Indians! Wake Up, Even Now - 4

Is India really a major power?

The most telling picture of India’s standing vis-à-vis China in US eyes was that taken at the G-20 meeting held in Washington in mid-November. It was a group photograph of all the leaders of the G-20. Standing in the front row were obviously leaders who mattered to Washington. At the centre was George Bush. To his right was Brazil’s President, Da Silva, and to his left, China’s President Hu Jintao. India’s Prime Minister was among those standing meekly behind. In US minds, his ranking was obviously low. One can very well understand Bush’s dilemma. China just cannot be ignored. China now has the largest stockpile of international currency, amounting to one trillion five hundred thousand dollars. And it has already announced a $ 600 billion package to help revive US economy. That is two times the size of India’s foreign exchange reserves that amount to some $ 300 billion. 

The US has a trade deficit with China that goes back to several years, averaging about $ 250 billion annually. In comparison the deficit with India is only about $ seven to eight billion which is peanuts. As is not so well-known, Chinese goods have taken over 60 per cent of the US internal market. One is reminded of the days, in the 1930s, when the Indian market was flooded with Lancashire texiles. It was to fight the drain of Indian wealth that Gandhi advocated swadeshi and Khadi. Americans were happy to have access to cheap goods manufactured in China not realising that they were damaging their own economy thereby. The unspoken feeling was that Chinese firms were being financed by American capital. American financiers were thinking that they were smart to invest in China. 

America had opened its doors to Chinese goods without any restrictions. Now it is paying for its folly. If Chinese imports had been regulated, US consumers may have been deprived of cheap goods, but it would have prevented large scale financial dislocations and unemployment in the US. The chicken are now coming home to roost. Another leader to stand in the front row with Bush is the Saudi Arabian ruler. The US has been paying heavily for Saudi oil. But the Saudis import hardly anything from the US. As with China so with Saudi Arabia, the US trade deficit is enormous. The Chinese must be laughing their heads off at American stupidity. It is said that this matter of restricting entry of cheap Chinese goods was not discussed at the meeting of the G-20. And quite understandably, China would have protested. So China has grown rich at America’s expense and Bush has been reduced to economic servility. It is pathetic. 

The truth is that China has exploited its low-paid workers to enrich its treasury. Workers in China can’t strike. Workers in India can. Workers demand appropriate wages in India. According to Labour in West Bengal (2006), 0.62 million mandays were lost in Bengal due to strikes. Managements declared lockouts accounting for 20.73 million mandays. How can India compete with ruthless China in such circumstances? China is rich at the expense of its workers. But that it is willing to do in the larger interests of the country. Or such is the claim. 

The situation in China is grim, but not revealed. But some facts came to be known at a seminar held in Delhi in October this year attended by renowned Russian academicians who have specialised in Chinese studies, notable among them being Mikhail Titarenko who had spent years in China and speaks Chinese fluently and Dr Tatiana Shaumiyan, a noted Orientalist historian. The seminar got some astounding insights into the functioning of China during interaction between the participants. 

According to the Russian experts, the per capita income of Chinese mostly living in the interior is less than one dollar a day or about Rs 40. As many as 200 million Chinese had sold out their land for a pittance to become landless labourers. That said, the Russian scholars explained why Chinese labour is so cheap and projects can be carried out at minimal expenditure. The labourers had no rights. They had to sweat it out. Only, that enriched the national treasury.

The annual trade turnover of China has crossed the $ two trillion mark. China manufactured everything including cars, western brand watches like the Rolex or whatever else, to sell them in international markets. Titarenko told the seminar: If they (the Chinese leaders) forget the problems of their own people, they will meet the same fate of the erstwhile Soviet Union”. The State was unbelievably powerful. 

According to the Washington Post, when the Beijing Olympics took place, a million and more construction workers were pushed out of the capital so that their poverty-struck countenances would not be noticed by foreigners. The whole thing was ridiculous, but that is China. More than a million cars were banned from the streets to reduce traffic and make foreigners feel comfortable. Can such a thing happen ever in India? It is with such an imperious China that India has to contend. The government is ruthless to its own people. What can Indian expect from Beijing in the circumstances? Can it be trusted? It apparently has no sense of grace. Its behaviour is crude. Mao wanted to teach India a “lesson” and attacked India in 1962 for no other reason than to show who is militarily strong, when India was loudly acclaiming Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai. 

