Article on the World Economic Reality

Author: R Vaidyanathan Posted: 21 Jun 2009 Source: www.expressbuzz.com

At every seminar on financial matters these days, there’s one question that lingers — even during the coffee breaks: will the economy recover, and when? And, it isn’t about the Indian economy but that of the US. I reiterate it will take at least 40 quarters — that’s a decade — for America to recover. I tell this, and am shunned — like a swine flu patient.

I still maintain the US is going the banana republic way what with a national debt of more than $10 trillion, which is more than 80 per cent of its national income. Not only that the budget deficit is skyrocketing; it’s expected to reach more than 10 per cent soon. Last year, the US financial regulatory agencies came up with plans of financial support worth $6.8 trillion — comprising temporary loans and liability and asset guarantees. And by the third end of the first quarter of 2009, the financial support programmes reached $13.9 trillion.

The federal deficit as percentage of GDP is now expected to reach more than 10 per cent. There will be furious printing of more treasury bills and notes. The expected inflation is going to rip apart the society and the largest selling item in the last quarter was handguns and rifles. Already intriguing reports have come about attempt to smuggle more than $134 billion in treasury bonds by two Japanese citizens through the Italian border into Switzerland. It could be a ploy by CIA or really a daredevil act by some foreign government to destabilise the global financial system. I am waiting for the creditrating agencies like S&P to downgrade the US economy like other developing countries and prove their independence from the sole superpower. High hopes. Angus Maddison in his pioneering work for OECD on the global GDP share for the last 2,000 years has brought out an interesting fact pertaining to India and China. As early as the 1820s, China (33%) along with India (16%) and other Asian countries had a share of more than 55 per cent in the global GDP. By the late 20th century, it has declined to 29 per cent. The China percentage slid to 12, India’s to 5.

In the next 20 years, India should plan to have a share of at least 30 per cent of the global GDP. These imply that India should be racing ahead. If India grows at 8 to 9 per cent in the coming decade, then it can become the world’s third or fourth superpower.
But it also implies that, parallely, the West should decline in terms of their importance in the share of global GDP and world affairs. Since the total is 100 per cent, any increased share for India and China would automatically reduce that of the other two.

Unlike the Great Depression of the 1920s, the current crisis for the West is not just an economic crisis. It has a dimension of demography and conflict (ongoing war with radical Islam) to it. Demographic, because Europe is slowly fading away from the global map. It used to have more than 20 per cent of the global population during the First World War, and now has less than 11 per cent. What’s more, it’s expected to shrink to three per cent in as many decades.
The reproductive rate in many European countries is less than 1.5, whereas the stable one is 2.1. In the case of US, the crisis is more severe due to its declining savings rate and a long-term tendency to nationalise families and privatise government.

Social security and Medicare system in US is classic case of nationalising families.
Such a declining Empire is dangerous to deal with. To start with, it does not want to accept the fact that it is a declining Empire. Plus, it wants to retain its sole power status when it realises that its writ does not any more hold good. It tries to bully India. Whenever a US official visits India, the beards in J&K become more active. Remember Robin Raphael of the nineties vintage who propped up the Hurriyat Conference? India recalls with anger the role Robin Raphael played during the Presidency of Bill Clinton in encouraging the formation of Hurriyat Conference, the umbrella organisation of moderate terrorists and terrorised moderates. Her only name to fame was she studied together with Clinton. When Hillary comes to India, the level of violence in J&K will increase. I wish someone in foreign office in India plots the correlation between visits of US officials and mob frenzy in the downtown Srinagar.

The declining empire realises that its elbowroom is becoming lesser and lesser with the Pakistan army that owns and controls a country. Islamabad always has a peculiar way of coming to discussion on any issue.

They keep a gun on their own head and argue with others. That is, they always threaten others with catastrophe if money is not given to them. This is the most sophisticated begging anywhere you can see in international relations. Bribing them won’t stop the plotters against the “US Satan”.
The next thing the declining empire does is to cringe and appease. The speech by Obama in Cairo is of that variety. He ascribed every human scientific endeavor to Islamic civilisation. Forget the Hindus who invented zero, forget Ptolemy and forget Copernicus. Just rewrite history. The third thing a declining power does is to pressure others to sacrifice on its behalf to buy peace with bullies. It cannot deal with radical Islam and if the ISI (that is what is critical — not the ten per cent Zardari) needs to be appeased with a piece of J&K, then the US will try to arm-twist India.
Herein comes our ability to understand declining powers.

