Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
separate statehood
How does separate statehood generate such strong emotions that many youth kill themselves? Does human nature allow this?
The two young men who killed themselves recently in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, and the subsequent and preceding incidents of youth immolating themselves or jumping in front of trains add up the tally of the so-called suicide deaths for the cause of achieving a separate Telangana.While an unbelievable number of people, about 750, have died like this for Telangana, no sociopsychological study has been conducted to understand the real cause and circumstances of these deaths. Most of those who died came from poor and lowercaste families, many of them the first educated member of their family.
Some of them were children.
The leaders of the agitation for separate statehood (not a separate nationhood, mind it), which is nothing but a federal restructuring, say this is martyrdom for a great cause, and they use the rising tally of suicide to pressure the Centre.
People are driven to suicide all over the world. But most people who decide to kill themselves do so because they see just darkness at the end of the tunnel in their individual life. Most have very personal or emotional problems that push them to such an end.
Studies on human nature tell us that in a situation where the choice is between killing someone or sacrificing oneself, human beings chose to kill. So then, how does an issue like separate statehood generate such strong emotions among so many youth that they are driven to kill themselves? Does human nature allow this? Several nations have
fought pitched battles for centuries for liberation from foreign rule.
For thousands of years human beings have lived as slaves under horrendous conditions, enduring torture. Yet they preferred life to death.There are several world famous individuals who committed suicide, but not for reasons of nationalism. The only famous suicide for a public cause was that of Socrates. But he, too, was forced to take hemlock by the rulers of his time. Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves for personal attachment.
The famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud committed suicide to escape the pain and torture of cancer that he was suffering from.
Nowhere in the world do hundreds of human beings commit suicide as a form of protest for the purpose of political liberation. The most exploited and oppressed Chinese fought against feudal war lords for centuries. They did not indulge in selfimmolation nor did they commit suicide by any other means. Similarly, Africans, who suffered brutal exploitation and torture under colonial rule for centuries, fought against the white colonial rulers. They, too, did not commit suicide. We have our own experience of suffering brutal foreign rule and fighting against it for centuries.
Telangana has its own history of anti-feudal struggles. The people of this region suffered vetti (bonded labour) for centuries. Feudal lords exploited the parents and grandparents of those who are dying now. But people did not kill themselves, rather they were killed. For centuries these people fought against feudalism while suffering poverty and hunger.
They did not choose death over struggle.
What is happening now in Telangana is unparalleled. Nationalism or regionalism cannot be a cause for so many people to die on their own. Which forces are causing such deaths remains a mystery.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s K.
Chandrasekhar Rao, who is leading the current phase of the Telangana movement, did not have any significant electoral success before the selfimmolations and suicide began. For years, his party could not contest any major election on its own. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he fought nine seats and won two.
Then, in desperation, he started a hungerstrike.
It was during the hungerstrike that his nephew Harish Rao proposed self-immolation as an innovative method of achieving statehood. He pretended to immolate himself. Within a day or two, one young man, Srikantha Chary, was said to have immolated himself. Since then a series of so-called incidents of suicide — by hanging or consuming poison, immolations — are being reported. No investigating agency has looked into the circumstances and reasons for these deaths. Somehow the whole nation takes them for granted.
Reason, it is accepted, has taken flight from the nation.
In a democratic country like India it is possible that all kinds of demands, like nationhood for Kashmir or a
separate state of Telangana, will come up. The movement for independent Ireland has been there for more than a century. But people never committed suicide to achieve that goal.
Human sentiment of nationalism or regionalism does not move in that direction at all.
Therefore, we need to be suspicious and look for the invisible hand in these deaths. Over 750 deaths definitely call for very sophisticated investigation. The blind belief that they all are self-driven does not show any historical perspective. The Kashmiris have been fighting for decades for their nationalist cause and are ready to die for it.
But they have not been killing themselves.As a Telanganite, who has been associated with many movements that cropped up here, I know that suicide was never in its blood. The poorest of the poor in this region always fought and died.
This happened in the anti-Razakar struggle, in the Telangana armed struggle, and in the Naxalite struggles. That was also the case in 1969 Telangana statehood struggles. The current Telangana movement, that began in 2009, goes against the ethics of all movements in the world and also against Telangana's own history.
It betrays general human nature, the spirit of this very nation and of this region. Let us not forget that this is a Delhi-sponsored movement. In this unnatural movement the leaders at the helm are making huge amounts of money and the youth at the other end of the society are dying. Let New Delhi explain or investigate how and why this is happening. Let the nation know which ghost is driving these innocent youth to suicide.
The writer is director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
The two young men who killed themselves recently in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, and the subsequent and preceding incidents of youth immolating themselves or jumping in front of trains add up the tally of the so-called suicide deaths for the cause of achieving a separate Telangana.While an unbelievable number of people, about 750, have died like this for Telangana, no sociopsychological study has been conducted to understand the real cause and circumstances of these deaths. Most of those who died came from poor and lowercaste families, many of them the first educated member of their family.
Some of them were children.
The leaders of the agitation for separate statehood (not a separate nationhood, mind it), which is nothing but a federal restructuring, say this is martyrdom for a great cause, and they use the rising tally of suicide to pressure the Centre.
People are driven to suicide all over the world. But most people who decide to kill themselves do so because they see just darkness at the end of the tunnel in their individual life. Most have very personal or emotional problems that push them to such an end.
Studies on human nature tell us that in a situation where the choice is between killing someone or sacrificing oneself, human beings chose to kill. So then, how does an issue like separate statehood generate such strong emotions among so many youth that they are driven to kill themselves? Does human nature allow this? Several nations have
fought pitched battles for centuries for liberation from foreign rule.
For thousands of years human beings have lived as slaves under horrendous conditions, enduring torture. Yet they preferred life to death.There are several world famous individuals who committed suicide, but not for reasons of nationalism. The only famous suicide for a public cause was that of Socrates. But he, too, was forced to take hemlock by the rulers of his time. Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves for personal attachment.
The famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud committed suicide to escape the pain and torture of cancer that he was suffering from.
Nowhere in the world do hundreds of human beings commit suicide as a form of protest for the purpose of political liberation. The most exploited and oppressed Chinese fought against feudal war lords for centuries. They did not indulge in selfimmolation nor did they commit suicide by any other means. Similarly, Africans, who suffered brutal exploitation and torture under colonial rule for centuries, fought against the white colonial rulers. They, too, did not commit suicide. We have our own experience of suffering brutal foreign rule and fighting against it for centuries.
Telangana has its own history of anti-feudal struggles. The people of this region suffered vetti (bonded labour) for centuries. Feudal lords exploited the parents and grandparents of those who are dying now. But people did not kill themselves, rather they were killed. For centuries these people fought against feudalism while suffering poverty and hunger.
They did not choose death over struggle.
What is happening now in Telangana is unparalleled. Nationalism or regionalism cannot be a cause for so many people to die on their own. Which forces are causing such deaths remains a mystery.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s K.
Chandrasekhar Rao, who is leading the current phase of the Telangana movement, did not have any significant electoral success before the selfimmolations and suicide began. For years, his party could not contest any major election on its own. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he fought nine seats and won two.
Then, in desperation, he started a hungerstrike.
It was during the hungerstrike that his nephew Harish Rao proposed self-immolation as an innovative method of achieving statehood. He pretended to immolate himself. Within a day or two, one young man, Srikantha Chary, was said to have immolated himself. Since then a series of so-called incidents of suicide — by hanging or consuming poison, immolations — are being reported. No investigating agency has looked into the circumstances and reasons for these deaths. Somehow the whole nation takes them for granted.
Reason, it is accepted, has taken flight from the nation.
In a democratic country like India it is possible that all kinds of demands, like nationhood for Kashmir or a
separate state of Telangana, will come up. The movement for independent Ireland has been there for more than a century. But people never committed suicide to achieve that goal.
Human sentiment of nationalism or regionalism does not move in that direction at all.
Therefore, we need to be suspicious and look for the invisible hand in these deaths. Over 750 deaths definitely call for very sophisticated investigation. The blind belief that they all are self-driven does not show any historical perspective. The Kashmiris have been fighting for decades for their nationalist cause and are ready to die for it.
But they have not been killing themselves.As a Telanganite, who has been associated with many movements that cropped up here, I know that suicide was never in its blood. The poorest of the poor in this region always fought and died.
This happened in the anti-Razakar struggle, in the Telangana armed struggle, and in the Naxalite struggles. That was also the case in 1969 Telangana statehood struggles. The current Telangana movement, that began in 2009, goes against the ethics of all movements in the world and also against Telangana's own history.
It betrays general human nature, the spirit of this very nation and of this region. Let us not forget that this is a Delhi-sponsored movement. In this unnatural movement the leaders at the helm are making huge amounts of money and the youth at the other end of the society are dying. Let New Delhi explain or investigate how and why this is happening. Let the nation know which ghost is driving these innocent youth to suicide.
