Stay religious, stay cool!

I write this as Mumbai pays last respects to Bal Thackeray, one of the last few Indian politicians who was also an ideologue. A respect well earned, for he stood for something. People these days don't stand for anything. Being apolitical, secular or somewhat mono-religious, nearly monolingual and salari-olic, with hardly any cultural indulgence is the default lifestyle. Boring people!

I traveled in Gujarat recently, visiting the Indus-Saraswathi city of Dholavira and the Solanki dynasty's Sun temple in Modhera, besides Hathi Singhji Jain temple in Ahmedabad. It was heartening to observe the vibrant religious life of Swaminarayan followers. I hope to visit Dwarka (esp for its Sankara math) and Somnath someday.

But back in Bangalore, we went thru the motions of the most boring and meaningless festival in the modern Indian calendar, "Diwali" and watched on TV, some utterly unphilosophical and uneducated controversies about Ramayana and abortion. How bland have we become?

I wonder how many among the millions who celebrated Deepavali, spared a thought for the mysterious antiquity of this festival of Light, instead of spouting some mythical garbage added to the festival's history. I prefer celebrating light during Karthigai Deepam, on a full-moon night instead of the new/no-moon, focused on light and unsullied by noise and non-sense.

Back in the days when people were fighting for freedom, people drew inspiration from religious philosophy. Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Radhakrishnan, Besant, Dayanand Saraswathi, Rajaji were philosophers who used religion to lead people. For Tagore, Bharathi, Periyar, Nehru and Gandhi, social and cultural reforms were inseparable from Politics.

Unfortunately this tradition seems to be lost. While Arun Shourie and Markanday Katju are capable, its very hard to find someone analysing national issues with tools available in religious philosophy or our cultural history. If Aakar Patel wasn't there, some of us in the cities will be living in a cultural desert.

With the passing away of Bal Thackeray, Karunanidhi remains the last politician of the cultural kind. Both Akali's Badal and the Sindh-born Advani could have provided such cultural leadership, but perhaps lacking the intellectual capacity, they merely used religion for power grab.

Ofcourse, Karunanidhi's family has ruined the DMK and I wouldn't recommend anyone to vote for his party. But he deserves kudos for laying a Dravidian claim over the Indus valley civilization! When I attended the Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore, I wasn't impressed by Indus valley seals used in the official conference hoardings. But having read the latest academic literature, I now believe, Karunanidhi's boldness wasn't misplaced.

Here we have to especially thank Iravatham Mahadevan, who's mastery of epigraphy and deep insights into the Indian religious traditions, as chronicled by classical Tamil and Sanskrit literature, is helping to solve the Indus-Saraswathi and Tamil-Brahmi mysteries. Mahadevan's recent work draws heavily from Kosambi's massive contributions a few decades earlier.

Its facinating to follow our cultural history over 4000 years, juxtaposing folk tales and the totems of our tribes with the recorded history in the Vedas and the Sangam anthologies, creating a picture of the Indus-Saraswathi lifestyle and corroborating that with meticulous work in epigraphy and archeology.

We are forever in debt to Mahadevan, Asko Parpolo and Michael Danino. Their efforts are leading to a thrilling conclusion that we still live the Indus-Saraswathi civilization! I highly recommend following the works of the above scholars, but here's a gist.

SPOILER START.

Indus-Saraswathi civilization could have been a dravidian civilization. And their religion very similar to Sumerian and other middle eastern relgions, involving god-kings, water nymphs and ceremonial sex. Aryans and later Tamils seem to have followed the lives of these Indus-Dravidians in the vedas and sangam poetry. For example, the Velirs of the Tamil country (think Agathiar, Adhiyamans and Cheras) seem to be descendents of the Indus people. The Vedas offer a very vivid picture of Indus cities lying in ruins and their inhabitants scattered across the countryside. But the Vedic Aryans seemed to have entirely absorbed the Indus religion from Apsaras to the measurements of the yagna kundas. More on this in a later post. But you may want to visit the Madurai Meenakshi (fish-rule) temple, the porthamirai kulam (bath) in the ancient kadambavanam forest area and also notice the god-king Sundareswarar!!

SPOILER END.

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I consider myself to be a religion enthusiast, however I don't follow any religion 'religiously'. While Advaita Vedanta is my native religion, I consider myself to be a Jain and Epicurean too. My interest in the early Vedic and the ancient tamil religions (murugan, kottravai) is now revived. I find mono-lingual and mono-religious people to be sad losers.

It pains me to see other people's poor tastes in religion. In Gujarat, despite the abundant choices in better religions, we saw few dumb-fucks in Godhra killing the Rama crazies returning from Ayodhya, followed by a AD 21st Century pogram. Hello?! And that state's utterly uneducated, mass-murderer is now a favorite to be this country's leader!

Becoming secular is more natural, yes. But if only uneducated morons follow religion, and use some pathetic religions for their political ends, its gonna hurt us all. We need to hold on to the philosophies in our religions and culture. And despite what western atheists might say, world will be a better place if it derives its morals from (good) religions. Stay religious, stay cool!

Kaarthigai Deepam - A festival of Lights

Today is Kaarthigai Deepam. A festival of lights celebrated in Tamilnadu. We light small earthen lamps and decorate the house-front. While munching on the pori-urundai (jaggery mixed popped rice balls), its pertinent to see the history of this lovely festival.

Kaarthigai is the name of a Tamil month and the Deepam festival occurs on the first or second full-moon day after Deepavali, which is a no-moon day. Deepavali (Diwali) is the more prominent festival of lights in North India. Its also the festival of noise (?! kidding) in South India. But its almost certain that Kaarthigai Deepam and Deepavali are the same festival.

Tamils follow a solar calendar. Its a month behind the other calendars of India. For example, Ugadhi, the Telugu and Kannada new year's day occurs in mid-March while the Tamil new year's day is mid-April. Infact, the Tamil Calendar is also behind the naming convention used in the other solar calendars like the Punjabi one.

Consequent of this, the Tamil Chithirai or Vaikasi is one month behind Chithra or Baishaki in other calendars. Now, I don't know how all these calendars still converge on the day of winter Solstice which is January 14 or 15 in all the states!!

Anyway, its likely becos of these calendar confusions, Tamils celebrate Kaarthigai Deepam a month behind Deepavali.

People all over the world celebrate the Sun and its winter Solstice. Thats the shortest day of the year and also the day on which Sun starts its northern journey. A similar festival for Light (artificial) or its source Fire is perfectly understandable. The Jews celebrate Light on Hanukkah roughly around the same time as we do. I'm certain the fire worshiping Zoroastrians also have their Deepavali equivalent, they being the symbiotic cousins of the Vedic-Aryans.

