sep 2012 - rh

Founder Editor

M. N. Roy

510

THE RADICAL HUMANISTSEPTEMBER 2012

Rs. 20/monthVol. 76 No 6

(Since April 1949)

Formerly : Independent India

(April 1937- March 1949)

THE RADICAL HUMANIST SEPTEMBER 2012

The Radical Humanist

Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance

Institute

Devoted to the development of the Renaissance

Movement; and for promotion of human rights,

scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist

view of life.

Founder Editor:

M.N. Roy

Editor:

Dr. Rekha Saraswat

Contributory Editors:

Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor

Rama Kundu

Publisher:

Mr. N.D. Pancholi

Printer:

Mr. N.D. Pancholi

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Please Note: Authors will bear sole

accountability for corroborating the facts that they

give in their write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher

nor the Editor of this journal will be responsible

for testing the validity and authenticity of

statements & information cited by the authors.

Also, sometimes some articles published in this

journal may carry opinions not similar to the

Radical Humanist philosophy; but they would be

entertained here if the need is felt to debate and

discuss upon them. —Rekha Saraswat

Vol. 76 Number 6 September 2012

Download and read the journal at

www.theradicalhumanist.com

- Contents -

1. From the Editor’s Desk:

A Rudderless Politics

—Rekha Saraswat 1

2. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:

Spiritual Materialism: A Case for Atheism 2

3. Guests’ Section:

A Tribute to my father: Laxmanshastri Joshi

—Arundhati Khandkar 7

India’s Tryst With Destiny

—Uday Dandavate 9

4. Current Affairs’ Section:

Performance of Public Sector and Disinvestment

—K.S. Chalam 12

5. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section:

Proportional Representation

—Jawaharlal Jasthi 15

Anna In Deep Waters!

—Gautam Thakar 18

Narendra Modi: An Evaluation

—Jayanti Patel 20

Waging War: The Case of Seema Azad

—N..D. Pancholi 24

6. Teacher’s & Research Scholar’s Section:

MGNREGA at Work:

Glimpses from Rural Uttar Pradesh

—Ashish Saxena 28

8. Humanist News 33

A) IRI Meeting on Radical Humanism

B) Assam Report by V.K. Tripathi, IIT Delhi

C) Birthday of ‘Robert Green Ingersoll celebrated:

The Great Agnostic’

D) Humanist Gore Vidal is no more

E) A club named ‘M.N. ROY’ in Mexico

From The Editor’s Desk:

A Rudderless Politics

Numerous political parties;myriad of leaders; countless

promises; but no helmsmen!!!

No ideals; no vision, no mission, no mast; norudder; no one rowing the boat!!!

No “fortune to bring in some boats that are notsteered” (Shakespeare); and “only guys who aren’trowing, having all the time rocking theboat.”(Sartre) Strange are the circumstances!!

People are killed in the name of religion, first in thetrain then in the city, still the leader is chosen by thepeople in an opinion poll as the best manager in thestate. An event manager?

People are malnourished, jobless, penniless, yetthey choose a man who boasts of millions in hissafe to stand for them and their state in the nextelections as he is a young dynamic scion of aseemingly benevolent deceased leader in that state.A benevolent leader?

People have declared corruption to be the biggestproblem facing our country today. But the samepeople want the leaders to enjoy the loot if the latteragree to fulfil their basic needs. How can the peoplehave their share if the maximum part goes to theleaders’ coffers? What a mockery of intelligence!

People have already begun forgetting the past in ahope that the politicians would definitely deliver inthe future! We, the people, continue to live inoblivion! So short-lived is our memory!

Come 15th August each year and “we beat on, boatsagainst the current, borne back ceaselessly into thepast.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald) No Tilak, no Gandhi, noNehru, no Ambedkar, no J.P., no Lohia and, ofcourse, no Roy now! Still, people incessantly hopeto see these visionaries’ shadows in the faces theysend to the Parliament and Vidhan Sabhas, yearafter year. We keep solving riddles like— Who isblacker than the Indian coal? Who is harder than the

Indian steel? Which politician plays better than theIndian sportsmen? Whose spectrum lowers theTreasury rays? Whose investments are crossing theborders? Whose lands are larger than the maps?

Faces of the politicians change but the façades donot! Yet, hoping against hope is human nature….

An individual willingly loses his individuality to somany kinds of groups in his life-time as they tend torear his existence in so many ways. But if the samegroups begin to work as impediments and browbeatthe individual’s very survival what would he do?Try to survive without a group? That he cannot do!Then should he evolve a new group? Why not? Hehas always done that in the past. He must try itagain! Well, this would be what has always been,the ‘natural evolution’ of society!!

Likewise, a citizen eagerly forsakes his politicalfreedom into the hands of so many kinds of politicalparties as they continuously pretend to steer hisrealm in so many unique ways. But if the sameparties begin to become hazardous and intimidatethe citizen’s very subsistence in that country whatshould he do? Try to overthrow the system ofpolitics? That he cannot do as society has travelleda long way to learn to lead a civilised life in apolitical state.

May be, he should develop a new political party toserve the purpose. However, repeating my firstsentence, India already has numerous politicalparties, myriad of leaders with countless promises.But, it has no real helmsmen to steer him throughthe ever increasing problems of his life.

Can there be a defect in the party system as such?Or are we still incompetent to select sound captainsfor our ships?

Is the flaw in our political system and itsmethodology? Or are we still immature to adopt itand follow it?

May be, it is not in sync with our social system!Should we not then, once again, try to develop anew political ideology according to our indigenousrequirements?

Not an easy task, I know!

1


Rekha S.

From the Wrtings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:

Spiritual Materialism – A casefor Atheism

Translated by

—Arundhati Khandkar

[The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for

Atheism, A New Interpretation of the

Philosophy of Materialism written by

Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been

translated by his daughter, Arundhati

Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of

Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of

Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades

ago but his contribution in building up the

philosophical base of Radical Humanism has

been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time

and the followers of the philosophy continue to do

so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her

father’s major works from to Marathi to English

for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH.

And to our pleasant surprise she informed that

there is already the above mentioned book in

English done by her. It is being serialised in The

Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has

also promised to send us in English, gradually,

more of his Marathi literature.

Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title

Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How meaningful

and necessary it is, even now, 70 years later, can be

understood by the following paragraph given on

the cover page of the book. —Rekha Saraswat]

“That religion more often than not tends toperpetuate the existing social structure rather thanbeing reformist and that it benefits the upperclasses. They perpetrate the illusions and are usedfor impressing the weaker sections of the society.Many taboos which might have had somebeneficial effects are given a permanent sanctionand these put a fetter on further progress. Theargument that religion promotes social stability andsocial harmony is examined and rejected. Withoutthe dubious benefit of religion various secularworldly values have been developed and they havebenefited mankind more than the vaunted religiousvalues. With no sops of religious men havelaboured hard and the finest admirable qualities ofmen’s spirit have been developed inspite ofreligious influence – the scientists and thereformers are examples. The humility that shouldforce itself in the presence of the infinite and theunknown is more to be seen with the scientist, thephilosopher than the religious leaders and often thisdrives them to fathom the depths of thought in thequest for truth. Rarely does religion explain thehow and why. These have become thepreoccupations of people in secular fields. With asense of self-reliance and self-confidence guidinghim, man has dropped the earlier props of religion.In India too, the social order was seen asembodying moral values.”

Buddhist Doctrines of An-atman and Transience:

We know from Tripitaka- Three basketfulCollection of Buddha’s Thoughts that Buddha hadenunciated a completely different doctrine from theone implied in the idea: ‘The soul is thefundamental elementary cause behind the changingview of the universe. The universe itself isunchanging, indivisible, eternal, omnipresent andself-existent. Effect and cause being one and thesame, the whole universe itself is the soul.Formatted by the soul, the universe is eternal.’

Buddhist doctrine takes a totally different path asfollows. Each and every real thing, whatsoever, is

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Laxman S. Joshi

transient and comfortably atomistic. Effect is born only

after the cause has perished. The universe is a series of

successive annihilations. Effect replaces cause as it

expires each and every moment. The effect becomes the

cause of the birth of the next moment. Effect is

composed of many things acting in cooperation.

Therefore, the doctrine of Upanishads, ‘The causal

substance of the universe is non-transformational,

constant and the one and the same thing.’ is

unacceptable! Buddha concludes that there is no soul

because it is impossible to maintain the distinctive

features of the soul, such as omnipresence, invariance

and permanence as a real attribute. The soul inside the

body is a collective result like a chariot, a collective of

many constituent parts. The doctrinal enunciation that

there exists inside a living body, a soul constant and

indivisible, is only an illusion. This very illusion of

eternal soul produces greed and lust and creates the

bondage of sorrow in life here on the earth. Without

rejecting the doctrine of the soul, lust does not vanish.

Without the refutation of the very idea of the soul,

sorrow does not end either. In this way, Buddha

formulated the theory of object transience or the doctrine

of momentariness completely different and opposite to

the philosophy of object permanency, causally

responsible for the universe.

Paradoxically, the Buddhist philosophy accepts thedoctrine of rebirth. Buddha’s rejection of thedoctrine of eternal soul is apparently inconsistentwith the Upanishadic rebirth philosophy. As aresult, eminent historicists are caught up in utterconfusion. It is, however, possible to avoidsomewhat, somehow, this inconsistency in thefollowing manner. Buddha’s an-atman doctrinerejects the soul as the constant, fundamental andomnipresent cause of the universe. We, however,can say that Buddha does accept an animate self,existing in a flow-form, becoming a collective andliving in continuous change. That living self mayperhaps experience rebirth!

Revolt by Charvaka

At the same time of Buddha or much before, therearose a pure heterodoxy, a philosophy that deniedthe existence of the soul. That was the materialismof Charvaka. Soul or sentience is the characteristic

of the body. There is no such thing as an immortalsentiency of the self! When the body is dead so isthe spirit or the soul. Therefore, in the absence ofthe independent soul, concepts such as rebirth,heaven, perdition, or moksha are false. The life hereon earth is the only real life; the life in the otherworld is a mirage. For the purpose of putting downthis materialistic and heretic rebellion of Charvaka,the champions of religion, forced his purelyrational books vanish into oblivion. His traditionvanished long ago in antiquity. We do, however,find opportunities to read the formulation of hispure materialism as one side of an argument in theUpanishads or in the religious books of theDarshana philosophers. Charvaka rejects totallyeither god or rebirth. According to him, forconducting successfully human business,institution of religion is not needed. Thisphilosophy had enunciated the doctrine whichstated that under the guidance of sciences such aseconomics and politics alone, the organisation ofsocial institutions can run smoothly. Charvakaasserted, “Sensory knowledge alone, being usefulfor conducting life is true. Even inference is not adefinite proof. Its validity is only in the form ofprobability. One must always be cautious about thevalidity of knowledge. Scriptures under thedisguise of truth, disseminate only falsehood.’

Jain and Vaisheshika Philosophies:

Simultaneously with the non-spiritual andmaterialistic philosophical movement aroseindependently, another intellectual movement.That movement developed as Vaisheshika and Jainphilosophies. They postulated that the elementalsubstance of the universe is neither eternal as theUpanishads say nor momentary as the Buddhistssay. The causal basic substance of the universe istwofold. It is permanent and impermanent orcontinuous and discontinuous.

- An astute reader will realise here that the Jainsand the Vaisheshikas were the earliest founders ofthe theory of probability. Substance is as much inspiritual form as in corporeal form! In this way the

3


Vaisheshikas and the Jains created the pluralisticphilosophy. It is true, however, that the Jainphilosophy neither experienced a strong evolution,nor gathered a large following.

Special features of Vaisheshika Darshana:

Vaisheshika philosophy, the philosophy ofseven-category predicables, did assume aneffective role in metaphysics, a subdivision in thefield of philosophy. They were the first to postulatethe atomic doctrine. Their atomic doctrine made animpression from the very beginning, upon theBuddhist and Jainist philosophies. From the pointof view of the Vaisheshika philosophy, subatomicstructures geometrically point like infinite andeternal are the foundation of the visible universe.Combination of these subatomic structures createsthe visible universe. The knowledge of this diverseworld cannot be obtained without postulating theattributes of objects such as identity and specificity.Specificity of distinct features of objects is asimportant as their characteristic identity. Kanada,the founder of the Vaisheshika philosophy gaveimportance to the object related distinctionsmeaning the fundamental specific differences. Thistheory came to be known as the Vaisheshikaphilosophy of categorical predicables. Theappearance of the universe is not only apparent orexternal. The distinctiveness has permeated deepinto its elemental nature. The specific characteristicfeatures residing in the elemental form as the causetruly produce different effects. In this manner, theRishi Kanada enunciated a philosophy opposite tothat of the Upanishads. The original causal objectsof the universe are constant, meaning eternal,however, their effects are transient. TheVaisheshikas made two classes of these constantfundamental causes, 1) Atomic substances and 2)Omnipresent substances sky, direction, time andsoul.

Atomism is the first special feature of the Kanadaphilosophy. Its second exceptionally distinctivefeature, however, is the doctrine of the categories ofthe predicables. The second feature is a

revolutionary conceptual entry into thephilosophical systems of India. The science ofgrammar began evolving during the era ofUpanishads. The theoretical reflections of thescience of the world and grew sentence also deeper.Taking this into account, Kanada realised the valueof the classification of the words according to theirsignificance. For the purpose of understanding theobject such as the universe Kanada looked insidethe core of the language because the essence ofhuman experience, the field of knowledge, the rulesof reasoning, and the general structure ofknowledge are founded verily in the principles ofhuman language. Kanada decided that one shouldbe able to unravel the significance of each distinctexperience through reflection of the categories ormeanings of terms. He enunciated three classes ofterms: 1) Substance denotative, 2) Attributedenotative and 3) Function denotative.

Each of these classes are subdivided into twosubclasses each, such as x) commonality and y)differentiability. A sentence is used in Vaisheshikasystem to suggest the unbreakable relation betweenthese two. The system of categories in Vaisheshikais thus composed of six, in total. These categoriesof predicables are 1) substance, 2) attribute, 3)motion, 4) commonality, 5) differentiability, and 6)intimate union, non-existence as the seventhcategory was added to the Vaisheshika Darshana,much later by the scholars. A subtle analysis of thecategory of non-existence has been given in thebook of aphorisms by Kanada. The category ofnon-existence, however, has not been described asa separate category, counting it as the seventh. Thedoctrinal enunciation of the category ofnon-existence is central to the thought systems inthe Indian philosophy and logic therein. In theNavyanyaya, the novel-logic of India, one finds aconsiderable celebration of the discovery of theprinciple of nonexistence. A detailed and refinedinterpretation of the concept of non-existence,however, does not seem to be available anywherein Western philosophy unlike that in Indianphilosophy.

