Avoiding Stampedes

In 2003, during the Kumbh Mela in Nasik 39 pilgrims were killed and 59 injured. In 2005 there was a stampede among a large number of Hindu worshippers on their way to to the Mandhara Devi shrine near Mumbai and 258 people were killed. This stampede is a big problem in Saudi Arabia too and in Janurary last year 345 pilgrims were killed as pilgrims rushed to complete the stoning ritual. To prevent this from happening again, the Saudis have enforced certain rules for crowd control which can be used by us as well.

A Saudi team recently returned from a crowd management workshop in Munich where they learned how to apply German experience in managing the tens of thousands of soccer fans during the last World Cup to the crowds of pilgrims at Jamrat. “We’ll apply what we have learned from Germany at Jamarat during this Haj season,” said Dr. Fadhil Othman of the Haj Research Institute, who participated in the workshop. The Saudi team watched how the Germans controlled large crowds of soccer fans rushing to an area of television screens to watch World Cup matches.

Police stopped people going to the area when 75 percent capacity was reached. They also made sure that there was adequate space in between people to move around freely without any pushing or pulling. “Another important thing we learned is that pilgrims should move in one direction and nobody should be allowed to move in the opposite direction,” he said while speaking about Jamrat crowd control strategy. [Advanced Strategy Adopted for Jamarat Crowd Control]

Were Harappans the Vedic people?

According to the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory folks, Aryans came to India sometime between 1500 – 1200 BCE and then composed the Vedas. In the book In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Georg Fuerstein, Subhash Kak and David Frawley demolish this theory and suggest that the Vedic people were residents of the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

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 Neolithic 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.[Book Review: In Search of the Cradle of Civilization]

A while back Nanditha Krishna also wrote an article suggesting the same. In a recent lecture, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, associate professor in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison agrees with this.

Kenoyer said modern archaeological findings do not support the idea of an Aryan ‘invasion,’ but show that Vedic people were among those who lived in cities such as Mohenjo Daro in Sindh and Harappa in Punjab towards the end of the Indus civilization, which stretched between 7,000 BC and 1,900 BC. “These were sophisticated cities with wide roads, gates designed to keep intruders out and where those coming in or going out of the city with goods could be taxed. There was a water supply and proper drains. It was only when the Saraswati dried up and Mohenjo Daro and Harappa became overpopulated because other cities lost their water supply that the cities declined,” said Kenoyer, comparing that period with the fate of cities such as Amritsar and Lahore at the time of Partition. As many as 50,000 people may have lived in Harappa at certain periods and the people of the Indus civilisation formed ethnic groups, said Kenoyer, citing figurines showing seals with symbols such as the buffalo or unicorn to represent different ethnic groups. The unicorn symbol was invented by the Indus people, and spread to Europe centuries later via Mesopotamia and Near East, he said.

There was no single ruler in these cities. We’ve found no palace. Instead, there seems to have been a republic in which a group of elders ruled,” said Kenoyer.

What was earlier believed by archaeologists to be a grain store in Harappa now seems likely to have been a textile weaving centre, and fine cloth from the area was exported far away, he said.[Harappa was like any other metro: US prof]

Indian Mythology based Comics

The Wall Street Journal writes on the new comic books created by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Deepak Chopra, and Shekhar Kapur

It’s a key scene in “Devi,” a new comic book that’s part of an ambitious effort by a unit of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group Ltd. to develop story lines based on Indian religion and mythology. Others take inspiration from the Sanskrit epic poem Ramayana and traditional legends such as one involving snakes that can take human form.

The company, Virgin Comics LLC, has also teamed to develop other story lines with a broad range of individuals, including John Woo, director of “Mission: Impossible 2,” and Guy Ritchie, the film director. In November actor Nicolas Cage agreed to star in a movie based on one of the new comics, “The Sadhu” — which describes the adventures of a British man who discovers he was a sadhu (Hindu holy man) in a previous life. Deepak Chopra, the author of self-help books, will write the screenplay.

The goal: Capitalize on the current vogue for all things Indian as well as the success of Asian comics in the West in recent years.[Holy Heroes of Indian Lore, Batman!]

Book Review: Soldiers of God

Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Robert D. Kaplan, Vintage edition (November 27, 2001), 304 pages

Most people think that the decline of Afghanistan started with the Soviet invasion in December 1979, but it was not the case. On April 27, 1978, Nur Mohammed Taraki, a self-declared Marxist came to power in a coup. Following examples showed by illustrious Communists like Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot, they executed 27,000 political prisoners in the Pul-i-Charki prison located six miles east of Kabul. They enforced land reforms and extended secular education to the villages, but the way it was done was so brutal that even the Soviets were alarmed. The mujahidin revolt  and the refugee exodus to Pakistan was triggered  by this Communist land reform and was the first instance of organized repression in Afghanistan’s history according to Robert Kaplan.

