HISTORIC REFERUNDUM FOR DIGNITY IN LOVE AND MARRIAGE

 Global History has been created  in Ireland through its referundum on same sex marriage. By overwhelmingly voting  for constitutional approval of same sex weddings Ireland has set the model for other countries. Many countries have legalised same sex marriages. But Ireland is the first country to have a referendum on this sensitive issue. With this, formal same sex weddings can be celebrated. Ireland ,a Catholic society, is ahead of Japan and India in family solidarity.

India is among those countries which oppose same sex relationship on misguided beliefs and social prejudices, though we claim to be a modern democracy. Some years ago the Delhi High Court's landmark judgement decriminalised gay and lesbian relationships. The Supreme Court reversed the order not on the merit of the issue, but the Court wanted the Govt to enact a progressive legislation. But the political establishment is reluctant more out of electoral considerations than on the basis of any scientific data, Baba Ramdev described same sex relations as a psychiatric disorder for which he claimed even Yogic remedy. The Pope has sympathy for the cause of gay and lesbian relationship. But all the major religious groups are hostile to this matter . The LGBT ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender ) community are crucified . Most inhuman has been the way the Transgender has been treated. Because of the intervention of the Supreme Court the Transgender has been made mandatory as the Third Sex in all matters. But the prejudice continues. The LGBT community lives in a state of uncertainty in our Constitutional democracy merely because of the majority 's perception of what is just natural as unnatural.

In the Hindu mythology Lord Ayyappa is the child born out of the Union of Lord Hari and Lord Hara, both male Gods. Lord Ayyappa is worshipped by Keralites, Tamils, Telugus, Kannadigas and others as virtually a Living God. The devotees consider this birth as a rare event. A celestial birth of such nature is not possible in the realm of science . But humans believe and celebrate while denying the basic human rights of love,sex and marriage to gays and lesbians in India. India can be proud of its human values by giving freedom of intimate relationship of one's preference to our own people. Otherwise History will be harsh in judging  the Indian policy and law makers of this period.

BORN UNEQUAL, LIIVE UNEQUAL AND DIE UNEQUAL

 Indian democracy's hallmark is an independent judiciary. But is it always independent ? Is it not influenced by high profile lawyers arguing for seven-star clients?

2.54 lakh undertrials are languishing in various Indian jails denied of their Fundamental Rights. Many may be innocent. Many have lived behind the bars for years far exceeding the likely sentence in case their offences were proved. No Human Rights champions for them . No media space in the channels which regularly announce "Breaking News".

But film star Salman Khan who was proved guilty of CULPABLE HOMICIDE for drunken driving over poor homeless sleeping on the pavement of a  Mumbai road killing one and injuring some.was sentenced to FIVE years imprisonment by the trial court got interim bail for two days within just THREE hours by the High Court as he had a team of powerful lawyers arguing on technicalities. Before the expiry of the 48 hours interim bail he got bail for an indefinite period . Salman's lawyers dragged the case for thirteen years . Salman did not visit the victims in the hospital nor did he give any aid to them. One Constable Ravindra Patil, Salman's bodyguard, stood firm in his statement that Salman was drunk and drove over the victims. No pressure could force him to change his statement..The Court recorded that he was a Credible Witness. Sad, Patil is no more.

Salman's friends, fans,political faithfuls and the media reacted as if  the Third World War has stated. Shameful. One supporter Abhijeet,a singer said" Homeless are KUTHAS ( dogs). Dogs die under cars. So how Salman is guilty? ". Abhijeet I suppose is a human . Dogs are worthy creations . Salman's supporters are thrilled. They are confident that the best and the expensive legal luminaries will finally get Salman out of the trial court verdict. They are aware of how the SYSTEM works .

Meanwhile the undertrials will continue to be in jails. More will join them. No bail. Only jail.

WORLD EARTH DAY AND MOTHER EARTH

Mother Earth is the only planet that sustains human life. Scientists estimate that the Earth came into being about 4.6 billion years ago. About 3.7 million years ago, Laetoli, a Tanzanian site , had Hominin  footprints on its soil, which are still preserved in volcanic ash. But in a short span of  about 200 years, the development strategies and technological processes adopted by humans, whose footprints had spread across all parts of the globe, have caused grave threat to the environment and human life on Earth. All industrial nations are big polluters of air, land and water. Enormous tracts of tropical rain forests are destroyed. Deserts are spreading in all parts of the world due to deforestation and land degradation. Ozone layer is being depleted exposing living organisms to excessive ultra-violet radiation. Bio-diversity is disappearing at an alarming rate. The other forms of environmental destruction are legion. These problems loom over our planet and affect all living beings. Devastation of the environment affects all regions, races and cultures as it is a universal threat. Because of the globalisation of the market economy and corporate practices all natural systems on Earth are disintegrating.

