Thugs

We very commonly use terms such as Scheduled Caste, Schedule Tribes, Nomadic and denotified tribes. We rarely bother to find out the origin of these words. When we say denotified tribes mean what? Who had freed them, why and from what? There is a long history behind it and every patriotic Indian must read it.

Maratha Empire ended in 1818. But many patriotic Indians refused to accept British Raj and continued their struggle against them. It began with Pendharis who fought for 4-5 years. They were not a caste or tribe but group of people who helped Maratha army in many wars. They were from Maratha tribes, Muslims and even Jats. Pendhari’s arms struggle was secretly supported by Marathas. They were large in numbers. Therefore, British cornered them from all the sides with large army and finished them in 1820. It is a coincidence that Pendharis were finished and Thugs were born. There were many communities in India who were expert in trickery and used it for spying and espionage. They were paid employees of Indian rulers. Once British rule started, they were unemployed. They used their skills and troubled British a lot by robbing their convoy and killing them. Both of them have similar constituents i.e. both Hindus and Muslims. Since there was no community as Thugs, I strongly believe that British created it. Whatever information on Thugs I came across is British account. Therefore, one can sense that it was written as per their convenience. British were so troubled by Thugs that they formed a separate police force called Thuggee and Decoity Department in 1835. Unlike Pendharis, Thugs were very small group and no Indian rulers supported them. Thugs gave British very long fight. They even participated in 1857 freedom struggle. British could destroy them by 1871. As many as 3000 Thugs were hanged with no account whatsoever!

British were very cunning rulers. They knew that such arms struggle is not going to end. Therefore, they brought new act called Criminal Tribes Act in 1871. British put forward an astonishing theory. It says criminal behavior is hereditary rather than habitual! The tribes who fought against British were branded as Criminal tribes and were included into this act. In Maharashtra, Umaji Naik’s Ramoshi community raised arms struggle against British and hence Ramoshi, Paradhi, Kaikadi tribes were added into this act. They kept on revising this act and included new tribes into it. The final shape of this act came into place in 1924. As many as 198 tribes were added into this act. Such communities were forced live outside of towns and villages. Restrictions were imposed on their movement. They had to appear before police on weekly basis. Helping them would definitely become a crime and therefore mainstream communities started alienating from them. Decades of alienation resulted mainstream, patriotic, worrier tribes into completely isolated, poor, illiterate communities who had eventually taken crime as their profession for survival!

Nehru condemned this law before independence. Therefore, it was expected that it would be completely abolished post-independence and all these tribes would be brought into mainstream. On the contrary, in 1952 new government renamed it as Habitual Offender Act (HOA) by denotifying those tribes. Therefore, they are called as denotified tribes (विमुक्त जमाती (VJ)) as if new government had freed them from their old crimes.  Because of HOA social stigma on these communities continued. After 67 years of independence, these communities are still experiencing social alienation. Police atrocities are still continuing. Many of them are not provided with the benefits of reservations. Many social workers are demanding complete abolition of HOA because Indian Penal Code is sufficient enough. I personally feel that its abolition would be a nationalist act. Therefore, when Modi’s government asked citizen for suggestions, I submitted a request on mygov.in to abolish HOA. If you agree with me, request you to do the same!  

Abid Hasan

Few days back, I was watching “The Forgotten Hero” movie on Netaji Subhashchandra Bose. As title suggests, he is really forgotten in his own country in less than a century. The history of India’s freedom fight has been reduced to history of only one party and rest of the freedom fighters are already forgotten or marginalized. While watching the movie, the character played by Rajit Kapur stuck to my conscious. I felt this person must be very cheerful, modern, highly patriotic and very sophisticated. Therefore, I started collecting more information about him. His name is Abid Hasan.

Abid was born in a very influencing and resourceful family in Hyderabad. His father was collector in Nizam state. His mother was Iranian. In those days, Nizam bureaucrats used to send their children abroad for education. Since his mother was against British, she sent her kids to Germany. Abid had taken admission in Engineering college. History tells that Subhashbabu went to Germany in 1941 for seeking help from Germans for raising arm struggle against British for liberating India. He also realized that Netaji’s way is the only way to liberate India from British. He was Netaji’s German interpreter. He negotiated with Indian POW laying in German camps to join Indian Legion.

