song is reproduced. It speaks of Durga,

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the goddess dear to Bengalis and three crores of people (that was the population of Bengal at that time). The opening stanza of the song hails the mother who gives good water, good fruits, cool breeze from the mountain, green corn crops. These words appealed to Bengalis who were reeling under famine. But the novel as a whole does not or did not inspire patriotism, though it is said to have certain great literary qualities.

The song was rehearsed in the sessions of the Congress. Even Tagore, sometimes his niece Sarladevi, sang the song, thus raising its status. D.V. Paluskar, the well-known musician, often sang the song at Congress sessions at the invitation of the organizers.

In 1923 at the Kakinada Conference, Maulana Mohammed Ali was the President. When Paluskar rose to sing, Maulana Mohammed Ali objected. Paluskar, without paying heed, sung the whole song. Mohammed Ali pointed out that the song, intending to worship a goddess other than Allah, was anathema to Islam and Muslims. Originally Muslims’ opposition to Vande Mataram was not consistent. Khilafat movement conferences used to be started with Vande Mataram. Muslims oppose the song on the ground that it depicts the portrait of a Hindu Goddess. Some of the prominent Muslim writer-thinkers have absolved Vande Mataram from this accusation. Maulana Mohammed Raza wrote a book called “Vande Mataram” in Bengali. He says that “certain elements amongst us deny simple facts of life (nation as mother) by portraying it as idol worship. Many simple things like touching the feet of parents or to hang a frame of a national leader on the wall or to pay respect to a national leader… cannot be idol worship.” Even today Jinnah’s portrait hangs in every Government office in Pakistan. Another Muslim writer, Mustapha Charit (Biography of the Prophet) describes the land of Arabs as Hey Arab Manav-er adi Matribhoomi. Be that as it may, it must be conceded that the bulk of the Muslims are opposed to the song, especially with Durga in it.

Overseas in 1907, at Stuttgart in Germany, Madame Cama unfurled India’s first national flag with Vande Mataram inscribed on it in the centre in Devanagari script. Mahatma Gandhi said that whatever the origins of the song, it has captured the imagination of the people who are stirred by it. The song was sung in conferences, processions. Records have been made of the

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song. Jawahar Lal Nehru commended it except that it has no “sing-ability”. Master Krishnarao, a great musician, attempted to show that it can be sung in a rhythmical manner. Tagore, in conversation with Mulk Raj Anand, said; “I hope it becomes the national language some day”. Such, in brief, is the story of Vande Mataram which has been given the same status as “Jana Gana Mana”, which is the national anthem.

“Jana Gana Mana” was composed by Rabindra Nath Tagore. It is a beautiful song addressed to “dispenser of India’s destiny”. It tells of the provinces of India (though not all because of the limitations of space). It tells how this country has received from time to time people from all religions and races. It is however to a God. Sometimes it was thought by some people that it was an eulogy of the emperor of India. After examining the dates, inconsistent accounts in the press and the meanings of the words in the poem, it is now recognised that Tagore did not write for the emperor. “Dispenser of India’s Destiny”, “King of Kings”, “Eternal Charioteer” could not have been addressed to King George V who happened to come to India in 1911. The song has been recited as one of the songs in meetings where the King was felicitated. Thus the confusion was caused and then Anglo-Indian press reported that Rabindra Nath had composed it in honour of the King-Emperor. It was not as popular as Vande Mataram though it was recited in many meetings. Rabindra Nath himself thought it below his dignity to rebut the imputation. However, in a letter to a friend, he wrote: “I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me capable of such unbounded stupidity to sing in praise of George the Fourth or George the Fifth as the eternal charioteer leading the people on their journey through countless ages of timeless history of mankind.”

Bharat Vidhata was the title under which the song was first published in January 1917 issue of “Tatvabodhini Patrika” of which Tagore was the editor. Gurudev himself translated it into English in 1919 under the title of “Morning Song of India”. Subhas Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Government rendered the song in Hindustani and adopted it as their anthem. They said that “Tagore’s song ‘Jaya He’ has become our national anthem”. It was a good marching song when properly composed. Vande Mataram was not. In the good old days, people used to say Vande Mataram when greeting each other. Subhas Chandra Bose popularized “Jai Hind” as a

THE RADICAL HUMANIST greeting. “Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja” was the song adopted by the Indian National Army.

At some stage the prominent position of Vande Mataram was emphasized. In 1937 a Committee was appointed by the Congress to examine the suitability of Vande Mataram as a national anthem. The Committee recommended that only first two stanzas should be sung, with liberty to the organizers to sing any other suitable song.

This decision was exactly the reverse of what was decided in 1950. Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the national anthem, with equal status to Vande Mataram.

The difficulty with Vande Mataram was that it did not lend itself to harmonization.

The Constitution of India does not mention anything about national anthem. The law does not say that Jana Gana Mana is the nation al anthem. It is recognised as the national anthem on a statement made by Jawahar Lal Nehru in the Constituent Assembly on 15th August,

SEPTEMBER 2009 1948. The people had not regularly sung it. There was no debate or discussion in Constituent Assembly or anywhere else. Absurdity of having two national anthems was ignored. Anyway, today we are with two national anthems. Jhanda Uncha Rahe Hamara with its suitability as a marching song was not considered. Sare Jahan Se Achha Hindustan Hamara with its “singability” was overlooked. Jhanda Uncha Rahe Hamara was familiar to people of our generation. Sare Jahan Se Achha Hindustan Hamara is recognised by its melodious nature by the Armed Forces which regularly play it. The latter talks of our country and does not address itself to Durga or any dispenser of destiny. It reminds you that religion does not teach enmity among people – a factor which is relevant today. Both are in Hindustani. There has never been any controversy about them. Today at least the Government should encourage people to sing these songs. BJP will not object; Muslims will accept them.

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Guests’ Section: Letter from Cambridge

Rani Drew

[Ms. Rani Drew is a poet and a short story writer. Her work has been published in American, UK and Indian magazines. She is also a playwright. Many of her plays have been staged in Britain, Spain, Hungary and China ranidrew2002@yahoo.co.uk.]

In the Year of Darwin: Theatre or Heresy? seeing the ad of my play in the latest After Radical Humanist, I thought it fitting to send a post-performance note on the event.

Living in Cambridge it was unavoidable to be drawn into Darwin’s bi-centenary celebrations planned for July, 2009. The project was not backed by Cambridge University, but independently set up by a group of scientists back in 2008, probably in a bid to establish the claims of science over the increasingly growing popularity of Creationism. The debate of Science and Faith hasn’t gone away even in the twenty-first century.

Since last year, Dawkins has been greatly involved in various TV programmes, locking his horns with Creationists, and gaining some unpopularity even among intellectuals. Having worked in Darwin College for a few years, I felt a certain affinity for the topic. I decided to write a play on the debate of Science vs Faith.

Soon my agenda started to make waves beyond the confines of Science. The nineteenth century was in some ways the beginning of the Modern Age. The issues which first made their appearance then are still with us.

A host of themes jostled for integration into a unified plot: religion and secularism, science and poetry, 5

colonisation and mutiny, history, real and imagined, new and old. The challenge was how to work them together to highlight the high and low of Victorian aspirations.

Among the many centenaries being celebrated this year in Cambridge, the closest to Darwin is Edward FitzGerald’s. He not only shared his birth date, 1809, with Darwin but also the publication date of the translation of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, in 1859, was the same year when Darwin’s On the Origin of Species came out. Hence, the alliance of Science and Secular poetry became the backbone of my play. But a play on stage has to be more than a confirmation of an idea. It has to be humanised. Characters have to be more than their work, their role in history. Darwin was not only a scientist, but also a loving husband and a playful father of ten children. FitzGerald, who translated only the more this-worldly quatrains of the eleventh-century scientist Omar Khayyam, unknowingly pointed a finger at Western scientists for not acknowledging the role Arab scientists played, not only as the custodians of the Chinese, Indian and Greek sciences and astronomy, but who also developed the inherited knowledge and left a richer heritage for future scientists. I exploited this unseen characteristic in FitzGerald more fully in my play. John Stuart Mill systematised the notions of Liberty: the rights and duties of the individual towards the State and of the States towards the individual. Harriet Taylor, his soul-mate for twenty years before they got married, was a spirited Victorian woman who campaigned for the abolition of slavery in America, and the political and individual rights for women in Britain.

Most importantly, the play took to task the Western denial of its Eastern heritage of science, maths, and astronomy. Omar Khayyam, the 11th century Scientist and Astronomer, figured on a par with Darwin in the nineteenth century. In this mosaic of history and imagined history, I enlarged what little is known of the private lives of the characters to reflect the role they played in the events of 1850s – when many issues they supported came to head.

I wrote the play in January and titled it: 1859 – Darwin and the Victorians. The plan was to stage it in July, in Christ’s College itself, where Darwin was a student from 1828 to 1831. The Christ’s College Dramatic Society showed enthusiasm for hosting the play but suggested mounting the production in the last week of November, as part of students’ Christmas celebrations, rather than in

THE RADICAL HUMANIST July when colleges are closed and students away. My first reaction was - Darwin at Christmas! Nothing could be more preposterous! But soon I realised that On the Origin of Species was actually published on November 24. I quickly wrote back to the Society accepting the week of November 22 for the production of the play.

They accepted. The only snag was that the script would lie dormant until end of November, which seemed a long way away from the vantage point of March when I was looking around to stage the play in July.

I became aware that in the same week as the Darwin festival (July 5–10), a two-part conference was being held to celebrate the anniversaries of FitzGerald’s birth and the publication of his Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

The first convention was on Omar Khayyam on 6th & 7th July, in Leiden, Holland, and the second on FitzGerald in Cambridge on 8th and 9th in Trinity College, FitzGerald’s own. This offered a good chance to stage the play, perhaps I thought, both in Leiden and Cambridge for the attending participants. In order to relate particularly to FitzGerald and Omar Khayyam, I worked out a shorter one-act play with four scenes taken from the larger play, foregrounding the resurgence of secularism in the 1850s. I titled the play: 1859 – A Meeting or Poets and Scientists. Darwin was given a back seat and appeared only in the last scene, whereas FitzGerald dominated the other three. What I wanted to do most in this version was to highlight (1) the Western denial of the Chinese and Indian heritage of scientific and astronomical discoveries, (2) the affinity of creative imagination with science, to confront orthodoxy for falsifying history, and bring about the resurgence of forgotten history. With this agenda in hand, I set out to bring Omar Khayyam alive on stage, as a scientist and poet in Persia of the eleventh century.

One hour long, the play takes great liberties with history, collapsing time and bringing characters together across centuries and cultural barriers in four scenes. It goes as follows: 1859 – A Meeting of Poets & Scientists: A One-Act Play Scene I– FitzGerald is just starting on his translation of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. The local Pastor visits him, urging him to be a good Christian. FitzGerald tells him that he does not believe in Church and Christianity, that his philosophy is rooted in the materialism of ‘Here and Now’.

SEPTEMBER 2009 Scene II – Khayyam is holding a science convention in Khorasan, Persia, in 1174. He gives an account to the scientists of his discoveries in Maths, Algebra and Astronomy, acknowledging the heritage of Indian Scientists in these fields. When he comes to his Heliocentric theory of the universe, it causes much mayhem among the scientists.

Scene III – FitzGerald and Omar Khayyam meet across eight centuries. Together they look at the constellations, drink wine under the stars and recite quatrains.

Scene IV – FitzGerald goes to meet Darwin, taking his publication of the Rubaiyat, a poetic gift for a scientist. Darwin welcomes FitzGerald’s suggestion that reading poetry can be therapeutic for over-worked minds. They talk about the need for secularism to curtail the power of the Church.

Charles Lyell and John Hooker arrive, bringing boxes of Darwin’s publication of On the Origins of Species hot off the press, announcing that they are holding an open-forum public debate on the conflict between Science and Faith, in Oxford.

Darwin declines to be at the Debate; instead, he announces he would read FitzGerald’s publication, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. They leave. Silence falls.

Darwin & FitzGerald stand downstage, at each end, holding their books, while Omar Khayyam, both poet and scientist, appears upstage on the Khorasan Observatory looking out at the constellations through his astrolabe.

My mission of bringing Poets & Scientists together was not all uneventful. The four-week rehearsals proved rather problematic. I was declared heretical by two of the actors who played the roles of Omar Khayyam (a Persian woman) & Darwin (a human rights activist).

My keenness to have Omar Khayyam recite quatrains in Persian, made me want a Persian- speaking actor to play the role of Khayyam. With no male Persian actor in sight, I settled for a Persian woman. Not a great actor but her recitation of the quatrains was powerful and added an immediate dimension to the FitzGerald & Khayyam scenes. As the rehearsals progressed, she began to have cold feet about (1) being on stage as a woman, (2) playing a man and (3) voicing words which would be taken as ‘heretical’ by the Secret Iranian Organisation

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which she was convinced policed British universities to track down anti-Iran movement. This was a month before the Iranian elections were coming up. I understood her anxiety and agreed to replace the four words which could be misconstrued: ‘Allah’, ‘Mohammed’, ‘Mecca’ and ‘haj’, and replaced them with ‘God’, ‘penance’, ‘pilgrimage’ and eliminated ‘Mohammed’ altogether.

But this did not satisfy her; she then wanted me to make other changes, which had nothing to do with Islam. At this point, I decided to look for someone else, and found an English actor professionally trained. He made a very good Khayyam and learnt to recite 3 quatrains in Persian.

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The actor playing Darwin also had objections to Darwin (1) describing himself as ‘anti-religion’ and wanted to replace it with ‘unorthodox’, (2) sharing FitzGerald’s toast ‘to the demise of God’ and not denying it. He wanted to put an emphatic ‘No’ before Darwin raises his cup to the ‘to the Rise of Science & Poetry’. I agreed to the replacements. Fortunately, other actors did not raise objections to their lines, though the actor playing FitzGerald was Catholic and the Pastor Jewish. So all was resolved easily, and the play did hold its own on stage, under the lights.

