[Reader-list] reader-list Digest, Vol 63, Issue 122

[sanjeev.sinha69 at yahoo.com]

I would like to know about the mining and steel industry in India and Asia.
Thanks and regards,
Sanjeev sinha.

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone Essar

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Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:43:55 
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Subject: reader-list Digest, Vol 63, Issue 122


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Today's Topics:

   1. Kashmir's people at centre stage (Hindu) (taraprakash)
   2. Cutting off the chain of hate (taraprakash)
   3. Re: Caste System, Dalits and Hinduism
      ( Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् )


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:32:48 -0400
From: "taraprakash" <taraprakash at gmail.com>
Subject: [Reader-list] Kashmir's people at centre stage (Hindu)
To: "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Message-ID: <9592CB1973ED42718324B72401FE5B5E at tara>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Kashmir's people at centre stage 

In less than four weeks' time, millions living in what is sometimes described as the most dangerous place on earth will make their way to polling stations
stretching from the shadows of Siachen to the sun-baked plains of Samba. More than a few voices had called for deferring the elections until next summer,
fearing that the still-raw wounds of the violence Jammu and Kashmir saw this summer could lead to a poor voter turnout and a verdict polarised along communal
line s. Others were worried that terrorist violence, or an anti-election campaign by secessionists, could lead to more bloodshed. All these concerns are
legitimate. But by ordering that elections to the State Legislative Assembly be held in time to avoid the imposition of central rule, the Election Commission
of India has made a courageous and principled decision that places at centre stage the right of the people to shape their own future. 

Without doubt, the poll process will face many severe challenges before the seven-phase election is completed in December. But the fact that fear has not
been allowed to derail democracy is something of a triumph in itself. For decades, elections in Jammu and Kashmir were used as instruments of some cause:
to bring a particular party to power, for example, or for demonstrating the legitimacy of the State's accession to India. Ever since 1996, when democracy
returned to the State after an extended breakdown brought about by jihadist violence, elections have been cast as a tool for peacemaking. The ECI's decision
underlines the fact that while elections may indeed yield desirable outcomes, this is not their raison d'étre. By making clear that democracy is not contingent
on circumstance or result, the ECI has helped the healing of the dysfunctions that came to characterise J&K's political life because of the decades-old
subversion of democracy. The elections will, moreover, make clear to political parties in Jammu and Kashmir that they - not New Delhi or for that matter
Islamabad - are the principal architects of the State's destiny. Over the summer, the Congress-People's Democratic Party alliance government paid the price
for the two partners' political opportunism and failure to challenge the forces of religious and ethnic chauvinism. Now, the people of the State will have
the opportunity to assess that record and decide who might have the best vision for the future. In 1996 and 2002, terrorist violence claimed the lives
of almost 200 political workers from most major parties, who put their lives on the line to campaign for their beliefs. Ensuring that there will be an
elected government in Jammu and Kashmir before the New Year is a fitting tribute to that sacrifice.


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:49:37 -0400
From: "taraprakash" <taraprakash at gmail.com>
Subject: [Reader-list] Cutting off the chain of hate
To: "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Message-ID: <5D69FB00698649F4A585D3FC889E9576 at tara>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Cutting off the chain of hate 

Mihir Shah 

Martin Luther King's profound inversion of Nietzsche's critique of Christianity is a beacon of light for all those who still dream of making a change in
the world. 

If injustice is a large fact of the world we live in, so is hate. And there is no surprise here. For, the very intensity of injustice provokes anger. Which
fuels hate. Capitalism has created unimaginable material prosperity for millions. But hunger and distress remain widespread. The early years of the 21st
century have seen hungry people rioting in 37 countries. Eighty per cent of the world's population still lives below the international poverty line. The
World Ba nk speaks of an almost unnoticed "silent famine" enveloping large parts of the globe. 

