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DR N S Rajaram is a noted writer, who has published several books on topics related to ancient Indian history and Indian archeology. He has always felt the presence of Eurocentric biased undercurrents in mainstream Indology and the way history is taken in Independent India. According to him, “Its creators were driven mainly by European colonial and Christian missionary interests.”
Further reference of the readers: ‘The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor’. Translated, edited and annotated by Wheeler M Thacktson, 1996. Oxford University Press: New York and London; 472 pages.
Even Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru has said that the greatness of Babur lay not in capturing India but in capturing the hearts of Indians.
Those who remember those stormy euphoric days before the destruction of Babri Masjid, they could still vividly recollect the funny provocative slogan- “Tel laga ke Dabur ka, nam mita do Babur Ka”. I don’t remember if the company that manufactures this oil raised any objection.
That is the tragedy of India today that people, who don’t have time to read history and have the guts to connect Dabur with Babur judge the larger-than-life characters like Babur for us. Instead of enjoying his many adventures and achievements of his short (47 years only) life, people are misled into one belief that he was a mere iconoclast. In fact, amongst the rulers of Central Asia and India, Babur was one of the most colourful personalities. Western historians and intellectuals, who usually have a stiff eyebrow over the snobbish corridors of history have spoken highly of him. He was an expert in the art of warfare and conquest and he was a noted literary genius, a writer of Uzbeki prose. He was ardent lover and admirer of poetry and fine arts. He wrote several books on prosody, music and the art of war. He is the inventor of a calligraphic writing even today known as Khat-i-Babri.
Babur was born on February 14, 1483, in the town Andejan situated in the Farghana Valley. He was sixth in the line of Amir Taimur’s descendent, while his mother belonged to the family of the Mongol, Changez Khan. Babur’s mother was the pillar of Babur’s character and education. She was well versed with the literature of Turkish, Arabic and Persian and she could play lullaby for the future emperor form the folk songs. Babur was only 11 years old when his father died and he was declared his successor and ruler of the Farghana Valley. As a child he faced several challengers to the throne but successfully surmounted all of them. Babar’s education ended with his initial years of life as he found no second chance at it. Interestingly, he was least impressed with his childhood teachers.
From the slew of resources I can sum up the history as follows:
Mir Baqi, a nobleman of Babur’s court built the mosque at Ayodhya in 1528. It was the custom of the time that most of the nobles used to implement things in the name of their king. The only source for these credits are the inscriptions on the mosque. In Babur’s autobiography there is no mention of this. In Babur’s memoirs he had been forthright where he mentions that he ordered the mutilation of the nude idols in Urwah Valley near Gwalior on the grounds of obscenity. Babur would not have failed to mention or hide the demolition of a temple had it been done on the grounds of religious conviction. There are doubts about his visit to Ayodhya itself.
There are no contemporary accounts about this episode and one has to draw inferences from the fact that there is no mention of the demolition of any temple in any of the sources at that time. A medieval Persian chronicle, Ain-i-Akbari, written in the 17th century by Abul Fazl refers to Ayodhya as ‘one of the holiest of places of antiquity’. It doesn’t mention any demolition and replacement of a temple by a mosque. Even Tulsidas, one of the greatest Ram bhakts of all time could not have missed this. He lived just a quarter of a century after Babur and it is totally unlike him not to have mentioned this had it taken place just 25 to 50 years before his time.
TURKEY IS located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia which makes it a country of significant geo-strategic importance. Modern Turkey has a rich past. Today, it encompasses bustling cosmopolitan centers, pastoral farming villages, barren wastelands, peaceful Aegean coastlines and steep mountain regions. Its landscape is dotted with battlegrounds, ruined castles and the palaces of great empires. This is the land where Alexander the Great slashed the Gordian Knot, where Achilles battled the Trojans in Homer’s Iliad, and where the Ottoman Empire fought battles that would shape the world. Tourists are mesmerised with its caves, rock houses and fantastical stone formations and fabulous history. More than 70 per cent of Turkey’s population lives in urban areas that juxtapose Western lifestyles with more traditional ways of life.
However, this beautiful country has an underbelly where the earth is believed to deliver death rather than riots of exotic flowers, orange blossoms and grapes.