(Ms. Rani Drew may be contacted at 10 Fulbrooke Road Cambridge CB3 9EE.)

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SEPTEMBER 2009 extensively, books and in journals and magazines. He was awarded a Medal of Merit for his contribution to the cause of social security by the International Social Security Association in the year 2000. Thus, the following article that comes in a series in this and the coming issues of RH is loaded with his first hand experience and labour in making all out efforts in the field of social security. ssanantha@yahoo.com ]

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

After retiring from service in 1984 he was Director General, Gandhi Labor Institute, Ahmedabad for some time before he was appointed as a Member of the A.P.Administrative Tribunal in Hyderabad. After his term in the Tribunal ended he joined the National Labor Law Association where he was the Coordinator of the Research Project called Simplification Rationalisation and Consolidation of Labor Laws and was largely responsible for the production of the book India Labor Code 1994. The Social Security Association of India was formed in 1991 and he has been the Secretary General of the Association since then. In this capacity he has conducted several seminars symposia workshops and training programmes on social security and written

Humanist Approach to Social Security Introduction: Social security means security provided by the state, society or the community to people in distress. The basic cause of distress is lack of or loss of income which could be the result of any number of reasons. It manifests itself in many forms: hunger, malnutrition, beggary child labour sickness and destitution.

Humanism refers to a philosophy centered round humankind. The word refers to a broad category of philosophies which uphold the dignity of humankind.

There are many things that offend the dignity of man and hence are contrary to the idea of humanism. One of them is the distressful conditions in which large sections of the people of the world live. Any measure which seeks to relieve distress and enables a person to keep his head high is humanist. Social security the objective of which is to provide such relief can be said to be humanistic generally.

The people who require the support of the society may be classified broadly into the following categories: The hungry, the naked, the shelter-less, the disabled, the sick and the terminally sick, the mentally retarded, the mad, the old and the abandoned and orphan children.

To this list must be added the following categories of people who also need social assistance: Persons displaced because of major industrial or other projects.

Persons retrenched from employment for no fault of theirs unless unemployment insurance is introduced.

Persons affected by natural calamities.

Families/children of prisoners, leprosy patients, HIV/AIDS patients, farmers who commit suicide owing

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to their inability to bear the debt burden.

The conventional social security is however concerned with the workers in the formal or informal sector and is designed to protect them against loss of income due to the occurrence of contingencies like sickness, maternity employment, injury etc. The social security needs of the larger sections of people outside the labour market are generally ignored. Justice demands that due attention be given to their needs as well.

I shall try to encapsulate the social security needs of these various categories of people and examine what the State has been doing and what further needs to be done.

This paper will be in several parts. In the first part, I shall deal with the problem of hunger and malnutrition.

Hunger: According to the Economic Survey, 2008-09, the incidence of hunger, estimated from data for 2004-05 in terms of households having inadequate food, is seen to be only affecting a small percentage of households at all-India level at 1.9 per cent. It also is concentrated in states like West Bengal, and Assam though again in small dimension.

The survey explains that inadequacy of food is being addressed through the public distribution system (PDS) but it has also observed that PDS seems to have failed in making food grain available to the poor as evident from falling levels of cereal consumption over the last two decades. PDS was redesigned as Targeted PDS (TPDS) where higher rates of subsidies were given to the poor and the poorest among poor. However, some major deficiencies were also identified in TPDS. These included high exclusion and inclusion errors, non-viability of fair price shops, leakages and failure in price stabilization. In this situation, the survey has made the following suggestions: (a)It may be useful to introduce food stamps/coupons which may be valid outside the PDS outlets once the markets get better integrated. Food coupons will allow the consumers a wider choice. However, their value needs to be indexed to the food inflation. (b) Multi-application smart cards will also enhance the efficiency of administering various schemes. In PDS system, the smart card will reduce the incidence of bogus ration cards or diversion of food grains

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(c) Leakages can also be restricted by redirecting subsidies currently under PDS to better funding of other schemes like Mid-Day Meal scheme or the ICDS. According to the Global Hunger Index released by the Washington based International Food Policy Institute India is however losing the battle against hunger. The index has been calculated for 1981, 1992, 1997, and 2003. The latest round ranks 119 countries, of which 97 are deemed “developing” and 22 “in transition.” India is ranked 96th out of 119 countries covered by the index, which doesn’t paint a rosy picture per se. But India comes off far worse in its record for malnutrition in children, as measured by body weight.

According to the World Food Programme “one in every five Indians suffers from overt or covert hunger.

‘Hunger’ as stated by Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze ‘is intolerable in the modern world in a way it could not have been in the past, because it is so unnecessary and unwarranted. ‘India is a poignant example of how food sufficiency at the aggregate level has not translated into food security at the household level. A staggeringly large number of under nourished-about 214 million people–is chronically food insecure. Many more, varyingly about 40 million, are exposed to natural disasters. About 50 percent of children (mostly tribal and rural) are under nourished and stunted, 23 percent have a low birth weight and 68 out of 1000 die before the age of one year. There is prevalence of anaemia and other micronutrient deficiencies.” (1) (Gian Pietro Bordignon WFP Representative and Country Director in India) According to another study, about 320 million Indians go to bed without food every night, and recent data suggests this already alarming situation is getting worse.

Despite the magnitude and intensity of this problem, it remains on the margins of policy planning, public action, intellectual discourse, and media coverage. (2) (Ammu Joseph in India together Aug 7, 2009) A random survey conducted by the Law Department of the Government of as part of the drafting of the food Security Act has brought forth shocking information: nearly 50 percent of the homeless people in the State had only one set of clothes, 33 percent of them were over 65 years of age, at least seven percent of them were mentally challenged and 15 percent were physically challenged. Further a large number of them did not have even one square meal for long periods and they survived

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virtually on crumbs. If the urban poor had scope for begging at road intersections and bus stands the condition of the rural poor and destitute was worse.

There were instances where the mentally challenged had to compete with street dogs to pick up leftovers from dustbins in the vicinity of hotels and marriage halls. (3) (The Hindu Sept 19, 2005) Dr Amartya Sen in an address on the Right to Food delivered in the Delhi University said: “Substantial famines that so plagued India until independence has been effectively eliminated: the last sizeable famine occurred in 1943 – four years before independence. And yet this creditable record in famine prevention has not been matched by a similar success in eliminating the pervasive presence of endemic hunger that blights the lives of hundreds of millions of people in this country.

Indeed, India has not, it should be absolutely clear, done well in tackling the pervasive presence of persistent hunger. Not only are there persistent recurrences of severe hunger and starvation in particular regions, but there is also a gigantic prevalence of endemic hunger across much of India. (Emphasis applied). Indeed, India does much worse in this respect than even Sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates of general undernourishment - what is sometimes called “protein-energy malnutrition” - are nearly twice as high in India as in sub-Saharan Africa. It is astonishing that despite the intermittent occurrence of famine in Africa, it too manages to ensure a much higher level of regular nourishment than does India. About half of all Indian children are, it appears, chronically undernourished, and more than half of all adult women suffer from anaemia. In maternal undernourishment as well as the incidence of underweight babies, and also in the frequency of cardiovascular diseases in later life (to which adults are particularly prone if nutritionally deprived in the womb), India’s record is among the very worst in the world.” (4) (Address made at a public hearing on hunger and the right to food, Delhi University, 10 January 2003) The National Human Rights Commission recently went into the responsibility of the State to prevent death due to hunger in the context of certain starvation deaths in Orissa and observed as follows: “Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees a fundamental right to life and personal liberty. The expression ‘Life’ in this Article has been judicially interpreted to mean a life with human dignity and not mere survival or animal

existence. In the light of this, the State is obliged to provide for all those minimum requirements which must be satisfied in order to enable a person to live with human dignity, such as education, health care, just and humane conditions of work, protection against exploitation etc. In the view of the Commission, the Right to Food is inherent to a life with dignity, and Article 21 should be read with Articles 39(a) and 47 to understand the nature of the obligations of the State in order to ensure the effective realization of this right.

Article 39(a) of the Constitution, enunciated as one of the Directive Principles, fundamental in the governance of the country, requires the State to direct its policy towards securing that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means to livelihood. Article 47 spells out the duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people as a primary responsibility. The citizen’s right to be free from hunger enshrined in Article 21 is to be ensured by the fulfillment of the obligations of the State set out in Articles 39(a) and 47. The reading of Article 21 together with Articles 39(a) and 47, places the issue of food security in the correct perspective, thus making the Right to Food a guaranteed Fundamental Right which is enforceable by virtue of the constitutional remedy provided under Article 32 of the Constitution.

The requirements of the Constitution proceeded, and are consonant with, the obligations of the State under the 1966 International Covenant of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which India is a party. That Covenant, in Article 11, expressly recognizes the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food.

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

Persons living in conditions of poverty and hunger in areas such as the KBK districts have often been found to be suffering from prolonged hunger and mal-nutrition.

Even when their deaths cannot, in strictly clinical terms, be related to starvation, the tragic reality remains that they often die of prolonged mal-nutrition and the

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continuum of distress which has, inter-alia, rendered them unable to withstand common diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea. The situation is all the more painful in view of the fact that granaries of the Food Corporation of India are overflowing – a matter that is, at present, under consideration of the Supreme Court.

The Commission, therefore, agrees with Dr. Rangasami’s (the petitioner) view that the present practice of insisting on mortality as a proof of starvation is wrong and needs to be set aside. In the view of the Commission, therefore, there are obvious policy implications as far as the obligations of the State are concerned. The Right to Food implies the right to food at appropriate nutritional levels. It also implies that the quantum of relief to those in distress must meet those levels in order to ensure that the Right to Food is actually secured, and does not remain a theoretical concept.

The Commission also agrees with the petitioner that destitution and the continuum of distress should be viewed as the necessary conditions for the prevalence of starvation. There is thus a concomitant need for a paradigm shift in public policies and the Relief Codes in this respect.”

The Government of India has proposed to enact a new law - the National Food Security Act – “that will provide a statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in rural as well as urban areas will be entitled, by law, to 25 kilograms of rice or wheat per month at Rs. 3 per kilogram. This legislation will also be used to bring about broader systemic reform in the public distribution system.” This law is not however designed to abolish hunger.

Jean Dreze a development economist commenting on the proposed law says: “In India, hunger and malnutrition have deep roots, not only in economic insecurity but also lack of education, gender inequality, social discrimination, skewed property rights and lack of basic amenities. Serious commitment to the right to food would call for action on all these fronts. The proposed act is unlikely to provide a blanket solution but could make a big difference if it takes a broad view of the problem.

“It’s especially important not to conflate the proposed act with the Congress promise of 25 kg of grain every month at Rs 3 a kilo for BPL families. Indeed, this

11

happens to be little more than a repackaging of the current BPL entitlements, with less quantity at a lower price. Further, good nutrition depends not only on access to cheap grain but also on other inputs, such as good food, childcare, clean water and breastfeeding support.

A serious right to food law should ensure these needs are also addressed.

“The NREGS is already a step towards the right to food.

However, its implementation is erratic and the principle of “work on demand” is nowhere near being realized.

Some families are unable to participate in it because of ill health or old age. This is why the right to food law must include the provision of cheap grain under the PDS beyond the timid promise of “25 kg at Rs 3 per kilo”. The current quota of 35 kg per month should not be reduced; ideally, the PDS should be universal in order to avoid the inevitable exclusion errors of any targeted system. But if we go for a targeted system, the selection of BPL families should be transparent and verifiable. And it must cover, say, at least 50 per cent of the population.

Some marginalized groups, such as SC/ST families in rural areas, should have BPL cards as a matter of right.

“Second, special PDS entitlements are required for the most vulnerable families, including those in which no adult member is able to participate in the labour market.

Such entitlements already exist for some such families under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana programme. This programme should be expanded under the proposed act.

Another form of social assistance that works relatively well is that of cash pensions—like old age pensions and widow pensions. This is a natural complement to food-based assistance under the Antyodaya programme.

An integrated pension programme could form a third pillar of the proposed act.

“A fourth crucial component is direct nutritional support for children. Schoolgoing children are already entitled to nutritious mid-day meals under recent orders of the SC; these entitlements should be consolidated under the proposed act, along with provisions for school health services.

Similarly, for younger children, SC orders relating to the ICDS should be incorporated in the right to food law.

Under these orders, all children under six years are entitled to all basic ICDS services—nutrition, healthcare and pre-school education. In fact, the SC directed the government to ensure that this happens by December

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2008. The finance minister’s statement that the ICDS would be universalized by 2012 is a step backward in this respect. Whatever the budget may have in store for the “aam admi” (common man), it’s a damp squib for “aam bacche”) (common children).

This is a minimum list of interventions that need to be included in the law if it has to have a serious impact on India’s “nutritional emergency”. Other provisions to consider are maternity entitlements, breastfeeding support, rehabilitation of severely malnourished children and community kitchens in urban areas. These entitlements must be backed by adequate funds and strong grievance redressal systems. Perhaps this is a tall order. But India has already set an outstanding example of bold social legislation with the NREGS—it can be done again with the right to food act”. (5) (Outlook, 20 July, 2009) What Prof Dreze has suggested is a comprehensive law comprising all the elements that go to raise the standard of life of the poor in India. While it is desirable to have such a law it seems somewhat ambitious to expect the government to widen the scope of the proposed Bill to the extent suggested by him.

The most basic element of any programme to abolish hunger is to ensure that the poor have the necessary purchasing power to buy food at whatever price it is sold.