The writer is director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
Manindra ki Mahindra
Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, the country's leading SUV manufacturer, on Tuesday signed a preferred financier agreement with Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) to help customers avail vehicle finance services from any KVB branch. The tie-up will enable both M&M and Karur Vysya Bank leverage on their inherent strengths.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Bhagat Singh page ‘vandalised' on Wikipedia
The Hindu : News / National : Bhagat Singh page ‘vandalised' on Wikipedia
I wonder if it is a conspiracy to divert attention from Valentine's Day: administrator
The Wikipedia page on Bhagat Singh underwent many editing changes on February 13 and 14, Valentine's Day, and a Wikipedia administrator called it online “vandalism.” At present, the page is in a “semi-protected” mode for one week. It means that someone who is not registered with Wikipedia cannot edit the page.
Over the two days, there was a flurry of activity on the page, with the first change beginning on February 13 at 2313 hours. The reason was a perceived lack of clarity among some people on the date of Bhagat Singh's hanging. According to Wikipedia administrator Philp Tinu Cherian, since February 13, the page was changed more than 30 times.
“People kept on changing and reverting the date between February 14, 1931 and March 23 as the day Bhagat Singh's hanging. They started editing the wrong information on the page and it could be termed “vandalism,” according to Mr. Cherian who, as “administrator,” added the date he got from sources in the Government of India.
He said the identity of those editing the page is unknown as only IP addresses, and not necessarily names, are used in Wikipedia. However, regular Wikipedians, including one whom Mr. Cherian knew, were reverting the correct date. “I had to lock the article and add references to reliable sources to prove the actual death date,” he said.
Other than Wikipedia, the subject dominated Twitter and a fan group of Bhagat Singh was also active on Facebook. One SMS that was being circulated on Tuesday said February 14 ought not to be celebrated as Valentine's Day as it was the day Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged.
“The activity on the page is rare. I wonder if it is a conspiracy to divert attention from Valentine's Day,” said Mr. Cherian, who noted similar heightened activity on Wikipedia when Jyoti Basu was taken ill.
Akshaya, a young HR professional working in Bangalore, said, “I believe the date Bhagat Singh was hanged on February 14, as given in books. Net links can be wrong. Books are always right.”
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
RSS for proportional Representation..?
EDTORIAL
| Source: Organiser - Weekly Date: 3/18/2012 11:25:16 AM |
US on Sri Lanka
West is on decline, high time it learnt to mind its business
Two years after the civil war in Sri Lanka ended with the decimation of the terrorist outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the United States of America is poking around the scab to reopen healing wounds. What else could be the intention of the resolution being moved by it at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva later this month?
The LTTE waged a no-holds-barred war with the state of Sri Lanka for over two decades, killing millions of people. The organisation that was founded for the cause of attaining legitimate political power sharing with the Sri Lankans went awry and indulged in ruthless killings, bomb blasts and targeted assassinations. It is public knowledge that several western nations had been arming the group. There have been muffled whispers of evangelical interest in the Buddhist majority country, combined with the geo-military position of the island nation on the Indian Ocean. It is for this reason that India, under the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi offered to help Sri Lanka in the war against LTTE, by sending the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force). India lost a huge number of soldiers but mid-way through the operations Sri Lanka asked India to withdraw its forces. Rajiv Gandhi and several senior Tamil leaders of Eelam, who dared to walk away from the LTTE Supremo V Pirabhakaran or speak against him, were finished off by the loyal assassination squad.
It is a fact to be borne in mind that it was Pirabhakaran and his unyielding temperament that stood in the way of an amicable, bloodless settlement of the Tamil problem. A political issue that could have been resolved with proportional representation was converted into ethnic war and genocide by the LTTE, the extremist JVP (Janata Vimukti Peramuna) and the then successive Sri Lankan government. It was the unflinching stand of the present Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that saw the end of one of the longest and bloodiest wars in modern world.
While accusing the Sri Lankan government of human rights violations, one must remember that the enemy was not a hapless, unarmed group of peaceful activists. The cadres of LTTE were armed to the teeth, with the latest machine guns, rocket launchers and tanks. The last few weeks of war that are under scrutiny now witnessed a pitched battle in which both sides killed and got killed unrestrained. The number of child soldiers Pirabhakaran recruited and trained has not been documented. Boys and girls were picked up at an unsuspecting age, fed on a liberal dose of LTTE literature enumerating the torture and humiliation of the Tamils by the Lankans and were prepared to ‘fight’ on the command of the well-structured LTTE ‘army’. Several thousands of Tamils were killed by the LTTE cadres for defying the leadership. But the US or any other nation did not raise the issue of war crimes then.
The tragic-comedy of the current situation is that the US, the biggest violator of human rights globally is moving a resolution against Sri Lanka. Its own track record on the issue is pathetic. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, the list is long and cruel. But not once has anyone ever charged the American government with human rights abuse.
India faces multi-pronged problem internally. Kashmir, North-East, Naxalites and Islamic extremists – these four major groups are active in anti-government campaign which takes the virulent form of attacking the state property, the killing of defence and police personnel and periodic carnage of innocent civilians. Whenever any major state offensive is launched against any of these groups, the so-called human rights activists become vocal, aggressive and shrill. The United States is playing that role globally.
It is the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government to rehabilitate the victims of the civil war. The Tamils of Sri Lanka are citizens of that country. At best, India has an interest and moral responsibility to speak for them, which India has been doing all these decades. But it makes no case for anybody else to intervene.
The heart-wrenching stories of the abuse of the rights of the Gypsies world over have not ever been heard by those sitting at the podium in the world body. Even India, which the Gypsies look at as their homeland has turned a blind eye. The accounts of the Malaysian Hindus, mostly Tamils, who are being targeted by the Islamic groups with indulgent support from the government, did not even make it to the headlines in major national dailies in India. Their representatives who came to India knocking political doors for help – to just speak on their behalf to the Malaysian government – did not get an appointment and audience with those in power here. And these are all people who have been living in their respective nations for centuries, like the Tamils in Lanka.
India should take an unequivocal stand against the resolution being backed by the US to condemn Sri Lanka. If India baulks today and adopts a ‘neutral’ position, it would find itself in the dock one day. India by its geo-political position must take a robust stand against the West interfering in issues not concerning them directly. There is no case for the US or any of the European nations to dictate to a democratically elected government or try to humiliate it in a world forum that belongs as much to us as it does to them.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Khalifa Abdul Hakim (1896-1959) - Arts & Culture History Islam Published in The Friday Times South Asian Literature SouthAsia Urdu - Amarsingh College Bhagavad Gita Hakim India Iqbal Islam Kashmir Khalifa Abdul Hakim Lahore Rabindranath Tagore Rafia Hasan ShantiNiketan Srinagar www.khalifaabdulhakim.com - Jahane Rumi
27 February 2012
Much has been said about the low priority we accord to humanities and liberal arts and especially with respect to discourses on contemporary Islam. No point in reiterating all those tedious arguments and tragic examples. Imagine if Hakim had translated Bhagavad Gita in the twenty first century Pakistan, where militant outfits preach hatred against India and Mumtaz Qadris are celebrated, he would have been branded as an infidel for promoting the sacred texts of ‘kaafirs’. Such is the rot of our present. Given the parochial education system and the monopoly of televangalists on national television, Hakim’s message and ideas can constitute footnotes of history. This is why I was pleasantly surprised to hear about the new website that his distinguished daughter Prof Rafia Hasan has created. Internet is already changing the way we function, think and see the world. Henceforth, the portal www.khalifaabdulhakim.com will provide free access to the published works of Hakim saheb. Hopefully, this will allow young Pakistanis to read and refer to his works, especially the ones in Urdu which have been uploaded in a user-friendly format and enable effortless reading.
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 His book Iqbal aur Mullah |
Hakim received his doctorate in Philosophy from Heidelberg University, Germany. A Kashmiri by origin and a native of Lahore, he spent most of his working life in Hyderabad Deccan where he was a professor and later Chairman of Department of Philosophy, Osmania University. His long career in academia started in 1918 when he was selected by Osmania University as a professor. During 1943-46, he also served on deputation as Principal Amarsingh College, Srinagar (Kashmir). In 1950, he was appointed as Director, Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore and held that position till his death. Hakim was also elected as the General President for the fist session of Pakistan Philosophical Congress in 1954; and was internationally renowned for his scholarship.It is said that Hakim had advised the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore in setting up a centre for Islamic research in ShantiNiketan. His extraordinary life was devoted to scholarship and he authored more than a dozen books and translated four from English and German on subjects which represented his key passions: progressive Islam, the spiritual-poetic universe of Rumi, Hafiz, Ghalib, Iqbal and the history of philosophy.
Hakim elucidates why Iqbal was opposed to the literalism and intellectual stagnation of clerics. In fact he makes a definitive comment that had Iqbal not died he would have been at odds with Mullahism |
Hakim’s major works include ‘The Metaphysics of Rumi’, ‘Islamic Ideology’, and ‘Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his Mission’. A key work in his rich legacy was “Islam and Communism” published in 1951. Hakim was an ardent proponent of “Islamic socialism” which was later politicised and used as a slogan in the 1970s. In post-war India (during the 1940s) and post-1947 Pakistan, this was an important voice. In Hakim’s worldview, inherent to Islam’s message was social justice. While the religion allowed for limited competition and private property, it also laid down a framework for setting limits on the accumulation of wealth and assets. In this context, the laws of inheritance, progressive taxation and regulated commerce were the instruments to achieve social justice. It’s a pity that our religious parties and neo-Islamists have not developed a discourse of this kind and therefore were never able to win the sympathies of people.