Adding hurt to this absolute distress are widening disparities. A recent World Bank study reveals that between 1820 and 1992, the income share of the bottom
60 per cent of the world's population halved to around 10 per cent, while the share of the top 10 per cent rose to more than 50 per cent. A United Nations
report covering the period 1950-1998, also reveals growing inequalities within nations. These inequalities revolve around multiple axes of class, community,
region, religion and gender. Religion has emerged as a central axis of conflict. Violence as a response to perceived injustice is on the rise, reflecting
in part the failure of democracies to function effectively across the world. 

The fruits of India's own development have been shared very unequally, especially in certain geographies (Adivasi enclaves, drylands, hills) and with specific
social groups (Dalits, Muslims). India witnessed the fastest growth of high networth individuals worldwide in 2007. In the "other India," across 200 districts,
lakhs of people are either committing suicide or taking to the gun. 

Martin Luther King suggests a different response to injustice - the path of love. But the love he spoke of was no ordinary love. In an essay written in
1957, King elaborated the very different meanings of three words for love in the Greek New Testament. Eros, in Platonic philosophy, means the yearning
of the soul for the realm of the divine. It has come now to mean a sort of aesthetic or romantic love. Philia signifies the intimate love between friends,
a reciprocal love, where we love because we are loved. But the love King advocates is best expressed in the Greek word agape. Agape implies understanding.
It intimates a "creative, redeeming goodwill for all, an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. Agape is not a weak, passive love. It is love
in action." Thus explained, agape comes very close to the ideal of lokasangraham - action motivated ultimately by the holding together of the peoples of
the world - the climax of the enunciation of karma yoga in Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita.

Through a profound inversion of Nietzsche's critique of Christianity, King provides a reconceptualisation of the relationship between power and love. Nietzsche
sought to determine the conditions of a new affirmation of life by overcoming what he regarded as the nihilistic despair produced by Christian values.
King interrogates the very terms of this problematique by providing a radical restatement of his own spiritual tradition. He questions the legacy of viewing
love and power as polar opposites, where love appears as a rescinding of power, and power as a rejection of love. This again is similar to the case against
sanyaas (abdication of action) in the Bhagavad Gita. King argues that "power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental
and anaemic." And this new understanding of power helps King positively formulate the unbreakable bond between love and justice: "power at its best is
love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love." 

Love must necessarily take on the larger structures of injustice that stand in its way. This love includes but goes well beyond isolated acts of kindness.
At the same time, because love is our weapon, we do not seek to defeat anyone and must try not to end up humiliating those positioned against us. For the
struggle is not against persons, it is for transformation of the opponent's view and the system of oppression. And even more for the self-renewal of those
who work for change. As King says, "to retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life,
someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the centre of
our lives." 

Such an organic link between inner transformation of the individual and larger social change is invariably missing in our politics. But there is more. In
our pursuit of structural change we cannot overlook the immediacy and enormity of suffering. Sadly, this has been the record of many movements for justice.
The millennial quest, based on various teleological certainties of the dynamic of History (with a capital H), has often led to people being treated as
cannon fodder. The finiteness of their life-times appears to have little import for leaders who ineluctably belong to classes quite distinct from those
who suffer injustice. As a result, the desperation for finding tangible solutions appears much less evident in leaders than for the masses they lead. 

We are confronted with a paradox. Narrow preoccupation with daily issues results, for example, in the sterile "economism" of the working class. But the
quest for millennial goals of a distant Shangri-la means a striking lack of concern for real-time solutions and an unyielding "protest for the sake of
protest." The former reflects a complete absence of broader vision, the latter a cruel neglect of immediate anguish. The challenge of creative politics
is to strike an imaginative balance between the two, without disadvantaging either.

We must stop viewing conflict as an arena of our victory over the "other." It is better regarded as a problem in search of a solution. A conflict needs
not so much a victory, as a resolution. Indeed, a "defeat" that moves society forward on the moral landscape, that empowers the disadvantaged and sensitises
those in power, deepening democracy in the process, could even be preferred to a "victory" that fails to achieve any of these.

