March 2011 - RH

THE RADICAL HUMANISTRs. 20 / month

(Since April 1949)

Formerly : (April 1937- March 1949)Independent India

Founder Editor: M.N. Roy

MARCH 2011

492Vol. 74 No 12

Paul Kurtz’ Philosophy of Humanism — Floris van den Berg

A Travesty Of Election Law — S.N. Shukla

Macro Design with Denmark — Uday Dandavate

Better Planning & Management of Cities Needed — J.S. Chandra Rao

Kashmir Policy of BJP in Various Avtars;Popular Upsurge in Arab World — Balraj Puri

Unnecessary Wrangling — Rajindar Sachar

Remembering Kanhaiyalal Purohit — B.D. Sharma

Editorial Comment:Contemporary Youth—Our Guide for Future! — Rekha Saraswat

THE RADICAL HUMANIST MARCH 2011

The Radical Humanist

Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance

Institute

Devoted to the development of the Renaissance

Movement; and for promotion of human rights,

scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist

view of life.

Founder Editor:

M.N. Roy

Editor:

Dr. Rekha Saraswat

Contributory Editors:

Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Justice R.A. Jahagirdar

(Retd.), Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor Rama Kundu

Publisher:

Mr. N.D. Pancholi

Printer:

Mr. N.D. Pancholi

Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence

Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph.

91-121-2620690, 09719333011,

E-mail articles at: [email protected]

Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of

‘The Radical Humanist’to:

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Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600

Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability

for corroborating the facts that they give in their

write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor

of this journal will be responsible for testing the

validity and authenticity of statements &

information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes

some articles published in this journal may carry

opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist

philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the

need is felt to debate and discuss upon them.

Rekha Saraswat

Vol. 74 Number 12 March 2011

Download and read the journal at

www.theradicalhumanist.com

- Contents -

1. From the Editor’s Desk:

Contemporary Youth—Our Guide for Future!

—Rekha Saraswat 1

2. Contributory Editors’ Section:

Suno Bhai Sadho, Kahe Kabir, Suno Bhai Sadho”

—R.A. Jahagirdar 2

3. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:

Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 4

4. Guests’ Section:

Macro Design with Denmark

—Uday Dandavate 7

A Travesty Of Election Law

—S.N. Shukla 10

Better Planning and Management of Cities Needed

— J.S. Chandra Rao 14

5. Current Affairs:

Unnecessary Wrangling

—Rajindar Sachar 16

Kashmir Policy of BJP in Various Avtars &

Popular Upsurge in Arab World

—Balraj Puri 18

6. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:

Financial Exclusion: Concept, Nature and Extent

—Mahendra Mishra 22

7. Book Review Section:

Making of History:Making of Harsha Vardhana

—Dipavali Sen 26

Paul Kurtz’ Philosophy of Humanism

—Floris van den Berg 28

An Essay on Upanishads (A Critical Study)

—Kavneet Singh 33

8. Remembering Kanhaiyalal Purohit

—B.D. Sharma 36

From the Editor’s Desk:

Contemporary Youth—Our Guide

for Future!

I had written in my last editorial that “weneed to help our youth to re-define his ownself so that he is able to re-define thesociety, the state and the world aroundhim.” I had also reposed faith in his capacity tochange the history of this world. And I hadproposed to discuss as to how to go about makinggood use of youth synergy, in this month’seditorial.

The first, the foremost effort that we need to makeis to bring about a change in our own mind-set. We,particularly those from the developing world, livein a ‘prismatic society’ (in Fred Riggs’ terms)where, with the passing of time, we begin to claimthat our added years in age have made us seers andsages and that the youth miss this experience of life.But we forget that the present time has changed theentire scenario of this world so drastically that ourknowledge of past years carries little or no meaningto their contemporary problems.

We may try to belittle them by calling themself-centered, materialistic and selfishly followingtheir own, narrow dreams but the stark reality is justthe reverse.

Population influx, mass exodus from native placesto unknown lands both within and without theirown national boundaries more in search of basicamenities than for greener pastures, facing abjectalienation in the urban rural hiatus, watching thegradual shattering of all pre-set notions andpre-learnt norms both in values and in culture whilefighting with scathing poverty and unemployment,finding stiff competition in every opportunity thatseems to come their way, defining survival-tacticson a daily basis!!

All this, and yet not despairing; still going on;simultaneously, continuously trying to find smallmoments of pleasure and relief in their fast running,slipping-by jinxed reality of existence! And we tryto teach them the values of life!!

Did we come across an iota of the kind ofcomplexities they are encountering?

I suggest, for once, we need to make theyouth our guide in the world reformationprogramme!! We do not have much to lose.But who knows what we may gain, in theprocess!! Let them form our moral code!

Let them decide about the good and bad of life!

Let them do the balancing act between the past andthe present; between the backward and the forward;between the educated and the illiterate; between therich and the poor; between the modern and thetraditional.

Let us for once leave them to themselves to decideabout their own future, their society’s future andtheir country’s future.

Let us stop setting principles for their acts andbegin to have faith upon their ethical sense.

Once we give them a free hand, at least, theimmediate benefit that I find is that the modernyouth will straight away stop differentiatingamongst each other on the basis of class and caste,sex and region, community and religion. I havenever seen them practicing any kind ofdiscrimination when they are together in schoolsand colleges, in parties and get-togethers, onface-books and twitters, as long as their elders donot interfere and inflict their ‘honour games’ and‘traditional-blames’ upon them.

Let them remake their world to their own liking andlet us, for once, try to taste its flavour passively.

After all, their philosophers would be morescientific and techno-savvy, who will view thisworld with a more pragmatic and technical eye!!They will have no choice but to make this ‘worldtheir village’ by the use of the internet.‘Nation-states’ and national-boundaries wouldnaturally wither away amalgamating into onenation out of interdependence and ‘wars’ becomingthings of the past, in the process! Who knows theirPlatos and Aristotles may envisage such newervisions and forms of states and nations where truedemocracy and justice may prevail ultimately!!

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Rekha Saraswat

Contributory Editor’s Column:

[Justice R.A. Jahagirdar (Retd.), former

President of Indian Radical Humanist

Association and former Editor of ‘The Radical

Humanist’ is now one of the members of the

Contributing Editorial Board of The Radical

Humanist.]

“Suno Bhai Sadho, Kahe Kabir,Suno Bhai Sadho”

These words have immortalized Kabir, asaint of 14th Century. He is not, was not,

called “Sant” or “Sadhu” during or after his life.That is partly because he did not speak of Godwhich would have attracted people around him. Inhis poems, called “dohas” he calls himself“Bhante”. He did not establish any sect.

Kabir was born approximately in 1440 in Kashi, asit was then known. There are many stories of hisbirth. Commonly it was said that a weaver couplefound him near a lake. The couple, Niru and Nima,belonged to caste known as Julaha. Though it wasknown as a caste, it was a sect of Musalmans. SoKabir grew up as a Musalman. As a result, neitherMusalmans of that time nor Hindus accepted him.

Julaha community was poor. In that community, inpoverty, Kabir grew up as a weaver. Julahacommunity was weaver community. Normally thatcommunity was a poor community.

Kabir wanted to know more about life and death.

He was in search of a Guru. He went to Ramanandaof Vaishnav sect, but Ramananda refused to accepthim, maybe because Kabir was Julaha. But Kabirhad great “Bhakti” in Ramananda as a guru in hismind. The story goes that Kabir lay on the stepleading to a ghat. Ramananda while returning fromthe ghat accidentally stepped upon Kabir and said“Ram, Ram”. Kabir accepted this as Ramananda’sway of accepting a disciple. He also accepted SufiSaint Shekhat as a guru, a fact which shows thatKabir was not a sectarian.

He was growing up in poverty. He also saw thepeople around him. He saw the exploitation ofthose whom we call Dalits today. He wascontinuously thinking about this as also otherproblems. Kabir was, however, familiar about thecurrent philosophy, sects, and rituals. He also knewabout the Saints of those philosophy and sects. Hewas aware of the hardships of the people whoblindly believed in those saints and Sadhus. Peoplewere slaves of rituals and traditions. He examinedHindu, Muslim, Vaishnav, etc. philosophies andfound them devoid of true guidance. He said in oneof the earliest dohas:

“If they call me Hindu, I am not,

Nor am a Musalman.

I am a statue of a metal of this world.”

To say this one required a lot of courage in thosedays. No one till that time had said such a thing.Nobody had opposed religion. Kabir rejected boththe major religions.

In another Doha he says

“Only Allah is eternal.

I am neither Hindu nor Turk.

I do not observe any rites.

I neither do any Puja nor do I say Namaz.”

It was very courageous to say all this. He did notsubscribe to any religion. He said that they call hima Hindu or Musalman and they fight amongthemselves. He did not say “Namaz” nor did heperform any Puja. For him these were only rituals.God did not dwell in them. Devotion could not be

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R.A. Jahagirdar

measured by them.

He did not believe in “Tirth Kshetra” because,according to him, they only contained water, notGod. Does water lead one to God? Then, saidKabir, fish must go to heaven. On idol worship hesaid, idols are only stones. On the other hand,grinding stone is better because it helps to provideflour.

God, ultimately, dwelt in hearts of men, neither intemples, masjids, and sanyas nor in any ritual. Itmust be remembered that Kabir was not an atheist.He believed in knowledge which would liberate.That is, knowledge would lead to liberation. Withthis he tried to educate and enlighten thedowntrodden.

Sultan Sikandar disapproved whatever Kabirsaid. He tried to silence Kabir, but did not succeed.Kabir never talked of compromise. He wasclear-headed in his mind and he talked what hebelieved.

There are many legends about Kabir. Suffice to sayKabir himself did not codify his teachings. He was

fond of oral teaching in the form of small poemswhich were called “bijaks”. The language of“bijaks” was Hindi which was the language of thatregion. Did Kabir himself write? The answer isdoubtful. A disciple named Bhagwandas issupposed to have reduced to writing what Kabirpreached.

Kabir passed away in 1511. Both Hindus andMuslims claimed his body. When the clothcovering his body was removed, so the story goes,it was found to contain a bundle of flower. Hindustook away half and Muslims took away the otherhalf. Till today nobody knows whether Kabir wasburied or cremated. Kabir himself did not foundany sect; but there are Kabir Panths. Ambedkar’sPanther was a Kabir Panth, though Ambedkar wasnot.

Kabir’s one Doha says:

“O servant, where dost thou seek me?

Lo! I am beside thee.

I am neither in temple nor in Kaaba.”

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Dear Friends, PLEASE DO NOT SEND ARTICLES BEYOND 1500-2000 WORDS. Also, inform me

whether they have been published elsewhere. And, please try to email them at [email protected] instead of

sending them by post. You may post them (only if email is not possible) at C-8 Defence Colony, Meerut,

250001, U.P., India. Do also email your passport size photographs as separate attachments (in JPG format) as

well as your small introduction, if you are contributing for the first time. Please feel free to contact me at

91-9719333011 for any other querry. —Rekha Saraswat

From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:

Spiritual Materialism – A case for Atheism

Translated by — Arundhati Khandkar

[The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for

Atheism, A New Interpretation of the

Philosophy of Materialism written by

Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been

translated by his daughter, Arundhati

Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of

Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of

Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades

ago but his contribution in building up the

philosophical base of Radical Humanism has

been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time

and the followers of the philosophy continue to do

so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her

father’s major works from to Marathi to English

for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH.

And to our pleasant surprise she informed that

there is already the above mentioned book in

English done by her. It is being serialised in The

Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has

also promised to send us in English, gradually,

more of his Marathi literature.

Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title

Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How

meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70

years later, can be understood by the following

paragraph given on the cover page of the book.

—Rekha Saraswat]

“That religion more often than not tends toperpetuate the existing social structure rather thanbeing reformist and that it benefits the upperclasses. They perpetrate the illusions and are usedfor impressing the weaker sections of the society.Many taboos which might have had somebeneficial effects are given a permanent sanctionand these put a fetter on further progress. Theargument that religion promotes social stability andsocial harmony is examined and rejected. Withoutthe dubious benefit of religion various secularworldly values have been developed and they havebenefited mankind more than the vaunted religious

values. With no sops of religion men have labouredhard and the finest admirable qualities of men’sspirit have been developed inspite of religiousinfluence – the scientists and the reformers areexamples. The humility that should force itself inthe presence of the infinite and the unknown ismore to be seen with the scientist, the philosopherthan the religious leaders and often this drives themto fathom the depths of thought in the quest fortruth. Rarely does religion explain the how andwhy. These have become the preoccupations ofpeople in secular fields. With a sense ofself-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, manhas dropped the earlier props of religion. In Indiatoo, the social order was seen as embodying moralvalues.”

Contd. from the previous issue............

Consistent concrete reality, direct experience,

practice & ideology:

Tangible object or concrete reality alone is thesphere of direct experience and human practice.Sensory knowledge or experience cannot come intoexistence in the absence of concrete or tangibleobjects. All human activities are practised with theview of tangible or concrete objects in mind.Experience originating from practice should be thefoundation of all the ideologies. Practice involvestenacious efforts by human beings. Philosophicaltheory consistent with the trident of concretereality, direct experience and practice is a powerfulweapon for the conduct of human life. Theideology that treats concrete reality as secondaryand dissociates human practice from epistemologycreates truly a hazard for human progress.Epistemology that disregards concrete reality andhuman efforts is a great risk for human progress. 17

The philosophy in which an unbroken chain ofconcrete reality, practice and direct experience isformed is the philosophy that becomes the trueinstrument of human progress.

Practice: Test of Theory - Human efforts and theresulting experience do the work of cementing therelationship between an idea and an object. It

4


proves thereby in direct practice theappropriateness of any ideology. Logicalconsistency alone or even mental satisfaction givenby some theory is not sufficient to establish itsvalidity. On the contrary it is necessary that thetheory must prove itself in practice. It must succeedin practice and if it does fail therein, it should betaken to be contaminated by wrong ideas andprejudice for sure. Practice is the foundation andthe test of a theory.

Objection to Practice as the Test of Theory - Theprinciple that the source and the test of any theory isdirect experiment or experience raises a substantialobjection. There are many sciences which have nodirect relation with human activities and directexperience. How can one test the science ofastronomy which deals with the nature of stars andthe interstellar distances, which are removed fromthe human world and direct experience? How doeshuman business connect with the situation on themoon or Mars? Again there is no direct relationwith human activities in respect of many abstruseconcepts in mathematics. The events described byarchaeology and which happened within the core ofthe earth, millions of years ago, cannot be thesubject of direct experiment. If that is the case, wewill have to say that many theories of the abovesciences are useless. This objection can beoverruled as follows. First, the theories that do notpossess direct experimental or experientialconnection do acquire inferior or secondary status.Second, those ideas which have no directconnection with experience are in fact constructedusing the track of the traditional experimental orexperiential theory. These ideas do possess indirectrelation with the direct. There cannot exist a theorythat has no traceable relationship with the directexperience, no matter how subtle or how removedfrom direct experiment it may be! Directexperiment is the supreme knowledge in allphilosophy, because it is the mediatory authoritybetween the general theory and the reality.

Navigation and Experience - Experience is theoutcome or the conclusion of a social practice.

