Vol. 75
No 2
MAY 2011
Rs. 20 / month
THE RADICAL HUMANIST (Since April 1949)
Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949) Spiritual Materialism – A case for Atheism —Laxmanshastri Joshi Is the Effect in Causation Intrinsic or Extrinsic? — N.V. Brahmam Ideology and Dehumanization —Jayanti Patel Ramaswami Tripuraneni: Iconoclast Social Revolutionary —N. Innaiah Righteous People in Governance can eradicate Corruption — J.S. Chandra Rao Editorial Comment: Anna Hazarre: The Litmus Test of Indian Democracy — Rekha Saraswat
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Book Reviews: Prithwindranath Mukherjee’s Bagha Jatin —Amitabha Chakrabarty Roopa Pai’s Chanakya The Master Statesman —Dipavali Sen Bjørn Lomborg’s Verdens sande tilstand —Subhankar Ray
Founder Editor: M.N. Roy
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The Radical Humanist Vol. 75
Number 2
May 2011
Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance Institute Devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life. Founder Editor: M.N. Roy Editor: Dr. Rekha Saraswat Contributory Editors: Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor Rama Kundu Publisher: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Printer: Mr. N.D. Pancholi Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph. 91-121-2620690, 09719333011, E-mail articles at: rheditor@gmail.com Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of ‘The Radical Humanist’to: Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number 111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, 110001, India n.vyas@snr.net.in Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600
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
Download and read the journal at www.theradicalhumanist.com
- Contents 1. From the Editor’s Desk: Anna Hazarre: Litmus Test of Indian Democracy —Rekha Saraswat 1 2. Remembering Justice R.A. Jahagirdar 2
—Arvind V. Savant
3. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 3 4. Guests’ Section: A Travesty Of Election Law (Contd.) —S.N. Shukla 6 5. Current Affairs: Righteous People in Governance can eradicate Corruption — J.S. Chandra Rao 9 People and the Polity —Ajit Bhattacharyya 11 6. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section: RT: Iconoclast Social Revolutionary —N. Innaiah
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Ideology And Dehumanization —Jayanti Patel 14 Is The Effect In Causation Intrinsic Or Extrinsic? —N.V. Brahmam 18 7. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:
The Lokpal Bill —Rajni V. Aithal
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Verdict on Godhara – A Mockery of Justice?
—Manzoor Ali 24 8. Book Review Section: Impending Destruction of Environment: A Myth? —Subhankar Ray 26 Chanakya: The Masterman —Dipavali Sen 29 Bagha Jatin: Life and times of Jatin da —Amitabh Chakrabarty 31 Humanist News 35
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From
The
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Editor’s Desk: Anna Was the show of solidarity for the festivity or for Hazarre—The Litmus the cause? Test of Indian Democracy —Basically, the festive-crazy crowd wants to revel
Whycalledhas a person Anna Hazarre become so popular in India? —Because others in the Parliament failed to serve the Rekha Saraswat purpose! Why did every one begin to equate him with Gandhi? —Because the common man believes in miracles and expected Anna to wipe out the vice in politics same as he expected from Gandhi! Why did Anna Hazarre feel the need to sit on fast at Jantar Mantar? —Because his experience in Maharashtra taught him the way to activate the media-sensitive politicians! Why did the ruling- party-combine immediately respond to Anna’s fast? —Because it found in it a good chance to improve its immensely tarnished image! Why was the opposition so vociferous in its support to him? —Because it found in it the best opportunity to substantiate its blame-game on the ruling party! Why were some party leaders not allowed to enter the fasting site of Anna? —Because people wanted the new charismatic group to deliver without their support-drama! Why are civil societies gradually gaining so much importance? —Because the middle-class now wants them to improve the society without itself coming forward to make efforts! Why are people coming out in large numbers to support them? —Because they want to hang on to any support that comes their way to make their lives better!
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on each occasion! (One wonders, was it the euphoria of the simultaneous two wins in the Cricket World Cup that gave the Indian people the confidence to envisage a change in the functioning of the Indian political system also) Let us now come to ourselves!! Let us simply marvel at the blank ennui in each one of us…….. Some one else will play the match for us and we will clap! Some one else will win the elections for us and we will vote! Some one else will run the government for us but we will complain! Some one else will cleanse the system for us but we will bribe! Some one else will catch the corrupt but we will play safe! We will vote in selfish interests and then will demand for the right to recall the M.P. / M.L.A.! We will not perform our duties in applying the rules of democracy in our personal, professional and social lives but will cry hoarse for our right to initiative in forming the laws of our nation! We will ignore all such undemocratic government decisions which directly or indirectly profit us but will talk of our right to referendum the moment our personal benefit is at stake. We will become arrogantly impatient and autocratic in our behaviour when our judgments are denied and our expectations are belied in our personal and public relations but we will leave no opportunity to equate the Annas with Talibanees if they show the slightest signs of impatience with the delays in the delivery-system of justice for all! Our virtues of impassive apathy and self-centered empathy have rendered the dream of a clean and honest democracy into no more than a utopia!
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Remembering Justice R.A. Jahagirdar Dear Rekha, I read your tribute to late Shri. Justice R.A. Jahagirdar, who was my esteemed colleague in the Mumbai High Court, both at the Bar and on the Bench. I am deeply touched by the glowing tributes paid to Shri. Justice Jahagirdar. Let me add a few words about his role as a lawyer and a judge. As a lawyer, Shri. Jahagirdar was of the firm belief that law was a science of social engineering and that one of the effective ways of serving the society was to practice law with a view to helping the common man to get his dues. As a lawyer, he never confined his interests to the four corners of the Court room. He always looked upon law as means of social service and not as means of livelihood. He was a straightforward lawyer who used to study his brief meticulously, both on facts and law, and put it fairly to the Court irrespective of the consequences. Akin to the philosophy of Bhagvat Geeta he believed in doing his job faithfully and to the best of his ability, without bothering about the results. As a Judge, Justice Jahagirdar was a totally ‘no nonsense’ Judge. He was known for his transparent honesty and shining integrity. He did his homework well and expected the members of the Bar to be thoroughly prepared, both on facts and on law. He maintained his own case law diary and was always willing to help a junior member of the Bar by informing him of the relevant case law. In the social gatherings of Judges and lawyers, Justice Jahagirdar maintained a respectable distance from the members of the Bar. He believed that, even in his personal life, a Judge had to observe certain standards and constraints. I would be failing in my duty if I do not mention the active support of Dr. (Smt.) Sharad Jahagirdar in the success achieved by Justice Jahagirdar in his personal and professional career. Dr. (Smt.) Jahagirdar was always keen to help every needy patient, for whatever help one needed, in the Bombay Hospital, where she occupied a position of distinction by sheer dint of her merit and reputation. Whether it was a Judge or a peon, whether in service or retired, Dr. (Smt.) Jahagirdar would ensure that the patient got the right treatment at the right time. In the death of Shri. Justice Jahagirdar, the fraternity has lost a role model whom Judges and lawyers could look up to and draw inspiration. I join the family of Radical Humanists in paying my humble tribute to the departed soul.
Arvind V. Savant (Former Advocate General of Maharashtra, Chief Justice, Kerala High Court, Chairman-Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission)
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From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi: Many taboos which might have had some
Spiritual Materialism – A case for Atheism Translated by Laxman S. Joshi
—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 to perpetuate the existing social structure rather than being reformist and that it benefits the upper classes. They perpetrate the illusions and are used for impressing the weaker sections of the society.
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beneficial effects are given a permanent sanction and these put a fetter on further progress. The argument that religion promotes social stability and social harmony is examined and rejected. Without the dubious benefit of religion various secular worldly values have been developed and they have benefited mankind more than the vaunted religious values. With no sops of religion men have laboured hard and the finest admirable qualities of men’s spirit have been developed inspite of religious influence – the scientists and the reformers are examples. The humility that should force itself in the presence of the infinite and the unknown is more to be seen with the scientist, the philosopher than the religious leaders and often this drives them to fathom the depths of thought in the quest for truth. Rarely does religion explain the how and why. These have become the preoccupations of people in secular fields. With a sense of self-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, man has dropped the earlier props of religion. In India too, the social order was seen as embodying moral values.” Contd. from the previous issue............ Meaning of the word material (Jada)— The word ‘Material’ in English is synonymous with the word ‘Jada’ in Sanskrit. It is an object which is devoid of knowledge-attribute or has neither sensation nor perception. The antonym for the word Jada is animate or sentient or chetana in Sanskrit. In Indian Philosophy, this term chetana also stands for Knower or Gyata, an object which possesses either knowledge or perception or exists as an embodiment of knowledge. An inanimate or Achetan thing is a Jada thing. An object called ‘Jada’ has the following characteristics: 1) It exists independently, in the absence of any consciousness of any knower, 2) It does not have its own awareness, 3) It, by itself is either devoid of knowledge-form or consciousness-form. For instance, a diamond lies in a natural state in a mine. It is inanimate or Jada material for the following
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reasons. A) It is lying there unknown to anyone for millions of years, B) It is, by itself devoid of awareness, and C) It, by itself, is not in any form of knowledge. The revolutionary particle physics meaning quantum mechanics (qm) gave birth to Quantum quandaries such as reality created by observer or by consciousness, after the death of Newtonian classical physics in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Resolution of the qm quandaries continues to be a philosophical quest for the philosopher-physicists in the 21st century. In their world, God comes and goes. No single genuine research in physics, in this matter has yet materialised. The Berkeley philosophy, ‘Esse est percipi’= “To be is to be perceived”, however, has not ceased to stretch their imagination. Central Paradigm of Materialism— Three stages of substance:—Matter, Life and Consciousness: Prior to the appearance of an animate thing or a living organism in the world, nature existed non-conscious and non-life. Conscious and live objects are a part of nature which have arisen inside nature at a specific time in a specific situation. Life and consciousness constitute a special event in nature. This event has emerged from the very nature, unconscious and inanimate. The central paradigm of materialism is ‘Substance inanimate and unconscious before, becomes live and conscious.’ What is Jada, unconscious and lifeless in the first stage, that only in the second stage becomes conscious and live. Live and conscious is the evolutionary development of only Jada, or inanimate substance. Originally what is material, becomes non-material, later. Vegetation, the Floras, and animal life, the Faunas constitute live nature. Insects, reptiles, mammals, birds, humans and other creatures constitute the sentient nature. Sentient means a substance possessing consciousness or knowledge. Man occupies the supreme position inside the knowledgeable sentient nature. Knowledgeable or intelligent object, such as man, who thinks about all objects, has not been existing in nature from eternity in antiquity. Intelligent object is not
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universal, and is not the root cause of all other objects. It is on the contrary, an object which is impermanent, functionally formulated. It is created causally as a distinct object in space-time and is unique. The durable anthropological paradigm in this context is worth remembering. Africa is the original home of the Homo sapiens. Physical Transforms into Metaphysical: What exists at first is material, insentient and inanimate. Heat, electricity, the gaseous; liquid as well as solid forms of matter existed before live and conscious forms of nature came into existence. From the early inanimate stage, substances belonging to quasi-life forms developed. A living organism means an object which is an automaton, which lives by digesting food, voiding excreta and reproducing its own kind. Nature of plant is exactly similar. The next stage higher in the living nature is the conscious world. Conscious means the object which inheres intelligence or awareness. An animal, a bird, a man and so on is such a thing. Inanimate, animate, and conscious are the stages that lie one above another, on the evolutionary scale of quasi-life form substances. Lifeless and unconscious matter finds itself endowed with exceptionally effective high level design and the same assumes forms— live and conscious. Within matter only, attributes of life appear and qualities of mind evolve. That which exists as physical, metamorphoses into metaphysical. Spiritual state is the transformation of only the physical state. Jada finally becomes life, the Jeeva. (18) Body or Soul: Difference is Point of View: If one examines closely any life form or sentient form, one will discover that it is a group of inanimate substances made up of various, different and sub-microscopic structures. Inside these substances, one finds principally, chemical elements and compounds. Biological cells composed of these elements and compounds are observed conjoining in specific patterns. One detects also systems, formed by collectives of cellular designs, performing various different functions. Among these systems, one also comes 4
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across a system made up of networks of nerve fibres. This system that assumes the conscious or the mental form is called the nervous system. The same system is called the body. It is in itself the soul or the mind. Body or the soul has one identical form. Power of life or power of soul is not different and separate. Animate or conscious are adjectival aspects of the body, the substance. From one point of view that which looks like the body, appears from another point of view, the soul or the mind. (19) To experience reality, to think and feel, to imagine and resolve, to doubt and desire, to hate and be angry, to love and remember, are all the characteristic states of the mind or soul. They are, at the same time, also bodily states. Body is the same as the mind. The mind or the soul does not exist outside the body. Cycle of Rebirth: Body being the soul, there is no soul, which lives beyond its annihilation or before its coming into existence. Simultaneously with the destruction of body, consciousness and life also comes to an end. As the mind or the soul ceases to follow the decimation of a body, the concept of the soul, as the retainer of the prior birth or the adopter of the future birth or the traveller through countless Yoni, the uteri, loses credibility. The very concept of the soul which resides in a body, who after its death is reborn successively in various different wombs according to his Karma, and goes either to heaven due to deeds virtuous or to perdition due to deeds vicious, is false. There is no such soul in a living body having separate existence whatsoever.
Soul and Hindu Scriptures: Various Hindu scriptures have described in different ways, travels of the souls in many worlds. They refer to an earthling who travels very many heavens and hells, an itinerant bound by the chain of destiny facing recurring birth and deaths, who passes through 84 million wombs, the Yoni, as a result of his living an ignorant life! They describe an individual who frees himself through knowledge. Therein we also find a forgetful family man who has experienced in each and every previous birth, very many strange and baffling heavens, hells and countless births, the Yoni. With the exception of imaginary and baseless stories from mythology and theology and bewildering justification concocted by people who deceive themselves and others, there is no other evidence whatsoever for the proposition that the soul is separate from the body. Quite a few philosophers formulate clever arguments as proof for the existence of an independent soul on the basis of logic. Those arguments however are flawed by causal fallacies. Justification of the traditional and popular but erroneous beliefs is the only purpose. References: 18- Julian Huxley, The Stream of Life p.36; 19H.G. Wells, Huxley, The Science of Life. p. 761: Perhaps we treat body and mind as opposites in kind, when in fact it is one face of a single two-faced reality. Contd. in the next issue.............................
