Religious frenzy and fanaticism are the prerogatives of the Indian Minorities! There is this small State of Kerala which has a history of a very peaceful and harmonious co-existence of different religions, tolerance and accommodation of various religious customs and traditions. The Malayali Muslim is known in the local language as Moplah (a term for brother-in-law) probably because the people from distant lands established themselves in Kerals as brothers-in-law by marrying the sisters of the locals! A well known ex-captain of the Pakistani cricket team once (jokingly) said that, the Moghuls established themselves in the Gangetic plains because the women of the region liked to be screwed by the invading Pathans! Probably the coastal women of Kerala also welcomed the trading Arabs who gradually became Moplahs. The Moplahs were treated with respect by the locals and they flourished in trading and other business with the full support of the Hindus of the region. But in their revolt against the British during the Khilafat movement (in support of the Caliph of Turkey) they went on a murderous spree of killing Hindu women and children of Malabar, which is termed as the Moplah mutiny of Malabar. Is there a crisis of identity? Being the pet minority of the country, the Government of India has wrongly given the Mutiny the status of freedom struggle against the British!

Identity! That is the problem created by the religious fervor. The Moplah women of Kerala never wore burkha until about 15-20 years ago. But today a majority of women wear full black burkhas in Malabar region of Kerala. Many Moplahs of Kerala have become rich in the recent past from employment in Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia, where Muslims get preference for jobs and they have bought land belonging to Hindus and built palatial bungalows all over Malabar and other places. With the new found wealth the Moplahs are buying properties even in distant locations like in Trivandrum where their numbers are few. Wealth has also brought political power for them and now they want a separate state!

Years ago, a Times of India columnist had predicted that the new found wealth and identity problem of the Moplahs would one day lead to such demands which have disastrous outcome in the end.

Independence from identity; that is what free Indians should strive for. Transcend all limiting identities and become world citizens. If he were still alive Mahatma Gandhi would have strived for that, because human beings are all the time striving for a higher state of consciousness, knowingly or unknowingly.

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In India too we discriminate on many counts. Apart from colour, we have religions, casts and creeds, professions, gender, class, language and region etc to discriminate and divide people. Following the Vedas, Upanishads etc, the Hindu thought is the most egalitarian and universal of religions of the world but extreme types of discriminations were practiced by the Hindu Society, some of which are prevalent even today! Over a period of many years Hindus have discarded many of these prejudices and a majority of people who profess to be Hindus do not even know that many such prejudices existed till some 30 or 40 years ago. Discarding prejudices are part of growing and progress, transcending from a lower state of consciousness to higher. Well that is a different topic altogether!

Take for example the recent experience of a film personality of the “minority” community! He could not get an apartment in Mumbai in a building of his choice because he happens to be a Muslim! The entire media see it as a terrible case of discrimination. It is a rejection of the man’s fundamental rights as written down in the Indian Constitution. Wow!! But is it something new? This unwritten rule, denying membership in Housing Societies for some communities, is in existence in Mumbai from time immemorial. So the man has gone to the court to demand his rights by the constitution. Well, well! Is that something everyone would do? Is it uncommon for birds of the same feather to flock together and not allow other birds to cohabit in the same nest? If forty-nine out of fifty members in a society do not want you to be living in their midsts, why the hell do you want to live with them? I lived in Mumbai for 40 years and there were no Muslims in our building. Next to our building there was one where no Hindus lived. Whether it was due to some pressure or due to free choice, I never enquired and we used to intermingle without restraint. In fact, during the communal riots of 1992 in Mumbai the Hindu residents of our building went out of their way to protect the Muslims living in the adjacent building. There never seemed to be any problem for any one. Now there is the question of the rights of one man as against the rights of so many others. Are there no Societies where Hindus are not allowed? There are of course societies where Non-vegetarians are not allowed. Is that also aimed at bashing the minorities?

All over the world minority groups live together for various reasons, including safety. In Trivandrum where I grew up, there are three or four localities where only Brahmins live. No one from other communities would be allowed to live there. Their life styles and food habits are all different from the others and therefore they prefer to stick together, neither any one from other communities would want to be in their midst!! I do not know why anyone would want to go and live there asserting his right to be there? A Christian friend of mine put in all his savings and some borrowed funds to buy a flat in a Mumbai Suburb and moved in with much celebration. Within about 5 years he found that most of the flats in the building were occupied by Muslims from various backgrounds and soon he found it difficult to live in the building because their ways were different and he could not take it. He had no other alternative but leave the building which he did eventually. In this case can any one blame others just because he is denied his choice?

Discrimination per se is not bad, it depends on how one does it.

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The Pakistan Government is shamelessly harping on showing them credible proof which will stand in their court of law. What court of law are they talking about? Is there any credible institution in that country which can face truth? Telling lies has become so natural to the Pakistani establishment that the officials do not have any qualms in doing so. Their Presidents, past and present never heard of Dawood Abrahim who lives next door!! Ask Miandad, the ex-cricketer for details of Dawood’s whereabouts if the Pak Government really wants to know the address!! One does not know whether to laugh or cry when heads of states, who are supposed to be ruling the country, tell such blatant lies. Don’t they have the courage to openly say that they do not want to send them to India because these persons are protected by their Government?

What proof did the US Government give when the Pakistani Government handed over the 9/11 suspects to be tortured in Guantanamo Bay. Pakistanis understand only the power of the gun. What they deserve is a bloody nose. Pakistani Government is an opportunistic Government. They will suck up to US or China shamelessly and they think that India is afraid of them because of their might!!

Arun Shourie very rightly said in the Parliament that there is no point in going to mummy (US) crying for help. India must help herself. India should do what is right by its conscience. Other countries will come to our help only if we act decisively and not dither. Every country has its own interests and compulsions and therefore we should stand strong and vanquish the enemy. No alternative to that.

