Why Does US Want India To Stay Out of Kabul?

Reports of a US demarche to India asking it to stay out of Afghanistan's politics may or may not be true. Officially, New Delhi has denied that such a demarche was ever issued. 

Yet National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, quizzed specifically about this at the end of his US visit last week, said 'that incident is behind us now,' implying the issue had been raised and discussed. 

Ostensibly, this demarche called for India to 'slow down' its political and reconstruction work in the war-ravaged nation since this was impeding Pakistan's strongman Pervez Musharraf from cracking down on hardliners (read terrorists) within Pakistan. 

If indeed such a request was issued, it indicates a totally juvenile world view on Washington's part.It also reflects Musharraf's ability to make Washington dance to his tune by bringing up the 'T' word. 

Musharraf reportedly threatened to 'step up' activities in Afghanistan if India opened up consulates in Jalalabad and Kandahar as promised by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha during his visit to Afghanistan in August. 

This apparently prompted American fears of fresh terror attacks on its forces or on the floundering Hamid Karzai regime, whose writ is yet to extend beyond Kabul. 

To this, the reported Indian response was that while it had no problems with Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan if it involved development work, if it involved attempts to recreate or revive Islamabad's Frankenstein's monster of the Taliban, why, that was the US' problem. 

But what are Islamabad's concerns about Indian involvement in Afghanistan?

The primary one, of course, is the possibility of New Delhi getting too cosy with the powers that be or will be in Afghanistan. This would give RAW a foothold on Pakistan's Western borders, already in turmoil over the Pashtun demand for a separate homeland despite the immense autonomy these tribals already have in the frontier provinces. 

And though it tried, Islamabad can hardly match India's generosity vis-à-vis Afghanistan without severely denting its already scant treasury. 

A small sampling of India's largesse includes three Boeing aircraft ?gifted' to Ariana, Afghanistan's national airline which had been reduced to just one airworthy craft during the Taliban regime. Fifty buses to revive Kabul's public transport system. $100 million in financial assistance, of which $10 million was transferred as cash in July to augment the Hamid Karzai government's budget, while another $25 million has already been converted into grants. Then there is $4 million to revive Kabul's Indira Gandhi hospital, a legacy of the 1960s which already has some Indian doctors at work. 

Another million or three US dollars will be spent on upgrading and establishing information technology centres at Kabul's Habibia School, an institution which New Delhi seems to have adopted. Millions of tons of wheat, medicines, blankets, the list is long and comprehensive. And this is just the official list. 

Besides, the first lot of Afghans is already training to be doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. While another 250 are training in various bureaucratic institutions across India, including the foreign services and police institutes. 

All this gives New Delhi considerable leverage in Kabul. But to hedge its bets, India also maintains close ties with the Uzbek and Tajik warlords who rule the countryside, cashing in on the fact that New Delhi had overtly and covertly funded their war against the Taliban long before 9/11 changed the world. 

So perhaps Musharraf has reason to be worried. 

Add India's relations with Russia (whose President Vladimir Putin came out strongly against Islamabad during his recent India visit ) and Iran (President Mohammad Khatami is the chief guest for India's Republic Day bash next month), and his worries take on a whole new dimension altogether. For these nations, along with India, encircle Pakistan. 

Before we get carried away, it must also be kept in mind that despite India's political and economical largesse, and despite major Afghan ministers - Defence Minister General Mohammad Fahim, Foreign Minister Mohammad Abdullah Abdullah and Education Minister Yunus Qanooni to name a few -- being blatantly pro Indian, President Karzai is essentially an American puppet. 

As long as Washington continues to hail Pakistan as its front line ally in the war against terror, he is unlikely to do or allow anything that threatens Pakistan and its 'war' against terror. 

And no matter how many spooks they cram the consulates at Kandahar and Jalalabad with, the presence of American troops and monitoring equipment on Afghanistan's borders with Pakistan will surely cramp RAW's style.

Besides, the last thing Karzai wants is a overtly hostile neighbour. 

For despite its depleted treasury, Pakistan too has pledged $10 million in aid, and at a press conference addressed by him and Karzai in Kabul in April, Musharraf stressed, 'We will not allow each other's countries to be used against the interests [of one another].' 

Even earlier, in February, Karzai reassured journalists in Islamabad that the innate Afghan suspicion of Pakistan owing to its support to the Taliban regime was 'a thing of the past,' and as a goodwill gesture said Afghanistan would release young Pakistanis captured while fighting for the Taliban. 

Which is why Pakistan is also included in the list of 'neighbouring' nations invited to sign a friendship treaty with Afghanistan on December 22, which marks a year of Karzai's rule in Kabul. 

Apart from Pakistan and India, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia are on that list. The invitation to the respective foreign ministers have already gone out, and it will interesting to watch how the two nations of the subcontinent interact there, if at all. 

While Musharraf's concerns over Indian involvement in Afghanistan is understandable, Washington's raising the subject with India -- whether or not it was in the form of a demarche is immaterial -- is not. 

India has made no bones about its rancour over the mollycoddling of Musharraf, and the fact that Washington should even raise such a subject with India at a time like this makes one wonder what State Department policy wonks have been smoking. 

After all, if the US can ignore India's concerns over Pakistan, why should it even expect us to care about it's 'concern' for Afghanistan? 

The Perfect Con Job: Kashmir Moslems Cheating India

It was a little statement that got me thinking: Muzamil Jameel of the New Indian Express reporting on October 24, 2002 about the horse-trading between the Congress and the People's Democratic Party regarding the formation of a government in Jammu and Kashmir. He said, regarding the PDP's insistence that its leader, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, must be made the chief minister: 
...The strategy had its risks. Observed a PDP leader, 'But if Mufti Sahib leads the coalition, we will be in the driver's seat. We can resign and recommend dissolution of the Assembly at our will and on an issue of choice.' 

This startled me. How casually this PDP 'leader' talks about a mid-term election! The fact that it cost the Indian exchequer millions of rupees in security, the fact that a large number of soldiers were killed in Islamist terrorist violence in the run-up to elections, the fact that a number of Kashmiri civilians were killed, also by Islamist terrorists, none of this seems to matter! For narrow political gain, they are willing to topple any government and call for fresh elections! The rest of us are breathing a sigh of relief that these elections were 'free and fair', and these people are already thinking of mid-term polls. 

Who are these people? Are we living on the same planet? Do they view it as their imperial right that Indians will die and Indians will spend large amounts of money for their silly little political games? 

Reading further, there were other revelations: 

PDP's charismatic crowd-puller Mehbooba Sayeed is taking her chances and has begun making daily trips to her party's South Kashmir bastion... Her father, Mufti Sayeed appealed to 'boys with guns in the mountains,' telling them there was no longer any need for violence because 'now your representatives are in the assembly. Whether in government or outside, we will put forward your voice.' 

And more: 

Its [the PDP's] manifesto is a clever rewrite of the Hurriyat agenda. 

In other words, the PDP is the voice of the separatists, the agents of the hard-eyed 'boys' (I love this appellation - so cuddly!) who terrorized and ethnically cleansed the entire Hindu population of the Kashmir valley. They are akin to the Islamist hardliners who wreak havoc all over the world: in Bali, in Afghanistan, in Moscow. And here we have powerful politicians, who boldly declare themselves to be their representatives! Isn't there something that borders on sedition in all this? Can the people of India trust Mufti Sayeed to look after their interests, or is he likely to advance General Musharraf's interests? 

The entire English-language media in India has been celebrating the overthrow of the Abdullah dynasty. Yes, maybe they were corrupt, maybe they were feudalistic, maybe they represented a minority opinion. Yet, we do seem to have a choice between Scylla and Charybdis here: is it a wee bit too early to break out the champagne? 

Not that I am a big fan of the National Conference, but I wouldn't write their obituary yet. Electorates have been known to change their minds. For instance, look at the 1999 Lok Sabha elections: the National Conference won all four Lok Sabha seats in the Vale of Kashmir and Ladakh, and the BJP won in Jammu and Udhampur. Defeating famous names, too. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed lost in Anantnag, Saifuddin Soz in Baramulla; Omar Abdullah retained Srinagar by defeating Mehbooba Mufti. It is possible that the Kashmiris calculated that having somebody in the ruling NDA front would improve their chances of looting the central treasury, in which they were proved correct. 

Now we'll have to wait and see how the Centre plays things out with the new Congress-PDP J&K government. If I were the NDA, I'd say, 'Hey, you made your bed, now lie in it. We will give to J&K whatever it raises in tax revenues. If you want more, ask the Congress to go find sources of funds elsewhere.' This would be entirely fair in my opinion: after all, most states get less than what they generate. Maybe it is Chanakyan logic on the part of BJP to wash its hands of the J&K matter and leave it to the Congress to sink or swim. Alas, even as I say it, I doubt it. 

Frankly, the new rulers of J&K worry me. Mehbooba Mufti declared, as early as April 2002, her intent to disband the SOG (Special Operations Group), the counter-terrorism forces that have to some extent succeeded in infiltrating the terrorist groups. In other words, the Muftis want to hang out a big sign on the border: 'Welcome, Al Qaeda, Taliban, and other assorted Islamist terrorists. You have a safe haven in Jammu & Kashmir. See, we the government of the state will prevent any harm from coming to you.' I don't think they will wait for a second invitation. What can we expect? More hostage situations. More ransom. More terrorism, spreading to other parts of India. 

The history of hostage situations in J&K is illuminating, and it is definitely worth considering how closely politicians may be involved. 

On December 8, 1989, a group of terrorists kidnapped one Rubaiya Sayeed and demanded the release of several jailed terrorists as the ransom for releasing her. According to observers in the know (see Manoj Joshi, The Lost Rebellion: Kashmir in the Nineties), this gang was on the point of releasing her unconditionally when the central government capitulated, much to their surprise and delight. The result was a spate of copycat abductions and consequent releases of jailed terrorists. This, of course, reached its apogee years later with the craven release of arch-terrorists Masood Azhar and Omar Sheikh after the Kandahar hijacking. 

If only the government at the Centre - any government at the Centre - had the guts to stand up to terror like the Russians did recently with Chechen terrorists. If only! The key is: provide deterrents. Chechens will think twice now about another big hostage situation, as the Russians have shown they will use any means at their disposal. 

The Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping was a watershed event that indicated to terrorists that they could toy with the Indian government. The much-maligned Farooq Abdullah said at the time, prophetically, that this meant the floodgates had been opened, and he was right. 