We must internalise that US is a declining power and our bureaucrats must chant it hundred eight times on a daily basis. We should also remember that USA is very uncomfortable in dealing with democracies. It’s natural ally is always a dictatorship since they can be “use and throw” friendships. Dealing with democracies is messy since they talk about a domestic constituency and behave similar to USA. A mirror image of itself is unacceptable to “sole super power”. As India continues to grow at more than 8 per cent — and simply due to the power of compounding emerges as a major power — the desperation of the declining power will be more since our terrorist neighbour who has a the largest begging bowl and highest per-capita AK-47s will blackmail the declining power to appease him to keep peace.

What is in Indian interest is the continuation of civil war in Pakistan for, say, another ten to twenty years — ambient conflict — sort of auto-cannibalism which will be a dynamic disequilibria — situation. Other option is to have at least three or so states created out of that entity. The concept of stable Pakistan is passé and a mirage and that should be unequivocally communicated to the declining empire. Remember the last century. The declining British Empire — now it is the sick child of Europe but still with a grand illusion of influencing Indian sub-continent — created havoc by partitioning the land. The current declining empire may be tempted to do something rash to protect itself. And therein lays the challenge for our political leadership and mandarins. Dealing with a declining empire is more difficult than dealing with a stable empire.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3396388,flstry-1.cms   

Tarun Vijay

This column appears on the eve of the birthday of Krishna, son of Devaki. At the time of his birth, his parents were put behind bars by the King fearing death at the hands of their son, as the gods had prophesied. For Devaki and Vasudev, Krishna’s father, there was no hope, no chance of getting help from any close friend or relative or the awakened citizens of Vrindavan and Mathura- everyone was terror struck, feared for his life in the kingdom of Kamsa, Devaki’s brother.

Yet, Krishna survived. Kamsa was killed. Citizens were provided protection and safety. Kaliya, the great serpent king was humbled and made to respect people who lived on the banks of Yamuna. Krishna fought wars but before every action he tried his best to persuade the wrong doer. When he found the evil empire unrepentant, he simply annihilated the entire clan. Forever. He restored Dharma, the righteousness.

He became an emperor par excellence, he performed divine dance with Gopikas and had his famous Ras Lilas, yet the only Krishna that makes relevance today is the one who used his Sudarshan Chakra , the celestial weapon to re-establish righteousness and overpower the terrorists, deleting their remnants from the earth. He was our ancestor and we are the rightful inheritors of his legacy.

And how!!

Instead of warning and annihilating the demons and terrorists ruthlessly, we are suggesting giving them what they want whole of Kashmir-to buy a peace that will never come to us this way. No body respects a coward and his peace making exercises. Even barbaric Jihadis would respect the words of a brave unyielding challenger and not the phony writers and journalists who would insult their tricolor for a piece of story or fame as a peacemaker pen pusher. We compromised to divide our motherland to buy peace- what we got in return were four wars and death of more than sixty thousand brave young soldiers.

You give Kashmir today for peace, they will demand Haryana and Himachal next and Delhi another day.

Ask the wife and the mother of a martyred soldier who fought the war for Kashmir? Did they do it for money? Ask those Kashmiri Hindus who were an inseparable part of Kashmir’s being but were hounded out by Muslim Jihadis just because their women wore Bindis and men chanted Shiva mantras? Now give this Kashmir to the assaulters? A woman raped is being asked to go back to the rapists because they won’t live without her?

Now read this carefully.

“The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been and shall be an integral part of India and any attempts to separate it from the rest of the country will be resisted by all necessary means.

“India has the will and capacity to firmly counter all designs against its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity and demands that Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir which they have occupied through aggression.”

The Indian Parliament passed this resolution unanimously on 22nd February 1994. Before presenting it in the house, the speaker said -’Each word and sentence of this resolution has been seriously considered by the government and the leaders of the opposition parties.’