When Netaji met with Hitler, Abid did not want to follow German salutation. Therefore, he saluted Hitler by saying “Jay Hind”! Netaji was very much impressed by this salutation and made the salutation of Azad Hind Fauz. Pandit Nehru also like this salutation and kept it as salutation of Indian army after the independence. In short, he is the originator of this salutation.

He was very brave and patriotic person. He accompanied Netaji during his journey from Germany to Japan by submarine in hostile water. One can only imagine their courage and love for mother India that they had taken such a dangerous journey in those days.

After taking over Azad Hind Fauz from Rashbehari Bose, Netaji made Abid his personal secretary and Major in Azad Hind Fauz. Once, members of Azad Hind Fauz were discussing the flag of free India. Hindu soldiers were insisting on saffron color in the flag. But after intense negotiations they dropped their demand. Abid was highly impressed by this gesture. To respect this decision, he added Saffroni at the end of his name and became “Abid Hasan Saffroni”.

After Japan’s defeat in World War II and mysterious death of Netaji, British capture Azad Hind Fauz and tried them in military court. He was imprisoned in Singapore. After his release and returned to India, he joined Indian National Congress for brief period. But he was disappointed with the politics. He then joined newly formed Indian Foreign Services. He worked in many countries in Middle East and Europe. He was also India’s ambassador to Denmark and Germany. He settled in his native place Hyderabad after his retirement.  

People, who worked with him during his diplomatic career, described him as very sophisticated person. He can became Middle Easterner in Middle East. He can behave as European in Europe and still very Indian at his heart. He never spoke about his association with Netaji and INA during his diplomatic career. He is really a jewel of India. I can only salute him “Jay Hind”!

Gypsy

As days are passing, I wonder whether we really grew up or we just became older. But this is a journey which everyone has to take and hence I am also on this journey. We build our notions, beliefs, habits, behavior, personality, etc. based on surrounding such as family, friends, community, religion, locality, school, etc. In addition to this, my association with RSS also made the great impact and developed some of the notions for myself. Hindu religion, Indian languages, culture is the greatest in the world, Indian society is the most cultured society in the world, Institution of family and marriage is the greatest in the world, Indians are most brilliant people in the world so and so forth. In short, I also started thinking the way most right wing minded person thinks. There is nothing wrong in it. However, there is always a danger and pitfall in such strong believes. Such self-praise and self-proficiency sometimes makes one inert, blind and narrow minded person. Visiting various places, meeting people and talking to them keeps one away from such pitfall and makes one open minded.

One such opportunity came to me in year 1994 when I visited Islamic Republic of Iran. No wonder I was travelling with thick right wing bias. India then had recently experienced Babari Masjid demolition and aftermath of it. I never expected that Iranians will ask me direct questions on it. But they did! Initially, I started reacting very sharply and told them that I am here for work and not for discussing politics. But my manager used to give them very tactical answer. It gave me completely different perceptive of that incident.

Initially, I was scared of walking on the streets of Gazvin because of notion which was developed about Iran over a period of time. People used to greet me (Are you from Hind? They call India as Hind) while walking the lanes of Gazvin. But I used to take it as an offensive remark. After few days, I started understanding their Persian language. Interestingly, Persian is Indo-European language and has lot of Sanskrit words in it. Once I started understanding Persian, I realized that Iranian are very fond of India because of many political, historical background and progress India has shown without any support from West (read US) and they believe that they are intelligent people next to Indian! 

The local company appointed one driver for me. Mohammad Begi Baktiyar was school dropout and was forced to fight a war with Iraq after few days of his marriage. He did not understand English and I did not understand Persian! The company had instructed him to show me historical places surrounding Gazvin during the weekends. I immediately realized that his all weekends have gone. I told him, he could take his family, if he wishes. Immediately, his official duty became company paid family vacation. He took me to such places where normal tourist will not go. One of thing I learnt there that common citizen are essentially good and then just don’t care for political, religious or ethnic divides.