Who were the dramatis personae? Rubaiya's father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, then home minister at the Centre; V P Singh, prime minister; Arif Mohammad Khan; Inder Kumar Gujral; Arun Nehru, ministers and advisors to the PM. All famously 'secular' and 'progressive' people. And what did they trigger off? A dozen years of mayhem. 30,000 people killed, including thousands of soldiers. Ethnic cleansing of Hindus. Religious extremism among Muslims. Massacres of Hindu pilgrims. Very farsighted indeed. 

Now it may strike the usual impartial -- and slightly skeptical -- Martian that it is a little strange that the selfsame Sayeed, newly anointed as chief minister of J&K, now proclaims that he is the voice of the same terrorists, the famous 'boys with guns.' He confirmed that he would disband the Special Operations Group, and rescind POTA in the state. The army said this would be a setback to security operations in the state. This is an understatement. 

Sayeed wants to spend (the central government's) money to rehabilitate the 'innocent families of militants,' on the grounds that they have done nothing wrong. In fact, they have: they should have discouraged said 'boys' from taking up terrorism, so it is their fault. Look at it from the point of view of the terrorist: he kills 'infidels,' and is killed by the security forces. He thinks he will go to heaven, to enjoy the promised 72 virgins. And lo and behold, his family gets taken care of by the state. So what is the disincentive for him? It's a win-win situation. In comparison, Israelis have consistently taken the stand that the families of terrorists will be punished, their houses bulldozed: it turns out that the prospect of his mother starving on the streets is a significant disincentive for even the most committed terrorist, heaven and virgins notwithstanding. 

And oh, by the way, Sayeed says the ethnically cleansed Pandits are welcome to come back to J&K, as a politically correct afterthought. For what? To face the 'boys' who already refer to Anantnag as Islamabad, and the Kishenganga river as the Neelum river, to avoid polluting themselves with anything Hindu? And I suppose the Muslims who happily took over Hindu properties will simply hand them back and welcome the Pandits with open arms. 

Wait, there is more. On September 22, 1991, Ghulam Nabi Azad's brother-in-law Tassaduq Dev was kidnapped by terrorists. Result? Several jailed terrorists were released. Azad was then minister for parliamentary affairs at the Centre. And he is the Congress' CM-in-waiting, who will get the chair after three years of Sayeed's rule. So kidnapping and ransom giving is another thing Sayeed and Azad have in common. 

And then there is Saifuddin Soz. This Congress MP was formerly of the NC and the NDA, famous for his vote that brought down the BJP government in 1999 by a single vote. Soz quit the NC and joined the Congress. His daughter Nahida Soz was kidnapped back in August 1991, and, once again, the litany continues: she was released in exchange for jailed terrorists. 

Doesn't all this sound a little suspicious? Would the increasingly skeptical Martian wonder if there were something more than meets the eye here? Why didn't even one of these politicians suggest that the government stand firm and not cave in to terror tactics? Is it possible that there is some little understanding between the terrorists and the politicians? After all, look at what they have achieved between themselves: 

The Vale of Kashmir has been completely cleansed of all non-Muslims. 

Many captured terrorists have been released (and in all likelihood, ransom money has been paid). 

The Vale of Kashmir continues to stress its differences from the rest of India in all sorts of ways: its 'prime minister,' its six-year assembly, etc. 

The Vale of Kashmir continues its oppression of Ladakh and Jammu, which are much more interested in full integration into India. 

The Government of India has been completely emasculated in J&K: it is reduced to being supplicants to such opportunists as the Hurriyat Conference. 

Muslim Kashmiris continue to be portrayed as victims, a powerful lightning rod for Islamist causes worldwide. 

Tremendous loot has come to J&K in the form of subsidies and grants from a Centre held ransom by threats of secession. 'Kashmiriyat,' allegedly once a pluralistic concept, has now been redefined as a purely Muslim concept. 

Kashmiris enjoy a convenient situation, where they gain all the benefits of being part of India, and at the same time maintain a separate identify. 

In effect, Sunni Muslim Kashmiris have colonized India - see the second part of this column for details. All in all, a very good deal for Muslim Kashmiris, both politicians and terrorists. So why on earth do we all think they will abandon this wildly successful policy now, just because an election has been held? Nor will they stop whining about how badly they are treated, which seems to get the 'secular progressive' media in India all teary eyed, whereas said media does not care one whit about how the ethnically cleansed Pandits are dying out, their numbers dwindling from disease and hopelessness, in squalid refugee camps. 

I read a particular good whinge by a Muslim Kashmiri with the BBC's Urdu service. His great sob story: as a youngster, he was taking a lunchbox to someone in Srinagar, and soldiers stopped him at two checkpoints. The first soldier opened the box and poked around in the rice to ensure that it contained no explosives. He then wrote on our correspondent's palm in Hindi that he had been checked and could be allowed to proceed. 

However, the second soldier who stopped him was a South Indian who could not understand the Hindi words written on our hero's palm, so the second soldier also rifled through the rice. Much to the disgust of our disdainful BBC man. These uncouth soldiers: sigh, we highly civilized Kashmiris have to put up with so much! The indignity of it all - especially having to deal with those inferior South Indians! 

There is an entirely different perspective at which you can look at this tale of woe designed to evoke sympathy. Here are Indian soldiers of all types: hill-people like Gurkhas, plains Hindi-speakers, coastal Southerners, et al, living - and more to the point, dying - for these ungrateful wretches of Kashmir. There are plenty of improvised explosive devices used in Kashmir, and it was not at all unreasonable for the soldiers to ensure that the lunchbox wasn't one. 

The soldiers are quite aware of terrorists in many guises: teenagers, burqa-clad ones, etc. And these poor grunts, who live in hostile territory with constant and justified fear of death, have every right to inspect and interrogate anybody. The Kashmiris are in fact the aggressors, the ones aiding and abetting foreign and local terrorists. Our whining hero should be thankful the soldiers didn't send him on his way assisted by an AK-47. Not to mention the fact that his sob story is very likely exaggerated: everybody in the army, from North or South, knows Hindi. 

But our hero is doing what comes naturally. Muslim Kashmiris have made a career out of portraying themselves as victims, thereby shaking down the Indian State. This whole thing is one of the most successful con jobs in history, foisted on an unsuspecting country.

India ready to host 2012 Olympics: Vajpayee

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said that India was ready to host the 2012 Olympic Games and that he would consider Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's offer of Hyderabad as the venue.

"Indian sports persons had done well in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and now we are ready to enter the Olympics," Vajpayee said during the closing ceremony of the 32nd National Games at the G M C Balayogi Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday evening. 

The Prime Minister was responding to Naidu's urging the Indian Olympic Association to bid for the 2012 Olympics.19-year old Richa Mishra of Andhra Pradesh and 16-year old Rehan Poncha of Karnataka were adjudged the best sportsperson of the games among women and men respectively. 

The Raja Bharendra Singh Trophy for the best team was awarded to Andhra Pradesh.

Pakistan ISI trying to revive terrorism in Punjab: Report

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has again started toying with the idea of reviving terrorism in Punjab with senior officials, including President Pervez Musharraf, having reportedly met pro-Khalistan leaders during the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak.

According to a report of the Union home ministry, the president of the US-based Nankana Sahib Foundation, G S Dhillon, who was in Pakistan recently, had been asked by ISI officials to revive the Khalistani movement.

Official sources said that Sikhs, mainly expatriates settled overseas, visiting Pakistan were being subjected to pernicious propaganda campaign to convert them into supporters of the Khalistan movement.

The Governor of Punjab [in Pakistan], Khalid Maqbool, had assured them that Pakistan would provide all material and financial help to Sikhs to realise their dream of Khalistan, they said.

The ISI top brass also advised them to interact with other insurgent groups in India operating from abroad and chalk out a common strategy, they added.

The sources said that Musharraf had also met the Khalistan leaders, including G S Aulakh of the Khalistan Council, Dhillon, M S Bajaj of the World Muslim-Sikh Forum and A S Toor of the International Sikh Youth Federation.

The director general of the ISI was also present during the meeting of Musharraf with Khalistan leaders.

In what could be more disturbing, the ISI has been training poor Muslim youths from Sindh province in Sikh tenets at the army cantonment at Nowshera in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the report said.

It also said that the ISI, in collaboration with the Babbar Khalsa International, has trained 25 Muslims in handling arms and explosives with the aim of carrying out terrorist actions in Punjab.

Some reports indicate that the ISI has established some training camps for Sikhs in a Gulf country and a Far Eastern country, the sources said.

The sources said that a meeting of ISI officials and Sikh militants of the Khalistan Zindabad Force was also held in a neighbouring country recently.

They said a few terrorist attacks by motivated Sikh terrorists with the help of the infrastructure of the Kashmiri outfits or drug smugglers could not be ruled out.

The Pakistan-based chief of the Babbar Khalsa International, Wadhava Singh, and ISYF chief Lakhbir Singh Rode are said to be among the top Punjab militants who, in league with the ISI, have been assigned the task of carrying out militant activities.

West too soft on Pakistan, says India 

Britain and the US have "lost the right" to lecture New Delhi on how to respond to terrorist provocation by displaying double standards by tracking down bombers in Pakistan but letting them operate freely in Kashmir, India's foreign minister said yesterday.

In an interview with the Guardian, Yashwant Sinha warned that relations between Pakistan and India remained tense despite the withdrawal of hundreds of thousands of troops from their shared 1,800-mile border. "There is a tremendous anger in the minds of the people of India," he said. "They are angry even with us. They feel we have taken a very soft line with Pakistan." 

India has been smarting from what it perceives as the west's softly-softly approach towards Pakistan, which the government claims was behind the attack on the country's parliament last year and a recent upsurge in violence during elections in the Muslim-majority state of Kashmir. The two nuclear-armed countries have edged towards war twice in the past year. 

Mr Sinha indicated that India will block any attempt to lift sanctions against Pakistan today when an eight-country Commonwealth committee meets in London. The sanctions, imposed after a military coup brought General Pervez Musharraf to power in 1999, limit aid and bar Islamabad's officials from attending Commonwealth meetings. 

Commonwealth sources said the mood of the committee had swung towards the stance of Australia and India, its most hawkish members. 

Mr Sinha accused Pakistan of sabotaging economic cooperation in South Asia and voiced doubts that India would attend a summit of seven regional leaders scheduled for January in Islamabad. "What is it the summit will do? On the weighty issues like trade there is a lack of will from Pakistan to make any progress," he said. 

