varnam

The other day we expressed our regret at Pranab Mukherjee's silence in Myanmar on the state of affairs there and the treatment given to Aung San Suu Kyi.

Yesterday, in one speech Bishop Desmond Tutu mentioned all the things which India should support, but does not. More credit to him for saying all this while accepting Gandhi Peace Prize in the presence of both the President and the Prime Minister.

Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Wednesday caught the Indian leadership unaware by advocating independence for Tibet at a function to award him the Gandhi Peace Prize at the Presidential Palace.“We thank you for giving refuge to one of the greatest human beings, Dalai Lama, and pray that you help bring about freedom of his Tibet,” the South African anti-Apartheid struggle hero told the gathering that included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his acceptance speech after President APJ Abdul Kalam presented the award to him.

Indian officials promptly distanced Delhi from the remark, saying Tutu had only expressed his “personal” views. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had articulated India’s position on Tibet in 2003 when he acknowledged the concept of “one China”. Officials said the stand had remained the same. Dedicating the peace prize to Myanmarese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Tutu sought India’s help to bring about the “freedom” of Myanmar and release Suu Kyi. He  also dedicated the prize to the people of South Africa and the freedom of Darfur.[Tutu’s remark on Tibet creates flutter]

Now the folks at Ministry of External Affairs will be crawling on their knees in the embassies of China, Myanmar and Sudan expressing "regret" and informing them that they can continue with their genocide and we would never interfere.

This week the British Police foiled a plot to kidnap, torture and murder a British Soldier by nine British citizens, all of Pakistani descent. Earlier the Police had foiled another plot which involved bombing several airlines flying from London to United States, again planned by British citizens of Pakistani descent. Intolerance has been spreading in Britain and the ingredients required for creating terrorists are all present in sufficient quantities, like availability of weapons and indoctrinated civilians. The British Govt. also had no problems in letting in Mullahs preaching jihad and now all that is coming to bite them.

Though no such plots have originated or have been busted in Kerala, the stage is slowly being set for it to be a base for future activities. Recently the Customs officials in Kochi seized a huge quantity of rifles and air guns, concealed among more innocent looking cargo in a ship which arrived from Dubai. Also found in the boxes were copies of Qur'an and police has been searching for an importer named Koya Haji. In 2003 when a group of Hindu fishermen were murdered in Marad, a large quantity of arms were discovered in the local mosque. According to the reports in a local newspaper, the collection of arms started four months before the incident.

Terrorism needs foot soldiers and that too is being setup. Though Frederick Forsyth's new novel, The Afghan, had two terrorists who were Muslims from Kerala, that doesn't seem like fiction now. Migrants are returning back from the Persian Gulf with stricter views of Islam and there has been rise in fundamentalist tendencies. There is stress on abiding by the strict Islamic dress codes for women and recently one organization even demanded that Muslim youth stop watching soccer. Muslim groups are also asking their followers to keep their children away from Hindu ceremonies. This was never the case in Kerala and such situation of intolerance for other religions can easily exploited for mischievous purposes.

When you spot such tendencies, you would think that politicians would rush to defuse the situation. Not in Kerala. Both the ruling Communists and opposition Congress have found it convenient to close their eyes. After the Marad incident, when the police wanted to search the local mosque for arms, they were stopped by the leaders of the Muslim League (partners of the Congress) and later when the police entered, they found a large amount of weapons. A judicial commission which probed this incident reported that at least one senior politician of Muslim League had advance knowledge of the conspiracy. For the recent state elections, the Communist Party openly courted Abdul Nasser Madani, who is in jail for the 1998 blasts in Coimbatore.

In Bob Woodward's book, The State of Denial, there is an incident, a few months before Sept 11, 2002 when George Tenet tells the National Security Advisor Condi Rice that he is able to see a pattern in intelligence which suggests that al-Qaeda is planning something big.  He says he cannot find the smoking gun, but on connecting the dots, he seems something ominous.  Condi Rice did not do anything with this information. The pattern in the information from Kerala suggests that something is afoot. In fact Defense Minister, A. K. Antony, a former Chief Minister has said that the Kerala's coastal region is unsafe.

In the late 70s in Punjab, the Congress followed a policy of communal appeasement which bough the Sikh right into politics and we got Bhindranwale. The state later exploded with violence as a result of the violence used for suppression. After 30 years we are now starting along the same path in Kerala showing us that we have learned enough from history to repeat it again.

