A brief introduction to technological brilliance of Ancient India

nov 30th, 2011 CE

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From: sri 

A brief introduction to technological brilliance of Ancient India   www.iish.org http://www.iish.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:a-brief-introduction-to-technological-brilliance-of-ancient-india&catid=37:heritage-india-news&Itemid=56     Health Science: The Indian vision on health, Aswini Devatha concept – Food & Exercise, need of exercise, yoga Asanas, soorya namaskaram, effect of medicines, identification of drugs, pathyas and fasting, selected food, rest and upasana, ethics for doctors cause of illness, pathogenic organisms, precautions to be taken for good health, solar therapy, water therapy, yoga therapy, music therapy, Reiki, energy healing, the knowledge on surgery and surgical equipments, practicing surgery and explanations given by Maharishi Susrutha. Acharas – customs and rituals influencing health.   Mental Health Psychology: Description of mind given in Upanishads, mental influence on health, influence of puranic and related stories in mind, mental development, and yoga. Influence of yama and niyama as mentioned by Patanjali, controlling the mind, dhyaana, food and mind, saatwic food, dreams, effect of manthras on mind, customs influencing the mental health and family relations.   Food Science: Variety of Indian foods, balanced nutritious foods, natural traditional baby foods, the medicinal components usually added in foods – like asafetida, turmeric, spices etc. – advised food during illness, specialized cooking, roasting, fermenting, processing, preserving, etc done for variety of foods ands their science. Generation of specific flavors in foods by suitable modifying spices. The science of altering the foods during fasting on specific days. Opting for integrated balance foods through fasting and vrathaas, science of selecting variety foods based on seasons, importance of selecting cooking vessels – for getting micronutrients like iron, zinc, copper, silica, magnesium, sodium, potassium etc. - variety of vegetable and their significance in balanced healthy foods. Many more significant scientific observations can be made in a student carefully examine the Indian foods, Naturopathy, Vegetarian food.   Chemistry: The ancient Indian knowledge on chemicals and the subject of Chemistry given in Rasaratna Samucchayam, Rasarnavam, Rasendra Choodamani, Rasa Ratnakaram etc and many similar books. These books are available in Sanskrit with English and Hindi translations. Sanskrit names of chemicals, details of setting up a laboratory, scientific temper, qualification of chemists, laboratory assistant, research scholars, properties of inorganic chemicals, and their used described by Nagarjuna centuries ago. Chemicals used for a various purposes as described in Bharadhvaja in Yantra Sarvaswa, Varahamihira in Bruhath Samhita and also by others in the above chemistry books.   Bio-pesticides: Variety of plant products, neem, tulasi, clove, pepper, turmeric, tobacco, oils like sesame oil, cotton seed oil, castor oil etc are used as bio-pesticides and some as preservatives. Traditional methods of pest control are also available from old farmers.   Plant Drugs Pharmacology: Active plant bio-chemicals, processing medicinal plants, etc. Understand as many plants as possible which are good sources of the bio-active principles. Variety of plants used for curing diseases like herbs, shrubs, creepers, grass, trees etc. The plant leaves, buds, flowers, stems, roots, latex etc. used for treating specific diseases. Single drug treatment.   Medicines and Medicinal Preparations - Plant Biochemistry: The descriptions of inorganic chemicals used as medicines in ancient Indian Rasa Chikitsa books, their preparations, processing, and prevention. The plant products used as drugs, the raw drugs, their harvesting, drying, storage, mixing, drug formulation, decoction preparation etc. Variety of Ayurvedic drug formulation obtained by mixing many raw drugs. Knowledge on the preparation while drying, storing, heating roasting, boiling with water, concentration etc in all Ayurvedic preparations. Here we have to focus only on the knowledge existed and their scientific merits in the area of plant drugs.   Basic Plant Sciences Botany: Detailed description given in Vrukshayurveda by Saarngadhra, Katyayana, Varahamihira, Parasara, and others. Plant growth, grafting, irrigation, use of manure, seeds preservation, phototropism, agricultural practices both basic and applied. Varity of the traditional knowledge still practiced in villages in production of agriculture commodities.   Fermentation Technology: Fermentation of milk to curd and yoghurt, fruit juice, medicinal preparations of arishtas etc. Fermentation procedures followed in four major types liquors mentioned in Chanakya’s Artha Saastra, the source of microorganisms, cultures, fermentation products mentioned in the Ayurvedic and Vrukshayurvedic books. Fermented rice based common solid foods like pancake, fermentation of traditional liquors from coconut and palm products.   Ancient Indian Mines: Knowledge on the ancient Indian mines which were active during last three or more millennia, mines of the ores and minerals of copper, gold, zinc, lead and silver which were distributed throughout Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc. The technology adopted for digging, mining, transportation, processing on the spot, provisions given for aeration, and lighting in mines etc. The present day scenes of ancient metallurgical sites.   Ancient Indian Knowledge in Metallurgy: The production and purification of metals, use of flux and slag, temperature attained, technology for production and purification of metals like tin, copper, iron, silver, zinc, lead. An understanding of the chemical reactions accomplished like oxidation, reduction, slag formation, distillation of low boiling metals etc.   The fine technology used for the large scale production of bronze, brass, panchaloha, bell metal, coin making metals and many alloys mentioned in chemistry books and also in the books like Channakya’s Arthasaastra. Impressive metallic alloy preparation techniques mentioned in the Rasa books, Rasopanishad and Bharadvaajaa’s writings. The mental ingots, sheets, plates etc of Indian origin excavated from other countries like Athens, Babylonia, Rome, and Egypt.   Iron making Technology: Production of pig iron, cast iron, and wrought iron in ancient India. Delhi and Dhar iron pillar, forge welding, lamination, paint coating for preventing rusting. Making of swords, the Banaras and Kodumanal swords, carburization in iron instruments used in agriculture and surgery. Rust free preservation techniques adopted for iron, woortz steel. Large scale production of iron alloys, export of iron to European and Middle East countries etc.   Ceramics Science and Technology: The top quality ceramic vessels, tiles, glazed vessels, beads, bricks etc produced in Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Lothal, Varanasi, Thakshasila, Kalibhangan, Hastinapura and many other north and south Indian archeological sites. Variety of coloring materials used for the ceramic vessels and decoration ceramic articles.   Glass Technology: Industrial and Instrumental Glass Technology existed in India. Variety of multi colored glasses with different size, shape, appearance, and capacity produced in India. The glass beads, ornaments, plates, vessels made using variety of inorganic coloring materials like the oxides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates etc of chromium, lead, copper, iron, nickel, calcium, and sodium. The non metallic compounds used as coloring materials. Technology introducing the golden and silver leaf plates in glass.   General Instruments used in Ancient India: Descriptions of a variety of instruments are given in Bharadvaja’s Yanthra Sarvaswa – only a part of this book is available now. The Vaimanika Saastra, Dvaantha Pramapaka Yanthra etc. the numbering systems with serial numbers of the components of instruments, alloy preparations, quality of lenses, prisms, glass plates, variety of Kithara Aloha – artificial metallic alloys having non metallic compounds also- dies used for molding the instrument parts and components, in required size and shape. The instruments used in astro0nomical calculations know under the title of Jyothir Yanthra.   Musical Instruments: Variety of string instruments for music and dance performances, the metallic alloys used for the preparation of strings, wind instruments, the knowledge of sound waves, the membrane instruments, preparation and processing of the membranes for these musical instruments.   