China’s role during the Nuclear Supply Group (NSG) meeting in Vienna was close to hostile. Beijing showed great reluctance to endorse the NSG’s waiver on the nuclear deal and instead, sought to advocate Pakistan’s plea to get similar treatment, even knowing Islamabad’s black record of nuclear proliferation. It is even helping Bangladesh to build up a nuclear arsenal when it should be knowing that Dhaka can have only one target: India. On October 14, 2008 China signed a border pact with Russia, even while making impossible claims to Arunachal Pradesh. Shri Pranab Mukherjee has sought to call off China’s bluff, but what India should realise is that politeness on its part is mistaken for weakness and a lack of will to defend its borders. Result: Chinese bullying. 

India went out of its way to acknowledge Chinese sensitivity to mega multinational naval exercises being held in the Bay of Bengal by restricting this year’s Malabar Series of naval exercises to the partner country, the US rather than opening it up to other nations as was the case last year. Why should India have been so obliging? China may be an aspirant to Superpowerhood. But India must make it known to Beijing that it is not far behind and will not accept bullying. At the same time India must demand more respect from the US. What is it afraid of?

Article By  M.V. Kamath

source: www.organiser.org

Indians! Wake Up, Even Now - 3

India needs another Vivekananda

On the Ocassion of his Birthday ( falls on January 12 )

Whenever I think of the sad conditions prevailing in the country, and apprehensions of ‘coming anarchy’ cross my mind, I am driven to believe that India needs another Vivekananda. His birthday, January 12, is a fit occasion to delineate the contours of this belief. 

New Cultural Stream 
Few realise that Vivekananda was one of the principal architects to cut a new cultural stream that watered the parched soil of India and produced a rich harvest of men and women who brought her freedom. In a voice ringing with ‘passionate intensity’, he declared: “Here is the same India whose soil has been trodden by the feet of the greatest sages that ever lived. Here first arose the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, the existence of a supervising God, an immanent God in nature and in man… We are the children of such a country.” 

These inspiring words removed the spell of diffidence caused by the colonial rule and created a wave of self-respect and self-confidence which brought men of sterling eminence like Gandhi and Tilak to the scene.  

It is pertinent to recall what Sri Aurobindo said: “British rule has been the record success in history in the hypnosis of a nation. It persuaded us to live in a ‘death of will’, creating in ourselves the condition of morbid weakness the hypnotist desired, until the Master of a mightier hypnosis laid his finger on India’s eyes and cried, “Awake”. Then only the spell was broken, the slumbering mind realised itself and the dead soul lived again.”  

Do we not now need another Vivekananda to arrest the increasing desertification of Indian mind and break the spell that is being cast by the emerging ‘new masters’?  

Pale shadow 
India today is a pale shadow of what it should have been. She should have led the world in life-nurturing ideas; instead, she is being led by the crass materialism of others. Her economy should have been the care and culture of her people; instead, it has been dehumanised by reckless consumerism of rich and degrading passiveness of poor. She should have recreated and strengthened her tradition of unities in diversities—unity in the diversity of man, unity in the diversity of religion, unity in the diversity of nature; instead, she has been torn asunder by conflicts and confusion. Who has brought all this about? 

Degeneration 
In the second half of the 19th century, when dense clouds of social and cultural degeneration appeared to have engulfed the Indian horizon, almost in perpetuity, there arose Vivekananda with a dynamic mission to purge the Indian soul. Pointing to the main culprits, he thundered: “You, the upper classes of India, do you think you are alive? You are but mummies ten thousand years old…In the world of maya, you are the real illusion. You merge yourself in the void and disappear. Let a new India arise in your place.” 

If another Vivekananda were to appear on the scene today, I am sure he would speak to the present-day ruling elites in the same tenor and tone. He would tell them: “You have betrayed the country. You have stifled the underlying inspiration for constitutional goals. You proceeded to set up political and administrative institutions, but failed to create the mind and motivation that would have given life and meaning to them. You built bodies without souls. You ignored ‘the ancient nobility of temper’ engendered in tyaga and tapasya and started worshipping the new gods of power and pelf. From the great storehouse of the past, you should have picked up the gems and thrown out the stones. You did exactly the opposite. You threw out the gems and picked up the stones. And they now hang around the country’s neck like a dead albatross. You have done enough damage. Go; in the name of Mother India, go.”  

