Salvaging Mother India

Even the most optimistic of Indians have started asking the question “Is it possible to salvage Mother India?” Despite the fact that it is the oldest continuing civilization in the whole world, India remains home to more than 25% of the world’s poor. It has one of the most corrupt ruling systems in the whole world. It has immense material wealth and highest caliber human resources in the entire world. Yet a substantial section of its population does not have access to good food, clothing and shelter. Children are under nourished. It produces much more food than what its people require, yet a good number of its citizens still go to bed without food. It has unlimited employment potential; yet is forced to have one of the largest overseas populations in almost slavery conditions abroad.

Earlier we used to blame the foreign rule for all our problems. India was under foreign rule for almost ten centuries, first imposed by Genghis Khan and then by the British. But for almost a century now, we are ruling ourselves. In almost all aspects of life, we are fully self sufficient and we need no external help whatsoever. Yet we are struggling in almost all facets of life. If we cannot guarantee the basic minimum of food, shelter, clothing, health, education and employment to all our citizens, what is the point in claiming to be the world’s greatest democracy? We have chosen a ruling system by the people, for the people and of the people. But more than half our people are always unhappy.

Who is to blame for all these? Now we can only blame ourselves for all our problems. We have opted for democratic rule, but we continue to elect corrupt and inefficient people to rule us. Merit does not come into our minds when we cast our votes. We get carried away by the surname, wealth, religion, caste and colour of the candidates. Those who have proven their merit at lower levels of government never get elected to state and national levels. Anti-national and unpatriotic leaders are repeatedly elected to power for irrelevant and undefined reasons like secularism. Indian ethos has always been secular and it will always remain so. There is no need for any political party to proclaim that they are more secular than others.

India is becoming the world’s youngest nation within a few more years. And very soon we are getting one more opportunity to cast our votes to elect our rulers. If we can cast aside the unwanted bogeys of secularism and communalism, and vote for meritorious candidates we can make a marked beginning in turning the tide. It is possible to bring in a paradigm shift in Mother India within one decade if we can make a beginning now. Vote only for those who can govern the nation and have proven track record. If we waste our votes again, the question of salvaging Mother India will continue to haunt us forever.

One World, One Currency

Once there was a great saint in Kerala who said “One caste, One religion and One God for all Humans”. He knew perfectly well that it is not possible in this highly divisive world of ours. Yet he said it and set it as a goal for all of us. Such great sayings from great visionaries exist at all times, similar to the directive principles in our great constitution. But it is saddening to note that the biggest human organization in the world viz. United Nations Organisation (UNO), is not setting such goals and proclaiming it consistently to set people thinking about it.

“One world, One currency” must be foremost among such noble goals of UNO. It will not only revolutionalize the world economy but also force the so-called leaders to perform. Right now there is no common platform to compare the performance of different nations and the cunning leaders get away by changing the goal posts. The recent redefinition of poverty level in India is one such cruel and cunning exercise of non-performing assets or over-performing liabilities that run the world’s largest democracy. Imagine if USA, Japan, India, Brazil, Saudi and Uganda have the same currency, namely Unos. In this age of absolutely equality at the basic level, we should consider all grown up individuals earning less than 100 Unos a month as below the poverty level, irrespective of his or her purchasing power at any part of the world.

Having a common currency the world over will definitely change the world forever and bring down the level of violence that is rising due to the increasing income disparity. All  humans are essentially equal and UNO must be aiming for the basic equality (with fundamental rights to food, clothing, shelter, education and health) irrespective of the race, religion or nationality. A common world currency Unos will go a long way in the path to achieving the basic essential equality among homo sapiens which none of the ideologies or religions could achieve so far.   

Wi-Fi World

Freedom for all and free flow of information have always been the bête noire of dictators and undemocratic rulers worldwide. Inconvenient books used to be banned and people who raise inconvenient questions are always behind bars in a dictatorship. Governments driven by ideology, and not welfare of people, always tend to throttle open debates and exchange of views amongst the intelligentsia to keep people blissfully ignorant. Advent of internet changed all that and more money is now spent by dictatorial regimes to curtail development in technology than in its development. A fully connected and open world is a nightmare for them.

Fast evolution of communication technology is becoming game changer in the field of dissemination of information. A fully connected wire-free world (WFW) is fast becoming a distinct possibility in today's world. And if it can be made uncontainable by a universal law or by technology, the consequences can be far reaching. Google company has already perfected the idea of sending out balloons for providing wi-fi connectivity in remote areas. And if it ever becomes possible to provide wi-fi connectivity through plants and trees, the results can be astonishing.