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How nice it'll be if Indians celebrated this festival for what it is. A festival of Lights. Alas, our small minds don't seem to comprehend the magnificent simplicity of this festival. We need clichéd reasons to celebrate Light.

The most clichéd of these reasons is the one about the victory of Good over Evil. Isn't Good always subjective? George Bush was obviously fighting for the Good side against the Evil Saddam Hussein. But how many on the planet subscribe to this view or celebrate it? Which brings us to the question of Rama, on whose name many north-Indians celebrate this festival.

Really? Is the victory of the racist, male-chauvinist, real-or-imaginary king Rama, any cause for celebration? And how silly is that a reason to celebrate the festival of lights? Even the other protagonists in the story (Sita, Jabali, Vali) called Rama, a dishonorable man. And to his face. I'll take George Bush any day over Rama.

Now, to the south Indian story for Deepavali. That Krishna helped by Sathyabhama killed Naragasuran and hence the good-over-evil motive for the festival of lights. While, the teachings of the Philosopher-King Krishna are close to the pinnacle of Indian achievement in Philosophy, why believe in such a silly story as Naragasuran being evil? He may well have been bad or it could be a typical Aryan story vilifying non-Aryans. But why bother?

These stories besmirch the antiquity of this festival which must be several thousand years old. I myself remember Mahavira's Nirwana on Deepavali, but he merely happened to die on this festival day.

I hope, we all mature as a civilization and appreciate the abundant wonders of the universe, most of which we comprehend as light from distant objects. Lets celebrate Light. Its Beautiful. Happy Kaarthigai Deepam!

10 Reasons why Kashmir must be given the Right to Self-determination

1. Kashmir was already Independent in 1947.

Pakistan and India invaded it. India could have helped to protect Kashmiri Sovereignty from invading Pakistanis. Instead India blackmailed the Dogra King to join the Indian Union.

2. India promised a Plebiscite and then reneged on its promise.

There really is no excuse for this. Pakistan is more than willing to withdraw its forces from POK, if India did so from IHK. There is even a UN mission (UNMOGIP) established specifically to monitor troop positions in Kashmir.

3. The Betrayal of 1953.

India betrayed Kashmir in 1953 by going back on many of the terms of the 1948 accession. Karan Singh (son of Maharajah Hari Singh, an Indian puppet and even today a Congress leader) dismissed Sheikh Abdullah, the Prime Minister of Kashmir, without allowing him the opportunity to prove his majority in the assembly. The Sheikh will spend the next 11 years in Jail (till 1964), 3 years (1965-1968) under house arrest and another 18 months (1970-71) exiled in South India (Kodaikanal).

4. India makes cunning deals with two Kashmiri families; never with the people.

India's involvement with Kashmir is mostly through deals with two families, Maharajah Hari Singh family or the Abdullah family. Never with the people of Kashmir. There is no reason to believe Kashmiris supported Hari Singh's decision to accede to India or Sheikh Abdullah's decision (in 1974 after 15 years spent in jails) to drop the Plebiscite demand.

5. India continuously rigged elections in Kashmir until 2002.

Or didn't conduct elections at all. When separatists contested elections, India rigged the polls to defeat them. India also claims that separatists who contest elections under the Indian constitution are accepting Kashmir's accession to India! Worse, India even claims that people merely voting in the elections, is evidence of their accession to India. Most Kashmiris reject this assertion.

6. Kashmiri Pandits are ... well, Kashmiris.

Pandits are a very small minority community who don't necessarily support the Kashmiri freedom struggle. They were harmed by predominantly non-Kashmiri militants from Pakistan. Some Kashmiri's did try to save Pandits from the militants. Nevertheless, the Kashmiri civil society will have to do more to accommodate the interests of Pandits. And these Pandits can very well vote (from refugee camps in Jammu or Delhi) to keep Kashmir within the Indian Union, if they want to.

7. Human Rights violations.

Almost every government or human rights organization in the world has called out India for gross human rights violations in Kashmir. Even Indian media report staged killings, fake encounters, disappearances and custodial murders by the Army, CRPF and the erstwhile STF of the J&K police. While some misdemeanor by Armed forces is expected in any conflict, India has provisions like AFSPA which give the Armed forces unlimited powers (and near complete judicial immunity) to harass the civilians. 7 Indian states are currently under such Military rule.

8. India doesn't trust Kashmiri Police.

Why isn't India allowing Kashmiris to police themselves? Militancy that raged since 1989 mostly stopped in 2002. Why are so many outsiders (Army/CRPF) still there? One possible explanation is that India doesn't trust Kashmiris to make a strong police force out of them. And India offers to train the Afghan Army!

9. There are precedents - East Timor, Eastern Europe

Independence movements are not old history book stuff. There are contemporary examples of Republics letting some of their citizens to form separate states. Indonesian occupation of East Timor is remarkably similar to that of Kashmir.

10. Indian Republic is not a Kashmiri concern.

The argument that Indian Republic will fall apart or get balkanized if we let Kashmir go, doesn't wash. India's failures to protect the liberty of people in the North-East is not really a Kashmiri concern. Its India which has to sort out the mess. I support referendums to resolve such issues as Nagalim or Telangana too.

****

And finally, a part of me wishes that Kashmiris will vote to stay in the Indian Union instead of choosing Independence (most likely) or merger with Pakistan. But its Kashmiris who have to decide for themselves.

A place where the will of the people isn't reflected in the Union or its Government is neither a Republic nor a Democracy.

ps 1: I have deliberately used the word Kashmir instead of Jammu and Kashmir. In general, Kashmir refers to the Kashmiri speaking regions, Kashmir Valley, the surrounding mountains and POK.

ps 2: The people in the plains of Jammu, plains of POK, rugged hills of Gilgit-Baltistan (extending to Siachin and Kargil) and the Ladakh plateau will also have to vote in the referendum for Kashmiri Independence. Hence all these regions will first have to vote in a referendum to formally dismantle the J&K state. Only if they want to, ofcourse.

Exaggerated Minorities in Linguistic Histories

... and possible conclusions in The Aryan-Dravidian Debate.

Introduction:

This post is in response to the review of Michel Danino's book 'The Lost River' by Jayakrishnan over there at The Varnam blog.

I read Michel Danino's book The Lost River earlier this year, ironically while traveling in Rajasthan, the deserts of which hide their share of the mysteries of Saraswathi. I have also read some works of Romila Thapar, DD Kosambi and Asko Parpola.

Problem Statement:

Lets phrase two of the important Questions in this field:

1. Was Harappan civilization (which now includes both the Indus and the Saraswathi valleys), an Aryan civilization? And that too, the Vedic-Sanskrit Civilization?