The basic knowledge of sound in music. The granite music pillars known as Sangeetha Mandapa seen in ancient south Indian temples. Traditional Indian musical instruments like flute, idakka, mrudanga, chenda, thaala, naadaswara, veena, violin, harmonium and so on. The basic principles adopted in their making and use.   Surgical Instruments: The surgical instruments known as Sastras and Yanthras numbering more than a hundred as mentioned in Susrutha Samhitha. The metals used for making these instruments, their size, shape, and comparison with the modern instruments used for the purpose. Description of plastic surgery techniques. The instruments for kidney stone removal, stitching, cutting open etc.   Laboratory Equipments: More than 35 types of ceramics and metallic equipments mentioned in Rasaratna Samuchaya for the use in chemical laboratories for the processes like distillation, sublimation, extraction, drying, heating, roasting, mixing, decanting etc. Generally known under the name of Yanthras made using specific quality clays.   Kilns, Furnaces, Mushas & Putas: Variety of furnaces, Kilns, and crucibles used for the production of various metals and alloys. The temperature attained for oxidation, reduction, slag preparation, and distillation of variety of metals and correspondingly suitable selection of putas or furnaces. Heating materials and their proportions, heating time, flux used for removing the impurities in the metal processing, description of maha gajaputa, gajaputa, kukkuta puta, kapotha puta etc, and their preparations.   Painting Technology & Colorants: The chemistry of paints used in Ajantha, Ellora and other cave temple paintings, mural paintings, the inorganic colors and paint products used for paintings, their preparation, mixing, applying on the preprocessed surfaces. Selecting and processing plant products used as paints. The preparation of inks for variety of applications mural paintings, oil paintings, preparation of painting beds, walls, canvass etc. as done in cave temples and walls.   Textile Technology: Ancient Indian textile industry as mentioned in Chanakya’s Artha Saastra, textiles produced using cotton, silk, wool, jute, and also incorporation of gold, silver, and lead metallic threads as boarders for the textiles. The famous Kancheepuram,textile dyes, leather colors, variety of coloring materials produced in different parts of India and method of application of the dyes.   Architecture & Civil Engineering: The civil engineering skill demonstrated in the famous south Indian temples constructed by the kings of the Chola, Chera, Pandya, Hoysaalsa, Kakateeya, and Vijaya Nagara periods. The huge and tall entrances or gopurams of these temples. The mortars, cements used for the construction of these temples. The instruments used for measuring, maintaining the geometry of these structures. The granite, marble, latté rite stone cutting and polishing equipments and devises existed during that time. The transportation techniques adopted for the huge granite pieces. Construction of marble temples, palaces, and lake palaces of Rajasthan.   The temples of Kancheepuram, Rameswaram, Chidambaram, Kumbhakonam, Thiruvannamali, Sucheendram, Trivandrum, Konarak, and Khajuraho. The music pillars and music mandapas, the knowledge on the sound waves produced by these granite pillars and granite stone carvings – thick, thin, pointed and so on. The carvings undertaken with top precision in all the above structures. The construction of cave temples of Ajantha, Ellora, Elephanta, and the knowledge on geological aspects of rocks in which the Chaityaas and Viharas were carved out. Huge palaces constructed particularly like Jaisalamar palace, palaces in the pink city of Rajasthan, Gwalior, Mysore, Hyderabad etc.   The air conditioning or temperature maintaining mechanisms adopted glazed and non glazed tiles and glasses used for flooring and windows. The ponds and water reservoirs made thousands of years ago. Try to learn as many structures constructed as possible and their technologies. The civil engineering sciences and technologies of forts and walls, channels, rivers etc. the archeologically important sites of Mohenjo-Daro, Lothal, Harappa, Dwaraka, the lost city of Cambay etc.   Physics in Ancient India: The velocity of light, wave nature of sound, seven colors of light, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principles, definition and explanation of atoms, gravitational forces, different types of rays like UV, IR, Heat rays, visible rays – as explained by Bharadvaja. Lenses, prisms, magnetic materials like iron and variety of magnets, time, weights, and measures, linear parameters. List the Ancient observations which are equivalent to modern scientific principles.   Mathematics & Astronomy: Detailed knowledge in mathematics is given in the books written by Aryabhatta I, Aryabhatta III, Bhaskara I, Bhaskara II, Vateswara, Manjula, Lalla, Varahamihira, Parameswara, Sankaranarayana, and many other mathematicians.   The four number systems – Sanskrit number, Aryabhatta number, Bhootha Sankya and Katapayaadi number. Progressions, various geometrical parameters connected with area, perimeter, volume of squares, triangles, circles, trapeziums, spheres, cones, cyclic quadrilaterals, polygonals, detailed algebra, quadratic equations, monomial, and binomial theorems etc. hundreds of theorems developed by Aryabhatta, Bhaskara, Sankaranarayana, Sangamagrama Madhavacharya, Puthumana Somayaji, Vateswara, Aryabhatta II, Sankara Varman, Paramewaracharya.   The application of ka ta pa yaasi number and Bhootha Sankhya systems made by the above mathematicians. Sine, Cosine, and Tangent, Rsine values and their tables, method of determining these values, angles in degrees and radians, calculations and theorems connected with these values. Relation among radius-arc-chord- circumference-sine-cosine-tangent-angles etc.   Astronomical Parameters: Various astronomical parameters mentioned in ancient Indian books. The spherical shape, size, diameter, circumference, gravity, declination, rotation speed, revolution, latitude, longitude, parallax in latitude and longitude, earthsine etc. of earth. many mote astronomical parameters described with definition by Vateswaracharya, like co-latitude, prime meridian and its relation with time, sunrise and sunset, eight type of revolutions of planets, visibility of planets, declination, precision equinox, alpha Aeries point, apogee, perigee, solar and lunar eclipse, calculation of eclipse diameter of shadow and movement of shadow, instruments used for time calculation and also for the calculation of various astronomical parameters know as Yanthras.   Indian Management Science: Management principles explained by Chanakya in Chanakya Neetisara, Bharthru Hari in Upadesa Sathaka, Vidura in Vidura Neetisara, Bhishma in Bhishmopadesa and other books like Yoga Vaasishta, Bhagavath Geetha, Sukra Neetisara, Subhashitams mentioned in Panchathantra, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Thirukkural etc.   Economics in Ancient India: The book of Artha Saastra written by Chanakya, also known as Koutileeyam, which is the book of ancient Indian Economics. There are many books mentioned in Artha Saastra like books of Saastras and Smruthies dealing with subjects like money, budget, banking, interest, loans, compound interest, penal interest, surety, witness, documents for loans, pledging of materials, leasing etc.   The detailed method of implementing sales tax, agricultural tax, property tax, gift tax, land tax, house tax, customs duty, and penal taxes etc as described in Dharma Saastra.   Indian Philosophy: The philosophical compilations known as Darsanas by Vyaasa, Jaiminee, Pathanjali, Gouthama, Kapila, and Kanaada – poorva & uttara Meemamsa, Yoga, Nyaaya, Vaiseshikaa are the most important books known as Shad Darsanas. Many fundamental principals of physics, chemistry, biology etc are mentioned in the above Darsanas. Adi Sankara’s Adwaitha and Madhava’s Dwaitha. The book of Charvaka known as Charvaka Samhitha of atheism. Other than the specific philosophical compilations, the philosophy described in Upanishad, Bhaghavat Geetha, Yogavasishta etc.   Dharmic way of Life Style: The unique Indian life style. The self imposed duties and responsibilities including privileges coming under Dharma Saastra. The Dharmas or duties of each family member know as Prithu-father, Mathru-mother, Putra-son, Putri-daughter, Pathnee-wife, Bhartru-husband Dharmas. Similarly Dharma of a teacher, village head, king, queen, four Purushaarthaas – Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha, four Aasramas – Brahmacharya, Gruhasta, Sanyaasa and Vaanaprastha, selection of jobs or professions and specialization based on Varnas.