New Delhi has been furious that the west has not taken a harder line with President Musharraf, who pledged to crack down on militants crossing into Indian Kashmir before the elections in the state earlier this month. 

Mr Sinha said 800 people were killed in terrorist violence during the election campaign, including candidates and a state minister. 

"Terrorism in Kashmir is entirely imported and exported by Pakistan," he said. "The international community calls Pakistan a stalwart ally, so the terrorists in Pakistan are bad and the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir are good. 

"If the international community want to live with this definition then good luck to the international community. But it is the same Al-Qaida fellow who comes into Jammu and Kashmir, who goes to Bali, who goes Singapore, who goes to the US and who comes to Europe." 

It was the responsibility of countries such as the US and Britain to force Pakistan to act, he said. If they could not, then India would respond "without restraint". 

"The international community has lost its right to advise India," he said. "The international community came and told us this is the promise President Musharraf has made [to curb infiltration into India by Islamic militants]. Yet Musharraf has clearly failed to deliver." 

New Delhi also claims that the recent elections in Pakistan are evidence that President Musharraf is merely consolidating his hold on power, rather than moving from "dictatorship to democracy". 

The EU described the elections as "seriously flawed", after its observers reported that polling officials had rigged the process to favour pro-Musharraf candidates. 

Mr Sinha said that instead of promoting a "vibrant democracy" in Pakistan, Britain and other countries preferred to look the other way. 

"You have to trust the will of the people. People have the right to govern and misgovern themselves," he said. "The stability of Pakistan should not be confused with the stability and preservation of President Musharraf in power." 

Terrorists get Death Sentence in Parliament attack case

Special Judge S N Dhingra on Wednesday sentenced to death S A R Geelani, Mohammed Afzal and Shaukat Guru in the Parliament attack case.The three, who were convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Indian Penal Code and the Explosive Substances Act for waging a war against India by conspiring with the five terrorists who attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001, were also fined Rs 500,000 each. 

Afsan Guru, wife of Shaukat, who was convicted under Section 123 of the Indian Penal Code for concealing the plot, was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000.The judge said a certain amount of the fine should be paid to the families of the securitymen killed in the attack. 

The court rejected the leniency plea of the defense counsel saying it was the rarest of rare case and the convicts deserved the most severe punishment. This was the first conviction and sentence under the newly enacted POTA. Shaukat broke down when the sentence was announced. Afzal was furious. "We never expected justice from the court," he said. 

The Delhi police tried to prevent the convicted persons from speaking to the media. Outside the court, some Shiv Sainiks burst crackers after the sentence was announced, throwing the police into a tizzy. When the confusion cleared, they started shouting slogans like 'Pakistan Murdabad'.

Russian President Putin's visit to India: A Brief Coverage

Placidity marked the summit between Vladimir Putin and Atal Behari Vajpayee at Delhi last week. Barring the media, neither side expected spectacular conquests. The outcome should not surprise any observer who cares to go beyond the immediate event and considers the context that informed the meeting. The decade of the nineties saw the world change drastically and without notice. Europe is in a drift posing dilemmas for Russia that is at once European and Asian. Russia is as different from the old Soviet Union as the Bharatiya Janata Party (India’s ruling party) is from the Indian National Congress. These shifts plus a new world, where every country except the United States is groping for a firm grip, explain the copy book interaction between the two countries last week.

The Delhi Declaration Putin and Vajpayee signed is eloquent on familiar issues but it is the silences of the texts that yield sense and not just meanings. Putin’s interviews to the media on the eve of the summit set the limits of expectations, as did media kite flying in India. Clear formulations were available relating to defense, trade and terrorism. But there was neither denial nor confirmation of the speculation on a triangular axis with China. In the end, one has to concede that the annual summit itself is a unique feature indicating that the relations between the two countries are headed for a rediscovery of the old glory and romance of bilateral ties in the Soviet era.

In the altered scenario, India is a growing player in the international arena than Russia, which, despite its economic worries, has not lost any of its influence either with Europe or the US. Putin has done excellent work in repairing domestic economy and rebuilding equations with the United States and China. This shows how weak is the perception that regards the reference to a Russia-India-China axis as directed against Washington. The future of bilateral relations depends on building a strong and mutually beneficial trade base. Growing at a rate of more than 5 per cent, the Russian economy offers an excellent market for Indian merchandise. The unmanageable demand for consumer goods in India ought to interest the czars in the Russian private sector.

Today, trade is the weakest link between the two countries. With the fall of Communist Russia and drops in Purchasing Power of Russians India’s exports to Russia fell to 2 per cent from 18.3 per cent in 1980-81 while Russia’s exports to India also slumped from 8.1 per cent in the Soviet era to just 1 per cent last year. In the words of Putin "our trade turnover is not just low, but in admissibly low." This grim situation should serve as an invitation to the private sector in both countries to play a big role. Both sides signed a joint declaration on strengthening and enhancing economic, scientific and technological co-operation identifying nine areas to increase business interaction.

He said Russia would develop its inter-banking facilities and credit facilities to improve business with India. "Besides, the two nations need to find permanent channels for exchange of information on business opportunities," Putin said.

He said India and Russia could cooperate in several sectors including infotech, biotechnology, infrastructure development, and ferrous metals.Also speaking on the occasion, Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said all the two governments can do is create an atmosphere for trade, but modern market conditions demand that private businesses need to establish direct contact to push this effort further.

He said the two sides are working on various agreements and understandings that would transform the business environment between the two sides.

India needs to immediately recapture the market for its tea that it has lost to Sri Lanka. India’s information industry must begin to look Moscow wards too. In his address to the captains of Indian industry, Putin called for a breakthrough in mutual trade abjuring the trade relationship based on rupee debt. He referred to Indian collaboration in major oil projects such as Sakhalin I and to the involvement of Russian companies in oil exploration in the Bay of Bengal. Delhi, of course, is eager to seize the trade opportunities Russia offers. Putin told newsmen that his country was willing to step up co-operation to increase the capacity in nuclear power generation beyond the Koodanakulam project within the framework of international rules and regulations.

Much noise preceded the negotiations on defense deals. Parleys on the sale of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and the T-22 bomber are hanging fire over the price of retrofitting the carrier and equipping it with 40 aircraft. Linked to this deal are the two Akula-class nuclear submarines. Russia is expected to replace the submarines’ 3,000-km-range cruise missiles with 300-km-range missile to respect the missile control regime. The talks gained some momentum after Russian minister Ilya Klebanov met India’s defense minister George Fernandes last month. The Delhi Declaration was silent on Gorshkov and several defense deals under negotiation. Indian Navy badly needs the aircraft carrier.

Moscow continues to be Delhi’s biggest supplier of defense needs. India is also interested in the speeding up of the process of licensing the production of Sukhoi-30 fighter planes, their first squadron already operational. But Hindustan Aircraft Limited is waiting for a Russian license to make 140 more planes, transfer of technology, supply of raw material and support technicians. Other things awaiting delivery are two Krivac stealth frigates and Smerch multi-barrel rocket delivery system. They will go a long way in forging stronger defense bonds. None of these deals bind Russia or India to any exclusive and strategic relationship. On both sides, these are businesslike deals. In the defense area, each needs the other. The computing of trade turnover between the two countries depends on whether defense supplies are regarded as commercial or strategic.

The Moscow-Delhi-Beijing axis is a proposal Russia made long before Putin became the Russian president. It received life from a meeting between the foreign ministers of the three countries in the backrooms of the UN General Assembly last September. The anti-American lobby plays with the idea despite the impracticability of such a plan. Impracticable because all the three countries need the goodwill of the United States in several areas. None of them, singly or jointly, are inclined to take on Washington which has closer ties with each one of them than any two of them have between themselves. India does not seriously consider such a proposal. India’s foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal told the media, "there is no proposal for any strategic configuration that you are speaking of."

Moslem Terrorism and secessionism worry both India and Russia alike and generate common responses. They regard terrorism at once as a national and international phenomenon, gradually betraying the hand of a common culprit. Putin called for strengthening the international non-proliferation regime to prevent weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists. The Indian media saw this as a subtle reference to Pakistan. This inference was not necessary because Putin clearly told an Indian newsman that "one such concern that we have is the weapons of mass destruction in Pakistan. We have to have a clear picture of where these weapons are and of what will happen to them in the future."

Moscow was more forthcoming and unambiguous in endorsing Delhi’s stand that any dialogue with Pakistan can only begin after Islamabad completely checks cross-border infiltration by terrorists and dismantles terrorist infrastructures in its territory. There was also an acknowledgement that any meaningful Indo-Pak dialogue could take place only within the framework of the Shimla agreement and the Lahore declaration. Experts in India believe that in return for this support, India has endorsed Moscow’s stance on weaponization of space. The Delhi Declaration called for early start of multilateral talks aimed at preparing a comprehensive arrangement on non-deployment of weapons in outer space, not using or threatening to use force in respect of space-based objects etc.

Putin’s trip is a lesson in post 11/September diplomacy dedicated to Russian recovery, a goal that subordinates petty rivalries and prejudices to national interest. It is a model, if one were needed, the Indian side could imitate fruitfully. In contrast, India’s development, economically and internationally, is hostage to partisan politics, overenthusiastic media and a variety of charlatans masquerading as NGOs and peaceniks. In the end, a country’s success depends on how objectively it can consider itself, its strengths and weaknesses. This is Putin’s strong point and, therefore, of Russia.

Facts To Make Every Indian Proud

You may know some of the following facts. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.

India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

India invented the Number system. Aryabhatta invented 'zero.'

The world's First University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty stricken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.

The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.

The Indian Mathematician Budhayana first calculated the value of pi, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have in the year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6th Century, which is long before the European mathematicians.

Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.

According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. (Gujarat Province in Western India)

Chess and Polo were invented in India.

Sushruta is the Father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India.

When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilisation).

Here’s more to understand………

The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems?

Vinod Khosla

Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today's computers run on it)?

Vinod Dahm

Who is the third richest man on the world?

According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is AZIM PREMJI, who is the CEO of Wipro Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6th position now.

Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's No.1 web based email program)?

(The Well Known MSN Messenger in which the entire mankind chats on)

Sabeer Bhatia

Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?

Arun Netravalli

Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard?

Rajiv Gupta

Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems?

Sanjay Tejwrika

Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?

Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.

Important Notice to all those who think Americans are Prosperous:

The Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites and the natives. There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET,

38% of doctors in USA are Indians.

12% scientists in USA are Indians.

36% of NASA scientists are Indians.