2. Is the Indus script likely to have been used to write an Aryan or a Dravidian language?

Literature Study:

Michel Danino makes a very convincing case that Saraswathi is indeed the mighty river praised in the Vedic Aryan literature and also the life giver of the Indus-Saraswathi civilization.

Romila Thapar has for long suggested that the origin of Sanskrit is more likely to be Bactria (central Asia) than northern or even north-western India. DD Kosambi had written extensively about the words and cultural habits of the natives that were inherited by the Aryan speakers. And Asko Parpola's research is on the lines of seeking a Tamil (and hence a decidedly non-Aryan) connection to the Indus script.

Ofcourse, the positions of the eminent historians above are more nuanced than the crude way in which I have put them.

What I'm saying:

I think if we don't leave detailed evidence, future historians, some 2000 years from now, will be fighting whether Arabs, Persians and Britishers were the original inhabitants of India. It may sound ridiculous but our current controversies could be as bizarre as such a proposition.

Example 1:

Minorities especially religious minorities have a tendency to contribute extensively to literature. For instance Tamil literature has a disproportionate amount of contributions from Jains, Buddhists, Brahmins and Ajivikas. Take some of the most famous works in early Tamil literature: Thirukkural (Jain), parts of Tholkappiam attributed to Tholkappiar (Brahmin), Silappathikaram (Jain), Manimekalai (Buddhist), 'Yadhum Oore ...' of Purananuru (Ajivika), Kamba Ramayanam (Brahmin).

Similarly Brahmin contribution to the medieval (some famous songs of Thevaram and Nalayira Divya Prabhantham) or even modern literature (Panchali Sapatham and songs by Bharatiyar), is disproportionate to the size of the Brahmin population in Tamilnadu. If you take the English works both in literature and the popular print that has orginated from Tamilnadu, Brahmin contribution is again disproportionately high.

We should also remember that, at certains points in history, south-Indian Brahmins (who's native tongues were now non-Aryan) also produced a disproportionately large amount of Sanskrit religious literature. Here, disproportionate with respect to the large Aryan speakers in the north of the country.

Example 2:

In the case of past thousand years of north India, the cultural contribution of Muslims especially in architecture is so humongous that any future historian will definitely mistake north-India as the world's largest Islamic settlement. And that too speaking Persian or even Arabic. Wait, let me rephrase it. India is certainly one of the largest Islamic settlements. But future historians may conclude that Islam was the religion of the majority of the people and Persian their language, both of which were never true.

Example 3:

Now, a more contemporary example. If its not already the case, majority of the words written in India in the near future are likely to be in English. But curiously, the words that may survive as archaeological evidence, like in Temple inscriptions may still have disproportionately more native (non-english) words. I mean disproportionate to popular print. Not to mention the fact that English could become the most understood language in India (overtaking Hindi).

Actually, in the above examples, when we mean literature and art forms produced in disproportionate quantity, its an assessment by what survives. Because, religious and linguistic minorities save their literature for future generations, much more than the majority communities who take things for granted.

Conclusions:

Now, applying the above heuristics to the Indus-Saraswathi debate:

1. its very much possible that Sanskrit is indeed of foreign origin and its spread in India and its influence on the native tongues, a quirk of civilizational time.

2. and its also possible that the Vedic Aryans were a minority community in the Harappan civilization. As found in Tamilnadu and elsewhere, these Vedic Aryans could have lived in secluded enclaves (Agraharams) and produced literature in a non-native, elite language (Sanskrit) and in a disproportionate quantity.

3. so we shouldn't be surprised if Indus script was used to write a non-Aryan language. Infact, considering the large corpus of Vedic Sanskrit and Tamil literature available, and our inability to decipher the Indus Script so far, we can even suggest a completely non-Aryan, non-Dravidian language. After-all, how much of the eastern Munda languages have survived in written form?

Postscript:

ps 1: If while reading the above post, you were thinking Aryan-Dravidian as a race debate, you are in the stone age of research in this field. Aryan-Dravidian debate is a linguistic one.

ps 2: The very interesting Nadistuti Sukta from the Rig Veda, mentioned by Michel Danino in his book.

ps 3: You may want to read this related (but rather pompously named) post by me. A History of Aryans.

Nadistuti Sukta

I'm reading Michel Danino's The Lost River, On the trail of Sarasvati. He mentions the following two verses (#5 and #6) in the Nadistuti Sukta of Rg Veda. (Griffith 10.75.5-6)

O Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri (Sutlej), Parushni

(Ravi), hear my praise! Hear my call, O Asikni (Chenab)

Marudvridha (Maruvardhvan), Vitasta (Jhelum) with

Arjikya and Sushoma.

First you flow united with Trishtama, with Susartu and

Rasa, and with Svetya, O Sindhu (Indus) with Kubha

(Kabul) to Gomati (Gumal or Gomal), with Mehatnu to

Krumu (Kurram), with whom you proceed together.

Thats 19 rivers! Two more rivers Silamavati and Urnavati are mentioned in verse 9.

As Michel Danino's explains thats a birds-eye view sweeping (east to west) across more than a thousand kilometers! This sukta seems to be an amazing source of information on Vedic geography.

more on the wikipedia page.

The State of the Wannabe states!

In response to popular demand (one person asked), I'm elucidating my stand on the 4 wannabe states viz Kashmir, Tibet, Palestine and Eelam. In supporting a movement, three things are important to me.

1. Demonstrable injustice in the status quo.
2. Presence of an inclusive democratic political leadership, which can control the armed wing if one exists.
3. The economic/democratic viability of the wannabe nation state.

Kashmir: Independence. (3/3)

Injustice: This is straight forward. India and Pakistan invaded an independent nation in 1948. Neither the King nor the people of Kashmir wanted to be part of either states. India signed a dubious accession agreement with a King who demostrably had no support among his subjects. Even that agreement was conditional on a plebiscite. India never came good on that commitment.

Leadership: Hurriyat has consistently lead the people with a visible control over its armed element Hizbul Mujhahideen. Even the mainstream parties, National Conference and PDP have demanded a very high degree of autonomy. In Mirwaiz Farooq, Yaseen Malik, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, the new nation will be in very capable hands.

Viability: Democracy in this new state is likely to be exceptional. Tourism, trans-asia trade, agriculture and hydro-electric power can sustain this economy.

Tibet: Independence. (2.5/3)

Injustice: A barbaric movement called 'Communism' invaded this independent nation and subjected its people to the control of an external race, the Hans. Considering the Chinese state will (and has tried to) destroy every symbol of Tibetan nationhood namely religion, language and its unique culture, the question of rapprochement with China does not arise.