Every party endorsed and passed this. Was that a facade?

Now every word of this resolution is sought to be turned into a joke, a meaningless exercise of some foolish people who pass resolutions just to pass time and earn their allowances.

Some of the Indian journalists and writers who earn name and fame and money for their being an Indian have chosen to advice to ‘liberate’ Kashmir and not to force Indian ‘colonialism’ on a people who do not want to be recognized as Indians. It sounds damn good if read in New York and Rome. But what about those who are Kashmiris and patriots and want to live with India? Who still have land and homes in the valley? And they are Muslims too. Who are the ‘people’ these worthies have recognized as those who do not want to live with India? Jihadis? Those blood thirsty anti Indians who have been fed on Pakistani money and propaganda to hate Hindus and India and burn tri-colours to make this region a Nizam-e Mustafa , only for the Muslims so that they can share the booty? Like they have been fighting over the question of leadership with each other presently? Mir Waizs and Geelanis and Butts and Muftis and Abdullah’s- not a single so-called Muslim leader of the valley, supporting separatism is at peace with another Muslim ‘brother in arms’. And now as NSA Narayanan has hinted the separatist leader’s murder during a march to Mujaffarabad was a result of an internal clash. But sitting in Delhi and enjoying suspicious hospitalities make some writers to write the junk against the very tricolor that defines their identity on this planet.

The timing and synchronizing of ‘Azadi to Kashmir’ views is significant. All of them belong to one family of hating anything done by the nationalist activists. The profligacy they have exercised is quite understandable in times like these when India is being ruled under a dispensation that favours western ideas and policies for domestic governance. Amarnath agitation has already taken an unprecedented shape, which they had never visualized. In such a situation, the suggestion to ‘liberate’ Kashmir has been put forward to demonize Hindus and strengthen the anti- national Islamist agitation in the valley, by those who wield a considerable influence in media and are not Muslims.

If ‘liberate’ Kashmir chorus is a spontaneous reaction to the demonstrations being held in the valley, why was the massive upsurge of the patriotic people in Jammu not considered at an equal weight and columns written to listen to the voice of India? Why the tricolor people of Jammu are discarded and ignored as a worthless opinion and all hearts go to listen to the foul cries of separatism? And the secularism of such voices gets quite evident when valley newspapers put on headline like these-’Geelani says- Islam and Pakistan central to Kashmir movement’ (Kashmir Times, 19th August, 2008).

Those who wont give an inch of their south Delhi -Gurgaon apartments to the neighbor are vexing eloquent to give away Kashmir to blood thirsty terrorists. What is the reason behind the separatism of the valley Muslims? Economic or religious? Economic reasons can be sorted out in a different manner, if they feel they have been deprived of opportunities and financial grants. Surely once in the planning commission’s board room, they would discover that the rest of India has genuinely taken less than what it gave to the valley.

Now after 1947, this has become another flashpoint of division just on the basis of religion. We are Muslims, we can’t live with a Hindu India, was the war cry of Jinnah’s hordes pre ‘47. It was followed by direct action, Calcutta killings, green flags and finally Gandhi, the Hindu Vaishnav yielded and said, ok, take Pakistan but let’s live in peace.

We compromised, our ahimsa was taken as cowardice and we got wars, immediately we had the land partitioned.

Now again, some wizards have tried to create an atmosphere to allow Kashmir’s secession for peace. Do they understand it won’t end at just Kashmir, but trigger off an avalanche of demands for separate nations from the east to south and later in the west too?

Accept NSCN’s demand to have a separate Nagalim ? And ULA’s Assam nation? Manipur wants a separate nation too as they claim they didn’t celebrate 15th August 1947 as their independence day. Should we tell them to shut up because till now no senior journalist has recommended their freedom? We have a dozen flashpoints waiting to secede and declare freedom. Tamil nation and a Maoist corridor joining Nepal’s Reds? There is a fantastic map on the internet declaring a Mugalistan , a complete green Muslim land beginning from Pakistan, including Kashmir and UP’s border areas, having already gobbled up Ladakh and Himachal and Uttarakhand and reaching till Assam. One would have just laughed it away if the present valley agitation hasn’t ignited treacherously innocent suggestions by writers whom you can’t ignore. It takes time to get bad things precipitate enough.