The following cartoons(done on MS Paint, on the computer) are inspired by Ponnappa's cartoons which appeared in the Times of India daily recently. It is shabby work; never the less I am publishing them!

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Innocent children singing patriotic songs,
March in formations neat and disciplined,
The army and police display their resolve
To defend the Borders and maintain the peace.

The media debate the achievements and failures
Of the Government and the Institutions,
And suggest a remedy for every problem
Like Terrorism, corruption nuclear deal et all.

Saints and clerics dabble in politics
Setting man against man in the name of God.
Old traditions and customs, superstitions and prejudices
Are all in the way of peace and progress.

While the leaders are speaking of peace and harmony
Their followers are stocking guns and bombs
Dividing the people by caste and creed
Building walls and fences separating the lot.

A former minister laughs at corruption plaguing the polity
And declares that no one can do anything about it!
The judges in the Supreme Court cries out in shame
That even God cannot help our beloved country!!

Come election time and the largesse is spread thick and juicy
For the Babus and the file pushers
And on second thoughts for those defending our borders too
But the poor and needy turn cynics and bear the brunt!

In spite of the parasites and thugs that rule the country
A ray of hope shone through the clouds
Bringing joy to every Indian
As Abhinav Bindra brought us a gold.

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During one of the worst droughts some years ago, villagers in one of the states suffered badly and starved because of loss of failure of crops and unemployment. The problem before the Government was how to help the villagers to earn enough to buy food in the market and keep their body and soul together! It is not easy to suddenly come up with some alternative employment for the farm labourers. So the Government decided to repair the roads in the villages for which the labour force could be used. Huge boulders were brought to the villages and the villagers were employed to break the boulders. Some UN observers engaged in relief work were aghast at the sight of poor half starved farmers engaged in breaking stones and sweating under the sun! Those foreigners believed that such work could be given only as a punishment to criminals or jailbirds and not for half starved villagers who were already weakened by malnutrition and needed help in the form of food and medical help!! Relief measures should not be so harsh!

Khadi cloth or “Khadder” is a cloth woven from hand spun yarn. Ever since Gandhiji made hand spinning the symbol of India’s breaking away from British shackles, “Khadder” is the choice of all politicians, compulsory for the Congress party worker. Even after sixty years of independence “Khadder” continues to be the cloth for the Congress worker.
Hand spinning had some meaning in those days before the independence, and Gandhiji spun yarn on a Charkha to convey some meaning to the masses. It is doubtful that Gandhiji intended to make it a profession for livelihood for himself or for the masses of India because a single spindle Charkha, which was in vogue in those days, could hardly be expected to produce sufficient quantities of yarn for making a living. But after independence successive Governments wanted to promote hand spinning and Khadi as an employment opportunity for the villagers. So a Khadi board came into existence and later the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

But for the introduction of a four spindles Charkha by Mr. Ekambaram, Khadi would have become extinct long ago. Mr. Ekambaram’s Charkha came to be known as the Ambar Charkha later. Present Charkhas have six or eight spindles, but still the production is not economical compared to mill production and lot of subsidies go into Khadi industry to keep it going. B.K.Nehru, in his memoirs “Nice Guys Finish Second” states that a former finance minister who was reputed for his business acumen and commercial sense, Mr. T.T.Krishnamachari, thought very poorly of the Ambar Charkha and told that it would ruin the country (or something to that effect!). Ekambaram’s Charkha was an innovative product and after many years very little improvement has happened on the Ambar Charkha except some cosmetic changes that mainly benefited some MNCs in the textile machinery Industry! Now we hear from news reports that a new E-Charkha has been “invented” awaiting introduction of some 2 Lakh Charkhas at a cost of Rs.3000/- each for the hand spinners!! The E-Charkha is not an improvement on the Charkha for increased production of yarn or to reduce the load on the operator but it is a Charkha to which a dynamo is fitted. When the handle of the Charkha is rotated electricity is produced which is used for charging a battery. This battery can light up an LCD lamp! Such a mechanism could be attached to any device having rotating parts but why the Charkha and increase the load on the operator whose productivity is already low!! The device could be attached to a bicycle or a bullock cart or a scooter or any other device! Usually when elections are near lots of funds are channelled through KVIC for political purposes!! Ha!! Rupees sixty crores !! Wow!!

Now take Biogas, or Gobar gas as we Indians would call it. Many press reports have appeared about its advantages and India is in the forefront of Gobar gas production units. India has over 2 million installed in the country for producing gas for cooking in households. There is no clear figure of how many are working on a regular basis or how much is the production. But this much is clear: We have the world’s largest livestock population of 250 million, which produces close to 125 million tonnes of cow dung. Using this we can produce enough methane gas to entirely replace LPG and kerosene in cooking, and substitute petrol in transportation. Methane gas can also produce enough electricity to meet all requirements, at least in rural areas. The by-product can serve as excellent organic manure, substituting chemical fertilisers, which require LNG as feedstock.

Just consider what has been happening in other countries on the biogas front: (From BBC news site)
“The world's first biogas-powered passenger train is taking its first passengers between the Swedish cities of Linkoping and Vastervik. Nor is it just trains. In Linkoping, the 65-strong bus fleet is powered by biogas. Indeed the city boasts that it was the first in the world to try out its buses on methane. The taxis, the rubbish trucks and a number of private cars also fill up at the biogas pump, housed under a dinky green corrugated iron roof. “
I understand that the reputed German automobile manufacturer BMW is producing electrical energy from landfill gas, methane, to meet almost 20% of their energy requirement. They are getting the methane gas from a distance of about 9 kilometres through pipe lines to gas turbines for production of electrical power. This is really great.

If the world’s richest economies are concerned about the depleting resources of crude oil, what is India doing with the world’s largest livestock population of 250 million?