His works on Iqbal are also noteworthy. Among others, the short publication, “Iqbal aur Mullah” needs to be introduced as a mandatory reading. In this treatise, Hakim elucidates why Iqbal was opposed to the literalism and intellectual stagnation of clerics. In fact he makes a definitive comment that had Iqbal not died he would have been at odds with Mullahism. Hakim’s comments, that the sectarian ideologies propagated by clerics were dangerous and inimical for Pakistan’s welfare and future, were prophetic. The hints he gave in that book have now proved to be true.
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 translation of Bhagavad Gita |
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Hakim’s accessible and poetic translation of Bhagavad Gita has been recently republished by Sang-i-Meel publications. Former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee also launched an Urdu version in New Delhi during July 2000, a few days before the Indo-Pak summit.
Hakim could not have translated Bhagavad Gita in the twenty first century Pakistan, where militant outfits preach hatred against India and Mumtaz Qadris are celebrated |
To thinkers of this age, universal values of humanism and inter-faith dialogue were paramount. Hakim’s inclinations therefore make him the ideal scholar to have written on Ghalib, the great Urdu poet disowned by Pakistan as “Indian” and perhaps too secular. Hakim’s work Tafheem-e-Ghalib is a must-read for all Ghalib lovers and I read it from time to time to gain insights into Ghalib’s poetry. Not that I can ever claim that I understand Ghalib as it might just be a life-long journey.
The website www.khalifaabdulhakim.com is a gateway to the world of progressive ideas that we can still reclaim. It is still a work in progress but most of the links are active and the best part is that you can read the original works of Hakim as well as the commentaries on them. There is also a section on doctoral theses completed on his scholarship. My favourite essay from Dr Aftab Ahmed’s collection of personal sketches – Ba yaad e sohbat e nazuk khayalan (literally, the memories of companions with refined thoughts) is the best which gives a readable insight into Hakim’s personality and humanizes the scholar.
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 With Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Fatima Jinnah and Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in Srinagar in 1944 |
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Islam, as Iqbal has repeatedly mentioned in his lectures, is not a static belief system. Its inherent dynamism is for the Muslims to identify, interpret and apply to their individual and collective lives. But Iqbal has been terribly pigeonholed and his universal thought has been reduced to a simplistic dream of a mighty Islamic state and revival of Islamic Empire. Browsing through this website and re-reading some of the works by Hakim, I was somewhat comforted that there may be ways to reshape the discourse on Islam in Pakistan. No reformation of Islam can escape the ideas of Iqbal and Hakim; and therefore this is a website with immense possibilities. Dr Rafia Hasan and her capable daughters Naveed and Nudah are carrying forward the mission of this great man. All power to them!
Monday, March 05, 2012
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
ED slaps PMLA case against Marans - Indian Express
ED slaps PMLA case against Marans
Rahul Tripathi Posted online: Wed Feb 08 2012, 00:45 hrs
New Delhi : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday registered two cases under stringent sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) into the multi-crore 2G scam.
The first FIR was registered against former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanidhi Maran. It is alleged that the Maran brothers received Rs 550 crore as illegal gratification, punishable under sections of the PMLA and FEMA. Under the provisions of the PMLA, the ED can even attach the properties of Sun TV and the Marans.
The second case pertained to the NDA regime when BJP’s Pramod Mahajan was the telecom minister. The ED has named former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh, then deputy director general J R Gupta, Airtel and Vodafone for alleged irregularities in the grant of additional 2G spectrum during 2001-03.
Dayanidhi Maran, who resigned as the Union textile minister after his name cropped up in the 2G scam, is being investigated by the CBI-ED for favouring Malaysian firm Maxis Communication. The ED will now start recording statements under the PMLA before questioning Dayanidhi.
The allegations against Maran brothers were that they allegedly delayed and halted the process of granting a licence to Aircel in 2004-05.
The process of granting licence to Sivashankaran-owned Aircel was reportedly kept pending till an agreement was signed between T Ananda Krishnan-owned Maxis Communication and promoters of Aircel for ownership change in respect to these companies.
An illegal gratification of Rs 550 crore was reportedly accepted through Dayanidhi’s brother Kalanidhi in the garb of share premium invested in M/S Sun Direct TV by South Asia Entertainment holdings Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks Plc.
Monday, February 06, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
சோழ நாட்டில் பௌத்தம்: July 2011
BUDDHA STATUES IN THE VICINITY OF OTHER TEMPLES IN THE CHOLA COUNTRY*
Dr.B.Jambulingam,
Superintendent,
Tamil University,
Thanjavur 613 010
Buddhism came to Tamil Nadu during the 3rd century BC and it prevailed in the Chola country up to the 16th century AD, which is vouchsafed by an inscription found in Kumbakonam. Buddha viharas were found in many places including Poompuhar and Nagapattinam. The remnant of a vihara is still intact in Poompuhar. Sixty-four Buddha statues were identified in the Chola country comprising of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Trichy, Karur, Perambalur and Ariyalur districts during field study undertaken by the author since 1993. Among these 60 statues were in seated posture, and the rest from Cholanmaaligai, Poompuhar, Thiruvalanchuzhi and Sundarapandianpattinam were in standing posture. According to earlier researchers Buddha statues were found at Alangudipatti, Ayyampet, Chettipatti, Kottappadi, Kurumbur, Manganallur, Valikandapuram and Vellanur of Pudukottai. However when the author surveyed these places they could not be located. Probably these statues were lost forever. This highlights the need that these statues have to be protected and preserved by the Government. Several Buddha images are displayed in museums. In the study area Buddha statues are found in Siva temples, village deity temples and Jain temple. Some of them are found in the centre of the town, paddy fields, outskirts of the town or even in the neglected areas. This paper deals with the Buddha statues distributed in and around non-Buddhist temples in the Chola country.
I. Buddha Images from Siva Temples
Buddha statues are found in five Siva temples. They are Ekambaresvarar Kamatchiamman temple (Sundarapandianpattinam), Mathyarjunesvara temple (Pettaivaitthalai), Parsvanathaswami temple (Muzhiaiyur, near Pattisvaram), Sempakaranyesvarar temple (Thirunagesvaram near Kumbakonam) and Siva temple (Thiruvalanchuzhi). There is an inscription in Kumbeswarar temple at Kumbakonam, which speaks about the presence of a Buddha temple in Tiruvilanthurai.
During field study a Buddha statue was found in the Ekambadresvarar Kamatchiamman temple in Sundarapandianpattinam during September 1999. Dr J. Raja Mohamad who identified this Buddha says, “A rare Buddha statue in standing posture has been discovered at Ekambaresvarar Kamatchiamman temple at Sundarapandianpattinam, a coastal hamlet on the border of Pudukottai and Ramanathapuram districts. It is believed that the statue was brought from a ruined, nearly mandapa a structure which bears a resemblance to a Buddhist monastery. The stone idol is similar to the ones found at Nalanda in Bihar, the great Buddhist centre. The Buddha wears a close fitting robe extending from the neck to the legs, in addition to a sangati, covering the back, whose end has elegant folds. The face is oval with the nose, lips, chin and eyes exquisitely chiseled. The earlobe is long, the forehead has a tilak and on the right palm is a diamond-shaped mark-features considered Mahapurushalakshana in Buddhist mythology. The hair on the head is studded knot surmounted with a tapering flame called usnisha indicating the supreme knowledge” (The Hindu: 23.11.2002). This statue is not worshipped now. But it is placed near the sanctum sanctorum of the main deity of the temple. This statue resembles the style of Nagapattinam Buddha bronze.
Mathyarjunesvara Temple (Pettaivaithalai, Trichy Dt)
A Buddha statue, which was found during fieldwork in September 1998 near the rajagopura of the Mathyarjunesvara temple at Pettaivaithalai is now exhibited in the Government Museum, Trichy. This Siva Temple, constructed by Kulothunga III is on the Trichy-Karur road, about 20 km from Trichy. The statue is in padmasana dhyana posture. Local people call this Buddha as ‘Samanar’ which actually refers to a Jain Tirthangara. According to them originally there were three Buddha statues and two of them are lost. The only statue, which was found near Mathyarjunesvara temple, has been shifted and exhibited in the Government Museum at Trichy in May 2002 (Dinamalar: 17.5.2002).
(Muzhaiyur, Thanjavur Dt)
At the Parsvanathaswami temple in Muzhaiyur, near Pattisvaram, in Kumbakonam taluk a head of Buddha statue was found during field study in June 1999. One of the ears of this Buddha , whose face has a gracious smile, is found broken. Curled hair and usnisha are perfectly carved. This is not under worship.