Central Vitality 
Vivekananda knew that, in building a healthy India, spiritual traditions had to play a crucial role. He said: “Each nation, like each individual, has one theme in life, which is at its centre. If any nation attempts to throw off its national vitality, that nation dies.” 

Unfortunately, while ushering in new era after Independence, this central vitality of Indian culture was ignored. But for occasional lip service, nothing was done to construct the nation from within. The decision-makers paid no heed to Vivekananda’s sane advice that “a nation in India must be the union of those whose heart beat to the same spiritual tune.” 

Lapse 
For this lapse, India is paying a heavy price. In the absence of spiritual underpinnings, things are truly falling apart and the country is witnessing, besides the rising blood-soaked tide of terrorism and subversion, one molestation every 15 minutes, one rape every 29 minutes, one dowry death every 74 minutes and one incident of sexual harassment every 53 minutes. The disparities of income have increased to such an extent that, while millions go to bed hungry, the combined wealth of 36 richest Indians have touched $191 billion. The institutions are tottering, and the constitutional goals are being rendered meaningless. 

‘We, the people’ are sovereign says the Constitution. But how do we give expression to this sovereignty? By electing representatives to legislatures who have criminal records, who obtain money for tabling questions in Parliament, receive bribes for voting in the House in a particular manner, indulge in human trafficking and take oaths and other pledges only to break them with impunity, who are too deficient in intellect to understand the complex problems of India and of the world?  

Equally spurious is our democracy. Can we legitimately call a system democratic, when 99 per cent of the members get into the Lok Sabha, as it happened in 2004, with less than half the electors voting for them? What type of democratic temper has been nursed when an election to a single State Assembly is held in seven phases, spread over a month and that, too, with the help of para-military forces? And where is the question of free exercise of ‘will’ when that ‘will’ itself has been imprisoned by the prejudices of caste, creed and community?  

Clearly, every ideal enshrined in the Constitution and every aspiration expressed in the national symbols has remained on paper. The spark that was needed to ignite inner passions and galvanise the nation to build a noble India on the noble ideals and aspirations has not been generated. 

India, ‘the sleeping giant’, as Vivekananda called her, has woken up. But unfortunately, after a few correct steps, she has started moving on the wrong course. Another Vivekananda is now very much needed; a Vivekananda who could hold the errant ‘giant’ by the scruff of her neck, point to her the right path and make her move towards her true goal. 

India could then present a new design for life, a model of contentment, compassion, balance and harmony; and also a nation that could teach to the world, as Will Durant believed, “tolerance and gentleness of the mature mind, the quite content of the un-acquisitive soul, the calm of the understanding spirit, and a unifying, pacifying love for all living things.

source:www.organiser.org

Indians! Wake Up, Even Now - 2

Think it Over

Is this the "Superior" western civilisation?

A spectre is haunting our earth—the spectre of Revenge. Revenge for the crimes of nations and peoples in the past. Time has not requieted it; nor has it suffered from amnesia. Like an evil spirit, it hovers over the earth. 

The anger is directed against the West. The West has been leading the world for three long centuries. It wants now to make its rule a hereditary right. But what is its record? What is its reputation? How does it deserve this great honour?  

The last slave ship left the African coast in 1807. Nearly two centuries have passed. And yet the soul of Africa remains restless. It is not pacified. Africa cries for revenge and reparation for the worst crimes in human history. 

The Chinese too want their revenge. They have not forgotten the opium wars thrust upon them by Britain. And India? It was made into a wasteland by the invaders. We can never forget it. May be, revenge is not what we want. We want our honour restored. 

And the Jews? There is nothing comparable to the holocaust in barbarism. They have been subject to the longest hate and persecution in history.  