We must wait till another Dr. Kurien, famed for the milk revolution in the country, takes the initiative to form co-operatives to collect cow dung and produce biogas on a commercial basis in every district of the country.
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Our Muslim brothers say that Jihad is their “Life” – let it be. But the problem arises when it’s meaning becomes “death” to the others. Some time in 1984, a Hindu refugee from East Bengal petitioned to the West Bengal Government seeking a ban on Holy Quran under Articles 153A and Article 295 A of the IPC. He added 37 verses of Quran which preach cruelty, incite violence and disturb public peace, 17 verses which promote on grounds of religion feelings of enmity hatred and ill will between different communities in India and 31 verses which insult other religions as also the religious beliefs of other communities. The West Bengal Government did not take any action and so the petitioner filed a petition in the High Court to take immediate action. This created a furore in Calcutta, Ranchi, Srinagar and other places including Dhaka where more than a dozen people were killed in firing. In 1985 the Judge dismissed the petition on the ground that this book is not prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religions.

In 1986 a prominent member of Hindu Mahasabha published a poster in Delhi carrying the caption “Why riots break out in this country?’ It showed 24 combative Quran verses. The publishers were immediately arrested but later they were acquitted. The Judge ruled that they have made a fair criticism for “with all due respects to Holy Quran an attentive perusal of the verses show that these are indeed harmful and preach violence and have the potential to cause conflicts between Muslims and others.”

Swami Vivekananda said:”Mohammedans talk of universal brotherhood, but what comes out of that in reality? Why, anybody who is not a Mohammedan will not be admitted into that brotherhood; he will more likely have his throat cut.”

Aurobindo said: “You can live amicably with a religion whose principle is toleration. But how is it possible to live peacefully with a religion whose principle is ‘I will not tolerate you’. How are you going to have unity with such people?”

Many educated and highly accomplished Muslims complain that they are always suspect in this country and that they have always to prove their loyalty to India. Is that so? Then listen, in no other country the majority community is treated with gross injustice as in our country. The self-alienated Hindus who call themselves “Secularists” have started all these problems. Article 30 of the Constitution allows minorities to set up Government sponsored denominational educational institutions. Article 29 says that every minority has a right to protect its religion, language script and culture. So Christian and Islamic theology can be taught in schools with Government Grants, or meeting the full expenses. But start a school to teach children the importance of “Dharma”, culture and the Bhagavat Gita, the burden of funding will have to be shouldered the RSS affiliated Kalyan Ashram! In no other democratic country, the majority community would tolerate such discrimination! The Hindu hating CPM Govt of West Bengal had gone out of the way to harass the Ramakrishna Mission Schools and organisations in the past.

The RSS is being blamed by all the political parties except BJP for all the wrongs in our country. It is laughable that the Communists call the RSS fascists. Look at the history of the Communists! Their God Father Karl Marx had a very low opinion about the Hindu Religion. So too are our Indian comrades! The Indian comrades compare Golwalker to Hitler and Goebel forgetting that their worshipful master Stalin is responsible for the brutal murder of millions of dissidents, a regime more horrendous than that of Hitler. The CPM leaders are so proud to pose before the pictures of Stalin & Lenin, which are the standard equipments in their offices! Do they not know that Stalin and Lenin have been thrown into dustbins in the country of their birth and reign? Leningrad has become St. Petersburg?

Though many RSS leaders were arrested after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, not a single member of the RSS was found guilty. Nathuram Godse had ceased to be a member of the RSS at least ten years before the incident. He left RSS because he found the organisation lacking in militancy. But still the Congress and the Communists and the opportunist “secular” brigade take pot shots at Godse to rubbish RSS. These worthies go on talking about Golwalkar’s ideology. Some of his radical ideas were published in a pamphlet in 1938 which he himself disowned ten years later in 1948, admitting that those were some of his juvenile aberrations, but our friends must go on repeating it like some parrots! Why, it is well known that Jawaharlal Nehru was not a great Indian lover when he was young. During his student days in UK, he wanted transfer from Cambridge to Oxford because he found “Cambridge too full of Indians.” But Nehru, rightly or wrongly became the leader of those whom he disliked so much!

The Hindu revivalists including the RSS want only that the country should remain united. But the communists do not seem to believe in Indian Nationhood. Some of their leaders have publicly stated that India consists of many Nations! Their senior most leaders have even stated that West Bengal would secede from India if BJP comes to power in the centre! It is so simplistic a matter for the comrades! Communist loyalties are elsewhere. As some BJP leader said, if it snows in their fatherland, they would open their umbrellas in West Bengal! During Chinese invasion they sided with the Chinese. For them the slogan was “Chairman Mao is our Chairman”.