hans do what they do better than anybody else: trashtalk: India's inferiority complex

nov 30th, 2011 CE

a lot of the comrades have and will lap this up. i am surprised genocide suzie hasn't called li hongmei a 'gandhian with a kalashnikov'.

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From: mk 

India's undue worry about China results from inferiority complex

By Li Hongmei

Beijing, Nov. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- India jitters at the sight of China gaining prestige in Asia, in particular, in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and takes China's ever-growing regional influence in recent years as a strategic encirclement to target and contain India.  

Not a few Indians believe the Chinese have a tradition of favoring encirclement game, as Jaswant Singh, former Indian finance minister, foreign minister, and defense minister, put it in his recent article: Asia's Giants Colliding at Sea?  

"China, has wei qui (known in Japan as go), which focuses on strategic encirclement. As Sun Tzu advised many centuries ago, 'Ultimate excellence lies...not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy, without ever fighting." Singh wrote in the article.  

It sounds nothing more than a loud jealousy, for the simple reason that China has done what India could not, especially when India perceives that China's influence has well reached to its doorsteps and created tremendous impact on those who should have banked on India as imagined.  

"For India, the sense that a struggle for regional mastery is occurring has become increasingly keen. Chinese activity in Pakistan and Myanmar, the expansion of China's port agreements in the Indian Ocean (the so-called 'string of pearls'), and heightened Chinese naval activity in the Indian Ocean have jangled India's security antennas." said the article.  

This also explains why India has been living under the delusion that China lays out a strategic chessboard to lock up and contain India, and thereby every act and every move of China could touch a raw nerve of India.   

Jealousy can sometimes be put in the same breath of inferiority. India could trace its sense of being so self-abased to the brief border war with China in 1960s, when it was beaten by the Chinese army. And India has since eyed China with deep-seated distrust. The Indian media are always given to wild speculations on what on earth China intends to do. Any move Dragon takes in the region would in all likelihood vex Elephant.    

On this basis, India would be bent on plotting to break through the so-called Chinese encirclement, and Mr. Singh would produce the delusional article conjuring up a picture of two giants colliding at sea.  

Perhaps, when Mr. Singh turned out the article, he has yet to comprehend what it is as reality: What China has thus far done is a have-to as a nascent leading power with steady development, but China has already avoided setting foot on a path that many other great powers would follow in their history of growth and rise----invasion and plunder.    

Instead, China has sought after a win-win model when it develops economic and trade relations with its neighbors, including India

Why India appears so impatient to take more agreeable strategies in its periphery is still beyond understanding. But one thing is certain: Today's India, no matter how anxious it intends to lead the region and even the world, is far from potent and prosperous to act of its own accord.

By currying favor with China's neighbor, in particular, those who have brewed disputes with China, India would assume, it could instigate these smaller nations to engage in a gang fight against China and contain China's growing clout in the region.  

Unfortunately, either India or Mr. Singh seems to have miscalculated the situation: Nowadays, it is no longer those who have only teeth and muscle that can finally loom on the horizon posing as winners, but those who are confident and courageous, and have a strong body with a sound mind, the latter more important for a great power. 

India might as well bear in mind: To build up a real power, neither self-satisfaction nor self-inferiority is a mature and constructive mindset.  

In actuality, India has already learnt a good lesson in this regard. Its iron-clad suspiciousness of China and shortfall of confidence in opening to others put sand in the wheels of its own progress.  

Two months ago, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, or ICBC - the world's biggest lender by market value, set up business in India, which is the first of four Chinese lenders to start operations in India and was expected to greatly boost investment in India's backward infrastructure sectors and foster the growth of a rupee-yuan market. While in comparison, even more than a decade ago, the same operations started up in Southeast Asian countries bringing an impetus to the local economies and remain as booming even today.  

Back in 2006, China and India reopened crossborder trade through the Himalayan Nathu La Pass, 44 years after a brutal frontier war shut down the ancient route. It was expected to give a major boost to bilateral trade between the two countries. But, it turns out to be a picture of contrasts----ambitious tradesmen on the Chinese side vs. slackness of the Indian businessmen.   

If India were as courageous as what China has managed to do----daringly reaching out to attract foreign investment and confidently going global, and perhaps, if India could forgo its restrictions on Chinese products and investment, it would progress even faster and would really rival China in the foreseeable future. "No competition, no progress", which is an inbuilt principle in market economy.  

If India could carry itself with some ease and confidence, it would not be belittled by others, including China. But if it persisted in its "strategic encirclement" thinking of its giant neighbor, India would virtually step on a loss-making route, at least, in mentality.   

In a nutshell, to grow up to be a real power and stand as a sound competitor, India needs to, first and foremost, break through its own psychological fence.

francois gautier: Another view of incredible India

nov 30th, 2011 CE

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From: sri venkat

 