Most of the secrets of nature reveal their truecharacter through the help of continuous and longexperience. Knowledge of the periodic winds andsea currents has become available to man as a resultof the thousands of years of practice of oceanicnavigation. Knowledge of the objects whichexisted in the past for unaccountable years becomesavailable only through relentless efforts ofthousands of years. Phoenicians, Greeks, andAlexandrians spent hundreds of years in navigationby sea. They, however, did not acquire goodenough knowledge of the periodic winds andoceanic currents. That knowledge reached maturityonly due to the improvement and expansion of theglobal navigational experience of the commercialcapitalists in the 15th and 16th Centuries. The growthof this knowledge is the result of the maritimeexperiences of the past ages. Behind the treasure ofknowledge in every epoch lies the sum andsubstance of past historical practices.

New Science of Materials - Materialism assigns theforemost position in the theory of knowledge to theexperience originating in practice or experiment.There is therefore no place whatsoever in it forunknowable, the Kantian Thing in Itself. Kant haspresumed the mysterious reality, inaccessible to thesenses and beyond mental reach. When man createsthings with efforts by his intellect, he establishesmanifestly that the Thing in Itself is neithermysterious, nor forever beyond his mental reach.Industrial production is the true evidence for theknowability of a thing. Man produces not only theexact copy of an object which exists already innature, but reformulates it into various differentnovel configurations. He essentially achievesmaterial transformation. Organic compounds wereessentially unknown in the first half of the 19th

Century. Nowadays, these, independent of thebodily organ processes, they can be reproduced.During the developmental stages of a society, studyof the prior unknown nature of a material and itsgrowth sequence becomes the subject matter ofexperimental knowledge. The branches of sciencesuch as thermodynamics, chemistry and electricity

5


are nothing but the newly formulated laws of mattermaking their debut on the modern evolutionarystage of society.

Question of Objective Truth and the Agnostics Thequestion in metaphysics of the accessibility of theobjective truth to the human mind or thought doesnot really belong to the realm of either purespeculation or theoretical debate. What isexpressed Tatvasangraha aphorism is themeaningful pursuit of object related activitiesregarding the nature of the objective truth and itsrelationship with practicality. 15 In philosophicaltradition, this question is presented as fundamental!Even a great many philosophers fail to realise thatthis question has direct relation to human activitiesor practice. Hunters, fishermen, mine explorers,criminal detectives, professionals, andbusinessmen are engaged in the search of findingundiscovered objects. In their efforts, they getanswers to their questions; they discover the thingshidden before.

The nature of existence of a thing, involves itspotential of being explicitly real during the processof discovery. It is the fruitfulness or the successfulactivity that is the test of truth.

Ether an aluminiferous gas of unbelievableproperties was hypothesized by the mid-nineteenthcentury physicists. Ether was a gas invisible tohuman eye but of rigidity greater than that of steel.It also possessed two functions: 1) Acting as amedium of transfer for transverse waves of light. 2)Serving as a reference point to measure motion. In1887 Michelson- Morley experiment disproved theexistence of ether. Einstein’s special theory ofrelativity in 1905 showed that determining absolutemotion was useless and search for etherunnecessary. Ether had the potential of being realduring discovery effort and had a functionalpurpose. Nature of ether was found to be eventuallyfictitious. Ether, the thing had no objective truth!

Philosophers who only spin ideas and discussabstract concepts will never be able to solve the real

issue, because they have not understood the directrelation of this issue to practice. Agnosticism ofHume and Kant is very close to speculativeabstruse ideas. The successful effort is the onlymost important test of the world accessible to ourthought. Our knowledge itself finds its expressionin the form of objective reality through experiment.We embrace directly the very object itself throughour productive efforts. Materialism asserts thatwhen human efforts establish a close contact withthe external world, and gradually change its naturealso, and then it is proven that the truth is found andhugged. Only thereafter, objective truth, removingits own veil of mystery, is reflected in the pool ofhuman knowledge.

Truth of Mathematicians - Descartes has stated thecriterion of truth. Truth is, according to him, theclear and definite nature of all our thoughts andideas. Kant has enunciated that the ‘universal’ and‘necessary’ as the characteristics of knowledgedepict the nature of truth. It was proclaimed in thetwentieth century tradition of mathematical logic,that a series of theorems logically consistent andbroad, alone is the test of truth. The prominentproponents of this theory were the mathematicianphilosophers such as Russell, Cantor and Hilbert.All these philosophers searched truth only in theintellectual matrix of concepts outside the contextof the external universe. Such a formalisation,however, could not succeed for the followingreasons. 1) There exist many types of logic. 2)Goedel showed conclusively the limits of such aformalisation. 3) Epistemology explainsknowledge within the sphere of science as is andthis knowledge is not purely formal. BertrandRussell finally had to abandon his approach ofmathematical formalisation to truth after thepublication of Goedel’s ‘Incompleteness Theorem’in the field of mathematics in 1931.

References:

15- Ludwig Feuerbach pp. 32-33

17- Columbia University Press, New York

Contd. in the next issue...

6


Guests’ Section:

From the U.S.A.

[Uday Dandavate studies people, cultures and

trends worldwide and uses the understanding

gained from such studies to inspire

people-centered innovation strategies. Uday

Dandavate heads up a design research consulting

firm called SonicRim. He frequently writes and

speaks on topics related to people-centered

design and innovation in international journals

and conferences.]

Macro Design with Denmark

Denmark is going to establish an“Innovation center” in Asia to facilitate

closer cooperation between Asia and Denmark forstrategic innovation and design. Recently I had theopportunity to meet with a senior consultant fromthe Danish Chamber of Commerce, who is also alobbyist for the Innovation center.

We brainstormed about what might be a sharedplatform for strategic collaboration between Asiaand Denmark. This conversation, combined withmy recent involvement with various projects inDenmark, has helped me gain a fresh perspectiveon Denmark’s unique potential as a partner countryin the global arena. Danish Design is knownworldwide for simple, functional furniture. Theeffects of the industrial revolution reachedDenmark relatively late. Denmark was able todevelop its own design language that is, even today,inspired by high-quality craftsmanship. ArneJacobsen, a well-known furniture designer, createdthe iconic Ant Chair in 1951. Another iconicrepresentation of Danish design is the Sydney

Opera House, designed by Danish architect JørnUtzon. LEGO is another example of Denmark’slasting imprint on the world. Often I cite examplesof LEGO to illustrate the point that a design processis complete only when it takes on its own form inthe imagination of the end-user. Good design, Ibelieve, is one that provides users the flexibility toperceive it, use it, change it, and experience it ontheir own terms, rather than one that imposes howthe designer wants the users to experience it.Generic LEGO blocks offer that flexibility. LEGOblocks morph into a variety of forms and scenarioswithin the imagination of millions of children andadults around the world. Bang & Olufsen is anotherexample of Danish simplicity raised to a level ofhigh design. Danish design reflects Danish values,social relationships, and the psychology of anaverage Dane. One cannot understand the valueof innovation and design in Denmark withoutunderstanding Danish people and their culture.

The 2010 Legatum Prosperity Index, whichproduces rankings of countries based upon factorsthat will help drive economic growth and producehappy citizens over the long term, has rankedDenmark second globally. Relatively, the UnitedStates, a global super power, ranks 10th on theProsperity Index. Ireland and Iceland come in at11th and 12th respectively, even before the UnitedKingdom’s position at number 13.Understandinghow Danes manage their happiness and senseof well-being can help struggling countries bringprosperity to their citizens using economic toolsand measurements. Danes have a deep and activeinvolvement in political decisions, and a veryresponsible social and civil attitude. At 90 percent,Denmark’s voting rate is highest in the world. Theysubscribe to the ideal of the welfare state, whichfollows the principle that each member of societyhas equal rights and access to social support andsocial benefits.

According to Limbistraine.com: “Danish culturalfeatures and values are connected in a network builton relations of interdependence. The consequenceof living in a society where material

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Uday Dandavate

and psychological benefits are accessible andtangible is the feeling of safety and comfort. TheDanish way of thinking is: It is more sensible tohave a secure life than to take big risks.”

“Together, with the sense of sharing and the senseof community, the feeling of security supports theideal of the welfare state. An explanation for thisrespect for equality would be the sense of moralobligation: “they (Danes) share with others, if notgladly, then from a sense of moral obligation.”

“The Danes detest authority. There is no bowingand scraping to anyone in Denmark. The keywordsfor such a system are closeness, informality,friendship, and trust. A high priority given to thedevelopment of social behavior, which is alsoreflected in the three fundamental constituents ofDanish school” the non-authoritarian method,co-determination, and equality” has at best resultedin the allocation of equal status to the generalformative aspects of education in relation to theattainment of qualifications.” (Limbistraine.com)

Hygge, a Danish term that means warmth ofsuccessful informality, is considered a foundationof the Danish lifestyle, play, and freedom –essential parts of daily routines. This progressivemindset can be seen from the fact that same-sexmarriage was legalized in Denmark in 1989. Mybelief – that we need to embrace new mindsets andnew tools beyond economic measures of progressto bring quality of life and a sense of well being toour people – stems from observing small andcontent communities, such as the Danes. I oftengive examples of Scandinavian countries’ socialand economic policies during arguments withconservative leanings among my friends. Theyoften remind me that Scandinavian success –managing economic progress while ensuring socialjustice – is not scalable to a large country like theUnited States. That is when I argue that America’sfocus on super-sizing everything, from French friesto its super-power status, gets in the way of using itsresources responsibly and in bringing happiness toits people. America is the richest country in the

world, is a leader in technological innovation, andhas the mightiest military force, yet it is behindNorway, Denmark, Finland, Australia, NewZealand, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, and theNetherlands in its global prosperity ranking.America’s obsession with scale, speed, andefficiency gets in the way of achieving whatrelatively smaller communities, such as the Danes,have been able to afford their citizens. One of myfavorite Norwegian anthropologists, ThomasHylland Eriksen, wrote in his book, Tyranny of theMoment, Fast and Slow in the Information Age:We are unwittingly being slaved by the verytechnology that promised liberation. It isimpossible to applaud the current drift towards asociety where everything stands still at enormousspeed. (Eriksen, 2001)There is a need to return to apace of life that affords people sanity and balance.The public policies need to be reconsidered toensure cultivation of resourceful communities. Anexample of an alternative approach could be foundin India’s ongoing experiment with “PanchayatiRaj” (a federation of village communities), whichwill ultimately help develop smaller, indigenous,and self-reliant communities. The Danish senseof moral obligation for interdependent living, andits success in cultivating and encouraging innatecreative talent amongst its communities, canbecome an inspiration for Asian countries such asChina and India. The goal of such collaborationshould not be just productive outputs, but buildingof social capital. The progress of this collaborationshould be measured in terms of the trust,reciprocity, and social networks it helps cultivatewithin these communities through the harnessingof indigenous creativity. Ultimately, suchcollaboration will help establish a convivial societywhich affords its citizens a life of “joyful sobrietyand liberating austerity.” (Illich, 73) Theopportunity for collaboration between Denmarkand Asia can be best summarized in the words ofProf. M.P. Ranjan, an internationally recognizeddesign thinker, design teacher, and blogger fromIndia. Prof. Ranjan recommended a

8


community-centered approach in his presentation,“Inclusive Design for Development in India” at therecent World Economic forum in Devos: “We mayneed to make some fundamental changes inour design education approaches and widen thebase for action – a shift from a focus on businessand industry to the design for public good that isoperational at the local community level.” (Ranjan,2011) Denmark’s opportunity to have long-lastingpartnerships in Asia will depend on its ability to

establish community-centric learning networksthat benefit from alignment of values and cultures. Ibelieve there is a natural resonance between thevalues Danes cherish and the lifestyles andmindsets of Asian people. While Asian countriescan share their rich cultural resources withDenmark, Danes can share their experienceof translating the cultural mindset intocontemporary design.

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Declaration of ownership and other particulars regarding The Radical Humanist

Place of Publication: New Delhi

Periodicity of the Publication: Monthly

Printer’s Name: N.D. Pancholi

Citizenship: Indian

Address: 1183-Chhatta Madan Gopal

Mali Wara, Delhi, 110006

Publisher’s Name: N.D. Pancholi

Citizenship: Indian

Address: 1183-Chhatta Madan Gopal

Mali Wara, Delhi, 110006

Editor’s Name: Rekha Saraswat

(Controls the selection of the

matter published in the journal (as per the

Press and Registration of Books Act, 1857)

Citizenship: Indian

Address: C-8-Defence Colony

Meerut 250001, U.P.

Name and Address of the Individual who owns Indian Renaissance Institute

the journal and partners and share holders of more A-12-Neeti Bagh

than one percent of the capital: New Delhi, 110049

I, N.D. Pancholi, hereby, declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge

and belief.

Dated: 1st March, 2011 N.D. Pancholi

Publisher

[Mr. S.N. Shukla belonged to 1967 batch of IAS

and retired as Chairman State Vigilance

Commission, U.P., after serving as Industrial

Development Commissioner and Administrative

Member Board of Revenue. Topper of the 1964

L.L.B. Exam of undivided Agra University, he has

taken to legal profession after his retirement from

service in February 2003 basically to take up

public issues and to procure justice for the poor.

As ‘General Secretary of ‘Lok Prahri’, he has

been conducting several PILs in Lucknow Bench

of Allahabad High Court and also in the Supreme

Court.]

A Travesty Of Election Law

Sub sections (6) and (7) of Section 86 ofthe Representation of the People Act

1951 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) provide asfollows-

“(6) The trial of an election petition shall, so far asis practicable consistently with the interests of

justice in respect of the trial, be continued from dayto day until is conclusion, unless the High Courtfinds the adjournment to the trial beyond the

following day to be necessary for reasons to be

recorded.

(7) Every election petition shall be tried asexpeditiously as possible and endeavour shall bemade to conclude the trial within six months fromthe date on which the election petition is presented

to the High Court for trial.”

Clause (c) of Section 98 of the Act provides that atthe conclusion of the trial of an election petition theHigh Court can make an order declaring theelection of all or any of the returned candidates tobe void and the petitioner or any other candidate tohave been duly elected.

Sub Section (1) of Section 116-A of the Act runs asfollows-

“116-A (1) Not withstanding anything contained inany other law for the time being in force, an appealshall lie to the Supreme Court on any question

(whether of law or fact) from every order made by aHigh Court under Section 98 or Section 99”

In the case of Green View Tea & Industries vs.Collector Golaghat1 it was observed that no Court,not even the Supreme Court, has the power to passan order against a valid statutory provision. Thepresent case is a glaring example of the aforesaidprovisions of law being violated in utter disregardof the law laid down on the subject by the ApexCourt. As brought out hereinafter, the electionpetition was not heard on day to day basis despiterepeated oral and written requests. It was dismissedon 22.1.2010 after more than 5 years on thepreliminary issues about its maintainability withouteven mentioning in the judgment the 33 issuesframed in March 2006. To cap it all the statutoryappeal under Section 116-A was also dismissed inlimine like a SLP by a one line order without evenmentioning any reason as to why it could not beentertained.