(Thirunagesvaram, Thanjavur Dt)
Two Buddha images were found in the prakara of the Amman shrine of the Sempakaranyesvarar temple at Thirunagesvaram near Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district during field work. These images are in sitting posture and they are not under worship. Even though the workmanship of these statues is not so good, the presence of these statues confirms the existence of Buddhism in this area. Very near to this place is an area called ‘Channapuram’ (Jainapuram). Based on this place name and the similarities of the Buddha statues with the Jain images it can be suggested that this place might have been a Jain centre.
Thiruvalanchuzhi Siva Temple
(Thiruvalanchuzhi, Thanjavur Dt)
(Thiruvalanchuzhi, Thanjavur Dt)
There was a Buddha statue in the Siva Temple of Thiruvalanchuzhi in Thanjavur District (1957: 103). “The prominent but delicately carved features the exceedingly proportionate modelling and the tastefully worked drapery made this figure as one of the masterpieces of sculpture belonging to the end of the early Chola period. A noteworthy detail of this figure is its urna, which is shown not as the usual prominent circular dot on the forehead but simply outlined as an inverted question mark in the fashion of a number of bronze images from Nagapattinam. The urna and other details show the close correspondence between a metal image and a stone figure of the same period and locality. It also does not have a halo. In general, the features of the figure show that the sculptor who produced this was still imbued with the artistic tradition of earlier periods” (1960: 94). This statue is now exhibited in the Government Museum, Chennai.
Kumbesvarar Temple (Kumbakonam, Thanjavur Dt)
While other temples discussed above have Buddha statues, the Kumbesvarar temple at Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district has an inscription referring to the existence of Buddha temple . It is found on the doorjamb of the entrance of the inner prakara of the temple. This temple has the credit of possessing the inscription on survival of Buddhism as late as the 16th century A.D. (1999: 93). It mentions about one Titta Mamarunta Nayakar of the Buddha temple at Tiruvilanthurai, a small village near Tirunagesvaram-Tiruneelakkudi on the Kumbakonam-Karaikkal highway, during 1580 A.D. (EI, Vol XIX: 215-217). The text of the inscription is reproduced below:
(On) the 22nd day of the month of Adi in the year Vikrama, all the people of Tirumalairajapuram assigned 2¾ (veli of) land in the Brahman village (agaram) of Tirumalairajapuram for repairs as a charity of Sevappa Nayakkar-ayyan as the channel was dug and passed through the land belonging to ‘Titta Mamarunda-Nayar of the Buddha Temple’ at Tiruvilandurai.
From the above inscription it is understood that for digging the canal at the land belonging to the Buddha temple of Titta Mamarunda Nayar, compensation was made. From it one can infer about the presence of Buddha temple around 16th century A.D. Even though there are no remains of the Buddha temple at Tiruvilanthurai now, this inscription confirms the existence of Buddhism till that period. It is the only inscription from a Siva temple in the Chola country that speaks about a Buddha temple.
II. Buddha Images from Village Deity Temples
Buddha statues are found in the village deity temples such as Aravandi Amman temple (Mangalam, near Musiri), Muthumariamman temple (Pattisvaram, Thanjavur district) and Nilavalamudaya Ayyanar temple (Karur near Ponpatri).
Aravandi Amman Temple (Mangalam, Trichy Dt)
In Mangalam of Tiruchy district, 15 km from Musiri, there is an Aravandi Amman temple. The author with the help of K.Sridharan identified a Buddha statue in the temple in May 1998. According to K.Sridharan, “The locals have been worshipping the statue of Buddha along with the deity Aravandi Amman. The bottom portion of the peetam of the statue has three lions in sitting posture. The statue is in padmasana dhyana posture and the face, the broad shoulders, the long arms and the palms one resting on the other is an example of the high degree of workmanship achieved during the Chola period. The face exemplifies the blessed state of the mind during dhyana, and the long earlobes, the typical head gear, and the hair arranged in a bunch at the top portion, give a special grandeur thanks to the backdrop of granite tiruvasi like constructions at the rear. This statue belongs to 10th century” (The Hindu: 8.5.1998). The special feature of this statue is the presence of moustache (Dina Malar: 17.6.1999). Nowhere in the Chola country Buddha statue with moustache is found. It is to be noted that no other Buddha statue of this area has lions on the seat. According to the villagers since Buddha was against sacrifice, they constructed a separate shrine there away from the folk deity. They call the Buddha image as 'Chettiar’.
Muthumariamman Temple
(Pattisvaram, Thanjavur Dt)
(Pattisvaram, Thanjavur Dt)
Near Pattisvaram on the Pattisvaram-Govindakkudi road is a temple dedicated to Muthumariamman is found. A Buddha statue was found during field study in October 1998 in this temple. The Buddha image in seated posture is installed along with other folk deities (1957: 45).Even though the local people do not know that the image represents the Buddha, they offer worship. This is one of the smallest Buddha statues found in the Chola country.
Nilavalamudaya Ayyanar Temple
(Karur, Pudukottai Dt)
(Karur, Pudukottai Dt)
A Buddha image is found during the fieldwork undertaken in September 1999 at Nilavalamudaya Ayyanar temple in Karur, which is five miles to west of Ponpatri in Arantangi Taluk in Pudukottai district. From the iconographical aspects it appears to belong to the Chola period (1992: 249). This is a small but beautiful figure seated in the usual dhyana posture. “It has around it, the prabha on pillars. The other features of it are unmistakably in the late Chola period. It must be noted that Karur is very near to Ponpatri, the birthplace of the famous Buddhamitra who lived in the 11th century A.D. He wrote Veerasoliyam during the rule of the Chola king Veera Rajendra. The existence of this image in a nearby village, the reported existence of images of this kind in several villages in the neighbourhood, and the late Chola style of this image, all go to show that Buddhism was undoubtedly in a flourishing condition in this area during the Chola times” (1960: 99). The local people offer sacrifice to the village deity Karuppasamy which is in the vicinity of the temple. To avoid the Buddha seeing this offering, the villagers have installed the Buddha statue separately. Alongwith other deities, Buddha is worshipped here.
(Mannargudi, Tiruvarur)
A Buddha statue was found in the Jain temple at Mannargudi during field study in August 1998. In the Chola country Jain temples are found in Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Deepanakudi and Mannargudi. The Jain temple at Mannargudi has a Buddha statue, in its northern prakara under the shade of a tree. This is in sitting dhyana pose with beautiful workmanship. Like some of the Nagapattinam Buddha bronze images, this statue has one attendant each on either side (1979: 115). Local people worship this Buddha.
IV. Discussion
Even after the impact of the bhakti movement, Buddhism continued to survive in certain areas of Tamil Nadu during Chola period. The statues found in the Chola country attest to this fact. Many Buddha statues found in this area belong to the 9th century A.D. to the 11th century A.D. Without the presence of Buddhist temples or viharas there would not have been so many Buddha images in this area in the vicinity of the temples. In order to protect the Buddha statues the local people have placed them in the nearby non-Buddhist temples. Buddha is worshipped, as any other deity, in many places. This shows the people treat Buddha equal to the deities that they worship.
*Published in Tamil Civilization, Vol.19, September 2008, Tamil University, Thanjavur,Tamil Nadu, India.
Reference
Dinamalar (Tamil Daily), dated 17th May 2002
Dinamani (Tamil Daily), dated 18th July 1999
Dinathanthi (Tamil Daily), dated 3rd February 2004
Dinamani (Tamil Daily), dated 11th August 2006
Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIX, pp.215-217
The Hindu dated 8th May 1998
The Hindu dated 23rd November 2002
The Hindu dated 27th June 2006
Jambulingam, B., Buddhism in Tamilnadu with special reference to Thanjavur District, M.Phil., Dissertation, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 1995
…………………, Chola Nattil Boutam, (Tamil) Ph.D, Thesis, Tamil University, Thanjavur, 1999
…………………, Chola Nattil Boutam, (Tamil) Ph.D, Thesis, Tamil University, Thanjavur, 1999
…………………, Buddhism in the Cola Country, Project Report, Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum, New Delhi, 2002
Kudavayil Balasubramanian, Thanjavur Nayakkar Varalaru (Tamil), Thanjavur Maharaja Serfojiyin Saraswathi Mahal Noolagam, Thanjavur, 1999
Minakshi, C., “Buddhism in South India”, South Indian Studies-II, (Editor R.Nagaswamy), Society for Archaeological, Historical and Epigraphical Research, Chennai, 1979
The New Indian Express dated 10th July 1999
Raja Mohamad, J., Pudukottai Mavatta Varalaru (Tamil), Collector, Pudukottai, 1992
Srinivasan, P.R., “Buddhist images of South India”, Story of Buddhism with special reference to South India, Department of Information and Publicity, Madras, 1960
Vasudeva Rao, T.N., Buddhism in the Tamil country, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar, 1979
Venkatasamy, Mayilai Seeni., Bouthamum Tamilum, (Tamil) Thirunelveli Then India Saiva Siddhantha Noorppathippukkalagam, Chennai, 1957(updated on 24.12.2011)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The dangers of demonology
Schumpeter 
The dangers of demonology
Hatred of bankers is one of the world’s oldest and most dangerous prejudices
Jan 7th 2012
HURLING brickbats at bankers is a popular pastime. The “Occupy Wall Street” movement and its various offshoots complain that a malign 1%, many of them bankers, are ripping off the virtuous 99%. Hollywood has vilified financiers in “Wall Street”, “Wall Street 2”, “Too Big to Fail” and “Margin Call”. Mountains of books make the same point without using Michael Douglas.