Assam is already in the grip of Bangladeshi Muslims. Whatever you say of secularism or rising above religious fault lines, the truth of the matter is Kashmir is a communal cauldron and so is Assam. It’s simply a Hindu Muslim issue, you can ignore only at the cost of national integration. They are fed on political expediencies. Like in Assam the IMDT act was helping foreign infiltrators yet government at the centre didn’t revoke it till Supreme Court ruled against it and in spite of that the act was re introduced from the back door.

In Kashmir the people were never allowed to feel as Indians by introducing a separate constitutional provision under article 370 so how can you expect them to behave as Indians?

Delhi’s media sultans feel sun will not rise without their approval. They can enjoy the fizz of their arrogance, but the sun rises on its own and maintains its temperature too. I am filing this column from Jammu where people are showing the Indian way of patriotism to the valley. Every street and road is empty unless there is a demonstration. Traders have shuttered down their shops continuously for more than a month. Small entrepreneurs, auto rickshaw drivers, labourers are all off the work. Schools have not opened since last three months as immediately at the fag end of summer vacations the Amarnath Movement began. Banks are closed, sms’s are prohibited, no public transport is available, it’s an unimaginable nightmare during any emergency. But who cares?

To feed the citizens city is having free meals (langars) organized at more than fifty points where at an average one lakh people take meals twice a day costing ten lakh rupees per day. Every house hold is giving donations to run such langars without complaint.

But strangely enough, the divide we see between valley and Jammu is reflected between media of Jammu and Delhi too. What Jammu’s mainline papers are reporting doesn’t get reflected in Delhi’s papers and channels who have become self appointed guardians of secularism and peace of their own variety and think if they suppress the factual position on Jammu, peace will be restored soon and communalism will not spread. So when the patriots agitate, its communalism and needs to be suppressed. But when Pakistani flags are hoisted atop Lal Chowk and tricolor burnt amidst chants of Allah O Akbar and Pakistan Paindabad, it has to be reported ‘objectively’ and with full focus so that the sentiments of separatists are not hurt or suppressed! Strange media ethics these seculars follow.

What son of Devaki won’t have tolerated is being allowed by his followers. Isn’t it the time to revive his spirit of Geeta and win a war of righteousness? The body alone perishes; the spirit remains immortal, so why fear O Arjuna?
Post script:

Jammu is feeling the heat of Delhi’s attitude to ignore its demands and term the entire movement as a political one. A Congress leader equated Jammu’s patriotic agitation with the Hurriyat, that demands secession. Home Ministry thinks it can use the Chinese method to fatigue the movement by procrastination and prolonging talks and make these people bend on their knees. This approach is further fueling the fire and will ultimately result in people using more violent methods to have their voice heard. The frustration and fierce angst is to be seen and believed, sitting in Delhi doesn’t give even an iota of the truth that’s Jammu today. A senior columnist in Jammu gave me a table of figures detailing how Jammu had been treated unfairly all these years and still people never agitated. So, why have we been dust binned? He asks - Just because we remained patriotic and peaceful? Suppose we demand a separate Jammu nation and hold a secessionist flag, won’t the entire media and government come to listen to us and accept our demands the way they appease valley’s Muslims-? This was a dangerous question posed to me by an agitated software engineer in Raghunath Pura.

Here are a couple of statistics that prove his point -

By Deepak Dasgupta

The patriots took inspiration from Gita, followed the path shown by the Lord and plunged in to the freedom movement and vowed to free the Dharti Mata from the chain of sufferings.

Recently a controversy has arisen out of a judgement given by the Allahabad High Court judge, justice S.N. Srivastava while giving a verdict on a writ petition filed on behalf of Gopal Thakur Mandir of Varanasi. While giving the ruling on the writ petition, justice Srivastava said, ” Gita is a dharma shastra of India and it may be considered as the National Religious Book or “Rashtriya dharma shastra”. According to him, since we have a recognised national flag and a national anthem, we should have a rashtriya dharma shastra and Srimad Bhagvad Gita can only take its place. In support of his argument he said, “The Gita inspired our national struggle of freedom and all walks of our life.” He quoted Article 51-A of Indian constitution and added in his order that “It is the duty of every citizen of India, irrespective of caste, creed or religion to follow the dharma propounded by the Bhagvad Gita.”