Meeting Announcement: There will be a Public Meeting on “Banning Organizations and Freedom of Expression� at 5 p.m. (Thursday) on 28th April, 2011 at Plenary Hall, Indian Law Institute, (In front of Supreme Court), Bhagwan Dass Road, New Delhi-110001. The main speakers will be Nandita Haksar (Writer and Human Rights Activist), Kamal Farooqui (Ex-Chairman, Delhi Minority Commission) and Javed Anand (Secretary, Muslims For Secular Democracy). N.D. Pancholi, Secretary, IRI and President, PUCL, Delhi unit will preside. Information sent by: Shivakant Gorakhpuri, Secretary, PUCL, Delhi unit
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Guests’ Section:
S.N. Shukla
[Mr. S.N. Shukla belonged to 1967 batch of IAS and retired as Chairman State Vigilance Commission, U.P., after serving as Industrial Development Commissioner and Administrative Member Board of Revenue. Topper of the 1964 L.L.B. Exam of undivided Agra University, he has taken to legal profession after his retirement from service in February 2003 basically to take up public issues and to procure justice for the poor. As ‘General Secretary of ‘Lok Prahri’, he has been conducting several PILs in Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court and also in the Supreme Court.]
A Travesty Of Election Law Contd. from the last issue................ III Denial of Right of Statutory Appeal A perusal of the judgment dated 22.1.2010 dismissing the election petition shows that such an important matter was disposed of in a rather casual and cursory manner as is evident from followingi. Sarva Shri O.P. Srivastava and P.D. Gupta were NOT the petitioner’s counsel and Madan Mohan was the petitioner himself and NOT his counsel as wrongly shown in the impugned judgment. ii.The judgment did not even mention the preliminary issues for decision; leave alone the 33 issues framed by the Court on 21.3.2006.
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iii. The election petition was dismissed consequent to the applications listed in the judgment having been allowed without even discussing and recording any finding on the issues framed on the basis of applications no. 1517, 1518 under Order 6 Rules 16 and 1527 and 1528 Order 7 Rule 11. iv. The judgment made no mention of applications of respondents no. 5 and 11 under section 86(1) and of respondents no. 2, 8 and 9 under Section 83(1) of the Act. A conjoint reading of the judgment and the written reply of the petitioner’s counsel would show that the judgment was clearly one sided, laboured, and disjointed to somehow justify unwarranted highly belated dismissal of this very strong case involving fraud upon the Constitution and the electoral system. The apparent bias of the learned Judge in favour of the respondents is evident from the fact that despite the orders of the Hon’ble Chief Justice on the expedite applications of the petitioner and the repeated written and oral requests of the petitioner for day to day hearing in terms of Section 86(6) of the RP Act 1951, and the decision in AIR 2004 SC 1975, hearing on preliminary issues continued for more than 15 months and the judgment was given 6 months after submission of the written reply by the petitioner’s counsel to the written arguments of the respondents’ counsel. Thus, the petitioner was left with practically no time to approach the Apex Court to seek redressal against the patently wrong and unjustified dismissal of the election petition almost 4 years after the framing of the issues on the prima facie untenable ground of non-maintainability. On the other hand, the apparent bias in favour of the respondents is reflected in the judgment from the followingi. The discussion in the judgment, like the written submissions of the learned counsel for respondent no. 3, 5, and 8, is neither application wise nor issue wise. ii.There is repetition of the same point in several paras and several unrelated points concerning
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different preliminary issues have been jumbled in one para. iii. The factual matrix is not confined to undisputed facts but is mainly based on the unsubstantiated submissions of the counsel of the respondents’ no. 3, 5 and 8. Even while discussing various issues, the judgment either completely omits to take notice of the petitioner’s reply (as in the case requirement of affidavit in Form 25) or does not state it fully on the various points. iv. While the rulings relied upon by the respondents’ counsel are quoted extensively, without even mentioning petitioner’s reply as to why they are not applicable, those cited in by the petitioner’s written reply are either not referred to at all or mentioned in the passing and brushed aside even though they were directly applicable on all fours to the present case. v.No adverse comment on the counsel for the respondent no. 3, 5 and 8, leave alone imposing cost, while rejecting his frivolous and malicious application against the petitioner’s counsel vide order dated 9.7.2009. vi. While upholding rejection of petitioner’s nomination (even without entering into the merits of the election petition) on the ground of inconsequential omission in para 2 of the Form 26, the impugned judgment took no notice of averment in the amended para 32 of the election petition that the affidavit in Form 26 of respondent no. 11 was no affidavit at all since it did not say that its deponent was making the statement on oath or even solemnly affirmed it. vii. Not summoning Dr. Ashok Nigam and Prabhat Tripathi to clarify the position regarding markings on the certified copy of Form 26 and the page numbering of the documents despite the petitioner’s application dated 2.4.2006 for summoning them. As a result of causal approach and apparent bias the judgment suffers from following grave factual errors are apparent on the face of the record-
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i. The observation in para 32 of the judgment that “it appears that the petitioner had not served the copy of amended election petition” is against the plea of the respondents in para 16 of the application no. 1579 and para 17 of the application no. 309 that they were supplied copy of the amended petition and NOT the petition as originally filed. ii. The observation in para 71 of the judgment is patently contradicted by para 9 of the election petition reproduced in para 63 of the judgment itself. iii. The observation in para 74 of the judgment that this Hon’ble Court in the cases of PUCL and ADR had ruled for introduction of Form 26 is patently wrong. iv. Also the observation in para 74 that nothing has been brought on record to indicate as to how rejection of the petitioner’s nomination shall not be lawful is also against the record as para 30 of the election petition had detailed 12 valid reasons in this regard. v.The observations in para 81 of the judgment that the list of documents and the documents do not contain the signatures of the petitioner is also against the record. A perusal of Annexure 1 to this appeal would show that the list of documents filed with the election petition was duly verified and each and every page of all those documents was duly attested under the signatures of the petitioner. The judgment was erroneous and bad not only on facts but also runs in the face of the law laid down by this Hon’ble Court. The petitioner accordingly filed the civil appeal D No. 6025 of 2010. The questions of law requiring consideration in the appeal were as followsi. In view of the decisions in the cases of Pratap Singh6, Ch. Subbarao7, Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi8, Ram Prasad Sharma9, Anil Baluni10, Should an election petition be dismissed at the ‘threshold’ nearly 4 years after the framing of issues without even stating, leave alone adjudicating, the preliminary issues framed on the basis of
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applications against the maintainability of the election petition? ii.Could the presumption about the compliance of sections 81, 82 and 117 of the Act on the basis of Rules 3 and 5 of Order XV-A of the High Court Rules be rebutted without respondents adducing any evidence to controvert the evidence produced by the petitioner to meet their objection? iii. Could the applications under Order 6 Rules 16 be allowed without even referring to the averments therein, leave alone recording any finding thereon, especially when no issue was framed on the basis of these applications? iv. Could the applications under Order 7 Rule 11 be allowed without recording a finding on issue no. 9 relating to compliance of Rule 11(e) and without indicating as to which other requirement of Rule 11 was not complied with and why? v. Whether in view of the law laid down in the case of Murarka11, Prabhu Narain12, Manohar Joshi13, H.D. Revanna14, T.M. Jacob15, Bidesh Singh16, and Harcharan Singh Barar17 election petition could be dismissed for non-compliance of Section 83 of the Act? vi. Was there any non-compliance of Sections 81, 82 or 117 of the Act to warrant dismissal of the
election petition under Section 86(1)? vii. Whether the High Court was right in treating the election petition as based on allegations of corrupt practice when in fact the challenge in the election petition was on the ground of wrong rejection of the petitioner’s nomination and improper acceptance of the nomination papers of respondents no. 4 and 11? viii. Whether the High Court was right in deciding the applications of the respondents challenging the maintainability even when the official records were sealed in the Court and also even when the appellant had filed an application for summoning witnesses to prove his version against the respondents’ objections about maintainability? ix. Whether in view of the law laid down in the cases of Narendra Singh18, Anil Balu1ni19, Virendra Nath Gautam20, Harcharan Singh Barar21 the judgment, placing reliance on inapplicable rulings of smaller Benches, is sustainable in the face of the law laid down in the directly applicable rulings of larger and Constitutional Benches cited in the written submissions of the petitioner’s counsel? x.Whether in the facts and circumstances of the case imposition of costs on the petitioner was justified? To be concluded in the next issue.....................
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Current Affairs’ Section:
J.S. Chandra Rao [Mr. J. Sharath Chandra Rao has been
contributing articles to Newspaper like “Vaartha” and “Andhra Jyothi” and other periodicals on Environment, economics and other social issues. He may be contacted at 1-2-593/40, Gaganmahal Colony, Hyderabad – 500 029, A.P. Phone: 040-27638039]
Righteous People in Governance can eradicate Corruption is a general feeling of anger among There all sections of people in our country against rampant corruption. Naked abuse of power with several corrupt practices taking place with the corrupt amassing thousands of crores in the quickest possible time by dubious means in an era of receding values and morality has created a serious frustrating crisis in the society. It has also simultaneously unleashed many adverse effects on the economy. Social activist Anna Hazare’s movement for a stronger, stricter Lok Pal Bill, fighting for effective impartial enquiries against corruption has generated an extraordinary groundswell of public support. His indefinite fast based on Gandhian principles of protest forced the political class to respond positively to address the corruption malady being so rampant in our country. Several top officials and political leaders are being tainted frequently with corruption charges and gross irregularities. To eradicate this, sweeping 9
actions are needed to investigate honestly and objectively prosecuting the guilty and punishing them at the earliest. People are aware that mere hallow declarations of bringing the corrupt to book devoid of active honest monitoring and supervision of investigations will not serve any purpose. It is common knowledge that many persons being charged are either free or no action is taken due to political interference whenever they are being caught neither any action is taken against those who committed the crime. What is needed is an honest, political and administrative iniiative in taking steps in checking corruption. Only hard and ruthless decisions are required against all corrupt activities which will lead to restoring public confidence in the people enhancing in the process the prestige of the Government. All such strong actions will also wean away people from earning money by dubious means and also from the primitive approach of expressing all values by money alone. Also talking endlessly against the malice of corruption without practicing what we speak will not lead to cleaning the system. A permanent watch dog against all future misdemeanors is needed to keep up the crusade against corruption. Regrettably very little has been done so far to check increasing corruption, frequent violation of established rules and regulations and also failing to check increasing injustices. All these failures have created a serious unrest and a feeling of powerlessness among the people. This is largely due to the political and bureaucratic laws being devoid of an interactive economic, political and social relationship requiring a sense of obligation and motivations in serving the people and the society beyond self interests. Also lack of transparency in governance leads to breeding corruption at all levels. A powerful meaningful Lokpall Bill being proposed should be accompanied by other reforms in several other sectors. We also need electoral reforms, police reforms and judicial reforms. Also laws may be changed to put the onus on the accused to prove that whatever he possessed has been acquired honestly
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which in turn will lead to speedier disposal of cases saving time and money. Further Anna Hazare’s fast is a lesson to all parties and organizations that go on the rampage blocking rail, road and other means of public transport, damaging in the process properties and bullying people. Present nationwide response and support has been largely due to the vitality of the issue that was disturbing citizens for so long which led to a ten member committee being created to draft an effective, transparent, legal Lokpal Bill. The very fact that thousands of people coming on to the streets to support the movement against corruption without a single incident of violence and without causing production losses should be an eye-opener to all the political parties who hold bandhs and protests inconveniencing people. Also this movement against corruption will only be complete when people succeed in installing good and righteous people in governance to implement all justifiable policies. Rising GDP without the majority of people being involved giving many opportunities for fraud and corruption with little regard for human welfare led to frustration, lawlessness, crime and violence. Growth at any cost has provided the impetus for corruption. The exponential growth in the amount of money involved in scams with corporates and politicians indulging in greater manipulations committing frequent irregularities are now very much in the open. Today’s economic model of growth expropriating natural resources selling them cheaply to corporates and individuals enabling them to earn huge illegal profits through nefarious means has further boosted corruption. It has also led to people’s verdict and trust being often treated as a license for asset accumulation rather than effective governance. The frequent question being asked everywhere is for whom is the so called developmental model? Present day policies are not being oriented towards a commitment to fairness, justice and objective truth focusing on the genuine interests of human needs. Economic disparities accentuated by lack of proper education, health, food and security effected large number of people.
A state or a nation’s development is not judged merely by the GDP growth rate but is judged on how its people are living. People’s lives are presently subjected to several uncertainties with many living in fear and in turmoil. Growth has not seen the parallel development of social and economic institutions to ensure balanced, inclusive and sustainable growth. In our search for more wealth, we have created several social conflicts of severe injustices, severe political uncertainties cropping up effecting the sound functioning of the human society. What is needed is a balanced developmental model restoring values addressing genuine grievances in a justifiable manner. Fight against corruption is one such right step in this direction. Real democracy demands consulting citizens and gathering their inputs while drafting bills concerning them. Such a norm will provide citizens with more power and responsibilities making them in the process, better and more responsible citizens. The creation of space for civil society participation in formulating policy matters augers well for a functioning democracy. Further, the argument that the constitutional propriety of trying to hijack legislative powers that rests solely with parliament and that of dictating terms to an elected government by the civil society and that of the political class loosing their relevance in the process weakening the parliamentary system is not a proper argument. The joint drafting of the Lokpal bill by the civil society and the UPA will not lead to bypassing the parliament. The bill whatever shape it takes will be placed before the parliament for its approval. It would have to be approved by members of the parliament before it becomes the law. A proper legally drafted Lokpal Bill will not give any scope to bypass parliament and the constitution. However, the ultimate aim of the movement should be towards effective, political and administrative governance capable of rooting out corruption restoring values and working towards a justifiable order in the society.
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Ajit Bhattacharyya
People and the Polity [Mr. Ajit Bhattacharyya is a history scholar and writer. He is a trustee in the executive body of Indian Renainssance Institute. He is also a veteran member of the Indian Radical Humanist Association.]