Mohammad Begi’s wife could speak and understand English a bit. She liked Hindi movies especially of Big B. They call him Vijay (because Vijay is his name in many of his movies). She memorized complete song of Sholey. Practically every Iranian had seen Sangam, Awara etc. She told me that Iranian National Television once telecasted Shakti (Amitabh, Dilipkumar starrer). The complete nation was halted in front of TV set. They also compelled authorities to relay it once again on the following week. This is a wonderful example of how arts can bring the people together.

Once we were visiting Ali Sadr Caves (largest and longest Caverns in the world). Begi’s wife and sister-in-law removed their scarf and asked me to take a photograph. Begi was very furious as it big social taboo in any Islamic country. But they didn’t give any heed to him. I was also very hesitant knowing the culture there. But they insisted! I obliged and took the photograph. I tried to pacify him. Begi’s statement was very thought provoking. He said, “You are my good friend and I trust you. But you do not know the society here. Highly dangerous and explosive mixture has been created here by mixing religion and politics. I am worried about your and my wife’s safety.” The point is that the most common, under educated person understands the human liberty and freedom and do not accept any oppressive restrictions by any religious authority. Practically all religions use fear and threat to implement their policies and principles. This incidence also brought very interesting perspective. You go anywhere in the world you will find woman rules man!!

There were lot of engineers from other local companies working with me. Many of them were educated from various US Universities including MIT. They were very fluent in English and expert in their work. Once I became friendly with them, they started telling me history of Persia. It was completely other side of story what we hear here. They told me fascinating stories of Islamic revolution in Iran, Iran-Iraq war etc. It reinforced my earlier belief that British rule has done enormous damage to the world’s civilization by drawing the lines on this earth! I also realized our Government would feed us only those stories which they want us to know and media would share only those news which are convenient to some interest groups or Government. This was the first time, I understood the definition of History that it is a story of infighting among the civilization written by a victor! I told myself that god has given a wonderful item on your shoulder and I must use it before coming to any conclusion!

15-Aug-2014

Exactly one year back, I accidently listened to PM’s address on Independence Day. I had written a blog then to express my anguish (http://smgundawar.blogspot.in/2014/01/15-aug-2013.html). Today, I am once again writing a new blog after listening to PM’s address to the nation on the occasion of Independence Day. Last few years, I did not plan or bother to listen to what PM says on the occasion of Independence Day because it sounded very rhetoric. But this time, I was waiting for this day and started TV 30 mins in advance. There is 180⁰ change in the atmosphere. PM NaMo’s speech has become the talk of the town in electronic media today. Tushar Gandhi said he came in the studio to criticize Modi government but he cannot do it after listening to him. I am sure his speech would have made such a profound impact on many common citizen. I am sure citizen of this country will eagerly wait for Independence speech now onwards.

Many things are being discussed in television studio about his speech. However, I would like to share my views on something which is unspoken and non-verbal during the ceremony. There were two major changes we have seen today. PM refused to take bulletproof enclosure and lowered the height of the podium so that his chest was visible to the audience. After completing his speech, he broke the security protocol and mixed with school children. It was a deliberate act to make a very strong statement. I think he was emphasizing on the point “Be fearless”. Strong nation needs fearless leader and citizen. Fearlessness is the precondition for the strong, peaceful and prosperous nation. It was also a message to the neighboring countries and rest of the world that India now has very strong, fearless, decisive and honest Prime Minister. This will certainly increase the courage of our security men and common citizen at large.

NaMo’s dressing sense has always surprised people and created curiosity in the media. Today, his attire made a very strong statement. He was in his trademark “Modi Kurta” and traditional turban. He knows his speech would be watched not only in India but across the globe. His sense of dressing sent the Indianness message across the globe.