Leadership: Although Dalai Lama is an apostle of peace and non-violence and the Tibetan movement presently has no armed resistance, the leadership is a bit weak. The Tibetan prime minister in exile is just a lackey of the Dalai Lama. Besides Dalai Lama represents a feudal system where monks lorded over unfortunate but willing commoners. Dalai Lama should relinquish the political role he still plays.

Viability: When independent, Tibet will be one of the largest countries of the world with an abundance of natural resources. The new state is very likely to be a Democracy and probably one of the most peaceful states on earth.

Palestine: One state solution, meaning no Palestinian state. (1/3)

Injustice: The Zionist movement flooded this land of the Arabs and made them second class citizens in their own land. While Jews have always lived in Palestine and some level of Jewish immigration would have been acceptable, what Arabs got was a raw deal. Why should Arabs pay for the crimes of the socialists and communists in Europe?

Leadership: Palestinian movement has been plagued by poor leadership throughout its existence. Even the few reasonable leaders it got like Yasser Arafat were terrorists. Besides Palestinians were stupid enough to be cheated by their Arab neighbors and rejected every reasonable solution put forth by the Jews. Presently there is no credible Palestinian leadership.

Viability: An independent Palestine will start and forever remain a third-world state of squalor and poverty. Joining a unified secular state will instantly make them first-world citizens with every opportunity at their disposal. After-all some 1.5 million Arabs already live peacefully inside Israel. Besides any solution short of the unified state will deny both Arabs and Jews, legitimate and complete access to the land of their forefathers.

Eelam: Total Annihilation of LTTE (0/3)

Injustice: None. Even at the height of Sinhalese majoritarianism from the 1950s thru 83, an independent Eelam state was an unjustifiable demand. The Srilankan Tamil struggle should have been on the lines of the US Civil rights movement and the South African anti-apartheid struggle.

Whatever legitimate demands the Tamils had, were satisfactorily met in the 13th amendment of the Srilankan constitution. Additional demands (if any) can easily be made and suitable justice sought in a vibrant democracy like Srilanka.

Leadership: When Tamils needed a Martin Luther King Jr or a Nelson Mandela, they got a scoundrel in Prabhakaran. I wonder if there has ever been a tyrant in the history of the world, who sought a socialist authoritarian regime with zero democracy, even before his wannabe state was born! The rest of the Tamil leaders have had very little credibility or have been eliminated by the Tamils themselves.

Viability: Imagine a country full of racists!! These people who refuse to live peacefully with their Sinhalese co-nationalists, are not capable of forming and governing their own nation state. Agriculture, Fishing and smuggling can sustain this economy but such a nation, born out of hatred, will forever remain a pariah state.

Le Lignes Rouge!

Update: Since this post was written Northern Areas have been renamed Gilgit-Baltistan and NWFP is gonna be renamed Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.

I recently watched a heist movie called "Le Cercle Rouge". Jean-Pierre Melville made up a story where Buddha drew a circle with red chalk and said "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle."

Funny enough, there exists a circle in the ancient Utharapada region of the Vedas where the future of the world may well be decided. And this circle is characterized by two lines standing by the names of Messrs, Durand and Radcliffe. The Lines that should never have been drawn, let alone legitimized as national borders.

Pashtuns have never recognized the Durand Line, the purported Afghan-Pakistan border. Someday Hindus will also have to reject the Radcliffe line, the supposed India-Pakistan border. By Hindus I mean the Hindustani speaking people of Pakistan and India. Indus river should be the only legitimate border in this region.


Pakistani map presently reads like this. Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and NWFP make up the four provinces. FATA, 'Azad' Kashmir, Northern Areas and NCT Islamabad make up the rest. This should instead read, Punjab, Sindh, Gandhara and Kashmir states of India, Pakhtunkhwa province of Afghanistan and the independent nations of Baluchistan and Balawaristan.

Pakhtunkhwa:

Pakhtunkhwa is the name suggested for the North West Frontier province. Pakhtun is ofcourse Pashtun. The areas west of the Indus in NWFP, FATA and the Pashtun speaking regions of South-eastern Afghanistan should form the future Pakhtunkhwa province of Afghanistan. This region on either side of the Durrand line is the theater of US/NATO operations.

Gandhara:

The Hindko speaking parts of NWFP, east of the Indus, should form the future Gandhara state of India. Ancient Gandhara extended well into Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir but the Hazara region should suffice now. Abbottabad should be the capital of this state. Taxilla in Western Punjab should also be included in this state.

Baluchistan:

India may already be helping Baluchistan gain independence from Pakistan. Iran and India should join hands in the creation of this independent state. The state suffered a serious setback with the killing of Nawab Bugti by General Musharraf. Its time to revive nationalism there.

Balawaristan:

The Northern Areas region comprising Gilgit and Baltistan is the forgotten child of the Kashmir conflict. While Pakistan turned POK into 'Azad' Kashmir, Northern Areas are directly under its control. This region north of the Indus, through which the Karakoram Highway passes, should be the Independent Balawaristan nation.

Enough day dreaming for today!

Was Gabriel a mallu?

Recently I had encountered a couple of exchanges where Islam and Sufism were claimed to have influenced Vaishnavism (Vedic Brahmanism in its new avatar) and Advaita respectively. This is my customary abrasive rejoinder.

To begin with there is little doubt that the Philosophies in Islam and Vaishnavism are the same. But that should hardly be a surprise. Almost all the proletyzing religions of the world (Zorastranism, Vaishnavism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam) have the same philosophy. For afterall they all have the same central asian origin and have had extensive exchange of ideas thereafter.

Proletysers like Zakir Naik have preached ad-nauseum, the similarity between Vaishnavism (which he mistakenly calls Hinduism) and Islam. Stuff like Allah-Brahman (one without the second, transcendant God), 99 names - 108,1008 names (attributes), Angels-Devas (lesser deities), Muhammad-Krishna (prophets), People of the Books (Torah, Gospels) - Vedic People (Vedas, Upanishads), Quran-Gita (latest message), Jihad-Arjuna (war as karma) are too hard to miss. Ofcourse this similarity is used to encourage more conversions to Islam.

Infact Naik goes on to claim that the so-called Bhavishya Purana had predicted the birth of Muhammad and that Kalki avatar is none other than Muhammad. Such claims, however interesting, are juvenile and should not be taken seriously. All the Abrhamic religions (which I now think also includes Vaishnavism!!) come from the same lie that there is a monotheist creationist God who will judge us. Borrowing Einsteins infamous words, once we understand the bakwaas at the root, we can work out the details.

But claims that Islam/Sufism influenced Vaishnavism/Advaita are clearly misplaced and mischievous. As discussed above similarities between the practices of the Abrahamic religions are well known and documented. Dara Shikoh, the greatest Mughal Emperor we never had, went so far as to say that the Kitab-al-maknun (the hidden book) mentioned by Prophet Muhammad in the Quran was the Upanishad. It is preposterous to rearrange the pages of history to claim legitimacy for one's religion.