4


Gautama’s Science of Proof:

The science of debate began to evolve along withthe separate divisions of Indian knowledge such asmedicine, astronomy, politics, religious law andothers. The Indian logic, however, developed onlyas a sister discipline to the Vaisheshika Darshana.However, it is Gautama, who established the Indianscience of logic, the Nyaya Darshana as a separateand independent philosophical system. Problems inall the sciences and philosophies were assumed byGautama as the constituent questions inepistemology or in the science of proof. Gautama’sdiscovery of unraveling all the intricacies of thephilosophical issues from the point of view of thescience of proof, has influenced gradually all theBharatiya Darshanas. Pursuit of the science oflogic led to the independent development of theproof system of both the Buddhists and the Jains.Thinking of the universe as an object of studyinfluences also the proof system and the science oflogic. The proof system and logic evolve andchange conformably with the new developments inthe objective view point of the universe. This is thereason for the rise of various different proofsystems in the philosophical branches such asSankhya, Vedanta, and Purvameemansa. Thesecame into existence only after the birth of theNyaya Darshana of Gautama.

As a result of the separate growth of the proofsystem and the science of logic, all the Indianphilosophies were enriched with outstandingreorganisation and rational design. Mysticexperience or revelation was also forced to searchits own place in the logical structure of the samephilosophical systems. From a broad point of view,even the religious metaphysical systems ofShankaracharya, Ramanuja, Madhva and others,evolved finding the utmost satisfaction in the samelogical design. Rational thinking seems to havetaken deep roots in the Indian philosophy.

Mathematical knowledge, however, does not seemto have had any influence on the Bharatiya proofsystem. It is in itself a surprise, because India is the

original land of the science of algebra. Arithmeticsevolved systematically first only in India. Eventhen the development of mathematics could notbecome the subject of Indian logic. Mathematicalknowledge, however, did become eventually thecentral issue in the Western logic.

Intellectual Culture based upon Freedom of

Thought:

Intellectual culture based upon the freedom ofthought is truly the ancient heritage of Indianphilosophy. As a consequence, there emerged acompletely materialistic Sankhya philosophy priorto the beginning of the Brahmasutras. Historicalevidence is available to show that the veryenvironment of freedom of thought had led to therise of materialistic science of logic in India, muchearlier, prior to logic of Gautama.

- Most of the English readers are expected to befamiliar with the Aristotelian three membersyllogism such as 1) All men are mortal 2) Socratesis a man 3) Therefore, Socrates is mortal. For thoseunfamiliar with the Indian logic, here is, forinstance, Gautama’s syllogism which has 5members, a requirement in Indian philosophicalthought.

1) Proposition to be proved: The Mountain is onfire.

(Pratidnya) Parvatha vahnimaan Asti

2) Reason: Because it is up in smoke.

(Hetu) Dhumaat

3) An example: Wherever there is smoke, there isfire, example: kitchen.

(Udaharana) Yatra yatra dhumaha, tatra tatra

vahnihi, yatha mahaanasaha

4) Special case application: This Mountain displayssimilar smoke.

(Upanayana) Tadrushaha, dhumavaan ayam

parvataha vartate

5) Deduction: Therefore, this mountain is on fire.

(Nigamana) Ataha parvataha ayam vahniman Asti

In the treatise of Purvameemamsa-EnlighteningAphorisms, Kumarilabhatta has said that, ‘Even

5


amongst the faithful followers of the Vedicreligion, the founders of the analytical system ofthe rituals of religion, the Purvameemamsakas andthe materialistic Purvameemamsa Darshana hadbegun growing.’

All the subdivisions of the materialistic Darshanas

mentioned above, have vanished in the course oftime. One important sign, however, of rationalismand freedom of thought seems to have survived.That sign is Charvaka’s Atheism. BesidesCharvaka’s atheism, Sankhya Darshana,Purvameemansa, Vaisheshika Darshana, JainaDarshana and Buddha Darshana also do not acceptgod.

There exists a large treasure of India’s philosophy.

By delving deep into it, it is possible to find lastingthoughts and inspirational principles. Aconsiderable amount of raw material is storedtherein about the subjects such as ethics,psychology, logic and epistemology. A movementfor resurgence of the Bharatiya knowledge systemsseems to have made a beginning in recent times. Ifthis work is done with the wrong sense ofpossessiveness, without rational point of view, ourintellectual power will suffer under the burden ofthe old worn-out concepts. Blind faith andmysticism will harm the pursuit. We must exertcaution in this matter. Past often does not offerinspiration, it does however teach a lesson!

Book concluded.

6


Letter to the Editor:

Dear Editor,

I read your editorial - I am a woman, so what? on the RG website.

What a beautiful piece of work!

The editorial resonated very deeply with me. I think it encapsulates the mental struggles of my

childhood and youth.

My mother who is a strong person but one of this world brought up my sister and me to be independent

so that we could learn to live life without having to be dependent on anyone else.

But at the same time she is also very traditional, in that she wanted us to be settled (in Indian terms, of

course, that means being married and having children).

Of the two of us, my sister has followed the path my mother had envisioned for us.

For me I know she supports my wish to make my own unique way through life.

I think that though she will never vocalise this, she is very proud of the fact that I don't have to answer to

anybody but myself.

But I know she worries about me a lot.

I think this a quandary all mothers have to face.

Indu Pillai

London, U.K.

Guests’ Section:

A Tribute to my father,Laxmanshastri Joshi

—by Arundhati Khandkar

Those two days we all were tense andbewildered as Aba – my father was not in

the town. He was away in Calcutta to attend theannual convention of the Radical DemocraticParty, in the last week of Jan, 1948, when the newsof Gandhiji’s assassination reached us in Wai, acertain section of the society started torching thehouses of the Brahmin families. We children couldsee from the windows of the school, huge red andorange flames leaping towards the sky and it wasdarkening by the thick cloud of smoke. The schoolwas later abruptly closed when we waited for Aba.Aba returned home, calm, and cool and all of us feltrelaxed. He assured us that he knew well thatnothing untoward would happen to our home as allthe people knew of his close association withGandhi. He said further that it was the magic spellthat was going to protect our home.

Aba used to travel often and we children got used tohis frequent absence from home. It was hiscommitment to religious reforms in the beginning,later his role as a principal adviser to M. Gandhiwhen he launched the campaign againstuntouchability that needed him to visit differentpeople at different places. Aba’s 26 volume ofproject of Dharmakosh, his long affair withMarxism and M.N. Roy as well as his engagementwith Marathi Vishwakosh (Encyclopedia inMarathi) kept him away. But every time hereturned there was a beaming, smile on his face andin his bag with lot of sweets and fruits and books forus. He appeared to us just like a Santa Claus. Backat home his evenings were carved out for uschildren. After we recited our tables ritually, it wasa story session. We used to sit around him and listento the stories of heroes and villains from differentlands and distant cultures. He amused us as he wasa compelling storyteller.

He entertained his visitors in his study room wherethere were quite a few cupboards full of books, Iwithout any inhibition, picked up any book, anymagazine. There was one rotating book rack onwhich were stacked heavy books. I often lookedinto the volumes on European paintings. Therewere beautiful nude drawings therein still he neversaid ‘don’t take those books, they are not meant forchildren’. He did not ever ask me about how I wasdoing in school, or what my performance was like.Even when I took my progress book to him forsigning he just put his signature on the dotted line.while I was studying for philosophy honours coursein Pune University, I found Kant’s transcendentalmethod and a priori concepts of space and timedifficult. I approached him and he made it so easythat I felt at the top of the world.

I recall the day when I did not reach theexamination hall because I had noted the timetablewrongly, I missed the paper at my master’sexamination which amounted to losing the entireacademic year. I was married at that time and hadnot joined my husband as I had to complete myfinal year. Such a mistake on my part filled me withremorse and guilt. Aba came from Wai to pick meup. He showed me the list of books of the SahityaAcademy, to be translated and asked me if I wasinterested in such a task. I picked up Mahiavelli’sThe Prince for translation and then he brought quitea few books on political-science for me to read so asto do a good translation job. When the work wasfinished after a few months he went through itcarefully before submitting it to the office of theSahitya Academy, New Delhi. Without saying it inso many words he enabled me to convert that yearinto a very fruitful one.

It was about a few months later I visited Wai in themonth of Savan. The garden was in full bloom. Abagot an idea suddenly of celebrating mangalagaur

the ritual worship to be performed by the newlymarried girls. He collected a large variety ofjasmine flowers, magnolia, parijat and colouredhibiscus. He decorated a portion of the hall withfresh fragrant flowers and enjoyed every bit of the


7

8


ceremony. Though such an erudite scholar yet Abawas surprisingly very sentimental while it came tofamily. My second son was born fourteen yearsafter my elder one. I was about to quit my job whenhe and my mother tried to reason with me, He said,‘Look Suman, we want to take care of your child.Your baby will grow and enter the school in threeyears time, so it is not wise to sacrifice your career’.They brought up my son Ajay, informing me onphone, from time to time about his progress, hisvocabulary, his likes and dislikes etc.

I lost my husband all of a sudden on Republic Dayin 1983. Aba stayed with me for a month for takingcare of me, helping me to come to terms with thehuge tragedy in my life. He noticed me on oneoccasion sitting on my bed and sobbing in themiddle of the night, immediately he pulled the chairnear my bed and said, ‘Suman, collect yourself, Iunderstand your grief. Now listen to me, write inyour diary every-thing that crosses your mind, allyour thoughts and feelings. Great literature is bornfrom such intense experiences’. He was playing adouble role that of my mother as well as his own.My mother had passed away untimely andsuddenly way back in 1978 at the age of 64. Thathad shattered him. I never wanted to see him

collapse again. I thereafter announced to him that Iwas going to attend the course of Vipashyana ofGoenka at Igatpuri, to attain some peace. Hesmilingly said, ‘Even if you go to the Himalayasthat will not guarantee the peace you are seeking.Peace has to come from within.’ I changed my plan,thereafter.

When in Mumbai, he always stayed at my place. Hemanaged his breakfast of toast and milk and fruits.He waited for me to come from college to prepareour lunch. As I got down to simple cooking, hewould follow me to the kitchen, and observe how Iwent about the cooking. He once exclaimed. ‘I hadtold your mother to impart a few preliminarylessons to me in cooking but she did not do it’.

At the age of ninety, I was amazed to see himdeliver three lectures on Shankaracharya, on threeconsecutive evenings. The elite of Mumbaiattended those lectures and enjoyed his fluentexposition laced with humour. What anextraordinary father I was lucky to have! Myhumble tribute to such a great father is to translatehis important works into English so that they reacha larger panorama of reading public. Thus, I shallbe able to perpetuate his memory.


Dear Madam,

With immense regard and appreciation, I salute you for putting forth your article, I am a woman: So

what? It’s both ecstatic and sad that almost every woman in our country can relate with your article.Ecstatic because, the way you embellished the thought with your wonderful words, it seemed like itcame right from every woman’s heart. And sad because we, the women of India, have to face suchmisery, where neither a woman is free to live the way she likes, nor is she safe in any which way shelives. The mounting amount of atrocities on women has put this beautifully gender in a state ofconfusion, where living itself is a challenge and living with dignity is a greater challenge. While you asa liberated woman had the guts to raise your voice and ask, ‘I am a woman: So what?’ There are womenacross the country you may pity their own existence and ask, ‘Why am I a woman’ and nothing can bemore shameful when the most beautiful creation on Earth, who has the power to give birth, begins toquestion her own existence.

Namita S Kalla

Jaipur, Rajasthan

Reflections from the

U.S.

[Mr. Uday Dandavate

studies people, cultures and

trends worldwide and uses

the understanding gained

from such studies to inspire

people centered innovation

strategies. Uday Dandavate

heads up a design research

consulting firm called SonicRim. He frequently

writes and speaks on topics related to people

centered design and innovation in international

journals and conferences. [email protected]]

India’s Tryst with Destiny

Three important dates in the month ofAugust hold a special place in my

memory. August 1st is the anniversary of the deathof Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, whose famousproclamation, “Swaraj (self rule) is my birthrightand I will achieve it,” inspired the nation with anindigenous vision for the development of India.Mahatma Gandhi articulated the concept of Swaraj

in his thesis, Hind Swaraj, "Independence begins atthe bottom . . . A society must be built where everyvillage has to be self-sustained and capable ofmanaging its own affairs . . . It will be trained andprepared to perish in the attempt to defend itselfagainst any onslaught from without . . . This doesnot exclude dependence on and willing help fromneighbours or from the world. It will be a free andvoluntary play of mutual forces. In this structurecomposed of innumerable villages, there will beever-widening, never-ascending circles. Growthwill not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by thebottom, but it will be an oceanic circle whose centrewill be the individual. Therefore the outermostcircumference will not wield power to crush theinner circle, but will give strength to all within andderive its own strength from it.”

Gandhi believed that the overall impact of the stateon the people is harmful. He called the state a“soulless machine” which, ultimately, does thegreatest harm to mankind. It was for this that hedeveloped the two-pronged strategy of resistance(to the state) and reconstruction (through voluntaryand participatory social action). Gandhi’s ideas onSwaraj were greatly influenced by LokmanyaTilak, who he considered his guru. The dream ofSwaraj remains unattained even 65 years afterindependence.

Another significant day in the month of August isAugust 9th – August Kranti Divas. For severaldecades every year citizens of Mumbai participatedin a silent procession from the statue of Lok ManyaBal Gangadhar Tilak standing tall in the sands ofGirgaum Chowpati, to the August Kranti Maidan,where on August 9th 1942 Mahatma Gandhi gave acall to the British rulers to “Quit India”. Themarchers would hold up placards carrying portraitsof freedom fighters drawn by artist V.N. Okay.Upon reaching August Kranti Maidan, themarchers would disperse without making anyspeeches. It was a moment to remember thesacrifices of the freedom fighters that brought usindependence. Even today I have fond memories ofthe solemn atmosphere that surrounded the event.