WFW's distinct advantage is the unbridled availability of the right information to the right individual and the right time. Almost everything in the present world will change in this scenario when decision making will become transparent. Information will get disseminated at lightning speeds to all stakeholders in any situation. Chances of wrong decisions will be drastically reduced. Elected or unelected rulers will have to think twice before taking any decision because everything about its background and intention is already in the public domain. WFW will change the whole world we live in.

Sanskrit and Classical Languages

One more Indian language viz. Malayalam has been accorded the status of a Classical language which means that it is at least 1500 years old. Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and of course Sanskrit have attained this status earlier. Many more are in the offing and as expected the decision will be more on political reasons than facts. It is interesting to note the richness of India even in terms of its languages. No other country or civilization in the entire world can boast of such a set of more than two dozen classical languages which have independent vocabulary and scripts. But Indian rulers are making a big mistake by continuing to neglect the mother of all such languages viz. Sanskrit.

One thousand years ago, when India was the richest country in the world with a GDP share of more than 40%, the glory of Sanskrit was also at its peak. No one would have imagined that reluctance of then rulers to universalize the study of Sanskrit would one day result in its decay. Lower sections of the society were kept away from the so called noble language to prevent them from learning the sacred literature which the Brahmins, especially the pseudo variety, wanted to monopolise for themselves. Sanatana Dharma stipulated Brahminhood to be attained by ones own efforts, but a few clever and cunning achievers made it a monopoly for their own progeny. The death and decay of Sanskrit language started from those days. Europeans saw a great opportunity in this scenario and made full use of it by smuggling out most of our literature.

I am sure there is not even a single Indian who would not have felt bad at least on one occasion in their life that he or she is doing a great blunder by not mastering Sanskrit. The mother of all languages has not only a vast repertoire of ancient literature but has also been declared as the most compatible one with modern computers. The simple fact that the mother tongues of all Indians contain at least 50% words of Sanskrit origin makes the mistake of not learning Sanskrit more glaring. It is one of the greatest tragedy of modern India that Sanskrit was not declared our national language when we got liberated from British and Pakistan got separated from India.

Genographic Politics

There is an ongoing Genographic Project as a genetic anthropological study that aims to map historical human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. Apparently it sounds purely scientific, but the interpretations that have started emanating after about a few hundred thousand samples have been analysed point to sinister designs. The project team seems to be on right track with regard to the Journey of Mankind, but is smelling of ulterior motives when it comes to the associated Journey of Civilisation. As far as India is concerned, there are enough and more reasons to believe that the new project is nothing but an attempt to resurrect the ghosts of Max Muller and McCaulay.

It is now common knowledge that Aryan Invasion (later Migration) Theory (AIT) was propounded and propagated by the erstwhile colonial rulers in order to keep India divided forever. The mention of two races, Aryans and Dravidians, is found no where in any ancient Indian text, but the half-baked European scholars in Sanskrit thought it will be a brilliant tool to drive a permanent wedge between the North and South Indians. Not only did they succeed in their attempts for a few centuries, but could also get a few ardent devotees among Indian historians. However, AIT met its natural death and stands deleted forever from Indian history.

Another set of self-proclaimed historians associated with the Genographic Project have now started trekking on the same path. Their attempt is to map the Journey of Civilisation in the same path as Journey of Mankind. Even without the Genographic Project we know that African continent is the cradle of mankind. The first man evolved from their ‘animal’ forefathers in Africa and migrated to various parts of the world through various routes at different times. But the islands of civilisation are totally unconnected. India’s own Vedic Civilisation has nothing to do with anything that happened in Greece or Arabia or Europe, and stands unparalleled as one of the highest watermarks of human civilisation. Any pseudo-scientific attempts to belittle the same will meet the same fate as the Aryan Invasion Theory.

 

 

Prophetic Gadgil & Iyer

Perhaps there is no other province or unit of governance in the whole world is more blessed than the so-called God’s Own Country of Kerala in Indian nation. Kerala, which is a mere 600 kms in length and maximum 150 kms in breadth, enjoys 40 odd rivers, atleast a couple of major fresh water lakes and thousands of minor water bodies. Yet when one monsoon rainy season fails, there is no electricity and even drinking water in this little piece of land. Even half a century after electing the first pro-poor leftist government in the whole world, the progressive and fully literate Keralites have miserably failed in setting up a credible ruling dispensation that can create and sustain the bare minimum requirements for human sustenance. The two warring confederations of political parties, with ulterior religious agendas, are failing to see the basic requirements of modern human beings irrespective of his caste or creed.