Hazare called off his 98 hours’ Anna hunger strike on 9.4.11.,after the Central Government issued a gazette notification for formation of a joint 10 member committee of central minters and civil society activists to draft an effective Lok Pal Bill. The Anna flash up has raised many questions. Anna is charged with “utter disdain” and “contempt of Parliamentary Democracy”. Political parties are finding fault with his uninterrupted criticism of politicians. He vows never to seek to contest an election because the “ordinary voter” according to him , “does not have awareness; they vote under the influence of Rupees 100 and a bottle of liquor. They do not understand the value of their votes.” Such comments smack of Anna’s innocence and lack of understating. Politics is a complex game. Engaged in a game one must play it according to the rules, Hazare may be reminded, “The fault of politicians”, as M.N. Roy asserted, “is the failure to realise that, so long as power remains the object of political practice, it cannot be handicapped by irrelevant scruples...even the best of men are bound to be pulled down to the lowest depth”. Anna avoids to be pulled down to the lowest depth by avoiding the election fray. But his sudden sniping
success is not going to put a stop to the unscrupulous scramble for political power and lust for loot in the public life. The crisis is deeper and it stretches wider to the private domain. The venom has so blunted our understanding that we fail to realise that we ourselves tend to be corrupt most of the times. That is the real danger. Is not it that many a 2-G scams will be dwarfed if one is able to add up the private loot. The three noble professions, we may take as example, are highly polluted now. The lawyers, medical practitioners and teachers giving private tuition seldom give money receipt against their fees. Would some one calculate how much black money is thus yearly generated? Are “the Hasim Shakhs” and Rama Kaibartas (the rural poor), to borrow from the Bengali Novelist Bankim Chatterjee, free from corruption and loot of state money? A scheme to provide free electricity to the rural poor in West Bengal was undertaken by the State Government a few years ago. By the scheme, each household is to get 40 watt free electricity at night. But many are reported to run heaters and other gadgets with impunity. The organised sector is extracting huge salary benefits from the authority. Are they giving proportionate service? Very recently the Airport Authority in Kolkata had to engage a private agency for sweeping the Airport area. The sweepers on the Authority’s pay roll are not doing their job as they have started earning a high salary of rupees 40 thousand per month. Retired Army personnels are demanding rank based pension. Cataloguing is endless! Now Bill Gates and Warren Buffe are sermoning that Indian rich men should make good donations for social uplift. They do not know that not philanthropy but financially and culturally self-sufficient individuals only can make the Good Earth possible. But the system is making it impossible for an average individual to remain corruption free at all point of time.
“Corruption is authority plus monopoly minus transparency.”—Anonymous 11
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IRI / IRHA Members’ Section:
Innaiah Narisetti [Dr. N. Innaiah, former Director, Centre for Inquiry (CFI), India, did his Ph.D on Philosophy of Modern Science. He is a veteran Radical Humanist who has translated maximum books written by M.N Roy as well as other books on humanism in Telugu.]
Ramaswami Tripuraneni: Iconoclast Social Revolutionary Britishers were ruling India While National Congress party emerged to fight for our country’s independence. In those formation days were born M.N. Roy in Bengal and Ramaswami Tripuraneni in Andhra. They both, by coincidence, were born in the same year (1887). In this essay Ramaswami Tripuraneni will be called as RT hereafter. Tripuraneni Ramamamba-Chalamaiah couple gave birth to five children and RT was fifth and last. Mr Gopalakrishnaiah, Narasaiah, Sriramulu and Subrahmanyam were educated. The fifth one RT was born on 15th Jan 1887 in Angalur village, (Krishna district, Andhra, India). RT had his primary education in his native village and continued his middle school in Gudivada, nearby town. Then he joined in 4th form in Bandar (now called Masulipatam) the head quarters of Krishna district and cultural, literary center. RT was interested to learn Sanskrit language but the traditional Brahmin scholars refused to give him instruction since it was taboo for non-Brahmins to learn the holy Hindu language!
But RT was adamant and learnt Sanskrit language under the guidance of Asuri Kantaiah (district registrar). A famous poet was living in those days in Bandar and RT had the great opportunity to learn poetry under his guidance which inspired him also to write poetry. Just as M.K. Gandhi married Kasturba at the age of 11, so as RT also married Nagamamba (daughter of Atluri Nagamma, Amaraiah) at the age of 11. In those days child marriages were not yet prohibited and legal Acts were not yet passed. RT passed matriculation examination in 1910, at the age of 23. He wanted to study F.A. which was equivalent to Intermediate. F.A. is Fellow of arts. But RT could not get through since he was engaged otherwise like sports and poetry writing. He went to Mumbai (called Bombay) to study law but did not continue. During his school and intermediate studies RT had already produced literary pieces. One such writing was Rana Pratap, a play about a ruler who inspired him. But the British rulers banned that script before it was printed. The other two writings of RT were Karempudi Kadanam (War in Karempudi), Kondaveeti Patanam (Fall of Kondaveedu Kingdom). In 1912 RT wrote Kurukshetra Sangramam (Battle at Kurukshetra, near Delhi). All this literary adventure was done during early education days. He also wrote poems entitled: Naadu-Nedu (Then and Now) in which one poem was about Kamma caste to which he belonged. Later he discarded the caste prejudice and emerged as a secularist. Just at the beginning of First World War, RT went to Dublin, Ireland via England to study Law. He started from India on September 18, 1914 and reached the destination by 23 November. While studying law RT continued his interest in literary writings and contributed articles to Krishna Patrika edited by Mutnuru Krishnarao and published from Bandar. His correspondence from Ireland indicated that he had no belief in supernatural powers, superstitions and demons. He returned from Ireland
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after completing his Law course by 1917 and reached India on 11 November 1917. During his stay in Ireland RT wrote one revolutionary play entitled Sambuka Vadha (Killing of Sambuka). RT practiced law in Bandar courts from 1917 onwards and also actively participated in the non-Brahmin movement in Andhra. He attended couple of conferences and was an invited speaker. After practicing law for four years in Bandar, RT was offered editorship of a journal Raitu. Pamulapati Krishnaiah and Jagarlamudi Kuppuswami Choudary wished to establish that magazine. RT accepted the offer and moved to Tenali. But the magazine never took off. However, RT remained in Tenali and again engaged in legal practice there. He was also active in politics. When major towns and cities were authorized by the British to have limited local rule he became chairman of Tenali municipality. He served in this capacity for over a dozen years, from 1925 to 1938. A public debate was arranged in Kollur village, in Guntur district between Pushpagiri Sankara Peetham and non Brahmin movement leaders. RT presided over it in 1924 which had become an eye opener to all sane thinkers in Andhra. During his tenure as Chairman of the Tenali Municipality RT abolished the sacrifice of animals in temples in Tenali. He established Sutasram Ashram at his residence which has become a pilgrim place, center of congregation for poets, artists, and social reformers (activists). His first wife gave birth to the famous writer Tripuraneni Gopichand and Sarojini. Gopichand, later became Secretary of Andhra Radical Democratic party. She died on 15 Jan 1920. Then he married again, but had no children. She also died and then RT married third one who gave birth to the famous writer Gokulchand and Choudarani. RT was very active in social reform as well as in literary activities during the days when he was Municipal Chairman of Tenali. In 1929 RT was 13
honored in Gudivada, and taken in procession on elephant where he was given the title Kaviraju (king among poets) by Andhra Mahasabha, a literary forum. Bezwada Ramachandra Reddi from Nellore presided over the function. Along with Challapalli Zamindar several other literary personalities and social activists attended the function. RT wrote Vivaha Vidhi (Marriage Oath) in Telugu during 1929. That revolutionized the community and several persons came forward to get married with Telugu Oath which was an eye opener. The orthodox-Hindus, who were using Sanskrit chanting as marriage oaths, were furious and called it blasphemy. Hitherto only Brahmins served as marriage priests where as RT’s book and the call for social revolution enthused several non-brahmin persons to perform marriage using his marriage oaths in Telugu. During this period Arya Samaj, which considered all Puranas and Vedic claims as mere myths, became widely recognized in Tenali region and RT also came under its influence. RT contributed major writings called Khooni (Assasin). Sutapuranam (Poetry in 4 parts) Kuppuswamy Satakam, Dhoorta Maanavaa, poems. Towards the end of his life RT wrote a revolutionary book reinterpreting the sacred Hindu text Bhagavadgita. One notable feature of his plays and writings was to give lengthy prefaces which reminds us of Bernard Shaw. During early 1940 a meeting was arranged between M.N. Roy and Tripuraneni Ramaswamy in Tenali. They met and discussed their views on social reform, concepts of secular humanism in the presence of Tripuraneni Gopichand and Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy. But the meeting was so brief that they could not go into any details on any specific modes of action. To be concluded in the next issue.....................
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Jayanti Patel [Prof. Jayanti Patel. is Retd. Prof. Political Science. His special interests are Political Thought, African Studies and Political Violence. He has been the Vice-President of African Studies Society, India, President Gujarat Rajyashastra Mandal, Founder Secretary Gujarat Univesity Area Teachers Association and Gujarat Rationalist Association, President IRHA and Editor Vaishvik Manavvad (Monthly). He has written scores of books and scores of research articles and contributed number of articles on current topics in various magazines.]
Ideology and Dehumanization a living being responds or Generally, reacts to its environment. With the development of reasoning power in human beings, by the use of his thinking ability and far sightedness, they shape their behaviour-response differently. Hence, if we ask a person, why he behaved in a particular way? He can give us a reason for his action. In this sense, we find a chain of causal relationship (cause-action) behind the behaviour of human beings. Similarly, if we convince a person that, for certain reasons he should act in a particular way, then he is encouraged to act in that way. Albeit, it is necessary that, these ideas and the reasons provided by them, is acceptable to him. He considers that it is proper according to his values and cultural upbringing and also, profitable. Ideological Justification: It is necessary that these ideas are logically
coalesced and the person feels that the reason provided by them is beneficial for him. In addition, he must know that in the situation created due to his behaviour according to these ideas he shall have more advantages then disadvantages. With such an understanding, a person or a group of persons acquires justification for their actions. Further, these ideas perform the function of combining people in a group and create a sense of unity amongst them. From ancient times, human beings have been provided with such an ideological crutch or rationale for their behaviour. Motivated by such ideas men have shown readiness to give or take the lives in the name of loyalty to the tribe, the king, the state, a religion, a sect and/or the nation. Of course, it is more appealing to take lives then give it. Nature of Ideology: Ideology is the logical and well knit form of such ideas. Ideologies aiming to shape or restructure the political, social, and/or economic system, like Liberalism, Socialism, Nazism, Communism, Humanism belong to a special category. These ideologies analyze the existing situation, identify the causes responsible for the prevailing evils and suggest an action program for the change. They, also, depict an attractive picture – utopia of the future society. It promises superior purpose, higher goals and greater good. This increases their motivation power immensely. It serves as an intoxicant which allows a person to compromise with his sense of justice. Injurious Elements: Some of these ideologies have scant regard for human dignity and human life; they consider human being as a means. They disregard the values of freedom equality and brotherhood. These types of anti-human ideologies promote ferociousness and ruthlessness in a person. He develops a sense of self-righteousness. His moral standards of evaluating his own actions get distorted. A person motivated by such ideologies becomes inhuman. He not only commits robbery, atrocities, torture, mayhem, killings, genocide unhesitatingly but also
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believes that it is a part of his duty and obligation. He does not suffer from any guilt complex while performing such evil acts. Such an ideology abolishes his sense of guilt. It provides justification for his evil deeds. Erosion of sense of Guilt: Usually there exists a sense of guilt in an evildoer. When Duryodhan Says ‘Janami Dharmam (in the sense of moral behavior) Na Che Me Pravrutti’ and the villain Iago’s repentance (in Shakespeare’s drama Othello) they express such sense of guilt. While Arjuna haunted by the spectra of internecine war is not prepared to fight, Krishna provides him an ideology and Arjuna, by saying ‘Nashto Moh Smrutir Labdha’ gets ready for war and loses his sense of guilt. Similarly, by labeling opponents as rakshasa, demon, shaitan, kafir, blasphemer, atheist, traitor, goonda, a feeling of hatred is fomented against them, a palatable rationale is provided for their slaughter as well as removal of the sense of guilt. Historical Continuum: This practice of carnage, without a sense of guilt, is evidenced through out the history of mankind. A succession of continuous slaughter, atrocities, and persecution is carried out with the purpose of extending domination or power. In the earlier times, for the betterment of the tribe, king, state or the nation, to attack other tribe, state or nation, kill its people, burn their houses and crop, add poison in the water, slaughter innocent citizens or make them slaves, abduct or rape women, were considered proper. In present times, indiscriminate bombing or raining of lethal chemicals or virus is added to the list. The blood soaked history of imperialism and colonialism is still fresh. Even today, wars are waged for the protection of the interests of the nation or for some groups’ economic benefits. Religion: Religions profess certain belief structure, ideals and norms of social behaviour. Hence, it can also be categorized as an ideology. In past and present, much more butchery, atrocities and inhuman acts 15