As for Sufism influencing Sankara's Advaita, its sheer non-sense. The confluence of the Transcendant and the Immanant God had been made as early as the Upanishads/Gita. Islam, Sufism and Vaishnavism are all Monotheist, not Monist. Advaita on the otherhand was a monist reading of the Upanishads which themselves were heavily influenced by the Shramanic and mostly atheist schools of the non-Brahmin scholars of Magadha (Ajivikas, Carvakas, Jains, Buddhists). Sufism resembling the Vaishnavaite Bhakti movement of Andal, Meera, Chaitanya etc is common-sense. People like personal access to God.

Muslims should stop being paranoid and begin to investigate Muhammad more honestly. Christians are no longer shy of accepting that Jesus got no divine message from any God but produced his own doctrine from his travels. There is even a movie going to be made claiming that Jesus visited India to learn/teach from scholars there. (Missionaries can rejoice!)

Consider few ideas. Muhammad was a merchant traveler and might have exchanged opinions with traders from Persia, Central Asia and South India. Vaishnavism took formal monothiest and sufi like devotional shape in South India roughly before the time of Muhammad. European Spice trade with the Indian Malabar coast was carried through Egypt and Arabia. Why could not Gabriel, the 'angel' who taught Muhammad be a Mallu from Kerala then?

Eternal struggle of the Tamil Mind

I wrote the following as a 'comment' in a Churumuri discussion on the Classical Language fracas between Tamil and Kannada.

1. What has Tamil achieved by this classical language tag? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We have always had “Long live classical Tamil” kind of boards in TN. Getting the union government to ‘recognize’ this, was just a massaging of the egos and cheap politics.
2. That criterion for classical languages was originally drawn by Prof. George Hart who occupies the Tamil chair at UC Berkeley. He would obviously have his biases. That list should not be taken seriously.
3. As for as I know Kannada today is in a better shape than Tamil. Our versions of Ananthamurthies and Girish Karnads, have no voice whatsoever. The number of Gnanpith awards and Sahaitya Akademi fellowships lay witness to the better shape of Kannada literature.
4. We Tamils have always claimed credit for the collective heritage of all south indian langauges. Even Tamils know that claims like oldest Tamil book discovered being 2500 years old are false! Kannadiga’s should only be amused and not feel insecure about our theatrics!
5. Its funny that Kannadiga’s are being urged to feel insecure for not being insecure already! Tamils espouse their language more out of insecurity than any notions of superiority.
6. People often confuse Tamil’s fight with itself for survival as supremacy! Everyone in TN has heard of the phrase ‘Mella Tamil ini saagum’ (Tamil will slowly die). Kannada may not be having such problems. So just ignore us.

Some examples of this Tamil fight for survival.

a. 300 BC - Brahmi script brought by Jains to south India is adopted by Tamil. It could either mean that Tamils had no script prior to that or the existing script lost space to Brahmi.
b. 300 BC - 700 AD - Mainly Jain/Buddhist/Ajivika literature is available from this period. What happened to the Hindu (rather native-Tamil) literature? Were they lost or simply did not exist?
c. 1200~ - 1800 AD - Grantha script and Sanskrit words overwhelm Tamil. Thats essentially Sankritization. Later, few people including Christian missionaries from Europe helped to rediscover Tamil.
d. 1800~ - 1950 - Sanskrit words again assault Tamil since printing press was in the hands of Brahmins. Another movement was launched among others by Periyar to recover ground. Roughly in the same period Carnatic Music bypasses Tamil because Nayaks were ruling TN and also because Tamil being quite rigid in the kind of sounds it can make, was not suitable for Carnatic Music.
e. 1950 - 1970 - Having just fought Sanskrit, Tamils panicked and fought Hindi tooth and nail.
f. Today we are fighting against English because most Tamils find their own language to be too difficult to communicate effectively. Even I cannot speak few sentences in a row without using English words.

So much for Tamil supremacy! Kannadiga’s should be happy that you guys are not as insecure as we are!

India, the Land of the Impure!

The following was first posted as a comment here.

>> The Arabic conqueror, Muhammad Bin Qasim, established Islam in the Indian subcontinent by defeating King Dahar of Sindh in 711.

Although technically correct, I think this statement needs to be qualified. It should probably read “The Arabic conquerer, Muhammad Bin Qasim, annexed a Hindu kingdom in the Indian subcontinent by defeating King Dahar of Sindh in 711″. From that it can be deduced that Arabs introduced Islam to Pakistan in 711 and not to India!

Historians will know better, but its possible that Islam may have been introduced (as in glimpse) to peninsular India by the Arab traders before 711. Besides Arab conquest of India didn’t succeed. I doubt any Arab invader has ever set foot on Indian (not Pakistani) soil. Islam was not introduced (as in forced) in India atleast 250 years after Qasim’s conquest. As it were, India only got a second hand version of Islam from Turk, Mongol, Persian and Afghani invaders.

One of the pointers to Islamic introduction (as in force) to the subcontinent is the mass suicides of Hindu women (by burning) before their menfolk went to to fight the invading Muslims. Such suicides happened in Pakistan around 700s, in north India around 1000 and in the deccan around 1400s.

Its true that Pakistanis take pride in identifying themselves with invaders who killed, looted and raped their ancestors! Its indeed ironic that ‘India’ is the name of modern ‘Bharat’ and not the Indus (mostly) flowing Pakistan. But its true that Pakistan is the Land of the Pure (Arab Islam) and not India! [Pakistan means 'Land of the Pure']

In a similar vein, maybe its time the purists (Pakistanis) defeated the impurities (Taliban) around NWFP. But then such impurities are bolstered by the presence of super purists (Arabs)!

And btw, Wish you a very happy Deepavali - celebrating 2500 years of life, atheism and nirvana!

Hare Rama, Hare Krishna - Part 2

hmm... the trouble is, although I have declared Krishna to be my hero, I don't know who he was! Well, I'm obviously dismissing the Krishna of the Kamsa killer-Dwaraka King-Charioteer-God schema as bakwaas!

Is it a coincidence that the birth stories of Moses and Krishna (also Jesus and Karna) are almost the same. (King Ramses - Kamsa, infants are killed, this child is rescued across a river, grows on to kill the King.) Who cares who copied from whom, its just a story!

So this great king Krishna (who incidentally is God!) could help the Pandavas only as a Charioteer? I think people in those days would have fought like rats over resources and every able hand would have been helpful. Even otherwise, why was Krishna there in Mahabharata? Did he do any damn thing that was relevant to the story?

