Indian Interests

[ramana]

Pioneer Book Review:

Babudom Unmasked

Babudom unmasked .
Saturday, 08 September 2012

Author: MK Kaw

Publisher: Konark, Rs250

Being an insider, the author explains when the country’s bureaucracy turned ‘bureaucrazy’ and how our babus became subservient to their political masters, writes Sanjoy Bagchi

From 1858 to 1947, for nearly 90 years, the British ruled India with a small band of ICS whose strength rarely exceeded 1,250. They were recruited on pure merit by competitive examinations. Most of them had been educated in the ancient English universities where they had read humanities. They came to occupy government positions from top to bottom, from the provincial governors to the lowest ranks of assistant collector and sub-divisional officer. And these positions in those days were located far beyond the present boundaries because India in those days also comprised the whole of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and what is now called Myanmar. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George had aptly called it the “Steel Frame” that ruled India.

The secret of the Indian Civil Service’s (ICS) success was that it was a homogeneous body of members from the middle classes, devoted to the canons of professional ethics and flushed with esprit de corps. Its members were left largely to their own devices with considerable freedom of action. The government trusted them to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. A rigorous system of internal screening weeded out unsuitable elements from reaching the top levels; there were many who never rose beyond the level of district collectors. The undesirable elements were quietly shipped out since they served at the King’s pleasure; they did not have the sort of protection that the Indian Constitution bestows on the IAS.

At the time of Independence, then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, despite the combined opposition of the provinces, his party and the Prime Minister, created the IAS in the mirror image of the ICS. The service is now more than 50-year-old. Philip Woodruff had written a delightful valedictory of the ICS, The Guardians in the mid-1950s. David Gilmour published a comprehensive matter-of-fact account, The Ruling Caste, in 2005. Nobody has attempted anything like that for the IAS. A couple of academics in the mofussil had written dull descriptive studies without the benefit of close contacts with the IAS men. Maharaj Krishen Kaw has now painted an incisively penetrating picture of the servicemen across the board. He is an insider and has the advantage of knowing its members from close quarters.

In this enlarged version of his earlier book, Bureaucrazy Gets Crazier, Kaw recreates “the infinite variety of IAS officers to document each little variation of working style”. It is a rich treasure-trove of human behaviour. Kaw has the clinical eye of a surgeon and traces the symptoms of each patient. He has stocked his book with different types of civil servants, their individual styles of functioning, their peculiar idiosyncrasy, their standard reactions to men and situations, and their hopes and aspirations. These are not imaginary creations; they exist in flesh and blood. Having spent 50 years among IAS folks, I can vouchsafe for Kaw’s accuracy of observation. I have met each type at some point of time.

The book contains 47 articles. Each one depicts a particular type of official or a specific situation. Each one has been written with the tongue in cheek. A malicious sense of humour pervades Kaw’s writing. The pieces are so uniformly arresting that it is difficult to choose any item for highlighting. The seemingly frivolous accounts often conceal a nugget of wisdom. He recalls how an ever-servile TN Seshan transformed himself into a powerful constitutional authority when he was appointed the Central Election Commissioner. He draws the perfectly valid conclusion that if one “can insulate an authority from unwholesome pressure from the party in power that authority will deliver”. We have seen this repeatedly happen when mild-mannered persons are appointed to positions where their independence is guaranteed, they become fierce defenders of administrative propriety. Look at Vinod Rai, the present CAG!

The logical conclusion for clean administration, therefore, would be to take away controlling powers over the civil servants from the ministers. The IAS will have to obey the ministers’ lawful dictates and the ministers can complain for disobedience to an independent authority that will have the power to punish; the ministers will not have the power to punish or suspend an official.

There is an interesting piece called ‘Takht or Takhta’ about what happens when a change of government takes place. There is an immediate reshuffle of the bureaucracy and a mad scramble begins to corner coveted positions. The bureaucracy is immediately divided into two camps: The favourites and the others. A new Chief Minister promptly transfers the Chief Secretary and the Inspector-General of Police, replacing them with men from his own caste. It began in the 1960s; 40 years down the line, it has become the established practice across the country.

The political masters today prefer corrupt officers; Uttar Pradesh, for instance, chose as Chief Secretary the person who was elected as the most corrupt by his colleagues; ironically, his successor was a woman who had the distinction of being voted the second most corrupt person!

A couple of vital aspects have escaped ‘unmasking’ in the book. Sardar Patel had conceived the All-India Services selected on pure merit. After his death, his party continued to dilute the criterion of merit on political considerations. Today the element of pure merit is applicable to merely one-third of the service.

Another cherished belief of Patel was that the IAS should rise above the local influences and be an all-India service. To this end, he had devised that the annual local intake should be limited to half the number and the rest should be from outside. The surplus from a State should be sent cross-country. In my days, a person from Baroda was sent to West Bengal, another from Coorg to Odisha, another from Khandwa to Assam and so on.

Today, the institution of IAS is no longer cosmopolitan. Uttar Pradesh produces a large number of successful candidates who would like to be accommodated close to their home State. It was Charan Singh who obliged them by changing the system. The surplus from the State is sent to the neighbouring States in the cow-belt!

The book should be made compulsory reading for new entrants to the civil services so that they can avoid becoming mirror images of Kaw’s meticulously drawn caricatures.

The reviewer, a retired IAS officer, is the author of the book, The Changing Face of Bureaucracy

[member_19686]

The Indo-Mongolian Relationship: A Retrospective Outlook On Buddhism
Prof. Sh. Bira (Mongolia)

Despite the expectation of some people, Mongolia has not ever been completely isolated from the outside world, being sandwiched – to use the jargon of modern journalism – between two giants – Russia and China. On the contrary it has always been in close contact with great civilizations – the Indo-Iranian, the Sino-Tibetan, the Eurasian in old pre-modern times and even the Euro-American in our days. I share the opinion of scholars who assert that the nomadic world of the Mongols always needed relations with the outside world and the external factor has played a great role in their history.
The geographical and geopolitical situation of Mongolia always favored the mutual relationship between nomadic and sedentary civilizations – the two main components of human civilization. The grand territory of Mongolia has always been a bridge between various civilizations. To be more concrete the great highways have since long ago linked the east and the west, namely the great Silk Road and the Eurasian steppe corridor, sometimes called the Silk Road of the steppes, stretching from the Mediterranean and the Danube river up to the Great Wall of China. Being the most mobile forces, the nomadic peoples played an active role in the mutual contacts of peoples and cultures of the different regions of the world. I would say that they had been played no less a role in their own time then, as in today’s world with it’s sophisticated means of communication. Along the above mentioned roads there had been taking place the free flow of cultures, ideas, and information.
Coming over to our topic, long before the appearance of the Mongols into the historical arena India had become well known through its civilization. Buddhism was first spread among the ancient tribes who inhabited Mongolia – Hsiung-nu, Sien-pi, Toba, Turks and Uighurs.In earlier periods Buddhism came to the Mongolian steppes through Central Asian countries.
The Sogdians, the Khotanese and the Uighurs played an active intermediary role in introducing Buddhism to the Eastern part of Central Asia. Most of the Sanskrit loan words in Mongolian were taken mainly from Khotanese and Sogdian forms through Uighur writing:







Sanskrit

Khotanese

Sogdian

Uighur

Mongolian

Vinyā
Śasana
Jātaka
Vajra
Mahārāja


Vinai
Säsana


Vinai

Čittik
Bčr
My'rč


Vinai
Śasin
Čadik
Včir
Mharač


Vinai
Śasin
Čadiγ
Včir
Mharača


The Uighurs, one of the most advanced nomadic peoples, created their own powerful kingdom in Mongolia in YIII – IX centuries. It was after the collapse of their kingdom in Mongolia that they moved to Eastern Turkestan. Even then they continued keeping close relations with the Mongols. It was the Sogdians and the Uighurs from whom the Mongols borrowed their script which originated from the Phoenician – Aramaic system of writing.
The Sogdian – Uighur script, after having been adapted to the Mongolian language, had been serving as a flexible instrument of learning and literature for many centuries. All the Buddhist sutras were translated into Mongolian and written in the Uighur script.
Although we can speak about the Indo-Mongolian interaction since a long time ago, it’s tangible results are translated to the later period which lasted from the XIII century to the modern period. The Mongolian state founded in 1206 by Chinggis Khan had become during his successors reign the world’s largest empire that has ever existed in history. It stretched from the Far East to Eastern Europe, including most of Asia as well as a good deal of Europe. India was not conquered by the Mongols, although Mongol troops from Central Asia invaded the frontier regions of India several times in the 1220’s – 1230’s. Instead Indian civilization continued it’s invasion into the Mongolian steppes.
Two powerful streams of Buddhism can be observed that penetrated Mongolia from two different sides – Central Asia and Tibet and China. It does not exclude the possibility of direct contacts of Mongolia with the northern parts of India, especially Kashmir while Buddhism flourished there. From Chinese sources we know that in the reign of Ögedie Khan the Kashmiri monk Namu and his brother came to the Mongolian court. He stayed during the reigns of Ögedie Khan’s successors - Güyük and Mönke Khan. The latter appointed him as Guo-shi, the State preceptor. He was given a jade seal to administer Buddhist affairs. He was much honored at the Mongolian court. He was assigned to the head of ten thousand Kashmiri households.



