dec 31st
from someone on the ground in korea. see what i mean? this ugly pressure for results is encouraging fraud.
we the gullible public should not be so easily led by the nose.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: V.
Dear Rajeev
Prof Hwang has misled the whole science community. He
had no technology to make tailor made stem cells and
no stem cells are found in his lab. Next
investigations are towards his cloned dog. God save
him. SNU (seoul national university) might take back a
book published on Prof Hwang.
There were some supporters left till yesterday for him
but after the verdict by the panel they were in tears.
Journals are a big business. Science took only two
months to publish Prof Hwang's fradulent paper whereas
it takes six months plus for other papers. It seems
other journals were standing in cue before the Prof
after his publication in Science. They wanted some
share of his sucess too, although in other means, that
is money.
Good thing to note is Korean Scientists and
Journalists did a very good job in unravelling the
whole episode.
<>
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200512/kt2005122916521411780.htm
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
U.S. journal Science is facing a major challenge on
its credibility after a team of investigators in Seoul
Thursday confirmed that there was no evidence to
support Prof. Hwang Woo-suk created tailor-made stem
cells, the cover story of the journal¡¯s May edition.
In a press meeting, the investigation committee at
Seoul National University (SNU) said that Prof.
Hwang¡¯s 11 embryonic stem cell lines documented in
the Science paper were all fakes.
Experts here say Science may have to share the burden
of criticism since the journal had printed the
fraudulent article without fully examining its
authenticity.
Many patients suffering from degenerative diseases
like diabetes, Alzheimer¡¯s and Parkinson¡¯s
anticipated the outcome of Hwang¡¯s work of which
reliability was secured by Science would help treat
their diseases.
``Most of the uproar has converged on Hwang, but the
scandal has also given a black eye to Science. The
journal will not be able to avoid its responsibility
for failing to check the legitimacy of Hwang¡¯s
paper,¡¯¡¯ said Park Se-pill, head of Seoul-based
fertility clinic Maria Biotech.
Park, who derived human embryonic stem cell lines from
frozen embryos in 2000 for the third time in history,
took issue with the exceptionally short review period
of Science on Hwang¡¯s stem cell paper.
Hwang presented the article to Science in mid-March
and Science decided to print it in two months. It
typically took about a half year for peer-reviewed
journals to publish a paper after receiving requests
because of the long review processes, according to
Park.
In fact, Hwang did mention Science¡¯s review process
in the May article during a breakfast meeting with
reporters held in Seoul on June 7.
``After we announced the establishment of embryonic
stem cells in 2004 via Science, many other top-tier
journals asked us to print the next exploits on their
pages, promising special treatment,¡¯¡¯ Hwang said
proudly at the time.
In early 2004, Science also published Hwang¡¯s first
medical feats of cloning human embryos and extracting
stem cells from them. No other team in the world has
ever duplicated the works and now the breakthrough is
also under suspicion.
``I showed some such requests to Science early this
year, then they promised an extraordinary process on
the paper regarding patient-specific stem cells. Then
the review took just two months,¡¯¡¯ he added.
Domestic embryologists assume Science might want to
retain the attention-grabbing research results even at
the risk of its time-honored tradition of assuring
accuracy through prudent examination.
__________________________________________
Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about.
Just $16.99/mo. or less.
dsl.yahoo.com
Saturday, December 31, 2005
from the mailbox: Did early humans first arise in Asia, not Africa?
dec 31st
we can see these theories evolving based on the market needs for theories. any day now, the chinese will claim that they are the first humans, just as they are making huge noises about some admiral zheng he. (in a way the chinese would be right, because they are among the most primitive people around -- their only competition would be the people of the middle east).
the chinese are probably fabricating lots of fossils in the gobi desert and whatnot so that they can claim -- as part of their claim about being the chosen people and the middle kingdom and so forth -- that humans arose in china. and they will pay off some increasingly impoverished brits to peddle their theories. brits are happy to suck up to chinese because the latter despise them.
for all the worshippers at the altar of some pure-as-driven-snow 'science' (in the generic sense) out there, such as my good friend pennathur (and frankly i feel i was a little hard on him. all's forgiven, do come back, pennathur), does the word 'piltdown man' mean anything to you? note that i am not saying this because of intelligent design, which i find entertaining, but because there are others, such as 'java man' and now this 'florensiensis' which might turn out to be either dead ends or hoaxes. (i can't remember, was the java man a hoax too?)
i am getting increasingly sceptical of all these big 'discoveries' being brandished about. this is because i see the deathly, vice-like grip absurd conjectures like the AIT/AMT/ATT still have on the human mind after they have been proven to be flat-earth-like for a long time.
i believe 'science' and 'nature' (the journals) are competing so hard to get the latest scoop that they are getting to be like the supermarket tabloids lampooned in "men in black".
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Srinivasan Kalyanaraman
we can see these theories evolving based on the market needs for theories. any day now, the chinese will claim that they are the first humans, just as they are making huge noises about some admiral zheng he. (in a way the chinese would be right, because they are among the most primitive people around -- their only competition would be the people of the middle east).
the chinese are probably fabricating lots of fossils in the gobi desert and whatnot so that they can claim -- as part of their claim about being the chosen people and the middle kingdom and so forth -- that humans arose in china. and they will pay off some increasingly impoverished brits to peddle their theories. brits are happy to suck up to chinese because the latter despise them.
for all the worshippers at the altar of some pure-as-driven-snow 'science' (in the generic sense) out there, such as my good friend pennathur (and frankly i feel i was a little hard on him. all's forgiven, do come back, pennathur), does the word 'piltdown man' mean anything to you? note that i am not saying this because of intelligent design, which i find entertaining, but because there are others, such as 'java man' and now this 'florensiensis' which might turn out to be either dead ends or hoaxes. (i can't remember, was the java man a hoax too?)
i am getting increasingly sceptical of all these big 'discoveries' being brandished about. this is because i see the deathly, vice-like grip absurd conjectures like the AIT/AMT/ATT still have on the human mind after they have been proven to be flat-earth-like for a long time.
i believe 'science' and 'nature' (the journals) are competing so hard to get the latest scoop that they are getting to be like the supermarket tabloids lampooned in "men in black".
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Srinivasan Kalyanaraman
Did early humans first arise in Asia, not Africa ?
Nicholas Bakalar
for National Geographic News December 27, 2005
Two archaeologists are challenging what many experts consider to be the basic assumption of human migration – that humankind arose in Africa and spread over the globe from there.
The pair proposes an alternative explanation for human origins: arising in and spreading out of Asia.
Robin Dennell, of the University of Sheffield in England, and Wil Roebroeks, of Leiden University in the Netherlands, describe their ideas in the December 22 issue of Nature.
They believe that early-human fossil discoveries over the past ten years suggest very different conclusions about where humans, or humanlike beings, first walked the Earth.
New Asian finds are significant, they say, especially the 1.75 million-year-old small-brained early-human fossils found in Dmanisi, Georgia, and the 18,000-year-old "hobbit" fossils (Homo floresiensis) discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesia.
Such finds suggest that Asia 's earliest human ancestors may be older by hundreds of thousands of years than previously believed, the scientists say.
"What seems reasonably clear now," Dennell said, "is that the earliest hominins in Asia did not need large brains or bodies." These attributes are usually thought to be prerequisites for migration.
The authors maintain that, although there is no absolute proof, putting all the evidence together requires an open mind about other geographical origins of the first humans.
The First Asians?
The authors point out that there is very little solid information about the first early humans in Asia, and paleontologists are left with assumptions that are too often treated as historical facts.
There is no archaeological or fossil evidence to prove that early humans moved from southern Africa to the Nile Valley in the early Pleistocene (1.8 million years ago to 11,500 years ago), they say.