The people in Tuzkoy, a famous tourist spot, are dying or suffering from Mesothelioma - a cancer of the lining of the chest or abdomen. Nearly half of the deaths in this impoverished village are from this rare cancer. According to the experts the affliction is caused by a mineral that is found in abundance in the area. It is dubbed as ‘cancer village’. The number of cases of Mesothelioma in Tuzkoy has been about 600 to 800 times higher than world standards. The situation is so alarming that a relocation of all residents is under way.
There is a plan to demolish the old village, bury it in 1-1/2 meters of earth and plant over it.The Turkish government hasn’t yet made a final decision on whether to bury Tuzkoy under dirt, pave over it with asphalt, or just try to keep people away.
Tuzkoy’s inhabitants are believed to have inhaled fibers of the mineral erionite in stones and paints they used to build homes as well as in roads and fields. This mineral is found in volcanic rock and classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency on Cancer Research, the cancer arm of the World Health Organisation. The other carcinogens in that group include asbestos, arsenic and tobacco. Erionite is found in various parts of the world, including in the US state of Nevada but the cancerous material there is generally found far deep underground. Unfortunately it is very close to the surface in Turkey. People use the rocks which have erionite and build houses with them.
However, people are also blaming to the lifestyle: “The people … spend all day in smoke-filled coffeehouses,” said farmer Muharrem Sevim, a 44-year-old father of three. It sounds strange but there is only one doctor, one nurse and one midwife at Tuzkoy. There are two cemeteries in the village and both are full. They are now opening a third cemetery. Villagers make a living mainly from agriculture, livestock, and from a nearby salt mine.
LET US look at some simple facts about Kashmir history and thus will emerge some unanswered questions. Before August 15, 1947, the Republic of India did not exist. Maharaja Hari Singh signed the instrument of accession on Oct 26, 1947. Why it took so long for the Maharaja to sign it? What was cooking in his mind? Was there no war of independence going against his dynastic rule in Kashmir when the rest of India was fighting for independence from the British Rule? Why are the knowledgeable writers or speakers are ignoring the history of struggle of Kashmiri people against the Maharaja? And what is significance of this ten letter word plebiscitein our political jargon involving Kashmir? What did Atal Bihari Vajpayee promise while taking the initiative on Kashmir problem? The problems in Kashmir are not law and order problems but political. We can’t wish away a problem in the name of patriotism. Those who support the maverick thinker-writer Arundhati Roy believe that muzzling the voice of reason can push the problem under the carpet. The demand of Azadi is a political challenge. The term Azadi would become sedition if it’s accompanied by armed insurrection. On the other hand, if the demand is made peacefully, it can’t be called sedition. Arundhati Roy is echoing what many in the streets of Kashmir are saying for decades. How many individuals are we going to incarcerate if they do not agree with the concept which, we feel correct that is of Azadi? To silence the peaceful voice of dissent is to suffocate the freedom of expression. There is a huge difference between sensible democracy and autocracy. We have to fight the slogan of Azadi with ideas and reason and not with brute power. People like Arundhati Roy are safety valves for the Indian democracy and not the enemy of the nation. They have as much at stake as anyone else. We do not support the demand of Azadi as secession but we support the freedom of expression with peaceful means.
IIT ROORKEE is acknowledged as one of the best technological institutions across the globe. The need for a technological institution in the country was initiated by Sir James Thomason in 1847 as Roorkee College. Earlier in 1854, it was christened as Thomason College of Engineering until it was granted a University status by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru vide [Act No. IX of 1948 of the United Province (Uttar Pradesh)]. He presented the Charter in November 1949 elevating it to the first Engineering University. The University of Roorkee was converted to Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R) in 2001. Thus IIT Roorkee carries almost 150 years of history with it. The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee is a trend setter in the field of teaching and research of modern sciences and technologies. However, recently the students of IIT have taken creativity in fashion to sublime heights. As we know creativity is the process of producing something new, innovative and unique and the brilliant students have decided to take the help of ubiquitous LIPSTICK to discover the new frontiers of creative art ala-eroticism. They were competing with each other in the aesthetic art of make-up with the real lips of fair sex and with their explicit and implicit consent. The argument is - as long as we are comfortable with the act what the elders or society has to do with it. World has gone too fast and the talk of traditions, culture or SANSKRITI is all moonshine. We are the harbingers of modernism and can’t carry on the extra load of anachronistic ideas. According to Father of Indian Nation M.K. Gandhi “If wealth is lost nothing is lost. If health is lost something is lost. If character is lost everything is lost.”