Namu was also on good relations with Khubilai Khan, the youngest brother of Monke Khan. During the debates between Buddhists and the Taoists of China, Namu together
with ’Phags-pa Lama from Tibet strongly supported the Buddhists, thus securing the prevailing position of Buddhism in the empire.
I must say that in the earlier period of the Mongolian empire Buddhism held a much more influential position at the Mongolian court than we can expect. According to a stone inscription of 1346 in Ögedei Khan’s reign, there a huge Buddhist edifice was founded, a stupa covered with a pavilion five stories tall with statues of various Buddhas. It seems to me that in Kararkorum we had something similar to the famous stupa Borobudur in Indonesia. Several Buddhist temples are known to have been built in Karakorum. Buddhist books were studied and translated , and great discussions on religion were held at the Mongolian court. I have to say that not only Buddhism was popular in Karakorum but other religions – Nestorianism, Christianity and Islam were known as well. Mongolian Khans were surprisingly strong adherents of the policy of religious tolerance. As witnessed by William of Rubuck, a Fransiscan Friar, who met Möngke Khan, The Mongolian Khan said as follows:
“We Mongols believe that there is but one God, by Whom we live, and by Whom we die, and towards Him we have an upright heart…But just as god gives different fingers to the hand, so has He given different ways to men.”
These words of Monke Khan sound very modern and very instructive to those who in present day Mongolia are intolerant towards other religions which are now penetrating Mongolia.
If you take the Yuan period of the Mongolian empire when Khubilai Khan and his successors ruled over China, you will find a new period that opened in the history of Indo-Mongolian contacts.
There were two varieties of Indian Buddhism accessible to the Mongols in China. These were the Chinese and Tibetan varieties of Buddhism. The Mongolian Khan preferred to choose the latter one, that is the Tibetan variety of Buddhism or Tantric Buddhism which was most popular in Tibet thanks to the efforts of the Sa-skya sect. Mongolian Khans attached a special significance to Tibet because it was a center of Buddhism which they wished to use as a powerful counterbalance to Confucianism and to secure their domination in China. Tibet was not conquered by the Mongolian troops, and enjoyed the status of being a vassalage. Mongol Khans wanted to have Buddhism and Buddhist culture prevail in the empire as they preferred to have non-Chinese, mostly Central Asians serving in the bureaucracy and administration in China. During that period Tibet had actually become some kind of a midway-house between India and Mongolia, transmitting to Mongolia all of what they had borrowed from Buddhist India



since a long time ago. Khubilai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty in China, not only converted to Buddhism himself, but officially declared Buddhism the state religion within his cosmopolitan empire. He invited from Tibet, the famous lama `Phagspa Lama lodoi-Tsaltsan, the abbot of the Saskya sect, and put him at the head of the Buddhist church. He granted him the title of the Imperial Preceptor (Ti-shih). Khubilai Khan skillfully exploited the authority and knowledge of `Phags-pa Lama in his policies of ruling his vast empire. And `Phags-pa Lama was the right man for this purpose. He was not only a great lama, but he was also a very learned in Buddhist literature, especially in the so called epistolary writings or letters composed in short verses by ancient Indian sages – Nagarjuna, Matrceta, Cabdragoming and others with the purpose of expounding the main postulates of Buddhism and the political concepts of universal monarchies and sacred laws. In his numerous works written after the pattern of works by the just mentioned authors, `Phags-pa Lama did his best to glorify Khubilai Khan by prescribing to him the attributes of universal rulers – Chakaravardins as Indian sages did the same regarding their great patrons – Ashoka, Kanishka and others. The Tibetan teacher urged Khubilai Khan to rule by peaceful means according to the non-violence teachings of Buddhism, asserting that peace can be obtained by peace only, just as fire can be put out by water, but not by fire itself. `Phags-pa Lama could be considered to have founded the fundamental philosophy of Khubilai Khan’s policy. According to this philosophy, the khan’s power and Buddhist religion (Dharma) constitute the two main principles of imperial policy. This policy was adhered to by his successors in one way or the other. I must say that Khubilai Khan’s policy of the two principles had far-reaching consequences and terms so that even after the collapse of the Mongolian empire the Mongol khans persistently followed this policy.
Buddhism as the Indo-Tibetan factor in the Mongolian policy could not naturally secure Mongol domination of China as well as elsewhere, but it did greatly help them to rule over the sedentary society for nearly a century and to withstand the danger of assimilation within the far more numerous population of the conquered country. Unlike the other nomads who conquered China, the Mongols were remarkably successful in maintaining many features of their lifestyle – from culinary and dress customs to language, military and political institutions throughout the entire period of their domination. With the takeover of power by the Chinese the Mongols retreated to their homeland, and even then attempted to restore their rule in China, but without any success.
The most important point is not so much what I have just told you, but it is rather the after affects that the Indo-Mongolian intercourse has left in the history of the Mongols.
Although the Indo-Mongolian contacts were mostly indirect and had occurred much later than when Buddhism had been flourishing in India itself, the cultural and spiritual


consequences of these contacts have been surprisingly great and have lasted for many centuries until the recent period.
It is true that after the disintegration of the Mongolian empire in the end of the XIY century, Buddhism went into decay and Shamanism regained its position in Mongolia. But the linkage of the Mongols with Buddhism via Tibet had not ever been completely interrupted. Source materials provide us with historical data which testify to the contacts of different parts of Mongolia with the various sects in Tibetan Sa-Skya-pa, Karma-pa and Gelup-pa Lamaism. Moreover the second half of the XYI century was a turning point of the Buddhist revival in Mongolia. The most powerful rulers of the Mongols vigorously contested with each other to adopt Buddhism in its varieties from Tibet.
In the end of the XYI century most of the Mongols were converted to Lamaism, which by that time had become the strongest sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Monasteries were built in different parts of Mongolia, and Buddhist learning and literary activities developed further, and interrelations between Mongolia and Tibet intensified more than ever before since the period of the Mongol empire.
One can say that in those days there emerged some kind of a religious and military alliance between the two countries. Altan Khan, the ruler of the northern Mongols, and the third Dalai Lama of Tibet, at their historical meeting in 1586, decided to establish the so called Patron and Preceptor relationship. After the previously mentioned policy of the two principles initiated by Khubilai Khan, the Dalai Lama and Mongolian rulers did their best to implement this policy for strengthening their power. Meanwhile, a new power had been emerging in Central Asia, that is the Manchu empire in the Northeast of China. The Manchus started to manipulate Tibetan Buddhism in their empire building policy toward their neighboring countries, first of all, in Mongolia. Thus Tibetan Buddhism became a powerful religious and political factor in the whole of Inner Asia, and all the rivaling forces tried to use it for the realization of their political ambitions. In their struggle for the favor of Tibet Buddhism the Manchus were more successful than anyone else. Manchu rulers, since the beginning of their expansionism against Mongolia skillfully manipulated the Tibetan factor. In this respect Mongolian rulers turned out to have been less powerful and skillful in the final analysis, they could not get united in their efforts to consolidate their power against the Manchus. The Manchus proficiently played on the nationalistic and religious feelings of the Mongols. First of all, taking advantage of their ethnic and cultural affinity, the Manchus declared themselves the rightful inheritors of the Chinggisids, and launched a propaganda campaign that they wished to restore the great empire of the Chinggisids. They claimed to have received the state seal of the great Mongolian khans.





