varnam

In our elections most of the candidates put by political parties are career politicians or thugs or both. The public is left with no choice other than to vote for the lesser evil. Under the constitution, there is something called Section 49-O which allows the voter to reject all the candidates on the ballot

So what’s the big deal, you ask?
Well, here it is:apparently, if the election is countermanded owing to negative votes, not one of the candidates who stood for the earlier election can contest the re-election.
Now imagine the consequences. Imagine what would happen if each time a party put up a goon, the voters forced an expensive re-election. The mind boggles. [Just do it!]

For such an event to happen there has to be tremendous coordination by the non-political voters. There also has to be a grassroots efforts to  make this into a mass movement within a constituency, which currently looks impractical. Even if a re-election is forced, career politicians will always find a way to get their folks in for in the circle of life, for every Lalu who is convicted, there is a Rabri Devi to take his place.

In Search of the Cradle of Civilization by Georg Fuerstein, Subhash Kak and David Frawley, Quest Books (September 2001), 341 pages.

In 1786, Sir William Jones, a British judge in Calcutta noticed that there were striking similarities in the vocabulary  and grammar of Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic and Gothic. This discovery resulted in the creation of a new field called comparative linguistics which led scholars to believe that all these languages were derived from a pre-Indo-European language which had its origins somewhere in Northern Europe, Central Asia, Southern Russia, India or Anatolia.

Soon we got the Aryan Invasion Theory, which claimed that Aryans, barbaric semi nomadic tribes who spoke the Indo-European language invaded India and then composed the Vedas. A date of between 1500 - 1200 B.C.E was also proposed for the invasion.  The word Aryan comes from Sanskrit language and means "noble" or "cultured" and does not refer to a particular race or language The whole Aryan Invasion Theory is scholarly fiction according to authors Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak and David Frawley and they present both literary and archaeological evidence for it.

The literary history is provided by the Vedic literature from the Rig-Veda to the Upanishads. The Vedic Aryans were not just cattle and sheep breeding semi nomadic pastoralists, but city dwellers, seafarers and merchants whose business took them along the length of Saraswati, Indus and also into the ocean.  In the ancient scriptures there is no reference to a five river system, but to a seven river system which was called sapta-saindhava (land belonging to seven rivers) and the center of the vedic times was not Punjab, but some place further east on the Saraswati.

Satellite images have shown evidence of paleo channels  in Haryana believed to be this mythical Saraswati. According to geologists, before 1900 B.C.E, Saraswati had shifted course at least four times. Then major tectonic shifts occurred which altered the flow of the river resulting in  the eventual drying. Following this people migrated to the Ganges valley which is described in the Shatapata Brahmana.

Following the archaeological discovery of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, hundreds of other sites were discovered in the region like Ganweriwala, Rakhigarhi, Dholavira, Kalibangan and Lothal. The Harappan culture area far exceeded the combined area occupied by the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations and has provided various seals of significance. This civilization declined around 1900 B.C.E and the cause is attributed to climate change or the disappearance of substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system.

The authors argue that the people of Harappa were Vedic Aryans who had reached India a long time back. Indo-European speakers are now thought to have been present in Anatolia at the beginning of the Neolothic age. Migrations would have happened during the Harappan times as well, but the new immigrants would have found a prominent Sanskrit speaking Vedic people in Harappa. It is possible that the Vedic people walked on the streets of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and even possibly Mehrgarh and they did not come as conquerors or destroyers from outside India, but lived and even built the cities in the Land of Seven Rivers.

There are reasons to believe that the Rig-Veda was composed much before Muller's imaginary date. The authors  claim that some of the oldest hymns of Rig-Veda were composed before the decline of Saraswati.  According to them, Rig-Veda fills the gap between the Neolithic town of Mehrgarh and the Indus-Saraswati civilization. One of the stellar patterns suggested by the hymns of the Rig Veda could only have occurred in the period from 4500 – 2500 B.C.E. Still Max Muller quite arbitarily came up with a date of 1500 - 1200 B.C.E for the Vedas and it has been repeated constantly by various historians. The Rig Veda speaks about the seven rivers and if they were composed by people who came from outside in 1500 B.C.E, then they would not have known about the two vanished rivers.

Among the artifacts obtained from the Indus-Saraswati region is the pashupathi seal named so after the Hindu God Shiva. The seal shows a seated figure, in a yogic posture, with headgear surrounded by animals. Rudra/Shiva is the most prominent deity of the Yajur Veda and this links the Harappan religion with Vedic texts. Polished stones which look like the linga and recently the swastika was also found in Indus Valley.  Numerous clay figurines have been found in Harappa which show a Mother Godess cult and Godesses are common in Hinduism even now.