The earliest evidence of a human ancestor in Asia appears to be the 1.8-million-year-old cranium found in Mojokerto , Indonesia. But, the authors note, the fact that no older specimens have been found in Asia does not prove that they didn't exist.
Dennell and Roebroeks get support for their proposal from other experts.
"I think this is an interesting and constructively provocative paper," said Chris Stringer, a researcher in the department of palaeontology at London's Natural History Museum.
"Evidence of humans in the Caucasus [region of Asia], China, and Java more than 1.6 million years ago implies either a very rapid spread from Africa after about 1.8 millions years ago, or that such populations were established outside Africa earlier than present evidence suggests," he said.
"I certainly think we should keep an open mind about the big picture."
Best Guess
The earliest tools found in Asia are routinely attributed to Homo erectus, a species known to have come from Africa .
H. ergaster—an African species that many experts believe gave rise to H. erectus—is assumed to have been the only primate capable of migrating out of Africa .
Experts cite its body form—long limbs, humanlike proportions, and a brain capable of figuring out how to hunt for meat—as evidence that it was the only species suited to life in prehistoric Asian terrain.
This might be a persuasive argument—except for the fact that australopithecines, an older form of humanlike primates, had colonized the African savannah by 3.5 million years ago.
Similar grasslands extended across Asia at the time, suggesting that australopithecines could have survived quite well in the region, the authors say.
What's more, fossil evidence for H. ergaster in Asia in the early Pleistocene is weak.
No one yet knows where H. floresiensis first came from, but it may turn out that the diminutive species has its origins in Asia.
Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, sees this as a possibility.
"The unresolved status of the intriguing Flores finds attributed to H. floresiensis leaves open the possibility that this species is the end result and last survivor of an ancient migration of very primitive humans, or even prehumans, that formerly existed more widely across Asia."
So when did early humans first leave Africa ? Could they have left as early as 2.6 million years ago, as soon as they started making stone tools?
"Hominins could easily have left Africa two million years ago," Dennell said. "After all, they certainly didn't need big brains or bodies to do so."
Maybe, he concluded, "the Dmanisi [Georgia] hominins are an extremely primitive version of H. erectus that is the ancestor of the H. erectus populations in both Java and those in East Africa .
"In other words, we might be looking at [human migration] 'out of Asia,' and not 'out of Africa .'"
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1227_051227_asia_migration.htmlthapar, witzel, lynchings, and 'el mariachi'
dec 31st
pretty interesting article weaving together racism and related other fun american habits. and among the most enthusiastic proponents are the inevitable romila thapar and the very scruffy-looking witzel. (would you buy a used car from this fellow? then why would you buy a used theory from him? or is it a used condom that he's pedding, the creep? witzel looks like one of those seedy pimps -- hey mister, you wanna party? nice clean girls --- you saw hanging out in the old times square and 42nd street before they cleaned up the place.)
http://www.hinduhumanrights.org/articles/racism.html
pretty interesting article weaving together racism and related other fun american habits. and among the most enthusiastic proponents are the inevitable romila thapar and the very scruffy-looking witzel. (would you buy a used car from this fellow? then why would you buy a used theory from him? or is it a used condom that he's pedding, the creep? witzel looks like one of those seedy pimps -- hey mister, you wanna party? nice clean girls --- you saw hanging out in the old times square and 42nd street before they cleaned up the place.)
http://www.hinduhumanrights.org/articles/racism.html
brahma chellaney: Defining moment
dec 31st
kapidhwaja, that was a good article by brahma. he forwarded me the same article, and i am posting it because it is very well articulated.
the kandahar episode was comparable to the rubaiya sayeed kidnapping episode. the terrorists realized they could get far more from india than they had ever dreamt of, and that our politicians were utter fools. in the rubaiya sayeed kidnapping, the terrorists captured the woman on a whim, and were on the point of releasing her unconditionally when vp singh, i k gujral, arif mohammed khan and arun nehru said, basically, "oh, you want us to release a few jailed friends of yours? please kick us on the backside as well and take your friends." so they released these guys, and that was the first taste of success for the terrorists. this led directly to the ethnic cleansing of the kashmiri hindus, because the pakistanis rightly decided that india was too wimpy to do anything. the 'secularists' could be counted on to cave in.
with kandahar, the pakistanis realized that the 'nationalists' were no better. this is what i mean when i say that the bjp and the rss are nice guys, who want to show everybody what nice people they are. they hate all the terrible press they get even though they are nice guys, and so they are eager to impress upon the media and the mohammedans what great guys they are. when brinda karat of the cpi-m was caught on video chivvying on the relatives of the IC814 hostages to force the govt to capitulate -- note that as usual the marxists were doing what they believed the mohammedans would want -- they should have arrested her on the spot for treason and threatened to hang her as an example.
similarly when the bangladeshis returned a murdered indian jawan trussed like a pig on a pole, india should have invaded the miserable country, or turned the farakka barrage off. let's see what they would do if they had no water. instead, the govt bleated nonsense: yes, the bjp was as good as the congress at mealy-mouthed cowardice.
now that the iisc has been attacked, the proper response would be to have a couple of serious acts of violence in pakistan, where it hurts the personal interests of the army generals. but india does nothing.
incidentally, san has mentioned a couple of times the violence on baluchistan. how many of you know that a few months ago in dera bugti in baluchistan -- where the fighting is going on now, i think -- a hindu temple was shelled and levelled and a few dozen hindus killed by the pakistani army. but nobody made any noise about it. but when a disused mohammedan mosque was torn down in ayodhya, it was the end of the world as far as a lot of indians were concerned. translation: mohammedan sentiments and lives are worth something, hindu sentiments and lives are not. the very definition of dhimmitude.
and as san mentioned, after the iisc episode no mohammedan came forth and said he was ashamed of mohammedanism for this violence. they will always blame all terrorism on some mohammedan who is not following the true mohammedanism. actually that is al taqiyah, because these guys are following true mohammedanism, an imperial faith, to the letter: they are the absolutely most faithful mohammedans.
similarly, i have noticed on this very blog how christists never say they are ashamed of christism whenever a christist does something terrible, like pulling out a hindu priest from his temple and shooting him in cold blood. they always blame some 'other christists' as the bad guys, whereas they themselves are the good christists. wrong. the real christists, just like the real mohammedans, are the most violent imperial ones, because that is what is written in their book.
so then why do some idiot hindus always talk about how they are ashamed of hinduism whenever any hindu anywhere in the world does something bad? my responses to these shame-wallahs is that nobody elected them to be the ambassadors of hinduism, and they are welcome to join the imperial semitic cult of their choosing. i dont know if i am imagining this, but southerners and especially women are prone to this bullshit. case in point: one woman in the san francisco bay area who is living with a pakistani. (this must be a case of becoming pakistani by "injection" if you know what i mean :-)) another case is another woman married to a pakistani, and not only has she become pakistani by injection, but her father and mother, and her father was some admiral, have become pakistani by osmosis as well. i guess that means pakistaniness is like a virus.
i do hope RAW is helping the balochi separatists to the hilt. if they manage to create a real problem that would mean the end of chinese imperial ambitions in gwadar as well.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brahma C
kapidhwaja, that was a good article by brahma. he forwarded me the same article, and i am posting it because it is very well articulated.
the kandahar episode was comparable to the rubaiya sayeed kidnapping episode. the terrorists realized they could get far more from india than they had ever dreamt of, and that our politicians were utter fools. in the rubaiya sayeed kidnapping, the terrorists captured the woman on a whim, and were on the point of releasing her unconditionally when vp singh, i k gujral, arif mohammed khan and arun nehru said, basically, "oh, you want us to release a few jailed friends of yours? please kick us on the backside as well and take your friends." so they released these guys, and that was the first taste of success for the terrorists. this led directly to the ethnic cleansing of the kashmiri hindus, because the pakistanis rightly decided that india was too wimpy to do anything. the 'secularists' could be counted on to cave in.