This can only be done either by ensuring that they have an employment which yields them an income sufficient to meet their basic needs or if they cannot work because of their age or health they should be paid cash, food stamps or vouchers against which they may be able to purchase what they need. The system of cash transfers is prevalent in many countries and that is the form in which they are provided social security.

Many countries of Latin America and South Africa have adopted measures aimed at abolishing hunger. India should do the same.

Abolition of hunger- Bhukh Mitao - should be the primary objective of any future plan.

Malnutrition: According to Prof .M.S. Swaminathan “Nutrition security involving physical, economic and social access to balanced diet, clean drinking water, sanitation and primary healthcare for every child, woman and man is fundamental to providing all our citizens an opportunity for a healthy and productive life.” But the nutritional

status of the people in India is poor and the incidence of malnutrition is very high in India.

The WHO Report for 2005 puts India in the list of 51 slow progressing countries as far as infant and child mortality and maternal mortality is concerned with an estimated 1,36,000 maternal and one million newborn deaths and newborns suffering from pregnancy birth related mortality and where morbidity continued to take a toll on the lives of Indian women and their newborns.

One in every three world’s malnourished children lives in India and about 50 percent of all childhood deaths in India are attributable to malnutrition. The proportion of low birth weight babies remains high at one third of all births.

According to the latest report on the state of food insecurity in rural India brought out by the UN World Food Programme nearly 230 million people are undernourished—the highest for any country in the world. Malnutrition accounts for nearly 50% of child deaths in India as every third adult (aged 15-49 years) is reported to be thin. ( less than 18.5).

More than 27% of the world’s undernourished population lives in India while 43% of children (under 5 years) in the country are underweight. The figure is among the highest in the world and is much higher than the global average of 25% and also higher than sub-Saharan Africa’s figure of 28%.

More than 70% of children (under-5) suffer from anaemia and 80% of them don’t get vitamin supplements. According to the report, the proportion of anaemic children has actually increased by 6% in the past six years with 11 out of 19 states having more than 80% of its children suffering from anaemia.

Percentage of women with chronic energy deficiency is stagnant at 40% over six years with the proportion in fact increasing in Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana during the same period.

According to the National Family Health Survey III (2005-06) “the infant mortality rate continues to remain higher than it should be. It is as high as 71 per 1000 live births in Chattisgarh. Although Punjab has an IMR of 42 and Maharashtra 38 both below the national average of 66, they are still below the target set by the National Population Policy of achieving an IMR of 30 by 2010.

Similarly, the percentage of children below three who are underweight is disturbing. In Gujarat, the percentage

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has actually increased from 45% to 47% while in the other four states it has declined. In Punjab it is 27 percent while in Chattisgarh it is 52 percent. The percentage of children between six and 35 months who are anaemic has also increased in Gujarat from 75% to 80% and in Orissa from 72% to 78%. In Punjab it is 80% and remains unchanged. It is the highest in Chattisgarh at 81%.

The number of women who are anaemic, particularly pregnant women, in all five states is also unacceptably high. This is despite targeted intervention to deal with anaemia in pregnant women. Clearly, this is an area that will need to be investigated more closely as it reflects on other forms of economic deprivation in a large percentage of population. One of the direct outcomes of this is the impact on women’s health, particularly during pregnancy when they deny themselves food in preference to feeding the rest of the family. Thus the cycle of anaemic mothers giving birth to underweight children who die before they complete one year remains unbroken.

The Economic Survey 2008-09 has admitted that while poverty rates have declined significantly, malnutrition has remained stubbornly high. It says: “Malnutrition, as measured by underweight children below 3 years, constituting 45.9 per cent in children under 3 years of age as per the National Family Health Survey 2005-06 (NFHS 3) has still remained much higher. It has also not significantly declined from its level of 47% in 1998-99 (NFHS 2). Malnutrition reflects an imbalance of both macro and micro-nutrients that may be due to inappropriate intake and/or inefficient biological utilization due to the internal/external environment.

Poor feeding practices in infancy and early childhood, resulting in malnutrition contribute to impaired cognitive and social development, poor school performance, and reduced productivity in later life.

Malnutrition therefore is a major threat to social and economic development as it is among the most serious obstacles to attaining and maintaining health of this important age group. It is evident that existing policies and programmes are not making a significant dent on malnutrition and need to be modified. While per capita consumption of cereals has declined, the share of non-cereals in food consumption has not grown to compensate for the decline in cereal availability.

13

The Economic survey suggests the following measures for improvement in the nutritional status of the people: (i)Improvement of public health education and public health facilities has an important and positive link with nutrition outcomes. (ii)Social welfare, while giving additional weight to the income/consumption of the poor, must also give importance to the access of the poor to public goods.

This is due to the fact that individual welfare depends not only on the private consumption but also on public goods and services supplied by the state. (iii)Public health and literacy are interlinked, higher literacy levels lead to quality public health. (iv)Longevity and mortality reduction are more related to public health than to treatment of individual diseases.

Public health includes better drainage and sewerage system (sewage treatment plants) that provides solid waste disposal management and drinking water system that delivers disease-free water. The current position is illustrated by the low proportion of the population with access to improved sanitation facilities across many states especially Bihar, M.P., Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. (v)Public health also includes public education about nutrition, hygiene and disease to reduce the problem of asymmetric information. Literacy and primary education aids in this process and contributes to the general well-being. Together these can contribute immensely to the quality of life of all citizens, particularly the poor. (vi)Hence, quasi-public-goods are of critical importance to the poor. The Government must ensure that every citizen has access to education and also making it more relevant by providing information on matters that will improve their lives (health, hygiene, nutrition). (vii)Public health initiatives such as clean drinking water, sanitation, sewerage, control of communicable and epidemic diseases and public health education play an important role in reducing mortality rates at every age and across the gender. These should be the focus of the Government as part of its strategy to promote inclusive growth.�

The emphasis in the Economic Survey on improvement in public health is unexceptionable but it is not enough.

There is a social security dimension to the problem of malnutrition. Poverty may not be the sole cause of

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malnutrition but it cannot be denied that it is a major cause. Malnutrition is a by product of poverty and hunger.

It is therefore necessary to ensure that all the people especially those in the vulnerable sections have a basic income which enables them to have adequate nutrition especially the women when they are pregnant.

There is also a gender dimension to the problem of malnutrition. The author of the Global Hunger Index, Ms. , said in an interview to the Indian Express: “Mothers, who are usually children’s primary caretakers, and their education, nutritional knowledge, well-being and status in families and communities are particularly important in this respect.

“The results (of the Index) are direct fallout of the low status of women in Indian society. In India, women eat the last and the least, increasing the chances of anaemia,” she explained. This practice partly explains why 83% of women in India suffer from iron deficiency anaemia, as opposed to about 40% in sub-Saharan Africa.

Not surprisingly, one-third of the babies born in India are born with low birth weight, compared to one-sixth in sub-Saharan Africa.

Lisa Smith, an IFPRI research fellow, and Usha Ramakrishnan, Associate Professor at Emory University, identified three factors contributing to the nutritional status gap between South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in a recent study.

The first, making by far the greatest contribution among the three, is women’s status, followed by sanitation and urbanization. The implication for policy is clear: in the interests of improving child nutrition, women’s status should be raised. The study also concluded that in regions where women’s status is low, programmes to improve child nutritional status would have more lasting impact when combined with efforts to improve women’s status.

The National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector had made the following suggestions with regard to nutrition for women: “Nutrition and sufficient food is a crying need of the women workers in the informal sector. Specific nutritional programmes which include calcium, protein, iron and Vitamin D could be initiated through the government health care system. A nation-wide

programme for the distribution of nutritious subsidized food supplements which includes calcium for women should be organized, on the lines of a similar programme for distribution of milk and egg powder in the 1950s.

Coarse grains like ragi as well as milk must be made widely available at subsidized rates.”

New Delhi: A very high level of malnutrition not only reduces physical and cognitive growth, it also hampers the productivity and earnings of individuals and leads to a negative impact on the country’s economic growth—a four per cent loss of GDP in the case of India.

According to Veena S. Rao, Secretary in the Ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region, author of the book:” Malnutrition, an Emergency: what it costs the Nation”, malnutrition in India has led to an economic loss of US $29 billion to the country. Rao has pointed out that it is an inter-generational, inter-sectoral problem that needs multi-sectoral solutions and should cover the entire life cycle of women and children. She has suggested that besides a sustained awareness generation campaign, there is a need to revise schemes like the Integrated Child Development Programme (ICDS) to provide them with a definite mandate and adequate monitoring machinery. She has called for making high-energy-low-cost food available to the poor. She has recommended that the problem of malnutrition could be addressed at the highest level through a revitalized National Nutrition Council and a High Powered Committee.

UNICEF in its State of the Children Report 1998 says: “Since the roots of malnutrition have long been well known, so are its solutions. Pregnant and lactating women need to work less, rest and eat well. Babies need to be breastfed exclusively until the age of six months, and with appropriate supplements until the age of two.

Families need to have access to adequate preventive and curative health care. They also need access to safe water and sanitation to prevent infection and disease.

Supplements of nutrients such as vitamin A and iron can easily be made available, at minimal cost. In addition, the simple act of iodizing salt can save millions from brain damage. And new techniques have been developed for easy detection of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Cost-effective, easy-to-implement programmes, with educational and practical follow-up components, can be

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put in place at the grassroots level, allowing communities to take the matter of nutrition into their own hands, monitor their children’s growth and organize to secure what they require to meet their children’s needs. The report cites numerous such community programmes implemented throughout the world with impressively successful results, at minimal financial cost. In Tanzania, for example, such programmes have improved the nutrition of half the country’s children.

Tackling the problem requires the active involvement of families and communities, as well as political will at the national and international levels. Governments have to

build widespread awareness of the roots and consequences of malnutrition, along with the ways of reducing it; they have to spend more on clinics, clean water supply and sanitation. Women must also have greater access to education and economic resources.

UNICEF presents the policy options in stark terms.

“Governments...may choose to allow children to be intellectually disabled, physically stunted and vulnerable to illness in childhood and later in life,” or they could “resolve to consolidate lessons already learned about reducing malnutrition ... and mount massive actions that can clearly succeed.”

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Mastram Kapoor [Mr. Mastram Kapoor is a freelance writer and journalist in Hindi. He has written, edited and translated more than 100 books and pamphlets on literature, social and political thought, education and children’s literature including 11 volumes of documents on freedom movement and 17 volumes of collected works of Dr. Lohia. He has had a long association with the socialist movement. His special interests of study are Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia, Jaiprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Deva, Madhu Limaye and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Phone- 91-11-22710479 ]

Women Reservation reservation is the hottest topic in Women Indian politics. Although this demand is linked to the very first programme of the seven revolutions of Dr. Lohia, i.e. Man-Woman Equality the demand in its present form namely, reservation of seats in legislatures, has nothing to do with Dr. Lohia’s thought and programme. The leaders of some political parties who claim to be followers of Dr. Lohia, are also ignorant about Lohia’s, views on this matter and they oppose the Women Reservation Bill proposed by the Congress Party not on the ground of any solid logic but on fallacious plea of quota within quota for the women of OBCs, SCs and STs. Surely, Lohia has included women of all castes among the backwards and proposed 60 % reservation for the Scs, STs and OBCs including women of all castes and backward minorities in all positions of power, such as, government services and in all departments of political, social, cultural and economic institutions. But he never thought or proposed reservation of seats in Parliament

and State legislatures, as is envisaged in the Bill introduced in the Parliament. The reason being that these reservations in the legislature are the root cause of the two-nation theory, which is responsible for the partition of India with all its atrocious culminations. He was dead against this obnoxious theory which not only divided the country but also caused death of millions of innocents and displaced crores of people. Throughout his life he fought against this theory and never once compromised on it and his stand on Kashmir, Hindu-Muslim unity or India-Pakistan confederation was based on the opposition of this theory.

These reservations were first introduced under Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 when the Muslims were given these reservations, giving birth to two-nation theory, which was fought against, during our freedom struggle but which ultimately became the-basis of partition of India. These reservations were extended to all religious minorities and Dalits (untouchables) and tribal people under Communal Award of the British Prime Minister, in 1932, against which Mahatma Gandhi observed fast unto death leading to the Poona Pact, between the caste Hindus and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar under which it was agreed to extend these reservations to SCs and STs with the amendment that these reservations would be with joint electorate, instead of separate electorate.

After freedom when we were making our Constitution, the Minority Rights Committee presided by Sardar Patel, after consultation with the representatives of all religious minorities, decided to end these reservations in the Legislatures, since these were considered to be a curse of the British Raj, which ultimately divided our country. Exception was however made in the case of reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, agreed to under Poona Pct, with condition that these reservations should also end after the lapse of ten years.

This period was however, extended for longer time on the recommendations of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Thakkar Bapa, leaders of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes but they too never thought them to be a permanent feature of our Constitution. But this has been extended after every ten year for further ten years, to this day. This too needs to be terminated now, although, demand for this must come from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes representatives.

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But extension of these reservations to women is only an open insult to our freedom struggle. It also violates the spirit of our Constitution which reflects the values of the freedom struggle. It is being done under the misconception that reservation in Legislatures (Political Reservation) brings empowerment of women, whereas the empowerment comes from reservation in services and posts (Social Reservation) for which the Supreme Court has already agreed indirectly in Indira Sawhney case, but for which no demand has so far been made by any political party or women’s organization. Political reservations to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, has proved to be an exploitation through back door by the upper castes. They have used these reservations to get the weaklingsamong the SCs and STs elected , on the strength of upper caste votes and thus defeat the powerful candidates, which prompted Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to call this a ‘political dacoity’. He wanted these reservations to end long back and also had a resolution passed in his party, Scheduled Castes Federation. Same will be the fate of women reservation, which will be misused by upper caste men to increase their strength in the Legislatures by getting weaklings among women elected through their votes. This is already happening in Panchayats and local bodies. This can hardly bring empowerment to women.