Six days after August 9th India celebrates itsIndependence Day. On this day every year, thePrime Minister emulates the ritual started by PanditJawaharlal Nehru 65 years ago by unfurling theIndian flag at the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi.The video clips of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’sfamous, “At the stroke of midnight when the worldsleeps, India awakes,” are played on television setsto remind the nation of India’s tryst with destiny.With the passing years, as I watch corruption creepinto the political system and the nation’s resourcesare stacked away in Swiss bank accounts ofself-serving ministers, the ritual at the Red Fortincreasingly appears hollow. A documentary film,“Yeh Kaisi Azadi hai”(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1T5aYzYxoU) directed by Pravin Misra, vividly articulates the

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Uday Dandavate

frustrations of millions of marginalized Indianswho find their dream of Swaraj slipping away.India’s tryst with destiny has now turned intoIndia’s tryst with Nehru dynasty. India’s hope forSwaraj is sailing through rough waters.

As I watched Anna Hazare leading a cry of “BharatMata Ki Jai” at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi lastweek on TV, I started thinking about the contrastbetween my positive emotions on August 1st andthe 9th and a sense of frustration I experience onAugust 15th. I started missing the solemnatmosphere of August 9th from decades ago. I wasovercome by a sense of concern for theanti-corruption movement, which seems to becaught in the storm; a movement that left the shoresto a great aplomb is now struggling to stabilize andset its direction. I felt concerned because I am oneof those who stood on the shore and cheered theTeam Anna crew as they sailed into the waters. Justas the Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus’voyage in search of the East Indies took him to theAmericas, I have always hoped that the currentanti-corruption movement would ultimately find ashore that would open up a new land ofopportunities for those of us who believe in theirmission. Those of us who cheered the MissionAnna want it to succeed because the mood of anaverage Indian today is closer to the spirit ofAugust 9th than in the ritualistic celebratory moodof August 15th. For many of the movementsupporters who draw excitement from the imagesof protests on the television sets, the anti-corruptionmovement may appear like a Bollywood movieplot with a guaranteed happy ending. However, forseasoned political activists there is a real reason tobe concerned about the perceived focus of thecurrent movement on theatrics over disciplinedaction and on media manipulation over cadrebuilding.

There is a need for consolidating theanti-corruption sentiment and translating it into anorganized network of informed and inspiredcitizens. Bringing clarity to an alternative vision ofmodern India will alone help bring about necessary

reforms in the Indian political system. In his recentarticle, Shri Pannalal Surana, Chairman of theParliamentary board of The Socialist Party of India,has succinctly pointed out the true “reform” Indianeeds – not the one championed by the agents ofGlobal Corporations – but by social reformers suchas Jyotiba Phule, Tilak, and Agarkar. I notice thatArvind Kejriwal often refers to the “TotalRevolution” that Jayprakashji dreamt about. I havealso heard Anna Hazare refer to Jayprakashji andGandhiji as his inspiration. I hope and trust that thefacilitators of the current anti-corruptionmovement will clarify to their followers the truemeaning of the total revolution that Jayprakashjienvisioned or the reforms that Pannalal Suranarefers to in his article. Now that they have chosenthe path of entering the political process, there is aneed for the leaders of this movement to rise aboveslogan mongering and dedicate time to building asustainable organization by aligning itself withpeople of integrity and ideas for innovative ways ofbuilding a modern society of responsible citizens.The concept of Swaraj will serve as the template fordeveloping a manifesto for the new politicalplatform.

I am aware that the concern I have for thesustainability of the current movement is shared bymany other friends who feel disappointed by teamAnna’s ambivalence on defining a clear ideologicalframework. Some of our friends are disappointed atTeam Anna’s decision to establish a new politicalplatform; they would rather want the movement toremain a grass-root-level watchdog and stay clearof the corrupting influence of the electoral process.It is important to remember that, despite his viewson the limitations of the state, even Gandhi thoughtit necessary to evolve a mechanism to achieve thetwin objectives of empowering the people and“empowering” the state. Veteran Leader Late S.M.Joshi often referred to electoral politics as a “CoalMine”. He would say, “It is important to get into thecoal mine to harness the energy, but then one isbound to stain one’s clothes. This is where peoplelike me are needed. My job is to remain in the coal

10


mine and send my colleagues to the cleaners whenthey are tainted by the corrupting forces of electoralpolitics”.

Though it is not clear yet whether Team Annaenvisions formation of a new party, alignment oflikeminded parties, or poaching talent fromexisting parties, it is clear that the support themovement has received amongst masses issignificant. Today, misplaced development agendahas already pushed the poor and the marginalizedsections of the society outside the ambit of India’s“tryst with destiny”. There is a growing resentmentamongst people in the decline of public institutionsand rampant corruption at every level of interfacewith the government. Anger and violence isgrowing amidst the poorer and marginalizedsections of India. It won’t be long before Naxalismcrosses the relatively insulated doorsteps of urbanIndia. The current atmosphere provides a perfectopportunity to educate masses about what it willtake to undertake sustainable political reforms.

New vision for political reforms must rise aboveanthropocentric view. Problems of inequality,poverty, and international conflicts today stemfrom human’s greed of consuming naturalresources. A market-centric model of developmenthas been largely responsible for unleashing humangreed for consumption. Rapid urbanization andincreased pace of life has benumbed people fromusing human-scale capacities and sensitivitiesendowed in us by nature, and has turned us intoslaves of technologies. It is necessary to restore theecological balance and alter our behaviours in amanner that allows humanity to survive in harmonywith nature’s principles.

On India’s Independence Day, I hope that those ofus who believe in social justice and humanity’sresponsibility in preserving ecological balanceharness our current anger against corruption andtranslate that into a new vision for Swaraj. Peopleof India have lost faith in the Congress party and theBJP, and are looking for an alternative political

platform. Anna Hazare has announced that he willnot contest elections but will travel around India toawaken the youth around a new purpose. I hope thatIndian youth will rise above the sense of resignedacceptance of corruption in daily life, andcontribute their energy and ideas for developing anew model of Hind Swaraj. I hope that India canserve as an example to the rest of the world inredefining a new framework for progress. We needto shift the measures of progress from achievingefficiency, productivity, and speed to enablingequity, justice, and creativity. We need to shift ourfocus from consumption to preservation (of naturalresources) and from conflict to collaboration.While maintaining a balanced perspective onhuman craving for personal gratification, it isimportant to cultivate in our children respect forsocial justice and responsibility. We need to buildtools that match the skills, capacities, andimagination of different sections of the society.

Anna Hazare will serve the country well if heembarks on a Pad Yatra and galvanizes theimagination and energies of the youth, who areeager to participate in the political process. Unlikemany of our friends who feel sceptical of theanti-corruption movement or have misgivingsabout the secular credentials of some of themembers of the Team Anna, I still harbour a hopethat Anna will facilitate creation of a new dream forIndia through a participatory process. He may nothave the erudition of Bhimrao Ambedkar, theclarity of Ram Manohar Lohia, or theorganizational discipline of Jayprakash Narayan,yet he has empathy for the marginalized people ofIndia, and masses hold him in high esteem. In theeyes of the average Indian, Anna Hazare standstaller than any other political leader today. Annahas the opportunity to respond to the respect he hasearned in people’s minds by attracting youth to anew platform for India’s development. India’scurrent mood for eradicating corruption frompublic life is a perfect opportunity for pursuing thedream of Swaraj in an organized fashion.

11


Current Affairs’ Section:

[Prof K.S.Chalam is a former Member, Union

Public Service Commission, New Delhi. He was

Vice-Chancellor, Dravidian University, Kuppam,

A.P. and earlier Prof of Economics at Andhra

University. He was the first Director of Swamy

Ramanand Tirtha Rural Institute, Bhoodan

Pochampally during 1997-98. He is known as the

pioneer of the Academic Staff College Scheme in

the country as the scheme was strengthened by

UGC on the basis of his experiments in 1985. He

became the first founder director of the Academic

Staff College at Andhra University in 1987. He

was actively involved in the teachers’ movement,

secular and rationalist activities and served as

the National Secretary, Amnesty International

during [email protected]]

Performance of Public Sectorand Disinvestment

Public sector enterprises or economicactivity of government is considered as

an investment in the security of people of a nation.In all modern economies including the purecapitalist systems, public sector exists at least tomaintain public utilities and in many a country toprovide necessary economic and technologicalguidance to the private sector by the state.However, the neo-classical theories in 1980sdescribed the public sector as a drain on theeconomy as most of them were considered in pure

economic terms as loss making units. They werealso considered by some economists as the sourcesthat promote rent seekers. One of the importantarguments advanced by these scholars and theirsupporters for the withdrawal of the state or whatwas called at that time as the ‘non-communistwithering away of state’ was to avoid economicdrain owing to public enterprises. They have alsodeveloped indicators including efficiency,productivity, profitability etc, to prove that they areuseless and better to abandon them as soon aspossible. Now the situation seemed to havechanged after gaining experience with the Westernmodels for two decades. We can now discuss aboutthe need for the existence of the public sector on thebasis of the parameters developed by experts(risking the adversaries to label me as a publicsector fundamentalist) to show that the publicenterprises are the life blood of the developingcountries like India.

The history of public enterprises in India dates backto Chanuka’s description about the regulatoryauthorities to control public works. It is said thateven artisan guilds were entrusted with supervisoryfuctions by the state and the British mercantilistinroads in to India was facilitated by the crown.Therefore, state or government enterprises havealways been there as a part of state activity. Therewas serious discussion on the role of public sectorin the independent country by freedom fightersincluding those who were business men as part ofBombay plan. Radical thinkers and others under theleadership of Tarkunde have prepared the People’splan that emphasized on the role of government tobring industrialization. The role of thinkers likeRam Manohar Lohia, Jawahar Lal Nehru andothers in the socialist group of the Congress partywere also providing ideological arguments in favorof public sector while B.R. Ambedkar hassubmitted a memorandum demanding eminentposition to public sector to achieve state socialism.Thus, there was sufficient ground for thedevelopment and expansion of public sector till the1991 neo-colonial policies were implemented

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K.S. Chalam

where this sector was given a tepid treatment.

The economic history of India would show howpublic enterprises were established by the Britishduring famines to aid and help the victims. Theindustrial policy of the independent governmentparticularly Jawahar Lal Nehrus’ 1948 policy wasa land mark for igniting the spirit ofindustrialization and modernization in a newlyindependent country. The congress party has gone astep further in passing a resolution in their Awadicongress to initiate Socialism through theimplementation of industrial policy of 1956 withcommanding heights prearranged to public sector.There were only 5 PSEs in 1951 and the number hasreached 244 by 1990. But, the reforms introducedby PV NarasimhaRaos’ government haveweakened the PSEs and private investment wasallowed with sky as the limit to achieve aturnaround in the economy. The left parties andsome congress men have expressed apprehensionsthe way the economy was made private oriented.But, the philosophy of neo liberalism seemed tohave guided the privatization of existing publicsector units and disinvestment of minority stakes insome public sector units including the Navaratnasbegan in 1992.

There seem to be a rethinking on the need for publicenterprises in India. The Prime Minister in hisaddress to the conference of chief executives ofpublic enterprises in March 2007 has said that “therevitalization of our public sector is an integral partof our strategy of promoting “inclusive growth”.We regard the public sector truly as an importantsource of R&D in our industrial sector”. Thus, theindicators that were used to make the PSEs asscapegoats have turned upside down to prove thatalmost all the PSE units are not only makingprofits, but substantially contributing to therevenue of the government through taxes andsurpluses. For instance, out of 231 PSEs in 2001around 100 units were making marginal losses but,the overall profit of all PSEs was estimated to be Rs38233 crores and realized profits after paying alltaxes, payments etc came to Rs 17903 crores. The

situation has substantially changed by 2010-2011when only 220 units were left and employed acapital investment of Rs 949499 crores andobtained an overall profit of Rs 22763 crores. Thecontribution to the exchequer through taxes was Rs45303 crores and realized profit of Rs 51002crores. The loss making units have come down toaround 60 in sectors that is crucial for the societyand economy.

The evaluation of public enterprises by thefinancial ratios created by Business managers doesnot take in account how the prices of the PSE aredetermined. The prices of most of the unitsincluding the Oil companies till recently are guidedby the administered prices. The administered pricesare calculated taking in to consideration severalissues including the welfare of the people. Forinstance, the price of a life saving drugmanufactured in a PSE as compared to a privatecompany is not based solely only on the unit costs.It is necessary to look at the economics of PSEswhere high depreciation cost that includes not onlyplant and machinery but also social overheadcapital as per norms are invested that makes themargins lower compared to private units. R. Nagrajhas found in one of his studies that over the last 40years, public sector prices never exceeded theoverall price level and in 2003-4, the relative pricestood just 83 percent of what it was in 1960-61. Itmeans the public sector prices are growing slowerthan the overall price levels of the economy as awhole. If the implicit subsidies are taken in toconsideration in the calculation of inflation, the roleof the public goods and services to the society willbe known as substantial. Further, some of the PSEsare the ones that were making losses in the privatesector and got in to the government sector toprovide social protection to the workers, as a modelemployer etc. For instance, the nationalization ofNational Textiles comes under this category.

The international economic experience hasprovided several lessons to our policy makers.Generally, the regulatory bodies like RBI are giventhe credit for the stability of the Indian economy

13


during the economic crisis of 2008. But, the roleplayed by the PSEs that have substantiallycontributed to the GDP, trade and industrial peaceis not taken in to consideration for such an estimate.It is true that the autonomy given to the PSEs andthe fact that the international exposure and strategicadvantage of being technologically advanced in themanufacturing sector have given advantage to ourPSEs. Yet, the government has introduced a policycalled Disinvestment of public sector units in 1992and is institutionalized with a separate Departmentof Disinvestment now. If we look at thecontroversies that are encircled in some of theimportant privatization bids like BALCO, VSNL.Centaur hotel and 17 other hotels of TourismCorporation etc, the intentions would be clear.Despite of the disagreement on the method, thesuccessive governments have gone ahead withdisinvestment in all the PSEs particularly in the

Maharatnas like ONGC .It is found that out of thetotal disinvestment of Rs 82199 crores as on2011-12, the total amount during the first 15 yearswas Rs 47832 crores making the remaining amountin just six years notwithstanding the protest fromLeft parties and others.

Interestingly, the privatization was facilitated bythe Apex court in a land mark judgment in BALCOcase in December 2001. It is said ,”thus apart fromthe fact that the policy of disinvestment cannot bequestioned as such, the facts here in show that fair,just and equitable procedure has been followed incarrying out their disinvestment”. The publicmemory is very short and some critiques know howthis judgment and the subsequent developments inprivatization made the owner of BALCOdeveloping as a giant in a short period to articulatepolicies of the government that have createdtensions in central India, Odisha etc.