The Vedas are mostly hymns with four major themes - Gods, Sacrifices, Music and Magic. We ofcourse know them as Rig, Yajur, Sama and the Atharvana. Each group of Vedic texts includes Samhitas (hymns), Brahmanas (rituals), Aryankas (ramblings!) and Upanishads (philosophy).

Well, its fairly obvious that the Upanishads are the most relevant, because they explain the vedas (hymns) and expound on Hindu Philosophy formed over thousands of years. Bhagwad Gita is one extraordinary work which gives the essence of these Upanishads. Some call it an Upanishad in itself. Do you know who wrote that? Krishna! Obviously!! But who was he?

Veda Vyasa is regarded as the author of the Mahabharatha. But more importantly he was a very influential vedic scholar, who supposedly divided the vedic texts into four groups. [Vyasa - splitter. Veda Vyasa - Splitter of the Vedas.] Supposedly, because Vyasa might have been a generic name for all the scholars who accomplished this work.

Then there was this uninteresting land-dispute between some stupid cousins. Five guys sharing a wife (they still do in some tribes of Himachal Pradesh), a gullible girl who got herself into pre-marital pregnancy, kings (rather chiefs) gambling on land and their women. yeah, stupid people! But they happened (or were fabricated) to have fought a great war in Kurukshetra, a very significant place(?!) according to Indian Astronomy or rather Astrology.

So if Vyasa wanted to sell the most sublime work in Hindu Philosophy, namely the Bhagwad Gita, all he had to do was, to make a pot-pouri of the Gita, its author Krishna overblown as God, some random stories about his birth, childhood, girlfriends, kingdom etc, the Pandava-Gaurava nonsense and the Kurukshetra war. Bingo! an epic was born.

And it so happened that Veda Vyasa's original name was Krishna Dvaipayana. (Krishna - Black, Dvaipayana - Island born). Did Vyasa play a prank on the readers by superimposing himself as God Krishna in Mahabharata? No. There was a more interesting rishi called Krishna in the Upanishads.

One Mystic Fire recently pointed me to the following verse in the Chandogya Upanishad of the Sama Veda texts:

III-xvii-6: Ghora Angirasa expounded this well-known doctrine to Devaki’s son Krishna and said, ‘Such a knower should, at the time of death, repeat this triad – "Thou art the imperishable, Thou art unchangeable, Thou art the subtle essence of Prana". (On hearing the above) he became thirstless. There are these two Rik stanzas in regard to this.

So here we have the Devakiputra Krishna learning some of the salient points of the Bhagwad Gita from Rishi Ghora who himself was a descendant of Rishi Angirasa. Looks as though I have found my hero! Guess I should learn more about him.

Well, yes. God may have come, born as Krishna, killed Kamsa, learnt that he himself was God from Ghora, preached it to Arjuna (copyright violation!) and promised us all that he will be born again and again to take on evil. But then, I'm atheist. And guess what, this Rishi Krishna propagates atheism in the Bhagwad Gita!

Happy Saraswathi Puja!

Hare Rama, Hare Krishna - Part 1

x: Name the two books which gave rise to popular Hindu Gods, Rama and Krishna.
y: Ramayana and Mahabharata.
x: Wrong answer.
y: What????!
x: Manu Smriti and Bhagwad Gita.

Well, if you knew the above 'correct' answer and also agree that Krishna, Shankara, Buddha and Mahavira were all atheists, then you can skip this series of posts!

I'm fairly convinced that Ramayana and Mahabharata are just propaganda material for two more powerful and influential books of India. First is the Manu Smriti,the bedrock of Aryan Racism and the second, Bhagwad Gita, the most important work on Hindu Philosophy. The characters in the epics being historical, mythical or metaphorical makes no difference to the above conclusion.

Ramayana and Racism:

Have you read the Laws of Manu? If not, I urge you NOT to read them! Because, I have read and can certify that Manu Smriti is the most despicable racist work in the history of mankind! In theory, Manu Smriti lays down the rules of behavior for the four Varnas and Women. But practically it says Shudras and Women should be treated like vermin.

Ramayana and its chief protagonist Rama obey the Laws of Manu to its last word! In other words, Rama was the paragon of Aryan Racism. No wonder the Aryans were so keen to celebrate and propagate Ramayana. Lets see why.

Rama and Brahmins:

Manu Smriti says Brahmins are the ultimate creation and their words are final. So does Ramayana. Do you remember the conversation between Viswamithra and Dasratha, when the former had come to request the services of latter's son Rama? [Hint: you cannot dishonour a rishi's request] Or do you have the count for the number of women and shudras killed by Rama, simply because Brahmin rishis ordered him to?

Rama, the Kshtriya:

Manu Smriti lays down fairly obvious rules for the conduct of Kshtriyas and Vaishyas. We all know Rama waged wars on the other indigenous people of India, adhered to 'Caesar's wife should be above suspicion' thing to banish Sita to the woods and provided Ram Rajya. But its the next two cases that are disturbing.

Rama's treatment of Women:

1. Manu Smriti doesn't seem to encourage polygamy. So nothing great in Rama being married to just Sita. In anycase having seen his father battered by his four mothers, Rama might have just been smart!
2. Rama doesn't hesitate to kill women at all. Infact scores of women are killed in Ramayana. Is it because, Manu Smriti gives very strict guidelines about things women should not do? Well, practically everything except serving her Lord is a no-no for women!
3. Can anyone justify Rama's treatment of Sita? This guy suspects that Sita's modesty was compromised and hence will no longer accept her. And we worship him as God?
4. What about the treatment of Surpanaka, (Raavan's sister) whose nose was sliced off by Lakshman? What's wrong if Raavan wanted to take revenge for this insult?
5. What about Lakshman rekha? Women who disobey the lines drawn by Manu Smriti will meet Sita's fate?

Rama's treatment of Shudras:

1. Manu Smriti says Shudra's only purpose in life is to serve the top three varnas. So says Ramayana with Guha, Hanuman, Sukreeva, Jadayu etc, etc.
2. But Shudras cannot dare usurp the rights of others. For instance Rama will kill Shambhuka, a shudra simply because he did penance. Shudras should know their place!
3. Despite all their help and sacrifices, people of Kishkinta will only be called 'vanar sena'. (I know vanar is not a derogatory word, but even educated people call Hanuman, a monkey god!)
4. And what on earth did Vali do to deserve being stabbed in the back by this God Rama? Rama had seen him only for the second time in his life. The first time he couldn't differentiate between Vali and Sukreeva, to kill the former when they were fighting!

Well, I have just listed some fairly well known flaws in Rama's character. Ram Bakhts would like to think that they're all God's lessons for us. And that Ramayana just happened to obey the rules of the time. But believe me, Ramayana is just racist propaganda! In anycase, its totally anachronistic in this age. Even school kids these days have better morals than Rama ever had.