In the September,1956 issue of Mankind, an English monthly edited by Dr. Lohia, he dealt with the subject of preferential rights for women. Writing in his column, ‘Note And Comment’ he commented in detail on Dr. Ehrenfels views on preferential rights for women in the following words: “Some women may not themselves have liked such a plea because of its assumption that the woman is inferior to man in certain spheres. A large number of men must have felt awkward, if for no other reason than that they would, in the new situation, inherit their names from their mother rather than from their father. But this problem of woman must not be treated on the level of temporary annoyances; it must be tackled at its roots.

Woman is undoubtedly among the most exploited sections of humanity, together with the poorest and the lowest of the man. She may try to forget her condition with love of trinklets and her charitable generosity. But ugly practices of society and certain dark recesses of the soul have both combined to turn woman into a sphere where socialism is most needed. If socialism and 17

democracy are a battle for equality, they are cut out specially as creed for women.”

In this article he dealt with the condition of the single woman, widow, childless woman, step children and general superiority of man over woman and recommended that “all attempt must be made to reduce the superiority in such measure as is possible through a scheme of preferential rights for woman. But he never intended to extend these preferential rights to reservation in legislatures, although he wanted that his Socialists Party should give tickets to women liberally and get them elected so that at least one third of its strength in the Parliament and State Assemblies should be of women.

Even in his lecture on seven revolutions delivered in the youth camp of Socialist Party at Nainital, in June,1962, he did not mention about reservation of seats in legislatures for women, although he touched all aspects of woman’s slavery and even said that for removal of this evil the longest battle would have to be fought. In his views, without removal of inequality between man and woman, it is very difficult to remove other inequalities (of caste, colour, race, birth etc.) and the fight for removal of man-woman inequality will continue even after the aim of removal of other inequalities has been achieved and therefore, the reservation of women in services and organizations (i.e. political parties and all their committees but not in legislatures) will have to be continued even after reservation for SCs, STs, OBCs etc. has been stopped after 30-40 or 50-60 years.

An elitist and casteist concern for women is exhibited in the demand for reservation for women in the legislatures, since this demand caters to the needs of, at the most, one out of one thousand women while 999 out of 1000 women who are working women, will be greatly benefitted by reservation in the services etc. for which no demand is ever made by those who are clamouring for reservations in the legislatures despite the green signal from the Supreme Court.

In his comments on Mama Varerkar’s play—Bhumi Kanya Sita, Lohia writes: “The Vashishthas of five thousand years ago, ordained all possible restraints for Sita and wanted her innocence to be proved each time by the ordeal of fire. The modern Vashishthas, however, want to remove all the shackles that bind the Sitas, but so far as Vasantis and Kaushikis are concerned, their roles continue as before to serve the desires and pleasures of

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Vashishtha. To them the doctrine of equality does not extend.”

This sheer hypocrisy is masquerading as great idealism among the supporters of the Women Reservation Bill and also among the intellectuals fed on elitist and casteist sentimentalism. This is also the expression of the mentality of the old patriarchal society which denied the rights of human dignity, freedom, education and

property to women, in general, but selected a few of them to enthrone them as goddesses and queens, claiming to be the worshipers of women. This is also a foolish attempts of the twice born castes to maintain their hegemony over the political power by creating pocket constituencies from where they can get their ‘Dummies’ elected through the male votes (as they did in the case of reservation for SCs and STs) and thus defeat the powerful agitations of women for equality.

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SEPTEMBER 2009

Current Affairs’ Section:

M.N. Roy [The following article was written by M.N. Roy on September 19, 1948 in‘Independent India’ in memory of Jinnah on the latter’s demise. It appears justified to place it now in the Current Affairs Section of the RH considering the present controversies in the country regarding Jinnah’s role in India’s partition.]

Mohammed Ali Jinnah Pakistan Survive Its Founder? While one Willcannot be very certain in this respect, either way, it is an irresistible feeling that anxiety on that account must have been haunting Mohammed Ali Jinnah ever since he won the victory which he most probably did not expect, or might not even have wanted.

One may go to the extent of wondering if that anxiety did not hasten his death.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah was the most maligned and misunderstood man. That experience made him bitter and it was very largely out of spitefulness that he pursued an object, the attainment of which placed him in the most difficult position. Jinnah was not an idealist in the sense of being a visionary; he was a practical man possessed of great shrewdness as well as of more than average intelligence. Such a man could not be blind to the difficulty which was to follow his highly problematic success. During the latter part of his career, politics was a gamble for him; having played a game of poker with high stakes, he could not pull out. He had to go to the bitter end, so to say. Bitter, because he must have been frightened by the spectre of success when it came within the reach of his possibility. But then it was too late to retreat. It was a case of a man getting in-extricably entangled in power-politics without having begun with the lust for political power. Few would agree; yet, that is

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a fact which will win the recognition of impartial and dispassionate historians.

Jinnah was certainly not an angel; but he was temperamentally not a professional politician. He began as a liberal for whom politics was a holiday pastime.

Being a man of outstanding merit, he could not remain a back-bencher. Unfortunately, his coming to the front rank of politics synchronized with the desecularization of nationalism, which doubtful development introduced communalism in politics. The responsibility for that fateful turn in the political life of the country must be judged by history. But ever since then, politics began a game of wits for Jinnah. Successful in that game, thanks to his own cleverness, he won the opprobrium of being a henchman of imperialism. The fact, however, is that, if distrust and hatred of the British were the hall-mark of patriotism, Jinnah was always as staunch a patriot as any other Indian. The more that fact was wilfully ignored by his opponents and he was maligned and misrepresented deliberately, the more Jinnah was naturally embittered, and spitefulness became the motive of his politics. But even then his ambition was not to gain political power, but to avenge the wrong which he believed had been done to him. Once India was divided, he would sit back in his chair with sardonic pleasure of having outwitted his opponents. There was something Mephistophelian in Jinnah’s politics. In the League General Council Meeting held in the Imperial Hotel of New Delhi to endorse the plan of partition, Jinnah concluded his speech by declaring, “I have won Pakistan for you; now do what you can with it.” Was he going to retire to his Persian rugs, having played out the game of politics as a successful sportsman? That certainly would have been the most fitting denouncement of a Mephistophelian political career.

But few mortal men can escape being prisoners of their creation. Pakistan was Jinnah’s creation and he had to hold the baby. There was no competent nurse; at least that must have been his feeling. It would have been superhuman to act otherwise, and Jinnah was not an angel. But he was not the devil of the drama, as he was made out to be. He is no more with us. Let justice be done to his memory.

Jinnah did not survive his triumph. He had been a sick man for the last year of his life; and grave anxiety must have been the cause of the sickness. The establishment of the “largest Muslim State” meant leaving many millions of Muslims in the lurch. Having been fighters for Pakistan, the millions of Muslims left in the Indian Union are in the most difficult position. Most of them feel betrayed. Jinnah was fully conscious of that tragedy, whiDr.ch must have haunted his last days. Indeed, the homeland for Indian Muslims was a Utopia; any territorial division was bound to leave many millions of them out, in a very delicate position of being regarded as aliens, suspected of disloyalty to the land they must live

THE RADICAL HUMANIST

SEPTEMBER 2009

in. An intelligent man like Jinnah must have foreseen up the attitude of all or nothing, Jinnah was driven to the this tragic consequence of what he demanded. bitter end–of gaining a victory he himself dreaded and Therefore, I for one do not believe that he really wanted which he did not survive. partition of the country. Like a gambler, over-confident of his wits, he staked high, believing that other party would compromise on his terms. That would have been for the best of all concerned. But the latter having taken Dr. Binayak Sen being felicitated by Mr. B.D. Sharma, President, IRI, at the IRI/IRHA Biennial Genera Body Meet in Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi on 26.07.09

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THE RADICAL HUMANIST

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Rajindar Sachar [Justice Rajindar Sachar is Retd.Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, New Delhi. He is UN Special Rappoetuer on Housing, Ex.Member, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and Ex-President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India.]

Post Justice liberahan’s Report mercifully, at last, after 17 years (probably a Sorecord) Justice Liberahan has given his report after a grueling and according to him, non co-operative attitude of officials and the stays by Courts. The validity of this explanation will naturally have to be tested after the report is officially released.

But so far as its relevance for some inside information as to the origin, execution of this vile venture by BJP, VHP and their unholy nexus is concerned it is unlikely that any new information would be disclosed. We had been seeing ugly face of the communal demon of these groups right from the start of Rath Yatra by Advani to the near mad frenzy encouraged by BJP leaders when their goons were engaged in the despicable task of demolishing the Mosque. The specious excuse-exercise now being put forward by BJP leadership that though it made all preparations for a massive Rath Yatra with lakhs of sewaks and provocative speeches at the spot by Advani and more direct appeal to the mob to demolish the Mosque, it was only an oral exercise and was not meant to demolish is humbug. It is like pointing a double barreled gun at an individual asking him to get aside otherwise it will shoot. A person might have been able to save himself, but the Mosque could not because it could not move itself- all actions pointed out at a single point plan of demolition squad. Uma Bharti one of the top 21

leaders of the Sangh at times openly and proudly owns it up. Advani, Joshi and other leaders have been charge sheeted, of course, after a number of years for their prima facie guilty intention. All this material has been in public domain for years. So Justice Librehan is not going to add anything on this account. But till it is released, BJP is going on profaning its innocence, as it has already started doing by taking cover under the pretext of non publication of the Report.

In order to prevent BJP from indulging in flood gate of accusations conjecture, it will be in the fitness of things if the government of India was to immediately place the report in the Parliament after the budget speech (it should not wait for budget to be passed-that will take weeks and add only to further cloud the matter. Let the people read the report and take action accordingly. BJP has already been told by the electorate where its communal poison can lead to - its almost certain road of extinction in the future politics of the country. No, I am not expecting Liberahan Report to disclose any earth-shaking information—my only point is that without publishing it BJP is being provided a cover for self defense by taking the plea that unless the report is public there is no point in discussing the most horrible and shameful event of free India. I had at that time publicly proposed that Govt. of India should announce that December 6 should be observed as ‘National Repentance Day’ when people will fast and pray for unity and welfare of all the communities.

But it seems politics is a different cup of tea and the communal poison continued to grow. The damage it has done to the psyche of Muslims is immeasurable and will always remain as a permanent scar on our secular republic. May be the rout of BJP in the current general elections will serve as a small balm-but the scar will never be washed away. But then nations have to move forward. Unfortunately the continuance of the legal case in Courts for over a decade is only keeping the fire alive and is a matter of embarrassment. Frankly any objective student of law will know that the litigation at Allahabad High Court is a wasting exercise and is only delaying the hollowness of the claim by BJP from being exposed. It is impossible to prove after 5000 years whether Lord Ram was actually born under the broad area covered by the mosque.

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SEPTEMBER 2009

Then it is said that it can be proved that Mandir existed where mosque stood. So the mantra of Babri Mosque being Lord Rama’s birth place is an impossibility built up only by the frenzy demonic wails inflaming communal passion. Though Masjid may only be a furlong from the claim of Lord Rama birth place, and even assuming that improbability of proof it will not advance the claim to the ownership of Masjid land.

Muslims may or may not wish to use the space if there was a Mandir at Masjid spot-but this does not mean that the Masjid will then automatically go to BJP. It will still remain as the property of Masjid Board.

There is in law a formidable uncrossable hurdle in the way of BJP and its cohorts. It cannot be denied that the Mosque existed for over 400 years and it was in possession of Muslims. Any claim by BJP on whatsoever ground, either as Lord Ram’s birth place, or a Mandir having been destroyed before Mosque was built is a non starter because of the bar of limitation to pursue this suit.

I say this in view of the precedence of the case of Masjid Shahid Ganj situated in Lahore (Pakistan) versus SGPC decided by the Privy Council in 1940. Muslims failed to win back the Masjid built in 1200 and converted into a Gurdwara in 1760 as the 12 year period for filing a suit

provided under limitation had expired. Whatever the nature of the title of the site under the Babri Masjid ,by the very fact that it had existed for over 400 years before the suit was filed would automatically non suit the VHP allies.

The same bar of law of limitation will apply and the suit filed is therefore not maintainable and RSS and its cohorts can never claim any little to the Mosque site.

Let the BJP if it seriously wants to do some internal cleaning refrain from wrong deductions from history of the past and culture to spread communal fires. A correct and impartial reading of history will show that the people who can look forward than backward can easily live with each other harmoniously. Surely we owe it to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Azad to restrain ourselves well in time.

The legal position is clear. It is only the weakness of political will that is responsible for the Ayodhya imbroglio to continue as one of the most festering sore within the country. By keeping the Ayodhya issue alive, the country has been kept from addressing its most urgent task-how to meet the challenge of the growing pauperization of the masses. And that includes both Hindus and Muslims, Christians and other minorities.

M.N. Roy Memorial Annual Essay Writing Competition—2009-10 on

“Obstacles to World Peace” The essay may be in 2500 words in either Hindi or English.

Participant’s name, father’s/husband’s name, age, profession, full address with pin code and telephone/mobile number may be written in bold letters on a separate slip and attached with the essay.

The essay will carry 90 marks and bibliography will carry 10 marks.

Last date of sending the essay is 30th September 2009.

The prizes are Rs. 5000/-, 4000/-, 3000/-, 2000/-, 1000/- (two) and 500/- (sixteen).

Result will be declared by 31st Dec. 2009.

Please send them to Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot at D-98 A, Krishna Marg, Bapu Nagar, Jaipur-15, Rajasthan, India.