are perpetuated for the propagation of religion and protection of various religious beliefs. Innumerable wars were waged in the name of religion. In India, slaughter of Charvaks and Buddhists, the perpetual relegation of Dalits into most awful life then slaves, through the theory of Karma and the caste system, in medieval Europe, burning and tormenting heretics or those who challenged church’s authority, by Christian Inquisition, in Islam Fatwas and their execution of death penalty for Kafirs and blasphemers; are only some of the examples thereof. Communal riots, terrorist attacks on people belonging to other religions are the products of the same category. In the name of Ideals: Incidents of inhuman behaviour in the name of superior ideals are also, not less. Conflicts for eradication of exploitation or deprivation, civil wars or battles for capturing power for reforms, revolutions for abolishing feudal or capitalist systems (e.g. French and Russian), have not remained free from such inhuman acts. Indiscriminate use of guillotine during the French revolution, in the name of annihilating reactionary elements after the Russian revolution (wherein many leaders and supporters of the revolutions were slaughtered) are the evidences thereof. Similar pattern is visible in the violent struggles for the national freedom from colonialism. In these struggles the natives were also victims of terrorism along with the colonial rulers. Terror perpetuated through parochialism or aggressive nationalism is of the same genre. Nazism – Communism: The milieu of slaughter, torment and terror reached to an apex in the regimes under the Nazi, Fascist and totalitarian Communist systems. These rules were based on ideologies opposed to democracy. A calculated and systemic reign of terror was established on a large scale. Further, the persons who carried out this policy of terror were indoctrinated in such a fashion that they acted without any sense of guilt. They believed that they
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were performing a commendable duty for a good cause. Solzhenitsyn’s comments in this regards in Gulag Archipelago is significant. “Ideology is— that what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seen good instead of bad in his own and others’ eyes, so that he won’t hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. That was how the agents of the Inquisition fortified their wills: by invoking Christianity; the conquerors of foreign lands, by extolling the grandeur of their Motherland; the colonizers, by civilization; the Nazis, by race; and the Jacobins (early and later) by equality, brotherhood and happiness of future generations. Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. This cannot be denied, nor passed over, nor suppressed. How, than, do we dare insist that evildoers do not exist? And who was it that destroyed these millions? Without evildoers there would have been no Archipelago.” (or concentration camps) (P. 174. Translator; Thomas P. Whitney, Collins and Harvill press, London. 1974.) And we can add: Nazi concentration camps, butchery in Africa, Cultural Revolution of China, Saddam’s attack on Kurds and other Iraqi people, incidents in Kashmir and Purvanchal, communal riots, terrorist attacks and ....., we can go on extending this list. Ideology plus Society: But, man and society require ideology. We can not do away with ideology. All ideologies are not harmful. Ideologies have motivated human beings to strive for just a society and a better future. However, some of them have proved harmful due to its specific elements. We have to identify those elements or characteristics of an ideology and remove them or avoid that ideology. The accusation placed on ideologies as a dehumanizing factor requires examination. It is not proper to label all ideologies as the source of justification for mayhems or ruthless behaviour. It would be
advisable to find out those particular elements that are present in that ideology which provide justification for the evildoings. First, over and above ideology, the social and political milieu and systems as well as the conscience, awareness and the ability of the people of that region to resist, are also significant factors. They are also the products of some ideology and they play a significant role in resisting and controlling tyranny. For example, millions of supporters of democracy, socialists and six million Jews were persecuted, robbed, thrown in concentration camps or killed during the Nazi reign in Germany. For this oppression, after the defeat of the Nazi Germany, Nazi oppressors were tried for their crimes and eighty thousand of them were indicted and sentenced. Also, the post war German government and the German people felt and expressed their sense of guilt, repentance and paid compensation. On the other hand, in Russia, during Lenin and Stalin’s rule, more then three crore people where imprisoned, tortured and exiled to concentration camps or killed. But for these misdeeds only eight persons were sentenced and nobody has expressed repentance or sense of guilt. (Solzhenitsyn; ibid) It is heartening that in India during emergency, communal riots, oppression in various part, groups of people have showed the courage to raise their voice against the atrocities perpetuated by government, military or police personnel or rulers. Craving for Power: In addition to social ethos, another important factor is the craving for power – absolute power. Ideologies championing fundamental change, advocating restructuring or rebuilding a society have their own logical dynamics. Advocates of such changes demand absolute, unfettered power. Further, to maintain their power, for their own safety, to eliminate opponents; the persons in power go on demanding and extending their scope of power. In this case the values like human life, human dignity, freedom, justice are sacrificed or
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marginalized. A number of people either attracted by the ideology or fear or personal benefits or such other reasons, support the scheme of the persons in power or turn a blind eye. Values and Ideology: The third consideration is, which and what values are cherished by a particular ideology? Each ideology champions and upholds certain values. Religious ideologies go on praising the importance of religious beliefs and mores, incomprehensible and mysterious transcendental power, religious teachers, religious commandments and religious rituals. Nationalists (and parochialists) extol their special culture and abstract concept of Nation. Totalitarians give precedence to a person, a party or an institution. These types of ideologies give precedence to divine or earthly person, organization, group, faith or an abstract concept, instead of the ‘human being’. Instead of accepting a person as an independent, living being they consider him as a means or subservient to them. Search for the New Paradigm: In the light of these experiences we require to find a new paradigm for the ideology. Roy came to a similar conclusion from a different angle. He advocated politics without power and a cultural revolution to imbibe democratic and human values in the society. Human and democratic values get priority over power. Further, it is necessary to create barriers against centralization and concentration of power at the apex. To achieve this goal, ideological absolutism, accumulation of political and economic power in few hands should be opposed; freedom of thought and expression, and right to disagree, should be protected.
Decentralization of power, separation of judicial, executive and legislative powers or checks and balances, as well as equitable distribution of wealth (wealth is also power) is necessary. In this context, ideologies like, materialism, rationalism, secularism, liberalism, humanism give priority to man and advocate democracy. These ideologies respect life, dignity and freedom of each and every individual; they profess equality and brotherhood of man. They are not prepared to compromise, abandon or mortgage these values. Liberal and humanist ideologies championing these values, and society’s willingness and capability to protect these values, could prevent the inhuman acts. The Challenge: It is true that we cannot totally eradicate the aggressive trait from human nature. Aggression for self defense and survival is part of biological existence. We may consider it as benign aggression. (See; Eric Fromm, Anatomy of Human Destructiveness). The other type is malign aggression, motivated and encouraged by an ideology that removes the guilt complex, sense of justice and human values. To save humanity from devastation of dehumanizing ideologies it is necessary to promote ideologies which negate the pernicious elements of those ideologies. Ideologies and ethos which champion and cherish democratic values, uphold importance of human life, dignity, freedom (of speech, expression and thought) and equality should be supported and promoted. We should strive to create an atmosphere in the society wherein these values are maintained and endeavor to develop the individual and social ability and capacity to resist any encroachment on them.
Dear Rékhâ, The issue with the tributes to Justice Jahagirdar has just reached me. I join you in my silent homage to his great example. Life continues..... Warm regards. Prithwindra-dâ
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N.V. Brahmam
[MR N.V. Brahmam is a well known propagator of humanism in Andhra Pradesh Region. He attended the second Dehradun Study Camp in May 1946, and some Radical Humanist Camps and the Re-unions. Thereupon he became a spirited Royist. He likes to call himself a non-conformist Royist. Having been a teacher for many years he influenced a generation of students to adopt rationalistic thinking. Many, in humanist circles, consider him to be an original thinker. Brahmam’s controversial book Bible Bandaram (Hollowness of Bible) won him many accolades. His many essays in Telugu reflect a fine philosophical mind at work.]
Is the Effect in Causation Intrinsic or Extrinsic? is patent in this phenomenal Whatever world at present has hitherto been latent. This is one view. There is another view diametrically opposite to it, according to which whatever is patent is a new emergence. Which of these two is commendable? This question arose in my mind more than six decades back. The terms, ‘latency’ and ‘patency’ represent the former and the later stages in the process of evolution, and also the cause and the effect in the concept of causation respectively. This applies to whatever comes to be perceived as an inevitable outcome of what has until then remained unperceived. Of the above two views, the first one appeared to me plausible.
After I came into the fold of M.N. Roy, I understood that I was not in a wrong route. Roy, the propounder of Radical Humanism, stressed the idea that the material cause which is the main cause in causation is always intrinsic. The efficient cause and the instrumental causes which are extrinsic just contribute for the transformation of material cause into effect. For example, Roy says, a man dies because he is mortal by nature; mortality which is the main cause for death is intrinsic within man. Either disease or injury or snake-bite or any other such fatal incident which is extrinsic serves as contributory cause for the metamorphosis of mortality to death. In the same way, if a glass breaks, the main cause for the breaking is its intrinsic brittleness. Any other contributory cause is extrinsic. The above cited two intrinsic causes, mortality and brittleness, which are latent in man and glass become patent as death and breakage respectively. Some time after, I came to know that nearly three thousand years ago, there arose a serious controversy among Daarshanic thinkers in India regarding causation. Among the Darshanas, the Saankhya of Kapila and the Yoga of Patanjali supported Satkaarya Vaada meaning that the effect already exists hidden in the material cause. But the Vaiseshika of Kanaada and the Nyaaya of Gautama supported Asatkaarya Vaada meaning that the effect does not exist in the cause as it is a new emergence. Thus I, unknowingly, fell in the path of Satkaarya Vaada as I had come to the conclusion that only what has been latent becomes patent. This concept of mine was condemned by some rationalist friends, but I was glad to know that I was strongly backed by some noted ancient sages. Does the effect exist intrinsic with the main cause as Satkaarya Vaada pleads? Or does it not exist anywhere before its emergence as Asatkaarya Vaada argues? Which of these two contentions is correct? Each of them has its own standpoint; the Asatkaarya Vaada hurled critical remarks against the Satkaarya Vaada, to which the latter retaliated aptly. Let us cite below their mutual arguments.
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If the effect is already latent in the plurality of causes before it becomes patent, then … Asatkaarya Vaada: The effect must have close relation with causative factors without differing from them. Satkaarya Vaada: Without giving causative factors and their specific combination, there will be no effect at all. Therefore, it is meaningless to say that the effect which is a new emergence has no close relationship with the causative factors. Asat.: There must be possibility of the effect appearing to us before its emergence. Sat.: If the effect is possible to appear in its mature form in any one causative factor before its emergence, where then does the need of other causative factors arise? Effect is that monistic form assumed by the plurality of the causative factors combined in a particular model. Therefore, it is wrong to think that, as the effect does not appear in any one causative factor, it is a new emergence being separate from, and not closely, related to, the causes. Asat.: Production of the effect must take place even without the subject, i.e. the efficient cause. Sat.: The subject is after all one among the causative factors. If the material cause is to change into the effect, the subject and the instrumental causes do come to help the process of this change as the efficient cause and the instrumental causes respectively. It is not at all commendable to speak about the production of the effect by discarding the subject which is one of the pluralities of causes that combine for forming the monistic effect. Asat.: There should not be any difference in the causation both before and after the production of effect. Sat.: As the effect is the result of a special combination of the causative factors, difference in the condition of causes is inevitable both before and after the production of the effect. Asat.: The difference between existence and emergence must disappear.
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Sat.: In fact, existence is real, and emergence is not real. When the various causative factors that had existed separately in their mixture state combine and come into existence as monistic form in their compound state, it is called effect. The effect is the same causative factors existing in certain pattern combine and come into existence in some other pattern. Therefore, the effect, in fact, is a different mode of existence of the same causative factors only. It is not a thing that has been produced. If we consider it still deeply, therefore, the expression ‘Production of effect’ is itself erroneous and meaningless. Cause and effect are not two and the same (Adwaita). Effect is not newly emerging, non-dualistic, principle of non-emergence (Ajaatavaada). When it is said that emergence is a myth and that whatever appears is nothing but existence, it is sheer senseless to state that ‘the difference between existence and emergence must disappear’. Asat.: Effect does not take shape without subject (the efficient cause). If the intrinsic material cause is to take the shape of the effect, the interference of the extrinsic efficient cause is essential. How can the effect take place without subject, the efficient cause? Where does such subject dwell in the effect? Sat.: The process of evolution in nature is properly going on. New forms are emerging in the place of old ones. The efficient cause does not specifically appear in these transformations. When the efficient cause is not particularly needed in the process of evolution, why should it be required in the relation of cause and effect? As the existing cause is internal in the case of evolution or mutation, why should it be essentially external in the emergence of the effect? Sankaraachaarya who enriched the philosophy of non-dualism (Adwaita) thought of removing this dualistic element of causation from orthodox Hinduism and attached inseparable oneness of the material cause and the efficient cause to the impersonal Brahman, which was to him nothing but some substantial principle and not the
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conventional concept of God; man’s self is the individual life force comparable to the limited space in a pot (Ghataakaasa) and Brahman is the universal life force comparable to the unlimited space of the sky (Mahaakaasa). Thus he visualized oneness between individual man and universal Brahman. He also defined Brahman as ‘undistinguished efficient and material cause’ (Abhinna Nimittopaadaana Kaaranam Brahman).
This monistic causation is compatible with the spirit of humanism which is anthropocentric, i.e. considering man as the central figure of all human thought and activity. In Humanism, both cause and effect in man’s world is man. The 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, which followed the Renaissance movement in Europe, was the breeding ground for modern scientific mode of thinking with humanist bearing.