with kandahar, the pakistanis realized that the 'nationalists' were no better. this is what i mean when i say that the bjp and the rss are nice guys, who want to show everybody what nice people they are. they hate all the terrible press they get even though they are nice guys, and so they are eager to impress upon the media and the mohammedans what great guys they are. when brinda karat of the cpi-m was caught on video chivvying on the relatives of the IC814 hostages to force the govt to capitulate -- note that as usual the marxists were doing what they believed the mohammedans would want -- they should have arrested her on the spot for treason and threatened to hang her as an example.
similarly when the bangladeshis returned a murdered indian jawan trussed like a pig on a pole, india should have invaded the miserable country, or turned the farakka barrage off. let's see what they would do if they had no water. instead, the govt bleated nonsense: yes, the bjp was as good as the congress at mealy-mouthed cowardice.
now that the iisc has been attacked, the proper response would be to have a couple of serious acts of violence in pakistan, where it hurts the personal interests of the army generals. but india does nothing.
incidentally, san has mentioned a couple of times the violence on baluchistan. how many of you know that a few months ago in dera bugti in baluchistan -- where the fighting is going on now, i think -- a hindu temple was shelled and levelled and a few dozen hindus killed by the pakistani army. but nobody made any noise about it. but when a disused mohammedan mosque was torn down in ayodhya, it was the end of the world as far as a lot of indians were concerned. translation: mohammedan sentiments and lives are worth something, hindu sentiments and lives are not. the very definition of dhimmitude.
and as san mentioned, after the iisc episode no mohammedan came forth and said he was ashamed of mohammedanism for this violence. they will always blame all terrorism on some mohammedan who is not following the true mohammedanism. actually that is al taqiyah, because these guys are following true mohammedanism, an imperial faith, to the letter: they are the absolutely most faithful mohammedans.
similarly, i have noticed on this very blog how christists never say they are ashamed of christism whenever a christist does something terrible, like pulling out a hindu priest from his temple and shooting him in cold blood. they always blame some 'other christists' as the bad guys, whereas they themselves are the good christists. wrong. the real christists, just like the real mohammedans, are the most violent imperial ones, because that is what is written in their book.
so then why do some idiot hindus always talk about how they are ashamed of hinduism whenever any hindu anywhere in the world does something bad? my responses to these shame-wallahs is that nobody elected them to be the ambassadors of hinduism, and they are welcome to join the imperial semitic cult of their choosing. i dont know if i am imagining this, but southerners and especially women are prone to this bullshit. case in point: one woman in the san francisco bay area who is living with a pakistani. (this must be a case of becoming pakistani by "injection" if you know what i mean :-)) another case is another woman married to a pakistani, and not only has she become pakistani by injection, but her father and mother, and her father was some admiral, have become pakistani by osmosis as well. i guess that means pakistaniness is like a virus.
i do hope RAW is helping the balochi separatists to the hilt. if they manage to create a real problem that would mean the end of chinese imperial ambitions in gwadar as well.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brahma C
The Hindustan Times, December 31, 2005
As a defining moment, the Kandahar cave-in set in motion India's relentless softening
A bleeding shame
By BRAHMA CHELLANEY
Exactly six years ago, hours before the onset of the new millennium, India capitulated to the demands of hijackers of an Indian jetliner so disgracefully that it advertised itself globally as an attractive target for further terrorist attacks. In a surrender unparalleled in modern world history, then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh personally chaperoned three jailed terrorists to freedom in a special aircraft. The bitter fruit of the Kandahar deal has been a sharp surge in terror that has seen India emerge as the world's worst victim of terrorism.
By breaching the fragile global consensus against surrender to terrorist demands, India lost not just international respectability. Once a nation lowers its esteem in its own eyes, it opens the path to continuing compromises on national interests. That is what Kandahar did.
It was such a defining moment for the new millennium that India has continued to slip and sink. As the already-forgotten New Delhi bombings of two months ago show, India is increasingly unwilling to go after transnational terrorists and their sponsors. Contrast that with the unforgiving British response to the bombings in London that killed fewer people. Is it any surprise that terrorists are now emboldened to strike in India's Silicon Valley?
Kandahar set in motion a process from which India has found hard to recover due to its leadership deficit — the further softening of this country, mirrored in its growing forbearance towards terrorism. As it has repeatedly in recent years, India will invite another major terror attack before long, but one already knows how it will respond — with bold, empty words that will do little to hide its lack of both a coherent counter-terrorism strategy and the political will to go beyond mere reprobation. The ruling and opposition leadership, ensconced in a commando ring, cares little about ordinary citizens falling to terrorists.
The Kandahar ignominy has hung from the nation's neck like the proverbial albatross, exacting continuing costs. Indeed, after Kandahar, terrorism rapidly morphed from hit-and-run strikes to daring assaults on military camps, major religious sites and national emblems of power, like the Red Fort and Parliament.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf accomplished through this ISI-scripted hijacking much more than what he had set out to achieve with force in Kargil just months earlier. The Flight IC-814 hijacking, as Strobe Talbott wrote in his book, came as "as a personal victory for Musharraf, who was widely believed to have masterminded the incident…" Within five months, Musharraf won an invitation to a summit in Agra, an event that lifted his semi-pariah status internationally. Since then, he has progressively upped the ante to the extent that today he is able to hold the weapon of terror to India's head and still show off an "irreversible" Indian-initiated peace process.
The ISI, for its part, used the hijacking to bring home its two main assets from Indian jails — Harkat-ul Ansar chief Masood Azhar and the abductor of Western tourists, Ahmed Omar Sheikh — and then reemploy them for more vicious terrorism.
Azhar, through his new terror outfit, Jaish-e-Muhammad, has killed many more Indians in attacks than the number of hostages for whose freedom he was freed along with Omar Sheikh and another terrorist, Al-Umar's Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar. Omar Sheikh went on to help finance the 9/11 attacks and murder reporter Daniel Pearl, who was investigating the ISI's role in fomenting global jehad.
Yet there has been no mea culpa from the architects of the Kandahar capitulation, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and company. Not even a casual acknowledgement of guilt.
While they were in office, they frustrated any enquiry effort to get to the bottom of how they ended up negotiating with the terrorists on bended knees. Lest the CBI enquiry uncovered the culpability of Brajesh Mishra, who bungled in the takeoff of the commandeered plane from Amritsar, the Crisis Management Group claimed to have maintained no records. Its members even feigned loss of memory on key details. Equally unsavoury was how security agencies were used to orchestrate demonstrations by hostages' relatives to help build a public case for succumbing to the hijackers' demands.
Even in opposition ranks, Vajpayee and company have maintained a conspiracy of silence. No explanation has been offered as to why the foreign minister had to hand-deliver three monsters. In fact, the publicity-hungry Jaswant Singh even wanted to take a media team with him. Singh had whipped himself into such a hallucinatory loop of delusion that when the flight landed in the terrorist retreat of Kandahar, he actually rejoiced, telling newspaper editors that it presented a golden opportunity to drive a wedge between the Taliban and its sponsor, Pakistan!
Lord Acton's maxim that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" may explain why Vajpayee and company had begun to lose touch with reality. The intoxication with heady power was manifest from Jaswant Singh's Alice-in-Wonderland briefing to newspaper editors and Vajpayee's consent to his foreign minister to escort hardcore terrorists, as if they were kids and needed a guardian.
More than the shame it brought on India, the capitulation's significance lay in the manner it helped raise the threshold of shame for Vajpayee and company. After Kandahar, they increasingly become anesthetized to disgrace, as they took the nation on a wacky roller-coaster ride with an ever-shifting policy on Pakistan and terror. Today, they and their party are unable to stand up for any principle because they showed in office that they have no convictions. Scandal and sleaze have become the nemesis of a party incapable to play the role of an effective opposition.