A key to moving forward in this direction is to give up the antediluvian unitary and insurrectionist conception of Revolution (with a capital R). The unique
appeal of "scientific socialism" was its claim to have discovered the "laws of motion of society" that predicted the inexorable coming of a new dawn. This
teleology has ended up becoming the chief weakness of Marxism. If change is visualised in these terms, means-ends questions will be run roughshod over
and horrors of the Stalinist kind will continue to be perpetrated. Indeed, it would appear that without fana or annihilation of the ego as expounded in
Sufi theosophy, without an outpouring of agape love that Martin Luther King evoked, movement towards a more just social order will remain a delusion. 

Spiritual standpoint 

Such a spiritual standpoint finds strong support in recent advances in Neuroscience and Economics, both of which have traditionally been bastions of selfishness
as the central motive of human behaviour. Neurobiologists like Donald Pfaff marshal a new understanding of genes, neuronal activity and brain circuitry
to explain our concern for the other. The path-breaking work of economists like Samuel Bowles questions standard textbook assumptions of the selfish homo
economicus and emphasises the role of altruism in the very survival of humankind in the difficult years ahead. 

A one-track, single-event notion of revolution must also be discarded because it leads to complete neglect of crucial nitty-gritty detail that forms the
heart of the transformation we dream of. It is this dry spadework that also contains solutions to immediate distress. Running mid-day meals in schools
under active supervision of mothers, local people managing sanitation and drinking water systems, social audits in vibrant gram sabhas, participatory planning
for watershed works, women leading federations of self-help thrift groups and workers running industrially safe, non-polluting factories as participant
shareholders - all these and many more are the immediate, unfinished, feasible tasks of an ongoing struggle for change.

Unfortunately, activists typically push these questions into a hazy future, to be all answered after the revolution, so to speak. One of the greatest weaknesses
of the socialist project in the 20th century was its failure to flesh out the details of possible alternatives to a capitalist society. These are difficult
questions that necessitate intricate answers. And we need to begin looking for these here and now, in the living laboratories of learning of our farms
and factories, villages and slums. Not in some imaginary distant future after a fictitious insurrection. Why do we forget that this love in action for
justice constitutes a large part of the change that we must still dare to dream of?

(The writer is a social activist living and working for the last two decades with the Adivasis of central India.) 


------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:43:43 +0530
From: " Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् "	<mail at shivamvij.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Caste System, Dalits and Hinduism
To: "inder salim" <indersalim at gmail.com>
Cc: reader-list at sarai.net
Message-ID:
	<9c06aab30810220913t63efaa42w273f749c9dc98f8a at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

There are literally thousands of subcastes in India, often with
particular geographical ranges, occupational specializations, and an
administrative or corporate structure. When Mahâtmâ Gandhi wanted to
go to England to study law, he had to ask his subcaste, the Modh
Bania, for permission to leave India. ("Bania", means "merchant," and
"Gandhi" means "greengrocer" -- from gandha, "smell, fragrance," in
Sanskrit -- and that should be enough for a good guess that Gandhi was
a Vaishya.) Sometimes it is denied that the varn.as are "castes"
because, while "true" castes, the jâtis, are based on birth, the
varn.as are based on the theory of the gun.as (the "three powers"
mentioned in the Gita). This is no more than a rationalization:  the
varn.as came first, and they are based on birth. The gun.as came
later, and provide a poor explanation anyway, since the gun.a tamas is
associated with both twice born and once born, caste and outcaste,
overlapping the most important religious and social divisions in the
system. Nevertheless, the varn.as are now divisions at a theoretical
level, while the jâtis are the way in which caste is embodied for most
practical purposes. Jâtis themselves can be ranked in relation to each
other, and occasionally a question may even be raised about the proper
varn.a to which a particular jâti belongs. As jâti members change
occupations and they rise in prestige, a jâti may rarely even be
elevated in the varn.a to which it is regarded as belonging.