(Cross posted on INI Signal)

ASI to develop Bhattiprolu stupa

The Bhattiprolu maha stupa in Guntur district, one of the few found in India with the Buddhist relic caskets, will be exposed completely by March 2007 for public viewing by scientifically clearing tonnes of soil that has accumulated over a century. The Archaeological Survey of India will begin on Friday scientific clearing of the soil from the remnants of stupa proper and circumbulator, ASI Director and Hyderabad Circle Superintendenting Archaeologist D. Jithendra Das said. Boswell of East India Company in 1870 first excavated the stupa, dating back to 3rd Century BC and surrounding structures to 4th Century BC, where he found one of the ancient towns and stupa. Later in 1892 Alexander Rea fully excavated the stupa and took two caskets with Buddhist Relics along with some sculptured pieces of the stupa dome to the Egmore Museum in Chennai.

The stupa was vandalised during the 18th Century and during the first excavation a proof of existence of the Republican Kingdom of Kubera Raja was found from the inscription. The stupa was constructed in wheel shape like the one found at Ghantasala in Krishna district.

Gate of ancient Nalanda university discovered

A team of Indian archaeologists has found the gate of the ancient Nalanda University at a place, some 1,000 meters away from the ruins of the university here.

The entrance gate was discovered at Badagaon village, some 1,000 meters away from the standing ruins of this historic Nalanda University on February 1, said P K Mishra, archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India.
The entrance gate was discovered in the form of a 1,200-feet-high ancient Buddha period mound. The mound located in the north side of the standing ruins of Nalanda University is spread over inan area of 20 acres.
The discovery will throw more light on the history of the old Nalanada University that was a seat of learning and attracted scholars from as many as 93 countries. said Mishra.

While the Congress led UDF was ruling Kerala, there was so much infighting that the opposition spent most of their time watching soap operas on the television. Now that Communists are in power, they are pretty much doing the same, providing entertainment to those Malayalees who are still there.

The Kerala Government's ruling party circus is playing out many more scenes. The ADB loan issue has been entertaining the people for quite some time. The Chief Minister's group and Mr Vijayan's supporters have been fighting it out in the open on the signing of the loan agreement. The Chief Minister has openly said that he was kept in the dark on the Cabinet note approving the loan that he had opposed tooth and nail while he was the Opposition leader. But Local Self-Government Department Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty, who was earlier projected as Chief Minister by Mr Vijayan, had given direct orders to his officer to sign the agreement.

Mr Vijayan has termed his critics in the party who opposed the loan as "irresponsible ideological fossils" and "Left extremists". He recalled how topmost CPI(M) leader EMS Namboodiripad had warned the party against both these "deviations" - Left extremism and Right socialism. Though he did not mention who these "Left extremists" were, it was obvious to his listeners that the reference was to the Achuthanandan group that remains opposed to the loan.

The people of Kerala have no choice but to watch the Communist circus even if its Government cannot provide them with bread. Kerala has the maximum number of unemployed and the consumer boom in the State is largely built on remittances from the Gulf and other regions of the world to which Malayalees have migrated in search of jobs. Few are keen on reposing faith in the State as trade unions and environmentalists have together ensured that nobody invests there - anyone who dares to invest is driven out under the pretext that it would have adverse effects. Meanwhile, the people can forget about the bread and butter and seek entertainment in the ongoing circus.[CPM circus in Kerala]

Last year, a Neolithic stone shaped like a hand held axe, dating to between 2000 BC - 1500 BC, was found near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu. The interesting thing about this find, besides the age was that the axe had Indus Valley signs on it which was read by Iravatham Mahadevan as Murukan.

Epigraphists attached to the department, Dr S Rajagopal and Dr N Marxia Gandhi, after confirming the suspicions referred it to Mr Iravadham Mahadevan, a researcher on Indus scripts, who concurred with the view that it was a Neolithic find with Harappan symbol etchings. The find got the department excited as it was the first Neolithic tool discovery below the Godavari region (south of Daimadbad, now Maharashtra) and it corroborated with a 1970s concurrence among International Indus Valley researchers that Indus Valley finds pointed to a link with earlier Dravidian culture. Further references led to dating the tool to a period between late Neolithic and pre-Iron age between 2000 BC and 1000 BC. “The granite must have been etched with Iron. Iron age occurred in the Deccan region first,” says Dr Gandhi.[Archaeologists brace for debate on Tamil past]

Mr. Mahadevan also thinks that the Neolithic people of Tamil Nadu and the Harappans shared the same script and the same language. This word has been seen many times in artifacts found in Harappa. Does this mean that the Indus Valley folks had a link to the Dravidian culture or is there any other theory behind it?

These issues will be discussed in the first International Symposium on Indus Civilisation and Tamil language, to be held in Chennai on today and tomorrow.