Anger is understandable. The financial crisis of 2007-08 has produced the deepest recession since the 1930s. Most of the financiers at the heart of it have got off scot-free. The biggest banks are bigger than ever. Bonuses are flowing once again. The old saw about bankers—that they believe in capitalism when it comes to pocketing the profits and socialism when it comes to paying for the losses—is too true for comfort.
But is the backlash in danger of going too far? Could fair criticism warp into ugly prejudice? And could ugly prejudice produce prosperity-destroying policies? A glance at history suggests that we should be nervous.
Scorn for moneymen has a long pedigree. Jesus expelled the moneychangers from the Temple. Timothy tells us that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Muhammad banned usury. The Jews referred to interest as neshek—a bite. The Catholic church banned it in 1311. Dante consigned moneylenders to the seventh circle of hell—the one also populated by the inhabitants of Sodom and “other practisers of unnatural vice”.
For centuries the hatred of moneylending—of money begetting more money—went hand in hand with a hatred of rootlessness. Cosmopolitan moneylenders were harder to tax than immobile landowners, governments grumbled. In a diatribe against the Rothschilds, Heinrich Heine, a German poet, fumed that money “is more fluid than water and less steady than air.”
This prejudice has proven dangerous. Without money to grease them, the wheels of commerce turn slowly or not at all. Civilisations that have eased the ban on moneylending have grown rich. Those that have retained it have stagnated. Northern Italy boomed in the 15th century when the Medicis and other banking families found ways to bend the rules. Economic leadership passed to Protestant Europe when Luther and Calvin made moneylending acceptable. As Europe pulled ahead, the usury-banning Islamic world remained mired in poverty. In 1000 western Europe’s share of global GDP was 11.1% compared with the Middle East’s 8.6%. By 1700 western Europe had a 13.5% share compared with the Middle East’s 3.4%.
The rise of banking has often been accompanied by a flowering of civilisation. Artists and academics railing against the “agents of the Apocalypse” might also learn from history. Great financial centres have often been great artistic centres—from Florence in the Renaissance to Amsterdam in the 17th century to London and New York today. Countries that have chased away the moneylenders have been artistic deserts. Where would New York’s SoHo be without Wall Street? Or the great American universities without the flow of gold into their coffers?
Prejudice against financiers can cause non-economic damage, too. Throughout history, moneylenders have been persecuted. Ethnic minorities—most obviously the Jews in Europe and America but also the Chinese in Asia—have clustered in the financial sector first because they were barred from more “respectable” pursuits and later because success begets success. At times, anti-banking prejudice has acquired a strong tinge of ethnic hatred.
In medieval Europe Jews were persecuted not only because they were not Christians but also because killing them was a quick way to expunge debts. Karl Marx, who came from a Jewish family, regarded Jews as the embodiments of capitalism who could only be rescued from their ancestral curse through revolution. The forgers of the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” wanted people to believe that Jewish financiers were engaged in a fiendish global conspiracy. Louis McFadden, the chairman of the United States House Committee on Banking and Currency in the 1930s, claimed that “the Gentiles have the slips of paper while the Jews have the lawful money.” The same canards have been used against Chinese minorities across Asia.
This is not to say that the Occupy protesters are guilty of ethnic prejudice: they belong to a class and a generation that is largely free from such vices. But demonisation can easily mutate into new forms. In the August issue of the Journal of Business Ethics one Clive Boddy argues that the financial sector has been taken over by psychopaths: “people who, perhaps due to physical factors to do with abnormal brain connectivity and chemistry”, lack a “conscience, have few emotions and display an inability to have any feelings of sympathy or empathy for other people”.
Caged emotions
Railing against the 1%—particularly when so many of them work for companies with names like Goldman Sachs and N.M. Rothschild—can unleash emotions that are difficult to cage. A survey in the Boston Review in 2009 found that 25% of non-Jewish Americans blamed Jews for the financial crisis, with a higher percentage among Democrats than Republicans. Ethnic hatreds are even rawer in parts of Asia. The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 sparked murderous riots against rich Chinese in places such as Indonesia. Today, the combination of hard times and harsh rhetoric could also produce something nasty.
The crisis of 2008 showed that global finance requires tough medicine. Banks must be forced to hold bigger reserves. “Weapons of mass destruction” must be defused. The culture of short-term incentives needs to be revised. But demonising bankers will not solve these problems—and may well, if unchecked, bring a lot of ancient ugliness back to life.
Friday, January 06, 2012
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
History of Quit India, Nehru & CPI split
HISTORY Of Quit India, Nehru & CPI split
A.G. NOORANI
Stalin upbraided CPI leaders for not supporting the Congress on the Quit
India Movement.
OF all the Communist leaders interviewed in the Oral History
Programme of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in New Delhi,
Makineni Basavapunniah was the most outspoken. The armed struggle in
Telangana, which began in 1946, was directed against the Nizam's
government. But ?from September 1948 onwards it was regular armed
invasion. It was not a police action. Either the special armed police or
the Malabar Police or the army, nearly 50,000 were employed for three
full years to suppress the movement. Indian Army was not more than one
and a half lakh or two lakhs in those days. A good part of it was locked
up in Kashmir. Other part had to remain somewhere stationary. Then to
spare as nearly 40,000-50,000 armed forces at one spot was not a small
thing. So they concentrated their best and did their worst. Ten thousand
people were put as detenus for three-four years; nearly a lakh of
people were put in concentration camps for months on end; thousands of
women were raped.? Dr Hari Dev Sharma asked: ?By the military??
Basavapunniah replied: ?Of course, military and the other armed forces,
like Central Reserve Police, Malabar Police, Special Police, like that
so many.?
He added: ?Particularly after September 1948 when the Government of
India intervened, as I said earlier, it intervened with very big armed
forces. The entire modern military technique was used against us.
General J.N. Chaudhuri, who intervened there on behalf of the Government
of India, took hardly half a dozen days to manage the army of the Nizam
and the Razakars, etc. After that the main direction was against the
Communist Party which was leading the struggle.?
He explained why he developed reservations over the Ranadive thesis
adopted by the Second Party Congress at Calcutta in February 1948.
Experience in Telangana flew against the thesis. ?The Andhra document
was submitted in the month of May 1948. The Politburo was keeping its
discussions confined to it till the month of November 1948. So it was
only in the month of November and December 1948 that this reached all
the State units. The whole of the year 1949, there was an inner party
discussion going on. By March 1950 the whole cycle was complete and the
line that was adopted at Calcutta was proved wrong and we were asked to
take the responsibility of the Central Committee leadership. Then came
the question of going and meeting Stalin, and then working out all the
lines.? The Communist Party of India unit in Andhra disagreed with the
leadership. In the earlier articles, we have Basavapunniah's account of
the Moscow meeting, which was arranged to avert a split.
Like his colleagues, P. Sundarayya also dilated on the alliance with
the Congress Socialist Party in the 1930s and how the Kerala, Andhra and
Madras units of the CSP went over to the CPI. Conflict was inherent in
the alliance. ?Right from the beginning, from 1934 itself, this conflict
had been there. Because in the earlier period, some of our writings
[aid] that Congress Socialism was contradictory in words and would pave
way to fascism. Such kind of articles were written. The [Congress]
Socialist Party leadership also attacked [saying] that the communists
were responsible for fascism coming in Germany by not having a united
front. They had their own ideology; Gandhian ideology also influenced [
sic] that the communists were anti-national. They also used to say all
these things?. Similarly, Sajjad Zaheer, Dr K.M. Ashraf, Dr Z.A. Ahmed,
[Soli] Batliwala were all big Congress leaders; they were all leftists
and were in the Congress Socialist Party. They were all pro
[communists]; some of them were party members also.? So, this struggle
went on till they found that they could not function in a united way.
Then they decided to remove us and we also found that it was difficult
to convince a good chunk of them. We had to function more and more
independently than through the Congress Socialist party. That phase came
towards the end of 1938.?
Dange's role
Sadly, S.A. Dange's recorded Interview ends abruptly before the
crises of the 1940s. He was a fascinating character, a brilliant
pamphleteer, orator and a supple tactician. He was known to be close to
the mill owner Sir David Sassoon. On March 7, 1964, Current, a Bombay
[now Mumbai] tabloid, edited by D.F. Karaka, published a letter from
Dange to the Governor-General of India dated July 28, 1924, from Sitapur
jail in the United Provinces (U.P.) where he was serving a four-year
sentence in the Kanpur Conspiracy Case.