Secondly Manchu rulers also declared they were real patrons of Buddhism, and established a close contact with the religious authorities of Tibet, including the Dalai
lamas. The Manchu emperor Abakhai even built a huge temple dedicated to Mahakala, the main guardian of Buddhism, highly worshipped both by Tibetan and the Mongols. He wished to make this temple a State sanctuary for all Buddhists in his domain. It is not difficult to understand that all these maneuvers of the Manchus greatly helped them to gain the sympathy and support of the Mongols. Prominently, the First Bogdo Gegen of Mongolia when he decided to acquire the protection of the Manchus in the struggle with the Western Mongols is said to have declared that the Manchus were closer to the Mongols in customs and religion.
The Manchus persistently continued to patronize Tibetan Buddhism in every possible way after their conquests of the lands of Mongolia. it was during the period of the Manchu domination that Buddhism in fact became the main religion of the Mongols. Moreover under the conditions of the isolation and backwardness of the country Buddhism had eventually become the sole driving force in the life of Mongols. By the beginning of the XX century about 750 monasteries were functioning in Khalkha Mongolia and the lamas constituted on fifth of the country’s population. Incidentally, Sherbatskoi, the famous Russian Indologist who visited Mongolia in the early XX century compared Mongolia of those days with Medieval India when Buddhism flourished there.
I would say that the Buddhist influence on Mongolia was so great that Mongolia had eventually become a part of the Indo-Tibetan world. It is interesting to note that under the rule of the Manchus and despite the fact that their emperors claimed to be the lawful khans of the Mongols, Mongolian chroniclers persistently propagated the legend about their genealogical affinity of the family of Chinggisids with the long line of pedigrees of legendary and semi legendary kings of India. They forged an extraordinary fabulous common genealogy on Indian, Tibetan, and Mongolian kings, and according to this genealogy the Golden clan of the Chinggisids could be traced back to as far as the legendry king Mahasammata. Mahasammata was believed to be the forefather of the kings of the Buddhist world. Mongolian chroniclers tried in every possible way to link Mongolia with Buddhist India. They elaborated a special scheme of writing history, that’s the scheme of the so called three Buddhist monarchies – India, Tibet and Mongolia. If you read old Mongolian chronicles you will see with what pietism this scheme was followed by their authors until recent times. Great Mongolian khans were declared to be reincarnations of various Buddhist Gods – Chinggis Khan being the reincarnation of Vajrapani, and Khubilai Khan that of Manjushri.



The legendary genealogy of Mongolian Khans, together with a devout faith in Buddhism, helped the Mongols to keep alive their memory of their glorious history and it was obviously the vivid expression of the reaction of the Mongols to the foreign
domination. Mongolian khans were famous not only for their real historical kinship, but also for their spiritual relationship with the sacred kings of Buddhist India.
If you take the intellectual and artistic activities of the Mongols during the Manchu period, you can discover an interesting phenomenon in Mongolian history. Most of the Mongolian translations of Buddhist sutras and works of Mongolian learned lamas belonged to the Manchu period. It is sufficient to mention the two great famous collections Mahayana literature – the Ganjur and the Tanjur were fully translated into Mongolian and published by means of wood block printing in Beijing. The Ganjur (108 vols.) contains the commandments of Buddha and it is divided into three broad selections – Vinaya, Sutra and Tantra. the other collections Tanjur (225 vols.) comprises numerous commentaries and independent philosophical and secular scientific works of ancient Indian authors. The Ganjur and the Tanjur have been highly esteemed by the Mongols as a great treasure house of Indian wisdom, knowledge, and are worshipped everywhere in Mongolia. From the academic point of view, the Tanjur represents a special interest. It contains numerous works on different branches of knowledge – philosophy, logic, grammar, poetics, prosody, medicine, astrology, art, etc. For instance one can find more than forty Sanskrit grammatical works including the famous Panini’s grammar, the earliest known grammar in the history of linguistics. Of great interest are the works on ancient Indian medicine composed after the pattern of Ayurveda, Sushrutasamhita and Čarakasamhita, the so called three pillars of Indian medicine.
The Mongols not only translated a great deal of Buddhist literature, but wrote many works on various subjects of Buddhism and Buddhist knowledge including those on poetics, literature, medicine, etc., not to mention religious works. The Mongols wrote not only in their native tongue, but also in the Tibetan language which was the language of the church and learning in Mongolia. The writings of Mongolian authors were rather prodigious and had been highly praised in Tibet itself. They are of prime importance for those who study Buddhism. From these works one can see how the spiritual traditions of Buddhist India had been transmitted through the mediation of Tibet and how it was fruitfully continued by the Mongols until the modern era. The Indian influence on Mongolia was not limited to religion and culture only, but embraced the other spheres of life, from political philosophy to language and folklore. Allow me to present some examples. The old Indian language Sanskrit was popular in Mongolia, because it was the language of Buddhism. It was believed to have been the language of Buddha and therefore studied alongside Tibetan. The admiration of the Mongols for Sanskrit was so great that many Sanskrit words have been borrowed and incorporated into Mongolian.


Even now Sanskrit words are used not only in literary but also in colloquial Mongolian. It is interesting to note that in Mongolia when the need arises for new scientific terms it is
often preferred to have them adopted from Sanskrit, rather than from Latin or any other languages. Sanskrit terms relating to diverse branches of science and philosophy, from cosmonautics to medicine and botanics have been adopted in modern Mongolian terminological lexicon. The names of planets and stars, including the cosmos, in modern Mongolian are named in Sanskrit:

Sanskrit Mongolian

Adya Adya (Sunday, Sun)

Somya Sumya (Monday, Moon)

Angäraka Angaraq (Tuesday, Mars)



It is worthwhile to mention that some Sanskrit words have been Mongolized to such an extent that the Mongols do not event suspect their foreign origin:

Sanskrit


Sansāra
Abhyasa
Punya
Kšana
Dvipa
Graha
Jātaka
Šloka
Padaka
Rašayana
Mongolian
Sansar (space)
Avyas (talent)
Buyan (good deeds)
Agshin (instant)
Tiv (continent)
Garig (planet)
Tsadig (tales, stories)
Shuleg (poems, verses)
Badag (strophe)
Arshan (mineral water, nectar)


The Mongols have a long tradition of having Sanskrit names:

Sanskrit


Arya
Aditya
Vajravali
Dharma
Čandra
Ratna
Utpala

Mongolian
Arya
Adya
Ochirbal
Darma
Zandra
Radna
Udval


The Manchu domination in Mongolia lasted more than two hundred years in the Northern part and nearly three hundred years in the Southern part of Mongolia. In the final analysis the religious policy of the Manchus that encouraged Buddhism in Mongolia gave such a paradoxical result that even the Manchus could not foresee it. It is really paradoxical that the more the Manchus tried to consolidate their power in Mongolia with the assistance of Buddhism, the more the Mongols eventually became spiritually and culturally alien to their Manchu rulers. Buddhism had after all become the national religion of the Mongols. On the other hand, the Manchus themselves had bgun to acculturate and were finally assimilated amongst the Confucian Chinese. Buddhism had gained a strong foothold in even in the political sphere of Mongolian life. The more the Manchus encouraged the Buddhist church in Mongolia, the more it became an influential power in politics as well. There has emerged a powerful ecclesiastical elite group that came to play a greater and greater role in the country’s life. The ecclesiastical leaders consisting of numerous so-called Khutugus and Khubilgads, the great sacred lamas and reincarnations, overshadowed even the secular authorities, the real inheritors of the Golden clan of Chingissids. They mastered not only the minds of the Mongols, but owned enormous material resources of the country including cattle. They had their own leader in the person of the YIII Bogdo Gegen Jebtsundamba Khutugtu who was almost the only authority in Mongolia when several khans who had claims to power were rivaling each other. As a result the ecclesiastical leaders headed by the Bogdo Gegen supported by a wider circle of Mongols succeeded in taking power when the Manchu empire was about to collapse. Thus in 1911 the YIII Bogdo Gegen declared the independence of Mongolia and announced his wish to establish friendly relations with other countries including the U.S.A., Japan and others. Bogdo Gegen was proclaimed Bogdo Khan with the titled “Elevated by the Many”/Oлноо θpгдcθн/ is the Sanskrit loan word that means Mahasammatsa, the name of the legendary Indian Buddhist king. It is also a prominent fact that in the political life of the Mongols for the last two centuries that the institution of the Bogdo Gengens played a decisive role. The first Bogdo Gegen Zanabazar who was proclaimed head of the Buddhist church in Mongolia belonged to the Golden clan of the Chingissids, and it was he who, under the threat of mutual annihilation of the Mongols during the struggle between the Eastern and Western Mongols, decided to


submit to the Manchu’s. And it is characteristic that two hundred after this event the last Bogdo Gegen restored the independence of Mongolia. I must say that under the impact of the Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation that the traditional concepts of the continuity of the khans power amongst the Mongols had undergone a great change. They believed that the Bogdo Gegens through a lineage of a series of reincarnations had the right to claim not only the sacred genealogy of reincarnations of the Buddha’s learned disciples that originated in India, but also of the Golden clan of the Chinggisids in their own country. That was the reason why the Mongols so enthusiastically supported the Bogdo Gegen as a khan of the Mongols, and this event once again shows that the spiritual influence of ancient India was very strong indeed.
After all, Buddhism in its Indo-Tibetan variety has eventually become an important component of Mongolian nationalism. Mongolian nationalists of different periods tried to use it as their ideology. The leaders of the so-called People’s revolution in 1921 supported by communist Russia put forward a slogan to restore State and Religion in Mongolia. Even the totalitarian regime that existed during the last seventy years occasionally tried to exploit the Indian factor and Buddhism in their own way. India was the first non-communist country with whom Mongolia established diplomatic relations since 1955.
With the democratic reforms that started in 1990 in Mongolia there has begun a new period of a Buddhist revival. This unique historical process of re-Buddhaisation is taking place alongside the modernization of Mongolia along the road of democracy and the market economy. Buddhism that was known to have to been greatly suppressed during the last seven decades is now emerging once again from the ashes of destruction. And no matter whatever steps the Mongolian Buddhist revival goes through, it has to meet, in one way or the other, the requirements of the county’s development, and in this process the Indian Buddhist factor that has a long tradition in Mongolia might remain still furthermore in the years to come. At present it should be properly understood that the former Tibetan variety of Buddhism, that’s Lamaism, cannot be dogmatically restored as it had been before under the rule of the Manchus who encouraged it specially for the purpose of consolidating their domination both in Mongolia and Tibet. The present-day Mongolia needs more radical reforms in the field of religion as well as in all the spheres of life. It is difficult to think that under the present conditions Lamaism can regain is predominant position in the spiritual life of the Mongols and become a guarantee of national and cultural identity as some people believe these days. Today’s Tibet cannot claim any more to be a religious center for the Mongols.
The question of how the Buddhist revival is really going on at present and what we can expect in the future in another topic to be dealt with separately by a more competent speaker.