Communists are the unadulterated “secularists” of India. They convened a meeting in Malapuram, a Muslim majority district of Kerala about a year ago. Speaker after speaker rubbished the so-called “communalists”, BJP. They have no Qualms to hold the hand of “Muslims” and declare war against “communalism”. They welcomed the Naxal movement and young girls and boys sang songs in praise of the Naxals. The top CPM leaders present on the stage were thrilled to see the huge crowd gathered to greet them and praise the Naxal movement. We have a problem of growing Naxal menace in almost 100 districts in the country and the Government and the administration are worried sick about it trying to contain the problem, and here we have our comrades, partners in the Government welcoming the Naxals, terming the as RSS the greatest danger to India! One doesn’t know weather to laugh or cry!! It is unfortunate and a tragedy that their influence in the Government and administration today is disproportionately large compared to their representation in the Lok Sabha.
During the Khilafat movement of 1921, the Moplahs (local Muslims) carried out a brutal murder of Hindus in Malabar. They plundered thousands of Hindu homes, destroyed Hindu temples, raped Hindu women and burned Hindu villages. But you know what? Such of these Moplahs who are still alive are honoured by the Govt as “freedom fighters” and given monthly pension on that basis. The Moplahs were recognized as freedom fighters, not because they took arms against the British, but because the British took arms against them to suppress the Moplah terror against Hindus.
About one lakh Hindus and Sikhs who fled Pakistan in 1947 and taken shelter in Jammu & Kashmir have not been given citizenship till date. They have no rights to vote or for anything else.
Terrorism targeted at Hindus is continuing without respite for decades. After the partition related riots ended in 1948, several Hindu Muslim conflicts have taken place in India. The cumulative death toll in all these conflicts is about 20000 of which about 25% would be Hindus. But in 1950 more than 25000 Hindus were killed in East Bengal alone. Every couple of years Bengladesh Hindus are killed in violence against Hindus.
All these riot data are completely dwarfed by the East Bengal genocide of 1971. More than a million, mostly Hindus were killed by the Pakistani and local Jamait-I-islami allies.
Who has ever bothered about these figures of Hindu deaths? When Hindus are killed in Kashmir by terrorist, no one bothered. One Australian white is killed by tribals and it becomes world news.
When thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were driven out of their homes in Kashmir the western media reported that they were actually evacuated by the Indian Govt so that the army could move in!
A crude unabashed condescension and indifference is in evidence when the new upper class “secularists” speak about the lower beings such as Hindus!

What the RSS and the Hindu revivalists want from Indian Muslims is their wholehearted participation in our nation building. The Hindus rightly believe that the Indian Muslims should be more forthcoming and leave behind their attachment for the Muslims outside our country. It is a thoroughly misplaced belief that the Muslims all over the world can unite. What the Hindu revivalists believe is that Indian Muslims are culturally more inclined towards Hindu civilisation. Their opposition to the Hindu ways are artificial and incited by fundamentalist groups who have vested interests. After all, the forefathers of more than ninety percent of the Indian Muslims would have been Hindus who would not have accepted Islam, out of conviction. Most of the Hindus would like the Indian Muslims to acknowledge the fact that both belong to the same stock and therefore brotherly relations rather than confrontation should be the natural choice. The matter is different in the case of the Pakistanis. They chose to separate from the family out of hatred. In fact what they lost was 50% of reserved representation for the Muslims in the undivided country offered by Mahatma Gandhi with the full support of Hindu groups. They lost that opportunity and to all independent observers the loss was totally theirs.
Thomas Friedman in his book “The world is flat” quotes M.J.Akbar thus:
‘I'll give you a quiz question: which is the only large Muslim community to enjoy sustained democracy for the last 50 years? The Muslims of India. I am not going to exaggerate Muslim good fortune in India. There are tensions, economic discrimination and provocations, like the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya (by Hindu nationalists in 1992). But the fact is, the Indian Constitution is secular and provides a real opportunity for economic advancement of any community that can offer talent. That’s why a growing Muslim middle-class here is moving up and generally doesn’t manifest the strands of deep anger you find in many non-democratic Muslim states.’
While a Muslim woman sits on India’s Supreme Court, no Muslim woman is allowed even to drive a car in Saudi Arabia. Indian Muslims, including women, have been governors of many Indian states and the wealthiest man in India today, high on the Forbes list of global billionaires, is an Indian Muslim: Azim Premji, the chairman of Wipro, one of India’s most important technology companies. I was in India shortly after the United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, when Indian television carried a debate between the country’s leading female movie star and parliamentarian—Shabana Azmi, a Muslim woman—and the imam of New Delhi’s biggest mosque. The imam had called on Indian Muslims to go to Afghanistan and join the jihad against America, and Azmi ripped into him, live on Indian TV, basically telling the cleric to go take a hike. She told him to go to Kandahar and join the Taliban and leave the rest of India’s Muslims alone. How did she get away with that? Easy. As a Muslim woman she lived in a context that empowered and protected her to speak her mind—even to a leading cleric.”

A former Ambassador to Pakistan, in a TV interview was very frank when he said that the Pakistani hatred for India is very deep rooted. Even little boys and girls have been inculcated with this feeling of hatred for the Indians. He narrated a story of how one Pakistani child of four or five years ran around his Pakistani host’s dining room shouting “Hindustani Chor, Hindustani Chor” when the ambassador was introduced to him!! The Pakistanis of British origin are so jealous of the success of Indian Muslims in the film Industry that they are circulating a CD rubbishing Sharukh Khan, Amir Khan, Salman Khan and Saif Khan!! That will speak a lot for the Universal Muslim Unity! It is a myth and the Indian Muslims should know it better.

The future of our country and that of the different religions depends on the unity of its people. Most Indians are religious or spiritual. Secularism is a widely used misnomer for pluralism. We should promote pluralism and tolerance and respect for each other. When leaders of caste based politics and communalists brand themselves “secular” we must drop the word from usage. Instead wee must promote usage of the term “Pluralism”.

(For detailed information on the material in this article, please refer the book “ Decolonizing the Hindu Mind” written by Dr.Koenraad Elst.)