Rejoinder by Jawaharlal Jasthi on N.V. Brahmam’s article ‘Free Will and Determinism’ published in the April 2011 issue of RH. I am surprised and also disappointed at the writings of our friend Mr. N.V. Brahmam. I agree in full with his conclusions that actions are willful. But my difference is with the way he led the argument to that conclusion. Because all the living beings have come out of the law-governed universe, they too must be rational if law-governedness is the cause of rationalism. It is agreed if you add “at their own level”. “This expression leaves no speciality to man and goes against the spirit of humanism itself”. This is the first dangerous step. We are humanists because we “make man the archetype of society, the measure of all things and the maker of his own destiny”. It is not because we claim any speciality against other living beings regarding origins. This claim of some speciality for man is the starting point for spiritualism. We accept there are some special characters that distinguish man from other living beings. Otherwise there is no basis to recognize man as a separate being. “Order is observed both in nature and in man. They are to be studied and understood separately”. Why? How can any body separate them and understand when they are continuous and integral parts of the same nature? “The non-living things possess inseparable qualities. But the living beings can have actions in addition to qualities”. There appears to be an undue stress to distinguish qualities from actions. It has to be accepted that actions are determined by qualities as he understands them. Even if you want to do some thing, you cannot do because it is impossible. You do not have the qualities necessary to do it. If I find a mango on the tree, I cannot jump like a monkey and grab it because my ‘qualities’ do not permit it. That is determinism by nature. It does not mean I don’t have free will. I have it. But it is tempered with reason. That is rationalism. If you agree that there is determinism, it does not mean that you deny rationalism and free will. Determinism is a restrictive quality, not prescriptive. In fact rationalism is itself a restriction on free will. What Roy said is that this rationalism has its origins in the law-governedness of the universe itself. In the course of evolution, there is manifest a tendency to get free from this restrictive forces of nature. That leads to innovation and expansion of man’s capacity beyond what is possible as a product of evolution. That is possible because of the brain which itself is a product of evolution. In order to understand this we have necessarily to proceed “from physical nature to man, but not from man to nature”. That is, naturalism in the sense that we depend on nature to understand man and it does not cease to be humanism because of it. It is not possible to disconnect rationality from law-governed universe. Free will without rationality is just madness. That is why we seek rational thinking. jjasthi@yahoo.com
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Teacher’s & Research Scholar’s Section:
Rajani.V. Aithal
The Lokpal Bill Independence India has been After witness to a lot of corruptions in the last 60 years. The reasons for this were many. From the year 1950’s till late 1980’s the economy of India was under socialist-inspired policies such as extensive regulation, protectionism and public ownership, which led to the slow growth of the Indian economy. Then there was also a “Licence Raj” a constant corruption occurring in the form of bureaucratic controls. During the Licence Raj system all kinds of free market mechanisms were thwarted, and corruption emerged as an illegitimate price mechanism which was created by the politico-economic regime. To solve this problem the Government had appointed a committee under the chairmanship the then Indian Union Home Secretary N.N. Vohra who studied the problem and stated in his report that there is criminalization of politics and of the nexus between criminals, politicians and bureaucrats in India. It also contained several observations made by official agencies on the criminal network which was virtually running a parallel government. This report discussed criminal gangs who enjoyed the patronage of politicians – of all political parties – and the protection of government functionaries. It also revealed that political leaders had become the leaders of gangs. They were also connected to the military. Over the years criminals had been elected to local bodies, State Assemblies, and even the Parliament. It 21
seems that there were certain annexure which remained unpublished as it contained highly explosive material. India Against Corruption Movement: But in the year 2010-2011 corruption had reached to great heights. It witnessed various scandals being blown apart by the media, whistle-blowers, civil society activists and government investigation agencies alike. Scams like 2G spectrum scam, Adarsh Housing Society Scam, Commonwealth Games scam and many more brought about name of various Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers and even members of the Armed Forces. This has led to a more expansive civil society movement that wishes to graft the strictest of laws and penalties. India Against Corruption is a body created by various prominent activists and the citizens of India. It has no political affiliations and only wishes to bring about drastic changes in the governance system of India so as to tackle corruption effectively. Indian anti-corruption movement: The 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement is the result of the various protests for the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen Ombudsman Bill) which emerged all over India especially after April 5th 2011. The basic agenda of these protestors was that the Government of India should draft a strong anti-graft Lokpal bill which follows the originally drafted bill and not the changes the government plans to bring in, which will make the Lokayukta just another advisory body with no actual power in the vast Indian bureaucracy. Following continuous calls in vain to the government to work effectively towards passing the bill, a renowned civil society activist and Gandhian, Anna Hazare, went on an indefinite hunger strike unto death until his demands in support of the bill were met. Anna demanded a joint committee of Civil Society members and government representatives to draft a strong anti-graft bill. The main idea behind the formation of Jan Lokpal Bill is to have an independent body which would investigate cases of corruption within a year and ensure speedy trial within the next year.
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India Against Corruption has made it its prime objective to bring about the passing in parliament and subsequent effective enforcement of the Jan Lokpal Bill. It has also become a force organizing protests in support of the bill. Various kinds of protests were organized in various cities and towns of India. These protests included fasts, candlelight vigils and rallies. The protests are especially one of their kinds in India as they have no political affiliation towards any party and neither the protestors allowed any political party to take advantage of these activists so that they could achieve and meet their own political goals. Jan Lokpal Bill: Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizens’ Ombudsman Bill) is an Indian draft anti-corruption bill that would create the Jan Lokpal, an independent body similar to the Election Commission with the power to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without prior government permission. An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests. This bill proposes the institution of the office of Lokpal (Ombudsman) at the center and local Lokayukta at the state level. The bill is designed to create an effective anti-corruption and grievance redress system that effectively deters corruption while providing effective protection to whistleblowers. Several eminent personalities including religious leaders, Right to Information Activists, social reformers and bureaucrats have supported this movement. It has also got support from Swami Ramdev who also publicly raised the issue of Indian money stashed away illegally in Swiss bank which is estimated to be between 1-1.5 trillion USD. He says that the government must take concrete action and bring back the money as it belongs to the people of India and has been taken out of the country illegally. The bill is a first step towards anti-corruption measures and will not be complete without addressing certain major reformations like bringing back black money.
Non-Seriousness of the implementation of the Bill: For 42 years, the government-drafted bill has failed to pass through the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. The first Lokpal Bill was passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969 but stalled in the Rajya Sabha. Subsequent Lokpal bills were introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008 but all failed to pass. When Anna Hazare started his four day long struggle of fasting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that the Lokpal Bill would be introduced in the 2011 monsoon session of parliament. Main Features of the proposed Bill: To establish a central government anti-corruption institution called Lokpal, supported by Lokayukta at the state level. As in the case of the Supreme Court and Cabinet Secretariat, the Lokpal will be supervised by the Cabinet Secretary and the Election Commission. As a result, it will be completely independent of the government and free from ministerial influence in its investigations. Members will be appointed by judges, Indian Administrative Service officers with a clean record, private citizens and constitutional authorities through a transparent and participatory process. A selection committee will invite short listed candidates for interviews, video recordings of which will thereafter be made public. Every month on its website, the Lokayukta will publish a list of cases dealt with, brief details of each, their outcome and any action taken or proposed. It will also publish lists of all cases received by the Lokayukta during the previous month, cases dealt with and those which are pending. Investigations of each case must be completed in one year. Any resulting trials should be concluded in the following year, giving a total maximum process time of two years. Losses caused to the government by a corrupt individual will be recovered at the time of conviction. Government officework required by a citizen that is not completed within a prescribed time period will result in Lokpal imposing financial penalties on those responsible, which will then be given as
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compensation to the complainant. Complaints against any officer of Lokpal will be investigated and completed within a month and, if found to be substantive, will result in the officer being dismissed within two months. The existing anti-corruption agencies (CVC, departmental vigilance and the anti-corruption branch of the CBI) will be merged into Lokpal which will have complete power and authority to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician. Whistleblowers who alert the agency to potential corruption cases will also be provided with protection by it. Difference between Draft Lokpal Bill (2010) and Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizens Ombudsman Bill): Draft Lokpal Bill (2010): Lokpal will have no power to initiate suo moto action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public. It can only probe complaints forwarded by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Lokpal will only be an Advisory Body with a role limited to forwarding reports to a “Competent Authority”. Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizens Ombudsman Bill). Lokpal will have powers to initiate suo moto action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public. Lokpal will have no police powers and no ability to register a First Information Report or proceed with criminal investigations. The CBI and Lokpal will be unconnected. Punishment for corruption will be a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of up-to 7 years. Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizens Ombudsman Bill): Lokpal will be much more than an Advisory Body and have the power to initiate prosecution of anyone found guilty. Lokpal will have police powers as well as the ability to register First
Information Reports. Lokpal and the anti corruption wing of the CBI will be one independent body. Punishments will be a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of upto life imprisonment. Lokpal will not monopolize a particular area. Allegations against panel members: But as soon as the drafting committee was set up allegations had come up against the panel members of the new committee formed as a result of Anna Hazare’s recent hunger strike to draft a law on corruption, especially the candidature of Shanti Bhushan, veteran lawyer, former union law minister and co-chairman of the new committee. To this Shanti Bhushan said that “it certainly appears to be a motivated, malicious campaign to derail the draft of the Lokpal bill.” First Lokpal Bill draft meeting: First Lokpal Bill draft meeting was held on 16 April 2011, Eight days after Gandhian Anna Hazare called off his fast demanding a stronger Lokpal law. The government has agreed to audio-recording of all meetings of the Lokpal Bill panel and to holding of public consultations before a final draft of the anti-graft law is prepared. Next meeting will be held on 2 May 2011. Anna Hazare insisted to telecast the live proceedings video, but government denied stating certain “drawbacks” of doing so and so the first meeting was held recording the audio for future references. But the question is how far both the government representatives and the civil society representatives are successful in drafting the bill and in getting it passed in parliament and how seriously this bill will be implemented. [Ms. Rajani D. Aithal is a freelance journalist and an independent Researcher who conducts research related to communalism and its various aspects.]
“An Ombudsman has an obligation when it spots trouble, when it spots patterns, basically to speak truth to power.” Neal Milner 23
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Manzoor Ali
Verdict on Godhara – A Mockery of Justice? 2011, consecutively the two InHighFebruary, Courts of India have delivered verdict on two very important cases. One on 21st February, which is related to the terrorists attack in Mumbai on 26 November 2008 in which Maharashtra’s High Court upholds the death sentence to Azmal Kasab – lone survived terrorist. Second on 22nd February, Gujarat High Court upheld the ‘conspiracy theory’ against those who torched a coach of Sabarmati Express rioters based on the Nanavati committee set up by the state government (The credibility of the report placed by Nanavati-Shah Commission itself came under scanner after the Tehelka scoop). The verdict convicted 31 people and acquitted 63 including the main accused Maulvi Umar ji. If one recalls the tense atmosphere aftermath of the Mumbai attack right wing propagandists were vehemently argueing that “it (attack) could not have been possible without internal help”. They were pointing towards a particular community who could hatch conspiracy against the state driven by a religious ideology and hatred toward the majority community. They could have provided both material and moral support to the anti-national elements, which qualified them as renegade. The High Court verdict in Godhara incident does find out those ‘conspiring’ elements within the nation. Spurious base of Verdict: The evidence that led to the conviction of 31
persons in connection with the Godhra train burning case came from Gandhinagar’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), eyewitnesses and circumstantial evidence. It is feared that the eyewitnesses and other evidence might have been morphed and coerced to suit the official line. Tehelka through its undercover reporter brought the shocking story out to public. In a disturbing statement, the Gujarat Government’s Special Prosecutor, Arvind Pandya, told reporters that Justice Shah was ‘the BJP government’s man’ and that Justice Nanavati ‘was only after money’. Apart from this the Commission suffered from many loopholes. For instances, the commission examined several eyewitnesses from among those aboard coach S-6. None among the non-karsevak passengers claimed to have seen a mob carrying carboys filled with inflammable liquid. Only the karsevaks who had been involved in a scuffle with Muslim tea vendors at Godhra station claimed that the Muslim mob was carrying carboys filled with petrol. The Nanavati Commission enjoyably ignored the U.C. Banerjee Commission, set up by Central government in 2004, report. Hence, the very base of current verdict appears to be spurious and moot. Fallout: The Godhara verdict seems to give a boost to anti-minority forces and an opportunity to vilify them at the national level. It also, thus, happens to justify the Modi ‘action-reaction’ based riots aftermath of Godhara as ‘natural’. So the killing of more than 3000 Muslims, rape of women, displacement and economic destruction becomes ‘natural’ in one stroke. However, some scholars like Mukul Dube argued that what followed after Godhara was not a riot. It should be classified as a genocide. “So unusual were those events that many have been led to ask for a law specifically to deal with genocide, as that form and degree of murder cannot be taken care of by the existing laws, which apply only to the normal run of violence and killings”.
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The verdict may add armour to the reactionary groups who were questioning the efforts of civil society fighting for justice to the riots’ victim. The Muslim community who has not shown its anger in public may feel cheated again. They have already been burdened to respect the judiciary as done in Babri Masjid-Ayodhya verdict. What option does a disempowered minority has? The question that is it possible to deliver freedom and fairness to minorities in the majoritarian polity becomes more pertinent in the present context. The recent public hearing organised by Centre for Social Justice finds no respite to the suffering Muslims of Gujarat. In the hearing over 50 riot
victims expressed their views on the lives of the minority community in Gujarat after Godhra riots. Their story is actually a great story of failure of principles of democracy and state. But who cares!!. [Mr. Manzoor Ali, a Ph.D. scholar at the Centre for Political Studies, SSS, JNU, New Delhi, is currently working as a ‘Research Assistant’ on a UGC Project entitled “Political Opportunism & Economic Performance in Major Indian States 1967-2007”, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. He has also worked as a ‘Research Assistant’ under Mr. Kuldip Nayar and as a ‘Research Associate’ under Prof. Zoya Hasan.]
Letter to the Editor:
The fuss against nuclear power The recent tsunami and subsequent severe damage of a nuclear power plant in Japan and spillage of radioactivity appear to be a windfall for the environmentalists, social activists, members of the so-called voluntary organizations and the like. They have spared no time to organize protest meetings, dharna and similar activities to re-aware the people of the severe dangers of nuclear power and to raise strong voices against the installation and utilization of these power plants. Not only any new nuclear plant should be installed but also the existing plants should immediately be dismantled. In this frenzied backdrop some voice of reason should be raised however feeble it might be. In the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan no-one has died from radiation exposure. Although it is difficult to measure the aftermath of radiation it is quite likely that the spillage of radiation that had occurred will be diluted in the vast water of the oceans and will be below the threshold for any impending danger. At the same time of this accident an explosion in another energy sector caused immense destruction, costing the lives of more than 40 people, but most of us barely noticed it. The deaths of the coal miners, in western Pakistan, were eclipsed by the international attention given to the crisis of the aftermath of tsunami. Accidents at nuclear power plants are rare. In contrast, coal-mining disasters are too frequent to merit much attention — more than 6,000 coal miners died in 2004 in China alone. But there is apparently no major agitation to shut down coal mines. There are many advantages of nuclear plant. Nuclear power plants are in use for many years but how many serious accidents did happen? It is very difficult to mention any except Chernobyl. In any venture, or for that matter, even in our everyday life, there is always some amount of risk involved. Should we abolish the railways because there are accidents or not step on the roads because a car might dash upon us? We should gauge and compare the risks and benefits as we all do in our day to day life. It appears that most of these agitators mentioned above are using all the fruits of modern technology and yet at the slightest opportunity make a hue and cry. We should be aware of this deception. —Subhankar Ray (subhankarr@yahoo.com) 13 Regent Estate, Kolkata 700 092
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Book Review Section: [BOOK: The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Danish: Verdens sande tilstand, literal translation: The Real State of the World) by Danish environmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg. It was first published in Danish in 1998, and the English edition was published as a work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001.]