http://www.mongolianculture.com/ProfBira-Lect.htm

[Pranav]

** Deleted **

Those curious about Aseem Trivedi's cartoons will find links at #aseemtrivedi . Also http://www.cartoonsagainstcorruption.blogspot.in/ has images, but that site is liable to be blocked in the near future. Some of the cartoons are indeed quite imaginative.

[nawabs]

Kids mostly watch ***** on internet, says Sibal

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 344454.cms

Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Monday courted controversy saying that while the internet was a great medium, most children were watching ***** on it and that it was being used to spread "disaffection" among people.

"What kids see on the internet is mostly ***** and that is dangerous. The internet is being used as a platform for misinformation, selling spurious drugs and for terrorist activities. It is a great medium but being misused to bring about disaffection among people," Sibal said.

The minister was speaking on 'The Future of the University' at the India Cambridge summit.

He said that the internet was an unlimited highway and that the government was against setting limits on it.

The Congress leader also spoke about using technology to establish a National Knowledge Network that would connect 35,000 colleges with each other, which would help knowledge sharing and collaborations.

[ramana]

Interesting blog that quotes BRF!!!

Hindu Wisdom

One lesson to be drawn is we might think we are rambling but someone else out there is getting inspiration!!!

[ramana]

Follow-up article by Prf Gautam Sen

India in Peril-2

India in peril - 2
Economic growth and military preparedness are critical to counter Sino-Pak plans to Balkanize this country, writes Gautam Sen.

London, 7 September 2012: In a worst-case scenario, if India is threatened with serious territorial losses and its authorities visibly unnerved, other neighbours may be prompted to press their own territorial claims. Depending on the outcome of these larger military encounters, with an Indian army beleaguered in the north, it is likely that recognition will be accorded to a Khalistan government-in-exile. Some Khalistani terror elements remain ensconced in Britain, enjoying discreet local hospitality and malicious incitement, while also being permitted free rein to engage with their own militant clusters in Pakistan. Assam will be vulnerable to a wave of Bangladeshi migrant infiltration seeking to occupy territory, without even the need for any formal military sortie, though the migrants are likely to be well-armed on this occasion. And Nepal has territorial claims against India that have been discussed by its political parties lately and could be revived. Its elites harbour venomous animus towards all things Indian and only await an opportunity to repay perceived historic humiliations. And the two hundredth anniversary of the Treaty of Sugauli, from which its territorial losses date, is approaching. Perhaps the people of West Bengal, already historically primed by the parochial Bose clan for it, may revive a clamour for Dhaka's socio-political tutelage over a united Bengal.

Two major issues, the nuclear dimension and international diplomatic reaction to an unfolding war in the Indian subcontinent, will be crucial to outcomes. Indian nuclear weapons, designed to address its two-front dilemma, are unlikely to do anything of the sort. India has already lost the most important asset of nuclear deterrence, which is credibility. By failing to carry out military chastisement several times to punish the most egregious acts of violence against it, including the attempt to decapitate India's political leadership, which merited an immediate declaration of war, and the warlike assault on Mumbai, India conveyed a decisive negative signal. It highlighted the fact India's nuclear tests were driven by the impetus of scientific advances, having marked time to test a nuclear device, and desire for prestige, and only remotely intended for use in dire national crisis. If any further proof was required of Indian qualms and spinelessness, the tortuous endeavours to avoid even accidentally infringing Pakistani airspace during the Kargil War, launched by Pakistan, underlined the fear writ large on the perceptions of Indian decision-makers. In any case, the no-first-use policy rules out initiating the use of nuclear weapons even if national disaster impends, or pre-emptively, if certain first-use by an enemy portends.

Some additional thoughts on India's nuclear strategy are merited in the context delineated above. Having lost the advantage of engaging in convincing deterrence that Pakistan has successfully adopted by espousing unbridled brinkmanship, India should consider innovating means of retrieving it by issuing meaningful threats of nuclear retaliation. Pakistani nuclear strategy has espoused the kind of electrifying brinkmanship discussed by strategist Thomas Schelling which was avoided by both the USA and USSR as potentially too dangerous. It seems likely that although India tested in 1998, its delivery systems were traditional and unreliable while Pakistan acquired tried and tested missile delivery capability off the shelf from North Korea, thanks to Chinese intermediation. Pakistani ability to deliver its nuclear weapons with missiles prompted an Indian loss of nerve and insouciance that failed to affirm that it would not succumb to nuclear blackmail for implausible reasons. For example, Pakistan warns of launching a nuclear attack if India blockades Karachi harbour. In addition, there was a catastrophic loss of credibility because India's anxiety about nuclear deterrence left room for doubt about the circumstances in which it would unfailingly retaliate. It might have even been felt that a solitary nuclear attack on a carefully chosen Indian target would not necessarily elicit retaliation. Indeed, it is possible to infer that India's political leaders attach a high value to their own safety and should not be targeted because they are the best guarantee that retaliation will not occur.

There are ways of changing Pakistan's strategic calculus before India's own unconvincing strategic posture becomes a temptation for a Pakistani nuclear assault in a moment of high tension. In the event of an Indo-Pak nuclear standoff, there needs to be a strategy to affect Pakistani decision-making. There are two countries that have extraordinary influence over Pakistan, the first being the one that largely funded its acquisition of nuclear weapons as an Islamic asset. And the second is the country that tested Pakistan's first nuclear device on its own soil and ensured its missile delivery capability and has since helped enlarge the quantity of nuclear warheads in Pakistan's arsenal. The Indian authorities should discreetly sponsor a discussion in the press suggesting that in the aftermath of a nuclear strike against India all bets would be off and retaliatory targets will include cities in these two aforesaid countries. A mere public discussion of such a possibility, unconnected to any official insinuation, will suffice to induce an incalculable dose of realism in all three antagonists of India.

The collapse of the USSR and end of the Cold War enlarged India's diplomatic options while simultaneously failing to reinstate their previous intrinsic high value. China no longer fears Soviet intervention if it attacks India, a persuasive factor during 1971 and a possible deterrent in 1965 as well. India has no friend or ally in a position to offer such a powerful guarantee, especially against a China with a growing economic reach that has cowed most and rearmament that intimidates even its sworn foes. A setback for India will cause the gravest international alarm and prompt rearmament across Asia. But all the evidence available so far suggests China is prepared to even countenance the prospect of Japanese abrogation of World War II commitments to rearm, the one certain outcome of an Indian military defeat in war with China. The Europeans are proudly inward looking, visibly awed by China and do excellent business with it. Britain has always sympathised with Pakistani truculence, even as it is on the verge of routing NATO in Afghanistan, and a perfidious admirer of China. Britain recently mendaciously repudiated Article 9 of the 1914 Simla Convention demarcating the Indo-Tibetan border, apparently to order, despite lacking locus standi in the matter. The US has something to lose from an Indian setback, but one wonders exactly what it would do. It should be borne in mind that when push comes to shove, the Anglo-Americans will not abandon Pakistan to its fate, and any Indian military action that threatens its vital interests will, in the final analysis, be firmly opposed. The only question for India at present is who will offer military hardware and ordnance in the event of a prolonged war.

India needs to make provision for an inestimable supply of trained reservists and the ability to equip them, much as the USSR did during World War II, though no country is ever likely to quite approximate the Soviet wartime production effort. India's defence industries need to be upgraded on a hitherto unimaginable scale and unprecedented measures taken to accelerate productive capacity. India should immediately embark on collaboration with Vietnam and Israel to design and manufacture a whole range of military hardware and ordnance, establishing collectively-owned defence production units on the soil of all three partners. There is already an example in India's BrahMos missile collaboration with Russia, which might also be encouraged to participate with the three principal partners, India, Israel and Vietnam, whenever politically feasible. Perhaps some other countries may wish to form a relationship with the three collaborators as well. One outcome of such a massive programme of cooperation is that it will make it less likely for India to run out ordnance, as it did in 1962, or beg for artillery shells, which were generously supplied by Israel during the Kargil War. Perhaps India can then leverage its manpower assets to continue fighting in the face of any initial military reverses.