Every time Azhar's Jaish-e-Muhammad claims responsibility for a terror strike that murders or maims innocent Indians, the same question must haunt Vajpayee and company that did Lady Macbeth: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" In fact, close to the first anniversary of his release, Azhar sought to pay his debt to those who freed him by sending a terrorist squad to kill them. But for the valiant security personnel, six of whom laid down their lives, the attackers would have stormed into Parliament.
Kandahar remains a bleeding shame. No lesson has been learned. No plan is in place to prevent another Kandahar-type ignominy.
What India needs is a concerted, sustained campaign against terror. But what it gets is more political rhetoric and dubious declarations. A new anti-hijacking declaratory policy threatens to shoot down an aircraft that deviates from the assigned course in such a way as to take its flight track close to sensitive sites, such as the presidential or prime ministerial house.
If a rogue plane over Delhi aims to crash into such a site, the government will have less than a minute to take a decision and execute it. When India failed to keep Flight IC-814 grounded at Amritsar after it landed there, despite advance information that it was headed to that city, how can anyone expect the country's doddering, dithering leadership to take a decision within seconds to shoot down a plane?
As an open, untreated sore on the Indian body politic threatening to become gangrenous, Kandahar has brought India under increasing attack from terrorism. Turning this abysmal situation around demands a new mindset that will not allow India to be continually gored and treats terrorism as an existential battle. That in turn means a readiness to do whatever it takes to end the terrorist siege of India.
from the mailbox: Will the King be Caliph?
dec 31
interesting comments forwarded by A. what do you guys think?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: A
interesting comments forwarded by A. what do you guys think?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: A
A self intro is esential: I am no writer, and no trained political analyst nor a journalist. I am an ordinary Indian citizen. However, some observation has made some factors evident which seem to receive no attention in any fora, hence contacting you.
The Saudi connecton with Jihadis has been long reiterated by many an author. If we look at the Chronology, these connections are vaguely traceable to the time King Khalid fell ill and Prince Abdullah (now King) took charge.
We also have to look at a historic fact: the sunni muslims the world over had a Caliph till the beginning of the last century. With the Saudi King calling himself the protector of the twin mosques, is he moving the house of Saud towards assuming a Caliphate? Is his dream "obeisance to Mecca, obedience to Riyadh"?
We should look at the inexorable timetable the Saudis have activated in poor Islamic countries, where the Madrasas are the only means of education for a lot of Muslim children and perhaps employment for their teachers. The Mahabharat teaches "arthasya purusho das" as a timeless precept. Where allegiance is invoked toards Islam and the seat / throne of Islam, where would this generation of the madrasa trained and indoctrinated youth tilt? If we look at the timeline, in about five years from now, the Muslim populated countires will see the majority of their youth in their twenties as a Saudi indoctrinated force.
Clearly, the Saudis are using their money and the common Muslim's unreasoning mindset to grab landshare and a share of the world's assets. What we will see is indeed a war of two cultures, but that they happen to be religiously divided between Christianity and Islam is a mere happenstance. It will be a conflict between commercial power of one race against sheer numbers of people of another religion. The Saudis with their Wahabi teachings have already concentrated upon 'back to the basics' or an abhorrence of 'biddat' or change doctrine to attract followers. Illiteracy and poverty, helped by well entrenched cultures of male dominance have helped grow their numbers. Add to that the lumpen appeal to enforce puritanistic codes and you have a perfect recipe for conflict waiting to happen.
The Pakistanis have played a major role in this. This is a state that was created by the British and Americans 'by mischief, of mischief and for mischief'. (It's circumstantial sibling is Israel; the sole reason for its creation being that it offered the Americans a foothold with a coast (no overfly) in the midle of all that oil). One of the objectives was the fomenting of attrition against India which hurt India economically and thus contributed to containing its growth. One can almost rename pakistan as PROXYSTAN, as it has acted as a proxy for its masters. A group of opportunists with skill for finding masters to stand proxy for.
They latched on to China as China too found a Pakistan proxy far too cheap to maintain and hurt India than engage in a direct war which would have then also warranted a Russian intervention. In return the Chinese got their roads and accesses so for them it was a win win situation all the way.
Pakistan soon realised however, that they probably could not make the Kashmir kettle simmer so long, and probably latched on to the Saudis and other Islamic countries, preying upon their very real fears of an Israeli nuclear attack and offering to develop an Islamic Bomb for them. Playing mistress to US and China and the newfound patrons, they played the strategic interests of the US against the fears of he OIC members and obtained the funding for the bomb. Whether they gav anyone the bomb or no is a moot point, they got themselves the bomb at everyone's expense, which was their ultimate objective.
Why so? Because playing mistress to multiple lovers involves cheating, and at some point, one may face a come-uppance. The bomb in their possession assured them the necessary protection and lent credence to their blackmails.
Can the West halt these machinations of the Pak - Saudi nexus? What we shall see is a polarisation between the West, led by the US, the Saudis and the Chinese. Where exactly does India stand? Can it isolate itself? Can it remain unaffected when the West clashes with Islam? What alliances will it need?
Worrying dynamics, indeed.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
From the mailbox: (Soul) Harvest Time in India?
dec 29th
the manufacturing of the footsoldiers in the army of christ.
much the same way the little fellow travelers are molded by the chinese.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: G
the manufacturing of the footsoldiers in the army of christ.
much the same way the little fellow travelers are molded by the chinese.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: G
Hi Rajeev,
I'm a regular reader of your blog. I thought I should bring to your notice, the following article:
Thanks & Regards,
G
From the mailbox: **India in the emerging Asian balance of power
dec 29th
it would be a factor, that is, if our politicians had any cojones. instead, i am sure the prime minister reiterated after the IISc attack that the next time there is another terrorist attack, he's going to get really, really mad, and he's going to hold his breath until he's blue in the face. of course, this will not affect the 'piss process' with pakistan, he would have repeated.
forward by the tireless ram narayan
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ram
Date: Dec 28, 2005 7:13 AM
Subject: **India in the emerging Asian balance of power
To: rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1583739,00120001.htm
HINDUSTAN TIMES.COM
The Rising
Manoj Joshi
December 28, 2005
Condoleezza Rice, Wen Jiabao, Junichiro Koizumi's visits, the signing of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation agreement with Singapore, participation in the East Asia Summit and its active role in the WTO negotiations — all in 2005 — are perhaps the best indicator of the pivotal role that India has begun to play in the emerging Asian balance of power. The year gone by, and the one to come, have enormous significance for India because today it occupies a unique geopolitical position in Asia.
Located where it is, on the flanks of the Asean and the East Asian region, and those of the West and Central Asia, India is in a swing-zone from where its huge working age population, intellectual resources, manufacturing and agricultural potential and military power, can enable it to influence events in these regions.
....
it would be a factor, that is, if our politicians had any cojones. instead, i am sure the prime minister reiterated after the IISc attack that the next time there is another terrorist attack, he's going to get really, really mad, and he's going to hold his breath until he's blue in the face. of course, this will not affect the 'piss process' with pakistan, he would have repeated.
forward by the tireless ram narayan
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ram
Date: Dec 28, 2005 7:13 AM
Subject: **India in the emerging Asian balance of power
To: rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1583739,00120001.htm
HINDUSTAN TIMES.COM
The Rising
Manoj Joshi
December 28, 2005
Condoleezza Rice, Wen Jiabao, Junichiro Koizumi's visits, the signing of a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation agreement with Singapore, participation in the East Asia Summit and its active role in the WTO negotiations — all in 2005 — are perhaps the best indicator of the pivotal role that India has begun to play in the emerging Asian balance of power. The year gone by, and the one to come, have enormous significance for India because today it occupies a unique geopolitical position in Asia.