Posted on March 19, 2011 by François Gautier | 6 Comments INCREDIBLE INDIA http://www.dnaindia.com/india/analysis_reality-does-not-match-incredible-india-ads_1520050 Nowadays, in every hotel, every railways station, every government office, you can find posters selling « Incredible India ». I have been a defender of India for many many years, but the Incredible India campaign does not always match the reality on the ground. Take visas, for instance. Because India’s intelligence agencies did not do their work properly and Headley was able to move around freely around the country, preparing the 26/11 terror attacks, visa rules have been tightened to such an extent that it has become ridiculous. Recently I asked for a visa for my assistant, a French lady, who likes India, and wants to work in India. She would help in the making of La Revue de l’Inde, the only magazine solely devoted to India in the French speaking world, and which props-up India as the natural, liberal and democratic alternative to China… The Indian embassy in Paris offered her a 3 months visa! Visa rules in India are nehruvian and outdated. The Chinese have understood that one needs to open one’s doors if one wants investments. Incredible India! Take railways. 20 years ago one had to wait for a long time to get a confirmed berth on the Ranikhet Express which connects to two of the most popular hill stations in northern India: Nainital & Ranikhet. Any change? When we booked our tickets, we were waitlisted 12 & 13. A month later, we were still 12 & 13! Lalu Prasad & Mamta Banerjee might start new trains to please their constituencies, but they do not increase the existing capacities and as a result Indian railways have hardly progressed in 20 years, whereas again, the Chinese have clean, comfortable and fast trains. I say fast, because when we finally got confirmed berths on the Ranikhet express, the train was seven hours late and took 14 hours to cover the 378 kms that separate Delhi from Kathgodam, which makes for an average speed of 19 kms an hour. Incredible India ! India is the largest democracy in the world, they say. Is it at the moment? Reliance claims the Government has asked them to spy on a 100.000 phones. What about the other operators? How many phones is this Government spying on? The CBI blatantly lets go of Quatrocchi the only man who could implicate Sonia Gandhi in the Bofors scam, but goes out big time after Hindu ‘terrorists’. There is some progress though, because a few people are beginning to point a finger at Sonia Gandhi (Raja must have shared some of the scam money with the Congress for their election campaigns and we all know that Sonia holds the strings of the purse – hence her immense power), whereas before nobody dared, for fear of some goons ransacking their office or even being killed. Incredible India ! Speaking of mobiles. The 2G scam is not only about mobile operators paying bribes to Mr Raja to buy bandwidth at throwaway prices and sell them a month later at huge profits to foreign companies, as Tata did to Japanese Docomo, it is also about them thinking they can get away with anything and employing strong arms tactics to recover unpaid bills. I have been a customer of Essar, (then Hutchinson, then Vodafone) since 1997, when I paid a deposit of 5000, which is worth at least four more today. In 2008 my 11 year on-time paid connection (9811118828), was arbitrarily disconnected by Vodafone for a disputed bill of Rs 2000 (of unwanted adds while in Bali, which one of the then Hutch executives had agreed to waive). Then on 10.3.10, I received a call on my new mobile from sub-inspector Kripal Singh (08010649949), who said there was a non bailable warrant against me for unpaid mobile bills. He gave me the mobile number of a lawyer at Delhi’s Tees Hazra’s court (09540602039) and that I had to pay him an amount of Rs.7,500/- before 5 PM, otherwise I would go to jail. Most people pay out of fear. Incredible India! What about banks? There is so much cheating in India by rich people (like Hassan Ali, who has just gone to jail though it is known for years he has 4 fake passports), that the low income lawful customers pay for them. Since five years foreigners can own property in India or even have 100% shares in companies. I am a PIO, so I have every single right that any other Indian have, except to vote. But try opening a trust account, even in a private bank like HDFC. It’s just hell, as your are mistrusted at every step, a hundred forms have to be signed, copies of your PIO have repeatedly to be given and every request starts with a no, no, no. The tragedy in India as it is so centralized with the Government breathing with a million rules on everyone’s necks, that private initiative is stifled, because everybody is so scared that they go even overboard in denying you. Incredible India! If only Indian politicians could hear what ordinary Indians are saying about them. Our driver in Jaipur who is paid 5000RS a month by a hotel that charges 22.0000 Rs a day for a room, says with a smirk as soon as we get in his car: “India, My India, Incredible India, but everybody is corrupt Sir, I hate them all”. Incredible India! Good journalism should always balance criticism with positive outputs so that one’s readers should not feel that the world is bleak and hopeless. Let me say then, that India has shown again that when in extreme distress, it can raise its head and correct its headings. The judiciary and the press are fighting the incredible corruption cancer that has taken over Indian politics and some accountability is being primed at the moment. In Jaipur again, I stumbled in a stadium with over 100.0000 people, many of them youngsters, singing, dancing, breathing, and meditating with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar during the occasion of Shivaratri. That was amazing: Incredible India. Fgautier26@rediffmail.com

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FDI Tamasha

The "con"gress could ill afford a bloodbath on it's hands. The "anna" has been pretty popular in the mainstream media and Rahul Baba's campaign could not be allowed to be overshadowed by an aging octogenarian who's got nothing else to do in the sunset of his life.

On the other hand, the "law has taken it's course" by giving bail to nearly all in the 2G scandal. This would have definitely raised eyebrows because all of them are influential and could manipulate the trial to their advantage. Nevertheless, it only smacked of a vicious witch hunt where the "less than key" players were hung up to shame and then released later down the line.   


http://www.firstpost.com/politics/retail-battle-its-finally-about-politics-and-numbers-not-fdi-144845.html

The Congress is hell-bent on pushing through its proposal for foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. It says the move would create jobs and curb inflation besides creating infrastructure which the agriculture sector lacks. However, the bigger motive is to fight the overwhelming perception that the government is caught in a policy paralysis and is unable to take decisions.

No one knows how long the parliament would be stalled in this session or whether any meaningful transaction would be allowed to done.

Interestingly, in an earlier meeting headed by Murli Manohar Joshi rejected the FDI proposal and UPA I (and II) didn't have a murmur of protest. This FDI clause and resultant tamasha only smacks of taking the public for the ride. Of course, we deserve this because we chose to elect them in the first place.

devil and deep sea: nukes vs. jesus freaks: Vigil Plainspeak on Koodankulam

nov 28th, 2011CE

this suspicious koodankulam agitation -- which essentially seems intended to give france and other catholic nations, or the baptist americans, a leg up over the eastern-orthodox russians [hint, hint, which holy group(s) might be behind it?] puts me in the entirely uncomfortable position of supporting a nuclear power plant.

i do not like nuclear power and think it is a very bad idea.

however, if the church opposes it, it is axiomatic that koodankulam is good for india. 

therefore i end up supporting the koodankulam plant. jeez, talk of moral dilemmas!

radha's take is interesting, and as often a bit over-emphatic, but there is reason to believe her suspicions may be on target. 

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From: Radha Rajan
Subject: Vigil Plainspeak on Koodankulam
To:

Dear all, pl read the link given at the very end to a report in The Hindu today. RR

 

 

http://www.vigilonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1632&Itemid=1

Koodankulam stalled again: Sinister geopolitics

Not many know that the global mafia dealing in enriched uranium called the Nuclear Suppliers Group came into being because the Buddha smiled in 1974. In its own words –

The NSG was created following the explosion in 1974 of a nuclear device by a non-nuclear-weapon State, which demonstrated that nuclear technology transferred for peaceful purposes could be misused. http://www.nuclearsuppliersgroup.org/Leng/default.htm

The driving force behind the NSG is the Bretton Woods Bandits and their vassals; and the driving principle of the NSG is white supremacist and therefore monotheist – What I am, no one else should be; what I have, no one else should have.  