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The largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia. And the second largest is not Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt or Pakistan. It is India. With some 150 million Muslims, India has more Muslims than Pakistan. But here is an interesting statistic from 9/11: There are no Indian Muslims that we know of in Al Qaeda and there are no Indian Muslims in America’s Guantanamo Bay post-9/11 prison camp. And no Indian Muslims have been found fighting alongside the jihadists in Iraq. Why is that? Why do we not read about Indian Muslims, who are in a minority in a vast Hindu-dominated land, blaming America for all their problems and wanting to fly airplanes into the Taj Mahal or the British Embassy? Lord knows, Indian Muslims have their grievances about access to capital and political representation. And interreligious violence has occasionally flared up in India, with disastrous consequences. I am certain that out of 150 million Muslims in India, a few will one day find their way to Al Qaeda—if it can happen with some American Muslims, it can happen with Indian Muslims. But this is not the norm. Why?
The answer is context—and in particular the secular, free-market, democratic context of India, heavily influenced by a tradition of non-violence and Hindu tolerance. M J Akbar, the Muslim editor of The Asian Age, a national Indian-English language daily primarily funded by non-Muslim Indians, put it to me this way: “I'll give you a quiz question: which is the only large Muslim community to enjoy sustained democracy for the last 50 years? The Muslims of India. I am not going to exaggerate Muslim good fortune in India. There are tensions, economic discrimination and provocations, like the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya (by Hindu nationalists in 1992). But the fact is, the Indian Constitution is secular and provides a real opportunity for economic advancement of any community that can offer talent. That’s why a growing Muslim middle-class here is moving up and generally doesn’t manifest the strands of deep anger you find in many non-democratic Muslim states.”
While a Muslim woman sits on India’s Supreme Court, no Muslim woman is allowed even to drive a car in Saudi Arabia. Indian Muslims, including women, have been governors of many Indian states and the wealthiest man in India today, high on the Forbes list of global billionaires, is an Indian Muslim: Azim Premji, the chairman of Wipro, one of India’s most important technology companies. I was in India shortly after the United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, when Indian television carried a debate between the country’s leading female movie star and parliamentarian—Shabana Azmi, a Muslim woman—and the imam of New Delhi’s biggest mosque. The imam had called on Indian Muslims to go to Afghanistan and join the jihad against America, and Azmi ripped into him, live on Indian TV, basically telling the cleric to go take a hike. She told him to go to Kandahar and join the Taliban and leave the rest of India’s Muslims alone. How did she get away with that? Easy. As a Muslim woman she lived in a context that empowered and protected her to speak her mind—even to a leading cleric.

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When one talks of a religious Indian, the picture that normally takes shape in one’s mind is that of a pious, truthful, god fearing, god loving, person to whom all the qualities of a model person can be attributed, but such a person can live only in mythology. Actually he is only one who practises religious rituals, hoping that practising these rituals will purify his life and take him nearer to the almighty.

A religious person may also turn out to be a very cantankerous one, but he would have a very high opinion of himself and might live in the belief that he is a close associate of the almighty in the great goings on in this entire world.
But in reality, a truly religious person is somewhat of a different type. He is one who practises rituals with understanding, devotion and conviction. He does it for spiritual advancement, which in the end should lead him to secularism. He would realise that all religions are good practices if embraced with understanding and love of humanity. He would also know that all practitioners of religion are not the sacred souls they paint themselves as. A religious person, to my mind is not necessarily a spiritual person and vice versa.
A spiritual person is essentially one who does not have prejudices. Neither losses nor gains affect him emotionally. He is one blissful person for whom religion does not really matter. His is a universal religion. This may be a state he might have attained after prolonged practice of one or the other religion. There are also many examples of people who were gifted, or born with some special qualities, which helped them become spiritual, without much effort. However, for most people some degree of spiritual attainment is possible only through study and practice of the religion they belong to, or the religion they are attracted to.
The problem that we are faced with in the present time is the confusion created by the votaries of different religions. Our maid Saroja, who has been working with us for about four years, is a part time Christian though she is a Hindu. On Sundays she removes her Tilak from her forehead and wears white sari to go to the Church. On asking her, she said that the Church gives her a lot of help. She gets from the Church substantial quantities of rice and provisions, cooking oil and clothes for the children. The Church representative also visits her house from time to time to check on her and her family. She has been renamed Regina Mary! But outside Church circles she prefers to be called by her real name Saroja. She definitely benefits from her association with the Church and I thought it is a good thing happening to her. Why not? If the Church is so thoughtful and kind why should the poor not avail of the benefits? The only problem here is that, the experience of changing ones religious beliefs causes great confusion in the mind. The experience is that, the material benefits do not translate into spiritual gains. In fact for many, the experience is terrible guilt. But Saroja is happy! She is very practical and says that she has no qualms about going to Church and enjoying all the goodies the Church gives her! On all other days she is praying in the Hanuman and Ganapathy temple nearby!
But that is not the case with Narasimha who is the Mali in our Apartment building. His Daughter-in-law committed suicide some time ago and ever since he was a disturbed man. Rukmini (a maid servant in the building) who has changed her name to Elsa (like Saroja) gave Narasimha a Bible to read, which he read religiously for several months and feels that his mind is at peace now. Rukmani has taken him to the Church few times and the rumour is that he has changed his name to Alexander. He is now waiting for the Goodies!!
This is what I like most about the Western thought. They are precise in everything. They know that there is a need in these poor peoples lives and there they are to give them exactly what the poor fellows need. Only problem is that, these part-time Christians go back to their old religion, which gave them solace! That is, after enjoying all the Goodies!!
Through out the British Raj this is what was happening. It is well documented that the Church was part of the East India Company for all practical purposes. Both the Company and the Church were helping each other in their respective endeavours. And by the time the British was about to leave India, both the Church and the British administration knew that their efforts were a failure or else at least a good proportion of the Indian population should have been converted to Christianity.

Similarly there are many who have embraced Islam. There is at least one prominent person who has chosen to be a Muslim for reasons other than monetary benefits. She is well known and rich and past her prime. She is now dressed in black “Burka” and says that she feels safe inside the “Burka” because the roving eyes of men do not bother her any more!! What a pity she did not discover this truth some sixty years ago!!

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Recent newspaper reports say that Sakae Shibusawa, an agriculture-engineering professor in Tokyo University has successfully extracted .042 ounces of gasoline from 3.5 ounces of cow dung by applying high pressure and heat. The new technology will be a boon for livestock breeders for disposing of large amounts of waste.

In India the annual production of cow dung is about 125 million tons. Over 1.5 million tons of gasoline can be produced from this quantity of dung! But this figure is nothing compared to the quantity of methane gas that 125 million tons of cow dung can produce!