It said: ?Exactly one year back, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of
Bombay, Mr Stewart, was having a conversation with me, in his office
regarding my relations with M.N. Roy and an anticipated visit to me of
certain persons from abroad. During the course of the conversation the
Honourable officer let drop a hint in the following words, the full
import of which I failed to catch at that moment. Mr Stewart said, ?You
hold an exceptionally influential position in certain circles here and
abroad. Government would be glad if this position would be of some use
to them.' I think I still hold that position. Rather it has been
enhanced by the prosecution. If Your Excellency is pleased to think that
I should use that position for the good of Your Excellency's government
and the country, I should be glad to do so, if I am given the
opportunity by Your Excellency granting my prayer for release.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
S.A. DANGE. HE was a member of the Communist delegation that met Stalin
in Moscow. Here, he is giving a talk on "My visit to Russia" in the
weekly BBC Marathi magazine programme "Radio Jhankar". The others in the
delegation were Ajoy Ghosh, M. Basavapunniah and C. Rajeswara Rao.
?I am given the punishment of four years' rigorous imprisonment in
order that those years may bring a salutary change in my attitude
towards the King Emperor's sovereignty in India. I beg to inform Your
Excellency that those years are unnecessary, as I have never been
positively disloyal towards His Majesty in my writings or speeches nor
do I intend to be so in future.
?Hoping this respectful undertaking will satisfy and move Your Excellency to grant my prayer and awaiting anxiously a reply.
I beg to remain,
Your Excellency's Most
Obedient Servant,
Shripat Amrit Dange.
Written this day 28th July, 1924
Endorsement No. 1048, dated 31-7-1924.
Forwarded in original to I.G. [Inspector General] of prisons U.P. for disposal.
Sd/- W.P. Cook
Col. I.M.S.
Superintendent of Jail.
Seal of I.G. Prisons
13070 Dated 1-8-1924.?
On March 16, Basavapunniah and P. Ramamurthi went to the National
Archives in New Delhi and again on March 17 and 19. What they found was
set out in a pamphlet published by the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) after the split later in the year. It was entitled Dange
Unmasked (for a detailed analysis of the texts of the documents,
including comments by the formidable Lt Col Cecil Kaye, Director of the
Intelligence Bureau, perhaps its most able ? ?he is personally, a mere
worm? ? vide the writer's article ?Dange Letters?; Survey (London)
Spring 1979; pages 160-174).
Years later I sought an interview with Dange. What he said of the
famous meeting with Stalin rang true. Stalin upbraided the CPI leaders
for not supporting the Congress on the Quit India Movement when they
mentioned that their stand had cost them dear. ?Why didn't you support
it? Do you think we won the war because of the 100 rifles you sent us??
Stalin was informality itself. Dange sat on the armrest of his chair
when Stalin pored over the map of India he had sent for. ?Is this your
Yenan?? he asked with unconcealed contempt. It lay at the very heart of
India. What followed the meetings is well recorded but not completely in
a single volume.
Significantly, later Soviet writers also criticised the CPI's 1942
decision. Dr Alexander I. Chicherov, Head of the International Relations
Research Department and Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of
Sciences USSR in Moscow, was an erudite scholar. He found in the
archives a letter from Bal Gangadhar Tilak to the Russian Consulate in
Bombay in 1905 outlining his plans for intensifying the freedom
struggle. He admired Tilak.
On a visit to Bombay, Chicherov told Indian Express that the CPI's
decision to keep out of the Quit India Movement was ?tragic? (October
15, 1982).
One question arises. One of the interviewers said that they had no
direct contact with Moscow, only with the Communist Party of Great
Britain, that is, with Rajani Palme Dutt and Harry Pollit. Was it Palme
Dutt, then, who instructed the switch in 1942?
Basavapunniah's interview mentions the disagreement between the
Andhra thesis and the thesis of the Central leadership. The party was on
the verge of a split. It was averted by Stalin. Like Dange, Mohit Sen
supported the Emergency. Both left the CPI, But Mohit Sen's memoir is of
absorbing interest. Sadly, it did not receive the review it deserved ( A
Traveller and the Road: The Journey of an Indian Communist; Rupa &
Co.; 2003). The two remained close.
Mohit Sen's account
Mohit Sen wrote: ?I was to have the privilege of carrying the ?China
path' document to China. The CPI leadership hoped and expected that the
leadership of the CPC would endorse this understanding and back it....
?At that time, I did not know that this line had been challenged by
an important section of the CPI leadership headed by Ajoy Ghosh, S.A.
Dange and S.V. Ghate. They had produced a joint document which had gone
down in the history of the party as the ?Three Ps' document?.
?This document shared the viewpoint that India had not won
independence and that the Nehru government upheld the interests of
British imperialism, landlords and those sections of the bourgeoisie
that collaborated with imperialism. The document also held the view that
armed revolution was the only path of advance. It differed from both
the Ranadive line and the China path line [ the Andhra thesis] on its
insistence that Indian conditions differed in the 1950s from both Russia
and China. The strategy of the CPI should, therefore, be that of the
Indian path. The armed revolution in our country would be a combination
of peasant guerrilla actions in the countryside with working class
insurrections in the urban areas. This was an updated version of what
S.A. Dange had advocated decades ago in Gandhi vs. Lenin published in
1920, which had caught the attention of Lenin himself.
RAJEEV BHATT
MOHIT SEN. HE wrote: "I was to have the privilege of carrying the `China
path' document to China."
?The other point of difference of ?the three Ps' document was its
realistic appraisal of the actual situation of the CPI. It was on the
verge of annihilation. Its mass organisations were shattered and the
party itself almost totally disintegrated. The first task was to save
the party itself and to reforge its ties with the masses, taking into
account the existing civil liberties.
?The proponents of the ?Chinese path' led by Comrade C. Rajeswara Rao
and those of the ?Indian path' led by Comrade Ajoy Ghosh had set up
their own centres and the CPI was on the verge of a split. It was then
that the Soviet Communists intervened.
?Four leaders, two from each centre, were brought to Moscow. They
travelled, incognito as manual workers on a Soviet ship from Calcutta.
They were Comrades Ajoy Ghosh, S.A. Dange, C. Rajeswara Rao and M.
Basavapunniah. None of them divulged any details of how they were
contacted and what their exact itinerary was. Nikhil Chakravartty, who
attended to all the technical details of planning the journey, has also
not said anything.
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A GROUP OF Telangana fighters. "[Stalin] strongly advised that the armed
struggle being conducted in various areas, especially the Telangana
region of Andhra Pradesh, should be ended."
?S.A. Dange and C. Rajeswara Rao have both told me about the meeting
with the leaders of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union]. The
first meeting was attended from the Soviet side by Comrades [Mikhail
Andreyevich] Suslov, [Georgy] Malenkov and [Vyacheslav Mikhailovich]
Molotov. It was on the third day that it was announced that Comrade
Stalin would attend. So he did for the subsequent days. Dange and
Rajeswara Rao said that he was an attentive listener though he rarely
sat at the table but kept pacing up and down smoking a pipe. But he
intervened subtly to turn the discussion beyond dogmatic disputes to
assessments of the existing situation and immediate tactical tasks.
Stalin's view on Nehru government
?Stalin's view also was that India was not an independent country but
ruled indirectly by British colonialists. He also agreed that the
Communists could eventually advance only by heading an armed revolution.
But it would not be of the Chinese type. His view on this point
coincided with that of ?the three Ps'. He also agreed with their
appraisal of the concrete situation in which the party was placed. He
strongly advised that the armed struggle being conducted in various
areas, especially the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, should be
ended. He said that it was Comrade Rajeswara Rao who should travel to
the different camps and see that the arms were surrendered. This would
be difficult but it was he alone who could do it. That, in fact, was
done and Rajeswara Rao later told me that this was the most difficult
task he had ever performed for the party.
?Stalin also cautioned the CPI leaders that the Nehru government was
not a puppet government. It had a social base and mass support and could
not be overthrown easily. He asked the leaders to unite, work together,
save the party and take it forward. He strongly advised them to make
the CPI participate in the general elections? (pages 80-81).
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
P. SUNDARAYYA AND (below) Basavapunniah in the 1950s.
The record has him say: ?I cannot consider the government of Nehru as
a puppet. All his roots are in the people.? He was polite to the
visitors, but they did not win his respect. His interpreter and the
diplomat Nikolai Adyrkhayev's memoirs, released on Stalin's 118th birth
anniversary (December 21, 1879), reveal that later in the year Stalin
scolded a delegation of the Japanese Communist Party: ?In India they
have wrecked the party and there is something similar with you.?
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
As it happens some interesting documents have surfaced in the pages
of a journal, Revolutionary Democracy, published by Vijay Singh. The
issue of April 2011 published documents from the papers of Rajani Palme
Dutt in the archives of the Communist Party of Great Britain, which are
deposited in the Labour Archive and Library, Manchester.
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
THE NINE MEMBERS of the first Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) after the 1964 split in the Communist movement:
(standing, from left) P. Ramamurthi, Basavapunniah, E.M.S. Namboodiripad
and Harkishan Singh Surjeet; (sitting, from left) Promode Dasgupta,
Jyoti Basu, Sundarayya, B.T. Ranadive and A.K. Gopalan.