Mahatma Gandhi cautioned :
               "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not to every man's greed ".

On this World Earth Day, let us not forget that our greed is at the root of the existential crisis of the twenty-first century humans.

DALITS IN AN OPPRESSIVE INDIAN SOCIETY [ section 1 ]

            For ours is a battle of not for wealth or for power.
                         It is a battle for freedom.
            It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality.
                                                                                                   Dr. B.R.Ambedkar :1942.

Dalit means " untouchable or outcaste " of  society. Dalits have been deprived of their civil, political, economic , social and cultural rights by the hegemonic order controlled by the dominant caste groups and the authoritarian social structure over centuries in India. Mahatma Gandhi gave them an identity by referring to the Dalits as Harijans or People of Vishnu (God ) hoping for their respectability in  the society. But , Harijan soon became more derogatory than the original term. Dalits bear the brunt of class and gender discrimination , and are subject to oppression, poverty, deprivation and atrocities. They are the victims of a vicious casteist- racist social order.

Atrocities on Dalits are often perpetrated for asserting their basic rights as human beings "TO TEACH THE DALITS A LESSON ".The atrocities inflicted on the Dalits across the length and breadth of India are legion. These include :
          Caste-linked slur , public humiliation and abuse, denial of drinking water,
          denial of the right to use footwear, beating, tonsuring, looting and burning
          homes, destruction of property , rape of women and girls, stripping and
          parading naked, lynching, burning humans alive, preventing from contesting
          and voting in elections, refusal to worship in temples , forcing to drink urine
         and to eat excreta, and implicating in false cases
          [according to media reports
         and the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights].
The more atrocious than the  atrocities against the Dalits is the indifference of  the Police in all States in registering  cases and investigating seriously. Often the victims are made offenders by the  Police. The judiciary also does not fare better in rendering justice to the victims  as is seen from inordinate delay and low conviction rate.

Jyoti Lanjewar, a Dalit woman poet, wrote in a poem titled "Caves"  :
 
        Their inhuman atrocities have carved caves in the rock of my heart,
        I have been silent all the years listening to the voice of right and wrong,
        But now I will fan the flames of human rights.

INDIA'S DAUGHTERS

One rape every twenty minutes somewhere in India. Age no bar to the depraved male :from the tender age of 3 to 80 . Among the rapists are judges,teachers,police officials, political leaders,spiritual guides,and close relatives including even own fathers. Law sleeps and the ruling classes are apathetic. Justice is often denied to the helpless victims by inordinate delay :more than one lakh rape cases are pending in the country from the trial courts to the Supreme Court. A very frustrating scenario.

Nirbhaya's gruesome rape and murder in Delhi shocked the nation.Her memory is again brought back to the public domain when the BBC documentary India's Daughter was telecast in UK and was made available through the internet. Indian politicians shouted in different platforms as they saw some political advantage. The government of India banned the documentary in India, blocked websites,and initiated legal action against the documentary maker.The views of the rapist and his lawyers are despicable and cause utmost revulsion. But by banning the documentary the state has kept the real problem under the carpet rather than facing it by making people watch the documentary and debate.

Rape is a psychosocial legal phenomenon which has been increasing in an alarming manner in India.It cannot be dealt with unless the rapists' mindset is understood. Also the attitude of those who are opinionmakers and who wield power. Let us have a glimpse of some views:
●Boys are boys (former UP CM and Union Minister, whose view was criticized even by the UN Secretary General)
●By wearing jeans women provoke men to rape as they think beyond the jeans (celebrated iconic singer Padma Bhushan K.J.Yesudas)
●Don't you have any other news?(Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah when the media asked him questions on the rape of a 7 year old in her school).


Women are objects of pleasure to the males in a society where commodification of the female is taken for granted. Law enforcement agencies are often indifferent even in filing FIR and the police officials are accomplices of the rapists in many instances.When a 16 year old speech and hearing impaired girl was raped in Tamilnadu, police tried to establish it as "masturbation" with the support of a doctor,a woman.


What happened recently in Nagaland when the people broke the jail and lynched the rapist should be a warning to our governments and the insensitive officials. Let not the Indian masses take the law into their hands for inaction of the power structure.