Power from nuclear reactors makes no sense!

Arvind Kalra writes in Times of India of 24th March ’06 that India’s euphoria over our nuclear deal with the US is puzzling; that the US hasn’t built a single nuclear plant in 10 years. Most of the western European nations are phasing out nuclear power. The tide largely is against nuclear power, the world over.
Though 20 per cent of Britain’s electricity is nuclear, it has decommissioned nearly half its nuclear reactors and debates if new nuclear plants should replace ones whose life is ending.
Building nuclear plants takes 10-15 years. Nuclear electricity proves 60 per cent more costly than power from gas-fired or coal-fired plants. And even America doesn’t order new nuclear reactors, though it’s the world’s largest producer of nuclear generated electricity.
“ Nuclear energy provides 20 per cent of America’s electricity and 16 per cent of the world’s power supply. If nuclear electricity is expensive even for western nations, why is India going for it? The reason lies in a mix of state secrecy and patriotism. The economics of nuclear power is not publicly discussed in India by unspoken consent. The reason is that the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which runs our nuclear plants, also produces our nuclear bombs. It’s considered unpatriotic to question the department’s advocacy of nuclear-generated electricity.”

For more on the subject of strategies for energy read in this blog “More thoughts on energy crisis” and “Beat the energy crisis” – click on “biogas”, “methane ” tags.

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This is not the way to wipe out unemployment. The Government should create more jobs not by holding out Rs.60/- per day to the unemployed, but by encouraging private investments and labour reforms. But the Communists are opposed to these reforms because they say these are anti worker policies. Ask the Communist CM of West Bengal for some lessons on wisdom!

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The disinvestments minister of the previous Government was undoubtedly an honest person and he has publicly offered to answer all the allegations the Communists are levelling against him. And the ruling Congress coalition government looks on helplessly and trying to weekly support the views of the Communists!! The clear policy of the ex-minister Arun Shourie, rightly was that it is not the Government’s business to run business houses. The Government’s business is to provide proper Governance and to intervene when norms are flouted. Yes, the private business class is interested in profits only. Does that mean that the Government should keep holding on to profit making companies till they become sick like mud? The private business would maximise their profits in whatever manner they want. What is the problem there for the Communists? If the workers get all their dues and more why are the Communists bothered? The poor unsuspecting workers are always taken for a ride. Up to a point it was the businessmen who took the working class for a ride and then it is by the trade unions! When an honest minister goes about his work seriously and earnestly, the entire political class sits up and finds faults with him. The present finance minister who is known to be a supporter of private capital is also finding faults with Arun Shourie for untenable reasons. That is politics!

The tragedy is that the way this Government is going, the working class will get cheated again. The Congress is giving away to the Communists in all matters, be it private enterprise or Naxalism. They have emerged as the force behind the Government and for all wrong reasons they may do better if elections were held again. This will be a tragedy because the working class will be the real sufferers in the long run if the Communists gain strength in this country. If this happens the Congress can take credit for that!

A very large section of the population of this country considered it improper (to use the mildest word) that a person of foreign origin should become the PM of this country. But the Congress had no alternative but to have a leader of foreign origins or perish. Millions of people could just only gulp and eat their pride in silence when it became a reality that Sonia Gandhi would become the PM. Though it was a relief when she renounced (!) the throne it is only a matter of time before she would claim it with strength on her side.

The NDA has really spoiled the chances to build a strong base for itself. Their leaders were too immature to gauge the atmosphere in the country. Who would be interested to see on the TV screen, some BJP leaders doing push ups in five star gymnasiums and eating such rich food which only the Mughal Kings of a different era could afford? Compared to that the young Congress new comers wore turbans, like villagers and sat on “Charpoys” drinking tea from mud pots! That really caught the voter’s imagination! Though all that is spurious humility, that worked.

Now the popular belief is that if we want a stable and strong Government The Hindus must unite. Hindus must unite not against any one but to give this country a strong Government, which has to keep the country from chaos and disintegration. The Hindu political class has to work for the up-liftment of the poorer sections and the underprivileged classes including the OBC, ST/SC and minorities. All the sections should be united which only the Hindu community can do.

Today every section of the Indian polity is trying to find their identity. The words nationalism and patriotism have lost their meaning. Secularism of thought and deed is more important than building a religious identity. The Hindus will have to win the minds and hearts of the other communities, and that is possible only if they themselves stand strong and united. Spirituality is the Ethos of India and the Hindus must take the lead to preserve that. Today secularism is a hollow word in Indian politics. All political parties are caste oriented and call themselves secular. The Communists and the Congress are experts in fishing in these troubled waters! The relevance of the Congress and the Communist parties for the future of India is highly debatable.

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I do not think that any one in this world would have anything to say against our PM Manmohan Singhji. He is sincere, clean, erudite, scholarly, soft-spoken, hardworking and above all a very decent person. He is a Satvik person. We have great expectations from him. But we must remember that he is in the midst of mud. How long can he remain untouched by the mud of our politics? He is the author of India’s economic reforms and liberalisation when Narasimha Rao was the PM. He stayed with Narasimha Rao even as many faithfuls left him for this or that reason. And when at last he left PVN’s company he quoted the famous words “ Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion”.
But when he became the PM, he was forced to cohabit with all kinds of tainted politicians! Can’t blame the PM. His Government did all kinds of dirty tricks in Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar! Why blame the PM. Did the BJP Government not do similar nasty things?? Well, that is why I say one cannot remain unstained living in mud pit.

The important thing is, the PM is sincere and he is trying his best to perform well. Take for instance his US visit. Did he not become only the fifth head of State to be invited to the White House for dinner with President Bush. Did President Bush not shower praise on the PM and the Indian economy and Indian BPO, and the Indian population in general? Then there was this nuclear agreement and so on. The PM also mentioned that he would stick to principles and at the same time be pragmatic. Or pragmatic and be principled at the same time. As the Congress spokes person Dr. Abhishek Singhvi would say, a win win situation! Never at a loss for words.