Ph. 91-141-2621275 —Notice by IRHA, Rajasthan unit

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SEPTEMBER 2009

IRI/IRHA Members’ Section:

Understanding the Importance of Education —Vidya Bhushan Rawat district of Uttar-Pradesh is known Pratapgarh for its feudal background where land relations are still intact and status-quoist forces are still powerful enough to dominate political discourse. Just four hours drive from the state capital Lucknow, Pratapgarh’s powerful caste forces are still effective and politically active. The local Zamindars have completely drained the small and marginal farmers predominantly from the Dalit-backward-Muslim communities. A large number of Muslims here hail from Ansari community mostly working in the unorganised handloom sector. The Dalits live in extremely difficult circumstances without owning any land. It was the land of Baba Ram Chandra Das who had led the historic peasant revolt of Avadh in the late 1920s against unjust taxes imposed by the cronies of the local royalty. When the movement grew powerful the upper caste leadership of the congress party foiled it with false promises. Unfortunately, those who became the symbols of revolt against the feudal oppression were later co-opted by religious fundamentalists and now Pratapgarh is very much in the grip of power elites.

In the Patti Tehsil of district Pratapgarh, a lean, tall Muslim woman has created a storm by her grit and determination against injustice. Led by her personal dedication and selfless public service, 35 years old Munni Begum has become the voice of the rural marginalized people particularly the landless peasantry.

Munni Begum has been organizing Dalit and Muslim women to fight for their land rights. She goes to the village on her cycle covering her head, pedals through the dusty uncomfortable terrain with confidence and courage. Whether it is the issue of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or any other, Munni fights with officials for the rightful wages of the rural poor particularly women and gets them justice. She has become a hugely popular figure in her region compelling some of her friends to see a good political fortune for

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her. She contested the Zilla Parishad which is basically a district Government, and defeated her opponents with a handsome margin in the year 2000. All her opponents were defeated. The district administration was under the influence of the BJP leaders who were determined to defeat Munni Begum. But she was fielded by the common people of Pratapgarh hence she was firm. She was given the victory certificate next morning even while the political parties tried to influence the verdict.

Munni was the true candidate of the people although political parties used huge money to influence the voters.

She did not have money but people collected funds for her and her entire campaign cost was Rupees Thirteen Thousand only against her powerful political opponents who spent millions of rupees to win the election. She campaigned on cycle and reached every house-hold on her own.

But being a people’s representative was not an easy walk for Munni Begum. She did not come from a powerful family. Her parents were landless agricultural workers.

Her father was mostly into the loom work and as the facts are clear these days, he was finding it difficult to run the family. Under compulsion, he got Munni married in 1983 when she was just 12 years of age. Her husband himself was an illiterate but working in a factory making aluminum utensils in Baroda, was just 14 years of age.

Married life has its own problems especially when the family lives on bare minimum. Immediately after marriage, her husband had to leave for Baroda for his work. He promised her to write letter. When Munni asked him ‘how would he write when he did not know to write’, he said, ‘well, I have some friends and hence I would ask them to write to you.’ After getting his first letter, it was difficult for Munni to read it hence she went to a neighbor, a non-muslim, who could read it for her and help her to reply. But every time when the latter tried to write for her her father in law would not allow her to help Munni under one pretext or the other. Munni got fed up and resolved that unless ‘I am able to write a letter myself, I will not reply’. The next fortnight was very tough. Munni started learning Ka, kha, Ga, Gha.the Hindi alphabets from her young school going siblings.

She would write on the walls, on the floor with coal.

Chalk or note books were a luxury for her so she would use all those things which were available and were not expensive. That was her first victory. She then decided

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SEPTEMBER 2009

to enroll herself with her younger siblings and with the passage of years passed her 8th standard. She then appeared for her High School exam by enrolling herself privately. She passed out with flying color. She then joined a local ‘English’ school and started teaching young kids. She was getting a remuneration of Rs 500/for that. She also started earning extra by giving sewing lessons to local women. When she wanted to appear for the intermediate classes, her husband was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a common problem with those working in looms due to dust. Yet, Munni never looked back. She appeared in the 12th boards and passed. Her determination was paying although circumstances around her were difficult. She was earning and taking care of her husband too. By this time she had a son who was growing. Munni would take care of her ailing husband, then her small child and her in laws too. But now she was a public figure as well. She then finished her graduation. Her dream of having a degree fulfilled a dream for her community as well where women generally, are in purdah and are relegated to living inside home.

Her grits and determination was growing and her community started respecting her. She would go to the local block office and lead the group of women. Corrupt officers were afraid of her as they knew well that Munni could bring thousands of women with her and surround the police station or argue with the block development officer against corruption, non availability of NREGA Job cards etc. She would help find pensions for widows, physically challenged women, single women etc. Soon, her work gave her much name and fame in the area.

She started attending seminars and workshops and her personality changed a lot. The major change in her life came when she was elected the vice president of Uttar-Pradesh Land Alliance, in an annual convention in January 2008 in Lucknow. Munni Begum got an opportunity to visit many places where she spoke her mind. In December 2008, she joined a Padyatra in the Uttarakhand region for the land rights of the Dalits and Adivasi people in the Tarai region of the state. Munni was always determined to make her mark in the history.

She brought out Muslim women and Dalit women from their homes, keeping aside her deeply disturbed personal life.

Her husband who was suffering from tuberculosis was

confined to bed for many years. Though some of us who had been working closely with her and would share her pains and happiness, knew about it, Munni never really discussed with anyone about it. She would come to the meetings, would laugh and speak with firm convictions.

One day we met in Allahabad in a programme and while discussing many things she informed me that the condition of her husband was very serious. I could not believe how she kept this pain in her heart. She was earning and working. The money that she was earning was a meager amount as we all know the conditions of the grassroot organizations in rural India and their payment strength. Munni had by that time planned to appear in the first year of the masters degree. It was a remarkable feat for a woman who was completely illiterate to not only studybut to reach to this level.

Just some days before she was to appear in her first year masters examination, Munni Begum’s husband passed away. It was a big grief of her life yet she kept her calm.

Some of us who knew her could understand the deep pain that she was carrying inside. We saluted her strength. Mohammad Nasim Ansari (Nasim Bhai) who had introduced her to ake part in the social sector—Tarun Chetana Sansthan– and who stood with her through her thick and thin informed me that she might not appear in her examination as she was in the conventional ‘iddat’ period and according to traditions she was to stay inside home, moaning for the death of her husband for nearly 40 days. I felt bad about it as how can she be asked to sit inside home. Munni Begum was a public figure. More over she was the sole bread earner of her family. Living inside home would mean l her family going hungry which would cause greater mental agony to her. We felt that if she went out for work, she would be able to divert her mind from her grief and would be able to bear it better. It was also important for her to appear for her Master’s examinations as she had worked hard to reach to that stage. After initial problems, the local Muslim clergies realized that Munni was an important public figure and they should support her. Munni had won their hearts and hence they stood by her.

She could not pass her examination last year but is reappearing for her Masters examination again this year.

Her son is preparing for bachelor examinations in Allahabad. Munni Begum is now vice president of Uttar-Pradesh Land Alliance and struggling hard to give

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SEPTEMBER 2009

the women of her region a reason to believe in themselves. She is always there to help those who are needy.

Munni Begum is a strong votary of women’s right. She is campaigning against injustice in the villages. There are many Munni Begums who might not speak and converse in English but are working hard to change the lives of many. They are the role models who struggle and come forward. They fight their battle every day. Munni could have made huge amount of money through her politics but she did not. She still lives in a very modest house and drives her two-wheeler in the village. For a woman to drive two-wheeler is a difficult thing but Munni has made it possible. She wants that a civil society should be developed at the village level and that Muslim and Dalit women should be given land rights. Munni’s vision for women is for an equal partnership in development.

Today Munni Begum heads Nari Chetna Samiti which means Women Awareness Committee, a local civil society organization. She has already developed 25 Self Help Groups and educated 250 illiterate women from the nearby villages. Munni Begum is an inspiring woman with high aspirations. Her aim is to see that every woman who is deprived of her right gets justice. Munni’s life is an example for all. She has a whole history of struggle and determination behind her. We hope that she will continue to get the required support from people and organizations who believe in equality and human rights so that she continues to get strength and inspiration to continue with her battle.

(Mr. Vidya Bhushan Rawat works for the Social Development Foundation and may be contacted at vbrawat@gmail.com).

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Advantages of Counselling Services —M.B. Talpallikar I was living in Talegaon, I used to offer While counselling services to young boys and girls, free of charge. I would like to concentrate upon a boy’s experience who came to me for counselling. He came twice a week for an year after which he felt felt strong enough to take care of himself. Two months after discontinuing counselling he wrote to me about the benefits of counselling in Marathi and translate them here in English for the readers. I hope it will carry a message for all.

Prior to approaching Ms. Talpallikar for counselling I was very confused in my mind. Now I am able to see every thing clearly. I understand why certain incidents occur. Since I have understood their causes I am able to deal with them.

Counselling helped me to understand that every person has a different pattern of behaviour. Some people are short-tempered, some are revengeful, some are jealous and some always entertain evil thoughts. These people’s behaviour is based on the situations they had faced in their lives and they developed such attitudes because of them. Those situations are still influencing them to behave in their particular manner. Since I could realize this through counselling, I have developed an understanding attitude towards them and I am also able to pardon them now.

I have understood that if I behave with people as a counsellor behaves with his patients, I can easily develop friendship with them. Every human being wants others to show interest in himself.

Counselling has helped me understand that life has some meaning for every one. And if one does not understand this meaning, life becomes uninteresting and meaningless for him. Now I am motivated to explore the meaning of my life.

Recently, I have realized that rudeness is also a big factor in turning people to alcoholism. Counselling taught me to keep far away from alcohol.

Speaking and discussing with my counsellor freely on many matters without reservations, which previously I had no one to share with my thinking has become more truthful and clear.

Earlier the things which hurt me and gave me pain and I would do a lot of brooding upon, became tolerable for me after I could get an opportunity to talk about them with my counsellor.

I learnt to face my emotions and thoughts without regret or ill feelings on such matters which I would earlier dread discussing with any one.

I have developed tremendous self-confidence because my counsellor helped me to talk to her freely and without any hesitations. In the beginning, I used to feel ashamed upon myself about my limitations and weaknesses. My counsellor asked me to talk about them instead of looking at them with ridicule. Instead of running away from them she helped me to face them.

Counselling helped me to come out of my blind beliefs in Devil and things like that. I am now able to recognize and accept truth at its face value no matter how bitter it is. Consequently my rationalistic thinking has become very clear.

Before counselling I used to pretend to be what I was not just to please people around me . I became aware of the useless efforts I made to do so and the vacuum that it created in me after that. I became aware of the harm that these false self-images were doing to me and have now learnt to be myself, the way that I really am and it is really very relieving.

I was earlier very afraid of my mother. But now I have come to realize that she too is a human being liable to commit mistakes so I can take my stand before her on matters which I feel are correct to my belief. At least I can now discuss with her as equals.

I was very hesitant in speaking negatively to people on matters I felt were not right to my judgement in fear of hurting them. Now I have can understand that I have a right to say what I feel is right in a manner which may not ultimately hurt the other’s feelings. I thank my counsellor for giving me this kind of self-confidence.

Now I am able to recognize a true friend from a fake one.

I have learnt to avoid without any guilt those people who talk nicely but actually entertain negative feelings for me. That makes me feel light.

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Previously, I would not understand why people could force me to perform certain tasks I was not willing to do.

I would feel that I was very weak in my determinations and decisions. I learnt after counselling that people forced themselves upon me because I allowed them to take advantage of me. And so I have now learnt to say “No” in a civilized manner.

I have also learnt to lend a hearing ear to people’s problem just like my counsellor did to me. I have understood that if people are listened to with sincerity they feel satisfied and it also helps reduce the negative vibes from the atmosphere around us.

All this I could achieve due to a healthy, cheerful and wise guidance from my counsellor whom I shall always remember as my friend, philosopher and guide.

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Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:

Narcissism in Persona —Bulbul Gupta mirror, on the wall; Who’s the fairest “Mirror, of them all?” How succinctly and subtly this line from the fairy tale, ‘Snow White’ expresses the universally felt but often unacknowledged phenomenon of narcissism. Narcissism that has its origins in the classical myth of Narcissus, a young man who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool, was first referred to in a case report in 1898 by Havelock Ellis, a British sexologist and physician. It goes to the credit of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis to develop it into a distinct psychological process. As researchers went into its depth, concepts as ‘narcissistic personality’ and ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ began to emerge.

Oscar Wilde, the renowned Irish poet, author and playwright of the late nineteenth century has illustrated ‘narcissism’ in his play—An Ideal Husband through its female protagonist ‘Mrs Cheveley’.

Blending the aristocracy of her birth with the respectability of a Viennese culture by choice, she is a socialite with brains who deals in international finance.

She is the cynosure of all the people in European as well as in English circles.

She is an intriguing character arousing the curiosity of many a critic who has given varied and interesting interpretations of her personality. Alan Bird, a critic distinguishes her as a woman of great intelligence, remarkable charm, striking beauty and high breeding but unscrupulous and calculating too. He also describes her interesting past that includes her marriage to Mr Cheveley, engagement to Lord Goring and being the mistress of Baron Arnheim.

Epifanio San Jr., another critic defines her as an intriguing woman but an embodiment of corruption.

Rodney Shewan, yet another another critic directs attention towards her cynicism, vulgarity, and disregard of human feelings and relationships.

The ‘Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde’ refers to her as a witty, wealthy lady while ‘Wordsworth’s

classics’ quotes her as a duplicitous adventuress.