Unlike in the past, PM did not read through a written speech. It might have created some inconvenience to the international guests present in the program. But he has very good sense of his audience and exactly knows who his audience is? Moreover, one need to listen to it along with President’s address to the nation yesterday. Both the speeches are complimentary to each other. His open and free flowing speech touched many minds as it looked like it was coming directly from his heart. There was an honesty, commitment, truthfulness, concern, firmness, optimisms throughout his speech. He was carrying himself with lot of confidence, passion, and with sense of urgency. I wish to avoid discussing verbatim of his speech. Only time will tell how much he as PM or we as a nation are going to achieve. But his speech certainly spread optimism, dream, positivity, encouragement, hope in the atmosphere. Such atmosphere is essential for economic, scientific, social and cultural growth. Innovation and entrepreneurship prosper under such leadership. Moreover, such atmosphere is going to encourage youth, industrialist, artisan, government servants, politicians, farmers and common citizen at large. I think this is a beginning of new chapter of great India! It makes me to remember very inspiring song “भारताचीया महारथाला सारे मिळुनी ओढुया”

Jai Hind!

Criminals of the Constitution

In 2004 general election, BJP’s “India Shinning” campaign could not shine their fortune and voters packed them out of the power. INC did not get the required majority but all BJP haters joined hands together and formed UPA 1. The elected MP’s of Congress selected Mrs. Sonia Gandhi their leader. Ideally, leader of the largest party is always nominated PM. But when she met with President Kalam on 18-May-04, she proposed Dr. Manmohan Singh as PM. President was surprised as he was expecting that she would stake the claim. There are lots of theories on why did she not become PM. But that is not the topic of discussion. Mrs. Gandhi’s this sacrifice was glorified across the country and we made her larger than life! 

Now Congress was facing the serious issue on how Mrs. Gandhi can control the govt. being just MP! She cannot become a minister under her junior and UPA Chairperson isn’t a constitutional position. To resolve this crisis, they created a constitutional body using the power of Prime Minister. PMO notified formation of National Advisory Council (NAC) (http://www.nac.nic.in/) on 31-May-04. PM appointed Mrs. Gandhi as its Chairperson on 3-Jun-04. She was given the complete authority to select the members. The constitutional precedences of formation of any constitutional body were ignored. There is no procedure of selecting its Chairperson or members. No bureaucracy or opposition party is involved in selecting its Chairperson or members. Though its charter is to provide inputs in the formulation of policy by the Govt. and to provide support to the Govt. in its legislative business, its main purpose is to provide complete control of the govt. to Mrs. Gandhi. NAC can intervene in any ministry, ask their files and ask their secretary to make the presentation. It has control over Planning Commission as well. The activities, which were earlier done by respective ministries or Planning Commission, are now being done by NAC. See this link. (http://www.nac.nic.in/press.php) One can get the idea of their interference in governance.  There are ample evidences that NAC had intervened in selecting/changing ministers and bureaucrats without involving PM. Quickly, NAC became a pseudo cabinet and Mrs. Gandhi as Super PM with complete authority but with no responsibility! To deflect people’s attention from its main purpose, NAC acquired its validity, respectability, sanctity by appointing well known personalities (some controversial as well, in my opinion). Their work such as Right to Information, Right to Education, Right to Health, Food Security is now being promoted as their original work although constitution of India does talk about these citizen’s rights.

The story does not stop here. Mrs. Jaya Bachchan was expelled on 17-Mar-06 from RS by President on Election Commission’s recommendations for office of profit as she was holding an office of UP state. The opposition parties demanded similar action against Mrs. Gandhi being Chairperson of NAC. Just before Election Commission could take such action, the intelligent lawyers of Congress recommended her to resign both from NAC and as MP. She took high moral ground by resigning on 31-Mar-06 declaring that she is in the politics for serving the nation and people of India! It created such a profound impact that she was re-elected from Rae Bareli in by-election in May 2006 with emphatic majority over 4 lacs votes. The rest of candidates lost their security deposit! But this victory could not solve their main hurdle! She could not return as Chairperson of NAC. Although she resigned from NAC, it continued to function till 31^st Mar 2008 and ceased thereafter.