The vital ingredients that have virtually disappeared from Indian political life are unwavering commitment to India's nationhood, courage to defend it at all cost and statesmanship to lead if the survival of the country is at stake. Unfortunately, India has no Joseph Stalin, admired and respected as war leader by illustrious military commanders of the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War. A solitary speech by Stalin to the people of Moscow of 7 November 1942 is considered to have prevented the city falling to the Nazis. Nor does India have a Winston Churchill capable of inspiring the nation to fight on when all seemed lost. Without decisive political leadership the most valiant armies are condemned to defeat because policy drift and disarray in decision-making are fatal for it. By contrast, contemporary India is in serious danger of losing its economic momentum, which is sheer tragedy, because augmented economic resources would be vital for war and constitute a persuasive signal that affects any decision by an enemy to attack. In the final analysis, the publicly aired, diabolical Sino-Pak goal of an India divided into satellites beholden to them can only be rebuffed by strong political leadership and adequate material resources. Indian politics instead suffers from a surfeit of low cunning, colossal avarice and impulse for sell-out if one's own private interests can somehow be assured.

Concluded

Dr Gautam Sen taught Political Economy at the London School of Economics.

Views expressed here are those of the author.

A bit alarmist but India did see Panipat, Talikota and Plassey.

[nakul]

Don't cook me alive. But this sounds a bit shallow. India by tradition has been decentralised. It has thrown up leaders when the nation needed it most (Shivaji, Gandhiji, I Gandhi etc). We don't have a single leader whom we can look upto is because we have a multitude of them When nation needed it, Vallabhbhai Patel came to our rescue. Some say Narendra Modi is what the nation needs. People like Mamata check the current govt to an extent. So to expect us to have a single rallying point is moot. Perhaps that makes us so resilient. People talk about losing NE. Recently, I found out the longest burning lamp (~400 years) is in a Ram temple in Assam. Everywhere you look, there is a bit of India trying to reach out. You just have to acknowledge it.

[devesh]

^^^
can we please move beyond the "shallow" dramatization of "decentralization" and acknowledge weakness where it is present? the guy wrote two entire articles with specific details and actions points on which he sees India in a fundamentally weak position. perhaps you should rebut those specific points if you have a problem with it, rather than write a kumbayah argument about "bit of India reaching out", and whatnot....

for example, his points about serious loss of land to neighbors' claims and also due to internal elements like Khalistan is not something to scoff at and hide behind "decentralization". these issues require a strong centralized hand. I don't see why we can't realize this. and why the insistent need to pose such lazy statements like "India has always survived. we will survive again" or those on a similar vein.

[nakul]

Its a part of deracination. The idea that a strong centre is required is a western thought. (Check Christianity having pope) While I agree that the author is correct on some points, the direct comparision between India & other countries is irrelevant as we have always had a decentralized system.

Perhaps that is why British (Churchill??) said that India was never a country. It was a mosiac of kingdoms battling together. It is correct. But what it fails to convey that the idea of India (or Bharat or Hindustan or Ajnabkhand) predates all their history. We don't see a concept of Europe or any other equivalent anywhere with a mixture of different languages & traditions. In other words, the threat is based on the false idea that a strong centre is important or else it will disintegrate. What is equally important to note is that the centre presents an attractive target of attack & can be compromised.

As this is a military forum, scientists are designing swarm weapons that will be difficult to intercept / jam / destroy since there is no single seeker that they can target. We are like that onlee...

Having said that, strong centralization has its benefits but they can't subsitute for the advantages of decentralization. The Spanish destroyed the Mayans / Incas within a few years because it was centralized. We have foreign rule for close to 900 years and yet going strong. Without addressing this point, I feel that he is viewing India from western lenses. The British have been saying that pre 1947. Heck, even Pakistan didn't disintegrate (yet) until India intervened. We are a strong people. Unlike TFTAs, we don't mind some difficulties if the future improves because of it...

[member_19686]

^^^
can we please move beyond the "shallow" dramatization of "decentralization" and acknowledge weakness where it is present? the guy wrote two entire articles with specific details and actions points on which he sees India in a fundamentally weak position. perhaps you should rebut those specific points if you have a problem with it, rather than write a kumbayah argument about "bit of India reaching out", and whatnot....

for example, his points about serious loss of land to neighbors' claims and also due to internal elements like Khalistan is not something to scoff at and hide behind "decentralization". these issues require a strong centralized hand. I don't see why we can't realize this. and why the insistent need to pose such lazy statements like "India has always survived. we will survive again" or those on a similar vein.

"India" begins at 1947 I guess for people who say this.

Do they not remember that the area labelled India once extended up to Iran (with Afghanistan under the Hindu Shahiyas)?

That Indian influence was pervasive from Mongolia to even the remote Philippines. Sanskrit was the language of scholars and intellectuals even in far off Mongolia.

Today we communicate with each other in English and proud of it, have lost huge chunks of territory and influence and can't even protect Hindus in Kashmir or Assam but yes "India will survive"!

[nakul]

India has conquered the world without sending a single soldier across her borders. I believe India is in a similar trajectory. Those who don't agree, I don't mind. We are not like China (or US, or Britain) to send soldiers across. I don't see that changing in the future. It is our soft power that will rule. Unfortunately, we have forgotten that. Soft power has been relegated to Bollywood & dance. Once we come out of this stupor, things will get clear. Hard power has never been a substitute for soft power. This is what most have yet to realise...

Empires rise and fall. This is true for all kingdoms. Yet we have been the biggest economy for almost all recorded history. We rose but never fell. Unlike the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians etc. Why?

The answer is there but is yet to be defined. Or maybe it cannot be defined. There are scholars trying to decipher India (Indologists) but they won't accept that there exists a world view other than their own. We write in English but there is no need to think like them. There are people thinking of having Scotland as a separate nation even when there are hardly any problems when compared to India's magnitude. Let them apply the same parameters. They will continue to fail. Was not every news regarding Kargil ending with nuclear armageddon? Yet we did not even cross LoC. As you can see, what is visible (we are exposed to) is not the whole story. The forces trying to break us are still trying to subvert us without addressing our values. Once that is touched, we would be at risk. It's not impossible for such a thing to happen but IMHO unlikely to happen...

[devesh]

Its a part of deracination. The idea that a strong centre is required is a western thought. (Check Christianity having pope) While I agree that the author is correct on some points, the direct comparision between India & other countries is irrelevant as we have always had a decentralized system.

Perhaps that is why British (Churchill??) said that India was never a country. It was a mosiac of kingdoms battling together. It is correct. But what it fails to convey that the idea of India (or Bharat or Hindustan or Ajnabkhand) predates all their history. We don't see a concept of Europe or any other equivalent anywhere with a mixture of different languages & traditions. In other words, the threat is based on the false idea that a strong centre is important or else it will disintegrate. What is equally important to note is that the centre presents an attractive target of attack & can be compromised.

As this is a military forum, scientists are designing swarm weapons that will be difficult to intercept / jam / destroy since there is no single seeker that they can target. We are like that onlee...

Having said that, strong centralization has its benefits but they can't subsitute for the advantages of decentralization. The Spanish destroyed the Mayans / Incas within a few years because it was centralized. We have foreign rule for close to 900 years and yet going strong. Without addressing this point, I feel that he is viewing India from western lenses. The British have been saying that pre 1947. Heck, even Pakistan didn't disintegrate (yet) until India intervened. We are a strong people. Unlike TFTAs, we don't mind some difficulties if the future improves because of it...

BS. BS. BS.

the "deracination" you are talking about is in religion. the decentralization in Hinduism has helped us survive and fight back different enemies in different ways. that is a totally different issue from the decentralization in Central Governance.

Governance, in the matters of physical defense of country, always has to be centralized. there has to be one central guiding force which can set a strategy and see it through. you can't have Punjab following its own strategy while Uttar Pradesh does something else, while Karnataka is experimenting with something else, while Assam wants to build its own castles of chumma-giving with BD, etc.

Decentralization of Military, Defense, and Foreign Policy is the surest sign that the State, as it exists, is slowly loosing control. the consequence will be that the country itself might not exist in its current form >> truncation.

let's not mix up issues of religion and belief systems with that of actual Rashtra in matter of Defense and Foreign Policy. those things are always centralized. each state doesn't have a foreign policy department to implement its own fantasies. there is only one such establishment, and it is under the aegis of the Central Governance of the entire Country...