Located where it is, on the flanks of the Asean and the East Asian region, and those of the West and Central Asia, India is in a swing-zone from where its huge working age population, intellectual resources, manufacturing and agricultural potential and military power, can enable it to influence events in these regions.
....
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
bangalore IISc attacked by terrorists
dec 28th
random shootings. of course, if there is no pain to pakistan for terrorism in india, it will continue to spread everywhere.
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/28bang.htm
random shootings. of course, if there is no pain to pakistan for terrorism in india, it will continue to spread everywhere.
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/28bang.htm
interview of Shri Vellappali Nateshan
dec 28th
despite all the bullshit about how OBCs feel anti-hindu, at least the OBCs i know best, the ezhavas of kerala, have figured out that their salvation lies in the indigenous faith, not in any of the imported semitic faiths. the ezhavas/thiyyas are migrating away from their past ties to marxism, and this happened when they realized marxists are the most casteist and sexist people in india, and that they are hell-bent on destroying anything indigenous.
ezhavas have become much more religious on average in the current generation as compared to the past generation.
vellappalli is actively working with the nair service society. the ezhava-nair animosity has been the bane of kerala hindus, and have forced both groups (who account for the majority of hindus in kerala) to watch from the sidelines as christists and mohammedans took over the state. if the NSS and the SNDP can make their current tenuous alliance stick -- and that is a big if -- then kerala hindus have some hope. otherwise it is convert, flee or die.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: R
despite all the bullshit about how OBCs feel anti-hindu, at least the OBCs i know best, the ezhavas of kerala, have figured out that their salvation lies in the indigenous faith, not in any of the imported semitic faiths. the ezhavas/thiyyas are migrating away from their past ties to marxism, and this happened when they realized marxists are the most casteist and sexist people in india, and that they are hell-bent on destroying anything indigenous.
ezhavas have become much more religious on average in the current generation as compared to the past generation.
vellappalli is actively working with the nair service society. the ezhava-nair animosity has been the bane of kerala hindus, and have forced both groups (who account for the majority of hindus in kerala) to watch from the sidelines as christists and mohammedans took over the state. if the NSS and the SNDP can make their current tenuous alliance stick -- and that is a big if -- then kerala hindus have some hope. otherwise it is convert, flee or die.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: R
Interview of Shri Vellappali Nateshan of SNDP . Really good. He plans to wipe off poverty among the Ezhavas. Great soul indeed.
Interview with Vellappally Nateshan – Part II
[Shri. Vellappally Natesan(VN), an undisputed leader of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, the social organisation of crores of Ezhavas in Kerala, is well known for his outspokenness and his fearless crusade against the exploitation of the majority Hindus by the organized and rich minorities. He spoke to the Haindavakeralam recently and opened up his mind. The second part of the interview:]
HK: Kerala's public revenue is being channeled to Muslims and Christians deceptively in the name of development. What are you doing to expose and prevent it?
VN :Both the Political alliances, UDF and LDF are in the hands of minorities. They are competing each other to appease the minorities. The Hindus in the government will not say anything as they are also part of the appeasing machinery. Therefore, the Hindu society has to be brought under one umbrella to fight this kind of injustices. We are now in that pursuit.
From 1956, Education portfolio is handled by Muslim and Christian Ministers. More than 90 percent of Colleges, Schools and professional institutions are in Muslim/Christian hands. Government has no control over the selection and appointment of teachers. There is no reservation for scheduled castes.. Christians and Muslims appoint people from their community and the state pays for their salary. Is it not government directly funding Muslims and Christians with tax payers money?
HK :Is it not government directly funding Muslims and Christians with tax payers money?
VN : Yes, But, as I said, unless our people, by our people I mean those Hindus who realize the impending dangers and stand for the community, we may not be able to do anything. Both the minorities are united and have control over the government. Muslims and Christians with their vote bank exert pressure on the government and control the judiciary, executive, banking, economics, commerce, education and fincnce. Because of their vote bank politics, the administration favor Muslims and Christians.
HK : Forest land is being encroached by Christians with the active support of the Revenue Minister and the government. Are you doing anything to prevent such practice?
VN : Their (Christian's) money power, social and political strength is strong that they could dictate terms to the government. I cannot alone launch a campaign against it alone. That is the reason, why I am pleading with the Hindus to come together as a single force.
HK: Temple fund from Sabarimala and Guruvayoor is diverted by government agencies. Anything is being done to stop it?
VN: Here also the answer is Unity of Hindus. There is no point in one segment of the Hindus demanding liberation of temples from the clutches of the government. It will not be heard at all. But, if all the Hindu community in the state are united and demand stoppage of diversion of temples and even the handing over of the temple to the community that might click. But, here a good section of Hindus in fact are not concerned with this kind of dubious activities. Look at the unity of the Christians, there are many denominations but when anything crops up against the Christian community as a whole they all unite under the name of Christ. Where as, among the Hindus they are divided and remain on different islands. Even hearing the call for Hindu unity is like the arrival of "Katrina" for them.
HK: Hindu unity is essential for the preservation of cultural, social, spiritual values. Why not move forward with the alliance of other Hindu organizations beyond NSS and SNDP? RSS, VHP and Hindu Aiykka Vedi have done sincere works in this regard. Why not extend your alliance with them too?
RSS, VHP and Hindu Aikkya Vedi are different organs of the Sangh Parivar. They have done excellent social services for the Hindu community. They have also created a positive Hindu awarness. But the pseudo secular media and vested interest groups have created several obstacles for them. A stigma has been created in the minds of the people by the hostile groups here that RSS is a Hindu nationalist group to establish Hindu dominance. So long as this image remains there it would be difficulty in bringing all the disunited, disorganised Hindus together. Therefore, the RSS should evolve a strategic approach to remove this stigma created by the Congress and Communist parties in the psyches and minds of the Hindu people. There is a nexus among the Congress, the Communist, the Muslim and Christians against Hindu unity and the growth of RSS, VHP and Hindu Aiykkavedi. They are afraid that their selfish political game would be thwarted if RSS is successful in uniting all segments of Hindus.
RSS is not untouchable for SNDP. But, I would like to point out that there is a false belief among the backward classes including the Ezhavas that RSS is an organisation of the upper caste Hindus and its strength is that community. RSS needs to introduce effective strategies to recruit backward classes including Ezhavas into RSS. When you look at the number of people sacrificed their lives for the Communists, majority of them are from the backward classes. Despite this fact, they are not seen in the top rungs of power.
Two of my drivers had undergone OTC. They used to share their positive feelings for RSS. If the RSS is able to attract Hindus from all segments of the community through their work, things would change.
HK: Communists and Congress party place Muslim and Christian candidates at places where Hindus are a majority. Example----Varkala, Allapuzha, Kayamkulam, Ernakulam, Chryinkizhe. Why not you recommend Hindu candidates?
VN: It is true. The pseudo-secular Hindus are responsible for it. Influencing them would take a long. On the other hand, the BJP which could have capitalized on the Hindu community but for their appeasing strategy after they came to power at New Delhi, had damaged their image. When they were in the corridors of power in Delhi they also tried to keep the minorities by providing them wealth and other benefits. Once they got the wealth they simply deserted the party. Look at PC Thomas, he was made a minister. Of the 38 posts of Standing Counsel released 36 went to his own community. This folly they have to realize and act at least now in Kerala.
HK: More Hindus are economically deprived, socially marginalized and educationally disadvantaged by the deliberate policies of the government. What large schemes are you planning?
VN: The Hindus have yet to realize this problem. The poor Hindus are still the vote bank of the LDF who don't want to improve their standard of living. Similar approach is of the UDF which is controlled by the rich minority communities. Fully understanding this scenario SNDP has conceived the idea of Micro Finance Institution through empowerment of women. Once a regular income is assured through self employment that would lead to economic independence, improved standard of living and so on. This facility along with some spiritualism would shape them up as good Hindus. In them long run that would make change in the attitude of these poor and backward people.