34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.

28% of IBM employees are Indians.

17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.

13% of XEROX employees are Indians.

Quotes about India

"We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made."

Albert Einstein.

"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition."

Mark Twain.

"If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

French scholar Romain Rolland.

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

Hu Shih.(Former Chinese ambassador to USA)

All Of The Above Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg, The List Could Be Endless

BUT,

If we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow. I hope you enjoyed it and work towards the welfare of INDIA Say proudly, I AM AN INDIAN.

For News from India: of positive action, steely endeavor and quiet triumphs ~ news that is little known and the Western Media will never let it known connect to http://www.goodnewsindia.com/

We made mistakes in India, Pakistan: Straw

In an extraordinary admission, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has blamed 200 years of imperialism, including his country's complacency over "what happened in Kashmir", for the worst crises of the 21st century. "India, Pakistan -- we made some quite serious mistakes," Straw told the New Statesman magazine in an interview. 

He lamented the complacency of publishing the "boundaries two days after [Indian] independence. Bad story for us, the consequences are still there". Straw said the crises in Kashmir, Afghanistan and West Asia were the result of British involvement. 

"The odd lines for Iraq's borders were drawn by Brits. The Balfour Declaration and the contradictory assurances that were being given to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to the Israelis -- again, an interesting history for us but not an entirely honorable one," the foreign secretary said. 

He also rejected the doctrine of "liberal imperialism" recently offered by Prime Minister Tony Blair's former foreign policy advisor, by which the developed West would be emboldened to intervene in the disputes of the developing world. 

"I'm not a liberal imperialist... there's a lot wrong with imperialism. A lot of the problems we are having to deal with now... are a consequence of our colonial past," he said. 

India's Blind Spot

There is glee in our response to Pakistan's travails. We were happy when it was described as a failed state. In order not to sound prejudiced, we did argue that it was not our assessment but that of the West, as if anything coming from it was the gospel truth. Our bias was clear and we waited for the collapse of Pakistan under the weight of its economic difficulties.

More recently, after the September 11 carnage, we enjoyed Pakistan's chagrin as they had to stand behind America and jettison the Taliban, their own creation. That Islamabad lost face was apparent. It is proved beyond doubt that the ISI trained, armed and guided the Taliban and that Pakistani troops and officers fought alongside them till the last minute. But we failed to recognize the change in Islamabad's policy. 

It is clear that Pakistan took a U-turn when it found it had no option but to support America. All that Islamabad had built collapsed like a house of cards in a few days. It realized that its policy on Afghanistan was flawed. The policy-makers who saw Afghanistan giving Pakistan a much-needed "strategic depth" were found to be ambitious and unrealistic. General Pervez Musharraf justified the new policy "in the best national interest which was motivated by concerns of security." He may sound opportunistic but he has to stay in the good books of mighty Washington. 

We refused to see how crestfallen Islamabad was. Nor did we gauge the disillusionment of the people of Pakistan. We were on our ego trip: not to give an inch to Islamabad. There is no doubt that Pakistan's president accepted the facts. He did it despite knowing that the public opinion in his country was anti-America. It was a personal risk he took. It has paid off so far. 

Our efforts, on the other hand, were concentrated on creating bad blood between America and Pakistan. We could not accept the position of not being asked to help even after we had offered all our support within an hour of the September 11 tragedy. How could Washington woo Islamabad, whose complicity with the Taliban was beyond doubt?

We went on telling the world that a dictatorship was being preferred to a democratic state. Probably, it was not that black or white. Probably America had no choice. Probably it chose Pakistan because it has a long border with Afghanistan. Pakistan, a frontline state, was also an ideal place to launch any action against Afghanistan. Islamabad opened airports and other places to help American and British soldiers enter Afghanistan. 

America could conduct bombardment from naval ships as it did. But it needed a land base for ground operations. India is not the ideal geographical location for that kind of access. Thank God for that, because it would have been difficult for an open, democratic country to allow foreign soldiers to operate from its soil. Still we sulk because Washington wants to build equally strong relations with Islamabad. Must it always be them or us? 

Kabul has a friendly government, one that is not under the influence of Islamabad or the ISI. The Musharraf junta has unwittingly helped us. Another welcome point is that Islamabad is waging war against Islamic fundamentalists and obscurantists. They are the Taliban within. 

We should feel elated that Afghanistan, which was a breeding ground for terrorists, is no more a vortex of militancy. Terrorism will no longer be exported to Kashmir from there. There was a time when Musharraf was thick with the terrorists. He was unsure of his ground even when he took action against them initially. In Sind, he arrested some terrorists but released them quickly. He was probably testing the waters. 

Subsequently, however, he joined issue with them. He has detained many terrorists and has had to face demonstrations in support of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Musharraf has also dismissed the ISI chief, transferred the two top army commanders and demoted some middle-rank officers who were baptised during General Zia-ul Haq's regime. The military -- one-third of it bigoted -- may well have been cleaned up. 

This mopping up job must have emboldened Musharraf. He has enunciated harsh measures to discipline thousands of madrassas which have been training nearly 500,000 students in fundamentalism every year for the last two decades. The madrassas now need to register themselves, submit their accounts for audit and introduce science and other subjects to modernise their curriculum. This is something even we have not dared do about the madrassa-like institutions in India. 

For the first time in many years, the Pakistan intelligentsia is happy that the wave of Talibanisation, which was taking over the society, is receding. Some leading journalists and academics who were in Delhi last month were amazed to find India indifferent and uninformed about this development. We have never given the impression that we favour it despite the fact that any step against fundamentalists in Pakistan strengthens our secular society. 

It is possible that Musharraf may also come to realise that the minorities in Pakistan should have a better deal. The present system which advocates separate electorates is a millstone which the Christians and Hindus have been wearing around their necks since the inception of Pakistan's constitution. Although the two communities do not exceed five to seven per cent of Pakistan's total population, their say is nil. Musharraf may well prove to be the first head of state to give them their voice back. 

Musharraf's Achilles heel is that he lacks the electoral backing every ruler cherishes. The test will come next year when Pakistan has to return to democracy under the orders of the Supreme Court. 

Pakistan may not turn into a democratic polity because the army has too much at stake in the country's policies. Even otherwise, the army in a third world country seldom returns to the barracks once it tastes power. It is worse in Pakistan because authoritarianism is woven deeply in the warp and woof of its society, which is organised on the basis of Bonapartism and feudalism. 

The extent to which Pakistan becomes a modern liberal state will be significant for us. It is unfortunate that it still believes that the terrorists it sends across the border are jehadis. This has only communalised the society. The supply of arms, training or money in the name of religion is equally divisive. Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto saw the point during her visit to New Delhi and said she would stop cross-border terrorism if she returned to power. 

What New Delhi and Islamabad should be worrying about is that America looks like it will continue to stay in the region. It may have a base in Afghanistan and also "protect" oil and gas in the country. America would like to "overlook" China, Russia, India and Pakistan. It would also like to "influence" events in the region. This is the greatest danger to both India and Pakistan. Individually, the two will be helpless. They must jointly act to keep America from the region, even if they do not see eye to eye on many points. 

Communist Journalism Tampers Facts in India

I would like you to take the following quiz: How many of the following recent news stories (all from the year 2001, except one, maybe) have you personally heard of?

There was a conference in New Delhi on the preservation of diversity in religion, which was attended by luminaries such as the Dalai Lama.

A Hindu Bangladeshi professor, a college principal in Chittagong and a prominent freedom fighter, were shot dead during the genocide against Hindus in that country.

Two Christian Rwandan nuns were convicted of crimes against humanity for their roles in the massacres of minority Tutsis in their country.

The Konkan Railway, the first major railway project in India since Independence, has been a major success despite the difficult terrain and the logistics nightmares.

The Vatican released a report admitting that many nuns have been raped, impregnated and even murdered by priests, missionaries, et al.

A group of Indian and foreign experts got together to release their plans for preserving the heritage of India for humanity and for all time.

The Tarun Bharat Sangh has succeeded in reviving many rivers in the arid foothills of the Aravalli ranges in Rajasthan through simple traditional water conservation measures.

The Kansas City Star reported that the levels of AIDS amongst Catholic priests in the US were 4 times the rates of AIDS among the general population.

An acclaimed Russian film about Lenin was prevented from being exhibited in West Bengal by the state government because it was less than laudatory.

Muslim militants went on a rampage in Pathanamthitta, Kerala, burned the BJP offices as well as gas stations and buses, and attacked Sabarimala pilgrims.

Many of these got substantial airplay in the international media. The shocking story of the Rwandan nuns accused and convicted, Nazi-like, of crimes against humanity has been in the news in Europe for some time. For instance, this is what The Economist had to say about the nuns in Rwanda: in "Judging genocide", June 16, 2001.

At the end of April, Kenyan police arrested a former Anglican bishop, Samuel Musabyimana, who is accused of genocide and of paying militiamen to kill Tutsis...

On June 8th... two Roman Catholic nuns were found guilty... of complicity in the Rwandan genocide... Sister Maria and Sister Gertrude had handed over to their killers up to 7,000 Tutsis who were sheltering in their convent; later, they provided petrol so that militiamen could set fire to a barn in which about 500 Tutsis had taken refuge. They were sentenced to prison terms of 12 and 15 years by a jury... in Belgium. It was the first time that a jury of citizens from one country had judged defendants for war crimes committed in another.

As for the story about the Konkan Railway, it is an inspiration. In the face of obstacles, including extremely difficult terrain (many tunnels, bridges, etc) as well as the task of raising large amounts of money through a public bond issue, the railway was constructed on schedule and within budget. It used to be said that Indians could never match the feats of the British engineers who built much of India's network; isn't it amazing that E Sreedharan, the man who ran this Herculean effort, is a virtual unknown?

We have heard all about 'Mother' Teresa, but why is Baba Amte, whose work with lepers deserves at least as much renown as the Albanian nun's work, is not pushed forward for a Nobel Prize? Nor do large sums of money get thrown at him.

Michel Danino told me about the International Forum for India's Heritage that has been formed with the express intent of preserving India's remarkable heritage, some of which is in danger of being lost due to neglect and mismanagement. In this context, see also an interview with Maneka Gandhi. However, notes Michel with chagrin, not a single English-language Indian newspaper carried the announcement.

India's Marxists and their fellow travellers had a field day complaining about censorship in regards to Fire and Water. Why then did they not extend the upholding of the freedom of expression to the Lenin film, Taurus, by renowned Russian director Alexander Sokurov? And why did the media not upbraid them for this hypocrisy?

Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a respected Hindu monk and scholar, hosted a major conference in Delhi in mid-November. It was the "World Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity", intended to support the preservation of the mosaic of religious traditions and cultures, "a priceless heritage of humankind". His Holiness the Dalai Lama attended. Yet, India's English-language newspapers almost completely blacked out this conference. Why? Because it was challenging the rationale for religious conversion.

I could go on and on, but let me sum it up: I think the English-language media in India is in the hands of a cabal of vested interests; in many cases these interests appear to be Christian-funded. In other cases they appear to be heavily influenced by Marxists, possibly the Chinese. None of these vested interests worry overly about India's national interests, not surprisingly.

If there is anything positive and good happening in India, you certainly won't find it written up by the regular media, which is too full of bellyaching and accusations. Incidentally, I found many inspiring examples of success stories in India on the site www.goodnewsindia.com (no, not www.goodnewsindia.org , which is one of those offensively smarmy Christian fundamentalist sites), which apparently is a labour of love for a gentleman named D V Sridharan. I salute this person's persistence and spirit of service for the nation, which is so sorely lacking in the mainstream media.

Therefore I find the current brouhaha in the English-language media about history textbooks most alarming. They who are so worried about censoring the past (as they accuse the BJP of doing) certainly do censor the present with gay abandon! This is important: the young become what they are fed, a topical case in point being the Islamic seminaries of Pakistan. These have inculcated in an entire generation of Pakistanis a mindset of intolerance and violence against Hindus and Indians based on a falsified history of the Indian subcontinent. If we inculcate in our children a false history of India we will create a society of monsters: much like our lost generation that worships America, Russia or China, but never India. This cannot be countenanced.

I think it was Oscar Wilde who said that the only thing we owe to history is to rewrite it. The Marxists have been true believers in the virtues of "truth by repeated assertion". They have been adept at fabricating history to suit their pet theory du-jour. They have used history as a tool for propaganda and for their agit-prop tactical goals.

Let us remember the Soviet Union's habit of manufacturing a different history every day, excising purged comrades (such as Trotsky) from history and even cutting them out of photographs; the Chinese fabrication of abominable lies about Tibet (read Claude Arpi's The Fate of Tibet, Har-Anand) and the literal attempt by the Khmer Rouge to entirely erase history and start with Year Zero.

Consider the status of the leftist historians who are now waxing eloquent about their 'objectivity'. It turns out that large numbers of them were friendly witnesses cited by the Sunni Waqf Board in their case in the Ayodhya matter. If they are testifying on behalf of one side, the Muslims, in a litigation where the facts are anything but crystal clear and there is a lot of room for interpretation, how they could then be considered purely 'objective' or 'impartial' is somewhat mysterious. Interestingly, almost all of the grey eminences currently breathing fire were associated with the Babri Masjid Action Committee, according to Arun Shourie, in Eminent Historians, ASA Publications, 1999:

R S Sharma, Suraj Bhan, D N Jha, Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, B N Pandey, R L Shukla, Satish Chandra and Gyanendra Pandey

Shourie skewers each of the individuals famously grousing now about their lovely textbooks being rejected: R S Sharma, D N Jha, Satish Chandra, et al. He shows them to be shady characters just short of being charlatans, scarcely the saintly academics they like to pretend to be. It is nothing short of astonishing that these are the people who have been allowed to mould India's children for the past half-century. India's citizens have clearly failed in their duty of vigilance.

There is an unholy alliance of these 'eminent historians' and others, for example Bipan Chandra and K N Panikkar. These people have formed a cozy clique, where they review and applaud each other's works and ensure they all have cushy, government-funded posts where they are supposed to write books that never do get written; but large sums of money do get paid, and they get 'research grants', 'travel grants' and other porkbarrel goodies to hand out at taxpayer expense. The sinecures have continued till now; the real problem is that the BJP is now ensuring that some of these 'eminent historians' are forced to do some work to justify their existence.

Romila Thapar, taking up cudgels on behalf of her friends, has accused those on the other side of being "pulp historians". She targets, in particular, scholars such as Koenraad Elst, Subhash Kak, David Frawley, N S Rajaram, et al who are not necessarily holders of PhD in history; but then they are also not fattening at the trough of Indian taxpayer money.

There are several responses to such an ad hominem attack. First, granted, they may not be professional historians, but that probably enables them to see the Emperor's New Clothes very well indeed. Second, if they are pop historians, why, then Thapar et al might well be considered court hagiographers. Third, non-professionals often contribute dramatically to the growth of a discipline as compared to hide-bound traditionalists.

First, they are not professional historians, granted. But then, why do leftists not object when Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize winner in economics, not history, holds forth on history? But they do not: Romila Thapar shared the stage with Sen, and surely nodded approvingly, at the Indian History Congress in Kolkata on January 2. The title of Sen's address was "History and the enterprise of knowledge". This quote will give a flavour of the content:

There is also a systematic confounding here of mythology with history. An extraordinary example of this has been the interpretation of the Ramayana not as a great epic but as documentary history which can be invoked to establish property rights over places and sites possessed and owned by others.

Sen pontificates thus about Ayodhya. To put it bluntly, what does Sen know about either mythology or history? A Nobel Prize in one discipline is no guarantee of knowledge in any other. I am reminded of William Shockley, Nobel Prize winner in physics, who later became a laughing-stock for his idiotic theories on race and intelligence. Why isn't Thapar asking Sen to cease embarrassing himself with inane pronouncements?

And frankly, even Sen's economics is suspect. Kerala, the Marxist paradise and object of much adulation by Sen, has now become a basket case, a 'money-order economy' sustained only by remittances from expatriates, along with large doses of Christian and Arab money for conversion and church-/mosque-building activities. Kerala is perilously close to having a cargo cult: it would come to a standstill without produce-laden trucks from Tamil Nadu.

Furthermore, as a friend remarked, if you have in Sen the left-wing Nobel Prize winner with pithy quotes to support Thapar and company, then there is in V S Naipaul the right-wing Nobel Prize winner. Do the two cancel each other out? In point of fact, Naipaul certainly knows much more than Sen does about people and societies, as a much-admired travel writer. Why won't India's leftists then accept Naipaul's opinions? Why do they attack him instead?

Communist version of Indian History will be Scrapped

Finally after all these years Historians in India have realized that History does play an important role in shaping National Pride Firstly because Communist version of Indian History is Doctored and false and Second, if Elst, Kak, et al are "pulp historians", I think it would be quite proper to call the leftist-establishment types "court historians" or "hagiographers", as it has been their mandate for the last fifty years to produce hosannahs and hallelujahs to the Nehru Dynasty. Which task, it must be mentioned, they have performed admirably, erasing from history the contribution of such stalwarts as Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhash Bose, Veer Savarkar, et al to the struggle for Independence. 

In this context, please see my previous column, Let us now praise famous men. I found an interesting tidbit about Jawaharlal Nehru recently. It turns out that in the recently published Volume 29 of his selected works, there is explicit confirmation of the fact that when India was offered a permanent UN Security Council seat in 1955, Nehru declined, suggesting that China be given one first. No wonder he is the idol of the leftists. All the more reason for them to be dumped forthwith in the waste-heap of history. 

Third, it is sometimes the non-professionals in a particular field who come up with the path-breaking insights. Those who are already in the field have their livelihoods to think about, the papers they have presented, the prestigious sinecures they have gained and the legions of eager graduate students who are their disciples. How could they possibly -- it is a human frailty -- stand by and watch this entire edifice be toppled by some brash upstart who makes their life's work look stupid? 

It is not difficult to sympathise with them. I am sure this is how church astrologers/astronomers felt when that pesky Galileo Galilei turned up with his absurd ideas about the earth going around the sun. How on earth could the establishment turn itself upside down to support this man's wild ideas? Better to oppose him tooth and nail. Which the Vatican's old guard did, for 300 years, finally accepting the heliocentric view in 1982 or so! 

I do hope it will not take India's court hagiographers of the official church of Marx and Nehru another 500 years to get the fact that the Aryan Invasion Mythology is a convenient racist myth. Thapar has been hand in glove with Michael Witzel and others in the counterattack (again ad hominem) against those that would debunk their pet theory (as someone said, they keep shouting the strange device, "No horse in Harappa! No horse in Harappa!"). It must be truly tragic to see something that you've built up your entire career on disappearing into thin air. 

In particular, it is clear that the weight of evidence in a dozen fields, such as population genetics, satellite imaging, forensic medicine and so forth, has seriously undermined the entire mythology of an Aryan migration or invasion into India: in fact it is looking increasingly likely that the migration was out of India. This research reserves wider renown. 

I think there are three books that I would recommend highly for inclusion in the curricula of schools and colleges. These should be eye-opening to students: 

The Raj Syndrome: A Study in Imperial Perceptions, by Suhash Chakravarthy, Penguin India. This remarkable scholarly study, peppered with footnotes from original sources, is a damning indictment of the British-Christian rule in India. In their own words, it shows how the British attempted (and largely succeeded) in constructing a fantasy of India as the uncivilised Other. The depradations of Christian fundamentalists, some of whom like Temple, Monro, et al held influential positions and used them to the hilt to attempt to destroy Hinduism, shows that the religious strife was not confined to the Islamic era, but continued into the Christian era. Chakravarthy, a professor at Delhi University, offers a thorough, original and classic work. 

In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, by Subhash Kak, Georg Feuerstein, David Frawley, Motilal Banarsidass. A layman-friendly account of how there is considerable evidence that the first civilization on earth was that of the Indus-Sarasvati river valley. This book brings out the plethora of evidence of Indian cultural influence migrating westward to Europe. 

The Invasion that Never Was, by Michel Danino, Mira Aditi Centre. A slim and very well-written book that gently devastates the Aryan Invasion Mythology by marshalling evidence from a variety of disciplines. A suitable antidote to the rantings of the likes of Witzel and Thapar in Frontline magazine. 

It is true that the last two books are by authors with a pronounced sympathy for Indian culture and history. Therefore, Thapar and her clan would claim, they must be, ipso facto, biased. But it is Thapar and her crew that are ipso facto biased, as they have a major vested interest to maintain: their entire India-bashing would suffer a grievous blow if it can be shown that there is no such thing as an 'Aryan' and a 'Dravidian', and that India has had a continuous and robust civilization. They believe, because of what Marx said somewhere in a two-sentence off-hand command, that India has nothing positive to contribute to humanity. 