To remove this hurdle, Congress amended the Office of Profit Act 1959 itself! To hide their main agenda of removing NAC, they removed 55 offices from it. These offices were mainly from West Bengal and UP.  As Left and SP were main beneficiaries, they supported the amendments. BJP protested against the amendments strongly and walked out of the Parliament. Left and SP helped Congress in passing the amendment amid BJP’s walkout on 17-May-2006. The President sent back the amendments on 31^st May 2006 for seeking some clarifications. The government sent back the same bill to him without any modifications for his approval.  As the cabinet and parliament are supreme in the democracy, he had no other option but to give his consent on 18-Aug-2006! These amendments were also challenged in the Supreme Court. But SC, in August 2009, refused to intervene in legislative competence and power of parliament.

Now all the hurdles were cleared. NAC was reconvened and Mrs. Gandhi once again became the Chairperson in 29-Mar-2010. Her control over PM and Govt. started once again. She once again became Super Prime Minister! She is solely responsible for diminishing and devaluating India’s PM. Mr. Manmohan Singh silently allowed it to happen and became rubber stamp PM!

Mere act does not indicate whether it is virtue or sin. The intension or purpose behind the act decides it. If the purpose is empathy for others, then it is a virtue. But if the objective is exploitation, then it is a sin. Therefore, though Congress actions were correct in the eyes of law, but they resulted into exploitation of constitution for giving undue favor to Mrs. Gandhi. Therefore, it is a BIG SIN Congress has committed.  The people of this country should not forgive and punish these criminals. Let’s hope that such immoral body would be demolished and the respect of our constitution would be restored back during NaMo’s govt.

Nostalgia

Last few days, my mother is serving us aambil (आंबील) in the morning. Cuisine, recipe and taste of the food are generally unique to the family, caste, religion and region. Continuous churning happens in these social actors and new recipes / eating habits are developed. Similarly, though aambil is not a part of dietary tradition of our family but it entered through the impact of the region where we are brought up. We all siblings cherish its taste and enjoy it during the summer. It is not the only one which entered in our family but there are few other recipes like aalan (आळण) (Many people in our region can’t pronounce “ळ” and therefore they pronounce it as “आरण”) and dhasala (धासलं) and they became the tradition of our family.

On close observation of these recipes, I realized that they are extremely economical, easy and very quick to prepare. They also represent a profound innovation of lower income group to adjust their dietary habits according to their income. This is my small effort to put them in front of you.

·        The aambil is made up of Javar (जवार) flour. It’s a main meal and normally prepared in summer as it is colder in nature. Take 150 grams of Javar flour. Ferment it overnight with the help of traditional culture or curd. Next morning, cook it with 3.5 - 4 liters of water. Add salt as per your taste. We also add pinch of cumin seeds (जीरा), sesame seeds (तील) and lovage seeds (अजवायन) for flavor. The thickness of aambil should be similar to the veg thick soup. It gets thicker as it cools down. Therefore, enjoy it hot! With the current market rates, 4 people can have stomach full meal in just (7 rupees for flour and 1 rupee for other ingredient) 8 Rupees!

·        The dhasala is made up of newly harvested rice. It is generally made during winter only. Take 200 grams of newly harvested rice and cook it with 2-2.5 liters of water until rice is completely cooked. Its thickness should be similar to khir. Add salt as per your taste. It is generally taken along with pickle or chutney. With the current market rates, 4 people can have stomach full meal in just 7 Rupees.

·       The aalan is a side dish or curry and accompanies with rice or roti. There are lots of varieties of it. But, I will explain only 2 simplest recipes here.

ü  Take just 10 ml of cooking oil and heat it in the pan. Make very thin batter of 2 table spoon of gram flour (बेसन) with water. Add red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt as per your taste.  Add mustard seeds in pan and allow them to crack. Crush 4 fenugreek (मेथी) seeds (1 per person) and add into oil. It gives very good flavor to it. Add batter in the pan and stir till it cooks well. Generally, spicy aalan is the most favorite in our region. The total production cost for 4 people (10 ml oil – 80 Paise, 4 Fenugreek seeds – 20 paise, 25 grams gram flour – 2.5 Rupees, others – 50 paise) is 4 Rupees.