Cutting through the maze of information and disinformation, the real issues surrounding the Koodankulam nuclear power project are –

·         America’s desperation to halt the project for geopolitical reasons

·         India is in partnership with Russia, the Generic Church’s persistent anti-Christ, to develop the Koodankulam site (several placards at the protest gathering were anti-Russia and not anti-nuclear power)

·         If not stopped now Koodankulam may emerge as one of India’s largest nuclear plants with the capacity to generate 9200 MWe or 9.2 GW of power

·         India has already closed the fuel cycle at Kalpakkam and in the near future may yet render the NSG mafia irrelevant to national requirement for reactors and reactor fuel

·         If India tides over the current deficit of overall national power requirement through short-term and interim arrangements by taking the less travelled light water, enriched uranium road while simultaneously pursuing its indigenous nuclear programme via the heavy water, plutonium and thorium, fast-breeder  path, the NSG may become almost certainly irrelevant to India’s nuclear programme, civilian or military

·         Therefore lure India into the Indo-US nuclear deal to cut ice with the NSG mafia, lure India away (hopefully) from her purely indigenous, wholly self-reliant nuclear programme with the promise of short-term benefits of uninterrupted supply of enriched uranium; promises which can and will be broken going by President Obama’s letter to the US Congress seeking approval for the Indo-US Nuclear deal where the American President stated that American assurances of fuel supply to India are not legally binding (meaning when, not if America reneges on its contract to supply India with reactor fuel, India will have no case or avenues for redress)

·         The idea behind leading India down the proverbial garden path to make this prohibitively expensive detour is to delay progress (again hopefully) on the fast breeder reactor (FBR) front

·         Will buy America and other members of the NSG time to create and instigate a violent anti-nuclear front in the local villages around Koodankulam; the PIL filed by the anti-nuclear mafia in the Supreme Court calling for a total halt to India’s civil nuclear programme, which will also halt all work on the fast-breeder front, thus perfectly serves the American agenda 

·         The ominous trend of foreign-funded Christian padris and churches jumping into the anti-nuclear campaign and descending hordes of foreign environmental and anti-nuclear activists is a pointer in the direction of geopolitical machinations by the Bretton Woods Bandits

·         Senior officials from Koodankulam (Station Director, Site Director and Chief Engineer) indicated as much during the course of a press meet in Chennai last month when they made a passing reference to significant dislocation (perhaps permanently) of Russian and Ukrainian scientists, engineers and other personnel working on the site leading to cost overrun and further delay in commissioning the reactors

The inference was unambiguous; if there is no end to the standoff at Koodankulam in the near future and if the sub-text of the standoff is actually anti-Russian and not anti-nuclear, then Russia may well opt out of Koodankulam altogether and not build the four reactors, each with the capacity to generate 1000 MW of power, agreed upon in the 2008 Memorandum of Intent signed by both countries.

 As America and Europe sink deeper and deeper into recession and economic depression, the naked desperation of the Bretton Woods Bandits to evict Russia from Koodankulam is becoming too obvious to be missed.

At a public meeting in Chennai organized by the Tamil Nadu Congress party a few days ago, Minister of State in the PMO, V Narayanaswamy, the point-person co-ordinating talks among all parties – state government, central government and the villages around Koodankulam, remarked that foreign anti-nuclear intruders/activists stirring spittle in Koodankulam were all citizens from America, Finland, France, Australia and Germany among others; what he did not say intentionally or otherwise was that these protestors were all from countries of the NSG.

The French reactors which will come up in Jaitapur in Maharashtra also come with fuel supply guarantee for 25 years. The Russian reactors already up and waiting to become critical in Koodankulam too comes with fuel supply guarantee for 20 years.

Currently America is nowhere in the picture – either as builder of reactors or as fuel supplier from the enriched uranium NSG cartel. The last minute, stage-managed protests at Koodankulam are therefore only last-ditch attempts by the Bretton Woods Bandits to coerce the Indian government to give them a share in the Indian nuclear pie on their terms.

America wants India to amend/dilute/bend/circumvent/ the Civilian Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010; altering a comma or a full-stop in effect nullifies the Act and Dr. Manmohan Singh stated as much to US President Obama in Bali in November 2011 when they met on the sidelines of the India-ASEAN and East Asia Summits.

The Prime Minister made it clear to the American President that any changes to the Act will have to be done within the defined parameters of the Act as passed by Parliament and that the government had no power to amend it without parliament sanction.

And so the poor dog had none.

The Civilian Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010 thus remains intact. In the event of an accident involving nuclear reactors either because of faulty design, faulty technology or any other cause, the Indian parliament sagaciously refused to cap the extent of liability that will be borne by foreign companies selling nuclear reactors and associated technology to India.

Chapter 2, Insurance and financial security –

(1) The operator shall take out an insurance policy or financial security or a combination of both in accordance with section 8 of the Act.

(2) The financial security referred to in sub-rule (1) shall be irrevocable and shall continue till removal of all spent fuel from the spent fuel storage pool nuclear of the installation after removal thereof from the reactor core.

(3)Shares or bonds or instruments constituting financial security shall be pledged to Central Government and remain so pledged till decommissioning of the plant and a security margin of 1:1.33 be maintained during pledge and in the event of any shortfall in security so calculated shall be immediately made good by the operator by providing insurance or additional financial security to the extent of shortfall.

(4) Nothing in this rule shall prevent a group of operators to enter into a joint arrangement of financial security providing for contribution towards such security in proportion to their individual installed capacity in thermal megawatts.

(5) The provisions of this rule shall not apply to a nuclear installation owned by the Central Government.  (Notification of Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Rules, Issued Gazette of India Extraordinary, November 11, 2011. http://www.dae.gov.in/rules/liab_rules.pdf)

 

America wants India to treat nuclear reactors like washing machines which come with a warranty for 2 years when all service is free and faulty components are replaced without cost to the customer. At the end of two years the company is no longer responsible for the washing machine in any manner or for any damage that may be subsequently caused.

India’s Civilian Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010 refused to treat nuclear reactors like washing machines and refused to treat nuclear liability like a product warranty for a fixed time and also refused to place a cap on financial liability.

Russia’s Atomstroyexport came to India long before the CNLD Act 2010 and subsequent to the Act, placed no new conditions upon India. Besides Russia, France is the only country with which India has signed a contract for developing nuclear plants in the country.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed an agreement on December 6, 2010 for the French industrial conglomerate Areva SA to construct two reactors at Jaitapur Maharashtra.

Considering that Areva’s 1600 MW reactor in Olkiluoto, Finland has still not been completed and is already suffering huge cost and time over-runs, the Indian government’s decision to allow France to take a bite from the Indian nuclear pie is intriguing, not to say questionable. Did France twist India’s arms?

 According to an article, titled “Mass Leak of Client Data Rattles Swiss Banking” by David Gauthier-Villars and Deborah Ball (The Wall Street Journal, July 2010), two employees of HSBC -- Herve Falciani and Georgina Mikhael -- had sent emails more than two years ago to tax authorities across Europe.

Accordingly, they claimed that they could provide a large list of clients of a Swiss-based private bank. The emails were sent to Germany and the French investigating authorities.

HSBC officials in turn allege that Falciani copied thousands of files of wealthy clients of its Swiss private-banking arm.

Swiss authorities are reportedly investigating whether these two employees stole bank records and violated banking secrecy laws in Switzerland.

Interestingly, the French got the data when its police raided Falciani's residence at the behest of the Swiss authorities who had, in turn, launched an investigation into the alleged violations of banking secrecy back in Switzerland.