A MAN AND HIS MISSION: GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY

Dr.M.Nadarajah is a quintessential social activist,a crusader of environmental protection,an outstanding social scientist and a brilliant documentary maker.He spent his entire life working in the interconnected issues of social change,development,urbanism,environmentalism,sustainabilty and spirituality.A serious student of Marxism, Nadarajah found the class-reductionist perspective of historical materialism inadequate in addressing various issues related to culture ,ethnicity,gender,ecology,etc .Based on his extensive and in-depth research ,he formulated a "non-workerist model of historical materialism",and the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)awarded Nadarajah PhD for his thesis. His work was published as a critically acclaimed book" Culture,Gender,Ecology:Beyond Workerism" in 1999.Besides contributing numerous socially provocative columns in the print media in Malaysia being an Indian Malaysian,Nadarajah w is no doubtbooks on society,culture,politics,consumerism, etc,and co-edited a famous volume on Urban Crisis which was brought out by the Tokyo-based UN University.

The Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship of the NIPPON Foundation in 2005  took Dr.Nadarajah to various culturally rich and religiously diverse communities in the different countries in the Asia on his "Research Pilgrimage" to understand the  urgency of global sustainabilty as the "business as usual "approach our routine daily existence hides a devastating crisis awaiting to engulf the humanity as a whole.His work has partly been consolidated in  his latest volume LIVING PATHWAYS (published by Areca books) :a combination of  attractive as well as thought provoking photographs of nature captured by his lens and text.The text is divided into different sections or "meditations" on the "cosmologies"of Asia to help self-introspection and social analysis by the reader.The photographs on the opposite side of the texts accentuate the intensity of the meditations.The pictures are to be LOOKED INTO and not merely looked at.There absolutely is no doubt that  LIVING PATHWAYS is a classic on sustainability and spirituality to be read by all and taught to children in all schools.

A  self-effacing Dr.Nadarajah has not found time to set up a family of his own.At 61 he looks forward to many unfinished tasks for accomplishing his mission.Nat (Nadarajah's friends call him so)joined the Madras School of Social Work to understand social work,but discontinued the MA course after the first year feeling disappointed with the lack of depth in social work despite my persuasion. At JNU he found the significance of "social" and since then he has been  in social activism without rest.He keeps a low profile and never seeks recognition for his remarkable academic and societal contribution.I consider it a privilege of being a close associate of the great social scientist Dr. M.Nadarajah

LET US HAVE PRIDE IN BEING AN INDIAN

Science is systematically accumulated body of knowledge. For the sake of discussion science may be categorised into modern science and ancient science. Modern science is the knowledge after the Industrial Revolution. It has,thus,a history of around two centuries. The science and technology after the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism in the West made phenomenally rapid expansion. Ancient science has been evolving steadily in different societies . But the colonisation of most countries by Western powers and the massive exploitation of the weak nations by the capitalist-colonial hegemony retarded and in many instances paralysed the continuity of the ancient science. India is one such exploited nation.

Italian mathematician of the 12th century Leonardo Fibonacci acknowledged in his writing  the pioneering contributions of Hindus in the fields of algebra.arithmetics,algorithm,geometry and astronomy. It is he who introduced the new Indian numerals (now popularly known as Arabic numerals ) through Arabic texts to Europe. There is universal acceptance of the path breaking invention of ZERO by Indian mathematicians  around 520 AD .Prominent names mentioned in the invention of 0 are Arya Bhatta and Varaha Mihira. 0 opened the world of mathematics and other sciences  to many frontiers of knowledge.

Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine has a history of more than 5,000 years .Classical Sanskrit text on medicine Susrat Samhita describes anatomical science much ahead of Hippocrates.Well known writer and International diplomat Shashi Tharoor says that there is no doubt that Sage Susrata was the first surgeon in the world .He performed surgeries using certain instruments within the constraints of his period . Despite lack of support from the World Health Organization which favoured  Western allopathic medicine with enormous funding support ,Ayurveda has survived to be a globally sought after system of health care even by thousands and thousands of patients from UK,US and European countries.

Many Sanskrit texts contain rich information on various scientific themes .Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has admiration for Sanskrit ,which according to him , is more than a mere language.Germans understood the value of Sanskrit and utilised the knowledge for research .But in India, Sanskrit learning has been inhibited by successive governments. The present Indian government has realised the value of our own prestigious language and has made it compulsory for Students under the Central Board of Secondary Education. Sanskrit is now acknowledged as a computer friendly language besides its other advantages.

Recently at the I02th Indian Science Congress, Captain Anand  J Boda presented a well documented paper on " Vedic Science through Sanskrit" and the section on Vedic Science was the most sought after session ( on 4,January ,2015 ). Expectedly various dissenting voices were raised by politicians and scientific followers of "vote bank" politicians. New political and ideological squabbles prevented an objective understanding of the contents of the paper by Capt .Boda.Many did not even hesitate to reject anything by ancient Indians preferring only what the Westerners say : unabashed colonial mentality of the worst order. The government of India may extend funding support to objective minded researchers to document the efforts of early Indians to expand the frontiers of knowledge for the benefit of humanity.