Medieval age structure and objects found in Dwarka

The recovery of structural remains of medieval age by underwater wing of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) off the coast of this pilgrim town has once again raised hopes of the discovery of Lord Krishna's legendary city of Dwarka that is reported to have submerged.
The recent off-shore excavation by ASI has revealed a structure of stone blocks with post holes to fit wood. Moreover, the team excavating the area have found coins, pottery, pieces of bangles and toys.
Alok Tripathi of the ASI said that the excavation near the northern gate of Dwarkadish temple has revealed some structural remains of medieval age. Officials said that the discovery is an important landmark as it set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the very existence of the legendary Dwarka city.[Medieval age structure and objects found in Dwarka]

See Also: Where is Krishna's Dwaraka?,  Archaeological Work in Dwaraka, More on Dwaraka

Kerala is currently run by Tom & Jerry. Tom is Pinarayi Vijayan, the Communist party state secretary and Jerry is V S Achyutanandan, the octogenarian Chief Minister and they love each other the way Nouri al-Maliki loved Saddam Hussein. At present, administration in Kerala essentially consists of both of them and their supporters trying to out smart one another. If they ran into pitch forks or doors and like how Hanna-Barbera intended, it would have been more fun, but it is not so.

And the politburo is not amused by this cartoon show. Good Communists are supposed to get rich, keep the masses poor, create agitations, disrupt life, but not fight among themselves. The politburo has zero tolerance for such behavior which is common among the bourgeoisie.

In a recent speech in Kannur, Pinarayi came out against the Chief Minister's crony Manjalamkuzhi Ali MLA for the reason that sun rose in the east. Pinarayi claimed that Ali was infected by the Shahjahan syndrome. This did not mean Ali was importing marbles to construct another Taj Mahal, but just that Pinarayi had lost his marbles. Pinarayi also mentioned that Ali would have the same fate as Shahjahan. People took it to mean that when Ali dies Indians would pay Rs 20 to visit his tomb and foreigners would pay Rs. 750.

That was not what Pinarayi meant. He meant that like Shahjahan, he too would be expelled from the party. Then some newbie party worker reminded Pinarayi that Ali was not a party member and as an Independent member of the Assembly, it would be difficult to expel him. Pinarayi admonished the newbie and said that facts should never deter a good communist.

Another point of disagreement among the communists is on whether the state should take an ADB Loan. The Chief Minister is against it while Pinarayi is for it. In a speech in Kozhikkode, Pinarayi said that people who opposed the loan were Dogmatix.  Later he said, he meant "dogmatists"

When you are charged up like this and going to the politburo, you have to be prepared. Yesterday  Pinarayi was detained at Chennai airport, on his way to Delhi, for possessing five rounds of live cartridges in his bag. He did not have a gun though. Probably one of his Maoist comrades would have loaned it to him if needed in Delhi.

The State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that this was certainly illegal, but the media need now blow up the incident. On hearing this Osama bin Laden called up George Bush and asked if he can use the same defense?

This makes you wonder. Does everyone come with firearms and bombs to politburo meetings? Is this how unanimous decisions are made? Maybe it is like a scene in Tom & Jerry where Achyutanandan comes with an AK 47, Buddhadeb with a Howitzer (Copied and Made in China), Prakash Karat with a bow and arrow and Brinda Karat with a rolling pin. They all bow to the Chinese flag and then start shooting each other while Scott Bradley's music plays in the background.

Seeing Burma's new capital city Naypyitaw, he wrote "its geometry so incredibly vast that even a crowd of half a million is unlikely to pose a political threat". He was thrilled to see Mr. Ahmadinejad, the leader of a nation which supports the Lebanese Shiite militants of Hezbollah  and such terrorist groups as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. His blog looks like a journey through the axis of evil, with an occasional diversion via an interview with a Maoist. It does not take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Siddharth Varadarajan works for The Hindu.

In his latest post on the events in the Korean Peninsula, he is happy that a dramatic breakthrough has happened, but he puts the blame entirely on United States for the North Korean nuclear test while making North Koreans look like saints. He says that President George Bush's remark classifying North Korea among the "axis of evil" undermined the 1994 Agreed Framework. North Koreans have not said so, but Mr. Varadarajan alone comes up with this theory. 