14



Dear Editor,

Your editorial brings out very beautifully the actual, true and current status of women in today’ssociety.

There exists a hypocritical kind of freedom of expression for women folk in Indian society today. Thereis freedom to be like a cosmopolitan female, yet the originally “Indian” version of a girl child is alwaysgiven preference because the concept of “good” and “bad” has been seeped into the subconscious ofhuman beings historically.

The plight of woman has always been a problem because of the way it has been taken, perceived, andinterpreted by society at large. Women have been seen quite differently from men, which is right andcorrect in the sense of them being actually a different variety of human beings with a varied sense andsensibility from that of men.

There is no problem in labelling men and women with clichés of identity and identification. The troublearises when these labels are taken too far and people begin to judge, sense and control the sentience of ahuman being on the basis of these names and labels.

It has always been a free world apart from the mental torment and trauma of surface-level analysing andre-analysing that happens in one’s own mind because of the perpetration of clichés and baselines whichmay or may not work in today’s date for humanity on the whole.

—Mallika Saraswat,

London, U.K.

IRI/IRHA Members’ Section:

[Mr. Jawahar Lal Jasthi has been associated with

the Radical Humanist and the Rationalist

Movement since his college days through his

uncle, late Mr. Jagannatham and his

father-in-law, late Mr. K. Radhakrishnamurty

(who had contested the first General Elections

under the Radical Democratic Party banner). Mr

Jasthi has contributed articles in Telugu and

English. His one unpublished book Oh My God is

based on the futile search for God in the annals of

science.]

Proportional Representation

One of the demands of ‘India AgainstCorruption’ movement was reform of

election law. Their main demand was for a right torecall the representative if he fails to reflect theopinion of the constituency. It was a limiteddemand and at the same time fraught with its ownpractical difficulties.

The main reason for the failure of our electionsystem is the many defects and drawbacks withinthe law and rules framed thereunder. Even whenthe defects are glaringly visible, there is no effort toget them rectified. Neither the party in power northose in opposition think on those lines. Usually,the wrong provision will give some advantage tothose who are in power. The opposition parties tryto retain it so that they too can take advantage of itas and when they come to power. That is whylegislations like the Lokpal will never see the lightof the day.

Political parties are the main agencies that contestelections and they have least accountability. Theyare legally entitled to collect funds, but how theycollect and how they spend is not subjected to realscrutiny. Contributions to political parties aretreated on par with charitable contributions. Are thepolitical parties charitable organizations? In fact,they are the most aggressive and recalcitrantorganizations. Big industrial houses establishcharitable trusts through which politicalcontributions are made. Is politics a charitableactivity? The parties do not pay any tax becausewhat they receive is not considered income. Theonly condition applicable to them is that they getthe accounts audited once in a year by anindependent auditor. According to those accounts,the income of the Congress party for the year2009-2010 was Rs.529.97 crores and that ofBharatiya Janata Party, Rs.251.74 crores.Depending on the elections faced during the year,the figures do not appear to be credible. Those whocontribute to political parties can claim taxexemptions. Nobody will open the black box just toget tax benefits. That amount will be out of account– both for the donor and recipient. It goes withoutentry in any account.

There is no condition that others should not spendon behalf of the party or the candidate. Thus inevery election crores of rupees are spentunaccounted. According to the regulations, theexpenditure of a contestant for an assembly seatcannot exceed Rs. 25 lakhs and that for aparliament seat Rs. 40 lakhs. In practice it is anopen secret that this expenditure is reachingmultiples of crores and the regulators are not in aposition to prevent it in spite of their best efforts.Before every election there are reports that croresof rupees are caught by the police from the vehiclesof political activists but there is no report on whathappens to that amount. After an inquiry under theRight To Information (RTI) Act, it was stated thatmost of the amount was returned to those fromwhom it was caught as they proved that it was for alegitimate purpose. How strange! If it was for legal

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Jawaharlal Jasthi

purpose, why was it not transferred through legalchannels? Can you transfer money thrust in gunnybags like any other commodity? Is it not forbiddenunder the Income Tax Act (ITA)? It is not a surprisethat the efforts have no effect.

If the contestants concentrate on the expenditureincurred by the opponents, it is not at all difficult togather evidence of such expenditure as it is so open.The pity is none of them resort to it as all of themconcentrate on breaking the law as it confirms theircapacity and efficiency. In the earlier electionsthere were cases in which the election of particularcandidates were declared invalid based on the proofof excessive expenditure submitted by theopponent to election commission. There were caseswhere elections were declared invalid based onproof of invoking religious sentiments. But,now-a-days there are no such qualms and no holdsbarred. Now there are some parties like Lok Satta inAndhra Pradesh, who claim to be ethical and so donot have the capacity or will to spend an amountexceeding the prescribed limits. They could as wellconcentrate on collecting evidence of expenditureby the opponents and submit to regulators. It wouldbe a great service to the election process.

There are two reasons for this tendency to break therules – one is that the elections have becomepersonal responsibility of the contestants even ifthey contest in the name of a party. In fact, partiestend to select candidates based on their capacity tospend.

The second reason is that the contest is confined toa prescribed area, the constituency, which consistsof heterogeneous group of voters whom he has towoo to win. By hook or crook, to win is the aim.

Once in ten years, census is taken and theboundaries of constituencies are redrawn. Thenumber of seats in the legislatures is fixed, but thepopulation increases every day. The increase is notuniform in all constituencies. To keep the numberof members in the legislature constant, it isnecessary to increase the number of voters in eachconstituency equitably. For that purpose, the

boundaries of constituencies are redrawn.Influence will be brought on the authorities toensure that the boundary covers favorable villages.Because of that the geographical boundaries ofconstituencies take bizarre forms. The result ofelection depends on the concentration of the votersof particular hue within the constituency. Acommunity or party that has substantial memberswould not get its representatives in the legislature ifits members are distributed thin.

Moreover, there is less to choose between thevarious parties as there appears no differencebetween their manifestos and plans. There isnothing like a philosophy for them. To get electedis the only aim that sanctifies everything. Theymake improbable promises. Voters naturally takeother factors into consideration and vote.

One way of overcoming these difficulties, at leastto some extent, is to adopt proportionalrepresentation. In this system each party submits itsmanifesto to the electorate based on which the voterwould be able to choose. Even in this system, thenumber of seats in the legislature is fixed. But, thereis no division of the state into constituencies. Theentire state or country is one constituency for thepurpose of elections. Along with the manifestoeach party will issue a list of names who will be therepresentatives on behalf of the party in thelegislature, if elected. But how many of them willbecome members will depend on the proportion ofvotes secured by the party in the election. If theparty gets 30% of the votes polled, it will get 30%of the seats in the legislature. The top 30 out of thelist will be the members. If the party happens to bethe majority party, the first named in the list will bethe chief minister or prime minister as the case maybe.

For example, elections in Israel are held on thebasis of proportional representation. There are 120seats in the Knesset, their parliament. If a party gets30% of the total valid votes polled, it will get 36seats in the Knesset. The top 36 members in theirlist will become members in the legislature. They

16


do not represent a particular area or constituency.They represent the party as people voted based onthe manifesto of the party. The individual namesmay carry weight, but it is secondary. The partiesmust be careful to select people with goodreputation to get more votes. Even under thepresent system, in spite of members representing aparticular constituency, they go by the dictates ofthe party on any issue. At times it may be not in linewith the opinion of the constituency. That is whythe demand for recall has come.

If the party gets only 2% votes, they get one seat inthe Knesset. The parties that get less than that areignored as fractional members cannot be allotted.Even when a party gets higher percentage of votesand becomes a major party, there is no guaranteethat it will form government. It is possible that theother parties may join hands to get majority in thehouse. The right to form government depends onthe majority in the legislature. One party may get40% votes and another party 35%. The party thatgot 16% votes may join hands with the 35% party tomake 51% and get the right to form governmentoverlooking the party that got 40%. A coalitiongovernment comes into existence. It happenedmany times in Israel. Even the present governmentis a coalition government.

As the members do not represent any area orconstituency, parochialism is avoided. In theconstituency election, the votes cast for thedefeated candidate are of no consequence. Acommunity or a party may not get anyrepresentation even if they are in substantialnumber over the country. But in the case ofproportional representation, such injustice isavoided. Wherever they are, they get counted andhave effect.

Even in Israel, there are second class citizens – thePalestinians settled within the area of Israel.Initially they did not have voting rights. Later, theywere given rights with restrictions. Theserestrictions are getting relaxed over time. Even thenthey are not equals with Jewish citizens. They are

now allowed to form party and contest elections.The proportional system allows them to getmembers into the Knesset which would not havebeen possible if elections are held on constituencybasis. Similar was the case with someconstituencies in the United States. Colouredcitizens objected to redrawn boundaries of certainconstituencies as they will result in depriving theopportunity of getting their representatives in theredrawn constituency. The community was inmajority in one constituency which was disturbedin such a way that in both the constituencies theybecome minorities.

In India, there is always a complaint frombackward classes that they are not able to get properrepresentation in the legislatures in spite of thembeing in overall majority in the country. Toovercome that drawback, they demand reservationof some constituencies for them. Instead of that, ifthey demand for proportional representation takingthe state or the country as one constituency, theyare likely to get more representation, perhapscommensurate with their numbers. This will bepossible only if they stand united, which appears adream in the present situation. There could be oneobjection. Israel is a small country which is notdivided into states. That is why they could conductelections on proportional basis taking the entirecountry as one unit. But it may be difficult for acountry like India, vast in area and huge in voternumber. Having accustomed to one system formore than half a century, it will be difficult to adaptto another system midway. There will be naturallethargy to move over. But it need not beimpossible. If there is a will, there will be a way. Itneeds amendment to the constitution, which wehave done more than a hundred times within 50years.

Proportional representation may not be a panaceafor all the ills of the present system. But we arecompetent to find ways and means to circumvent orundermine any system, whatever it is. More thananything, integrity and sincerity of purpose areessential to make anything succeed.

17


[Gautam Thaker is General Secretary of IRHA

and PUCL Gujara units. His contact address is 4,

Sanmitra Society, Opp. Malav Talav, Jivraj Park,

Ahmedabad – 380 051. Mob: 09825382556]

Anna in deep water!

Proposition to offer new alternative forchanging the system not possible

Non-political agitation of Anna Hazare will nowtake on a political hue. Anna team is hopeful thatstreet fight will now be fought on the floor of theParliament. V.K. Singh, former Chief of Armyendorsed this fact by recollecting the poem writtenby Dinkar that singhasan khali karo, Janata aati

hai i.e. ‘Vacate the seat of power, the publiccomes.’

In fact, situation is quite the reverse. Since Annahas disbanded his team, it can be said that tragic andunexpected end of prevalent situation of theagitation has been brought about by his teammembers themselves. Taking into account theincidents occurred during the entire agitation, it canbe said that moral strength of fasting hasdegenerated into complete extinction orannihilation. In the democratic system of rule,strategy and tactics of fasting and other forms ofpressures do not last for a long time. He shouldhave kept in mind that there is a Parliamentarydemocracy in India and for enactment of law, thereis a need for majority strength. The tendency toviolate the rules, regulations and laws in order toprove their point of view and to convince about

one’s stand point is deplorable. End of obstinacy orstubbornness can never be otherwise. Agitation hadto be abandoned due to very poor response andsupport at Delhi and Mumbai as also due to lack ofsupport from public at large. Lack of co-ordinationin Anna team, thoughtless and rampant speechesand utterances, public statements and lastly due tolack of confidence, it turned out to be its ownenemy. At the climax was the demand from theagitating team, in the year 2011, that theGovernment ought to induct members of the CivilSociety for passage of the Bill. Thus, the 16 monthslong agitation launched since then until August2012, which aroused so many hopes ofamelioration, came to an untimely end. This is theirony of the fate. For complete debacle of this, noneother than the members of Anna team and itsleadership is solely responsible.

Anna’s social agitation had leaned into politicaldirection. What will be the political face of thesocially awakened people’s movement? Toconfront against difficulties and evils of politics aswell as money and muscle power appears to be verytough, if not impossible at the moment. Especiallyin view of the rampant utterances against otherpolitical parties by Kejariwal, including MPs,which political party will lend support to them, is aquestion. Since he has targeted against all theparties and has spoilt relations, entry of Anna inpolitical field will be just like committing suicide.Being an enthusiastic and ardent supporter of Annaagitation, he was invited by us to Ahmedabad in theyear 2011 and was briefed about the situationactually prevalent in Gujarat. Thereafter, citizensconcerned about interests and wellbeing of Gujarathad written a letter to him that an Umbrellaorganization consisting of different groups, publicand civil organizations waging battles in thedifferent fields should be formed. In this, labourunions, representatives of NGOs, activists indifferent fields, unemployed, poor people,students, labourers and intellectuals should beassociated to form a strong united team. This hadhappened during the JP Movement way back in

18


Gautam Thakar

1974 and it had met with success. When you arespearheading your agitation on a larger scale, thenyou must take cognizance of viewpoints of othersalso. Anna team did not do so in the year 2011 andhence its agitation came to a dramatic and negativeend now.

There was no need at all to plunge into politicalbattle field without taking into confidence thesupporters and followers of entire Anna agitationlaunched throughout the nation. It was necessary tothink whether by formation of Anna Party, aim ofthe agitation would be successful or not.

Is it possible that with the use of the Party, socialtransformation shall take place? Anna Team hasthoughtlessly taken blind-folded jump. Has anyparty in India, functioned on its ideals andprinciples? Then how Party-Anna will survive,time alone will tell. When Party-Anna will form apolitical outfit on the basis of any of the politicalideology and shall field its candidates then whatreplies will it give to the core issues such asKashmir issue, development, economy, Naxalism

etc.? This is because, at present, there is a strongcontroversy and many differences within TeamAnna. When Party Anna will today talk aboutcorruption, black money and alternative politicalsystem, what political solutions would they suggestfor dealing with these issues?

Political party can never be the only solution forsocial transformation. If Team Anna really thinksthat rights should be conferred to Gram-Sabhas foreradication of corruption from the country and tomake the State to play the role of a servant, then itshould function as ‘Anna Agitation-MassMovement’ instead of Party Anna. This is notpossible merely by electing a handful of Membersof Parliament or by taking out self-rule rallies. Inorder to bring about transformation of the systemby awakening people about values and ideals, itshould launch agitation of public awareness andpeople’s education instead of floating a politicalparty. In our opinion there is no simple or ordinarysolution for this, except by an ideologicalrevolution – a revolution of thought.