Kaplan, who is currently the editor of Atlantic Monthly wrote the book by traveling with the Mujahidin into Afghanistan in the 1980s while they were fighting against the Soviet Army. This war largely went unreported according to him. None of the American TV networks had a bureau for the war in which the Communists killed 1.3 million people which is more than the deaths in the Iran-Iraq war and ten times the number killed in Lebanon in all years of civil conflict there. Kaplan quotes a Swedish nurse who lived through some fierce fighting in north Afghanistan saying that every day in her short-wave radio she would hear about people killed in South Africa, Lebanon and Sri Lanka, but there was no mention of Afghanistan.

It was not easy for Kaplan to cover this war as well. While on jeep between Quetta and Khandahar driving in a desert  he hears the drone of a Soviet aircraft. Kaplan panics and asks his driver about it. The driver without any signs of nervousness says that the plane is an Antonov transporting troops and they don’t bomb. As they reach the Arghandab River Valley, he meets Ismael Gailani, a commander while mortars are raining all around. One of the mortars land about a hundred feet away throwing dust into his tea. All this time the Mujahidin sat around him relaxed, smiling and impassive.
Continue reading “Book Review: Soldiers of God” →

Coming to car near you

Imagine you are driving peacefully on your Ford on Highway 101. There is the mandatory accident at Marsh Road exit and someone driving a Chevy Tahoe at 55 miles/hr on the left lane blocking your view of not just the road ahead, but also of the sun. Then there is that someone driving a 1900 Toyota Corolla thinking it is a Ferrari weaving across lanes, you know, the usual stuff. Your car halts abruptly, brings a window on the display and informs you that it has downloaded the latest updates and the machine needs a reboot to proceed. Of course, this is an exaggeration, but some version of this is soon possible as Ford is planning to install an in-vehicle operating system developed by Microsoft in Focus and Five Hundred sedans.

The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker will unveil next month a hands-free Bluetooth wireless system and in-vehicle operating system developed by Microsoft that will eventually be an option for its entire Ford brand lineup, according to people familiar with the matter. The new system, to be dubbed Sync, will allow for hands-free cellphone communication and other wireless information transfers inside the car, including the ability to receive email and download music, these people said.

Sync is based on Microsoft’s automotive operating system that has been under development in recent years by the company’s Windows Automotive division, which in 2004 struck a broad development deal with Fiat related to in-car computing. A person close to Microsoft said the company has turned in a spotty performance when it comes to Bluetooth technologies and that the Ford deal could help spur Microsoft’s efforts. [Ford Aims to Jazz Up Its Fleet With Microsoft Pact (subscription reqd.)]

Thankfully this will not affect Indians in the United States as we drive only Hondas and Toyotas.

Saddam hanged, Malayalees suffer

According to an Iraqi court Saddam Hussein was  found guilty of the massacre of Iraqis in Dujail and sentenced to death.

“Now, he is in the garbage of history,” said Jawad Abdul-Aziz, who lost his father, three brothers and 22 cousins in the reprisal killings that followed a botched 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite town of Dujail. It was the Dujail killings of which Saddam was convicted. [Iraqis execute Saddam for mass killings]

But then in Kerala we mourn for such brutal dictators and a hartal was called by both the Communists and Congress.

Stating that the “American imperialism has raised a grim challenge to the world peace once again through the execution of Saddam Hussein”, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said the Iraqi leader would be remembered forever as a martyr who heroically fought the imperialist interests.[Hartal in Kerala, leaders condemn Saddam’s execution]

For members of a party which think that the Communist occupation and enslavement of Tibet is “peaceful liberation“, Saddam could be a martyr. No mention of his invasion of Kuwait or the murder of a large number of Shiites and Kurds or any of the atrocities mentioned in an article in the New York Times.

DOING the arithmetic is an imprecise venture. The largest number of deaths attributable to Mr. Hussein’s regime resulted from the war between Iraq and Iran between 1980 and 1988, which was launched by Mr. Hussein. Iraq says its own toll was 500,000, and Iran’s reckoning ranges upward of 300,000. Then there are the casualties in the wake of Iraq’s 1990 occupation of Kuwait. Iraq’s official toll from American bombing in that war is 100,000 — surely a gross exaggeration — but nobody contests that thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians were killed in the American campaign to oust Mr. Hussein’s forces from Kuwait. In addition, 1,000 Kuwaitis died during the fighting and occupation in their country.
More recently, according to Iraqis who fled to Jordan and other neighboring countries, scores of women have been executed under a new twist in a “return to faith” campaign proclaimed by Mr. Hussein. Aimed at bolstering his support across the Islamic world, the campaign led early on to a ban on drinking alcohol in public. Then, some time in the last two years, it widened to include the public killing of accused prostitutes.

Often, the executions have been carried out by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group headed by Mr. Hussein’s oldest son, 38-year-old Uday. These men, masked and clad in black, make the women kneel in busy city squares, along crowded sidewalks, or in neighborhood plots, then behead them with swords. The families of some victims have claimed they were innocent of any crime save that of criticizing Mr. Hussein. [How Many People Has Saddam Killed?]