An election petition (4 of 2004) was filed on13.7.2004 on behalf of Madan Mohan, a Congresscandidate for Rajya Sabha election in June 2004from U.P. State Assembly constituency,challenging the farcical unopposed election ofSharva Shri Arun Shourie, Kamaal Akhtar, NandKishore, Smt. Jaya Bachchan, Bhagwati Singh, Ms.Mayawati, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Ram NarainSahu, Satish Chandra Mishra, Anil DhirubhaiAmbani, and Lalit Suri. The challenge was mainlyon the ground, inter alia, that the nomination papers

10


S.N. Shukla

of both the Congress candidates (the petitioner andrespondent no 12) were wrongly rejected and thoseof respondents no. 2, 4, 5 and 10 were wronglyaccepted. In the said election petition the petitionerhad also made a prayer for being declared elected interms of Section 98(C) of the Act. The respondentno. 12 also filed another election petition (No. 8 of2004) challenging the said election.

The said Election Petition, along with the officereport about compliance of Section 81, 82, 83 and117 of the Act, mandated under Rule 3 of ChapterXV –A of the High Court Rules, was laid before thenominated judge on 27.7.2004. The said officereport did not point out any non-compliance of theaforesaid provisions.

Originally the court copy of the election petitionand its copies for the respondents had pagenumbering only up to page 36. This will be amplyborne out by the extra copy of the election petitionfiled along with it in compliance of Rules 11 (e) oforder 7 of the CPC. However, while hearing theelection petition the Hon’ble nominated Judge, forthe sake of his convenience in referring todocuments filed with the election petition, askedthe petitioner’s counsel to do page numbering onthe documents also and indicate the same in the listof documents. The matter was passed over for 15minutes during which the direction of the Hon’bleJudge was complied with.

Upon being prima facie satisfied that the electionpetition was not liable to be dismissed underSection 86(1), the Hon’ble nominated judge waspleased to order issue of notice to the respondentsunder Rule 5 of Chapter XV-A of the High CourtRules.

Before the issuance of notices the election petitionwas allowed to be amended to the effect that thenomination paper of respondent no. 11 (Shri LalitSuri) was also illegally accepted as his affidavit in

Form 26 was no affidavit at all as it had not been

sworn since it did not say that he was making thestatement on oath or even solemn affirmation.Accordingly, this amendment was incorporated in

the respondents’ copies with the Registry beforethe issue of notices to them.

Sensing that the petitioner had a foolproof case inview of the glaring substantial defect in thenomination paper of respondent no. 11, 8 out of the11 respondents filed several applications tosomehow get the election petition dismissed at thethreshold on the basis of frivolous, contrived, andfarfetched objections about its maintainability.Replies to all these were filed promptly by thepetitioner.

The petitioner moved an application dated 9.2.2005for disposal of various applications includingagainst the maintainability of the election petitionand also his application for summoning of record toestablish that the resignation of the respondent no.4 from the Office of Chairperson UP FilmDevelopment Council was antedated afterpetitioner’s objection to her nomination. Inpursuance of the order dated 15.7.2005 the recordsrelating to the resignation of the respondent no. 4were sealed by the Registrar of the High Court.

Since the pleas in the various applications of therespondents of the election petition were alreadyincluded in their written statements, instead oftaking up each of the numerous applicationsseparately, the nominated Judge proceeded toframe the issues. Draft issues were framed on2.12.2005 but finalized on 21.3.2006.

In March 2006 Mrs. Jaya Bachchan (respondent no.4), who was re-appointed as Chairperson of UPFilm Development Council after her impugnedelection, was disqualified by the President underArticle 102 of the Constitution on the compliant ofthe appellant. Following this Shri Anil Ambani(respondent No. 10) also resigned from themembership of Rajya Sabha. The WP No. (C) 199of 2006 filed by Mrs. Bachchan against herdisqualification was dismissed by the Apex Courton 8.5.2006.

I. Non- Compliance of Section 86(6) (7)

With the dismissal of the said WP the petitioner hadalready won half the battle. Now he had only to

11


show that the resignation of Mrs. Bachchan fromthe same post prior to her election was ante-datedafter the petitioner’s objection to her candidatureon the same ground. This would have been evidentfrom the record sealed under orders of thenominated Judge, once the election petition washeard on merits.

Soon after framing of the issues, the petitionermoved an application dated 2.4.2006 forsummoning of witnesses. In the said application arequest was made for summoning Dr. AshokNigam, Sr. Advocate (who had conductedpetitioner’s matter before the Returning Officer) todispose about the markings on the photocopy of thecertified copy of the petitioner’s affidavit in Form26 and Shri P.K. Tripathi Advocate to depose aboutthe paging in the court copy of the election petition.

Rattled by the decision of the Apex Court in thecase of disqualification of Ms. Bachchan, therespondents made an all out effort to stall the trial ofelection petition. As a result, there was no progressin the matter. Even after the framing of the issuesthe election petition was not taken up for hearingand there were long gaps of even more than 2months in the listing of the same. On the expediteapplication of the petitioner the Hon’ble ChiefJustice was pleased to pass the following order on19.4.2007-

“Heard, Mr. S.N. Shukla in support of thisapplication.

This is an Election Petition. Mr. Shukla submitsthat half of the term is nearly over and the petitionbe heard at the earliest.

It is informed that the matter is at the stage ofissuance of witnesses- Summon. The learned Judgeis requested to hear and decide the petition at the

earliest.

The application stands disposed of”.

However, despite the aforesaid order of theHon’ble Chief Justice, there was little progress inthe matter. Thereupon, the petitioner filed anotherexpedite application before the Hon’ble ChiefJustice, on which the Hon’ble Chief Justice was

pleased to pass the following order on 18.7.2008-

“Heard Mr. Umesh Chandra learned SeniorAdvocate with Mr. Shukla for petitioner. Matter isnot on the cause list and hence the council for therespondents is not present.

The petition is already directed to be expedited andthe matter is listed before the concerned Judge. Noneed to pass any further order.

Learned Judge is once again requested to take upthe election petition early. Application disposedof.”

Thereafter, the nominated Hon’ble Judge declinedto proceed further in the matter and the case wastransferred to Hon’ble Mr. Justice D.P. Singh.Subsequently, the matter was listed on 5.9.2008,12.9.2008, 26.9.2008, 17.10.2008, 6.11.2008,21.11.2008 and lastly on 5.12.2008 at serial no. 17at 3 p.m. but there was no sitting of the Hon’bleCourt on the last date. In between the Hon’bleJudge sat single on several dates, e.g. on 1.10.2008,13.10.2008, 18.10.2008, 21.10.2008, 24.10.2008,4.11.2008, 5.11.2008, 7.11.2008, 12.11.2008,14.11.2008, 17.11.2008, 20.11.2008, but the matterwas not even listed before him. Thereupon thepetitioner filed an application dated 12.12.2008 forday to day hearing of the election petition.However, on this the Hon’ble nominated Judgeexpressed his inability to order listing of the matterfor day to day hearing as he was sitting in a Bench.

The petitioner thereupon, filed before the Hon’bleChief Justice another expedite application dated17.12.2008. However, instead of deciding theaforesaid application on judicial side the Hon’bleChief Justice passed the following order on19.12.2008 on the Administrative side-

“The learned Judge is requested to take up thematter at his convenience in January 09 by sittingsingly, at the earliest possible”.

The learned counsel for the respondents’ no. 3, 5,and 8 concluded his arguments on themaintainability of the election petition on30.1.2009. He was given 10 days time to submit hiswritten arguments. Thereafter, the matter was fixed

12


on 13.2.2009 but he did not appear on that date andthe matter was fixed for 5.3.2009, when the counselfor other respondents adopted the argumentsadvanced on behalf of respondents’ no. 3, 5 and 8.The matter was ordered to be listed in the weekcommencing 13.4.2009. The matter was listed on15.4.2009 but there was no sitting. Thereafter itwas listed on 27.4.2009 but was adjourned on theground of illness of a junior to the counsel for therespondents’ no. 3, 5 and 8. On 11.5.2009 thematter was passed over in the first round and wastaken up just before the rising of the Court.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted his reply (alongwith revised index of the rulings relied upon byhim) on 15.5.2009 to the written submission of therespondents no. 3, 5 and 8 about the maintainabilityof the election petition. The petitioner’s counselwas heard on 22.5.2009 and the matter was fixedfor 25.5.2009 for further hearing. However, therewas no sitting of the Hon’ble Court on that date.Upon the petitioner’s application dated 27.5.2009for deciding preliminary issues the matter wasfixed on 2.7.2009 when the respondents’ counselsought further time to file objection to it. The saidapplication was disposed of on 9.7.2009 asmisconceived and the matter was fixed for17.8.2009.

When the hearing on the maintainability of theelection petition could not be completed even in 6months after the exchange of written arguments,the petitioner moved an application dated12.12.2008 for day to day hearing of the electionpetition as stipulated in Section 87(6) of the Act andin terms of the decision of this Hon’ble Court inAIR 2004 SC 1975 and the orders of the Hon’bleChief Justice dated 9.4.2007 and 18.7.2008.

However, no order was passed on the said

application and the order in the matter was reservedon 18.12.2009. Finally, the election petition wasdismissed on the ground of maintainability videjudgment dated 22.1.2010. A cost of Rs. 50,000was also imposed on the petitioner for the reasonswhich formed grounds of dismissal. By anotherjudgment of the same date the election petition filedby the respondent no. 12 was also dismissed eventhough these grounds were not applicable in thatcase. Thus, due to non observance of the provisionof Section 86(6) even when the Hon’ble nominatedJudges were sitting singly, even the preliminaryissues about the maintainability of the electionpetition remained undecided for almost 4 yearsafter the framing of issues, thus, nullifying the saidstatutory provision.

II. Disregard of Section 98(c) of the Act

In the aftermath of the office of profit controversyfollowing disqualification of Mrs. Jaya Bachchanon the complaint of the petitioner, Shri AnilAmbani also resigned from membership of RajyaSabha in March 2006.The petitioner immediatelyrepresented to the Election Commission not toinitiate action for filling up the aforesaid vacanciesand he also moved applications in the electionpetition for a direction to the Election Commissionnot to proceed with the bye-elections. However,instead of taking up the petitioner’s applications,the applications filed by the Election Commissionsubsequently were taken up without giving time tothe petitioner to file an objection. The same weredismissed as misconceived on the ground that therewas no stay against holding the bye-elections.Contd. in the next issue..................


13

Rekhaji, beautiful write up from the editor’s desk, February issue — “Youth Synergy at Work”!

Beautifully written Editorial! Marvelous! Deepak Dave, Advocate, Ahmedabad, 91-9824040800

Dear Rékhâ, Just received the valuable articles found in this new issue, though I feel perplexed withsome brainy writers’ attitude towards the sacred texts of Indian tradition: is not humility a key to

understanding ("under standing")?—Prithwindra-dâ

[Mr. J. Sharath Chandra Rao has been

contributing articles to Newspaper like

“Vaartha” and “Andhra Jyothi” and other

periodicals on Environment, economics and

other social issues. He may be contacted

at 1-2-593/40, Gaganmahal Colony, Hyderabad

– 500 029, A.P. Phone: 040-27638039]

Better Planning andManagement of Cities is Needed

More than half the people of the worldlive in cities; many are disease ridden

with sprawling areas of slums with poor waterprovision, poor sanitation and improper wastecollections. These are living in high pollution withfrequent traffic jams and power shortages moreparticularly in the cities of several under-developedcountries. Several cities are bursting in its seamsstruggling to provide basic amenities with endlessdemands of vehicular automobiles and of growingpopulation experiencing flooding, most of themlacking in basic infrastructural facilities. Thesecities exist in a weaving chaos of cars, belchingfumes of taxies, buses, lorries and various othertransporting vehicles in the process effecting thehealth of people. Minimum efforts like convertingorganic garbage waste into effective fertilizers andstopping industrial effluents into water sources oflakes, rivers etc., installing waste water treatmentplants have not been properly taken up in manycities of underdeveloped countries which would

have enabled people to live in a cleanerenvironment and in a healthy atmosphere free ofpollution. A well planned eco-city witheco-farming with zero wastage and emissions willbe the future option of sustainability which can haltthe spread of disease and ill health of thepeople. Positive policies of resource conservingand non-pollutive technologies are very muchneeded since fossil fuel powered industrial,farming and transport systems have damaged thecities environment and health of the people. Suchan approach will enable us to avert a much moreundesirable complex set of problems in futureneeding staggering and unbearable amounts torectify such problems which will have to be borneby the general public making our living much moredifficult. To achieve such an object, steps likeeffective rain water utilization, installing variouswater conservation systems and adopting recyclingin resource and water use with intelligent land useand using renewable energy technologies canstrengthen our ecosystem services of farm land,fisheries, forests valued at $ 32 trillion a year whichis twice the combined global GNP of $ 18 trillion ayear. Further citizens’ participation in decisionmaking processes is never there unlike in previouscivilizations where every citizen could speak,express and participate in formulating variousdecisions. Even basic needs like not having enoughspace for pedestrian walking in many cities inunderdeveloped countries, not having enough roadspace for cycling, not running sufficient sub-urbantrains carrying passengers and the need foreffective functioning of public transport systems ofbuses all of which will reduce the consumption ofoil considerably in the process reducing airpollution which is presently causing severeenvironmental impacts, the damaging costs beingtoo high and often unmanageable. Further wastagesbeing generated in cities, segregating it, reusingand recycling them can have substantial economicbenefits apart from reducing landfill sites whichhave become breeding grounds fordiseases. Establishing sufficient waste recycling

14


J.S. Chandra Rao

plants, encouraging pelletisation units usingorganic waste will be of immense use inagriculture, coffee and tea plantations. An eco-citybased on making it circular like nature’s ecosystembeing circular, with one wastage becoming a rawmaterial for the other in the functioning ofindustrial system will lead to minimizing the use ofresources and energy, an ideal option for asustainable and better living.

Many metropolitan cities were established withlarge scale industrial production units withoutlaying down limit values for emission to air, waterand land generating in the process enormouspollution, often not applying best techniques andsafeguards for maintaining good environment. Theexistence of more than one lakh widely usedindustrial chemicals being there in the environmentwith new chemicals being added every year haveled to an increase in various diseases.

Vast numbers of pollutants like Oestrogen likeproperties which exist in the environment have ledto loss of sperm count in the industrial nationswhere sperm counts have fallen by half in the last50 years posing fertility problems. Different studiesrevealed that there has been a significant fall in thehealthiness of the sperm. At this rate millions ofmen will be unable to father their children becauseof this effect, more particularly in the wealthiernations. As the sperm count falls, the possibility oftesticular cancer and prostrate cancer cases risingcannot be ruled out. Another major problem in thecities of the world is a generation of e-waste whichhas become the latest menace to the environment inboth the developed and in the underdevelopedcountries. Discarded older versions of computers,servers, main frames and other electronic goodswhich are discarded because of rapid technologicalchanges releasing dangerous gases and toxicity cancause harm to human health because of unscientifichandling of e-waste. Some electronic equipmentswhich are made of lead which when disposed offcan leak into the soil and atmosphere in the processcontaminating water supplies and air. Also chipresisters, infra-red detectors and semiconductors

containing cadmium which is classified as toxiccan cause health problems. An NGO estimated thatduring the floods in Mumbai 1500 tonnes which isone-third of total e-waste of Bangalore in a yearwas rendered useless generating in the processharmful chemicals of lead, mercury all lethallypoisonous. Therefore suitable cyber laws framingand a scientific methodology to eliminate obsoleteproducts drawing a design system to properlycollect and recycle of e-waste in a scientific manneris a necessity which alone can avert the possibletriggering of an e-waste time bomb in future.