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[This is the updated English version of Prof.

Jayanti Patel’s Guajarati article Narendra Modi

Ek Mulyankan published in Nayamarg

–Guajarati fortnightly- dated 16-12-’11, later

carried in two other Guajarati magazines.]

Narendra Modi: An EvaluationBeginning:

Narendra Modi was attracted by the ideology andactivities of the RSS from the teenage. Hededicated his life to RSS and abandoned his familyand wife. In course of time, he established hisposition amongst the youth and the workers of theRSS. He joined post- graduate studies to improvehis credentials. He joined the post-graduate Schoolof Social Science (SAMAJVIDYABHAVAN) ofGujarat University, as a student of PoliticalScience. He came in my contact as I was a teacherthere. During NAVANIRMAN movement and,when I was the coordinator of the electioncampaign of Janata Front candidate BhimabhaiRathod from DASADA constituency, he used hisinfluence with RSS workers to help that campaign.During Indira-Emergency he went underground,grew beard, to appear like a SARDARJI.

Ideology:

During emergency he used to visit my place. It wasclear that Narendra and his party hold theinheritance and attitudes of Nazism/Fascism. It isbelieved that if they declare emergency they wouldnot jail their opponents but finish them in everyway. Narendra, his party and RSS subscribe to aparticular ideology whose basis is aggressive

Hindu nationalism. This type of ideology givesmore importance to power and dominance thanhuman values. They try to capture power byinstigating people’s feelings. They acquireenthusiastic support by fomenting communalhatred. They reject human, rational or scientificapproach. Further, by advocating a return to theillusory mythical image of an ancient golden age.They built up a powerful organization ofideologically committed youth, emphasizingloyalty. When required they can come in the streetsand create an atmosphere of terror.

Craving for Power:

Craving for power is the greatest motivating force.A person aiming to capture power holds no bar. Toachieve his goals he takes help of any person,organization, norms, values etcetera, and utilizesthem. For his personal goal, but, as soon as they arenot needed or found obstructive, he does nothesitate or feel ashamed in abandoning them orremoving them like a chewed bone. His only aimand value is power. This type of unfetteringendeavor to acquire power is evident in Narendra.He wants to get power by any means – using SAM,DAM, BHED and DANDA. (Persuasion, Money,Divisive methods and Force.)

Removal of Obstructions:

In the initial stage, Narendra, utilizing his positionin the RSS, tried to establish himself in Gujarat andhis ascendency in the BJP government ofKeshubhai. Upset by his activity the party (BJP)exiled him from Gujarat to Delhi. In Delhi hesolicited the good offices of one influentialGuajarati, who had access to Advani, and got thepermission to return to Gujarat. (Keshubhai hasrevealed that, he threatened Advani to go to fastunto death before his house if he is not given thepermission to go to Gujarat) As soon as he gotentry into Gujarat, he started his game. He startedforming a group of his supporters andmarginalizing those who were not helpful orobstructive to his plan. By removing Keshubhai,Suresh Mehta, Kashiram Rana and such other

20


Jayanti Patel

veteran leaders he cleared his path. He, also, tried tocreate a feeling that he is a loyal follower of Advaniby supporting him in election and hisRATHYATRA. At this stage he acted as if he is theprotégée of Advani but now he is trying to belittleAdvani, cut him to size, as he seems to be onehurdle in his goal to become the prime minister ofIndia.

Manipulation:

All the gates were now open for him as heenthroned himself and removed the veteran leadersof RSS-Jansangh-BJP. As he ascended in the powergrid he started avoiding the common workers, whohad helped and supported him, as their utility wasover. Now he needed followers, who did not knowthe earlier Narendra and treat him as equal, butwould be daunted by him. He wanted pigmies, whowould be his sycophants, yes-men, accept hiswords, working according to his wish, would not bea challenge to his power. And, such people areavailable in dimes a dozen.

‘Neither Eat nor Allow to Eat’:

When he came to power, he declared that I will‘Neither eat nor allow to eat’. At this time therewas no constraint to go on fasting programme, thiswas a promise for non-corrupt governance. Afterbecoming the chief minister he got the opportunityto establish his control over bureaucracy, policeand other officers. He acquired the power to takedecisions which may be beneficial to his supportersor obtain more supporters. During someinvestigations it is revealed that some of hisministers or officers systematically collectedtributes (KHANDANI). There are officers inbureaucracy and police who try to please men inpower for their own benefits as well as, wedded tothe ideology of ruling power, in this casecommunalism.

In the earlier period Narendra created animpression by his simplicity and honesty. But ifyou look at his new sense of dress and makeover,his life style does not match with the life style of oldNarendra. Further, his ministers, administrators

and police officers are accused of corruption and hehimself is accused of giving benefits to somebusiness houses. Recently Narendra has launched acampaign for donation (DHANDAN) to collectfunds for coming assembly elections expenditure.It is alleged that some unscrupulous means are usedto collect money for this fund.

Misuse of Rhetoric:

Narendra is a good orator. He is skilled in rhetoric.He knows how to play with words and use themeffectively. He has the dexterity for populistlectures. He possess the skill to instigate thefeelings of jealousy, prejudices and the sense ofself-pride (ASMITA) prevalent in the masses.With the crafty use of rhetoric he plays the game ofavoiding uncomfortable questions or problems anddistracting people’s mind. Also, after getting powerhe got the opportunity to utilize governmentpropaganda machinery and funds to build hischarisma. Frequently, numbers of advertisementsare issued on various occasions in newspapers andmagazines praising Gujarat government and hisefforts or announcing some projects or benefits tothis or that group. In these advertisements his photois always larger than anyone else’s. He hasacquired the leeway to control his supporters aswell as opponents by using the intelligenceservices.

Utilizing these capabilities, he has tried to erode thelegitimacy of supporters of communal harmony,intellectuals, secularists, rationalist, humanists andliberals by branding them as enemy of Gujarat,opponents of Hindus and supporters ofappeasement. Due to this strategy the growth ofliberal and rational forces have received a setbackIn this atmosphere the attitudes necessary fornation building like communal harmony andsecularism are at receiving end. It seems thatNarendra is trying to push back Gujarat in the era ofthe seventeenth century ethos.

Reign of Terror:

Depicting Jews as villains, Hitler provided an easytarget and a sucking stick (a pacifier) to the German

21


people. Similarly, by depicting Muslims as villainsNarendra has given a sucking stick to the people ofGujarat. He got an opportunity to spread theatmosphere of hatred towards Muslims andallowing their killing in 2002 (post-Godhara) riotsin the wake of the arson of the coach of SabarmatiExpress, carrying the KARSEVAKS. Similarly, heis accused of resorting to the killings of Muslims orother obstreperous persons under the guise ofencounters. He was accused by the father of HarenPandya, one of his colleague and a rival. Further,number of cases has come to light where persons,agitating against some of his minister’s corruption,by means of public interest litigation and/or right toinformation, are attacked or murdered. It seems thatby the tactic of spreading the atmosphere of fearand terror, a technique of silencing the critics isimplemented. Also, Hindu oriented organizationsrelated to his party try to deter the rationalist andprotagonist of scientific temperament againstsuperstition, blind faith and miracle mongers.

It seems that he has tried to produce an environmentof terror in Gujarat. It is a blessing that the centralgovernment is not under his power and he has nocontrol over military. Also, there are still somespirited individuals and voluntary organizations inGujarat, freedom of press, some fearless officersand free judiciary who are committed to the valuesof democracy. This provides some curbs on hisautocratic rule, and hope for the survival offreedom and democracy here.

Image:

Narendra has succeeded in creating a true or false,good or bad image of himself within his partyand/or other parties and people. It is necessary tounderstand this impression or image of, or a mythregarding Narendra. (Psycho-socio-politicalanalyst like Dr. Ashish Nandi, who has interviewedhim, could give a more penetrating appraisal ofNarendra.)

He is a good orator and organizer which are helpfulin winning elections. Actually, his campaign insome areas failed and one leader of NDA,

Nitishkumar of Bihar, opposed against the BJP’splan of sending him to Bihar for election campaign.

Before giving him the certificate of an efficientadministrator it is necessary to answer that, forwhose benefit that efficiency is applied –whether inthe interest of people, his party, his supporters, afew capitalists?

He is expert in finding the pulse of the people.Actually, all populist leaders have this capacity.Without providing any concrete benefits to thepeople they are proficient in making statementswhich would please them, excite their feelings andsatisfy their pride. They desist from giving bitterpills to the people even if necessary for progress.They are not interested in the advancement of thepeople but intend to take advantage of theirfeelings.

He advocates aggressive Hinduism to attractmajority Hindu votes as well as remaining faithfulto the legacy of RSS. He supports the approach ofconsidering Muslims as second class citizens,enemy of India, violent and terrorist. However,now, as he is aiming to be a national leader and alsoto get Muslim votes, he is trying to entice them. Thefast undertaken in the name of SADBHAVNAmission is an example of such gimmicks andtactics. (These seven star fasts where organized atvarious places and crores of rupees fromgovernment funds were spent for propaganda,luxurious arrangements etc.). Also, now he hasstarted talking in the name of billions ofHindustanis (not Indians) instead of five croreGuajaratis. This shows that as an adept politician,he can change direction according to wind, orpretend to have changed and produce an illusion.Along with these SADBHAVNA fasts, byskillfully using the propaganda machinery, heprojected himself as the future prime minister ofIndia. Albeit, this has resulted in displeasing otheraspirants including the RATHYATRA fameAdvani, known as minister in waiting. The NDAleaders were placed in embarrassing situation whileexplain their position in this context.

22


Narendra has tried to fashion an impression that hehas the capability to curb terrorism in Gujarat andthe whole nation. His rush to Mumbai duringterrorist attack, to declare compensation for thekilled policemen – which was rejected, toencourage encounters in Gujarat, make statementsabout Kashmir, Pakistan and estranged Indians inthe other nations, are part thereof.

Narendra exhibits traits of an authoritarianpersonality and paranoia related with it. He doesnot tolerate opposition or rivals like a paranoidperson he might believe that his person and positionis in danger. That may be the reason for hismanipulation to remove any rival who maychallenge his supremacy. Also, number ofcommandos for his protection and elaboratesecurity during his travel or public appearancessuggests that he is obsessed by fear. This set ofmind may result in a disproportionate response to acritical situation.

He smart enough to understand that by simplypromoting communalism, riots, encounters and thepolitics of hatred he cannot be a national leader.Hence he has tried to project himself as the pioneerand promoter of the development in Gujarat. Hehas tried to create an illusion that the NARMADAproject, industrialization of Gujarat, coming ofvarious industries to Gujarat is due to his efforts.

First, no large project or industrial development isachieved in five-ten years. (Rome was not built in aday.) Work on NARMADA project was going onsince two-three decades and so many areas andvillages in Gujarat are waiting for water.

Second, industrial development requires aninfrastructure which is the contribution of manypublic and private sector efforts during the wholecentury. No one leader or party can claim it as theirsole achievement. (And, still, Gujarat is numberten, even behind Bihar, on the list of rate ofgrowth). Getting promises for intentions toestablish industries in Gujarat by organizingexpensive fairs, conferences, meetings and

conventions has not proved successful as hardly tenpercent of promises have been realized.

Third, on the other hand, some favouredindustrialists are given lakhs of hectares of land atvery-very low price. Unrestrained and illegalmining is pursued by his collaborators. A fewpeople have become wealthy by grabbing pastures,farmland, underground wealth and polluting theenvironment. This is not development. One of hisparty member and MLA, Dr. Kanubhai Kalsaria isspear heading a movement against such gift of landto one industrialist. (He also fought PANCHAYATelections in this area, floating his own candidatesagainst the BJP and they won. He has also declaredto oppose Narendra in the coming elections. Also,ref: article, Farmers’ Survival March, byIndukumar Jani in RH of June 2011, no. 495)

The question is: whose development ….His histeammates, his collaborators a few capitalists or thepeople? Some people amassing wealth by sacrificeof pastures, fertile farmland, minerals andenvironment, by mortgaging the future of thecoming generations is not development forprogress but the devilish face of worst form ofcapitalism.

Need for Vigilance:

From this analysis it could be seen that how potent adanger Narendra poses against democratic systemand values. Actually, his style reminds one ofHitler, a nightmare for Germany and the world.Narendra also exhibits frugality, lust for power,amoral manipulation, rhetoric, populistexhortations, communal instigation (in case ofHitler Jews), propaganda machinery formisinformation, method of eliminating rivals andopponents, terrorize people by the use of specialvoluntary force (in case of Hitler Nazi SS), etc.,similar to Hitler. A person having this type ofmental frame is not conducive to egalitarian socialor economic system and progressive, democratic,liberal, secular, rational or scientific attitude orapproach. Let us remember: ‘eternal vigilance isthe price of freedom.’

23


[Advocate N.D. Pancholi is the Secretary of

Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, Delhi Unit and

the Secretary of Indian Renaissance Institute,

New Delhi. He has been on a crusade in fighting

cases for the civil liberties and human rights of

the minorities and the weaker sections of the

society in the High Court and the Supreme

Court.]

Waging War: The Case ofSeema Azad

Seema Azad, Secretary of the PUCL (UP),along with her husband Vishwa Vijay,

was arrested on 6 February 2010, according to theprosecution case, at Allahabad railway station. Thecharge was that they were active members of theIndian Communist Party (Maoist), which is abanned organization, and that they were activelyinvolved in its activities. As a proof of theirinvolvement, the prosecution claimed to haverecovered a lot of Maoist literature from them.However, there was no evidence of theirinvolvement in any offensive action, violent ornon-violent. They were charged under Sections121, 121-A and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, inshort IPC, and various sections of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act, in short UAPA. Theywere convicted under Sections 121 and 121-A IPC,and Sections 13/18/20/38/39 of the UAPA. Bothwere sentenced to life imprisonment under Section121 IPC and rigorous imprisonments ranging fromfive to ten years under other sections. It is awelcome development that the Allahabad HighCourt has granted them bail.