Undoubtedly, creativity demands freedom and for real and radical creativity we need freedom; freedom to stretch their wings, explore, and experiment with new and innovative ideas. I would love to hear what the VC and Professors of this prestigious institution have to say to say in this experiment. We saw on TV screen the boys with lipstick dangling deftly between their lips and girls pleasantly enjoying the coloring of their lips within breathing distance. These smarties have given the real proud moments for their parents, their society and their country. This is the knowledge they are gaining there. Finally we have arrived. There has been a revolutionary change in the field of values in our society due to many factors like influence of modern culture, industrialisation, modernisation, urbanisation, globalisation and multinationals. However, we can’t forget that our values are the guiding principles in our day to day behaviors as also in critical life situations. Values are a set of principles or standards of behavior. Values are regarded desirable, important and held in high esteem by a particular society in which a person lives. Every action and thought of ours leaves an impression in our mind. These impressions determine our behavior at a given moment and our responses to a given situation. The sum total of all our impressions is what determines our character. Someone had said:
“If there is righteousness in the heart there will be beauty in character. If there is beauty in character there will be harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation When there is order in the nation There will be peace in the world.”
THE RENOWNED Urdu poet Parveen Shakir has said: “Neend jab khwabon se pyaari ho to aaise waqt mein, Khwab dekhe koun aur khwabon ko de tabeer koun? (in times when we love to sleep, who would care to dream and give the sound interpretations).
I couldn’t agree less with her as I also believe that our gigantic and insurmountable problems of today are the product of our inability to dream. We have become too much of realist and we have stopped dreaming.
Dreams serve purposes -sometimes known and often unknown. Religious authorities do have their own parochial style to describe and explain dreams while gnostic dream experts focus on the scientific approach of what causes dreams. According to the famous dream analyst and author Craig Webb, “Usually we define a dream as an experience remembered upon awakening that comes through nonphysical channels. Basically, it is an altered experience we have when we are sleeping and that we remember when we wake. However, there are lots of other variations on the definition. Some people define dreams as life’s goals and wishes for the future.
This is another way we use the word. There is actually a pretty direct link between the two because often we dream of great wishes and future hopes in our sleep. Dreams can be a pleasurable experience for many. In other cases, dreams can take on a horrifying manifestation in the mind. Whether you have a bad or good dream, both cause the body to recycle itself in a way.”
Without going in to the complex psychological pedantics, let us consider the simple dream. It often acts as a leveler. In dreams we meet the people we hate; we feel the people we love - those who have been too far or too near but out of reach; we reach the places we have never seen; we solve the problems of real Mathematics and Physics. The panorama changes before we bat the eyelid. There is no charge on dreams.
And when the things go bad to worst we see the hallucinations. Dream is the sum total where we integrate things we have consciously or unconsciously learn and experience during the day. Good dreamers are usually sound in health and a good dream improves the quality of our life. People often claim to meet the deities and get guidance through super-natural encounters. Unfortunately, the author has no such claims to make.
Dreaming is must for a happy life. For that we have to construct a collage of our hopes and aspirations which lead us to the quality of life we want to live and kind of individual we want to become. Paint that collage with the ideals you want to follow and final shape of a useful human being you want to become. It is template for real life and there is no limit to your imagination. Aim as high as you want. Cut and paste from the lives of others. You are not at a cross with anyone here. Trust yourself, trust in your own goodness and be positive. Dreams become reality one day.
“Yes, we can !”
‘No, you can’t !”
It’s a reminder of pathos we face every day. People love to abandon when we are in adversity. It doesn’t matter if it is of our own making or circumstances have heaped upon us. The difference between an ordinary man / woman and a statesman is the way we react. A great statesman would never allow himself to be the victim of circumstances for too long. He would gather his strengths and turn the direction of winds. Prez Obama is a victim of his own rhetoric and nefarious machinations of Zionists and Right Wingers of US politics. Today Obama is a very lonely man. He is not shorn of all incumbent powers of a President but his admirers are abandoning his sinking ship in hordes. Even his closest admirers are saying: “This president feels flat — and somehow not quite genuine.”