Many citizens in cities are often stifled byentrenched interests and unresponsive inflexiblebureaucrats steeped in corruption andmal-administration with no check of municipalviolations, even residential parking and green-beltareas are being used for commercial purposes inmany cities of the underdeveloped countries. Afailure in checking private greed allowingstructures to be constructed in water bodies,catchment’s areas, tanks and lakes have led todiminishing water supplies. Such acts areunpardonable, grave violations. Several suchviolations of environmental laws can be reducedconsiderably by opening up governancearrangements at every level from individual toinstitutions, sharing visions and overcomingsectorial and narrow interests of a few, fixingaccountability at every level will lead to bettermanagement of cities. Also there is every need torealize that there are two urban worlds, one beingthe wealthy urban of a tiny minority and the otherbeing the economically deprived majoritydesperately working to meet both ends, both livingin the same place. Expecting economic benefitstrickling down from the rich to the poor, from theglobal to the local will be a futile expectation.Instead economic development should be tunedfrom the bottom deprived people to the topwell-to-do people. Other factors like accountabilityat every level of functioning will lead to bettermanagement of cities.

15


Current Affairs Section:

[Justice Rajindar Sachar is Retd. Chief Justice of

High Court of Delhi, New Delhi. He is UN Special

Rapportuer on Housing, Ex. Member, U.N.

Sub-Commission on Prevention of

Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and

Ex-President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties

(PUCL) India. This article was earlier published

in the Tribune on 17/09/2010]

Unnecessary Wrangling

Scenario of the Judiciary overstepping itspower of judicial Review and the

sensitivity of the Executive in having its actionsinterfered by judiciary was again brought outsharply with the comment of Prime Minister wheninaugurating the 17th Common Wealth LawConference at Hyderabad. The broad approach ofPrime Minister in this matter is not new (he hasexpressed it earlier also). But the sharpness andcausticity this time was expressed strongly when hecautioned – “While the power of judicial reviewmust be used to enforce accountability, it mustnever be used to erode the legitimate role assignedto other branches of the government.”

This notwithstanding that the government itselfwas quite happy to let Supreme Court supervise theCBI investigation in 2G Spectrum Scam, hoping itwill deflect the demand of J.P.C.

Similarly the government is not opposing the

matter of foreign accounts of Indians beingenquired into by the Supreme so that it can avoidhaving to disclose their names to the public.

The sharpness, I suspect may have been induced bywhat and I say with all respect, the uneven sharpattack on Executive by a sitting Judge of SupremeCourt (Justice Ganguly) when attending aconference of lawyers on “Gender Concern inConflict Zone” he said, “it was shocking to see howthe government allows and appreciates suchministers. Not only that, and also gives them aCabinet post. It is not a dignified act. I would call ita shameless act.”

The background as per press reports seems to havebeen that some time in December two Judge Benchof Supreme Court (of which Ganguly J. was amember) had strongly castigated the action of Mr.Deshmukh (who was then the Chief Minister ofMaharashtra and is now a minister in central Govt.)in having stopped the police from entering a FIRagainst a money lender relation of Congresslegislator. This action of Deshmukh was certainlycondemnable and Mumbai high Court had called itgross interference from the executive in shielding aprivate moneylender belonging to the ruling party.The Supreme Court had justifiably in theirjudgment rebuked Deshmukh saying the ChiefMinister should not have interfered with thecriminal justice system and this act wasunconstitutional and had imposed a fine of Rs. 10lakhs fine on the State Government. I fullyappreciate the action of the Bench (though I wouldhave thought that it would have been moreappropriate if fine was imposed on Deshmukhpersonally rather than on State because it was theindividual unconstitutional action of the ChiefMinister – the State is a different personality).

The above action of Bench had been widelyappreciated. But these strong and ratherunprecedented observations from a sitting judgegave it a different contour and context more sowhen the judge was speaking at a seminar on asubject which had nothing to do with the

16


Rajindar Sachar

impropriety of the politicians but was on a soberand important topic of gender justice. This was, andI say with respect, because many a time a sittingjudge even if he is right fully indignant during thehearing have been advised by elders to keep cool.There is no denying that in court many occasionsarise when a normal person would loose his cooland feel like shouting but the hoary wisdom of greatjudges is always to try and put a restraining hand ononeself. I remember an incident of Lahore HighCourt where a rather short tempered judge wouldgo on interrupting the arguments of senior mildmannered Lawyer by saying “Rubbish”. So thesenior counsel his patience at an end, kept his briefaside and very innocently addressed the judge andpolitely saying “I hope your lordship is wellbecause nothing but rubbish is coming out yourlordship mouth”. The message was conveyedstrongly though put in an apologetic manner. Andeven outside the Court, the sitting judges areexpected to keep the same restraint on theirlanguage – may be unknowingly the LachmanRekha was crossed in this instance.

Loard Atkin had long ago given a friendly warning“Wise Judges never forget that the best way tosustain the dignity and status of their office is todeserve respect from the public at large by thequality of their judgments, the fearlessness,fairness and objectivity of their approach, and bythe restraint, dignity and decorum which theyobserve in their judicial conduct.”

Also judiciary could with some embarrassment bereminded of its own conduct in permitting a judgesagainst whom allegation of corruption are beingenquired into, are still being allowed to sit incourts.

But that is no reason why the great instrument ofjudicial Review should be downgraded. JudicialReview is inherent in a written constitution.Wherever there is a written Constitution theSupreme law is the law of the Constitution and foreven Parliament to accept that its powers arelimited by the written Constitution is not in anymanner to derogate from its sovereignty but only toaccept that its sovereignty like the sovereignty ofthe executive and the judiciary is limited by thewritten Constitution.

Politicians seem to think that the courts ought togive to the entire Parliament’s decisions automaticseal of approval. But that would mean being false tothe oath by the judge who can only uphold thelawful decisions, and can not keep silent in face ofillegality.

It also needs repeated reaffirmation that themandate in the preamble of the Constitution “Wethe People” empowers both the legislature and thejudiciary equally. The transit legislature elected forparticular period can not arrogate to assume themandate of sovereignty of the people exclusively toitself. Humility in all three instrumentalities of thestate and of recognition of their respective limitedsovereignty will make it easier for the country toavoid any unnecessary collision.

17


“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, thesearch for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like greatwinds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching tothe very verge of despair........”

“...........But beneath all this load of failure I am still conscious of something that I feel to be victory. Imay have conceived theoretical truth wrongly, but I was not wrong in thinking that there is such a thing,and that it deserves our allegiance. I may have thought the road to a world of free and happy humanbeings shorter than it is proving to be, but I was not wrong in thinking that such a world is possible, andthat it is worthwhile to live with a view to bringing it nearer.........”

Bertrand Russell in his “Autobiography”

IRI/IRHA Members’ Section:

[Mr. Balraj Puri is an authority on Jammu and

Kashmir Affairs. He is Director, Institute of

Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, Karan Nagar,

Jammu-180005;Phone

numbers:01912542687,09419102055

www.humanrightsjournal.com]

I

Kashmir Policy of BJP inVarious Avtars

The BJP’s foiled attempt to hoist nationalflag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on

Republic Day was meant to pay a homage to Dr.Shyama Prasad Mukerjee, the founder president ofthe Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP, who ishailed as a martyr to the cause of “full accession” ofJ&K State to the Indian Union and abrogation ofArticle 370 of the Indian Union. The decision tothis effect was taken at biggest ever show ofstrength of the party in Jammu on December 24which was attended by its 70 senior leaders of theparty to emphasize the importance it attached to theproblem of J&K State. Its leaders recalled past(what they called) patriotic role of it leaders asagainst Nehru’s Kashmir policy, which created theproblems the country still faces. As a personalwitness to events on the eve of the independence ofthe country and after, when none of the present BJPleaders was around, let me set the record straight.

Jammu Ekta Sammelan had also paid tributes to

Pandit Prem Nath Dogra, the leader of PrajaParishad, the Jammu affiliate of the Bhartiya JanaSangh, the predecessor of the BJP, for his role asleader of the agitation for ‘full accession of theState in 1952.’ He, incidentally, was also the leaderof the Hindu Sabha before 1947, which supportedMaharaja’s aspiration for independence of theState, and opposed its accession to India. At thattime, it was Nehru’s initiative and his friendshipwith Sheikh Abdullah, who was the undisputedleader of the Kashmiris, and whose support madeaccession to India possible with overwhelmingpopular support.

*Mukerjee-Nehru-Abdullah Correspondence*

Again, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukerjee, the founderpresident of Jana Sangh, had entered to the State tolend his support to the agitation of the PrajaParishad for “ek vidhan, ek predhan and ek nishan.”But it is not correct to say that he broke the permitsystem that had been imposed by the stategovernment which Indian citizens had to obtain toenter the state. The system was imposed by theMinistry of Defence of the government of India.All citizens, whether of the state or the rest of India,had to get a permit from the Ministry of Defence toenter the State. It was relaxed in the case ofMukerjee.

Mukerjee had entered into a prolongedcorrespondence with Nehru and Abdullah. He hadsaid: “We would readily agree to treat the Valleywith Sheikh Abdullah as its head in any specialmanner and for such time as he would like butJammu and Ladakh must he fully integrated withIndia.” In reply the Sheikh in his letter datedFebruary 4, 1953, said: “You are not perhapsunaware of the attempts that are being made byPakistan to force a decision by disrupting the unityof the State. Once the ranks of the State people aredivided, any solution can be foisted on them.” TheSheikh further reminded the Jana Sangh leader thathe happened to be a part of the government of Indiawhen arrangement over J&K was made, includingArticle 370.

18


Balraj Puri

Eventually, Mukerjee agreed to withdraw theagitation vide his letter to Nehru on February 17,1953, “provided the implementation of the July(1952) agreement will be made at the next sessionof Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly andthe principle of autonomy will apply to Jammu andof course Ladakh and Kashmir Valley.” Nehrureminded him that principle of autonomy to thethree regions was a part of the July agreement.Evidently, they could not agree on a face savingformula till unfortunately Mukerjee died.

But the agitation was withdrawn on the conditionssuggested by Mukerjee. The Parishad leaders werereleased on July 2, 1953, and invited to Delhi tomeet Nehru on July 3 where Parishad finallyannounced to withdraw the agitation as regionalautonomy had been conceded. Before that the stategovernment had sent a 40 page draft on RegionalAutonomy to the underground leader of theParishad, Durga Dass Varma which he returnedafter approval.

However, according to Balraj Madhok, who in lateryears became president of the Jana Sangh, his partyhad to withdraw support to the commitments ofMukerjee and the Praja Parishad under a directivefrom Nagpur (RSS headquarters). The party and itssuccessor the BJP, henceforth, started a relentlesstirade against autonomy of the State and regionalautonomy. When the State government appointed aRegional Autonomy Committee headed by me,Jana Sangh was the only party which refused tomeet the committee and opposed its formation inthe State assembly and outside.

*Jana Sangh opposed Dogri*

BJP leader in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj delightedher Dogra audience in Jammu by reciting a Dogriverse “Khund Mithi Dogrein Di Boli” (thelanguage of Dogras is sweet), She may be remindedthat we, in the Dogri movement, were criticized bythe Jana Sangh for being parochial and notaccepting Hindi as our language. The party hadstarted a similar campaign at that time againstPunjabi and in favour of Hindi in Punjab. A

renowned Dogri poet, Dinu Bhai Pant, offered acompromise in his Dogri poem which said, “Hindiis our grandmother while Dogri is our mother.There should not be any clash between the two.”However, I gratefully acknowledge that Vajpayeeand Advani, when they were in power, agreed togrant constitutional recognition to Dogri after aseries of meetings I had with both of them.

The BJP reiterated its demand for abrogation ofArticle 370 at the Jammu Sammelan to enddiscrimination against Jammu. As pointed outabove that the article was included in theConstitution, when Mukerjee was a member ofUnion cabinet, and he had supported it in hiscorrespondence with Nehru. Again, when the partyheaded the government at the centre, its leader toldParliament that it had no power to abrogate thearticle. But how is the problem of Jammu related toits abrogation, which cannot be solved unless theregion gets share in political power that onlyregional autonomy can ensure which the BJP hadbeen opposing?

Lastly BJP’s contribution to alienation of Muslimsof Jammu, who constitute a majority in five out often districts of the region and a sizeable minority inothers and are not followers of the separatist leadersof Kashmir, is no service to the cause of Jammu orthe country. Though the party no longer supportsdivision of the State, its Ladakh unit demandsUnion Territory status for it, and separation fromthe State. The demand has divided the region intoBuddhist majority Leh and Muslim majority Kargildistricts, as it has absolutely no support in the latterdistrict.

The party has learnt and unlearnt its Kashmir policyin its various Avtars, Hindu Sabha, Praja Parishad,Jana Sangh and BJP. But it has still to go a long wayto play a positive role in a vital State of India.

II

Popular Upsurge in Arab World

February 11 was an unusual day for the Arab Worldwhen in its most important country, Egypt,

19


unprecedented jubilation greeted theannouncement of Hosni Mubarak to quit the officeof president, shouting “we are free, we are free.”

The massive continuous and peaceful protest thatstarted in Egypt on January 25 at Tahrir Maidian(Liberty Square) of Cairo with only one demand ieMubarik Irhil (leave) did not show any signs offading away till its demand was met. Gradually,Hosani Mubarak, the despotic president of Egypt,and his patrons in USA and Israel, too, reconciledto his departure from the scene. Harry Clinton,Secretary of State of America, who had said a weekbefore the protest started that the regime of HosaniMubarak was stable, later wanted that transitionalarrangement be discussed before he leaves thescene. President Obama gave a similar advice toMubarak on phone. He himself said that he had nodesire to continue in office. But if he left withoutalternative transitional arrangement, there wouldbe chaos and anarchy in Egypt.

Omar Sulemin, former army chief whom Mubarakappointed Vice President of Egypt, attemptednegotiations with opposition leaders. But asMohammed El-Baradei, the most known faceamong the rebels said, “dialogue can come onlyafter Hosni Mubarak leaves.”

Americans feared that exit of Mubarak will have acascading effect on other Arab countries. Already asuccessful revolt in Tunisia where president ZinaAl Abidine Ben Ali was made to flee the countryafter 23 years of despotic rule, was a factor thatencouraged the revolt in Egypt. In Yemen, anunprecedented demonstration on February 3,demanded ouster of 30 years of autocratic rule ofAli Abdullah Saleh. In Algeria 19 years ofemergency has been lifted. Ripples from Egypthave reached in Libya where revolt has startedagainst 40 years of Muammar Gaddafi, in Baharinfor political reforms. Jordan is also in the storm oftrouble. But none of these revolts is as peaceful asthat of Egypt.

Egypt’s importance lies in the fact that, with apopulation of 64 millions, it is the most populous

and largest Arab country and lies close to Gaza onthe border between Israel and Hamas controlledpart of Palestine. Its president Mubarak had set arecord of corruption. He is estimated to haveamassed a fortune of $70 billions and is believed tobe the richest person of the world. His corrupt andautocratic rule was supported by USA as it believedthat alternative to dictatorship in the Muslim world,in general, was Islamic fundamentalism.