This article is mainly concerned with Sections 121and 121-A IPC. Section 121 relates to the offenceof ‘waging of war’ against the Government of Indiaand 121-A is about conspiring to commit theoffence of waging war or conspiring to overawe bymeans of criminal force or the show of criminalforce the central government or a state government.Section 121 is the most serious offence in theIndian Penal Code and provides for stringentpunishment, i.e., death or life imprisonment. TheSupreme Court, in the Parliament Attack Case(2005 Crl.L.J.3950: State of NCT of Delhi vs.Navjyot Sandhu), discussed what constitutes‘waging of war’ against the state and held that theintention and purpose of ‘war-like operationsdirected against the Governmental machinery’were important criteria and that purpose must beachieved by the use of force and arms. The mostimportant thing is that the accused must participatein the ‘war-like’ operations in order to attract thecharge of ‘waging war’.

Given this interpretation of the Apex court, it wasnot correct to charge Seema and her husband withthe offence of waging war because there was noallegation that they had participated in any war-likeoperation against the Indian Government.Similarly, there was no evidence that they were partof any conspiracy to wage war against theGovernment of India and therefore there was noquestion of charging them under section 121-A.They should have been discharged at the initialstate of these two charges, including charges underUAPA. But, shockingly, not only were theycharged, they were even convicted, and sentencedto life imprisonment under Section 121 IPC and toten years u/s 121-A.

The anguish of the present writer is that somemembers of our judiciary, in free India, are usingSections 121 and 121-A IPC to punish largenumbers of innocents in a manner that even theBritish would not have done when we were underforeign rule. The most celebrated case in the Britishperiod relating to conspiracy to wage war was thatof M.N. Roy, I.E., Manabendra Nath Roy V.

24


N.D. Pancholi

Emperor: A.I.R. 1933, Allahabad 498. This casemakes very interesting reading and is alsosignificant from the historical point of view in thatit shows how Marxism and communism weresought to be introduced and how efforts were madeto organize a communist party within India from1920 onwards. Giving a brief history of the arrest ofRoy, the judge of the Allahabad High Court.Mr.Thom J., stated in the judgment:

‘....The appellant Manabendra Nath Roy was triedin the Court of Session at Cawnpore on a chargeunder S. 121-A, Penal code. He was convicted bythe Additional Sessions Judge and sentenced totransportation for 12 years. The charge preferredagainst him was that on or about 9th May 1923 andbefore and after, that is to say, from the beginningof 1921 to the end of 1924 he formed a conspiracyand conspired to deprive the King-Emperor of hisSovereignty of British India by means of violentrevolution. The case for the prosecution against theappellant is that between the years 1921 and 1924,in co-operation with a number of other persons inIndia, the appellant who was in Europe, resolved toembark upon an attempt to introduce the doctrine ofcommunism into India, the final objective of theconspirators being to set up a communist state inIndia, a state which would be controlled by theworkers and peasants. The institution of such acommunist regime was to be preceded by theviolent overthrow of the existing constitution inIndia and the destruction of the sovereignty of theKing-Emperor.

The means by which the appellant and his fellowconspirators attempted to compass their aims wasto unite into one organization the extremistelements in India, revolutionaries, terrorists, theleft wing of congress, labour unions, etc. Thisorganization was to be utilized for the purpose ofpromoting a revolution in which the masses ofpeasants and workers were to be the troops andchosen communists, the officers, the masses wereto be won by promises to economic betterment;strikes were to be engineered and if possible riotsand the like such as occurred at Chauri Chaura,

among the Mohplas and in the Punjab.Revolutionaries and terrorists were also to beenlisted by promises. With this aim in view, theappellant got in touch with his fellow conspiratorsin India, when exactly, is uncertain, but it is clearthat the period of the conspiracy was from 1921 to1924. During these years the appellant was actingin conjunction with his friends in India inendeavouring to prepare the way for the violentoverthrow of the Government of India. He wasunable to come himself to India where he fearedarrest. It was therefore necessary that he shouldmake use of the post to get in touch with his fellowconspirators and during the years 1921 to 1923therefore numerous letters passed between theappellant and his fellow conspirators. Thiscorrespondence did not escape the vigilance of theIntelligence Service of the Government of India.Numerous letters from the appellant to his fellowconspirators and from his fellow conspirators to theappellant were intercepted, some were retained bythe authorities, and others were copied orphotographed and re-posted to the addressees.

This evidence consisted of (a) letters from theappellant to his associates in India and letters fromthem to him. These are the original letters whichwere intercepted and retained or found in thepossession of the appellant’s associates when theywere arrested, (b) Copies of letters which wereintercepted and either copied or photographed andre-posted, (c) Pamphlets, leaflets and otherpublications which accompanied the letters or wereobtained from other sources.’ The judge referred tothe many pamphlets, letters, articles, as well asissues of the periodical ‘The Vanguard of IndianIndependence’, which Roy published from Europe.Such material was produced as evidence againstRoy and many excerpts find a place in the judgmentof the High Court. They make very interestingreading. To quote one from the judgment:

‘……The appellant (M.N. Roy) refers to themeeting of the Congress (a meeting of theCommunist International) and states: “TheCongress is well on the way. Delegates from almost

25


all the countries are here, even far off Java is notexcepted…..I am in charge of the Eastern Sectionof the Congress, but ‘here is no Indiandelegation…..We are having numerouspreliminary conferences on the Eastern questionwhich is one of the principal points of the Agenda.It is only here that one can get a true perspective notonly on the working class movement in the West,but also on the revolutionary movement in theEastern subject countries. It is too bad that ourmovement, which is the most powerful of theColonial National Movements, should remain soisolated…. We were all very glad to know of theformation of the Socialist Labour Party ….. Thequestion of forming a new party to assume theleadership of the Indian movement has been verymuch discussed here…. I take it for granted that theSocialist Labour Party of India understands thenecessity of International affiliation and believesthat the Communist International is the onlyrevolutionary International body. Therefore I amsure that you will like to know the attitude of theCommunist International towards the Indianmovement at the present stage. In consonance withthe point of view of the Communist International Imake the following propositions about the role theSocialist Labour Party of India should play…..AllCommunists and Socialists should attempt to forma mass party embracing all the truly revolutionaryelement. In order that many available revolutionaryelements are not frightened away by the name ourparty should have a “non offensive” name. Wesuggest “the Peoples Party”. Of course, the socialbasis of this party will be the workers and peasantsand the political direction of the party should be inthe hands of the Communists and Socialists whoalone can be the custodians of the interests of thetoiling masses. But in order that the Communistsand Socialists are not isolated in small sects and cantake active and leading part in the mass struggledetermining its course and destinies byrevolutionary and courageous leadership, a legalapparatus of our activities is needed. The PeoplesParty will provide this legal apparatus. It is to be

anticipated that no powerful political party with aCommunist name will be tolerated by theGovernment and the latter will be able to countupon the moral and even active support of thenative bourgeoisie in prosecuting a Communistparty. Hence the necessity of a dual organization –one legal and another illegal. The Communistnucleus should take a very active part in theformation of a mass party for revolutionarynationalist struggle….I have already written apamphlet containing a popularized version of theprogramme we intend to put forward (Thisreference is to the pamphlet entitled What Do We

Want).”’

The above case is called the Kanpur ConspiracyCase, and the other accused were Nalini BhushanDas Gupta, Mohd. Shaukat Usmani, MuzaffarAhmad and Sripat Amrit Dange. All were chargedunder Section 121-A, i.e., conspiracy to wage war,and were sentenced to four years of rigorousimprisonment on 20th May 1924. Roy was theprincipal accused but could not be arrested as hewas away in Europe and actively engaged invarious important tasks, being one of the importantmembers of Presidium of the CommunistInternational. However, later on he developeddifferences with the policy pursued by theCommunist International which, according to him,was subordinating the interests of internationalcommunist movement to the interests of theRussian State. He returned to Indian in cognito inDecember 1930, knowing fully well that he wouldbe arrested sooner or later. He was arrested in July1931. During the trial Roy did not deny the mass ofdocumentary evidence produced by theprosecution against him. He admitted to being theauthor of many documents. His main contentionwas that since ‘the British rule was established inIndia illegally by use of force, he and every Indianwas entitled to throw the British out by the use offorce.’ Roy and his colleagues had admitted andclaimed that they had every right to indulge inconspiracy to throw the British rule out of India,still he and his colleagues were not charged by the

26


British under Section 121 IPC. i.e… ‘Waging ofwar against the King Emperor’. It is discreditablethat in free India, Indian citizens are being chargedwith this serious offence even when there is not aniota of evidence. Another significant point is thatunder Section 121-A the colleagues of Roy weresentenced to only 4 years of imprisonment by theBritish while in free India life and death sentencesare given for the asking, many times on the basis ofdoubtful evidence. Roy was sentenced to 12 yearsof transportation by the session judge on the groundthat he was the leader of the accused and that thesuccess of the conspiracy would have spelt disasterin India. But in appeal the High Court reduced the

sentence to 6 years on the ground that the sentenceof 12 years was severe and that the chances ofsuccess of the conspiracy were nil.

However, in comparison, our present rulers seem tobe so much worried of the prospect that the merepossession of a literature judged as ‘offensive’ bythem would shake the very foundation of the IndianState and thus, they consider sentencing theaccused to life imprisonment the best guarantee toprotect the State!

(The ‘Kanpur Conspiracy Case’ was argued on

behalf of M.N. Roy by Shri K.N. Katju, grandfather

of Justice Markandey Katju, now Chairman, Press

Council of India.)


27

Freedom and I

I was born in a cage

a golden cage!

They tried to please me with myriad things

dolls,kitchenware, accessories

and reasoned..

...it was necesssary,for i was a girl!

As i grew older

the cage grew stronger

I fluttered my wings in rage

but was tied harsh

..again it was necessary, for I was a girl!

I was forced to follow their interests.

It was they, and not 'ME',

who decided what I shall be.

...The argument continued..it was neccasary

for i was a girl!

They showered on me everything

they thought was necessary,

....but failed to give me my basic necessity-

My Freedom! My freedom to life! My freedom to be!

—Rajeshwaari Kalla,

Class 7, St. Angela Sophiya School, Jaipur.

Teacher’s & Research Scholar’s Section:

MGNREGA at Work:Glimpses from Rural Uttar Pradesh

MGNREGA: An Outline: In continuation ofmacro-schemes like Community DevelopmentProgramme, Panchayati Raj, PMGSY and SGSYfor rural development, The Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA) as a mega scheme for ‘BharatNirman’ was launched in 200 select districts on2.2.2006 and was extended to 130 additionaldistricts during 2007-08. All the remaining ruralareas in the country have been covered under theAct w.e.f. 1.4.2008. MGNREGA is undoubtedlythe most important productive employmentprogramme in independent India. Mahatma GandhiNREGA seeks to enhance the livelihood security ofthe households in rural areas of the country byproviding at least 100 days of guaranteed wageemployment in every financial year, especially inthe lean season, to every household whose adultmembers volunteer to do unskilled manual work.Worksite facilities are to be provided by theimplementing agency (Schedule 2(27) of the Act).These include: Safe drinking water; Shade forchildren and periods of rest for workers; First-aidBox for emergency treatment and minor injuries;Safety equipments and measures for health hazardsconnected with work. Its mission is to augmentwage employment opportunities by providing

employment on demand and thereby extend asecurity net to the people and simultaneously createdurable assets to alleviate some aspects of povertyand address the issue of development in the ruralareas. The Ministry of Rural Development beingthe nodal Ministry for the implementation ofMGNREGA is responsible for ensuring timely andadequate resource support to the States and to theCentral Council. It has to undertake regular review,monitoring and evaluation of processes andoutcomes. The Panchayats at district, intermediateand village levels are the principal authorities forplanning and implementation of the Schemes madeunder this Act. Key stake holders are— wageseekers, Gram Sabha, PRIs specially the GramPanchayats, Programme Officer at the block level,District programme Coordinator, StateGovernments and Ministry of Rural Development

As a strategy, financial inclusion and convergenceare the tools for empowering the grass root massesand integration with the mainstream development.Under financial inclusion, providing access tofinance is a form of empowerment of the vulnerablegroups. Financial inclusion denotes delivery offinancial services at an affordable cost to the vastsections of the disadvantaged and low-incomegroups. The various financial services includecredit, savings, insurance and payments andremittance facilities.

Simultaneously, convergence in MGNREGA isperceived to be a process that brings togetherexisting schemes and resources and not a newscheme with additional overheads and additionalbudgets. The basic premise of planning isdecentralization and community participation, witha central role for the PRIs, specially Gram Sabhaand Gram Panchayat. Convergence is expected tocreate value addition through resource and activitysynergies as well as infusion of professional qualityin planning and implementation. Guidelines forconvergence of NREGS with different Schemesand specific programmes are ICAR, schemes of theMinistry of Forest & Environment, Schemes of theMinistry of Water Resources, PMGSY & SGSY


28

Ashish Saxena

(Department of Rural Development), WatershedDevelopment Programmes and Ministry ofAgriculture and Fisheries Department forconvergence of NREGS and schemes of Ministryof Agriculture.

Background: The discussions ahead are anoutcome of first hand observations (‘usualdisclaimer applies’) in 2011-12 in selected districts(anonymous) of Uttar Pradesh, having undergonethe implementation of phase II and III ofMGNREGA. As a critical analyst the scope of thearticle provides a broader framework about thefunctioning of the MGNREGA in the selecteddistrict, to identify the gaps and successfulinitiatives, if any, in the selected district. No doubt,the major questions have been: How successfulhave been the MGNREGA in poverty alleviationand employment generation in rural areas? Whathas been the impact of MGNREGA on wage ratesand agriculture in rural areas? To what extent is thesuccess or failure related to the level ofparticipation of the beneficiaries and PRIs in theimplementation through social audit? No doubt, thefinding of the study, apart from administrative andpolicy efficacy, serves as an analytical model forconvergence and financial inclusion ofMGNREGA in the districts of Indian states ingeneral and the districts of U.P. in particular.

Statistics of MGNREGA in Uttar Pradesh: TheMGNREGA was implemented in three phases inUttar Pradesh (U.P.) covering 22 districts inphase-I, 17 districts in phase-II and 33 districts inphase-III. In all the number of registeredhouseholds in phase-I was 6191060 with 6099786job card issued. The number of householdsprovided with employment was 3357689 with136866876 persondays. In all the families provided100 days of employment was 223639. In phase-II,the number of registered household was 3452281with 3420873 job card issued. The number ofhouseholds provided with employment was1971896 with 79253629 persondays. In all thefamilies provided 100 days of employment was129434. In phase-III, the number of registered

household was 4705721 with 4609404 job cardissued. The number of households provided withemployment was 2782116 with 95413647persondays. In all the families provided 100 days ofemployment was 116349. As per report of MoRD(2010), in Uttar Pradesh the minimum wages haveincreased from Rs. 58 to Rs. 100 (presently 120/-)after the implementation of MGNREGA.