But above and beyond these observations, there are other dimensions to Mrs Cheveley; one that points to another characteristic—the trait of narcissism. Mrs Cheveley projects Narcissistic Personality Disorder which is defined as “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and a lack of empathy”1. A more comprehensive view of the disorder has been given by Salman Akhtar and J. Anderson Thomson in the article entitled ‘Overview:Narcissistic Personality Disorder’2.

Akhtar and Thomson assign their findings to six areas of psychological functioning viz-a-viz self-concept, interpersonal relationships, social adaptation, ethics, love and sexuality and cognitive style, and distinguish between the overt and covert characteristics of the disorder3.

Mrs Chevely’s characteristic haughty grandiosity has its roots in her feelings of inferiority since her school-days.

In Act I, Lady Chiltern tells her husband, Robert that though Mrs Cheveley could win the trust and friendship of her fellow students, she could not sustain it for long. A kleptomaniac, her overindulgent craving for power and glory resulted in her rejection and isolation and even expulsion from school.

The deficits and limitations of her character become more observable in Act I. While talking to Robert, she recalls his wife, Lady Chiltern as that school-fellow of hers who always won the good conduct prize. However in answer to her own honors, she replied that her prizes came a little later on in life. And she didn’t think that any of them were for good conduct. A little earlier in the same conversation, she had dismissed the thoughts of her school-days as being detestable.

Mrs Cheveley’s lack of self-esteem also stemmed from the painful realization of her low economic status. Her preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success and brilliance becomes evident from Lord Goring’s statement (to whom she had once been engaged) that— she used to be confoundedly fond of money. During a conversation with Lord Goring who when said that he had broken off his engagement with her due to her promiscuous nature, with the lawyer settling the matter with her on certain terms, she justified her behaviour by blatantly stating that at that time she was poor and he was rich.

The exaggerated demonstration of her physical charm

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and display of her opulence on the occasion of Chiltern’s reception reveals a telling story of her inner feelings of inadequacy and inferiority.

Her subsequent interactions with Robert at his party are prompted by her inherent narcissistic sense of self-centeredness and self-importance. The reason why she attends his party is borne out of her intense megalomaniac tendencies and her dissatisfaction with professional and social identity.

The same pomposity of Mrs Cheveley can be seen in her declaration before Robert of her understanding of politics as a clever game that she loves to play with pleasure and aplomb.

This zeal about political or professional matters in reality serves to conceal her corrupt conscience that can go to any length to display her egomania. She attempts to cast a smooth, favorable first impression on Robert but turns exploitative when she finds him unwilling to help her. She has no qualms in manipulating people and events to attain her goals. She threatens to blackmail Robert stating that she would expose him before the public on the real origin of his wealth and career.

Robert’s hesitation to comply with her demands turns her exploitative attitude into arrogance. She rejects his offer of money stating that even he was not rich enough to buy back his past. And that no man was.

Mrs Cheveley’s entire effort is concentrated on her self-advancement with a complete lack of empathy towards Robert. Her lack of concern for others not only suggests defacement of Robert’s image in the public but also in the eyes of his wife, Lady Chiltern.

In Act II of the play, she unhesitatingly reveals his secret before Lady Chiltern despite knowing latter’s stiffly upright character. By seriously disturbing the peaceful, marital equation between Robert and Lady Chiltern, she proves the antisocial facet of narcissism, a disorder often found in combination with narcissistic personality disorder .

Mrs Chevely’s extreme self-absorption and self-love even extends to her own love-life. She shows signs of promiscuity and frequent infatuations with men. Her nymphomania drives her into a relationship with Lord Mortlake, a rich young man. But the attraction soon wears off and their relationship soon fizzles out. Her narcissistic tendencies are reflected in her lack of tolerance for anyone who does not have the required

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combination of looks, personality, and position. Her aversion of Mortlake stems from his dull and monotonous droning on two areas of his life that invariably became the subject of his conversation viz. his gout and his wife. She also finds him lacking in fine speech and polished language, the perquisites of a gentleman. Thus the narcissist in her does not find Lord Mortlake good enough even for an initial commitment, and she dismisses him as merely a source of amusement which mirrors her essential self-complacency and arrogance.

Similarly, the narcissist in her prevents her from savouring lasting matrimonial relationships with either of her previous two husbands. In Act II of the play, she confesses to Lord Goring the superficiality of all her relationships with them whom she considered nothing better than utterly tedious amusements. Though Mrs Cheeley claims before Robert of having enjoyed intimate relationship with Baron Arnheim but it was merely a display of her grandiosity. But the very fact that she refers to Baron (probably one of her husbands) as an amusement contradicts any possibility of a truly shared intimate association with him. Whatever close rapport she might have enjoyed with him was primarily owing to her narcissistic habit of taking using others for self-aggrandizement. Her close affinity with the Baron can also be reasoned on the basis of Freud’s concept of ‘narcissistic object-choice’. Freud states that a narcissistic person would often love ‘someone who possesses excellences which he never had at all’ but would like to. Mrs Cheveley conforms to this ‘narcissistic type of object-choice’ in developing affection for the Baron. She could see in the influential and affluent position of the Baron a reflection of that part of her own self that she aspired for. Her relationship with Baron Arnheim and Lord Mortlake showed the extremes of both ‘over-idealization’ and ‘devaluation’.

The compulsive narcissistic disorder of the inability to remain in love is reflected in Mrs Cheveley’s relationship with Lord Goring as well. She not only manipulates to get engaged to him but also ensures that his love for her is stronger. But she fails to sustain this bond of trust and faith due to her innate nonconforming attitude to love. She flirts and flaunts her lust for power and wealth. Her relationship with Lord Goring comes to an inevitable end when he sees Lord Mortlake trying to have a violent flirtation with her. She moves on in life,

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quite without guilt and remorse in search of another man who can enhance her social and economic prospects.

Mrs Cheveley’s close observation of the conjugal harmony between Lady and Robert Chiltern arouses feelings of jealousy in her which she expresses by saying that she only warred against one woman, and that was Gertrude Chiltern and that she hated her. This vehement and vociferous declaration of hatred for Lady Chiltern has its roots in Mrs Cheveley’s frustrations with her own life, a life that was always directed towards materialistic acquisitions and advancement. She has an awareness of her acute narcissism and she can realize that it has damaged her capability to live happily. Deep down inside she suffers from a sense of emptiness in her life.

She confesses to Lord Goring by saying that she is tired of living abroad. She ultimately wanted to come back to London to live in a charming house there. She now believed that stability could come from building a relationship with Gorin that would lead her to eventually settle with him as his wife.

Peter Raby, a Wildean critic has observed that Mrs. Cheveley returns to Lord Goring in order to “cement her social and economic position”.4 But her own words spoken to Goring refute Raby’s contention: “…I have very much more money than you have, and quite as much as Robert Chiltern has got hold of. Money is not what I want.”5 At this point of her life, it is her sense of worthlessness that gnawed close at her heart. The sense of emptiness is so compelling that she is now even ready to love to attain success and power. She attempts to win over Goring by agreeing to give him his friend, Robert’s confidential letter in return of his consent to marry her. However, when she finds Lord Goring completely disinterested in her, she responds with rage and resentment.

Mrs. Cheveley’s narcissistic trait of “self-aggrandizement” not only jeopardizes any possibility of a relationship with Goring but it also propels her towards her doom. When Goring understands her fixed intent to ruin Robert, he traps her by means of a diamond brooch that she had once stolen

from Goring’s cousin. He threatens to disclose this secret and thus manages to secure from her the letter that contained Robert’s secret. Mrs Cheveley once again tries to disturb the matrimonial life of Robert and Lady Chiltern by stealing the innocent letter that was written

by Lady Chiltern to ask for Goring’s help. Though she does send it to Robert, her malicious intent does not bear fruit since Robert handles the situation with maturity and equanimity.

Towards the end of the play, Mrs Cheveley simply disappears from the scene, carrying within her a sense of dissatisfaction, unfulfillment and defeat. The classical myth of Narcissus neatly captures the entire life of Mrs Cheveley. Her fate is similar to that of Narcissus, the young man who fell in love with his own image. Just as his destiny was to “waste away from unsatisfied desire and to be transformed into the narcissus flower”6, similarly Mrs Cheveley’s fate was to experience void and incompleteness in life, without transforming into anything. To express it in the words of Richard Sennett, a social historian of United States, narcissism is an “entropic state” in which a person like Mrs Cheveley “drowns in the self”7.

References: 1. DSM-IV-TR, Diagnostic Criteria for 301.81 Narcissistic Personality Disorder 2. Salman Akhtar and J. Anderson Thomson, Overview:Narcissistic Personality Disorder, American Journal of Psychiatry, 139:1, pp.12-20 3. Ibid, p.17 4. Raby, Peter. Oscar Wilde. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1988, p.98 5. Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, Collins, London and Glasgow, p. 532 6. Ibid.p.234 7. Ibid Ms. Bulbul Gupta, selected by the U.P.H.E.S.C.as Lecturer in English is at present pursuing her Ph.D. under Dr. Bonani Mishra, HOD, Dept. of English, R.G. (P.G.) College for Women, Meerut, U.P.

Dear friends, Please send your articles with passport size photographs at my following address: C-8, DEFENCE COLONY, MEERUT, 250001, U.P., INDIA. Or e-mail them along with your scanned photographs to rheditor@gmail.com —Rekha Saraswat (Mob.) 09719333011

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Book Review Section:

Dipavali Sen [Ms. Dipavali Debroy has been a student of Delhi School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University.

She is a prolific writer and has written creative pieces and articles for children as well as adults, both in English and Bengali. Dipavali@gmail.com] [BOOK: National Workshop on Right to Information 11-13 July 2006, authored and published

by Vishwa Yuvak Kendra ( International Youth Centre), New Delhi, India; paperback; pp 172; price unstated.]

This is a publication of matter that was collected during a national workshop organized by the International Youth Centre at Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, in July 2006.

Such an Act necessarily provoked lots of discussion and one such was held at the workshop organized by the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra. Let me mention here that this Kendra was established with the support of Jawaharlal Nehru, and inaugurated in 1968 by President Zakir Husain. Located in Chanakyapuri, the Diplomatic Enclave of New Delhi, the Kendra encourages a wide variety of youth-related activities. To promote national and international understanding in a friendly atmosphere, it offers capacious and convenient accommodation to visitors from abroad and outside the capital.

Its Director, Suresh Ambekar, has in the Preface to the book, called the RTI Act “a significant move especially in a big democratic country like ours.” (p 5) The book begins with a useful, if succinct, background of the RTI Act. It mentions that the Government felt the need to formulate such a law in 1989-90. Its initial Draft was made in 1996. In 1997 the Shourie Working Group was set up and submitted its report in 1997 itself. It was introduced in the Parliament in 2000, and so on. It mentions its various forms/phases and the reaction they had elicited, taking it up to its final form of 2005.

The next section is Scope and Provision of the RTI Act which relates the Act to the issue of “Good Governance’.

It quotes Abid Hussain, former Member of the Planning Commission, as saying that the official Secrets Act 1923 “ throws a veil of secrecy on Government procedures”( p 19). It excerpts the 10th Plan as saying that the task of development administration will become easier if steps are taken to make information available as a matter of right (p 20). It then states briefly what the Right to Information is, and what it really covers.

What does ‘Information’ mean in the context of the Act?

Right to Information Act 2005 (Act No. The22/2005) , giving citizens of India access to

· Records, documents, memos e-mails, opinion, advice, press releases,

records of the Central Government and State Governments, was passed by the Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 13 October 2005.

Earlier, information disclosure was restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws that the RTI Act has relaxed.

The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir - which is covered under a State-level law.

· Circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, models, data material held in electronic form, and

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· Information about private bodies that can be accessed under existing laws by a public authority (p 22) What does ‘Right’ mean here?

It is the right to · To inspect works, documents, records · To take notes, extracts or certified copies

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· To information when disclosure is in the public The printing is excellent and it is a reader-friendly book in every sense of the term, which is what the criterion of interest evaluation for such a book should be. · To obtain information in electronic form (p22) The book then provides valuable guidelines as to the This book, if it could get wide circulation, would be Application Process (p 27). It mentions, for example, helping people a lot more than critical articles and that there are no fees for applicants below the Poverty scholarly seminars.

Line, and that if information is not given within the The RTI Act was part and parcel of the Liberalization stipulated 30 days of making the application, it must be started in India in the 1990s in response and imitation of the processes of perestroika and glasnost that started in provided free of cost.

This very useful section is concluded by illustrated the USSR in the mid-1980s. In this sense it is a feather in references to Hindu and Christian scriptures. An the cap of Capitalism that seems to be winning this round example: “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and all over the globe. (Recall that the very definition of Perfect Competition as a market forms contains the you shall find…. ” (Matthew 7:7-8). Interesting! attribute of free flow of information.)

Machineries under the RTI Act form the subject-matter of the next section. It lists the responsibilities of Public However, especially (though not exclusively) in today’s Authorities and the functions of the Central Information world, Information itself is a ‘means of production’. It is the ‘ownership of means of production’ which is the Commission (p 42). basis of ‘production relations’. ‘Social’ ownership of The book then describes a visit that the participants of means of production is the salient feature of any the workshop paid to Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Non-Antagonist Mode of Production. So any Act that New Delhi, where a campaign was on against bribery “to makes Information more easily accessible to the public create mass awareness among the common people about is a step towards the next Non-Antagonistic Mode of how ‘Right to Information Act’ could be used as a Production that humanity will see in course of history. powerful tool to reduce corruption in the country” (49).

The experiment of the USSR may be marred by the Iron The “Annexures” include copies of the Act in both Curtain and the Big Brother. But Information as the English and Hindi, followed by step-by-step instructions society’s (and not the Government’s) property is really a as to how to make best use of the Act. It also provides the characteristic of Socialism rather than Capitalism.