The example of Iran is cited in this context whereMussadag’s regime was overthrown by Islamicrevolution led by religious leader AyatollahKhomeini. In Pakistan dictators had been best alliesof America. But Islamic fundamentalism itself wasinitially encouraged by Americans to countergrowing Soviet influence. In Afghanistan theSoviet supported regime was overthrown with theactive help of Mujahideens who were armed andtrained by America.

That dictatorship is no guarantee against Islamicfundamentalism is best illustrated by the exampleof Saudi Arabia which has an absolute dynastic ruleof Shah Abdul Aziz and where people have noteven elementary democratic rights. It hadsupported Hosni Mubarak and given asylum to thedeposed Sultan of Tunisia. It is also the source ofmost fundamentalist form of Islam. Its Wahabibrand of Islam, with American patronage, hasundermined its liberal forms elsewhere.“Saudisation” of Pakistan, for instance, hasdamaged its liberal traditions like Sufi, Barelavi,Deobandi and other forms of Islam.

No doubt Muslim Brotherhood was supporting thepopular revolt in Egypt. But it clearly said it had noleadership aspiration. It is too weak to do so andsupported the popular movement as it did not wantto be completely isloated. Moreover, Christians,too, have joined the movement in full strength. Thedemonstrators include all shades of persons, young,old, men, women—including in Western attire.Many persons in the crowds spoke live on TV thatthey were secular, democrat and wanted freedom.Al-Queda, deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawabri, in his

20


video issue on February 18 said that“demonstrations in Egypt were led by secularliberal activities for greater democracy in sharpcontrast to the Islamic state. Democracy replacesGod’s laws with man’s.

Brotherhood is supporting Mohamad El-Bardei,who as pointed out above, has emerged as the mostknown face of the revolt. He is a Noble Laureateand was the former Director General of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency. He began hisovert opposition to Hosni Mubarak a year ago andwon over a widespread following among the youngand middle classes. Egyptian authorities harassedhis supporters. Nor is he a favourite of Americapartly because he is being supported by MuslimBrotherhood and partly because he was not toughenough against Iran as head of the IAFA as USAwanted him to be.

However, his own views about Islamic jehadis areknown. In a recent newspaper article he writes.“The option in the Arab world is not betweenauthoritarianism and Islamic jehadis.” Hedescribed Egypt’s revolt as of a rainbow variety ofpeople “who are secular, liberal, market orientedand if you give them a chance, they will organizethemselves to elect a government that is modernand moderate.” He wanted “independent judiciaryand free election unlike the last election which wascompletely rigged and could in fact had a role inprovoking widespread revolt of the people.”According to him “younger people in Brotherhoodin Egypt are inspired by Turkish model which ismore inclusive of other religious voices themelsewhere.” He criticizes the West for havingbought the Mubarak’s fiction that a democraticEgypt “will turn into chaos or a religious state (NewYork Times, Feb 13).

Moreover, Egyptian nationalism with a civilizationof 5000 years old, which Egyptians call“Ummul-duniya (mother of the world) of whichsphinxes are eloquent witnesses and Alexandrialibrary, a rich treasure of knowledge in its time is noasset for fundamentalism.

What is unique in Egyptian revolt is its non-violentcharacter which in the words of AmericanPresident Obama was inspired by Mahatma Gandhiand Martin Luther King (the latter claimed to bedisciple of Gandhi). The revolt was not organizedby any party and led by any leader. Twitters, facebooks and internet coordinated the rebels.

What after the transitional role of the army? It hadendeared itself to the people by the way it dealt withmassive demonstrations. On first day of the revoltan old man kissed forehead of an officer of the armythat had come to Liberty square and told “you areone of us.” Thereafter the army simply helped thepeople to maintain order and prevent stampede.The onus now is mainly on civil leadership. Itssuccess or failure to evolve a consensus on analternative system will have impact far beyond theborders of Egypt.

India has a special reason to welcome a emergenceof a democratic Egypt. For it can revive its oldfriendship when Nehru and Nassar, along withmarshal Tito led the non-alignment movement.And also to celebrate success of first Gandhianexperiment in non-violence outside India. In factIndia need to relearn use of Gandhian methodsfrom Egypt. Moreover after a few days ofevacuation of Indians, 90% of them decided to stayback as they felt quite safe and at home in Egypt,which is an extra evidence of the fact that Egyptiansare friends of India.

21


“If your facts are wrong but your logic is perfect, then your conclusions are inevitably false.

Therefore, by making mistakes in your logic, you have at least a random chance of coming to

correct conclusion.”— Christie-Davies’ Theorum

“In every work of genius we recognize our rejected thoughts.” — Emerson’s Observation

Techers’ & Research Scholrs’ Section:

Financial Exclusion: Concept,Nature and Extent

Abstract: The nationalization of the commercialbank in 1969 and 1980’s shown tremendous growthin the volume of credit and geographical reach.However, despite making significant improvementin all the areas relating to financial viability,profitability and competitiveness, there are concernthat bank have not been able to include vastsegment of the financial exclusion population,especially the underprivileged section of society inthe fold of basic banking service. This paperexamines the concept, nature and extends offinancially excluded people in Indian economy.

Introduction: Since independence in 1947, thegovernments of India and RBI have madeconcerted effort to provide the poor with access tocredit, despite the remarkable increase in thephysical outreach of the formal credit institution inpast several decades; the rural poor continue todepend upon the informal source of credit.Institutions also face difficulties in dealingeffectively with a large number of small borrowers,whose credit needs are small and frequent and theirability to offer collateral limited. Besidecumbersome procedure and risk perception of thebanks left a gap in saving the credits need of therural poor.

The nationalization of the commercial bank in 1969and 1980’s shown tremendous growth in the

volume of credit and geographical reach. However,despite making significant improvement in all theareas relating to financial viability, profitability andcompetitiveness, there are concern that bank havenot been able to include vast segment of thefinancial exclusion population, especially theunderprivileged section of society in the fold ofbasic banking service.

What is financial exclusion? Literature onfinancial exclusion has defined it in the context of alarger issue of social exclusion of certain groups ofpeople from the mainstream of the society.According to Conroy (2005), financial exclusion isa process that prevents poor and disadvantagedsocial groups from gaining access to the formalfinancial systems of their countries. According toMohan (2006) financial exclusion signifies the lackof access by certain segments of the society toappropriate, low-cost, fair and safe financialproducts and services from mainstream providers.

Financial exclusion can mean that individuals havelimited or no access to bank accounts and may havedifficulty in accessing credit facilities. Manypeople do not have home contents insurance,leaving them more vulnerable in times of need andif they are on lower or fixed incomes find it moredifficult to save. Many individuals are also unableto access jobs as they do not have the appropriatequalifications, skills or knowledge, whichdisadvantages them and their families fromimproving their financial status.

The term “financial exclusion” has a broad range ofboth implicit and explicit definitions. Financialexclusion refers to a process whereby peopleencounter difficulties accessing and using financialservices and products in the mainstream marketthat are appropriate to their needs and enable themto lead a normal social life in the society in whichthey belong.

There is also a widespread recognition thatfinancial exclusion forms part of a much widersocial exclusion, faced by some groups who lackaccess to quality essential services such as jobs,

22


Mahendra Mishra

housing, education or health care. Difficultiesaccessing appropriate financial services andproducts... Beside the fact that use of financialservices makes more and more part of a standardlife, the way to access and use those services maybe more and more over demanding on variousaspects as geographical, technical, cultural,educational or about guarantee and risk analysiscriteria. This leads to a large range of access anduse difficulties that are deeply related to eachcountry's market structure. Financial products willbe considered “appropriate” when their provision,structure and costs do not lead the customer toencounter access and/or use difficulties.

History of financial exclusion: The term financialexclusion was first coined in 1993 by geographerswho were concerned about limited physical accessto banking services as a result of bank branchclosures (Leyshon and Thrift, 1993). Throughoutthe 1990s there was also a growing body ofresearch relating to difficulties faced by somesections of societies in gaining access to modernpayment instruments and other banking services, toconsumer credit and to insurance.

There was also concern about some people lackingsavings of any kind. It was in 1999 that the termfinancial exclusion seems first to have been used ina broader sense to refer to people who haveconstrained access to mainstream financialservices. Since then, a number of commentatorshave added their views of how financial exclusionshould be defined. These include both academicsand policy makers.

What to Access? Which services are to beconsidered essential and therefore ones to which allin society should have access? According to theWorld Bank (1995) four key areas;1) Bankingexclusion – transactions 2) Savings exclusion 3)Credit exclusion 4) Insurance exclusion.

Banking exclusion – transactions: The access tobanking (transaction banking services in particular)is seen as a universal need in most developed andcashless societies. The lack of access or use of this

financial provision has such bad effects that socialinclusion is effectively damaged because: It is themost popular/generalized financial provision, lackstigmatizes. It is a key to access other financialservices (credit/savings), lack disturbs marketaccess and gives opportunity to unfair provisions togrow and may consequently increase risk ofpoverty. It becomes more difficult and expensivefor people who can only pay in cash, lack increasesrisk of being stolen and risk of poverty. It leads totime consuming and somehow annoyingprocedures, lack reinforce exclusion.

Savings exclusion: The problem related to savingsis completely different. The access to a simpledeposit account does not seem globally to bringmany problems. In addition, a lack of access or usemay bring inconvenience in day to day life, butcannot be related to social exclusion. Nevertheless,some social problems have been identified relatedto savings account like Lack of identificationdocument; Lack of money to save; Lack of habit tosave money in bank; Unwilling to deal with banksbecause of negative past experience or prejudiceetc.

Credit exclusion: Credit is a main financial tool toenable access to goods or expenditures thatoversize the monthly budget such as equipmentgoods (e.g. diverse vehicles, housing, furniture,renting guarantee. It may play a significant role tosmooth consumption and to protect against incomeshocks. Consumer credit pilot-project experiencesproposed by not-for profit providers underline thepositive social impact an appropriate small creditcan bring for usually ''credit excluded'' household:increase on mobility, access to training andimproving the quality of the housing which canlead to higher future income and wider generalwelfare.

Insurance exclusion: Nowadays some kinds ofinsurance are essential in the organization ofmodern societies and, some of them, are thereforemandatory (for example those for the use of motorvehicles, or to carry on some kind of jobs).

23


However, there is no clear definition of which types of

insurance are considered essential so that anyone who

lacks them might be considered financially excluded. In

some countries, it is also very common for landlords to

be required to take out insurance (credit life or fire

insurance). In the above mentioned cases, easy access

and usage should be considered part of a financial

inclusion goal.

The Nature of Financial Exclusion: Manyindividuals struggle to gain access to basicfinancial products such as bank accounts, credit,insurance and financial advice. Financial exclusionor lack of access to appropriate financial productsand services can arise for a variety of ofteninter-linked reasons.

Witnesses suggested a variety of causes

including: Financial Exclusion due toinappropriate or excessively high transactioncharges. Financial Exclusion due to disability.Financial Exclusion due to being on lower incomesor being long-term recipients of benefits, whichimpacts most on the disabled, ethnic minoritygroups, the elderly and those excluded from thelabour market. Locational exclusion: lack of accessin the person’s locality to appropriate financialservices.

Regulatory requirements: Regulations imposedby the Government play a valuable role inenhancing consumer protection, but, whereregulations are excessive or are implemented in away which does not take account of particularcircumstances faced by individuals, they mightaccentuate financial exclusion.

Self-exclusion: Where an individual feels thatthere is little point in applying for financialproducts because he/she expects to be refused, or isunwilling to engage with the financial servicesindustry as a result of previous experiences.

Information problems: An individual may havedifficulty obtaining the information he or sheneeds, either due to the requirements of theproviders or to the challenge to the individual asconsumer, who may not be able to accessmarketing information or may have particular

difficulty choosing between complex products.

Financially Excluded People: The financiallyexcluded sections largely comprise: Marginalfarmers, Landless laborers, Oral lessees, Selfemployed and unorganized sector enterprises,Urban slum dwellers, Migrants, Ethnic minoritiesand socially excluded groups, Senior citizens,Women, The North East, Eastern and Centralregions contain most of the financially excludedpopulation.

Causes of Financial Exclusion: There are variousreasons for financial exclusion such as poverty,unemployment, lower income, illiteracy rate inrural area, lack of awareness about financialservices, greater dependency on traditional sourcesof credit etc. in rural area. The causes of financialexclusion in urban area is as absence of establishingidentity, lack of financial literacy and unorganizedemployment and self exclusion due to lowerincome, lower interest rate on saving deposits etc.

Extent of Exclusion: According to the NSSO data,the total 45.9 million farmer households in thecountry (51.4%), out of a total of 89.3 millionhouseholds do not accesses credit, either frominstitutional or no institutional sources. Further,despite the vast network of bank branches, only27% of total farm households are indebted toformal sources (of which one-third also borrowfrom informal sources). Farm households’ notaccessing credit from formal sources as aproportion to total farm households is especiallyhigh at 95.91%, 81.26% and 77.59% in the NorthEastern, Eastern and Central Regions respectively.Thus, apart from the fact that exclusion in general islarge, it also varies widely across regions, socialgroups and asset holdings. The poorer the group,the greater is the exclusion.

Conclusion: Financial exclusion can be eliminatedby extending the banking habits among the lessprivileged in rural and urban area and weaningthem away from unorganized money market andmoney lenders, but path of financial inclusioncontinues to be discouraging, not just for India, but

24


also the rest of the world.

References:

A report for the Commission for RuralCommunities, Promoting Financial Inclusion inRural Areas, SQW consulting, November 2007.

Arora Singh Sukhwinder, Leach Jeremy (2005),“Towards Building on Inclusive Financial Sector:Lesson from South Africa” Economic and PoliticalWeekly, April 23, pp 1726-1730.

Conroy, J. (2005), APEC and Financial Exclusion:Missed Opportunities for Collective Action?Asia-Pacific Development Journal, 12(1), June2005.

Duvvuri Subbarao (2010), “Financial Inclusion;Challenges and Opportunities” RBI MonthlyBulletin, Jan 2010, pp 1-10.

Dev Mahendra s (2006), “Financial Inclusion; AnIssues and Challenges” Economic and Politicalweekly, Oct 14, pp 4310-4313.

Mohan, Rakesh (2006), Economic Growth,Financial Deepening and Financial Inclusion,Reserve bank of India, bulletin, November 2006,pp 1305-1319.

Rangarajan Committee (2008), Report of theCommittee on Financial Inclusion, Government ofIndia.

Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India2009-10” RBI Publication, pp 33-34

Sarma, M. (2008), Index of Financial Inclusion,ICRIER Working Paper, August 2008.

Stephen Sinclair, Fiona McHardy, Louise Dobbie,Kate Lindsay and Morag Gillespie,2009Understanding financial Inclusion, FriendsProvident Foundation,UK.

Thorat Usha (2006), “Financial Inclusion andMillennium Development Goals” RBI MonthlyBulletin, Jan 2006, pp 239-243.

Thorat Usha (2006), “Financial Inclusion forSustainable Development: Role of It andIntermediaries” RBI Monthly Bulletin, Dec 2006,pp 1523-1526.