As per official website of MGNREGA(mgnrega.nic.in, MoRD) in the financial year2008-09, number of households providedemployment was 4336466 and number ofpersondays (in lakhs) has 2272.21 out of which1216.90 were scheduled castes, 44.57 Scheduledtribes and 411.46 women. In 2009-10 numbers ofhouseholds provided employment was 4088947and number of persondays (in lakhs) has 2083.42out of which 1124.77 were scheduled castes, 34.44Scheduled tribes and 1495.50 women. In 2010-11,number of household registered were 14409785with 20059154 persons registered. The totalnumber of job card issued to the voluntary wageworkers was 14195887. Around 8164833household and 10372978 persons demandedemployment out of which 6156921 households and10361767 persons were offered employmentaccordingly. In all, 469420 families completed 100days of work. If we see the cumulative number ofhouseholds issued job cards, one finds the total of14195887 households out of which 4374370 werethe scheduled castes and 163180 were scheduledtribes. Accordingly, the cumulative persondaysgenerated includes the total of 311434617 out ofwhich 100062703 were scheduled castes, 4503621were scheduled tribes and 47353934 were womenin 2010-11. However in the year 2011-12, if we seethe cumulative number of households issued jobcards, one finds the total of 14486945 householdsout of which 4451049 were the scheduled castesand 163786 were scheduled tribes. Accordingly,the cumulative persondays generated includes thetotal of 244847211 out of which 77495924 werescheduled castes, 3047653 were scheduled tribesand 42265003 were women. In terms of asset


29

created in 2009-10, one finds 168099 workscompleted out of which 52242 cases were of ruralconnectivity, 6886 cases of flood controls, 25168cases of water conservation and harvesting and22766 cases of land development.

I) MGNREGA and Financial Inclusion: A

Critique: It is found that main banks serving in thedistricts are: SBI, Allahabad bank, Bank ofBaroda;, United Bank of India, Kisan Gramin bank,Kashi Gomti Samyut Gramin Bank; Bank officialswere of the opinion that there is shortage of staff tohandle the MGNREGA beneficiaries, most ofwhom are not equipped with the functioning ofbanking system. Although, new counter have to beopened due to the rush of MGNREGAbeneficiaries which affects the other routine worksof the banks; The officials were of the opinion thatfinancial inclusion is at the level of opening ofaccounts only as the beneficiaries could notdevelop the saving habit; They were of the opinionthat for opening an account of the beneficiaries,Pradhan or Rozgar-Sewak comes with the job-cardholders; The bankers were of the opinion that thewomen accounts are on papers; they are notfinancially empowered enough to operate account;In general the officials were of the opinion thathandling MGNREGA is not economically viablefor the banks; Beneficiaries in rural areas were ofthe opinion that there are problems in the banks butsince it is near to the urban area so people arelearning fast about the banking system. Openingthe account, long queue and late payment are themajor problems; Beneficiaries were of the opinionthat the banks want 1000/- as the security moneybut they withdraw whole amount in the same daywhen the payment is deposited.

a) Views and Suggestions by

District/Block/Panchayat Officials: The studyindicates that around 60% to 70% of therespondents belong to the BPL list while 30% to40% beneficiaries are not in the BPL list; Acommon view about the implementation ofMGNREGA was the shortage of staff (efficientstaff too) to implement the scheme from district

level to Panchayat level. Many a time officials haveheavy work-load due to the scheme; Officials wereof the view that there is lack of administrative,decisive and financial power to the APOs at blocklevel. They asked to decentralize the power to theblock level authorities too; Officials were of theview that there is no MGNREGA cell in district.There is need of autonomous MGNREGA cell atthe district/block level having certain technicalofficials to look the scheme; the officials were ofthe opinion that during convergence there isnon-cooperation among the various departmentswhich create problems in the smooth functioning ofthe scheme.

b) Views of MGNREGA beneficiaries: There isno specific training and awareness generationregarding the NREGA scheme; generally,beneficiaries are not having the job-card, most ofthe time it is with Rozgar-Sewak; Ward membersof the G.P. and some beneficiaries say thatPanchayat Secretary and Rozgar Sewak arecorrupt. Complaints regarding the delayed ornon-payments of wages to the labors are seenespecially against the Pradhan. It is also revealedthat some beneficiaries have job-card but they arenot getting any job. They say that the work isprovided to the near and dear of the Pradhan,Secretary and Rozgar Sewak. Sometimes we do notknow that who is working and who is getting thewages; many beneficiaries were of the opinion thatwage of Rs. 120/- per day are not provided to them.They hardly get Rs. 40-50.; Generally 100 day’sman-days are not completed. There are very fewcases of the completion of 100 days.

c) Good Practices and Initiatives: It is good toknow that ATM service has been also provided bythe PNB and Bank of India to few literatebeneficiaries; this scheme has generated awarenessabout banking system among the villagers. Notonly the number of account holders in the villagehas increased but it has led to there frequent visits tothe banks; To open account of the job-card holders,Banks have initiated camp in the remote areas; Asthe people are getting wage in the scheme, some of

30


them have begun small businesses with the help ofloan from SHGs; Bank provides loan facility to theMGNREGA beneficiaries with duerecommendation and forwarded through properchannel. Government owns their security and latergovernment is waiving of the loans of these peoplesafter every 5 years or so; Door to door banking is inthe process of future plan; SC/ST people have beenempowered economically due to this schemebecause they are form labor section and now theyare getting job in their own village and also gettinga definite payment for their work so they arecomparatively in better condition; Especially fewtribes and lower castes have become aware and arebeen freed from bonded labour and slavery system.

II) MGNREGA and Convergence: A Critique:

Confusion of work and fund is seen during theconvergence. Even there is problem in verificationof the muster roll. It is suggested that new musterroll should not be issued or submitted by theconvergence department until and unless theprevious payment is clear; Generally 100 day’sman-days are not completed. There are very rarecases of the completion of 100 days. In general,most of the beneficiaries have got the job of 30-40days only; Non beneficiaries are of the opinion thatfactionalism emerges during the time ofassignment of MGNREGA work; Social audit isthe backbone of the effective monitoring of anyprogramme. The MGNREGA involving differentlevel of actors requires periodic auditing of theplanning, procedures and financial expenditures.The study reflects the gross absence of any form ofsocial audit concerning MGNREGA work. Itindicates the lack of seriousness towards effectiveimplementation of the programme;

1.One significant finding is that the water level inthe area has increased owing to water conservation;Forest department has done pit-digging, plantationand irrigation in the field of social sector. Besidesthis forest department has developed fire-line,forest-pathway, waterfall, grass-cutting, nurserythrough MGNREGA; regarding convergencescheme, sericulture department has done well in

this district. The department also promotedplantation and other works with the help ofMGNREGA labors.

2.It is traced that most of the time the MGNREGAwork is provided during peak days of croppingrather than lean season. That is why there becomesscarcity of agricultural labors and the workers inNREGA asks huge amount as wages so sometimesthe middle level farmers who are unable to paywages are not in a position to perform their seasonalagriculture accordingly.

3.Secretary/ Technical Assistant and RozgarSewak were of the opinion that the ratio of 60:40 isa big hurdle in carrying works, it should beremoved and this will help in the progress of thevillage but another viewpoint suggests that theremoval of this ratio will invite contractors and maylead to more corruption.

4.The general impression regarding facilities nearwork sites opined that only the facility of drinkingwater was available at the work site. Few were ofthe view that basic medical aid is available near thework site. However, majority of the respondentsdenied the presence of crèche near the work site forwomen workers.

5.According to the district officials, theimplementation of the scheme is satisfactory. Theother department with which the convergence hasbeen done is Micro-Irrigation, Irrigation, Landdevelopment, water-resource, water-conservation,PWD, Sericulture and forest department etc. Thebest convergence was observed inMicro-Irrigation, Irrigation, Land-development,Water-conservation, and especially Sericulturehave performed very well.

6.In general, the MGNREGA work has enhancedthe overall development of rural areas in terms ofland development, water conservation, ruralconnectivity, water reservoirs, plantation,sericulture etc.

7.Against the decentralization of planning,implementation and utilization of funds fordevelopment work, the block level officials were of

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the opinion that the requisition of work and fundshould flow via block level and not directly toGram Panchayat. It reflects their dissatisfactionagainst the decentralization of work and fund flow.

8.MGNREGA involves employment of workersfor development. It is found that in most of thecases the full utilization of manpower is lacking.Even the workers also don’t perform their best.Thus there is a need to look into theunder-utilization of manpower seriously.

9.MGNREGA being a community basedprogramme has implications on the village life. Asobserved from the study, social interaction amongthe caste has marginally improved in the publicspaces. Even the water access, access to basicresources has marginally improved. One definitelyfinds significant increase in the public interaction,employment and poverty reduction. It has furtherled to better education and public participation.

Suggestions and recommendations: 1. Providededicated bank staff, outsource some work;Regular checking and verification of bank/postoffice accounts – wages transferred, whowithdraws and punishing the wrong doers; Makeregular VMC meetings and record the proceedings;Institutionalize the system of conducting socialaudits and make their reports public. Makeexpenditure on social audits eligible for inclusionin administrative expenses; Mobile ATM van canbe asked for quick withdrawal of money.

2.To facilitate workers to exercise their rights toapply for work and receive dated receipts; and tocapture authentic attendance on worksitesbio-metric based ICT applications are to beintroduced. Enabling real- time capture ofMahatma Gandhi NREGA processes asregistration, work application, issue of datedreceipt, work allocation, work-site attendance andmeasurement with GPS coordinates, wagepayments, would reduce discrimination in

awarding work, fake muster rolls, ghost workers,measurement and payment delays.

3.Inclusion of some civil society representatives,district collectors, district level panchayatpresidents, media representatives etc. in theplanning process is essential so that diversestakeholder concerns are expressed andincorporated. The meetings of the NREGS Statecommittee must happen on a fixed periodicity, sothat such committees do not remain as a mereformality or a clearing house for policy decisionsproposed by the executives.

4.Social audit is the backbone of the effectivemonitoring of any programme. The MGNREGAinvolving different level of actors requires periodicauditing of the planning, procedures and financialexpenditures. The study reflects the gross absenceof any form of social audit concerning MGNREGAwork.

5.While lack of manpower and connectivitycontinues to be main problems in achieving thisobjective, the whole-hearted commitment by thestate and project functionaries can maketremendous difference in making this happen. Theurgent mission is outsourcing some work andcreation of a fair and authentic MIS system, whichis tamper-proof and accessible to all.

6.In sum, there may be a need to shift from projectmode to a sustainable accomplishment mode andtowards sustainable livelihood. Lack of politicalwill was reflected in awareness creation as well.There are no instances of unemployment allowancepayment from the state till date. It was alsoobserved that awareness level was very low andmost of the people did not even know about suchprovisions in the Act.

[Dr.Ashish Saxena presently teaches at

Department of Sociology, Central University of

Allahabad. He has significant publications on the

issues related to Agrarian, Subaltern and

Development studies. [email protected]]

32


Humanist News Section:

I

Indian Renaissance InstituteMeeting on the philosophy of

Radical Humanism:

A meeting was held on behalf of the IndianRenaissance Institute on 18th August 2012 atGandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi to discussthe philosophy of ‘Radical Humanism’.

Shri B.D. Sharma, President, Indian

Renaissance Institute, spoke on “Communismand New Humanism”. He briefly described variousdevelopments in the practice of Communism andopined that Communism has failed to achieve thedesired results. Instead of leading to the rule ofproletariat, it led to the establishment of thedictatorship of a clique which resulted in severeviolations of human rights and brought sufferingand killings of large number of people. Thephilosophy of New Humanism evolved by M.N.Roy was the result of his vast experience as amilitant, a revolutionary and a communist. Thisphilosophy placed ‘man’ ‘i.e. the ‘individual’ as themeasure of all progress.

Shri Vinod Jain, President, Indian Radical

Humanist Association, spoke on the subject“Animinism, polytheism, monotheism,humanism”. Shri Jain elaborately traced the historyof evolution of matter from the very beginning andrise of mankind from pre-historic age to the presentstage. He narrated the development of variousfaiths from polytheism to monotheism and how thediscoveries and inventions in the field of reason andscience led to the development of humanistphilosophy.

Dr. K. Premanathan, Assistant Professor,

English Department, University of Delhi, writerof 29 books, spoke on ‘Marxism and presentcrises’. He elaborated on the salient features of

Marxism and said that in spite of its criticismMarxism provided solutions to the various ills ofthe present society. He said he was a confirmedMarxist but still he disagreed with some itshypothesis. He said that emphasis of Marx on therole of proletariat as leaders of the desiredrevolution was wrong and in fact the real role oughtto been given to the agrarian workers and farmers.

Shri Mahipal Singh, General Secretary, PUCL,spoke on ‘Relevance of Radical Humanism intoday’s context’. He said that the ‘RadicalHumanist Philosophy’ propounded by M.N. Roywas very relevant in the present context. He drewattention to the present deteriorating political,social and economic situation leading to increasingcorruption in various institutions and politicalpractices. Power-politics, as stated by M.N. Roy,was one of the main causes of all corruption. ThePeople’s Movements like Anna Hazarre’s were thegenuine reflection of the resentment of the peoplein the present situation. The desire of the people isfor an alternative political practice which couldroot out prevailing corruption and such movementslike that of Anna Hazzare ought to be given achance to bring out desired results.

Dr Jugal Kishore, Prof. Community Medicine,

Maulana Azad Medical College, who is veryactive in the campaigns against blind faith andsuperstitions, stated that the persons who believe inscientific outlook and reason and who are notguided by religious faiths, are very few and there isneed for such people to come together and unite forthe propagation of their views for the betterment ofmankind.

A lively discussion followed in which prominentmembers participated. Some of the names whowere present are Shri Gautam Thaker fromAhmedabad, Ms.Malathi Maithri, prominentactivist in anti-nuclear movement, especially atKoondakulam in Tamilnadu, Mohd. Amir Khan

(victimized and falsely implicated in 21 bomb blastcases; and as a result who underwent 14 years ofimprisonment), Krishan Kumar Gogna, Ms.

33


Bhavana Sharma of ANHAD, Bhabani Dixit,Managing Editor, World Focus, Prof. M.K. Das,Dr. Dipavali Sen, Associate Professor, Sri GuruGovind Singh College of Commerce, Ms. Alka,

and Advocates Mr. A.K. Roy and Mr.