There is also evidence of tree worship in Harappan times as mentioned in Rig Veda and Atharva Veda. The core of the Vedic religion was sacrifice and fire altars have been found in several Indus sites. In Kalibangan seven rectangular fire altars have been found aligned north-south beside a well which parallels the six Vedic dishnya hearths. With all the evidence the authors conclude that the Vedic and Indus-Saraswati civilization is one and the same and Rig-Veda and other sacred hymns were the product of the people who created the urban civilization of the Land of the Seven Rivers.

According to the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory Aryans came and conquered the dark skinned Dasyus. In Sanskrit dasa means servant and could have been the opposite of the Aryans. The battle between the Aryans and Dasyus could be a metaphor for the fight between light and darkness like the struggle between the Egyptian God Ra and the demons of darkness or the Zoroastrian conflict between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. This reference which appears once in the entire Vedic literature became the cornerstone for the Aryan invasion theory. The Dasyus were not Dravidians or non-Aryans, but fallen Aryans or members of the warrior class who had become unspiritual. Arya and dasyu are terms not describing race, but behavior.

Some of their arguments are not that convincing. For example, they cite that priesthood played an important part of Harappans and similarly emphasis on priesthood is found in Vedic literature and hence Harappa was vedic. Priesthood was an important part of Egyptians, and Zoroastrians as well. The authors believe that Indo-European peoples were at least present in Mehrgarh or that they could be the creators. This belief comes not from any archaeological evidence, but from the assumption that some hymns of Rig Veda could go back to the fourth millennium B.C.E. They even state that literary evidence is more important than archaeological evidence.  In one case they go even as far as suggesting that ancient Egyptians got their wisdom from the sages of India since there was a colony of Indic people in Memphis around 500 B.C.E.

Recently there was a program on The History Channel titled, The Exodus Decoded, which tried to provide a scientific explanation to the Exodus and the ten plagues that struck Egypt. The Smithsonian of May 2006 has an article titled Mideast Archaeology: The Bible as a road map which talks about how an archaeologist identified a structure in West Bank which is believed to have been built by Joshua on instructions from Moses. In both these cases the Bible has been taken as a valid historical document and then archaeology was conducted to validate it. Today Biblical Archaeology is a scientific discipline in its own right.

When it comes to ancient Indian scriptures like the Vedas, scholars are not that lenient. They have always chosen to see in them literary creations of little more than mythological and theological significance. While they contain theology and mythology, it also reveals the names of rivers, astronomical information and gives geographical descriptions which could be valuable clues for historians. It gives us a glimpse of the world in which the authors of the Vedas lived. This book brings into attention many interesting pieces of information from various fields to make a strong case for the antiquity of Indic civilization and is highly recommended.

Note: This book is available from the varnam Book Store

The Rig-Veda authors mention their land as that of seven rivers. Out of the seven only five exist now. The remaining two, Saraswati and Drishadwati have disappeared. Following the discovery of Mohenjo-Daro along the banks of Indus and Harappa about 350 miles away, archaeologists started looking for other sites in the area. New sites were discovered, but they were buried under the sand in the desert. Archaeologists knew that these towns could not survive in the desert and satellite images have now shown that in what is now Thar Desert, once traversed a river with its own fertile banks[2]. These dry channels of the Ghaggar-Hakra is considered by many to be the Saraswati river.

A recent paper by Fuller and Madella describe the importance of Ghaggar-Hakra system in Indus-Saraswati Civilization

Another factor in the Holocene environmental history of the northwestern sub-continent, overlooked in some discussions of Quaternary palaeoecology, is the changes in the river drainage system, especially the Ghaggar-Hakra system flowing roughly parallel but separate to the Indus . Archaeological research in Cholistan has led to the discovery of a large number of sites along the dry channels of the Ghaggar-Hakra river (often identified with the lost Sarasvati and Drishadvatirivers of Sanskrit traditions) . Along the Ghaggar-Hakra there is a relatively high frequency of settlements during the Mature Harappan (2600–2000 cal BC), which suggests a well-watered region that could support agriculture. This may be interpreted either as a river or an inland delta in the area around Derawar. By the time of the Painted Grey Ware period (ca 1200–500 cal BC) the river must have been dry, because several sites of this period are found in river bed contexts. This change, thought to have been brought on by tectonic uplift and the capture of the Ghaggar-Hakra headwaters by the Yamuna watershed, led to gradual desiccation during the Holocene, which was well underway by the period of the Harappan Civilisation  The final desiccation of some of these channels may have had major repercussions for the Harappan Civilisation and is considered a major factor in the de-centralisation and de-urbanisation of the Late Harappan period. [via email from Carlos Aramayo]

After flourishing from 2600 - 1900 B.C.E, the Indus Valley Civilization entered a period of decline. The various reasons cited for the decline include climate change, like the decline of monsoons. A crucial factor was also the disappearance of substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system, believed to be the mythical Saraswati.