Crucially, the French sent copies of the data to Switzerland, but kept back the original files to pursue possible tax cheats.

Expectedly, the French authorities found thousands of accounts and bank-transfer details. Sifting the data, apparently the file contained data on about 79,000 clients and 20,000 companies!

The list includes more than 8,000 French, about 1,500 Americans and as many British residents.

Subsequently, the French have reportedly made available this data to governments across the world for possible pursuits of their tax cheats.

If press reports are to be believed that included the Indian government too as there were allegedly several hundred Indian names in the list.

http://www.mrv.net.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=272:why-india-too-is-a-tax-haven-now&catid=18:globalization

 

While the choice of Areva SA may raise eyebrows and questions, Russia’s Atomstroyexport has not only completed the two reactors in Koodankulam but the reactors can be commissioned anytime the TN state government allows it to happen. It is Jayalalithaa’s government and not the people in and around Koodankulam and Idinthakarai who pose the biggest obstacle to the reactors going critical.

This is the real story behind the so-called people’s protests in Koodankulam. The first unit should have been commissioned in December 2009 and the second in March 2010; the current projections, if Jayalalithaa through divine intervention sees the light of wisdom, is between March and June 2012.

What knowledgeable circles know, including the media, but are unwilling to speak out is that Jayalalithaa, the incumbent Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has declared in so many words that she intends to be a part of the problem and not the solution to the standoff; this notwithstanding the fact that the two reactors in Koodankulam which are ready to be commissioned will generate 4800 MW of power! Jayalalithaa has in fact asked for all work at Koodankulam to be stopped until such time the central government has allayed the fears of the people.

Unasked questions –

1.       Why is Jayalalithaa placing the entire onus of responsibility to allay some of the genuine fears of the local populace only on the central government?

2.       Worse, why have the scientists, engineers, experts and other workers in Koodankulam been left to fend for themselves as if it is they who have everything to win or lose?

3.       If despite extensive interactions by the committee constituted by the central government, and the scientists at Koodankulam with the residents and people in the local villages, the protests have not ended does it not mean that the continuing protests have little to do with genuine fears and more to do with extraneous considerations?

4.       Why did the state government not instruct the police to provide security to the workers at Koodankulam and in fact exposed them to violence unleashed by the protestors against them and prevented them from entering the site?

5.       Does this not imply that Jayalalithaa by refusing to provide security to the workers, sent them the signal that if they valued their life, they should not attempt to enter the Koodankulam site for work?

6.       Does this also not imply that Jayalalithaa has made common cause with the Church and brought all work at Koodankulam to a grinding halt which only serves American geopolitical interests?

7.       What exactly is the nature of the common interest or nexus between Jayalalithaa, the Church and the US-led NSG?  

The writer has drawn repeated attention in the last ten years to the fact that Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu is a Christian agenda and that Tamil Eelam, like East Timor will be a Christian state. It is not a coincidence of life that south of Cuddalore almost every single fishing hamlet in TN is Christian. The Church controls a vast section of TN’s coastal populace.

If paralysing the Madras High Court in the name of Sri Lankan Tamils and for LTTE chief Prabhakaran for the better part of 2008 and 2009 was the Brown Church’s first major public political success, bringing all work at Koodankulam to a grinding halt and holding the people of Tamil Nadu and the central government hostage to their blackmail is the Church’s second major political success.

The same forces – Brown Church, Dravidian splinter parties, some infamous film personalities, the same human rights organizations and activists who also don the cap of anti-nuclear propagandists - which propagate the cause of Tamil Eelam and destructive Tamil chauvinism are also behind the anti-Koodankulam nuclear power protests.

And behind them all is the furtive, lurking presence of the White Generic Church – American and European churches, governments and international organizations.

Military might, and economic prosperity deriving from consistent economic growth and stability determines national clout in world affairs and meeting growing domestic and industrial energy requirements is the key for any growing economy. Some experts maintain that the economy has to grow 10% every year for 8% growth in GDP.

India needs 1, 00,060 MWe of power while we are generating only 1, 00, 034 MWe. Of this –

·         60% is Thermal power which uses coal, diesel and natural gas as fuel

·         25% is Hydro

·         7% is from non-conventional sources like solar, wind and bio-gas; and

·         2.9% is nuclear

World average for nuclear power is 20%

·         75% of all France’s power requirements is met by nuclear energy

·         20% US

·         18% UK

·         12% Germany; and

·         5% China

 

In addition to its already existing and functioning nuclear reactors, China has 20 new nuclear reactors at an advanced stage of development while another 15 are in the offing. India’s GDP and nuclear capability – nuclear power generation and nuclear defence arsenal will play a critical role in deciding India’s place in global geopolitics.

All this is well-known to Jayalalithaa just as she knows how much power Tamil Nadu needs and how much power Tamil Nadu has and the extent of the deficit. The question that the media and the nuclear establishment, particularly the garrulous MR Srinivasan are not asking Jayalalithaa, and therefore not compelling her to respond, is why is she denying the people of Tamil Nadu their energy requirement by calling for all work at Koodankulam to be stopped.

It is imperative that all facts about civilian nuclear programme around the world and India’s energy requirements be placed before the nation in terms of hard numbers.

Per capita power consumption

·         National per capita consumption – 503 units

·         China – 2500 units

·         America – 13,000 units

·         Tamil Nadu – 900 units

India’s nuclear reactor history so far

·         India has 20 nuclear power plants

·         Kaiga, Karnataka – 4

·         Kakrapar, Gujarat – 2

·         Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu – 2

·         Narora, Uttar Pradesh – 2

·         Rawatbhatta, Rajasthan – 6

·         Tarapur, Maharashtra – 4

·         Total power generated from 20 nuclear reactors – 4780 MW

Nuclear units under construction – 9

·         Kalpakkam – 1

·         Koodankulam - 2

·         Kakrapar – 2

·         Rawatbhatta – 2

·         Banswara, Rajasthan – 2

·         Total power that will be generated upon completion – 6700 MW

 

Facts about Tamil Nadu’s energy requirements and power generating capabilities

·         Tamil Nadu needs – 12000 MW

·         Tamil Nadu generates – 7000 MW

·         Power from central grid – 2825 MW

·         Deficit in meeting state requirement – 5000 MW

 

Given the fact that the two nuclear reactors ready for commissioning in Koodankulam will generate 4800 MW power, Jayalalithaa owes the people of Tamil Nadu an explanation for denying them access to much needed power. People of Chennai suffer one hour power cut seven days of the week while some cities and towns suffer six to seven hours power cut every day. As things stand the situation does not look likely to improve.

 

The Generic Church does not want India’s nuclear programme – civil and military to be indigenous, independent and self-reliant. It would ideally like India’s indigenous nuclear programme, particularly the fast breeder reactor centric nuclear programme to be stalled permanently and there are elements within India’s nuclear scientific community and elements in our bureaucracy which shamefully want the same. These have to be isolated and marginalised.

 

The US wants India to buy reactors and enriched uranium from the NSG so that it can send the intrusive IAEA into India for inspection, verification and control; we can ill afford to forget Hans Blix or Mohammed El-Baradei.