The world is full of horrible memories of high injustices—of unjust wars, colonial plunder and oppression, imperial conquests, racial atrocities. These have left deep scars on the racial memory of peoples. They cannot forget. How can the Red-Indians ever forget the genocide of their race and the destruction of the Aztec, Inca and Maya civilisations?  

Writes an authority on the Mayas: “The great men of Athens would not have felt out of place in a gathering of Maya priests and rulers.” 

How can the original inhabitants of Australia and New Zealand forget the decimation of their peoples? Every nation, which was colonised, has a bitter tale to tell. And the Christian church was at the bottom of it all—providing the real inspiration. It has given its blessing to every Christian enterprise inspired by the Devil. Dr. Radhakrishnan writes: “The history of Christianity illustrates the tragic effects of a unique intolerant and exclusive truth.” 

Resentment is building up like a volcano. It is bound to erupt. Terrorism is the first major outbreak of the pent up anger. America has come to know how it is to live in constant fear. 

But injustices continue to thrive. Why? Because those who perpetrate the evils even today believe that they can get away with murder. That is what the white hunters thought when they hunted for the black men in the jungles of Africa. They never thought that the spirit of African will rise one day and demand reparation. And yet these men who hunted other men were “Christians”. It was their claim that Christianity is all about love and compassion for humanity! They did not think of the African as a human being. The church propagated that the black men were the sons of the Devil. 

Inequality, said Martin Luther, author of the Reformation, is a “natural order.” It still is a natural order to the West. Ask Wall Street!  

The Semitic faiths were marked for their blindness and cruelty. This is no reflection on Christ. He was truly a man of God. The fault lay with the church. Today it is back again to its aggressive posture.  

WEH Lecky, the great historian of Europe, writes: “What strikes us most in considering the medieval tortures is not so much their diabolic barbarity…(but) the artistic skill they displayed.” And the Inquisition was at the back of this art! In every prison, the crucifix and the rack (a torture instrument) stood side by side! 

Torture was abolished in the teeth of opposition from the church, but most of the atrocities came back in full force with the blessings of the church during the colonial period. Although empires have gone, the predatory instinct of Western civilisation is still around.  

Good Reader, it would be a good mental exercise for you to make a list of nations in the moral order.  

Today the church wants to convert we Hindus—we who have never done a harm to a foreign nation in our history—into Christianity! Why? Because, says the church, we live in “darkness”! Because our gods are devils!  

This is the record of Christianity! And it calls itself “superior!”

source:www.organiser.org

Indians! Wake Up, Even Now - 1

Sensationalism and trivialization as news

On October 15 clashes broke out between the armies of Thailand and Cambodia over a disputed medieval Hindu temple tract. Why did an idyllic Hindu temple have to suddenly erupt as a casus belli between two Buddhist countries? Does anyone in India care? 

The coverage of East Asia is so abysmal that one wonders whether anything exists beyond the Andaman Islands. The Indian media couldn’t even care much for Japan. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Japan in mid-October but the coverage of that event—let alone coverage of the country and its people—was hardly anything to be proud of Indo-Japanese talks resulted in the issuance of a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation cementing strategic ties between two of the biggest maritime powers in Asia.