See http://www.friesian.com/caste.htm

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 8:24 PM, inder salim <indersalim at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  by the way.
>
> Chor Ganvar shudra pashu nari
> yeh saab hai tadan kay adikari
>
>  by Tulsi Dass
>
> ( thieves, ruffians, low caste, animals, women
> these all deserve beating )
>
> the fact, with other facts was often quoted by Kanshi Ram ji, the
> great leader of low caste hindus in india, after Dr.  Baba saheb
> Ambedkar ( the  architect of Indian Constitution )
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 7:29 PM, Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्
> <mail at shivamvij.com> wrote:
> > You might want to read the Annihilation of Caste:
> > http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/
> >
> > best
> > shivam
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Aditya Raj Kaul
> > <kauladityaraj at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> The following is from a document by Dhirendra A Shah …
> >>
> >> SECTION – I
> >>
> >> Caste System, Dalits and Hinduism
> >>
> >> "There is a misconception in some minds that Hindu scriptures
> >> sanction the caste system. But being based on Vedas, Hinduism does
> >> not permit any caste system, whatsoever.
> >> Vedas, the proud possession of mankind, are the foundation of
> >> Hinduism. Vedas are all-embracing, and treat the entire humanity
> >> with the same respect and dignity. Vedas speak of nobility of entire
> >> humanity (krinvanto vishvam aryam), and do not sanction any caste
> >> system or birth based caste system. Mantra number 10-13-1 of Rig
> >> Veda addresses entire humanity as divine children (Shrunvantu vishve
> >> amrutsya putraha). Innumerable Mantras of Vedas emphasize oneness,
> >> universal brotherhood, harmony, happiness, affection, unity and
> >> commonality of entire humanity. A few illustrations are given here.
> >> Vide Mantra number 5-60-5 of Rig Veda, the Divine Poet
> >> declares, "All men are brothers; no one is big, no one is small. All
> >> are equal". Mantra number 16.15 of Yajur Veda reiterates that all
> >> men are brothers; no one is superior or inferior. "Mantra number 3-
> >> 30-1 of Atharva Veda enjoins upon all humans to be affectionate and
> >> to love one another as the cow loves her newly born calf.
> >> Underlining unity and harmony still further, Mantra number 3-30-6 of
> >> Atharva Veda commands humankind to dine together, and be as firmly
> >> united as the spokes attached to the hub of chariot wheel.
> >>
> >> Bhagvad Gita, the essence of Vedas and Upanishads, has many Shlokas
> >> that echo the Vedic doctrine of oneness of humanity. In Sholka
> >> number V (29), the Lord declares that He is the friend of all
> >> creatures ('Suhridam Sarva Bhutanam') whereas Sholka number IX (29)
> >> reiterates that the Lord has the same affection for all creatures,
> >> and whosoever remembers the Lord, resides in the Lord, and the Lord
> >> resides in him.
> >>
> >> Hindu scriptures speak about 'Varna' which means to 'select' (one's
> >> profession etc.); and which is not caste; and which is not birth-
> >> based. As per Sholka number IV (13) of Bhagvad Gita, depending upon
> >> a person's Guna (aptitude) and Karma (actions), there are four
> >> Varnas. As per this Sholka, a person's Varna is determined by his
> >> Guna and Karma, and not by his birth. Chapter XIV of Bhagvad Gita
> >> specifies three Gunas viz. Satva (purity), Rajas (passion and
> >> attachment) and Tamas (ignorance). These three Gunas are present in
> >> every human in different proportions, and determine the Varna of
> >> every person. Accordingly, depending on one's Guna and Karma, every
> >> individual is free to select his own Varna. Consequently, if their
> >> Gunas and Karmas are different, even members of the same family will
> >> belong to different Varnas. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the
> >> differences in Guna and Karma of different individuals, Vedas treat
> >> the entire humanity with the same respect; and do not sanction any
> >> caste system or birth based caste system.