One was a letter dated November 1, 1962, from B.N. Datar, Minister of
State for Home, to P.K. Sawant, Home Minister, Maharashtra. It read :
?I am enclosing herewith in original a list handed over personally by
Shri S.A. Dange, to Home Minister recently giving the names and
addresses of CPI persons in Bombay and other individuals who in the
opinion of Shri S.A. Dange are pro-Chinese. I would request your
immediate comments and action in the matter under advice to me.? The
other letter contains charges too scandalous to be reproduced, still
less vouched for.
Authentic material on Moscow talks
Three other issues contain authentic material on the Moscow talks
from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History
translated from the Russian by Vijay Singh. There is a stenographic
record of the discussions between the two delegations on February 4, 6
and 9, 1951 (September 2006; pages 162-200). As one might expect, the
Indians did most of the talking on the first two days, explaining
internal differences and replying to pointed questions by the hosts.
Stalin spoke at great length on February 9 (pages 186-200).
The issue of April 2007 published a record of the discussions with
Malenkov and Suslov on February 21 (pages 126-130). The issue of April
2010 has three letters by the CPI leaders; Stalin underlined parts of
the letters and gave his comments in the margin. All these documents
merit detailed analysis in the light of the CPI's internal debates in
1948-51.
Postscript: Aloke Banerjee of Hindustan Times reported from Kolkata
on November 26, 2005: ?Marxist Patriarch Jyoti Basu had been against a
split in the CPI and had urged all his comrades to keep the party
united. This was in 1963, a year before some CPI leaders left the party
and formed the CPI(M).
?Documents portraying the final days before the CPI split have been
made public with the CPI(M) publishing the fourth volume of Communist
Movement in Bengal: Documents and Related Facts. The book contains a
letter Basu wrote from the Dum Dum Jail on October 9, 1963, titled ?Save
the party from revisionists and dogmatic extremists'. ?We must stay
within the party and continue our ideological struggle against Dange's
revisionism. It will not be right to split the party,' Basu had said in
the letter. ?Yet, the reckless dogmatists seem to be determined to break
up the party.'
?Four decades on, Basu cannot remember having written such a letter.
Informed that his party had published his letter, Basu told HT on
Friday, ?I don't remember having written such a letter. But it's true
that I had tried till the last moments to stop the imminent split. I was
of the opinion that it would be incorrect to break the CPI and form a
new party. But I failed. There were many differences. We could not stay
together any longer.' The CPI(M)'s book also contains the minutes of a
crucial meeting of the party's working committee.? Unfortunately, the
book is in Bengali. An English translation is overdue.
______________________________
A.G. NOORANI
Stalin upbraided CPI leaders for not supporting the Congress on the Quit
India Movement.
OF all the Communist leaders interviewed in the Oral History
Programme of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in New Delhi,
Makineni Basavapunniah was the most outspoken. The armed struggle in
Telangana, which began in 1946, was directed against the Nizam's
government. But ?from September 1948 onwards it was regular armed
invasion. It was not a police action. Either the special armed police or
the Malabar Police or the army, nearly 50,000 were employed for three
full years to suppress the movement. Indian Army was not more than one
and a half lakh or two lakhs in those days. A good part of it was locked
up in Kashmir. Other part had to remain somewhere stationary. Then to
spare as nearly 40,000-50,000 armed forces at one spot was not a small
thing. So they concentrated their best and did their worst. Ten thousand
people were put as detenus for three-four years; nearly a lakh of
people were put in concentration camps for months on end; thousands of
women were raped.? Dr Hari Dev Sharma asked: ?By the military??
Basavapunniah replied: ?Of course, military and the other armed forces,
like Central Reserve Police, Malabar Police, Special Police, like that
so many.?
He added: ?Particularly after September 1948 when the Government of
India intervened, as I said earlier, it intervened with very big armed
forces. The entire modern military technique was used against us.
General J.N. Chaudhuri, who intervened there on behalf of the Government
of India, took hardly half a dozen days to manage the army of the Nizam
and the Razakars, etc. After that the main direction was against the
Communist Party which was leading the struggle.?
He explained why he developed reservations over the Ranadive thesis
adopted by the Second Party Congress at Calcutta in February 1948.
Experience in Telangana flew against the thesis. ?The Andhra document
was submitted in the month of May 1948. The Politburo was keeping its
discussions confined to it till the month of November 1948. So it was
only in the month of November and December 1948 that this reached all
the State units. The whole of the year 1949, there was an inner party
discussion going on. By March 1950 the whole cycle was complete and the
line that was adopted at Calcutta was proved wrong and we were asked to
take the responsibility of the Central Committee leadership. Then came
the question of going and meeting Stalin, and then working out all the
lines.? The Communist Party of India unit in Andhra disagreed with the
leadership. In the earlier articles, we have Basavapunniah's account of
the Moscow meeting, which was arranged to avert a split.
Like his colleagues, P. Sundarayya also dilated on the alliance with
the Congress Socialist Party in the 1930s and how the Kerala, Andhra and
Madras units of the CSP went over to the CPI. Conflict was inherent in
the alliance. ?Right from the beginning, from 1934 itself, this conflict
had been there. Because in the earlier period, some of our writings
[aid] that Congress Socialism was contradictory in words and would pave
way to fascism. Such kind of articles were written. The [Congress]
Socialist Party leadership also attacked [saying] that the communists
were responsible for fascism coming in Germany by not having a united
front. They had their own ideology; Gandhian ideology also influenced [
sic] that the communists were anti-national. They also used to say all
these things?. Similarly, Sajjad Zaheer, Dr K.M. Ashraf, Dr Z.A. Ahmed,
[Soli] Batliwala were all big Congress leaders; they were all leftists
and were in the Congress Socialist Party. They were all pro
[communists]; some of them were party members also.? So, this struggle
went on till they found that they could not function in a united way.
Then they decided to remove us and we also found that it was difficult
to convince a good chunk of them. We had to function more and more
independently than through the Congress Socialist party. That phase came
towards the end of 1938.?
Dange's role
Sadly, S.A. Dange's recorded Interview ends abruptly before the
crises of the 1940s. He was a fascinating character, a brilliant
pamphleteer, orator and a supple tactician. He was known to be close to
the mill owner Sir David Sassoon. On March 7, 1964, Current, a Bombay
[now Mumbai] tabloid, edited by D.F. Karaka, published a letter from
Dange to the Governor-General of India dated July 28, 1924, from Sitapur
jail in the United Provinces (U.P.) where he was serving a four-year
sentence in the Kanpur Conspiracy Case.
It said: ?Exactly one year back, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of
Bombay, Mr Stewart, was having a conversation with me, in his office
regarding my relations with M.N. Roy and an anticipated visit to me of
certain persons from abroad. During the course of the conversation the
Honourable officer let drop a hint in the following words, the full
import of which I failed to catch at that moment. Mr Stewart said, ?You
hold an exceptionally influential position in certain circles here and
abroad. Government would be glad if this position would be of some use
to them.' I think I still hold that position. Rather it has been
enhanced by the prosecution. If Your Excellency is pleased to think that
I should use that position for the good of Your Excellency's government
and the country, I should be glad to do so, if I am given the
opportunity by Your Excellency granting my prayer for release.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
S.A. DANGE. HE was a member of the Communist delegation that met Stalin
in Moscow. Here, he is giving a talk on "My visit to Russia" in the
weekly BBC Marathi magazine programme "Radio Jhankar". The others in the
delegation were Ajoy Ghosh, M. Basavapunniah and C. Rajeswara Rao.
?I am given the punishment of four years' rigorous imprisonment in
order that those years may bring a salutary change in my attitude
towards the King Emperor's sovereignty in India. I beg to inform Your
Excellency that those years are unnecessary, as I have never been
positively disloyal towards His Majesty in my writings or speeches nor
do I intend to be so in future.
?Hoping this respectful undertaking will satisfy and move Your Excellency to grant my prayer and awaiting anxiously a reply.
I beg to remain,
Your Excellency's Most
Obedient Servant,
Shripat Amrit Dange.
Written this day 28th July, 1924
Endorsement No. 1048, dated 31-7-1924.
Forwarded in original to I.G. [Inspector General] of prisons U.P. for disposal.
Sd/- W.P. Cook
Col. I.M.S.
Superintendent of Jail.
Seal of I.G. Prisons
13070 Dated 1-8-1924.?
On March 16, Basavapunniah and P. Ramamurthi went to the National
Archives in New Delhi and again on March 17 and 19. What they found was
set out in a pamphlet published by the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) after the split later in the year. It was entitled Dange
Unmasked (for a detailed analysis of the texts of the documents,
including comments by the formidable Lt Col Cecil Kaye, Director of the
Intelligence Bureau, perhaps its most able ? ?he is personally, a mere
worm? ? vide the writer's article ?Dange Letters?; Survey (London)
Spring 1979; pages 160-174).
Years later I sought an interview with Dange. What he said of the
famous meeting with Stalin rang true. Stalin upbraided the CPI leaders
for not supporting the Congress on the Quit India Movement when they
mentioned that their stand had cost them dear. ?Why didn't you support
it? Do you think we won the war because of the 100 rifles you sent us??