Thorat Usha (2007), “Financial Inclusion –TheIndian experience” RBI Monthly Bulletin, Dec2007, pp 1165-1172.

Mr. Mahendra Mishra, is Assistant Professor,Department of Economics, K. J. Somaiya Collageof Arts and Commerce, Vidyavihar, Mumbai400077, [email protected]

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Book Review Section:

[Ms. Dipavali Sen has been a student of Delhi

School of Economics and Gokhale Institute of

Politics and Economics (Pune). She has taught at

Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, and

various colleges of Delhi University. She is, at

present, teaching at Sri Guru Gobind Singh

College of Commerce, Delhi University. She is a

prolific writer and has written creative pieces and

articles for children as well as adults, both in

English and Bengali. [email protected]]

[BOOK: Harsha Vardhana, by Devika

Rangachari, published by SCHOLASTIC

India Pvt. Ltd, 2009, paperback, cover design

Niranjan Mishra, pp 97, Rs. 200]

The Making of History: theMaking of Harsha Vardhana

In the Marxian interpretation of history, the role ofthe individual is minimal. All human activities areessentially social, and all that happens, happensbecause of the society makes it happen so. Thedialectical process is an occurrence between twoclasses – not two individuals, however powerful orcolorful. But in spite of this, certain individuals doget regarded as `making history’.One cannot help wondering how far they wereproducts of the society they were born into, andhow far unique unto themselves. A certain mysterysurrounds them, impenetrable through time. What

were they like, really? Why did they do what theydid? How should we regard them now, at a distanceof centuries? Would the world have been differentif they had behaved differently? Would the courseof history have been changed if they had taken stepsother than they did?Harsha Vardhana, who ruled over Thanesar andKanauj between CE 606 and 648, is one suchindividual. In this book, Device Rangachari haschronicled his ascent to power.Dr Devika Rangachari is a scholar of history and anaward-winning author of books for children. Shehas written about adolescent children incontemporary setting as well as picture books andrhymes for smaller ones. But this is possibly herfirst interweave of history and fiction. And it is amasterly one.The book begins with Princess Rajyasri, thefourteen-year-old daughter of KingPrabhakaravardhana, watching over the rampartsof the palace of Thanesar. With her are her brothersRajya Vardhana and Harsha Vardhana. Rajya wasquiet and simple, Harsha smart and teasing. “She(Rajyasri) supposed she loved Harsha just as muchas Rajya, but you never really knew where youwere with him. Harsha could be warm and loving orcold and distant, all in the space of a few minutes.Unlike the predictable and steadfast Rajya.”(p 5)With them, there was a cousin Bhandi too, whomRajyasri did not like too much. Even as Rajyasriwatched, two other cousins (young uncles,actually) arrived on horseback – Kumaragupta andMadhavagupta – sent by their father for refuge atThanesar.Although Rajya Vardhana was the older of the twoprinces, it was whispered round the palace that itwas Harsha Vardhana who would be the king.Bhandi and Madhava aligned themselves withHarsha while Kumara preferred Rajya.Soon it was time for Rajyasri’s wedding. It was amatch made for political reasons with the youngking of Kanauj, Grahavarman. It would makeThanesar and Kanauj allies against the might of theGuptas. Rajyasri wept at the thought of parting withall that was familiar to her. But she also began tolook forward to her new life. However, a localastrologer predicted dire consequences and filled

26


Dipavali Sen

her with forebodings as well.The wedding was a gorgeous affair, described byRangachari in detail. But with his daughter’sdeparture, the old king fell into a kind of decline.When the Huns approached Thanesar, he sentRajya to face them. Harsha insisted that he shouldaccompany him. Rajya was puzzled. It occurred tohim that sometimes Harsha behaved as if he knewhe would be the king one day. “Just as if he wasbiding his time…” (p 41)Rajya did take Harsha along, but left him at a campwhile he went on to meet the Huns with an advanceparty.Meanwhile, news came from Thanesar thatPrabhakar was on his deathbed. Harsha andMadhava rushed back and the dying king madeHarsha promise that he would rule after him! Thequeen ascended the funeral pyre at her husband’sdeath.When Rajya came back, he confided in Harsha thathe wanted to relinquish the kingdom and becomean ascetic. But just then the news came that the kingof Malwa had attacked Kanauj in secret and killedGrahavarman. He had thrown the widowedRajyasri into prison but she had escaped into theVindhya ranges. At this Rajya rushed out to facethe king of Malwa and avenge Grahavarman’sdeath. Harsha sent Bhandi with him, even thoughKumara was already with him.Preparations began for Harsha’s coronation as perRajya’s instructions. But news came that Rajya,while he had defeated Devagupta of Malwa, hadbeen treacherously murdered by his ally, KingShashanka of Gauda. Madhava was intrigued bythe composure with which Harsha faced this newsand went on with his coronation ceremony. “He saterect and unmoving, staring ahead of him –certainly not the demeanour of a man who had beendeprived of his family members, one by one, in anunrelenting sequence.”(p 58)Once, all that was over, Harsha, accompanied byMadhava, set out in search of Rajyasri. As iswell-known, he found her just in the nick of time –just before she was going to immolate herself.

What is not so well-known, and what this booksubtly points out is that Rajyasri suspectedHarsha’s hand in Rajya’s murder. Perhaps that iswhy he had sent Bhandi along with Rajya – tosomehow maneuver or facilitate it. Rajyasri wasalso aware that Harsha had not gone out in search ofher right after getting the bad news about her. Hehad waited for his own coronation to be over first!Rescuing Rajyasri and taking her back were alsodeliberate moves on Harsha’s part – to stake hisclaim to the throne of Kanauj as the widowedqueen’s brother. “Undoubtedly, he did loveRajyasri…Yet, the fact couldn’t be denied thatRajyasri’s presence was important to Harsha inanother, very different way. …Without her, he hadno chance of claiming the throne of Kanauj with allits riches and power” (p 81).When Rajyasri cynically mentioned this to him,Harsha “took her face in his hands, gazing into thebig, dark eyes that were deep pools of sadness. Wewill rule this kingdom together. It is as much yoursas mine. I need your help, Rajyasri. Do you haveany idea how important you are to me?’Rajyasri made no answer but she stroked the handthat held hers in an eager clasp….He drew her tohim in a heartfelt embrace and she felt all herdoubts and fears crumbling to dust with the powerof his love. She felt secure and loved – again” (pp93-94).In ancient Egypt, royal liaisons between brotherand sister were quite usual. In India, theRajyasri-Harsha Vardhana duo is an unusual butprominent example. In the Àuthor’s Note’, DevikaRangachari cites sources to establish that Rajyasriwas indeed an important element in RajyaVardhana’s court, and had even traveled with him.Not until we come to Aurangzeb and Roshanara dowe find another such brother-sister duo. Theirunion and the union of Thanesar and Kanauj helpednorthern India to hold together for full forty years.Surely, such unique individuals have a role in theshaping of the world? In deftly depicting themaking of young Harsha in this book, DevikaRangachari has helped depict the making of humanhistory.

27


[BOOK: Multisecularism. A New Agenda, PaulKurtz, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick,USA, 2010, 263 pgs.]

—Reviewed by Floris van den Berg

Paul Kurtz’ Philosophy ofHumanism

Humanism is, like religion, a human-madeconcept; humanists are aware of this and

appreciate this fact. Books on humanism can beanalyzed in three categories: 1) a descriptive(historical or systematical) outline of whathumanism is (e.g. Richard Normans, On

humanism, or Peter Cave’s Humanism), 2) acritique on humanism (e.g. JohnGray’s Straw Dogs), or 3) a forward lookingagenda setting philosophy of humanism (e.g.Corliss Lamont, The Philosophy of Humanism).Kurtz’ book Multisecularism – actually his wholevoluminous oeuvre – falls in this third category.

Multisecularism is a collection of essays byphilosopher Paul Kurtz (1925), mainly editorialsfrom Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquiry from2000-2008, plus some essays that have beenpublished in others journals or books. In this bookthese editorials and essays form a coherenthumanist philosophy. Kurtz attempts to create acomprehensive philosophy and practice ofhumanism, and keeps adapting and updatinghumanism. At present, it is no longer communism

that is a rival; religion is back on the cultural, socialand political stage, and there are many new urgentproblems e.g. population growth andenvironmental degradation. The power of Kurtzdoes not primarily lie in focusing on each of thebuilding blocks of humanism but in combining allthese blocks into ‘a public temple of reason’. Kurtzcreates a new philosophy of humanism, which ismore than the sum of its constituent parts. Kurtzthinks humanism through. He creates a humanistphilosophy and at the same time he humanizesphilosophy. The word ‘new’ is often used by Kurtz,because that is what he aspires: adapting humanismto the changing world. Some people find it hard tosee that what Kurtz has created is something new.But that would be the same as telling an architectthat she didn’t do anything new, because she usedbuilding material that was available. It is likepeople who look at your finger when you point tothe moon, and complain they don’t see it. Kurtz’ssecular humanism is a comprehensivewell-rounded philosophical stance. Kurtz uses thebest of human achievements – science, humanrights, and philosophical concepts of reason,liberty, individuality, democracy and tolerance –and so he has created the best of best. Shopping inthe ‘alley of Reason’ Kurtz has put together the bestof human achievements. Kurtz project stands in thetradition of the Enlightenment. Philosophy –likescience - is (or should be) dynamic and striving forimprovement. Kurtz has called for a NewEnlightenment (Toward a New

Enlightenment (1994) is the title of one of hisbooks).

Kurtz has coined many new term in his long career,‘Multisecularism’ is the latest. He also issuedhumanist manifestos, all of which have beenendorsed by a long series of prominent scientists,philosophers, and writers. In these Manifestos hesets the agenda for what humanism is and how itrelates to current world affairs. In 2010 Kurtzissued the Neo-humanist Statement: Our planetarycommunity is facing serious problems that can onlybe solved by cooperative global action. Fresh

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thinking is required. Humanity needs to reconstructhuman values in the light of scientific knowledge.We introduce the term “Neo-Humanism” to presenta daring new approach.

There are various forms of religious andnon-religious beliefs in the world. On the one endof the spectrum are traditional religious beliefs; onthe other “the new atheism.” Not enough attentionis paid to humanism as an alternative. ThisStatement advocates non-religious secularNeo-Humanism.

Multisecularism includes the essay‘Neo-Humanism’ in which Kurtz elucidates thisnew concept: Neo-humanism rejects theism andaffirms the secular outlook. It is broad enough toencompass atheism, agnosticism, and humanistethical values. It is a large enough mansion toinclude both nonreligious humanists and those whoconsider humanism to function religiously in so faras it celebrates human ideals and values.Neo-humanists do not believe in God, yet they wishto do good. (p. 73).

Secularism, humanism, naturalism, skepticism,pragmatism, rationalism, atheism can form acoherent package. Reading Paul Kurtzbook Multisecularism one would think that to beobvious. Kurtz has managed to create acomprehensive life stance and worldview, a secularalternative to religion, a secular philosophy, aninspiring philosophy of life. Unfortunately,humanism isn’t obvious at all: most people, at alltimes have given in to the transcendentaltemptation, believing in supernatural powers uponinsufficient or nonexistent evidence. Kurtz wrote amonograph called The Transcendental Temptation.

A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal (1986)is about the tendency of humans to belief too easilyupon insufficient evidence. We clearly have aninnate tendency to be deluded – to borrow the termfrom Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion (2006).It is hard not to be deluded. We seem to behard-wired to be deluded by supernatural and otherdelusions. In his In Praise of Folly (1509) Erasmus

wrote already that: ‘Man’s mind is so formed that itis far more susceptible to falsehood that to truth.’ –this included Erasmus himself who, though criticalof the clergy, remained a roman catholic. Kurtzdoes a much better job in creating a coherent andconsistent philosophy.

Intellectually the fight over the truth claims ofreligion has been won in the Enlightenment. AfterKant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1781) in which herefuted all the arguments for the existence of god,religion is no longer an intellectual feasible stance.However, religion and other delusions continue tohave a firm grip on many human earthlings, andthis influence is a frustration in the search for truth,and an obstacle for morality. Under the cloak ofreligion many evils are being performed.Criticizing religion and claims of the supernaturalhave been tasks many philosophers since theEnlightenment have taken upon them. Humanism,as an umbrella concept for a well-roundedworldview and life stance, has been around forabout 150 years and is continually adapted. Kurtz isan avowed atheist. But he is somewhat reluctant touse that as a primary label for his philosophy. Kurtzwants much more than criticizing nonsense; hewants to create a better world. Humanism,according to Kurtz, has two dimensions. On the onehand, the critical, negative dimension, the freethinking tradition of atheism and criticizingparanormal, pseudoscientific and other nonsensicaland false claims. This is the Nietzschean side ofhumanism, which is now taken up by the so-calledNew Atheists, such as Hitchens, Dawkins, Harrisand Grayling. But humanism, according to Kurtz ismore than critique of nonsense (though it is anecessary constituent) and thus, on the other hand,Kurtz wants to create a philosophy of life, and ethicand political and social framework for a better andmore just world in which individuals can flourish asindividuals and be happy: ‘the main thrust ofhumanism is not to simply espouse the negative –what we do not believe in – but what we do. Weshould not begin with atheism oranti-supernaturalism but with humanism. I am a

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secular humanist because I am not religious. I drawmy inspiration not from religion or spirituality butfrom science, ethics, philosophy, and the arts. I callit eupraxsophy; that is, the practice of wisdom as analternative to religion. The convictions of ahumanist involve both, the head and the heart,cognition and emotion. These are ourrational-passional core beliefs.’ (p. 234)

What is, according to Paul Kurtz, humanism, andwhy didn’t he put humanism in the title of thisbook? To start with the last question, firstly,‘humanism’ has many meanings and, secondly,humanism might scare of potential friends among(liberal) believers, who agree with most of thehumanist agenda. Borrowing a term from PaulCliteur: Kurtz strives for a ‘moral Esperanto’, hewant to communicate humanist ideas to anaudience as wide as possible. It seems Kurtz’schoice to advertise Multisecularism instead ofhumanism, is pragmatic. In a world were there aredeep clashes of worldviews and ideologies it is hardto find common ground. Secularism, adapted tocultural differences, i.e. Multisecularism, might bea more viable strategy to strive for than outspokenatheistic humanism. In a secular society people canenjoy their personal delusions, as long as they don’tharm others. The problem with Kurtz’ termMultisecularism could be that it has a ring ofmulticulturalism, and multiculturalism too oftenturns a blind eye to in-group intolerance, and thustolerates intolerances in name of cultural diversity.This is different with Multisecularism, but howexactly is not clear. Kurtz could have elaborated onhow Chinese secularism differs from Indian,American or Dutch secularism. A possible answermight be that like there are many different forms ofdemocracy – the Netherlands have a differentdemocratic system than the US for examples, bothbeing secular democracies – there can also bedifferent models of secularism, which still have asbasic function the separation of state and religion.

Humanism can be broad or it can be small. Smallhumanism is fore mostly criticizing religion and theparanormal and pleading for political secularism.

Broad humanism is about how we should live thegood live, of course without religion. Kurtzemphasizes the importance of broad humanism.Humanism is positive, about how we humans canmake the best of it, of our lives, our society, ourworld, our future. Humanism is about striving for togood live, on an individual level and on the sociallevel.