Delhi Right to Information Act 2001, and a list of In this sense, the RTI Act is a step in the right direction, competent authorities associated with it. and this simple book can certainly help us in taking it.

Read

NAV MANAV a Bimonthly in Hindi for Humanist & Renascent Thought U.R. Mohnot D-98 A, Krishna Marg, Bapu Nagar, Jaipur-15, Ph. 91-141-2621275 32

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Humanist News Section: A Report on— The Biennial General Body Meeting of the Indian Renaissance Institute (IRI) and the Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA) held on 25th & 26th July 2009 at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi.

—25th July 2009— he meeting of the Indian Renaissance Institute started on 25th July 2009 at 10 a.m. with a note of condolence by Mr. B.D. Sharma, President, IRI, on the sad demise of the wife of Mr. N.D. Pancholi, Secretary IRI, after her prolonged illness and on the tragic death of the son of Mr. Mahipal Singh, President, IRHA, Delhi unit. We all stood in silence in solidarity with both our friends’ irreparable moments of grief.

Then the Radical Humanist website was inaugurated by Mr. B.D. Sharma. Dr. Rekha Saraswat, Editor, The Radical Humanist, displayed the features of the website through an over head projector and discussed their functioning in detail with friends present there. There were certain suggestions and queries made by Advocate Asit Roy, Mr. Vinod Jain and Mr. Innaiah which were explained and noted by her for future action.

Mr. N.D. Pancholi, Secretary, IRI, read the out the IRI biennial report. He informed us that the registration of IRI was renewed at the Meerut office in due time by the efforts of Dr.. Rekha Saraswat. During the conversation that followed Mr. Innaiah, Advisor, IRHA and Director, CFI, informed the gathering that Mr. Jaipal Reddy and Mr. Shinde (Cabinet Ministers) should be contacted to deliver lectures. He said that Mr. Jaipal Reddy is a radical humanist and Mr. Shinde is a sympathizer as he is closely known to Mr. Jahagirdar, Contributing Editor, The Radical Humanist and was also well known to Justice V.M. Tarkunde.

Mr. Vikramjeet, Treasure, IRHA, suggested that we should contact Mr. Jaipal Reddy to help us get some land in Delhi for constructing a Centre for IRI/IRHA activities.

The accounts of year 2008 were approved and it was decided to approve 2009 accounts after obtaining details of Mumbai accounts from Mr. Dalvi.

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Then the matter of 13 Mohini Road was discussed. And Mr. U.R. Mohnot, Convener, M.N.Roy Memorial Essay Writing Competition, IRHA, Rajasthan Unit, suggested that time taken by Court is taking too long so some out of Court efforts should be made to get the possession of the house. Mr. B.D. Sharma informed that every time the date for the hearing of the case appeal is being postponed by the efforts of the other party. Mr. Ajit Bhattacharya, Member, IRHA Executive Body, was of the opinion that some out of Court settlement may be made with the other party. Mr. Gautam Thakar, Advisor, IRHA Executive Body, advised us to take some speedy decisions. He said that the Court case will take years together for the decision and we cannot take any action or decision for the case. So we should contact/search out a local reputed builder or real estate consultant of Dehradun who may deal with the property in a time bound programme and we may negotiate with him for speedy decision /way out.

The builder may give us ground floor possession of the proposed development/building for M.N. Roy house/Museum. I.R.I. should be the owner of the same.

Mr. Bhaskar Sur, General Secretary. IRHA, wanted us to consider approaching Mr. Pranab Mukharjee for help in getting the premises vacated. Mr. B.D. Sharma wanted us all to wait for another six months to allow the Court to settle the case before taking any other step. The house agreed to do so.

In the post-lunch session the subject of publication and circulation of The Radical Humanist. Mr. N.D. Pancholi gave the details of how he got the journal re-registered in Delhi and Dr. Rekha Saraswat has simultaneously got it registered in Meerut as it is now being edited and printed from Meerut. He also informed that the postal department at Meerut has registered its posting from Meerut on every 2nd of the month on the minimum postal ticket of 50 paisa for the next two years and so it is now being posted from Meerut since June 2009.

Mr. Mohnot said that the journal should be made self-sufficient so that it may not depend upon IRI for its expenses. He requested all Radical Humanists to come forward to get as many subscribers for it as possible. He also proposed that he will approach officials in the Government department to give advertisements for it.

He was also trying to get it recognized by the Rajasthan Government for the same. He also informed us that he has targeted 34 universities mainly in Rajasthan and has

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already begun approaching them to subscribe for the journal. And now all other states should follow suit.

Mr. Vikramjeet supported him and wanted both the things to be promoted simultaneously—procuring of advertisements and increasing its circulation through schools, colleges and universities.

Mr. Gautam Thakar said that The Radical Humanist was in the good hands of Dr. Rekha Saraswat. And we have to support her fully. He also said that every issue must carry one article on philosophy of Humanism and Rationalism. And that there should be a drive for more yearly Subscriptions from every state.

Mr. Narottam Vyas, Treasurer, IRI, asked the regional units to send interesting articles from their regional languages to the RH after translating them into English.

Mr. Bhaskar Sur, who is associated with environmental groups opined that environmental issues should be discussed in the RH. Dr. Rekha Saraswat requested him and other friends, present there, to send articles on this subject on a regular basis to her so that she may start a separate section on environmental issues.

The the discussion diverted towards the propagation of the radical humanist philosophy. Mr. Narottam Vyas reminded Mr. Manoj Datta, Member, IRHA Executive Body, of the latter’s promise to form a simplified subject content of the philosophy for the benefit of the younger generation.Mr. Datta seemed to acknowledge his task with his ever affable smile.

Mr. Mohnot informed us that he had a copy of the “Course in Radical Humanism” written by M.N. Roy. He promised to send to Dr. Rekha Saraswat for publishing it in the RH. He was reminded of the course committee that was formed in 1951 which had, Prof.

R.L. Nigam, Mr. Vinod Jain and he himself as some of its members. He wished that such a committee may be formed again.

Mr. B.D. Sharma said that we are in dire need some soul searching. We should contemplate where we are lacking in spreading our ideas. He wanted us to hold monthly or bi-monthly seminars to discuss national and international problems. We should call good speakers even if they are not declared radical humanists. This will introduce us to different and new ways of looking at things and we may, in turn, submit our views also on those problems.

Mr. Vyas suggested that all the 22 theses should be

simplified for the school children to understand them.

And this should be done in every language.

Mr. Gautam Thakar discussed the need of publishing of the humanist literature in regional languages like it was already being done in Gujarat. He told us that ‘New Humanism’, ‘Essence of Royism’, ‘Power, Politics and Parties’ had been published in Gujarati language. Some monograms in Gujarati have also been published. Some daily papers at Ahmadabad are now readily publishing news and views regarding Radical Humanist movement.

He said that the Gujarat Comrades met Shri Taiyab Sheikh in 1933. The Roy Group was formed in early thirties. 75 years were completed in 2008. He informed that he had written / edited a book in Gujarati about the full history and activities carried out by the Royists during these 75 year The 500 pages book was published in the month of May, 2009, at Ahmadabad. And that since the last eighteen years a monthly magazine of sixteen pages namely Vaishvik-Manavvad was also being published continuously from there. These were sufficient examples to serve as motivations for us, present there in the meeting.

Mr. Manoj Datta informed that Mr. Gauripado Bhattacharya has agreed to edit the 5th and 6th volumes of Selected Works of M.N. Roy if every body in the radical humanist movement want him to do so.

Others suggested that his Bio-data should be sent to the OUP (Oxford University Press) to get their consent that they will publish the works after he edits them so that his labour is not wasted.

Mr. Mohnot proposed that all the guest lectures delivered at the ‘Manavtawadi Diwas’in Jaipur should be published in the form of monographs. He also informed that he was soon going to arrange a talk on the RH philosophy in Rajasthan Bar Association at Jaipur.

Mr. N.D. Pancholi reminded all that Mr. Sibnarayan Ray’s book, In Freedom’s Quest—Life of M.N. Roy was in great demand. Its Ist and IInd Volumes were immediately sold out but money was not available for their reprinting. And that Rs. 25,000 were sent to Mr. Kanai Pal, incharge of the Renaissance Publishers (RP), by the IRI to reprint the Ist Volume with a contract from him that he would give some copies to the IRI which the latter may sell. Now he has to enter the same contract with the IRI to get money for the reprint of its 2nd Volume. Mr. Shubhankar Ray and Mr. Ajit

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Bhattacharya, Elected Trustee, IRI, suggested that IRI should also be a part of Renaissance Publishers. And money should be sent to the IRHA unit of Kolkata for the reprinting of the IInd Volume. IRHA, Kolkata unit will in turn disburse the money to Mr. Kanai Pal. Also it was the opinion of the general body that proper accounting of the expenditures and income of RP should be done and should be sent to IRI for its audit and records. Mr. Narottam Vyas announced that money will be now disbursed only after these suggestions are discussed and decisions are taken in the IRI executive meeting.

Then the topic of V.M. Tarkunde Centenary year celebrations was raised by Mr. N.D. Pancholi. He proposed that both IRI and IRHA should participate in the celebrations.

Mr. Gautam Thakar suggested that an all India Committee should be formed for the Tarkunde Centenary celebrations. He wished that Shri Narayan Desai, Sarvoday Leader and Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith could be requested to head the committee which should consist of - Justice Rajendra Sachar, Justice Suresh, Justice Jagirdar, Kuldip Nair, K.G. Kannabirran, N.D. Pancholi, Soli Sorabji, Manik Karanjawala, Gautam Thaker, Bappa Rao, Babu, Rekha Saraswat, B.D. Sharma and two person each from Kolkata / Mumbai / Rajasthan. The list can be wider.

Tarkunde Centenary Celebration should be held at different places of Indian i.e. Delhi, Kokatta, Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Jaipur etc. He agreed to take the responsibility of Ahmadabad meeting and would hold the memorial lecture during the Study Camp that he will be organizing there in the month of December 2009.

Mr. Mohnot proposed to hold the memorial lecture in Jaipur. The month would be informed to us later.

Mr. Innaiah was of the opinion that prominent academicians, politicians and intellectuals should be invited to deliver the memorial lectures. And these should be printed by well known publishers so that they are properly circulated. He said that these two things should be kept in mind while holding all our seminars, conferences, lectures and study camps.

Mr. Narottam Vyas proposed that the CD of Mr. M.A. Rane’s talks should be published.in book form on this occasion .

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Jugal Kishore, Director, CFI, Delhi Unit, was given a warm welcome for joining

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us. Dr. Innaiah introduced him as a dynamic personality who was a rationalist and a specialist in social medicine at Maulana Azam Medical College, New Delhi. He told us that he along with his wife, Dr. Indu, were scholars of Ambedkar literature. He was also felicitated for his book—Vanishing Girl Children.

Finally, sweets were distributed to celebrate Mr. Mohnot’s Birthday and every body wished him to continue to live for many many more years to come with the same vigour and positive energy to motivate others in the fold.

The meeting was concluded with the announcement of Dr. Binayak Sen’s proposed visit to our meeting the next day at 10 a.m.

—26th July 2009— A he IRI meeting continued on 26th also. The remaining points on the agenda were taken up. While discussing the present political scenario in India Dr. Suniti Ranjan Mukherjee from West Bengal lamented that the future of democracy was very bleak in our country. And we radicals should come forward to organize seminars and conferences to educate and orient the people around us and assist them in their solving their problems on the radical democratic lines.

Mr. Mohnot said that Indian democratic order was becoming so morbid that people are losing faith in Democracy. This helps the autocratic thinkers to prevail upon the public mind their ideologies. This is a very dangerous situation because even the worst type of democracy is better than the best type of autocracy. We Radical Humanists have to work for keeping the \values of democracy alive.

Mr. Vinod Jain was happy that luckily India is still a democracy. And that many sectarian issues could also not undermine its growth. He believed that economic hardships also come in the way of spreading democratic values in an ideal manner.Still we have been able to maintain general peace in the society so far and that is a big relief. He worried that caste, religious attitudes and population explosion were factors which were also pulling us backwards. He expected the small group of the Radical Humanists to come forward and handle these issues, something that we have not been able to do so far.

When Roy started the movement he was more concerned

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with the Freedom aspect so he did not concentrate upon the youth exclusively. But now youth need to be involved with the movement to help better the country’s conditions.

Mr. Gautam Thakar believed that the radical humanists should go to the people with like-minded organizations and people and try to solve their problems. Ideas would themselves follow later. He told that IRHA people were visiting various ministries and their offices and videos were made to give evidence to High Court about the way things were being mismanaged. For example the liquor Tragedy. He further emphasized upon the need to associate and work with like-minded organizations to spread our values. That is how the 2008 IRHA meet at Ahmedabad was successful, he said.

Then members from different states gave details of the activities they were undertaking in their respective states.

Mr. Mohnot from Jaipur, Rajasthan informed us how he and his friends have been conducting the M.N. Roy Memorial Essay writing competition since 1999-2000 and by this time about 4000 people have participated in it.Two young radicals have come out to join the movement from this activity only—Mr. Rajesh Upadhyaya aged 30 yrs. A social worker from Bikaner, Rajasthan and Mr. Jain, a young trader from Udaipur, Rajastha, aged 42 yrs. The essay writing competition has now participants from abroad also; Dorothy North from California U.S.A., won the Ist prize of rs. 5000/-last year and a law student from London also won the 5th prize of Rs. 1000/-They have prizes worth Rs. 5000/-, 4000/-, 3000/-, 2000/-, two prizes of Rs. 1000/- and sixteen prizes of Rs. 500/- each. The Rajasthan unit is selling RH literature worth Rs. 9000/year and it enrolls subscribers for RH for about Rs. 2500/year. He also informed us that a confederation of like minded journals has been created and now it has 10 members in it.from West Bengal, Gujarat, Andhra and Punjab.