Before making any comment on his verdict, let us know, What does Article 51-A of our constitution describe?

It mentions about fundamental duties of every citizen of India ; to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspires the national struggle for freedom; to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India; to value and preserve the rich heritage of the composite culture; to have compassion for living creatures and to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavor and achievement etc.

Now let us see how far Gita complies with the main theme of Article 51-A of our constitution. There is no doubt that Gita had great role to inspire the national leaders to move for struggle for Independence. It was the source of inspiration to the struggling masses who sacrificed their lives in the name of our country. National leaders like Rishi Arobindo, Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Shahid Bhagat Singh, Vir Savarkar and a band of young Indians took Gita in their hands and jumped on to the freedom movement and strirred the British imperialism till the foreign rulers left our soil.

The patriots took inspiration from Gita, followed the path shown by the Lord and plunged in to the freedom movement and vowed to free the Dharti Mata from the chain of sufferings. The popular guideline says, “Wherever there is Krishna, there is the righteousness and wherever there is righteousness, there is victory (Jatha Krishna tatha Dharma, jatha Dharma tatha jay)”.

Now the question is that what are the other factors and noble ideas lying in the Gita which can inspire us to become perfect human being and achieve the best of our Selfhood? Let us discuss them one by one:-

Srimad Bhagvad Gita or simply Gita explains to us what is right and what is wrong; what is justice and what is injustice and all other factors of Dharma by virtue of which ordinary men can be Godmen (Amritasya Putra). Gita is the Yoga Shastra or the scripture of communion. Yoga teaches us about union with the supreme God or Parambrahma and according to our spiritual belief, Krishna is the supreme God.

Lord Krishna taught us through Gita how can we overcome the earthly sufferings, elevate ourselves from the hallucinations or illusions (Maya), achieve the best qualities of human life and attain the eternal bliss.

Gita teaches us about Karma yoga (principle of action) and Jnana yoga (principle of knowledge) and gives a common formula to everybody (6/5) - which means that one should uplift himself by one’s own self; let him not degrade himself, the self (Atma) alone is the enemy of the Self (Gita 6/5). In other words it is said that we can be our best friends and we can be our worst enemies.

But how we can be our best friends? Gita tells us the mystery of achieving it.

First, we shall have to be true yogi, that is, a person who is united with the God in all respects, pure in heart, master of his self, has controlled his senses, whose self has become the self of all beings, is not attached though engaged in work (Gita 5 / 7).

In Karma yoga, God never tells us to give up doing work. Because, as soon the cult or tradition of doing work will cease, the creation will be destroyed. In (Gita 3/22) Karma Yoga, God says that He has nothing to do, nor to achieve anything in this universe, still He does his job, otherwise the rhythm of creation will be disturbed. If people follow the inactive God, they will cease doing any work and as a result, there will be destruction all over. Therefore, God also does his work.

This is, of course, a very pragmatic approach for creation of new avenues in the domain of human being or to say in the universe.

Gita is the Upanishad, a highest form of philosophy established on Jnana Yoga.

In Gita (Ch. 14), there is the very interesting Doctrine of Triguna or Tri-Virtue Theory. Virtues are—Satta, Raja and Tama. Human nature, their food, living style, actions and everything have been classified according to the Triguna doctrine. Lord Krishna gave us the new definition of caste system based on Triguna. According to this theory, there are only four castes—Brahmin, Khatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. When there is maximum Satta virtue in a person and less of others, he is a Brahmin; when Raja is more in a person and less of others, he is a Khatriya; when there is the combination of Raja and Tama, he is a Vaisya and when there is more of Tama in a person, he is a Sudra. By
birth, we are all Sudra but our motto should be to become Brahmins. The popular version says, “Janmana jayate Sudra, sanskarat Dwija uchyate” which means that everybody takes birth as Sudra , but by virtue of teachings and reforms, can become Brahmin. That means, the son of Brahmin may not be Brahmin or the son of Khatriya may not be Khatriya etc. The caste system based on Gita does not give approval of hereditary or traditional norms of caste classification.