HK: Business, industry, commerce and education are in the hands of Muslims and Christians. How to empower and support Hindus?
VN: It is possible only through unity and education. All the Hindus should now remember when they leave their bed every morning the Sermon given by Sree Narayana Guru and act according: Gain strength through unity and become enlightened and educated through learning.
HK: Huge unaccounted foreign money is flowing for Muslims and Christians for conversion. What are you doing to stop such free flow of foreign money?
VN: Stopping the free flow of foreign money is the responsibility of the Central government which is pseudo-secular and influenced by the minorities. The backward communities including the Ezhavas are the easy prey of the missionaries and proselytized. Why do they fall prey to the Christian missionaries. They are money-less, they don't have a house, and even a piece of land, they may have to marry off their daughters. These are the factors influencing these poor people towards the missionaries lures.
HK: Government is funding huge amounts for Rubber and related agriculture and industry controlled by Christians while denying funds for industry handled by Hindus (Cashew, Coir). what plans do you have to prevent such nepotism?
VN: As I said earlier, there should be a strong Hindu lobby, which can understand the realities. If they are to realize the true situation these politicians might have to remove the pseudo-secular blinkers. They speak for the minorities but will be reticent when it comes to the Hindus. The Central government is the authority to extend such facilities. There only the Miniority lobby is capable of exerting pressure. They got export subsidy for pepper. Rubber is enjoying a better price now and the rubber lobby is so strong being the major crop of Christians that they get all concessions when the prices plummeted. Where the government spoke of minimum support price for copra, nothing happened. There is no support price for paddy, cashew and assistance for the coir sector where the poor Hindu women are the majority workers. For fighting this kind of nepotism, the unity of the Hindus is essential. I have taken the initiative to unite these people. We are at the first step of this endeavor now and hope we will be able to achieve the objective.
HK: Communism is morally bankrupt, socially dangerous, politically anti-Hindu and anti-national and lost all relevance in foreign countries. Most of their followers are Hindus. What are you doing to lure Hindus away from Communism?
VN: How Communism took root in this state. What had driven these poor Hindus in to the Communist trap? It was the notorious social/feudal system prevailing in this state. The Communists then emerged as the incarnations as the saviors of the poor. They built up the party among these poor, backward landless people as the party of the common. These people have been indoctrinated like the semitic organized religions do. They are in fact poisoned with the communism. There has not so far been an alternative. If a new party or an existing one could convince these people as a party that stands for the protection and welfare of the backward class Hindus irrespective of castes then they would slowly come out of the cages.
HK: In the name of globalization, discarded western goods and dicredited western values are being imported into kerala to de-construct kerala society and culture. What plans do you have to prevent such practices?
VN: See, our traditional small scale sectors are affected badly by the Globalization. The products manufactured the poor workers are not getting remunerative prices. The industry is facing closures depriving the people of jobs. But, what to do. It is the government here and at New Delhi has to realise the plight of the people. Those elected representatives from here who are supposed to enlighten those who are decision makers in the government are not doing so as the Hindus have no lobby as they are disunited. Therefore, the answer to all is "Hindu Unity" and awareness about the dangers lying ahead.
HK: Over the past decades, Christian and Muslim communities have managed to virtually monopolize most of our major institutions - educational, health care, markets, banking, media, government, etc. What plans are in the pipeline for the Hindu majority to make its impact on these fronts? Are there specific plans for the Hindus to take over these spheres by opening professional colleges, banks, hospitals, more HIndu business enterprises and other venues?
VN: It is true. But the Hindus do not have the money power to start self-financing educational institutions. Except for the Mata Amritanandamayi Madom none else could set up professional colleges. Educationally we are very poor of late. There are not enough qualified teachers. I could not get a qualified and efficient for a public school. For nursing college also there is shortage of Hindu Nursing School Principals. Our people haven't yet have a perception on these kind of developments, they are in hibernation.
This year I have issued a circular to find out how many Ezhava children are doing MBBS in the state and to give them Rs5,000 each. I could know that 70 students from the community were doing MBBS course and we have issued cheques for Rs5,000 each to them as an encouragement. This kind of encouragement should be there from other Hindu organisations.
HK: Do you agree with the contention that, by granting license to Christian and Muslim educational institutions in Kerala, these communities are managing to divert Hindu money through capitation and tuition fees away from Hindu institutions outside of Kerala to their communities? Do you agree that the naiive Hindu Kerala population is being duped?
VN: Yes, I do agree
HK: Do you agree with a rising popular concern that the Christian and Muslim investors are using popular media to defame, ridicule, and subtly discredit Hindu society and their beliefs through cinema and television serial scripts? Will you take the initiative to organize a mass movement to influence the Film Censor Board and media moguls to change their communal slant, or even organize a mass protest in the form of boycott of the media and cinema?
VN: Yes, I do. But, what to do. We don't have media to propagate our ideology. Look at the channels. For the Christian churches there are two or three 24-hour channels. There other electronic media which stands for other religious groups and communists, we have none. Even if we got any that operates as 'pseudo-secular". There are Hindu pseudo-secularists to torpedo any such moves. They have lost self-respect. They can regain it only through awareness and unity. Given this scenario the Hindus need to unite and gain strength -economic, social and political- then only a Hindu can live like a Hindu here.
brahma chellaney: Nuke power choice is bad
dec 28th
brahma provides more details about why he is unhappy with the us nuke deal.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brahma
brahma provides more details about why he is unhappy with the us nuke deal.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brahma
| U.S. deal is a bad choice for power generation |
| Brahma Chellaney International Herald Tribune |
A much-trumpeted deal between the United States and India seeks to employ the lure of assistance with commercial nuclear power to bring many Indian nuclear sites under international inspections. Even as tough negotiations are now under way to implement the deal, few have examined its premise - that the way for India to meet its rapidly expanding energy demands is to import nuclear power reactors.
The deal's very rationale is fundamentally flawed because generating electricity from imported reactors makes little economic or strategic sense. Such imports will lead to energy insecurity and exorbitant costs.
India should not replicate in the energy sector the major mistake it has pursued on armaments. Now the world's largest arms importer, India spends billions of dollars a year on weapons imports, some of questionable value, while it neglects to build its own armament-production base. India should not think of compounding that blunder by spending billions more to import overly expensive reactors when it can more profitably invest in the development of its own energy sources.
India should think instead of tapping its vast hydroelectric reserves and exploiting its coal reserves, which are among the largest in the world.
The global share of nuclear-generated electricity has remained constant at roughly 16 percent for a decade. Despite being free of carbon and greenhouse gases, nuclear power faces the continuing global challenge to become commercially competitive with thermal power, even when the costs of antipollution technology for the latter are included.
Studies comparing the costs of producing electricity from new nuclear, coal and natural gas plants have revealed that the baseline cost of new nuclear power remains significantly higher worldwide. In India, study after study has shown nuclear-generated electricity to be costlier than coal-generated electricity. And the price of nuclear-generated electricity in no nation includes the potential costs of spent-fuel disposal.
Still, indigenous nuclear reactors make sense to several nations, for whom nuclear power is part of a push for fuel diversity to help spread out potential long-term risks.
No country, however, has tried to build energy security by importing reactors of a type it has no intent to manufacture nationally and whose fuel requirements will keep it perpetually dependent on foreign suppliers. Yet this is the bizarre path India wishes to embark upon.