And now to my hero, Krishna!

Racism for Dummies

Al Khwarizmi (Persian - Math - 9th Century - Algorithm) once said that Indians should stop being frogs in the well, go explore the world and learn from others and shun this 'we are a great civilization, we know everything' attitude. If only dumb editors like Shekhar Gupta of the Indian Express had done that, they would have known what the world calls as 'racism'.

How on earth are the Monkey chants and antics directed at Australian Cricketer Andrew Symonds, not a case of racism but instead bad crowd behavior? The mere mention of the word racism seems to remind Indians of the imaginary donkey rides across the Khyber pass or even the Negroid journeys from Africa.

The world considers any discrimination based on physical appearance, ethnicity, religion or whatever as racism. In a country which worships a racist Aryan king Rama as God and where every other guy uses the caste, its derivatives or Varna (Sharma, Varma, Gupta etc) as the last name, Monkey chants are bad crowd behavior?!

If this is bad crowd behavior, then I wonder what the following things are: bottle throwing, booing, burning paper, breaking seats, chair throwing, walking in front of the sight screen, supporting opposition teams for the sake of Kashmir, Khalistan, Ganguly etc, Aaloo chanting and watching youtube videos of Prasad and Sreesanth's antics. huh?

Worse, some people even claim that we worship Hanuman, a monkey and hence these Monkey chants are acceptable behavior in India! Do these idiots even realize that Hanuman and his so-called vanar sena are the most extreme form of racism there can be? A tribe, most probably from Kishkinta in Karnataka, who helped Rama, has been reduced to being called 'vanars' and you guys shamelessly call Hanuman worship as Monkey worship?

Guys, don't have any illusions. We, Indians are born racists. We have always been obsessed with color and physical appearance. We have always called each other Mleechas, Shudras, Raakshs, Madrasis, Kongas, Pondis, Aravadu, Gults, Biharis based on appearance and diction. We color our gods (blue?!) and even our books (Shukla - white and Krishna - black). When we don't like someone we give them imaginary grotesque features (Asuras, Raakshs).

Wait, why am I wasting your time? You guys have better things to do like, protesting against 'racist' abuse of Shilpa Shetty, calling the Indian Idol from Siliguri, a Gorkha and hence a Nepali illegal, stopping a 300 Metre hole in a 30 Kilometre 'Monkey built' bridge and burning ten head grotesque Raakshs like Raavan at Ramlila. (10 heads = pathu thalai in tamil. thalai = head and also direction. i.e. Raavan's kingdom extended in all 10 directions, 8 + sky + underworld!) Have fun!

A History of Aryans

1. Aryans are Indians.

2. They have predominantly lived in north India (Indo-Gangetic plain) roughly from the time of the end of the Harappan civilization (c 3500-1500 BC)

3. They were introduced to Sanskrit and Rig Veda by the nomads who came from Northwest India/Afghanistan/Persia. Sanskrit adopted the Devanagari script in India. [There is a possibility that Rig Veda may have originated in India and was later recycled back from Persia. But that is a mere conjuncture with current evidence.]

4. In the Vedic age, people used to worship both Devas and Asuras. The Vedic Brahmins sided with Devas (Indra, Maruti, Vayu et al) and the Zoroastrians sided with Asuras. (Varuna/Mithra - Ahura Mazda). Ahura Mazda is worshiped by Parsis to this day.

5. The earliest converts to Aryan thought were the Indian priest class and aristocracy. [Aryan thought - controlling people's access to Gods because of the exclusive ownership of knowledge by the Priest class.] They started taking converts and branded them as either Kshtriya or Vaishya . Thus the Varna system was introduced. Other native Indians, too ‘uncultured’ for Brahmins were branded as Shudras.

6. Aryans adopted a pantheon of Indian and Vedic Gods as their own. Indian Gods include Shiva (bull) and Vishnu (Unicorn - Horse) from Harappa. Murugan, Perumal, Indran, Varunan and Kottravai from the Tamil country. Gods of the animist religions of the north east. There were apparently 33 Vedic Gods. They include Indra, Vayu, Agni etc

7. Aryans then started expanding to other parts of India. According to Ramayana, Rama a racist Aryan King from Ayodhya or its vicinity who supposedly invaded the Tamil Country and Sri Lanka. [There is a parallel thought that, though Ramayana is an allegory of the aryan war on aborigines, Rama himself may have be been an imaginary character.] This Rama as was custom then, declared himself to be an incarnation of Vishnu. (Other examples of God Kings are the Guptas of Angkor Wat in Cambodia and King Gyanendra of Nepal.) Valmiki's Ramayan is among the many versions of this story.

8. Aryan religion which by now was at the clutches of Brahmins was shelled by the Carvakas (atheists), Buddha and Mahavira around 500 BC.

9. Aryans survived the onslaught by writing down lots of Philosophical work (which were known even before) into books. Hindu schools of thought like Samkhya, Yoga etc came into being.

10. Aryans introduced a mythical God called Krishna into the Mahabharata story which was already common knowledge. Bhagwat Gita gave Philosophical solidity to the Hindu-Aryan religion.

11. But this recovery was not eternal. Gupta’s who encouraged King-worship further weakened the Aryan religion by inadvertently ignoring Philosophical advancement.

12. From 7th century onwards North India stopped producing any meaningful work on religion. It came up with more Puranas and other bull-crap stories about Aryan gods like Ram and Krishna. However South India which was still multi-religious (Buddhism, Jainism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Brahmanism) continued to produce philosophical works by Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhvacharya etc. The bhakti-cult started in Tamil country by Aalwars and Nayanmars allowed all the people, irrespective of their caste, access to Gods.

13. The Muslim invasion of north-India completely nullified any revival of Philospohical work in North India. To counter the Allah/Koran combination, Aryans embraced Ram/Ramayan. Mahabharatha which was much smarter than Ramayan because of its Philosophical content failed to gain popularity. Ramayan whose racist intent was reduced by branding South Indians as Vanar Sena, Ravan as Brahmin etc gained popularity even among the Shudras of North-India.

14. Following the lifting of Muslim/Christian rule over India, Hindus wanted to revive their religion. Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Aurobindo, Prabupada etc contributed to this effort. But since Aryan's philosophical acumen was long lost, they could only resort to imposing dubious Gods like Rama on others. They demolished the Babri Mosque (which may have been built on the birth place of King Rama) to assuage the hurt Hindu-Aryan pride.

15. To this day, Aryan onslaught on India’s other indigenous faiths continues in places like Tamilnadu and the North east. Latest such attempt to impose Aryan Gods on Tamils is the mindless Ramar Sethu controversy.

