Issue Contents

PERSPECTIVE
Asian growth in an American vaccuum
A stronger rupee is the path ahead for India
V Anantha Nageswaran

Frontline worry in the war on terror
Washington must learn to do without a friendly Pakistani general
Nikolas Gvosdev

Fewer laws, more efficient enforcement
There are no shortcuts in the battle against terrorists
Ravikiran S Rao

Towards a new anti-terrorism policy
A seven-point programme
Nitin Pai

IN DEPTH

The Vajpayee-Manmohan doctrine
The moorings of contemporary Indian foreign policy
Dhruva Jaishankar

FILTER
Washington’s Pakistan strategy; Pakistan’s westward drift; The next chapter
Vijay Vikram

ROUNDUP
A new millennium in science
India’s scientific output has risen sharply since 2000
Christopher King

An electric imperative
Bringing power sector reforms back onto the national agenda
Gulzar Natarajan

BOOKS
American Indians
A review of Vinay Lal’s The Other Indians
Chandrahas Choudhury

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(Constantine’s dream)

The Battle of Milvian Bridge which was fought between Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on October 28, 312 was important because Constantine won and it resulted in the end of Tetrarchy, a system by which four emperors ruled the Roman empire. It was also important because on one night of the battle, Constantine claimed that he had a vision from God

It is commonly stated that on the evening of October 27, with the armies preparing for battle, Constantine had a vision which lead him to fight under the protection of the Christian God. The details of that vision, however, differ between the sources reporting it. It is believed that the sign of the cross appeared and Constantine heard “In this sign, you shall conquer” in Greek. [Vision of Constantine]

Constantine, besides being the first Christian Roman Emperor also by the Edict of Milan made professing Christianity not a crime.

There is a scene in The Betrayal: The Lost Life of Jesus: A Novel by Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear where one of the protagonists mentions this battle. The monk Cyrus, who once was a soldier with Constantine, tells Kalay the washer woman that Constantine was sitting in his tent all day drinking wine looking for a way to motivate the troops. Constantine knew he had to come up with a myth; either a cross of light or the letters chi-rho (the first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word Christ)

While that was fiction, the truth is not far away. Eusebius of Caesarea spoke to Constantine and wrote in Life of Constantine

when Constantine “was praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvelous sign appeared to him from heaven” (Eusebius, Life of Constantine,1.28). The famous sign in the sky was a cross of light, with theinscription, “Conquer by this”. Eusebius goes on: “At this sight hehimself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle.”[The Resurrection of Jesus as Mass Hallucination]

Another Christian writer Lactantius who was a contemporary of Constantine had a slightly different version.

Lactantius’ early account places the vision of the cross in Constantine’s dream, and on the night before. So, Constantine’s vision is not shared by his army and it is a nighttime dream rather than a vision. [The Resurrection of Jesus as Mass Hallucination]

Thus in Constantine’s time itself one version of the story had the sign as a dream; another as a sign seen by the whole army. Thus a myth was created.

“Death by Powerpoint”, “Do Powerpoint presentations violate Geneva Convention?”,and “Supreme Court rules against using Powerpoint in Guantanamo” – these are common headlines all the time. But if your job involves reading itemized lists from slides, then this lecture by Garr Reynolds is worth watching. It will change the way you think about presentations.

(image via archaeologyonline.net)

In a recent review of Frits Staal’s Discovering the Vedas, Pramit Pal Chaudhuri writes

1. Even a non-history buff will find the role of the Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) and the Iranian Wedge in the evolution of Hinduism fascinating.

2. What led such primitives to dwell so much on infinity or develop numbers so large they “have nothing to do with the universe,” he wonders.

After the Aryan Invasion theory failed, some proponents moved to a convenient migration-of-cattle-breeders-looking-for-pastures theory and the BMAC was hailed as new Aryan homeland They found some evidence too; an antennae-hilted sword found in Bactria looked similar to one found in Fatehgarh. It was also claimed that BMAC people had fire-worship temples, supposed use of soma, a horse skeleton assumed to be used in ashvamedha and cult motifs on precious stones

On closer examination however it was found that most of these claims required imagination in liberal doses. Looking at the evidence of the sword, Dr. B. B. Lal, who was the Director General of the ASI said, “if I said that the occurrence of a cylinder seal at Kalibangan in Rajasthan entitles Rajasthan to be the ‘motherland’ of the Mesopotamian Culture, I am sure my learned colleagues present here would at once get me admitted to the nearest lunatic asylum.” Analysis of other evidence found no use of soma, no proof of ashvamedha, and in case of fire worship, that the migration was from India to Central Asia.

Even if they had some connection, the BMAC people, who belonged to the Bronze age culture of Central Asia, were not primitives, for they had well planned structures, multi-roomed temples, pottery kilns, metal objects, and sculptural art. But as soon as they completed their journey from Bactria to India, they became primitives.

The usual view of Vedas, the composition of these neo-primitives, is that of semi-civilized people wondering about nature, creating anthropomorphic gods and goddesses, moving from polytheism to monotheism to monism. People like Staal condescendingly wonder how such people are able to produce great concepts? Maybe they were not culturally primitive. As Chandradhar Sharma notes, “the correct position seems to us to be that the Vedic sages were greatly intellectual and intensely spiritual personages who in their mystic moments came face to face with Reality and this mystic experience, this direct intuitive spiritual insight overflew in literature as Vedic hymns.”

This attempt to cast people who wrote the Nasadiya Sukta as primitive comes from 19^th century models which portrayed the natives as semi-civilized. Pick up a book like Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation which is used as text book in graduate courses, and you will find that colonial politics is still alive. Even when one part of their theory contradicts the other, it is presented to us with a straight face and if you disagree you are labelled a Hindu nationalist.