Sudra can be elevated to Vaisya, Vaisya can be elevated to Khatriya and Khatriya can be elevated to Brahmin and they are interchangeable. For example, Rishi Viswamitra was born in a family of Khatriya but he could become a good Brahmin, whereas though born of Brahmin parents, Dronacharya took the profession of a Khatriya .

Similarly, Satyakam was born as a Sudra but he could prove himself to be a perfect Brahmin. Swami Vivekananda advocated that everybody should try to become perfect Brahmin not by religion but by virtue. There is similar mention in the Buddhist scripture, Dhammapada.
According to Gita (14/18) persons with Satta Guna abodes to the upper berth above the heaven, Rajas rest at heaven or below to it, and Tamas at hell or below it.

Division of caste on the basis of Triguna or Tri-virtues is very progressive system to build a true secular society. Not only Hindus, but Christians, Muslims, Sikhs-all can be classified as Brahmin, Khatriya, Vaisya and Sudra.

In Gita, God said not to be confined within the cult of Triguna, but one needs to transcend Triguna and to rise above the domain of Triguna, to become a free man untouched by the influence of three virtues or Triguna. Trigunateet persons, who have superseded the reign of Triguna, get their berth with the supreme lord at the Vaikunthalok. This is, of course, very difficult task but possible if he is successful in establishing his union with the supreme God. But how?

Gita is the best guideline for him. For that, God has set the conception of Sthitapragyan, where the mind and soul are full of bliss, free from any bondage and devoid of any ego.

In this stage, (Gita 2/70) it is described that while in the stage of Sthitapragyan, he gets only peace and has no desires, in him all desires enter like waters into the sea, which is motionless though ever being filled.

In Gita, there are universal teachings. For example, in Gita (2/66), it is said that without balance of mind, there is neither intelligence nor concentration; without concentration, no peace can be achieved and without peace, how can there be happiness?

In Gita, there is commitment of forgiveness by the God. He commits to his devotees saying that once they surrender to the will of God, they will be forgiven of their sins.

Of course, after getting the grace of God, no one can commit any sin.(Gita 18/66)

There is great hope for us when God says, “He, who thinks for the welfare of the others, can never fall into misery” Gita (6/ 40). Gita also recommends about the welfare of the society.

There is spirit of socialism in Gita. God declares that who cooks for himself only and does not think for others, he is selfish and eats only the sin and not the food. (3/13), he should be punished.

In this version of Gita, there is the reflection of fraternity, extension of love to others, sharing of well and woe to others and joining hands to a greater society.

The spirit of socialism and welfare moved Mahatma Gandhi. He always kept this sacred book with him, German philosophers Maxmuller and Sophenhour, the British philosopher Bertrand Russel and the American scientist-philosopher Einstien were fans of Gita. According to them, it is the unique book on this earth ever composed. According to the veteran philosopher Ralph Waldo Trine, Gita is the book of philosophy which has explained the finer qualities of human being and the complete logical base by means of which one can attain the eternal peace of sublimation. Alfred B. Nobel, when discovered the fatal Dynamite and saw the extent of destruction caused by it, he was very worried. At that time he got a copy of the English version of the Gita, read it thoroughly for several times and commented saying that he would not have discovered the TNT Dynamite, if he had gone through the Gita earlier. Later on, he founded the Nobel prize to promote peace.

At the end of Gita, we get Bhakti Yoga, where there is mention of the devotion to God and the complete surrender of the devotee to the will of God, when he says,”Karisye Bachanang Taba” (Gita 18/ 73)

In exchange (Gita 9/31), God says, “My devotees are never ruined, I protect them from all dangers.” Devotion is the last word of Godhood. Ordinary man can be Godman or son of God when he becomes God’s beloved one. At this stage of passion, emotion and love for God, the two are virtually identified as one, the devotee losses all earthly attachments and enjoys the spiritual ecstasy. In him, there is no ego, no anger, no jealousy and no stir. Everything is full of eternal bliss and divinity. He cannot hate others, cannot speak ill of others, cannot think bad of others and he sees everything alike.