Humanism according to Kurtz is firstly a method ofcritical inquiry. This method of critical inquiry hasto application. On the one hand, humanism is aboutcriticizing mistakes and misconceptions;criticizing religion and claims of the paranormal.On the other hand critical inquiry should be appliedin order to find the best possible knowledge, and tolook for the best moral guidance and theories.

‘The best guarantee of morality is to cultivatewithin human beings concern for other humanbeings.’ (p. 40) Kurtz elaborates on what kindpeople moral people are: ‘Such people arewell-intentioned and well-meaning, striving to becooperative, beneficent, empathetic, and altruistic.’(p. 41) Kurtz makes an important remark about thescope of our moral circle: ‘[Persons of good will]are thus considerate, thoughtful, caring; everyeffort is made to reduce suffering and painwhenever they can; not only for other humanbeings but other sentient beings in the biosphere.’Here Kurtz seems to move away from theanthropocentric speciesism of humanism towardssentientism. For sentientists, like Peter Singer, thecriterion if an entity has moral value is its capacityfor suffering. Humanists have a tendency to carefor fellows humans in the here and now. Afundamental question is, can humanism beexpanded from anthropocentrism towardssentientism, or should the concept of humanism notbe stretched that much? One could argue:‘Humanism, as the word makes clear, is abouthumans, so if you want a worldview and ethicswhich is broader than that, don’t call it humanism.’But as I started out, humanism is a human-madeconcept and it can be reinvented all the time, in thelight of reason. Paul Kurtz seems also to take this

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stance, that it is possible to expand the moral circlewithin humanism. However, Kurtz does notelaborate this point, he only indicates towards thisnew direction. This is a direction that probably willalienate some of those who call themselveshumanists. The problem with organized humanismand humanism as an intellectual movement is thatwhen you take it seriously and thus include (new)atheism and sentientism, the people who aresympathetic towards humanism will decline. If youwant to market humanism, it is better to mind yourlanguage. It seems Paul Kurtz is concerned aboutthe marketing, but at the same time, he is too mucha philosopher as to water down humanism. Thistension between ideas and pragmatic concerns isvisible in many of the essays in Multisecularism.One that is hard to solve. With the title Kurtz seemsto have been chosen for the marketing strategy, buthis fierce critique on religion, unreason and hiswidening of the moral circle, show his reluctance tosubmit to a marketing strategy.

Kurtz points out the dangers of religious ethics,which are heteronomous. Answering the question‘What is good?’ believers ultimately refer to asupernatural entity, god. Humanists want to havegood reasons for what is good and what is evil.Kurtz looks for inspiration at the westernphilosophical tradition. He finds many theories,which he finds useful: virtue ethics, utilitarianism,Kantianism, pragmatism, liberalism. Though, atfirst sight, this moral eclecticism seems like Kurtzhas not made up his mind, he acknowledges thatthere might be more than one good theory and thatwe should try to make use of them as best as we can.The moral axiom Kurtz uses to calibrate ethicaltheories is: does it help to make the word a betterplace, including me?

Multisecularism is a political term, coined byKurtz. As Paul Cliteur in The Secular Outlook, andmyself in Philosophy for a Better World, point out,there is a distinction to be made between politicalsecularism (to separate state & religion) and moralsecularism (liberating ethics from religion). Kurtzaddresses both: separation of church and state

(political secularism), and the secularization ofvalues (moral secularism). Religion regretfully stillhas political and social power in many parts of theworld and hampers individual liberty and, often,social and penal justice. ‘Secularism needs to beadapted to diverse cultural conditions if it is to gainground. Multisecularism seems to be the best wayto pursue: that is, adapting secular ideas and valuesto the societies in which they arise.’ (p. 1). Kurtzpoints out that there are many ways ‘away fromRome’, away from religion. Perhaps, but this isspeculative, Kurtz utters an indirect critique onUSA attempts to spread one model of democracy inthose countries that have a special relation with theUSA.

In the last section of essays ‘Personal Reflections’Kurtz reflects on his life. The book is thus alsosomewhat an intellectual autobiography and amemoir. Center for Inquiry (the transnationalsecular humanist organization established by PaulKurtz) organizes educational cruises. One of thesecruises went to Alaska to see the melting ice (for the‘disbelieving Thomas’ kind of humanists’). Aboard ship Kurtz started to revisit his edifice ofhumanism, adapting it to the environmentalproblems. Though it seems humanism can andshould urgently rephrase itself towardeco-humanism, being more aware of the fact howfragile we are when we trespass the biophysicallimits of our habitat, planet Earth. Kurtz ponders:‘It is difficult to deny the reality of global warming,though some scientists and politicians, financed bypowerful oil companies, have attempted to do justthat.’ (p. 135). ‘While aboard ship, we read aloudthe following pledge of allegiance, which sets forthour ethical obligations to our planetary abode.

Planetary Allegiance

We pledge allegiance to the planetary communityof which we’re all part: one planet, indivisible, withliberty and justice for all. We recognize that allpersons are equal in dignity and value. We defendhuman rights and cherish human freedom. We vowto honor and protect the global ecology and

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biodiversity, not only for ourselves but forgenerations yet unborn.’

It seems that a problem with Kurtz’ humanism as hedefines it, is that it is too anthropocentric. Well, it isin the name: human-ism. In contrast to any otherlife stances, humanism is cosmopolitan, and, asnoted in the ‘Planetary Allegiance’ it also takesfuture generation humans into account.Philosopher Peter Singer has taken the lead intrying to expand the circle of morality by movingaway from anthropocentrism towards sentientism,taking as criterion for moral standing (not being aliving member of the Homo sapiens), the capacityfor suffering. This goes back to the famous adagioby Jeremy Bentham: ‘Can they suffer?’ It seemsthat despite its name, humanism can be adapted andexpanded away from anthropocentrism towards

sentientism or even biocentrism.

Humanism is not just an intellectual position;humanism is humane. It is about being friendly,living the good life. This is what Kurtz ponderswhen in the hospital with serious heart problems:

I say that I am a humanist, meaning by that, that weshould strive as best we can to do good, to try tohelp where we can, to compliment other personswherever possible. By this I mean that we shouldexpress an affirmative attitude all the time, to try toimprove the situation, if we can, to look at thebright side.’ (p. 254)

Mr. Floris van den Berg is a philosopher andco-executive director of Center for Inquiry LowCountries. In 2011 his book ‘Philosophy for a

Better World’ will be published at PrometheusBooks.

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[BOOK: An Essay on Upanishads (A Critical

Study): V.R. Narla (1989) [87P] Published byNarla Institute of New Thought]

—Reviewed by Kavneet Singh

(Contd. From the previous issue..)

Chapter 14 – Killing the Mind: And yet, what theUpanishads enjoin you is to still your mind, tosmother it, to kill it…..the Upanishads decry themind. They enjoin you to aim, and to achieve a stateof mindlessness….Pantanjali tells you, can “stillthe mind.”…When a whole people still their mind,which results in killing it, how can civilizationavoid crumbling at the first onslaught of aninvader….The two evil legacies of the Harappancivilization were Priest-craft and Yoga…..were allunited in advocating the stilling of the mind. For themost effective way to prevent the growth of all newand dangerous thought….. [Pages 275-277] Theincredible foresight, vision and what extremelengths the Brahmins went to, in order to plan thesediabolical ‘holy terror texts’ is just mind-boggling.No wonder Brahmins were able to control the‘people’ for over two millennia and get rich in thebargain.

Chapter 15 – Abracadabra: The primary meaningof “meditation” is no doubt, “deep concentratedthinking.” How can it, then, help to kill thought?Well, meditation actively promoted by theUpanishads is not life or the universe of the forcesthat are behind either of them……the Upanishadsactually warn you against it….What then shouldyou mediate on? On the sacred syllable Om…themystic syllable par excellence…it stands forBrahman. As the Chandoyoga (1.4.2) tells you, Omis superior to the three Vedas; it is the immortalrefuge of the gods…….By its pervasiveness, Om ismaking us all irrational, superstitious,sanctimonious, and hypocritical. If a person goeson meditating on it constantly, as the Upanishadsdirect him to do, it can make him mindless, if notinsane…..[Page 276-280] ‘Om’ is akin toAbracadabra being repeated incessantly with the

end result being zero gain since one is repeatingnothing, thereby dulling the mind senseless.Instead of creatively using the brain to help in thebetterment of mankind, lulling it through amindless ‘mantra’ makes no sense whatsoever.

Chapter 16 – The Fourth State: When you kill themind, you develop indifference and impassivity tothe world around you, and by degrees you lapseinto a state of daze, of torpor, ofstupefaction…..that is to fall into a deep sleep asleep without dreams…… [Page 280] To lull andstill the mind to complete emptiness is impossible,since the brain is working all the time teeming withinformation. Further it is unheard of that deep sleepcan be dreamless. Yet the great Yajnavalkyacontradicts himself as follows: When he departs, ondying, he leaves evils behind. Verily, there are twoconditions of this person: the condition of being inthis world and the condition of being in the otherworld. There is an intermediate third condition,namely, that of being sleep. By standing in thisintermediate condition one sees both theseconditions, namely being in this world and being inthe other world. (Brihadaranyaka,4.3.8 &9)…..[Page 281] First the great Yajnavalkya wantsyou to still the mind when you are alive, but on theother hand when you are just dying one observesboth the seen and unseen world. Reverting back tonormal sleep he suggests dreamless sleep toconquer the fear of bad dreams. This seems morelike dream psychology-‘fourth state’ than the realmof achieving oneness with the Almighty!

Chapter 17 – Death as Deliverance: It maybedreamless sleep, a sleep in which one is liberatedfrom all care…..in the end you are back in thewakeful state, back in the wretched world. How toprevent this? How to enjoy eternal bliss? For thatthe only logical step you can take is to die.Yajnavalkya does take this step…..deathbed scene:‘He is becoming one.” They say; “he does notsee.”….. “He does not see”…as he goes out, the life(prana) goes out. (Brihadaranyaka, 4.4.2 & 3)….[Page 284] To any wholesome lover of mankind,nature and life in general this would be a death

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warrant. Glory in death, yet mourning life. Praisinggods and denigrating humans. There seems to beutter contempt for womankind, without which therewould be no mankind. These are not passages ofaccident but well thought out statements in theheart of the Upanishads.

Chapter 18 – License to Murder:

The Upanishads have yet another shock for you.You receive it from their ethical systems, or moreproperly, from its absence…. “There are here andthere moral maxims enunciated, but they are of noconsequence and rise in no way above popularmorality.” Indeed, ethics is one of the branches ofstudy totally neglected in India…. [Page 286] Theabsence of ethics stares you in the face in everypage of the vast Upanishads. If a religious systemhas no ethical foundation then it can be calledanything else, except a religion. Because, withoutethics, man is worse than an animal. TheUpanishads have been cunningly written with amaster design to be supplanted into the puny brainsof all the lower castes. Once you are in possessionof true knowledge, you can steal and be unsullied,you can kill an embryo and yet be unsullied; youcan murder your father and mother or both, and yetbe unsullied. Indeed, however heinous, howeverdemonical, your acts are, nothing – absolutelynothing -can touch you. You are above good andevil; you are above reproach….taught by Indra, theKing of the gods, to Pratardana Daivodasi(Kaushitaki, 3.1)….And as the Brihadaranyakaemphasizes, not only do you get absolved althoughyou commit “very much evil”, but you will become“clean and pure, ageless and immortal.”(5.14.8)….. [Page 289] Ultimate knowledge of thedivine absolves a human from all crimespermanently. This is the ultimate license to killwith impunity and what a way to earn it. I would notbe surprised if Hitler actually read Max Mueller’stranslations of these texts and decided to carry outhis (un)holy deeds because he was not committingany sin according to the Upanishads. After allHitler’s ‘swastika’ and his Aryan pure-bloodphilosophy was borrowed from the Hindu-Aryan

philosophy!

Chapter19 – Uddalaka vs Yajnavalkya: Thoughtradition attributes the Brihadaranyaka wholly toYajnavalkya, in its text itself, as it has come downto us, we find other teachers beside him. And inview of certain inconsistencies in the teaching ofUddalaka Aruni, it is presumed, and rightly, thatinterpolators attributed their views tohim…..Yajnavalkya would have an answer at thetip of his tongue. Uddalaka was differentlymade…… [Page 290] Some say that Yajnavalkyawas Uddalaka’s pupil (Brihadaranyaka, 6.3.7) yettheir views and writings differ widely. Fact andfiction collide leaving the reader bewildered andlost in the Upanishadic jungle. It’s hard to figurewhat makes sense and with mostly nonsense.

Chapter 20 – Hollow Men: Apart from Shourie’sbook, I own nearly a dozen books exclusivelydevoted to the Upanishads and they show howscholastic they are, how verbose and vapid… [Page293] From Ranade to Patwardhan all the experts onthe Upanishads seem to be bellicose and illogical.Trying to explain the unexplainable and inventingsomething out of a void which is hollow and indeedshallow. But the Indian (Hindu) establishmentcontinues to sponsor umpteen studies on Vedantain the Western countries hoping for a miracle.

Chapter 21 – “It is hereby certified…..” On whatbasis did Schopenhauer thus come to venerate theUpanishads? On the basis of their third-handversion? What he read was the Latin translation ofthe Persian translation done at the instance of DarSukoh…says Max Mueller, in an “utterlyunintelligible style”…It shows that Schopenhauerwas one of the Germans bitten by the Aryanbug…Racisim is, thus, not the exclusive afflictionof Hitler and his Nazis; it is a virus that has deeperand wider spread when you go to the bottom ofit……… [Page 298] Western scholars most haveshowered adulations on the Upanishads, Vedas,etc, without really critically examining the sametexts from a humanistic, logical and ethical angle.Further even today Hitler is revered as a great

34


leader in the state of Gujarat in western India wherehe is mentioned in school text books. At the heart ofit all is good old racism at work overtime.

Chapter 22 – A Last Word: We Indians have stood“almost apart from the general movement of humanintelligence.” Why? Because of our distrust ofintelligence. Because we denounce the mind whichis the seat of intelligence. Because we placeintuition above intelligence, because we hankerafter that zero, the atman, and its merger with thatbigger zero, the Brahman..[Page 299] Why?Because of our distrust of intelligence. Because wedenounce the mind which is the seat of intelligence.Because we place intuition above intelligence,because we hanker after that zero, the atman, and itsmerger with that bigger zero, the Brahman.. [Page299] Narla is right, yet on the same token it was theintelligent Brahmins who very cleverly createdthese texts to stop all the other classes from usingtheir brains, in case a strong enough group doesrebel and tear down the brahminized edifice ofreligiosity, which really was a way to govern andcontrol the population for eternity. Even a callowyoung man today knows a lot more than the seniormost of the Upanishadic rishis….and so, if theUpanishads are read at all, they should be read notfor acquiring knowledge but for tracing the historyof ideas by going to their tentative, confused andfaltering beginnings. Furthermore, it should not be

forgotten that the Upanishands are the work of thetwo upper castes of ancient Indian society. Theyhad certain vested interests. To safeguard them,they advanced certain ideas, concepts, postulates,etc. They are not only of no use in the present agebut positively harmful…. [Page 299] Narla hassummed up the essence of the Upanishadsbeautifully. The Upanishads restrict and handicapthe mind of man in order to retard it from freethinking and critical examination of everything thathe confronts. It is nothing short of digressivelydisabling diabolical drivel. Narla has read andreferenced practically all the well known authorsand translators of the entire spectrum ofUpanishads. He has left no stone unturned tocritically examine, without using kid gloves anddispassionately stated the truth within the vastliterature of the Upanishads. Brutally honest andbold he stands apart among many who are tooafraid of the repercussions and consequences tothemselves. Religious studies on Hinduism will notbe complete without reading all of Narla’s books. Amust read for anyone seriously interested inresearching the Hindu religion.