Present day Kerala is far behind most other states in India in terms of basic infrastructure requirements needed for industrial growth. But the beauty of Kerala lies in the fact that it is landlocked between Western Ghat mountains on eastern side and Arabian Sea on the western side. It is the best suited land for agriculture and non-polluting industries. But the uncontrolled population growth has overran all the advantages of this beautiful piece of land. Kerala cannot sustain a population of more than 25 million if we are aiming to achieve idealistic Socialism atleast in terms of food, health, education and employment. Hidden agenda of vast sections of our society controlled by foreign interests in resisting all forms of population control is taking Kerala to disaster at an accelerated pace. Krishna Iyer committee’s report for population control has been shelved without even a debate.   

In this engulfing gloom of self-inflicted catastrophe, the brilliant report about conservation of Western Ghats by Prof. Madhav Gadgil committee has come as a ray of hope. It is not one of those amateurish exercises of intellectual verbosity prepared by glorified messiahs of ecology. Gadgil’s report is painstakingly prepared and full of intellectual honesty. Prof. Gadgil is nothing but a prophet who has come to give the final warning to Keralites. All its findings are cent percent truthful and all its recommendations are fully implementable. If it is not taken seriously at least now, Kerala has very little future to look forward to. Land Mafia and Uncontrolled Reproduction must be resisted at any cost by forceful implementation of Gadgil’s and Krishna Iyer’s reports. Otherwise, our Own Country will belong to Dog’s and not to God.    

RQ of Nations

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of individuals are raising the world over. Recently we had an expatriate Indian girl in UK having IQ above that of Albert Einstein. There is hardly anything surprising about it, because everything has changed since the time of Einstein and today’s kids need much more talent to succeed. Formal education increases the IQ of individuals and with the growing accessibility of education the world over, the positive trend will continue forever. Successive generations with increased skills and talents cannot be a surprise to anyone. But much more important than Intelligence is going to be Reliability in future times.

In a society where everyone is intelligent enough, it will be the perceived reliability of individuals that would stand out. If someone is not reliable or dependable, what is his value to the society? As always, progress and development in all societies (or even nations) are achieved by the efforts of individuals who have exceptional IQ. But we always forget the fact that these individuals also have high Reliability Quotient (RQ).  It is then inevitable that RQ will become more important than IQ in the days to come. Only societies and nations led by leaders having higher RQ will progress and develop as a whole.

RQ of nations will also become important in future. It is true that currently the so-called developed nations (West) have a higher IQ than the developing nations (East). But how about their RQ? How many of the developed nations like USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, France etc., are trusted by the rest of the world? Common people who make up 80% of the world population think alike and have the same aspirations about the future. Only people with high RQ can lead them in the way they want. Similarly, only nations with higher RQ can lead the world to a better tomorrow. It is definitely not Italy, Pakistan, Iran, Switzerland or North Korea that can take us into a better future.

Multiversal Reality

Scientists have already established that our universe came into existence almost 13.7 billion years ago as a result of Big Bang. Barring the glorious theory of Advaita, which postulates an omnipresent God, all other religious theories about a universe, beings and humans (in His own form ! ) created by God sometime around 6000 BC have been debunked in its entirety. Only a few hardcore idiots and those who are afraid of religious establishments believe in such figments of misleading imagination by a clever few to establish their power over the meek followers. It is difficult to believe but proven true beyond any doubt that all the sub-atomic particles that make up our universe were created within a brief period of the Big Bang.  We are not capable of adding or subtracting anything from it, but only of changing from one form to another. With great efforts, we have already gone back 13.7 billion years in history and now we are stuck at that point.

Biggest question in front of current scientists is about who or what caused the Big Bang. Some scientists avoid the question with their argument that there need not be a reason for everything. But the instinctive rationality of human beings will not be satisfied until and unless the question is answered. For those who are agnostic (like me) it is easy to find an answer by attributing it to the unknown God for the time being, until someone with a fertile mind and intellect come up with another hypothesis. In fact, many such theories have already come up and best one that looks promising is the concept of a multiverse. Mathematicians have already succeeded in their hypotheses upto 11 universes existing simultaneously. And a few outstanding theoreticians have attributed the cause of Big Bang to the clash of two such wobbling universes when both happened to be perfect planes, which is of infinitely miniscule probability. So far the theory looks logical and it will drag out history by few more billion years. But then the question arises as to who or what created the multiverse.

An interesting offshoot of the multiverse theory is the reflections of reality in many of the phenomena mentioned in The Bhaagavada, by far the most mundane and most complex ancient text that mankind has seen. Perhaps there is no better way to think of Bhagawan’s Viswaroopa than by accepting the reality of simultaneous presence of multiple universes. It must be definitely possible for an omnipotent God (or even ghosts and souls) to be present partially and fully in a multiverse, and give the images to the realized souls as described in The Bhaagavada. And those who claim to have got a sight of God might have really done so during an accidental or deliberate peep into the neighbouring universes. It is possible that a warp like reality of a multiverse can become the much wanted connecting point for Science and Scientific Religions (Sanatana Hindu Dharma).