Climate changes are sometimes responsible for the development of civilizations. For example, a pre-historic climate change in Eastern Sahara resulted in the rise of the Egyptian civilization. There is an argument that civilizations developed as a by-product of adaptation to climate change and hostile environments.

The early civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia, China and northern South America were founded between 6000 and 4000 years ago when global climate changes, driven by natural fluctuations in the Earth's orbit, caused a weakening of monsoon systems resulting in increasingly arid conditions. These first large urban, state-level societies emerged because diminishing resources forced previously transient people into close proximity in areas where water, pasture and productive land was still available.

"Civilisation did not arise as the result of a benign environment which allowed humanity to indulge a preference for living in complex, urban, 'civilized' societies," said Dr. Brooks.

"On the contrary, what we tend to think of today as 'civilisation' was in large part an accidental by-product of unplanned adaptation to catastrophic climate change. Civilisation was a last resort - a means of organising society and food production and distribution, in the face of deteriorating environmental conditions."

He added that for many, if not most people, the development of civilisation meant a harder life, less freedom, and more inequality. The transition to urban living meant that most people had to work harder in order to survive, and suffered increased exposure to communicable diseases. Health and nutrition are likely to have deteriorated rather than improved for many.

The new research challenges the widely held belief that the development of civilization was simply the result of a transition from harsh, unpredictable climatic conditions during the last ice age, to more benign and stable conditions at the beginning of the Holocene period some 10,000 years ago. [Climate change rocked cradles of civilization]

Here are some excerpts from the speeches from the Nonaligned Movement summit in Cuba

"When there no longer is a Cold War, the United States spends one billion dollars a year in weapons and soldiers and it squanders a similar amount in commercial publicity," he said. "To think that a social and economic order that has proven unsustainable could be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea." [Raul Castro]

"Under any scenario, we are with you just like we are with Cuba," Chavez told Iran. "If the United States invades Cuba, blood will run. ... We will not have our arms crossed while bombs are falling in Havana or they carry Raul off in a plane." [Hugo Chavez]

A pattern of insect, ear of corn, inverted fish and other symbols written on a stone tablet seems to be one of the ancient writings of the Western Hemisphere.

The pattern of symbols covering the face of the rectangular block also represents a previously unknown ancient writing system.

The text contains 28 distinct glyphs or symbols, some of which are repeated three and four times. The writing system does not appear to be linked to any known later scripts and may represent a dead end, according to the study.

Other experts not involved in the study agreed with Houston and his colleagues that the horizontally arranged inscription shows patterns that are the hallmarks of true writing, including syntax and language-specific word order.[Mysterious stone slab bears ancient writing]

Not all of these symbols are unfamiliar to archeologists. Mary Pohl at Florida State University is an expert on the Olmec. She's analyzed Olmec symbols on jewelry and a cylindrical seal that dates almost as far back as the inscribed tablet. She says a few of the symbols are clearly written versions of carved stone objects, like an ear of corn, previously found at Olmec archeological sites.

"One sign looks actually like a corn cob with silk coming out the top," Pohl says. Other signs are unique, she says, and never before seen, like one of an insect.

Pohl says these objects -- and thus probably the writing -- had a special value in rituals.

"We see that the writing is very closely connected with ritual and the early religious beliefs, because they are taking the ritual carvings and putting them into glyphs and making writing out of them," Pohl says. "And all of this is occurring in the context of the emergence of early kings and the development of a centralized power and stratified society."[Earliest New World Writing Discovered]

While Israel was bombing Lebanon and Hezbollah was firing missiles randomly into Israeli civilian population, the Lok Sabha passed a resolution condemning the Israeli attack on Lebanon.

‘‘Deeply concerned over escalation of this conflict which affects India’s security and other vital interests, this House calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire so that further destruction of Lebanon is prevented,’’ Chatterjee said, reading out the resolution reflecting what he said was ‘‘mood of the House’’.