The PM has also done the best he could under the circumstances with regard to the Nanavati Commission Report on the 1984 riots against the Sikhs. The Secularists would not like to call it riot against the Sikh community. It was anti Indian riots. The Congress Party is appalled that the report has in no uncertain terms said that there is sufficient evidence to show that many Congressmen were involved in the riots. Surprise of surprises! But who did not know this from the day one?!

The last big riot was the one in Gujrat. The one in which 2000 or 3000 or 4000 people were killed. Like all such riots of the past we do not really know what all happened and how all that happened even though the media covered it in detail. The BJP says 44 riots have taken place in Gujarat during the Congress rule. What happened to all those thousands who were killed and the perpetrators of those riots? Not much is talked about the burning of people in the Godhra train. Who did that? Some politicians suggest that the BJP and the Parivar did it. The Railway Minister appointed a separate Commission, to get to the truth of the matter and he waved the report to the public that gathered to hear him speak just before the Jharkhand election. Was it ever made public? Who knows? But the election fever is over. The fever will start again in Bihar soon.

The Communists are pulling down the PM in all matters. The country is fighting external terrorism and the Communists are encouraging the Naxals! In the rally held in Malapuram in Kerala the Communists sang in praise of the Naxal Movement. Communists are said to be Godless, because in Russia they abolished God long ago. But, with the fall of the Soviet Union, God and Church has returned to Russia I believe! The Communists want to divide the Hindu Community for vote bank politics, the same tactics which was used by the British and later by the Congress party.

Communists are the ones who count today. One gets the impression that what the Communists want, the Government will do. See how tame P. Chidambaram has become?
The Communists behave as though they have the mandate to do what they want to do. Is that right? I think their numbers in the Parliament has slightly increased this time around because of the Antony – Karunakaran feud in Kerala. Not because the people love them. But, Congress beware! People are watching!

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Indians have been religious and will continue to be religious however much the yuppee secularists would like to have it differently. Religion was banished from communist countries but after some years it has resurfaced in those very countries. There can be any number of debates on the uselessness of religion, but man has need for spirituality to explore the depth of his inner being. Any degree of material success alone cannot buy him mental peace and spiritual solace.

The so-called secularism in the Indian context is a sham. It is the politician’s tool to win votes from minority communities. Politicians don on fancy headgears and ill-fitting clothes to identify themselves with different communities and groups and beg for votes.
For a Hindu politician it is important to visit a mosque or a church before the elections, so that he will not lose votes from those communities.

Though people belonging to different religious faiths are accepted in affluent countries, they will not be tolerated once they start challenging the local faith. The local’s faith today may be minimal or nonexistent due to other material diversions such as pursuit of success, sex or pot, but these pursuits will become increasingly unsatisfying and the individual will start searching for more permanent happiness. In his quest he will turn to religion. This is certainly happening in affluent countries at least in some degrees.

India’s ethos is religiousness or spirituality amid its diversity. But India’s constitution is secular. The constitution does not differentiate between people belonging to different communities. Every community has freedom to practice its religion. But this freedom to practice religion becomes irrelevant if all the communities do not have mutual respect for each other and their practices. It is important that, irrespective of the number of followers of the religions, they should all be considered equal.

It is well known that the British started the divisive politics in India. Apart from encouraging and aggravating the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, which led to the partition of India on independence, they sowed the seeds of dissention among the various caste groups of the Hindu community. The undeserving and self-serving so called leaders of different caste groups were encouraged to oppose the mainstream political struggle for independence.

Hindu society had a lot of ills. It is not a perfect society. With the passage of time The Hindu society has accepted changes and reforms. Though Hindu God-men may have influenced political leaders and politics marginally, their influence on mainstream politics is nonexistent. They do not call the shots. Their activities are confined to religious practice. In the western world, in olden days, the church had a strangle hold on political power. However that changed with time, and Secularism became the byword for progress. This is possible in the west with an overwhelming majority of the population of the same faith.

Hindu society has also changed a lot with time. Hardly any Hindu of present day has heard of Manu but the players of caste politics repeatedly talk of “Manuwad” to rubbish Hindu practices. Manuwad and the classification by “Varns” are all things of the past. Western education can take the credit for the reforms in Hindu society, but even with the reforms the Hindu religion has not weakened. If anything, the Hindu religion has only gained strength in recent times and there are many westerners who are quite impressed with the Hindu philosophy, the Vedas and the Upanishads etc.

In a country like India where people are essentially religious, Secularism is only a tool for administering Statecraft. It is not a tool, which the administration can use to divide people without impunity. In democratic India, only a shortsighted political outfit can use Secularism to divide people for vote bank politics.

In the present day Indian politics, the Shenanigans of Caste politics have a field day dividing the Hindu society. The Congress and the Communist Parties encourage this trend. Time will tell that the Congress Party, in all its wisdom has played a dirty game.

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Be honest now - have you picked up this book to learn what the entrance fee is for Disneyland? Or where you can find a vegetarian menu amidst the smorgasbord of carnivorous delights in the Far East? Or how tall the Eiffel tower is and when it was built? Forewarned is forearmed. whisper to yourself."LET'S GO find another book" quitely return the offending pieceto that gap in the dust, back away carefully from the shelf and head FO-theDOR's.
let you labour under the misapprehension that this book is not of academic importance however, let me assure you that it contains a treasure trove of information. you will learn, for instance that shovelling shit can be fun- if you are on a reserve in South Africa. The slurping of noodles is not just expected in a Japanese ramen restaurant, but is also a highly efficient noodle consumption technique. That it is an honour in Australia, to be able to trace your background to a convict transported from England. That the largest beach in the world is a little 'worse-for wear'. That the children of Gandhi live in Brazil and not in Porbandar.