Historical Myth:
Gita is not only a holy book meant only for a particular sect or community but it is the universal sacred book. Anybody, irrespective of caste, creed or religion can follow the teachings of Gita and elevate himself into a nobleman.

Gita was not written even for the Hindus—Gita was uttered by the Vedic or Sanatani God Sri Krishna. At that time, there was no religion in the name of Hindu. There was Vedic religion and the scripture was the Veda, propounded by the Aryan sages. Lord Krishna invoked Gita three thousand years B.C. when there was neither Hindu, nor Christian, nor Muslim, nor any other sect. The Vedic Aryans used to worship Rama, Krishna and other incarnations of Lord Vishnu and His other two of the trio forms, that is, Lord Brahma and Lord Maheswara. Krishna who himself was Vishnu or Narayana took birth as human being. He, himself is the supreme God who came down to earth for our salvation.

By the by, at around 300 B.C., emperor Alexander of Greece invaded north India. His soldiers could not utter the name `Sind’, the river of north India. They used to call it as `Hind’ and the Aryan residents of either side of Sind river were called as Hindu. Later on, by the process of Aryanisation throughout the Indian sub-continent and elsewhere, we became identified as Hindu. In the later years came Christian, Muslim, Sikh and other religions.

Gita is not only the holy book for the Hindus, it can be followed by any person belonging to any caste, creed or religion. Gita preaches the noble lessons to us. It is the man making scripture by which one can attain peace and happiness. Gita teaches us to love all and not to hate others. It also teaches us to achieve the power of patience and tolerance. The love as recommended in Gita is extended to entire human society and to all creatures.

From Gita only, we can find the universal formula to establish global peace.

(The writer can be contacted at 16/23, W.E.A, 1st Floor, Karol Bagh, New Delhi -110005.)

The recent fuss about alleged “Hindu terrorists” has entertained me hugely because all the usual suspects played their expected roles to perfection. The pseudo-secular media had a field day insinuating that Hindu terrorism is as major a problem in India as is Mohammedan and Christist terrorism. The UPA forgot its axiom that “terrorism has no religion”, and joyously crowed about “Hindu terrorists”. The BJP was apoplectic in its attempts to distance itself from the alleged “Hindu terrorists”.

Meanwhile, some actual – not imagined — terrorism activity has been going on in Kerala, where at least 300 people have been recruited by Mohammedan fundamentalists to wage war on the Indian State. Newspaper reports suggest that at least 96 young men from Kerala, who were given military training by SIMI, are at large. 16 of them are in Kashmir, the others in Bangalore or Kerala, according to Intelligence Bureau reports. Apparently there are special instructions in Malayalam in SIMI jungle camps held all over the country, for the poor dears are not so proficient in Urdu/Arabic.

These young men were dispatched to Kashmir with simple instructions: kill Indian soldiers and facilitate infiltration by the Pakistanis. Terrorism has now become just a job. So much so that so-called “spiritual advisers” (“paymaster” may be a more accurate designation) are out there recruiting known gangsters, converting them and sending them off to Kashmir. A particular gang of Christist criminals in Cochin has apparently supplied several converts who made the trek to Kashmir: including one Verghese aka Yasin who took a bullet in his head from the Indian Army and had to be identified from his fingerprints.

All this is ironic: Kerala has long been a supplier of manpower and womanpower – first it was the clerks and petty shopkeepers all over India, as well as a lot of soldiers; then it has been nurses, next construction labor and professionals for the Persian Gulf and America, and most recently, Christist padres and nuns for the conversion industry and as gastarbeiter for the shrinking seminaries of Europe.
I guess it is but a small step to terrorism as a profession. As Adi Sankara said in a slightly different context some centuries ago, “udara nimittam bahu krta vesham” (one wears various roles to satisfy that despotic stomach). It is said that in parts of Malabar, the UAE di rham, the Saudi riyal, and the US dollar are almost as much legal tender as the Indian rupee: there is so much of that stuff floating around. Not to speak of absolutely authentic-looking Pakistani-made Indian rupee notes. A while ago, an entire ocean-going container full of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 counterfeit notes – from Pakistan with love via Dubai – was intercepted in Kerala. That is a boatload of money, indeed.