Ghanshayam Singh.

—Report sent by N.D. Pancholi, Secretary, IRI

II

Assam Report by V.K. Tripathi,IIT Delhi

Friends,Few hours ago I have returned from Assam. Ivisited the disturbed areas. My report is attached.The divide between communities is deep but itmust be overcome. RSS, VHP and BJP are trying tocreate a permanent animosity by wrongly chargingso called Bangladeshis for the violence. Theirdesigns must be foiled. —

Bringing Bangladeshi Angle to Assamese Ethnic

Conflict is Disservice to the Nation

The ethnic violence between Bodos and Muslims inBodo territorial region of Assam is a nationalcalamity. It has taken a toll of 65 innocent lives(besides the scores of people missing) and rendered4 lakh homeless. The first priority of sane polityand responsible government is to restore the trustbetween the warring groups, Bodos and Muslims,without the slightest of ill will against any of thecommunities and isolate miscreants from themasses. Muslims are poorer, have lost more livesand fled in larger numbers (up to 80%) but Bodosare no economic elite. The creation of BodoTerritorial Council (covering 4 districts –Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baxa and Udalguri) by theCentre in 2003, has given a section of them anupper hand but masses of both the communities arein hardships.

I spent three days (August 3 to 5) in the area, visited

relief camps – 2 Bodo camps in Kokrajhar (with560 and 1500 people), 1 Muslim camp in Kashipara(960 people), 1 Muslim camp in Dhubri (360people) and 3 Muslim camps in Bilasipara (2000,2500 and 3500 people), visited a Muslim villageBhadyagudi, a mixed Bodo-Muslim villageBhatipara and met a cross-section of people. I alsomet Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kokrajhar Mr.Jayant Narlikar, DC of Dhubri Mr. Kumud Kalitaand Principal, Vice Principal and Librarian ofBhola Nath College, Dhubri.

I saw no trace of Bagladeshi offensive in theconflict, so systematically and vigorouslyorchestrated by BJP and VHP, led by L.K. Advani,Tarun Vijay and Praveen Togadia. They areplaying with the lives of people and poisoningatmosphere for future. Bangladeshi is more of anabuse to humiliate Muslims who are native Indians.There may be a few percent Bangladeshis (as aRajvanshi ex-serviceman in rural Kokrajhar put itat 10%), but even these, in all likelihood arelabourers and labourers are no exploiters but anexploited lot. They need to be treated with dignity.All countries have legal and illegal migrants. USAhas a very significant percentage of illegalMexicans. But who engages them and benefitsfrom their hard work?”- the business class, forcheap labour. USA is immensely more powerfulthan us but it could not force the Mexicans out.India has limited resources and can’t afford tosustain work force from neighbouring countries,hence legal ways, commensurate with workers’dignity, must be employed to identify and deportthem and to stop their migration (if at all there isany loop hole). As far as the language of Muslimsin the area is concerned, there is strong historicalreason for it. Kokrajhar district borders with WestBengal and Dhubri with Bangladesh. 100-150years ago British tea planters brought labourersfrom Bengal where Muslims were a predominantlandless work force. Thus they speak Bengali. Onemore observation. In 1971 India welcomed lakhs ofHindu-Muslim refugees as a part of strategy onBangladesh. Many of them overstayed.

34


The current conflict developed as a chain event.Miscreants killed two Muslims on July 6. On July19, a prominent Muslim suffered bullet injuries anda mob killed 4 Bodos, Subsequently sporadickillings of Muslims and display of fire power byBodo elements, created a frightening atmosphere,forcing people to flee their homes. In Muslimdominated areas Bodos were made to flee. Oncepeople fled, many of their homes were looted andput on fire. Most camps, having over 2.5 lakhMuslim refugees, are located in Dhubri district.This district with 80% Muslim population sufferedno loss of life Bodos from six villages had to flee toKokrajhar.

Bodo insurgents have carried a long drawn violentstruggle for separate Bodoland. In 2003 Centercreated BTAD (Bodoland Territorial AutonomousDistricts) giving substantial authority to Bodos(about 35 seats in the 40 member BTC Council).This created a wedge between them and othercommunities (Muslims, Santhals and Rajvanshis)who have a much larger share in population. Manyinsurgent groups surrendered their arms but somestill have them. Disarming them is a majorresponsibility of the state.

All relief camps are facing severe hardships. TheMuslim camps look even more dejected andworried, besides being poorer. On August 5 as Iwas sitting with people in a camp in Bilasiparawhen Roja Aftar time arrived, I noted that they hadonly one bucket of dates and biscuit packets foraftaar for 2000 people. On behalf of SadbhavMission I offered them 1000 rupees to purchaseadditional dates. Same was the scene in anothercamp. At night often there is load shedding forseveral hours and these camps plunge into darknessbesides exposing them to mosquito bite. Peoplecook their own food from the ration (rice, pulsesand oil) provided by the government andvegetables provided by local support or NGOs. Inmost places people of all the communities arecoming forward to extend support. Despite heavyodds people are at peace. I wish they had a creativeengagement. They could be given some training or

exposure in relevant trades. Students can be giventutorial sessions, game sessions or could go forjogging.

Mine was a short visit that began with my arrival inGuwahati at 7 AM. From the airport I took bus totrain station. At 9:45 I took North East Express andgot down at Kokrajhar at 1:20 PM. I walkedthrough the city and then took a tempo to Kashipara(8 km away). I visited a Muslim camp and walked 3km to visit two villages. At 8 PM I met the DC. Bythat time curfew had started hence I stayed in thecircuit house in a awesome room for Rs. 130. Nextmorning (August 4) at 7 AM, I walked to Bodocamp Swrang M.E. High School. People were nice.Some got annoyed when I mentioned Nelliemassacre. From there I took tempo, minibus andbus to reach Dhubri by 12 noon. I walked to a reliefcamp and talked to people for one hour. Thisinteraction was heartening. From there I went toBholanath College. At 3:15 PM I met the DC andthen left for Bilasipara. During 5 to 8:15 PM Ivisited 3 camps. Then took shelter in ABI hotel (forRs. 250). It gave me the feeling of hardships facedby camp people as there was no light andmosquitoes were in abundance.

At 6 AM on August 5 I left for Kashipara and fromthere to Kokrajhar. I visited the Commerce CollegeBodo camp. People treated me with warmth andshowed appreciation for peace efforts. At 12 noon Itook Kamrup express to Guwahati. After reachingthere I called some friends and left for the airport enroute to Delhi.

Vipin Tripathi, posted this report on August 6, 2012

III

Birthday of "The GreatAgnostic" Robert Green

Ingersoll celebrated:

Back before blogs, opinion-based news programs,talk radio, and even amplified sound, the American

35


public gathered by the thousands to listen toprofessional orators calling out their opinions fromtrain platforms, outdoor stages, and the steps of cityhall. Oratory was wildly popular in the 1800s, andthere was no lecturer more popular than RobertGreen Ingersoll, a.k.a., "The Great Agnostic."

Ingersoll continually championed science, reason,and secular values in the public square. He was anearly popularizer of Charles Darwin and a tirelessadvocate for women's rights, racial equality, andbirth control decades before others would pick upthe cause. He often poked fun at religious belief,and he defied the religious conservatives of his dayby championing secular humanist values.

Ingersoll's work and his words are highly relevantto our day, too, so the Center for Inquiry and itssister organization, the Council for SecularHumanism, work to bring his wisdom and insightsto a broader audience.

— Learn more about Robert Green Ingersoll —

Discover the Robert Green Ingersoll BirthplaceMuseum in Dresden, New York

Read about the CFI staff field trip to the museum

Watch a video about Ingersoll produced by theCouncil for Secular Humanism

Visit the Freethought Trail in West-Central New

York

Explore the full texts of Ingersoll's complete works

Ponder some of Ingersoll's most popular sayingsand wonder why it took you so long to find thisawesome writer! More here!

Read this neat article about Ingersoll's life andinfluence in Washington

Steal this awesome image from the CFI On CampusFacebook page (and don't forget to "Like" the pagewhile you're there!)

Watch the finalists from CFI-DC's IngersollOratory Contest. Enjoy an online walking tour ofIngersoll's Washington, D.C.

Check out this Point of Inquiry episode aboutIngersoll

In Indiana? Head to the Circle in IndianapolisSunday, August 12, to hear one of Ingersoll's mostmoving speeches, recited by Tom Flynn, thedirector of the Robert Green Ingersoll BirthplaceMuseum!

Note: You may check out on all these details on thefollowing URLs:

http://www.secularhumanism.org/

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?se

ction=ingersoll&page=museum

36


IV Humanist Gore Vidal is no more

Gore Vidal, a prolific and provocative author andlongtime laureate of the International Academy ofHumanism, has died at the age of eighty-six. Overhis long career, Vidal produced twenty-five novels,two memoirs, several volumes of essays, plays,screenplays, and television dramas. He also actedand ran for Congress twice. He expressed hostilityto religion, especially Christianity, almost from thebeginning; some of his most noteworthy works inthis regard were published in 1992—the essay“Monotheism and Its Discontents” and thenovelLive From Golgotha: The Gospel Accordingto Gore Vidal, a spoof of the New Testament.“Gore Vidal has been an inspirational figure to agreat many people, myself included. Of course hewill be remembered for being urbane, fiendishlytalented, and terrifyingly witty. But, more than this,he was principled, honest, and courageous,” saidStephen Law, secretary of the Academy, which wasestablished by the Council for Secular Humanismin 1980 to honor distinguished humanists.News Source: — CFI, U.S.A.

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cfi_mou

rns_gore_vidal/

37


The following books of M.N. Roy may now read and downloaded

from the RH Web portal: www.theradicalhumanist.com

'Revolution and Counter-Revolution in China'; 'Science and Philosophy';

'Memoirs'; 'India's Message: Fragments of a Prisoner's Diary';

'Materialism'; 'M.N. Roy: Philosopher Revolutionary';

'Reason, Romanticism and Revolution' Volume I & II;

'New Orientation'; 'New Humanism';

The Russian Revolution and the Tragedy of Communism';

'Politics, Power & Parties'; 'Men I Met';

'Historical Role of Islam' and

'From the Communist Manifesto to Radical Humanism'.

38


39


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40

A club named ‘M.N. ROY’ in Mexico

(Built in the house where Roy lived)

By Ludwig Godefroy & Emmanuel Picault

(News Source: on line Surface Magazine)

From the street, M.N. Roy, a recently completed 2,100-square-foot club in Mexico

City’s Roma neighborhood, looks like a crumbling, ramshackle house. A fitting tribute,

perhaps, to its namesake, Manabendra Nath Roy, who as a left-wing Indian

revolutionary founded the Mexican Communist Party within the building’s walls 100

years ago. Enter the space these days, and the design is quite a surprise—what one of its

architects, the France-born, Mexico-based Ludwig Godefroy, describes as

“transgressive.” Says Godefroy: “When you’re right in front of the house, you’re like,

‘Am I sure this is where I was invited?’ But then you go inside and you understand.”

Designed by Godefroy and fellow expat (and now Mexican citizen) Emmanuel Picault,

the club, which inhabits a rustic, stripped-down, Mexican-vernacular aesthetic, is meant

to be a spirited ode to the country the two architects call home. Made from simple,

locally sourced materials—pine (as seen above), black-pigmented concrete, volcanic

stone, copper sheets—the space is “like a Mayan or Aztec temple,” says Picault, who in

2007 designed Reves, a bar in the nearby Polanco neighborhood. “We’re two French

guys working in Mexico, so you might assume our clients want something of Paris or of

Europe,” he says. “We prefer to use the possibilities of Mexico. Maybe that’s why the

place looks so playful and dramatic.”

News URL:

http://www.surfacemag.com/blog/interiors/197-mn-roy-by-ludwig-godefroy-and-

emmanuel-picault/

10.27.11 Interiors | By Spencer Bailey

News URL sent to the RH by Innaiah Narisetti

(Pictures of the club on the next page)


INSIDE PICTURES OF ‘M.N. ROY CLUB’

(BUILT IN ROY’S NAME THE HOUSE WHERE HE LIVED IN MEXICO)

Published and printed by Mr. N.D. Pancholi on behalf of Indian Renaissance Instituteat

Printed by Nageen Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., W. K. Road, Meerut, 250002Editor-Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001

S-1 Plot 617 Shalimar Garden Extension I, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad-201005

RNI No. 43049/85Post Office Regd. No. Meerut-146-2012-2014

at H.P.O. Meerut Cantt.

to be posted on 2nd. of every month

RENAISSANCE PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED

15, Bankim Chatterjee Street (2nd floor), Kolkata: 700 073,

Mobile: 9831261725

NEW FROM RENAISSANCE

By SIBNARAYAN RAY

Between Renaissance and Revolution-Selected Essays: Vol. I- H.C.350.00

In Freedom’s Quest: A Study of the Life and Works of M.N. Roy:

Vol.Ill H.C.250.00

Against the Current - H.C.350.00

By M.N. ROY

Science and Superstition - H.C.125.00

AWAITED OUTSTANDING PUBLICATIONS

By RABINDRANATH TAGORE & M.N. ROY

Nationalism - H.C.150.00

By M.N. ROY

The Intellectual Roots of Modern Civilization - H.C.150.00

The Russian Revolution - P.B.140.00

The Tragedy of Communism - H.C.180.00

From the Communist Manifesto - P.B.100.00

To Radical Humanism - H.C.140.00

Humanism, Revivalism and the Indian Heritage - P.B. 140.00

By SIVANATH SASTRI

A History of The Renaissance in Bengal

—Ramtanu Lahiri: Brahman & Reformer H.C.180.00

By SIBNARAYAN RAY

Gandhi, Gandhism and Our Times (Edited) - H.C.200.00

The Mask and The Face (Jointly Edited with Marian Maddern) - H.C.200.00

Sane Voices for a Disoriented Generation (Edited) - P.B. 140.00

From the Broken Nest to Visvabharati - P.B.120.00

The Spirit of the Renaissance - P.B.150.00

Ripeness is All - P.B. 125.00

By ELLEN ROY

From the Absurdity to Creative Rationalism - P.B. 90.00

By V. M. TARKUNDE

Voice of A Great Sentinel - H.C.175.00

By SWARAJ SENGUPTA

Reflections - H.C 150.00

Science, Society and Secular Humanism - H.C. 125.00

By DEBALINA BANDOPADHYAY

The Woman-Question and Victorian Novel - H.C. 150.00

sep 2012 - rh

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