If the deal is implemented, it will allow India to import only the proliferation-resistant light-water reactor (LWR), fuelled by low-enriched uranium. LWRs, however, do not fit India's three-phase nuclear power development program, which seeks to overcome the country's natural-uranium shortage through a shift to fast-breeder technology. Fast-breeder reactors will employ plutonium (recycled from the spent fuel of existing plants) and thorium, of which India has 31 percent of the world's reserves.
Yet India now wants to shortsightedly import reactors dependent on foreign fuel and spare parts to be part of what its prime minister farcically calls "a broad-based energy security policy." The government heeds no lesson from India's bitter experiences over America's abandonment, a quarter-century ago, of its legally binding commitment to supply fuel and parts to the first Indian nuclear plant, the General Electric-built Tarapur. Key issues relating to Tarapur remain outstanding.
Imported reactors, despite their bad economics, can make energy-security sense only if they are part of a country's planned transition to autonomous capability. A good example is China, which is aggressively working to become self-sufficient in reactors and fuel despite entering the nuclear power field two decades after India.
As it is, India's indigenous reactors are unable to supply electricity to consumers at rates offered by the Indian thermal power industry. The differential will become appreciably higher when electricity is produced from imported reactors.
Is it really necessary to showcase the U.S.-India strategic partnership through a deal that commits India to a wrong energy choice? Even with a tenfold increase in India's nuclear generating capacity, nuclear power would still contribute a tiny share of this country's total electricity.
The billions of dollars saved from not importing high-priced, uneconomical reactors could be invested domestically to generate many times more electricity from indigenous energy resources.
America can help India better by selling not its dubious nuclear reactors, but its clean-coal and renewable-energy technologies, even as it draws on the deal to end its export controls against New Delhi.
(Brahma Chellaney is professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.)
from the mailbox: ISI-funded "Friends of South Asia" on the warpath
dec 27th
the usual people suspects afflicted by 'southasianitis'.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ag
Date: Dec 25, 2005 1:30 PM
Subject: Pakistan ISI-funded "Friends of South Asia
To: Rajeev Srinivasan <rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com >
the usual people suspects afflicted by 'southasianitis'.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ag
Date: Dec 25, 2005 1:30 PM
Subject: Pakistan ISI-funded "Friends of South Asia
To: Rajeev Srinivasan <rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com >
FOIL/FOSA WAKES UP. NEED TO WRITE LETTERS TO NEWSPAPERS!
Subject: FOIL/FOSA WAKES UP. NEED TO WRITE LETTERS TO NEWSPAPERS!
Time to get people to write a few letters to Editors. The following is from our Pakistan ISI-funded "Friends of South Asia" (Akhila Rahman, main Noise) message server in California: Non-essential headers deleted .
--------------------------------
READ BELOW E mail INTERCEPTS
-----------------------------------------------
"From FOSA - PLEASE ACT! (for info: mail@friendsofsouthasia.org)
Dear all,
As many of you already know, we in California are facing a Hindutva assault on school textbooks of the kind that went on a few years ago in India. This is an issue of rising concern in the Californian community, and something that progressive South Asian organizations have been very quiet on, so far. This email has TWO parts—a brief background, followed by an ALERT
Background: Very briefly, this is the story so far:
* CA state textbooks come up for review every six years. This year, the sixth class texts relating to Ancient Indian history are under review. We recognize that most of these textbooks are inadequate for a number of reasons and have many errors on Indian history.
Taking advantage of this inadequacy, two groups --Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Foundation (VF and HEF), backed by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF)—all with demonstrable links to Hindu rightwing organizations have managed a strong mobilization in order to insert some changes in the depiction of ancient Indian history and Hinduism in CA text books. But instead of just making corrections to erroneous texts, their proposed changes also reflect their supremacist political agendas. For instance, a large number of their changes are about Aryans being native to India and not migrating from central Asia, and thus the depiction of Hinduism as a religion *truly* indigenous to India—as opposed to all the other foreign religions (for those of you familiar with the issue—this is the whole manufactured debate about the Aryan Migration theory versus the Indigenous Aryan theory), and also a complete white-washing of Hinduism especially concerning caste and gender issues.
* As things stand now, these groups have managed to get the Curriculum Commission to agree to most of their changes. The only opposition they faced was a last minute organizing by the Indologists (M. Witzel from Harvard, S. Wolpert from UCLA and J. Heitzman from UCDavis with around 50 other indologists supporting them,
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/witzelletter.pdf ) and a faculty letter from over 100 South Asianists and South Asian profs at universities. However, both these interventions were less than successful, and many of the really problematic Hindutva changes got accepted by the Curriculum Commission on Dec 2.
Some examples of ridiculous edits that got accepted by the CC are:
1. According to HEF, Sudras did not "perform services for members of the three higher castes" but merely "performed services for all classes and did more labor-intensive work."
2. The word "Dalit" has been removed from the text and the students are merely told that treating someone as untouchable is against the law in modern India. Sentences such as "The caste system is just one example of how Hinduism was woven into the fabric of daily life in India" and "Hinduism…has affected how people worship, what jobs they do,… And it has helped to determine the status of people in Indian society" have been deleted. At one point, the Vedic Foundation insists that caste only be spoken of in the past tense since it is no longer a reality and "According to the Indian Constitution, under the section, Fundamental Rights, the Right to Equality is guaranteed to all citizens." This edit was also accepted.
3. References to patriarchy within Hinduism have been deleted. Sentences such as "However, Hinduism also taught that women were inferior to men." have been completely removed, while another, "Men had many more rights than women" has been replaced with, "Men had different duties (dharma) as well as rights than women. Many women were among the sages to whom the Vedas were revealed." Not only does "unequal" become "different", but note that Vedas are now *revealed* texts. Hinduism-- like all other major religions of the world --has a patriarchal basis, that must first be acknowledged in order to be corrected. Also, Hinduism, unlike other major religions of the world, has NO revealed text and one wonders at the intent of these groups in removing this point of uniqueness.
4. Again, in their zeal to make Hinduism like another monotheistic, revealed religion, the sentence,"Modern day Hinduism is very complex. Many beliefs, many forms of worship, and many gods exist side by side" was removed.
5.The sentence "Sanskrit is no longer spoken today" has been replaced with "Sanskrit is no longer widely spoken today". The RSS shakhas still propagate Sanskrit, we suppose? In another place, the edits that got approved suggest that Sanskrit "to some extent" is the language of India "even today".
6. That chariots and other similar technology was developed in India (as opposed to being brought in from Central Asia). "People speaking Indo-Aryan language" has been replaced merely by "Indians", so that the differentiation between Harappans and those who spoke the Indo-Aryan language has been reduced to that between Indians from Harappa and "Indians from elsewhere or from the countryside." The construct of India predates history itself!
* A more complete list of edits can be obtained from
http://friendsofsouthasia.org/textbook/CommissionAction12_2_05.doc .
We must also point out that similar changes to history texts were tried in India by the nationalist BJP government, which are now being undone. Read more about it at
http://friendsofsouthasia.org/textbook/NCERTdocs.doc
* While the acceptance of these "edits" by the Curriculum Commission is really tragic, the State Board has yet to accept these change s. What is equally alarming is the way in which the Indian-American press has been covering this issue in its usual wishy-washy style, presenting this as a debate between the faculty (some of them white, all of them "anti-Hindu") and a monolithic, aggrieved Hindu community. India Post, India West and India Abroad have given a whole lot of play to this debate, but "our" side (secular Hindus/ Indians/ South Asians) has been very poorly represented.
***ALERT***
India Abroad has run 3 stories on this in the recent issue:
(a) India Abroad, Dec 16 Cover story, giving an overview: California
Textbooks Spark Hinduism Row
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad1.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad1a.pdf
(b) India Abroad, Dec 16, Interview with Michael Witzel:
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_MW_a.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_MW_b.pdf
(c) India Abroad, Dec 16, Interview with Suhag Shukla, legal counsel
of the Hindu American Foundation:
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_SS_a.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_SS_b.pdf
India West ran 2 stories on this issue and one letter:
(d) India West, Dec 2 story: Hindus and Sikhs Protest Curriculum
Changes in Calif. Textbooks
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=1b63d3d5a0a0b090f2681949b840f93f
(e) India West, Dec 9 story: Calif. state panel Agrees to make changes
in history course.