What is happening to this great of Twenty First Century ? Is he under a spell or caught in a deadly political slumber ?Whatever happened to his electrifying magic ?
Today it brings an instant smirk on everyone’s face at the mention of Obama. His admirers are wondering and feel let down and betrayed by their hero.
Republicans, Neocons and recently burgeoned Tea Partiers who have been for his skin since he entered the White House from front door are rejoicing at his misfortunes. They do not hesitate even to call him dyed-in-the-wool Muslim. In fact they’ve put him in the dock for their own sins. The corporations and big banks and vultures of the Wall Street are turning against him - the worst show of rank ingratitude. Today they are cursing the same man who had bailed them out with the hundreds of billions of tax payers’ money.
There is no love lost between Obama and the Muslim world wither. They are disillusioned with his message of hope and promise of change. Once he had fascinated and endeared himself to the Arabs and Muslims in his inaugural address in Ankara and Cairo with his idea of new relationship. He talked about the permanent stop of illegal Israeli settlement on Palestinian Lands. His abject failure to push Israel toward peace despite his ostensibly sincere efforts has brought frustration, cynicism and despair in Muslim masses. He is failing on Iraq and Afghanistan fronts.
He could have stepped back from the mess left behind by Bushes and Republicans to make a fresh start. He can still stand up and fight for the ideals and values he once championed. It is not too late and all is not lost. His ‘health-care reforms’ offering medical insurance to tens of millions of poor Americans has great promise for every optimists. He can ask for a revisit by his countrymen at his stimulus package that has saved the US economy from a total free fall.
Americans would we willing to reconsider that the mess on economic front is a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also. Call back the American Forces from Middle East and save the tax-payers money. Oil would be available even from Iran if American Foreign Policy follows a more humanitarian approach.
Dear President, we believe your heart is in the right place. Show courage to follow your convictions. There is nothing to fear !
IT COULD have been the case of ‘left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing’ if it didn’t involve Benjamin Netanyahu and his most powerful Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. “A final agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has to be based on a programme of exchange of territory and populations,” Lieberman told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
And a quick repartee from the Prime Minister’s Office “Lieberman’s address was not coordinated with the prime minister,” adding that “Netanyahu is the one handling the negotiations on Israel’s behalf. The various issues surrounding a peace agreement will be discussed and decided only at the negotiating table, and nowhere else.”
The Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman gives the impression that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is spreading illusions and silly talk about peace. There is no chance for a permanent settlement for a generation. According to FM ‘exchange’ populated areas and adjust the state to its correct size which means that the Arab citizens of Israel must be expelled to the Palestinian side of the border. He suggested ceding parts of Israel with large Arab populations to a future Palestinian state in exchange for Israel keeping large settlement blocs in the West Bank, a proposal which has been part of his party’s platform. He said he expected the process ‘could take a few decades’.
Defenders or protégés of Prime Minister say, “Every time Foreign Minister Lieberman voices his skepticism about achieving peace, he undermines Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s credibility.”
But the irony is that Netanyahu had never considered the views of Lieberman views as illegitimate and he didn’t chastise his foreign minister for the speech.
Does it not reflect that Israel is a country which doesn’t have a responsible coherent foreign policy?
For few weeks Netanyahu had been investing or pretending to do so with gusto to convince the leaders of the world that he is serious about peace with the Palestinians. He had asked them to ignore the resumption of settlement construction, and tried to convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas not to quit the negotiations.
Settlement have started and dozers and dumpers are trampling the land of helpless Palestenians. Israel is least worried about the legitimacy or world opinion.
Now the most senior diplomat of PM tells the world that it is all crap that Netanyahu is faking. Even worse: the foreign minister is implying that Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state is merely cover for the expulsion of Arab citizens.
The foreign minister made it clear on Tuesday (September 28) that his political partnership with Netanyahu is coming to an end. Lieberman will not back the peace process, which he considers unnecessary and damaging. Those, who know the reality were never in doubt about the expected performance of power game and political circus of Israel. While President Obama is trying to show going for his image, the poor Palestinians continue to suffer under the yoke of cruel and belligerent occupiers. That proves the adage - Might is Right!