—Reviewed by Subhankar Ray [Mr. Subhankar Ray is a researcher in Biochemistry and has been, for a long time, associated with the Renaissance movement.]
Impending Destruction of Environment: A Myth? Continued from the previous issue... Longevity and health: That the human longevity has increased needs no elaborate discussion. Up to 1900 the average age was 40 in developed countries; in poor countries it was much less, similar to that of Stone Age. In India it was 25, in China 24 and in Chile 30. Chile was advanced among the poor countries. Worldwide average was 30, which rose to 43 in 1950 and in 1997 it rose to 67. Even in sub-Saharan Africa where longevity was least the situation improved considerably. The prevention of child death is the major reason for it. The Author considers this a great success and we totally agree to this. A question might arise whether we are suffering more from illness due to increase in longevity. The Author’s answer is a clear no. By viewing cinemas many of us feel that in earlier days people were healthier and lived harmoniously with nature. By referring historical sources he mentions that in old days people very often suffered gastrointestinal diseases, malaria, TB etc; skin disease was rampant. The diseases that used to come from horses and other animals were no less than due to the pollution by motor vehicles of the present. The rich did not take balanced diet; the poor often used
to eat stale and rotten food or remained hungry. Since the last part of 19th century this problem gradually decreased due to availability of better food, clothing and house. Clean water, improved sanitation, health education and unprecedented improvement in medical treatment were also other important reasons. Infectious diseases were virtually routed out from developed countries and significantly reduced in poor countries. A newcomer is AIDS but comparable syphilis is much less. The major problems in developed countries are now old age-disease, heart problem, cancer etc. Cancer has increased but if we consider age, increase in population and life style then it has reduced. The main reason for increase in longevity is due to check in child death and infectious diseases. This phenomenon has occurred in sub-Saharan Africa also although much less as compared to other poor countries. Mainly due to the outbreak of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, longevity has increased less, which could be checked by increasing knowledge and change in sexual habits; there is no need of large monetary expenditure. The question, whether our sickness has increased due to increase in longevity is difficult to answer in one or two words. However increase in longevity means better health. Surveys of several developed countries show that we are falling ill less frequently. But startling results of these surveys are that we remain ill for more days in a span. The Author’s explanation is that the conception of sickness has changed over years. Now-a-days in developed countries people remain at home due to soar-throat, which was not done previously. Large scale introduction of health insurance is one important reason. Health consciousness and feeling sick have increased due to overall development specially economic. Questionnaire survey shows that more youths in USA consider themselves sick as compared to poor youths of India. As per WHO’s survey, average longevity of people of sub-Saharan Africa is 50 and they remain disable
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15% of their life due to illness; whereas in developed countries average longevity of people is 77 and they remain disable 8% of their life. Another index for health is average height, which is gradually increasing from several centuries past. In a nutshell the longevity has increased and health has also improved considerably. Hunger and Food: The Population Bomb, written by the famous scientist and sociologist Paul Erlich was published in 1968 and 3 million copies were sold. The book starts “The battle to feed humanity is over. The World will experience starvation of tragic proportions—hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.” Ehrlich stated that professional optimists (the term coined by Ehrlich himself) think in coming eight years India could increase her agricultural produce to such an extent that she could feed an excess population of 120 million although a large population now remaining half fed. He dealt in details how this could not be possible. In the same vein one time head of the World Watch Institute Lester Brown wrote in 1965 “The food problem emerging in less developed region may be one of the most nearly insoluble problems facing man over the next few decades.” However both of them proved to be wrong. In comparison to 1961 the population of the Earth increased twice (2001), but in both developed and developing countries we are receiving more food. In late eighteenth century Malthus first presented such a well-integrated view. His contention was that population grows much faster than food production. So we are gradually moving towards a deeper crisis. But in reality that did not happen. We have seen just above that the population does not grow at the same rate and the production of food frequently increases much faster. As per UN as compared to 1961 in 2001 per head food production and intake of calories have increased respectively 23 and 24 %; the number of half fed people reduced from 36% to 18%. In the third World production of food increased three times. From 1800 the price of
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wheat began to reduce, which did not happen for the last five hundred years. The technologies that were behind this unprecedented prosperity in agriculture are collectively termed as Green Revolution. What happened was availability of high quality seeds, irrigation and control in water management, use of fertilizer and pesticides and dexterity of farmers. It is useless to elaborate on these issues. Many think that use of fertilizer and pesticides and intensive cultivation are detrimental to agriculture; but how to feed 6 billon people without these? We could try to increase production by increasing the arable land. But without improved technology this could not be possible. Moreover if we increased the arable land it would be harmful in the long run. But this prosperity was not uniform in all the developing countries. In the beginning of 1960s this prosperity was more pronounced in many Asian countries as compared to sub Saharan Africa. However in one or two countries such as Burkina Faso and Eritrea this prosperity happened. For this misery of Africa the Author has held responsible civil war, corruption and lack of will of the administrators. Prosperity: In the beginning of this Chapter the Author shows that in the last two thousand years per capita GDP has increased worldwide. It was stable from 0 to 1800 AD at 400 US $, it grew slowly at first and around 1800 it crossed the 700 mark and then rapidly increased. In the last two hundred years it increased 8 times worldwide, in Europe 13 times, in the surroundings of Europe 9 times, in Asia 8 times, in Latin America 7 times and in Africa 4 times. He quoted a comment from a report of UN, “Few people realize the great advance already made. In the past 50 years poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500 years. And it has been reduced in almost all countries”. In developing countries the number of poor people remained same but it has reduced proportionately.
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But has this development increased inequality? Research has shown that in certain cases inequality increased during development. However there are exceptions. In many instances inequality is a hindrance for development. In South Korea inequality was less as to that of Philippines. In Philippines development was lesser. On the issues of development and inequality he quotes a highly-cited comment of UNDP, “The global chasm between the rich and the poor widens day by day�. But the Author feels that the idea is wrong because UNDP had used the International Exchange Rate as a basis to calculate the inequality. But the economists know for quite sometime that when a country becomes rich price index also rises there. If we convert Indian Rupee to USA $ then we understand what could we purchase and what services we get in USA by this $. But in many cases this is irrelevant. The real issue is what we get in India. For this, UN has introduced a new index, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which could show it. By citing some sources the Author shows a huge discrepancy in results of these two different methods. If you calculate by Exchange rate an Ethiopian earns 100 US $ per year, whereas by PPP he earns 450. Calculating by UNDP exchange rate, in 1960 the ratio of income of 20% population of most reach countries and 20% of most poor countries was 31:1; in 1991 it increased to 61:1. This estimate is frequently quoted. However by using PPP World Bank and some other reliable sources show that this gap is not increased at all, but slowly decreasing. On the issue of equality and inequality it is difficult at present to have a clear vision of the future but some reliable sources suggest that it will decrease gradually. It is not that this trend of increased prosperity is uniform in all time and place. For some recent years this trend has been thwarted in erstwhile Soviet Union, in some countries of Latin America and in sub Saharan Africa. The main reason of this political instability specially in sub Saharan Africa is racial conflict. In early 1990s in several countries of Southeast Asia some crisis had developed. But
they could overcome the crisis and are again on the path of progress. The Author concludes there is significant economic development region wise as also globally. But we have to keep in mind that a large percentage of population is still below the poverty line. For long term development we need physical capital, investment in machinery and to educate people. More we need free economy, which will ease international trade and investment. Political and economic stability also contribute significantly. Overall education has spread. In developing countries 75% were illiterate in 1950, now it is 20%. School, college and university education has spread. Regarding India he writes that 100% are getting enrolled for primary education. But there is some doubt how far this is reliable and what is the percentage of drop outs? Higher education has spread no doubt, but is there not a decrease in standard? Readers expect a detailed and balanced view in this issue. Due to dearth in statistics only the situation in western countries is discussed on the subject of leisure. In general leisure has increased. People are spending less time in a lifetime in jobs. Ladies are working more outside the home and gents are participating more in household work. More time is being spent in watching TV. The people of rich countries are using gadgets more to ease their lives. Many feel that past societies were peaceful. But by looking at anthropological evidence we could understand that in those societies that are now in prehistoric era murder was one of the main reasons of death. Murder, injury and robbery etc are major preoccupations of media because interesting news stories could be built by those. However the rate of murder has reduced significantly in western countries although suicide has increased. Deaths due to pestilence, flood, drought, rain and storm, famine were very much less in 1990 than in 1900. From 1910 to 1940 it was increased to some extent but then gradually reduced. ............contd. in the next issue
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Dipavali Sen [Ms. Dipavali Sen has been a student of Delhi
School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a prolific writer and has written creative pieces and articles for children as well as adults, both in English and Bengali. Dipavali@gmail.com]
Chanakya—The Masterman [Chanakya The Master Statesman, by Roopa Pai; cover and illustrations by Moonis Ijlal, Charitavali series, Rupa & Co, New Delhi;2003; hardcover, 6”x6”, half-tone illustrations; pp 72; price Rs 95.] the Master Statesman is a short Chanakya book in the Charitavali series of Rupa& Co. The series is dedicated to the legendary figures of ancient and contemporary India, ranging from politicians to scientists. Chanakya, Kautilya, or Vishnugupta is a phenomenon more than two thousand years old. But even today he is relevant to the political-administrative scenario and retains a certain enigma. What was he, this book asks. “Ruthless administrator or compassionate humanitarian? Machiavellian kingmaker or farsighted philosopher?” (p 5) The book is in six sections or chapters. Chapter 1(the Enigma that is Chanakya) points out that there is “little written material” (p 5) on this 29
famous character of Indian history. The Arthashastra attributed to Chanakya came to light only as recently as 1905. All available accounts agree however that he “was the real power behind the Mauryan throne” (p 7). Unscrupulous, even vindictive, he also had an honorable and humanitarian aspect to him. “ ….he was, for all his ruthlessness, a pioneer of human rights, advocating the dignity of women, slaves, and the poor.”(p 8) Chapter 2(India in Chanakya’s Time) gives a historical-cum-geographical account of the Mauryan times. One of this chapter’s highlights is the map on pp 10-11 page 13, showing the various coins of that era. How did Chanakya and Chandragupta come together? In what ways did Chanakya help Chandragupta to his throne? These are the questions that Chapter 3 (Chanakya and Chandragupta) discusses. Once Magadha was won, and Chandragupta’s potential threats subdued, Chanakya, as the book confirms, “relinquished his position as guru in the Magadha court and went back to his Spartan life as a teacher” (p32).This is part of the ‘superstructure’ of the Indian ‘social formation’ – as reflected two thousand years later, say, by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jayprakash Narayan. Apart from the association with Chandragupta, Chanakya/Kautilya is associated with the Arthashastra, an enormously significant document on statecraft, a treasure house of early Mauryan history. Chapter 6 (Chanakya’s Arthashastra) provides us nuggets of information on it. A few examples: Vishnusharma had rated the Arthashastra high whereas Banabhatta had been critical (p 35). It is written as addressed to a king who wants to conquer the kingdoms around him. He is called the vijigisu and stands at the centre of a circle or mandala formed by other kings (pp 51-52). It considered shudras as part and parcel of the Aryan society (p 37).
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It laid heavy emphasis on military expansion and empire-building. War was supposed to keep a nation’s blood circulation regular. Weaker and smaller kingdoms, it argued, should be annexed by stronger and bigger ones (p39). It assumed all land to be the king’s property, and supported the payment of rent, land tax as well as water tax for land irrigated by the state. According to it, virtually every area of individual life should be under state control, through a network of trained spies (p43). A Big Brother who is Watching is quite in tune with the Arthashastra! Chanakya is also credited with the formulation of Chanakya-Niti. This is what Chapter 5 (Chanakya’s Niti Shastra) excerpts from. It rightly points out that while Arthashastra was meant for kings, Chanakya’s Niti Shastra was meant for the householder in his everyday life. Some of these precepts are in circulation even today. Examples: Do not be too upright in your dealings. Straight trees get cut down while crooked ones are left standing. The elephant is controlled by the ankusha or goad. Yet is the ankusha as large as the elephant? It is between equals that friendship flourishes. The book makes an interesting point. Chanakya masterminded the establishment of the Mauryan Empire. But Chandragupta’s very own grandson, Emperor Ashoka, “rejected” the Arthashastra (p54). He gave up warfare and espionage in favor of the peace-loving ways of Buddhism. But, as the book reiterates, Arthashastra did not die out. It survived and, in fact, has regained its relevance. Chapter 6 ( The Relevance of Chanakya Today) informs us that scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organization, Bangalore, along with University of Pune, and the National Institute of Virology have combined in a
project to study the Arthashastra for ‘effective stealth warfare techniques that would give Indian military troops an edge over their enemies”( p63). It underscores “the work’s consistently amoral tone and unembarrassed pragmatism”(p65).While Chanakya argues for warfare as an instrument of state policy, he can also look beyond it – at another such instrument – diplomacy. “It is perhaps this that makes the Arthashastra enormously relevant in a twenty-first century world reluctant to engage in large-scale conflicts” (p65). In the current context of Globalization, another recommendation of Chanakya’s deserves mention. When a territory is newly annexed, the conqueror must respect the traditions of the conquered people. In modern times, this can be interpreted as a recommendation to preserve cultural diversity even in a global world. After the short bibliography, the book has five ruled pages for jotting down any further points on Chanakya. A thoughtful addition adding to the product-value. Let me end this review on a personal note. It is a long time since I had read Chandragupta, the famous Bengali play by noted poet and playwright Dwijendralal Roy. Masterly in conception and execution, the play had forever stamped a certain image of Chanakya in my brain. The play may have been named after Chandragupta, but the real hero, even as a ten-year-old I had realized, was Chanakya. Being a student of Economics, I had later fingered translations of the Arthashastra, for example the one by L.N. Rangarajan (Penguin 1992). However I had never really gone into its depths. But this almost pocket-size book has made me feel like doing so. I hope others will have similar feelings and strongly recommend that they pick it up for a read.