Of course, as usual Americans are terrified after listening to the hardship enforced on Malayalees by Malayalees and are busy googling to see who Achyutanandan is.

Thus said Manmohan Singh

India’s alleged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says

“We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources,” Singh said. [PM’s priority: Muslim development]

So now just because you pray to one God you get preferential treatment. Isn’t that wonderful. Sandeep has an excellent analysis of these clowns running the UPA.

A disturbing photograph

Saturday’s WSJ had a chilling photo on the front page. It showed a bunch of blindfolded men standing in an open field and facing them were another group of people with rifles in preparation for a mass execution. The command to fire had been given and men had started falling down. The picture shows men at the far end already on the ground, while the man on the far right still standing, waiting for the bullet to pierce his heart.  The photo captures that instant between life and death. It won the Pulitzer prize and the photographer’s name was withheld – till now.

This photo was taken in Iran in Aug. 27, 1979. Islamic radicals had overthrown the Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini had taken control. The Kurds were looking for autonomy and troops were sent to supress it.

At the airport, Mr. Razmi stood ready outside the makeshift courtroom as 10 handcuffed men filled a wooden bench before the judge, a black-bearded Shiite cleric named Sadegh Khalkhali. An injured 11th prisoner lay on a stretcher beside the door.

The judge removed his turban, Mr. Bahrami recalls. He removed his shoes. He put his feet on a chair. Scanning the prisoners through thick eyeglasses, he asked their names. Officers of the court told of the defendants’ alleged crimes — of trafficking arms, inciting riots and murder. The prisoners, some with leftward or nationalist leanings, denied the accusations.

No evidence was presented, Mr. Bahrami says. “It was pure speculation.” After roughly 30 minutes, Mr. Khalkhali declared the 11 men “corrupt on earth” — mofsedin fel arz — the Koranic phrase he cited before issuing a sentence of death. A few of the men cried.

The caravan passed roughly 30 airport workers, both men say. Up front walked Mr. Razmi. In the rear, both men say, was Ali Karimi, one of the judge’s bodyguards, wearing white shoes, white pants, white shirt, sunglasses and twin hip holsters. After about 100 yards, an officer halted the condemned on a plain of dry dirt. All but one of the executioners tied about their own heads Iranian shawls called chafiyehs. Both the faces of the Shiites and the eyes of the Kurds were now concealed.[A Chilling Photograph’s Hidden History]

Tale of Two Communist States

It was the best of times

Sidestepping political and ideological differences, American and Indian diplomats as well as Left bigwigs are preparing the ground for what will be a pathbreaking first official visit by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Marxist Chief Minister of West Bengal, to the US sometime next year.

In fact, Industry Minister Sen had last December made a presentation to major US oil companies at a top hotel in the Capital on the setting up of a chemical hub in the state. Bhattacharjee was also present at the meeting.

On the IT sector front, Minister Debesh Das wants Bengal to provide 10 to 15 per cent of the country’s total IT revenue — it now stands at around 3 per cent. “We are late starters in IT, but we have the advantage of infrastructure in terms of power, housing and connectivity,” Das said. [In clear signal to investors, Buddha, team plan US trips]

It was the worst of times

The don and the goon are sublimating God, in His own country. Police say the gangs could run into “a few thousands”, with capital Thiruvananthapuram alone home to some 700 gangs. In the three years to 2004, when the menace began to peak, there were more than 39,000 cases of goonda attacks. Police are still processing figures for the last two years.

No longer is the goonda a semiliterate blunt instrument working for the neighbourhood assault or extortion outfit. Kerala has equally virulent political goons, corralled in legitimate jobs and put to use when required. Migrant labourers, farm hands, even college students, including those in professional courses, are known to moonlight for work that needs only threats. Then there are the so-called tie-wearing goondas, who work for, banks, loan sharks, mobile service providers.

The prostitution racket, including organized girl running to service the Gulf markets, is another money spinner; after the land and real estate operations. Though state intelligence estimates peg the sex and land mafia’s turnover at about Rs 15,000 crore, police sources say this could really be “many times more.”[Goon trouble in God’s own country]

The goonda menace did not start instantly after the Communists took power in the state, but trouble has been brewing for sometime. While they were in the opposition, the Communists were harping on this point. They organized marches to various police stations to protest against the break down of law and order in the state and blamed the Congress Govt. for turning a blind eye. The Congress Govt. introduced the Kerala Felonious Activities (Prevention) Bill – 2005,’ would empower the police to keep suspected anti-social elements under preventive detention up to six months, but the Communists dropped it as it had some undemocratic provisions. How much ever the public suffers, the Govt. has to make sure that a poor goonda does not suffer from some undemocratic treatment.

If such measures do not make Kerala an investment paradise, then I don’t know what will.