Mr Kavaneet hails from India and is now settled inUSA. He is a voratious reader and regularly writesreviews of books in various journals. He is arationalist and secular thinker.

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A tribute to Professor Kotha Satchidananda MurthyProfessor Kotha Satchidananda Murthy died on 24 Jan. 2011 in Hyderabad.He was an outstanding philosophy professor in Andhra University, Waltair, from where he wroteEvolution of Indian Philosophy. M.N. Roy contributed very lengthy introduction to that critical bookwhich was later incorporated in his book Materialism.Prof Murthy later served as Vice Chancellor of Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, NagarjunaUniversity, Gunture, where he developed a Buddhist Study Center.Prof Murthy was also Chairman of UGC.He toured extensively and lectured in famous universities on philosophy and thought.He published several books in English. Prof Murthy wrote introduction to essays of A.B. Shahpublished by N. Innaiah (in Telugu) during 1968.He was a close associate of Justice Avula Sambasivarao, Chairman of Indian Radical HumanistAssociation. Many students were trained by Prof Murthy in Budhism and Logic. —Innaiah. N

Mr. Kanhaiyalal Purohit, anold Radical Humanist fromJodhpur, Rajasthan, breathedhis last on 6.1.2011. He had served fornearly 36 yrs. at Shri Sumer PushtikarHigh School, Jodhpur as Mathematicsteacher. For the last 20 yrs, after hisretirement, he was leading a quiet life,mostly confined to his house, becauseof a paralytic attack on his leg; still hewas very fond of reading especially onradical humanism, democracy, freesociety, etc...

He had been associates with theRadicals in the city of Jodhpur from the good olddays when Mr. Harish Joshi, Dr. P.L. Vyas, Mr. RajNana Vyas, Prof. Chandmal, Ugamraj,Shyamsunder Vyas of Lokjeevan etc, were activelypropagating the ideas of M.N. Roy for not onlygetting independence from British but also for ahappy life for all Indians, in matter of removal ofpoverty, industrialization, economic prosperity,non-exploitation of man by man i.e. for ademocratic society based on the dignity of man.

All along his life Mr. Purohit has been participatingin meetings, seminars, study camps and groupdiscussions where issues of public importance,related to removal of superstitions, systems ofcruelty upon women, child marriage, wastefulexpenditures in marriages, purdah system illiteracyetc. were taken up. He devoted much of his time inteaching these to those who could not afford to payfor private tutors, and took great pains incampaigns for spreading education among thewomen folk. During his young age he was alwaysseen going to various Freshers and studentspersuading them to read M.N. Roy’s literature,such as Independent India, later Radical Humanist,and pamphlets and books written by M.N. Roy andother radicals.

We, who had the good fortune to have Mr. K.L.Purohit in our midst cannot forget his sincerity ofpurpose and dogged perseverance at the time of

public meetings,conferences held atJaipur and Jodhpur

in the years 1980 to 1990. I often feelfortunate enough to have had hiscontinuous assistance in running asmall cooperative society at Jodhpurfor distribution of wheat, commoditywheat that was in great scarcity inthose years in 1961 and 1962. Mr.Purohit was ever ready to help me inthe distribution of slips/ration cardsfor taking wheat at the cooperationstore, turn by turn. Once we did not

get the supply of wheat for about two weeks andwhen we received it, it could be given to only oneseventh of the card holders. Most of the cardholders had gathered at the ration shop and wantedto be given wheat on that very day, which was notpossible because the supply was very short. Fewcard holders were very much agitated. Howeverwith folded hands I requested them to go silently totheir houses without wheat and then I would seehow each one of the card holders would get his due.The shortage of wheat took a week to be fulfilled.My appeal had a magical effect upon the agitatedcrowd. They dispersed at the moment of crisis. Mr.K.L. Purohit willingly came to my rescue and henot only started preparing shops’ names’ list forone seventh of the consumers for that day/but alsowent from door to door to hand over the shops’names so that they could go there and purchasewheat. This went on for 7 days and all the cardholders could get their due share of wheat within aweek and thus I succeeded in redeeming my pledgeto give justice to the agitated members of thesociety. It was possible because of the unstintedand self-less service of dear Mr. K.L. Purohit.

Mr. Purohit is no more but he has left behind himhis indelible marks on the minds of many persons tospread his message of working for the welfare ofmankind, without caring for his own comforts.

—B.D. Sharma, President, IRI


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Remembering Kanhaiyalal Purohit

Humanist News Section:

I

Radical Humanist Centre, Inkollu, Prakasam

Dt., A.P. Study Camp:

A two days Rationalist and Humanist study campwas organized by the Radical Humanist Centre(RHC), Inkollu, Prakasam District, AndhraPradesh on 12th and 13th February, 2011 on theoccasion of the 20th Anniversary Celebrations ofthe Centre.

Sri Kurra Hanumantha Rao, Chairman of theRationalist Association of India (RAI) presidedover the morning session on 12th February. SriGumma Veeranna, President and Sri VutlaRanganayakulu, General Secretary of AndhraPradesh Rationalist Association (APRA) deliveredlectures on the subject “The Threat of ReligiousFundamentalism and the Need of Renaissance”.

The 90th Birthday of Ravipudi Venkatadri, aveteran Radical Humanist and the President ofRationalist Association of India was celebrated inthis session. Dr. T. Mahesh felicitated RavipudiVenkatadri. All the participants expressed theirbest wishes to Ravipudi Venkatadri. Smt. RekhaSaraswat, Editor, The Radical Humanist, Meerut,India and Dr. N. Innaiah from USA also sentwishes to Ravipudi Venkatadri on this occasion.

The collection of editorials written by Sri RavipudiVenkatadri in “Hetuvadi” Telugu monthlypublished from 1982 to 2010 were released in twovolumes (13th and 14th) by Sri K. Ram Mohan Roy,Lecturer, JKC College, Guntur with an excellentreview. Sri Ravipudi Venkatadri spoke onRationalism.

Sri Gumma Veeranna, President of APRA,presided over the afternoon session. Sri KariHaribabu, General Secretary of RHC, Inkolluexplained “The Nature and Evolution of theUniverse”. Sri Meduri Satyanarayana, GeneralSecretary of RAI, spoke on the subject “Scienceand Religion”. Interesting discussion took place onthe above subjects.

Under the Chairmanship of Sri Gumma Veeranna,the Executive Committee meeting of APRA washeld. Several problems were discussed in themeeting including the necessity of spreadingRationalism and Humanism in the society. SriVutla Ranganayakulu, General Secretary, reportedthe activities of the association conducted duringthe last year.

Sri Meduri Satyanarayana, General Secretary ofRAI presided over the morning session on 13th

February, 2011. Dr. K. Vijayalakshmi, Retd.Lecturer, Rajahmundry spoke on “The Problems ofWomen and Rationalism”. Ex. President of APRASri Chunchu Seshaiah spoke on “Rationalism” andSri Shaik Babu, Joint Secretary of RHC spoke onHumanism.

A Title “INGERSOLL OF ANDHRA PRADESH”was awarded to Sri Ravipudi Venkatadri inrecognition of his life time dedicated service toRationalist and Humanist movement, by the“Centre for Inquiry”. Dr. Narisetty Innaiah fromUSA sent a message to this effect to Sri RavipudiVenkatadri.

The 15th volume on “Questions and Answers”written by Sri Ravipudi Venkadri which waspreviously published in “Hetuvadi” magazine wasreleased by Prof. N. Anjaiah, Centre for ScientificSocialism, Nagarjuna University, Guntur with acritical review.

The 20th anniversary meeting of RHC was held inthe evening. Sri Kari Haribabu, General Secretaryof the centre presided over the meeting. Theactivities of the centre and the history of the centrewere reported by Sri Kari Haribabu and MeduriSatyanarayana. Sri Gumma Veeranna, KurraHanumantha Rao, Sri Chunchu Seshaiah and SriVathsavayi Narayana Raju, President, RHC alsospoke on this occasion. Prizes were distributed tothe students who won in the district widecompetitions of essay writing and elocutionorganized by RHC, Inkollu.

Nearly 100 members attended the study camp fromdifferent places in Andhra Pradesh including

37


Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, Guntur,Prakasam, East Godavari, West Godavari andKadapa Districts. Rationalist and Humanistliterature (nearly 100 titles) was sold on reducedrates during the study camp. Free boarding andlodging facilities were provided for two days to allthe participants by the centre.

The meeting was concluded with a vote of thanksby Sri Nallabothu Radhakrishna, Treasurer, RHC,Inkollu for successful completion of the 20th

Anniversary Celebrations and the study camp.

News sent by G. Veerana, President, APRA,Hyderabad

II

Mere membership of banned outfit won’t attract

criminal action:

Be wary of torture-induced confessions before

police:

Mere membership of a banned organisation will notmake a person criminal unless he resorts toviolence or incites people to violence or createspublic disorder by violence or incitement toviolence, the Supreme Court held on Thursday.

A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and GyanSudha Misra gave this ruling, setting aside adesignated court judgment which convicted ArupBhuyan under Section 3 (5) of the Terrorist andDisruptive Activities (Prevention) Act of being amember of the United Liberation Front of Asom.

Justice Katju quoted a U.S. Supreme Courtjudgment which said: “Mere advocacy or teachingthe duty, necessity or propriety of violence as ameans of accomplishing political or industrialreform, or publishing or circulating or displayingany book or paper containing such advocacy, orjustifying the commission of violent acts withintent to exemplify, spread or advocate thepropriety of the doctrines of criminal syndicalism,or to voluntarily assemble with a group formed toteach or advocate the doctrines of criminalsyndicalism is not per se illegal. It will become

illegal only if it incites to imminent lawless action.”

Another U.S. Supreme Court judgment also heldthat a member of a communist organisation couldnot be regarded as doing an unlawful act by merelyobtaining employment in a defence facility, theBench noted.

“We respectfully agree with the decisions, and areof the opinion that they apply to India too, as ourfundamental rights are similar to the Bill of Rightsin the U.S. Constitution.”

Arup Bhuyan was convicted under the TADA Actof being a member of the banned ULFA, on thebasis of a confession which is admissible evidenceunder the TADA Act.

Allowing the appeal against this judgment of theDesignated Court, Assam, in Guwahati, the Benchsaid the appellant denied that he was a member ofthe banned outfit.

“Even assuming he was a member of the ULFA, ithas not been proved that he was an active memberand not a mere passive member.”

On confessional statements, the Bench said“Torture is such a terrible thing that when a personis under torture he will confess to almost any crime.Even Joan of Arc confessed to be a witch undertorture. Hence, where the prosecution case mainlyrests on the confessional statement made to thepolice by the alleged accused, in the absence ofcorroborative material, the courts must be hesitantbefore they accept such extra-judicial confessionalstatements.”

Weak Evidence:

The Bench said: “Confession is a very weak kind ofevidence. As is well known, the widespread andrampant practice in the police in India is to use thirddegree methods for extracting confessions from thealleged accused. Hence, the courts have to becautious in accepting confessions made to thepolice by the alleged accused.”

The judges said: “Unfortunately, the police in ourcountry are not trained in scientific investigation(as are the police in western countries), nor are theyprovided the technical equipment for scientific

38


investigation, hence to obtain a conviction theyoften rely on the easy short cut of procuring aconfession under torture.”

In the instant case, “the prosecution case mainlyrelies on the alleged confessional statement of theappellant made before the Superintendent ofPolice. We are of the opinion that it will not be safeto convict the accused on the basis of allegedconfessional statement.” Section 3 (5) of TADAcould not be read literally; doing so would beviolative of Articles 19 (right to freedom) and 21(right to life and liberty) of the Constitution.

The Bench acquitted the appellant of allcharges.—Circulated by J. Venkatesan

III

People’s Union For Civil Liberties, (PUCL),

Gujarat

Harassment to the human rights activist, lawyersand media persons

PUCL delegation meets the Governor

Memorandum

7 February 2011

To,

Her Excellency,

Smt. Kamlaji,

The Governor of Gujarat,

Raj Bhavan,

Gandhinagar,

Sub: —Attempt to intimidate witnesses towards

derailing trials connected with carnage of 2002

and harassing Human Rights Activists, lawyers

and media persons—

Respected Madam,

We, the concerned citizens of Gujarat, want tobring to the notice of your Excellency harassmentsuffered by the human rights activists, lawyers andmedia persons seeking justice for the victims of thecarnage of 2002.

We notice that one by one witnesses aremanipulated by intimidation, coercion, bribes andsuch other heinous means which is manifest inZaheera (Best Bakery Case, Vadodara) or RaisKhan (Panderwada-Lunawada case) turninghostile. We understand that human rights activistMs. Teesta Setalvad, advocates like Mr. SahilTirmizi, Mr. Mukul Sinha, Mr. Amrisha Patel, Mr.S.H. Iyer, Mr. Shamshad Pathan and journalistRahul Singh of Sahara Channel face threats to theirlives. As we all are aware Ms. Teesta Setalvadthrough her NGO, CJP, and advocate Mr.

Tirmizi with the help of the kin of the victims couldget the High Court’s order in 2006 and that of theSupreme Court in 2008 respectively for dignifiedburial of the mortal remains of the massacredvictims. Through these efforts decent burial wasprovided.

Moreover, through these legal battles, the activistsand advocates have been hindered by the disturbingnexus of the State’s police, the administration andpoliticians. Whistle blowers and defenders ofhuman rights are persecuted. GujaratGovernment’s mala-fide allegations seem to aim atderailing the course of justice and come at a timewhen the apex court is poised to hear a complaint ofconspiracy to commit mass murder, subversion ofjustice and destruction of evidence. We see this asGujarat Government’s ploy to influence the courtsbefore its imminent judgment in the casespertaining to the carnage of 2002. Under thesecircumstances we demand the following:

1. Police act independently of politicians.

2. Witnesses be given proper Protection.

3. The activists, whistle blowers and the lawyersmust have freedom to work without anyintimidation and coercion.

Thanking you,

Yours,

Gautam Thaker, (Gen. Sec., PUCL Gujarat),Prakash N. Shah, (Editor, Nirikshak),

Ila Pathak, (AWAG),

39


Manishi Jani, (Lok Adhikar Sangh),

Minaxi Joshi, (All India Mahila SanskrutikSangathan)

Persons to be contacted:

Prof. J.S. Bandukwala, (President),(0265-2783338);

Gautam Thaker, (General Secretary),(079-26641353, M. 98253 82556);

Prakash N. Shah, (Working President), (M.9879919421)

Correspondence Address:

4, Sanmitra Society, Jivraj Park Area, Opp. MalavTalav, Ahmedabad-380 051. GUJARAT.

40


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March 2011 - RH