[devesh]

what do you mean "we rose but never fell" ?!?!?!?!

we fell spectacularly over the last 1000 years. loosing our sovereignty in large parts of the country to degraded foreign terrorists, huge loss of life, slavery of our people due to a declining economic situation, degradation on the world stage to a European colony.....we fell, and fell with a thunder. we have yet to come up with a credible, long term strategy for reversing the degraded ideology and its foot soldiers who surround us, and also live among us.

your follow up post, I'm afraid, is only more cringe-worthy than the one I responded to above...

[nakul]

Please don't use the western technique of seeing things in isolation because the real world does not act like that. Religion, science, philosophy, governance, moral values are all interconnected. Once you realise this, they start giving out answers.

There was a thought in another thread that India should expand its borders. If India had consumed Sri Lanka, LTTE would never have been eradicated. Thanks to a weak govt, Sri Lanka has been separate from us. It prevented Tamil Nadu from seceding. What we are seeing is just a shadow of what would have happened with an Eelam comprising of Northern Lanka + Tamil Nadu. Thankfully India was not strong enough to make Lanka its colony.

We can sit and debate all we want but I have seen a tendency to apply western moves towards greater power to India. When they have worked only temporariy (100-200 years) for their respective countries, how can India benefit from them.

I think I have said a lot. I am not here to make others agree with me. If some don't want to , its their prerogative. Thanks.

[member_23629]

Perhaps that is why British (Churchill??) said that India was never a country. It was a mosiac of kingdoms battling together. It is correct. But what it fails to convey that the idea of India (or Bharat or Hindustan or Ajnabkhand) predates all their history. We don't see a concept of Europe or any other equivalent anywhere with a mixture of different languages & traditions.

The foundation of nationhood is shared culture, history and values which make people identify with each other as a single group. Political boundaries are never the basis of nationhood -- they keep changing every century or so. People who say that India did not exist before the British are arguing that political boundaries are the basis of nationhood. They are stupid who have no idea about what makes people bind themselves wilfully into a nation.

People who don't share your culture and history will sooner or later demand a separate nation for themselves. (Muslims demanding Pakistan, Nagas demanding Nagaland for Christ, Dravidian radicals demanding Tamil Nation.) That is why conversions are dangerous to the idea of India. Cultural unity is extremely important if a nation has to survive -- any ideology that tries to dilute the cultural unity has to be crushed with extreme prejudice. People who don't do so due to political correctness will come to grief. As long as your culture and shared values are safe, you will survive as a nation.

[devesh]

I'm afraid your posts only increase in ignorance. so, I'll stop trying to persuade you too. I pointed out that "Foreign Policy" is exclusively the purview of the Center, and not the States. and you choose to respond with some inane BS about "Thankful India was not powerful enough to make SL a colony". Hopefully, the events of the future will change your mind.

[member_19686]

India has conquered the world without sending a single soldier across her borders. I believe India is in a similar trajectory. Those who don't agree, I don't mind. We are not like China (or US, or Britain) to send soldiers across. I don't see that changing in the future. It is our soft power that will rule. Unfortunately, we have forgotten that. Soft power has been relegated to Bollywood & dance. Once we come out of this stupor, things will get clear. Hard power has never been a substitute for soft power. This is what most have yet to realise...

Empires rise and fall. This is true for all kingdoms. Yet we have been the biggest economy for almost all recorded history. We rose but never fell. Unlike the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians etc. Why?

The answer is there but is yet to be defined. Or maybe it cannot be defined. There are scholars trying to decipher India (Indologists) but they won't accept that there exists a world view other than their own. We write in English but there is no need to think like them. There are people thinking of having Scotland as a separate nation even when there are hardly any problems when compared to India's magnitude. Let them apply the same parameters. They will continue to fail. Was not every news regarding Kargil ending with nuclear armageddon? Yet we did not even cross LoC. As you can see, what is visible (we are exposed to) is not the whole story. The forces trying to break us are still trying to subvert us without addressing our values. Once that is touched, we would be at risk. It's not impossible for such a thing to happen but IMHO unlikely to happen...

Look up the Chola empire & its expansion into SE Asia.

Likewise look up Lalitaditya Muktapida's expansion into Central Asia & Zorawar Singh's conquest of Ladakh-Baltistan and the Indian kingdoms in what is now Xinjiang.

So yes while "soft power" was important it was backed up by the military including expansion outside the bounds of Bharat proper.

Second we are not discussing empires here but the complete genocide of Hindus from Afghanistan-Pakistan-BD-Kashmir Valley and now extending to Assam. This is not like the Maurya Empire falling or Gupta empire rising but wholesale extermination of the native spirituality and culture, you have lost the area permanently.

What you asked about Rome and Greece is what happened in areas like Afghanistan and Pakistan and is happening in India today. What happened to all the Hindus and Buddhists in those areas if you could kindly explain?

Rome and Greece collapsed precisely because they too were complacent in dealing with the looming Christian threat until it was too late, very similar to Hindus who say "India will survive" as some kind of dogmatic slogan.

[nakul]

Here is a speech given Dr Subramaniam Swamy at the madarsa of WKKs, JNU. It is a single speech in Hindi split into four videos.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

He talks about the communal violence bill in detail. It splits India into two communites. A group(consisting of Muslims, Christians, SC, ST) and the rest. Any atrocity like rape, sexual assault, murder, torture, hate speech, violence is permitted if committed by the group against the rest. The rest is to be punished if they retaliate in any form.

This is one of the bills that was in the news recently for having been shot down by state govts. He mentions Jayalalitha & Mamata as calling this divisive. Lots of Hindu organisations are also opposing. Please spread this as far as possible since nothing reveals the depths the current govt has fallen too as much as this does.

[nachiket]

India has conquered the world without sending a single soldier across her borders.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this statement.

I believe India is in a similar trajectory. Those who don't agree, I don't mind. We are not like China (or US, or Britain) to send soldiers across. I don't see that changing in the future. It is our soft power that will rule.

Yes and if they send more soldiers, let's pray that "soft power", whatever it is can stop bullets. "Soft Power" did not help us defend our frontier against the Chinese in 1962. Our soldiers died in the freezing Himalayan heights without winter gear and clutching obsolete rifles. And the Chinese walked in and stole our land. All because our leaders were living in some imaginary peaceful utopia where armies were unnecessary and "soft power" ruled. Just like you seem to be doing now.

Hard power has never been a substitute for soft power. This is what most have yet to realise...

And there is no substitute for hard power either, when the need arises. And the consequences of not having hard power are usually far more serious. This is what you fail to realise.

Empires rise and fall. This is true for all kingdoms. Yet we have been the biggest economy for almost all recorded history. We rose but never fell. Unlike the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians etc. Why?

The very fact that we were once the largest economy and are nowhere near being one now, should tell you that we "fell". Again, because we failed to adequately defend ourselves against conquerors.

The answer is there but is yet to be defined. Or maybe it cannot be defined. There are scholars trying to decipher India (Indologists) but they won't accept that there exists a world view other than their own. We write in English but there is no need to think like them. There are people thinking of having Scotland as a separate nation even when there are hardly any problems when compared to India's magnitude. Let them apply the same parameters. They will continue to fail. Was not every news regarding Kargil ending with nuclear armageddon? Yet we did not even cross LoC. As you can see, what is visible (we are exposed to) is not the whole story. The forces trying to break us are still trying to subvert us without addressing our values. Once that is touched, we would be at risk. It's not impossible for such a thing to happen but IMHO unlikely to happen...

Ok, frankly this part of your post makes absolutely no sense to me.

[member_20292]

India has conquered the world without sending a single soldier across her borders.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this statement.

I am crying though.
Mother India is weeping while her sons play around.

Hard power comes first Nakul. Then comes soft power. The strongest powers in the world all have hard power before all of their soft power.

After one wins, one can be a sportsman, share a beer with the loser, be nice.

But before, one has to survive and thrive. There is no other way. Otherwise you see your civilization die , your women taken by foreign invaders and your children made slaves.

It is modern life and living which has made hard power more civilized in it’s nature. People are not shedding blood, and slaughtering each other these days.
But life, and economics is still bloody (in some sense). And historically, it has always been about war, winning wars, being physically strong and virile, vanquishing your enemies.

For all of Ashoka the greats' message of peace, he FIRST killed all his enemies and conquered the entire subcontinent. Of course, I would do the same; hang up my boots after I have finished my enemies. After you have killed all your enemies you can relax. But kill your enemies first!

For all of Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence, he had the guts and the balls to do the hard thing of campaigning and walking far and wide. Obtained consensus. Got people together. Buitl dialogue. Raised hell for the British, while ostensibly being peaceful and non-violent. This is not different from raising an army and fighting in the old days, just less bloody. But this is a fight non-the-less.