In terms of mutilating textbooks, I am impressed by the sheer chutzpah of the leftists in crying "Wolf!" now when they have unhesitatingly done nothing but large-scale bowdlerization for the last fifty-odd years. The West Bengal government in 1989 issued guidelines that said: "Muslim rule should never attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned." 

They meant it: they also released an explicit circular relating to textbooks for Class IX. I extract the following from Eminent Historians, pp 63. 

Dated 28 April, 1989, it [the Circular] is issued by the West Bengal Secondary Board. It is in Bengali, and carries the number "Syl/89/1". 

"All the West Bengal Government recognized secondary school Headmasters are being informed," it begins, "that in the History textbooks recommended by this Board for Class IX the following amendments to the chapter on the medieval period have been decided after due discussions and review by experts." 

"The authors and publishers of Class IX History textbooks," it continues, "are being required to incorporate the amendments if books published by them have these aushuddho [impurities, errors] in all subsequent editions, and paste a corrigendum in books which have already been published. A copy of the book with the corrigendum should be deposited with the Syllabus Office",... signed, "...Chattopadhyaya, Secretary". 

This is followed by two columns: The Reality based on Facts and Communist Version which is tampered Here are a few samples, from several textbooks, as selected from Shourie. 

Thus, a complete whitewash of the Islamic role in forcible conversion, massacres, the destruction of temples, which has been amply and meticulously documented by Muslim court historians themselves in Persian (many instances are quoted by Shourie). Merely an insinuation that 'oppressed' Hindus spontaneously embraced 'egalitarian' Islam. Of course, it was not because they may have been coerced at the point of a sword.

They go on to glorify Marxism. Thus, again quoting from Shourie, here are extracts from the West Bengal textbook for Class V:

"...in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and in other East European countries, the workers and peasants are ruling the country after capturing power, whereas in USA, England, France and Germany the owners of mills and factories are ruling the country."

"...after the Revolution in Russia the first exploitation-free society was established".

"... Islam and Christianity are the only religions which treated man with honour and equality..."

Says Shourie, "The design is... to attribute evil to the religion of our country, Hinduism; it is to present Islam as the great progressive force which arose; it is to lament the fact that humanity did not heed the teachings of progressive men like Muhammad -- till the "remarkable and comprehensive" Russian Revolution of 1917!"

Where was Romila Thapar's moral indignation when this skewed history was being imposed on the impressionable children of West Bengal?

The crux of the matter: when Marxists genuinely massacre history to meet their propaganda ends, they do not consider it inappropriate. When someone tries to correct this bias, they scream bloody murder. Indians have lived through this drama too many times to be impressed by the histrionics any more.

Postscript:

I have not said anything about cricket for some time, primarily as I was trying to not hurt the sentiments of a sports fan-friend of mine. But I was appalled at the selection of the film Lagaan as the official Indian entry to the Oscars. This, when there was an excellent contender, Monsoon Wedding, that had already proved itself by winning at a major festival. Why on earth will audiences anywhere other than in India want to spend three hours watching a film on cricket? This is surely a disastrous decision. We need some marketing-savvy people in charge, really!

I was dumbfounded by the incident of the referee Mike Denness. Don't Indians realize that the entire game of cricket is funded and therefore owned by them? Some 60-70 per cent of the take comes from India. In effect, all the cricket players are gladiators hired to entertain Indian fans. And the committees and boards and all that are servants of the paying spectator, who, it so happens, is overwhelmingly Indian. Money talks: if Indians do not get what they want, they should walk. Or at least threaten to. The spectre of losing their jobs would concentrate the boards' minds quite wonderfully.

"We Want War"

There were some 450 of them. Rural people, men and women, from Sukhpar near Bhuj, gathered for another village meeting."Musharraf murdabad," they shouted. "Pakistan murdabad!""Havey to yudh aej kalyan! [Now war is the only solution!]" 

Bhuj belongs to Gujarat's largest district, Kutch, which shares a 310-km border with Pakistan. In light of the heightened hostilities between New Delhi and Islamabad, the villagers here have been preparing for war -- and the gathering was for that. 

"We are fed up of these killings," said Ramji Velani. "Why should our people die everyday? We are bleeding and they are laughing! We want a lasting solution. We will burn Musharraf's effigy to express our anger."Which they did. But before it was burnt, a few well-built women expressed their personal feelings for the Pakistani president -- with some resounding punches. 

Sukhpar, like most of Kutch, is populated by fiercely patriotic farmers. So is Nalia, where the villagers are excited about the heightened activities at the Indian Air Force station nearby. Air force officials had, in fact, convened a meeting here recently to prepare them for the eventuality of war. 

"We now regularly hear planes flying in the night. Twice we experienced blackouts too," said Satish Thakkar.Though Kutch has around 400 km of coastline, there is no naval or coastguard base here. It was only on December 8, 2001, when the shadow of war loomed large, that senior coastguard officials visited the area to draw up a plan for a new base. 

The topography of the Indo-Pak border in Kutch makes an attack here very difficult. By that same token, it is tough to defend it too.The border is a desert. During high tide, the waters from Sir Creek invade it, and do not recede fully during the low tide. In summer the residues evaporate, in the process leaving a bed of salt for the Border Security Force, India's guardians here, to man. 

"Kutchis salute these brave hearts who keep vigil in this salty desert," said Kirti Khatri, editor of a local publication, Kutch Mitra. "It's a torture on human body and mind. Just last month when 32 kg of RDX was seized on this border, we came to know how Lashkar-e-Tayiba militants bring in explosives through the desert." 

The Kutch border presents problem for logistics too. "Unlike the Punjab and Rajasthan border, Kutch is not populated," an army officer explained. "So when our jawans go into the desert, to the border, we have to make sure they have everything with them." 

"Nothing, nothing is available once you reach the borderline. There are no villagers there to help you," he added.Kunvar Bet is beyond Khawda village. Unlike Bhuj, where you don't feel the 'war-like' situation so much, Kunvar Bet is witnessing the 'largest-ever pre-war preparations in the last 30 years'. 

In the whole area, peacetime slackness has been replaced by wartime vigil. Army numbers have changed, cyber café owners asked to keep their eyes open for suspicious surfers, local reporters requested to be careful about what they write... 

When the army moved heavy machines into the desert, word leaked out in Bhuj. "The villages are smart and very curious," said a police officer. "They wanted to know if bunkers and trenches were being made!" 

They are eager to help too. For instance, on December 2, a resident of Bhuj called up the army base. He said he had 200 bottles of blood, which he wanted to donate!People across the border, meantime, have started to migrate, an intelligence official said. 

"We are safer than them because our side is not populated," he said. "They have well-settled villages like Mara, Shah Bunder, Keti Bunder, Musafir Khana and Bhadami. Our villages like Khadir, Koteshwar, Lakhpat Zara, Hudko and Lyndro are not as close." 

The officer said about 20 per cent of villagers, mostly landed farmers, have moved out, taking with them their livestock, from the area manned by Pakistan's 206, Infantry Brigade."We have suffered more than one would suffer in a normal war," said a young army officer, with many injuries during counterinsurgency operations. "Our jawans are ready to thrash the enemy nice and proper. We are ready for war." 

This readiness is evident in the Kutchis too. But also in them is a healthy dose of pragmatism. Bharat Parmar of Sukhpar put it into words, thus: 

"We remember how our jawans won Nagarparkar, a border tehsil of Pakistan, in the 1971 war. The Indian flag flew there for a year. But all that gains were lost over a meeting table in Simla [when the Simla Agreement restored to Pakistan its land]. 

"We don't want politicians to lose the gains of our war on the diplomatic table. And we don't want the United States or the United Nations to tell us what to do once the war starts." 

Was Lord Buddha born in Orissa?

History records that Prince Siddhartha, who later became Gautam Buddha, was born in Lumbini village, near Kapilavastu town, in what is now southern Nepal. The UNESCO, the Government of India, and the world at large accept that Lumbini in Nepal was the birthplace of the Buddha. 

But now some archaeologists and historians based in Orissa have claimed that the Lumbini of history is not the village in Nepal, but one in present-day Orissa. The Utkal University Of Culture, based in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, has set up an eleven-member committee headed by Vice-Chancellor N K Mishra to study this claim. 

Orissa Museum Superintendent Dr Chandrabhanu Patel, who last month claimed that Gautam Buddha was born in a village on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, is also on the committee. "I made the claim after a team of 15 archaeologists visited the site and found archaeological evidence corroborating our stand" 

The place being touted by Patel is in Kapileswar village, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Within Kapileswar is a small village, almost a part of the larger Kapileswar area now, known as Lembei. Patel says Kapileswar is the birthplace of the Buddha. 

He points out that a stone pillar with the inscriptions of Emperor Asoka, which was discovered in 1928 at Kapileswar and is at present in the Ashutosh Museum, Kolkata, states that the emperor, in the 20th year of his coronation, had worshipped at Buddha's birthplace at Kapileswar. 

The Orissa Museum superintendent said his team of archaeologists recently excavated different Buddhist sites in the state and after carefully examining the discovered rocks and inscriptions, felt they had sufficient evidence to believe that the Buddha was born in the state. 

He said his team had found four old sculptures of Asoka in the Kapileswar temple grounds, representing the four stages of Siddhartha's transformation from a prince to a sage. He added that according to the Buddhist religious textbook Tripitaka, Siddhartha was the son of a small estate owner who, according to the Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang, visited the different parts of Orissa. 

Patel claimed that Bhubaneswar was earlier known as Buddheswar, after the Buddha, while the region adjacent to Orissa's capital is known as Goutam Nagar, after Siddhartha's stepmother Goutami, who was also his mother's sister. In Orissa, Goutami is known as Mousima, and a temple complex called Mousima is still in existence on the periphery of Goutam Nagar, said Patel. 

He further said that Buddhism entered Nepal only in the sixth century AD, which was unlikely if the Buddha had been born there. 

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Lumbini, in Nepal, has been challenged as the birthplace of Buddha. Earlier, some researchers had claimed that he was born at Piprahwa village in Uttar Pradesh, since excavations there had thrown up an epigraph that read 'Kapilavastu Mahasangha'. But there was no further research into the matter. 

The Orissa government is backing the research into the claim. "We are going to organize a national debate in New Delhi to throw more light on the discovery," Culture Minister Dr Damodar Rout said. 

But the claim has received mixed response elsewhere. "When the Indian government has officially recognised Lumbini in Nepal as the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, the question of Orissa does not arise," said Monoj Mohapatra, who specialises on Buddhist archaeology. 