If you have ever been stuck in an alien land, hot or homesick, uncomfortable or unemployed, frozen or famished, or generally out of your depth, you will find ample company in misery as you turn these pages. If you are a jaded traveller who has sampled all that the world has to offer,only to discover surprises closer to home, you will find your wonderment echoed in these writings ............

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Spirituality is the Ethos of India
From Kashmir in north to Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India and from Bhuj in the west to Shillong in the east every aspect of the country and life of the people is different. With all these differences the people of the subcontinent has for centuries lived as Indians. Differences in religion and language have from time to time caused discord and strife in different regions. But the people in general are proud to call themselves as Indians.
The diversity of India would seem to be its strength and cohesive factor. A Malayali of Kerala in the south is so much different from his counterpart in Punjab or Kashmir in the north. They have their individual Ethos but the Indian Ethos envelopes people of all regions and sections and prevail over the differences.
The majority population is of the Hindu faith. The Hindu faith is one, which has evolved over a span of several centuries. Hinduism is in fact a way of living as practiced by the people who lived in the Indus valley in ancient times. The Hindu scriptures known as Vedas and Upanishads originated several centuries before Christ.
Though Hindus are believed to be idol worshippers, in actual fact the idols represent only symbols which are necessary for the ordinary people to relate to a higher being, an almighty God. The great philosopher, thinker and poet Shankaracharya of Kaladi of 8th century BC, has propounded the theory of "Adwaita", which means non-dualistic. In simple terms God and soul (or Self) are one and the same. There is no separate existence of soul. Everything in this Universe, which are known, or unknown to us are all God manifestations.
God is omnipotent and resides everywhere and in everything. God is immortal and changeless. God is incomprehensible. You can neither feel nor see Him. But his presence is everywhere. God is present in the spark of life, in the heat and light of Fire. One can only realize him through introspection and meditation.
The purpose of taking birth in this world is to realize God. This life is precious because only the human intellect can realize God and one's true state. The Hindu belief is that death is not the end of life and that there is life after death. Until one reaches true realization of the self, cycle of birth and death continues.
When one realizes self, one attains release from the cycle of birth and death and becomes one with God.
The cycle of birth and death repeats because of the actions or "Karma" of the individual. Soul, or the Self, God, is inert, does not have qualities discernable to us. God is formless and infinite. It is like space. Like space or air it is inside and outside a vessel or a container. Soul is the spark of life and when it leaves the body the man is dead.
All living beings are born with certain inherent qualities, depending on ones actions or "Karma" in the previous life. These qualities more or less direct one's destiny. But once born, the humans unlike the beasts can use their intellect and modify their destiny through Karma. The quality of the Karma in the present life will mould the qualities for the next birth. This somewhat explains why the rewards of action are different for different persons.
Body, mind and intellect are the three main aspects of human beings. Ones desires arise from tendencies termed as "Vasnas" in Sanskrit, accumulated from previous lives. These desires are in one's mind and one's actions are dictated by the Vasnas and controlled by the intellect. If actions are performed without any control by the intellect, the intensity of the Vasnas increase and he will want to go on indulging in the same actions until his body can no more do these. If actions are undertaken with understanding and moderation it will help exhaust the Vasnas and the person will become more spiritual. Actions, if performed with a sense of duty and devotion will help reduce desires. The ultimate state of spirituality is not to have any desires at all. For the spiritual person there is no sorrow or happiness. His actions are dispassionate and he is not worried about the rewards for his actions.
When a person conducts his life without passionate desires he becomes relieved of the worries of success or failure. He becomes a spiritual person. A spiritual person is one who has no selfish interest in his actions or rewards. His work will be for the good of society at large and his outlook will gradually become universal.
A spiritual person is not worried about his welfare, his actions are as dictated by his "Dharma" and duty. He is not bound by anxiety for reward for himself. As a person becomes more and more spiritual he cares less and less for material comforts in life. He is a rich person whose needs are not many! Even while doing things his mind will be fixed on God, which is within him.
A person who realizes God, that is the one who gets a glimpse of his own soul (the Self) becomes the knower of every thing. He will want to know nothing more as his knowledge is complete. He becomes ecstatic and forgets the world around him and even himself and his body. A fully realized person is God himself.
Our spiritual state depends on our previous life too. If one is born with Satwic Vasnas he will tend to be more spiritual and he may reach Godhead more easily. The accumulated Vasnas of the previous lives is the logical explanation for pronounced inherent characteristics that are sometimes seen in small children. Valmiki who wrote the Hindu epic Ramayana was a hunter. Gautam Buddha, a prince, who grew up in the lap of luxury became an ascetic at an early age.
One of the more popular scripture of the Hindus is the Bhagavat Gita, which is a comprehensive text of the Hindu philosophy. It says that your religious Dharma, even though it may not be perfect is best for you. Fulfillment of Dharma, which is not yours, is always fraught with danger.
Bhagavat Gita also advises that it's teachings or secrets are not to be told to every one. Only those with a mature mind and faith in Him can understand or appreciate the text or realize the truth. Such people are rare. It is clear then that Religious Conversion is not a Hindu creed.

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· India’s cattle population is about 250 million, which will produce 125 million tons of dung per year.
· Calorific value of one Kg of methane gas is equal to one KG of Petrol/Diesel/LPG
· Per capita requirement of LPG is 15KG and dung from 75 million cows can produce methane gas for cooking purpose for the entire population of the country.
· Petrol consumption in 2003-2004 was 8 million tonnes. Dung from 40 million cows is sufficient to produce equivalent amount of methane gas.
· Electric energy consumption of rural India is 112 KWH per capita/annum. Assuming that 200gms of petrol can produce 1 KWH power, dung from 85 million cows can meet the needs of a rural population of 740 million in India.

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