North Korea has a long history of terrorism and provocations against Japan and South Korea. Even though  South Korea was willing to ignore all activities of terrorism against it, but the Japanese were not. North Korea kidnapped Japanese citizens and used them for training North Korean agents for terrorism and in the six party talks, the Americans told several times to the North Koreans to settle the kidnapping issue and they did not.

it was through Gilgit, one of the important towns on the Silk Route, that Buddhism spread from India to China and other countries. Buddhist Sanskrit texts like the Hridaya Sutra and Jyotiskavadana have been found in Gilgit. Recently the Archaeology and Museums of Kashmir was given the National Award for preserving the 5th - 6th century birch manuscript of the Sangahata-Sutra, a recording of a lecture given by Buddha in Rajagriha.

The Gilgit Manuscripts were accidentally discovered in 1931 when a group of cattle grazers unearthed a box in the region of Gilgit [now part of Pakistan administered Kashmir] in the then undivided Jammu & Kashmir state. This manuscript collection contains such Buddhist works, both canonical and non-canonical which helped in the evolution of Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Tibetan religio-philosophical literature. Gilgit was then the major trade centre on the Silk Route.

These manuscripts are yet to be deciphered fully. Part of these manuscripts were airlifted from Kashmir to New Delhi under special instructions from first Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, during the 1948 India-Pakistan conflict. [Kashmir Archives gets award for preserving Gilgit Manuscripts]

See Also: English Translation of Sanghata Sutra

Technorati Tags: Sanghata Sutra, Gilgit, Buddhism, Jammu and Kashmir, Sanskrit

Remember Ottavio Quattrocchi? The middle man for Bofors who represented Snamprogetti and big pal of ex-dead-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi? He was arrested in Argentina on Feb 6th and there is a 30 day period during which India should ask him to be extradited. Of course bringing Quattrocchi to Delhi is not something the UPA would like to do and so they decided to let the 30 day period lapse.

Then some spoil sport "leaked" the news after 13 days and there is lot of activity in the Parliament. Apparently the file went to our Prime Minster and no action was taken because a) they could not identify it was Ottavio Quattrocchi and b) They could not find anyone to translate documents from Spanish to English. Now that the news has been leaked the CBI is forced to book a ticket to visit the beautiful Buenos Aires.

According to the Government, which always looks if the glass is half full or empty by tilting the open side of the glass towards its face, the criminal in this whole case is the person who leaked the information to the media. He has been called a "saboteur" and "culprit" and various agencies have been asked to find the "mole".

It was with great effort that the Congress Party erased the word "Bofors" from public memory and now this saboteur-culprit has undone two decades to hard work. If Bofors comes back, it is going to be trouble for lot of pundits. They will have to refresh their memory on what the case was all about and teach their spell checker to correctly spell Quattrocchi.

This will also distract us from other  issues  of national importance like the Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding. N. Ram will soon start publishing photo copies of Quattrocchi's nursery school mark sheets and will have no time to reprint articles from the People's Daily. The UPA Administration will be busy denying all Bofors allegations that they will not have time to express shock at various acts of terror happening in the country. Do we want this to happen?

We hope the CBI officers take  one of those boats at the Gateway of India which takes tourists to Elephanta Caves  or  better, Air India, to go to Bunos Aires. Once the 30 day period is over, then Quattrocchi will be safe and both Sonia Gandhi and rest of the nation can sigh in relief.

New Harappan sites are getting discovered all over North India and enhancing our understanding of our history. In 2004, a Harappan site was found in the small town of Bagasara in Gujarat, which dates back to 2500 B.C. This site was found to have a shell making workshop, fortifications, and knives with bone handles. In 2005, the first Harappan burial site was found in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. Other sites include Rapar area of Gujarat's Kutch district, and Farmana Khas in Haryana.

Excavations in Rakhigarhi, Haryana have revealed one of the largest Harappan sites ever discovered and has pushed back the history of Harappans by about 500 years.

“The site yielded finds of the early Harappan and mature Harappan phase,” said Dr Nath. He said that features like knowledgeof writing, use of wedge-shaped bricks and town planning, earlier thought to be present in the mature phase i.e 2500 BC, were discovered to be present in the early phase i.e 3000 BC. Evidence of well-planned towns were found, he said.

Dr Nath designated two periods in the early Harappan phase — pre-formative and formative. “The pre-formative period yielded circular structures and showed no formal planning. Whereas, the formative period exhibited planned structures. Burnt bricks were much in use during the early Harappan phase,” said Dr Nath.

The mature Harappan phase yielded a granary, with evidence of grain, fire altars and potters kiln. There was evidence of various crafts such as bead- making, bangle making, seal manufacturing, gold making, carpentry and terracotta making, practised by the people. Fish hooks were also discovered, pointing to the fact that the people practised fishing. Mirrors, tops, whistles arrowheads, rattles and tops were found. There is evidence to show that hopscotch was also played. [‘Rakhigarhi is the largest Harappan site ever found’]