And then there’s the news about serial blasts in Manipur and – as I write this – in Assam, that have killed large numbers of innocent people. There are all the other blasts – there have been so many we begin to lose count – in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, etc. etc. etc. – where the perpetrators unambiguously let it be known that they were Mohammedans inflamed by religious fundamentalism and jihad.
Christist terrorists have been running rampant in the Northeast for some time: their modus operandi is a little different – they prefer the AK-47 and they generally target specific individuals.

They have ethnically-cleansed 45,000 Reang tribals from Mizoram for refusing to convert; they shot respected litterateur and patriot, Bineshwar Brahma in Guwahati; they shot Hindu priest Shanti Tripura in his own temple; and most recently, they shot Swami Lakshmananda in Orissa (let’s not kid around about this: eve n the alleged Communist terrorist who was trotted out, suitably incognito, on TV to exonerate Christists admitted that most of his flock were Christists).

Not to mention that almost the entire top echelon of the dreaded Tamil Tigers are Christists, and the non-Christists mysteriously suffer “accidents” or are captured by the Sri Lankan Army or “commit suicide”. Velupillai Prabhakaran, Anton Balasingham, et al are all Christists. So was Dhanu, the suicide bomber who blew up Rajiv Nehru Gandhi. There is reason to believe that the so-called Maoists in Nepal are also crypto-Christists, especially some of their top brass.

Of course, none of this qualifies for the “religious terrorism” moniker as far as the lovely English-Language Media and the UPA are concerned. Their sound and fury is reserved for some poor Hindu nun who is, by the power of “truth by repeated assertion”, subjected to an electronic lynch, deemed a terrorist and subjected to tejovadham. This is to be expected, as the ELM and the pseudo-seculars in India have a sworn duty: that of cultural extinction of the native civilization of this country. Once you understand this axiom, their baffling acts are self-consistent in a certain bizarre frame of reference.
Whether the pseudo-seculars do this for money, or they have been brainwas hed by the predatory State, is not entirely clear. But then it doesn’t matter, does it, since the end result is the same?

And this deliberate use of nomenclature terrorism – the use of insinuation to demonize and to create defensiveness – is a purely Goebbelsian propaganda tactic.

I tried a little experiment on the pseudo-seculars some years ago by returning the favor. I started referring to their ideology as Nehruvian Stalinism. Their immediate knee-jerk reaction was to label me a Hindu fundamentalist, Hindu fascist etc. Which I was prepared for: I told them, fine, maybe I am all that, but you, you are Nehruvian Stalinists.
I got the reaction I expected: when the tables were turned, the pseudo-seculars did exactly what they expect others to do under their attacks. They got defensive, they labored to explain why they were not Stalinists, and how different Nehru was from Stalin. They grew increasingly exasperated as I kept insisting that Nehru was a lot like Stalin: the personality cult, the imperiousness, the purges, the heavy-industry fetish, etc., and how Jawaharlal was merely a little less effective in his ruthlessness.

Happily, I got a few pseudo-seculars into an absolute tizzy denying these allegations; they practically foamed at the mouth. I had succeeded 0 I had got them to play on my terms, on the playing field I defined; instead of protesting that I was not a fascist, I had changed the terms of reference and forced them to defend their cherished shibboleths. It was good to watch them squirm.

That, I submit, is the way to play this game. Hindus should not bother to try and prove that they are not terrorists. We should say “Yes, there must be Hindu terrorists, just like you guys are Communist terrorists, or Christist terrorists, or Mohammedan terrorists. Any questions?” If they continue to blather, one might hint darkly of caches of AK-47s and RDX.

It is evident that the pseudo-seculars are cowards and bullies, and this will shut them up. Only, gentle reader, I suggest you be careful in your choice of words, just in case somebody has a hidden camera– make veiled threats, where you cannot be pinned down to anything specific. And occasionally mutter knowingly about some atrocity perpetrated by the Christist or Communist or Mohammedan terrorists, and insinuate that you have certain “friends” and you know where the pseudo-seculars live. You know, the kind of thing the Mafioso say in those gangster movies.

Nomenclature terrorism is a game two can play, and the sinister Nehruvian Stalinists can be – as in the quaint phrase they use – hoist on their own petard.