 

India’s Brown Church (Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, New Life and every other denomination and cult) will do exactly what the White Church wants. The people of Tamil Nadu have the right to know how Jayalalithaa perceives her role in the Generic Church scripted plot to evict Russia from Koodankulam.

Radha Rajan

28 November, 2011.

 

Also read

http://www.vigilonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=976&Itemid=71

arvind kumar in DNA: Response to the Ministry of Truth and Propaganda. orwellian

nov 28th, 2011 CE

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arvind Kumar

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_response-to-the-ministry-of-truth-and-propaganda_1618359

Response to the Ministry of Truth and Propaganda

Arvind Kumar | Monday, November 28, 2011

The response by an official of the Press Information Bureau (Akash will change the face of India’s education system ) to a piece in DNA on the Akash computer reveals the attitude of the ruling class towards the people of India. The attribution of motives, ad-hominem attacks and the use of words such as “of his ilk” show that the rulers consider the people of India to be in a state of peonage.

By evading the points on government schemes descending into corruption, the illiterates subsidising relatively wealthier people, the low quality of India's education system, the creation of a loss making scheme, and the moral question of using other people's money to pursue one's whims, the government confirms that it has no answers to the legitimate arguments against Kapil Sibal's scheme.

Instead, it makes the fictitious claim that the author scoffed at the low cost of the computer and makes the false charge that the motive of the article was to launch an attack on Kapil Sibal. This allegation is quickly refuted by pointing out that similar actions by other individuals who use other people's money would also be unacceptable. Two previous efforts, the marketing of the Simputer by two Indians and the attempt to sell a 100 dollar laptop by a professor at MIT, were equally immoral as they sought to channel government subsidies their way.

Arguments favouring the free enterprise system contain two aspects. The first deals with the process and raises moral objections to the government trampling on liberties while it implements its system. The other angle focuses on the outcomes and highlights the inefficiencies and failures of the government-run system as opposed to a free enterprise system. These two aspects are in harmony with each other as the system that does not usurp our freedoms is also the more efficient one in which there is less poverty, more equality, less corruption and more stability.

In its response, the government ignores these ideas, appeals to emotions by mentioning children, and then congratulates itself for allegedly empowering them. No one, not even Kapil Sibal, believes that the government's education system is of a decent quality. After all, Kapil Sibal sent his sons to the US and the UK for higher education. Sibal himself pursued his education outside India and obtained a degree in law from Harvard University. Sibal's degree in law brings us back to the moral angle and he would be well advised to mull over the point raised by Frederic Bastiat his book, The Law, to identify plunder by the government,“See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”

The government's response also purports to read minds and makes a determination on what constitutes a “misplaced thought.” If this goes unchallenged, it will take us down a slippery slope and it won't be long before the government publishes a list of accepted and forbidden thought processes. It may even take the dangerous step of telling Indians the exact number of days one would be allowed to fast in protest against corruption in the government.

The government's claims cannot be taken seriously as it comes from the Press Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This bureau is really the division of disinformation and has a sordid past. As for the Ministry itself, Orwellian ministries should have Orwellian names and it ought to be called the Ministry of Truth and Propaganda. Mentioning the success of the mobile telephone market while questioning the government is typical of such a ministry. The telephone industry underwent explosive growth only after the government loosened controls and allowed the private players to enter the arena. The areas in which the government still retains control, such as the allocation of frequencies, are still steeped in crony capitalism and massive corruption.

Rather than take credit for providing good schools in the future, the government should take a hard look at its record in providing drinking water, supplying electricity, removing poverty and clearing garbage. Even if it learns to perform these tasks some day, it would still not change the fact that by assembling the Akash computer, the government has merely performed a task that is routinely performed by Chinese imitators who produce cheap electronic goods in their shacks. The pricing of the Akash computer in US dollars also makes it hard to believe that the purpose of the scheme is not self-aggrandizement.

—The author can be reached at arvind@classical-liberal.net

RSS distancing away from itself??

Why is RSS hell bent on changing public perception about participating in Gandhi's assassination?

It is endorsing Hazare (the "anna") as "an adhering Gandhian"!

The historical wrongs cannot be corrected and the real heroes of Indian Independence would be consigned to the moth eaten archives of Government museums. While the pseusdo-intellectuals would grace our currency notes.

Wifi May Be Nuking Sperm

Between the heat and the radiation from today's electronic devices, testicles would seem to be hard-pressed.


"Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality," says the report in the venerable medical journal Fertility and Sterility.

swami devananda writes to a sadhu: Your Jesus-in-India story on Sulekha

nov 28th, 2011 CE

jesus is a fabrication by paul. very convenient for the church in its mission of world conquest.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Swami Devananda Saraswati

Sadhu Rangarajanji,

Namaskar,

Some months ago you sent me an essay containing the Jesus-in-India tale. I ignored it and stopped publishing your articles. I had lost confidence in your discriminating powers and motives too (having remembered that you had once taught Gita to trainee priests in a Christian seminary in Poonamallee). I could not fathom why, after the excellent articles you had already submitted, you had decided to submit the Jesus-in-India tale too, especially as you knew I denounced it.

However as the tale is doing the rounds again by email, and seeing that you have published the story on Sulekha as Was Jesus a Hindu yogi?, I am going to repeat the facts behind the tale again, as I believe I once told them to you years ago at your house in Triplicane.

Swami Abhedananda, the Indian 'authority' for the Jesus story, was no historian and we know today that many of the early Ramakrishna-ites invented stories to serve their own purposes (such as the untrue story that Ramakrishna saw Jesus and Muhammad in a vision). Abhedananda went to Hemis monastery and saw some documents. What he really saw we will never know. But he also resorts to the unworthy etymological argument that is so favoured by Hindus: If the words sound the same, then they must be the same or mean the same thing. It is a false argument and no credible scholar accepts it. 

An example is: "According to Swami Abhedananda, the illustrious gurubhai of Swami Vivekananda, Essenes emerged from the Nath Yogis of India. "Essene" or "Ishana" is Shiva. "Ishani" or Isha Nath" is the follower of Shiva. Ernest Renan says, that Bondasp (Bodhisattva) is the founder of Subeism or Baptism, the origin of the Mendiates, the Christians of St. John, the Baptist." and so on. All of it is possible, none of it is probable and none of it has supporting third-party historical documentation. It is all romantic theory.

You give a whole list of authorities in your essay. But in fact the 'authorities' are only quoting the author before them and each other. It all leads back to Notovitch the Russian forger.

This was the period of Theosophy and any fantastic romantic notion of Jesus and religion became grist for the theosophical mill and its Indian Neo-Vedantic equivalents.

The reason Jesus is the object of these tales is because Jesus himself is a fictional character. There is no authoritative historical evidence for his existence. As the hero of the New Testament gospels, he may be modelled on the Essene Teacher of Righteousness. But nobody knows. It is all theory and speculation. Because of 2000 years of aggressive Christian propaganda, Jesus has become a real historical person in the minds of most people. In fact the Christian claim to religious superiority is that Jesus was a real historical person while Rama and Krishna are only mythological persons. But the truth may be the reverse. As Koenraad Elst says, there is more literary evidence for Sri Rama than there is for St. Thomas. I say the same is true for Jesus and Sri Rama. 