He said that the Hindi journal Navmanav is being published since the last four and a half years; it has been irregular since the last year but will be regularized from the July-Aug. 2009 issue.

The Rajasthan unit is also launching a campaign ‘Freedom from Dirt, Illiteracy, Unemployment and Disease in Kachri Basti from 9th August 2009.

It was then the turn of Mr. Innaiah who narrated the

humanist and rationalist activities that were taking place in Andhra Pradesh. He informed us that they were publishing e-books on humanist subjects. They were publishing regional language books and organizing seminars and lectures for propagating the humanist and rationalist values. They were holding demonstrations against unscientific practices in the society. For example they organized a party on the solar eclipse day, served snacks to people and called the media to cover the whole programme. They propagated the ills of Vastu through the CFI and were successful in making the ministries change their decision to reconstruct buildings on Vastu lines. They are also organizing Humanist Family Meets every fortnight. Thirteen Alternative Medicines have been challenged by them through different public -programmes which were widely covered by the media.

They hold regular discussion meetings for finding radical humanist alternatives for solving current problems of the common man. They met the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University and requested him to stop teaching the course on Astrology/ Astronomy to the students. He listened to them amicably and agreed to look into the matter but the course is still being taught in the university.For all their programmes Dr. Innaiah said that they invite all media channels to cover them so that proper publicity of their humanist and rationalist efforts may be possible.

Mr. Gautam Thakar from Gujarat said that they were organizing a ‘Quit India Day’ Conference on 9th August 09 to protest against the ‘Failure of Law & Order Situation’ and ‘Quit Gandhinagar’ under umbrella organizations. They are with them, seven in number.

They also met V.C.s and the Governor stop ‘Astronomy’ as a course of study in the universities. He said that Sardar Sarowar Narmada Project is already over. Now the govt. of Gujarat has to do the canal work out of which only 10% is constructed. Karia Committee is investigating the work carried out. Nearly Rs. 28 thousand crores are invested in the project. IRHA has suggested that water co-operatives should be made to utilize this money in a proper manner. On 15th August 2009 the report will be presented.

Mr. Narottam Vyas said India needs basic education in its villages to remove superstitions. He felt that Vastu is related to light, air and water. Uneducated people associated it with Devees and Devtas. He also suggested that documentaries should be made on M.N Roy,

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Sibnarayan Ray and V.M. Tarkunde to spread their messages.

B r. Binayak Sen came while the session was continuing. He was welcomed by Mr. B.D. Sharma with a bouquet.

Dr. Sen said that there were others in jail like him who needed relief. He felt the government was militarizing the administration. There was poverty, disparity and unrest amongst the citizens and government was not understanding that militarily their discontent could not be removed. It has to de-legitimize military techniques to solve social problems. Political engagements were needed to solve them such as peace talks and citizens’ bodies. Directive Principles of State should be collectively acknowledged in the process of peace initiatives. He wanted to appeal to public units and not to Government or Maoists to participate in the peace talks.

After his departure the IRHA general body Meeting was initiated. Mr. Ancha Bappa Rao, outgoing president of IRHA began is address with a grievance that IRHA activists were working in association with other organizations and undermining their own existence. He works in education institutions and tries to spread rationalist and humanist ideologies through them. Mr. Bhaskar Sur read out the following report.— “During the past two years, although we have not been able to adopt any viable programme at the national level, it must be said that many of our members have remained active at the local level. What we are lacking still is a proper communication among our units which should be there in this age of unbelievable connectivity brought about by the new technology. In Calcutta we have tried, to work with some purpose to address the problems arising out of a turbulent time of transition and intense questioning. The concerns that were uppermost on the mind of the millions of young men and women, were about the nature of development, the role of civil society and the nature of ‘communicative action’. Some of the best minds responded positively to our gesture and quite a number of meetings and seminars were held at our Humanist Hall in the heart of the city. We tried to work with the popular science movement on one hand and the civil society groups, on the other. It was with this objective that we organized a two-day workshop on issues ranging from scientific outlook to women’s

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liberations. This helped us to establish contact with as many as 10 odd science organizations which is likely to increase in coming years. We took initiative to organize a workshop on right to information, which we consider to be a powerful weapon for social change. We are thinking of organizing similar workshops in the districts in future. One of the pre-conditions for being alive is our capacity to respond to the challenges and problems that surround us. When food crisis deepened in 2008, we brought out a special number of Purogami which stimulated a lot of interest and some unavoidable controversy. In the past few months we have worked with other voluntary organizations, regarding the re-construction in the Aila devastated regions or acting on a more intellectual plane, observing Darwin’s bi-centenary and taking the revolutionary implication of the theory to the masses.

I have also sincerely tried to do the little bit I could in engaging with new movements, working out some sort of direction and keeping in touch with fellow radicals elsewhere in the country. In 2007 I visited Chirala to attend Leadership Orientation Programme and was quite impressed with the lively manner in which it was conducted. It offered me the opportunity to come in contact with humanist activists which was a rewarding one. In this connection, I would like to commend Mr. Vidyabhushan Rawat for his commitment to radicalism and social justice. I also visited Raigada, in a remote corner of Orissa, rocked with Naxalite violence at the invitation of Mr. B.P Rath, a humanist and sarvodaya activist. I realized, more than ever that the destruction of the eco-system, land alienation and the resulting poverty are the factors behind extremism. It was a pleasure to address an audience of about 30 young people at the residence of Mr. Rath and talk about the humanist response to those problems and also about sustainable agriculture, community-based social work and non-violent resistance to corporate land grabbing. In November I visited Jaipur at the request of the green old man Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot and met the humanist activists – mostly intellectuals and professionals. I must say that next to Calcutta it is undoubtedly the most vibrant unit consisting of some very intelligent people.”

Then Mr. Ancha Bappa Rao announced that he was not willing to continue as the President of IRHA due to his time constraints. It was therefore, decided to elect a new President and his executive body. Mr. Vinod Jian’s

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name was proposed and unanimously accepted for the post of President, IRHA. He then following suggestions from the whole house selected his executive body.

Following people were taken into the IRHA executive— 1. Vinod Jain, President, C-218 Surya Nagar, Ghaziabad,U.P.-201011; (M) 09313552682, allhopes2010@gmail.com 2. Dr. N. Innaiah, Adviser, A-60 Journalist Colony, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad-500033, (M)09866898696, innaiahn@yahoo.com 3. Gautam Thaker, Adviser, ‘ATMAN’ 4, Sanmitra Society, Opp Manav Talav, Jivraj Park Road, Ahmedabad -380051; (M) 09825382556, (Res) 079-26641353, adm10176@yahoo.co.in 4. Bhaskar Sur, General Seretary, Basundhara Apartment, H.No 301, 3rd Floor, 211 Station Road, Bagbazar, Chandarnagar, West Bengal, Pin- 712136; (M) 09432153546, (Res) 033 - 26830099. bhaskar_radical@yahoo.com 5. Vikramjeet, Treasurer, A-1/12, Shaktinagar Extn., New Delhi - 110052; (M) 09899733562.

6. Anuradha Choudhary, Jt. Secretary, D-593, Gali No 2, Deewan Complex, Bank Colony, Delhi - 110093; (M) 09990571290.

7. Santoshi Kumari, same as above.

8. Manoj Kumar Dutta, 46/3B Central Road, Kolkata700032; (M) 09733272692.

9. Prof. Dr. Santi Shree, Head, Department of Political Science and Public Affairs, University of Pune, Pune,Maharashtra;(M)09225519091. santishreepandit@gmail.com 10. Ekta Singhwal, Village & Post - Khirwa Jalal Pur, Distt. Meerut, U.P. Pin- 250341; (M) 09758286156; ektasinghwal007@gmail.com 11. Md. Najimuddin Sheik, Vill. Elahigunj, P.O. Dahapara, Distt. Murshidabad, Pin 742149, West Bengal.

12. Ancha Bapa Rao, Viveka College of Education, Vadda Sangam, D No 6-137, Kotha Peta, Papaya Palen P.O.--Pin-523157, Andhra Pradesh. (M) 09885453812.

(Ex-Officio Member) 13. Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-Defence Colony, Meerut, Pin - 250001, U.P.; (M) 09719333011, (Res) 0121--2620690; rheditor@gmail.com 14. Mahipal Singh, C - 105, D.D.A. flats, Sindhora

Kalan, Delhi - 110052. (M) 09015020456. mahi_pal_singh@yahoo.co.uk ( Ex-Officio Member).

Mr. Vinod Jain thanked all the friends present, for reposing faith in him by giving him the responsibility of spreading the values of Radical Humanist philosophy through the activities of IRHA.He said that his target would be to go to the youth directly and through the regional units with the help of the newly formed executive body. It was decided to make new members of IRHA with a minimum subscription of Rs. 10/- for students and Rs. 50/- for the seniors. It was also decided to send a letter to Justice Jahagirdar to request him to send the records of IRHA funds and activities as Mr. Ancha Bappa Rao had not received any records from him during his term as president of the organisation in the last two years.

Mr. Bhaskar Rao also kept his suggestions as agenda for the coming years as follows— “For our future course of action I would suggest that—we need to adopt an agenda that will address the burning questions relating to struggle of millions for a dignified human existence. It will touch problems related to widespread poverty, inequalities built round caste, class, community and gender. We must address the question of a sustainable society and how to cope with the climate change. The newly formed executive committee should meet a least twice a year to evaluate the activities. This will infuse a new dynamism in the organization. Then, we need to represent ourselves by using other platforms. The two most suitable streams of activism are popular science movement and civil society movement which most prominently include civil right organizations. In most of the states radical humanists are active within PUCL. We must revive our contacts with international organizations like IEHU, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Green-peace or N.A.P.M. I have found much smaller organizations with fewer members to have achieved much, mainly owing to their successful public relation management.”

In the post lunch session Mr. Innaiah was applauded for his outstanding work Forced into Faith: (How Religion abuses Children’s Rights) published by Prometheus Books. The book was introduced by Mr. Vinod Jain.

And it was suggested that the book be translated in Indian regional languages also.

Another person whose untiring efforts were praised was

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Mr. Gautam Thakar who has written the 75 years’ history of Radical Humanist Movement in Gujarat in Gujarati language. Mr. B.D. Sharma gave Rs. 5000/- to pay for distributing 10 books to college libraries in Gujarat as a token of his support for his efforts.

This concluded the IRHA meeting.

C he IRI Board of Trustees meeting was the next agenda in which the Trustees were elected. Seven members —Mr. Narottam Vyas, Mr. Ajit Bhattacharya, Mr. Manoj Datta, Mr. Ancha Bappa Rao, Mr. Innaiah, Mr. Bhaskar Sur and Mr. Jayanti Patel were elected as the Elected Trustees. Eight members—Mr. B.D. Sharma, Mr. N.D. Pancholi, pProf. Amlan Datta, Mr. Vinod Jain, Mr. R.M. Pal, Mr. C.R. Dalvi, Mr. Gautam Thakar and Dr. Rekha Saraswat were declared Life Trustees. Mr. Ugamraj Mohnot and Mr. Vikramjeet were elected as Co-opted Trustees. Mr. B.D. Sharma was reelected as President, Mr. N.D. Pancholi was

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reelected as Secretary and Mr. Narottam Vyas was reelected as the Treasurer of IRI. After this election the issue of publication of IInd Volume of Quest for Freedom by Sibnarayan Ray was raised. And it was decided to release Rs. 25000/- for the same only after Mr. Kanai Pal gives details of the RP account with him.

Mr. Devvrata Ray Chaudhury’s name as new member in IRI was approved.

Mr. Innaiah presented 10 copies of the book M.N. Roy— A Photo Album costing Rs. 100/- each to the IRI for further sale.

It was decided to make an appeal through the RH journal and through the RH website directly to all the RH subscribers, friends and well-wishers to give donations for the RH website to help IRI sustain its expenses.

Mr. Mohnot initiated by donating Rs. 500/- for the same.

With this the two days’ programme of IRI/IRHA General Body Meeting came to an end.

—Mr. Shyam Sunder Vyas is no more— An Obituary Dear Shyamji, popularly known as Gudiya Saaeb, passed away on 10-Aug-2009. He was to complete his 88th year in September 2009.

It is difficult for Radical Humanists, particularly of Rajasthan to think that dear Shyamji is no more and that his sober advice & guidance which had always been available to us through phone, personal conversation or by the medium of Lok Jeevan will now be a thing of past.

Mr Vyas had been a ceaseless fighter for freedom, social justice & revolutionary changes in our society from his early student days. He was an active worker of the then popular Lok-Parishad which was the organization spreading idea of freedom & was fighting against the excesses of the jagirdars, the rich & the high-ups who used to exploit the weak, the poor & the illiterate masses.

Mr Vyas was one of those who took active part in their fight against the Britishers and had to remain in jail for about four years after having participated in the first bomb case, in which a bomb was thrown at the stadium in Jodhpur & many young, energetic youth were sent to jail. It was a blessing in disguise for Mr Vyas & others because inside the jail they got ample time to read the literature on Radical Democracy, on M.N. Roy and books written by him. And when they were released all of them had become followers of M.N. Roy. Mr Vyas started publishing Lok Jeevan, a Hindi - weekly in the year 1949 & till his death he continued to edit & publish it, giving wide publicity to the views & articles written by Radical Humanists in it.

In Mr Vyas, we have lost a crusader of human rights. During his lifetime he inspired us with his noble ideas & even after his death, we hope we will keep the trail blazing.

B.D. Sharma

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Some Pictures from the IRI/IRHA Biennial General Body Meeting held at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi

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