 

The Lok Sabha in the resolution expressed ‘‘its deepest condolences, sympathy and support of the People of India to the people of Lebanon in this difficult time.’’[House slams Israel strike on Lebanon]

Dog's own country has an excellent post on the frequent Hartals and Bandhs which costs Rs. 233 per Keralite for a single day’s shutdown

Most people can point quite readily to the source. Public employees are not required to keep attendance and the costs of cutting work are far lower for them as they are salaried employees. The opportunity cost is even lower for politicians. In fact, they actually gain voting lobbies in the form of government workers and trade union members through such stunts. In contrast, employees in private firms have much to lose by resorting to coercive forms of protest. That is why you see one or two private bus strikes every year. And even those do not lead to full-scale shutdowns. The power to paralyze life has come to define the life of the public sector.[ How Hartals and Bandhs Hijacked our State]

If there is someone you can trust these days, those are the terrorists. That seems to be the message in the world of Foreign Affairs these days. If you don't believe me, our Prime Minister, the dictator next door and the State Department can vouch for this.

Once you grab that hand it is so difficult to let it go. No, we are not talking about Meera Jasmine 's or Kavya Madhavan's hands, but Musharraf's. That seems to be the predicament of all Indian Prime Ministers starting with Vajpayee. Vajpayee went all way to Pakistan and kissed those hands which masterminded Kargil. Then came Manmohan Singh and he too did the same thing in the conclave of tyrants in Havana. Maybe it was the Cuban air, maybe Manmohan Singh is plain crazy, but India and Pakistan have agreed to put in place a anti-terrorism institutional mechanism, which is like Veeru and Gabbar Singh signing an agreement to hunt down Sambha.

If India had no reason to distrust Musharraf, Musharraf had no reason to distrust the 2500 foreign fighters linked to Taliban and al-Qaeda fighting in Waziristan. It did not matter that some of these gentlemen belonged to Islamic welfare organizations, such "the al-Khidmat Foundation run by the hard-line Islamist party Jamaat-i-Islami and some of them had tried to assassinate Musharraf. The Govt.  reached an agreement with the terrorists. They (terrorists) would not involve in cross-border terrorism and stop attacks on government installations and security forces. In turn Pakistani Army would not undertake any ground or air operation against the militants. If Musharraf wanted a template for such agreements we could have faxed him a copy from the many India has signed with various Pakistani Prime Minister and dictators.

While we are waiting for the next bomb to explode in a crowded train or temple as a result of all that forbidden love  in Pakistan, the State Department is smiling like Hugo Chavez after seeing Fidel Castro. This is the perfect world according to Richard Boucher, the Washington Bob. He thinks that the agreement between Musharraf and the terrorists has the potential to work which only shows how clueless the State Department folks are. But then the State Department has put all its eggs in Musharraf's basket and they cannot do anything else, but trust him.

Musharraf knows where bin Laden is, but he cannot catch him because there is a new agreement with the terrorists that the Army won't chase them. The British and Americans are discovering that the genesis of every terror plot happens in Pakistan. Billions are being poured into plutonium processing plants while science and math are not taught in the madrassas where the next generation Wahhabis are being trained.

Citing all these, Manzoor Ijaz has a scathing op-ed piece in WSJ on Musharraf's Pakistan.

Neighborly relations are equally dismal despite recent attempts to shore them up. Gen. Musharraf continues to court Tehran's mullahs, raising Washington's ire, in hopes of building an Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline that could fund a revival of the Kashmiris' militant insurgency against India, and keep his restive Inter-Services Intelligence minders happy. His peace overtures to New Delhi, including his recent commitment to restart stalled peace talks at a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Cuba, ring hollow after evidence seems to prove time and again that Pakistani soil -- and resources made available from Pakistan -- are being used to back terrorist attacks against India.

Pakistan has lost its identity. It is a client state for sale to the highest bidder for the purpose that suits the moment: to the U.S. after 9/11 as the staging grounds for hunting down terrorists; to Saudi Arabia since the Iranian revolution so that Wahhabist Islam could flourish next door to Shiite Iran; and to China as a strategic counterbalance to India's growing power. While this short-sighted strategy may help ward off complete state failure, it does not provide fertile ground for imaginative plans to realize the country's potential. Gen. Musharraf must stop being all things to all people, and gather the resolve to tackle what is wrong with Pakistan -- or step down from power

Pakistan's neighbors no longer have cause to want to destabilize it, and, in fact, would prefer a strong and stable country on their borders. India is busy building a world-class economy; making peace with Pakistan over disputed Kashmir is an important priority in that effort. Meetings and dialogue between the leaders of both countries are important, but it's time to end the talk and walk the walk. Jihadists are not the solution for Kashmir, a fact that Pakistan's next leader must recognize from the outset. Wresting Kashmir from India by force is not possible, and militarily not prudent. Furthermore, a Pakistan at peace with India would no longer require "strategic depth" by controlling or manipulating affairs in Afghanistan.[Musharrafistan (subscription reqd)]

President of Pakistan   on how he became an ally in the war on terror:

In the CBS report, Musharraf said, "The intelligence director told me that [Armitage] said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.' "

"All I can tell you is that shortly after 9/11, Secretary [of State] Colin Powell came in and said President Musharraf understands the stakes, and he wants to join and help route out an enemy that has come and killed 3,000 of our citizens."