Sensationalism and trivialization are two shortcomings of the media today which need to be curbed and LK Advani feels that the curbs must be self-imposed. He is asking for the impossible. At a recent convention of the India Media Centre held in Ludhiana Shri Advani referred to the restraint exercised by the US media in the aftermath of 9/11. The American media, to its eternal credit, never showed pictures of bodies and about death and destruction. But what happened in the aftermath of the Sabarmati Express tragedy in Godhra? Rioting took place; people were killed and the television media, especially, showed pictures of the dead bodies, and everybody knew where they lay and in which particular locality, all of which was to lead to more killings. Our television media is beyond redemption. There is no way the media will change; curbs have to be imposed; the Press Council must be provided with executive powers which presently it hasn’t. Editors have been known to thumb their noses at it. Photographers don’t even have the decency to respect the dead. The Free Press Journal (November 8) reported the “unruly behavior” of photographers during the cremation of BR Chopra. His son wanted privacy and requested the photographers “with folded hands” to stay away from the pyre, but they would not listen. They not only clicked pictures but loaded them on the net as well. That, one supposes, is media prowess. The same day the Free Press Journal reported that Amar Singh owns assets worth Rs 33 crore. This, apparently, was disclosed by the Samajwadi Party leader while filing nomination papers for a Rajya Sabha seat. Was he born rich? Did he achieve riches through business practices? The subject should be drawing the attention of Tehelka but obviously this matter is of no concern to it. Rs 33 crore is not exactly a small sum though it could be chicken feed to some one like Amitabh Bachchan. It is time Amar Singh wrote a book on how to be a millionaire. That should add to his inestimable fortunes. The media wouldn’t dare to take on Amar Singh in this matter. But there are other things that the media can get interested in such as what is happening in India’s neighborhood. Time was when the Indian media had no one in the Far East; there was no foreign correspondent in Japan; no one to tell us what is happening in Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia. Even now there is no one there, not even in China which is on its way to become the Asian United States. But remember this: The Hindu (November 13) had an op-ed page article on Yunnan. Does anybody know where Yunnan is? For the reader’s information, Yunnan is a Chinese province that is geographically proximate to India. Recently the Governor of Yunnan visited New Delhi and The Hindu had the good sense to publish excerpts from remarks made by the Governor of Guangdong. He made some wise statements. Thus he said Yunnan is seeking to make friends with India, to aid partnerships in development. It is difficult to believe it but Yunnan expects unbelievable millions to come as tourists. The Governor made several important suggestions none of which received any attention in the Indian media. It takes hardly two hours to fly from Kolkata to Yunnan, which imports $ 100 million worth of mineral products from India. Shouldn’t we know more about it? Or take another story, this one, too, reported by The Hindu (November 12). On October 15 clashes broke out between the armies of Thailand and Cambodia over a disputed medieval Hindu temple tract. Why did an idyllic Hindu temple have to suddenly erupt as a casus belli between two Buddhists countries? Does anyone in India care? The trouble is that though culturally India has much in common with the South East Asian nations (including Indonesia) it hardly cares to boost relations with them, as if they are of no consequence. There has been much talk about India looking eastward, but that is only for the record. The coverage of East Asia is so abysmal that one wonders whether anything exists beyond the Andaman Islands. The Indian media couldn’t even care much for Japan. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Japan in mid-October but the coverage of that event—let alone coverage of the country and its people—was hardly anything to be proud of Indo-Japanese talks resulted in the issuance of a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation cementing strategic ties between two of the biggest maritime powers in Asia. Not anxious to raise eyebrows in China the Japanese and Indian Prime Ministers took pains to deny any ‘targeting’ of China even if Beijing may not be convinced. Japan wants security obviously from China and as recently as in March 2007 it had entered into a similar agreement with Australia. But the Indian media seemed little interested in such matters, even when Japan announced that it would give $971 million in 2008-2009 to four projects in India: Chennai Metro, Hyderabad Ring Road, Forest Management and Energy Saving projects for small and medium enterprises. Agreed that $971 million is not a large sum. But it could be the beginning of more inter-state cooperation. In any event do we have to ignore Japan, especially considering China’s hostile attitude towards India? What should be a pleasant surprise is that little Qatar has promised to invest $ 5 billion in India and even Oman too seems willing to invest $ 1.5 billion following the Prime Minster’s visit to these places. Of course there is no Indian labor in Japan whereas according to latest statistics there are some 50 lakh Indians working in the Gulf countries. For India it is important to have a leg in the Gulf countries, but reticence is marked about how these 50 lakh live. The remittances from Indians living in Oman and Qatar average about $ 800 million, no small sum. Meanwhile an interesting event took place that also went unnoticed. The Times of India (October 14) had reported that some 5,000 dalits were expected to embrace Buddhism in Bangalore on October 30. Then there was silence. Did they indeed embrace Buddhism? If they did, was it not an event to be recorded? Apparently conversion to Buddhism is no news, in part, one suspects that many believe it is not “conversion” in the accepted sense of the term, considering that Buddhism is taken to be a part of Hinduism, and also not alien to Indian tradition. But consider what mayhem would have taken place if 5,000 dalits had embraced Islam or Christianity! Dr Ambedkar was wise. His advice to dalits to accept Buddhism was his outstanding contribution to the cultural history of India.