The country which is responsible for some of the greatest soft-power advances in the 20th century, the United States, is one where the concept of hard power permeates society through and through. Look at the nature of American capitalism; swim with the sharks without being eaten alive. Competitive , hard sports like football are most popular. Competition and competitiveness is seen as a virtue.
Throughout the nineties, we shouted ourselves hoarse about the shit that Pakistan was launching at us from behind their lines. Who listened? No-one. But, after 9-11, and after a decade and a half of fast economic growth, being spoken of as a rising superpower became normal. And THEN the Americans listened. And then came the nuclear deal.
Today the Pakis want peace with us. Why? Because of what Buddha preached 2000 years back? Because of MK Gandhi?
No. Its because our economy is beating theirs hollow, and they realize that peace will allow them to better trade with us and cooperate economically. We are their closest neighbour. who is being spoken of as a future superpower, because of the size of its economy (third largest in PPP terms).
They never showed this love for us throughout the nineties and the eighties. In the sixties you had the lovely Nehru, who was a brilliant academic with a lot of moral standing in the world. His greatest contribution to India is parliamentary democracy. That’s it. He also presided over the mental masturbation that was the loss of half of Kashmir, article 356, and a loss of a war with China, and socialist policies, that, to him, placed him half-way between the capitalistic west and the communist east.
How many lives have been lost because of his economic effeteness? How many farmers that committed suicide? How many people that could have better lived their lives in another careers, that would have been possible were he to have opened up the economy in 1961, rather than Manmohan in 1991?

Manmohan is another example. An academic by nature. He is not a fighter. He is a thinker and a paper-writer. How good of a prime minister is he? How much time and life of his fellow Indian citizens’ is he wasting because of his economic policies and lack of action?
Do you think he would do better, if he had some “hard power” thinking in his head, rather than what he has now?
Human history is about self preservation by all efforts and purposes; tribes who forget this, do not exist any more.

After you have hard power (money, power, influence, arms) you can preach soft power. Speak softly but carry a big stick.


But get the hard power first. There is no way around it. Everyone risks being marginalized, once they have the soft power and strong words, without the strength, the hard power to back it up.

[durvasa]

+1 Mahadevbhu

Unfortunately, we meet the idealist soft-power projectors too often in Indian society & media. A soft power is like a nice coat of paint and beautiful furnishings on your house. Your guests will see and admire that. But we can't forget that it's the foundation, sturdy walls and roof that are going to save you, and those nice furnishings, from the violent nature elements and wild dogs around you. From visitors, admiring the coatings is expected and as owners of the house, we should rightfully bask in the glory of soft silken sheets draped around our house. But it will be tragic, and history has proven that again and again, when the residents of the house also start believing in the furnishings, ignoring the need for hard protection of steel, cement & mortar in the walls and a shotgun in the top drawer.

Eliminate your enemies without pity, don't shy away from complete Vanshnaash, and then provide a generous Marshal/Manmohan plan to the remanent, if any. And subsequently send your Yoga, Veena, Rakhi Sawants and non-violence ambassadors "We are peace onlee" to those bettered souls at no cost to them.

[nakul]

Hahahaha... Every post regarding soft power is blamed with claims that soft power is not a substitute for hard power. This is endemic to all military fora. When you can't see that the above posts have not said anything against hard power, any amount of proof will not be sufficient. I just want to say that hard power & soft power should exist side by side. Very often we see one stepping on others toes.

[Atri]

Hahahaha... Every post regarding soft power is blamed with claims that soft power is not a substitute for hard power. This is endemic to all military fora. When you can't see that the above posts have not said anything against hard power, any amount of proof will not be sufficient. I just want to say that hard power & soft power should exist side by side. Very often we see one stepping on others toes.

क्षमा, दया , ताप , त्याग , मनोबल सबका लिया सहारा
पर नर व्याघ सुयोधन तुमसे कहो कहाँ कब हारा?
क्षमाशील हो रिपु समक्ष तुम हुए विनीत जितना ही
दुष्ट कौरवों ने तुमको कायर समझा उतना ही

अत्याचार सहन करने का कुफल यही होता है
पौरुष का आतंक मनुज कोमल होकर खोता है
क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को जिसके पास गरल है
उसका क्या जो दंतहीन विषरहित विनीत सरल है

तीन दिवस तक पंथ मांगते रघुपति सिन्धु किनारे
बैठे पढते रहे छंद अनुनय के प्यारे प्यारे
उत्तर में जब एक नाद भी उठा नहीं सागर से
उठी अधीर धधक पौरुष की आग राम के शर से

सिन्धु देह धर त्राहि-त्राहि करता आ गिरा शरण में
चरण पूज दासता ग्रहण की बंधा मूढ़ बंधन में
सच पूछो तो शर में ही बस्ती है दीप्ति विनय की
संधिवचन संपूज्य उसीका जिसमे शक्ति विजय की

सहनशीलता, क्षमा, दया को तभी पूजता जग है
बल का दर्प चमकता उसके पीछे जब जगमग है

-राम धरी सिंह दिनकर

Mercy, resolve, tact, tolerance you've tried everything and some
But o my king of men when did Suyodhan succumb?
The more forgiving you were In your humane compassion
The more these rouge Kauravas pegged you as cowardly ashen

This is the consequence Of tolerating atrocities
The awe of machismo is lost When one's gentle n kindly
Forgiveness is becoming of The serpent that's got venom
None cares for the toothless, Poisonless, kind, gentle one

For three days Lord Raam kept Asking the ocean for a passage
Sitting there he petitioned Using the sweetest words to engage
When in response there was Not a whisper from the sea
A raging fire of endeavor Rose from Raam's body


The ocean took human-form 'N supplicated to Raam
Touched his feet, was subservient A slave he had become
Truth be told, it's in the quiver That lies the gleam of modesty
Only his peace-talk is reputable Who is capable of victory

Tolerance, forgiveness and clemency Are respected by the world
Only when the glow of strength From behind it is unfurled

Poet - Ramdhaari Singh "Dinkar"

[nakul]

No amount of hard power is going to stop internal rebellion from our own people. America does this by using its media to project itself as beacon of democracy. Its called the media battle. Without winning this, no amount of hard power is going to stop the missionaries from breaking India. You can see the (lack of) effect of soft power in Kudankulam.

Kashmir militancy has been controlled by hard power. It is still existent due to lack of soft power. We have miserably failed in combating mullah propoganda about Islam & its enemies. Afganistan has shown that hard power only works to a certain extent. Pakistan has been able to achieve some modicum of control due to its soft power. If Pakistan has beaten USA & Soviet Union in Afghanistan, it is certainly not due to its hard power.

Similarly, the country has been kept weak by showing us in poor light. If someone wants to know more, please visit the Psy Ops thread to see how the lack of soft power hurts us. China has all the hard power it needs but its miserably poor in soft power. We can't substitute one for the other. Even they are moving towards Confucian thought processes to exert their influence. You can't lay down a process without an agenda. The agenda is the soft power while the means to exert it is hard power.

While hard power is a good tool for external enemies, the internal ones have to be dealt with soft power. A nationalistic media is an essential tool to do so. While we have many military organistation, we sorely lack nationalistic research orgs. The likes of CFR, CNN, MIT project soft power for USA. We need such icons for India as well.

[member_20292]

^^ Nice poem Atri. Thanks a lot. Durvasa too.

Nakul.

Our borders are not safe without hard power. Our Delhi Metro is not safe without the thousands of guards manning the gates.

Once hard power is taken care of, soft power can blossom.

Ever heard of a society that thrives, produces spirituality , music, art and other fine things (soft power) on an empty stomach, and being on the run, persecuted by enemies?

[nakul]

This is like the argument that we should develop our space program only after we have built all toilets. Can't we do both simultaneously?

Hard power without soft power is like China. A beast without a sense of direction. We know that they are not doing their citizens a favor. A pilot once told his passengers "I have one good news and one bad news. The good news is the plane is working smoothly and we are travelling at proper speed. The bad news is we have lost our navigational system. We don't know where we are heading."

[member_20292]

^^^

sure, you're right.

[Atri]

Visit deracination thread, Nakul ji.. We have discussed this issue of staged decentralization of polity with strong center in few departments (defense and few others) and rest of power lying with the districts and village-groups.

Now is not the time. Once this last bastion of dharma is secured (talking about geography which ROI occupies) we can talk of beginning to implement decentralization. And this is not that far off in future. Have Dhairya, is what I would recommend..

[nakul]

Atri ji, I believe that decentralization is perhaps not the proper word. Grassroot level will be more appropriate in the current context. Whether the centre is strong or not, grassroot level has always been strong for us. That is what I am talking about. The grassroot level should remain delinked to the centre in a way that compromise of center does not affect grassroots. The center can source its strength from grassroots but grassroots should not depend on the center.