Stalin was informality itself. Dange sat on the armrest of his chair
when Stalin pored over the map of India he had sent for. ?Is this your
Yenan?? he asked with unconcealed contempt. It lay at the very heart of
India. What followed the meetings is well recorded but not completely in
a single volume.
Significantly, later Soviet writers also criticised the CPI's 1942
decision. Dr Alexander I. Chicherov, Head of the International Relations
Research Department and Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of
Sciences USSR in Moscow, was an erudite scholar. He found in the
archives a letter from Bal Gangadhar Tilak to the Russian Consulate in
Bombay in 1905 outlining his plans for intensifying the freedom
struggle. He admired Tilak.
On a visit to Bombay, Chicherov told Indian Express that the CPI's
decision to keep out of the Quit India Movement was ?tragic? (October
15, 1982).
One question arises. One of the interviewers said that they had no
direct contact with Moscow, only with the Communist Party of Great
Britain, that is, with Rajani Palme Dutt and Harry Pollit. Was it Palme
Dutt, then, who instructed the switch in 1942?
Basavapunniah's interview mentions the disagreement between the
Andhra thesis and the thesis of the Central leadership. The party was on
the verge of a split. It was averted by Stalin. Like Dange, Mohit Sen
supported the Emergency. Both left the CPI, But Mohit Sen's memoir is of
absorbing interest. Sadly, it did not receive the review it deserved ( A
Traveller and the Road: The Journey of an Indian Communist; Rupa &
Co.; 2003). The two remained close.
Mohit Sen's account
Mohit Sen wrote: ?I was to have the privilege of carrying the ?China
path' document to China. The CPI leadership hoped and expected that the
leadership of the CPC would endorse this understanding and back it....
?At that time, I did not know that this line had been challenged by
an important section of the CPI leadership headed by Ajoy Ghosh, S.A.
Dange and S.V. Ghate. They had produced a joint document which had gone
down in the history of the party as the ?Three Ps' document?.
?This document shared the viewpoint that India had not won
independence and that the Nehru government upheld the interests of
British imperialism, landlords and those sections of the bourgeoisie
that collaborated with imperialism. The document also held the view that
armed revolution was the only path of advance. It differed from both
the Ranadive line and the China path line [ the Andhra thesis] on its
insistence that Indian conditions differed in the 1950s from both Russia
and China. The strategy of the CPI should, therefore, be that of the
Indian path. The armed revolution in our country would be a combination
of peasant guerrilla actions in the countryside with working class
insurrections in the urban areas. This was an updated version of what
S.A. Dange had advocated decades ago in Gandhi vs. Lenin published in
1920, which had caught the attention of Lenin himself.
RAJEEV BHATT
MOHIT SEN. HE wrote: "I was to have the privilege of carrying the `China
path' document to China."
?The other point of difference of ?the three Ps' document was its
realistic appraisal of the actual situation of the CPI. It was on the
verge of annihilation. Its mass organisations were shattered and the
party itself almost totally disintegrated. The first task was to save
the party itself and to reforge its ties with the masses, taking into
account the existing civil liberties.
?The proponents of the ?Chinese path' led by Comrade C. Rajeswara Rao
and those of the ?Indian path' led by Comrade Ajoy Ghosh had set up
their own centres and the CPI was on the verge of a split. It was then
that the Soviet Communists intervened.
?Four leaders, two from each centre, were brought to Moscow. They
travelled, incognito as manual workers on a Soviet ship from Calcutta.
They were Comrades Ajoy Ghosh, S.A. Dange, C. Rajeswara Rao and M.
Basavapunniah. None of them divulged any details of how they were
contacted and what their exact itinerary was. Nikhil Chakravartty, who
attended to all the technical details of planning the journey, has also
not said anything.
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A GROUP OF Telangana fighters. "[Stalin] strongly advised that the armed
struggle being conducted in various areas, especially the Telangana
region of Andhra Pradesh, should be ended."
?S.A. Dange and C. Rajeswara Rao have both told me about the meeting
with the leaders of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union]. The
first meeting was attended from the Soviet side by Comrades [Mikhail
Andreyevich] Suslov, [Georgy] Malenkov and [Vyacheslav Mikhailovich]
Molotov. It was on the third day that it was announced that Comrade
Stalin would attend. So he did for the subsequent days. Dange and
Rajeswara Rao said that he was an attentive listener though he rarely
sat at the table but kept pacing up and down smoking a pipe. But he
intervened subtly to turn the discussion beyond dogmatic disputes to
assessments of the existing situation and immediate tactical tasks.
Stalin's view on Nehru government
?Stalin's view also was that India was not an independent country but
ruled indirectly by British colonialists. He also agreed that the
Communists could eventually advance only by heading an armed revolution.
But it would not be of the Chinese type. His view on this point
coincided with that of ?the three Ps'. He also agreed with their
appraisal of the concrete situation in which the party was placed. He
strongly advised that the armed struggle being conducted in various
areas, especially the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, should be
ended. He said that it was Comrade Rajeswara Rao who should travel to
the different camps and see that the arms were surrendered. This would
be difficult but it was he alone who could do it. That, in fact, was
done and Rajeswara Rao later told me that this was the most difficult
task he had ever performed for the party.
?Stalin also cautioned the CPI leaders that the Nehru government was
not a puppet government. It had a social base and mass support and could
not be overthrown easily. He asked the leaders to unite, work together,
save the party and take it forward. He strongly advised them to make
the CPI participate in the general elections? (pages 80-81).
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
P. SUNDARAYYA AND (below) Basavapunniah in the 1950s.
The record has him say: ?I cannot consider the government of Nehru as
a puppet. All his roots are in the people.? He was polite to the
visitors, but they did not win his respect. His interpreter and the
diplomat Nikolai Adyrkhayev's memoirs, released on Stalin's 118th birth
anniversary (December 21, 1879), reveal that later in the year Stalin
scolded a delegation of the Japanese Communist Party: ?In India they
have wrecked the party and there is something similar with you.?
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
As it happens some interesting documents have surfaced in the pages
of a journal, Revolutionary Democracy, published by Vijay Singh. The
issue of April 2011 published documents from the papers of Rajani Palme
Dutt in the archives of the Communist Party of Great Britain, which are
deposited in the Labour Archive and Library, Manchester.
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
THE NINE MEMBERS of the first Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) after the 1964 split in the Communist movement:
(standing, from left) P. Ramamurthi, Basavapunniah, E.M.S. Namboodiripad
and Harkishan Singh Surjeet; (sitting, from left) Promode Dasgupta,
Jyoti Basu, Sundarayya, B.T. Ranadive and A.K. Gopalan.
One was a letter dated November 1, 1962, from B.N. Datar, Minister of
State for Home, to P.K. Sawant, Home Minister, Maharashtra. It read :
?I am enclosing herewith in original a list handed over personally by
Shri S.A. Dange, to Home Minister recently giving the names and
addresses of CPI persons in Bombay and other individuals who in the
opinion of Shri S.A. Dange are pro-Chinese. I would request your
immediate comments and action in the matter under advice to me.? The
other letter contains charges too scandalous to be reproduced, still
less vouched for.
Authentic material on Moscow talks
Three other issues contain authentic material on the Moscow talks
from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History
translated from the Russian by Vijay Singh. There is a stenographic
record of the discussions between the two delegations on February 4, 6
and 9, 1951 (September 2006; pages 162-200). As one might expect, the
Indians did most of the talking on the first two days, explaining
internal differences and replying to pointed questions by the hosts.
Stalin spoke at great length on February 9 (pages 186-200).
The issue of April 2007 published a record of the discussions with
Malenkov and Suslov on February 21 (pages 126-130). The issue of April
2010 has three letters by the CPI leaders; Stalin underlined parts of
the letters and gave his comments in the margin. All these documents
merit detailed analysis in the light of the CPI's internal debates in
1948-51.
Postscript: Aloke Banerjee of Hindustan Times reported from Kolkata
on November 26, 2005: ?Marxist Patriarch Jyoti Basu had been against a
split in the CPI and had urged all his comrades to keep the party
united. This was in 1963, a year before some CPI leaders left the party
and formed the CPI(M).
?Documents portraying the final days before the CPI split have been
made public with the CPI(M) publishing the fourth volume of Communist
Movement in Bengal: Documents and Related Facts. The book contains a
letter Basu wrote from the Dum Dum Jail on October 9, 1963, titled ?Save
the party from revisionists and dogmatic extremists'. ?We must stay
within the party and continue our ideological struggle against Dange's
revisionism. It will not be right to split the party,' Basu had said in
the letter. ?Yet, the reckless dogmatists seem to be determined to break
up the party.'
?Four decades on, Basu cannot remember having written such a letter.
Informed that his party had published his letter, Basu told HT on
Friday, ?I don't remember having written such a letter. But it's true
that I had tried till the last moments to stop the imminent split. I was
of the opinion that it would be incorrect to break the CPI and form a
new party. But I failed. There were many differences. We could not stay
together any longer.' The CPI(M)'s book also contains the minutes of a
crucial meeting of the party's working committee.? Unfortunately, the
book is in Bengali. An English translation is overdue.
______________________________
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