Years ago I looked into the sources for the Jesus-in-India story as it is related to the Thomas-in-India story. I also discussed it at some length with Sita Ram Goel. When it came to historical facts, Goel was brutally honest. If the story was even partially true, he would have said so. But he didn't. He consigned it to the dust bin along with the Thomas-in-India legend. What I remember of the discussion is this:

1. The story was invented by the Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch. It was written in a very convincing style and attracted a lot of readers at the time including Hindus who swallowed everything and anything the Europeans gave them (the way Tagore, Bengal's great intellectual and Nobel Prize winner, swallowed the Aryan Invasion Theory!).
2. Max Muller asked Notovitch for proofs about his claim for Jesus in Kashmir. Notovitch was not able to produce any proofs. 
3. The abbot of Hemis monastery denounced Notovitch as a liar. 
4. The British official concerned stated that Notovitch had never visited Ladakh.
5. The present Hemis monastery, the one Notovitch allegedly visited, did not exist till the 17th century. The earlier monastery, which was built in the 10th century, was burned down shortly after it opened. What it contained in its library is any body's guess. But we can be sure Jesus never visited the place as it didn't exist in the 1st century!
6. The whole tale hinges on the term 'Isa', Issa', or 'Isha' as the name of Jesus in the documents. But 'Isa' is Sanskrit for "lord'. By what rational has this term got associated with Jesus? It could refer to anybody. In a Buddhist monastery it can refer to Buddha or a Tibetan saint. Why does it refer to Jesus specifically? The name 'Jesus' must appear in the documents before it can be said he is in the documents!
7. The term 'Issa' for Jesus in the Koran has no meaning according to my Arabic translator. There are a number of words like this in Arabic that cannot be explained, including the term 'Allah'. They are non-existent words in Arabic!
8. The so-called Jesus cave is the Vashitha Guha above Rishikesh. Take a close look at the photo on the Atma Jyoti website and see for yourself. The Atma Jyoti people are Christian priests who present themselves as Hindu sannyasis. They are frauds and their photo is fraudulent. I have visited the cave. Have you?
9. The Roza Bal tomb in Srinagar contains a Sufi saint and a Mogul ambassador to Egypt. The Mogul ambassador's tomb is the 'Jesus' in the shrine. The ambassador had converted to Christianism in Egypt and so Christian symbols have been added to his grave.
10. Christians did not adopt the cross as a symbol until after the 3rd century AD--some scholars say as late as the 6th century. The cross and crucifix were originally Greek Orphic symbols and abhorrent to early Christians who were practising Jews. Certainly Jesus (or Thomas) would not have used a cross as an identifying sign. 
11. The crosses found in Kashmir and Kerala--'Thomas crosses'--were made by Nestorian Christian missionaries who passed from Kerala up the west coast to Kashmir and on to China in the 8th and 9th centuries. The cross was introduced into India in the 4th century by Syrian Christian immigrants from Mesopotamia.
12. All the Jesus-in-India stories present Hindus as bigoted and violent idolaters who would not accept Jesus as a great teacher with superior teachings. The Jesus-in-India stories were invented to malign Hindus and show the inferiority of the Hindu religion.
13. The so-called Hindu-Buddhist influences in the New Testament are in fact Neo-Platonic influences though it is recognised that there were Hindu and Buddhist scholars in Alexandria or the nearby desert from as early as the 3rd century BC. Hindu sadhus are like leaves and get blown around the world. Our glob-trotting godmen are not a new phenomenon and sadhus have always been great travellers. 
14. The famous Sermon on the Mount so beloved by Gandhi is a Pagan, probably Neo-Platonic, interpolation into the New Testament. Certainly it does not represent the attitude of Jesus whose 'great love of mankind' did not include his own people the Jews. Jesus is the first anti-Semite and the New Testament the origin of anti-Semitism. Jesus' love for mankind is a theological invention and not what he really was about. He cursed pigs and fig trees and denied his mother at the marriage of Cana. He had a pronounced misogynistic attitude. According the the Carpocratians, and early Christian sect, Jesus and Lazarus were lovers. But his act of denying his mother at Cana would put him beyond the human pale for the Hindu and make him completely unacceptable as a religious teacher.
15. Lastly, this story cannot be accepted by believing Christians and is considered blasphemy. If Jesus did not die on the cross and shed his blood for his followers, Christians are not saved. That is the doctrine of all Christian sects and denominations. For the Christian there is no alternative except a crucified and dead Jesus.

But the real question is why do you promote this silly anti-Hindu fable in the first place? What is your objective? What is the lacunae in Hindu religion that you need to add Jesus to the pantheon of Himilayan rishis and saints? 

Isn't this just another manifestation of the Hindu 'spiritual ego' at work. Hindus nationalists want to own for themselves everything spiritual in the world--everything! So Jesus has to be made Hindu too--by hook or by crook!

But Jesus wasn't a very nice man. Read your New Testament, Rangarajanji! Jesus contributed absolutely nothing original to the world's vast body of spiritual knowledge except a curse. The curse is that all those who didn't accept his claims would burn in hell-fire for eternity. 

No Hindu mahatma would or could ever make such a curse as this! Even against his enemies!

And while Hindu nationalists are busy collecting the gods of other religions as their own, why not add Muhammad too? Muhammad, who had a Jewish rabbi as a teacher, was only copying the teaching of Moses and Jesus. So if Jesus is 'Hindu', why can't Muhammad be Hindu too? 

But Hindus in their great wisdom will not add Muhammad to their pantheon of Hindu saints!

Poor Jesus! He is everything to to everybody because he never really existed. He is a fictional literary character in the New Testament. No historian believes Jesus was a historical person any more! Christianity is a dead cult except in India and California and the White House. In India everything lives on forever in the Hindu imagination. So Jesus will live on too. Future anthropologists and archaeologists will come to India to study the Jesus cult as there will be no other place for them to find it!

Your argument that Jesus and Church are different is a very fanciful Hindu argument. The Church is built on the personality and teachings of Jesus and is the institutionalised form of Jesus and his teachings. Hindus deceive themselves when they say they accept Jesus but not Churchianity. If Hindus accept Jesus it is inevitable that they will take a soft attitude to the Church too. 

So what do you have to say about all of this, Rangarajanji? You are an international, globe-trotting guru with devotees in South Africa. You have built a temple to Bharat Mata in Bangalore which is highly commendable. You have served Hindus all of your life. You have met and been blessed by innumerable saints in your lifetime including our dear Yogiji. But still you hunger after Jesus!  Why? 

Perhaps you should reflect on this Jesus-in-India story before repeating it to others. Many Hindus take your word as Veda vakyas. Are you willing to assume the authority of Rishi Vyasa vis-a-vis the Jesus-in-India tale?

Think about it, Sadhuji!

Swami Devananda

Pondicherry

__________________________________________

«Check out Swami Devananda's Wikipedia page»