Respected Madam, I feel intellectually enriched after perusing Laxman Shastri Josh’s and Amitabh Chakaravarty’s writings. Amitabh Chakaravarty is my favorite author. —Bagwat Prasad Rath
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mother’s voice telling a story: how Jatindranath became Bagha Jatin. From Prithwindra’s book emerges the full story. Who can better University and Doc.ès. Sc. from evoke such episodes than Univ. of Paris, France. He first Jatindranath’s grandson? worked at National Physical To protect villagers Jatindra, Laboratory, New Delhi and armed only with a Nepali kookri, later entered C.N.R.S. and fought with a tiger and killed it. joined Centre de Phys.Théor. Jatindra himself was mauled. A (CPHT)of Ecole Polytechnique, severely damaged knee was treated France in 1965. He still with skill and care by the leading continues to work there. Apart surgeon of Calcutta, Suresh Prasad from a large number of papers Sarbadhikari (SPS) avoiding on varied problems of amputation. For this Jatindra was mathematical physics in various grateful. For him the tiger was just scientific journals and an episode. Essential for him was conference proceedings he has published a series of articles [BOOK: Bagha Jatin - Life and to remain able bodied, fully capable, after fighting the tiger, of (covering scientific, times of Jatindranath fighting the British Lion. He set philosophic, historical and Mukherjee (1879 –1915) by other cultural aspects) in Prithwindranath Mukherjee, out to liberate his Janmabhumi India from foreign rule. Bengali in ‘Jijnasa’ (edited by (National Book Trust, New Prof. Sibnarayan Ray). These How was Jatindra’s body and Delhi, 2010)] have been collected in a spirit formed? Based on familyrecently published book by documents and stories passed on Reviewed by Amitabha Renaissance Publishers. A few from one generation to another Chakrabarty articles in English have also Prithwindra’s biography provides appeared in the earlier issues of a unique and invaluable source. The Radical Humanist. He had The major formative influence was that of reviewed the four volumes of “In his mother Sharat Shashi. Freedom’s Quest: Life of M.N. Roy” Sharat Shashi was born in the vast written by Prof. Sibnarayan Ray on the ancestral home of the Chatterjee family in latter’s request which was serialised in what is now Bangladesh. Married to the RH.] Umesh Chandra Mukherjee and widowed Amitabha Ch. prematurely, she brought up her two On his recovery, Jatindra had children, the daughter Vinodebala and son offered to Dr. SPS - as a gift of Jyoti (Jatindranath) in the Chatterjee gratitude – the padded skin mounted with the head home. The eldest brother Basanta Kumar installed in bold relief, along with the dagger.” Such is the Sharat as the head of the household. foot note at the end of chapter 3 of Prithwindra The more I read about Sharat Shashi the more I am Mukherjee’s biography of his grandfather impressed. Devoted to social work, cultivated in Jatindranath. The mounted head was that of a tiger. Bengali literature, she tried above all to transmit the Reading this I was again a boy listening to my dauntless qualities of her spirit to Jyoti. She would
[Prof. Amitabha Chakrabarti is M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Kolkata
“
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launch him into the turbulent flow of the nearby Gorai River and then come swimming, cleaving the water, to bring him back. Once Jyoti, then hardly four, rushed in, afraid of a dog. Sharat just gave the boy a log of firewood and told him to go back and chase the dog away. Vinodebala wrote in her memoirs that this was the first and the last time she saw her brother afraid of anything. Jatindra was thus already prepared to face a tiger some day. Along with his school education Jatindra learned to wrestle and ride. The day, rushing in through villagers stampeding in panic, he mastered a runaway horse his mother congratulated him. The boy had learnt his lesson. Sharat Shashi’s ultimate lesson was that life is worthwhile if one dies for an ideal. Jatindra will do so. Prithwindra’s family saga is rich with tales. The reader watches Jatindra growing up strong and dauntless and also reaching out to help the suffering, the needy, and the deprived. One story touched me particularly. Before the Durga Puja, Basanta kumar offered huge feasts for all – Hindus, Untouchables and Musalmans. But there was just one discrimination! Jatindra, participating in the cooking and serving, noticed it. There was refined white rice for distinguished guests and coarse red one for the rest. I quote: “One day, Jatindra sensed that a peasant was hesitating to ask for something; fully aware that they had plenty of vegetable, fish and meat items prepared by the ladies of the family with their associates, he discovered that the poor man wanted to taste the white rice. Having promptly served it, Jatindra brought this to Basanta Kumar’s notice and, the next day on there was only one variety of rice for everybody: the white one.” Following Prithwindra we arrive at a phase of Jatindra’s life, daunting in its complexity and intensity. He has married Indubala, the bride chosen for him by Sharat Shashi. He is working in the Bengal Secretariat under the Financial Secretary Henry Wheeler, who appreciates and
admires the young man. But also, as a clandestine revolutionary, he is organizing the activities of the Anushilan Samiti where young revolutionaries are being trained for the final struggle to throw out the foreign rulers and liberate India. The discipline is strict, the training arduous, secrecy imperative. He has met Aurobindo Ghose, an initiator of the revolutionary movement. He also has an ardent spiritual life and is a disciple of Bholananda Giri of Hardwar. His almost superhuman strength is matched by the strength of his mind holding all the strands of his life together. At this stage, only under certain special circumstances Jatindra openly defied the English. British soldiers, swaggering about, contemptuous of the natives would sometimes use their boots, canes or gun butts to push them away or just for ‘healthy fun’. Jatindra, if present, would take them on. They got thrashed by the single man wading in. I quote: “Some time later in a lighter vein, Henry Wheeler enquired of Jatindra: Tell me Mukherjee, how many men can you deal with at a time, if aggressed? With a smile, Jatindra replied: In the case of honest fellows, I can’t handle even one. But I can easily cope with a host of them, if they be foul.” Jatindra’s aim was to structure Anushilan Samiti into autonomous, clandestine cells communicating among themselves only via the high command. Thus if some members of one cell were betrayed and arrested, even under torture they would not be able to betray any other cell. Revolutionaries, thus trained, would only strike when sufficiently prepared and wait for the suitable moment. Such an organization necessitates great discipline and patience - qualities inherent in Jatindra himself but not in everybody. Barin Ghose, brother of Aurobindo, preferred immediate violent actions. This generated tensions and conflicts. But Jatindra also had disciples of exceptional caliber. One of them is indeed well known to all readers of The Radical Humanist – Naren Bhattacharya, the future M.N. Roy.
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In Roy’s Memoirs under a full page photo of Jatindra one reads “Jatin Mukherjee-Jatinda-Roy’s revolutionary Guru - Dada - Commander-in-Chief of the General Staff of the ‘coming’ revolution of 1914.” In ‘Men I Met’, Roy said about Jatindra that though he had met some great men, he never found anybody better. Though Roy evolved to become a Marxist and then a Humanist and Jatindra was intensely religious throughout his short life, the admiration of the atheist for Jatin never faltered. As the revolutionaries got organized and trained, they started manufacturing bombs, collecting arms and money executing daring raids. Persistent efforts were made, particularly in Bengal and Punjab, to win over Indian soldiers of the British army to the cause of India’s freedom. Alarmed, the British authority reacted vigorously. Spies tried tenaciously to infiltrate the revolutionary networks. The Police raided and searched systematically. Prithwindra provides detailed accounts (Chapters 4 and 5) of what came to be known as the Alipore Bomb Case and the Howrah Conspiracy Case. Many leaders were brought to trial. Aurobindo, after a period in the Andaman jail left for Pondicherry and started a very different life. Jatindra was released for lack of direct evidence but was dismissed from the Secretariat. He started to try to earn a living by taking on construction contracts and, undaunted, continued his work as a revolutionary. This was in 1911. “For the Police the year 1911 commenced a period of lull till Jatindra’s resuming the activities in 1914.” (Chpt. 6) In 1905 Lord Curzon had tried to partition Bengal. The British Raj had faced a civil disobedience movement, with Hindus and Muslims united and had finally drawn back. This time the looming war created a quite different context. Jatindra and his organization waded in, establishing links with Germany, the enemy’s enemy. This led to Balasore and Buri Balam. Prithwindra presents in fascinating details (Chpts. 8,9) the chain 33
of events that led to the final battle. A site was selected on a plateau of Dubhigarh hill, not far away from Balasore, as particularly suited for defense against advancing forces. A campsite was constructed which became almost a hermitage directed by a sanyasi-like Jatindra. Meanwhile a young emissary was sent to Batavia to arrange a shipment of German arms. This emissary was Naren Bhattacharya (future M.N. Roy), traveling under the alias C.A. Martin. Everything was planned with elaborate precautions. But everything failed. Only the courage and resolution of Jatindra and his disciples did not fail. Prithwindra follows the chain of events in three successive chapters (7, 8, 9). It starts with a treaty with the Germans concerning arms. A delivery was arranged. But E.V. Voska, an agent in the United States of the Czech President Masaryk, intercepted some crucial documents of the Indo-German negotiations. Germany being the enemy of the Czech, Masaryk transmitted the information to the Allies. The shipment of arms from Batavia was intercepted by a British ship. The Police located and raided premises of the revolutionaries in Calcutta. Soon armed contingents started closing in towards Balasore and Dubhigarh commanded by Tegart a renowned Chief of the Intelligence Branch and the Magistrate Kilby. Groups of villagers, excited by police propaganda concerning ‘dacoits’ and promise of rewards, joined them in the hunt. Trying to give a brief account of the final phase is frustrating. I prefer to refer to the absorbing pages of Prithwindra. After a heroic last stand, armed against rifles with only some long range Mauser pistols, the surviving revolutionaries surrendered. Some had died and among the survivors many, including Jatindra, were wounded. Jatindra, assuming all responsibilities, died in the hospital. Thus died Jatindranath to become a legend. Had there been no Voska, had the arms duly arrived what would have happened? Had Jatindra been able to train a revolutionary army on the eastern border
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of British India what might have been the impact on the outcome of the First World War? Prithwindra considers such ‘Ifs’ of history. I certainly do not know the answers. A friend who read Bagha Jatin confessed that he felt more and more lost as he kept encountering new names in page after page, some to reappear and some to disappear entirely. I became conscious of this aspect and realized that the relevant number is indeed large. To start with I had not reacted quite as my friend because many of those names were familiar to me practically since my boyhood. Not only names like Khudiram, Prafulla Chaki and some others but many more, though I certainly did not know all the names that Prithwindra mentions. Moreover, I felt that through his pages certain persons acquired a certain ‘épaisseur’ (thickness in the sense of more substance) as I read Prithwindra. A good example would be Charles Augustus Tegart. My boyhood memories associated to that name were that of a wickedly efficient British Officer who probably shot Jatindra dead. From Prithwindra’s pages he finally emerges as indeed an efficient Intelligence Branch Chief working tirelessly to protect the British Raj in India. But he also admires, in his own fashion, Jatindranath, the man he pursues relentlessly. He thought that had Jatindra been English, there would have been his statue in the Trafalgar Square near that of Nelson.
He sent a note to the India Office saying that the Bengali terrorists were “the most altruist political workers in India”. I would have liked to know more about many other such altruists risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives. But I realize that an encyclopedia would have been necessary for that. As far as the present volume is concerned, having gone through Prithwindra’s manuscript, I regret that the footnotes leading to the author’s bona fide sources have disappeared; the editor could also think of an index helping the reader to follow the becoming of each of the dramatis personae. Finally, I would like very much to mention the thesis of Prithwindra Mukherjee, presented as a Thèse d’Etat at Université Paris IV in 1974 under the direction of Raymond Aron. It has been published recently (Editions Codex) under the title “Les racines intellectuelles du mouvement d’indépendance de l’Inde (1893–1918)”. Jatindranath Mukhherjee’s life and times, set in a wider context, are a part of it. Aron considered it as the ‘chainon manquant’ (missing chain-link) in the history of India’s struggle for independence. Jacques Attali writes in the preface “Personne ne sortira indemne du grand livre de Prithwindra Mukherjee”. The nuance of ‘indemne’ might be paraphrased as – after reading this no reader will be quite the same as before. An adequate English version would be an asset.
A request to the Contributors of Articles and Research Papers: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ARTICLES BEYOND 1500-2000 WORDS. Also, inform me whether they have been published elsewhere. And, please try to email them at rheditor@gmail.com instead of sending them by post. You may post them (only if email is not possible) at C-8 Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India. Do also email your passport size photographs as separate attachments (in JPG format) as well as a few lines in your introduction, if you are contributing for the first time. Please feel free to contact me at 91-9719333011 for any other querry.