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/Textbook%20Row--India%20west.doc
(f) India West: Dec 22nd (?) Yvette Rosser's letter to the Editor:
Stereotypes, Errors In Calif. Textbooks
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/Indiawest_YRletter.htm
PLEASE WRITE TO THESE NEWSPAPERS EXPRESSING YOUR VIEWS ON THIS ISSUE:
We really need to make diverse voices heard on this issue.
The letters should be addressed to:
India Abroad: editorial@indiaabroad.com, Fax: 212-727-9730
India West: news@indiawest.com , Fax: (510) 383-1155 24
Please copy mail@friendsofsouthasia.org on these letters and also
write us if you have any questions or need more info.
Thanks,
-Friends of South Asia"
Subject: FOIL/FOSA WAKES UP. NEED TO WRITE LETTERS TO NEWSPAPERS!
Time to get people to write a few letters to Editors. The following is from our Pakistan ISI-funded "Friends of South Asia" (Akhila Rahman, main Noise) message server in California: Non-essential headers deleted .
--------------------------------
READ BELOW E mail INTERCEPTS
-----------------------------------------------
"From FOSA - PLEASE ACT! (for info: mail@friendsofsouthasia.org)
Dear all,
As many of you already know, we in California are facing a Hindutva assault on school textbooks of the kind that went on a few years ago in India. This is an issue of rising concern in the Californian community, and something that progressive South Asian organizations have been very quiet on, so far. This email has TWO parts—a brief background, followed by an ALERT
Background: Very briefly, this is the story so far:
* CA state textbooks come up for review every six years. This year, the sixth class texts relating to Ancient Indian history are under review. We recognize that most of these textbooks are inadequate for a number of reasons and have many errors on Indian history.
Taking advantage of this inadequacy, two groups --Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Foundation (VF and HEF), backed by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF)—all with demonstrable links to Hindu rightwing organizations have managed a strong mobilization in order to insert some changes in the depiction of ancient Indian history and Hinduism in CA text books. But instead of just making corrections to erroneous texts, their proposed changes also reflect their supremacist political agendas. For instance, a large number of their changes are about Aryans being native to India and not migrating from central Asia, and thus the depiction of Hinduism as a religion *truly* indigenous to India—as opposed to all the other foreign religions (for those of you familiar with the issue—this is the whole manufactured debate about the Aryan Migration theory versus the Indigenous Aryan theory), and also a complete white-washing of Hinduism especially concerning caste and gender issues.
* As things stand now, these groups have managed to get the Curriculum Commission to agree to most of their changes. The only opposition they faced was a last minute organizing by the Indologists (M. Witzel from Harvard, S. Wolpert from UCLA and J. Heitzman from UCDavis with around 50 other indologists supporting them,
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/witzelletter.pdf ) and a faculty letter from over 100 South Asianists and South Asian profs at universities. However, both these interventions were less than successful, and many of the really problematic Hindutva changes got accepted by the Curriculum Commission on Dec 2.
Some examples of ridiculous edits that got accepted by the CC are:
1. According to HEF, Sudras did not "perform services for members of the three higher castes" but merely "performed services for all classes and did more labor-intensive work."
2. The word "Dalit" has been removed from the text and the students are merely told that treating someone as untouchable is against the law in modern India. Sentences such as "The caste system is just one example of how Hinduism was woven into the fabric of daily life in India" and "Hinduism…has affected how people worship, what jobs they do,… And it has helped to determine the status of people in Indian society" have been deleted. At one point, the Vedic Foundation insists that caste only be spoken of in the past tense since it is no longer a reality and "According to the Indian Constitution, under the section, Fundamental Rights, the Right to Equality is guaranteed to all citizens." This edit was also accepted.
3. References to patriarchy within Hinduism have been deleted. Sentences such as "However, Hinduism also taught that women were inferior to men." have been completely removed, while another, "Men had many more rights than women" has been replaced with, "Men had different duties (dharma) as well as rights than women. Many women were among the sages to whom the Vedas were revealed." Not only does "unequal" become "different", but note that Vedas are now *revealed* texts. Hinduism-- like all other major religions of the world --has a patriarchal basis, that must first be acknowledged in order to be corrected. Also, Hinduism, unlike other major religions of the world, has NO revealed text and one wonders at the intent of these groups in removing this point of uniqueness.
4. Again, in their zeal to make Hinduism like another monotheistic, revealed religion, the sentence,"Modern day Hinduism is very complex. Many beliefs, many forms of worship, and many gods exist side by side" was removed.
5.The sentence "Sanskrit is no longer spoken today" has been replaced with "Sanskrit is no longer widely spoken today". The RSS shakhas still propagate Sanskrit, we suppose? In another place, the edits that got approved suggest that Sanskrit "to some extent" is the language of India "even today".
6. That chariots and other similar technology was developed in India (as opposed to being brought in from Central Asia). "People speaking Indo-Aryan language" has been replaced merely by "Indians", so that the differentiation between Harappans and those who spoke the Indo-Aryan language has been reduced to that between Indians from Harappa and "Indians from elsewhere or from the countryside." The construct of India predates history itself!
* A more complete list of edits can be obtained from
http://friendsofsouthasia.org/textbook/CommissionAction12_2_05.doc .
We must also point out that similar changes to history texts were tried in India by the nationalist BJP government, which are now being undone. Read more about it at
http://friendsofsouthasia.org/textbook/NCERTdocs.doc
* While the acceptance of these "edits" by the Curriculum Commission is really tragic, the State Board has yet to accept these change s. What is equally alarming is the way in which the Indian-American press has been covering this issue in its usual wishy-washy style, presenting this as a debate between the faculty (some of them white, all of them "anti-Hindu") and a monolithic, aggrieved Hindu community. India Post, India West and India Abroad have given a whole lot of play to this debate, but "our" side (secular Hindus/ Indians/ South Asians) has been very poorly represented.
***ALERT***
India Abroad has run 3 stories on this in the recent issue:
(a) India Abroad, Dec 16 Cover story, giving an overview: California
Textbooks Spark Hinduism Row
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad1.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad1a.pdf
(b) India Abroad, Dec 16, Interview with Michael Witzel:
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_MW_a.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_MW_b.pdf
(c) India Abroad, Dec 16, Interview with Suhag Shukla, legal counsel
of the Hindu American Foundation:
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_SS_a.pdf
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/IndiaAbroad_SS_b.pdf
India West ran 2 stories on this issue and one letter:
(d) India West, Dec 2 story: Hindus and Sikhs Protest Curriculum
Changes in Calif. Textbooks
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=1b63d3d5a0a0b090f2681949b840f93f
(e) India West, Dec 9 story: Calif. state panel Agrees to make changes
in history course.
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/Textbook%20Row--India%20west.doc
(f) India West: Dec 22nd (?) Yvette Rosser's letter to the Editor:
Stereotypes, Errors In Calif. Textbooks
http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/Press_Coverage/Indiawest_YRletter.htm
PLEASE WRITE TO THESE NEWSPAPERS EXPRESSING YOUR VIEWS ON THIS ISSUE:
We really need to make diverse voices heard on this issue.
The letters should be addressed to:
India Abroad: editorial@indiaabroad.com, Fax: 212-727-9730
India West: news@indiawest.com , Fax: (510) 383-1155 24
Please copy mail@friendsofsouthasia.org on these letters and also
write us if you have any questions or need more info.
Thanks,
-Friends of South Asia"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)