"The Director of Intelligence told me that he said, 'Be prepared to be bombed.' Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age," Musharraf remembers.

Musharraf describes Khan as a self-promoter obsessed with fame and power, a lone wolf who exerted person control over key aspects of Pakistan’s nuclear operations and was able to transfer top secret technology with no official help.
"By your own account in the book, A.Q. Khan shipped two dozen centrifuges to North Korea and 18 tons of material and centrifuges to Libya and Iran. How was all of this material moved without someone in the government or the army finding out about it?" Kroft asks.

"First of all, bringing these centrifuges or their parts, these are not huge elements. They can be put into your car and moved," Musharraf replies.

"You think he moved 18 tons worth of material in his car?" Kroft asks.

Musharraf says the materials, heading to Libya and Iran " must have been transported many times."

"But we've been to your nuclear facilities enough to know that they're very heavily guarded and the military is all around them," Kroft remarks.

How did all this material get out and get sent to Libya?

"What is the military meant for?" asks Musharraf. "That is to safe guard them from outside attack."

"So obviously your internal controls were a little weak," Kroft states.

"No, they were not weak," the president disagreed. "They were very strong."

"Except for the man who was running the operation," Kroft remarks.

"Yes of course. He tells his security man this vehicle has to move, okay, to the airport. Okay. Put it in a C-130 and send it," Musharraf says.[Musharraf: In the Line of Fire]

When an NGO lab came up with test results that 11 soft drink brands had pesticide residues more than permissible limits by BIS standards, Kerala State Govt. banned the production and selling of Coke and Pepsi. The State Govt. did not validate the data for itself nor did it wait for results from any other lab. The companies then filed a case in High Court and the court lifted the ban citing that the State Govt. did not have the authority to enforce such bans. The court also noted that the Communists in Kerala did not even bother listening to the companies point of view.

When you live in a country like India, where there is a rule of law, you obey them. But not for the Communists. No, Sir. Following the High Court verdict, the foot soldiers of the Communists attacked godowns stocking cola products.

Around 50 members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), ransacked the PepsiCo godown opposite the CPM district office. According to eyewitnesses, close to 50 per cent of the stocks were destroyed by the activists. The police arrived late and by that time the DYFI activists had dispersed. No arrests have been made.

When reports of this attack were flashed on TV channels, suspected DYFI activists yesterday evening barged into godowns at Kozhikode in north Kerala and inflicted heavy damage by destroying cola products.

In Palakkad, activists attacked around eight lorries that had come to lift stocks from the Coca-Cola unit there and smashed their windscreens.[Pro-Left activist attacks Kerala cola warehouses]

And the leaders of DYFI and AIYF gave a statement today to justify their acts: "We are just making the "people's voice" heard". Isn't that the lamest reason you could ever hear in a state that gloats under the umbrella of 100% literacy? If the people have a voice why don't we let them decide? We can just choose to NOT DRINK it, or DRINK it. We don't need third rate scoundrels or their parties, or even the government, make such decisions for us. I have a right to think, consider facts and decide which is safe and what I want to drink. It is unacceptable that a party makes that choice for the people. The people should have the right of choice, and that is what would have made us seem more literate, democratic and cultured.[Yehi Hai Right Choice]

Update 1 Vinod writes

To furthur insult the intelligence of the people of Kerala, the CM seems to assume that the Colas are a problem affecting the common man. Pray, how? In a state where safe, potable water is not available for the common man, is the CM playing Mary Antoniette and assuming that the common people are now drinking Cola in Kerala? However much I try to extend my imagination, I fail to make a connection between the "common man" and Cola in Kerala, except maybe with Rum.

Update 2 Siddhartha Shome analyzes the anti-Coke movement in India

Update 3 Kuttan writes

This has to be the icing on the cake. Kerala now has a chief minister who not only condones violence but also justifies it publicly. According to him if you dont agree with the judiciary of the land you can take matters into your own hands and run amok destroying private property. He condoned it when SFI resorted to violence against self financing colleges and destroyed property of the colleges now he went a step further justyfing the people who attacked the cola companies.
By saying that he has knocked down one pillars of the constitution and has indirectly called out for an all out war against juduciary. Im not a legal expert but if this doesnt constitute contempt of court I'm not sure what what would.