Noted historian Professor M N Das recalled a similar case four decades ago. "Such a claim was made way back in the 1960s by historian Chakradhar Mohapatra, who submitted a paper on it to the Utkal University. Some eminent historians then believed that Mohapatra's points were worth considering, but due to the lack of archaeological evidence, the research was not taken up," he told rediff.com 

Das, whose doctoral thesis was on Emperor Asoka, submitted, "I have studied Buddhism and a majority of the literature openly points to Lumbini in Nepal as the Buddha's birthplace. Thus those who say Orissa is the birthplace need to provide stronger evidence." 

The eastern state has quite a few linkages to the Buddha. One such story states that after the Buddha's death about 2,300 years ago, his tooth was brought to Kalinga (the ancient name of Orissa) and presented to the then king, who built a huge stupa (shrine) at Dantapuri. Added Das, "Dantapuri later came to be known as Puri." 

In Orissa abound several excavated Buddhist sites, which have yielded stupas and viharas (monasteries). The Archaeological Survey of India has also claimed to have discovered a gilded stone casket during an excavation at a site in the state 17 years ago. The stone casket is believed to contain the ashes of the Buddha. 

Meanwhile, responding to the Oriya claim, Lumbini Development Trust executive board member Narendra Man Joshi was quoted in a Nepali newspaper as saying, "Let us not call it [the claim] malicious. An individual researcher can pursue his idea. But the whole world knows that Buddha was born in Nepal's Lumbini, which is listed as a UNESCO heritage site." 

Once Upon a Time 50,000 Years ago

Imagine recording a message that will traverse through outer space for years and years... 50,000 years, to be precise, and then return to Earth so that our descendents can read about the way we were. If that sounds like a fairy tale or science fiction, think again. It is as real as reading this article! 

Project KEO is about a satellite doing just that: traversing through space for the next 500 centuries, carrying information, images, and messages from present-day humans, then returning to touch base with Planet Earth so that our descendents will know how life on earth was in 2002 CE. 

Project KEO has invited messages from all over the world till the end of this year. These messages will be loaded on to the satellite before the satellite is launched into space at the end of AD 2003. The idea behind Project KEO is to transmit the messages of ordinary people living on Earth today to our descendents, telling them whatever it is that they wish to convey. 

Indian citizens who would like to have their message recorded, to be replayed 50,000 years from now, can do so from the Web site www.keo.org or post their message to the 'The Embassy of France, 2 Aurangzeb Road, New Delhi 110 011'. All messages, whether of one line or a maximum of four pages (6,000 characters), will be included, uncensored, on the KEO satellite. The sender must mention his or her nationality and country of residence. 

Messages can also be sent through SMS (short messaging service) on the cell phone free. Such messages should be sent to (+91) 98200 18700 and must include the words 'Message to KEO' and the sender's mother tongue, gender, and date of birth. 

French scientist Jean-Marc Philippe, who conceptualised the project and is president of Programme KEO, said different languages are welcome. "After all, the word 'keo' [was chosen] because its pronunciation is the same in all the world's languages," he explained. 

The KEO project has been built free by some of Europe's leading space agencies, and, according to a press statement, seeks to fuse the boundaries of scientific endeavour and artistic experimentation. The project will be the largest collective artwork ever undertaken in the history of humanity, and UNESCO has designated KEO as the 'Project of the 21st century'. 

The spherical KEO satellite has several anti-shock, anti-cosmic, anti-debris, anti-meteoric and thermal shields that will protect it during its 50,000-year-long space odyssey. It shall be adorned with wings that will flutter in response to temperature variations in outer space. The influence of planetary and lunar attraction, and the laws of ballistics, will make it return to Earth. 

Within the core of the satellite will be stored the most important gift: frescoes of messages (digitised and stored on glass discs), the Library of Alexandria (a description of our time, level of development, body of knowledge, state of our planet, and today's living species), an astronomical clock, portraits of human beings as they look today, and a diamond enclosing samples of air, water, soil, and human blood. These materials, it is hoped, will help our descendents understand how humans lived 50,000 years before their time. 

According to Philippe, the appearance of the human species began five million years ago and man first produced tools 2.5 million years ago. Then, about 500,000 years ago, man harnessed fire; 100,000 years ago he constructed his first sepulchre. "And it was 50,000 years ago when man invented art. And hence, we are timing KEO's return after 50,000 years." 

Philippe was in India last month visiting different cities to create greater awareness about his project. His grievance is that people from the developed world are writing more messages than those in the developing world. "I think in most of the developing countries, the penetration and awareness of the Internet is less compared to the developed countries and therefore there are less messages from developing countries," he said. 

Actress and Member of Parliament Shabana Azmi, who has supported Project KEO, said, "For me, this project offers hope and love. KEO is important because it sends a message of peace from today's world to tomorrow's world. In fact, we all must think of how we should spread the message of KEO in different parts of rural India." 

But how will our future descendents read our messages? 

"It is evident that what is a must in our technology today --- a laser reader --- will be obsolete in the future," said Philippe. "And due to its volume and innate fragility, a DVD disk reader cannot be included in KEO's payload. Therefore we are working on creating diagrams bearing simple symbolic explanations to construct a DVD disk reader in order to make it possible for our descendents to access the contents of the discs. Following the example of the Rosetta Stone, this information will be repeatedly made available to them such that it is clear and easy to decode." 

KEO has received messages in 60 different languages from 181 counties so far and by the end of 2003, when it sets out on its journey through space, it will have even more messages in many more languages. 

Philippe appealed to Indians to send in more messages. "Your civilization is amongst the oldest in the world, your country is known for its wide span of cultures, religions and traditions, and also today for its technological capabilities. So please log on as many messages as you can in KEO," he said. 

Sejal Gupta, who worked as communications assistant on the KEO project, also appealed to Indians to send in messages. "I want many Indians to log on to KEO and give their messages because so far the maximum number of messages have come from the United States, Canada, and Europe." 

Delhi Climate Declaration adopted Unanimously 

The Delhi Declaration on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was unanimously adopted by 169 countries participating in the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change in New Delhi on Friday. 

The document focuses on technology transfer and capacity building as demanded by developing nations.After extended negotiations, the key demand of developed countries for inclusion of 'a dialogue on further commitments by developing countries upon entry' in the Kyoto Protocol was dropped. The demand had met with stiff resistance from China and the Group-77 developing nations, including India. 

In the declaration, parties that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol strongly urged parties that have not to ratify it in a timely manner.The Kyoto Protocol, which commits a country to the principle of multilateralism in addressing and resolving various issues of global concern, was adopted in 1997 and aims at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. 

Welcoming the consensus on major issues, conference president and Indian Environment Minister T R Baalu said, "It provides a new direction to our common approach to combat climate change."The declaration, marking the culmination of ten days of nerve-wracking negotiations and hard bargaining, expressed deep concern over the negative impact of greenhouse gases on developing countries. 

Seeking to balance the concerns of both developing and developed countries, the document noted that efforts are being made by all to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.Conceding to G-77's demand, it recognised Africa as the region suffering the most from the adverse impacts of climate change and poverty. 

An Indian official said the biggest accomplishment of the conference was making the Kyoto protocol's clean development mechanism fully operational. The CDM will channel private sector investment into 'emission reduction projects' in developing countries to promote sustainable development. 

The conference also concluded three years of work for reporting and reviewing emission data from the developed countries.The meeting also provided guidance to the global environment facility on the priorities for two new funds -- the special climate change fund and the least-developed countries fund. 


Hindu Missionaries Head Overseas

Nearly 600 years after the first Christian missionaries landed in India, Brahmin priests are being readied at a seminary near Delhi to take their religion worldwide and defend "the rights of Hindus against conversion." Religious organizations aligned with India's Hindu nationalist-led government, committed to preserving Hinduism in its purest and most traditional form, said the priests would try and dilute the influence of Christianity on expatriate Hindus. Three Brahmin graduates from the Hindu Heritage Parishthan at Modipuram, 70 km. from Delhi, left recently for the United States, Singapore and Mauritius. 

Their missionary work amongst overseas Hindus will last at least a decade. "Well versed in ancient scriptures, these priests are expected to spread the virtues of Hinduism and perform rituals for the Indian diaspora," said Shashi Sham Singh, head of the seminary. All entrants to the Modipuram Seminary are required to be proficient in Sanskrit and have a working knowledge of English. During nine months of training, at the end of which they are awarded a diploma, they study ancient texts, learn to perform complicated Hindu rituals like marriages, child-naming ceremonies and death rites. They also recite lengthy and complicated Sanskrit prayers from memory. "It is not only Hinduism the priests are taught, but also other religions to enable them to counter Christian arguments."

Sanskrit Celebrations in Canada

Celebrating Sanskrit and it's contribution to Indian civilization, Bharat Bhavan Hall was filled with a capacity crowd.Various scholars spoke on the contribution of Sanskrit to the culture and civilization of India (sanskriti) and the role Sanskrit historically played as the cultural lingua franca of India. The question and answer session provoked vigorous debate over the potential role of Sanskrit as facilitator of modernization of Indian culture and society today. There was enthusiastic audience participation in spoken Sanskrit. This ranged from choral singing, led by Malika Das, prayers in praise of Goddess Durga by Professor Shastri Jandhyala, recitation of poetry by Rakesh Sharma,and narration of stories by Professor Savitri De Tourril.

India’s Cultural Influence on Japan

Hinduism went from India to Japan along with theBuddhist missionaries. Numerous deities were introduced into Japan and manyof these are still very popular. For example, Indra is popular in Japan asTaishaku (literally the great King Sakra); Ganesha is worshipped as Sho-ten(literally, Holy God) in many Buddhist temples, and is believed to confer happiness upon his devotees. A sea-serpent, worshipped by sailors is calledRyujin, a Chinese equivalent of the Indian Naga or Snake God. Shinto has also adopted Indian gods: Varuna is worshipped as Sui-ten (Water God), and Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, has become Benten (literally, Goddess of Speech). 

Siva is well known to the Japanese as Daikoku (literally, God of Darkness), which is a Chinese and Japanese equivalent of the Indian Mahakala, another name of Siva. According to author Donald A. Mackenzie: "The Indian form of myth of the Churning of the Milky Ocean reached Japan."The Japanese Shinto myth of creation is similar, with the churning of primeval waters until they curdle and form land. There is evidence of Indian influence in Japanese dance, art, literature and games. Even the cultivation of cotton in Japan is traced to an Indian who drifted to the shores of Aichi Prefecture in 799. It has also been found that some of the scriptures of the Japanese priests preserved in the Horyuji Temple of Japan are written in Bengali characters of the eleventh century.