Also in the interview, Sanchez had mocked a suggestion that Jews are a minority. Stewart, born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, is Jewish. Sanchez claimed that American news networks are run by Jews, and that therefore American Jews cannot experience anti-Jewish prejudice. Sanchez also vented his negative feelings about Jon Stewart’s portrayal of him in Stewart’s news-oriented show on Comedy Central, The Daily Show. He was shown the door.
So, the lesson of the story - Every story has two sides !
Having lived in close proximity of Indian Jews in Bombay (now Mumbai) at Mazgaon and Bombay Central I had always admired their candid style of thinking, perspicuity and cleanliness. I was lucky to have Mr. Edwin Mendoza, as a principal of my College at Oxford Street IN London. I’ve known Jews who were honest, magnanimous, accommodative, creative, religious and pious. On 18 th Sep 2010 Jewish Year 5771) falls Yom Kippur and I’m taking this opportunity to congratulate one of the smartest, talented and knowledgeable community of the world. In the heart of my heart I believe that Jews through out history were prosecuted because they were far ahead of time in which they lived. Today, it makes me sad to see them involved in such activities as building the settlements on illegally occupied rather usurped lands and prosecuting the innocent Palestinians. It demeans their sense of fair-play, justice and intellectual integrity. I hope and pray that better sense would prevail and they would understand that their greatness lies in the vastness of their soul and not the plastic flowers they are building in the name of settlements in West Bank and other places. These flowers can look good but they can’t emit fragrance of love and peace. Like Jews and Muslim in their faith Hebrew and Arabic are very much similar languages in their etymology. In Hebrew, like in Arabic word Yom connotes Day. In Hebrew Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement.” It is the most important holiday of the Jewish year. Many Jews are strongly devoted to their religion but most of the Jews (people may be at variance with this view) aren’t very strictly religious in their observances. However, on this day most or all of them refrain from work, fast and/or attend synagogue services. According to Jewish traditions Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri. The holiday is instituted at Leviticus 23:26 et seq. This day has great significance as a day to set aside to “afflict the soul,” to atone for the sins of the past year. On this day, according to Jewish traditions, the judgments about human deeds are sealed in the records of Heaven. This is the last day to demonstrate our remonstrance and to appeal to God to change the judgment if it is against us. It is the last chance of the year of our repentance. One of my friend Ezra told me that on Yom Kippur they atone not only for sins between man and God but for the sins of another person against whom they have wronged. To atone for sins against another person we must first seek reconciliation with that person. We have to set right the wrongs which we had committed against him as for as possible. And this must all be done before Yom Kippur. and evening services, which continue until nightfall. I can’t claim much about Judaism or the deep tenets of Jewish faith. However, I was very much moved by the Jewish prayer I read the other day. “On this day when we boycott the pleasures and distractions and feuds and art which medicate and blunt and crutch, cleanse us of the disappointments and the failures of this year, which we have come together this day, this fast, to bury: Asham’nu - This is our confession. It is written that we will seek You out only when we admit that we have done wrong. Gazalnu - We have stolen, and called it reclaiming. Dibarnu Dofi - We have learned to say one thing to the world, and something different to one other. He’evinu V’hirshanu - We have caused others to sin. We have warped our tradition to suit the politics of the moment. Zadnu - We have allowed our anger to overrule our judgment, our values, our compassion. Hamasnu - We have been violent, and blamed the wrongdoing of others for our wrongdoing. Tafalnu Sheker, Ya’atznu Ra, Kizavnu - We have lied to ourselves and others in order to justify our actions. We have given poor advice in order to serve our own ends. We have altered the truth to serve our aims, and spread the lie as if absolutely true. Latznu - We have made light of the suffering and the humanity and the dreams of those who are unlike us. Pashanu, Tzarar’nu, Kishinu Oref - We have committed crimes, we have persecuted others. We have been stubborn to an extreme, unbending and insensitive. Lord of Ishmael and Isaac, for their sake if not for ours, heal our children and our childrens’ children. For their sake if not for ours, grant them life, inscribe them for health, seal them for joy. May our children see each other for what they are, sisters and brothers. And after all that they’ve gone through, for their sake if not for ours, inscribe them for a year of peace.” As a Muslim I feel love and respect for all the religions especially the Jewish that is so closed to my heart. I wish them all the best.