    

Principle of Permanency

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is a profound one and seems at the same time both highly specific and broadly applicable. And often it sounds bordering more on metaphysical than physical. I have only a brief understanding of its specific applications in Physics but whenever I hear about it I wonder why another similar principle has not been proposed so far. Let us call it Ajith's Permanency Principle. It will be more general in nature and let us phrase it as follows.

“Any change is possible only against an unchanging background; consequently something permanent shall always exist” 

Be it tangible or intangible, any change in any aspect about anything is possible and measureable only against an unchanging background. If there is anything inevitable in this world, it is change and it is happening all around us in everything we can think of. But by applying the Permanency Principle, there must always be a permanent part that will always exist. I feel it is this permanent part of everything (tangible and intangible) that adds upto what we consider as Ishwar in Hindu Sanatana Dharma (Proud To Be Hindu). No doubt it is omnipresent, non-destructible and hence must be omnipotent too. Perhaps the Permanency Principle can provide a real link between seemingly irreconcilable irrational religious philosophy and rational Science.

Overdosed Reservations

Discriminations are usually resented, but positive discrimination is an acceptable practice throughout the world for upliftment of the downtrodden. The wonderful idea of constitutionally provided reservations for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in India was one such noble idea that has failed to deliver. Though meant for a definite period in order to allow time for the discriminated people to make up their lost time, the result of ‘eternal’ reservations is becoming one of replacing temporary crutches by permanent ones for the physically disabled. Instead of struggling to get over the historical disadvantages, many among the target crowd are getting cozy with the incentives and wish to be disadvantaged forever. Reservations in India are becoming counter productive in every sense. As usual, politicians belonging to the uneducated but cunning variety, are spoiling the whole system for their own selfish ‘votebank’ politics.

There have been aberrations in the unique caste system of India and many sections of Indian society have remained disadvantaged for generations as a consequence. The brilliantly designed Indian caste system literally became a curse when its intended horizontal structure was titled by vested interests into a vertical one with the ‘superior’ castes on top. Those who toil for good of the society became the lower castes and those who do not toil at all became their superiors. Hereditary lineage was the final nail in the caste coffin and those in the so-called lower castes became toilers forever even if some of them were much more brilliant than the upper castes. Successive generations belonging to such an unnatural setup ended up as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Indian constitution.

Positive Discrimination

In the beginning, reservation in the fields of education and jobs was meant for providing a certain amount of positive discrimination in favour of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, which were listed in the constitution itself. It was also meant only for a definite period of time. The intensions were highly noble because the discrimination was in positive manner and none of the deserving from any caste (higher or lower) was discriminated against. Judgment of our highest court that all forms of reservations together shall not cross 50% of the total was also a brilliant one to keep the balance between merit and reservations. Such a balanced system would have definitely helped in churning our society into a better one.

One of the most important requirements of any system of positive discrimination is to provide a mechanism to weed out the beneficiaries in a progressive manner. Families who have already benefitted from a system of reservations must not continue to enjoy the same again. If the head of the family has already got the benefit of reservation, it is unreasonable to give the same benefit again to his children. He or she can continue to get the benefit of economic reservation, but definitely not the benefits of caste reservations again and again. If such a system was implemented in right earnest, we would have already had a just and merit based society by now. Instead the caste based political parties are still ruling and ruining our nation.

Economic Reservations 

India had some of the best constitution makers that the world has ever seen. But all of them missed out the vital need for introducing economic based reservations immediately after 25 or 50 years of caste based reservations. If such a provision was there in the original constitution itself, cantankerous politicians and their political parties that survive only on the backwardness of their own castes would not have evolved at all. Now we have a situation when the country cannot be ruled without their support and their only aim is to perpetuate the caste based reservations forever.

Benefits of an economic based reservation policy are too well known. It is the best known method to bring up all those who are poor irrespective of their caste and religion. After all, the ultimate aim of any nation is to provide facilities for all its citizens to raise upto their level of individual capability without any hindrance due to extraneous reasons other than pure merit. Social and economic aspects must not play any part in the workplace where merit of the individual must be the only criterion for his employment and promotion. Be it corporations or government, the best results will come out only if there is meritocracy built into the system.

Political expediency is once again playing its worst game in the form of a parliamentary bill aimed at expanding the realm of reservations to promotions also. Nothing can be more disastrous than this. Narrow minded caste based political parties are making such moves for their own survival, but national parties whose aim must be development of the nation must not fall into such traps even if it is for retaining power. It is high time for all such national parties to come together and decide once for all that caste-based reservation will continue only till 2025 and thereafter there will be reservations only on the basis of economic status.