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Humanist News Section: I
A Report on Humanist Workshop held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat: his workshop was jointly sponsored by the Gujarat Mumbai Rationalist Association Ahmedabad and the humanist monthly Vaishivik Manav Vad, Mehmadabad. It is for first time that a workshop like this on specific humanist values has been organized. It was held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on 29th & 30 of January 2011. We expected about 30 delegates for the same. But more than 70 people registered themselves. The speakers on humanist values were insisting that we should educate them with the help of this workshop in such a way that they themselves become the agents of change for spreading humanist values in their local areas. Many serious friends who are actively working in this field at local level since more than a decade were unable to participate because we could not accommodate them in our hall and also because they failed to register on time. Many sent various requests like “we will stand & hear with no lunch or breakfast facilities” etc. We sincerely apologized to them and promised to accommodate them in future district camps or next state level workshop. This workshop was organized on four topics namely, “Freedom, Rationality, Secular-morality & Materialism. Speakers were as follows: On Freedom- Bipin Shroff (Editor Vaishvik ManavVad Gujarati Monthly), & Manishi Jani (Social Activist) On Rationalism – Prof Aswin Karia (President Gujarat Mumbai Rationalist Association) & Uarvish Kothari (Freelance Journalist) On Secular Morality – (Prof Dinesh Shukla Political Scientist & Journalist) & Dilip Chandulal (Social Activist)
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On Materialism – (Prof Dhawal Mehta (Veteran Radical Humanist) & Kiran Trivedi (Secretary GMRA) On Freedom: The first speaker Bipin Shroff explained how among the three humanist values freedom was primary or rather a value of all other values. It simply means that all other values can be derived from it. Human freedom has its origin & root in the biological evolution of all living organisms. Initially for all living species as they have the primary urge to exist, there was a brutal struggle for existence against nature and among themselves. These primary & basic urges for existence in all living species developed certain organs in their bodies with the help of which they succeeded to exist, survive, develop & procreate. The early humans were also part of this biological struggle for existence. But they developed a brain-organ which was superior-most in comparison with other living beings. Thus the human being like other living species is not the creation of any super natural agency like God or any super human entity. All humans are the product of biological evolution like all other living species. The physical urge in man to exist is converted into the urge for freedom. It means that like all living creatures man’s urge to exist is a fact as well as a value. It is a fact because he wants to exist and that he wants to exist as the human being superior to all living species is a value. When the human being tries to live according to his basic urge & value, namely freedom, he comes across many obstacles which are of two types: ‘freedom from’ and ‘freedom for’. As a human being he faces many family, social, religious, political, economic forces which put restrictions on his behaviour. They decide individually or, and collectively what is good or bad for the individual member of their unit. The clutches of their influence are so powerful that it becomes difficult for him to come out of them as an individual. We do not deny their positive co-operation from early childhood to survive and develop. But barring their parental and elderly
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obligation, the role of these socio-political-religious authorities is inimical in the process of the individual’s development. These forces which hinder the progress of his potential development are authoritarian, sadist and static. In short, their attitudes are resistant to change. They would not like to budge in their fixed set of norms and outlook. The individual as well as the society have to pay a very heavy price to escape from their clutches. But as human beings we have to struggle against them individually as well as collectively with cooperation of other like minded people. Historically we had evidences where & when instead of enjoying the fruits of their freedom they were afraid of freedom itself. And they surrendered their personal freedom to the religious, military or dictatorial authorities to obtain physical or psychological security. But, we cannot mortgage our freedom in the custody of others and still expect to remain free. Generally authorities, to whom we surrender our freedom, have used it to strengthen their own power instead of making us, who have forgone our freedom, powerful. The second important part of freedom is ‘Freedom For’. Biologically & genetically each human being has different potentialities for his or her development. The role of all human institutions is to create necessary conditions under which they provide all opportunities, facilities & infrastructures to develop potentialities of all its members. The result of such endeavor would be the total good of individual as well as the society. Freedom thus can be enjoyed only by individual. Man gets satisfaction in his struggle to achieve freedom from inimical forces which restrain his freedom as well as to unfold his potentialities with the co-operation of other human beings. Animals decide to satisfy their urge on the basis of their instincts while human being finds truth to exist on the basis of his sense perceptions and observations; in short, by his reasoning faculty. Thus with the help of knowledge acquired through this said reasoning-faculty he does not simply survive but also develops his different abilities. The man as well as his society
become richer by his efforts. The second speaker on the same subject Manishi Jani said, “I will try to explain how our existing socio-political-economic order is against the enhancement of freedom as a value. According to my observation there are 8 stages in one’s human life. They are: birth, childhood, adolescence, love, reproduction, marriage, old age & death. In all these stages, the elderly people decide what is good and bad for their offspring, either physically or socially. They have set codes of conduct under which they try to impose their value system & the so called virtues of behaviour on the younger people. Their behaviour is mostly based on their pre-set religious mode of thought. Mr. Jani said that man does not take birth as a human being but as a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian; or as a representative of the caste and religion of his family. The child derives his social identity and religion on the basis of the family he is born in. Instead of giving his birth a biological status he is caught in the socio-religious background of his family. Children are treated as the dreamers of their elders. They are indoctrinated in such a way that they become conditioned. They live & develop like they are in water tight compartments. By and large, they lose their independent capacity to think. Our most difficult task as humanists is to bring out these people from their present mode of thought. But, how to go about it has to be planned.” On rationality: Prof Aswin Karia (President, GMRA) said: “The simple meaning of the term ‘Rationality’ is to rely on the reasoning capacity of the human being. Reason leads us to decide what is true and what is false. The human being has survived with the help of this reasoning capacity in his biological struggle of existence. He learned and understood the laws of nature with the help of this faculty. We should not forget that this endowed capacity to think in terms of cause and effect is also the gift of laws of nature. The reasoning capacity of any living organism is developed according to its evolutionary stage. Man
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as homosapien has developed the highest reasoning capacity in comparison to other biological units in their struggle of existence. He learned from this struggle of existence what is good or bad for his survival. In other words, his struggle was to find the truth for his survival. He gained this truth by acquiring more and more physical knowledge about nature and its laws. To know nature it means to free oneself from the negative effects of its forces. It is also true that by knowing the laws of nature man can change natural objects to serve him better. His rationality gives him the power to free himself mentally from blind faith on one side and to rely on his reasoning faculty to become self reliant, on the other. Man becomes moral according the degree of his rationality. Rationality is a human value because it has its origin in his biological evolution. There are lower animals that have a rational capacity but it is not as fully developed as it is in the human beings. Yet, it gives us the clue that the concept of rationality has no super natural tenets. It is not a gift of god. The man has an inherent capacity to be rational. It is also true that his judgment of deciding truth depends upon his developed capacity to be rational. It may not be wrong to say that even religion had its origin in the reasoning capacity of the human being.” Uarvish Kothari, speaking on the same subject explained that the role of science has a positive relation with the concept of rationality. Science helps to remove many blind faiths and irrational behaviour of the masses. Instead of waging war against the concept of existence of God and super natural forces and challenging miracle performing people, our institution and we, individually should make efforts to spread scientific knowledge and approach amongst the people. Another important thing in our movement is that we believe in having role models in our movement. They are to be created within each one of us. Let our message of Humanism and Rationalism be spread by those of us who have devoted their lives for this cause. On Secular Morality:
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Dinesh Shukla said, “Is it possible to have morality independent of religion? What is the source of morality? There are two points of view on this subject. One, that man can only be moral if there is constant fear or reward for his action. And religion guides man’s action on the basis of above understanding. Second is the humanist thought which explains that man is moral because he has the potential to take moral action on the basis of his rational behaviour. Man’s existence is prior to all religions like Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He learned how to be moral in his biological struggle of evolution. He received co-operation of other human beings in this struggle. He acquired knowledge about the laws of nature with the co-operation of others. His moral actions created the society, state and other collective institutions to unfold his potentialities and to protect himself and his family. Thus moral action is the result of his own choice and not of any temporal (this worldly) or spiritual coercion. We have a different meaning to the term secular morality in India. During the independence struggle Gandhi coined the word Sarva Dharma Sambhav. He gave equal importance to believers of all religions in the national independent struggle. But now, we are an independent nation which has to solve the worldly problems of its citizens. In addition to that it is declared in the Constitution of our nation that it is a secular state. That is, the state has no religion of its own. So there has to be a complete separation between the state and religion. Religion is a private and individual matter. One is free to decide his own religion the state has nothing to do with it. The second speaker Dilip Chandulal tried to explain how people and particularly our elected representatives and those who are serving in the government sector as its employees behave contrary to the spirit of secularism of the Indian Constitution. He gave innumerable examples. This violation of secular values had begun with our first President of the country namely Rajendra Prasad when he visited the renovated Somanath temple in Gujarat against the written advice of the then Prime
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Minister J. Nehru. Now nobody has any respect for this valuable humanist concept. By and large, there is gross violation of secularism by politicians and administrators of the state in all aspects of public life in the country. Our task has become so difficult that it is not easy to spread this concept among the people of India. On Materialism: Prof. Dhawal Mehta called it Materialism not Hedonism. According to the philosophical concept of materialism matter is the primary and only source in this universe. Matter is a physical reality. Even human consciousness is the result of matter. Idealism is also a part of materialism. We can explain all physical phenomena on the basis of materialistic philosophy. In Hinduism there were certain philosophical schools of thought which considered physical realities as illusion. They did not want to understand the physical realities of the world. Actually they preached escapism from the real world. They concluded that real knowledge can only be achieved by self-introspection. Karl Marx was the first philosopher who scientifically explained the laws of physical realities. And he came to the conclusion that the social structure of any society is the outcome of the conflicting interests of classes. All the property owners have vested interests in maintaining the existing structure of the society. But according to Marx this man-made social order can be changed in the larger interest of the people. He also said that religion is an opium for the masses because it keeps them in a perpetual stage of delusion. Scientific achievements and discoveries are the results of understanding the laws of physical realities. There is nothing spiritual or other worldly in scientific discoveries. All the physical events can be explained with the theory of causation. Every thing has a cause. Nothing can happen without cause. Materialists explain all worldly things with the help of scientific theories and principles. Science is self correcting. It learns from its own mistakes. This is not the case with believers and spiritualists. Their concept of truth is absolute and not negotiable.
Darwin’s theory of evolution has given a death blow to all the religions of the world that life is not the creation of any godly affairs. Religion has its basis in superstition while materialism has its basis in science based evidences. One must also remember that there is a primary difference between materialism and hedonism. They are not same at all. Materialists do not want to encourage rampant consumerism. But they are for pursuit of happiness. They achieve happiness by unfolding their abilities and potentialities. Thus the individual as well as society benefit from human efforts in pursuing happiness. Materialists do not practice any self-sacrifice, penance and celibacy. They are neither masochist nor sadist. They prefer and encourage balanced material life. Kiran Trivedi spoke on the same subject and said that the present modern world is an outcome of the materialist efforts of countless human beings. We cannot dream of the world in their absence. The material developments in various sectors of economy like industry, agriculture, biology, health, astronomy, space-science etc. are its glaring achievements which has made human life worth living against all odds of natural forces. The primary physical atmosphere of Earth was so unbearable to any living organism that there was no life on it for thousands of year. It took millions of years for the living organism (one cell) to take its place on this earth and that also in sea water. Materialist thoughts indicate that knowledge is only possible with the help of sense perception and reasoning faculty of the living humans. The ideation process of getting ideas is also brought about through the materialistic activities of the brain power. Thus there is no dichotomy between brain and body. The religious mode of thought of Hinduism considers this physical world as illusion and spiritual world as the reality. So for centuries together there was no material progress in our society. Most of the people lived hand to mouth because whatever surplus was generated in the society by the masses were expropriated by the non-productive classes like religious monks,
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priests and maharajas. We do not encourage rampant use of material things on this planet earth. We are against mad consumerism. I agree with the revolutionary philosopher M.N. Roy that there is no grand design of creator in our birth. It is just a biological reality. In short, any living organism on this planet has no divine purpose. The humanist philosophy has a very distinct place in comparison with other philosophical schools of thought. It has empowered the man. It is open, and based on self correcting scientific systems.” Brain storming session: (after the speeches): This was a workshop for the participants. The purpose of the organizers was to know what the delegates remembered and learned from what the speakers said. Also to know whether they agreed with the speakers’ views. This is the first time when such type of workshop was organized in Gujarat. They were writing on black board with chalk and a regular class-room atmosphere was created. More than 15 delegates participated on each subject. Our institution received invitation from seven districts of Gujarat to organize such workshops. We will plan accordingly so we may have a decentralized movement in various parts of the state. —Report sent by Bipin Shroff II
Indian Radical Humanist Association, Gujarat organised a Convention on demand for Identity Cards for Unorganized Labour: convention of leaders of different Aunorganized sectors and representatives of workers of various sectors of Gujarat, including those from construction industry to farm labour, from diamond industries to power looms, from fisheries to chemical industries was held on 9th April 2011 at Gujarat Vidhyapeeth, Ahmedabad. To commemorate Dashrathlal Thaker Birth Centenary celebrations, this “Movement For the cause of Unorganized workers’” was addressed by the stalwart labour leader and former Minister, Sanatbhai Mehta and leading advocate Girishbhai 39
Patel. This convention, had 150 representatives from different parts of Gujarat like Jamnagar, Junagadh, Dholaka, Dahod, Himatnagar, Kheda, Rajkot etc. who voiced the demand that Govt. should compel owners of different industries to immediately issue Identity Cards to Unorganized and Migrant Workers. The first session of this convention was chaired by renowned Journalist Prakash N. Shah. In this session, Shri Gautam Thaker gave details about the format and content of the convention. In respect of the workers of diamond and power looms, Dwarikanath Rath (SUCI) and Amar Barot (Majoor Mahajan Sangh), in respect of construction, migrant and bonded labour, Vipul Pandya (Construction Workers’ Union) and in respect of farm workers and adivasi labours, Indukumar Jani (Gujarat Khet Vikas Parishad) expressed their views. Whereas in the second session, Jagdish Patel presented a paper on Workers’ safety and Environment and Ramilaben (SEWA) and Sejal Joshi (AWAG) presented papers on the working women. The second session was chaired by Indukumar Jani. While expressing their views in the convention, Sanat Mehta, Girishbhai Patel, Indukumar Jani, Vidhyutbhai Joshi, Prakash N. Shah, Gautam Thaker, D. N. Rath etc. informed that to-day about 87-90 % of the workers are unorganized. There is a dire need to support them. Contribution of this sector in the nation’s G.D.P. is quite large. Contribution of the service sector in the G.D.P. is about 63%. If the workers in this sector are educated and awakened then it can result in to hugely powerful force. Over the many years, it has been our experience that we persistently foughtt for enactment of laws for giving protection to them but the question still remains how to implement such laws. We should unite the workers from organized and unorganized sectors in one common demand. Through this, there is need to give rise to a combined force. Problems of the workers are of social and cultural dimension and it also needs support of the civic society. Civil society will have
THE RADICAL HUMANIST
MAY 2011
to understand the culture of unorganized workers, their aspirations, their woes, their environment and to find and suggest solutions. In this Unorganized Workers convention, advasi and construction sector union leaders and representatives of various labour organizations of Gujarat including from SEWA, AWAG, Majoor Mahajan Sangh, Gujarat Khet Vikas Parishad,
PUCL, Indian Radical Humanists Association (Gujarat) were present. Vipul Pandya was selected Convener of the Committee for mobilizing civic support in favor of the Unorganized Workers. —Gautam Thaker, Secretary, IRHA (Gujarat) Note: Pictures of both the above programmes will be published in the June 2011 issue of RH.
The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race. —E.M. Forster
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