Amulya Ganguli writes about the Indian Communists and who they owe allegiance to.

In this tussle for supremacy, India is at a disadvantage because China can count on whatever support it can receive from its friends in India. The latter’s strenuous efforts to scuttle the nuclear deal is evidently a part of their tactic of undermining India’s ambition to secure the “Big 5 plus 1” position at the high table of diplomacy. The CPM has even been candid enough to admit that one of its reasons for opposing the deal is that the resultant proximity to the US will enable America to encircle China with India’s help. Even if this is indeed the American objective, such an alliance will also have the potential of curbing China’s bellicosity in the north-east, especially in “southern Tibet”, as Beijing likes to call Arunachal Pradesh.

Like the Chinese, the Indian communists believe in the untenable “colonial” nature of the McMahon Line, which calls for adjustments although the Chinese have had no hesitation in accepting the same line in Myanmar. Given this stance, it is hardly surprising that in 1962, E M S Namboodiripad had argued, according to Mohit Sen in his book, A Traveller and the Road: the Journey of an Indian Communist, that “the Chinese had entered territory that they thought was theirs and hence there was no question of aggression as far as they were concerned”.[Together They Stand]

In Russia

As Clifford Levy wrote in The Times last week, Russia’s national networks, the most powerful media in the country, are routinely deleting news or opinions critical of the Kremlin. In one notable case, Mikhail Delyagin, a well-known political analyst, criticized Vladimir Putin during the taping of a talk show. When the program aired, Mr. Delyagin was missing. Or, most of him was missing. His disembodied legs remained in the picture.

Meanwhile, in Nepal

Addressing a rally to celebrate the declaration of republic in Kathmandu Prachanda said his CPN-Maoist will not tolerate further criticism by the media and warned of serious consequences if it continued to criticise the party. Targeting the Kantipur publication that brings out the largest circulated dailies Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, the former rebel leader said, “You journalists did well to continuously criticise the Maoists before the constituent assembly polls, otherwise the election would not have taken place at all.”“Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people,” he said, adding that the other newspapers criticising the Maoist will also meet the same fate.[

The Maoists, who are not as tech savy as the Kremlin folks, know only one way to make a man disappear and it won’t be pretty. This would be a good time for Siddharth Varadarajan to explain to the Chairman how press functions in a democracy.

International Sri Vaishnava Dharma Samrakshanna Society had petitioned the Madras High Court objecting to various scenes in Kamal Haasan’s Dasavatharam because it offended Hindu sentiments. The Court, as expected, dismissed the petition, citing that imaginary concerns cannot be addressed.

Describing the petitioner’s claims of scenes in which Kamal Haasan allegedly steps on the ‘OM’ mantra and tramples on the Bhagawad Gita as “imaginary assumption of the petitioner,” the Bench said the scenes were only a fiction born out of imagination.

Since the petitioners had not watched the movie their apprehension lack substance, the Bench said while dismissing the case.

The Bench also turned down the petitioner’s contention that there were scenes depicting clashes between Vaishnavites and Saivites, which could lead to caste clashes, on the same ground that they had not watched the movie.[‘Dasavatharam’: Madras HC dismisses petition]

California is going to have a major earthquake. I know this, not because the U.S. Geological Survey warned so, but because of the predictions of one John C. Hagee, the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Pastor Hagee believes that Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank do not belong to the Arabs since it was ruled by Ottoman Turks before WWI. He believes in Rapture, Second Coming of Jesus, rebirth of Israel – the usual works.

After Hurricane Katrina, in an interview with Terry Gross, he said that God had punished New Orleans for a “a level of sin that was offensive to God” because of a homosexual parade, and the tropical cyclone was proof “of the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

When same sex marriage was legalized in New England, Rev. Hagee wrote

“Massachusetts has just agreed to recognize same-sex marriages. It will open the door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” He also wrote: “It is impossible to call yourself a Christian and defend homosexuality. Homosexuality means the death of society because homosexuals can recruit, but they cannot reproduce.” [California Kicks Right-Wing Butt]

Now that the California Supreme Court has lifted the ban on same-sex marriage, Rev. Hagee might be hoping that God would unleash his retributions on the Golden State.

God did act, but it was on Rev. Hagee himself. Besides suggesting that Katrina was divine punishment for sin, he had also referred to the Catholic Church as “the great whore” and “false cult system.” After an audio recording of a 1990 sermon, in which he said that God had sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land, surfaced he became a political pariah. Sen. John McCain who, as part of his right wing appeasement policy, had sought and obtained Rev. Hagee’s endorsement called his comment, “crazy and unacceptable” and rejected the endorsement.

Brahman, the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality, cannot laugh, but if there is a God, he definitely is laughing at Rev. Hagee.

After coming up with a verdict upholding freedom of speech, the Delhi High Court is now asking why the Government is just concerned with the welfare of one minority religion, ignoring the poor in other religions and the majority community.

“Is this meant to appease some community? If you intend to fight poverty, cut across religions and communities and fight. Never mind whether it is a Hindu poor or a Muslim poor,” said Justice Thakur. “The Sachar Committee report is for all. Of course, there are certain Muslim dominated areas where there is no development at all,” the ASG said.

To this, the Bench said: “So are you saying there are no Hindu slums?”

“Tell us Mr Malhotra, in our Constitutional framework, can a welfare scheme say we concentrate only on the benefit of one community and not for all?… A lot of money is spent in a welfare state, is it that you (Centre) spend it only for one minority community?” the Bench asked the ASG.[Sachar: HC asks Govt aren’t you appeasing, what about majority? (email from Nitin)]

Though the Bench did not mention the word vote bank, they made it very clear to the ASG that they have seen through him. Still the disturbing thing about this debate is that it is on religious lines. What happens to poor atheists?