Disclaimers:

1. If you don't understand the word 'Aryan' and are confused by its usage in European texts, thats not my problem. May be you should read this.

2. I cannot care less about the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory or the 'Out of India ' theory. Such theories are for addled minds who have no patience to read Indian History.

3. Brahamins became a caste/varna from about 1000 BC.

4. The nomads along the indo-iranian border lands spoke Sanskrit and worshiped a pantheon of esoteric gods. There was rivalry between the worshipers of Indra and Ahura Mazda. The definition of Aryans in this post doesn't include those nomads.

Magic Weekend!

There's magic in the air. As I write this, I know lots of folks around the world are already reading the Deathly Hallows. Its still four hours left here in this part of the world. Here's a not so live blog...

8 PM, Friday: I only got the Silver! I went to Borders straight from work and guess what... fans have already lapped up the Orange wristbands! Well, fans get wristbands of six colors based on which they'll stand in the queue at midnight. I only got the second color. No matter!

For all those non-magical folks (Muggles) who are amused by all this, here's fews bits to kindle your intellectual curiosity.

1. The word 'Magic' comes from the Magis' - the Zoroastrian priests! Magis are similar to Rabbi's of Judaism and Brahmins of Vedic Hinduism (ala Brahmanism). Zoroaster, who may or may not have founded the said religion was a priest who used to render hymns from the Rig Veda.

There was a huge debate between Vedic scholars who took sides between Devas and Asuras. No, Asuras were not bad guys at that time. Zoroastrians celebrated Varuna Mithra, whom we now probably know as Ahura Mazda. (Ahura = Asura). Hinduism might have later demonised Asuras because of this fundamental divide.

2. For all we know Harry Potter may be a PIO - Person of Indian Origin! Afterall, the original witches and wizards are the Romani people whom we also know as Gypsies. Its suggested that, during the Islamic invasion, they migrated from Northwest India to Persia and eventually to Europe. The Romani flag now has the Ashoka Chakra to celebrate this bond! Romani history is a heart wrenching one. More on that may be on a later post.

3. Its one of my dreams to visit the Church of 'Sara Kali' (yes 'Kali') in Southern France. This amazing Goddess is a heady mixture of Christianity, Judaism and Romani Hinduism. Her black color and the name obviously derive from India. Christianity claims that she walked on the Mediterranean waters to welcome the early Christians from the Holy Land. And ofcourse we can also imagine her to be the daughter of Jesus Christ who escaped from the 'Christians' (Or someone related to that supposed event).

10 PM, Friday: I'm now leaving for the 'Grand Hallows Ball' at Borders. When I'm back I'll have the book.

1 AM, Saturday: I have it! It took about 45 mins on the queue. Not bad, was it? Now, I'll be back on planet Earth when I complete the book.

8 PM, Sunday: Done.

Had Prithiviraj won...

Happy Republic Day! Its been a while since I last blogged. Nothing extraordinary happened in that time expect that I turned 'Vegetarian' in the true sense of the word by giving up Dairy products. I will live purely on Vegetation from now. No more Animal fat!

I have been reading Indian history as told by Romila Thapar, John Keay, Kalki and Naipaul. With a research paper on Vijayanagar also thrown in. The emphasis apparently on understanding the effects of 'Muslim Invasion' of India. Or was it Afghan invasion?

On a CNN-IBN debate on the bewildering 'Saddam spectacle' last week in Bangalore, someone quipped "how can this happen in Bangalore? after all Karnataka Muslims are not UP Muslims". This unfortunate insinuation about Uttar Pradesh Muslims remembered me Thapar's views on Muslim immigration to India.

She makes a distinction between Mappila/Bohra Muslims etc and the north Indian Muslims. I reckon these 'other Muslims' can be wildly generalized to be those in Gujarat, Konkan, Malabar and Coromandel coasts who speak native tongues instead of Urdu. These coasts had extensive maritime relations with Arabia several centuries before Islam was even born.

Thapar suggests that these Arabian trade settlers who had no political motives were far more willing to adjust to Indian conditions than the latter day Afghani invaders who caused enormous damage to India's culture, economy and religion.

Kalki makes the characters in 'Ponniyin Selvan' speak highly of the 'arabian religion' which gave women the right to divorce while condemning the 'thulukars' invading from bharat's northwest as despicable barbarians!

Curiously an Outlook article last week said that the Bohra Muslims in Gujarat had apparently kissed and made up with Narendra Modi! There was even talk of tension in the riot victim camps because of the Urdu education provided there by Muslim NGOs instead of Gujarati.

Now, what am I suggesting by quoting all these random information? What would have been the image of Indian Muslims or even Muslims across the world had Islam been introduced in North India by Arabian and Persian traders instead of being forced by Afghani invaders?

What if north Indians didn't get the taste of the religion practiced by plunderers, nomads and slave kings. For all his 'greatness' Akbar was illiterate! Is it a mere coincidence that the Islam which the world loves to hate is hiding in Waziristan - the cradle of Indian Islam?!

Would the partition of the subcontinent have happened? Would I have just been a Tamil or Dravidian instead of being an Indian? Would I be living in a First World country having the finest Musalmaan minority instead of a third world country splintered by religion?

Let me stop my own theories here. Just imagine Prithiviraj stoppping Ghori for the second time. The possibilities are (were) endless.

Chinese Dragon, Hidden Truths!

Do you know why China attacked us in 1962? I recently felt very stupid reading the apparent justification for China's action when infact I should have been taught all this in High School. My teachers apparently failed to educate me on the legacy of the McMahon Line left behind by our colonial masters. The chinese claim on Aksai Chin, Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh (all part of ancient Tibet taken by the wily British) following their invasion of Lhasa doesn't look out of place.

Besides why does India continue to lie about the actual ground positions in Kashmir, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh (or South Tibet as China calls it!) to its own people through its text books and maps? For all our spitting on Musharaff's Kargil, didn't we do the same in Siachin (even if it was on AGPL)?

Moral issues apart, how can an Indian Prime Minister sell any border settlement with China and Pakistan to large sections of India's masses who don't have a clue about Aksai Chin, Trans-Karakoram tract, Siachin or Sikkim and remain blissfully unaware that Sikkim was an independent country until 1972 and that Arunachal Pradesh was previously a Union Territory called North East Frontier province. It is in our interest to let people know the facts.

And finally, I look at Nehru with restored awe. I had always felt that Nehru in 1962 was a senile leader who lost Indian territory with his 'place where even grass doesn't grow' speech. But perhaps he was gracious enough to admit that India's claim over 'Tibetan remains' was not solidly defendable. And today as India looks completely irrevelant in the Korean nuclear issue, we can look back nostalgically to Nehru led Indian draft armistice agreement which brought the Korean war to an end.