[devesh]

once again, I repeat, "decentralization" on issues of religious/spiritual matters is completely different from matters of physical defense of land and protection against hostile ideologies and armies.

defense against armies needs a solid center to direct the war.

defense against ideology, AT THE VERY LEAST, needs a SINGULARITY OF PURPOSE, for the defense to be fruitful. if different regions are trying to act in different ways, it is easy to break them one by one and occupy land. you cannot defend against an ideology like Islam if different regions have different agendas, and not all of them perceive (in that particular time) Islam as a threat. of course, they might perceive as such at a future time, but by then, the others who were fighting Islam before might have already perished. so, you see the dilemma. when fighting against Jihadi or rabid EJ ideology, you need a strategy which has the force to consistently galvanize different sections of your society to fight the enemy ideology.

[member_23629]

Indian Sinking
Aditya Sinha | Agency: DNA | Sunday, September 9, 2012

These days, I tell my kids to go, and not look back. My eldest is at university in the US and my son is preparing for admissions. Make your lives in America, I tell them. For the first time in a quarter century I’m pessimistic about India. In fact, 20 summers ago I visited the US and found its mood so negative and in such contrast to newly-liberalised India’s optimism that it seemed the two countries were on different trajectories; and I believed the choice to live in India was the right one.

What a fall from the "India Shining" mood of NDA days. Congi leeches have sucked India dry already.

[svinayak]

Indian Sinking
Aditya Sinha | Agency: DNA | Sunday, September 9, 2012

These days, I tell my kids to go, and not look back. My eldest is at university in the US and my son is preparing for admissions. Make your lives in America, I tell them. For the first time in a quarter century I’m pessimistic about India.

What a fall from the "India Shining" mood of NDA days. Congi leeches have sucked India dry already.

A short sighted view of a country which will go thru a generational change.

[nakul]

The last time such a thing happened, it was 1991. We know that the changes after that are still helping us. Its only when we are pushed to the wall, that major corrections are made. We are getting there soon...

[abhishek_sharma]

Views from the Right

Modi Maya

The 32 convictions, including that of BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, in the Naroda Patiya massacre case have agitated Sangh Parivar mouthpiece Organiser.

A special report in its latest issue calls the special court’s verdict “a flawed judgement, bad in law” and laments the “quantum of punishment unheard of, innocents convicted”. However, the report’s thrust is less on legal loopholes and it is more an attempt to reject Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s critics’ suggestion that the convictions “took place `despite’ the Modi government and not ‘because’ of the Modi government”. For this, the report highlights that total convictions in the post-Godhra riots have risen now to about 200, including 34 Muslims, in 18 cases so far, and contrasts this with convictions in the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, claiming that only 16 persons have been convicted in seven cases, even 28 years later.

In addition, given critics’ penchant for crediting the SIT, the report claims that 95 individuals had already been convicted even before the SIT was constituted and that convictions continue to happen even in non-SIT cases. It gives two examples. In the Naroda Patiya case itself, 21 of the 32 accused were arrested by the Gujarat police even before the SIT’s monitoring. In the Sardarpura case, the report points out that only two of the 21 arrested by the SIT were convicted, while the remaining 29 accused were arrested by the Gujarat police.

“Also, these convictions, whether with SIT or without SIT, are a world record,” says the Organiser report.

Session Washout

THE washout of the monsoon session of Parliament get prominent space in both the Sangh Parivar mouthpieces. While it was the BJP which stalled Parliament over the coal block allocations, the Parivar mouthpieces fault the Congress.

Panchjanya, in fact, put the blame at the prime minister’s doorstep saying that it was the “stubbornness” of the PM’s denial of “the biggest scam” since Independence that was solely responsible for the washout. Panchjanya praises the BJP-led NDA for not falling into the government’s “trap” to hold a discussion on the issue. “Discussion in Parliament is the easiest and most secure cover for the government against any attack from the opposition as it enjoys majority in Parliament,” it says, praising the BJP for presenting a united front against the establishment’s attempt to break NDA unity.

Educated by Terror

The arrest of 18 professionals from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nanded, suspected to be linked to a terror conspiracy, has got Panchjanya to raise the alarm. In a prominent article, Panchjanya expresses serious apprehensions about the infiltration of “Jihadi terror” into the minds of “young Muslim scientists, doctors and journalists”.

A full-page article on this issue also reminds readers of the alleged involvement of another journalist in the attack on an Israeli diplomat in Delhi, in order to attack the “religious organisations” pressuring the government to release those apprehended. The article suggests instead that religious organisations running their campaign for these “innocent” individuals should utilise their energy to enforce a “social boycott” of those linked to terror cases.

Compiled by Ravish Tiwari

[nawabs]

NCERT School survey ties primary scores to caste

http://in.news.yahoo.com/school-survey- ... 00171.html

An NCERT survey has found children from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes lagging behind in education at the primary school level amid a national debate on reservation in promotions for them.

The National Achievement Survey, conducted to evaluate the learning achievement of Class V students, found SC/ST students underperforming compared to general students .

Over a lakh students from 6,602 schools in 27 states and four Union Territories were tested. While 83 per cent of the schools were in rural areas, 70 per cent were run by the state governments.

Each student was asked 115 questions ' 40 from mathematics, 40 from environmental studies and 35 from language.

In all three subjects tested, children belonging to Scheduled Tribes were the least successful, with the SCs performing marginally better.

"A section of researchers argues a child is gifted with a certain amount of intelligence while another school says the child can accumulate intelligence provided he gets a supportive atmosphere. In India, the accumulation is not happening and is conditioned by caste in view of the pathetic living standards of SCs and STs," said Kancha Ilaiah, director of the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.

The environment, training and support of parents helps every child develop intelligence, the professor said, quoting researchers. But children from the SC/ST communities miss out on environmental and parental support, he said.

The NCERT study found that parents of two-thirds students were literate or had gone to primary or higher secondary school. The remaining one-third were farm labourers or street vendors. Children of educated parents fared better in the tests.

"Studies have established a connection between parents' education and a child's performance. In case of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the parents are not much educated either," Ilaiah said.

The accumulation of intelligence is also linked to nutrition, living standards and social status, he said.

Educationist Nargis Panchapakesan echoed him and attributed the poor performance of the SC and ST children to the poor socio-economic condition of these communities. "Children from a poor background also tend to underperform," she said.

The survey, conducted by NCERT with support from SSA-Technical Cooperation Funds (TCF), found nearly 30 per cent of students took private tuition. In Bengal, the proportion of students taking private tuition was the highest at 83 per cent.

A total of 10,851 teachers filled the Teacher Questionnaire which revealed that 63 per cent were graduates or post-graduates, 23 per cent had gone to higher secondary school while the rest had studied till the secondary level or lower.

In Chandigarh, about two-thirds of the teachers were post-graduates. In Gujarat, on the other hand, 54 per cent teachers were qualified only up to middle school.

Overall, 79 per cent were regular teachers and there were 12 per cent para teachers.

"The survey did not find any evidence to suggest the para teachers are helping children. Another trend is that students of better equipped schools perform better," said TCF team leader Jayshree Oza.

[RoyG]

Society should take care of educational needs. GoI should focus on opening up the economy.

[vasu raya]

The Gates foundation (I think) has a project of providing a laptop for every child, they would do better if they setup A/V equipment in schools with NCERT curriculum streaming nationwide similar to how UGC had lectures telecast in the earlier era. More channels (one for each grade + subject combo) would be needed now which should be feasible nowadays That way atleast the teaching standards are maintained across the board

School teachers in rural areas can play a secondary role which they do anyways; The A/V equipment can be projector and screen in each class room, power can be from rooftop solar arrays

Stage 2 is when this becomes interactive something on the lines of schools-only-twitter between a pool of teachers of caliber and students nationwide

C-DAC can provide tools for developing educational programs in regional languages, all this can tie with the Right to Education program (Bling Bling!)

[prahaar]

@Vasu Raya, there is a need for infrastructure before A/V equipment, curriculum streaming can happen. Robust network, reliable power supply, etc are an essential component before one can even think on those lines. One cannot give children holiday because there was a power cut.

The NCERT news study has one interesting tidbit, it is comparing Chandigarh statistics with Gujarat. If the idea was to show how far behind Gujarat is then it was a no-brainer, a fair comparison would be Gandhinagar versus Chandigarh.

[member_19686]

EJs upto their usual tricks again promising money for rice converts.

This is in samarlakota, pithapuram, pithapuram rural, kotthapalli, patthipadu in AP.

People behind this are Gisala Satyanandam & his son Srinivasulu.

Promise is 500 rs pension + free eye surgery and medicine.

The Swami countering this is Paripoornanda Saraswati.

[vasu raya]

@Prahaar, the roof top mounted solar panels can serve for say 5 years, and the GoI arm looking after the power sector can take that sweet time to lay power lines for rural areas; teachers can step in on rainy days

for a network, at the moment its one way with TV broadcast, its only when you want to make it interactive that you need a 2-way channel, for twitter kind of traffic, I think a cell phone with data connection should suffice, anyways numbers can be worked out and cell towers have proliferated as well