The Changing Face of Sikkim

In the last ten years Sikkim, a state in North East Frontier of India sheltered in the Himalayas, has undergone changes. A senior bureaucrat in the Sikkim government says, "Our religio-demographic pattern has undergone such a change in the last decade that Sikkim is no more a land of Hindus and Buddhists." The article says, "In 1975, when Sikkim merged with India there were hardly any  Muslims and Christians. Now they account for 14.8% of the population. And even before Sikkim can absorb such a big change, it is being threatened by incursions by Nepalese Maoists from across the western border." Borders of Sikkim are manned by New Delhi's Special Security Bureau. 

Their task is to keep Maoist rebels out of Sikkim. But it is a thankless task. Most of the rebels look, eat and speak the same language as the Sikkimese and are often related to someone in Sikkim. When Chief Minister Chamling started projects in the field of power, roads, and tourism; trained masons, carpenters, and plumbers have flooded the country. Many of these artisans have stayed in Sikkim. With the influx of trained artisans, Sikkim's backward castes and Lepchas have suffered economically.Many Lepchas, the original inhabitants of the state, have converted under the lure of money to Christianity. A senior leader of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front says, "Sikkim is now being threatened within and outside and it is very important to tackle the triple threat of Maoism, Islamization and Christianization."

New Zealand to Honor India with Expo on Weddings

New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa, will launch a two-year long exhibition on Indian weddings as a way of honoring Indian migration to the country, a museum official said. "Aainaa Reflections Through Indian Wedding" marks weddings here with photos, talks, dancing and music. Hindu, Sikh and Muslim weddings will all be displayed, Te Papa ("Our Place") concept leader Robyn Anderson said. 

Although Indians have been coming here since the late 19th Century, both from India and from the sugarcane fields of Fiji, Anderson said the first Indian wedding did not take place until after World War II. Before then men went back to India to find partners and marry. Today the weddings are mostly held in New Zealand with a lot more mixed marriage couples choosing to have both a religious service, usually Hindu, and a civil one. Astrological charts are still consulted and the associated ceremonies may still last several days. The color of saris, the gold and the garlands make Indian weddings easy work for display, although Anderson says it is much more than just a lavish display. "It has a very serious element to it, as the wedding is a framework of engagement with the host society."

Brahmins Do Not Have Monopoly to Perform Temple Puja

The Supreme Court has ruled that Brahmins ( The Priestly class of India's Hindu Community) do not have a monopoly over performing puja in a temple and said a non-Brahmin, properly trained and well-versed with the rituals, could be appointed as a pujari (temple priest). "As long as anyone well-versed and properly trained and qualified to perform the puja in a manner conducive and appropriate to the worship of the particular deity, is appointed as priest, no valid or legally justifiable grievance can be made in a court of law," the court said on Thursday. 

This ruling was given by Justice S. Rajendra Babu and Justice Doraiswamy Raju who upheld the appointment of a Non-Brahmin as pujari in Kongoopilly Neerikode Siva Temple at Alangad village in Ernakulam, Kerala. Justice Raju, writing for the Bench, said no doubt only a qualified person, well-versed andproperly trained for the purpose, alone could perform pujas in the temple since he not only had to enter the sanctum sanctorum but also touch the icon installed therein.

India slams Pakistan for justifying Terrorism

India has slammed Pakistan for perpetuating and justifying cross-border terrorism.It also rejected its criticism of the government's handling of the communal violence in Gujarat, questioned the right of its rulers to vilify democratic institutions, and accusing it of treating parts of Kashmir occupied by it as its virtual colony. 

In a harshly-worded speech before a committee of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Indian delegate Ajit Kumar Panja, Member of Parliament, said it was Islamabad, which had made UN resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir 'unimplementable'. 

Pakistan's call for a dialogue with India, he said, sounds hollow in the face of its encouragement to terrorism, which is responsible for widespread killings of innocent people in Jammu and Kashmir whose 'interests it pretends to promote'.

Charging Islamabad with spreading 'misinformation and disinformation' on Gujarat, Panja said, "This is typical of the genetic material of military regimes whose lack of accountability and whimsicality are so intrinsic to their nature that it infects their efforts so demonstrably even during their occasional lapses into surface manifestations of democracy and rule of law." 

Panja was speaking after a Pakistani representative had indulged in India bashing during a discussion on 'elimination of racism and racial discrimination and right of peoples to self-determination' in the committee.

It was 'unfortunate and highly regrettable', Panja said, that the representative of Pakistan had chosen a United Nations forum to 'denigrate the elected political leaders of India, including the Prime Minister [Atal Bihari Vajpayee]'. 

"Perhaps, we cannot expect anything better from representative of a military dictatorship, which has required a farcical referendum, constitutional amendments and legal framework orders to legitimate itself," he told the delegates. 

All Indians have condemned the incidents that have taken place in Gujarat, he said. The democratic institutions that India has built are strong rooted and capable of dealing with their effects, he added. 

Panja said the public and private bodies like the National Human Rights Commission, a vigilant media, strong civil society institutions have helped to control the events and prevent communal violence from spreading to other areas. 

The President [A P J Abdul Kalam] and the prime minister have expressed their deepest anguish. 

But he agreed that there is still need for vigilance especially in the light of the 'nefarious attempts by outside elements to deliberately exacerbate the situation such as was witnessed in heinous act of terrorism in the temple complex of Akshardham in Gujarat'. 

Referring to Pakistan's demand for self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir, Panja charged Islamabad with 'indulging in the abuse of the concept' to bolster its agenda of territorial aggrandisement through terrorism against India. 

"Pakistan should first ensure the right of self-determination for its own people before sermonising others on it. It should desist from loading its discredited agenda to the legitimate aspirations of others for self-determination," he told the committee. 

Indian Catholics Consider Including Sanskrit in Prayers

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in India said that they were considering adding a Sanskrit ( The Ancient Language of India in which most of Indias holy texts are recited ) word to liturgical prayers to make Christianity more acceptable to Hindi speakers. A synod of archbishops and bishops from India and Philippines, which began Sunday in Patina, was studying a proposal to include the word "Sachidanand" in liturgical prayers. B.J. Osta, the archbishop of Patna, stated "The word 'Sachidanand,' meaning the Trinity of Gods, also conforms to the Christian precept of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." In India, Christians generally say prayers in English or in literal translations into local languages. Osta said the church was also considering publishing a Hindi-language magazine and setting up a press to publish liturgical books in Hindi. 

The three-day meeting was called to find ways to make Christianity more amenable to Hindi-speakers in the wake of increasing criticism of Christian conversion activities in India. HPI adds: The word "sachidanand" or, more properly "Satchidananda" or "Sachchidananda," means literally "Existence-consciousness-bliss," a state which can be experienced in the deepest meditation. One definition is, "A synonym for Parashakti. Lord Siva's Divine Mind and simultaneously the pure super conscious mind of each individual soul. It is perfect love and omniscient, omnipotent consciousness, the fountainhead of all existence, yet containing and permeating all existence. It is also called pure consciousness, pure form, substratum of existence, and more." This Hindu concept has no relationship to the Catholic concept of the Trinity of God.

Bindis Becoming Popular in Russia

Bindi iz Indii" ("Bindis from India") are the new craze among young Russian girls. Bindis are being used as an element of body art along with pierced noses, tattoos and mehndi-dyed hands. Many girls display fancy bindis on their bellies, a thing unimaginable in Communist Russia where tight jeans, mini-skirts, hotpants and tank tops were virtually a taboo, not to mention in India where the belly isn't considered a bindi-placing place. 

Ready-to-use self-sticking bindis can be bought in many kiosks selling Indian souvenirs and incense sticks as well as high-profile beauty parlors. In a recent program on fashion, popular radio station Ekho Moskvy (Moscow Echo) described the history of bindis and their usage as an element of body art. The program gave instructions on how to prolong the life of factory-made self-sticking bindis as well as how to make them at home and decorate them with cheap artificial stones and beads.

NASA Photos Reveal Bridge to Lanka

Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam´s Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long. The bridge´s unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge´s age is also almost equivalent.
 
This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in tredha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago). In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge, which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be the incarnation of the supreme. This information may not be of much importance to the archeologists who are interested in exploring the origins of man, but it is sure to open the spiritual gates of the people of the world to have come to know an ancient history linked to the Indian mythology.

Chinese Children Excel in Indian Classical Dance

A group of Chinese girls are excelling in the niceties of Indian classical dance in Beijing. "I can't believe this. I am highly impressed. The Chinese children are performing much better than some of their Indian peers," said renowned Indian dancer, Mallika Sarabhai after she saw a live performance of Bharatnatyam and Kathak by a group of young Chinese girls at the Oriental Song and Dance Assemble (OSDA) in Beijing earlier this year. The performance of these girls, trained by Su Bao Hua, a leading Chinese choreographer who specializes in Indian classical dance forms, has won laurels from many personalities like former first lady, Usha Narayanan, during her visit here two years back. 

Su, who teaches Chinese and Indian dances at the OSDA, said, "she was thrilled by the genuine interest among Chinese parents to teach their children Indian classical dance forms." Su thanks the Indian government for offering scholarships to OSDA students and hopes that more Chinese students would go to India to master the rich dance forms of the country. Su learned Bharatnatyam under Leela Samson and later Jayalakshmi. She was invited to study for three months in 1992 at the most famous dance school in India. Kalakshetra, founded by the late Rukmini Devi Arundale in Chennai.

Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient India

Ancient Indian creation theory, astronomical time spans, binary system of number representation, modern languages, the invention of zero and algorithms are but some of the scholarly subjects detailing Hindu scientific accomplishments on this University of Texas website. One small example: "Astronomical time spans: Apart from the peoples of the Mayan civilization, the ancient Hindus appear to be the only people who even thought beyond a few thousand years. In the famed book Cosmos, physicist-astronomer-teacher Carl Sagan writes "The dates on Mayan inscriptions also range deep into the past and occasionally far into the future.

One inscription refers to a time more than a million years ago and another perhaps refers to events of 400 million years ago ... the time scales are prodigious." Hindu scriptures refer to time scales that vary from ordinary Earth day and night to the day and night of the Brahma that are a few billion earth years long. Sagan continues, "A millennium before Europeans were willing to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Hindus billions.