ü  In other variant, replace fenugreek seeds with ladyfinger or okra (भेंडी). 100 grams are sufficient for 4 people. Make bigger pieces and add into gram flour batter. I also add 2 table spoon of curd into batter (but it is optional). The total production cost for 4 people is 9 Rupees.

All these recipes make me nostalgic and take me to my childhood. Moreover, they help me in remaining firmly on the ground and bring the memories of my primary school classmates. I strongly feel that they should be brought into mainstream dietary and given them due respect like we have given to Biryani. I am just doing my bit here. Give a try and give me your feedback!

What is New in This General Election!

The world’s biggest festival of democracy is currently happening in India. The citizens are jubilant, worried, scared and hopeful of the outcome of the election. There is tremendous churning happening across the country. It will definitely generate both the nectar and the poison as it happened in Samudramanthan. This parliament election is distinctly different than earlier elections in the following ways.

·         BJP declared Narendra Modi as their Prime Ministerial candidate on 13-09-13 and took a lead in the game. This is for the first time incumbent and successful CM is bidding for PM.

·         “Aspirant PM” NaMo has taken complete grip over his election campaign. He has already visited all the states before he started his Bharat Vijay Rally. He will be conducting 185 Bharat Vijay Rallies. In fact, he would conduct 225-250 rallies since Sept-13. He will reach out to estimated 125 M voters and additional 25 M voters during his Chai Pe Charcha! No PM candidate, in past, has taken such mammoth (20% voters) people contact program. No other political leader is even closer to him.

·         In this election, personalities are taking over the Party. It was true for other political parties earlier. Now, BJP has joined the club. The campaign is concentrated around NaMo and not BJP as party.  

·         Congress’s campaign is very weak as if they have already accepted the defeat. It is understandable that Sonia Gandhi can’t due to her health problem. But where is Rahul Gandhi in congress’s campaign?

·         Social media is the key tool for reaching out to the voters. BJP’s innovative idea of Chai Pe Charcha has completely broken the imagination of other parties on how technology can be used for reaching out to and interacting with millions of people.

·         Many non-political/spiritual fronts or organizations such as ex-military organization, Ramdev Baba’s organization, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Nair Seva Samithi, Anna Hazare etc. are openly taking political sides.

·         Large number of first time voters (24 Million i.e. 3% of total voters) who were not born when Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Mandal protest and demolition of Babri Masjid happened. They do not have slightest idea of imposition of Emergency in 1975.

·         All previous elections were fought on emotions and not on the issues. Many political parties are trying hard to bring 2002 Gujarat riots, Babri Masjid demolition, so called secularism at the center stage of election campaign. But the voters are not really interested in them. This will be issue based election.

·         In this election, voters are looking at larger and national level picture rather than state or local level issues. The trends show that caste, region and religious equations are already broken and only national issues have taken a center stage.

·         Third / forth fronts were declared with lot of fanfare. Initial enthusiasm has already converted into cynicism. Most of the regional parties already are in deep trouble today. AAP showed some promising start initially but their influence and support are waning in recent days.  

·         You can see political opportunism, lust for power, switching sides for power at one side and on the other hand many established leaders are shying away from contesting.

·         Media feels that they played a key role in bringing AAP govt. in New Delhi. They feel that they can replicate it at national level. Today, it is very easy to identify the planted / paid news or which media is taking which side. Did you observe TOI is becoming pro-Modi?

Let’s hope, on 16-May this election will make an end to the dynastic rule and dynastic political parties. It should demonstrate a common man can become PM with his hard work, dedication and service to the society. Let’s pray to God that such leader will fulfill the aspirations of all Indians, protect our border, blossom the forests, provide basic needs such as food, clothes, shelter, education, health, employment, security, peace, brotherhood, upheld Indian Dharma in the world and make India a Guru of whole world!