> >> Being divine revelation, Shrutis (Vedas) are the ultimate authority
> >> for Dharma, and represent its eternal principles whereas being human
> >> recapitulations, Smritis (Recollections) can play only a subordinate
> >> role. As per Shloka number (6) of chapter 2 of Manu Smriti, "Vedo
> >> akhilo dharma mulam" (Veda is the foundation of entire Dharma)
> >> whereas Shloka number 2(13) of Manu Smriti specifies that whenever
> >> Shruti (Vedas) and Smritis differ, stipulation of Vedas will prevail
> >> over Smriti stipulation." (J. G. Arora – Organizer Weekly)
> >>
> >> "A Brahmin boy who had developed more of the Tamsic Guna was not
> >> allowed to remain a Brahmin in his adult age. In the same way, a
> >> Shudra boy could become a Brahmin if he had developed more of Satvic
> >> Gunas. Let us look at the history of Vedic period. Vedas were
> >> codified by Ved Vyas who was a son of a fisher woman. Valmiki who
> >> wrote Ramayana was of a Shudra Class. Guru Dronacharya was a Brahmin
> >> but he took up weapons and faught as a Kshatriya in the Mahabharat
> >> war. One can give many such examples of how this Varna system
> >> worked. For a long period of time this system worked reasonably well
> >> which is why the Hindu civilization was the most prosperous in those
> >> days as compared to other civilizations.
> >>
> >> It is a fact that the type of caste system (with its present
> >> rigidity) we today talk about came into being only after the British
> >> census. When the British began to conquer India, the majority of the
> >> kings/rulers in different parts of India had been from amongst such
> >> castes which have been placed in the sudra varna. Chandra Gupta
> >> Maurya was from a Shudra class The British demonized caste because
> >> it stood in the way of their breaking Indian society, hindered the
> >> process of atomization, and made the task of conquest and governance
> >> more difficult. The word 'Caste' comes from the Portuguese
> >> word "Casta" which was then coined as "Caste" by the British and
> >> used it to divide the Indian society to perpetuate its colonial rule
> >> in India. The real rigidity of the caste system came into being only
> >> sometime in 1800 AD."
> >>
> >> Albaruni (AD 973 – 1048) describes the traditional division of
> >> Hindu society along the four Varnas and the Antyaja -- who are not
> >> reckoned in any caste; but makes no mention of any oppression of low
> >> caste by the upper castes. Much, however the four castes differ from
> >> each other,they live together in the same towns and villages, mixed
> >> together in the same houses and lodgings. The Antyajas are divided
> >> into eight classes -- formed into guilds -- according to their
> >>  professions who freely intermarry with each other. They live near
> >> the villages and towns of the four castes. (Sachau:101)
> >> This is exemplified by the fact that in Bali Hindu society in
> >> Indonesia, there is no dalit, no untouchability, no caste.
> >> Therefore, castiesm and untouchability are social problems in India
> >> and are not part of Hinduism as propagated by the Christian
> >> missionaries and evangelical folks. Can you say that homosexuality
> >> and pedophilia are rooted in Christianity because there are
> >> practiced by many Christian priests in America and Europe?
> >> Dalit: George Ooommen notes that the word 'dalit' was first used
> >> only in the 19th century by a Marathi social reformer, Jyotirao
> >> Phule. The 'dalit' word was appropriated by a political group called
> >> Dalit Panther Movement of Maharashtra in 1970. And, now the
> >> term, 'dalit' is appropriated by Christian theologians and
> >> missionaries to create anti-Hindu sentiments and convert poor and
> >> illiterate Hindus to Christianity by unethical, immoral and
> >> fraudulent methods.
> >> _________________________________________
> >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > National Highway - http://shivamvij.com/
> > _________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
>
> http://indersalim.livejournal.com
> _________________________________________
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